Antarctic Barbie

Due to the remarkable talents of one Audrey Gayle Fallowes, Barbie has made her Antarctic debut, in full ECW gear. Barbie has been seen out hiking, around Scott Base, and even near the Kiwi helo-pad. Here are some shots of her remarkable journey...

Sea Ice Training 101

I was in desperate need of a spa day in Christchurch. And since the powers that be could not accommodate that need, my supervisor decided to send me out for a day of Sea Ice Training. Spa Day, Sea Ice Training... same thing.

So, my comrades and I climbed into the Hagland (pictured above), and set off from the safety of our beloved volcanic island, to the precarious sea ice. We drilled holes. We measured the thickness of the ice. We learned to read cracks and when to worry about the width of the crack. Did you know the sea ice can get down to only 30" in thickness before you need to start worrying about it's stability in terms of driving a vehicle over it? Seems a little crazy to me. So we learned to calculate whether or not we could drive our vehicle over a crack depending on the width of the crack and the depth of the ice and the length of our vehicle. Sounds a bit close to calculus, but it's not really that complicated.

And when we drilled into the ice, we did hit sea water and we got to collect samples for some group, which included some little creature that came up in the sample. Looked like a little bug sort of sea creature. Just a tiny little guy.

The most exciting part of the day were the gangs of penguins we saw far off in the distance. The Emperor Penguins are making their appearance this year. From our perspective, it looked as if some of the penguins were having a social with the seals. A small gang of them walked up to the lounging seals and then stopped. And hung around. I suppose they were too shy to ask them to dance.

So, no, we didn't actually do facials or manicures or massages out there on the Sea Ice. But it was a fun day anyway.

NO VACANCY

This blog could also be entitled "Trapped at Mc Murdo." Here's the deal. For weeks, the Polies, the WAIS Divide people, the Byrd Field Camp folks, and many others have been trapped at Mc Murdo, mainly due to perpetual inclement weather here on the bottom of the planet. The station has been at maximum capacity, which means we have no more beds in which to put people. There's been a large NO VACANCY sign in front of the station and we're turning people away, left and right. Ok, I'm kidding about the No Vacancy sign, but seriously, people have been held in Christchurch because we have no where to put them.

There is something bizarre about this whole thing. I'm not sure what, but it's just plain bizarre to me.

The Antarctic Jewish Mafia

For the High Holy Days, way back in September, the microcosm of Antarctic Jews joined together for a little prayer, singing and religious banter. Sharon taught some of the folks down here to play dreidle. Apparently, it's become more popular than poker and rumor has it they play for porn. So, we decided to start the Dreidle Intramural Committee and expand that to the International Dreidle Olympics. It could really be quite big. And somehow in the midst of all this, we have organized into the Antarctic Jewish Mafia, where our greeting is "Shalomy My Homey" and our motto is "Shalom, Mother Fucker."

And that's all I have to say about that.

They're Eating Like They're Angry

And that's the motto of the McMurdo kitchen this year.