Siberia, Alaska Land Bridge

The prevailing theory has been that people followed herds of migrating animals across an ancient land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, and then moved southward along the West coast. Proof has been hard to come by, however. The sea – about 60 metres lower at the time –would have inundated the remains of coastal settlements as it rose.

A team led by anthropologist Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University reports on the new seaweed study from Monte Verde, Chile, in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

There is a continuous mountain chain along the western side of the Americas, Mr. Dillehay explained in a briefing, with thousands of rivers and streams flowing down the mountains to the ocean.

This would have encouraged north-to-south migration, he explained, with some groups choosing to turn and follow rivers inland.

Earliest American find detailed - The Globe and Mail

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Food Not Lawns - Alaska

SITKA, Alaska

The notion that it’s impossible to grow vegetables in Sitka falls away quickly when you visit Florence Welsh. Cabbages the size of bowling balls line one side of the her driveway, and giant cauliflower ears, lettuce beds, and broccoli are just a few steps away.

Next to her garage, up a slight hill, are fresh flowers, with pink and purple canterbury bells and delphiniums growing under the protection of a roof that keeps the rain off and shields them from the wind.

Growing beds are around every corner with potatoes, zucchini, carrots, chives, mint, basil, chard, rhubarb, and fennel — the list goes on. A good deal of what Ms. Welsh is growing, including fresh cut flowers, will be available at this year’s Sitka Farmers’ Market.

Besides Welsh, market co-coordinators Kerry MacLane and Linda Wilson said, there are two other main vegetable providers who will operate tables at the market: Gimbal Botanicals, which is run by Hope Merritt, and the Sitka Local Foods Network, which has been tending to the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm.

All three operations are completely organic, grown with post-spawn seaweed as the primary fertilizer.

It is a technique that Welsh has advocated since 1984, when she began her growing operation in Sitka. She avoids chemicals and uses lightweight, gauzelike row covers to keep bugs off her developing plants.

In Sitka, Alaska, ‘food not lawns’ takes hold | csmonitor.com

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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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