Hostilities in the Falkland Islands Dependencies March–June 1982

My short note in an earlier issue of Polar Record [21(133): 394–95 (1983)] outlined events in the Falkland Islands Dependencies arising from the Argentinian attack and occupation of April 1982, with a brief summary of the political exchanges preceding the Argentinian action. This article chronicles some of the events that precipitated the dispute, and the military activities leading to the occupation and subsequent recovery of King Edward Point, the administrative centre and principal station of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on South Georgia

Review of Bipolar, by Kathryn Yussof

This is a decidedly unconventional contribution to the literature concerning the International Polar Years (2007–09). It is described as a new interdisciplinary polar archive, featuring essays by the editor and the late Denis Cosgrove, and over “30 ‘archives’ by artists, scholars, scientists and thinkers” (from the back cover). I find this combination strange, perplexing and unsatisfactory. The disparate subjects are treated with little editorial uniformity, and vary from paragraphs on scientific subjects, written concisely, to more lengthy articles mainly representing the conceptions of artists. The use of language in many of the articles is highly metaphorical: indeed, this might be intentional to promote philosophical thought, but appears more to diminish any clarity of understanding. Rhetorical devices assert dubious interpretations, and then demolish them by processes described as decontextualization and deconstruction (perhaps analysis is meant?). Some writers extend sentences into paragraphs, where whatever meaning was intended becomes uncertain. I find it odd that in a note on the Antarctic Treaty system, no mention of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research appears, neither Edward Wilson nor George Marston are mentioned in passages on art history, and that the exploration of the Northwest Passage involved “bearded explorers with a passion for cannibalism” (p. 78). The book has many illustrations, the merits of which are more pictorial than informative; defects include lack of captions and dimensions, which imply that the reader should regard many as impressionistic. Solecisms such as “modular research modules” and “large megafauna” abound. The orthography is irregular (notably in Icelandic), which provides evidence of haste in the production. There are references for some papers, and short biographies of contributors, but no index

BOOK REVIEW: Review of Return to Antarctica: the amazing adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott’s journey to the South Pole, by Adrian Raeside

This book is mainly the result of a visit made to Antarctica in general and the historic huts on Ross Island in particular. The author is the grandson of Sir Charles Wright, who was a physicist and glaciologist during Captain Scott’s last expedition aboard Terra Nova (1910-13). Indeed much is derived from his grandfather’s diary published in 1993. Wright was a member of the party which found Scott’s last camp after the 1912 winter.(Published: 23 August 2011)Citation: Polar Research 2011, 30, 7440, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.744