Jim Paull

Alas, overweight tourists are officially banned from riding donkeys in Santorini.

Animal activists have been fighting to keep tourists off donkeys’ backs for months now, saying that overweight tourists are crippling the animals. A successful meeting in July between animal welfare societies, animal rights group and animal owners and the Municipality of Santorini led lawmakers to agree to make immediate changes and improve the welfare conditions of the country’s donkeys and equines and update its legislation regarding how much weight the animals can hold.

On Wednesday, the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food released a new set of regulations saying that the animals “should not be loaded with excessive weight for their size, age or physical condition. The load cannot exceed the weight of 100kg, or one fifth of their body weight.”

The new regulations also address the need for better working conditions. “Under no circumstances should be used animals unfit for work i.e., ill animal, injured, animals in an advanced pregnancy as well as animals with poor maintenance of hooves.” Additionally, “the animals should be given appropriate and adequate food and fresh drinking water daily, into containers which cannot be contaminated and are cleaned at least once a day.”

According to CNN, the department circulated the guidelines to island regions after receiving several complaints on the donkeys’ living conditions throughout the summer. Footage of overweight tourists riding on the donkeys sparked a widespread conversation on social media and a petition to end the abuse obtained over 100,000 signatures.

Kitchn's Delicious Links column highlights recipes we're excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

Please forgive me because I absolutely cannot resist making the following mushroom pun in reference to the recipe that I'm about to convince you to make tonight: "There's not mushroom for improvement here because these honey balsamic garlic mushrooms from The Recipe Critic are absolute perfection."

Whew, now that's out of my system we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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You can read the full medical article here :  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319855.php

• Dactylitis is a form of inflammation in the fingers or toes. 
• Symptoms include swelling in one or more fingers or toes, and often in the entire hand or foot. 
• The swelling gives the fingers a bloated, sausage-like appearance. 
• The swelling may be painful and can make it difficult to move the affected area.

Dactylitis can be due to an infection or because of a change in the immune system. It is often the result of an autoimmune disorder. Autoimmune diseases cause the immune system to attack healthy tissues.

The utility of meal planning and prepping is satisfying enough to keep most of us in the habit week in and week out, but we all know too well that we'll have weeks we fall off the wagon or just get bored with some of our family's favorite recipes. Those are the weeks it is most important to plan meals that feel exciting enough to keep our meal planning motivation alive.

Here are the five dinners I'm planning to make this week to get my dinner mojo back this fall.

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Setting the table for your dinner party may seem like the job you give to eager guests who insist on helping, but it should be done with care and precision. Sure, you could drop a cup full of plastic forks on the table, but is that really living?

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The Penang War Museum is an outdoor living war museum that will appeal to enthusiasts of military history, and anyone with family members involved in the tragic events in South East Asia during World War II.

This sprawling museum is housed on a 20-acre site, originally a coastal fortress and gun battery built by the British in the run-up to the war to defend against Japanese invasion.

Sadly, despite many acts of individual heroism, Britain’s preparedness was inadequate to repel the Japanese, who inflicted a stinging defeat on Britain’s prestige and morale.

Under the brutal Japanese occupation which followed, many Allied prisoners of war were harshly treated, tortured and executed while Malayan civilians also suffered terribly.

Many of the underground tunnels, bunkers, pillboxes, gun batteries and defences built by the British have been restored by the museum’s owners, and visitors can get a good idea how life must have been for the soldiers serving here.

Also the barracks blocks where the British, Indian and Malay soldiers were housed, and later imprisoned, remain in good condition and now serve as an exhibition space for the museum’s collections.

The museum was founded in 2002 by Johari Shafie, who recognised the tourism potential of the former fortress that was left abandoned and forgotten for almost 60 years.

One can easily spend a couple of hours wandering around this complex. Here are some of the highlights.

With all the deaths that took place at the fortress and gun battery site where the museum stands, the Penang War Museum was listed in 2013 as one of the Top 10 Most Haunted Sites in Asia.

Night tours can be arranged for those who enjoy being scared out of their wits.

At the same time the museum is a sombre memorial to those who perished during the war and there are a number of touching tributes and photos left behind by relatives.

British Indian Army troops played a significant role in the construction and defence of the fortress. The hill was sometimes called Bukit Punjab in recognition of this.

There is a good view of the Penang Second Bridge from the museum. Being located on prime seafront real estate, the museum is under threat from redevelopment and since this is a privately owned museum it may not enjoy protection from market forces.

Tourists are encouraged to visit this museum so it remains commercially viable, thus protecting this historic site for future generations.

Opens daily: 9am to 6pm.

Entrance Fees:

Adults RM30 (Foreigners); RM15 (MyKad)

Children RM15 (Foreigners); RM7.50 (MyKad) (Ages 5 to 12)

This article first appeared in malaysia-traveller.com

We’ve seen 100-packs of Velcro cable ties for around $5 before, but these nylon zip ties up the ante by including a screw hole, making it easy to use them to attach wires to a wall. And you can see from the photo, they’re incredibly strong too.

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Some local dish names just don’t translate well into English, and Ikan Cili Padi is one of them.

Somehow, the name Bird’s Eye Chilli Fish, or Fish with Bird’s Eye Chilli, does not fluidly roll off the tongue or seem half as tasty as the Malay version.

So, let’s stick to what we all call it in Malay, regardless of the language we speak.

Ikan Cili Padi is a baked fish dish slathered with a dark, thick, black-as-sin and almost as spicy paste-like sauce.

It’s best paired with steaming hot rice. Don’t be afraid to get into it with your fingers as you savour the juicy, spicy fish, and unashamedly lick the bones clean.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole red snapper

• 1 stick lemongrass, bashed

• 5 kaffir lime leaves, roughly torn

For the sauce:

• 3 tbsp fish sauce

• 3 tbsp Gula Melaka (coconut sugar)

• 1 tbsp thick caramel soy sauce

• 1 tbsp belacan, roasted

• 5 strips of petai (stink beans), beans only

• 15 shallots

• 15 cili padi kampung (birds eye chilies)

• ½ cup calamansi lime juice (also known as calamondin lime)

• 3 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Heat the oven to 180°C.

• Clean and gut the fish thoroughly. Pat dry.

• With a sharp knife, make thin cuts on both surfaces of the fish, at a 45° angle roughly 2cm apart. Cut only halfway through the flesh and not all the way to the bone.

• Stuff the fish’s cavity with bashed lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, then place the fish on a non-stick pan. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until the internal temperature of the fish reaches 63°C.

• While the fish is baking, prepare the sauce. Except for lime juice and cooking oil, blend all the other ingredients together until thoroughly mixed. You want the sauce to be slightly chunky, so don’t blend the mixture until smooth.

• Heat the cooking oil in a pan. Once hot, add in the blended mixture and fry until fragrant.

• Add in the lime juice and bring to a boil.

• Plate the fish once cooked, and pour the sauce all over. Yummmmm…

Extra tips

• Any fleshy fish goes with this recipe. You can also use sea bass or hardtail (cencaru), although if using hardtail, deep frying the fish is recommended.

• A glutton for stink beans? Feel free to add more!

• Frying the sauce mixture will release potentially cough-inducing fumes, so keep your face well away from the rising steam.

• If you want your sauce a little wetter, add ½ cup of water.

• Serve with hot rice, some vegetables and your favourite dishes.

This article first appeared in butterkicap.com

Butterkicap is a food and culture platform and community that enables anyone to experience Malaysia through stories of her people, food and places.

JAKARTA: Some 1,200 Indonesian convicts are on the run from three different detention facilities in devastated Sulawesi after the region was rocked by a powerful earthquake and tsunami, a justice ministry official said Monday.

One prison in tsunami-struck Palu city — built to hold just 120 people — saw most of its 581 inmates storm past guards and escape to freedom through walls collapsed by the massive 7.5 magnitude shake.

“Things were initially fine…but not long after the quake, water erupted from under the prison yard causing prisoners to panic and then run onto the road,” said Ministry of Justice official Sri Puguh Utami, adding that the water was not from the tsunami.

“I’m sure they escaped because they feared they would be affected by the earthquake. This is for sure a matter of life and death for the prisoners,” she added.

Inmates had fled from another overcapacity facility in Palu by breaking down its main door and another in Donggala, an area also hit by the disaster.

The Donggala jail was set on fire and all 343 inmates were now on the run, Utami said.

The arson was thought to have been sparked by angry detainees demanding to see their families.

“They panicked after learning that Donggala was badly hit by the earthquake,” Utami said.

“Prison officials did negotiate with prisoners about allowing them to go to check on their families. But some prisoners were apparently not patient enough and committed the arson.”

Some of the convicts were jailed for corruption and narcotics offences, she said.

Five people convicted of terror-related crimes had been moved from the prison just days before the disaster.

Just over 100 prisoners at the two facilities in Palu were still in jail, but overstretched guards were struggling to keep them fed.

“The prison no longer had enough food,” Utami said.

“Officials then tried to buy supplies from stores around the prison that were still open.”

Kitchn's Delicious Links column highlights recipes we're excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm already giving thanks for these sage butter mashed potatoes swirled with a cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, the brainchild of Tieghan Gerard from Half Baked Harvest.

While we're at it, I hereby petition to replace any and all turkey with these slow cooker cider braised short ribs. I don't think we'll miss it in the slightest. After all, what's better than short ribs that have been cooked low and slow, until they're fall-off-the-bone good, for up to eight hours in the Crock-Pot?

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SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in received a pair of North Korean indigenous hunting dogs from Pyongyang, his office said Sunday, the latest token of the rapidly blossoming friendship on the peninsula.

“Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office) was offered a pair of Pungsan dogs from the North as a gift at the North-South summit and received them Thursday,” the South’s presidential office said in a statement.

The canines, both aged around one, were handed over via the truce village of Panmunjom with three kilograms of dog food to “help with their adaptation”, it added.

Known for its loyalty and cleverness, the Pungsan breed — a hunting dog with thick, creamy white coat, pointy ears and hazel eyes — is one of the National Treasures of North Korea.

The canine gifts come after a September meeting between Moon and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, at which Kim agreed plans to shutter a missile-testing site and visit Seoul.

North and South Korea also announced that they would jointly bid for the 2032 Olympics.

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung had also received a pair of Pungsan pups after his landmark summit in Pyongyang with then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2000.

The dogs were kept at the Seoul Grand Park and both died of natural causes in 2013 after giving birth to 21 puppies.

The newly arrived pooches will reside at the presidential office with Moon — an animal lover who already owns a Pungsan dog named Maru, a former shelter cat called Jjing-Jjing, and Tory, a black mutt he adopted after taking office.

Love traveling the world? Check. Love scavenger hunts? Check. Think “The Amazing Race” would be awesome… if only it weren’t televised? Well, here’s the event you may want to consider.

Oh, one more thing: Do you and a traveling partner have $12,500 each to spend, which would pay for international airfare, ground transportation, hotel stays (double occupancy), a portion of your meals (40%) and some travel gear — all with the hope of capturing a $50,000 prize for the winning two-person team?  If so, the Global Scavenger Hunt may just be for you.

The event, which launched in 2000 but has been held annually since 2008, promises to hook would-be explorers up with unique cultural experiences, including “meditating with monks, training elephants, taking flamenco lessons, cooking local dishes with local chefs, searching out Lost Cities, cracking sacred temple mysteries, joining in local celebrations and learning local languages enough to decipher their scavenger hunt clues.”

The three-week race/rally, from April 12 to May 4, 2019, will take you to 10 unnamed countries, beginning in San Francisco and ending in New York. In 2018, the race began in San Francisco, then hit Taiwan, India, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru before finishing in the US.

To put it in a more map-friendly perspective, here’s a look at the places visited in the 2014 race, which started in Vancouver and ended in Miami:

This winner-takes-all event is open to anyone, but “event participation is limited.” (Read: Just 15 teams will be chosen to participate.) Here’s where to register.

Your team wins by accumulating the most points over the three-week journey. Event organizers say you’ll have to “actively participate in a series of culturally-oriented site-doing scavenges across four continents. Teams must use available public transportation to get from scavenge to scavenge.” The more legs you win, the better your odds are of winning the race. But all challenges are not created equal, as some scavenges are worth a lot — but are extremely challenging to complete, while others are easy to complete, but worth fewer points. “The teams that work well together and create the right risk-reward formula, usually do well. Consistency is the key to success over the 23-day event.”

Past scavenges include:

• Singing “Born to be Wild” in a karaoke bar with at least three people you’ve met in Seoul, South Korea.
• Learning how to make baklava in a traditional Turkish bakery.
• Learning how to tango properly in Buenos Aires.
• Donating time helping out at an orphanage in Cambodia, a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal or a medical clinic in Kenya.

Speaking of, the organizers also say they have a charitable mission. Past teams have helped raise funds for schools in the places they’ve visited as well as helped in funding interest-free micro loans.

You’ll receive no clues before you start. So, beefing up on 4,000-year-old Egyptian tombs probably won’t do you any good.

“It is designed this way to keep travelers in the dark as long as possible about their impending destination so that wonderful elements of surprise, mystery and anticipation can be maximized,” the organizers say. “The result? No maps, no guidebooks and none of the usual endless pre-trip online research and planning; but counterbalanced with an overwhelming amount of surprise, spontaneity and serendipity. It keeps all the teams on the same competitive footing — because no one knows any more than any other team.”

Knobby and fatty, with protruding discs of marrow, oxtails turn off a good many home cooks before they even get a second look. But step right up, your new favorite fall braised dish is here.

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Kitchn's Delicious Links column highlights recipes we're excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

Can we have an honest discussion about chicken? Why are we all so obsessed with it? Is it really that great? In the case of this garlic basil chicken that's swimming in tomato butter sauce from Pinch of Yum, yes — yes it really is that great.

I'm so sorry, chicken, I should have never doubted you. I'll never do it again, I promise.

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British screen legend Judi Dench was honoured Tuesday with a lifetime achievement award at Spain’s famous San Sebastian film festival.

The 83-year-old actress, who won an Oscar in 1999 for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in “Shakespeare in Love”, received the festival’s Donostia Award, which goes to “a great film personality in recognition for their work and career”.

During a short ceremony to collect the prize, Dench said she first visited San Sebastian with her parents when she was a teenager but “never thought for a second, that I would be an actress the rest of my life” and receive “such an incredible award” here.

“I appreciate it very much indeed,” she added before her new film “Red Joan,” directed by Trevor Nunn, was screened.

In the film, inspired on a true story, she plays a tranquil retiree who is suddenly arrested by MI5 and exposed as a long-standing KGB spy.

Dench, a veteran star of the stage and screen, made her cinema debut in 1964 and has worked with directors as varied as Stephen Frears, Kenneth Branagh, Clint Eastwood and Sam Mendes.

Her subtle portrayal of complex characters such as Queen Victoria in “Mrs Brown” or author Iris Murdoch in “Iris” have earned her critical acclaim.

A seven-time Oscar nominee and the recipient of several Bafta awards, Dench is perhaps best known worldwide for playing M, the head of MI6, in James Bond films.

It was her first visit to the San Sebastian film festival, the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the Spanish speaking world.

Dench joined US actor Danny de Vito and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose film “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, who also picked up a Donostia Award this year.

Past recipients include Gregory Peck, Robert De Niro, Bette Davis, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep.

The 66th edition of the festival concludes on Saturday. A total of 18 films are competing for the best film award this year.

Food and beauty have a long history together. A symbiotic relationship that goes moisturized hand-in-moisturized hand together. What we put inside our bodies have often found a place on the outside of our bodies. Go into any Ulta or Sephora and you will see the beauty products boasting its use of food: moisturizers…

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CHINA: As they watched closely, two-year-old, Jason Low delighted his proud fugitive parents today by.

The post Proud Dad Jho Low Watches Son Open His First Cayman Island Bank Account appeared first on The Tapir Times.

PETALING JAYA: The manager of the MidValley Speedy Video store remained upbeat about its business.

The post DVD Store Manager Confident Online Streaming Fad Almost Over appeared first on The Tapir Times.

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Eight children, including four siblings, were killed in Afghanistan when a mortar shell they were playing with exploded, relatives said Saturday, adding to the ever-growing civilian toll in the 17-year war.

Another six children were wounded in the blast on Friday, including two who had lost limbs and were in a critical condition in a hospital in the northwestern province of Faryab.

All the children were aged between five and 12.

“They found an unexploded mortar shell and brought it near our house,” Shukrullah, an uncle of four of the children killed, told AFP.

“They didn’t know what it was and were trying to open it when it suddenly exploded.”

Mohammad Alam, who was a cousin of four of the children, said he heard a “big explosion”.

“I rushed to the site and saw the kids covered in blood,” Alam told AFP from the hospital.

“They had found an unexploded shell and were playing with it when it went off.”

Officials were quick to blame the explosion on the Taliban, which last week captured Koh-e-Sayad village where the children lived.

The militants had planted a mine near a security checkpoint, Faryab police spokesman Abdul Karim Yoresh told AFP.

“On Friday afternoon the children were passing the area when the mine hit them,” Yoresh said.

Children are often killed or maimed by explosive devices left over from decades of conflict, carelessly discarded or deliberately planted.

Civilians, including children, have borne the brunt of the conflict which began with the US-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime.

UN figures show 3,179 children were killed or wounded in 2017, accounting for almost one-third of the total civilian casualties for the year.

Improvised explosive devices, such as remotely detonated or pressure-plate bombs, killed or wounded 545 of them.

Unexploded ordnance claimed the lives of 142 children and wounded 376 in the same period.

If you watch U.K. mainstay The Great British Bake Off, the reality competition where 10 amateur bakers duke it out to be crowned best baker in the land, there comes a moment where a tiny part of your brain tells you "maybe I could do this." This usually happens when one of the 10 contestants makes a rookie mistake and confuses a stroopwafel for a caramel cookie during a technical challenge. But then, when you see the remaining bakers all creating a perfect complex dessert like an entremet or a blancmange, you're sent back to earth.

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It’s time to run (or walk, or otherwise locomote under your own power) one whole mile. Then take a break. And if you still have it in you, do it again. That’s right, we’re doing mile repeats this week in the Lifehacker Fitness Challenge.

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Now here is New Malaysia Times :

NATION:  Today Malaysians were outraged at the thievery depicted in their pirated copies of the.

The post Nation Angered By Jho Low’s Thievery After Reading Pirated Copy Of Billion Dollar Whale appeared first on The Tapir Times.

We've all been through this scenario: You get hungry, stroll over to the kitchen, and decide you'll make the perfect sandwich, layered with your favorite deli meat (or veggies), a slice of lettuce, some tomato, a dab of mayonnaise (which is not dead for this millennial), all in between your favorite sliced bread.

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Rituals can help us feel more in control of our lives, and more comfortable in situations that would otherwise bother us. One group of researchers now says they have found that a weird, meaningless food ritual might help us eat fewer calories.

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Sarawak Report has learnt that lawyers acting for Selvi Bala, who has sued the former Prime Minister, his wife and their assistants for blackmailing her husband, a witness to the murder of Altantuya, will now lodge commital proceedings against their lawyer Shafee Abdullah and two others.

Deepak Jaikashan, one of the defendants in this long-running case and a former business partner of Rosmah Mansor, lodged a devastating police report at the end of last week, in which he described in full detail how his lawyer Shafee Abdullah and accomplice Datuk Azeez Rahim had contrived to prevent him giving evidence in the case.

In the police report Deepak explained how he had been prevented from turning up in court no less than three times by his lawyer on a false pretext that he was unwell. Deepak has now stated that he was not unwell, but that Shafee and his accomplice Datuk Azeez (a well known confidante of Najib and Rosmah whom they appointed to be Chairman of Tabung and to a number of other official positions) arranged for doctors’ certificates to state he was too ill to give evidence.

One one occasion Deepak was admitted into a KL hospital overnight before the trial and one Dr Ganesan was organised to issue a medical note to say that he was unfit to be present in court. In fact, Deepak has now told the police he was perfectly fit, but being pressured by his legal representatives, whom he says were forced upon him by Najib.

The result of these delays was that the hearing of the case, where Deepak was preparing to give evidence that would expose Najib and Rosmah as the “masterminds and prime beneficiaries” of the scheme to silence PI Bala, was continually postponed until after the election.

Now that the businessman has come clean about the situation with this police report, Selvi’s lawyers have indicated they will be filing committal papers before the end of the week for serious contempt of court on the part of Shafee, Azeez and the Dr Ganesan, who issued a false medical note (Deepak says he walked freely round the hospital and left the next day, despite having been described as bleeding and bed-ridden).

“They will be applying to commit them [Shafee, Azeez and Ganesan] for contempt of court in interfering with a witness and keeping him away from being cross examined in court. This ought to be punishable by prison or a fine or both, given it is a matter of interfering with witnesses and perverting the course of justice”

one person close to the case told Sarawak Report.

Trapped Witness Who Wanted To Tell The Truth

Deepak had indicated on several occasions that he was willing to speak the truth about the handling of PI Bala’s Statutory Declaration, which lies at the centre of his widow’s case. PI Bala was a private detective who had been hired to monitor Altantuya, who shortly before her murder had been threatening to reveal details of massive backhanders made to Najib’s proxy Razak Baginda during the purchase of French Scorpene submarines back in 2006.

After the controversial trial, where Najib’s bodyguards were convicted of the murder but no attempt was made to establish any motive, PI Bala issued a statutory declaration explaining that both Altantuya and Baginda had told him that the Mongolian had been Najib’s mistress and had threatened to expose the matter.

Yet, within hours of that declaration, Bala had been ‘turned’ and the next morning he issued a second revised Statutory Declaration to the media, in which all mention of Najib was selectively removed. Bala was then spirited out of the country for some years and Selvi is now suing for the financial damage caused to her family as a result of that enforced exile.

Her case states that it was Najib and Rosmah who organised for two of Najib’s brothers, some lawyers and Deepak (then a confidante of Rosmah who knew Bala) to meet with Bala and force him to change his mind, in the face of physical threats to his family and promises of a large pay off (little of which was paid).

Deepak indicated on a number of times that he was ready to admit his role during the course of Selvi’s case, however the other witnesses succeeded in striking out the widow’s claim against themselves.

Having refused to strike out the claim, Deepak has told Sarawak Report that he was brought under enormous pressure by both Shafee Abdullah and Datuk Azeez to change his position on the case.  He has copius evidence including recordings, documents and text messages to show that Azeez, acting as an emissary from Najib, urged him to cooperate and to hire Najib’s lawyer Shafee to handle his case in court.

Old tax issues were revived to pressure him, according to Deepak, and even a bank was pressured to revive demands on a loan, which had already been settled many years ago.  According to Deepak, both the tax demands and the bank loan were related to business involving Rosmah, for whom Deepak was acting as a proxy at the time.

See the police report below:

Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s efforts to “flip” and turn state’s evidence to testify against the president could be devastating for the commander-in-chief. Cohen may have information about the so-called “pee pee tape” of Russian prostitutes...

Update: Accordng to Allegiant Air, the flight through the hurricane area happened at a perfectly safe altitude. “In the case of flight 2237, the dispatcher and flight crew were not only looking at the height of the storm, which was returning tops of around 20,000 – 25,000ft, but also utilizing a cutting edge turbulence forecasting product,” the airline said in an email to TPG. “The flight was at 34,000ft with more than 10,000ft of clearance from the tops of the thunderstorms. Crew reported an entirely smooth, turbulence-free flight.”

Delta made international headlines last year for its well-planned and perfectly executed flight into San Juan, Puerto Rico, between the rain bands of Hurricane Irma.

Maybe Allegiant wanted the same sort of acclaim. Maybe Allegiant’s flight dispatchers forgot to file a flight plan around the hurricane on the flight’s 3x weekly route from Bangor, Maine (BGR) to Orlando’s Sanford (SFB). Or, maybe Allegiant figured it could save some fuel by riding solid tailwinds from the hurricane.

For whatever reason, the ultra low-cost carrier decided to fly directly through Hurricane Florence while all other commercial flights flew around the storm. Here’s just how wide of a berth other flights gave Hurricane Florence compared to the Allegiant flight:

According to flight data, the 29-year old McDonnell Douglas MD-80 (registration N415NV) flew through Hurricane Florence at 34,000 feet and at a ground speed of up to 580mph. The flight arrived 30 minutes early — despite departing 12 minutes late.

That’s much, much faster than hurricane hunters would dare fly through the core of a hurricane. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal this week, veteran pilot Ben Blair explained why hurricane hunter pilots only fly at 200mph: “If you get too fast going through that kind of severe turbulence, it can bend things on the aircraft.”

That said, hurricane hunters usually only fly into and around hurricanes at 10,000 feet. So, to get an understanding of just how rough of a ride this would’ve been, I reached out to the National Weather Service. While they couldn’t speak to the weather conditions that this particular flight might have experienced, a spokesperson confirmed that the hurricane’s cirrus cloud shield ranged from 40,000 to 45,000 feet at the time the flight passed through the area.

It’s possible that the flight may have just skirted the outside of the core cloud wall. Even so, there’s another issue with flying so close to the storm: many airports in the area had closed due to the hurricane — limiting diversion options in case something went wrong.

H/T: Live Storm Chasers