antarctic quotes

all taken from dr jerri nielsen's book ice bound: a doctor's incredible battle for survival at the south pole


from a 35 year-old navy polar manual "which contends that motivation is the most important factor when selecting a crew for a polar expedition. The author divides the pool of applicants into five types: He likes men (there were no women at the Poles in those days) who 'go with a specific interest, to be professional explorers, for scientific research, or the adventurous.... type who has to go "just because it is there." Less desirable because they are easily disillusioned are the idealists, the ambitious, and the glory-seekers. His second category is the 'escape artist' who signs up to 'evade family troubles with sweethearts, wives, or in-laws.' Others go to escape financial or family responsibilities, or jobs they hate. This type 'is either a good man or almost totally useless on the Ice.' There are also the 'money savers,' and 'drifters' who go because they have nothing better to do at the moment. Either can be a good man 'because the charms of isolation and beauty of polar regions puts reason in his being.' 'Least desirable' and 'most dangerous to themselves and others' are 'martyrs, sadists, homosexuals' (this, again, was the early sixties), those with strong subconscious suicidal or masochistic complexes, 'to whom a rugged life of isolation sometimes appeals.' The author concludes that the happiest candidate for the ice is a type of escape artist--'the rugged individualist who finds modern urban life intolerable with its TV and newspapers,...world crisis and crime...Many men who have never met the almighty in church meet him occasionally at the operating or delivery table, but really get to know him at the ends of the earth." (p77-78)

"Our memories were all deteriorating as chronic hypoxia ate away at our brain cells. Studies done in Antarctica showed a decrease in short-term memory of 13 percent in those staying through the winter. And that study was done at sea level! The effects on long-term memory had not been studied." (p126-127)

James Evans - "Wood comes from forests. Styrofoam comes from hell."

"There are three kinds of twilight, Civil, Nautical, and Astronomical, which begin when the sun is 6, 12, and 18 degrees below the horizon (respectively). To give you a sense of how dark each one is: at the end of Civil twilight the brightest stars are visible and the horizon is clearly defined. At the end of Nautical twilight the horizon is no longer visible, and at the end of the Astronomical twilight the indirect illumination from the Sun is less bright than starlight." (p147)

big and tall

petition to old navy to stop up-charging for women's plus sized clothing:
https://www.change.org/p/gap-inc-stop-up-charging-for-women-s-plus-sized-clothing

video of the issue and gap inc's (gap owns old navy) response:
http://www.today.com/style/old-navy-defends-charging-more-plus-size-womens-clothes-1D80283144

it doesn't bother me that retailers charge more for plus sized clothing. it absolutely bothers me that they charge more for plus sized women's and not plus sized men's! but after watching the today show video, i wonder if there isn't some truth behind why they charge extra for women's than for men's. however! i think the main reason they charge women more is that they know women will pay it. in my life, the women all have way more clothes than their significant others. they all shop more than the men to do. so i think that it does come down to sexism. which is unfair and wrong, tho not entirely unexpected.

women routinely are up-charged for all sorts stuff. everything to shampoo to razors, lotion to deodorant, even hair cuts. you'll notice that salons prices differently for men or women. but no on the complexity of the cut! it's true that many men have simpler hair styles than women, but not all of them! some people refer to this as the "pink tax."

i don't like the color pink, or most pastel colors, so i don't at all mind buying men's products instead. i have before, actually. problem is that they don't sell the same. men's scents are musky and not my thing. i do like floral and citrus scents. which men's personal products don't smell like. bah. but anyway. the pink tax is bullshit.

baader-meinhof

you know this occurrence, you just don't know the name of it. frequency illusion, also known as baader-meinhof phenomenon (not to be confused with the red army faction of kind of the same name!) is where once you notice / learn something, you see it EVERYWHERE.

wikipedia defines it as: the illusion in which a word, a name or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards

short article on why it happens and an even shorter article on how it go it's name. 

the most recent time i remember this happening was a couple years ago when i finally committed to memory the term "rube goldberg machine." i'd learnt it before for always forgot it, so wanted to make a point of remembering it. and for a while it seemed like the universe was intent of me remember the term too! a rube goldberg device, btw, is where they have long and complicated contraptions meant to do a very simple thing. a video of it is as follows:

bipartisanship

looking at politics today, apparently there's no honor in working together. today we laud loudest those those who stick to their guns and stand up for what they believe in. which *is* good stuff! you should stand your ground for your beliefs. but you should also know when to step back a little. i don't see how refusing to ever compromise is commendable.

today we'd rather shut down the government than give a little.

j: this is why democracy does not work. you can never have the executive and legislative on the same page. they're just blocking each other from doing anything.
me: well, i think we used to be better at working together. [insert basically the first paragraph of this post] you hear it all the time "i am who i am." ...fuck you. that's immature and stupid.
j: de. mo. cra. cy. in action. all this stand up for yourself. civil rights. it's counterproductive.
me: i don't know that stubbornnes is the cornerstone of democracy.
j: it's the cornerstone of old white men

voting

i've always thought that if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about the way the govt is running things. whether or not that's true, it's certainly true that voting is important!

a friend texted me today that she wasn't sure which was worse: not voting at all or voting without knowing what she was voting for. she'd somehow forgotten to study up before the election and didn't really have the time today to vote. ...you know what i think about that! but back to her issue. which do you think is worse?

i told her that i thought voting without knowing what she was voting on was worse because a mis-informed (or uniformed, in this case) vote could count towards a "bad" candidate. a non-vote counts towards no one.

i do know that many people think differently tho. i read an article earlier today about how many floridians were coming out of the polls having voted just to vote, and not because they knew or cared about what was going on. randomly checking off boxes, as it were.

got milk?

have you seen this milk commercial? it's my most favorite commercial in YEARS!