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Not An Idiot
Wed Sep 10, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Jack Williams is best known for being the
editor of the USA Today Weather Page. But he has also written a few weather books. I spoke
with him about his latest.
JACK: This is a Complete Idiot's Guide to the Arctic and Antarctic. Fascinating places. You
don't have to be an idiot to enjoy the book, just someone who wants to know more about the
coldest parts of the earth. I've been writing about polar science for USA Today and USA
Today.com and I got back from a trip to the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2002 - had a phone
mail message waiting from a book agent who wanted to know did I want to do the book - and, of
course, I did.
BRYAN: So, what are some of the major differences that you noted between the Arctic and the
Antarctic?
JACK: The really big difference is the Arctic has had a lot of native people, Inuit or
Eskimos - fascinating people - and we get a lot about them. Antarctica has never had humans
live there. People visit there but no one really lives there.
BRYAN: Did you get to participate in any of the hands-on science when you were there?
JACK: At the South Pole I watched them launch one of the balloons that go up and study the
ozone at a place called Siple Dome where they were drilling an ice core to get information on
past climate. And, also, with some of the other science out on the ice, watching people but
not - they wouldn't let me get my hands on the neat equipment.
Alas. More from Idiots on tomorrow's show. The Weather Notebook is funded by The National
Science Foundation, and Subaru of America.
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