Month: November 2022

Caturday felid trifecta: Campus cares for its feral moggies; Hemingway’s polydactylous cats survive Hurricane Ian; a refugee girl from Romania gets her cat back after an arduous rescue; and lagniappe

November 26, 2022 • 9:30 am

All the contributions today come from reader Ginger K. First, a story from I Heart Cats about how the University of Nebraska at Lincoln takes care of its feral moggies. Click to read:

An excerpt:

Like many college campuses across the country, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had a feral cat problem.

In 2008, a band of faculty and staff created the volunteer group, Husker Cats – named for UNL’s mascot, the Cornhusker. The project has managed to reduce the on campus feral population from over 100 cats down to less than 70 through humane Trap/Neuter/Release and foster/adoption programs.

Instead of rounding up the cats and attempting to make them someone else’s problem, UNL embraced the population by creating feeding stations and cat houses for shelter across campus.

Image Source: Facebook/Rebecca Cahoon
Image Source: Facebook/Nancy Becker

The administration recognized that the cats offered more than just an opportunity to do some good; they offered a wonderful chance for students to learn about compassion and civic responsibility.

Staff volunteer Rebecca Cahoon posted the following photo with the lovely caption:

This is how many cats show us they love us. They watch for us and wait for us, every day. We look for them and they look for us. No head butts, no belly rubs— just faith. That’s love too.

 

The original goals of the program were to stabilize the population through trap and release, place kittens into foster care and permanent homes, provide food, shelter and veterinary care to the colony cats, and reduce the feral numbers to a healthy, non-reproductive state within 5 years. All this while maintaining the beauty of the campus.

It was a very ambitious plan, but the Husker Cats volunteers made it happen. Today the kitties are as much a part of campus life as dorm rooms and cafeteria food – embraced by faculty, staff and students alike.

Ginger said this about these other I Heart Cats articles: “Good news about kittehs in dangerous places.” (Click screenshots to read).  You probably know that Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida, is populated by many polydactylous cats (“Super Scratchers”). These are descendants of a cat that Hem staffed. The Hemingway Museum site notes:

Ernest Hemingway was given a white six-toed cat by a ship’s captain and some of the cats who live on the museum grounds are descendants of that original cat, named Snow White. Key West is a small island and it is possible that many of the cats on the island are related. The polydactyl cats are not a particular breed. The trait can appear in any breed, Calicos, Tabbies, Tortoise Shell, White, Black, etc. They vary in shapes, sizes, colors and personalities.

And a photo of Hemingway’s son Gregory with Snow White:

The following article gives the good news that the Super Scratchers at the Hemingway Home survived Hurricane Ian in late September of this year. Click to read:

Whenever a hurricane approaches the Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, fans worry about the 60 polydactyl (six-toed) cats living on the property. Luckily, there are lots of dedicated staff members who do what they can to keep the felines safe.

When Hurricane Ian approached Key West, Florida, many people worried about the safety of the six-toed cats. Like during Hurricane Irma, some staff members chose to stay behind with the cats and protect them from the storm. Now that the storm has passed, the attraction has shared an update on the beloved felines.

From Instagram

All the cats at the Hemingway House are descendants of Ernest Hemingway’s first six-toed cat named Snow White. As a tradition, every cat has been named after someone famous.

There are about 60 cats currently at the attraction, and all of them carry the polydactyl gene. Yet, only about half of the cats physically have extra toes. Most cats have five toes on their front feet and four on their back feet, but cats with this gene can have extra toes and give birth to cats with extra toes.

From Instagram

As Hurricane Ian approached Key West as a Category 4 hurricane, the famous author’s granddaughter, Mariel Hemingway, was worried the building would be destroyed. She said if any of his houses were damaged, it would be heartbreaking.

Mariel normally advises the staff members to evacuate with the cats, but once again, a few people stayed behind with the cats instead. The building’s strong structure protected the humans and cats from Irma, so everyone was hopeful that the same would be true during Ian.

From Instagram

According to Alexa Morgan, a representative of the Hemingway Museum, the building faced minimal damage during Hurricane Ian. All the cats are doing well after being kept in a safe shelter space with the humans.

The staff members are currently cleaning up the debris left behind by the hurricane. However, they didn’t let the storm hold back their business. The attraction closed on Wednesday while the hurricane hit, but it resumed operations the following day.

The six-toed cats are in great shape because many people cared about their safety. All the felines have returned to their regular routines. They will continue to roam the Hemingway Home and Museum, so if you’re visiting Key West, consider stopping by to see them.

From Instagram

 

 Finally, a heartwarmer (click to read):

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, people had to quickly find ways to escape and keep their families safe. Sadly, many had to evacuate without their pets due to travel restrictions. One 10-year-old girl was especially devastated when her family traveled to the U.S. from Ukraine without her feline by her side.

The girl had trouble sleeping every night as she wondered whether she’d see her cat again. When her mom saw how devastated she was, she began to ask others for help. Soon, a group of volunteers stepped up to reunite the cat with his family, but it was a long and tedious journey.

10-year-old Agnessa had to part ways with her cat named Arsenii when the war in Ukraine began. Her mom, Maria, left the cat with her brother-in-law in Ukraine as she traveled to the United States with her family, including her three daughters, their father, and their grandmother. Agnessa is the youngest child.

The family, known as the Bezhenars, made it to safety because of a kind man named Geoffrey Peters. Peters wanted to travel to Ukraine to help people evacuate, but when that didn’t work out, he realized he could help people from his home. His son had been planning to rent out a house in California, but instead, he agreed to donate it to the Ukraine family for two years.

The Bezhenars are planning to stay in America and begin their new lives. But without Arsenii, Agnessa was having a difficult time adjusting. She was losing sleep and couldn’t stop worrying about her furry friend.

During the flight to America, Maria bonded with their flight attendant, Dee Harnish. After the family got settled, Harnish checked in on them and found out how heartbroken Agnessa was without her cat.

So, Harnish got in touch with another flight attendant, Caroline Viola, who rescues animals. Soon, many volunteers stepped up to help Maria’s brother-in-law get the cat from Ukraine to the United States. He needed to ensure Arsenii was vaccinated and had the proper paperwork to fly.

Arsenii went through several rides to get to a temporary family in Romania. Once he had all his documents, volunteers sent Arsenii to Greece, where he was able to fly home with a kind volunteer who was on vacation. When the volunteer landed at her home in Washington, the Bezhenars traveled there to reunite with their beloved feline.

Arsenii on the way home. What a wonderful pair of flight attendants, and kudos to them and the other recuers. Here’s one of them, Mimi Kate, who cut her Greek vacation short to help Arsenii:

After a 7,000-mile adventure, Agnessa finally got to hold Arsenii in her arms again. Agnessa cried tears of joy as her furry friend cuddled with her. Adjusting to their new home has been easier for the family now that Arsenii is back.

“When Arsenii is with us, it’s like home is with us. Like part of our home is with us,” Maria said.

The family is slowly adjusting to their new lives. They’re working on improving their English and starting a business to support themselves. Yet, getting where they need to be will be a slow process, so the community continues to support them. If you’d like to help this family get back on their feet, you can donate to their GoFundMe.

And a video of the news story. You can see how incredibly complicated it was to get the cat to the U.S. via Moldavia, Romania, Greece, and Canada. The reunion between Agnessa and Arsenii at the end will bring tears to your eyes.  Don’t miss the video!

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Lagniappe:  A pool-playing cat:

Readers’ wildlife photos

November 26, 2022 • 8:15 am

Today we have photos from several readers. Their captions and IDs are indented; click to enlarge the photos.

First a few photos from reader Ken Phelps:

Attached photos of a fungus growing on a dead Arbutus tree, and backlit bark peeling from a live Arbutus. I believe the fungus is Laetiporus gilbertsonii, although I would take that with a grain of salt – literally, perhaps, as L. gilbertsonii is edible.

And from last year, a Roswell pear. As Ken says, “We are not eating alone!”:

Foggy morning dog walk in the yard:

From Rachel Sperling:

I was saving this photo for when I had more to share, but I saw your request this morning. I’m pretty sure this is a dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus). I encountered it on the New York section of the Appalachian Trail earlier this month. In addition to insects (not sure what type of beetle this one has caught) larger ones are able to catch fish. According to Wikipedia, their bodies are covered with hydrophobic hairs that allow them to run on water (suck it, Jesus). When they submerge, the air trapped in these hairs becomes a thin film, allowing them to breathe underwater. The air makes them quite buoyant, so they have to hold onto a twig or a rock in order to stay submerged. I think they’re really cool.

Also sharing a photo I took last night [June 23, 2022] of the ALMOST full strawberry moon. This is from a park in Meriden, Connecticut, which has a lovely ridge that offers views to the east and west. This was taken around 8:30.

Two photos from Divy:

Ivan and I love to relax in our backyard each evening with a cold beer, and just watch the birds and the insects frolic in our garden.

I think this is a Red-tailed Hawk [Buteo jamaicensis].

A Red-bellied woodpecker [Melanerpes carolinus]:

A male Northern Cardinal and two females [Cardinalis cardinalis]:

x

Saturday: Hili dialogue

November 26, 2022 • 6:45 am

We’re at Thanksgiving CatSaturday: November 26, 2022: National Cake Day. My favorites in the genre are carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting and pineapple upside-down cake.

Recipe here. Decorative carrots on icing not necessary.

It’s also Good Grief Day, celebrating the creator of “Peanuts”, Charles Schulz, born on this day in 1922, and Small Business Saturday. And that’s it: a thin day for celebrations.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the November 26 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The BBC reports that a letter by Charles Darwin, signed with his full signature, is going on auction at Sotheby’s, and is projected to go for at least a million British pounds (the previous record for a Darwin letter was £400,000). The high value is because the letter (a bit shown below) is in pristine condition, because it’s signed with Darwin’s full name, which is rare, and because it defends his theory of evolution. (h/t: Christopher)

Here it is, signed by “Charles Darwin” (he usually used “C. Darwin” or “Ch Darwin”):

From the BBC:

. . . The item is likely to fetch more than £1m – a world-record price for a Darwin manuscript.

He’d produced the document so it could be copied in what, in 1865, was a celebrity magazine.

Darwin didn’t make a habit of archiving his paperwork and so little original material survives.

. . .Prof John van Wyhe, who curates the scholarly collection known as Darwin Online, says it’s extra special because of what the great man had chosen to put on the page along with his signature.

“He includes a passage that appears in the third edition of On the Origin of Species,” the senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore explained.

“It’s a really favourite passage, because he’s trying to make the point that people might find his theory unbelievable and outlandish, but they said the same about Newton and gravity, and nobody doubted the existence of gravity anymore.

“The same, he says, would be true eventually with evolution and natural selection,” the prof told BBC News.

The document was produced for The Autographic Mirror.

Its publisher, Hermann Kindt, printed facsimiles of the handwriting or the autographs of famous people along with their biographies.

When he asked Darwin if he’d contribute, the scientist jumped at the chance. It was an opportunity to hit back at his doubters.

At the time, six years after the first-edition release of On the Origin of Species, it was a common criticism that he couldn’t explain the origin of life itself.

Darwin conceded this was the case but that it was irrelevant to his observations of how life on Earth evolved and diversified. As with gravity, its “essence” might not be understood but Newton’s equations certainly worked.

And here’s Darwin’s text, which dates from 1865 (The Origin was published in 1859):

I have now recapitulated the chief facts and considerations, which have thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, during a long course of descent, by the preservation or the natural selection of many successive slight favourable variations. I cannot believe that a false theory would explain, as it seems to me that the theory of natural selection does explain, the several large classes of facts above specified. It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of attraction of gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of introducing “occult qualities & miracles into philosophy”. – Charles Darwin.

Compare this to the last paragraph of the origin of species, where Darwin makes an analogy to the laws of physics (gravity) with his ‘law” of evolution by natural selection:

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

*Yesterday was Nellie Bowles’s news summary on Bari Weiss’s Substack: “TGIF: Thanksgiving Edition“.  Here are a few items showing her patented snarky humor:

→ If you hate fun, go to Mastodon: Speaking of tsk-tskers, a wonderful thing has happened. Furious about Elon Musk’s acquisition of their favorite platform, a group of major pro-censorship Twitter personalities have decided they need to leave the place altogether. They’ve gone en masse to a new platform called Mastodon. And there they are (what else) yelling at each other. As the pollster Nate Silver put it: “Mastodon seems like a honeytrap for hall-monitor personality types. Honestly if Elon gets all the hall monitors to migrate to Mastodon that might be his greatest contribution toward the betterment of humanity.” Unfortunately it’s hard to imagine they’ll stay away for long. CBS got big applause after saying they’d be getting off Twitter, only to quickly return: “After pausing for much of the weekend to assess the security concerns, CBS News and Stations is resuming its activity on Twitter as we continue to monitor the situation.”

I’m not a big fan of Elon Musk, but I’m staying on Twitter for the time being. That’s where all the fun is—and cat pictures!

→ Black Hebrew Israelites hold a huge rally that goes ignored: Hundreds of black supremacists marched through Brooklyn this week chanting: “It’s time to wake up. I’ve got good news for you, we are the real Jews.” Videos here and here. They were marching to support basketball player Kyrie Irving who was briefly suspended after promoting a movie that argues the Holocaust is fake. Kanye West, meanwhile, was spotted in Miami with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, a proud antisemite. I hate to say it, but you should watch a Fuentes video to understand how extreme his beliefs are and how alarming this moment is. Here’s one. Here’s another.

→ The brave Iranian soccer team: At the World Cup, as their nation’s anthem played, the Iranian soccer team did not sing it. It’s another sign of how deep the rebellion is going in Iran. And it’s unbelievably brave, since there’s a good chance those young men join the tens of thousands imprisoned (or far worse) when they get home. Remember their courage next time the Biden administration insists we need to make a deal with their oppressors.

You go, Nellie! Biden is an invertebrate with respect to Iran.

*World Cup results:  England tied the U.S. 0-0, an achievement:

The United States and England played to a scoreless tie at the World Cup on Friday, a result that the Americans could be proud of but which has left them with a simple and high-stakes task: They must beat Iran on Monday to avoid elimination from the tournament.

England heard boos from its fans after the final whistle but walked off with a valuable point: With four now, it leads the group, ahead of Iran (three), the United States (two) and Wales (one). The English are in the driver’s seat, needing only a tie in their final game against Wales, but after a performance that had them on their heels for long stretches they will see work ahead if they are to live up to their pretournament billing as a title contender.

Other scores: Iran beat Wales 2-0, Senegal beat the home team Qatar 3-1, and Ecuador outscored the Netherlands 3-1.  What with several upsets, this is going to be an interesting World Cup. Would readers care to venture any guesses who the winner will be?  That leads to. . .

A CONTEST! Pick the final two teams and the final score giving the winner of the World Cup. If you get the teams and the winner right but not the score, I’ll randomly pick a winner who will get an autographed copy of any of my books (except Speciation!) with the animal of your choice drawn in it

*The Washington Post published a paean to both the World Cup and soccer, which has become my favorite sport (pity I don’t have a way to watch the good games). The piece, by Henry Olsen, is called “Watch the World Cup—and experience something infinitely enthralling.” An excerpt:

The World Cup is not soccer at its best, but it might be soccer at its finest. With 32 national teams converging in one place, the sheer spectacle is unmatched by anything except the Olympics. It has the quality of an all-star game, as each team has its country’s finest players, who are brought together only for brief interludes each year. And the short-term competition makes for stunning upsets, just as college basketball’s March Madness does. Japan’s 2-1 upset over perennial power Germany this week is the global equivalent of a 16 seed knocking off a No. 1.

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, consider the winner plays, loser stays element. All 32 teams are currently in the group stage, where four teams play one another once each to determine which two advance. After that, it’s like the NFL playoffs. It doesn’t matter where you’re seeded in the FIFA rankings: You either win or go home. Each game has the intensity that makes college bowl games so exciting.

The final itself is an event that easily dwarfs the Super Bowl. It won’t have a halftime show, but it doesn’t need one. More than 1.1 billion people worldwide tuned in to part of the 2018 final — roughly 1 in 7 on the planet. The Super Bowl dominates American viewership but attracts little attention elsewhere, with a total global viewership of less than 200 million. Outside the United States, the exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé, not Tom Brady, are on everyone’s lips.

And this paragraph links to three good videos:

This alone is reason to join the fun now. It takes time to pick up the game’s intricacies, but even novices can appreciate the sheer individual brilliance that can make or break a game. You might see something akin to Gareth Bale’s famous bicycle kick or Son Heung-min dribble the length of the pitch to score. Or perhaps you’ll watch a historically controversial play, such as Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal against England in 1986. It’s like watching the NBA’s greats put on a show — once you see jazz in sporting form, you’re hooked.

*Finally, Iran’s victory over Wales brought out rancor between protestors of the Iranian government’s actions and supporters of the regime. And the team actually sang the Iranian national anthem this time; they were probably given the word: “Sing like a canary of you’ll wind up in Evin.”

From the AP:

Tensions ran high at Iran’s second match at the World Cup on Friday as fans supporting the Iranian government harassed those protesting against it and stadium security seized flags, T-shirts and other items expressing support for the protest movement that has gripped the Islamic Republic.

Some fans were stopped by security guards from bringing in Persian pre-revolutionary flags to the match against Wales at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium. Others carrying such flags had them ripped from their hands by pro-government Iran fans, who also shouted insults at fans wearing T-shirts with the slogan of the protest movement gripping the country, “Woman, Life, Freedom.”

Unlike in their first match against England, the Iran players sang along to their national anthem before the match as some fans in the stadium wept, whistled and booed.

The national team has come under close scrutiny for any statements or gestures about the nationwide protests that have wracked [sic] Iran for weeks.

Shouting matches erupted in lines outside the stadium between fans screaming “Women, Life, Freedom” and others shouting back “The Islamic Republic!”

Mobs of men surrounded three different women giving interviews about the protests to foreign media outside the stadium, disrupting broadcasts as they angrily chanted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran!” Many female fans appeared shaken as Iranian government supporters shouted at them in Farsi and filmed them up close on their phones.

Here’s an AP photo of a protestor holding up the name of the woman beaten to death by Iranian authorities simply because she didn’t wear her hijab in the proper way. Amini’s death was the fuse that ignited the present explosion of protest against the theocratic regime.

(From the AP) An Iran team supporter cries as she holds a shirt that reads ‘Mahsa Amini’ prior to the start of the World Cup group B soccer match between Wales and Iran, at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Here’s Shappi Khorsandi, Vice-President of the Humanists UK and a stand-up comedian, on the situation in Iran. (To see Shappi in full comedy action, go here. I’m a big fan.)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, it’s bedtime:

A: Enough of playing, we are going to sleep.
Hili: I’m sleeping already.
In Polish:
Ja: Koniec zabawy, idziemy spać.
Hili: Ja już śpię.

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

From Nicole, a useful hint for the holidays. (You’ll have to go inside to put and get the presents):

From Merilee, a Dave Coverly cartoon:

From Simon, who found this on Twitter:

God’s still writing bad poetry at Mastodon, so let’s have two tweets from Masih. The regime’s Men in Black are beating up civilian dissidents:

A tweet from Luana. Note that baby emus are striped, just like baby tapirs!

A smart cat, and one that likes its comforts, from Malcolm:

A salacious but sarcastic tweet from Ken, who notes, “Looks like there’s no doubt about what Twitter has become under the SpaceX Oddity (apologies to David Bowie); there is only haggling over the price.”

I don’t think Trump is gonna give in here. . . .

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a dapper Dutch lad, killed at age 16 in Auschwitz:

Tweets from Matthew. This one was so good that I retweeted it with my own caption. Watch the whole thing: it’s 2 minutes and 20 seconds of mesmerizing group flight. (Matthew and I share a love of murmurations, and we’re still not sure why birds do this: here they swoop about for more than two minutes.

There’s music if you want to turn the sound up. I wonder if people walk around this section of the floor:

Even adults like to play in the snow. I’m sure your Spanish is good enough to understand the caption.

One Love

November 25, 2022 • 1:00 pm

by Greg Mayer

For all sorts of soccer reasons, staging the World Cup in Qatar was and is a bad idea, but that’s not what I want to bring up here.

As was widely reported earlier this week, Harry Kane, the England captain, had planned to wear a “One Love” armband as a statement about human rights, especially with regard to homosexuality. FIFA then threatened to yellow card (i.e., penalize) any player wearing the armband, because in Qatar homosexuality is a crime. Under this threat, Kane, and the other European team captains with similar plans, relented.

I don’t know that there was any such connection in the minds of the Dutch national football officials who started the “One Love” campaign, but I Immediately thought of the Bob Marley song “One Love,” which begins

One love, one heartLet’s get together and feel all right

Since Kane and the other European captains can’t express the thought on the pitch, I’ve been doing so by listening to the song, and thought I’d invite WEIT readers to listen along.

U Mass Boston drafts a new mission statement designed to both compel and chill speech

November 25, 2022 • 11:30 am

The University of Massachusetts at Boston (UMB) already has a Mission and Values statement, but in view of what every other college in America is doing—making their mission statements more about social justice than learning—they’ve proposed a revision that is more explicitly antiracist and ideological. In fact, it prescribes what its members should believe and should do, including holding other members of the community to the statement’s professed values.

It’s the kind of statement that we’d never see at the University of Chicago, for by prescribing and compelling speech (and behavior), is serves to chill the speech of those who dissent. (It’s an explicit violation of our Kalven Report.) And that chilling quashes discussions that are one of the essential missions of the university: through argumentation and conflict, even if it’s uncomfortable, should come truth.

The article below (click on screenshot), an open letter from many academics who dissent from the proposed statements, also includes UMB’s proposed “vision statement” and “mission statement”, which I’ll put here:

Mission statement draft:

As an academic community of global and local citizens, we are committed to becoming an anti-racist and health-promoting institution that honors and uplifts the cultural wealth of our students. We intend to engage reciprocally in equitable practices and partnerships with the communities we serve. We support various and diverse forms of knowledge production that enrich the lives of all communities, especially those historically undervalued and underserved. We are a public urban university dedicated to teaching, learning, and research rooted in equity, environmental sustainability, social and racial justice, innovation, and expansive notions of excellence.

Vision statement draft:

We aspire to become an anti-racist and health-promoting public research institution where:

  • Diversity, equity, shared governance, and expansive notions of excellence are core institutional values.

  • Wellness and an ethic of care are embedded throughout our campus culture and all policies and practices.

  • We invest in a resource-rich learning environment to support the development and success of students of plural identities and from diverse socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.

  • Climate, environmental, and racial justice align with sustainable economic and planning decisions with local and global effects.

  • Community engaged scholarship, service, and reciprocity are embedded in University practices that promote the economic, social, and cultural well-being of the communities we serve

We hold ourselves and each other accountable to ensure these values drive all decision-making in research, pedagogical innovations, resource allocation, and the development of policies and practices.

Now I agree with much of this, but I don’t that this should be prescribed as a shared set of “values,” much less a set of values that everybody has to hold everyone else to.

The letter is long, and I won’t give it in full, but show a few choice paragraphs. At the end you’re welcome to sign it if you’re an academic—you don’t have to be at UMB. They’re looking largely for STEM people, for the letter notes that there was only one representative from the UMB College of Science and Mathematics on the committee that drafted the Mission and Vision statements. (The College of Science and Mathematics is said to be the “second largest college on campus”). The implication is that had more STEM people been on the committee, it wouldn’t have produced statements like these, though of course STEM faculty are often just as woke and authoritarian as humanities faculty.

Now the mission statement may be well motivated, as many of these are, but its effect is to chill speech, particularly because the vision statement drives effort far away from the search towards truth and towards ideological actions, and because many people may disagree with the call to “hold each other accountable” to put the values (also subject to debate) into practice.

An excerpt (bolding is in the statement):

We believe this document is deeply flawed in content, direction, and representation. Moreover, we believe that the absence of significant changes to this draft would bring serious damage to the College of Science and Mathematics, to the reputation of UMass Boston as a beacon of knowledge and education, and to the demographically and ideologically diverse group of students we serve – particularly those who see education as a means to rise socio-economically.

We believe the Mission and Vision Statements trample on the fundamental role of the university: to facilitate the creation, curation, and dissemination of knowledge. To elaborate, we believe that the main goals of a university are to empower the pursuit of knowledge, to cultivate lifelong learning, to foster the exchange of ideas, to encourage critical thinking, to unequivocally support free inquiry, and to instill respect for a diversity of ideas and viewpoints.

Under no circumstances can political or ideological activism be the primary purpose of a public university. This is not to say students, faculty, and staff cannot be activists. Quite the contrary: individual people are the agents of social change, and as such they should be encouraged to organize and fight for a better society. Moreover, the public university can play an active role in educating students on pressing issues of social injustice as well as effective methods of activism. However, in this regard the role of the university is to empower people to take action themselves – not to coerce students, faculty, or institutional units to do so.

It is important to emphasize that the fundamental role of the public university can neither be political nor ideological activism. In part, this is due to the illegality of compelled speech in public institutions and our legally binding commitment to academic freedom as outlined in the so-called “red book” on academic personnel policy. Additionally, ideological activism cannot be a central goal of the university because at times it will conflict with education and research. The search for truth can never be subjugated to social or ideological beliefs.

We raise these points about the purpose of the public university because we believe the current drafts of the mission and vision statements radically depart from these fundamental tenets, and instead promote a chilling environment for the pursuit of truth. This is most evident in the Vision Statement which discusses diversity, equity, expansive notions of excellence, wellness, an ethic of care, plural identities, climate justice, environmental justice, and racial justice, and then states that “We hold ourselves and each other accountable to ensure these values drive all decision-making in research, pedagogical innovations, resource allocation, and the development of policies and practices.” That is, these values – which have very distinct ideological interpretations – must drive the direction of every researcher and department on campus, and as a community of scholars we will hold people accountable when their research does not actively promote these values.

If you’re an academic, particularly in STEM, sign if you wish, but do pass the link along to others who may wish to sign. I just appended my name and a comment.

h/t: Luana

First report of “referential gesturing” in any animal other than humans

November 25, 2022 • 9:15 am

Here’s a short new paper from Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. that, in fact, reports just a single gesture of one chimpanzee towards another. Was that worth a whole paper? Well, it appears to document the first example of “referential gesturing” in any animal other than humans.

What is a “referential gesture”? It’s a gesture that one individual could make to call attention of another individual to something, usually involving an object, an action, or a third party. (This is how humans use such gestures.) Pointing is one of these actions (you all know that when you point at something to a dog or cat, they look at your hand, not what you’re pointing at!).

In this case, one chimp held out a leaf to another chimp, and when the second chimp didn’t respond, the leaf-holder moved it towards the other’s face to call more attention to it.  Click on the screenshot below to see the paper, which has free access, and you can find the pdf here.

The behavior is connected with the way chimps groom themselves to get rid of parasites and keep themselves clean. Sometimes they also appear to groom leaves—for reasons unknown.  I’ll reproduce the report of the one gesture involving a chimp who was grooming a leaf.

We recorded an instance of a referential showing gesture between conspecifics in the context of leaf grooming in the Ngogo chimpanzee community, Kibale National Park, Uganda that seems to be produced declaratively. During self-grooming or social grooming, groomers occasionally pluck leaves that they manipulate with their fingers and mouths as if grooming them while also peering closely at them. They may be inspecting ectoparasites (e.g., ticks) they have placed on the leaves, but the function of leaf grooming remains unexplored in this community. The event described here involved a mother/adult daughter dyad. Adult female Fiona was sitting next to her mother Sutherland, whom she had been grooming. Fiona plucked a leaf from a small sapling and started leaf grooming. Sutherland’s attention was focused elsewhere while Fiona did this (Fig. 1 and Video S1), and after grooming the leaf for several seconds, Fiona held it out toward Sutherland. She repositioned her arm when the initial holdout did not elicit a response (Fig. 1). Once Sutherland attended to the leaf by fully orienting her eyes and head toward it, Fiona retracted it and continued leaf grooming.

It’s already known that chimps (and other species) use gestures to indicate what they want from others, like food or grooming, and here’s a video of such gestures:

But these aren’t referential gestures showing something to another chimp just to get its attention. As we’ll see shortly, Fiona apparently wasn’t offering the leaf to her mother to say, “here’s something for you to eat” or “here’s something we can eat”, but, according to the authors, the gesture was meant to get Sutherland’s attention, meaning roughly, “Have a look at this.” Fortunately, the gesture was filmed by the researchers, and here it is. Note how Fiona moves the leaf around until the object has Sutherland’s full attention.

The authors dissect this gesture to show that it’s truly referential:

The movements of this behavior are in line with the definition of showing or “holdouts” in human infant literature. Using the operational definitions of the most recent research on infant showing and giving, this gesture would be coded at least as an incipient show and potentially, as a fully formed conventional show. Incipient gestures are those that are plausibly part of the developmental trajectory toward the emergence of the conventional gesture form. Moreover, Fiona showed persistence with her gesturing (indicative of intentional signaling) (12), moving the leaf closer to Sutherland and more into her line of sight until Sutherland clearly adjusted her head to follow the movement of the leaf. Although Sutherland dropped her gaze to the leaf when Fiona first extended her arm, this may not have been clear from Fiona’s perspective, and head direction could have been a more reliable indicator for her. Once Sutherland had clearly seen the leaf, Fiona ceased gesturing, suggesting that the goal of Fiona’s gesturing behavior was simply to get Sutherland to attend to the leaf.

However, there are two alternative explanations for the gesture, all of which the authors find implausible (my paraphrasing):

1). Fiona was trying to share the leaf (and/or any parasites on it) with her mother as food. This seems unlikely because Fiona did not surrender the leaf to her mother. Further, chimps at Ngogo don’t eat this species of leaf. In sixty-six other observations of chimps grooming leaves near other chimps, there were no cases in which the nearby chimp took or ate any part of the leaf.

2.) Fiona’s leaf play was meant to induce some other “dyadic social activity” like grooming or playing. But chimps already show, as we see in the first video, different gestures to initiate these activities, and Fiona’s display gesture was different from these. And in 58 other observations of leaf grooming involving 30 chimps, only 5 such behavior—none showing “declarative referential gesturing”—produced immediate social grooming or play. This is the case even though three quarters of all leaf grooming events got the attention of other chimps (this was absent in the one above, making Fiona produce the referential gesture). The authors conclude:

Overall, there were no consistent differences between the leaf groomer’s behavior before and after leaf grooming, with social behaviors (social grooming, play) being more frequent before than after. This indicates that leaf grooming is not reliably used imperatively to elicit grooming or play from a partner, making it unlikely that Fiona gestured to request such an outcome.

The upshot: In my view, Fiona was indeed calling attention to the leaf (as the author say, Fiona was “sharing attention for sharing’s sake”), though we don’t know why. The fact that this is the first time such a gesture has been observed despite chimps being observed for decades AG (“after Goodall”) also suggests that referential gesturing is not common in this species. Perhaps it occurs only under very special and specific conditions, but we’ll need a lot more observations to reach this conclusion.

However, if we do find that referential gesturing in chimps is part of their behavioral repertoire, it leads to one inference, an inference that was the subject of Darwin’s book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). Darwin found (or thought he found) similarities in how humans and other species express emotions, leading him to conclude, as part of his Big Game Plan, that our emotional expressions evolve from precursors present in our common ancestors with other species, and that other living species have inherited expressions resembling ours from those ancestors.

In this case, it’s not really the expression of an emotion that Fiona shared with humans, but a referential gesture. But the implication is the same. As the authors say, the analogy to human behavior is critical here:

Several aspects of the Fiona–Sutherland interaction provide hints as to where such future research may find further examples of showing and other protodeclarative gestures in one of our closest living relatives. . . Additionally, Fiona was interacting with her mother, with whom she shared a close social bond. Our observation suggests that in highly specific social conditions, wild chimpanzees, like humans, may be motivated to communicate cooperatively and share interest and attention simply for the sake of sharing. If so, this raises the question of whether differences between humans and chimpanzees in the ability to engage in cooperative communication are quantitative rather than qualitative, with ramifications for our understanding of the evolution of human social cognition.

I presume, though, that animals like cats and dogs could be trained to respond to referential gestures. (They’re already trained to make them to humans, like pointer dogs assuming a stance pointing to human prey.) Has anybody trained of observed their pets respond to a referential gesture, like looking at something you’re pointing at rather than at your hand?

Readers’ wildlife photos

November 25, 2022 • 8:15 am

We resume our readers’ photos after the Thanksgiving hiatus. Today’s contributor is Rik Gern, who sends photos from Texas and Wisconsin. Rik’s notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

I hope there is something in this collection of pictures that you can use for your readers’ wildlife pictures feature. This is a random collection of photos united by the theme “saved by photoshop”. Each one was an initial frustration because it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the image I had in my mind’s eye, but with the help of heavy editing I hope I was able to turn a bunch of sows’ ears into, if not silk purses, at least serviceable satchels.

The first half come from my neighborhood in south Austin, TX and most of the others are from St. Germain, Wisconsin.

It’s fairly rare that I see a Globular Drop Snail (Helicina orbiculata), but their shells are quite common. The sight of these two shells nestled together put my mind into anthropomorphic overdrive as I imagined the big one protecting and sheltering the smaller one, although both were in fact abandoned shelters.

The Spineless Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia ellisiana) in the front yard is in a constant state of growth and decay. This one had a dry rot spreading through one of the pads. The glochids look like little puffs of cotton, but don’t be fooled; they harbor spines that are just as painful as the ones on the healthy part of the plant!

Pink Woodsorrel (Oxalis debilis) is a lovely little wildflower that pops up every spring and summer. They always catch my attention and look like they’d be photogenic from any angle, but they don’t always stand out to the camera, so I tried playing with extremes of light and dark to make these “pop”.

Every now and then you see a blossoming Century Plant (Agave americana) in Austin. I’m glad I got a picture of this one, because the next time I came by not only was the blossom gone, but the leaves were hacked into short stumps that made the entire plant fit in the grassy area between the sidewalk and curb.

Traveling north to Wisconsin, the pictures of the pine trees were taken on a foggy morning. The scene was beautiful to the naked eye, but the pictures just looked overexposed, so I had to play with photoshop’s “water color” filter, among others, to try to do justice to the look of the morning fog. (I believe the first photo is red pine [Pinus resinosa] and the second is balsam fir [Abies balsamea].)

You’d think it would be easy to get a good picture of a Marginal Wood Fern (Dryopteris marginalis), but none of the ones I took really stood out, so I just went to town with one of them and “electrified” it!

Back to Texas for this one. I can’t remember where it was taken but it was somewhere in central Texas in the springtime. I believe it is a Star of Bethlehem flower (Orthinogalum umbellatum), but I’m not sure. The little flowers are pretty, but I had to really exaggerate the sharp and soft focus in the foreground and background to make this one show up. I got a little obsessed with it and three or four days and two versions of photoshop later it morphed into something that looks like Georgia O’Keefe meets the Day of the Dead!!! (last photo):