We’re starting to feel like they’ve rented space here in recent months (feel free to send us a check), but once again we’ve got to tip our hats to the local beer barons for making history in yet one more way by shipping their first batch of brew to the mainland. Yeah it took them six years to get everything going, but we suspect they’ve had a serious buzz on since they started up this fall which (mostly) has little to do with consuming too much of their own product. Even so, there’s still plenty of alcohol-loving back-seat drivers wanting a turn at the wheel who aren’t being shy about it on the brewery’s Facebook page. Some are debating various ways even more beer could be squeezed onto those outgoing pallets, while other outsiders – including especially persistent guy in Denmark – are wondering when the heck they’ll be able to get their drink on…
Meanwhile, another big local hit – the Svalbard-centric episode of “The Hunt” featured on this week’s front page – has its own share of critics, or should we say truthers? The comments section of the YouTube clip mentioned in the article features some convinced (spoiler alert) the bear didn’t actually capture the seal that seemingly eluded it on an ice floe. “I’m not convinced it’s all as it seems,” one commenter wrote. “I cannot see that the seal would have drowned that fast and the bear has only caught its rear flipper that would obviously not be a fatal injury in that time scale. Also the dead seal is hauled out onto a different section of ice when the camera shot changes.” A fellow truther agrees “I think the bear that lifts the dead seal out onto the ice is a different animal.”