There are technically two hours left in February 7 (Alaska time) to wish Charles Dickens a Happy 200th Birthday. So the open thread comes a wee bit earlier than usual. “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.” ~ [...]

Brian the moose was lucky enough to attend a fabulous performance of The Capitol Steps at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. He enjoyed it immensely. But the best part was getting to meet long-time Mudflatter and Palin impersonator extraordinaire, Bari Biern (right) and new Mudflatter in the cast Janet Gordon (left). [...]

Being the open thread, feel free to chit chat about anything you like, post links, etc. There is no “off-topic” here. That said, enjoy this wonderful clip from a 1972 talk by psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. Happy Sunday. **The blog is experiencing some technical difficulties. For some reason, comments are not posting on [...]

I ventured forth this morning into downtown Anchorage. After a cold snap with temperatures in the double digits below zero, things finally warmed up – and then this happened. The forecast was for 8-16 inches of snow in Anchorage, and more at “higher elevations.” Whenever you hear the words “higher elevations” you can think “Mudflats [...]

Here’s hoping all you Alaskans and honorary Alaskans alike had a Happy Marmot Day!  That’s right, we have Marmot Day, which replaced Groundhog Day. Groundhogs are marmots, but marmots are not necessarily groundhogs, and there are no groundhogs in the 49th state. It’s the third one in our state’s history. Marmot Day came about thanks to [...]

This actually works really well.

And the Hardiest Occupiers Award goes to….. Occupy Fairbanks! The Mudflats salutes you from the Anchorage Banana Belt.

  These days, many have fallen on hard times.

Yesterday, I was able to capture a second-degree felony assault of quotation marks. The perpetrator is still being sought for “questioning.”

Remember when THIS was a Republican President, and former General?

Here are two interesting and very different word clouds. The first is from President Obama’s state of the union address. The second is from the official Republican response delivered by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. The more often a word is repeated in the speech, the larger the word will appear in the cloud. h/t The [...]

This was one of those sunsets where each minute you thought to yourself that this must be the absolute peak of color and light. And then another minute would go by and it would get better. Ultimately, though, I went with the shot from the last bit of dying light. It looks as quiet and [...]

From my Fairbanks friend, the talented and incomparable Jamie Smith. Check out his work at Ink & Snow.

Thanks to all who contacted their legislators regarding SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) yesterday. Google didn’t go dark, but included a link to take action against these two bills and got over 4 million people to make their feelings known. That’s some pretty impressive online activism. Wikipedia, Reddit, and a [...]