Shackleton Centenary Expeditiontag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://12008-04-28T23:02:43ZMovable Type 3.32BBC News Online IItag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3452008-04-28T22:53:57Z2008-04-28T23:02:43Z Yesterday the BBC News website covered our story, looking at the Shackleton Centenary Expedition. Click the following link Descendants train for polar trek to read their take on what we're doing. This isn't the first time they've covered us...Tim Fright
Yesterday the BBC News website covered our story, looking at the Shackleton Centenary Expedition.
Click the following link Descendants train for polar trek to read their take on what we're doing.
This isn't the first time they've covered us as well, here's a link to an article from December: Descendants hoping to finish trek
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The Telegraph IItag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3462008-04-28T10:25:37Z2008-05-04T10:30:32Z Today's Telegraph has also covered the guy's going to Greenland. Click the following link Descendants follow in steps of Shackleton and his team to read more....Tim Fright
Today's Telegraph has also covered the guy's going to Greenland.
Click the following link Descendants follow in steps of Shackleton and his team to read more.]]>
Shackleton's Leadership Roletag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3442008-04-27T16:22:48Z2008-04-27T17:40:25Z In late 1999/ early 2000 White Mountain Films and NOVA/WGBH Boston co-produced Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, an IMAX film re-enacting Shackleton's legendary 1914-1916 Expedition to the South Pole. We loved the film when it came out, and have recently been...Tim Fright
In late 1999/ early 2000 White Mountain Films and NOVA/WGBH Boston co-produced Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, an IMAX film re-enacting Shackleton's legendary 1914-1916 Expedition to the South Pole. We loved the film when it came out, and have recently been looking again at the film's website.
One of the key sections for us is the part analysing Shackleton's leadership role.
The website highlights the book, Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition, in it, Dennis Perkins outlines 10 leadership strategies that can be learned from Sir Ernest Shackleton's leadership example.
They are:
1. Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives.
2. Set a personal example with visible, memorable symbols and behaviors.
3. Instill optimism and self-confidence, but stay grounded in reality.
4. Take care of yourself: Maintain your stamina and let go of guilt.
5. Reinforce the team message constantly: "We are one--we live or die together."
6. Minimize status differences and insist on courtesy and mutual respect.
7. Master conflict--deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and avoid needless power struggles.
8. Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about.
9. Be willing to take the Big Risk.
10. Never give up--there's always another move.
In a fascinating interview Mr Perkins says that Exceptional leaders inspire a level of teamwork that can mean the difference between success and failure in the most demanding environments. We agree completely.
Click the following link Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure to find out more about the film and to learn more about Shackleton's leadership role. ]]>
The London Papertag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3432008-04-27T15:44:34Z2008-04-27T16:00:58Z (Henry Adams, Will Gow and Henry Worsley) Today's thelondonpaper has also covered the guy's going to Greenland. Click the following link London descendent of Shackleton to finish Pole mission to read Henry Worsley explaining why they chose to go...Tim Fright
(Henry Adams, Will Gow and Henry Worsley)
Today's thelondonpaper has also covered the guy's going to Greenland.
Click the following link London descendent of Shackleton to finish Pole mission to read Henry Worsley explaining why they chose to go to Greenland.]]>
Daily Echotag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3422008-04-27T15:13:34Z2008-04-27T15:26:29Z Last week we mentioned how the guys had left for Greenland to help them prepare for Antarctica six months from now. A local newspaper has covered our story Click the following link Hampshire Man In Bid To Complete Shackleton's...Tim Fright
Last week we mentioned how the guys had left for Greenland to help them prepare for Antarctica six months from now. A local newspaper has covered our story
Click the following link Hampshire Man In Bid To Complete Shackleton's Pole Mission to see what they have written about us (for some reason you might have to refresh the webpage as it often doesn't work first time). ]]>
Greenlandtag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3412008-04-19T15:14:11Z2008-04-19T15:19:19Z This week the 2 Henry's and Will have gone off to Greenland for a couple of weeks of intensive training - they will be reporting back to us on their progress soon and you will be able to find...Tim Fright
This week the 2 Henry's and Will have gone off to Greenland for a couple of weeks of intensive training - they will be reporting back to us on their progress soon and you will be able to find out in early May how they got on.
If you're thinking of going anytime soon, Greenland.com is a mine of information. ]]>
Antarctic Ice losstag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3382008-04-16T18:36:40Z2008-04-17T20:03:22Z Antarctic ice loss between 1996 and 2006, overlaid on a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mosaic image of Antarctica. The colors indicate the speed of the ice loss. Purple/red is fast. Green is slow. Image credit: NASA Ice loss...Tim FrightAntarctic ice loss between 1996 and 2006, overlaid on a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mosaic image of Antarctica. The colors indicate the speed of the ice loss. Purple/red is fast. Green is slow. Image credit: NASA
Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study by NASA and university scientists.
In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team led by Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Irvine, estimated changes in Antarctica's ice mass between 1996 and 2006 and mapped patterns of ice loss on a glacier-by-glacier basis. They detected a sharp jump in Antarctica's ice loss, from enough ice to raise global sea level by 0.3 millimeters (.01 inches) a year in 1996, to 0.5 millimeters (.02 inches) a year in 2006.
Rignot said the losses, which were primarily concentrated in West Antarctica's Pine Island Bay sector and the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, are caused by ongoing and past acceleration of glaciers into the sea. This is mostly a result of warmer ocean waters, which bathe the buttressing floating sections of glaciers, causing them to thin or collapse. "Changes in Antarctic glacier flow are having a significant, if not dominant, impact on the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet," he said.
To infer the ice sheet's mass, the team measured ice flowing out of Antarctica's drainage basins over 85 percent of its coastline. They used 15 years of satellite radar data from the European Earth Remote Sensing-1 and -2, Canada's Radarsat-1 and Japan's Advanced Land Observing satellites to reveal the pattern of ice sheet motion toward the sea. These results were compared with estimates of snowfall accumulation in Antarctica's interior derived from a regional atmospheric climate model spanning the past quarter century.
We first found out about this story via the guys at sciencedailycom/. The California Institute of Technology at Pasadena who manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA issued a press release earlier this year. ]]>
Unmanned Air Vehicles in Antarcticatag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3372008-04-11T18:15:39Z2008-04-17T20:05:38Z Thanks to a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS), last month the BAS used unmanned air vehicles (UAV's) to collect data and help research in Antarctica for the first time. Whilst...Tim Fright
Thanks to a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS), last month the BAS used unmanned air vehicles (UAV's) to collect data and help research in Antarctica for the first time. Whilst they are used for a variety of purposes around the world at the moment, this was the first time that they had been used in Antarctica.
Dr Phil Anderson of BAS says, "This is a huge technological achievement for BAS and TUBS. Apart from take-off and landing, when the UAVs are controlled by radio, the aircraft are completely autonomous, flying on their own according to a pre-programmed flight plan. Each flight lasts for 40 minutes, covering around 45 km and taking 100 measurements a second, so waiting for the UAV to return safely after its research mission was very exciting. Seeing the first UAV come back successfully was a real heart-in-the-mouth moment."
Each UAV has a wingspan of 2m and weighs 6kg. They are electric powered, using state-of-the-art Lithium Ion Polymer (LIPo) battery packs. Electric power ensures that the aircraft are suitable for both atmospheric physics and chemistry studies. Take off is by catapult and landing by skis onto snow, and a modified Tucker Snocat is used as "mission control".
The four UAVs were transported to BAS's Halley research station on the Brunt Ice Shelf on board BAS's Royal Research Ship Ernest Shackleton in late 2006. Scientists from BAS and the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany) then spent 10 months testing the UAVs and perfecting safe take offs and landings before the first successful data-gathering flight on 30 October 2007.
According to Anderson, "UAVs allow scientists to reach the parts others cannot reach - the future of much atmospheric research will be robotic."
We first found out about this story via the guys at sciencedailycom/. Click here to read the British Antarctic Survey's press release.
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Antarctic Flora and Faunatag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3352008-04-07T13:37:33Z2008-04-07T14:17:45Z Scientists in New Zealand and Australia have combined to publish work on whether some species of giant daisies known as Pleurophyllum arrived from Antarctica. The flowers, known to researchers as megaherbs, grow abundantly on the tiny windswept islands such...Tim Fright
Scientists in New Zealand and Australia have combined to publish work on whether some species of giant daisies known as Pleurophyllum arrived from Antarctica. The flowers, known to researchers as megaherbs, grow abundantly on the tiny windswept islands such as the Snares, Auckland and Campbell island groups. The research has been published on the online Nature Precedings pre-print service.
"There's always been a great deal of discussion about how plants spread in the southern hemisphere and the extent to which Antarctica has been important in this," says co-author Chris Quinn from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.
As the ice age began some 1.8 million years ago, conditions on Antarctica itself became inhospitable to many plants.
But the small islands further north offered a haven for survival just beyond the icy reach of the glaciers, the authors say.
Click here for the story from the Discovery Channel website.
Click here to read the research paper itself at Nature Precedings.
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The new Shackleton Foundation websitetag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3402008-04-05T11:30:32Z2008-04-05T11:45:58Z Bill Shipton, one of the members of our Fundraising Committee has been instrumental in creating our brand new Shackleton Foundation website. www.shackletonfoundation.org. You can now go there for all your Shackleton Foundation needs. We're delighted with the result and...Tim Fright
Bill Shipton, one of the members of our Fundraising Committee has been instrumental in creating our brand new Shackleton Foundation website. www.shackletonfoundation.org. You can now go there for all your Shackleton Foundation needs.
We're delighted with the result and our heartfelt thanks go out to Bill.
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Flying Penguinstag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3392008-04-05T10:51:06Z2008-04-19T15:25:23Z This year on April Fools Day the BBC went one further than the spaghetti trees of yesteryear - they created flying Adelie penguins. Click here to watch them in action and to find out how it was done....Tim Fright
This year on April Fools Day the BBC went one further than the spaghetti trees of yesteryear - they created flying Adelie penguins.
Click here to watch them in action and to find out how it was done.
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Robert Swan and E-Base 2041tag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3362008-03-30T17:24:18Z2008-03-30T18:03:10Z We have been watching Robert Swan OBE, our Fundraising Patron's website eagerly over the past few weeks as his latest project has really come on in leaps and bounds. Here is a little background in case you are unfamiliar...Tim Fright
We have been watching Robert Swan OBE, our Fundraising Patron's website eagerly over the past few weeks as his latest project has really come on in leaps and bounds.
Here is a little background in case you are unfamiliar with Robert Swan:
He is the first man to have walked to both the North and South Pole, he was appointed The Special Envoy to to the Director General of UNESCO in 1994, he was awarded the Polar Medal from HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1995, from 1992 - 2000 he also helped remove 1,500 tons of waste from Antarctica. There is an extensive list of his achievements on his website which we have barely brushed upon.
At the moment he is involved in E-Base 2041. "Its purpose is to inspire a global audience to tackle the issue of climate change. It shows that if we can achieve the seemingly impossible in Antarctica, then we can all take small, achievable steps in our own backyards."
The E-Base is located at Bellingshausen Station, a Russian Antarctic station at Collins Harbor on King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands, located at 62° 12'S, 58° 58'W. It is the world's first education station in Antarctica that is run entirely by renewable energy.
Robert argues that "The world is now ready to engage with convenient solutions to climate change." We couldn't agree more - congratulations Robert on a great job well done!
We look forward to seeing him in June this year when he has agreed to give a lecture to some of our supporters here in London. In the meantime, if you want to find out more about what Robert Swan is upto, you can also visit http://2041.com/. ]]>
Striped icebergstag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3342008-03-28T13:24:11Z2008-03-30T17:05:48Z Norwegian sailor Oyvind Tangen has managed to take some beautiful pictures of striped icebergs whilst on board a research ship 660 miles north of Antarctica. According to the article: "When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of...Tim Fright
Norwegian sailor Oyvind Tangen has managed to take some beautiful pictures of striped icebergs whilst on board a research ship 660 miles north of Antarctica.
According to the article: "When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe.
Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea."
Click here for the story and more pictures from the Daily Mail.]]>
Clouds at the South Poletag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3312008-03-24T17:59:25Z2008-03-24T19:57:56Z Clouds don't happen at the South Pole very often, so this is why Steffen Richter's photo is even more magnificent than it at first appears. Steffen is an electrical engineer working at the South Pole, and has a great...Tim Fright
Clouds don't happen at the South Pole very often, so this is why Steffen Richter's photo is even more magnificent than it at first appears. Steffen is an electrical engineer working at the South Pole, and has a great website chronicling what he is up to at the moment.
Click here to see more of Steffen Richter's photos.
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Zhongshantag:www.shackletoncentenary.org,2008://1.3302008-03-19T10:29:58Z2008-03-19T12:18:37Z With so many stories in the news these days about China's peaceful rise this century, it was interesting to come across this article the other day. China is building a background atmosphere observation station at its Zhongshan base in...Tim Fright
With so many stories in the news these days about China's peaceful rise this century, it was interesting to come across this article the other day. China is building a background atmosphere observation station at its Zhongshan base in Antarctica.
According to the People's Daily Online
"Researchers at Zhongshan station will be able to observe surface ozone and gases like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as black carbon aerosol."
Zhongshan was built in 1989 and makes year round observations focussing on meteorology, the ionosphere, upper atmosphere physics, geomagnetism and seismology. During the Antarctic summer seasons, in-situ scientific investigations are also made on geology, biology, meteorology, glaciology, polar physics, environmental science, human medicine and marine science.
Click here for the story from the People's Daily Online.
You can find out more about Zhongshan base and what it does by clicking here Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA).
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This isn't the first time they've covered us as well, here's a link to an article from December: Descendants hoping to finish trek
]]>
The website highlights the book, Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition, in it, Dennis Perkins outlines 10 leadership strategies that can be learned from Sir Ernest Shackleton's leadership example.
They are:
1. Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives.
2. Set a personal example with visible, memorable symbols and behaviors.
3. Instill optimism and self-confidence, but stay grounded in reality.
4. Take care of yourself: Maintain your stamina and let go of guilt.
5. Reinforce the team message constantly: "We are one--we live or die together."
6. Minimize status differences and insist on courtesy and mutual respect.
7. Master conflict--deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and avoid needless power struggles.
8. Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about.
9. Be willing to take the Big Risk.
10. Never give up--there's always another move.
In a fascinating interview Mr Perkins says that Exceptional leaders inspire a level of teamwork that can mean the difference between success and failure in the most demanding environments. We agree completely.
Click the following link Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure to find out more about the film and to learn more about Shackleton's leadership role. ]]>
(Henry Adams, Will Gow and Henry Worsley)
Today's thelondonpaper has also covered the guy's going to Greenland.
Click the following link London descendent of Shackleton to finish Pole mission to read Henry Worsley explaining why they chose to go to Greenland.]]>
We're delighted with the result and our heartfelt thanks go out to Bill.
]]>