Tuesday: Hili dialogue

March 12, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Cruelest Day: Tuesday, March 12, 2024. It’s National Milky Way Day, a most excellent candy bar, and best frozen (I have had the UK version, the Mars Bar, deep-fried at a chippie in Edinburgh, and it was quite good, even if fried in the fish oil.) The Day is celebrating the 100th anniversary of US distribution this year, and here’s an old ad claiming the candy bar wouldn’t ruin your appetite for dinner. From Wikipedia:

A widely known advertisement was debuted in 1989, featuring a red 1951 Buick Roadmaster and a vehicle that resembles a blue 1959 Cadillac Series 62 (lacking its dual headlights) racing, with the former eating everything in sight and the latter eating a Milky Way. The advertisement ends with the bridge to Dinnertown being out and the now fat red car being too heavy to jump the gap while the blue car makes the jump. The advertisement returned albeit edited in 2009, removing the claim that the Milky Way is not an appetite spoiler.

 

It’s also Girl Scout Day (the organization was formed on this day in 1912), National Alfred Hitchcock Day (not his birth or death day; reason for date unknown), National Baked Scallops Day, and World Day Against Cyber Censorship.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the March 12 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*During the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, Biden proposes to raise the federal budget by a substantial amount and also raise taxes on corporations on the rich. From the WSJ:

President Biden’s proposed budget would boost federal spending to $7.3 trillion next fiscal year and raise taxes on wealthy people and large corporations, in an attempt to cut the deficit while also lowering the costs of prescription drugs, child care and housing. It is a policy vision that isn’t expected to gain momentum in Congress, but will be a cornerstone of Biden’s re-election campaign.

The fiscal 2025 budget would cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, and it would raise taxes by a net total of $4.9 trillion, or more than 7% above what the U.S. would collect without any policy changes.

Biden proposes spending $895 billion on defense programs in the coming fiscal year, up from an expected $886 billion this year, amid a series of conflagrations around the world, including Russia’s assault on Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza. That increase is one of several that lifts overall outlays by $300 billion from the roughly $6.9 trillion the federal government is set to spend this year.

The largely symbolic document, which sets out spending and revenue plans for a decade, typically kicks off debate with Congress over plans for the next fiscal year. But the divided Congress is still straining to approve funding plans for the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, giving the latest set of proposals even lower odds of becoming law in an election year.

It is symbolic, because to get a budget passed, both the House and Senate have to agree jointly on a final budget, which then goes to the President to sign into law. Given that the Republicans hold the majority in the House, tend to vote as a bloc, and do not like raising taxes on either the rich or corporations, I’d call this proposal dead in the water. But, as the article says, it’s symbolic, meant to show potential voters where Biden’s priorities lie.

*The NYT has its usual “Best and worst moments from the 2024 Oscars“. I’ll just give a couple of these.

Most charmed film: “Oppenheimer”

When “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s hit drama about the man who helped create the atomic bomb, won best picture, the victory capped a huge night for the film: seven Oscars total, including awards for director (Nolan), actor (Cillian Murphy) and supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.).

Released last summer to glowing reviews and a worldwide box-office total nearing $1 billion, “Oppenheimer” was considered the front-runner even before awards season began. Though some presumed favorites can’t sustain their momentum over several months, “Oppenheimer” never faltered, earning top prizes from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, BAFTAs and every major Hollywood guild along the way.

And why shouldn’t it have had a charmed run? When it comes to awards-season voters’ typical tastes, “Oppenheimer” could have been designed in an Oscar-friendly Los Alamos lab: It’s a period drama about a great historical figure, set against the backdrop of World War II, directed by a major Hollywood auteur. The cherry on top is that audiences responded to it, too: It’s now the third-highest-grossing film to win best picture, behind only “Titanic” and “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” — Kyle Buchanan

Most moving choice for a presenter

Kudos to whoever came up with the brilliant idea of having Rita Moreno address America Ferrera (“Barbie”) during the presentation of the best supporting actress nominees. It gave Moreno the opportunity to sing “Ahh-meeeh-riii-ca,” a callback to the veteran Oscar winner’s legendary performance of the song of the same name from “West Side Story” (1961). But it was also a celebration, “from one woman to another,” of the powerful link across generations between two Latin artists who each created cinematic moments that have become cultural touchstones. — Mekado Murphy

Biggest surprise: Emma Stone wins as her dress tears. 

It was the stuff of an Oscar winner’s nightmare. As Emma Stone walked onstage to accept the best actress award for her turn in “Poor Things,” she motioned to the other best actress winners onstage, including her bestie Jennifer Lawrence, to help with her Louis Vuitton gown, which seemed to be ripping. Stone handled it with grace, joking, “Oh, boy. My dress is broken. I think it happened during ‘I’m Just Ken.’” After a speech in which she paid tribute to her director, Yorgos Lanthimos, and other colleagues, she told the crowd, “Don’t look at the back of my dress,” and turned to walk offstage, one hand over the noticeable rip. — Shivani Gonzalez

Best win for a director who’s retired (we think)

The great animator and director Hayao Miyazaki was a ghostly presence at the ceremony, like one of the benevolent spirits he creates for his dazzling stories of grief, adventure and growing up. He and his fellow nominee, the producer Toshio Suzuki, were not there to accept the award for best animated feature for “The Boy and the Heron,” Miyazaki’s fairy tale about a Japanese boy making a journey to the underworld to reconcile himself to the wartime loss of his mother. Miyazaki won the same award in 2003 for “Spirited Away” and announced his retirement 10 years later; now 83, he has announced his retirement again, saying “The Boy and the Heron” will be his last movie. It would be particularly greedy to wish that he changes his mind once more, but here’s hoping. — Mike Hale

I must see “The Boy and the Heron”. I loved “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro.”

*Somehow the virtue-flaunters of Hollywood can’t bear to not flaunt their virtue at the Oscars, and that was indeed the case.  A lot of it, of course, was to call for a permanent cease-fire, which is pretty equivalent to calling for Israel to disappear. From the WaPo:

Others foregrounded politics more urgently, wearing a pin showing their support for Artists4Ceasefire, an organization that authored a letter imploring President Biden for a permanent halt to the war in Gaza. More than 380 actors, directors and other entertainers have signed the letter, and guests including Ramy Youssef and Billie Eilish wore the pin on their lapels.

From CNN:

There was little mention of politics at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, but there were multiple calls for global peace.

Upon winning the Academy Award for best international feature for the Auschwitz-set drama “The Zone of Interest,” filmmaker Jonathan Glazer said in his acceptance speech, “Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst.”

Shortly after, Glazer made reference to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, saying, “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”

“Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?” he asked.

. . .The drive for peace was also present in certain fashion choices among guests at the Oscars on Sunday, with stars including Billie Eilish, Finneas, Mahershala Ali, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay and Ramy Youssef and others all wearing symbolic red pins.

In a press statement, Artists4Ceasefire said: “The pin symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.”

In truth, I don’t want any politics in the Oscars, regardless of the position taken, but it’s impossible to prevent it. The Oscars should profess institutional neutrality, as I believe Ricky Gervais admonished the Golden Globes audience (go to 6:59 below):

*This seems to be a big story, but only because it involves the British Royals. Apparently a photo of the Princess of Wales and her kids was released by Buckingham palace and had been altered by Princess Catherine herself. (You’ll recall that she recently had abdominal surgery of an unspecified nature.) The alterations from the Post are shown below:

 Catherine, Princess of Wales, said she altered an official photo and expressed her “apologies for any confusion” that may have been caused after it was retracted by global news agencies over concerns it had been doctored.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Catherine said in a post on Monday morning. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day,” she wrote in a message posted on Kensington Palace’s social media account. It was signed, “C,” for Catherine.

The photo of Catherine was published Sunday morning. She was shown sitting on a chair, surrounded by her three smiling children. It seemed like an attempt to reassure Britons and quell wild rumors and conspiracy theories that have surrounded the princess since she stepped back from public duties following abdominal surgery.

It did not have that effect.

Global news agencies — including Reuters, Getty Images, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press — asked their clients Sunday evening to withdraw the image, with some citing a problem with the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve and wrist. Others on social media flagged what they said were oddities, like the positioning of Prince Louis’s hands and the zipper on Catherine’s jacket. [Note also the girl’s disappearing hair.]

Hours earlier, Kensington Palace released the photo of Catherine, the first official royal photograph of the princess since her surgery. Prince William and Catherine often release photos of their family on major occasions, such as Christmas or their children’s birthdays. Often it is Catherine, a keen photographer, behind the camera.

The palace said that William took the photo earlier in the week at their home in Windsor. The press release accompanying the photo asked that news outlets not alter the image “in any manner or form,” but it did not mention that the image had already been altered.

Here’s the photo with the WaPo’s caption (it’s hard for me to see obvious alterations). At least there were no alterations to make the Princess of Wales look healthier, as that would be worrying.

(from WaPoand Agence France-Presse): An Agence France-Presse collage highlights inconsistencies in the photo of Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, with her children, released by Kensington Palace on Sunday. (Prince of Wales/Kensington Palace/AFP via Getty Images)

*Laurie sent a link reporting that beavers have made their way into the Arctic. This is, of course, because of global warming.

When Cyrus Harris first saw a beaver during a camping trip in the tundra territory in the far northwest of Alaska in 1988, the discovery created a stir in his hometown of Kotzebue.

“That made big news then,” he said. He and his companions removed the beaver, which was near Cape Krusenstern just north of the Bering Strait, above the Arctic Circle and, until recently, far north of the Alaska tree line. When they heard about the beaver, Harris said, local Inupiat elders issued a warning that more would appear: “They’re coming, and that’s what’s going to be happening.”

The presence of beavers in the Arctic landscape around Kotzebue is no longer news. The beaver population, previously not an Arctic feature, has exploded in that region – and quickly transformed the landscape.

In a 100-square-kilometer area near Kotzebue — just under 40 square miles — the number of beaver dams jumped from two in 2002 to 98 in 2019, according to UAF research presented at the beginning of the three-day workshop. The workshop was part of a National Science Foundation-funded program called the Arctic Beaver Observation Network, or A-BON. On a wider area of the Baldwin Peninsula, the number went from 94 in 2010 to 409 in 2019. Across a wider area of Arctic Northwest Alaska, their presence went from nothing in the 1950s, as shown in aerial photos, to more than 11,300 beaver ponds identified through satellite imagery by 2019, according to the UAF scientists. The presence of beaver ponds in that region more than doubled between 2004 and 2017, the scientists found.

Satellite images that have tracked beaver expansion over time clearly show not just the number of dams but their drastic impacts, said Ken Tape, the UAF ecology professor who is leading the A-BON program. He pointed to one site as an example. “It basically changes from a little stream into a sprawling wetlands,” he said.

The proliferation of beavers is attributed to the northward spread of woody plants that they eat and use for their dams and lodges.

While climate change has enabled beavers to live farther north, the animals are exacerbating the effects of Arctic climate change. Through their dam and lodge engineering, they are inundating some areas with water, speeding up permafrost thaw. Elsewhere, they are drying out areas.

We’re going to have to get used to this happening. Animals will move north and south into areas previously barred them by low temperature, and cold-weather denizens, like penguins and polar bears, will go extinct. The only blessing is that I won’t be around here to see it happen.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is snuffling around:

Hili: I will have a look to see what’s there.
A: Where?
Hili: Under these leaves.

In Polish:
Hili: Zaraz zobaczę co tam jest.
Ja: Gdzie?
Hili: Pod tymi liśćmi.
And Szaron, the World’s Most Affectionate Cat:

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

From The Dodo Pet:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Jesus of the Day. Nice, but a bag o’ fries would be even better!

From Masih, another brave Iranian woman stands up to a cleric who demands that she wear a hijab. Where do these guys get off, anyway? (And you can ask that question literally here!):

 

From Luana, who says that this guy beats Claudine (Gay)!

From Barry, who adds this:

What on this godless earth could explain this? Why don’t evolutionary “forces” come into play?
“Ah,” the egret would think. “A dying fish. Easy prey.” But no. The Egret saves the fish. Crazy.
It’s hard for me to believe that the egret wasn’t trying to eat it!

From Malcolm: size comparisons of dinosaurs (along with a human for scale). Note that it’s 8 minutes long, and the ones at the end are HUGE!

Two animal posts from my feed. First, a jealous moggy:

. . . and a majestic leopard:

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a long-haired French boy gassed upon arrival; only four years old:

Two tweets from Doctor Cobb. First, a lovely fly (did I post this already?).

Matthew says about the next one that his cats would never do this. But some cats, like this one, love the vacuum cleaner. Maybe it’s a genetic polymorphism!

36 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

    1. Ah, reptilians are impressive enough and sufficiently dino-adjacent to be included.

      The bigger trouble is that the authors took a bit much as truth from the Jurassic Park franchise, like the fictional execrably “hybrid” Indominus rex. They also stuck with the gratuitous frill on their Dilophophosaurus, as memorably featured in the first movie, though they did present it at its much bigger actual size.

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      1. Looks like their velociraptor was also cribbed from Jurassic Park. Considerably larger than real known specimens.

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          1. Here’s an image from wikipedia showing velociraptor / human size comparison based on actual remains.
            Size of Velociraptor (2) compared with other dromaeosaurs

            In the video the velociraptor is depicted to be about mid-arm height on the human. In the linked picture the velociraptor is shown to come to just above the knee of the human figure.

            And here’s a picture with a velociraptor from the movie Fallen Kingdom next to a human.
            Chris Pratt, actor of Owen Grady, with a statue of Blue at the Japanese premier of Fallen Kingdom

            The movie one is about shoulder high on Pratt. The video one is much bigger than reality and the movie one is, in turn, much bigger than the video one.

      2. Very nice video! Regardless of details, for me, a casual observer, can you reader experts tell me: 1. Are the min and max sizes shown over the entire range of species generally correct?; 2. are the marine species shown about correct in number and size?; 3. are the airborne species shown about the correct size, number, and placement? Thanks!

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  3. On this day:
    1158 – German city Munich (München) is first mentioned as forum apud Munichen in the Augsburg arbitration by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I.

    1912 – The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.

    1913 – The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra.

    1918 – Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713.

    1928 – In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.

    1930 – Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.

    1933 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his “fireside chats”.

    1938 – Anschluss: German troops occupy and absorb Austria.

    1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.

    1950 – The Llandow air disaster kills 80 people when the aircraft they are travelling in crashes near Sigingstone, Wales. At the time this was the world’s deadliest air disaster.

    1989 – Sir Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web.

    1993 – North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.

    1999 – Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.

    2003 – The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

    2004 – The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly: the first such impeachment in the nation’s history.

    2009 – Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street’s history.

    2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

    2019 – In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes.

    2020 – The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Births:
    1710 – Thomas Arne, English composer (d. 1778). [His death was listed here a week ago. He composed “Rule, Britannia!” and “A-Hunting We Will Go”.]

    1784 – William Buckland, English geologist and paleontologist; Dean of Westminster (d. 1856).

    1832 – Charles Boycott, English farmer and agent (d. 1897). [His ostracism by his local community in Ireland gave the English language the term boycott.]

    1835 – Simon Newcomb, Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician (d. 1909).

    1863 – Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italian soldier, journalist, poet, and playwright (d. 1938).

    1864 – W. H. R. Rivers, English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist, and psychiatrist (d. 1922).

    1864 – Alice Tegnér, Swedish organist, composer, and educator (d. 1943).

    1896 – Jesse Fuller, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1976). [An American one-man band musician, best known for his song “San Francisco Bay Blues”. Bob Dylan picked up his technique of playing the harmonica by using a neck-brace from Fuller.]

    1904 – Lyudmila Keldysh, Russian mathematician (d. 1976).

    1907 – Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer and academic (d. 2007). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    1908 – Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d. 1970). [Alongside Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, she is regarded as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art.]

    1913 – Agathe von Trapp, Hungarian-American singer and author (d. 2010). [She was portrayed as the character “Liesl” in the 1959 musical play and 1965 film The Sound of Music.]

    1917 – Leonard Chess, American record company executive, co-founder of Chess Records (d. 1969).

    1917 – Googie Withers, Indian-Australian actress (d. 2011).

    1918 – Elaine de Kooning, American painter and academic (d. 1989).

    1922 – Jack Kerouac, American author and poet (d. 1969).

    1923 – Mae Young, American wrestler (d. 2014). [Considered one of the pioneers in women’s wrestling as she helped to increase the popularity of the sport throughout the 1940s and during World War II.]

    1925 – Harry Harrison, American author and illustrator (d. 2012). [His 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! was the rough basis for the 1973 motion picture Soylent Green.]

    1927 – Emmett Leith, American professor of electrical engineering and co-inventor of three-dimensional holography (d. 2005).

    1928 – Edward Albee, American director and playwright (d. 2016).

    1934 – Francisco J. Ayala, Spanish-American evolutionary biologist and philosopher (d. 2023). [His student and colleague John Avise, who posts bird photos here each Sunday, wrote a moving Memoriam last year that was published here at WEIT.]

    1938 – Ron Tutt, American drummer (d. 2021). [Played concerts and recording sessions for Elvis Presley, the Carpenters, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, and Jerry Garcia.]

    1940 – Al Jarreau, American singer (d. 2017).

    1946 – Liza Minnelli, American actress, singer and dancer.

    1947 – Mitt Romney, American businessman and politician, 70th Governor of Massachusetts.

    1948 – James Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1954 – Anish Kapoor, Indian-English sculptor.

    1956 – Steve Harris, English bass player and songwriter.

    1956 – Lesley Manville, English actress.

    1968 – Tammy Duckworth, Thai-American colonel, pilot, and politician.

    1969 – Graham Coxon, English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1970 – Dave Eggers, American author and screenwriter.

    1979 – Pete Doherty, English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist.

    She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it. (Margaret Sanger):
    1916 – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian author (b. 1830). [Noted for her psychological novels, she is regarded as one of the most important German-language writers of the latter portion of the 19th century.]

    1942 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862). [He uniquely shared a Nobel Prize with his son, Lawrence Bragg – the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics: “for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”.]

    1954 – Marianne Weber, German sociologist and suffragist (b. 1870).

    1955 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1920).

    1991 – Ragnar Granit, Finnish-Swedish neuroscientist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900). [Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 along with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald “for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye”.]

    1999 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-Swiss violinist and conductor (b. 1916).

    2001 – Robert Ludlum, American author (b. 1927).

    2015 – Terry Pratchett, English journalist, author, and screenwriter (b. 1948).

    Reply

    1. Woman of the Day:
      [Text from Wikipedia]

      Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit (born on this day in 1907, died April 9, 2007) was an American senior research astronomer at Yale University. She is best known for her work in variable stars, astrometry, spectroscopy, meteors, and the Bright Star Catalog. She is also known for her mentorship of many young women and generations of astronomers.

      Hoffleit’s interest in astronomy began with the 1919 Perseid meteor shower that she saw with her mother. In 1928, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in mathematics. She then went on to work for the Harvard College Observatory, searching for variable stars. In 1938, she was awarded a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College and was subsequently hired, in 1948, as an astronomer at Harvard University. She remained at Harvard until 1956 when she moved to Yale University. She remained at Yale until retirement in 1975.

      At Yale she followed in the footsteps of Ida Barney, taking over her astrometric work, and of whom she later wrote “To know [her] was a pleasure, inspiration, and privilege, both at work and socially.” Hoffleit also served as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket Island from 1957 to 1978, where she ran summer programs (May–October) for more than 100 students, many of whom went on to successful careers in astronomy. In her final years at Yale, Hoffleit taught basic courses in astronomy to undergraduates. Her passionate lectures in Davies Hall, usually with over 100 students, inspired and awed them. She engendered a lifelong interest in astronomy for young women and men, many of whom were just satisfying a prerequisite to their undergraduate degrees.

      During the mid 1950s, Hoffleit consulted for the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratories in “Doppler reductions”.

      She was the main editor of the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. The Catalogue is a compendium of information on the 9,110 brightest stars in the sky. She also co-authored The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallaxes, containing precise distance measurements to 8,112 stars, information critical to understanding the kinematics of the Milky Way galaxy and the evolution of the solar neighborhood. With Harlan J. Smith, Hoffleit discovered the optical variability of the first-discovered quasar 3C 273.

      In 1988, Hoffleit was awarded the George Van Biesbroeck Prize by the American Astronomical Society for a lifetime of service to astronomy. On March 7-8, 1997, Yale University hosted a symposium in honor of Hoffleit’s 90th birthday, dedicated to her nearly 70-year career.

      Hoffleit turned 100 on March 12, 2007, and died a month later from complications of cancer.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorrit_Hoffleit

      Reply

  4. It’s National Milky Way Day, a most excellent candy bar, […] I have had the UK version, the Mars Bar
    The different names of equivalent chocolate bars drove my sister mad when she first moved to the US a couple of decades ago. IIRC, to get what we in the UK call a Milky Way bar you have to ask for a 3 Musketeers.

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  5. The most obvious bit of Photoshop in that royal portrait is Charlotte’s sleeve. You can see the very end of it where it goes around her wrist, then it disappears.

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  6. The Guardian had a team of 20 specialists go over the altered photograph. Apparently they have exactly zero specialists checking the fake casualty count coming out of Gaza.

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    2. I know. Priorities, right?
      Well… gotta push that genocide narrative with a side dish of “Waaaaasism”… for the middle class female alcoholic neurotics who read and write The Guardtrash.

      Reply

  8. 60+ years as a dinosaur fan—got my first dinosaur books written by Roy Chapman Andrews when I was in first grade—and I’ve never seen anything remotely as good as the above-referenced video. Not all of those creatures were dinosaurs, mind you, but I’m OK with that. Kids of all ages will go nuts seeing that video!

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    1. Smaller but anatomically similar relatives. Which got me to the edge of my chair to watch for the *real* Tricerotops, the icon of all Ceratopsians. And then. And then. There he was!

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    2. And pachycephalosaurus – if you believe that dracorex and stygimoloch are just immature pachycephalosaurs.

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  11. I thought the pastor was fake, but it seems like this chap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagee

    Don’t know if the Tweet is genuine; but if it is, maybe he claims that the Gospels were written (or the stories passed on) by eye witnesses 🙂

    According to Wikipedia, he thinks the that the anti-Christ will be homosexual and partly Jewish. I wonder if he can narrow it down some more.

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  12. “In truth, I don’t want any politics in the Oscars, regardless of the position taken, but it’s impossible to prevent it. The Oscars should profess institutional neutrality …”

    This reminds me of a friendship lost. My (former) friend of 30+ years — a hands-on modeler and subsequent digital modeler in the movie industry — had always professed a dislike for “politics.” He is a cultural Jew who nevertheless likes to partake in Judaic rituals with his family. Every so often I would nudge him about some political news, especially if it had something to do with religion. Though we’re both atheists, he is a passive one, while I am more active. (Until recently my wife and I had hosted an atheist Meetup group for eleven years.)

    In my last email exchange with my friend I asked, “What would you have done if you had lived in Germany during the 1930s?” (I was born in Germany.) He was quite incensed by my question, though it wasn’t my intent to rile him. I was actually curious. In his reply to me he ended an unusually caustic diatribe with a re-emphasis — “I don’t care about politics!”

    Since I didn’t have time to reply properly then, I simply wrote back with one word — “Sigh.” I had intended to write more later, but he preempted me by subsequently removing me from all further correspondence. It’s been a couple years and we haven’t communicated since.

    Why should the Oscars be devoid of politics? After all, the subject of movies is often specifically about politics. (Having some Ukrainian heritage, I was particularly glad that “20 Days in Mariupol” won for best feature documentary.) Why shouldn’t actors or directors take advantage of their brief but very public appearance to highlight a political perspective that has some special meaning for them?

    Sorry for the long story, but in these times I have difficulty understanding the desire to be politics-free in public situations. I know that movies are often liked because they can temporarily distract people from uncomfortable realities. But movies — like many books and much art — often serve the important function of making people actually see those uncomfortable realities. And saying something political at an awards ceremony like the Oscars isn’t like stopping traffic on a bridge or obstructing a building. And the Academy is not a university. So what’s the problem?

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    1. True, and some documentaries are indeed very useful, Jon.

      The rest of the Oscars/Academy etc shows are millionaires giving other narcissists awards for playing pretend time.

      I used to be invited to (and go!) to Oscar Parties here in Manhattan. Maybe I was younger then and had little else going on? Might meet a girl?

      But otherwise… at least it keeps people away from church.
      Like a lot of intellectuals I used to have a pretty harsh contempt for sports, awards, Hollywood and other flippant interests. Then maybe 20 years ago I thought “Well if they weren’t doing that they might be in church/temple/mosque… and they’re not, so that might be a win.”
      D.A.
      NYC

      Reply

      1. “The rest of the Oscars/Academy etc shows are millionaires giving other narcissists awards for playing pretend time.”

        I often cringe at the excess, which reminds me of scenes from “The Hunger Games.” But it seems there are lots of talented and sincere people, too, who just like to tell a story — something humans have been doing for a long time.

        But I wouldn’t know if the profession distracts people from religion. I’d be curious to know if there was (were?) any data about that. “Pretending” does seem to be a large part of believing in supernatural myths.

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    2. Well said and I agree. I was also pleased that “20 Days in Mariupol” won. Sorry to hear about your loss of that friendship, sounds like a thin-skinned person. I would think a question to a Jew: “What would you have done if you lived in Germany during the 1930’s?” is “above politics.” For Jews, it was a time of existential threat, not some political disturbance. I have a similar reaction when I hear Trump supporters say to Trump-detesters: “don’t let politics ruin your X.” X being a friendship, your mental health, relationship, spouse, family member. At this point, I don’t see Trump/Trumpism/MAGA as merely “political.” We’re in a whole different realm with him and his cult. He wants to turn America into some sort of Theocratic-plutocracy with him at the TOP. (If anyone doubts that, start getting educated about the Christian Nationalism movement, The Family, and the Heritage Foundation’s 900+ page Project 2025.) That reaches a hair raising level of alarm that is above politics.

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      1. Thank you, Mark. I would add that “politics” isn’t just about politicians and existential threats. On the most basic level, it’s also about ordinary people negotiating their life experiences in both formal and informal groups. I think people who say that they don’t care about “politics” are missing the essence of the word. Of course, some of those people also just don’t want to — or are unable to — face reality.

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    3. I’m with Ricky Gervais on this one. With very few exceptions, the audience at the Oscars hasn’t a clue about life in the real world and if ever there were an echo chamber, they’re seated in it.

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      1. There’s no one quite like Ricky Gervais, and there’s a lot of truth to his droll shock tactics.

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  13. Wasn’t Rev. Hagee the “Wide Stance” guy? Who in public toilets happened to nudge neighboring feet…. for some reason?

    I might be wrong. It is difficult keeping up with the scandals of the morally upright fairy tale believers.

    Remember when “the Faith Community” was the main opposition and we didn’t have to cover our left flank from the equally idiotic woke? We could whip out “Dover vs Delaware” as our pocket knife of choice?

    Good times.

    D.A.
    NYC

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  15. I think the egret was doing the equivalent of closing an open fridge door to keep the food fresh for later. That could be a behaviour developed through evolution, but one that would take, I should think, a long time!

    Reply

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