When TV Came to Rural Alaska

Today is March 30th. Happy Seward’s Day!
Not related to Secretary Seward or the holiday I’m grateful to have off, I recently finished the very brief report:
Forbes, Norma. 1984. Television’s effects on rural Alaska: summary of final report. Fairbanks, Alaska: Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Television was not introduced in a number of isolated [...]

HLA = NO IVF?

After a conspicuous absence during the years when they controlled Congress and had an anti-abortion President in the White House, Republicans in both houses have proposed three bills similar in effect to the Human Life Amendment. The bills are:
HR 881 – Right to Life Act
S 346 – Life at Conception Act
HR 227 – Sanctity of [...]

Common Ground: Senate Republicans

This week in my Lenten practice, I’d like to share my common ground with the Republicans in the US Senate. I support Republicans like Jon Kyl who are resisting the idea of a special tax on AIG and other bailout bonuses.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the bonuses should not have been given out. I [...]

What kind of name is Redoubt?

After my post on historical background about Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano, a reader named Doug left a comment asking,
How did the name “Redoubt” come to be?
Is there a history of the name?
It is curious name……
I thought others might be interested in the answer, so I’m making a new entry about it.
My first stop on trying to [...]

Celebrating Alaska Statehood 50 Years January 3, 1959 – 2009 – A Personal Reflection

Celebrating Alaska Statehood 50 Years January 3, 1959 – 2009 – A Personal Reflection
Originally uploaded by Wonderlane

This is just one of over 21,000 photos in Flickr that have Alaska as a keyword and are licensed under an “Attribution” Creative Commons license. This means you can use the item any way you like as long as [...]

Me in front of Alaska’s Spaceport

Me in front of Alaska’s Spaceport

Originally uploaded by AlaskanLibrarian

This is me next to the sign of the Kodiak Launch Complex, a state-owned spaceport on Kodiak Island, Alaska that participates in National Missile Defense testing and launches satellites. As far as I could tell no tours were available, but I loved posing in front of [...]

Conservation is Scriptural

Conservation is Scriptural

Originally uploaded by nichollsgovdoc

An interesting mix of Church and State, circa 1963. Thanks to nichollsgovdoc for adding this to Flickr. – Daniel

Cut a knot, get $40,000

According to the December 2008 issue of Alaska Fish and Wildlife News, state workers at the Department of Fish & Game saved $40,000 by cutting one knot. How?
“Last winter we were watching fuel prices going up, and we bought a set of fuel meters that allowed us to judge fuel consumption very accurately in real [...]

Common Ground: Joe Lieberman

This past week, I realize it was a mistake to call my Lenten blogging practice Common Ground Republicans because my perceived political allies and opponents don’t fit neatly into party boxes. For example, while I admire Congressman John Conyer’s efforts to provide accountability for former Bush Administration officials, he and I are polls apart on [...]

How to do the mileage tax

While the Obama Administration has reportedly rejected the idea, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission has endorsed the idea of a miles driven tax to pay for road construction and maintenance. A search of Google News shows that some states are thinking about such a tax to replace gasoline taxes.
As a car owner myself, [...]