Antarctica: It's a Cool Place!

April 29, 2009 7:39 PM

Cool Antarcticais a site dedicated to all things Antarctic. There are pictures (penguins), videos (including, among much else, an old documentary about Edmund Hillary's and Vivian Fuchs' Transantarctic Expedition), a history section focusing on the famous explorers (e.g. Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton, Charcot and de Gerlache) and a fact file, which includes what may be my favorite section, an Antarctic slang dictionary (degomble: removing snow that's stuck to clothing before going inside - monk-on: a term for being in a bad, usually introspective mood, "he's got a monk-on" - poppy: alcoholic beverage that is chilled with natural Antarctic ice). All this is but a taster of what's on the website.
posted by Kattullus (20 comments total)

Warm Antarctica
posted by ornate insect at 7:49 PM on April 29

By the by, explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot was the son of Jean-Martin Charcot, who I posted about 3 days ago.
posted by Kattullus at 7:55 PM on April 29

Polar Traditions.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:02 PM on April 29 [1 favorite]

Thank you, Kattullus.
posted by Songdog at 8:10 PM on April 29

Nifty! My neighbor just got back from six or so months at McMurdo. Now I'm better equipped to dork out in her general direction.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 8:10 PM on April 29

I guess their domain expired recently but I always thought Antarctic Hydroponics was cool to see. (Internet Archive link for http://www.antarctichydroponics.com/)
posted by XMLicious at 8:10 PM on April 29 [1 favorite]

an Antarctic slang dictionary

Wow, being slotted does not sound fun. Also, can't wait for webcam season at the South Pole.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:15 PM on April 29

Also good is the somewhat more irreverent Big Dead Place.
posted by Upton O'Good at 9:38 PM on April 29

Antarctic Jobs
posted by aniola at 9:40 PM on April 29

South Pole Station congratulates Obama
posted by hal incandenza at 10:38 PM on April 29

Cool Britannia.

[ + equestrian statue ]
posted by koeselitz at 12:19 AM on April 30

Heh:

Nutty - The general term for any type of chocolate or sweets / candy, whether it contains nuts or not. A personal note here, when I first arrived in Antarctica I was most unimpressed with the unhealthiness of the food that people took out with them when leaving base for a day trip - one to three bars of chocolate and nothing else. Being of sterner stuff I promptly made myself some healthy sandwiches (tuna if I remember rightly) - I was observed with interest but without comment by other (as it turned out - wiser) people around. Come lunch break, while others tucked into their hard but edible "nutty" I sat and sucked on a frozen sandwich. Br

posted by pracowity at 1:39 AM on April 30

Whoa!

The whirlies tracked about in a most irregular manner and woe betide any light object which came in their path. The velocity of the wind in the rotating column being very great, a corresponding lifting power was imparted to it. As an illustration of this force, it may be mentioned that the lid of the air-tractor case had been left lying on the snow near the Hut. It weighed more than three hundredweights, yet it was whisked into the air one morning and dropped fifty yards away in a north-easterly direction. An hour afterwards it was picked up again and returned near its original position, this time striking the rocks with such force that part of it was shivered to pieces. Webb and Stillwell watched the last proceeding at a respectful distance.

What a place. Not a time to be joining the Three Hundred Club. Cool post.
posted by tellurian at 3:19 AM on April 30

I'm a little sad that the (very) seldom-used .AQ domain isn't being used here.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 7:35 AM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Another angle on the "South Pole Station congratulates Obama" photo: a winterover who prefers to remain anonymous wrote at the time

"A summer person hung signs in the galley and computer lab, telling Obama/Biden supporters to gather outside by the pole on Sunday to take pictures and send them to the campaign. Someone else hung signs inviting McCain supporters to gather and get drunk.

Winterovers tore all of these signs down. It made me laugh. I thought it really showed one of the winterover differences that most summer people don't understand. Politics: don't go there. Just don't. Our community is tiny and we all have to live together, therefore people rarely get animated or confrontational about politics. (Often other people will derail the conversation on purpose if it starts to go there.) Then you add the fact that many of us have lived or travelled overseas for long enough that we sometimes have a slightly removed or cynical perspective about our country. It doesn't really make for political enthusiasm of any stripe."

Quoted with permission from a blog the prefers not to get too much direct publicity.
posted by Lebannen at 7:52 AM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Freeze Frame
posted by tellurian at 6:28 PM on April 30

Werner Herzog in Antarctica - Encounters at the End of the World (via)
posted by ver at 2:40 AM on May 1

What LastOfHisKind said.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:40 AM on May 1

I love you for this.
Almost *almost* enough to start playing Eve, even.
posted by Busithoth at 11:33 AM on May 1

I don't actually play Eve, mostly because I suspect I'd get waaaaaaaaay too into it. I just love reading about all the crazy shenanigans that take place in Eve.
posted by Kattullus at 12:04 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]