Monday: Hili dialogue

May 27, 2024 • 6:45 am

It’s Monday, May 27, 2024 and Memorial Day, the unofficial start of Summer (curiously, there’s no Google Doodle today). And although real Summer doesn’t start for another 3.5 weeks, it’s sure acting like summer in Chicago, what with temperatures in the mid 70s and even the 80s.

And it’s National Grape Day, so spare a thought for Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) who, when I was younger, started organizing farm workers beginning with the 5-year Delano Grape Strike that made many of us (including me) refuse to buy non-union grapes. The strike ended in 1970 when Big Grape signed with the newly-created United Farm Workers. Here’s a photo of Chavez and management ending the strike. (Note that Chavez loved big band music, especially from Duke Ellington).

(From Wikipedia): César Chávez shakes hands with John Giumarra Jr. after signing an agreement to end the strike. Photo by John Malmin, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Cellophane Tape Day (the patent was published on this day in 1930), National Grape Popsicle Day, and, in Australia, the beginning of National Reconciliation Week.

Posting may be light until Tuesday as I have a piece to write for another venue. Bear with me; I do my best.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 27 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Over at his website, Reality’s Last Stand, Colin Wright reports that an upcoming NIH-organized symposium and sex and gender has ONLY gender activists as its participants. I even recognize some of them. Here’s the notice that they sent to Jey McCreight:

As Colin notes:

Registration for the symposium, titled “Exploring the many dimensions of sex and gender in the genomics era,” opened on May 19, and the “tentative agenda” was revealed.

However, despite the event’s stated purpose of bringing “experts from the biological and social sciences to clarify and contextualize – but not resolve – the complexities around sex, gender, and genomics by considering them in their scientific, ethical, and historical contexts,” the list of presenters is ideologically homogeneous, consisting entirely of activist scientists and radical gender ideologues.

Colin goes through the whole list, and the two I recognize are Beans Velocci, whose Cell paper I criticized here, and Anne Fausto-Sterling, famous for saying that there were five sexes, then grossly overestimating the number of “intersexes”, and then saying that she was only writing “tongue in cheek.”  These people are not serious scholars.  Here’s what I said about Beans’s abysmal paper:

Here are the main problems with Velocci’s paper:

  1. It conflates sex differentiation, sex determination, and the definition of sex
  2. It argues, wrongly, that no progress has been made in understanding the nature and definition of biological sex
  3. Its argument is ideological rather than scientific, yet is given the trappings of science
  4. It argues that the binary nature of sex, which the author rejects, somehow erases transgender and nonbinary people
  5. And, as usual, its supposed examples that make sex nonbinary, like the long clitoris of the hyena, are wrong.  But where are the clownfish? Send in the clownfish!

Colin runs through the list, and it will make your jaw drop open. Most of them appear to believe that sex is a spectrum, not binary, but there are other weirdos in the group. Here are just two:

Os Keys is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington, and describes himself as a “genderfucky nightmare goth.” An LGBTQ+ activist, Keys has blocked me on X, although we have never interacted.

Cassius Adair, who is moderating a session, has a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. According to his website, he provides “queer and trans storytelling consulting for popular podcasts and public radio programs” and serves as a “transgender sensitivity reader.”

Kellan Baker, a health services researcher at the Whitman-Walker Institute, identifies as a trans man and LGBTQ+ activist. Baker claims to “have been every letter in the LGBTQ acronym.” Baker’s research focuses on “data equity,” and Baker has argued against binary sex classification forms.

With maybe one or two exceptions, they’re all like this.

Colin notes:

One thing is clear: this is not a serious symposium concerned with truth and deepening our understanding of sex and gender in genomics—it’s a gender activism strategy session. It is completely inexcusable that there are no representatives who acknowledge biological sex as binary and immutable at this symposium. It is imperative that the NHGRI extend an invitation to individuals like Carole Hooven, Emma Hilton, Heather Heying, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, or myself, who can offer a different, and scientifically accurate, perspective.

I appreciate the shout-out, but I’m not a sex expert. Hooven, Hilton, and Wright are, and there are others who have a sensible view of sex as well. None of them are invited. Colin calls on the NHGRI to “rectify their error”, but I don’t see that happening!  This whole mess is what I mean by the ideological erosion of science.

*The Jerusalem Post documents the changing coverage in the NYT of the sides in the Israel/Hamas war. The piece is by Lilac Sigan, and is called “From Oct. 7 to today: How Hamas criticism has vanished in the New York Times.”

Alongside winning the Pulitzer for seven articles that covered the war, the New York Times was heavily criticized for its biased and problematic reporting. The harsh allegations did not only come from Jews and Israelis but surprisingly also from pro-Palestinians, who actually claimed that the Times was pro-Israeli.

So what is the truth behind the contradicting claims and accusations? The answer can only come from monitoring and quantifying the mass of the coverage. And it was definitely massive.

During the first seven months of the war, from October 7 to May 7, the number of articles published in the Times on the subject reached 3,848.

Just for comparison – during all of 2022, the number of articles covering Israel in The Times reached only 361. Less than one-tenth in double the time period.

Here are some plots that speak for themselves: coverage over time. 1,398 articles were analyzed

Number of NYT articles expressing empathy to Israelis and Palestinians over time since October, 2023. (credit: Courtesy)

We coded the articles by two criteria: empathy and criticism. Each headline was examined according to whether it expressed empathy towards a particular person or group, and then according to whether it also expressed criticism towards an entity or group.

Another plot:

Number of NYT articles expressing criticism of Israelis and Hamas over time since October, 2023. (credit: Courtesy)

The glaring disproportional criticism is particularly jarring when observing only the Top News category of Today’s Headlines – meaning the three most important headlines that are featured at the top of the newsletter every day.

Reports about the war appeared daily in at least one of the three headlines in the Top News of the newsletter and sometimes even in all three.

Who was empathized in Top News articles? (credit: Courtesy)

One more bit:

Out of 276 Top News headlines during the seven months of the war, 151 expressed empathy exclusively towards Palestinians (55% of the headlines).

Only 16 headlines expressed empathy towards Israelis (5.8%), and half of them specifically towards the hostages. In addition, 130 out of 150 headlines that expressed empathy towards Palestinians criticized Israel, meaning more than 86%.

Who was criticized in Top News articles? (credit: Courtesy)

The conclusion:

The inevitable conclusion is that the Times’ editorial line clearly diverted attention away from Hamas, which started the war and refused prisoner exchange deals, and aimed it toward Israel.

. . . . This is an explicit American interest, which the Times de facto worked against. Just to be clear – the Israeli government and its extremists deserve a great deal of criticism for their conduct before October 7 and also throughout the war. But where did the criticism of Hamas disappear to? One does not necessarily have to negate the other.

. . .The Times still defines itself as liberal, but its emphases and scope of coverage during the war point to a clearly progressive editorial line.

This matches the claims raised in December 2023 by two of its former senior staff members, James Bennett and Judith Miller, who said that the Times has long ceased to be a liberal newspaper and has become illiberal, tribal, and intolerant.

Despite this, some blinkered miscreants accuse the NYT of being pro-Israel. I guess there’s not enough criticism of the Jewish state.

*Parents take heed: the Wall Street Journal has a piece called “The colleges where you’re most likely to have a positive return on your investment.” This is all about finances, asking where it’s worth it to go to college so you get a financial benefit from attending:

Young professionals graduating from public universities charging in-state tuition often receive a degree that is worth the money—with one caveat.

New graduates need to earn at least $50,000 a year, on average, in their first decade off campus for the degree to pay off, according to new research from Strada Education Foundation, a nonprofit that analyzed federal education and earnings data. If they can land that salary, or make $500,000 before taxes over 10 years, state school graduates across sectors will find the investment worth it and should be able to pay off their loans, Strada says.

At a time when many Americans are questioning the value of a college degree—and some teens and 20-somethings are forgoing higher education for trade work like plumbing, welding and construction—four-year state universities are a bargain compared with their private counterparts and still often provide a path to financial security.

“As long as you’re above that $50,000, even in the most expensive states, you’ll still have that positive return on investment,” said Nichole Torpey-Saboe, Strada’s vice president of research.

Public university alumni are more likely to secure good-paying jobs if they had access to college internship opportunities, career coaching and strong job markets, Torpey-Saboe said.

Median in-state public college tuition and fees in the U.S. are $8,000 a year, with room and board running another $11,000, according to Strada. At private nonprofit universities, where costs have soared, Strada found the median tuition and fees are about 58% more at $30,000.

Half of more than 5,200 people polled by Pew Research Center said it was less important to have a four-year degree today than it was 20 years ago. About a third of four-year college graduates think going to university is worth the cost, Pew said. The median salary last year for bachelor’s degree holders between the ages of 22 and 27 was $60,000, compared with $36,000 for people in that age range with just a high-school diploma, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The lesson if you want $$ out of your education and don’t have a lot of dosh to pay tuition: go to a public university, and be a business major if it’s a big school.  You can shoot me now.

*People seem to have forgotten that Hamas is still firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and the targets are not military ones, but they’re either fired willy-nilly or aimed at civilians, like the barrage fired at Tel Aviv and civilian communities in Israel. That is, of course, a war crime; Israel does not deliberately target only civilians, but it’s okay for Hamas to do that.

Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months on Sunday in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel’s massive air, sea and ground offensive.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’ military wing claimed the attack. Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar rounds at communities along the Gaza border, and the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group later Sunday said it fired rockets at nearby communities.

The Israeli military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli forces recently launched an incursion. It said “a number” of the projectiles were intercepted.

Thank Ceiling Cat for the Iron Dome. But of course that also leads the world to criticize Israel more, since the Dome leads to an “inequity” of civilian casualties between Israel and Gaza. On the other hand, people always forget how low the ratio of civilian casualties/Hamas casualties is; it’s stunningly low for urban warfare, and that’s because Israel doesn’t want to kill civilians.

*Here’s the world’s fastest pit stop: 1.8 seconds.  In that time they refuel the car and change all four tires. A stunning display of teamwork, endlessly practiced.

 

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili once again sees a windblown tuft of grass as the Devil:

Hili: The grass attacked me.
A: Be careful so it doesn’t harm you.
In Polish:
Hili: Ta trawa mnie zaatakowała.
Ja: Uważaj, żeby ci nie zrobiła krzywdy.
And a picture of Baby Kulka:

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

From Now That’s Wild:

From The Dodo Pet:

From Science Humor:

Reposted by Masih; I presume this “helicopter song” is a celebration of the death of the President and seven others in a helicopter crash not long ago.

Google translation: Helicopter song in the rally #لندن in front of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic This rally is being held to condemn the arrogance and brutality of the supporters of the regime

From Barry, who says, “That looks like a nice massage.”

From my feed. Lucky cat!

From Malgorzata; why are terrorists shooting in an UNRWA compound in Gaza?  Seriously, it’s time to get rid of that organization.

From Malcolm: a philosopher cat.

From the Auschwitz Memorial; Dolly’s parents, sister, and brother were also murdered in the camp.

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb, stuck in Manchester. First, lucky ducks (actually, they look like geese to me) watch a meteorite fall.

Cat versus chickens (cat wins!):

30 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Interesting the ideological erosion of science – maybe “we can’t handle the truth!” so the crypto-religious Derrida deconstructed humanities built their own incorrigible truth structure as something more palatable to the hoi poloi and Judith Butler.

    In other interesting news, Rishi Sunak proposed a conscription to foster a “shared sense of purpose” and “renewed sense of pride” among young people in an increasingly uncertain world.

      1. This is maybe a better document, had the link to the religious one above (Sorry) https://unherd.com/2024/03/what-is-judith-butler-afraid-of/ (and especially down in the comments is interesting mostly healthy discussion)

        “To anyone who has ever been no-platformed as a result of transactivist complaints, been put through a disciplinary or worse because of gender-critical views, or even just laboured through one of Butler’s previous sentences, this aspect of the book should come with a health warning.”

        1. Every dyke hopes you are wrong. Every femboy hopes you are wrong. But the good news is that every cowboy and every cheerleader knows you are right. Good job.

      1. Nice example of priming and leading questions 🙂

        One of my all time favorite shows.

  2. Small correction: Formula 1 does not refuel on pit stops; each driver starts the race with 100kg of fuel which must be managed to carry the car to the end of the race. So the 1.8 second fastest pit stop allows for the changing of four tires only….but still damn impressive. The average stop for these F1 drivers seems to be 2.5-3.0 seconds, sometimes going longer if a wheel nut gets stuck or the driver misses his stopping mark.

    1. Ford Vs. Ferrari (portraying LeMans ~1968) showed refueling – is there a New Rule?… and that was not F1 racing… GT, I guess..?

      Still interesting to ask, so I leave it up ^^^

      1. Yes, you are correct; Ford v Ferrari was not F1. F1 used to refuel but stopped around 2010 I think. A couple of reasons are given including safety (there had been several bad fires during refueling in recent years) and cost of schlepping all the fuel and refueling equipment between race locations week to week. To me it is “simply” another engineering design requirement that the constructors must take into account and that the driver and the race engineer must consider during the running of a race. Btw, each tire weighs about 25 lbs and they are hot – 150F to 200F – to handle when changing.

        2. A couple of reasons are given including safety (there had been several bad fires during refueling in recent years)

          There were flash fires in (almost?) consecutive races in one season, IIRC. I can’t remember the teams involved, but ISTR it was two different teams, so it wasn’t a particular crew fsck-ing up, but a problem with the system itself.
          The fuelling systems were significantly pressurised (even then, pit stops under 10 seconds were the target) to blast the fuel into the tank ASAP, which means there being a positive locking mechanism in the vehicle-end connector and the hose pressurised with fuel. The weight of fuel in the hose meant it needed two people to manhandle it onto the filler-connector. The connectors were evidently vulnerable to triggering open if mis-seated, releasing around 10 litres of fuel even if the pump shut off immediately. When there was a leak, the filler was invariably on the driver-protection structure, so pretty inevitably the fuel ended up on a red-hot exhaust manifold … and a flash fire was almost inevitable. (In one of the fires, there was a delay of several seconds of gushing fuel before the crew for the hose seated – and then the flash-over happened.
          In the wonderful world of F1, I don’t think anyone made much complaint about stopping refuelling. Even they could recognise that it was a disaster waiting to happen – again. And with Nikki Lauda’s burns staring them in the face at every FIA meeting … hard to ignore.
          With a dozen people crowded around the fire origin, and a 3-in hose pipe spraying high-grade fuel into the middle, a multiple fatality was just waiting to happen. And that’s bad for attracting advertisers. Which is logic even a bean-counter can follow.

    2. How are the tires held on? Typical nuts or some other mechanism?

      I have changed and rotated tires, but it definitely takes time.

  3. Whatever the lady’s doing to the crocodile, it isn’t massage. That would be considered an annoying tickle to my cats.

  4. “What happens if a wind mill rotates in opposite direction?”
    See
    physics.stackexchange.com/questions/12734/what-happens-if-a-wind-mill-rotates-in-opposite-direction#12739

    TL;DR: “In short, it would still produce electricity, but it would be the wrong kind of electricity.”

    (StackExchange is generally high quality)

    …

    I propose the NIH meeting should have a “Temple of the Butthole”* icebreaker/mixer – to get acquainted, lose some of those inhibitions, and experience the esoteric bailey behind the exoteric motte of scientific discourse.

    *Gayle S. Rubin, Deviations – A Gayle Rubin Reader
    Duke University Press
    2011
    Chapter 9. The Catacombs p.224 – A Temple of the Butthole

  5. Yes, odd. Not a google doodle, but, underneath the search bar, a small American flag and the motto “Honoring those who sacrificed.” The motto is a hyperlink to a google search for Memorial Day. It’s the least they could do, literally.

    1. Well, perhaps the world might be better off without Google leading the day off…

      But, let’s just wait and see what is coming (sp.?) in less than five days, maybe it’s a trend – the end of Google Doodles.

      1. What’s coming? Apart from the Election, – no, that’s next month.
        TCrB’s eruption? If you’ve got a date for that, the schedule managers at JWST, HST, and every large telescope in the world want to talk to you – now!
        Not using Google, have the “doodles” become less common? It must be difficult keeping them up to date for 190-odd different countries.

    2. Ah – I clicked it, and eventually some animated poppies appear at the bottom of the page. Tastefully respectful, understated, and reverent IMHO.

      So, well done Google.

      1. Indeed. Note also that today “Google” is not colored, but grey. For Memorial Day.

  6. NIH exploiting their [once] trusted name to host ideological sessions purporting to be science. The NYT, the [once] trusted flagship of American media, awash in propaganda. Elite private educational institutions: whatever they once were have become training grounds for the NIH and the NYT, as well as other activists and ideologues.

    Question: is there a major institution in America run by Democrats or their voters that has not been taken over by “progressive” ideologues? Education? Mainstream media? Government? Entertainment? Science institutions? And, if not, why do people so opposed to their ideology help keep them in power? It bewilders me because the problem predates Trump, his minions, and their radioactivity. I’m curious how many long-time, educated liberals (but not current-day “progressives”) would have crossed over this fall if a DeSantis or Haley (or a G. H. W. Bush or Eisenhower) had been at the top of the ticket. I suspect very few, but I really don’t know. And the madness continues.

    1. Not to mention those right wing ideologues insinuating themselves throughout public space?

    2. The phrase “measures of gamete size”, as if it’s a continuously varying trait like hormone titre or muscle mass, tells us everything we need to know about the good faith of the NHGRI staff who organized that symposium. “Forget it, Jake. It’s Spectrumtown.”

    3. This is distressing to me, because I have always wanted to believe that talented, honorable people were working at the NIH, CDC, etc I assumed they put the truth and scientific integrity at the top. I am not naive, and know ego enters in, but this seems beyond … I really have no words.

  7. One doesn’t need to employ higher mathematics to note that the percentage of articles in the New York Times expressing empathy for Israel has dropped from 44% to 4.1% since October 2023, with the percentage empathetic dropping like a rock over the past few months. To the extent that the NYT is the paper of record in the U.S., Israel has lost the propaganda war.

    It will be extremely difficult for Israel to win the actual war under these circumstances. And even if they do win, Israel’s reputation will not recover for a generation. I am deeply saddened by how such evil, perpetrated by Hamas, has led to a global war against Israel.

  9. About the kitten that was saved from a raptor’s claws by a car’s windshield…

    Massimo posted that video December 31, 2023 on X-Twitter:
    https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1741493406067462274

    Jerry posted the link here shortly afterward on the January 2 Hili dialog. (I’d sent him the link.)

    Massimo gave the source (Gabriel M, Los Angeles, December 28), though he noted an incorrect year (2024).

    Curiously, the uncredited posting on May 24 by “Interesting Things” is left-right reversed from the original. (The street names are backward in the copy). Was the video reversed to make it seem new?

    1. You have an astoundingly critical eye (I say critical as in discerning). I feel like a sleepwalker in comparison). Day after day… Good for you!

      1. Ha! I’m often accused of being a nit-picker. And my wife is amazed at the detail I bring to stories about the nighttime dreams I have. But I’d say your attention to detail is quite fine. If you’re sleepwalking, most other people are in a coma.
        😉

  10. Regarding the Sun 5/26/24 Hamas rocket attack, Do I correctly take it that, whatever factors Hamas considered prior to the attack, Hamas somehow figured that this attack would optimize favorable regard of it from the ICC and the court of world opinion?

    I find myself wanting to peruse the NY Times’s spin on this incident, but I recently got a new credit card and have declined to update my account with the Times. I’ve had it with the Times.

  11. I LOVED the “Your shit got in our way” tweet (the cats) My soul needed that. Thank you!

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