A whimsical look at advertisements, cartoons and music

I'm rather taken by developments involving an advertisement, a Web cartoon and a catchy tune.

First, Discovery Channel aired an advertisement for itself.

Then, the Web comic XKCD brought out a cartoon entitled 'XKCD Loves The Discovery Channel'. They took the words to the advertisement's 'jingle' and adapted them to their cartoon.




This led Noam Raby and Olga Nunes to produce a video version of the XKCD adaptation of the Discovery Channel advertisement.

Later, Elaine Doyle and Olga Nunes took that video and filmed it with live actors.

Call me soppy, if you like, but I found the whole progression irresistibly cute!



Peter

Building an Afghan army - one man's approach

I've written on several previous occasions about the quagmire in which the US risks becoming bogged down in Afghanistan. Invaders and occupiers have tried to pacify the region for well over two millennia, and none have succeeded.

I was therefore interested to read the approach taken by Prof. Sean McFate to rebuild the Liberian army, and his thoughts on how this experience might be applied in Afghanistan. Here's an excerpt from his article in Foreign Affairs.

When I arrived in Liberia in 2004, the country's army was, at best, a mess. After decades of civil war, soldiers' hands were as bloodied as any rebels'. The troops were undisciplined, unpaid, and undertrained. They were a motley crew that protected no one in a country where pretty much everyone was vulnerable to violence. And it was our job to turn them into a professional military.

Today, just five years later, Liberia's soldiers are among the best in the region. They have been vetted, trained, paid, and readied for action. The difference was the impact of that little-known U.S. initiative -- the first of its kind -- that literally rebuilt the Liberian army from scratch. Our goal was for the Liberian army to fill the role of U.N. peacekeepers as the latter were slowly phased out, and it worked astonishingly well.

Now that model might be of use again. President Barack Obama's strategy for Afghanistan is predicated on creating Afghan security forces to replace coalition soldiers. The idea of training local troops to replace U.S. or international ones is not a new one; the United States famously tried to do it and failed in Vietnam. More recently, in 2005, then-President George W. Bush outlined his plan for Iraq and the aim that "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." Yet the United States' ability to raise foreign forces has been paltry. This is because raising an army is difficult and dangerous: Do it too well and it might turn into a Praetorian Guard or a vehicle for a coup d'état. Do the job poorly and it could terrorize the citizens it is sworn to protect and much worse.

Today the stage is Afghanistan -- a near-failed state controlled by a weak central government, essentially devoid of basic infrastructure. The lessons of Liberia may help. Both countries are relatively underdeveloped and have a war-ravaged modern history. What's more, Afghans and Liberians both lack a sense of national identity as such and often identify first by ethnic group and second as Afghan or Liberian. These factors are challenges for creating a national army in a place where the majority of the population is illiterate, tribal or local loyalties trump patriotic allegiance, and ethnic blood feuds are ancient and deep.

Here, then, is an account of some of the decisions and obstacles we wrestled with in Liberia -- an experience that taught me the challenges of creating soldiers and policemen whom children run toward for protection, rather than away from in fear.

Our starting point was to tackle the big-picture questions whose answers are far too often assumed: How big will the army be? What will it do? What are the threats? What should be done with the existing army, which was a perpetrator in the civil war? Few had ever disbanded a standing African army and lived to tell about it.

Understandably, American trainers tend to replicate the U.S. military model when they help train militaries abroad. But our team knew that the task would be less about "train and equip" than reimagine entirely. It meant transforming the security sector into a professional, effective, legitimate, and accountable pillar of society. It also meant creating civilian-led institutions to manage the soldiers, such as ministries of interior, defense, and justice. These forces and institutions had to be organized around a national security strategy that would address the root causes of conflict.

. . .

Our force reimagined, we began to recruit for it.

First, we had to make sure that the new military did not end up like that last one: engaged in widespread human rights violations. This required extensive human rights vetting of each recruit, which is also mandated by the "Leahy Law," named after Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, which prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign militaries that abuse human rights. Perhaps needless to say, meeting this requirement is hard to do in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where it is difficult for U.S. troops to know who is shady and who is clean. In both countries, insurgents have infiltrated the police and military, committing atrocities in uniform that quickly discredit the new security force in the eyes of the populace. It's a reputation not easily undone.




. . .

A lot more work than many realize went into recruiting, paying, and training Liberia's new professional army. Here are a few lessons learned from Liberia that might help in Afghanistan:

§ It might be necessary to start over. Security forces that are distrusted and feared by the population can be worse than no security at all. Disband corrupt units completely and invite soldiers or policemen to reapply individually so that they can be vetted. Also, ensure the public is involved in the vetting to help re-establish the force's credibility.

§ All institutions must rise together. It is dangerous to raise a capable army that the Finance Ministry cannot pay. This is a coup d'état in the waiting.

§ Modern warfare is more than shooting. Incorporate literacy and respect for the rule of law and human rights directly into basic training. Also, take every training opportunity to imbue a sense of national identity into the force to overcome parochial tribal allegiances, and don't let any one ethnic group dominate the ranks.

§ Don't create a force so strong it provokes the neighbors to build up their own militaries in response. In Afghanistan and Liberia, the AK-47 is the weapon of mass destruction, and arms races often lead to bloodshed.

§ Lastly, as foreigners, be humble. Afghanistan and Liberia are worlds away from the United States, yet the country still creates "mini-me" versions of the U.S. military and police abroad. Throw away the American playbook and think creatively, in partnership with Afghans, about what is truly needed to defend them from their threats. It won't look like Fort Bragg.

There's more at the link.

Interesting . . . and as a veteran of military service in Africa, with a fairly thorough knowledge of that continent's armed forces, I think there are points to be made both for and against Prof. McFate's approach. In the specific situation he encountered in Liberia, I think he did remarkably well. Whether or not such an approach can be transplanted to Afghanistan is a matter of opinion, of course, but I think the authorities there could do worse than examine the Liberian case study to see what they might be able to learn and apply. Certainly, their present approach doesn't seem to be working very well!

Peter

Not only will it float, it flies, too!

I'm amused - and interested - to read that Portuguese cork farmers are looking at using the product in aircraft manufacture.

Stubby, leafy oaks, bark carefully stripped from the trunks, line the road leading to the French-owned DynAero aircraft plant in Portugal's central-south Alentejo region -- the world's main cork growing area.

Cork trees, with bark harvested from their lower trunks (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Plane parts designed and molded here could help shape the future of a national industry that employs some 12,000 workers, exports over 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) a year in cork -- more than 2 percent of total exports -- and helps prevent Portugal's drying south from becoming a desert.

Portugal's annual output of 157,000 tonnes of cork is just over half of the world's total.

Cork harvest (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

DynAero's desire to build its ultralight two- and four-seat planes from cork instead of plastic seems only natural in such a place, but there is more to it than the material's abundance.

"Year after year, cork wine bottle closures are getting replaced by new materials. Producers know they have to go to more sophisticated applications," said DynAero director Philippe Sence, explaining the reasons behind the "Aerocork" project, launched last year jointly with three Portuguese firms.

Among them is the world's largest cork producer Corticeira Amorim, struggling to recover market share in the bottle stopper market, reduced to 70-75 percent from over 90 percent since the 1990s by the advance of metal screw caps and plastic closures.

. . .

Corticeira CEO Antonio Rios de Amorim said that while the fight to recover cork closures' market share against alternative stoppers was the company's top priority, research into new applications was key for future development.

"The Aerocork project is a new area of development for cork composite materials, but it uses the already successful experience in applications like kayak-building," he said.

The prototype cork plane should be ready this year.

The Aerocork partners aim to replace light porous plastic PVC with cork composite in the fuselage, wings and flaps of light aircraft, where it is coated with carbon fiber sheets.

Far from being a return to the wood-and-canvas planes from the early aviation history, the cork-carbon combination is not only light but possesses fire retardant properties. Shredded cork is already used in the thermal protection coating on the Space Shuttle's external fuel tank.

A prototype wing made of cork is laid on top of a conventional wing

In nature, the unique cellular bark protects cork oaks from frequent forest fires. Even in Australia -- one of the main promoters of screw cap use in wine -- last year's deadly fires in Victoria state have triggered a debate on replacing flammable eucalyptus plantations with cork oak.

Last year's jump in oil prices that made oil-based PVC too pricey and environmental concerns about PVC output and recycling are also among the reasons DynAero wants a new material.

"We know that after a few years PVC will no longer be used, certainly by us and most likely by others in the industry. It is a nightmare in terms of ecological aspects," Sence said. "Our idea is to sell cork-carbon parts to other firms in the future."

Cork is harvested every nine years during the oak's 200 year lifespan without damaging the trees, making the cork industry one of the world's greenest and naturally sustainable.

There's more at the link.

So, if I smell wine when next I fly, will it be from the First Class cabin, or the recycled wine corks in the fuselage?



Peter

When old things bring riches

I've always enjoyed the Antiques Roadshow series of shows, both the English and US versions. For those who don't know them, a team of experts in antiques travels to a city, and they hold an 'open house' where anyone can bring in anything to be valued. Most of the stuff, of course, isn't particularly valuable: but now and again a real undiscovered gem explodes on the scene, to universal delight (and not a little envy, I'm sure!).

Two recent examples caught my eye. The first, in England, involved an extremely rare porcelain plate.

Never before in the TV show's three-decade history has a plate been awarded a six-figure valuation.

But that's exactly what happened when Wendy Jones took an old piece of crockery to the Antiques Roadshow.

. . .

She only attended the roadshow event near her home in Aberglasney, Wales, because her husband wanted some books valued.

Seeking something to take long, Mrs Jones grabbed the 22-inch plate on her way out of the door and casually transported it in a Tesco carrier bag.

But it turned out to be the most valuable plate to have appeared on the BBC programme in its 31-year history.

Expert valuer John Axford told Mrs Jones that the 18th century oval-shaped plate was commissioned by the Prussian East India company for Frederick II.

Made between 1750 and 1755, it is constructed out of hard paste porcelain and is decorated with the arms of the Hohenzollern family, the order of the black eagle and the Maltese Cross.

There are pieces of the service in the best museums around the world but only two items have been sold in the last decade, Mr Axford said.

He then delivered his valuation of £100,000 [about US $156,000] to a 'speechless' Mrs Jones.

. . .

Mr Axford, an expert from Woolley and Wallis auction house in Salisbury, Wiltshire, based his estimate on a much smaller soup plate from the service recently selling for £31,000 [about US $48,000].

He said: 'It is the most valuable thing by far that I have seen on the roadshow.

'It is a fantastic piece of a very rare Royal service and is very unusual.'

There's more at the link.

The second, here in America, surprised me, as I'd never realized how valuable early Native American weaving had become. Here's a video clip.

I bet he was pleased! That's enough to make his retirement a lot more comfortable!

Peter

Remind me never, EVER to take this road!

The video clip below shows an astonishingly narrow mountain pass with hairpin bends. I haven't been able to identify the road or the country - can any readers help? Anyway, the passing skills required of heavy vehicle drivers on this pass simply boggle the mind.

I'd hate to be the filling in an eighteen-wheeler sandwich on that road!





Peter

Doofus Of The Day #318

Today's Doofus is from Wyoming.

Police say a man suspected of stealing a bottle of Schnapps from a Wyoming grocery store didn't have the best escape route planned.

Riverton police say the 26-year-old ran out of the store after grabbing the bottle of liquor and a package of cough drops Wednesday and hid in a nearby building, which happened to be the police station.

Police say the man then ran out of the police station, but not before a dispatcher had spied him on the station's surveillance camera and alerted officers.

The man, who police say was drunk, was caught soon after.

Yep. If you're going to steal the hard stuff, don't partake of it before your crime, or it might backfire on you!



Peter

Now that's a good idea!

I'm amused to see that a Japanese company has found a way to recycle all the shredded paper that's produced by the ton in modern offices.

"White Goat" [is] a miracle-working machine by Oriental Co., Ltd that directly recycles office paper into toilet paper. Users need only add water along with any embarrassing e-mail printouts or unwanted TPS reports they need shredded, and out comes TP of dubious softness.

A built-in shredder starts off the action in a right satisfying way. The shredded paper then moves on to a pulper where it gets dissolved in water. The pulp becomes wet paper and is eventually dried and rolled up into ready-to-use toilet paper. We imagine that this mysterious process may resemble a high-tech Japanese version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

"White Goat" reportedly will go on sale this summer. The machine takes half an hour to produce one neatly wrapped toilet roll and uses the equivalent of 40 sheets of standard office paper per roll. That supposedly saves 60 cedar trees each year ...

There's more at the link. Here's a video clip of the machine.

At a reported $100,000 per machine, the capital investment might be a bit steep for many companies . . . and I can't help but wonder whether employees might not add lots of staples and paper-clips to the shredded paper they use to make their bosses' TP!





Peter

The revolving door of justice

As a prison chaplain, I got used to many recently-released inmates ending up back behind bars within a short time. The staff used to moan and bitch about it constantly. Many times we had to release somebody whom we knew - knew, beyond a shadow of doubt - would re-offend within days or weeks. What's worse is that we knew some of them would hurt, perhaps maim, even kill their soon-to-be-victims. However, the law took no account of how they'd behaved during their time behind bars, and wasn't interested in our knowledge of their criminal potential. If their sentences were over, we had to let them go . . . and start counting the days until they were rearrested.

US courts began to address this problem with the 'habitual offender' statutes that came into vogue a couple of decades ago. If a criminal had a record of several prior felonies, the DA or other prosecuting authority could apply for a much longer sentence than his present crime might warrant, on the grounds that he or she was an habitual offender. This has helped to keep some of the bad guys from reoffending, because they're serving long terms in the slammer: but the civil libertarians and bleeding-heart liberals continually complain about such laws. They've never had to deal with the consequences of letting such inmates loose on society, that's clear . . .

A report from Britain indicates that they're having the same problem with repeat offenders over there.

Incredibly, 42 per cent of criminals found guilty but given an absolute discharge [i.e. no punishment] by courts last year had 15 or more previous convictions.

So had 29 per cent of those given a conditional discharge, 26 per cent of those fined, 27 per cent of those who received a community punishment and 26 per cent of those whose sentences were suspended.

There's more at the link.

I have a small suggestion for those worried about 'habitual offender' statutes and the long - I admit, sometimes unreasonably long - sentences they entail for someone whose current offense may be relatively small. How about this? Let's dish out the sentence that the crime(s) deserve, precisely and exactly as the law lays down; and then let's add one year to the sentence for each and every prior felony conviction, plus six months for each and every prior misdemeanor conviction. If you steal a chocolate bar, you get convicted of misdemeanor theft. Your punishment for that crime alone might be a slap on the wrist (like being fined enough to pay for it): but your five felony and seven misdemeanor prior convictions mean that you also get an 8½-year prison sentence. Next time (since this is your eighth misdemeanor conviction) you'll get nine years on top of whatever sentence your next crime attracts.

This way, someone with no prior offenses (or only a few) will draw a relatively light sentence, and will hopefully be able to learn from his mistakes. Those who can't or won't learn from their mistakes will make more of them, and their time behind bars will get longer, and longer, and longer . . . until society no longer has to worry about them at all. The revolving door will simply stop revolving for them.

Seems fair to me. What say you, readers?

Peter

As Lawdog would say, *Gigglesnort!*

From one of my favorite Web cartoons, Sequential Art, the latest panel (click the image for a larger view):







Peter

The daftest action scene of all time?

Courtesy of Dark Roasted Blend, we find this video from an Indian movie, 'Alluda Majaka', made in 1995. It's . . . it's . . . well, you judge for yourself!

Unbelievable!



Peter

Spam yesterday, Spam today, and Spam forevermore!

I was highly amused - not to mention impressed! - to read of a British Army cook in Afghanistan who prepared Spam for his troops for an unbelievable 42 days, after other supplies were interrupted by enemy action.

Army chef Corporal Liam Francis refused to surrender when food supplies were interrupted by Taliban fighters for six weeks.

With almost no gastronomic ammunition to hand, the 26-year-old opened tin after tin of the chopped pork and ham and produced a series of dishes to rival the famous Monty Python Spam sketch.




'I was surprised what we could do: Sweet and sour Spam, Spam fritters, Spam carbonara, Spam stroganoff and Spam stir fry,' said the father of one from Tidworth, Wiltshire.

'We were on compo [field rations] for six weeks and we only had one menu - Spam.'

But he added that the troops were relieved when fresh supplies finally arrived. 'The first day off Spam, I prepared battered sausages, chips and curry sauce,' he said. 'The Sergeant Major said it was the best meal he had ever had.'

. . .

He was forced into emergency action at the Forward Operating Base in Sangin when Taliban fighters shot down a civilian supply helicopter the day before he arrived, leaving him without the usual beef burgers, chicken, sausages and fish and chips.

. . .

A spokesman for Spam said: 'We were most impressed with the recipes Corporal Liam Francis came up with. The soldiers do an amazing job and we were pleased that we helped in some small way.'

Corporal Francis is now back in the UK's main base in Helmand province, Camp Bastion. In a single week the kitchens there get through 7,500 burgers, 2.5 tons of chicken breasts, 20,000 baguettes and 4.5 tons of potatoes and chips.

There's more at the link.

Personally, I'd give him a bravery award for daring to feed his troops Spam every day for so long - and I'd give the troops a unit award for putting up with it!

Meanwhile, for those who aren't Monty Python aficionados, here's their (in)famous Spam sketch.

Peter

The first X-rays

An audio slide show on the BBC Web site started me thinking about the impact of X-rays back in the 1890's, when they were first described by Dr. Wilhelm Röntgen.




The first published X-ray picture was taken by him of his wife's hand, and caused a media sensation. According to Wikipedia:

Nearly two weeks after his discovery, he took the very first picture using x-rays of his wife's hand, Anna Bertha. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!"

The outpouring of enthusiasm and interest over the new discovery was enormous. McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, published in April 1896, had a big article about the new field. Here's a short extract.

Exactly what kind of a force Professor Röntgen has discovered he does not know. As will be seen below, he declines to call it a new kind of light, or a new form of electricity. He has given it the name of the X rays. Others speak of it as the Röntgen rays. Thus far its results only, and not its essence, are known. In the terminology of science it is generally called "a new mode of motion," or, in other words, a new force. As to whether it is or not actually a force new to science, or one of the known forces masquerading under strange conditions, weighty authorities are already arguing. More than one eminent scientist has already affected to see in it a key to the great mystery of the law of gravity. All who have expressed themselves in print have admitted, with more or less frankness, that, in view of Röntgen's discovery, science must forth-with revise, possibly to a revolutionary degree, the long accepted theories concerning the phenomena of light and sound. That the X rays, in their mode of action, combine a strange resemblance to both sound and light vibrations, and are destined to materially affect, if they do not greatly alter, our views of both phenomena, is already certain; and beyond this is the opening into a new and unknown field of physical knowledge, concerning which speculation is already eager, and experimental investigation already in hand, in London, Paris, Berlin, and, perhaps, to a greater or less extent, in every well-equipped physical laboratory in Europe.




This is the present scientific aspect of the discovery. But, unlike most epoch-making results from laboratories, this discovery is one which, to a very unusual degree, is within the grasp of the popular and non-technical imagination. Among the other kinds of matter which these rays penetrate with ease is the human flesh. That a new photography has suddenly arisen which can photograph the bones, and, before long, the organs of the human body; that a light has been found which can penetrate, so as to make a photographic record, through everything from a purse or a pocket to the walls of a room or a house, is news which cannot fail to startle everybody. That the eye of the physician or surgeon, long baffled by the skin, and vainly seeking to penetrate the unfortunate darkness of the human body, is now to be supplemented by a camera, making all the parts of the human body as visible, in a way, as the exterior, appears certainly to be a greater blessing to humanity than even the Listerian antiseptic system of surgery; and its benefits must inevitably be greater than those conferred by Lister, great as the latter have been. Already, in the few weeks since Röntgen's announcement, the results of surgical operations under the new system are growing voluminous. In Berlin, not only new bone fractures are being immediately photographed, but joined fractures, as well, in order to examine the results of recent surgical work. In Vienna, imbedded bullets are being photographed, instead of being probed for, and extracted with comparative ease. In London, a wounded sailor, completely paralyzed, whose injury was a mystery, has been saved by the photographing of an object imbedded in the spine, which, upon extraction, proved to be a small knife-blade. Operations for malformations, hitherto obscure, but now clearly revealed by the new photography, are already becoming common, and are being reported from all directions. Professor Czermark of Graz has photographed the living skull, denuded of flesh and hair, and has begun the adaptation of the new photography to brain study. The relation of the new rays to thought rays is being eagerly discussed in what may be called the non-exact circles and journals; and all that numerous group of inquirers into the occult, the believers in clairvoyance, spiritualism, telepathy, and kindred orders of alleged phenomena, are confident of finding in the new force long-sought facts in proof of their claims. Professor Neusser in Vienna has photographed gall-stones in the liver of one patient (the stone showing snow-white in the negative), and a stone in the bladder of another patient. His results so far induce him to announce that all the organs of the human body can, and will, shortly, be photographed. Lannelougue of Paris has exhibited to the Academy of Science photographs of bones showing inherited tuberculosis which had not otherwise revealed itself. Berlin has already formed a society of forty for the immediate prosecution of researches into both the character of the new force and its physiological possibilities. In the next few weeks these strange announcements will be trebled or quadrupled, giving the best evidence from all quarters of the great future that awaits the Röntgen rays, and the startling impetus to the universal search for knowledge that has come at the close of the nineteenth century from the modest little laboratory in the Pleicher Ring at Würzburg.

It's odd to read of their astonishment at the uses of X-rays that we take for granted today, and shows how major a step forward was Dr. Röntgen's discovery. He was rewarded with the very first Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901.

I recommend both the BBC audio slideshow and the McClure's Magazine article. Both illustrate how amazed our forefathers were at this new perspective on life and health. It certainly amazed me to read them!

Peter

Flying with the fastest birds in the world

The video below contains some remarkable footage shot by cameras attached to peregrine falcons and goshawks. It's well worth watching.

Amazing! I marvel that they were able to mount the cameras in such a way as not to slow down the birds or get in the way of their wing muscles.

Peter

St. Anthony's Monastery is restored

I'm very pleased to read that the restoration of the Monastery of St. Anthony, the oldest monastery in Christendom, has been successfully completed. Discovery News reports:

Egypt's antiquities chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration of the world's oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.




. . .

Top archaeologist Zahi Hawass ... showed journalists the work at St. Anthony's, an ancient compound at the foot of the desert mountains near Egypt's Red Sea coast.

"The announcement we are making today shows to the world how we are keen to restore the monuments of our past, whether Coptic, Jewish or Muslim," he said, referring to the dominant Orthodox Coptic Christian sect in Egypt.

. . .

St. Anthony, widely revered as the founder of Christian monasticism, settled in this remote mountainous area at the end of the 3rd century to live in isolation. Upon his death, his followers built the monastery, which was completed around A.D. 350 remains in use to this day.

In the government-sponsored project, workers renovated the fortress-like ancient wall surrounding the monastery and the walls of its two main churches -- the 14th century Church of the Apostles and the 6th century Church of St. Anthony. They also renovated monks' quarters and a 6th century tower into which monks would retreat during attacks by marauding Bedouin tribes throughout the Middle Ages.

A modern sewage system was also installed for the monastery, which is home to several dozen monks and is frequently visited by Christian pilgrims.

Amid the renovations, archaeologists from the American Research Center in Egypt discovered the remains of the original monks' cells dating back to the 4th century under the Church of the Apostles. After they were excavated, archeologists in 2008 covered them with thick glass so that visitors to the church can see them below their feet. ARCE also renovated stucco paintings in Church of St. Anthony.

There's more at the link.

I've visited the Monastery of St. Anthony. It's a place absolutely steeped in prayer. If you have the inner sense to listen, you can hear the silence speak to you. After so many centuries of occupation by men spending most of their time in prayer, meditation and contemplation, it's almost as if a spiritual presence has soaked into the very walls of the place. It's an uncanny feeling.

There are also very old works of religious art, for those so inclined, including frescoes and paintings. Here are a few examples from the Egyptology Online Web page on the monastery (from which the picture above is also taken). It's recommended reading.




If you ever find yourself in Egypt, and near the Monastery, it's well worth a visit. See the Monastery's Web site for more information.

Peter

They found it!

Back in November last year I wrote about an expedition to Antarctica that planned to search for whisky left behind by Sir Ernest Shackleton. It seems they found it! The BBC reports:

Five crates of Scotch whisky and brandy belonging to the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after more than 100 years in the ice.

They were buried beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 for a failed expedition to the South Pole.




Some of the crates have cracked and ice has formed inside, which means experts will face a delicate task in trying to extract the contents.

The ice-bound crates were first discovered three years ago.

The master blender at whisky company Whyte and Mackay said the find was a "gift from the heavens" for whisky lovers.

Richard Paterson, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, said: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.

"Given the original recipe no longer exists this may open a door into history."

The alcohol was removed from the ice by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, which had initially believed there to be just two crates.

Al Fastier from the trust said: "To our amazement we found five crates, three labelled as containing whisky and two labelled as containing brandy.

"The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited, Allandale, are a real bonus."

Mr Fastier said the trust was confident the crates contained intact alcohol, given that liquid could be heard when the crates were moved.

The smell of whisky in the surrounding ice also indicated full bottles of spirits were inside, albeit that one or more might have broken.

There's more at the link.

Hmm . . . century-old Scotch and brandy, well preserved in ice? Why do I suspect that the 'scientists' and 'technicians' thawing out those crates are going to have an awful lot of eager amateur helpers? And why do I suspect that it'll all have to be tasted "to make sure it's still good"?



Peter