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.
Natasha Hausdorff is a British barrister (lawyer) specializing in international law, and also the legal director of the UK Lawyers for Israel. She’s also smart as hell, eloquent, and never loses her cool. I see her as the female equivalent of Douglas Murray: what a team they’d make in a debate over the war in Gaza! Treat yourself to an hour or so of perusing her videos on YouTube, especially when she’s engaged in a debate and gets heckled because she’s pro-Israel and Jewish.
Here is a ten-minute video on Sky News in which Hausdorff discusses why she refused to sign a letter from UK lawyers, academics, and judges (there are now 1101 signers) asking, among other things, for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The moderator, as she should, asks tough questions, but Hausdorff answers them cooly and accurately. The material about aid trucks, as far as I know, is spot on.
Well, here’s a surprise: the Wall Street Journal reporting on a kerfuffle at the New York Times! You may have heard of the kerfuffle, as it involves an NYT article that’s one of the few to give a sympathetic hearing to Israel in its war with Hamas: an article about how Hamas weaponized sexual violence against Israeli women in its October 7 attack. As far as I know, the data in that article have been confirmed, even by the UN itself, which pronounced that Hamas did that in at least three separate locations.
But apparently the report of sexual violence inflicted on Israeli women didn’t go down well with some Times staffers, and someone leaked the contents of the article to the staff before those contents were going to be made into a podcast. The podcast was canceled, and the staff (which of course doesn’t like article sympathetic to Israel) rebelled. I’m not sure about all the details, for not even the WSJ makes them clear.
Click to read, or, if paywalled, you can find it archived here.
I’ll be short here. First, let’s review the two other instances in which Times machers got fired because of staff revolts (all quotes from the WSJ)
The current dynamics at the Times stretch back to 2020, when a seed of employee activism took root in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. In June of that year, the staff staged a rebellion after the publication of an op-ed piece by Republican senator Tom Cotton, “Send In The Troops,” that suggested the U.S. military should quell riots. Some staffers said it made them feel unsafe.
Within days the Times had parted ways with Editorial Page Editor James Bennet. In a recent account of those events in the Economist, Bennet said Sulzberger supported the decision to publish it, and said he was forced to resign. Sulzberger has said he disputes Bennet’s narrative.
The company said it conducted a review after publishing the op-ed and found “the piece itself and the series of decisions that led to its publication did not hold up to scrutiny,” said a Times spokeswoman.
The “unsafe” complaint, one frequently made as a synonym for offended, makes me laugh. If staffers clearly thought that Cotton’s article made them feel unsafe, they need therapy. And you’ll remember this one:
In 2019, Donald G. McNeil Jr., a star science and health reporter, was investigated internally over allegations he had used racist language during a Times-sponsored trip to Peru for high-school students. Two years later, in a Medium post recalling the events, McNeil said he repeated the N-word while speaking to a student about a classmate’s use of the slur. Then-editor Dean Baquet told the staff that while McNeil “showed extremely poor judgment” he was given a second chance because “it did not appear to me that his intentions were hateful or malicious.” After 150 staffers protested, the Times and McNeil ultimately parted ways.
“Donald was reprimanded in 2019 and his eventual departure involved more than one issue,” said a Times spokeswoman.
That, too, was risible. McNeil did nothing wrong, as his use of the n-word was in a discussion of whether it was used on a previous occasion.
This takes us to the main point: Times staffers are starting, by the account of editors, to let their personal views dominate their reporting. A few quotes:
Employees were making their voice felt at the Times. At the same time, some editors and reporters were growing concerned that some Times journalists were letting their personal views dictate which stories to pursue—or not pursue.
One way to counter that trend was with the creation of a new beat for reporter Michael Powell to cover issues around free speech and expression. Powell created the beat in coordination with then-Deputy Managing Editor Carolyn Ryan, who had been tasked with safeguarding independence in the newsroom.
One thing Powell noticed, he said, was that coverage that challenged popular political and cultural beliefs was being neglected. Powell’s work includes a story on MIT’s canceling of a lecture by an academic who had criticized affirmative action, and another examining whether the ACLU is more willing to defend the First Amendment rights of progressives than far-right groups. [That lecturer at MIT was my Chicago colleague Dorian Abbot, who was radicalized by this experience into becoming a hard-core free speecher. The lecture he was scheduled to give had nothing to do with the “sin” for which he was deplatformed, which was to put up a couple of videos questioning DEI.]
“We kind of both had a nagging sense that we needed to write in a much more systematic way about these third-rail issues, of identity, gender, speech,” said Powell of his early conversations with Ryan. “The fact that I had all this territory was not a good sign.”
and this:
The publisher of the Times, 43-year-old A.G. Sulzberger, says readers’ trust is at risk, however. Some journalists, including at the Times, are criticizing journalistic traditions like impartiality, while embracing “a different model of journalism, one guided by personal perspective and animated by personal conviction,” Sulzberger wrote in a 12,000-word essay last year in Columbia Journalism Review.
I’m not keen on that “different model of journalism”, as it’s a direct outgrowth of the woke “lived experience.” That cannot be allowed to trump “impartiality”. But it’s because the Times is hiring young reporters who have suckled at the teat of wokeness in college and journalism school. If you don’t think professors propagandize students, even at my own university, you need to do some investigation. But I digress; let’s proceed.
But these tensions have particular resonance at the Times, which has long prided itself as a standard-setter in American journalism. Newsroom leaders, concerned that some Times journalists are compromising their neutrality and applying ideological purity tests to coverage decisions, are seeking to draw a line.
[Executive editor Joe] Kahn noted that the organization has added a lot of digital-savvy workers who are skilled in areas like data analytics, design and product engineering but who weren’t trained in independent journalism. He also suggested that colleges aren’t preparing new hires to be tolerant of dissenting views.
“Young adults who are coming up through the education system are less accustomed to this sort of open debate, this sort of robust exchange of views around issues they feel strongly about than may have been the case in the past,” he said, adding that the onus is on the Times to instill values like independence in its employees.
And this is why FIRE detracts points from a college’s free-speech rating when a large number of students say that they feel inhibited about discussing their views on “hot button” issues with others. (This is why my own school dropped from the top four to #13—a tepid “above average” in just a year or so.) If you think only one kind of opinion is tolerable, then that’s the opinion you’ll keep expressing when you go to work for a place like the NYT. It works regardless of which side you’re on:
Coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has become particularly fraught at the Times, with some reporters saying the Times’s work is tilting in favor of Israel and others pushing back forcefully, say people familiar with the situation. That has led to dueling charges of bias and journalistic malpractice among reporters and editors, forcing management to referee disputes.
“Just like our readers at the moment, there are really really strong passions about that issue and not that much willingness to really explore the perspectives of people who are on the other side of that divide,” Kahn said, adding that it’s hard work for staffers “to put their commitment to the journalism often ahead of their own personal views.”
The lesson: colleges should encourage students to not only learn about free speech from their first year in school, but also to apply what they’ve learned.
But I was amazed to learn that a paper rife with internal dissent and so flagrant in its reportorial biases is doing well:
The Times is the envy of much of the news-publishing world, with more than 10 million paying subscribers and a growing portfolio of products like cooking and games apps. But while its business hums along, the Times’s culture has been under strain.
In many ways, it is a story familiar to companies big and small across America, as bosses struggle to integrate a new generation of workers with different expectations of how their jobs and personal lives should mesh—and whose evolving social values can sow discord in the workplace.
I subscribe because, overall, I still think it’s the best (or at least the most readable) paper, but I find myself drawing more on the WSJ’s own news (not their reliably right-wing op-eds), or on the Free Press, which publishes stuff that the NYT would see as “heterodox,” and, for honest news about the war between Hamas and Israel, on the Times of Israel, which is a reliable source for what’s going on.
UPDATE: I forgot one argument of which readers reminded me: the “slippery slope argument.” To wit:
5. Assisted suicide laws could lead to a “slippery slope” condition whereby shady doctors allow people to be medically euthanized for curable conditions, or even to allow relatives to kill their grandmothers. Yes, this is a danger, though one that can be ameliorated with sufficient stringent vetting laws. The “kill your grandmother” argument can be prevented completely, and certifying certain doctors and shrinks for their objectivity in vetting would be another good step. But when weighed against the suffering eliminated by assisted dying laws, I think the slippery-slope argument, while surely worth considering, is outweighed.
________________________
Assisted suicide for people who have severe and incurable mental illness has always seemed a no-brainer to me, but I’m surprised at the number of people who push back when I bring this up. But, if the procedure is implemented properly, the objections to it don’t seem tenable, and in the end seem to resemble arguments against abortion. That is, the pusher-backers say that people in tough spots shouldn’t have control over their bodies, that the procedure might spread if it’s allowed, and, underneath the objections of many, we find religious feelings—in this case feelings like “God will take you when He’s ready, not when you’re ready.”
Yet it seems to me undeniable that some cases of mental illness, like the main one documented in the Free Press article below, are so severe that they resemble terminal illnesses—illnesses for which enlightened people would favor assisted suicide (I might use the term “euthanasia”) in this post. If you’re terminally depressed, in horrible mental pain all the time, constantly thinking about suicide, and have tried every possible remedy without any success, then why aren’t you in a position similar to that of a cancer patient who, having tried all remedies, now faces a finite term of horrible pain ending certain death? (I presume you’re aware that even in states not permitting assisted suicide, doctors often mercifully end the lives of such patients by giving them an overdose of morphine.)
The difference with mental illness is that death is not certain and the pain will last a lifetime. Sure, maybe researchers will come up with a cure for an intractable mental illness, but that also holds for terminal physical illnesses. People with bad prognoses often hope that a cure will be discovered before they die.
Now for the state to effect euthanasia, there must of course be restrictions. Beyond that, anybody has, in my view, the right to kill themselves by other means, like hanging, shooting, or jumping in front of a train. That kind of suicide is illegal, though I think the illegality is nuts. But for the government to help you die, it’s not proper to provide anybody with the means of euthanasia. There are many reasons, but I won’t enumerate them.
In most of those states or countries, to qualify for legal assistance, individuals who seek a physician-assisted suicide must meet certain criteria, including: they are of sound mind, voluntarily and repeatedly expressing their wish to die, and taking the specified, lethal dose by their own hand. The laws vary in scope from place to place. In the United States, PAS [physician-assisted suicide] is limited to those who have a prognosis of six months or less to live. In other countries such as Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, a terminal diagnosis is not a requirement and voluntary euthanasia is additionally allowed.
Below is a map of where assisted suicide is legal throughout the world, and there aren’t many places. The states in the U.S. where it’s legal include Maine, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Washington State, Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, Vermont, and Oregon. But in no state is assisted suicide permitted for those with mental illness. For physical illnesses or other conditions that are likely to kill you in a few months, here are the general criteria in the U.S.:
an adult as defined by the state
a resident of the state where the law is in effect
capable of using the prescribed medications without assistance
able to make your own healthcare decisions and communicate them
living with a terminal illness that is expected to cause death within 6 months as verified by qualified healthcare professionals
Places where assisted dying is legal (see the key for variations):
Places that permit euthanasia for those with mental illnesses include only the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and—perhaps after 2027—Canada. I haven’t looked up the criteria for state assistance for euthanasia for the mentally ill in all four countries, but here are the criteria for the Netherlands given in the Free Press article below by writer Rupa Subramanya.
Dutch law requires those seeking assisted suicide to show they are in great pain, have no alternative, and are acting of their own volition. They also must get sign-off from at least two doctors, including a psychiatrist. The process can take a few years, culminating with a doctor giving the patient a fatal medication or, if done by oneself, a cup filled with poison to drink. When it’s over, a government panel reviews the case to ensure everything was above board.
Click below to read the article. The woman pictured, Zoraya ter Beek, suffered her whole short life from depression, autism, and borderline personality disorder, and said she was in constant pain. Nothing helped, and eventually the doctors and shrinks said there was nothing more that they could do for her. Tired of living, she applied for and qualified for assisted suicide. She is still alive but scheduled to die in May. (That isn’t final, of course, for I’ve read of such patients who change their minds at the last minute, willing to go on but heartened by the fact that at any time they could choose to die.) Her boyfriend loves her, but agrees with her decision.
Here are some of the objections to assisted suicide for mental illness, and my responses (all text is mine).
1.) The patient could get better but, by taking their life, are depriving themselves of a livable and perhaps enjoyable future. Yes, but that’s true of even physical illnesses. Besides, the prognosis must be confirmed by several doctors and examined post facto by the state. And I would ask those who make this argument, “Who are you to tell someone that they must go on living when they’re in intractable pain?” For those of us who have been severely depressed, it’s hard to convey to others that this kind of severe and prolonged mental pain is fully capable of making you wish to die.
2.) It’s up to God to determine when you die, not you. As an atheist, or even as a rationalist, I find this argument bogus. Here it’s similar to the religious argument against abortion, assisted suicide for physical illnesses, or, as Peter Singer discusses, euthanasia for newborn babies who have a condition that will cause them to suffer and, ultimately, kill them with certainty in a short time. Besides, are you going to base medical decisions on assuming that there’s a god for which we have no good empirical evidence? Isn’t medical treatment supposed to be based on empirical criteria? Do you tell a dying atheist that you can’t increase the morphine drip because God doesn’t want that?
Here’s a quote from the article:
All this pointed to a “dystopian view of the future,” said Theo Boer, the healthcare ethics professor.
“Whether or not you’re religious, killing yourself, taking your own life, saying that I’m done with life before life is done with me, I think that reflects a poverty of spirit,” Boer told me.
. . . . Theo Boer, the bioethicist, acknowledged that none of the suicides in the Bible is condemned, but he added that they are not lionized or commemorated either.
“Suicide in the Bible belongs in the realm of the tragic, and the tragic should not be condemned—nor should it be regulated or celebrated,” he said.
This palaver, including the phrases “Life is done with me” and “poverty of spirit” seems to reflect religious belief, but it’s already clear from opposition to euthanasia in many places (especially the U.S.) that we shouldn’t cut short what is up to God to determine. But if God is omnipotent, wouldn’t He be behind a mentally ill person’s decision to have assisted euthanasia?
3.) It’s contagious. There are several statistics given in the article about assisted dying increasing over time. Most are for physical conditions, with only one for mental illness (my bolding)
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to make euthanasia legal. Since then, the number of people who increasingly choose to die is startling.
In 2022, the most recent year for which there is data, Dutch officials recorded 8,720 cases of euthanasia, a 13.7 percent increase from 2021, when there were 7,666 cases. To put this in perspective, there were a total of 170,100 deaths in the Netherlands in 2022—meaning euthanasia cases comprised more than 5 percent.
“This upward trend, in both the absolute and relative numbers, has been visible for a number of years,” the country’s Regional Euthanasia Review Committee’s 2022 Annual Report states. What’s more, the number of euthanized people between the ages of 18 and 40 jumped from 77 in 2021 to 86 in 2022. And the number of people with psychiatric disorders who choose euthanasia is rising: In 2011, there were just 13 cases; in 2013, there were 42; and by 2021, there were 115.
This trend is not limited to the Netherlands. From 2018 to 2021, countries where euthanasia or assisted suicide is most popular saw sizable increases in the number of people signing up to die: In the United States, where ten states and the District of Columbia have physician-assisted suicide, there was a 53 percent jump; in Canada, 125 percent.
But why wouldn’t you expect the numbers to rise as people become aware that they have this alternative? It’s not written about very often, so you have to see articles like this to find out about it. But even so, this is a question of ethics, not of statistics. If the regulations are sufficiently rational and stringent that they prohibit spur-of-the-moment suicides or mental conditions for which every possible cure hasn’t been tried, why should we care about the increase? And wouldn’t you want the ability to die a peaceful and painless death if you had a condition that could be terminated in a peaceful way, at a time and place of your choosing, and when you are surrounded by loved ones? (This is, as I’ve learned, the way it usually occurs.)
4.) It hurts those who are left behind. I’ve heard this argument used often against those who discuss self-inflicted suicide. “If you kill yourself, think of all the people who will miss you and be in pain.” But this seems eminently selfish to me. Everybody who dies before their friends, relatives, and loved ones (and that means all of us) faces that as a certainty. If someone’s in intractable physical pain and dying of cancer, would you tell them to hang on for your sake? Of course not! The same holds for incurable mental illnesses. It’s selfish and boorish to ask someone to stay alive for the sake of your—or other people’s—feelings.
For #5, see the update at top.
For some people, suicide is simply a no-go zone, which is why suicide hotlines exist to talk those who wish to die out of that wish. But that’s different, for someone who calls a hotline has a good chance that they’re simply emitting a cry for help, and want to be talked out of it. (However, some do kill themselves.) That’s why I think those hotlines are great things. But assisted dying with stringent criteria needed to qualify, and the use of drugs that assure a painless death, are not equivalent to a suicide hotline.
I’m sure that ethical philosophers have discussed this issue before, and feel free to cite articles below if you know of them (I don’t). These are of course tentative ideas that I’ve thought about for a long time (note: I’m NOT a candidate!), and were given shape by the article above, but I’m willing to listen to other points of view. If you have them, or if you agree with what I’ve said, weigh in below. But do read the Free Press piece.
Photos may come and go, but I know we can rely on John Avise for a weekly selection of bird photos. Today we have some birds from Germany; John’s IDs and notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Birds in Germany
In 2007, I was invited to offer a several-day mini-course on evolutionary genetics for the general public, at a special retreat in southern Germany. In between lectures, I found a bit of time to take the following avian photographs near the meeting site. And, as luck would have it, one morning there happened to be a team of bird banders (or bird ringers, as they are called in Europe) near the site, manning their mist-nets and capturing small birds for banding. So, several of these photos are of “birds-in-the-hand” caught by the ringers that morning.
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), adult in basic or non-breeding plumage:
Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, April 14, 2024, and National Pecan Day (only good in pies ,and then it’s terrific). The Foodimentary page states that “The pecan tree is the ONLY tree native to North America,” and I’m not sure that’s true. Readers may wish to check that and comment below. In the meantime, enjoy this piece of pecan pie from Wikipedia. It’s about two pieces, but I’d eat them in one sitting. The ratio of pecans to filling appears to be pretty good here, but is often low in commercial pies (pecans should be in the filling and not just a thin layer on top). If the pie is warm, add vanilla ice cream,
Here is the quintessential Southern U.S. breakfast (biscuits not shown) at the Loveless Motel and Cafe outside Nashville. I asked to be taken here when I gave a talk at Vanderbilt in 2012. Note the grits, which go well with fried eggs. Red-eye gravy is in the cup at the left.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 14 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*All I can say this morning is עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי, or Am Yisrael Chai (“the people of Israel live”), the traditional chant of Jews who have survived another attack. And so they did last night, surviving hundreds of drones and missiles from Iran, with almost no damage save a severe injury to a ten-year-old Bedouin child and some minor damage to a military base. That is almost nothing, and the question of whether Israel will retaliate. I suspect not; they don’t need another war and Iran has shown itself militarily impotent. But I am not a pundit. From the NYT:
Iran mounted an immense aerial attack on Israel on Saturday night, launching more than 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike in Syria two weeks ago, and marking a significant escalation in hostilities between the two regional foes.
The strikes caused only minor damage to one Israeli military base, and most of the airborne threats were intercepted, Israeli military officials said. The United States said it had helped to shoot dozens of drones and missiles.
But the large-scale attack, aimed at targets inside Israel and the territory it controls, opened a volatile new chapter in the long-running shadow war between Iran and Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement broadcast on state television that it had launched “dozens of drones and missiles” toward Israel from Iran “in reaction to the Zionist regime’s crimes.” It later said on social media that it had hit military targets in Israel, warned the United States against getting involved, and threatened more strikes if Iran or its interests were hit.
Here’s what we know:
A total of 12 people were brought in to the Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel overnight, according to a hospital spokeswoman, Inbar Gutter.
One of the areas targeted was the Golan Heights, a strategic area bordering Syria that Israel annexed nearly 60 years ago. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia backed by Iran, said it had fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli barracks there. But it was not immediately clear if that bombardment was part of the wider Iranian attack.
In the hours after the attacks, as Iranians gathered in Tehran to celebrate them, more air-raid sirens sounded across vast swaths of southern Israel, the West Bank and Golan Heights. The Israeli government also sent out warnings about possible missiles arriving in the Negev Desert, where there are several military bases. And the airspaces of Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon were closed.
With its missile and drone attack on Israel, Iran succeeded in rallying the US and top European powers to Israel’s side. Not only did the US, the UK, and France express their unequivocal support for Israel; they actively took part in its defense, using a network of satellite, planes, and radars on the ground and at sea.
And instead of the UN Security Council discussing the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, it will be debating the Iranian threat and Israel’s right to self-defense on Sunday, with three permanent members sure to band together to condemn Tehran and Moscow.
The information below on the attack was written yesterday evening, and is largely outdated, but last night there was a post with readers’ comments on the Iranian attack on Israel.
*Well, one can hope. The NYT reports that Biden is closing the electoral gap on Trump; in fact, the two candidates are basically dead even. (Remember, Trump’s New York state criminal trial against Trump for illegal appropriation of hush money for Stormy Daniels begins Monday. He could be convicted, and he couldn’t ever pardon himself!)
President Biden has nearly erased Donald J. Trump’s early polling advantage, amid signs that the Democratic base has begun to coalesce behind the president despite lingering doubts about the direction of the country, the economy and his age, according to a new survey by The New York Times and Siena College.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are now virtually tied, with Mr. Trump holding a 46 percent to 45 percent edge. That is an improvement for Mr. Biden from late February, when Mr. Trump had a sturdier 48 percent to 43 percent lead just before he became the presumptive Republican nominee.
Mr. Biden’s tick upward appears to stem largely from his improved standing among traditional Democratic voters — he is winning a greater share of voters who supported him in 2020 than he did a month ago. Then, Mr. Trump had secured the support of far more of his past voters compared with the president — 97 percent to 83 percent — but that margin has narrowed. Mr. Biden is now winning 89 percent of his 2020 supporters compared with 94 percent for Mr. Trump.
The tightening poll results are the latest evidence of a 2024 contest that both campaigns are preparing to be excruciatingly close. The last two presidential elections were decided by tens of thousands of votes in a handful of battleground states, and this one could be just as tight. In a nation so evenly divided, even the tiniest of shifts in support could prove decisive.
Beneath the narrowing contest, many of the fundamentals of the race appear largely unchanged.
The share of voters who view the nation as headed in the wrong direction remains a high 64 percent. Almost 80 percent of voters still rate the nation’s economic conditions as fair or poor, including a majority of Democrats. And both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump remain unpopular, for familiar reasons. Most voters think Mr. Biden is too old. A majority believe Mr. Trump has committed serious federal crimes.
I hope Biden pulls farther ahead, as I can’t bear to sit out the election. In the 2016 election I was in Hong Kong, so the results were coming in during the day, and I watched the needle slowly move away from Hillary towards Trump, until they called it for him. I was devastated and went out walking through the city, finally getting back to my hotel a few hours later without any idea about where I’d been. I wonder whether, if Trump loses, he’ll start denying the results agaion.
*As of late afternoon Saturday, Iran hasn’t come through with its promised heavy attack on Israel or Israel’s embassies. The only thing that’s happened so far, according to the Jerusalem Post, Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized a Portuguese ship (partly owned by a Jewish businessman), staffed by Filipinos, that was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The rumors I hear is that this is about as far as Iran will go in retaliating for the strike on its embassy in Damascus (probably by Israel)
Iranian forces took over the Portuguese ship “MCS ARIES” in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to Israeli media.
The ship is currently sailing through the Persian Gulf, according to ship tracking site, Marine Traffic. The ship was heading in the direction of India.
MSC is the manager and commercial operator of the MSC ARIES, international shipping company Zodiac Maritime said in a statement.
“MSC is responsible for all vessel activities including cargo operations and maintenance. Title to the vessel is held by Gortal Shipping Inc as financier and she has been leased to MSC on a long-term basis. Gortal Shipping Inc is affiliated with Zodiac Maritime,” said the Zodiac Maritime Shipping Company, partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
There were 20 Filipinos on board the ship.
Iran state-run media stated that its Revolutionary Guards had seized the MSC Aries ship, saying it was “linked to Israel” and it was being transferred to Iran’s territorial waters.
A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, the Iranian state-run media reported.
. . . .A US defense official said “we are aware of the situation reported by UKMTO and we are monitoring it” but would not confirm or deny the name of the vessel when asked if it was the MSC Aries, Reuters reported.
Israel’s military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in response, “Iran will bear consequences for choosing to escalate this situation any further.”
Israel closed its schools and canceled all extracurricular educational activities starting Sunday as the IDF remained on high alert for an attack from Iran with dozens of planes already in the sky prepared to defend the country.
“Starting tomorrow morning and during the next few days, none of the educational systems, camp programs, and planned trips will take place,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement.
The directive will be reassessed at 6 am, Hagari said, as he urged Israeli civilians to be vigilant, to head to shelters upon hearing a warning siren, and to remain there for 10 minutes.
Here is a map, courtesy of Malgorata’s friend Dana, showing how long Israelis have to get to the nearest bomb shelter when the siren goes off. Three minutes at most!
The other story is that a 14-year-old Israeli shepherd boy in the West Bank was murdered by Palestinians (head bashed in with rocks), and the Israelis and Palestinians are now battling each other in that area. Several people have been injured, but there have been no deaths so far. It looks as if the fighting in Gaza has had some repercussions in the West Bank.
*The Israel-hating New York Times has a full editorial-board op-ed urging Biden to withhold military aid from Israel: “Military aid to Israel cannot be unconditional.” Here’s the short take: to punish Netanyahu, we must help Israel lose the war. Do you know of another war in which the side that was attacked provides tons of humanitarian assistance to the attacking country? Did we airdrop food on Berlin or Dresden?
The suffering of civilians in Gaza — tens of thousands dead, many of them children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many at risk of starvation — has become more than a growing number of Americans can abide. And yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his ultranationalist allies in government have defied American calls for more restraint and humanitarian help.
The United States commitment to Israel — including $3.8 billion a year in military aid, the largest outlay of American foreign aid to any one country in the world — is a reflection of the exceptionally close and enduring relationship between the two countries. A bond of trust, however, must prevail between donors and recipients of lethal arms from the United States, which supplies arms according to formal conditions that reflect American values and the obligations of international law.
Mr. Netanyahu and the hard-liners in his government have broken that bond, and until it is restored, America cannot continue, as it has, to supply Israel with the arms it has been using in its war against Hamas.
Yes, Mr. Sulzberger, Israel has to lose the war because you don’t like Netanyahu. Did you know that the vast majority of the Israeli people (75% of Israeli Jews) support an attack on Rafah to get rid of Hamas, all the while that Biden, Blinken, and Kamala “I have looked at the maps” Harris blather on about Israel not going into Rafah? But clearly the U.S. knows butter. The suffering and death of civilians, which is indeed horrible, I put on Hamas, not Israel and applaud Israel for mitigating it while still trying to get rid of Hamas members buried in a big human shield. A bit more:
The question is not whether Israel has the right to defend itself against an enemy sworn to its destruction. It does. The Hamas attack of Oct. 7 was an atrocity no nation could leave unanswered, and by hiding behind civilian fronts, Hamas violates international law and bears a major share of responsibility for the suffering inflicted on the people in whose name it purports to act. In the immediate aftermath of that attack, President Biden rushed to demonstrate America’s full sympathy and support in Israel’s agony. That was the right thing to do.
It is also not a question whether the United States should continue to help Israel defend itself. America’s commitments to Israel’s defense are long term, substantial, mutually beneficial and essential. No president or Congress should deny the only state on earth with a Jewish majority the means to ensure its survival. Nor should Americans ever lose sight of the threat that Hamas, a terrorist organization, poses to the security of the region and to any hope of peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
But that does not mean the president should allow Mr. Netanyahu to keep playing his cynical double games.
. . .Confronted with that suffering, the United States cannot remain beholden to an Israeli leader fixated on his own survival and the approval of the zealots he harbors.
The question is not whether we are supporting Netanyahu with weapons and aid, but whether we are supporting Israel. Apparently the NYT don’t really care about Israel or its people: what they really want is to get rid of Netanyahu and then to have Israel as a puppet dancing on American-held strings. Yes, Yetanhahu should go, but after the war is over. And he will go. In the meantimes, the NYT looks as if it’s trying to determine how Israel is conducting the war by asking the U.S. to stop giving Israel aid unless it summarily dumps the Prime Minister. While Israel conducts the war on as humanitarian a basis it can consistent with its war aims,
Australian police shot and killed a man on Saturday after a knife attack that left six people dead and several injured, including a nine-month-old baby, at a shopping mall near Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Police said they did not think the attack was a terrorism incident. They believe the attacker is a 40-year-old man who was known to law enforcement.
The attack began around 3:20 p.m. local time when the man entered the Westfield Bondi Junction mall and started stabbing people as they moved between shops. A police inspector who was nearby confronted the man on the fifth level of the mall and shot him dead after he turned and raised the knife in her direction.
Some shoppers said they huddled in stores, while efforts were made to evacuate the center. Police and other emergency vehicles crowded the street outside the mall, which is one of Sydney’s largest and a popular destination for tourists as well as city residents.
Hussein Osseili, 26, said he had just arrived at the mall with his family around 3:30 p.m. when he heard a commotion. Osseili said he saw a man running with what looked like a hunting knife, about 30 cm long.
“I was worried. I was worried about my family. I was worried about my safety,” he said. “Obviously you’d be scared in that situation.”
Osseili took shelter in a shop and saw the man go onto a bridge that connects two sections of the mall. He saw a police officer chasing the man from behind and soon heard gunshots. Osseili described the attacker as medium build, wearing shorts and a green and yellow sports jersey, with a buzz cut.
This is macabre, but that secne with the foot-long knife made me remember the Crocodile Dundee scene where he pulls out a knife in front of thugs and says, “Now this is a knife.” I don’t mean to be lighthearted about this, but a footlong knife is a big knife, and it’s a horrible way to go to be stabbed with something like that.
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, according to funeral home officials. They were 62.
The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, according to obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg. The cause of death was not detailed.
“When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. George came out as transgender in 2007.
The twins, born Sept. 18, 1961, in West Reading, Pennsylvania, had distinct brains but were joined at the skull. George, who had spina bifida and was 4 inches shorter, was wheeled around by Lori on an adaptive wheeled stool. Despite each having to go where the other went, it was “very important” to both “to live as independently as possible,” the obituary said.
Both graduated from a public high school and took college classes. George went along for six years as Lori worked in a hospital laundry. Lori — “a trophy-winning bowler,” according to the obituary notice — gave up the job in 1996 so her sibling could launch a country music career.
The article gives more details about how they lived; they refused to be separated
Separation was deemed risky for the Schappell twins, but Lori Schappell told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview at the twins’ apartment in a high-rise seniors complex that she didn’t think such an operation was necessary in any case.
“You don’t mess with what God made, even if it means you enjoy both children for a shorter time,” she said. In the 1997 documentary, George also strongly ruled out the idea of separation, saying, “Why fix what is not broken?”
I wonder if they died nearly simultaneously, as the original “Siamese twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker did. Here’s a short video (remember, George is transgender).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has read the news, and is on the windowsill unable to come in. When I asked her what “theoretically honest” meant, Malgorzata explained, “They are honest only in theory, not in practice. They announce that they are human rights defenders, that they always stand with the underdog but in reality their underdogs are terrorist organizations supported by over a billion people against a democratic state of 9 million and the Jews in Diaspora (another 8-9 million). And they definitely do not act as if Jews had any human rights. So their honesty is only theoretical.”
Hili: This window is a window of apartheid.
A: I’m afraid you have been reading too many statements by people who are theoretically honest.
In Polish:
Hili: To okno jest oknem apartheidu.
Ja: Obawiam się, że czytasz za dużo wypowiedzi ludzi teoretycznie uczciwych.
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From Science Humor via Sheri Hensley, with the caption: “- the only talent i have “. But it’s a great talent!
Speaking of frogs, here’s a very short video filmed by my Chicago colleague Peggy Mason as she visited Painesville, Ohio, where there was totality during the April 8 eclipse. The frogs went nuts and started calling when the sky went dark:
From somewhere on Facebook (I’ve forgotten):
From The Dodo Pet:
From Masih: the Iranians prevent an arrest of a woman. The translation from Farsi:
Today, the guidance patrol wanted to take a woman, but the people of Kermanshah didn’t let them! A citizen from Kermanshah sent me this video and wrote that on the first day of the plan to intensify the treatment of women, a number of police officers and hijab abusers tried to take a woman with them, but the people gathered and did not let her go. The sender of the video wrote that the people there also chanted slogans and finally the officers did not succeed in arresting the woman. Let’s be together and behind each other against the persecutors of hijab. The Islamic Republic and its persecutors are more afraid of the unity of the people than you think and they always like to trivialize the freedom of women, make them alone and isolated, and then with the same oppressive minority, they can suppress those brave women who do civil disobedience. put The streets, passages and squares belong to the people, and the one who should feel insecure about being there, are the oppressors of the people and the supporting arms of the government, not women. Please, wherever you see a woman resisting, don’t leave her alone. Because these women are saying to the government today, we are not short-tempered.
امروز گشت ارشاد میخواست زنی را ببرد اما مردم کرمانشاه نگذاشتند!
این ویدئو را یک شهروند از کرمانشاه برایم ارسال کرده و نوشته است که در اولین روز طرح تشدید برخورد با زنان تعدادی از ماموران پلیس و آزارگران حجاب قصد داشتند زنی را با خود ببرند اما مردم جمع شدند و نگذاشتند. فرستنده… pic.twitter.com/HKBzelirdY
From Simon. Why doesn’t Lauren Boebert’s son have any money. As Simon said, “Your girl needs to help her kid.”
Lauren Boebert’s son appeared in court today for his arraignment after his crime spree of car break ins and thefts and told the judge he didn’t have any money to hire a lawyer. https://t.co/lCJYgGVBV1
JKR calls out the head of the odious organization Mermaids after the Cass Report just came out saying the puberty blockers are not reversible and that most gender-dysphoric children will resolve their issues before hormonal or surgical treatment.
Absolute, total, shameless lies. Your ex-CEO referred children to the Tavistock gender clinic. Mermaids has repeatedly claimed puberty blockers are reversible, sent out breast binders to girls as young as thirteen and insisted publicly that unless children are affirmed in their… https://t.co/LViY2GJ1Zb
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 6, 2024
And some juvenile humor:
I went to grad school for English Lit and I can say with some authority that no book or text has ever come close to the power and the glory of “Lady Damp-fart of Her-fart-shire” pic.twitter.com/WQFw7SNo3h
The Times of Israel reports that Iran has begun its direct attack on the country, using slow-moving drones. But missiles are sure to follow. There’s a short report from the Times of Israel (click to access; it’s a live blog so you can refresh the site):
The entire content:
Iran has launched an attack against Israel with dozens of drones, according to the Axios news site.
Drones are assessed to take several hours to cover such a distance.
There is no immediate statement from the IDF on the attack.
Iran has threatened to attack Israel over the killing of seven IRGC members, including two generals, in Syria’s Damascus last week
If drones come, missiles will surely be fired soon. And they can come from Lebanon, where Hezbollah has thousands, as well as from Iran. I doubt that the Iron Dome and the new system (I forgot its name) could handle such an onslaught.
This is perhaps the most precarious moment for Israel in its history. If missiles come, let us hope that the U.S. fulfills its promise to help Israel defend itself.
I wonder why slow-moving drones would precede fast missiles, though, for it surely alerts Israel that an attack is about to begin, but hours before it begins.
next avenue gives us a rundown on cat-friendly hotels if you don’t want to leave Fluffy at home on vacation. Click to read:
Some excerpts (I’ve put the names of the hotesl in bold)
In fact, the Kimpton brand was one of the first big hotel brands to jump into the pet-friendly hotel biz. “We’ve been pet-friendly since the company was founded in 1981— even our founder, Bill Kimpton, would bring his dog, Chianti, to work,” says Joe Capalbo, CHA, Regional Director of Operations, IHG Luxury & Lifestyle, Americas and General Manager, Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts.
Kimpton is on the radar of pet parents because of their lax pet policies: There is no size/weight limit for any pets; no limit on number of pets allowed; and a deposit or cleaning fee is not charged. Also, the brand allows all pets, fury, scaly, feathery … “as long as they can fit through the door.”
In a town known for Cheers, where everybody knows your name, Kimpton Marlowe in Cambridge/Boston posts the traveling cat’s name on the chalkboard at the front entrance, and the cat is greeted by name. And key items will be in the room upon arrival — think: cat beds, litter boxes, cat toys and cat treats. And, even if the hotel didn’t have a heads up, the front desk has the cat amenities on hand and will deliver to the guest room, upon request.
Chicago!
. . . . “As a frequent traveler with my beloved tabby cat, I know how challenging it can be to find a truly pet-friendly hotel where we both feel happy and cared for,” says Michael L. Moore. On a recent trip to Chicago, Moore stayed at a Kimpton property in the Windy City with Goofy, his cat.
The best way to welcome pets of all kinds is to surprise and delight them.
“When my cat and I walked in, the staff treated her like royalty, bringing her special bowls, treats, and even catnip toys. Our room was amazing — they’d set up a cat condo with sisal scratching posts just for her.”
Moore also took his cat out on the town.”The hotel also gave me fantastic pet-friendly recommendations on cafes, parks and attractions that welcomed cats, and I could easily go on an adventure together,” says Moore.
. . . . The Broadmoor is a pet-friendly resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has had at least nine lives since opening 106 years ago. The Broadmoor’s founder, Spencer Penrose, had a deep love of animals — especially exotic breeds.
When he opened The Broadmoor in 1918, wildlife roamed the grounds for the guests’ amusement, including seals, camels, giraffes, and bears. Tessie the African elephant served as his caddy when he played golf.
Fast forward to today: the hotel and its three wilderness outposts — The Ranch at Emerald Valley, Cloud Camp, and Fly Fishing Camp — and golf courses have resident dogs and cats that play a key role in guest relations. Also, cat guests are inducted into the Pitty Pat Club which features a dedicated cat menu with dry and wet food and treats.
Litter boxes are in guest rooms and pet walking services are available. There are also Pitty Pat Club parades with guests and their felines on July 4th weekend. The pet fee is $100 per pet/per night with a maximum of two pets per room.
, and has had at least nine lives since opening 106 years ago. The Broadmoor’s founder, Spencer Penrose, had a deep love of animals — especially exotic breeds.
When he opened The Broadmoor in 1918, wildlife roamed the grounds for the guests’ amusement, including seals, camels, giraffes, and bears. Tessie the African elephant served as his caddy when he played golf.
Fast forward to today: the hotel and its three wilderness outposts — The Ranch at Emerald Valley, Cloud Camp, and Fly Fishing Camp — and golf courses have resident dogs and cats that play a key role in guest relations. Also, cat guests are inducted into the Pitty Pat Club which features a dedicated cat menu with dry and wet food and treats.
Litter boxes are in guest rooms and pet walking services are available. There are also Pitty Pat Club parades with guests and their felines on July 4th weekend. The pet fee is $100 per pet/per night with a maximum of two pets per room. [JAC: that’s EXPENSIVE!}
and one where my alma mater is!
Michael Donovan and his wife recently traveled with their little boy and cat, Snickers, from Boston to Williamsburg, Virginia for a long weekend. “As cat owners, finding a place for our furry friend to stay with us was really important when planning our vacation,” says Donovan.
After doing some research online, we decided to stay at the Red Roof Inn Williamsburg. I have to say, I was really impressed with how pet-friendly the hotel was. They let you bring dogs or cats for free, with no extra fees — which is awesome when you’re traveling with kids on a budget.”
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If you enjoy making cats part of your travels, as I do, then this article tells you which cities give you the best chances to see cats:
Maddie and Patrick, two world travelers from Phoenix, Arizona, like to have everything planned for their visits to incredible places. But sometimes, they throw their plans out the window after a cat appears. They say they often “follow cats all over the world way more than we should.”
After visiting places all over Europe, they say their favorite countries for encountering cats are:
🇬🇷 Greece
🇭🇷 Croatia
🇲🇪 Montenegro
🇮🇹 Italy
The site has some photos and movies of local cats, including cat “tour guides” that you simply follow around, and can lead you to unexpected places. I can vouch for Greece, where I often fed cats bits of fish from my plate in the Mani.
HOWEVER, they left out the most cat-friendly city I know (it’s partly in Europe): Istanbul. The Turks love their cats (Muslims revere them), and here are a few photos I’ve taken over the years in Istanbul. This first photo is one of my favorites: a real cat restiong in an ancient cat sculpture
Cat in a cemetery in a mosque
Another one:
. . . and another:
A Turkish Van cat with odd-colored eyes:
A local petting another local:
This rug store owner had a good gig going: the cats lure people in and then they buy rugs and weavings. I actually bought a nice rug here:
And me feeding Gli, a very famous Istanbul cat who was a resident of the Hagia Sofia. I always carry a box of dry cat food with me in Turkey. Gli, who died in 2020, has her own Facebook page but I didn’t know she was famous until I returned home. I just fed her because she was there.
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A video about the jumping ability of cats. How do they do it?
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From Snow Snob we have a vet who’s a bit of a wag (click to read):
The drivers passing the Carroll County Veterinary Clinic in Maryland and those who follow them on Instagram have enjoyed witty and hilarious messages on their signboards for years. It doesn’t matter what pet you have, or if you have one at alll – you’ll still get a laugh out of these!
Photos are from the Instagram page, shown on Snow Snob
The folks at the Carroll County Maryland Veterinary clinic also answered this age-old riddle which has caused debate for generations. They agree with Dr. Berkeley that it would make a noise. However, on their humorous roadside sign, their answer states that “If a tree falls in the forest and no ones there to see it, a chihuahua 500 miles away will bark at it.” You can’t beat that logic, so they must be right.
We have all experienced our dogs acting like garbage disposals, devouring everything in the blink of an eye, including substances not considered edible. For example, the plastic packaging the actual food came in. You would swear they are half-starved and uncertain when their next meal will be when they gobble the last piece of turkey you left on the counter while you fetched something to drink or when they nearly take your fingers off while accepting a treat.
Have you ever participated in the age-old debate of where socks disappear once they enter the washer or dryer? Well, the Carroll County Maryland Veterinary clinic thinks they have the answer. Their sign suggests, “If you lose a sock in the dryer. It returns as a Tupperware lid that doesn’t fit any containers.” That is one possible answer, as there are often a few extra stray lids taking up space in the Tupperware draw, and there is always a sock that has gone astray.
Here’s a cute one from the Carroll County Veterinary clinic to make you giggle. “When bees move into a new hive, do they have a house-swarming party? Oh dear, we can feel a whole lot of crazy puns and silly dad jokes coming on. Bee warned! Not to worry, though, because bee puns are good for you. They are high in vitamin Bee! Do you know what bees like to chew? Bumble gum!
This next one by the Carroll County Veterinary clinic is very open-ended and leaves a lot of self-interpretation. Their roadside sign and Instagram post read, “She believed she could, but her cat was asleep on her lap, so she didn’t.” What did she believe she could do? And did she have the TV remote or book within reach? What about something to eat or drink?
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Lagniappe from reader Jon sent in March (his words are indented):
Yesterday I went to a reception at a woman’s modest house that has long served as an art gallery in San Francisco’s East Bay. (My wife, who is now an artist, has exhibited works there.) I noticed this time that a cute cat illustration had been pasted to the bathroom door.
Two readers came through with batches of photos, so I think we’re good until Wednesday. If you have good one, well, I can always use them. Thanks!
Today’s photos of fungi come from reader Rik Gern from Austin, Texas.. His notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
This lone sentry was at the very beginning of the trail. I wasn’t able to identify it precisely, but it may be from the Rhizopogon family, or maybe not; I had a hard time finding any information that could confirm its identity. On a walk of several miles, this was the only mushroom of it’s kind that I saw.
It would be easy to mistake this fungal cluster for an order of fries abandoned by a careless hiker, but in reality it is Clavariadelphus americanus. I couldn’t find a common name for them, so for now I’ll cal them French fry mushrooms.
They weren’t all grouped so tightly together though; there were a few open patches of pine needles bursting with these odd looking mushrooms:
Late in the hike, as the sun was getting low, these Golden trumpets (Xeromphalina campanella) came into view. According to Wikipedia, “The genus name Xeromphalina means “little dry navel” and campanella means “bell-shaped”, respectively describing the mature and young shapes of the pileus, or cap”. You can see an example of that here with the two smaller mushrooms sporting convex caps while those on the larger mushrooms are starting to go concave.
Golden trumpets like to grow on logs and all of these pictures are from the same fallen tree:
Here is a view of their brownish red stalks.
The black and white picture gives the effect of some large plants growing in an underwater cavern. The lower right hand part of the image has a number of little white dots that look like dust spots on the picture, but when you look closely you can see that they are tiny insects trapped and wrapped up in a spider’s web.
The nearly horizontal rays of the setting sun did a nice job of highlighting the gills of these mushrooms and giving them a majestic look. Once again we can see the downward facing caps on the presumably younger mushrooms on the bottom and the upward arching caps on the older mushrooms on the top.