Posts from — March 2012

3/14 is Albert’s birthday and

Π Day.

I assume you have all shopped for the perfect gift.

To get you started: Π ≅ 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419
716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211 70679…..

The end game is set up at White Mountain. Dallas has a one hour and eleven minute lead over Aliy. Aliy made the trip from Elim to White Mountain one hour and 12 minutes faster than Dallas.

It’s 77 miles, so there is going to have to be some rest and feeding for the 9 dogs on Dallas’s team and 10 on Aliy’s. If there is fresh snow on the trail, the leader will be smoothing the path for the follower.

Ramey Smyth is surging, and 2 hours is not a comfortable lead at White Mountain, but he only picked up 16 minutes on Aliy in the run from Elim.

So, at the end of a thousand miles we have a 77-mile sprint race.

One other news: Brent Sass and Silver are poised to take ‘rookie’ honors on their first Iditarod.

Gerry Willomitzer (23) scratched at Unalakleet because his puppies are unhappy. They are unhappy about running directly into the 15mph wind out of the North that is dropping wind chills to the -30° range. You have to have a weather leader [Walter, Maple, Silver] to do that, as a sensible dog turns his/her back to the wind. This is why there are so many teams bunched up between Unalakleet and Koyuk – the trail heads due North right into the wind. The wind came up after the leaders made the turn and headed West.

Tom Thurston (5) has also scratched at Unalakleet, probably for the same reasons as Gerry.

Note: I just noticed that the people moving between Shaktoolik and Koyuk are moving in two groups – a group of nine followed an hour later by a group of five. The trail conditions must be really bad for teams to group like this. Lance Mackey is in the first group, and Rick Swenson is with the second. Bruce Linton has decided to stay at Shaktoolik. He has an insulin pump that can freeze in extremely cold weather, and when it does, he has a major problem. It happened to him on the Yukon on year.

Note: something kept Dallas at White Mountain 8 minutes longer than he needed to stay. He had better win, or lose by more than 8 minutes, otherwise he will be beating himself up over that 8 minutes for a long time.

Update [7PM CDT] Dallas has made it to Safety.

Update [8:45PM CDT]: Aliy is through Safety, but she lost 10 minutes on the run. If Dallas and his puppies can stay awake and keep moving, he should win.

Update at 10:30PM – Dallas made it to Nome and has won this year’s Iditarod.

Update at 11:30PM CDT:

Finished At Nome
1 Dallas Seavey (34)
2 Aliy Zirkle (14) +1:00
Beyond Safety
3 Ramey Smyth (21)
Beyond White Mountain
4 Aaron Burmeister (44)
5 Peter Kaiser (28)
6 Ray Redington Jr (2)
7 John Baker (11)
8 Mitch Seavey (35)
9 Michael Williams Jr (51)
10 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
11 Sigrid Ekran (24)
[Read more →]

“First, do no harm” A nice little aphorism associated with the practice of medicine. It would be nice if it were applied.

A neighbor has a condition that periodically flares up and requires a course of antibiotics. There is no real ‘cure’, but he is aware of the symptoms when it occurs, and knows enough to take care of it before he ends up in the hospital.

So, he had an episode on Monday, the 5^th, and called his doctor to get a prescription. Unfortunately his doctor wasn’t in, and the doctor covering, told my neighbor to go to the emergency room.

I am aware of this because the neighbor called me to give him a ride home, as the person who took him to the emergency room, had to leave him.

At the emergency room they gave him the prescription, and decided to start him off with an antibiotic administered through an IV.

On Saturday, the 10^th, my neighbor called to tell me he was in the hospital with a staph infection caused by the IV.

In the hospital everyone wears rubber gloves when dealing with patients. They have boxes of them all over the place. The thing is, those gloves are not sterile. They sit out in the open where people can sneeze on them, and everyone who uses them pulls them out with bare hands. My vet washes his hands before and after touching an animal, the hospital staff don’t seem to bother, and use the gloves instead.

The worse part of this, assuming the infection doesn’t kill my neighbor, as happened to one of his uncles, is that the hospital will bill my neighbor for the infection they gave him.

Aliy spent an hour less on the trail between Shaktoolik and Koyuk than Dallas did, so it is all down to rest time. He has a little over an hour and half lead, but he is running a rest deficit.

At this point it is who is the best judge of the amount of rest the puppies need, and then the amount of rest they need, to make the run to White Mountain, where there’s an 8-hour mandatory stop before the 77 mile sprint to Nome.

Update at Noon CDT: Aliy left Koyuk 22 minutes after Dallas.

Dallas dropped a dog at Koyuk and is down to 10, while Aliy has 12. John Baker is holding to his rest schedule. He also had a faster run to Koyuk than Dallas.

Update at 8:45 PM CDT:

Beyond Elim
1 Dallas Seavey (34)
At Elim
2 Aliy Zirkle (14) +0:32
Beyond Koyuk
3 Aaron Burmeister (44)
4 Ramey Smyth (21)
5 Mitch Seavey (35)
6 Peter Kaiser (28)
7 John Baker (11)
8 Ray Redington Jr (2)
At Koyuk
9 Ken Anderson (39)
10 Michael Williams Jr (51)
11 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
12 Sigrid Ekran (24)
13 Sonny Lindner (59)
14 Brent Sass (50)^Q
[Read more →]

Aliy has an hour and a half lead over John, and that is pretty slim on trails John uses as soon as the snow falls.

The air temperatures have dropped to the -20°s so the interior and Arctic Circle teams will be in optimal conditiona, while the dogs that live and train in the southern area will be chilly. The mushers will all feel like they are popsicles, and will look like it as the moisture in their breath will freeze on the ruff of their parkas and any exposed hair.

Mitch is minutes behind John, and Aaron is within two hours of Aliy. It is down to rest time and how the puppies feel. Ally and John still have a dozen, Mitch has 11, and Aaron has 15. I’m guessing that the dogs that Aliy and Mitch dropped at Kaltag are perfectly healthy, but running a little slower than the others.

Dallas Seavey and Aaron Burmeister have decided to cut rest to take the lead. Dallas tried it last year and lost, because John Baker didn’t play. John still won’t play, and I doubt, Aliy will either. There is still a long way to Nome.

Update at 11:05AM CDT – Aliy is first to the Coast at Unalakleet.

Jake Berkowitz (29) was in 6^th place when he pulled into Unalakleet, but he had severely injured his hand on the trail and was withdrawn by the race marshal.

Lachlan Clarke (66) scratched at Galena, and Pat Moon (15) scratched at Ruby for the same reason, Clarke only had 8 dogs, and Moon 7 with a whole lot of trail left to cover.

Josh Cadzow (55) has scratched at Kaltag with unhappy puppies, and Jeff King (10), who had 14 dogs and was running 12^th, scratched at Unalakleet. Jeff has won 4 Iditarods and the Quest, so he didn’t need to prove anything.

Update at 10:30PM CDT:

Beyond Shaktoolik
1 Dallas Seavey (34)
At Shaktoolik
2 Aaron Burmeister (44) +0:27
3 Aliy Zirkle (14) +0:46
[Read more →]

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.

Both Lance Mackey and Karen Ramstead have a “problem”.

Karen’s problem is much worse that Lance’s as 7 of her dogs have gone into heat on the trail, which leads to major complications whenever the team stops.

Lance only has one dog in heat, but it’s Maple, his go-to lead dog.

The boys are not thinking about racing.

—

Scott Janssen, ‘the Mushing Mortician’, had to give CPR to Marshall, a 9-year-old on his last Iditarod. Janssen, a funeral director, said that while the team was descending the Dalzell Gorge, Marshall just fell over, and wasn’t breathing when Janssen got to him. Chest compression and mouth-to-snout breathing got him going again, but Marshall rode in the sled bag to Rohn where the vets took over.

Best guess is a heart problem of some kind. Marshall is heading back to Anchorage and retirement.

Mitch took back the lead from Aliy, but it is only 2:33 and he has to stop someplace.

Jeff King had a very good run between Ruby and Galena, so he should continue to move up and John Baker’s puppies are happy as well.

Zoya DeNure and her team of ‘Rescues, Runts, and Rejects’ has had to scratch at Cripple. She left with 12 dogs, and then returned to scratch. [She didn’t like the look of the dogs on the trail.]

Aliy likes being at the front, and that’s where she’s been through Nulato and into Kaltag.

John Baker is positioning himself for his challenge on along the coast, which is his training area. His puppies will smell ‘home’ when they reach the coast. Aliy and John have nearly identical times between Nulato and Kaltag.

Update: Mitch picked up $3K for being first to the Yukon at Ruby, but no meal. The sponsor of that prize has dropped it, and Scott Janssen stepped up with the $3,000. [As Scott is a funeral director, I hope they don’t link the prize to his business.]

Update at 10:45PM CST:

Beyond Kaltag
1 Aliy Zirkle (14)
2 John Baker (11)
3 Mitch Seavey (35)
4 Aaron Burmeister (44)
At Kaltag
5 Dallas Seavey (34)
6 Jeff King (10)
Beyond Nulato
7 Jake Berkowitz (29)
8 Peter Kaiser (28)
9 Ray Redington Jr (2)
10 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
11 Sonny Lindner (59)
12 Ramey Smyth (21)
13 Sigrid Ekran (24)
14 Ken Anderson (39)
15 Gerry Willomitzer (23)
16 Michelle Phillips (26)
17 Michael Williams Jr (51)
[Read more →]

Cut The Trap

Enough!

[Editor: Tonto Toes is blocking the driveway to show her his disapproval of traps. {My fault, he looks just like his mother except for that little white line by his nose.}]

Friday Ark

Mitch beat Aliy to the Yukon, and picked up a 7-course dinner and $3,500 at Ruby.

Running the Yukon River valley is cold work. The cold air settles into the valley, and the sun has limited opportunity to warm it up. The wind channels down the valley, so the wind chills are even colder. It is currently -11° F [-23° C] at Galena with a windchill of -23° F [-30° C].

Teams are required to take an 8-hour break on the Yukon, so the leaders will jump around.

Aliy is taking her breaks on the trail, which is why she is blowing through the checkpoints, and keeps taking the lead back. Mitch left almost 5 hours after her at Ruby. He should be able to claim that as his mandatory stop on the Yukon because he did stay 8 hours, but it isn’t yet displayed that way.

Aliy made it to Galena, and Mitch, Dallas, and John are all credited with their mandatory 8-hour stops on the Yukon. Aliy is going to have to stop in one of the next few checkpoints.

At 8:30PM CST:

At Galena
1 Aliy Zirkle (14)
Beyond Ruby
2 Mitch Seavey (35)
3 Dallas Seavey (34)
4 John Baker (11)
At Ruby
5 Aaron Burmeister (44)
6 Jeff King (10)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
8 Ray Redington Jr (2)
9 Sonny Lindner (59)
10 Peter Kaiser (28)
11 Jake Berkowitz (29)
12 Sigrid Ekran (24)
13 Michelle Phillips (26)
14 Ken Anderson (39)
15 Gerry Willomitzer (23)
16 Michael Williams Jr (51)
17 Josh Cadzow (55)^Q
18 Brent Sass (50)^Q
19 Lance Mackey (18)
20 Ramey Smyth (21)
[Read more →]

I haven’t been putting up much other than the Iditarod coverage because I have too much going on in Real Life™.

I’m building a security light system to cover a very dark spot among the little duplexes that my Mother manages. I’m trying to install a low voltage lighting system around my Mother’s water garden to comply with regulations designed for swimming pools. I’m attempting to repair a bad threshold and exterior door to the kitchen in my house. I’m planning on replacing the decking at the back of my Mother’s house.

This is in addition to all of the other little things that come up every day, like shopping, cooking, eating … the little details of life.

And then there is the thing that I am most involved with at the moment – The War.

I had to bail out one of the Underhouse crew from Animal Control because she was trapped by a neighbor, who is attempting to make everyone’s life miserable. Her latest tactic is trapping cats by enticing them onto her property with tuna fish, and, i kid you not – red salmon. I love red salmon, but I won’t pay what they charge for it, and she is using it to attract cats. Why not Beluga caviar?

I am in charge of building a barrier between this individual and the rest of the tenants in the area. The owner turned down my first choice – 12-foot chainlink topped with razor wire and land mines, so I’m planting azaleas and a flag pole on the line to shield the 4-foot fence that will be in place, and no one needs to discuss its possible problem with ‘static electricity’ that ‘is caused the use of metal stakes and fencing, interacting with the high water table, and the acidic soil.’ [When it comes to BS, it is a good thing science education in this country is so inadequate.]

I’m now researching repellants to see if there is some way of keeping the cats away from her house. The bail could mount up, and it is a funding source for Animal Control, so they aren’t apt to accept that this individual is just causing trouble and should be ignored.

It was so much easier when I could just call in an air strike…

PS – cat blogging will be delayed and may feature a mug shot.

Lots of news today.

Jim Lanier and Trent Herbst are going for the “Halfway” award at Cripple [$3000 in gold nuggets last year] while the leaders at Takotna have finished their 24-hour and are hitting the trail again. The Busers are taking their 24-hour at Ophir.

Silvia Furtwängler (54) of Norway became the team to scratch. She decided exit the race at Nikolai because of concerns for her own health, after spending almost a full day to make the run from Rohn to NiKolai. She and Sigrid Ekran (24), also of Norway, were the only two of the three teams not from North America this year. [My apologies to Curt Perano (61) of New Zealand.]

Ryan Redington (67) has scratched at Takotna ‘for personal reasons’. He was down to 10 dogs and didn’t seem to be able to move up.

Jim Lanier scored the $3K in nuggets for arriving at Cripple first. I assume that he and Trent will stop for their 24-hour break there, Leaving the front of the race to Mitch and Dallas Seavey with John Baker and Aliy Zirkle chasing.

Obviously Aliy likes leading rather than chasing, so she rested before Cripple and blew through the checkpoint, and Mitch had to play catch-up and go after her. John Baker will continue with his plan, and will not react to anything until the end of the race.

Wade Marrs scratched at Ophir. He didn’t like the look of his dogs. That probably means they are off their stride, or their eating habits, i.e. they aren’t doing what they always do, and you don’t know why. It could be a virus, just fatigue, or even one of the dogs going into heat, but if you can’t pin it down you don’t know how serious it is. There are always more races.

At 11:30PM CST:

Beyond Cripple
1 Aliy Zirkle (14)
2 Mitch Seavey (35)
At Cripple
3 Jim Lanier (3)
4 Trent Herbst (16)
5 Dallas Seavey (34)
6 John Baker (11)
7 Jeff King (10)
8 Lance Mackey (18)
9 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
10 Sonny Lindner (59)
11 Sigrid Ekran (24)
12 Michael Williams Jr (51)
[Read more →]

Via Juan Cole a bit of actual reporting on the Iran nuclear issue from Scott Peterson in The Christian Science Monitor from November 8, 2011: Imminent Iran nuclear threat? A timeline of warnings since 1979.

The Shah was still in power in 1979, but Iran was between 3 and 7 years from having a nuclear weapon, according to “intelligence sources”.

As Badtux has pointed out in comments before, based on the US Manhattan Project, any nation with its own source of uranium is about 5 years from building a nuclear weapon, if they really want to do it.

It has been over 30 years since Iran was supposed to be an average of 5 years from building a nuclear weapon. People keep saying this and they still haven’t got one. How long before people start to admit the possibility that they may not want one?

Another annoying recent point that the IAEA brought up was the Iranian ‘refusal’ to allow them to inspect a military facility that was rumored to have been involved in unspecified ‘nuclear related program activities’. Excuse me, but the US and USSR specifically excluded inspections of military facilities from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, because they didn’t want UN inspectors having access. Iran is under no obligation to allow the inspections, but seems willing to, if the IAEA sends actual inspectors, more particularly, inspectors not associated with governments who keep threatening to bomb them because ‘they are five years from having a nuclear weapon’.

I would also remind people that the reason the Iranians insist on having the ability to refine their own fuel is because governments keep imposing sanctions on them, sanctions that would make impossible for them to get the fuel they will need for their power plants. When you look at it from the Iranian side, they would be stupid to give up the ability to refine the fuel. They aren’t stupid, and they are rational. Can anyone really say that about Netanyahu and the Israeli government?

Aliy won the Spirit of Alaska award when she blew through McGrath and arrived 39 minutes before John and Mitch in Takontna for her 24-hour layover. That said, Mitch will get to leave 3 minutes before Aliy because of the start time adjustment. Her team is ready to run with the best.

While Lance chose to take his 24-hour break at McGrath, Martin decided to take it further down the trail.

Update 9:50PM CST: [Note: Last year Trent stayed on the trail while others took their 24-hour breaks and won the ‘Halfway’ award. He may be planning to do it again.]

At Ophir
1 Martin Buser (41)
2 Rohn Buser (62)
3 Jim Lanier (3)
Beyond Takotna
4 Trent Herbst (16)
At Takotna
5 Aliy Zirkle (14)
6 Mitch Seavey (35)
7 John Baker (11)
8 Jeff King (10)
9 Dallas Seavey (34)
10 Ray Redington Jr (2)
11 Paul Gebhardt (25)
12 Hugh Neff (27)
13 Aaron Burmeister (44)
14 Sonny Lindner (59)
15 Gerry Willomitzer (23)
16 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
17 Michelle Phillips (26)
18 Peter Kaiser (28)
19 Jake Berkowitz (29)
20 Rick Swenson (60)
[Read more →]