Posts from — March 2015

DeeDee finally made it in this morning with 15 puppies and 6 frostbitten fingers. Anna also nipped Kristy at the end to beat her by 4 minutes.

Bryan Bearss scratched at Shaktoolik while Cindy Abbott is out of Shaktoolik with the Red Lantern. GNU Terry Pratchett

Finished at Nome
21 John Baker (78) 3/19 11:12AM CDT
22 Martin Buser (4) 3/19 11:36AM CDT
23 Richie Diehl (42) 3/19 12:26PM CDT
24 Nathan Schroeder (26) 3/19 12:44PM CDT
25 Mats Pettersson (55) 3/19 1:11PM CDT
26 Scott Smith (69) 3/19 7:12PM CDT
27 Paige Drobny (58) 3/19 7:15PM CDT
28 Anna Berington (39) 3/20 12:06AM CDT
29 Kristy Berington (11) 3/20 12:10AM CDT
30 Jodi Bailey (22) 3/20 5:07AM CDT
31 DeeDee Jonrowe (29) 3/20 8:10AM CDT
32 Curt Perano (21) 3/20 10:11AM CDT
33 Justin Savidis (19) 3/20 1:35PM CDT
34 Charley Bejna (38) 3/20 3:07PM CDT
35 Seth Barnes (23)^R 3/20 7:05PM CDT
[Read more →]

The Great Pumpkin

It’s him!

[Editor: Hadley and Tadpole watch with concern as the trouble-making large orange tabby tom strolls through the yard. GP is not feral, not neutered, and not nice.]

The Friday Ark for lots of animal pictures.

It’s that time of year. Spring arrives at 5:45PM CDT this afternoon. You can watch it come at Archæoastronomy.

The air is already filled with pollen and the live oaks are dropping last year’s leaves. The azaleas are peaking and the pear trees are snowy with blooms.

I would note that locally we have had 12 hours or more of daylight since St. Patrick’s Day, and usually do.

The BBC reports that Israel election: Netanyahu’s Likud storms to victory. The subhead continues: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party has won a surprise victory in Israel’s election.”

Reality: the Likud won 30 seats in the 120 seat parliament, the Knesset. Their ‘victory’ was that they won 25% of the vote, while the main opposition party only won 20% of the vote and 24 seats. To form a government, Netanyahu needs 61 seats. He now needs to make deals with all of the whacko right-wing parties and at least one of two centrist parties to be Prime Minister.

In reality, the centrist Kulanu party is the victor, as neither side can form a government without its 10 seats.

Thomas Waerner won the race to Nome to become the Rookie of the Year over Jason Campeau.

Cindy is out of Unalakleet. GNU Terry Pratchett

Scott Janssen, the “Mushing Mortician”, has scratched at Koyuk.

Finished at Nome
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16) 3/18 6:21PM CDT
7 Jeff King (59) 3/18 6:47PM CDT
8 Wade Marrs (65) 3/18 9:15PM CDT
9 Ken Anderson (36) 3/18 11:38PM CDT
10 Nicolas Petit (12) 3/19 12:19AM CDT
11 Travis Beals (56) 3/19 2:18AM CDT
12 Paul Gebhardt (28) 3/19 4:38AM CDT
13 Kelly Maixner (9) 3/19 4:39AM CDT
14 Peter Kaiser (54) 3/19 4:44AM CDT
15 Christian Turner (73) 3/19 5:05AM CDT
16 Ray Redington Jr (34) 3/19 5:27AM CDT
17 Thomas Waerner (8)^R 3/19 6:10AM CDT
18 Jason Campeau (70)^Q 3/19 7:28AM CDT
19 Hugh Neff (24) 3/19 9:25AM CDT
20 Michelle Phillips (6) 3/19 10:17AM CDT
[Read more →]

The CBC has a nice post that includes a lot of snark about this: Microsoft is putting Internet Explorer out to pasture.

Nice lead – “A commonly held belief among heavy web users is that it’s only acceptable to use Internet Explorer for the purpose of downloading Firefox or Chrome.”

Apparently M$ will be introducing a totally new browser that is currently called ‘Project Sparta’ with Windows 10. We are cautioned that “Microsoft has yet to reveal the launch date for its upcoming Windows 10 operating system, but many online are already celebrating the end of Internet Explorer’s 20-year-long reign of ‘error.'”

A group of ‘Net engineers got together to talk about Terry Pratchett and came up with a plan to honor his memory – add GNU Terry Pratchett to the overhead stream on servers.

That generated the GNU Terry Pratchett website with instructions for adding the tag to server software.

If you use WordPress for your blog, there’s a plug-in that adds it to your static pages.

The reference is to a tradition explained in Going Postal, one of Sir Terry’s Discworld novels.

Don’t expect to see GNU Terry Pratchett all over unless you look at packet headers and meta data, because it is not intended to increase the overhead or appear to most people.

Dallas managed to keep it together despite severe sleep deprivation to win another truck. His team is in their prime.

Meanwhile Cindy is at Kaltag at the back of the race.

The oldest musher in the race, Jim Lanier, has scratched at Unalakleet. This was only his second scratch in 18 races.

Finished at Nome
1 Dallas Seavey (46) 3/18 07:13AM CDT
2 Mitch Seavey (18) 3/18 11:22AM CDT
3 Aaron Burmeister (63) 3/18 12:47PM CDT
4 Jessie Royer (3) 3/18 2:51PM CDT
5 Aliy Zirkle (32) 3/18 5:44PM CDT
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16) 3/18 6:21PM CDT
7 Jeff King (59) 3/18 6:47PM CDT
8 Wade Marrs (65) 3/18 9:15PM CDT
Beyond White Mountain
9 Ken Anderson (36)
10 Nicolas Petit (12)
11 Travis Beals (56)
12 Paul Gebhardt (28)
13 Peter Kaiser (54)
14 Kelly Maixner (9)
15 Christian Turner (73)
[Read more →]

The Seaveys are battling it out for the lead with a man heading home. Being from Nome, Aaron’s team know by now they are heading home. Dallas is staying ahead by reducing rest time.

Two more scratches, Jan Stevens scratched at Huslia, and Katherine Keith at Unalakleet. Cindy Abbot now has the Red Lantern and is on the trail to Koyukuk. Cindy raced over 600 miles with a broken pelvis in her first attempt, so she’s not apt to give up.

Dallas has more than a 4 hour lead over his Dad and Aaron.

Beyond White Mountain
1 Dallas Seavey (46)
At White Mountain
2 Mitch Seavey (18)
3 Aaron Burmeister (63)
4 Jessie Royer (3)
5 Aliy Zirkle (32)
Beyond Elim
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16)
7 Jeff King (59)
8 Ken Anderson (36)
9 Wade Marrs (65)
At Elim
10 Nicolas Petit (12)
11 Travis Beals (56)
12 Paul Gebhardt (28)
[Read more →]

Éireann go Brách!

Well everyone agrees that he died on March 17^th, but the year is subject to debate. This is his feast day on the Catholic calendar. Enjoy as you are wont.

Wikipedia has more on Saint Patrick’s Day, if you need more.

The top 10 teams are on the coast with the weather a bit warmer and the winds lower than yesterday. The equinox is almost here so there is plenty of light for travel. The end is going to depend on who has the right mix of running and resting that produces the fastest time. The lead will change from checkpoint to checkpoint, and it looks like a sprint to Nome to determine the winner.

Dallas has a 3 minute lead over Aaron at Koyuk.

Beyond Koyuk
1 Dallas Seavey (46)
2 Aaron Burmeister (63)
At Koyuk
3 Aliy Zirkle (32)
4 Jessie Royer (3)
5 Mitch Seavey (18)
6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16)
Beyond Shaktoolik
7 Jeff King (59)
8 Wade Marrs (65)
9 Nicolas Petit (12)
10 Peter Kaiser (54)
11 Ken Anderson (36)
[Read more →]

Philip Walters scratched at Ruby which closed down after Ellen left this morning. The field is down to 72 teams.

Aliy has a real lead of almost two hours over Jeff out of Kaltag, but that isn’t much given the weather shifts around the Norton Sound where instant blizzards are not a rare occurrence.

Ellen Halverson is out of the running for the Red Lantern. She has scratched at Galena.

At Unalakleet
1 Aaron Burmeister (63)
2 Aliy Zirkle (32)
Beyond Kaltag
3 Jeff King (59)
4 Dallas Seavey (46)
5 Jessie Royer (3)
6 Mitch Seavey (18)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16)
8 Ken Anderson (36)
9 Kelly Maixner (9)
10 Peter Kaiser (54)
[Read more →]

The BBC has the news version – Germany court orders measles sceptic to pay 100,000 euros

A German biologist who offered €100,000 (£71,350; $106,300) to anyone who could prove that measles is a virus has been ordered by a court to pay up.

Stefan Lanka, who believes the illness is psychosomatic, made the pledge four years ago on his website.

The reward was later claimed by German doctor David Barden, who gathered evidence from various medical studies. Mr Lanka dismissed the findings.

But the court in the town of Ravensburg ruled that the proof was sufficient.

The guy is supposedly a biologist, but believes that small children can convince themselves to have a measurably high temperature, break out with a spotty rash, and even die. As someone who has had the measles, along with my brothers, I can definitely guarantee that it wasn’t our idea.

So how do we get the Koch brothers into this Ravensburg court? 😈

The front of the race have finished their 24-hour stops so the race is on.

Jason Campeau and Thomas Waerner are in another race, for Rookie of the Year. Jason just completed his first Quest in 7th place.

At the very back of the race is Ellen Halverson (35), the only person to have won two Red Lanterns. She is positioned to pick up her third.

Gerald Sousa and Christine Roalofs have both scratched, but no word yet as to why.

Beyond Nulato
1 Aaron Burmeister (63)
At Nulato
2 Aliy Zirkle (32)
Beyond Koyukuk
3 Jeff King (59)
At Koyukuk
4 Mitch Seavey (18)
5 Dallas Seavey (46)
[Read more →]