MetaFilter posts tagged with exploration

Small Worlds

juv3nal — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:30:23 -0800

Small Worlds is an exploration game created by David Shute for JayisGames' Casual Gameplay Design Competition 6 (the theme this time around was "exploration"). It's short and there are no enemies to kill or items to pick up but it has faux pixelly gorgeousness and decently atmospheric music. Protip: the controls really don't like you hitting jump and moving sideways at the same time. To jump horizontally, first hit the jump key then hit the key to move sideways after. Bonus links: CGDC5 (theme: "Upgrade") CGDC4 (theme: "Ball Physics") CGDC3 (theme: "Replay") CGDC2 (theme: "Grow") CGDC1 (theme: "Puzzle")

"The world's most famous missing person."

kirkaracha — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:11:32 -0800

"The unburied come back to haunt us." On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea (map) in their Lockheed Electra en route to Howland Island (map). They were never seen again. Earhart and Noonan's flight was one of the last legs of an attempted around-the-world flight at the Equator. (A previous attempt, flying east to west, failed when Earhart's plane was damaged in Hawaii and had to be sent to California for repairs.) The most common explanation is that they ran out of fuel, ditched in the ocean, and drowned, but the disappearance is an enduring mystery. In Search of...Amelia Earhart (part 2, part 3). Where's Amelia Earhart? The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR; previously) is a leading supporter of a theory that the Earhart and Noonan crash-landed at Nikumaroro (then called Gardner Island; map) TIGHAR's map of Nikumaroro shows the locations of possible evidence to support their theory. TIGHAR recently obtained a reference sample of mitochondrial DNA from a direct female relative of Earhart's, and is making a new expedition to Nikumaroro in May 2010 to look for DNA evidence. Crash Reconstruction by the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University.

One Way Ticket

william_boot — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:22:52 -0800

In the next few weeks, NASA will present President Obama with options for the near-term future of human spaceflight. A manned flight to Mars is one possibility. But if we do send astronauts to Mars, do we really need to bring them home again?

Spacehack

chrismear — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:52:07 -0800

Spacehack "A directory of ways to participate in space exploration. Interact and connect with the space community."

Discover, Explore and Document

netbros — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:27:13 -0800

NYC Grid is a photo blog dedicated to exploring and discovering The City of New York block by block and corner by corner. Updated every weekday, each post covers a new block with a focus on the mundane and ephemeral. An optimistic snapshot of New York as it is now. Vs. The Lamentations: Lost City is a running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York — a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct. Still hunkered down in the East Village, waiting for the wrecking ball of gentrification to find me. Until then, I'll write this ongoing obituary for my dying city.

Canadian Urbex

dunkadunc — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:13:52 -0800

The Vanishing Point: Urban Exploration in Canada Michael Cook's website documents his trips to the dark, musty and exciting places where most people don't go. Ontario Generating Station, Niagra Falls Toronto Power Company Hydroelectric Plant, Niagra Falls Storm Drains of Toronto Storm Drains of Hamilton Monarch Mine, British Columbia

Bust that Glum, Bust it good

juv3nal — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:06:09 -0800

Glum Buster is a charityware puzzle/adventure/exploration game developed over the course of 4 years by Justin Leingang. Kind of like a more linear Seiklus. Windows only.

Antarctica: It's a Cool Place!

Kattullus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:39:56 -0800

Cool Antarctica is 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.

Nothing To Do With Wonder Woman

The Whelk — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:30:34 -0800

"Percy Harrison Fawcett ... convinced himself, based on a mix of archival research, deduction and clairvoyance, that a large undiscovered city lay hidden somewhere in the Amazon" Greg Grandin of The Nation talks about the allure of the Amazon in history and the repeated attempts made to domesticate, colonize, control, or explore it. previous discussion of failed Amazon ventures here ( via )

"Wall up a dozen lawyers at one end and put a good fee at the other."

billypilgrim — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:21:18 -0800

Into the black. At nearly five miles, it's the longest transportation tunnel east of the Rockies. Built in 1874, its construction took 200 lives, nearly bankrupted the state of Massachusetts, and served as a crucible for modern engineering. Journey into the Hoosac Tunnel, urban exploration destination and the most haunted place in New England.

How to be a 19th-early 20th century British explorer

stbalbach — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:51:27 -0800

Hints to Travellers served as the Royal Geographical Societies unofficial bible, used by late 19th and early 20th century British explorers such as Shackleton, Scott, Richard Burton, Col. Perry Fawcett and other legends who carried it into the field as a practical state of the art manual of gentlemanly exploration. Indiana Jones no doubt has his own copy too. Don't leave home without it! Hints to Travellers, co-authored by Francis Galton, was for the serious explorer. A more general audience might have owned Art of Travel, also by Galton. Sir Francis Galton was a "half-cousin of Charles Darwin, an English Victorian polymath, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician."

Views from the 18th and Early 19th Centuries

nickyskye — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:16:24 -0800

Some really beautiful, unusual visuals and reading: The Art of the Pochoir Book. The University of Cincinatti Rare Book archive has some cool stuff, like Leviathan: Watercolors of Whales from William Jardine’s The Naturalist’s Library l 4 pages of a newspaper called The Colored Citizen from November 7th 1863 (awesome to read knowing Obama is elected) l Travel and Exploration in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries: A View of the World through the Art of the Explorers. More Pochoir (hand-colored) prints. And more from the NYPL. And more from LiveAuctioneers. About Pochoirs.

Fridtjof Nansen

homunculus — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:30:24 -0800

Fridtjof Nansen's Polar Saga. Part One: 1,000 Days in the Ice "It was an outlandish idea: freeze a ship in the Arctic Ocean and ride the drifting ice across the North Pole." Part Two: Chasing Nansen's Ghost. "Two adventurers set out across the Arctic in the footsteps of Norway's pioneering polar explorer."

Do we really want that Moon base?

spaceviking — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:01:37 -0800

An election of a new President brings forth new ideas on the Vision for Space Exploration. The Planetary Society is lobbying to remove the Moon from the equation, which prompted Apollo astronaut, ex-senator, and geologist Harrison Schmitt to resign from the board in protest. Meanwhile moon-free plans proliferate. What will Obama do? Interesting hints are given in a position paper written by people associated with his transition team. The Planetary Society Responds. More analysis here.

Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

mrzarquon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:59:18 -0800

On Oct. 27th, 1915. Sir Ernest Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, moving the crew and supplies off of the ice bound Endurance. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition would never achieve it's goal of crossing the continent, instead Shackleton would become famous for somethings far greater: his masterful and amazing ability at leadership and survival for himself and his crew of 27 men under the harshest conditions imaginable. After setting up camp on the ice floe, they would drift until April 9th, 1916, when they decided to launch their three lifeboats in an attempt to reach Elephant Island. 7 days of rowing and sailing later, all ships arrived safely. It was the first time in 497 days they had set foot on land. Eight days later, Shackleton, Captain Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, Ship's Carpenter Harry "Chippy" McNish, Timothy McCarthy and John Vincent would set sail in the 23 foot James Caird, having been retrofitted for the 800 mile voyage over the open ocean to South Georgia, the closest active port and best chance of rescue. The ship survived the 16 days on the open ocean, and delivered all six men to the South Georgia coast. However, it was the wrong end of the island. The Caird, having suffered damage while landing, was unfit for an attempt to travel around to the whaling station at Fortuna Bay. Instead, Shackleton, Worseley and Crean, decided to cross the uncharted glacial mountain range that separated them from the Stromness whaling station. Using a carpenters adz, screws from the Caird fastened through their boots, and a length of rope, they managed to cross the 22 miles in 36 hours. For reference, modern climbers can do the trip in three days, using maps and the latest in climbing gear (here is a clip of one such trip). Arriving at Stromness on May 20th, it was not until August 30, after two previously failed rescue attempts, was Shackleton able to rescue the rest of his crew 24 months and 22 days after leaving South Georgia on the start of the expedition. Not a single member of his crew of 27 men were lost, and only one crew member lost a foot to frostbite (which was amputated at the Elephant Island camp while they waited for rescue). This quote, by Sir Raymond Priestley, a member of Shackleton's earlier 1907-09 Nimrod Expedition, captures the abilities of the man: "For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel give me Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. The greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none." If you would you like to know more: Tubes: Previous, tangentially related mefi post Wikipedia's Page Shack Faq The supposed ad for crew PBS's timeline of events Another Timeline The James Caird Society Images: Images from the Shackleton Expedition [previously] Kodak's Shackleton Collection Video: Shackleton's Antartic Adventure (see in imax if you have a chance) (dvd) Shackleton, TV movie staring Kenneth Branagh (dvd) The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition Books: South, Earnest Shackleton (book preview at google) Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Caroline Alexander

The Ethnosphere

homunculus — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:50:08 -0800

"Cultures at the far edge of the world" (YT) and "The worldwide web of belief and ritual" (YT). Two TED talks by anthropologist and explorer Wade Davis (previously) on the diversity of the world's indigenous cultures and their beliefs, and the richness of the "Ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." [Via Mind Hacks]

Get yer urban exploration/dead mall fix right here

limeonaire — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:59:13 -0800

"Q: What the hell is this site about? This is a site about urban exploration in the Ozarks." Abandoned water slides, underground tunnels, abandoned buildings and half-demolished malls throughout Missouri were all once fair game for this blog, and remain fair game for those who post in Underground Ozarks' forums.

"They are almost certain not to understand what the plane is -- perhaps a spirit or a large bird."

Rhaomi — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:18:12 -0800

"Skin painted bright red, heads partially shaved, arrows drawn back in the longbows and aimed square at the aircraft buzzing overhead. The gesture is unmistakable: Stay Away. The apparent aggression shown by these people is quite understandable, for they are members of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes." The unnamed tribe is just one of dozens around the world (though most are located primarily in the depths of the Amazon basin). The discovery comes at a time of increased pressure on these isolated cultures to surrender their lands and resources to loggers and oil drillers, as well as the diseases and other troubles they carry. And while advocacy groups like Survival International campaign to prevent damaging encounters -- ranging from deforestation and urban encroachment to radical "human safari" ecotours -- even the most well-intentioned first contacts can result in violence and death. Images: One, Two, Three More news reports Previous thread discussing a South American first contact For the Wikiholics: Uncontacted peoples, First contact (anthropology), Cargo cult, and Outside Context Problem

How to land at the Martian north pole.

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:22:55 -0800

Seven minutes of terror. A short video on describing how the Phoenix probe will land at the North Pole of Mars on May 25th. Follow updates to the mission via Twitter and the blog. Previously

In tribute to Charlton Heston, Russia has begun a real-life Planet of the Apes.

myopicman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:50:15 -0800

By 2020, Mars may have monkeys, adding to the impressive roster of primates in space.

Everything I needed to know I learned as a sperm thingy

juv3nal — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:24:09 -0800

Coil No clicking. Figure-out-how-to-interact minigame sequence.

The Mystery of Andree

dersins — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:42:59 -0800

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.

The Explorer from Jamestown's only got one arm!

LarryC — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:55:46 -0800

A heroic sculpture of explorer Christopher Newport recently unveiled at the university of the same name is drawing criticism because of the decision of the university and the sculptor to depict Newport with his right hand manfully resting on his unsheathed sword--even though he lost that arm two decades before the founding of Virginia. Sculptor Jon Hair ("AMERICA'S MOST HIGHLY COMMISSIONED MONUMENTAL SCULPTOR" according his website) isn't winning any friends with his explanation of the blunder. "I wouldn't show an important historical figure like this with his arm cut off . . . We don't show our heroes maimed." The irony is that Hair could have avoided what was surely an unintentional screwup with as little research as a visit to the Christopher Newport Wikipedia page, which features an illustration of the hook-armed explorer.

More abandoned places, because they're creepy and beautiful

dersins — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:07:13 -0800

Illicit Ohio has a wide range of photos and essays of abandoned places in Ohio, from the Cincinnati subway system (yes, there really is was one, and it's been discussed here before), to various and sundry prisons, government installations, hotels, hosiptals, houses and more. And don't miss the old vs. new galleries, either.

"The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects." Baudelaire

bijou — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:09:41 -0800

WebUrbanist: Collective Bloggings about Urban Cultures and Alternative Arts