Dispatches from Polar Scientists -- A compilation of blogs "in celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-08), [giving] you an up-close-and-personal look at research in extreme environments through the thoughts and experiences of the scientists working there. We’ll post their photos, videos, and blogs on this site."
posted by fourcheesemac
on Jul 16, 2008 -
10 comments
The Last Iceberg suffers, as many photography sites do, from a mildly irritating flash interface; but if you can get over that fact, you'll see some genuinely amazing polar photography of isolated icebergs & ice shelves.
posted by jonson
on Nov 25, 2007 -
17 comments
In 1897, pioneering Swedish balloonist Salomon August Andrée and two companions took off for the north pole in a hot air balloon. In 1930 their bodies were found, along with records of their expedition.
This archive of newspaper articles tells their story.
(So does Wikipedia, of course.) Many of the photos they took are
here, along with a lot of text in Polish that I can't read any more than most of you can, so don't come complaining to me.
posted by dersins
on Oct 8, 2007 -
12 comments
Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the
'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The
transpolar railway was built by labour camps
^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned:
depot and locomotives in Dolgoe,
Dolgoe itself,
labour camps,
more spectacular decay. (Previously:
Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)
posted by parudox
on Aug 27, 2007 -
13 comments
