Chiming in About Climate
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FREE icepeople The world's northernmost alternative newspaper Briefly Vol. 1, Issue 27 November 24, 2009 www.icepeople.net Odd Olsen Ingerø to head office Chiming after four-year absence; other new senior officials also coming in about climate Church takes involvement in global warming to new level with Total flights in scientists at Svalbard gathering Longyearbyen The hope is sending a little heat from the 2000.............4,882 Arctic now will keep people from feeling a lot 2001.............5,890 of it later. 2002.............5,532 A church bell chiming 12 times from Sval- 2003.............5,963 bard on Sunday launched what religious and Leif Magne Helgesen, background center, rings the church bell at Skjæringa as Biskop Per Oskar 2004.............6,268 science leaders called a historic event as other Kjølaas delivers a message about the church and Arctic warming Nov. 21 during "Rop Fra Arktis," a 2005.............6,062 churches throughout Norway are participating three-day gathering of science and religious leaders in Svalbard seeking to raise awareness before in a bell relay seeking to draw attention to the 2006.............6,521 the Copenhagen climate summit in December. The bell ringing in Longyearbyen was the first in a 2007.............7,064 See CLIMATE, page 4 relay of similar ceremonies at churches throughout Norway. 2008.............8,911 2009*............7,080 *Estimate based on Jan.- No malls, but plenty of holiday tussle June comparison from 2008 Gymnastics show, torchlight The festivities started last Sunday when march help launch more than a about 50 members of two Longyearbyen choirs joined singer Geirr Lystrup and the Moscow month of Christmas activities Balalaika Quartet for "Stjerna Fra Øst," a con- Planning for KunstPause Standing outside a door for hours and then cert performed throughout Norway annually Svalbard underway in hope trampling your fellow man for cheap TV sets combining traditional Russian folk music with on Black Friday signals the beginning of the a Norwegian holiday tale. A packed crowd at of attracting more visitors Christmas season in certain parts of the world. Huset offered a standing ovation for the perfor- In Svalbard, where malls are scarce and black- mance, the second Longyearbyen since the Web exclusive: Download the MP3 Lots of coverage of Ban's trip,Svalbard residents can cast ness reigns much longer, grand bargains give show debuted in 2002. "Sporløst Gikk Tiden" by Liv Mari Schei ballots next week, but there's way to holiday exertions decidedly less com- While Thanksgiving and the subsequent free at www.icepeople.net. much of it questioning his ability bative in nature. About 80 Turngruppa members will perform a shopping madness of Black Friday are a decid- to push climate change agendano promise they'll be counted A gymnastics holiday show by about 80 holiday show Saturday at Svalbardhallen. edly U.S.-based phenomenon, an abundance of Full information on the above items is youths on Saturday begins a weekend of events food and bargains will be offered by merchants available at www.icepeople.net. celebrating the start of Advent. A family and stories are scheduled Sunday as part of throughout Longyearbyen staying open late liturgy, torchlight procession through more than five weeks of Christmas-related Thursday for a "Happy Hour" celebration. Longyearbyen, tree-lighting ceremony, music events. See ADVENT, page 3 Inside Big finds, small Johan Olei Svidal. steps of progress Headlines from Svalbardposten - Ruling means no tourist flights to Barentsburg Leader of Ida, Predator X fossil - Woman: Flu shot causes loss of taste, smell - Two power outages result of operating errors projects says plenty of debate Page 3 and discovery remain ahead Weather forecast Getting 1.2 billion Google hits in a day isn't a bad start, but Jørn Hurum says he hopes dis- Priest finds clinic, church missions similar Page 3 cussion about a controversial fossil discovery is See KUNSTPAUSE, page 4 Events calendar just beginning. Jørn Hurum poses with a T-rex at Oslo's Natural Page 4 See DINOSAURS, page 2 History Museum in this History Channel photo. Money's tight, but musicians fine playing for less as Dark Season Blues starts Thursday Page 2 November 24, 2009 Who's to blame and how to express your wrath Editor Mark Sabbatini Copy editor Kristan Hutchison Psychiatrist Irene Gallion Mailing address Icepeople Vei 210 -2- 13 Longyearbyen, Svalbard 9170 Norway Telephone Norway: +47 41 51 46 38 U.S. +1 (970) 673-4472 E-mail [email protected] Web site Jørn Hurum, an adjunct associate professor at UNIS this year, discusses the discovery of the Ida www.icepeople.net primate fossil at the university Tuesday. He will discuss his work excavating "Predator X" and other prehistoric creatures from Svalbard at UNIS on Thursday, participate in an open house at Svalbard Icepeople is published weekly (or thereabouts) Museum from noon to 4 p.m. Friday, and conduct workshops to preserve fossilized footprints from on Tuesdays (or thereabouts), with printed Mine 7 at the museum from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. copies available free on a limited basis in Longyearbyen. Additional printed copies are availably locally and by mail upon request. Workshops to preserve local fossils Charges are on an "at cost" basis. DINOSAURS, from page 1 sion going for 10 years before something hap- Hurum, a paleontologist serving as an ad- pens, even with a convincing specimen like Copyright stuff junct professor at The University Centre In Ida," he said. Svalbard this year, presented his highly publi- Hurum acknowledged the Ida researchers cized findings about a fossil nicknamed Ida at took "a very unusual approach" to their out- Original contents of this publication can be the university Tuesday as part of a series of reach campaign. But he said the high-profile reproduced for non-commercial purposes free activities this week related to his work. An- effort paid off in a number of ways, including a of charge if Icepeople is credited as the other lecture is scheduled Thursday about the depiction of Ida in a logo used by Google for source. The original writers, photographers Briefly record-size "Predator X" and other sea mon- its homepage for a 26-hour stretch. During that and other contributors retain their rights to all sters from prehistoric Svalbard, while work- time, he said, there were 1.2 billion clicks on published works. shops Friday and Saturday at the Svalbard the logo, which linked to information about the Museum will focus on preserving fossilized project. Corrections policy footprints discovered in Mine 7. "That makes this the fastest outreach Ida generated front-page headlines project for a single science paper ever in the When we screw up you'll know about it – on worldwide this May when Hurum and other history of the world," he said. the front page. One of the big complaints researchers claimed the 47-million-year-old Hurum also got considerable attention for about newspapers is they tend to bury primate might be the crucial missing link in dramatic claims regarding Predator X, a pre- corrections and clarifications deep inside the history of human evolution. The 95-per- historic marine predator discovered in Sval- where few people who read the original article cent-complete fossil, discovered in 1983 in a bard in 2006. Dubbed the most powerful crea- see them. If we need to fix something, an alert village near Frankfurt, was reassembled in ture ever to inhabit the ocean, its bite may have box on the front page will state what story is in 2007 by Hurum and other members of the in- been four times as forceful as that of a Tyran- error and where the full correction is printed. ternational "dream team" after the two slabs it nosaurs Rex. was preserved on were acquired from separate A lecture about the creature and excava- owners. tion work related to it, which remains ongoing, Submitting material The completeness of the fossil is what al- is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday at UNIS. lowed the Ida team to reach its conclusions, Another local discovery, of mammal Letters, columns, photos and other material Hurum said during his lecture before an audi- tracks about 60 million years old in Mine 7, are welcome, but we can't offer pay for ence of about 60 people Tuesday at UNIS. will be a primary focus of workshops at Sval- published items since nobody here is getting "Look at her fingers, look at her hands – bard Museum from noon to 4 p.m. Friday and paid at the moment. Submissions in electronic every piece is there," he said. "This is the first Saturday. form (text, Word documents, JPEGs, etc.) are time we've seen a complete picture of a pri- Friday's activities include a lecture on Hu- highly preferred, although typing and/or mate that is this old." rum's various projects from 1 to 2 p.m. and a scanning of items will be considered on a per- Some experts raised concerns the high- youth workshop to preserve the mine footprints case basis. We reserve the right to edit profile announcement overplayed the fossil's at 2 p.m. Another open workshop is scheduled submissions for length, clarity, accuracy, libel importance before data could be independent- as part of Saturday's events. Admission to the and other reasons, but we will also make ly scrutinized, but Hurum said publishing the museum and all events is free. every reasonable effort to contact the author findings is the start of debate, not the end. There's more! Visit www.icepeople.net about any changes prior to publication. "I think we will have to keep the discus- for the complete story.