Meanwhile, back in France...

The notary has signed the final act of sale on our behalf and as of today, PP (pronounced "pay pay" in French) is OURS!

Home Sweet Home!

Baby Seal Video from Henry Kaiser

Henry Kaiser has worked many years in the United States Antarctic Program as a diver and videographer in support of several different biologic research groups.  He is also a musican and composer.  He often uses his compositions to provide the sound track to the beautiful underwater videos he takes here in McMurdo Sound.  Some of this footage has appeared in Werner Herzog's films "Encounters at the End of the World" and "The Wild Blue Yonder".

Incidentally, the band Condition Fun, for which I play drums, was lucky enough to have him join us for one song at the Crary Lab Grantee Social (otherwise know as the Beaker Ball).  He played a rippin' guitar solo and sounded great!

Recently, Henry posted this video to Youtube.  Enjoy!

This video gives a really good introduction to Weddell seals and also has underwater footage from Henry Kaiser.

Inside the Historic Antarctic Huts

When I wrote the post on Cape Royds, I forgot that Google has created the opportunity for the world to see inside some of the historic huts of Antarctica.

Here is the link to the "street view" of the hut at Cape Royds: http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery/antarctica/shackletons-hut-cape-royds-on-ross-island.html

This one is for Robert Scott's Hut at Cape Evans, a common recreational trip (at least in past seasons before our Deltas (large-tire vehicles) all broke down and we had enough mechanics on station to repair them. http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery/antarctica/scotts-hut-cape-evans-on-ross-island.html

Passenger Delta

Actually, I just discovered that not only are the huts on Google Street View, but so are the Crary Science Center (where all of our scientists work), South Pole Station and the Berg Field Center (BFC), where scientists and field support personnel get their outdoor gear for field camp work.  The BFC has also been known as the Building Full of Chicks or the Building Full of Caffeine depending on who is working there each season.

Check out the fabulous and in-depth images here:  http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery/antarctica/

When nature calls in nature

You probably haven't ever wondered how we deal with going to the bathroom in Antarctica but this blog post will explain that it is way more complicated than you might imagine.  Skip this post if you are squeamish about the realities of dealing with bodily waste.

In an attempt to mitigate the environmental impact of thousands of scientists and support staff leaving pee and poo all over this icy continent, the Antarctic Conservation Act requires us to collect all of our bodily waste for disposal off-continent.  We do a great job of complying with this requirement in almost all locations we (the US Antarctic Program) inhabit.  If we are recreating off-station, we bring pee bottles and funnels (for women, only, of course).  At field camps, the carpenters rig up special outhouses.

Having lived in Alaska, I'm no stranger to outhouses.  Most outhouses in Alaska have quarter moons carved into the door.  This harkens back to the days when there were separate outhouses for men and women.  Men's outhouses had a sun depicted on the door - representing Helios, the masculine god of the sun.  Women's outhouses had a moon depicted on the door - representing the moon goddess, Luna or Selene.  At some time in history, they decided to economize and build just one outhouse and they (whoever "they" were) decided to keep the women's outhouses, thus the moon symbol you see on outhouses today.  In Antarctica, however, none of this is relevant.  Here's what we do....

Inside, men's urinals drain into 55 gallon barrels (called U-barrels (U for urine)).  Solid waste goes to another container and women's urine toilets are coffee cans that have to be poured into the men's urinal.  The light blue styrofoam insulation is what makes it possible to sit down on those seats in -40 degree temperatures.  Fun, huh?

Cape Royds

About once a season, I get a call or an email from someone in the IT department (my boss or someone from the Communications part of our department) to tell me that I'm going on a really cool trip in a helicopter.  This year, the destination was Cape Royds - an adelie penguin rookery and the site of one of Ernest Shackleton's huts.  Built in 1908, this wooden hut is undergoing restoration work by the Antarctic Heritage Trust of New Zealand.  The hut is off-limits during the restoration work, which last year, turned up five crates of whisky.  The whisky was distilled by Mackinlay Distillery in Scotland and has since been reverse engineered and re-created.  Incidentally, you can buy it online, but the reviews have not been all that positive.  See here:  http://www.connosr.com/reviews/mackinlays/shackletons-whisky-mackinlays-rare-old-highland/good-but-not-worth-the-hype/


Ernest Shackleton's hut - 1908

 Anyway...I didn't go out to Cape Royds to drink 100+ year-old whisky.  I went to see penguins while my IT co-workers rigged up the antenna, wiring and equipment for wi-fi and telephone (land line and VOIP phone) for the scientists who will be continuing their on-going adelie penguin studies.

The day was uncommonly calm and warm - so calm that all I could hear was the sound of thousands of penguins calling for their mates.  And warm enough for me to sunbathe, albeit in parka and wool hat.

Here are photos of the site.  You can see the hut and the penguin rookery to the right of it.  In the background is annual sea ice with the ice edge not too far off in the distance.  On the other side of the hut, is active volcano, Mt. Erebus and perhaps you can also see Barne Glacier beyond.


Adelie Rookery



Mt. Erebus



Hut, Rookery, Sea Ice and Mt. Discovery in the background

 After I returned to McMurdo, I ran into the educational outreach coordinator for this science work.  She has been working with a penguin researcher for many years and does daily blogs with school kids back in the States.  I asked her to help me understand some of what I observed at Cape Royds.  You might notice that the penguins are standing on a pile of small stones.  Those are nests.  The males come in from open water (running and sliding over the sea ice) to Cape Royds and gather stones and pebbles (lava rock from Erebus) to make a nest.  Then they make a lot of noise and flap their wings in an attempt to attract a female.  Penguins are monogamous for one year.  They might attract the same female as the year before or they might choose a new one each year.  Sometimes jilted females peck and squawk at this season's chosen mate.  In some of the photos you see birds with their wings out - these are apparently the males trying to get attention.  If you see any penguins standing on a lying down penguin, that's sex.  I did see some of that but the shots were blurry.  Sorry no penguin porn on this blog.



Penguins returning from the sea





Molted penguin feathers



My terrific colleagues - riggers Andrew and Emily