Podcasts about Kamchatka Peninsula

Chris Burkard (@ChrisBurkard) is an acclaimed American photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller known for his breathtaking landscape photography. Born in San Luis Obispo, California, Burkard rose to prominence through his striking surf photography in remote and often icy locations like Iceland, Norway, and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. His work captures the raw beauty of nature, often blending elements of human exploration and environmental grandeur. Burkard's style is marked by expansive compositions, ethereal light, and a reverence for the wild. Beyond photography, he is also a sought-after speaker, author of several books, and director of award-winning documentaries, including Under an Arctic Sky. A passionate advocate for environmental preservation and outdoor adventure, Burkard uses his platform to inspire others to seek meaningful connections with the natural world. His work has been featured by National Geographic, The New Yorker, Apple, and Patagonia, among others. Whether hanging from a cliff face or paddling through freezing surf, Burkard's lens invites viewers to embrace discomfort, awe, and the power of the untamed.If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It's glorious. Get full access to Kyle Thiermann at thiermann.substack.com/subscribe

GUEST:   https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel_Newman10   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10326184/   MENTIONS:   https://college.lclark.edu/departments/biology/   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lincoff   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/415949.Mushrooms_Demystified   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Singer   https://www.corenewal.org/   https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/amazonian-chernobyl-ecuadors-oil-environment-disaster/   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascopolyporus   https://www.mycobank.org/page/Name%20details%20page/96535   MUSHROOM HOUR:   https://welcometomushroomhour.com    https://instagram.com/welcome_to_mushroom_hour   https://tiktok.com/@welcome_to_mushroom_hour   Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/   TOPICS COVERED:    Childhood Mycology Mythology   Russian Mushroom Tradition   Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula   Bolivia's Outrageous, Undocumented Biodiversity   Chernobyl of the Amazon   Corporate Evil   Biodiversity Research, Conservation and Geopolitical Activism   Los Cedros Bioreserve, Choco Bioregion   Mining Concessions in Protected Forests   Ecuador Supreme Court Ruling with Fungal Conservation Research   Corporate Propoganda, Thugs and Sabotage   Richer than Gold   Fungi that do Both: Entomopathogenic and Phytopathogenic   

rWotD Episode 2790: Kuril Ainu language Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 23 December 2024 is Kuril Ainu language.Kuril Ainu is an extinct and poorly attested Ainu language of the Kuril Islands. The main inhabited islands were Kunashir, Iturup and Urup in the south, and Shumshu in the north. Other islands either had small populations (such as Paramushir) or were visited for fishing or hunting. There may have been a small mixed Kuril–Itelmen population at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula.The Ainu of the Kurils appear to have been a relatively recent expansion from Hokkaidō, displacing an indigenous Okhotsk culture, which may have been related to the modern Itelmens. When the Kuril Islands passed to Japanese control in 1875, many of the northern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Ust-Bolsheretsky District in Kamchatka, where about 100 still live. In the decades after the islands passed to Soviet control in 1945, most of the remaining southern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Hokkaidō, where they have since been assimilated.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:07 UTC on Monday, 23 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Kuril Ainu language on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.

Last time we spoke about the landing at Saidor and the drive against Sio. The Australians were still advancing across Shaggy Ridge when General MacArthur unleashed an amphibious assault against Saidor to cut off the Japanese escape and isolate Sio. Numerous features were seized up the large ridge and the Americans successfully amphibiously assaulted Saidor and seized their airfield. General Adachi placed the 51st and 20th divisions under the command of General Nakano, who was tasked with advancing to Gali to try and secure a new supply point. Meanwhile efforts were made to try and contain the new threat in Saidor while simultaneously holding back the Australians in the south. Over on new britain the airdrome was seized as Colonel Katayama launched a failed counter attack against the Marines. The Marines tossed back the attack and began their own advance further inland. This episode is Ledo Road Offensive Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  The Americans had landed at Cape Gloucester, Saidor and were carrying out massive attacks against Rabaul. As we had seen previously, on November 5th, aided by bad weather, a surprise air raid was made by the USS Saratoga and Princeton, led by Rear-Admiral Frederick Sherman that inflicted heavy damage to 4 cruisers within the harbor; Maya's engine room was smashed by a bomb killing over 70 men; a 500 lb bomb hit Mogami; Takao took 2 500 lb bomb hits while 3 500 lb bombs narrowly missed Atago killing 23 seamen and caused severe damage to the ship's plating. 2 other cruisers and 3 destroyers also suffered light damage. Captain George Chandler flying a P-38 fighter pilot described how “There were B-24 bombers up high and B-25 bombers attacking right down on the deck dropping ‘frag' bombs on the airplanes along the runways … we did our best work at high altitude, but we also took part in combat a thousand feet off the ground.” The devastation caused Admiral Miniechi Koga to withdraw his forces to Truk, thus ending the IJN threat to Bougainville. A Japanese naval officer would later admit that they had given up on Bougainville mainly because of “the serious damage received by several Second Fleet cruisers at Rabaul by carrier attack …” The successful  raid against Rabaul left Halsey ecstatic. “It is real music to me and opens the stops for a funeral dirge for Tojo's Rabaul.” On November 8th, reinforcements led by Rear-admiral Alfred Montgomery task force 38, with the new fleet carriers USS Bunker Hill, Essex and Independence. With the added carrier strength on November 11th, a follow up air raid was made seeing the IJN cruiser Agano torpedoed and badly damaged, while 35 Japanese aircraft out of 120 launched in a counter attack against the carrier force were shot down. Montgomery would not lose a single ship. Admiral Koga's decision to send carrier pilots to bolster Rabaul had quite literally blown up in his face. Koga's air fleet had lost 43 of its 82 Zeros, 38 of its 34 Vals, 34 of its 40 Kates and 6 Judy spotter planes. Over 86 of his 192 experienced pilots and crew had perished, and he had only inflicted minimal damage to Nimitz fleet, it was a disaster. Yet the fantastical reports from Japanese pilots kept pouring in, claiming the air battles over Bougainville were infact won by the IJN air forces. Newspapers in Japan reported victories that added up to the destruction of 5 American battleships, 10 carriers, 19 cruisers and 7 destroyers. The reality was the destruction of 2 cruisers, the USS Birmingham and Denver. By mid november Vice Admiral Kusaka was finding it difficult to sustain attacks against allied convoys feeding supplies to Empress Augusta Bay. On November 12th, Rabaul only had 113 Zero's of which only 59 were operational. Crews were suffering from malaria and other diseases, no one was granted rest as they were limited in personnel and under constant attack. The quality of ground crews and pilots was deteriorating every week.  From November 12 through December 16, the daytime skies over the Gazelle Peninsula remained relatively quiet, as the US carrier forces had departed to support operations in the Central Pacific. AirSols received a new commander on the November 20th, Major General Ralph Mitchell who continued to support operations in Bougainville and General Kenney's Fifth Air Force was supporting preparations for the landings in western New Britain. The lull gave Admiral Kusaka a brief opportunity to recuperate as replacements began to arrive from the Marshalls and Truk. The Imperial Japanese Navy would take six months to replenish its carrier pilots with less well-trained and inexperienced replacements. In the meantime the carrier fleet itself, Japan's most expensive and precious strategic asset, was forced to remain idle in Truk as Nimitz began his island hop through the Central Pacific Meanwhile the Torokina airfield had become crude but operational. The Seabees had created a single 4750 foot by 200 foot strip. It lacked taxiways, hardstands and buildings, but by December 10th it could launch aircraft. Soon the Seabees would carve 2 additional landing trips in the jungle 3 miles further inland. The first would be a mile long, the second 8000 feet or so for bombers. Unlike the Japanese airfields on the Gazelle Peninsula which would take more than a year to complete, both of these American airfields took a month. You often hear, especially from marine veterans of the pacific, praise for the Seabees, such a colossal advantage in logistics paved the way to victory. A massive fighter sweep was launched on December 17 consisting of 32 Corsairs, 24 F6Fs, and 24 RNZAF Kittyhawks from airfields at New Georgia and Vella Lavella who rendezvoused at Torokina, topped off their fuel tanks, and hit  Rabaul. The strike was led by Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington, the commanding officer of Marine Fighter Squadron 214, better known by its nickname, the "Black Sheep Squadron". The three types of aircraft had different flying characteristics and different cruising speeds. The Kittyhawks, slowest of the bunch, took off first. The plan was for them to come in at 15,000ft, and lure out the Japanese. Next came the Hellcats, flying above the Kittyhawks. And the last were the Corsairs, who flew top cover. It was a long flight over open water, calculated to make the pilot of a single-engine aircraft nervous. If the engine failed it was a long swim home. They were intercepted by 35 Zeros, with the Kittyhawks getting the first jump on them. After the Kittyhawks made their first pass, shooting down a Japanese fighter, the advantage switched over to the more agile  Zeros. The Kittyhawk squadron leader's plane was fatally damaged and a second Kittyhawk went down after colliding with a Zero. Remarkably, both pilots survived. Meanwhile the Hellcats and Corsairs, at high altitudes, were coming up empty. The Corsairs circled Lakunai field finding no targets. Pilot Boyington exchanged insults with an English-speaking Japanese officer over the radio, but despite his challenges found no targets in the air. When all aircraft returned to base, the score was even. Two Kittyhawks and two Zeros were lost; one each due to the collision and one shot down by both sides. It was a rather disappointing fighter sweep, but would become just one of many against Rabual over the course of the next 3 weeks. The next raid came two days later seeing 48 B-24s launched, but 32 were forced turned back. The remaining 16 bombers escorted by 51 were intercepted by 94 Japanese fighters, yet they also suffered from the bad weather. Less than half made contact with the enemy. In the resulting fight, 5 Zeros were shot down and 10 allied aircraft were lost, but only two were shot down. The other eight were due to a mid-air collision and landing mishaps, all near home. The weather persisted to be so bad, it was only on the 23rd another sortie could be launched. B-24s escorted by Corsairs and Hellcats bombed Lakunai. Radar gave the Japanese some early warning and nearly 100 Zeros were scrambled. 60 made contact with the bombers after they hit Lakunai. No bombers were lost, but 2 Corsairs were shot down in the ensuing dogfights. Yet the Americans had a twist, they followed up the raid with a fighter sweep of 48 Corsairs. They arrived 15 minutes after the bombers left, surprising the airborne Japanese fighters, most of whom lacked radios. 6 Zeros were shot down, several others damaged and only 2 Corsairs lost.  2 days later, another fighter sweep preceded by bombers was launched claiming 18 aircraft kills, but it was probably closer to 5. In comparison the Japanese pilots would claim 55 kills, a number greater than the american force sent. On the 27 another sweep was launched against Cape Gloucester downing 7 Japanese aircraft for one American. 28 Corsairs returned the next day but this time the Japanese held the advantage, sandwiching the Marines between 2 large groups of Zeros. 3 Corsairs were shot down, but so were 3 Zeros, with 2 others badly damaged. On 30th 36 Liberators escorted by 20 Hellcats and 20 Corsairs, bombed Rabaul. 1 B-24 was lost on the raid, hit by antiaircraft fire. No air combat occurred. On New Years day 15 B-24s and 68 escorting fighters met heavy fighter opposition. 40 Zeros had been sent to Rabaul from Truk, manned by veteran pilots. 1 B-24 was shot down, and two others badly damaged. On January 2 48 US fighters raided and on the 3rd another 44. The two sweeps took out a handful of fighters. The last sweep was on the 5th seeing another 2 zeros downed. Meanwhile back on December 24th, Admiral Sherman's task force 37 raided Kavieng. The operation had two purposes, 1) was to distract attention from the landings at Cape Gloucester and 2) to interdict sea traffic between Truk and Rabaul. The 5000-ton naval transport Tenyru Maru was sunk and several other ships were damaged. After this task force 37 made several raids against Kavieng through January 4th. They managed to shoot down 10 Japanese fighters, damaged IJN cruiser Noshiro and destroyers Fumizuki and Satsuki. On Janaury 6th, the bomber strip at Piva became operational, thus Rabaul was now within range of allied light and medium bombers, basically it was pounding time.   On January 7th, 16 Avengers and 24 Dauntless raided Tobera airfield. From medium altitudes the Avengers dropped 2000lb pounds smashing the paved runways. The Japanese managed to shoot down 3 fighters and one dauntless, but Tobera was temporarily not operational. It was the first time any Rabaul airbase was neutralized from bomb damage. This would be followed up on the 11th by a low level attack against Vunakanau by B-25's, damaging 8 parked aircraft. Then on the 14th, Simpson Harbor was attacked by 16 Avengers , 36 Dauntless and fighter escorts. The Japanese tossed 84 fighters but the allies held such a tight formation it was difficult to get at the bombers. 2 bombers were lost before reaching Lakunai; 1 to a mid-air collision and 1 to antiaircraft fire. When the Allied aircraft finally arrived, clouds shielded Lakunai so the bombers switched to targeting the ships in Simpson Harbor. The Avengers carried 2,000lb bombs, limiting their effectiveness. Regardless, they landed hits on the 15,400-ton-displacement oiler Naruto, and thus ended its goal of becoming the Hokage. . . sorry folks could not resist that one. The destroyer Matsukaze was also damaged alongside 5 other vessels.    AirSols came back to hit simpson harbor and blanche bay 3 days later sinking  the Komaki Maru, Kosei Maru, Yamayuri Maru, Hakkai Maru and Iwate Maru. To take down the combined 30,000 tons of shipping AirSols lost 8 P-38s, 1 Hellcat, 1 F4U, 1 Avenger, and 1 Dauntless. The rest of January saw so many raids, sometimes 2-3 on the same day, thus I can't spend the entire podcast listing their actions, but the losses were brutal. For the Americans they would lose 23 aircraft between January 23rd-30th, for the Japanese it was around 37. By the end of the month, Rabaul was being bled dry of planes, thus the rest was withdrawn to Truk with around 40 pilots. To make up for the withdrawal, Admiral Koga brought over the air groups of carriers Junyo, Hiyo and Ryuho on the 25th adding 62 zeros, 18 vals and 18 kates to Admiral Kusakas dwindling forces. Does that not sound like performing the exact same action that saw such devastating losses in late december to early january? Yes, yes it does.    Moving over to New Britain, General Shepherd had just smashed the Japanese positions along Suicide Creek. While seizing Suicide Creek some Americans captured a Japanese dispatch saying “It is essential that we conceal the intention that we are maintaining positions on Aogiri Ridge. Concerning the occupation of this position, it is necessary that Aogiri Yama is maintained.” While making arrangements for the Japanese assault against Target Hill one, Lieutenant Abe had occasion sent field dispatches to Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Yamaguchi, one of his platoon leaders. The dispatch mentioned command post locations, hour of attack, and other orders. Yamaguchi, with that seemingly incredible indifference to basic security which the Japanese so often demonstrated, simply stuck the dispatch in his pocket and carried it with him to the assault. Marines found it on his body the following morning, thereby gaining their first inkling of the existence of a terrain feature which appeared as such on none of their maps but upon which the Japanese appeared to place great importance, for reasons not yet clear. Aoigiri Ridge was not in the American maps and it was currently held by the 2nd battalion, 53rd regiment and 2nd battalion, 141st regiment. Behind the ridge was a wide trail leading to Magairapua, connecting Matsuda's HQ with Borgen Bay. The trail was heavily used and concealed extremely well from American aircraft. Back over at the American lines, by January 5th, the 3rd battalion, 7th marines had pulled back into the reserve, allowing the weapons company, 7th marines to occupy the extreme left along the shore to prepare for Shepherds offensive against Hill 150. The new formation launched their attack at 11am on the 6th. Tanks surged forward to smash a roadblock held by the 2nd battalion, 141st regiment on the left trail. Artillery was deployed on a nearby hill hitting the Japanese lines as A company tried to break through but was quickly pinned down by the roadblock. The tanks eventually burst through the roadblock sending the Japanese packing.   The americans advanced through the increasingly swampy terrain, facing weaker resistance. B company crossed a small stream and stormed Hill 150 during the afternoon, securing it. Further right, C company and the 3rd battalion, 5th marines were surprised to be held up by extremely heavy fire from the until then unknown feature, Aogiri ridge. The men had no other choice than to pull back to a safe distance to dig in as they reported back the presence of the heavily fortified position. The Japanese would unleash carnage upon the men for 2 days whenever they tried to press forward. On the 7th the commanding officer of the 3rd battalion, 5th Marines, was wounded and replaced by Lt Colonel Lewis Walt. The next day, Walk's men were cautiously inching forward under heavy enemy fire through dense jungle, when they first encountered the ground rising in steepness. At this point Walt realized the feature had to be Aogiri Ridge.    On the 9th, the assault battalions resumed their attacks, this time with heavy artillery support against Aogiri ridge. Walt was reinforced with Companies K and L from the 7th marines, but the advance was extremely slow and painful. Two Japanese bunkers were knocked out with white phosphorus grenades, but that ended the limited gains. Walt personally began pushing a 37mm gun excruciating foot by foot up Aogiri ridge, firing a volley of canisters every few feet. Somehow he managed to get the gun up the steep slope into a decent position to sweep the ridge, allowing the gain of a foothold on the crest of Aogiri. The loss of the ridge was a huge threat to Matsuda and Katayama's positions, so the latter decided to throw his reserves in a desperate but ferocious counterattack.   At 1:15am on the 10th, Katayama sent his recently arrived 3rd battalion to attack the reverse slope. However the Marines held firm and would end up repelling 5 consecutive banzai charges with a fury and persistence unparalleled in the campaign. On the 4th try a Japanese major and two company officers succeeded in knifing through the Marine cordon almost to Colonel Walt's fox hole, 50 yards behind the front line. At that instant one of two short rounds in a 60-round artillery barrage burst in a tall tree almost directly overhead, and the major died there, sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. The 5th charge was blunted by artillery and the Japanese finally cut their losses and pulled back. The Japanese had suffered immense casualties, seeing all 3 of their battalions depleted, forcing Katayama to pull off Aogiri ridge that very night. The morning of the 10th saw Walk's men securing the feature and then discovering the vital Magairapua trail. The marines went to work mopping up the area until January 12th, whereupon Shepherd planned to seize Hill 660. The feature was guarded by the 6th company, 141st regiment supported by a number of guns of the 30th machine cannon company. The fresh 3rd battalion, 7th marines, led by lt colonel Henry Buse Jr were to perform the main assault, with the 1st battalion extending the perimeter behind them. To help the effort, the weapons company,7th marines of Captain Buckley would begin constructing a roadblock between the eastern base of Hill 660 to the shore of Borgen Bay, hoping to cut off the defenders escape route.   At 08:00am on the 13th, after artillery, mortars and the 5th Air Force performed a bombardment of the area, the last Marine offensive commenced. A intricate system of small arms and automatic weapon positions going up the summit unleashed fire upon the marines, quickly pinning down I company. L Company attempted swinging to the right, but were also pinned down. Engineers worked a light tank forward far enough to place fire across a gorge demolishing the more troublesome enemy weapons. By late afternoon, together with artillery supporting fire, the pinned-down companies were rescued and withdrawn for the night. Meanwhile the Weapons company worked with their bulldozer, by 1030 they had skirted the eastern base of the hill and set up an all-around perimeter. There they dug in clearing fields of fire for about 60 yards to both north and south, placing their half-tracks and tanks in supporting positions. The only opposition they encountered during the advance was by two Japanese machine guns and emplaced near the summit of the hill. With all said and done they successfully cut off the Japanese line of retreat.  On the morning of the 14th, the 3rd battalion resumed their assault, with their leading companies advancing to the right working their way up. One unit nearly got atop the crest before coming under fire from heavy machine guns. They got to a position where they could bring 60mm mortars to bear, and went to work neutralizing the machine gun positions before a final surge carried them across the summit. The Japanese fled down the crest heading east, coming straight into the line of fire of the Weapons company below. The result was a terrible rout, seeing many escape to the safety of the swamps to the hills southeast. By the end of the 14th, the marines had seized Hill 660 and were performing mop up operations through the following day. At 5:30am on the 16th, Katayama ordered the 6th and 11th companies, 141st regiment to counter attack Hill 660. Soon the marines were face to face with a large banzai charge, seeing the fighting getting up close and personal. But small arms, rifles, 60mm mortars and 81mm artillery broke the Japanese. Over 110 Japanese bodies would be found after the fight. This ended Shepherds offensive, as the remnants of Colonel Sumiya's forces began to arrive to the Borgen Bay area. Over the next few days, the exhausted 7th marines were relieved by the 5th marines and 2nd battalion, 1st marines who had recently been recalled after completing their mission at Green Beach.  After suffering the defeated in Borgen Bay, General Sakai decided to order the 1st battalion, 54th regiment to reinforce Talasea and for Matsuda to launch a last ditch effort, a suicidal one at that, to obliterate the enemy. But the men were in no condition for such an offensive, thus Katayama elected to postpone it for now. Since every man was needed for the defense of Borgen Bay, Colonel Sato took the remainder of his commander and departed Rooke Island to join the main body. Now that Hill 660 was secured, the Americans began a new method of patrolling; this time their patrols would specifically seek out and destroy what was presumed to be exhausted Japanese units, before the division would attack the defensive line at Borgen Bay-Itni river. Yet that is it for new Britian, as we are going to be traveling over to the CBI theater. Between November 22 to December the 1st, two conference were held between the Allied leaders. The first was the Cairo or “sextant” conference on November 22-26th, between President FDR, Sir Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek. The second was held in Tehran on November 28-December 1st between FDR, Churchill and Joseph Stalin. You might be asking, why did they all not meet up together. The crux of it was the Soviet-Japanese neutrality Pact and to a lesser extent, though probably not in Chiang Kai-Shek's mind, Stalin was aiding the CCP. Because the Soviets had not declared war on the Japanese, it would not look to good if they met with the leader of China, likewise Chiang Kai-shek was not too forthcoming to meet with Stalin. The easy fix was to just have two different conferences. Overall the conferences did not really touch too much upon the Pacific war. But Stalin did promise to declare war on Japan within ninety days after the end of the European War. In return he demanded military and logistical concessions in Manchuria, maintenance of Outer Mongolia under Soviet control as well as sovereignty over the Kuril Islands that stretched from north of Japan to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. When Chiang Kai-shek heard about this he had suspicious and noted “The influence of this conference on China will be great. I hope Roosevelt isn't plotting with Churchill and Stalin against me.” Soon his suspicion would turn to anger when he discovered there were secret protocols relating to Manchuria.  Stalin had made some assurances to Mao Zedong that once the Soviets were in the war against Japan, they would have forces to bear down into China to help tip the scale for the CCP against the NRA. Yet after the war, it would seem promises made by Joseph Stalin were not always kept.  Another important aspect of the conferences was the British decision to cancel Operation Buccaneer, the invasion of the Andaman Islands, because Admiral Mountbatten's landing crafts were required for landings in southern france. The Joint chiefs of staff were livid at this, because it came at the same time the Japanese were reinforcing Burma. FDR overruled them and agreed to the British decision and this in turn greatly pissed off Chiang Kai-Shek. Yet at the same time, the Cairo declaration had lifted up the morale for the Chinese army and people to continue their war against the Japanese. The declarations made by the Tehran conference implied publicly that the CBI theater was all but abandoned to the mercy of Japan's air and land forces. Thus it would be no coincidence the Japanese thought it ripe to launch an all-out offensive against China.  In the meantime, the rather aggressive Admiral Mountbatten was trying to salvage what he could of the situation. To try and please Chiang Kai-Shek, he proposed Operation Pigstick. The operation was something Mountbatten had wargamed a bit, it was to be a landing on the southern Mayu peninsula aimed at hitting Akyab. He began assigning landing craft for the amphibious operation, only to be immediately slapped down by Alanbrooke and told to return 3 fast tank landing crafts that were direly needed for operations against Italy. Mountbatten hoped to retain 2 slower tank landing craft, but Cunningham requested them. Pigstick was to be 2 divisions plus 2 brigades who would be used in a southward advance down the peninsula and 1 division in an amphibious assault aimed at surrounding and destroying not less than 20,000 Japanese. An additional landing similar to PIGSTICK, could perhaps be launched in the Ramree-Cheduba area, could take staging areas that would put 15 Corps within reach of Rangoon. Speaking of Ramree, if any of you have heard this kind of myth about over 1000 Japanese being eaten by crocodiles on that island, over on my personal channel the pacific war channel I did a full investigation into the so called “ramree island massacre” story. A little sad about its performance not going to lie. Dramatically improved my lackluster animation skills for it, came out really well and I did a silly impersonation at the beginning, anyways check it out its a fun one! Alongside Pigstick, Mountbatten changed the Tarzan operation into Operation Gripfast, calling for an offensive on north and central Burma with an airborne landing at Indaw to sever the Japanese line of communications to Myitkyina. But now Chiang Kai-Shek was very wary of anything British, so he rejected the plans on December 19th. Alongside pissing off Chiang Kai-Shek, his estranged wife, Joseph Stilwell was also again angry with the British, particularly Mountbatten. At one point Mountbatten proposed moving certain American units into the Hukawng valley to help the offensive there and Stillwell burst out ‘I should like it placed on record that I am responsible for the training of all American forces in this theatre and I am the person to decide when they are adequately trained and can move forward.' Mountbatten replied: ‘I accept that in principle, but would remind you that these troops are being trained under British officers. I am responsible for operations and will decide when units move into the fighting lines. In other words, general, I should like to place on record that I am Supreme Commander out here and what I say goes.' Stilwell took it good-humouredly and laughed. ‘We none of us dispute that,'”. That day Stilwell wrote a letter to his wife, referring scathingly to Mountbatten as ‘the glamour boy. He doesn't wear well and I begin to wonder if he knows his stuff. Enormous staff, endless walla-walla but damn little fighting . . . And of course the Peanut is unchanged. The jungle is a refuge from them both.' The men would all share some screaming matches against another, until Stilwell would shock everyone by exclaiming “I am prepared to come under General Slim's operational control until I get to Kamaing.” It was a truly bizarre idea, Mountbatten asked how such a thing would work, and both Slim and Stilwell asked to discuss the matter amongst themselves. The two men would agree on tactical essentials such as getting more Chinese divisions for the Ledo force and to use the Chindits to assist in hitting Myitkyina. Slim and Stilwell shook hands and Stilwell said to him ‘I would fight under a corporal as long as he would let me fight.' Slim would later reflecte ‘In practice this illogical command set-up worked surprisingly well. My method with Stilwell was based on what I had learnt of him in the Retreat – to send him the minimum of written instructions, but, whenever I wanted anything, to fly over and discuss it with him, alone. Stilwell, talking things over quietly with no one else present, was a much easier and more likeable person than Vinegar Joe with an audience. Alone, I never found him unreasonable or obstructive. I think I told him to do something he did not approve of on only two or three occasions, and on each he conformed, I will not say willingly, but with good grace.' In the end Operation Pigstick never became a reality, because the landing crafts were needed for the Italian campaign and thus the hope of meeting Chiang Kai-sheks continued demand for an amphibious operation was gone. It was almost like the British never intended to go through with such a thing in the first place, woops that is just my opinion. Meanwhile the British-Indian command elected to start a new operation in Arakan. The brutal hard-won lessons of 1st Arakan battle had been absorbed in India Command, with senior British officers determined to avoid similar mistakes. The new operation was the subject of meticulous reconnaissance, planning, and rehearsals. A series of lectures, war games, models of the grounds and syndicate discussions were held for commanders, staff and regimental officers whom carefully considered countering Japanese offensive tactics and assaulting prepared defensive positions like those witnessed at Donbaik. A carefully planned programme of continuous, progressive and intensive training was put in hand for all corps and divisional fighting, support and administrative troops to practice necessary skills, including using brigade boxes, aerial resupply and the infiltration and envelop- ment of enemy positions. This comprehensive training programme culminated in intensive rehearsals and combined arms training with artillery, tanks and close support aircraft carried out near Lohardaga, over ground resembling Arakan, simulating attacks on mock Japanese defensive positions on jungle-clad hills. General Auchinleck assigned the 15th corps, reconstituted at Ranchi with the 3 best trained divisions available: Major-General Harold Briggs' 5th Indian Division; Major-General Frank Messervy's 7th Indian Division and Major-General Christopher Woolner's 81st West African Division.The 26th Indian Division formed the corps reserve. Command of the 15th corps would be given to Lt General Philip Christison. The plan called for the 5th and 7th Indian divisions to advance along the summit of the Mayu range towards Maungdaw and Buthidaung while the 5th and 6th west african brigades would provide flanking protection. On November 1st, the 2 Indian divisions began their advance and by mid november would make contact with a Japanese outpost.As the 7th Indian division advanced astride the Kalapanzin River they ran into stiff resistance. Efforts to dislodge Japanese defenders near Awlanbyin and Letwedet, showcased the formidable difficulties that attacking Japanese defensive bunker positions presented. Most were built on razor-back ridges, through which were burrowed fire positions, affording a limited approach, while the reverse slopes protected troops from view and bombardment. With the precipitous Goppe Pass initially only suitable for porters, pack transport and pack artillery, 7th Indian Division quickly devised other methods to overcome enemy defenses, since normal stereotyped, set-piece attacks stood little chance of success without supporting field artillery. Aircraft proved an ineffective substitute, moreover, with dive-bombing having only a transitory effect since the broken terrain and dense jungle absorbed blast leaving defenses and morale largely intact unless a lucky direct hit was made. The Indian forces began to infiltrate and bypass the well-entrenched Japanese defenses, giving the impression they would soon unleash a frontal attack upon them at any moment. General Messervy's would say of the action  “'We will undoubtedly have a Neapolitan sandwich of British - Japs - British, but it will be one made by ourselves, and with the initiative in our hands it will soon be transformed to British - British - Jap.” They were gaining ground and with it valuable combat experience. On the night of November 30th, the 15th Indian Corps commenced large-scale operations to drive in the Japanese outpost line astride the Mayu Range. A series of brisk skirmishes were fought by 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade on the jungle-cloaked ridges south of Awlanbyin quickly evicting small determined parties of Japanese infantry from carefully prepared platoon and company defensive localities. This was by no means an easy task since most heavily camouflaged positions were built atop steep hillsides overlooking paddy fields that provided an open field of five and difficult going for advancing troops. Earlier directions about infiltration paid off in practice. An attack on Awlanbyin west redoubt from the rear through thick jungle achieved complete surprise. Although a neighboring Japanese position initially held out, its garrison withdrew on 2nd December after being cut off. The 33rd Brigade columns  crossed the Ngakyedauk Chaung and occupied the area from Ngakyedauk village to the ridge about 1.5 miles north-west of Sinohbyin village. By December3rd, they extended the area of operation to the hills overlooking Maungyithaung and Sinohbyin. The 89th Brigade, meanwhile, pushed forward down Tatmin Chaung and established forward positions on the hills south of the chaung, one mile west of Tatmingyaungywa. By mid-month, 7th Indian Division had reached the main enemy positions covering the Tunnels and Buthidaung, and the opening of the Ngakyedauk Pass to wheeled traffic in late December considerably eased resupply and allowed the divisional artillery to join the formation. However, both the Indian divisions were under orders not to get engaged in serious fighting with the Japanese, so the advance stopped there. It is also important to note, in November 1943,  Spitfires were deployed in Bengal for the first time. The 615th and 617th squadrons were based in Chittagong to protect the vital port and also to cover the Arakan. Within one month, the Spitfires destroyed four Japanese photographic reconnaissance aircraft. Previously, the Dinah's range, speed and height had enabled them to fly with impunity over the Allied forward bases and the Hurricanes were unable to catch them. The Japanese reacted by sending out fighter sweeps in order to test the Spitfires and whittle down Spitfire strength. However, by the end of December, the Japanese lost 22 aircraft, another 33 were damaged, and the Allied loss was only 13 aircraft. The greatest air battle occurred on the last day of 1943. On that day, No. 136 Squadron destroyed 12 and damaged 11 when a mixed force of Japanese fighters and bombers attempted to attack the light naval force along the Arakan Coast. The Japanese carried out one strategic attack when on 5 December 1943, 60 bombers and fighters, including some naval aircraft, in two waves bombed Calcutta. The Japanese lost two aircraft and another five were damaged. The three and a half squadrons of Hurricane fighters, including half a squadron of night fighters which were defending the area lost five aircraft and another six were damaged.  To the west the 5th Indian Division had also encountered stiffening resistance from Japanese outposts as it advanced southwards along the coastal plain towards Maungdaw, through the foothills further north and along the spine of the jungle-clad Mayu Mountains. They soon discovered that overcoming Japanese bunker defenses presented particular difficulties. As the division would report "The great difficulty in attacking Jap "hill top" positions lies in the concealment of the actual bunker or weapon pit' one brigade commander later wrote, and in the practical impossibility of deploying attacking troops in thick jungle, particularly where the approach runs along the top of a razor backed ridge.' In each case, patrols infiltrated between these localities isolated them from supplies and reinforcements with the result that Japanese normally gave up ground without a contest. A newsletter prepared by the HQ of 5th Indian Division reported: 'The only way to deal with the Jap def positions is by INFILTRATION. Recent experience has shown that the Jap has produced nothing new in def tactics... It is almost physically impossible in hilly and thick country to have every post covered by another, the posts can be eliminated piece- meal by infiltration tactics.' After the outline of the main Japanese defenses became apparent this approach was also increasingly applied at brigade level. At the end of December 1943, the 5th Indian Division held the area from the sea to the crest of the Mayu Peninsula and the 7th Indian Division moved into the Kalapanzin Valley. By the end of the month they reached Maungdaw. The advancing 5th Indian Division discovered that frontal assaults could not be completely avoided, however, when Japanese troops were determined to stay put. During this advance, the 161st Brigade moved to the high ground to the northeast of Bakkagona about five miles to the north of Razabil. On 30th December, 161st Indian Infantry Brigade assaulted Point 124, but the 4/7th Rajputs were held up by dense jungle and heavy mortar and machine fire and suffered heavy casualties. For six days assaults continued with the forward infantry regularly reaching the Japanese defenses before being driven off by showers of hand grenades and supporting machine-gun from every other enemy defensive position within range. Only after a 'policy of strangulation, starvation, and attrition was adopted', did its defenders withdraw. The 5th Indian Division immediately began probing the main Razabil defenses, while its 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade patrolled the western foothills of the Mayu Range and northern side of Razabil, particularly two hill positions dubbed Wrencat and Wrenkitten. To do so an indirect approach was again advocated by Major-General Harold Briggs in note on tactical policy issued on 4th January, stressing the importance of patrolling to identify positions held by the Japanese and infiltration to seize vital ground in their flanks or rear that would either provoke Japanese counterattacks or force a withdrawal. Meanwhile Stilwell arrived to Shingbwiyang on December 21st and assumed command of the Chinese forces in India. To relive the trapped battalion of the 112th regiment at Yupbang Ga, Stilwell and General Sun planned to send the entire 114th regiment to break the Japanese center at Yupang Ga to rescue the 112th, then hook north to envelope the northern fragment of the Japanese defensive line. On December 24th, they unleashed artillery and launched the infantry into the Japanese lines. The 114th regiment managed to envelop the Japanese right flank by the afternoon and soon a breakthrough emerged allowing for them to make contact with the 112th. Sun's men then surrounded the Japanese pocket during the night and would wipe them out the next morning. And thus the Chinese had gained their first victory at Yupbang Ha, though the Japanese still held the river crossing, so Stilwell began plans for another assault set after Christmas. On December 28th, Sun ordered 3 battalions to attack the north, while the 1st battalion, 112th regiment would sweep to the right, getting behind the 3 Japanese outer strongpoints. The chinese forces rapidly broke the Japanese outer defenses creating a breach while the 1st battalion, 114th regiment broke through the river defensive line. The Japanese tossed a large counterattack, but it would be repelled by the night time. Now Yupbang Ga was in allied hands as the surviving Japanese companies split into smaller groups trying to hold out for many days. With the fall of Yupbang Ga, the Japanese were forced to withdraw from Sharaw Ga as well, so elements of the 2rd battalion, 113th Regiment were be able to seize it by December 30. In the meantime, as the 22nd Division's 65th Regiment had been sent towards the Taro Plain to try and secure the southern flank, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 114th Regiment had been sent south to cross the Tanai Hka at the Kantau ford in an effort to cut off the enemy withdrawal line. By the end of 1943, with the loss of 315 killed and 429 wounded, Sun's 38th Division had gained complete control of the Tarung Hka.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Things were deteriorating for the Japanese on New Britain as American Marines were seizing features and gradually pushing them into Borgan Bay. Within the CBI theater a ton of drama amongst the high commanders was surprisingly not resulting in disaster, as operations in Burma were kicking off with great results. Perhaps Burma could be saved.

Ryan has a deep belief that Judge Dersely will hold him in high esteem for his episode on Faith in the Kamchatka Peninsula during 1450-1750. Will some additional material about the Russian military's continued presence in Kamchatka, a myth from the Koryak tribe about their tricksome raven deity, and an account of the first explorer to Kamchatka, help bring him good fortune? Find out now on… THE VERDICT!   Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:46 First Impressions & Itelmen Facts! 07:48 Adventures with Atlasov! 12:34 Talking Castration! 16:43 Missile Tests & The Terrible Tsunami! 23:38 The Raven Who Stole The Moon And The Sun! 26:44 The Verdict 30:06 Outro (+ Neuro-Theology)   Contact: https://linktr.ee/hhepodcast http://hhepodcast.com

Journey through time and faith in this week's episode of HHE Podcast, where we delve into the spiritual landscape of the Kamchatka Peninsula from 1450-1750. Join Pete and Ryan as they explore the rich tapestry of beliefs and practices in this remote and rugged land. Uncover the mysteries of the native peoples' spiritual connection to nature. Then meet Ivan Berezhnoy, a Russian missionary whose journey to Kamchatka marked a pivotal moment in the region's religious history. And finally, take a tour into the enigmatic world of the Skoptsy sect, a group whose radical beliefs will make you shrivel with fear!   Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:14 Orientation to the Kamchatka Peninsula 12:51 History of the Kamchatka Peninsula 19:33 What is ‘Faith'? 24:07 Meet the Itelmens! 32:40 Ivan Berezhnoy's Mission! 46:25 Selivanov's Scissors! 54:43 Derzolation 56:29 Outro   Links: OTYKEN - STORM (https://t.ly/Hcy1L) The Anthem of Kamchatka Krei (https://t.ly/q6Ong) 11+ hours of Russian Orthodox Music (https://t.ly/zgZm6) Itelmens — Indians of Russia (https://t.ly/oo9lo) "Чукотка" весёлый кoрякский танец (https://t.ly/oDnom)   Contact: http://hhepodcast.com https://linktr.ee/hhepodcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDynVdQ2Wcc she comin... #2023 #art #music #movies #poetry #poem #photooftheday #volcano #news #money #food #weather #climate #monkeys #horse #puppy #fyp #love #instagood #onelove #eyes #getyoked #horsie #gotmilk #book #shecomin #getready

Today the lads caught up with Spencer Frost - A film director whos new film 'Corners of the Earth - Kamchatka' is out in a few days time & it looks EPIC! "Follow filmmakers Spencer Frost and Guy Williment and surfers Letty Mortenson and Fraser Dovell as they journey to Kamchatka in the far east of Russia in search of new waves along the frozen, unexplored coastline. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk with more than 150 volcanoes (29 active) the Kamchatka Peninsula in Far Eastern Russia is as remote as it is unique. After two years of planning the trip was almost over before it started. An hour before boarding their flight to Moscow, Russia invaded Ukraine. At a time when the world was seeing the worst of human nature, these guys flew behind the iron curtain and found, to their surprise the best of it. Mi-8 helicopters, skidoos, frozen campsites, and frozen bank accounts, this surf trip quickly became far more than anyone could imagine".See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've joined forces with SEN to bring you All Talk, an interview series where we chat with a different sporting legend each week. This week we're joined by filmmakers Guy Williment & Spencer Frost, the creators behind The Corners Of The Earth - Kamchatka. Joined by surfers Letty Mortenson and Fraser Dovell, they journeyed to Kamchatka in the far east of Russia in search of new waves along the frozen, unexplored coastline. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk with more than 150 volcanoes (29 active) the Kamchatka Peninsula in Far Eastern Russia is as remote as it is unique. After two years of planning the trip was almost over before it started, an hour before boarding their flight to Moscow, Russia invaded Ukraine. Follow The Corners Of The Earth on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/the.corners.of.the.earth/ Book tickets to see it, or purchase the book here: https://www.cornersoftheearth.com.au/ Listen to All Talk with Hello Sport live on SEN Tuesday nights at 8pm, replayed on Sundays at midday. 00:00 - Planing The Trip 28:03 - Travelling While Russia Invaded Ukraine 45:20 - Making The Doco 1:19:40 - Touring

For this episode of The All-Around Adventure Podcast, I'm joined by Former Navy SEAL and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Jack Carr. Jack began his career in Naval Special Warfare as an enlisted SEAL sniper, before transitioning to leading assault and sniper teams in Iraq and Afghanistan as a junior officer. He would later go on to serve as a platoon commander for counterinsurgency operations in the southern Philippines. As well as to commanding a Special Operations Task Unit in southern Iraq. Following the end of his 20-year career in the SEAL Teams, Jack set out to achieve his lifelong dream of becoming an author. His first book in the James Reece series, The Terminal List, was released in 2018. And has since been adapted into a series on Amazon Prime starring Chris Pratt. Now Jack's sixth book in the series, Only The Dead, will hit shelves on May 16th! In this episode, Jack tells us about what led him to become a SEAL and the various fiction writers who inspired him to one day become an author. He also shares stories from some of the places that he's traveled to around the world to conduct research for his novels. Such as Mozambique in East Africa, as well as the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. Furthermore, Jack tells us about his writing process and where he intends to take the James Reece series moving forward! To watch the video of our conversation, head over to the All-Around Adventure YouTube channel! Connect with Jack! www.officialjackcarr.com Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube Also, check out Jack's sixth book in the James Reece series, Only The Dead! Thank you for listening! To hear more great episodes like this one, click here! Also, don't forget to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a good rating and review! You can also listen to the podcast on Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio. And don't forget to follow All-Around Adventure on these social media platforms: Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube And until next time; be safe, happy travels, and always move forward!

n today's Midday Report with host Terry Haines: The eruption of a volcano this week on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has prompted some Alaska flight cancellations. Denali National Park will be radio-collaring grizzly bears this spring. And an advisory board has endorsed placement of a book on relationships and sexuality within the Ketchikan Public Library's teen section. Photo: Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka's most active volcanoes,

Steven Myers is a two-time Air Force Veteran and a self-described “serial entrepreneur”. He has founded no fewer than four companies and was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He became the first American to fly an aircraft into the Kamchatka Peninsula since Charles Lindbergh. That adventure and the joint venture set up through that mission is subject of his best-selling book “Crosswinds: Adventure and Entrepreneurship in the Russian Far East". Steve experienced a very rough inner-city childhood and he credits the Air Force for giving him the core values necessary for future success in life. His first enlistment in the Air Force was as a computer maintenance technician.  He then enrolled at Stanford University where he secured an internship at the Jet Propulsion Labs and fell in love with the space program. He knew the only way that dream could happen was to re-enlist in the Air Force and become a test pilot. Unfortunately, just as he entered pilot training, a lot of very seasoned pilots were coming back from Vietnam and the competition was fierce. A mountain climbing accident would inspire a mindset he would keep for the rest of his life. Steve fell into a deep crevasse, fracturing his pelvis and arm. His climbing companions could not see him and suspected he had been killed. Because his survival was on the line, Steve eventually extricated himself from the canyon just in time to meet the Rangers coming to collect his body. “The cornerstone of courage is optimism. You can't be an entrepreneur if you can't be afraid and still push the button.” One of his employees had been spending a lot of time in Russia following the end of the Cold War. When he pitched the idea of flying into Kamchatka Steve initially thought the idea was absurd. Both the adventure of the that flight and the challenges of setting up the California-Kamchatka Companies joint venture in Russia are beautifully detailed in Crosswinds – including a very surprising ending.

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!

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel Maine coastal and ocean issues: Rare Steller's sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination Since late December 2021, a rare Steller's sea eagle has been repeatedly sighted by hundreds of people on the Maine coast. This raptor is significantly bigger than our own beloved Bald Eagle. Its home range is very far away in coastal Siberia, around the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula, down to Northern Japan and as far as the Korean Peninsula. There are reportedly only around 4000 Steller's sea-eagles on the planet, and they are listed as a vulnerable species on The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Starting back in August of 2020, birders noticed its presence in Alaska. A few months later in March of 2021, a raptor presumed to be this same eagle was sighted in Texas. And then in June multiple confirmed sightings were reported all the way east, in Québec's Gaspé Peninsula. November in the Canadian Maritimes, December was Massachusetts, and then, December 30, 2021, it landed in Maine and continued to be sighted in the Georgetown to Boothbay region until March 5th. Why has this Steller's Sea Eagle been wandering the northern hemisphere? What do we know about its ecology and conservation? And how has its presence captured the imagination of seasoned birders, coastal residents, and a growing cadre of community scientists? These are the topics for today's episode of Coastal Conversations. Guests: Doug Hitchcox, Staff Naturalist at Maine Audubon Jeff Wells, Vice President for Boreal Conservation at National Audubon Brent Pease, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of wildlife conservation and management at Southern Illinois University About the host: Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation's since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland's Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio. The post Coastal Conversations 3/25/22: Rare Steller's sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel Maine coastal and ocean issues: Rare Steller's sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination Since late December 2021, a rare Steller's sea eagle has been repeatedly sighted by hundreds of people on the Maine coast. This raptor is significantly bigger than our own beloved Bald Eagle. Its home range is very far away in coastal Siberia, around the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula, down to Northern Japan and as far as the Korean Peninsula. There are reportedly only around 4000 Steller's sea-eagles on the planet, and they are listed as a vulnerable species on The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Starting back in August of 2020, birders noticed its presence in Alaska. A few months later in March of 2021, a raptor presumed to be this same eagle was sighted in Texas. And then in June multiple confirmed sightings were reported all the way east, in Québec's Gaspé Peninsula. November in the Canadian Maritimes, December was Massachusetts, and then, December 30, 2021, it landed in Maine and continued to be sighted in the Georgetown to Boothbay region until March 5th. Why has this Steller's Sea Eagle been wandering the northern hemisphere? What do we know about its ecology and conservation? And how has its presence captured the imagination of seasoned birders, coastal residents, and a growing cadre of community scientists? These are the topics for today's episode of Coastal Conversations. Guests: Doug Hitchcox, Staff Naturalist at Maine Audubon Jeff Wells, Vice President for Boreal Conservation at National Audubon Brent Pease, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of wildlife conservation and management at Southern Illinois University About the host: Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation's since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland's Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio. The post Coastal Conversations 3/25/22: Rare Steller's sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

The grant culture in research institutes (i.e. academia, industry, and national labs) has been evolved over the past decades and led to an environment where chasing fundings has had a significant impact on shaping the new culture. In this episode, Dr. Anastasia Ilgen, a Principal Member of Technical Staff at the Geochemistry Department, Sandia National Laboratories, shares her experience and insights on writing proposals and securing research funding. She discusses how to build cohesive research programs and design proposals with an appropriate combination of risks and likely successes. Guest info: Dr. Anastasia G. Ilgen is an experimental geochemist, specializing in chemical reactions at solid-water interfaces. She leads several research programs at Sandia, and is active in the American Chemical Society Governance. She grew up next to the active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia. She enjoys hiking with her family, traveling, cooking and baking, and taking care of her numerous pets. https://www.labpartnering.org/experts/d93065b9-0e86-452f-a296-3d1024837e6d https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/careers/chemical-sciences/profiles/anastasia-ilgen.html Reference list: Music by RuthAnn Schallert-Wygal (schallert.wygal@gmail.com) Artwork is created using Canva (canva.com) Contact list: If you have any comments about our show or have suggestions for a future topic, please contact us at info@thisacademiclife.org. You can also find us on the webpage https://thisacademiclife.org and on Facebook group “This Academic Life”. Cast list: Prof. Kim Michelle Lewis (host) is a Professor of Physics and Associate Dean of Research, Graduate Programs, and Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. Prof. Pania Newell (host) is currently an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Utah. Prof. Lucy Zhang (host) is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Support This Academic Life by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/this-academic-life

The Shuttle Drive | Episode #9 | "With Sal Montgomery" In this Episode topics include the Small Pyranha Scorch, UK's Most Dangerous River ,Kayaking Kamchatka Peninsula Russian and Peak UK Gear. If you Like this give a good review on iTunes or Follow The Shuttle Drive On Spotify. You can also Support the Show in the link below to help keep the content rolling strong!! The Shuttle Drive | Whitewater Kayaking Podcast • A podcast on Ancho --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theshuttledrive/support

In this week's podcast the team discuss the glamorous and tragic stories of Hollywood's most famous yachts. We also cover Royal Huisman's cool blue motor yacht, Project Phi, the latest from the Monaco Yacht Show and exclusively reveal the latest sales figures in a spectacular year for superyacht brokerage. Finally, we sit down with Alistair Reid, captain of the groundbreaking 77m Damen La Datcha. He fills us in on the yacht's action-packed first charter season – including heliskiing in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula – and charts his path from cleaning hire boats in Salcombe to becoming captain of one of the world's most exciting explorer yachts. Links:  Project Phi: https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/news/project-phi-superyacht-royal-huisman Monaco Yacht Show: https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/news/monaco-yacht-show-yacht-design-innovation-hub La Datcha: https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/editorial-features/on-board-seaxplorer-77-la-datcha Oleg Tinkov: https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/owners-experiences/oleg-tinkov-owner-la-datcha Boat Pro: https://www.boatinternational.com/boat-pro

Bomb attack on Chinese workers in Pakistan - Chinese Foreign Ministry condemnation The number of daily corona infections in China has been on the rise again for the past few days. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the risk of infection with delta-type viruses could increase significantly as it spreads to 111 countries. A magnitude 5.4 earthquake has shaken the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Pope Francis returns to Vatican after surgery. One killed in anti-government unrest in Cuba.

Vitus Bering was an explorer who proved that Asia and North America are not joined by land. In 1728 Bering sailed from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean through a narrow passage that now bears his name—the Bering Strait. On a second voyage, Bering explored Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. On July 13, 1728, Bering sailed from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia, eastern Russia. In August his ship passed through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. Bering concluded that North America was not joined to Asia. Before he could explore further, bad weather forced him to return to Russia. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/juliusmanuel/message

Expedition Doctor Lesley Cadzow was born in Scotland and spent her formative years pouring over medical books, with a keen interest in tropical diseases. She trained as a general practitioner before following an opportunity to New Zealand where she found herself working as a pediatric registrar flying premature babies around the North Island.  She then settled in Australia and began her work with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, providing treatment to indigenous communities all over the country.  Through a connection from her time at Glasgow University, she was introduced to expedition cruising and became an onboard doctor with Aurora Expeditions, a tour operator based in Sydney. This opportunity has taken her to the Arctic and Antarctic, and everywhere in between including Papua New Guinea and the Kamchatka Peninsula.  In this episode, Lesley shares with us her fascinating journey from general practice work in Scotland to warming up an unconscious hypothermic scuba diver in Antarctica, with plenty of weird and wonderful tales along the way.    HIGHLIGHTS 4:20 Early childhood interest in becoming a doctor pouring through medical books as a young girl 5:24 Flying premature babies as a pediatric registrar in New Zealand 6:58 Working with the Royal Flying Doctors Service bringing care to Australia’s most remote communities 10:23 Lesley’s introduction to expedition cruising with a trip to the remote islands off the coast of Scotland 13:07 Crossing the infamous Drake Passage on her first trip to the Antarctic Peninsula 15:09 A “beautiful and spooky” orca encounter while Zodiac cruising through the Lemaire Channel 20:53 Lesley recounts treating a hypothermic scuba diver during an Antarctic expedition 27:15 Practicing medicine in Antarctica is getting “back to basics” 28:25 The difficulty of stitching someone back up during rough seas 32:00 Acupuncture treatment in the Drake Passage and searching for contraception in the Orkney Islands of Scotland 38:23 What happens when the doctor is the one who gets sick? 43:40 A new sense of appreciation gained from guests who come on board with disabilities 47:38 Lesley’s special memory of being “land sick” amongst the penguins 49:31 Future plans including an upcoming expedition by camel to the “red center” of Australia

I am sharing with you a cool mineral discovery that took place just last year. Petrovite, the new mineral is a newly discovered fumarolic sulfate and it was found in the Great Tolbachik fissure eruption in the Kamchatka Peninsula area of Russia. Although I love working with gems and minerals, I'm also writing on topics such as renewables for CleanTechnica and this article by Open Access Government caught my eye. The article pointed out that Petrovite could power batteries and touched upon the idea of using minerals to create renewable energy. "What if naturally occurring substances could power the batteries of the world?" That was the question asked in the article. Petrovite is one such mineral and has an interesting chemical composition. The chemical structure of the mineral is a mix of sodium, calcium, copper, sulfur, and oxygen. The mineral looks really cool with blue globular aggregates of tabular crystals that have gaseous inclusions. Petrovite has oxygen atoms, sodium-sulfur, and copper and together these create a porous framework that connects the voids to one another through channels that act as an interstate highway for small sodium atoms to travel. It's an interesting read and the article cited a study by the University of Cambridge. I will include the links to both below. The photo cover for the podcast is not mine but is from the Mineralogical Museum of St. Petersburg State University. Cambridge Study Open Acces Government article Support this podcast on Patreon for $1. If you are enjoying Getting Stoned, then allow me to invite you to join my community of gem and mineral enthusiasts on Patreon. For only $1 a month you get: Early access to new episodes of Getting Stoned Free access to my new Gem and Mineral Library Free exclusive Patreon only content A forever-discount for anything you find yourself wanting in my online store.

Justin Miller has traveled the globe guiding and learning the The Fly Shop’s international destinations. He has guided the Kamchatka Peninsula every season since 2008, fishing the world with a spey rod, for every sea run fish he can find. Justin joins Rob to tell stories about fishing in Russia, salmon, steelhead, vodka, 'meat' and potatoes and what you should bring for your Russian guides.  Produced by Jason Reif  Brought to you by Sea Run Cases The Fly Shop  Justin's contact information     

Josh Day cycled from Bristol to Beijing between 2017 and 2019, an odyssey that saw him cross the Pamir highway in winter and later cycle through Siberia in -25C conditions. In this podcast we go beyond our shared physical journey, discussing self-reliance, our mindsets during difficult periods and the purpose of goals. We also discuss what led Josh to leave his grad scheme for Beijing and how he's adjusted to life back in the UK. See below for Josh's favourite: Place: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kamchatka+Peninsula,+Kamchatka+Krai,+Russia,+684405/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x5904e2b2a6a01f69:0x4cc0fcba86bbb18d?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNp66opuvtAhWmk4sKHariDDMQ8gEwHnoECC0QAQ (Kamchatka, Russia) Piece of Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmmHB3K69A (Zvezda Po Imeni (A Star Called the Sun) by Kino) Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Walk-Hindu-Kush/dp/0007367759 (A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby )

In September 2020:

One of the most talked-about books of the year, Julia Phillips’s powerful debut thriller Disappearing Earth has been hailed as “daring, nearly flawless” (The New York Times Book Review). When two sisters disappear from a beach on the far-flung Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, readers are drawn into an astonishing cast of characters connected by an unfathomable crime. Shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award, Julia joins Tam Zimet to discuss this unusual, cleverly constructed novel that illuminates the themes of ethnicity, gender, hearth and kin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

* Air Pollution: new research on possible link to Alzheimer.s * Kamchatka Peninsula: toxic pollution? * Neusiedlersee Biodiversity: beets, bottles, bicycles. * Kyrgyzstan in chaos after election results annulled *

In this episode, Cossack Vladimir Atlasov explores the Kamchatka Peninsula in the late 1690s - claiming it for the Russian Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will Blair is one of the godfathers of fly fishing in Kamchatka. Since 1997, Will has helped pioneer some of the top fisheries on the Kamchatka Peninsula, developing and offering what is arguably one of the best rainbow trout fishing experiences found anywhere on the planet. Yellow Dog is proud to partner with Will and his remote Two Yurt and Ozernaya programs, along with the incredibly-unique “Rainbows from Above” customized fly-out program. Because Will knows this mysterious and wild area like no one else, we tracked him down with a long list of questions in-hand. We discuss the factors that make a trip to Kamchatka so special, what gear to bring, the seasonality of the fisheries, species, travel logistics, and the stories you might tell upon returning from one of the greatest rainbow trout destinations in the world. If you’ve ever thought about a trip to Kamchatka, then you will certainly enjoy this exciting episode: the Season 1 finale of the Waypoints Podcast.

Surrounded by mountains and the sea, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is extremely isolated; there aren't even roads or rail lines to the area. In Julia Phillips' new novel, it's the site where two young Russian sisters vanish one afternoon after walking along the seashore. Disappearing Earth is not a mystery or true crime novel. There's no detective discovering long-held secrets among the townsfolk, no red herrings nor a final reveal. Instead, the novel explores a series of stories about women and girls affected by – and connected to – the panic surrounding the loss.

Links: See the images and read the full Fuji conclusion here. https://brentbergherm.com/shooting-xt3/ Announcements. My Oregon coast workshop is coming up, just a few days away now. If you have been on the fence about this I encourage you to jump in and allow me to challenge you and encourage you in your growth as a photographer. David duChemin said in the last episode that the print “is a powerful evaluative tool.” In fact, I’m going to turn it over to him once again. And I invite you to come out to the Oregon Coast with me and take the plunge into the world of shooting the beautiful coast and getting excellent prints from those images right there onsite as we dive deep into printing your photography. Topic:  There’s actually a few topics today. I’ll start out by wrapping up the story about my Fujifilm experiment, Mark Morris joins us with a drone safety concern and then I end the show with a listener chiming in on the love of photography. Here we go. I wrote a blog post about my experience trying to switch to the Fujifilm X-T3 camera. The shooting experience was so wonderful. And I’ve talked about it a bit here on this podcast as well as on the Master Photography Podcast too. It’s time to wrap this up.  In short, I sent the camera back. Please do read the post on my website, the link is in the show notes. The reason I sent it back is both complex and simple at the same time. It really hurts to send it back because I just loved shooting it so much. It was amazing. But I couldn’t get over a few details with regards to the types of images the camera struggled with. Most notably the sand image that not even the Fujifilm processing in camera could make look like sand, and an edge issue when shooting silhouetted objects. The processing in multiple programs just didn’t come out right so I lost faith in my ability to achieve my creative vision in post-production. I owe many thanks to Ibarionex Perello, Dan Bailey and David duChemin for coming on the show and talking with me about creativity and shooting Fujifilm cameras. But in the end it just wasn’t for me. For my photography, the ultimate purpose of a quality image is to make a gallery quality print out of it. I did a lot of printing comparing results from my Canon camera and the Fuji camera, and then I did a lot of further printing with just the Fuji files. I got a lot of very good and excellent prints. But a few subjects had too many challenges and I just can’t get passed it. Dan Bailey was also suggesting that I skip the raw processing and go with the in-camera JPG files. I tried that and on the flower subject I photographed in open shade the results were stunning. I literally took the file from camera, resized it, applied minimal output sharpening and it was excellent. However, I did the same with the raw image, also using the Fujifilm color profile, and it was even better, not by much, maybe 2%, but still, it was better. So I think I’ll keep my flexibility of the raw processing for now. But, when you’re in a pinch it’s good to know that usually you’ll have such awesome quality images coming out of the camera’s JPG processor. I also shot some star trails with the camera. My technique is to take multiple images over a period of time and blend them in Photoshop. I should have shot JPG for this process because in the raw as I switched from image to image the stars were not white. They were very distinctly blue, red or green, and they changed color depending on which frame you were looking at. This, of course, represents the rendering pixels but for the stars to not be recognized as white, it would just look too psychedelic. My Milky Way shot came out really great. But the star trails, not so much. The main reason behind sending it back is that I know my shooting experience would be affected by these issues. Most scenes turned out really well with this camera. But a few scenes just didn’t work out. I don’t want to be out there shooting and thinking to myself “I can’t shoot this silhouetted tree because I know I’ll be unhappy with the edges.” Silhouettes is something I do somewhat frequently. And many times certainly with my Canon it messes up, but it’s more of a lens or dynamic range issue where I can overcome it with multiple exposures. But when you have a very rough edge that can’t be overcome I just had to call the whole camera into question.  In my tests I found that Luminar processed the images really well. Unfortunately, about five days after I sent the camera back they announced Luminar Flex, a Lightroom plugin that brings the Luminar processing engine to the Lightroom Classic workflow. This may have been what I needed to make it work. I’d be willing to use a plugin like this for those odd times where Lightroom just doesn’t do the file justice. But I was under the pressure of a return deadline and I needed to make a decision sooner rather than later.  As I look to the future I’m disappointed that I’ll not be able to lighten my load anytime soon. I’ll still lug the Canon around and shoot great images with it. I’ll keep my eye on what Sony just announced with the new Alpha camera, and we’ll see what Canon comes up with next and then there’s Sigma with the L-mount alliance and the cameras they’ll be producing. There’s so many good things on the horizon but let’s face it, it’s hard to be patient. I’ll do my best though J This next section is an interview I had with Mark Morris regarding drone safety, so let’s head on over to that now. I’m really grateful to Mark for coming on the show and telling us about this issue. If anyone else has a story like this please let me know and maybe we can talk about it too. And finally, we have a listener submitted section. I asked for some submissions a while back and the theme was simply, “for the love of photography.” I was hoping to get several folks to record something with the voice memo app on their phone or anything like that and that would allow me to turn it over to them for a bit. I got a few submissions in the facebook group but only one voice memo app. Let’s talk about a few of these images and then I’ll turn it over to Gary who submitted an image. Next is Gary Aidekman and his story behind this alpenglow image of a volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.  Thanks so much Gary. You’ve given me an idea to record a show all about the images we can shoot while serving others. I’ve done quite a bit of that over the years and I have a chance to maybe head to India this December on a similar outing with a non-profit group. 

Denali Sunrise Publications interviewed Fulbright fellow Julia Phillips, author of the debut novel Disappearing Earth, both to explore how the book examines contemporary women's lives across the rural circumpolar north, as well as how the author's time in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia changed her own worldview. Part 1 addresses initial questions regarding her approach to setting, title, and cover, how she ended up going to Kamchatka, and begins discussion of gender-based violence, a key issue in her novel. We discuss some of her literary influences, and the hope that this book prompts broader awareness of and concern for resolution of the complex crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women. Authors mentioned include Leo Tolstoy, Louise Erdrich, Alice Munro, and others. Subscribe to our podcast to be notified as the remainder of the interview episodes go live. Transcripts of each episode will be made available as a blog post at our website, https://denalisunrisepublications.com/blog/. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when these are available.

Growing up, Julia Phillips “always wanted to be a novelist.” Her interest in Russia led her to the perfect setting for her story, the naturally beautiful, remote and bleak Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. Julia shares how she created her acclaimed mystery about two missing girls from her debut novel, “Disappearing Earth.” This episode of The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan was recorded at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida. Host: Mitchell Kaplan  Producer: Carmen Lucas Editor:  Lit Hub Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Julia Phillips’ stunning debut novel, Disappearing Earth, two sisters are taken from a seaside city on a summer day, affecting the lives of women and girls in diverse communities throughout Russia’s majestic Kamchatka Peninsula. She joins us on this week’s podcast to discuss her “unusual, cleverly constructed thriller” (starred review) and race, class, and culture in the Russian Far East. Then our editors join with their top picks in books this week.

With the long road of a novel ahead of her, Julia Phillips mined her obsessions, and based her debut, DISAPPEARING EARTH, on her love of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula and her desire to portray the effects of violent acts on women. She and James talk about the cost of being horrified, the surprising realization that not everyone loves Soviet architecture, the book that unlocked her book, and the need to keep readers from chopping the vegetables. Then James talks to Jon Sealy about his new press, Haywire Books.  - Julia Phillips: http://www.juliaphillipswrites.com/ Buy DISAPPEARING EARTH: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780525520412 Julia and James discuss:  JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE  Kamchatka Peninsula  THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN  Fulbright Fellowship  Yaddo  Emerson College  PT Anderson  THE ANATOMY OF STORY by John Truby  GOOD TALK by Mira Jacob  ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - Jon Sealy: http://www.jonsealy.com/ Haywire Books: https://www.haywirebooks.com/ Jon and James discuss:   THE WHISKEY BARON by Jon Sealy  Hub City press  THE UNMADE WORLD by Steve Yarbrough  Unbridled Books   George Singleton  LSU Press The Southern Voices Festival  Mark Powell  Baker & Taylor  Ingram  Consortium  Publishers Group West  Itasca  THE EDGE OF AMERICA by Jon Sealy  HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE by Patricia Henley  FIREBIRD by Mark Powell  Heather Bell Adams  WVU Press  - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Tom McGraw is on the North American Board of Directors for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Tom schools me on a wide variety of fly fishing discussion. Dry flies, wet flies, eggs, streamers, swinging and spay rods. We talk finding common ground with folks to be productive for wild places and those that inhabit them. He shares great stories of Salmon, Steelhead, and Brown Trout on the Pere Marquette River, the Norfork in Arkansas, and summers in Montana. Also, Bone Fish and Tarpon in the Florida Keys and huge Rainbow Trout and King Salmon on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, where massive coastal Brown Bears aren't used to sharing their rivers. With all the great adventures he's been on though, there's nothing he enjoys more than the relationships made and creating memories with friends and family.

THE SECOND KIND OF IMPOSSIBLE: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter is the exciting, first-hand story of how Paul Steinhardt, the award-winning physicist and Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, predicted a new type of matter – the quasicrystal – shattering centuries-old laws of physics. Steinhardt’s quest to prove the natural existence of quasicrystals takes him on a globe-hopping scientific journey from Princeton to Italy to the remote mountains of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. In a “suspenseful true-life thriller of science investigation and discovery” (Publishers Weekly), readers are taken along for the ride as Steinhardt challenges commonly held assumptions about settled science, refuting skeptics and disproving their notions of impossibility along the way. Steinhardt’s search to prove the existence of this rare crystal structure began in the early 1980s, when he first proposed the existence of “quasicrystals.” While studying abstract tile patterns, Steinhardt and his graduate student discovered a scientific loophole in one of the most well-established laws of science and, exploiting that, realized it was possible to create new forms of matter. In this podcast, co-associate director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, Professor Brian Keating, and Professor Paul Steinhardt explore a wide range of ideas from the discovery of new forms of matter to string theory and the sociology of science. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE SECOND KIND OF IMPOSSIBLE: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter is the exciting, first-hand story of how Paul Steinhardt, the award-winning physicist and Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, predicted a new type of matter – the quasicrystal – shattering centuries-old laws of physics. Steinhardt’s quest to prove the natural existence of quasicrystals takes him on a globe-hopping scientific journey from Princeton to Italy to the remote mountains of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. In a “suspenseful true-life thriller of science investigation and discovery” (Publishers Weekly), readers are taken along for the ride as Steinhardt challenges commonly held assumptions about settled science, refuting skeptics and disproving their notions of impossibility along the way. Steinhardt’s search to prove the existence of this rare crystal structure began in the early 1980s, when he first proposed the existence of “quasicrystals.” While studying abstract tile patterns, Steinhardt and his graduate student discovered a scientific loophole in one of the most well-established laws of science and, exploiting that, realized it was possible to create new forms of matter. In this podcast, co-associate director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, Professor Brian Keating, and Professor Paul Steinhardt explore a wide range of ideas from the discovery of new forms of matter to string theory and the sociology of science. Enjoy!

How do you get to the point in your life where you even consider climbing up and then standing on skis looking down a 7,000-foot 50-degree couloir that drops off the 27,940-foot summit of the fourth highest mountain in the world, Lhoste? We chat about that first descent, the lifelong pursuit of passion and both physical and mental persistence that it took to get there, and much more including balancing motherhood and family life with high-risk outdoor pursuits, and designing a career as an adventure athlete, with The North Face athlete team captain, Hilaree Nelson. She is the first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She's also the first person to ski off the summit of Lhotse. Additionally, she’s skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island. Enjoy this incredible interview with adventurer, big mountain skier, speaker, and mother, Hilaree Nelson. For the show notes, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/hilaree-nelson

She is the first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She’s also skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet and climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island.Born and raised in the Northwest, Hilaree began skiing at age 3 at Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Eventually she moved to the Chamonix Valley of France where she learned most of what she needed to know in order to take her skiing skills to the next level- ski mountaineering.In addition to her work for The North Face, Hilaree is a mother to two young boys, and although they have changed her life dramatically, her passion for the mountains has not abated. She lives in Telluride, Colorado and finds her sanity in the beautiful San Juan Mountains.

Hilaree Nelson (formerly O'Neill) is one of the world's premier ski mountaineers. She is most recently known for the first descent of the 29,940 foot Lhotse couloir, one of the most coveted and sought after high altitude ski lines in the world. Nelson's CV is absolutely staggering. She is the first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She’s also skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet and climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island. Nelson is also known for her story of redemption on Papsura, the Peak of Evil and a high-profile North Face expedition that went sideways on Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar. She was named "Adventurer of the Year" by National Geographic in 2018. Born and raised in the Northwest, Hilaree began skiing at age 3 at Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Eventually she moved to the Chamonix Valley of France where she learned most of what she needed to know in order to take her skiing skills to the next level- ski mountaineering. In addition to her work for The North Face, Hilaree is a mother to two young boys, and although they have changed her life dramatically, her passion for the mountains has not abated. She lives in Telluride, Colorado and finds her sanity in the beautiful San Juan Mountains. ​I​nspired by ​Hilaree? Read further​ here: TNF Athlete Profile: https://www.thenorthface.com/about-us/athletes/hilaree-nelson.html Instagram: @hilareenelson Website: https://hilareenelson.com/ Outside Magazine Feature: https://www.outsideonline.com/2293036/mentor-hilaree-nelson Check out the Cowboys Fiddle (the_cowboys_fiddle) on Instagram to enjoy more of their music. This duo of 13-year-old Elia Schreiber and Declan Mac are responsible for the music of Season 2 of Afterglow.

Hilaree Nelson is a North Face athlete and Ski-Mountaineer. Combining a passion for exploration, mountains and skiing, Hilaree has traveled to some of the most exotic mountain ranges on earth. Outside Magazine named her one of the most adventurous women in the world of sports. She is the first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She’s also skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet and climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island. Born and raised in the Northwest, Hilaree began skiing at age 3 at Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Eventually, she moved to the Chamonix Valley of France where she learned most of what she needed to know in order to take her skiing skills to the next level- ski mountaineering. We have a fascinating conversation telling her story and how she created a life of extreme adventure. We talk about why Hilaree thrives and seeks taking risks and chances in her life, why you’re not truly living until you get out of your comfort zone, why you should pursue things you can fail at because that is where you learn and grow, and so much more!   More Career Accomplishments: 1996: European Women’s Extreme Skiing Champion.   2002: First ski descent of all five of the “Holy Peaks” of the Mongolian Altai. 1st American ascent/1st ski descent of Papsura Peak, India Double summit of Denali, June 2017 Messner couloir ski descent, climb of Cassin Ridge First female ski of Makalu La Couloir on Makalu, Nepal Named by Outside magazine as “One of the Most Adventurous Women in the World of Sports.” Featured as the expedition leader in the Telluride Mountainfilm festival award-winning 2015 documentary Down to Nothing. Named by Men’s Journal as one of “The 25 Most Adventurous Women of the Past 25 Years” National Geographic Adventurer of the Year 2018 And much more… Do yourself a favor a google “Hilaree Nelson.” Read articles and watch some videos featuring her, it will not disappoint. You can find Hilaree at: Website: https://hilareenelson.com/ Instagram: hilareenelson Facebook: Hilaree Nelson  

This week we're going to learn about all sorts of animals first described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in the mid-18th century and named after him, from the common Steller's jay to the mysterious Steller's sea ape. Steller's jay. It looks like someone photoshopped a frowny line over its eye: A male Steller's eider in breeding plumage, looking spiffy: Steller's sea eagle will MESS YOU UP: Steller's sea lions. Looks like the cover of their latest album: A drawing of a Steller's sea cow, one of the only drawings that was probably made from an actual animal before it went extinct: An alive dugong, just to show you what Steller's sea cow probably looked like, only bigger and fatter because it lived in colder water: A Northern fur seal not taking any of your crap: Baby Northern fur seal, just because it's so cute: A shih-tzu. Look at those whiskers! Also, adorable topknot: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we’re going to learn about animals named after Georg Wilhelm Steller. Steller was a German botanist and zoologist who lived in the 18th century. In 1740 he was part of an expedition to the Bering Sea between Siberia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, which you may remember from our mystery bears episode, and Alaska. On the way back from an unscheduled trip to Alaska after they got lost, they were shipwrecked on what is now called Bering Island, where half the crew died of scurvy, and the other half managed to build a boat from the wreck of their ship and sailed it back to Kamchatka. During the several years of this expedition, Steller took careful notes on the animals and plants he encountered. A number of animals are named after Steller. We’ll look at a bunch of those today. Four are still around, one is extinct, and two… are mysteries. Let’s start with the birds. Steller’s jay is closely related to the blue jay. The bottom half of the bird looks a lot like a blue jay, blue with black banding on the wings and tail, but with blue underneath instead of white. The top half of the bird looks like a completely different bird, gray with a darker head, white or blue streaks on its face, and a tall floofy crest. It lives in western North America as far north as Alaska, and a bluer version also lives in Central America. It likes forests although like blue jays, it lives around people comfortably and eats pretty much anything, from acorns, seeds, and berries to bugs, small animals, and the eggs and babies of other birds. Next, Steller’s eider is a type of sea duck that lives off the coasts of Alaska and eastern Siberia. The hen ducks are brown and black like the females of most duck species, but the drake is a lot more interesting to look at. His tail is black, wings are iridescent purply-black laced with white, his breast is cinnamon brown with a black spot on the sides, and his head is white with a black eye ring, a dark green tuft of feathers on the back of his head, and a black throat band. That is one flashy duck. Of course, that’s just during spring and early summer when the males are trying to attract mates. The rest of the year, males look a lot more like females. The term for the opposite of breeding plumage is eclipse plumage. Steller’s eider dives for its food, mostly crustaceans, clams and mussels, and insects. In the winter, it gathers in huge flocks, and all the ducks in the flock will dive and surface at the same time, creating a huge splash and spray of water. It likes tidal flats, bays, and shallow lagoons, and builds its nest on the edge of ponds. Steller’s sea eagle is closely related to the bald eagle. It’s a big, stocky bird that’s dark brown with white leg feathers and tail, and white on the shoulders of its wings. It has a heavy yellow bill and huge yellow talons. It lives off the coast of northeastern Asia most of the year, but nests around eastern Russia and on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

This is part two of our conversation with Francis Tapon about Russia. We not only talk about visiting Russia, but we also talk about its culture, its politics, its relationship with the west and so much more. Francis is the author of The Hidden Europe - What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, Hike Your Own Hike and he is currently working on a book entitled The Unseen Africa due out in 2020. Francis Tapon’s Websites: http://francistapon.com http://TheHiddenEurope.com http://Africa54.com Links to things mentioned in the episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_and_the_Bear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/?lng=en https://www.rt.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekaterinburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok https://www.couchsurfing.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

On this episode we are going to be talking with Francis Tapon about Russia. We not only talk about visiting Russia, but we also talk about its culture, its politics, its relationship with the west and so much more. Francis is the author of The Hidden Europe - What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, Hike Your Own Hike and he is currently working on a book entitled The Unseen Africa due out in 2020. Francis Tapon’s Websites: http://francistapon.com http://TheHiddenEurope.com http://Africa54.com Links to things mentioned in the episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_and_the_Bear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/?lng=en https://www.rt.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekaterinburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok https://www.couchsurfing.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

This week we’re going to learn about bears, including a bunch of m y s t e r y  b e a r s! Hi! I am a panda bear! A polar bear: A spectacled bear: A baby spectacled bear OMG LOOK AT THAT BABY: The giant short-faced bear was indeed giant: Further reading: Shuker Nature Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I’m in the mood for a bona fide mystery animal, and I bet you are too. So this week let’s learn about some mystery bears. There are eight species of bears alive today that we know of: brown, polar, spectacled, sloth, sun, Asian and American black bears, and the giant panda. The other ones you may have heard of, like grizzlies, are subspecies of those eight. For a long time pandas were not considered bears at all, but more closely related to raccoons. These days they’re definitely in the bear box, but they’ve evolved in a completely different direction from other bears for some 19 million years, which is why they’re so different. Before we get into the mysteries, let’s talk about just how different pandas are from other bears. As you probably know, the panda eats bamboo almost exclusively, unlike all other bears which are either omnivorous or, in the case of the polar bear, carnivorous. To survive on bamboo, the panda has evolved a lot of unusual adaptations. The front paws, for instance, have five toes just like all bears, and also a thumb. The thumb is actually a modified wrist bone that juts out from the base of the paw and helps the panda hold bamboo stalks as it eats the leaves. Bamboo is not very nutritious. It’s certainly low in protein, especially considering that while the panda eats almost nothing but bamboo, it still has the digestive system of a carnivore. Special microbes in the panda’s intestines help break down the bamboo so the panda can digest it, but it takes a lot of bamboo to provide the energy a panda needs. A panda eats 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo leaves, stems, and shoots every day, or 9-14 kg, which means it also poops a whole lot. Seriously, it poops something like 40 times a day. And it still doesn’t have a lot of energy. It mostly just sits around eating and pooping. But while the panda just chews leaves all the time, it still has bear fangs and it will eat meat and eggs when it can. Researchers think that the panda only became exclusively a bamboo eater about two million years ago. The panda lives in the mountains of China in only a few places. It used to also live in the lowlands but farming and other development drove it into more remote areas. There are about 50 pandas in captivity these days and somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 pandas in the wild, with the population finally increasing after laws protecting pandas from poaching started to be enforced. The people of China knew about the panda for centuries, although they were considered rare and elusive even in the olden days, but it wasn’t until 1869 that anyone from outside of China had a clue that gigantic roly-poly black and white bamboo-eating six-toed bears were real. Seriously, would you believe that? In 1869 a French missionary and naturalist bought a dead panda from some hunters, dissected it to study, and sent the skin to a zoologist friend in Paris. So it’s possible that there are other mystery bears out there, known to the locals who don’t realize their bears are special, just waiting to be spotted by someone who knows a thing or two about bears. In 1920 a Swedish scientist named Sten Bergman was shown the pelt of a bear by locals during an expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula. That’s in the very eastern part of Russia on the Pacific coast and is sparsely populated. It’s mountainous with a cluster of active volcanos and it’s well known for the brown bears that live in the area. The Kamchatka brown bears are among the largest brown bear subspecies in the world, almost the size of the closely related Kodiak brown bear.

“I think what worked in my favor the most was total ignorance, I moved there not thinking I was going to make my whole life skiing and climbing mountains.” -Hilaree O'Neil On this episode of the “Nausicaa Cast” podcast, presented by Powder Radio, host Hadley Hammer interviews ski mountaineer Hilaree O’Neill. One of the most adventurous women in the outdoor sphere, she has made first descents all over the world. In 1996, O’Neill headed to Chamonix with plans to stay a few months. Ultimately, she stayed for six years, competing in (and winning) some of the early freeskiing competitions and opening her eyes to an emerging world of skiing. “I think what worked in my favor the most was total ignorance,” says O’Neill. “I moved there not thinking I was going to make my whole life skiing and climbing mountains.” Bio She’s skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet and climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, she’s cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, in Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island. Born and raised in the Northwest, Hilaree began skiing at age 3 at Steven’s Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Eventually she moved to the Chamonix Valley of France where she learned most of what she needed to know in order to take her skiing skills to the next level- ski mountaineering. In addition to her travels as an athlete for The North Face, Hilaree is a mother to two young boys, and although they have changed her life dramatically, her passion for the mountains has not abated. Hilaree lives with her family in Telluride, Colorado and finds her sanity in the beautiful San Juan Mountains. Follow Hilaree Instagram Facebook Read

This weekend saw a new eruption from Kambalny in southern Kamchatka. Now, the Kamchatka Peninsula is a very volcanically active area, with multiple eruptions going on simultaneously much of the time. There are certain volcanoes that are in almost-constant unrest, like Shiveluch, Kliuchevskoi, and Karymsky. However, Kambalny is not one of the usual suspects for activity. This changed when a dark grey ash plume was spotted by Earth-observing satellites on March 25.

After Misha's death (see Episode #9), Jon returns to the Village of Vyvenka on the frozen tundra of the Kamchatka Peninsula, having decided to go on a solo walk-about in 20-below-zero temperatures.  

The Silver Discoverer from Silversea Expeditions is the focus of our latest cruise preview as we anticipate 18 days onboard, exploring the Russian Far East and Remote Alaska. Topics include the flora and fauna of the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska; the luxury inclusions of Silversea Expeditions like food, drinks, gratuities, excursions, a waterproof backpack, stainless steel water bottle and parka; and premium travel documents.