my paintings travel farther than I do

I painted this image for a friend of mine when he finished his Ph.D. Andy is now in Antarctica and my painting went with him to Scott Base. I might never get to see Antarctica, but at least my painting got to go.


Oh, and that vehicle in the background is a Hagglund, a Swedish made ice transportation unit that researchers use to travel around.

Thanks Andy. Truly appreaciated.

not all anniversaries are good anniversaries

On march 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdex left the port of Valdez with an overworked crew, an alcoholic master, and a broken radar system. Only three hours after the departure, the vessel struck Bligh reef and spilled 10.8 million gallons (40 million litres) of crude oil into the Prince William Sound. The spill covered 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean, killing hundreds of thousands of animals. NOAA estimated in 2007 that more 26,000 gallons (98,000 litres) remains in the sandy soil surrounding the spill area, continuing to contaminate the shoreline.

In 1994, an Alaskan jury convicted Exxon, ordered the company to pay $287 million for actual damages, and one year's worth of profits ($5 billion) for punitive damages. Exxon appealed multiple times managing each time to reduce the amount. In June, 2008, the Supreme court ruled that punitive damages were excessive, returned the case to a lower court, and limited the amount to $507.5 million. Exxon continues to argue that any amount over $25 million is excessive since the spill was "an accident". (You do the math: when divided between the 30 000 plaintiffs this amount becomes ridiculous compensation for lost livelihoods.) In comparison, when Lee Raymond, the president of Exxon at the time of the spill, retired in 2006, he was awarded a $400 million as a bonus.

Here's to this sad anniversary.

Local exploration

Today, with the help of a couple of dogs, I managed to prove something that I had long suspected: the trails by our cabin connect to the Dunbar-Livengood trail. This means that if I so desired, I could ski from our cabin to the Bering Strait, and if courageous/stupid enough, over the strait and into Russia. I doubt that I'll ever do anything like that, but it's pretty cool to know that it's a possibility.

I've been thinking a lot about the future lately. If things go according to plan, I will be graduating a year from now. It's difficult to see how I would be able to stay in Fairbanks and keep doing the research that I'm doing, but it's also difficult to imagine leaving Fairbanks. A part of me is excited for the opportunities (hopefully) awaiting me elsewhere, but a part of me wants to buy a cabin, a dog team, and a canoe, and spend my life exploring the Arctic. Maybe I can find a compromise... Or maybe I've been reading too many books about Arctic exploration.

kotirouva suosittelee

Sarjassamme kummallisuuksia: Miksi netin englanninkieliset mainokset ovat täynnä kotirouvien ja äitien keksimiä härpäkkeitä? Facebook mainostaa: "Uskomaton ihmeparantuminen: kotirouvan keksimä luonnonuute." "Äiti paljastaa nuoren ihon salaisuuden. Taistele ryppyjä vastaan."."* Miksi nimettömillä äideillä on turhakkaiden keksimisvimma?

*Suomennettuina mainokset kuulostavat vielä alkuperäiskieltäkin hölmömmiltä.

++++++

Now that I have frequented Facebook, I get to see a steady supply of GoogleAds. It is weird though how "break through" inventions seem always to be made by nameless moms or housewives. "Get your miracle cure. Invented by a housewife." or "Incredible wrinkle treatment invented by a mom." Are moms somehow more trustworthy? Do housewives have secret inventive superpowers that manifest themselves only as weight loss medication or cleaning supplies?

Update: Jason doesn't get any wrinkle cure adds. His Facebook is filled with business opportunities (with seminaked ladies) and basketball. I must be targeted by housewife adds because a) I am a female (they must then think I find the nameless moms trustworthy) and b) I'm old and really need whiter teeth.

myyrän kosto

The vole is out there.

This time the critter was seen by Jason, not me. It was in the hole (not much of a problem since everything is frozen anyways), freaked out, crawled out, and vanished somewhere. This explains the shredded toilet paper that I saw a few days earlier.

Excitement in Fairbanks.