Blog.HaulingGear.com Archive (8-2008 to 3-2014)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:02 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:02 a.m. This month President Barack Obama restored authority that was allowed to lapse in the Reagan years that would allow him to reorganize federal agencies to eliminate overlapping and duplicate functions. He brought up the proposal again in his State of the Union address. His first step would be to consolidate a group of economic agencies in the Department of Commerce and this reshuffling and streamlining makes bureaucratic sense. But part of the plan does not. He would move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from its longstanding home in Commerce to the Department of the Interior . Most of the agencies up for consolidation focus on trade, business and economic growth. NOAA focuses on none of this. Instead, NOAA forecasts the weather, protects marine fisheries, monitors the oceans and coastal zones and conducts pur

Image via Wikipedia Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012 9:30 pm By Roberta Sheldon | 0 comments The wild Susitna River, one of Alaska's premier waterways, travels through robust wilderness from its remote headwaters in the Alaska Range to Cook Inlet. Along the way it joins with the Chulitna and Talkeetna Rivers at the western rim of Talkeetna, where most residents and the local economy rely primarily on wilderness and the rivers. The proposed Susitna dam would change all that. Our Talkeetna Community Council has officially gone on record with both the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) and the Alaska State Legislature that "there is deep concern in Talkeetna about the proposed Susitna River dam." More recently, an October 2011 advisory vote conducted by the council revealed that 109 local voters weighed in as "against" the dam while 19 voted "for" it. The dam's economic impact on Talkeetna's dynamic sports fishery could be crushing. Profes

Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012 9:03 pm By Rindi White For the Frontiersman | 0 comments PALMER - Wind damage early this winter rumpled the black, insulated plastic coverings over two Palmer Wastewater Treatment Plant lagoons and city workers say fixing the covers is not possible until the weather warms. The covers, which cost $1.2 million and were........ ......The covers and blowers have helped cut the city's ammonia levels in half, Berberich said by email. The city is investigating how to install another tool - an ammonia reactor, or large pad that gives bacteria a lot of surface area to break the ammonia down. It's not yet clear how much a reactor will cost or which type of reactor will be most useful for the city. Meanwhile, Hulbert took another approach: is the ammonia hurting salmon? He and volunteers (mostly his family) have counted spawning salmon in the unnamed stream and three others nearby since 2008. They found the stream has a greater salmon escapement

Image via Wikipedia By Neil Torquiano Channel 2 News 6:41 a.m. AKST, January 30, 2012 ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Renda and the Healy, a Russian tanker and a Coast Guard icebreaker, have finally reached open waters... http://www.ktuu.com/news/renda-and-healy-hit-open-waters-after-alaska-fuel-delivery-ktuu-20120130,0,6149551.story

Today the world is the same, but in another way a very different place.. Case in point embedded below. HG

geosynchronous orbit - webassign.net by Karl Bode 44 minutes ago tags: satellite · business · alternatives · bandwidth · WildBlue Earlier this month we noted how ViaSat's new 12 Mbps satellite service, well-hyped at CES, wasn't quite the revolution it was cracked up to be in the press. In addition to not being available to everyone and... http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ViaSat-May-Add-Another-Exede-Tier-118129

Screenshot now... Brr......

Image via Wikipedia DEVELOPMENT: "Conserve," "future Alaskans" and "enhance" omitted. Associated Press Published: January 29th, 2012 11:29 PM Last Modified: January 29th, 2012 11:30 PM The commissioner of the state's Department of Natural Resources wants to change the agency's mission statement, and the proposed changed is not sitting well with at least one lawmaker and conservation groups who are worried about a pro-development bent. The current statement says the department's mission is to "develop, conserve and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans," KSKA reported. The new statement removes "conserve" and "enhance," leaving only "develop" in the statement. It also removes the reference to...   http://www.adn.com/2012/01/29/2289957/dnr-proposes-changes-to-its-mission.html

dutchharbortelegraph.com today In the dark days of the cold war American spy satellites photographed a large craft moving rapidly over the surface of the Caspian Sea. Though it looked like an airplane it didn't fly. The speed of the craft, over 350 mph, was too fast to be a boat. The American analysts named the mystery ship "The Caspian Sea Monster." The Russians call the sea monster an ekranoplan. It's a ground effect vehicle, a craft that makes use of the aerodynamic interaction of the wing and the surface it is flying over. The ground interferes with the formation of wingtip vortices and (see the eye-popping photo here) > http://dutchharbortelegraph.com/bring-on-the-caspian-sea-monster-p244-1.htm

Image via Wikipedia Posted: January 29, 2012 - 12:08am The following editorial first appeared in the Los Angeles Times: By a surprisingly unanimous vote, the Supreme Court this week ruled that police must obtain a warrant before attaching a tracking device to a car or other vehicle. The decision is a welcome affirmation of the constitutional right to privacy in an era of advanced technology. But the majority opinion’s rationale was needlessly narrow. Whether there is a broad right to.....  http://juneauempire.com/opinion/2012-01-29/navigating-supreme-courts-gps-ruling NYT >  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/us/gps-devices-are-being-used-to-track-cars-and-errant-spouses.html

http://newsminer.com Tip of the day. If you live in Alaska and are looking around for some reality just turn off the TV and go outside for a walk. HG by Reba Lean / rlean@newsminer.com Jan 29, 2012 FAIRBANKS - The media poured into Barrow, Alaska, in the fall of 1988, as people tried to save three whales trapped in sea ice with no way to get to the distant open water. As sympathy spread across the world, oil companies, Greenpeace, local residents, Soviet vessels and the U.S. government came together to help. A new feature film, “Big Miracle,” based on the event, stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, among other big-name actors. The film opens in theaters Friday. http://newsminer.com The movie focuses on Barrymore’s character, Greenpeace volunteer Rachel Kramer, and her effort to draw national attention to the whales and free them from the unbroken ice. The movie suggests a romance between the fictional characters Kramer and reporter Adam Carlson, played by Kr

Image by Polar Cruises via Flickr Mia Bennett | Eye on the Arctic | Jan 29, 2012 At this year's  Pacific Telecommunications Council  conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, there was much talk about a potential subsea, optical transmission cable that could be laid under the Arctic Ocean, thanks to the melting ice cap. Network World  reports that with such a cable, internet, voice, and private traffic could flow directly between Asia and Europe, doing away with the need to pass through North America. The Toronto Star  and  Nunatsiaq News  have more details on the proposed 9,700-mile Canadian cable, which would run between London and Tokyo via the Northwest Passage and above Alaska. Northern China, Japan and Northern Europe would have a lower latency connection between them, which could be beneficial for...  http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/arctic-fiber-cable-proposed-link-asia-and-europe In the orb... Anchorage Medicare clinics short of patients Offices opene

benmuse.typepad.com OPINION JANUARY 27, 2012 There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy. Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article: A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed. In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy]

Image by marymactavish via Flickr Craig Medred | Jan 27, 2012 Canada has protested that something needs to be done about the trawl industry killing and dumping 10 million pounds of halibut off Alaska's coast, but the International Pacific Halibut Commission proved powerless to do anything about it. Meeting this week in Anchorage, the commission recognized the trawl catch as a potential problem, but then placed the burden of conservation squarely on the shoulders of commercial longliners along the Pacific Coast from Alaska south to California. The Commission again endorsed staff recommendations to shrink the catches of those fishermen in an effort to avoid an ever-shrinking population of adult halibut. The action came after a week of meetings at which considerable time was spent discussing why huge numbers of North Pacific halibut don't translate into huge numbers of halibut for the commercial and sport fisheries. Scientists painted a portrait of a sea full of juv

8:17 PM, Jan. 28, 2012 Purchase Image Hal Griffith, the owner of the Crab Pot Restaurant & Bar, shows off the Seaventure, a crab boat simulator at the Rancho Mirage restaurant. Seven flat screens, a moving floor and an animatronic Captain Jack give visitors the illusion of being on a crab fishing boat in Alaska. / Richard Lui, The Desert Sun.. Full >>  http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120129/BUSINESS07/201280341/Desert-sea-adventure?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cp

Image via Wikipedia EVENTS: Nenana man made strips for sale at gatherings, Outside. By CASEY GROVE Anchorage Daily News Published: January 28th, 2012 09:41 PM Last Modified: January 28th, 2012 09:42 PM It was a fish tale of epic proportions. And it ended with a felony conviction in federal court. A Fairbanks jury on Friday convicted Willis Scott Maxon, 52, for lying about the type of salmon he was selling at events in Alaska and to out-of-state buyers. Maxon, who resides in Nenana, sold smoked salmon strips he claimed were from king and red salmon caught on the Yukon and Copper rivers. But according to court documents, DNA tests showed the fish... http://www.adn.com/2012/01/28/2288938/fish-sold-as-king-salmon-turn.html Archive >  http://www.blog.haulinggear.com/2012/01/nenana-man-convicted-of-falsely.html

Image via Wikipedia by Dorothy Chomicz Jan 28, 2012 FAIRBANKS - Winter continued to show her love of Interior Alaska by bestowing yet another cold snap on its beleaguered residents this weekend. The temperature at Fairbanks International Airport hit 50 below zero Saturday morning for the first time since 2006, while a low of 57 below was reported in North Pole.  Fort Yukon and Huslia were the coldest Interior communities at 63 below zero, while two others beat their own records. Tanana hit 61 below zero Saturday morning, breaking its previous record low of... http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17324885/article-Temperatures-fall-to-50-below-in-Fairbanks--small-air-carriers-cancel-flights Related on Facebook this morning (screenshots)

Image via Wikipedia h/t @Drudge Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years By DAVID ROSE Last updated at 5:38 AM on 29th January 2012 The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century. Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997..... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming--Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html

By Cade Metz Email Author January 26, 2012 | 6:30 am | Categories: Data Centers, Hardware, Secret Servers Google's Finland data center is the ultimate metaphor for the Internet Age ( Photos: Google ) Joe Kava found himself on the southern coast of Finland, sending robotic cameras down an underground tunnel that stretched into the Baltic Sea. It’s not quite what he expected when he joined Google to run its data centers. In February of 2009, Google paid about $52 million for an abandoned paper mill in Hamina, Finland, after deciding that the 56-year-old building was the ideal place to build one of the massive computing facilities that serve up its myriad online services. Part of the appeal was that the Hamina mill included an underground tunnel once used to pull water from the Gulf of Finland. Originally, that frigid Baltic water cooled a steam generation plant at the mill, but Google saw it as a way to cool its servers. Joe Kava, Google's head of data center oper

http://spectrum.ieee.org Wireless wannabe can’t reach a deal with GPS community By DAVID SCHNEIDER  /  FEBRUARY 2012 Lightsquared, a Reston, Va.–based provider of satellite communications, intends to start up a new 4G cellular communications network using a portion of the radio spectrum traditionally reserved for mobile-satellite communications. That should be good news to the many U.S. consumers hungry for more bandwidth. The trouble is, LightSquared's cellular base stations could interfere with certain GPS receivers tuned to the adjacent satellite-navigation band. Groups with an interest in the matter have been waging a public-relations battle over the past year, and members of the U.S. military and Congress have weighed in, too. Sadly, much of this discourse has shed more heat than light on the controversy. But more levelheaded engineers have also scrutinized the problem in detail, and the technical issues appear to be understood well... http://spectrum.ieee.org/tel

Image via Wikipedia Jan 27, 2012 Jay Barrett/KMXT The second session of the 27th Alaska Legislature kicked off last week. Senate President Gary Stevens of Kodiak said the top issues will be the items that caused so many problems in the legislature last year. The effort to save the Coastal Management Program passed the senate, but failed in the house. Meanwhile the governor's plan to reduce the tax on oil companies by up to $2 billion a year passed the state house, but went nowhere in the senate... Audio >> http://www.kmxt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3520

Image via Wikipedia Naomi Klouda Homer Tribune For now, business owners protective of their sandwich board signs will be able to keep them within certain established limits, after contentious testimony at the Homer City Council meeting called into question a constitutional issue. If Homer sign rules were to change, favoring real estate agents and nonprofits, but not allowing a cafe to broadcast its soup du jour – would it amount to stifling speech and enterprise? In the end, the council voted unanimously to send sign changes back to the Homer Advisory Planning Commission for more tweaks. Then it’s to land on the work table of the Homer Economic Development Commission for a look over, before coming back to.... http://homertribune.com/2012/01/sandwich-board-signs-can-stand-for-now/

Image via Wikipedia FRIGID: Average temperature so far for january is 2.7 degrees. By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS Anchorage Daily News Published: January 28th, 2012 12:22 AM Last Modified: January 28th, 2012 01:34 AM It has been so cold for so long in Anchorage that the chill has settled into the bones of daily life. At Skinny Raven, $189 ankle-length down Skhoop ski skirts sell briskly. Plumbers who unfreeze pipes and thaw washing machines are too busy to talk. Meteorologists agree: January is on track to be one of the most frigid months on record in Alaska history, according to the National Weather Service. The average temperature in Anchorage for January so far is 2.7 degrees.....   http://www.adn.com/2012/01/27/2287406/anchorage-on-track-to-set-record.html

#retort majorproduction.net Increasing diesel costs, shortage of hydro storage lead to talk of shift toward biomass to ease Southeast Alaska's energy demand Posted: January 27, 2012 - 12:01am By Amy Condra FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE Water is abundant in Southeast — it falls freely from the sky throughout the summer and fall, filling rivers and creeks that tumble down our mountains, into the lakes, channels and canals, the bays and straits that wind their way throughout the land. Here, this water has sustained humans for thousands of years, providing fish, fur and a means to navigate the region. And for more than a century it has generated power for homes, offices and industries. Southeast has a significant number of hydroelectric power projects, and these plants have been a reliable and relatively inexpensive source of locally produced, renewable energy for many of our communities.... http://juneauempire.com/outdoors/2012-01-27/southeast-energy-challenges-lead-interes

Image via Wikipedia by Tim Mowry Jan 27, 2012 FAIRBANKS — A Nenana man has been convicted of selling smoked chum salmon strips as king salmon strips, a violation of the Lacey Act. A jury convicted Willis Scott Maxon, 52, on Friday following a three-day trail in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks. He was convicted of two counts of felony violations of the Lacey Act for falsely identifying Alaskan smoke salmon strips that were being sold in interstate commerce. Maxon was indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb. 24, 2011, as the result of a joint federal and state investigation into the causes of declining king salmon runs in the Yukon River in recent years. According to....... http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17322987/article-Nenana-man-convicted-of-falsely-identifying--selling-salmon

Jan 27, 2012 ANDREW JENSEN, ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE Jan 27, 2012 - 11:02 AM The International Pacific Halibut Commission has just approved catch limits for 2012, as well as approving the reverse slot limit for the Southeast charter sector. Commissioner Philip Lestenkof of St. Paul voted against all the recommended catch limits as a protest of the switch from the "trendless" model to the "WobbleSQ" model. Lestenkof noted that the trendless model would have allowed a statewide harvest of about 37 million pounds while the... (the numbers) http://www.alaskajournal.com/Blog-Fish-Bytes/January-2012/IPHC-adopts-2012-harvest-levels-approves-Southeast-slot-limit More >> http://deckboss.blogspot.com/2012/01/another-season-another-deep-cut-for.html Audio >>  http://www.kmxt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3521

Some people who are supposed to know preach to us about Net Neutrality. Others practice it. Related >  http://acid3.acidtests.org/

Anyone in the fleet reading this? The guy that uploaded it looking for a job and he looks pretty solid.. HG h/t adn.com/907sled  ( subscribe )

Image via Wikipedia Jan 26, 2012 Coming up this week, plenty of news from the Fish Board meeting last week in Petersburg, and on the other side of the Gulf, snow crab is on hold because of advancing sea ice, which is also causing problems for the Pollock A-Season fishermen. We had a ton of help from KFSK's Joe Viechnicki in Petersburg and from KUCB's Stephanie Joyce and Alexandra Gutierrez in Unalaska.... Audio > http://www.kmxt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3518

This good.. Really good... Pretty much covers the whole coast IN-OHO... HG h/t @alaskatravelgrm On the YouTubes >>>>>>>>>>>>  http://dollerhide.com

Image via Wikipedia REVIEWS: Two studies, an audit and an analysis are in the works. By LISA DEMER Anchorage Daily News Published: January 26th, 2012 10:36 PM Last Modified: January 26th, 2012 10:37 PM The troubled and expensive re-do of the Port of Anchorage expansion is getting new scrutiny with four reviews, including an examination of the "design suitability" of the project and an audit of the federal agency in charge. A city engineering advisory commission has been calling for an independent review of the project since at least 2005. About $288 million has been spent on the expansion so far. As costs have escalated and construction problems developed, local and state politicians have become more concerned. The estimated price tag for the full expansion, which would replace the existing structure and create new berths for bigger ships, now tops $1 billion, triple the estimate in 2005. Mayor Dan Sullivan last year proposed scaling back the project, but

Follow Rep. Johansen on Twitter >>> @akrepjohansen Alaska lawmakers' Central Park ploy amuses a few New Yorkers Published: January 26th, 2012 12:49 PM Last Modified: January 26th, 2012 12:50 PM New York's Central Park is a lot like Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? The comparison is probably lost on New Yorkers, despite an attempt by Alaska state Rep. Kyle Johansen, a Ketchikan Republican, to explain to The New York Times his satirical legislative proposal making such a claim. Fed up with Congress' failure to open the ANWR coastal plain to drilling, Johansen and several fellow Alaska legislators are.... http://www.adn.com/2012/01/26/2284727/alaska-lawmakers-central-park.html

http://www.google.org/publicalerts now ( click for full )

View in 1080p ! http://youtu.be/uj1tK2q3r3Y

ketchikandailynews.com KetchikanDailyNews.com 1/25/2012 Alaska must grow its fishing and mariculture industries to supply the fish markets in the Lower 48. A few days ago, The Associated Press moved a story about nearly 17 percent of the food consumed in the United States being grown elsewhere — Vietnam, Brazil, and some Latin American countries, to name a few. The story mentioned that about 86 percent of the shrimp, salmon, tilapia and other fish and... http://www.ketchikandailynews.com/free/local-edit-wed-food-imports

homernews.com By McKibben Jackinsky and Michael Armstrong  Staff Writers (Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of stories about the importance of Homer's harbor and the marine trades to the economy of Homer.) From downtown Homer, Monday's snowfall made it nearly impossible to see across the street. Completely erased was any view of the Spit, much less the harbor. Even unseen, however, the harbor was buzzing. Some of the hum came from generators and engines being run to ward off freezing temperatures. Some of it came from activity that, despite the time of year and weather, feeds Homer's economy. "Overall estimated economic activity associated with the harbor is $60.98 million annually," said Matt Clarke, deputy harbormaster, referring to a 2008 study done by Northern Economics for the city's east harbor boat expansion project. Mike Fisher of Northern Economics said the study looked at local spending associated with such activities

EARLY: Southward extension is farthest over the past 20 years. By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS Anchorage Daily News Published: January 25th, 2012 10:25 PM Last Modified: January 25th, 2012 10:25 PM Sea ice is encroaching unusually early on the central Bering Sea, threatening to grind Alaska's economically important snow crab fishery to a halt at the peak of the season, leaving crabbers facing major losses. Earlier-than-expected ice is moving south over prime crabbing grounds, forcing boats away from their catch and putting millions of dollars of.... http://www.adn.com/2012/01/25/2283664/ice-in-central-bering-sea-is-threatening.html In the orb.... Parts of Interior Alaska may see wind chills to minus 75 by Staff Report Fairbanks Daily NewsMiner Jan 25, 2012 FAIRBANKS - An arctic front bearing down on Interior Alaska is bringing winds that could drive the temperature to minus 75 degrees in some villages and over the Steese Highway summits tonight. The National We

Tesha Kondrat was in Alaska when she got word that producers liked her writing. (Tesha Kondrat) JANUARY 26, 2012 AT 1:00 AM BY MEKEISHA MADDEN TOBY DETROIT NEWS TELEVISION WRITER 0 COMMENTS ....... When Thompson read Kondrat's script, he loved it and asked the professor to get in touch with her. There was just one problem — Kondrat was in a remote part of Alaska working in a salmon processing plant for the summer and couldn't be reached by email or cell. Luckily for her, Kondrat using a land line called her family in Grosse Pointe and they relayed her emails to her. That's when Kondrat reached out to Thompson. The Grosse Pointe South High School grad told Thompson she had been laid off from the plant and was headed home. He, in turn, delighted her with a job offer as a writer's assistant on the show.... http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120126/ENT10/201260316/Local-student-catches-big-TV-break

The Yahoo! Japan Search Team Image by jzawodn via Yahoo's Flickr TECHNOLOGY JANUARY 25, 2012, 11:46 A.M. ET By JURO OSAWA TOKYO—Yahoo Japan Corp. said it is in talks with its U.S. namesake on how the latter can sell its stake in the Japanese company, valued at around $6 billion, without paying hefty taxes. "Yahoo Inc. is still trying to finalize the mechanism [for selling its stake] and we are cooperating with them," Akira Kajikawa, Yahoo Japan's chief financial officer, said at a news conference Wednesday. Yahoo Inc. owns nearly 35% of Yahoo Japan. Japanese mobile and Internet-service company Softbank Corp. owns 42%. Yahoo Inc. is trying to reshape itself under new leadership, and investors are watching its attempts to shed stakes in Yahoo Japan and... http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204624204577182451857622844-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html

JUNEAU, Alaska — Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews rescued 11 fishermen from two different vessels near Kodiak Wednesday morning. Communication Station Kodiak watchstanders received a call from the 58-foot fishing vessel Kimberly, homeported in Juneau, stating the vessel had run aground in Portage Bay and needed assistance at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. An Air Station Kodiak Jayhawk crew launched at about 9:30 p.m. and arrived on scene within an hour. Foul weather prevented the aircrew from rescuing the personnel at that time. The Jayhawk crew returned to Kodiak to refuel and a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane crew and a second Jayhawk crew were launched to assist the crew of the Kimberly. As aircrews were returning to assist the Kimberly, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage watchstanders received a mayday call at 6:30 a.m. from the fishing vessel Heritage south of Kodiak with seven people aboard. The second Jayhawk crew was redirected to assist the 68-foo