A Traveller's Research

Tag: People

New forensic analysis indicates bones found on a remote island in the South Pacific were likely those of legendary adventurer Amelia Earhart

Science Daily:

Richard Jantz, professor emeritus of anthropology and director emeritus of UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center, re-examined seven bone measurements conducted in 1940 by physician D. W. Hoodless. Hoodless had concluded that the bones belonged to a man.

Jantz, using several modern quantitative techniques — including Fordisc, a computer program for estimating sex, ancestry, and stature from skeletal measurements — found that Hoodless had incorrectly determined the sex of the remains. The program, co-created by Jantz, is used by nearly every board-certified forensic anthropologist in the US and around the world.

The data revealed that the bones have more similarity to Earhart than to 99 percent of individuals in a large reference sample.

The new study is published in the journal Forensic Anthropology.

Source: University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Theatrical Trailer for the documentary Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey

DIRTBAG Trailer | The Legend of Fred Beckey

Presented by PATAGONIA

Official Theatrical Trailer for the feature documentary DIRTBAG: THE LEGEND OF FRED BECKEY.

Hailed as one of the most influential climbers of all time, Fred Beckey is the original American “Dirtbag”–one who abandons societal norms and material comforts in pursuit of a nomadic mountaineering lifestyle.

This rebel athlete’s lifetime of accomplishments set the bar for the entire sport. He shattered records with an unparalleled string of superhuman first ascents, bushwhacking trails and pioneering direct routes thought previously impassable.

Beckey burned bridges, eschewed fame and thrived as a loner so that his only obligation would remain conquering the next summit. He kept meticulous personal journals where he mused on everything from arcane geology to his romantic life, to the myriad sunrises he witnessed from vantages not seen by anyone else on Earth. An environmentalist before there was such a term, Beckey’s legacy includes 13 essential books that act as blueprints for new generations. He is still defiantly climbing today at age 94.

The White Darkness – A solitary journey across Antarctica

David Grann tells the story of modern-day fifty-five year old British polar explorer, Lieutenant Colonel Alastair Edward Henry Worsley, on his attempt to traverse Antartica in 2015, solo. This is one of the most brutal environments in the world. Nobody had attempted this feat before.

David Grann, The New Yorker:

By the middle of January, 2016, he had travelled more than eight hundred miles, and virtually every part of him was in agony. His arms and legs throbbed. His back ached. His feet were blistered and his toenails were discolored. His fingers had started to become numb with frostbite. In his diary, he wrote, “Am worried about my fingers — one tip of little finger already gone and all others very sore.” One of his front teeth had broken off, and the wind whistled through the gap. He had lost some forty pounds, and he became fixated on his favorite foods, listing them for his broadcast listeners: “Fish pie, brown bread, double cream, steaks and chips, more chips, smoked salmon, baked potato, eggs, rice pudding, Dairy Milk chocolate, tomatoes, bananas, apples, anchovies, Shredded Wheat, Weetabix, brown sugar, peanut butter, honey, toast, pasta, pizza and pizza. Ahhhhh!”

He was on the verge of collapse. Yet he was never one to give up, and adhered to the S.A.S.’s unofficial motto, “Always a little further” — a line from James Elroy Flecker’s 1913 poem “The Golden Journey to Samarkand.” The motto was painted on the front of Worsley’s sled, and he murmured it to himself like a mantra: “Always a little further … a little further.”

 

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