News

Just a quick note here today that I have moved to Colorado, and I'm currently in the process of establishing my company in Colorado as well. For more information on that, see my Valley Programming (Boulder, Colorado) website.

(Fortunately for me, the area around Boulder is known as the "Boulder valley", so I don't have to change the name of my programming business.)

Now that I've told everyone in Alaska that needed to know the news, I can announce here that I'll be moving back to the Lower-48 in September, Colorado, specifically.

I've been very busy lately, and haven't taken the time to write any blog posts in a few weeks. The reason for my busy-ness is that I've created a new computer programming company in Alaska, Valley Programming.

Wow, if this story is true, it sure seems illegal. Bristol Palin is reported to have accepted a $262,500 salary from a "non-profit" organization which gave away only $35,000 to charities. Here's a link to the story.

While March 27th marks the date of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, today, March 28th, is being celebrated as Seward's Day in Alaska, the day the area now known as Alaska was purchased by the United States. (Technically Alaska was purchased by the U.S. on March 30, 1867, from Russia, but I assume it's celebrated on a Monday to make things easier for everyone, not to mention the whole three-day weekend thing.)

On this day in history ... 5:36pm, 1964 ... a 9.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Alaska for more than five minutes, followed in the next several days by more than 10,000 aftershocks, with eleven aftershocks in the first day having a magnitude greater than 6.0. I'd write more about it here, but I've covered a lot of it already in my 1964 Alaska earthquake facts article.

2011 Iditarod news, March 17, 2011 - I just checked the official 2011 Iditarod standings, and twenty-eight mushers have now finished the race, nineteen mushers are still on the Iditarod Trail, and fifteen mushers are now out of the race (have scratched).

2011 Iditarod News, March 16, 2011 - Besides all of the stories related to John Baker winning the 2011 Iditarod, one of the great quotes about how hard it is to win the Iditarod came from second-place finisher Ramey Smyth yesterday, when someone wished him happy birthday, and someone else asked when his birthday was

"Today, I guess."

Followed by the reporter's comment:

"It's hard to think straight when you've slept roughly five hours in six days."

To which Mr. Smyth said:

2011 Iditarod news - March 15, 2011 - 9:47am, and John Baker is riding into Nome, Alaska, as the winner of the 2011 Iditarod.

John Baker won the 2011 Iditarod in record time: 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds, breaking the previous Iditarod record time by about four hours. The previous Iditarod record time was 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds, set by Martin Buser in 2002. (See my Iditarod Race Winners page for more information on previous Iditarod race winners and race records.)

Iditarod race winners FAQ: Who are the former winners of the Iditarod race, and what are some of the Iditarod race records?

Still fascinated by the 2011 Iditarod Race here in Alaska, I did some more research, and put together this list of all the Iditarod winners since the race started in 1973.

Iditarod race winners

Here's the list of Iditarod race winners, and the year(s) they won the race: