Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

Here is an interview with Anne Aghion the documentary filmmaker I met in Antarctica. I very much expect to be in her Antarctica documentary. She says she has just started to edit. My beard was frosted real nice one day and they got a nice shot of it close up. I very much suspect it will not end up on the cutting room floor. We shall see. There are other shots as well. http://www.ecorazzi.com/?p=1757 I already know I cannot watch another Antarctica documentary the same. The United States Antarctica Program (USAP) is quite small so knowing folks in the film or credits is pretty much inevitable. Being away in Antarctica actually helped me miss most of the winter as strange as it sounds. It is tough to get up in the dark, go shovel, plow, dig and otherwise move the snow out of the way. And after that you get the treat of moving your vehicle through it all to get to work or wherever you are going. Upstate NY is a tough place to live. The summers make up for it around here. The lack of h...

Here is a Top-10 list in ways to destroy earth. Interestly enough, none of these methods seem to mention global warming or Antarctica. (The navigation to the actual list may be difficult to find, but it is there and the intro is fun.) http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html

An article came out just after my blog in regards to the Antarctica card being played in the Global warming campaign. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/25/antarctica.icecreatures.reut/index.html The paragraph "Since 1974 5213 square miles of ice shelf have disintegrated...", sets the tone. It makes you go wow that's a lot of area. Antarctica is a big place. It is 98% ice. The peninsula is probably undergoing some serious change just like other parts of the world such as the northern Mediterranean coast. Climates change. I am not ready to say that my wood fire is causing the "disintegration" of Antarctica's ice shelves.

Getting used to the "real" world is going to take some time. I will probably not ever totally end up where I was before my adventure and that is ok. I certainly do keep busy. One of the things I planed on doing when I was on the ice was to form an opinion about global warming based on what I saw with my own two eyes in Antarctica. Antarctica certainly was not warm for the most part when I was there but it was warmer on some days than most people would have thought. The sea ice has not melted and broken up in McMurdo Sound for at least 6 years. This year it receded more than it had in some recent past but still it had not receded to the point when Shackleton and Scott were sailing around McMurdo sound. One of the things that irritates me is how the Antarctica card is being played in the global warming arguement. Most people have not and will not personally expereince Antarctica. So the political technocracy can use facts regarding Antarctica to advantage. For example, a st...

Life is getting back to normal. I went to work the other day and I was greeted by a very large species of penguin. It seems strange being back. My outlook has changed. I am seeing things I didn't see before. Success is ahead. I have been studying flight manuals and making other plans. I missed my big red parka so much I ended up buying a new winter coat and some new boots. This is the time of year. Things go on sale. I bought some bunny boots on ebay for 33 bucks (with shipping). They are very nice. I am quite happy with them. Actually they are Mickey boots. They are black not white and they are not rated quite as cold as the ones I had on the ice. I will be snowshoeing this afternoon since I have at least 9 pounds to loose from the ice. My membership in the fitness center is also reinstated. I have been working on getting the audio system in the house setup as well. I have an old computer setup as a MPEG server that will connect to the Mcintosh preamp and Fisher amp I scored rec...

I have been back over a week now. Upstate NY does look and feel a lot like Antarctica. It has been around zero with considerable snow just to the North. However, it is more humid and higher pressure density than in Antarctica that is for sure. Now that I am home I can upload some video. I have uploaded my McMurdo Film Festival submission "Pilgramage". You can download it here. It is 35 MB. It will take quite a while to download. I suggest using right-click "Save file As.. " option to make it convienient. I have lots more video. I will post it to You tube in the near future. You may want to do a search on www.YouTube.com for "Antarctica" You will see Anthony Powell's time lapse, very nice. He is the Winter Black Island comms tech.

I am hanging low. There seems to be a lot to think about. Certainly I have a lot of projects either that need to be started, have been started and need finishing, or new ones to dream up. I feel the need to throw some stuff away. I shall list a whole bunch of stuff on ebay this afternoon. That will cure that itch just fine. There are reports of 10 feet of snow up in Oswego today. They have been getting some serious lake effect snows to be sure. Here is a pic a friend sent me from the ice from atop Mt. Erebus today. The sea ice really moved out this year. It is absolutely amazing. The helos stop flying today until next year and the station is getting ready for another winter.