National Reptile Awareness Day

by Greg Mayer

It’s a bit late in the day, but I must announce that today is, at least in the USA, National Reptile Awareness Day. Happy Reptile Day to all! I must admit, as a herpetologist who joined all the major American herpetological societies while still in high school (1975), I had never heard of National Reptile Awareness Day before today. Reptiles Magazine, a fanciers outlet, is the only group I can find who are promoting it, although even they admit not to know how or when it started. Despite its obscurity, we’ll celebrate with a few reptile pictures.

First, a wild red-eared slider, a southern US turtle popular in the pet trade, and often released, but less often established, in places outside its native range, like Wisconsin.

Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), Greenquist Pond, Somers, Wisconsin, 14 September 2016.

Next, my ball python Vivian, whom I’ve had for about 18 years.

Ball python (Python regius), captive, at alumni event at UW-Parkside, September, 2016.

A snapping turtle from UW-Parkside, at the same alumni event as Vivian.

Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Greenquist Pond, Somers, Wisconsin.

And we’ll finish up with a series of eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) pictures; I believe all the pictures were taken in Cass, Michigan. They were taken by my former student Eric Hileman, who did his Ph.D. at Northern Illinois University with Rich King. Eric successfully defended his dissertation on the population ecology of massasaugas just this past Wednesday, and I was privileged to be able to attend. So we can all take this National Reptile Awareness Day as a day to send this joyous message to Eric: “Congratulations. Now get back to work.”

Eastern massasauga.

Eastern massasauga.

Eastern massasauga.

h/t Alicia Hunt

The laws of cartoon physics

To end the week, we have a lovely post that gives the cartoon laws of physics, whose author is, sadly, unknown. But they’re hilarious, and if you’re of a certain age you’ll recognize them all. Here they are; I’ve put my favorites in bold.

Cartoon Law I
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation. Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over.

Here’s an illustration:

Cartoon Law II
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly. Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely. Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion the stooge’s surcease.

Cartoon Law III
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter. Also called the silhouette of passage, this phenomenon is the specialty of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction.

Cartoon Law IV
The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken. Such an object is inevitably priceless, the attempt to capture it inevitably unsuccessful.

Cartoon Law V
All principles of gravity are negated by fear. Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel them directly away from the earth’s surface. A spooky noise or an adversary’s signature sound will induce motion upward, usually to the cradle of a chandelier, a treetop, or the crest of a flagpole. The feet of a character who is running or the wheels of a speeding auto need never touch the ground, especially when in flight.

Cartoon Law VI
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once. This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw fights, in which a character’s head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of altercation at several places simultaneously. This effect is common as well among bodies that are spinning or being throttled. A `wacky’ character has the option of self-replication only at manic high speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required.

Cartoon Law VII
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. This trompe l’oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall’s surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science.

Cartoon Law VIII
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives might comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap back, or solidify. Corollary: A cat will assume the shape of its container.

Cartoon Law IX
Everything falls faster than an anvil.

Cartoon Law X
For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite revengeance. This is the one law of animated cartoon motion that also applies to the physical world at large. For that reason, we need the relief of watching it happen to a duck instead.

Cartoon Law Amendment A
A sharp object will always propel a character upward. When poked (usually in the buttocks) with a sharp object (usually a pin), a character will defy gravity by shooting straight up, with great velocity.

Cartoon Law Amendment B
The laws of object permanence are nullified for “cool” characters. Characters who are intended to be “cool” can make previously nonexistent objects appear from behind their backs at will. For instance, the Road Runner can materialize signs to express himself without speaking.

Cartoon Law Amendment C
Explosive weapons cannot cause fatal injuries. They merely turn characters temporarily black and smoky.

Cartoon Law Amendment D
Gravity is transmitted by slow-moving waves of large wavelengths. Their operation can be witnessed by observing the behavior of a canine suspended over a large vertical drop. Its feet will begin to fall first, causing its legs to stretch. As the wave reaches its torso, that part will begin to fall, causing the neck to stretch. As the head begins to fall, tension is released and the canine will resume its regular proportions until such time as it strikes the ground.

Cartoon Law Amendment E
Dynamite is spontaneously generated in “C-spaces” (spaces in which cartoon laws hold). The process is analogous to steady-state theories of the universe which postulated that the tensions involved in maintaining a space would cause the creation of hydrogen from nothing. Dynamite quanta are quite large (stick sized) and unstable (lit). Such quanta are attracted to psychic forces generated by feelings of distress in “cool” characters (see Amendment B, which may be a special case of this law), who are able to use said quanta to their advantage. One may imagine C-spaces where all matter and energy result from primal masses of dynamite exploding. A big bang indeed.

Can you think of any more?

h/t: Michael

CUNY professor accused of violating Title IX without any mention of sex

I think we learned yesterday—or at least I did—that sexual harassment of women, including physical harassment like groping, is far more prevalent than assumed.  We clearly need to do something about the issue, which means that men themselves must also recognize its prevalence. So besides admiration for the brave women who reported what happened to them, often using their real names, I was also heartened by all the good men who supported those women.  As always, the readers here are a great bunch

But I also have to report overreaction, in which accusations of sexual harassment have gone overboard. This has happened on several college campuses, and, as reason.com reports, there’s a particularly silly incident in New York (my emphasis):

A professor at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College was ordered to make changes to his syllabus because it amounted to sexual harassment.

The professor, David Seidemann has refused to comply, and for good reason.

According to Seidemann, a university administrator expressed three grievances about the syllabus. First, and most quizzically, the grading portion of the syllabus suggests sexual harassment. It reads, “Class deportment, effort etc……. 10% (applied only to select students when appropriate).”

That’s it. That’s sexual harassment, Seidemann’s department chair claimed.

Why? No one explained it to him. I gather that the “effort, etc…” was taken the wrong way: a completely unreasonable person could presume Seidemann was suggesting that sexual favors would boost the grades of “select students.”

. . . Seidemann told [the reporter] in an email that his department chair said “the 10% section could be construed as a prelude to sexual harassment,” and had to be changed at once.

This order apparently came from the Director of Diversity Investigations and Title IX Enforcement. In the course of Seidemann’s interactions with the director, he realized something quite stunning: there was no record of anyone actually complaining about the syllabus. The university had apparently launched this investigation on its own.

Seidemann was also initially in trouble for writing in his syllabus, “This classroom is an ‘unsafe space’ for those uncomfortable with viewpoints with which they may disagree: all constitutionally protected speech is welcome.” But the director eventually conceded this was fine.

Apparently the troubles were compounded by Seidemann using triangles instead of quotations marks around terms like “unsafe space”.

This is how far it’s gone in some places, and part of the problem is that the Title IX guidelines are confusing and even a bit draconian. If you look at the link in the previous sentence, you’ll find the story of a male student expelled from the University of Colorado at Pueblo because someone reported that his girlfriend had a hickey on her neck. That was reported as rape, and even the girlfriend’s testimony that the relationship was purely consensual couldn’t prevent the expulsion. That’s the kind of evidence that Title IX takes as sufficient cause for punishment. I predicted, and it’s now happening, that colleges will now incur a spate of lawsuits because of this kind of bizarre and unfair punishment. And that, too, is the story of David Seidemann and his “selective grading.” (To be sure, I wouldn’t have applied that standard to “select students”, but maybe Seidemann meant that students who misbehaved would be penalized.”

 

h/t: Patrick

CoyneFest-ers

by Greg Mayer

Jerry will be posting more CoyneFest pix, but in the meantime here’s a group picture of some of the CoyneFest-ers taken at the Log Castle which was the locus of dinner and festivities on the second day of the symposium.

The CoyneFesters are: standing on the hearth (tallest): Jerry Coyne, P.C.C. (University of Chicago); standing, left to right: Andrew Berry (Harvard University), Amanda Mehring (Western University, Ontario), Briana Mittleman (University of Chicago), Mohammed Noor (Duke University), Katharine Korunes (Duke University), Bruce Grant (College of William and Mary), Cathy Grant (College of William and Mary), Brian Charlesworth (University of Edinburgh), Nick Barton (IST Austria), Soojin Yi (Georgia Tech), Mike Turelli (University of California, Davis), Manyuan Long (University of Chicago, in back), Connie Homan (University of Chicago, in front), Dick Hudson (University of Chicago), Matthew Cobb (University of Manchester), Leonie Moyle (Indiana University), Trevor Price (University of Chicago), Colin Meikeljohn (University of Nebraska), Corbin Jones (University of North Carolina); kneeling (left to right): Tina Harr (Max Planck Institute and University of Chicago, with Melody the d*g), Daniel Matute (University of North Carolina), Kelly Dyer (University of Georgia), Jeff Wisniewski (University of Chicago), John Novembre (University of Chicago), Nitin Phadnis  (University of Utah).

Not everyone could make it out to the Log Castle, and some who did had left by the time the photo was taken, so not all the CoyneFesters are in the picture; almost 3/4 of the speakers, though, are in the picture. John Novembre, seeing I had the best (or at least best-looking!) camera, urged me to take a group photo and helped get everyone in the picture; he then kindly took one with me in the picture.

Readers’ wildlife photos

Today we continue (and conclude) Lou Jost’s photographs of orthopterans (grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets), all photographed at the Tambopata Research Center in Peru. His notes are indented:

At the Tambopata Research Center we got up around 4:30 am most days, and evenings after dinner there were often talks, so we had little time to explore the forest at night. But one night before bed I couldn’t resist exploring for an hour. In that hour I found so many things that I only managed to advance about 20 meters from the lodge. But most of the Orthopterans don’t merit individual captions since I know nothing at all about them!

This is probably just a more advanced nymph of the same species shown in the previous picture.

JAC: the pose of the following insect probably serves to hide it, but I’m not sure; and note the prominent white marks on the thorax and legs that seem to make it more conspicuous.

JAC: Could this be a form of mimicry too, with the brown coloration hiding the head?

Friday: Hili dialogue

Today is Friday, October 21, 2016, and the temperature in Chicago is beginning its inexorable slide into winter. In the UK, though, it’s Apple Day, so if you’re a Brit, eat one of the good apples available in your land. In the US, it’s an odious food day: National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day. I cannot recommend this comestible.

On this day in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan discovers a the passage now called the Strait of Magellan, and in 1854, Florence Nightingale and her staff of 38 nurses went off to the Crimean War to lift the lamp high.  Finally, on this day in 1945, French women became able to vote for the first time.

Notables born on this day include Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772), Alfred “Mr. Prize” Nobel (1833), Oswald Avery (1877), and Dizzy Gillespie (1917). Those who died on this day include Horatio Nelson (1805), Jack Kerouac (1969), and Ben Bradlee (2014). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is having Deep Cat Thoughts:

Hili: Have you ever wondered what happens to Thursday when Friday comes?

A: No, I’ve never thought about this problem.

In Polish:

Hili: Czy zastanawiałeś się, co się dzieje z czwartkiem, kiedy przychodzi piątek?
Ja: Nie, nigdy nie rozważałem tego problemu.

And in Winnipeg, a respite from the blizzards has given Gus a chance to enjoy the garden:

And I couldn’t resist including two lovely cat photos by Keira McKenzie of Oz, who sent the lovely pictures of wildflowers—and of her black cat Plushie—yesterday. She also sent a photo of a neighbor’s cat with some information:

This is a cat I know very well: Charlie.  He has many, many photos, and photo books and photo essays.  He is quite the model:  One photo attached.  Charlie lives with his 85 year old mum about a block away from me, but I see him frequently and his mum (Italian) always gives me wine and cheese as we chat about all sorts of things – and Charlie.  She is devoted to him and loves all cats.  She thinks Plushie is delightful.

Here is one of Charlie being idiotic.  He’s 9 or 10 and as playful as a kitten – which is why it’s not as 100% clear as it might have been.  He does not always stay still. I printed this as a Christmas card for his mum and she laughed and it’s still on a shelf in her lounge room.

Science Cat!

I don’t follow anyone on Twi**er as I don’t have time, and use this site to convey my thoughts. But I found one site that’s almost worth following: Science Cat! Click on the screenshot to go there:

Two of the latest tweets:

This fat fool had to be rescued by animal control pic.twitter.com/XYEsl2hx4J

— Science Cat (@DrScienceCat) October 13, 2016

It took me an insanely long time to realize that these were in fact not tiny brontosauruses pic.twitter.com/YBpLdixWSH

— Science Cat (@DrScienceCat) October 8, 2014

Rabbits and cat living in harmony

Reader Brigette Zacharczenko, a grad student in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Connecticut at Storrs (she has an insect website), sent me some lovely photos (in an email titled “Some fluffy kitty belly for you to enjoy”) of her rabbits and new kitty that I’m posting with her permission. Her description is indented.

My fiance and I recently adopted a young cat we’ve named Milo. He’s a real charmer and I thought you’d enjoy some of these photos! We call him a cross between a ferret and a dinosaur, but we suspect he may actually be a Turkish Angora, at least in part.

Last photo is one of his encounters with my two rabbits, Rascal and Appledot. We were worried the cat may have a “killer instinct” and go after the rabbits. He’s only ever been an indoor cat, but you never know. Turns out, it’s the rabbits who are aggressive! Milo keeps trying to be friendly, approaching to sniff, rolling onto his back, mewing softly, and patting at them gently. Meanwhile the rabbits lunge, grunt, chase, and smack him around. To his credit, Milo handles it well, and isn’t terribly deterred. I’ve heard of other households with cats and rabbits who get along, and I’m hoping we get to that point too.

And she has a question:

I’d be interested in hearing if any of your other readers have cats and rabbits who get along, and what the adjustment process was like.

Trump says he’ll accept election results—if he wins

My CNN feed tells me that Trump has proven himself dumber than I thought by effectively mocking the democratic process:

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says that he will accept the results of the general election next month — if he wins. [JAC: watch the video at the site to see some complete insanity.]

“I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Delaware, Ohio, his first comment since the final presidential debate Wednesday.

After pausing for effect, he said, “… if I win.”

Trump was widely panned by Republicans and Democrats alike after the debate during which he refused to pledge to accept the results of the election, regardless of the winner.

After Election Day, nobody in this country will take Trump seriously any more.

The anti-Semitism of UNESCO

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem contains at once some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Besides being the historical site of the Jewish Second Temple (Herod’s Temple) and possibly other temples (confirmed by archaeological evidence), and the Western (“Wailing”) Wall, it’s reputed to contain the stone on which Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. (I am not, of course, saying I believe these myths, but the presence of early Jewish temples is undeniable.) This makes it special to Christians and Jews. It also has two very holy mosques, including the Dome of the Rock (deliberately built on the holy site of “earlier” religions, since Islam is the “final truth”), which contains the Isaac Stone (unviewable by Christians and Jews, who are denied access to the mosque. Since 1967, access of Jews and Christians to the Temple Mount has been severely restricted by the Israeli government, and Jews are not allowed to either wear religious garb on the Mount (save a yarmulke)  nor pray there. It is a contentious place where three religious groups vie for access, and where a resolution of the competing claims seems impossible.

Two days ago, the members of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, with 195 member countries) adopted, by an overwhelming “yes vs no” vote (with many nations abstaining), a resolution denying the connection between Judaism and the holy sites on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, and basically designating it as a Muslim holy site alone (you can see the full resolution here).  This is what the Palestinians have been trying to accomplish for many years. The implication is that Jews (and Christians) should have no access to the Temple Mount or even the Western Wall.

As the New York Times reports (see also here, here, and here):

PARIS — UNESCO’s executive board on Tuesday approved a resolution that Israel says denies the deep historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem — and that has angered Israel’s government and many Jews around the world.

The resolution is not expected to have concrete impact on Jerusalem itself, but it aggravated diplomatic tensions around the city and within UNESCO, which is also facing a dispute between Japan and China that threatens funding.

It’s the latest of several measures at UNESCO over decades that Israelis see as evidence of ingrained anti-Israel bias within the United Nations, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters. Israel’s concern has mounted since UNESCO states admitted Palestine as a member in 2011.

The resolution, titled “Occupied Palestine,” lays out rules about the preservation of holy sites in Jerusalem, and uses only the Islamic name for a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims. The site includes the Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical temple and the holiest site where Jews can pray.

Jews refer to the hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s Old City as the Temple Mount. Muslims refer to it as al-Haram al-Sharif, Arabic for the Noble Sanctuary, and it includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The board adopted the resolution by consensus Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. A draft form of the resolution had already been approved by a commission last week.

Here’s the vote. 24 nations, including many Muslim-majority countries, voted for the resolution, only six against (including the UK and US), and 26 countries abstained because they were too cowardly to take a stand.  The cowards include France, India, Italy, Japan, and Sweden.

Given the historical evidence, this kind of vote cannot be seen as anything other than either anti-Semitism or catering to Muslim desires to keep the peace (there’s not much difference there given that Jewish claims to the territory are rejected). But it goes along with the UN’s recent anti-Israel stand. As Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted (and I’m just quoting his quip, so don’t go off on the man for other things):

What's next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin? Rock and roll?

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 13, 2016

One more quote from 12 years ago:

h/t: Malgorzata