Posts from — February 2012

Hugh Neff finally overcame his Quest jinx as did Yuka Honda: he finally won it, and she finally finished it. It was a good year, as 19 of 23 starters, finished and there were no serious problems with anyone’s dogs.

There was an above average rate of dogs dropped, that can be traced back to the warm weather and a number of young dogs. The dogs were overworking in the ‘heat’ and didn’t recover like they normally would have. Lance Mackey commented on that problem with his team, after he noticed them slowing down. [He blamed himself for spending too much time running in the daylight, instead of the cooler night hours.]

The major award winners were:

Golden Harness – Walter & Juanity [Hugh Neff’s team leaders]
Veterinarian’s Choice – Kristy Berington
Challenge of the North – Michael Telpin
Dawson Award – Allen Moore
Rookie of the Year – Jake Berkowitz
Red Lantern – Michael Telpin

Michael Telpin’s effort is almost like a reenactment of the original techniques and equipment that were used during the Yukon Gold Rush. With a few exceptions, he used the equipment and dogs that would have been in daily use back then, and are still in use by the Arctic peoples. He started and finished with 9 dogs, and with the race nearly over, he finally let them run like they could, which is why he finished so closely behind Marcelle. He had been holding his team back because of the heat, and the lack of familiarity moving through trees.

I would note that when it was colder, early in the race, he was moving much faster, than after it warmed up.

Final Standings: [Read more →]

That would be the legislature of the state of Virginia. They want to treat a woman who need a legal, Constitutionally-protected medical procedure the same way that the NYPD treated Abner Louima

This what the New York State Penal Law as to say about the procedure: § 130.66 Aggravated sexual abuse in the third degree:

1. A person is guilty of aggravated sexual abuse in the third degree when he or she inserts a foreign object in the vagina, urethra, penis, rectum or anus of another person:
(a) By forcible compulsion; or
(b) When the other person is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless; or
(c) When the other person is less than eleven years old.
2. A person is guilty of aggravated sexual abuse in the third degree when he or she inserts a foreign object in the vagina, urethra, penis, rectum or anus of another person causing physical injury to such person and such person is incapable of consent by reason of being mentally disabled or mentally incapacitated.
3. Conduct performed for a valid medical purpose does not violate the provisions of this section.
Aggravated sexual abuse in the third degree is a class D felony.

What they have legislated does not have a “valid medical purpose” and making it mandatory is a form of “forcible compulsion”. It’s sole purpose is to degrade women.

Those who voted for this crime should be on the sexual offenders list, as the deviants they are.

This morning Marcelle is about halfway between Braeburn and Whitehorse, while Michael’s GPS is again being silent after showing him at Braeburn last night.

The GPS distances shown on Live Tracking are straight-line measurements from point to point, not trail measurements, which yield a total distance of 890 miles, missing about 100+ miles of the actual trail.

At 11PM CST: It’s over with Michael’s arrival at about 10:20PM

Beyond Braeburn
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R [finished at about 9:24PM]
19 Michael Telpin (24)^RΦ

Both teams are on the final stretch, and the official site expects them in today.

Marcelle is almost at the finish line and Michael is only an hour behind her, so both will be in tonight.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

This is now totally an endurance event and a matter of pride. They want to finish what they started and are running on will-power. The dogs have been moving at an easy pace, as evidenced by Michael still having all 9 dogs he started with, and they have been receiving plenty of rest, but neither he, nor Marcelle have. When the sled stops, the musher has to take care of the dogs, while the dogs can just rest immediately, if they are so inclined. At a six-hour stop the dogs get over 5 hours of rest between meals, the musher is lucky to get 4, because of the dog care, and making their own food and repairs.

At 11:30PM CST [Live Tracking]

At Braeburn
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

Michael’s GPS isn’t working again, the last report is over 5 hours ago, but he has been about 15 miles behind Marcelle all day. [5:30PM CST]

Michael finally registered at Braeburn when I checked at 11:30PM.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

So the VSP are talking about the ‘joke’ that a Santorum supporter made, but don’t seem to be aware of its rather mean-spirited origin [mostly because they think yesterday is ancient history. Of course, for people with the attention span of a Golden Retriever, it is].

There were a whole series of anti-Catholic jokes about the stand on contraceptives back in the 1960s, and “an aspirin clenched between their knees” was the response to ‘What do Catholics use instead of The Pill?”

Another was “What do you call people who use the Rhythm Method?” … “Parents”

This is almost as bad as Arlen Specter quoting a speech by Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello to defend Clarence Thomas, apparently unaware that Iago was the villain of the play who engineered the downfall of his black commander.

Brian made it in just after midnight local, and Misha was an hour later. They aren’t updating the official standings for Marcelle and Michael so I’m working from Live Tracking.

It looks like the weather is trending back to normal, i.e. below freezing for the next few days, which makes running during the day easier. There is just under 11 hours of daylight, and the moon is a waning crescent.

Update: OK, KUAC explains the situation: technically, the race should end 60 hours after the winner arrives, but the Race Marshal is extending the limit to allow Marcelle and Michael to continue and be eligible for the Red Lantern if they wish. There is no official support, beyond their handlers at the checkpoints, but local people are doing what they can. They both chose to continue.

KUAC made the point that Michael has been very concerned about running in the dark through the trees, because neither he, nor his dogs have any experience moving through trees.

Standings as of 9:15PM CST [Live Tracking]:

Michelle is about 15 miles out of Carmacks, while Michael has arrived at the checkpoint.

At Whitehorse
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Carmacks
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
At Carmacks
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

I Get No Respect

Pbbbt…

[Editor: Tonto doesn’t think much of my suggestion that she get off the car.

Friday Ark

Kyla made it in at 10:30PM CST last night, so Trent is the first for today. Trent was a last minute replacement for a musher with a medical problem and basically making a training run to test dogs for that musher’s Iditarod attempt, so it was a good run for him. He really must like Matt Giblin or mushing to do this, although it doesn’t hurt his credibility with the tourist business he is now involved in to have finished both the Quest and the Iditarod.

Live Tracking has Marcelle just outside of Pelly Crossing this morning, but Michael Telpin’s tracker has been silent for over a day. Update: Michael is about 15 miles behind Marcelle, according to the tracker. Update: Marcelle is beyond Pelly, and Michael is there, according to LT. [They noticed that Marcelle is on the trail to Carmacks, but still don’t show that Michael is in Pelly Crossing and has been for a while.]

Update: Apparently Gus and Paige came in side-by-side as they have the same finish time. It now says that Gus arrived 20 minutes before Paige, probably a typo.

I’m waiting for Yuka to finish to erase the disappointment of her run in 2009 when she had to scratch at Mile 101 going the other way. Upate: She made it at 6:27PM CST.

Standings at 10PM CST:

At Whitehorse
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Trent Herbst (22)^I
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
Beyond Braeburn
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
At Pelly Crossing
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

So, Iran made its big nuclear announcement – they produced their own fuel for their medical isotope reactor. The fuel has to be enriched to 20%, so it was a step forward for them, but the article points out that the reason they had to do it is because when they tried to arrange for the fuel to be produced outside of Iran, the US and France stalled the talks.

Canada is dealing with the loss of their isotope reactor, and the results aren’t pretty. Nuclear medicine has to shut down, so some cancer therapies aren’t available.

This is another example of why Iran has a nuclear fuel enrichment program in the first place – the West has not acted in good faith when they have attempted to purchase fuel from abroad. Iran has uranium, but it must be refined and concentrated to be useful. They don’t have a reliable supplier, so they have to do it themselves.

North Korea has nuclear weapons because the West failed to live up to its side of the bargain struck during the Clinton administration, so the North Koreans reacted.

If the US keeps failing to keep its side of bargains with other countries, it can’t expect that they will make any more deals.

Iran continues to be in full compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Brent, Sonny, and Joar made it in late last night local time.

I’ll continue with these posts until the Red Lantern is extinguished, whether the musher calls it a Красный Фонарь, Lanterne Rouge, or Červená Lucerna. Michael Telpin’s tracker is again out of whack, but Michelle Fressineau is tracking beyond Scroggie Creek this morning. The Dawson to Pelly Crossing segment is the longest in the race.

Note: After the leaders show up the reporting really slows down. The only updates you can expect with any regularity are at the finish.

Standings at 10:30PM CST:

At Whitehorse
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
7 Sonny Lindner (3)
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
10 David Dalton (4)
Beyond Braeburn
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Trent Herbst (22)^I
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
At Braeburn
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
Beyond Carmacks
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

Hugh Neff made up the 42 minute deficit and beat Allen Moore to the finish in Whitehorse by a minute for his first Yukon Quest victory at 7:14AM CST this morning.

Lance made it third, and Sonny Linder is on his way for the last 100 miles with a minimum team of 6 dogs. The heat is taking its toll, which is not good news for the Iditarod, as it is in March.

Standings at 10PM CST:

At Whitehorse
1 Hugh Neff (6)
2 Allen Moore (1) {+0:01}
3 Lance Mackey (16) {+5:25}
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R {+7:17}
Beyond Braeburn
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
At Braeburn
10 David Dalton (4)
Beyond Carmacks
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Paige Drobny (12)^R
13 Trent Herbst (22)^I
14 Gus Guenther (20)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

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.

Seeing the success of the card merchants, the confectioners jumped on board to fill the lull between Christmas and Easter with the benefit that the bulk of purchases would be made by desperate men with less sense of taste than a golden retriever. If the box was red, heart-shaped, and said chocolate, a man would buy it.

[Read more →]

Hugh has a 2 minute lead out of Carmacks over Allen and a 3:14 minute lead over Lance. If Allen wins by less than 30 minutes, Hugh will complain, as he always does when this happens to him [hint: this isn’t the first time Hugh has been hit with a penalty] but it is all part of the race.

Barring unforeseen events, Jake Berkowitz has a comfortable lead over Joar Ulsom for the Rookie win.

Sonny Linder is down to 7 dogs, probably as a result of the heat. Michael Telpin is the only musher with all of the starting dogs still in the race.

Update: Allen got to Braeburn 12 minutes ahead of Hugh, and will leave with a 42 minute lead after the mandatory 8-hour stop because of Hugh’s 30-minute penalty. Allen was 14 minutes faster on that run, so he is looking good for the win as his team is peaking at the right time.

Standings at 10PM CST:

Beyond Braeburn
1 Allen Moore (1)
2 Hugh Neff (6) {+0:42}
3 Lance Mackey (16) {+3:23}
At Braeburn
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
Beyond Carmacks
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
9 Abbie West (21)
Beyond Pelly Crossing
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
At Pelly Crossing
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Paige Drobny (12)^R
Beyond Scroggie Creek
14 Trent Herbst (22)^I
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

I was going to write something about the agreement between the attorneys generals of the states and the banks, but I discovered that it is vaporware, despite all of the publicity. The agreement has to be submitted to a judge, and there is no document yet available to submit. One can only wonder what the parties involved were agreeing to?

When you read comments on either side of the settlement, keep in mind that everyone is working from targeted leaks, not from any actual document.

Don’t expect any money that is doled out to benefit any of the victims of the bankers crime wave. I fully expect states to use the money to plug budget holes, not to help people who homes were stolen with fraudulent paperwork.

So, I’ll mention the heat on the Quest trail. Just when it looked like things were returning to normal, the Chinooks are affecting the Canadian portion of the trail, and Lance Mackey’s drop back is a direct result of that. His dogs trained at an average temperature of -18° in January, with only three days above zero. He has to run at night, because the dogs are not going to maintain their performance in above freezing temperatures. The trail is going to be a sloppy slushy mess.

This is also the kind of weather for colds among humans as well as dogs. Colds are rather rare during Alaskan winters, probably prevented by extremely low humidity as well as the actual temperatures. If a dog starts coughing, or is congested, it can’t run. Dog drops will probably increase.

In a ‘fashion note’, if you look at the pictures, you may see some dogs wearing leggings. Read the article to understand why. This is an unintended consequence of cross breeding for speed, but at least there is something that can be done about it.