Google Streetview

Google unveils Street View imagery from Antarctica, including South Pole Telescope, Shackleton sites

By Xeni Jardin at 8:48 am Tuesday, Jul 17 link HERE

Photo: Cape Royds Adélie Penguin Rookery. (Google Street View)

Today, Google is launching access to a new collection of hi-res imagery from the Antarctic. In this post are some examples of those stunning vistas, shared with Boing Boing courtesy of Google. Alex Starns, Technical Program Manager for the Street View team, writes:

Back in September 2010, we launched the first Street View imagery of the Antarctic, enabling people from more habitable lands to see penguins in Antarctica for the first time. Today we’re bringing you additional panoramic imagery of historic Antarctic locations that you can view from the comfort of your homes. We’ll be posting this special collection to our World Wonders site, where you can learn more about the history of South Pole exploration.
With the help of the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, we’ve added 360-imagery of many important spots, inside and out, such as the South Pole Telescope, Shackleton's hut, Scott’s hut, Cape Royds Adélie Penguin Rookery and the Ceremonial South Pole.

More about the project here. And more images below!

Photo: The Ceremonial South Pole. (Google Street View)

The interior of Shackleton’s Hut shows supplies used in early 20th Century Antarctic Expeditions. (Google Street View)

Photo: The South Pole Telescope. (Google Street View)

Photo: The South Pole Telescope. (Google Street View)

Photo: The South Pole Telescope. (Google Street View)

Photo: The South Pole Telescope. (Google Street View)

Ancient (Virgin) Cocktails for Putin & Scientists

HERE

MOSCOW –  
It's a drink fit for a king -- T.rex, the king of dinosaurs, that is.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin on Friday received the first sample of water from an underground lake in Antarctica that was hidden for an estimated 20 million years -- and joked that the water would be the perfect drink for a dinosaur. "Well, did you drink the water?" Putin asked Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev after being presented with a vial of ancient aqua, Reuters reported. "It would have been interesting, you know: dinosaurs drank it."

Trutnev, who was in Antarctica for the historic moment the lake was breached, assured Putin that he had not drank a drop of the water, which scientists have been waiting to study with bated breath.

"Well it would have been interesting you know: dinosaurs drank it," Putin reportedly said with a smile.
Putin's calendar is a bit off; a mass extinction likely caused by an asteroid impact ended the reign of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, scientists believe. But the lake is nonetheless crucial to scientific understanding of life on Earth. Scientists hope Lake Vostok could reveal new forms of life and help them understand the extreme conditions of Mars and Europa, Jupiter's moon, which researchers suspect could be hiding a liquid ocean beneath its frozen upper crust.

A Russian team successfully drilled down to Lake Vostok on Sunday, after a desperate battle against the clock before the brutal Antarctic winter set in.

HERE

One Perk of Being an Arctic Researcher: Drinking 100,000 Year Old Glacier Water

The scientists who research our planet's poles have a tough, incredible job. Drilling tens of thousands of feet into the icy surface to retrieve core samples reveals a lot about our planet. It also provides a refreshing, pre-historic drink.

Edible Geography has a fascinating interview with Dr. Paul Mayewski of the University of Maine, who collects deep core samples from all over the world—from Antarctica to the Himalayas. By digging deeper and deeper, he and his team are able to examine the icy record to see what was up with the earth's climate thousands of years ago. Once a sample's been drilled out and retrieved, it's sliced apart with lasers for analysis.



Often, the findings of these core samples show a highly polluted atmosphere from the past. But does this stop the intrepid researches from taking a sip of the melted stuff? Hell to the no:

You might think you couldn't drink that water, because the whole point is that we've detected pollution in it. But these are the chemicals that have been traveling in the atmosphere, and so, yes, it might be a thousand times more polluted than the pre-industrial atmosphere was, but at the locations where we're sampling it, in these very remote areas, the pollution has had a long travel distance and a lot of it has dropped out along the travel route. We're looking at the very final fringes of it. We're still seeing dramatically elevated levels, comparably, but it's not anywhere near undrinkable.

Think that isn't badass enough? "We drink water from the nuclear bomb test era, and it has small amounts of radioactivity in it," says Mayewski. But it's no more dangerous than going out in the sun, he assures.



But alright, enough about the science—how does it taste? "About as clean as anything can taste," says Mayewski. But the pureness ain't even the half of it. Not that keeping your drinks cold is likely a problem in Antarctica, but these scientists sometimes drop a cube or two of drilled ice into their water—and it's easy to understand why:

If the ice is old, it will often trap air bubbles in it. Those air bubbles can contain carbon dioxide from ten thousand years ago or even a hundred thousand years ago. And when you put an ice cube of that ice in a glass of water, it pops. It has natural effervescence as those gas bubbles escape. You get a little a puff of air into your nostrils if you have your nose over the glass. It's not as though it necessarily smells like anything - but when you think about the fact that the last time that anything smelled that air was a hundred thousand years ago, that's pretty interesting.

Criminal Justice

The problem of criminal justice in Antarctica is considered in a special issue of Criminal Justice Studies, by Routledge HERE

Control of Criminal Conduct in Antarctica in the Virginia Law Review HERE

In the Journal of Business and Economic Research HERE

US Marshalls are in Antarctica see HERE

At least one person says there was an instance of organized crime. See HERE

Antarctic Samizdat

Interview - by Big Dead Place HERE

Interview with The Shadow

The Shadow was an underground paper published in McMurdo in the early '90s.  Big Dead Place conducted this interview with the anonymous editor via email.
How did The Shadow begin?

It was winter of 1990 and the Navy was putting out this dry, no fun, Navy-type paper and we actually just wanted to poke fun at it. Well, as you know, there are many things to poke fun at down here, so it just took off.

How many people were involved? 

Twelve core people (American and Kiwi), and about 100 anonymous contributors.
What were some of the reactions when The Shadow was first published? 
The Navy went ballistic and the community was belly laughing at brunch. The Navy hated it or, I should say, the Navy Paper Staff hated it, and the rest of the community loved it. We would sneak in just after the Navy Sunday paper was put out in the galley and place ours right next to it. This really pissed off the Navy and added fuel to the paper wars.  (Please understand that when I say 'Navy' I am only referring to maybe six people.  The rest of the Navy personnel loved it and contributed to it.)
How did the Navy try to stop you? Did they say that The Shadow could not be produced with government paper on government machines?

That is exactly how they tried to stop us. So we told them that we had all of the paper airdropped to us that year. They could not prove that we didn’t. When they told us to stop using government copy machines, Scott Base spoke up and said that we were using theirs.

When we placed our Shadow sign on the metaphysical pole at Derelict Junction, the Navy had it taken down, but failed to properly dispose of it, and so it was returned to us by a good Navy SeaBee and then we were able to get the Linemen to place it at the top of the pole where it remained until around 1999/2000.
What's the "metaphysical pole"?

It is the utility pole at Derelict Junction next to the bus stop. The pole was never supposed to be put there, so it wasn’t there, so to speak. (Sort of like when the big guys correct you on "the galley" saying it is "the dining facility." Two syllables versus six. If it were an acronym, like DINFAC, that would be different.)
Did the Navy Brass approach you personally?

Yes.

Tell me that story. What kind of questions did he ask you?

I was approached because I was the most outstanding point of contact for people to contribute their writing to. Everybody knew that I was involved. I was stopped in 155 and asked questions: about who was involved, were they military, and was I aware that some people were hurt by what we wrote. I had to laugh because we did not write about any individuals; we would make jokes of entire departments such as our "make extra money by selling brains to the Navy" ad. It was no big deal. The Navy could not stop us and they knew it.
Once we found out that The Shadow was being faxed to the Navy Brass in the States, we came out with the 'international issue' and explained that now we would have to raise subscription rates due the added cost of sending The Shadow overseas. We did not wish to burden the U.S. Taxpayers with a ten-dollar-a-minute INMARSAT phone line transmission so we asked the community to kick in what they could to help offset waste, fraud, and abuse by the Navy.
Did the reception to it change over time? 

It grew into a cult following. It just got bigger and funnier. We got so many submissions that we just could not print them all. What got printed was what made us laugh.

Were there any other papers in McMurdo that you knew of before you did The Shadow?

Just the Navy paper, The Antarctic Night Times.

Did The Shadow spark any other people to put out papers afterwards?

Not while I was involved with The Shadow. The original Shadow was in '90. In '91 it was there but I was not. In '92 it came out but that was the year that it used to slam and be a bit on the mean side so I opted out and hooked up with Bob [S.] and put out The Quick Brown. We had no problems with The Shadow staff and they had no problems with us. Actually The Shadow sort of went away that season.

What other papers have you seen over the years, if any?

I am not sure. I have only wintered six times over the last fifteen years so I bet there were some.


Will you explain Marsgrams?

Before telephones we could only contact home by shortwave radio, so we were allowed 50 words in the summer and 100 in the winter. You would write a message and a volunteer would send it via shortwave to the States where it would be printed out and mailed to whomever you were sending it to. The people on the other end that printed and mailed got money from the government to do this for the military. We were all working under Navy orders back then, which was cool because here were all these hippies with earrings and hair to the middle of their backs traveling with Navy order documents.
What was your distribution process?

Getting drunk on Saturday night during the printing, and sleeping in on Sunday. Remember, this was before computers. We asked that everything be typed out before they slipped it under our door, so all we had to do was cut-and-paste it to a piece of paper then run it through a copy machine.

What department's photocopier did you use?

Mostly Power and Water, seeing how most of us worked there. Even the supervisor was involved.

When you distributed the papers did you do it a certain way so as not to get caught?

We did try to sneak them [into the galley], but the times we were seen nobody said a thing.
What were some of your editorial policies? 
No slamming individuals. You could crack jokes all you wanted about any organization, and slam us, but no one by name.

Did some people submit things attacking individuals?

Yes. But that was toward the end of July, when most people get "8 up" or their ice wife leaves them for someone else. It was how we read it. If we thought it was a slam we didn’t go there or we would change it so as not to hurt anyone. Although we did push the envelope at times when it came to supervisors. Like when we cracked jokes about the FEMC supervisor's hemorrhoid problem. He laughed at it.

There was a cartoon in one issue depicting a plumber's brain.  It showed a neocortex that handled watching TV and drinking (or something like that) with a cigarette poking from the frontal lobe.  Did The Shadow ever receive any aggressive response from those it made fun of, like plumbers? 

No, but the rebuttals we would get from, say, the plumber shop to the fitters' shop were great. I really do not remember that one, I'll have to comb through my collection. I would like to add that my favorite issues were the mini-issue where we shrunk everything down so that it would fit in your pocket, and the sticker issue. That was the most fun issue I think we ever did.



ORIGINAL CONTENT HERE

The Symmes Antarctic Intelligencer

The Symmes Antarctic Intelligencer is a satirical newsletter based in McMurdo and first distributed during the summer of 1999-00 at McMurdo, Pole, and various field camps.
Though indigenous Antarctic media is rare and fleeting, small press has been a fixture in Antarctica since at least the early 1900s when Shackleton edited The South Polar Times. Later, during IGY in 1957-58 at Ellsworth Station, seismologist John Behrendt recorded the controversy surrounding the publication of a newsletter called The Daily Sandcrab.  A scathing paper called The Shadow emerged in McMurdo in the early '90s and irked Naval officers all the way up to Washington D.C.  In short, though it can be difficult to find, Antarctic small press has a long history.
Though relatively new, The Symmes Antarctic Intelligencer is probably the first paper to be outright seized by managers at South Pole Station.  Following a wave of scuttlebutt caused by the paper's distribution in McMurdo a few days previous, a package of the newsletters was intercepted in the mailroom at Pole and then confiscated, while the intended recipient was taken to Human Resources for questioning.  (It is unclear why a goofy newsletter of any stripe represents a Constitutional Emergency that demands the theft of mail, but for more information on National Science Foundation policies regarding the dreary upkeep of American freedoms in Antarctica, contact the NSF Media Representative at pwest@nsf.gov.  If you love to contact Media Representatives, but you need a conversation-starter, try these uncomfortable topics.)
The Symmes Antarctic Intelligencer is published only very infrequently.  Past issues are available here in PDF format for ease of reprinting.  Each file is available in Kiosk-size (smaller files for kiosk connections) and Crary-size (higher resolution files for lab connections).

Midwinter Greeting 2002

"We are pleased to send greetings for Midwinter's Day 2002 to managers and others who are stationed in Antarctica. This special holiday is a powerful time to recognize your contributions to learning, knowledge, discovery, wisdom, intuition, and bold championship on the wings of golden destiny. The managers of New Denver would like to extend a professional but slightly positive message that is also self-promoting."

Winter Review 2001 (pdf / 154K)
Winter Review 2001 (pdf / 429K)

"Denver Celebrates Denver Appreciation Day"
"Raytheon Introduces Safety Assault System"
"Rescue Flight Scheduled for October 2nd"
"Fact-Finding Investigation Finds Fault"

Mainbody 2000-01 (pdf / 147K)
Mainbody 2000-01 (pdf / 409K)

"Support Group Attempts Unsupported Antarctic Crossing"
"NSF Seizes Unauthorized Shower Curtain"
"ANG OAE Stays Three Weeks"
"Galley Sneezeguard Breaks Off, Blocks Shipping Channel"

Mainbody 1999-00 #2 (pdf / 128K)
Mainbody 1999-00 #2 (pdf / 352K)

"Magic Elf Appears at Pole; NSF Refuses Shelter"
"DV Demands Harem, Precious Jewels"
"South Pole Feudal Lord Loves Raytheon, Hates Free Speech"
"U.S. Begins Construction on Top of Scott Base"

Mainbody 1999-00 #1 (pdf / 122K)
Mainbody 1999-00 #1 (pdf / 336K)

"HR Helps Employee"
"NSF Declares Outdoors Off-Limits"
"Defense Contractor, Nazi Party Vie for NSF Support Contract"
"Crary Road Closed, Grantees Lock Selves in with Guns"


MORE HERE

Big Dead Place

"When itinerant American Nick Johnson first headed south to work at the United States base at McMurdo, near Scott Base, he knew so little about Antarctica that he says he 'would not have been surprised to find myself shivering in a tent full of scientists or pulling a sled in a blizzard'. Instead he found himself in the kitchen, scraping ridges of turkey loaf from baking pans while listening to Bob Seger"


See HERE.

Rogue Explorer & Kidnapping

ORIGINAL STORY HERE

The 52ft yacht, Nilaya, has set sail for Antarctica 

A New Zealand repair man is on his way to Antarctica after a renegade Norwegian yachtsman set sail unaware he was still on board. 

The marine mechanic was reportedly working on an anchor aboard the 52ft Nilaya in Auckland harbour, when the yacht hurriedly cast off as immigration officials tried to serve deportation papers on the skipper, Jarle Andhoy, 34.

Mr Andhoy and three crew members have embarked on an unpermitted voyage to Antarctica's Ross Sea, in defiance of both the Norwegian and New Zealand governments. A previous trip he made to Antarctica almost a year ago ended in disaster when his yacht Berserk sank in a fierce storm and three men died. Declaring himself "a Viking", the Norwegian adventurer says he is seeking the wreckage of the Berserk, which was serving as a supply ship for an attempt to reach the South Pole on quad bikes.

New Zealand authorities, who co-ordinated an extensive search and rescue operation last year in which Mr Andhoy and a companion were airlifted to safety, are furious about his return voyage.

They are trying to track down the Nilaya. Mr Andhoy told the Norwegian public broadcasting service NRK that the presence on board of the unnamed New Zealander was not part of his plan, but was the result of "a hectic departure" from Auckland last week. He said it was "a somewhat tricky situation" because the man did not have a passport or papers with him. But Mr Andhoy insisted: "Everything is on schedule and the atmosphere is good on board. "We are well prepared for what may befall us."
The broadcaster reported him as saying that the Nilaya was not carrying a locator beacon so it would not put rescue services at risk. Murray McCully, the New Zealand foreign minister, spoke to Norwegian government officials on Tuesday to express concern over the Auckland man understood to be on board. "It's fair to say the actions of the skipper are of some concern to the New Zealand government and have been for some time," Mr McCully said. A Foreign Ministry spokesman added: "The Southern Ocean is one of the most remote and inhospitable areas in the world. "New Zealand government agencies are obviously concerned about any possibility that there could be a repeat of last year's events in the Ross Sea.'' Marine experts said the workman was unlikely to have adequate clothing and would put an extra strain on the yacht's provisions.

ORIGINAL STORY HERE

NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Jarle Andhory and Busby Noble in Oslo.

A Maori activist who in January stowed-away on a yacht in Auckland bound for Antarctica has arrived in Norway after a larger-than-life voyage. "I hope to stay here for as short a time as possible," Busby Noble told Norwegian television. "My wife is really angry at me, but because of the importance of what is happening here, we will find love between each other and live with that."

He had joined self-proclaimed Viking Jarle Andhoy who fled Auckland on a 16-metre steel yacht, Nilaya, and without permission sailed to McMurdo Sound to find traces of his previous yacht, Berserk, which had disappeared in a storm with the loss of three men in February last year.
Noble, 53, originally claimed he was asleep when the yacht left Auckland and was unaware it was going to Antarctica.

No trace of Berserk was found but in order to avoid prosecution here, Andhoy took the yacht to South America.They were briefly detained by the Chilean Navy as the New Zealand Embassy issued travel documents. Andhoy and Noble arrived to a big media reception in Oslo today.

"I have come to pay respect to the people, you know, and some charity, you know, back to the families (of the three dead) and to give some charity back to the families, these are the kind feelings we have had for the whole mission, and this has been foremost in our hearts and thoughts during the whole journey, kia ora," he said. Noble, who planted a Mana Party flag in Antarctica, said he wanted to make contact with the indigenous Saami or Lapp people of Norway. "The people of the north and the south must come together." Noble said he wanted to tell the people of Norway about "the horrible stuff happening in my home town". He listed asset sales, ocean oil drilling and fracking. "Lets be clean about our dealings with the Earth and the sky and all the stuff that goes on with out lives."  

Nudism

A hardy American expeditioner prepares for a nudie run at the South Pole.

ORIGINAL SOURCE HERE

MEGAN McNAUGHT

June 24, 2010 12:01am

A BIZARRE nudist subculture has taken shape on the inhospitable, snowswept plains of Antarctica.

Visitors of all nationalities defy an average temperature of -50C and take part in variations of the traditional nudie run, independent scholar and author Chris Cormick revealed yesterday. Dr Cormick spoke about the trend to the Antarctic Visions: Cultural Perspectives on the Southern Continent conference put on by the University of Tasmania this week.

He said Australians based at all three stations, Davis, Casey and Mawson, take part in the traditional "Bliz Run", which obliges the loser of any bet or dare to strip off and run a lap of the accommodation block."It's only about 100m, but even 10m would seem like a long run in the conditions," Dr Cormick said. New Zealanders at their summer station go skinny dipping in Lake Vanda, with a plunge in the chilly water earning membership of the Royal Lake Vanda Swim Club. The group is rumoured to include former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark, who gained membership before she was elected.
Americans at the Amundsen-Scott base can regularly be seen emerging from the sauna to run a naked lap of the South Pole. The deed earns membership of the 300 Club, but only if it's done when temperatures have plunged to below -100F. "The idea is to run from the 200F sauna, outside, so they go through 300 degrees (F) in seconds," Dr Cormick said. He said he felt compelled to speak because although the practice was widely participated in, it was not officially recorded.

"Historians, authors and researchers depend on official records, but just because it isn't in the official records doesn't mean it's not happening," Dr Cormick said. He visited Antarctica on an Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship in 2008, but declined to reveal whether he participated in a Bliz Run himself.
"There is also a strong culture of what happens on the ice stays on the ice," he said.

Weird Entrances

ORIGINAL SOURCE here




"Hi all,
I've just been made aware of some very unusual and distinctive "structures" located in the Antarctic at positions
66 33' 11.58"S
99 50' 17.86"E
and
66 36' 12.58"S
99 43' 12.72"E
 
I'm not sure what to make of this ... whether it's a completely natural phenomena or whether it's artificial i.e. man-made. I've read and heard of theories regarding secret bases supposedly somewhere in the Antarctic, whether US or even Nazi (NeuSchwabenland) and that's the 1st thing that came to mind when I saw this. But as I said, I have no idea really.
Prior to 23 Feb 2006, it didn't exist or alternatively may have been covered over and concealed. But after this date, it is clearly and unambiguosly visible.
The "structure" is roughly triangular in shape with a width of approx 90 metres and a height of approx 60 metres ... so it's considerable in size. The floor appears to be composed of ice and relatively level though slightly concave.
The following are images located at 
66 33' 11.58"S
99 50' 17.86"E
Left image:   Prior to 23 Feb, 2006
Right image: After 23 Feb, 2006
.. .. .. .. In my opinion, it certainly looks like it's an artificialy constructed opening. Also, the ice outside the opening gives me the impression it was liquid water that flowed out of the opening and then froze rapidly.
Also note that the ice does NOT have a covering of snow.
.. In  the following image there is evidence of what appears to be a dirt track leading away from the ice ... with a continuation along the ice floor outside the opening.
.. The following are images located at
66 36' 12.58"S
99 43' 12.72"E
.. .. Notice that the type of material composing the "lid" is totally different from the surrounding rocky material.
.. The following 2 sets of images may or may not be artificial ... and could simply be natural formations. But again, in my opinion, they seem to have elements of artificiality in their structures.
.. Is it just me or does this look like either a submarine or a ship completely enclosed in ice ? Are those deck structure covered in ice ?
.. Yes, I know it's probably just an unusual ice formation ... but ... doesn't it look artificial, symmetrical, very streamlined and gives the suggestion of some kind of aircraft.
.. .. Even though the previous 2 sets of images may be natural formations despite their "artificial" look, I decided to include them in this thread for the following reason ... when you take the 2 holes/entrance images and the other 2 "artificial looking" artifact images, all 4 of them align in almost a perfect line as can be seen below ... coincidence ?
.. So ... what are we to make of the above ? ... especially the 2 entrances / openings ?
Entrance To Agartha Found?
.. .. .. Credit: Tauristercus .. Map showing location of the caves, Vostok Base and Neuschwabenland
.. Unrelated anomaly about 50 miles away Entrance One
66 33' 11.58"S, 99 50' 17.86"E
.. .. .. Same area rotated 90%
.. Credit: Tauristercus
.. Entrance Two
66 36' 12.58"S, 99 43' 12.72"E
.. .... .. ..