Race to End of the World Exhibit Opens at American Museum of Natural History in May 2010

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is opening a new temporary exhibit on May 29, 2010. The exhibit is about the race to the South Pole in 1911-1912. The exhibit is mostly about the final competition between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. Perhaps it will have a little on the earlier attempts, too. The exhibit is going to have interactive parts. The exhibit is expected to be on display until January 2, 2011.


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Whale Wars 2010: Japanese Sink Protest Boat

This article is one of many floating around right now about the Japanese being "accused" of sinking a protest boat. To me the word accused makes it seem like maybe they did not do it or they are not admitting it and thus is misleading. Anyways there is as expected dispute over the incident and the Japanese doing it intentionally or could not prevent the collision, but there is not denying they caused the boat to be destroyed and sunk.

The incident involved the Japanese Shonan Maru No. 2 colliding with the protester's Ady Gil. The Ady Gil was cut in half by the collision, but fortunately all 6 on board were rescued, although one ended up with broken ribs.

From what I have seen of the show it would seem that they might have purposely been in front of the ship and challenged it. Sure the Japanese should have turned and they very well probably tried, but the activists are probably just as much at fault. Of course, I really have not a clue about what really happened and the news at this time does not shed much light with it being so much on the activists side. By the way I am on their side as far as their views on the Japanese not killing the whales, but it seems the Japanese side is at least not published in English much.

Whaling Research without Killing to be Carried Out in Antarctic Region

The past few years the Japanese whaling program has been one of the hot news topics about the Antarctic region. The Japanese go down every year to kill whales supposedly for scientific research. This year the Australia and New Zealand governments are funding a scientific whaling expedition that does not involve killing the whales. It the newest way to challenge the Japanese way of carrying out whaling research.

The success of this expedition should be a great way of convincing those in the middle that the whales do not need to be killed to carry out the research. In fact I imagine not killing them will allow for more observation of their actual behavior and such, which will allow for more research results. I can understand there might be a few things hard or impossible to research without a dead whale, but at the same time it does not seem that the Japanese are really about the scientific value of killing the whales.

However, at the same time I have not looked at the Japanese side of it to know whether they have any research and would not be surprised if the news is exaggerating the lack of scientific research from the Japanese program. Although, it does still seem that whale meat is almost as important to the Japanese as the research purpose if not more important.

Read more about the Australia and New Zealand expedition here.

Mawson's Plane Found in Antarctica

I thought this article about finding the first plane in Antarctica sounded familiar. I searched through my posts and found that almost a year ago I posted about the search for Mawson's plane left behind in Antarctica. I think that is what I was remembering, as there is no way I read about it being found before today, since it was only found yesterday (January 1, 2010) and I did not read my Antarctic news alerts for the past few days until today.

The plane has quite an interesting story with it never making it to Antarctica in tact to even be flown, although technically it still was the first airplane in Antarctica when it was brought in 1911 without wings to be used as a tractor. It never was really successful for that purpose either, but nonetheless it is still a wonderful artifact of Antarctic history to have been rediscovered finally.

First Meteorite Found by China's 26th Antarctic Expedition Team

On Wednesday, December 30, 2009, China's 26th Antarctic Expedition Team found their first meteorite in Antarctica. It is believed to be made of Chondrite. The meteorite was found near the southern foot of the Glove Mountain peak. I knew about meteorites being easier to find in Antarctica, but I found this article about them finding it interesting because I learned about how they are mostly found around mountains and why that is so. The Glove Mountain area is actually one of the best places discovered so far for meteorite finds.

Department 56 North Pole Village Penguin Visitor Center

For over a decade my brother has had a growing collection of building and accessories in Department 56's North Pole Series. Every Christmas he gets a new building. This year we got him the Penguin Visitor Center. I never expected or even wanted penguins to be in his village until I heard about this building. The main thing is that penguins do not naturally live in the Northern Hemisphere it really bugs me to see Christmas decorations even suggest that they do or even represent them with polar bears. So, why do I think this is okay?

First off, of course, the village is fictional. The real thing, though, is that it is rooted in truth that penguins do not live at the North Pole because it presents them as visitors. Sure, it makes them antropomorphic tourists, but that is a line I am okay with, as long as it is not trying to continue the lie too many believe about penguins living in the same place as polar bears. Besides they are still so cute.

Holiday Airfare Deals from my Friend in Paradise!

This is a sponsored guest post written by Ali Kendall on behalf of airfare-now.com. Post powered by Sponzai.

Just wanted to send a quick "shout-out" across the Pacific to my friend Ali in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii!

Ali runs the airfare-now.com website with all kinds of tips, coupons, strategies, etc. for findng holiday airfare deals. Now airfare comparison travel sites have come a long way in the past few years but there are still literally thousands of them to choose from. So here's a big aloha and mahalo to Ali for keeping it simple on a pretty nifty little travel website!

 

Television Shows With Penguins: Merry Madagascar

Merry Madagascar is a new holiday special that premiered last night on NBC and then was released on DVD today (I think it is only available at Wal-Mart currently). The 30 minutes special (little less as there are commercials) with the characters from Madagascar. It is set between the story line of Madagascar 2 and The Penguins of Madagascar series that is on Nickelodeon, as the animals including the penguins are still in Madagascar.

Overall it is a pretty entertaining plot. King Julian is in it, but he is not as annoying as in The Penguins of Madagascar series. The penguins are somewhat minor characters more like in the movies than the show, but they are still part of the main characters. In the episode the penguins end up serving in place of the reindeer as the animals deliver the presents for Santa after he crash lands in Madagascar and loses his memory. Julian is left behind and tries to create a holiday that honors him and is all about him getting presents, but he then learns that it is not any fun if you do not give as well as receive.

Whisky to be Salvaged from Antarctica

Part of the items that were left behind by Shackleton during his Nimrod expedition in 1909 was some whiskey. The whiskey is an old brand of McKinlay and Co whiskey that is rare and extinct. The whiskey is to be recovered by a team of New Zealanders for the Whyte and Mackay company that owns McKinlay and Co. They want the whiskey to have samples for an experiment. They want to try to replicate the whiskey. The crates of the whiskey was discovered back in January 2006 under the floorboards of the Cape Royd's hut, but the could not be retrieved because they were too deep in the ice.

Source: NZ team to drill for whisky in Antarctica

Japan's New Icebreaker and Plans for the Old One

Earlier this week Japan's newest icebreaker left Japan for Antarctica. The ship is stopping in Australia where most of the observation team will board it before it heads to Antarctica. It is expected to reach Japan's Showa Base around mid-December. The new ship is Japan's fourth icebreaker. It named Shirase, which is the same name the third one had. The third one has been taken out of active use and plans are in place to turn it into a tourist attraction that teaches about the environment and climate change.

Source: New icebreaker begins voyage to Antarctica