Brian Barnes did something outrageous earlier this week. The biologist drove to a movie theater. In the middle of the day. Barnes, 70, had time to catch a matinee in Fairbanks because after 38 years he recently retired from the University Alaska Fairbanks. Before he caught “Blitz” at Goldstream Cinemas in Fairbanks, Barnes filled his […]
The internal combustion engine is less than 100 years old. Same for the technologies we have developed to pull oil and gas from the ground. It’s hard to imagine life without our cars and planes and buildings heated with natural gas and oil. But it really wasn’t that long ago that people had none of […]
A meteorologist from the National Weather Service’s local office recently told a newspaper reporter that heavy, wet snow would materialize in a few days. He said it would resemble “cement falling from the sky.” Three days later, I grunted to lift a shovel blade full of heavy slush. How did that weatherman call this from […]
Weighing as much as a cup of walnuts and resembling a squeaky dog toy, the short-tailed weasel is easy to underestimate. The spunky little creature that springs through snow drifts and woodpiles all over mainland Alaska is one of the fiercest predators around. The ermine — another descriptor for the short-tailed weasel — is one […]