Today is June 10, 2016, and it’s going to be hot in Chicago today (92°F or 34°C). The good news is that a passel of white lions have been born in the Magdeburg Zoo in Germany, and you can see the adorable pictures of the cubs here.
On this day in 1942, the Nazis destroyed the Czech village of Lidice in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich; one of the Germans’ most infamous acts of retribution in WWII. Those born on this day include Hattie McDaniel (1895), Saul Bellow (1915), Judy Garland (1922), and biologist E. O. Wilson (1929). Those who died on June 10 include Antoni Gaudi (1926), Marcus Garvey (1940), and Ray Charles (2004). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Cyrus proves to know some genetics, though he doesn’t add whether the beasts are homozygous recessive, and accept God, or heterozygous, and are heathens.
Hili: Do you think that we too have a god gene?
Cyrus: Probably, but it’s a recessive gene.
Hili: Czy myślisz, że my też mamy gen boga?
Cyrus: Pewnie tak, ale jest recesywny.
Also Gregory James sent a video of some chilling sounds his outfit caught during the night. Can you guess who made them? Have a listen:
Our security cameras caught the sounds of horror last night… I have no idea what kind of creature makes these sounds. Perhaps strange alien creatures from another galaxy. Or maybe Trump supporters in a feeding frenzy. Or…
And a Kliban cartoon (h/t jsp):
Hattie McDaniel (1945)
I think should be
Hattie McDaniel (1895).
Unless there are two notables by that name.
🙂
fixed, thanks.
Sould it also say ‘infamous’ rather than ‘famous’?
Yes, fixed; thanks.
I’ve heard young raccoons similar to that.
I agree with Gary (#2). We have had similar noises in the night as raccoons squabble under our bird feeders.
sounds like raccoons to me.
By the way , the German city is Magdeburg 🙂
Oy! I plead 4:30 a.m. without coffee; no way I’d normally mess that up.
Someone, somewhere, needs to make a combined alarm clock, coffee machine, weight trigger and keyboard isolator. Time passes ; the alarm time is approaching, and the coffee machine coughs out coffee ; the alarm then sounds and (this is the critical, potentially patentable bit) inhibits the keyboard. When the coffee pot is lifted, then replaced weighing substantially less (set weight trigger appropriately), a secondary timer is started (maybe five minutes ; adjustable to the user’s physiology, but probably not easily predictable from quantum mechanics and astrophysics) ; when the secondary timer times out, the keyboard is disinhibited and typing – with appropriate caffination – can resume.
Oh, Dawkins is doing a 5 minute section on Hamilton. I swapped emails with Hamilton in the late 1990s without knowing who he was. And the coffee mug is full!
Oh, [rude words]. Same name, lived near Oxford knew his biology and genetics seriously well. But our conversation was 10 years after the famous Bill Hamilton died. Must have been someone else – who disappeared off the forums in about 1999 after mentioning health problems.
[Checks coffee jar for warnings of being decaffeinated. Nope, no excuse there.]
Agree with #2 and #3 that it sounds like raccoons. Here in the southwestern US, it could also be a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus).
Vixen, my guess.
I’ve heard them (close!) while walking on very dark nights. Terrifying.
OK… everyone thinks it is raccoons. But my faith tells me that it is Cthulhu.
That’s silly. If it was Cthulhu our eyes, ears, and all our orifices would be bleeding, even listening second hand through a computer.
It’s probably just the Cthulhu’s victims writhing in terror and agony. The chittering noise are raccoons, dancing in delight at their fortune in finding Cthulhu’s victims skin. Raccoons love Cthulhu’s flensing victims skin. It is known.
One can’t use only faith, one must use faith and the proper application of logic to arrive at the correct destination. The failure of so many to do so is why there are so many crackpot religions, and why so many have failed to recognize the One True Religion, Cthulhuism. Not to be confused with Catholicism, because Cthulhu doesn’t sanction the rape of little children. Cthulhu isn’t that evil.
You calling me a heretic?
The Old One has thoroughly embraced the new technologies. (And if that keeps the god-squad off the airwaves … well, boo-hoo!)
Raccoons!
My understanding was that both dogs and cats have god genes, but that they express them differently.
As it has been told; if you treat a dog well, feed it and look after it, it will assume that you are a god and relate to you appropriately, if you treat a cat well, feed it and look after it, it will assume that it is a god and relate to you on that basis….
Dogs will succumb to almost any schmuck. They do set the bar quite low. Cats, by default, assume we are schumcks and they know that if there is any god it is them.
WSC:
“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
Sums it up nicely.
Re. Heydrich, a good death anniversary to celebrate, but the repercussions were not good so perhaps overall too bad he didn’t survive to have his finale at Nuremburg(?)
Also, I remember reading somewhere that Himmler was aware of the plot, but did nothing to prevent it since he either viewed Heydrich as a threat or was in a power struggle with him. But on quick look, I don’t find any such account online. Anyone else remember reading anything like that?
Those sounds are just demons.