Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to Sunday, April 7, 2024, and National Coffee Cake Day. Though I’d prefer a huge, gooey cinnamon roll, coffeecake will do. Here’s an applesauce version:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 7 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Israel has recovered the body of a 47-year-old hostage who was apparently murdered by Hamas. I presume there was evidence of a shooting or beating. This is why Hamas won’t give an account of the terrorists, and how is Israel supposed to negotiate under such conditions?
Israeli commandos recovered the body of hostage Elad Katzir, held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces and his family said Saturday, months after he was shown alive in two propaganda videos by the terror group.
The IDF said that according to its intelligence, Katzir, 47, was “murdered in captivity by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.”
The operation to retrieve the body was carried out by the Commando Brigade, following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet security agency and the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.
“Following an identification procedure carried out overnight by medical officials at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, IDF and Shin Bet representatives informed the family of the late Elad Katzir about the recovery of his body,” the military said.
Thousands of Israelis were expected to join with families of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for protests that will mark six months since the captives were abducted to Gaza during the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
Demonstrators were set to gather at Begin Street outside the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling on the government to reach a deal to secure the release of the 134 people who remain in Hamas captivity. In contrast to previous weeks, there was no major gathering planned for nearby Hostages Square, although a prayer and song session was scheduled there for 9.30 p.m.
In addition to the hostage protest, a separate demonstration calling for early elections was scheduled for 7.30 p.m. at the Kaplan junction in Tel Aviv — where months of major protests were held before October 7 against the government’s judicial overhaul efforts.
Numerous other protests were planned across the country, including one outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the seaside town of Caesarea.
The past week has seen an increasing convergence between the protests of the families and the mass anti-government demonstrations that were a weekly event in the months before October 7. Some of the families are accusing Netanyahu of blocking a deal for political reasons.
I’m no fan of Netanyahu, but I don’t think he deserves the blame for the hostages remaining in captivity, which is after all a decision made by the war cabinet. But even they don’t deserve the blame. HAMAS deserves the blame, because they could turn the hostages over tomorrow. Instead, they’re killing them or letting them die. The only way the Israeli government can get the hostages back is to not only leave Gaza completely but also release every single Palestinian terrorist in Israeli jails (I believe there are about 9,000). And of course that provides more incentive for Hamas to kidnap Israelis. As for dumping Bibi now, I think they need to wait until the war is over to hold elections. It’s never good, I think, to change regimes in the middle of a war, and I don’t know of a candidate that could run the war better than the War Cabinet is doing now.
→ Welcome to Medical School, You Colonizing, Capitalist Demons: UCLA’s medical school has been updating how they train their doctors. The great Washington Free Beacon obtainedaudio of a new mandatory session for students, and I swear to god this is real. The speaker was Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, who wore a keffiyeh across her entire face during this. She made the medical students get on their knees, put their hands on the floor, and pray as she chanted: “The crapitalist lie of scarcity, of private property, of money and ownership of Mama Earth—when Mama Earth was never meant to be bought or sold, pimped or played.” She called medicine “white science.” She made everyone chant “Free Palestine.” Of course she is white. Yes, she is a slam poet.
The darkest part, though, from the Free Beacon story, is this one: “When one student remained seated, according to students in the class, a UCLA administrator, whom the Free Beacon could not identify, inquired about the student’s identity, implying that discipline could be on the table.” Sounds good, love this for my future PCP. Can’t wait till I have to get Lasik from someone whose entire education was chanting with their fists on the floor.
→ Stop questioning trans participation in sports: America’s leading women’s rights group of yesteryear is still arguing that it’s white supremacy to maintain girls’ sports. Here’s NOW, the National Organization of Women: “Repeat after us: Weaponizing womanhood against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work. Making people believe there isn’t enough space for trans women in sports is white supremacist patriarchy at work.” Yes, it’s white supremacist patriarchy to argue. . . that someone who’s gone through male puberty might have an unfair advantage in, let’s say, rugby. Interesting. Fascinating. I will repeat until I am clean.
.→ So weird that the cease-fire people are also calling to bomb Tel Aviv: That’s the latest from the streets of New York. I’ll tell you something controversial: I am pro–cease-fire. That sounds so nice. I like peace. It’s very odd, though, because the supposedly “cease-fire” movement leaders want Hamas to stay in power and Hamas’s entire goal is to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews in the Middle East, so I don’t know. This war is hell, but it doesn’t seem very cease-firey to drop bombs on Tel Aviv?
Also in New York, a group of protesters chased a woman who attended a local Biden fundraiser. As she tried to get away, they screamed that she was a “fucking murderous kike.” (Imagine the wall-to-wall coverage if these protesters were right-wing white supremacists.) Another group of protesters blocked the road in Teaneck, New Jersey, a heavily Jewish suburb, and then protested at a local synagogue that was hosting an Israeli search-and-rescue team.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Harris, a celebrated author and an editor at The New Inquiry, had this to say about swastikas drawn on synagogues.
For some reason I thought it would take longer to get here, to this moment, when a hip writer is arguing that swastikas on Jewish buildings are cool now—and the response from his community is celebration. Hell yeah! If you’re not drawing swastikas on Jewish buildings, are you even condemning genocide, bro?
I tried to find this tweet on Malcolm Harris‘s Twitter feed and apparently he deleted it because “he didn’t want to give the whole thing more attention.” See announcement below. His explanation is dumb because this is from a guy who tweets a gazillion times a day, showing that he doesn’t have enough to do. Voilà:
I deleted that tweet because I don't want to give the whole thing more attention. If you think I'm playing games or being contrarian you don't know me at all. https://t.co/ID6FnoVvP1
Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, was the hot thing in corporate America a few years ago. Now: not so much.
Why it matters: The business community, long averse to political risks or controversies, backed away from DEI programs over the past two years in the wake of widespread attacks from lawmakers, high-profile rich guys and conservative activists like former Trump aide Stephen Miller.
The big picture: Companies that never cared much about DEI, or that fear lawsuits over programs, are using the moment to back away. Others are sticking with these efforts but doing it quietly.
Between the lines: Somebusiness leaders are increasingly reluctant to speak publicly about the subject, but behind the scenes they’re fed up with DEI, Johnny Taylor, president of the Society for Human Resource Management said in a January interview with Axios.
“The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before,” he says. “CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong” since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 pushed businesses into action.
Flashback: After George Floyd, the chief diversity officer role “was the hottest position in America,” says Kevin Clayton, senior vice president, head of social impact and equity for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Companies were hiring for these positions “out of guilt,” he says, noting that in 2020 he was pursued by more than a dozen employers.
But some CEOs are feeling like they didn’t hire well for these roles, bringing on people with civil rights backgrounds instead of more corporate expertise, says Taylor, of SHRM.
. . . .State of play: Some businesses are cutting back funding, trimming DEI staff — and even considering pulling back on things like employee resource groups comprised of workers of various races, ethnicities or interests.
And some are changing programs designed to support women and people of color because of lawsuits — many have been filed over these programs, more than 20 by Miller’s America First Legal. And other companies worry about litigation. . . .
. . .The bottom line: Companies started caring about diversity a lot more after a flurry of lawsuits — with employees alleging race and sex discrimination — in the 1990s and early 2000s, as this Harvard Business Review piece explains.
Now a new kind of litigation risk is sending them in the other direction.
And here’s a chart documenting the decline:
Things seem to filter up from college, not down from corporations, so I’m not sure this plot gives us any hope.
*Andrew Sullivan is slowly moving into the ranks of the critics of Israel, and this saddens me. Here’s an extract from his latest Substack piece, “Bomb first, ask questions later.”
The Israelis did not merely fall into the trap Hamas laid; they jumped into it headfirst, and unleashed a war of terrifying devastation on a largely defenseless population, in which Hamas was embedded. Israel did this totally understandably — given the horror of Hamas’ murder, rape, and torture of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of 240 more. Israel had always been willing to conduct warfare against Hamas in which Palestinian deaths were overwhelmingly greater than Israeli deaths — because Hamas gave them little choice. But this time, understandably, incandescent rage was an added twist.
That’s precisely when you don’t go to war: when your emotions are in hyper-drive. But if you do go to war in such an emotionally fraught moment, when every reservist and IDF soldier is understandably filled with shock and anger, you have to be extra-extra-careful to lay out and enforce clear rules of warfare. You have to over-emphasize the need for restraint, the vital importance of distinguishing between terrorists and bystanders, if you aren’t going to blunder into self-defeating war crimes — as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the torture sites set up by Bush and Cheney.
. . .The destruction of the WCK food convoy this week has to be seen in this “bomb first, ask questions later” context. I first assumed it was the kind of mistake that happens during war and at night. But we now know it’s more damning than that. Haaretz reports the IDF suspected a Hamas terrorist was in a truck that was originally part of the WCK convoy. The NYT says they mistook his bag for a gun. After a stop at a warehouse, three cars left, clearly marked, in a deconfliction zone. Here’s what happened next, according to Haaretz:
The cars traveled along a route pre-approved and coordinated with the IDF. … Some of the passengers were seen leaving the car after it was hit and switching to one of the other two cars. They continued to drive and even notified the people responsible that they were attacked, but, seconds later, another missile hit their car. The third car in the convoy approached, and the passengers began to transfer to it the wounded who had survived the second strike — in order to get them out of danger. But then a third missile struck them. All seven World Central Kitchen volunteers were killed in the strike.
One was an American citizen. To hit one car is a misfortune; to destroy three cars consecutively on a pre-approved route, not so much. The cars were clearly marked and in a deconfliction zone — but the IDF policy is to target anywhere Hamas could be present, even if some civilians were killed. As we’ll see, one dead Hamas member and seven dead civilians was well within the margin of error Israel had set for itself. So it appears they methodically took out each car to make sure they finished the job.
No, I don’t believe that Israel deliberately murdered the aid workers; but I do think that, in context, the IDF’s effective rules of engagement — strike places like hospitals and schools because Hamas is there, even though there will be many civilian casualties — made this kind of indifference to human life possible. So much other evidence points to a free-for-all in Gaza: the trigger-happy IDF has even killed Israeli hostages; and this wasn’t even the first IDF attack on a WCK vehicle. Just last Saturday,
This comes after the second bloody destruction of the Al Shifa Hospital. It comes after Israel has largely abandoned the north of Gaza to lawlessness, violence, and looting. It comes after Israel violated international norms, if not the law precisely, by attacking a foreign embassy in Damascus where Iranians were plotting (proof of the IDF’s capacity for surgical precision in bombing, so strikingly absent in Gaza).
First of all the strikes took place in the dark; the signs atop the vehicles were not visible. Second, there was a reason to think that Hamas might have been in the cars (listen below). In fact, they weren’t, and the failure to realize that led to this terrible mistake. It was a tragic result of miscommunication. Here’s Admiral Hagari’s admission and explanation of the mistake, which he said “should have been prevented.” You have to at least admire the IDF for apologizing and explaining their error. That won’t bring the dead back, of course, but what other army in the world (and they all kill people with “friendly fire”) will own up to their failures, fire the people who committed them, and learn from them.
"This is a tragedy. It was a terrible chain of errors and it should never have happened. The IDF takes full responsibility for this regrettable loss of life."
Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari’s full statement regarding the summary of the Fact Finding and Assessment… pic.twitter.com/ngeFVZJIiV
As for the “bloody destruction of the Al Shifa hospital”, Hamas reoccupied the hospital and the IDF did what it could to avoid killing civilians (indeed, not an single noncombatant was killed). Sitting in his comfortable armchair, I don’t think Sullivan understands that this is one mistake in a war in which Hamas had made much larger mistakes. It’s armchair general-ling.
*The world’s oldest man is apparently a 111-old Brit named John Alfred Tinniswood. And of course when you reach that age, they always ask you for the secret of your longevity. And the answer is always something like “Do what I did.” So here are Tinniswood’s secret sto longevity:
The world’s oldest man says the secret to his long life is luck, moderation — and fish and chips every Friday.
Englishman John Alfred Tinniswood, 111, has been confirmed as the new holder of the title by Guinness World Records. It follows the death of the Venezuelan record-holder, Juan Vicente Pérez, this month at the age of 114. Gisaburo Sonobe from Japan, who was next longest-lived, died March 31 at 112.
Tinniswood was presented with a certificate by Guinness World Records on Thursday at the care home where he lives in Southport, northwest England.
Born in Liverpool on Aug. 26, 1912, a few months after the sinking of the Titanic, Tinniswood lived through two world wars, serving in the British Army Pay Corps in World War II.
The retired accountant and great-grandfather said moderation was key to a healthy life. He never smokes, rarely drinks and follows no special diet, apart from a fish and chip supper once a week.
“If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much — if you do too much of anything — you’re going to suffer eventually,” Tinniswood told Guinness World Records.
But ultimately, he said, “it’s pure luck. You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it.”
And the oldest woman? (They always outstrip men, of course; that’s evolution.)
The world’s oldest woman, and oldest living person, is 117-year-old Maria Branyas Morera of Spain.
Well a fish supper with chips (and preferably mushy peas and a good pint) sounds to me like an excellent recipe for longevity. It sure beats Brussels sprouts!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has a scratch and a think. As Malgorzata explained, “Andrzej respects Hili’s wisdom and he himself has no idea how to put an end to all wars.”
A: Do you have any idea how to end wars?
Hili: I will think about it
In Polish:
Ja: Czy masz jakiś pomysł na zakończenie wojen?
Hili: Pomyślę o tym.
And a photo of Baby Kulka and Szaron on opposites sides of the window. Kulka wants to come in.
*******************
From Bruce, undoubtedly a Photoshop but still good:
Coleman Hughes, his usual composed self, tells the truth about the war between Israel and Hamas:
#WATCH: @coldxman took Joe Rogan to school on his podcast, dispelling all of the anti-Israel lies that Rogan frequently promotes on his podcast. pic.twitter.com/qXlB8Zk6eK
From Simon; my Glock-packing gal Lauren is getting into trouble again. First she’s photographed canoodling in a movie theater with her boo, and now she overdoes it with the hootch. The CNN story says this:
Throughout the night, Boebert also kept attempting to snap selfies with Trump, who was sitting at the same table as her. Eventually, Trump’s security detail stepped in and asked Boebert to stop, according to the witnesses, who attended the event and saw the interaction take place.
Lauren Boebert, Deemed 'Overserved,' Cut Off from Alcohol at GOP Gala
"At the December soiree, which was the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala, multiple witnesses saw a server tell Boebert they would not bring her any more alcohol, with one witness telling CNN the… pic.twitter.com/s3D0aMWxzh
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) April 5, 2024
And from Gad Saad with his usual snarkiness. Note that there are NO BIOLOGISTS in the debate, though Alex Byrne knows his onions.
This debate is taking place in the 21st century at @MIT. I warned you for many years but you did not listen…
Upcoming debates in this series include the following topics: 1) Does the sun exist? 2) Is gravity a real thing? 3) Can men get pregnant? 4) Will the evolutionary of… pic.twitter.com/MoHQNZYO9X
This is a bit exaggerated as some of the dosh goes to improve diet and lifestyle. However, a lot goes to supernatural and useless “cures” as well. Biden is, as I said, much woker than I imagined him to be. He’s where the buck stops on stuff like this:
NEW: Biden's Health Department Allocates $422K To Treat Diabetes With Native American 'Healing Circles'@SaysSimonson reports: https://t.co/xmtyyjrYlj
From Barry. I hope the lights going on and off don’t bother the birds:
A bird made its nest inside a traffic signal.
Traffic lights are often chosen by birds because of the warmth given off from the light, as chicks need supplementary warmth until they are fully feathered. pic.twitter.com/HGkk2ccwJ8
Two tweets from the estimable Dr. Cobb. The first tweeter, an author, likes to report snippets of conversations she’s heard:
Little girl on the train: Uncle Mallory died. Her mum: Yes. Little girl: So he won't feel anything now. Her mum: No. Little girl: Which is good because the insects will be eating his eyes.
I was sickened when I read Nellie Bowles’ TGIF yesterday. Medical students are simple and unsophisticated souls who have done nothing to deserve such treatment. Let them be, and allow them to do the one thing we need them to do: look after sick people. It’s been 48 years since I started at medical school, and every activist doctor I have seen has been less effective at caring and healing for his or her patients because of the activist preoccupations.
Thank you Christopher. It is hard for me to believe that MD-credentialed medical school deans buy into this crap…but then I see organizations like “America’s Frontline Doctors” and realize anything (not prohibited by the laws of physics) is possible.
Given my experience in watching her moderate and participate in several panel discussions, I am surprised that Nadine Strossen would moderate a panel debate of this title that does not include a science subject matter expert such as a biologist: first, let us define our terms! Your mention of Alex Byrne prompted me to look up his cv. He has done research and taught at MIT for a quarter center in the areas of philosophy of mind and epistemology. With an increasing number, authority, and overhead burden assumed by non-teaching administrators in our universities, will such a career continue to be on offer in the future?
Sorry: obviously I meant quarter century above, not quarter center! I really need an editor in my retirement. Though I might blame AI for its unsolicited help on this one. As I have said in this space before: lots of A, not so much I.
Alex Byrne is married to Carole Hooven and shares her view that humans can’t change sex. Holly Lawford-Smith is a critic of queer theory and genderwang. I hope both can be expected to argue that sex is binary.
Yes, Holly Lawford-Smith will be able to eloquently defend sex and reality. The way that she has been treated in Australia, not least by students and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, has been awful.
Well doneThyroid! I once read a buzzword-dense response to an USAF RFP (1990’s) that claimed “major cost reductions will be realized through synergistic applications of individual technologies employing innovative configurations”.
Damn you, Jim!!! Of all the made-up or misused or overused words still lodged in my brain from my military days, “synergistic” might trigger me more than any of them. I hoped never to see it again. Thank you for that!
I am thinking of the family of Elad Katzir, murdered in Gaza. Many of the hostages have probably suffered similar fates. I fear for them all.
I’m so glad that my doctor was trained when doctors studied actual medicine. What will I do when he retires? Will I have no choice but to visit a healing circle? My only hope is that the decline of DEI will exceed the pace of my own decline, and sanity will be restored.
Finally, thanks to that giant worm, I’m never going to a beach again without wearing thick-soled shoes. That thing could pull me under!
On this day:
451 – Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.
529 – First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
1141 – Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title “Lady of the English”.
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1795 – The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass.
1805 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
1824 – The Mechanics’ Institution is established in Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to three Universities in the city: the University of Manchester, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU).
1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1927 – AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
1933 – Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.)
1933 – Nazi Germany issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts.
1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
1943 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.
1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference.
1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
1968 – Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim.
1969 – The Internet’s symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.
1976 – Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death.
1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1988 – Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
2001 – NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.
2003 – Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime falls two days later.
2011 – The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.
2022 – Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.
Births:
1506 – Francis Xavier, Spanish missionary and saint, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1552).
1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian bassist and composer (d. 1846).
1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850).
1803 – Flora Tristan, French author and activist (d. 1844).
1860 – Will Keith Kellogg, American businessman, founded the Kellogg Company (d. 1951).
1889 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957). [She was the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945, “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”. Her image is featured on the 5,000 Chilean peso banknote.]
1890 – Victoria Ocampo. Argentine writer (d. 1979). [Nominated for the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature.]
1890 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American journalist and activist (d. 1998). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]
1891 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish businessman, founded the Lego Group (d. 1958).
1915 – Billie Holiday, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 1959).
1920 – Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer (d. 2012).
1928 – James Garner, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2014).
1928 – Alan J. Pakula, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1998).
1930 – Andrew Sachs, German-English actor and screenwriter (d. 2016).
1934 – Ian Richardson, Scottish-English actor (d. 2007). [The urn containing his ashes was placed in the foundation of the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford during renovations in 2008. By coincidence, I was at the theatre yesterday hence the very late posting of the lists below yesterday’s Hili.]
1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, American director, producer, and screenwriter.
1939 – David Frost, English journalist and game show host (d. 2013).
1941 – Peter Fluck, English puppet maker and illustrator.
1945 – Marilyn Friedman, American philosopher and academic.
1945 – Martyn Lewis, Welsh journalist and author.
1948 – John Oates, American singer-songwriter guitarist, and producer.
1951 – Janis Ian, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1954 – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong martial artist, actor, stuntman, director, producer, and screenwriter.
1960 – Sandy Powell, English costume designer. [She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design fifteen times, winning three awards for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004), and The Young Victoria (2009).]
1965 – Alison Lapper, English painter and photographer.
1972 – Tim Peake, British astronaut.
1985 – Humza Yousaf, Scottish politician. [The First Minister of Scotland, who faces a host of problems – most of them self-inflicted by his Scottish National Party (SNP).]
Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies (Rick Riordan):
AD 30 – Jesus Christ (possible date of the crucifixion (b. circa 4 BC). [LOL! I can’t believe that Wikipedia included this one!]
1614 – El Greco, Greek-Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1541).
1739 – Dick Turpin, English criminal (b. 1705).
1761 – Thomas Bayes, English minister and mathematician (b. 1701). [He never published what would become his most famous accomplishment; his notes were edited and published posthumously by Richard Price.]
1779 – Martha Ray, English singer (b.1746).
1836 – William Godwin, English journalist and author (b. 1756). [He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. His first wife, feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, died as a result of septicaemia caused by post-partum infection 11 days after giving birth to their daughter, later known as Mary Shelley.]
1885 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (b. 1804). [He was responsible for the introduction of the taxa Arthropoda and Rhizopoda, and for defining the taxon Protozoa specifically for single-celled organisms.]
1891 – P. T. Barnum, American businessman and politician, co-founded The Barnum & Bailey Circus (b. 1810).
1938 – Suzanne Valadon, French painter (b. 1865). [The first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.]
1947 – Henry Ford, American engineer and businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (b. 1863).
1968 – Edwin Baker, Canadian co-founder of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) (b. 1893).
1994 – Lee Brilleaux, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952).
2007 – Johnny Hart, American author and illustrator (b. 1931).
2013 – Andy Johns, English-American record producer (b. 1950). [He worked on several Led Zeppelin albums, starting with Led Zepp II, as well as albums by the Rolling Stones and many others, including Eric Clapton. He and Clapton became brothers-in-law when Eric married Pattie Boyd, as Andy was married to one of her sisters. Andy’s older brother Glyn was an even more prolific and prestigious record producer, incredibly!]
2014 – V. K. Murthy, Indian cinematographer (b. 1923).
2020 – John Prine, American country folk singer-songwriter (b. 1946). [Four years already? *Sigh*]
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (born on this day in 1890, died May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women’s suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was “a relentless reporter and fearless crusader” for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname “Grande Dame of the Everglades” as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into several halls of fame.
Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, “In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas.”
The Wikipedia article has far more detail about her life than I can include here.
How tragic that we mostly know Marjory Stoneman Douglas as the name of the Parkland, Florida high school where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 classmates on Valentine’s day, 2018.
And as an American, same confession from me. Thanks for her bio.
The new “DEI” is going to take a form like this :
socialimpact.com/bridge/
“BRIDGE stands for Benchmarking Race, Inclusion, and Diversity in Global Engagement. BRIDGE is an institutional survey that explores diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) metrics, structures, and practices at the organizational level across US-registered organizations in the international development and humanitarian sector. […]”
Coleman Hughes expresses my sentiments completely. Good to know that Rogan, who I think is nearly always on the side of the brainless, is anti-Israel, too.
Eclipses are a sign from god that we’re being naughty? Really? I always thought that they are “divine” entertainment. A gorgeous spectacle of nature. But now I understand that they are supposed to make me afraid, very afraid. What century is Greene living in?
Of course it’s just cynical foolishness, but undoubtedly there are some blinkered idiots who actually believe her nonsense.
I was reading an interview with the unjustly cancelled Woody Allen (https://archive.is/n9E1A) and came across this zinger:
“Someone asked me about cancel culture, and I said, ‘If you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture that you want to be canceled from.’ Because who wants to be part of this culture?”
“Repeat after us” . . . said every dictator, ever.
I was sickened when I read Nellie Bowles’ TGIF yesterday. Medical students are simple and unsophisticated souls who have done nothing to deserve such treatment. Let them be, and allow them to do the one thing we need them to do: look after sick people. It’s been 48 years since I started at medical school, and every activist doctor I have seen has been less effective at caring and healing for his or her patients because of the activist preoccupations.
Thank you Christopher. It is hard for me to believe that MD-credentialed medical school deans buy into this crap…but then I see organizations like “America’s Frontline Doctors” and realize anything (not prohibited by the laws of physics) is possible.
Given my experience in watching her moderate and participate in several panel discussions, I am surprised that Nadine Strossen would moderate a panel debate of this title that does not include a science subject matter expert such as a biologist: first, let us define our terms! Your mention of Alex Byrne prompted me to look up his cv. He has done research and taught at MIT for a quarter center in the areas of philosophy of mind and epistemology. With an increasing number, authority, and overhead burden assumed by non-teaching administrators in our universities, will such a career continue to be on offer in the future?
Sorry: obviously I meant quarter century above, not quarter center! I really need an editor in my retirement. Though I might blame AI for its unsolicited help on this one. As I have said in this space before: lots of A, not so much I.
Alex Byrne is married to Carole Hooven and shares her view that humans can’t change sex. Holly Lawford-Smith is a critic of queer theory and genderwang. I hope both can be expected to argue that sex is binary.
Yes, Holly Lawford-Smith will be able to eloquently defend sex and reality. The way that she has been treated in Australia, not least by students and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, has been awful.
There’s an interview with her here: https://www.feministcurrent.com/2021/05/05/no-conflict-they-said-an-interview-with-holly-lawford-smith/
The group NOW says:
“Weaponizing womanhood against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work.”
->Iron Law of Woke Projection->
“Inverting morality against females is trans supremacist infiltration of the female hegemony.”
Ah, OK, I get it … NOW…
Get it? NOW? I get it NOW!
Well doneThyroid! I once read a buzzword-dense response to an USAF RFP (1990’s) that claimed “major cost reductions will be realized through synergistic applications of individual technologies employing innovative configurations”.
[ deep bow ]
I imagine TPS reports were issued as a follow-up to the SAITs in ICs.
Damn you, Jim!!! Of all the made-up or misused or overused words still lodged in my brain from my military days, “synergistic” might trigger me more than any of them. I hoped never to see it again. Thank you for that!
I am thinking of the family of Elad Katzir, murdered in Gaza. Many of the hostages have probably suffered similar fates. I fear for them all.
I’m so glad that my doctor was trained when doctors studied actual medicine. What will I do when he retires? Will I have no choice but to visit a healing circle? My only hope is that the decline of DEI will exceed the pace of my own decline, and sanity will be restored.
Finally, thanks to that giant worm, I’m never going to a beach again without wearing thick-soled shoes. That thing could pull me under!
Those worms don’t bite you and it takes real skill to catch them. They are really shy and escape so easily. They make the best fishing bait.
Relax you would be fine on the beach
On this day:
451 – Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.
529 – First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
1141 – Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title “Lady of the English”.
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1795 – The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass.
1805 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
1824 – The Mechanics’ Institution is established in Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to three Universities in the city: the University of Manchester, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU).
1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1927 – AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
1933 – Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.)
1933 – Nazi Germany issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts.
1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
1943 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.
1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference.
1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
1968 – Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim.
1969 – The Internet’s symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.
1976 – Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death.
1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1988 – Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
2001 – NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.
2003 – Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime falls two days later.
2011 – The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.
2022 – Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.
Births:
1506 – Francis Xavier, Spanish missionary and saint, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1552).
1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian bassist and composer (d. 1846).
1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850).
1803 – Flora Tristan, French author and activist (d. 1844).
1860 – Will Keith Kellogg, American businessman, founded the Kellogg Company (d. 1951).
1889 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957). [She was the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945, “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”. Her image is featured on the 5,000 Chilean peso banknote.]
1890 – Victoria Ocampo. Argentine writer (d. 1979). [Nominated for the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature.]
1890 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American journalist and activist (d. 1998). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]
1891 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish businessman, founded the Lego Group (d. 1958).
1915 – Billie Holiday, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 1959).
1920 – Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer (d. 2012).
1928 – James Garner, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2014).
1928 – Alan J. Pakula, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1998).
1930 – Andrew Sachs, German-English actor and screenwriter (d. 2016).
1934 – Ian Richardson, Scottish-English actor (d. 2007). [The urn containing his ashes was placed in the foundation of the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford during renovations in 2008. By coincidence, I was at the theatre yesterday hence the very late posting of the lists below yesterday’s Hili.]
1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, American director, producer, and screenwriter.
1939 – David Frost, English journalist and game show host (d. 2013).
1941 – Peter Fluck, English puppet maker and illustrator.
1945 – Marilyn Friedman, American philosopher and academic.
1945 – Martyn Lewis, Welsh journalist and author.
1948 – John Oates, American singer-songwriter guitarist, and producer.
1951 – Janis Ian, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1954 – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong martial artist, actor, stuntman, director, producer, and screenwriter.
1960 – Sandy Powell, English costume designer. [She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design fifteen times, winning three awards for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004), and The Young Victoria (2009).]
1965 – Alison Lapper, English painter and photographer.
1972 – Tim Peake, British astronaut.
1985 – Humza Yousaf, Scottish politician. [The First Minister of Scotland, who faces a host of problems – most of them self-inflicted by his Scottish National Party (SNP).]
Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies (Rick Riordan):
AD 30 – Jesus Christ (possible date of the crucifixion (b. circa 4 BC). [LOL! I can’t believe that Wikipedia included this one!]
1614 – El Greco, Greek-Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1541).
1739 – Dick Turpin, English criminal (b. 1705).
1761 – Thomas Bayes, English minister and mathematician (b. 1701). [He never published what would become his most famous accomplishment; his notes were edited and published posthumously by Richard Price.]
1779 – Martha Ray, English singer (b.1746).
1836 – William Godwin, English journalist and author (b. 1756). [He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. His first wife, feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, died as a result of septicaemia caused by post-partum infection 11 days after giving birth to their daughter, later known as Mary Shelley.]
1885 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (b. 1804). [He was responsible for the introduction of the taxa Arthropoda and Rhizopoda, and for defining the taxon Protozoa specifically for single-celled organisms.]
1891 – P. T. Barnum, American businessman and politician, co-founded The Barnum & Bailey Circus (b. 1810).
1938 – Suzanne Valadon, French painter (b. 1865). [The first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.]
1947 – Henry Ford, American engineer and businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (b. 1863).
1968 – Edwin Baker, Canadian co-founder of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) (b. 1893).
1994 – Lee Brilleaux, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952).
2007 – Johnny Hart, American author and illustrator (b. 1931).
2013 – Andy Johns, English-American record producer (b. 1950). [He worked on several Led Zeppelin albums, starting with Led Zepp II, as well as albums by the Rolling Stones and many others, including Eric Clapton. He and Clapton became brothers-in-law when Eric married Pattie Boyd, as Andy was married to one of her sisters. Andy’s older brother Glyn was an even more prolific and prestigious record producer, incredibly!]
2014 – V. K. Murthy, Indian cinematographer (b. 1923).
2020 – John Prine, American country folk singer-songwriter (b. 1946). [Four years already? *Sigh*]
Woman of the Day:
[Text from Wikipedia]
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (born on this day in 1890, died May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women’s suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was “a relentless reporter and fearless crusader” for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname “Grande Dame of the Everglades” as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into several halls of fame.
Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, “In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas.”
The Wikipedia article has far more detail about her life than I can include here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas
How tragic that we mostly know Marjory Stoneman Douglas as the name of the Parkland, Florida high school where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 classmates on Valentine’s day, 2018.
Yes, I have to confess that, as a Brit, I knew nothing else about her until today other than the atrocity committed at a school named in her honour.
And as an American, same confession from me. Thanks for her bio.
The new “DEI” is going to take a form like this :
socialimpact.com/bridge/
“BRIDGE stands for Benchmarking Race, Inclusion, and Diversity in Global Engagement. BRIDGE is an institutional survey that explores diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) metrics, structures, and practices at the organizational level across US-registered organizations in the international development and humanitarian sector. […]”
Coleman Hughes expresses my sentiments completely. Good to know that Rogan, who I think is nearly always on the side of the brainless, is anti-Israel, too.
And Crikey to that Australonuphis.
Eclipses are a sign from god that we’re being naughty? Really? I always thought that they are “divine” entertainment. A gorgeous spectacle of nature. But now I understand that they are supposed to make me afraid, very afraid. What century is Greene living in?
Of course it’s just cynical foolishness, but undoubtedly there are some blinkered idiots who actually believe her nonsense.
An eclipse worked out well for Tintin and friends in Prisoners of the Sun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_the_Sun 🙂
And for Hank Morgan in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%27s_Court
Just goes to show there’s er… nothing new under the sun, I suppose.
And for Allan Quartermaine in King Solomon’s Mines.
I was reading an interview with the unjustly cancelled Woody Allen (https://archive.is/n9E1A) and came across this zinger:
“Someone asked me about cancel culture, and I said, ‘If you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture that you want to be canceled from.’ Because who wants to be part of this culture?”
Regarding the world’s oldest man, John Alfred Tinnison, who said
From my point of view, he is guilty of doing too much of not drinking.