Friday: Hili dialogue

November 24, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, November 24, 2023, otherwise known as “Black Friday“, the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and a day when there are bargains to be had, so they say.  Foodwise, it’s National Sardines Day, which we can just ignore.

It’s D. B. Cooper Day, marking the day in 1971 when a man given that name by the media jumped out of a plane with a parachute, holding $200,000 in random. He was never found, though some of the money was recovered, and the case was never solved. It’s also National Carménère Day, celebrating the grape used mostly for blending in wines, National Native American Heritage Day, National Flossing Day (don’t forget to floss once a day!), Maize Day (what you call “corn”), and National Leftovers Day.

Finally, the most important celebration on this day: it’s Evolution Day (International observance), celebrating the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species on this date in 1859.  You want a first edition in very good condition? The price has risen: it’s now $400,000 U.S.!  Why doesn’t Google ever honor with a Doodle Darwin and his great book?

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the November 24 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Do you still trust the NYT to give you news of the war in the Middle East? I’m not so sure, but I’ll give you the latest from the paper.  There appears to be a four-day cease-fire, and 13 hostages will be released later today.

A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to take effect on Friday morning, signaling the start of what could be the longest pause in fighting in the seven-week war and paving the way for an exchange of some Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

By early afternoon, there had been no reports of fighting for several hours, and 60 trucks carrying aid and 29 Gazans had entered Gaza from Egypt, a spokesman for the border crossing, Wael Abu Omar, said by phone. Israel said that eight of those trucks contained fuel and cooking gas — a small but significant amount for a territory that has all but run out of fuel.

Both developments were signs that the cease-fire was firming up. Under the terms, a large increase in humanitarian aid is expected to enter Gaza, where roughly two-thirds of its 2.2 million people have been displaced by the war.

The deal, brokered by Qatar in weeks of talks, calls for Hamas to return 50 of the women and children taken hostage during its Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that set off the fighting, and for Israel to release 150 imprisoned Palestinian women and teenagers. The exchange would occur in phases across the four days of the cease-fire.

  • Thirteen hostages were to be released on Friday, according to Qatari officials, along with an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners. Israel has said that it would extend the cease-fire by a day for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas. Read more about the deal.

  • Despite the truce, both sides have insisted that the war was far from over. “Our hands will remain on the trigger,” Hamas said. Israeli forces pounded Gaza with airstrikes in the hours before the cease-fire was to begin.

Will the cease-fire hold? I’m guessing it will this time: Hamas needs to rearm and get that fuel delivered to their tunnels, while Israel really wants those hostages back.

*According to the BBC, the IDF has detained the director of al-Shifa Hospital for questioning (h/t Jez)

Israeli forces have detained the director of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital for questioning, a week after their controversial raid there.

Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya was held at a checkpoint as he evacuated patients to the south, a colleague told the BBC.

The Israeli military said he was being questioned over evidence that al-Shifa “served as a Hamas command and control centre”. He and Hamas have denied that.

They’re both lying, of course.

Neither the UN or PRCS mentioned Dr Abu Salmiya. But the head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa, Dr Adnan al-Bursh, told the BBC he had also been detained while accompanying the evacuated patients on Wednesday.

. . .On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military confirmed that Dr Abu Salmiya had been taken for questioning by the Shin Bet internal security agency, “following evidence showing that al-Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre”.

“The Hamas terror tunnel network situated under the hospital also exploited electricity and resources taken from the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored numerous weapons inside the hospital and on the hospital grounds.

“Furthermore, after the Hamas massacre on 7 October, Hamas terrorists sought refuge within the hospital, some of them taking hostages from Israel with them,” it added, also alleging that a female soldier who had been taken hostage was murdered on the premises.

But wait! There’s more from the NYT! He wasn’t evacuating patients, but apparently trying to flee!

Israeli forces detained the director of Al-Shifa Hospital while he was evacuating from the seized medical complex that Israel claims was the site of a Hamas military headquarters, Israeli and Gazan officials said on Thursday.

The Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that the director, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, was taken into custody on Wednesday after a United Nations convoy of ambulances that was evacuating patients from the hospital to southern Gaza was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint for hours.

The Israeli military said that Dr. Abu Salmiya was taken for questioning “following evidence showing that the Al-Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center.”

Perhaps this will be the first war-crimes trial, as Palestine is subject to the International Criminal Court.

*It appears that a lot of Europe is moving rightwards politically, but this is a big move: far-rightist Geert Wilders’ party, strongly anti-immigrant, won big in a Dutch election, perhaps putting him in line to be the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

The electoral win by Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader who has championed draconian policies against immigration and Islam, reflects how intractable the issue of migration remains in Europe—and in much of the West.

Nearly a decade ago, an influx of Middle Eastern and African arrivals drove a wave of anti-immigration policies across Europe, boosted the popularity of far-right parties and stirred tensions with Europe’s growing Muslim population.

Today, as some European countries grapple with a flow of migrants not seen since 2015-16, the failure to identify policies to manage the surge in arrivals is prompting a political backlash.

Those tensions helped propel Wilders to a major election victory Thursday, putting a leader who has proposed slashing immigration, closing mosques and banning the Quran within reach of the leadership of the Netherlands.

Wilders’ Freedom Party, or PVV, which has promised to halt all immigration to the Netherlands, was set to win 37 out of 150 seats in the country’s parliament, based on projections by Dutch news agency ANP based on results from almost all voting districts. The PVV’s closest rival, former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans’ Labor/Green Left coalition, was projected to secure 25 seats.

. . . .The result puts Wilders in line to lead talks in forming a governing coalition, and possibly become the next prime minister, though negotiations are likely to take some weeks.

Wilders won because he stood for what many Dutch people (and Europeans in general) are thinking but not saying: that Muslims in Europe won’t “assimilate”, and are a source of division and strife, as well as committing proportionately more crimes than other groups.  I have no solution to this except to say that people need to start by admitting that it is a problem.

*NYC mayor Eric Adams, already under FBI investigation for helping Turkey get real estate in the city, is now in even worse trouble: he’s been accused of sexual assault.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993, according to a legal summons filed Wednesday.

The three-page filing does not contain details of the alleged assault but names Adams, the transit bureau of the New York Police Department and the New York Police Department Guardians Association as defendants.

“Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Defendant Eric Adams in New York, New York in 1993 while they both worked for the City of New York,” the summons reads.

The filing seeks a trial and $5 million in relief. It was filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The woman’s attorney did not immediately return an emailed request for comment on Thursday.

. . . In remarks to reporters on Thursday, Adams denied sexually assaulting anyone and said he did not remember meeting the woman.

. . .The summons was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special New York law that has cleared the way for a wave of lawsuits against famous men accused of sexual misconduct. The law has led to more than 2,500 lawsuits, including cases against former President Donald Trump, hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and the comedian and actor Russell Brand.

The filing comes as Adams has been dogged by an FBI investigation into his 2021 campaign that prompted agents to seize his phones and raid the home of his chief campaign fundraiser.

The New York Times and New York Post have reported that part of the investigation involves examining whether Adams inappropriately tried to help the government of Turkey get city approval to open a 35-story skyscraper housing diplomatic facilities in 2021, despite concerns about the tower’s fire safety systems.

This is exactly three decades ago, and I think this is a criminal rather than a civil trial. If that were the case, they’d have to prove the assault beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a tough call. On the other hand, if this is a civil trial just demanding damages, then the standard is “preponderance of the evidence”, meaning the assault was more likely to have happened than not happened (I think this is how Trump got “convicted.” But lawyers among the readers should tell us, as it sounds like a criminal charge yet criminal charges don’t include money.

*Have a hankering for guacamole? Perhaps you should think twice, or at least read the WaPo op ed by Axel Javier Sulzbacher , a photographer and filmmaker from Mexico, but now based in Germany: “Avocados have destroyed my country—but America can help.” What a timid plea! But the facts are grim:

But as commodities have become more accessible in Hanover, Uruapan — the self-proclaimed “avocado capital of the world” — has declined. The pine forests and guava trees surrounding my town, in the state of Michoacán, have been replaced by avocado plantations and scarred hills.

. . .U.S. import restrictions on avocados from Mexico were eliminated in 1997. It was then that Mexican cartels — who already ran the state’s illicit drug trade — recognized the lucrative potential of this burgeoning market and competed to dominate the avocado trade as well. The fight for control over plantations turned the farmlands of Michoacán into battlegrounds, and Uruapan, the epicenter of avocado production, was disfigured by violence. In 2020, Uruapan was ranked the third-deadliest city in the world.

Once an ordinary city, Uruapan is now plagued by corruption, violence and terror. The avocado industry, with all its evils, has overwhelmed the town of my ancestors. My relatives now endure daily kidnappings and extortion by the cartels. And for what? So that people in other countries can dip their Doritos in guacamole while watching a football game?

When the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl this year, Americans probably ate about 139 million pounds of avocados, mostly as guacamole. By 2015, the United States had quadrupled its avocado consumption since the 1990s, and this trend shows no signs of slowing.

Crikey, it’s become like cocaine! And America imports 90% of Mexico’s avocados. What can you do? This:

Nevertheless, the United States has not imposed sanctions against Mexico for the inhumane avocado trade. A temporary ban on avocado imports from Michoacán last year, prompted by a threat to a U.S. inspector, demonstrated that it is possible to uphold principles of human rights and environmental protection. However, by lifting this week-long ban without imposing any other restrictions, U.S. trade officials missed an opportunity to enforce international standards, and pressure the Mexican government to do the same.

The United States should reimpose its ban on Mexican avocados. My people should not die to satiate the world’s appetite for guacamole. Until the Mexican government quells the violence in Michoacán, and Uruapan returns to peace, everyone should be able to get by with fewer avocados.

Here’s a photo from the article showing an illegal avocado field (Caption: An illegal avocado field in the forests of Michoacán, Mexico, on April 10, 2022. Photo by Axel Javier Sulzbacher)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili invites Andrzej to join her on the couch.

Hili: I’m an empathetic hedonist.
A: And that means?
Hili: That you can hide here as well and be happy.
In Polish:
Hili: Jestem empatyczną hedonistką.
Ja: To znaczy?
Hili: Możesz się tu schować i też być szczęśliwy.

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

From somewhere on Facebook:

If you have a lot of dosh and want a duck purse, here’s your item (from Ducks in Public):

An old Gary Larson Far Side cartoon from Doc Bill:

 

From Masih: more Iranian morality police in their chadors.  They look so sinister, and yes, they can cause those who expose their hair to be murdered:

Two tweets from Jez: An Arab Israeli standing up for her country:

You must listen to this: it’s the most unbelievably stupid question I’ve heard a reporter ask about the Hamas/Israel war. The Sky newswoman thinks that because Israel is willing to exchange three Palestinian terrorists for each innocent Israeli hostage, that shows that Israel values Palestinian lives less than Israeli ones! The respondent, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, tears her a new one!

From Barry: This lion isn’t dead; he’s just in a food coma from eating too much!

From Malcolm, a parrot who can’t get enough of the sound of a wobbling glass:

From Simon: this is SO true of the science papers we see these days, papers with a gazillion authors:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a boy gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz. He was three years old.  “Gas the Jews,” they say in Sydney.

Tweets from Professor Cobb. For fans of old British comedy, here’s “Pete and Dud”:

40 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  2. Sky News was not the first. This journalist had a worthy predecessor. Guardian journalist, Deborah Orr, wrote 2011, after over 1000 Palestinian prisoners (convicted for terrorism) were exchanged for a kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit:

    “It’s quite something, the prisoner swap between Hamas and the Israeli government that returns Gilad Shalit to his family, and more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners to theirs…[which is] an indication of how inured the world has become to the obscene idea that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives.”…

    “At the same time, however, there is something abject in [Hamas’s] eagerness to accept a transfer that tacitly acknowledges what so many Zionists believe – that the lives of the chosen are of hugely greater consequence than those of their unfortunate neighbors.”

  3. On this day:
    1221 – Genghis Khan defeats the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din at the Battle of the Indus, completing the Mongol conquest of Central Asia.

    1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité.

    1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania).

    1877 – Anna Sewell’s animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published.

    1917 – In Milwaukee, nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001.

    1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.

    1944 – World War II: The 73rd Bombardment Wing launches the first attack on Tokyo from the Northern Mariana Islands.

    1962 – The influential British satirical television programme That Was the Week That Was is first broadcast.

    1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is killed by Jack Ruby on live television. Robert H. Jackson takes a photograph of the shooting that will win the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Photography.

    1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second crewed mission to land on the Moon.

    1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.

    1973 – A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasts only four months.

    1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” (after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression.

    1989 – After a week of mass protests against the Communist regime known as the Velvet Revolution, Miloš Jakeš and the entire Politburo of the Czechoslovak Communist Party resign from office. This brings an effective end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

    2012 – A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills at least 112 people.

    2013 – Iran signs an interim agreement with the P5+1 countries, limiting its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions.

    2016 – The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war.

    2017 – A terrorist attack on a Mosque in Al-Rawda, North Sinai, Egypt kills 311 people and injures 128.

    Births:
    1632 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (d. 1677).

    1690 – Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German organist and composer (d. 1750). [Son of the more famous Johann Pachelbel, composer of the popular Canon in D. He was one of the first European composers to take up residence in the American colonies.]

    1713 – Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist and clergyman (d. 1768).

    1801 – Ludwig Bechstein, German author and poet (d. 1860).

    1806 – William Webb Ellis, English priest, created Rugby football (d. 1872).

    1849 – Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American novelist and playwright (d. 1924).

    1859 – Cass Gilbert, American architect, designed the United States Supreme Court Building and Woolworth Building (d. 1934).

    1864 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter and illustrator (d. 1901).

    1868 – Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (d. 1917).

    1876 – Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and urban planner, designed Canberra (d. 1937).

    1884 – Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Ukrainian-Israeli historian and politician, 2nd President of Israel (d. 1963).

    1886 – Margaret Caroline Anderson, American publisher, founded The Little Review (d. 1973).

    1888 – Dale Carnegie, American author and educator (d. 1955).

    1895 – Esther Applin, American geologist and paleontologist (d. 1972).

    1897 – Lucky Luciano, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1962).

    1912 – Teddy Wilson, American pianist and educator (d. 1986).

    1914 – Lynn Chadwick, English sculptor (d. 2003).

    1914 – Bessie Blount Griffin, American physical therapist, inventor and forensic scientist (d. 2009).

    1919 – David Kossoff, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2005). [Following the death of his son Paul, guitarist with Free, he became an anti-drug campaigner.]

    1925 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American publisher and author, founded the National Review (d. 2008).

    1938 – Charles Starkweather, American spree killer (d. 1959).

    1941 – Pete Best, Indian-English drummer and songwriter.

    1941 – Donald “Duck” Dunn, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (d. 2012).

    1942 – Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian and actor.

    1944 – Bev Bevan, English drummer.

    1946 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (d. 1989).

    1949 – Sally Davies, English hematologist and academic.

    1954 – Clem Burke, American drummer.

    1955 – Ian Botham, English cricketer, footballer, and sportscaster.

    1961 – Arundhati Roy, Indian writer and activist.

    1962 – John Squire, English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1974 – Stephen Merchant, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.

    Death can never kill an idea. Ideas are more powerful than death. Ideas outlive men and can never be destroyed:
    1572 – John Knox, Scottish pastor and theologian (b. 1510).

    1807 – Joseph Brant, American tribal leader (b. 1742).

    1916 – Hiram Maxim, American-English engineer, invented the Maxim gun (b. 1840).

    1929 – Georges Clemenceau, French physician, publisher, and politician, 72nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1841).

    1943 – Doris Miller, American soldier and chef, Navy Cross recipient (b. 1919). [A mess attendant second class in the United States Navy, Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then manned an anti-aircraft gun and, despite no prior training in gunnery, shot down between 4 and 6 enemy planes. Could it be the “A Boy Named Sue” effect? Egregiously, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox—who opposed Black sailors serving the United States in any combat role—recommended against Miller receiving the Medal of Honor. Miller was killed in action when his ship, the escort carrier Liscome Bay, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands.]

    1948 – Anna Jarvis, American founder of Mother’s Day (b. 1864).

    1954 – Mamie Dillard, African American educator, clubwoman and suffragist (b. 1874).

    1957 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and sculptor (b. 1886).

    1980 – George Raft, American actor and dancer (b. 1901).

    1980 – Molly Reilly, Canadian aviator (b. 1922).

    1982 – Barack Obama, Sr., Kenyan economist and academic, father of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (b. 1936).

    1990 – Dodie Smith, English author and playwright (b. 1896).

    1991 – Freddie Mercury, Tanzanian-English singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of Queen, and producer (b. 1946).

    1991 – Eric Carr, American drummer of KISS (b. 1950).

    1993 – Albert Collins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1932).

    2004 – Arthur Hailey, English-Canadian journalist and author (b. 1920).

    2016 – Florence Henderson, American actress, singer and television personality (b. 1934).

    1. I love when comics can’t keep a straight face. I loved the old Carol Burnett show for Harvey Korman and Tim Conway’s making each other laugh (and Lyle Wagoner, too, as I recall). And my favorite Abbott & Costello routine is “Which you choose, the land, the air, or the water?” from In the Navy, for Lou Costello’s laughing with a mouth full of water.

      1. Yes, there is just something extra funny when actors lose their composure when doing a funny bit. Laughter is such a weird thing. I honestly don’t understand the physiology of it.

    3. I’m getting my old Derek and Clive albums out this afternoon for a good listen.
      Thanks for the reminder.

  5. The Sky newswoman thinks that because Israel is willing to exchange three Palestinian terrorists for each innocent Israeli hostage, that shows that Israel values Palestinian lives less than Israeli ones!
    Here’s a video from that Sky News reporter’s own Twitter/X account. Her reaction to the mention of the Israeli hostages tells you everything you need to know about where she’s coming from:
    https://x.com/Daniel_Sugarman/status/1727959169548869804

    For context, that video was posted by Burley a couple of hours before the interview with Eylon Levy.

  6. The avocados I used for the from-scratch guacamole as noted yesterday and not for a football game or Doritos (..just to be clear… there are other uses besides that of the One-Dimensional Man (Marcuse)) are from Whole Foods and they get it here:

    https://ecofarmsavocados.com/#about

    That doesn’t mean it isn’t corrupt, but I heard Klaus Schwab has a great insect-based guac recipe I think’ll be great fun to give to dinner guests.

  7. Crikey, it’s become like cocaine! And America imports 90% of Mexico’s avocados. What can you do?
    Israel produces avocados, though I’ve no idea how well they travel.

    1. California has a large avocado harvest. Haas (the best avocado imo) is native to California. You can get them direct through Amazon (12 for $27.60). Or if you want to pay more (or don’t like Amazon) you can get them at places like http://www.californiaavocadosdirect.com . But they are seasonal, and in the winter months I think most (all?) avocados in the US come from Mexico. It would be nice to know where in Mexico any particular avocado shipment is sourced, but I don’t think that information is readily available.

  8. It would be fitting to refer to the Muslim migrants as settler colonists and to the act of closing mosques as decolonization.

    2. Iron Law of Woke Projection never misses.

      [ I am agreeing with you, in case that was not clear ]

  10. Re Eric Adams: It is a civil suit, not a criminal case. The plaintiff, fide the NY Times (which seems to not be highlighting the case), is a serial litigator. There is at least one very good reason for statutes of limitation: memory is malleable and fallible, and the more time elapses, the more malleable and fallible it becomes.

    Cryptozoology, ghosts, UFOs, alien abductions, and many other varieties of pseudoscience rely on eyewitness testimony as their primary supporting evidence. In teaching about these subjects, I soon learned how reliance on eyewitness testimony often led to injustice in the legal system, even if it is honest eyewitness testimony– sincerity and conviction of a witness does not imply accuracy. My learning about these drawbacks of eyewitness testimony coincided with the development of the use of DNA for forensics. Many exonerations later, it is evident that eyewitnesses are often mistaken. Even before the rise of DNA technology, there was plenty of evidence that there were problems, especially in old alleged memories, witness “facilitated communication”, “recovered memories”, the McMartin-Bucky case, and many others. The psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has been a leader in studies of the construction of memory, but she is not alone.

    The state of NY made a made grave error in temporarily suspending its statute of limitations.

    GCM

    2. I was on a hike with my brother in the Adirondacks in 1978 when a large brown bear crossed about 50 feet in front of us. My brother said “look a moose!”
      I said “that’s no moose”. He knew what a bear was, what a moose was and there was nothing wrong with his eyesight. He had been hoping to see a moose, so he did.

      1. Confirmation bias– seeing what you expect or want to see– is widespread; you provide a good example. I was once in the field with an ornithologist whose prior study of the regional field guide (a good thing to do!) led him to expect two species of flycatchers at our field site, and he indeed reported two. One of the two species, however, though certainly in the region covered by the field guide, had never been recorded at our field site, and thus would be an important new record, worth documenting. We thus went out together, and within a few minutes he realized that the second, “new” record species, was just the well-known species viewed from behind. Had we not sought to confirm his observation, there would have been a new observational record that no one would have thought to question.

        GCM

      2. And your bear-moose story provides a nice example of a second phenomenon– how retelling a story can change the interpretation. The bear you saw was certainly a Black Bear (Ursus americanus), which varies quite a bit in color, and can be brown. But hearing of someone seeing a “brown bear”, and not realizing how variable Black Bears are, might lead a listener to think it was a Brown Bear (or Grizzly, Ursus arctos), which doesn’t occur anywhere near the Adirondacks!

        GCM

        1. Yes, just texting without thinking. I know there aren’t any Grizzlies in the Adirondacks. And what about those guys who said they found an Ivory Bill Woodpecker. As far as I know it has not been substantiated, but everybody wanted to believe it true.

    3. Eyewitness identification testimony between strangers, especially when based on a brief, stress-inducing incident (such as a robbery or violent attack) is notoriously unreliable, and is one of the leading causes of wrongful criminal convictions in the US.

  11. About Geert Wilders
    Already in his victory speech Wednesday night he began to soften up considerably.
    And the leader of one of the other three main parties, Dinan Yesilgöz is a Dutch woman from Turkish descent and the successor of former prime minister Mark Rutte as leader of the liberal party.
    So it’s not all bad.

  13. Sorry to overcomment but is that a dude in the chador looking at us with a “sinister” gaze?

  15. *It appears that a lot of Europe is moving rightwards politically

    That may well be how it appears on the surface but I wonder if the true cause is that the general population are voting against the ‘Establishment’… and in many countries the Establishment has been drifting more Leftwards as time wears on. Perhaps you can only pull the Overton window so far before it snaps back?

  17. Re avocados: I have been in towns in Costa Rica in which avocados littered the streets, because they were so abundant that the owners of the roadside trees from which they had fallen didn’t bother gathering them. I’m shocked to read that they can be of interest to drug cartels, whose business relies on the rarity of their product.

    GCM

    1. I have had the same experience in Costa Rica, Greg. There, I saw the toucans gobbling up the avocados, quite a sight!

    2. When I was younger we lived in a Florida neighborhood that had been an avocado grove, and where most of the mature trees were still in place. I worked for the grove owner, who also had large adjacent fields without the houses. We had a deal with the residents to manage and harvest the trees in their yards, for which they would get a share of the profits.
      I personally grew to loathe avocados.

  18. When I taught my graduate seminar course The Fossil Record of Evolution—which I did every two years—my students and I spent several sessions discussing Darwin’s book. Most of them hadn’t read it but, of course, they knew that it was foundational. Every time I taught the course I re-read the book. And every time I re-read the book I gained new insights and saw new evidence of Darwin’s brilliance, and of his courage.

  19. Regarding “Evolution Day” on the international calendar…

    I’ve been a nearly continual member of The Planetary Society since its co-founding by Carl Sagan in 1980. In addition to an online & print publication — The Planetary Report — the society now has a broader interactive online site for members.

    One member recently asked, “Which are your top 3 scientists?”

    Listed were:

    Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Richard Feynman, James Clerk Maxwell, Enrico Fermi, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Max Planck, Neils Bohr, Carl Sagan [of course], Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Nicolaus Copernicus.

    I wrote:

    Like myself, people often don’t like to pick just one “best” anything or anyone. But, even though I very much favor space exploration, in this case it was easy for me to decide on just one scientist — Darwin.

    While all the other extraordinary scientists broadened our understanding of the universe and its natural laws, Darwin provided a solid scientific framework for understanding our own place *within* those laws.

    And, no longer were we “special” because of religious myths making humanity — or certain people — the center of the universe, we were special because we could comprehend so much about the universe despite a very humble evolutionary origin.

    Unfortunately, Darwin’s theory is so revolutionary that many people have still not been able — or are unwilling — to understand and assimilate it into their worldview.

    Nevertheless, unlike many of the established theories of other renowned scientists, Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” is readily comprehensible and accessible with normal reading ability — and that is what gives me hope for the future.

  20. I wonder what is up with the African Grey and the cup? Is the sound novel or perhaps it hears something familiar? Maybe the vibrations are also interesting and it can feel it with its feet. Or maybe it just wants a refill- where’s the bartender! Anyway, I was cracking up and watched it twice and then showed my wife who also loved it.

    PS: I posted this earlier using my “real” email, just to see if the new fix fixed the problem that the email I’ve used for years stopped working some time ago. It looks like my real email still doesn’t work, so I’m using my fake email to post.

    But at least the edit works again, so I can’t complain. 🙂

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