Saturday: Hili dialogue

December 9, 2023 • 3:35 am

by Matthew Cobb

PCC(E) is recovering from travelling, so posting will be light.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili has been travelling, too:

Hili: Travels are educational.
A: Where are you travelling?
Hili: To the kitchen.
In Polish
Hili: Podróże kształcą.
Ja: Gdzie się wybierasz?
Hili: Do kuchni.
Feel free to post below. You could discuss, for example: Which is better, tea or coffee? Why are there no freshwater cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish)? Could you take a photo of Saturn *during the day*? Or anything else that tickles your fancy.

34 thoughts on “Saturday: Hili dialogue”

  2. On this day:
    1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.

    1822 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.

    1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

    1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.

    1905 – In France, a law separating church and state is passed.

    1917 – World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.

    1935 – Student protests occur in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities.

    1946 – The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors’ Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.

    1948 – The Genocide Convention is adopted.

    1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

    1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

    1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world’s longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.

    1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as “The Mother of All Demos”, publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).

    1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other).

    1987 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

    1992 – American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.

    1996 – Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada.

    2006 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.

    2008 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

    2016 – President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country’s National Assembly in response to a major political scandal.

    2017 – The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage.

    Births:
    1508 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555).

    1608 – John Milton, English poet and philosopher (d. 1674).

    1779 – Tabitha Babbitt, American tool maker and inventor (d. 1853).

    1842 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, economist, geographer, and philosopher (d. 1921).

    1883 – Joseph Pilates, German-American fitness expert, developed Pilates (d. 1967).

    1886 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (d. 1956).

    1895 – Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish activist, journalist and politician (d. 1989).

    1898 – Irene Greenwood, Australian radio broadcaster and feminist and peace activist (d. 1992).

    1900 – Margaret Brundage, American illustrator, known for illustrating pulp magazine Weird Tales (d. 1976).

    1906 – Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (d. 1992).

    1909 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., American captain, actor, and producer (d. 2000).

    1916 – Kirk Douglas, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2020).

    1929 – John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1989).

    1929 – Bob Hawke, Australian union leader and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2019).

    1934 – Judi Dench, English actress.

    1934 – Junior Wells, American blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player (d. 1998).

    1941 – Beau Bridges, American actor, director, and producer.

    1941 – Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016).

    1943 – Joanna Trollope, English author, playwright, and director.

    1944 – Neil Innes, English singer-songwriter (d. 2019).

    1946 – Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician.

    1950 – Joan Armatrading, Kittian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1953 – John Malkovich, American actor and producer.

    1957 – Donny Osmond, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor.

    1960 – Caroline Lucas, English activist and politician. [And betrayer of women. Eddie Izzard is campaigning (in “girl mode”) to be the Labour Party candidate in the Brighton Pavilion constituency at the next election.]

    1962 – Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer.

    1967 – Joshua Bell, American violinist and conductor.

    1977 – Imogen Heap, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player.

    Life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all:
    1641 – Anthony van Dyck, Belgian-English painter and illustrator (b. 1599).

    1964 – Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (b. 1887).

    1972 – Louella Parsons, American writer and columnist (b. 1881).

    1996 – Mary Leakey, English archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913).

    1996 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (b. 1908).

    2002 – Mary Hansen, Australian singer and guitarist (b. 1966).

    2010 – James Moody, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer (b. 1925).

    2012 – Patrick Moore, English lieutenant, astronomer, and educator (b. 1923).

    2012 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (b. 1921).

    1. 1950 Harry Gold – I remember my Jewish parents’ clear concern every time there was a conviction or round up of (accused) Jewish spies in the early fifties post-WW2 in the U.S. I was only 4 or 5 but I remember hushed, concerned whispers of “Oh honey. How many more Yiddlich?”. It was the McCarthy era and the Rosenbergs were very high profile with tv sets and their news coverage just entering homes.

      1. L’affaire Rosenberg bore the stench of antisemitism, start to finish, made all the more egregious by its having been fronted by two Jewish-Americans — the then-Assistant US Attorney (and fulltime American Caligula), Roy Cohn, who prosecuted the case, and trial judge Irving Kaufman.

        For the rest of his miserable life, Cohn bragged how he and Kaufman had connived to ensure that both Julius and Ethel received the death penalty via Cohn’s and Kaufman’s unethical, ex parte communications conducted over pay telephones outside their respective office and chambers.

  3. Ah – see? This is so good as a stand alone.

    Here’s a topic :

    traveling

    Or

    travelling

    My spellcheck flags the double-l.

    But eh – it looks ok!

    Which do we choose?

    1. I’ll bite.

      What *is* a biscuit? Is it a cookie? Or is it a scone, minus the raisins?

      And “scone” … does it rhyme with “gone” or with “bone”? Or maybe with “loon”?

      Also, when eating a scone … clotted cream first, then jam? Or jam first, then clotted cream?

      1. I think philosophy looks for the essence of a thing – it has to do with using the word is – not that I understand it.

        So what is the essence of a, say, scone?

        Perhaps butter.
        …
        It’s butter all the way down.

      2. ‘Scone’ rhymes with ‘gone.’ And the recipes are different, although the end product looks similar. Scones may have raisins, but can also have cheese instead. Making scones isn’t hard, but needs a little practice. The issue is rubbing in the butter into the flour just right, not too fine or they won’t be flaky and will be a bit heavy. If you want to try, I recommend John Kirkwood’s excellent and easy method:

        I leave out the non-traditional candied peel, and I’m very sparing with the vanilla (doesn’t matter if you leave it out).
        Cheese version:

        If you must adulterate them (the raisin versions) with cream, it goes on top of the jam. But really, if they are warm from the oven, split and buttered, you don’t need to add anything.
        And while I’m here, the milk goes in before the tea, and ‘vase’ rhymes with ‘carz’! Also the loose end of the toilet roll must be at the front. There, you’re practically British!

    2. The double “L” spelling is the British English one. US English often uses a single letter in words where British English uses double ones ( “jewellery/jewelry” is another example). Although there are exceptions, such as “benefited/benefitted ” where we Brits use a single “T” and USians use two. Just to keep us on our toes and to baffle non-native speakers of English.

    3. Doubling the end consonant for present participles is a feature of the King’s English that was dropped by American speakers/spellers/writers.

    4. My dictionary says “traveling” is US English and “travelling” is British English. My spell checker flags neither.

  4. The Texas Supreme Court has issued an order blocking the ruling on Thursday that Kate Cox, 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus with a likely fatal condition, can have an abortion under the law covering such emergencies. The papers filed by Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, can be read online, as can the papers supporting Cox. The law specifically allows emergency abortions if continuing the pregnancy will create serious risk for a major physical system in the mother, and the Cox filing pretty clearly establishes such risk for Kate Cox’s reproductive capacities. Paxton is arguing that the exception should not be allowed, and has earlier threatened the doctor with loss of license, and the hospital with loss of credentialing capacity. Cox’s husband and her doctor can also be given fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If Paxton had not decided to fight the case, it might have been argued by prolife people that they do allow reasonable exceptions for emergency situations. But fighting this case, as they have, must reinforce the reluctance of doctors to treat any emergency in maternal/fetal medicine, and to argue that exceptions supposedly allowed in the laws are meaningless.

    1. Thank you for posting that. If any pregnancy qualifies for an abortion, it should be one in which the mother is in danger of a ruptured uterus, preventing a family that wants children from having a child in the future. I just don’t get it. Is this some devious plan by Paxton to tank the pro-lifers at election time? I cannot understand why he is still in office.

    2. Even before getting the Texas Supreme Court temporarily to block the lower court’s TRO, Paxton (Texas’s chief law enforcement officer, who has himself been under indictment for securities fraud since 2015, who has more recently been accused by top members of his own staff of accepting bribes, and who was recently impeached by the Texas house, though acquitted in his impeachment trial by the Republican-dominated Texas senate) wrote a letter to Ms. Cox’s doctor and hospital letting them know that some Texas trial court’s TRO enjoining enforcement of the Texas anti-abortion legislation doesn’t mean squat to him, Ken Paxton.

      Paxton’s letter threatened Ms. Cox’s doctor and hospital with enforcement of Texas’s anti-abortion statute, which provides severe financial penalties, revocation of the doctor’s and hospital’s licenses, and up to 99 years imprisonment. The letter also makes reference to Texas’s so-called “vigilante” statute (which predates SCOTUS’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs decision) — a statute authorizing private citizens to maintain a cause of action against anyone who assists a Texas woman in obtaining an abortion (which in the Cox case would include not just the doctor and hospital, but Ms. Cox’s own husband).

      Texas is also the state where the Center for Reproductive Rights has has brought suit to enjoin enforcement a Texas’s onerous and ambiguous anti-abortion statute on behalf of women who have denied potentially life-saving medical care by medical professionals fearing the statute’s enforcement.

      And let us not forget that Texas is the state in which anti-abortion zealots, including some doctors, brought a heavily forum-shopped lawsuit (in order to get the case before a federal district judge with well known anti-abortion sentiments) seeking to vacate the FDA’s approval of mifepristone as part of a two-drug protocol for medically terminating unwanted pregnancies, even though that two-drug protocol has been used safely for over 20 years.

      With these actions, despite stiff competition from others, Texas has established itself as the most pro-forced-birth state in the union.

      Hard to believe this is taking place in 21st century America.

      1. The only hope for Texas is increased immigration from blue states. Perhaps someday, in a better time, the state will look back on Paxton’s existence and shudder.

    3. The malformed pregnancy does not directly threaten Ms. Cox’s life or future fertility. The issue, as stated in her filing, is that she has had prior Caesarean sections and would prefer (sensibly) to have abortion now rather than a third C-section to deliver a dead baby, or one that will has become viable but will die soon after. The risk of uterine rupture needing emergency hysterectomy, terminating fertility, comes only if she goes into labour, not from carrying the doomed pregnancy, and would apply the same for a healthy pregnancy which she hopes to have later.

      This is the hair that A-G Paxton is trying to split. It is also the hair that suspends the sword of Damocles over her doctors who dare not do the abortion, even, I suspect, if she wins in Court.

  6. Coffee, obviously. Unless you are visiting a place that doesn’t know how to make it properly, which seems to be often the case in the UK. Then, tea, please.

    1. It’s possible to get good coffee here in the UK. I’ll admit, forty years ago I would have been forced to agree with you, but since the 1990s, we’ve become a lot more discerning about coffee, both in restaurants and at home.

      Alas, the same cannot be said for most restaurants in the US when it comes to tea, which is usually a rather bland tea-bag dunked in a pot of luke-warm water. If you ask me, the rot set in around 1773 in Boston harbour. That’s just no way to make a decent cup of tea!

      1. You want to know how to make a cup of tea? Ginger Baker tells you how in this tasty little song:

    2. Considering that, of all the coffee shop chains in the UK, the American one (Starbucks) has the blandest coffee, I’d say that if we are bad at making coffee, Americans must be worse.

  7. “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”—Abraham Lincoln (apocryphal?)

  8. I’m just glad there are no *terrestrial* cephalopods. They would have given early primates a run for their money.

  9. I have just learnt via a podcast that drinking up to eight cups of coffee can lengthen your life, perhaps that could mean, doesn’t shorten it, that is sort of the crazy end and they don’t know why but it could be from all the running around you would do, coffee induced exercise. In addition caffeine has anti oxidant, anti inflammatory and… bowl movement properties. Two of these I did not know. I drink both and it depends on mood, but coffee is my morning ritual.

  11. Why aren’t there any freshwater cephalopods? I didn’t know there weren’t! What a fascinating question. Maybe something to do with skin permeability? As Darwin noted, we don’t get amphibians (frogs, toads, newts and salamanders) on isolated islands because salt water is fatal to them due to their porous skin, and so they couldn’t make it there. Maybe something like the same explanation in the case of cephalopods?

  12. Why are there no freshwater cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish)?

    Possibly related (and possibly unrelated), there are a number of entire phyla of organisms whose only reported habitat is in the kidneys of various cephalopods.
    I don’t know what it is, but there is something weird going on in the excretory organs of the cephalopoda. Which may, indeed, be associated with their not being able to handle fresh water. I’m not sure on their distribution in brackish (low, but not drinkable salinity) water or hypersaline waters either. Some phyla can handle various salinities, others can’t. The Mollusca are weird in that some orders can handle varied salinities (Gastropoda, I’m looking at you!), while other orders can’t (Cephalopoda.) Strange.

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