Antarctica has been a subject of conspiracy theories for centuries, with some suggesting it might not be a natural human response to something that is not yet fully understood. A now-deleted Instagram post by USA Today gave ammunition to Flat Earthers and doubters, positing Antarctica as an ice wall like in Game of Thrones. NASA’s website shows Antarctica is a landmass, not a giant ice wall, a claim USA TODAY has already debunked. Social media users are sharing images they claim show top secret photographs from Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic expedition where traces of a lost ancient civilization can be found.
Operation Highjump was an expedition to Antarctica led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, which took place from 1946 to 1947. An Instagram post claims there is “an enormous void” below Antarctica, a “different world” exists there, and can be accessed through a hole in Antarctica. A misleading comparison of Antarctic sea ice levels on two specific days 27 years apart has been used by people online to falsely claim that climate change warnings are a scam.
The “ice wall”, or the idea that Antarctica is not a continent at the bottom of the globe but really a wall that circumscribes the Flat Earth, is about 1.5 times the size of the United States and 99 percent covered in ice, making up 90% of all the ice on Earth. Most people have never been to Antarctica, making the frozen continent a hot topic for conspiracy theories.
📹 The Antarctica Conspiracy | Red Thread
Welcome to The Red Thread, a podcast series where three friends (Charlie, Isaiah and Jackson) investigate the peculiar space …
📹 This Is Why You Can’t Go To Antarctica
Antarctica is the last truly untamed land on the planet. It’s a bizarre, otherworldly place buried under miles of ice, with a lot of …
I am 327 years old, and i have 4 generations of children. I listen to the podcast every day. For the whole day. All I have been hearing for about the past 4 months is the voices of these 3 men. It never ends. I dont think I will survive if it stops for more than 10 seconds. My children, grandchildren, and greater grandchildren are concerned. Though I have discovered the fountain of youth, or rather, the sounds of eternity. As long as this podcast continues, I shall survive many millenia to come. Keep up the good work tho 👍
I’m a mom with young kids (6 &3). To them, perusal Red Thread and all the creator websites is like the modern version of old soap operas. These shows are always on in the background while I cook or do other chores. You’ll be part of their cherished memories when they look back and remember “Mom cooking in the kitchen, listening to her shows.”
Before I lose myself to this episode, I need to say my grandpa was in the navy, and he went on short trips to Antarctica. Just the photos he took while he was there are breathtaking. Even as a child the vast expanse of pure white snow and ice was so beautiful, there were always a fee penguins nearby in the photos too.
I’m a 42 year old Dad to a 9 year old daughter. I stumbled upon Wendigoon a couple of years ago on YouTube, which led me here. Keep up the good work, guys. I’m loving format of this podcast. You guys have great chemistry and the topics are always interesting, plus I get to stay up on my pop culture references.
“Your body is completely frozen, your skin coated in a chlling frost. Ahead of you, a bearded man points at you. Facing away from you, his back is all that can be seen. To his audience, he presents you like an exhibit at a museum. You are an Iceberg, but not the kind in Antartica. You are the subject of Wendigoon’s latest iceberg youtube article. This is the Red Thread.”
Don’t worry about what “role” is “expected” of each of you, and just let the conversation flow naturally. It’s a lot better when you just talk about it together. Including trying to make tricky intro narratives – they don’t have to one-up the last intro, they can each be their own thing. It’s a good podcast, trust yourselves.
Reich doesn’t come from any source in Rome, though Hitler definitely wanted to style himself after Imperial Rome (using eagle symbology and practicing a bunch of pagan occultism, etc). The term Reich comes from the Holy Roman Empire (which was only related to Rome in that Charlemagne reconquered Rome from barbarians). The Second Reich was Imperial Germany, founded by the deft political maneuvers of Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. The Second Reich’s king took its title from Caesar, though, using the germanicized “Kaiser”.
TL:DR: Walt Disney was not frozen in Ice after death and he was not anti-semitic just very anti-union It’s actually an urban legend that Walt Disney was preserved in ice after his death. He actually died of lung cancer and he is buried in glendale California. Although its difficult to pin down exactly who started to urban legend, more than likely it was a group of superfans who didn’t want to accept that Disney had passed away and as he was naturally a fairly secretive man with interest in science and engineering they convince themselves that disney was actually cryopreserved and would one day come back to save the entertainment industry. Additionally, historians have done a deep dive on Walt Disney and found no evidence that he held anti-semitic beliefs, in fact the walt disney company under Disney was a major employer of jewish animators and writers. The allegations seem to stem from the fact he was a membe of the MPA (Motion Pictures Alliance) who were primarily anti-communist and anti-fascist but a decent amount of the members later also became anti-semitic. The other claim of him being a sympathizer was he invited Leni Reifenstahl to visit Disney Studios and she was a member of the Nazi party and a filmmaker, this was in 1938. Granted at the time, there were still debates on whether Nazis actually hated the Jews or were simply very nationalistic. The other source of evidence is his rivalry with Art Babbit who was a jewish filmmaker however, it seems the nature of their conflict came from Disney’s dislike of unions and generally having to be told by someone else how he should run his business.
I’m a mom getting my mom into The Red Thread lol. I get so happy when The Red Thread releases a new episode. I wasn’t feeling well one day, sleeping, and my daughter came out and put on Youtube. Suddenly I could hear the intro, so I opened my eyes, and she said she noticed a new episode came out. She knows the show is one of my favs. It was the one on The Bermuda Triangle. Immediately made me feel better! (I threw up not long after, but I vommed in comfort lmao)
1:03:30 Jackson not being able to comprehend “from time to time, rational men must do irrational things” is a perfect example of why Australia had concentration camps in 2021 and 2022 and not a single citizen did anything about it. Most Aussies that I talk to, for some strange reason, cannot comprehend “from time to time, rational men must do irrational things”. Their normal responses are something along the lines of “well if you do stuff like that, you might get arrested, hurt, or killed”….. A society with common logic like that will never be free.
3:40 I don’t know about it appearing in “his book”, but I know he was a fan of Disney’s work and in the time before the whole world woke up to the reality of 1930s German they had met and taken a photo before. The appreciation was one sided however, as Der Fuehrer’s Face rather blatantly demonstrates. And before anyone mentions the rumors about religious intolerance, those were only ever brought up during the strike at the studio, and from all I can find have virtually no substance, but have stuck for decades because of dudes like Seth McFarlane and other “comedians”. I think Jeffrey Katzenberg may have said that that was part of the reason he was snubbed and left to form dreamworks, but also Walt had been dead for over 2 decades by that point so…
The Germanic people originated between 500 BC and 200 AD. The word Aryan is from Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) + -n. The Sanskrit word is from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (the original Indo-Iranian autonym). The Indo-European and successor civilizations are extremely successful. You all needed an expert on prehistory to sit in on this episode. Your knowledge of that time period is lacking.
Mom of 3 adult kids. My oldest is 26. My youngest is 24. From someone who has lived through the 70s, 80s and 90s… most of Jackson’s research is great. If you need pov from someone who lived through most of what ya’ll cover… I’d be more than happy to tell ya’ll. Like the OJ case…. perusal a slow police chase was one of the funniest things on live tv ever!!
I’m a ( 333 ) year old ( esoteric ) ( insect ) and have been listening to you guys for ( 333 ) ( lifetimes of a star ). Keep up the ( d̸̪̠̖̔͒͊̏͛̐͗͗̎̈͝o̵͈͖̰͐̑̀͋̽̈́̏̕͜y̷̟͍͚͉̟̖͓͖̣̿̌͐͂͂́̀̊͌̕̚͘̚͜͠ͅŏ̴̯͊̚ǔ̵̪̭͙̮̤͉̫̘̦͔̯̠̀̈͒̋̔̔̃̀̈́͘ͅf̴̟̞̒̓͐̽͆̎̔͘̚̚͠e̷̛̯͊͋͋̋̂̍̇̋̂͝è̷̝͔̉͌̈̓̒̕͠l̸̦͈̘̱̹̟̙̠̂̾̋̒̒̑̽̃͂͋̈̚͠͠͠t̸̛͇̥̤̟̼̹͙̩̲̔̃̇́̌͛̓̔͛̔̃͂̌̄h̶̨̻̞̺̦͓̙̜̱̒̑̒̌̉͋̋̀͋̈́̾̕ę̶͖̝͙̠̳͉̣̱̳̟͇͈̝͉͑̿͗̒ẇ̵̠͔̥͍̰̭͉͑̄̎̾̈́́͛͝͠e̸̢̜̤͓̩͙̹̲̬̒̚͜ͅi̸̛͉̠͒̈̑̋̈́̽̅̎̅̊͠͠ģ̸̢̹͉̭̜̪̪̦̘͕̦͍̐́̋̂͝ͅh̴̟̘̟̥͊ţ̷̡̺̹̞̻͙͔͚̼̝̪̎̓̏ͅơ̸̛̺̗̖̩͓͙͓͙̭͔̲̦̤̬̺̽̊̃́͐f̴̧̠̭̮̺͈̖͚̞̎̇̈́̇̋̐̀͒͂̄̔̕͠t̶̛̲̫̭̘̩̓͂͆͆́͆̅́͗͜ḩ̶̢̱͉̩̟̦͇̖̋͊̄̎̐̀̈͠e̴̡̨̯͙͕̞̮̳̩̠̟̺̒̍̓̀͂͜͝ù̷̲̜̼̦̭̞̬͍̲͔̱̈́̃͌̈́̃̆̒̕͝ṉ̵͕̤̞̣̓̎͊͗̕ỉ̶̪̰̳̣̈̀̏̒̅͛̀̉̽̓͊̍͝v̴̧̛̛̖̼̹̳̑͂̃̉͆͆͆̕ë̷̡̻͕̲̮̝̗̚͘̚͜͝r̷̻̜͎̚͜s̸͚͕͆ë̸̬̦͎͉͓́́̏̆̌̐͒̿̔̓̈́̓̀͘ͅ ) work!
The Roman Empire “failed” after reigning supreme for a loooong period of time, and even after Rome “failed”, it splintered off into different successful Empires for a while, and Roman influence reaches across the globe even to this day. jackson is a bit of a fool kid. No Empire will last forever. No Human will live forever.
20:57 so alot of German food (especially the more traditional dishes) relied on pickling or fermentation instead of just going and hunting before dinner, and that’s why the German alps are infamous for their pretzel (in terms of the bread’s process), cheese, and biergartens. usually, the fermenting was done out of habit before refrigeration, so im guessing the group was interested in how well the cold of the artic protected their meat, or if it was a possible new alternative for fermentation they could bring back to the father land. again, refrigeration was still fairly new or wasn’t very commercial yet in the 30s-40s if i remember correctly, so im not 100% sure, it’s just an idea.
There’s an anime movie called “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” AKA “Journey to Agartha” and it’s just a Really interesting movoe on it’s own, a really good story about grief, loss, loniness, death, and rebirth. It’s a ‘travel to the underworld to bring back a dead loved one’ story like Orpheus and so many other cultures, but with a very gihbli influence. I remember finding it free on youtube with ZERO context as to what it’s about, and with NO knowledge of real-world conspiracies of Agartha, and just found the movie very stirring, moving, and impactful.
I think atlantis has some validity because the folks still roaming the sahara export seasalt from the desert to this day. The eye of the sahara matches the description strikingly and that region was under a salty sea around the same time too. I think there was a society there at some point that was genuinely legendary and overtime theyve gotten more and more advanced at the story was retold. Probably just a magnificent ancient city was built there at some point and eventually destroyed.
As far as you-gi-oh tying into Atlantis bc of Timaeus and Critias, that entire season was heavily Atlantis based. The main source of power for the bad guys was something called Oricalcos which was a very obvious name change from a material described in Platos’ books as Oricalchum (idk if I’m spelling that right), a material believed to be stronger than any other and considered more valuable than gold, but it was out of existence long before even Plato’s lifetime.
I love this podcast and being long time viewer of penguinz0 led me to it. You guys do an excellent job and your contributions are both insightful and enertaining. Jackson’s research is phenomenal and I appreciate how much prior knowledge Isiah has, they’re both awesome. Only thing I’d critique is I feel like Isiah interrupts his cohosts midsentence a little too often. Otherwise, keep it up and I look forward to the next
The general speculation of the “Civilization that collapsed for their pride and arrogance” is Thera, a major island city of the Minoan Empire that had a huge chunk of its land mass destroyed in a volcanic eruption… Which was far enough back it probably did become the basis for a lot of these smited cities/civilizations.
I’d like to see the guys cover Black Eyed Kids. It falls in this weird paradox of creepypasta, conspiracy, cryptids and just real life weird shit. Imagine, a teenage girl walks up to you as you get into your car. She asks if she can use your cell, saying she’s lost and her phone is dead. You let her call her parents, but she doesn’t get through. She then asks for a ride, she doesn’t live far, but has to go through a dangerous neighborhood. For some unknown reason, you’re terrified of letting her into your car. Despite that, if she wanted to steal your car or assault you, she easily could. For some reason though, she grasps at anything and everything that might give you cause to allow her into your car. Yet, something in your gut tells you that if you allow her to get in, you won’t survive this encounter. You fend off her offers and requests, finally able to pry yourself away and as you drive away you look back and she’s following you like the monster from It Follows. As you get home, you realize your heart is still racing and you’ve been sweating like you ran the entire way. You think back on the encounter, trying to remember what she looked like and all you can recall is two completely black eyes and the sense of dread they caused you while looking into their depths. That even as she clearly became irritated with your refusals, the dark grin on her face never faltered. You check your phone and realize she never actually tried to call anyone. Just as you begin to try to push the encounter out of your mind, you walk into the kitchen and in the not too far distance, there she is.
This subject goes wayyy deeper. Especially pertaining to the Aryans. Robert Sepher has a website on here that will blow your mind. He’s an anthropologist who is basically an expert on this topic. Technically, the eugenics theory was started in America. Hitler adopted the concept but added his own thing to it. Obviously it was a shitty idea. But the swastika was also adopted by the nazis. Originally it was a peaceful religious symbol.
History website had an interesting series about the “Hunt for Hitler” which tracked the movement of a large force that fled north towards the end of the war. They found so much to lead them that it seemed a possibility that Hitler may have escaped to the US and into one of the German populations in Wisconsin.
My grandfather accompanied a military expedition to Antarctica in the 60’s. He said down there, the sky was the deepest color of saphire during the day. No smog, no light pollution, it must have been incredible. He got an entire mountain range named after him there to honor his work. Bastien Range. He spent 6 months there. Edit: I didn’t think so many of you were going to be interested but i can tell you all a bit more. My grandpa was passionate about photography. He took many photos of Antarctica while he was down there. He actually filmed a few things too which he later had transferred into a article cassette. My memory is fuzzy but i remembered it showed his team digging 20ft deep, square shaped trenches for them to take shelter out of the intensely strong and freezing winds. I wish i could remember more. He also was awarded a military medal for his contributions and service in Antarctica, probably not too many men have that medal!
A Norwegian flag wasn’t the only thing that Scott found at the South Pole. He also found a handwritten note from Amundsen, addressed to him, asking him to inform the Norwegian king of Amundsen’s success at beating the British to the South Pole… apparently because Amundsen had other things to do before returning to Europe
Man Ive never heard such an underwhelming account of the Endurance. He says they were stranded on the ice for four months before being rescued. They spent 15 fucking month stranded on floating ice and there was no rescue. They had to rescue themselves. The 28 men somehow managed to row to Elephant Island, and from there, spent another 125 days stranded on a rock as Shackleton and 5 others navigated the most treacherous waters in the world, for 21 days, in Antarctic winter, in a tiny wooden boat. And then hiked across unmapped glaciers to find help. Its unfathomable. If youre gonna make a article about Antarctica, please give those men the respect they deserve
Shackleton and crew were stranded on the ice for over 16 months. The ship was trapped for nine months before it was crushed by the pack ice. It was six months later that they landed a boat on Elephant Island, where the crew awaited rescue while Shackleton and his boat could reach South Georgia island and arrange to rescue the entire crew.The final rescue from Elephant Island was over two years after the expedition left England.
Re: Shackleton’s endurance expedition. Endurance was trapped by pack ice on January 18th 1915. The rest of the world forgot about Shackleton because it was busy with WW1. Shackleton himself was never rescued. He and five of his crew made the journey to South Georgia (800 miles across the Southern Sea in an open dinghy, navigating by glimpses of the stars to hit a pin prick of land) and Shackleton walked into the whaling station on his own two feet on May 20th. Shackleton immediately began looking for ships to rescue the rest of his party. He was thwarted several times by pack ice. So it wasn’t until the 30th of August that Shackleton was able to bring rescue to the 20 men Shackleton had left sheltered on Elephant Island. They had survived not four months, but seven and a half months. One of them had suffered a heart attack. Their supplies had run out on 23rd August. Shackleton brought his entire crew home.
Amundsen did what most British explorers failed to do. He read the log books of every failed Polar (North Pole) expedition and learned every possible lesson as to why they failed. He noticed that in many cases the Inuit and other Native people of the North were able to rescue sailors when that number was small so he went out and studied the harness type for dog sleigh from the Natives of Greenland and Canada using what he though were the best of each design and he learned how to live in the North as they did including how to build igloos. He learned to travel light as British explorers would lug around with them heavy dishes and cutlery which was exhausting work. He had a ship designed called the Fram which had a strong hull that would pop up above the ice if it formed around it instead of being crushed and on his way to the pole he left cashes of seal meat to feed the crew on its return trip. So while Shackleton had a ship called Nimrod, Scott acted like one with his poor planning.
Admundsen deserves a LOT more credit than you gave him! Why did he make it look so easy? Because he studied the problem, examined numerous solutions from various sources and displayed quality leadership. The worst performing dogs were regularly eaten at intervals as sled loads decreased and thus helped prevent scurvy. Scott was disgusted that dogs ate their own feces and thus ultimately went with man-hauled sleds… and died coming back.
Interesting article. My dad was Director of Polar Programs for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and would go to Antarctica every 2 years. He helped build out McMurdo Station which is now being used as a ‘test city’ for future colonization of Mars, and had a mountain peak named after him (Fogle Peak). Dad passed in 2022 but we have lots of memories of his trips to the South Pole. One day I will go.
For the record, Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance were stranded for a lot longer than four months. Endurance became icebound on January 17, 1915, and drifted with the pack ice until it was crushed and sank on November 21. The crew then camped on the ice as it drifted northward, then made their way across the ice hauling their gear and supplies in the lifeboats until they found open water on April 9, 1916, reaching Elephant Island on April 14. On April 24, Shackleton and five of the crew set off in one of the lifeboats, which had been modified by the ship’s carpenter using planks from the other two boats. They sailed to South Georgia Island, 800 miles away. They landed on May 10, on the opposite side of the island from the whaling station which was the only settlement, and had to cross mountains to get there. THEN…. It took FOUR attempts to mount a rescue operation to get the remaining crew from Elephant Island, finally succeeding on August 30. Every single member of the crew survived. January 17, 1915 to August 30, 1916, definitely more than four months! One of most amazing feats of history.
I traveled to Antarctica in 2004. I didn’t witness anything strange or mysterious. As a photographer I thought I was going to a black & white world. Maybe Hurley’s images had something to do with that, but I was amazed at all of the color there and how brilliant it all was, the deep blues of the water, the pink of the sunsets and the saturated orange of the night sky followed by the pink of sunrise. The Drake Passage was a walk in the park, both ways.
My father was in the Army, attached to the Navy as part of Operation Deep Freeze Antarctica, a National Science Foundation funded military project to explore and perform experiments on the continent. He’d spend 6 months on the ice during the full daylight phase, then three months in Christchurch NZ, and three months at Pt Hueneme Naval Base in Ca. He did this same 12 month rotation every year for about 10 years. He passed in 1999 and up until then was under an NDA and possible UCMJ actions (even as a retiree) to never talk about what he did there and the things he saw or was exposed too. He did say he witnessed things he would have rather not talked about and he was frightened many times when I brought it up. He went to his grave holding secrets. He was a 24+ year Army vet and early in his career was spec forces and later reclassed to Army Corp of Engineers. I have tons of “Navy Issued” black and white 5×7 photos they were given as PR material for his experience.
As a Belgian I have to mention the Belgica with captain Adrien de Gerlache who were the first to do a proper scientific expedition, 12 years before anyone was thinking about reaching the south pole. They spent the whole winter there purposefully letting their ship freezing in and made it back one year later. One guy died of a weak heart, another one fell overboard, and some others went crazy from the endless darkness. All considered quite successful, relatively speaking. Oh, and they had Roald Amundsen as a crewmember. It’s not all British or American.
I’m related to Admiral Byrd, and so when I got the opportunity to go work as a diver in Antarctica, I was stoked. I installed and maintained research equipment for NOAA around Palmer station. It was the most boring 3 months of my life. I’m glad I did it, but I have no desire to do it again, especially now that I have a family.
No, the lakes under the Antarctica were postulated to exist in the late 1950s by Igor A Zotikov, a colleague of mine. Yes, heated by the less than a tenth of a watt per square metre low level heat flow. The about 3500 m of ice forms a thermal blanket, allowing the water to melt at just below 0 deg C. He wrote a book about Lake Vostok that explains the story in detail.
I worked as an industrial electrician in Antarctica for two 6 month rotations at two different bases over 2 years (2001-02). An amazingly beautiful and extremely inhospitable paradise. Well, I loved nearly every moment I lived and worked there. I highly recommend anyone with the necessary skills and those who can afford a cruise to definitely do your best to visit Antarctica.
Fun fact about these dry valleys completely devoid of snow and ice: In one of the recent BBC documentaries they showed a mummified seal just lying there on the ground. Nobody knows how it got there, apparently it’s far away from the ocean, or when. And due to the eternal dryness there they said for all we know it could be thousands of years old.
Some more fun facts: Antarctica has 138 active volcanoes. Mount Erebus is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and spews out 80 grams/$6,000 worth of gold every day. It’s sprayed out in hot gases as ultra fine dust crystals, so it’s not like there’s nuggets scattered around the volcano anyone can pick up and pocket.
I remember when I first became aware of Shackleton and what happened. It was a lesson in how easily incredible feats can go completely unnoticed by the masses; proof of how utterly insignificant we are to the World in general whereas only in relationships do we exist and truly matter. We named our cat after him and he’s still going, at 21.5 years old.
I was at a work related conference in January and we had an actual explorer who’s been to Antarctica a few times to try and help map it out, give us a couple hour lecture on teamwork. Lemme tell you, his stories and pictures from his trips were waaaay cooler than any made-up stories about aliens or secret bases. Like, did you know that if you have to take a piss out there, you can’t just unzip and do it there and then? You gotta dig a hole in the snow and kneel over it, because it’s usually so windy that it just ends up throwing your whiz right back in your face. And yes, our lecturer had picture proof of him making that mistake.
I grew up in Alaska and the number of people that not only think there are penguins there (there are none) is just as crazy as the number of people that think there are polar bears, wolves, or other land predators besides humans in Antarctica, which of course is, none. And if you didn’t know, now ya know. It’s an interesting world, explore it. 🤘😎
I went to Antarctica on the MS Roald Amundsen! One of my favorite fun facts is that ice core samples from Antarctica were used to help prove that leaded gas was poisoning the entire planet. Jonathan, a glaciologist on board, was part of the British Antarctic Survey team that drilled some of those core samples in the 1970s. If you want to know more, look up Clair Patterson.
I love your articles. They’re some of the very best on YouTube. And, Antarctica is a fascinating topic. I’ve read many books about this continent and the early expeditions. I greatly admire Amundsen and his brilliant approach to reaching the South Pole at an incredibly fast pace, besting Scott who tragically died after seeing the Norwegian flag planted at the pole. And by the way, Shackleton was a titan. His expedition aboard the Endurance is one of the greatest stories of heroism.
One of my favourite Antarctica theories is that an ancient river that once flowed through the continent may continue to flow in India today (the Mahanadi river). This is from when Antarctica and India were joined together in Gondwanaland. India now has a research station in Antarctica that is trying to learn more about the Mahanadi river from back then.
This is one of the best articles you made recently – something about the way it flows was just perfect. Although I already knew almost all the facts you presented, it was more than interesting – almost exciting – to watch. (I already am a Nebula subscriber, so instead of using your link, I am going over there to watch the additional segment you promissed.)
Shackleton was Irish, born not ten miles from where I sit in Co. Kildare. Tom Crean who saved his crew, another Irishman, from Cork. (It was also an Irishwoman, who suggested to Hitler, that he narrow his moustache a little, she was married to his brother, Kevin Hitler (Not his real first name), as she later spoke of it, ‘Like in many things, Mr Hitler, carried it too far.”
Shackleton : “He and his crew were stranded there for about 4 months before they could be rescued”. I’m guessing you’ve never actually read about the Endurance, and the 2 years they spent trying to rescue themselves, eventually crossing the ocean in a rowing boat, and thats not even half the story. This would actually be the subject of an entire one of your shows. Read “Endurance”, the book. There has never been, nor will there ever be again, a story of adventure this unbelievable. To be dismissed as “4 months before they could be rescued” is pretty ignorant Joe.
I spent 4 months in Antarctica in 1998-99 season at the US base McMurdo Station on Ross Island. Ross Island is a NZ dependency not on the continent so not under the jurisdiction of the Antarctic Treaty (tricky). I grew hydroponic vegetables in the one greenhouse on the island, and also washed mountains of dishes in the galley. My father spent many seasons in Antarctica in the 90’s in Marie Byrd Land doing geological survey work, he wrote a book about his adventures “Mighty Bad Land”. He has a mountain in MBL named after him- Mt Luyendyk. Several people who had “wintered over” mentioned strange lights in the sky once the sun set (for 6 months). There was only alcohol at McMurdo so not hallucinations….
What they never tell you about sailors thinking the Earth was flat is that someone indeed used to spread that rumor. Three thousand years ago, the Phoenicians had exclusive control over the Straight of Gibraltar, giving them access to the tin and copper mines of the British Isles. To make sure the Greeks would stay in the Mediterranean, they started to spread those rumors about the Earth being flat, ship sailing over the edge, boiling oceans near the Equator and the impenetrable wall of ice.
I wanted to be a polar explorer since early grade school. There’s not a big market for that, but I was fortunate to spend a year at the Amundsen-Scott (South Pole) Station as a radio operator. Joined the 300 Club there — go from the sauna at +200⁰ to outside when it’s -100⁰ or colder. Was also extremely fortunate to visit the Falkland Islands, S. Shetland Islands, S. Georgia, S. Orkneys and Heard Island. Great experiences.
I have got to imagine we knew quite a while ago what made that run-off at Blood Falls red. I am not a scientist and yet I instantly assumed it was iron-oxide, iron-oxide is basically the reason everything always seems to be red in nature, including when actual iron rich oxygenated blood falls. =P Personally I do not blame people in modern day from believing in the potential for wild and amazing things to be found down in Antarctica. We are not even allowed to publicly share maps of Antarctica, officially, all maps of Antarctica are controlled by the government agency that oversees mapping, and access to those maps requires showing a requirement for the map for educational scientific work tied to an accredited University. Everything that happens with Antarctica just does not seem to fit in with everything we know about how our world SHOULD be operating. We are constantly at war over lands, yet all those countries have their piece of the pie of Antarctica without there ever needing to be disagreements over boundaries. It seems as though both realities should not be able to simultaneously persist, and yet they do.
Nice! My sister went to Antarctica as part of an NZ Army deployment for a few months in the 90s, I’m still jealous. There is a very cool documentary by a NZer called “Antarctica: A Year On Ice” by Anthony Powell which I’d highly recommend to anyone interested in learning what it’s like to live down there. My favourite science experiment in operation there at the moment is the IceCube neutrino detector. (Which also has been the subject of conspiracy theories that it caused the CHCH earthquakes!)
The journal entries from the doomed Scott expedition are brutal. They had supplies spaced out for the return journey, but after bad weather, they kept falling behind. They became too weak and injured to cover the distances between their supplies. One guy just walked into a storm to end it. Tough read.
Joe, I hit Dallas when the covid happened from AZ and worked in office until last year. I have been perusal every week since. One thing I realized, my last year in Dallas I was in sweats, showering three times a week. Get it together, you are better than this. Ha! Love you, you are one of the good ones for sure. Take care.
19:54 – Clearly that’s a cover. The octopus escaped from Russian captivity, while stealing technology to access the internet, and generated the fake backstory several decades later to ensure plausible deniability of any claims to the contrary. Stay safe out there, folks. You never know if you’re talking to another human, or a super-intelligent octopus from Antarctica.
My favorite documentary is called The Great White Silence which phenomenally details the voyage of the Terra Nova and Captain Scott’s ill fated final expedition. Scott brought along a filmmaker, Herbert Ponting, who captured the most incredible footage you could imagine of the Antarctic. A recent BFI restoration made the film available in high definition with a chilling score. Unforgettable movie, unforgettable men.
First time tuning in. I like the few bits of humor you throw in there. Right when I started to tune in you had me laugh, and i stayed tuned in. That earned a subscribe. I just told my daughters last night “If you can’t explain something in 15 minutes you don’t know what you are talking about” while I think it’s true, it really because I am too busy and running out of time. 15 minutes means a lot when you don’t have much time left.
My father lived and worked in Antartica during the 1980’s for the Australian Antarctic Division at Mawson base located at Holme Bay. He was a combat engineer during the Vietnam War so he was doing construction work, and said the base was for climatic and environmental research… but he would say that as a government shill and really he was there to man the ice wall and stop flat earthers from discovering the truth. 😂
You make it sound like Shackletons party stayed in the area of the Endurance for those months, they didnt. They ported dingies and sledges across the broken ice until they were able to get to the sea, at that time they sailed to a small island, and Shackleton and two others took a converted dingy several hundred miles across some of the worst sea to a small whaling station. Then they hiked across the island (they landed on the wrong side of the island) to the settlement. The entire time Shackleton kept his party together and alive. That in itself, despite the expeditions relative failure, is an immense accomplishment.
A friend of my father’s used to fly supply aircraft out of New Zealand to McMurdo Station and to the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. He said that they only flew in summer and it was a long, long flight to either place, with nowhere to land in case of emergency or bad weather. The aircraft used at first were the ever unreliable C-87, which was soon replaced by the much better C-124 Globemaster. He flew dozens of such missions, most in awful weather, and had a lot white-knuckle flights and some great stories.
I saw the title and thought, “Dammit, Do I need to cancel the cruise I booked?” I am surprised that you didn’t mention that there a several cruises that go to Antarctica now. In 2022 over 100,000 tourist went there. It is expensive, and not for those who are not fit or healthy, but you can book a cruise there.
Quite literally everything claimed by television is accepted exclusively on faith. I quit perusal broadcast television 15 years ago for that reason and many others of great significance. Nothing claimed in these types of articles are of any legitimate substance; it’s just parroting the claims available to all of us and supplied by the very people most of us don’t trust in the first place. It’s such a dire situation where for some subjects everyone is conditioned to take it all as fact on faith.
its too bad you just discounted Operation High Jump, otherwise known as Task Force 68! Summer of 1946, a year after the pacific war concludes USA commits 4700 men with 70 ships and 33 aircraft to a Antarctic mission. Admiral Byrd limps back to Chile soon afterwards, gives an interview to a local newspaper but is slapped with a censor order. No more information. It all stinks to high heaven but you discount it with a grin on your face.
Robert Scott knew about Amundsen before he departed, and was very well aware of the chance of him reaching the south pool first. He was just too stubborn to think he could still beat him, even being a month behind. He wasn’t too surprised to see the flag, albeit still extremely disappointed. I believe that the British had some type of snow scooters and they thought those would be faster than Amundsen’s sled dogs. But they broke down after a just a few weeks or something. Robert Scott’s diary of his last expedition is an intriguing read, especially the last part (for obvious reasons)
All those are non-reasons. The simple reason you can’t go is because you will be shot. They (Navy patrol ships) will and have capsized small crafts. Now you need to ask, “why would they threaten to kill regular people who just want to explore? What are they hiding? Admiral Byrd knew, and he told us but no one asked any questions. Very strange don’t you think? 🤪
4:55 If I remember correctly, they had to turn around because it got so cold that their sleds didn’t work anymore. It was like they were on gravel. There is an effect when sledding on snow/ice where the sledding surface melts a very thin layer of ice via friction that the sled hydroplanes on. Yeah, that stopped happening…
There are movies on scary situations in Antarctica. I saw an indie film (20 ish) years ago about lakes under the ice. And fhat the ice split open due to the global warming effect. New millions of years old (creatures) popped out and adapted to the (warmth) of land within a couple weeks or months and then they travelled on foot/fin to get to south america and some mated and spawned (within a short gestational period of like a few days) with our animals already (whales, sharks, squid, octopus, fish, birds, dogs, cats, a kangaroo farm, an alpaca farm, a goat, and a human…for about 40 minutes of this film it was about what these new creatures bred with) and it began a series of world ending events that eventually led to the demise of south america in its entirety of the natural and ordinary already happenings of evolution throughout the millions of years. This is a huge wonder for me, not the scifi part…but the what if these new creatures bring back the dinos or even further back life. Jeepers.
I went to Antarctica about 15 years ago for 2 summers and worked in the galley at McMurdo. This vidoe has about 1/10000th of the cool things that exist and happen there. Amazing place. Some other cool things to look up: – Fata morgana – Nacreous clouds – tree foraminifera – Erebus crystals – Ice caves – Ice cube neutrino observatory – compasses don’t work because the magnetic south pole is in the ocean – Ice fest music festival And so many more
Going to Antarctica is expensive, but shop around. There’s companies that have very good offers. Be sure you experience the Drake passage, the northernmost peninsula, and the monument that was put there to commemorate the rescue of the British Shackleton shipwreck that survived over a year. Def see the volcano, asteroid remnants, and enjoy the opportunity to go on as many excursions as possible. When visiting, don’t expect to see anything too far in. It’s dangerous and a crevasse can be anywhere. I visited in dec 22 – Jan 23. It was through Seabornes new ship named Venture. Imagine asking for anything and they have it. The ship, the trip, the scenery is one of my favorite trips I’ve ever enjoyed. The downside was that the trip for 2 for 12 days was over $50,000, but I only take trips off my bucket list. I can see a city anytime, but to visit a destination that averages around 50,000 visitors a year makes this special. There’s trips to Antarctica originating from Indian companies for under $5000, but this is a dangerous trip that the specialty expeditions should only be trusted with. Rogue waves, crevasses, and being so far from civilization makes this a trip to give thought to before going