Why there is a banner here, today, it’s because there is a day of protest about the government mucking about with the Internet. Even CNN noticed, although the US cable version will be 24-hour coverage of winter weather in Atlanta, Georgia.

If the government isn’t going to promote equal access on the Internet, and they are going to absorb massive amounts of bandwidth spying on US citizens, it is time for someone else to control the access and governance. The Internet is about people interacting with other people, the governments have their own media for communications.

There should be equal treatment of hackers, whether individuals or governments.

Bashful, a member of Dave Dalton team, died on the trail yesterday. The cause of death hasn’t been determined. Dave scratched at Pelly.

Cody Strathe pushed the Assistance button on the tracker about 26 miles outside of Braeburn early this morning. The RCMP are heading to the area. Cody is automatically withdrawn from the race. John left Carmacks more than 8 hours after Cody and is still about an hour away from Cody according to the tracker.

UPDATE: The RCMP have reported that there are no ‘health issues’ with Cody or his team. This is confirmed by the fact that both John Schandelmeier and Ken Anderson have passed Cody’s position without stopping. I’m guessing he hit something and the sled is matchsticks. Most sleds these days are built primarily from aircraft aluminum, and it isn’t very flexible at -40°.

Update: I was wrong. and then wrong again. OK, Cody finally got to tell us what happened. Two of his eight dogs stopped and he tried moving with two dogs in the sled basket and only 6 pulling. The effort caused him to sweat, the sweat turned to ice, and he figured out that this was not going to work, so he called for help. That was very much the right call for him and the dogs.

At temperatures in the minus 40s, things can go very bad, very quickly, even with people, dogs, and equipment that are designed/experienced with the environment.

Standings at 11:30PM CST (9:30PM PST):

Finish
1 Allen Moore (8)
2 Hugh Neff (14)
3 Matt Hall (3)^R
At Braeburn
4 Ken Anderson (6)
5 John Schandelmeier (17)
6 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
Beyond Carmacks
7 Curt Perano (16)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
8 Jerry Joinson (4)
9 Hank DeBruin (18)
10 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
11 Mandy Nauman (11)^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, and the small “R” indicates a 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.