The Terra Nova Expedition

tealin:

tealin:

OK Tumblr, sit down a sec, I’m going to try to tell you the story of the Terra Nova Expedition in one page of single-spaced size 12 type, plus pictures.  Ready? Let’s go.

The Terra Nova left Cardiff on June 15th, 1910, and had a very exciting and fun-filled journey to New Zealand and thence to Antarctica.  She made landfall in January of 1911, at a little outcrop of land on Ross Island which was christened Cape Evans. While the hut was being constructed, Scott and a selection of men set off to depot stores along the route to the Pole, culminating in a great cache called One Ton Depot. On their way back to base, Cherry, Bowers, and the sailor Tom Crean were on sea ice that broke up, and only by sheer pluck managed to get to safety instead of drifting out to sea. 

Shortly after this, Scott learned that Roald Amundsen, who was making a surprise attempt on the Pole himself, had also set up his base on the Ross Sea coast, in direct competition with Scott.  As nothing could be done about this, Scott decided to proceed according to plan and not make a race of it.  (He wasn’t happy about it, though.)

The first winter was a happy one, but for three men – Cherry, Wilson, and Bowers – the conviviality of the hut was interrupted by a gruelling midwinter journey to the other side of Ross Island in search of Emperor penguin eggs FOR SCIENCE, a trip they just barely survived. 

 They returned exhausted, but three months later set off again in the party who were to make the attempt at reaching the South Pole.  It was arranged that two parties of four would turn back after helping the final four as far as they could. Cherry was selected to be in the first returning party while Wilson and Bowers ended up making it to the final Pole Party.  Cherry was disappointed, but got on with life back at the hut, happy to have played his part in the great endeavour. 

 All was well until news came that the leader of the second returning party, Teddy Evans, was deathly ill with scurvy.  The expedition doctor, Atkinson, was supposed to go meet the final party with the dog teams as they returned, but was instead sidelined into caring for Evans. Atkinson delegated the rendezvous to Cherry, who duly took the dogs out to One Ton Depot to meet his friends, but they never turned up; he waited as long as he could, but as winter was closing in and he was running out of food for the dogs, he turned back to base.

 When the Pole Party failed to arrive in the next few weeks, it became apparent that they never would, and the remaining men faced another winter knowing that their friends had perished. The following summer, another southern journey was made, in search of any trace of the Pole Party. They were expected to have fallen down a crevasse somewhere en route, but were found snowed up in their tent about twelve miles south of One Ton Depot, a point they had reached nine days after Cherry had turned back from there. From their letters and journals, the survivors learned that the Pole Party had reached the South Pole, but had discovered there that Amundsen had beat them to it by a month. 

On the return journey, two of the five men Scott had taken to the Pole suffered crippling mishaps, but instead of abandoning them, the healthy men slowed their pace. The injured men both eventually died, but by then the season had started to turn, and the remaining three – Scott, Wilson, and Bowers – were trapped in their tent by a blizzard which kept them from reaching the necessary food and fuel until they, too, expired.

The search party retrieved all the records and personal effects they could, then collapsed the tent over the Pole Party where they lay and built a great memorial cairn over them. They brought their story back to a world which, having been expecting great news, instead plunged into mourning. Cherry had his own personal torment beyond that, though, in the idea that, had he pressed on from One Ton, he might have been able to save his friends’ lives. He wrote The Worst Journey in the World largely as a tribute to them and the friendship they’d shared.

And that’s the book I’m adapting into a graphic novel – or rather, a series of graphic novels, because there is so much more to the story than that, and it is all super awesome. I am currently working on volume one, which covers … um, the first sentence of this writeup (don’t worry, there isn’t a volume for every sentence) and it is the prologue of that which you will see on Saturday, May 4th, for Free Comic Book Day!  So please check back here to get the link for that and an open house at my Patreon where you can see progress made so far.

Afternoon/morning reblog, depending which continent you’re on … 

Good morning/afternoon!

immortal-death-mermaid:

randomingoftherandomness:

alezrha:

hating-alison-ashley:

totallyradicalblog:

luthienmuse:

in-the-violet-hour:

destroymales:

terpsikeraunos:

queenotrera:

History wants so badly for Cleopatra to be beautiful. Like they can’t conceive of Rome being intimidated by anything less

because being a linguist, fleet commander, and powerful ruler doesn’t matter, only her looks

Her Arab contemporaries raved about her being very interested and knowledgeable in the sciences.

She completely reformed the system in Alexandria, and Egypt at large; making it much more of a functional powerhouse. 

She did what 300 years of her ancestors couldn’t: Managed to get the support of both the Greek AND Egyptian subjects she ruled.

There is a sculpture that has been identified as her, through comparisons to coins minted under her rule, that proves beyond a doubt that she wasn’t particularly beautiful.

It isn’t that people just happen to believe it by mistake. Rome was fucking terrified of her and painted her as a vapid, scheming, beautiful, sex obsessed queen to discredit her to their people. She was a threat, and that was how they handled it. The unfortunate thing is that that is the most surviving record of her. A smear campaign against one of the smartest, most powerful women in human history. 

This is a woman who became her father’s co-ruler at nearly 14 years old in order to train for her actual ascension to the throne, who was forced to marry her own siblings in order to keep her power, and it’s widely believed that she poisoned them so she could rule alone. She’s a Pharaoh who led Egypt into a new era of wealth, who went fearlessly into war to protect her rule and Egypt’s independence from the Roman empire, a woman who took her own life rather than face being raped and tortured by her conquerors, knowing full well that she was leaving her surviving children in their uncertain mercy. Cleopatra is one of the most interesting, morally ambiguous, complexing historical figures we have and the media has turned her into a tantalizing sex object for the male gaze.

Even after Cleopatra died her influence on those around her lived on: her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, was the only child of Cleopatra’s to live to adulthood, and she became queen of Mauretania along with her husband Juba and it’s believed they married for love, which was extremely rare for that time period, especially among nobles/the upper class. Not only did she grow up in the house of her mother’s worst enemy and technical murderer, but she still went on to become a queen who possessed an equal amount of political power as her husband, even having her face minted on coins on the opposite side of his likeness, showing they were equal rulers.

Cleopatra and her influence on history, and her daughter’s legacy, have both been brushed aside in favour of the sexy Cleopatra visage. It’s bullshit. Egyptian mythology is interesting and vivid, and full of powerful women and it’s bullshit that we take some of the most powerful women in Africa’s history and try to turn them into fashion icons or sluts who only ruled through toying with men. 

I LIVE FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW THIS, people still refuse to believe that a woman can/could have achieved anything without beauty or fucking magical powers  

Always reblog

I’d never heard about her daughter before. That’s cool.

They should make another movie about her with an actor who actually looks like she did and mae it obvious in the script how good she was at being pharoah.

So you can put a face to the name. This is what scientists believe she actually looked like. In my opinion she was probably much darker. But those are the coins and busts that were made of her and that’s what you should think of. Curly hair, a hooked nose, a woman who did EXTRAORDINARY things. You don’t have to be beautiful to accomplish greatness.

You don’t have to be beautiful to accomplish greatness.

LOUDER, PLEASE!

(via rararibbon)

thatsogerman:

Since I’m not seeing her name nearly enough on the press, let’s give the attention Katie Bouman deserves. Thanks to her, we are now possible to see the first ever image of a black hole, something that people talked 200 years ago for the first time. It’s no longer a myth.
We are girls and we can be whatever we want to be. Einstein would be proud of you, Katie. Thank you!

Here you can see a huge stack of hard drives she used for Messier 87’s black hole image data.

(via the-awkward-turt)

sillytroid:

You know, the beginning of the fight with Metroid Prime speaks volumes of how powerful and intimidating Samus must be. You walk into it’s room, and this behemoth’s first instinct upon seeing you is to dig a giant cave in the wall behind it in order to get the fuck away from you.

Happy 105th Birthday Frank Tashlin

dailydaffys:

Originally from https://devilkais.deviantart.com/art/A-Dash-of-Tish-Tash-Best-of-Frank-Tashlin-418846235

Anonymous asked: i don't really understand why you would be pro-zoo. like i understand nature reserves and sanctuaries where people can observe from afar, but it doesn't seem right to me when they're locked up in generally small confined areas for people to watch them do nothing all day. idk maybe i'm getting this wrong, and i still really respect you, i just don't understand this. like i interned at a zoo and felt uncomfortable with how small their living areas were and how they had no stimulation

the-awkward-turt:

zoogeek327:

nyxetoile:

merp-a-derp69:

useless-zoofacts:

bigcatawareness:

Zoos don’t look like this anymore.

They look like this:

Good zoos do not keep their animals in “tiny spaces” with no enrichment.  I’m not pro-roadside zoo.  I’m pro-accredited zoo.  Zoos are incredibly important for conservation and education.

• Are Zoos Necessary?
• The Importance of Zoos: Resource Post
• Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Assessing the Impact of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium
• Why I Want to be a Keeper
• Why I Believe in Zoos

There should be way more pictures of modern zoos so i just add some more

Seriously zoos do so much important conservation work as well I hate when people shit all over zoos as if the animals are locked up and not looked after

The SF Zoo has two sea lions. Now, if you know SF, you know that sea lions are a Thing. They’re all over Pier 39 and various other beaches in N California. In fact, the zoo is near the ocean, so there are sea lions not 200 yards from the zoo entrance. So having sea lions in the zoo seems sort of superfluous.

Except the sea lions are blind. One was found as an adult after suffering a gun shot wound to the face that destroyed his eyes. The other was found as an adolescent, weak and starving because it had been blinded and unable to hunt. So they were rescued and introduced and the zoo built them a nice pool where they can swim and sunbathe and people toss them fish. It’s not the biggest exhibit, or the fanciest. But it’s a home for them, where they’re safe and well fed. Sea lions aren’t the most romantic of animals, but they’re a part of SF culture and a lot of us have a soft spot for the loud, bulbous things. And because of zoos, these two get to live long, happy lives.

Whenever anyone complains about zoos, I think about Silent Knight and Henry. 

I think it’s St. Louis zoo that is saving big cats in Africa. Scientists couldn’t figure out what was killing off the local lion population. They were dying off from Canine Distemper. The local unvaccinated dogs of the towns would spread the disease to other animals or have it themselves. When the lions ate the infected animals they would catch it as well. You know what that Zoo is doing to stop this disease? They are going over to those towns and vaccinating the dogs for free. The community loves it and people from other villages comes for miles to get their dogs vaccinated as well.

They also do work with camel populations because the local human population use the camels for food sources the zoos help monitor the camels health.

Another zoo, I want to say it’s the Oregon zoo but don’t quote me on that, is helping female inmates. The zoo works with the female prisons by encouraging the inmates to assist in the breeding and raising of endangered species of butterflies. They plant the specific plants that the butterflies and catapillars need, raise them, and release them. These inmates get noted in any scientific journals that get published. They are giving these inmates a sense of accomplishment and validation.

Zoos not only save species but bring together and assist communities in an effort to save the environment. Zoos, good zoos, are essential to the future and I will fight anyone who tries to say otherwise.

PS you don’t see PETA doing any of this.

Either Anon interned at a non-accredited zoo or their internship didn’t have them involved with the actual animal-keeping aspects of the zoo because enrichment programs, animal welfare, and conservation impact are always driven home like crazy if you actually work with the animals.