No, don't worry, penguin chicks are not suffering from Polar Disorder. The chick comes from Nicholas Johnson's marvelous website, Big Dead Place, that is dedicated to Antarctica and to thinking about Antarctica. This penguin comes from an essay about the proliferation of cuteness...Nicholas, whose essay in Antarctica: Life on the Ice is about going "toast" offers a real insiders view of life on the ice in his book, also titled Big Dead Place.

At his site, Nicholas serves up stories and interviews and this month Harper's excerpted an interview with "Nero" an independent contractor who has worked in Antarctica, Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the polar disorder...

Nicholas reports from the ice:

I'm in McMurdo, working in Fleet-Ops.  Today I'm dozing snow out at Pegasus.

From the interview: