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Driving from Alaska to Siberia
Pelerin writes "The team from the
Ice Challenger project are driving from
Alaska to Provodanya, in Siberia; across the
56-mile field of ice floes that each winter
"joins" America
and Russia. At the last minute the Russian
authorities
have denied the entry permit but the
crew says they're on track to reach the Big
Diomedes islands, which lie across the date
line, thereby proving it's possible to do this.
This feat
is not as easy as it sounds due to the
harsh Artic winter conditions, and the fact
that the ice floes themselves are drifting
at a pretty good clip. It takes
a specially built vehicle
to tackle this adventure. Geek quotient: pretty
high :)" If you just want to drive to Alaska, you might go with Philip Greenspun. And if these guys don't make the trip to Russia this year, they might not get a chance. Update: 04/08 12:21 GMT by T : DrShrink adds to the story: "The two made it to Siberia, however were turned back due to not gaining permission to enter Russian territory."
I hope your car's heater is working...
I love roadtrips. Damn, I love roadtrips. I have always thought it would be really cool to drive from Tierra del Fuego to South Africa. (Stopping throughout Asia, Russia, Europe, etc.) However, other then the sheer amount of time it would take, this crossing area was another big obstical. Quite frankly, I think a bridge that was passable over the pacific would just be damn cool. DAMN cool!
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This doesn't sound very easy at all to me. I don't usually think of Alaska and Siberia being connected, and I'd imagine crossing the ice between them would be quite hazardous.
The future isn't what it used to be.
...they're on track to reach the Big Diomedes islands, which lie across the date line, thereby proving it's possible to do this. This feat is not as easy as it sounds...
I think they are overanalyzing this. To cross the International Date Line regardless of weather, one would only need a time machine...
Who knows, this may set a new trend for rectruiting firms in Alaska. Work in Alaska by day, live in cheap Siberia by night! On paper, a 56 mile commute doesn't seem so bad... they'd only tell you that it's over a field of ice floes after you sign the deal. Of course, this section of Alaska probably has less than a burdgeoning tech industry.
I saw a TLC program a month or so ago, where they used some specialized trucks to drive accross antarctica... They had some problems with huge ravines and blown tyres, frozen motor oil, etc. etc. but they made it.
Note: it _could_ have been the arctic, i forget now... but it's awesome all the same.
They fail to mention the reason that the Russians denied access was because their sattelite intelligence showed that the "specially built vehicle" was going to deposit four Tanyas and an Engineer.
--I hate big sigs.
Two brothers in North Carolina have apparently developed a new transportation device, which allows you to move through the air. They're calling this vehicle an aeroplane, or plane for short. Initial tests look very promising, and some of the designs look good.
I think something like this would be incredibly useful for getting from Alaska to Sibera both easily and quickly. Ice is very slippery! Perhaps one day you could even fly from major US cities such as New York to major Russian cities like Moscow. Give it a century, and these aeroplanes will be everywhere!
If they're floating on water some of the time, are they really "driving" from Alaska to Siberia? If that thing were to navigate across a lake, I wouldn't say it's done the impossible by "driving" across the lake. If it did the whole thing while touching solid ice, it'd make more sense.
I'm not saying that this isn't an amazing feat; on the contrary, I think the term makes it seem like what they're doing is easy, and we may all be able to do it soon enough. I'm still waiting for word on when that giant bridge is gonna go up.
While it looks like quite an amazing feat regardless, there are some pictures of that special vehicle floating in water; if it is amphibious, it kind of streteches the definition of "driving" across. If at times you're floating, it is sort of like taking a boat when necessary.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
... They're halfway across the 'bridge': Bill: "This bridge is pretty shaky, who was the engineer of this thing?" Ted (looks at travel guide): "God." Bill: "Oh, he's good. Well then it must be safe..." *Ice shifting in background* Good luck!
...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
For the love of God, or Webster, or both Funk and Wagnalls, it's Arctic, not Artic.
A little review...
Artic
Arctic
Artic
Arctic
Sheesh.
After the completion of the English Channel Tunnel, this is now seen to be at least in the realm of possibility.
Heck, there has been some discussion on this already.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis already did this, as I recall. Well, they floated across. :-)
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
I couldn't copy the text because it is done in Flash, but I was disappointed to see this narrow view of our planet postulated in "Old World" = Europe, and "New World"= The Americas. What has happened to Africa and Australia? Would they be old or new or really really old (as in Australia, which is probably the oldest continent).
Also, they want to establish an Overland Race around the world from New York to London, wouldn't it be more challenging to go New York to, say Johannesburg?
I must say, I think that's totally cool. I can't believe they denied the entry permit, however.
It's a shame they couldn't make a permanant roadway (I know, I know, it's 56 miles, but it'd still be cool.
About the first one, they never crossed the Beiring Strait, and judging by their route and the car they took, they put the thing on boat or plane to cross the Pacific Ocean (didn't read that part, but look at the route..) Certainly nothing to be scoffed at, I couldn't stand to go that far in a car (though this is basically a rich guy taking a 3 year road trip, at least it isn't *too* pampered.... except the fact he can afford to go off for three years and do this...)
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Really. I had the opposite reaction; I found that article to be precisely the sort of maudlin self-contradictory guck that makes me question my staunch (medium-far) leftist politics.
The article runs: Scientists are chatting up the elders of this ancient people to better understand how warm weather is destroying 2500 years of tradition; but, wait, at least on the Siberian side of things, the Soviets got there first, and all the elders that actually knew anything about hunting are all dead; the current batch has only been going at this hunting thing since the death of the Soviet Union; oh, and a few centuries back the Artic was waaay warmer than it was until recently, and the climate swing killed a bunch of guys then, too; but it's all really sad and stuff that more scientists aren't willing to forsake their precious 'facts and figures' to really *talk* to these wonderful, hardy, precious little men and women.
*Bleech*. Yet another make-work puff-piece assignment for a journalist who apparently knows that any contradiction can make sense if you tart it up in the right sort of narrative.
I could go on. However, I'll close with one final question: Why in God's name do Americans still refer to the Inuit as 'Eskimos'? It shows all the social sensitivity of 'negro' or 'indian'.
- undoware.ca
The problem is MENA and sub-Saharan Africa. The MENA countries are in some ways bigger problems, because they are by and large uppper-middle class countries (though they've slipped in recent years), so they have low infant mortality rates, but they have not experienced the drop in fertility that Asia did during its rise to industrialization. Sub-Saharan Africa is a different problem; they're still poor, so they have an abysmally low life expectancy, but they make up for it by having an absurdly high number of children (Nigeria has a fertility rate of over 8! Can you even imagine that, if the AVERAGE woman in America had 8 children, to say nothing of the statistical outliers).
So, all you folks who want us to breed less, you're preaching to the choir. Women in industrialized countries are just too busy to want to take care of a half dozen children. As the costs for having children rises (both real money spent for things like education, and the potential income sacrificed by women staying home to look after the kids), families will choose to have fewer kids. You can see it happening in the world today, and as incomes rise, it will just keep happening.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
For example, the media played up the "Balloon Spy" thing, but the Chinese had other concerns. Specifically, their air traffic control system is extremely limited. Large areas of China are not covered by radar. To prevent accidents, they carefully schedule flights. The Chinese were concerned that allowing an uncontrolled balloon to fly through their air routes was too dangerous.
For the Russians, I could guess that they don't want to have the responsiblity for rescuing these guys if something goes wrong. Sure its easy to say it's the driver's neck, and that they could sign some release. But who wants the bad PR. I can see it now, weeping relatives on CNN begging the Russians for assistance. The Russians holding up a signed release. Guess who wins.
From a beaurcrat's point of view, these decisions are easy -- piss off a handful of people or risk world condemnation.
As a Canadian living (legally) in the U.S.A., I've asked a few people that when they used the term "Eskimo". I explained, that it essentially means "eater of raw meat", and while true to an extent, is regarded as an insult (heck, I like steak tartare too). Canadians have used the more politically correct term "Inuit" for quite some time now. The response I get is usually one of shock and ignorance: "Really? I didn't know that!" suggesting that any offence is unintentional. I usually explain the difference and let people chose what terms to use in the future. (I'm not about to be the political correctness police).
You could've hired me.
Of course all of that fails to explain why more and more houses / condos / apartment complexs keep on being built. . . . (not to mention quickly occupied)
If there are no more 'new' people then why the hell are houses being torn down and apartment complexs then put up and filled to the brim so damn quickly?
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Hrm. I think I see what you mean about the article, but I didn't feel like it was that bad. It seemed like the journalist presented all the different facts without blaming anybody at all. And without making the contradiction that you describe.
And the journalist was trying to explain why the locals sometimes distrust the scientists. Well explained. Facts were presented, not a position. It seems like a trite, sad story because what is actually happening is a sad story. The descriptions of previous climate swings killing other people is there precisely to suggest that there might not be a good solution.
Iduno. Maybe I'm just used to college-grade maudlin guck, so professional-grade maudlin guck fools me completely. I liked the article a lot.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Um, my guess is that it isn't the Mayans that disappeared. At least, they didn't disappear completely, because there are still Mayans. I've met quite a few. And some of them didn't move very far: If my recollection serves, a few thousand full blood Mayans still live in the Yucatan peninsula.
They're getting pretty well integrated, so I'm sure Mayan genes have spread around quite a bit. You might have met Mayan descendants in the US.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
The other posters were just talking about people breeding. In the USA, I've read that most population increase is from people immigrating from other countries.
cpeterso
All long tunnels are rail-only. There are several problems with letting people operate their own vehicles in long tunnels:
1) you have to vent the exhaust fumes. You can use forced air on short tunnels under rivers, and vent tunnels under mountains, but the Bering Strait tunnel is far too long for that.
2) individually operated vehicles mean that you'll have accidents. It's difficult to send emergency crews 20 miles into a tunnel.
3) individually operated vehicles mean that you'll have idiots who run out of gas, or have mechanical breakdowns, etc.
Customs is also much easier with rail systems on either side. Each country can handle customs at the rail station on its own side, there's never any concern about traffic backing up into the tunnel if you only have a limited number of electric trains that shuttle back and forth through the tunnel. With vehicular traffic, you would really need to have each country operate its customs offices in the other country, with a clear shot on the other side.
That's a standard practice already, e.g., US Customs clears passengers at many Canadian airports instead of clearing them stateside, but it's always preferable to operate customs on your own territory due to jurisdictional issues.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
> I explained, that it essentially means "eater of raw meat".
This probably isn't true though so many people believe it that it might as well be. It in reality probably describes something to do with the lacing of a snowshoe, and is from the Algonquin language Montagnais rather than an Abenake dialect as was originally believed.
See more or less any online dictionary for more information, also some more detail at:
here
If you haven't dealt with Algonquin languages before, the 'Goddard' mentioned there is essentially the most reknown Algonquinist there is. If there is anyone who is able to correctly speak on things as difficult as dead Algonquin languages it is he.
Of course since the word is perceived as offensive already, there is little else we can do but treat it as offensive. Words such as Inuit are perhaps more accurate, anyways.
It is very rare that a native american tribe actually (historically) has a name for itself; hence so many of them are named by other tribes, resulting in persistant (sometimes true) rumors about the insulting nature of these names. (Most that are still around have of course adopted names from some source by now)
It shows all the social sensitivity of 'negro' or 'indian'.
You mean, like the "American Indian Movement"?
"Native American" is a catch-all term invented by the US Department of the Interior that lumps together peoples as disparate as Inuit, Samoans, Nez Perce, Yuma, and Seneca. "Indian" is a *more* specific term, as it generally doesn't include various Polynesians and Micronesians and folks from tribes outside the continental US.
I've neber known an Indian who was offended by the term "Indian"; those who take offense to that term seem mostly to be well-meaning but self-important staunch white leftists who wouldn't know the difference between a Susquehanna and an Apache. "Native American" is generally to be avoided, but what they'd really rather for you to call them is their real name.
It would be expensive and dangerous. You would need a REAL SUV with a winch, extra fuel and would need permission and armed escorts through Peru (some of the land is occupied by Sendera Luminoso) and then you may have to go through some sketchy areas occupied by the FARC in Columbia. (the FARC would love to kidnap an adventurous traveler, but they rarely kill foreigners...but you might get caught in the crossfire of the Columbian army and the FARC). Also no real roads exist in the Putomayo district of Columbia nor are they really "roads" in the tradtional sense in Northern Columbia or southern Panama (also FARC and ELN hangouts). Once you went from Panama to Mexico hopefully the worst problems you would have would be repairs, gas and bribes. Through these countries you might have to register the car with the police upon both entering and exiting the country and have proof of insureance that is valid in all of them ($$$).
After that it would be smoothe sailing from I-5 in San Diego up to (I think) Homer Alaska...asside from the 'migra' agents searching the hell out of your vehicle. Once you get to Homer, you'd have problems. The Provedeniya route is limited, the best bet would be to sell the car in Alaska and head by boat to Dutch Harbor. There you could try booking a bearth on a Russian cargo ship to Madagan Siberia or Vladivostok. Try to buy a Toyota HiLux (the Taliban drove them, and they are the staple of every third world country with a different diffinition of the word "road"). The best would be to get to Magadan because then you could drive to Yakutsk but be prepared to get special permission from the Russians to enter in Madagan...a bribe might succeed). Last I heard, Yakutsk to Irkutsk was still drivable in the winter but sketchy during the summer (permafrost...drop by the museum of permafrost studies in Yakutsk and enjoy "milk tar" with the locals) from there, you would probably be prevented by the army from driving further (but who would not want to see Lake Baikal in Irkutsk?) by this time you would have already accumalated enough 'macho points' and a massive credit card debt so you could just continue on to Moscow with the Trans-Siberian railroad or you might want to pay through the nose and get your HiLux put on the train to let you off in Ekaterinburg and drive through there to the Black Sea. When there you would have the tough choice of proceeding through Russia through Georgia (civil war with muslim fundies in the north), Armenia (occasional war with Azerbaijan) and Turkey (war with PKK) or go the long way of Ukraine (bribes), Romania (Bribes), Bulgaria (beatings and bribes) and Turkey (shitty drivers...no bribes).
Istanbul is cool, hang out there for a while at a youth hostel, make Australian girls lust after you.
From there your only choice is to drive through Syria. Hope you can get the car through and hope you don't have a Jewish sounding name or have been to Isreal (they will call it 'Occupied Palestine'..use that term to not get your car confiscated).
You Cannot drive from Syria to Lebanon to Isreal, so your best bet is to go through Jordan (use 'Occupied Palestine' as the term again to get some tea. The term for bribe is 'Baksheesh' offer it by asking if there is any way that they can help you).
Going from Jordan to Isreal should be doable. Be prepared to answer alot of questions from the IDF, explain to them that you are a nutball with alot of money or so into debt that you hope to be killed in Africa.
Isreal to Egypt...probably doable, depending on the politics at the time. But from Egypt it will be tricky.
You may be able to cross into the Sudan from Egypt at Wadi Halfa but the Sudan is kinda pissed at the US right now (marry a Swiss person in Istanbul if you can...they have an excellent dental plan as well) and US citizens are forbidden from entering Libya by the US state department (I hear the Libyans don't stamp your passport but also don't like the fact that you have been in Isreal) This is where your trip would most likely stop without getting on a plane. If you could cross in the Sudan you would be stopped by the military as you got near the South, where they have been having a civil war for about 20 years and what little roads exist are probably unpassable. In Libya you would have to drive at night through the Sahara along routes used by illigal immigrant smugglers from Niger....Lots of bandits, and the desert might kill you before you got to Niamy or Mali.
You also couldn't get around The Democratic Republic of Congo, due to poor roads and "Africa's World War" going on. It is also unlikely that you would be able to get past Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda as well.
Not to worry though , going to Isreal would have stopped you from getting this far to begin with.
I pulled my hair out planning this trip a few years ago, but I was not going to drive, just try to see how far I could get without using an airplane while seeing as much land as possible.
Plan a short version of the trip and you'll have a blast. Traveling is great.
Why not build a bridge? There's a 8 mile bridge over icy waters in Canada
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http://www.confederationbridge.com/en/accueil/ind
There's been a lot of press lately about not only Antarctic ice shelf collapses but also Arctic ice melting. It's causing serious problems for seals, polar bears that eat seals, and Inuit and Siberians who hunt seals and whales, as well as for anybody sailing up there.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The difference between "thou" and "you" has nothing to do with number. It's all about familiarity: "thou" is the familiar form (used with pals, family and subordinates) and "you" is the formal form (used with strangers, superiors, etc.) It's exactly like the difference between "tu" and "usted." Both "thou" and "you" can function as singular or plural, although in a group situation you'll tend to use the more formal form (this goes for contintental Spanish as well as early modern English)-- probably erring on the side of safety (wouldn't want the serfs thinking you like 'em.)
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
See This Site for one example, he mentions several others he met doing the same thing.
A couple other notes: A "Hi-Lux" is basically a 4-runner. The Land Cruiser is the flagship and the real workhorse.
One option that I've heard of that works for entering internationally blacklisted countries is to have two passports. Most of the people I've know have had duel citizenship, but others have just managed to get a second passport "somehow". Usually that is only effective if you plan to reenter the "somewhat friendly" country after your visit to the "unfriendly" country. I knew this to be used from Zimbabwe to South Africa back when ZA was the censured country. The main passport only showed entry and exit to Zimbabwe. The "reserve" passport had lots of border crossings from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Loosen up dude. You're just jealous that he's 38 and retired ,and able to go swanning off in his own airplane.
Some of us would be happy to just get a cheap holiday somewhere scenic, away from our wife, children and computers for a while, and rest our tired eyes away from our CRT focused life.
The thought of making that journey sounds cool, you could start you're own web blog about it and really brush up on your photography.
I think having to drive the SUV for a free holiday is a pretty good trade off.
It sure sounds like a good way to spend the summer to me.
Well I've applied and I'm sure he'll get thousands more applicants.
Thanks for the correction and references. "Eskimo" as "eater of raw meat" was taught as fact to school children in 1970s Quebec. I should probably have verified my sources better.
You could've hired me.
It's Provideniya, not provodanya.
afaik all those places on the Russian shore of the Bering strait primarily serve as Air Force bases.
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Oh I don't think it's really your fault or under your control that you made that mistake - as the link I gave suggests near the bottom of it, more or less all of Canada switched to near official use of 'inuit' because of the common belief (and pressure from Inuit political groups) that 'eskimo' did mean 'eater of raw meat'. I don't imagine you're alone among Canadians, and most Americans who know anything about the word probably believe the same.
Language myths like these have a strange way of spreading very easily, and being totally unkillable once they do. There is something very believable about strange claims about little known languages.
Look, I live in Seattle -- a city which, just 10,000 years ago, was buried under a sheet of ice three thousand feet thick.
Or consider Greenland, which is quite inhospitable today but was inhabited by the Vikings in the unusually warm period about a thousand years ago. Then things started to get colder again, and all the (relatively few by modern standards) people who were living there died off. They went through almost the exact reverse of the situation you are describing, but the cause of that climate change was certainly not the actions of humans.
Note that I'm not making any statements about the degree to which global warming is occurring, how much humans are contributing to it, or how much we should do about it. All I'm saying is that when you say "that's [i.e. climate change on the order of a decade or two] beyond my comprehension," you ought to realize that this is hardly the first time such things have occurred and will certainly not be the last. The planet is a dynamic system, and changes are the norm, not the exception.
"Biped! Good cranial development. Evidently considerable human ancestry."
Well, how about Pokey The Penguin Then? They're after my Arctic Circle Candy!!
--Josh
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
I'd say that the Land Rover is the real workhorse of OR driving. Entering SA with a Japanese car? Pish.
(teasing all my friends who own _very_ well made Toyota SUVs ;-) )
DP
97 Disco
94 D90
They could be used to commit crimes.
If you're not against the airlines, you're with the terrorists.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.