turns out there's a seventh continent.

I sorta forgot about the giant landmass at the bottom of the world. once i settled on it being a featureless slab of ice with a few penguins waddling around, i pretty much lost interest.

then i watched the documentary encounters at the end of the world and it is now easily my seventh-favorite continent. which is not to say i was not incredibly fascinated; i certainly recommend giving the film a viewing. antarctica looked nothing short of an alien planet in some other solar system as the filmmaker explored 13,000 foot volcanoes with star trek-like steam caverns they create in the ice. he then dived into the sea to film the bizarre animals that can sustain the deep cold as the divers' oxygen tank bubbles would react to the trapping ice sheet above like drops of oil in water. mile-thick ice covers much of the continent, even though it is millions of years removed from being tropical. he spoke with some of the many unusual personalities from around the world who end up in antarctica to assist in scientific studies and the strange, almost sci-fi town they inhabit in an ungoverned continent (which happens to be as big as north america but due to the ice and isolation was practically undiscovered even when europeans had been in south america for 300 years). and for me, apparently until 2 days ago. oops.