Welcome to The Crueliest Day: Tuesday, September 16, 2025, and National Guacamole Day. Is there anybody who doesn’t like this delicious dip or filling? Some notes from Wikipedia:
In the 1697 book, A New Voyage Round the World, the first known description of a guacamole recipe (though not known by that name) was by English privateer and naturalist William Dampier, who in his visit to Central America during one of his circumnavigations, noted a native preparation made of grinding together avocados, sugar, and lime juice.
Guacamole has increased avocado sales in the U.S., especially on Super Bowl Sunday and Cinco de Mayo. The rising consumption of guacamole is most likely due to the U.S. government lifting a ban on avocado imports in the 1990s and the growth of the U.S. Latino population.
It’s also Mayflower Day (celebrating the day in 1620 when the eponymous ship left Plymouth, England with 102 passengers), Mexican Independence Day (we had parades in Chicago last weekend), National Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day (my favorite bread besides sourdough), World Play-Doh Day (it was introduced on this day in 1955), and International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.
What’s in Play-Doh, anyway? Didn’t you used to taste it when you were a kid?. Wikipedia has the answer:
Play-Doh’s current manufacturer, Hasbro, says the compound is primarily a mixture of water, salt, and flour, while its 2004 United States patent indicates it is composed of water, a starch-based binder, a retrogradation inhibitor, salt, lubricant, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance, and color.
A petroleum additive gives the compound a smooth feel, and borax prevents mold from developing. Play-Doh contains wheat and may cause allergic reactions in people who are allergic to wheat gluten. It is not intended to be eaten.
Do not eat the Play-Doh!
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 16 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*In a NYT op-ed, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor. That’s because she believes everything he says (even his concerns for Jews!), and she thinks his policies will work.
In the past few months, I’ve had frank conversations with him. We’ve had our disagreements. But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family. I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.
I also shared with him my priorities, making it very clear that our police officers should have every resource to keep our streets and subways safe. I urged him to ensure that there is strong leadership at the helm of the N.Y.P.D. — and he agreed.
We discussed the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally. I’ve been glad to see him meet with Jewish leaders across the city, listening and addressing their concerns directly. I look forward to working together to make sure New Yorkers of all faiths feel safe and welcome in New York City.
I emphasized to him my belief in keeping and attracting businesses so that New York remains the center of the global economy and we create even more good-paying jobs for our residents.
Affordability has long been my top priority as governor, and it is the No. 1 concern I share with Mr. Mamdani. As governor, I’ve taken actions to realize this goal, including lowering middle-class income taxes and making school meals free for all students. But there is more work ahead of us.
And in light of the abhorrent and destructive policies coming out of Washington every day, I needed to know the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender one inch to President Trump.
I didn’t leave my conversations with Mr. Mamdani aligned with him on every issue. But I am confident that he has the courage, urgency and optimism New York City needs to lead it through the challenges of this moment.
Yes, she discussed things with him, including “the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally”. But what does he intend to do about that need? And meeting Jewish leaders? A show. His grocery stores are a farce, and his policies will bankrupt an already hurting NYC. The real reason for her endorsement, and I suppose it is enough, is this: “I needed to know the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender one inch to President Trump.” And I suppose that is enough. She also likes his character, but I’m not convinced it’s anything more than a show. Still, right now I don’t see a more viable candidate—certainly not a Republican.
And remember the WaPo op-ed yesterday from the editorial board: “The backpedaling of Sohran Mamdani has begun.”
*The game that is being played in Qatar is stranger: the U.S. condemning a country (Israel) for striking terrorists in a third country (Qatar), both of them supposedly allies. But condemnation? The U.S. of course did this to bin Laden holde up in Pakistan. And so pronounce all the other countries, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Qatar has not only housed Hamas terrorists in luxury, but also funneled money to Hamas in Gaza. Yet it is Israel who is condemned for striking their enemies in Qatar. The WSJ reports that the U.S. is trying to quell the furor that arose after the Qatar strike:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was looking to move beyond the Israeli strike on Hamas officials in Qatar that spurred a diplomatic crisis last week, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to target terrorists wherever they are despite international condemnation.
Rubio, who came to Israel on Sunday to “convey America’s priorities in the Israel-Hamas conflict,” said that he planned to push Qatar to “play a constructive role” in helping to mediate the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas. Rubio is tacking on a visit to Qatar on Tuesday after he finishes his trip to Israel, according to a senior State Department official.
The statements suggest that there has been limited fallout with the U.S. over the Israeli decision to strike an important American ally, even after President Trump said he was very unhappy with the Israeli move. Rubio and Netanyahu, standing alongside each other, also appeared lockstep on the war in Gaza. Rubio said the U.S. wants all the hostages released immediately and Hamas to cease to exist as an armed group, terms Netanyahu has said are a precondition for ending the war.
Rubio didn’t press Netanyahu publicly to end the war, saying a “concise military operation” to defeat Hamas might be necessary, an apparent reference to Israel’s expansion of the war into Gaza City, which the prime minister has described as the last remaining Hamas stronghold.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is trying to make a virtue of necessity: Israel’s weakening economic and diplomatic ties to the rest of the world.
After coming under fire for saying earlier today that Israel is facing increasing economic isolation as the war in Gaza drags on, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes a second stab at damage control.
“To all the doom-and-gloom forecasters in economics, in the end the Israeli stock market is the strongest in the world,” he says in a statement.
“The shekel has strengthened, the deficit has shrunk, despite the war, and foreign investment in R&D is the highest in the world, after the United States. Investing in Israel is the smart thing to do.”
Israel has to get used to going it alone, but by and large that is the fate of Jews. At least the U.S. is still on Israel’s side.
*As far as I know, Tyler Robinson confessed that he killed Charlie Kirk, and although he surrendered voluntarily to the cops with the help of relatives, he is not being “cooperative”. I suspect he’ll plead not guilty, though that will activate the “plea tax,” whereby someone who doesn’t confess may get a heavier sentence. Remember, this is a capital crime. If there is a trial, then the FBI has since accumulated more evidence that Robinson was the perp:
DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated matched that of the 22-year-old accused in the killing, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday.
Investigators also have used DNA evidence to link the suspect, Tyler Robinson, with a screwdriver recovered from the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired, Patel told Fox News Channel on Monday.
Authorities in Utah are preparing to file capital murder charges against Robinson as early as Tuesday in the killing of Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics who became a confidant of President Donald Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations.
. . .Patel told Fox News that Robinson had written in a note before the shooting that he had an opportunity to take out Kirk and was going to do it. Investigators were able to recover the note’s contents after it had been destroyed, the FBI director said, paraphrasing from the note without revealing more details.
Authorities said Robinson has not been cooperating with law enforcement. They say that he may have been “radicalized” online and that ammunition found in the gun used to kill Kirk included anti-fascist and meme-culture language engravings. Court records show that one bullet casing had the message, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”
There’s more evidence that Robinson was in a romantic relationship with a trans-identified male, but those details have already been revealed. Several sources say that this is confirmed, and that Robinson’s partner is cooperating with police. Since the partner didn’t know about the planned killing, I’m not sure what he can add to the evidence so far.
*NASA proudly announces the birth of new stars in spectacular photos and videos on the site, and I can reproduce them. Here’s from their report:
This is a sparkling scene of star birth captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.
Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. Its proximity makes this region one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve.
At the heart of this glittering cluster is the brilliant Pismis 24-1. It is at the center of a clump of stars above the jagged orange peaks, and the tallest spire is pointing directly toward it. Pismis 24-1 appears as a gigantic single star, and it was once thought to be the most massive known star. Scientists have since learned that it is composed of at least two stars, though they cannot be resolved in this image. At 74 and 66 solar masses, respectively, the two known stars are still among the most massive and luminous stars ever seen.
Here’s the photo with caption, and a bit more from NASA:
Captured in infrared light by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), this image reveals thousands of jewel-like stars of varying sizes and colors. The largest and most brilliant ones with the six-point diffraction spikes are the most massive stars in the cluster. Hundreds to thousands of smaller members of the cluster appear as white, yellow, and red, depending on their stellar type and the amount of dust enshrouding them. Webb also shows us tens of thousands of stars behind the cluster that are part of the Milky Way galaxy.
Super-hot, infant stars –some almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun – blast out scorching radiation and punishing winds that are sculpting a cavity into the wall of the star-forming nebula. That nebula extends far beyond NIRCam’s field of view. Only small portions of it are visible at the bottom and top right of the image. Streamers of hot, ionized gas flow off the ridges of the nebula, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks.
Dramatic spires jut from the glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form within them. The tallest spire spans about 5.4 light-years from its tip to the bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems out to Neptune’s orbit could fit into the width its tip, which is 0.14 lightyears.
In this image, the color cyan indicates hot or ionized hydrogen gas being heated up by the massive young stars. Dust molecules similar to smoke here on Earth are represented in orange. Red signifies cooler, denser molecular hydrogen. The darker the red, the denser the gas. Black denotes the densest gas, which is not emitting light. The wispy white features are dust and gas that are scattering starlight.
Here’s a short (41-second) video with the caption, “This zoom-in video shows the location of the young star cluster Pismis 24 on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo of the constellation Scorpius by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii. The sequence closes in on the Lobster Nebula, using views from the Digitized Sky Survey. As the video homes in on a select portion, it fades to a VISTA image in infrared light. The zoom continues in to the region around Pismis 24, where it transitions to the stunning image captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light.” Watch it!
And the credits for the video:
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers (STScI); Script Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Music: Christian Nieves (STScI); Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg Bacon (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA, Akira Fujii, DSS
*Finally, some nice biology about octopuses by
The eight arms of an octopus are right there in its name. But these biomechanical marvels share more in common with appendages found in other animals. Like an elephant’s trunk. Or your tongue.
That’s because octopus arms, like those other fleshy protuberances, are examples of muscular hydrostats, which produce force when different muscle groups relax and contract against one another. Such muscular contractions allow for “almost infinite degrees of freedom to bend, shorten, elongate, twist and turn,” said Chelsea Bennice, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Atlantic University Marine Science Laboratory.
In a study published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, Dr. Bennice and her colleagues sought to make that seemingly infinite catalog of motions a bit more finite. They pored over footage of wild octopuses, noting how the cephalopods flexed and twisted their arms as they explored their surroundings, hunted and scrambled over the seafloor. The researchers then broke these behaviors down into their base components, aiming to develop a comprehensive visual dictionary of octopus arm movements.
The authors found that the octopus arms can move in four ways (they can bend, elongate, shorten, or twist), and these can produce 12 “basic actions” (pushing, curling, grasping, etc.). These result in 15 classifiable behaviors (see figure below taken from the paper). Interestingly, several of these are also d*g behaviors (fetch, sit, stand).
They studied 25 octopuses, and each one was filmed in 25 different video clips. The result? I quote from the Trilobite piece:
Overall, the team logged 3,907 individual arm actions in the 25-minute cut, often employed simultaneously by different arms. The combinations of different arm movements hint at the intersection octopuses occupy as both predators and prey.
“Time is very precious, and they have to be efficient. That’s why they’re the ultimate multitasker,” Dr. Bennice said. “When they are out and are possibly in danger of a predator, they’re also looking for food. And as soon as they find food, they’re going to go back to their den.”
The octopuses in this study tended to use their front arms more than their back arms. They also often used their front arms for exploring and their back arms for locomotion. But each arm is capable of the full range of movements and behaviors. Previous laboratory studies had hinted that octopuses showed a preference for their right or left arms. However, the scientists in this study did not observe octopuses being “righties” or “lefties” in the wild.
“The beauty of this system, in many ways, is that you have eight arms, and all of those eight arms can do most of these actions,” said Roger Hanlon, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and an author of the study. That flexibility can come in handy if the octopus loses an arm or two to a predator like an eel.
Here’s the Nature article, which you can read for free by clicking on the screenshot:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej are feeling Socratic:
Hili: I feel like I’m understanding less and less.
Andrzej: You’re not alone in that.
In Polish:
Hili: Mam wrażenie, że rozumiem coraz mniej.
Ja: Nie jesteś w tym sama.
*******************
From Now That’s Wild: cats = crustaceans:
From Give Me a Sign:
From Things With Faces:
Masih and J. K. Rowling are both silent today, but we have some news from Belgian philosopher Maarten Boudry, , who wrote me this on Sunday, when he was giving a talk on antisemitism in an antisemitic country. However, the Belgian Prime Minister was in the audience!
I had the honor of speaking right before the Iranian dissident Afshin Ellian, who has a security detail of five bodyguards, 24/7. The Iranian regime is hunting him down like Masih Alinejad. A very charming and mild-mannered guy.
And his tweet, which begins a thread.
Yesterday I had the honor of speaking right before the brilliant and affable Afshin Ellian, a Dutch-Iranian law professor who’s forced to live under 24/7 bodyguard protection. Why? Because the Iranian regime hunts him down—and thousands of “regular” jihadis want to kill him too. pic.twitter.com/MlZiqfIKI2
— Maarten Boudry (@mboudry) September 15, 2025
There was a wonderful French imam there as well, who spoke movingly about his admiration for the resilience of the Jewish people, and called for peace & interfaith dialogue. Guess what? That imam needs protection as well, from his own co-religionists. /3 https://t.co/hM4cwsk98h
— Maarten Boudry (@mboudry) September 15, 2025
. . . and this last one:
From Simon, funny satire from The Onion:
Desperate Kash Patel Asks Shooter’s Family If They Can Solve Any Other Cases
From Malcolm, a d*g trim:
Good boy getting a trimpic.twitter.com/dYAUAqXDyf
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
A Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was only one year old. Had she lived, she'd be 82 today.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-16T10:26:44.444Z
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. Of the first one he says, “But I thought biological sex didn’t exist!”:
Researchers in a recent #ScienceReview examine the influence that biological sex exerts on the immune system and immune-related diseases. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4ln58Le
— Science Magazine (@science.org) 2025-09-14T20:18:01.321653512Z
Parrots having video chinwags:
Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔on.ft.com/3K05vhS
— Hetan Shah (@hetanshah.bsky.social) 2025-09-12T06:00:20.482Z
To answer your first question: Yes, there is. Guacamole, and avocados in general, literally make me gag.
“Is there anybody who doesn’t like this delicious dip or filling?”
Yup.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for. -Laurence J. Peter, educator and author (16 Sep 1919-1990)
The wave/waive pun reminded me of the Welsh rock band Budgie’s sixth album If I Were Brittania [sic] I’d Waive the Rules: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Were_Brittania_I%27d_Waive_the_Rules
It would be rather interesting if that weren’t a typo!
Oops. I’ll fix it.
Thanks for the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) report. This basic science, the understanding of star formation and the design and fabrication of unique and novel instruments such as JWST, to gather data, is the part of NASA’s budget under attack by the trump administration as it has recommended reducing Space Science support by close to 50%, from $8B to $4B per year. For information on a long known nebula and star nursery visible to the naked eye and resolvable in a small telescope, readers should visit the wikipedia page on the Orion Nebula at url
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula
Here’s more on the derangement over on Bluesky. Regarding the Kirk assassination, JK Rowling Tweeted a quote: “”The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.”
Responses on Bluesky include: “So JK Rowling is an illiberal fundamentalist totalitarian who supports Hitler … well at least she admit it”. (Link to source on X.)
One moron even says that her quote shows that JKR is a FAN of Hitler!
There is no hope for comity. . .
Fun fact: Play-Doh is one of only fifteen products with a trade-marked scent.
I feel sure I have noted this on a prior occasion.
At a familiy gathering the weekend had turned rainy and someone decided to make play-doh for the kids to play with inside. The play-doh turned out fine, but pure white in colour. There was no food dye in the kitchen, but I asked “Do you guys have a can of beetroot in the pantry?” We ended up with pretty pink play-doh. And tasty too.
I still love the smell of Play-Doh. And here’s another fun fact: you can buy Play-Doh-scented cologne:
https://demeterfragrance.com/collections/play-doh
I don’t know what Hochul means when she says Mamdani will “stand up” to Trump. How? By not enforcing the laws? I guess you can always rely on a Communist to do that (until they make the laws that is, and then the mass murders start). As long as the sole criterion for Dem candidates is that they aren’t Trump, the Democratic Party will continue to wither away.
Yes. RE Dem candidates who run on “not trump”: we have two excellent dems running for governor (former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger) and attorney general in VA. But so far their only response to republican attack ads on Trans and law & order issues is not to address the accusations head on or even tangentially, but rather to run ads on how bad trump has affected Virginians’ economic lives. My local dem friends and relatives think that a winning strategy. I think that that strategy is what got republican youngkin elected governor four years ago in what was generally thought to be a bluish purple state.
I saw that Dr. B… Hochul just lost my vote.
I was never in love with her – its a terrible job and…. she wasn’t terrible at it, all things considered. (when administering our state or unruly city you have to give people the benefit of the doubt).
But Mandami…. no way folks. No commie terrorist simping nepobabies in my Manhattan administration! No siree!
D.A.
NYC
ps – OOooh we’re so eff’ed here. 🙁
[ deep breath ]
[ exhale ]
Thanks for posting the science highlights … to think, in the depths of the night sky …
The Vera Rubin is coming online.
Also a website to view the goodness is at: https://skyviewer.app/
“Trillion” is satisfying on a primal level … I feel like I’m chewing the pixels … MOAR PIXELZ
Pixels schmixels. If I can’t see it with my own eyes through a lens I don’t believe it! But seriously, some years ago a neighbor came over and saw Saturn with its rings through my little 4-inch Astroscan RFT I had set on a table in my front yard. The planet was so sharp hanging there against the black night sky background that he accused me of faking it by putting a slide of Saturn in the telescope. I do miss the good old analog days every now and then.
It’s truly amazing to see the moon, the planets, and the stars through an optical telescope. They seem so real, so much real-er than false-color images on a screen (amazing though they may be). I have a spotting scope—not nearly as much light-gathering ability nor resolution as a telescope. But I love training it on the sky, looking at the craters on the moon or at the planetary disk of Jupiter. At high magnification I can almost see the bands of clouds that gird the planet. Through simple optical lenses, Jupiter is right there in my backyard!
For Norman: yes. I agree. My first experience with backyard optical aid was a little 60mm spyglass-like telescope which was a bar mitzvah gift from an optomotrist cousin. It was hard to focus on anything other than the moon, but jeebus what a view of sharp shadows, mountains, and craters. Can still see myself in the driveway that night more than sixty years later.
I showed Saturn to a bunch of neighbors with my olde 4 1/4″ reflector when we were hosting a block party. One lady burst into tears.
The first time I ever saw Saturn’s rings was when I was a young professor in my 20’s. I had a retiree auditing my class, a wonderful man named Vince Talley. (I believe that his daughter is Lynne Talley, an oceanographer at Scripps.) Having a grown up person in the classroom (unlike the 26-year-old professor and 19-year-old students) could be intimidating. But Vince was a sweetheart.
He was also an accomplished amateur astronomer. One evening, he arranged a stargazing event for whomever wanted to attend. My wife and I went. It was an incredible thrill to see the dot that is Saturn with the naked eye and then view the same dot through a nice, homemade telescope. The rings just blew my eyes out with brightness and color. I’ll never forget it.
3 trillion pixels is equivalent to 62,500 iPhone 17 Pros. Laying these phones end to end would be the length of 818 London busses and they would weigh the same as 2,778 average cats.
Chew on that!
@Mark Sturtevant
I understand that seeing Saturn and its rings, hanging in black outer-space on a starry blackdrop, would evince tears born of joy and awe and delight.
John Keats said it best.
From Wikipedia
Downthread, @Mark and @grasshopper, I felt the same way when I first saw the four Galilean moons of Jupiter with ordinary 8 x 50 binoculars braced against an urban streetlight pole…and the light was on! Imagine being the first human being ever to see something that shook the Church. Although I can well imagine the totally unexpected rings of Saturn must have caused jaws to drop and tears to flow.
Cinnamon raisin bread! When I was a kid I use to beg my father—who always did the grocery shopping—to buy raisin bread. I called it “Yay-Yay” bread. It was, and still is, a treat—especially when toasted—even when it’s the ordinary sliced stuff from the grocery store.
On to foreign affairs… .
Israel is being increasingly isolated, as we’ve observed and as Prime Minister Netanyahu has indicated, necessitating that Israel turn inward to create what it needs for its defense and for the economic well-being of its people. It’s a strong public admission from Netanyahu. I can only hope that the U.S.-Israel relationship remains robust, but I am concerned. The mercurial President Trump’s support can evaporate at any time. And, even if Trump’s support holds, what will happen when the administration changes? The potential whipsawing of policies from administration to administration makes it difficult for any country to predict what will come next. Israel is particularly vulnerable, and what will happen to our relationship with Israel when younger generations take the mantle of power?
Finally, to a different topic, the pictures takes by the James Webb Space Telescope are amazing—each image is a testament to the power of science.
Dear Norman, come down from that ledge!
It isn’t all doom in the Middle East.
Let me present my argument briefly:
“Israel is being increasingly isolated” – doesn’t matter much. Who cares what Irish or Norwegians or my own idiot Aussies want to virtue signal with all their “concerns”?
really. Eff them.
Survival is more important and (although I’m not a huge fan) Bibi has that all in order. By all metrics!
Trump is wildly, and worryingly unpredictable, but he knows where his interests lie (narcissists often do, the successful ones)… so he’s turning out more solid than I predicted.
Saudi Arabia is the main factor – Israel needs Abraham+, to properly triangulate the death cult in gaza. And utterly crush them. The Israelis know this.
I’ve never been more impressed or optimistic with Israel’s future than now.
I mean — and you are an older gentleman than I – surely you’ll remember how Israel is in a better situation now than the 70s.. the 80s.. or even the last few decades. Power wise.
I think we’re doing OK my friend,
D.A.
NYC
Hi David. I hope you’re right. I’ve been impressed with the way Israel has comported itself in prosecuting this war. When this is all over, many will again want to do business with the “startup nation.” But months and years of demonization may make it difficult for the Europeans to re-engage. And the youth have been terribly polluted by antisemitic and anti-Israel hate. Does Israel need them on their side? I don’t know, but anti-Israelism will continue to create friction for a long time to come. There are few countries in the world that are required to justify their existence decade after decade.
Yes, Israel is much stronger than in previous decades. Distancing itself from its socialist beginnings and embracing free markets has created a regional superpower. Today’s Israel is a military, political, technological, moral, and economic powerhouse.
The conditions that led to the Abraham accords still largely remain—Israel is a stabilizing force and a lucrative trading partner. Ironically, it may be the Arab nations that are first to deepen ties with Israel.
All that said, Israel is in a difficult position right now, and I am grateful that the United States has its back.
Yes, Norman.
And to quote Cindy Lauper: “Money changes everything.”
Now… I am biased, as a former money man – I really do think wealth cures everything bad.
And without its wealth – which I have to begrudgingly have to credit Bibi with – for his pro-market policies – there may be no Israel now.
I’m talking Intifada 2 and the way things were looking decades ago when, stupidly we still trusted the Pals. “You can have Gaza, Hamas.”
and
“they want to live just like we do!”.
But yet NO! They don’t. They want other things we can’t imagine and these things are the darkest, most medieval things that kill, and specifically kill Jews. They harken back to the iron age, 632-ish.
What Startup Nation did was make Israel so indispensable, and financially powerful – it attracted talent, sane UAE friendship, Abrahams, and kept indigenous talent at home.
Thus, Israel has the IT sector and… vitally… all the good things (David’s Sling, Iron Dome, Waze, etc) that come from that. These are essential.
The EU diplomatic battles — and those on our stupid campuses with girls who can’t get a date (sorry….), are just public relations. They don’t matter in the real world, in the world of precious lives: only money, steel, lasers, high explosives, jet propulsion actually DO.
Onwards Israeli heroes, and relax my friend. Honestly – I think we’re good. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
ps – I’ve possibly – like some kinda loudmouth ! overwritten my metric here in terms of posts – but I hope the Boss will forgive me for I feel it is an important point.
I’m able to access the review in Science “Sex differences…”. It’s quite good — straight-forward with a clear introduction, though of course it does dive into the thickets of immunology and genetics, so not an easy read. Moreover, the entire topic is so complex, it’s necessarily just an overview.
It’s packed with many delicious sentences one would be tempted to copy and paste here, but for word limits. (Hey, did you know that X inactivation is incomplete?) Also fun, if you can’t get the full article, is to use the link to read the abstract and one can also view the references therein (something I always like to do) and see how many times the term “sex differences” or a similar phrase occurs in the reference titles.
That Japanese sale was fuckin’ funny.
And as far as cats as crustaceans, they reminded me more of nautiluses than shrimp…
Ode to the Octopus Arm… Sounds like the title of a great poem. 🙂
One of the amusements of living in Japan is the use of English text “for decoration” regardless of its out-of-context, deeply weird, or sometimes even pornographic meanings.
Which the locals don’t understand bc nobody speaks English there or cares about English printed words. Lots of fuckin’ hilarity. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
I’ve never been to Japan (except for an Okinawa airport), but I’m fascinated by their culture. James May, a British presenter/commentator has a fun travel series on HBO: “Our Man in Japan” It’s filled with hilarious observations and anecdotes. Very fuckin’ funny!
Oh you gotta go, Mark. It is quite a trip.
D.A.
NYC
When I lived in Japan some years ago, I was surprised to see a young woman on the train who was wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Fuck Me Now”! I wondered if she understood what that meant. (As I was married, I did not attempt to find out.)
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Inspired by the style of Ebenezer Cooke, Poet and Laureate (and Sotweed Factor) of Maryland.
Damn, that’s good! And thanks for the Cooke reference, haven’t heard of him.
Here you may read all about him. Enjoy. https://ia601603.us.archive.org/0/items/sotweedfactor006326mbp/sotweedfactor006326mbp.pdf
Thanks!
Wow, so glad someone else has appreciated this masterpiece, which I think I’ve re-read twice, but so long ago. Barth captures the spirit of the 18th century English comic novels (e.g., Swift, Fielding) and makes it even better….
“Here moulds a posing, foppish Actor
Author of THE SOT-WEED FACTOR,
Falsely prais’d. Take Heed, who sees this
Epitaph; look ye to Jesus!
Labour not for Earthly Glory:
Fame’s a fickle Slut, and whory.
From thy Fancy’s chast Couch drive her.
He’s a Fool who’ll strive to swive her!”
“A book not worth reading twice isn’t worth reading once.”
I think I have enjoyed The Sotweed Factor at least four times 🙂