The cold earth sleeps below, above the cold sky shines

"The greatest interest of all is what we human beings, all of us, will  do voluntarily for an idea. What will we not do?"   Apsley Cherry-Garrard As a child, my favorite place in the Millburn Public library was the biography section.  I'd make a beeline to the those shelves, plop on the floor and read book after book--Amelia Earhart, Clara Barton, Abe Lincoln, Elizabeth Blackwell,  Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt (probably my favorite)... on and on. When I got to high school, I took AP European History.    My teacher, Mr. Stivers, loved to tell gossipy stories about historical figures.  I mistakenly thought that history was just "biography" writ large.  When I wasn't asked about Napoleon's favorite horse on the AP European History exam but rather about economic and political trends, I was terribly disappointed. I still love biography. People interest me, not the social forces.  In that respect, Antarctica is a dream bec...

This sticker on a dorm room door is the only political statement of any kind that I've seen in McMurdo Current conditions:  Con3.  Temperature 32ºF (windchill 24ºF).  Population ≈ 1000 We've heard some vague murmurings down here that there may be some political bruhaha going on in the U.S.  Something about impeachment?  Or was it about Giuliani?   I don't know.  It's probably nothing... Well, actually, Dean and I are glued to the news but outside of our dorm room, we NEVER talk about it.  Once in a while the topic will vaguely come up.  At lunch yesterday, the visiting Air Force flight surgeon said that people on the right were far more open to new ideas than people on the left.  I begged to differ although I did support the view that openness was both rare and essential for meaningful debate.  The six people at the table visibly tensed at the mere whiff of political discussion and shifted the conversation to safer...