Traditional Polynesian navigation was used for thousands of years to make long voyages across thousands of miles of the open Pacific Ocean. Navigators traveled to small inhabited islands using wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition from master to apprentice, often in the form of song. Generally each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times ..
Robin Knox-Johnston Sir William Robert Patrick "Robin" Knox-Johnston, CBE, RD and bar (born 17 March 1939) is an English sailor. In 1969 he became the first person to perform a single-handed non=stop circumnavigation of the globe and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy, together with Sir Peter Blake. For this he was awarded with Blake the ISAF Yachtsman of the Year award. In 2007 he ..
While the polar regions have many similarities, they are also "polar opposites" metaphorically as well as literally in many ways. The Arctic, centered on the North Pole - Sea surrounded by landThe Antarctic centered on the South Pole - Land surrounded by sea The fundamental difference is the reason for many of the other differences between the two regions. North Pole Where? At sea - 700km to nea..
A travel ban for American citizens to North Korea may be in the offing. "How safe is it? Extremely safe!" So read the guidance for North Korea on the website of Young Pioneer Tours when Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old American student, signed up for a five day trip to North Korea in December 2015. The travel company based in China is one of a handful that offer tightly marshaled circuits around mos..
But he will still have to face down a challenge from the street FLORENCE LEHERICY is a nurse, but on Monday she is likely to start a new career as a parliamentary deputy for Calvados, in northern France. Jean-Marie Fiévet, a fireman, will join her from a constituency in Deux Sèvres in the west. Both are political novices. They belong to La République en Marche! (LRM), the movement behind Emmanue..
But legal restrictions must be proportionate and thought through THREE jihadist attacks in Britain in as many months have led to a flood of suggestions about how to fight terrorism, from more police and harsher jail sentences to new legal powers. But one idea has gained momentum in both Europe and America—that internet firms are doing the jihadists’ work for them. Technology giants, such as Goog..
An online journal encourages economists to own up to past blunders A newspaper cannot publish for 174 years without some mistakes. This one has made its share. We thought Britain was safe in the European exchange-rate mechanism just weeks before it crashed out; we opined, in 1997, that Indonesia was well placed to avoid financial crisis; we noted in 1999 that oil, at $10 per barrel, might well r..
The Conservatives' botched campaign will bring chaos - and opportunities Her political career has been defined by caution. So it is cruel for Theresa May, and delicious for her enemies, that it may have been ended by one big, disastrous gamble. Eight weeks ago she called a snap election, risking her government for the chance to bank a bigger majority against an apparently shambolic Labour opposi..
Is the latest frenzy like tulipmania, a gold rush or the dotcom boom? Markets frequently froth and bubble, but the boom in bitcoin, a digital currency, is extraordinary. Although its price is down from an all-time high of $2,420 on May 24th, it has more than doubled in just two months. Anyone clever or lucky enough to have bought $1,000 of bitcoins in July 2010, when the price stood at $0.05, wo..
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the graduates of the 366th class of Harvard University on Thursday. He called upon graduates to build a world where everyone has a sense of purpose. Read the full text of his speech:President Faust, Board of Overseers, faculty, alumni, friends, proud parents, members of the ad board and graduates of the greatest university in the world....I'm ho..
Amid a whirlwind of dealmaking, GE's returns lag Bosses come in all shapes and sizes. One way to categorize them is to split them into two types: polishers and pickers. Polishers put their energy into products, improving and reimagining their design and production in a quest for perfection. Long after Apple had become one of the planet's most valuable firms, its boss, Steve Jobs (who died in 201..
More governments see its sugar-laden products as a scourge Few companies are as defined by a single product as Coca-Cola. The firm has sold the sweet dark soda since 1886. At its headquarters in Atlanta, archives house the advertisements that sowed Coke in the world's consciousness: posters urging consumers to "Have a Coke and a Smile"; Norman Rockwell's 1935 painting of a boy fishing, Coke bott..
Animals Few terrestrial vertebrates live in Antarctica, and those that do are limited to the sub-Antarctic islands. Invertebrate life includes microscopic mites like the Alaskozetes antarcticus, lice, nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, krill and springtails. The flightless midge Belgica antarctica, up to 6 mm (1/4 in) in size, is the largest purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica. The snow petre..
Some of Antarctica has been warming up; particularly strong warming has been noted on the Antarctic Peninsula. A study by Eric Steig published in 2009 noted for the first time that the continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is slightly positive at >0.05 ºC (0.09 ºF) per decade from 1957 to 2006. This study also noted that West Antarctica has warmed by more than 0.1 ºC (0...
Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation. This means that it is a very cold continent where water is mostly in the form of ice. Precipitation is low (most of Antarctica is a desert) and almost always in the form of snow, which accumulates and forms a giant ice sheet which covers the land. Parts of this ice sheet form moving glaciers known as ic..