Ben Saunders

Submarines at the North Pole.

— Filed under Aside

162 kilometres in eight hours! Rune Gjeldnes' kite-powered solo crossing of Antarctica is going well.

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Ozzy Osborne's Stunt Double

If you've ever wondered who a charity like the Duke of Edinburgh's Award might turn to if they'd been expecting none other than the Prince of Darkness himself (and his wife Sharon) to speak at an award ceremony next week, only to be let down at the last minute, then look no further.

That's right. I was before Bono in the speaker line-up at this years TED conference, and now I'm stepping in to speak instead of Ozzy and Sharon Osborne. My life gets more surreal by the minute.

Back in the real world, I've been tarting the site up a bit. There's now (mainly so my mum can keep tabs on me) a 'Where's Ben?' section on the left, along with a random smattering of my Flickr photos a bit further down. The site had a bit of an overhaul at the weekend – it's now running on a brand spanking new install of the fabulous WordPress. There are a few glitches I haven't figured out yet; let me know if you find anything that's broken.

— Filed under Miscellany, Speaking

Gah! The day after patting myself on the back for changing most of our lightbulbs for energy saving ones, I spot this out of the window…

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Shake up your feet

Monday's food for thought, from the Dave Matthews Band's 'Pig':

Is this not enough
The blessed sip of life
Is it not enough
Staring down at the ground
Oh then complain and pray
More from above
Greedy little pig
Stop just watch your world trickle away
Oh it’s your problem now
It’ll all be dead and gone in
A few short years

Just love will open our eyes
Just love will put the hope back in our minds
Much more than we could ever know
Don’t burn the day away

Come sister
My brother
Shake up your bones shake up your feet
I’m saying open up
And let the rain come pouring in
Wash out this tired notion
That the best is yet to come
But while you’re dancing on the ground
Don’t think of when you’re gone

(Thanks Ed.)

— Filed under Inspiration

Kit for Pakistan Earthquake Victims

Everest mountaineer and all-round nice guy Paul Deegan emailed me a couple of days ago with this – the Mountain Company and Cotswold Outdoor have clubbed together to co-ordinate the collection (in the UK only, sadly) of second hand tents, sleeping bags and other warm clothes to be sent to the recently-affected regions in Pakistan.

Cotswold stores will be accepting kit/clothing donations until November 30th, and as if helping out with such a worthy cause wasn't enough, you'll also get a voucher for 15% off your next purchase with them.

I'll be rummaging through my kit collection this weekend for some gear to donate. Hopefully you'll have time to do the same.

— Filed under Miscellany

Nothing to do with polar expeditions, but I've been helping a couple of friends get a fun project off the ground recently – the London Theatre Review.

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Thought for the day

One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.

- Edward Abbey

— Filed under Miscellany

WhitePod have just won the 2005 Responsible Tourism Best for Innovation Award. Congratulations, Sofia!

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As a response to an 'increased cancer risk due to less shielding from cosmic radiation' in flights over the North Pole, Cathay Pacific has limited each crew's NY/HK flights per month to two. Jeepers. I've spent 145 days on the Arctic Ocean… (Link via Kottke.)

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Cameron's Pledge (and other news)

Cameron Sinclair is one of my heroes. Last year, Fortune Magazine named him as one of the Aspen Seven – seven people changing the world for the better. He's the founder of the brilliant Architecture for Humanity, and is the recipient of the 2005 INDEX Award for Community, the 2005 Lewis Mumford Award for Peace and next year's TED Prize. And he's only a few years older than me.

Cameron has also (like many of you) offered to buy a mile of the next expedition, but rather than merely stumping up the cash, he's done something rather more exciting, by starting a pledge – 'I will donate $250 for Ben Saunders to walk one mile of his South Pole expedition but only if 20 other people from around the world will too'. So if you've been toying with the idea of buying a mile but haven't done so yet, how about signing up to Cameron's pledge?

On a different note, it's taken ages, but last year's expedition website is up and running again, in all its glory, thanks to the patience and hard work of the site's designer, Damien du Toit, and our uber-host Pete Barr-Watson.

— Filed under Inspiration

If you're not listening to Radio David Byrne, you really ought to be.

— Filed under Aside