Front Page Photo: Earth's Night Lights - The United States is normally ablaze in nighttime light, with its cities growing closer and closer together. - View more images...
Monday - September 15, 2003 - 12:50 am

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Ketchikan: Bid preference forces companies to diversify - For environmental service companies working in Alaska, the 8(a) status is a rather sensitive subject, according to Stuart Jacques, president of Central Environmental Inc., of Anchorage. .... Central is currently working on removing asbestos from the Ketchikan pulp mill, a job of more than $2 million. - Read more...
Alaska Journal of Commerce - Monday - September 15, 2003 - posted 5:00 pm

Alaska Science: The Chaos Behind the Wall Socket by Ned Rozell - An Alaska college professor was not surprised when the lights went out over the northern tier of the U.S. and southeast Canada in mid-August.

David Newman studies the workings of complex, chaotic systems as part of his research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He and three colleagues wrote a paper in December 2002 about "cascading" power blackouts similar to the largest ever, which affected 50 million people on August 14, 2003.

Newman is a physics professor who uses a variety of computers to model gargantuan interconnected systems that fail catastrophically, including power transmission grids, intercity travel halted during traffic jams, and huge communications systems like the Internet, which can be disrupted by a single computer worm.

From his office on the UAF campus, Newman described the vulnerability of the large systems that bring power to homes in much of North America.- Read more...
Monday - September 15, 2003 - 12:50 am

William McKinley - 1897 Photographer: Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1864-1952 Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection Courtesy Library of Congres

June Allen Column: Alaska's Magnificent Mt. McKinley and the president it's named for - Alaskans know their state is the most spectacular of all the fifty political entities we call the United States of America. Alaska is the largest state, twice as large as Texas and then some. On the mainland mass of Alaska is the highest mountain in North America; on Prince of Wales Island in the archipelago of Southeastern Alaska are the deepest caves in the nation. Alaska has the largest national forest, the most miles of coastline, the most glaciers, and the most active volcanoes of any state. The development of the state's vast reservoir of natural resources is the most hotly debated in the nation. Everything in Alaska is big and it's dramatic.

And most dramatic of all is Alaska's magnificent Mt. McKinley - a mountain that in good weather can be seen from Anchorage, from Fairbanks, from the Bering Sea shores and locations far to the north. The Russians saw it. Capt. George Vancouver saw it. This mountain is not a picturesque and graceful volcanic cone but a giant heap of great ice-covered rock rising 20,320 feet into the atmosphere. It is the coldest mountain in the world and there are mountaineers who also call it the single most impressive mountain the world, because: unlike the world record Himalayan and Andes peaks that rise from already enormously high mountain ranges, McKinley rises to all its impressive height almost alone, with only nearby Mt. Foraker and Mt. Hunter even close to its height. - Read the rest of this story...
Sunday - September 14, 2003 - 1:00 am

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June Allen's Column Is Made Possible In-Part By These Local Sponsors: Madison Lumber & Hardware, Inc. ~ Downtown Drugstore ~ Alaska Glass & Supply ~ Sourdough Bar Liquor Store ~ Sitnews...

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