MARCH 17, 2010 - 1:00 PM
Perhaps the extremely rare killing of a Human by wolves will focus the attention of the Alaska public on the overall sad condition of their “common” wildlife heritage under the “consumptive” management system. The “wolf problem” is just a symptom---Alaska has a wildlife management problem.
read more »
add a comment
MARCH 12, 2010 - 1:54 PM
I try to learn something from every animal (and Human) encounter I experience. In fact, I try to learn everything possible from every incident. Whenever I have any encounter with any bear, wolf, moose, caribou, lynx, fox, coyote, raven, eagle, even domestic dogs and ptarmigan, etc. I go over it in my mind and review every factor and every movement that took place during what are sometimes extremely brief encounters. I try to figure out, based on the sequence of events, what the motivations of the animal might have been and how my presence and movements and my dogs affected the animal.
read more »
add a comment
MARCH 11, 2010 - 1:37 PM
I wish science would stop coming up with scientific excuses for people who hate science. It does appear, however, that there are two distinct personality types---conservative and liberal. I figure there must also be variations and gradations between the two such as moderates, independents or undecideds.
read more »
add a comment
MARCH 3, 2010 - 4:10 PM
FIRST LIAR PRINCIPLE---FIRSTEST WITH THE LEASTEST -
You don’t have to fool all the people all the time. Only about a third need to be consistently fooled by the first lie. A snappy slogan or a short piece of catchy terminology, delivered like a punch-line, will do the trick. Think “family values,” “government is the enemy,” “death panels” or “birthers.” Think insults like “socialist,” “traitor,” “liberal,” and “over-educated.” Think catch-phrases like “Patriot Act,” “defending our freedom,” “Homeland Security,” “preemptive war” and “spreading democracy.”
read more »
add a comment
FEBRUARY 21, 2010 - 1:55 PM
Frontier is where the mouth of civilization eats wilderness.
THE NEWCOMERS -
The coming of the Russians to Alaska brought drastic changes to all the subsistence cultures they encountered---mostly along the Aleutian Chain. Natives were brutally decimated, exploited and enslaved. The Promyschenniki were the lowest of Czarist Russian society---ignorant, murderous and brutish. They weren’t especially good sailors or proficient fighters either---but they had muskets.
The Russians, however, were interested mainly in sea otter pelts. They did not penetrate the interior of Alaska---the great game herds were generally unaffected by their presence. Nor did the Russians extensively exploit the far North, leaving those Native peoples more or less free to continue living their traditional subsistence way of life.
read more »
add a comment
FEBRUARY 15, 2010 - 11:11 PM
Avalanche conditions update 2-18-10:
Overnight, the surface snow around upper Hatcher Pass has turned wet and heavy---the layers underneath are still unconsolidated which means the heavy stuff can slide on it. This heavy, wet snow is the kind that rips trees and Humans apart and entombs the remains with instant solidification.
This blog column is intended to be obvious. When avalanche conditions exist in the mountains in one part of South Central Alaska there is a good chance they will exist in most other mountains in South Central. It may be obvious to some but apparently not to those unfortunates who get caught in avalanches---which is why I write this stuff. - R.W.
read more »
add a comment
FEBRUARY 10, 2010 - 5:09 PM
In the Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska, at the headwaters of Purches Creek, north of what is today called Dogsled Pass, a giant boulder sits at base of the next pass crossing over to Upper Peters Creek Valley.
I’ve crossed Dogsled Pass maybe 30-40 times on foot and never closely examined this prominent boulder. Like so many “glacial erratics,” the great boulder had been carried to its current position by glaciers and gently set in place about ten-thousand years ago when the ice melted.
Camped near the boulder on the last day of a 13-day trip to the Kashwitna River drainages, I climbed onto the rock in the evening to have a look around. Clambering over the surface I realized that this boulder provided a lookout from which caribou could be spotted approaching from almost any direction in this glacier-carved bowl at the headwaters of Purches Creek. A lookout standing on the boulder could see far down into the valley where Purches Creek leaves the high-country tundra and brush and flows through the woodlands, then disappears from sight around the base of the mountains to join with Peters Creek and eventually to flow into Willow Creek.
read more »
add a comment
FEBRUARY 5, 2010 - 3:11 PM
The Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on their free speech is based on the fear that if the American public is not continually distracted they might just figure out who is really fooling them.
It’s not as if finance, insurance, real estate (FIRE) and military weapons manufacturers and contractors (let’s call them “ARMs“) didn’t already have politicians of both major parties already bought and paid for. Lets call these corporate-finance-security special-interests “FIRE-ARMs” for short.
It’s not as if Congress could make a move without the direct orders and final approval of the armies of lobbyists working for FIRE-ARMs and who actually write the legislation for them.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 29, 2010 - 12:53 PM
9/11---ANOTHER PEARL HARBOR? -
It was quickly established after 9/11 that---while the U.S. had been attacked---we were in ridiculously little danger of actually being invaded. Even al Qaeda is not crazy enough to believe it can invade us. Al Qaeda has clearly stated that its goal is to provoke America since it does not possess the means to invade.
It was wildly inaccurate to call 9/11 “another Pearl Harbor.” That’s why my greatest fear after 9/11 was what the limited mind in the White House would do with all those weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. America’s tendency to overreact scared me more than the attackers themselves.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 24, 2010 - 10:55 AM
[Note: part two will focus on “Weapons and Balance of Forces.“]
THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE -
By al Qaeda’s own words, the Palestinian issue is al Qaeda’s main motivation and mission. Everything hinges on the treatment, by Israel and the West, of Palestinians who were displaced and are still being squeezed in places like Gaza in order to make room for Israel, its Settlers and its Wall. This is basically why al Qaeda says it is the sworn enemy of Israeli “Zionists” and their American “Imperialist” supporters. Since many Middle East governments don’t do enough for the Palestinian cause, they are also on the enemies list of al Qaeda.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 16, 2010 - 2:44 PM
Somehow I missed it when the Outdoors section of the Anchorage Daily News was dropped and Outdoors Editor, Craig Medred, was gone.
The Outdoors section disappeared without fanfare. But every once in a while---in the fairly intact (spectator) Sports section---a bit of space is made for an “outdoors” themed article.
For 25 years Craig Medred was an Outdoors writer and/or editor for the Anchorage Daily News. He now writes online for Alaska Dispatch---giving more expression to a right-wing slant than when he wrote for ADN. My thanks for his years of outdoors coverage and best wishes in his future endeavors.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 11, 2010 - 12:55 PM
RESPONSE:
What a sorry set of comments below. The U.S. has 200,000 troops plus “contractors” in Muslim lands and is firing munitions into others but “they” are trying to take us over? And, since Islam “started it” in the 8th Century we can go on blasting children with a clear conscience because this kind of stuff always happens in war? The low-tech terrorists have succeeded in getting us high-tech terrorists right down to their level. - RW
<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>
Sometime during the second term of George W. Bush, I heard something I never thought I would hear from an America journalist: “Now it’s okay to criticize Bush.”
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 6, 2010 - 4:37 PM
If President Obama had come out immediately and labeled the Christmas Day “Underwear Bomber” fiasco a “security failure,” he would have been just as correct as he was the following Tuesday after “connecting the dots” and coming to the same conclusion. And he would have seemed a lot more in charge.
Lets review: The young Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had no U.S. passport; his student visa for even leaving Yemen had expired three months previously; he had an inflammatory web site---and his father, a Nigerian banker, had months ago alerted U.S. authorities to his “extreme religious views.” I believe he also paid for his ticket in cash and had no luggage. According to family members, the father was shocked to learn that his son was even allowed to fly to the U.S.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 5, 2010 - 11:26 AM
Ex-CIA operative Henry “Hank” Crumpton was very impressive on Charlie Rose’s PBS al Quaeda, antiterrorist-themed show Jan 4. Young (44) and handsome, Crumpton was the guy who supposedly led the original and very efficient ouster of the Taliban with minimal U.S. personnel by using local help. That “local help” would be the Tajik and Uzbek “former“ Communist allies and war lords---a fine group of upstanding citizens who now plague and corrupt Afghanistan in place of the Taliban.
Charlie played excerpts from Crumpton’s interview with Lara Logan of “60 Minutes.” The lovely reporter and the handsome ex-spy---the warrior and the war groupie.
read more »
add a comment
JANUARY 2, 2010 - 6:17 PM
“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." - Sir Peter Ustinov
What’s next---The Hair Bomber? Just talk to a prison guard who can inform of the various body parts and orifices available for secreting (hiding) stuff.
The Underwear Bomber,“ a.k.a. “The Condom Bomber,” is just another excuse to lob more missiles into Yemen. At least he wore a condom.
Yemen's foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi---taking full advantage of the abject fear and panic created by the Yemen connection---is requesting “the international community to train and equip counter-terrorist forces,” the Times of London reported on December 30. He wants helicopters and other war-stuff. Let’s hope it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists---there is, after all, a civil war going on there.
read more »
add a comment
DECEMBER 28, 2009 - 2:54 PM
[Note: I see where a very few responders survived the taste-content “filter” on this here blog site. Congratulations!
Cat_train2 and Nopenhagen: I suspect you guys are “working men” (just a guess). I wish you and your fighting spirit had been around when businesses began sending American jobs overseas during the Clinton-era with no provision for the lost jobs; when the (Great) Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act was repealed allowing our financial wizards to run loose; and when we entered our most recent useless and very costly wars. You could have saved us all trillions of dollars!
read more »
add a comment
DECEMBER 24, 2009 - 3:10 PM
[Note: Thanks to all who read my climate series and voiced their opinions---especially those who took the time to state specifically why they appreciated my efforts. I value all responses---even from those who didn’t notice that the answers to their comments are contained within the series itself. For instance, I made it clear that individual temperature variations are subsumed by the totality of world-wide data---making the “ironic…record low” temperatures at Copenhagen during the climate conference meaningless as an indicator. Speaking of the environment…]
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has written one of the more insightful and intelligent “Christmas“ columns of the season (“Pantheism has become Hollywood’s own religion,“ Anchorage Daily News, 12-23-09). It is worthy of a response.
read more »
add a comment
DECEMBER 16, 2009 - 4:52 PM
“The order we impose on nature is always temporary and illusory.“ - Michael Pollan, Botany of Desire
SHORT UN-EASY SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE -
Climate change is one of the most complex scientific problems ever---interconnected with other complex problems like a dysfunctional economic system, a dysfunctional political system, huge public debt, a corporate-financial monkey on our backs and a public with little concept of how science and logic work but looking for short, easy answers.
Well, here they are---short, anyway:
1. If you don’t know science know your scientist. Learn to differentiate independent scientists from industry mouthpieces. Learn at least enough about science to recognize when you are being grossly misinformed. Take a course in formal logic.
read more »
add a comment
DECEMBER 5, 2009 - 2:16 PM
People shouldn’t apologize for discussing Sarah Palin---but instead of debating the meaning of “rogue” they should be looking up “demagogue:” “A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace” (American Heritage Dictionary).
“Bush’s Brain,” Carl Rove (agnostic) understood that extreme faith can be politically exploited. Sarah Palin now appeals to the extreme right-wing far more overtly than George W. Bush ever dared.
Sarah Palin represents a culture of victimhood. Palin spokesperson, Meg Stapleton, illustrates the Palin paradox of self-inflicted, intergenerational pain. While holding her newborn infant at a public gathering (to show family values before TV cameras?) Stapleton dutifully and angrily barked into the poor little tyke’s ear while aiming at someone who had apparently offended her boss.
read more »
add a comment
NOVEMBER 22, 2009 - 5:18 PM
The climate hoax is itself a hoax. The comments below change nothing in the actual data or actual findings of actual climate science right now in this decade.
Sure, there is a big uproar in England---but the numbers of hits on some website do not constitute scientific evidence of anything but runaway emotionalism. As is happening in England, this bucket of chum dumped into rising waters is luring hungry anti-climate-science sharks out of the closet.
To reiterate, climate science---even more so than other areas of scientific study---is done by a consensus of scientists all over the World. That’s why there is no way I am going to defend some indiscreet British scientists’ Email utterances that would have been blasted out of consideration by other scientists had they been openly presented at a scientific meeting.
read more »
add a comment
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.
|
ADN Store |
Newspapers in Education
