Welcome to Monday, March 11, 2024, and National “Eat Your Noodles” Day. Why the scare quotes? Do we only pretend to eat noodles? And does anybody not like noodles? My favorite ones are Chinese, like this bowl:
It’s also Debunking Day, Dream Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, World Plumbing Day, Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day (?), and, in Lithuania, the Day of Restoration of Independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.
Today we see a strange Google Doodle, honoring a coffee drink: the flat white. Click on screenshot to go to the site, and the explanation from mint:
Google Doodle’s animated doodle celebrates the flat white, a popular espresso-based beverage which is believed to have first originated in Australia and New Zealand. In terms of visibility, this doodle will be visible across various countries of the world including India.
. . . March 11, marks the day flat white was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the year 2011. Flat white which is a beloved coffee drink of steamed milk poured over a shot of espresso is speculated to have been first served in Australia and New Zealand. It is believed that the drink first appeared on the menus of Sydney and Auckland during the 1980s.
Here’s one. Why is this not a café crème?
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the March 11 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*It’s a sign of how odious the Republican party has become that they ate it up when Trump mocked a handicapped person like Serge Kovaleski, a Washington Post reporter with a joint condition. Remember that? Well, Trump is at it again, though this time he’s mocking Biden’s stutter and vocal glitches. What a doofus!:
Early in his remarks in Rome, Ga., at what was effectively his first campaign rally of the general election, former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday blasted President Biden’s State of the Union address as an “angry, dark, hate-filled rant” that was more divisive than unifying.
He then mocked Mr. Biden’s lifelong stutter, a jab that set the tone for the lengthy speech that followed.
. . . The speech that Mr. Trump gave on Saturday was his first since Mr. Biden repeatedly attacked him and his policies in his State of the Union address. “Joe Biden should not be shouting angrily at America,” Mr. Trump said. “America should be shouting angrily at Joe Biden.”
But his critiques moved toward personal insults. At one point, Mr. Trump slurred his words and pretended to stutter in a mocking imitation of the president, who has dealt with a stutter since childhood.
But that wasn’t the limit of his rancor:
Mr. Trump also attacked Mr. Biden for expressing regret that he used the word “illegal” to describe the man accused in Ms. Riley’s death during an exchange at the State of the Union address on Thursday.
Mr. Trump also lobbed several ad hominem attacks during the event. Of the former television anchor Megyn Kelly, with whom Mr. Trump sparred during his first presidential run, he said “may she rest in peace.” While talking about the success that his time on “The Apprentice” had brought NBC, he called Jeff Zucker, the network’s former chief executive, an “idiot.”
Here’s a video of part of Trump’s speech showing his mockery of Biden. He’s a horrible, hate-filled man.
*Bloomberg News reports that Wall Street firms are beginning to deep six their own DEI programs, which means this could be part of a nationwide trend.
From C-suites down, American finance is quietly reassessing its promises to level the playing field. The growing conservative assault on DEI, coupled with pockets of resentment among White employees, have executives moving to head off accusations of reverse discrimination. It’s not just Wall Street. In recent weeks, Zoom Video Communications Inc. cut its internal DEI team amid broader layoffs and Tesla Inc. removed language about minority workers from a regulatory filing.
The seemingly small changes — lawyerly tweaks, executives call them — are starting to add up to something big: the end of a watershed era for diversity in the US workplace, and the start of a new, uncertain one.
“We’re past the peak,” said Subha Barry, former head of diversity at Merrill Lynch.
. . . Publicly, executives insist they’re as dedicated as ever. Goldman Sachs and other major US banks say they remain committed to attracting and promoting people from a range of backgrounds. Privately, however, many acknowledge that the high-profile campaign against DEI— amplified by billionaires including Elon Musk and Bill Ackman — threatens to set back what progress Wall Street has made.
It’s a remarkable turn. Less than four years ago, amid lofty talk of a “racial reckoning” and an “inflection point” in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder, America’s CEOs were vowing to embrace inclusive hiring, promote minorities and narrow the gender pay gap.Now, after the US Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at the nation’s colleges, the legal assault on corporate diversity initiatives is gathering steam. The right has villainized DEI from Disney World to Harvard University as an engine of left-wing indoctrination and the banks don’t want to become a target for lawsuits claiming reverse discrimination.
It is above all the threat of legal action that will make DEI go away. It’s what led the Supreme Court to ban race-based admissions to college, and it will do the same in the corporate and business sphere.
*Speaking of DEI, a WSJ op-ed column reports on DEI in Israel. What? Well, it turns out that “DEI” there is different from DEI in America: the “E” really stands not for “equity,” but for “equal opportunity”.
The ideology of “diversity, equity and inclusion” is a direct threat to Israel’s existence. That’s what I learned from Jewish and Arab Israelis during my five days in the country in February. They didn’t only say that DEI goes hand in hand with antisemitism, which it does. They also said it sacrifices the merit that has helped Israel survive in a sea of hostility.
I quickly noticed that Israelis talk about DEI differently, most notably by excluding or redefining the E. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is committed to “diversity and inclusion.” Ditto the Israel Institute of Technology, or Technion. Tel Aviv University keeps the E, but instead of equity, it emphasizes “equality and diversity.”
The president of Technion disavowed DEI, telling me that it is an unacceptable answer to the question he asks himself every morning: “Is our work in the interest of Israeli society and Israeli security?”
Instead of lowering standards in pursuit of equity, Technion is reaching out to Arab communities to find more qualified students. Its efforts have increased the number of Arab undergraduate students by about 80%, from 500 in 2020 to more than 900 in 2023, while the dropout rate has decreased.
At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I asked an Arab woman who works as a diversity and equity official how her institution understands the topic. She said her school demands equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. The latter, she said, would pit people against each other, deepening divides that Israel has worked hard to close.
Yes, equal opportunity, by all means, but I still think when two people have equal merit, the scales should be tipped a bit toward the minority candidate.
*The Oscars are tonight (I wrote this early Sunday evening) and I won’t be watching as I’ll no doubt be asleep. All the money is on Oppenheimer, though I’m betting that Lily Gladstone will win Best Actress for “Killer of the Flower Moon.” I’m also betting that at least one moron will use the plaform to make political statements about either Trump or the Hamas/Israel war. More “things you need to know” from the AP:
Who are the favorites?
“Oppenheimer” comes in having won at the producers, directors and actors guilds, making it the clear front-runner for best picture. The film is widely expected to win in a number of other categories, too. Nolan is tipped to win his first best director Oscar, while Robert Downey Jr. (best supporting actor) and Cillian Murphy (best actor) are also predicted to win their first Academy Award. Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) could challenge Murphy.
With the forecasted “Oppenheimer” romp, the night’s biggest drama is in the best actress category. Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) and Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) are nearly even-odds to win. While an Oscar for Stone, who won for her performance “La La Land,” would be her second statuette, an win for Gladstone would make Academy Awards history. No Native American has ever won a competitive Oscar.
While “Barbie” bested (and helped lift) “Oppenheimer” at the box office, it appears likely it will take a back seat to Nolan’s film at the Oscars. Gerwig was notably overlooked for best director, sparking an outcry that some, even Hillary Clinton, said mimicked the patriarchy parodied in the film.
In supporting actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been a lock all season for her performance in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”
What else to look for?
Composer John Williams, 92, is expected to attend the ceremony where he’s nominated for the 49th time for best score, for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ” Meanwhile Godzilla is going to the Oscars for the first time, with “Godzilla Minus One” notching a nomination for best visual effects.
Also for the first time, two non-English language films are up for best picture: the German-language Auschwitz drama “The Zone of Interest” and the French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” “The Zone of Interest” is the heavy favorite to win best international film.
I’m writing this on Sunday evening, so by tomorrow it’ll be all over.
And. . . .the real winners. “Oppenheimer” got Best Picture as well as best actor, best director, and best supporting actor, and I was wrong about the best actress. Oh, and I must see “The Boy and the Heron”.
*Below: a video sent by Tom Gross: “Two clips from the same time yesterday: one of police in the UK, the other of police in Iran. Brave people battling official idiocy.:” I think I’ve shown the first bit before: the British cops arresting, amidst a huge crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the one person holding a sign that says “Hamas is terrorist”. Or, as Gross says, “Pro-Hamas mob chase & threaten to behead Iranian who expresses sympathy with Israeli victims.” The coppers treat that guy pretty roughly! Clearly the guy was “breaching the peace.”
In the second clip, a mullah photographs an unveiled pregnant woman in an Iranian hospital, and threatening to sic the morality police on her. She gets plenty angry! I wish there was a translation! Ceiling Cat bless those “uppity” Iranian women—and he might use his Mighty Paw to bring down the theocracy. The mullah turns tail and runs.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili lauds her view on the state of the world and humanity:
Hili: I’m very much afraid.A: Of what?Hili: That I may be right.
Hili: Bardzo się obawiam.Ja: Czego?Hili: Że mogę mieć rację.
*******************
From Facebook:
From Claudia:
From The Dodo Pet. This squirrel is in a bad way, and I hope the photographer interceded!
From Masih A woman who was in Afghanistan’s parliament for five years (she wouldn’t be in now!) debunks the crazy Western idea that the Taliban has changed:
“Women and girls of Afghanistan are depressed. They’re ready to commit suicide …”
To those who believe that Taliban can be reformed, listen to the women of Afghanistan, who know Taliban better than anyone. We the women of Iran have seen this movie before, we were told that… pic.twitter.com/15RdMLBvro— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 10, 2024
Below: it’s time for Cornell to do something! They keep letting disruptive protestors violate campus regulations.
Pro-Palestinian students at Cornell have been repeatedly violating university policies and disrupting campus spaces since the student assembly voted against their divestment resolution in early February.
This was the reaction of one of the ringleaders the day after: https://t.co/Zxhj0phPIK pic.twitter.com/PL1oPzgfxa
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 6, 2024
From Merilee: a cat with a malleable face:
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) March 4, 2024
From Larry the Cat via reader Simon:
Wishing all Mums in the UK, Ireland and Nigeria a very happy Mother's Day and wishing everyone else a sense of relief when they realise that it isn't Mother's Day where you are so you didn't forget.
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) March 10, 2024
From Malcolm, a smart and lucky driver:
One of the most iconic escapes from a flood
[📹 alfaife.905]pic.twitter.com/icb1F73Pmb
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 4, 2024
From the Auschwitz Memorial: a tweet I reposted:
The phenol injection directly in the heart was a grim way to go, but at least it was quick for this 21 year old nurse. https://t.co/pUp0YGUNTi
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) March 11, 2024
Two tweets from Dr. Cobb, and I hope one of these is true.
w/alt https://t.co/QO5nqJCzSk pic.twitter.com/MLZhZCF43A
— Walking Checkov's Kiss (@WalkingAirQuote) March 10, 2024
And, Matthew says, “Poor kitty!”:
“Fuck THIS” pic.twitter.com/Gi92WnBue0
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) March 9, 2024
“Oppenheimer”
Really – ok, then – I mean, I thought that was a longer time ago.. than..
[ gets more coffee ]
Ahhh … refreshing cup of coffee.
[ re-reads comment ]
I SEE ITALICS EVERYWHERE
Hili, a present-day Cassandra. Let’s hope that, unlike the ancient one, we believe her.
This is interesting – John Williams did NOT win an Oscar! (I mean that with utmost respect – Williams CLEANED UP in his Oscar career and is a legend):
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/ludwig-goransson-wins-best-original-score-2024-oscars-oppenheimer-1235629460/
“Göransson’s Oppenheimer score was up against Laura Karpman (American Fiction), John Williams (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things) and the late Robbie Robertson (Killers of the Flower Moon)”
“Göransson ended his speech by pointing to the balcony and sending a shout-out to his mother and father. “To my parents up there: Thank you for giving me guitars and drum machines instead of video games.” ”
Hallelujah!
So Oppenheimer it is. And with not so many italics this time.
Göransson is an excellent composer, I’m happy he won as I regard the Oppenheimer soundtrack as stupendous. He does a lot of work for Lucas Studios as well- he did the music for The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. I watched a short documentary about him. Talented magician!
And it looks like I caught your italics bug. Must be going around! 😱
It reads so intensely, though!
YES!
This Bloomberg article is a good example of how tendentiously written the mainstream media is nowadays:
Implying that:
(1) The playing field is currently unequal.
(2) DEI is only about levelling it.
(3) Opposition to DEI ideology is “conservative”.
(4) It’s only “White” employees who are opposed.
(5) And then only “pockets” of them.
(6) And only owing to “resentment” (not a justified critique).
… and that’s only from a couple of sentences.
Good example of dialectical political warfare :
Dialectical manipulation of thought from (genuine) critical thinking to intersectionality / identity / subjective epistemology – and especially as it provokes combative reactions – proving the dialectic’s manipulation.
IOW marrying a truth (in subjectivity) to something that the dialectician needs to be true – also known as a lie.
That’s a lotta bias crammed into 25 words and 1 initialism. Good catch.
A quick and dirty search to check the veracity of the Vonnegut quotation in question has pointed me to a supposed interview with the author in the September 1996 issue of Harper’s Magazine. This librarian will get either a physical or a digital copy of this issue to confirm or deny the interview and quotation.
Thanks for running this down, but, regardless of origin, I like it. And as an undergrad of the 60’s who spent a number of his hours with Vonnegut paperbacks, I would like to think that he said it.
Me, too. I’m reminded of the confusion surrounding the famous “Always wear Sunscreen” commencement address by Mary Schmich falsely attributed to Vonnegut. Schmich and Vonnegut became friends as they sorted things out for the public.
Kurt Vonnegut A Man Without A Country ( 2005, Seven Stories Press) pp51 and following
https://imgur.com/a/eueswrX
one link/comment limit https://archive.org/details/kurt-vonnegut-a-man-without-a-country-2005-seven-stories-press-libgen.lc/page/n51/mode/2up
Thanks much, j a!
Or if you want that particular version, i don’t see the show, NOW Hosted by David Brancaccio – October 7, 2005, online except pay sites [pbs link redirects to pbs homepage]
closest is https://www.translatedby.com/you/david-brancaccio-s-interview-with-kurt-vonnegut/original/?page=2
At least that squirrel knows where he put his nuts.
Zone of Interest won best international picture. It’s a really good film, though I wonder – shouldn’t it be branded cultural appropriation since it is a British film about the German / Jewish past?
I don’t believe in the concept of cultural appropriation, but I think the academy does and thus it should abide, shouldn’t it?
I, too, have been reading about the quiet revolution in C-suites to dismantle their DEI bureaucracies, but I didn’t mention it here because I didn’t want to jinx the effort. Now, the secret is out.
Late again today – I’m visiting WEIT reader Dom in Norwich with my sister, who is visiting from Portland, OR.
On this day:
843 – Triumph of Orthodoxy: Empress Theodora II restores the veneration of icons in the Orthodox churches in the Byzantine Empire.
1702 – The Daily Courant, England’s first national daily newspaper, is published for the first time.
1708 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
1845 – Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.
1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.
1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.
1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400 people.
1941 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
1945 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
1946 – Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.
1978 – Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel’s Operation Litani.
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making Gorbachev the USSR’s de facto, and last, head of state.
1990 – Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
2003 – The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
2004 – Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain kill 191 people.
2009 – Winnenden school shooting: Sixteen are killed and 11 are injured before recent graduate Tim Kretschmer shoots and kills himself, leading to tightened weapons restrictions in Germany. [The US is an outlier in refusing to learn lessons from these tragedies.]
2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic.
2021 – US President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law.
Births:
1806 – Louis Boulanger, French Romantic painter, lithographer and illustrator (d. 1867).
1815 – Anna Bochkoltz, German operatic soprano, voice teacher and composer (d. 1879).
1819 – Henry Tate, English businessman and philanthropist, founded Tate & Lyle (d. 1899).
1885 – Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (d. 1948).
1887 – Raoul Walsh, American actor and director (d. 1980).
1898 – Dorothy Gish, American actress (d. 1968).
1916 – Harold Wilson, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995).
1925 – Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American biochemist and academic (d. 1983). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]
1931 – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-American businessman and media magnate.
1936 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 2016).
1950 – Bobby McFerrin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and conductor.
1950 – Jerry Zucker, American director, producer, and screenwriter.
1952 – Douglas Adams, English author and playwright (d. 2001). [There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.]
1953 – Jimmy Iovine, American record producer and businessman, co-founded Beats Electronics.
1955 – Nina Hagen, German singer-songwriter.
1957 – Qasem Soleimani, Former Iranian commander of the Quds Force (d. 2020). [Definitely not a hoopy frood, I suspect.]
1964 – Vinnie Paul, American drummer, songwriter and producer (d. 2018).
1964 – Shane Richie, English actor and singer.
1978 – Didier Drogba, Ivorian footballer.
1993 – Jodie Comer, British actress.
Just like the poles of a magnet, some people are drawn to death and others are repulsed by it, but we all have to deal with it. (James Hetfield):
1937 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American businessman, co-founded Texaco (b. 1860).
1944 – Edgar Zilsel, Austrian historian and philosopher of science, linked to the Vienna Circle (b. 1891).
1952 – Pierre Renoir, French actor and director (b. 1885).
1955 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881).
1960 – Roy Chapman Andrews, American paleontologist and explorer (b. 1884).
1969 – John Wyndham, English author (b. 1903).
1971 – Whitney Young, American activist (b. 1921).
1986 – Sonny Terry, American singer and harmonica player (b. 1911).
2002 – James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918).
2006 – Slobodan Milošević, Serbian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (b. 1941).
2018 – Ken Dodd, English comedian and singer (b. 1927). [Dad was in panto with him when I was born.]
2018 – Mary Rosenblum, American science fiction and mystery author (b. 1952).
Woman of the Day:
[Text from Wikipedia]
Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff (born on this day in 1925, died February 5, 1983) was an American physical chemist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry. She dedicated her career to applying the evolving computational technologies to support advances in biology and medicine, most notably the creation of protein and nucleic acid databases and tools to interrogate the databases. She originated one of the first substitution matrices, point accepted mutations (PAM). The one-letter code used for amino acids was developed by her, reflecting an attempt to reduce the size of the data files used to describe amino acid sequences in an era of punch-card computing.
Her PhD degree was from Columbia University in the department of chemistry, where she devised computational methods to calculate molecular resonance energies of several organic compounds. Her management of her research data was so impressive that she was awarded a Watson Computing Laboratory Fellowship. As part of this award, she received access to “cutting-edge IBM electronic data processing equipment” at the lab.
She did postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) and the University of Maryland, and joined the newly established National Biomedical Research Foundation in 1959. She was the first woman to hold office in the Biophysical Society and the first person to serve as both secretary and eventually president.
Dayhoff died of a heart attack at the age of 57 on February 5, 1983. Less than a week before she died, she submitted a proposal to the Division of Research Resources at NIH for a Protein Identification Resource. After her death, her colleagues worked to make her vision a reality, and the protein database was fully operational by the middle of 1984.
Her seminal contributions as the mother of the science of bioinformatics, now routinely used as part of the process for naming bacteria, were acknowledged with a bacterium being named after her in 2020, Enemella dayhoffiae.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Oakley_Dayhoff
That magnet poles quote has to be up there as one of the worst analogies ever. ??? A better quote might have been “It’s all fun and games ’till someone loses an eye, then it’s just fun you can’t see.” which also doesn’t make much sense unless the someone was one-eyed. Fortunately, he has a day (night?) job.
;o)
Speaking of noodles, I’m seeing a lot less in recent years of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, my favorite deity. I love pasta, so I’m concerned. Are Pastafarians being cancelled?