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.
The tank is running low again, so if you have good photos (and by “good,” I mean photos of the quality comparable to those that regularly appear here), by all means send them to me.
Today we have two photos by a new contributor, reader Helen Iwanik, who photographed these mangrove tree crabs (Aratus pisonii) in Florida. These are aroboreal crabs that mainly eat leaf scrapings, though they will eat animal matter when they can get it:
And here’s a photograph from reader Diana MacPherson; unfortunately, I’ve lost the notes, but I’m hoping that either she or another reader can identify it:
Finally, reader Keira McKenzie sends a bee and a flower. The bee is unidentified, the flower is a coral gum blossom, Eucalyptus torquata, native to a small patch in Western Australia, cultivated elsewhere.
We have another trifecta today, and I hope you people appreciate the great labor it takes for Professor Ceiling Cat to collect these and present them in an attractive and appealing manner. Where’s my treat?
First, we have a cat who bit off more than it could chew, although one tentacle seems to have been nommed.
The Japanese Korean YouTube title is this:고양이 낙지절도단!?Translation, anyone? And if you can translate what the exercised octopus owner says, that would be a bonus!
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From Love Meowwe learn that Sonya the Cat adopted four orphaned hedgehogs, and that’s all we know. Clearly the mother is pumped up on oxytocin from having her own kitten (only one?), or else she’d never allow that quartet of animated pincushions access to her teats!
Here are the YouTube notes, showing that Sonya is Russian (I think I can get “MAMA” in the first line, but help from readers appreciated for the rest):
На соседнем дачном участке умерла мама-ежиха.
Слепыши-детки остались сиротками. На выручку пришла наша кошка Сонька))))
теперь у нее котенок и четверо приемышей
And two photos:
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Finally, a cat masseuse. One of our readers is married to a massage therapist, and, after watching this I’m trying to get her to expand the business into pet massage. I’m sure that in this crazy world there is at least one person who does that for a living, and the cats sure like it!
One of them might be this guy, described in the YouTube notes:
Levi the Cat Masseuse travels Southern Thailand giving stray cats the time of their life. You can be a Cat Masseuse Master too! Watch this short informative video featuring Salty The Reggae Cat! You never know when TCM will show up to give you a good time!
And, of course, there are compilations of cat massages on YouTube; here’s one, and I’d recommend watching it all so you can see Lint Roller Cat. My favorite is the insouciant cat at 3:39:
This shows clearly that cats are truly the masters of humans. We get very little out of this activity except the touch of fur and the sound of purr, but the cats get 95% of the benefit. Is this symbiosis or commensalism? And the cats don’t even have to ask for it—they simply give out cosmic vibes that it is their due.
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Our lagniappe today comprises pictures of cats from two of our readers. The first is our own Matthew Cobb, who tw**ted this photo of himself and Kitten Harry this morning. He says that looking for the hashtag will tell you what an “otak” is.
And finally, reader “anonypuss” in Berlin (not the same “anonypuss” from Colorado who is Butter’s alter ego) sent a photo of one of her two cats, the ponderous and daunting Oskar. The owner claims that this cat wins the Hili lookalike contest:
Good news: it’s the weekend, and we won’t even get snow until tonight! The Big Question for today is whether I can get my car out of the mini-snowbank in which it’s mired. If I can’t, I won’t eat.
But in Dobrzyn there is no snow and the spring is hanging in the air. On their daily walkies, Hili puts the ever-thick Cyrus in his place:
Cyrus: Do you prefer to watch the sunset or the sunrise from here?
Hili: It depends on what time it is.
In Polish:
Cyrus: Czy wolisz z tego miejsca oglądać wschody, czy zachody słońca?
Hili: To zależy, o której godzinie.
Remember that old Beatles tune? Anyway, it’s suitable as a title for this video taken from Neatorama, with these notes about a passel of Japanese cats:
The approximately 8 cats that live in the house love to sunbathe. There’s only a narrow strip of sunlight available on the floor. During the day, the sun moves across the sky and the sunbeam moves across the room. This video by Mitsuri Yasui shows the cats shifting position to keep up with the sunbeam.
Note that the most advantageous spot is closest to the window, for a cat in that spot has to move least often. Either natural or cultural selection should eventually lead to a squabble for that spot!
After the “Evolution” segment, this is my favorite episode of “Moments of Wonder.” Here Philomena investigates the legend that was Winston Churchill. There are several great bits, including the opening question as well as her statement, “If he were alive today, imagine how good his tweets would have been.”
Notice, too, how she pronounces Churchill’s first name and completely flummoxes Churchill Man.
There are two episodes to go: one on money and another on food (the latter, which aired yesterday, hasn’t yet been posted). But even when those are up, we won’t have seen the end of Cunk.
Here’s a tw**t from Diane Morgan, Philomena’s real name, sent by Matthew Cobb, who’s feeding my obsession:
Both the NYT and Time Magazine notes that he was fatally ill with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as emphysema) and apparently knew he was going to die. He had stopped smoking three decades earlier, but it was already too late.
The magazine reproduces his final tw**t, issued only on Monday. It’s poignant:
Time adds:
Nimoy signed all his tweets “LLAP” or “Live Long and Prosper,” his character’s catchphrase from the Star Trek series and films.
Nimoy had announced via Twitter last year that he had been diagnosed with COPD, a chronic respiratory disease caused by smoking that has no cure. He encouraged his followers to stop smoking.
I never watched Star Trek, but I know that he’s often used as an exemplar or metaphor on this site, and that many of the readers know a lot about Nimoy, and loved his character. Feel free to share your memories below.
U.S. Representative Barry Loudermilk is a Republican, of course, and represents Georgia. And he’s on a House of Representatives science and technology subcommittee, apparently because (according to Wikipedia) “he holds an Associate degree in Telecommunications Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Education and Information Systems Technology.”
Whatever science Loudermilk absorbed in school doesn’t seem to have become embedded in his brain, or was effaced by his Republican colleagues. For, as Mother Jones reports, he didn’t vaccinate “most” of his kids, whatever that means:
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who recently became the chair of a key congressional subcommittee on science and technology, didn’t vaccinate most of his children, he told a crowd at his first town hall meeting last week.
Loudermilk was responding to a woman who asked whether he’d be looking into (discredited) allegations that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had covered up information linking vaccines to autism. He responded with a rather unscientific personal anecdote: “I believe it’s the parents’ decision whether to immunize or not…Most of our children, we didn’t immunize. They’re healthy.”
This isn’t really a surprise, since by my count, 72% of the House’s member of the full Science, Space, and Technology Committee (mostly Republicans) are outright climate-change denialists or have voted against bills to alleviate global warming. Some committee: we have foxes infesting the Henhouse of Science!
Here’s the incriminating video; the stuff on vaccination begins at 1:26:00. He also says that he thinks it’s the “parent’s decision whether to immunize their children.”
How embarrassing is this? I want to move to, say New Zealand—or any place where there are no Republicans.
