The Scott Expedition: Greenland

If you're thinking that you didn't need to follow the Scott Expedition because I would probably do it for you – you were correct, I did.

Not quite like being there any more than reading Bill Bryson's book about hiking the Appalachian Trail, but for us armchair relegated types it was a good adventure none-the-less.

And, of course, I made a map. The GPS and satellite equipment they took with them seemed to work as it was supposed to, once they got all the networking links muscled into shape with the help of their support staff. So they were able to punch in a blog post every night along with the coordinates their tent was pitched at.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: The Scott Expedition: Greenland Trials.]

Open this map in Google Earth by downloading it and selecting "open" or maybe "run." It should automatically open inside GE if you have it installed. Or, you could save the file to your desktop and click on it later when you've got Google Earth running.

As you can see there's just a whole lotta white up there in Greenland where their bush pilot dropped them off. However, each of their camps is marked with a clickable icon which opens up a dialog box containing direct links to each of the posts written from that location. You can follow along with the dialog which is most interesting.

For one thing they actually tossed one of their sledges over a crevasse and practiced belaying down and getting it out!

Learn A Little More

Have any of you heard of David Pogue? He's the technology writer for the New York Times and is sometimes kind of a nut. Well, he recently gave a 5-minute talk at a TED conference about ten things everybody should know about the technology around them but doesn't.

Give this a view and I promise you that you'll learn something you can use every time you sit down at your computer or pick up your phone.