There will be no long Hili today, and probably not tomorrow, as I have to have my retina scrutinized (I think things are okay). Wish me luck, and bear with me.
Speaking of bears, we have a winner in Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest involving the ursines of Katmai National Park and Preserve. The champ: Backpack! The voting was close:
Here’s how fat he got (photo from Explore.org):
Here’s a short video about Backpack and his leg injury, which he overcame.
In the annual battle of the big bears, only one can be the winner. This year, 89 Backpack, was crowned the winner of Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fat Bear Week.
The match came down to two single bears in a battle of the sexes. Backpack is an adult male who overcame an injury in 2007 and has what park staff describe as a “quiet toughness,” according to his bio on Explore.org, the media organization that helps host the event. And on the other side, representing the lady bears, was 910, an adult female whose mother, 409 Beadnose, was a previous Fat Bear Week champion.
It was a nail-biter: Backpack won by just over 5,000 votes, coming in with 103,344 over 910’s tally of 98,253 votes.
His name comes from childhood, when Backpack was often seen clinging to the back of his mother, Holly, while she swam across the river. (Holly was also a former Fat Bear Week champion.)
Earlier in the competition, Naomi Boak, a former communication specialist for the Katmai Conservancy who was a producer for the event for several years, said she was excited to see that 89 Backpack had earned a spot in the bracket at long last.
Backpack can be “elusive,” Boak said, making it hard to photograph him at the beginning and end of the season, which is necessary to enter a bear into the competition.
Boak was actually inspired to move to Alaska and work with the park when she watched Backpack from her New York City apartment in 2019 on the park’s livestream. She described him as her “gateway bear.”
Backpack, according to his bio, has fewer scars than might be expected on a male bear his age, because he is less aggressive than some of his peers.
“Unlike many large adult male bears, Backpack hasn’t shown much aggression toward his competitors,” his competition bio said. “He’ll stand up for himself when necessary, but he prefers to use a quiet strength to gain access to preferred fishing spots.”
Boak called him “a gentleman bear.”
More news:
*We all know that the reported hijacking attempt of an FlyDubai airplane headed for Tel Aviv ended happily, with all passengers safe though the stabbed captain and the alleged perp are injured. Without the presence of extra pilots who happened to be on board, everyone would have died. The Jerusalem Post explains the extra pilots:
There were four flydubai pilots aboard flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when an alleged terror attack inside the cockpit sent the aircraft plunging thousands of feet and ultimately forced it to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Israeli officials said the co-pilot stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the aircraft before passengers and crew intervened. The flight transmitted the international 7500 code for unlawful interference, initially prompting fears of a hijacking, and Israeli fighter jets were scrambled as the crisis unfolded. Now, The Jerusalem Post can confirm why two other pilots happened to be aboard. The additional pilots had been placed on the flight because possible regional rerouting could extend the journey and push the original crew beyond permitted duty hours, a person familiar with the matter told the Post. Their presence was unrelated to any advance security warning.
The UAE is conducting an investigation of whether terrorism was involved:
UAE investigators will now determine “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction”, according to the UAE’s state news agency.
Abu Dhabi authorities have jurisdiction over the incident because the aircraft is registered in the UAE and flies under its flag, the statement said.
It comes after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is “too early to say” who was behind the incident, as he hailed the actions of the flight’s captain.
Netanyahu blamed “fanaticism and hatred of an incalculable level” during a Fox News interview but said he has no confirmation yet of the motive for the attack. The attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia.
*Tennessee botched an execution by lethal injection yesterday:
A Tennessee woman convicted of murder survived two doses of lethal injection on Wednesday night before state officials suspended the execution and had her taken to a hospital for medical care, her lawyers said.
It was the second botched execution in the state this year.
The apparent failure came after dueling court rulings delayed the execution of the woman, Christa Pike, by about nine hours. The state had raced to go ahead with the execution before the day ended and to avoid having to reschedule.
In a pair of emergency legal filings, Ms. Pike’s lawyers said that while two syringes of pentobarbital, the lethal drug, had been administered, Ms. Pike had not lost consciousness. She still had a heartbeat, they said, and was audibly snoring.
It was not immediately clear what went wrong with the administration of the drugs, or what Ms. Pike’s medical condition was. In a statement late Wednesday, her lawyers said that she was at a nearby hospital but that they did not know her condition. Tennessee officials confirmed to a federal judge late Wednesday that Ms. Pike was receiving medical care.
“This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “There is no precedent.”
. . . It was the second time this year that Tennessee failed to administer the lethal drugs. In May, the state called off one of four planned executions because medical staff could not find a vein while administering a lethal drug.
Just one of several reasons I oppose the death penalty. It would have been more humane to shoot her, but I don’t think the state should kill anyone.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, fall is here in a big way:
Hili: And the apples are dropping again.
Andrzej: It’s all because of that Newton.
In Polish:
Hili: I znów spadają jabłka.
Ja: To wszystko przez tego Newtona
Looking forward to the report – no pun intended.
Good luck with your medical issues today. I am so sorry that you have to endure this, but glad you seem to have excellent medical care for it.
Again, big appreciation to deadheading pilots who were able to safely land the b737 without rudder control…they can use differential thrust from the wing mounted engines but the actual effect is severely time-delayed relative to standard rudder surface inputs and requires real skill.
And a great job by air traffic controllers and Saudi authorities who guided the stricken airliner to a landing at a Saudi airport with a 10,000 ft runway.
Extremely professional job both in the air and on the ground.
(And to Boeing who designed and manufactured one tough airplane)
I thought you’d have an opinion about this, Jim.
What an amazing event.
D.A.
NYC
What type of plane was it? Seems like 10,000 feet would be long enough for all but the largest planes, no ?
Boeing 737 they say. Yes 10,000 feet is fairly long on a regular day, but the airport is at 2,000 ft altitude (thinner air) and the pilots may have been carrying some extra speed given the damage to the plane, and the crew may have also had some power and reverse thrust constraints in that they were using engines for directional control. Always good to have plenty of runway in front of you! Not an easy task.
Anna Krylov and I have written a Substack post about yesterday’s foiled hijacking, bringing together information from numerous sources. Notably, as we discuss in the article, the mystery of how the passengers gained access to the secure cockpit has been solved: the stabbed airline captain, using his “last moments of energy,” unlocked the cockpit door, enabling passengers to storm the cockpit.
Then, one of the passengers, an Israeli plumber named Yaniv Hayun, put the terrorist-copilot in a chokehold, dragged him out of the cockpit, and pulled the plane out of the dive using knowledge he gained from watching a TV series called Air Crash Investigation!
Well, I guess I am going to have to put Air Crash Investigation on my viewing list.
Pull back on the stick, right? Though it’s more like a steering wheel now.
Great story. There’s going to be a movie, for sure.
I’m glad the co-pilot lived so we can get his motives. I’d place a bet on him having been suicidal and wanting to ensure he’d be feted by Allah because he killed a bunch of Jews and infidels in the process and thus qualified as a ‘martyr.’
That TV series is a repackaging of the original Canadian documentary series Mayday! It’s available in several foreign markets (including the USA) under various names. Most of the variants are repackaged in some way (different narrators, simplified explanations, etc.) The original, made in Quebec, is the best.
Our cable TV subscription includes the USA Network, which is currently airing Canadian Mayday episodes daily. I’m a former glider pilot. My wife has some glider training, but never soloed. When my wife and I sit down in the evening to watch some TV, we usually start with an recorded episode of Mayday. I can confirm that an observant viewer could indeed have learned to pull back on the control yoke to pull the airliner out of its steep descent. However, the aircraft is reported to have exceeded its Vne (“velocity never to exceed”) during the dive, which resulted in extensive damage to the rudder (due to high-speed flutter). I find it highly unlikely that Hayun would have had the presence of mind to execute that maneuvre gently, to avoid further overstressing the airframe. I wonder if that part of his story is a fabrication.
Mark, yes, pulling back on the control stick raises the nose of the aircraft. On some aircraft there’s a stick, on others there’s a wheel-like device called a yoke. Pulling back on the stick/yoke causes the aircraft to pitch up (nose go up); pushing causes a pitch down. Moving the stick to the left (or turning the yoke to the left) causes the aircraft to roll left (CCW). The rudder is controlled by foot pedals. All the gliders I’ve ever flown had a control stick. All the airliners I’m aware of have either 2 yokes (one for each pilot) or (in some newer fly-by-wire aircraft) 2 short control sticks (similar to computer joysticks) mounted on armrests beside the pilots .
βPer
I regularly watch Air Crash Investigation but I’d be hard put to pull a plane out of a nosedive – kudos to him!
And good luck to our illustrious host with his scrutinization!
A couple of things strike me:
It was very good that the confluence of the Indian pilot’s heroism, that of Israelis who subdued the terrorist (it is now pretty clear that that is what he is), and the additional pilots saved a great many people from a possible catastrophe. An airline with a possible suicide pilot would not have been allowed near a major population center in Israel. As Jay and Anna point out, the repercussions would have gone far beyond the incident alone. And thanks are due to the Saudis, who allowed the plane to land on their territory and the passenger is to be returned to Israel.
The corruption of some of the press outlets should not surprise anyone. After all, if they are not going to use the words terrorism or terrorist for the perpetrators of 9/11 or 7 October, why would they use them in this case?
Bout what really strikes me, as an Israeli Jew, is that if the terrorist had succeeded, some people in the West would be cheering.Those who cheer for Hamas and Hezbollah, for Sinwar and his compatriots, would obviously approve. The deaths of Jews and Israelis is to be celebrated. Hasan `piker is one example, as is Rama Diwali, the wife of Mamdani, who is attending a seminar where people are calling for “cleansing” Israel of Jews. And then there are people like Damien Neva, activist praising Sinwar while he (Neva) planned the boycott of Israel by the Park Slope Co-op. Apparently, according to that moral idiot, buying Israeli products bad, mass murder, rape and killing children good. It is good he has been outed—people should be knowledgeable about him, to decide whether they wish to associate with him. Boycotting products is one thing; people have a right to purchase what they wish, though I suspect that he would not hesitate to purchase medicine produced in Israel if he needed to do so. But cheering for a murderer? And there are many like him.
Yaniv Hayun got the plane-crasher in a chokehold. So we know just what to expect from the wokies whose tune has gone from defund-the-police to abolish-Israel. Next, they will cry “genocide” against the Israeli passengers who dragged the plane-crasher out of the cockpit.
Let’s hope authorities in the saner Arab countries give serious thought to the implications of this attempted plane-crash-hijacking.
Botched executions are another good reason to oppose the death penalty. Sadly, they are not uncommon (Wikipedia has a long list). The first man to be killed by electric chair took eight minutes to die. The inventor, George Westinghouse, later commented, “They would have done better using an axe”.
Of all the methods of execution, lethal injection has the greatest potential for botching. Think of it: to proceed, the injections should be administered by medical professionals. But what medical professional is going to want to do that job? Their job is to heal, not kill. So the people doing the i.v.s and the injection are not necessarily well-trained, and the same may go for those preparing the drugs.
We can send them to Canada, where they nailed the procedure and apply it on scale, via the MAID program.
I am waiting for the first to suggest this was the will of God. A clear sign that God is against the death penalty.
As far as apologetic arguments go this one is not that peculiar.
Maybe. But it reminded me of this. God tried like the devil, but failed.
Ha!
The people on that plane were incredibly lucky, but they did everything they could to save themselves—and they succeeded. Bravery under fire.
And what would have happened had the plane been hijacked successfully and aimed toward Tel Aviv? I don’t even want to think about the Israeli Air Force having to shoot down that Boeing 787 MAX 8 full of innocents. It’s unthinkable, but the Israelis have to think about it. So do the Americans.
Good luck with your eye. Anything that goes awry with them is always scary.
Best of luck regarding your vision. I sincerely hope all goes well, Jerry.
I can guarantee you that the terrorist co-pilot is “pro Palestine”.
Anyway, back in Blighty, we already have an MP intimating some sort of “false flag”. Ayoub Khan (who already has a murky history) said: “I am genuinely shocked as to the speed of this enquiry by the Israeli spokespeople!!! Normally it takes them months, if not years. I think I smell a rat!“.
So, we have the old personal incredulity response that all conspirloons and cranks display, along with a not-so-subtle “rat” reference.
Ayoub Khan’s moral compass seems to have lost its magnet==if it ever had one. Obviously pro-Hamas, and just as obviously dismisses the grooming gangs that are plaguing England. A definite pattern emerges: rape of non-Muslims by Muslim men is not worthy of concern.
But isn’t he fellow-traveller of Corbyn? What else should we expect from someone like that?
I have serious fears for Britain, meaning British Western culture.
Good luck, Jerry.
I was a prosecutor but have long opposed the death penalty. Like any human system, the justice system can and does make mistakes. When DNA became available, over 80 inmates were freed from death row b/c DNA excluded them. DNA does not justify the death penalty, because even with it mistakes can be made.
I have been retired from the law a long time. There may be case law that counters the following argument, but I have long felt that a botched execution cannot be tried a second time because of the Double Jeopardy clause. If I were the the lawyers representing this defendant, I would give serious consideration to filing a writ of habeas corpus and argue that the Double Jeopardy clause prevents another attempt, and she should be freed.
BTW good luck on the recovery. I am undergoing a similar procedure in December.