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.
Here’s two new cartoons by reader Pliny the in Between from his/her website Evolving Perspectives. The first one’s called “Accommodation made easy.”
Does the faitheist look familiar?
And this one is “Seat Map“. Careful inspection and an acquaintance with this site’s news will show all:
Even a blind pig can find an acorn, and even PuffHo occasionally publishes something worth reading. In this case it’s Greg Lukianoff’s list of “The 10 worst colleges for free speech: 2016.” Lukianoff is head of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an estimable group that tries to preserve freedom of expression on American campuses. While you might expect Yale would be on it, Lukianoff explains that the university supported the beleaguered Christakises (of the Halloween Costume Kerfuffle), even though both of them are either on sabbatical or have stopped teaching.
Here’s the list of the top ten malefactors, in no particular order. Do read the article, as it’s at once horrifying and amusing to see the kind of stuff that happened on these campuses.
Mount St. Mary’s University (Maryland)
Northwestern University (Chicago!)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
The University of California at San Diego
St. Mary’s University of Minnesota (Winona)
University of Oklahoma (Norman)
Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Colorado College (Colorado Springs)
University of Tulsa (Oklahoma)
Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut)
I’m familiar with a few of these cases, but not even half of them, which shows how pervasive and under-the-radar this kind of censorship is. Just to give you an example of how bad it is, here’s what Lukianoff wrote about the University of Tulsa:
While many colleges on this list earned their spot for punishing students for what they said, the University of Tulsa earned its place because it punished a studentfor what someone else said.
In September 2014, Tulsa student George “Trey” Barnett was notified by Senior Vice Provost Winona Tanaka that eight harsh interim measures, including his removal from classes and a theater production, had been imposed on him because his then-fiancé authored Facebook posts that criticized a Tulsa professor and other members of the Tulsa community. A month later, Tanaka found Barnett guilty of harassment and of retaliation for sharing information about the complaint with his fiancé, who provided Tanaka with a sworn affidavit acknowledging that he, not Barnett, was the author of the Facebook posts. Barnett’s punishment was severe — he was suspended until at least January 2016 and barred from receiving a degree in his major when he returned to classes. Barnett appealed the decision, and his appeal was summarily denied in January 2015.
However, Tulsa didn’t earn a spot on this year’s list just for its attack on one student’s fundamental rights; it also targeted Tulsa’s student newspaper, The Collegian, for covering Barnett’s suspension.
Last month, Barnett announced that he was fighting back. On January 13, he filed a lawsuit, alleging that Tulsa failed to provide him with “any meaningful due process” in finding him guilty of harassment and retaliation. Barnett’s lawsuit also claims that Tulsa subjected him to “substantial mental anguish” and violated its free speech promises. We’re hoping this lawsuit will ensure that Tulsa doesn’t end up on our “worst” list next year.
If anything will end these repeated violations of free speech by colleges, it’s the filing or threat of lawsuits. That brings both bad publicity to the colleges (after all, how many of you have heard of Barnett’s suspension?), and financial liability. In America, money talks.
h/t: Greg Mayer
Various universities, student organizations, and academic associations have been joining the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), urging a boycott of Israeli academics. Their recomendations range from complete non-interaction with Israeli academics to milder “sanctions”, including boycotting of institutions rather than scholars (i.e., you could invite an Israeli academic to speak at your university).
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is about to vote on a resolution supporting the BDS by imposing a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, based on these principles, outlined in the linked pdf:
Whereas, The AAA’s 1999 Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights states, “Anthropology as a profession is committed to the promotion and protection of the right of people and peoples everywhere to the full realization of their humanity” and “the AAA has an ethical responsibility to protest and oppose… deprivation;” and whereas the AAA has historically upheld those rights, including the right to education and academic freedom, for peoples around the world. . .
According to The Algemeiner, the resolution will be voted on at the AAA’s annual meeting starting April 15. Several groups of anthropologists are already collecting signatures opposing the resolution, and I have no idea how it will turn out.
In general, I object to academic boycotts as they impede the free flow of ideas among nations. They are, in effect, academic “no-platforming” strategies in which scholars from one nation are singled out to be silenced. And, to be sure, many Israeli academics oppose their government’s policy towards the Palestinians.
Both the University of Chicago and the American Association of University Professors (the AAUP) have urged that such boycotts not be enacted
The University of Chicago’s policy (2013) takes special note of boycotts against Israel:
“The University of Chicago has from its founding held as its highest value the free and open pursuit of inquiry. Faculty and students must be free to pursue their research and education around the world and to form collaborations both inside and outside of the academy, encouraging engagement with the widest spectrum of views. For this reason, we oppose boycotts of academic institutions or scholars in any region of the world, and oppose recent actions by academic societies to boycott Israeli institutions.”
The AAUP’s statement (precis here) includes the points below as part of their general conclusions (but also takes up the issue of an Israeli boycott in some detail):
1. In view of the Association’s long-standing commitment to the free exchange of ideas, we oppose academic boycotts.
2. On the same grounds, we recommend that other academic associations oppose academic boycotts. We urge that they seek alternative means, less inimical to the principle of academic freedom, to pursue their concerns.
3. We especially oppose selective academic boycotts that entail an ideological litmus test. We understand that such selective boycotts may be intended to preserve academic exchange with those more open to the views of boycott proponents, but we cannot endorse the use of political or religious views as a test of eligibility for participation in the academic community.
One wonders, given the AAA’s stated commitment to “protection of human rights for people around the world,” why, among all countries, they single out Israel. After all, there are many other countries whose violations of human rights are more severe, including China, North Korea, or, for that matter, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, where apostasy and dissent are punished by imprisonment or death, and women are officially marginalized. I haven’t checked, but I bet the AAA hasn’t called for academic boycotts of such countries.
While I’ve decried the destructive actions of both Israelis and their government, including the continuing erection of illegal settlements, and while I’ve repeatedly called for a two-state solution (about which, I think, the present Israeli government is doing precious little), one has to recognize that Palestine has multiple human rights violations, including the deliberate encouragements of the murder of noncombatant Israeli citizens via stabbing or car attacks, or the launching missiles at civilians. The Hamas Charter of 1988 also calls for the deliberate destruction of Israel, citing the viciously anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an old forgery. Why do we hear nothing about that from the AAA? Are Palestinians, and people in other countries, held to a lower standard?
But regardless of how you weigh Israeli versus Palestinian malfeasance, you have to ask yourself why, among all nations, Israel alone is singled out for opprobrium by American universities—and by much of the American Left. I’ve written about that before, and won’t repeat myself. Instead, I’ll just quote Steve Pinker’s statement against the AAA boycott resolution, a statement with which I’m in complete agreement:
“Against Selective Demonization”
The current Israeli government does things that many of us deplore. But are their policies really so atrocious, so beyond the pale of acceptable behavior of nation-states, that they call for a unique symbolic statement that abrogates personal fairness and academic freedom? It helps to put the Israel-Palestine conflict in global and historical perspective—something that anthropologists, of all people, might be expected to do. The Center for Systemic Peace tries to quantify the human cost of armed conflict. Their data show that for all the world’s obsession with the Israel-Palestine conflict, it has been responsible for a small proportion of the total human cost of war: approximately 22,000 deaths over six decades, coming in at 96th place among the armed conflicts, and at 14th place among ongoing conflicts. That does not mean that the violence is acceptable, but it does raise questions about invidious demonization. Why no boycotts against academics from China, India, Russia, or Pakistan, to take a few examples, which have also been embroiled in occupations and violent conflicts, and which, unlike Israel, face no existential threat or enemies with genocidal statements in their charters? In a world of repressive governments and ongoing conflicts, isn’t there something unsavory about singling the citizens of one of these countries for unique vilification and punishment?
-Steven Pinker, Harvard University
The answer to the last rhetorical question is, of course, “yes.” And let me add “hypocritical” to the charge of “unsavory.”
Tara Tanaka has edited her whooping crane (Grus americana) video; for a good cause, and I’ll put it up today. Her notes (Tara’s Vimeo site is here, and flickr site is here):
I posted a much shorter, “production version” of the Last Flight of Operation Migration on Vimeo two days ago. The co-founder of the International Crane Foundation asked me to create this special edit for use in his worldwide programs – he’ll be showing it tonight for the first time at the Whooping Crane Festival in Texas.
And Stephen Barnard just sent some new pictures from Idaho:
Female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus). I’m seeing a lot of them, sometimes sparring and juking in pairs and triples. I think love and competition is in the air.
I’m pretty sure this is Lucy (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). She’s hanging out near (but not on) the nest. Here’s to another successful breeding season for the Aubrey Spring Ranch eagles, Desi and Lucy. They’ve been at it for many years.
A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in its typical one-legged resting pose.
I hope I’m not overdoing it with the herons. I know exactly where this bird hangs out every morning, and I know that when I walk Deets up the driveway I’ll spook it. So, I figure that when the light is good I might as well take a camera and get a bird-in-flight shot.
A pretty good action shot of Deets. (Someone was asking about him in the comments.):
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on the train to Montreal, willing (but not eager) to try my Parisian French. It’s February 28, but tomorrow is Leap Year Day, so it’ll be interesting to learn what happened on February 29, and who was born on a day that automatically divides their age by four. But on February 28, John Wesley chartered the Methodist Church (1784), nylon was invented by Wallace Carothers at DuPont (1935), basketball was televised for the first time (1940), Watson and Crick told their friends that they had discovered the “secret of life” (the structure of DNA, 1953, paper published in Nature on April 2), and Pope Benedict resigned (2013). Notable births on this day include Karl Ernst von Baer (1792), Linus Pauling (1901), John Fahey (1939, my guitar god), and Paul Krugman (1953, younger than I but still with a Nobel Prize). Those who died on this day include Henry James (1916), Paul Harvey (2009), Jane Russell (2011), and Anthony Mason (last year). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili continues to espouse her quasiphilosopher sentiments:
Hili: The pursuit of happiness should not be exhausting.
A: And do you get satisfactory results?
Hili: I’m not complaining at the moment.
Hili: Pogoń za szczęściem nie powinna być wyczerpująca.
Ja: Ale czy masz zadowalające rezultaty?
Hili: Chwilowo nie narzekam.
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And here’s a sleeping Gus, displaying his pink foot and toe pads (and two of his many toys, as he’s extremely spoiled!):
And a catspotting from reader Leon, who notes:
My wife and I were walking around downtown Ft Collins today enjoying the shops and ambiance… and lo and behold… came upon this Coynian moment!
Now I’m not sure exactly why this is a Coyneian moment (note spelling), but so be it:
I have a passel of photos from my visit here, including from a trip to the Natural History Museum, where they have a lovely collection of fossils that include the transitional stages of whale and horse evolution. But today I’ll put up my two favorite subjects.
First, a late lunch on Thursday: an ELKBURGER (yes, real elk, farmed for their meat here in Ottawa). The location is The Works, a gourmet burger joint in town. I had cheese and bacon on mine. Burgers come with “die cut chips”, a cross between a french fry and a potato chip, something new to me but quite toothsome:
Washed down with a lovely local beer: Hop City 8th Sin Black Lager. A lovely and creamy pint. Hop City also makes a Barking Squirrel Lager, whose logo I’ve put below.
There are three cats where I’m staying: at the home of Seanna and Steve, members of the Ottawa Centre for Inquiry who kindly offered to put me up so that CfI could pay for my hotel in Montreal. They have three cats: a white cat named Russell (after Bertrand), a polydactylous tabby named Ampersand (for & toes), and a fluffy gray cat named Zeno (after the philosopher). Sadly, Ampersand and Zeno are shy and I can’t get near them, but Russell is very friendly and so I am getting my cat fix. He’s very fond of belly rubs, and doesn’t inflict the Sudden Bite during the act.
Here’s Russell and Steve in characteristic positions:
Russell on his own (note the snow; it’s cold here!):
Russell close up:
A sign in an apartment window near the museum:
And—poutine! This, at the Elgin Street Diner (a place well known to Larry Moran), is poutine with chili. The portion was so large that I couldn’t even finish it. I will have other poutine in Montreal, where I’m traveling tomorrow.
No cracks about the diet, please! I’ve also had two vegetarian meals since I’ve been here.
More photos tomorrow (I hope): fossils and beetles.
I can’t believe I forgot to schedule this post, but I will NOT allow a Saturday to go by without Caturday felids. So, without further ado,
From Bored Panda we get pictures of ten cats with unusual markings. I’ll show just a few, some of which we’ve seen before:
Sam, the Cat with Eyebrows:
Cat Being Hugged by a Monkey:
Venus, the famous Bifurcated Cat:
Valentine Kitten:
And a Kitler:
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As I write this I am covered with white fur from my host’s cat, Russell (named for the philosopher). This problem could be avoided for all cats if they could just tolerate being vacuumed. Well, some cats can, and here’s a compilation of them:
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Finally, click on the screenshot below to watch a short but lovely Guardian video of how a refugee family from Iraq was reunited in Norway with their cat who had gone missing in Greece. The second video explains how; it involved herculean effort by Amy Shrodes, an American who went to Greece to help refugees.
Kunkush the cat was a beloved member of a family who became refugees when they fled Iraq for the safety of Europe. Travelling through Greece, family and cat became separated. Kunkush was found and fostered in Berlin, where an international online search was co-ordinated in the hope of reuniting him with his family, who wish to remain anonymous.
Oh, I found out more on a BBC interview below. Click on the screenshot below to see additional video on Kunkush, and click here to see the Facebook page, “Runite Dias”, that led to the cat’s rejoining his family.
h/t: Blue, Matt B.