Tuesday: Hili dialogue

December 17, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Tuesday, the Cruelest Day. It’s Tusday indeed, and December 17, 2024, meaning that there are only 8 days until the start of Coynezaa. It’s also National Maple Syrup Day, and once again I remind you that the darkest color is also the best, and has the added advantage of being the cheapest. Here, for example, is the last quart I bought on Amazon; you want to look for”Dark Color, Robust Taste”.  Ignore the “Grade A” because they relabeled all maple syrup as “Grade A” in a weaselly move. Now you order by the description of the syrup (this used to be Grade C before the weasels moved in):

It’s also Wright Brothers Day, celebrating what’s acknowledged to be the first flight of a heavier-than-air craft, which took place on this day in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  It so happened that the first flight was photographed, and here it is! (h/t Phil)

(from Wikipedia): First successful flight of the Wright Flyer, by the Wright brothers. The machine traveled 120 ft (36.6 m) in 12 seconds at 10:35 a.m. at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Orville Wright was at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with his hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright ran alongside to balance the machine, and just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing in the photo. The starting rail, the wing-rest, a coil box, and other items needed for flight preparation are visible behind the machine. This is described as “the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air, powered flight” by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, but is not listed by the FAI as an official record.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the December 16 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*This is unbelievable: the war in Myanmar has impoverished professionals so much that, for example, doctors and nurses have been forced into sex work (article archived here).

After seven years of medical school in Myanmar, May finally achieved her goal of becoming a doctor. But a month after she graduated and found a job, her dreams started unraveling.

In February 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, and the country’s economy, already hammered by the pandemic, started to buckle. Prices soared and May’s paycheck, the equivalent of $415 a month, evaporated even faster. With her father suffering from kidney disease, she grew more and more desperate.

Then she met “date girls,” who were making twice as much as her. The money was enticing — even if it involved sex with men.

“It’s difficult to accept that, despite all my years of study to become a doctor, I’m now doing this kind of work just to make ends meet,” said May, 26, who has been working as a prostitute for over a year in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. She, like others who spoke for this article, asked not to be identified by her full name because her family does not know how she earns money and prostitution is illegal in Myanmar.

The coup and ensuing civil war have ravaged Myanmar’s economy. Inflation soared to 26 percent this year as power shortages crippled factories, unseasonal rain flooded farms and fighting in areas near China and Thailand decimated cross-border trade. The currency, the kyat, has lost two-fifths of its value against the dollar this year. Nearly half of Myanmar’s people now live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

This calamity has forced a new cadre of women in Myanmar into sex work: doctors, teachers, nurses and other educated professionals.

It is hard to track how many women are involved in the trade, but women plying the streets have become much more apparent. In interviews, half a dozen women — four white-collar workers who have turned to prostitution and two rights activists — said that more educated women are now having sex with men to make a living.

Civil war has raged in that country for four years after the military seized power in a coup. I have long wanted to go there (it’s also known as “Burma”), but not any longer.

*Now that Kamala Harris is out of a job, she’s pondering her future. From The Washington Post (article archived here).  One thing I’m pretty sure of (but she apparently isn’t), is that she’s not a good Democratic candidate for President:

In the wake of her own 2024 loss, Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies are grappling with what her political future holds and debating whether the unofficial rule still applies — specifically, whether her first shot at the White House as the Democratic nominee should also be her only one, given the extraordinary circumstances of Harris’s 107-day sprint to Election Day.

They point not just to President-elect Donald Trump’s own unusual trajectory — he won the presidency in 2016, lost in 2020, and ran again in 2024 — but to the hand Harris was dealt. After President Joe Biden’s devastating performance in a presidential debate in late June, Harris — a woman of color — inherited a campaign built for a White man two decades her senior who had hemorrhaged support from nearly every major demographic group required to win.

In just over three months, Harris had to vet a running-mate, stand up a convention, introduce herself to voters, reframe Democrats’ message to Americans angry about inflation and prosecute the case against Trump, among other campaign requisites. Despite losing decisively — Trump swept her in all seven battleground states — she emerged with a higher approval rating than when she launched her bid, according to the political website 538, and she has largely escaped blame amid the seething recrimination and finger-pointing within the Democratic Party.

Rather than blaming her, in fact, many Democrats believe she ran an impressive campaign against insurmountable odds and anti-incumbent global headwinds.

“The rules potentially don’t apply this time, and she still absolutely could have a mulligan because of the unique circumstances of this race and the candidate switch,” said Molly Murphy, a pollster who worked on the both the Biden and Harris campaigns. “But I don’t think it will be a given.”

A mulligan is a second chance, often used in golf talk. But I don’t think she will get a second chance, for there are many like me that didn’t see her as even the best candidate among the Democrats. I, for one, would prefer Gretchen Whitmer, Richie Torres, or Mayor Peter.  Whoever wrote the Post piece must have just fallen out of a coconut tree.

*In the Free Press piece “Caitlin Clark’s conundrum,” auth0r Joe Nocera argues that Clark is getting opprobrium because she’s white, and a white champion basketball player (she’s probably the best woman player in history) is getting opprobrium because she benefited from “white privilege”. (Clark was named “Athlete of the Year” by Time Magazine.

The photograph of Caitlin Clark on the cover of Time magazine honoring her as its athlete of the year is a stunner. Her dark hair blows back breezily as she faces the camera with a confident half-smile. Her workout top exposes her muscular midriff and sinewy arms, while the fingers on her right hand are perfectly poised to dribble the basketball. Inside, the magazine devotes close to 7,000 words describing her off-the-court life (new BFF: Taylor Swift), her basketball brilliance (“her signature 30-ft. launches. . . are akin to home-run balls”), and her impact on the WNBA during her rookie year with the Indiana Fever (incalculable).

. . . .you would think the league and its players would be overjoyed to have one of their own on the cover of Time.

But as was the case for most of her first season as a pro, nothing is simple when it comes to Caitlin Clark and the WNBA. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that there’s nothing simple when it comes to Caitlin Clark and the subject of race.

You see, Clark, 22, is not just the first women’s basketball player to grace the cover of Time, she’s the first white women’s basketball player to make the cover. And despite everything her presence has meant to the league—the increased TV ratings, the standing room–only crowds at every arena the Indiana Fever played, the infusion of excitement around the league—there has always been an undercurrent of resentment among many of the league’s black players. (A little more than 63 percent of the league is black.)

A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, and the league’s MVP, said it straight out to Time—Clark’s race was a “huge” reason for her popularity. “It doesn’t matter what we all do as black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug,” Wilson said. “That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.” More than once during the season, Clark was blindsided by a black opponent for no obvious reason except, well, the obvious reason.

Here’s the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter deliberately bumping Clark after a shot. It’s reprehensible:

More:

Soon after the Time magazine cover was on the newsstands, Sheila Johnson, the black owner of the Washington Mystics, echoed Wilson, telling CNN that the only reason Clark was getting the acclaim was because she was white.

“I feel really bad because I’ve seen so many players of color that are equally as talented and they never got the recognition that they should have.” Wilson added, “Why couldn’t they have put the whole WNBA on the cover and say ‘The WNBA is the league of the year?’ ”

This is part and parcel of the racialization of everything that still affects America. The fact is that there has been no basketball player of either sex who has scored more points than Clark in their college careers. She’s a phenomenon who has revitalized women’s basketball, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

Nocera’s conclusion:

I’ve been watching women’s basketball since the mid-1990s, and I can say with confidence that I’ve never seen any woman play basketball the way Caitlin Clark does. She is a truly transcendent talent, who can shoot practically from half-court—her shooting is what initially dazzled fans—and who throws some of the most gorgeous passes you’ll ever see. To my mind, she’s the female Larry Bird. Why does she fill up arenas? Because she’s fantastically fun to watch. Her presence in the WNBA is lifting all boats.

To put it bluntly, black players—or black owners—who refuse to acknowledge that reality are practicing their own form of racism.

*Now we have a new class of drones, ones that operate underwater. Warfare is moving towards dispensing with soldiers!

Drones have revolutionized modern warfare in the sky. Now defense companies and navies are betting they can do the same underwater.

The new underwater drones, with names such as Ghost Shark, Herne and Manta Ray, can typically dive thousands of feet below the surface and operate largely without human interaction for days on end. That ability makes them ideally suited to gather intelligence, protect undersea infrastructure and counter potential threats in the Pacific, advocates say.

“This is an opportune moment for these vehicles,” said Cynthia Cook, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. “Submarines are fantastic, but they are expensive.”

Perfecting the technology isn’t an easy swim. Maintaining communications deep underwater is more difficult than in the sky, and conditions below the sea’s surface can be harsh.

Underwater drones have been used by academics and offshore energy companies for decades. An underwater drone found Titanic in 1985, for example. Navies have also long used smaller—typically remote-controlled—underwater vessels for mine clearance and other tasks.

Now, defense companies are developing larger, more autonomous vessels that can travel longer distances and do more.

Boeing is set to deliver five of its Orca extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicles to the U.S. Navy by the end of next year. Up to 85 feet long, the Orca can travel the equivalent of almost 7,500 miles with little human intervention.

Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, has said developing robotic and autonomous systems is one of the U.S. Navy’s top priorities in preparing for a possible war with China.

There is no doubt that some of these drones will be like self-controlled torpedoes, designed to take out entire ships without any danger from humans, for they can surely be operated from remote distances. Will we see a time when most military effort involves drones taking out other drones or big weapons, with the role of humans much diminished? Don’t ask me: I’m just a superannuated biologist, not a military expert.

*Another school shooting, this time in Wisconsin, has killed three (the shooter is included in that total) and left seven people wounded.

A 15-year-old student killed a teacher and another teenager with a handgun Monday at a Christian school in Wisconsin, terrifying classmates including a second grader who made the 911 call that sent dozens of police officers rushing to the small school just a week before its Christmas break.

The female student, who was identified at a press conference Monday night, also wounded six others at a study hall at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students had been taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them had been released by Monday evening.

“Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened,” Barnes said.

, , , , She said when the school practices safety routines, which it had done just before the school year, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That didn’t happen Monday.

“When they heard, ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ they knew it was real,” she said.

Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Barnes declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students in Madison, the state capital.

I can’t remember another school shooting in which the perp was a female (Rubnow’s description is here; she apparently committed suicide), and the NYT adds this:

Chief Barnes said that a handgun was recovered at the scene, but that the police did not yet know the gun’s origin. The Madison police were working with federal investigators to identify where and when it had been purchased.

“How does any 15-year-old get ahold of a gun?” Chief Barnes said.

Two students with life-threatening injuries are in critical condition at a local hospital, said Chief Barnes. A group of four people — three students and a teacher — were hospitalized with less serious injuries, and two of them have been discharged, he said.

The motive remains a mystery and will, perhaps, come out in the next few days. Here’s the old but good Onion meme about this (h/t Simon):

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili plays Steve Miller, just wanting to know what the facts is (my photo!)

Hili: Keep me informed about what’s happening.
Andrzej: Wait a bit, I haven’t understood everything yet.
Hili: I’m not asking for your interpretation but for facts.
(Photo: Jerry Coyne)
In Polish:
Hili: Informuj mnie co się dzieje.
Ja: Poczekaj, bo sam nic z tego nie rozumiem.
Hili: Nie pytam o interpretację, pytam o fakty.
(Zdjęcie: Jerry Coyne)

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

From Merilee: the cover the the Tabby Road album:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Meow:

Masih is showing some skin in an attempt to make a point about Iranian repression. An excerpt from the long X post:

I’ll never forget the first time I went to the beach, wore what I wanted, and threw myself into the sea. That moment felt like true freedom, a freedom the Islamic Republic has worked tirelessly to deny us, belittling women with the phrase: “You think freedom is just about getting naked,” and alienating us from our own bodies.

Via the Babbling Beaver, we hear about the ongoing infantilization of MIT students:

From Malcolm: a cat with a broken heart. Oy!

My Bluesky feed is about as interesting as watching paint dry, but here’s one I can direct to Ta-Nehisi Coates:

— (@anita72.bsky.social) 2024-12-16T01:51:17.759Z

From Luana:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a three part-tale. Murder via phenol injection to the heart is painful but also quick, but was rarely used on children:

A drawing of the process; 30% phenol was injected directly into the heart.

Two posts from Doctor Cobb. First, a citizen science paper, based on many individuals’ reports on the European adder, published in the Journal of Biogeography. You’d predict darker individuals in colder climes since they’ll warm up faster. The predator density claim, however, is more complicated than shown below.

What a cool paper! 🤩 Using @inaturalist.bsky.social observations, Mayer et al. found that there are more melanistic snakes in colder regions than in warmer ones AND that melanistic snakes are more abundant with ⬆️ avian predator density 🐍🐦 Have look at it here: doi.org/10.1111/jbi….

— Bibiana Rojas (@biobiiana.bsky.social) 2024-12-15T17:45:31.835Z

One of Matthew’s tweets that I retweeted with my own story.

I discovered Santa wasn't real when I read in one of my parents' books that something fake was "about as real as Santa Claus". I asked them for the truth, and they told me.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2024-12-16T19:06:29.726Z

31 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. You might, or might not, be interested to learn that PZ Meyers and the Horde are now suddenly opposed to shooting people to death. A remarkable turn-around in the last week or so, when opposing murder was “pearl-clutching”. Suddenly, there is a lot of “pearl-clutching” over there among the Horde…

  2. The idea that Clark is the greatest player in woman’s basketball history is completely laughable. She’s not even the best player currently in the WNBA and not even the best white player unless somehow you think she is better currently than Brianna Stewart which I doubt anyone who knows the sport, including Clark herself, thinks. You might make a case she was the best woman’s college player ever. She is certainly the most popular player ever. She had an excellent rookie year despite lots of turnovers and needs to get stronger. Maybe one day she will be the greatest but we’ll have to wait and see.

    1. Well, she was the first woman basketball player ever to keep ME spellbound when watching her.

    2. Agreed, but… Just like the NBA’s MVP award, it’s not about being the best player but rather the most important contributor to the team and/or the game. Clark undoubtedly was the biggest contributor to the WNBA this past year. As an aside, we in Colorado are fortunate to regularly watch two pro MVPs and the Heisman winner! First time in history that all three are from the same state.

    4. Caitlyn Clark may not be the greatest WNBA basketball player in history (yet) but she’s the best rookie of all time and you’re delusional because statistics matter.

      #1 scorer in NCAA college basketball, male or female (this alone is insane bc baskets don’t make themselves).
      Most assists in a season: 337
      Most assists in a game: 19
      Most points scored or assisted in a game: 66
      Fastest player to reach 350 points and 150 assists in a season.
      Fastest player to reach 400 points and 200 assists in 26 games.

      As a first year WNBA rookie with a weak team:
      Fastest player to reach 500 points and 200 assists in WNBA history.
      First player to record 20+ points, 15+ assists, and 5+ rebounds in a game in WNBA history.
      First rookie to achieve a triple-double in WNBA history.
      Second-most single-season three-pointers made in WNBA history.

      This is Steph Curry or Michael Jordan-level of play relative to the pros who have played in the league for years. All the male NBA players gush about how great a talent she is and they would know!

      1. Read what I said about college and her potential for the future. As for her year last year she was worth 3 win shares-the collective number of wins contributed by a player. Stewart was worth almost 9. She was massively more valuable. Not even close. Clark was a turnover machine who barely shot 40% from the field and even with 3s her true shooting percentage was good not great. She wasn’t even in the top 10 in the wnba by value while players like Michael Jordan were already near top in value as a rookie. In fact as a rookie Stewart was worth nearly 25% than Clark. This kind of hyperbole is one reason why those who understand the game get irritated by the overhype. Clark had a great rookie year and may grow to dominate the game but she is not there yet and the idea she is close to the best player now or even that she had the greatest rookie season is simply not true.

        https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/players/s/stewabr01w.html

  3. Thanks Matthew and Jerry. Not the only disappointment these kids can expect in listening to a vicar.

  4. Speaker Mike Johnson, July 14, 2024, on his Facebook page: “GOD protected President Trump yesterday…ironically, just as He miraculously protected George Washington from a gunfire ambush on July 9, 1755 – also in Pennsylvania, less than 50 miles from the Trump rally stage.”

    School kids and teachers? Get ready for “thoughts and prayers”. Evidently “GOD” hates school kids and teachers, or at the very least, doesn’t care enough about them to protect them.

  6. I would amend the words of the Bluesky…(tweet? flutter? flap?) post to say, “Not knowing the truth merely makes you ignorant. Not wanting to know the truth makes you stupid.”

  7. “How does any 15-year-old get ahold of a gun?” Chief Barnes said.

    In a country with 398.5 million guns, I’m sure it’s not that difficult Chief Barnes. It was probably in her Dad’s bed-side table.

    In an interview, the principal of the school said that even though this is a tragedy, God has a plan and there will be good that comes of it. Blind belief in the face of bleeding and dead kids. Despicable.

  8. Kamala in 2028? For President, probably no. For Governor of California, probably yes. But I’m just a superannuated paleontologist, not a political strategist (h/t to Professor Ceiling Cat, emeritus).

    Hey, but what about Israel? Is a hostage agreement in the offing?

    1. I think Israel is just waiting it out until Trump becomes President. I say “no deal unless all the hostages are returned, Hamas surrenders unconditionally, and no Palestinian terrorists are released from Israeli jails.” Of course, I’m not Netanyahu.

      1. On principle, I agree with you 100%. However, I think Netanyahu will settle for a lot less. He is under considerable pressure from the families of the hostages.

  9. It’s also Wright Brothers Day, celebrating what’s acknowledged to be the first flight of a heavier-than-air craft, which took place on this day in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

    Well, let’s be a bit pedantic but it is actually the first powered, unassisted, controlled fight of a heavier-than-air craft. People will come up with some counter examples to “prove” the Wright Brothers weren’t first, but they all fall short in one way or another. Either they weren’t fully controllable or they needed a catapult or something.

  10. Huh. I had a comment that now disappeared. Maybe because I edited it to add links to sources? At any rate, here it is again, without any links. Apologies if the original was simply held up in moderation and this gets duplicated.

    That’s most definitely not the 1903 Flyer in that video. I’m pretty sure there weren’t any movie cameras there in 1903, just a photographer (John Daniels). You can see the iconic photo of the first flight on Wikipedia. Note the prone position of the pilot.

    I’m not the biggest expert on the Wright brothers, but I’d guess that film is from 1905 or later. The 1905 Flyer III was where they finally achieved that level of control.

    Actually, doing just a bit of googling, I think it’s more likely that that’s the Model A. Note the fuel tank and seated position of the pilot. So that put’s the film at no earlier than 1907. And considering that their first public demo flights were in 1908, I’d guess the video is from 1908 or later.

  11. “I can’t remember another school shooting in which the perp was a female”

    Covenant School in Nashville last year. The shooter was born Audrey Elizabeth Hale. NPR, that helpful manual to all things woke, reported that “Authorities initially identified Hale as a woman but later clarified that Hale used he/him pronouns.”

    1. I think this is the third female lately.

      There’s some trans talk about this latest one also but it is hard to know given the MSM’s constant hiding the ball on these issues. Their coyness speaks volumes.

      If so…. maybe filling already disturbed teenage girls full of testosterone might have second order consequences?
      Nobody seems to be asking this question – isn’t it base level endocrinology?

      D.A.
      NYC

  12. Hili is occupying most of the chair. Must not be disturbed of course.

    Love the Tabby Road album cover! 🐈🐈🐈🐈

    Finally, the leftist readers of WaPo don’t want Harris to run again: one much liked post:

    “She lost in no small part because she went Woke. Woke is broke. People are disgusted by Woke.”

  13. As reported by Not The Bee (sister site to The Babylon Bee, but providing real news stories instead of parody), the shooter’s manifesto has been found and part of it included this: “Every single male must be wiped out, from babies to the elderly. Only then can women be free to create a new world. ill be a pioneer, ill be the first to take the first step.”

    They did add a disclaimer stating that if this is not correct that they will update it.

    Andy Ngo broke this story and includes the shooters name in his report, which is linked in the Not The Bee story. I didn’t link that story to avoid easy access to the killer’s name.

    https://notthebee.com/article/heres-all-we-know-about-the-madison-christian-school-shooter

  14. Perhaps the NY Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman will bless readers with a pearls of wisdom piece about the school shooting murders as she did with the CEO murder. Or is the school murder not of sufficient social status?

  15. In real life, Kamala ran a poor campaign in 2024. Her (non-answer) response to Sunny Hostin’s question, doomed her. Of course, she got zero delegates in 2019. Will she run for President in 2028? The Republicans certainly hope so. However, she is very likely to lose in the primaries (to the dismay of the Republicans). Could she run for Governor of California in 2026? Of course, she could and she would almost certainly win. Will she? I have no idea.

    1. A useful point in this context (Kamala running for President in 2028) is that an important faction in the Democratic party is already opposed. She is viewed (by her fellow Democrats) as being irresponsible when it come to money.

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