Podcasts about Ellesmere Island

This week we are chatting with Ray Zahab about his epic journey across Ellesmere Island with his adventure partner Kevin Vallely! The adventure has been years in the making and I want to give Ray and Kevin a BIG CONGRATS for getting it done! They battled the brutal weather of the Arctic, had Arctic Wolves walk right into camp, and persevered for 28 days. I hope you enjoy the episode!!

This week we are joined by adventurer, photographer, ultrarunner, and awesome guy Howie Stern!! Howie just finished photographing the first part of Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely's expedition crossing Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. In this episode we'll talk all about this expedition and the first one Howie went on with Ray in Baffin Island. We also talk about what the brutal cold feels like, the challenges of getting to these remote places, and what it's like to be approached by Arctic Wolves!! This is an awesome episode and Howie is a great guy I could listen to for hours and hours! Be sure to check out his photography, it is beyond excellent! MORE FROM HOWIE STERN: Website: https://www.howiestern.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howiesternphoto?igsh=Zzk5ZDRqNHYxbWQ=

GB2RS News Sunday the 4th of August 2024 The news headlines: Bookings are open for the RSGB 2024 Annual Convention Schools will soon be able to apply for an ISS contact The RSGB has announced its National Coding Week Coordinator The RSGB is delighted to announce that bookings are now open for its 2024 Annual Convention. This year, in response to requests for more flexibility, the Society has created a new booking system that allows attendees to create a Convention package that suits their preferences for attendance and hotel accommodation. In addition, the keynote speaker for the event has been confirmed. Rafal Lukawiecki, EI6LA has led the projects to modernise the Irish licence teaching curriculum and is also part of the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 working group tasked with modernising its Ethics and Operating Procedures guide. Rafal has been a popular speaker at major IT conferences since 1998 and has shared keynote platforms with Bill Gates and Neil Armstrong. For further details, including how to book, visit the RSGB website at rsgb.org/convention Schools in Great Britain and Northern Ireland will soon be able to apply for an amateur radio contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station. If the application is successful, the contacts could take place in the latter half of 2025. The RSGB is encouraging schools to apply as it is a great opportunity to integrate space into the STEM curriculum and to have the excitement of their pupils speaking to an astronaut! Go to the ARISS website at ariss-eu.org  to find out more and download an application form in the ‘School Contacts' section. The timeframe for submitting applications is between the 1st of September and the 26th of October 2024. If you want to be inspired, watch the RSGB's celebration video of the ten Tim Peake school contacts in the ‘Excitement of amateur radio' playlist on the RSGB YouTube channel at youtube.com/theRSGB The RSGB is delighted to announce that Nigel Thrower, G3YSW will be the RSGB's National Coding Week Coordinator this year. The Society took part in this national event for the first time last year and many groups had fun with the activities it supplied. You can see the activities on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/coding  This year the RSGB wants to develop its involvement and Nigel will help to lead and coordinate that. This event isn't just for youngsters, so people of all ages and experience can take part. The RSGB is planning to publish some new activities but, if you enjoy programming or coding as part of your amateur radio activities, please get in touch! The society is looking for people to share tried and trusted ideas or activities that will inspire others. It is also keen to hear from radio amateurs who could help to lead activities with groups or clubs in their area. National Coding Week runs from the 16th to the 22nd of September. If you'd like to get involved or want to find out more, please contact Nigel via ncw@rsgb.org.uk The RSGB's popular Tonight@8 webinar series takes a break in August, but there are two great presentations lined up for the start of the autumn programme. On Monday the 2nd of September, Brian Coleman, G4NNS will give an update on the Meteor Beacon Project. The following month, on Monday the 7th of October, there's a chance to hear about "Aircraft Scatter – the Hitch-Hikers Guide" by Ian White, GM3SEK. Put the dates in your diary now and find further details on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/webinars The G5RP Trophy is an annual award to encourage newcomers to HF DXing. The award is not limited to youngsters or the newly licensed. It is open to anyone who has recently discovered and made significant progress in HF DXing. If you are an established HF DXer and want to recommend someone to be awarded the G5RP Trophy for 2024, now is the time to send in your nomination. Your nominee should be an up-and-coming HF DXer who has made rapid progress in the last year and has some real achievements to show, for example, a good total of new countries worked or some serious HF DXpedition activity. Please send your nominations to Ian Greenshields, G4FSU by email to hf.manager@rsgb.org.uk  to arrive no later than Friday the 13th of September 2024. The RSGB remote exam invigilation team was delighted that the 8,000th Foundation candidate took and passed their exam online recently. This is a significant milestone since the Society introduced remote invigilation exams in 2020. The RSGB would like to thank the dedicated remote invigilation team and send its good wishes to all the candidates as they discover more about amateur radio! The July 2024 edition of RadCom Basics is now available on the RSGB website for members to read. RadCom Basics is aimed at new licensees or anyone who enjoys reading about the fundamental principles behind the many facets of amateur radio. Among others, this edition includes articles which cover the checking and testing of components, building and tuning dual-band end-fed half-wave antennas and the benefit of operating by the sea. To read RadCom Basics visit rsgb.org/radcom-basics Please send details of all your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk  The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursdays before the Sunday broadcast each week.  And now for details of rallies and events Part 1 of the British Amateur Television Club Convention for Amateur TV 2024, also known as CAT 24, is taking place today, the 4th, from 10 am to 4 pm. The venue is Midland Air Museum, Rowley Road, Coventry, CV3 4FR. The Convention provides opportunities for amateurs to meet, take part in show-and-tell activities, use test and fix equipment, and enjoy a bring-and-buy event. For more information follow the ‘Events' tab at batc.org.uk King's Lynn Amateur Radio Club's 34th Great Eastern Radio Rally is taking place today, the 4th. The Rally is being held at Gaywood Community Centre, Gayton Road, King's Lynn in Norfolk. The doors open at 9 am and admission will cost £2.50. Traders are welcome from 7 am. An outdoor pitch will cost £8, and indoors it will be £10 per table. Car parking is free. There will be trade stands, a bring-and-buy area and catering will be available on-site. For further information and reservations email rally.klarc@gmail.com Flight Refuelling Amateur Radio Society's Hamfest is taking place on Sunday the 11th of August. The venue is Cobham Sports and Social Club Ground, Merley, near Wimborne in Dorset. The doors will be open from 9 am to 4 pm and admission, which includes parking, costs £5. Catering and a bar will be available on-site. For more information and to make bookings visit frars.co.uk/hamfest Now the Special Event news International Cat Day is taking place on Thursday the 8th of August. To celebrate this, GB4CAT will be on the air from West Sussex from Thursday afternoon until the following Sunday evening. Activity will be on the HF bands, mainly on the 40m band, but the higher bands as well if they are open. As cats are loved internationally, Ed, M0MNG will attempt to speak as many foreign languages on the air as possible... even if it's just a word or two! Please see QRZ.com for more details. In celebration of the Olympic Games, Thierry, FY4JI is active as TO973FY from French Guiana until the 10th of August. He is operating SSB and FT8 and was spotted recently on the 10m band. QSL via EA5GL. Now the DX news Tom, W1EAT, is active as W1EAT/VK4 from Hamilton Island, OC-160, until tomorrow the 5th of August. He is operating QRP on the 20m band only. QSL via Logbook of the World or directly to Tom's home call. Pierre, VK3KTB is active as VY0ERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, until the 7th of August. He is mainly available on the 20, 15 and 10m bands, and also occasionally on the 17 and 12m bands. He operates SSB, CW and digital modes. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Now the contest news Today, the 4th, the 432MHz Low Power Contest runs from 0800 to 1200UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and two-letter postcode. On Tuesday the 6th, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday, the 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 7th, the 144MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday, the 144MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100 UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Thursday the 8th, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group Summer Marathon started on Saturday the 4th of May and ends today, Sunday the 4th of August. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is your four-character locator. The Worked All Europe DX CW Contest starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 10th and runs until 2359UTC on Sunday the 11th of August. Using CW on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 1st of August 2024 We had another week of high solar flux but unsettled geomagnetic indices. The solar flux index, or SFI, was above 200 from the 27th of July onwards. There was a worry that multiple coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, might push the Kp index up during the week. In the end, the Kp index didn't rise above 5. But why was that? The first of several CME eruptions was expected to pass Earth on the 29th of July. The solar wind speed increased from 330 kilometres per second to around 450 kilometres per second, but only a brief period of minor G1 geomagnetic storming was observed. The solar wind stream was fast, at more than 450 kilometres per second, but its frozen-in magnetic field was predominantly North-facing or neutral. So, it didn't couple with the Earth's magnetic field, and we ended up with a Kp index of only 5. If we had had a south-facing interplanetary magnetic field or Bz it could have been much worse. As it was, the ionosphere was affected on Wednesday the 31st of July. However, by 1830UTC things were back to normal, with a critical frequency of 7.4MHz, which gives a maximum usable frequency over a 3,000km path of around 21MHz. Further disturbances on Thursday the 1st of August saw the Kp index rise to 5 again, but it was short-lived and only lasted for one three-hour period. So, we are still in a period of high solar activity, with numerous M- and even X-class flares, coronal mass ejections and high sunspot numbers. With a cluster of sunspots rotating into view right now, it should be an interesting week ahead! The SFI is predicted to fall next week, perhaps to the 180s or 190s. Meanwhile, HF propagation remains good at times, although we are still feeling the effects of the summer doldrums, with reduced daytime maximum usable frequencies. Keep an eye on solarham.com for up-to-date geomagnetic information. The 15m band is still the favoured daytime DX band, with occasional F2-layer openings on the 12m and even 10m bands. However, most 10m openings are still due to Sporadic-E. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The weather patterns that drive some of our radio propagation conditions are in the process of changing. As we ended the previous week, there were still regions of high pressure near enough to southern areas for some useful Tropo across the North Sea, English Channel and south over Biscay.  The slow change towards low pressure dominating the charts will be gradually extending its influence over the whole country as we move into next week, so less Tropo and more interest in rain scatter. This has been available over some northern areas recently and from heavy thunderstorms in the south. It is probably going to be a useful mode for exploring the GHz bands in the coming week, particularly where heavy thundery rain occurs.  Meteor scatter is also a worthwhile pursuit since we are still in the broad period of the Delta Aquariids meteor shower and that eventually blends into the August Perseids later in the month. The solar conditions continue to be challenging and the Kp index has been high enough to make it worth thinking of checking for auroral conditions – either fluttery signals on the LF bands overnight, or perhaps auroral conditions on the VHF bands. The Kp index gets mentioned on all propagation websites these days, but spaceweather.com is a good source for that and much else too. Sporadic-E is still worth checking out and, although the summer jet stream pattern is usually pretty weak, it is still there, and the position is perhaps a bit more northerly now than earlier in the summer. This means that paths towards the east to Scandinavia and the Baltic might be worth looking for, although other directions can still happen, of course. Moon declination started to fall from Friday the 2nd, so Moon window lengths and peak Moon elevation will follow suit. With apogee on Thursday the 8th, path losses will be at their highest for the month. 144MHz sky noise is low until the evening of Saturday the 3rd when we see the Moon and Sun close in the sky until moonset on Sunday. After that, the sky noise is low. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

From Wednesday, January 24, 2024. If you take a compass and follow its pointy little needle, you will end up in Northern Canada but not at the North Pole. If you have a boat, you'll end up on Ellesmere Island wondering where Santa is hiding.    The fact that the rotational north pole of the Earth and the magnetic pole of the Earth don't align means that if you want to actually get to the Earth's rotational North Pole - the one the pole sticks out of on your globe - you have to look up corrections online and veer a little bit in whatever direction the correction happens to be at the moment. And if you are catching this show sometime far, far in the future, then Ellesmere Island, where that is true in early 2024, is likely no longer true.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

If you take a compass and follow its pointy little needle, you will end up in Northern Canada but not at the North Pole. If you have a boat, you'll end up on Ellesmere Island wondering where Santa is hiding. The fact that the rotational north pole of the Earth and the magnetic pole of the Earth don't align means that if you want to actually get to the Earth's rotational North Pole - the one the pole sticks out of on your globe - you have to look up corrections online and veer a little bit in whatever direction the correction happens to be at the moment. And if you are catching this show sometime far, far in the future, then Ellesmere Island that is true in early 2024 is likely no longer true.

I have just published Episode #88, Season 4, of my Wild Nature Photography Podcast. In this episode, I retrospectively look back at the travel and workshops from 2023 and dive into the 2024 year of travel ahead. During the year 2023, I guided twelve different workshops and expeditions around the world, as well as several private workshops and multiple print and processing workshops. Links to the 2023 Trip Reports are included below. My book pick of the year is Vincent Munier's new masterpiece 'Munier' (Podcast review coming very soon) and my gear pick of the year is the Canon RF 100-500mm lens. Also included is the news of an exciting new ambassadorship appointment with Mr. Jan Gear (I will have more to say on that topic in a future blog post). Lastly, my favourite photographs from 2023 can be seen online HERE.January 2023 Pallas Cat Expedition to Eastern Mongolia Trip ReportJanuary 2023 Snow Leopard of Western Mongolia Trip ReportFebruary 2023 Arctic Foxes in Iceland in Winter Trip ReportMarch 2023 Ellesmere Island in Search of the White Wolf Expedition ReportApril 2023 Svalbard Spring Light Expedition ReportMay 2023 Zululand South Africa Workshop ReportJune 2023 Barrow Alsaka Scouting Trip ReportSeptember 2023 Wild Wolves of the Taiga Forest Workshop ReportSeptember 2023 Eagle Owl and Golden Eagle Workshop ReportOctober 2023 Greenland East Coast Winters Cusp Expedition ReportSeptember 2023 Icleand North East Landscape Extension ReportDecember 2023 Antarctica Return to the White Continent Expedition ReportSupport the showWild Nature Photo TravelPhotography Workshops and Expeditions around the Worldwww.wildnaturephototravel.comSupport the Show and fellow Nature Photographer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko/membershipFind us on Social MediaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Joshuaholko/Twitter: https://twitter.com/HolkoJoshuaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuaholko/Need to Contact us? info@jholko.com

GB2RS News Sunday the 19th of November 2023 The news headlines: World Radio Conference WRC-23 VHF Contest Committee survey “Taking Amateur Radio into schools” RSGB presentation released   World Radio Conference WRC-23 opens on Monday the 20th of November. Over the coming four weeks, a wide variety of agenda items will be considered, of which the 23cm band is a high-priority item for amateur radio. IARU volunteers have worked hard over the past four years in preparation for this. The RSGB will be attending as part of the Ofcom UK delegation. The RSGB's social media and special focus page at rsgb.org/wrc-23 will feature regular postings whilst the conference is underway.  Following a really productive contest forum at the RSGB Convention, and a number of suggestions generated by the committee or raised in discussions with contesters, the VHF Contest Committee would like feedback to help finalise the VHF Contest rules for next year. The survey doesn't have many questions so it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes of your time to fill it out, but the committee would really appreciate your views. Of course, there is also an opportunity for you to give feedback outside of those specific questions. You'll find the survey at tinyurl.com/VHFCC and it will remain open until the end of the month. As part of its commitment to outreach and the growth of amateur radio, the RSGB has released a presentation from its 2023 Convention, called “Taking amateur radio into schools”. Lyall Smith GM4XID, Chris Leviston M0KPW, and Simon Harris G4WQG, share their experiences of inspiring school pupils to explore and have fun with amateur radio. Lyall set up an amateur radio club in his school whilst Chris started an afterschool club at his daughter's primary school. Simon, with the help of friends at his amateur radio club, created links with his son's technical college that have snowballed to other schools in the area. The presentation shows how individual radio amateurs and clubs can make positive and productive links with schools and will give you tips and encouragement for getting involved with your local schools. The Bath Based Distance Learning team has helped over a thousand students to pass UK amateur radio exams with pass rates consistently above the national average. The next Intermediate course will run from January to May 2024. Students will receive weekly work packages via a virtual classroom. There will be no charge for the training, but students will need to provide their own textbook, scientific calculator, electronic parts and tool kit. Students will also have to arrange their own exam at the end of the course, but advice will be provided at the appropriate time. As part of the application process, there will be some pre-course work to ensure students are able to use the online learning systems and to be sure they are ready to study in January. To receive course application details, please email Bath Based Distance Learning Team Leader Steve, G0FUW, via g0fuw@bbdl.org.uk The RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. There will be reduced hours on New Year's Eve when the Centre will be closing at 2 pm. Following the seasonal closures, the RSGB National Radio Centre will also be closed for essential maintenance works between the 2nd and 5th of January 2024. Outside of these times, volunteers look forward to welcoming visitors as usual. Remember that RSGB Members can download a free entry voucher for Bletchley Park from the RSGB website rsgb.org/bpvoucher Please send details of your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk  The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursday before the Sunday broadcast.   And now for details of rallies and events The Coulsdon Amateur Transmitting Society Bazaar is taking place today, Sunday the 19th of November. The venue is Oasis Academy, Homefield Road, Old Coulsdon, CR5 1ES. Doors are open to the public from 10am to 2pm and the entrance fee is £3. Traders, bring and buy, club tables and car parking are available. Please forward general enquiries to bazaar@catsradio.org.uk The Wiltshire Winter Radio Rally will take place on Saturday the 25th of November from 9am to 1pm. The venue is Kington Langley Village Hall and Playing Field, Kington Langley, Wiltshire, SN15 5NJ. Entry costs £3. There is no charge for under 16s. For further information please contact chairman@chippenhamradio.club Bishop Auckland Radio Amateur Club Rally will take place on Sunday the 3rd of December. The event will be held at Spennymoor Leisure Centre, High Street, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 6DB. The doors open at 10.30am for visitors, with disabled access from 10 am. For more information, contact bdingle@hotmail.co.uk   Now the Special Event News Radio Club de Nice is active as TM8AB to commemorate the anniversary of the first transatlantic amateur two-way contact between Leon Deloy, 8AB and Fred Schnell, 1MO in November 1923. Listen for activity on the 80 to 10m bands using SSB, CW, FT8 and SSTV until the 10th of December. QSL via F4KJQ. Special callsign LX90RTL is in use to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Radio Luxembourg's first long-wave broadcast. It will be used by various LX operators until the end of the year. Look for activity on the HF bands using SSB, CW, digital modes, and satellite. All QSOs will be confirmed automatically via the DARC bureau. The logs will be uploaded to Club Log, Logbook of the World and eQSL on a regular basis. See QRZ.com for more information.   Now the DX news Pierre, VK3KTB and Alexey, VE1RUS are active as VY0ERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, until the 22nd of November. QSL via OQRS. Maurizio, IK2GZU is active again from Tanzania as 5H3MB until the 8th of December. He is operating using SSB, CW and digital modes on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via OQRS, Logbook of the World, eQSL or via IK2GZU.   Now the contest news On Tuesday the 21st of November, the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 23cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 23rd of November, the Autumn Series CW Contest runs from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The CQ World Wide DX CW Contest runs from 0000UTC on Saturday the 25th of November to 2359UTC on Sunday the 26th of November. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and CQ zone. The UK is in zone 14.   Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 16th of November 2023 We had another roller-coaster week with periods of reasonably settled geomagnetic conditions followed by more unsettled times. Luckily, it didn't get too bad, as it did when the Kp index hit seven the week before. This, coupled with a lower solar flux index of 119 on Thursday, has meant HF conditions have not been outstanding. However, we are still buoyed by the seasonal HF conditions, which are generally good in Autumn. Propquest shows that the F2-layer critical frequency is still maxing out at more than 12MHz around noon. The F2-layer critical frequency is the highest at which radio waves are returned back to Earth when sent directly up into the ionosphere. This gives us a maximum usable frequency, or MUF, over a 3,000km path of more than 40MHz. Interestingly, it also gives us an MUF over a 500km path of more than 14.7MHz. So, look out for long-distance inter-G signals around noon, or thereabouts, on the 20m band. The 30m band remains a pretty solid inter-G band from late morning to mid-afternoon. Getting back to the geomagnetic conditions, the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field or IMF has been pointing south for long periods which is why the Kp index has been higher than normal. This means the IMF more easily couples to the Earth's magnetic field, just like two bar magnets aligned north against south. Next week, NOAA predicts the solar flux index will rise again, perhaps reaching 140 by the end of the week. However, it also forecasts unsettled geomagnetic conditions from the 22nd  to the 25th, with a forecast Kp index of up to 5. So, get your HF DXing in early next week!   And now the VHF and up propagation news The seemingly never-ending period of unsettled weather is likely to continue into the coming week. This means another week with only a limited chance of Tropo for most parts of the country. As something of a longshot, it's worth noting that southern parts of England, especially along the Channel coast, may have access to higher pressure over Biscay after the middle of next week for chance Tropo paths south into western France or northern Spain. For the rest of us, the weather pattern is rather changeable with a tendency for north-westerly winds. At this time of year, this can often mean that showers form over the surrounding seas. Rain scatter options could be worth checking for stations around the Irish and North Sea coasts. Meteor scatter is also worth considering, in view of the peak of the Leonids, on Friday the 17th and Saturday the 18th, at the beginning of this first weekend. It's quite a broad period of activity and, with the minor Moncerotids shower peaking on the 22nd, conditions could still be good throughout the new week. Lastly a thought about the chances of aurora and the busy solar activity: it's worth keeping a check on the planetary Kp index for signs of aurora – look for a Kp above six. For EME operators, Moon declination starts at a minimum but rises all week, going positive again late on Wednesday. Losses are at their lowest with Moon perigee on Tuesday the 21st. 144MHz sky noise is low all week. Perigee is when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

This week, Mike Gunton talks to the filmmakers that have lived in extreme locations for weeks at a time to capture the amazing animal sequences we love. Planet Earth II Producer Emma Napper describes her time camping alongside creepy-crawlies while filming in the Brazilian rainforest, while Alex Walters recalls her time on the isolated Ellesmere Island, filming wolves for Planet Earth III, and some of the close calls that come with living so close to wild predators. Sir David Attenborough remembers his own experiences on location, from the camaraderie in camp, to the frustration at trying to spot and film animals that don't want to be seen.

GB2RS News Sunday the 5th of November 2023 The news headlines: • Exam funding for youngsters • Tonight@8 webinar • RSGB affiliated club Course and Exam Finder map The Radio Communications Foundation, or RCF, is a small charity that seeks to promote radio engineering and amateur radio. Last year, several teachers identified the cost of Foundation exams as a barrier for some young people. The RCF Trustees considered how they might help. Funding exams for every youngster was seen to be unaffordable, and unnecessary, in many cases. As a start, and to help those with the greatest need, the Trustees have agreed to fund 60 Foundation exams each year. The funding will be available to anyone who is under the age of 21, in full-time education and needs help with the exam fee. Fifteen exams will be funded every three months. The first batch of 15 exams will be funded in January 2024. If any of the allocated funds are not used, they will be rolled over to the next quarter. No money will change hands as the RCF Trustees will simply make the bookings and pay the RSGB. In time, there will be a simple online application form. In the meantime, anyone seeking funding should send their details to rcfsecretary@commsfoundation.org with a supporting statement from a parent or guardian about why they would benefit from an RCF-funded exam. Details of their interest in amateur radio, and how they have trained, or are training, for the Foundation exam will also help the Trustees make their decisions. If the scheme proves to be successful, and amateurs continue to donate to the RCF, there may be scope for increasing the number of exams funded each year. Further details about the RCF, and how to donate, can be found at commsfoundation.org Don't forget to be part of the RSGB's Tonight@8 webinar tomorrow, Monday the 6th of November. Colin Summers, MM0OPX will give an entry-level talk aimed at newcomers to amateur radio. He will touch on antennas generally but will focus on the end-fed half-wave antenna including details of construction, transformers and performance. Find out more at rsgb.org/webinars The RSGB-affiliated club Course and Exam Finder map has been relaunched this week. All affiliated clubs were invited by email to submit information about the courses and exams that they run. The replies that were received are now on the RSGB website. If you use the search function and it doesn't show any results, you will need to widen your search area. If your club provides training or holds exams and it isn't shown on the map, please go to rsgb.org/examupdate and complete the form. If you need any help, you can email exams@rsgb.org.uk  Additional information will be uploaded each week, so please submit any changes before 3 p.m. on Fridays. The RSGB is delighted to welcome Elaine Richards, G4LFM as the new volunteer RSGB Archivist. Elaine is a former RadCom Managing Editor and was keen to continue to oversee the RSGB archives when she retired from her RadCom role last year. If you would like more information about an old amateur radio photo or document or want to check something in the RSGB archives, you can contact Elaine via archivist@rsgb.org.uk Thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets at the RSGB Convention last month to raise money for the DXpedition Fund. The Fund has already made donations to expeditions such as Bouvet, Swains, Rockall and Tuvalu this year. If you're planning a DXpedition to a rare destination and would like to apply, go to the RSGB website and search for ‘DXpedition Fund'. And now for details of rallies and events Bushvalley Amateur Radio Club Rally is taking place today, Sunday the 5th of November. The venue is Limavady United Football Club, Rathmore Road, Limavady, BT49 0DF. Several traders are in attendance and there is a bring-and-buy stand. The doors open at 11 am and car parking is available on site. For more information visit bushvalleyarc.org or email bushvalleyarc@gmail.com Holsworthy Radio Rally is also taking place today, Sunday the 5th of November. The venue is Holsworthy Leisure Centre, Well Park, Western Road, Holsworthy, Devon, EX22 6DH. There are traders, a bring-and-buy area and catering available. Access for traders is available from 8 am. The doors open to the public at 10 am. See m0omc.co.uk for more information and contact details. A final reminder now that the 2023 Scottish Microwave Round Table, or GMRT, will be held between 10.30 am and 5 pm on Saturday the 11th of November. Please email Colin, GM4HWO via gm4hwo@gmail.com for more information. The Rochdale and District Amateur Radio Society Winter Rally will take place on Saturday the 18th of November. The venue will be St Vincent de Paul's Hall, Norden, Rochdale, Lancs, OL12 7QR. The doors open from 10 am and entry will be £3. The usual traders, caterers and plenty of free parking will be available. All proceeds from this rally will go to a local charity. Last time £1000 was given to the Rochdale Springhill Hospice. For more information, please contact Dave Carden, G3RIK on 01706 633 400 or email dave@cardens.me.uk The Coulsdon Amateur Transmitting Society Bazaar will take place on Sunday the 19th of November. The venue will be Oasis Academy, Homefield Road, Old Coulsdon, CR5 1ES. Doors open to the public from 10 am to 2 pm and the entrance fee will be £3. Traders bring and buy, club tables and car parking will be available. The tables cost £12, with additional tables priced at £8. Please forward general enquiries to bazaar@catsradio.org.uk Now the Special Event News The ONZ Oostkust Radioclub, ON6HC is active on all bands and modes as OR79CLM until the 12th of November. The special callsign's suffix stands for Canadian Liberation March, the annual event that celebrates the liberation of the Belgian town of Knokke on the 1st of November 1944. QSL via the bureau. For more information, and details of an available certificate, visit onz.be The Amateur Radio Union of Serbia, YU1SRS, hosted the 26th IARU Region 1 General Conference between the 1st and 4th of November. Special callsign YT26IARU was issued to mark the occasion and may be operated until the 31st of December by the hosting Society, as well as by the Conference amateur radio station. QSL via Logbook of the World. Now the DX news Pierre, VK3KTB and Alexey, VE1RUS are active again as VY0ERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, until the 22nd of November. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Philippe, F1DUZ is active as FG4KH from Guadeloupe, NA-102, until the 7th of November. QSL via Logbook of the World, eQSL, or via F1DUZ. Now the contest news The 144MHz CW Marconi Contest started at 1400UTC on Saturday the 4th of November and ends at 1400UTC today, Sunday the 5th of November. Using CW on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday the 6th, the Autumn Series Data Contest runs from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using RTTY and PSK63 on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday the 7th, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 7th, the 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 8th, the 432MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday the 8th, the 432MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Thursday the 9th, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday the 11th, the Club Calls 1.8MHz Affiliated Societies Contest runs from 2000 to 2300UTC. Using CW and SSB on the 160m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and your affiliated society information. The Worked All Europe DX RTTY Contest starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 11th and ends at 2359UTC on Sunday the 12th of November. Using RTTY only on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Sunday the 12th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on 1.3 to 3.4GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 2nd of November 2023 The last two weeks have not been too bad for HF propagation, but not particularly good either. The solar flux index hit lows of 119 on the 22nd of October and 121 on the 24th, but subsequently recovered and stood at 159 on Thursday the 2nd of November. This at least allayed the fears of some amateurs that Solar Cycle 25 was over! But, as the solar flux index rose, geomagnetic conditions became slightly unsettled. The maximum Kp index was 4.67 on the 29th of October but has subsequently recovered to between 1 and 3. This didn't affect HF too much with the daylight maximum useable frequency over 3,000km remaining steadfastly over 28MHz all week, even hitting 43MHz on Thursday the 2nd. As a result, the bands have been humming with lots of DX being worked. Phil, GU0SUP reports working Jan, E51JAN on the North Cook Islands on 12m FT8 Fox and Hound mode at around 1630UTC. He said that, as it was almost dark, he didn't expect to hear anything, but had a good copy on him at 190 degrees, so gave him a call. He came straight back. Phil said that this was a big surprise, and he is not sure how it worked. It was quite a skewed path, with pretty much no copy on the real headings, short or long path. He also worked YJ0TT Vanuatu on 10m at 0843UTC that morning, and later at 1741UTC on 20m FT8 Fox and Hound mode. As Phil said: “Two new DXCCs in one day!” So, the moral of the story is to keep on trying – you never know what you will work! Next week NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will decline slightly to the 130s. A bigger problem is a massive coronal hole, which is rotating into an Earth-facing position. This could cause the Kp index to rise, possibly on Sunday the 5th or Monday the 6th.  NOAA also predicts a geomagnetic disturbance on November 9th when the Kp index could rise to four. Otherwise, it suggests fairly settled conditions and a general Kp index of two. As always, keep an eye on solarham.net for up-to-date information. And now the VHF and up propagation news The current spell of unsettled weather with areas of low pressure, strong winds and rain or showers will probably remain over the coming week to the 12th of November. This again suggests that Tropo will not be a feature of VHF/UHF operating and perhaps there are just a few weak options for rain scatter to lift the mood.  Since comments last week about out-of-season Sporadic-E propagation, we are still getting weak Sporadic-E signals on the graph plots on propquest.co.uk which peaked at 5.35MHz at Dourbes on Wednesday the 1st of November, at 1700UTC. This may have been enough to produce paths on 6m band data modes. Favoured times of day for these chance events are typically around 10 a.m. or 5 p.m. Meteor scatter prospects are still good since the decaying Orionids are probably lingering up until the 7th, and we approach the peak of the Taurids around the 12th of November. The week after, we'll be looking forward to the November Leonids. So if you've not tried meteor scatter yet, this may be a good time to read up on modes, frequencies and operating techniques. Lastly, a brief mention of aurora, which is always possible given a decent coronal hole event like last week. So keep a check on the Kp index for larger values above, say, 5. For EME operators, Moon declination is at maximum this weekend, meaning long Moon windows and high Moon elevation. Path losses are at their highest over the period due to apogee on Tuesday the 6th and 144MHz sky noise is low all week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Released Wednesday, August 2, 2023 I always thought that Alert, Canada was so named because of the military operations (since it is North America's closest point to Russia (the former USSR). Not quite! Let's head to Ellesmere Island, Canada as we explore our Big Blue Marble! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/andrebernier/support

GB2RS News Sunday the 9th of July 2023 The news headlines: New ATV display at the RSGB's National Radio Centre Film award for members of Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend A new amateur TV display has just been installed at the RSGB's National Radio Centre, with signals received via the wide-band segment of the geostationary satellite QO-100. The Society is delighted to be able to demonstrate amateur TV as a permanent display at the NRC, helping to highlight yet another exciting aspect of our technical hobby. A special configuration, developed in conjunction with the British Amateur Television Club, incorporates a touch screen from which visitors can select a signal to be tuned, decoded and displayed on the large monitor. The RSGB would like to thank Justin, G8YTZ for designing the display and working with the BATC for the specially adapted configuration. A short film produced by members of the Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society has won a top award at the 2023 Doric Film Festival. The film was the joint winner in the ‘Groups' category of the prestigious festival that showcases the distinctive Doric language and culture, most closely associated with North-East Scotland. The film includes a specially written fiddle music theme, based on Morse code. You can find the film by searching for ‘Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society Groups DFF Entry' on YouTube. A reminder now that International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend is coming up soon. The event is usually held on the third weekend of August which this year is the 19th and 20th. It is one of the most popular amateur radio events in the calendar and in past years there have been more than 500 entries from over 40 different countries. More details about the event and a registration form can be found at illw.net There is so much happening at the RSGB's National Radio Centre that it needs to expand its team of volunteers! If you can volunteer at weekends, you will be particularly welcome. The National Radio Centre has a fabulous set-up and full training on using the GB3RS radio station will be given. You will be joining a friendly and dedicated team. NRC volunteers also enjoy numerous benefits associated with volunteering at Bletchley Park. You should enjoy meeting people and be able to volunteer for one or two days per month. For more information please email NRC Coordinator Martyn Baker, G0GMB via nrc.support@rsgb.org.uk Please send details of all your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursdays before the Sunday broadcast each week. And now for details of rallies and events The Cornish Radio Amateur Club Rally is taking place today, Sunday the 9th of July, at Penair School, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 1TN.  The doors open at 10.30 am and admission is £3. There are traders, bring and buy and club stalls. Car parking and catering are available on-site. Contact Ken, G0FIC on 01209 821073 for more information. The McMichael Radio and Electronics Rally and Car Boot Sale will take place on Sunday the 16th of July. The venue will be Reading Rugby Club which offers a bar and catering facilities and has ample free parking. Admission will be £3 per person and £10 per table for traders. Visit mcmichaelrally.org.uk for more information and contact details. The Finningley ARS Rally 2023 will take place on Sunday the 23rd of July at Belton Road, Sandtoft, Doncaster, DN8 5SX. The doors will be open from 10 am and a food bar will be available. For more information visit g0ghk.com Wiltshire Radio and Car Boot Sale will take place on Sunday the 30th of July at Kington Langley Village Hall and Playing Field, Kington Langley, Wiltshire SN15 5NJ. The event will start at 9 am and finish at 1 pm. There is a £2 entry fee for traders. Indoor tables cost £10. Admittance for car booters is £10, and for vans, it is £15. For further information please contact Chairman@Chippenhamradio.club Now the Special Event News Guernsey Amateur Radio Society is running a special event station GB5IG until the 14th of July to celebrate the 19th Island Games, which is held every two years. The station will be active using SSB, digital modes, possibly satellite and CW, on HF, VHF and UHF bands. More information is available on QRZ.com VX7NA is the special callsign in use by the Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association, until the 24th of July, to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The Association is based on Vancouver Island, NA-036. QSL via VE7NA. Now the DX news Pierre, VK3KTB will be active as VY0ERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, until the 12th of July. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Rag, LB3RE will be active on the 40 to 6m bands as DU1/LB3RE from Luzon Island, OC-042, until the 18th of July. QSL via Logbook of the World, Club Log, or via his home call. Bo, OZ1DJJ will be active as OX3LX from Qaanaaq, on the main island of Greenland, NA-018, until the 18th of July. He will focus on the 6 and 4m bands but will also be QRV on the HF bands. A side trip to Herbert Island, NA-134, or Meteorite Island, is possible. QSL via Logbook of the World, Club Log, or direct to OZ0J.  Now the contest news Today, Sunday the 9th of July, the UK Microwave Group 24, 47 and 76GHz Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes on 24, 47 and 76GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The IARU HF Championship ends its 24-hour run at 1200UTC today, Sunday the 9th of July. Using CW and SSB on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and ITU zone. The UK is in zone 27. In particular, listen out for the RSGB HQ station operating as GR2HQ from a variety of different locations using CW and SSB. A team of operators at different stations will be on the air simultaneously on all the available contest bands. On Tuesday the 11th of July, the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 11th of July, the 432MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Wednesday the 12th of July, the 432MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday the 12th of July, the 432MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Wednesday the 12th of July, the 80m Club Championship SSB Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using SSB on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Thursday the 13th of July, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday the 15th of July, the 70MHz Trophy Contest runs from 1400 to 2000UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and two-letter postcode. On Sunday the 16th of July, the International Low Power Contest runs from 0900 to 1600UTC. Using CW on the 80, 40 and 20m bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and TX power.  Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 6th of July 2023 NOAA's prediction that the Solar Flux Index, or SFI, would decline last week didn't come to fruition. In fact, the SFI stayed in the 160s and 170s until Thursday, when it declined to 155. The Sun produced more than 160 sunspots in June, the highest monthly number in more than two decades. This has led some newspapers to run more doom and gloom stories about solar Armageddon, while we amateurs look forward to some F2-layer DX! Unfortunately, more sunspots do mean more chance of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, but we have to take the rough with the smooth. As an example, we had an X1-class solar flare on the 2nd of June. This occurred at 2314UTC so didn't affect the UK, but did cause an R3 radio blackout over the west coast of the USA and Pacific. Otherwise, there is still DX to be bagged for well-equipped stations, such as Eric, FP/KV1J on St Pierre and Miquelon islands on 12m FT8, and Marek, FH4VVK, on Mayotte island, on 10m FT8. Other DX worked this week by CDXC members includes the 4W6RU DXpedition on Timor Leste on various bands; Robert, 9N7AA in Nepal on 12m FT4; and V31XX in Belize on 20m CW. Next week, the Space Weather Prediction Centre has the SFI at 155, rising to 175 by the end of the week. Unfortunately, the Kp index is forecast to rise to four over the weekend, possibly due to a large Earth-facing coronal hole, and again up to Kp five on the 12th and 13th. If it happens, expect noisy bands and a decline in the maximum usable frequency. As always, we encourage you to get on the HF bands, in the evening, nighttime and especially around dawn, which is when a lot of HF DX is being worked. And now the VHF and up propagation news Low pressure dominates the whole weather pattern this coming week, driven by an active meandering jet stream across the Atlantic. This provides several regions where the turbulence, generated on the edge of these strong winds up at 10km, can propagate upwards to trigger Sporadic-E propagation at about 110km height in the E region. So, unsurprisingly, Sporadic-E will feature as a ‘go-to mode' for the coming week. Typically, single-hop paths within Europe will produce very strong signals, whereas multi-hop paths, for example across the Atlantic, will require several such refraction points from Sporadic-E patches, plus intervening reflections from the sea surface, and will have much higher losses. These will usually be weak signals and probably very fleeting in view of the complex geometry of such paths. Tropo need not concern us this week, but rain scatter is worth a look since the unsettled weather will provide several heavy rainfall events in some areas. Look for the brighter echoes on the rainfall radar displays, especially those associated with thunderstorms. Random meteors could be useful in the early morning hours. We also have the start of two showers, Alpha Capricornids and Delta Aquarids, during next week, which don't actually reach a peak until the end of July. So prospects for meteor scatter and Sporadic-E propagation are improving this month. The aurora chances may be reasonable initially in view of the recent coronal hole transition, so keep an eye on the Kp index. Moon declination goes positive on Sunday so there will be lengthening Moon windows. Path losses are currently low but will rise all week. 144MHz sky noise is low to moderate all week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS News Sunday the 2nd of April 2023 The news headlines: March 2023 edition of RadCom Basics Coronation activities Nominated Director vacancy   The March 2023 edition of RadCom Basics is now available on the RSGB website for Members to read. It is for new licensees or anyone who wants an introduction to a different aspect of amateur radio. This edition features articles which cover: QRP operating, an introduction to Andy's Ham Radio Linux software, basic fault finding and how to have fun on the 10m band. To read RadCom Basics visit rsgb.org/radcom-basics The RSGB has just published a new section on its website with further details of its Coronation celebration activities. More information will be added over the coming weeks so do check back for updates. Go to rsgb.org/coronation to find out more. The resignation of Richard Horton, G4AOJ has left an RSGB Board vacancy for a Nominated Director. The Society needs to embrace new methods of working to help meet the changing needs of the amateur community. Candidates with experience in change management, for example, would be welcomed. The RSGB needs a strong and effective Board; this could be your opportunity to be part of that. To find out more, go to the volunteer vacancies section of the RSGB website at rsgb.org/volunteers or, for an informal discussion, please email Nominations Committee Chair Stephen Purser, GW4SHF at nominations.chair@rsgb.org.uk The RSGB's Tonight@8 live webinar series continues this Monday the 3rd of April with a presentation called “Sheep Worrier: A High Altitude Balloon Flight and Recovery System” by Heather Nickalls, M0HMO. Heather will cover an introduction to flying High Altitude Balloons, the radio systems involved, some science experiments she did on her flights, the recovery system developed to help find the payload when it lands and, of course, lots of pictures from ‘almost' the edge of space. You can ask questions live during the presentation via the RSGB YouTube channel or the special BATC channel. Find out more about this and other webinars on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/webinars Matthew Smith, M0VWS is moving on from his role as RadCom Technical Editor to pursue other opportunities. The RSGB thanks Matthew for all his work and wishes him well for the future. The RSGB is now seeking to recruit a new Technical Editor for RadCom. Reporting to the Managing Editor, the successful candidate will need a wide range of radio and electronic knowledge, including amateur radio. The RSGB is looking for someone positive, enthusiastic about technology, has an excellent command of English and has a good eye for detail. For more information about the role and how to apply, see rsgb.org/careers   And now for details of rallies and events The Hack Green Military Surplus and Military Radio Hanger Sale is taking place today, Sunday the 2nd of April. The venue is Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 8AL. The sale includes electronic equipment, amateur gear, components, military radio items and vehicle spares. For more information email coldwar@hackgreen.co.uk or visit www.hackgreen.co.uk Yeovil Amateur Radio Club's 37th QRP Convention will take place on Saturday the 15th of April at The Digby Hall, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3AA. Doors open from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm and admission is £3. The Convention will feature talks, traders, bring and buy, club stalls and a café. For more information visit yeovil-arc.com or contact qrp@yeovil-arc.com The Cambridgeshire Repeater Group Rally will take place on Sunday the 16th of April. The venue will be Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6RN. Doors open at 7.30 am for traders and 9.30 am for visitors. Admission is £3. The rally will feature a talk-in, trade stands, bring and buy, an RSGB Bookstall and free car parking. For more information contact Lawrence, M0LCM on 07941 972 724, email rally2023@cambridgerepeaters.net and see the cambridgerepeaters.net website. The Holsworthy Spring Rally and Boot Sale will also take place on Sunday the 16th of April. The venue will be Holsworthy Livestock Market, Holsworthy, Devon EX22 7FA. There will be plenty of parking, wheelchair access and full catering available. The doors open to the public from 10 am. For more details contact the club secretary Ken, G7VJA via email at m0omc@m0omc.co.uk and visit the m0omc.co.uk website. Now the Special Event News Celebrating World Amateur Radio Day, DARC special event callsign DA23WARD will be active until the 18th of April. All QSOs will be confirmed automatically via the bureau. Direct cards will be managed via DL2VFR. Special callsign II1CAI will be active until the 30th of June. The callsign celebrates the 100th anniversary of the local section of the Italian Alpine Club, founded in 1863. QSL via IQ1NO. 9M8SOTA and 9M8BOTA are the special callsigns that 9M8HAZ and others will be using during 2023 while operating from various mountains and beaches in Sarawak, East Malaysia. QSL for both callsigns via 9M8HAZ directly or, via Logbook of the World and Club Log. OE40XTU is the special callsign being used by OE1XTU, the Amateur Radio Club at the Vienna University of Technology during 2023 to celebrate its 40th anniversary. QSL via eQSL is preferred. QSL via Logbook of the World is also accepted. Paper cards requested via Club Log's OQRS will be issued in early 2024.  Now the DX news Luca, HB9OBD will be active as D44KIT from Sal Island, Cape Verde, AF-086, until the 5th of April. He will operate SSB and FT8 on the 40, 20, 15 and 10m bands. QSL via Logbook of the World, eQSL, or via EB7DX. Pierre, VK3KTB will be active as VY0ERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, until the 12th of April. He will be operating using SSB, FT8 and CW on the 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10m bands. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS page. Diya, YI1DZ has been in Juba, South Sudan since the 13th of March and expects to remain there until the 22nd of April. He operates SSB and FT8 as Z81D in his spare time. QSL via Club Log's OQRS and Logbook of the World, or via OM3JW. Bernhard, DL2GAC will be active in the Solomon Islands until the end of April. He plans to operate as H44MS from Malaita, OC-047, on a daily basis. He will be operating on the 80 to 6m bands using SSB and some FT8. QSL via his home call, direct or via the bureau. He will upload his log to Club Log and Logbook of the World when he returns home.   Now the contest news Today, Sunday the 2nd of April, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 1000 to 1600UTC. Using All modes on the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The SP DX Contest began yesterday, Saturday the 1st of April, at 1500UTC. The contest ends today, Sunday the 2nd of April at 1500UTC. Using CW and SSB on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Polish stations send their province code. On Monday the 3rd of April, the 80m Club Championship runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday the 4th of April, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, on Tuesday the 4th of April, the 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 5th of April, the 144MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also, on Wednesday the 5th of April, the 144MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. Also, on Wednesday the 5th of April, the UK and Ireland Contest Club Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB on the 80m band, the exchange is your six-character locator. Next Sunday, the 9th of April, the Worked All Britain Data Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC and from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using data modes on the 80 to 20m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain square.  Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 30th of March 2023 We were right in our prediction about the effects of the large solar coronal hole last week, which saw the Kp index peak at 7.67 with widespread aurora visible from the UK, even in the south. This was probably the most significant geomagnetic event we have had so far in this solar cycle. Last week saw another X1.2 solar flare erupt on the Sun. This one erupted from active region 3256 on the 29th of March at 0233UTC. It didn't impact the ionosphere over the UK, but a fadeout was observed over the Pacific region. This was the seventh major solar flare since 2023 began. The Sun has now matched 2022's total –and it's only March! The associated CME off the southwestern limb of the Sun was modelled and determined to be well ahead of the Earth's orbit. This means that we are unlikely to see the Kp index rise as a result of this event. This region also produced an M1.2 flare that peaked around 1407UTC and an M1.1 flare at 2347UTC. The earlier flare didn't seem to affect the ionosphere too much according to the ionosonde data. A minor solar wind stream is heading for Earth and is due on Saturday the 1st of April. The material is flowing from a relatively small coronal hole in the Sun's atmosphere, but it is on the equator and very Earth-centric. Expect Arctic auroras and an elevated Kp index when the solar wind arrives this weekend. The SFI remained fairly static, around 160, earlier in the week but then declined to 148 on Thursday the 30th. NOAA predicts that this decline will continue next week, perhaps down to the low 130s. Once the weekend's geomagnetic conditions recover, NOAA predicts that the rest of the week should be quite settled. This is good news for HF propagation, although do continue to watch out for solar flares and CME activity which could affect conditions and MUFs. And now the VHF and up propagation news We have three phases of weather to consider over the next week. Forecasts predicted an unsettled weekend with rain and strong winds, so should have provided a focus for rain scatter on the GHz bands. The weekend ends with developing high pressure which lasts into early next week. There is good potential for some tropo from Sunday afternoon until about Tuesday lunchtime. At the time of writing, the best paths are likely to be from southern England into the near continent, also via Biscay to northern Spain and across the southern North Sea to Denmark. The third phase occurs when the high moves to the south to allow fronts to move in from the Atlantic across northern Britain, but possibly still leaving tropo into France and across Biscay. Later in the week, the high pressure may head back north again to reintroduce tropo to northern areas. The Sporadic-E season is fast approaching, typically from mid-April on 10m. If anything does happen before then, check the propquest.co.uk website for the Es blog tab, which shows the current day's jet streams and will maybe provide a clue for which direction to beam. Remember to look for aurora if the Kp index reaches five or more and, of course, meteor scatter around dawn for those random meteor QSOs.  For EME operators, Moon declination is positive until Wednesday, so still plenty of Moon time to get some QSOs in. Perigee was last Thursday, so path losses are now falling. 144MHz sky noise is low, rising slowly throughout the week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Classification: [History] In 1950s, the Cold War was heating up, and Canada was desperate to protect its Northern Territories. The solution was to forcibly relocate indigenous people to the far north without proper food or shelter to act as human flagpoles. Join Ovpod today as we tell the Canadian story of sacrificing Inuit lives for geopolitical goals. Lead Researcher:Leon Filger Poison: Leon's Uncles Dusty old Wine Topics Mentioned: High Arctic relocation, Inuit, Louis St. Laurent, Prime Minister, Cold War, Arctic Archipelago, Soviet Union, Russia, indigenous, Resolute, Grise Fiord, Inukjuak, Ellesmere Island, Cornwallis Island, Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Eskimo problem, Eskimo, Hudson's Bay Company, beluga whale -Pallet Cleanser- “Katajjaq from Hudson Bay” Soria Eyituk and Lusi Kuni Canada: Inuit Games and Songs  

For trademark owners, increasing brand recognition can sometimes be a mixed blessing. Well-known marks can start to be more than just strong source identifiers. They can be the targets of parody, criticism, social commentary, and other uses that go beyond the consumer goodwill attached to a mark. Concerns about free expression and free speech start to enter the equation. Featured guest Janet Marvel helps unpack the interplay between recognizing trademark rights while protecting expression that falls within the purview of the First Amendment. She's a talented and experienced trademark practitioner, instructor, and author. We are fortunate to have her share her knowledge and insights on this area of trademark law.In this episode, Jeff Harty and Janet Marvel discuss: Brand essence and the power of brands. Developing a good brand strategy.Counterfeiting and e-commerce. The balance between free speech and trademark protection. Key Takeaways: Trademarks provide valuable functions for both consumers and sellers of goods and services. You have to think about a global stage for your major business operations and trademark strategy, not just your local country. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court has gone from artistic work to expressive work in its interpretation of the Rogers case. It is possible that they have expanded their view of First Amendment protection too far. We look forward to the Supreme Court soon providing guidance in the Jack Daniels case. “Protecting your trademarks, in that respect of thinking about stopping counterfeiters, is important. You can't stop a counterfeiter under the federal statute without a registration. So you want to have a registration, and you want to think about where you're manufacturing.” —Janet Marvel   About Janet Marvel: Pattishall partner Janet Marvel protects brands, copyrighted works, and domain names throughout the world. She has been charged with protecting the trademarks of world-famous brands, such as Ford, Pepsi, Harlequin (romance novels), and Mattel. She even protects the famous Cheesehead hat on view during the NFL season when the Green Bay Packers play.As part of her practice, Janet represents plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of disputes involving trademark, copyright, rights of publicity, breach of contract, unfair competition, and false advertising. She has successfully tried cases and litigated around the country in state and federal courts and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In a notable case, she successfully defended a small company's ownership of the Brawny mark for plastic bags against an all-out attack in two federal courts and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She also developed expert testimony for the Internal Revenue Service in a $262 million case involving evaluation of assets of the Carnation Company. She handled the acquisition of the famous CURAD mark.When she is not working, you will probably find Janet hiking—often north of the Arctic Circle. Janet's travel has included backpacking trips to Canada's Ellesmere Island (at 80 degrees north latitude, accessible just three weeks a year), Gates of the Arctic National Park, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Connect with Janet Marvel: Website: https://www.pattishall.com/ Email: jmarvel@pattishall.com Connect with Jeff Harty: Website: https://nyemaster.com/attorney-directory/jeffrey-d-harty/Email: jharty@nyemaster.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-harty-5a9a1643/

In this episode, I briefly discuss my preparations for the upcoming back-to-back expeditions to Ellesmere Island in the high Canadian Arctic for both White Arctic Wolves and Polar Bears; as well as the follow-on winter ship-based expedition to Svalbard. The main topic of the podcast is my thoughts on the art of cropping in Wildlife and Nature  Photography. This episode also debuts the new podcast artwork.Support the showWild Nature Photo TravelPhotography Workshops and Expeditions around the Worldwww.wildnaturephototravel.comSupport the Show and fellow Nature Photographer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko/membershipFind us on Social MediaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Joshuaholko/Twitter: https://twitter.com/HolkoJoshuaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuaholko/Need to Contact us? info@jholko.com

Ray Zahab is a Canadian Explorer, ultra distance runner and Founder of non-profit impossible2Possible. A recent recipient of the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada, Ray is an Explorer in Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2015 Canadian Geographic recognized Ray as one of Canada's Top Explorers. He has ran 17,000+km across the world's deserts, and unsupported expeditions in some of the coldest places on the planet. On November 1, 2006, former “pack a day smoker” turned ultra runner Ray Zahab and two friends, Charlie Engle and Kevin Lin, set out on an expedition to cross the Sahara Desert by foot. 111 days and 7,500 kms after leaving the coast of Senegal, Africa they completed their journey by stepping into the Red Sea. The expedition had the trio running an average of 70kms a day without a single day of rest, for 111 days. National Geographic tracked the expedition by web, as well as the documentary film ‘Running The Sahara', produced by Matt Damon and directed by Academy Award winner James Moll, was created in an effort to raise awareness for the drinking water crisis in North Africa. After witnessing and learning about the water crisis in North Africa, Ray decided to leverage his future adventures to help raise awareness and funding for causes, like this one, that he supports and believes in. In fall 2007, Ray ran the three coastal trails of Canada back to back and each leg virtually non-stop, for a total distance of 400 kms. Logistics were as much of a challenge as the run, and Ray ran The Akshayuk Pass on Baffin Island, East Coast Trail Newfoundland and West Coast Trail in British Columbia, with just enough time to travel in between. In spring 2008 Ray partnered with the ONExONE Foundation for a unique ultra running project. Accompanied by a team of runners, Ray ran an average 80 kms per day in each of Canada's 13 Provinces and Territories in 13 days. Once again logistics were a huge challenge. School visits were arranged along the way, students participated and communities became engaged in the run which supported the work of ONExONE, which supports various charities addressing children's issues globally. In Saskatoon alone, several thousand students and 27 schools were involved in school rallies and a city wide relay with Ray and the team. In 2008, Ray founded impossible2Possible (i2P) (impossible2possible.com) an organization that aims to inspire and educate youth through adventure learning, inclusion and participation in expeditions. Youth Ambassadors are selected from around the world, and then participate, at no cost, in all aspects of the expedition, from logistics and running to creating educational content and team support. All of the i2P Youth Expeditions have included various challenge based initiatives through an Experiential Learning Program, in which thousands of students participate as active ‘team members' during the expeditions, from classrooms all over the world. This program and its technology is also provided at no cost to the students or schools participating. Since its inception, i2P Youth Expeditions have included 14 gruelling expeditions; Baffin Island, Tunisia, the Amazon, Bolivia, India, Botswana, Utah, Peru, Chile, Italy, California, Greece, Death Valley and Canada. The programs and expeditions are 100% free of cost.   SOUTH POLE QUEST EXPEDITION   In 2009, Ray and two fellow Canadians, Kevin Vallely and Richard Weber, broke the world speed record for an unsupported expedition by a team to the Geographic South Pole. In the process, Ray trekked this traditional route from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, a distance of 1,130 kms, solely on foot and snowshoes, without the use of skis. Students from all over North America joined the team on a daily basis, a program provided through impossible2Possible, as the trio continued their southern trek. The students received daily communications and actively took part in every step of the trek. Essentially becoming “teammates” of the expedition, and teammates of the Guinness World Record achieved. In winter 2010, Ray and Kevin Vallely ran the length of frozen Lake Baikal in Siberia, 650 kms, over the course of 13 days, totally unsupported. Once again communication with satellite video conferencing to schools brought the expedition into classrooms, and classrooms onto the expedition.   ATACAMA EXTREME EXPEDITION   In February 2011 (Summer), Ray became the first person to run the length of the “driest desert on Earth”, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, solo. Temperatures exceeded 50c as he ran and navigated the 1,200 kms in 20 days with minimal daily re-supply, and with emergency supplies on his back. Thousands of students joined this journey, again under his i2P organization, via live web and video conferencing. In August 2011 (Summer), Ray and Will Laughlin ran from the north park boundary to the south park boundary of Death Valley National Park, totally off-road. The 237 km run saw temps reaching over 120 degrees F. This would be followed in 2015 with an abbreviated off- road crossing from north park boundary, exiting at the Badwater Basin after crossing the Devil's Golf Course. Beginning June 23rd 2013 (Summer), Ray ran over 2,000km, solo, across Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, with minimal daily resupplies. Support team included both a film crew and photographer who recorded not only the expedition, and created an archive sharing the stories of the people and culture of Mongolia to schools around the world. In February 2014 (winter) Ray completed his 4th unsupported crossing of Baffin Island through the Akshayuk Pass (he would go on to complete 8 unsupported crossings in various seasons). In January 2015 (summer) Ray ran 1,000km across the Patagonian Desert, and then in summer 2015 Ray did a partial crossing of Death Valley National Park, his second project in the area.   ARCTIC 2 ATACAMA EXPEDITION   In February 2016, Ray Zahab (CAN), Jen Segger (CAN) and Stefano Gregoretti (Italy) set out on a unique and challenging expedition that spanned 100 degrees celsius on the thermometer. The team journeyed from -50°C (-58F) to +50°C (120F) over 1,500km, on mountain bikes and foot, crossing both Baffin Island in Canadian winter, and the Atacama Desert in Chilean summer. This would mark Ray's second crossing the length of the Atacama Desert. In February 2017- Ray Zahab and Stefano Gregoretti would go on to complete the second and third stages of a three part expedition in the Canadian Arctic after a near disastrous start in which Ray broke through a frozen river in the Torngats Mountain Range. The duo rallied back to ski unsupported across Baffin Island, and then fatbike across the Northwest Territories along the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road (500km). Beginning mid January 2018 (Summer), Ray once again teamed up with Stefano Gregoretti to run the length of Namibia, crossing the Namib Desert, approx. 1,850km. Summertime temperatures were intense, and terrain was a mix of cross country, open desert, canyons, gravel roads and track. September 2018, Ray completes his 7th crossing of Baffin Island, in 25.5 hours, coast to coast through the Akshayuk Pass. Fall 2018, Ray, along with close friends, establish KapiK1 Expedition Co, with the goal of giving people the opportunity to join them on adventure travel based expeditions to many of the regions of the world Ray and his team have previously explored. www.kapik1.com In winter (February 2019) Ray and teammate Stefano Gregoretti attempted an unsupported crossing of the Kamchatka Peninsula in far east Russia. After 19 days of brutal conditions, the team (no longer unsupported) was prevented from moving forward due to dangerous and fast flowing open rivers, and were unable to achieve their goal of reaching the east coast. July 2019 (summer), Will Laughlin and Ray Zahab successfully transect Death Valley, from west to east, across the Panamint Mountain Range, Death Valley Basin, and the Amargosa Mountains. It took the duo 35 hours to complete the crossing, moving virtually non stop, taking breaks only at resupply caches. September 2019, Ray completes 8th crossing of Baffin Island, Akshayuk Pass. His brother John joined him, almost 20 years since he first inspired Ray to change his life and pursue a life in the outdoors. They completed their run in roughly 25 hours. January 2020, Ray successfully completes a solo traverse from the island community of Qikiqtarjuaq, across the sea ice to Baffin Island, and onto Pangnirtung Fjord. It was the first January crossing for Baffin, and took 5 days, dragging all of his supplies with him. Intense cold, little daylight, boulder fields, overflow and heavy winds were among the challenges. This was Ray's 9th crossing of Baffin. July 2021, Ray and Will Laughlin abandon an attempted retracing of the 2011 North to South crossing of Death Valley, off road. After the first 24 hours of moving non-stop, temperatures reached a world record high, and became too dangerous to proceed. At Furnace Creek, recorded temps reached 134F. March 2022, Kevin Vallely and Ray have to cut their attempted crossing of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic short due to several ongoing setbacks. The duo plans a return to complete their expedition in collaboration with friends who live in the region. July 2022, Ray and Stefano Gregoretti successfully complete a West to East crossing of Death Valley NP, at its widest point in summer. They collected ongoing weather data as they made their transect, for use in a future impossible2Possible Youth Education program. They planned for 48 hours but were able to complete the transect in 34 hours, with resupplies 20-30km apart along the way. Ray has also found the time to write two books about his life and adventures. Running for My Life published in 2007 and Ray's second book, geared at youth readers, Running to Extremes, which recently became a National Best-Seller in Canada. Both books focused on Ray's transition from an unhealthy life- both physically and emotionally, to ultra runner and beyond- and the philosophy that we are ALL capable of achieving the extraordinary in our lives. He is currently writing his third book. In addition to being an adventurer, youth advocate and runner, Ray speaks around the world at events such as TED, IOC World Conference, Idea City, The Economist World in 2010 and 2011, World Affairs Council, and numerous Apple Distinguished Educator events internationally, as well as numerous corporate events. He has been interviewed and appeared on several talk and news programs including CNNi, CNN, The Hour, CBC, CTV, BBC, Jay Leno, OLN and Discovery, and has connected his expeditions live, using satellite to both mainstream and social media. He has also appeared in print media globally, and has been interviewed on numerous popular podcasts. Ray was the host of Project Guatemala which aired on OLN, and co hosted-guided a few episodes of Finding Sarah on OWN. Outside of his own organization Ray has volunteered as a board member, Ryan's Well Foundation, volunteered as Athletic Ambassador of the ONExONE.org, and SpreadTheNet. He has previously volunteered with Run For Water, The Assembly of First Nations, and various other initiatives. Ray received the ONExONE Difference Award in 2007, and the Torchbearers Award in 2010. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In spring 2012, Ray was invited by H.E. Tsogtbaatar Damdin (Minister of Environment, Mongolia) to join their Internal Advisory Committee. In 2015 and 2019 Canadian Geographic recognized Ray as one of Canada's Top Explorers. In December 2015 Ray was presented with the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada by the Governor General of Canada. In 2018 Ray was named Explorer in Residence by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He continues today with life as an adventurer and as a volunteer with impossible2Possible. Transitioning from an unhealthy lifestyle to ultrarunning races to ‘Running The Sahara' would begin a lifelong journey of discovery. A journey of learning that some of the greatest barriers to achieving our goals are the ones we put upon ourselves. By breaking these down, Ray has learned that we are all capable of achieving truly extraordinary things…a message he continues to share with his two young daughters! Please scroll to bottom of this page for chronological list of projects and expeditions!

This week's guest interview is with Polar adventurer, expedition guide, dog musher and educator, Eric Larsen. Eric has spent the past 15 years of his life traveling in some of the most remote and wild places left on earth including Antarctica, the North Pole, Everest and the biggest challenge of them all - cancer.   Show Sponsor: UCAN Generation UCAN has a full line of nutrition products to fuel your sport. UCAN uses SuperStarch instead of simple sugars and stimulants to fuel athletes.  UCAN keeps blood sugar steady compared to the energy spikes and crashes of sugar-based products. UCAN also has hydration products focused on giving you the sodium you need when hydrating, including several clean and light flavors. Steady energy equals sustained performance and a faster finish line!   Use UCAN in your training and racing to fuel the healthy way, finish stronger and recover more quickly!  Use the code 303UCAN for 20% off at ucan.co/discount/303UCAN/ or ucan.co   In Today's Show Feature Interview Eric Larsen Adventurer, Guide and Educator Endurance News Bermuda World Triathlon Series Race Results El Tour de Tucson, November 19 Ironman Arizona, November 20 What's new in the 303 Victoria Brumfield Now Chief Executive Officer of USA Triathlon You Get What You Give, Ask Primal Why Videos of the Week 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda   Feature Interview: Eric Larsen Polar adventurer, expedition guide, dog musher and educator, Eric Larsen has spent the past 15 years of his life traveling in some of the most remote and wild places left on earth.   In 2006, Eric and Lonnie Dupre completed the first ever summer expedition to the North Pole. During this journey, the duo pulled and paddled specially modified canoes across 550 miles of shifting sea ice and open ocean.   Eric successfully led his first expedition to the South Pole in 2008, covering nearly 600 miles in 41 days. Eric is now one of only a few Americans in to have skied to both the North and South Poles.   In November 2009, Eric returned to Antarctica for the first leg of his world record Save the Poles expedition. This time he completed a 750-mile ski traverse to the geographic South arriving on January 2, 2010.   Two short months later he was dropped off at northern Ellesmere Island for a winter-style North Pole Journey. The international team reached the North Pole 51 days later on Earth Day - April 22, 2010.   He completed the Save the Poles expedition by reaching the summit of Mt. Everest on October 15th, 2010 becoming the first person in history to reach the world's three 'poles' within a 365-day period.   In March 2014, Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters set out to traverse nearly 500 miles across the melting Arctic Ocean, unsupported, from Northern Ellesmere Island to the geographic North Pole. Despite being one of the most cold and hostile environments on the planet, the Arctic Ocean has seen a steady and significant reduction of sea ice over the past seven years due to climate change. Because of this, Larsen's and Waters' trip—dubbed the "Last North Expedition"—is expected to be the last human-powered trek to the North Pole, ever. Eric Larsen (explorer) - Wikipedia Eric Larsen Explore   Kindred spirits indeed 3 day Gunnison Spring bar tent Camp stove Grew up in Wisconsin Read books about explorations; fascinated by Alaska Taught Environmental Education In January 2021, Eric was initially diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer, but upon further biopsies was categorized as Stage 3b. After a year of intensive chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, he is currently still in treatment. Cancer journey a lot like an explanation   News Sponsor Buddy Insurance: Buddy Insurance gives you peace of mind to enjoy your training and racing to the fullest. Buddy's mission is simple, to help people fearlessly enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle.    Get on-demand accident insurance just in case the unexpected happens. Buddy ensures you have cash for bills fast.  Go to buddyinsurance.com and create an account.  There's no commitment or charge to create one.  Once you have an account created, it's a snap to open your phone and in a couple clicks have coverage for the day.  Check it out!   Endurance News: 2022 Bermuda World Triathlon Championship Series Flora out of the water second Raining on bike On the 3rd loop of bike joined by maya kingma Knibb was more than 40 back at the start of the bike but in 3rd place by t2 (45 seconds)   Vincent Luis led from swim to finish The front 7 gave an impressive t2 performance all coming it as a pack and dismounting in unison Blummenfelt and Yee were in a second pack   Results: Elite Women | 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda • World Triathlon Pos First Name Last Name YOB Country Start Num Time Swim 1500m T1 Bike 40km T2 Run 10km 1 Flora Duffy 1987  BER 1 02:01:26 00:20:15 00:00:42 01:05:26 00:00:26 00:34:39 2 Taylor Knibb 1998  USA 7 02:03:04 00:20:46 00:00:47 01:05:32 00:00:32 00:35:28 3 Beth Potter 1991  GBR 2 02:03:17 00:20:47 00:00:42 01:06:45 00:00:24 00:34:41 4 Laura Lindemann 1996  GER 4 02:04:00 00:20:35 00:00:44 01:06:56 00:00:27 00:35:20 5 Taylor Spivey 1991  USA 3 02:04:05 00:20:42 00:00:44 01:06:47 00:00:26 00:35:27     Results: Elite Men | 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda • World Triathlon Pos First Name Last Name YOB Country Start Num Time Swim 1500m T1 Bike 40km T2 Run 10km 1 Vincent Luis 1989  FRA 4 01:49:37 00:19:01 00:00:45 00:58:06 00:00:25 00:31:22 2 Antonio Serrat Seoane 1995  ESP 6 01:49:45 00:19:43 00:00:39 00:58:19 00:00:23 00:30:43 3 Roberto Sanchez Mantecon 1996  ESP 24 01:49:54 00:19:51 00:00:42 00:58:07 00:00:25 00:30:52 4 Jelle Geens 1993  BEL 1 01:49:59 00:19:49 00:00:41 00:58:05 00:00:21 00:31:06 5 Alex Yee 1998  GBR 2 01:50:04 00:19:40 00:00:38 00:58:21 00:00:26 00:31:01 6 Kristian Blummenfelt 1994  NOR 51 01:50:06 00:19:37 00:00:43 00:58:14 00:00:24 00:31:10   Tucson Bikes for Change to give out over 500 free bikes TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson Bikes for Change is giving out more than 500 bicycles for children in need, before the start of El Tour de Tucson.   These special children will receive a bicycle, a helmet, lock and t-shirt at certain locations, along with a free Tour de Tucson Kid's Fun Ride registration.   "This year, Serve Our City is excited to Partner with El Tour de Tucson and their Tucson Bikes for Change program by helping to provide volunteers at seven locations throughout the city to assemble 500 bikes provided by a host of great sponsors for children in need," said Outreach Pastor Robin Blumenthal.   “What a great way for so many partners to join forces and give Tucson kids the chance to experience the joy of riding a bike in our beautiful city," expressed Blumenthal.   TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As El Tour de Tucson draws closer, drivers in the Tucson and surrounding areas will want to take note and prepare for upcoming road closures the day of the race, Saturday Nov. 19.   An anticipated 7,000 cyclists will navigate the Old Pueblo and surrounding areas beginning at 8 a.m. Multiple variations of the El Tour route are planned:   The Century - 102-mile route; 7 a.m. start The Metric Century - 62-mile route; 9 a.m. start The Half Metric Century - 32-mile route; 10:15 a.m. start The FUN Rides! - 10, 5, and 1-mile routes; 8:00 a.m. start   All routes start and end around the Tucson Community Center (TCC), with live music, food, beer garden and other exhibitors in the Eckbo Plaza, 260 S. Church Ave.   “It's important we let the Tucson community and its surrounding areas to the south – Green Valley & Sahuarita – know what roads will be closed during El Tour on November 19," said El Tour Executive Director TJ Juskiewicz.   "We want to make sure everyone is prepared for our road closures as they plan their day. Our ride begins at 7 a.m. and goes to 4 p.m. with roads being closed at various times. Those times are listed on the list we've sent," added Juskiewicz. Organizers suggest parking in one of the two garages at the TCC, or any number of the city, county or private surface lots in the area.   Bike valet services will be available at the finish line and is included as part of the registration for riders.   Mark Allen's brother Gary and his wife Michelle Allen   From Arizona to Bahrain – Five races still to look forward to in 2022 10 Nov 2022 by John Levison We may be approaching the middle of November and the racing calendar is indeed winding down for 2022, but there are a still several notable events to look forward to. Some stellar start-lists, high-quality races – and a very significant World Championship title showdown – still remain.   We've done a little forward planning and picked out five of our highlights to look forward to in the Pro triathlon world between now and the end of 2022.   IRONMAN Arizona: 20 November With live coverage of the event from Tempe, IRONMAN Arizona offers a $100,000 prize purse, four Kona qualifying slots (2MPRO / 2WPRO) and a pretty impressive start list, should the majority of these athletes all show.   For the men those names include Joe Skipper (fifth in Kona), the full-distance debut of Ben Kanute (second at the 70.3 World Champ), Mr Yo Yo Yo, Sam Long, IRONMAN Des Moines winner Matt Hanson, Chris Leiferman (fourth at the IRONMAN World Champs, St George), Kristian Hogenhaug (2021 World Triathlon LD Champion) and INEOS rider, Cameron Wurf. Lots of fast athletes on a historically fast course. What's not to like?   joe-skipper-kona-2022-bike Joe Skipper – Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images for IRONMAN The women are headed by Skye Moench (fourth in St George), Sarah True and Great Britain's IRONMAN Lanzarote champion, Lydia Dant.     What's New in the 303: Victoria Brumfield Now Chief Executive Officer of USA Triathlon COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Victoria Brumfield today was announced by USA Triathlon Board of Directors Chair Joel Rosinbum as the Chief Executive Officer for the National Governing Body.   Brumfield, who has served as USA Triathlon's interim CEO since early September, becomes the organization's first female CEO in its 40-plus-year history.   Brumfield has been a highly impactful executive within the organization for more than four years, serving as an innovative and results-driven leader for the sport and organization. Her vision and leadership led the development and implementation of USA Triathlon's most recent strategic plan – Elevate 2028 – that sets the path for the organization through the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.   “I'm honored to lead USA Triathlon during such an important time, and I want to thank Joel, the USA Triathlon Board of Directors and members of the hiring committee for the opportunity,” Brumfield said. “Multisport is transformative, unifying and empowering, and I am proud and ready to wake up every morning and bring this sport and community to more people. I look forward to working closely with our constituents and team to continue to spread the virtues of our sport far and wide, serve our community in a way that enables everyone to prosper, build on the development programs for youth and junior athletes, and celebrate our sport and community every day.”   A trailblazer and advocate throughout her career, Brumfield was hired as the first female member of the USA Triathlon's Executive Leadership Team. Brumfield's leadership has elevated and empowered female leaders within the organization at every level of the organization. Additionally, Brumfield has been a staunch proponent of diversity, equality, inclusion and access (DEIA) during her time at USA Triathlon and worked to make DEIA a focal point of the organization's long-term strategic plan, annual priorities and hiring processes, among other areas.   Brumfield has helped transform USA Triathlon's approach to service and the constituents it serves, most notably race directors, clubs, coaches, officials and age-group athletes. She has instilled a focus on building meaningful relationships with community members across the United States and emphasized the need for both resource development and initiatives and programs that drive value at the grassroots level.   Prior to her appointment as interim CEO Brumfield most recently served as USA Triathlon's Chief of Staff and Chief Business Development Officer. She led the turnaround of USA Triathlon from a transactional entity to an organization celebrated for its service leadership by fostering a culture of collaboration both internally and externally. With a people-first approach, Brumfield helped USA Triathlon earn best-place-to-work recognition by Front Office Sports, Outside Magazine, and Colorado Springs Gazette.   In 2020 Brumfield was named the Chief Business Development Officer, in addition to her Chief of Staff role, and led business development and partnerships. Under her leadership,U USA Triathlon led unprecedented commercial growth and strategic partnerships, even while navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.   In her role as Chief of Staff, Brumfield was responsible for directing strategic planning, managing and streamlining the organization's operational plan, and overseeing cross-functional projects with large-scale organizational impact. She also directly oversaw business administration including human resources, finance, and information technology (IT), for three years.   Brumfield currently serves on the World Triathlon Audit Committee and was a member of the SportsBusiness Journal “Game Changers: Women in Sports Business” 2020 Class.   Prior to USA Triathlon, Brumfield worked in the endurance sports industry for nearly 20 years across a number of roles that gave her both a broad understanding of the business of the sport and the opportunity to grow and inspire triathlon communities at the local level. Most recently, she was a founding member of the Virgin Sport start-up in Sir Richard Branson's global Virgin Group. Before Virgin, Victoria's roots were deeply embedded in triathlon as the former Event Director for the New York City Triathlon, IRONMAN US Championship, 2003 ITU World Cup in New York City, 2005 ITU Age Group World Championships in Hawaii, and 2004 USA Olympic trials for Triathlon, among others.   Brumfield is a passionate amateur short and long-distance triathlete and endurance athlete. She studied finance and earned a Master of Business Administration from the NYU Stern School Of Business. She currently resides in Colorado Springs, Colo.   You Get What You Give, Ask Primal Why By Bill Plock Nov 6, 2022–Denver  In 1998, The New Radicals released the song, “You Get What You Give” and it seems to have resonated strongly as a business mantra with premier cycling apparel manufacturer Primal of Denver.   As I looked around the room at the Four Seasons conference room during the PrimalBike 2022 gathering a couple of weeks ago, it dawned on me that between all of the rides represented here, well over $150 million is raised each and every year for a variety of causes; cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, college scholarships, community causes and so much more.   Between the rides, tens of thousands of riders explore roads in every corner of America. The reason they were all in Denver? Primal, a thirty-year-old company supplies cycling clothing for all of these rides and the cyclists who spend hours raising money and a lifetime rolling on roads.   Thirty years ago, Dave Edwards made some cool cycling t-shirts and sold them out of the back of his car in Moab. They were a hit and one thing has led to another and thousands upon thousands of designs later Primal has evolved into one of cycling's top brands of cycling wear.   Each year, Primal invites some of their top customers to meet and discuss the “state of the union” in cycling events and ponder the future, and share ideas on how to improve events and the sport of cycling. This year's attendee's included leaders from MS, RAGBRAI, Bike New York, Pan-Mass Challenge, Outside, and many others. All of the organizations attending, some for-profit and most non-profits, raise enormous money, but so does Primal.   Since its inception, Primal has given away over 12 million dollars. Says founder, President/CEO Dave Edwards about the gathering, “the most meaningful part is making connections and sharing knowledge and experiences. We're privileged to work with incredible partners, and we wanted to provide an opportunity for them to get together in a setting that inspires learning, conversations, and relationship building that makes their events even better while getting more people on bikes.”   The Pan-Mass Challenge, in particular, raising $63million in one ride for cancer research leads the peloton of charity. Said President, Jarrett Collins, “Primal is a great partner for the Pan-Mass Challenge because they support many of our teams with high-quality kits, AND they give back to the fundraising efforts of those teams, all in the service of defeating cancer!”   The group had break-out sessions focused on discussing a variety of topics ranging from sustainability to trends such as gravel, or as Jarrett Collins termed, “unpaved”. Steve Schulz from Cycle Oregon gave us a peek behind the curtains of their Community of Giving (COG) program and the impact their ride has on its communities and how it helps build everything from community centers to improving community relationships.   The group took to the streets and rode bikes to further build camaraderie and consider ideas aimed at getting more people on bikes and raising more money.   Ken Podziba, President of Bike New York holds the largest one-day ride in the United States, the Five Boro Bike Tour with over 32,000 riders (303 articles about the ride HERE) and said of the conference, “the conference, which was interesting, engaging, informative, and entertaining, provided an opportunity to learn from and collaborate with some of our country's top bike event organizers.  I left Denver with a much greater knowledge of Primal's creative and managerial processes, learning things we can apply to our events, and making some awesome new friends – now that's a successful conference!”   If you measure yourself by the peers you attract, Primal has attracted many of the best of the best when it comes to top cycling events and raising money for good causes. You Get What You Give seemed more than obvious at PrimalBike 2022.   Aspen unicyclist left his mark on famed Iron Horse Bicycle Classic It's only fitting that Aspen's Mike “Pinto” Tierney is going out “No. 1” in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic.   Not “No. 1” as in the fastest in the famed race and recreational ride between Durango and Silverton. Nor did he log the most years riding in the event, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year on Memorial Day Weekend.   Instead, he is the guy who has turned heads for tackling the grueling 47-mile ride over two mountain passes exceeding 10,000 feet on one wheel.   In Aspen, Tierney is famed for working 40 years on the exalted Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol and for ­regularly riding his unicycle up Independence Pass and Maroon and Castle Creek roads — and even on a ­variety of mountain bike trails in the Roaring Fork Valley.   In Durango and Silverton, he's known as the crazy dude who rides a one-wheeled cycle with no brakes up and down some of the most challenging passes in Colorado.   “A 63-year-old unicycling 50 miles from Durango to Silverton sounds a little crazy. I don't mind being called crazy,” Tierney said.   This year's event was his eighth and final Iron Horse. “I was the only unicyclist to do it, ever,” he said. Others started, none finished. He heard of a unicyclist from Cortez who rode the route, just not during the Iron Horse.   Unicycles weren't allowed in the event prior to 2005. Rules changed and Tierney jumped at the opportunity — and promptly got humbled. Six unis started. The other riders dropped out along the route. Tierney started with the two-wheeled riders and was quickly left in the dust. One restaurant hung a sign on the door saying, “Free food to Lance Armstrong and any unicyclist that finishes.” By the time Tierney finished, the restaurant was closed for the day because all riders had long since finished.   He changed strategy the next time he rode it in 2015. He started an hour early and got the flats north of Durango out of the way. In that and subsequent years, he got used to the racers sweeping by him on lower Coal Bank Pass, then the recreational riders catching him higher up the major ascent. He completes the ride between 6 and 6.5 hours.   It's not about finishing fast. It's about finishing on one wheel. Other cyclists marvel at how he can tackle the steep ascents and hair-raising downhills on a cycle with one speed and no brake. He rides a 36-inch wheel. He grinds up with 170mm crank arms and swaps them out to 140mm for the downhills.   Over the 45 years since he started riding a unicycle, he's learned to seek the slow cadence of pedal strokes on the downhill. If he cannot maintain it and gets going too quickly, he's got to jump off. He's never had to do it in his eight Iron Horses. While bicycle riders get to coast on the downhills, Tierney still has to work.   For Tierney, it was particularly humbling to get accolades in a couple of notable celebrations of the Iron Horse's 50th anniversary. There is a section about him in a book marking the anniversary, “Fiftieth Anniversary, Looking Back Racing Forward” by John Peel. His accomplishments also are included in a special exhibit at Fort Lewis College's Center of Southwest Studies. The exhibit, “Looking Back, Racing Ahead: 50 Years of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and Durango Cycling Culture,” is on display until spring 2023.     Invitation to TriDot Pre Season Project The Preseason Project® is a triathlon research initiative that helps TriDot quantify and enhance the performance gains that TriDot's Optimized Training™ delivers over training alternatives. Welcome to the 2023 TriDot Preseason Project (PSP) application.      Submit this 2-minute app to qualify for 2 FREE months of optimized triathlon training with the TriDot Mark Allen Edition.   PSP is an annual R&D initiative that helps triathletes reach their true performance potential through optimized preseason training. It also quantifies the substantial performance gains that TriDot's Optimized Training delivers over training alternatives.   You qualify for the FREE training if you meet the following criteria: Planning an Olympic, Half, or Full triathlon for 2023 season Train using a device with GPS and/or power Have not used TriDot in the last 6 months Not a professional triathlete Enthusiastic and motivated to get a jump start on your season! * Applications are reviewed and accepted on a first-come basis and must be fully completed to be considered.    Register For Free   Video of the week: 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda: Elite Women's Highlights   2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda: Elite Men's Highlights   Closing: Thanks again for listening in this week.  Please be sure to follow us @303endurance and of course go to iTunes and give us a rating and a comment.  We'd really appreciate it! Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey!

In part two, we continue our conversation with Jon Turk.  Jon discusses his experiences with the shaman moolynaut and the Koryak people of Siberia, his epic circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island and tracking lions in Kenya.  At the end of this episode, Jon shares the many lessons learned from his expeditions and understanding the power of our ancestors.  You can find Jon's books HEREHosted by Michael J. ReinhartMichaelJReinhart.comCheck out Michael's photography at MichaelReinhartPhotography.com

In this multi-part episode, we talk with Dr. Jon Turk about his amazing adventures, life and death and the power of aboriginal peoples.Jon is a scientist, author, and National Geographic award-winning explorer whose worldview was altered by extended visits with Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman.He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and was nominated by National Geographic as one of the Top Ten Adventurers of the Year in 2012.  Jon co-authored the first college-level environmental science textbook in North America, followed by 35 additional texts, and five books about his adventures. Jon has kayaked around Cape Horn, across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska, and circumnavigated Ellesmere Island.  He is also credited with numerous first ski descents and first rock climbing ascents around the globe. You can find Jon's books HEREHosted by Michael J. ReinhartMichaelJReinhart.comCheck out Michael's photography at MichaelReinhartPhotography.com

Travis Holmes was born in grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He lived most of his life in Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon; however, for the past 15 years, he has been living in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, with his wife, ten and 8-year-old kids. Travis worked in outdoor education for much of the 1990s and 2000s. His work lifeguarding in swimming pools led me to the University of Alberta Paddling Society, where he really got into white water kayaking and began teaching kayaking and river rescue. Travis later became the canoe and river paddling coordinator for the University of Alberta Campus Outdoor Centre and director of education for the Alberta Whitewater Association before becoming a full-time NOLS instructor. Over the next ten years, he instructed hiking, canoeing, white water kayaking, rafting, sea kayaking, rock climbing and sailing courses for NOLS. Travel led courses throughout Western Canada, Alaska & and the central west USA, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia for NOLS. While working in Western Australia, he met his wife and later settled in Tasmania, where his wife had some roots. He continued working in Tasmania as a commercial bushwalking and river guide for a while before returning to University to finish his Honours degree in geology. Travis is still expeditioning for a living, but now he is doing it as an exploration geologist. Before COVID, he had been exploring remote parts of Tasmania, Western Australia and British Columbia, looking for much-needed battery metals such as Cobalt, Nickel and Tin. However, COVID has pinned him down to Tasmania for the past few years. Now that travel is open, he is planning a big family expedition sailing in the Arctic waters around Ellesmere Island and North-western Greenland this coming summer.  

President Joe Biden is calling on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel. In a draft letter to refiners, Biden says their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump. Biden writes that the oil companies need to work with his administration to bring forward "near-term solutions that address the crisis.” Gas prices nationwide are averaging roughly $5 a gallon. That's an economic burden for many Americans and a political threat for the president's fellow Democrats going into the midterm elections. Biden's message that corporate greed is contributing to higher prices might resonate with voters. Today the Fed will reveal how much they will raise interest rates. Experts believe it will increase by three quarter of a percentage point, more than triple what is typical. Authorities say two police officers were shot and killed while investigating a possible stabbing in a Los Angeles suburb. It happened about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at a motel in the city of El Monte. Authorities say officers confronted a man in a motel room where shots rang out and the gunman then fled to the parking lot where more gunfire was exchanged. The gunman was shot and died. The officers who died were described as a veteran with more than two decades of experience and a rookie with less than a year on the job. El Monte's interim police chief called them heroes who died serving their community. The National Weather Service is telling people to prepare for excessive heat in the the Midwest and Southeast with warnings from Michigan to Florida. U.S. Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina has been ousted from Congress in his Republican primary after voting to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. He is the first of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to lose a reelection bid.  U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner will remain in Russian custody through at least July 2 after her detention was extended for a third time, Russian state-run media has reported. The report gave no timeline for Griner's trial, but cited a top Russian diplomat as saying that she will not be considered for detainee swaps until her case has been investigated. The 31-year-old WNBA center was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after Russian airport authorities claimed in February to have found cannabis products in her luggage. Her supporters have expressed concern that Moscow will use her as a bargaining chip amid tensions over its war in Ukraine. Lots of Major League action Tuesday night as the Cardinals rout the Pirates in a double header and Chris Bassitt pitches 8 innings to help the Mets beat the Brewers, meanwhile the Los Angeles Rams hang on to Travin Howard.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced his support for his chamber's emerging bipartisan gun agreement. The Kentucky Republican's endorsement Tuesday boosted momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that's deadlocked lawmakers for three decades. An outline of the accord was released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Leaders hope it can be translated into legislation in days and voted on by Congress before lawmakers' July 4 recess. McConnell's backing was the latest indication that last month's gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol has postponed a hearing that was to feature Trump-era Justice Department officials. The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday, but the committee on Tuesday morning said it had been delayed. A spokesman for the panel attributed the postponement to “a number of scheduling factors, including production timeline and availability of members and witnesses.” Raging floodwaters that pulled houses into rivers and forced rescues by air and boat across the Yellowstone region in Montana have begun to recede. But tourists and others were still stranded Tuesday after roads and bridges were knocked out by torrential rains that swelled waterways to record levels. Wall Street closed mostly lower on Tuesday, a day after tumbling into a bear market on worries that high inflation will push central banks to clamp the brakes too hard on the economy. UPS has unveiled a battery-powered, four-wheeled cycle to more efficiently haul cargo in some of the world's most congested streets and to reduce its carbon footprint. The company unveiled the tiny delivery vehicles Tuesday in New York City. It said a trial run is focused on the city and several places in Europe. A decades-old dispute between Denmark and Canada over a tiny, barren and uninhabited rock in the Arctic has come to an end. A border will be drawn across the half-square-mile Hans Island in the waterway between the northwestern coast of Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island. President Joe Biden has told the largest federation of labor unions that he's rebuilding the U.S. economy around workers. He's drawing a contrast with Republicans who have increasingly attracted blue-collar votes. Biden says, “We should encourage unions." His speech Tuesday at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia was an attempt to reset the debate on the economy. His approval ratings have slid as consumer prices and the cost of gasoline have surged. U.S. producer prices surged 10.8% in May from a year earlier, underscoring the ongoing threat to the economy from a bout of inflation that shows no sign of slowing. Tuesday's report from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose at slightly slower pace last month than in April, when it jumped 10.9% from a year earlier, and is down from an 11.5% yearly gain in March. Pope Francis has blasted the “ferocity and cruelty” of Russian troops in Ukraine while praising the “heroism” and “courage” of Ukrainians to defend their land. Francis also insisted there weren't “good guys and bad guys” and that Russia was in some ways provoked by NATO's expansion east. A man once briefly married to Britney Spears has pleaded not guilty to felony stalking after showing up at the pop star's wedding to her longtime boyfriend last week. Forty-year-old Jason Alexander pleaded not guilty to the charge, along with misdemeanor counts of trespassing, vandalism and battery. A California judge set his bail at $100,000 and ordered him to stay at least 100 yards from Spears for three years. —The Associated Press See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The following is a 1st hand account from the Pilot of the boldest and most massive air disaster rescue mission ever undertaken by the Canadian military in the High Arctic. Edge of your seat story, and incredibly emotional.Every year, in the cold and darkness of late October, personnel at Canadian Forces Station Alert on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, gather at a cairn near the runway to remember the crew and passengers of Hercules 130322 who lost their lives during a resupply mission to the station. On October 30, 1991, at approximately 4:40 p.m., flight 22 of Operation Boxtop – as the biannual resupply mission is called – was on its final approach to the station from Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. As the CC-130 Hercules from 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, loaded with 3,400 litres of diesel fuel, began its descent, the pilot flying lost sight of the runway. Moments later, radar contact and communication were lost as the aircraft crashed approximately 16 km south of the station. The crew of another CC-130 Hercules, also bound for Alert, saw the fires of the crash and identified the location of Boxtop 22. The crash took the lives of five Canadian Armed Forces members – four died in the crash and one perished before help arrived.Don't forget about our training programs! Available by donation  Email us if you'd like a copy; 6 weeks, 5 workouts/week to get you a better score! Thank you for your continued support. thesartake@gmail.comDISCLAIMER!!!This podcast was prepared or accomplished by Dylan Weller and Jonathan Kovacs in their personal capacity. Any views or opinions expressed or represented in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the podcast hosts and their guests and do not represent those of people, institutions, or organizations that the hosts or guests may or may not be affiliated or associated with a professional or personal capacity. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. The names, dates, or personal details may have been changed or removed to protect confidentiality.If you like what we are doing and would like to support us, check us out on Patreon! A huge thank you to everyone for listening: please comment, like, share and keep listening.Support the show

This podcast episode includes a complete wrap-up from my Ellesmere Island expedition this March 2022 in Winter to search for the White Arctic Wolf, Arctic Hare, Ptarmigan, Musk Ox, and Arctic Fox.Link to the April 2022 Photograph of the MonthSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

This week I had the privilege of interviewing my friend Ray Zahab on Sharpen Your Edge Live. Ray is one of the top adventurers in the world. He's an ultra-runner, Explorer in Residence Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and has run across some of the most difficult terrain on the planet, including the Sahara desert, the Gobi desert, and a run from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean across the Andes mountains. In this amazing conversation Ray talks about his latest expedition attempt across Ellesmere Island, pushing the limits, building trust and making good decisions under pressure. If you want to learn more about him, you can go to his website at rayzahab.com and his organization website at impossible2possible.com. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dr-greg-wells/support

Ray Zahab is an adventurer, explorer and expedition leader who has traversed some of the most unrelenting wilderness on the planet! In this episode Ray shares stories from some of his more recent expeditions: attempting to traverse Death Valley during one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded and a journey to the wild and remote Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Ray explains what it feels like to adventure through a land in it's most harsh time of year, why times of challenge are so important, how he uses an "Adaptive Process" with goals and the importance of trusting your gut. This is an awesome episode!! Huge thanks to Ray for coming on the show!

People used to say "If you believe that, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you," but they really should have said, "I have some lovely acres in the Republic of Poyais you can buy, but you have to act now!"  Presenting one of my favorite con artists ever, the man who declared himself prince of a South American country that didn't exist, Gregor MacGregor (yes, that's really his name). Links to all the research resources are on the website. Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram.  Become a patron of the podcast arts! Patreon or Ko-Fi.  Or buy the book and a shirt. Music: Kevin MacLeod,  Want to start a podcast or need a better podcast host?  Get up to TWO months hosting for free from Libsyn with coupon code "moxie."   Remember back in episode 155, Hate to Burst your Bubble, we talked about, among other things, the Florida real estate boom and bust of the 1920s?  It's where we get the phrase, “if you believe that, I have some real estate in Florida to sell you.”  100 years before that, we could have been saying, “I have some acreage in Poyais to sell you.”  Never been to Poyais?  Trust me, it's amazing.  The weather is always perfect, sunny and warm.  Located along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras, the soil of Poyais is so fertile, you can get three harvests of corn a year.  The trees are heavy with fruit and the forests teem with entrees in the form of game animals.  If you look into the rivers, you'll not only see water cleaner and more pure than you've ever seen in your life and more fish than you could hope to catch, but in the river bed, the sparkle of gold fills your eyes, not from flecks and dust, but nuggets as big as walnuts, just laying there, waiting for you to scoop them up.  The only thing missing is settlers to develop and leverage its resources to the fullest.  Wanna get your share?  Better hurry; hundreds of people are investing all their savings in a piece of the perfect Poyais.  All you have to do is [] to the Cazique or prince.  Who is the prince of this equatorial new world paradise?  A Scotsman named Gregor MacGregor.     MacGregor was born in 1786.  His father, who died when Gregor was 4, was a captain sailing with the East India Company, so adventuring on a quest for riches might well have been in his blood.  A clever chap from the get-go, Gregor enrolled in the University of Edinburgh at age 15, though he never finished his degree.  No shade thrown there, I'm a 3-time community college drop-out and look how I turned out!  (pause, sigh)  At age 17, he took after his grandfather and joined the British Army, where he quickly rose up the ranks to lieutenant, captain, and major, largely by buying the next rank up, but that's pretty much how it was done back then.  Two years after enlisting, MacGregor married a Royal Navy Admiral's daughter, and a mere five years after that, probably because he'd married into money, he retired from the army.  The young couple moved to London, where Gregor called himself Sir and claimed to be a baronet, which ranks underneath baron in British noble hierarchy and is apparently a modest enough lie that no one would think to put the effort and time into checking it out.     But ‘easy street' only lasted another year before his wife died.  No more wife meant no more wealthy in-laws, so MacGregor sold his Scottish estate and relocated to Caracas, Venezuela, where he married another wealthy family's daughter.  Never let it be said he's not consistent.  Wife 2 was actually a cousin of Simon Bolivar, of Bolivia fame.  He was able to sell his military prowess to Francisco de Miranda, the Venezuelan revolutionary general.  There was rather a lot of revolution going on in Spanish colonies at the time while Spain was well distracted dealing with a certain actually-of-average-height French emperor.  At least MacGregor wasn't lying about his soldiery, securing a number of victories and becoming a notable figure for the revolutionary set all across LatAm.     In 1820, MacGregor moved to a former British Colony, in Nicaragua, which, true to its name, a swampy and pest-infested area that Europeans had until that point left to the Mosquito Natives.  In 1830, MacGregor traded jewelry and rum for eight million acres of land.  Now that was either an F-ton of rum or the land was utterly worthless.  I'll give you three guesses.  The land was completely useless for farming, kinda of a big deal, being the production of foodstuff and whatnot.     Realizing there was no way he could draw settlers in with the land as it was, MacGregor decided to draw them in with the land as it wasn't.  So he headed back to England, where he was well-known in society circles for his military achievements, leading his men into battle against great odds.  Society not knowing that he'd also abandoned his men.  Twice.  But he rubbed elbows with the muckety-mucks nonetheless, telling them all about his new world paradise, the Republic of Poyais.  And he went so far beyond Baron Munchausenian story-telling.   Gregor made up a whole country and everything that goes along with it.  To hear him tell it, the Republic of Poyais was not an impenetrable, parasite-ridden jungle, but a glorious tableau with a thriving civilization with a parliament, banks, an opera house and cathedral.  The weather was ideal, a perpetual summer that was very appealing to Londoners.  The soil was so rich that farming required almost no labor.  The rivers that wound down the mountains teemed with fish and the surrounding forests were thick with game animals.  In this dubious district, the capital of St Joseph had a massive infrastructure and a population of about 20,000 people.  The economy was robust, if you felt like doing anything other than scooping up all the gold that was just laying around.  MacGregor had pamphlets promoting printed, and they sold in the thousands around the streets of London and Edinburgh.  He started a nationwide campaign to attract investment, taking out big ads in newspapers and even opened sales offices.     The world-building that went into this scam would have made GRRM blush.  Maybe even JRR Tolkien.  Feel free to at me on social media; I love a spirited nerd debate.  He came up with a tricameral Parliament and a commercial banking system.  Like an African dictator, he designed Poyaian military uniforms, several, different ones for different regiments.  He published a 350 page guidebook, under the pen name Thomas Strangeways, with a sliver of real facts about the region, but the Pacman portion of the pie chart all came from his preposterous posterior.  The book was full of detailed sketches and MacGregor had a seemingly endless supply of official-looking documents.  He had offices set up in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh to sell land certificates, which people eagerly bought.  The whole operation looked completely legit; you wouldn't even think to doubt it.  MacGregor didn't just succeed in his con, he was *wildly successful.  Not only did MacGregor raise £200,000 directly – the bond market value over his life ran to £1.3 million, or about £3.6 billion today – but he convinced seven ships' worth of eager settlers to make their way across the Atlantic. It became a popular investment, and many sank their life savings in land deed in Republic of Poyais.  A London Bank underwrote a £2000 pound loan, £23mil or $30mil today, secured with the land sales.     MacGregor was signing up settlers left and right.  Settlers meant development, which meant the value of bonds and land certificates would go up, which would attract more settlers and investors, driving the price up further.  Gee, it's like crime does kinda pay.  Skilled tradesmen were promised free passage and ostensibly, supposedly government contract work.  Don't think it was only the under-educated among the population that bought into this – bankers, doctors, civil servants, you name it.  Whole families signed up and backed their bags.   In September 1822, the first fifty settlers sailed for Poyais and were very confused when the landed.  There was…nothing there.  No port, not even a dock.  I mean, there were trees and snakes and mosquitos, but no city, no road, no nothing.  The settlers believed they were lost, but they couldn't get a ride to the “right” place because that ship had sailed.  Literally, the ship left them immediately.  So they set up camp.  150 more people, including children, shortly joined them.  They searched for civilization as best they could, but the rainy season descended on them, bringing on clouds of mosquitos, whose tiny bags were packed with yellow fever and malaria.  A few settlers who were saved by a passing ship informed the British Colony of Honduras about the situation. The colony organized a rescue mission, but only a third of the population was still alive and rescued. In the meantime, five more ships set for Poyais had to be stopped by the Honduras government.  They were informed that Poyais did not exist. It was Mickey Mouse, mate, spurious, not genuine.  Twisting the knife counter-clockwise, the King revoked the land grant and told them they were now illegal squatters and had swear allegiance or GTFO.  Dozens were too weak to leave.  In a particularly depressing bit of math, of 250 or so who had set sail for Poyais, with all their hopes and dreams pinned to this mythical land, 180 died.      That's not even the crazy bit.  Of those 70 who barely survived their ordeal, many of them did *not blame MacGregor.  Six of the survivors, including one man who lost two children to the ordeal, signed an affidavit insisting that blame lay not with MacGregor but with Hector Hall, a former army officer who was supposed to be in charge of the settlement.  They declared "[W]e believe that Sir Gregor MacGregor has been worse used by Colonel Hall and his other agents than was ever a man before, and that had they have done their duty by Sir Gregor and by us, things would have turned out very differently at Poyais". MacGregor claimed he's been a victim too, defrauded and embezzled from by his own agents and undermined by merchants in British Honduras because the richness of Poyais threatened their profits   Now I love a Scottish accent, but this must have been one charming melon-farmer.  MacGregor didn't know it, but he had actually been using “the six principles of persuasion.”  These comes from a 1984 book by Robert Cialdini, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” which looked at the factors that affect the decisions that people make, especially as pertains to sales, naturally.  At the core of his work is the idea that decision-making is effortful, so individuals use a lot of rules of thumb and decision making shortcuts (heuristics) when deciding what to do, and of course once you know what those things are, you can manipulate them to your advantage.  They are authority (in the sense that they're an authority on the subject), scarcity, reciprocity (i.e. you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours), consistency (I still believe in this idea as much as I always have), social validation (everyone you know is buying one of these), and friendship or liking (picture the smile on a used car salesman).  MacGregor seemed to know these instinctively.   Mcgregor skipped town when the scandal broke, claiming he needed to take his wife to warm, dry Italy for her health, and headed across the channel to France and began the whole thing all over again.  In Paris, he persuaded the Compagnie de la Nouvelle Neustrie, a firm of traders looking to break into the South American market, to seek investors and settlers for Poyais in France.  In a matter of months, he had a new group of settlers and investors ready to go.  Concurrent to all this, he tried to get in good with King Ferdinand VII of Spain, proposing to make Poyais a Spanish protectorate and a base of operations from which Spain could reconquer Guatemala.  Spain, at least, ignored MacGregor.  MacGregor might not have realized that France was more stringent than England in its passport requirements: when the government saw a flood of applications to a country no one had heard of, a commission was set to investigate the matter.  Or maybe he figured he was on a roll and utterly bulletproof.  This time, Mcgregor et al were arrested and tried.  But he was found not guilty on all accounts, mostly because one of his accomplices was hiding in the Netherlands with a ton of incriminating documents.  Once he felt that London had probably forgotten his colossal scam, he headed back…and started another scam.  Smaller this time; I guess he's learning.  But the bonds didn't sell well this time, and what's worse -for everyone- other fraudsters started pulling their own fake paradise scams following his model.  He retired to Edinburgh, then to Venezuela after the death of his wife, where he was granted citizenship and a pension as a retired general.  He never faced any consequences for his actions and when he died in 1845, Gregor MacGregor was buried with full military honors.  So the moral of the story is … crime does pay?  That's a terrible lesson.     Crocker Land   In 1907, Robert Peary was the most famous, and most experienced Arctic explorer in the world, but he had a problem—he hadn't yet managed to become the first to visit the most arctic of arctic places, the North Pole, and his cash reserves were becoming nonexistent. The previous year, he had almost made it—supposedly getting within 175 miles or 280 kilometers—but was turned around by a combination of storms and depleting supplies, but Robert Peary was sure he could get there if he just had another try. He possessed the kind of confidence that only a man with a Lorax level mustache can have. All he needed to make another journey was money. However, the arctic adventure capital market was a bit reluctant to give him more after the previous failures, so, Peary hatched a plan. The key to that plan was a wealthy San Francisco financier named George Crocker, who had previously donated $50,000 to Peary's failed 1906 voyage. This was, of course, a time when 50k bought you more than two buckets of movie theatre popcorn and a calculus textbook. Peary wanted Crocker to help fund his new voyage but, considering the previous trip he financed achieved diddly squat, this could be tough. But what if, and hear me out, the previous voyage wasn't a colossal failure. Peary thought of a way to not only convince Crocker that the previous voyage hadn't been a failure, but also to butter him up a little bit by doing the one thing that rich people love more than anything else—naming things after them. And so, Peary revealed that on his 1906 voyage, though he hadn't made it to the North Pole, he had seen, from a distance, an enormous, previously undiscovered land mass. He wrote that he spotted, “faint white summits,” 130 miles northwest of Cape Thomas Hubbard, and that once he got closer, he could make out, “the snow-clad summits of the distant land in the northwest, above the ice horizon.” In honor of George Crocker, the San Francisco financier, Peary named this beautiful, snow-peaked land mass, “Crocker Land.” But then Robert Peary had two problems. The first problem? George Crocker had already given most of his money to boring causes like rebuilding San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906, and so as flattered as he may have been, there wasn't money left for funding Peary's arctic antics. The second problem? The island was totally, 100%, made up. Now normally, this might not be such a big deal. Guy makes up an imaginary island, who cares? Captain James Cook did so three centuries ago and still nobody's called him out, but this fake island ended up mattering a lot. You see, eventually, Robert Peary did manage to secure funding for another voyage, mostly from the National Geographic Society. On April 6, 1909, he finally made it to the North Pole, or at least, he said he did. He had a picture, but this could be any old pile of snow. He returned home proudly proclaiming that he was the first man ever to reach the North Pole, to which a guy named Frederick Cook, another Arctic explorer, replied, “um…I was there, like, a year ago,” but, Cook said that he'd sailed through where this giant land mass called Crocker's Land was supposedly located. If I know anything about boats, it's that they don't work well on land and, since Cook hadn't found a thing except for cold water and walrus farts, someone's lying here. But, because of this, the existence of Crocker Land became crucially important as it would prove who had really gone to the North Pole first. If it did exist, then Frederick Cook must be lying about going to the North Pole. If it didn't exist, Frederick Cook did go to the North Pole, and Robert Peary was the liar. Of course, at that time you couldn't just fire up your handy household satellite to check and so, to settle it, a man named Donald McMillian decided to go on another expedition to find the land. Not only would this prove who was telling the truth, but it would possibly give McMillan the opportunity to be the first to step onto what was considered, “the last great unknown place in the world.” That voyage was, incredibly, a failure. In addition to their ship getting stuck in the ice for three years before they could return home, the only bright spot came when a crew member saw what looked to be the island—a beautiful, snowy-peaked landmass—but it turned out to be a mirage. In light of that fact, some have suggested that Peary didn't lie about the island, but was actually just seeing a mirage, but unfortunately for Peary's reputation, it looks like that's letting him off too easy. Historians looked at Peary's original notes and logs for the date that Crocker's Land was supposedly discovered, and they found that he doesn't mention anything about it. All he says happened that day was that he climbed up some rocks, and then climbed down the rocks. Plus, the early drafts of his book even didn't include anything about it, but then three paragraphs about Crocker Land mysteriously showed up just before the book was published—just when Peary needed to get more money. In other words, Crocker Land was a load of crock. One of Peary's major issues, aside from inventing an island, was that, when he supposedly went to this north pole, his crew did not include a single navigator who could make their own independent observations as to whether or not they were truly at the pole, or just some pile of ice, and so people didn't believe him. In the archives of the American Geographical Society in Milwaukee lies a century-old map with a peculiar secret. Just north of Greenland, the map shows a small, hook-shaped island labeled “Crocker Land” with the words “Seen By Peary, 1906” printed just below.   The Peary in question is Robert Peary, one of the most famous polar explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the man who claimed to have been the first to step foot on the North Pole. But what makes this map remarkable is that Crocker Land was all but a phantom. It wasn't “seen by Peary”—as later expeditions would prove, the explorer had invented it out of the thin Arctic air.   By 1906, Peary was the hardened veteran of five expeditions to the Arctic Circle. Desperate to be the first to the North Pole, he left New York in the summer of 1905 in a state-of-the-art ice-breaking vessel, the Roosevelt—named in honor of one of the principal backers of the expedition, President Theodore Roosevelt. The mission to set foot on the top of the world ended in failure, however: Peary said he sledged to within 175 miles of the pole (a claim others would later question), but was forced to turn back by storms and dwindling supplies.   Peary immediately began planning another attempt, but found himself short of cash. He apparently tried to coax funds from one of his previous backers, San Francisco financier George Crocker—who had donated $50,000 to the 1905-'06 mission—by naming a previously undiscovered landmass after him. In his 1907 book Nearest the Pole, Peary claimed that during his 1906 mission he'd spotted “the faint white summits” of previously undiscovered land 130 miles northwest of Cape Thomas Hubbard, one of the most northerly parts of Canada. Peary named this newfound island “Crocker Land” in his benefactor's honor, hoping to secure another $50,000 for the next expedition.   His efforts were for naught: Crocker diverted much of his resources to helping San Francisco rebuild after the 1906 earthquake, with little apparently free for funding Arctic exploration. But Peary did make another attempt at the North Pole after securing backing from the National Geographic Society, and on April 6, 1909, he stood on the roof of the planet—at least by his own account. “The Pole at last!!!" the explorer wrote in his journal. "The prize of 3 centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years. Mine at last."   Peary wouldn't celebrate his achievement for long, though: When the explorer returned home, he discovered that Frederick Cook—who had served under Peary on his 1891 North Greenland expedition—was claiming he'd been the first to reach the pole a full year earlier. For a time, a debate over the two men's claims raged—and Crocker Land became part of the fight. Cook claimed that on his way to the North Pole he'd traveled to the area where the island was supposed to be, but had seen nothing there. Crocker Land, he said, didn't exist.   Peary's supporters began to counter-attack, and one of his assistants on the 1909 trip, Donald MacMillan, announced that he would lead an expedition to prove the existence of Crocker Land, vindicating Peary and forever ruining the reputation of Cook.   There was also, of course, the glory of being the first to set foot on the previously unexplored island. Historian David Welky, author of A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier, recently explained to National Geographic that with both poles conquered, Crocker Land was “the last great unknown place in the world.” American Geographical Society Library. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. After receiving backing from the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Illinois, and the American Geographical Society, the MacMillan expedition departed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in July 1913. MacMillan and his team took provisions, dogs, a cook, “a moving picture machine,” and wireless equipment, with the grand plan of making a radio broadcast live to the United States from the island.   But almost immediately, the expedition was met with misfortune: MacMillan's ship, the Diana, was wrecked on the voyage to Greenland by her allegedly drunken captain, so MacMillan transferred to another ship, the Erik, to continue his journey. By early 1914, with the seas frozen, MacMillan set out to attempt a 1200-mile long sled journey from Etah, Greenland, through one of the most inhospitable and harshest landscapes on Earth, in search of Peary's phantom island.   Though initially inspired by their mission to find Crocker Land, MacMillan's team grew disheartened as they sledged through the Arctic landscape without finding it. “You can imagine how earnestly we scanned every foot of that horizon—not a thing in sight,” MacMillan wrote in his 1918 book, Four Years In The White North.   But a discovery one April day by Fitzhugh Green, a 25-year-old ensign in the US Navy, gave them hope. As MacMillan later recounted, Green was “no sooner out of the igloo than he came running back, calling in through the door, ‘We have it!' Following Green, we ran to the top of the highest mound. There could be no doubt about it. Great heavens! What a land! Hills, valleys, snow-capped peaks extending through at least one hundred and twenty degrees of the horizon.”   But visions of the fame brought by being the first to step foot on Crocker Land quickly evaporated. “I turned to Pee-a-wah-to,” wrote MacMillan of his Inuit guide (also referred to by some explorers as Piugaattog). “After critically examining the supposed landfall for a few minutes, he astounded me by replying that he thought it was a ‘poo-jok' (mist).”   Indeed, MacMillan recorded that “the landscape gradually changed its appearance and varied in extent with the swinging around of the Sun; finally at night it disappeared altogether.” For five more days, the explorers pressed on, until it became clear that what Green had seen was a mirage, a polar fata morgana. Named for the sorceress Morgana le Fay in the legends of King Arthur, these powerful illusions are produced when light bends as it passes through the freezing air, leading to mysterious images of apparent mountains, islands, and sometimes even floating ships.   Fata morganas are a common occurrence in polar regions, but would a man like Peary have been fooled? “As we drank our hot tea and gnawed the pemmican, we did a good deal of thinking,” MacMillan wrote. “Could Peary with all his experience have been mistaken? Was this mirage which had deceived us the very thing which had deceived him eight years before? If he did see Crocker Land, then it was considerably more than 120 miles away, for we were now at least 100 miles from shore, with nothing in sight.”   MacMillan's mission was forced to accept the unthinkable and turn back. “My dreams of the last four years were merely dreams; my hopes had ended in bitter disappointment,” MacMillan wrote. But the despair at realizing that Crocker Land didn't exist was merely the beginning of the ordeal.   MacMillan sent Fitzhugh Green and the Inuit guide Piugaattog west to explore a possible route back to their base camp in Etah. The two became trapped in the ice, and one of their dog teams died. Fighting over the remaining dogs, Green—with alarming lack of remorse—explained in his diary what happened next: “I shot once in the air ... I then killed [Piugaattog] with a shot through the shoulder and another through the head.” Green returned to the main party and confessed to MacMillan. Rather than reveal the murder, the expedition leader told the Inuit members of the mission that Piugaattog had perished in the blizzard.   Several members of the MacMillan mission would remain trapped in the ice for another three years, victims of the Arctic weather. Two attempts by the American Museum of Natural History to rescue them met with failure, and it wasn't until 1917 that MacMillan and his party were finally saved by the steamer Neptune, captained by seasoned Arctic sailor Robert Bartlett.   While stranded in the ice, the men put their time to good use; they studied glaciers, astronomy, the tides, Inuit culture, and anything else that attracted their curiosity. They eventually returned with over 5000 photographs, thousands of specimens, and some of the earliest film taken of the Arctic (much of which can be seen today in the repositories of the American Geographical Society at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee).   It's unclear whether MacMillan ever confronted Peary about Crocker Land—about what exactly the explorer had seen in 1906, and perhaps what his motives were. When MacMillan's news about not having found Crocker Land reached the United States, Peary defended himself to the press by noting how difficult spotting land in the Arctic could be, telling reporters, “Seen from a distance ... an iceberg with earth and stones may be taken for a rock, a cliff-walled valley filled with fog for a fjord, and the dense low clouds above a patch of open water for land.” (He maintained, however, that "physical indications and theory" still pointed to land somewhere in the area.) Yet later researchers have noted that Peary's notes from his 1905-'06 expedition don't mention Crocker Land at all. As Welky told National Geographic, “He talks about a hunting trip that day, climbing the hills to get this view, but says absolutely nothing about seeing Crocker Land. Several crewmembers also kept diaries, and according to those he never mentioned anything about seeing a new continent.”   There's no mention of Crocker Land in early drafts of Nearest the Pole, either—it's only mentioned in the final manuscript. That suggests Peary had a deliberate reason for the the inclusion of the island.   Crocker, meanwhile, wouldn't live to see if he was immortalized by this mysterious new land mass: He died in December 1909 of stomach cancer, a year after Peary had set out in the Roosevelt again in search of the Pole, and before MacMillan's expedition.   Any remnants of the legend of Crocker Land were put to bed in 1938, when Isaac Schlossbach flew over where the mysterious island was supposed to be, looked down from his cockpit, and saw nothing. Bradley Land was the name Frederick Cook gave to a mass of land which he claimed to have seen between (84°20′N 102°0′W) and (85°11′N 102°0′W) during a 1909 expedition. He described it as two masses of land with a break, a strait, or an indentation between.[1] The land was named for John R. Bradley, who had sponsored Cook's expedition.   Cook published two photographs of the land and described it thus: "The lower coast resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and high valleys. The upper coast I estimated as being about one thousand feet high, flat, and covered with a thin sheet ice."[2]   It is now known there is no land at that location and Cook's observations were based on either a misidentification of sea ice or an outright fabrication. Cook's Inuit companions reported that the photographs were actually taken near the coast of Axel Heiberg Island.[   Cook described two islands lying at about 85 degrees North, which he named Bradley Land.  These islands, like Peary's “Crocker Land,” do not exist, yet Cook's partisans have tried to resuscitate Cook's credibility by linking “Bradley Land” to a discovery made in the Arctic only since Dr. Cook's death.      After World War II, aerial reconnaissance revealed a number of large tabular bergs drifting slowly clockwise in the arctic basin north of Ellesmere Island. Several arctic researchers and scientists have suggested these so-called ice islands—breakaway pieces of its ancient ice shelf—are probably what Cook mistook for “Bradley Land,” and Cook's advocates have repeated these statements to support the doctor's claim.       Cook gave this description of “Bradley Land”: “The lower coast resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and high valleys. The upper coast I estimated as being about one thousand feet high, flat, and covered with a thin sheet ice.”      Ice islands are no more than 100 to 200 feet thick, total. They are nearly flat with only rolling undulations and rise only about 25 feet above sea level. Cook's “Bradley Land” therefore does not remotely resemble an ice island, or even an ice island magnified by mirage. And Cook published two pictures of the high, mountainous land he called “Bradley Land.”        Cook's Inuit companions are reported to have said these pictures were of two small islands off the northwest coast of Axel Heiberg Island; others believe they are of the coast of Heiberg Island itself, though the pictures have never been duplicated.      Ren Bay  has been suggested as the site.  Ellesmere trekker Jerry Kobalenko reports he could not match the picture exactly to that site, but Cook might have taken it at a time when fog obscured prominent landmarks, as he did in Alaska, making it impossible to duplicate now.  In each picture the photographer is standing on a point above the flat ice.  Kobalenko's was taken off a ten-foot hillock.   Sources: https://www.jetsetter.com/magazine/islands-to-visit-before-they-disappear/ Brigadoon https://www.history.com/news/the-con-man-who-invented-his-own-country https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sandy-island-doesnt-exist_n_2184535 https://interestingengineering.com/10-islands-on-maps-that-never-actually-existed https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8350278/mysterious-island-that-didnt-exist-four-years-ago-is-now-teeming-with-life-sea-volcano/ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160127-the-conman-who-pulled-off-historys-most-audaciou s-scam https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/collections/notable-collections/profiles/crocker-land.html https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/crocker-land-peary-arctic-continent https://research.bowdoin.edu/crocker-land-expedition/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_KQOeh-Co http://humbug.polarhist.com/bland.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Island,_New_Caledonia https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/gregor-macgregor-prince-poyais   There are Islands that have disappeared and not in the global warming, vanishing coastline type of way. These Islands are called Phantom Islands. To be considered a Phantom Island, a piece of land must have been agreed to exist at one point before eventually being undiscovered or corrected. Basically, academics and cartographers thought an island was real and then eventually found out it wasn't. For example, Atlantis would not be considered a Phantom Island because it was always considered a legend. But perhaps the best example of a Phantom Island is Burmeja. Bermeja first appeared on maps in the year 1539, and for nearly 400 years, it was accepted as a real island located in the Gulf of Mexico. But in the 2000s, the United States and Mexico were in a dispute over an oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. Basically, Burmeja marked the outermost limit of Mexico's economic territory. The oil field would have been within that border marked by Burmeja, thus making it Mexico's property. But when the Mexican government set a team to verify the island's position, it was gone. The team had the exact coordinates for the island, and Bermeja had appeared on maps for 400 years, but it just wasn't there. The team searched all over the Gulf of Mexico and concluded that Bermeja simply no longer existed. There are a few theories about how Bermer disappeared. One is that it vanished into the ocean as a result of natural geographic shifts. This has happened elsewhere in the world, so it's entirely plausible. There's also a theory that Birmingham was intentionally destroyed by the United States so they could gain access to the oil field. It's a bold strategy, and you would think someone would have noticed an entire island being blown up. But America has done worse things in the name of oil. Some people say early Mexican officials may have added it to the map in an effort to just expand their borders. This, again, would be a pretty bold strategy, but perhaps an effective one in the 15th century. The most likely explanation is that Burmeja never existed. It was a mistake by some cartographer in the 1500s, and everyone just went with it. Early cartographers were also known to add fake Islands to their maps to prevent plagiarism. These fake Islands would tip them off if their map was ever copied. But Burmeja has appeared in various ships, logs, and inventories, some of which were official documents from the Mexican government. Ultimately, Burmette was never found, and no one really knows why. But Bermuda has not been the only Phantom Island. The Baja Peninsula was believed to be the island of California for years before it was corrected. A fictitious place called Sandy Island appeared on maps for over a century near Australia. It was even on Google maps. Today, scientists think early explorers just saw a large piece of pumice stone floating in the ocean. Arctic Explorer Robert E. Pierre made up the Island Crocker land in an effort to scam some money from one of his investors. There have been dozens more of these Phantom Islands over the years with each having been undiscovered for different reasons. Today, though, thanks to satellite imagery, Phantom Islands are probably a thing of the past you. Con artists have long recognised that persuasion must appeal to two very particular aspects of human motivation – the drive that will get people to do something, and the inertia that prevents them from wanting to do it. In 2003, two social psychologists, Eric Knowles at the University of Arkansas and Jay Linn at Widener University, formalised this idea by naming two types of persuasive tactics. The first, alpha, was far more frequent: increasing the appeal of something. The second, omega, decreased the resistance surrounding something. In the one, you do what you can to make your proposition, whatever it may be, more attractive. You rev up the backstory – why this is such a wonderful opportunity, why you are the perfect person to do it, how much everyone will gain, and the like. In the other, you make a request or offer seem so easy as to be a no-brainer – why wouldn't I do this? What do I have to lose? Psychologists call it the ‘approach-avoidance' model of persuasion They called the juxtaposition the approach-avoidance model of persuasion: you can convince me of something by making me want to approach it and decreasing any reasons I might have to avoid it. According to Columbia University psychologist Tory Higgins, people are usually more likely to be swayed by one or other of the two motivational lines: some people are promotion-focused (they think of possible positive gains), and some, prevention-focused (they focus on losses and avoiding mistakes). An approach that unites the alpha with the omega appeals to both mindsets, however, giving it universal appeal – and it is easy to see how MacGregor's proposition offered this potent combination.  

This podcast episode includes an in-the-field update from my Ellesmere Island expedition to search for the White Arctic Wolf, Arctic Hare, Ptarmigan, Musk Ox, and Arctic Fox.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

This podcast episode includes details of my packing and travel preparations for the upcoming expedition to Ellesmere Island and Svalbard and the earlier than anticipated transition story from Canon EOS 1DX MK3 DSLR cameras to the full mirrorless RF System with the Canon EOS R3 cameras.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

This podcast episode includes a discussion of the World Photographic Cup as well as an update on upcoming workshops and expeditions (including Iceland, Finland, Ellesmere Island, and Svalbard) and a bit of a rant on the requirement for expensive PCR tests for international travel.World Photographic Cup Finalists 2022Greenland 2024 Expedition www.jholko.com/workshops Finland in Winter Portfolio Greenland PortfolioSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

Jon Turk is easily one of North America's most accomplished adventurers. Jon has kayaked around Cape Horn and across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska. He's mountain biked across the northern Gobi in Mongolia, made first climbing ascents of big walls on Baffin Island and in 2011 circumnavigated Ellesmere Island. He's no stranger to adventure and lucky for us, he likes to write about his adventures. Especially lucky for us, he sat down with us to chat about his new book Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu! Buy the book here

GB2RS News Sunday 10th of October 2021 The news headlines: School ISS contact this Tuesday RSGB exam booking system is live New 2x1 callsigns for Australia   At 1112UTC on 12 October, GB4MHN will be calling the International Space Station to enable ten deaf children to speak to a NASA Astronaut. The children at the Mary Hare School for deaf children in Newbury will be assisted by Lloyd, M5LDF and other members of Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society. The children will each ask a question to the astronaut and the reply will then be interpreted into subtitles and sign language. The event is made possible by ARISS, which heads up the radio contacts for space agencies NASA and ESA. The ISS signal can be received on the 2m band or watched live at live.ariss.org. The RSGB's new exam online booking system is now live. On the first page, you choose whether you are an individual who wants to book a remote invigilation exam or a club that wants to book an exam for candidates at the club premises. Clubs will be able to choose whether to book and pay for their candidates, or just book the date and time then receive a link that candidates will use to pay for their own exams. You can find the new booking process and an FAQ to help you at rsgb.org/exam-bookings. The Australian Communications and Media Authority will commence the release of brand new 2 x 1 Australian contest callsigns at 10 am, 13 October 2021. The contest callsign template comprises the VK, VJ or VL prefix followed by one number then one letter. There are a number of rules governing the application for a short contest call and they will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. The RAF Air Cadets are planning to run the next Blue Ham Radio Communications Exercise on the 16th and 17th of October. They hope that radio amateurs can put some time aside to join in with the cadets and staff on the shared section of the 5MHz bands. A Blue Ham participation certificate is available to those who contact 15 or more special Cadet callsigns during the exercise. Just search for exercise blue ham to find out more information. As part of the day of lectures for the British Amateur Television Club CAT21 day, Ian, GM3SEK is giving a talk on the application of the RSGB-Ofcom Calculator to microwave bands and QO-100 satellite operation on Saturday the 16th of October at 1.30 pm. Registration is not required and full details of the day and how to view can be found at batc.org.uk/live/cat21. Jamboree On The Air is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world communicate with each other via amateur radio. JOTA 2021 runs for the full 48 hours of the 16th and 17th of October. You can find out more at jotajoti.info. Members of the BBC's radio club, The London BBC Radio Group, have been granted an exceptional all-year Special Event callsign to help celebrate the BBC's centenary year in 2022. Ofcom will permit GB100BBC to operate throughout the year, starting at midnight on New Year's Day, from the headquarters station in Broadcasting House, London. Operating slots will then be allocated for use by individual members and local groups of operators, from their home QTH, or BBC premises throughout the UK. And now for details of rallies and events Before travelling to any rally or event, please check the event's website as there may still be alterations or cancellations due to the pandemic. The second part of the BATC Convention for amateur TV will take place on the 16th of October. It will be a day of free online talks about amateur television. Just search for BATC CAT21 and follow the link for the live stream. Essex CW Amateur Radio Club will hold a CW Boot Camp on the 16th of October in Witham. You can find out more by searching on the internet for Essex CW ARC and clicking their Boot Camp link. On the 17th of October, the Hornsea Amateur Radio Rally is due to be held at the Driffield Show Ground, YO25 3AE. Doors open at 10 am and parking is free. Admission is £2. There will be trade stands, a Bring & Buy and a car boot area. Catering will be available on site. Also on the 17th, the Hack Green Radio Surplus Hangar Sale will be held at the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker in Nantwich. Doors open at 10 am and there will be equipment, components and amateur radio gear on sale. The Galashiels Rally, scheduled to take place on the 24th is cancelled, as previously publicised. The Members of Bishop Auckland RAC have, sadly, had to cancel their annual rally due to be held on the 28th of November. It will now be planned for 2022. Now the DX news Nobby, G0VJG has cancelled his operation from the Maldives and will be active as 3B8/G0VJG from Mauritius, AF-049, until the 16th of October. He will operate SSB and digital modes on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Robert, 3B9FR is a resident of Rodrigues Island, AF-017, and is now active again. He operates mainly CW, with some occasional SSB and FT8. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Curtis, KC5CW will be active as FY/KC5CW from French Guiana until the 3rd of November. He will operate SSB, slow CW, PSK and FT8 on the 160 to 6m bands. He will upload his log to the Logbook of The World and Club Log. Alex, VE1RUS and Pierre, VE3TKB will be active from VY0ERC, the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station located on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, between the 12th of October and the 22nd of November. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS and Logbook of The World. Now the Special Event news From the 6th of October through to the 2nd of November, West of Scotland ARS will be running a special event station GB4GDS, celebrating 90 years of the Guide Dog Association. More information about the station can be found at www.wosars.club. Dundee ARC will be active over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of October as part of the Jamboree On The Air weekend. They will be using HF and VHF, so if you hear them please give them a call. Now the contest news When operating in contests, please keep yourself and fellow amateurs safe by following relevant pandemic-related government recommendations. This weekend, the Oceania DX CW contest ends its 24-hour run at 0800UTC today, the 10th. Using the contest bands between 1.8 and 28MHz, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Today, the 10th is the UK Microwave group's 122 to 248GHz contest. Running from 0900 to 1700UTC, it uses all modes. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. It is followed by the all-mode UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. Wednesday sees the data leg of the 80m Autumn Series running from 1900 to 2030UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number. The 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC on Thursday. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend is the Worked All Germany contest running for 24 hours from 1500UTC on the 16th. Using SSB and CW on the contest bands between 3.5 and 28MHz, the exchange is signal report and serial number. German stations will also send DOK. Next Sunday, the 17th, there are four contests taking place. The first is between 0900 and 1300UTC the 50MHz AFS contest uses all modes and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Stations in the UK and Commonwealth Dependencies also exchange the first two letters of their postcode. The second contest is The UK Microwave Group 24 to 76GHz Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The IRTS 40m Daytime Counties Contest runs from 1200 to 1300UTC and is the third contest on the 17th. It uses CW and SSB and the exchange is signal report and serial number. EI and GI stations will also send their County code. Finally, for the 17th, the second Rolling Locator, or RoLo, contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. It is CW-only on the 3.5MHz band. The exchange is the signal report and the rolling locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 8th of October. Solar activity has dipped a little over the last two weeks. From a solar flux high of 102 on the 20th of September, activity declined to the mid-80s and stayed there. That isn't to say that HF activity has been poor. Far from it. There are numerous reports of DX being worked, including S9OK on Sao Tome and Principe. The Czech DXpedition, off the coast of western Africa, has been logged on many bands and continues to be popular. Ten metres has thrown up SSB contacts into Brazil, Chile and Uruguay for many, and openings to the Far East at times. Autumnal HF conditions are driving the DX, rather than the solar flux index. Maximum usable frequencies over a 3,000km path are often above 24 or even 28MHz in the afternoons. Next week is looking like more of the same, with NOAA predicting a solar flux index of 85, declining to 75 later in the week. Having said that, the STEREO Ahead spacecraft is highlighting two active regions due to rotate into view that may or may not develop into sunspots, so NOAA's forecast may turn out to be pessimistic. The good news is that a decline in coronal hole activity means the Kp index may remain low, perhaps down to two, which may result in continued settled geomagnetic conditions. As always, we maintain that October is one of the best months for HF DX, so do make the most of it. And now the VHF and up propagation news. High pressure this weekend should be producing good Tropo conditions for the southern half of the country, but probably peaking on Saturday the 9th. It is likely to return at times after mid-week as high pressure becomes more dominant over the country. Remember that Tropo can be long-lasting, as opposed to brief Sporadic-E openings, and it is often better on higher frequencies, so if 2m feels good then look at 70cm and 23cm too. It is worth looking up on beaconspot.uk, checking out some of the useful beacons across DL, OZ, SM, SP, LY, YL, and ES and getting them in your rig memories. In the second part of the week Tropo is more likely to favour the western side of the UK and support paths south to France or Spain. Other modes such as rain scatter, aurora and meteor scatter are worth checking and of course, you have a number of opportunities using the low earth orbit and geostationary satellites to keep you interested. The Draconids meteor shower peaked on Friday and we have the small delta-Aurigids, with a low ZHR of two, peaking on the 11th.    For EME enthusiasts, the SV5/HB9COG DXpedition to Rhodes is now over, with the team making QSOs on all bands from 432MHz up to 10GHz with just a lightweight 1.5metre portable dish and a single Yagi. Moon declination reaches minimum on Tuesday with the Moon barely reaching 11 degrees elevation at its zenith that day. Path losses are still low but increasing. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Jon Turk earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1971 and was nominated by National Geographic as one of the Top Ten Adventurers of the Year in 2012. Between these bookends, he co-authored the first college level environmental science textbook in North America, followed by 35 additional texts. At the same time, he kayaked around Cape Horn, across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska, and around Ellesmere Island. During extended travel in northeast Siberia, his worldview was altered by Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman, and his later books reflect these spiritual journeys, supported by adventure storytelling, and integrated with an anthropological view of the role of art and mythology in human development. He is the author of the new book tracking lions: Myth and Wilderness in Samburu Support the show by becoming a member by donation and get access to exclusive content and bonuses!

In this podcast episode, we talk more about the current state of COVID and the pandemic here in Australia as well as update the state of several workshops and expeditions. Also included are the new dates on the 2023 expedition to Ellesmere Island and a warning to check your memory cards for signs of microfracture and separation.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

In this episode, we discuss the COVID-19 situation in Australia as of mid-August 2021 and what it means for travel for Australian citizens. We also discuss the recent feature portfolio published in the Hungarian Digitalis Photography magazine as well the feature article published by UK Business Influencer magazine on the 2022 Winter expedition I am leading with my good friend David Gibbon to Ellesmere Island in search of the elusive White Arctic Wolf. Lastly, we also discuss an invitation to be the guest speaker and open an exclusive new gallery here in Melbourne later this year.UK Business Influencer Magazine feature article on 2022 Ellesmere Island Expedition Hungarian Photography magazine Portfolio Feature - Ice Cold PassionI have also added two new levels of support for the Podcast that include monthly image critiques for those of you who would like feedback on your work and one-on-one one-hour mentoring sessions on Post-production and Image Processing.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

In this podcast episode, we talk about the current state of the ongoing pandemic here in Australia, as well as the very strict COVID travel restrictions that are currently in place for international travel into and out of Australia.  We also talk about both the upcoming sold-out Wolves and Wolverines workshop this October in northern Finland, the sold-out expedition to Ellesmere Island in March 2022, as well as two recent articles on Adobe Lightroom ISO specific Noise Reduction pre-sets for the Canon EOS 1DXMK3 and why Sharpening pre-sets are sub-optimal in Lightroom if ultimate image quality is your goal.Adobe Lightroom ISO-Specifc Noise Reduction Pre-Sets Adobe Lightroom Capture Sharpening Pre-SetsThe Adobe Lightroom ISO-specific Noise Reduction Pre-sets are available to purchase for $10 through my online store Melrakki publishing. If you have travelled with me on a workshop or expedition and would like a copy of the pre-sets please email me directly and I will make them available to you for free.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JoshuaHolko)

Jerry Kobalenko is one of Canada's most experienced High Arctic travelers, and the author of The Horizontal Everest and Arctic Eden. We spoke about the lure of Ellesmere, and searching for the traces of historic travelers.

Ilan Eshkeri is the featured guest on this Score to Screen podcast. The award-winning composer highlights the importance of narrative and story when it comes to crafting score music. Eshkeri provides an in depth look at his soundtrack to the documentary series, A Perfect Planet as well as the admired video game, Ghost of Tsushima. A Perfect Planet is a unique fusion of blue chip natural history and earth science that explains how our living planet operates. This five-part series shows how the forces of nature drive, shape and support Earth's great diversity of wildlife. It takes us on a stunning visual journey, from lands drenched by the Indian monsoon to the slopes of fiery Hawaiian volcanoes, from the tidal islands of the Bahamas to the frozen wastes of Ellesmere Island. From Arctic wolves prowling moonlit landscapes in winter, to frozen wood frogs magically thawing back to life in spring; from the vampire finches of the Galapagos who drink the blood of seabirds, to the African flamingos who gather in their thousands every year in a vast volcanic lake to breed. The video game, Ghost of Tsushima, takes place in the late 13th century, when the Mongol empire has laid waste to entire nations along their campaign to conquer the East. Tsushima Island is all that stands between mainland Japan and a massive Mongol invasion fleet led by the ruthless and cunning general, Khotun Khan. As the island burns in the wake of the first wave of the Mongol assault, samurai warrior Jin Sakai stands as one of the last surviving members of his clan. He is resolved to do whatever it takes, at any cost, to protect his people and reclaim his home. He must set aside the traditions that have shaped him as a warrior to forge a new path, the path of the Ghost, and wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Tsushima. Ilan Eshkeri is an award-winning composer, artist, songwriter, producer and creator. Eshkeri's work is performed in concert halls, theaters, galleries, on film and television and in video games. Recent projects include A Perfect Planet, his fourth collaboration with the legendary naturalist David Attenborough and The White Crow which he worked on with Ralph Fiennes. Both followed the creation of a ballet, Narcissus and Echo, choreographed by famed dancer Sergei Polunin with set designs by David LaChapelle and a ballet commission from Rambert Dance Company. Eshkeri has collaborated with Burberry on a landmark fashion show, where he composed and conducted a choral symphonic suite, Reliquary, which then reached No. 1 in the UK classical chart. Before this, he worked with astronaut Tim Peake and the European Space Agency on a film documenting his mission to the International Space Station. He continues his collaboration with Tim Peake and ESA with his spellbinding show Space Station Earth, last performed in Stockholm to an audience of 10,000. Eshkeri's many creative partnerships include artists such as Annie Lennox, David Gilmour, Sinead O'Connor, KT Tunstall, Tom Odell, Ash and The Cinematic Orchestra. Amongst his extensive catalogue of film and television are multiple Oscar & BAFTA winning films, such as Still Alice, Stardust and Shaun The Sheep.  The Score to Screen podcast series is produced and hosted by Crossover Media's Max Horowitz. Listen to the Soundtrack to A Perfect Planet here. Listen to the Ghost of Tsushima Soundtrack here. List to the official Ilan Eshkeri Spotify playlist here. To learn more about Sony Soundtracks visit https://lnk.to/son

Jerry Kobalenko is an Arctic explorer, historian, author, journalist and editor of the excellent website explorersweb.com. He has spent decades traveling the polar regions from Ellesmere Island and Labrador to the NorthWest Passage. On over 40 different to the arctic he has skied, hiked or kayaked over 12,000 miles.We talk the beauty and simplicity of the arctic, polar bears hunting humans, camping in -40 degrees, manhauling, infamous expeditions of the North and so much more. Subscribe now to the Buffalo Roamer Podcast to hear more stories of adventure.

Jon Turk has lived an incredible life filled with enough adventures to incapacitate most, and enough hardship to extinguish the wildest passion. But Jon is no ordinary individual; he is an extraordinary human that even today, at 75-years-old, continues to live life on his terms and at the edge that only he defines. Fifty years ago, Jon earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, wrote the first environmental science textbook in the United States, and began wandering the globe. He has since written more than 30 textbooks and has completed some of the most grueling expeditions, including kayaking across the North Pacific, circumnavigating Ellesmere Island, mountain biking through the Gobi Desert, and world's first climbing ascents and skiing descents. He has gained much wisdom along the way, including awareness of living in the moment, never closing his heart to love, and always reaching out to catch the magic of life. Jon and I have a profound conversation that takes us deep into his experiences with Siberian spirituality and shamanism, which he so beautifully recounts in his book The Raven's Gift; explores the life-altering impacts of avalanches; and follows the punishing and magical courses of many of his expeditions. There is not a dull moment in this episode, nor superfluous advice. If you are interested in defining the terms by which you live your life and finding contentment and purpose in each moment, you will not be disappointed in this episode of Salish Wolf with Jon Turk. Episode Links: www.jonturk.net Anchor Point Links: Men's Retreats at Anchor Point Expeditions

Plant fossils are found coast-to-coast in Canada, from 45-million-year-old mosses in British Columbia to fossil forests on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands in the Canadian Arctic. The early angiosperms developed advantages over contemporary groups — rapid reproductive cycles — which made them highly efficient, adapting well to "weedy" growth. These modifications, including flowers for the attraction of insect pollinators, proved advantageous in many habitats. Interaction between plant and pollinator has been a driving force behind the astounding diversification of both flowering plants and insects. Some of the earliest known flowering plants are found in northeastern British Columbia coalfields. Late Cretaceous (about 101–66 million years ago) floras of the Dawson Creek area of British Columbia, and Milk River, Alberta, reveal increasing dominance by angiosperms. These fossils, while generally resembling some living angiosperms, represent old, extinct families, and their relationships to living groups remain unclear. At the end of the Cretaceous, the climate cooled, inland seas covering much of western Canada drained, and dinosaurs became extinct. At the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene is evidence of extinction amongst land plants, too. During this interval of mass extinction, the Earth was struck by a massive meteorite. The fallout from this impact is preserved in boundary sediments in southern Saskatchewan as a pale clay, rich in rare earth elements such as iridium. In the early Paleogene period (66–56 million years ago), we entered the age of mammals. Paralleling the rise of mammals is the rise of modern flora, which consists overwhelmingly of our glorious flowering plants. One of the most prolific fossil sites for Paleogene flowering plants, fruits and seeds is the Messel pit in Germany. In 2012, a research group found over 140 different plant species, 65 of which were previously unknown. Early Paleogene fossils are found over much of Alberta — Red Deer River, Lake Wabamun coalfields and Robb to Coal Valley coalfields — and southern Saskatchewan — Eastend area to Estevan coalfield — to as far north as Ellesmere Island. These floras reveal a variety of flowering plants, including members of the sycamore, birch and walnut families, but the most abundant fossil plants are the katsuras and the dawn redwood, now native only to southeastern Asia.

Chapter 1: The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40 per cent of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said on Thursday.  The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. Guest: Luke Copland, University of Ottawa Chapter 2: It's been a long time since we've had playoff excitement in this city...but a big win on Friday night means the Canucks are in the playoffs! The last time the Canucks made the playoffs was in 2015 (they were knocked out in the first round by the Calgary Flames).  Guest: Christian Aumell, host of the CJOB Sports Show Chapter 3: Lions Bay Beach Park was linked to recent cases of COVID-19; anyone who visited the park during the BC Day long weekend is being warned that they may have been exposed to the virus. What does Lions Bay city council want you to know before you consider visiting their small community?  Guest: Councillor Jamie Cunliffe, acting mayor Chapter 4: To help out restaurants during the pandemic, rules were changed to allow them to sell liquor with take-out orders. And this experimental plan proved to be a success. So why not keep it going after the pandemic ends? Guest: John Yap, Richmond MLA Chapter 5: As Vancouver's drug addiction and homelessness crisis seems to worsen, it feels like nothing the government is doing is actually helping. Are there effective and proven methods for moving people away from drug use and back into normal society? Guest: Steve Whiteside, Chief Executive Officer - John Volken Academy Chapter 6: How was the back-to-school plan created?  There are reports that Vancouver trustees were not consulted on the BC restart plan. So who was?  Guest: Stephanie Higginson, president of the BCSTA Chapter 7: BC's tourism industry needs financial assistance now! Joining us to discuss his op-ed in the Vancouver Sun on this subject is Rick Antonson, who for more than 21 years was the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver.   Guest: Rick Antonson, former president & CEO of Tourism Vancouver

This episode is a conversation with Jaelyn Eberle, a mammal palaeontologist based at the University of Colorado but who works primarily in the Arctic. I worked with her just a few hundred miles from the North Pole on Ellesmere Island, in 2018 for Polar Extremes, a climate change special for NOVA on PBS in the States. I really enjoyed my time with Jaelyn and was fascinated by the environment she was reconstructing in the Arctic 50 million years ago, a strange, swampy forest, dark for 6 months of the year, but still home to turtles, crocodiles and tapirs. It's an amazing insight to into just how different climates can be, on this planet we call home and it tells us a lot about what we might expect in the face of current climate change. The conversation covers the ancient landscape and animals, the amount of information carried in teeth, plus the modern Arctic environment and the challenges it faces. Jaelyn is an ever-cheerful and positive force in the field and I think she carries this into her communication and passion for teaching. This conversation was recorded on 16th April, right at the height of the Coronavirus Crisis, so there are references to those events. There has been a delay as I built up all 8 episodes of Series 1, which are now recorded and ready to launch. Support this podcast

Welcome back. We hope you're staying healthy.This week the Nerds invited Dev-i-Boy on again. He'll be joining us for the next while.First up is a discussion about Indiana Jones 5. Can Indy swing himself back into relevance for a new generation? Not if COVID-19 has anything to say about it. Indiana Jones 5 has been pushed back again due to the pandemic. The Nerds are hoping Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf doesn't make another appearance as Indy's son, but we'd be ok with him appearing as a cannibal tribesman. This of course leads into a discussion on Disney's other properties, including the notorious Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. This looks like a rough year for Disney.Dev-i-Boy has heard that Russians are behind everyone's favourite YouTube channel, Five Minute Crafts. In a story reminiscent of bad Cold War fiction, Russian propaganda is slipped into innocuous seeming YouTube videos. Now we just need a team of teenagers to sneak into the secret Russian video studio lab and uncover their plot.Activision has pulled off a major win in court against the maker of the Humvee. Modern warfare needs modern weapons, and the US courts have ruled in favour of realism over licensing fees. Finally, DJ and Dev-i-Boy can't handle the knowledge. An Australian lizard joins the tiny group of reptiles that both lay eggs and give live birth. This revelation is too much for them to handle though, so we move on to the games of the week.Professor and DJ play Generation Zero, a game about Swedish battle mechs and robot dogs that want to kill you. It's buggy, but generally a good experience. Dev-i played LoZ: Wind Waker again but breaks into a new dimension in VR Chat. Of course, he picked an anime girl avatar. Of course.On to the usual shoutouts and remembrances, and DJ refuses to wrap up the show by performing Waterloo. Maybe next week.Stay safe, and we'll see you all next week.Indiana Jones 5 -https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/indiana-jones-2022/YouTube viral video debunked - https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-to-cook-that-creator-ann-reardon-is-debunking-viral-youtube-videos.html/ Call of Duty lawsuit win -https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/call-duty-wins-first-amendment-victory-use-humvees-1287882A lizard can now lay eggs and give live birth -https://theconversation.com/this-lizard-lays-eggs-and-gives-live-birth-we-think-its-undergoing-a-major-evolutionary-transition-133630 - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.15409 Games PlayedProfessor– Generation Zero - https://store.steampowered.com/app/704270/Generation_Zero/Rating : 5/5DJ– Generation Zero - https://store.steampowered.com/app/704270/Generation_Zero/Rating : 4.5/5Dev-i-Boy - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_The_Wind_WakerRating – 5/5- VR Chat - https://store.steampowered.com/app/438100/VRChat/Rating – 3/5Other topics discussedIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Kingdom_of_the_Crystal_SkullThe timeline of the Indiana Jones films is the chronological order of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones and the film series.- https://indianajones.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_filmsTransformers film series (Transformers is a series of American science fiction action films based on the Transformers franchise which began in the 1980s. Michael Bay has directed the first five films.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_(film_series)Harrison Ford survives plane crash - https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/14/news/harrison-ford-plane-mishap/index.htmlDisney’s Artemis Fowl Official Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl2r3Fwxz_oJungle Cruise (The Jungle Cruise is a river boat attraction located in Adventureland at many Disney Parks worldwide, namely Disneyland, Magic Kingdom,Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland. For years, Walt Disney Pictures had been toying with the idea of turning the Jungle Cruise into a full-length action adventure motion picture, which it would be loosely inspired by the theme park attraction of the same name.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_CruiseBruckheimer is very frank about how he almost passed on the project, which is based on the famous Disney theme park ride.- https://web.archive.org/web/20080102184110/http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/425/425848p1.htmlPirates of the Caribbean 6th movie- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_(film_series)#Sixth_film How to Cook That (Youtube channel by Ann Reardon)- https://www.youtube.com/user/howtocookthat/videosDebunking Fake Videos & WHO'S behind 5-min crafts? | How To Cook That Ann Reardon- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvqa8dsBtno Lonelygirl15 (lonelygirl15, the first of many shows within the fictional LG15 Universe, tells the ongoing story of a group of young adults fighting against a mysterious secret society called, The Order.)- https://www.youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15Sex-workers - idubbbz complains by iDubbbzTV- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQLzOuwDu_8Elsagate (neologism referring to the controversy surrounding videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids that are categorized as "child-friendly", but which contain themes that are inappropriate for children.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ElsagateThe FTC action against YouTube and Google- https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2019/11/youtube-channel-owners-your-content-directed-children Why Youtube doesn’t make any profit - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/4-reasons-youtube-still-doesnt-make-a-profit/ The Simpson – Lionel Hutz vs 10 high priced lawyers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hhAH4mlQk Donald Trump Violated First Amendment by Blocking Critics on Twitter- https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/donald-trump-violated-first-amendment-twitter-blocking-1203542245/ Temperature-dependent sex determination (a type of environmental sex determination in which the temperatures experienced during embryonic/larval development determine the sex of the offspring.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature-dependent_sex_determinationDogs (Dogs are autonomous robotic quadrupeds, equipped with a series of lethal weapons.)- https://black-mirror.fandom.com/wiki/DogsBoston Dynamics : Spot - https://robots.ieee.org/robots/spotmini/Japanese students hold graduation ceremony in Minecraft amid school cancellation- https://soranews24.com/2020/03/15/japanese-students-hold-graduation-ceremony-in-minecraft-amid-school-cancellation/Katie Bouman: The woman behind the first black hole image- https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47891902 Systers (founded by Anita Borg, is an international electronic mailing list for technical women in computing.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SystersThe Eleventh Hour (The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery is an illustrated children's book by Graeme Base.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleventh_Hour_(children%27s_book)Hareraiser (video game released in 1984 in the UK in two parts: Prelude and Finale, comedian and computer game historian Stuart Ashen described and showed the game play, and called it "quite possibly the worst video game ever.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HareraiserAnimalia (an animated children's television series based on the 1986 picture book of the same name by illustrator Graeme Base.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalia_(TV_series) The story behind Jackie Chan’s stunt in Police Story which involved slides several stories down a pole strung with lights, electricity arcing around him as he crashes through multiple panes of glass into a shop stall.- https://observer.com/2019/01/how-jackie-chan-police-story-stunts-changed-movies/Jackie Chan further explains the stunt in Police Story- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZEVz1V-X4w Waterloo ("Waterloo" is the first single from the Swedish pop group ABBA's second album, Waterloo and their first under the Epic and Atlantic labels.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(ABBA_song) That’s Not COVID (TNC Podcast)- https://thatsnotcanon.com/thatsnotcovidpodcast Shout Outs 5 April 2020 - Shirley Douglas, actress and mother of Kiefer Sutherland dies at 86 - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shirley-douglas-dead-actress-mother-kiefer-sutherland-was-86-1288624Shirley Douglas, an actress in films directed by Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg and the mother of actor Kiefer Sutherland. Douglas appeared in Kubrick's Lolita (1962) and Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (1988) and in other movies including Shadow Dancing (1988) and Wind at My Back (1996). In 2003, for her contributions to the performing arts, she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Sutherland announced his mother's death on Twitter, saying "My mother was an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary life," Sutherland wrote. "Sadly she had been battling for her health for quite some time and we, as a family, knew this day was coming. To any families who have lost loved ones unexpectedly to the coronavirus, my heart breaks for you. Please stay safe." She died of complications surrounding pneumonia at the age of 86 in Toronto,Ontario. His son noted her passing was not related to COVID-19. 5 April 2020 – Anime ending this week 10 years ago according to Japanese netizens - https://soranews24.com/2020/04/05/whered-the-time-go-top-anime-series-that-finished-ten-years-ago-ranked-by-japanese-netizens/Here’s the top ten of this decade-old anime! Which ones have you watched recently?10. Kuroshitsuji II9. Durarara!!8. A Certain Scientific Railgun7. Nodame Cantabile Finale6. HeartCatch PreCure!5. Fullmetal Alchemist4. K-On!!3. Inuyasha: The Final Act2. Animal Detective Kiruminzoo1. Hidamari Sketch×☆☆☆6 April 2020 - ‘Jaws’ actress Lee Fierro dead at 91 from coronavirus complications - https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/jaws-actress-lee-fierro-dead-at-91-with-coronavirus-complications/Lee Fierro, best known as Alex Kintner’s mom in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark attack classic “Jaws,” In her iconic scene from “Jaws,” an enraged Fierro confronts Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and slaps him in the face. “I just found out that a girl got killed here last week and you knew, you knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway,” her character says, sobbing. “You knew all those things and still my boy is dead now, and there’s nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead.” Fierro reportedly had "objected to the profanity" of the scene's dialogue as originally drafted, and the director, Steven Spielberg, wanted dialogue that accorded with Fierro's "everywoman looks," so the scene's dialogue was rewritten the day before it was filmed. Fierro went on to reprise her role in 1987’s subpar “Jaws: The Revenge” opposite Michael Caine. She died from COVID-19 at the age of 91. Remembrances6 April 1520 – Raphael - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. He died from fever at the age of 37 in Rome, Papal States.6 April 1944 - Rose O'Neill - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_O%27NeillRose Cecil O'Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. She built a successful career as a magazine and book illustrator and, at a young age, became the best-known and highest- paid female commercial illustrator in the United States. O' Neill earned a fortune and international fame by creating the Kewpie, the most widely known cartoon character until Mickey Mouse. Her Kewpie cartoons, which made their debut in a 1909 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, were later manufactured as bisque dolls in 1912 by J. D. Kestner, a German toy company, followed by composition material and celluloid versions. The dolls were wildly popular in the early twentieth century and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in the United States. Their name, "Kewpie", derives from Cupid, the Roman god of love. According to O'Neill, she became obsessed with the idea of the cherubic characters, to the point that she had dreams about them: "I thought about the Kewpies so much that I had a dream about them where they were all doing acrobatic pranks on the coverlet of my bed. One sat in my hand." She described them as "a sort of little round fairy whose one idea is to teach people to be merry and kind at the same time". O'Neill also wrote several novels and books of poetry, and was active in the women's suffrage movement. She was for a time the highest-paid female illustrator in the world upon the success of the Kewpie dolls. She died from heart failure at the age of 69 in Springfield, Missouri. 6 April 2003 - Anita Borg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Borg American computer scientist. She founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. In 1997, Borg founded the Institute for Women and Technology (now the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology). Two important goals behind the founding of the organization were to increase the representation of women in technical fields and to enable the creation of more technology by women. The Institute was created to be an experimental R&D organization focusing on increasing the impact of women on technology and increasing the impact of technology on the world's women. It ran a variety of programs to increase the role of technology, build the pipeline of technical women, and ensure that women's voices affected technological developments. Borg passionately believed in working for greater representation of technical women. Her goal was to have 50% representation for women in computing by 2020. She strove for technical fields to be places where women would be equally represented at all levels of the pipeline, and where women could impact, and benefit from, technology. She died from a brain tumour at the age of 54 in Sonoma, California. Famous Birthdays6 April 1958 - Graeme Base - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_BaseAuthor and artist of picture books. He is perhaps best known for his second book, Animalia published in 1986, and third book The Eleventh Hour which was released in 1989. He worked in advertising for two years and then began illustrating children's books, gradually moving to authoring them as well. His first book, My Grandma lived in Gooligulch, was accepted by the first publisher he sent it to. He was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. 6 April 1975 - Zach Braff - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_BraffAmerican actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his role as J. D. on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005 and for three Golden Globe Awards from 2005 to 2007. He starred in The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, In Dubious Battle, and has done voice-work for Chicken Little, Oz the Great and Powerful, and the Netflix series Bojack Horseman. In 2004, Braff made his directorial debut with Garden State, which he also wrote, starred in, and compiled the soundtrack album for. He shot the film in his home state of New Jersey for a budget of $2.5 million. The film made over $35 million at the box office and was praised by critics, leading it to gain a cult following. He won numerous awards for his directing work and also won the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album in 2005. Braff directed his second film, Wish I Was Here, which he partially funded with a Kickstarter campaign. He was born in South Orange, New Jersey. 7 April 1954 - Jackie Chan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_ChanChan Kong-sang, known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kongese martial artist, actor, film director, producer, stuntman, and singer. He is known in the cinematic world for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. He has trained in Wushu or Kung Fu and Hapkido, and has been acting since the 1960s, appearing in over 150 films. Chan is one of the most recognisable and influential cinematic personalities in the world, gaining a widespread following in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. He is an operatically trained vocalist and is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. He is also a globally known philanthropist and has been named as one of the top 10 most charitable celebrities by Forbes magazine. In 2004, film scholar Andrew Willis stated that Chan was "perhaps" the "most recognised star in the world". In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $350 million, and as of 2016, he was the second-highest paid actor in the world. He was born in Victoria Peak. 7 April 1964 - Russell Crowe - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_CroweRussell Ira Crowe actor, film producer and musician. Although a New Zealand citizen, he has lived most of his life in Australia. He came to international attention for his role as the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the historical film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which Crowe won an Academy Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, an Empire Award, and a London Film Critics Circle Award for best actor, along with ten other nominations in the same category. Crowe's other award-winning performances include portrayals of tobacco firm whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in the drama film The Insider, and John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind. Crowe's other films include, L.A. Confidential, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Cinderella Man, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, State of Play, Robin Hood, Les Misérables, Man of Steel, Noah, and The Nice Guys. In 2015, Crowe made his directorial debut with The Water Diviner, in which he also starred. Crowe's work has earned him several accolades during his career, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, one BAFTA and one Academy Award out of three consecutive nominations (1999, 2000, and 2001). Crowe has also been the co-owner of the National Rugby League (NRL) team South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2006. He was born in Wellington. Events of Interest 6 April 1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-modern-olympic-gamesOn April 6, 1896, the Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition. In Athens, 280 participants from 13 nations competed in 43 events, covering track-and-field, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, weightlifting, fencing, shooting, and tennis. All the competitors were men, and a few of the entrants were tourists who stumbled upon the Games and could sign up. The track-and-field events were held at the Panathenaic Stadium, which was originally built in 330 B.C. and restored for the 1896 Games. Americans won nine out of 12 of these events. The 1896 Olympics also featured the first marathon competition, which followed the 25-mile route run by a Greek soldier who brought news of a victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. In 1924, the marathon was standardized at 26 miles and 385 yards. Appropriately, a Greek, Spyridon Louis, won the first marathon at the 1896 Athens Games.6 April 1909 - Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pearys-expedition-reaches-north-poleOn April 6, 1909, American explorer Robert Peary accomplishes a long elusive dream, when he, assistant Matthew Henson and four Eskimos reach what they determine to be the North Pole. Decades after Peary’s death, however, navigational errors in his travel log surfaced, placing the expedition in all probability a few miles short of its goal. In 1908, the pair travelled to Ellesmere Island by ship and in 1909 raced across hundreds of miles of ice to reach what they calculated as latitude 90 degrees north on April 6, 1909. Although their achievement was widely acclaimed, Dr. Frederick A. Cook challenged their distinction of being the first to reach the North Pole. A former associate of Peary, Cook claimed he had already reached the pole by dogsled the previous year. A major controversy followed, and in 1911 the U.S. Congress formally recognized Peary’s claim. In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but that Peary and Henson came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles short. On May 3, 1952, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma stepped out of a plane and walked to the precise location of the North Pole, the first person to undisputedly do so.6 April 1917 - Americans declares war on Germany - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/america-enters-world-war-iTwo days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally enters World War I. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British and an anti-Tsarist element sympathising with Germany's war against Russia, US public opinion reflected that of the president: the sentiment for neutrality was particularly strong among Irish Americans, German Americans, and Scandinavian Americans, as well as among church leaders and among women in general. On the other hand, even before World War I had broken out, American opinion had been overall more negative toward Germany than toward any other country in Europe. Over time, especially after reports of atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, American citizens increasingly came to see Germany as the aggressor in Europe. While the country was at peace, American banks made huge loans to Britain and France, which were used mainly to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic. Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war but he did authorise a major ship-building program for the United States Navy. The president was narrowly re-elected in 1916 on an anti-war ticket.6 April 1974 - The Swedish pop band ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo", launching their international career. - https://www.mylifetime.com/she-did-that/april-6-1974-abba-won-the-eurovision-song-contest-for-waterloo-launching-their-international-careerSongwriters and musicians Ulvaeus and Andersson first met in 1966. However, it was in 1969 when the seeds of the soon-to-be Swedish supergroup were planted when Björn met his fiancée, Fältskog, and Benny met his fiancée, Lyngstad. Ulvaeus and Andersson knew how to write contagious pop hits. However, Fältskog and Lyngstad’s beautiful harmonies were integral to the global chart-topping ABBA sound. After “Waterloo” won the 19th edition of the Eurovision song competition, the winning tune reached the No. 1 spot on the UK chart and became a top ten hit in the US on the Billboard Hot 100. “Waterloo” sold six million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.Follow us on Facebook - Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/ - Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094 RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rssInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/General Enquiries Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.comRate & Review us on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/nerds-amalgamated-623195

Here Be Monsters host Jeff Emtman climbs a tree, stops believing in God. 

In 2006, Eric Larsen completed a 62-day expedition to the North Pole pulling a 250-pound sled for 550 miles. Men's Journal named him one of the 25 Most Adventurous Men of the Past 25 Years. Polar adventurer, expedition guide, dog musher and educator, Eric Larsen has spent a lot of time traveling to some of the most remote and wild places left on earth. He is one of only a few Americans to have skied to both the North and South Poles. In November 2009, he returned to Antarctica for the first leg of his world record Save the Poles expedition. This time he completed a 750-mile ski traverse to the geographic South arriving on January 2, 2010. Two short months later he was dropped off at northern Ellesmere Island for a winter-style North Pole Journey. The international team reached the North Pole 51 days then on Earth Day - April 22, 2010. He completed the Save the Poles expedition by reaching the summit of Mt. Everest on October 15, 2010, becoming the first person in history to reach the world's three 'poles' within 365 days.    He travels to wild and specifically cold places to cast a spotlight on climate change and the melting Arctic.    Today, we have a bigger conversation about adventure. We also talk about how the Arctic has changed over the past two decades. Eric is one of the few people who have seen this firsthand. Lastly, how do you juggle all this while being a dad?    With that, let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next.     Where to find Eric   www.ericlarsenexplore.com Instagram Facebook     BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you’ll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!   About Lisa Gerber: Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.   She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.   When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.   To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

A young female Arctic fox has shocked scientists by travelling over 3,500 km (2,175 miles) from Norway to Canada in just 76 days.The journey took her from Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, which sits between mainland Norway and the North Pole, to Ellesmere Island, Canada, according to research published in the journal Polar Research.Scientists from Norway's Polar Institute, which fitted the Arctic fox with a satellite transmitter, say it undertook one of the longest dispersal events --a movement from the birth place to a potential breeding location -- ever recorded for the species.Researcher Eva Fuglei said the team couldn't believe what they were seeing as they tracked the fox."We didn't think it was true," said Fuglei in a statement.It covered an average of 46.3 km (28.8 miles) per day, and amazingly travelled 155 km (96.3 miles) in just one day as it crossed the Greenland ice sheet.This is the fastest rate recorded for this species, 1.4 times faster than the previous known record held by an adult male Arctic fox that was tracked in Alaska.Scientists believe the fox may have sped up as it crossed the ice sheet due to limited foraging opportunities.However it slowed down significantly on two occasions, covering less than 10 km (6.2 miles) per day for 48 hours.This may be due to physical barriers on the sea ice, bad weather, or good feeding opportunities.Experts have previously speculated that the Arctic fox may eat crustaceans from open water.The fox left Spitsbergen on 26 March 2018 and arrived in Canada just over two months later.Its current whereabouts is unknown as the transmitter stopped working on 6 February 2019.The Arctic is undergoing important changes as warming temperatures affect the ice.It is heating up twice as fast as the global average, causing massive melting of sea ice and opening up the area to exploration.Russia is set to tow a floating nuclear power plant to the Arctic port town of Pevek next month as part of plans to expand its interests in the region.These plans have sparked concerns in the US, which also sees economic opportunities as Arctic sea ice melts.

Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from around the North.  Arctic glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate and show no signs of regeneration, says a recent study conducted in Canada. The research looked at glaciers between 1999… »

Top Of Show Sponsor: Badfish SUP Erik Boomer takes us on a wild ride during this hour long, in-depth ‘Hot Seat’...

Top Of Show Sponsor: Badfish SUP Erik Boomer takes us on a wild ride during this hour long, in-depth ‘Hot Seat’...

Your hosts, Lynn, Levon, Marie Claude, Marc  (scroll to bottom for video of show) ListenEN_Interview_2-20180525-WIE20 The Friendly International Dispute Over an Arctic Island View of Hans Island located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait, which separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland. (Photo courtesy of Michael Byers) It's a very small island in the middle of the Arctic ocean. Trouble is it's smack dab in the middle of the maritime boundary separating Greenland, i.e. Denmark,  and Canada. Small, barren and uninhabited, both countries claim it, and have done so for years. Now both Canada and Denmark/Greenland have decided to establish a task force to resolve this friendly dispute.  Levon speaks to Canadian Arctic expert Michael Byers who says the longstanding dispute seems to come back in the news whenever a national election looms, but says the island dispute should be very easy to resolve. Canada's (almost) Official Bird- gets its real name back The Canada Jay is not shy and will land right on your camera even without the temptation of food. (Gord Belyea) Canada, like many countries, has an official animal, the beaver and even a second official animal , the Canadian horse,.  In fact, Canada, and each province, like many countries and states, also have official animals, trees, or other plants, and birds. Canada so far hasn't named an official national bird, although the Royal Canadian Geographical Society held a nation wide contest and the grey jay won.  Except, it really shouldn't be called the grey jay.  A long standing effort to recover the bird's real name has finally born fruit. Lynn spoke with ornithological expert David Bird about the re-naming of the "Canada Jay". U.S. to withdraw from Joint Comphensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal Several world leaders and top government officials including John Kerry of the US and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are shown in 2015 announcing the deal worked out to end Iran's nuclear weapons programme for at least a decade. Source: CBC news Two weeks ago, U.S. President Trump announced the country was withdrawing from the JCPOA saying it was a bad deal and did not go nearly far enough in limiting Iran's nuclear weapons development goals and capability.  That would mean the re-imposition of harsh sanctions. Iran would like to keep the deal to avoid such sanctions and has expressed willingness to re-negotiate although with an underlying threat that it might restart its uranium enrichment efforts if a deal isn't reached quickly. Most other countries, including Canada, expressed dismay at the U.S decision. In this excerpt, international affairs expert Ferry de Kerckhove from the University of Ottawa says Canada's opinion carries little influence but agrees the U.S decision is ill considered. Lobsters and Snow Leopards Marie-Claude is back from a trip to the Maritime province of New Brunswick and show photos of her experience with lobsters and a lobster recipe, and we have a brief look at Lynn's story along with the cutest photo of baby snow leopards born in the Winnipeg Zoo. Images of the week window.jQuery || document.write('

On this weeks episode, we will be covering the Arctic Hare. The Arctic Hare is the largest Hare found in North America. We have Inuit folktales about the Arctic Hare, as well as a poem about the arctic hare. Our plant of the week is Oats, and the word of the week is Blow! We will then conclude with the news. This episode is close to an hour, so we have a long episode this week, but I will not have an episode next week. I have some projects to work on the homestead, and it takes about 8 hours to put together an episode with research, recording, and editing. If you like to be first, and who does not like to be first, we have a few chances for you to be first. You could be the first person to rate and review the show on whatever platform you are listening, such as Itunes. You could also be the first to support the podcast through Patreon/Hare of the Rabbit. I would like to thank those that purchased from Amazon through the link at the HareoftheRabbit.com. It looks like there was several purchases this month.         Arctic Hare The Arctic Hare is the largest hare found in North America. The Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus), or polar rabbit, is a species of hare which is highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra, and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a small nose, fat that makes up 20% of its body, and a thick coat of fur. It usually digs holes in the ground or under snow to keep warm and sleep. Arctic hares look like rabbits but have shorter ears, are taller when standing, and, unlike rabbits, can thrive in extreme cold. They can travel together with many other hares, sometimes huddling with dozens or more, but are usually found alone, taking, in some cases, more than one partner. The Arctic hare can run up to 60 kilometres per hour (40 mph). The Arctic hare can achieve very fast speeds when the Arctic hare feels threatened. If the Arctic hare senses danger, the Arctic hare will stand on its hind legs and survey the area. If the Arctic hare feels threatened, the Arctic hare is capable of taking off at very fast speeds as the Arctic hare moves by hopping off its back legs in a similar way to a kangaroo. The Arctic hare runs erratically and leaps while running away from a predator to try and escape. Predators The Arctic hare is a vital component in the Arctic circle food chain, being one of the few smaller mammals able to thrive in such a harsh environment. The Arctic hare is therefore common prey for bigger animals of the Arctic tundra, such as Arctic wolves, foxes and polar bears. Known predators of the Arctic hare are the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), gray wolf (Canis lupus), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), ermine (Mustela erminea), snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus), grey falcon (Falco rusticolus), rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus), and humans (Homo sapiens). The Arctic wolf is probably the most successful predator of the Arctic hare, and even young wolves in their first autumn can catch adult hares. Arctic foxes and ermines, which are smaller, typically prey on young hares. Grey falcon carry hares to their nests, cutting them in half first; grey falcons use hare bones and feet in the structure of their nests on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) also prey on Arctic hares in the southern end of the hares' range. The Snowy owls mainly targets young hare; the French common name of the species derives from Anglo-Saxon harfang ("hare-catcher"). Four groups of parasites have been known to use Arctic hares as a host: protozoans (Eimeria exigua, E. magna, E. perforans, and E. sculpta); nematodes (including Filaria and Oxyuris ambigua); lice (including Haemodipsus lyriocephalus and H. setoni) and fleas (including Hoplopsyllus glacialis, Euhoplopsyllus glacialis, and Megabothris groenlandicus. Fleas are more common than parasitic worms. Range and habitat The Arctic hare is predominantly found on the hillsides and rocky areas of Arctic tundra, where there is no tree cover. This species lives mostly on the ground, but will occasionally create dens or use natural shelters during times of cold weather. During winter, the Arctic hare has been known to move into forested habitats. The Arctic hare is distributed over the northernmost regions of Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands and Northern Canada, including Ellesmere Island, and further south in Labrador and Newfoundland. The Arctic hare is well-adapted to the conditions found in the tundras, plateaus and treeless coasts of this region, including cold weather and frozen precipitation. The Arctic hare may be found at elevations between 0 (sea level) and 900 m. In Newfoundland and southern Labrador, the Arctic hare changes its coat color, molting and growing new fur, from brown or grey in the summer to white in the winter, like some other Arctic animals including ermine and ptarmigan, enabling it to remain camouflaged as their environments change. However, the Arctic hares in the far north of Canada, where summer is very short, remain white all year round. Characteristics Hares are a bit larger than rabbits, and they typically have taller hind legs and longer ears. Like other hares and rabbits, arctic hares are fast and can bound at speeds of up to 40 miles an hour. In winter, they sport a brilliant white coat that provides excellent camouflage in the land of ice and snow. In spring, the hare's colors change to blue-gray in approximation of local rocks and vegetation. The Arctic hare is one of the largest living lagomorphs. On average, this species measures from 43 to 70 cm (17 to 28 in) long, not counting a tail length of 4.5–10 cm (1.8–3.9 in). The body mass of this species is typically between 2.5–5.5 kg (6–12 lb), though large individuals can weigh up to 7 kg (15 lb). One of the world’s largest hares, the Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) has a distinctive, uniformly white summer coat, aside from the tips of each ear, which are black. The thick white fur provides both warmth and camouflage against the Arctic hare’s snowy surroundings. After the spring molt, the fur of southern populations is replaced with a shorter grey-brown fur. More northerly populations also molt into shorter fur, but retain the white coloration year-round. The time of shedding fur and the molting patterns vary with latitude. Not much is known about the molting pattern but it has been assumed that the annual molt starts in June. During his research at Sverdrup Pass on Ellesmere Island (now in Nunavut), biologist Dr. David Gray saw hares begin losing their winter coats in April, when temperatures still hover around -30°C (-22°F). Nursing females seem to molt later than other Arctic hares. The molt into winter or summer pelage is dependent on the number of daylight hours. When the Arctic hare detects a change in the number of daylight hours, hormones are released which trigger the molt. In mid-summer, when their camouflage is not as effective, Arctic hares are wary and difficult to approach. In the High Arctic, where summers are short (six to eight weeks), a sandy brown or grey wash appears on the nose, forehead and ears, and occasionally on the back. The predominant color, however, remains the snowy white of winter, which makes High-Arctic Arctic hares starkly visible against a snow-free background and therefore more vulnerable to predators. In the more southern reaches of their range (including Baffin Island, Nunavut), where the summer is somewhat longer, the white coat changes to brown with blue-grey tones, while the tail and parts of the ears and legs remain white. Arctic hares can be active all winter because of the insulating quality of their fur coat. A short, thick and warm under-fur is protected by the longer, silky top fur. A hare with fat for 20% of its body weight could live for 15 days at -24°C (11°F) on that stored fat alone because of this excellent insulation. The female Arctic hare is larger than the male, and also begins to molt earlier in spring. Otherwise, males and females look so similar that they are difficult to tell apart at a distance. During the breeding season and the nursing period, males and females can be more easily identified by their behavior. The arctic hare lives in the harsh environment of the North American tundra. These hares do not hibernate, but survive the dangerous cold with a number of behavioral and physiological adaptations. They sport thick fur and enjoy a low surface area to volume ratio that conserves body heat, most evident in their shortened ears. The Arctic hare is mostly solitary. However, during winter months, this species may demonstrate ‘flocking’ behavior, sometimes gathering in large groups of up to 3,000 individuals. This unique behavior may offer the Arctic hare protection from predators such as the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) making it harder for predators to catch an individual without being seen. The ‘flock’ are synchronized with each other and are able to move, run and change direction at the same time. The Arctic hare is always white in the far north where there is snow all year round. In parts of the Arctic circle that have seasons, the Arctic hare will go from white to a blue-grey color in the summer but is known to keep its white tail all year. The Arctic hare has long claws which helps the Arctic hare when digging through icy and snowy conditions when the Arctic hare is searching for food or if the Arctic hare is digging a den. The paws are heavily padded with thick, coarse fur which helps the Arctic hare to walk on the surface of snow without sinking. The well adapted claws and incisors enable the Arctic hare to dig through snow and feed on the plants beneath. Distress calls are made by hare and rabbit species when they are caught by predators, but all other communication is thought to be done by scent marking. The glands which secrete the scent are found underneath the chin and in the groin area. Diet Food can be scarce in the Arctic, but the hares survive by eating woody plants, mosses, and lichens which they may dig through the snow to find in winter. In other seasons they eat buds, berries, leaves, roots, and bark. An omnivorous species, the Arctic hare’s diet is mostly composed of woody plants such as Arctic willow (Salix arctica), as well as grasses, herbs, berries, buds, shrubs and lichens. An opportunistic feeder, the Arctic hare may also eat small animals and carrion. This species has an acute sense of smell, which enables it to locate and dig for food in the snow. Arctic hares feed primarily on woody plants, and willow constitutes 95 percent of their diet year-round. Arctic hares predominantly consume such as saxifrage, crowberry, and dwarf willow, but can also eat a variety of other foods, including lichens and mosses, blooms, other species' leaves, twigs and roots, mountain sorrel and macroalgae (seaweed). Arctic hare diets are more diverse in summer, but still primarily consists of willow, dryas and grasses. Arctic hare have been reported to occasionally eat meat, including fish and the stomach contents of eviscerated caribou. They eat snow to get water. Breeding Arctic hares are sometimes loners but they can also be found in groups of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individuals. Unlike many mammals, arctic hare groups disperse rather than form during mating season. Animals pair off and define mating territories, though a male may take more than one female partner. The breeding season of the Arctic hare begins in April or May, with the male pursuing the female and biting her neck, which often draws blood. The gestation period is around 53 days, with females usually giving birth to a litter of between 2 and 8 young hares, or ‘leverets’, in June or July. The female Arctic hare gives birth in a depression in the ground, which is lined with grass, moss and fur or sheltered under rocks. Arctic hare leverets are born at an advanced stage of development, with fur and open eyes. The female returns to feed the leverets every 18 hours with highly nutritious milk, eventually leaving them to fend for themselves when they are fully weaned after 8 or 9 weeks. Two to eight young hares grow quickly and by September resemble their parents. They will be ready to breed the following year. The leverets stay within the mother's home range until they are old enough to survive on their own. There is little information on the lifespan of Arctic hare. Some anecdotal evidence suggests they live three to five years in the wild. Arctic hare do not survive well in captivity, living only a year and a half at most. Traditionally, the arctic hare has been important to Native Americans. These fairly plentiful animals are hunted as a food resource and for their fur, which is used to make clothing. Arctic hare threats The Arctic hare is threatened by habitat loss in the southern part of its range, as well as by unrestricted hunting in certain areas. It may also come under threat in the future due to climate changes (whether those changes are man made, solar min/max changes or changes in the earths axis). However, the Arctic hare is not currently believed to be at high risk of extinction due to any of these factors. Conservation Some parts of the Arctic hare’s range have seasonal limits on the harvest levels of this species. There are not known to be any other specific conservation measures currently in place for the Arctic hare. Subspecies There are nine recognized subspecies of the Arctic hare: ⦁ Lepus arcticus andersoni, ⦁ Lepus arcticus arcticus, ⦁ Lepus arcticus bangsii, ⦁ Lepus arcticus banksicola, ⦁ Lepus arcticus groenlandicus, ⦁ Lepus arcticus hubbardi, Lepus arcticus labradorius, ⦁ Lepus arcticus monstrabilis, and ⦁ Lepus arcticus porsildi. The subspecies vary in range, molting behavior and appearance, with northern populations remaining white year-round. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/arctic-hare/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_hare https://a-z-animals.com/animals/arctic-hare/ http://www.arkive.org/arctic-hare/lepus-arcticus/ http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitLo.do;jsessionid=9111F3DC840DAB947DC1538CECB74E3A?method=preview&lang=EN&id=13762 http://interesting-animal-facts.com/Arctic-Animal-Facts/Arctic-Hare-Facts.html Hares in Newfoundland https://retrieverman.net/tag/arctic-hare/ One of the most interesting biological stories takes place on the island of Newfoundland. Before settlement, only Arctic hares could be found on Newfoundland. Its predators included the now extinct Newfoundland wolves and a very small population of Canada lynx. Its population was small, mainly because Arctic hares use open habitats and they are always somewhat vulnerable to predation. The small population of lynx that lived in Newfoundland were always at a bit of disadvantage. They are mostly adapted to eating snowshoe hares, which are creatures of the dense forest. However, before the 1860’s, there were no snowshoe hares on Newfoundland. The Canada lynx that lived on the island had to live like bobcats– eating what prey species availed themselves. Bobcats and Eurasian lynx are better at hunting deer species than the Canada lynx, but the Canada lynx on Newfoundland occasionally hunted caribou, especially the young of the year. But because there were no easily captured snowshoe hares for the Canada lynx to eat, their numbers remained quite small. The Canada lynx doesn’t do well as a bobcat. In the 1860’s, the government of Newfoundland discovered it had a problem. Lots of people were going hungry. The forests and sea were not producing enough to feed them. To rectify this problem, the Newfoundland government introduced the snowshoe hare, which is staple in the diet of many rural residents of the mainland. The hares fed the people, and they adapted well to Newfoundland’s environment. And they spread. In the early 1900’s, there were tons of them on the island. They soon reached what ecologists call the “carrying capacity” and then many of them starved. Then something else happened. Arctic hares began to disappear, and the caribou numbers began to drop. What caused the numbers of those species to drop? Well, it has something to do with the Canada lynx. What? Well, as I said before, the Canada lynx is a snowshoe hare specialist. On the mainland, its population is directly linked to snowshoe hare populations. It lives almost exclusively on them, and it is very well adapted to hunting them. When the population of snowshoe hares began to take off in Newfoundland, the native Canada lynx population could stop living like bobcats. They could return to their ancestral habits of hunting the snowshoes, the species they evolved to eat. Things were fine until the snowshoe hares reached their carrying capacity and their population dropped off. Then, the larger population of Canada lynx that had developed from eating those large number of snowshoe hares had to find something else to eat. They slaughtered the Arctic hares, even though Arctic hares are much harder for the Canada lynx to hunt. With so many Canada lynx in Newfoundland looking for food, the poor Arctic hares had no respite from the predation. The predation was so intense that Arctic hares can be found only in remote areas the northern part of the island, where one cannot find Canada lynx or snowshoe hares. On the mainland, Canada lynx, snowshoe hares, and Arctic hares are not found in the same spots. Arctic hares are always found to the north of prime Canada lynx and snowshoe hare habitat. It is likely that Canada lynx are the main reason why Arctic hares have a rather clearly demarcated southern limit to their range. They simply cannot live where Canada lynx and snowshoe hares do, because the Canada lynx will eat the Arctic hares when the snowshoe hares have their population crash. Yes, snowshoe hares have a ten year cycle in which the population hits its carry capacity within ten years and then has a massive die off. Then it rebuilds after that die off until it hits its carry capacity ten years later. The Canada lynx is at the mercy of these ten year cycles. And so, it seems, is the Arctic hare. The introduction of the snowshoe hare in Newfoundland had been a major disaster for the Arctic hare, even though the two species do not necessarily conflict with each other. They don’t even live in the same habitats, with Arctic hares preferring the open tundra and snowshoes preferring the forest. It is the rather strong predator-prey relationship that exists between the snowshoe hares and the Canada lynx that ultimately affected the Arctic hare. Now, that is only part of the story. Why did the caribou drop off? Well, it is a very similar story. When the Canada lynx population exploded with the introduced snowshoe hares, they generally left the moose and caribou alone. Canada lynx will eat snowshoe hares before they’ll touch any species of deer. When the snowshoe hare population collapsed, the caribou and moose population began to suffer almost as badly as the Arctic hares. The caribou population collapsed through the 1950s until there were just a few hundred caribou on the island. It turned out that many of these caribou were dying as calves from a bacterial infection. Large numbers of calves were found dead. They had strange puss-filled marks on their throats, which were cultured and found to have the Pasturella multocida bacteria in those puss-filled marks. It was this bacteria that was killing them. The caribou of Newfoundland prefer to calve in low-lying swampy areas on the island. They try to keep their calves out of the elements so they do not succumb to illnesses or the elements. So why were they getting this bacterial infection? And what about the strange marks on the caribou calves’ throats? Well, remember the earlier story about the Canada lynx and the snowshoe hares in Newfoundland? It turns out that the Canada lynx were not only preying on Arctic hares when the snowshoe population crashed. They were also preying caribou calves. However, as I said before, Canada lynx are pikers when it comes to hunting any species of deer. They often made a mess of it. As you are aware, cats often kill by a bite to the throat. Canada lynx kill biting the throats of their prey. However, when they tried to kill caribou calves, they really didn’t do too well. They really don’t have the teeth of a big cat to really suffocate a large prey species like a young caribou. When they would have a young caribou on the ground biting its throat, the mother caribou would have time to run back and drive the lynx off its calf. With that many lynx making failed attempts to kill young caribou, it didn’t take that long for lots of calves to get infected with nasty bacteria. And thus, they died. Now, the discovery that Canada lynx were causing Arctic hare and caribou populations to drop was a major revelation in population ecology. The biologist who made this discovery was A.T. Bergerud. Bergerud’s discoveries were a major afront to the accepted theory in wildlife management at the time. Before Bergerud, the accepted theory was that of Paul Errington. Errington’s theory is the classical predator-prey relationship. Prey species produce many offspring, usually far more than the habitat can handle, but these prey species are kept in check because they are eaten by the predators. The ones the predators catch are called the “doomed surplus.” Predators play a vital role keeping these prey species at healthy numbers. Because natural predators take the animals that are part of this doomed surplus, natural predators do not make prey species go extinct or make their populations drop precipitously. Bergerud’s theory is quite different from that. It suggest that there are conditions in which predators actually can make a population drop really quickly. I don’t think that it entirely negates the classical wildlife management theory on predator-prey relationships. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and the Canada lynx and snowshoe hare are pretty exceptional species. Not very many predators are so closely linked with a single prey species. It is also rather unusual to find a prey species with such clearly defined cycle to its population dynamics as the snowshoe hare. And Newfoundland is a pretty strange place. It is an island that never had snowshoe hares on it. When prey species are introduced to an environment where they don’t have many predators, they will reproduce at an astounding rate. The doomed surplus doesn’t become doomed, and the population explodes until the ecosystem can handle no more. The small population of Canada lynx had been eking out an existence as a generalist predator until the snowshoe hares appeared like manna from heaven. Yes, it is an unusual situation, but it proves that exceptions exist to every rule. And that’s why predators sometimes need to be managed to protect the prey species. FolkTale: Arctic Hare stories from Voices of the Inuit from the Canadian Museum of Nature Inuit—Stories of Long Ago Oral Tradition: Between the Physical and the Spiritual Worlds https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/stories/020020-3100-e.html According to Inuit tradition, human beings could travel between the physical and spiritual worlds. Humans could also transform into animals and animals could transform into human beings. As well, there were invisible spirits that were capable of changing into any form. Inuit saw the world as having infinite possibilities. The titles of the stories varied from region to region. Even the names of main characters in stories sometimes varied according to different regions of the Arctic. Many legends were for entertainment and amusement, there were also stories that taught lessons to the listeners. According to Inuit tradition, there was nothing but water when the world began. Suddenly, stones and rocks came down from the sky. Land was created! There was only darkness, and humans and animals lived together as one species. The animals and human beings took on each other's forms and shapes. Words were created and, because these words had never been used before, they contained very powerful magic. Whenever anyone used words, strange things would happen. For example, when Tiriganiaq, the fox, met Ukaliq, an Arctic hare, the fox said, "Taaq, taaq, taaq! 'Darkness, darkness, darkness!'" said the fox. It liked the dark when it was going out to steal from the caches of the humans. "Ulluq, ulluq, ulluq! 'Day, day, day!'" said the hare. It wanted the light of day so that it could find a place to feed. And suddenly it became as the hare wished it to be; its words were the most powerful. Day came and replaced night, and when night had gone day came again. And light and dark took turns with each other. -Rasmussen 1931 Many other things, such as the concepts of good and bad, were created by the magical powers of words. http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitLo.do;jsessionid=49726EB7BBC409F8674F9AE248C20BBF?method=preview&lang=EN&id=14008 Inuit Oral Tradition The stories told here about the Arctic hare originate in the oral tradition of Inuit culture. They were written down -- probably for the first time -- in the 20th century. The Story of 'The Marriage of the Fox and the Hare' "The tale of 'the fox and the hare' tells how a hare married a female fox, promising to provide her with all the prey she needed to eat. Sadly, however, he was unable to live up to his job and, full of shame, told her that they should separate since he was unable to look after her. Full of tears, she left him, mourning the loss of her hare husband". -Randa 1994 The 'Two Rabbits Outsmart an Owl' Story "An Owl saw two Rabbits playing close together, and seized them, one in each foot; but they were too strong for him and ran away. The Owl's wife shouted to him, 'let one of them go, and kill the other!' but he replied, 'The Moon will soon appear, and then we shall be hungry. We need both of them.' The Rabbits ran on; and when they came to a boulder, one ran to the right side, while the other ran to the left side, of it. The Owl was not able to let go quick enough, and was torn in two". -Boas 1901 The Story of 'The Fox and The Rabbit' "Once upon a time a Fox met a Rabbit, and asked him if he had recently caught any seal. The Rabbit became angry on account of this question, and said to the Fox, "Yes, if you just follow my tracks backward, you will find one I have just killed." The Fox went along the Rabbit's tracks, but, instead of finding a seal, he only found the place where the Rabbit had spent the time sleeping in the sun by the side of some rocks. He ran away and whenever he met an animal, he would tell him that the Rabbit was a great liar". -Boas 1901 The Arctic Hare Poem https://www.abctales.com/story/well-wisher/arctic-hare By well-wisher Now where is the hare? Is it here or there? With its coat so white, it keeps out of sight. And if not for that magic coat, it’d be prey to fox or stoat, the Arctic wolf or snowy owl or polar bears out on the prowl. Yet the hare can see what’s unseen; smell willows underground with twitching nose and, with its keen ears, hear the slightest sound. You glimpse a black tipped ear; its eyes, jewels in the snow but then it disappears. Now where did that hare go? News: Vitakraft Sun Seed recalls rabbit and macaw foods The products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/vitakraft-sun-seed-recalls-rabbit-and-macaw-foods-062617.html Vitakraft Sun Seed of Weston, Ohio, is recalling certain Sunseed Parrot Fruit & Vegetable diet and Sunseed SunSations Rabbit Food. The products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. There have been no report of any illnesses to date. The following products, sold in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are being recalled: ITEM DESCRIPTION LOT Best buy date 87535100597 SS PARROT FRT/VEG. 25# 104082 5/22/2019 87535360564 SS Sunsations Rabbit Food 3.5lb 6/C 104246 6/5/2019 70882077713 MJR PARROT FOOD 4LB 6/CA 103980 5/17/2019 70882077713 MJR PARROT FOOD 4LB 6/CA 103981 5/18/2019 73725732119 ALT Small Animal Apple Slices 1oz 24/CA 103435 4/28/2019 73725732119 ALT Small Animal Apple Slices 1oz 24/CA 103118 4/13/2019 73725749989 NG GUINEA PIG ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 103440 5/1/2019 73725749989 NG GUINEA PIG ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 104434 6/8/2019 73725749989 NG GUINEA PIG ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 103439 5/1/2019 73725750019 NG RABBIT ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 104436 6/8/2019 73725750019 NG RABBIT ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 103442 4/27/2019 73725750019 NG RABBIT ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 103444 4/27/2019 73725750019 NG RABBIT ENTRÉE 4lb 6/C 103443 4/27/2019 82514158955 DFS Premium Blend Macaw 5lb 5/C 104094 3/16/2020 82514158955 DFS Premium Blend Macaw 5lb 5/C 103741 2/19/2020 82514158955 DFS Premium Blend Macaw 5lb 5/C 103876 2/24/2020 What to do Customers who purchased the recalled products may return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact customer service at 1-800-221-6175, Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:00pm (EST). Rabbits are hopping all over https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2017/06/28/forget-jackrabbit-bunnytown/cWn12dnTUCjdDUGS76xqXI/story.html Lately, it seems, the city of Boston has been overrun by a collection of entitled youngsters, occupying the trendiest neighborhoods, adhering to strict vegetarian diets, and fornicating at a rate that would make Hugh Hefner blush. Yes, exactly: rabbits. No matter where you look these days, you’re bound to spot these cotton-tailed city dwellers making themselves comfortable in the city’s backyards, pathways, and streets. In recent weeks alone, they’ve been spied hopping near grassy lots in Southie, hiding under cars in Somerville, and strutting past red-brick townhomes in the Back Bay. They can regularly be found canoodling in Cambridge. “It seems like there’s always a bunny around,” says Michelle Kweder, a Harvard Law School employee and Somerville resident who insists she is no longer surprised when she stumbles upon one. Whether there’s been an actual surge in the number of rabbits is difficult to determine; due in part to their short lifespans, keeping tabs on the number of wild rabbits in any region can be nearly impossible. Anecdotally, though, there seems to be a rash of rabbit-human run-ins around town, and one theory is that it’s simply that time of year. The mating season for cottontails stretches from March to September, says Marion Larson, information and education chief for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, and each spring — as residents and homeowners inevitably spend more time outdoors — they’re bound to run into what she calls the “very prolific rabbit.” “It’s a seasonal phenomenon,” says Larson. Still, the rabbit has found itself in the news from time to time. In 2015, for instance, the federal government removed the New England cottontail rabbit from the list of endangered species. And some locals insist that the rabbits occupying their yards are more than temporary guests. “These aren’t just random wanderers,” says John Byrne of Medford, who counted at least five or six rabbits during a recent bus commute to Somerville. “I can’t fairly call them tenants, because they don’t pay rent. But as far as they’re concerned, they’re home.” They’ve become such a fixture during twice-daily walks with his dog, says Al Weisz, a Somerville-based architect and engineer, that he now notices when he doesn’t spot one. “It’s the exception rather than the rule when I don’t see a rabbit,” he says. But while the rabbits’ presence within city limits — and in the various surrounding suburbs — might seem curious, it’s not all that surprising. For one thing, they don’t require much territory, according to Marj Rines, a naturalist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The two local rabbit species — New England cottontail and Eastern cottontail — can exist in a habitat as small as a half acre, she says, meaning that a single block of Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay would likely provide all the space and vegetation the small creatures would need. For another thing, rabbits have developed something of a reputation for their rate of reproduction. As Larson puts it: “When they say ‘breed like rabbits,’ it’s true.” While some might worry about the bunnies’ penchant for mischief, others insist that concerns about the creatures have been overblown. “In terms of the wildlife that we deal with, they’re relatively benign,” says Amanda Kennedy, director of animal care and control for the city of Boston. “And even the amount of damage they can do in your garden is typically less than what you’ll see for a skunk or squirrel.” Which isn’t to say that they’re completely harmless. “I was startled by one last weekend,” says Byrne. “I was doing some work in the yard, and there was a rabbit just sort of sitting on a dirt patch, kind of just blended right into the ground. I didn’t know it was there, and [then] he moved, and I just kind of recoiled a bit.” Indeed, like squirrels before them, rabbits seem to be growing quite comfortable in the city’s streets. “What’s surprising is how close me and my dog can get to it,” says Kweder. “This morning, the rabbit looked a little bit nervous, but also totally held her ground.” For the most part, though, it has been a fairly peaceful cohabitation. And despite their less-than-stellar reputations with gardens, the rabbits hordes have been kind enough to leave the city’s most prominent one unscathed. “They’ve been all over Twitter, I’ve seen people posting pictures — but not us, unfortunately” says Susan Abell, director of communications and outreach for the Friends of the Public Garden. “Or maybe,” she added, “fortunately.” The urban rabbit is the unofficial mascot of Chicago https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/urban-rabbits-bunnies/BestOf?oid=27092070 Three years ago my wife and I rented an old bungalow in Avondale, and when we moved in, we discovered the street was lousy with rabbits—the eastern cottontail, to be exact, one of the most common species in the U.S. On one side of our house lay a weedy area that the rabbits used for cover, and on the other side stood a grassy open plot that they treated as their personal country club. When I came home at night, there would always be one in our front yard, giving me the hard stare, twitching its nose if I spoke, and hopping away if I made a move askance. I remember some epic stare downs with those guys, and they always won. After a while we came to think of the rabbits as our friends and neighbors, and we looked forward to seeing them when they came out to forage at dusk. Periodically we'd sit down for ceremonial viewings of the misbegotten 1972 horror movie Night of the Lepus, set in an Arizona town that's been overrun by rabbits after the townspeople have gotten rid of its coyote population. Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh are scientists who inject rabbits with a hormonal formula to stunt their breeding, and after one of the rabbits gets loose, authorities begin to find mutilated bodies of livestock and people. Eventually the scientists discover that their serum has created a mutant species of marauding bunnies the size of bears. Cheapo special-effects shots show live rabbits loping around miniature sets, though an actor in a rabbit suit fills in for the attack scenes. Chicago rabbits may not be quite as big, but their numbers have risen dramatically since the 1990s, when Mayor Daley's various greening projects began to invite more woodland creatures into an urban environment. Drawn by the elevated heat level of the city, rabbits began spreading from parks into grassy areas like expressway ramps, and even made their way into the Loop. They eat any kind of vegetation, laying waste to people's gardens. When there's no greenery available, they'll chew the bark off a tree trunk. Similar greening projects have brought population explosions in other cities. As a graduate student at University of Frankfurt and a doctoral candidate at Goethe University, ecologist Madlen Ziege has made comparative studies of rural and urban rabbits and finds that city rabbits are a lot like us. Out in the country, rabbits live communally in large, sprawling burrows, with multiple exits that offer escape from predators; as they move into the city, where predators are less common, their burrows become smaller, simpler, more private, and more uniformly spaced. Ziege has also discovered that urban rabbits establish communal latrines that they use to demarcate their territory from that of rival bunny gangs. During the winter I'd come home after dark, find rabbits sitting in our snowy front yard, and marvel at what tough bastards they were. But according to Mason Fidino of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, 70 percent of Chicago's rabbits die every winter. The population keeps growing only because they breed like crazy: with a gestation period of four weeks, females typically deliver 16 to 20 offspring a year. Apparently rabbits do nothing but eat, mate, defend their turf, cause property damage, and die. So, you know— typical Chicagoans. Skype, Facetime, or Rabbit?: What’s The Best Way To Remotely Binge with Your Pals? http://decider.com/2017/06/28/skype-facetime-rabbit-the-best-way-to-remotely-binge/ Rabbit: The Perfect Place to Co-Watch YouTube Videos There is actually a company that has realized people want to watch content together from across the web, and they’ve kind of figured it out. Rabbit is essentially a free screen sharing site. Each user has a chat room, which is where you can watch anything from Hulu to YouTube by logging onto your account through a webpage on the site. From there, you can invite up to 25 of your friends to your chat room. I tested rabbit with my best friend and her husband, and the two biggest issues I found with the service had to do with quality and privacy. The video quality of Rabbit is not good by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a choppier version of whatever video you’ve already found (I later found out that Rabbit has a high definition option that I was not using). Also, the way it interacts with paid services that already have your credit card information, like Netflix and Hulu, gives me pause. Since you have to re-enter your paid account information into Rabbit’s site, it’s unclear if the service has any additional privacy measures in place to protect that info. Even reading through Rabbit’s privacy policy didn’t remedy my concerns, and I’m not the only one who has been suspicious of the site. However, if the site’s privacy policy doesn’t concern you, Rabbit only requires one user to have an account. All of the other options on this list are contingent on both users having a Netflix or Hulu account. That being said, Rabbit features text chat and audio chat while letting you successfully watch TV with 25 of your closest friends. No other option does that while perfectly syncing the video with all users. In my test trial, we found that the service works well for a branch of content that’s short, accessible to everyone, and is already all over the place quality-wise — YouTube videos. You’d be hard pressed to find a better service that lets you dive into the oddities of YouTube together. UPDATE: After speaking to a representative from Rabbit, it seems as though there is a way to switch the streaming quality of the service. For this article, I was unknowingly streaming YouTube videos in Rabbit’s lowest quality setting, but there is a high definition option available in the bottom toolbar. The same spokesperson also clarified Rabbit’s privacy policy. According to this representative, the site scrubs its service after users watch videos. Because of this, the site cannot see users’ private information. Basically, if you use Rabbit to log into Netflix, Rabbit will not be able to see the information you enter. Knowing this information, it now seems as though Rabbit is the ideal site for streaming with your friends. Clevedon hospital rabbit goes missing http://www.northsomersettimes.co.uk/news/clevedon-hospital-rabbit-goes-missing-1-5081595 Bigwig lived in the garden outside The Little Teapot café at the North Somerset Community Hospital in Old Street. The rabbit, named after a character in Waterhship Down, is believed to have been taken from the hospital in early June. Matt Croughan, clinical lead at the minor injury unit, said: “This is a hare-raising story of a kidnap and we are hoping Bigwig will hop back to us soon. “But joking aside, we would really like whoever removed Bigwig to return him. “He was a great addition to our beautiful garden, which is tended by volunteers, and it seems a shame someone has chosen to deprive the hospital of our Bigwig.” The hospital’s inpatients unit is currently closed to undergo a refurbishment, and is expected to reopen in September. Vancouver City Council weighs limits on rabbits, hens, cats City may put cap on pets per household http://www.columbian.com/news/2017/jun/27/vancouver-city-council-weighs-limits-on-rabbits-hens-cats/ Residents of Vancouver may soon be limited in how many cats, hens or rabbits they can keep on their property. On Monday, Vancouver City Council voted to advance an ordinance that would prohibit residents from keeping more than five adult cats, five adult hens or five adults rabbits on their property. Residential properties larger than 10,000 square feet would be allowed an additional hen or rabbit for each 1,000 square feet, under the ordinance. According to a staff report, the city’s current code limits the number of adult dogs allowed on private residences to three and prohibits roosters and peacocks. The ordinance, which has been in the works since earlier this year and will be heard and voted on July 10, is intended to discourage hoarding while also addressing noise, odor and property destruction concerns. The council was provided with two different versions of the ordinance and opted for one that allows residents to have up to 10 adults cats if they are participating in a foster program run by a nonprofit. During the meeting, the council heard from Sherry Mowatt, a resident of the Hough neighborhood, who said that she has a flock of a dozen hens. She said she cares for them responsibly and expressed concern about the ordinance. Bryan Snodgrass, principal planner in the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, explained that people like Mowatt would effectively be grand- fathered in. But Councilor Alishia Topper expressed reservations about the ordinance, specifically how the number of animals the measure allows for was chosen “randomly,” and how it could adversely affect responsible animal owners. “It’s like we are penalizing the people who are being good because of the people who are behaving poorly,” she said. Topper suggested creating some sort of permit for people to own more animals. Councilor Ty Stober said that the ordinance was crafted partially in response to a resident who was raising in a “suspect fashion” rabbits and chickens on their property. “We are a city,” he said. “We are not unincorporated Clark County.” From donut sandwiches to rabbit sausage, these are the weirdest foods in Lawrence http://www.kansan.com/arts_and_culture/from-donut-sandwiches-to-rabbit-sausage-these-are-the-weirdest/article_a0627cc2-583b-11e7-9f00-9f2a7a6f7b78.html Lawrence is a place that lends itself to weird and unusual pieces of Midwestern culture. A massive part of that, undoubtedly, is the food throughout town. Foods from almost any place in the world, or from any culture, can find a niché in Lawrence. The Kansan found some of the most unique dishes in the Lawrence community and learned the stories behind them. Harold’s Chicken, Whiskey and Donuts, located at 918 Massachusetts Street, serves a Grilled Do-nut Burger and a Grilled Glazer Sandwich, both served on glazed donuts. Harold’s was created for lovers of chicken, whiskey, and donuts. So it’s no surprise that one of the restaurant's weirdest and most popular food items includes two other menu options. The Grilled Glazer Sandwich is made up of a piece of fried chicken, cheddar cheese, Harold’s secret sauce and, to top it off, it all goes in between two glazed donuts. Harold’s also has a Double Do-nut Burger which has two hamburger patties, cheddar cheese, Harold’s secret sauce and it’s placed between two glazed donuts. Katie Chamberlin, assistant manager at Harold’s, said that these two items are some of their top sellers. She said the taste of the burger patty and do-nut bun is a good combination of sweet and salty. “People are surprised,” Chamberlin said. “They would never ordinarily order something like that, but almost everyone loves it.” Customers also receive a side with their sandwich or burger, including fries, mac and cheese, or mashed potatoes and gravy. Luckily for customers, these menu items are around all year long. Hank's Rabbit Sausage and Toast Hank’s Charcuterie has been and Lawrence for three years. Its seasonal menu items might catch customers' eye of people dining in, especially an item on its current menu: rabbit sausage and bone marrow toast. Jamie Everett, chef de cuisine at Hank’s, said that the idea to place the item on the menu occurred after the restaurant served it at an event and the response from people was really good. Everett said that the dish includes bread from 1900 Barker Bakery, wooly rind cheese, spicy spring greens mustard vinaigrette, rabbit jus, and rabbit sausage. “We get in local rabbits, break it down, and grind it up with a little bit of pork fat, roasted garlic and herbs, slice it real thin and sear it off in a pan,” he said. Everett said that the rabbit sausage has a very mild flavor and that a lot of people say it tastes like chicken. As for the bone marrow, Everett said that they roast meat bones off and save the marrow and put it on top of the dish, which adds a savory flavor. “Everybody loves it,” Everett said. “We sell quite a few and there is nothing super game-y in it.” One of Wake the Dead's interesting cocktails. Contributed Photo/Wake The Dead Wake the Dead's Death Star Sandwich and bizarre cocktails Wake the Dead likes to follow the motto "coffee until cocktails." Dante Colombo, manager of Wake the Dead, said that they want people to have coffee until they are ready for something stronger. But Wake the Dead doesn’t just serve drinks, they also serve breakfast for dinner, including the Death Star Sandwich. The Death Star Sandwich is an egg sandwich with a twist. It includes egg, fontina cheese, a choice of ham or bacon, lettuce, tomato, and the chef’s special sauce. The whole thing is placed between a un-glazed do-nut. Deanna Vierling, an employee at Wake the Dead, said that the sandwich is really popular among customers. “I have had a few people tell me they get it every time they come in, but a lot of people are like oh I have to try it,” she said. As for unique drinks, Wake the Dead also has Cereal Killer Cocktails, with flavors including fruit loops, frosted flakes, and cinnamon toast crunch. Vierling said that the cinnamon toast crunch cocktail is the most popular and that it tastes a lot like the leftover milk from the cereal. “I have had people order them and they will drink one and say, ‘This is really good, it’s really sweet so I’m not going to stick with it but I’m really happy I tried it,’” she said. Colombo said a lot of their menu items are based off of the concept of doing something fun that Lawrence hasn’t seen before. “We are one of Lawrence’s only downtown do-nut shops, but we wanted to focus a large part of our food menu on donuts,” he said. Colombo said that it’s a fun place and fun idea. “We wanted something that was Instagram-able and kind of fun so we wanted to play off the bar vibe and keep the energy rolling,” he said. "Is The Order a Rabbit?" Hops Into Japanese Theaters in November Limited theatrical release was originally scheduled for Spring of 2017 http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/06/25/is-the-order-a-rabbit-hops-into-japanese-theaters-in-november The Rabbit House cafe is back in business, because the Is The Order a Rabbit? ~Dear My Sister~ special episode once again has an official theatrical release date for a limited run at 40 movie theaters in Japan beginning on November 11, 2017. The special was originally scheduled to debut in Spring of 2017, but the release was delayed due to unspecified "production circumstances". The main staff for the special episode includes: Director: Hiroyuki Hashimoto Original work, screenplay: Koi, Hiroyuki Hashimoto Character design: Yousuke Okuda Music: Ruka Kawada Animation production: production doA Additionally, it was also announced that the official theme song CD for Is The Order a Rabbit? ~Dear My Sister~ will be released on November 11, 2017, and that a new character song CD will be released in October of 2017. The original Is the Order a Rabbit? manga by Koi is serialized in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Max seinen manga magazine. The previous two seasons of Is the Order a Rabbit? are directed by Hiroyuki Hashimoto and feature animation by White Fox and Kinema Citrus. Crunchyroll describes the series as follows: Kokoa arrives in a new town in spring to start high school. She gets lost and pops into a coffee shop called "Rabbit House", which turns out to be where she will live. All the characters are so cute - tiny but cool Chino, soldierly Lize, gentle and Japanese Chiyo, sophisticated but down-to-earth Sharo. They are joined by Chino's class mates Maya and Megu, and a regular at the shop, Mr. Blue-Mountain Aoyama. Everything is so cute every day at Rabbit House! Warrior rabbit is a winner for Kieran http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/entertainment/warrior-rabbit-is-a-winner-for-kieran-315553.aspx A ONE-EARED rabbit has won Island author Kieran Larwood the Blue Peter Book Award. The book, Podkin One-Ear, has also been named Waterstones’ Book of the Month. The adventure tale, inspired by The Hobbit, is the legendary tale of Podkin, ‘a fearsome warrior rabbit whose reputation for cunning and triumph in battle has traveled the ages’. Kieran is an early years leader at Wroxall Primary School. He won The Times children’s fiction competition in 2011 with his debut novel, Freaks. The Blue Peter Book Award celebrates children’s books published in the past year in two categories — the best story and the best book with facts. Around 400 children were sent a copy of the short list, asked to read them and select their favourite. Kieran said: “It was quite special to win something judged by a young audience. It really was amazing — I was thrilled because I didn’t expect to win.” Podkin One-Ear is the first in a trilogy, with the second book due out in September. Kieran has been signing books at Waterstones across the country and will be signing an exclusive edition copy, with a special cover, tomorrow (Saturday) from 2pm to 4pm at Waterstones, Newport. Bunny Park revamp to enter next stage http://citizen.co.za/news/news-national/1547987/bunny-park-revamp-enter-next-stage/ The estimated cost of Phase 1 was R3.7 million. Phase 1 of the Bunny Park’s revamp will be concluded at the end of June, reports the Benoni City Times. According to Themba Gadebe, Ekurhuleni metro spokesperson, the second phase will commence on July 1 and last until the end of June next year. The facility will remain closed to the public until at least the end of Phase Two. “About R8 million has been set aside for the second phase of revamping of the park,” Gadebe said. “This will include the upgrading of the gazebos, installation of playground equipment, upgrade of the bunny shelters and installation of new park furniture. “Work in the park during the second phase will also include construction of mini-bridges, a new pump house, fencing around the animal shelters and the addition of gabions.” The estimated cost of Phase One was R3.7 million. It was focused on dredging two of the park’s three dams and connecting them through canals, to ensure the water doesn’t become stagnant. Gadebe said after the construction period, vegetation will be planted and allowed to grow before any animals are brought back to the park. The material dredged from the dams will be used as a natural fertilizer for the vegetation. The cows, sheep, goats, some birds and one pig were moved to temporary foster homes by mid-May, where they will remain for the duration of the revamp. Local breeder's rabbits win best in show thanks to tender, loving care http://www.swvatoday.com/news/article_f474e21b-50a6-593d-9429-f8745d72a175.html ABINGDON, Va. — Nina Cipriani has had hare-raising experiences ever since she was a child. Known in the community as the “rabbit lady,” the Abingdon woman learned a lot about rabbits when she was growing up in town. Her first pet rabbit was Butterscotch, a New Zealand Red. “I’ve always had at least one rabbit since then,” she said. Now, her Abingdon farm, Rattle Creek Rabbitry, is home to 45 of the cute and fluffy animals, most of which are Rhinelander and Jersey Wooly show rabbits. Each year, Cipriani is a judge of rabbits entered in the agricultural show at the Washington County Fair in Abingdon. She also speaks to students about raising rabbits at local 4-H meetings during the school year. Cipriani’s granddaughter, Hattie Galbreath, is carrying on the family tradition. The grandchild recently received Best in Show in the youth category at a competition where she showed a retired Jersey Wooly, a calm and good beginner rabbit for children. “Now, she has two rabbits of her own. It’s a good start for her,” said Cipriani. Throughout her life, Cipriani has gone different directions with rabbits. She raises them for their wool. Cipriani collects wool from her Angora rabbits by clipping or brushing them every three months. She has spun yarn from the rabbit wool and plans to make something from the yarn. She raises rabbits for their meat. “It’s one of the healthiest meats you can eat. The majority of my New Zealand white rabbits are sold to people to produce a healthy meat source for their families,” she said. But raising pet and show rabbits has got to be a favorite hobby for her. The couple spends at least an hour each day feeding and watering the rabbits, two hours each week grooming and one day every two weeks focusing on cleaning and maintenance. Cipriani and Charlie Sutherland, a friend in Blacksburg, Virginia, discussed how there were no rabbit shows in the area. Within six months, the friends developed the Southwest Virginia Rabbit Association (SWVARA), an incorporated chapter with the American Rabbit Breeders Association. Their first show was held a year ago in a small metal building in Christiansburg, but since then the shows have been moved to a spacious livestock arena at Virginia Tech. Cipriani said anyone interested in learning more about rabbits can visit the upcoming SWVARA show on Nov. 11 at the livestock arena in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Jon Turk earned a Ph. D. in organic chemistry at the University of Colorado, in 1971. The same year, in honor of Earth Day 1, he co-authored the first environmental science textbook in the United States. Jon is the author of 25 text books and 4 adventure books. in addition to circumnavigating Ellesmere island, solo kayak missions in the Solomon islands, biking across Tibet to the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, multiple kayak expeditions from japan along eastern Siberia eventually walking across the Siberian tundra and so much more... for more information and to buy Jon's new book CROCODILES AND ICE visit jon turk dot com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From Mars to Europa: A Comparison of 82N 82W & 23N 58E This talk focuses on research sites located at Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Muscat, Oman—locations that help scientists further research on far-flung locations like Jupiter’s moon Europa and planet Mars. Borup Fiord Pass, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada is an amazing site and model for … Continue reading "#41 Dr. John Spear"

From Mars to Europa: A Comparison of 82N 82W & 23N 58E This talk focuses on research sites located at Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Muscat, Oman—locations that help scientists further research on far-flung locations like Jupiter’s moon Europa and planet Mars. Borup Fiord Pass, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada is an amazing site and model for … Continue reading "#41 Dr. John Spear"

Jon grew up on the shores of a wooded lake in Connecticut, and he attended Phillips Academy, Andover and then Brown University. Jon earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Colorado, in 1971. The same year, in honor of Earth Day 1, Jon co-authored the first environmental science textbook in the United States. It sold 100,000 copies and speaheaded the development of environmental science curricula in North America. Jon Turk has written over 27 books in his lifetime. Jon began wandering the globe, visiting people and places that were so far from my childhood upbringing. Over the decades, Jon has kayaked across the North Pacific and around Cape Horn, mountain biked through the Gobi desert, made first climbing ascents of big walls on Baffin Island, and first ski descents in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzia. In the summer of 2011, Jon Turk and Erik Boomer circumnavigated Ellesmere Island: 1,485 miles in 104 days. Jon is 67 years old, and still blessed with fantastic health. Jon's body and he have an agreement. Jon will take it to places where they have fun; it takes Jon to places where they have fun. They're a team, Jon's body and he. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Huston is a professional polar explorer and veteran of the first American unsupported expedition to the North Pole. He has completed major expeditions to the South Pole, Greenland, and to Canada’s fabled Ellesmere Island. John is also a motivational speaker, safety and logistics consultant, and wilderness guide. He regularly speaks to companies and organizations, referencing his expeditions to discuss overcoming challenges.   Whether it is navigating through a junkyard maze of sea ice rubble, skiing into the alpenglow of the midnight sun, or the camaraderie that comes with a team safely pitching a tent in a howling blizzard, he lives for moments in which effort and reward seamlessly flow together.   On this episode we discuss: How John fell in love with the outdoors.  What goes into a polar expedition and how they work.  How they plan and prepare for an expedition.  What can go wrong during an expedition.  The technology they use during their expedition.  John’s mental attitude and how he stays strong while on an expedition.  The type of challenges John has faced on the ice and the lessons he’s learned.     This podcast is sponsored by Vestigo and produced by Force Media.    

Paul Attalla rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, finished third in a 500 mile kayak race having never done distance sea kayaking before, and won a non-stop bike race from Canada to Mexico. He knows something about exhaustion. He and Jon--who has island-hopped across the Pacific, circumnavigated Ellesmere Island, and gone around Cape Horn in a kayak--swap stories about being tired. Sharks, wolves, and a broken ore in the middle of the ocean.  

What does it take to be a MTNmeister? Erik is a professional photographer and whitewater kayaker that has been featured in numerous adventure films. In 2011, he and his adventure partner Jon Turk became the first to ever circumnavigate Canada’s Ellesmere Island – a 1500 mile journey that took 104 days. Erik was selected as one of the 2012 National Geographic Adventurers of the year.

Erik is a professional photographer and whitewater kayaker that has been featured in numerous adventure films. In 2011, he and his adventure partner Jon Turk became the first to ever circumnavigate Canada’s Ellesmere Island – a 1500 mile journey that took 104 days. Erik was selected as one of the 2012 National Geographic Adventurers of the year. Check out Erik's Meister Profile: http://www.mtnmeister.com/erik-boomer/

In March of 2013, John Huston and Tobias Thorleifsson co-led a team of four that set out to explore Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic as part of their New Land 2013 Expedition.  With the help of four sled dogs, the team skijored over 511 nautical miles on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands.  The purpose of their 65-day journey, beyond traveling through a remote and beautiful landscape, was to create a documentary film to celebrate the second Fram Expedition led by the Norwegian Arctic explorer Otto Sverdrup and to educate school children about climate change.  You can learn more about their adventure at johnhuston.com.  John Huston, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

The importance of sled dogs and the care with which they are treated by the Grise Fiord Inuit is shown in this clip. In the early 1960’s, Lewis Cotlow – explorer, writer, filmmaker, and investment broker – was invited by the Canadian Mounted Police to make a film about the most northerly civilian settlement in the world – Grise Fiord, on Ellesmere Island, just 600 miles from the North Pole. Other content documents many aspects of daily life including hunting, building an igloo, and family life. (This clip is drawn from HSFA film, accession number 78.1.1. More information is available in SIRIS, the Smithsonian’s online catalog—see sidebar for URL.) COLOR and SOUND.

A few years ago, I had the chance to participate in the organization of a scientific seminar about the relationship between canids and humans, the conferences spreading between ecology, ethology, psychology and anthropology ("Entre Chiens Et Loups", Lyon, 2006). Amongst the invited scientists was Dave Mech a wildlife biologist who spent all his life studying wolves in the field, and in particular on Ellesmere Island located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We drove together to visit an area in Lozre, the least populated department of France, where some wolves are kept in in semi-captivity, which means that they are living an unusually large enclosure. Those animals were originally rescued from poachers, and the park has a very good reputation for introducing them to the public. There I could observe the wolves in the company of Dave Mech, who provided some invaluable insight into their behaviour. Last year, I went back again to visit the wolves with Sylvain Macchi who is in charge of the park. I was able to record the songs of the wolves in the middle of the night and the early morning one February during their mating season. The barks are often associated with aggressive behaviours, meanwhile the chantings are a way to reinforce the cohesion of the group and calm down the tensions. The effect of these sounds, listening to wolves chanting in the complete darkness, is an extreme experience. Those arch-shaped tones are amongst the most beautiful things one can hear from the animal kingdom. Composed in May 2011. Field recordings mostly made in February 2010. Thanks a lot to Dave Mech for the inspiration and Sylvain Macchi for introducing me to the wolves of Gevaudan. www.kalerne.net

The US is losing the fight against wildfires, which are bigger, more numerous and more costly than ever before. We hear how firefighting has become an industry, which sometimes makes matters worse. Can we learn to live more successfully with a growing menace that's not going away? Also, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down, and a massive sheet of ice breaks off from Ellesmere Island in Canada.

Talking With the Top of the World: Stephen Grasby at the Europa Analog on Ellesmere IslandLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices