Something I have trouble explaining about space travel. Like, if you've read my book, you know I think human space faring is probably not economically valuable. It's not a good use of science dollars compared to other areas. I'm even skeptical of the case for inspiration (it doesn't seem to causally related to more aerospace degrees).
But it's also just really cool. Why don't I feel this way about Antarctica or Seabed exploration?
@ZachWeinersmith Antarctic exploration *was* sexy 100-150 years ago, though! We kind of remember Captain Scott's ill-fated South polar expedition, but less so the ferocious international rivalry that drove it (or Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who got there first and survived).
In contrast, now we have Antarctic bases, familiarity breeds … boredom?
@cstross @ZachWeinersmith Perhaps unsurprisingly, here in Denmark we *do* remember Roald Amundsen. There are streets named after him and the like.
(But we have little if any cultural memory of Scott.)
@datarama @cstross @ZachWeinersmith Whereas here we have e.g. a statue of Scott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Robert_Falcon_Scott,_Christchurch
Interesting comparison :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_Amundsen_and_Scott_expeditions
@bigblen @cstross @ZachWeinersmith As far as I know there aren't any Amundsen statues in Denmark, but there are some in Norway. In Oslo, there's actually a monument with five statues, one of each of Amundsen's expedition members who reached the South Pole (including himself, of course).
I used to live just a couple of streets away from one of those streets named after him. When I was a kid and we learned about the history of polar exploration, we got a long story of Amundsen's expedition - and Scott got only a brief mention.
@bigblen In fairness, we also have a big bronze bust of Amundsen. He has a very shiny nose, because it is considered lucky to touch it when you visit the museum.
A journalist looked into this a few years ago, and it turns out that this tradition dates back to the 1960s, when a tour guide found himself with time to fill. He made up a local legend about Amundsen's nose having aphrodisiac qualities and the tourists all queued up to touch it.
https://ehive.com/collections/3003/objects/50/bust-of-roald-amundsen
@Photo55 That's the one: the Antarctic gallery in Canterbury Museum.
The whole museum is currently closed for a five-year rebuild, so a generation of children is missing out on seeing the giant moa and blue whale skeletons, the meteorite you're allowed to touch, the mummy Tash Pen Khonsu, the reproduction Victorian street, the racist 1980s dioramas of early Māori (not coming back), the gallery of later Māori culture that did a better job, and Amundsen's nose.
Zach Weinersmith
Charlie Stross
datarama
bigblen
Isaac Freeman
MidgePhoto