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Feralia and the Origins of Halloween

10/27/2017

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Happy Halloween to all you humans, ghouls, elves, werewolves, vampires, demons, gods and goddesses, and everyone, whoever and whatever you are. You all know the meaning of Halloween, right?

 
"Yay! We Get to wear costumes. Costumes. Candy. Parties. Ghosts and things that go bump in the night."

Okay, and you all know the origins of Halloween?

"
Yay! Samhain. Harvest festival. Food. Singing, dancing, booze, and sexual rites."
  

Maybe, but there is a lot more to it.

SAMHAIN
The origins of Halloween began several thousand years ago with the Celts, who believed pagan gods controlled nature and were responsible for the four seasons, a belief held by many cultures throughout the world.


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Samhain was the third day of a Druid festival that marked the change of seasons from the Season of the Sun (Summer) to the Season of Darkness and Cold (Winter).  New Age, http://www.new-age.co.uk/celtic-festivals-samhain.htm states:

“This [Samhain] is the beginning of the Celtic and Wiccan New Year. Samhain is Irish-Gaelic for 'the Summer's end', and is pronounced 'sow-in'. Samhain represented the death of the summer sun god, Lugh.

Lugh's festival celebrates Nature's cycle of death and renewal, a time when the Celts acknowledged the beginning and ending of all things in life and nature. Samhain marked the end of harvest and the beginning of the New Celtic Year. The first month of the Celtic year was Samonios - ‘Seed Fall’.”


Chant for Samhain
A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the earth.
Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make.
Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake.


On Oidhche Shamha, the eve of Samhain, the villagers slaughtered cattle for the feast. They had a great bonfire and cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle into the flames. The Celts believed that this was a holy time when the boundaries between this world and the Otherword were broken and the dead could return to where they had lived. Part of the ceremony of Samhain was providing hospitality for the dead ancestors.

The earliest written record we have of Samhain comes from the Coligny Calendar, a Celtic lunar calendar inscribed on bronze tablets and discovered in eastern France about a hundred years ago. These tablets have been dated at first century BC. The language is "Gaulish", implying that this predates the Roman influences.

You knew that, right?

When the Romans conquered the Celtic territories around 43 AD, they brought their own festivals and traditions with them, and several of those merged with the celebration of Samhain. Anyone interested can find information on the Internet, but be prepared for conflicting information.

FERALIA
The Roman festival Feralia, commemorating deceased ancestors, is one that went with the Romans on their missions of conquest. According to some sources, Feralia occurred in late October, meshing well with Samhain.

Well, maybe. The writings of Ovid, the famous Roman poet (Publius Ovidius Naso, born 43 bce – died 17 ce) describes the Roman year and its religious festivals his work Fasti.

There, he indicates that Feralia was the last day of the Roman festival Parentalia, a nine-day event from February 13 through 21 (Julian calendar). On February 21, Roman citizens—and remember, everyone the Romans conquered had the choice of becoming a Roman citizen as long as the individual complied with Roman law—brought offerings to the tombs of their dead ancestors to honor them. Those offerings consisted of wreaths, a sprinkling of grain, salt, bread soaked in wine, and violets.


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Wreaths       Grain         Salt   Wine soaked   violets
                                                    Bread
Okay, so maybe someone got the dates mixed up, or the Romans decided to celebrate the event at the same time as the Celts celebrated Samhain, since they both shared the concept of the dead returning to this world and making mischief (or worse).
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In the Fasti, Ovid tells of a time when the Romans, because of war, overlooked Feralia and failed to honor their ancestors. The ancestors’ spirits rose from their graves and roamed the streets howling until the rituals were performed. No wonder the festivals meshed so well.

And by the way, the word naso in Italian means nose (nose is nasus in Latin). That was Ovid's real name and, if the drawings of Ovid are anywhere near accurate, it was prophetic.

POMONA (POMORUM)
Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards and, according to some sources, the goddess of orchards and the harvest.  There is a difference of opinion when the festival honoring Pomona (a celebration shared with her husband Ventumnus, the god of the turning year or seasons) was celebrated.  Various sources cite August 13, August 23, and November 1.


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Pomona is also considered a wood nymph, as well as a Numina, one of the guardian spirits in Roman mythology who watched over people, places, or homes.  The goddess’s name comes from the word apple, which is her symbol.  Samhain and the festival of Pomona fit well together in relation to celebrating the harvest.  I guess we can cut them some slack regarding the actual date.  We dunk for apples, perhaps in her honor.

LEMURIA (LEMURALIA)

A third Roman festival that influenced Samhain was Lemuria.  As part of this ancient feast (celebrated May 9, 11, and 13 - Julian calendar), the Romans exorcised malevolent ghosts of the dead (evil spirits or lemures) from their homes.  The ritual, again according to Ovid, involved the head of the household walking barefoot around house at midnight, throwing black beans over his shoulder (nine of them to be exact) and chanting, while the rest of the family clashed bronze pots.  Sounds like a good Halloween party game.


ALL SAINTS DAY AND ALL SOULS DAY
For most of my life, I believed this to be the origin of Halloween. So wrong! Well, no one taught me anything different.

The Roman Catholics, like many faiths, honor the dead with their own festivals. All Saints Day honors the lives of saints and martyrs and became a day of obligation in the ninth century. Later, Pope Gregory IV confirmed celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2, coinciding with the festival of Samhain.

Because the festival of All Saints was sometimes known as "All Hallows," or "Hallowmas," and because October 31 was the eve before All Hallows, the celebration on night before All Hallows became known as All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN
We’ve come full circle.  Happy Halloween, whatever it means to you, and however you celebrate it.  Just watch out for flying black beans and harvest "moons".

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Resources
http://www.chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm
http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/samhain.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/celtsmyth/a/lochalloween.htm
http://www.imbas.org/articles/samhain.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm
http://www.new-age.co.uk/celtic-festivals-samhain.htm

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Dog Sledding on Mendenhal Glacier

10/20/2017

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In June, 2012, I went for the third time to Alaska, this time with five roommates from UC Berkeley from fifty years ago. It was like a 50th anniversary of our friendship. We don't look too bad for old women in their seventies.

My new adventure on this trip was Dog Sledding on the Mendenhal Glacier. It was awesome. Not that we raced the Iditarod or anything like that. We only went five miles-an-hour for an hour around in a huge circle. Still, it was a wonderful experience.




The Mendenhal Glacier
Part of the overall impact of the adventure was the helicopter flight over the mountains and onto the glacier.  From the air, you get an entirely different picture of the size of a 36.8 square mile chunk of ice, plus riding in the chopper was a hoot.

Glaciers are comprised of fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses.  Glaciers form when snow remains in one location long enough to transform into ice, such as in a valley.  Each year, new layers of snow bury and compress the previous layers until any air pockets between the ice crystals are very tiny.  This takes hundreds of years.  The ability of glaciers to move and flow like very slow flowing rivers gives them the power to reshape the land.  Some are small like a football field, other may grow to be over a hundred kilometers long.

At the terminus of the glacier (where the ice meets the lake), the height is 10 to 70 feet and the width is 2,835 feet.  At its thickest, the ice is 2,230 feet thick.  Where the ice is breaking off into the lake, the color is deep blue. So why does glacial ice look blue, but snow looks white?

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A December, 2008 WWF Travel blog explains it this way:
“Glacial ice only looks blue when it has become very dense. Years of compression slowly increase the density of the ice, from loose and fluffy snow to extremely dense ice. As it is compressed, the air trapped between the original snow flakes is forced out.

When glacier ice becomes extremely dense, the properties of the ice change. It now absorbs all the colors in the spectrum except blue, which it reflects. This is why it looks blue. From this, you have probably worked out that it's the trapped air in snow that makes it reflect almost all the spectrum and appear white. So, white ice is new ice, blue ice is old ice.”


The exposed ice looks like the first photo below, but much of the ice is covered by twenty-five to thirty feet of snow, second photo, much of which will melt almost to the ice by the end of the summer.

 The Dog Sledding Camp                                                                     ▲
The dog sledding camp is on the glacier (photo on right, above). A staff of 13 live in tents for the summer season, and the only way to get in and out is by helicopter.  Each god has it house that looks like a little igloo, but few of them were inside. Our musher explained that most of the dogs are used to much colder weather and this was hot for them.


In our case, the sleds were double stacked with a three-person sled behind the dogs, with the musher standing, and pulling a two-person sled where one person stand and works the brakes. The picture on the left is the kind of sled we used.
The team had 12 dogs in two columns.  Our musher, a young woman attending the University of Alaska graduate school to become a Veterinarian, said they do not use a single lead dog because the Alpha Dog would take control of the others.  The musher must be in control at all times.  Although I found articles on the Internet that talked about Lead Dogs, all the photo I saw of the Iditarod and other dog sledding showed two dogs in the lead.

During our ride, she talked to the dogs in a normal voice, not shouting, and the dogs heard and obeyed.  We stopped several times to give the dogs a rest and let them cool off and lick or eat the snow.  Some dogs wear booties to protect their feet, but they also can run without them. They love to run.

The photo on the left was my view of the team. The one to the right, with the booties, wasn't our group.

We weren’t allowed to “meet” our dog team until after we’d finished sledding. The dogs are too anxious to run at the beginning of the trip.  Afterward, they were happy to have their pictures taken.

That's us on the right, five of the Berkeley 6, left to right: Josie Rhodes, Karin VanLeuven-Gomez, Lillian Kizu-Utsumi
, Kris VanLeuven-Mikami , Ann Coombs-Siracusa. Missing: Nancy McAvoy.  2012                      
The Alaskan Husky Dog
Contrary to what I believed, the Alaskan Husky is a type or category of dog, not a breed, and they were smaller than I expected.  Sled dogs are generally mixed breeds, primarily Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky, along with a number of other breeds such as the Greenland Dog, Pointer, and Chinook.  They are bred to have very dense double coats, wide padded feet, erect ears, a curled tail, wedge-shaped head, and a muscular build.

History of Dog Sledding
For many centuries, people in northern countries have used dog sleds for transportation.  It was the only way to get around.  Dog sled racing in the early 1900s when, in 1908, and the sport quickly evolved.  Now, in addition to the famous Iditarod Race (Anchorage to Nome, Alaska), there are many such long distance races in Alaska and other parts of the world.


The good old days!
The six of us in 1962, dressed up in costumes for the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture Beaux Arts Ball.
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Opals Are Out Of This World

10/13/2017

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Published previously on RB4U Blog, October 10, 2015

THE OCTOBER BIRTHSTONE
Some months have more than one birthstone, but Opal was adopted as the official birthstones for October by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. [What about all the other countries in the world?] It's also the anniversary stone for the 14th and 18th years of marriage.

Never fear! You won't get bored, because it's a gemstone that's out of this world in more ways than one. First, because it comes in a large variety of colors—I found more than seventy-four listed.
Second, because they have been discovered on the planet Mars.

WHAT IS OPAL?
Opal is a hydrated form of silicon dioxide with a water content from 3 to 21 percent by weight. The amount of water accounts for the appearance of the stone.

But enough of this techie talk. The unique structure of opal makes the stone diffract light, which is one of its most fascinating features, and one of the reasons it makes for fabulous jewelry.

AN OPAL IS AN OPAL IS AN OPAL
The name of the stone comes from the Sanskrit word for stone or precious stone--upala--and/or from its the Latin name opalus. Whatever is true, it's called by at least seventeen different names, so take your pick.

The vast variety of colors and names for opal is mind boggling. Opals are named and classified in various ways, including 1) Basic Type; 2) Opal/Host rock relationship; 3) Base color; 5) Fire patterns, and 6) geography or where found. The following photos show the basic types of opals.

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                 Precious Opals                                     Common Opals                                          Fire Opals

OPAL / HOST ROCK RELATIONSHIP
Since opals are found in host rocks made of other materials, these is a direct relationship between the rock and the opal.

● Solid opal:  Rough or cut stone that consists entirely of opal material without any host rock or other significant inclusions contained within the stone. Solid opal can be a combination of precious opal and common opal. The Precious Opal photo is an example.

● Boulder opal:  Rough or cut stone that displays opal within its host rock. Opal often forms within voids or fractures in its host rock and specimens of boulder opal reveal this aspect of opal's origin.


● Matrix opal:  Rough or cut stone in which precious opal is mixed with the parent rock instead of the opal being confined to seams and patches as in boulder opal.

● Crystal opal: Transparent to translucent opal material that has a play-of-color within the stone.

   Solid Opal                         Matrix Opals (2)                Crystal Opal        Boulder Opal

BASE COLORS
● Light opal and white opal:  Opal material that has a white, yellow or cream body color. This is the most common body color for precious opal

● Black opal:  Opal that has a dark body color, often black or dark gray. The term is also used for opal that has a dark blue or dark green body color. The dark body color often makes the fire of black opal more obvious. 
In addition there are blue opal (see photo of common opals), pink opal, and Morado (purple) opal. All the photos below are black opal.
                      Pinfire pattern                    Harlequin pattern    Flashfire Pattern        Contra Luz        Cat's Eye Pattern

Fire Patterns
Pattern describes the arrangement of an opal’s play-of-color. Like the shapes you see in the clouds, play-of-color takes many forms. I noticed that terms vary depending on the source.

Contra Luz:

Pinfire: Small pinpoint circles of fire. When viewed from the side, this pattern often looks like th side of a stack of pins, while the top view looks like the points of those pins, hence the name.
 
Flashfire: Irregular splashes of fire covering the stone. The splashes of fire can be fiarly large, but no one area would cover more than 50% of the surface of the opal.
 
Broad Flashfire: Sheets of color usually covering a large section or the entire surface of the stone.
 
Rolling Flashfire: Sheets of color which roll across the surface of the stone as it is moved. This type of pattern is almost impossible to photograph, but is highly prized.
 
Harlequin: Square-shaped sheets of color that fit together much like a checkerboard. To be considered true harlequin, the squares must be big enough to be seen at arm's length.

Cat's Eye:


OPAL ODDITIES
If you hold most opals under an ultraviolet light they will glow dimly. A few types of opals are spectacularly fluorescent. The one in the photo is from Virgin Valley, Nevada, and shows the stone in normal light and then under a short wave ultraviolet lamp. http://geology.com/gemstones/opal/

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MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND SYMBOLISM
Because the gem has been revered since ancient times, folk lore abounds with myths, legends, and symbolism related to opals. Historically, the ancient Romans believed opal to be the mysterious mother of all gemstones and symbolized purity and power.

One of the more interesting stories is that a Roman senator named Marcus Nonius presented a growing threat to Marc Anthony’s power in Rome. The senator owned an opal "the size of a hazel nut" [also by some sources call it the Ring of Prophesy] worth 20,000  Sesterces. Marc Anthony wanted the ring to give to Cleopatra and offered Nonius an outrageous price. Nonius turned down the offer. One source claims that Anthony accused Nonius as being too rich and ordered the senator to sell him the gem. Either way, Pliny in his writings, says that Anthony told him he had to sell the gem or go into exile. Nonius chose exile over parting with the opal.

In Greek mythology, opals were believed to be the tears of joy shed by Zeus after the victory over the Titans, and the Greeks imbued the stone with prophetic powers.

In India, opals are believed to be the beautiful Goddess of Rainbows who turned into stone to escape the unwanted advances of other gods. To the Arabs, opals were sent from heaven to earth in lighting that had captured the divine light in the gemstone. Even in the western hemisphere, the Aztecs thought of opals to be the earthly manifestations of the waters of paradise. Orientals called it "the anchor stone of hope".

During the Middle Ages, it was believed that a change in color intensity of an opal indicated if the wearer was in good or ill health. It supposedly maintained a strong heart, prevented fainting, protected against infection, and cleansed bad-smelling air.

It's interesting that many of these myths associate opal with water, which is such a significant part of the stone. It's no surprise the stone is believed to be aligned with the water element. Just as water rolls over and past rocks and roots and finds the path of least resistance, the energy of the opal was believed to help people through difficult times.

In the beliefs of crystal therapy, opal 1) Promotes introspection; 2) Sparks imagination; 3) Awakens intuition; 4)Enhances clairvoyance, and 5) Is a tool for manifestations.

Opal is said to be a stone for love and brings the inspiration of love and renewal into a stagnant heart. The gemstone is also said to bring fidelity to love. It is also reputed to have healing properties and the ability to increase mental capacities such as creative imagination.

OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD OPALS ON MARS
In 2008, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back some earth-shaking information. The satellite images showed an area near the impact crater covered with hydrated silica rock debris that we would call opal. They also identified layers of opal in the exposed crater walls. Since the formation of opal requires water, the discovery is another piece of evidence that there was once water on Mars. One source pointed out that these opals are of the black variety with minimal commercial value.


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Resources
http://www.opalminded.com/main/index.php/about-opals/history-a-legends
http://meanings.crystalsandjewelry.com/opal
http://www.mindat.org/min-3004.html
http://opal-trader.com/support/spiritual_qualities_of_opal.asp
http://www.opals.info/opal-myths.php
http://www.opals.info/famous.php
https://onlyjewels.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/in-honor-of-this-month%E2%80%99s-birthstone-opals/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal
http://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/opals-on-mars-hint-at-planets-wet-past/
http://mymodernmet.com/planet-opal-traiangular-boulder-opal/
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/martian-opal-gemstone-could-indicate-that-mars-once-held-life-1509948
http://redplanet.asu.edu/?p=14450
https://www.ancient-code.com/mysterious-discovery-on-mars-suggests-presence-of-alien-life/
http://geology.com/gemstones/opal/
http://www.grantsjewelry.com/famous-opals-and-famous-people-who-love-them/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/14/australia-mars-dirt-red-planet-opal-study_n_3587162.html
https://www.gia.edu/opal-quality-factor
https://www.martymagic.com/ocean-trench-treasure-mexican-matrix-opal/



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Way Down Under

10/6/2017

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THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD
So, here's the deal. I had this idea for a suspense novel set on a research base in Antarctica. Because I didn't know squat about Antarctica, I did my research to find out about the scientific facilities on the continent at the bottom of the world. Thirty countries have stations or bases on the continent for the purpose of research. Many of the projects could not be conducted anywhere else in the world.


Then, in 2015, I took one of my grandsons [14 years-old at the time] on a cruise that goes to Antarctica. Even though we only saw the part of Antarctica closest to Cape Horn, it was an adventure of a lifetime. Traveling to a place you are writing about gives an author new perspective on the location. Nothing that a person can attain from reading and researching. Although we didn't go inland, I got a good sense of the cold and remoteness of the continent, and the constant struggle to survive there.
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It's hard to pin down the actual number of research stations and the number of people living in them, in part because it depends on what year's statistics one is looking at. In an article by Jennifer S. Holland for National Geographic, published in March, 2014, she writes that more than thirty countries maintain seventy research bases across Antarctica, housing from 1,000 in the winter to 5,000 residents in the summer. I did see one source, but only one, that claimed there could be 9,000 people living on the bases in the summer.

Ann [me], Anne Lane [my niece]
and Dante [my grandson]


Thirty countries, as of October 2006, all signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, operate the bases, some of which are year-round facilities, and others which are occupied only in the summer months. There are no hotels or tourists facilities on the continent, although I read that tourists can actually visit and stay overnight at some of research stations.

WHAT? NO GOVERNMENT?
No government? Oh, I love it already.

Antarctica never had an indigenous population. It doesn't belong to a country, or any group of countries, and has no nationality. Systematic exploration began with the International Geographic Year, July 1957 through December 31, 1959. After that, the representatives of the twelve nations involved in the exploration met in 1959 and drafted the Antarctic Treaty, which dedicated the entire continent to peaceful scientific research.

When it came into effect, all territorial claims were suspended. Now nearly fifty countries have signed the treaty, which represents about 80% of the world population. The result is a continent never been affected by war, where the environment is protected, and where the priority is scientific research. Wow!The result is a continent that has never been affected by war, where the environment is protected, and where the priority is scientific research.

YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE
That's not quite true, but it isn't easy. Access is by ship, sometimes, and plane, also sometimes.

There are twenty airports but no developed public access airports or landing facilities. Thirty of the stations have landing facilities for helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft.The only harbor is at McMurdo Station. Most of the coastal stations have anchorages off shore, and supplies are transferred by small boats, barges, or helicopters.


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Ships have to be ice-strengthened and there are only two places where larger cruise ships can anchor. Passengers are not able to go to shore. That limited access is available only in the summer. Most references suggest that in the winter, the sea is impassible even with ice breakers at work.


BABY, IT'S COLD DOWN HERE
Although weather conditions in Antarctica are the harshest in the world, it doesn't rain or snow a lot...approximately one inch of water a year at the South Pole itself, and about twenty inches of water along the coast.

It is, however, the proud home of the lowest temperature ever measured (minus -129° F) and winds have been recorded up to 200 miles per hour. The snow that has fallen is always blowing around.
Only cold-adapted organism such as certain types of algae, bacteria, fungi, and certain animals such a mites, nematodes, penguins, seals, and tardigrades (microanimals with eight legs), can survive.


                                  Antarctic penguins have fun in the icy water                                So do the seals

  Mamma seal and baby         The microscopic tardigrades, tolerate cold               Me, not so much

Ugh! I am soo glad tardigrades are microscopic. They're called "Water Bears" and they can also survive in outer space with no protection. And yes, there are Southern lights, although we didn't see them on out trip because it was the wrong time of year. The first photo of the lights below was taken by Minoru Yoneto on September 11, 2015 @ Queenstown, New Zealand “A big stream of solar wind gave us four lovely colors of Southern Lights,” he says.

The first photo I saw was the Argentinian base at Paradise Bay [top row, third photo], needless to say, I was rather underwhelmed. However, quickly enough I found myself looking at buildings out of Star Wars. The top right is Britain's Antarctic Research Station, which looks lie a Spaceship.

The second row, left to right: Neumayer Station-the German research facility; a component of the British Halley VI station, is being moved to another location; Another of the type of module which is strung together in the Halley VI. The British have several research facilities on Antarctica, as do the Americans.
Third row, left to right: Princess Elizabeth, Belgium's station; Concordia, a French-Italian station, Chinese Kunlun station, and the American McMurdo station. Fourth row, left to right: Korean Base; Indian station, Sanae IV, the South Africa base; and finally, Amundsen-Scott Station, the American facility at the South Pole. The Brazilian Station is green and yellow. I'm guessing the bright colors help people see the station against the white background.

POLLUTION PROBLEMS AND THE FUTURE OF ANTARCTICA
You can't take us humans anywhere!

Even though Antarctica is one of the most pristine environments on Earth, it has pollution problems. And, ironically, those environmentalists and scientists who are the champions of protection of the continent are also the perpetrators. These wondrous research stations are the contributors who release chemicals and waste into the environment that is hurting penguins and other wildlife. The most recent, although not the only problem, is a toxic flame retardant.

In addition, similar to much of the planet, Antarctica appears to be affected by a long term global warming trend.  Ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula have broken up, and higher than normal temperatures have caused breeding disturbances among Adelie penguins, and there is concern over holes in the ozone layer.

Nothing can be left on Antarctica except human waste, which is disposed of in a somewhat ecological way - at least for the time being. Everything else, every used tissue, scrap of food, metal, 
toxic chemical, etc. has to be crated and sent by plane or ship back for disposal on inhabited land.

Nonetheless, Antarctica is a good contender for your bucket list.

Resources
http://wonderfulantarctica.com/scientific-research-in-antartica/
http://www.destination360.com/antarctica/research-stations
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Community/mcmurdo/mcmurdo_base_antarctica.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140304-antarctica-research-toxic-adelie-penguins-mcmurdo-station-science/
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/government_antarctica.php
http://www.adventure-life.com/antarctica/antarctica_faq.php
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1560.htm
http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/AntarcticaStations.asp






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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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