Welcome to a Hump Day (“Latha a’ Chnuic” in Scots Gaelic): May 5, 2026, and Great American Grump Day. Here’s one—posted right now, and before coffee:
After coffee (note Hili on the cup drinking milk from a mug that her picture is on):
It’s also National No Diet Day, National Beverage Day, National Crêpe Suzette Day, and World Carnivorous Plant Day. Here are some scenes from the 1986 movie about mutated carnivorous plants, “Little Shop of Horrors“:
@cinephileshaven The moment the beauty stepped inside, a 3-meter-tall man-eating plant wrapped her up in an instant! The man-eating plant apocalypse has arrived. #film #fyp #usa_tiktok #oscars2025 #comedies #apocalypse #love #horror #littleshopofhorrors
Only a few people appear to be reading these dialogues, at least judging by the comments on Monday’s Hili. This is sad.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 6 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The war with Iran is back on, though Trump denies it. Here’s the latest from It’s Noon in Israel:
It’s Tuesday, May 5, and yesterday, shortly after news broke that the UAE was attacked by Iran, Jerusalem shook with a massive sonic boom as a squadron of Israeli Air Force fighter jets tore overhead. Naturally, the exact same thought popped into every head in the city at once: “Looks like the war is back on.” After 20 minutes of mentally inventorying the supplies needed for a return to the bomb shelters, the IAF finally issued a clarification. This wasn’t a combat sortie heading east; it was just a rehearsal for the farewell flyover honoring outgoing IAF Chief Tomer Bar. Apparently, the IAF takes going out with a bang quite literally.
But the Jerusalemites’ fear of regional escalation is well-founded, especially after yesterday’s events. As part of “Operation Freedom,” U.S. destroyers successfully guided commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz—sinking six Iranian fast-attack craft that attempted to interfere in the process.
This left the regime in an incredibly awkward position: its threats of a blockade had just been exposed as empty. Unable to pierce the defenses of the U.S. convoy, Iran immediately pivoted to softer targets. They struck the UAE’s oil infrastructure in Fujairah, a South Korean cargo vessel, and impacted Oman.
So, is the war back on? Not exactly.
President Donald Trump indicated that these most recent Iranian attacks did not constitute a ceasefire violation, stating there was no “heavy firing” involved. Welcome to the “Israel Club,” UAE—sometimes your immediate security needs are subordinated to a larger U.S. strategic goal.
The larger goal here isn’t the collapse of the Iranian regime; it’s the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. While Operation Freedom was ostensibly a humanitarian mission to extract trapped ships, it was also a test of a classic naval strategy: the convoy escort. The mission proved to both Trump and the Iranians that if the U.S. wants to, it can forcefully reopen the strait by escorting international shipping.
It’s a powerful strategy that becomes even more potent under a continuing ceasefire. It transforms what was previously a two-way street of passive economic pressure into a one-way street aimed directly at Iran. Any economic ticking clock that might have been pressuring Trump to withdraw freezes, while the clock measuring the lifespan of the regime just keeps ticking.
The United States and Iran made competing claims over which side controlled the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, adding pressure to their shaky cease-fire after the U.S. Navy launched an effort to protect vessels through the vital oil shipping route.
The strait itself remains effectively closed: Only two ships were known to have passed through the waterway on Monday, and none had made the trip on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. effort to free trapped vessels is ongoing, adding “We’re ensuring that we have control of that strait, which we do.” Iran’s state broadcaster dismissed the U.S. effort as a failure and said Iranian control over the strait had “intensified.”
Of course the Iranian attacks were a ceasefire violation. Trump is pretending that there is peace when there is no peace: both Iran and the U.S. say they’re controlling the Strait. I’m appalled by the pretense, but also curious about how this whole thing will turn out.
*You may have heard that a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean (now off the Cape Verde Islands in Africa) has had some passengers infected with a deadly hantavirus, a virus that’s normally spread by rodents and not human-to-human contact. Several passengers have already died, and they’re not letting anybody off the ship, which probably means that everybody is locked in their cabin and is being brought some kind of sterile food. I saw a video last night that a passenger made, and boy, was he anxious and ready to go home. But the ship was described as floating with its cargo of live and dead passengers. (They didn’t mention whether the dead had been evacuated.) Now the WSJ reports that this virus may ineed be transmitted by humans:
The World Health Organization said it is possible there was human-to-human transmission of hantavirus on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, a rare way the virus typically carried by rodents can spread.
“We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that’s happening among the really close contacts,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said Tuesday morning.
“We don’t have a full picture yet,” she said, “but we have some working assumptions.”
A suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard a ship carrying 147 passengers and crew has led to three deaths and four other infections, according to the WHO. Two of the seven total cases have been confirmed in laboratories as hantavirus, and the five others were suspected cases, the WHO said.
The passenger-cruise ship called MV Hondius was traveling in the Atlantic Ocean, said the vessel’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions, and is currently off the coast of the West African nation of Cape Verde.
Officials are preparing to evacuate two sick people on board to the Netherlands, Van Kerkhove said. After they are evacuated, the ship will go to the Canary Islands, where Spanish authorities will welcome the ship and work with the WHO to do a full epidemiological investigation, Van Kerkhove said. Oceanwide Expeditions said Tuesday discussions related to the ship’s next steps for disembarkment “are ongoing.”
The MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina, in early April and made stops in Antarctica and the British territory of St. Helena before anchoring off Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on Sunday. Local health authorities chose not to allow the ship to dock in Praia due to public health concerns, according to a statement from Cape Verde’s health authority.
Health workers getting off the MV Hondius after a suspected hantavirus outbreak. Qasem Elhato/Associated Press Hantavirus, a family of viruses carried by rodents and spread to humans through contact with infected urine, droppings or saliva, doesn’t typically spread between humans. But one strain of the virus found primarily in Chile and Argentina, known as the Andes virus, has shown limited evidence of human-to-human transmission.
While epidemiological assessments and testing are still under way, Van Kerkhove said the WHO is operating under the assumption that this hantavirus virus is the Andes variant. A Dutch man who died on the ship on April 11 and his wife who died later that month were both infected with hantavirus.
I’ve been to Ushuaia on previous trips to the Antarctic and am going again when I travel to the island of South Georgia. I was on one trip where there was a Covid infection aboard, and as “crew” (a lecturer) I was tested every day. Passengers were tested, too, and those who were positive were confined to their cabins with a chair put in front of the door as a warning. A hantavirus outbreak on a small Antarctic cruise ship is about the most horrific travel situation I can imagine.
*The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded. The ones for journalism are hardly worth mentioning (see here if you must), but here are the awards for Books, Drama & Music. Click on the titles to see something about the work. Links go to the Pulitzer’s description of the work and why it won. I’ve added a description of a few:
FictionAngel Down, by Daniel Kraus (Atria Books)
A breathless novel of World War I, a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence. [JAC: this is one I want to read.]
DramaLiberation, by Bess Wohl
HistoryWe the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, by Jill Lepore (Liveright)
Ms. Lepore won the prize for “a lively and engaging narrative that investigates why the Constitution is so difficult to amend, including a review of noteworthy failed amendments proposed by marginalized groups,” the committee said.
BiographyPride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution, by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A lively and detailed biography of two daughters of wealthy and influential Dutch landowners who colored our nation’s history, using present tense to tell their story and past tense to chronicle the dramatic sweep of the American Revolution.
Memoir or AutobiographyThings in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A writer’s deeply moving and revelatory account of losing her younger son to suicide a little more than six years after her older son died in the same manner, an austere and defiant memoir of acceptance that focuses on facts, language and the persistence of life. [JAC: Another one I want to read.]
General NonfictionThere Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brian Goldstone (Crown)
A feat of reportage, analysis and storytelling focusing on the issues that have created a national crisis of family homelessness among the so-called working poor.
*ScienceDaily reports on a paper in eLife about the sideways walking of crabs. It turns out that the sidewayswalk evolved only once, and was inherited by all its ancestors that now walk sideways. Some crabs still walk forward, though. (h/t Barry). The phylogeny below, taken from the eLife paper, shows the sideways walkers in blue and the straight walkers in read. You can see that all the modern sideways walkers are descendants of a species that lived about 200-150 million years ago. Before that, the ancestral condition was walking straight. It also shows that some species, like those in the genera Lybia, Arcania, and Dorippe, reversed their walks, coming from a sideways walking ancestor but evolving back to the ancestral condition of walking straight.
From ScienceDaily, which addresses the question of why some crabs do walk sideways:
A new study, released as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, brings together the largest dataset yet on how crabs move. By comparing many species, the researchers traced this unusual walking style back to a shared ancestor that lived roughly 200 million years ago. Editors at eLife describe the findings as valuable and supported by largely convincing evidence, with broad relevance for scientists studying how animals move.
Sideways walking is a hallmark of ‘true crabs’ (Brachyura), the largest group among crab decapods. This unusual way of moving may offer important advantages. For example, it can help crabs escape predators by making their direction harder to predict.
“Sideways locomotion may have contributed significantly to the ecological success of true crabs,” says senior corresponding author Yuuki Kawabata, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, Japan. “There are around 7,904 species of true crabs, far exceeding that of their sister group, Anomura, or their closest relatives, Astacidea; they have colonized diverse habitats around the world, including terrestrial, freshwater and deep-sea environments; and their crab-like body shape has evolved repeatedly over time in a phenomenon known as carcinization.
“Despite the rich information available on true crabs, data concerning their locomotor behaviors are sparse. Although most true crab species use sideways locomotion, there are some groups that walk forwards, which raises some interesting questions. When did their sideways locomotion originate, how many times over the years did it evolve, and how many times did it revert?”
. . . Out of the 50 species studied, 35 primarily moved sideways, while 15 moved forward. When the researchers mapped these behaviors onto the evolutionary tree, a clear pattern emerged. Sideways walking appears to have evolved just once, originating from a forward-walking ancestor at the base of Eubrachyura, a group that includes more advanced crabs. After that point, the trait remained largely unchanged across true crabs.
“This single event contrasts starkly with carcinization, which has occurred repeatedly across decapod species,” Kawabata explains. “This highlights that while body shapes may converge multiple times, behavioral changes such as sideways walking can be rare.”
The researchers suggest that this one-time shift to sideways movement may have played a major role in the success of true crabs. Moving laterally allows crabs to travel quickly in either direction, making it easier to evade predators. At the same time, this type of locomotion is uncommon across the animal kingdom, possibly because it can interfere with other important activities such as burrowing, mating and feeding.
According to the authors, sideways walking may represent a rare evolutionary innovation seen mainly in true crabs, and possibly in a few other groups.
There you have it. You’ll be the life of the party if you ask people about what evolutionary advantages may come from crabs walking sideways.
*The speaker for the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement deviated from the topic on which he said he’d speak and instead spoke about. . . . well, guess. You will undoubtedly be correct. The University apologized:
The University of Michigan has issued a formal apology after its faculty senate chair went off-script to praise anti-Israel student protesters during last weekend’s commencement address.
Derek Peterson, who also praised the memory of the school’s first Jewish professor in his speech, had drawn criticism from Michigan Hillel and from major organizations, including the American Jewish Committee.
Now, a growing chorus of faculty members have signed a letter pushing back on the school president’s apology. On the right, Florida GOP Senator Rick Scott has urged the federal government to stop funding the public university over the incident, writing, “If this is what Americans are paying for, it’s time to cut them off COMPLETELY.”
“At today’s U-M spring commencement ceremony, our outgoing Faculty Senate Chair made remarks regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict that were hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community,” Michigan’s interim president, Domenico Grasso, wrote in his letter on Saturday. “We regret the pain this has caused on a day devoted to celebration and accomplishment. For this, the university apologizes.”
Peterson, a history and African-American studies professor who is finishing a stint as faculty chair, had structured his commencement speech around pioneers in university history.
. . .Peterson’s comments, Grasso said, “were inappropriate and do not represent our institutional position,” which he said was “institutional neutrality.” (Many universities have adopted a stance of neutrality in recent years as they have sought to navigate tensions around Israel.)
Grasso added, “Commencement is a time of celebration, recognition and unity. The Chair’s remarks were expected to be congratulatory, not a platform for personal or political expression.”
Here’s a video clip of his remarks, provided by Peterson himself. He first touts the admission of Jewish and black students and professors, but then, at 4:30, he segues into the part where he praises the pro-Palestinian activists who “opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza” (note the loud cheers from the students; there was an encampment at this University). You might say that by simultaneously calling attention to past Jewish and black “pioneer” students, Peterson’s remarks about Gaza weren’t so bad, but it’s clear that his real aim was to slip in praise for the pro-Hamas students. Or do you think it was okay? After all, while he’s touting minority students and faculty who were hired, he’s touting activists, not Gazans who were admitted to the school.
From CBS News: Here’s how Peterson defended his remarks:
“I would however urge Regent Hubbard to review the comments I actually made at yesterday’s commencement. It should not be controversial to have one’s “heart opened to the inhumanity and injustice of Israel’s war in Gaza”, which is what I credited activists with doing. Having an open heart to other people’s suffering is a fundamental human virtue. It is a quality that I hope we teach our students, whatever their political posture might be.
“So I am mystified about what I have done to earn Regent Hubbard’s ire. I have – like many of us here in Michigan – been convicted by the evidence of human suffering in Gaza; and I credit my awareness of that to pro-Palestinian activists. That is why I gave the speech that I did. On a day meant to honor students for their accomplishments, I thought it important that we would honor the student activists who have, over the course of time, pushed the institution toward justice.
He can say what he wants, of course, but should stick to the speech he gave in advance to the administration, which he knew was a lie. I would object to pro-Israel remarks just as vehemently as to these, particularly if a lie was also involved. Pushing an ideological point of view is inappropriate in a nonpolitical speech.
You can find the President’s apology here.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s pessimistic about the weather.
Szaron: I smell full spring in the air.
Hili: It will be over sooner than you think.
In Polish:
Szaron: Czuję zapach pełnej wiosny.
Hili: To minie szybciej niż myślisz.
*******************
From The Language Nerds:
From CinEmma:
From Funny and Strange Signs:
*Iran has executed three more detained protestors. This is of course on top of the 30,000 that were shot in the streets, but this doesn’t get as much attention. Masih makes sure it gets some:
All these three Iranians have been hanged today. This is a campaign of terror and the world is watching like it’s just another Netflix series, waiting to see how many episodes it takes before anyone actually does something.
The Islamic Republic has executed three more men,… pic.twitter.com/R3gHZZcXwb
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) May 4, 2026
From Luana: geneticist David Reich on the “freezing” of interbreeding between northern and southern populations in India:
One of the coolest stories I heard from David Reich about the interaction between genetics and human culture:
The caste system was powerful enough to essentially ‘freeze’ Indian genetics for thousands of years, almost completely stopping the process of genetic mixture. pic.twitter.com/SEJtKjODLj
— Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) May 4, 2026
Larry the Cat doesn’t like Boris Johnson:
Cat check: Boris Johnson has fathered 9 (nine) children that we know of. https://t.co/Csw5iMzzY8
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) May 1, 2026
Two from my feed. I hope the first one is real. That horse is getting the strings out of tune! (Sound up, of course.)
🐴🎸If this doesn’t make you grin, then something is wrong with you! 😅 pic.twitter.com/1VTmvahrGt
— truthache (@truthache68) May 4, 2026
A free simian shampoo. Translation from the Turkish: “A woman who went to a park in China shared the moments when she had a monkey clean her hair.”
Çin’de bir parka giden kadın, saçındakileri maymuna temizlettiği anları paylaştı pic.twitter.com/QFufR1xdN9
— Bulvar Medya (@Bulvarpress) May 4, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Hungarian girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was ten years old, and would be 92 today had she lived. https://t.co/C2tTJ6jQYu
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) May 6, 2026
And two from Dr. Cobb. If Wikipedia is making a joke here, it’s a lame one:
famously the only joke allowed on Wikipedia is, in their List of Whales, any entry that is missing a photo says [cetacean needed] apparently some unfunny losers have made it their job to find public domain images of whales to eradicate this jokeonly one instance of [cetacean needed] remains
— Ian Danskin (@innuendostudios.bsky.social) 2026-05-02T16:43:47.775Z
And one of a thread by SMBC on theodicy:
Brought to you by the All Theodicy compilation of SMBC, coming 2035.COMIC ◆ http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/infini… PATREON ◆ http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm…STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
— SMBC Comics (@smbccomics.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T22:30:09.398Z
The end of your discussion of the UM speech has a misprint: “Pushing an ideological point of view is inappropriate in a political speech.” I think you mean non-political speech.
Yes, it was a typo. Fixed now, thanks.
Reading the morning dialogue from WEIT is part of my morning ritual, right after reading the news. Please don’t stop posting them. I don’t always comment because I don’t always feel I have anything pertinent to say, but I am reading them.
I agree with Reese. I read a few others (SpaceNews, ToI) first awaiting the regular 0645 Chicago time posting…you surprised me today with the early post! And there are data: I think that the number of comments you got last week when you thought out loud that nobody cared, indicated that there are many readers who consume but just do not post. A few of us have been gently reminded of violating da roolz guidelines on over-posting and thus chastised, in my case, have held my tongue (fingers) multiple times in the past few weeks.
Bottom line: there are plenty of us who start our day with the Princess and da nooz….and appreciate your work and Renaissance-man like expertise in bringing it all to us…Bat!
PS: and you yourself told me several years ago that it is impossible to predict what type of response a post will get. I was a bit surprised the other day that nobody commented on my two posts regarding Judge Altman’s excellent, recently published book for the lay reader, “Israel on Trial”. So it goes.
Thanks for the tip about the book by Altman. I’d missed your other posts about it, but now I’ve looked it up and I plan to read it.
Likewise.
Judge Altman writes about DNA evidence on pg 37 based, it appears, on a paper and work by Gil Atzmon. It would be good if one of the numerous genetics and evolutionary biology expert WEIT readers could comment on these assertions. Before I use them in my own ripostes to Pali demonstrators, I would like to see a peer review from you guys.
I somehow missed your posts (or was it comments), but I’ve put the book on my to-read list. I especially like that it is written by a judge, since judges know well the rules of evidence and honest argumentation.
I’d like to see books like that taught alongside the books that are basically anti-Israel screeds.
The judge also has a 45′ YouTube posting on the book.
A few times I’ve typed up a reply and then decided it’s probably not interesting to other people so it’s possibly a waste of a comment. I think the most recent one was in the discussion on zoos. IIRC the dialogue said that zoos have never done anything good. I disapprove of zoos generally, but I typed a few examples of where they have done good, including how London Zoo saved mountain chicken frogs from extinction. They were being killed en masses by a fungus. The zoo removed the survivors, bred them and re introduced them to their natural habitat.
But I see I’ve ended up saying it anyway, so I should have put it as a comment on the original dialogue 😂
https://www.londonzoo.org/conservation/frog-conservation-london-zoo
Ditto. Thanks Jerry, and reese.
Agree, Hili normally pops up just as I finish breakfast, so I have time to read through before work. As a result I read the column pretty much every day. However, I rarely have something that needs saying at 7am or whenever I finish (later today, since I’ll be scribbling at home this morning). Failure to comment is not failure to enjoy.
I also read every day. I don’t comment every day.
Ditto!
I read this website every morning, and then come back in the evening to see if anything has been added. I don’t feel the need to always leave a comment, as I follow the rule “Speak when you have something to say; don’t speak just to say something.”
I read this site every day first thing in the morning. The mixture of science, news, politics, humor, and interesting tidbits is unique and cannot be beat IMO. However, I don’t comment every day because I subscribe to the philosophy of Mr. Ed, who never speaks unless he has something to say. So absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or something like that.
“Only a few people appear to be reading these dialogues […]”
This reminds me of the more selective scene in Spinal Tap : https://youtu.be/UZ6JxAgmxXg?si=yiy52JI5esA4uoi0
Cheers PCC(E)!
🍺
I have been reading, copying and saving the Hili Dialogues since:
Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku
Hili: It’s snowing.
A: I can see that.
Hili: Do something about it.
[She’s all fluffed up!]
Hili: Pada śnieg.
Ja: Widzę.
Hili: Zrób coś z tym.
Unfortunately I didn’t date the early ones, but it was many years ago. Still collecting the dialogue daily and increasing (slowly) my Polish vocab.
Rob Reiner RIP. Such a tragedy for him and his wife.
Seeing Rick in Little Shop, I find myself saying, “Take off, eh!”
Dr. Peterson is mystified. I am mystified about why he is mystified. He was trying to narrowly express sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza (it is true there is suffering there), by praising the student activists who are protesting the war in Gaza. Well, the students are no doubt protesting the suffering. And no doubt they are calling for the university to disinvest in Israel. But he cannot disentangle himself from what every single one of the students is also protesting for, which is the elimination of the state of Israel.
Agreed. The motte-and-bailey style comes naturally to these folks. He called the Israeli war in Gaza inhumane and unjust, but defends his remarks as merely congratulating students for having an open heart. Nothing to criticize there eh?
The both side-ism repulses me. Westerners don’t want to face the fact that the entire Palestinian enterprise is one of Islamism and eliminationism.
So they invent ideas as to how cruel the Jews MUST — MUST be and MUST have tormented their poor brown Arab Palestinian pets, as the left see them, to make them bite and explode and kill so much.
The thought that such violence and rage can come entirely from “Palestinian” culture is too much for them. They don’t want to live in world where that is the hard truth.
D.A.
NYC
Somehow I doubt he’d praise pro-Nazi demonstrators for opening his heart to the suffering of the German people as a result of Allied bombing in WW2.
Indeed. But the Nazis lost their war, as did the Japanese. AIUI, Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima are both still viewed very differently by the winners and the losers. This shows up starkly regarding worship at the Yasukuni Shrine.
I find the laser like focus of selection of the Palestinians suffering to be at best weird and at worst hypocritical. Why are they devoid of compassion for the black Christians in Africa who are being massacred currently or the wholesale slaughter of young Iranians or indeed the many other atrocities occurring now? That is indeed mystifying.
No their sympathy lies exclusively with those who celebrated the depraved barbaric murders of Jews by Hamas. Why?
Islam is currently destroying West Africa – and few people are watching. I write about Africa – nobody clicks.
Hundreds of thousands dead and millions, in several countries, displaced. People who can’t afford to be displaced. Russian propaganda made them hate the French and us, throw both out so the Russians could rob their resources and keep dictators in power in coup after coup.
So the Islamists are taking over but ….. no Jews no news.
D.A.
NYC 🗽
Just seeing this, David. Where do you write about Africa? I’m interested in reading it. I used to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and have since spent a lot of time working across Africa. No matter how much of the world I see my heart will always belong in Africa.
Why does their sympathy lie exclusively with those who celebrate the depraved barbaric murders of Jews by Hamas? Part of the reason is that the enemies of their own enemies are thereby their friends, deserving of their sympathy.
Regarding the errant Professor Peterson, if he’s truly unaware of the controversial nature of his Israel/Gaza pronouncements then he’s a fool. Therefore his suggestion that he is ‘mystified’ about the reaction to what he said marks him out as an idiot or a liar.
I would also like to say to our host that these posts are at least as interesting as the other posts. Most of the time I have nothing useful to add, or it occurs to me a while later having mulled it over. Perhaps I should just put in a bit more effort…..
Echoing earlier comments, I always read this first thing in the morning. I just don’t feel qualified to comment on many items, certainly not like many smarter fellow readers here, so I don’t. But it’s a must read to start my day.
See?
SELECTIVE!
😁
A lack of qualifications has never stopped the rest of us from commenting.
A schoolboy ponders his behavior on graduation day: “I am mystified by what I have supposedly done wrong. Nowhere did I take a political stance in my commencement address. Nowhere did I impute crimes to anyone. You will listen in vain to hear me say that Israel has waged an inhumane and unjust war against Gaza. No, I said my heart was opened to human suffering. I was laying bare my virtue for all to see. Yet, that simple act of vulnerability pales next to the stark injustices faced by those in Gaza. I mean, the suffering.”
Yes, dear professor Peterson, nothing quite says moral courage like pandering to the adoring crowd, lapping up the applause as you condemn scholars and administrators now gone. You suggest that you would have stood against your peers in those centuries past even if your words brought condemnation rather than praise, professional and personal risk rather than activist accolades. Yes, we see your courage on vivid display in the directness of your words. Speaking truth to power. Hmm, hmm.
No, our dear laudable boy in Michigan blue. There is one group in this matter that stands against the adoring crowd. You, on the other hand, have firmly placed yourself with the orthodoxy of your place and time. Pioneers, indeed—and young ones, too.
Snap!!
I don’t think that fewer comments on a post indicates that people are not reading the post. It is certainly not true in my case.
I was present at the ceremony of the handover of the IAF command. These are people who are at the forefront of the fight against Iran, and in our Air Force, the commanders participate in the action. These flyover was well deserved, in my opinion.
Perhaps Prof. Peterson should have considered how the current round of suffering in Gaza began: with mass murder of civilians, kidnapping, rape, and other atrocities, including against children. This was performed by those same suffering Gazans, and supported by the majority of the Gazan population at that time (according to Palestinian pollsters). Had Peterson also expressed some sympathy for those women and children attacked on October 7, his speech would have seemed less controversial. As is, I include him in the group of people who consider Jewish suffering as inconsequential, just like the women’s groups which protest rape who had nothing to say in the clear case of rape as a tool of political violence on October.
By the way, you look much better after morning coffee. I imagine that that is true of many of us.
How much you want to bet that horse’s name is Jimi Hendrix?
I didn’t watch to the end—does the horse set fire to the guitar?
No, but he sure makes it howl.
I don’t think the number of people who comment should be taken as any indication of the number of people who read (and benefit from) these posts. There are several programs you can use to find out the “open rate” so you know how many of your subscribers are reading.
My search results says: To check email open rates in Gmail, you must use third-party extensions like MailTrack or GMass, as Gmail does not provide this feature natively for personal accounts. These tools embed a tracking pixel to report when, how many times, and on what device an email is opened.
I’ve never done it but it sounds like it’s easy to install MailTrack from the Chrome Web Store, connect your account, and look for the double-check mark in your sent folder to confirm opens.
No no no no. Inserting covert trackers, without consent, is a violation of privacy akin to (but less severe than) physical stalking or covert GPS tracking. There is free effective anti-tracker software available that eliminates the usual hidden trackers. FWIW I strongly advise everyone to install one (from a reputable source, of course).
As Joni Mitchell lamented, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
Analysis of IP addresses from the web server logs provides less detailed but still useful usage info. Far better (IMO) to ask WordPress if they can provide such info.
/rant
To what address would I send a couple pictures of barred owls?
Look at the “How to send me pictures” site on the sidebar: https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/04/16/how-to-send-me-wildlife-photos/
The photos should be good, and I usually like 10-12 pictures for a full post.
I am way above my pay grade in making comments on this site (proof below), but the topics often lead me down various rabbit holes and I enjoy it.
The David Reich video led me to consider how such a system of genetic purity was enforced, especially considering there was a lot of leakage in the U.S. white/black taboo.
Yikes. Of course, the main deterrent was the idea of an inter-caste relationship being repulsive, as it threatened spiritual standing. But, just to be sure, it was enforced by monitoring/spies resulting in fines, mutilation, public humiliation, banishment, or even being burned alive. Child marriage, enforced widowhood, and Sati controlled upper class women and their genetic line.
In current times Pakistanis especially are known to encourage cousin marriage, continuing genetic isolation (and health problems.) I think that one is more voluntary, though maybe not so much for the women, and is about tribal control. The Indian concept of caste endures, and is included in some California anti-discrimination laws.
I think what you wrote refutes your self-effacing disclaimer, Susan.
To the host (to consolidate comments): I read WEIT every day on an iPad (in the kitchen, with coffee.) Even when I close the cover, it remembers the tabs and re-opens them without my reloading them. So I almost never click on the e-mail or even call up the URL de novo from a browser. I just navigate ahead in time to today’s post. Your site counter would (I think) show I made one unique visit to it since I adopted this habit, which has lasted five years. So be assured I read it every day, even if I haven’t clicked on an e-mail notification. I come back to the site several times on most days as well.
For some reason, this old iPad has stopped letting me make comments on WEIT. To leave one I do have to go to my desktop where I click on the e-mail notification of the post I want to comment on.
Thanks for this truly unique website.
Regarding the U of Michigan commencement: Whoever was in charge on the dais that day should have stood, walked to the side of the professor, and asked him to sit down. That administrator could have said some nice things appropriate to a commencement and also sent the right message–that the university doesn’t approve of that kind of grandstanding.
Carcinization (my browser insists on autocorrecting to carbonization) or crabness evolved at least 3 other times among Anomura. The authors’ outgroup is anomurans (the hermit crabs) that don’t walk sideways. What’s the walking style in porcelain crabs and king crabs and hairy stone crabs?
A further point in support of the criticism of Derek Peterson’s speech. If Peterson thought that it was reasonable for him to praise pro-Palestinian activism in his commencement speech, he should have been willing to submit his speech praising the activists in advance. Submitting a different speech was the action of a coward and a sneak.
The leaders of Iran (the IRGC and the Ayatollahs) are hated by almost all of the world. Getting on the wrong side of the Arab world (and almost everyone else) is a big mistake. Will this cause the regime to fall? I have my doubts. Stalin eventually died of old age (a stroke).
While all that is true, keep in mind that the Arab world has hated the leaders of Iran for a very long time. The majority of the Arab countries are primarily Sunni, who have always distrusted the Shiites (and vice versa)–And Shiite Iran is not even Arab, so there is the tribal issue as well- not trivial in the Middle East.
And things have heated up lately. The “moderate” Arab counties have indeed recognized the dangers of Iranian hegemony. But rather than direct war, they chose another path to counter Iran: an alliance with Iran’s enemy: Israel. The Abraham accords are not the result of mutual love between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states. Nor are they they result of economic advantage based on the support of the US, though that is a factor. They are primarily based on the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
This has not gone unnoticed by Iran. A number of analysts have hypothesized that the October 7 invasion by Hamas was heavily supported by Iran (and perhaps instituted by Iran, based on their monetary, technological, and military support of Hamas) in order to disrupt the Abraham Accords and other diplomatic efforts between Israel and the Arab world. the logic was that the Arab world would feel obliged to support their Arab brothers (Hamas, by the way, is Sunni). It did not work. Even Hezbollah, which is a complete Shiite proxy of Iran, did not fully join in the attack, and the moderate Sunni countries supported Hamas and Iran for less than the woke North American and European progressives.
Please pardon the length of this post.
After a lot of reading these past couple of years on the 1948 war, the six-day war, and the yom Kippur war, I remain thoroughly confused by the long and ongoing internecine squabbling among the arabs. Thank you for this scorecard. It is very helpful.
Yes, but another motivation is access to Israeli capital to some extent, but more technology transfer.
Note lately the recent admission (which we’d all thought…) that Iron Dome helped the UAE defend against Iranian strikes, much better than the surrounding Gulfie targets. Plus some other IT advances which Israel excels in.
And the utter bankruptcy of the Palestinian cause now. Not the streets, but Arab elites often despise them.
best to you Starwolf,
D.A.
NYC 🗽
Fascinating how sidewalking crabs are monophyletic. The cladogram seems to walk sideways, too!
I’m perplexed about the war in Iran. It appears from Trump’s statements and from those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the war is over. It also appears that the operation to open the Strait of Hormuz is “defensive” and temporary. I don’t like what I’m reading, as if it’s beginning to smell like Trump is planning to end the war prematurely. We’re tip-toeing away from confrontation.
The President claims that negotiations with the Iranians are going well, but we’ll have to see. I’m very concerned that he’s about to accept a bad deal and unilaterally withdraw before achieving the war aims: ending Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, removing Iran’s enriched uranium, ending Iran’s ballistic missile program, ending Iran’s support of proxies, returning the Strait of Hormuz to normal function, etc. It will be a miracle if the agreement that Trump reaches with Iran actually includes all these concessions. With the supposed negotiations going on in secret, it’s difficult to infer what’s going on. It’s almost like watching two cats fighting each other under a blanket.
“I’m very concerned that he’s about to accept a bad deal and unilaterally withdraw…”
I agree with you, Norman. Only a fool trusts Tr*mp. I knew when the war began that the promises he flippantly directed to the Iranian people would never be part of his agenda. I don’t care about oil prices. I care about the people who endure an oppressive theocracy (and, alas, die under that theocracy). I care about the threat against Israel that the Iranian theocracy poses. I have no idea how this ends, but I worry.
I don’t think you’re going to get much constructive change in the lives of the Iranian people, Kurt. Most likely (if the blockade is successful enough to cause the IRGC to run out of oil money) Iran will collapse into chaos, which is much, much worse for ordinary people than the tyranny it replaces. In tyranny, most people still don’t have to think about the government very much in their day-to-day lives. In anarchy they think about the lack of government every minute.
The reason you can’t expect liberation and regime change from President Trump’s military policy is that it would require invasion, conquest, and installation of a government that is both friendly to the United States and culturally grokkable by the Iranian people who have lived in two generations of Islamic theocracy (instead of the merely 12 years the Third Reich lasted.)….And the American people (not just President Trump) long ago foreclosed on that as a course they are willing to press. (No boots on the ground and all that. As it is, the President faces impeachment over his limited war aims if the Republicans do poorly in November.)
Absent a change of heart by the American people, President Trump can’t will a western secular democracy into being in Iran even if he sincerely wanted to. The best he can do is ruin the country’s will and ability to make a nuclear weapon and export terror. That would be a legacy. But it won’t be pretty for the Iranians. It really sucks to be them.
Probably. But even sincere religious fanatics can be amenable to “offers they can’t refuse”, for example involving asylum in exile as a way out. They do need to be given a non-humiliating face-saving way out, which of course is against iDJT’s longstanding practices. Maybe Vance. who seems to function in a lot more of consensual reality than his boss, could make it happen. For his own advantage, of course.
I do like the way you think. I also know about those hundreds of British Catholics and Protestants (depending on which monarch was on the throne in the decades after Henry’s break with Rome) who refused to renounce their faith when offered clemency. Mostly clerics but some ordinary people. They chose grisly execution instead. Those were people who were relatable to me (being of British/Scots stock), not foreigners with funny names and barbaric cultural practices.
You can’t save face with God, I guess. He’ll know what you did and condemn you for all eternity. But you can die only once. This is where the Shia Twelvers come in, de-occulters of the Mahdi. Who knows how many of them are running Iran right now? And the loyalty of how many like-minded can they command? At least the Japanese kamikaze stood down the instant the Emperor ordered them to. But if Allah gives the orders….
It’s easy for us readers of this site to smirk and mock people who have profoundly held religious beliefs. Unfortunately they aren’t listening to instruction from us their cultural betters. They are listening to God, they are in command, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about that, except, well, …you know.
The Hantavirus cruise reminded me of the Netflix show called “The Poop Cruise” which features a ship that lost power (which was also needed for the plumbing) in the Caribbean.
Made me swear off cruises, the Hantavirus cruise just confirms my plan.
That hantavirus outbreak is sure concerning. If the patients contracted the virus on the ship, it doesn’t speak well for shipboard hygiene. At the least, it would suggest a strong need for a ship’s cat.
But now they’re saying that they think the two patients who got sick first contracted the virus from exposure to infected rodents while they were on land. If so, that’s even more concerning, since it would follow that the other people on the ship who got sick contracted the virus from them. That would suggest a fairly high rate of person-to-person transmission.
Martinez et al found that certain super-spreaders in Argentina contributed to an outbreak having an R-naught of 2.12, which was brought down to 0.96 after control measures were enforced. This was in a free-living community setting, not in the unique epidemiologic setting of a ship.
(Abstract at least should be free. I’m signed in with a free account and was able to read the whole article.)
Sorry, I got an error message from (I think) a twitchy finger on the Post Comment button, which caused me to think the comment had been blocked as a Spam attempt. I didn’t realize during the time-out that the original comment had been accepted. I’ve now deleted the re-written comment.
While I read the posts every morning and check again in the late afternoon for additions, I rarely comment on more substantive issues because they are normally on topics I know little about–hence, no valid comments. But I do read them and appreciate your broadening my horizons. One example: through your posts on sex vs gender, I realized that I had at times been using the two interchangeably, which I never do now. And I learned that the reason there are only two sexes is because of the gametes (I always knew about the variability of gender). Now I can cogently explain to friends why a female trans person will always be genetically male, even though she has fully transitioned.
Since I always check your site directly through “Why evolution is true,” not through the posts sent directly to me, my views of the site would not register.
Re the woman playing the guitar: when the horse is participating, she should make chords with her left hand so there would be musical progressions, not just twanging. That would be even more amazing.
Ditto to all of the above. I use an RSS reader to view your posts, so those might not register in your metrics. Other than this post I will likely never comment. I do however pass along much of your content. I never miss a post even on holidays. Also do you have a PayPal or Patreon? I expect a number of us would be happy to donate a coffee or bottle of wine for your work.
Forget it Jake. It’s politics! 🙂
I was just having my first sip of coffee as I scrolled onto Jerry’s before and after coffee pics. The two things I look forward to most in the morning are my first cup of coffee and WEIT. I don’t think I’ve missed a post here since I came upon this site three or so years ago.
I’m another non-commenter who really appreciates this site. I read it all every day. Thanks Jerry
I never miss a post. My little bit of distant America at its best. Keep it up.
I enjoy reading WEIT daily. You provide education and sometimes fun. Thanks
I comment occasionally, but I read Hili every day (OK, I have missed a day or two when I was down with a cold.)
Prof. Peterson said the activists “opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza”. But he and every other bleeding heart liberal fails to mention how the terrorist actions on October 7th opened our eyes to the savagery of HAMAS.
“Here are some scenes from the 1986 movie about mutated carnivorous plants, “Little Shop of Horrors“…
I don’t remember Audrey getting eaten in the movie…I thought Seymour saved her and they lived happily ever after. Are these cut scenes or scenes from a different version?
As with many US films they changed the ending after trial showings. They all died in the original version, but they reshot the film to have a happy ending. I’ve seen that clip before, maybe it was a dvd ‘extra’.
Hollywood often does that. ‘Spoorloos’ is a Dutch film that was remade as ‘The Vanishing’ in the USA. The last scene in the original film gave me nightmares for weeks, but the Hollywood version, sadly by the original director, gave it a happy ending 🤦♀️
At least Hollywood didn’t change their version of one of my favourite films, ‘Wings of Desire’ by Wim Wenders. I refused to see the remake ‘City of Angels’ until I learned at the same character, who dies in the original film, also died in the remake.
“Only a few people appear to be reading these dialogues, at least judging by the comments on Monday’s Hili. This is sad.”
I’m sure people are reading the dialogues, I do. I just don’t feel qualified to comment on the posts about the war with Iran and sometimes I reply too much and then try and be quiet for a while. I would give you a ‘👍’ reply on most of the cat tweets and interesting links, but I remember that you said that that type of ’empty’ post causes you a lot of work, although I think it would show you that people are reading and enjoying your dialogues.
I’m not sure I enjoyed reading about the cruise disease, but it’s handy to know as I’m doing a cruise in August. I always take hand sanitizer, but I’ll take an extra big bottle and pack masks this time! I hope we don’t get confined to cabins as I’m hoping to see a full solar eclipse, the Perseid Meteor shower and the Aurora Borealis all in one trip. Pete Lawrence from BBC Sky at Night will be giving lectures.
Also Masih’s tweets are important and it’s essential, especially at the moment to see the Auschwitz Memorial posts that you share.
You are appreciated.
Thank you for the daily Hilis. I appreciate all the effort you put in to inform us!
I read your posts every day from South Korea! Thank you for posting.
I do not understand how all the problems arising with Iran and the Straits of Hurmuz seem to come as a surprise to Trump and his team. I am sure the American military planners had a good idea of probable consequences. Were they just ignored?
I never miss a day!
Me neither