Penguin Pie and Other Antarctic Delicacies: September 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

Being Talked At By My Computer

I've been watching TED talks for a few months now, the first being this link (sent by mum) of a talk by a professor of law and Australian Supreme Court judge who happens to be blind. Soon afterwards the station doc started monthly mini TED conventions where he would download some videos from the main website, put a few nibbles out and play them in the cinema.

It didn't take long and I was watching a few videos per day on whatever topic seemed vaguely interesting. The only problem with these talks is that if you disagree with the person or want more of an explaination or discussion, you can't because it's a speech and it's kinda difficult to have a conversation with someone who's back in time and presenting to an audiance all while being inside this tiny box on your monitor.

Since then. a few of us have put up our own set of talks we found interesting. Some of the talks inspired vigourous debate, others didn't inspire any conversation at all. Some were met with laughter and others with derision. In the end all we were really looking for is a way to keep people's minds ticking over and not turning to mush.

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites from these fascinating talks:

Some are inspirational, some will get you thinking, some are confusing and others will challenge you. And then there's this description of attending a TED conference. Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Leopard Seal!!!

Leopard seal!!! Leopard seal!!! Ok ok, so as you can tell I'm excited about a leopard seal. Why? Well, after 12 months on Macquarie Island where a number of my fellow expeditioners got to see them, but I missed out simply by being somewhere else on the island, I finally saw one in its habitat. They are beautiful looking animals, even for a predator. He looked fairly fit and healthy, though seemed to have a little bit of a moult going on.

I went walking out on the sea ice this afternoon with Matt to check out this blob of a seal we could see from station and lo and behold, there he was, a 2 - 2.5m leopard seal. As we approached we cautiously kept our distance as they are near the top of the food chain around here, probably second only to orca, to be blunt. They can grow to around 3.5 - 4m, so this guy probaly still has a little more work to do. This guy happened to get a little curious about the two things nearby, so he made his way towards us to check us out, but we kept our distance. No point ending up as food.

One of the more intriguing things was the sounds this guy was making. He had some growls and snorts for us, as seals tend to do, but there were also these chirps and whistles that sounded very similar to a penguin's call....

Look at his flip-top head and sharp teeth.

Hopefully I'm lucky enough to get some photos of one while it's in the water and maybe even feeding. Hopefully I'm farenough away not to be considered food.... Actually, seeing a breeding area would be fascinating too.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Reader Demographics

Hello people out there in the world! Thanks for taking the time to read my drivel, I appreciate the readership very muchly.

Blogspot have been kind enough to offer the ability to track where hits to the site come from and I thought I'd share some of the places around the world that have been reading this thing recently:

How is Australia not at the top of the list?

So as you can see there's a fairly diverse selection of countries from just about every continent, although I'm not sure if I've quite cracked the African market. Maybe stories from a frozen land are so far removed from the imagination? Anyway, there are few countries that aren't shown in green on this map that have, recently, been visiting this page, including: Russia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and France.

The above picture is from a few months ago, sometime around the middle of May. Following are the listings of this week, month and since the dawn of time.

This week. Hello Asian friends!

The past month.

Since the beginning. Hello to all those Rusiian supermodels reading this page (don't destroy my illusion, please)

It's pretty cool that there are people all over the world willing to read the inanity I put up here. As long as you're all somewhat entertained, job done.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Ze Plane! Ze Plane!

Sunday saw us turn the clocks back to our childhood when toys and friendly competition were rife. The toys of the day were these rubber band powered balsa wood planes, known in Antarctic circles as "Hangar Rats", that we spent the afternoon throwing around the wallow.

A number people went to special effort to decorate or modify their planes in some wonderful attempts to win the prestigious design award. There was replica Israeli insignia, a Red Baron, the Green Hornet and the official station airline, however the winner was the triplane by Mark J.

Triplane

The first flights were cheered well, but there were some early problems as planes crashed into walls and rubber bands broke. The first casualty only took two flights. Chad's plane lots its wings on about the third flight and he spent the rest of the time launching it like a missile at the other planes. After about an hour of flying the planes and everyone getting tired from walking up and down the stairs, Mike decided to try and shoot down the competition. In the end, despite a few disintegrations, the most spectacular crash was awarded to Allan for his especially destructive wall-sled-stairs-floor flight.