In March 2013 I was delighted to be asked to give a talk at TEDx Southampton.
This is what I talked about: What the poles are telling us about our world
It was brilliant to be asked to speak, and really enjoyed the fantastically well organized day. Many thanks to the hardworking large team who put it together, and in particularly James Dyke,Alison Simmance and Jonathan Akass.
On the TEDx Southampton YouTube channel for the event are some amazing talks from that day.
I was reading my copy of Nansen’s Farthest North the other day and came across a discussion of The Jeannette Expedition which was led by Lt. Cmdr. George DeLong. Nansen wrote
I wondered if people knew what a water sky was?
As a marine scientist I have always had an obsession with the sea and what it is doing. You can see that by looking at the photos section of this site, or my flickr stream. A couple of weeks ago Dr Ian Brooks (Leeds) tweeted to a colleague, a movie clip of a ship in bad storm. I looked at the video and there was no doubt. It was taken on the RRS James Clark Ross when I was on board. Here is the clip:
It was taken by Doug, who was then the Third Officer of the James Clark Ross, and I think that I was probably standing on the bridge with him and my two colleagues Dr Geli Renner, and Dr Paul Holland. We were the night shift on a research cruise in the Bellingshausen Sea.
It’s a little odd to me when people refer to the polar regions as being something to do with the “sounds of silence”. I have never thought of peace and quiet when I am on sea ice. You see the sea ice is always moving, (except when it is frozen to the coast and then we term it “fast ice”), and when it moves – the individual floes are constantly colliding and banging into each other. The collisions and banging can be very noisy.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew that when he wrote the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798.
RRS Discovery en-route to disposal after a 50 year career in marince science,
Photo taken by Andrew Yool. NOC.
Life at sea is hard to compare with the home quotidian because colleagues, work, dinner, pub, TV, laundry, bed, labs, computers are continually present within the same hundred feet and few decks of space. It can be quite intense, especially when the vagaries of the environment are included: wind and sea, icebergs, aurorae, gulls, whales, seals. Often the port calls lend an exoticism verging on glamour to the unlikeliest places, such as Wallsend, Cardiff or Fairlie, although Reykjavik, Tromsø, Cape Town and Rothera (for example) are more dramatic. A six- or seven-week expedition can seem like it will never end.
This post starts with that carboncounter_ fellow. He tweeted last night:
Anyone able to access their twitter archive? I am still waiting to be able to.
— Robert Wilson (@CarbonCounter_) January 7, 2013
Professor Seymour Laxon in Hobart Tasmania
I heard today that the UCL Prof Seymour Laxon has died in an accident over the new year. I don’t know the details and to be honest, to me, the “how” is not really that important (*).
Only the loss.
On twitter this pm is a not unexpected, but rather interesting looking opportunity for those who are confident about their leadership abilities.
[news] NERC seeks new Director for BAS: NERC is looking for a new BAS director; full details are available on th… bit.ly/T577XE
— BAS_News (@BAS_News) December 21, 2012
Follow a couple of links and you end up at a dedicated website called http://www.basdirector.co.uk/index.html
It does have a nice header: 
I know what you are thinking, £95k sounds pretty good, but what would you have to do for it?
The time sequence from the EllsworthLIVE site
It is a fantastic time to be interested in polar science.
I was lucky enough on Tuesday night to get to go to a preview Screening of James Balog’s film Chasing Ice at the wonderful Curzon Soho cinema
After it ended I was on the stage with the incredible polar photographer Nick Cobbing, the wonderful polar experienced and influenced artist Michèle Noach, and the Greenpeace Senior Climate Advisor Charlie Kronick. I know that is a bit effusive – but hey follow the links to Michèle and Nick and draw your own conclusions.
From Left to right: Nick Cobbing Michèle Noach, Me and Charlie Kronick. Pic by Chris Brunner