Ever wanted to try a 100 year old Scotch chilled to perfection? Than listen up, this story is for you!
According to this article from the BBC, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust has announced plans to retrieve a pair of crates buried in the Antarctic ice following a failed attempted to reach the South Pole more than a century ago. The crates contain bottles of McKinlay and Co whiskey, and were first discovered back in 2006 beneath the remains of a hut built to shelter explorers from the harsh polar climate. That expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, came within 97 miles of reaching the Pole before turning back, leaving equipment and supplies, including the whiskey, behind to lighten their load and speed their progress.
The Trust hopes to recover the whiskey, and restore the bottles, before placing them in another one of Shackleton’s huts located on Cape Royd. The organization is slowly rebuilding that hut so that it exactly resembles the condition it was in when the famed explorer and his team set off on their epic journey.
Of course, the Trust isn’t the only one interested in recovering the crates from the ice. Whyte and Mackay, the distiller that now owns the McKinlay whiskey brand, hopes to get their hands on a bottle as well. This particular blend has been out of circulation for decades, and they would like the opportunity to recreate it and beginning selling it again too.
Shackleton was one of the foremost polar explores of his day, and at the time of the expedition, he was locked in a desperate race to become the first man to reach the South Pole. He would eventually lose that race to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, but his exploits in the Antarctic would continue for years to come. In 1914 his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the pack ice, and Shackleton and his crew spent 10 months at the mercy of the shifting ice. Eventually, the ship was crushed, and all hands were forced to abandon ship. It would be another five months before they were rescued, but not a single life was lost on the expedition, making it one of the greatest survival stories of all times, and cementing Shackleton’s place in exploration history.
Fernando Ortiz grew up on mainland Ecuador and has lived in the Galapagos the past twenty years. His career path has led him from tour guide to dive guide and eventually dive company manager. Along the route he decided that talking to tourists about conservation was not enough, so he made the leap to fulltime environmentalist. Today he runs Conservation International’s office in Puerto Ayora. We talk on the town’s main dock, Zodiac’s whipping back and forth behind us overloaded with tourists, bags of cement, cases of water and beer, two-by-fours and cement blocks, frozen chickens and everything else needed to run a community of 40,000 on an island separated from the mainland by six hundred miles.
“I have realized a few things in the last few years regarding how best to preserve the Galapagos, primarily that it doesn’t matter how good your technical arguments or human arguments are, it’s not about that. It’s mostly, and unfortunately, all about economics and politics.
“I try not to be critical to tourism as an economy. In fact, if we analyze it in one way, tourism is probably the best way in which nature can pay in cash for its survival. If I were to go back to the islands as I saw them for the first time, nineteen years ago, I would probably find the same biologic, ecologic and evolutionary processes still happening, the same blue-footed boobies still nesting on the same trails. The same for the sea lions and penguins. Tourism has actually been well controlled, despite its growth. It’s the indirect impacts of tourism that we need to control.
“For that we need to be able to make some hard political decisions which then need to be followed out by everyone. Unfortunately when you have, let’s say a mayor who is looking for a re-election, he may not favor some regulations that sound restrictive for some of his potential voters. While some of our politicians are aware of the fact that natural resources are limited here in the Galapagos, that there is not enough water, not enough land, that we can’t produce much here locally, who understand the importance of conservation, most regard those as things that can be ‘negotiated.’ Nature cannot be negotiated.
“My children are growing up here and there couldn’t be any better place for a child to grow up. It’s fantastic, they are having experiences no other child – certainly no city kid – can have, which is very important. But do I think we’ll have to leave the Galapagos eventually, because it’s changing too fast. There are simply too many people. All of a sudden there are things here that didn’t used to be here, like violence and crime, a result of too many people.
%Gallery-77072%
“The frustration is that I think we know how to save and protect the Galapagos, but I don’t think we have the political will to follow through. In a way, I have become a Galapagos expert, working in different trades and that experience allows me to be analytical right now, to see things from different perspectives, and I still think it is possible there is room for optimism. Again, though it sounds cliché, I really do believe we can make a difference otherwise I wouldn’t be working in conservation, I would probably still be working in tourism, making more money while I can, having a great time scuba diving every day.
“But I know that things can be better managed, especially on land. The difficult part is that we are now surrounded by a one-hundred-and-thirty-eight-square-kilometer marine reserve, which is harder to manage. Thanks to illegal fishing and a boom in industrial fishing many of the beautiful fish that make the Galapagos special are at risk. On paper we are able to come up with strategies to protect them. But we have to have strategies that go beyond the limits of the Galapagos, beyond the marine reserve, all the way to the mainland and further.
“Ironically the Galapagos National Park and the Galapagos Marine Reserve are far advanced in terms of having the right tools and the right resources for managing the impacts of people. Many other protected areas in the world look up at us because we are breaking new ground here, things that are then replicated in other protected places. But we also have our failures, which unfortunately are also being replicated.
“Tourism, if well managed – and I emphasize, if well managed – has a chance to become the best opportunity for people to make a living here, without effecting the environment. But we have to keep our eyes on not just what happens to the visitor sites but the rest of the Galapagos. Let’s not be so short term. But if you look at the numbers, the growth in tourism is scary. We’ve had sustained growth for the past twenty years of twelve to fourteen percent a year and don’t see it slowing down.
“We have allowed market pressures to rule tourism in Galapagos. Many of my friends are tour operators and I ask them all the time what if something gets out of control here – species disappear, too much pollution — and tomorrow people start canceling their trips to Galapagos. What would happen then? They have no answers. Neither does the government on mainland Ecuador. Everybody knows we have a so-called golden goose here and that we need to take care of it. I hope as a society, and as institutions, that we can cope with this challenge. I believe there is an important group of well-intentioned people working in the right direction. All we can do is hope for the best.”
“If you’re not thinking about Japan every day,” popular blogger Tyler Cowen likes to say, “you’ve yet to wake up.”
Today’s bizarrely fascinating cultural nugget from Japan: Chindogu. Literally translated as “weird tool,” Chindogu is the Japanese art of creating deliberately complex devices that solve simple everyday problems. It’s Rube Goldberg meets Japan.
And Chindogu, like just about everything else, has developed a cult following on the internet. There’s the International Chindogu Society, the Ten Tenets of Chindogu (Number Three: “Inherent in every Chindogu is the spirit of anarchy”), and scoresofwebsites devoted to tracking the newest, and most ridiculous, Chindogu inventions.
Here are a few of the most creative examples of Chindogu…
The Solar-Powered Lighter (above)
Tired of running out of fluid in your lighter? Fed up with wet matches that won’t make a spark? Now there’s a better, greener way to light your cigarette– with the solar-powered Chindogu lighter. (Note: May not work at night, or on cloudy days, or at all.)
More examples below the fold…
The Dumbbell Phone
People cite “lack of time” as the number one reason they don’t work out more. With the dumbbell phone, that’s no longer an excuse. Great for bulking up at your otherwise worthless telemarketing job, this phone will have you shaped and sculpted in no time.
This phone also makes a great gift, especially to that parent, friend, or girlfriend who’s been known to talk your ear off on the phone. It’s subtle, but effective, especially for those with weak arms.
The Chopstick Fan
There’s nothing like a warm bowl of ramen to make all your problems disappear. But when the noodles and broth are scalding hot, you’re just asking for trouble. Fortunately, some of the most creative minds in Japan have come up with the solution:
The Grid-Backed Shirt
Finally, we all know how difficult it is to tell your partner exactly where your back itches. “A little to the left– no, too far. Wait, higher, no, lower…” Enough!
With the Grid-Backed Shirt, you’ll be able to tell your partner the precise location of even your most obstinate itches. Just imagine the efficiency of directing your significant other that you’d like “four scratches in D-7, please.”
Ahh, that feels good.
For more mostly useless but always hilarious Chindogu inventions, go here.
For more from Japan, dig into Gadling’s archives and check out Matt Firestone’s excellent series Big in Japan.
It’s no secret that the French are so totally obsessed with all things American. One day they’re thumbing their noses at us and the next, they’re waving American flags, dressing up like cowboys, dancing the Texas two-step and pretending like it was the good old 1870’s. Indeed, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Maybe it’s not the reason you came to France, but if you ever do max out your quota of impressionist art or vibrant chateaux gardens, consider the following Franco-American spectacles:
Le Country Rendez-Vous Festival
This boot-kickin’ country music festival takes place every July in the fair town of Craponne (pronounced: Crap + Own). Over 35,000 country music lovers don their best imitation cowboy gear and drive their Peugeot’s like wild Nevada mustangs into the green hills of the Haute-Loire region of France. I hear they even start speaking French with Texas accents. The event is sponsored by France’s Radio Country Club which you can listen to with much amusement online.
Disney’s Buffalo Bill Show
The French obsession with the wild west can be traced back to Buffalo Bill’s original Wild West Show that came to Paris for a limited run in 1889 and then happened to sell out every night until 1913 (kinda like “CATS” in the 1980’s). Disneyland® Resort Paris (née EuroDisney) has tapped into that long ago love affair with a twice-nightly Buffalo Bill show featuring a real herd of American bison tearing up clouds of dust upon the fields of Champagne. Expect lots of lasso tricks, fancy riding, and thunderous gun battles of exploding blanks all whilst eating your Disney dinner. Note: vegetarian menus are available, just like in the real Wild West.La Camargue
For a real French cowboy show with real men in real hats who work with real cattle, head south to La Camargue. The Rhône delta region of France is an exotic little corner of the country, bleached with salt air and the dry winds of the Mediterranean coast. Wild flamingos provide a flamboyant contrast to the local white horses and black-rimmed hats of les gardiens who ride them. You can witness cattle-branding in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and take in one of the famous bull fights of nearby Arles.
New Mexico, like much of the western US, has long been home to many Native American tribes who shaped the history of the region every bit as much as the white settlers and cowboys who came after them.
Around Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos, you can’t drive more than a dozen or so miles before you see another sign pointing the way to a Pueblo that is open to visitors. Each of these can provide a window into the Native American culture, as residents are often willing to show visitors around and tell them all about the Native heritage. Two of the most fascinating and unique Pueblos in the area that are open to visitors are the Taos Pueblo and Acoma Sky City.
Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico Located just outside the small, quirky town of Taos, Taos Pueblo’s claim to fame is that it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in North America. People have been living here for over 1,000 years, and it’s both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark.
The main parts of the traditional structures date back to around 1000 A.D. while the walls, which are made of adobe, are continuously maintained by the people living there. Residents of the pueblo live just as their ancestors did – with no electricity or running water, cooking their food by the fire. They do however, have some modern conveniences. Watching an old woman cook fry bread on an open flame and then seeing her grandson climb into his dusty Ford pickup truck presents an interesting juxtaposition.
The Pueblo is open to visitors daily (though it occasionally closes for special ceremonies). Visitors must pay an admission fee plus a camera fee and guided tours are available.
Acoma Sky City, Acomita, New Mexico Acoma Sky City is nearly as old as Taos, but located atop a 367-foot bluff, it’s a bit more visually impressive. As you drive down a narrow paved road, you see the mesa rising up from the ground, the small adobe buildings cluttered together on top.
Like at Taos, visitors here must pay a camera permit fee, but here they are not allowed to wander freely and explore – they must be part of a guided tour, which costs $20 per person. Acoma has been inhabited since around 1150 A.D. and also calls itself the “oldest continually inhabited” community. Like at Taos, the residents here live without running water and electricity, but the Pueblo here feels a bit more “ancient”. Because it’s on top of the mesa, you won’t see any cars near the dwellings so you can truly feel as through you’ve stepped back in time as you wander around the buildings and stop to shop for traditional handicrafts and art.
After the tour, visitors can get a more in-depth look at the history of the Pueblo at the Cultural Center, a state-of-the-art museum space. At both Acoma and Taos, visitors can purchase traditional crafts and baked goods from the residents, who rely on business from tourists to sustain themselves.
There are countless other, smaller Pueblos located in the area, but with limited time, I highly recommend visiting one or both of these.