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.
If you have good photos or videos with a wildlive/biology theme, send them in.
Today we have a short but lovely video from reader Mark in Australia. His notes are these:
The birds in the video are Little Corellas (Cacatua sanguinea), an Australian cockatoo, filmed at Winchelsea, in the state of Victoria. My drone was hovering when the flock came from nearby to inspect the strange object in their airspace.
When my daughter was quite young I asked her if she had noticed the large flock of corellas that had moved into the area. She asked “Are they the birds that sound like ghosts?” I had to say yes. Their call is not harsh like a sulphur-crested cockatoo, but high pitched and sort of spooky.
If you want to hear their spooky calls, go to this video.
Welcome to Friday, October 16, 2026 and it’s Global Cat Day! Here is a celebratory drawing, courtesy of ChatGPT, and below it a photo of the Queen of all Cats, Hili:
See the Hili dialogue below for more celebration of Cat Day:
President Trump on Thursday canceled the Pentagon’s planned livestream of the execution of the Army officer who was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting.
Pentagon officials said last week that the execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, would be broadcast via livestream. But Mr. Trump said Thursday that only immediate families of Mr. Hasan’s victims would be able to watch the execution in person.
“Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” he wrote on social media. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
Democrats and Republicans in Congress panned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the shooting, and even Vice President JD Vance expressed doubt about the plan.
“I’m not going to be watching it,” he said. He added: “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.”
The plan to broadcast Mr. Hasan’s execution, which the Pentagon said is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the same Army post where the massacre took place, had also drawn widespread condemnation from retired military officials, religious leaders and even some of the wounded soldiers who survived.
On Wednesday, dozens of retired admirals, generals and other officers published an open letter opposing the plan.
“Livestreaming this execution would clearly violate the basic human dignity of the condemned prisoner,” they wrote. “It turns what should be the solemn and grave punishment of a member of our society for committing the most serious crimes into a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators.”
. . . In an interview with Real America’s Voice, Mr. Hegseth said he supported the public execution of Mr. Hasan “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
Mr. Trump, in his post on social media, contended that streaming the execution “might have been a strong deterrent” to show how “America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan,” but he said it would not go forward.
If it’s to be a deterrent, then why not let everybody watch? What better way to let people know the “serious consequences” for mass murder? (Don’t we already know that?) The real reason is that it’s a barbaric spectacle that appeals to the worst of human nature, and Trump knows it. And I still predict that the execution will not take place.
*There’s been another sexual assault at a fraternity party, this time at the University of Chicago. Neither the accused assailant nor the reported victim went to school here, but we do have fraternities and one of them is where it is said to have occurred. From the NYT:
A 21-year-old woman reported that she was sexually assaulted last weekend at a fraternity house near the University of Chicago, the city police said, putting another campus on edge over accusations of misconduct tied to Greek life organizations.
The woman said the assault occurred in the early hours of Sunday during a party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, the police said, though neither the victim nor the suspect were students at the school. One witness said in an interview that she had interrupted an attack. That prompted the suspect to flee the house, according to the university, which called the episode “deeply concerning.”
The Chicago city police are investigating and did not provide further details, nor say whether there had been an arrest. On Tuesday, the school said it had identified a “person of interest” in the assault, adding that the person has been barred from campus.
Accusations of sexual misconduct are grimly plentiful on American campuses, and the report at the University of Chicago, a campus of Gothic architecture and intellectual rigor, came after a reported gang rape at Cornell University in New York propelled the issue back into the national debate.
The Chicago episode took place at a Saturday night fraternity party boisterous enough to be heard blocks away. Klara Grant, an 18-year-old chemistry student, said there was a D.J., dance floors on two levels of the house and a bar.
Mia Lara, a 21-year-old student at a nearby university, said she had seen the event advertised on the fraternity’s Instagram account. She and the woman who reported the attack, along with a third friend, decided to go.
It was the first time any of them had been to a fraternity party, Ms. Lara said. At the door, they were asked for identification, but not whether they attended the University of Chicago.
The trio danced in the basement. Ms. Lara’s friend and a man began kissing and Ms. Lara lost track of them. She searched the house, eventually finding a small group of men cheering outside a locked bathroom door in the basement, she said.
“They were saying things like, ‘When’s it my turn?’ and, ‘I want to go in there,’” Ms. Lara said.
Ms. Lara jimmied the lock and forced her way inside. She found her friend sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall with her clothes and undergarments pulled down. The man whom her friend had been kissing had his hands on her wrists, Ms. Lara said.
.. .Her friend began saying, “Make it stop” and “Get me out of here,” Ms. Lara said. Ms. Lara began screaming and the man left. She and her friend carried the woman out of the bathroom.
Outside the fraternity house, Ms. Lara chased the man, a scene captured in a social media video. In the clip, Ms. Lara yells at the man, accusing him of assaulting her friend.
“She wanted to,” the man replies. Ms. Lara swats the man with her hands, and he runs.
Multiple people confirmed to the Maroon that Raihaan Khaja, a first-year student at Purdue University, was the individual in a TikTok video that purported to show the perpetrator of a sexual assault early Sunday morning.
The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern that they would be associated with the incident, attended the party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity house where the assault occurred or were otherwise familiar with Khaja.
The attendees independently corroborated some details released yesterday by the Chicago Sun-Times and provided additional insight into Khaja’s activities at the party and immediately afterward. Their accounts also align with a Monday statement by AEPi saying that no members of the fraternity were involved in the assault.
Khaja, who was on fall break at the time, came to the party with a group of friends from his hometown in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
The University declined to name the accused assailant, but at least they banned him from campus. I would hope so!
*There’s an unresolved central question in “You Can See Everything”, Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s new documentary about grifter Elizabeth Holmes: was she really a grifter, or a huge case of self-delusion. A review in the WaPo describes the film, in which the filmmakers moved in with Holmes and her husband for several weeks before she went off to jail. (Why would she do that if she was obviously a grifter?). From the review by Will Leitch:
Like many Americans, I’ve read and watched so much about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes by now that I feel like I can recite her Wikipedia page by heart.
But there’s one thing I’ve never quite understood: How could a woman who dropped out of Stanford at 19 and claimed, with no actual scientific training, to have invented a device that would revolutionize health care manage to persuade so many otherwise intelligent and prudent people — from Gen. Jim Mattis to former secretary of state George Shultz to billionaire investors — to give her boatloads of money? What could she possibly have said to them? Why would anyone believe her?
One of the surprises of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s breathtaking new (pseudo?) documentary “You Can See Everything,” which opens nationwide this Friday, is that you come away understanding how Holmes was able to draw people in. In fact, you might even get drawn in yourself.
The film chronicles (among many, many other things) the final weeks in 2023 before Holmes reports to federal prison (where she remains today) for defrauding investors. Fielder and Oppenheim had extraordinary access to their subject. Fielder not only moves in with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, he’s also the last person to see her before she’s put in the car to be whisked away. And as we see Holmes up close, it becomes clear that there is something unique about her — a wide-eyed guilelessness that marks her, as Fielder notes in the film, as either the most sincere person on the planet or the most sociopathically manipulative one. The filmmakers embed with her for weeks, at the most trying time of her life, and can’t seem to figure out which it is. What hope did Mattis and the rest of them have?
The film, to be clear, is not a relitigation of the Theranos case; it does not pretend that Holmes was framed or railroaded. But what it does do, in a downright existential way, is examine what truth in fact is: how much of it is subjective, how much is mediated by personal experience and — most vividly — how much a person is or is not lying if they truly, profoundly believe what they are saying.
After Holmes says outrageous and untrue things, but seems to really believe them, Leitch says this:
Holmes — along with [her husband] Evans, who becomes in many ways the central, increasingly ominous figure in the film — proves an ideal subject for this sort of exploration: There is something so alien, yet so utterly assured, about her that you can get lost looking at and listening to her. Fielder certainly does: Some of the film’s best scenes feature him just staring at her, slack-jawed, as he seems to question the fabric of reality itself.
The movie takes a wild turn halfway through that I wouldn’t dare spoil here, other than to say that it turns the whole film inside out and leaves the viewer even more adrift than they were before … yet it does so in a way that, like a magic trick, proves invigorating rather than distressing. It’s a film that chases truth but, paradoxically, discovers that sometimes the deepest truth really is to be found inside yourself. This is a mind-bender of a movie in every possible way.
I’ll see this movie for sure. Here’s the trailer, which gives you an idea of how bloody weird this movie is.
Pope Leo XIV had the lower section of his right lung removed after doctors diagnosed him with the most common form of lung cancer. While lung cancer is a leading killer, survival rates can be high if it’s caught early, as the pope’s tumor appears to have been. Here are some things to know.
The Vatican announced the pope’s diagnosis as lung adenocarcinoma, which is one of many forms of lung cancer.
There are two main groups, small cell and non-small cell lung cancers. The non-small cell kind make up the vast majority of the world’s cases and adenocarcinoma is its most common subtype. Even it comes in varieties that can grow faster or slower.
“While it’s still very dangerous, it has slightly higher cure rates than other types of lung cancer,” said Dr. John Heymach of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. But as many as 1 in 5 lung cancers occur in people who have never smoked and it’s not clear why, maybe in some cases just random chance, Heymach said.
Other risks include exposure to radon gas, asbestos, radiation, secondhand smoke and air pollution, according to the American Cancer Society.
Surgery is a mainstay when lung cancer is detected early, and increasingly is used even in more advanced stages. The pope had the lower section, or lobe, of his right lung removed to try to ensure that all of the cancer was removed.
The right lung has three sections or lobes while the left has two. Each lobe has its own airway branch and dedicated blood vessels and when one is removed, “the other lobes actually pick up some of the work,” said Dr. Ben Zhang, a thoracic surgeon at Allina Health in Minneapolis.
The lungs gradually compensate over several months until most people, especially those who already were physically active, notice little to no difference with exertion, he said.
The pope is known to engage in weekly tennis games and swimming.
In the U.S., the average hospital stay after lung cancer surgery is two nights, Zhang said. It depends in part on how quickly the patient can get up and walk around, as well as pain and how long a tube that can drain air and fluid from the chest is needed.
The pope was walking the next day, which Heymach called “typically a harbinger of a quicker recovery.”
Whether additional treatment is needed depends on the tumor’s stage, based on factors such as its size and whether it shows signs of spreading via the lymph nodes, and if markers on its cells suggest it may be aggressive. Additional treatment can be chemotherapy, used before surgery to shrink a tumor or afterward to attack any lingering cells. Other options include radiation, immunotherapy or what are called targeted drugs aimed at specific molecular drivers of a tumor.
None of the details have been announced, and I’m not sure they will be. Given the Pope’s position, it seems okay to disclose what’s been revealed so far. But more details about treatment don’t seem necessary. I’m wondering, though, how pious Catholics rationalize how the Pope, who is at times infallible, could be struck down with potentially deadly disease.
The Trump administration’s investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) is aimed at building a case to strip her of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her, according to U.S. officials and other people familiar with the probe.
The multipronged effort is focused at least in part on how Omar obtained her citizenship after she arrived in the U.S. from Somalia decades ago. Investigators are focused both on the congresswoman and actions of her deceased father, some of the people familiar with the probe said. Nur Omar Mohamed brought his daughter and other family members to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Kenya in 1995.
. . .At the center of the immigration investigation is whether Omar or her father changed her age on her citizenship application to show she was 17 years old rather than 18, according to people familiar with the probe. If Omar was 17 at the time her father applied for citizenship, she would have qualified automatically rather than needing to pursue her own immigration process. She became a citizen in 2000.
Officials at Homeland Security Investigations looked into a similar tip under the Biden administration, according to people familiar with those efforts, but they decided not to move forward because they lacked evidence of fraud.
The government can’t simply strip a person of their U.S. citizenship. The Justice Department must file a lawsuit in federal court and prove that the person lied in a material way to gain their citizenship. Most of the cases the Justice Department has filed this term haven’t yet been decided.
Leon Fresco, a top immigration official in the Justice Department during the Obama administration, said the Trump administration’s case would hinge on finding material evidence that Omar lied about her own age, rather than her father lying on her behalf.
“That would make the case significantly easier to prosecute,” he said. “But either way, they are not traveling a well-paved road here.”
Oy vey! It’s the matter of one year, and how are they going to prove that Omar lied about her own age instead of her father doing it? And even if they can, it smacks of Trumpian vengeance to prosecute her with the intention of deporting her, an effor that will, in the end, fail.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is celebrating her day (which is every day):
Andrzej: Today is Global Cat Day. Hili: As far as this household is concerned, every day is Cat Day.
In Polish:
Ja: Dziś Światowy Dzień Kota
Hili: W tym domu każdy dzień jest Dniem Kota.
From Masih: recordings of two women awaiting their execution in Iran:
Two women on death row in Iran have recorded audio messages from their prison cells and asked the free world to save their lives. Now I bring their voices to you.
Najmeh Amini is 23. An accounting student. Her crime? A post on social media. The regime calls it insulting the prophet. For one post, they will hang her.
Mahboubeh Shabani is 33. During the protests, she carried wounded demonstrators to the hospital. Her crime? Saving lives. The regime calls it waging war against God. For saving lives, they will hang her.
Let me be honest. Hashtags and tweets alone will not stop these executions. This regime only understands pressure.
So I call on American, European, and world leaders: make these executions your red line. Tie every sanction, every deal, every negotiation to the lives of political prisoners. Demand their release now. Impose real costs for every hanging.
Najmeh Amini and Mahboubeh Shabani must not die for the crime of freedom.
From Luana. Khadija Khan clarifies what “Islamophobia” is about.
It’s not “bringing back blasphemy laws through the backdoor” any more. We are witnessing the gradual but steady imposition of Islamic blasphemy laws in our society. The term “Islamophobia” is not about protecting Muslims as people. The term has become a synonym for Islamic blasphemy laws, and you should not doubt it.
Here I contend that although there is no “genocide” being committed by Israel against Gaza or Palestinians as a whole, Russia is committing genocide of the Ukrainians. That the former is loudly touted but false, but the latter is not that newsworthy but is arguably true, shows that the world holds a double standard with regard to “genocide”.
Here I want to concentrate not on Israel’s war with Hamas, which I’ve discussed many times, but on Ukraine, which is being largely ignored by the U.S. (and by Western protestors), and is being mistreated. Indeed, the U.S., with its lifting sanctions on Russian diesel and its threats to withhold intelligence from Ukraine, is beginning to help Russia with this “genocide.”
The UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide this way (Article II):
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The definition requires not only intent to destroy a group, but examples of acts undertaken to fulfill that intent. The arguments against an Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians is not met by either the intent or the actions. Although there are isolated statements by Israeli officials that could be interpreted as intent, the actions of the IDF have been directed at killing the enemy (Hamas) and avoiding wiping out Palestinians as a while. You’ve heard the counterarguments to this: the warning of Gazan civilians by the IDF before strikes, the designation of “safe zones”, the vaccination of 1.1 Gazan children by the WHO and Israel, and so on.
What is Russia doing to Ukraine? Let me count the ways:
The transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia. According to the UN itself, Russia is deporting Ukrainian children on a large scale, amounting to crimes against humanity:
Russian authorities committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer of children, and of their enforced disappearance, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in its latest report to the Human Rights Council, which is complemented by a conference room paper.
Thousands of children have been deported to the Russian Federation or transferred to occupied areas in Ukraine by Russian authorities, according to the Commission. It has so far verified the deportation or transfer of over 1,200 children from five regions in Ukraine.
Shortly before the full-scale invasion, the Russian authorities undertook large-scale relocations, which they justified as “evacuations” due to the risks of the armed conflict. But the Commission found that four years later, 80 per cent of the children from the documented cases have not been returned. This contravenes international humanitarian law, under which evacuations can only be temporary for compelling reasons of health, medical treatment or safety.
Mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. One example is the Bucha massacre enacted by Russia soon after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Over 400 people were executed, and this was documented by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia. This process began immediately after the revolution of 1917…
“Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.”
Grok adds this, which speaks to an intent to destroy a “national group”:
Officials and state-aligned figures (including Dmitry Medvedev) have repeatedly denied Ukrainian statehood or identity, with statements calling for the elimination of Ukrainian political independence, language/education in Ukrainian, or the state itself so that “not even ashes remain” or that hostile Ukraine “does not exist anymore.” State media and ideologues have used language of “de-Ukrainization,” “denazification” as erasure of Ukrainian distinctiveness, and eliminationist framing. In occupied territories, authorities have systematically replaced Ukrainian curricula and language instruction with Russian ones, suppressed Ukrainian books/culture, renamed places, imposed Russian citizenship and passports, and promoted Russian patriotic/military education. Human Rights Watch and others have documented forced Russification of education, threats to parents for Ukrainian-language remote learning, and erasure of Ukrainian identity markers. Proponents argue this pattern shows intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group “as such” by eliminating its independent existence and identity, not merely to win a war or change a government.
During the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022–present), the Russian military has continuously carried out deliberate attacks against civilian targets[1][2][3] and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas.[4] The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says the Russian military exposed the civilian population to unnecessary and disproportionate harm by using cluster bombs[5][6][7][8] and by firing other weapons with wide-area effects into civilian areas, such as missiles, heavy artillery shells, and multiple launch rockets.[7] As of 2026, the attacks had resulted in between the UN-documented 16,000[9] and an estimated 40,000 dead civilians.[10] On 22 April 2022, the UN reported that of the 2,343 civilian casualties it had been able to document, it could confirm 92.3% of these deaths were as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces.[11]
On 5 July 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, reported that most civilian casualties documented by her office had been caused by the Russian army’s use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, calling it “indisputable.”[12] By 30 June 2023, OHCHR assessed that 90.5% of all civilian deaths were caused by such indiscriminate attacks and that 84.2% of them were recorded in Ukrainian-held territory.[l
In total, Russia has attacked more than 3000 health care targets,[19] more than 4000 schools and universities,[20] more than 2.5 million housing units,[21] more than 700 churches,[22] and killed more than 15,000 civilians as of February 2026.[23]
The war, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has seen both sides increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure.
According to an analysis by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Russian forces carried out 29,792 attacks on Ukraine in 2022. Of these, 1,635, more than 5 percent, hit civilian infrastructure, including residential, energy, healthcare and education facilities.
By August 2026, the number of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine had risen to 7,170, representing more than 13 percent of all Russian attacks on the country.
The same ACLED analysis recorded 245 Ukrainian attacks in Russia in 2022, with 24 of those – about 10 percent – targeting civilian infrastructure. By August 2026, that figure had risen to 3,560 attacks, or 27 percent of all Ukrainian attacks in Russia.
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Although a larger share of Ukrainian attacks targeted civilian infrastructure, Russia carried out far more attacks overall.
Indeed: 24 Ukrainian attacks targeted Russian civilian infrastructure as opposed to 1,635 attacks in the opposite direction: a 65-fold difference. And Russia seems to be stepping up its attacks right now, as I hear of missiles targeting apartment buildings in Ukraine on almost a daily basis. I don’t know anything about accusation that Russia or Ukraine embeds its military among civilians to deliberately jack up the toll of civilians (this is what Hamas does), so I can’t speak to it with regard to this conflict.
What happened is clear: Russia believes Ukraine should be a part of Russia, and they invaded to effect that—for at least part of Ukraine. Without that invasion, there would be no war (sound familiar?). Russia continues to attack civilian facilities in Ukraine and Ukraine is defending itself with counterattacks, with the bulk of them targeting Ukrainian military facilities or infrastructure that helps the military. If Russia withdrew, the war would end.
To me, all of this adds up to a Russian genocide, one at least determined to wipe out the “Ukrainian” part of Ukraine. You can argue about whether that is targeting a national group, but clearly some war crimes and crimes against humanity are going on.
My purpose is not to dispel the “genocide” libel against Israel, which is ridiculous, but to show that that label applies far more clearly to Russia in its dealings with Ukraine. I find it disturbing that people in the West, especially the young people who holler about Israel, aren’t at least as concerned with the Russo-Ukraine war. Hamas said it would keep trying to get rid of Israel, which is its primary aim, but Russia is, right now, trying to destroy Ukraine.
Why the relative silence? Well, we know that if Jews are involved they take most of the heat, but the Russia situation is that of an unprovoked invasion that could blossom into further Russian attempts to take over other countries, like the Baltic states. The obligation of the West to defend Ukraine is not diplomatic but moral. It’s not only the right thing to do—defending a democracy besieged by an autocracy—but could nip further Russian ambitions in the bud.
Another batch of photos arrived this morning, this time from reader Andrew in Oz. Andrew’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
These photos were all taken in an hour or so, in a bit of bushland three miles (5 km) from downtown in a city of 3ish million people.
The Birrarung River (also, more commonly, known as the Yarra river). Melbourne’s main river. Often very brown – locally known as the river that flows upside down:
European honey bee (Apis mellifera). We sometimes call this the feral bee. In, I think, a River Red Gum, (Eucalyptus camaldulensis):
Black-faced cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae). A cute common name is the Shufflewing – when they settle after flight, they shuffle their wings alternately:
Spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) – female. Tiny bright little bird – common but hard to see and identify. Today I was lucky:
Spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) male:
Red-rumped parrot (Psephotus haematonotus). More usually seen on the ground in small flocks. Surprisingly well camouflaged in the grass – quite easy to almost step on:
Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus). One of the most common birds in eastern Australia. Incredibly bright and beautiful – and loud:
Noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). Another very common bird. A few lines from a review (by noted biologist/author Tim Flannery) of the book “Where Song Began” by Tim Low:
The title of Australia’s most aggressive bird … must go to a rather drab gray member of the honeyeater family known as the noisy miner.
Accused in a scientific paper of “despotic aggressiveness,” the species has been recorded driving off fifty-seven rival types of bird. Indeed the noisy miner’s aggression has led to it becoming “one of the most important mechanisms through which habitat fragmentation and degradation threaten populations of eastern Australian woodland birds.” “They will turn on almost anything,” Low says: “koalas, cows, bats, pigs, snakes, lizards, people,” as well as other birds. And worse, they recruit allies in their bullying, including the aptly named butcher bird—a sharp-beaked, shrike-like predator that the noisy miners leave alone—provided they refrain from taking their eggs and young.
Noisy miners will even recruit humans as allies. Some years ago, a great fracas emanating from a mob of noisy miners outside my house in Sydney induced me to leave my work and investigate. As I stepped outside, the birds fell into silent expectation. Looking down, I saw a python. I got the distinct feeling that the noisy miners expected me to deal with it. But I like pythons, so I left it and returned inside. The howl of disappointed rage emerging simultaneously from dozens of beaks had to be heard to be believed. To get any peace, I was forced to move the snake.
On October 15, 1951, I Love Lucy burst onto the American television scene and immediately began making history. In a revolutionary move, it became the first scripted program to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. To make this happen, the studio famously knocked a hole through a concrete wall, building theater-style seating to welcome fans to see the magic happen in person—for free! This innovative format and the show’s undeniable charm led to five Emmy Awards and countless nominations.
The show ran for six seasons. Here is what I think is the most famous scene from the show, when Lucy and Ethel (Vivian Vance) are working at a chocolate factory:
Posting will be lighter than usual for a while; among the issues with my operated-on eye is the sudden appearance of a small retinal tear, which was repaired with laser surgery two days ago. More regular checking by doctors, involving trips downtown, will ensue. On the upside, I saw this rabbit on the way to work this morning; he is always around in the early morning, and I’ve named him Rocky Bun-Bun Coyne:
Here’s a photo taken 12 years ago yesterday: I’m cuddling Hili while wearing the shirt embroidered by Hiroko with Hili’s likeness:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 15 Wikipedia page.
I first met Gadi Eisenkot in March 2017 at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. At the time, he was the chief of the Israeli military and he was explaining to legislators that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were handling a new challenge from Hamas. The terrorist group was operating freely within the tunnel network it had built beneath Gaza, the extent of which had first been revealed in an assault on Israel a few years before.
As he explained the crisis, Eisenkot struck me immediately as amiable and much more subtle in expression than you might expect from a typical commanding general. And that ability—to be commanding in practice but project the aura of an everyday person—is part of the magic that could make him Israel’s next leader.
As of this week, his Yashar party is topping the polls in the election to be held on October 27, with about 22 percent of the vote compared with 20 percent for Netanyahu’s Likud party. Although the most likely election scenario is a deadlock leading to a second round between Eisenkot and Netanyahu, Eisenkot is widely viewed as having a better chance to build a majority coalition after the election, as a large share of seats will likely go to parties that oppose Netanyahu on similar grounds.
Eisenkot, 66, has a public image that is relatable to less-elite Israelis, including his lack of fluency in English. He is capitalizing on being the un-Netanyahu—someone with little in-your-face charisma but who underneath projects a depth of power that is undeniable.
Eisenkot is from Eilat, which is known globally as a prized resort. But internally in Israel, for locals who live there, it is known as a more depressed development town. He would be the first prime minister of Moroccan descent, as opposed to the European-Israeli background typical of his predecessors.
His background has helped him unexpectedly nab some support from Israel’s large Sephardic population. Though they typically support Netanyahu and right-wing coalitions, many of them see Eisenkot as personally representing them.
Eisenkot’s humble persona and roots also distinguish him from Netanyahu’s other top rival, Naftali Bennett. Bennett, the right-wing pol who was prime minister for just over a year from 2021 to 2022, differs from Netanyahu on policy in many of the same ways as Eisenkot. Yet Bennett has the same smooth delivery and elite background as the current prime minister, while Eisenkot projects a less polished authenticity that may remind some Israelis of simpler times in their history.
. . .Looking forward, the largest policy difference between Eisenkot and Netanyahu isn’t Gaza, but the West Bank.
Both intend to crack down on Palestinian terrorism there, which according to Israel’s Shin Bet security service involves 1,000 attempted attacks per year, and between around 30 to 170 successful attacks.
Yet Eisenkot also accuses Netanyahu of letting the West Bank transform into a chaotic maelstrom of Jewish extremist violence against innocent Palestinians. The prime minister, Eisenkot says, has empowered right-wing allies who are encouraging the trend, including ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir and Shin Bet director David Zini.
. . .Whether or not he chooses it, the gaze of every Israeli prime minister is inevitably drawn overseas, with Iran looming as the largest adversary. Eisenkot says he would focus on two major direct threats: nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
He has an innovative approach to the nuclear issue, which involves persuading the U.S. to enforce a “kill zone” around the few areas where Iran’s 60-percent enriched uranium (close to weaponized levels) is still underground.
. . .Eisenkot is more open to working with other political interests to replace Hamas. For example, he dislikes the PA, but he concurs with most of Israel’s defense establishment that Hamas is much worse than the PA—if stuck choosing between the two.
While Eisenkot wants to preserve a Gaza security corridor, he would likely accept a smaller corridor than Netanyahu, if it preserves the military high ground. He is ready to agree to the thrust of the Trump deal or other initiatives which would be a step toward partial Hamas disarmament. That might require Israel, for example, to commit more aid for the rebuilding of Gaza, but it could also help regain the confidence of foreign allies.
In Lebanon, the largest difference between Netanyahu and Eisenkot would probably be the role of a third party: France. Eisenkot is committed to restoring Paris to a significant mediation role in Lebanon while Netanyahu has looked to pick fights with France and other traditional European allies nonstop in every arena. The split reflects Eisenkot’s belief that he can vigorously pursue Israel’s security interests while also inviting European cooperation in ways that could rebuild trust over time.
. . . If American diplomats are greeted by an amiable Israeli prime minister who wants to say yes to Western normalization initiatives, Eisenkot believes, possibly naively, that the current hostile dynamic can be changed fundamentally, even if he cannot endorse all Western priorities.
I’m pretty sure that even if Eisenkot becomes PM, the worldwide damnation of Israel won’t abate, despite the fact that he’s more receptive to Western suggestions and the governance of Gaza by the PA. The damnation will continue not because of Netanyahu, but because Israel is a Jewish state.
So why, 13 days before Israelis vote, is he sitting this one out? I’d suggest four reasons.
The first is Budapest. Trump did everything he could to get Viktor Orbán reelected in Hungary, and Orbán lost. Trump does not like being seen with losers. He likes it even less when he’s photographed endorsing them. He will put his name on an Israeli candidate only if he is sure his name is what gets them over the line. Currently, neither candidate in Israel looks likely to be one Truth Social post from victory.
Trump may be especially conscious of that risk. A week after Israelis vote, Americans go to the polls for the midterms, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats up for grabs. If Trump’s writ runs overseas, it’s a show of strength. If Israelis reject his candidate, it could be a preview of more rejections to come.
The second is the polls. The numbers sitting on desks in the White House veer closer to the majority of Israeli polls than the more rare ones predicting a comfortable Netanyahu win. The White House runs its own polls in the country. If those surveys begin to show Netanyahu closing the gap in the final week, the math could change.
The third is the cat. Hebrew has an idiom for a falling-out: a black cat has passed between them. I wouldn’t go so far as black. But a dark shade of gray cat has certainly passed between Trump and Netanyahu. In July, Netanyahu flew to Washington hoping for a public show of support. According to Axios, when the race came up, Netanyahu hesitated, and an adviser stepped in: “Mr. President, he is winning.” The endorsement never came. Since then, Trump has kept pressing Israel to halt the targeted strikes in Gaza that are stalling his 20-point plan.
The fourth is Tucker Carlson. Not the man himself, but the impression he has helped create that a slice of Republican voters is allergic to Israel. Whether or not that electorate is real, it is doubtful that the conversation in the Oval Office centers around how to bring Bibi into the national conversation before the midterms.
A senior White House official put the odds to me plainly. A 60 percent chance we stay out. A 30 percent chance we help Netanyahu. A 10 percent chance we help the other one.
Trump’s endorsement woiuld likely help Netanyahu in his goal to remain PM, for Trump has historically appealed to those who supported Netanyahu in Israel: the right-wingers. When I asked Grok about Netanyahu’s chances, it told me this:
Roughly 30–40% chance of heading a new majority government, but a substantially higher chance (likely 60–80%+) of remaining in office in the near term as caretaker prime minister if there is a deadlock.
It added that on betting platforms, Eisenkot is the favorite (48% chance among all candidates) to replace Netanyahu.
The federal investigation that prompted the search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s D.C. residence on Monday centers on claims that she or her late father may have lied on decades-old immigration paperwork to secure legal status and eventually U.S. citizenship, three people familiar with the matter said.
Omar — a Minnesota Democrat who was born in Somalia and fled civil war there with her family before eventually immigrating to the United States in 1995 — has repeatedly rejected such allegations, which have circulated in conservative media for years. She dismissed them again in a statement Monday as “baseless lies and smear campaigns.”
It is extremely unusual for federal agents to take public investigative actions related to a member of Congress just weeks before an election because doing so could cast a candidate who is not criminally charged in a negative light.
In Omar’s case, the investigation is notable for other reasons as well: It involves long-ago paperwork from when she was a teenager, and Omar is a lawmaker who has frequently been singled out for criticism and vitriol by President Donald Trump and his allies.
The president condemned her again in a social media post Tuesday, after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told Fox News that her office had launched a separate inquiry into Omar’s financial disclosure forms — a matter that has previously drawn the attention of House Republicans.
The immigration-relatedinquiry, which could result in fraud charges and potentially an attempt by the Justice Department to strip Omar of her citizenship, is based on a renewed look at her immigration history launched earlier this year by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the people familiar with the mattersaid.
The agency had declined to move forward with such a probe years earlierbased on similar allegations, said one of the individuals, who is a former immigration official.
That person and a Trump administration official said agents now are especiallyfocused on whether Omar or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, intentionally misstated her birth date on immigration paperwork so she could be eligible to derive citizenship through him as a minor when he was naturalized in 2000.
Both of them, and a third person familiar with the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.
Investigators have also scrutinized whether Omar’s father may have purposefully lied or omitted information on his past military service as he sought legal status in the United States before he became a citizen, the Trump administration official said. Mohamed died in 2020.
I suppose these things are worthy of investigation if there is any credible evidence for them, but two things make me doubtful. First, it smacks of retribution from Trump, who dislikes Omar (to be sure, I do, too), and is a non-urgent matter that was publicly announced within the 60-day window preceding her re-election sate—a window that the feds have traditionally avoided. Second, I thought this had all been hashed out and settled long ago. If there are new data suggesting illegal activity, by all means investigate them after the election. If not, it’s a waste of time.
“Joni Mitchell, Canada.” Loud applause surrounded this call-out at a U.S. citizenship ceremony on Tuesday morning, as Ms. Mitchell was summoned to the front of a room to take her oath.
Wearing a red beret and a navy blue floral shirt, she had been sitting in the front row waiting her turn. Ms. Mitchell, the folk singer known for defining the genre with anthems like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock,” later shared a video of the moment on social media, alongside a photo of herself with a U.S. flag in hand and a larger one behind her.
She captioned her post: “A journey that began 62 years ago.”
. . .Ms. Mitchell, now 82, was a young Canadian folk singer with no record deal and only a handful of songs to her name when she arrived in Detroit in the mid-1960s, alongside her husband, Chuck Mitchell, also a musician. They had wed in June 1965 and were looking to make it as artists in America.
Two years later, when their marriage dissolved, Ms. Mitchell traded her sprawling five-bedroom apartment in Detroit (she called it her “tenement castle” in the song “I Had a King”) for a one-bedroom in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It was there that she wrote “Chelsea Morning.”
. . .Around that time [1968], she moved to Los Angeles, first to Laurel Canyon in 1968, then to Bel Air in 1975. She would travel between California and British Columbia, Canada, where she had at one time bought a seaside property. She resides in Santa Barbara.
Ms. Mitchell has made no public mention of why she had chosen this moment to embrace U.S. citizenship, and a request for comment to her representative went unanswered.
She had, however, touched upon the issue in 2024 at a performance in Los Angeles roughly two weeks before the presidential election. “I wish I could vote,” she said onstage.
*The WSJ reports (in big print!) that inflation rose to 3.7% in September, though within the last decade it’s been a lot higher than that. A lot of the rise is due to higher energy prices (i.e., gasoline), which affects many other prices. And have you been to the grocery store lately?
Inflation picked up in September, a sign that high energy prices are tightening their squeeze on consumers ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Consumer prices were up 3.7% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, hotter than August’s gain of 3.4%.
That was above the 3.6% rise expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
There were signs that high energy prices are starting to leak into other parts of the economy.
Prices excluding food and energy—the so-called core prices, which economists watch to gauge underlying trends—rose 2.6%, above forecasts for a 2.5% increase. Month over month, core prices rose by 0.3%, surprising economists who had expected a 0.2% increase.
“At this point we’re at dangerously elevated levels of inflation,” said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel.
High prices have been a political flashpoint for Americans, who have grown fed up with more than five years of inflation. Prices rose much faster in September than average hourly earnings, which increased 3% from a year earlier, marking the sixth month in a row of inflation outpacing wages. That means many Americans are seeing their real incomes fall.
. . . Energy costs drove inflation in September, and high retail prices in October suggest pain at the pump will continue. Prices have soared since the Iran conflict started at the end of February
Gasoline prices last month rose 9.1% from the prior month—a faster pace than August’s 3.9% increase—and are up 34% over the past year. Fuel-oil prices, meanwhile, are up 74% since last September.
Well, a few tenths of one percent doesnt seem so serious to me, but economists worry about and prognosticate about such things. If you look at the record over the last 15 years, though, the rate doesn’t look so large. Here’s the chart from the WSJ.
But there’s more to the story. Here, from today’s NYT email newsletter, is the rate of inflation of particular items and services. Gas, fuel oil, and airlines fares have far outstripped the general inflation rate.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is plumping for beef again:
Andrzej: I’m going to sit here. Hili: Make yourself some coffee first, and while you’re in the kitchen, get something nice for me from the pantry.
In Polish:
Ja: Zamierzam tu usiąść.
Hili: Zrób sobie najpierw kawę, a jak już będziesz w kuchni, to wyjmij ze spiżarni coś dobrego dla mnie.
Here’s a video of some brave women athletes. You can read the backstory in The Chronicle. Here’s an excerpt:
On Sept. 15, there was something more important to Skyview High School cross country athletes Charlie Garrett and Sierra Retzlaff than their race at Camas High School. The girls felt it was important to make a statement in support of the rights for girls like them not to be forced to compete against biological males.
Let’s Go Washington officials and news personality Brandi Kruse each reported this week that an athlete at Camas High School had competed on both the boys’ cross country and the girls’ cross country teams in the same season. Clark County Today also published an opinion written by Editor Ken Vance about this news.
Garrett, a junior captain of the Skyview team, and Retzlaff, a sophomore, are two of the top runners on their team. Garrett is a past state meet participant. Each of the two have goals they hope to accomplish this season.
But they set those goals aside at that meet three weeks ago.
“We found out a biological boy would be in our race running for Camas,’’ Garrett said. “I decided to step off the line with one of my teammates (Retzlaff) and protest against this. We lined up on the start line like we normally do. Once the gun went off, me and my teammate walked about five meters and then stepped off the course.
“I felt that it was unfair for me and that girls were having our opportunities taken away by something we couldn’t control,’’ Garrett said. “The kid started as a biological male at the beginning of the season and then a week later decided they would like to be entered in girls’ races. It troubles me that spots are being taken away from me at bigger meets like districts, regionals and state. Athletes’ spots are being taken away and scholarships are being taken away.’’
BREAKING: Nearly half of the girls cross-country team in Camas, Washington, just forfeited their race. They refused to compete against a boy. This is bravery. Vote YES on I-638 to stand with them. Video: @KnownHeretic https://t.co/Sh4LKXOCt3
And two from Professor Emeritus Cobb. I haven’t read these volumes by Darwin and now won’t even try. He corrected the date to 1868:
Having slogged my way through both volumes of Darwin’s 1866 VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION all I can say is I’m glad I won’t ever have to read it again. What a load of confused, boring tosh. Not his fault, in a way, but he really didn’t need to go on so.
Today is the third and last set of photos sent last week, so I am of course in need of more. Send ’em if you got ’em!
The photos today come from reader Jan Malik. Jan’s IDs and notes are indented, and you can enlarge his photo by clicking on them.
In August I had to go to one of Mexico’s southern states for work (the usual story of Americans taking the jobs of hard-working Mexicans). The 12-hour shifts left little time for photography, and only toward the end of my assignment did I manage to spend a full three hours in a small nature preserve. The preserve is maintained by a certain state-owned company with an effective monopoly on oil exploration and processing in Mexico. Soon after entering, I realized that the preserve might well have been a money-laundering enterprise, but nonetheless, I went ahead trying to find interesting arthropods.
The white peacock butterfly (Anartia jatrophae), with a damaged wing, which probably occurred during a not quite successful pupation or immediately after, when the wings are soft and pliable and can get entangled in the exuviae or vegetation:
A leaf-cutter ant from the genus Atta—as evidenced by the sharp spines growing from its thorax. This may be Atta mexicana:
They were busy stripping bare a nearby ficus tree, which from my observations is one of their preferred foods, with supple leaves and twigs that are easy to cut:
More precisely, ficus is not the ants’ food, but raw material for their underground gardens, where they farm and tend to a fungus growing on plant matter, then eat the special tissue produced by the fungus. The fungus (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) has lost the ability to thrive on its own and depends entirely on the ants for survival. In fact, a leaf-cutter ant’s nest is a consortium of at least three symbiotic organisms—ants, fungus, and bacteria growing on the ants’ exoskeleton, which secrete antifungal compounds to protect the garden from parasitic infections:
These ants are vegetarians (and often dreaded agricultural pests), but occasionally they may collect other arthropods, like this unfortunate caterpillar, which is being carried to an underground nest to be used as fertilized for the fungus:
I first became interested in the small creatures that live unnoticed under our feet after reading, decades ago, a popular science book by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, “Journey to the Ants,” which I highly recommend. The same team also wrote “The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct,” which is still on my reading list. Perhaps that book contains the clue to this picture – how two or more ants with such tiny brains can organize their work so they can carry items to their nest together:
Leaving the ants alone, I went deeper into a subtropical grove, where by accident I spotted a supremely camouflaged tree trunk spider (family Hersiliidae), possibly from the genus Neotama. It was perfectly flush with the tree trunk; in fact, after looking away from it for a moment, I had trouble spotting it again. Normally it would have two “tails,” actually elongated spinnerets, at the end of its abdomen, but one of them had broken off on this individual:
Trying to photograph the cryptic spider, I brushed against another tree nearby and something—I thought moss or dirt—broke off. But, seeing several insects milling about around that spot a moment later, it turned out to be an encased termite tunnel, a section of which I had just destroyed. By the look of these nasute soldiers, they are from the genus Nasutitermes (spinning the taxonomic roulette wheel, it may be Nasutitermes corniger). They are completely blind and the first to lay down their lives in defense of their nest, trying to squirt a sticky liquid from their nozzle-like heads to ensnare invaders:
The termite tunnel led to a large bulbous nest. Some birds, like trogons and parakeets, use these structures for nesting—they breach the relatively fragile walls constructed from chewed plant material, saliva, and feces, then let the insects do the hard work of sealing the broken internal runways, thus acquiring a climate-controlled, safe nesting place:
Looking closer, there were two termite castes that appeared at the breach in their fortified tunnel: nasute soldiers, the bodyguards of the colony, and workers, here visible with lighter-colored heads and functional mandibles, trying to mend the breach. They must do it quickly, or marauding ants will invade the nest. Usually, after a breach in the defenses is mended, some straggler soldiers are left outside to die:
There was no shortage of ants in that neighborhood, for a few trees away I saw some turtle ant workers (genus Cephalotes, but I don’t know the species). They acquired the moniker “turtle” because of the soldiers’ flat, armored heads, which they use to block the entrances to their tree nests. They seemed to proceed with their business more deliberately, not in the feverish hurry expected of ants:
Some of them appeared to be carrying their larvae or pupae in their mandibles. These arboreal ants can reportedly control their fall to land back on the tree trunk and safely stick the landing:
This is possibly the spotted red bug (Pachycoris klugii), but they are highly variable so I may be wrong:
This tiny (about 5 mm) larva is probably a species from the bagworm family (Psychidae), which if everything goes well pupates into a small moth. It was crawling slowly, turning its armored head around, searching for anything palatable. The protective case is made from its own silk and plant debris. Adult males are winged, but females of many species stay inside their protective cases for life:
Another arthropod was a common spinybacked orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis). I might have seen this species in New Jersey, but definitely in Texas. Unlike many squishy spiders, this one has a tough carapace and spines, making it a difficult morsel to chew or swallow whole. Its bright color may be an honest, warning signal to predators not of a foul taste or toxicity, but of the risk of choking or throat damage
Leaving the preserve, I spotted this butterfly, which could be a glassy-winged skipper (Xenophanes tryxus). The whitish spots on its wings are actually semi-translucent:
The latest Jesus and Mo strip, “fifty”, is a good one, and refers to a BBC article excerpted below. The “pedophilia” question refers to Muhammad’s youngest wife, Aisha, whom he married when she was six. (When the marriage was actually consummated is a vigorously disputed subject.)
Here’s the note that came with the email:
Today’s strip is in response to a story about the revoked death sentence of a Saudi-based Sri Lankan man who insulted Mohammed on Facebook.
From the BBC story:
The case sent shockwaves through Sri Lanka, spurring diplomatic efforts to seek clemency
Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence handed to a Sri Lankan migrant worker over a comment he made on Facebook, Colombo’s Deputy Foreign Minister Arun Hemachandra said.
Anojan Sivarasa, 27, was sentenced to death in September after a Saudi appellate court convicted him of blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad over his comment.
Saudi Arabia’s top court set aside the sentence on Wednesday, Hemachandra said in a post on Facebook, where he thanked the authorities and legal teams of both nations for their efforts.
In late June, footage of a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims circulated widely on social media, triggering religious arguments online.
During the exchange, a user posted derogatory remarks about a Hindu deity, leading Sivarasa to respond in Tamil insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Although Sivarasa promptly deleted the comment and posted an apology video, a screenshot of it was brought to the attention of his employer and Saudi officials, leading to his arrest in July.
It is not clear if there will be further legal proceedings or whether Sivarasa will remain in detention, and for how long. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison as well as a fine of three million Saudi riyals ($0.8m; £0.6m) by the Al-Ahsa Criminal Court.
The death sentence came later, but is now revoked. It’s still ridiculous and barbaric treatment for insulting religion. I know of no other faith that would do something like this.
Oh, and the artist said this in his note to Patrons:
In other news, there’s a new Jesus & Mo book out! It’s a “best of” collection called The Chosen Ones – a selection of about 150 from 2005-2026. It would be a lovely Xmas present for the infidel in your life!
Also, if you wish to support J&M’s continued existence, please consider becoming a Patron. Just a dollar or two a month makes a difference.
