Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Very few people are sending in wildlife photos, so if you have some good ones, shoot them my way, please. Fortunately, ecologist Susan Harrison has come through with another batch from Oregon. Susan’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
Mt. McLoughlin, Oregon
In southern Oregon at the tail end of summer, climbing a volcano to look for Gray-crowned Rosy-finches (Leucosticte tephrocotis) seemed like a fun thing to do.
Per AllAboutBirds, “This delicate pink-and-brown songbird is among the hardiest of all birds. Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches nest in the highest parts of the highest mountains in North America… they forage, seemingly at complete ease, on snowfields, forbidding talus slopes, and in high winds or snowstorms… (It) probably holds the record for highest-altitude breeding bird in North America.”
Who could resist looking for such superlative birds?? It required only a day hike to a 9,500-foot peak not far from my home base in Ashland, Oregon. The peak, Mt. McLoughlin, is just north of Mt. Shasta in the Cascade volcanic chain. The trail goes up its east (= right, in the photo below) side.
Mt. McLoughlin from the south:
Hikers often get lost as they descend the peak. Near the summit there is no clear trail in the loose ash and talus, and if you start a few degrees off-course you’ll end up far from your destination. Accordingly, there are many warning signs and route markers.
Trail warning sign:
The last half-mile to the summit is steep and slow going. This is the likeliest place to see Rosy-finches – which, alas, I did not see.
Approach to the summit, with trail on the left:
However, I did make it to the summit and back safely!
Summit:
The main birds I saw at the top were several Rock Wrens (Salpinctes obsoletus) and a pair of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) chasing around a Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius).
Rock Wren:
Hawk chasing Harrier:
On the descent it became easier to pay attention to other small wildlife.
Scruffy juvenile Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis); or is it an “American Jay” now??:
Rounding out this photo set, a few other recent scenes from the southern Oregon Cascades…
Upper Rogue River just below Crater Lake, where it flows through the collapsed lava tubes of ancient Mount Mazama:
Lower Rogue River at Blossom Bar rapid, where it flows through a scary and occasionally lethal (to rafters and kayakers) feature called the Picket Fence:
Welcome to Friday, September 4, 2026, and National Wildlife Day. Today you should not just photograph the animals with your iPhone camera and move on, but stop to look at the animals. (This is one of my pet peeves about visitors to Botany Pond.) Here are three species of cats I photographed in game reserves in South Africa almost exactly two years ago:
The Trump administration has proposed stripping private schools of their tax-exempt status if they consider race, furthering the administration’s intense pressure on institutions that have sought diversity in their classrooms.
President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly targeted efforts to benefit Black and other racial–minority students, saying many such policies violate the law in the wake of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling banning the use of race-consciousadmissions. It recently has accused several medical schools of discriminating against White and Asian students in admissions, and has opened investigations into numerous universities.
The IRSand Treasury Department proposal announced Thursday would eliminate tax-exempt status for private schools that discriminate “on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational, admissions, scholarship, athletic, or other policies.”
The agencies estimate that if it takes effect, the rule could affect as many as 18,000 primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, professional schools and trade schools.
. . .Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a written statement that the administration is ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education. “Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” he wrote. “Today’s Treasury and IRS proposed regulations establish a clear standard, and the institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status.”
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said if the proposal takes effect, it would be hugely impactful.“But it’s not going to come to pass.”
In 1983, the court ruled that Bob Jones University and the Goldsboro Christian Schools in North Carolina were not entitled to tax-exempt status because they practiced racial discrimination — the university prohibited interracial dating and marriage, and the schools did not admit Black students.
Well, doesn’t that cut both ways, i.e., does illegal discrimination go only one way?
Because I still think that some form of preference should obtain, not based on race alone but on palpable disadvantage, I am in favor of this provision:
The Trump administration proposal still would allow schools to help disadvantaged students in admission or financial aid using race-neutral criteria such as family income, hardship or academic achievement.
*After five days of deliberation, the jury in the case of Lindsay Clancy, who pleased not guilty to strangling her three young children on the grounds of “postpartum psychosis,” is still deadlocked (article archived here).
Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are expected to return for a sixth day of deliberations on Thursday, after growing indications that their impasse could prove unbreakable.
The judge presiding over the case, William Sullivan, read them what is known as a “dynamite charge” on Wednesday afternoon, in a last-ditch attempt to break their deadlock, and then sent them home a little over an hour later.
The jurors, nine women and three men, have now deliberated for about 30 hours over five days, and twice told the judge that they could not come to a unanimous decision as to whether Ms. Clancy should be convicted of murdering her three children.
A hung jury would result in a mistrial, and Judge Sullivan has urged the jurors to keep trying. On Wednesday, he read a set of instructions saying that they should work toward consensus and “consider that it is desirable that the case be decided.”
He has also thanked jurors for their work, noting the extent of the evidence and witness testimony presented during the monthlong trial, which featured often heart-wrenching details.
In the event of a mistrial, prosecutors would decide whether to try Ms. Clancy all over again in front of a different jury, for first-degree murder or less serious charges. Considering their options could take a week or more, experts have said.
. . .Rosanna Cavallaro, a Suffolk University law professor, said that judges “walk a tightrope” when they read the formal “dynamite” instructions to a deadlocked jury.
The goal is to nudge the jurors forward toward consensus, she said, “without making them feel coerced by a judge’s criticism.”
I can understand the jury’s difficulties, as there are at least four different judgments that could be made, including “not guilty,” and the jurors must rule unanimously. But if there’s a mistrial, then the whole expensive and multi-week show has to be repeated, and perhaps with the same outcome. At that point Clancy will apparently walk free, and though she’s partly paralyzed from her suicide attempt, she will suffer no punishment, or even psychiatric treatment in a confined space, for killing her children.
Hundreds of colleges are sending students letters of admission—without even requiring an application.
Schools are increasingly agreeing to admit students based on a handful of criteria, like high school transcripts. Known as “direct admissions,” this expedited process is free and omits required essays, questions about extracurriculars and mandated standardized tests.
In turn, the colleges—which are seeking ways to attract more students amid broader financial headwinds—gain exposure to prospects who may never have heard of them otherwise. They then woo the young people into enrolling.
Proponents call the approach a solution for both sides.
“Instead of a student applying to the institution, the institution applies to them,” said Angel Perez, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “It’s a way for students not to have to jump through hoops in order to get into college.”
Direct admission has ballooned in popularity, particularly among less-selective private schools vying for a shrinking pool of college-goers. On the Common App, the number of participating institutions has more than tripled since 2023-24, representing about a fifth of the app’s partners, said Chief Executive Jenny Rickard. More than a dozen states now have direct-admissions initiatives.
Colleges across America are reckoning with the demographic cliff as the pipeline of 18-year-olds dwindles. Lesser-known campuses sit at the forefront of these enrollment challenges, though cracks are spreading throughout. And since most colleges admit more than half of applicants—the acceptance rate in the U.S. topped 70% among four-year, not-for-profit schools in a 2023 NACAC report—supporters say direct admissions is a no-brainer.
The process aims to be straightforward: students interested in direct admissions fill out a form—not a full application—on various sites that essentially act as matchmakers. The students, or their high schools, also submit their transcripts. From there, the offers roll in automatically. (As with the traditional pathway, though, colleges can yank acceptances if a teen’s grades tank in their senior year.)
I wish they had this process when I was applying to college, as I had good grades and SATs in high school, and it would have saved me some trouble. On the other hand, I applied formally to only one school—William & Mary—for early admission, and I was successful, so I was spared a lot of worry during my senior year of high school. (I really wanted to go to Princeton because I was enchanged by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first book, This Side of Paradise, but my parents said they couldn’t afford to send me to Princeton. In the end, I think I did better by going to William & Mary. And I still love Fitzgerald. As for this automatic acceptance, well, it seems to apply mostly for schools that are hurting for students, and I have no opposition to it. If the plan doesn’t work, we’ll see.
*In honor of Gloria Steinem’s death, reader Jez mentioned a 2019 article she wrote in the journal Woman’s Reproductive Health, called “If men could menstruate.” It’s not only accurate but hilarious, and you can read it for free at the link. Here’s an excerpt:
What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?
The answer is clear—menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event:
Men would brag about how long and how much.
Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed-for proof of manhood, with religious ritual and stag parties.
Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea to help stamp out monthly discomforts.
Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. (Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of commercial brands such as John Wayne Tampons, Muhammad Ali’s Rope-a-dope Pads, Joe Namath Jock Shields—“For Those Light Bachelor Days,” and Robert “Baretta” Blake Maxi-Pads.)
Military men, right-wing politicians, and religious fundamentalists would cite menstruation (“menstruation”) as proof that only men could serve in the Army (“you have to give blood to take blood”), occupy political office (“can women be aggressive without that steadfast cycle governed by the planet Mars?”), be priests and ministers (“how could a woman give her blood for our sins?”) or rabbis (“without the monthly loss of impurities, women remain unclean”).
Male radicals, left-wing politicians, and mystics, however, would insist that women are equal, just different, and that any woman could enter their ranks if she were willing to self-inflict a major wound every month (“you MUST give blood for the revolution”), recognize the preeminence of menstrual issues, or subordinate her selfness to all men in their Cycle of Enlightenment. Street guys would brag (“I’m a three pad man”) or answer praise from a buddy (“Man, you lookin’ good!”) by giving fives and saying, “Yeah, man, I’m on the rag!” TV shows would treat the subject at length. (“Happy Days”: Richie and Potsie try to convince Fonzie that he is still “The Fonz,” though he has missed two periods in a row.) So would newspapers. (SHARK SCARE THREATENS MENSTRUATING MEN. JUDGE CITES MONTHLY STRESS IN PARDONING RAPIST.) And movies. (Newman and Redford in “Blood Brothers”!) Men would convince women that intercourse was more pleasurable at “that time of the month.” Lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself—though probably only because they needed a good menstruating man.
There’s more, but I’ll let you have the pleasure of reading it yourself. Back in my youth, I saw a cartoon of a man in a bookstore looking for funny books, and the woman behind the counter saying, “I’m sorry, sir, but we have no humor section: this is a feminist bookstore.” Steinem shows that that’s wrongheaded.
*I’ve started investigated whether someone’s prose involved AI by putting it in the reliable source Pangram (it’s been tested thoroughly), and you get three free tries per day. Disappointingly, many of the people whom I follow on Facebook, and admire for their political or ideological stands, use a lot of AI. When I see that, I lose interest. (Some nonpolitical sites are 100% AI.). But my philosopher friend Maarten Boudry takes the cake for finding an entire published short story that is not only AI generated, but won a prize! Here’s his tweet:
From Maarten’s email to me: “A literary First Prize has been awarded to a short story that is 100%. AI. Do you know Moth Magazine? Never heard of them, but they have 12K followers on X and have a WikiPedia page, so it’s not completely fringe. Maarten’s tweet gives the story, “The Shoulder,” by Jeffrey Michael Kane, and it’s still up.
Maarten added this:
It’s fascinating to read the short story: it’s superficially coherent and vaguely poetic, but once you reach the end you realize it’s going nowhere. Using AI for a literary prize is much worse than for an FB post: it’s cheating, and unfair to the other contenders.
Agreed, but I still think that if anybody uses AI in any substantial way, even writing a Facebook post, they should note that and give us the prompts. It’s fun to check stuff out yourself, though it’s also disappointing when it’s someone you respected.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is down on philosophers again:
Hili: I feel, therefore I am. Andrzej: That’s rather obvious.
Hili: Not to philosophers.
In Polish:
Hili: Czuję więc jestem.
Ja: To raczej oczywiste.
Hili: Nie dla filozofów.
*******************
From Clyde, who said, “This is a beast that I found lurking in the White River in Indianapolis.”
From Masih; a young Islamic man, who already had his eye shot out, may lose his life as well. The charge? “Corruption on earth.”
The Islamic Republic shot out his eye. Now it wants to take his life.
Branch 23 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced Ali Zarei, a survivor of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, to death on the charge of “corruption on earth.” The sentence was reportedly communicated to… pic.twitter.com/24RobUtz34
From Colin Wright on the Nature editorial I wrote about yesterday. Read the whole tweet and be sure to look at the screenshots of Nature articles.
Seeing lots of surprised reactions to the absurd Nature editorial on Jason Arday. Frankly, I’m surprised people are surprised.
Nature has been totally captured by wokeness for a while now. I’ve been trying to call attention to this for nearly a decade. There are no serious… pic.twitter.com/jEbGZPh3zM
This French Jewish girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was three years old, and would be 86 today had she lived. https://t.co/wl7Ik2b5ED
From Matthew: Nice arthopods on the sand. Note the first Latin binomial..
Lots of action around exposed sand banks at Allerthorpe Common @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. Astata boops seems well established there now and Green Tigers, Ammophila sabulosa, Anoplius nigerrimus all very active in the sun. Super little reserve. 🙂 @ynuorg.bsky.social #hymenoptera
I thought I was through writing about Jason Arday, but I didn’t anticipate that he would become some kind of hero, or at least that many people would emphasize how he was hounded to death—always pushing the “racism” angle and blaming Cambridge and the press but neglecting the fabulism and preferential hiring that got Arday so much attention. Now the prestigious journal Nature has published an editorial (see below) that completely neglects two of the main reasons why Arday got so much attention, and pinning the blame for his death on nearly everyone. Luana brought the article to my attention by sending this tweet (note the “Community Note” below it).
As I said, I think there are two reasons why the Arday case got so much attention. The first is the breathtaking extent of his fabulism, involving extensive (and now verified) instances of plagiarism in his Ph.D. thesis, claims of appearances on t.v. shows that he was not on, claims of marathons that he actually did not run, claims of extreme autism that have not been substantiated, threats he said he got that also couldn’t be verified, multiple instances of cancer (also not verified), and many other stories he told that were not credible. Not to mention that he padded his c.v., larding it with positions he never held. Beyond the plagiarm, the Times of London reported that Arday stole another researcher’s work (as well as quotes that the researcher obtained in interviews), publishing it as Arday’s own. If true, this is wholesale academic fraud.
Second, Arday was the youngest black full professor at the University of Cambridge (his speciality was the sociology of education), and one of the few at the University. He apparently had an engaging personality and was lionized by his department, with Hilary Cremin (head of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education and the person who oversaw Arday’s appointment) praising him to the skies in the statement below as “the best in the world at some of the research [he did].”
This lionization was wholly unwarranted. Nature doesn’t mention that this is another reason why Arday’s tragic life and death got so much attention: the case was so egregious that it finally became okay to discuss whether ethnicity and disability should override merit in academic appointments. The fact that many people and media sources fault Cambridge University—even blaming (as does Nature) for Arday’s apparent suicide—shows clearly that Arday’s appointment was questionable at best. (As I’ve said, nobody is responsible for Arday’s death save Arday himself.) It is because of the clear-cut nature of this case that the media jumped on it, though, as I said, one cannot reject the notion that some racism (against Arday) was involved.
Instead, Nature takes up several issues about Arday’s life, ultimately blaming his death on “systemic racism” in academia and in the media.
The first issue is Arday’s plagiarism, which Nature fobs off as having been dismissed by Arday’s Ph.D. university. As Nature says below:
Liverpool John Moores University, the UK institution that awarded the PhD, investigated the allegations [of plagiarism] and concluded that the PhD stands.
But the allegations were correct and John Moores University simply dropped the ball on the whole affair, perhaps to protect what reputation it has. Nature doesn’t mention the academic fraud uncovered by the Times of London.
Nature also blames Cambridge—not for appointing an unqualified professor, but for publicly announcing their investigation of Arday, which, says Nature, violates the confidential nature of the UK disciplinary process. But all Cambridge announced, as far as I know, is that they were investigating the charges—and nothing more (I don’t even think they said which issues they were investigating). Since the media was on Cambridge’s case about Arday, I don’t think that announcing an investigation without giving details is out of line: American universities do it all the time, saying things like “We are not commenting pending an investigation of these accusations.”
It is true that Arday apparently killed himself after Cambridge’s announcement, but it’s not clear that the announcement played the decisive role in the apparent suicide. Yes, it’s very sad that Arday killed himself when, if he’d been fired from Cambridge, he still could have gone on to have a productive life. He also had kids who now have no dad. But the frenzy to blame every person and institution for Arday’s death save Arday himself just shows that virtue signaling is still with us despite the other side: the more open debate of equity versus merit.
Finally, Nature rushes to blame systemic racism on Arday’s death, and by “systemic” they mean that racism is embedded in the rules and structure of the University itself. That is surely wrong, though of course one cannot rule out that racism was somehow involved in the media and social-media attention that Arday got.
But systemic racism? Many would say the opposite: that anti-racism is pervasive in academia, to the extent that someone like Arday could even be hired. Anti-racism is embodied in DEI policies in play at many schools. As I said, now it’s possible to discuss this tension without being demonized as a racist, and in that sense Arday’s life and death could constitute a watershed moment in our discussions of race.
You can read Nature‘s editorial below, which answers the question “Who is to blame for the death of Jason Arday?” by answering, “Academia, the University of Cambridge, systemic racism, and the media.” In other words, everyone but Arday himself.
I’ll just quote part of the article in case you don’t want to read the whole thing, but the link is above and it’s free, so you can read it all. I’ve already given my own comments above, except to say that Nature has really outdone itself this time with both virtue signaling and pointing the fingers at the wrong people.
. . . Arday died after relentless media coverage of his professional and personal life. It is an enormous tragedy for his family, friends, students and colleagues. It is also a catastrophe for the research community. The death of an autistic Black scholar who inspired a generation is shocking. The persistent media attention, the racism that pervaded much of that coverage and the plagiarism allegations against Arday, and the University of Cambridge’s handling of his case all raise difficult questions. These are concerns not only for the institutions involved, but for everyone in higher education and the media.
In this Editorial, we focus on two issues in what is a complex and evolving situation. One is how academic institutions should treat investigations into research misconduct amid unrelenting media attention. Investigations need to be carried out according to transparent processes with appropriate confidentiality for those involved, including whistle-blowers, whose testimony is often central to the outcome. These processes exist to ensure that all concerned are treated fairly and protected from harm, but were they followed? The other, related issue is how the media should ensure fairness when reporting on research misconduct and how it can do so without causing harm.
Arday’s fate is distressing, and especially so for Black scholars and those from other communities that are under-represented in academic research, many members of which report feeling vulnerable and unsupported at this time. There is systemic racism in academia. It is an unwelcoming place for many who enter it through hardship and struggle, as Arday’s story illustrates. It is not acceptable that these barriers persist. On top of this, scholars from Black and other under-represented communities fear that the intensity of attention Arday faced could one day be focused on them. The question many are asking is: ‘Could I be next?’
. . . Matt Walsh, head of journalism at Cardiff University, UK, did an initial analysis of UK media reporting of Arday between 25 July this year — when the latest wave of coverage of the plagiarism allegations started — and 20 August. He counted 242 substantive articles published in the print editions of UK national newspapers and concluded that there is strong evidence of racism. “Framing associated with race is present throughout the sample, and some articles explicitly accuse Cambridge of only appointing Arday as a professor because of the colour of his skin,” Walsh wrote in an article for The Conversation news website that describes his analysis.
. , ,Media organizations are not the only ones whose role in events must now be scrutinized. The University of Cambridge must also explain the decisions it made — in particular its announcement on 5 August, amid sustained media coverage, that it would investigate matters. On the same day, Arday resigned.
According to the code of practice from Acas, the independent UK body responsible for workplace arbitration, including at universities, an employee under investigation is entitled to confidentiality. An investigation is not a disciplinary process, but rather a fact-finding effort to explore whether there is a case to answer. But Cambridge’s decision to announce the investigation amid a media feeding frenzy offered no possibility of confidentiality — and risked adding to the impression that Arday had done something wrong before due processes had been completed.
. . .In his resignation letter, Arday wrote: “The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.” He added: “For my own wellbeing, for my family, and for those who have stood by me throughout this difficult period, I have concluded that the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away.” He also promised to return “stronger, wiser and with the same determination that has always defined my journey”.
Arday did not return, so it is incumbent on all of us in the media and academia to reflect on our roles and responsibilities. Both research and media organizations have an obligation to communicate information fairly and accurately — and to avoid causing harm to the people they employ or report on. We can and must learn from this tragedy.
Today’s arthropod photos come from a visit to Poland from reader Jan Malik. Jan’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them (once or twice):
During my visit to Poland in June this year, I spent a few hours with a macro lens, looking for arthropods in three different habitats: a xerothermic dry meadow, a subalpine bog, and an alpine zone in the Tatra Mountains. I did my best to identify the species, but I can offer no guarantees as they were new to me.
First, the dipterans from the hoverfly family, all Batesian mimics of the more ferocious Hymenoptera. The Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) resembles a honeybee or a small bumblebee quite convincingly; it even buzzes like a bee. I believe this is a female, judging by the widely spaced eyes:
Another hoverfly, this time a wasp mimic, is possibly a Sphecomyia vespiformis. Like all Diptera, its antennae are short, but here, to increase similarity to a wasp with long antennae, they grow from an elongated column on the insect’s face:
Rounding up the order Diptera is a possible Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus). This female is a peaceful pollinator as an adult, but its larva is a predator of aphids:
Moving over to the order Lepidoptera, the first is a moth (genus Gillmeria); at first sight, I thought it was a crane fly, but long antennae place it firmly as a plume moth, even though I’m not sure which species it is. When at rest, these insects are masters of camouflage, resembling dried-out twigs:
Possibly a Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus), which is common in this part of Europe:
A final lepidopteran is a skipper (family Hesperiidae), but it is difficult to pin it down to a species. Possibly a Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris), going by the orange tip of its antenna?:
Now for Coleoptera (beetles): a Black longicorn beetle (Spondylis buprestoides). Both adults and larvae have powerful jaws which they use to chew through the wood of dead trees, accelerating the carbon cycle:
The next insect, from the same longhorn beetle family as the previous one, is a Black-striped Longhorn Beetle (Stenurella melanura), probably a female. The larvae feed on rotting wood, but adults prefer pollen:
Another coleopteran is a Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva). Its red color is an honest warning—when disturbed, they exude a fluid containing defensive acids that can cause chemical irritation. Here it feeds on pollen, but like other soldier beetles, if an aphid or a caterpillar is found, it is also eaten.
The last coleopteran, hiding in a flower during the rain, is a leaf beetle from the genus Cryptocephalus (I will go out on a limb and say the Dead-nettle Leaf Beetle, Cryptocephalus aureolus). The genus name originates from its head, which is tucked below the protective chitin armor:
Now for the arachnophiles amongst the readers, an orb-weaver spider (family Araneidae) having a meal out of a fly. Orb-weavers are highly variable in color, changing them to match their surroundings. They recycle their webs often by eating them and spinning new ones:
Another araneae, possibly a Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi), is a close European cousin of the common American yellow garden spider. Like its New World relative, it spins a ladder-like structure called a stabilimentum. The discussion is ongoing as to what the adaptive purpose of this structure is: possibly a UV reflector to lure bees or flies, or a warning for birds not to fly into it and destroy it, much like our window decals to prevent bird strikes:
The spider waiting inside the flower is a flower crab spider, likely a pale variant of the common Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia); I believe the same spiders are also abundant in North America. The flower could be a bellflower (genus Campanula). These spiders also change color, from greenish to yellow to off-white, matching the flowers where they sit in ambush:
Now for a few Hymenoptera—possibly a Black Garden Ant (Lasius niger) tending to a dense colony of Black Bean Aphids (Aphis fabae). Like many other ant species, they tap aphids with their antennae, and if the sucking hemipteran is ready, it releases a drop of sugary honeydew. In return, ants act as bodyguards, protecting the aphids from predatory hoverflies and ladybugs:
A parasitoid ichneumon wasp, possibly a Hoverfly larva parasitoid wasp (Diplazon laetatorius). It lays eggs in hoverfly larvae or eggs, and the wasp larva waits until its host grows big enough to become a substantial meal, then devours it from the inside. This species is said to be mostly parthenogenetic, with males being a rarity:
Another hymenopteran, a sawfly, is probably the Common Green Sawfly (Tenthredo mesomela). These sawflies are active predators of other small insects:
Lastly, I didn’t expect a Red-banded Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata). Its two chief weapons are a nice red and black aposematic coloration, a habit of making itself scarce via powerful jumps, and joints in its legs that ooze a foul-tasting hemolymph if a predator decides to bite. Did a scientist actually taste that fluid to report on its bitter taste, or are we still waiting for a volunteer?:
Welcome to Thursday, September 3, 2026, and it’s Welsh Rarebit Day, celebrating the British concoction of toasted bread covered with melted cheese. It’s supposed to give you weird dreams, which is the subject of Winsor McCay’s fantastic comic strip of the early 20th century, “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.” The theme: someone would eat a rarebit before bed, and all bets were off: horrible dreams would inevitably ensue. The strip is famous for its unique artistry, especially for the time; here’s one example, and note in the last panel the attribution of the dream to eating a pre-bed rarebit. I’d recommend getting a whole book of these marvelous cartoons. Click twice to enlarge:
Wikimedia Commons
It’s also International Cabernet Sauvignon Day as well as National Baby Back Ribs Day. I used to buy BBQ rib tips on the South Side (the ends of baby back ribs), and Uncle John’s was by far the best place. It went extinct when pitmaster Mack died, but then his relatives opened a joint just as good, and pretty close to me on 47th Street: “Uncle J’s BBQ.” That too is gone, and there is no longer a place to get world-class rib tips in Chicago. What’s the point of living?
The bearded guy to the left is geneticist Michael Turelli, who was visiting and wanted to sample Chicago’s best BBQ:
*As expected given the exchange of fire the other day, attacks between the U.S. and Iran are intensifying, with Iran claiming that one American attack killed four people and injured many more at a wedding (this claim could not be verified; NYT article is archived here).
The United States carried out a new wave of attacks against Iran on Tuesday, the latest surge of violence to puncture weeks of relative calm as President Trump has tried to pivot from a military campaign to one of strangling Iran’s economy.
U.S. Central Command said it had struck military targets in Iran in retaliation for attacks on ships and American forces in the region. Hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in statements that it had launched missiles on an American military base in Jordan and U.S. military equipment warehouses in Iraq. It warned of fierce retaliations on U.S. interests in the region.
The new strikes came three days after the United States and Iran traded fire for the first time in a month. The latest strikes were far broader and more intense, according to initial reports, and Iranian officials said civilians had been killed, including at a wedding. While it was unclear if the violence would escalate further, the hostilities underscored how remote a durable solution to the conflict remains, six months into a conflict that Mr. Trump once predicted would last a few weeks.
Mr. Trump, in a social media post referring to the Strait of Hormuz, said the U.S. attacks were “large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait.” He added that “if the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level.”
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it had struck air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities and communications sites.
Iranian state media said projectiles had hit sites in Chabahar and Konarak, southern port cities east of the Strait of Hormuz. Two Iranian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. attacks, said the strikes had also hit several other sites across Iran’s southern shores, including a military base in Bandar Abbas, the perimeter of the commercial airport on Qeshm Island and targets in the cities of Sirik and Jask. The officials said the attacks had caused significant damage.
Are you getting tired of a war conducted in dribs and drabs, one that never seems to end? Join the club. But Iran never seems to level “fierce retalizations on U.S. interests in the region,” as its missiles and drones are always shot down.
*Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi (NY) writes in the Free Press why “Democrats must reject the DSA” (Democratic Socialists of America). His reason:
Millions of Americans are losing faith in their government, their institutions, and an economic system that no longer seems to reward hard work. They struggle to afford housing, healthcare, and education while watching wealth become increasingly concentrated at the top. They’re mad as hell, in other words, and they’re not going to take it anymore.
But if Democrats are going to earn the confidence of these Americans this November and beyond, the answer will not be found in the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) platform. Although relatively small in number—the organization counts 120,000 members in a country of some 330 million people—the DSA is aggressive and disciplined. Candidates affiliated with the group are winning Democratic primaries. But we cannot allow them to drag our party to the far left.
Modern political history offers two stark warnings about what can happen when a determined ideological movement catches a party divided, complacent, or unprepared. We’ll start with the Republicans.
In 1964, GOP leaders badly underestimated Barry Goldwater, a fiercely right-wing Arizona senator. Many considered his views too conservative and his appeal too narrow. But Goldwater’s supporters were better organized and understood that party contests can be won by mobilizing passionate voters while the broader electorate remains divided or disengaged.
Goldwater won the Republican presidential nomination but then suffered one of the largest defeats in history that November. Lyndon Johnson carried 44 states and more than 60 percent of the popular vote.
Eight years later, Democrats experienced their own ideological takeover.
South Dakota senator George McGovern was a decent man, a decorated veteran, and a principled opponent of the Vietnam War. His campaign inspired activists who believed the party needed fundamental change.
But his supporters were more representative of the activist class than of the general electorate. His campaign mastered new primary rules while traditional Democrats divided their support and failed to recognize his strength until it was too late.
McGovern won the nomination in 1972 and President Richard Nixon defeated him easily, taking 49 states and more than 60 percent of the vote. At the same time, however, more moderate Democrats defeated Republicans in a slew of downballot races, retaining control of the House and even expanding their majority in the Senate.
The lesson is not that parties should silence ideological movements. It is that intensity is not the same as broad public support, and success in a primary is not the same as electability in November. That distinction could determine control of Congress in this year’s elections.
I remember both of these election, particularly the second as I campaigned for McGovern. I remember sitting in the Rockefeller University student lounge next to the famous philosopher Saul Kripke as the election results rolled it, and it was a rout. As I recall, McGovern won only Washington D.C. and Massachusetts. But the fact is that “progressives” have won Democratic nominations for both the House and Senate over more moderate Democrats, and it may well happen that those “progresives” (do I have to keep putting the word in air quotes?) will take over the Senate this fall. Where Suozzi goes wrong is in the last paragraph, for some of these progressive victories are in states that are reliably Democratic, so in those cases victory in a primary is prety much the same as victory in November. See the next item:
*Speaking of progressivism, an 80-year-old progressive who’s in favor of biological men competing in women’s athletics, walloped a younger liber in the Democratic Party primary for a Senate seat (sound familiar)? The other day I wrote about 80-year-old Ed Markey, who takes a position on this one transgender “right” that is opposed by a majority of Americans. Well, Massachusetts apparently either approves of or doesn’t mind Markey’s stand, as he handily defeated 47-year-old Seth Moulton.(article archived here).
Senator Edward J. Markey, a progressive Massachusetts Democrat who has served in Congress for a half-century, swept past a much younger rival in a primary race on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
The victory by Mr. Markey, who at 80 is the oldest senator in his state’s history, came at a moment when many Democratic voters are anxious for the party’s aging leaders to make way for a younger generation. Mr. Markey used a fiercely progressive message and the support of many younger left-wing leaders to ward off Representative Seth Moulton, 47, a moderate Democrat who had campaigned on a message of generational change.
With nearly 80 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Markey led Mr. Moulton by about 30 percentage points.
Mr. Markey will be an overwhelming favorite to win the November general election in deep-blue Massachusetts, positioning him to serve in the Senate until he is at least 86.
. . . This year, Mr. Markey targeted Mr. Moulton over his position on transgender rights. The younger congressman had urged his party after the 2024 election to shift its stance on transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports, saying he did not want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
Mr. Markey, in turn, campaigned as a strong supporter of trans rights, declaring that his opponent had thrown trans kids “under the bus.” Mr. Moulton said he was sorry if his comments had hurt anyone, but he stood by their substance.
Elected Democrats, aware that polls indicate that most Americans do not think trans athletes should be allowed to play in girls’ sports, have almost universally shied away from the issue since 2024. But in a primary in a deeply Democratic state, Mr. Markey appeared to have found a winning argument, saying that “I believe you can be right, but too soon.”
A progressive cavalry also rallied to Mr. Markey’s cause. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joined him on the campaign trail. And he received endorsements from younger progressives such as Representative Ayanna Pressley of Boston and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is selective about wading into Democratic races.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 36, issued a statement hailing Mr. Markey as an “inspiration to many of us who are committed to building a better future for all.”
And an inspiration for those who are committed to ruining women’s sports as well.
Early yesterday morning, under the cover of air strikes, Shin Bet forces raided a building in the heart of Gaza City and walked out with Moain al-Arabid—the head of Hamas’s Internal Security Apparatus. The man is Hamas’s equivalent to Shin Bet Chief David Zini, but where Zini protects the citizens of Israel, al-Arabid is a central node in the oppression of Gazans, his primary tasks involve purging collaborators, enforcing loyalty, and protecting the leadership.
Before Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation had succeeded, every Hamas channel was boasting that “alert resistance members” had foiled the raid through sheer vigilance. When further details surfaced, they pivoted to damage control: yes, a hostile force had been exposed and made to pay, and yes, three collaborators were arrested—but the Israelis had only managed to grab an unnamed “senior member” who “happened to be present at the scene,” not the figure they were after.
Now that a picture of a captured al-Arabid has been published, Hamas is working to downplay him as a mere commander within the apparatus rather than its head. But official Hamas publications named him head of internal security for Gaza City back in 2015—eleven years and dozens of targeted killings of senior officials ago. He and most of the current Hamas leadership owe Israel’s security forces a debt of gratitude: most of their promotions were provided by the IDF. By any account, he is a treasure trove—the custodian of secrets on the security of Hamas’s leadership, its counter-espionage, its network of collaborators.
there is a more important point made by this operation. Change the setting from Gaza to Hebron or Jenin and the story becomes considerably less extraordinary—Shin Bet and IDF forces routinely extract terrorists from the hearts of those cities. Not to diminish the tradecraft behind the operation, but its success is, in essence, the fruit of the security regime Israel has established in Gaza over the past three years.
Shin Bet is a good organization with many contacts on the “other side”, and members of Hamas still in Gaza, particularly the bigwigs, will be a bit rattled by this.
Right now I’m reading a fascinating yet disturbing book, Rise and Kill First (Ronen Bergman, 2018), about the history of Israel’s targeted assassinations. These involve not just Shin Bet, but also Mossad as well as the IDF’s intelligence division (Israel has three separate intelligence groups). It’s mesmerizing but, in cases where killings went wrong and many civilians were eliminated instead of the “target”, it shows the moral problems surrounding such endeavors.
More than 14 million older adults fall every year in the U.S., perhaps none so often as 91-year-old Dale Sanders.
By his count, Sanders fell 71 times while reclaiming his record as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. Six were what he calls hard falls, including one that led to a brief hospitalization and another just 200 yards from the finish. But none were enough to permanently divert him from the 2,193-mile (3,530-kilometer) trail that runs between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy defines a thru-hike as completing all of the trail’s sections in any order within a year, allowing for pauses. Sanders started Sept. 6 in West Virginia, hopscotched around with some brief breaks and finished Monday atop Maine’s highest peak, where he paused to pray at the sign marking the summit.
“I had to thank God, and I had to thank my support team and everybody that got me here,” he said.
. . .Sanders was born in Kentucky in 1935, two years before the Appalachian Trail was completed. Bullied as a child for his small size, he gained confidence in solo sports like acrobatics and swimming. He later served in the Navy and retired in 2002 after a long career in parks and recreation.
Sanders holds numerous other age-related records, including becoming the oldest person to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi River, an 87-day trip he started on his 87th birthday.
Here’s the intrepid old git!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej had to clean the windows by himself, without divine help:
Hili: Was it you who washed the windows on the veranda?
Andrzej: Yes, because the angels have already flown off to warmer countries.
In Polish:
Hili: To ty umyłeś okna na werandzie
Ja: Tak, bo anioły już odleciały do ciepłych krajów.
Maarten Boudry found a lot of AI in a Skeptical Inquirer article by Armadeo Sarma (see below), including the use of two nonexistent quotes. The whole piece was 78% AI, and I’m peeved as Luana and I published a piece in there (with no fake quotes!). The journal has issued a correction, but the correction is in the middle of the piece (see here).
The two quotes cited in this paragraph from a @SkeptInquirer article don’t appear to exist. The only Google hits lead back to the Skeptical Inquirer piece itself. Looks suspiciously like AI hallucinations:
Well I hadn’t heard from Milo Yiannopoulos for a long time, but it looks like ICE got hold of him and deported him for overstaying his visa. Larry the Cat reacts:
Translation: “I liked it happening to other people but didn’t like it happening to me” https://t.co/pBCrF1a7yP
Two from my feed. First, what a little water can do.
Translation from the French:
UNUSUAL: A man discovered a hollow in a tree that he filled with water during the heatwave. He set up a camera trap there for a week to show just how much a simple little water source can be a lifesaver for wildlife.
🇫🇷 INSOLITE : Un homme a découvert un creux dans un arbre qu’il a rempli d’eau pendant la canicule. Il y a posé un piège photo pendant une semaine pour montrer à quel point un simple petit point d’eau peut être salvateur pour la faune. ❤️… pic.twitter.com/riJuhlqHez
I guess I’m at the time of life when all my heroes are dying off, because of course they were older than I and I’m no spring chicken. The latest to leave the planet is Gloria Steinem, who died yesterday at 92. Activist, feminist, one of the big figures of “second wave feminism” that promoted women’s equality in all spheres, and co-founder of Ms. Magazine which I read regularly, she was perhaps the first response you’d give when asked, “Name a famous feminist.” This is from her obituary in the New York Times: (archived here):
Gloria Steinem, the feminist crusader who, in galvanizing the modern women’s movement, helped millions of women develop a sense of self-worth and gain a measure of equality at home, at work and in society at large, died on Wednesday in New York City. She was 92.
Her death was announced in a post on social media, which did not give a cause. It said Ms. Steinem had died peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones.
Calling herself “an entrepreneur of social change,” Ms. Steinem helped usher in sweeping cultural transformations across virtually every facet of American life, from the boardroom to the courtroom to the bedroom.
For more than half a century, she personified the women’s movement and became its most enduring symbol; her tinted aviator glasses and curtain of streaked-blond hair parted in the center made her one of the most recognizable women in the world.
She was an unlikely revolutionary. Growing up a transient in the Midwest, she was 10 when her parents divorced and she was left to mother her mentally anguished mother — a formative experience that reverberated throughout her life. She had scant formal education until sixth grade; her big dream, as a budding tap dancer, was to become a Rockette.
But she read voraciously, graduated from college with honors and believed fiercely that women should be able to live whatever life they chose.
Her own feminist awakening didn’t come until her mid-30s, when, as a journalist in 1969, she attended a “speak out” of women discussing their illegal abortions. Charismatic, articulate, media savvy, deeply empathetic and a workaholic, she evolved into a political and cultural force.
She led protests and consciousness-raising sessions, wrote essays and delivered speeches, delved into political organizing, helped establish rape crisis centers and shelters for battered women, founded numerous groups that promoted women and had the Midas touch when it came to raising money for their causes.
She was a columnist for New York Magazine, and the article below, written in 1969, is touted as having pushed her into the limelight (click to read):
The piece is about the rise of third wave feminism, and this is how it ends:
But there is bound to be a time of, as social anthropologist Lionel Tiger puts it, “increased personal acrimony,” even if the revolution fails and women go right back to darning socks. (Masculinity doesn’t depend on the subservience of others, but it will take us a while to find that out.) It might be helpful to men—and good for women’s liberation—if they just keep repeating key phrases like, “No more guilt, No more alimony, Fewer boring women, Fewer bitchy women, No more tyrants with all human ambition confined to the home, No more ‘Jewish mothers’ transferring ambition to children, No more women trying to be masculine because it’s a Man’s World …” (and maybe one more round of “No more alimony”) until the acrimony has stopped.
Because the idea is, in the long run, that women’s liberation will be men’s liberation, too.
She was one of those figures that you implicitly think will live forever, and who you never imagine might be getting old, and so the announcement of her death was a shock.
Here’s a bit from Wikipedia about Steinem and ageing:
Commenting on aging, Steinem said that as she approached 60 she felt like she entered a new phase in life free of the “demands of gender” she had faced from adolescence onward. When asked about her desired legacy, she said she hoped her work “might help individual people… to become more the unique, valuable, loved and lovable person that they want to be.” In 2026, Steinem was interviewed as part of a New York Times essay asking about how it felt to reach 80. The article was released to coincide with the 80th birthday of sitting United States President Donald Trump; Steinem said the worst part of turning 80 was “losing people you love”. When asked if she had advice for Trump specifically, she replied: “Resign”.
Here’s Steinem in 1977, when she was 43:
Photo by Lynn Gilbert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Here’s rare interview with Steinem in her New York condo, conducted in her last year of life. It’s 80 minutes long, and be sure to listen to her claim that “we have an asshole in the White House” (1:03:06).
I stupidly set the wildlife post to appear at 6:15 a.m. instead of the usual 8:15, and so you may have received an email that goes nowhere, as I reset the posting for the usual time.
At any rate, you’ll want to see Bruce Lyon’s photos and four videos of Arctic foxes that he took in Alaska, and that post is right below this one—at this link. Have a look.
