A Vicarious Way to Keep Cool
July 19, 2012 12:00 PM Subscribe
Use Google street view to explore some past and present Antarctic Research facilities.
Main link goes to the full gallery, with links to each site. Some of the sites:
Robert Scott's hut.
Lord Shackleton's hut.
The telescope at the Admunsen-Scott research station.
A penguin rookery.
McMurdo Field Station.
Or visit the South Pole proper.
Main link goes to the full gallery, with links to each site. Some of the sites:
Robert Scott's hut.
Lord Shackleton's hut.
The telescope at the Admunsen-Scott research station.
A penguin rookery.
McMurdo Field Station.
Or visit the South Pole proper.
For an enhanced experience, open this in another window and play at full volume while exploring.
posted by roger ackroyd at 12:26 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by roger ackroyd at 12:26 PM on July 19, 2012
Okay...Who the hell dented the south pole????
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:27 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:27 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
D'oh! This should be a direct link to the South Pole one.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:28 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:28 PM on July 19, 2012
The Norwegian one looks just like the US one only all fucked up and on fire and shit.
posted by Artw at 12:29 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 12:29 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Google was all, "Streets? Where we're going we don't need streets."
posted by argonauta at 12:31 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by argonauta at 12:31 PM on July 19, 2012
Want to waste an afternoon reading stuff about Antarctica?
Guillaume Dargaud's personal website will, if nothing else, make you wish you had a cooler job. His diary of the first winterover at Concordia Station is a particularly great read.
posted by schmod at 12:33 PM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Guillaume Dargaud's personal website will, if nothing else, make you wish you had a cooler job. His diary of the first winterover at Concordia Station is a particularly great read.
posted by schmod at 12:33 PM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
I love the exhibits at the Crary Science center. They must get swamped with day camp field trips this time of year.
posted by mollweide at 12:37 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by mollweide at 12:37 PM on July 19, 2012
the South Pole proper
Well, there's the Ceremonial South Pole, which is just an arbitrary spot in the area, and the Geographic South Pole, the actual southern point on Earth's surface that crosses the Earth's axis of rotation, which, being on top of a 9,000-foot-thick moving ice sheet, shifts 33 feet every year. Every January 1, the locals take turns hammering in a new survey marker.
I haven't read it yet, but Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica has been described as "a grunt’s-eye view of fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity in a dysfunctional, dystopian closed community".
posted by Egg Shen at 12:49 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well, there's the Ceremonial South Pole, which is just an arbitrary spot in the area, and the Geographic South Pole, the actual southern point on Earth's surface that crosses the Earth's axis of rotation, which, being on top of a 9,000-foot-thick moving ice sheet, shifts 33 feet every year. Every January 1, the locals take turns hammering in a new survey marker.
I haven't read it yet, but Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica has been described as "a grunt’s-eye view of fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity in a dysfunctional, dystopian closed community".
posted by Egg Shen at 12:49 PM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I laughed at some of the reviews.
"Terrible breakfast service. A hundred years and I'm still waiting for Oates."
posted by jaduncan at 12:53 PM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
"Terrible breakfast service. A hundred years and I'm still waiting for Oates."
posted by jaduncan at 12:53 PM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
I know people around here worry about Google having their information a lot more than I am, but I do have concerns. Yet this is one of those things that when they do it, I can just feel like allowing them to be just a bit evil if they're interested.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:54 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:54 PM on July 19, 2012
Oh man. I love Antarctica. I love Shackleton's hut. I love the lamps. I love the mittens. And whatever else they may be doing that I don't agree with, I love Google because they do stuff like this for essentially no reason but that it's cool.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:57 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:57 PM on July 19, 2012
I'm on the email list or a guy whose on the winterover crew at the Pole this year. I get a little giddy when I see a new email from him.
posted by rtha at 1:39 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by rtha at 1:39 PM on July 19, 2012
Oh, man, Mactown nostalgia! I went down there in the '09-'10 season and the '10-'11 season and got to visit both of the huts shown here. I also spent three weeks sleeping in a Scott tent like the one that's airing out here (in the bottom right of that picture, you can also see the crazy sixteen-can trash sorting program McMurdo uses. They are serious about recycling.)
If you like this, perhaps you will enjoy this blog post I wrote about the McMurdo sewage treatment plant.
::pokes around Street View for interesting details::
posted by fermion at 2:31 PM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
If you like this, perhaps you will enjoy this blog post I wrote about the McMurdo sewage treatment plant.
::pokes around Street View for interesting details::
posted by fermion at 2:31 PM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
I keep expecting to see a distant helicopter chasing something.
posted by DisreputableDog at 8:02 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by DisreputableDog at 8:02 PM on July 19, 2012
I love this! I have a fantasy about wintering over at McMurdo, so this is thrilling.
posted by apricot at 8:45 AM on July 20, 2012
posted by apricot at 8:45 AM on July 20, 2012
« Older The story is about a very very hairy eagle who... | Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Melismata at 12:26 PM on July 19, 2012