Non-fiction: ed. Nancy Robinson Flannery: This Everlasting Silence – The love letters of Paquita Delprat and Douglas Mawson 1911-1914 (Melbourne University Press, 2000) The Australian Douglas Mawson is an Antarctic explorer contemporary with his more famous colleagues Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and Ernst Shackleton. He’s less known because he Continue Reading
Antarctica
Vintage Antarctic Photos
A friend sent me the link to this, a gallery of historical polar images called Freeze Frame. It’s maintained by the British Scott Polar Research Institute. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there, from photos almost a hundred years old to very recent stuff, like the one above.
Antarctic Research Blog #90 – Beyond the Mountains of Madness
Roleplaying game supplement: Charles and Janyce Engan: Beyond the Mountains of Madness (Chaosium inc. 1999) Beyond the Mountains of Madness is a Thirties campaign adventure published for the Call of Ctulhu roleplaying game. Some of the best roleplaying adventures ever made have been published for the Call of Cthulhu game, Continue Reading
Russian Antarctic Photos
English Russia has some great photographs from a Russian Antarctic base, by Anton Chekalin:
Antarctic Research Blog #89 – Planet Earth: Ice Worlds
Documentary tv-series: Planet Earth, episode Ice Worlds (U.K. 2006) Planet Earth is a spectacularly produced BBC nature program aiming to cover the entire planet Earth. Episode number six, Ice Worlds, covers the polar regions. Given the general nature of the show, not much of the content is new, but the Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #88 – Under Antarctic Ice
Documentary: Norbert Wu: Under Antarctic Ice (U.S.A. 2001) This is an hour-long documentary following the photographer Norbert Wu as he’s taking pictures for his book, also called Under Antarctic Ice. Content-wise this is a bit vacuous, but the images are perfect and gorgeous. Everything in the documentary is beautiful, from Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #87 – The Lost World of Lake Vostok
Documentary: Jonathan Renouf: The Lost World of Lake Vostok (U.K. 2000) A documentary made for the British Horizon series of programs that began in 1964. Lake Vostok is a vast body of water underneath central Antarctica. It derives its name from the Russian Vostok base built on the ice on Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #86 – Megastructures: South Pole Super Station
Documentary: Megastructures: South Pole Super Station (U.S.A. 2007) This is an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series Megastructures, about huge construction projects. This time, the project is the new South Pole station that’ll replace the old geodesic dome. Some of the old explorers would probably have a heart Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #85 – Where Hell Freezes Over
Non-fiction: David A. Kearns: Where Hell Freezes Over (Thomas Dunne Books, 2005) During a U.S. Navy surveying operation in Antarctica soon after the end of WWII, an airplane crashes onto the coast. The survivors wait for two weeks before they’re rescued, all badly wounded except one. It’s a dramatic story, Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #84 – With Byrd at the South Pole
Documentary: With Byrd at the South Pole (U.S.A. 1930) This is a documentary shot during Richard Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition, 1928-1930. Of the early Antarctic documentaries, this has the best images in the sense that the cameramen were able to shoot more than before, although they were not as artistically Continue Reading