A farewell for the nonce (and requests for readers)

October 20, 2019 • 1:00 pm

As many of you know, I’ll be out of Chicago for five weeks beginning Monday afternoon. During that time I will have only sporadic access to email, but will try to post if I can from time to time. Matthew will be putting up just the cat portion of the Hili dialogues, which Malgorzata and Andrzej will send him daily.

Because of the possibility I’ll get overwhelmed by email when I do check in, I ask readers to email me as little as possible from tomorrow until the beginning of December. That means hold on to your readers’ wildlife photos and photos of readers, and also hold on to your “tips” (stuff you want to call to my attention) until I return. If there are very pressing emails, you may contact me, but I may not respond in a timely fashion. I will post photos of my journey if I get the opportunity.

But don’t unsubscribe because, like Arnold, I’ll be back—unless I’m eaten by an orca or leopard seal.

46 thoughts on “A farewell for the nonce (and requests for readers)”

  1. Bon Voyage!

    unless I’m eaten by an orca or leopard seal.

    I’ve always thought that if one had to die by animal – succumbing to an apex predator would be a dignified way to go. That said, stay safe and don’t jump in the water!

    1. And stay away from the edge of the ice. I saw a video once of a leopard seal leaping out of the water and sinking its teeth into the leg of a man standing on the ice.

  10. Just get out of here and don’t worry about anything until you get back. Call it a working vacation for a retired guy.

  15. Have a great trip, keep warm – wear your mittens, and, as I’ve noted elsewhere, stay away from those Adelie penguins lest they commit unspeakable acts on your body.

    1. If you visit King penguins, pat a gigantic fuzzy juvenile on the head for me and take a selfie with it.

      I don’t know if the ‘perverted’ behavior of Adelie penguins is exhibited by other species of penguins but back in 2012 PCC(E) had a post on about the scandalous Adelie penguins https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/suppressed-records-of-depraved-sex-acts-by-penguins-finally-released-after-a-century/.

      In 2014 PCC(E) had a post about a “killer penguin” https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/attack-of-the-killer-adelie/ described as attacking a man.

      However, given their polymorphous perverse proclivities, I now think the penguin was trying to rape the man (or it could be lustmord), so my warning about the Adelie penguins was made in jest, but perhaps it should be taken seriously.

  16. Safe travels. Looking forward to your photos and anything else you share from the trip. May you cross paths with much wildlife and adorable penguins.

  18. Yes, Prof Coyne, have a good well earned break. I’m sure we can all look forward to some exciting, interesting and entertaining tales on your return.

  19. Take care on that cruise to Antarctica, boss; the Southern Ocean is nothing to mess with. Ain’t never sailed it myself, but I know people who have, and they say there’s nothing else like it anywhere.

    Are you leaving us an itinerary? Is there any way to track your progress? Should we set up single sideband radios? 🙂

    1. Well, sorry about that folks. The explosion happened but it must have knocked out the electricity and the video feed stopped. Better luck next time.

  24. That’s twice now (at least) you’ve mentioned getting eaten by large marine predators. I hope that doesn’t happen; stay away from the edge of the water! Enjoy your trip; it sounds wonderful.

  25. PCC: have a great trip. If you get a wifi connection down there please post some fotos.

    1. The boat is very likely to have a good WiFi setup. What the onward link to the rest of the Internet is like is an entirely separate question. Even with a good satellite dish and a radome that allows it to work in high winds (instead of needing to be “parked” into a protective shield), the amount of water in the air can weaken signals into uselessness, and if the boat pitches, rolls or yaws faster than the dish’s gimbals can, then you’ll lose link again.
      The cheaper internet links go through geostationary satellites – of necessity sited above an equatorial location. But you’d really hope that they have an Iridium set or several for emergency use. The Iridium constellation is at a high orientation – 86 degrees – making it a much more reliable choice in polar regions. But ohhh, it’s expensive.
      How expensive? Remember the missing Malaysian airliner? The airline chose to not pay for Iridium data transmission, presumably because it costs too much for the limited utility.

  27. Please don’t be eaten by an orca! We love you too much for you to be orca food!

    Have a wonderful trip!

  30. Well, we shouldn’t need to send any wildlife photos, because you should come back with a whole load of them yourself! Have a really great time. And enjoy the Falklands: I last went there about 17 years ago, and I hope the cruise ships haven’t mucked them up too much since then.

  35. Enjoy yourself ,you lucky doc you ,bring us back a Penguin .

    Talking of Penguin ,why don’t Polar bears eat them ? Apart from being poles apart .

    Answer ,they can’t get the wrapper off .

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