Destination: Antarctica
North and South Poles: What’s the Difference?
by Jim Benning | 08.28.08 | 10:38 AM ET
The differences are vast, of course. I just came across North vs. South Poles: 10 Wild Differences, an interesting and quick read.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzWindsurfing in Jesus’s Footsteps
by Jim Benning | 06.27.08 | 12:22 PM ET
World Hum columnist Rolf Potts recalls shredding the Sea of Galilee. Also in Forbes.com’ special section on water, World Hum contributor Jason Anthony explores Antarctica’s ice, and Elisabeth Eaves argues that sharks have more to fear from people than people have to fear from sharks. “Forty-four separate species of sharks and skates—among sharks’ closest evolutionary relative—are either endangered or critically endangered,” she writes.
Life as a ‘Polie’ at the South Pole: It’s Cold But is it Cool?
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.24.08 | 12:20 PM ET
Some people think so. NPR visited the community of American scientists and staff who spend months at a time working at the South Pole Research Center. The “Polies,” as they call themselves, live a Spartan life in this hyper-cold landscape, where the temperatures can reach -50 degrees wind chill. They live in tiny, door-less rooms in long Quonset tents. Bathrooms are nonexistent: If you need to relieve yourself you can use the outhouses or a can under your bed.
Talking Antarctica Live and Online
by Jim Benning | 12.10.07 | 4:48 PM ET
Susan Fox Rogers, editor of the new Travelers’ Tales collection “Antarctica: Life on the Ice” and the subject of a recent World Hum interview, will offer a “live teleseminar” Thursday, I’m told. Viewers can register here.
Requiem for a Little Red Ship
by Abbie Kozolchyk | 12.05.07 | 11:33 AM ET
Abbie Kozolchyk never understood why anyone referred to ships as though they were women. Then, long before it sank in Antarctica, she met the Explorer.
Into Uncharted Waters
by Jason Anthony | 12.04.07 | 12:20 PM ET
The sinking of the cruise ship Explorer didn't surprise Jason Anthony. He has worked out of McMurdo Station in Antarctica for years.
Scientists Unveil High-Def Map of Antarctica
by Jim Benning | 11.30.07 | 12:13 PM ET
Antarctica fans, and perhaps a few cruise ship captains, might want to check this out. U.S. and British researchers unveiled a new high-definition view of Antarctica this week, piecing together more than 1,000 Landsat satellite images and, according to NASA, creating “the most geographically accurate, true-color, high-resolution views of Antarctica possible.” Thanks for the tip, Ben.
Video: Crossing the Drake Passage
by Jim Benning | 11.28.07 | 5:02 PM ET
My conversation with Susan Fox Rogers about Antarctica got me Googling places like the Drake Passage, the stretch of water you cross if you’re sailing from the tip of South America to Antarctica. Based on this short but wild YouTube clip of a ship rocking and rolling there, I’d never want to attempt it in a storm.
Three Antarctica Books: Susan Fox Rogers’s Picks
by Jim Benning | 11.28.07 | 12:55 PM ET
This week we interviewed Susan Fox Rogers, editor of “Antarctica: Life on the Ice.” She talked about the recent cruise ship wreck, as well the power of Antarctica to change visitors. We asked her for three Antarctica book suggestions. Here’s what she told us.
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler
Fox Rogers says: “She kind of hitchhikes her way around the continent, for lack of a better way of putting it. She’s a beautiful writer with a great sense of adventure.”
Susan Fox Rogers: Antarctica for ‘Dreamers and Readers’
by Jim Benning | 11.28.07 | 11:59 AM ET
Photo of Ross Ice Shelf via Flickr courtesy of the National Science Foundation. Days after the ice claimed a cruise ship, Jim Benning asks the editor of a new Travelers' Tales story collection about the magnetic pull of the end of the earth
Environmentalist on Antarctica: ‘Do We Want This to Become Disneyland’?
by Jim Benning | 11.26.07 | 12:59 PM ET
The sinking of the cruise ship Explorer in Antarctica a few days ago has prompted some interesting questions, including the one posed by Jim Barnes in a story in today’s New York Times. “There’s been kind of an explosion of tourism in Antarctica,” said Barnes, who is the executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. “Do we want this to become Disneyland or do we want some controls?” While roughly 7,000 tourists visited Antarctica in 1992-93, more than 35,000 are expected this season, and because the region is outside any one country’s domain, controls seem to be few and far between.
A Wild Rescue in Antarctica
by Jim Benning | 11.24.07 | 2:45 PM ET
The hole in the cruise ship’s hull was “about the size of a fist,” according to a spokeswoman for the ship’s owner. If true, that’s all it took to sink the nearly 40-year-old Explorer, the first cruise ship built to ferry passengers in icy Antarctic waters. The G.A.P. Adventures-owned ship was in the midst of a 19-day “Spirit of Shackleton” trip when it hit submerged ice before dawn Friday, the Los Angeles Times reports. So began a harrowing ordeal that should put the usual Thanksgiving week travel headaches—congested highways, airport delays, etc.—into perspective.
From Antarctica to the Silk Road: More From the New York Times ‘Photography Issue’
by Michael Yessis | 06.12.07 | 2:18 PM ET
Howard W. French’s slide show and essay on Shanghai’s old quarters, which we recently posted about, isn’t the only piece in Sunday’s New York Times travel section worthy of note. The “Photography Issue” features several sharp audio slide shows, including Jehad Nga’s look at the Silk Road and Heidi Schumann’s tale of following in Ernest Shackleton’s wake in Antarctica, as well as a compelling essay by Richard B. Woodward about the intertwined history of photography and travel.
‘The Ice Cave’: Journeys Into the Wild
by Emily Stone | 01.08.07 | 7:35 AM ET
Lucy Jane Bledsoe experienced wilderness from the Mojave to the Antarctic. Emily Stone calls her resulting essay collection layered, literary and unflinchingly honest about the solitude of travel.
A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth
by Jason Anthony | 02.27.06 | 9:47 PM ET
Photo by Jason Anthony. Jason Anthony was working as a U.S. Antarctic Program fuels operator when he was called to remote Vostok Station. It was a trip he would lie to take.