Happy Solstice

It's a day of celebration here, where we have 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 57 seconds of daylight. Tomorrow is a longer day... by 12 seconds. And soon we'll start gaining daylight by a rate of more than 5 minutes per day.

The sun is barely creeping above the horizon these days. Here it was a few days ago, at about its highest point.

It's technically the first day of winter, but we've been in winter for more than two months now. That was Dark Winter. Today is the first day of Light Winter.

Back on the mountain

It was a great day at Alyeska last Sunday. While the temps at the base of the mountain were around zero, an inversion put temperatures at the summit at a spring-like 30-40. And when the sun peeked over the surrounding mountains, it felt like March, not December.

It started with a typically stunning drive down the Seward Highway:

(The steam coming off the water happens when the air temperature is so much colder than the water temperature, also known as sea smoke.)

And then there was some skiing under a nearly full moon:

And then the sun came out. A great day.

Inheritance

Next in the series.

Science: Noncontiguous states not relevant to mortality

Some scientists produced a "death map," and look -- apparently no Alaskans or Hawaiians ever die. And you wonder why I'm here.

Looking around the web to see how this story is reported, my favorite headline is from FoxNews.com: "Death Map" Shows Where Americans Most Likely To Die. Those of you living in blue areas, cheers! You're unlikely to die. (Ever?) You might want to consider putting off retirement for a bit. Those of you in the red areas, I'm sorry to say that science has concluded that you almost certainly will someday die. Consider moving to blue area right away.

Assault

Next in the series.

Alaska's experiment with professional basketball has one problem

Other teams don't want to come here.

I mentioned a few months ago that Alaska has a new professional basketball team -- the Alaska Dream of the ABA. The season opener was scheduled for tonight in Anchorage against the Washington Raptors, but the Raptors refused to make the trip.

"We attempted to bring the other team up here to play," team owner Trey Davis said. "We tried everything. They just didn't get on the plane."

Davis bought plane tickets, ground transportation, and lodging for the stinking Raptors. Not to mention the $6,000 he plunked down to rent Sullivan Arena for the night. So instead it's an intrasquad game. Dream vs. Dream! This reminds me of when I would play NBA Showdown on the Super Nintendo and create a team of five Hakeem Olajuwons to play another team of five Hakeem Olajuwons. Now that was Dream vs. Dream.

Anyway, the Washington Raptors are now On My List, alongside Clay Bennett, Jamie Moyer, and wraps (the evil bastard cousin of the burrito).

Arson

Next in the series of Hutchins Hall stained glass.

Extortion

Next in the series.

The Golden Globes TV nominations

I don't know what the Hollywood Foreign Press is -- and I don't care enough to read its website -- but it just announced the nominees for the the Golden Globes. I've seen none of the nominated movies, but as you know I am a TV expert. Overall the choices are okay, but there are a couple big omissions. The nominees:

Best Drama:
Dexter
House
In Treatment
Mad Men
True Blood

The two inexcusable omissions are Lost and The Wire. Lost had perhaps its best season ever, and continues to display the most imagination on TV. The Wire had maybe its worst year ever, but was still head and shoulders above the field in terms of writing and acting. The Wire might be the best show of all time, but it was never even nominated for a Globe or an Emmy. Mind-boggling. The other show that deserves some recognition is Battlestar Galactica, but it only had 10 episodes this calendar year, so it probably hasn't done enough to qualify.

I would eliminate In Treatment, of which I only watched 10 minutes because it bored the hell out of me. I don't know anyone who liked it. Dexter and True Blood are great; House is entertaining but repetitious; and I've never gotten past four episodes of Mad Men, though everyone agrees it's a good show. So I would have dropped House and In Treatment to make room for Lost and The Wire. My winner: Lost. Will win: Mad Men.

Best Comedy:
Californication
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

As for comedy, I'm flummoxed that Entourage is nominated. That show has gone off the rails with bad writing and bad acting. It is only redeemable for Jeremy Piven. 30 Rock and The Office are awesome; I've only seen season 1 of Weeds, and it was very good. Never seen Californication. I would have added Flight of the Conchords instead of Entourage, and left the rest. My winner: 30 Rock. Will win: 30 Rock.

Wow. It's one degree outside right now.

Marine Law

The next in a series.

Bribery

Number two in a series: The Rod Blagojevich special.

The first in a series.

Michigan Law School's Hutchins Hall boasts a collection of stained glass windows featuring a series of crimes and legal concepts. I'm gonna post them.

The first one is a little weird because unlike the others it doesn't have a caption. There's another one entitled "Patent," so let's just call this one the introduction.

Roller derby

That's what people are playing on Anchorage streets these days. The roads are so slick with ice that cars are sliding all over the place. To wit, an unfortunately woman tried to stop at an intersection this morning, but hit an ice patch and slammed into the back of my car. Fun for me, now that I get to talk to insurance adjusters and auto mechanics.

Be careful out there, kids.

"I'm just a simple president."

You know what, I'm actually going to miss him.

I don't like book clubs.

This is why: “Who knew a book group could be such a soap opera?”

I know some book clubs succeed in not becoming soap operas, but it's rare. You have to have people who agree about what kinds of books they want to read, and then they have to actually read it... on time. And then you have to have people who are willing to talk, but they can't talk too much or else they'll become annoying. And then the discussion can't just turns into therapy about people's love lives. And then you have to have food that everyone eats.

But perhaps most dangerous is the exclusivity of the club -- if you limit the number of people allowed in the club, then you have politics and entrance requirements and rejections. And then there are the people who try so hard to get into the exclusive book club, then realize they don't like the books, but then don't want to quit because it was so hard to join in the first place. And then you're stuck reading the Da Vinci Code or some crap.

I confess I've never actually been in a book club. I make these observations because the other thing that happens is people complain about the book club to people not in the book club.

Alaska and Saudi Arabia

60 Minutes had a good report on Saudi Arabia's oil industry tonight -- one of the interesting points being that Saudi Arabia's national economy is almost entirely reliant on the price of a barrel of oil, and because of that, the country intends to discourage investments in the electric car, and hopes the United States will continue to be the biggest consumer of Saudi oil. When asked by Leslie Stahl if his country indeed intended to encourage high oil consumption in the U.S., Abdallah Jum'ah, the CEO of Saudi Aramco said, "And what's wrong with that?"

Exactly -- of course the seller of a product is going to want demand to remain high. The exchange made me wonder how an Alaskan official would respond to the same question. Because while the rest of the county is enjoying the low cost of oil, Alaskans are getting real nervous about it. Like Saudi Arabia, Alaska's economy is hugely dependent on the price of oil.

Last week, Sarah Palin announced a new government initiative to provide health care for children. The story the next day in the ADN, though, was as much about the project as it was about how the state planned on paying for it, now that oil is costing around $40 a barrel. According to the ADN, the price of oil will have to rise $20 to create a balanced state budget.

So there's at least one thing Sarah Palin and Abdallah Jum'ah have in common: low oil prices make them nervous. And it's another example of how Alaska's priorities are at odds with the rest of the United States, and how it would seem to be challenging for an Alaskan politician to make a run at a national office.

Christmas season is...

Establishment Clause season! Or so it seems, now that every year there's a new challenge about whether a group can display a creche on public grounds. This year the firestorm is in Olympia, Washington, where an atheist display was stolen from the capitol. This case is actually more of a Free Speech case than an Establishment/Free Exercise Clause case, mostly because I don't think the Supreme Court has recognized atheism as a religion, but it's still a fun little issue. I like when these cases arise because the Establishment/Free Exercise/Free Speech doctrines are so murky, with so many contradicting factors, that it's almost impossible to know whether anything is constitutional anymore. The only way to clear up the issue is to present more cases -- more opportunities for courts to clean up their own messes.

There's a spirited holiday debate between Fox News's Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly here... lots of yelling and fist pounding, if you're into that kind of "news". I'll give Kelly credit for appearing to know her First Amendment stuff reasonably well. O'Reilly's position is... confused.

And now the state capitol is turning into a "circus", according to a state senator, with "holiday" trees, creches, atheist signs, and soon a Festivus pole. And protests too. Nothing like the holiday season to bring us all together.

One man, making a difference

I know the Seahawks suck this year, but I still want to watch the games. It used to be that Alaska local stations would show every Seahawk game, home or away. But since it became clear the Hawks' season was lost (approximately late October), Seahawks games have not been on local TV. This weekend they play New England, and again the game was not listed on our schedules. Instead we were to get the Houston-Green Bay game. The Packers have replaced the Seahawks somewhat, now that the Seahawks aren't the automatic choice. I thought it was silly that we'd get Houston-Green Bay, so I set out to change things. So I emailed the local CBS station:

*******

To: KTVA
From: Dave

Hi,
I see that you're currently planning to show the HOU-GB game this Sunday, but I'd like to encourage you to show the Seattle-New England game instead. There are a lot of Seahawks fans here, myself included, who will watch the Hawks no matter how crappy they are. Especially in a game against New England. Please consider changing the game to SEA-NE.
Thanks, Dave

To: Dave
From: KTVA

Dave, we try to pick games that will be entertaining and enjoyable to the most viewers. I recognize that there are a lot of Seahawks fans, but they are not doing well this season. The Houston @ Green Bay game is a much better match-up and there are a lot of Green Bay fans here as well.

In addition, I understand that Fox 4 airs Seahawks games just about every weekend. We like to give viewers an opportunity to see a variety of teams play, and present the best possible matchups for the most entertaining football games.

To: KTVA
From: Dave

Hi Cyd,

Thanks for your quick response. I understand that it's a business decision for you, so I'll just make my best argument and let you decide. Actually, Fox 4 hasn't shown a Seahawks game since November 2 (excluding the Thanksgiving game), probably for the same reason you cite (the Seahawks suck). They've been showing us Green Bay games as well, when available. As a consequence, local Seahawks fans are starving for a televised game, while Packers fans have been spoiled.

Neither GB nor Houston will make the playoffs this year, as both are currently 5-7; this game therefore has no playoff implications. Casual viewers will likely not be interested in the novelty of seeing Houston, as the Texans were on Monday Night Football this past week. The SEA-NE game has playoff implications because NE is only a game out of the wild card, and needs a win to stay in the hunt. In my experience, casual viewers are always interested in the Patriots.

The obvious risk is that SEA-NE turns into a blowout, but NE is only favored by 4.5 points, so Vegas seems to think it should be close. (Green Bay is favored by 6 over Houston.) CBS seems to think its best game is NYJ @ SF, because that's where its #1 broadcast team (Nantz and Simms) is going. The #2 team, Gumbel and Dierdorf, is doing JAX @ CHI, and the #3 team, Enberg and Cross, is doing NE @ SEA. GB-HOU does have the benefit of Gus Johnson -- I'll give you that.

I'm sure you know the demographics of Alaska football fans -- I don't know how many Packers fans are here in relation to Seahawks fans. I do know that Hawks fans will watch our team play, no matter how bad they are. And I know there are a fair amount of Patriots fans here too, who would be glad to see their team broadcast locally.

At the very least I'd like to place a vote for SEA-NE. Thanks for being accessible and for letting me state my case.

Regards,
Dave

To: Dave
From: KTVA

Dave, great rationale! I will take this under advisement, but I don't think CBS will let me switch games at this point. But I'll check into it.

By the way, we welcome feedback from our viewers, so please free to chime in. You obviously have a lot of knowledge about the NFL, and I always like to hear different viewpoints!

*******

After all that, you'll be amazed and impressed to know that they didn't change the game and we're still scheduled to see Houston vs. Green Bay. At least I tried.

Friends in high places

How proud am I today of my friends? Quite.

My friend Becks is featured in an ADN article because she just sued to protect the walrus. There are quotes and everything. (I am hoping the lawsuit will finally determine the plural word for walrus.) Save the walrus!

And then there's former roommate and still-landlord Bill, who makes his way onto NPR to tell a curious nation what a Stanford fragrance would smell like. He uses the word "amalgam," as you'd expect.

I'm #5!

When you search for "viking attacks" on Google Images.

Listening to

3 degrees

I'm back in AK after spending Thanksgiving in Seattle, and Alaska welcomes me back the way it tends to: with cold darkness. We got a foot of snow over the weekend, and today the clear skies brought frigid cold. With three weeks until solstice, we're getting about 6 hours of daylight -- 9:50am to 3:50pm -- and losing more every day.

The skiers are excited about the snow, but of course, so are the voles. You know you were worried about the voles: "They would have had no cover whatsoever. The voles that were out there were just dead meat." Now they have their subnivean space back.

EDIT: Link fixed. Thanks. Bonus rodent link: Alaskan bats.