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.
Okay we’ll have a Caturday this week, but we’ll see about forthcoming weeks. If you have a cat-related item for me to consider, by all means send it along.
First, we have an eight-minute video of a real “cat lady”, who has over a thousand moggies. She’s turned her house into a sanctuary/rescue center/adoption center, so that’s not so “crazy.” They’ve saved 28,000 cats.
You can read more about “The Cat House on the Kings” by clicking on the link below:
Here’s a seven-minute video of a day in the life of the Cat House on the Kings:
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As you must know by now, Larry the Cat, the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, turned nineteen, and has been at 10 Downing Street for 15 years, serving under seven Prime Ministers. Still he abides. Here’s a video of Larry “causing mischief,” though not everything it shows is “mischief”.
And here’s a short video of Larry chasing a rather emaciated fox from Downing Street. He may be a poor mouser and bad at catching birds, but he’s good at chasing off d*gs and other canids.
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Now it’s time to learn some cat evolution by reading about Proailurus, the earliest known “true cat” (i.e., an animal placed in the family Felidae). We find its fossils from about 30 million years ago, and you can read about it in this article by Will Newton from Discover Wildlife. It may have been the common ancestor of all cats today, but I consider that unlikely; it was probably related to the ancestor of all living felids, but finding THE “missing cat link” would be nearly impossible. But it does show us what a very early felid was like.
Click the screenshot to read.
A few excerpts (indented):
What was Proailurus?
Proailurus is an extinct cat that lived in Europe and Asia from the Late Oligocene (30 million years ago) to the Early Miocene (25 million years ago). It’s widely considered to be the first ‘true’ cat and the ancestor of the entire cat family, which includes everything from extinct sabre toothed cats to living lions, tigers, and leopards.
Proailurus is known from three different species, two of which – P.lemanensis and P.bourbonnensis – were roughly the size as a house cat, weighing in at 7-10kg. The third species, P.major, is thought to have been more than twice as large, but it’s only known from a single specimen and, as a result, is shrouded in mystery.
What did Proailurus look like?
Looking somewhat like a miniature cougar, Proailurus had a lengthy, low-slung back, relatively short limbs and a long, flexible tail. These features suggest it lived an arboreal lifestyle, hunting, resting, and perhaps even playing high up in the tree canopy. It may have also hunted on the ground, just like the modern Geoffroy’s cat (Leopardus geoffroyi).
This bodyplan and arboreal behaviour bears remarkable similarity to the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) – a cat-like predator found only on Madagascar.
. . . Where did Proailurus live?
The first remains of Proailurus were described in 1879 by French naturalist Henri Filhol who found a handful of small, cat-like fossils at a site in Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, Central France.
Since this discovery in the late 19th century, fossils of Proailurus have been unearthed in neighbouring Spain and Germany and, surprisingly, Mongolia. This suggests Proailurus had a very wide range and occupied a niche that had very few, if any major competitors.
Several fossils believed to belong to Proailurus, or at least a Proailurus-like animal, have been found in North America, including the famous Ginn Quarry cat. This specimen is represented by a complete skull, which has dentition very similar to the type species (P.lemanensis) originally described by Filhol.
The jury’s still out on whether the Ginn Quarry cat was truly a Proailurus, but its discovery suggests that cats – or at least cat-like animals – had already dispersed from Eurasia into North America, establishing a lineage that, millions of years later, would give rise to some of the largest cats that ever lived.
What did Proailurus originate from?
Proailurus is widely considered the first ‘true’ cat and the basal member of a family known as Felidae. This furry family is nestled within a larger mammalian order known as Carnivora, which includes everything from cats and dogs, to bears,mustelids, hyenas, and seals.
The earliest carnivorans would have resembled small weasels or genets and, like many living carnivorans, would have likely been nocturnal. From these small, stealthy predators, two large sub-groups emerged: the feliforms and the caniforms.
While the caniforms diversified into an astonishing array of shapes and lifestyles (just look at how different skunks are from walruses, for example), the feliforms largely retained a sleek, agile body plan and exhibited far less diversity in terms of their morphology, diet, and behaviour.
And it’s from Feliformia that Proailurus, and its lineage Felidae, eventually emerged 30 million years ago.
Again, we don’t know whether Proailurus is the ancestor of all living felids, or a pretty close relative of that common ancestor. Nor do we know that it was brownish and unmarked, as depicted in the drawing above. What we have are fossil skeletons, and that can’t tell us about color, or whether these animals were spotted or striped.
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Lagniappe: Several items today, starting with this Facebook entry about a cat image being used to sell gin (see the text below the photo):
I’ve often shown medieval images of cats, asserting that for some reason artists of that era simply couldn’t draw even a decent moggy. Here’s a FB video showing some pathetic attempts to paint or draw cats. You can see more here and even more in the panoply of hilarious images at the Google Search page for “medieval cat paintings.”
Bill Maher’s back after his summer vacation, and his latest “new rule” bit starts in with some hard criticism of the “far far Left”—the progressives—for being close to Communists, and the Democratic Socialists of America for using Communist jargon. I’ve talked before about the DSA’s platform, which includes abolishing the Senate and ditching the President and Supreme Court. as well as getting rid of the police and jails. But some of them go further, advocating seizing private property and “seizing the means of production”—straight out of Marx.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) — Co-leading the initiative
Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA) — Co-leading the initiative
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV)
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC)
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr. (D-TX)
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY)
Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR)
Rep. Kristin McDonald Rivet (D-MI)
Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH)
Jessica Killin (candidate)
Marlene Galán Woods (candidate)
Bobby Pulido (candidate)
The pledge is not some kind of right-wing manifesto, but a reasonable centrist Democratic view. I’m appalled that more Democrats in Congress wouldn’t sign it.
Oh, and my favorite Democratic curmudgeon, James Carville, appears with a quote about the “progressives”:
“There’s just some shit that I can’t be in the same tent with. . I”m done. I’m not in that fucking political party.”
Welcome to CaturSaturday, August 1, 2026, and the new month is on us! Soon it will be Back to School Time, a time that always filled me with great dread when I was a child.
Here are the famous “Four Yorkshiremen” from Monty Python:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 1 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Thousands of Moroccans have suddenly decided to enter Spain via Ceuta, a Spanish city on the African mainland.
Spanish officials said on Friday that tens of thousands of migrants had entered Ceuta, the small Spanish territory in North Africa where a surge of people crossing the border from Morocco has left nearly three dozen people dead and created a political crisis for Spain’s pro-immigration government.
Some 60,000 people were estimated to have entered the territory since Thursday, said Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s government. He called the situation “absolutely unsustainable” in a territory with about 83,000 residents. In the fast-moving situation, Spain’s interior ministry had a somewhat lower estimate, saying that about 50,000 people had entered the territory.
Many of them have since returned to Morocco. The interior ministry said on Friday afternoon that more than 25,000 of those who entered Ceuta in the surge had left.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, arrived in Ceuta on Friday to address what his conservative opponents have called an invasion of Spanish soil. At a border crossing, he condemned “mafias involved in human trafficking that deceive many young people, many of whom ultimately lose their lives.”
Mr. Sánchez has developed an image as a pro-immigration liberal and Europe’s most prominent critic of the Trump administration’s hard line against migrants. He made global headlines this year by allowing more than a million migrants to apply to formalize their status.
Migrants began crossing into Ceuta (pronounced say-YOU-tah), a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s coast that Spain has governed for centuries, in large numbers on Thursday. They climbed over border fences or swam, sometimes for hours, to its shores. At least 34 people died trying to enter Ceuta, Mr. Vivas said on Friday.
On Friday, hundreds if not thousands of young men were lingering on the beach in Ceuta, some carrying satchels and plastic bags. “You ask why everyone came — because there’s no work in Morocco,” said Ajoub el-Arrot, 24, a Moroccan arrival.
Several people said they had been encouraged to enter Ceuta by the Moroccan authorities. “They just kept saying, ‘Go that way, go that way,’” said Youssef Alaoui, 26, referring to police officers who he said pointed them in the right direction. He ultimately swam across the maritime border, he said, encountering several dead bodies in the water.
In recent years, as Morocco became a key staging ground for migrants seeking to reach Europe, Spain has depended on Moroccan border guards to stem the flow of arrivals. Tensions have spiked in the past when Morocco appeared to let more migrants move toward Ceuta, to exert political pressure on Spain. In 2021, more than 10,000 people crossed into Ceuta in two days.
UPDATE from the NYT: most have returned to Morocco but there were quite a few deaths:
An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 migrants entered a small Spanish territory alongside Morocco on Thursday and Friday, according to Spanish authorities. Although at least 48,300 had returned to Morocco by Friday afternoon, the mass crossing prompted an immediate backlash from far-right politicians in Europe that seemed poised to linger.
Scenes of chaos in Ceuta (pronounced say-YOU-tah), the North African exclave that Spain has held for centuries, splashed across news networks and social media. Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s government called the situation “absolutely unsustainable” in a territory with about 83,000 residents. At least 60 people died trying to enter the area, according to local officials.
Local authorities said they would not feed or shelter migrants who remained in Ceuta. Many said they hadn’t eaten in nearly two days.
On Thursday, shocking footage spread online of droves of primarily young male Moroccans storming Ceuta, a small Spanish territory on the North African coast. Thousands of them swam around breakwaters and climbed fences to enter the tiny enclave. An estimated 60,000 people are believed to have arrived in Ceuta—where the permanent population is 84,000—in 24 hours. Eighteen immigrants have died during the crossings. Meanwhile, local bars and shops are closed for fear of looting. The chaos has caused the leader of Ceuta to appeal to Madrid to send in the army.
The Spanish government has done so, but it should never have come to this. It was bound to, though, because Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, a Socialist, oversees one of Europe’s most permissive migration regimes. In January, Sánchez announced a blanket amnesty program to regularize the immigration status of half a million migrants living illegally in Spain. In a New York Times op-ed published in February, Sánchez characterized the move as both humane and economically necessary, and contrasted his policy to the restrictive ones of “MAGA-style leaders” (read: Hungary’s former prime minister Viktor Orbán).
Here’s a tweet from Luana, who tells me an asylum seeker who enters any part of Spain is entitled to a hearing, which can take two years or more. If this continues, the situation will be a big crisis, if it isn’t already. English translation:
“Thousands of Moroccans arrived in trucks and buses at the Ceuta border. It’s not a migration crisis; it’s a Green March orchestrated by Mohamed VI.”
Miles de marroquíes llegaron en camiones y autobuses a la frontera de Ceuta.
It’s Friday, July 31, and “I will tell them no.” That’s what Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers days before flying to Washington, in response to reported U.S. pressure for a “series of withdrawals” across Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. He later denied the issue even came up in the meeting—a denial that now appears to have been a lie.
Yesterday the Board of Peace published its plan. Under the roadmap, Hamas surrenders everything it holds—weapons, light and heavy, tunnels, depots and production facilities. The handover runs in stages beginning within weeks: police weapons first, then the heavy arms and tunnels are decommissioned under the International Stabilization Force, stored in designated sites and taken out of use, while personal weapons fall “under Palestinian law.” None of it goes to Israel. At the end, only the Palestinian technocratic committee administering Gaza holds any authority over arms.
In the board’s words: “At the end of the process, Hamas will have no governing role in Gaza, neither openly nor behind the scenes, and the Gaza Administration Committee will hold full authority in accordance with the principle of one authority, one law, and one weapon.”
And, as is inevitably the case with Trump’s deals, the other side reads it differently. Hamas has claimed: “We will not take any steps regarding disarmament before Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip.” Don’t take that at face value—they are almost certainly preparing to give up some portion of their arsenal. Expecting Islamists to publicly announce the end of armed resistance is unreasonable, even once they’ve agreed to it in practice, but don’t read their rhetoric as entirely empty either. Israel has told envoy Tony Blair that the reported 15-point document does not adequately address its demands. Translation: There is a withdrawal somewhere in the agreement before disarmament is completed. Though I doubt it’s total.
More likely this is a fight over symbolism. Hamas will not want a photograph of its men handing weapons to Israel—hence the international forces. Meanwhile, a single foot is 12 inches more than Netanyahu is willing to give back before elections.
My Take: they won’t get every weapon. But so long as Israel doesn’t have to withdraw completely and keeps the freedom to go back in when it needs to, 20,000 disabled rifles are worth entertaining the process.
It’s hard for me to believe that Hamas is going to surrender its weapons, but, as Segal says, there’s no guarantee they’re giving up all their weapons, nor is there a guarantee that Israel will withdraw completely from Gaza. Still, this looks like a step forward.
*You can read the full text of the Gaza “deal” at the AP site. Here are a few of the 15 stipulations:
2. Israel shall fully complete, without delay, all remaining commitments under Sharm Sheikh Protocol, particularly the cessation of military operations as detailed in annex (1). Hamas and the Palestinian factions shall complete the cessation of all military operations in accordance with Sharm Sheikh Protocol and the Peace Plan. In parallel, the timetable and implementation mechanisms of this Roadmap (“Implementation of Phase 2”) shall be prepared within 14 days after all parties approve the Roadmap, which could be extended by a decision by the International Verification Committee (IVC). Upon the completion of the timetable and implementation mechanisms, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) shall enter the Strip and start to assume its responsibilities. The IVC, that shall be established by the Board of Peace (BoP), comprising representatives from the guarantors, BoP and the International Stabilization Force (ISF), shall certify that both parties fulfill their commitments under the Roadmap before proceeding to the implementation of Phase 2.
3. Progression from one phase to the following one shall be contingent on the verified completion of the commitments of the previous phase. This verification shall be done by the IVC, which shall also observe any violations by either party through an enhanced monitoring mechanism.
4. Hamas and other factions agree that all civilian governance and security functions in Gaza shall be handed over to NCAG in accordance with President Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan in Gaza. They also assert that NCAG shall enjoy full independence in carrying out its responsibilities and that the factions shall not interfere in NCAG affairs during the transitional period, in accordance with UNSC Resolution 2803 (2025).\
. . . 6. Gaza shall be governed according to the principle of One Authority, One Law, One Weapon. NCAG shall operate in accordance with Palestinian laws, relevant international standards and the principles of good governance.
. . . 8. A process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels, shall begin after completing the remaining commitments under Sharm Sheikh Protocol, the entry of NCAG and deployment of ISF. This process shall be administered and implemented by NCAG in a gradual, sequential and time-bound manner according to an implementation timetable that shall be completed within 14 days after all parties approve the Roadmap, which could be extended by a decision by IVC. This process shall be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases, from the areas under its control in Gaza and the decommissioning of armed militias in accordance with article 10 of this Roadmap. This process shall be monitored and verified by IVC and supported by ISF. The Palestinian factions shall take part in this process, and no weapons shall be transferred or handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties. At the end of the process mentioned in articles 7 – 10 of this Roadmap, only NCAG shall hold, store or control weapons in Gaza. The implementation of this Roadmap, including the issue of weapons and other articles of the comprehensive peace plan, shall create appropriate conditions for a credible pathway towards achieving Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
This all sounds good, but of course if there is governance in Gaza, it must eventually be Palestinian, and Palestinian moderates who can govern are thin on the ground. Without weapons, Hamas will be toothless as a terrorist organization, but what would prevent them from getting more weapons.
→ HRH Fauci!: Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, kept a journal. A diary filled with love notes to himself. Which I’ve literally never heard of a man doing, but that’s beside the point. I guess he also did it on his work computer, because Senator Rand Paul obtained and released it. I’m not sure where to begin. First, let’s get a sense of the tone. He carefully documents all the glitzy celebrations of himself, lists all the “movie stars and athletes” he has a Zoom call with, and carefully logs all the celebratory news stories about himself. It’s like an Excel spreadsheet of compliments. For a sense, here’s Anthony Fauci on Anthony Fauci:
Big front page article abut me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyoperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world. (Countless profiles on me in multiple media. I cannot even read all the things that are written abuyt me since I am so busy . . . seriously. POTUS seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him. We are developing a very unique and interesting relationship. The entire secret service corps is coming over to me and chatting. They let me into the first gate without even checking ID. Everyone is worried about my health and welfare, probably because it is all over the place that I am almost 80 years old.
He loved being a celebrity. The thing about it is, he really was being worshipped! There was a cult of Fauci. People were getting Fauci tattoos and dancing with images of Fauci. He really was on the cover of every magazine, which, if you think about it, was weird! If millions of Americans suddenly made me their cult leader, and I had previously just been an unknown short man in the back of an HIV press conference, I would go insane with power too. So would you. And when you see lockdowns in the context of a power-drunk elf getting turned on by the idea of canceling Easter—he’s typing so fast he can barely keep up—you can understand better what we all lived through. For him, the pleasure was canceling things, especially things he felt gave power to the right (sports, family gatherings, religious events). We can never forget the freaks who gain power in a centrally controlled system. Also: no diaries, ever, certainly none in Google Docs. I write my grocery lists on Signal, and you should too. Love letters via email have been forbidden until further notice. I will be dragged up in front of Congress one of these days, but so help me God, they aren’t going to know about one brunch I attended. Next up, the lab leak. . .
→ The DNC is in big trouble: The Democratic National Committee is broke. They’ve made their whole thing about hating rich people, and now they want some of those rich people to help them out. Like a temperamental kid who runs away from home with four dollars and a guinea pig, now they’re broke and they’re hungry. The DNC is asking vendors not to send invoices until after the midterms. And the DNC chair was described throwing his phone at a staffer’s desk. “As Democrats, the only solution is to acknowledge the problem and fix it,” writes longtime DNC fundraiser Rufus Gifford. But can they articulate the problem? No one seems able to. Top Dems are doing promotional videos outside rich people’s homes being like, we hate this specific family, whose names are Todd, Kat, and Blake. And then they get confused why Todd’s not writing a big fat check this year.
→ And how is the progressive New York publishing world? Well, here is Simon & Schuster’s star author. (Her first two books are getting reissued in September, yay!)
Just in case you didn’t know what she was implying . . .Susan is commenting here on Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who went on a podcast and said that if his family hadn’t left Germany, he’d be a lampshade. Anyway, Susan decided to weigh in a totally normal way: “First of all, he’d be more useful to humanity as a lampshade. Second, how long do we have to keep listening to this nonsense?” She adds: “Or a bar of soap. I forgot to add that perfect utility for Alex Karp, mass-murdering demon.” It’s probably not relevant, but New York’s First Lady, Rama Duwaji, illustrated one of Susan’s essays. They’re artistic collaborators. How special is that?
Zios!!!!! You can read about Abulhawa here, and here’s an excerpt from her Wikipedia bio (note that even Mamdani criticized her!):
Abulhawa has referred to Israelis as “rootless, soulless ghouls” in her writing, as well as describing the October 7, 2023 attacks as a “spectacular moment that shocked the world”.[16] She described the Gaza war as a “Jewish supremacist slaughter”, writing, “these sons of Satan will taste what they meted to us”.[17] New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized her comments as “reprehensible” and “patently unacceptable”.[17][16] Mamdani was criticised by some of his supporters for “reinforcing harmful narratives that conflate support for Palestinians with anti-Jewish sentiment”. Abulhawa said that her comments were not antisemitic or anti-Jewish and that she was responding “to a Zionist power structure and its proponents from the perspective of a Palestinian who has experienced the ravages of that system”.
*Both the NYT and the WaPo have weekly religion-and-faith newsletters; the former is called “Believing,” the latter “Awakenings.” That alone would make you think that the answer to the query in the latest WaPo column, “Is America becoming more religious?”, would be “yes.” But it ain’t so. The proportion of religious people in America is not rising, but the importance of religion to those who already embrace faith is increasing. I’ll quote:
The idea that the United States is becoming more religious has come to be widely accepted, particularly in conservative media. But the statistical measures of American religiosity don’t actually point toward a significant uptick in religious belief and practice. Instead, a number of data points seem to support the notion that what the U.S. is experiencing is a vibes revival. The public’s sense that religion is roaring back is completely disconnected from what’s actually happening in America’s pews.
The Pew Research Center has been asking respondents if religion has been gaining or losing influence in American life for more than 20 years. In 2024, only 18 percent said its influence was growing — the lowest number the survey has recorded. But in just over two years, that share doubled to 37 percent, while the share saying that religion is losing influence fell from 80 percent to 61 percent.
The graph below shows a rise in perception but not religion itself:
. . . In April, Gallup released new polling data about the religiosity of America’s young adults. One finding dominated headlines: Among young men, the share who said that religion was very important in their lives was 28 percent in 2022-23 but rose to 42 percent in 2024-25. That’s a 50 percent increase in two years. (Among young women, there was a modest decline, with the share saying that religion is very important in their lives falling from 32 percent to 29 percent.)
Notice that the “surge” is only among young men, and not young women:
But the report’s other findings received less attention, even as they undermined the conclusions being drawn from the most widely discussed finding. According to that Gallup survey, the share of young men who identified with any religious group in 2022-23 was 61 percent. In the most recent data, it was 63 percent. That shift is statistically insignificant. Data about monthly religious attendance shows a seven-point gain among young men, compared with a 14-point jump in religious importance — twice the size.
When social scientists measure American religion, they often talk about it in three dimensions: behavior, belief and belonging. The most widely regarded datasets that track American religion do not point to a significant increase in the religiosity of young adults — in fact, it’s just the opposite. When it comes to religious behavior, the General Social Survey reports that 38 percent of Gen Z never attends religious services. That’s seven points higher than millennials and 19 points higher than Gen X when they were 18-29. Gen Z is also six percentage points less likely to report weekly attendance compared with baby boomers (19 percent versus 25 percent).
. . . When it comes to religious beliefs, 18 percent of Gen Z expressed an atheist or agnostic view of God, and 40 percent said that they believed in God without a doubt, according to the General Social Survey. For comparison, 15 percent of millennials were atheist or agnostic, and 48 percent were certain believers. And when it comes to religious belonging, the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Survey reports that about 44 percent of people born in 1990 or later claim no religious affiliation. Young adults are more than twice as likely to be nonreligious as those born in the 1960s.
So religion is “having its moment.” But why? Don’t ask me! Perhaps you can weight in below. (One might say that present circumstances have led to people having a “god-shaped hole” in their heart, but what is drilling that hole?) But what’s happening is clear: people think that religion is increasing in influence and number of believers, but it isn’t happening. In fact, young people are getting less religious as “nones” are on the rise. There may have been a slowdown in that rise, but people are mistaking a pause for an increase.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s making wisecracks about progressives again:
Hili: Apples are falling, which means gravity is still in effect. Andrzej: Were you ever in doubt?
Hili: I visited some progressive students’ websites. They give the impression that they’re constantly levitating.
In Polish:
Hili: Jabłka spadają, czyli grawitacja nadal działa.
Ja: Miałaś wątpliwości?
Hili: Zaglądałam na strony postępowych studentów, sprawiają wrażenie jakby cały czas lewitowali.
Masih has to be accompanied by the Berlin police to the site of an Islamist killing:
Did the Muslim community and Pro Palestine activists, took to the streets to show their solidarity and condemn the Islamist terror in Berlin that has killed a mother.
Thanks you to the Berlin Police for accompanying me to the site of the attack, where an Islamist screaming… pic.twitter.com/h5fwScZXWD
I checked J. K. Rowling for juicy tweets, but got a page full of levitating balloons. Why? Because this was at the top. THEIR????? Is that her way of joking?
One from my feed; I wonder if it really is a brand-new puzzle:
The crow solved a brand new three-step puzzle in 30 seconds to get a bedtime snack! He even had time to make sure he didn’t miss any cashews. That’s really amazing! 🐦⬛👏 pic.twitter.com/scPn2mZfre
— Nature is Phenomenal (@AnimalGeoLife) July 31, 2026
One I retweeted from the Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish girl, arrested while trying to escape to Spain, was gassed to death as soon as her transport reached Auschwitz. She was ten years old. https://t.co/VTDWwsO1o4
And two from Doctor Cobb. First, the only taxidermied blue whale in existence, now off limits because of two salacious people (I don’t blame them):
The only taxidermied blue whale in the world, 1865 CE, now housed at the Natural History Museum in Sweden. The public was allowed to enter the whale up until a couple was found having sex inside it.Now the whale’s jaws are opened only for special occasions, such as Swedish election days.
My NBC Evening News has devoted its opening story two nights in a row to Pope Leo, who just gave an interview in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the gorgeous Papal summer residence of whose existence I was unaware. Among other things, the Pope revealed that he loves America and realizes he’s the first American Pope, but says that he also recognizes that his mission is to lead a worldwide church. He also revealed that, after someone looked up his ancestry, he had ancestors who were slaveowners as well as slaves (he didn’t elaborate on the latter). Finally, NBC reported that the Pope held a Concert for Peace and made an eloquent plea for peace as a prelude.
That was all well and good, but it didn’t seem to me that this should be a story that led the news—or even should be on the news. Of course the Pope pleaded for peace—that’s an important part of the job description, though there’s a lot of other stuff. To me it’s as earth-shaking as saying that a plumber unclogged a drain.
Leo seems like a good guy, and “progressive” in the good sense, but I found myself yawning at this paean to the Infallible Man, and wanted to hear real news—new news. I also remembered that the Papacy wasn’t always so peaceful. So I asked Grok a two-part question:
Did the Papacy ever engage in war? Is there any modern pope who has not pleaded for peace?
After thinking for less than a minute, Grok spat out the following, with references (I’ve omitted the latter):
Yes, the Papacy historically engaged in wars as a temporal (political/territorial) power, particularly while ruling the Papal States; modern popes, by contrast, have consistently pleaded for peace and have not engaged in war as state actors.
From roughly the mid-8th century (after the Donation of Pepin) until the capture of Rome in 1870, the popes were sovereign rulers of the Papal States in central Italy. They maintained military forces (volunteers, mercenaries, and later specialized units such as the Papal Zouaves), participated in regional conflicts, and sometimes allied with or fought against other European powers. These included conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire, involvement in the Italian Wars of the late 15th and 16th centuries, the Wars of the League of Cambrai and Cognac, actions during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, and resistance during the Italian unification (Risorgimento). The Papal army was generally modest and often relied on foreign troops or diplomacy; by the late 18th–19th centuries it was weak and largely defensive or internal-security oriented. Temporal power ended with Italian annexation in 1870; the Swiss Guard today is ceremonial/protective rather than a force for external war.
Of course Pope Leo wasn’t going to admit that some of his predecessors were bellicose, and not all that long ago, either. There’s more:
Popes also initiated or strongly supported the Crusades, beginning with Pope Urban II’s call at the Council of Clermont in 1095 for the First Crusade to recover the Holy Land, with later popes proclaiming additional crusading efforts.
A prominent example of direct military leadership is Pope Julius II (1503–1513), nicknamed the “Warrior Pope” (or Battle/Fearsome Pope). He actively campaigned to restore and expand Papal States territories during the Italian Wars: he subjugated Perugia and Bologna, joined the League of Cambrai against Venice, formed the Holy League against French forces in Italy, and personally led troops (including at the successful Siege of Mirandola). He framed some efforts as freeing Italy from foreign domination.
After 1870 the papacy lost its territorial state (beyond the later-recognized Vatican City) and shifted emphasis to spiritual and moral leadership. Modern popes (commonly understood as those from the late 19th/20th century onward, especially post-World War I) have not commanded armies or waged war. Instead, they have repeatedly and publicly pleaded for peace, often in the face of major conflicts.
Here are papal pleas for peace since the turn of the 20th century:
Benedict XV (1914–1922) worked intensively for an end to World War I, issuing encyclicals and a detailed 1917 peace note proposing arms reduction, arbitration, restoration of occupied territories, and related measures; he also organized humanitarian relief while maintaining neutrality.
Pius XII (1939–1958) made radio and other appeals for peace on the eve of and during World War II (including a notable August 1939 broadcast) and continued to preach peace amid the conflict.
John XXIII issued the encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) and advanced teachings on peace in the nuclear age.
Paul VI famously declared “No more war” (including at the UN).
Subsequent popes—John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and the current Pope Leo XIV (as of 2026)—have issued frequent appeals, encyclicals, messages, and prayers against war, for dialogue, disarmament, and reconciliation, continuing a clear pattern.
No prominent modern pope stands out as having refrained from pleading for peace; the record shows a consistent emphasis on it as part of the papal moral role once temporal power ended. Historical engagement in war reflected the dual spiritual-and-political character of the medieval and early-mo
Perhaps I seem churlish at the MSM regarding the Pope’s please for peace as Big News, but so be it. My question is whether the Pope’s pleas have any real effect in bringing peace. And about that I do not know,
This Jesus and Mo strip, called “meter,” came with the caption, “A Friday Flashback from 2013, back when irony meters were a thing.”
I think Jesus is referring to this incident that Grok looked up:
In early 2013, Abbot Cuthbert Johnson, OSB (former Abbot of Quarr Abbey, advisor to the Vatican’s Vox Clara committee, and consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship), publicly commented on the new English translation of the Roman Missal (third typical edition, implemented in English-speaking countries from Advent 2011).
Responding to an online survey by The Tablet on the reception of the translation, he said:
“The Tablet’s survey, however, appears to indicate that while there is an openness and a degree of appreciation for the new translation, there is a desire for an improvement that will ensure that the English flows more smoothly, and that the vocabulary, while being more dignified is not, as sometimes appears, a little abstruse and pretentious.”
These remarks stood out because they came from someone inside the Vatican’s translation-oversight structures. The new translation (following the principles of Liturgiam authenticam) had been controversial among some clergy and laity for its more formal, Latinate style; Johnson’s comments were seen as an acknowledgment of criticisms about awkward phrasing or overly elevated vocabulary while still noting some positive reception. He also observed that English texts sometimes need adjustment for musical settings (drawing a parallel to permissions Solesmes Abbey had received for Latin chant).
Johnson (1946–2017) was a respected liturgist and musician who had worked in the Congregation for Divine Worship, contributed extensively to scholarly work on the sources of the Roman Missal, and in 2011 authored Understanding the Roman Missal: The New Translation (Catholic Truth Society), which explained and supported the revised texts.
Well, you have to work hard to find iron in there!
As always, we see the classic Mo behavior here: he exemplifies exactly what he’s criticizing.
Can you find the egret in this photograph taken by Jean Greenberg? (The location was just south of the Osaka Garden in Hyde Park.) The reveal will be at noon Chicago time. You can enlarge the photo by clicking on it.
