We like the 'regular' speed better, with the crunching sounds.
posted by ovvl at 7:39 PM on January 12, 2011

Oh yes, I should have included the warning that for some reason, these videos love the cheesy instrumental bed music. So, a Turn Your Volume Down Warning is in effect]
posted by not_on_display at 7:48 PM on January 12, 2011

I've only looked at two of them, but I'm already mesmerized.
posted by treepour at 7:57 PM on January 12, 2011

Damn winter post... enough of the cold. How about some time lapse stuff of summer beaches?

Great post!!!
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 8:14 PM on January 12, 2011

Where is the Sigur Ros soundtrack?
posted by melissam at 8:29 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

How did the cameras stay filming in the winter cold?
posted by ~Sushma~ at 8:55 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love the bit with the chains melting in Link 4.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 2:31 AM on January 13, 2011

These are wonderful and perfectly timed. Outstanding post.
posted by kinnakeet at 8:15 AM on January 13, 2011

Where are the penguins? I don't see any penguins. Shouldn't polar bears and penguins frolicking happily together and drinking CocaCola show up in at least some of these? I call fake.
posted by webhund at 8:42 AM on January 13, 2011

Hard to believe people actually live in places like this. I live like this. It's -20F today, a little over 4 hours of daylight. A few other MeFites (4 or 5) live around here I think. It certainly has a sublime beauty, but after almost 18 years here, I'm pretty well done with the cold. I wish I were where you are, looking at a video rather than in the middle of it. UAF has a great view of the cold.
posted by madred at 10:07 AM on January 13, 2011

I love Antarctica. It's gorgeous. I always love to read the McMurdo Station blogs and look at pictures. Can't get enough of them, really. I had an absentee landlord once who was in Antarctica. It made being without a landlord somehow romantic. "My landlord can't fix my plumbing right now... he's in Antarctica." It excused everything.
I'm mesmerized by these. They say so much about what it's like to be there, and it's such a tantalizing glimpse into what's going on on a day-to-day basis.

I wonder, when I look at these, about the battle between scientific interests and the military down there. Wonder what kinds of underlying or overt conflicts there are, and what it means. Is it wrong that the more I read, the more I wonder about the way the scientists are there (bashing out science in the little grant-given bits of time they get), and how they give a cover of legitimacy to an american flag stuck in the snow. I'm rooting for the scientists, obviously. But how many times has Big Oil had a look-see under the cover of geological exploration? What happens there if something seriously worth mining is found?

I'm thinking a lot about explorers as a result of some work I'm doing. And so this is what's on my mind. In the early 1900s on the Iron Range of Minnesota, geological exploration was all so very grand and heroes tromped through the woods with their surveying poles and their cameras, hunkering down with their sled dogs like in Jack London. It was so romantic. And then something is found. Iron, of course, in this case. And then this happens.


Yeah, I know, the aurora is fantastic. Please take a lot more pictures.
posted by RedEmma at 12:16 PM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]