Anchorage Daily News

Will the North Pole melt this summer? Andrew Revkin on DOT Earth, a blog at The New York Times, says more and more scientists are expecting a melting of arctic ice this summer.

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"Mark Serreze at the National Snow and Ice Data Center told me he sees ‘a decent chance that the North Pole melts out' this year," Revkin writes. Ignatius G. Rigor from the University of Washington, working with North Pole Environmental Observatory, told Revkin that he's putting his (research) money where his mouth is "by buying a few dozen buoys that are meant to be deployed in open ocean."

You can check the ice for yourself by watching web cams left behind by polar researchers in April. The photos at left of scientists measuring ice depth at the North Pole were taken by Andrew Revkin for The New York Times.

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Farms to nowhere? The Washington Post blog Investigations reports that a flurry of negotiations to pass the Farm Bill may result in big bucks - $15 million a year - coming north to Alaska's "geographically challenged farmers." The move is championed by Sen. Ted Stevens. The aid is designed to help growers who say they have to travel more than 30 miles to get fertilizer or to bring their produce to market.

The number of farmers qualifying in Alaska will be small. The 2002 Census of Agriculture listed only 609 Alaska farms, almost a quarter of which were under 10 acres. About 100 had sales over $50,000. Hay, barley, potatoes, fruit and vegetables grown in greenhouses are the main products. Jane Hamilton of the Alaska Farm Bureau says the measure is a high priority.

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You won't see this Fairbanks street on your computer screen. If Google Street View's arrival in Alaska cities of Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks made you feel a little ... exposed, you aren't alone. Cnet reported a bit of sabotage that successfully obscures a block of College Road in Fairbanks. What viewers see is the inside of a plastic bag that covered the camera lens when the images were being recorded.

The discovery was made by Google Sightseeing, a site not affiliated with Google. Blog poster Alex was pleased by this bit of sabotage. "Hopefully the discovery of this exciting technique will allow privacy advocates everywhere to finally thwart Google's endlessly evil efforts to provide us all with really useful driving directions!"

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To China: Sulfur from Alaska. The Peninsula Clarion reports that Tesoro has figured out a market for the tons of sulfur it produces as a byproduct of its Nikiski refining operation. The company has started producing ultra-low sulfur diesel. The sulfur it strips out can add up to about 8 tons a day.

Tesoro sold the sulfur to a Texas-based oilfield services company, which is selling it to a Canada-based commodities exporter that is the largest mover of sulfur in the world. China intends to turn the sulfur into agricultural fertilizer.

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Is this any job for a bear? The Associated Press reports that a prison warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary finds the 400-pound black bear living in the middle of his prison compound just the extra layer of security he needs against escapees. Prison warden Burl Cain says workers measured a paw print at 6 inches across, and every inch equals 75 pounds. "The wildlife people told us they think it's a big female they've been tracking for a while," Cain said.

But local wildlife officials doubt the bear would be any help to prison officials. "We've never had a predatory attack by a black bear in Louisiana," said Maria Davidson of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries. "As for a bear coming out and rushing an inmate, I don't see that happening."

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Smokeless tobacco use is highest in western Alaska. Western Alaska has the highest number of smokeless tobacco users in Alaska and the rest of the country, according to a report given at the Tribal Unity Gathering for the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp. in April. The story appeared in Delta Discovery.

Of all the adults in western Alaska, 52 percent use spit tobacco, or iqmik. Forty-two percent smoke. Statewide, 6 percent use spit tobacco, and 27 percent smoke. Use is even high among pregnant women in the region, at 57 percent.

That data came from Carrie Enoch, the coordinator/nicotine dependence counselor for the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp.

Iqmik is a mixture of tobacco leaves, willow ash or punk ash fungus, known as araq. The araq acts as a conductor to channel the nicotine from the tobacco leaves straight into the body at a pulsing rate of 99 to 100 percent, Enoch said.

In the past, most people did not know that using tobacco was harmful to our health, Enoch said. "But for us, today, we now know," she said.

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What's the same about Alaska and Hawaii? A healthy flow of pork. The Board, a blog of the editorial writers at The New York Times, suggests that pork-barrel spending habits are really what unite Sen. Ted Stevens and Sen. Daniel Inouye. Citing the nonprofit and nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, the Board notes that states No. 49 and No. 50 came in No.1 and No.2 in per-capita spending.

The site lists $33.77 per person as average. Alaska's rate is $555.54, and Hawaii's is $220.63.

"Whether feeding at a barrel or being caught over one, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye are brothers from the old school," Lawrence Downs writes.

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