Posts from — February 2015

The BBC reports that Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has been shot dead. Vladimir Putin has personally taken control of the investigation to find that he didn’t do it, and it was the work of Islamic, probably Chechen, extremists. 😈

Meanwhile Canada has decided Veterans will only need to verify lost limbs every 3 years, instead of annually. The change was made, no doubt, after discovering that none of the limbs reappeared in a year. 😈

Program Note: Your occasionally humble blogger will be involved with making changes to some old software on another machine that is not connected to the ‘Net. No idea how long it will take, so things will be hit and miss.

Wide Load

I need a drink…

[Editor: Ms Underhouse has a kitten bulge.]

The Friday Ark for lots of animal pictures.

The BBC reports that Net neutrality rules passed by US regulator.

By a 3-2 vote the FCC has declared the Internet backbone to be a common carrier, and subject to FCC regulation. This was brought about by a legal action against the FCC by the telecoms which they won overturning less stringent regulations.

The telecoms have already said they will go back to court to overturn a decision that the judge in their last law suit suggested – declaring them a common carrier, so good luck with that 😈

Of course they will start lobbying Congress for new laws that Obama will probably veto.

They are complaining that they need to be certain of making a profit before they will expand or improve their system. News flash! That would require the US to stop pretending to have an economic system based on capitalism. No one is guaranteed a profit, they have to earn it.

Zero finally did something useful and vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline bill that the Republican rushed through Congress. That doesn’t mean that the pipeline is dead, only that the ‘process will continue’.

The voters in Chicago have figured out that Rahm Emanuel is not what he appeared to be four years ago and a majority of them voted against him in the recent election. As no one won a majority of the vote, he has been forced into a run-off election.

The BBC has a nice little article, Netanyahu row with Obama administration deepens. I wonder how the Israeli election would go if the US ambassador to Israel was recalled for consultation?

The BBC carries the latest report on this issue: Israel PM ‘differed’ with Mossad on Iran, says report.

This report is based on leaked cables from the South African intel agency, but it tracks with what the actual intelligence services have been saying for years – Iran has a nuclear program and can in theory create nuclear weapons, but there is no indication that they are actually working on weapons.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been claiming since 1992 that Iran was working on nuclear weapons and would have a bomb in 5 years.

As Badtux has pointed out in the past, anyone with their own source of uranium can build a bomb from scratch in 5 years. The US did it and no one even knew if a bomb was possible when we started.

If Iran was really interested in building a bomb in 1992, they could have bought a DIY nuclear bomb kit from AQ Khan, like North Korea did and done it in less than 5 years.

Iran started enriching their own uranium because the West refused to sell it to them. They started enriching to 20% when their supplier for that fuel, cut them off. All of the steps towards the so-called ‘nuclear weapons capability’ are the result of Western sanctions. The sanctions have back-fired if they were supposed to stop Iran from developing their own capabilities.

Bibi is basing his claims about Iran on his beliefs, not evidence, and it is time to stop listening to him.

This is a fable attributed to Æsop about a scorpion who wants to cross a stream.

Since he can’t swim, the scorpion asks a frog to carry him across the stream. The frog responds ‘no way, you’ll sting me!’ The scorpion persists saying that since they would both die if he did it, there is no chance he would sting the frog.

The frog finally agrees and allows the scorpion to climb on his back. Halfway to the other side, the scorpion stings the frog. As he dies the frog asks why he did it. As he is sinking to his own death, the scorpion replies ‘it is what scorpions do.’

In the Australian version, Tony Abbott makes a series of promises to his parliamentary caucus so they won’t remove him as leader. Before the ink dries on the vote count not to remove him, he starts breaking his promises because ‘it is what scorpions do.’

This is the temperature map for Alaska today. There are no temperatures below zero in the entire state with a month to go until spring. These are the 6AM AKST temperatures, not midday.

At 730PM CST it was 45°F in Cinco Bayou, 43°F with light rain in Anchorage, AK, 32°F with light snow in Fairbanks, AK, and -2°F with a wind chill of -17°F in Fairport, NY.

The Iditarod race starts on March 7^th with the 11 mile parade, and they are going to have to get a snowmaking machine for that to happen, because there is no local snow to haul in. The actual racing will start on Monday, March 9^th in Fairbanks, because there is no snow in southern Alaska.

If you are one of those people who denies the existence of global climate change, I wouldn’t talk about it near the Iditarod Trail Committee any time soon. They are a little busy trying to figure out how to have a sled dog race with no snow.

The Awards banquet was held on Saturday in Fairbanks where sixteen mushers received their finishing patches for completing the race. The top fifteen also received some prize money based on their finish.

Rob Cooke of Whitehorse, YT received a patch and the Red Lantern for being the final team to finish the race. Rob blamed himself for the result, saying he allowed the team to work too hard in the extreme cold at the start of the race.

In addition to the patch Damon Tedford of Vancouver, BC received the Rookie of the Year Award for being the first rookie to reach the finish.

Four time champion Lance Mackey of Fairbanks Alaska won the Challenge of the North Award and the Sportsmanship Award for bringing his team of two-year-olds into Fairbanks. He was also given an “Almost Red Lantern” by one of his handlers, after noting that the Red Lantern is the only award he had never won.

Brent Sass’s lead dogs, Basin and Sound won Golden Harnesses and steak dinners for their efforts.

Brent took home the winner’s purse, the Veterinarians Choice Award, and the Dawson City Award of four ounces of gold for the first musher to Dawson who finishes the race.

The Old Man

What do you want?

[Editor: Ninja, who is at least 15, decided to sun on the grill by my Mother’s kitchen window.]

The Friday Ark for lots of animal pictures.

Unlike sled dogs, cats do not like the cold, and stay in hiding in a warmer place. Maybe tomorrow someone will wander into camera range when it’s warm enough for me to be outside.

A couple of days ago the high for the day occurred just after midnight and the temperature went down all day. Today it looks like the high will be just before midnight, as the temperature has continued to rise after the sun went down.

This morning finds Rob Cooke and the Siberians the final team on the trail with Kristin coming in at 12:33AM CST this morning. Rob is about 40 miles out pushing through the crisp, clear zero degree air bringing in the Red Lantern.

And the race ended at 2:13PM CST when Rob Cooke and the Siberians crossed the line in Fairbanks. 26 teams started, but only 16 finished the race [62%]. 364 puppies pulled out of Whitehorse, but only 157 made the entire trip [43%]. The biggest problem was the extreme cold in the first half of the race which was the primary cause of almost every injury among the puppies. Half of those teams that scratched had the entire 14 dog team still healthy and pulling.

The Current Standings at 3:00PM CST (12:00PM AKST):

Finish
1 Brent Sass (2) 2/17 1:52AM CST
2 Allen Moore (1) 2/17 3:06AM CST
3 Ed Hopkins (20) 2/17 11:02PM CST
4 Damon Alexander Tedford (7)^R 2/18 4:32AM CST
5 Hugh Neff (26) 2/18 6:11AM CST
6 Normand Casavant (3) 2/18 10:25AM CST
7 Jason Campeau (24)^R 2/18 4:43PM CST
8 Torsten Kohnert (14) 2/18 6:42PM CST
9 Nicholas Vanier (5)^R 2/18 9:44PM CST
10 Mike Ellis (22) 2/18 10:40PM CST
11 Dave Dalton (11) 2/19 2:43AM CST
12 Brian Wilmshurst (17) 2/19 5:24AM CST
13 Ryne Olson (16)^R 2/19 3:56PM CST
14 Lance Mackey (8) 2/19 8:23PM CST
15 Kristin Knight Pace (12)^R 2/20 12:33AM CST
16 Rob Cooke (21)Φ 2/20 2:13PM CST
[Read more →]

It’s late summer in Australia, and they aren’t worrying about snow and wind chills, they have tropical cyclones to deal with.

The state of Queensland on the east coast is preparing to get attacked by Cyclone Marcia, which is forecast to be a category 5 storm when it makes landfall.

The weather service is warning about possible core wind speeds of 295kph [185mph], high storm surge, and 300mm [a foot] of rainfall.

I’m worried about heating the house, they are worrying about having one. Officials are saying that any house built before the 1984 building code changes will probably be destroyed by the storm.

Update: The ABC is live blogging the storm and the damage it is causing.

Mustang Bobby showed the Miami weather with a wind chill advisory in effect. At 8AM here it was 31°F with a wind chill of 21°. This is not what we signed up for.

You elect Republicans to run things and you get oil spills and freezes 😈