A burnt part of a tree, my guess is Birch bark or leaf, deposited on my hand in Fairbanks from the Bonanza Creek Fire

No kings.

Already pretty incredible in-sun temperatures at middle Birch Hill at noon. While this isn't ambient, I like what it says about the temperature in the sun without trying to calculate heat index.

Bike parts on a black plastic table are also very hot, registering ~130F with the infrared sensor.

Well, my fourth proposal wasn't rejected 🔥
But it wasn't funded either. The verdict was "the panel recommends to encourage funding of this proposal" but it didn't end up getting funded.

I'm counting that as a win; no proposal I've been on has gotten that far.

May 16, 1955, 7 y/o Teresa Binek is 1st Anchorage child to receive a polio vaccination. In 1954, 10 local children died of polio. Teresa lived to marry and have children of her own. This was the IPV vaccine, given as a shot (or jet injector gun sometimes). #alaskahistory #alaska

Extremely saddened by this. I knew Jenny personally and loved her work. https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/aviation/2025/04/29/pilot-and-anchorage-resident-killed-in-small-commercial-plane-crash-near-nanwalek-airport/

The first fire weather today (4/27) mention in the forecast discussion of the season:

@AlaskaWx dangit, is that the original name? I think Ivan Petroff got me by him saying that the origin was the word for "fire"

Going back to the source, Ivan Petroff, as characterized by Terrence Cole, was a known liar so his explanation could be him blowing smoke over a hundred years later.

In Kayaks of Alaska, Harvey Golden also seems to suggest that relations between the Yup'ik and Sugpiaq were friendly (this is on top of what my wife's family has said; they're from between Naknek and Iliamna).

Another confounding factor is Nunaka Valley, as @ANC_Historian mentioned is from Dena'ina, but also maybe-not-so-coincidentally can mean "my land" or "my village" in Yup'ik/Sugpiaq.

In both of those languages, Sugstun and Yugtun, "keneq" translates to fire and is pronounced very similarly to Knik. A naive look at the Alaska Native Language Map from ANLC might suggest that it's Sugpiaq in origin, but it's a bit more complicated. The census that reported Knik was in 1880, but relations between the Yup'ik and Sugpiaq regions were friendly by then. When Apanuugpak met Petr Korsakovskii in 1818 in the Bristol Bay Region, he indicated he outlived warfare.

On the origin of Knik: according to the Dictionary of Alaska Placenames published in 1967 & updated in 1971, the name comes from the Dena'ina word for fire, "igniq." However, "igniq" comes from Iñupiaq, not Dena'ina, and this makes it anatopistic; the nearest historical Iñupiatun speakers were located around 400 miles away in Unalakleet. Also, the pronunciation of "igniq" doesn't map very well to the modern pronunciation of Knik

A better explanation would be either Yup'ik or Sugpiaq in origin

@ANC_Historian "Nunaka" happens to coincidentally mean "my land" in neighboring Yup'ik

@NilaJones the main parts of the stems and part of the roots. I should note that they need to be cooked in order to become edible.

A stereotype I've encountered is that indigenous food of the north is bland & unspiced; I want to help dispel that:
- spicy: buttercups (Ranunculus pallasii) gathered after flowering provide heat
- w/fatty foods: marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) after cooking allow contrast
- w/fish: nutty saw-wort (Saussurea nuda) pair well with early spring runs of fish
- sour: sour dock (Rumex arcticus) help provide balance with sweet berries

On April 1, 1974, Porky Bickar of Sitka faked the eruption of Mount Edgecumbe with burning tires, tricking residents & Coast Guard, a required annual post. More on the greatest Alaska Fools joke in Alaska history in my 2020 article: https://adn.com/alaska-life/2020/04/06/the-story-of-porkys-rising-alaskas-greatest-ever-april-fools-day-prank/ #alaskahistory #alaska

On the night of March 27th, @Shanative22 and I welcomed Uliggaq/Isabel into this world. She's healthy and mom is recovering well.

My 3rd (kinda) proposal was just rejected 🔥

@anisian I remember reading about that. Another omission is that I heard some communities have signed letters of support in order to get small spurs of their own for heating. This was just hearsay a couple years ago, though.

This is a nice analysis of the Alaska LNG pipeline and the hurdles it must overcome to be reality: https://rbnenergy.com/road-to-alaska-long-dormant-alaska-lng-project-sees-renewed-interest-after-support-by-trump