Monday: Hili dialogue

December 18, 2023 • 6:45 am

Well, we’re back at Monday again: December 18, 2023, and it’s exactly one week until Coynezaa, the beginning of the six-day celebration of PCC(E), which lasts until his birthday. And it’s National “I Love Honey” Day. Note the scare quotes, implying that people may not really love Honey.  Or it could apply to my beloved mallard hen, whom I haven’t seen for two years and probably won’t ever see again. I miss her. Here I am feeding her a few years back. What a mallard! She produced 31 offspring, all of which survived until fledging and Team Duck helped!

And here she is with her 17 ducklings, 9 of which actually belonged to Dorothy but were ducknapped by Honey. That intrepid hen brought this huge brood to fledging!

It’s also National Twin Day, International Migrants Day, Bake Cookies Day (and send them to me!), National Ham Salad Day, UN Arabic Language Day, and UN Arabic Language Day.

Speaking of roast suckling pig (not kosher, of course), I have a joke about it:

An elderly rabbi, having just retired from his duties in the congregation, finally decides to fulfill his lifelong fantasy–to taste pork.

He goes to a hotel in the Catskills in the off season (not his usual hotel, mind you), enters the empty dining hall and sits down at a table far in the corner.  The waiter arrives, and the rabbi orders roast suckling pig.

As the rabbi is waiting, struggling with his conscience, a family from his congregation walks in!  They immediately see the rabbi and, since no one should eat alone, they join him.

Shocked, the rabbi begins to sweat.  At last, the waiter arrives with a huge domed platter. He lifts the lid to reveal-what else?—roast suckling pig, complete with an apple in its mouth.

The family gasp in shock and disgust, they quickly turned to the rabbi for any type of explanation.

“This place is amazing!” cries the rabbi. “You order a baked apple, and look what you get!”

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the December 18 Wikipedia page.

As we move into another year, I keep pondering whether to keep this website (now in its 14th year) going. Comments are far fewer than the old days, and of course everyone who writes wants to be read. Stay tuned.

Da Nooz: 

*The U.S. is putting heavy pressure on Israel to scale the war back.  Public opinion, prompted by the deaths of Gazans, is apparently pushing Biden to take it easier on Hamas.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was traveling on Sunday in the Middle East for a visit to Israel and three Persian Gulf nations as Biden administration officials push Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks and transition to a more focused phase in its war against Hamas.

Mr. Austin will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, to discuss in detail when and how Israeli forces will carry out a new phase that American officials envision would involve smaller groups of elite forces, U.S. officials said. Those forces would move in and out of population centers in Gaza, conducting more precise, intelligence-driven missions to find and kill Hamas leaders, rescue hostages and destroy tunnels, according to the U.S. officials.

While the secretary is expected to voice support for Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas’s ability to wage military operations, he will also reinforce the importance of taking civilian safety into account during operations and the critical need to increase delivery of humanitarian assistance, a senior Pentagon official said.

What the U.S. is suggesting for Israel to do is, frankly, insane. Pull out most of the army from Gaza and use commandos and intelligence to pick off Hamas fighters one by one. If America gets its way, Hamas will win. Surely Austin and Biden know this. Do they want Hamas to win? You tell me.

But  it seems that Israel will fight on:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to keep fighting in Gaza, even as anguish over the Israeli military’s accidental killings of three hostages in the enclave raised new questions about how his government is prosecuting the war.

. . . Mr. Netanyahu began a government meeting in Tel Aviv on Sunday by reading from a letter that he said came from families of Israeli soldiers killed fighting in Gaza.

“You have a mandate to fight; you do not have a mandate to stop in the middle,” Mr. Netanyahu read in Hebrew, according to a statement from his office.

As a “testament” to the fallen soldiers, Mr. Netanyahu said, Israel’s military would “fight to the end.”

And I expect they will, but somebody had better be discussing what would come after that.

*The IDF has found a HUMONGOUS Hamas tunnel going right up to the border between Gaza and Israel. Good thing they found it now, though some speculate it may have been used in the October 7 attack:

A quarter of a mile from a civilian border crossing between Israel and northern Gaza lies what Israel’s military says is the largest tunnel discovered in the enclave. It is large enough that large vehicles can drive through it, and yet, until recently, Israel didn’t know the tunnel reached right up to its border.

Israeli troops uncovered the tunnel exit buried under a sand dune a few weeks ago. Israeli officials believe that the tunnel, up to 50 meters deep at points, and 2½ miles long, took years and millions of dollars to build and was meant to facilitate a large-scale attack on Israel.

“This is for moving massive assets,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters on Sunday. “It’s strategic.”

The discovery of the large tunnel near the Israeli border provides further insight into how much Hamas has invested into its tunnel program and how little Israel knew about it before the group’s Oct. 7 attacks. Analysts say this large tunnel demonstrates how Hamas has improved its subterranean warfare over the years and raises questions about how many other tunnels of that size are located near Israel without the military being aware of them.

. . .In one video shown to journalists by the Israeli military, Mohammad Sinwar can be seen driving a car through what they say is the tunnel. The video also shows Hamas using a large tunnel drilling machine that has allowed it to expand the size and quality of their tunnel building.

Israeli military officials say their war to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities won’t be finished until the group’s tunnel network has been eliminated. That process, which officials say will take time, could put Israel at odds with international demands to wrap up its war in Gaza as the civilian death toll mounts.

Now where do you suppose the money to build those hundreds of miles of tunnels came from?  You know where: from all the countries providing “humanitarian aid” to Gaza. I am mystified why the world isn’t enraged at the use of humanitarian donations for terrorism.

Here’s a photo of the tunnel with the WSJ’s caption.

One of the terrorist Sinwar brothers demonstrating the tunnel’s use.  I have no idea how the IDF got this video.

*Is yet another Biden in trouble? The Washington Post suggests that Joe’s brother James may have used nepotism with respect to Joe when he was a Senator.

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a famed Mississippi trial attorney, was tantalizingly close to a historic deal to force tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars — but there was one last hurdle. A divided Congress had to sign off. And Scruggs had identified one of the mostskeptical senators, Joe Biden, as a key to winning the vote

Scruggs turned to Biden’s younger brother James, an old acquaintance who ran a D.C. consulting firm with his wife, Sara.

Scruggs paid the firm $100,000 in 1998 for advice on passing the bill, Scruggs said in an interview at his office here — the first time he has disclosed the amount.

“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs said.

Biden eventually backed the bill, which ultimately failed to pass Congress.

“Jim was never untoward about his influence,” Scruggs said. “He didn’t brag about it or talk about it. He didn’t have to. He was the man’s brother.”

Scruggs’s deal with James Bidenhighlightshow President Biden’s brother has for decades benefited financiallyfromhis proximity to his powerful sibling, a relationship that is newly relevant today as congressional Republicans investigate whether President Biden assisted his family members’ business deals. During Joe Biden’s 36 yearsin the Senate, eight years as vice president and now three years as president, James Biden’s private business work — as a consultant for hire and behind-the-scenes political fixer — has often intersected with his brother’s public responsibilities.

. . .Joe Biden’s 74-year-old brother has played a vital role in his personal and political life. He helped care for Joe Biden’s children after their mother and one of their siblings were killed in a car accident in 1972.

James Biden became one of his brother’s key fundraisers — in some cases because he was willing to take money from donors whenhis brother was wary.

The article goes on to recount a number of donations that seemed to be linked to votes by Biden in the Senate, actions that seem to skate on the border of illegality.  But I still can’t believe Biden would be politically swayed by the combination of money and nepotism. Say it ain’t so, Joe!

*Let’s not forget about upcoming nuclear weapons North Korea, which just fired a big short-range ballistic missile into the sea, apparently responding to U.S./South Korea military cooperation to deter the Hermit Kingdom.

North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea, South Korea said, in a possible display of defiance against the latest steps by Washington and Seoul to tighten their nuclear deterrence plans against North Korean threats.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was fired from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang at around 10:38 p.m. and flew 570 kilometers (354 miles) before landing in the sea.

The South Korean military said it was sharing the launch information with the United States and Japan to further analyze the details while maintaining readiness against the possibility of additional North Korean military activities. It criticized the launch as a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from using ballistic technologies.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerating the expansion of his nuclear and missile program, and flaunting an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.

. . .North Korea’s latest launch followed high-level security talks between American and South Korean officials in Washington over the weekend, where they agreed on plans to update their nuclear deterrence and contingency strategies and incorporate nuclear operation scenarios in their combined military exercises next summer to cope with the North’s evolving threats.

Shortly after the launch, North Korea’s Defense Ministry issued a statement condemning Washington and Seoul’s move to include nuclear operation scenarios in their joint drills, describing it as an open threat to potentially use nuclear weapons against the North and vowing to prepare unspecified “offensive countermeasures.”

Preemptive use? That has to scare the hell out of South Korea, as it would take only a single nuclear bomb to destroy Seoul, and it’s just a few miles from the DMZ.  On the other hand, we have nuclear-armed subs in the area, and surely Pyongyang knows that a preemptive use would be suicidal.  Although I think North Korea will eventually get a bomb and a missile with delivery capabilities, I’m far more worried about Iran, which will also get nukes and can use them without fear of its population being totally destroyed.  Just one or two bombs from Iran would obliterate Israel.

*Talk about grade inflation!  Look at Yale, where nearly 80% of the students get As.

Nearly 80 percent of all grades given to undergraduates at Yale last academic year were A’s or A minuses, part of a sharp increase that began during the coronavirus pandemic and appears to have stuck, according to a new report.

The mean grade point average was 3.7 out of 4.0, also an increase over prepandemic years.

The findings have frustrated some students, alumni and professors. What does excellence mean at Yale, they wonder, if most students get the equivalent of “excellent” in almost every class?

“When we act as though virtually everything that gets turned in is some kind of A — where A is supposedly meaning ‘excellent work’ — we are simply being dishonest to our students,” said Shelly Kagan, a Yale philosophy professor known for being a tough grader.

The trend has scrambled the very meaning of grades themselves, he said. Students no longer think B means “good.” An A is the new normal.

Yale’s cluster of A’s and A minuses has been rising for years. In the 2010-11 academic year, 67 percent of all grades were A’s and A minuses, the report found. By 2018-19, 73 percent were in the A range.

. . .Grade point averages have been rising, too. Yale’s average G.P.A. was 3.7 last year, compared to 3.6 in 2013-14, the report found. In 1998-99, Yale’s average G.P.A. was 3.42, according to a 2013 report on grade inflation.

The sharp post-pandemic spike in grades is not unique to Yale. At Harvard, 79 percent of all grades given to undergraduates in the 2020-21 year were also A’s or A minuses. A decade earlier, that figure was 60 percent. In 2020-21, the average G.P.A. was 3.8, compared to 3.41 in 2002-3.

Some people argue that students are just getting better, and so rising GPAs reflect rising achievement. But I can’t believe that there’s been so much improvement in just a handful of years, though, and soon grades will mean nothing. The reason is a consumerist mentality arising among students, a mentality that professors must cater to—or be demonized.

There are still standardized tests like GREs for judging comparative achievement, but schools are increasingly dispensing with such tests on the grounds of equity. Should they expand the grading scale? Not gonna happen.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is flummoxed:

Hili: It’s magic.
A: I don’t understand.
Hili: A butterfly decided to winter under our table.
In Polish:
Hili: To są jakieś czary.
Ja: Nie rozumiem:
Hili: Motyl postanowił przezimować pod naszym stołem.

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

Miss Israel has a thing to tell you. I love this video, but turn on the sound.

From somewhere on Facebook; a grim cartoon by Sam Gross:

From BuzzFeed, clearly written by a woman who’s had enough and isn’t going to take it any more:

From Masih, who also has a thing to tell you:

From Malcolm; so true!

From Barry, who calls this “the saddest nature video ever”, followed by a happier ant video narrated by Attenborough:

Crikey!

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a ten year old boy, studious, gassed upon arrival:

Two tweets from Professor Cobb.  Sound up to hear this bun having a tomato feast:

Matthew says, “Helpful tips in the replies”. One involves ethanol.

52 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. On this day:
    1499 – A rebellion breaks out in Alpujarras in response to the forced conversions of Muslims in Spain.

    1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.

    1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.

    1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.

    1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

    1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 63.159 km/h (39.245 mph) in a Jeantaud electric car.

    1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when the second French offensive pushes the Germans back two or three kilometres, causing them to cease their attacks.

    1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.

    1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.

    1944 – The Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Korematsu v. United States supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for the incarceration of nearly all 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.

    1958 – Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched.

    1966 – Saturn’s moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.

    1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.

    1981 – First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world’s largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft built.

    1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

    2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.

    2015 – Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closes.

    2018 – List of bolides: A meteor exploded over the Bering Sea with a force over 10 times greater than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

    2019 – The United States House of Representatives impeaches Donald Trump for the first time.

    2022 – Argentina win the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, defeating title holders France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra time.

    Births:
    1552 – Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi, Moroccan writer, judge and mathematician (d. 1616).

    1707 – Charles Wesley, English missionary and composer (d. 1788). ,[Younger brother of John, who founded the Methodist church, Charles wrote over 6,500 hymns (!) and the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”.]

    1800 – James Watney, English brewer and businessman (d. 1884). [Long after his time, the infamous Watney’s Red Barrel was the first keg beer.]

    1847 – Augusta Holmès, French pianist and composer (d. 1903).

    1849 – Henrietta Edwards, Canadian activist and author (d. 1931).

    1856 – J. J. Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940).

    1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914).

    1870 – Saki, British short story writer (d. 1916).

    1878 – Joseph Stalin, Georgian-Russian marshal and politician, 4th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1953).

    1879 – Paul Klee, Swiss-German painter and educator (d. 1940).

    1884 – Emil Starkenstein, Czech pharmacologist, co-founded clinical pharmacology (d. 1942).

    1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (d. 1961).

    1890 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (d. 1954).

    1904 – George Stevens, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (d. 1975).

    1908 – Celia Johnson, English actress (d. 1982).

    1913 – Willy Brandt, German politician, 4th Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992).

    1916 – Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1973).

    1931 – Allen Klein, American businessman and music publisher (d. 2009).

    1934 – Marc Rich, Belgian-American businessman, founded Glencore (d. 2013). [Received a widely criticised presidential pardon on Bill Clinton ‘s last day in office.]

    1938 – Chas Chandler, English bass player and producer (d. 1996).

    1939 – Michael Moorcock, English author and songwriter.

    1943 – Keith Richards, English musician.

    1946 – Steve Biko, South African activist, founded the Black Consciousness Movement (d. 1977).

    1946 – Steven Spielberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks.

    1950 – Gillian Armstrong, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter.

    1954 – Ray Liotta, American actor (d. 2022).

    1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor and producer.

    1968 – Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress.

    1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress.

    2001 – Billie Eilish, American singer.

    I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living:
    1737 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian instrument maker (b. 1644).

    1829 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic (b. 1744).

    1892 – Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (b. 1804).

    1972 – Neilia Hunter Biden, first wife of Joe Biden (b. 1942).

    1975 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist and biologist (b. 1900). [Our host’s academic grandfather.]

    1977 – Louis Untermeyer American poet, anthologist, critic (b. 1885).

    1992 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (b. 1915).

    1993 – Sam Wanamaker, American-English actor, director, and producer (b. 1919).

    1999 – Robert Bresson, French director and screenwriter (b. 1901).

    2000 – Kirsty MacColl, British singer-songwriter (b. 1959).

    2006 – Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (b. 1911).

    2008 – Mark Felt, American FBI agent and informant (b. 1913). [The Watergate “Deep Throat”.]

    2011 – Václav Havel, Czech poet, playwright, and politician, 1st President of the Czech Republic (b. 1936).

    2014 – Mandy Rice-Davies, English model and actress (b. 1944).

    2016 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (b. 1917).

  2. Re: grade inflation:

    In the UK the newspapers produce league tables of universities, and one of the indicators used is proportion of first-class degrees. So of course universities award more first-class degrees in order to get higher up the league tables (and since everyone else is doing the same, this is a runaway process). Universtities also get ranked on “student satisfaction”. What makes students satisfied? High marks.

    We also have national exams at aged 16 that used to be graded on the A to F scale. But, owing to grade inflation, they have changed it to a scale 1 to 9, where 9 is highest. The idea is that it’s then easy to add on a grade 10 as needed.

    Before long our amplifiers will be going up to 11.

    2. This is worse at some universities than others. I think part of the reason it’s so bad at the Ivies is that the grades are not meant to reflect the quality of the student’s work relative to other students in the class. It’s meant to reflect quality relative to students at other universities – this is how the transcript and all its grades will eventually be read by employers, grad schools, etc. So of course Yale students all get As because Yale only admits A students.

  3. Joe Biden’s 74-year-old brother has played a vital role in his personal and political life. He helped care for Joe Biden’s children after their mother and one of their siblings were killed in a car accident in 1972.
    As I noted at #1, today is the anniversary of the death of Joe’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden.

  4. “As we move into another year, I keep pondering whether to keep this website (now in its 14th year) going. Comments are far fewer than the old days, and of course everyone who writes wants to be read.”

    Please don’t equate lack of comments with lack of reading. Don’t you have a hit counter available from the system?

    It takes time to bake all those cookies!! Would you rather have comments, or would you rather have cookies?

    L

    1. I regularly write a comment and then delete it, because it didn’t seem that special and I had the feeling you didn’t want comments to be excessive. I was a fan of Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish but when he came close to exhaustion and closed it down I was fine with that because I cared about Andrew. (He isn’t feeling well now, by the way.)
      I like reading the comments and I hope you keep it going but only if it works for you.

  5. One reason comments may be diminishing is that WordPress is making it more difficult to comment, not allowing us to do so (for this site, and some others) via the “Reader” function, but having to go to the main site to do so. However, there one cannot “like” the post nor other comments, and for me at least, I don’t get notified of replies, except via email–but there are 18,000 emails in the “social” section of my Gmail account in any given one-hour period* so that’s not an easy way to keep up. This may be out of your hands, but a bit of kvetching to WordPress might help.

    *Or so it seems, and darned if I know why, when I’m as antisocial as anyone I know…though admittedly that isn’t very many people, since I AM antisocial.

  6. Comments are far fewer than the old days, and of course everyone who writes wants to be read.

    This is a direct result of the problems with the email response mechanism. It had/has been broken for a very long time. The consequence is that those of us who used to engage one another on this or that matter no longer do so. I’d be surprised if comment counts are half of what they used to be.

    I still read every post, although sometimes I just look at the pictures (reader wildlife). But I’m so out of the habit of talking/arguing with my WEIT friends that even when the “Send me an email…” checkbox appears I don’t notice. (I see it is here again!)

    Don’t stop WEIT, please. Unless you want to for your own reasons. Like maybe you want to retire! (I sure never could write as much as you do!)

    1. I’ve checked the email notification box many times and have never received any notification.

          1. But it only works for ones comment, and as noted by GBJ, I want to subscribe to a post like in the old days so that I can get a copy of every new comment. Like GBJ, I rarely return to a post to once again read through the comments.

  7. Regarding Gaza…

    My wife and I had dinner the other evening with old friends, a husband and wife. He and I were in high school together back in the mid-sixties. We hadn’t met up for about a year. They are Jews and I wanted to talk to them about the Gaza catastrophe since we haven’t talked at all since October.

    I was a bit surprised (as were they) to find that I’m more “hawkish” on the subject than they are. (I come down relatively close to Jerry’s view of things.) They, however are far more angry at the Israeli government, and Netanyahu in particular, than I expected. Their argument is that the government really is as extreme rightwing as we hear and that its goal is not just the destruction of Hamas and release of hostages but to make life impossible in Gaza and force the Palestinian community to leave.

    I came away feeling hopeless about it all. All options seem to lead to a very bad place.

    1. The really frustrating thing is that both views could be correct. Personally I’ve no doubt that Hamas is entirely at fault for this current conflict, that they would have attacked regardless of any degree of provocation from the Israeli government and that nothing excuses their actions. And it could also be true that Netanyahu’s government is going to try and make life impossible in Gaza and force the Palestinian community to leave. Life is messy and hard.

    2. GBJ, Do your friends think that faraway Israel can survive while there are still Palestinians present in Gaza? Do they even think that Hamas can be destroyed while there are still Palestinians present in Gaza? I wonder if their reference to the Netanyahu government’s being “as extreme right-wing as we hear” signals that they would oppose him (to the extent that he even controls his coalition) no matter what his war policy was.

  8. Education at the higher levels usually have students that are better at academics. The grading curve becomes a “J” curve rather than a normal distribution. A grade in grad school below a “B” is a failing grade.

  9. I underscore what Robert and GBJames wrote above. It’s much more difficult to comment, respond, and receive email notifications than before whatever WP did to the Reader and/or their backstage hosting service. I suspect we’ve lost commenters because of this new difficulty.

  10. I check your site everyday and while I seldom comment, it is my main source for news and humor. In these days I need the humor more than news. I do miss the occasional science reporting. Please keep the site going.

    1. Jerry, I sure hope you keep this WEIT website going. Reading it is a big part of my daily routine: a wonderful source of education and entertainment. I don’t know how you do it, but your efforts are greatly appreciated by a huge audience!

      1. I’ll be very sad if you close it down. First thing I read in morning. Seldom comment but read most. I’m sure that there are a lot of folks who regularly visit your site but don’t comment.

  11. From Yale Daily News:
    “In general, STEM subjects seem to have lower percentages of A-range grades, and humanities subjects seem to have higher percentages.

    There is significant variation in the frequency of A-range grades across “large-enrollment subjects,” ranging from 52.39 percent for Economics to 92.37 percent for History of Science, Medicine and Public Health. Lower-enrollment subjects display similar variation, ranging from 57.36 percent for Engineering and Applied Science to 92.06 percent for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.”

    1. In my very limited experience there are significant cultural differences between STEM and humanities classes, even when they’re covering the _same_ material.

      Logic topics are covered by both, and one semester I (a STEMee) jointly taught such a class with a philosphy professor. When it came to grading I as usual used an explicit rubric, applied uniformly, and the sum of the marks each student got on each part determined their grade. The philosopy prof however tended towards an “Essentialist” view, that (e.g.) an “A student” should be given an A if at all possible. I was sufficiently surprised by this that I didn’t ask how one determined a student’s essence in the first place.

  12. I certainly hope you keep the site going, as I read most of the posts every morning, then check again later in the day to see what has been added. Especially the cartoons and cat-related posts help keep me sane, as do the wildlife posts. This is a bleak time, and several of my friends and I rely on this site to help us gain some perspective and perhaps make us laugh or provide for a sense of wonder (in nature posts/photos). It is a good way to counteract the more distressing news of the day, even when we don’t agree with or understand everything posted.

  13. The cartoon about the frog legs is fifty years old. I remember seeing it when I was in college back in the 1970s.

  14. I read Jerry’s site every morning and check in often. I was first hooked by the posts on atheism and genetics, and by the quality of the thoughtful comments. I stayed for the posts on politics because they helped me understand what’s happening to my university and its students. I was a lurker for a long time, and I expect the WordPress problems have turned many others into lurkers too. But IDK because I read the site in a browser on the laptop. So I hope Jerry won’t be discouraged by the comment numbers. My enthusiasm for his site hasn’t dimmed.

  16. I hope you have the time and interest to keep the site going! I enjoy reading it every day, and I enjoy the comments from the (clearly very) educated readership.

  17. WEIT is the second site I visit every morning (after the CBC). I value the mixture of science, wildlife photos, cartoons and commentary, and if this site were to close, I’d miss it a lot.

  19. WEIT is a fantastic site and I hope it doesn’t disappear.

    I would comment more except that most of the activity takes place in the morning, when I am usually working. I get the impression that comments left in the afternoon and evening mostly go unread.

  20. Reading WEIT in the morning has been part of my routine for so many years, I honestly don’t know what I’d stare at for an hour each morning. Like others have pointed out, I don’t think comments reflect the amount of readers, but I understand where you’re coming from. I humbly ask that you continue, and that’s asking a lot since I know it must be very time-consuming to keep the site going at a high level. I also know nothing lasts forever and it will be a sad day indeed when WEIT shutters its screen.

    I love watching bunnies nom and thanks for the Honey photos. I miss her too!

  21. I would be sad were this site to disappear. I have only recently become devoted to reading it on a daily basis and am fairly new to commenting here, so please be aware that you are attracting new readers! Of course, I have been familiar with your work for a longer time, having read your books contemporaneously, or reasonably so, with their publication. But I’ve never been much of a blogger, or blog follower, and so it took me quite a long while to get around to signing up.

    But I’ve been very glad I did. I have been delighted to find so much of interest, and so many people offering frequently insightful commentary. I don’t know what the “old days” looked like here, but I will say that these days seem pretty darn good to me.

  22. “Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a famed Mississippi trial attorney . . .”

    Famed for bribing judges in Mississippi and spending over five years in federal prison for doing so.

    While the WP article details this extensively in its article about James Biden, it does not point out what in today’s political climate could be the more damning Scruggs association: he is brother-in-law to former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.

    I miss the days of working and relating across the political aisle!

  23. I’ve never left a comment before, but it’s not because of lack of interest — I’ve been reading WEIT on a daily basis since (at least) mid-2022, and it is one of the high points of my day as far as consuming on-line content is concerned. I’m especially interested in your news and views about campus speech issues, politicization of science, and certain viewpoints (e.g. reality of biological sex) being excluded from science journals/conferences. I often read articles that you’ve included links to, and frequently they are on websites that I don’t regularly follow (or may never have heard of). I also enjoy the cartoons, funny signs, etc. Please don’t stop.

  24. I also am a daily and long-time reader of WEIT. And would miss it if it goes away. At a loss for anything near equivalent with which to replace it. If I rarely comment, it’s because the intellectual firepower of regular posters here is far superior to what I could bring to bear. But I read them all, and they are a welcome source of additional knowledge and insight. So, thanks to all, and especially our host.

    2. Yes, me too! Good to know that he has found a good woman, but his comments were always excellent.

      Please don’t stop, Jerry. I’ve been with you almost from the start, and read you here in the UK like most people read the morning newspaper. In fact, I read the Hili when it comes out here after lunch, then come back the next morning to read all the comments. If you close down, I won’t know what to do with my mornings!

  26. Please continue with WEIT. It is part of my morning routine, along with a cup of strong black coffee. The two of them contribute to getting my day underway.
    Thank you!

  27. Many commenters have praised the wonderful content that you produce on this site. If I may add two other points of appreciation: 1) when commenters disagree with either you or with each other, they submit, for the most part, responses that are both cordial and reasoned rather than the short assertions and bursts of vitriol that are common elsewhere, and 2) I might not have encountered the work of several people—notably that of Anna Krylov and Luana Maroja—if it were not for this site. The visibility that you have helped give to mid-career professionals who have the courage to confront the ideological assaults on science and academic freedom is greatly welcome.

    1. What Doug said. (And everyone else.) I read everything, but am way too slow to get in on most discussions. So I often come back later in the evening to find nice, balanced and great comments from other readers. Me ading “ditto” or “What s/he said adds little.

  28. Why Evolution Is True is valued enormously by me, as it • has an international audience • is moderated and polite • is faster with current news • always has the best cat news on cats.

    I look forward to the WEIT “family” of regulars with their insights and particular areas of expertise. And who knew that when Dr J. Coyne named the website “Why Evolution Is True” years ago, that evolution itself would become such a contentious, hot-button topic among… progressives.

    And no one loves cats & ducks as much as our host.
    May Botany Pond come back better than ever!

  29. I don’t comment often but I don’t believe I have missed a day of reading WEIT since I discovered it almost two years ago. I literally wake up, grab my phone and check in on WEIT. Then I grab some coffee and go over the hili dialogue more thoroughly. I then check back periodically through the day to see what else you’ve posted.

    I believe I’ve gotten better insight into the state of the world through this site than all the other news sites I used to frequently read.

    It obviously takes a lot of work to create so much quality content but it is much appreciated and much needed. And you make it fun as well!

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