South Pole Reading, Swimming, & MetaFilter Valentine

[jesse_the_k]

Antarctic Reads
Thanks to five years of amazing photographs from antarctic_sue, I've become fascinated with Antarctic and the decidedly odd day-to-day rhythms in the various marginal human habitations of a high, desert continent.

Without my daily photofix (Sue has finally left the Ice) I've turned to two novels written by folks with Ice experience, thanks to the NSF.

ANTARCTICA, by Kim Stanley Robinson. As always, KSR is full of intriguing ideas and geeky detail. His sciencey explanations of climate change, long-term geology, and resource extraction are painless. Also as always, I drag myself to finish the book—good call, there's a fun quirk starting after page 520. Somewhere was a great 200-page paleo-thriller, a good 220-page murder mystery, a cheery 190-page intro to the Ice (supplement with Sue's photos, why not?)

Lucy Jane Bledsoe wrote Working Parts, a novel about bicycle mechanics, class relations, adult literacy and hot sex that hit just about every button I've got. So when I saw her name on an Antarctica novel I flew to the library. THE BIG BANG SYMPHONY starts with a plane crash and a mysterious death, and so far she's managed to dance me through the lives of three women on the ice (as well as their various romantic, platonic, and academic relationships). When things go well, the South Pole is an amazing place. When people do their worst, the close quarters and hostile environment support sick interactions.

Swim Report
They're now keeping the pool at 82°F (27.7°C). It's almost bearable since I found polarfleece longjohns plus a polyester heat-trap shirt. They claim that the master swimmers were overheating and requested a colder pool. Seems the fitness center owners simply can't face up to the reality that 70% of the members have disabilities.

Yesterday I managed four lengths with breathing-every-five strokes!

I've skipped a few days swimming due to feeling like crap. Hey! I'm disabled, functionally impaired, too ill to work (or even volunteer for very long). It's okay to take a sick day. The lady doth protest hella lot.

MetaFilter: The Opposite of Link Spam
This "community weblog" dates back to 1999. Its careful moderation, conscious efforts at community-building, world-wide membership, and mission to present "the best of the web" makes it an excellent place to waste time for self education, especially when you don't want to see pictures. Text! Text! Text!

MetaFilter was on all the early blogrolls (including emceeaich's I think!), but I didn't seriously use it until after WisCon 37. I got to spend not-enough-time with one of the awesome mods, restless_nomad, (aka Jeremy) and realized any org which paid her to maintain community had to be fabulous.

The only drawback to hanging out there is I no longer feel the impulse to do old-fashioned "look, cool thing!" blogging, because they do it for me. Someone posts a juicy link or a curated set of links, many people actually read the article and more people comment. So it's a way to discuss something outside of the often toxic environment of public comment threads.

For example, this thread How the woman got her period links to a fascinating, detailed explanation of "Menstruation: What is the evolutionary or biological purpose of having periods?" from Dr Suzanne Sadedin. (Her essay is on another group-blog site I'd never heard of, Quora. The net, it is so wide wide wide.) The MeFites discuss the implications, the language, the science, etc.

When exposure to diverse content isn't enough, one can go hang with the aficionados of recreational human relations at
http://metatalk.metafilter.com
or the amateur agony aunts at
http://ask.metafilter.com

Comments

[jiawen]

The moderation on MeFi is better than a lot of places, but their treatment of trans issues has been pretty awful. I and a lot of other trans people have left MeFi until they start doing something about the transphobia. It's too bad, because MeFi really can be a great place sometimes.

[jesse_the_k]

Thank you for pointing this out.

I focus on the least-likely-to-infuriate topics (art, AskMe, silly pictures) so I hadn't seen the rampant offensive noise you reference there.

You've given me an opportunity to mention some MetaFilter drawbacks, in my next post.

[oursin]

A novel about the Antarctic that I liked a lot (with some reservations about the non-Antarctic sections) was Elizabeth Arthur, Antarctic Navigation (1994). She also wrote a book about women mountaineers on a Himalayan expedition, the title of which eludes me at the moment.

[jesse_the_k]

Goody! Thanks for the rec.

[wordweaverlynn]

I share your fascination with Antarctica and will look for the Bledsoe book at the library. Antarctica was one reason I was so excited to get Kim Stanley Robinson for the 2015 FOGcon. I adore that book.

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah, it has some amazing images in it. Blimps which almost make sense!

If you have the time, check out antarctic_sue's pix (also known as 30toseoul)

I do want to attend another FOGcon. Is 2015 themed California? (If not, that would be an excellent organizing principle). His California Trilogy was the male bookend to Doris Lessing's Children of Violence, in terms of the lesson "here's utopia, here's dystopia, it's up to you!"

[wordweaverlynn]

The 2015 FOGcon theme is The Traveler. Our other Honored Guest is Cat Valente. We're really excited.

And it would be wonderful to have you join us again!

[sasha_feather]

Interesting article about periods; not that I completely understood it, but I take her point that women constantly having babies and nursing would not have so many.

As a teen I remember asking my mom, "Why menopause?" ie, why would humans stick around after their natural reproductive years had ended? She thought it was because grandparents aided in raising children.

[jesse_the_k]

The part that made me go "Wow!" was how parasitic the placenta is, how it boldly scavenges the mother's infrastructure for nourishment, oxygen, blood for the fetus. Which isn't an issue in a well-fed, well-housed culture, but out on the savannah or up in glacier county I'm amazed more women didn't die in childbirth.

[luzula]

Oh, hmm, I am putting The Big Bang Symphony on my to-read list! It looks like something I'd enjoy. I've read KSR's Antarctica book, but it was a while ago.