The differences are vast, of course. I just came across North vs. South Poles: 10 Wild Differences, an interesting and quick read.

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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.

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. 

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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. 

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.

Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Susan Fox Rogers: Antarctica for ‘Dreamers and Readers’
* Environmentalist on Antarctica: ‘Do We Want This to Become Disneyland?’

Photo courtesy of NASA.

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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"Ever since Jon Krakauer’s book “Into Thin Air” thrust Everest into the pop culture lexicon,” Chris Koentges writes in the Globe and Mail, “the subculture of adventure has blasted like a Himalayan avalanche into public consciousness.” Koentges’ piece examines this phenomenon which, in some cases, has turned disaster and potential disaster in to selling points. “Two years ago this week, a luxury liner found itself similarly trapped in the frigid waters off Antarctica, between Belgrano and Liar Islands. Argentine authorities were alerted immediately and an icebreaker was dispatched from the nearest naval base. In 24 hours, the 186-passenger Clipper Adventurer was free, and the tour company’s spokeswoman was spinning the potential catastrophe as a value-added bonus in extreme travel. ‘The people on board are looking at this as sort of a great adventure of being in Antarctica,’ she said. A triumph in tourism.”