nptech.info

This is a little dangerous. I'm going to recommend a specific podcast I just heard--not dangerous. Dangerous is recommending the whole series.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"First, the individual podcast:/spanbr /A presentation (and question and answer session) by Priya Haji , the CEO of World of Good at a Stanford University social entrepreneurship class. a href="http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4375.html"You can find the podcast here. /abr /br /What is so interesting is that World of Good is a for profit company and a separate non-profit corporation. Haji really thought about and explains why each was created. Near the end is a great explanation of when it makes sense to have a for-profit company and when it makes sense to have a nonprofit organization. br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Now the dangerous part:/spanbr /Based on that one podcast (and the first 5 minutes of another podcast I'm listen to and the list of other episodes), I'm going to recommend the whole Social Innovations Conversations series. a href="http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/"You can find the series here./abr /br /The series is also available at the ITunes Store.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-2043254766142912474?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="text-align: center;"br //divMaybe it has something to do with Milwaukee--A cold midwestern city in the shadow of Chicago. Maybe it has something to do with Milwaukee's favorite beverage. For whatever reason, the TSA staff at MKE seems to have a sense of humor. I only have two cases of something humorous to cite--but that is two more than I have ever experienced with TSA at any airport.divbr //divdivbFirst case:/b/divdiv style="text-align: left;"As you leave the security area, you are confronted with two large, official airport signs over the area where you tie your shoes, re-pack your laptop and put your belt back on: /divdiv style="text-align: left;"img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/S2iFRY9N0yI/AAAAAAAABkA/REFB10H5Bjc/s320/Recomboulation+area.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 159px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433739484225983266" //divdiv style="text-align: center;""Recombobulation Area."/divdiv style="text-align: left;"EVERYONE stops to take a picture of the signs. (Also, TSA staff suggests that they are going to start charging for pictures of the sign.)/divdivbr //divdivbSecond case: /b/divdivSiting waiting for our plane, we hear: /divdivblockquoteiThis is an official TSA announcment. Will the person whose pants are falling down please return to the Security area in Concourse C to retrieve his or her belt./i/blockquote/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-9148330340508991295?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

This blog post is just to point out two very good columns on the relationships between nonprofit organizations and foundations--from the nonprofit perspective. [Gee, I really hope some foundation folks read this.]divbr //divdivbWe Really Need to Talk/b/divdivFirst, in the February issue of ia href="http://www.fastcompany.com/"Fast Company/a/i (yes that entrepreneurship and "new economy" magazine has some good nonprofit stuff in it.) Nancy Lublin has a great column that is "an open letter to her powerful 'friends' at foundations." (a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/do-something-we-really-need-to-talk.html"You can see the whole column here.)/a She lists a few things her "friends" need to stop doing "which would vastly improve our relationship."/divblockquotediv/divdivolliStop thinking you know everything/liliStop mistaking marketing for overhead--and stop hating overhead"/liliStop funding redundancy/liliStop thinking that newer is better./li/oldiv/div/div/blockquotedivdivIn return, Nancy promises "to stop calling 'for advice' or 'just to check in' when that's never the point of the conversation. We both know what I really want: your check."/divdivbr //divdivI urge you to read the whole column. Some great things to think about for foundation staff and for nonprofit staff./divdivbr //divdivbUnreachable Stars/b/divdivIf you subscribe to the ia href="http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/"Nonprofit Quarterly/a/i, check out the last page of the current issue (Winter 2009). There is a great column on a current trend in the foundation world to adopt broad reaching goals like "Ending poverty in ten years and changing the face of philanthropy" (that's just a paraphrase but if you've worked with many foundations, you've run into that kind of goal). The column by Phil Antrhop starts with the lyrics of iThe Impossible Dream/i from iMan of LaMancha/i./divdivbr //divdivThe column points out that many of these broad foundation goals plan on achieving them in 10 years. It further notes that all the board members at the foundation and most of the management at the foundation will have left long before the 10 years are up. Where's the accountability in that set-up?/divdivbr //divdivI really wanted to include a link to the article but it is behind a pay-wall. So the Nonprofit Quarterly wants to impact the nonprofit world but puts their material behind a pay-wall. Isn't that a little counter productive?/div/divdivbr //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-7050846803675816228?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "Short summary:/spanspan style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/span/p ul li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Four airports/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Went through immigration control four times (Argentina exit, Chile entry and exit--without leaving the airport, US entry)/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Customs twice (including an extensive check in Chile by the Agricultural Department)/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Stood in 16 lines/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Actually slept fairly well on red-eye from Santiago--was really tired./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Seven hour scheduled wait in Miami--but the flight was on time in spite of blizzard (Plane left Detroit before the blizzard hit that city)/span/li/ul p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"bMiscellaneous thoughts on trip:/b/span/p ul li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"It was an amazing trip/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"If I have to pick one highlight it would be the penguins--over a million penguins, seven species, surprisingly different behaviors. As one naturalist said, some penguin species are on speed, others are on quaaludes./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"It was odd watching Neil Armstrong standing in line with the rest of us./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"What species penguin is the open source mascot? (only geeks will understand this)/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"There are really 18 species of penguin--17 biological species plus Opus/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"From Ralf--the staff photographer for Lindblad--the more pixels you burn (pictures you take), the lower the cost of every picture on this trip./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"This kind of trip is all about organizing the details and flexibility and Lindblad is expert at that. Major plan changes on this trip happened four times (you have to expect that with a three week trip to Antarctica) and everything went smoothly./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Got home to temperatures 20 degrees F BELOW the coldest we saw in Antarctica--we did go south for warmer weather--like Minnesotans typically do in winter./span/li/uldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-8083003995277601303?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Our last day at sea:/span/p ul li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Got up late--9 AM--just in time to hear Neil Armstrong’s second presentation. He is obviously very tired about./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"A second presentation by Neil Armstrong about exploration. About the first attempt to reach the north pole by air. Great presentation but he clearly is tired about talking about the moon (as anyone would be in his unique situation)./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"A presentation on logistics--have our luggage outside our door by 6:30 AM for transfer to the airport (a charter flight to Santiago)/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"A 90 minute presentation plus a half hour discussion on climate change. One of the naturalists gave a very science based presentation on the evidence for climate change and the evidence that is is caused by us. During the discussion period, a number of people who did believe the premise that humans are causing significant climate change raised specific questions about some very minor parts of his talk (e.g. the Nobel Prize for Al Gore, that a number of the companies that support climate change legislation have a vested economic interest in the legislation). A couple people commented that reducing the use of fossil based energy sources would not only reduce climate change but improve the efficiency of the US economy, reduce the US dependency on foreign energy supplies, and improve our security--the argument was that we should not require agreement on reasons when we can agree on the action for different reasons./span/li/uldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-1584832079270542856?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The executive director and two staff from Oceanities were on the ship for the whole voyage. Oceanities is a nonprofit organization that is conducting a multi-year biological site inventories at a variety of critical environmental sites around the Antarctica Peninsula. Oceanities is a small, independent research organization funded by foundations, individual contributions and the National Science Foundation. They are the only non-governmental research organization operating in Antarctica. More information about Oceanities is at their website at a href="http://www.oceanites.org"span style="font: 12.0px Arial; text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #191ca6"http://www.oceanites.org/span/a/spanspan style="font: 12.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #666666". /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"It’s been great having the Oceanities researchers onboard. Ron, the executive director gave one talk on their research that was very interesting. But more important, when they are not counting penguins and doing photo documentation of sites, they act as additional naturalists--very knowledgeable naturalists. (span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; "Lindblad/National Geographic provides logistics support by allowing the Oceanities researchers to use their cruises to access the sites.)/span/span/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/span/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Some major points from Ron’s talk:/span/p ul li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The Antarctic Peninsula warming 5 times faster than the average over the whole earth/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Adelie and chinstrap penguin populations are rapidly dropping in the Antarctic Peninsula as the area warms. Since they rely on sea ice, as the area warms their range is shrinking as it moves south./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The gentoo Penguin population in the Antarctic Peninsula area is increasing. Since gentoo penguins’ food supply is in warmer water, their range is moving south as the climate warms./span/li/uldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-550558147715789256?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7Rwl8NGpI/AAAAAAAABf8/U96FCbP08vk/s1600-h/C+rail.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 184px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7Rwl8NGpI/AAAAAAAABf8/U96FCbP08vk/s200/C+rail.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422001634149210770" //adiv style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"The morning landing is on the privately owned Carcass Island. (It was named after Lord and Lady Carcass. If I remember what one of the naturalists said correctly, they provided some funding for a 18th century research and survey expedition. What a bad name to be stuck with. It is owned by a sheep ranching family. But int he last few years, the bottom has fallen out of the wool industry (it can now cost more to sheer a sheep than you can get for the wool). The family now makes their living from landing fees for tourists (paid for by Lindblad). They have three things that get cruises to stop at their island--one really cool and two that are kind of just nice additions:/span/span/divimg style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 120px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7Q5nSBlHI/AAAAAAAABfs/nF7txgMnSRg/s200/C+bird.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422000689616360562" /p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pulliThe most important reason is that the island has surprisingly remained rat-free. This means that it still has a great population of the many ground nesting birds--especially the song-bird varieties. It’s kind of surprising that the island has remained rat free because the family doesn’t require cruse ships to take any special precautions when landing. For some reason, for all the years that sheep, feed and supplies has been landed on the island, no rats have been hitchhikers. The birding on this island is amazing! /liliThey’ve built a large restroom facility. This is the first place we’ve visited (other than Port Stanley) that has had restroom facilities.br //liliThey serve tea, biscuits (cookies) and cakes to the people who land. The variety of cookies is amazing./li/ulp/pimg style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 170px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7QQMxxT6I/AAAAAAAABfM/DVPhT33o3ec/s200/C+Trush.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421999978127118242" /p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"One plentiful bird was the a local thrush that looks had behaves exactly like the North American robin (at least a faded robin--no red breast). It is in fact very closely related./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"That afternoon, we visit New Island, the western most of the Falkland Islands. Again, a privately owned island, much of it was used for grazing sheep--the tussuc grass has been replaced by a European grazing grass. /pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 146px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7SU6uJwGI/AAAAAAAABgE/uu34A1Wj2ww/s200/N+surf.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422002258202706018" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"We land in a sheltered natural harbor and then hike across a narrow point to the northwestern side. On the hike, we see numerous kelp and upland geese. They have thrived since the sheep were removed--the love the grassy areas. The area we hiked to had been fenced off while sheep were here (to keep them from falling off a high cliff into the ocean.so there is still plenty of tussuc grass. The area below the clifts and along the edge are filled with nesting black browed albatross, Blue-eyed shags (a cormorant) and rock-hopper penguins. We hang out there for over two hours. Lots of “pixels are burned.”/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 96px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7QQvrAwTI/AAAAAAAABfc/RLy9ByYCZ-U/s200/macaroni.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421999987494011186" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The rock-hopper penguins are the smallest penguin--only about 16 inches tall and are related to the macaroni penguin. They seem to be able to hop up about 12 inches and down about 18 inches. It is amazing watching them move around. They are the first penguin we see that makes a more traditional nest--out of mud, grass and guano./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The albatross makes a rather high pedestal nest out of mud, grass and guano. There seem to be the clumsiest birds when landing--most times falling over in the process. To take off, they walk to the edge of the cliff, wait for a gust of wind and jump./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The blue-eyed cormorants have amazing blue eyes a beautiful blue-black feathers and bright orange tufts of feathers around their beak./pimg style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7Q5bu1Q2I/AAAAAAAABfk/ypKxC3ZiwMk/s200/N+Corm.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422000686515962722" /p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The Lindblad staff managed to make the last day on-shore a great climax./pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-1564708333135245438?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The morning landing is on the privately owned Carcass Island. (It was named after Lord and Lady Carcass. If I remember what one of the naturalists said correctly, they provided some funding for a 18th century research and survey expedition. What a bad name to be stuck with. It is owned by a sheep ranching family. But int he last few years, the bottom has fallen out of the wool industry (it can now cost more to sheer a sheep than you can get for the wool). The family now makes their living from landing fees for tourists (paid for by Lindblad). They have three things that get cruises to stop at their island--one really cool and two that are kind of just nice additions:/span/p ul li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The most important reason is that the island has surprisingly remained rat-free. This means that it still has a great population of the many ground nesting birds--especially the song-bird varieties. It’s kind of surprising that the island has remained rat free because the family doesn’t require cruse ships to take any special precautions when landing. For some reason, for all the years that sheep, feed and supplies has been landed on the island, no rats have been hitchhikers. The birding on this island is amazing!/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"They’ve built a large restroom facility. This is the first place we’ve visited (other than Port Stanley) that has had restroom facilities./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"They serve tea, biscuits (cookies) and cakes to the people who land. The variety of cookies is amazing./span/li /ul p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"One plentiful bird was the a local thrush that looks had behaves exactly like the North American robin (at least a faded robin--no red breast). It is in fact very closely related./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"That afternoon, we visit New Island, the western most of the Falkland Islands. Again, a privately owned island, much of it was used for grazing sheep--the tussuc grass has been replaced by a European grazing grass. We land in a sheltered natural harbor and then hike across a narrow point to the northwestern side. On the hike, we see numerous kelp and upland geese. They have thrived since the sheep were removed--the love the grassy areas. The area we hiked to had been fenced off while sheep were here (to keep them from falling off a high cliff into the ocean.so there is still plenty of tussuc grass. The area below the clifts and along the edge are filled with nesting black browed albatross, Blue-eyed shags (a cormorant) and rock-hopper penguins. We hang out there for over two hours. Lots of “pixels are burned.” /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The rock-hopper penguins are the smallest penguin--only about 16 inches tall and are related to the macaroni penguin. They seem to be able to hop up about 12 inches and down about 18 inches. It is amazing watching them move around. They are the first penguin we see that makes a more traditional nest--out of mud, grass and guano. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The albatross makes a rather high pedestal nest out of mud, grass and guano. There seem to be the clumsiest birds when landing--most times falling over in the process. To take off, they walk to the edge of the cliff, wait for a gust of wind and jump./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The blue-eyed cormorants have amazing blue eyes a beautiful blue-black feathers and bright orange tufts of feathers around their beak./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The Lindblad staff managed to make the last day on-shore a great climax. /span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-1564708333135245438?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7AE0ICmeI/AAAAAAAABfA/2fIkvt7WGQg/s1600-h/overview.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 202px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7AE0ICmeI/AAAAAAAABfA/2fIkvt7WGQg/s400/overview.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421982190345034210" //ap style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"This morning we’re at bSteeple Jason Island/b. It is one of the chain of Jason chain of islands stretching 40 miles northeast of the main Falkland Islands. It is owned by a nonprofit that is starting to restore it. It is usually not included in cruises--even by Lindblad because of the difficult landing conditions. However, today the wind is right for a reasonable landing. We hike about two kilometers up a ridge. When we get over the ridge, we are treated to the world’s largest black-browed albatross colony, containing about 157,000 breading pairs (over 300,000 birds). The colony is over three miles long along the rocky beach. The number in the air is amazing. A few of us make our way through the tussuc grass mounds down to the edge of the colony. We end up right under the flight path of the albatross./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7AEXJtNQI/AAAAAAAABe4/GmvLoA1iDH4/s400/nests.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421982182567392514" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"Nesting among the albatross are rock-hopper penguins. These are the smallest of the penguins we’ve seen. The lichens are amazing--orange, brown, red, green. Some really cool green lichen that forms ribbons./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pimg style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 182px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7AELdp2wI/AAAAAAAABew/P5Pn8hUpe7Y/s400/jonny+rook.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421982179429833474" /p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"At lunch we are at the same table as Melissa--one of the people from Oceanities. Her real job is working for Rathyon’s Antarctic Services division. They have the contract with the National Science Foundation to provide all the logistical support and manage the three US research stations on Antarctica as well as the two research ships. Melissa’s job there is project manager for research projects that work away from the three bases in tent camps. She takes vacation and leave to work with Oceanities in Antarctica. She gave us a feeling for the complexity of getting materials to the Antarctic bases for research./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 186px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7AD_UlQQI/AAAAAAAABeo/8HCkOaxBwCw/s400/magelenic.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421982176170557698" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"That afternoon we land at bSaunder’s Island/b. Landing was easy but as we walk toward the rock-hopper colony the wind picks up. Sand is blowing across the beach. I’d guess it was about 40 miles per hour. Then it gets cloudy and we’re in a driving sleet. The sleet lasts only about 10 minutes and the sun comes out. Wind is still strong but the sleet at least stopped the sand from blowing. Just another case of the weather changing very quickly and very often in the Falklands./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pimg style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 120px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz7ADvb5kcI/AAAAAAAABeg/LzRu5cmG9O4/s400/wind.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421982171906281922" /p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-5869665677422013960?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz67n0QdR5I/AAAAAAAABeU/gw4wZOHQycs/s1600-h/guide.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 112px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz67n0QdR5I/AAAAAAAABeU/gw4wZOHQycs/s200/guide.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421977294117619602" //abr /div style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"br //span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"After the morning at sea, we tie up to the industrial dock at Port Stanley at 1:30. We take the “two hour tour” option. Kind of looks like a retired Crockidle Dundee with a very dry British humor. “We don’t have a lot to show you in Stanley, so we have to show you everything.” Some interesting things about Port Stanley:/span/span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;font-size:100%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px;"br //span/span/divulliThe capital and largest city in the Falklands--about 2500 population (total of about 3000 in all of the Falklands).img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 236px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz66i8gDJnI/AAAAAAAABeE/bGs1fj63atU/s400/victoria.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421976110919526002" //liliMuch of the peat on the island is in common ownership--families have specific plots and can harvest peat for heating./liliPeat is kind of soggy pre-coal. You have to let it dry before burning it./liliNo indigenous trees. But imported trees in Stanley and at the settlements ("settlements" appear to be the Falkland term for central buildings on a ranch.)/liliOne garden had numerous gnomes. Gnomes show up at the post office with notes saying, please put me in the garden with my fellow gnomes. Our guide referred to it as the Port Stanley botanical garden.img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 158px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz67SYeJrNI/AAAAAAAABeM/RasgnrBNfGY/s400/gnomes.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421976925881609426" //liliThe Falklands earn enough from fishing licenses to be self supporting except for defense./liliAs a self governing “overseas territory of the UK", they control most everything except foreign affairs and defense--both controlled by the UK government in London./liliMost people in the Falklands work for the government./liliA fair number of new houses--financed by the fisheries income.img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 115px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz66h6cMHHI/AAAAAAAABds/URLpBQseRx0/s400/row+houses.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421976093186595954" //liliMany houses and buildings brightly colored with brightly colored metal roofs. This really looks great against the landscape of the Falklands./li/ulp/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The weather changes by the minute here. Sleet followed by sunny skies, followed by stiff winds followed by calm, followed by a driving downpour, followed by sunny skies (in a period of four hours./pp style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"After the tour, we do some gift shopping in downtown Stanley with some on foot sight seeing. We end by going into the Global Tavern Pub. It appears half the ship also decided to stop at this pub./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 183px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz66iP4ReVI/AAAAAAAABd0/Ej6UHGaY_iw/s400/pub.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421976098941532498" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"As soon as we get onboard, we head off to tomorrow’s landing--in the far northwest of the Falkland Islands./pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-2115013694457869717?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"It turns out that all of Lindblad’s trips to Antarctica include photography experts who are there to help the guests. It has been great asking both Flip Nicklin (the National Geographic photographer on board) and Ralf Hopkins (the Lindblad staff photographer on our trip) for advice and help. Besides the one-on-one help they provide, Ralph did a session in the lounge on biTen Tips to Improve Your Images/i/b. Here are some tips I really liked:/span/p ol style="list-style-type: decimal" li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Seeing the light: think about the direction of light (for example, sometimes it works great to have back-light or side-light. Sometimes light is too harsh. Sometimes there is too much contrast. Sometimes using fill-flash will help. “Find the best light and shot what’s in it.” For back-light, sometimes have the sun in the picture--just shoot at a high f-stop and pinch the sun with mountains or trees or rocks. Side-light can set up great reflections (e.g. the light in an animal’s eye./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Choose the Right Lens. A murphy’s rule in photography: “No matter what lens you have on your camera for a specific situation, it is always the wrong lens.”/span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Look for Color: “Vivid and saturated colors make your images pop./span/li li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Show motion: Experiment with slow shutter speeds (e.g. 1/8 second for flowing water). Pan with moving objects--hopefully the object will be clear and the background will show a blur./span/li/ol p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"(From Ralph Lee Hopkins, RalphLeeHopkins.com)/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-150498705980720749?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"At 1 AM a passenger is transferred aboard from another company’s cruise ship. He had broken his hip and we will be the fastest way to get him to a hospital in the Falklands (since that is our next stop). Our doctor does an evaluation and we end up leaving immediately for the Falklands to get him to the hospital as soon as possible (we had planed on one more stop on South Georgia this morning). According to the expedition leader, they have platted a course to avoid the worse weather--going between two weather systems./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We head to the northwest end of South Georgia and take a course west-south-west. We have a 40 knot (45 MPH) wind on our starboard with hugh ocean swells. I put on a sea-sickness transdermal patch at about 4 AM. Bev and I skip breakfast and sleep in--it is great to be able to sleep in and not miss anything./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Because of the rough seas--ten to twelve foot swells--we don’t have the typical buffet for lunch. The wait staff brings us our food./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Staff organizes an Antarctic/South Georgia Jeopardy game. We both pass/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Thursday is more rough sees. I don’t feel bad about having to wear the sea-sickness patch--staff members are getting sea sick./span/pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-1342940054699740210?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"At 1 AM a passenger is transferred aboard from another company’s cruise ship. He had broken his hip and we will be the fastest way to get him to a hospital in the Falklands (since that is our next stop). Our doctor does an evaluation and we end up leaving immediately for the Falklands to get him to the hospital as soon as possible (we had planed on one more stop on South Georgia this morning). According to the expedition leader, they have platted a course to avoid the worse weather--going between two weather systems./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We head to the northwest end of South Georgia and take a course west-south-west. We have a 40 knot (45 MPH) wind on our starboard with hugh ocean swells. I put on a sea-sickness transdermal patch at about 4 AM. Bev and I skip breakfast and sleep in--it is great to be able to sleep in and not miss anything./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Because of the rough seas--we don’t have the typical buffet for lunch. The wait staff brings us our food./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Staff organizes an Antarctic/South Georgia Jeopardy game. We both pass/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-1342940054699740210?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="text-align: center;"br //diva onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6zpyG_wnI/AAAAAAAABdQ/Bl9Q6DPmVG8/s1600-h/Stromness.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 105px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6zpyG_wnI/AAAAAAAABdQ/Bl9Q6DPmVG8/s400/Stromness.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421968531807781490" //adiv style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "We start in bStromness Harbou/br--a whaling site that was in operation until the mid 1960s. It is also where Shackleton’s 36 hour hike from the other side of South Georgia finally ended. From here he got a steam powered whaler to go around South Georgia to pick up the men he left on the other side of the island. Since it was getting to be winter in Antarctica, it took him four tries to finally get to the men he left on Elephant Island./span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;font-size:100%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"br //span/span/divp style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 148px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6zpl3JsUI/AAAAAAAABdI/gS_5vGwYN2k/s400/Stromness+seals.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421968528520098114" //pp style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"South Georgia government prohibits approaching closer than 200 meters (2 football fields) to the old whaling station because the strong winds can pick off pieces of sheet metal from the old buildings and send them flying. (It seems to be an example of a little overly cautious British Government.) We get fairly close to the old station by zodiac. It has been taken over by fur and elephant seeds and sea birds. We then land and hike back from the beach for more nature. We have to land on a beach with lots of breeding fur seals. The keep the tourists in line and the fur seals in their place, they have set kayaks up to provide a corridor up the beach to an area where the fur seals are less numerous./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6zqTQRg6I/AAAAAAAABdY/2c-elxrX3Z4/s400/shackleton+grave.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421968540705063842" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"During lunch we head to bGrytviken/b--again on the open sea during lunch but today isn’t as bad as Monday. The Norwegians started whaling at Grytviken in 1904 and it changed ownership a number of times--ending with a two year lease to a Japanese company that was trying to develop a market for frozen whale meat. They were not successful because most of the whales had already been killed. This is also where Sir Ernest Shackleton died of a massive heat attack at the start of an expedition he launched in the 1920s. He is grave is here and we visit it and toast him with a shot of rum. Steve (the naturalist who also specializes in history) gives Shackleton a great tribute. The passenger who is the trumpet player played Bramhs (spelling?) Lullaby at gravesite. I thought that was a strange choice but we learn at the wrap-up that it is the same song that was played on banjo by one of Shackleton’s crew at Shackleton’s funeral. There are a number of people on this trip who came specifically because they are Shackleton history buffs so this is a very significant stop for them./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The bmuseum/b here includes a lot of information on Shackleton (including a recreation of the 23 foot lifeboat he used to sail sail the 800 miles from Elephant Island to here), information on whaling history and natural history. It also includes history of the Falkland war (Argentina invaded South Georgia and occupied the research station, government offices and old whaling station for about two weeks.) It is a really good small museum in the middle of nowhere. Much of this whaling station has/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica" been torn down for safety but we are allowed to walk around the remaining buildings (which have been stabilized). Whaling ended here in 1965./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pimg style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 167px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6zqtCN8fI/AAAAAAAABdg/oK3KT_VRLg0/s400/Grytviken.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421968547625431538" /p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"In the last few years of whaling they seem to have made use of much of the animal (not just the blubber for oil). Some of the pictures are pretty gruesome. It turns out that if you ate margarine in the 1950s or early 1960s, you were eating hydrogenated whale oil./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6y-riy1SI/AAAAAAAABdA/niezZarQJ0k/s200/stromness+landscape.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421967791310951714" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"bEvening wrap-up: /bSome great stories about the Shackleton expedition but the highlight is a presentation by the staff from the South Georgia government and the British Antarctic Research facility. Some interesting random facts:/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"To reduce their carbon footprint, the government/research station has re-commissioned an old hydro electric dam built by the Norwegians years ago. It now produces enough power for the research facility, government offices and museum--about 300 kilowatts. They just started using it a month ago so they haven’t used it through the winter but expect it to work year around--totally eliminating the need for diesel fuel for heating and electricity./span/span/lilispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"There is concern that the amount of krill in the ocean around South Georgia significantly dropped last year. The drop was caused by a shift in the location of the Antarctic Convergence (where the warm and cold oceans meet) to south of South Georgia. This resulted in warmer, less nutrient rich waters around the island. With the reduction in food, there has been a reduction in fur seals breading and the Gentoo penguins on South Georgia failed to raise chicks last year. This looks like a temporary situation, the Antarctic Convergence has moved back north and the penguins are mating this year. However, with climate change it may be happening more often than in the past./span/span/lilispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"The government actively manages the fishery to the territorial limit of 200 miles around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Commercial fishing licenses fund the enforcement that includes observers on all the fishing ships. They actively control the catch and the methods (e.g. bottom trawling is strictly prohibited). The South Georgia tooth fish (also known as Patagonian tooth fish, Antarctica sea bass and Chilean sea bass is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as a sustainable, well regulated fishery (check for the marine council logo)./span/span/li/ulp/pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-3109977240365293424?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6rwLOlFxI/AAAAAAAABcI/JGf2TS6vSSk/s1600-h/Molke+Harbor.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 206px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6rwLOlFxI/AAAAAAAABcI/JGf2TS6vSSk/s400/Molke+Harbor.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421959845536667410" //adiv style="text-align: left;"We are at bMolke Harbour in Royal Bay/b--specifically because it is sheltered from strong northerly winds. But it is a wet, kind of miserable morning. Zodiac ride to shore in a 20 MPH wind (about 42 degrees F) with a drizzle and very cloudy skies. As we hike away from the beach, the wind calms down and the drizzle almost stops. Two reindeer herds, one with a large buck standing watch. We hike up a small river that is fed by melting snow. It’s surprising how far up the river the elephant seal weaners have come--especially considering that they can not lift themselves up on their flippers; they move more like maggots. The river isn’t very deep and the bed is about full of fist size and larger rough rocks. Moving down the river to get back to the sea must be really hard on the skin on their bellies./divimg style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6tq8Eg-gI/AAAAAAAABcU/BKaU4lFP_wU/s200/moss.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421961954591832578" /div style="text-align: left;"br //divThere is a great variety of mosses and lichens on the hills.divbr /During lunch it is very rough--the bow is pounding into the sea and spray is going as high as the bridge. A lot of people don’t finish their lunches and disappear into their cabins. Luckily, I had taken the sea-sickness medicine about a hour before we left the relative calm of Molke Harbor. But after a light lunch I also lay down in the cabin for a quick nap. That seems to be one of the best ways to avoid sea-sickness--just sleep through rough seas./divdivbr /img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 146px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6rv7_wDYI/AAAAAAAABcA/kvwZdcuJRWQ/s400/reindeer.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421959841447939458" /br //divdivWe get to bJason Harbor/b--again chosen mainly for being sheltered from the northerly wind. Bev decides to keep napping. We have to wind our way through the fur seal males--keeping our distance from all of them. It is a strange landscape--tussuc grass mounds that have been grazed very short by the reindeer with standing water between them. You have to step from one mound to the next to make your way back to higher ground. More reindeer, some Antarctic Terns that are unhappy with us, some molting king penguins standing in a middle green grass.divbr /img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 212px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6ruTnFH9I/AAAAAAAABb4/A5640legV94/s400/penguins+on+grass.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421959813427175378" //div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-3397134523522887616?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6LOL5IeQI/AAAAAAAABbs/jM9NhhDkRyI/s1600-h/macaroni.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 96px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6LOL5IeQI/AAAAAAAABbs/jM9NhhDkRyI/s200/macaroni.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421924077227505922" //abr /div style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"This morning we see macaroni penguins from the zodiac. For a few reasons (including breeding fur seals on the beach--very nasty, territorial males--we can not land on the beach. Penguin species count is at six. The zodiac cruise includes checking out a few other coves along the coast with fantastic rock formations. They look like something out of a fantasy novel./span/span/divp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"We do land on a different beach in bCooper Bay/b and find a dead elephant seal being pecked at by skuas and giant petrals. The giant petrals really have the vulture niche in South Georgia. They even have same behaviors--charging with out stretched wings, tail in a vertical posture, getting their whole head into the carcass./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 156px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6K0IlJv5I/AAAAAAAABbc/vlIUbtdKSsc/s400/skua.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421923629661798290" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"One of the king penguin chicks seems to be desperate for food. Keeps going up to anything (including people and tripods) begging for food. We take a hike up a snow field looking for albatross nests. No nests but a great walk./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"The afternoon is a zodiac cruise up the very narrow bLarson Harbor/b. This is a scenery excursion, not wildlife. It was amazing. Later, the ship cruises up Drygalski Fjord to the tidewater glacier at its head. To leave, the captain uses the bow and stern thrusters to pivot the ship./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"In the wrap-up before dinner under-water videos from the ROV--some cool, strange things live on the floor of the ocean here. Also a song by one naturalist about krill--”All you need is krill.” (think Beatles)/pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-5051070318371054147?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Our first stop is at bGold Harbor/b on South Georgia. Staff had offered a landing before sunrise at 5:00AM (for the photographers who are looking for that “magic light”) but it was cloudy and raining. Rain stopped and we were on the beach by nine. Elephant seals, fur seals and king penguins. Lots of king penguins. The noise from the adults and the chicks were amazing. There were the creches of brown fluffy chicks making songbird like calls--waiting for mom or dad to come back and regurgitate a meal. The sailors who first saw them referred to them as “the okum boys” because they looked like the rope and tar caulk called okum that was used to fill cracks in ships. They look like a sea of brown with a black and white and orange adult scattered among them. I think I shout 400 pictures before I just put the camera away and just watched. The penguins (adults and chicks will walk to about two feet from you. If you sit down by a wiener seal (the young elephant seals) it is not unlikely they will come over and try to nurse you boot or your knee./span/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pimg style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 238px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6H1WLGYGI/AAAAAAAABbI/iriW1VrCcXg/s400/gold.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421920351955607650" / p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"“The Government of South Georgia” is serious about enforcing the regulations for tourists. This site is has video surveillance from a number of points of view to insure tour groups stay out of restricted areas (sensitive animal habitats)/span/p p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanimg style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6IjKgmJJI/AAAAAAAABbQ/VMTLv4a9Wt8/s200/okum.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421921139098526866" //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Much of the land beyond the beach is covered by tussoc/spanspan style="letter-spacing: 0.0px ;color:#ff34fb;" /spanspan style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"grass. It is a challenge to walk through. Bev did and climbed a ridge to see a albatross nest with chicks. (She still needed binoculars). /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Oceanites doesn’t count king penguins (not in their study plan) but Ron notes that they would be very hard to count. While the brush tail penguins (chinstrap, Adelie and gentoo penguins) all mate at the same time and the chicks leave the nest before winter, kings are on a 18 month breading cycle. Many times you will find single molting penguins, chicks, and pairs incubating an egg, all at the same colony. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"In the afternoon we head to bSt. Andrews Bay./b Elephant seals, fur seals, king penguins and reindeer. No tussoc grass at this location (the reindeer graze to the ground. We head off to the south following a naturalist. Go up a ridge and look down on the largest colony we’ve seen. Over 400,000 king penguins. The largest colony of kings on South Georgia. We have now seen over one million penguins. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanimg style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6H00K-8vI/AAAAAAAABbA/lYM-MZbkl4Q/s400/okum+2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421920342828315378" //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"While I’m writing this in the ship library, I’m watching four snowy-sheath-bills out the window. White birds about the size of a pigeon, a face sort of like a chicken and at first glance appear rather dumb and clumsy. But they are checking everything out. Pulling on wires, pecking at latches, tugging at straps (all on top of the enclosed life boats). They also are very coordinated--just saw one land while going backwards. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"snowy sheath bill./span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-8670445457312863412?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6FQoqAOWI/AAAAAAAABak/fvIoHdkwYJY/s1600-h/s+georga+distance.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 106px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6FQoqAOWI/AAAAAAAABak/fvIoHdkwYJY/s400/s+georga+distance.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421917522238650722" //ap style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"After breakfast we all attend a required briefing on South Georgia. South Georgia is part of the United Kingdom and administered from government offices in the Falklands. We see a video by “The Government of South Georgia” (that seams kind of a strange term since the only people who live here are the staff of two small U.K. research stations). The basic message is “we are really serious about not bringing in any more exotic plants or animals and we are really serious about protecting the wildlife.” It also has some safety warnings, like “stay away from fur seals!” (punctuated by a picture of a person’s hand after being bitten--you can see pieces of finger bones.) Exotic species currently on South Georgia include a beetle, reindeer (introduced by the whaling industry to provide fresh meat), dandelions, and the Norway rat. Since the birds on South Georgia evolved with no land predator, they have started to eradicate the Norway rat./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 118px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6GI0lPaZI/AAAAAAAABa0/aG1jDhJZVoA/s200/cormorant.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421918487512574354" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"After seeing the video, we are all required to go through bio-sanitizing. This includes have all our outerwear inspected--and camera bags and pockets vacuumed out. They pay particular attention to checking for seeds stuck in Velcro. (This is our second bio sanitizing--our first was before we set foot on any antarctic island.) As with Antarctica, we step in a disinfectant before leaving the ship and when returning from the ship./pp style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"To kill the time, another naturalist talk--an introduction to South Georgia. Did you know the South Georgia Pintail is a vampire duck? It will eat the blood from the wounds on seals./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"Our first stop on bSouth Georgia/b is the caves at the inlet to bKing Haakon Bay/b where Shackleton first landed when they reached South Georgia. We then head into the bay and take the zodiacs ashore atb Peggotty Bluff/b--the final stop for Shackleton’s long boat and where he and two crew headed across the island (over a mountain range and glaciers) to find help at a whaling station on the other side./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6FtJsZ4xI/AAAAAAAABas/1ScvHDHKAG4/s200/elephant.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421918012143428370" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"Onshore the first thing you notice is that there are green plants (besides algae and lichen). The second thing is elephant seals. The pups that have just been weaned (“weaners”) are really cute with hugh black eyes. The adults are really ugly. We walk up a stream of glacier melt water. There is an alluvial plane of the rock powder created by the glacier as it slides down the mountain. It looks like a small version of the alluvial planes you see in the Japer park area in Canada. There are a couple giant giant petrels(birds) fighting over the remains of a dead seal--petrels fill the vulture niche at South Georgia./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"There are about a dozen king penguins molting by the beech. The first king penguins we’ve seen./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nT7rK9hb5r4/Sz6FQdqnEaI/AAAAAAAABac/PZczcabBCKI/s400/molt.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421917519288406434" //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"Back on the ship, “the photography department” (Ron and Flip) have invited anyone with a laptop to create a three minute slide show sampling what they’ve shot so far. Some really impressive photography. Some really cool ideas I’m going to steal. We just didn’t seem to have the time to put a slide show together./pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"br //pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"Oceanites also announces the winner of “how may penguins have we seen so far” contest. The winner was only 32,000 penguins off. So far, we have seen over 402,000 penguins (I was way off--I guessed 15,000)/pp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"224,000 Adelies,/span/span/lilispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"18,000 gentoo,/span/span/lilispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"160,000 chinstrap./span/span/li/ulp/pp/pp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-5914201689387346310?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We are at sea all day today, headed for South Georgia Island--on the open ocean. More naturalist/staff talks to keep us out of trouble. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The first talk of the day was about the bShackleton Expedition/b in the early 1900s. More talk about ships getting caught in ice, ships being crushed by ice. Shackleton had taken the long-boats from his ship, his crew pulled them across the surface ice, launched them and got to Elephant Island. This is the island we spent much of yesterday trying to get through the pack ice to see./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"The second talk was about bplate tectonics/b. The talk started by noting that a 17th century Anglican bishop had calculated the exact date God created the earth--on a Saturday, 4004 BC, at sunset. (A couple sarcastic notes--would god work on the Jewish Sabbath? at sunset where? He calculated it using the bible and “other sources.” That the extreme fundamentalists pin their belief of a “young earth” on a calculation made in the 17th century Anglican bishop is beyond me. (The talk then explained plate tectonics and how Antarctica ended up at the southern pole and why it has been stuck there.)/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Next talk is 10 tips for improving travel photography with Rolf Hopkins (the Lindblad staff photographer on board). If I get around to it, I’ll write a post specifically about his talk. As a teaser, two bonus tips are:/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"“If you want to take better photos, stand in front of better stuff.”/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"“Find the best light and shoot what’s in it.”/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Happy Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Dinner options included a traditional turkey dinner. I had the grilled salmon./span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-4928381968235500755?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We were woken up be things falling off shelves. The sea is getting rougher. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We’re trying to get to Elephant Island--where Shackleton’s crew overwintered The island is surrounded by pack ice. Spent the morning moving around trying to find an opening in the ice, through the fog. /span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"We came up on two humpback whales, followed them for a while. After the captain turned back to finding a way through the ice, the whales stayed with us for about 20 minutes more. The sonar indicates a concentration of just below the surface. The whales were eating without have to go deep/span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Just announced--the pack ice is too extensive. It is a mix of surface ice (OK kind of ice) glacier ice (you really don’t want to hit with a ship), multi year ice (also a no-no). We can not find a way in that would also guarantee us a way out. So we are abandoning our attempt to get to Elephant Island./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"On our way to the South Orkneys, the bridge spots five fin whales-the second largest of the baleen whales. Spend about half an hour watching them, the are doing very shallow dives./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Tonight, the first showing of a new Lindblad movie, “Counting Penguins.” It is about Oceanites, the only non-governmental research group working in Antarctica. More about Oceanities in a future post./span/p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"/spanbr //p p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"bLate update. /bWe are skipping the South Orkneys--today’s ice report shows even more ice around the South Orkneys than around Elephant Island. So we will get an extra day on South Georgia. You have to be flexible when on a Lindblad trip. They take advantages of changing conditions with quite a few changes in plans./span/pdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;font-size:100%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8160075-3891574393791562344?l=randomstufffromsheldon.blogspot.com' alt='' //div