09 April 2011

treasures


People watching is one of the most intriguing pastimes, I've found. Even better is when I can peer into the lives of people from another time and place. Sometimes it's just through an old photograph, but other times I'm even more fortunate and can read an actual snippet about them. Such is the case with a few National Geographic pictures I found while perusing this weekend. Just lovely.



"MAY 1937 Arctic pioneers, members of the U.S.S.R.'s first scientific expedition to the North Pole, SP-1, lived for nine months on a drifting ice floe. Led by Ivan Papanin (second from right), the voyage proved that men on a drift station could collect mountains of data--and live to tell about it."




"FEBRUARY 1989 How to bathe on a floating block of ice? Russian scientists, like these on drift station SP-30, baked in a makeshift sauna, then dashed outside and rubbed their bodies with snow. Adrift for months at a time, Western and Russian ice camps were hotbeds of improvisation."



scanned images from National Geographic, February 1997

1 comment:

  1. Yay- the national geo stacks finally being looked over- please put more up! There was this amazing article on the Soviet Union, and they showed this old man that lost his leg during WWII, he sells books on the streets, but all the young punks would steal them from him, then he would buy them back from those little buttholes because he had such a love for books. if you ever found that article (you would know the picture if you saw it- its this one legged man in a room filled to the brim with books) you would be my hero. long comment.

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