CNN report on Little Diomede Island, the part of Alaska where Russia can be seen just across the sea
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Photo of Diomede (Inalik) village on the west coastOne of the most interesting events that can occur during the election season are these small side stories that reporters research themselves in response to something a candidate says or an issue that comes up that wouldn't have come up otherwise. Here we get to see exactly what life is like on Little Diomede Island, part of the Diomede Islands and just 4 km away from Russia. Population 147.
The kid at 2:30 is hilarious.
Wikipedia has a surprisingly detailed page on the island, and it was quite large even before the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. One interesting fact:
The Little Diomede natives are allowed to pay their taxes to the Internal Revenue Service in ivory collected from walrus hunts, being the only people in the United States that are allowed to pay taxes with something besides U.S. currency.
3 comments:
I was interested to compare the distances between Japan-Russia and Alaska-Russia, so I did some research myself.
Even from the Little Diomede Island, you can't see inhabited Russia (their is a neighboring Russian island next to Little Diomede, and they are only 2.5 miles apart). From the edge of Hokkaido, though, a place that you can drive to directly on National Route 40, you can see inhabited areas of Russia (which is 4 km off).
What that means is that by Palin's standards, residents of Hokkaido are more qualified in "international relations and policy" than she is.
hmm. one could argue that the island of kunashir at the north east of hokkaido belongs to russia, and thus that it is an even closer inhabited area
you can almost reach out and touch it, judging from google maps :) (well, i don't actually know it's closer, it just looks a lot closer)
hmm. one could argue that the island of kunashir at the north east of hokkaido belongs to russia, and thus that it is an even closer inhabited area
you can almost reach out and touch it, judging from google maps :) (well, i don't actually know it's closer, it just looks a lot closer)
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