The ***OFFICIAL*** Weekend Singles' Thread -- "Alaska Singles Thread (January 05 - 07, 2007,)

various | 5th January 2007 | Proud_yank

[snugs]

The 49th State - The Last Frontier
by proud_yank

Having recently moved here, I thought an Alaskan Singles Thread would be pretty fun.

Alaska is the largest state in America, roughly twice the size of Texas (sorry Texas!).

Putting Alaska into perspective. The Aleutian Islands over California, and South-eastern Alaska over Georgia.

An interesting fact I learned the other day is that in addition to being the Western and Northern-most state, Alaska is also the Eastern-most state too. The Western tip of the Aleutian Islands is just West of the International Dateline.

Alaska can be separated into five regions. The Far North (Also known as the 'North Slope') extends from the Brooks Range (the Northern-most extension of the Rocky Mountains) to the Arctic Ocean. Here are some photos of the Brooks Range, and the North Slope region. Barrow is the most Northern city in America. For fun, here is Barrow's weather.

Most people in Alaska live in Southcentral Alaska (Anchorage), and then the Interior (Fairbanks). Temperatures in the interior are sometimes colder than in the Arctic. Western Alaska is famous for the finish of the Iditarod dog-sled race in Nome. Southeastern, and the Interior, are famous for the Klondike gold rush.

Juneau, the state capitol is located in Southeastern Alaska. As a staunch conservative, it makes me smile that the govt. is located somewhere that can only be reached by boat or plane :-).

The Regions of Alaska

There are lots of moose here, and you really have to be careful driving. In the winter moose will come down from the mountains, and casually stroll through downtown Anchorage. We had one right outside the front door of our main office today! Other animals here include caribou, grizzly, polar, and black bears, muskoxen, beaver, otters, wolves, wolverines, tons of birds, and lots of delicious fish!

Some other interesting info about Alaska....

At 20,320 ft., Alaska has North America's highest peak, Denali.
State bird - Willow Ptarmigan.
State fish - King Salmon.
State tree - Sitka Spruce.
State spore - Dog mushing.
State animal - Moose.
State flower - Wild Native Forget-me-Not.
State song - 'Alaska's Flag'.

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue -
Alaska's flag. May it mean to you
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes, and the flow'rs nearby;
The gold of the early sourdough's dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams;
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The "Bear" - the "Dipper" - and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
Over land and sea a beacon bright.
Alaska's flag - to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.

Here are some of my photos that I've put online so far

[rzeznikj at stout]

Max!!!

what up?

$64,000 question of the day: where's Phil?

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Yup, that's Bud.

[proud_yank]

How far away from Proud_Yank are you?

You're up in Eagle River aren't you Thackney? Work-wise, about a stone's throw away. Let me know when you're back in town and we'll have to grab lunch.

Are your eagle photos from down in Homer?



I recognize that boat!

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Hi Jon.

No idea!

Saw him post late last night--just as I was off to bed.

[DollyCali]

Interesting food for thought(from FReeper Bevlar via Email).. Back tonight.. have a nice evening all...


@@@

North Dakota News

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after a snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH
that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me. I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

[proud_yank]

I'm thinking about building this guy this winter. The pics there aren't finished, but its very similar to this one. I've wanted to do this for a while now!

[pcottraux]

Shhh!

[rzeznikj at stout]

I caught his post a bit ago...

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Hey!

[pcottraux]

Whaasssuuuuup???????

[Mama_Bear]

Ladies, you must see Thanckney's wonderful pix above this post.. several sets of pix! They are funny, beautiful, magnificent, along the way.

Oh, yes....they certainly are wonderful, funny (love the bears!), beautiful and magnificent!! Thanks for the ping, Dolly.

I love Alaska! Wouldn't want to live there, I think I would be miserable during the long winter, but I love to visit in the summer. I think you've seen our 2006 Alaska whale photos, Dolly, but others may not have, so I am adding them to this great Alaska thread. Bears are one thing we didn't see, but we did see some magnificent whales and many eagles.

While in Juneau we took a "Land and Sea Photo Safari" tour.
Here are some incredible photos of a pod of humpback whale.



This pod of Humpback are "bubble net feeding".
You can read about this amazing feeding behavior here
And here is a great film clip I found of Humpbacks feeding.



This isn't one of the best photos, but it shows
how close we were to water-level and how close the whales
came to us. I'd say they were less than two or three yards away
and there were at least 10 of them coming up all around our little boat!



Another close-up. We got some great photos of these beautiful giants!



This is my favorite.....the whale tail shot.

[darkangel82]

though the way i see it, a woman picking me as a dancing partner is along the same lines as the Redskins' draft picks...8^

LOL!

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

PHIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[darkangel82]

Hello Phil.

[rzeznikj at stout]

...and you KNOW how bad the Washington front office is, right...

(cue up the crazy factory music again)

[pcottraux]

Barbie!!! Darko!!!!

[ilovew]

That took talent ;) I originally broke it when I was 8, while rollerskating. There was a little piece of bone that broke off in my elbow that never actually healed back. A few years ago, I slipped on a rock at a waterfall. So technically I didn't break it again because it had never really healed. I *did* mention I'm a klutz, right? :P

[ilovew]

Did you get some sleep? My parents are so mean. They made me wake up...sheesh, just cuz it was 1:00 in the afternoon....

[proud_yank]

Some Alaska Stuff....

The Iditarod (Official Site)

Alaska Railroad

Alaska Photos

Alaska History

Alaska & Yukon History

George Carmack discovered gold on Bonanza (formerly Rabbit) Creek in the Yukon, which set off the Klondike gold rush.

More on G. Carmack

George Carmack Book This was a very interesting read.

Alaska Native Heritage Center Some neat information about Alaska's Native culture. This is a neat place in Anchorage to visit.

More (Wiki) Links on Alaska's Natives

Gifts from the Whales. A neat read about Native whaling in the Arctic. A friend of mine has been in Barrow when they caught and landed one, and said there is nothing else like it. Something I would really like to see!

[rzeznikj at stout]

Phil?