Dragonhead mint and musk oxen

One of the more exciting things done in the world o' science at land-grant agricultural institutions is look at the domesticability of wild species. Cases in point: musk oxen have only been kept in captivity since about, oh, 1964, when the Musk Ox Domestication Project and farm was started. Now, what makes more sense? use an animal that can withstand 100 degrees below zero, or import some sheep that has to be kept indoors half the winter? Besides which, qiviut is MUCH warmer, softer, and longer than wool. And it doesn't shrink.

Today at the School of Ag we received reviews of a paper on dragonhead mint, studied in part to see if it is worth domesticating as an agronomic crop.

This kind of thing is really really intriguing to me. We limit ourselves terribly when we use only domesticated crops. Think about it. How many grains do we use? Barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, quinoa, rice, rye, teff, wheat. I'm sure there's a few others, but how many? not all that many, really.

More transportation follies

Okay, so the center u-joint got fixed up. Pretty basic. But the ball joints are screwed up too. New appointment scheduled for next Monday, but on the way into work this morning, the car is making such scary noises that Hans drops me off and heads to a third handy car repair shop, where they tell him that it's the entire drive train that needs fixing, to the tune of $1,500. Fix one part and it will get munched by the others, so we have to do it all at once.

We just can't do that right now, what with the new heater and the previous car repairs and the cord of wood and tank of water and the 150 gallons of oil and the impending pumping of the septic tank which I don't know how we're going to afford anyway...

GAHHH!

Birthday Bash rescheduled!

The 7th annual birthday bash for the Republic has been rescheduled to the 12th of February, hopefully far enough out there that the really cold weather will be over with. Hartung Hall can't stay warm enough at 45 below.

Funny movie by homegrown Ester Dome denizen

I reviewed this movie back in 2002, way before the producers had managed to get it out to a distributor. We (family members of the co-producer and screenwriter, Brian Wescott, and us neighbor types) got to see Christmas in the Clouds from a demo tape made to entice producers and distributors. It was a stitch. I said then, and I say now, that it is worth seeing twice. Since that winter, the movie has won scads of awards and praise. Brian, who was my next-door neighbor while we were growing up, has worked on historical documentaries and a few dramas. Now it's playing at the Loon, I'm happy to say, and I intend to go see it again.

Brian has a small part in the film, too, and is currently its publicist. Check out this interview!
An excellent flick.

What the Democrats aren't doing

...and what the Greens have been yelling about all along that the Dems were too weak-kneed to, and why I still think voting for the Democrats (as well as the Republicans) is a bad idea.

They say the Democrats are "united against Alito". But will they filibuster?

Ya keep voting for the lesser evil, eventually all you get is two evils, with the greater one in control...this year, it's past time to vote your conscience.

Global warming works in mysterious ways

Gee, it's only 41 below in Ester today. According to Hans' mom, it was down to -20 degrees Celsius in Essen, but it's since warmed up to 0˚C.

Finally, winter comes to Alaska. No actual cold snap yet, though (I know, it's cold, but temperature alone does not a snap make). The weather is variable, there hasn't been an inversion, but the ice fog is thick, thick, thick.

Yet, the polar ice was at a record low this year. (Here's links to the International Arctic Research Center, which is studying the problem, and here's a popular article about it.)

Exhaustionized

More on the exciting world of Frozen North Living for all you southerners who've never experienced 40 below, or for you cheechakoes who are experiencing it for the first time: the water went out. At first we thought it was frozen, but it turned out we'd just run out. Whew.

We realized yesterday that our arctic entry, previously heated and now blocked off to conserve heat (we're still heating with wood, remember), holds several gallons of latex paint. Or what used to be latex paint, and are now squat metal-wrapped cylinders of solid latex ice. All those buckets are clearly labeled "PROTECT FROM FREEZING".
Um.

Meanwhile, back at the transportation facility, our truck, recently fixed, was diagnosed with bad u-joints. As in, ominous gravelly sounds issuing from the passenger side front wheel, and soon from the driver's side front wheel, too. Appointment with a new car vet, on this side of town (heh—we learned something!).

So Hans takes the day off work today (Monday) so the car can be fixed. He spends the day taking out the Monitor heater and putting in a new Toyo, with interesting sprays of No. 1 diesel oil occasionally livening up the living room decor mid-installation. Much yelling, mopping, grumbling, etc. Now the house smells like oil. Or rather, smells more intensely like oil (we never quite got rid of the oil smell from before). We call shortly before five to check on the truck's progress, and learn that the parts haven't come in so Jeff the fixit man hasn't been able to work on it.

Much frustration, thumping of handy horizontal surfaces. We reschedule for Thursday.

Because the car was out and I've been wiped out what with all the exciting catastrophes this week and last, I decided that there was no way on earth that I was going to make it in for the last KUAC Task Force meeting...but I get to make black sticky rice for dinner and the Toyo is now cranking out the BTUs. We're comfortably toasty, and that's a lot.

Oh, yeah. The water froze up for real this evening. At least the cats are now a lighter shade of gray, almost white in places.

Cool cartoons

One of the other things I'm trying to do with the paper is expand the editorial cartoons section. Mostly I'd like to work on the local Alaskan cartoonists, but they haven't been submitting much lately. But some of the national ones are absolutely excellent. Some, like Khalil Bendib, Keith Knight, and Mikhaela Reid, I found via Green Pages. Others, like Andy Singer, Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Tom Tomorrow (This Modern World), Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), etc., I found through the Funny Times (GREAT paper).

New design

Okay, the new paper is out! My favorite time of the month. Here's the new look: a single photo for the front cover, no stories, so it will appear more like a magazine. The inside front cover will include a more detailed table of contents, and the back cover will have a mailer space to put an address label and stamp, just like the big guys. With any luck, the inside back cover will feature a full-page ad! But we'll see.

The joys of hot water

Margaret and Jeff Rogers let us borrow their shower last night; it's amazing how good it feels to get rid of eau d'huile (contradiction, I know...) and that smoky smell from the wood stove. The stuff clings to hair, clothing, skin, glasses, whatever. We got a load of spruce delivered, and now are keeping warm(er).

Updates: Mike Musick did not make it on the assembly, but Nadine Hargesheimer did, and I'm not unhappy.

Our car is FIXED! it RUNS! YAHOO! our car vet checked it out again, and it turned out that the replacement alternator was bad, too. So they put in another new one, and this one is fine.

Transportation is a wonderful thing.

The paper is at the printer. Update soon on new design.

Assembly update

The candidates for assembly have been narrowed down to 7 finalists, among them Mike Musick (yay!); the Republic will not have interviews with any of the candidates in part because of the sequence of events beginning January 12 (add backed-up plumbing to the list--perhaps it wasn't Friday the 13th but the full moon that was the problem?). Mike is knowledgeable about planning, zoning, and building issues, so I'm hopeful for his chances.

Friday the 13th

For all you triskadecaphobes out there, here's one to add to your collection of anecdotes to help rationalize your stance.

Our car started conking out on, lessee, Thursday. Dimming lights, battery low, etc. Hans replaced the battery. Nope, not the problem. So he thinks it's the alternator. I call the car vet, we bring it in on Thursday night, we pick it up Friday night. When we dropped it off, we tell them we suspect the alternator, but we're not sure, and could they please check everything thoroughly to make sure.

Friday is an awkward day. No transport, we have to bum rides thither and yon, and because of this we miss Layla Lawlor's book signing at the Comic Shop (sorry, Layla!).

So it was a relief to hear that our pickup was repaired and yes, it was the alternator. So we go down to pick up the truck, asking about the problem and did they check other possibilities, yep. Our first red flag, however, was when we see on the invoice a diagnosis of a problem we had before, fixed, and it turned out not to be the problem at all. A completely unecessary repair. We discuss this. We get a bit of an argument, but it is irrelevant to the current problem, and so we pay and drive away. As soon as we get on the highway, the headlights dim and the battery light comes on. And we can't go back to the car repair place because they just closed, and our ride has driven off.

VERY annoying!

So we limp home, call and leave irate messages at the car vet, borrow a trickle charger, have dinner, and decide that we need to get out of the house. We head down to the Eagle (by this time it's quite late), have a good time, and come home to a house filled with soot. Our Monitor 30 has belched fine black oily soot all over the downstairs, the cats, the desk, the books, everything. So we spend another couple of hours trying to clean it up, and go to bed. I spend all day Saturday cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. The cats are all grey. I completely forget about knitting. I work until I'm exhausted.

Hans comes home (he's working all weekend) and we clean some more. We decide we need to do the laundry, and heck, we'll go out to dinner while it's drying. So we pack everything up and head out. The trickle charger should have given us enough juice to do this, but no. We barely make it to Gold Hill and back.

So we stay home. And I'll be cleaning the house some more today....

Burn that oil!

Well, looks like Murkowski is swimming along in keeping with the US national policy when he says we must drill in ANWR, come hell or high water (and it looks like we'll get both). His State of the State address put heavy emphasis on how that oil would have saved our bacon, and how it will save our future pork, and how Alaskans (as opposed to "environmental extremists", equivalent to "Outside extremists", because of course there is no such thing as an "Alaskan environmentalist") must help "tell Alaska's story" (or is it tall tale?) to the Lower 48.

Harrumph.

The United States, along with China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and India, account for half of the world's greenhouse gases, according to a recent Wikinews article, and these six countries have agreed to develop clean energy, but insist that they will have to remain "heavily reliant on polluting fossil fuels for generations to come."

Dear, dear. Can't actually do something that would be inconvenient, now, could we?

We're on Carnival of the Green #9!

Every week, a different blog hosts the Carnival of the Green, featuring the best of green-themed blog posts. The originators are City Hippy and Triple Pundit. The Ester Republic's posts on caviar and King George are on #9. Here's the list of past and future carnival hosts.

Ester applicants to seat F

According to today's News-Miner, both Mark Simpson and Mike Musick are among the 28 applicants to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly seat vacated by Terry Aldridge. I didn't recognize any of the other 26 on the list as Ester-area residents, but Kate Billington tells me that Sally Andersen, a fisheries biologist, also lives in the area. If anyone knows of other candidates living in the Greater Ester Area, please let me know.

Both Mike and Mark have lived here a long time and are active members in the Ester Community Association and the village. I'll see if I can interview the three people above for the paper, along with any other Esterites.

7th annual birthday bash

Yep, the Republic is actually seven whole years old now. Or will be, as of the 27th of January. The 7th birthday bash will be held at Hartung Hall starting at 4ish (if you want to help set up) on Saturday the 28th of January. Bring a potluck dish and a friend; it's always fun, there will be back issues galore, and this year there will be the Publisher's Picks! with prizes! woo hoo!

It's about time

The export of sturgeon caviar has been halted as of today, per the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. According to the New York Times,

The export suspension covers all the principal areas that still export the fish or their eggs, including the Caspian Sea, Siberia's Amur River, and the Black Sea and lower Danube River. It applies to 10 nations that still actively fish and export sturgeon products: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, the convention said.

The demand still remains, however, as the sellers have long marketed caviar as a luxurious, sophisticated food eaten by the wealthy and worldly. For example, here's some very recent text from Williams-Sonoma:

Long regarded as a luxury, the world’s finest caviar comes from sturgeon fished from the Caspian Sea. The Osetra variety, also known as ossetra or oscetra, has a medium-size gray-brown grain with a complex, fruity quality. Our Osetra caviar represents the highest grade, Premier Select, hand picked for uniformity of grain size, color, firmness and texture. Refrigerated, caviar stays fresh for four weeks unopened, three days opened. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

There is even an elaborate etiquette to eating these fish eggs. So munch on this bit o' salty crunchiness, and become an instant sophisticate? Silliness. Ah--but very clever manipulation, to which, alas, the public is susceptible.

Yet this same desire to keep eating caviar may be what saves the sturgeon. The U.S. accounts for 60% of all demand for beluga caviar, according to Caviar Emptor (motto: let the connoisseur beware). The U.S. Fish & WIldlife Service banned the import of beluga sturgeon caviar at the end of October 2005, so the fish may yet be saved. And caviar lovers won't have to do without: there's always American caviar, highly praised by some skookum chefs.

Let's start the year off right

Well, guess what, campers? I'm here at work, and I can't leave, and it's a STUPID HOLIDAY! That's right. I actually came in to work on a university holiday. We get paid leave, and yet here I am. Why? Fuzzy thinking. I just assumed (and you know about assumptions) that I was supposed to be here...

sigh.

Can't even blame it on gung-ho work ethic. Nope. I could be home, doing the Republic stuff that has been nagging at me, or the dishes, or the curtains. Alas. And Hans won't be picking me up until 6 p.m.!

Plans for the Republic

Here's the most recent cover of The Ester Republic. You'll note the somewhat newsletterish style. This is pretty much what I came up with from the first issue, and I've only made very minor changes in the last seven years. It mostly fits the eclectic nature of the paper and its hybrid newspaper/newsletter/magazine quality, but I think it's time to jazz it up a bit, make it more attractive and functional. For example, the paper needs a mailer. Right now I send out subscriptions via envelope, which wastes paper, costs a bit more, and takes a lot of time to stuff and seal (and that glue does NOT taste very good).

So what to do? Well, if I add four pages, I can use the outer back as a mailer/subscription form/ad space, and the front cover to feature some nicely spectacular photo or drawing. There's tons of great photographers and artists in Ester, so there wouldn't be a problem finding material. An additional possibility is to use the inside cover for ad space, and start the paper as before on the first inside right-hand page.

This brings up a further idea: go to offset printing, rather than DocuTech xerox copying as I've been doing. And increase the print run dramatically. I'm not sure I'm ready to do this, as it would involve some major hawking for advertisers and distributors, which requires time, which, even with last year's leap second, is not something I've had a lot of. I've been running a regular help wanted ad in the Republic for an ad sales manager, but so far no nibbles, even though it's the only regularly paid position here!