Geeks in Alaska

Alaska: Geeks dwell here, too, it's not all Palin and mush-dog races. - Boing Boing

Pat Race of Alaska Robotics, whose "Buy Back Alaska" video was featured here a couple years ago, has created a new video about crushing absurdity of national economics. It's embedded above, and I think it's sweet and funny in a homey, dorky, "I made this!" way.

From the land of Sarah Palin, meth shacks, and aerial elk-massacres, he emails Boing Boing:

Alaska Robotics is Pat Race, Aaron Suring, Lou Logan, Sarah Asper-Smith, and whoever else falls into our cast of friends and family. We live in Juneau where we make short films, draw comics, and eat halibut. We organize screenings of locally made short films twice a year and also work to bring filmmakers, animators and writers north to teach workshops.

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Help Stop the Wolf Massacre in Alaska

Please read this article and follow the link to sign this petition. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Since 2003, more than 1,000 wolves have been slaughtered under the State of Alaska's aerial wolf killing programs, shot dead by airborne gunners with high-powered rifles or chased to exhaustion and executed at point-blank range.

To artificially inflate Alaska's moose and caribou populations -- often for the benefit trophy hunters that don't even live in Alaska -- outgoing governor Sarah Palin accelerated the killing in recent years. This year alone, more than 250 wolves have been killed -- putting the 2008/2009 aerial wolf killing season on pace to become the deadliest in years.

Congressman George Miller will soon re-introduce the Protect America's Wildlife (PAW) Act, federal legislation to end the controversial practice of using aircraft and gunmen to chase and kill wolves in Alaska.

Complete the form below to urge your representative to sign on as an original co-sponsor of representative George Miller's re-introduced PAW Act help end this awful practice in Alaska and prevent it from spreading to places like the Northern Rockies.

Change.org - Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund: Help Stop the Alaska Wolf Massacre

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49th State Celebrates the big 5-0

Happy birthday, Alaska.

Our nation's 49th state, the biggest of them all, celebrated the big 5-0 this year.

With 570,374 square miles of land, Alaska is hardly homogenous. The state is divided into five distinct regions for travelers to consider, each diverse and multilayered.

Trying to sum up Alaska in a short story is akin to writing the history of the world on a postage stamp.

Here is the tip of the iceberg (glacier?) on the regions, with information culled from www.

travelalaska.com, an excellent Web site run by the Alaska Travel Industry Association.

The Columbus Dispatch : Checking In | Cindy Decker commentary: 49th state boasts endless opportunities for visitors

From Here to Alaska

When Steve Perrins and Denise Beliveau were growing up in these parts, they went to Manchester High School West.

Then they really went west.

In fact, they went north and west, and starting tonight, all of America — well, at least that portion of America that receives the television network known as RFD-TV — will see what they’ve been up to for the past 30 years or so.

UnionLeader.com
- New Hampshire news, business and sports - From here to Alaska: Meet
Steve, Denise and their five sons - Monday, Jul. 6, 2009

Alaskan Fishing

Pick up any book on Alaska fly patterns - or better yet, rummage through a few fly boxes of any hard core Alaska fly fisher - and you'll quickly note that fly patterns for Alaska come in a wide variety of styles, sizes, colors and profiles.

Some flies are designed specifically to resemble key food items such as insects, crustaceans, fish eggs or small baitfish, and these patterns are commonly referred to as "naturals." On the other end of the spectrum are fly patterns that do not resemble any specific food items. These patterns, referred to as "attractor patterns," are designed specifically to elicit a predatory or aggressive strike response. Attractor patterns are usually brightly colored or garnished with hints of flash to advertise their presence, whereas naturalistic patterns tend to closely mimic specific prey items while complementing both their natural coloration and biological profile.

CapitalCityWeekly.com - Southeast Alaska's Online Newspaper

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Alaska Celebrates Russian Culture

A little over two miles of water separates the Bering Strait islands of Little Diomede and Big Diomede, making the distance between Alaska and Siberia less than the stretch between downtown Juneau and Lemon Creek.

This proximity, called into doubt during the recent Presidential election, will be celebrated next weekend with White Nights, a festival of Russian culture organized by Alexander Dolitsky, president of the Alaska Siberia Research Center.

The event calls attention to both our physical closeness to Russia and to the long-standing historical connection between the two land masses. Organized as part of the Russian Compatriot Program, of which Dolitsky is a delegate, it serves to promote Russian heritage and culture, foster good relations between the neighboring countries, and to reach out to Russian diaspora.

The festival, sponsored by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United States and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and partially by the City and Borough of Juneau, runs from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. next Saturday, June 20, at Centennial Hall.

Warm days, White Nights - Juneau Empire

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Foodio54.com's Mike Van Heyde Hit's Alaska on US Tour

After arriving in Anchorage I made my way down to Alaska Salmon Chowder House downtown. I will make an omission here, I used to love that imitation crab stuff that you can get for $4 a bag at the grocery store, however sadly, after easting real Alaska King Crab legs I don’t think I’ll even be able to eat that imitation crab garbage ever again. It was absolutely delicious and fresh and the sauce they provided was excellent as well. The name of the place was Alaskan Salmon Chowder House, so I felt compelled to try that as well and it was just the perfect blend of Salmon and vegetables. Being from Ohio I don’t eat a lot of seafood that is just off the boat fresh (we’re cautioned not to eat too much fish from Lake Erie), and so this was a real treat.

Foodio54 Blog

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