South Pole explorers to drill for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s whisky

Two crates of the now extinct “Rare Old” brand of McKinlay and Co whisky have been buried in the Antarctic ice since Shackleton was forced to abandon his polar mission in 1909.

But Whyte & Mackay, the whisky giant that owns McKinlay and Co, has asked a team of New Zealand explorers heading out on a January expedition to return a sample of the drink for a series of experiments.

The team intends to utilise special drills to free the trapped crates and rescue a bottle from the wreckage, which is believed to have been discarded 97 miles from the pole.

If they cannot retrieve a full bottle, they are hoping to use a syringe to extract some of the contents.

The sample will then be brought home to Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay’s master blender, who intends to replicate the famous old whisky.

If the experiment is successful, original McKinlay whisky could be put back on sale.

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Humanist Chaplains

While many higher-education institutions have been affiliated with particular religions since their founding, there has been a broad movement in recent years to accommodate religious diversity by enlisting additional chaplains to serve different faith groups, such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus and various Christian denominations that might not have been present at institutions’ foundings.

Now an organization of non-religious students at Tufts University is saying: Hey, what about us?

The Tufts Freethought Society — a group of about 150 students who identify as atheistic, agnostic, or otherwise non-religious — wants the university to establish a “humanist” chaplaincy to serve as a resource for students who are interested in exploring how to live “ethical and meaningful lives” without subscribing to any religion.

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