Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with antarctic

Five quid we'll find Starbucks there

randomination — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:54:21 -0800

Why are the north and south poles invisible in Google Earth? Just now, when I just tried to look in Google Earth, I got something that more resembled Euclid's migraines than a snowy/watery wasteland.

I understand why places like Baghdad, Pyongyang, Kashmir and my flat in south-west London are photographed in such loving detail. But are there really no satellite photographs of either pole?

Or is Google Earth just unable to handle them?

(Full disclosure: I stopped studying geography when I was 13)

Antarctic base developed a private language based on a videotape?

rwhe — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:36:55 -0800

UrbanLegendFilter: Anyone ever hear of the isolated Antarctic base where the crew watched the same videotape over and over, went crazy, and started speaking their own private language? It was told to me like this: there was this Antarctic base, see, that lost contact with the outside world one particularly bad winter. Someone at the base had the bright idea of making a videotape consisting of clips of all the "best parts" of the crew's favourite porn, sketch comedy, and various other videos. The tape (which was known only as The Tape) became so popular that watching it was almost a religious ritual, and the crew's spoken language began to consist more and more of in-jokes referring to the tape, in-jokes referring to the in-jokes, in-jokes referring to the in-jokes referring to the... You get the idea. When the crew was finally rescued in the spring, no one from the outside could understand a word they were saying. Their language had drifted so far from the larger culture that it took a lengthy period of rehabilitation before the communication gap could be bridged.

A cautionary tale, yes. But (1) is it true? (I realise parts of it seem implausible.) And (2) where did the story come from, true or not?

Science fiction on ice

aebaxter — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 15:44:36 -0800

I need recommendations for excellent science fiction books, movies, short stories (or anything, really) centered around life, scientific exploration, and/or research in the arctic, antarctica, or similar fictional extreme cold climates. Think the X-Files episode "Ice," or Firefly in a really really cold climate (I can't think of any literary examples). I realize there are many documentaries out there centered around this subject, but I'm specifically looking for science fiction.