The Mudflats

Photo by Florian Schultz

OK, Juneau… Are you ready to rally?

Remember how much fun you had last fall standing in the rain with your fellow rational humans protesting the nomination of Sarah Palin to become our Vice President?  The surest cure for frustration is to get out and do something, so here’s your chance to howl a bit and protest Alaska’s newly enacted extreme predator control practices.  Things are changing fast, and we MUST take action.

The world’s eyes turned to Juneau, as Alaska’s capital last fall when people wanted to know how Alaskans were feeling about Sarah Palin.  The extreme practices, and unqualified people who are being put on boards and commissions with a specific narrow agenda mean that all eyes will once again be on Juneau.  Already there are organizations in the Lower 48 who are organizing boycotts for Alaska travel.  We cannot afford that, and we can’t afford politicians who cannot understand this, or who simply do not care.  Alaska is more than what you can kill and eat, or kill and hang on your wall.  We need balance, and we do not have it.

So it’s up to you again Juneau-ites.  What you do has an impact far beyond what happens anywhere else.  Do us proud.  Make signs, take pictures and stand up.

Alaska Wildlife Alliance is hosting an event and rally that looks like it’s going to be really amazing.  Here are the details, and as always, photos and write-ups of the event are welcome from boots on the ground!

Managing Wildlife in Alaska:
Predators, Prey & Politics

THE EVENT: Hosted by Dr. Alex Simon, Professor of Sociology at UAS Friday, March 26, 7:00pm, Juneau Arts & Humanities Center

Talk and slide show by Nick Jans: Alaska’s Wolves: The Essence of Wilderness

Presentation by Greg Brown: Want to Run a Billion Dollar Business? Look at Wildlife!

Additional presentations by Vic Van Ballenberghe and John Toppenberg

Come early for book signings by Nick Jans, Vic Van Ballenberghe, Mary Willson, and Bob Armstrong, including the release of Bob’s new book Photographing Nature in Alaska, and a wildlife slide show by Jos Bakker.

Premiere event to view a Tongass Partners Documentary Trailer Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest. This film will immerse you in the cultural and ecological issues surrounding the Tongass.

Be a part of a living solution – Come see our presentation: Introduced via tape by the International Spokesperson – Jim Fowler … and meet Naturalist/Film Maker/Author Jim Valentine

Hollis French, state senator and Democratic candidate for Governor, will be making a special appearance at both the Event and the Rally

THE RALLY: Saturday, March 27, noon in front of the Capitol

Free hot dogs for the first 100 people!
Masks, costumes, and signs are encouraged!
Door prizes!
Singing with Juneau’s own Kit Petersen!
Blessing of the Animals by Reverend Kim Poole of Northern Light United Church
Speakers include Joel Bennett, Greg Brown, Andrea Doll, Alex Simon, John Toppenberg, Vic Van Ballenberghe, Rep. Beth Kerttula, and Sen. Hollis French

For more information: info@akwildlife.org or call Tina at 523-5402.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
www.akwildlife.org
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance Presents

Here’s the second installment of our Voices from the Flats  Iditarod Report from LoveMyDogs who is tending the kennel of Iditarod musher Colleen Robertia while she’s busy with other things!

In her piece, she’s referring to Lance Mackey, the current frontrunner and reigning champ; Jeff King, former champ and until recently the frontrunner in this race; and DeeDee Jonrowe, veteran musher and perennial crowd favorite.

It’s getting exciting as the leaders race along the ice of Norton Sound, with Nome getting nearer by the hour…

**************************

NUMBERS
(In honor of yesterday, Pi day 3/14)

by LoveMyDogs

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Following the Iditarod from home is all about watching the numbers. Position number, Bib number, Time In, Time Out, number of dogs coming in, number of dogs going out, rest time, speed. It could be one heck of a math class (and so much more fun than those old word problems that used to drive me bonkers).

How does one know who is really leading? The numbers to watch are speeds travelling from checkpoint to checkpoint. But more than that, how much rest is taken and where? And how many dogs does each musher has.

Of course this does not tell the whole story. It doesn’t tell you if the musher is getting rest. It doesn’t tell you how the dogs are eating. It doesn’t tell you how they are dealing with weather. It doesn’t tell you if a sled is broken. It doesn’t tell you if a musher camped somewhere on the trail to be able to blow through a checkpoint. It doesn’t tell you if a musher is carrying a hurt or tired dog in his sled bag (thus increasing the amount of weight the dogs have to pull without the help of the dog in the bag). Most of all, it doesn’t tell you what kind of head games are being played.

My friend, Lance, is a master of head games. He almost always has a plan. And no one but Lance knows that plan. Best of all, it can change without warning. He always seems to have a Plan A through Z and can adjust easily to changing conditions. Is he messing with Jeff now? Conserving some of his dogs’ energy? Would he rather chase Jeff? Always keeping him in sight? He knows that he might be able to catch him in the hills (after all, he is younger and has longer legs). But what about Jeff? He is wily and has been doing this for a long time (Old age and craftiness beat youth and vigor?). And is it all about Lance and Jeff? Hans Gatt won the Yukon Quest this year. He has talented dogs and has also been at this game for a long time.

Lance has a way of standing and staring at another team and stroking his chin and then making some cocky, one-line quip that could cut a newer musher to the bone and make him second guess himself and his dogs all of the way to the finish line. This is “old-school” mushing and seems brutal at the time, but getting under your opponent’s skin is often times the only weapon you have left in your arsenal.

Then one looks at number of dogs. What information can we glean from this? It is hard to say. DeeDee has been running for hundreds of miles with 8 dogs while the front runners have 12-13. How can she possibly be staying as high in the standings as she is? Well…more math. 8 dogs, 4 feet each, number of booties… 32. 12 dogs, 4 feet each, number of booties…48. The number of food bowls, straw beds, blankets, coats, hours to feed, take care of feet, stretch and massage sore muscles are all increased if you have a bigger team. All of these chores cut into the musher’s rest. So maybe DeeDee is getting more rest.

And remember, you are only as fast as your slowest team member. You can drop dogs, you can’t drop the musher.

There are mushers who like to be in front. There are mushers who like to lie back in wait and reel the front runners in on the last leg. There are mushers like the Smyth brothers who notoriously wear running shoes between Safety and Nome and run the whole way as fast as their dogs can run.

Anything can happen and a lot of it is luck. The weather is a huge factor. Fatigue seems to be the one thing that levels the playing field. I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the less resilience I have when it comes to lack of sleep.

The test of wills continues. Who will win? Keep watching the numbers….

Alan Grayson has really done it this time.  I did not think I could love him more, and I was proven wrong with this one email.  This is possibly the most hilarious anti-Palin piece I’ve ever read – and trust me, I’ve read a lot of them.  I bow to the master of the Palin takedown.

This is an actual email from Rep. Alan Grayson on Palin’s recent visit to Florida.  Don’t be drinking anything when you read it.

Subject: Palin Attacks Grayson; Grayson Applies Calamine Lotion to the Resulting Reddish Skin

On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:

“I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson — what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won’t say anything about Alan Grayson that can’t be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That’s what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC.”

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin’s attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson’s entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida.

Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin’s imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin’s criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, “As the Knave’s horse says in Alice in Wonderland, ‘dogs will believe anything.’” Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, “I’m sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park,” which is part of Grayson’s district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. “I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them,” Grayson added, alluding to Politifact’s “liar, liar, pants on fire” evaluation of much of what Palin has said.

Scientists are studying Sarah Palin’s travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.

I was reminded this morning that today is “Pi Day.”  March 14 = 3/14 = 3.14 = pi.  Roughly.

How could I have forgotten?

I have always loved pi.  I remember the day I learned about pi.  It was the same day I learned about negative numbers – a banner day, mathematically speaking, for a kid with a blackboard and a big brother who was a math major.

So many other numbers just seem to conform.  They are predictable.  You know exactly what you’re getting. But pi is an anomaly.  It is incredibly significant in the fabric of things.  You need it to figure out a circle, for goodness sake.  But it stands outside that metaphorical circle and defies anyone to really figure it out.  You can know what it is, but you can never know IT.  It can’t even be memorized.  It is irrational, and proud of it.  It is transcendental, mathematically and metaphorically. Among numbers it is King.  Or Queen.

Pi is actually

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
  8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
  4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
  724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...

… and on infinitelyand without pattern.  Take that.

So, if I’d been thinking, I might have made note of today at 1:59am plus 26 and a half seconds as “pi moment.”  I wonder if anyone paid attention in 1592 when the date was 3/14/1592 – a full on, “in-your-face” pi day.

From wikipedia:

π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius. It is approximately equal to 3.141593 in the usual decimal notation. (snip)Many formulae from mathematics, science, and engineering involve π, which is one of the most important mathematical and physical constants.^[5]

π is an irrational number, which means that its value cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction m/n, where m and n are integers. Consequently, its decimal representation never ends or repeats. It is also a transcendental number, which implies, among other things, that no finite sequence of algebraic operations on integers (powers, roots, sums, etc.) can be equal to its value; proving this was a late achievement in mathematical history and a significant result of 19th century German mathematics. Throughout the history of mathematics, there has been much effort to determine π more accurately and to understand its nature; fascination with the number has even carried over into non-mathematical culture.

The Greek letter π, often spelled out pi in text, was adopted for the number from the Greek word for perimeter “περίμετρος”, first by William Jones in 1707, and popularized by Leonhard Euler in 1737.

So, now what?  How does one celebrate this special day?  Before you just go the safe route and march around in a circle reciting digits, check out this web page which lists all sorts of fun ways to celebrate Pi Day.  This is not a time to hold back your inner geek.  Let it out of the closet and go for a run for pi miles, bake a pie, rent the movie Pi, or have a pi-zza at 3:14.

And as if this was not enough to get your inner mathemetician all a-twitter, you can raise a glass of pi-napple juice and give a toast to Albert Einstein whose birthday was today.

So, Happy Pi Day to you all.  I’m going to celebrate by eating something out of my pi plate.  Yes, I really have one just like this: