Posted on 09/11/2008 8:21:07 PM PDT by Maceman
OK, I didn't watch the Sarah Palin interview, but apparently she made the comment that "you can actually see Russia from Alaska."
Of course, the DUmmies are all over this "gaffe", and there are numerous hits on Google about it already.
The Bering Strait is 53 miles across, which means you can't see Russia across it because of the curvature of the earth.
However, I did find one post on answers.yahoo.com that states:
Actually, the answer is yes and no. From the mainland, there is no way to see Russia from Alaska. The distance is too great.
However, there are two islands in the Bering Staight - Big Diomede and Little Diomede. The big island is Russian and the small one American. They are 1.5 miles from each other. Interestingly, the International Date Line separates the two, so there is a time difference of 23 hours between the two.
I thought that was actually an interesting little fact.
But I'm wondering, have any Freepers who have been to Alaska ever seen Russia from there?
cool shot.
Did Sarah plant a trap? Yep, looks like it’s one of those little Alaska inside jokes the dummies don’t know about. Cool.
Much cooler than making government cool.
“Some folks say that you can walk to Russia from Alaska during the winter.”
I believe that’s true. An ice bridge forms between the two Diomedes.
Seeing Russia from Little Diomede is common knowledge here in Alaska. I worked on the Trans Alaska Pipeline with an Eskimo lady who was from Little Diomede. She said, even though Big Diomede was close, it represented America’s enemy, Russia, and the people on Little Diomede stayed away from it.
Actually, The Bering Strait doe ice over, I think... so it might technically be possible.
But you can see it from an airplane.. Palin was giving a metaphor anyway.. In an airplane you can see the Bahamas from FT Lauerdale too.. or with an hour and half boat ride..
The NRA is now making Communists? Or did you mean NEA?
For Pete’s sake, if there’s one thing she knows more about than anyone at Kos, it’s Alaska. She also flies her own float-plane, so I’m sure she has seen Russia herself from the air. Anyhoo, I thought it was pretty well known that the Diomede Islands were only a couple miles apart. I remember that from grade school, back when the Soviet threat was still very real, the proximity of the Soviets to the US was pretty well understood.
I thought every schoolboy knows this.
Ah, that's right! We're more worried about stuff like Heather's Two Gay Alligators and Johnny's Mom is a Transsexual Lesbian than teach ignorant stuff like geography.
ping
If there is a bear. :o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwdcmjBgNA
I've taken a lot of trans-Pacific flights in my lifetime. Typically, they leave Tokyo or Osaka around 6 p.m. and arrive in our west coast gateways (LA, San Francisco or Seattle) at around 10 a.m. on the same day. If you take one of these flights in the summer, you are actually flying into the rising sun for much of the trip.
Pearl Harbor was attacked on Monday, December 8 Tokyo time, I think around 3 a.m., but about 7 a.m., December 7 in Hawaii.
What? Google doen’t have a camera there?
RE: “Some folks say that you can walk to Russia from Alaska during the winter. Maybe an urban legend or in this case a rural legend?”
I have visited Alaska twice and yes, I’ve heard that you can see Russia from Alaska; this was told to us by tour guides. I didn’t visit in winter, nor did I fly in any planes in the area, so can’t prove it but why on earth would tour guides be talking about it if it were not true?
The left is filled to the brim with idiots. Is this all they have to yap about?
RE: “I would like to cut Chuck’s nose off so he didn’t have a place to hang his silly glasses on the tip of it. He appeared to be looking down on her...”
Despite Gibson’s totally obnoxious treatment of Palin, I thought she did very well in what I’ve seen so far. I loved how she took numerous opportunities to insert “Charlie” into her comments/answers, aiming them right back at him. This was especially effective when he was badgering her over and over with the same question.
My own question to Gibson is: When will we be privy to a long “interview” with Joe Biden? Hmmm?
Stalin evacuated all of the people from Big Diomede and moved them to the mainland; he didn't want them strolling across the border in the wintertime and visiting with their American cousins.
Our island can whip their island ;)
I may be mistaken but I believe her actual quote was, "you can actually see Russia from some parts of Alaska". Of course this will turn into "you can see Russia from everywhere in Alaska" just like the libs are misquoting what she said regarding Georgia, NATO, Russia and going to war. That went from "perhaps" to "what button do I push to drop the bombs"?!
Yes. You can see Russia from Alaska.
But remember, DU is populated by people who the Democrats force through the public school system, so they don’t really know geography.
You know it’s getting bad when people start taking correct statements and calling them “gaffes”.
And a good many smaller, private aircraft as well...
the infowarrior
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