Monday: Hili dialogue

March 24, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the beginning of the “work” week, when many are “working from home,” doing chores and raiding the fridge. It’s March 24, 2025 and National Cheesesteak Day. This sandwich is at its best in Philadelphia, and its most famous purveyor is Pat’s, “The King of Steaks, ” celebrating its 95th anniversary.  Here, have one (I’ve never eaten one as I’ve been to Philly only once):

It’s also World Tuberculosis Day, National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day (I used to eat them in the movies when I was a kid, calling them “rabbit turds”), and National Cocktail Day.

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates. . . well, click on it and you’ll see (stay on the page for a few seconds after you click below):

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 21 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Given the failure of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israel is making a push to eradicate Hamas, mostly via killing off its high officials. The problem with the WSJ report below is that they are using statistics taken from Hamas without saying so, and also not noting that the dead (whose numbers we don’t know) surely include a large number of terrorists as well as family members of terrorists who were killed during a targeted strike. This is not to say, of course, that civilian deaths are okay, but that the figures misrepresent both the numbers and the aims of the IDF:

Israel’s military is expanding its ground operations across the Gaza Strip as talks to stop the fighting and release more hostages have stalled and the death toll in the enclave surpasses 50,000.

Israeli troops pressed into the northern Gaza border town of Beit Hanoun on Saturday to lay the groundwork for expanding Israel’s security buffer, a several-hundred-meter-wide zone the military has carved out within Gaza that spans its border with Israel.

The military said it is now operating in patches to expand its footprint and uproot Hamas infrastructure across Gaza, from Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the north to the Netzarim corridor bisecting the enclave’s middle and Rafah on the Egyptian border in the south. Fresh evacuation orders were issued Sunday for Palestinians to flee expanding operations in Rafah, as Israel said its forces had completed encircling the city’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood.

Israel is also targeting prominent members of Hamas. Airstrikes across Gaza overnight killed Salah al-Bardawil, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization said.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 600 Palestinians since fighting resumed with an intense air campaign on March 18, according to Palestinian health authorities, whose figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war has now killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since it began more than 17 months ago. [JAC: where did they get that data?] It was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. A two-month reprieve in the fighting ended this month after Israel and Hamas were unable to come to terms to extend their January cease-fire.

. . . Israel’s current moves are part of the government’s strategy to press Hamas to accept a deal to free the nearly 60 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel’s government is under intense public pressure to secure their release, and tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in the days since fighting resumed to urge their leaders to seek a deal.

I think we’ve learned, and it’s no surprise, that Hamas will NEVER release all the hostages, for if they do they would lose the only bargaining chip they have. Perhaps they would do so in return for Israel’s assurance that Hamas could continue to rule Gaza without Israel’s military in the territory, but Israel won’t want that. They want Hamas gone and out of power. This is a very tough situation. Egypt’s President offered to take half a million Gazan civilians, but that seems to have come to nothing. Oh, and the WSJ article doesn’t mention that Gaza has, in the last week or so, fired several rockets (around half a dozen) at Israel, but all of them were taken down by the Iron Dome.

*Remember when Trump said he wanted to buy Greenland from Denmark? I thought that came to nothing, and hope and believe that it won’t, but still. . . Trump is sending the Second Lady, Usha Vance, to Greenland this coming week along with other government officials. Greenland’s government is steamed:

Relations between Greenland and the United States sank further on Sunday as the Greenlandic prime minister erupted over what he called a “highly aggressive” delegation of senior officials the Trump administration said it would send to the island this week.

Usha Vance, the second lady, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, are among the officials headed to the island, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, though President Trump has vowed to make it part of the United States “one way or the other.”

Ms. Vance is scheduled to make a series of cultural stops after her arrival on Thursday, separate from Mr. Waltz. The national security adviser is supposed to be traveling earlier in the week with the U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright.

The prime minister, Mute B. Egede, said on Sunday that Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

He made the remarks, his angriest yet, to a Greenlandic newspaper on Sunday, and a high-ranking member of his party confirmed them. The prime minister seemed especially upset with Mr. Waltz’s involvement.

“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?” he asked. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”

“His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase,” he added.

Other Greenlandic officials complained about the inopportune timing of the visit, pointing out that Greenland had just held parliamentary elections and that a new government has not even been formed.

“The fact that the Americans are well aware we are in the middle of negotiations,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the most popular political party, “once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”

Ain’t gonna happen, Greenland becoming a U.S. possession; it’s no more likely than Canada becoming our 51st state. Still, why are we taxpayers funding an expensive trip to Greenland? It’s not just to watch a dogsled race!? Remember, just when you think Trump has forgotten about one of his campaign promises, it resurfaces.

*Spiders are smarter than you think, as the NYT reports (h/t Peggy). They soundproof their webs in cities!

There’s nothing worse than a noisy neighbor when you are trying to have a nice meal — even if that meal consists of liquefying the insides of your prey before sucking them back up.

New research shows that some spiders living in cities somehow weave soundproofing designs into the fabric of their webs to manage unwanted noise, which can make it difficult for them to find prey and detect mates.

. . . Funnel-web spiders are widespread in North America. Quarter-size with legs outstretched, these spiders attach their webs to everything, whether rocks and grass or human objects. They weave a kind of funnel into their webs where they typically hide from predators. Their silk isn’t sticky, so they rely on speed and ambush. After sensing prey on their webs, they burst out and attack, injecting their victims with venom and then liquefying their insides for easy digestion.

. . . . In a study published last week in the journal Current Biology, Dr. Pessman and Dr. Hebets rounded up arachnid city slickers and country bumpkins and took them to a laboratory. They placed each spider in a container with a speaker at the bottom that played either loud or quiet white noise for four days to the spider.

The researchers then analyzed the webs that each spider built by sending measured vibrations at different points.

Dr. Hebets and Dr. Pessman didn’t find much difference in the way the webs of city spiders and farm spiders transmitted vibrations when they played the quiet noise.

When they played loud noise to the city spiders, they found that their webs were less sensitive, transmitting fewer vibrations to the funnel. “Their webs were essentially quieter,” Dr. Pessman said. The researchers weren’t sure how the webs differed structurally, but it Dr. Pessman said it seemed clear that “they are cutting down on the constant noise they are getting close to where they are sitting.”

. . . . Conversely, when the country spiders heard loud noise, they built webs that were more sensitive. The researchers speculated that they weren’t used to that kind of racket and were desperately trying to sense incoming prey. It’s like turning up your television as a lawn mower passes close to your window.

The city spiders, on the other hand, essentially padded their walls because they were sick of it all — an adaptation that could put them at a disadvantage for hearing prey or potential mates, which also use vibrations to communicate their availability. But that may help the animals save their energy and not react to every urban sound they detect.

Note that this difference is seen as an “adaptation,” but is it evolved (with the genes differing among populations of the same spider) or learned, with the city spiders having learned what gets them the most prey and mates? Given the design of the experiment, it’s clear that the behavior can be learned, but I’m not sure if they can tell whether it has also evolved in city spiders. I suspect that there’s both a cultural learning component and an evolutionary component that makes spiders tune their webs to different amounts of noise.

*The AP reports that AOC is trying to find a segment of the Democratic Party to lead that is more centrist but still combative.

“She has become an inspiration to millions of young people,” Sanders said of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recounting her biograp

hy from a girl who helped her mother clean houses and later became a bartender before emerging as political insurgent who ousted a powerful New York Democrat in a U.S. House primary.

The crowd began a chant of her well-known moniker: “AOC! AOC!”

In a leaderless Democratic Party out of power in Washington, Ocasio-Cortez has a message and a connection with a segment of liberals feeling disenchanted with both parties. Now, in her fourth term, the 35-year-old congresswoman is working to broaden her appeal beyond her progressive, anti-establishment roots.

Hitting the road last week with Sanders for his “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies, she is addressing people who disagree with her and reframing the divide in the Democratic Party not as progressive versus moderate, but as those going after Republican President Donald Trump and those being more cautious.

Excuse me, but aren’t those two moieties pretty much overlapping? AOC has always aligned herself as progressive, so what is she now? Yes, she has outlined policies, but has avoided two of the ones that most motivated Republicans to vote for Trump: inflation and immigration. And I find her stand on Israel objectionable; she’s of a piece with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, but pretends otherwise.

“No matter who you voted for in the past, no matter if you know all the right words to say, no matter your race, religion, gender identity or status,” Ocasio-Cortez said to thousands in a rally at Arizona State University. “No matter even if you disagree with me on a few things. If you are willing to fight for someone you don’t know, you are welcome here.”

Her instinct to brawl is well-matched to the restlessness of the Democratic base, much of which sees top party officials like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer as not confrontational enough.

We’re lacking leadership right now, and we really just need someone to take the reins and tell us what to do,” said Kristen Hanson, a 41-year-old small business owner from Phoenix, whose search for a call to action brought her to see Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. “I’m not in politics, but I would be very happy to follow a leader who I believe in.”

But that instinct also irritates some elected Democrats.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, whose profile is also rising after her November victory in a state Trump won, was challenged recently by a constituent to more aggressively confront Trump like Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat who is becoming one of her party’s key messengers.

Slotkin said she had to be “more than just an activist” and noted that those lawmakers represent heavily Democratic areas.

“All of those things require me to be more than just an AOC,” she said. “I can’t do what she does because we live in a purple state and I’m a pragmatist.”

While I agree with a lot of AOC’s policies, somehow she rubs me the wrong way. As Big Daddy says, I sense an “odor of mendacity” about her and see an ambition that outweighs her desire to improve America (otherwise, why didn’t she have her finger on the pulse of middle Amerca?). And yes, Crockett is right: although the time may come when Trump has screwed up so much that it’s fine to go after him tooth and nail, that time is not right now.  Update: The Free Press now reports, however, that Democratic Illinois Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, wants to lead “The Resistance,”

To Ramirez, there was nothing mysterious about the great Democratic clobbering. Losing the White House, including every battleground state. Losing the Senate. Losing support among men, women, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews, tech bros—pretty much everyone.

The issue was that her party hadn’t gone far left enough.

“When the Democratic Party is the party of the establishment, when it’s the party that’s okay with the status quo, when the Democratic Party just pats itself on the back for minimal, dismal policy progress, then how different are we—how relatable are we?” she said.

AOC is currently on a political tour with Bernie Sanders.

*This is a new one: a California appeals court rules last week against allowing gun magazines containing more than ten rounds of ammunition. One of the dissenting judges made a video to demonstrate his contentions; the video was a formal part of his dissent.

An appeals court ruled Thursday that California’s law banning gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition can remain in place, a decision that prompted one judge to record an unusual video dissent that shows him loading guns in his chambers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that the law was permissible under the Second Amendment because large-capacity magazines are not considered “arms” or “protected accessories.”

Even if they were, California’s ban ”falls within the Nation’s tradition of protecting innocent persons by prohibiting especially dangerous uses of weapons and by regulating components necessary to the firing of a firearm,” the opinion stated.

Judge Lawrence VanDyke disagreed, and included a link to a video of himself posted on YouTube in his dissent.

“This is the first video like this that I’ve ever made,” VanDyke said. “I share this because a rudimentary understanding of how guns are made, sold, used, and commonly modified makes obvious why California’s proposed test and the one my colleagues are adopting today simply does not work.”

In the video, VanDyke handles several guns in his chambers and demonstrates how they are loaded and fired. He also shows high-capacity magazines and argues that they are no different from other gun accessories that could be added to a firearm to make it more dangerous. Under the majority’s logic, he said, that would allow the government to pick and choose any of them to be banned.

Here’s the video, a bit less than 11 minutes long. He has a gun in his office!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron gets ghosted by Hili:

Hili: Will you go with me to the garden?
A: Go with Szaron.
Hili: It’s not the same.
In Polish:
Hili: Pójdziesz ze mną do ogrodu?
Ja: Idź z Szaronem.
Hili: To nie to samo.

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

From Cat Memes:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Things with Faces, a leaf on the cement:

From Masih. This shouldn’t be happening, but should the mother kill herself if her son is kept in solitary for a bit over a month?

From Malgorzata. I’m amazed that UNRWA still exists, and although the U.S. no longer funds it, many other countries have increased their giving. The organization not only harbors terrorism, but teaches terrorism to kids, making them want to be “martyrs”. No rational person denies that (save members of the UN and Palestinians).

Let nobody say that Nellie Bowles is humble:

From my Twitter feed, with which I’m ethically aligned:

This is beautiful:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

A Dutch Jewish girl was gassed immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was twelve.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-03-24T10:21:39.607Z

Two posts from Professor Cobb (Emeritus). I haven’t read the first one yet but share Matthew’s reaction: “Oooh.”

Exciting #FossilFriday as our preprint on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social was picked up by @newscientist.com!You can read the prepint here: http://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1…

— Sandy Hetherington (@sandyheth.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T18:18:07.593Z

These two count as one, both connected to Matthew’s research for his biography of Crick (due in November).

In 1970, several scientists suggested that the double helix model of DNA was wrong. Among them, Jerry Donohue (who had put Watson and Crick right about the structure of the bases in 1953). Donohue sent Crick this result from a horse race, in which DOUBLE HELIX tired badly and came second…

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T10:14:39.581Z

Things soon turned less amicable as Nature published a snotty article calling the debate a brawl involving the hurling of custard pies, disdainfully referring to the ‘crystallographic dialectic’ on display and calling Donohue a fundamentalist and his idea heresy (‘odium theologicum’)…

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T10:14:39.582Z

39 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few. -William Morris, poet and novelist (24 Mar 1834-1896)

  2. The US national security advisor traveling to Greenland is not unwarranted. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Force Base, is the US Department of Defense’s northernmost post, and it is critical for ballistic missile warning and defense. Additionally, we conduct space surveillance operations, to include satellite tracking and control, from there. The location is also favorable for monitoring Russian activities in the Arctic. Russia is paying attention.

    1. You add the stupid move of visiting Greenland with Hegseth’s allowing an Atlantic journalist to receive top-secret war plans in Yemen, and we clearly see what happens when incompetent people are in charge of very important decisions and actions. And yes, DOGE is incompetent as well. It’s amateur hour every day, but it’s dangerous, because amateurs shouldn’t be in charge of the American government’s machinations and responsibilities. And it’s only been two months. Could you imagine if the Biden administration did what Hegseth, et al did? There would certainly be calls for firings. Hopefully the Dems do just that.

      1. Not sure what any of that has to do with either BMEWS or satellite operations, but, okay. When you are done ranting you can look into high-level visits to Greenland going back to the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations. Whether it be prompted by environmental matters, increased interest by Russia and China in Arctic operations, or more pedestrian matters of essential military capability, such visits are not unwarranted.

        1. Your spin is ridiculous. You probably believe Trump’s line that Greenland invited them. It’s also been a spectacular failure (of course!). If you can’t see that this was simply an intimidation tactic (one that didn’t work), I have some beach front property in Arizona to sell you.

  4. AOC is hideous. If she’s the future of the Dems I’ll join the GoP (a bizarre thought for me! I worked and volunteered for Hillary. But they’ve become THAT bad).

    WSJ playing hide the ball with Gaza and Hamas is common (see New Woke Times or WaPo) but unusual for the WSJ.

    —A side thought here – Are there ANY real “civilians” in Gaza? This is a society unlike our own – or even the dozen or so Muslim countries I’ve visited: In Gaza the load bearing wall of morality and civic society is KILL THE JEWS.

    It is hard for us to get our heads around such a system, so we avoid it or deny it, but that is the way it is there. It is a society-wide obsession like we can’t imagine. Little kids go to Jihad Camp like we send kids to summer camp.
    So… civilians?

    For the record my guess (and it is just an armchair guess) is nearly all the remaining hostages are dead.
    More certainly…I think the IDF believe this because the wider war is about to commence. (Feel free to quote me in a few months if I am wrong).

    Onwards Israeli heroes.

    D.A.
    NYC

      1. Some results from https://www.allacronyms.com/AOC , sorted by relevance:
        Area of Concern
        Association of Old Crows
        American Orthodox Church
        Area of Contamination
        Area of Concern
        Asshole Of Congress
        Agents of Chaos
        American Order of Clansmen

      2. ^^The reference to alchemy is not random :

        Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition
        Glenn Alexander Magee
        Cornell University Press
        2001

        Hegel is the direct predecessor Marx, all in the dialectic river of Left (Hegel’s term – not a modern term at all).

    2. If civilians in Gaza have become “militarized”, and I am inclined to accept your premise that they have, David, a terrible fate awaits them, one that is permissible under the law of armed conflict. Imagine if the entire populace is a human shield for a genocidal cause.

    3. Agree about AOC. She’s too far left. Yet she has lots of fans. At that Robert Reich Substack I saw them in the comments (I’ve since dropped him).

      Are there no moderate politicians between Trump and AOC?

      1. I believe that there are, including two from here in Colorado – Representative Jason Crow and Governor Jared Polis. Worth googling them if you are unfamiliar.

        1. I will check them out. Apparently Bernie Sanders and AOC are going cross country holding anti-Trump revival meetings. They’re getting publicity and other Dems aren’t.

          1. Indeed. They were in Denver last Friday, and about 35,000 people showed up [of course DonOld really doesn’t care about crowd size does he? ;-)] I don’t think that the turn-out represents great support for Bernie and AOC, but rather is about making a statement to show the great dissatisfaction of what Trump and his Cult are doing to this country.

        2. Replying to your last comment which is too nested for a reply: I agree people are not necessarily fans of Bernie or AOC. But they are symbol of resistance to Trump.

          And that’s badly needed.

  5. That 50,000 number in Gaza is all over the news, picked up by multiple outlets. I think I saw it first at the AP, but it has been reported widely. According to the reports, the number comes from Hamas itself—the Palestinian Health Ministry. Of course, since it’s a nice round number, 50,000 is a bright shiny object that gives the media another opportunity to smear Israel.

    1. To believe the 50,000 number, one would need to accept:

      The Gaza Ministry of Health knows the real numbers and is telling the truth
      None of the dead are Hamas fighters
      No one died of natural causes in Gaza in the last 17 months (the expected number is something like 7000)

      1. Correct. Hamas lies like a rug. Yet their figures are accepted without question by every news outlet I have seen.

    2. Yes, and has anyone heard this number reported without it ending with “including women and children”? Duh! That’s all there are. Men, women and children. Quit it already!

  6. “I think we’ve learned, and it’s no surprise, that Hamas will NEVER release all the hostages”. I disagree. At the very end, when Hamas has been completely defeated, I think they will trade the hostages for safe passage out of Gaza (presumably they will go to Qatar). Of course, they could get that deal right now, but they won’t.

  7. War is a horrible business. Civilians die (women and children) in large numbers. Should we have not bombed Germany and Japan to keep them alive? I think not.

    1. Wilfred Reilly has a chapter on the use of nukes in WWII in Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me.

        1. I couldn’t find my notes but I’ll find the chapter title […] that was harder than I thought :

          [quote]

          Lie #7: “American Use of Nukes to End World War Two Was ‘Evil’ and ‘Unjustified””

          [end quote]

          2. Just recently I have watched a Japanese movie called “Japan’s Longest Day” which was about preventing a military coup against Emperor Hirohito after he had accepted the peace terms presented in the Potsdam Agreement, but before he had made a public announcement of the fact. I also have recently read some books about the military preparations for the defence of the Japanese home islands should the allies invade. In either the movie, or in one of the books, one general said he was prepared to see up to twelve million civilian deaths to prevent a successful invasion.

            The allies were planning on up to one million casualties during the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

            The use of nuclear weapons was the lesser ‘evil’, I think.

    1. Hamas esse delendam. – Hamas is to be destroyed.

      The perfect tense would be perfect, but it ain’t so for now.

  9. On the gun magazine size issue:

    The same law (essentially) was passed in Washington state, where I live. We can no longer legally purchase the standard magazines for most of the most popular models of guns. It demonstrates that those passing such laws know very little about the firearms that they are regulating.

    The great majority of popular guns have a standard magazine (the one they come with from the factory and which is easily purchased separately for a low price) which has capacity greater than 10 rounds. Typical capacities are 12 to 16 rounds.

    It’s unclear to me why you would want to make illegal the standard components of garden-variety firearms, which have been clearly ruled to be legal by the SCOTUS and which are owned by many millions of people in the US. This seems like an invitation to scofflawry, which is unlikely to yield positive results.

    To be clear: I am in favor of greater regulation of firearms in the USA. This is just a stupid way to do it. And it just flags to gun owners that the regulators don’t know what they are talking about.

    All that said, I AM in favor of banning extended (larger capacity than standard) magazines, such as the 33-round extended magazines used by Jared Loughner against Gabby Giffords. No one needs a magazine like that for personal protection, hunting, etc. It would more than likely hinder you in personal protection rather than help you.

    I am in favor of:
    1. Registering of every gun
    2. Universal background check prior to purchase
    3. Holding gun owners legally responsible for the fate of their guns. They should be required to report all guns sales, losses, theft, gifting, etc. to the police or other government body.
    4. Close all sales loopholes for anonymous buying (gun shows, person to person, etc. (See 2))
    5. Legally require guns to be locked when not in use
    6. Require gun owners to complete a safety course prior to purchase
    7. Prohibit, among others, those on the terrorism watch list and convicted felons from owning guns.
    8. Universal red-flag law
    9. Magazine size upper limit. No one needs a 33-round magazine.
    10. Prohibit fully-automatic actions, bump-stocks, etc. that convert to high fire rates
    11. Age limits on purchasing/owning firearms

    Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from these measures.

    If you haven’t read this before, I highly recommend it: https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-riddle-of-the-gun

  11. Good thing that Judge Lawrence VanDyke is wearing his judicial robe: it hides his erection.

  12. It was because of AOC and her ilk that Amazon in 2019 did not build their new HQ in Queens. Instead Amazon erected two 20 story office buildings in Arlington VA with room for 8,000 workers. I’m sure the NYC bodega workers she represents continue to be happy about that.

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