Aleutian Islands

Aleutian Islands

Bayou Renaissance Man posts about Adak Island. I've posted several times about various Aleutian Islands, so I thought I'd take a look. Right away I found that the Live Walrus Cam was broken, so I fixed it there and here it is: Round Island, Dillingham, Alaska

Adak Island is right in the middle of the Aleutians. It is near the bottom of the loop in the map above. You can see it if you follow the link to Google Earth.

Aleutian Island posts, West to East:

• Attu Island - PBY Catalina Night Attack
• Shemya Island - What Island is this? -and- Yes, we have no bananas.
• Akatun & Akun - Richard H. Geoghegan
• Dutch Harbor - Nick Comes to Lunch
• Amaknak Island (Dutch Harbor in the town of Unalaska) - F/V Kari Marie
• Cold Bay - Shanghai to Chicago

Other Alaskan Islands, West to East:

• Round Island - Walrus Cam
• St. Paul and St. George - St. Paul Alaska
• Kodiak - White Alice
• Baranof Island (town of Sitka) - Fishing Report

What Island is this? -and- Yes, we have no bananas.

Part 1 - What island is this?

US Navy EA-6B Prowler flying somewhere.

I came across this photo on Military Photos dot net. The caption claimed this was Afghanistan. It sure doesn't look anything like the Afghanistan I know. I made an inquiry but received no response, so I started looking around to see if I could identify this island.
    While I am looking I come across a Wikimapia page about Shemya Island. It is small and flatish and sort of off by itself, so this might be the one. It's in the Aleutians, which is kind of far from Afghanistan, but that's basically irrelevant. The US Navy has aircraft flying all over the world, so this island could be anywhere.
    Then it occurs to me that I've heard of Shemya before. I check my archives, and yes indeed. Shemya was home for Rivet Ball, a 1960's era US spy plane.


Part 2 - Yes, we have no bananas.

Wikimapia Turing Test

    I write this bit of info about the Rivet Ball spy plane into a comment on the Wikimapia page. When I submit it, I am confronted with a are-you-a-real-person test. The test itself is not complex, but they use an elaborate mechanism to put it up on the web page. It includes a short video which displays a single image that contains some text which you are to transcribe. It's kind of long string, too, and a far cry from Google's check the check box test.