japan national corporation made an agreement with conoco phillips to carry out testing in northern alaska for next january. the two entities plan to dig a well 1,000 meters deep to study how much gas can be extracted. a considerable amount of methane hydrate reserves have been identified in seabeds off japan's coast. japan is hoping that the experiment with the u.s. firm will help it to find ways to efficiently extract these gas molecules and put the fuel to practical use. >>> japan's prime minister is visiting south korea and will meet his counterpart myung-bak on wednesday. >> translator: i want to have thorough discussions on future oriented japan/south korea ties including an economic partnership agreement. >> noda will likely urge south korea to resume negotiations for an agreement. it has been suspended for seven years. he will also discuss how the two countries and the united states can resolve north korea's nuclear program and its abduction issues. noda is expected to hand over a set of ancient korean books. they include archives of royal protocol from the dynasty that have been k

alaska is probably the last place in the northern hemisphere where things of those sights in nature are road accessible. there's still the wilderness in siberia and that, but it just isn't accessible for people. alaska's a very special, unique place. i can go over these mountains, and it's just like it was a thousand years ago. o.k. where's my folks? you need a life jacket? look at the little arctic tern there. they have the longest migratory route. what are they? arctic terns. they go down to antarctica. [galbraith] different indigenous people of alaska would migrate to the valley, but the discovery of gold and the russians in the area-- a lot of the indigenous tribes contracted either smallpox or influenza and consequently have disappeared. [narrator] the misconception that the dena'ina had disappeared was reinforced by the fact that they had left little visible sign of their presence. many centuries ago, athabaskan hunters and gatherers migrated here from west of the alaska range, recognized the richness of the natural resources of cook inlet and the kenai peninsula, and became the o

northern new england. some showers along the southern coast of alaska. that's what's going on around >> good morning.at's your latest weather. >> up next, portion distortion. when it comes to beauty products, we're going to show you what you can -- you can be wasting your money. right after this i'm tired of shopping around. [ sigh ] too bad you're not buying car insurance. like that's easy. oh, it is. progressive direct showed me their rates and the rates of their competitors. i saved hundreds when switching. we could use hundreds. yeah. wake up and smell the savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromise on taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance. try smart balance fat free milk. fresher less processed foods introducing freshpet recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido announcing shipped for free, guaranteed to last. ♪ no minimum order. no end date. from l.l. bea

anchorage alaska, nbc 2, rain, cool, 48 degrees. we've got chilly weather in northerns, 40s and 50s. 90s down in the southwest, looking pretty good there during the day today, lots of heavy rain in the northeast. showers back through the plains, we got sunny skies through the southern tier states. that's what's ie >> good morning, everyone. the further we go into the morning, the better the chance some of this rain will catch up to us. showers will go through the evening. temperatures will be mild. we expect >> joplin strong, our friends in missouri, all right. mr. lauer? >> al, thank you very much. >>> when we come back, kate and pippa and their impact on fashion right after this. get your cash back! oh, hi. which cash back booth looks better to you, chase freedom or the largest cashback card? oh, i'll try the largest. oh, that is too bad. apparently you don't know chase freedom guarantees you 1% cash back. 4 times more than the largest cash back card, which only gives you a quarter percent until you spend $3,000 every year. but have fun. bob and weave once you're in

northern exposure. one woman and her three dogs are occupying the tundra in a remote part of western alaska. >>> the movement has spread overseas too. zain is in london. >> the majority of protesters were out there in europe and here in london, pretty much peacingful. but in rome, police were armed with water cannon and a small group of anarchists throwing molotov cocktails and knives, and that is what happened when they clashed. the newspaper headlines here, "the guardian" says, from wall street to st. paul's. it says those attending sunday mass found themselves picking a path through the makeshift camp of around 100 tents erected at the foot of the cathedral steps after saturday's global day of action inspired by the u.s. occupy wall street movement. and "the south china morning post." the headline, don't throw baby out with bath water. it's an opinion piece that says, young protesters in central, that's the area, have their hearts in the right place, but they need to better understand the unique social problems that confront hong kong instead of blamely aping their occupy wall street friends. and "the aus

course, that expansion really began well before alaska's statehood, well before the purchase from russia, and it really goes back to thomas jefferson's northern west ordinances, which promised an equal footing for a state government to stand up on its own and to make that leap out of territorial status. and this resulted in states like ohio, like indiana forming a as sovereign governments with the federal government relinquishing almost all control over the lands within those borders. so people came to live, to build their lives in these new states and with their new lives came the infrastructure, came the roads, the bridges, the factories, and the industry. and that set things in motion for expansion into the far west, frontier states like wyoming and nevada, utah, montana, then gold in california and colorado really brought an urgency to the expansion, and we saw the railroads that helped accelerate and accommodate it. but as times passed, the terms began to change. precedents were increasingly set for vast federal land withdrawals in the form of national forests, monuments, parks, and preserves, and the promise and the definition of equal

anchorage, alaska, and rain, cool, and 48 degrees. we have some chilly weather in northern and looking good in the southwest, and rain in the northeast, and showers back through the plains. we have sunny skies through the southern tier states. that's what is going on around the country and here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. >> light to moderate rain moving through the metro area as well as parts of northern virginia where you see the pockets of yellow and orange and light to moderate rain showers in loudoun county, and the panhandle of west virginia as well as in maryland and virginia, and we will have rain and maybe thunder and lightning midday, and then sun breaking out as we clear >> joplin strong, our friends in missouri, all right. mr. lauer? >> al, thank you very much. >>> when we come back, kate and pippa and their impact on fashion right after this. get your cash back! oh, hi. which cash back booth looks better to you, chase freedom or the largest cashback card? oh, i'll try the largest. oh, that is too bad. apparently you don't know chase freedom

alaska. nbc 2. rain. cool. 48 degrees. we have some chilly weather in northernthe southwest. lots of heavy rain in the northeast. showers back through the plains. we have sunny >>> another gorgeous started in the city of san francisco. take a look at this completely clear sky. crystal clear conditions. unfortunately, we'll see some changes by today. 2:00 pm, you see the clouds start to drift up from the south. by 5:00 pm, mostly cloudy conditions over the entire bay area. we'll stay dry this weekend. your temperatures today will be a touch cooler than yesterday's high of 83 in fremont, 80 tomorrow. cooler, cloudier weekend on tap. >> joplin strong, our friends in missouri, all right. mr. lauer? >> al, thank you very much. >>> when we come back, kate and pippa and their impact on >>> when we come back, kate and pippa and their impact on fashion right after this. get your cash back! oh, hi. which cash back booth looks better to you, chase freedom or the largest cashback card? oh, i'll try the largest. oh, that is too bad. apparently you don't know chase freedom gu

alaska that were game changers. one was about -- he won the academy award, disney, and it had all these seals in it, and it was about stop slaughtering the northernseal out of existence. he did one called white wilderness which rules up until disney was the big, bad wolf. they were something you would kill or shoot. they were predators, and they were almost treated like vermin. disney did a documentary with them as little cubs lick ago woman's face, but it suddenly made kids like wolves for the first time as an animal. and out of all that you see the reintroduction of wolves in places like jell-ostone -- yellowstone and other places in the united states. most americans want to think we have a country where we haven't driven the wolf completely out of north america. so the wolf survives in america because of this band of conservationists i write about in "the quiet world." >> now, there are a lot of good pictures in this book as well that we really can't show you, but if you do pick it up, there's a lot of beautiful color pictures as well. and finally, you end this book with the end of the eisenhower administration. >> yes. because i did two incre