It’s Hump Day again, or “วันโคก,” as they say in Thailand: Wednesday, October 12, 2022, and my last full day in Boston.
We have a winner in the Fat Bear Contest. The finalists were 901 vs 747. I voted for 747 as I believe he’s won before and his weight gain looked more substantial:
747: my favorite. Look how he transformed himself from a grotty-looking animal into a tank!
Da Winnah. by 68,105 votes to 56,876:
Bear 747 is a very large adult male with a blocky muzzle and a floppy right ear. In early summer, his reddish-brown fur sheds in a patchy manner. Like many adult males, he often has scars and wounds on his face and neck. In late summer and fall, he is typically very fat with a low-hanging belly and uniformly dark brown fur.
Unfortunately, some people hacked the election and tried to spam-vote the bear Holly in, but the organizers found a way to eliminate the fake votes (h/t Jez).
Here’s an hourlong “live chat” about the contest, featuring great scenes of 747, the whole group of fishing bears, and interviews with the rangers.
I see no big news of note, but readers are welcome to highlight events, births, and death on this day by checking the Wikipedia page for October 12.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s keeping warm, sitting on the windowsill with the curtains tucked up to allow the heater to blow its warmth:
A: What are you doing here?Hili: They said to save energy, so I’m saving.
Ja: Co tu robisz?Hili: Kazali oszczędzać energię, więc oszczędzam.
At one time there were signs reading “Turn off when not needed” next to lighting switches in many campus buildings. Many wags would declare themselves not-needed and plan to go turn off.
(Mostly replaced by lights on timers or with motion detectors.)
When I was in grad school, one of my committee members had an office in a building that contained a sign next to a door which read, “Please close the door after you”.
Someone had written under the text, “After I what?”.
L
1792 – The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.
Has it been cancelled yet?
Has what been cancelled? Columbus Day or 1792?
I was thinking of the “dead, white, colonizing dude”, but it could be both, I suppose. A lot of colonizing and invading went on that year: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1792
A few more “On this Day” events:
1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.
1810 – The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest in celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.
1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the “Executive Mansion” to the White House.
1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium.
1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single-day loss of life in New Zealand history.
1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.
1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
2000 – The USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, is badly damaged by two al-Qaeda suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
Some fantastic award-winning wildlife photos at the BBC website today.
Pre-chonk 747 resembles Toasty.
Indeed, he sort of does!
Bear 901 really won, but partisans of 747 rigged the vote by Chinese and Venezuelan electronic magic. We cannot bear this failure of bear election integrity. Stop the steal!
Damn! I’m now in the mood for insurrection. What should we storm?
I would love to snap a Fat Bear with a Kodiak Brownie, but my Retina can’t cope with being so close up.