turn the world upside down and you'll get antarctica

For now, we conclude the navigation of the icy lands on Antarctica, and then you'll encounter Amundsen again.  Going to the South Pole is a difficult expedition, but it seems spotting it on a Mercator Projection map is equally hard.  Perhaps even impossible, so better check a globe.

Antarctica seems to be best known for penguins.  So we have polar bears on the north and penguins on the south.  However, there's another "thing" that can be found in the home of the penguins.  If there's such a thing as a "dream product" in the manufacturing industry or in the field of materials science, e.g. something that can withstand extremely low temperatures, both extremely low and high pressures, and high radiation levels, then this "product" exists on Earth.  That's what we call as something durable, and even more remarkable if it's a living thing.  Adding another achievement to an already impressive track record is surviving the hard vacuum of outer space for 10 days.

"Tardigrade" anyone?  That's the name of the extraordinary creature.  It sounds like a chemical name or something that is inline with quantum physics.  These organisms can be found in Antarctica, and the adult ones are about 1 mm long.  They have four pairs of legs, which means they can crawl or something like that.  Small but terrible and amazing.


View Larger Map

moving even further to the east direction

Navigating towards the east direction from Greenland, we will come across Svalbard and the Arctic region of Russia.  Going east even further, we will reach the Arctic region of the West.  In this case, by just moving east, we can reach both the Arctic regions of the Western hemisphere and the Eastern hemisphere.  Seems amazing.  We can also do that by just moving west.  We now have a conjecture that the Earth is an oblate spheroid.  If we consider more possibilities in the navigation, then we might ultimately prove that the Earth is an oblate spheroid as well.  At least in this level of abstraction, that's the way how we prove things mathematically.

After the Russian Arctic region, we will encounter the American and the Canadian Arctic region.  It can be called the North American Arctic region in general, but since there's no South American Arctic region, it's valid to call it simply the American Arctic region.  That's ambiguous though because something "American" usually refer to the United States of America, probably because of the last word in the country name.

If you're looking for islands, then there are many of them at the Canadian Arctic region.  That's 36,563 islands, and three of them fall into the top 10 largest islands of the world.  Based on history, it seems that Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa have captured the interest of the polar expeditions more.  Perhaps the Canadian Arctic has more difficult topographic features than the Russian Arctic, or probably Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa was more accessible to European countries.  About the topographic features, think about the strong tidal currents on the narrow passages between the islands, rugged terrain, and then glaciers.  However, there were these so-called "Northwest Passage" expeditions, but they were more of a search for a possible trade route.  The first recorded successful navigation of the Northwest Passage is that of Roald Amundsen, but before that, there were three major expeditions from John Franklin.  Then, these were followed by expeditions in search of John Franklin.  It was indeed challenging to navigate the Northwest Passage because of the polar ice packs.  Even during the recent times, the ice packs prevented regular shipping most of the year, but times have changed.  The Northwest Passage has more navigable waterways right now because of reduced pack ice.  It's good news for the shipping business, but beyond that, this is a sign of an environmental problem.


View Northwest Passage in a larger map

Given the increasing importance of the Northwest Passage, or rather Northwest Passages, it's not surprising to know that there are sovereignty issues on these waters. Looking at the map, it is essentially within the Canadian territory, but many countries assert that these are international waters. On the Canadian side, they have mentioned environmental concerns on top off asserting sovereignty. I think that it is really something, at least environmentally speaking.

View 2013 Into the Northwest Passage in a larger map

look to the north and then to the east

View Larger Map

Looking eastward, there are other icy lands that are less known, but some of them were controversial lands.  Take for example Novaya Zemlya.  If you're familiar with "Zone A", "Zone B", "Zone C" and Kara Sea, then you know what I mean.  Navigating eastward from Greenland, you will come across Svalbard, Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa (Franz Josef Land), Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands.  Well, when I came across Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa, I never thought that one of Santa's reindeer resides in Russia.  You will find Rudolf Island, but traces of reindeer presence were instead found on an island called Hooker Island (Ostrov Gukera).  In fact, the history of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa itself is also interesting, which involves the race on legal footing between Norway and the former Soviet Union.  It was between Norway and Soviet Union, but the archipelago was named after the emperor of the former Austria-Hungary.  In fact, most of the islands have names of foreign origin (other than Russian) coming from five different nationalities.  Why is that so?  Were the people who have visited the territory looking for Santa?  Seems not a remote possibility since the northernmost islands are around 1,000 km away from the North Pole.  Setting the Santa business aside, this archipelago has been host to many bases and camp sites for polar expeditions.  The territory is uninhabited, but millions of birds, mostly sea birds, have built their nests on the islands.  That's a significant wildlife activity.  If you are doing research on the influence of the communist regime in the Arctic, then you might want to set an expedition to Severnaya Zemlya.  There's nothing more communist than October Revolution Island, Bolshevik Island, and Komsomolets Island.

The Arctic region seems to be a no-man's-land, and it's not surprising to know that it contains a lot of stories about human struggles and triumphs.  You might want to read about the stories of successful and failed expeditions.  In fact, there's a published diary entitled "In the Land of White Death".  Haven't read it yet, but the title tells a lot about the harsh side of the Arctic region.  It's not the best place for humans, but that's home for polar bears, walruses, Arctic foxes, and seals. 

the icy lands of the north

View Larger Map

From the map, we can see three large islands: Ellesmere, Baffin, and Greenland.  Ellesmere and Baffin are islands within the Nunavut territory of Canada.  We should be able to find Santa and his elves somewhere. 

far beyond: about going further

This is supposedly a song with the lyrics attached below. 
Let's just assume that it works.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support playing the attached file (The Odd Dawdler) in this post.

Instrumental track: "Far Beyond" (05:30), 2013


Far Beyond

when the wind blows
there the sky goes
in the glist'ning day
we will walk the way

beyond what you can see
eagle's flying spree
we will walk the way
we will walk the way
we will walk the way

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm
glide through the windy sway


when the river flows
there the rapid roars
through the waves of the sea
we'll shout our hearts to say

tell the world all the way
how much you mean to me
we'll shout our hearts to say
you mean a lot to me
like how God cares for thee

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm
loud, clear as it can be

always a lot of more
more like a sparkle,
more of a twinkle
far beyond, over and over
the expanse of the universe

always a lot of more
we'll walk to infinity
this isn't finite
more than the pace, beyond the flight

you and me
tribute to the Great One
infinite One, fa-a-a-ar (far) beyond

when the land holds strong
the earth sings a song

every single day
we'll hold on solidly
move through the mystery

when the wind blows
there the sky goes
in the glist'ning day
we will walk the way

when the river flows
there the rapid roars
through the waves of the sea
we'll shout our hearts to say

tell the world all the way
how much you mean to me
we'll shout our hearts to say
you mean a lot to me
like how God cares for thee

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-mmm-mmm
far beyond forever

(c) gertics2013