Last night, I noticed a bonfire on the beach near the hut where I have been staying. There was a group of researchers that had accumulated a pile of shipping pallets and other scrap wood and were roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. This was a little before midnight and since I had a meeting at 8:30am, I didn't stay long. I talked to a couple of researchers about their projects and it was a pretty diverse group. After all, what else would you do on a Friday night in Barrow.
I'm not sure how long the bonfire lasted but I was getting pretty chilled with just my fleece liner. Even though it was still nice and sunny, there was a slight wind. You may notice that most of the folks had coats, hats and gloves and no one was inclined to go for a dip in the water.
A few may recognize this memorial. I
posted a picture about it five years ago. It is a memorial to several Japanese tourists whose small plane crashed either after take off or on approach to the Barrow airport while on a flight seeing excursion. I was with a number of visitors who were meeting on IT and information security concerns within the NSF funded networks. They were up here last year and this is a follow-up meeting. This is in the middle of a brief tour of the town and facilities.
I head back to Fairbanks tomorrow morning.
Richard - I love the first photo...looks like some sort of pagan sun ritual.
ReplyDeleteDown here in the east the Weather Channel has been all about how the weather affects the world. Yesterday I happened to see a segment about research from university of Fairbanks and frozen methane gas. Very interesting (not IT, but (I)n(T)eresting just the same.
I don't know anything about pagan sun rituals but I do like the picture.
DeleteEven a small temperature rise is causing the frozen ground to thaw and start releasing the trapped greenhouse gases. This likely accelerates the global warming process. Yes, very interesting stuff...
Interesting memorial. Curious design. Any info on that?
ReplyDeleteThe text on the memorial naming the two individuals, Shima Funakoshi and Yoshiko Funakoshi, daughter and mother. The text suggests that the daughter was the pilot and the crash occurred on Aug 17, 2003. The gps coordinates indicate that the ocean as the crash site.
DeleteA bonfire in the midnight sun. Now that sounds like fun. Too bad you had to get up early.
ReplyDeleteHave a good flight home today.
With just a fleece liner, 20 minutes was long enough. Especially with the more than gentle breeze cooling things off. But I couldn't miss the photo op.
DeleteThank you for the good wishes. It was nice to get home though it felt really warm compared to Barrow. And now the aroma of brush fires are filling my office.