Posts from — March 2008

The BBC chronicles the stupidity: Abbas breaks contact with Israel

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has suspended contact with Israel in protest at an assault on Gaza which has killed about 100 people, an aide says.

The suspension came amid demonstrations in Gaza and fresh clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank.

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert vowed to carry on the assault, which came in response to militant rocket attacks on Israel.

Olmert wins nothing. He is a disaster for Israelis and is doing real damage to the country’s military with his refusal to deal with reality. If he keeps this up, the other Arab countries will be forced by their populations to respond. The Knesset had better do something quickly to end this, or there will be a major war in the region and not just an intifada which Olmert’s actions have certainly guaranteed.

The real race has begun in Willow, with teams signing out at recorded times to provide space along the trail. It started at 2PM Alaska Standard Time which is -9 UTC, or 3 hours earlier than my time. You have to check the Official Race Site to find out who is winning because it is based on actual times for team, not their place on the trail and there are mandatory 8 and 24-hour layovers during the race. There is 10 and a half hours of sunlight with sunrise at 8AM, but the teams will gain about 6 minutes a day during the race, and the moon is waning from the last quarter, so it’s no help.

The Weather Underground has a special page for Iditarod Weather, which has a map where you can see the current weather at the check points when you put your cursor on them, and the distance between the points when you put your cursor on a trail segment. Currently there is light snow falling at the beginning of the course.

The USGS has an Alaska earthquake map for the current week, and Alaska constantly has earthquakes, but most of then are small.

[Read more →]

The BBC reports that water is wet: Medvedev ‘heading for clear win’

Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is set to win Russia’s presidential election by a wide margin, exit polls indicate.

The state-owned pollster VTsIOM showed Mr Medvedev with 69.6% of the vote.

And early results, with 15% of votes counted, put him on 64.5%. His nearest rival was Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, on nearly 20%.

I see they are limiting his win to below 70% so that he doesn’t outshine his boss, Vladimir. I feel certain that the pages have already been printed for the newspapers, including the final results.

After being installed Medvedev will discover that to make Russia more “democratic” it is necessary to transfer many of the powers of the presidency to the prime minister who is – Vladimir Putin. There’s something comfortable about knowing exactly what the Soviet …er… Russia will do.

Proposed Florida License Plate

While Sinfonian has a visceral reaction to this proposed new Florida plate, I take personal umbrage at the historical frauds it perpetuates – the only things that are “authentic” and actually deal with the “heritage” of Florida are the buttons on the bottom of the graphic.
[Read more →]

While 96 teams made the ceremonial start in Anchorage, only 95 will be racing out of Willow. Veteran G.B. Jones(45) of Wasilla, Alaska has pulled out for health reasons. He entered hoping to be well for the race, but he isn’t, so he decided to run in the 11-mile Anchorage parade and then scratch.

The Associated Press reports Feds say Southern water-sharing talks failed

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged Saturday that White House-brokered water negotiations among Alabama, Florida and Georgia have failed.

Without an agreement, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies will begin implementing a water-sharing plan of their own, Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors.

“Regrettably, it will necessarily be a solution being directed to the states instead of our much hoped for solution coming from the states,” he wrote in the letter, released Saturday.
…

[Read more →]

CNN reports that the Armenian president declares state of emergency

(CNN) — Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency Saturday night after a day of clashes between police and protesters, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

The protesters claim last month’s presidential election was rigged.

The state of emergency will “hopefully bring some order” to the capital, Yerevan, said Salpi Ghazarian, assistant to the Armenian foreign minister, who spoke to CNN early Sunday.

The state of emergency could last until March 20, she said, but the government hopes “that it will be lifted sooner.”

[Read more →]

As Mustang Bobby notes Ddyhea Buchedda Cymru!, it’s Saint David’s Day, a national holiday in Wales, which requires people to wear leeks or daffodils [called Peter’s leek in Welsh].

Note: very busy day, so I barely made it.

The ceremonial start of the Iditarod takes place today in Anchorage, with the real racing segment starting Sunday from Willow.

There are 96 teams starting the race, most from the US and Canada, but there are also 9 mushers from Europe: Sigrid Ekran(24) & Kjetil Backen(42) from Norway, Rudi Niggenmeier(52) & Benedikt Beisch(64) from Germany, Dries Jacobs(65) & Sam Deltour(63) from Belgium, Fabrizio Lovati(77) from Italy, Benoit Gerard(91) from France, and Kim Franklin(79) from the UK.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Lance Mackey(6), last year’s winner, and Rachael Scdoris(55).

The course is looking a lot better than last year’s, but one weather front can change everything.