Did you ever want to go to Antarctica? Quark Expeditions has a contest going. They are making a promotion out of sending a blogger to Antarctica on an 11-day expedition next year, and have a voting system set up so that each blogger can have people vote for their bid to go on the trip. What I'd like is that after reading this, you either go over and join the contest, or put in a vote for my bid. You can change your vote later, if you decide to go with another blogger in the running. The voting ends September 30th, 2009.
Beyond the issues of popularity and credentials, there is the issue of attitude. If you are reading this, you are likely to want to see a blogger picked for this trip who is sensitive to conservation issues like habitat loss. I have a track record of taking up those issues in my blogging. This is not the case for many of my competitors in the contest, so I would urge you again to get involved.
This is set up as a simple popularity contest, but I'd like to make the point that I bring actual qualifications to the table. I have plenty of experience blogging at my personal weblog and at the Panda's Thumb. I am a wildlife biologist, and I've been involved in research on fin whales, prairie chickens, bottlenose dolphins, beluga whales, and California sea lions. I'm interdisciplinary by way of also having expertise in computer science. I've done software design and programming, system administration, and evolutionary computation professionally. I've applied computer techniques to wildlife research, winning the Fred Fairfield Memorial Award for Innovation in Marine Mammal Research in 2001 for work on bottlenose dolphin biosonar signal production. I've applied computer science in law, having programmed and applied text comparison to the set of drafts of the "intelligent design" textbook, "Of Pandas and People", in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case that linked "intelligent design" to earlier forms of creationism. I'm a published photographer. I do research-level acoustics work.
Back around 1997, Randy Davis at Texas A&M University was putting together an Anatarctic expedition to observe the behavior of diving Weddell seals, including both physiological and bioacoustical measures of what was happening. I got an invitation to go along to assist in the research, but I had to turn that down because of chronic ulcerative colitis that first presented in 1983. As my doctor said, though, ulcerative colitis can be cured, and my colon got removed back in 2004. (See the first messages on my weblog for the gory details of going through surgery and recuperation.) So now I'm in shape where I can contemplate having an adventure, and I'd like to get the chance to find out part of what I missed due to chronic illness earlier.
If I collect the most votes in the contest, there is the question of who and what I would take along.
The contest gives the winner a trip for two people. I'll be taking along my wife, Diane Blackwood. Diane is also an interdisciplinary researcher with her terminal degree in wildlife biology and degrees in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. Diane's major research interest is in animal behavior and behavioral ecology. She has done research on infant respiration, kinesiology in wheelchair athletes, equine gaits, prairie chickens, sage grouse, bottlenose dolphins, beluga whales, and hunting spiders. Also along for the trip will be Professor Steve Steve from the Panda's Thumb weblog.
I plan to go prepared to provide excellent photographic coverage of the trip and both in-air and underwater acoustics. I have high-end digital cameras and lenses for the photo opportunities. I have my own set of hydrophones for underwater listening, plus ordinary microphones and a shotgun mic for in-air work.
I'd also take along my interest in conservation biology, and aim to inquire not only about the state of Antarctica now, but how threats like global climate change and pollution may change the Antarctic ecology.
So far, I haven't been to Antarctica, but I've heard my colleagues talk about their experiences there and with the usual wildlife from there. I'd really like to see the behaviors and interactions in the wild for myself, and I would appreciate your help.