Common dog breeds used in Alaska for the Iditarod dog sled race are the Siberian Husky, the Alaskan Malamute, and the Mackenzie River Husky. Dog sled teams were used to deliver mail throughout rural Alaska until 1963 when airplanes dominated and replaced them.
The number 11 in base-2 (the binary system) is equivalent to 3 in base-10, the decimal system.
Base-10 is used in most modern civilizations and was the most common system for ancient civilizations, probably because humans have 10 fingers. Some other civilizations used different number bases. The Mayans used base-20, possibly from counting both fingers and toes. The Yuki language of California uses base-8 (octal), by counting the spaces between fingers rather than the digits.
Basic computing is based on a binary or base-2 number system where there are only two digits: 0 and 1.
The length of the 2018 Iditarod race in miles, 998 in decimal/base-10, would be 1111100110 in binary / base-2 numbering
The “ceremonial length” of the Iditarod Trail race is 1,049 miles, because Alaska is the 49th state. The race alternates routes slightly each year, taking a northern route in even years and a southern route in odd years.
The ceremonial start of the Iditarod is a popular event in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Snow is hauled into some of downtown’s side streets for staging the teams, and to 4th Avenue, where the teams will begin their race for the thousands of spectators who come to watch. Celebrities are known to pay to ride in the sleds for the ceremonial start. It’s a chaotic scene, with excited dogs leaping in their traces and mushers trying to keep them untangled and breaking up any fights. The most popular racing dog is the so-called Alaska Husky, which is not a recognized AKC breed. These dogs are hybrids of Alaskan malamutes, Siberian huskies, German shorthaired pointers, Salukis and Anatolian shepherds, to name a few. They are prized for their strength, endurance and speed.
In 2015, a study using a number of genetic markers indicated that the Malamute, the Siberian Husky, and the Alaskan husky share a close genetic relationship between each other and were related to Chukotka sled dogs from Siberia. They were separate from the two Inuit dogs, the Canadian Eskimo Dog and the Greenland Dog.
The city of Anchorage, Alaska, with roughly 296,000 people, is home to more than 40% of the state’s entire population. Anchorage covers 1,706 square miles of land area, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island (1,214 square miles).
With about 738,000 inhabitants, Alaska ranks 48th among the 50 states. Only Vermont and Wyoming have a smaller number of inhabitants. Unsurprisingly, Alaska has the lowest density of population, with 1 person per square mile. Wyoming, the second-lowest, has 6 people per square mile.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is an Independent from Vermont. Although he ran as a Democrat in the 2016 presidential primaries, he has since returned to calling himself an Independent. He has run against Vermont Democratic Party candidates 14 times over the course of his career.
A belt sander is a sander used in shaping and finishing wood and other materials. It consists of an electric motor that turns a pair of drums on which a continuous loop of sandpaper is mounted. Belt sanders may be handheld and moved over the material, or stationary (fixed), where the material is moved to the sanding belt.
Belt-sander racing is the practice of racing belt sanders competitively. See: Belt Sander Races - YouTube
I *love *this country!
In play:
Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt, a dwarf planet large enough to have been shaped by gravity into a sphere like Earth and the other planets. It was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi, a Catholic priest and amateur astronomer, on New Year’s Day 1801.
NBC reporter Sander Vanocur, who joined John Chancellor, Frank McGee, and Edwin Newman in reporting from the convention floors in the 1960’s, had a spot on [URL=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_list_of_Nixon%27s_political_opponents”]Nixon’s enemies list. That was not a particularly exclusive distinction.
ETA: Nixon never went to the asteroids.
Me and Bobby McGee, a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, was first recorded by Roger Miller in 1969. Miller’s version reached as high as #12 on the Country Music charts. Gordon Lightfoot’s 1970 version reached #13 on the pop music chart. But a posthumously-released version by Janis Joplin topped the U.S. singles chart in 1971.
It was the second time that a posthumously-released single reached #1 in U.S. chart history. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding was the first, in 1968.
Kris Kristofferson graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College and went on to Oxford with a Rhodes Scholarship, becoming one of a list of scholars that includes heads of state Bill Clinton and Malcolm Turnbull (of Australia), politicians Cory Booker and Bobby Jindal, scientists Edwin Hubble and Howard Florey, authors Jonathan Kozol and Naomi Wolf, and journalists and human rights activists Nicholas Kristof and Ronan Farrow.
On Aug. 13, 1991, Howard Dean, MD and Lieutenant Governor of Vermont, was with a patient when he learned that Gov. Richard Snelling had died and he had succeeded to the top executive-branch office in Vermont.
In the mid 1950s, two U.S. entertainers with very similar names (and who were apparently distant cousins to one another) rose to prominence.
Actor James Dean, who, in his brief career, starred in Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant, died in a car crash at age 24, in 1955. Country singer Jimmy Dean was known for his hit song “Big Bad John,” but is best-known today for the breakfast sausage company which he founded, and which still bears his name (though it has changed hands several times).
John Chick is a 6’4" former defensive end for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who was named the CFL’s Outstanding Defensive Player in 2009. At Taylor Field, after every John Chick sack, the refrain from “Big Bad John” was played.
About 80 miles WNW of Bakersfield CA is the tiny town of Cholame (“show-LAM”), population approx. 650. On September 30, 1955, a terrible car accident occurred in that town between two cars, one car with one person and the other car with two. One person died. He was driving the car with a passenger, and that passenger survived the crash, as did the driver of the other car.
The driver who died was a distant cousin of the singer who sang “Big Bad John”. That driver was James Dean.
James Dean is the only person mentioned by full name in Don McLan’s American Pie:
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me.
While it’s agreed that the Kind is Elvis, opinion is scattered on who the “queen” is. Did McLean just use it for the rhyme?
The “coat” is actually the red windbreaker won both by Dean and by “the jester” Bob Dylan,.
Dean is also mentioned in the 1973 song “Rock On”, originally by David Essex and covered by Michael Damian, Def Leppard, and many others.
Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen
Prettiest girl I ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen, Jimmy Dean
(James Dean)
1973: on 04 April, New York City’s World Trade Center officially opened. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held.