You may have noticed problems getting to Pharyngula and other ScienceBlogs.com sites as they have been under a DDOS [distributed denial of service] attack for over a day.

It may take a while for the techs to sort out the problem.

Don’t forget to “Spring Ahead” as they steal an hour from your life by eliminating 2AM Sunday morning.

This really screws up the time keeping on the Iditarod, and makes the cats less than happy.

So shall ye reap.

CBS reports that AZ man who brought pitchfork to meeting acquitted

The Daily Miner reports Mervin Fried tried to bring the farm tool into the Feb. 16, 2010, meeting.

Mohave County Manager Ron Walker told Fried to leave his pitchfork outside. Fried was arrested when he refused and tried to enter the building anyway.
…

The judge said officials did have the authority to restrict access to the building. But because members of the public with holstered handguns are allowed inside, denying access to the defendant because he had a “holstered” pitchfork was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.

Hmmm … Isn’t “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable” pretty much the definition of elected officials in Arizona? There was no ruling on the status of torches.

From the CBC: Japanese town has 9,500 missing after twin disasters

The death toll in northeast Japan after a powerful earthquake and tsunami could rise dramatically, with news that about 9,500 people are unaccounted for in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture.

The Kyodo news agency reported that number Saturday, citing local officials, and said it represents more than half of the community’s population.
…

The official death toll more than 24 hours after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami stood at 586. About 215,000 people have gone to emergency shelters.

The quake struck 125 kilometres off Japan’s northeast coast. A majority of the victims drowned in the giant tsunami waves created by the powerful tremor, which swept 10 kilometres inland. Thousands of buildings and cars were washed away, along with four passengers trains.
…

Officials said the initial quake was the most powerful one to hit the region in 1,200 years. The USGS says the force of the quake was so strong that Honshu — Japan’s biggest island — was moved 2.5 metres to the east.

I think that most people know that the final death toll will be in the thousands just from the pictures of the devastation and the population density of Japan. The idea that an island the size of Honshu has shifted about 8 feet is mind boggling, since it occurred in seconds.

UPDATE: There are definitely two, and possibly three reactors that have lost cooling. They are pumping in sea water and boron to cool these suckers, but the pressure keeps building.

The BBC reports a Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant

A huge explosion has rocked a Japanese nuclear power plant damaged by Friday’s devastating earthquake.

A pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima. Four workers were injured.

Japanese officials say the container housing the reactor was not damaged and that radiation levels have now fallen.

A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which are thought to have killed at least 1,000 people.
… [Read more →]

They are watching for effects of the tsunami in the Norton Sound, but the Aleutians probably disrupted it and minimized any effect on the coast of the Bering Sea. White Mountain is the only checkpoint after Kaltag that isn’t on the coast, and, as a result of climate change, the villages are closer to the water than ever before.

It is hard to know where James Bardoner (57) is. He finished his mandatory 24-hour stop at McGrath early this morning, but they are still showing him there. The people who input the standings have a habit of not updating the back of the pack. [Update: they finally noticed he left.]

Update: Judy Currier (29) has scratched at Anvik. She has only had to drop three dogs, but they were her three leaders. The remaining puppies would have probably been happy to pull for a few hundred more miles, but they wouldn’t necessarily end up in Nome.

Update: Newton Marshall (6) and the Jamaican Dog Sled team have scratched at Anvik. He waited out the 8-hour mandatory to see if the puppies would perk up, but they didn’t want to play.

Note: John Baker is not “officially” in Kaltag, but when everyone in the Alaska media is reporting on his arrival, I thought I would risk it.

Beyond Kaltag

1 John Baker (53)

At Kaltag

2 Ramey Smyth (30)
3 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
4 Hugh Neff (35)
5 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
6 Sonny Lindner (52)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
8 Jessie Royer (58) [Read more →]