Category: Leon monologue

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 6, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, October 6, 2023, and National Noodle Day. Who doesn’t love noodles? My favorite are Szechuan style cold sesame noodles with peanut sauce (the BEST beginning for a Szechuanese meal):

It’s also National Denim Day, World Smile Day, Garlic Lovers Day (count me in), National Badger Day, German-American Day and the third day of World Space Week (October 4–10)

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the October 6 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Now this is truly a surprise: all of a sudden Joe Biden has decided to build new barriers along our border with Mexico, and barrier are what he campaigned against as President!

But facing a surge of migrants this year and sharp criticism even from some political allies, the Biden administration has backed away from its hard line on expanding the wall. The administration filed notice on Thursday that it was waiving more than 20 federal laws and regulations, including environmental ones, to build additional barriers along the Southern border.

With the shift, Mr. Biden finds himself helping to build a border wall that was one of the signature objectives of the Trump administration, even as he maintains that such barriers are ineffective in curbing unlawful entry from Mexico.

It is one of the starkest signs yet of the challenges Mr. Biden and his administration are wrestling with, as humanitarian crises across the world drive more migrants to the U.S. border while a deeply divided Congress leaves in place an outdated, dysfunctional immigration system.

News that the wall would be expanded broke as three members of Mr. Biden’s cabinet were traveling to Mexico for meetings with the country’s president on a host of issues, including migration and border security.

. . .One of the officials, Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said that easing the laws was necessary to expedite construction of sections of a border wall in South Texas, where thousands of migrants have been crossing the Rio Grande daily to reach U.S. soil.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States,” said Mr. Mayorkas in a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, adding that waiving laws and other requirements was necessary to complete the work more quickly in Starr County, Texas.

Well, I don’t know what to think. The idea of a wall somehow revulses me, though I recognize that there’s a need to curb illegal immigration. But I also recognize that without barriers, people will swarm across the southern borders to an extent that will overwhelm American services. I also don’t like barriers because they kill people.  I suppose I wish that a good bipartisan committee from both the House and Senate could iron out these problems, for Biden is just producing an unconsidered kneejerk solution to a problem that’s suddenly plaguing his administration.  Can we have humane but regulated immigration without barriers? Beats me.

*The AP has a long article on “the nones,” usually defined as someone with no formal affiliation with a church (“nones” can still be religious, but also include atheists). The article discusses the phenomenon in various regions of the globe, including the U.S., the Middle East, South America, Nigeria, Japan, India, and Italy.

Reader Norman saved me the trouble of reading it all by providing a summary:

Here are nine articles, covering six countries and two regions. Each article is similar in structure in that they focus on various people who have either lost interest in organized religion or never had an interest. Disillusionment because of scandal or cynicism that religion is all about money are fairly common reasons for not belonging. Lots of people (sadly) hold to alternative beliefs, such as astrology.

The articles have percentages sprinkled throughout, but I’m disappointed that there wasn’t a consistent methodology used across the countries and regions. I’d say that the piece—which is an entire website headed with links to the eight countries and regions—is more of a human-interest piece than anything else. It is far from a hard-hitting analysis. That said, I find it interesting that the Associated Press has even recognized the phenomenon.
It’s interesting that the AP chose Israel for special treatment. The U.N. gives “special“ treatment to Israel, too, for reasons that are less than honorable.
Sadly, according the article on the U.S., 79% of Americans believe in God and even the 43% who belong to no organized religion nonetheless believe in God or a higher power.
Read and weep:

*There’s been political conflict between Turkey and the U.S., but we are allies in NATO. Now there appears to be just a tad of military conflict as well, as the U.S. appears to have shot down a Turkish military drone:

A U.S. jet fighter shot down a Turkish drone Thursday after it was deemed a threat to U.S. forces in northeast Syria, a person familiar with the episode said.

The episode comes as Turkey has been mounting air attacks against Kurdish militants it blames for a bombing attack in Ankara on Sunday.

There are roughly 900 U.S. troops based in Syria, who have been working with Kurdish-led fighters to battle Islamic State.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said that the drone didn’t belong to the Turkish armed forces.

But one American official described it as an armed Turkish drone and said that the U.S. was aware of that before it acted.

The U.S. aircraft that downed the drone, which was armed with air-to-ground munitions, was an F-16. The action was taken as American troops were conducting operations nearby, a U.S. official said.

. . .While Turkish drones frequently operate in Syria, the downing came after Turkey declared that Kurdish militant facilities in Iraq and Syria were legitimate military targets.

Turkey said that operatives tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or the PKK, had traveled from Syria to conduct Sunday’s attack. Since then, Turkey has been conducting cross-border airstrikes and raids in northern Iraq against suspected PKK positions.

. . . “It’s a bold step by the U.S. It’s not every day that the U.S. takes down another NATO member’s drone,” said Charles Lister, director of the Syria counterterrorism programs at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. “This should only be read as an American message to Ankara to quit. But I don’t think the message will be received that way. Turkey sees the PKK as an existential threat, and they will continue to press on this issue.”

The PKK took responsibility for the recent suicide attack on Ankara that wounded two police officers, but the Turkish response has been massive. Yes, the PKK is a terrorist organization in Turkey, and they have the right to go after it. But since the drone may have harmed American troops, we also had the right to take it down. In the end, though I’m no fan of theocratic and despotic Turkish regime, this won’t hurt U.S./Turkish relations.

*In a piece called “An overdue lesson on antiracism,” NYT op-ed columnist Pamela Paul lectures us on the meaning of Ibram Kendi’s downfall. She goes pretty easy on Kendi, I must say and, like McWhorter (see yesterday’s post) tends to blame society, which thrust the man into a position he couldn’t handle. She does criticize his wonky views in How to Be an Antiracist, though, and that’s something for the NYT:

Among the book’s central tenets is that everyone must choose between his approach, which he called “antiracism,” and racism itself. It would no longer be enough for an individual or organization to simply be “not racist,” which Kendi called a “mask for racism” — they must instead be actively “antiracist,” applying a strict lens of racism to their every thought and action, and in fields wholly unrelated to race, in order to escape deliberate or inadvertent racist thinking and behavior. “What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what — not who — we are,” Kendi wrote.

Kendi’s antiracism prescription meant that universities, corporations and nonprofits would need to remove all policies that weren’t overtly antiracist. In the Boston University English department’s playwriting M.F.A. program, for example, reading assignments had to come from “50 percent diverse-identifying and marginalized writers,” and writers of “white or Eurocentric lineage” had to be taught through “an actively antiracist lens.” Antiracism also requires a commitment to other positions, including active opposition to sexism, homophobia, colorism, ethnocentrism, nativism, cultural prejudice and any class biases that supposedly harm Black lives. To deviate from any of this is to be racist. Either you’re with us or you’re against us.

Yet, as the psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt pointed out, Kendi’s dichotomy is “incorrect from a social-science perspective because there are obviously many other remedies,” including ones that address social, economic and cultural disparities through a fairer distribution of resources.

When a Minneapolis police officer murdered Floyd in May 2020, Kendi’s book, with its propitious, here-is-what-you-must-do-now title, became the bible for anyone newly committed to the cause of racial justice. Schools and companies made it required reading. So many campuses made it their class read, all-school read or community read that the publisher created a full set of reading and teaching guides for them. (Employees at the publishing house, Penguin Random House, were told to read it as the first “true companywide read” to begin “antiracism training mandatory for all employees.”) Universities used Kendi’s antiracist framework as the basis by which applicants’ required diversity statements would be judged.

. . .In short, a person can oppose racism on firm ethical or philosophical or pragmatic grounds without embracing Kendi’s conception of antiracism. No organization can expect all employees or students to adhere to a single view on how to combat racism.

. . . In the meantime, the best that could come out of this particular reckoning would be a more nuanced and open-minded conversation around racism and a commitment to more diverse visions of how to address it.

Somehow I think that Paul, who used to have more fire, is being easier on Kendi than she feels. (After all, the man promulgated ideas that were both ridiculous and divisive.) If I were uncharitable, I would have given her column an allitative title: “Pamela Paul Pulls Her Punches.”

Here’s a new 7-minute bit of the discussion between Glenn Loury and John McWhorter on whether one should feel Schadenfreude about Kendi’s downfall. They get into it pretty hard, though of course they don’t raise their voices. McWhorter even accuses Loury of “not applying his full mental capacities to understanding Kendi,” which is kind of like calling Loury stupid. But Loury gets one in at McWhorter by accusing the NYT of corruption, noting that McWhorter, oof course, can’t talk about that.  And that’s true.

*The new Nature shows us what Earth’s continents will look like in 250 million years.

Earth is currently thought to be in the middle of a supercontinent cycle1 as its present-day continents drift. The last supercontinent, Pangaea, broke apart about 200 million years ago. The next, dubbed Pangaea Ultima, is expected to form at the equator in about 250 million years, as the Atlantic Ocean shrinks and a merged Afro-Eurasian continent crashes into the Americas.

Just think of all the interchange of flora and fauna that will take place then! But WAIT! That can’t happen because the earth won’t be a viable place for most life at that time:

Up to 92% of Earth could be uninhabitable to mammals in 250 million years, researchers predict. The planet’s landmasses are expected to form a supercontinent, driving volcanism and increases to carbon dioxide levels that will leave most of its land barren.

“It does seem like life is going to have a bit more of a hard time in the future,” says Hannah Davies, a geologist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. “It’s a bit depressing.”

A bit? It’s not just us who will be gone (though believe me, we’ll take over all the habitable parts of the globe), but nearly all plants and animals, who simply can’t find suitable habitat. Bye, bye, penguins!

Have a look at the temperatures then:

But wait! There’s more:

Modelling the climate of the new supercontinent, described on 25 September in Nature Geoscience Alexander Farnsworth at the University of Bristol, UK, and his colleagues found that much of Pangaea Ultima will experience temperatures of higher than 40 °C, making it uninhabitable to most mammalian life. As they merge together and then drift apart, the continents will drive volcanic activity that “spews huge amounts of CO2 up into the atmosphere”, says Farnsworth, and that will heat up the planet.

Regions in the middle of the supercontinent, far from the oceans, would turn into deserts that are unliveable “expect for very specialized mammals”, says Farnsworth. The lack of moisture would also diminish the amount of silica that is washed into the oceans, which usually removes CO2 from the atmosphere.

In a worst-case scenario, in which CO2 levels reach 1,120 parts per million, more than double current levels, just 8% of the planet’s surface — coastal and polar regions — would be habitable to most mammalian life, compared with about 66% today.

Well, hominins have been here for only about six million years, which is 1/40th of the time we’re talking about, but those poor plants and animals! Oy!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, we have a nice photo of Hili pondering:

Hili: I think I should go there.
A: Do you see something interesting?
Hili: No. I’m consulting my intuition.
In Polish:
Hili: Sądzę, że powinnam tam pójść.
Ja: Widzisz coś ciekawego?
Hili: Nie, konsultuję się z moją intuicją.

And Leon has returned with a monologue!

Leon:  I announce the opening of the pillow-house season  (In Polish: “Ogłaszam otwarcie sezonu poduszkowo- domowego.”)

x

*******************

From Merilee, an anxious burgler (cat burglar?)”

From Stephen. This is a real headline; more on an upcoming Caturday:

From a list of “hilarious wedding announcements” I found somewhere on the Internet:

From Masih; another girl beaten nearly to death by the Iranian morality police for wearing a hijab improperly. She may well die—in a manner similar to Mahsa Amini.

A long satirical story by Titania (be sure to click “show more”):

From Colin. If you click on the picture, you’ll see that the Transgender World Cup Swimming Races were canceled because nobody wanted to compete:

From Simon, who says of the second tweet, “not even pumpkin spiced”:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, an escapee who didn’t make it:

Tweets from Doctor Cobb. First, the wonders of natural selection, with mimicry involving color, behavior, and position of arms:

Sound MUST be up!:

And receipts are FREE!

Saturday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 8, 2022 • 6:30 am

Good morning on Saturday, October 8, 2022. Once again, having been virtually sleepless, I tender only a Hili dialogue. That is, after all, the original stripped-down version of this feature.

Andrezj’s cynicism is temperated by Hili:

A: Words hide the intention more often than they inform.
Hili: I’m always meowing honestly.

 

In Polish:

Ja: Słowa częściej ukrywają intencje niż o nich informują.
Hili: Ja zawsze miauczę uczciwie.

Leon also has a greeting for you:

Leon: Good morning.

In Polish: Dzień dobry

Monday: Hili dialogue

August 8, 2022 • 6:30 am

It’s time to get back to work on Monday, August 8, 2022: National Rice Pudding Day. At last it’s arrived: a celebration of my favorite dessert! The best version I ever had was at the famous bistro L’Ami Jean in Paris, where you’d get a huge bowl of the stuff, with garnishes on the side, and could help yourself to as much as you want. That was one of the main reasons I went there, but the food was also great.

Here WAS their rice pudding/. I am stupefied:

You could even add extra whipped cream! Here’s my first portion (I’d usually have three or so.)

Alas, this is no more. After Adam Gopnik wrote an article about the restaurant (mentioning the pudding) in The New Yorker,  the place went downhill. Food quality dropped, as did portion size, and if you ordered rice pudding you got a smallish individual portion with a wee bit of garnish on top.  I don’t blame Adam, though, as the place was already well known to foodies, both French and Anglophones. But I will never go there again.

It’s also National Zucchini Day, National Frozen Custard Day, Scottish Wildcat Day (I’m still not sure if this is a real species or just feral cats), Happiness Happens Day (from the Secret Society of Happy People), and, best of all, International Cat Day!

Stuff that happened on August 9 includes:

Before the iconic photo:

Matthew sent this tweet marking this day in 1975:

Serves them right!

  • 1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.
  • 2004 – A tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumps approximately 800 pounds of human waste onto a boat full of passengers.

Da Nooz:

*Huzzah! The Senate passed the climate/tax/prescription drug bill, after pulling an all-nighter on Saturday night and debating until yesterday afternoon. First, I always wondered how aged folk like me could debate all night. The NYT explains(adding that they eat a lot of junk food):

The vote-a-rama (yes, it is actually called that), a familiar but reviled ritual for the octogenarians and elders who make up the Senate, began late Saturday night and stretched into Sunday morning. It was a final chance for Republicans to try to derail Democrats’ top legislative priority — or at least to lob political attacks against them on its path to passage — and a test of Democratic resolve to preserve their delicate compromise.

It was also the ultimate display of senatorial weirdness and dysfunction — a time-consuming exercise that has little impact on policy but keeps senators up through the night, ending only when they run out of steam for offering more amendments. They were still at it midmorning on Sunday after about 12 hours, with no certain indication of when they would finish.

Anyway, the Senators’ vote was 50-50, with no Republicans in favor and with Kamala Harris breaking the tie to achieve 51-50. A squeaker, but Manchin and Sinema were on the side of the angels. The provisions:

The measure, large elements of which appeared dead just weeks ago amid Democratic divisions, would inject nearly $400 billion into climate and energy programs. Altogether, the bill could allow the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

It would achieve Democrats’ longstanding goal of slashing prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare for the first time to negotiate the prices of medicines directly and capping the amount that recipients pay out of pocket for drugs each year at $2,000. The measure also would extend larger premium subsidies for health coverage for low- and middle-income people under the Affordable Care Act for three years.

And it would be paid for by substantial tax increases, mostly on large corporations, including establishing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax and imposing a new tax on company stock buybacks.

This may not help Biden become the Democratic candidate in 2024, but it will surely help the Democrats win.

*And, in case you were wondering, here are the latest update of Five-Thirty-Eight‘s prognostications for the midterm election. The Senate is pretty even, but Dems take it in most simulations:

But the House looks dire:

If this transpires, we’ll be in the legislative doldrums, but worse than before because the House won’t be able to pass anything, not even a “reconciliation” bill. .

*The Washington Post‘s Sunday magazine has a photo essay on what’s happened to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. It’s as some of us expected (those who actually believedthat the Taliban would be less theocratic and would empower women were suckers:

Gone were Western-looking clothes, the cleanshaven bureaucrats and hip youngsters in their skinny jeans and cool haircuts. Men now wore traditionalclothing — the shalwar kameez — and they were growing beards. Women were seen less often in public since many had lost their jobs, especially in the public sector. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down, and its building now housed the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the religious police who enforce the Taliban version of sharia law.

Those are the guys who beat women who aren’t sufficiently covered.  And of course women can’t go to college, despite the Taliban’s promises. Religion poisons everything.

*At the same time that primaries in the U.S. are being won by candidates who have an endorsement from Trump, it’s not clear, according to the Wall Street Journal, whether a Trump run for the Presidency in 2024 will get much enthusiasm from his fellow Republicans.

Congressional Republicans tout former President Donald Trump’s success in cutting taxes and transforming the Supreme Court, and cheer his America First approach to foreign affairs and ability to motivate Republican voters.

But as Mr. Trump weighs a new campaign for the White House in 2024, many GOP lawmakers aren’t ready to throw their support behind him. In interviews with nearly three dozen Republican lawmakers who were asked whether Mr. Trump should run, many deflected the question, saying that Mr. Trump’s decision is up to him without endorsing the idea.

Only four affirmatively said that they wanted Mr. Trump to try for another term, while three others said they hope he stays out, citing what they see as his divisive style of politics, his age, and the rise of other promising Republicans interested in the White House.

“I think we need a new generation of leadership,” said Rep. Chris Jacobs (R., N.Y.), who is retiring after this term. His was the most pro-Trump congressional district in New York state in 2020. “I support a lot of Donald Trump’s policies. And I think that they benefit this nation. But I think it’s time to move on.”

Here is my dream, which is mine: Ukraine beats the crap out of Russia, the Dems take the Presidency, House, and Senate in 2024, and Trump goes to jail for fomenting sedition. Oh, and Elizabeth Holmes also gets a couple years of jail time, too.

*Over at the Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi excoriates the government for sexism and racism, saying that there’s a double standard when treating the violence caused by street gangs and the “violence” (he means “unwanted sexual contact”) caused by college fraternities. To do this, he, citing dubious statistics, incomparable statistics, and to say this:

The fraternity may be as violent as the gang. Collegiate America may be as dangerous for women as urban America. If sexual violence is a violent crime, then the fraternity of today may be committing as many violent crimes as the gang of the 1990s that spooked fearful Americans into tough-on-crime policies.

. . . Fraternities and sexual violence have taken over our colleges. And yet, has Congress ever seriously considered steering billions to thwart sexual violence, to clean up the toxic masculinity poisoning fraternities and campus life?

He decries the fairness in campus sexual misconduct hearings promoted by Betsy DeVos (one of the few good things the Trump administration did), and says that America goes too hard on gangs and too soft on fraternities.

This double standard is both racist and elitist. After all, the stereotypical gang boy is poor and non-white. The stereotypical frat man is elite and white. And the double standard is sexist, as well. A blinding toxicity of masculinity prevents some Americans from truly caring about the typical victim of sexual assault on college campuses in the way they care about the victim of urban violence.

I’m not sure why the Atlantic allowed such a shoddy and poorly written piece in their august pages, except that the author is Ibram Kendi. In response to Kendi’s article, “What’s the difference between a frat and a gang?”, one Twitter wag responded:

(h/t Luana)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron make plans.

Szaron Where were you walking?
Hili: To and fro.
Szaron: I will go there as well.

In Polish:
Szaron: Gdzie chodziłaś?
Hili: Tam i siam.
Szaron: Ja tam też pójdę.

And a lovely picture of Szaron kissing Andrzej:

Finally, a big announcement: Leon turns eight today! Hard to believe; I knew him as a kitten. Elzbieta has written birthday greetings to her cat, and Malgorzata translated them:

Dignified, eight years old honoree, inseparable companion of everyday life, emphatic nurse with an exceptionally strong personality, exceptional intelligence, a gloomy gaze but with an all-embracing heart.

In Polish:

Dostojny, ośmioletni jubilat, nieodłączny towarzysz codzienności, empatyczny pielęgniarz o wyjątkowo silnej osobowości, nieprzeciętnej inteligencji, ponurym wejrzeniu,ale wszechogarniającym sercu🎂😻

Happy birthday, Leon!

*************************

From Seth Andrews:

Here from reader Divy is a photo of Jango watching a photo of Jango watching a photo of Jango watching his photo on this website.

From reader Tom, two cartoons by Dave Coverly:

The Tweet of God:

From Simon, who says, “I thought this was cool – nuclei in purple, membranes in white. Vellutini’s website gives more info.”

From Athayde. I wonder if the mother in the second tweet is humoring the kitten with its giant leap into the air.

From the Auschwitz Memorial; a survivor of three camps passes away.

Tweets from Matthew. Here’s a building giving you the raspberry:

Is this for real? Are those testicles or kidneys?

And the world’s most beautiful tarantula. I would have thought the color was artificially enhanced, but the person’s arm shows that it’s real:

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

March 14, 2022 • 7:30 am

Where we are now: According to the Amundsen’s real-time map, we have crossed the Drake Passaage and are about to head through the Beagle Channel toward Punta Arenas. I don’t know when we will dock there, and have no idea about my fate (or that of any of the passengers).

What with the seas and the winds, it was a very rough night, with things falling off shelves and the magnetically-closed closet doors swinging open. I’ve long ago learned to put my computer on the floor at night lest it fall off the table and break, but last night almost everything not secured was in danger of falling to the cabin floor.

And, from the balcony, here’s the first land I’ve seen in nearly two days. The sea is still a bit choppy, but things aren’t flying all over the ship, and there’s even a bit of sunshine.

Good morning on a Chilean Monday, March 14, 2022, which means not only is it the start of the work week, but it’s National Potato Chip Day. Because this tasty comestible was likely nvented in England, the proper name is “crisps,” not “potato chips.” But “potato chips” is too entrenched in the U.S.

Mo the Runner Duck is cheerful that it’s Monday (h/t: Matthew)

*Is this some good news in the Ukraine/Russia fight? The NYT reports that Russia and Ukraine are having “talks”, though Zelensky (one “y” or two; it’s transliterated) hasn’t scheduled a Zoom call with Putin. As the paper notes, “Both sides have said that the gap in demands has narrowed ahead of this round of talks,” but of course we don’t know what that means. Since I don’t know what it’s like to be a Putin, I can only speculate. But I doubt he’d pull out of Ukraine if they simply promised not to join NATO.

The Russians continue their relentless assault on Ukraine, now shelling the country’s west, where many have hoped to find a war-free refuge. The Russians are shelling civilian areas as well as passenger trains. Estimates of damage to Ukrainian infrastructure are now at $114 billion.

*The Washington Post reports that now Kyiv itself is under fire:

A residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district was struck by Russian shelling Monday, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, forcing residents to flee as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames and rescue those trapped inside. . .

. . . In the Kurenivka neighborhood, the wreckage of a rocket also landed in a street on Monday, killing one person and injuring six others, according to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.

But this is nice:

Emergency workers also helped evacuate pets.

*Some financial experts are beginning to speculate that the financial squeeze on Russia may eventually force it to default on the country’s debts. From the Guardian:

A Russian default on its debts after western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine is no longer “improbable”, but would not trigger a global financial crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday.

The Washington-based fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the sanctions imposed by the United States and other nations were already having a “severe” impact on the Russian economy and would trigger a deep recession there this year. The war in Ukraine will also drive up food and energy prices, leading to hunger in Africa, she added.

Georgieva told CBS’s Face the Nation programme: “In terms of servicing debt obligations, I can say that we no longer think of Russian default as an improbable event. Russia has the money to service its debt, but cannot access it. What I’m more concerned about is that there are consequences that go beyond Ukraine and Russia.”

Last week, the World Bank’s chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, warned that Russia and its ally Belarus were “mightily close” to default.

But since the debt isn’t huge as national debts go, these experts aren’t yet worried that such a default would trigger an international financial crisis.

*Surprisingly, some First Amendment scholars are touting loosening the Amendment to make it easier to prosecute defamation or libel cases that they see as spreading societal harm. As the New York Times reports,

The lawyers and First Amendment scholars who have made it their life’s work to defend the well-established but newly threatened constitutional protections for journalists don’t usually root for the media to lose in court.

But that’s what is happening with a series of recent defamation lawsuits against right-wing outlets that legal experts say could be the most significant libel litigation in recent memory.

The suits, which are being argued in several state and federal courts, accuse Project Veritas, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, One America News and others of intentionally promoting and profiting from false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election, and of smearing innocent civil servants and businesses in the process.

If the outlets prevail, these experts say, the results will call into question more than a half-century of precedent that created a clear legal framework for establishing when news organizations can be held liable for publishing something that’s not true.

The controversy turns on whether defamatory reporting with “actual malice” in intent should be construed more strictly than it is now. The balance is, as always, between freedom of speech and the likelihood of harm, but in this case the First-Amendment lawyers have a point.

*While the world’s attention is focused on Ukraine, we should spare a thought for the Middle East, particularly what Masih has tweeted below.

It’s reported by the New York Times, which says this:

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it had put 81 people to death in what was the kingdom’s largest mass execution in years, despite recent promises to curb its use of the death penalty.

In a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Ministry of Interior said the people had been executed for “multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead.” It did not say how they had been executed.

. . . Rights groups condemned the executions, saying they flew in the face of claims by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of the death penalty.

The comment below is by Ali Adubusi, director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights:

Mr. Adubusi’s rights group said that of the cases it had been able to monitor and document among the 81 people executed, it had found no charges that merited the death penalty under the criteria that Saudi Arabia has made public. Some of the charges were related to participation in human rights demonstrations, the group said.

. . . Rights groups said the number of executions carried out on Saturday far outstripped those put to death in the kingdom’s two most recent mass executions: one in 2019, in which 37 were killed, and the other in 2016, when 47 were executed.

*According to The Forward,  the Sierra Club has canceled several trips to Israel because of pressure from “anti-Zionist” groups (h/t Orli)

The decision came after activists alleged the organization was “greenwashing the conflict” and “providing legitimacy to the Israeli state, which is engaged in apartheid against the Palestinian people,” a volunteer leader with the nonprofit summarized in an email this week.

“Greenwashing,” like “pinkwashing” which refers to LGBTQ rights, is a term used by critics of Israel to refer to the act of obscuring Israel’s treatment of Palestinians by focusing on the country’s liberal environmental values or policies.

News of the Sierra Club’s decision came in a mass email obtained by J. that was sent out by Mary Owens, the chair of the Sierra Club’s National Outings team, to hundreds of volunteers who lead part-recreational, part-educational, conservation-focused trips around the world.

. . . The email from Owens, who said she was not authorized to speak to the press, described the Sierra Club’s decision to cancel its trips — one scheduled for this month, and another for March 2023 — as the result of an advocacy push from one “Jewish American activist” and a host of both progressive and anti-Zionist groups, including the pro-Palestinian Adalah Justice Project, the Indigenous rights group the NDN Collective, the Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Sunrise Movement and the Movement for Black Lives.

Note that the Sierra Club is now engaged in political activity—a boycott of trips to Israel in response to Israel’s “apartheid state” status—that has nothing to do with its mission. What is stupid about all this is that it is Palestine, not Israel, that is the apartheid state, but Israel is the state demonized by “progressives.” Were I a member of the Sierra Club, I’d quit over this; it’s not targeted at anything but the state of Israel itself, and is anti-Semitic.

*According to the New York Post, the stature of Theodor Roosevelt that once stood at the American Museum of Natural History, but was removed because it showed Roosevelt astride his horse, but flanked by a walking Native American on one side and an African (not a slave or African-American) on the other, is now the object of a petition that seeks to melt down the statue. It was headed to the Theodore Roosevelt Museum in Medora, North Dakota, but these petitioning Pecksniffs won’t rest until the statue is destroyed. (h/t: Matthew and Cesar) A quote from the Post:

“New Yorkers cannot simply dump their toxic cultural products in other communities,” according to an online petition by the academics started last month. “The city should reject the transfer of its undesirable waste elsewhere. In this case, the monument’s bronze content could be melted down or recycled for a better purpose or simply disposed of.”

. . . “The Public Design Commission approved the loan of the statue to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library with the understanding that the library will establish an advisory council composed of representatives of the indigenous tribal and black communities, historians, scholars, and artists to guide the reconsideration of the statue,” City Hall spokesman Charles Lutvak said.

The statue was removed at night on January 20. Well that could just be to avoid disrupting traffic rather than as a sneaky and surreptitious act, but the statue was on loan, not destroyed. It’s a sign of the moral hysterics of these Pecksniffs that it won’t do for the statue to be both relocated and “contextualized.” No, it has to be totally destroyed. Welcome to Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Photo by Caitlin Ochs

The second link in this note goes to a letter Greg Mayer wrote to the AMNH defending the presence and content of the statue.

The petition had drawn more than 275 signatures since it was posted on Tumblr last month. It was started by members of Decolonize This Place, a left-wing activist group which pushed for the statue’s removal.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej are communing about Ukraine/Russia, and Malgorzata explains a bit:

The situation is so complicated that it’s difficult not only to know which information to believe but even to understand one’s own feelings about it. Hili is commiserating with Andrzej saying a platitude used in such situations and Andrzej is answering as if the platitude meant something.

Hili: I know what you feel now.
A: Sometimes I don’t know myself.
In Polish:
Hili: Ja wiem co teraz czujesz.
Ja: Chwilami ja sam nie wiem.
And here’s little Kulka, who isn’t so little any more:

We haven’t had a Leon monologue in a while, as he’s been quiescent during winter. Here the Dark Tabby senses the approach of Spring:

Leon: Gotta stretch the paws after winter.

In Polish: Trzeba rozprostować kości po zimie

I asked Malgorzata if any Ukrainian refugees had made their way to the town of Dobrzyn. Her response.

We still do not have any refugees. In our tiny town the fire brigade and school together prepared 40 places and they are still empty.  At the same time in Warsaw and other big cities people are sleeping on the floor of the railway stations or in huge halls with hundreds of beds close together. I suspect that this crazy situation is the result of the total lack of coordination from the state authorities. Everything is done by private people, small charitable organizations and by local authorities.  And new refugees are coming in thousands every day! Yesterday Russians bombed an Ukrainian place 20 km from Polish border.

From Nicole:

From Stefan. When I was younger I didn’t believe this was a thing, and so looked it up. It turns out there are several papers in medical journals on the issue, and the usual excuse for the accident is like this, “I was vacuuming in my dressing gown when the gown came open and the vacuum cleaner sucked in my penis.”

From Facebook:

 

The Tweet of God, who now #StandsWithUkraine:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a prisoner who lasted 11 days in the camp.

Tweets from Matthew. This first one seems to be a Russian women who is doing antiwar work outside Russia:

An ill-timed selfie. I wonder if that’s the communications tower in Kyiv:

So often the result of the violence inflicted in Ukraine is to play music:

And that reaction isn’t just in Ukraine. Russian rapper Morgenshtern may well be in deep trouble now.

Interspecies love (a ménage á trois, in fact); from The Dodo, of course:

Another example of mimicry. I’m not sure why they haven’t done the observation to see if individuals really can change color. See another example of mimicry below:

Can you spot the Bargibant’s Seahorse? This is a very tough one, but you can find the reveal here, with the animal circled.

Saturday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

February 5, 2022 • 7:30 am

Good morning on the first Cat Sabbath of the month, Saturday, February 5, 2022— World Nutella Day. A few years ago I bought a jar of the stuff found it it too sweet. (It’s ok, though, when used as a thin filling of cookies; the Italians make a kind of Nutella oreo that’s quite good.)  It’s also Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (pie is better), International Pisco Sour Day, National Chocolate Fondue Day, National Fart Day(!), Disaster Day (the day of the Pompeii earthquake in 62 A.D.), California Western Monarch Day, and National Weatherperson’s Day.

Wine of the Day: I don’t drink much vintage port, but after sampling this 24-year-old specimen, I realized that I should. The reasons I neglect port are two: price and time. It’s usually expensive,—$60 a bottle or more when first released—and you should hold onto it for at least 15 years after the vintage date before drinking (it’s aged in oak for three years before it’s bottled). It throws a heavy sediment, and more likely than not you’ll break the cork trying to extricate it, which means laborious decanting and filtering.

But with a good port like this, which can last a week after opening, it’s worth it. I couldn’t find much about this vintage, made from their flagship vineyard (the weather in 1998 wasn’t good for widespread “declaration” of vintage port), but I’ve had enough port to advise that if you can find this one at $50, and can afford it, buy it (I paid considerably less, but that was a while back). This Cockburn was made in the round, sweetish style that I like in this dessert wine (other makers with that style are Graham’s and Taylor’s). It’s now about it’s peak, with ripe, plummy sweetness, like alcoholic jam: perfect for sipping with a book, as I’m about to do now.

I don’t drink port on my own except when I don’t have wine with dinner, as that would be too much alcohol. (This one comes in at a full 20% abv, so a largish glass will last all evening.) Port, along with other sweet wines like sherry or the Australian “stickies,” still remains a great value for quality, even though it isn’t cheap. If you don’t know vintage port, there is no substitute (even the vaunted tawny ports, the next step down), but try to get hold of the good stuff. T

Port after dinner with nuts or Stilton: a great British tradition. (I prefer mine on its own).

News of the Day:

*A few days ago I wrote briefly (in the Hili post) about the fracas at Georgetown University about the tweets of Ilya Shapiro, a constitutional lawyer who was suspended for tweeting (critically) about Biden’s promise to nominate a black woman to fill RBG’s Supreme Court post.  As I think so often, what he said was pretty odious, but didn’t deserve firing. The NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg agrees, even considering what Shapiro said:

Shapiro, who’d recently been hired by Georgetown University’s law school, criticized Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Indian-born judge Sri Srinivasan was “objectively” the “best pick.” But Srinivasan, wrote Shapiro, “alas doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.” He claimed that if Biden considered only Black women, whoever he chose would always have an “asterisk attached.”

That’s offensive for sure, but the man has free speech (he did apologize for one of those tweets), and, as I wrote before, one of his female colleagues said things even more heinous about the nomination of Bret Kavanaugh, but she was defended by Georgetown. This is a clear case of double-standards for speech. (See also the U.S. Free Speech Union’s post “Georgetown’s Thuggish Illiberalism.”)

Why is Goldberg, a liberal, opposed to such punishment? For reasons I well understand:

I wouldn’t argue with anyone who interprets Shapiro’s insulting tweets that way [i.e. black women can’t come up to snuff on the Supreme Court]. Nevertheless, it is a mistake for Georgetown to investigate or punish him, for two reasons, one abstract and one strategic. The abstract one is that however offensive Shapiro’s words were, they’re also the sort of political speech that should be protected by basic notions of academic freedom, which is why a number of people who detest what Shapiro said criticized Georgetown’s move. As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer wrote, “I’ve made my feelings about what he said clear but it’s impossible for academic institutions to fulfill their missions if they fire or punish people under circumstances like these.”

But punishing Shapiro for his tweets isn’t a bad idea just in principle. It also threatens to undermine the value of academic freedom at a time when that value is under sustained assault in many red states.

This kind of academic censorship, which as Shapiro notes comes from both Right and Left, is reaching a kind of crescendo. Can it get any worse?  Debate, yes, but trying to ruin people’s lives over their speech? Well, I’m agin’ it.  The gleefulness I see when someone is fired or “canceled” is sickening. And for someone like Trump, there’s both counterspeech and the ballot—and, in some cases, lawsuits.

Professors aren’t immune from the protections of the First Amendment when speaking as citizens. As the USFSU notes about Shapiro’s suspension and condemnation by Georgetown Law dean William Treanor,

Treanor’s bullying statement and actions plainly violate the principle of academic freedom, which protects what the American Association of University Professors terms “extramural utterances.” As the AAUP avows, when professors “speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.” Elaborating on this idea, the AAUP stresses that “the controlling principle is that a faculty member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for the position.”

Of course the black students will, and have, said that what Shapiro said demonstrates his unfitness as a teacher, but it really doesn’t. He may be perfectly fine as a professor of constitutional law. But, people can claim, “Because of what he said, I will be harmed if I took his class.” Those people need to get over themselves.

People keep forgetting that freedom of speech is there precisely to protect those who say unpopular and unwelcome things. Most moral progress in our era started with unwelcome speech. Nobody, least of all Treanor or the aggrieved students of Georgetown, can set themselves up as judges of what professors can say in their free time.

*Re the Ukraine, based on the continuing Russian buildup, my latest prediction is the Russia will invade the country before the Winter Olympics are over. I will be delighted to be wrong, for one can imagine the horrors that could ensue, even though the most likely response from NATO and the U.S. will be a tepid rather than a bellicose one.

*To make a short poem, “Mike Pence has shown some sense.” In response to Trump’s continuous lying bloviation about the election being rigged, and his claims Pence had the power to overturn it, Pence has finally, as HuffPo would put it, “clapped back.” CNN reports:

Former Vice President Mike Pence called out his former boss by name on Friday, saying that “President (Donald) Trump is wrong” in claiming that Pence had the right to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called out his former boss by name on Friday, saying that “President (Donald) Trump is wrong” in claiming that Pence had the right to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.

Speaking at the Federalist Society Florida Chapters conference near Orlando, Pence delivered his strongest response yet to Trump’s ongoing efforts to relitigate the 2020 presidential election, calling it “un-American” to suggest one person could have decided the outcome.

Pence warned against conservatives who continue to insist the vice president can alter an election, and said it could be a problematic position for Republicans in the next presidential contest.

“Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election, and (Vice President) Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024,” Pence said.

“WE beat them in 2024”? Who, exactly is “we”? It can’t be Trump and Pence, because for sure Pence would not be Trump’s VP pick if the Orange Man ran again in two years. No, it has to mean that, by declaring his independence this way, Pence is throwing his own hat into the ring. That heartens me a bit, because Pence is such a lame-o that he couldn’t beat a decent Democrat. Our problem, though, is we don’t have any decent Democratic candidates for President—at least not ones that I can see all Democrats getting behind. Perhaps one will rise from the ranks, like Obama.

*Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 900,141, an increase of 2,6319 deaths over yesterday’s figure. We’ll probably reach at least a million deaths before this thing is over, but the curve is bending sharply downward (see below).  The reported world death toll is now 5,745,796, an increase of about 12,600 over yesterday’s total.

Here’s the curve of “new reported cases in the U.S.” from the NYT; I believe this is a weekly running average:

 

Stuff that happened on February 5 include:

  • 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.

Over 100 bodies of the victims were preserved in situ, a gruesome but fascinating sight. Here are several:

Martin Scorsese’s 2016 movie “Silence,” which I haven’t seen, is about the perilous life of Japanese Christians.  Here’s a trailer:

I consider The Hermitage, where I spent two fantastic days in 2011; the greatest art museum in the world for its architecture, light, stupendous collection from ancient to modern art, and one’s ability to get close to the paintings (which is probably not good for them).

From the Neva (I was at a meeting and they laid on a fancy cruise complete with tons of food and a bottle of vodka per person):

A staircase inside:

One of their two attributed Leonardos, though this one’s disputed (it may be by a pupil of Leonardo): the Madonna Litta:

Here’s a replica; it weighted 72 kg:

To see what horrors went on under Leopold’s fiefdom, read the book King Leopold’s Ghost: A story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, by Adam Hochsfield. I believe a reader here recommended it, and it’s a page turner.

Here’s the famous time signal, which I believe the BBC broadcasts every hour:

The Prime Meridian at the Observatory is now marked by a laser:

  • 1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
  • 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

It’s still lost, but it’s pretty sure that it lacks the equipment to initiate the explosion.

  • 1971 – Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

Here’s Alan Shepard, one of the original Mercury astronauts, on the moon with the American flag. But where is the wind coming from?

  • 1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
  • 2020 – United States President Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial.

Notables born on this day include:

Here’s Truman and Stevenson (seated) in the Oval Office 1952. Stevenson was called “the thinking man’s candidate”, and of course lost twice—to Eisenhower.

  • 1934 – Hank Aaron, American baseball player (d. 2021)
  • 1944 – Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer

Here’s Koooper with one of his own compositions from the 1968 Blood Sweat and Tears album “Child is Father to the Man“, one of the greatest but least-known albums in rock history. Here’s another song, this one by Randy Newman, and another by Harry Nilsson, both on that album.

  • 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director

Those who bowed out  on February 4 include:

  • 1881 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (b. 1795)
  • 1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1864)

Banjo wrote Australia’s most well known song (below):

Original manuscript, transcribed by Christina Macpherson, c. 1895

Do see the recent movie “Mank” about his life and collaboration with Orson Welles in writing the movie “Citizen Kane”.  Here’s a trailer:

  • 1999 – Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
  • 2020 – Kirk Douglas, American actor (b. 1916)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, it’s time for Hili to pack it in:

Hili: It’s getting late.
A: And what about it?
Hili: I’m going back home.
In Polish:
Hili: Robi się późno.
Ja: I co w związku z tym?
Hili: Wracam do domu.

And over in Wloclawek, Elzbieta is in severe pain, having been temporarily felled by radiculitis acquired by sitting in the cold too long and watching beavers. She will be fine, but Leon is watching over her.

Leon: You are in the best care; rest easy.

In Polish: Jesteś pod najlepszą opieką, leż spokojnie.

From Malcolm, who found this picture of penguin feathers on Bored Panda. Look at their density!:

From Only Duck Memes.  Please read this if you feed ducks, and inform others if you see them giving ducks bread or crackers (click to enlarge):

From Science Humor, strange but true:

Two from Simon. First from Oded Rechavi, who specializes in turning photos into memes about academic science. As Simon notes of this one, “I liked Oded’s commentary (as always) but I have to wonder what the bear is thinking.”

Here’s another one. I sometimes felt this way when teaching:

From Merilee. Soon we’ll have a Caturday item about a grand reunion involving this airlift.

From Ginger K. This makes sense to me:

Tweets from Matthew. This one he calls “kind of gross unless you’re a dromedary.” This is new to me! Make sure the sound is up!

Lesson for the day: dromedaries are not really “camels”, as “camels” refer to the bactrians. They differ in their number of humps, and you can read about other differences here.

Just in time for Matthew’s birthday: one of the loveliest murmurations either of us have ever seen:

The comedian Jonathan Pie is now a correspondent for the New York Times. Have a listen to the video at the link:

A very old fossil turducken!

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

January 28, 2022 • 7:15 am

Another week at an end: it’s a cold Chicago Friday, January 28, 2022, National Blueberry Pancake Day. Those are some good pancakes, but don’t forget the pure maple syrup (darkest grade possible):

It’s also National Kazoo Day, Daisy Day, Pop Art Day, International Lego Day (see “1958” below), and Data Privacy Day.

News of the Day:

*From UN Watch, we have an amazingly stupid act of the United Nations, the dumbest among many dumb actions of that body. The screenshot tells the tale, but you can click on it if you want to read more.

An excerpt:

The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts. The UN-backed body calls itself “the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community.”

“Having the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un preside over global nuclear weapons disarmament will be like putting a serial rapist in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the United Nations.

“This is a country that threatens to attack other UN member states with missiles, and that commits atrocities against its own people. Torture and starvation are routine in North Korean political prison camps where an estimated 100,000 people are held in what is one of the world’s most dire human-rights situations,” said Neuer.

According to the article, the good news is that the post is “largely formal”, but seriously, what about the optic? The UN is already becoming a joke, and this won’t help:

“At a time when China, Russia, Libya, Kazakhstan and Venezuela are sitting on the UN’s human rights council, this won’t help.”

*Stephen Breyer handed Biden his own letter of resignation from the Supreme Court today, and the President gave him the due plaudits. However, even appointing a black woman Justice, as Biden promises, will do absolutely nothing to change the court’s move to the Right. (She had better be young!). The villain in all this, as usual, is Senator Mitch “666” McConnell, who, according to the NYT,

 issued a warning to Mr. Biden against making an overly ideological choice to succeed Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who formally announced his retirement on Thursday.

“The American people elected a Senate that is evenly split at 50-50,” Mr. McConnell said in his first statement since word of the retirement leaked. “To the degree that President Biden received a mandate, it was to govern from the middle, steward our institutions and unite America. The president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left. The American people deserve a nominee with demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution.”

As if his hero Trump didn’t make ideological choices for Justices. Jebus, Amy Coney Barrett is about as far right as you can get. That sad part is that the next oldest justice after Breyer is Clarence Thomas, a decade younger. And you just know that Thomas will be sitting on the bench until they carry him out in a box. It will be amusing seeing the Republican Senators try to do down every one of Biden’s nominees.

*From FIRE we learn that Jason Kilborn, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Law School who used two redacted slurs on a law school exam question about a hypothetical discrimination case (see guest post here) has not only been punished by UIC, but the university also reneged on its agreement with him. For doing exactly nothing wrong, Kilborn now must to undergo months of “training” and write “reflection papers”. This is about the most Stalinesque bit of performative wokeness I’ve seen in a public university. An excerpt from FIRE’s article:

UIC suspended and launched an investigation into Kilborn after he posed a hypothetical question — which he has asked in previous years — using redacted references to two slurs, in a December 2020 law school exam. The question about employment discrimination referenced a plaintiff being called “a ‘n____’ and ‘b____’ (profane expressions for African Americans and women)” as evidence of discrimination. But even redacting the terms didn’t save Kilborn from discipline by university administrators.

Kilborn reached a resolution with UIC in July, in which he agreed to alert the dean before responding to student complaints about racial issues and to audio-record his classes. Kilborn welcomed both of these stipulations in order to protect himself against spurious complaints, and had already decided to take those actions independently. As part of that resolution, Kilborn and UIC ultimately reached an understanding that Kilborn would not have to attend sensitivity training.

However, in November, under pressure from UIC’s Black Law Students Association and Jesse Jackson, UIC reneged on its agreement with Kilborn and is now requiring him to participate in months-long “training on classroom conversations that address racism” and compelling him to write reflection papers before he can return to the classroom. In a stunning display of unintended irony, the individualized training materials include the same redacted slur that Kilborn used in his test question.

With legal help from FIRE, Kilborn is suing UIC, a public college, for infringement of speech. I hope that UIC loses the case and has to pay tons of money in damages and attorneys’ fees.  Their punishment is stupid; their reneging on the agreement is reprehensible. 

In an op-ed at the Washington Post, author Dora Horn, who wrote the best-selling book with the provocative title, People Love Dead Jews, muses on why anti-Semitism in America still seems focused on the Holocaust. And the answer is the same as her book’s thesis: people love dead Jews like Anne Frank (who was much in the news last week), but don’t care so much about the ones who don’t die (like the hostages in Texas):

Unfortunately, as critical as teaching about the Holocaust is, it’s not the same as teaching about antisemitism. Instead, people mostly seem to think that antisemitism consists exclusively of the murders of 6 million Jews. Anything short of that is all in our heads. The feel-good stories people tell themselves about dead Jews make it easy to dismiss the here-and-now targeting of live ones.

The FBI eventually walked back its clumsy statement that the Texas attack was “not specifically related to the Jewish community.” But a reporter who spoke to two dozen residents of the synagogue’s neighborhood found they unanimously agreed. In fact, they were convinced their church down the street was equally at risk. “If it happens over there, it could happen over here, too,” one churchgoer said.

Clueless comments such as these reveal the warped funhouse American Jews now live in. After synagogue shootings in Pennsylvania and California, a kosher market attack in New Jersey, a Hanukkah attack in Upstate New York, a rabbi’s stabbing in Boston, street attacks in New York City and Los Angeles, and countless other vicious assaults on American Jews, this kind of plausible deniability has become a public ritual.

But everyone knows about the Holocaust. Holocaust education is now its own ritual, where middle-schoolers and public figures piously announce that Nazis are bad. The problem is that this a rather low bar to clear. We can all pat ourselves on the back for not murdering 6 million Jews. This absurd standard allows people to ignore a pervasive and very current hatred while feeling well-informed. Why should those nice neighbors, or the FBI for that matter, believe antisemitism is a problem if there aren’t millions of bodies?

Because Jews see things well-meaning neighbors don’t. . .

This is an unusually concise, powerful, and well written op-ed.

*Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 877,815, an increase of 2,530 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll is now 5,658,539, an increase of about 9,300 over yesterday’s total.

Stuff that happened on January 28 include:

  • 814 – The death of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, brings about the accession of his son Louis the Pious as ruler of the Frankish Empire.[2]
  • 1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.

That is a LONG time to eat worms!

  • 1547 – Edward VI, the nine-year-old son of Henry VIII, becomes King of England on his father’s death.
  • 1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg, Russia, by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
  • 1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.

But  Wikipedia, doesn’t mention the word itself.

[On 28 January 1754], inn a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a lost painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.” The name comes from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), hence Sarandib by Arab traders.[4] It is derived from the Sanskrit Siṃhaladvīpaḥ (Siṃhalaḥ, Sri Lanka + dvīpaḥ, island).

However, as always, the Oxford English Dictionary gives the first usage, and it was indeed by Walpole:

1754   H. Walpole Let. to H. Mann 28 Jan.   This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity.

Here’s a video showing the first edition of this classic, which will cost you around $30,000 these days.

 

  • 1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
  • 1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

The usual walking speed is about 3 mph, so cars had to go slower than pedestrians!

Gitmo is on a yearly lease, but Cuba has refused to accept the payments. Here’s a diagram of the base. The outdoor movie theater is at lower right (circled) and I’ve put an arrow by McDonald’s (yep, there is one!):

And McD’s, surrounded by razor wire!

  • 1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali Khan and is accepted by Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
  • 1935 – Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.
  • 1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance.

. . . here’s a very rare color film (without sound) of Elvis singing  April 25, 1955 at a Texas outdoor venue, a year before he was on television. It’s the first time Elvis was ever filmed anywhere.

  • 1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
  • 1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.
  • 1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

Here’s the official video of “We Are the World”.  It was good to see all these people together in a common cause; I failed to recognize only two of the soloists. And where else will you see Willie Nelson singing with Dionne Warwick? Try listening to it first with your eyes closed to see how many voices you can recognize.  Dylan! Diana Ross! Stevei Wonder! The Boss! Kim Carnes! Ray Charles! Tina Turner! Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper! Paul Simon! Willie Nelson! It goes on and on and on. . . My favorite part is when Michael Jackson sings harmony with Diana Ross (1:35), who gives him the “okay” sign.

And note this: “[The song] was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian.”

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1873 – Colette, French novelist and journalist (d. 1954)
  • 1912 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
  • 1936 – Alan Alda, American actor, director, and writer
  • 1968 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer.

Although this isn’t her own song, it’s my favorite performance by McLachlan.  I believe it’s Luke Doucet on guitar.  I can’t decide whether I like this version better than McCartney’s.

Those who said their last farewells on January 28 include:

  • 814 – Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
  • 1547 – Henry VIII, king of England (b. 1491)
  • 1939 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)

Here’s Yeats in 1903. Below him, his “muse” Maud Gonne, an Irish nationalist. Yeats proposed to her four times, and was rejected every time.  He was completely infatuated.

Maude Gonne in 1900.  They “did it” only once—in Paris in 1908—and then, despite Yeat’s ardor, the relationship became platonic again:

  • 1960 – Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist (b. 1891)
  • 1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger crew
    • Gregory Jarvis, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1944)
    • Christa McAuliffe, American educator and astronaut (b. 1948)
    • Ronald McNair, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1950)
    • Ellison Onizuka, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1946)
    • Judith Resnik, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1949)
    • Dick Scobee, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1939)
    • Michael J. Smith, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1945)
  • 1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German physicist and politician (b. 1911)
  • 2021 – Cicely Tyson, American actress (b. 1924)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is making the Cat Decision, which usually goes only one way:

Hili: I’m thinking.
A: What about?
Hili: Whether to push it off or leave it alone.
Hili: Myślę.
Ja: Nad czym?
Hili: Czy to zrzucić, czy zostawić?

And here’s Leon in nearby Wloclawek. I don’t understand why cats are so eager for Friday. Is it because the staff can attend to them more over the next two days?

Leon: Waiting for Friday.

In Polish: “W oczekiwaniu na piątek”

A meme from Bruce:

From Not Another Science Cat Page: This is only a misdemeanor!

And a special feature from reader Pliny the in Between: Korean Wedding Ducks:

When my brother was in the service he brought home a pair of Korean wedding ducks from Seoul as a wedding gift for me and my partner.  By tradition, as long as the ducks are beak-to-beak it symbolizes harmony in the relationship.  In a couple of weeks, ours will have been holding that position for 30 years.

I hope they don’t have a cat! You know what would happen, and then the relationship would be kaput. . . (in fact, I’ve since learned that a cat did chew the bll off one duck, but the relationship survived).

From Ginger K.  This must be for an OnlyFans cat group:

A tweet by one friend directing you to an article by another friend (and co-author on my one philosophy paper). The title is certainly provocative; I haven’t yet read Maarten’s article but will; in the meantime go see what he means:

Tweets from Matthew. He says this first one is an “old one”, but it’s also wonky. Who on earth would make cheesecake and cookes sister groups? Cheesecake is closer to a pie or even a “true cake” than to a cookie, for crying out loud!

I might have shown this before, but I can’t see it too often: it’s one of Nature’ most remarkable cases of mimicry:

Facial diversity in foxes, which are Honorary Cats®:

Adam Rutherford thinks this is the best letter ever written!

Holy cow! A Picasso?

Runner ducks crossing! This person will have to wait a while . . .

Google translation from the Dutch: “Hi boss I’m a little late…. uhm I have to wait for some ducks crossing.”

Saturday: Hili dialogue and New Year’s wishes from Leon and Kulka

January 1, 2022 • 7:00 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ( HOPE).

It’s 2022!!! A new year has begun on This Saturay, January 1, 2022. (Don’t forget to stop writing 2021 on your checks-— if anybody’s still writing checks.) And a HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL; let us hope it will be better than 2*21, the unspeakable year of misery.

Of course it’s National Bloody Mary Day.

It’s also Apple Gifting Day, Commitment Day, Ellis Island Day, Euro Day (see below), Fruitcake Toss Day, National Hangover Day, Polar Bear Plunge Day (is anybody gonna do this?), Global Family Day, the last day of Kwanzaa (n.b. not “Coynezaa”, Emancipation Day, and the following New Year celebrations:

Here’s Ded Moroz (Santa) and Snegurochka in Belarus, where things are tough right now.

Google’s New Year’s Day gif (click on screenshot);

News of the Day:

*Well, 2021 went out the way it came in: miserably. New covid cases set a record: nearly 600,000 new cases in one day! Worse, Bloomberg reports that, by mid-January, there could be a million new covid cases per day! Are we all going to get the virus before this is over?

*And if you’re flying anywhere in the next few days, expect the worst: the NBC Evening News reported last night that 1,500 flights have been canceled, and now we’re facing terrible weather in the Midwest and Northeast U.S. (It will snow at least four inches in Chicago today.) Many pilots are out sick, and United Airlines has offered triple pay for pilots willing to fly extra legs. I’m very glad I didn’t go anywhere for the holidays.

*Along with this goes the cancellation of many New Year’s festivities throughout the world, though the Big Ball is going to drop in Times Square in New York. But in Las Vegas (of course), 300,000 people are predicted to crowd the Strip and there are no restrictions, including masks or proof of vaccinated (both required in New York City).

*I posted yesterday about Betty White’s unexpected death at 99. People that are centenarians or close to it are often asked about their “secret to longevity”, and it’s always something like “do what I did.” In Betty White’s case, Food & Wine Magazine posted her answer on December 29—just two days before she died (oy!):

Of course, Betty White – who turns 100 on January 17 – doesn’t need any help making headlines. And clearly, the lifelong actress knows a thing or two about entertaining answers for interviews. So what was White’s response when People recently asked about her dietary regimen at 99 years old? “I try to avoid anything green,” she joked. “I think it’s working.”

This was a woman after my own heart. Plus she loved animals!

*Speaking of animals, what about that cleaner in Florida who climbed a fence at night, snuck over to the tiger cage at a zoo, stuck his arm through the cage, and was grabbed by a rare Malayan tiger named Eko.  The schlemiel called the cops, who came and had to shoot that magnificent animal dead. The zoo is mourning Eko, who was much loved, while the guy is in the hospital in serious condition. The zoo closed on Friday so that the employees could mourn, and there was even a grief counselor available. It’s not yet clear whether authorities will bring criminal charges against the man.

*Need cheering up by now?Click on the screenshot to read a story about animals that has a great headline and a happy ending:

*Marshall Mathers, better known as the rapper Eminem, has just opened a faux-Italian restaurant in Detroit called “Mom’s Spaghetti”. (It’s a reference to his hit song “Lose Yourself”.)  The New York Times reviewed it (verdict: meh), and there’s a video below. The joint features an $11 “spaghetti sandwich”: a glop of pasta between two pieces of white bread. Gag me with a spoon!

*And the royal worshipers in the UK are all agog about Kate Middleton playing the piano at a Christmas gala at Westminster Abbey; she accompanied a Scottish singer. Some of the headlines are over the top. This video, for example, is titled “Kate Middleton DAZZLES during impressive piano performance.”  From what I can see, it’s not very dazzling. Note how the guy who sang with her osculates the bum of the Firm:

 

From the Daily Fail:

I’ll never understand the view of the UK public (I know, some of you don’t share this) that the royals are akin to demigods. And yet many smart and thoughtful people argue strenuously that we should keep the royals.

*Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 823,903 an increase of 1,242 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll is now 5,454,900, an increase of about 6,400 over yesterday’s total.

Stuff that happened on January 1 includes:

  • 153 BC – For the first time, Roman consuls begin their year in office on January 1.
  • 45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.
  • 42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar
  • 1500 – Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers the coast of Brazil.
  • 1700 – Russia begins using the Anno Domini era instead of the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
  • 1739 – Bouvet Island, the world’s remotest island, is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.

Here’s where it is, and a few words from Wikipedia:

Bouvet Island (Norwegian: Bouvetøya [bʉˈvèːœʏɑ] or Bouvetøyen) is a Norwegian uninhabited protected nature reserve. As a subantarctic volcanic island, it is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean (54°25′S 3°22′ECoordinates: 54°25′S 3°22′E), at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge making it the world’s most remote island. It is not part of the southern region covered by the Antarctic Treaty System.

The island lies 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) north of the Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of the South Sandwich Islands, 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) south of Gough Island, and 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) south-southwest of the coast of South Africa. It has an area of 49 square kilometres (19 sq mi), 93 percent of which is covered by a glacier. The centre of the island is the ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano. Some skerries and one smaller island, Larsøya, lie along its coast. Nyrøysa, created by a rock slide in the late 1950s, is the only easy place to land and is the location of a weather station.

Here’s that godforsaken island:

  • 1773 – The hymn that became known as “Amazing Grace“, then titled “1 Chronicles 17:16–17”, is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.

Newton wrote the song: in 1772; he was an English poet and Anglican clergyman (1725–1807). I believe Olney is where they have the annual pancake race on Shrove Tuesday (I’ve been there).

The flag, which still retains traces of colonialism:

That lasted until 1922, when the Irish Free State (now just “Ireland” was formed), while Northern Ireland is still allied with the UK.

  • 1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
  • 1892 – Ellis Island begins processing immigrants into the United States.

Here are some immigrants who passed inspection, and are waiting for a ferry to Manhattan:

(From the NYT) PASSAGES Immigrants at Ellis Island awaiting a ferry to the city. Credit…Bettmann/CORBIS
  • 1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
  • 1934 – Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison.

Even though the island isn’t far from San Francisco, the currents are rough and security was tight. Nobody is known to have successfully escaped. Here’s the island with the prison on it, and a view of the cells (#181, with the open door, was where Al Capone lived):

First the Nazis sterilized these people (not all of the defects were “genetic”), and later began to euthanize them—they were the first victims of the Nazi genocide. (The killing was later stopped after a public outcry. Here’s a poster urging euthanasia; the caption is from Wikipedia:

Propaganda for Nazi Germany’s T-4 Euthanasia Program: “This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too.” from the Office of Racial Policy’s Neues Volk.

And. . . here’s the first Canadian citizen, you hosers! How come everyone didn’t become Canadian instantly?

  • 1958 – The European Economic Community is established.
  • 1959 – Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro’s forces.
  • 1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
  • 1990 – David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City’s first black mayor.

Here’s Dinkens, who died about a year ago:

  • 1993 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic
  • 1995 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.

These are often called “freak waves”: here’s one hitting an oil rig in the North Sea:

  • 1999 – Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union (with the exception of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden; Greece adopts the euro two years later).

Notables born on this day include:

Here’s a genuine Paul Revere dessert spoon from the 1780s; it’s only $18,000 on eBay:

  • 1752 – Betsy Ross, American seamstress, credited with designing the Flag of the United States (d. 1836)
  • 1864 – Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer and curator (d. 1946)

Considered the father of modern art photography, Stiegliz took many great photos, but this may be his best, “The Steerage”, the subject of a whole Wikipedia page.

Some info:

The Steerage is a black and white photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz in 1907. It has been hailed as one of the greatest photographs of all time because it captures in a single image both a formative document of its time and one of the first works of artistic modernism.

“There were men and women and children on the lower deck of the steerage. There was a narrow stairway leading to the upper deck of the steerage, a small deck right on the bow with the steamer.
To the left was an inclining funnel and from the upper steerage deck there was fastened a gangway bridge that was glistening in its freshly painted state. It was rather long, white, and during the trip remained untouched by anyone.
On the upper deck, looking over the railing, there was a young man with a straw hat. The shape of the hat was round. He was watching the men and women and children on the lower steerage deck…A round straw hat, the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right, the white drawbridge with its railing made of circular chains – white suspenders crossing on the back of a man in the steerage below, round shapes of iron machinery, a mast cutting into the sky, making a triangular shape…I saw shapes related to each other. I was inspired by a picture of shapes and underlying that the feeling I had about life.”

Although Stieglitz described “an inclining funnel” in the scene, photographs and models of the ship (see below) show that this object was actually a large mast to which booms were fastened for loading and unloading cargo. One of the booms is shown at the very top of the picture.

  • 1879 – E. M. Forster, English author and playwright (d. 1970)
  • 1895 – J. Edgar Hoover, American law enforcement official; 1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (d. 1972)
  • 1919 – J. D. Salinger, American soldier and author (d. 2010)
  • 1942 – Country Joe McDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1943 – Don Novello, American comedian, screenwriter and producer

Remember Novello as “Father Guido Sarducci” on Saturday Night Live?

  • 1955 – Mary Beard, English classicist, academic and presenter

Those experienced their demise on January 1 include:

  • 1953 – Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1923)

Here’s Williams playing “Hey Good Lookin‘” , written by Williams in 1951. He died at only 29.

  • 1972 – Maurice Chevalier, French actor and singer (b. 1888)
  • 2015 – Mario Cuomo, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of New York (b. 1932)
  • 2017 – Derek Parfit, British philosopher (b. 1942)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is washing herself in Andrzej’s chair, but the dialogue is arcane. Malgorzata explains: “Andrzej is saying (truthfully) that Hili might be more comfortable on the sofa. But his objective is not Hili’s comfort. He wants ro regain his own chair and Hili knows it. A situation in which you suggest something which is to your advantage (even if it’s also to the advantage of the other person involved) Hili calls populism and demagoguery.”

Hili: Taking care of one’s cleanliness is time consuming.
A: You will be more comfortable on the sofa.
Hili: This is populism and demagoguery.
In Polish:
Hili: Troska o czystość jest czasochłonna.
Ja: Na sofie będzie ci wygodniej.
Hili: To jest populizm i demagogia.

And here are Szaron and Kulka doing their business:

Leon has some New Year’s wishes, and he’s all dressed up to convey them:

Leon: Have a good time, do not scare your smaller brethren [this is a literal translation, it means: animals] and may you prosper in the New Year in friendship and love.
In Polish: Bawcie sie dobrze, nie straszcie braci mniejszych i niech Wam się darzy w Nowym Roku, w przyjaźni i miłości.
Kulka also has some wishes, and sits next to Andrzej’s new book, which is illustrated by photos of Kulka taken by Paulina:

On New Year Eve Kulka wishes everybody a nice reading (Picture by Paulina R.)

And the editorial team of “Listy z naszego sadu” wishes our readers everything they wish for themselves and perseverance to carry out these wishes against all obstacles.

In Polish:

Kulka, z okazji Sylwestra, życzy wszystkim miłej lektury (Zdjęcie: Paulina R.)
Zaś redakcja “Listów z naszego sadu” życzy wszystkim czytelnikom tego, czego oni sami sobie życzą i wytrwałości, żeby te życzenia wprowadzić w życie wbrew wszelkim przeciwnościom.

A cartoon from Jean:

 

 

From Bruce:

Reader Pliny The in Between’s last Far Corner Cafe cartoon of 2021:

 

A tweet from reader Barry about Betty White and this miserable year:

Two tweets via Ken. Why would the BBC interview Alan Dershowitz about the Ghislaine Maxwell trial when Dershowitz was not only one of Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyers, but had been accused himself of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s accusers? Oy!

They realized the error of their ways. . .

From Ginger K:

Tweets from Matthew. First, a marvelous array of bioluminescent corals. Why do they glow? To attract microorganisms? To scare away predators? Who knows?

It’s time to show this once again, a marvelous jazz rendition I call “Nom Nom”:

The sexual displays of male ducks of different species are not only remarkable, but unpredictably varied. Look at this one: what is the male showing to the female about his desirability as a mate?

With her tail!

On the Importance of Wild Felids:

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon and Mietek monologues)

October 31, 2021 • 6:30 am

It’s the terminus of October: Sunday, October 31, 2021: National Caramel Apple Day (caution: beware of dental work!).  And it’s HALLOWEEN (see below).

It’s also National Carve a Pumpkin Day, Books for Treats Day (very bad idea!), Girl Scouts Founders Day, Knock Knock Jokes Day, National Increase Your Psychic Powers Day (oy!), and Trick or Treat for UNICEF Day. 

Here’s a knock-knock joke:

Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Owls say
Owls say who?
Yes, they do.

There’s a Google Doodle gif for Halloween (click on screenshot):

And here’s a list of Halloween and its related celebrations:

And here’s an excellent Halloween costume:

News of the Day:

*The Associated Press discusses how and why programs for the “gifted and talented” are being dismantled in secondary schools throughout America, all in the name of equity. The issue is that blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented in such programs compared to “regular” programs, and this inequity is considered prima facie evidence for present-day racism if you adhere to a Kendian agenda. Her are two of the critics of gifted and talented programs:

The changes don’t go far enough for critics like Rita Green, the education chair of the Seattle Chapter of the NAACP. She has called for more work to build environments that nurture the intellectual development of all the district’s 50,000 schoolchildren.

“We want the program just abolished. Period. The Highly Capable Cohort program is fundamentally flawed, and it’s inherently racist,” Green said.

. . .One such constituent, Zakiyah Ansari, the New York City director for the Alliance for Quality Education, wants Adams to follow through with de Blasio’s pledge.

“We believe every child is a gifted child, every child is a talented child,” Ansari said. “We have to have people as angry about taking away one program that impacts a few people and be more upset about the Black and brown kids who haven’t had access to excellent education.”

*The New York Times reports that three professors from the University of Florida have been barred from testifying for the prosecution in a lawsuit trying to overturn the state’s new restrictive voting rights bill. This is clearly a violation of both academic freedom and the First Amendment, but the University makes a specious claim:

University officials told the three that because the school was a state institution, participating in a lawsuit against the state “is adverse to U.F.’s interests” and could not be permitted. In their filing, the lawyers sought to question Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on whether he was involved in the decision.

Mr. DeSantis has resisted questioning, arguing that all of his communications about the law are protected from disclosure because discussions about legislation are privileged.

The school has always let professors testify in court cases, even those involving criticism of the party in power in Florida, which is also “adverse to U.F.’s interests. I’m betting that DeSantis has pressured the University, saying that he’d withhold funds from the school if the professors testify. In the end, I think they will, for this is an open and shut issue. (h/t Bill)

*Also in the NYT, an op-ed by Tressie McMillam Cottom called “Why we should talk about what Kyrsten Sinema is wearing.” (That’s a clickbait title if ever there was one.) It turns out that the answer, for Cottom, is more a sociological one—though an interesting one—but has little to do with how we assess her politics, or of little use those who wish to change Sinema’s stand, which is obstructing Biden’s two funding bills.

*The dorm below would (and will be) be a dreadful place to live during college, especially because UCSB is one of the nicest campuses in the U.S. The Santa Barbara Independent reports this (h/t Matthew)

A consulting architect on [The University of Californa at Santa Barbara’s] Design Review Committee has quit his post in protest over the university’s proposed Munger Hall project, calling the massive, mostly-windowless dormitory plan “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being.”

In his October 25 resignation letter to UCSB Campus Architect Julie Hendricks, Dennis McFadden ― a well-respected Southern California architect with 15 years on the committee ― goes scorched earth on the radical new building concept, which calls for an 11-story, 1.68-million-square-foot structure that would house up to 4,500 students, 94 percent of whom would not have windows in their small, single-occupancy bedrooms.

The idea was conceived by 97-year-old billionaire-investor turned amateur-architect Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the project with the condition that his blueprints be followed exactly. Munger maintains the small living quarters would coax residents out of their rooms and into larger common areas, where they could interact and collaborate.

Here’s the horrible dorm, and its floor plan below that. Crikey, would you want to live there for four years?

The dormitory’s nine identical residential floors would be organized into eight “houses” with eight “suites” (shown here) with eight bedrooms. | Credit: Courtesy

The architect who resigned said the dorm “would qualify as the eighth densest neighborhood on the planet, falling just short of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It would be able to house Princeton University’s entire undergraduate population, or all five Claremont Colleges. . . The project is essentially the student life portion of a mid-sized university campus in a box.”

The University is going to build it anyway!  Usually money is given to universities without such strict conditions. Jebus!

*Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 745,374, an increase of 1,344 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll is now 5,012,328, an increase of about 5,400 over yesterday’s total.

Stuff that happened on October 31 includes:

It’s a Lutheran Church now, and Martin is buried inside. Here’s his tomb.

The famous doors seem to be gone, but in truth the claim that Luther posted his manifesto on them is questionable. But they built these ones below, described in Wikipedia as “‘Theses Doors’, commemorating Luther’s Ninety-five Theses were installed on Luther’s 375th birthday in 1858.”

  • 1907 – The Parliament of Finland approved the Prohibition Act, but the law was not implemented because it was not ratified by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
  • 1917 – World War I: Battle of Beersheba: The “last successful cavalry charge in history”.

Here’s a photo of the attack, which took place in what is now southern Israel. Reinforced by later troops, it ultimately led to the British capture of Jerusalem. Note that the first wave of attackers brandished only bayonets as they charged; the rifles are on their backs.

(From Wikipedia): The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, 1917, painted by George Lambert in 1920, shows troopers with bayonets in their hands and .303 rifles slung across their backs.

Here’s where Marble Bar is (there are stromatolites nearby!), and then a view of that godforsaken town. (Read the NYT article on what it’s like to live there).

But it’s not the hottest town in Australia! That honor goes to Wyndham, Western Australia, located on the map below with a picture of that town, where “In 1946, Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days of temperatures over 32 °C (90 °F).” The population is 780 sweating Aussies.

  • 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Britain ends: The United Kingdom prevents a possible German invasion.
  • 1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed.

Can you name all four figures sculpted on the mountain? This wouldn’t be done today, because at least three of them have had statues taken down or have been cancelled.

Here’s the designer, Gutzon Borglum, addressing a crowd before the sculpture in statu nascendi:

  • 1961 – In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s body is removed from the Lenin’s Mausoleum, also known as the Lenin Tomb.
  • 1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities and around 3,000 Sikhs are killed.

A photo from Wikipedia labeled: “Today, the spot where Indira Gandhi was assassinated is marked by a glass opening in the crystal pathway at the Indira Gandhi Memorial”:

  • 1999 – Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted.

He was the youngest person to accomplish this feat though not the first.  Here’s a short video of Martin:

  • 2011 – The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognized by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1638 – Meindert Hobbema, Dutch painter (d. 1709)
  • 1795 – John Keats, English poet (d. 1821)

Keats died at only 25 of tuberculosis. What great poetry we’d have had he lived longer.  Here’s a life mask from 1816 followed by a photo of Keats’s grave in Rome (note that his name isn’t on the tombstone).

  • 1835 – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
  • 1887 – Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese general and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (d. 1975)
  • 1912 – Dale Evans, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2001)
  • 1920 – Helmut Newton, German-Australian photographer (d. 2004)

Many of Newton’s photos are too erotic to be shown on this family-oriented site; here’s one of the tamer ones:

  • 1922 – Illinois Jacquet, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2004)
  • 1926 – Jimmy Savile, English radio and television host (d. 2011)
  • 1931 – Dan Rather, American journalist

Rather turns 90 today.

  • 1943 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (d. 1970)
  • 1967 – Vanilla Ice, American rapper, television personality, and real estate investor

Those who died on October 31 include:

Thomas Aquinas by Bartolomeo:

Utamaro: A Woman and a Cat (1793-1794)

I never really encountered the work of Schiele until I visited the Leopold Museum in Vienna, where I was mesmerized by his paintings. I now consider him one of the very greatest modern artists. Below is a photo I took of one of his paintings when I visited in October, 2012. This is “Self Portrait With Lowered Head” (1912).

Schiele died at only 28, another great loss to art. He succumbed of the Spanish flu in the fall of 1918, only three days after his wife died. And that’s about the time my paternal grandmother died in the same epidemic.

  • 1926 – Harry Houdini, American magician and stuntman (b. 1874)
  • 1984 – Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)
  • 1988 – John Houseman, Romanian-born American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1902)
  • 1993 – River Phoenix, American actor and singer (b. 1970)
  • 2006 – P. W. Botha, South African soldier and politician, State President of South Africa (b. 1916)
  • 2008 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (b. 1912)
  • 2020 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor (b. 1930)

Connery in Scottish regalia, complete with family tartan and a sporran.

(From Wikipedia): Connery at a Tartan Day celebration in Washington, D.C. When knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 he wore a green-and-black hunting tartan kilt of his mother’s MacLean clan.[121]
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has her encounter with Kulka, but Kulka doesn’t back down.

Hili: Get away from here!
Kulka: And what are you going to do to me if I don’t?
In Polish:
Hili: Uciekaj stąd!
Kulka: A jak nie ucieknę to co mi zrobisz?

And, in nearby Wloclawek, both Leon and Mietek have monologues. Leon demands approbation, while Mietek orders his staff around.

Leon: And now start to admire my wisdom.

In Polish: Teraz zajmij się podziwianiem mojej mądrości!

Mietek, sitting on papers that Elzbieta is supposed to grade, prods her to get to work.

Mietek: Keep reading!

In Polish: Czytaj dalej!

 

Clever pumpkin carving all over Facebook:

A meme from Bruce:

Titania’s new piece speculates about how Gandhi would have dealt with trans people:

Masih continues her battle:

From the British Museum: Proof of love in the olden days. Nowadays this would be locked to the the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine.

From the Auschwitz Memorial:

Tweets from Matthew. This first one feature innovative drumming by Ringo. Who knew? Do listen if you’re a Beatles fan.

Matthew says that this is a great figure. It is.

A needy dog begs for affection:

Can CRISPR do this?