March 3, 2009

• Scattered

  Maybe I’d have been better off just going ahead and posting the quotes on the church/state issue that I’ve been collecting, before checking my email today.  The email gave me so many prospective blog topics competing for my attention, that I cannot decide what to blog about.

  • The Google Alert I set up for “Iditarod Air Force” brought me an article from the Issaqua Press, by Bernadette E. Anne, Iditarod communications coordinator, responsible for analyzing and planning for the tech needs of the race’s Anchorage and Nome headquarters, as well as each checkpoint along the trail.  “I coordinate implementing communications technologies for Internet, e-mail, desk and laptop computers, land lines, cell phones, satellite phones and pagers that support the function of internal communication for race operations.  ¶ I have an incredible team of 100 people who happily volunteer each year in Anchorage, Nome and all along the trail in less than ideal conditions: sleeping on a floor, going without a shower for 10 days, sleep deprived the entire time and, in some locations, only a bucket for a toilet. Trail volunteers must have gear to take them to minus 40 and half of our team comes from outside Alaska to just do this.  ¶ It’s hard work, but to see the incredible bond between canine athletes and their human mushers while out in the vast beauty of rural Alaska is an experience like no other.”
  • She included a link to the IAF website, so I went to check for updates and got distracted by the procedures for pilots transporting dogs:

  • Make sure the dogs that you transport can’t get at vital parts of your airplane.  Some like to chew anything, everywhere, including wires under the dash. If a dog is vicious (a rarity) or shy and seemingly apt to escape, put it in a burlap bag and secure the opening before loading it in the aircraft.

    A dog handler will meet your aircraft when you land at a hub (Anchorage, McGrath,, Unalakleet, Nome).

    Do not open the door of your plane until you have ascertained that every dog is secure and not able to jump out.  A loose dog can quickly become a lost dog!

    Top priority dogs wear a RED collar.

    Second priority dogs wear a BLUE collar.

    All other dogs should be transported according to the length of time they have been held at the checkpoint, commencing with those that have been there the greatest length of time.  The potential loss of a dog will be handled as Emergency Flights. The Race Judge, Checkpoint Vet, Chief Vet and Director of Competition and Logistics will be notified immediately and they will pass on to you the appropriate action to take. Remember, you are a volunteer in this situation and not a Race Official. 

    PRIORITY HAULING 

    1.  RED COLLAR DOG:  This is an animal which is apt to die if not attended to promptly.  A dog wearing a red collar takes priority over everything else and everyone else. Take it out first!

    2.  BLUE COLLAR DOG:  A dog wearing a blue collar, though not in as serious conditions as the red collared animal, is still in serious condition and takes priority over human passengers.
    

  MORE

  • To complicate things, as I’m typing, I’m listening to Talk of Alaska.  The topic is the Centennial of the old Iditarod Trail, a gold rush route from Seward to Nome.  I  have learned that during the Gold Rush, more people walked the trail than mushed it with dogs.  There were a series of roadhouses 20 miles apart, and the prospectors and miners would snowshoe from one to the next for days and days, inbound from Outside with high hopes, and outbound to Seward to catch a boat headed south, more often disappointed than heavy with gold.
  • A caller from McGrath reported that the snow cover out there is deep this year.  It has been snowing a lot at this end of the trail, too.  Trailbreakers are going to have a real job setting the trail, and if the snow continues into coming weeks as it has been, the race could be slow and hard… harder than usual, I mean.
  • The newsletter in my inbox from Der Spiegel, with its digest of international news and opinion, provided this striking image of migrant laborers at a job fair in China:
       
  • A story from SpiegelOnline, titled The End of Arrogance, reflecting international acceptance and approval of the new U.S. administration, comments on our busy new Secretary of State:
  • If there is one thing that the key players in Democratic and Republican foreign policy have in common, it is the rings under the eyes of the respective secretaries of state. Madeleine Albright wore them like badges of honor, and so did Condoleezza Rice. With the transfer of the State Department’s official Air Force Boeing 757, the rings are now Hillary Clinton’s. After only a month in office, Clinton already looks exhausted.
  • Other stories from Der Spiegel:
  • Swiss bankers say, “We are not the bad guys.“
  • The city of Cologne’s municipal archive, with documents dating back to 922, collapsed, bringing down parts of other surrounding buildings.
  • The German press from all parts of the political spectrum appear to be in agreement that the $5 billion from international donors going to reconstruction in the Gaza strip is going to be wasted if it all goes to Fatah:  “It is absurd to now plan the reconstruction of the infrastructure destroyed in the recent military conflict with Israel without Hamas.”

  I can’t decide what to blog about… too scattered, too many ideas…  I guess I’ll just go post the quotes and come back here and post a link. 

  HERE’S THAT LINK.

  

  • 3:27 pm
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