To Kish

Hey, Kish....we know you're reading and we'd like to email you but don't have your off-ice email address. Could you please send it to us at our usap.gov address?

Boondoggles!

We've had lovely weather here in McMurdo. It's been sunny and unseasonably warm (18 degrees F/-9 degrees C). That might not sound warm to you, but with all of the sunlight, the lack of wind and the absence of an ozone layer, it's down-right balmy! We've done some great little hikes and Michiel is doing a 2+ hour run every Sunday afternoon.

Aside from the weather, both Michiel and I have been blessed with some amazing boondoggles. Last week, I was invited on an aerial survey of 2 emperor penguin colonies by DC-3 aircraft with a science group that has been researching emperors for over 20 years. The skies were blue and the views were incredible. We did much of our flying over the ice edge (where the permanent ice shelf meets the ocean) and the formations of ice and icebergs were fabulously beautiful.

The Cape Colbeck emperor colony hadn't been visited in 13 years and the last survey counted 5,000 chicks and 10,000 adults. The researcher, Paul Ponganis (from Scripps in La Jolla, California), didn't know how many critters to expect so he was overwhelmed when we found the colony and he estimated 10,000 chicks and 20,000 adults!





Cape Colbeck






Penguins and Poop. Very hard to get good photos with a normal camera!










Beaufort Island - site of a small emperor penguin colony (approx. 200-300)

Today, Michiel is out on a helicopter ride out to the dry valleys, an area of Antarctica that is situated in such a way that it gets no snow or ice. Photos from that trip will be coming soon.

Celebrating Obama!

Last night, many of our delighted community members joined in celebration of Obama's victory. Prepared for a joyous party, the smart ones purchased champagne from the store the day before and can to one of the lounges ready to pop the cork.

The final word was announced on the internet and NPR radio at about 5:05 pm local time and many people spontaneously shouted, jumped for joy and hugged. We took a group photo, which someone emailed to CNN. It is on their website at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/world.reaction/index.html Click on the 3rd photo of 4 in the upper left hand corner.

Apparently, the photo also made it onto the air on CNN when one of the reporters held it up as her favorite pic of people celebrating around the world.

Here's a copy of it:

Michiel and I are on the right-hand side.

Apparently, the photo also appeared in the NY Times. We're famous!

Cool Presentations

One of the highlights of life in Antarctica is the Sunday Night Science Lecture, or in the case of last week's lecture...the Sunday Night Not-So-Much-Science Lecture given by a BBC photographer and producer who are working on a 10-hour series, called "Life". "Life" is a follow- up to the wonderful "Planet Earth" series but this one will focus on critters rather than environments and eco-systems. It is due to air in the States in 2010 and in England (maybe the Netherlands, too???) in late 2009.

The presenters didn't talk much about the footage they are working on here except to say that they are using a very expensive camera called a Cineflex mounted under one of the helicopters. The Cineflex minimizes movement and provides excellent aerial footage of our vast landscape. They are also doing lots of underwater/under-ice, time-lapse photography of some of our large and weird sea creatures. Cold work, for sure.

The real highlight, though, was hearing the stories about how some of the amazing sequences in Planet Earth were filmed - such as the first images ever taken of snow leopards in Pakistan and the polar bear emerging from her snow den with 2 cubs. We really felt like we were in the midst of celebrities and the packed dining hall filled with "oohs" and "ahs" as we viewed the footage.

Science from the ice. AGAP

Here's a link to a yahoo website with info on one of the science projects:
AGAP