"The ancient convention for naming newly discovered geographical features is fairly simple: royalty, sponsors, loved ones and crewmates come first, possibly followed by the explorer. That is how most of the landmarks around Antarctica got their names. But now a new set of names is being added — not to geographical spots, which are mostly taken, but to navigation waypoints along the main air routes between New Zealand and McMurdo Station in Antarctica. They will bear the names of the dogs and ponies used by Robert Falcon Scott and by Roald Amundsen during their great race to the South Pole in the winter of 1911-1912, names like Bones and Nobby, Helge and Uroa. Everyone responsible for the waypoints — civil air authorities, scientific bodies — yielded to a two-year campaign by Ronald Smith, an American Air Force colonel, to honor those animals...."
Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/opinion/30thu4.html
Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/opinion/30thu4.html