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Welcome John,

     What I find most interesting about Polynesian navigation was how
they observed the directional bioluminescent pulses of pounding island
surf as a homing beacon. This is quite a clever way to use nature to
advantage.

Greg

On Jun 1, 8:15�am, Apache Runner  wrote:
> Greetings -
>
> My name is John Huth. � I got the name of this list from David Burch.
>
> I'm hoping I can learn a lot from the collective wisdom here. � My
> background: �I'm a particle physicist, doing experimental work at the Large
> Hadron Colllider at CERN.
>
> My interest in navigation goes back quite some ways - I'd taught myself the
> classic slide-rule/sextant/chronometer techniques. � �My current main
> interest is in what I call "primitive navigation", and I'm conducting a
> Freshman Seminar in this, where we test out various techniques, like using
> the shadow-stick method to find latitude. � We discuss both Polynesian
> navigation and some of the speculations on Viking navigation. � We also do a
> bit of what David Burch calls "emergency navigation" - using a wrist watch
> and equation of time to find longitude. � �We do a lot of memorization of
> things like the coordinates of major navigational stars, EoT, that kind of
> stuff.
>
> I hope I can learn from you folks.
>
> I do have one very specific question. � I'm writing up a chapter on dead
> reckoning. � �There is a quote from Robert Falcon Scott that I'd like to pin
> down, and I haven't been able to dig it up. � �In the 1980's Roland Huntford
> wrote a book, called "The Last Place on Earth", and also a follow on called
> "Amundsen and Scott". � �The Last Place on Earth appeared in a Masterpiece
> Theater series.
>
> Here's what I'm interested in - during the publication of Scott's diaries,
> there was a number of excisions, which, presumably were done to increase the
> heroism of Scott. � In the last episode of the Masterpiece Theater series,
> there is a line by a character that I assume was supposed to be Sir Clements
> Markham, where he proposed to remove a phrase like "We should have kept the
> bearings of our outward camps" ..... or something like that. � I'd actually
> quoted that to my students, but I realize now that this could have been made
> up for the series. � I was hoping that someone might know if there existed a
> listing of the excised passages from Scott's diary, or if someone was aware
> of this particular quote, before I commit it to print.
>
> Many thanks for any help you could provide, or perhaps suggestions of who I
> could contact for this question.
>
> Best,
>
> John Huth
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