Protecting Antarctica from Tourists

by Dave Luna on

Chinese government officials have asked Chinese citizens to avoid Antarctica as a travel destination. Officials cited the fragility of the continent’s ecosystem as the driving force behind the request. The country has not made this an official travel restriction, but the government has plans to regulate its travel agencies if South Pole tourism continues.

The number of all vacationing travelers visiting Antarctica has quadrupled over the last eight years, and this has scientists worried. Conservation and preservation of the icy land may be impeded by the rising tourism market. If left unchecked, the number of tourists might keep rising, and the environmental repercussions could be damaging. Also, more tourists might lead to hotels, and that might even lead to an Applebee’s here or a Trump McMurdo Casino there. As I’m sure you’re aware, once we change that landscape, it will be very difficult to return it to its previous glory.

The Reuters article did not mention the current impact of Antarctic tourism, but China’s appeal left me questioning my own interest in visiting the penguin haven. I was a bit interested in an educational Antarctic trip I recently found in Road Scholar, but now I think I’ll mull over a more eco-friendly way to explore the polar region. Wikipedia, perhaps?

High Seas: Prefer Murder or Suicide?

by Iva Skoch on

We’re not ones to fear-monger, but this story was surprising. Thursday’s The Guardian ran a story about the numerous passenger disappearances from cruise ships over the past few years. It turns out that at least 30 people have simply vanished from cruise ships in the past four years.

Considering the large numbers of passengers on cruises annually, and, while very regrettable,30 is not a large number. What’s shocking is how little is done to solve this disappearances or prevent them. Take the disappearance of a woman from a Celebrity Cruise in 2004. On the second day of the cruise, a steward told his boss that the woman’s cabin hadn’t been slept in. Apparently, nothing was done, and the steward continued to place chocolates on the bed each day, through the duration of the cruise. After the cruise was over, the woman’s things were boxed up and removed from the room. And no one notified any authorities. It wasn’t until her family made a missing persons report that any action was taken. The case is still not closed. Not surprising, considering how cold the trail would become..

License Plates of the World

by Justin Glow on

The other day I ran across this website, LICENSE PLATES OF THE WORLD, which has got to be the largest collection of – you guessed it! – license plates on the Internet (and not just because the title is in all caps, but that helps). If it’s not, well, then please show me an online collection of license plates larger than this one. I dare you! I spent the better part of an hour going through and finding some truly bizarre plates from places like Antarctica and – get this – Texas!

It reminds me of when I was a kid, traveling the country with my family, kicking the back of the driver seat and asking, “Are we there yet?” No, my father would say, encouraging me to play one of the many car games kids played to pass the time. I always enjoyed the license plate game, where you had to find a plate from every state in the US. Alaska and Hawaii were usually quite rare, but if you spotted one you were pretty much ensured a victory.

Think of this website as an online, globalized version of that game. Only the license plates on the website are indexed by country and state, so you don’t have to sit in the car and search the backs of random cars. Okay, so it’s nothing like the game I played as a kid. But it does involve license plates!

Tip for Tipping

by Iva Skoch on

We have covered the very fragile topic of tipping outside the US before…it is a tricky one. I have seen a few website and guides which instruct tourists on tipping and I have never felt comfortable with any of them. Ehow.com for example, has a tip for tipping in the Czech Republic suggesting people should round up to the nearest koruna. That is absolutely not the case. You would round up a 179 crown bill up to 200, not 180.

I do not quite understand why Americans–the world’s richest nation–are so concerned about tipping (specifically over-tipping) when traveling abroad. When in doubt, I find that you can’t honestly go wrong with tipping more, even if people tell you tipping is not necessary. Often they are just being polite. If you can tip 15% at home, why not do it abroad?

Yes, you might be paying more than people usually get, but it is better than trying to figure out the tipping etiquette in each country or under-tipping. Yes, you want to be treated like a human being, not a walking bag of cash (ehm, good luck with that). Yes, there is the argument that service workers in the US only earn a minimum wage and they depend on higher tips. I would argue that the US minimum wage is still much higher than “regular wages” in 99% of the rest of the world. Plus, the entire world knows that it is customary in the US to pay generous tips. They see by the clothes you wear that you can afford it. Why not just do it?

Yearning for Antarctic Adventure

by Dave Luna on

I saw this technical piece written a while back by a guy stationed in Antarctica. The article is more about writing code for a weather monitoring station than a description of life at the station, so you might want to pass on it if you’re not the programming type. Anyway, the author Alex Gough mentions that he is the only computer scientist for 500 miles, and that caught my interest.

I’ve always been fascinated by Antarctica, so Alex’s piece made we wonder how I could trick the government into paying for me to travel there so I could play with penguins and sit through six months of darkness. Yes, I’d really love to do both of those activities.

So, I took a peek at the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic web portal. The site has extensive information on the continent, past and current research projects, and job/volunteer opportunities. There are a number of funded projects, but I was most interested in the Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. That effort offers a unique opportunity to visit Antarctica and “document America’s Antarctic heritage.” A free trip and a chance to enrich the future? Score!

I did a little more research and found that most of the researchers down there tended to get a little stir crazy with heavy emphasis on “crazy.” A few people at McMurdo Station engaged in some Jello wrestling to pass the time. I saw that others joined the 300 Club whose members run naked from a 200F sauna into -100F weather and do a lap around the South Pole. Not only does a participant’s temperature drop 300 degrees, but it happens across all 24 time zones.

I still want to head south and imagine I’m a reincarnated Ernest Shackleton, but until I get that NSF grant, I’ll just have to turn up the A/C and shut the blinds.