Monday: Hili dialogue

April 22, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Monday, April 22, 2024, and the beginning of Passover (or Pesach), the Jewish holiday that begins this evening and ends on sundown Tuesday, April 30.  There will be seder dinners with the usual bland food, and people will gather to chat, consume matzos, swill Manischewitz (oy!) and bond.  Even the cats are participating!  Here, from Reader Patricia, is a Passover Cat, presumably a Jewish moggie since it’s named Ziva. The difference is that instead of making biscuits, it makes matzos (visible on the table)!

This is a typical Jewish holiday, with the theme “They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat!”

I’ve got some, too, thanks to my friend Peggy. They’re great when slathered with sweet butter.

Foodwise, it’s National Jelly Bean Day.  If you Google “Jelly Bean Day” by itself (use the preceding link), you’ll get a surprise. Jelly Bellies are of course the best brand, and they make 15 billion beans every year, which works out to more than 1,000 beans per second. This short video shows you how they make them, using “natural ingredients whenever possible.”

It’s also “In God We Trust Day” (on this day in 1864, a bill passed Congress allowing “In God We Trust” to be put on U.S. coins), a day of commemoration in the UK for the murdered 18-year-old black man Stephen Lawrence, and, finally, it’s Earth Day, celebrated in this Google  Doodle with “Google” spelled out in features that represent attempts to save the Earth (read here). 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing article called “Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at World’s Busiest Airports,” with the subtitle, “The Heathrow-to-Dubai flights have two big money-laundering features: One airport doesn’t scan outbound luggage for cash and the other welcomes sacks of it“.  Unfortunately, it’s not archived.

Jo-Emma Larvin wheeled a baggage cart piled with suitcases through London’s Heathrow Airport in August 2020 and handed her passport to an Emirates Airline agent for a flight to Dubai.

Larvin was traveling business class with another woman and together they heaved seven heavy suitcases onto the conveyor belt. She exchanged texts with her boyfriend en route to the security line.

“Do you feel ok?” he asked.

“Yes phew,” Larvin wrote. The suitcases carried millions of dollars worth of British pounds wrapped with rubber bands and bundled in plastic.

The money was headed to an international money launderer who charged a hefty fee to clients to exchange cash for gold or other currencies. His preferred route was to Dubai from Heathrow, Nos. 1 and 2 of the world’s busiest airports for international passengers.

The U.K. requires passengers to tell customs authorities if they are leaving the country with more than the equivalent of around $10,000, but Larvin didn’t, risking arrest. The seven suitcases entered Heathrow’s baggage handling system and slid through a 3-D scanner that checked only for explosives and other potentially dangerous items.

The next morning, the women collected their luggage in Dubai without having too much to worry about: Any amount of cash is allowed to enter the United Arab Emirates, as long as it is declared. The women followed signs to customs and told authorities they had brought the equivalent of $2.8 million.

Most airports worldwide, including in the U.S., don’t scan passenger luggage for cash, a costly undertaking in equipment and personnel. Countries where all money is welcome have no obligation to report about suitcases full of cash arriving from abroad. The loopholes allow billions of dollars worth of cash to fly out of the U.K. and elsewhere to countries with fewer rules, law-enforcement officials said.

Money launderers surreptitiously introduce more than $2 trillion in proceeds from illegal enterprises to global financial systems every year, according to estimates. International airplane passengers likely ferry hundreds of billions of dollars worth of that in cash, according to figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental agency that develops anti-money-laundering standards for countries.

One reason for so much airline smuggling is that penalties and scandals over customers engaged in money-laundering have prompted more banks around the world to report suspicious transactions. “You just can’t walk into a bank with this much money without being flagged,” said George Voloshin, of ACAMS, an industry group for financial crime-fighting professionals.“You will be arrested at the next branch.”

. . . “How the hell did they get away with it—so much money in such a short space of time?” said Ian Truby, a senior investigating officer at the U.K. National Crime Agency. One answer, he said, is that airport security isn’t for crime detection, only flight safety.

I wonder where the money came from in the first place, but many of these people are simply couriers. The article does report that some people get caught, but Larvin has apparently gotten off.

*This is pretty amazing. Fatah, the ruling party of the West Bank, headed by Palestine’s President for Life Mahmoud Abbas, has admitted—as most sane people suspected—that Hamas has killed aid workers and stolen food. Yes, FATAH!

In an incredible and rare admission, Fatah has corroborated what Israel has been saying all along: that Hamas is responsible for turmoil connected to distribution of the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza. A Fatah TV anchor reported that throughout the war, Hamas has been committing what is essentially a triple crime—it has attacked and killed aid workers in order to control aid distribution, stolen the food and water for itself, and caused food prices to skyrocket.

. . . This is a damning indictment by Fatah, exposing Hamas’ heinous actions against humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian civilians in need of food. World powers were quick to decry Israel for an inadvertent tragedy that killed several World Central Kitchen personnel. These same authorities and media outlets must now condemn Hamas with equal vigor for its intentional murder of aid workers. A failure to condemn Hamas for intentional murder by the countries and frameworks who condemned Israel for accidental killing would expose once again a glaring double standard by international bodies, and especially the media, that unfortunately has accompanied this entire war.

Here’s the video of the news report:

*The ever-accommodating government of Justin Trudeau is exploring ways to placate Canadian Muslims, whose religion technically forbids them to pay interest, by thinking of ways to put “halal mortgages” in place. From the CBC:

Federal budget references to mortgage products aimed at Canadian Muslims have members of the community celebrating, along with the mortgage providers that look to serve them, despite a lack of detail from the government on what is to come.

In Tuesday’s budget documents, the federal government indicated that it’s “exploring new measures to expand access” to financing methods such as “halal mortgages.”

The budget provided few details about the plan, other than to say the government had been consulting “financial services providers and diverse communities” and that an update would come in the 2024 fall economic statement. Despite no specifics, it was a welcome addition to the budget for the Muslim community.

“It was very happy news for me,” said Abdullah Mohiuddin, who has already taken out an Islamic, or halal, mortgage to purchase a home in the Edmonton area. He said he welcomed the government’s announcement that it would be finding a way to increase access to a financial product he believes his community needs.

Several firms in various Canadian provinces offer halal mortgages. Halal is an Arabic word that translates in English to “permitted” or “allowed” under Islamic law.

These mortgages are deliberately structured to adhere to both Canadian law and the belief systems of many Muslims. Interest, which is referred to in many Islamic texts as “riba,” is forbidden.

But of course there’s a catch, though I’m not quite sure what it is.

Although interest isn’t charged, there are still costs associated with halal mortgages. In many cases, the costs are higher than those associated with conventional mortgages, and the mortgages are often not available at the branches of mainstream financial institutions.

“It seems like it’s a little bit expensive,” Mohiuddin said, adding he believes the lack of established legal definitions for a halal mortgage in Canada is behind the higher costs.

Muslims looking for a halal mortgage are still going to be paying carrying costs for a loan to purchase their home.

Providers in the industry said these costs can be higher because while there is demand, there are fewer providers — and some halal mortgage providers are unable to foreclose due to religious restrictions, which can increase what some financiers assess as risk.

What is gained here? More woke credits for Trudeau, but no savings for Muslims, except that they can pretend that they’re adhering to the dictates of their faith.

*As if you need further evidence of The Decline and Fall of the ACLU, here’s some from their national Instagram page (h/t Debra) showing their yearly symbol of Arab American Heritage Month. The ACLU and Tlaib: a match made in heaven!

They’re celebrating her!

*According to Greg, “Brian Leiter is collecting recollections and comments about Dan Dennett” at his blog, adding, “The first batch yesterday were all full of praise. I was surprised to read so many calling him one of, or even the greatest, philosopher of our time. I didn’t realize how highly thought of he was among philosophers. I recognized the names of some leaving tributes.”  Go here to see the tributes. I’ll put a few below:

I loved Dan, and I loved his work. By any measure he must qualify as one of the greatest philosophers in the last century. I personally owed him a great deal, and dedicated a recent book to him (fittingly, it was on consciousness) with the words, “Whose work awoke me from my Wittgensteinian slumbers.” The world is now a duller place.

Professor Dennett was an inspiration for me. Along with the Churchlands, he opened my eyes to an empirically informed way of doing philosophy. I had the opportunity to see him in action once during a conference in San Sebastián (Basque Country). I was still doing my doctorate, I was young and shy. But I will always regret not having asked him for a photo together. May he rest in peace.

Tom said…

It’s a rare treat to find a philosopher with whom one profoundly disagrees, yet wants to read more and more of. Most of my thinking about religion and the mind has developed in dialogue with, and opposition to, Dennett, who was simply a brilliant and original writer. My favourite passage from him, skewering analytic pretensions in McGinn:

‘” A type of mind M is cognitively closed with respect to a property P (or theory T) if and only if the concept-forming procedures at M’s disposal cannot extend to a grasp of P (or an understanding of T).” (p.3) (Don’t be misled about the apparent rigor of this definition; the author A never puts it to any use U in any formal derivation D.)’

Cade Mosley said…

One of my early formative moments in philosophy was visiting Craig Waterman’s Metaphysics office hours at U. Texas (where is he now, I wonder?) & talking through Dennett’s Consciousness Explained & other works, learning how to think and argue philosophically.

Aside from making very good philosophy, engaging with his work made good philosophers.
He sharpened people’s thinking and framed so many issues well, even (especially) for those taking an opposing line, which is always one of the best measures of a great philosopher, I think.

Beyond that, he provided a way of thinking about naturalizing so many philosophical problems, which has gone on to ground so much of the most active work happening in philosophical thinking these days.

Those are I think two of his biggest contributions.
I give my respects.

Cade Mosley said…

One of my early formative moments in philosophy was visiting Craig Waterman’s Metaphysics office hours at U. Texas (where is he now, I wonder?) & talking through Dennett’s Consciousness Explained & other works, learning how to think and argue philosophically.

Aside from making very good philosophy, engaging with his work made good philosophers.
He sharpened people’s thinking and framed so many issues well, even (especially) for those taking an opposing line, which is always one of the best measures of a great philosopher, I think.

Beyond that, he provided a way of thinking about naturalizing so many philosophical problems, which has gone on to ground so much of the most active work happening in philosophical thinking these days.

Those are I think two of his biggest contributions.
I give my respects.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is on the veranda roof and wants a nosh:

Hili: Małgorzata is in the kitchen.
A: So what?

Hili: I have to check whether she happens to be cutting meat.

In Polish:
Hili: Małgorzata jest w kuchni.
Ja: No to co?
Hili: Muszę sprawdzić, czy przypadkiem nie kroi mięsa.
And here are Szaron and Kulka on opposite sides of the window:

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

From All You Can Eat:

From Things With Faces: a scary muffin!

A text conversation from Ducks In Public. Someone needs to bone up on their biology. Are penguins not birds, either?

From Masih: More Iranian women resisting the misogynistic theists:

From Muffy: Things are heating up at Columbia, and they’re so hot that Jews got advice from the rabbi to stay off campus. Such is higher education.

From Barry, who says, “This cat looks comfortable.” In fact, this is how Hili sleeps on Malgorzata every night!

From Malcolm. This baby turtle doesn’t seem to enjoy its bath.

Rowling strikes back. She won’t lose because Klinefelter Syndrome (an XXY sex chromosome complement) produces only MALES. She deleted the original tweet to avoid identifying the sender:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. Matthew loves Buster Keaton, who was a comedic genius. And he did all his own stunts, like those here:

Matthew and I have a lot of questions about this bird. . . .

32 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. “Ducks can survive in water full time birds can’t” – I love the implication that ducks are part-time birds. I wonder what class they belong to in their off-hours?

    1. Having been raised in a Kosher home and thus known only Manischewitz as wine, I wondered why on earth would anyone consider it fine dining to have wine with dinner. Thus was my introduction to good wine delayed by many years…until well after college even. So with those memories, I prepare to join family at second Seder tomorrow night at my cousin’s house with the traditional four glasses of Manischewitz.

      1. When I was a kid, Manischewitz Concord Grape *was* wine. The only wine other my parents had in the house when I was a kid was Mother Goldstein’s, which was just as sweet but cheaper!

  3. And Columbia has told everyone who can to stay home today:

    During the coming days, a working group of Deans, university administrators and faculty members will try to bring this crisis to a resolution. That includes continuing discussions with the student protestors and identifying actions we can take as a community to enable us to peacefully complete the term and return to respectful engagement with each other. I know that there is much debate about whether or not we should use the police on campus, and I am happy to engage in those discussions. But I do know that better adherence to our rules and effective enforcement mechanisms would obviate the need for relying on anyone else to keep our community safe. We should be able to do this ourselves.

    I doubt it. He should tell those kids to get off his damn lawn and call the cops.

    1. Thanks for the link to the letter, DrB. Small correction: the Columbia president, of course is a “she”…so get off HER damn lawn. Her full, tepid testimony before a Congressional committee the other day along with two of the trustees is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLDpp2Ruxys
      She did take quick action the next day, but I am afraid it was simply a one-off, after other trustees and woke deans apparently whispered in her ear as a result of her actual enforcement of the trustees’ policies. Despite Jez’ assurances of the good job she did at the LSE, it appears that she is here, at Columbia,yet another spineless, empty suit model of many of today’s university presidents. I was told fifteen years ago by a former college president that what boards look for today is a fund raiser who gets on well with the alums, not a scholarly, principled academic leader…that description being more appropriate for the provost. I wonder if the former UChicago provost is continuing his principled stand at Vanderbilt as president there?

  4. As another indicator of the amount of money laundering out there, the number of $100’s out there is considerably more than the number of the next-most numerous note – $1’s. Also, the number of $100s has about doubled in the last 10yrs – a faster rate of increase than $1’s.

    Not shown in the table is that the number of $100’s issued from the FRB in NYC vastly exceeds the number issued from any of the other 11 FRB’s.

    And while you’re looking at that, also note just for fun that the the number of $5’s is not much more than double the number of $2’s.

    1. Fascinating statistics. And seemingly inarguable evidence that the government is facilitating big-time money laundering.

    2. I recall there was some excrement shovelled about money laundering during the Brexit ranting, asserting that the EU’s issuing of a €500 note was designed to facilitate money laundering. It would certainly be a lot more convenient than lugging around suitcases of $100 or £100 notes – about one fifth of the trouble.
      I’m not too clear on the divisions of responsibilities in banking systems. Surely the responsibilities for managing inflation etc are dealt with by changing interest rates and that sort of thing, not shovelling lorry-loads of coloured paper. So the responsibilities for managing the cash pool are really only about providing services that businesses (or individuals) want, not about any government policy?

  5. JK Rowling might lose that bet by one interpretation. Although she apparently does not accept it, the term ‘woman’ is widely defined as a gender and a social construct. It’s possible that a Klinefelter male can identify as a trans woman.

    1. Ha. Not likely as long as it’s JKR’s money.
      Men are not and never in any way women.

    2. If someone is going to define “woman” as a gender and social construct, they still need to elucidate the elements of that, and clarify how it’s distinguished from “man.” Can’t be done. So “adult human female” still stands.

  6. If there is less right of foreclosure on a halal mortgage for whatever reason, then yes, that is what any sensible lender, not merely “some [Jewish?] financiers”, would indeed regard as higher risk and charge more for the loan.

    If the Liberal government wants to make halal mortgages more “accessible” than the market wants to, you can be sure someone else is going to be paying more for money….or the Courts are going to be told to recognize sharia law as enforceable.

    1. The CBC article is unusually informative about the obstacles to adoption of mortgages that don’t include interest (definitions, clarity about who actually owns the mortgaged property, whether rental regulations apply to halal mortgages that are rent-to-own schemes, reluctance of insurers to insure such mortgages).

      The article doesn’t mention who would be allowed to access those mortgages if they were to become competitive with interest-based mortgages. If anybody could access this (not just observant Muslims), then I guess this could be a plus for everybody.

      I’m so used to hating ~everything that JT rolls out that this was a nice change. But like a lot of other aspirational elements of that budget it’s unlikely to come to fruition unless the Conservatives also like halal mortgages.

      1. If anybody could access this (not just observant Muslims)

        How is that -observance- going to be tested?
        What happens to those who lapse – the proverbial “moment of madness” so beloved of bishops, imams (and I assume, rabbis) when photographed in the [ahemm] arms of an “actress” of negotiable affection.
        So many questions – this proposal could lead to some hilarious parliamentary hypocrisy.

    2. When we lived in Ann Arbor back in the late 80s, Dearborn Michigan (it was called “little Beirut”), had a well established Muslim community that handled interest free loans themselves. That’s all good. The government needs to stay out of that stuff. And, yes, the churches, temples, etc should all be paying taxes, too.

  7. We, too, have Israeli matzoh (unsalted, amazing with peanut butter!), and I see that reader Patricia has the traditional Maxwell House Haggadah. There’s a very interesting story behind that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_House_Haggadah.

    I don’t expect for a moment that the media will acknowledge Hamas’s crimes in preventing aid from getting to the people who need it in Gaza. Media outlets have cast their lots with the hate-Israel narrative and can’t turn back now, no matter what the truth is.

    And, regarding the little turtle: maybe it’s just ticklish!

  8. I’d try a very soft watercolor paintbrush on my baby turtle if I had one. The cross species universality of baby cuteness is striking, the only exceptions I can think of are some (but not all) birds.
    Regarding “Halal” loans, a secular state should make no provisions for and concessions to religious law. If people choose to make private “investment” contracts that satisfy Islamic or Jewish or whatever law, so be it; in those cases, civil law courts may enforce the contract. The Islamic prohibitions of taking interest is of course Jewish in origin, and the Jewish version of Halal loans is Heter Iska, literally “permission to do business”, a medieval evasion of the Biblical prohibition that calls a loan an investment. I am sure that Orthodox Jews in the US use Heter Iska contracts when doing business with each other.

    1. Yes. That toothbrush looked a little rough for that tiny guy (so cute!). Does a baby turtle really need a bath? That’s a genuine question. I have no idea.

  9. Oops, late again (but not as late as yesterday’s)…

    On this day:
    1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery of Brazil).

    1529 – Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues (1,250 kilometres (780 mi)) east of the Moluccas.

    1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

    1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.

    1915 – World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.

    1944 – The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater.

    1945 – World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred and twenty are killed and around eighty escape.

    1945 – World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army.

    1954 – Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.

    1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

    1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.

    1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

    1993 – Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham. [The subsequent Macpherson Report found the (London) Metropolitan Police Service to be “institutionally racist”; little has changed and there are currently a series of ongoing investigations into officers for a variety of racist and sexual offences. In the past few days the Met has apologised after an officer told a man he was “openly Jewish”.]

    2005 – Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan’s war record.

    2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming. [Not enough has been achieved since. Plus ça change.]

    2020 – Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.

    Births:
    1707 – Henry Fielding, English novelist and playwright (d. 1754).

    1724 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1804). [A real pissant who was very rarely stable…]

    1766 – Germaine de Staël, French author and political philosopher (d. 1817). [A prominent philosopher, woman of letters, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles.]

    1830 – Emily Davies, British suffragist and educator, co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge University.

    1854 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943). [President of the International Peace Bureau. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913 because “he was the effective leader of the peace movement in Europe”. Not that effective, sadly…]

    1858 – Ethel Smyth, English composer (d. 1944). [The first female composer granted a damehood.]

    1870 – Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and founder of Soviet Russia (d. 1924).

    1887 – Harald Bohr, Danish mathematician and footballer (d. 1951).[Founded the field of almost periodic functions. His brother was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr. He was on the Denmark national team for the 1908 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal.]

    1891 – Laura Gilpin, American photographer (d. 1979).

    1899 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist and critic (d. 1977).

    1904 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (d. 1967).

    1909 – Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012).

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

    1917 – Sidney Nolan, Australian painter (d. 1992).

    1922 – Charles Mingus, American bassist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1979).

    1922 – Wolf V. Vishniac, American microbiologist and academic (d. 1973). [Contributed greatly to the search for life on Mars by developing a special miniature laboratory that could be transported to that planet, known as the “Wolf Trap”. This research was supported by a NASA grant started in 1959, the very first ever for the “biological sciences”. He died on a research trip to the Antarctic attempting to retrieve equipment in a crevasse. The crater Vishniac on Mars is named in his honor.]

    1923 – Bettie Page, American model and actress (d. 2008).

    1923 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2006).

    1927 – Laurel Aitken, Cuban-Jamaican singer (d. 2005).

    1928 – Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian (d. 2022)

    1936 – Glen Campbell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2017).

    1937 – Jack Nicholson, American actor and producer.

    1937 – Jack Nitzsche, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (d. 2000).

    1944 – Steve Fossett, American businessman, pilot, and sailor (d. 2007).

    1946 – Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, English economist and academic.

    1946 – John Waters, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.

    1950 – Peter Frampton, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer.

    1957 – Donald Tusk, Polish journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Poland.

    1963 – Sean Lock, English comedian and actor (d. 2021).

    1986 – Amber Heard, American actress.

    1990 – Machine Gun Kelly, American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor.

    Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead. (Hans Christian Andersen):
    1616 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1547).

    1778 – James Hargreaves, British inventor (b. 1720). [Credited with inventing the spinning jenny in 1764.]

    1833 – Richard Trevithick, English engineer and explorer (b. 1771). [An early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world’s first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick’s unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.]

    1933 – Henry Royce, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (b. 1863).

    1945 – Käthe Kollwitz, German painter and sculptor (b. 1867). [Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class. Despite the realism of her early works, her art is now more closely associated with Expressionism. Kollwitz was the first woman not only to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts but also to receive honorary professor status.]

    1951 – Horace Donisthorpe, English myrmecologist and coleopterist (b. 1870). [He published 300 papers on ants, but was rather eccentric and often considered overeager in his attempts to describe new species of ants and beetles. For example, he named 24 new species of beetle from Britain (17 named after his colleagues), but 22 have since been deemed to be insufficiently distinct to be considered separate species and have been made synonyms of earlier species. The only two British beetle species that he described which remain valid are the rove beetles Leptacinus intermedius and Ilyobates bennetti.]

    1984 – Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist (b. 1902).

    1994 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (b. 1913).

    2006 – Henriette Avram, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1919). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    2013 – Richie Havens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941).

    2020 – Shirley Knight, American actress (b. 1936).

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

      Henriette Davidson Avram (born October 7, 1919, died on this day in 2006) was a computer programmer and systems analyst who developed the MARC format (Machine Readable Cataloging), the international data standard for bibliographic and holdings information in libraries. Avram’s development of the MARC format in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the Library of Congress had a revolutionizing effect on the practice of librarianship, making possible the automation of many library functions and the sharing of bibliographic information electronically between libraries using pre-existing cataloging standards.

      See the Wikipedia article for full details of her life and achievements.

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

      1. This prompted me to read the Wikipedia entry on Henriette Avram. An amazing person! She self-educated in so many areas and ended up doing a huge enabling task in creating what became an international standard. Standards are perhaps the least appreciated and one of the most critical elements of engineering. (How would we like it if every highway bridge builder did his own thing with regard to clearance above the interstate rather than adhering to a standard?) I know the Lib of Congress culture of the 60’s and 70’s was resistant to computer catalogs because my cousin who was curator for prints and photographs there at that time lamented the loss of index cards that he could run his fingers over and make unexpected discoveries!). So she had to educate herself in computer systems, library systems, and communicate with a bureaucracy that was likely unwelcoming to her work. And of course we all use the results of her work all the time in the 21st century in any research we do on our computers. Thanks for recognizing her, Jez.

  10. Beautiful cat! And nothing compares to having God on your side:

    They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat!

    I don’t know if it is customary to say Happy Passover, but Happy Passover! 🙂

  11. Couldn’t Canada just license a branch of a Saudi Arabian bank, or some such, to operate in the country and offer their halal products? (Providing that the branch meets the Canadian regulatory banking requirements, of course.)

  13. I can understand the accolades for Dennett an appreciated the mention of Brian Leitner whom I’ve a great habit of forgetting to check a few times a week.

    FiveBooks.com has 5 books Dr. Dennett recommended. There are two I very much want to read, one by David Haig, the other Ruth Millikan. It includes a wonderful interview with Dennett which I really enjoyed.

    Douglas Hofstadter has a lovely remembrance at 3QD. They were very good friends.

    I understand that one by Steven Pinker is coming.

  14. 1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery of Brazil).

    Was he interviewed about his discovery by the local newspaper magnate? Resident politicians vowing to “fight them on the beaches”?

    1724 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1804). [A real pissant who was very rarely stable…]

    1766 – Germaine de Staël, French author and political philosopher (d. 1817). [A prominent philosopher, woman of letters, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles.]

    Monty Python’s “Philosopher Song” needs an few new verses for neglected philosophers.
    The name rings a bell, so I suspect she had some heft in scientific or mathematical circles too. Oh, hang on – wasn’t she subject of an “In Our Time”? Yes : 45 minutes of podcast on her, for them as likes that sort of thing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09drjm1 , broadcast Thu 16 Nov 2017

  15. I am not an expert but was under the impression that charging interest was against islam not paying it.

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