What if Earth had rings?

This is really cool. Doesn't show what it might be like from Alaska, though they might be seen very low on the horizon...?

Wild

Don't worry, I'm not about to jump in the channel with our local sealions.

Not that Special

So I'm down at Henry's the other day and saw on the drink chalkboard they have a sampler of beers on tap, the Beer Sampler Special. Here's the deal:

Three, 6-ounce beers for $10. If my math is correct, that's 18 ounces for $10.

A full pint, which if my math is correct is 16 ounces, of any one beer is $5.

I'm not really seeing what's so special about the special.... You get two extra ounces for five extra bucks. Brilliant!

Mmmmmmm, tastes like wet river stones!

Do you recall the Alaskan vodka "Permafrost"? Turns out it has received a prestigious medal recently in Chicago, where they know about drinking:

The Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) has awarded Permafrost Alaska Vodka its highest award, the Platinum Medal, in its 2009 International Review of Spirits competition, conducted in Chicago, Illinois. BTI scored the Wasilla-made vodka as “superlative” and described it as follows:

“Clean, mild aromas of custard and creamy meringue follow through on a soft, supple entry to a dryish, glycerous medium body with incredible smoothness and hints of powdered sugar and wet river stones on the graceful, elegant finish. An exceptionally clean, seamless, and delicious vodka. Amazing!”

WTF is that all about? It's vodka, not pie, ferchristsakes. How would this guy describe something like Old Grand Dad? "Dirty, overpowering odors of just-lit kitchen matches with overtones of used machine shop solvent. A harsh, even painful body, with an unpleasant, lingering and gag-reflex-inducing finish. I'm sorry I drank it."

Nevertheless, a fellow imbiber (who has tried Permafrost on the mainland and likes it) and I do have plans to have a tasting party one of these days soon, if we can find it here in Kodiak - anybody know offhand if it's at any of the package stores?

· · · — — — · · · [SOS for the Morse Code-challenged]

Alaska Democrats have started a new web site to hold Sarah Barracuda Palin accountable, called Sarah Watch.

The new website is designed to be a watchdog to hold Sarah Palin accountable as she catapults herself again onto the national stage. Alaska Democratic Party Chair Patti Higgins said, “As Alaskans, we have seen firsthand her inexperience, ethical lapses, misrepresentations, and lack of crucial attention and commitment on the issues. It is time we Alaskans hold our former governor responsible as she aspires to fame and higher office.”

By the way, did you know that Palin, and now current Governess Sean Parnell, continue to ignore a Freedom of Information Act request to see her official e-mails? Probably because she'd wind up in jail for massive campaign violations.

Holy Crap: The most extreme religious right-wing anti-choice group in the nation is also attacking the Barracuda on what they see as her pro-choice stance. Kinda weird, but they sound pretty radical....

Just when I thought they had gone too far to the right....

I see that NPR's "Talk of the Nation," which sadly is not broadcast in Kodiak (hint-hint), spent just less than nine minutes on a first look at Sarah Barracuda Palin's new book, and a very appropriate 30 minutes on George Carlin's biography, "Last Words."

There is balance in the force.

*UPDATE*
God Damn It, a 30-minute segment on Palin in today's TOTN.

Oh wait.... It's their "Political Junkie" segment about political stuff everywhere. Nevermind.

Where the Stupid Things Are

This is a pretty good meme on Twitter today: Alternate Sarah Palin Book Titles.

A sample:

Ahmadinejad‎ And Other Big Words I Can Pronounce

How to Quit Anything in Three Easy Steps

One Fish, Two Fish.... crap, I lost count again.....

A Betcha In The Rye

Did you know you can buy Uranium from Amazon.com?

I ran across this in the "Oddities" group category on Amazon.com. Other items include Forbidden Lego Toys and a personal battle tank that looks a lot like a Dalek troop carrier. Weird. Love the customer reviews, too.

Palin: a "Dangerously Delusional Political Hack"

Thanks to a KoKon Operative for forwarding this from Mad Magazine. Click image to embiggen.

Irrefutable Palin Lies - A List by Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan, probably the most unbiased commentator out there (takes shots at both the right and the left), has a spiffy list of Sarah Barracuda Palin's demonstrable lies in a new column at The Atlantic.

...(W)e are not including contested stories that we cannot prove definitively one way or another or the usual spin that politicians use, or even hypocrisy or shading of facts. We are merely including things she has said or written that can be definitively proven as untrue, by incontestable evidence in the public record.

I also read that on her Facebook page Palin is accusing The Associated Press (no more unbiased organization exists anywhere) is getting all political on her by fact-checking her new book of lies.

What the Kokon? *Update*

Huh. For some reason, "www.thekokon.com" is not linking to the blog any more - even though, yes, I paid my yearly renewal fee. I think.....

At least we'll always have "http://kodiakkonfidential.blogspot.com."


*Update*     Just one box needed to be checked in some control panel at the place where TheKoKon redirects to the longer Blogspot name; so now we're good to go again.

We need a Kodiak Craigslist

I see there are now more than just Anchorage/MatSu-specific Craigslist pages. They've got Fairbanks, Kenai Peninsula, and Southeast Alaska, now.

There's also a link to suggest a new one - perhaps we can get one for Kodiak? Might not be welcomed by the paper or commercial radio station that makes money from ads, but I think Craigslist covers some things the Mirror or Hotline doesn't/won't. Anyway, it's just a thought. I'll put in a suggestion for a Kodiak/Aleutians page.

While I was poking around, I found this item in the Kenai section, and thought I'd pass it on since it relates to Kodiak. You can go to Craigslist to respond:

looking for a friend - w4w - 23 (Kodiak)

Date: 2009-11-01, 1:00AM AKST

Hello. I'm not sure how many people in Kodiak actually get on here, but I though I would try. I just moved to Kodiak and only know about a handful of people. I was really hoping to meet someone that I can become close with. I'm really looking for a best friend. Someone to hang out with. To push me when I need to be pushed and support me when I need to be supported. Someone to laugh with and cry with. Just someone I can hang out with whenever and wherever. So if your looking for the same thing let me know. I hope to hear from you. Location: Kodiak. PostingID: 1446426829

It's a whole industry now

This promises to be a better read than The Red Rogue Elephant:

New Satire "Sarah Palin's Secret Diary" Makes Outrageous Claims

LOS ANGELES, /PRNewswire/ -- According to a fallacious diary, penned by satirist Joey Green, when Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin stepped inside the voting booth in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, on election day last year, she cast her vote for Barack Obama. "Sarah Palin's Secret Diary," a "genuine imitation" of the former Alaska governor's private journal, also reveals that Palin seriously asked the producers of "Saturday Night Live" if she could waterboard Tina Fey on the show.

Among the many ersatz revelations in the spurious diary are that Palin had the hots for Joe the Plumber and practiced for her debate against Joe Biden with her 13-year-old daughter Willow. The simulated diary also discloses that Palin found her teenage daughter Bristol and boyfriend Levi Johnston alone in a bedroom -- buck naked and surrounded by lit candles -- but feared the teens were practicing Satanism, not premarital sex.

According to the fabricated diary, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain watched the movie "Top Gun" obsessively, wore a pilot's helmet printed with the name "Maverick," and frequently piloted his campaign jet, doing barrel rolls and loop-de-loops. To convince McCain to choose her as his running mate, Palin unzipped her dress and let it drop to the floor. "I was wearin' a hot red regulation one-piece Miss Alaska swimsuit," she allegedly writes. "I started promenadin' across the deck to strut my stuff and show off my great poise."

"For legal reasons, I'm not allowed to claim that a disgruntled Alaska State Trooper broke into Sarah Palin's home, stole her diary, and FedExed it to me," said Green, a former contributing editor to the National Lampoon and the author of dozens of books. "I remain 100% convinced that Sarah Palin wrote every single word of this diary, even if the book does call itself a forgery right on the cover."

This lampoon of Sarah Palin's intimate story gives readers an imaginary peek inside one of the most astonishing minds in American politics. She teaches us how to speak Maverick ("Todd and I are obviously marverickosexuals"), explains why she wants to ban Harry Potter books ("They're way too long"), and shares a list of proposed titles for her memoirs (including "The Sarah Palin Pop-Up Book," "The Governor's New Clothes," and "My Face Is Up Here (in Alaska!)").

Close Encounters of ...

Have you heard of the new movie, ostensibly set in Alaska, called "The Fourth Kind"? It's about alien abductions set in Nome. They were in the news last week after settling a dispute with the Alaska Press Club, because certain media outlets objected to the filmmakers mocking up fake news stories under the banners of real papers, all to create buzz around the movie.

I went and looked at the movie's trailer and after seeing what they're trying to pass off as Nome, think they should be charged with creating a false impression of that dusty little Norton Sound town (don't get me wrong, I loves me some Nome).  This looks like ... I don't know... Juneau? Whitehorse? Kamloops?

Today's Doonesbury

All the Doonesbury goodness you can handle, here.

Another Stop in Anchorage

Just saw this in The Ear; I'll have to try to get tickets next time I'm in town:

SOUND & PICTURES . . . Shannyn Moore, a local blogger and talk radio host who has made a name for herself Outside, has a new weekly television gig, an hour-long political talk show called "Moore Up North." It was set to debut yesterday at 4 p.m. on KYES Channel 5.

That's nice for Shannyn, who has to be one of the hardest working media people around. But here's the best part, the part Ear likes: The show is taped before a live, booze-inspired audience at Bernie's Bungalow.

Free tickets can be had by e-mailing mooreupnorth@gmail.com.

So..... she inhaled?

Not what you think. Here's an excerpt from the Sarah Barracuda Palin "Going Rogue" review in the New York Times (a pan):

"... a former beauty queen with a George W. Bush-like aptitude for mangling the English language (the first paragraph of the book contains the phrase “I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier”)."

And I bet it only gets better from there.

FDA Attacks Caffeinated Booze

I just saw this item in The Daily Beast, summarizing an NPR story:

Passing out after a long night out has been less of a problem thanks to the alcohol-infused energy drinks that have become available over the past few years. But on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration asked manufacturers to prove the safety of the reported drink of choice for a quarter of college students. Those who mix caffeine and alcohol are at a higher risk of injury than those who drink uncaffeinated alcohol, according to a Wake Forest University study. Last year, several state attorneys general successfully sued Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors to remove caffeine from two drinks. Now, the FDA is asking nearly 30 similar manufacturers to offer scientific proof that their products are safe within the next 30 days. The agency will review the manufacturers’ findings and determine whether the drinks can remain on the market.

Huh. Shouldn't the nanny state attorneys general or the FDA be the ones to prove the products are dangerous?

Honestly, though, I don't see the attraction of being drunk and wide awake. Seriously, who doesn't want to sleep after a bender?

Not everyone agrees, of course; I can hear the rallying cry now: "They can have my Jagger Bombs when they pry them from my cold, dead hands!"