Gee, let’s not talk to the other people who think maybe, just maybe, this was a bad idea gone even badder? I had to laugh when I saw this on their Facebook page. It reminds me of the days of denial put forth bv that other collection of clowns arctic explorers that were caught out faking biotelemetry readings.
Uh oh, Brits only now. Everybody else is to be excluded. I think that soon, comments to team members on their website and Facebook page might become unmanageable. Obviously, they don’t realize they are on the world wide web.
For those of you just joining us, recall that “Row to the Pole” is in name only, they aren’t actually going to reach the magnetic north pole of today, nor the geographic north pole. And, at the rate they are going, they likely won’t make the magnetic pole of 1996 either.
But hey, it’s a publicity stunt to promote this Scotch Whisky few have heard of, so don’t expect too much.
By the way, has anyone noticed that not once has the team posted any updates on the “the science” they are supposed to be doing on this stunt trip?
The whole thing is sheer poetry.
Row, row, row, your boat, fake it to the pole
Merrily merrilly merrily merrily, ice is but a dream
Most of the anti-AGW comments are downright hilarious and poisonous! I would be angry if i was them…
LJHills says:
August 13, 2011 at 12:24 am
Sundance
I suggest you look up “puffin”.
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More likely Guillemots.
Our British talent for heroic failure – best expressed by the late Peter Cook:-
“I want you to lay down your life, Perkins… we need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war”
Just a small point that ‘Joanie’ and her fellow Americans may find amusing, because we in the Commonwealth certainly do, is that the term ‘fanny’ has been a cherished slang term for…Ummm, how can I put this so it won’t get snipped? A females reproductive portal. So no need to worry about the chaps then.
John R. Walker says:
August 13, 2011 at 12:09 am
The British way – we drink our whisky neat… No ice! Basic fail I think…
Actually John as a long term member of the Whisky society and veteran of many hard and difficult tasting sessions, I can confirm that ice with a good whisky is a bad idea, but the gradual addition of water can be essential to experience the full range of a malts potential.
LJHills says:
August 13, 2011 at 12:24 am
Sundance
I suggest you look up “puffin”. They occupy a similar ecological niche to penguins but can fly well which is why you see them sitting on a cliff. White underside as in penguins is to disguise them from predators like seals who attack from below while they are in the water. Greenland has nesting sites for North Atlantic Puffin.
Garethman responds
I think they are actually Guillimots, but the principle of convergent evolution in colouring remains accurate.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/guillemot/index.aspx
They should just nip south-west across the strait to Bathhurst Island and visit the 1980-ish to 1962 North Poles on their way back to Resolute. Success!
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/GeomagneticPoles.shtml
To orientate, I think they are now (Aug 13th) where the label (not the dot) 1973 is, and Resolute is just below the label 1948. You can see why they thought visiting the more recent poles inadvisable.
I think they have started to moderate the comments now…
Penguins in the Arctic?
Highly possible, after ALF frees them from a zoo and returns them to their natural habitat.
What? It’s cold, there’s ice, there’s ocean water with fish. Hey, those ALF people don’t seem that smart. Be glad they got that close. 😉
(Semi-)seriously, is there a reason why penguins couldn’t survive and prosper in the Arctic? If a breeding population was released up there, surely those cute fluffy polar bears couldn’t eat all of them.
I don’t mind the sentiments expressed in the message from the Row to the Pole Operations Team. They are entitled to ignore sceptical comments if they wish to since their expedition is not funded by tax payers. Also it is good that they should appeal to their followers to be polite. However, being British myself I am embarrassed by the ungrammatical way in which the message was written.
First of all they should have written “comment on or reply to” not “comment or reply on.” Secondly, as others have pointed out, the British spelling is “sceptic” with a “c” not a “k”. Thirdly, their understanding of apostrophes is even worse than kadaka (KD Knoebel) indicated. Not only should “lets” be let’s” but unless there is only one sceptic, the apostrophe in “sceptic’s posts” is in the wrong place; it should come after the “s”. Finally, in the very last sentence, “sceptic” should be in the plural unless they really think there is only one sceptic in which case they had the apostrophe in the earlier sentence in the right place after all!
Roy
I agree with other posters that the expression quoted was probably intended to act as a plea for posters to adopt British manners when commenting/responding to other comments, not to suggest that other nationalities should be excluded from the forum. Regretfully, after the recent riots in the UK, one wonders the extent to which the British are civil and with good manners.
Old Poulteney is a good malt. But I think these people had too much of the stuff when planning this jaunt.
Less Scotch and more thought as to how to row home is what is wanted.
Typical british enterprise. Jolly hockey sticks and all that, let’s blunder on.
They have removed not so favorable comments from their site.
Posting a comment has also been changed.
Us Brits have an history of heroic failures. It should be pointed out that in order to fail in an enterprise, you must first attempt it. The reason the Brits fail more missions is that they are not affraid to risk that failure.
Byz says:
August 12, 2011 at 9:56 pm
…
But lets look on the bright side, we have the olympics next year, we are arresting the looters, all the Pro-AGW crowd are stuck in the ice and … we still have or AAA credit rating 😉
Ouch! 😉
British wit and abuse tends to be a lot more sophisticated than American vocabulary which has about one (1) really abusive word, that the stings, barbs and downright obnoxious British commentary can be misread as civility.
This is not a serious expedition, that’s quite obvious.
But even though Mr Watts is correct when he says few have heard of it, this is a seriously good single malt.from the Highlands. Time for the distillers to tell the marketing wonks to ‘eff off back to London.
Should have driven. http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/extras/production_notes/polar_special.shtml There’s plenty of ice to drive over.
Here in Aussieland “knackers” is a nick name bestowed on a good mate and it is also a dramatic expression or declaration, like, I’d give my left knacker for the chance to… (name your fantasy)
Maybe the scotch weaves its own..
“DAY FOURTEEN: ICE DRILL PRACTICE”
You bet they’re gonna have to practice it! Send them the icebreaker already before they get in real trouble… Being so inconscious towards the nature makes me feel sick. They probably watched too much AGW propaganda from the TV and thought it would be easy?
Looks like they have deleted any skeptical comments from their “Message the Crew” page.
When Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove to the magnetic pole on Top Gear, they didn’t seem to run across any open water. Thin ice a couple of times, but no water.
And they were drinking gin, not scotch.
Pah! Ingrates. I was going to organise a prayer vigil to melt all the ice for them. I shant now.
They have now taken to taking comments off the page, mine was near the top of ‘Likes’ and has now disappeared.
The best message came early in the thread at their web page.
The reason the alarmists have fooled the vast majority of the people is that the “sky is falling” type announcements are remembered and the debunking of those same announcements are rarely noticed and even more rarely remembered.
I bet this fool thinks it gets to 80F in the summer and people swim in the Ocean like they were at Miami Beach, Florida.