My Blog 2

The Amazing Story of the First All-Women North Pole Expedition Answering an ad in a newspaper, 20 amateur explorers attempted to ski from Arctic Canada to the top of the world The frigid landscape of the North Pole is a stark and dangerous environment. There is no land underneath the rugged terrain on the geographic top of the world; it's all ice interspersed with frequent stretches of deadly cold water. This treacherous environment has long tempted explorers—from Robert Peary and Matthew Henson’s first trip in 1909 to Will Steger’s unsupported dog sled trip in 1986. This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most epic but least known adventures: the first all-women relay expedition to the North Pole. ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 podcast recounts the inspirational and harrowing story of how 20 amateur women from the U.K. came together to undertake one of the most challenging expeditions on Earth. The idea for the trip was "hatched on a whim," reporter and produ...

Man Against Nature–How to Make it Work No One Has Ever Crossed Antarctica Unsupported. Two Men Are Trying Right Now. Analysis | This man just crossed Antarctica alone - and in record time The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is what one writer has called the " Sunday afternoon of the year," a time for lazy reading and ambitious cooking projects - or, in Colin O'Brady's case, the final, sleepless 80-mile leg of a two-month race across Antarctica. In recent years I’ve found myself interested in one story to the exclusion of all others: the grand story of a universe, and a small blue planet, and her transient fabric of life. My high school literature teacher said that any plot can be reduced to one of three basic conflicts: Man against nature, man against man, or man against self. I liked the idea of searching for the bare skeleton of a story, but noticed pretty quickly that many plots seemed to be some combination of the three. Her trichotomy fell...

Pets This Dog Was His Family’s Rock—and He May Have Saved All of Our Lives We wanted a watch dog ... a guard dog, but we had no idea how much he would protect us. You may like A Boys Best Friend; https://iamjohnasilva.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-boys-best-friend-has-secret-past.html?m=1 We met Rex at the cargo pickup area of Alaska Airlines. A standard Labradpoodle born on Valentine’s Day in 2001, he came to us in a small wooden crate. It came to us like all the other ones, one goes - another comes. We had adopted him from an out-of-state breeder,  based om s trace and our only request to the universe was that he have a calm demeanor, able to endure the poking and cuddling of our eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. (Owning a dog has these major health benefits, fyi.) We were a sweet young little family—me, my wife, and our children, Kyla and Jay. But for years I’d felt as if we wouldn’t really be complete until we had a dog. Also...