Posts from — February 2014

Caturday Edition

I’m going … I’m going!

[Editor: This is Boehner. He is orange and a PITA. He likes me as much as I like him.]

Friday Ark

They turned out the lights at Braeburn when Jerry Joinson left at around 4:30AM PST this morning with the Red Lantern. Eight hours will be added to Jerry’s finish time, so Jerry was pretty much assured of the Red Lantern if he finished.

Hank and the Siberians made it in at just before 8AM local with 11 puppies still pulling the sled, while Brian is making the final run with only 7 puppies still willing to haul the sled.

Mandy is leading the troika with 5 miles between the teams. She is running Brent Sass’s rookie team and doing a fine job bringing in 8 of the original 14 dogs. She is also the fourth of the five rookies who started the race to make it to the end – a good year for rookie mushers.

Mandy made it to the finish at about 2:40PM PST. It looks like Jerry will be next in, but after the 8-hour penalty he will end up with the Red Lantern.

Brian was the last finisher at about 3:45PM PST, but the penalty puts Jerry in last place. The race is over.

Standings at 5:50PM CST (3:50PM PST):

Finish
1 Allen Moore (8)
2 Hugh Neff (14)
3 Matt Hall (3)^R
4 Ken Anderson (6)
5 John Schandelmeier (17)
6 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
7 Curt Perano (16)^R
8 Hank DeBruin (18)
9 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
10 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
11 Jerry Joinson (4) Φ

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.

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.

There were at least three Saint Valentines and all were martyrs, as they should have been for the trouble they’ve caused. None are the reason for the “holiday”, only the excuse. They lived at a time when life and men were short and brutal, so the romantic aura of the holiday is pure piffle. At least one was reportedly part of a draft dodging scheme during the Roman Empire, marrying people so that men with “other priorities” could avoid being deployed to foreign wars, bachelors being preferred for catapult fodder.

It is to be hoped that the individual who first wrote: “Roses are red, violets are blue” was eaten by rabid wolverines, or had hemorrhoids.

Curt Perano is about 20 miles out from finishing his race, which has been fairly solitary. Hank DeBruin and the Siberians are showing that they like the hills are are 20 miles from Braeburn and an 8-hour rest. The final troika have stopped for a rest about 20 miles behind Hank.

The temperature on the trail is warmer today which will help move things along.

Standings at 10:30PM CST (8:30PM PST):

Finish
1 Allen Moore (8)
2 Hugh Neff (14)
3 Matt Hall (3)^R
4 Ken Anderson (6)
5 John Schandelmeier (17)
6 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
7 Curt Perano (16)^R
Beyond Braeburn
8 Hank DeBruin (18)
At Braeburn
9 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
10 Jerry Joinson (4)
11 Brian Wilmshurst (9)

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.

Curt Perano is the only team not moving at 9AM, he’s camped on the trail midway between Carmacks and Braeburn. The Final Four are beyond McCabe’s Creek headed for Carmacks.

Hank and the Siberians arrived at Carmacks just before 1PM CST. The Quest Facebook page is using a picture of the team for their banner. The temperature on the trail between McCabe’s and Carmacks was -50°F – only mad dogs and mushers… After leaving McCabe’s both Jerry and Brian camped for a while to await the sun and warmer temperatures.

Ken and John should be at the finish around 2PM CST. Everyone is now moving, but there have been delays in the tracking – not even electrons want to move when it’s this cold.

Ken and John made it to the finish, in that order, and Hank, Mandy, and Brian are at Carmacks.

And then there is Jerry Joinson – would you believe he broke another sled. He is definitely the Red Lantern, because he is going to get 8-hours added to his arrival.

This year’s race will definitely fall in the category of ‘memorable’.

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

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

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.

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.

Allen won the Quest at 5:12AM CST. Allen was probably going to win if Brent hadn’t had the accident. His team was just faster than Brent’s, and after an 8-hour rest they would be ready. Allen won the race to Carmacks and Braeburn, and made up the two and a half hour lead that Brent had coming out of Dawson.

Brent will win the Quest. He has a great team. If the way is clear to climb American Summit, 2015 will probably be his year. This year, on this course, Allen’s team was faster.

That said, the race among Allen, Brent, and Hugh made this a great race for fans.

Update: The back of the race is at Scroggie Creek with Jerry Joinson the only one ready to move at -40°F/C. Curt and Dave are at Stepping Stone waiting for the sun. John and Ken are moving, while Hugh is walking his puppies to the finish line, since no one is closer than Carmacks and his pack is probably still annoyed about his giving their snacks to Brent’s team yesterday.

The ‘Final Four’ are moving together. Today on the trail the order was Jerry, Mandy, Hank, and Brian. Hank caught up with them going over Solomon’s Dome outside of Dawson. I expect they will shift to race mode between Carmacks and Braeburn to avoid the Red Lantern.

Standings at 11:59PM CST (9:59PM PST):

Finish
1 Allen Moore (8)
2 Hugh Neff (14)
At Braeburn
3 Matt Hall (3)^R
Beyond Carmacks
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 John Schandelmeier (17)
At Carmacks
6 Ken Anderson (6)
7 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
8 Curt Perano (16)^R
At Pelly Crossing
9 Dave Dalton (5)
Beyond Dawson
10 Jerry Joinson (4)
11 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
12 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
13 Hank DeBruin (18)

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.

Allen won the Carmacks to Braeburn sprint race with Brent and is resting 8 hours in Braeburn before heading to the finish line.

Hank DeBruin is the last team in Dawson, but he will be slow getting started this morning with real winter temperatures in the minus thirties this morning.

Update: Brent Sass is out of the race. He has been withdrawn and is on his way to hospital in Whitehorse. He was injured in an accident about 12 miles from the Braeburn checkpoint. Brent’s condition is described as ‘stable’. His team is in good shape and is being brought to Braeburn by a race official.

Update: Link to Allen Moore & Aliy Zirkle’s blog on the accident, and a Fairbanks News-Miner report from Hugh Neff, the first competitor on the scene.

Brent Sass and his legendary lead dog Silver have helped out a lot of teams in really deep trouble over many years.

Standings at 10:40PM CST (8:40PM PST):

Beyond Braeburn
1 Allen Moore (8)
At Braeburn
2 Hugh Neff (14)
Beyond Pelly Crossing
3 Matt Hall (3)^R
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 John Schandelmeier (17)
Beyond Dawson
6 Ken Anderson (6)
7 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
8 Curt Perano (16)^R
9 Dave Dalton (5)
10 Jerry Joinson (4)
11 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
12 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
13 Hank DeBruin (18)

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.

The BBC has had a couple of stories on that 2000-year old question. The first is about the British government, Snowden leaks: GCHQ ‘attacked Anonymous’ hackers, and the second about the US government; US agrees to pay $50m after ‘piracy’ of software.

The second informs us that:

The US government has agreed to pay $50m (£31m) after it was said to have pirated “thousands” of copies of military software.

Apptricity, based in Texas, has provided logistics programs to the army since 2004.

The company said it had discovered last year the software had been installed on many more machines than had been licensed.

The Department of Justice has not commented on the settlement.

The Dallas Morning News reported a DoJ spokeswoman had confirmed the agreement, but would not give more details.

The government acts like hackers and pirates software while it imprisons people for these activities. Apparently the War on Terror™ justifies everything.

According to Charlie Pierce it seems to allow people to redefine legal terms to suit their prejudices. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a former FBI agent, redefines larceny to include copying, so he can accuse the media of selling stolen property.

The government still has all the documents that are being revealed by Edward Snowden. That is why they don’t know which documents he copied. If he had ‘stolen’ the documents, the government would be able to determine what was missing.

You can’t classify documents because they are embarrassing to the government, nor can you classify documents to conceal crimes. This makes the claims about the nature of the documents problematical, especially given the tendency of the leaders of the intelligence community to lie to Congress. either outright or by half-truths.

Chairman Rogers is one of those leaders who has not spoken the truth. Who oversees the overseers?

Jerry Joinson’s 8-hour penalty for having to replace his busted sled has been rescinded by the Race Marshal. He probably felt that Jerry spent that much time [and/or money equivalent] getting a replacement sled to continue the race.

Tony Angelo has been withdrawn from the race after using the alert button on his tracking device 32 miles from Dawson. Both he and his team are reported in good condition by the Canadian Ranger response team, who will escort them to Dawson.

Standings at 10:20PM CST (8:20PM PST):

Beyond Carmacks
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (8)
At Carmacks
3 Hugh Neff (14)
Beyond Dawson
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 Matt Hall (3)^R
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
7 Ken Anderson (6)
8 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
9 Curt Perano (16)^R
10 Dave Dalton (5)
At Dawson
11 Jerry Joinson (4)
12 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
13 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
14 Hank DeBruin (18)

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.

Dining Out

My usual table…

[Editor: Mini-Sox returns from Cat-space after a brief chill.]

Friday Ark

Eagle was the last checkpoint on Alaskan Standard Time, the time shifts to Pacific Standard Time in the Yukon.

John Schandelmeier is pleasantly surprised to find himself in sixth place, as he assumed he would be somewhere in the back of the field. As this Fairbanks News-Miner profile of John makes clear, he was just expecting to have a long run with the dogs.

John and his wife, Zoya DeNure, run Crazy Dog Kennel which functions more as a rehabilitation center for ‘rescues, rejects, and runts’ than a serious racing enterprise. With two wins and more than a dozen top ten finishes on the Quest, John doesn’t feel the need to prove anything to anyone but his team.

Update: About 25 minutes after midnight CST Allen Moore made it into Pelly Crossing.

Standings at 4:30PM CST (2:30PM PST):

Beyond Dawson
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (8)
3 Hugh Neff (14)
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 Matt Hall (3)^R
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
At Dawson
7 Ken Anderson (6)
8 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
9 Curt Perano (16)^R
10 Dave Dalton (5)
11 Jerry Joinson (4)
12 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
13 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
14 Hank DeBruin (18)
Beyond Eagle
15 Tony Angelo (12)^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.

The weather is staying cold in the Yukon River valley, the day is lengthening by 6+ minutes, and there is a quarter moon at night. Tony Angelo should be in Eagle at any time where he can pick up new batteries for his tracking device. The race is down to Eagle to Dawson, with the leaders leaving Dawson latter today. Brent has a 2½ hour lead over Allen, but that isn’t much at this point.

Tony Angelo apparently had some problems this morning. He was originally right behind Hank DeBruin heading out toward Eagle, but he turned around and went back to the Trout Creek cabin. He may have been soaked by an overflow on the Yukon and needed to dry out before continuing. He is back on the trail as of 1PM CST and his tracker is working again.

Standings at 7:30PM CST (4:30PM AKST):

Beyond Dawson
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (8)
3 Hugh Neff (14)
At Dawson
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 Matt Hall (3)^R
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
7 Ken Anderson (6)
8 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
Beyond Eagle
9 Dave Dalton (5)
10 Curt Perano (16)^R
11 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
12 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
13 Jerry Joinson (4)
14 Hank DeBruin (18)
At Eagle
15 Tony Angelo (12)^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.