Friday: Hili dialogue

August 26, 2022 • 6:30 am

Greetings at the end of the work week: Friday, August 26, 2022, and National Cherry Popsicle Day. Thinking back on my copious childhood consumption of this quiescently frozen confection, I’m betting that all the flavors were artificial.

Don’t forget that cat shabbos starts at sundown, so be sure to open that can of tuna before evening.

It’s also National D*g Day, Forgive Your Foe Friday, National Toilet Paper Day, Women’s Equality Day (celebrating the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the amendment that gave women the right to vote).

Stuff that happened on August 26 includes:

Trump-Appointed Judge to Trump Lawyers:

  • 1542 – Francisco de Orellana crosses South America from Guayaquil on the Pacific coast to the mouth of the Amazon River on the Atlantic coast.

Here’s the voyage, which was quite amazing; he sailed the length of the Amazon, stopping to build a bigger ship along the way, and was constantly attacked by the locals.  Orellana eventually made it back to Spain, but died on a second expedition to South America.

The first voyage made it around the world, taking three years, and on this one Cook returned alive:

Here’s Triglav viewed from the east. It has a height of 2,863.65 metres (9,395.2 ft):

The big explosion happened on August 27:

The pressure wave generated by the colossal third explosion radiated out from Krakatoa at 1,086 km/h (675 mph). The eruption is estimated to have reached 310 dB, loud enough to be heard 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) away. It was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 64 km (40 miles) away on ships in the Sunda Strait, and caused a spike of more than 8.5 kilopascals (2.5 inHg) in pressure gauges 160 km (100 miles) away, attached to gasometers in the Batavia gasworks, sending them off the scale.[11]: 218 [note 1]

The pressure wave was recorded on barographs all over the world. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over the course of five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its antipodal point, and three times travelling back to the volcano. Hence, the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to an estimated height of 80 km (50 mi).

Here’s a coral block thrown onto the shore of Java by the explosion; Java is 20 miles from Krakatau:

Belzec was explicitly constructed to carry out the Nazi program of murdering all Polish Jews. Betwee 430,000 and 500,000 of them were killed there. Here are some Jews on the way to the camp:

Dugard was repeatedly molested and had two daughters by Garrido, who were 11 and 15 when she was found. Below is a long (84-min.) interview Dugard conducted with Diane Sawyer in 2011:

Was that a year ago? What a mess it was! Remember this act of desperation?

Da Nooz:

Lots o’ nooz today. I’ll be brief:

*Yesterday the Department of Justice submitted to a federal judge the redacted version of the affadavit used to get the warrant allowing the feds to search Mar-a-Lago for classified (and perhaps other) documents. The document will be released by noon today. The NYT calls the redactions “extensive”, and says they were made to protect witnesses from “intimidation or retribution.” Clearly, people’s names will be struck out.

The filing, sent to a federal judge in Florida a few minutes before a noon deadline, is unlikely to lead to the immediate release of the affidavit. In its most complete form, the document would disclose important, and potentially revelatory, details about the government’s justification for taking the extraordinary step of searching Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8.

The submission by the Justice Department — which contains proposed redactions and a supporting memo — is a significant legal milepost in an investigation that has swiftly emerged as a major threat to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have offered a confused and at times stumbling response. But it is also an inflection point for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who is trying to balance protecting the prosecutorial process by keeping secret details of the investigation, and providing enough information to defend his decision to request a search unlike any other in history.

“There are clearly opposed poles here,” said Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Columbia University, who said it might be difficult, even impossible, for Mr. Garland to strike the right balance.

And how do we know when Garland has “struck the right balance”? When the press stops baying for more information and Republicans stop calling this a “witch hunt”? Good luck with that. I for one would prefer that the affidavit not be made public, but I hope the redactions are extensive! I don’t so much care what they say, as we will all know eventually—unless Trump gets off the hook again.

*In what the NYT describes as a “limited but significant victory for the Biden administration”, a federal judge in Idaho blocked implementation of part of that state’s draconian anti-abortion law. Forgive me if I see this as a just a very small improvement in a draconian and anti-woman law, most of which remains in place. (At least, unlike Texas, Idaho allows abortions in cases of rape and incest.)

This month, the Justice Department sued Idaho, one of the most conservative states in the country, arguing that the law would prevent emergency room doctors from performing abortions necessary to stabilize the health of women facing medical emergencies.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the Federal District Court in Idaho wrote that doctors in the state could not be punished for acting to protect the health of endangered mothers, in a preliminary injunction issued a day before the ban was to be enacted.

But he emphasized the narrow scope of the decision, leaving intact most of the bill’s other provisions, which constitute a near-total prohibition on the procedure in the state as allowed under the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in June.

. . . The Justice Department argued that the measure violated a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires medical professionals in hospitals that accept Medicare funding to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the physical well-being of patients, including pregnant women.

The law, which prohibits all abortions after six weeks, also exempts abortions following rape or incest. But none of that law, which punishes doctors, not patients, will be enforced until an ongoing lawsuit is resolved.

*The NYT gives an animation-plus-news story showing “How China could choke Taiwan.” The prediction is that China will blockade Taiwan, particularly the ports on the industrial and populated western side of the island, choking off Taiwan’s trade with the rest of the world:

While China likely still lacks the ability to quickly invade and seize Taiwan, it could try to impose a blockade to force the island into concessions or as a precursor to wider military action. In this scenario, China would attempt to subdue Taiwan by choking it and its 23 million people in a ring of ships and aircraft, cutting it off physically, economically and even digitally.

China tried to use its military exercises this month to signal confidence in the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to encircle Taiwan. The military fired ballistic missiles into the waters off Taiwan, 80 miles off China’s coast, sending at least four high over the island itself, according to Japan, and conducted exercises in zones closer to the island than ever before.

. . . “I think they have shown their intentions, encircling Taiwan and countering foreign intervention,” said Ou Si-fu, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, which is affiliated with Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. “Their assumption was ‘Taiwan can be isolated, and so next I can fight you.’”

It’s a long article with bits about air blockades, attacking U.S. bases and planes, and cutting the undersea cables that carry data to Taiwan. It will depress you. I can’t believe that China is just bluffing with their military exercises, but I hope so.

*Here’s a nutty professor: one Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Denver. Dr. Hashemi is an anti-Semite and conspiracy theorist (is that redundant?) who thinks it quite likely that Mossad orchestrated the stabbing of Salman Rushdie.  But why would Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, try to kill an author hated by their own arch-enemy, Iran? Get a load of the stuff Hashemi said:

“The other possibility [for Rushdie’s stabbing], which I actually think is much more likely, is that this young kid Hadi Matar was in communication with someone online who claimed to be an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member or supporter and lured him into attacking Salman Rushdie and that so-called person online claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran could’ve been a Mossad operative.”

Hashemi went on to suggest that Israel’s motive for carrying out a false flag operation would be to galvanize opposition to the ongoing efforts of world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“Israel has taken a very strong position against reviving the Iran nuclear agreement,” he said. “We were in very sensitive negotiations, like an agreement was imminent, and then the attack on Salman Rushdie takes place. I think that’s one possible interpretation and scenario that could explain the timing of this at this moment during these sensitive political discussions related to Iran’s nuclear program.”

All I can say is, “Oy, gewalt!”

*In his piece, “Is ‘Woke’ just PC with faster internet?, “Freddie de Boer, ponders whether the word “woke”, used in its pejorative sense, is equivalent to the term “political correctness”, also used pejoratively.  It started when de Boer read a 26-year-old book:

A church book sale in my Toronto neighborhood had The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook, the updated 1994 edition of Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf’s popular 1992 book. I always gravitate to books like that, to see whether there is in fact anything new in this world, and to remind myself that the (overly simplistic) answer is no.

. . . A compare-and-contrast of 1990s PC and contemporary so-called wokeness could go in any number of directions and fill volumes. To prevent things from getting out of hand, I’m restricting myself, mostly, to a too-close read of this one book, and asking only a few questions: Granted that lots of what seems new is in fact old, what do the differences indicate about the specificity of each moment? Did PC have the same place in the culture as wokeness later would?

. . . and while de Boer sees some differences, his answer is basically “yes,” though “PC” was less divisive than “wokeness”:

If the exact terminology sometimes differs, many of the concerns of that era overlap with ours. Apparently “writing about communities of which one is not a member” was frowned upon. There are gender-neutral pronouns, but it’s “tey” and “tem” rather than “they/them.” “Sex worker” is preferred over “prostitute,” “houseless” over “homeless,” “enslaved person” over “slave.” “Swapping sex partners” is to be called “consensual nonmonogamy.” Person-first language (a person with a condition, etc.) comes up quite a bit. Considering this was all before social media, the sheer Tumblr-ness of it all is striking.

. . . But the point of the book feels about as 2022 as it could. There are the defenses of free speech, which, yes, but more powerful, and more relevant, is the critique of PC’s fixation on language over substance, and indeed in obscuring the absence of substantive change:

. . . OK, so verdict time: PC is wokeness, wokeness is PC, and, per the cover models, normcore is forever. Still unanswered: does the fact that PC faded the way trends do, of its own accord, amount to a challenge to the wisdom of (for example) attempting to legislate against wokeness now? It just might.

I think the case for the permanence of wokeness is stronger. For one thing, it’s become firmly ensconced in academia through various hires and institutions that would be hard to dismantle. But read his piece.

Now for the light news:

The BBC reports that a fur seal broke into the home of a marine biologist in New Zealand.   (h/t Susan)

When Jenn Ross returned to her New Zealand home to find a few buckets out of place in the garage, she thought the family cat, Coco, might have brought in a bird.

Instead she found a seal in the hall.

The young animal had got through two cat flaps to enter the house in Mt Maunganui, about 150m from the sea – probably in pursuit of Coco the cat.

Ms Ross’ marine biologist husband Phil was unfortunately the only member of the family not at home at the time.

He told the BBC he regretted missing his chance to shine, saying: “The big joke is that this is probably the one family emergency where it would be useful to have a marine biologist, and I wasn’t there.”

The seal was returned to the sea, and the only damage was that the cat was traumatized, and took refuge at a neighbor’s house. The seal, nicknamed Oscar, was captured and put back in the ocean.

We must have a photo, mustn’t we?

*And the hottest duck news: Aurora, Colorado, will now allow ducks as “permitted pets” on city property, with regulations:

Duck owners must abide by certain requirements: They have to keep a minimum of two ducks as the ducks are social animals; single-family properties that are less than 20,000 square feet can have up to six chickens or two ducks and four chickens; single-family properties with 20,000 or more square feet can have up to eight chickens or two ducks and six chickens or three ducks and five chickens, or four ducks and four chickens.

Roosters will still not be allowed on residential properties within city limits.

Also you must have a proper a pen, fresh water in winter, and a permit. (h/t Douglas). Those are all good Roolz—except, as an anatidaephile, I think the city should ban all chickens, not just the roosters.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili hasn’t completely made peace with Szaron:

Szaron: You look threatening.
Hili: None of your business.
In Polish:
Szaron: Groźnie wyglądasz.
Hili: Nie twój interes.

************************

What is this picture (from Amazing World)? The caption: “A Carved Graphite Train on Tracks Emerges from Inside a Carpenter’s Pencil. By Cindy Chinn.” Amazing miniature art.

Below: the freaky cry of a black hole! This is a WaPo video posted on FB (just click on “Watch on Facebook”); contributed by Stash Krod. The notes:

What does a black hole sound like? Both “creepy” and “ethereally beautiful,” according to people who’ve listened to an audio clip posted on Twitter by NASA.

The U.S. space agency tweeted what it called a remixed sonification of the black hole at the center of a galaxy cluster known as Perseus, which lies about 240 million light-years from Earth. The sound waves identified there nearly two decades ago were “extracted and made audible” for the first time this year, according to NASA.
The idea that there is no sound in space is actually a “popular misconception,” the agency said. Although most of space is a vacuum, with no medium for sound waves to travel through, a galaxy cluster “has copious amounts of gas that envelop the hundreds or even thousands of galaxies within it, providing a medium for the sound waves to travel,” it explained. https://wapo.st/3PKp9f3

From Mark:

The tweet of (Abrahamic) God:

Oy!

This reminds me of the toilet cleanser that used to be called “Toilet Duck“, but has been renamed:

From Barry, who says, “How is this not child abuse?” I’d call it “harmful propaganda.”

From Simon, who’s clearly deficient in his knowledge of The Carpenters. As he said, “I remember her as a singer— I forgot about the drums, if I ever knew.”  All lovers of KC know that she started out as a drummer and it remained her first love. (She was shy and preferred to hide behind her drumkit rather than stand before the audience with a microphone.)

Matthew highlights the soundtrack of our childhood. Sound up, of course.

This surprised me, but of course Jewish tombstones have been destroyed or repurposed all over the place:

The Dodo is always good for some warming of the heart:

I haven’t read this yet but will. BTW, it’s spelled “Wimsatt”, not “Whimsatt.”

13 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. I had to look it up, but apparently twenty or so States or Territories gave women the vote before the passage of the Nineteen Amendment.

    I think Woke is PC fully grown. Adolescent Woke would give way to mature Totalitarianism.

    From the outfits I’d say those kids were in a Catholic school.

    Did you know the View-Master was introduced in 1939?

  2. Holy ratamacue, Karen! A female with natural rhythm–at least one who isn’t Catholic–seems to be a rare thing. And to be able to sing and play drums at the same time is not easy.

    1. And to be able to sing and play drums at the same time is not easy.

      That is a widely accepted truism, I think. But I recall hearing an interview with The Band’s Levon Helm in which he claimed to find singing easier when playing the drums. It helped with his phrasing, and he said that when he wasn’t sure of singing a note dead center, he could get a some cover by hitting a cymbal. 🙂

      1. I suppose it depends on the drummer. I certainly couldn’t do it in my youth, and a drummer friend still finds it equally difficult. I compare it to Sir Paul’s playing bass and singing. There’s no way I could do that.

  3. When I was a kid, growing up in a catholic family, going to catholic schools and to Mass every Sunday, this adoration of the “Blessed Sacrament” was a normal thing to experience. I always had some guilt because I didn’t “feel” anything and thought I was supposed to experience some great emotion. Now I know it’s because it’s all bullshit.

    Seeing it like this, from a distance and as an atheist, I am horrified that this is still inflicted on children in catholic schools. Not to mention the patriarchy of the priest going from class to class like some f’n guru. And the poor hapless altar boys. Really? They don’t see a problem with having children around any priest?

    Definitely child abuse in my books.

    1. How could a kid possibly fail to be moved by someone trying to tell him/her that a cracker and some cheap wine really, really, really are some dude who died 2000 years ago!?

      I have to agree with PCC(E), though, calling it “child abuse” is probably a further case of word inflation. Indoctrination, propaganda, just plain ridiculousness, sure, but the term “child abuse” is probably more useful if it is used in the traditional sense. After all, pretty much every culture everywhere in the history of the world has communicated its religious beliefs, as silly as they may be, to succeeding generations.

      1. Yeah especially since the RCC is reputed to abet real child abuse. How did the Hitch describe it? No child’s behind was left?

  4. Perhaps this is a bit OT, but it is a strange example of wokeness.
    https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1563005768537780226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1563005768537780226%7Ctwgr%5Ee5a5d5c7d59ffe93ca5f311bd3dd7ec6e2409fbd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsamj-3930%2F2022%2F08%2F26%2Fhow-could-she-tiktokr-furious-with-drew-barrymore-for-doing-something-racist-like-checks-notes-frolicking-in-the-rain-watch%2F

    Anyway, the video starts with a post of Drew Barrymore, who is caught in the rain, and experiencing joy. This was initially reposted by an angry woke scold, who seems incensed because Ms. Barrymore apparently “dismissed the boundaries that Black creators have set”.
    I guess the boundary in question is a prohibition on White people experiencing joy. I cannot imagine the incredible narcissism of someone who imagines that they can or should ban other people from being happy. I suppose the exception might be in DPRK during a leader’s funeral.
    Perhaps I am misreading what is upsetting her so much, but her ire is about a very short video which only shows a moment of spontaneous happiness. I don’t know what else she could be focused on.

    I do tend to conclude from these examples that no matter what we do, we are never, ever, going to satisfy such folk. A critical component of woke/pc people is that whatever issue they are screeching about is not really important to them. That is my observation, anyway. They want to force us to remove the T.R. statue in front of the Museum of Natural History because they crave the feeling of making others submit to their demands. But as soon as it is down, they start looking for the next offense.

    While I was writing this, my millennial son came in, and I showed it to him and asked for his reaction, and what he believed was upsetting her. He watched most of it, then sat back and said “I don’t care what she is angry about, except that it makes me want to do even more things to upset her”. It should be noted that this particular kid had the experience of attending a prestigious university during the period when BLM kids were being allowed to disrupt and torment others with no interference from the administration, and they particularly targeted Asian and White students trying to study medicine and the hard sciences. He is too compassionate a person to have allowed those events to turn him racist, but he is done with woke.

    I really think woke people fail to consider how strongly the tradition of taking a BFYTW attitude towards people who would subdue us runs through the American character.

    1. Looked it up, and apparently one or more Black people posted experiencing joy-in-the-rain, and Drew “appropriated it.” Or, another theory, is the Black women have problems when their hair gets wet, so DB might have been mocking them. Yet I would have been happy missing both of their joy/outrage.

  5. Well, that is interesting. I don’t do instagram or any of those types of sites. The most I do is occasionally look at a link that is sent to me.
    I did do a search, and mostly came up with Neil Sedaka videos.
    However, it is hard to imagine that getting caught in the rain and responding with laughter is an experience that can be claimed as exclusive to any particular group of humans.

    She is really going to be upset when she finds out about Gene Kelly.

  6. Freddie de Boer’s substack post on the “Politically Correct Handbook” is a guest piece by Phoebe Maltz Bovy, not by Freddie. I remember the book– I might even have had a copy. My quibble with the piece is not about woke=PC; that’s correct. I just don’t think woke is a revival of PC– PC never went away.

    GCM

  7. A small correction to William Wimsatt’s reminiscence about Dick Lewontin. Philip Kitcher was not a guest in Dick’s lab, but in Steve Gould’s area. Philip, though was acquainted with and interacted with people throughout the Museum of Comparative Zoology; it was during this time that he wrote Abusing Science. Also, the list of philosophers hosted by Dick should include Michael Bradie (Bowling Green); he edited a fest-issue of Biology and Philosophy in honor of Dick in 1999 (vol. 52, no. 2).

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