Posts from — February 2009

Out of Pelly Crossing the order is William Kleedehn (12), Hugh Neff (23), Hans Gatt (16), and Brent Sass (13). Only Becca Moore (22) is still in Carmacks.
[She left at 11:37PST, so Carmacks is clear.]

Kleedehn injured his back just before the race, but that doesn’t seem to be affecting the team. The climbs are coming up, so things will slow down – a lot.

You can get Race Updates here.

While the number of fires still burning has been reduced to 8 and real progress is being made in containing them as the weather cooperates, Australian Broadcasting tells us: Victoria ‘could face worse fire danger next summer’

An expert in climate modelling says next summer could see even higher fire dangers for Victoria due to extreme temperatures.

It has been predicted that an El Nino climate event could hit Australia this year, causing higher than usual temperatures across the country.

Professor Roger Stone from the University of Southern Queensland has told ABC Radio’s AM program the added risk highlights the need for a risk-management approach.

“There’s probably about a 60 per cent chance of an El Nino developing mid-winter, and if that happens that will exacerbate the whole drought and therefore fire situation over a lot of Australia, not just Victoria,’ he said.

El Niño conditions in the Pacific affect Gulf Coast weather as well, so I watch for them to develop. With all of the shifts that are taking place, the presence of this huge patch of warm water in the Pacific is not good news for a quiet life.

[Read more →]

Everyone made it to the first checkpoint at Braeburn [100 miles / 160 km]. Jon Little (18) now leads, but that’s based on taking a shorter break. The dogs of Martin Buser (8), current ranked 2^nd, and Jean-denis Britten (3), currently ranked 6^th, made the run in the best time, 9 hours and 54 minutes. They are the speed in the race, so it is down to strategy between them, because their dogs are definitely ready to run.

You can get Race Updates here.

The number of fires has been reduced to a dozen, and more help is arriving all the time, including help from the US with fire aftermaths, including protecting the water shed and preventing erosion if it does rain. They are also doing some controlled burning, now that the weather is cooperating, to remove fuel from the next fire, as well as increasing the containment of the current fires.

It is important to remember that there are about two months of summer to go in Australia, so the threat is nowhere near over.

For the first time since 1950, Toyota is not going to make a profit, so it is making some changes to weather the GOPression. CBS reports that Toyota Cuts Exec Pay, Eliminates Bonuses.

It is doing a lot of other things that affect the pay of all Toyota workers, but it started at the top to cut costs. Apparently they aren’t afraid of losing executives, and they don’t think you have to put all of the pain on the workers. You have to wonder if that’s why they have overtaken General Motors as the number one car maker in the world. They seem to think that the people who actually make the cars are just as important as the people who make management decisions.

In Asian companies the people who make decisions are expected to feel the pain when the decisions are wrong, as well as benefiting when the decisions are right. The concept is know as accepting responsibility.

The first of 29 teams left at 11:00 AM local time on the trail to Fairbanks. The current conditions at race time were partly cloudy and -9 °F, so the trail should be fast. The time difference between the teams is made up at the Dawson City layover.

You can get Race Updates here, and this is the official trail map.

The Daily News-Miner has a Google map, but they haven’t updated it for this year, although they do have a web cam for current conditions in Fairbanks, a stifling 19°F. The temperature is expected to return to the normal 0° high next week. [Note: that is hot for February in Fairbanks, and it means taking off a set of long underwear.]

The list of mushers is below the fold, with the ^R indicating first time competitors. In addition to Canada and the US, Austria, France, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, and the UK are represented.

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Why are you being hustled by street vendors to buy sad and drooping former roses, vegetative matter that missed the cut for bouquets, or were too late to the hospital?

Blame Esther A. Howland (1828 – 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her guilt is writ large by the Greeting Card Association’s Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary. She imported the concept to the US from Britain to bolster her father’s stationery store in 1847.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the stationers had infiltrated school boards and imposed the now mandatory exchange in the classroom to push the low end product of Asian children and prisoners.

[Read more →]

The BBC is reporting that the US Congress passes stimulus plan.

No Repub votes in the House, and the “Tres Amigos”, Snow, Collins, and Specter, the only GOP votes in the Senate.

One thousand miles From Whitehorse, Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska on the Goldrush/mail route – the Yukon Quest.

Here’s the official site, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner site.

Only a quarter of century old, the start alternates between Whitehorse [odd years] and Fairbanks. Lance Mackey who has won the Quest for the last four years and doubled by winning the Iditarod the last two, has pulled out of this year’s race, but there are plenty of first rate teams in the running, including Lance’s brother, Jason.

Australia BC reports that Arson accused moved to Melbourne amid security concerns

A court has heard that the man charged over the Churchill-Jeeralang bushfire in eastern Victoria may need to be protected from other prisoners.
…

The man, who can not be named, has been charged with one count of arson causing death, one count of deliberately lighting a bushfire, and one count of possessing child pornography.

Twenty-one people are confirmed to have died in the bushfire on Saturday.

This would be SOP [Standard Operating Procedure] for major crimes, isolating the accused. Remember innocent until proven guilty, and if mistakes were made, make sure the accused is alive to be released. My gut tells me that the Victoria police know a lot more than they are letting on, and are holding back a good deal more information than normal to avoid mob violence.

The article sounds like they think the accused is a clinical pyromaniac, i.e. he/she is clinically psychotic.

In an Australian Broadcasting story, Animals not forgotten in Vic recovery effort, RSPCA [Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] spokesman Ray Lord is interviewed:

He says it would have been extremely difficult for livestock to escape the fires.

“Basically a lot of those animals were trapped in the fires and that made it very difficult,” he said.

“A lot of the fences burned down and a lot of animals endeavoured to get out, but there were some reports that the fire travelled 20 kilometres in four minutes … and when a fire can travel 20 kilometres in four minutes, sadly it’s an absolute catastrophe.”

300 kilometers an hour! That’s better that 186 MPH! These fire events can generate their own weather, and they can create “microbursts”, super gusts of wind, especially in mountainous terrain, which makes flying them a real challenge. If the fires were moving at those speeds, even for brief intervals, there is no chance of getting to safety.

Yes, it’s Friday the 13^th again. The 13^th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the week, so get over it. It’s only valid in in English and Portuguese speaking countries, so go visit a Spanish-speaking neighborhood for the day.

If you want to blame someone, it’s the calendar of Pope Gregory XIII that created this imbalance.  [He obviously didn’t have a problem with the number on any day.]

Bath Manners

Dude, this seat is taken!

[Editor: Income wasn’t thrilled to be interrupted in his grooming, but he still managed to blink.

Friday Ark

The State of Texas has closed a peanut processing plant in Plainview owned by the Peanut Corporation of America, and ordered everything produced at the plant recalled.

The plant has been operating since 2005, but hadn’t been inspected until after the recall at a PCA Georgia plant. Based on the description of conditions, the plant pretty much violated every law in place for a food processing plant.