Live data from Hacker News

Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

smh.com.au

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just put in an @washingtonpost.com address. If they start sending spam, no reason anyone else should have to deal with that.

Hm, that didn't work for me either! A random gmail worked.

I've been postmaster@aol.com for years on many sites with mandatory registration.

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#22
post #18

This reminds me of Leonid Rogozov performing a self appendectomy in Antarctica in 1961. If I recall correctly there are requirements now that any doctor who winters over must have had theirs removed. More information, including photos - http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html

That's unreal. I had appendicitis when I was 35. You know how doctors ask you to rate your pain level from 1-10? That experience reset the scale entirely for me. I suffered on the floor of an Army hospital ER waiting room for 8 hours before they brought me back. They quickly realized what was wrong with me and gave me morphine and I've never felt anything so blissful. Looking at that doc's pics from your link just blows my mind. I can't even imagine what that must have been like. Maybe he had lots of morphine on hand.

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#23

I would love to get the opportunity to overwinter at the Amundsen-Scott base. Being cut off is what makes it an attractive adventure in my eyes.

That does sound attractive and a good opportunity to reflect. Anyone here (or do you know any good stories) spent any long periods either in complete isolation, or in a small group like this far away from society? How was it?

Maybe not exactly the situation you're describing, but similar. Spent a month of one of my deployments at a small operating base in eastern Afghanistan. Our barracks were small, minimal structures that had two to a room.

We slept during the day. Planned missions in the early evenings. Huddled around the fired pit, drinking coffee and looking the stars for a few hours each night before conducting missions in the middle of the night, in remote villages far off in the mountains, which would extend till morning.

It required helicopter operations flying low, between the mountains. Long offset infiltrations... we'd land a few km away from the objective, and walk our way, for a few hours at a time through mountains and valleys on our way to the target.

Being in this remote post was surprisingly an enjoyable part of that deployment (most of us were disappointed when told we'd be going here at the last minute)... The (relative) isolation from other units, cleared your mind and focus. We all enjoyed the camaraderie and time we had to just hand out with each other during down time. During off days / nights I got a lot of reading done, probably more than I've ever been able to in a short period since. The scenery and beauty of that country, and specifically that location is something I'll never forget.

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#25

I would love to get the opportunity to overwinter at the Amundsen-Scott base. Being cut off is what makes it an attractive adventure in my eyes.

That does sound attractive and a good opportunity to reflect. Anyone here (or do you know any good stories) spent any long periods either in complete isolation, or in a small group like this far away from society? How was it?

The way I've heard it described: McMurdo is a drinking station w/ a science problem.

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're all drunks, and if you're lucky someone you live, work and sleep with won't sexually assault someone you live, work, and sleep with.

Um, go on …

I googled this because it sounded sort of weirdly plausible; there are a number of stories about it. http://www.today.com/news/are-researchers-antarctica-thin-ic...

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#27

One of the heroes involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter These planes are special things. If you want to go somewhere dangerous, or just weird, this is what you want carrying you.

In northeren Norway there is supposedly a saying that if Widerøe was not flying, it was no weather to be outdoors in.

At one point the company was the worlds biggest operator of Twin Otters. And the plane got a reputation for flying in horrible weather conditions.

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're all drunks, and if you're lucky someone you live, work and sleep with won't sexually assault someone you live, work, and sleep with.

Um, go on …

Here's a blog post from someone who was there: http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2013/06/alcoholism-in-antarctic...

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#29
post #18

This reminds me of Leonid Rogozov performing a self appendectomy in Antarctica in 1961. If I recall correctly there are requirements now that any doctor who winters over must have had theirs removed. More information, including photos - http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html

That's unreal. I had appendicitis when I was 35. You know how doctors ask you to rate your pain level from 1-10? That experience reset the scale entirely for me. I suffered on the floor of an Army hospital ER waiting room for 8 hours before they brought me back. They quickly realized what was wrong with me and gave me morphine and I've never felt anything so blissful. Looking at that doc's pics from your link just bl…

The article states, "The operation was carried out under local anesthesia." Without one, pain will make any hand movement near to impossible!

Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station

#30

One of the heroes involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter These planes are special things. If you want to go somewhere dangerous, or just weird, this is what you want carrying you.

In northeren Norway there is supposedly a saying that if Widerøe was not flying, it was no weather to be outdoors in. At one point the company was the worlds biggest operator of Twin Otters. And the plane got a reputation for flying in horrible weather conditions.

There's a regular flight from Glasgow to Barra which makes use of these - the runway is a beach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVFjH6b07a4

Post reply on HN