[HN Gopher] Greenland is a beautiful nightmare
___________________________________________________________________
Greenland is a beautiful nightmare
Author : zdw
Score : 397 points
Date : 2025-09-27 15:46 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (matduggan.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (matduggan.com)
| topkai22 wrote:
| I flew over Greenland coming back from Europe recently. From the
| air, the fjords and glacial snowscapes there and in northern
| Canada are profoundly beautiful and completely devoid of signs of
| humans in a way you don't see even in some of the remotest parts
| of the US.
|
| Definitely worth opening the shade for if you have the
| opportunity
| jamesblonde wrote:
| The best flights are to/from Seattle. Copenhagen/Seattle goes
| over the far north of Greenland.
| tobinfekkes wrote:
| Same here. My favorite pictures from flights are from the
| London/Seattle route over Greenland.
| SilverElfin wrote:
| I've flown that way but got absolutely blinded by whatever is
| outside - it was very hard to tell any details on the land
| below.
| ck2 wrote:
| fun-fact: CIA is currently mucking around in Greenland trying to
| get rid of people against annexation
|
| this is not going to end well
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j9l08902eo
|
| https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-polit...
| idiotsecant wrote:
| I don't think that's an accurate characterization of either of
| those articles. It sounds like they're trying to find groups
| who want to be independent, probably with the goal of
| artificially propping them up. It's still gross, but not as
| gross as hunting dissidents.
| morkalork wrote:
| >find groups who want to be independent, probably with the
| goal of artificially propping them up
|
| The same thing is happening in Alberta. It is unsettling and
| disturbing
| dismalaf wrote:
| The Trudeau/Carney government is doing that all on their
| own. Just gonna drop this here:
|
| https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locatio
| n...
|
| Edit - for those who don't get it, Alberta derives most of
| its wealth from oil. Successive Liberal governments have
| both restricted our ability to sell oil while taking
| significant amounts of money from Alberta in transfer
| payments. Since Alberta has a border with the US, we have
| pipelines going south. All the while the Canadian economy
| has been severely under-performing relative to the US
| government. The last 2 points naturally push Alberta away
| from Canada towards the US, without any potential political
| interference.
| didibus wrote:
| If you do the math, Alberta would donate even more money
| if it was a US state. It would owe more federal taxes,
| and since its population tends younger and well employed,
| it would get less of it back.
|
| You could say the "benefit" could be that getting
| approvals for pipelines and higher production of oil
| might be easier to get in the US. That's really just an
| "if" though. The Keystone XL pipeline was blocked twice
| by US government.
|
| What it should have done is adopt Norway's model. It
| would have half a trillion in savings already if it had,
| and wouldn't even need oil, as raw investment could
| finance its budget alone.
|
| But putting all that aside as well. Your average Albertan
| wouldn't be better off. They'd lose healthcare, education
| would be more expensive, they'd have a worse retirement
| fund, and so on. They'd have to pay more tax and get less
| benefit in return. Plus, there'd be a higher influx of
| immigrants low balling the jobs and lowering wages.
|
| But it's not too late to change course. If Alberta
| seriously committed to a Norway style model now, it could
| still build a fund big enough to make oil dependence
| temporary. That alone could justify building pipelines to
| the coast, use it as a bridge until the Heritage Fund
| becomes a self-sustaining engine of prosperity. It's a
| convincing argument for the other provinces, and would be
| great for Canada overall.
| dismalaf wrote:
| > They'd lose healthcare
|
| You ever needed surgery? Ever tried to use healthcare for
| anything non trivial or not immediately urgent?
|
| I've lived in BC and Alberta. Things take years in BC,
| maybe a single year in Alberta, and days to weeks in
| Europe...
|
| We pay into Canadian healthcare but use EU healthcare
| (while paying more out of pocket)...
| a4isms wrote:
| No different than the Russians hunting for American
| dissidents to prop up. Well, a little different in that the
| Russians hunted for them in the Senate chamber and golf
| clubs.
| ck2 wrote:
| There are less than 60,000 people in Greenland
|
| Not 6 million, only 60K
|
| It's like a small city population spread out much further
|
| Much easier to disappear opposition than try to recruit
| people pro-oppression
|
| This is not going to end well because it's not about the
| mineral rights
|
| It's about the northwest passage, which will then be another
| cold war with Canada
|
| I hope all these countries understand the vast majority of US
| population is not okay with this
| crikeykangaroo wrote:
| > I hope all these countries understand the vast majority
| of US population is not okay with this
|
| Where are the protests against the current regime in the
| US? I see more support rather than outrage. If the US in
| its current state was any _other_ third-world shithole, you
| 'd be invaded by 2003 US.
| danielscrubs wrote:
| Exactly my thoughts.
|
| I think US ownership (not necessarily of land) is inevitable,
| but it is going to take a couple of decades of these kind of
| polarising pieces.
| tokai wrote:
| Why is that inevitable?
| tomrod wrote:
| Sounds like Danish former colonies aren't the only thing
| three letter agencies are bumbling around in.
| impossiblefork wrote:
| >I think US ownership (not necessarily of land)
|
| What would that even mean? Especially the use the word
| 'ownership'?
|
| I think there's zero chance of US long-term influence on
| Greenland. They simply have no reason to prefer foreign
| domination, when they can simply be sovereign. I would place
| independence + EU membership as more probably than any
| association with the US, and I think them staying within
| Denmark is much more likely than them becoming independent.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > They simply have no reason to prefer foreign domination
|
| The reason is they require subsidy to live there. The
| economy appears to run at a net deficit. The same reason
| the Vikings gave up on it.
| impossiblefork wrote:
| I don't think the subsidy is required. The net deficit is
| small.
|
| Some Swedish regions also have a net deficit relative to
| other Swedish regions, but that doesn't mean that they
| don't work out economically. After all, not all economic
| activity in region is taxed there. A firm in Ornskoldsvik
| pays their taxes to the Swedish government, and then the
| Swedish government distributes part back to the region.
|
| It's around 600 million USD per year, on 56836 people.
| Around $1000 per head. But GDP per capita is $58,498.
| Paradigm2020 wrote:
| 10k.
| impossiblefork wrote:
| Ah, you're right. So an order of magnitude higher.
| Miscalculated.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > I don't think the subsidy is required. The net deficit
| is small.
|
| Continuing to lose money leads to bankruptcy.
| impossiblefork wrote:
| They would presumably just cut their government budget if
| it weren't for the subsidy.
|
| It would probably be fine. Furthermore, I don't think
| Denmark plans on dropping it. They want reasonably strong
| government services also in this sparsely populated
| arctic region.
| TMWNN wrote:
| >They simply have no reason to prefer foreign domination,
| when they can simply be sovereign.
|
| No, they can't. The likes of Palau are (barely) viable as
| sovereign countries, because at least the geographic size
| is as small as their populations.
|
| It is absolutely, positively, completely impossible for 50K
| Greenlanders to by themselves maintain a the world's
| largest island, even aside from the completely frozen-over
| aspect. The $600M annual subsidy by Denmark does not
| include the funds Copenhagen spends on also running
| Greenland's foreign relations and defense. But in reality,
| Denmark spends a relative pittance on those things (like
| "six dog sleds" pittance); the vast majority of the cost of
| defending Greenland is borne by the US, as has been the
| case since 1940. Why should the US shoulder the burden
| without commensurate political power?
| sorokod wrote:
| inevitable... because of Manifest Destiny?
|
| Like so (source Wikipedia)
|
| "... there were three basic tenets behind the concept:
|
| The assumption of the unique moral virtue of the United
| States.
|
| The assertion of its mission to redeem the world by the
| spread of republican government and more generally the
| "American way of life".
|
| The faith in the nation's divinely ordained destiny to
| succeed in this mission." ?
| jacquesm wrote:
| I don't think that's any more inevitable than US ownership of
| Scotland or Finland.
| threemux wrote:
| I think it even makes sense if it were pursued in a different
| way. Greenland is looking for full independence but can't
| really hack it financially without aid. I think the COFA
| (Compact of Free Association) model that we have with Palau
| and Marshall Islands would work well.
|
| We get expanded military rights and potentially some
| mineral/drilling rights, while Greenland gets protection,
| lots of money, access to USPS domestic rates, and probably
| increased tourism in addition to the independence they
| desire. Their citizens could also live and work in the US
| indefinitely.
| Hzwtdqwz1 wrote:
| I think the Danish intelligence services should apply this
| model to Hawaii and Guam. It would make a lot of sense.
| Hawaii and Guam could get better health care on average
| while being semi independent. The EU could protect both
| with nuclear weapons.
|
| Native Hawaiians would escape the continued mistreatment:
|
| https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/hawaii-
| no...
|
| I think Radio Free Denmark should launch a soft power
| campaign.
| threemux wrote:
| Lol I realize this is tongue in cheek but Denmark has no
| ability to administer or protect anything that far away.
| Nor are those places seeking independence.
|
| But hey, maybe I'm wrong and the Danes will successfully
| integrate a large group of people that don't share their
| values. They've already done that, right?
| jacquesm wrote:
| > I realize this is tongue in cheek
|
| That's your mistake.
| epolanski wrote:
| > Their citizens could also live and work in the US
| indefinitely.
|
| Not sure why Greenlanders would care at all.
|
| They can already do the same in Denmark, which is a country
| with far better standards of living.
| threemux wrote:
| Oh gimme a break. That's one of the largest benefits to
| COFA and is heavily used by the Marshallese. Greenland on
| its own is not a first world country - there simply isn't
| enough population/work and it's a hard existence as
| detailed in TFA.
|
| You may not want to come here and that's fine, but it's a
| huge draw and will continue to be. Administrations are
| fleeting, but the allure of opportunity remains. You're
| posting on a forum that is somewhat of a monument to
| exactly that.
|
| EDIT: some of this made a bit more sense prior to your
| hasty edit
| jacquesm wrote:
| Florida on its own is also not a first world country.
| This goes for many places and it isn't the flex you make
| it out to be, the fact that Greenland is part of Denmark
| which in turn in part of the EU and which the USA through
| NATO is bound by treaty _to defend_ rather than that
| threaten to invade is a detail that may have escaped your
| attention but it matters rather a lot to the rest of the
| 'first world'.
| epolanski wrote:
| Denmark is one of the countries with the highest
| standards of living by any metric possible, consistently
| ranking among the best countries to live in the world.
|
| The US is not.
|
| Sure, there's allure in going to US if you're from a poor
| country, or if you have an ambition your country cannot
| satisfy (some scientists and entrepreneurs will find
| America only in America, that's true).
|
| Greenlanders are neither of those two categories.
|
| If they don't care moving to Denmark or rest of Europe
| you can be sure they don't care coming to US either.
| pcrh wrote:
| Greenland needs protection from whom? The only country
| threatening it is the US.
| threemux wrote:
| The Arctic will be the battleground and trade route of
| the future as it warms. Being associated with the US is
| preferable to the other options (Russia, China most
| likely). There won't be an option of the status quo.
| gpm wrote:
| Greenland, as part of Denmark, is part of and protected
| by NATO. As its in the Atlantic it benefits fully from
| that treaty.
|
| It is also protected by Denmark's membership in the EU
| and the CSDP by virtue of the EU's collective self
| defense clause (which protects all of all member states
| territory, not just the parts in europe).
|
| The status quo - apart from the part where the US is
| threatening to violate its NATO treaty obligations and
| invade something it is obligated to protect from invasion
| - is just fine.
| watwut wrote:
| The primary threat to Greenland is USA and USA is extremely
| unreliable country. USA can't sell protection. It may
| extort or invade or commit some kind of atrocity ... but is
| not capable of selling protection.
|
| You are talking about getting a colony and stealing their
| resources.
| epolanski wrote:
| What do you mean inevitable? The people there want nothing to
| do being somebody's colony.
| pcrh wrote:
| US ownership would be pointless. The US already has
| relatively free access to its _ally_ Greenland for military
| purposes. See for example the US base in Pituffik (formerly
| Thule). Proposing to annex your allies is a bit rude, to say
| the least...
|
| If a country other than Denmark was to claim Greenland,
| either Iceland or Canada would make more sense.
| gpm wrote:
| As a Canadian I really can't imagine why we would be a
| better country for Greenland to be part of then Denmark.
| Unlike Denmark (and the other nordic countries) we don't
| have any historical connection to it... nor is it part of
| our landmass, or really anything else other than vaguely
| near by.
|
| We're also really not interested in annexing random things.
| pjc50 wrote:
| It's going to get forgotten instantly when Trump leaves
| office, either democratically or feet first.
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| Oh god, this CIA meddling in never ends well for anyone. I mean
| afterwards Americans will make a Hollywood movie claiming that
| situation was complicated and their intentions were good, but
| it will end up with some sort of hell.
| gruez wrote:
| >fun-fact: CIA is currently mucking around in Greenland trying
| to get rid of people against annexation
|
| That's a very misleading phrasing for what's essentially an
| influence operation. Your wording of "get rid of people ..."
| implies there's some assassinations/violence going on, but
| there's nothing to suggest that's happening. If
| Republicans/Democrats or even Russia was running an influence
| operation in the US, nobody would characterize that as "getting
| rid" of opponents or whatever.
| krapp wrote:
| Every "influence operation" of this type by the CIA
| inevitably involves assassinations and violence. That's what
| the CIA does.
| sema4hacker wrote:
| In spite of wanna-be-kings like Putin and Trump, the obvious
| historical trend is for larger empires and countries to break
| up into smaller independent ones.
| anotherhue wrote:
| I note there was no mention of a McDonald's. I for one look
| forward to the McWhale.
| tiagod wrote:
| Not even Iceland has McDonald's
| sayrer wrote:
| They used to! Anyway, Iceland is really easy to travel to.
| Everyone speaks perfect English, and the coffee is good. I
| know a little bit of Icelandic because they think I am
| Icelandic for some reason (I can read the signs at least, so
| maybe I don't look lost). There's a street with hot dog
| stands and stuff right in the middle of the capitol, which
| they seem to like. There are good hamburger places too, but
| they are expensive.
|
| Greenland is another level.
| ysangkok wrote:
| Why would you want McDonald's when you have polsevogn?
|
| https://www.facebook.com/p/Kunuks-P%C3%B8lsevogn-61575713986...
| vintermann wrote:
| This makes sense. Denmark is to pigs what New Zealand is to
| sheep.
| tptacek wrote:
| It's funny to me that in portraying Indiana as a "blank state"
| he's highlighting one of the most beautiful parts of the state
| (the route through the Dunes along the Michigan lakefront; if
| you've seen "Road To Perdition", you know what that area looks
| like). It's not important to the article, a complete tangent, but
| I can't not call that out.
| curl-up wrote:
| Having been to Greenland recently, I found his description of
| it similarly flawed.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| In what way/ways?
| curl-up wrote:
| > The first thing you notice when you land in Greenland is
| there are no trees or grass. There is snow and then there
| is exposed rock.
|
| This is only true of the area around the airport. Even his
| pictures further into the article show how misleading this
| description is. I was actually very surprised how little
| snow/ice there was. Now when I think of Greenland, I think
| of something similar to [1].
|
| Of course, in the winter, it's a completely different story
| (I was there in July). But he was there during the warm
| period as well (as is obvious from his photos).
|
| > The city itself sits in a landscape so dramatically
| inhospitable it makes the surface of Mars look cozy.
|
| If you look at a map, you will notice that Nuuk is at the
| same latitude as Reykjavik. There's a common meme about
| Iceland being green and Greenland being icy, and that's
| definitely true if you compare inland or northern Greenland
| with Iceland during summer (during winter, both are icy and
| dark), but hiking around Nuuk is a very "green" experience.
| Yes, there's a ton of mosquitoes, but nature itself is very
| inviting. I did not get any of the "inhospitable" vibes he
| mentions.
|
| > But again even riding the bus around it is impossible to
| escape the feeling that this is a fundamentally hostile to
| human life place. The sun is bright and during the summer
| its pretty hot, with my skin feeling like it was starting
| the burn pretty much the second it was exposed to the
| light. It's hard to even dress for, with layers of
| sunscreen, bug spray and then something warm on top if you
| suddenly got cold.
|
| This whole section is just overblown BS.
|
| All in all, I enjoyed it a lot. Compared to Iceland, it's
| definitely a lot less "user friendly" and you need to
| prepare better, but I have never been to a place that is
| less affected by humans, and in our age, that is something
| worth experiencing.
|
| [1] https://truewindhealingtravel.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2022/08...
| noelwelsh wrote:
| >> The first thing you notice when you land in Greenland
| is there are no trees or grass. There is snow and then
| there is exposed rock.
|
| > This is only true of the area around the airport. Even
| his pictures further into the article show how misleading
| this description is.
|
| At least as far as trees go, Greenland is reasonably
| famously lacking in trees (if you are the kind of person
| who cares about such things). All chopped down by the
| Vikings and only now are a few sections of forest being
| regrown. Iceland is basically the same.
|
| A few links:
|
| - https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/GR
| L/. "In 2020, Greenland had 0.00 ha of natural forest"
|
| - https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/14notoe/the
| _prog...
|
| - https://greenlandtrees.org/
| curl-up wrote:
| Agreed, I failed to mention this detail, thank you for
| adding. But hopefully you agree that his description
| paints a completely ridiculous picture.
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| I've never been to Greenland or (to my knowledge) met anyone
| who has. What is/was your experience like?
| curl-up wrote:
| I tried explaining in the other comment here. In summary,
| it's beautiful, raw nature, that's different from anything
| else I've seen. It takes some preparation, but I haven't
| experience any of these "sun will kill you and ice will
| kill you too" vibes that the article suggests. It felt like
| one of the last places on Earth not affected by humans (at
| least directly through resource exploitation, as it
| definitely is affected by the warming - but that's another
| discussion).
| bradgessler wrote:
| Unfortunately the dunes and lake are not visible from that
| stretch of I-94.
|
| Southern Indiana is another beautiful part of the state. It's
| mostly rolling hills with lush green forests and farms.
| tptacek wrote:
| You don't have to drive it on I-94; in fact, for many years
| it was faster not to, because of insane bottom of the lake
| traffic. You can take the Dunes Highway instead (and then
| keep off 94 up the Michigan shore; there's good stuff up
| there).
| bradgessler wrote:
| I need to do that next time I'm driving between Chicago and
| Michigan. I haven't seen the dunes there yet and I bet it's
| incredible.
| tptacek wrote:
| I'm speaking up for Indiana here but honestly if you're
| looking for those dunescapes and beaches, western
| Michigan is the better bet. Road To Perdition was filmed
| around Saugatuck, just an hour into Michigan; that part
| of Michigan really is worth a trip to see (you'd want
| book a place to stay up by the lake for at least a couple
| days; it's not so much a sightseeing deal as a chill-out-
| by-the-lake deal).
|
| The whole stretch though from Chicago up to Traverse City
| is basically where Chicago vacations.
| bradgessler wrote:
| I have done that! Reminded me of some dunes I scaled in
| Jordan.
| internet2000 wrote:
| Yeah I didn't open this link to see Indiana catching stray
| bullets. Does a disservice to this article.
| bell-cot wrote:
| I prefer to see that part as an up-front, honest disclosure
| of his biases and negativity.
| schmookeeg wrote:
| The charms of Indiana have been consistently lost on me over
| the years; it enhanced the article for me, and I read nearly
| his entire blog after his Greenland rantlet. I learned a few
| things.
|
| Different strokes I suppose :)
| Arainach wrote:
| Then again, that stretch also has Gary.
|
| Having grown up in that area of the Midwest, I largely agree
| with the author's categorization, except that "people on their
| way to somewhere better who got tired and decided this was good
| enough" describes a LOT of the midwest, not just Indiana.
| Significant chunks of Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, most of
| Iowa/Kansas/Nebraska, etc.
|
| If you read the history of westward expansion, "got tired and
| decided this was good enough" is literally true for how much of
| the area got initially settled (by white people)
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I took a moment to realize there's a place called Gary,
| Indiana. And that there isn't just some guy who is so
| infamous that he's just known as Gary.
| hinkley wrote:
| Clearly not a fan of musical theater. The Music Man ~~takes
| place in~~ repeatedly refers to Gary. Ron Howard sings a
| song called Gary Indiana in the movie version. He's about
| waist high in that movie.
| evgen wrote:
| Pretty close, but the musical takes place in the
| fictional town of River City, Iowa and Henry Hill claims
| to be an alumnus of the Gary Conservatory (class of '05),
| which is the hook used to launch the song in question.
| hinkley wrote:
| D'oh. You are correct.
| Rendello wrote:
| The town's even referenced in Futurama:
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qUW1pabZpLE
| kens wrote:
| Gary, Indiana is still memorable to me 50 years later from
| when we'd drive through it, handkerchiefs pressed to our
| faces to block out the terrible smell from some sort of
| toxic industry. Is Gary still like that or has it been
| cleaned up?
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Reminds me of driving through Eureka, California in the
| early 80s and the overpoweringly horrible smell from the
| paper mills in the area.
| jb1991 wrote:
| It's actually a very famous city, but not for entirely good
| reasons. For starters, it did in my youth have the highest
| per capita rate of murder in the United States.
|
| However, Michael Jackson is from there. So there's that.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > it did in my youth have the highest per capita rate of
| murder in the United States.
|
| > However, Michael Jackson is from there.
|
| There are no coincidences.
| phlakaton wrote:
| It is known for not being Louisiana, Paris, France, New
| York, or Rome.
| cipheredStones wrote:
| Every guy named Gary is named after Gary, Indiana. Gary
| Cooper named himself after the town, and then got very,
| very popular.
| hinkley wrote:
| Illinois has a few rust belt towns as well. Decatur is the
| asshole of Illinois, with a water supply to match. Though for
| variety, it smells like old gym socks instead. Corn
| processing plants are almost as bad as paper mills, and when
| I lived there it had two, ADM and the very aptly named
| Staley.
| W-Stool wrote:
| East St. Louis, Illinois would like to have a chat with
| Decatur about which is worst.
| hinkley wrote:
| The thing about the middle of Illinois is they consider
| Chicago to be a separate state and East St Louis to be
| Missouri's problem. "Oh you're from Chicago" is a common
| reply any time you found out you're from an exurb. Often
| said with just a hint of dismissal. That's not the _real_
| Illinois. Nobody talks about Rock Island and Moline (the
| Illinois half of the Quad Cities) this way, for instance.
|
| Carbondale is slightly better, but I think it's a
| notorious party school for very good reasons. Small town
| Midwest has a saying that "there's nothing to do here
| except drink, fuck, and knock over mailboxes". Most Iowa
| this is especially true, but Carbondale also gave me that
| vibe. Also that's a fucking long drive. St Louis too.
| Nobody appreciates that Illinois is half as tall as
| California (not that anyone appreciates how long a trip
| up and down CA is either).
| macintux wrote:
| Indiana is seriously considering annexing much of
| central/southern Illinois. It's amazing just how
| aggressively divisive politics have become in the last 20
| years.
| jb1991 wrote:
| Newark New Jersey just walked into the room. "The armpit
| of America".
| hinkley wrote:
| Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who. This is
| a happy occasion!
| klardotsh wrote:
| Yep. Even worse, the problem is recursive: a town I lived in
| for a while growing up, Vandalia, Ohio (a suburb of Dayton,
| itself not exactly a booming metropolis in this millennium,
| but I digress) was settled by westward migrants aiming for
| Vandalia, Illinois - a town in the absolute middle of nowhere
| that just so happened to be the end of the National Road,
| presumably because the road builders got bored and/or ran out
| of money. Anyway, the travelers got bored and/or ran out of
| money on their way to Illinois, gave up, said "good enough",
| and named their new Ohio settlement after the place they
| failed to reach.
|
| The Midwest is many things, but for quite a lot of it, "where
| anyone really wanted to get stuck" is not one of them.
| tptacek wrote:
| Gary is basically part of the Chicago metro area; it's not
| characteristic of the run of the state you go through between
| Michigan and Illinois. You don't see it until after you
| commit to getting onto the Skyway.
| kyledrake wrote:
| It's really easy to write off a giant part of the country
| that millions of people live in as tired (and the implication
| underneath is usually "backward"), it's also dehumanizing
| them and makes assumptions about their quality of life when
| it might actually be a lot better than the people making
| these assumptions.
|
| Spend some time not just driving through them, and one may be
| surprised to find plenty of diverse and interesting people
| that live full lives with rich family and social bonds,
| reasonably priced housing, ample winter outdoor activities (a
| lot of people actually want snow because it's beautiful and
| you can do fun things with it) and plenty of nearby nature
| and recreation opportunities, which I would contrast less
| unfavorably than the zeitgeist against the crowded, expensive
| vagrant culture that tends to dominate the more popular
| places on earth.
| jb1991 wrote:
| The phrase "got tired "is not referring to the modern
| populations but rather the people who founded those
| original settlements in those states centuries ago.
| kyledrake wrote:
| They didn't "get tired", they found rich soil and ample
| water to do farming and milling, which is what they were
| intending to find. It's called the bread basket of
| America for a reason.
| hollerith wrote:
| Agree: a farmer coming to Indiana having previous farmed
| in New England or New York would have thought he'd died
| and went to farmer heaven.
| jb1991 wrote:
| In some places, some people absolutely could not endure
| the long travels to the West Coast, for example the
| Oregon Trail was extremely difficult and many people quit
| somewhere in the middle and settled into those Midwestern
| states. Yes they did in fact get tired, in some
| situations.
| Arainach wrote:
| I lived in the area for more than 20 years, have annually
| visited family living there for my entire life even after I
| left, and consider myself quite qualified to comment on the
| area, the people who live there, and their culture, thanks.
|
| I've traveled a lot through the area. I was throughout Ohio
| earlier this year, spent two weeks in Illinois last year,
| etc.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| Gary is also interesting, though. It used to be interesting
| for good economic and cultural reasons, then bad reasons. Now
| it's experiencing some revitalization in the manner of
| Detroit or Rockford, which might actually make it more
| boring, though better to live in.
|
| I thought the Indiana aside was odd as an objective
| assessment, but it worked well as a flavorful bit of travel
| writing to help me understand the perspective of the visitor
| to Greenland.
| mothballed wrote:
| Gary is fine during the day compared to a lot of the
| surrounding areas because the population is actually fairly
| diverse. White, black, latino, there are enough of you that
| it's possible to blend in as long as you dress poor enough.
| If you aren't into drugs or banging and out during daylight
| hours and don't flash valuable you'll probably be fine.
|
| Vs. say some parts Cleveland, where I've been robbed at
| gunpoint the second my vehicle broke down and people
| noticed I'm not from around there.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| Cleveland rocks!
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Good enough, but also the abject fear of seeing the rocky
| mountains rear up from the plains. For someone walking beside
| a wagon in late summer, a horizon of tree and snow-covered
| mountains topped with jagged peaks would seem like the end of
| the earth.
| uwagar wrote:
| and gary was where michael jackson was born.
| tedggh wrote:
| The Indiana Dunes is indeed one of the most beautiful
| unexpected places I have encountered traveling in the US. And
| Wagner's have to be the absolute best ribs in the world.
| kubectl_h wrote:
| This is good to know, I have passed through Indiana a number of
| times on I-70 and I've found it to be particularly flat and
| boring. I know there are pretty places everywhere but that
| stretch has felt like exactly what he was saying, a place you
| have to get through to go somewhere else.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| Whenever I see people say Indiana is flat and boring I know
| they haven't been south of I-70.
| adzm wrote:
| The glaciers bunched everything up like a rug and melted
| just south of 70
| ccleve wrote:
| Irked me too. I'm running for state representative in House
| District 9, which covers much of that area. The district is
| drop dead gorgeous and it's growing rapidly. There's a lot
| here.
| tptacek wrote:
| Whoah, neat, congratulations or whatever you say to that.
| Good luck! Were you already involved in local politics in the
| area?
| ccleve wrote:
| yes, quite a bit
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> whatever you say to that_
|
| Illegitimis non carborundum?
| ccleve wrote:
| Thanks. That's exactly the right thing to say.
| forgotoldacc wrote:
| Pretty much everyone on earth is proud of their home area.
| I've never really been to a place where people didn't
| describe their home as one of the most beautiful places on
| earth.
|
| Earth has a lot of nice places. The flatness of Indiana can
| be calming and beautiful. But if you're driving on main
| roads, it's not very exciting, and it's not the kind of
| exciting people will fly across the world to see. And that
| was the point in the article.
| thevillagechief wrote:
| I love my home town. I grew up there, and it was fine. I
| would never describe it as one of the most beautiful places
| on earth. I'm I proud of it? Only in the sense it's home
| and I have family there.
| tptacek wrote:
| People do fly out to vacation in the part of Indiana he
| highlighted!
|
| I'm not saying Indiana on the whole isn't flat. When I was
| growing up, their ad campaign was literally "there's more
| than corn in Indiana". I'm just saying, he couldn't have
| picked a worse map location to make the point with.
| ccleve wrote:
| This area has a lot of hills.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Many areas have some minor hills, or some variant
| infinitely more interesting (hoosier myself, I regret
| moving here 10 years ago and may finally be bothered
| enough by it to deal with moving out in Spring). All in
| all, a state this big with less than 1,000 ft between the
| highest and lowest parts is just disappointingly flat,
| given the general lack of other natural attraction.
|
| I'd say the caves in that region of the state are
| interesting, but options like Mammoth Cave are not that
| far away in KY (and they have better hills too).
| spauldo wrote:
| Try going to west Oklahoma sometime. Not even the people
| who've never traveled think it's the most beautiful place
| on Earth.
| losvedir wrote:
| Heh, as someone who lives there (Northwest Indiana) that was a
| rough read.
|
| Then again, our state motto did used to be "Crossroads of
| America", so I guess that's kind of fair. These days it's the
| more aspirational "More to Discover".
| AaronAPU wrote:
| I live somewhere that you'll find almost nothing but insults
| about online. Meanwhile it remains a great place to live
| _because_ those people don't come here. Consider it a
| blessing.
| dgfitz wrote:
| Cleveland?
| jb1991 wrote:
| And the southern part of the state is actually one of the most
| famous places in the United States for painters to retreat in
| the autumn as there are no trees as beautiful as you will find
| there.
|
| Calling some states good states and others not is just a silly
| thing to do anyway.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| I bugged me too. I'm from Southern Indiana and when I hear
| people say "Indiana is flat" or "Indiana is boring to look at"
| all I hear them say is "I've only been to the Northern part of
| Indiana."
|
| There is a lot to shit on Indiana for but its natural beauty
| isn't one of them.
| mothballed wrote:
| It's likely people from west of the Mississippi.
|
| Indiana and other midwestern states have some awesome nature,
| but it's basically taken for granted by people from there
| because you grow up having your family show you all those
| places. Imagine if aliens showed up to a megacity, and
| declared there was no food anywhere -- a local would show
| them places called "restaurants" that actually have more
| varied and competitive tasty foods than about any farmland
| areas you'd find, but the aliens would think there's food
| only in the farmlands and declare the city worthless for
| finding something to eat.
|
| If you drive out west, you don't even have to look for them;
| astounding nature is evereywhere.
|
| End result is people from midwestern states appreciate the
| beauty of their state, but people who haven't lived there for
| years generally don't. Even after leaving the midwest, I have
| a high appreciation for the natural landscape, but that's
| only because I know where to go when I get there.
| kasey_junk wrote:
| It's also problematic because that part of Indiana was geo
| engineered into a blank slate. It used to be a wetlands that
| rivaled the Everglades but was drained and filled in a massive
| (and controversial) public works effort.
| osigurdson wrote:
| I've never been to Indiana but I don't like when people say
| things like this about other places. Yeah, these people are
| "too tired" to go anywhere else - right. I hope the author
| enjoyed channeling Hemingway for a bit but seriously what does
| he know about why people live there?
| sleddoggs wrote:
| Nice try, Matt. I think everyone knows you just want Greenland
| all to yourself.
| pixelpoet wrote:
| Poor doggywogs :(
|
| Edit: Wow, HN didn't like that. Nevermind, screw the dogs I
| guess, just toss the frozen ones over the cliff.
| mkl wrote:
| You may want to reconsider your choice of word:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wog
| pixelpoet wrote:
| It's a common word in (UK, apparently) English, cf.
| https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doggy_woggy
|
| I've literally never once heard someone use the ethnic slur
| "wog", and I grew up in 90s South Africa :)
| ryangibb wrote:
| > The second I stepped outside I was set upon by a flood of
| mosquitos like I have never experienced before. I have been to
| the jungles of Vietnam, the swamps of Florida and the Canadian
| countryside. This was beyond anything I've ever experienced.
|
| > There are bugs in my mouth, ears, eyes and nose almost
| immediately. The photo below is not me being dramatic, it is
| actually what is required to keep them off of me.
|
| > In fact what you need to purchase in order to walk around this
| area at all are basically bug nets for your face. They're
| effectively plastic mesh bags that you put on.
|
| This is pretty standard for Scotland in the summer too.
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| The midges are horrific. It's amazing how something so tiny can
| make your life so miserable. I don't know how people in the
| olden days survived. I wonder what kind of social and political
| effects the midges had. I can imagine Scots with all their
| gifts of the mind and body fleeing and surrendering to the
| English just to get away from them.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > I don't know how people in the olden days survived.
|
| Maybe they found a material they could smear on their body.
|
| For a similar example, I have a friend who spends a lot of
| time hiking and camping. He tells me that the first day, he
| needs to apply sunscreen. The next day onward, he doesn't
| need to anymore, as his body oil and sweat seems to do the
| job.
|
| It makes sense that our skin has not evolved to be cleaned
| every day.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| People simply got used to it, for the most part. It takes
| me a few weeks to readjust to the insects whenever I go
| back to the Arctic, after which they're just dramatically
| less annoying.
|
| Keep in mind that the swarms you see today are usually a
| historical anomaly exacerbated by changing conditions in
| the Arctic. Longer, warmer summers create more spaces for
| them to breed, and sudden, bitter cold spells in winter
| affect the predators controlling their population more than
| the insects themselves. The palearctic region is a very
| different place than it was centuries ago.
| majormajor wrote:
| Most people don't have nearly that good luck.
|
| I'm fortunate that they just don't like me as much as some
| of the people I've done week+ hiking/camping trips with. I
| was ok with deet. Some folks still got dozens of bites even
| after it.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I think you overlooked the mention of sunscreen.
| majormajor wrote:
| No? We all wore that too... but unless we're all just
| weirdos and sunscreen == bug repellant for the whole rest
| of the world in a way it never has for us (and is not
| advertised as), it just seemed irrelevant.
|
| The sunscreen kept us from being bright red and in pain
| for the last 6 days of the trip. The mosquitos gave zero
| fucks about it.
|
| I would bet that the lucky person whose "body oil and
| sweat seems to do the job" isn't the representative
| person here...
| throwup238 wrote:
| In Scotland they would have smeared bog myrtle over
| themselves. Other alternatives were animal fat mixed with
| an aromatic or even tar and pine resin. As far as I know
| most cultures had some sort of equivalent.
|
| The best contemporaneous example would be the _otjize_ clay
| rub used by the Himba in Namibia. It's largely an
| adaptation to water scarcity but it also protects them from
| insects and cleans their hair and skin by trapping dirt and
| flaking off.
| internet_points wrote:
| That first google map has "Myggedalen" (Mosquito Valley) listed
| as a Panoramic View. At least they're honest :-)
| pcrh wrote:
| Myggedalen looks like "midge dale".
| vintermann wrote:
| Etymologically I'm pretty sure it is.
| Terr_ wrote:
| > "I am being eaten alive!" cried Pippin. "Midgewater!
| There are more midges than water!"
|
| > "What do they live on when they can't get hobbit?" asked
| Sam, scratching his neck.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| I'm a native English speaker and I feel like dale and
| valley are two different words for the same thing.
| sema4hacker wrote:
| In the 70's we visited relatives in northern Minnesota and took
| a .22 rifle to a dump, I think to shoot rats. So many mosquitos
| would immediately land on us and the rifle that you couldn't
| see the sight on the end of the barrel. We got out of there
| quick.
| bikelang wrote:
| Having grown up in northern Indiana and having spent my honeymoon
| ski touring in Greenland - I must say I don't find the two to be
| very comparable. The skiing was significantly better in Greenland
| and the people much friendlier to boot.
| marssaxman wrote:
| Charming, and well written! I'd love to go backpacking there some
| day - perhaps the Arctic Circle Trail.
| Simon_O_Rourke wrote:
| Beautiful, but definitely not worth invading or sending our
| troops to take over, if you don't awfully mind Mr. President.
| dsign wrote:
| Well, US has the base near Guantanamo; I haven't been to that
| side but I have been to Guantanamo proper... trust me, that
| place is hot and has mosquitoes and two decades ago the naval
| base was almost as infamous as North Korea. And then there's
| the newly opened "alligator Alcatraz"... I think Mr. President
| have gotten some ideas for Greenland :-)
|
| /s
| WalterBright wrote:
| Somebody is likely to take it at some point, for strategic
| military and resource purposes.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Denmark took it centuries ago, and that's how it should stay
| unless or until the Greenlandic people decide otherwise.
| WalterBright wrote:
| The regular incidence of war going on on our globe suggests
| that's not sustainable. Why do you think countries spend so
| much money on their militaries? Me, I'd love it if we could
| zero out the US defense budget. Unfortunately, that would
| be a disaster for us.
| spacechild1 wrote:
| What kind of argument is that!?
| WalterBright wrote:
| Who controls what territory in the world is hardly stable.
| At some point, if one is not a military power, one will
| have to take sides. If, for example, valuable resources are
| discovered in Greenland.
| spacechild1 wrote:
| What are you talking about? Greenland is already a NATO
| member (via Denmark), so it has already taken a side. The
| obvious scandal, of course, is that Greenland is being
| openly threatened by the US - a fellow NATO member!
| gessha wrote:
| The Henry Kissinger argument.
| tokai wrote:
| <<This would end up being a theme, where buildings representing
| Denmark were made out of lots of wood, almost to ensure that you
| understood they weren't from here.>>
|
| Wooden buildings is much more of a Swedish or Norwegian thing
| than Danish. Wood is just a good material for building in the
| arctic.
| SilverElfin wrote:
| Why is it a good material? I would think steel or reinforced
| concrete would be better, with cheap corrugated metal paneling.
| And either way you need reinforced concrete foundations right?
| benrutter wrote:
| Certainly for Sweden and Norway, wood is very plentiful, and
| a good insulator. I don't know if steel would technically be
| better, but historically at least it would have been harder
| to get hold of.
| coryrc wrote:
| Wood is a much better insulator than those two materials. At
| cold temps even the fasteners holding on cladding over foam
| sheets is a significant source of lost heat, so if screwed
| into wood instead of steel framing, you conduct much less
| heat.
| SilverElfin wrote:
| Can't you put some insulation on fasteners? Or just hold
| insulation on from the inside without piercing the outside
| wall?
| Metacelsus wrote:
| hence, "Norwegian wood"?
| b3lm0nt wrote:
| Enjoyed this. Reminds me of the great Idle Words (Maciej
| Ceglowski's blog) travel posts.
|
| Shuffleboard At McMurdo:
| https://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm
| internet_points wrote:
| came to say the same thing :-) I love those posts; this one was
| right up there with Maciej's
| wood_spirit wrote:
| There is a YouTuber making a really remote cabin in I think
| northern Canada called Off Grid Engineering and he has a
| similar narrative style. Nice :). Recommended
| calmworm wrote:
| We doing travel blogs here now?
| Koshkin wrote:
| Greenland may be a good place to put data centers on
| calmworm wrote:
| I must have missed that bit in the post.
| trollbridge wrote:
| Lots of hydroelectric power (when they need more
| electricity in Greenland, they just put up another dam) and
| lots of access to cooling for data centres.
| tiagod wrote:
| Far from being the first time I see it. I don't see why we
| shouldn't.
| magneticnorth wrote:
| The submission guidelines summed up in a sentence is "anything
| that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
|
| Travel blogs for remote places definitely do gratify my
| intellectual curiosity.
| beeforpork wrote:
| Always have. Because it's interesting stuff.
| planet36 wrote:
| "The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by
| all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of
| him; but when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one
| hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite."
|
| Moby-Dick
|
| Herman Melville
| iagooar wrote:
| I've had whale when I went to Norway.
|
| Was it good? It was OK. Would I have it again? Probably not.
|
| Still a nice experience. Also trying cured reindeer, moose and
| seal slices was pretty unique.
| repple wrote:
| Whale meat is so iron rich. Basically eating liver.
|
| Now reindeer steak -- that's excellent!
| bookofjoe wrote:
| I recall having whale on a regular basis when I was college
| in Japan in 1968-69. I liked it, though its grey appearance
| wasn't appealing. I was always struck by how much it
| resembled meat in both texture and taste.
| laxd wrote:
| # I was always struck by how much it resembled meat in both
| texture and taste.
|
| Say what? How can a mollusc taste like meat?
| Blackthorn wrote:
| It literally is meat. It's a mammal!
| Simulacra wrote:
| I'm not sure what this person expected, they seem to have gone in
| this with Rose tinted glasses only to come away with it feeling
| like "Greenland, why?" It's like they set out to prove a point
| and were disappointed.
| ulrischa wrote:
| Is this a US propaganda article to make greenland join the USA?
| iagooar wrote:
| I have been to northern Norway and Iceland a few times.
|
| It all started when I was running my previous SaaS at the peak of
| its growth. I needed a break, and wanted to go far away, while
| still being close enough if sh*t hit the fan. My co-founder had
| recently talked to some friends who had been to Tromso, Norway.
| The place looked perfect, so I booked a 5-day solo trip there.
|
| Places that are so distant, with such harsh conditions and few
| people living there always give me a feeling I do not experience
| anywhere else in the world. I feel small, irrelevant, in the face
| of brutal, powerful nature.
|
| And believe me, it is a feeling that is overwhelming. But never
| have I perceived it as something negative. The opposite was true.
| Feeling small made me feel calm, embracing that that was the
| right spot for me as part of God's creation. Suddenly, all those
| dark clouds that followed me everywhere I went back home were...
| Gone.
|
| If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these places -
| go. It might change you in profound ways.
| bruce511 wrote:
| Thanks for this. I'm going to Nesseby Norway next summer for 3
| days over the solstice.
|
| There doesn't look like much to do there, which I guess is
| kinda the point. I'm looking forward to it.
| marcosscriven wrote:
| I had a similar feeling in the Faroe Islands. Even in mid
| summer the weather was rather inclement.
|
| But the landscape was breathtaking, and the locals friendly in
| a low key way.
|
| I'd love to go back.
| Sammi wrote:
| More wind means less mosquitos. One step forward and one step
| back.
|
| Also don't fly with sas to the faroes. They turn back and try
| again the next day like in the article. Fly atlantic airways,
| they have equipment to fly through the fog or they will
| refuel in iceland and try again same day.
| neucoas wrote:
| What do you mean with "they have equipment".
| mkl wrote:
| Probably
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_landing_system.
| Sammi wrote:
| Yes.
| Nux wrote:
| Cojones ;-)
| bookofjoe wrote:
| >Also don't fly with sas to the faroes. They turn back and
| try again the next day like in the article.
|
| To me this is a good reason to fly SAS.
| Sammi wrote:
| If you want to enjoy a day in an airport hotel and be
| late for what you are travelling for then sure. Sas plane
| is full of tourists who don't know. Locals all use
| atlantic airways cause they know they actually land.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| And when you want to experiance true issolation in the face of
| nature, Alaska and Westerm Canada are waiting. Try a drive
| north through BC in winter. Fish on an Alaskan river only
| accessible by floatplane. Wake up to watch the northern lights
| only to realize you are looking south. Or pan for gold only to
| look up and see a grizzly cub walking cassually past.
|
| Norway: 15 people per sq km.
|
| Alberta: 6.7
|
| British columbia: 5.5
|
| Alaska: 0.5
|
| Yukon territory: 0.1
|
| Northwest Territories: 0.03
| iagooar wrote:
| Finnmark in Northern Norway is more like 1.5-2, Troms is 3-6.
| But I agree, Alaska and Western Canada are places to go some
| day.
|
| Funnily, as a student I had this offer to go to work as a
| waiter on Alaska. For different reasons that didn't
| materialize, but definitely this makes me want to go see it
| even more.
|
| Not so much for the possible bear encounters. I do not think
| I am ready yet for that.
| dbetteridge wrote:
| Another option is
|
| Western Australia: 0.2 if you get outside the capital city.
|
| You'll see stars you didn't know existed and the distances
| are something else.
|
| Northwest territories is beautiful though.
| VagabundoP wrote:
| I stayed out past Margaret River in Western Oz and "OMG its
| full of stars" when I went to the outside toilet during the
| middle of the night and looked up.
|
| I felt like I could get sucked up and lost in galaxies. You
| could see so many.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Altitude is also an excellent force multiplier for
| visualizing stars. I can still see in my mind's eye the sky
| at night at 17,000 feet while trekking in Nepal in 1982: it
| looked like glitter-studded fabric, the stars almost
| contiguous.
| liquid_thyme wrote:
| Driving through is fine, but realistically, if you need basic
| amenities (healthcare, groceries, etc), you will be living in
| or around a population center, so those numbers won't hold
| up.
| QuantumNomad_ wrote:
| > Feeling small made me feel calm
|
| Completely agree. I've been on many hikes and in particular
| there was one time where I was walking up a mountain, at
| winter, with skis on, that I felt like wow if everyone got to
| experience this particular feeling of just you and the
| mountains and not a single soul around, there would be less
| conflict in the world. If we all got to go on these long
| solitary trips in the mountains alone. All kinds of grievances
| and conflicts and whatever you might feel about people that you
| dislike, it all suddenly feels so insignificant and pointless
| to even expend any energy on.
| grilledchickenw wrote:
| You just described wonderfully why I'm drawn to remote places.
| It started with a trip to the interior of Iceland, then Tromso,
| and more recently Svalbard and the Faroes.
|
| I tried to capture the beautiful sense of isolation in Svalbard
| here, maybe it inspires others to make a trip to somewhere
| remote.
| https://photoblog.nk412.com/Svalbard2024/n-ssC8fP/Svalminiph...
| sangeeth96 wrote:
| I'm not a fan of bugs but it's only when I consume these
| travelogues I'm reminded that I should be grateful things are
| nowhere as apocalyptic over where I live in south India.
| epolanski wrote:
| > Even professional travel personalities seemed to be scraping
| the bottom of the barrel. "There's the grocery store again!"
|
| Hah, that's exactly the feeling I got when my favorite travel
| YouTuber went there.
|
| Other than what in this post you also had boat excursions which
| were nice.
| JohnLocke4 wrote:
| I happen to be one of the Danes who partially grew up in
| Greenland that he talks about in the article. I even recognize
| the places from the article.
|
| Some of my cordial childhood memories are from there and it is a
| place I will forever love. One of the most visceral memories I
| have is looking across the ice fjord listening to the thunderous
| breaking of the ice bergs - you can hear the sounds on videos,
| but combined with the enormity of what is in front of you and
| actually being able to feel the sound in your body it can only be
| experienced by being there.
|
| I can see that the author was initially worried that Greenland
| would be devoid of anything to do, which is of course not true,
| as is written in the article. Especially the people are one of a
| kind in what I can only describe as directness or pragmatism.
|
| One time a local from the place I lived was driving his car as it
| broke down and - rather than having it regularly towed to the
| mechanic - actually decided to tow it with a group of sled dogs.
| We just watched him sticking his head out the window shouting
| commands to the dogs while driving by. The dogs there can
| distinguish left and right, so it was surprisingly trivial to get
| the car to the mechanic. The Greenlanders see _nothing_
| extraordinary about this.
|
| In other words, it is really valuable to have local connections
| if you want a great vacation in Greenland. I can also recommend
| the small, mini village settlements that are spread across the
| coast of the grand county. Some of them have hotels also.
|
| I became nostalgic so I wrote a little blog post with some
| pictures for you people: https://lucasblog.dk/post/Greenland
| vintagedave wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Can you tell us where the "if you know
| where this is" photo is, please?
|
| And how would you make local connections before visiting?
| JohnLocke4 wrote:
| I feel like telling you where the picture is taken would
| spoil a potentially fun experience, so I will not disclose
| that :)
|
| Anyway, making connections is hard, though not impossible. I
| would recommend the local pubs (which are surprisingly busy
| given how small settlements are) and finding friends through
| e.g. work settings.
| mkl wrote:
| Thanks! A typo: "Wood is by far a ubiquitous material" - "Wood
| is far from a ubiquitous material".
| JohnLocke4 wrote:
| Fixed!
| skybrian wrote:
| Can you explain the cars described in the article?
| paulcole wrote:
| > There is nothing distinct about Indiana, it's just a place full
| of people who got too tired on their way to somewhere better and
| decided "this is good enough".
|
| This is how Norte Dame was (allegedly) founded. Priests set out
| from the East Coast, planning to found the greatest Catholic
| University in the world in California. They get to Indiana and
| encounter a terrible snowstorm. They hunker down and decide
| they'll get moving again when the weather improved. It never did.
| goodmattg wrote:
| Perfect weekend read - kudos on a nice piece of writing
| nullbyte808 wrote:
| Funniest shit I've read in awhile on here!
| jeffnappi wrote:
| This video about Camp Century in Greenland is fascinating:
| https://youtu.be/OndXawgRAeo
| cozzyd wrote:
| I've spent quite a bit of time in kangerlussuaq while on route or
| on my way back from summit station. Would love to explore more of
| the country, but even just kangerlussuaq is quite beautiful. I've
| seen pictures from the east Coast from some pilots based out of
| Akureyri who were assisting some geologists at Summit one year
| and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
|
| Greenlandic hot dogs are delicious too, similar to Iceland.
| worik wrote:
| What a wasted trip!
|
| How rude, especially about Indiana.
|
| They never found out where the people were going in their BMWs
|
| The only descriptions of the locals were entirely without
| sympathy.
|
| If this is how Icelanders [edit: Greenlanders, duh!]are treated
| by Danes, I suggest selling out to Trump!
| mkl wrote:
| The author is American, and no Icelanders were mentioned.
| worik wrote:
| > The author is American
|
| I assume you mean USAian. Fits my prejudices, which is
| unfortunate
|
| An arrogant prick, anyway
| tick_tock_tick wrote:
| Damn dude did Indiana steal your car or something? That's a lot
| of hate.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| > So if you've ever wonder "what is a glacier", let me tell you.
| Greenland has a lot of ice and it pushes out from the land that
| is covers into the sea. When that happens, a lot of it breaks
| off.
|
| This is quite inaccurate and incomplete and the cynicism that
| follows and pervades the article is offputting.
|
| Let _me_ tell you that glaciers are quite fascinating and come in
| a variety of constructions and have all sorts of interesting and
| beautiful features like caves and moulins.
|
| Watching one calve off something the size of a 5 story building
| into the sea just a couple hundred yards from my camp was a
| thrilling experience, the last time I went backcountry kayaking.
| And listening to another rumbling in the distance every 30
| minutes or so at another camp the following night put me to sleep
| like a distant thunderstorm.
|
| I think this article just goes to show that you can find beauty
| and wonder anywhere if you're open to seeing it. Even the
| mosquitoes in interior Alaska don't bother me because it is
| simply the world I live in.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| I never understood why Denmark still bothers with Greenland. It
| seems to cost them a lot of money while at the same time they
| demand more and more autonomy. Danish isn't even an official
| language anymore. What does Denmark gain out of the block grant
| they give to Greenland?
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