A mother polar bear and two cubs who have visited the vicinity of Longyearbyen repeatedly during the past month was sighted in Hiorthhamn moving toward Adventdalen late…
Posts published in September 2017
Random weirdness for the week of Sept. 26, 2017
Hmmm…this week we’ve got the military strutting its stuff in our non-militarized haven, the mayor worrying tourism will soon be as unpopular as mining (at a time when many local pols are rooting for boom times in both industries) and outrage in Hong Kong about the exorbitant prices of our local “super premium” Svalbarði bottled glacier water. So which to lead off with? Well, since a real newspaper would go with the item most likely to significantly affect the most people reading this (and in this case the plural reference may be overly optimistic), we’re obviously starting with the water weirdness…
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Mark Sabbatini
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Sept. 26, 2017
Final fate of Svea and Lunckefjell mines may be determined Oct. 12
The few employees left at Svea will learn if the government supports resuming operations at the coal mine, as well as the one nearby at Lunckefjell, when the proposed national budget for 2018 is submitted Oct. 12.
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Mark Sabbatini
A cool childhood: Popsicles on a freezing boat perfectly normal, fresh milk and mangled mushrooms are bizarre as a typical small-town youth in Barentsburg
Diana Kurtyak, 8, has been living in Barentsburg since about the time her hometown in the Ukraine was overrun by rebels three years ago. But while she says she enjoys being with friends at her tiny school and misses relatives back home, the strangest part about her new life has to do with birds.
“It’s very strange I’ve seen some sparrows flying here because it’s very cold and it’s strange they’re flying here,” she said via an interpreter.
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Mark Sabbatini
Polar bear ransacks cabins at Kapp Laila; officials tranquilize it and fly it far north
A polar bear that ransacked several cabins at Kapp Laila was tranquilized and flown by helicopter to Nordaustlandet on Friday, according to The Governor of Svalbard.
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Mark Sabbatini
ALERT: SAS strike cancelled at last moment, extra Svalbard flight scheduled to help cancer patient
A full-scale strike by Scandinavian Airlines pilots in Norway was averted as the last moment, but that was still too late for Jørn Dybdahl, a Longyearbyen resident whose Thursday flight to Oslo to receive cancer treatment was cancelled. So Dybdahl, never one to shy from expressing his views, expressed his frustration to one of Norway’s biggest newspapers – and helped 112 other travelers stranded here by doing so.
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Mark Sabbatini
BREAKING: SAS pilots threaten to strike starting Thursday; local concert cancelled, weekend events face uncertainty
A threat by Scandinavian Airlines pilots to escalate a strike starting Thursday has resulted in the cancellation of a tour-opening concert by a Norwegian band that evening and may disrupt other events scheduled this weekend – plus, of course, travelers and businesses.
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Mark Sabbatini
1,600-liter barrel of diesel captured on film as it falls from governor’s helicopter into sea near Pyramiden
A 1,600-liter barrel of diesel fell from a helicopter into the water near Pyramiden while it being carried by one of The Governor of Svalbard’s aircraft, with those transporting the fuel lacking the equipment to contain the spill before it dispersed into the sea, according to officials.
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Mark Sabbatini
Random weirdness for the week of Sept. 12, 2017
The sight of gunshot-riddled reindeer carcasses hanging from what’s normally a swing set at Kullungen Kindergarten is yet another reminder Svalbard is a right-wing conservative haven, no matter what stereotypes they have about Norway being an Arctic version of North Korea.
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Mark Sabbatini
Steal-A-Meal: Living on ‘stolen’ bread crusts, cheese and waffles? It’s possible. Here’s the next-best legal thing
A week’s worth of thick-cut oats and raisins: 33 kroner. A week’s worth of tomato/pasta soup and bread: 32 kroner. A week’s worth of spaghetti, jars of marinara and pesto sauce, and brussels sprouts hey, they’re now haute cuisine when they’re roasted): 51 kroner.
Or, if that’s too extravagant, just buy one of those five-kilogram bags of jasmine rice for 40 kroner and indulge in a healthy third-world diet for a month.
And if even that is too profligate, there’s always the crusts and other stray pieces of fresh bread people leave behind in the slicer.