Video of Presentations At Kulluk News Briefing Today In Anchorage

Here's the video of today's news briefing in Anchorage. I have previous post with photos.

The presenters are:

Sean Churchfield, Shell Alaska Operations Manager  and Incident Commander
Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler, Federal On-Scene Coordinator
Steve Russel*, State On-Scene Coordinator (Dept. of Environmental Conservation)
Duane Dvorak, Liaison Consult, Kodiak Island Borough
Tommy Travis, Noble Drilling




 I'll put up the Q&A portion of the briefing as soon as I have it ready later tonight.  

[UPDATE:  Here's the Q&A video.]

Kulluk News Briefing - Anchorage January 3, 2013 - Video Soon

[UPDATE 8:05 - The first video is up here.][And the Q&A Video is here]

 I went to the Kulluk News briefing this afternoon at the Denaina Center in Anchorage.   Here's the announcement from my computer screen:
 








Here are the media gathered before it started in the Kahtnu meeting room.

There were also people listening via phone.  That was problematic because the mic was short and some of the speakers were tall.  They had to repeat two of the presentations because the people listening in couldn't hear.

This diagram of the Kulluk was up on an easel, but it was never used. 

This is Shell's Alaska Operations Manager Sean Churchfield.  He thanked the team and praised the work they are doing. 

Since I videoed the meeting, I didn't take notes and right now the video of the presentation is uploading so I can't listen to it.

I'll post it soon.  I didn't catch anything significant.

• More salvers [salvors] went on board today.  
• No one speculated on what could happen.  
• The rig is still upright and no sheen was spotted.  
• The electricity is out on the rig. 

A representative of Kodiak Island Borough, Duane Dvorak, is now on the Unified Command Team and spoke about the involvement of the people of Old Harbor Village.  They've agreed to operations to remove the rig.  There is also concern about sacred sites, including  Refuge Rock where many of their ancestors were slaughtered by Russians.

SITKALIDAK ISLAND, Alaska — In 208 years, a lot of history can be forgotten--the Russian cannon fire, the cries of women and children hurling themselves 100 feet into the sea, the defeat of a proud people.
All of these things happened at a small, raised buttress known as Refuge Rock near the village of Old Harbor. A Russian force, led by fur traders, conquered the Alutiiq of Kodiak Island, leaving hundreds dead.

If you look at the map closely, you'll see the Kulluk is off that same island - Sitkalidak Island.

The pin marks the spot of the Kulluk now. (Actually, no one said that.  I'm just guessing that's why it is there on the map.)

 Here's that same map, not quite as close showing the location of the Kulluk in relation to the City of Kodiak. 


The first video is still uploading.  I should get it up between 7pm and 8pm tonight.  Then I'll get the Q&A session done in a separate video. 

Airport Parking Attitude Surprise

 This is a slightly edited version of an email I sent to the Anchorage Airport Manager a couple of weeks ago after I got charged $15 for losing my parking ticket.  (People in Chicago might think that is cheap, but the issue wasn't the money.  It was the attitude.)


Dear Airport Manager:

Yesterday I picked my wife up at the airport. I got my parking ticket at about 8:20 pm.  On the way out, when I got to the parking payment kiosk, I couldn't find my ticket. I went back to where I had waited and looked to see if I could find it.  Maybe it had fallen out when  I'd pulled some notes out of my shirt pocket that had the ticket.

But it was not to be found. I understand the policy that says $15 - the max for 24 hours - for a lost ticket. Everyone who loses a ticket would claim they were there for just a short time. But in my case, I had been to Costco before picking up my wife. (I'd gone home and dropped things off and waited at home because the plane was delayed.) I had the receipt in my pocket.  I'd used my credit card, so it had my identity on it and the check out  time: 7:05pm. This clearly showed that I couldn't have been at the airport for more than two hours. (It took at least 15 minutes to go through the transaction at the airport exit and it was 9pm when someone finally came and opened the arm.)

 I understood that the woman in the ticket booth didn't have the authority to waive any part of the fee. But she kindly gave me a receipt after I requested one and she signed  my Costco receipt to show that she had seen it at that time. The next morning I called the Anchorage Airport Parking. I understand that verifying things like this is difficult and may lead to endless requests. But I also know that any organization can make exceptions to their rules.

The woman I first talked to said it couldn't be changed, there could be no refund without a ticket.  I understood she didn't have discretion to change it either. But her supervisor, who I talked to next, repeated this in a condescending way. "It's your responsibility to keep possession of your card," in a tone of voice you use with a naughty child who has repeatedly done something wrong. I can afford the $9 difference between the two hours I would have been charged if the two hours had been accepted as the most I could have been there. My real complaint was the attitude that I got. "We charge $15 if you lose your ticket and if you are irresponsible enough to lose your ticket, that's tough. Even if you can prove you couldn't have been there more than two hours, we don't care. Cause that's our rule and we don't have to be nice to you."

I assumed this was a company with a private contract with the Airport. This is a business that I would not return to if it didn't have a monopoly on a public service I have to use because I live in Anchorage. But I don't have any choice. Any good business that wants to keep customers, treats them with respect and doesn't ignore their polite and reasonable requests. At the very least he could have asked me to send in all the evidence I had. A responsible business with customers that have a choice on where to do business would do that or they would lose their customers.

 The issue here is not the money - I probably would have gotten free parking if I had had my ticket at the kiosk.  The issue is the attitude I got from the supervisor on the phone. All companies can waive the rules if they wish. It would be interesting to know how many lost card payments the airport parking gets in a day and if the company keeps all the revenue from them or shares it with the Airport.

I'd hope that you talk to them about customer service and about reasonable requests for waivers of the policy if someone has readily available evidence of the maximum time they could have been parked. The point of the policy is that anyone can say they were only there a short time. I accept that. And if I didn't happen to have that receipt, I wouldn't be writing this email. I just think this was unreasonable and their response was inappropriate for a company that has a monopoly on a public service.  I know you have much more serious issues to deal with, but I wanted you to know what's going on.

Sincerely,

 SA



OK, I got it out of my system. 

But today I got a call from Republic Parking saying that had $15 for me.  I'd forgotten about it and I almost hung up on them.   And then I remembered.  Whoa!  Are you kidding me? 

Since I'd paid cash - that was the night my credit card was canceled because they didn't have my wife's social security number (that's another story) and the first time it was rejected was at the ticket booth - they were refunding the money in cash which I had to pick up.  My wife was out running errands and called.  I told her about the $15 and she went to pick it up.  When she got home, she said they were incredibly polite. 

My thanks to the Airport Manager for following up on this. 

I do still wonder who gets the penalty money and if that encourages them to be so hard-nosed about lost tickets.  But it's better to keep your ticket safe.  I look at this as totally found money that is waiting to passed on to someone who needs it more than I. 

Shell's Kulluk Response: Look How Great We Are!

Shell has a huge oil rig adrift near Kodiak Island, Alaska being battered by high winds and waves. (NOTE - this is not unusual weather for Alaska in the winter.)  But Shell's response is like being at the funeral and talking only about how nice the flowers look.

Here's a press release from Shell yesterday (Jan. 1, 2013)

1.  "We deeply appreciate the professional and effective response of the responders from the U.S. Coast Guard, Shell, Noble, Edison Chouest and many other organizations who worked together seamlessly at sea and under extreme weather conditions to control the vessel, rescue the crew on board, and prevent injury and environmental impact.

The gist of paragraph 1: We were successful!

• "professional and effective response"
• "worked together seamlessly"
• "to control the vessel, rescue the crew on board, and prevent injury and environmental impact"

2.  "In the circumstances we faced over the last 4 days, we cannot underscore enough how significant it is to have weathered fierce winds and high seas with no more than two first aid cases."

The gist of paragraph 2:  We did great under terrible conditions

• In terrible conditions we only had two "first aid cases"

Note:  in the press conferece they said there were three people injured.  Also note that the weather in winter in Alaskan waters is more likely to be terrible than not.  This is NOT unusual weather.  Author Brian Garfield, writing in 1969 about World War II in the Aleutians:

"The conditions were war conditions - war with the enemy, war with the perpetual enemies of weather, water, and terrain." [Thousand Mile War p. 106]

Back to the press release:

3.  "The Kulluk successfully completed its role in supporting our 2012 Alaska exploration program several weeks ago and was en route to winter harbor, through waters off the southern coast of Alaska, when this incident occurred.   We have already begun a review - working with our marine experts, partners and suppliers – of how this sequence of events, including the failure of multiple engines on the MV Aiviq (towing vessel) led to this incident.  We intend to use lessons from that review to strengthen our maritime fleet operations, globally.    

The gist of paragraph 3:  Kulluk was a success and this is merely a learning experience so we can be more successful. 

• successfully completed its role
• headed to winter harbor
• incident occurred
• Review has begun
• with experts, partners, and suppliers
• sequence of events -including multiple engine failures on towing vessel - led to this incident
• Will use lessons from review to make our fleet stronger
•  

4.  "The incident did not involve our drilling operations, nor does it involve any possibility of crude oil release.  Through our role in the Unified Incident Command, we quickly mobilized experts to respond to this situation.  And, we can confidently say that the Shell emergency response assets and contingences that were deployed over the last four days represent the best available in the world."

The gist of paragraph 4:  This wasn't about drilling and we've got the world's best working on this.  We're confident!

• It wasn't our drilling operations
• No chance of crude oil release
• We quickly got the world's best experts

Could you tell from this that:

• Their drilling rig Kulluk broke loose from its towing vessels and had run aground on rocks south of Kodiak Island?
• That this was one more mishap in a series starting last year that delayed drilling for Shell?
• That there's  roughly 143,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 12,000 gallons of "other petroleum products on this now crewless oil rig being battered by winds and waves?
• 
  

Here's the Anchorage Daily News description.

Keeping Track of the Kulluk - SEACOR Owns The Communications System

From what I can gather online - there is basically one place to keep track of what is happening with the Kulluk: 

Kullukresponse.com  takes you to:  https://www.piersystem.com/go/site/5507* 

This is the site for the "united command" working on the rescuing the rig.  The four entities listed are:  

• Shell
• US Coast Guard
• Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and 
• Noble Drilling. 

They also seem to have a collective Twitter account:  https://twitter.com/kullukresponse

I mentioned that Kullukresponse.com takes you to a url from piersystems. 

Who is Pier? 

The PIER System is an all-in-one, secured web-based solution for crisis preparedness, communications management, public and media relations, employee communications, business continuity and more.
PIER provides flexible solutions for handling internal and external communications, making it easier to deliver messages, streamline processes, automate tedious tasks and prevent inaccuracy during routine events, minor incidents and major catastrophes.

One Solution for All Your Needs

Unlike other products which offer only individual capabilities, PIER has it all—in one fully integrated system. Every feature of PIER works as a stand-alone or partnered with other functions. This efficiency saves you time, money and resources while making management simple and easy.

Two-Way Communication

PIER enables two-way conversations with stakeholders, helping you to determine trending topics, mitigate rumors and strategically assess the best way forward. By listening to your stakeholders, you can get the right information to the right people when it matters most.

Improve the Way You Deliver Information

Expand the possibilities for improved communication management. Automatic updates keep people informed, allowing communicators to strategically and effectively target their audiences and stakeholders to receive and respond to critical messages quickly and efficiently.

Mobile and Remotely Available

PIER is easily accessible from Internet-enabled computers and mobile devices, allowing businesses and organizations to provide information with minimal interruption in the event of disaster or disruption.

It also mentions that Pier was acquired by O'Brien's Response Management.

And O'Brien's is owned by SEACOR:

SEACOR Holdings Inc. (SEACOR) is a diversified, multinational company that owns and operates marine and aviation assets primarily servicing the oil and gas, industrial aviation, and marine transportation industries. SEACOR also owns and operates bulk commodity barges along the U.S. Inland River Waterways; specializes in the purchase, storage, transportation, and sale of agricultural and energy commodities; and provides emergency preparedness and crisis services to governments and industry.

SEACOR is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol CKH.

The New York Times notes in its page on SEACOR Holdings that:

On March 19, 2012, J.F. Lehman & Company acquired National Response Corporation and its affiliated businesses NRC Environmental Services, SEACOR Response, and SEACOR Environmental Products (collectively NRC) from the Company.

I can't tell for sure if this acquisition included the unit that has O'Brien's, but I'm guessing, since O'Brien's still shows up on SEACOR's website, that it doesn't.  


I think it is good that the private companies and the government agencies can work cooperatively in this rescue.  But such cooperation also raises issues of cooptation of the government agencies.  Here are some questions I'd raise:

• If they work closely and cooperatively, what happens to the agencies' responsibilities to monitor the companies and keep them accountable?  
• How will working closely with the people from the companies as a team affect their impartiality and judgment when assessing responsibility and corrective measures?
• What happens when all the information is posted on a site owned by a company that is in the oil support industry and is active in marine drilling and safety?  

At first glance we can appreciate that they are specialized in emergency communication systems - including this website design.

• But what control does the government have of this website?  
• What if the governmental agencies have disputes with Shell and Noble about what should go up?
• Or worse, what if they have no disputes at all?
• What obligations are there for this website to stay operational after the event? 
• Why do media, government, and the public have to fill in information boxes before they can ask questions, but there are no names of people to contact on the website?

This feels a bit like Diebold running the voting machines. 

I don't think the industry that has caused the problem should be the one running the information system the public and the media have to use to get information about what's going on. 

I understand that government salary levels don't allow them to compete with the private sector for the best and brightest computer folks.  But when they contract out for private companies to run the website for something like this, they should get a company that has no interest in the content of the website.  I suspect though that Shell and Noble suggested, and maybe are even paying for, the website.  But there's no such thing as a free website. 

Famous People Born 1913 Part II: 2 Still Alive And The List

These posts looking back back to see who was born 100 years ago (1908  1909  1910  1911 skipped 1912)  have been fun to do, though they take a lot of time (that's why 1912 never got finished.)  This time I'm doing it in several parts, since each will offer lots to read.  Three things I've found particularly interesting:

1. Seeing the people, born the same year,  in the same cohort, who would have been in the same class at school if they'd lived in the same place, and had the same world events shape their lives.  Yet they have different talents and different interests and they become known for different things.
2. Contemplating mortality.  I order their bios in order of death.  Even though they were all born they same year, they lived from 46 years to, well, two are still alive.  The life lottery beguiles me.  Why do some people only get a short time on earth and others longer? (And, of course, a human lifetime is is just a moment in the history of the world.)
3. Looking into their backgrounds, their family lives, their failures and triumphs.  It raises questions for me about what we think of as important and unimportant in the greater scheme of things.  Unfortunately, this year, it has been hard to find details of early upbringing and personal lives of many of the subjects. 

So, the first post gave a background on the year 1913, including a link to an interesting video with a panel talking about the cultural situation of 1913.  It was very much a time of change.  

This post has video of the two that appear to still be alive, both opera singers, Risë Stevens and Licia Albanese.   You can listen to them as you go through the table with the list in birth order.  When you think about it, as kids, six months age difference means a lot, so for the first 20 years or so, the age difference among them might have been significant. And then, it means nothing.  Especially as those who were older die and their age freezes in time and the younger ones go on living and getting older. 

Finally, I'll have two or three more posts with more information about each person. Looking at their lives, trying to find commonalities and seeing the differences, hopefully finding some insights.  As always, these lists tend to be heavy with white, Western, males, reflecting who has had power and fame - certainly during the lifetime of these folks - in the west. 

This list seems to have more unsavory characters than past lists. 


Two people on the list appear to still be alive:

Risë Stevens



And Licia Albanese






The Chart

People Born 1913 From Oldest to Youngest
Jan-June			June-December
Jan 4	Rosa Parks	Civil Rights	June 14	Gerald Ford	US President
Jan 6	Loretta Young	Actor	June 18	Sammy Cahn	Songwriter
Jan 6	Mary Leaky	Anthropologist	June 18	Red Skelton	Comic
Jan 9	Richard Nixon	US President	July 22	Licia Albanese*	Soprano
Jan 13	Mel Allen	Sportscaster	Aug 16	Menachem Begin	Israeli PM
Jan 14	Woody Hayes	Football Coach	Aug 25	Walt Kelly	Cartoonist
Jan 14	Jimmy Hoffa	Teamsters Boss	Sep 3	Alan Ladd	Actor
Jan 18	Danny Kaye	Actor	Sep 9	Bear Bryant	Football Coach
Feb 25	Jim Backus	Mr. Magoo	Sep 12	Jesse Owens	Track Star
Mar 13	William Casey	CIA Head	Sep 27	Albert Ellis	Psychologist
Mar 22	Lew Wasserman	Film Exec	Sep 29	Stanley Kramer	Film Director
Mar 26	Paul Erdos	Nobel Prize Math	Oct 10	Klaus Barbie	Nazi War Criminal
Mar 30	Richard Helms	CIA Head	Nov 2	Burt Lancaster	Actor
Apr 11	Oleg Cassini	Fashion Designer	Nov 5	Vivien Leigh	Actor
May3	William Inge	Playwright	Nov 7	Albert Camus	Novelist
May 16	Woody Herman	Jazz Clarinet	Nov 9	Hedy Lamarr	Actor
May 20	William Hewlett	Tech Exec	Nov 22	Benjamin Britten	Composer
June 11	Vince Lombardi	Football Coach	Dec 1	Mary Martin	Actor
June 11	Risë Stevens	Mezzo-Soprano	Dec 12	Delmore Schwartz	Poet
June 12	Willis Lamb	Physicist	Dec 18	Willy Brandt	German PM
June 13	Maersk McKinny Møller	Shipping Exec

HTML Tables

Part 3:  The list, with bios and pics, starting with the youngest one to die - Albert Camus.

Famous People Born In 1913 Part I: The Events of 1913

As 2013 opens, it's instructive to look back 100 years to 1913.  Particularly I want to look at some of the people whose lives impacted the world enough to gain widespread attention.  From the lists I've found, I've narrowed the list to 44 people who I was aware of or who seem to have made important contributions even if their names weren't well known.

The list has few giant events - but it was a year building up to World War I.  The Balkan War was ending. (pdf)

First though, let's review some of the things that happened that year:

Feb 17 - March 15 - Armory Show in New York - Duchamps Nude Descending a Staircase
Feb 25th - 16th Amendment ratified, authorizing income tax
Mar 4th - 1st US law regulating the shooting of migratory birds passed
Mar 4th - Woodrow Wilson inaugurated as 28th president
Mar 12th - Foundation stone of the Australian capital in Canberra laid
Mar 14th - John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
Mar 21st - -26] Flood in Ohio, kills 400
Apr 8th - 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified
Apr 9th - Brooklyn Dodger's Ebbets Field opens, Phillies win 1-0
Apr 21st - Gideon Sundback of Sweden patents the zipper
May 7th - British House of Commons rejects woman's right to vote
May 12th - Harry Green runs world record marathon (2:38:16.2)
May 13th - 1st four engine aircraft built and flown (Igor Sikorsky-Russia)
May 19th - Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill passes, forbidding Japanese from owning land
May 26th - Actors' Equity Association forms (NYC)
May 29th - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris, provoking a riot.
May 30th - New country of Albania, forms
Jun 2nd - 1st strike settlement mediated by US Dept of Labor-RR clerks
Jun 4th - Suffragette Emily Davison steps in front of King George V's horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby
Jun 5th - Dutch Disability laws go into effect
Jun 16th - South-African parliament forbids blacks owning land
Jun 21st - Tiny Broadwick is 1st woman to parachute from an airplane
Jul 3rd - Common tern banded in Maine; found dead in 1919 in Africa (1st bird known to have crossed the Atlantic)
Jul 3rd - Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
Jul 10th - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C), which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States.
Jul 19th - Billboard publishes earliest known "Last Week's 10 Best Sellers among Popular Songs" Malinda's Wedding Day is #1
Jul 23rd - Arabs attack Jewish community of Rechovot Palestine
Jul 30th - Conclusion of 2nd Balkan War
Aug 13th - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
Aug 16th - Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tōhoku University) admits its first female students.
Aug 19th - Frenchman Pégoud makes 1st parachute jump in Europe
Aug 28th - Queen Wilhelmina opens Peace Palace (The Hague)
Sep 10th - Lincoln Highway opens as 1st paved coast-to-coast highway
Sep 29th - Sam S Shubert Theater opens at 225 W 44th St NYC
Oct 7th - Henry Ford institutes moving assembly line
Oct 14th - Explosion in coal mine at Cardiff kills 439
Oct 22nd - Coal mine explosion kills 263 at Dawson New Mexico
Nov 6th - Mohandas K Gandhi arrested for leading Indian miners march in S Africa
Nov 13th - 1st modern elastic brassiere patented by Mary Phelps Jacob
Nov 17th - 1st US dental hygienists course forms, Bridgeport, Ct
Dec 1st - 1st drive-up gasoline station opens (Pitts)
Dec 1st - Continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford (car every 2:38)
Dec 8th - Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in SF
Dec 12th - "Mona Lisa," stolen from Louvre Museum in 1911, recovered
Dec 12th - Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
Dec 13th - Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 returned to Louvre
Dec 16th - Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone for $150 a week
Dec 21st - 1st crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed in NY World
Dec 23rd - President Woodrow Wilson signs Federal Reserve Act into law
Other Events in 1913:
Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr describe atomic structure.
Nobel Prize for Literature: Rabindranath Tagore (India)
US Population: 97,225,000

List sources: historyorb and  Infoplease.  I did find some errors, but haven't double checked every date, so there may still be a few.

Culturally, this was, apparently a major year of change.  Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was introduced and the Armory Show in New York introduced many European artists to the US.  

The Green Space offers a 70 minute video discussion of this tumultuous cultural environment of 1913.  Well worth listening to to get a sense of the cultural upheavels of 1913.  At about 50 minutes in, the discuss 1913's similarities to and differences from today. 

Post II has video of the two folks that appear to still be alive (both opera singers), Risë Stevens and Licia Albanese.   It also has the list of all 44 that I chose in birth order.  So the 'oldest' born January 4, 1913, Rosa Parks, starts the list.

Post III includes short bios and images in the order of their deaths, beginning with Albert Camus (1960) and ending with William Casey (1987).  Since these posts are so long, I'll divide them up into shorter posts.

Post IV has a video of Ruth Ungar Marx who's planning to celebrate her 100th birthday on May 26, 2013.

Bike Lane Light

From This Is Why I'm Broke :

Screenshot from This Is Why I'm Broke

This looks like a good idea, but I'm not sure.  Why is this better than a flashing red light on the bike?  [And a commenter said the cyclist logo doesn't come with it.] 

I predict that as we grow to understand our weird relationship to technology, we will be seeing more human powered tools for situations where they are appropriate.  When we first started applying engines and electricity, people labored pretty hard and getting, say, a washing machine instead of hand washing was a huge labor and time saver.  The same with tractors over plows and horses (or water buffalo).

But then we applied motors to everything without thinking where it was necessary and where not.  To the point where we drive our cars and take elevators to the gym where we use plugged in machines to exercise.

Now that we've discovered that we've gotten lazy and fat, people are considering how human powered activity - like walking or biking to work, taking the stairs, mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow, etc. - not only reduce our use of fossil fuels, but also provide natural exercise to keep us fit.  And connect us to the natural rhythms of nature. 

That said, one electric gadget that has become essential for safe night biking is the LED light that means that cyclists can be seen at night by cars.  I wonder whether LED lights could be powered by the old generators we used to have that got power from the wheel turning.  Then we wouldn't need to buy batteries. 

Of course, when I ask questions like that, I have to go look it up and yes - the old dynamo idea is alive and well.

Kent 96049 Generator Light Set

$11 online

1 review

Bicycle light set generator Never run out of the light you need to see what's in front of you. Large white headlight and small red tail light are powered by a 6 volt, 3 watt generator. No need for batteries, every pedal powers the lights.

But does this have the brightness of LED?  And does it work after you stop?

Planet Bike has a front light that attaches to a dynamo.

And here's a Supernova kit for the dynamo. 

Check on liine - the prices vary enormously. 

Ruth Gruber - First To Report On Soviet Arctic - At Museum One More Week

Photo of Photo at Anchorage Exhibit

"In 1941, US Secretary of the Interior Harold I. Ickes appointed Ruth Gruber as his Field Representative to the Alaska Territories. . .  For 18 months, she reported on the conditions and experiences of American soldiers stationed there and documented the abundance of natural resources, development of industry, progress of the Alaska railroad, government initiatives, and the opening of land and air routes.  Encouraged by Ickes to take moving footage and color photgraphs - exhibited here for the first time - Gruber became a serious photojournalist."  [From Museum exhibit description.]






























  The museum has a display of some of the old Alaska photos and some of the film footage.  There are also photos of her trip to the Soviet Arctic.  And her documentation of the Holocaust survivors on ships the British refused entry into Palestine after the war.

There's also a seven minute video interview with Gruber.  I don't remember when the video was taken, but it was recent and she was in her late 90's at the time.

From Ruth Gruber Video about Age 97

She's still alive today at 101. The exhibit is at the Anchorage Museum until January 6, so there isn't much time to see it.  There's a lot of history covered here and a lot of things to think about.  For example, her Alaska time coincided with some of the time covered in the book I'm reading Brian Garfield's Thousand Mile War about the Aleutian campaign in WW II.  There's also coverage of the Jews coming after WW II to Palestine which feeds into another post I've been thinking about - my comments on the AIFF winning Documentary Roadmap to Apartheid. 

43˚F

It was 43˚F (6˚C) this morning.  No more excuses left to not run.  Last week we thought 30 felt warm.  43 felt even balmier.











 The Weather Service website said it was 44 and here's the map of our weather pattern.