Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Here’s a classic mojito from the famed Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in Miami known for its Cuban food (and mojitos). I had this in 2009 during a day’s layover in 2009 before going to the Galápagos to lecture on a cruise (tough life, eh?):
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 11 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Footy news.In a nail-biter for Spanish fans, Spain defeated Belgium 2-1 yesterday. I watched it live on t.v., as did Matthew, who retired during the second half, as he is having trouble sleeping due to the heat. Two big games today: Norway vs. England and Argentina vs. Switzerland.
In an outcome that felt inevitable for most of the game, Spain beat Belgium 2-1 with a late goal from a familiar face Friday.
Mikel Merino, the matchwinner in the round of 16 against Portugal, pounced on a spilled save by Belgium backup Senne Lammens to finish into the roof of the net at Los Angeles Stadium and send Spain into the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup for only the second time.
With the win, Spain also extended their own unbeaten run to a new team record of 36 games — one short of Italy’s all-time record of 37 — to set up a juicy semifinal matchup with France on Tuesday.
“It will be a clash of giants,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said through a translator.
Merino came on in the 86th minute and scored on his second touch of the match, having also gotten the winning goal as a substitute against Portugal.
“I’ve done this again, and it’s happened to me again, so it would seem that coincidence exists,” a smiling Merino said. “If you’re ready and you try, it can happen for you. I’m very, very pleased.”
Here are the highlights. The plays yielding goals (POINTS) are on the video at 1:31, 4:35, and the game-winner for Spain at 10:45.
“You have lost Europe, you have lost the United States, and you picked up Somaliland,” he says. “Diplomatic, international isolation is an unsustainable path.” The solution, in his telling, is to make the problem bigger. “Sometimes when you have a problem, you make it bigger”—and what he means by bigger is adding full normalization into the old two-state formula. The 23-State Solution, as he calls it (though J Street called it that first), is the old two-state formula plus the full weight of the Arab world as guarantor, investor, and enforcer. “I think there’s an opportunity to break out,” he says. “21 is better than one.”
“That’s the carrot,” I say, “but what’s the stick?” He dodges the question in Jerusalem, but brandishes it the next day in Tel Aviv: “If I have anything to say about it,” settlers who attack Palestinians “will be sanctioned,” the officials who back them “will be sanctioned,” and the banks financing them “will be sanctioned.”
The 23-state solution includes a Palestinian state next to the Israeli one, so already Emanuel is off the rails. But wait! There’s more! (It’s a long interview.) Israelis already don’t like Emanuel’s 23-state solution (it includes a coalition of all Middle Eastern countries):
I push back. In the Clinton administration, Israel tried. Ninety-three percent of Israelis have drawn their conclusions from what followed—not from this government, not from Netanyahu, but from the Palestinian side itself. The disillusionment is bone-deep and cross-partisan. Even if Eisenkot were elected tomorrow, with Bennett, Lieberman, Lapid, and Yair Golan in the coalition, no more than 7 percent of Israelis support his solution. What does he do with that, politically? He considers it for half a second. “We’re gonna test it.” I press him: test it how, on what basis, after everything that has happened? “You never know till you try. It’s not overnight.” “The reason I’m saying not two states but 23 states is it makes it more politically valuable.” He leans forward. “Bedded in the DNA of the state of Israel and the Jewish people is the notion that Ben-Gurion set out—to be a nation among nations—nobody wants to go to a ghetto.”
. . .What happens in four, five years, if Israel simply doesn’t accept it? If it decides no regional solution, no two-state, no process—then what? “Everybody who’s under 30—support for Israel is in the low 20s, high teens.” “They’re only getting older, they’re not getting younger. They are going to be the most dominant factor in politics.” There is a generation, he says, that grew up with 1967 as the benchmark metaphor. “There is a generation that’s going to grow up with Gaza. That’s a fact.”
Then his tone shifts from salesman to prosecutor. “You think this is going to last another 22 years?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. The diplomatic route was tried and failed. The military route—the one Israel chose, the one four American presidents were asked to greenlight and refused, until one finally said yes—has also, in his accounting, failed. “You finally got what you wanted,” he says. “Now you’re weaker, they’re stronger.”
Wrong again. Palestine is stronger only in PR. But Emanuel has to diss Israel if he wants the support of Democrats. But wait! There’s more!
I put it to him directly: many Israelis feel horrified by what is happening inside the Democratic Party. By Mamdani. By New York. By what Obama’s endorsement of Mamdani says about where the party is heading. They feel as if the Democratic Party was hijacked. What are your thoughts about it?
This is where the man David Axelrod once described working with as carrying a live grenade in your pocket becomes, briefly, the safest man in the room.
“I don’t think the Democratic Party has been hijacked,” he says slowly, weighing every word. On Obama meeting with Mamdani: “You put that out on Obama”—after all, “President Clinton met with him.” You don’t have a Democratic problem, he insists. You have an American problem.
Can one support “from the river to the sea”—a chant for the elimination of the only Jewish state—without being antisemitic? Emanuel does not answer. He counters. “Can you support a greater Israel without being anti-Palestinian?” It is a microcosm of his larger message. From the Tel Aviv University podium the next day, he makes the equivalence explicit: “the pursuit of a so-called Greater Israel is as self-destructive and fanatical as the chant ‘from the river to the sea.’” And again, in the speech’s closing beats: “Both are fantasies chanted by fanatics.” The formulation is intentional—two symmetrical extremes, two symmetrical rebukes—but the symmetry is manufactured. “Greater Israel” is a slogan more often invoked by anti-Israel conspiracists to describe Israeli aims than by Israelis to describe their own. Roughly 5 percent of Israelis support annexing the West Bank; the phrase itself is fringe. “From the river to the sea,” meanwhile, has been chanted from Columbia University to Sydney to London by crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
That’s enough; you can read the rest for yourself. The only upshot of Emanuel’s pandering campaign for candidacy is that even though he may diss Israel, he’s still a Jew, and, unfortunately, no Jew will be considered as a serious candidate for President for years and years to come. The sad part is that even if you want to run as a Jew, it’s obligatory to damn Israel and give props (and a state) to Palestine.
The new Air Force One, which President Trump flew on earlier this week to Turkey, lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities, according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.
Experts say the absence of those capabilities on the Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which was donated by Qatar, creates potential risk in using the jet abroad, a dynamic underscored by the abrupt decision on Wednesday for Mr. Trump to leave Turkey on the old Air Force One at the urging of the Secret Service.
The episode is intensifying the focus on Mr. Trump’s demands to rapidly retrofit the donated 747 to replace an aging fleet that had served as the official presidential planes.
Lawmakers have called on the administration to disclose whether the overhaul of the Qatari plane, which the Air Force oversaw in the course of the last year, provided sufficient security upgrades. The safety of the aircraft is critical not only for the president, but also for the large entourage of White House staff, Secret Service officials, journalists and guests who fly aboard.
Mr. Trump pushed for the new plane to be put into use as quickly as possible and frequently complained that the old presidential aircraft was not impressive enough to take on international trips.
On Thursday, the White House did not address specific questions about the new plane’s capabilities, but defended its safety.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff,” Steven Cheung, the communications director, said in a statement. “As the president has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats.”
Trump was dumb to accept the plane as a gift from Qatar in the first place; it smacks of favoritism. My two questions are first, will they actually be able to retrofit the new plane since it wasn’t designed with the right security measures? Second, what will happen to the plane after Trump leaves office. He’s made noises about keeping it as personal property, but i don’t think that’s legal, Are Presidents allowed to keep gifts worth more than a negligible sum?
→ Latest from Candy: Candace Owens is busy this week trying to get Charlie Kirk’s accused killer acquitted, in the name of friendship and justice. She says she has lots of extra evidence “if Tyler Robinson’s defense would like to contact me.” She’s convinced that he was never even on that college campus. As a reminder: Tyler Robinson turned himself in and allegedly confessed to his roommate (and reported lover) to assassinating Charlie Kirk. But for Candace, the real villains behind Kirk’s death were apparently a dark cabal that included Israel, Ben Shapiro, and Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow. Here’s the kind of rhetoric we’re getting from one of America’s top podcast hosts this week: “This [is] your daily reminder that Charlie Kirk always hated Ben Shapiro—he thought he was an Israel-First Jew supremacist. . . . People who worship the Prince of darkness cannot create. Creation can only come from the Creator. When you turn your back on God and Goodness, your only option is to lie, steal, cheat, and sue others who embody truth and goodness. Everyday Ben wakes up and focuses on who and what he can destroy and take from. He is filled with satisfaction when children in the Middle East are ruthlessly murdered so his people can steal from Them.” This is the kind of rhetoric that would make the men in those old German beer halls blush.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media coverage of her is mostly a mix of quiet and positive. Here’s the latest on Candace from The Daily Beast, for example.
Those are our noble media reporters. The truth is, these folks are rooting for Candace, even if they would never quite admit it to themselves. Why would they interrupt her doing such great work as mainstreaming the term Jew supremacist? Plus, she’s distracting Americans from what actually happened to Charlie Kirk that day in Utah. It’s a win-win.
→ FIFA rigged: Did you know that America sent an influencer delegation to Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral? Oh yes, a group of young Americans were there, with at least one waving a flag and chanting “Down with USA.” That one was Jackson Hinkle, co-founder of the American Communist Party. He was accompanied by Christopher Helali, another ACP founding member and high bailiff of Orange County, Vermont. Also, because don’t threaten him with a good time: Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone, a far-left site known for its favorable coverage of the Chinese, Russian, and Venezuelan governments. And, of course, Calla Walsh, the child political star turned Islamist whose descent into radicalism we’ve reported on extensively. Now Hinkle, refreshed and reinvigorated from the funeral in Tehran, has turned his eyes to a new conspiracy: soccer! The only reason Argentina beat Egypt is. . . Zionists. “FIFA is RIGGED and controlled by ZIONISTS!” How original. Grade of A- from the apology review committee. Lost a few points in the “thoughtful” category.
→ The police in England are coming for you: Here’s another strange story from the UK, where the cops seem to be on an unspoken mission to terrorize locals. A young man was apparently attacked in Birmingham, and the cops lunged at and arrested . . . him. Unfortunately for the cops, there is video. First, Birmingham Police stood by their actions: “The incident has been reviewed, and we have no concerns over the officer’s actions and we are satisfied that they were reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances. We would ask that footage is not further shared to allow the legal process to take its course.” Everything is fine. Do not share the footage. Do you not respect the legal process? With that in mind: Here’s the footage.
Despite the bobbies’ valiant attempts to keep this under wraps, the backlash grew. Suddenly the cops changed their tune (“chune”). New statement: “We are aware of footage on social media showing the incident before the man is arrested. Recognizing that an assault has taken place we are now carrying out active enquiries to identify those involved.”
It’s called Operation British Guilt, if you’re getting punched, the cop’s role is to throw a good one in. If your cell phone is stolen, they steal your purse.
*Also from the Free Press, we have “Abdul El-Sayed’s war against the Democratic Party“, portraying the Congressional candidate as a mean piece of work, but one that might well be sitting in Congress next winter.
Yet a closer look at the party suggests that there is no war—at least, not yet. Progressive populists keep winning, while Democratic incumbents have failed to persuasively criticize their challengers’ most radical views. The next major test for the party will take place in less than a month, when Michigan voters choose their Senate candidate.
And the biggest question is whether anyone can stop Abdul El-Sayed.
The 41-year-old public health official is leading a far-left primary campaign against moderate congresswoman Haley Stevens to succeed retiring senator Gary Peters. The race recently narrowed from three to two candidates when state senator Mallory McMorrow, who attempted to split the gap between the progressive and moderate wings, suspended her campaign. The resulting “head-on collision” will be the cycle’s best look at whether an uncompromising progressive can win a swing state.
Throughout his political career, El-Sayed has bet on Michigan voters’ desire for a bare-knuckles form of progressive populism, one that now includes a sharp antipathy toward Israel.
After a Hezbollah-inspired attacker rammed a truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in March, El-Sayed’s statement framed the violence—which targeted a Jewish preschool—as a downstream effect of Israeli air strikes in Lebanon. “Hurt people hurt people,” he said. “Violence is a cycle.”
The following month, he told CNN that he considers the Israeli government to be just as evil as Hamas, adding that “killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil.” Weeks later, he instructed his campaign staff to stay silent on the killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today,” according to a leaked recording.
His message on the economy and domestic issues also pushes far past the typical Democratic platform. At a Detroit rally with Bernie Sanders, he proposed a 5 percent billionaire wealth tax. He also supports the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the cancellation of all Americans’ medical debt, totaling some $225 billion, according to his campaign site.
. . .The last time El-Sayed faced voters, launching an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2018, his gamble failed. “The foundations of my platform haven’t changed,” El-Sayed told me before the debate. “The world’s changed.”
But this time, it may pay off. After announcing his candidacy in the spring of 2025, El-Sayed has steadily gained momentum since April and is now the favorite to win the primary, according to polls and prediction markets alike. Kalshi and Polymarket both forecast his odds of winning the primary above 75 percent as of Thursday afternoon.
Will he win? It wasn’t that long ago that someone who said these things could not be elected. Now, as a Democrat, it helps El-Sayed. How did things change so fast? Yes, Gaza, but I think things would be the same if Israel weren’t allowed to go after Hamas with so much resolve, so that fewer civilians had been killed (we still don’t know how many). Things might be different if Israel didn’t retaliate at all for attacks, but that would be both stupid and suicidal.
Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying the party “didn’t get it right” and needs to “do better” under his leadership signalling a significant shift in the UK’s approach to the Middle East.
The prime minister-in-waiting told the Guardian he would put more pressure on the Israeli government, including through further sanctions on individuals and entities, as well as a potential ban on the trade of goods with illegal settlements.
Burnham’s intervention starts to address concerns among voters on Labour’s progressive flank, many of whom have abandoned the party over its position on Israel and Palestine.
“I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza my party didn’t get it right and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” he said.
“We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government … Yes, we have taken some important steps … But let’s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire. And we must now do more to strengthen our approach.”
However, he stopped short of describing what was happening on the ground in Gaza as a genocide – a central demand of some on the left – saying that while there was “increasing evidence” of war crimes, it was for the international courts to make that ruling.
“I have been absolutely appalled by what I’ve seen and read about the destruction of Gaza. There’s increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed,” he said. “There must be accountability for the depth of the suffering the people of Gaza have experienced. Ultimately, however, it must be for the international courts to determine, rather than politicians.”
See the previous item. What distinguishes El-Sayed from Burnham is the former’s approbation of socialism.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron fails again at hunting, though Andrzej says he’s generally good:
Hili: Well? Szaron: Nothing. All that was left was the smell of a mouse.
In Polish
Hili: No i co?
Szaron: Nic, został tylko zapach myszy.
Masih has an article in the Free Press, which she highlights in this tweet (the link I just gave might be free). A quote:
This was not mourning. This was a regime staging a display of strength for an audience that is no longer watching.
Translation of this tweet from the Farsi:
After my appearance on CBS and exposing the staged government spectacle of Khamenei’s funeral procession, over 50,000 comments poured in from the Islamic Republic’s cyber army under my Instagram post. Threats of kidnapping with a sack again, threats of dismembering and killing again…. These are the very mourners of the Islamic Republic’s “Supreme Leader.” Why are they so angry? Because the Islamic Republic spends millions of dollars on lobbying and propaganda to craft a normal image of itself in Western media. But when one person speaks the truth on one of America’s largest news networks, giving voice to millions of silenced Iranians who are not grieving Khamenei’s death, the entire project collapses.
بعد از حضورم در CBS و افشای نمایش حکومتیِ مراسم تشییع خامنهای، بیش از ۵۰ هزار کامنت از سوی ارتش سایبری جمهوری اسلامی زیر پست اینستاگرامم سرازیر شد.
دوباره تهدید به آدمربایی با گونی، دوباره تهدید به تکه تکه کردن و کشتن….
اینها همان عزاداران «رهبر» جمهوری اسلامیاند.
From Keith, who adds that “The Buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) is the most famous insect that looks exactly like a broken twig. Native to Europe and parts of Asia, its silvery-grey wings and square-cut, yellowish-buff head and wingtips perfectly mimic the color, texture, and splintered end of a snapped birch or oak branch.” Amazing camouflage, and there can be almost no doubt about what it’s mimicking:
NATURE IS FUCKING AMAZING: The buff-tip moth has evolved to resemble a freshly broken birch twig when resting pic.twitter.com/MUOxilDwKy
From the Number Ten Cat. Read the BBC article on how this priceless tapestry was transported to the UK. I’ve never seen it, but it will be in London until September. Make your reservations now!
This is the holy grail of things for cats to scratch. Other than the holy grail. https://t.co/zoOfliwIkG
Two from my feed. First, a lovely bird song. Translation from the Chinese:
A small bird with a chirp at 432Hz frequency This sound is said to help release happiness hormones like serotonin, and has the effect of naturally balancing blood pressure and heart rate…
An Islamic imam restrains women and cuts their hair as punishment for not wearing the hijab. But they say it’s a ‘choice.’ This is Islam. pic.twitter.com/5MzcLiErGK
Two from Dr. Professor Cobb. The first is a story worth reading. There is a thread after the post, or you can read about poor Hegelochus here.
I find the story of Hegelochus unreasonably funny. Imagine dying and the only trace of you millennia later is the time you accidentally said you saw a weasel in a tragic play in front of a packed audience, because people mocked you about it for centuries.(Thread for ease)
There are a lot of species named after David Attenborough, so I guess they thought it would be OK – let’s hope the goalie remains a paragon of virtue. The binomial is Aldisa vozinha which is a bit odd, all the Attenborough species are attenboroughi – I cannot remember enough Latin to be able to make Vozinha possessive correctly but the plain name does not scan for me.
Yes! I also named a species after David Attenborough, who has helped us build a system of reserves in Ecuador. I wrote an article in Nature Ecology and Evolution supporting the practice: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02102-z
It is an extremely valuable conservation tool.
I think what Jerry means is that taxonomists should favor descriptive names. This is pragmatic advice, not a rule. In the days when most educated people knew Latin, descriptive Latin names were easier to remember and associate with the species than Latinized personal names. Nowadays, however, I think this is reversed. It is easier to remember the Latinized names of well-known people than to remember a Latin adjective that sounds like gobbledegook to almost everyone. Which is easier to remember, Atelopus coynei or Atelopus laetissimus?
Yes, you’re right–it’s a guideline. Thank Ceiling Cat that Atelopus coynei cannot be supplanted!
I didn’t state the reason, which is that people have been trying to change both common and Latin names for people who are thought to have done immoral things in the past, and they don’t want that to happen again.
I knew it was a guideline and I have always assumed it is because times change and the person so honoured may prove to be less than squeaky clean, hence my hope that Vozinha proves to be worthy of the honour.
I have zero doubts about David Attenborough and the boss, they are beyond reproach. Well, at present, who knows what future pecksniffs will find reprehensible.
As to changing the binomials, I disagree with it and they should just accept the perceived egregiousness and move on, there is too much riding on existing nomenclature that it cannot simply be changed without the potential to cause confusion. Not choosing personal names isn’t a bad guideline to avoid the need, but it is a shame that it has to be so.
Speaking of descriptive names, the Latin name for the Australian Eastern Water Dragon is Intellagama lesueurii – meaning “intelligent lizard”. Some of these visit my house seeking scraps. They are indeed more intelligent than I thought a lizard could be. One even watched a local bush turkey scratching at my back window to get my attention to give him scraps, then after the turkey left, the lizard came over and did the same thing! I did not think lizards were capable of observational learning (i.e., learning by imitation).
The Trump administration has subpoenaed the New York Times journalists who reported the security concerns involving the new Air Force One. The subpoenas issued on Friday seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan next week. Federal agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the reporters at their homes. After the report was published, White House spokesman Steven Cheung said there are no security shortcomings on the new jet. Further intimidation of a free press by Trump?
Prof Coyne’s earlier poll notwithstanding, I sorta do hope the Presidential plane has a detonator set to go off when DJT is alone on “his” plane inspecting and repeatedly testing the flush capabilities of his Golden Toilet, so he can tell us all about it.
I would have thought, since Air Force One belongs to the USAF and not to the President, that the ownership of the bridge aircraft will not change when the current President leaves office.
Since the 747-8 is no longer in production, the bridge aircraft can be used as a training aircraft for flight crews in order to reduce flight hours on the new aircraft still under construction by Boeing. Ultimately it could also be used as a source of spares for the new aircraft.
Related: I understand that when a President travels overseas there is always a backup to Air Force One located at a different (military) airfield close to the aircraft that gets shown in public. Just in case… I don’t know if the same happens within the continental USA.
“The plane will then be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029, and any costs relating to its transfer will be paid for by the U.S. Air Force, the sources told ABC News.”
Is J. Hinkle extreme left-wing or right-wing or just crazy? His ties to the ACP imply left-wing. The SPLC (and others) call him right-wing. I lean towards crazy.
Those buff-tip moths are amazing! Candace Owens, not so much. This is what we get when a crazy person is allowed to have a megaphone. Any why do all the media outlets pay attention to her? Because she’s crazy. That’s the attraction.
Both points for Spain came from the goalies blocking the ball back into play. With all the media analysis these days, perhaps they will consider catching the ball next time. The point for Belgium was scored by a player knocking the ball into the net with his head. That was impressive. I expect England and Argentina to win today, perhaps with Messi adding more to his points tally. I wish they would give more points when a player kicks the ball into the net from distance.
“Israel lost the US, gained Somaliland.” Cute, Rahm, cute.
Somaliland(‘s recognition of Israel and vice versa) is a big deal. It proves the Abraham Accords weren’t just a flash in the pan but a growing movement of sanity in the Arab world.
Somaliland (which is NOT Somalia) is the second tranche.
I wrote about it this week in my column, the wider geopolitics of all this if anybody is interested.
It’s more than cute, and it is worse than true.
Long before the current hot war, Bibi has been working for decades to reduce the strength of the Foreign Ministry and the diplomatic corps. Numbers of personnel have been cut, embassies and consulates closed. Bibi does not want any rivals for power, and one of his claims to power is the idea that only he can persuade foreigners to ally themselves with us.
We began the current war with great international sympathy. I don’t mean the queers for Palestine, I mean governments. That sympathy is long gone. Bibi has not allowed any government official to present our case. We had one effective spokesman, but he got fired because Bibi’s wife didn’t like him—and her influence on senior appointments is very strong. I am not saying that all would be wine and roses in our diplomatic relations, but someone in the government should be presenting our case.
Bibi has made a career of not allowing potential competent rivals. He destroyed his own party by forcing competent people out—he is left with sycophants, Tammany Hall-type local politicians, and incompetents.
Since Cuban sandwiches are mentioned, what’s up in Cuba? I haven’t heard anything in a month. Oh! I guess everything there froze so the World Cup could proceed unfettered.
From The Dull Men’s Club (h/t Reese):
There are a lot of species named after David Attenborough, so I guess they thought it would be OK – let’s hope the goalie remains a paragon of virtue. The binomial is Aldisa vozinha which is a bit odd, all the Attenborough species are attenboroughi – I cannot remember enough Latin to be able to make Vozinha possessive correctly but the plain name does not scan for me.
Yes! I also named a species after David Attenborough, who has helped us build a system of reserves in Ecuador. I wrote an article in Nature Ecology and Evolution supporting the practice:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02102-z
It is an extremely valuable conservation tool.
I think what Jerry means is that taxonomists should favor descriptive names. This is pragmatic advice, not a rule. In the days when most educated people knew Latin, descriptive Latin names were easier to remember and associate with the species than Latinized personal names. Nowadays, however, I think this is reversed. It is easier to remember the Latinized names of well-known people than to remember a Latin adjective that sounds like gobbledegook to almost everyone. Which is easier to remember, Atelopus coynei or Atelopus laetissimus?
Yes, you’re right–it’s a guideline. Thank Ceiling Cat that Atelopus coynei cannot be supplanted!
I didn’t state the reason, which is that people have been trying to change both common and Latin names for people who are thought to have done immoral things in the past, and they don’t want that to happen again.
I knew it was a guideline and I have always assumed it is because times change and the person so honoured may prove to be less than squeaky clean, hence my hope that Vozinha proves to be worthy of the honour.
I have zero doubts about David Attenborough and the boss, they are beyond reproach. Well, at present, who knows what future pecksniffs will find reprehensible.
As to changing the binomials, I disagree with it and they should just accept the perceived egregiousness and move on, there is too much riding on existing nomenclature that it cannot simply be changed without the potential to cause confusion. Not choosing personal names isn’t a bad guideline to avoid the need, but it is a shame that it has to be so.
Speaking of descriptive names, the Latin name for the Australian Eastern Water Dragon is Intellagama lesueurii – meaning “intelligent lizard”. Some of these visit my house seeking scraps. They are indeed more intelligent than I thought a lizard could be. One even watched a local bush turkey scratching at my back window to get my attention to give him scraps, then after the turkey left, the lizard came over and did the same thing! I did not think lizards were capable of observational learning (i.e., learning by imitation).
The Trump administration has subpoenaed the New York Times journalists who reported the security concerns involving the new Air Force One. The subpoenas issued on Friday seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan next week. Federal agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the reporters at their homes. After the report was published, White House spokesman Steven Cheung said there are no security shortcomings on the new jet. Further intimidation of a free press by Trump?
“Further intimidation of a free press by Trump?”
Or further harassment of Trump by an ideologically captured press?
Prof Coyne’s earlier poll notwithstanding, I sorta do hope the Presidential plane has a detonator set to go off when DJT is alone on “his” plane inspecting and repeatedly testing the flush capabilities of his Golden Toilet, so he can tell us all about it.
Trump’s legality issue has been settled: it’s only illegal if and when the Supreme Court says it is. ☹️
Ownership of the Qatari Air Force One will be transferred to Trump’s presidential library foundation before he leaves office.
I would have thought, since Air Force One belongs to the USAF and not to the President, that the ownership of the bridge aircraft will not change when the current President leaves office.
Since the 747-8 is no longer in production, the bridge aircraft can be used as a training aircraft for flight crews in order to reduce flight hours on the new aircraft still under construction by Boeing. Ultimately it could also be used as a source of spares for the new aircraft.
Related: I understand that when a President travels overseas there is always a backup to Air Force One located at a different (military) airfield close to the aircraft that gets shown in public. Just in case… I don’t know if the same happens within the continental USA.
I should have cited ABC news reporting on this:
“The plane will then be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029, and any costs relating to its transfer will be paid for by the U.S. Air Force, the sources told ABC News.”
https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-administration-poised-accept-palace-sky-gift-trump/story?id=121680511
The Vietnamese animal name meme reminded me of this flowchart for naming animals in German.
That’s hilarious. I love the raccoon name!
Thanks for these wonderful German names! I did know about wash bear for raccoon🤓
Same in Swedish (tvättbjörn).
Is J. Hinkle extreme left-wing or right-wing or just crazy? His ties to the ACP imply left-wing. The SPLC (and others) call him right-wing. I lean towards crazy.
Those buff-tip moths are amazing! Candace Owens, not so much. This is what we get when a crazy person is allowed to have a megaphone. Any why do all the media outlets pay attention to her? Because she’s crazy. That’s the attraction.
Complete agreement on the moths and Candace Owens.
The media reports on her, despite her craziness, because she has a HUGE audience. Unfortunately there’s a market for her content.
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Niel Postman, 1985.
Prescient.
Both points for Spain came from the goalies blocking the ball back into play. With all the media analysis these days, perhaps they will consider catching the ball next time. The point for Belgium was scored by a player knocking the ball into the net with his head. That was impressive. I expect England and Argentina to win today, perhaps with Messi adding more to his points tally. I wish they would give more points when a player kicks the ball into the net from distance.
“Israel lost the US, gained Somaliland.” Cute, Rahm, cute.
Somaliland(‘s recognition of Israel and vice versa) is a big deal. It proves the Abraham Accords weren’t just a flash in the pan but a growing movement of sanity in the Arab world.
Somaliland (which is NOT Somalia) is the second tranche.
I wrote about it this week in my column, the wider geopolitics of all this if anybody is interested.
https://democracychronicles.org/an-inspiring-africa-middle-east-story-somaliland/
D.A.
NYC
Nice column, David. Thanks for the link.
Very interesting piece, David, thanks for sharing.
It’s more than cute, and it is worse than true.
Long before the current hot war, Bibi has been working for decades to reduce the strength of the Foreign Ministry and the diplomatic corps. Numbers of personnel have been cut, embassies and consulates closed. Bibi does not want any rivals for power, and one of his claims to power is the idea that only he can persuade foreigners to ally themselves with us.
We began the current war with great international sympathy. I don’t mean the queers for Palestine, I mean governments. That sympathy is long gone. Bibi has not allowed any government official to present our case. We had one effective spokesman, but he got fired because Bibi’s wife didn’t like him—and her influence on senior appointments is very strong. I am not saying that all would be wine and roses in our diplomatic relations, but someone in the government should be presenting our case.
Bibi has made a career of not allowing potential competent rivals. He destroyed his own party by forcing competent people out—he is left with sycophants, Tammany Hall-type local politicians, and incompetents.
Since Cuban sandwiches are mentioned, what’s up in Cuba? I haven’t heard anything in a month. Oh! I guess everything there froze so the World Cup could proceed unfettered.
My cat Delilah disagrees with Larry. The Bayeux Tapestry is for scratching. The Holy Grail is for knocking off the table.
A recent newspaper cartoon in the UK expresses the hope that if France beat England in the final they do not commision another gloating tapestry.