Thursday: Hili dialogue

March 14, 2024 • 7:00 am

Welcome to Thursday, March 14, 2024, and National Pi Day (3/14 in American notation: the first three digits of pi). You’re supposed to make a pie with a π theme to it, like this beauty:

“Pi Day Pie” by sonstroem is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit here.

It’s also Learn About Butterflies Day (tomorrow we’ll have a science post about a new finding in lepidopterans), National Potato Chip Day, World Kidney Day (mkgnao!), National Reuben Sandwich Day, Popcorn Lovers Day, Moth-er Day (appreciate moths), National Save a Spider Day, Mother Tongue Day inEstonia,  Summer Day in Albania), and, in Japan and other Asian countries, White Day, on which men give gifts to women; complementary to Valentine’s Day 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 14 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT reports that there’s a big cock-up in the dispensation of federal funds for college students, and that’s messed up this year’s admissions season.

There were just days left to process a batch of federal financial aid applications when Education Department officials made a fateful discovery: 70,000 emails from students all over the country, containing reams of essential data.

They were sitting in an inbox, untouched.

That discovery last week started a panicked, three-day crash effort by more than 200 of the department’s employees, including Richard Cordray, the nation’s top student aid official, to read through each of the emails one by one and extract crucial identifying information required for financial aid. The students’ futures depended on it.

“It needs to get untangled,” Mr. Cordray told his staff members on Thursday, according to recordings of two back-to-back meetings that The New York Times obtained. “So, you know, I’m getting pretty impatient.”

It was another setback in the botched rollout of a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, that millions of families and thousands of schools rely on to determine how students will pay for college. Three years ago, Congress ordered the Education Department to revamp the new form to make it easier and more accessible. It has been anything but.

For nearly six months, students and schools navigated a bureaucratic mess caused by severe delays in launching the website and processing critical information. A series of blunders by the department — from a haphazard rollout to technical meltdowns — have left students and schools in limbo and plunged the most critical stage of the college admissions season into disarray.

What this means is that students have no idea what kind of financial aid they’ll get: crucial information in choosing a school. And they have to decide May 1—the normal date for committing yourself to attend a college. But even before that, the government has to send the information to the schools who THEN can tender their full offers. I’m sure Trump would blame this all on “crooked Joe Biden.”

*A judge in Georgia dismissed six charges in the state’s case against Donald Trump and others for election interference, but never fear: the case will go on. After all, there are 35 other charges (against the group, not Trump himself). There were 13 charges against Trump himself, and three of those were dropped, so he still faces ten counts of felony.

A Georgia judge dismissed three of the 13 charges against former president Donald Trump and some of the charges against his allies in the sweeping election inference case, but declined to dismiss the entire indictment.

In a nine-page order issued Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the 41 counts in the indictment against Trump and his allies, who are accused of conspiring to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. All of the dismissed charges are related to pressure that Trump or five of his co-defendants allegedly put on state officials to change the results.

“As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” McAfee wrote.

The judge added: “This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed.” McAfee pointedly declined a defense request challenging the overt acts tied to charges — meaning they are still part of the overall indictment. Prosecutors can still present evidence related to the dropped charges as they argue that Trump and his allies criminally conspired to try to overturn the election.

The six counts — which also implicate former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump campaign attorneys Robert Cheeley, John Eastman and Ray Smith — were related to an alleged pressure campaign against elected officials, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), members of the Georgia Senate and then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R), to undo Trump’s loss in the state.

Before they dropped the three charges, Forbes added up all the time Trump could face if he was convicted:

76.5. That’s how many years Trump could be sentenced to in prison, if he was convicted of every count against him and sentenced to the maximum amount of time in prison (which is unlikely).

All the charges were felony charges, and Trump still faces serious jail time on the remaining 10 charges. I’ve heard the phone call where he begged the GA secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes.”.  LOCK HIM UP!  To wit:

*Many countries that stopped contributing to  the UN relief organization UNRWA after finding out that it was not only closely affiliated with Hamas, but that several of its members participated in the October 7 massacre, eventually resumed their contributions. But the Jerusalem Post reports that the U.S., which gives UNRWA a big part of its budget, is considering making its defunding permanent. (h/t Norm).

US officials are preparing for a pause on funding the main UN agency for Palestinians to become permanent due to opposition in Congress, even as the Biden administration insists the aid group’s humanitarian work is indispensable.

The United States, along with more than a dozen countries, suspended its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in January after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The UN has launched an investigation into the allegations, and UNRWA fired some staff after Israel provided the agency with information on the allegations.

The United States—UNRWA’s largest donor, providing $300-$400 million annually—said it wants to see the results of that inquiry and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.

Even if the pause is lifted, only about $300,000 – what is left of already appropriated funds – would be released to UNRWA. Anything further would require congressional approval.

The United States should not give DIME ONE to UNRWA; it was and remains corrupt and, in fact, shouldn’t exist. It’s the only country-specific refugee organization run by the UN, and there’s a better one that can do what UNrWA does.  I’m not sure why “the Biden administration insists the aid group’s humanitarian work is indispensable,” as although aid may be indispensable, aid can be funneled through organizations not full of terrorists and liars.

*Well, I didn’t think this would happen, but the U.S., Congress has taken the first step in banning Tik Tok in this country: the ban passed the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. I suspect that, given the margin of victory and the bipartisan support, the Senate may well pass it, too, and Biden won’t have much choice but to pass it. (Remember, he promised bipartisan legislation, and he’s already said he’d sign the ban if it came to his desk).

The House voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill on Wednesday that would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. or force a sale, with lawmakers largely shrugging off a last-minute lobbying push by the Chinese-controlled service and setting the stage for a final showdown in the Senate, where lawmakers have been cooler on the legislation.

The measure passed the House 352 to 65, with one member voting present, showing broad bipartisan support for cracking down on TikTok over national-security concerns.

The short-video app has faced scrutiny over the way its algorithm works to select content for users, both on sensitive issues such as teen depression as well as on global debates such as the Israel-Hamas war.  U.S. officials say TikTok’s ownership potentially gives Beijing a way to collect data on Americans and influence public opinion, driving years of efforts to crack down on the app and culminating in the new legislation.

Opponents of the bill said the government shouldn’t ban businesses and raised free-speech concerns. They also said TikTok has taken steps to address concerns about its ownership, including ensuring all U.S. user data is stored in an cloud, not overseas, and that fears about the service are overblown.

“It’s a ban based on zero evidence,” said TikTok spokeswoman Jodi Seth. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact” of the House proposal on users.

Well, I don’t use the app, so I don’t much care, but I suppose those that do are invested in this battle. Sadly, it’s too late.  I’m not sure how well we can be sure that China can’t get user’s information or, using that be an “influencer”, but since they started sending spy balloons over the U.S., I dont trust ’em.

*NBC News reports that a rescued fox cob at the Richmond Wildlife Center is being reared by carers wearing a fox mask.

A wildlife center has developed a way of stopping an abandoned newborn red fox from becoming too used to humans: By feeding it wearing a fox mask.

The Richmond Wildlife Center in Richmond, Virginia, shared a video of the center’s founder, Melissa Stanley, feeding milk to the tiny female kit — the term for a juvenile fox — while wearing the mask in an attempt to prevent imprinting, where animals form a strong bond shortly after birth with the first other animal it receives care from.

“It’s important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans,” the center said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

“To prevent that, we minimize human sounds, create visual barriers, reduce handling, reduce multiple transfers amongst different facilities, and wear masks for the species,” the update said.

The tiny fox, weighing just 80 grams (2.8 oz), was discovered by Richmond SPCA and handed over to the center on Feb. 29. Rescuers at first thought it was a cat, but soon realized it was a neonatal fox kit, with its eyes still shut and with its teeth yet to appear.

. . . The center said it would attempt to reunited the kit with its mother.

Good luck, little fox! Here’s an AP video of the feeding, complete with a noisy cub:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Malgorzata explains today’s dialogue: “Andrzej lacks words for describing some new outrageous lie about Israel in a Polish newspaper. Hili, having only one word (meow) at her disposal dismisses his complaint.”

Hili: You said that you lack words.
A: So what?
Hili: So what am I to say?
In Polish
Hili: Powiedziałeś, że brak ci słów.
Ja: I co z tego?
Hili: A co ja mam powiedzieć?

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

From BuzzFeed:

From the Dodo Pet:

From Robert Hawkins via America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy:

From Masih, what looks like a decorated (undoubtedly made by Iranian authorities). Google translation:

You axed me It didn’t hurt, it sprouted  The photo that #الهام_مدرسی published on his Instagram We have such fighters..#woman_life_freedom

Good news:

I love Fetterman; our positions agree on nearly everything:

From Muffy, a smart tortoise that knows what to do:

From Malcolm: a swimmer greeted by an otter (I don’t understand what they’re saying):

From the Auschwitz Memorial. At 49, this woman was most likely gassed upon arrival:

Two tweets from Doctor Cobb. The first shows that Jesus isn’t omnipotent:

Is this a sugar glider?

29 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

    1. Close but not quite–it’s a bushbaby (Genus Galago). Much cuter than tarsiers.

        1. I believe that they urinate on their feet to gain traction when climbing, but other than that…

          1. They mark their PATH with urine according to the iNaturalist page. Bunch of interesting info about them on that page.

  3. Why do Palestinians have their own refugee organization, solely dedicated to their people, when no other group of people has similar representation within the UN?

    I don’t think any sane or humane person wants to deprive the Palestinians of humanitarian aid, particularly to the children of Gaza who are innocent of Hamas’s crimes, but that aid has to actually reach them, and it can’t be allowed to be appropriated by Hamas to serve its military purposes. That would defeat the purpose of the aid. Unfortunately, that’s what UNRWA seems purpose-built to do—divert aid from the women and children of Gaza to Hamas.

  4. On this day:
    1663 – According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion.

    1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.

    1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.

    1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London.

    1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.

    1903 – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.

    1931 – Alam Ara, India’s first talking film, is released.

    1942 – Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead.

    1943 – The Holocaust: The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed.

    1961 – A USAF B-52 bomber crashes near Yuba City, California whilst carrying nuclear weapons.

    1964 – Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.

    1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.

    1982 – The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.

    1995 – Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.

    2006 – Operation Bringing Home the Goods: Israeli troops raid an American-supervised Palestinian prison in Jericho to capture six Palestinian prisoners, including PFLP chief Ahmad Sa’adat.

    2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet.

    2017 – A naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance.

    Births:
    1804 – Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1849).

    1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, American dentist and educator (d. 1910). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    1836 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (d. 1865).

    1854 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1915).

    1854 – John Lane, English publisher, co-founded The Bodley Head (d. 1925).

    1863 – Casey Jones, American engineer (d. 1900).

    1868 – Emily Murphy, Canadian jurist, author, and activist (d. 1933).

    1874 – Anton Philips, Dutch businessman, co-founded Philips Electronics (d. 1951).

    1879 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955).

    1887 – Sylvia Beach, American-French bookseller and publisher, who founded Shakespeare and Company (d. 1962).

    1914 – Bill Owen, English actor and songwriter (d. 1999). [Played the role of Compo in The Last of the Summer Wine.]

    1918 – Zoia Horn, American librarian (d. 2014). [The first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience. She was jailed for nearly three weeks for contempt of court after refusing to testify for the prosecution in the 1972 conspiracy trial of the “Harrisburg Seven” anti-war activists.]

    1920 – Hank Ketcham, American author and cartoonist, created Dennis the Menace (d. 2001).

    1923 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971).

    1933 – Michael Caine, English actor.

    1933 – Quincy Jones, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer.

    1934 – Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017). [The last man to walk on the Moon, for now…]

    1938 – Eleanor Bron, English actress and screenwriter.

    1942 – Rita Tushingham, English actress.

    1945 – Jasper Carrott, English comedian, actor, and game show host.

    1948 – Billy Crystal, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.

    1951 – Jerry Greenfield, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Ben & Jerry’s.

    1961 – Mike Lazaridis, Greek–Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded BlackBerry Limited.

    1986 – Jamie Bell, English actor.

    1997 – Simone Biles, American gymnast.

    From the death of the old the new proceeds, and the life of truth from the death of creeds. (John Greenleaf Whittier):
    1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher and theorist (b. 1818).

    1932 – George Eastman, American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (b. 1854).

    1976 – Busby Berkeley, American director and choreographer (b. 1895).

    1995 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911).

    1997 – Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (b. 1907). [Won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations.]

    2014 – Tony Benn, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1925). [An ex-girlfriend rented the house next door to Tony’s son Hilary and we often saw Tony playing football in the garden with the grandchildren before Sunday lunch. I’m 99% sure he had his pipe firmly in place!]

    2016 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor.

    2018 – Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality (b. 1937).

    2018 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (b. 1942).

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

      Lucy Hobbs Taylor (born on this day in 1833, died October 3, 1910) was an American dentist, known for being the first woman in the world to graduate from dental school (Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1866).

      Lucy Beaman Hobbs was born on March 14, 1833, in Constable, New York. She was seventh out of ten children total. When she was 12 she obtained a job as a seamstress to support her siblings. Hobbs subsequently attended school and eventually graduated from Franklin Academy in New York and began teaching for ten years in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati and applied to medical school at Eclectic Medical College. Hobbs was denied entrance because of her gender, but she was able to study privately under the supervision of a teacher from Eclectic. Subsequently, Hobbs applied to the Ohio College of Dentistry. When she was refused admission to dental school, she began a private program of study with a professor, Jonathan Taft, from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. Hobbs applied once more to the dentistry program, but was again rejected. As a response, she opened up her own practice, allowing her to practice dentistry without having to obtain a diploma.

      After studying dentistry, she started her own practice in Cincinnati in 1861. She soon moved to Bellevue and then McGregor, Iowa, where she spent three years. In 1865, she finally gained professional recognition and was allowed to join the Iowa State Dental Society, and was sent as a delegate to the American Dental Association convention in Chicago. That November, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery as a senior, where on February 21, 1866, she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from a dental college, and to receive a doctorate in dentistry. She later wrote, “People were amazed when they learned that a young girl had so far forgotten her womanhood as to want to study dentistry.”

      Hobbs next moved to Chicago, where she met James M. Taylor, whom she married in April 1867. Taylor then convinced her husband to also enter dentistry. The two then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they had a large and successful practice until he died in 1886. After her husband’s death, she ceased to be an active dentist, but became more active in politics, campaigning for greater women’s rights, until her own death on October 3, 1910. In her time as a dentist, Lucy Hobbs Taylor opened up brand new doors to many women in the future, especially in the medical field. She believed that her journey was complete by “making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men.”

      By 1900, almost one thousand women had followed Lucy Taylor into dentistry, an increase many attribute largely to her accomplishments. In 1983, the American Association of Women Dentists (AAWD) honored Taylor by establishing the Lucy Hobbs Taylor Award, which it now presents annually to AAWD members in recognition of professional excellence and achievements in advancing the role of women in dentistry.

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

    2. Sir Humphrey: …the thin end of the wedge…Bennite solution! Where will it end? The abolition of the monarchy? (Yes Minister, Doing the Honours, p233)

      According to the editor, the word ‘wedge’ probably reminded Humphrey of Benn 🙂

  5. Thomas Massie pointed out earlier this week that the bill is not just a TikTok ban, but includes the authority to ban websites that are “foreign controlled.” In whose estimation? The people behind the Russian hoax? Another power grab by the security state.

    1. +1

      Massie (paraphrase) : the cure to this disease is worse than the disease.

      He also noted some weird eyeball-glazing provisions for e.g. travel in the bill.

      But no matter :

      And so the dialectic continues.

  6. The problem with forcing a sale of TikTok is who would buy it? Obvious candidates would be Google, Facebook, Amazon or Apple, but they are already way too powerful and monopolistic as it is.

  7. The video clip with the little tortoise and cat is great. The cat pauses for a moment with an expression on its face as if it’s thinking, “What the heck, man? If that thing can speed up like that, I wonder what’s going on with some of the other critters around here”.

  9. Lawyer Glenn Kirschner explains the technicality on which 3 charges were dismissed; the prosecution can refile those once amended:
    (Youtube video from Brian TylerCohen at the Legal Breakdown)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cxr-0bvqJ4

    Also, on the Meidastouch network, there are knowledgeable legal experts, such as Kirschner, Michael Popok, J. Michael former judge J. Michael Luttig (a Conservative) who explain aspects of the legal system, the Constitution, and the cases against Trump.

    1. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention three more excellent explainers of legalese to lay people like me:
      Lawyers Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Harry Litman and Ben Meiselas.

  10. Regarding the TikTok issue, apparently a major motivation for going after them is a new Chinese National Intelligence law that requires “[a]ll organizations and citizens [to] support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”
    Also, China requires all Chinese companies to maintain backdoors in their systems to provide government access.

    I don’t know enough to decide whether or not I think the legislation against TikTok is a good idea, or not. But I do think it is a serious issue that the US, heck all nations, should attempt to address in some way in order to protect themselves and their citizens from Chinese espionage efforts.

  12. Senator Fetterman is correct. The U.S. should continue to support Israel without condition. There is no other morally or strategically correct position to have. My mother, a Pennsylvania resident, voted for him.

    Such a cute baby fox, but the mother? Oh what a scary face you have!

    And the cat face, when chased by the speedy turtle: Whaaaat!

  13. The chelonian on the little skateboard looks like a Reeves’ terrapin (Mauremys reevesii) to me – not a tortoise, but a pond turtle.

  14. I posted the following on the previous Starship launch page before I saw this Pi Day page. But it probably fits better here. I hope you don’t mind, Jerry. (Please advise if I’ve transgressed.)

    • • • 

    I wonder if Elon Musk made a conscious choice to launch on Pi Day (π). After watching the launch I happened to make my first-ever edit of a Wikipedia page — about the symbol for Omega (Ω) — realizing only afterward that today was associated with another Greek symbol. Fun coincidence.

    My edit on Wikipedia was an addition to the many listed uses for the Omega symbol, including reference to a relevant article. See “Other” at this link:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega

    “A symbol used by U.S. citizens in the 1960s & 1970s to denote resistance to the U.S. war in Viet Nam. Adapted from the SI unit for electrical resistance.[9]”

    (After a modest search I was even able to find the pin-button for Ω that I had sometimes worn back in the day.)

  15. An election has multiple reported flaws that mean the results may not be accurate.

    The person with whom the buck stops for assuring fair elections calls the man refusing to investigate the electoral anomalies, and, as part of that call, makes it clear that investigating all of them wouldn’t even be necessary; finding enough to prove that the initially announced result was invalid would suffice.

    Isn’t that was a President is meant to do? Ask people to do their job and assure a fair election?

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