Welcome to the first CaturSaturday in August: it’s Saturday, August, 2, 2025, shabbos for Jewish cats, and National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.  Here’s a rating of ice cream sandwiches, including many new brands. If you want to skip the palaver, the winners comprise the fairly new ice cream sandwiches made by Pop-Tarts, known already for its toaster pasteries.

It’s also Dinosaurs Day, National Mustard Day, International Blues Music Day, Mead Day, and National Jamaican Patty Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 2 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Washington Post, a big booster of Kamala Harris in the last election, is now beefing that she’s making a return to the political spotlight. Apparently they realized too late that she was not someone who can help the Democrats, and want her to go away at all costs. (They go after Biden, too, but he’s no longer a force in elections.)

Democrats are eager to turn the page on their 2024 losses — but their central figures from the last election keep stepping back into the spotlight, complicating their efforts to forge a new identity. Many in the party are wary of elevating the people who led them to defeat in 2024 and exasperated to see the drama of that election repeatedly relitigated when they want to keep the focus on pushing back against Trump’s second-term agenda and identifying new leader=

That’s absolutely right. We need leaders, and we don’t need Harris. Remember when she was touted as a figure of JOY by Democrats in the last election, while I was beefing about her word salads and seeming inability to think straight about anything? And yes, I was told to shut up about her because I was enabling Trump. It was a sad time when Democrats should have been finding a figure that actually had more savvy and was able to beat Trump.  Harris should stay as far away from the midterms and 2028 election as she can. But even if she throws her hat in the ring, it will be thrown right back out again.

*Thank goodness Nellie Bowles is back! Nobody can do the TGIFs at The Free Press nearly as well as she. Her column this week is called, “TGIF: My jeans are blue,” and I will steal the usual three items from it (indented):

→ Candace Owens has her Alex Jones moment: After spending more than a year trying to convince the world that Brigitte Macron is a man—which she’s now being sued for—Candace Owens is doubling down. “You were born a man and you will die a man,” she said, pointing to the camera. “That’s the point I’m making. . . . We are revolting against this. We’re revolting against the perverts that run the world, and I want to be very clear here, I count you among them. I think you’re sick. I think you’re disgusting. And I am fully prepared to take on this battle on behalf of the entire world. Okay? That’s what I’m gonna say. On behalf of the entire world, I will see you in court.” I mean, this is what I say every time I go to the doctor’s office and they tell me that I might benefit from less stress. Candace is lit up!

I’m always open-minded, so I studied the pictures. For hours. Zoomed in on places that I shouldn’t have. And I’m sorry, but Brigitte is obviously female. I know everyone thinks that trans tech has gotten so good, and it has, but… I don’t mean to be offensive, but it’s not that hard to determine these things. You can use your intuition. So after examining shoulders and posture, gait and facial expressions, mood swings and a hankering for cheese that tracked with world events, well, this broad? I can guarantee you for sure, Bob, this one’s a female woman.

Candace Owens is the most entertaining spectacle right now: She’s hot, she’s bonkers, she hates me specifically, and she’s about to go through massive litigation. Will there be discovery? Please, oh please, oh please. The French seem to think they can face down a true American loon. But they can’t handle our loons. The craziest person a French government official knows is the local drunk, or maybe an immigrant who did a one-off honor killing (which isn’t really insanity so much as just different cultural norms). Our loons, sober and confident, will break them. Our loons have never met a camera that they didn’t want to point their finger right at. They have never known doubt. They know their angles. The Bulwark says Candace is in real trouble, but I don’t know.

→ Professor, is that you? I love professors on social media, because they really make you understand why we need to burn down higher education (including my wife’s “university” that doesn’t even pay us anything, which shows lack of scamming skill on her part). This week we have a University of Toronto professor of religion telling writer and friend of The Free Press Jesse Singal that he should kill himself. Before you defend him, you should know that Jesse Singal sometimes writes moderate takes about issues like pediatric gender transition. But he’s not a radical, I guess? Here’s the professor, apparently explaining why Jesse’s death would be a good thing: “Hey Jesse, it’s likely because you’re a piece of stinking hot trash and your loss would be a major W for humanity. Maybe stop being a fucking human stain, and see what happens. Fucking clown.” This is a niche and sort of random item, except that all the cool leftists this week are celebrating the murder of a Blackstone executive. It’s odd how normal this all has become. In debating whether to cut this item, our copy editor said: “Jesse gets comments like that 20 times a day, really.” And that’s true. But the glee over the slaughter of the Blackstone exec makes me realize: These people actually, honest-to-god want guillotines. It’s not a figure of speech. Be careful out there, Jesse! The religion professor is going to claw your eyes out, literally!

→ City-funded nonprofit grocery store update: Amid New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s calls for government-run grocery stores, reporters have been exploring a nonprofit-operated, government-supported grocery store in Kansas City, Missouri. The reporters found what you might expect if you’ve ever imagined a communist grocery store: The shelves are almost completely bare; what food remains is rotten, and there was rampant theft. “A rotten smell comes through the door, and anywhere you turn, you’ll see products that need to be restocked. No hot food or deli.” I’ve said it before, but we at TGIF cannot wait for Mamdani grocery. In this house we eat rotten acorn squash.

There is a photo, but I cannot vouch that it’s the Kansas City store:

*Here’s a good idea. South Africa is starting to inject rhino horns with radioactive material to stop the killing of rhinos for their supposedly medically-valuable horns. From the BBC:

South African scientists have launched an anti-poaching campaign in which rhino’s horns will be injected with a radioactive material.

The group, from the University of the Witwatersrand, said the process is harmless to rhinos but will allow customs officers to detect smuggled horns as they’re transported across the world.

South Africa has the largest rhino population in the world, and hundreds of the animals are poached there every year.

The university’s venture, called the Rhisotope Project, cost around £220,000 ($290,000) and involved six years of research and testing.

“At least one animal a day is still being poached,” James Larkin, a Wits University professor involved in the project, told the BBC.

“I think the figures are only going to go one way if we don’t watch out…. this is a significant tool to help reduce the numbers of poaching, because we’re proactive rather than being reactive.”

Prof Larkin added that the pilot study, which involved 20 rhinos, confirmed that the radioactive material was “completely safe” for the animals.

The Wits University researchers, who collaborated with the International Atomic Energy Agency, found that horns could even be detected inside full 40-foot (six-metre) shipping containers.

Jamie Joseph, a prominent South African rhino campaigner, said the Rhisotope Project was “innovative and much needed”.

“It’s not the endgame – only better legislation and political will can bring an end to the rhino crisis. But it will certainly help disrupt the flow of horns leaving the country and help experts better map out the illegal channels by providing reliable data,” Ms Joseph, director of the Saving the Wild charity, told the BBC.

Note that this is supposed to work not by stopping the rhinos from being killed directly, but indirectly—by taking away the profitability associated with killing and smuggling. And the efficacy of that, of course, depends on whether the majority of smuggled horns can be detected. I hope so!

*A new paper in Cell, summarized by the NYT, reveals through genetic analysis that modern potatoes appear to result from hybridizatopn 8-9 million years ago between wild potatoes that lack tubers and tomatoes.  Actually, tomatoes and potatoes are not that distantly related:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili again gives a long report on the doings of The Administrator:

Hili: I need to settle on a style for this month. John Stuart Mill is too serious, Alan Sokal too sneaky. Erasmus? In Praise of Folly? Looks like I don’t need to search any further. “People drug and delude themselves with many things in order to feel happy, such as alcohol and religion. People who brag about their wisdom and titles are stupid because it is silly to enjoy self-praise. It’s also a bad idea to brag about where you were born, who you’re related to, or your ethnicity. To be wise, one must examine the underlying realities, and those who boast about their knowledge are fools.”

That’s Erasmus. He showed that sometimes fools are wise, and the wise are fools.

We cats know how to combine modesty with genius – and that’s what I have to stick to.

In Polish:

Hili: Muszę sobie wypracować jakiś styl na ten miesiąc. John Stuart Mill zbyt poważny, Alan Sokal zbyt podstępny, Erazm? Pochwała głupoty? Chyba nie muszę dłużej szukać.

„Ludzie odurzają się i łudzą różnymi rzeczami, by poczuć się szczęśliwymi – takimi jak alkohol czy religia.
Ci, którzy przechwalają się swoją mądrością i tytułami, są głupi, bo czerpanie radości z samouwielbienia jest śmieszne.
Równie niedorzeczne jest przechwalanie się miejscem urodzenia, pochodzeniem czy przynależnością etniczną.
Aby być mądrym, trzeba przyglądać się temu, co kryje się pod powierzchnią, a ci, którzy chełpią się swoją wiedzą, są głupcami.”

To Erazm. On pokazywał, że czasem głupi są mądrzy, a mądrzy są głupi. My, koty, umiemy łączyć skromność  z geniuszem i tego muszę się trzymać.

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

From Masih, with the English translation being this:

In the hellish torture chamber of #QezelHesar, under fists, torture, and threats, the hands and feet of innocent prisoners have been bound, their heads covered with sacks, and their wounds have been attacked; the prisoners have reached out for help to the people. Let us not allow their breath to be buried forever within the walls of QezelHesar… #SpeakOfQezelHesar

Ghezael Hesar is Iran’s largest prison, and Wikipedia says this:

The Ghezel Hesar prison is infamous for its conditions. In March 2011, it made headlines when, according to official reports, 14 people were killed and 33 wounded during a prison revolt. The actual number of victims may have been higher. Former prisoners report torture and physical abuse by the staff, catastrophic hygiene conditions, and a lack of medical care. There are reports that clashes inside Karaj Ghezel Hesar Prison began when some prisoners protested against the execution of dozens of other prisoners. One hundred fifty people are said to have suffered serious injuries, and several dozens to have been killed. Sources close to the government have announced that 47 people have been killed or injured in this incident, yet this number differs dramatically from similar reports from independent sources.

May 2015 has seen mass executions of prisoners: between May 6 and June 10, 2015, at least 77 inmates, all charged with drug offenses, were executed in Ghezelhesar prison. The execution wave started after prisoners had gathered in the prison’s yard to ask Ali Khamenei for forgiveness.

در شکنجه گاه جهنمی #قزلحصار ،زیر مشت و شکنجه و تهدید، دست و پای زندانیان بیگناهی را بسته اند و سرشان کیسه کشیده اند و بر زخم هایشان تاخته اند؛ زندانیان دست یاری به سوی مردم دراز کرده اند. نگذاریم نفسشان را در دیوارهای قزلحصار برای همیشه دفن کنند…..#از_قزلحصار_بگو pic.twitter.com/y4jsUabaZN

— Kosar Eftekhari (@kosareftekharii) August 1, 2025

From Luana.  The solution is not to abolish the bar exam, but have preparations in case someone has a heart attack during the exam (read the whole tweet). The tweeter is called “Ms. Free Palestine” because that’s how she identifies herself on her site.

I think anytime any person suffers a heart attack during any activity that activity should be abolished because, as Ms. Free Palestine here reminds us, such activities are “cruel”.

This would abolish all sports, all occupations, sex, and, well, I guess, pretty much everything. https://t.co/vrQOTqGBBO

— i/o (@avidseries) August 1, 2025

Rowling smokes cigars! (This is the second time she’s mentioned celebrating by smoking one!). Lovely! She turned 60 yesterday.

Thank you very, very much for all the birthday wishes ❤️ Having a wonderful day, although I was in a shop earlier and learned that the title of my memoir* is already taken. Might have a cigar later and see if I can annoy some more people 😉 #60Today

*There is no memoir pic.twitter.com/kRmyr8maQE

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 1, 2025

From Malcolm, who says “beautiful”. I agree. This song is associated with Andrea Bocelli, but I love hearing a soprano hit the high notes. The singer is Ellen Williams, and you can hear the full YouTube version here.

So good! pic.twitter.com/0FWHaqnBTV

— The Best (@Thebestfigen) July 22, 2025

From my feed. LOOK AT THIS CHONK!

The Real Size of Animals. ~A Thread🧵

1. That is one massive seal🤯pic.twitter.com/ZaZFLYPpTY

— Vertigo_Warrior (@VertigoWarrior) August 1, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

4300 Roma were gassed in just two days: men, women, and children. https://t.co/ZhN887OApD

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) August 2, 2025

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. Unity Mitford was a British aristocrat who moved to Germany and turned Nazi. When she heard that the UK had declared war on Germany, she shot herself in the head. She died from that, but nine years later.

Unity Mitford – not only a horrible Nazi but also a terrifying example of nominative and locative determinism (again from @nybooks.com)

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T08:56:58.417Z

Two posts  from mammoth expert Tori Herridge, who, along with Matthew and I, think that Colossal Bioscience’s “de-extinction” scheme is a crock:

Are we settled on No-a for the neo-Moa?

— Tori Herridge (@toriherridge.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T21:19:43.029Z

🐺 and I submit Tire wolf, because it’s all just exhausting really

— Tori Herridge (@toriherridge.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T21:43:37.028Z

Bonus: I reposted this one from Matthew helping him defend the critics of “de-extinction”:

Cui bono indeed. These critics happen to have the truth on their side; "de-extinction" is completely misleading, as there is no technology to bring back an extinct animal (much less several of them) with all their original genes.The proposed "wooly mammoth", says Tori, is an elephant in a fur coat."

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T11:54:41.413Z

It’s August! It’s August! Yes, today is August 1, 2025, and Homemade Pie Day.  But I’ll take any pie: homemade or commercial. The only pie I abide eat is strawberry-rhubarb pie because they put sour, gritty VEGETABLES in it! Oy! Here’s one of these toxic desserts from Wikipedia (I also learned that pure rhubarb pie is common in the UK, but I can’t believe that the human palate could stomach such a thing.)

It’s also International Albariño Day, International Beer Day, National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, National Spritz Day, and Yorkshire Day. Here are four Yorkshiremen:

Since it’s August, here’s the depiction of August in the wonderful manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.  It shows falconry taking place at the Château d’Étampes.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*A professor of Constitutional law at Harvard Law School, Adrian Vermeule, reports that there’s a revolt among lower courts against the Supreme Courts. His op-ed in the NYT is called “Someone is defying the Supreme Court, but it isn’t Trump” (article archived here).

The issue of defying court orders is still with us — but it has taken a twist. Now the defiance is coming from inside the judicial branch itself, in the form of a lower-court mutiny against the Supreme Court. District Court judges, and in some cases even appellate courts, have either defied orders of the court outright or engaged in malicious compliance and evasion of those orders, in transparent bad faith.

In the past decade or so, increasing judicial overreach has caused harm to our constitutional order by limiting the ability of the executive branch to implement the program it was elected by the American people to pursue. It has been a scourge for both recent Republican and Democratic presidents, and it may provoke extreme measures to restore order. The recent defiance goes even further, threatening to damage the internal integrity of the judiciary, which ultimately relies on lower courts to follow the Supreme Court’s direction.

Consider Judge Brian Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts. Judge Murphy issued a preliminary injunction against the transfer of removable aliens to third countries, in cases in which the transfer was expressly permitted by federal law. So far, this was just an ordinary example of judicial overreach.

But after the Supreme Court issued an order to stay — that is, to stop — the preliminary injunction while litigation proceeded (over a dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor), Judge Murphy went beyond overreach. He decided that his order enforcing the injunction that the court had stayed nonetheless remained in effect — a proposition for which his only cited authority was the dissent from Justice Sotomayor. This seemed to be malicious, whether or not it counts as “compliance” at all. The Supreme Court, with the notable concurrence of Justice Elena Kagan, then had to stay this second order and explain that Judge Murphy’s renewed effort was also illicit.

Lots of similar examples are given; read the article.

Several factors conspire to produce these episodes. The plaintiffs, often activist organizations, who bring the cases carefully select the districts in which to proceed, maximizing their chances of having the case heard by ideologically aligned judges. Under President Joe Biden, liberals harshly criticized this tactic, known as forum or judge shopping.

This year, it is no accident that the incidents of lower-court defiance have taken place in a few areas of the country — the Federal District Courts in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Northern California, Maryland and other blue areas. Under President Biden, Texas and other red states served the same purpose.

District Court judges have almost no accountability; they are like feudal lords who lay down the law in their local courts. If they are reversed, at least they will have stymied for some time the implementation of presidential policies they find objectionable.

Vermeule’s suggestion is an obscure procedure called “departmentalism”:

This doesn’t sound like much of a solution to me, for it gives the President the right to overrule the Supreme Court, and we know how what is construed as “the law” can be stretched.

*The Trump administration is trying to water down the scientific consensus on global warming (article archived here):

Sea level rise is not accelerating. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be good for plant growth. The computer models used to predict global warming tend to exaggerate future temperature increases.

These arguments, routinely made by people who reject the scientific consensus on climate change, were included in an unusual report released by the Energy Department on Tuesday. The report, which is meant to support the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to roll back climate regulations, contends that the mainstream scientific view on climate change is too dire and overlooks the positive effects of a warming planet.

Climate scientists said the 151-page report misrepresented or cherry-picked a large body of research on global warming. Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth​ and the payments company Stripe, called the document a “scattershot collection of oft-debunked skeptic claims​” that “are not representative of broader climate science research findings.”

The report demonstrates the extent to which President Trump is using his second term to wage a battle against climate change research, a long-held goal of some conservative groups and fossil fuel companies. While the first Trump administration often undermined federal scientists and rolled back more than 100 environmental policies, officials mostly refrained from trying to debate climate science in the open.

This time, Trump officials have gone much further.

How so? The article goes on to describe how the EPA is already using the report to repeal a declaration that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health.  Here we have yet another example of the erosion of science by ideology–this time from the Right. And it will be our grandchildren who will pay the price (thank Ceiling Cat I will have none).

*Very few people ever get out of the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador (where the U.S. is sending many of its deportees), but the Washington Post interviewed 16 who did get out. And it’s about as horrible as you can imagine.

The matching firsthand accounts across multiple interviews offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the mega prison, where inmates are denied access to lawyers and almost all contact with the outside world — and where about 14,000 Salvadorans remain incarcerated. Few detainees have ever left CECOT, and fewer have spoken publicly of their experience there.

The Washington Post interviewed 16 of the more than 250 men who were deported by the United States to CECOT, held there for four months and then released this month to Venezuela as part of an international prisoner swap.

The Venezuelans, rounded up in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, told The Post they were subjected to repeated beatings that left them bruised, bleeding or injured. They said prison staff restricted medical care for detainees suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney failure.

The men slept on metal bunks — usually with no cushions — in group cells where overhead lights blazed 24 hours a day. They were expected to bathe and relieve themselves using a water tank and toilets that offered no privacy from cellmates. They were rarely allowed out of their cells.

CECOT, opened by Bukele in 2023 as part of his crackdown on Salvadoran gangs, was designed to terrify the most violent of criminals. His government hailed it as the largest prison in the Americas, initially announcing a capacity for 20,000 detainees and later doubling it. The imposing fortress outside San Salvador sprawls across more than 280 acres, surrounded by an electrified perimeter fence and 19 watchtowers. The roof of each pavilion is made of diamond-shaped mesh with sharp edges.

The Venezuelans were placed in cells, up to 20 men in each. The concrete walls showed sweat stains, drops of dried blood and what appeared to be scratches from human nails, one detainee recalled.

Each cell held 80 metal beds stacked closely together in tiers of four, according to detainees and images of CECOT previously shared by Bukele’s government. Use of the water tanks and toilets was controlled by the guards and restricted to certain times of day. With no windows or fans, the detainees lived and ate amid the stench of their own sewage.

The detainees could gauge the time only by the heat that made them sweat during the day and the cold that chilled their metal beds at night. They couldn’t see the sun, they said, but sometimes could hear the rain.

CECOT “seemed like it was for animals,” said detainee Julio Fernández Sánchez, 35. “It was designed for people to go crazy or kill themselves.”

Here’s a short visit, and yes, it looks like hell on earth:

*From the AP: Now it’s social-nedia posts that grossly misrepresented figures from the war in Gaza, and of course the false facts indict Israel. As a reader points out, the misrepresentations always go in only one direction—against Israel.

As the number of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war continues to rise, social media users are falsely claiming that a Harvard University study has determined that hundreds of thousands in the Gaza Strip are also missing.

“Israel has ‘disappeared’ nearly 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 2023,” reads one X post that had been shared and liked more than 35,700 times as of Thursday. “Harvard has now confirmed what we’ve been screaming into a deaf world: This is a holocaust — and it’s still happening.”

But Harvard did not publish the report in question. Moreover, these claims misrepresent data from the report that was intended to address an entirely unrelated topic.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: A Harvard University study found that nearly 400,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are missing as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.

THE FACTS: Harvard published no such study. This estimate misrepresents a map included in a report by a professor at Israel’s Ben Gurion University that shows the distance between new aid distribution compounds in Gaza and three main populations centers. Using spatial analysis, the report determined that these compounds are inadequate and also does not address how many people in Gaza are missing.

. . . . “If anyone had asked me about these numbers I would have set things straight right away,” said the Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies who authored the report. “Instead the number was circulated and recirculated by people who had not read the report or stopped to think about it for a moment.”

The inaccurate estimate comes from a post on the blogging site Medium. In the post, the author uses a map from Garb’s report showing how many people live in what are currently Gaza’s three main population centers — Gaza City, central refugee camps and the Muwasi area — according to estimates from the Israeli Defense Forces, to determine how many Palestinians are allegedly unaccounted for. The author subtracts the former number — 1.85 million — from the population in Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war began — 2.227 million — for a total of 377,00 missing people.

Why do the distortions always go against Israel?  I think you can guess.

*The NYT’s Christine Chung tried two apps and their associated kits (they ain’t free) designed to beat jet lag, testing each one on a flight halfway around the world. The results? Not impressive. (Article archived here.)

The two apps to which I ceded control of my daily rhythms, Flykitt and Timeshifter, are personalized programs based on scientific approaches to jet lag. Both directed me when to sleep, get light exposure, drink caffeine and take supplements. But they took different approaches: Flykitt featured a heavy vitamin regimen, while Timeshifter focused on preparing for jet lag days before flying.

First up, for the New York-to-Seoul trip, was Flykitt. Its starter pack, $99 for a round trip, includes glasses that filter blue light to minimize light exposure and packs of supplements meant to target inflammation. The program, which promised to curb jet lag in just three days, began on departure day. I put my flight details into the app and answered a few questions about my caffeine intake and sleep patterns, and the app promptly churned out a detailed schedule.

. . .At first, popping handfuls of pills was novel and funny, until it wasn’t. The regimen had me taking about three dozen vitamins over three days, starting on the day of the flight.

I also experienced mysterious, intense thirst. I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected the vitamins were to blame. Addressing my unquenchable thirst resulted in a need to use the bathroom approximately every hour. I spent roughly equal time sightseeing as I did finding public toilets in Seoul.

While I wouldn’t say my jet lag was zapped by Day 3, I slept well and felt energized. I felt fully adjusted after five days, shortly before flying to Taiwan. Flykitt’s app told me that unassisted, this time zone alignment would generally take a little over a week.

And the other one:

After about a week in Taipei, I returned to New York using Timeshifter’s guidance. This app was cheaper than Flykitt, $25 for a year’s subscription. No blue-light glasses, which I honestly enjoyed wearing. The only recommended supplement was melatonin, which I was to take for my first four nights back home to help with the adjustment.

While Flykitt instructed me when to avoid light, Timeshifter alerted me about times to seek it out. When I couldn’t be outside, I turned on as many lights as I could. Standard room light is about half as effective as daylight, Dr. Zeitzer of Stanford said.

. . . . Tt took me about five days to feel back to normal.

The bottom line: Neither program markedly shaved time off my jet lag, but I did feel more clearheaded during and after my trip and I didn’t get sick. The severe dehydration I felt may have been anomalous, but it was a pretty big minus for me. Perhaps the biggest benefit the apps offered was confidence; science was on my side.

There are three big problems with this anecdotal study. First, it’s anecdotal: just two trips. Second, there’s the placebo effect, as suggested by the last sentence.  Finally, related to the second issue, THERE IS NO CONTROL.  Perhaps a couple of vials of water and some wonky instructions would have made Chung feel more “clearheaded.”  We won’t know because the NYT doesn’t care whether these results are even replicable. It would be funny except that they are pushing two for-profit regimens not shown to be effective.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has a long report on Andrzej’s doings “The Administrator,” of course, is Andrzej.

Hili: The Administrator is reshaping his world, neglecting the kitchen and leaving dishes unwashed. He can’t wait to sit down and write. He hurriedly takes care of matters standing between him and the possibility of working. At dawn, he went out to sort out new hearing aids. He says he needs to regain the ability to hear people. He jokes that he used to hear more when he was deaf. Małgorzata is gone; he says he must now face the world without intermediaries. Still, a partner is necessary. Danka is his greatest hope. He browses through her books, reads the sentences, learns things he already knew. They think alike, so working together will be a joy. He’s acting like some kind of Swede. The most important thing now is preparing the tools needed for action.

When I asked who “Danka” was, Andrzej replied:

Danuta Szulczyńska-Miłosz, a writer. She knows my books, she knows everything I write, and the publisher suggested her as the editor of the book. She stayed with me for two days, and now I know that with her help, the first volume will come out this year. I bought new hearing aids (17,000 zlotys), I’m buying a laptop with the best camera and the best microphone so we can stay in daily contact. A friend who’s choosing and installing all of it for me, along with AI tools, has instructions that price is not an issue. We already have a few side projects related to promotion. With her help, the whole project is gaining momentum. Danka lives near Szczecin, which means far away. But our cats have already settled things between themselves.

Very good. I presume the book is Andrzej’s autobiography.

In Polish:

Hili: Administrator zmienia swój świat, zaniedbał kuchnię nie zmywa po jedzeniu. Nie może się doczekać, kiedy siądzie do pisania. Pospiesznie załatwia sprawy, które dzielą go od możliwości pracy. Od świtu pojechał załatwiać nowe aparaty słuchowe. Mówi, że musi odzyskać możliwość słyszenia ludzi. Żartuje, że jako głuchy słyszał więcej. Małgorzaty nie ma, mówi, że teraz musi zmierzyć się ze światem bez pośredników. Wspólniczka jest jednak potrzebna. Danka jest jego największą nadzieją, Zagląda do jej książek, czyta zdania, dowiaduje się tego, co już wiedział, myślą podobnie, więc wspólna praca będzie radością. Zachowuje się jak jakiś Szwed, Najważniejsze jest teraz przygotowanie narzędzi potrzebnych do działania.   

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

From The Language Nerds, National differences in phrases:

From CinEmma:

From The Dodo Pet:

This is insane. Supporters of Palestine are vandalizing the NYT building because they retracted a lie! (h/t Luana)

BREAKING: After the NYT retracted its lie about a Gazan child with a muscular disease, pro-Hamas radicals vandalized their Manhattan building.

Islamists are furious the NYT didn’t keep up the lies—and they’re trying to intimidate them into submission.pic.twitter.com/t8EeNWWshW

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) July 30, 2025

From Barry, who adds, “I like the ones near the end of the video that give up. ‘Screw this. Why are we following this duck anyway? I’m outta here’.”

It's just a “swarm of fish" following a duck.

— Insta Science (@instascience.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T14:04:25.098Z

From Malcolm. Crikey–look at those insects!!!!

Removal of a hornets nest
pic.twitter.com/1jNYvdEo0N

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 23, 2025

From my site: three posts on the dangerous North Sea (there are 20!) I put the last one in.

The North Sea is scary as hell, here’s why the North Sea is so dangerous.

A Thread 🧵

1. The last video will really shock you pic.twitter.com/yYBzk8MVKm

— Crazy Moments (@Crazymoments01) July 31, 2025

20. What makes the North Sea so dangerous? pic.twitter.com/u6g3LOQE4I

— Crazy Moments (@Crazymoments01) July 31, 2025

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted.

A Hungarian Jewish woman died at about 38 in Auschwitz. https://t.co/ubCSa8u8HQ

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) August 1, 2025

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, my return home from Iceland:

When u are returned to Chicago

— Robert McNees (@mcnees.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T20:44:05.143Z

The answer is not that difficult; I just like to show pictures of skunks.  DO NOT HURT THEM!

🦨 Ever wonder how skunks decide where to live in urban landscapes like Chicago?New research from @masonfidino.bsky.social, @lizalehrer.bsky.social, & @sbmagle.bsky.social from @lpzoo.org used nearly a decade of data to find out! 🦊🌍🧪A 🧵

— Stacks Journal (@stacksjournal.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T15:14:21.110Z

Welcome to the very last day of the month: Thursday, July 31, 2025. For some reason I dread the coming of August! At any rate, today is National Chili Dog Day, and I could use one (along with fries), comme ça:

It’s also National Avocado Day, Shredded Wheat Day, National Cotton Candy Day, National Raspberry Cake Day, and yes, National Spam Day. I like spam!

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*A NYT op-ed with a title I couldn’t resist: “This is the moment that Democrats have been talking about for years.” The moment? Trump’s signing into law the Big Beautiful Budget Bill. The piece, written by Antonio Delgado, the Democratic lieutenant governor of New York State, says that if Dems took advantage of what he sees as a bad bill, our party could make big gains:

After months of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, Democrats are still learning how to navigate a political landscape dominated by Donald Trump’s Republican Party. With Democrats locked out of power in Washington, the burden has shifted to the state and local levels to prove that we can govern.

Republicans have given us an opportunity to do just that. This month, Republicans in Washington — including every Republican representative from New York — voted for a morally bankrupt piece of legislation that slashes social safety net programs, cuts taxes for the ultrawealthy and provides $75 billion in new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Trump pushed these policies simultaneously for a reason: so that he can scapegoat immigrants for the economic pain his agenda will bring to everyone. The problem isn’t scarcity — it’s greed.

This is the moment Democrats have been talking about for years: a chance to prove we’re more than a party of outrage and opposition. If we can’t deliver now, when the stakes are highest, we don’t deserve the trust of the people we claim to represent. It’s time to offer Americans more than sternly worded social media posts and podcast interviews.

So far, we’re failing that test. Our leaders are falling into the same trap Democrats have routinely found themselves in since 2016. These crises need to be taken on in a way that is bold and unafraid and that delivers for the working and middle classes without fear of reprisal from concentrated wealth or corporate power.

The solution? Find leaders like—wait for it—Zohran Mamdani:

What makes this situation all the more frustrating is that we just saw what it looks like to connect with voters on the most important issue of the day: affordability. In June, Zohran Mamdani pulled off one of the biggest upsets in New York’s modern political history. Establishment Democrats have been talking about affordability for years and have very little to show for it. Mr. Mamdani got through to New Yorkers on the very same set of issues. Instead of lecturing them, he took the time to actually listen to what voters were feeling. He had the courage to directly engage with people, and then brought a laser focus on the issues that they care about. As a result, he shattered turnout records and brought out young voters in droves. It should have been a major signal to the establishment.

Instead of embracing Mr. Mamdani’s success, as I have, many top Democrats have kept their distance.

To date, party leaders seem more interested in clinging to power than delivering for the people. Better to maintain an unsustainable economic status quo than be mislabeled a Communist, the thinking goes. Better to avoid being called soft on “illegals” than to do the hard work needed to truly protect hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living in fear under Mr. Trump’s dragnet.

Well, Mamdani is gonna run NYC, and whether or not he succeeds will affect the chances of other Democrats.  But America is not NYC, and the American public is not likely to be wild about Mamdani’s program.  As for “being soft on illegals,” if you listen to what the American people want, they want the opposite of what Delgado thinks: they want fewer people entering American illegally.

I swear, if I hear one more op-ed saying that Democrats should listen to what Americans want, and that this is the way we should win, I’ll hurl.  The principle is of course right, but what Americans want is not what progressive Democrats say they want.

*Big headline from The Free Press: “Why Sydney Sweeny’s body is causing a total meltdown.” I barely know who Sydney Sweeney is, but she’s apparently very good looking and with the kind of pulchritude that’s seen as driving men wild. She’s an actress, and the brohaha is that she just did a commercial for American Eagle Jeans that has a double entendre: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” (read as “genes”). The original ad has been pulled, but here’s a version:

This has not only angered people who are saying she’s bringing back eugenics with the “genes” entendre (oy!), but also people who argue that, just when America was relaxing what were seen as overly restrictive standards of beauty, she’s erased all that by being classically beautiful.  And so the brouhaha:

“This is literal Nazi propaganda,” announced one viral post. “Did they mean to include a bunch of Nazi dog whistles in this?” asked another. Yet another referenced a notorious white supremacist slogan in their tweet: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children is a crazy tagline for selling denim.” The ad’s been called “regressive,” “racist,” and “tone-deaf.”

And it’s not just anonymous people online. MSNBC warned that the Sweeney campaign is a sign of an “unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness,” while the (also quite hot) rapper Doja Cat joined the pile-on with a TikTok parody in which she mocked the actor—who’s starred in Euphoria and The White Lotus—mimicking her lines in a drawling, redneck accent. The video was widely praised as a “razor-sharp response” that, according to certain outlets, had elevated a cringey marketing misstep into a national conversation about “representation, corporate responsibility, and the power of celebrity voices in modern discourse.”

The right, meanwhile, did what it so often does when the left says something innocuous is very racist: They made her a cause. “Woke advertising is dead. Sydney Sweeney killed it,” read one tweet. Ted Cruz (as in, the senator) declared on X: “Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women. I’m sure that will poll well.” The literal White House communications director, Steven Cheung, added: “Cancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They’re tired of this bullshit.”

And, last but not least, Donald Trump Jr. shared an AI-generated picture of the president, in double denim, taking the same pose as Sydney, and posted it on Instagram, in what I assume is an expression of support for her. “Um, Donald is so hot right now!!!” read the caption.

Besides being a Nazi, Sweeney is seen as wrecking the “body positivitity movement,” in which everyone is seen as beautiful in their own way.

Sydney Sweeney is hot, but the 27-year-old is also more than that. She is incredibly, incredibly powerful. The woman can move markets. American Eagle’s stock shot up nearly 20 percent after the campaign dropped. She didn’t just sell jeans—the profits of which, by the way, are going to a domestic violence charity—she added hundreds of millions in value to a publicly traded company practically overnight. Once, we would have accepted this and moved on. There was a time in the not very distant past when a beautiful woman selling jeans was just great advertising.

But lately the American public has grown used to a very different kind of ad, which tried to convince us beauty is whatever they say it is this week. You know the ones: the sagging swimsuit campaigns, the big-and-proud lingerie shoots, the breathless press releases declaring that representation is the new hotness. For roughly a decade, brands insisted on telling us what we should find sexy—stretch marks, back rolls, visible panic disorders—whether we liked it or not.

The body positivity movement told us, loudly and constantly, that everyone is beautiful, that all bodies are worthy of the spotlight, that a triple chin was not only normal, but empowering. Obesity wasn’t a health crisis, it was an identity. That era wasn’t really about celebrating women. It was about neutralizing beauty. Sanding down the sharp edges of desirability until no one felt left out, and no one stood out.

“This is literal Nazi propaganda,” announced one viral post. “Did they mean to include a bunch of Nazi dog whistles in this?” asked another.

And now here comes Sweeney, basking in her exceptional, remarkable, jaw-dropping body. Selling sex and looking like an unreformed Victoria’s Secret Angel, draped across a convertible in low-rise denim. Saying: Yeah, I’m lucky, I got really, really good genes. The contrast is almost comical. Whether she meant to be or not, she’s a kind of walking middle finger to the movement that tried to blow up all of our old-fashioned ideas about beauty. She’s not the future of advertising. She’s the past, revived, and making more money than ever.

I find this all hilarious, as I have no dog in this fight. It just shows how almost anything can be blown up into a huge controversy.  All I can say as an evolutionist is that I think some standards of beauty come from evolution, as they’re connected with reproductive ability, so not all of them are “socially constructed.” Beyond that I will not go. Oh, and John McWhorter also thinks (as do I) that the eugenics thing is simply performative outrage.

*George Will has followed my lead and, in a WaPo column, lists “The top five words that today are gratingly misapplied or worn out.” And here they are (I’ve put them in bold):

The fifth-most misused word in what remains of the tattered language is “massive.” It is an adjective applied to anything big, even if the thing has no mass. There cannot be a massive increase in consumer confidence. Similarly, it would be wrong to say there is massive illiteracy in many uses of “massive.”

The fourth-most shopworn word is “unique.” It is applied to any development that has happened since the person misusing “unique” was in high school. As in, “There is unique polarization in America today,” a judgment that cannot survive even a cursory reading about the 1850s. Often the misuse is compounded by tacking “very” onto it. Saying that something is “very unique” is saying that something merely unique is less so than something “very unique,” with uniqueness varying by degrees.

The third-most gratingly misapplied word is “only,” but only in the phrase “one of the only.” As in, Mickey Mantle is one of the only switch hitters in the Hall of Fame. One of the only is a wordy way of avoiding “few.”

I’ll add here that “only” is one of the most misplaced words in sentences. Here’s one example of such a misplacement: “I only ate one hot dog.” You should know why that’s wrong.

The second-most worn-out word in contemporary discourse is “iconic.” This adjective is, it seems, applicable to anything or anyone well-known in a way different from the way anything or anyone else has become well-known. New Jersey urges tourists to come and enjoy its “iconic boardwalks.” Hulk Hogan, a professional wrestler, was, a story on his death said, iconic. Meaning he was somewhat famous and somewhat distinguishable from other professional wrestlers, every one of whom strains to be very unique.

Today’s most promiscuously used word is “vibe.” It probably is used so often by so many because trying to decipher its meaning is like trying to nail applesauce to smoke. Having no fixed meaning, “vibe” cannot be used incorrectly. So, it resembles the phrase “social justice,” a noun and a modifier that does not intelligibly modify the noun.

Well, I agree with “unique”, but my own list wouldn’t have the other four—not that they aren’t still grating. But I would substitute “amazing” for “massive”, and use “only” for placement, as I don’t object to its usage the way Will puts it.  Yes, “iconic” is way overused, and I detest “vibe”.  But good for Will for being such a curmudgeon!

*From the AP: a new paper in Nature shows life thriving all the way at the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches, fueled by elements and compounds falling down from above:

 An underwater voyage has revealed a network of creatures thriving at the bottom of deep-sea ocean trenches.

In these extreme environments, the crushing pressure, scant food and lack of sunlight can make it hard to survive. Scientists know that tiny microbes prosper there, but less is known about evidence of larger marine life.

Researchers traveling along the Kuril–Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean used a submersible to find tubeworms and mollusks flourishing at over 31,000 feet (9.5 kilometers) deep. The deepest part of the ocean goes down to about 36,000 feet (11 kilometers).

Scientists had surveyed this area before and had hints that larger creatures might live at such depths. The new discovery confirms those suspicions and shows just how extensive the communities are, said Julie Huber, a deep sea microbiologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“Look how many there are, look how deep they are,” said Huber, who was not involved with the research. “They don’t all look the same and they’re in a place that we haven’t had good access to before.”

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

In the absence of light to make their own food, many trench-dwellers big and small survive on key elements like carbon that trickle down from higher in the ocean.

For crying out loud, why don’t these articles ever link to the research they’re talking about? The Nature paper is here, and a precis “news and views” is here.

*Colin Wright reports in the Wall Street Journal that he is suing Cornell University because he applied for a job there as an evolutionary biologist and secret documents have since come to light showing that Cornell was looking for such a biologist, but it had to be a member of a minority (Colin is white). Race-based hiring is of course illegal, and Cornell knew it.

I’m filing a complaint against Cornell University for racial discrimination.

This isn’t a political stunt or publicity grab. It’s a last resort in response to a gross injustice that destroyed the career I spent more than a decade building. It’s about holding accountable a powerful institution that violated the law, abandoned its principles, and discriminated against me because of my race.

. . . . Last month, the America First Policy Institute released internal Cornell emails showing the university conducted an effort to recruit what the search committee referred to as a “diversity hire.” One committee member described the process bluntly: “What we should be doing is inviting one person whom we have identified as being somebody that we would like to join our department and not have that person in competition with others.” That “somebody,” who is black, was selected not because of research excellence, but because of race. I was denied the chance to compete—so were other academics who might have been qualified.

This discriminatory practice, conducted in coordination with Cornell’s Office of the Provost—led at the time by current Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff—violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race. That’s why, with representation from the America First Policy Institute, I’m taking legal action against Cornell.

What makes this worse is the university’s continued dishonesty. This year, Mr. Kotlikoff wrote: “We do not exclude anyone at Cornell for reasons irrelevant to merit, neither do we admit or evaluate students, hire or promote employees, award chairs or tenure, or make any other merit-driven decisions at Cornell based on race, ethnicity, or other attributes not relevant to merit.” The leaked documents show otherwise.

In addition to orchestrating the discriminatory hiring scheme, Cornell created other racially filtered hiring pipelines, including a $16 million National Institutes of Health-funded initiative called the Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation program. or First. This program, the stated purpose of which is “enhancing compositional diversity,” required hiring committees to revise applicant lists repeatedly until they were diverse enough. If the applicant pool wasn’t diverse enough, the process was paused for “additional robust outreach.”

Imagine if the races were reversed. Suppose a whistleblower uncovered internal emails showing that a university had run a secret search to ensure that qualified black applicants were excluded from consideration. Suppose the school selected only white candidates to produce a racially predetermined outcome. There would—rightfully—be national outrage. It would be a landmark civil-rights case. That’s exactly what Cornell did—except I’m white.

This kind of race-based hiring is not only illegal, but is against the stated policies of my own university. I hope Cornell gets a sharp blow to the tuchas for this kind of duplicity. It’s one thing to make it public, but of course they couldn’t do that. So they are doing what many other schools are: hiring based on ethnicity but disguising it in various ways.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Hili dialogue is very long today (she’s reporting on the life of Andrzej: “The Administrator”), and so I have put Hili’s words below the fold. But here is her photo:

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

From CinEmma:

From Things With Faces. Caption: “Luke, I am your coffee.”:

From Jesus of the Day:

Masih has a podcast: 71 minutes linked to this tweet. The topic: “What the West gets wrong about Iran.”

The Islamic Republic hasn’t come to terms with losing the 12-day war with Israel. There’s a lot that the West gets wrong about the Islamic Republic. @AlinejadMasih unpacks it all.https://t.co/Flekd0sibf

— Kambiz Foroohar (@kambizf) July 21, 2025

From Simon. I wonder if Larry the Cat still like Macron. . . :

Macron: "He's a very clever cat" Merci monsieur le président x

— Larry the Cat (@number10cat.bsky.social) 2025-07-10T19:36:17.529Z

From Luana: an alphabet divorce:

It’s time the LGB divorce the TQ+.
We are not the same. pic.twitter.com/bnRuzKc9wn

— RigoStaRR (@RigoIrizarry) July 5, 2025

From Malcolm: an adoption gone wrong (but good for the d*g):

This little pup adopted by a mama cat
pic.twitter.com/OQ8irf2tcL

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 6, 2025

One from my feed: a double moggy adoption:

A guy wanted to adopt a cat, but he wouldn’t leave his brother’s side, so he had to take both of them.pic.twitter.com/Z4YqwB12OI

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 28, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

A Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed to death immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was about seven. https://t.co/OJru1ivepF

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) July 31, 2025

Two posts from Dr. Cobb.  You can read the linked PNAS paper and decide for yourself:

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason – static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas…

— Sam England (@samjakeengland.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T11:41:50.171Z

This is an amazing feat of natural selection. Can you guess why building this fake spider (a complex behavior) has evolved?

“Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a spider is at work building an elaborate, fake decoy of itself. In its web, it busily goes to working crafting its doppelgänger out of leaves, debris and dead prey insects…”#scicomm#sensoryecology#falsesignalwww.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/s…🧪 🕷️

— Sensory Ecology Lab (@sensoryecology.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T03:14:29.847Z

BELOW THE FOLD: Today’s Hili dialogue. Click “read more” to see the English version

Continue reading “Thursday: Hili dialogue” →

Today may be a short dialogue as yesterday I had to go to the dentist, eliminating the afternoon time I devote to the next day’s Hili. (Note: I succeeded in producing a normal Hili!)

But anyway, welcome to a hump day (“Húfudagur” in Icelandic): Wednesday, July 30, 2025, with one more day to go until the dreaded month of August. However, today is National Cheesecake Day. Here’s how Junior’s serves it (when she was alive, my mom would send me an entire Junior’s Cheesecake on my birthday.) This lucky woman tried them all!

It’s also World Snorkeling Day, Paperback Book Day, and Father-in-Law Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 30 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Breaking news: A tsunami caused by one of the biggest earthquakes known to humans is about to reach the U.S. Fortunately, no catastrophic damage is foreseen.

Tsunami waves began to reach the U.S. West Coast early Wednesday morning as the effects of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, were felt in nations on both sides of the Pacific. Waves as high as 5.7 feet above normal washed onto Hawaii, though officials said the threat of widespread destruction there had passed.

The tsunami was moving down the California coast, where just before 2 a.m. Pacific a surge of 3.6 feet was detected in Crescent City, a low-lying northern community near the Oregon state line. Authorities closed some of California’s beaches, docks and harbors, warning of strong and dangerous currents.

*In an incident rare in NYC, a gunman in killed four people before turning the gun on himself.  The shooter was apparently targeting the National Football League, but also had a brain disease:

Investigators on Tuesday were focusing on whether a gunman had been targeting the headquarters of the National Football League when he burst into an office tower in Midtown Manhattan and killed four people, including a police officer, in a rare episode of deadly mass violence in the city.

Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday morning that the authorities “have reason to believe that he was focused on the N.F.L.,” which has offices at the tower, 345 Park Avenue. A three-page note found on the gunman mentioned the league, as well as claims that the man had suffered from the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., from playing football, the police said. It asks that his brain be examined for signs of C.T.E. and accuses the league of concealing the dangers of the game.

One issue, which is now moot, is what kind of charges Tamura would have faced had he lived, given that his brain was injured.  That may have been the motive, but it also implies that, perhaps like the Texas shooter Charles Whitman, Tisch woule be found “not guilty by reason of insanity”. (He would have of course been confined in a mental hospital.) However, this is true of all crimes: our brains made them do the crimes, and they had no choice. This realization should inform our justice system.

*The WSJ describes how the advent of AI is wrecking an already precarious job market for recent college grads:

What do you hire a 22-year-old college graduate for these days?

For a growing number of bosses, the answer is not much—AI can do the work instead.

*Shades of the First Amendment! Reader Barry contributed a link to a new WaPo article, “Trump administration urges federal employees to talk religion at work” (archived here).

Federal employees can display religious items at work, pray in groups while not on duty and encourage co-workers to adopt their faith, according to guidance released Monday by the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal civilian workforce.

In a memo titled “Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said that the government workforce should be “a welcoming place” for employees who practice a religious faith.

“Allowing religious discrimination in the Federal workplace violates the law,” Kupor said in the memo. “It also threatens to adversely impact recruitment and retention of highly-qualified employees of faith.”

Although the core of OPM’s guidance on religious expression differs little from past administrations, it “presents a substantial shift in that it encourages employees to express their religious beliefs in the workplace,” said Stefanie Camfield, associate general counsel and director of human resource services at Engage PEO.

Historically, Camfield said, employers have been advised to keep religious conversation at work to a minimum, noting that “the more religion is allowed into the workplace, the more likely it is that differences of opinion are raised.”

“In the current political environment, these types of differences have a way of turning into arguments,” Camfield said. “In some cases, it leads to outright hostility, which makes it more likely that an emplo

If it causes divisiveness, Trump’s for it.  As the article notes, this stuff was already legal, but now it’s encouraged.  And I’m wondering if this isn’t really a violation of the First Amendment, because religious chitchat is not related to the job, but there is no encouragement of nonreligious chitchat. Further, there’s no encouragement for people to talk about atheism at work, and atheism sort of fits in there with religion, as it’s a form of nonbelief.  Regardless, this is an attempt by the government to increase religiosity.

*This comes from Greg Mayer, and I quote his submission in full:

So, irony of ironies, it turns out that the NY Times’ February puff piece on Felisa Wolfe-Simon is what drove Science to retract the paper. [JAC: The NYT puff piece on the “arsenic life” paper is here, and I wrote about it here.]

Money quote:

Then last year, Science’s stance shifted. A reporter contacted Science for a New York Times article about the legacy of the #arseniclife affair.

That inquiry “convinced us that this saga wasn’t over, that unless we wanted to keep talking about it forever, we probably ought to do some things to try to wind it down,” said Holden Thorp, editor in chief of Science since 2019. “And so that’s when I started talking to the authors about retracting.”

The “reporter” in the quote is almost certainly Sarah Scholes, the author of both the February puff piece and the article quoted above on retraction, referring to herself in the third person. (No other Times reporter is credited with additional reporting in either article.)

So, instead of rehabilitating Wolfe-Simon, the reporter got the  paper retracted and her name dragged through the mud again.

*As one of the solutions to the problem of transgender people wanting to participate in sports, I suggested that while trans-identified men should be prohibited from competing in women’s sports (and they largely have now), I also suggested that trans-identified women, or others not fitting the “biological woman” category, should compete in men’s sports.  But I forgot a very important issue, and one that Colin Wright discusses in a new piece on his Substack, “Keep men out of women’s sports—and women out of men’s.”  It’s the issue of biological women who identify as men having a higher susceptibility to injury when playing in a men’s league. A quote:

Despite its name, Nebraska’s Stand With Women Act, signed into law on June 4, 2025, does not actually establish sex-based categories for sports. While the Act bans males from participating in women’s school and university athletics, it does not prohibit female students from joining male teams.

For an interscholastic athletic team or sport sponsored by a public school, a private school whose students or teams compete against a public school in an interscholastic sport, or a private school that is a member of an athletic association…a team or sport designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to a male student…a team or sport designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to a female student unless there is no female team offered or available for such sport for such female student. [italics added]

My aim here is to highlight the problems with the asymmetrical structure of Nebraska’s Stand With Women Act.

A few issues:

Inconsistent philosophy on injury risk:

A commonly cited justification for excluding men from women’s sports is the increased risk of injury to female athletes. However, Nebraska’s Stand With Women Act permits girls and women to participate in boys’ and men’s sports. This creates a logical inconsistency. If the presence of a male athlete in a women’s event raises safety concerns, why wouldn’t a female athlete competing against a full team of male athletes pose an even greater risk to herself? All else equal, a woman is more likely to be injured competing against a team of males than against a team of females that includes just one male participant.

. . . Male spaces

Even if girls and women have no natural performance advantages over boys and men, that would still not justify allowing females to compete in the male category of sport. Boys and men ought to be entitled to male-only spaces for the same ethical and social reasons that girls and women ought to be entitled to female-only spaces.

Yet the Stand With Women Act is oddly inconsistent on this point. On the one hand, it asserts a principle of sex-based exclusivity: “a team or sport designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to a female student.” This language implies that there was some absolute ethical principle guiding the decision to preserve male-only categories. But the Act immediately undermines this principle by including a carveout: a female student may join a boys’ or men’s team if no equivalent female team is available. In other words, the right of males to their own spaces is conditional, while the right of females to theirs is absolute.

. . . . Preferential treatment and its consequences

Another important concern with allowing girls and women to participate in boys’ and men’s sports is the issue of differential treatment—particularly the burden it places on male athletes to alter their playing behaviors to accommodate female athletes. This is not just a matter of etiquette; it introduces ethical, psychological, and practical conflicts on and off the field.

In a recent conversation I had with Dan Romand from Men Need to Be Heard, he shared a story from his high school football days that illustrates the problem well (story begins at 27:25). Dan’s team included a girl on the roster. Dan played offensive lineman and the girl played linebacker. Dan recalled a play in practice where he was the lead blocker for the running back. His assigned blocking target was the linebacker (i.e., the girl). Dan knew that he would have “erased her” if he hit her with his full capacity. So instead, he held back to avoid injuring her.

Why should Dan—or any other male athlete—be put in that position? Why should a male athlete be forced to choose between his natural instincts—to protect, respect, and compete for women—versus hitting and competing against women?

Policymakers, including those in Nebraska’s legislature, put players like Dan in no-win situations when they allow such scenarios to exist. If Dan goes easy on the girl, he compromises his integrity as a player. He’s practicing in a way that contradicts both his instincts and the way he’s been trained to play.

Now there may be some sports (equestrian ones? Archery?) in which there may be no sex segregation since there are no dressing rooms and possibly no physical advantages of men (I’m just guessing here), but the likelihood of injury to trans-identified women is a serious issue in some sports. World Rugby, for example, has a policy stating this:

• Transgender men must confirm they understand any increased risk to themselves
• An experienced independent medical practitioner must provide confirmation that the player is physically capable of playing men’s rugby

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili recites what, from her observations, Andrzej (“The Administrator”) is up to. It’s a bit hard to get, but I think that “Memoirs Found in an Old Head ” refers to an autobiography that Andrzej is writing. 

Hili:  This is all very suspicious. The Administrator is taking care of it. The car is insured, the information about where to print the album is obtained and secured. The hallway is turning into a museum for “Nawojki” and more. Mariusz is installing a ping-pong table in the basement. The biggest sensation is Danka, the editor of “Memoirs Found in an Old Head .” They don’t just like each other—they’re conspiring, and I don’t know what to think. I wanted to listen and share it, the Administrator patted me, but they were cautious. Anyway, he said he’d never seen an editor like her before.

Interesting phenomenon—he stopped swearing. We’ll see, maybe he’ll be more normal, but is that a good thing or a bad thing?

In Polish:

Hili: To wszystko jest bardzo podejrzane. Administrator załatwia. Samochód ubezpieczony, informacja, gdzie wydrukować album, zdobyta i zabezpieczona. Korytarz zmienia się w muzeum „Nawojki” i nie tylko. Mariusz instaluje stół pingpongowy w piwnicy. Największą sensacją jest Danka, czyli redaktorka Pamiętników znalezionych w starym łbie. Oni sobie nie tylko przypadli do gustu — oni spiskują, i sama nie wiem, co o tym myśleć. Chciałam posłuchać i udostępnić, Administrator pogłaskał mnie, ale byli ostrożni. Tak czy inaczej, on powiedział, że takiej redaktorki jeszcze nie widział.

Interesujące zjawisko — przestał kląć. Zobaczymy, może będzie bardziej normalny, ale czy to dobrze, czy źle?

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

From Cats That Have Had Enough of Your Shit:

From In Other News:

From Stacy:

From Masih: Kurds in Iran honor those who died saving burning forests that the government ignored.

This is what happens when a regime funds missiles instead of firefighters!
Iran’s forests are burning. The regime sends no planes. No equipment. So in Kurdistan, civilians ran toward the flames and paid with their lives because they know that government spends billions on… pic.twitter.com/HFtEkvOgOp

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 29, 2025

From Luana: Just two neuropeptides appear to be responsible for caste differentiation in behavior (and those are big differences) in leafcutter ants:

In the latest issue! Neuropeptides specify and reprogram division of labor in the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes https://t.co/8CYaL7mr1a pic.twitter.com/qdFotAJ252

— Cell (@CellCellPress) July 27, 2025

From Barry, a “beautiful catfish”:

Take your time to admire this beautiful catfish…. 🥰🐈‍⬛

— Pets Against Trump… (@petsunited.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T13:17:29.288Z

From Malcolm, one contented moggy:

It must felt so good pic.twitter.com/lmChuX2EhH

— No Context Cats (@nocontextscats) July 19, 2025

From my feed. Keanu is the BEST!

Celebrities acting like average Joes, a wholesome thread 🧵

1. The fact that a random couple ran into Keanu Reeves in a hotel lobby, invited him to their wedding, and he put on a suit and joined is proof he really is The One. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/F5Ql6Xdm3H

— Wholesome Side of 𝕏 (@itsme_urstruly) January 11, 2025

One that I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This Polish Jew lived about a month after arriving in Auschwitz. His expression shows that he's terrified, and rightly so.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T10:27:52.918Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, a free link to a great obituary in the WaPo for Tom Lehrer:

The Washington Post has a wonderful obit of Tom Lehrer. I laughed out loud many times. Here's a gift link, and here's this piece (or its traffic) will convince whoever is running that place to replenish and respect the obit section. 1/2 🎁https://wapo.st/3J6GVeA

— Jill Lawrence (@jilldlawrence.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T20:08:51.021Z

This is a really weird letter from Albert Einstein to Marie Curie, but I assume it’s real:

einstein sent this to curie in 1911 when she was being harassed by tabloids. it contains everything you’d want in such a letter:(1) your haters are trash(2) you’re a baller, a true queen(3) i have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in planck’s radiation field 🧪⚛️

— Microplastics Sommelier (@leastactionhero.bsky.social) 2024-06-27T14:17:23.246Z

Welcome to the Cruelest Day, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, and it’s going to be a hot two days in Chicago given the humidity, though things cool down on Wednesday. It’s also National Chicken Wing Day, and here’s one of my favorite actors, Jennifer Lawrence, sampling wings that get hotter and hotter. She winds up crying from the heat.

I have to go to the dentist at noon, so the Hili dialogues may be extra short tomorrow (I do most of them the afternoon before). Bear with me; I do my best.

t’s also International Tiger Day and National Lasagne Day, a day of arrant cultural appropriation.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 29 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I’ve been dubious about the ubiquitous headlines (see the NYT, for example) that Gazans are starving or “on the brink of starvation”, something I’ve heard for over a year despite the fact that food trucks are parked in Gaza waiting for the UN (which refuses)to distribute the aid). Also, all the information you hear about starvation comes from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas and has a history of gross distortion. The Free Press has two pieces with independent views of the issue, and I’ve given long quotes from each. The upshot is that yes, impending widespread hunger might be a real phenomenon in Gaza, and Israel needs to prevent it, both to hasten the end of the war and to avoid world opprobrium of the Jewish state.

One is Matti Friedman’s “Is Gaza starving? Searching for truth in an information war.” Quotes:

Around the same time [a few weeks after October 7], we started reading that Israel’s response to the October 7 terror attack—a war that Palestinians started, and which had barely begun at the time—was actually a “genocide,” an ideological slur thrown at Israel by Soviet propagandists, Arab dictators, and the Western left beginning in the 1970s. In the following months, hundreds of Israeli soldiers were killed fighting house-to-house in areas where Palestinian civilians—and combatants—were warned that troops were coming so they could leave.

Reports of impending hunger engineered by Israel in Gaza have been commonplace not just since the beginning of this war but for at least a decade and a half, since Hamas seized the territory and Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade that supposedly turned Gaza into an “open-air prison.” The famine never materialized. Now we hear claims that this same period of supposedly extreme deprivation was actually a Gazan idyll that Israel has cruelly destroyed in this war.

In an attempt to understand the truth of the reports, I called several trusted colleagues, veteran Israeli journalists intimately involved in covering events here and concerned both with the health of our society and that of innocent Palestinians. It was clear in speaking to them that our plight as journalists is only marginally better than that of the average citizen.

The consensus was that there were nearly no trustworthy sources regarding reality in Gaza—certainly not the “Gaza Health Ministry,” which answers to Hamas; or Palestinian reporters intimidated by Hamas; or the international organizations, like the UN refugee agency UNRWA, embroiled in various forms of collaboration with Hamas. All of the above are engaged in a successful information campaign that uses Palestinian suffering, real and imagined, to catalyze international anger and tie Israel’s hands.

The international press isn’t the answer. During my years as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press, I saw coverage altered by Hamas threats to our staff, while this fact was concealed from readers. I know firsthand that nearly no information coming from Gaza can be taken at face value.

But neither can we Israelis trust our own government, which has regularly misled the public about the war’s progress (Netanyahu assured Israelis over a year ago that we were “a step away” from victory); about the shifting goals of the campaign; about the success of various operations, which have seen soldiers repeatedly return to areas that have already been cleared at great cost; and about the priority assigned to the release of hostages, many of whom were released in prisoner swaps only because of American pressure and 50 of whom remain, alive and dead, in Hamas hands.

. . .The hunger in Gaza managed to belatedly penetrate the consciousness of the Israeli mainstream last week, in large part thanks to individual journalists who command public trust and who speak regularly to Palestinians they know. One such journalist is Ohad Hemo, the Palestinian affairs reporter for Channel 12 News, the country’s most widely watched news program, whose report last Wednesday was shared widely. Food warehouses serving Hamas fighters are still full, he reported, and the crisis wasn’t only Israel’s fault. However, he continued, “I don’t know if people are dying directly from hunger, as is being claimed in Gaza, but there is hunger in Gaza, and we need to state this loud and clear.” Even when aid makes it in, he explained, it’s only fit young men who have any shot at fighting for the sacks and crates beside the trucks and food centers. The aid isn’t reaching many who need it. He’s spoken to people, he said, who hadn’t eaten in days.

You might have thought that hunger in Gaza would work against Hamas, forcing the group to have mercy on its own civilians and accept the ceasefire desired by Israel and the U.S. and currently under discussion in Qatar. But Hamas knows that the opposite is true.

The same reality was described by sources with whom I spoke late last week. One told me that hospitals had cut meals from three a day to one. Even a senior figure in the Israeli military told one of my colleagues at the end of last week that while there isn’t mass starvation as claimed by pro-Hamas propaganda, Gaza really is on the brink this time.

. . .Israel says Hamas bears the responsibility, as the group has diverted aid both to hoard for its fighters and to sell to finance the war—and then cynically uses Palestinian suffering as a propaganda tool. But internationally, nearly all the blame has been directed at Israel, with the implicit or explicit explanation being malevolence or genocidal intent. Israel has periodically tried to exert pressure on Hamas by blocking aid, and earlier this year began trying to conclusively break Hamas’s control of food by providing it through a new organization, American-run and Israeli-affiliated, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Because the GHF is an acute threat to its power, Hamas has been doing what it can to foment unrest around its distribution sites, kill its workers, and intimidate people accepting its food. The Americans running the sites have reported the distribution of more than 90 million meals directly to Gazans.

But on the ground, the word directly—according to friends of mine serving with reserve army units close to GHF operations—has often meant chaotic scenes of thousands of men descending on the distribution sites and picking them clean, coming into dangerous and sometimes fatal contact with Israeli soldiers who are understandably scared of disguised Hamas fighters and unprepared for the kind of mass chaos they’re expected to control.

. . . An experienced Israeli civilian involved in the aid efforts, from an organization that works both with international aid groups and the Israeli military, said on Friday that mass starvation is not yet the reality but could be in the near future. There are already “pockets” of malnutrition and real hunger, he told me. The only way to avert a deterioration, he said, is for Israel to abandon the mistaken idea that withholding aid weakens Hamas, and to urgently flood Gaza with food. It’s the right move morally, he said, but also strategically, because the humanitarian crisis is devastating what’s left of Israel’s international support.

. . . One of the terrible facts of this war is that the Palestinians who started the war, and who constructed the twisted battlefield on which it has been fought, won’t act to save their own people. Starvation and death serve the Hamas plan. That means that Israel must decide how far it wants to push—and when to stop.

*The other FP story, by Amit Segal, is “The price of flour shows the hunger crisis in Gaza.”

Yesterday, Yannay Spitzer, an assistant professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, shared his findings on food prices in Gaza before and during the war. Well aware of the propaganda that Hamas and its international allies have been pumping out of the strip since October 7, 2023, Spitzer noted that “the situation [in Gaza] is radically different from everything up to now.”

He goes one step further, suggesting that “without immediate change, a state of mass starvation seems inevitable.”

What makes him think that? Spitzer tracked the price of flour, which, as he notes, is “the most essential consumer good.”

In September 2023, flour, which is sold in 25 kilogram sacks, cost around 47.5 shekels (14 U.S. dollars) in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, which until recently was untouched by the Israel Defense Forces and therefore less affected by the war.

Since October 7, 2023, according to Spitzer, flour’s price, per 25 kilogram sack, changed as follows:

January 2024: Over 300 shekels.

January 2025, before the most recent ceasefire: 500 shekels.

During the ceasefire: It dropped back down to 50 shekels—almost its pre-war price.

Why the volatile prices? That’s war—and while a tenfold increase in the cost of flour likely indicates a significant drop in supply, it doesn’t necessarily prove widespread hunger, let alone famine.

But here’s why Spitzer is worried. After the last ceasefire ended in March, the cost of flour shot back up to 500 shekels by the end of April. It then hit 875 shekels by the second week of May, and 1,750 by the end of the month.

Here’s the worst part. “According to reports from the past few days,” Spitzer wrote, “if the price of a kilogram of flour has indeed reached 150 shekels—meaning 3,750 shekels per sack—we are looking at an 80-fold price increase.”

In other words, Spitzer is arguing that whatever flour shortage there was in Gaza up until now doesn’t even come close to what the strip is currently experiencing. In summary, he writes, “very few households can sustain themselves under such shortages for more than a few days.”

The key question: Is he right? While I can’t force you to believe his report, it should certainly be taken with more seriousness than the propaganda spouting out of the United Nations and Al Jazeera.

. . .Of course, the political and military echelon is well tuned into this—and concern over hunger in the strip is one of the key reasons Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a ceasefire. As he has repeated throughout this war, preventing a famine in Gaza—which would see Israel lose even its most strident supporters—is the one essential condition to continuing the war and defeating Hamas.

Speaking of Hamas, what does it make of all this? For one, Hamas took its war against humanitarian aid to new heights last night, firing a rocket at the aid distribution center near the Morag Corridor. Thankfully, it landed around 250 meters (273 yards) short of its target.The sentiment, however, is nothing new. The closer Gazans are to real hunger, the better it is for Hamas, and the less likely the group is to cave in ceasefire negotiations. After all, its logic is simple: If our people are actually starving, Israel will be forced to end the war anyway—and without us having to agree to a deal we don’t particularly like.

Hence Hamas’s gleeful hoarding of food in its warehouses, keeping it far away from Gazan civilians and driving up the prices of basic goods—without which the strip would not be facing the current food shortage.

For both Israelis and the ordinary Gazans caught in the crossfire, the result is brutal: When starvation becomes a strategy, peace moves further out of reach.

It’s odd but absolutely understandable that Israel’s enemy actually wants its people to starve, but Israel should take that as a sign that distribution of food, however unusual, must be done.  And it is being done. What I can’t figure out from the news is whether the reports of starvation (or “imminent starvation”) are real. Regardless, feed the Gazans until they’re plump. Then destroy Hamas.

*President Trump has evinced a new urgency to ending the war between Ukraine and Russia, but he’s applying the pressure on Putin:

President Trump said he would give Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 or 12 days to reach a cease-fire with Ukraine or face more economic pressure from the U.S., as he seeks to bring the Russian leader to the negotiating table.

Trump earlier this month said Putin had 50 days to agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine or the U.S. would unleash a tariff package on Russia’s trading partners. On Monday, he shortened that time frame. “We just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said in Scotland on Monday as he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

*Analyzing the dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers in the U.S., the Washington Post attributes some of it to faulty training that leads prospective controllers to either quit or be washed out:

Higgins’s experience was far from unusual, according to a Washington Post examination of data and interviews with trainees who pursued a career in the federal system but ultimately washed out. The FAA’s high trainee dropout rate is a leading cause of the nation’s dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers. In some cases, recruits failed their training and were dismissed. In others, they left of their own accord rather than endure what they described as haphazard instruction, organizational dysfunction and abusive conditions.

The agency employs about 11,500 certified controllers, about 3,000 short of its goal, a shortfall that affects almost every airport in the country. Chronic shortages put safety at risk and force flight delays when towers are understaffed, according to independent reviews of the system, while also requiring controllers to work grueling overtime schedules that contribute to fatigue and burnout.

Overall, about 20 percent of trainees fail to certify as a controller at the first assigned facility, according to FAA data. Some get a second chance, but almost 1,400 recruits hired since 2010 never became a controller. And those national figures don’t reveal the full scope of the problem. At many individual air traffic hubs the washout rates are far worse than the FAA average, reflecting what critics call a lack of standardization and poor FAA oversight.

At the Oakland control center where Higgins worked, 45 percent of trainees fail to earn full certification, according to data compiled by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union. At a key New York facility that is one of the busiest in the country, the failure rate was 69 percent.

New controllers are almost entirely trained by the FAA at taxpayer expense. Candidates must pass a screening test and a background check before attending the agency’s Oklahoma City academy. Those who successfully finish the three-to-four-month academy are assigned to one of the FAA’s hundreds of facilities for their apprenticeship — the longest phase of their training, typically lasting between 18 months and four years before they become fully certified.

The FAA has for decades been unable to resolve its controller shortage. Under the Trump administration, it has vowed to improve the academy in a bid to increase readiness and retention of recruits. When trainees graduate from the academy and reach control towers, they are often insufficiently prepared to manage flights in busy, high-stress conditions, trainees and experienced controllers said.

Note that the article blames the high washout rate on “haphazard instruction, organizational dysfunction and abusive conditions”.  But note that being an air traffic controller is a high stress job that requires close attention and skill, and did the Post consider that most people simply aren’t qualified for the job?

*Finally, in yet another judicial rebuke of Trump’s executive orders, a federal judge has blocked his attempt to defund Planned Parenthood:

A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”

A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.

Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.

In her Monday order, Talwani said that the court was “not enjoining the federal government from regulating abortion and is not directing the federal government to fund elective abortions or any healthcare service not otherwise eligible for Medicaid coverage.” Instead, Talwani said that her decision would block the federal government from excluding groups like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements when they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in their legal challenge.

Note how Talwani got around the accusation that she was punishing the government for preventing abortion.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has taken to explaining Andrzej’s activities in detail, but in the end she assures us that Hili dialogues will continue.

Hili: The Administrator was handling important matters today. At the bank, they told him he needs to settle inheritance issues first. So – a notary. Well, perfect – Małgorzata has been pushing for a new will and a different executor for two years. Elżbieta is too ill. He ordered better hearing aids because he can no longer rely on Małgorzata. He’ll get them on Friday. He bought four photo frames. He still needs fifteen more – mostly for pictures of Marta and Elżbieta from the old days. The hallway has turned into a gallery. The Administrator bought two pipes and some tobacco. He’s very pleased. He said he prefers electric trains to electronic cigarettes. The police stopped him – turns out he missed his MOT deadline. After an hour and a half, they asked him to just go, lest their superiors give them trouble. At the Vehicle Inspection Station, he spoke about the encounter with the police (there was no need to mention Małgorzata’s death – after all, everyone in Dobrzyń knows), and the owner nodded and took the car key from him. He left the car in for MOT and continued on foot. Tomorrow – insurance.

When asked whether there will be dialogues with me, Paulina said: “We’ll manage.” When she says that, the matter is settled. There will be dialogues.

In Polish:

Hili: Administrator załatwiał dziś ważne sprawy. W banku powiedzieli, że musi najpierw uregulować sprawy spadkowe. Czyli notariusz. No i świetnie — Małgorzata od dwóch lat naciskała na nowy testament i innego wykonawcę. Elżbieta jest zbyt chora. Zamówił lepsze aparaty słuchowe, bo już nie może wyręczać się Małgorzatą. Dostanie je w piątek. Kupił cztery ramki do zdjęć. Potrzebuje jeszcze piętnaście — głównie na Martę i Elżbietę z dawnych czasów. Korytarz zmienił się w galerię. Administrator kupił dwie fajki i tytoń. Jest bardzo zadowolony. Powiedział, że woli elektryczne pociągi od elektronicznych fajek. Zatrzymała go policja — okazało się, że przegapił termin przeglądu. Po półtorej godziny poprosili, żeby już sobie pojechał, bo im przełożeni krzywdę zrobią. Na Stacji Kontroli Pojazdów opowiedział o spotkaniu z policją (o śmierci Małgorzaty nie musiał mówić, bo przecież tu, w Dobrzyniu, wszyscy wiedzą), właściciel kiwnął głową i wziął od niego klucz do samochodu. Oddał samochód do przeglądu i dalej poszedł pieszo. Jutro ubezpieczenie.

Na pytanie, czy będą dialogi ze mną, Paulina powiedziała: „Damy radę”. Jak ona tak mówi, to sprawa jest jasna. Dialogi będą.

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

From Cat Memes:

From The Language Nerds:

From Jesus of the Day, and yes, the story is true.

Jesse Singal posts about a 13-year-old girl who was given blockers and a double mastectomy. Kaiser stopped such actions for those below 19, but people object to that.

The journalists who claim that these stories are somehow fake or extremely rare just haven’t done any reporting on this, or aren’t being honest about the reporting they have done. I’m not saying it *always* happens *everywhere*, but it isn’t some crazy outlying thing. https://t.co/ofxSQRSVlv

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) July 26, 2025

And related mishigass from Emma Hilton (h/t Luana):

Nonsense from Miller here. 🙄

As cells and tissues age, they can shed chromosomes. The most obvious time point is during division, and the older you are, the more cells you’ve divided, the higher the chances some of them have lost a chromosome or two.

This happens to both… pic.twitter.com/dGJVHkOXcM

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) July 26, 2025

From Barry. I hoped somebody helped that squirrel!

“A little help here, Danny?”

— Uncle Duke (@uncleduke1969.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T18:56:49.843Z

A lesson: do not romance your keeper. From Malcolm:

“Not now Linda, I’m working” 😅 pic.twitter.com/weLpIbdmwi

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) July 23, 2025

From my feed: Trump’s caddy CHEATS! Are you surprised?

What do you notice?
pic.twitter.com/RnKPsY7syt

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 27, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

She survived several years in the camp, no doubt because she played in the camp orchestra. And she survived the war, dying at 103.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T10:20:31.658Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, some old rocks:

See this rock?It's something called komatiite, and it's the oldest rock I've ever seen. It's about 3.3 *billion* years old. That's three quarters the age of Earth itself.Or 25% the age of the observable universe.

— Paul Byrne (@theplanetaryguy.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T13:33:57.471Z

Matthew calls this “14 legs,” and it’s a great example of “aggressive mimicry”:

I finally saw it! A turtle ant mimicking crab spider actually attacking a turtle ant. This had been in presentations of mine for 7+ years now and I finally saw it!Waita Lodge, Ecuador

— Nancy 🪲SciBugs🪲 Miorelli (@scibugs.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T15:42:24.902Z

Welcome to the sabbath for goyische cats: it’s Sunday, July 27, 2025, and National Scotch Day. My favorite single-malt Scotch is made at the place below:

It’s also National Beef Burger Day, National Hamburger Day (yes, they’re different!), Menstrual Hygiene Day, and National Brisket Day, which I celebrated at the City Market in Luling, Texas in 2004> note the absence of utensils.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Free Press continues its coddling of religion, and I’m beginning to suspect that osculating faith is part of its program.  I’ve mentioned this before, but have a look at their new article, “On pilgrimage with 20,000 young Catholics,” by, of all people, Rod Dreher, who used to write for The American Conservative and is still an editor there (see three of my posts about Dreher here, here, and here). His schtick is atheist-dissing, and he’s got a nice, warm stall in the stable of the Templeton Foundation’s prize horses. The FP story concerns an annual pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres (62 km). I prefer to take the train.

Outside of Saint-Sulpice, I stop to chat with a group of young women wearing the uniforms of France’s Scouting movement, which has historically been tied to the Catholic Church, unlike its more secular version in the Anglosphere. I ask one—Isa, 19, from Orléans—why she is there.

“Jésus,” she declares.

Then she adds: “I love this pilgrimage. The ambience, the hope. It’s very hard, very physical. But it’s beautiful.”

. . . . The reasons for the quiet revival of Catholicism among the young vary, but they all come down to the search for meaning, purpose, stability, and identity. These new converts—or “reverts,” for the baptized who have rediscovered their faith—are drawn to ancient forms of Christianity because these traditions are more rooted, and more demanding, than the looser, therapeutic model of contemporary Christianity. They also rely much more on liturgy and beauty to incarnate theological principles—“smells and bells,” as some have it. These things have stood the test of time.

. . . . “I think we’re on the crest of a new wave,” says Matthew Witzane, 25, actually from Saskatchewan, but marching with an American chapter as there was no official Canadian presence. “We’re seeing lots of young Catholic communities popping up all across North America.”

. . .Though most of the pilgrims do not speak in philosophical categories, all of them are preoccupied with the question of meaning. After the opening mass ends, I meet Viennese pilgrim Anna at a nearby café.

It’s the cheerful 24-year-old’s first Chartres walk. She has the air of a superfan at a Taylor Swift concert. Why is she here? 

“Tradition is the only safe future we have,” she replies. “What are you going to build your life on, if not God?”

. . .Chartres stands to them as a beacon of what the world might be again. It is a prophetic manifestation of light and beauty amid the darkness of an ugly world that does not comprehend the message engraved in its walls, and proclaimed in the glow of its ruby, emerald, and azure glass. In the wonder of this medieval cathedral, a symphony of stone, they hear the Latin-chanted melodies and the beacons of bejeweled light summoning them out of the dark wood of modernity.

“Hope is a memory that desires, the memory is a memory that has enjoyed.” This is the essence of the Christian hope that Chartres gives these young idealists. The man who wrote those words was Honoré de Balzac. A Frenchman, naturellement.

My guess is that someone at the Free Press has a penchant for saying that religion is a big palliative for the world’s troubles, and also pretends that religion is undergoing a revival in light of those troubles. But the proportion of Catholics in the world (or among Christians in general) has remained pretty stable, while the proportion of Christians in the U.S. has declined substantially in the last 18 years. Still, people are making a big deal about how Christianity has leveled off in the lst two year. Regardless, what is new in this article? It says nothing that hasn’t been said recently by the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and, most recently (and loudly), by Ross “You Gotta Be Religious” Douthat.  It’s interesting to suss out what the Free Press’s ideology is, though it pretends not to have one.

*The NYT reports that, according to four Israelis (including two military officials), there is no evidence that Hamas ever stole humanitarian aid from the United Nations. (See article archived here.)

For nearly two years, Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid provided by the United Nations and other international organizations. The government has used that claim as its main rationale for restricting food from entering Gaza.

But the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter.

In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the U.N. aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.

Now, with hunger at crisis levels in the territory, Israel is coming under increased international pressure over its conduct of the war in Gaza and the humanitarian suffering it has brought. Doctors in the territory say that an increasing number of their patients are suffering from — and dying of — starvation.

More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups warned this past week of “mass starvation” and implored Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance. The European Union and at least 28 governments, including Israeli allies like Britain, France and Canada, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s “drip-feeding of aid” to Gaza’s two million Palestinian residents.

Israel has largely brushed off the criticism.

David Mencer, a government spokesman, said this week that there was “no famine caused by Israel.” Instead, he blamed Hamas and poor coordination by the United Nations for any food shortages.

These reports disturb me, though I don’t think Israel really does have an obligation to feed the country run by its enemy.  Did we sent humanitarian aid to Germany or Japan in WWII? Nevertheless, the information on starvation comes from the usual suspects (the UN and Hamas) and I am not yet convinced that either starvation is pervasive or that Hamas has stolen aid (there used to be videos of Hamas shooting at those trying to pilfer its sequestered aid). But what would really disturb me, and could be documented by evidence from both video and the IDF itself, is evidence that the IDF is deliberately trying to shoot Gazan civilians trying to get aid, a fact reported widely. Were that to be true, it would show that the IDF and Israel have betrayed their deepest principles. We shall see.

*And, according to the WSJ, the U.S. has grown increasingly frustrated with the actions by an Israel emboldened by its recent military successes. (See article archived here.)

Israel has emerged from a string of stunning military successes with nearly unchecked power in the Middle East. Now Washington is struggling to adjust.

The Trump administration in recent days has expressed frustration with Israeli actions in Syria and Gaza. President Trump’s MAGA supporters, in particular, are growing more critical of his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they fear will drag the U.S. deeper into a morass of regional wars.

Israel this month bombed Syria’s military headquarters and presidential palace in Damascus, saying it was defending the Druze religious minority group from sectarian violence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. helped broker an agreement to de-escalate the situation after characterizing the clashes between Israel and Syria as a misunderstanding. The U.S. has backed interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to unite the country.

Separately, Israel drew widespread condemnation, including from the Trump administration, after it struck a Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people. Israel said it was an accident.

The White House said this past week that Trump was “caught off guard” by the bombing in Syria and the strike that hit the Catholic church.

The dissonance in part reflects Israel’s new position of power after a series of wars that have left it with no significant regional rivals, according to former officials and analysts.

“The fundamental change that has to be recognized in addressing the future of the Middle East is that Israel is now the strongest power in the Middle East,” said Amos Hochstein, who was a senior adviser under President Joe Biden. “They are the absolute, overwhelming, dominant military hegemon

The last bit is nothing to deplore: Israel is, after all, the only democracy in the Middle East, and it does not start wars. As for three civilians killed in church, that’s a tragic accident, but what war has not have those? (Certainly the U.S. did things like that in Iraq and Afghanistan.) And as for bombing Syria, yes, the Druze need to be protected and the new Syrian regime does seem to be conducting a real genocide there. (BTW, I highly recommend Bret Stephens’s NYT column, “No, Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza,” a dumb accusation if ever there was one, but an accusation echoed by the many benighted NYT readers commenting on the column.) Jew hatred is increasing in America.

*More about Israel and the war:, French President Emanuel Macron has decided to recognize Palestine as a state, and that includes a Gaza run by Hamas.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, in a bold diplomatic move amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision.

Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the U.N. General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,’’ he wrote.

The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.

The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel’s government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say that it would reward militants after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

This is symbolic, for such a state would never be approved by the UN’s Security Council so long as the U.S. is on it. (That is, unless AOC becomes President.) Worse, it’s a serious mistake, for what Macron wants is a state run by Hamas (in Gaza) and the Palestinian Authority (in East Jerusalem and the West Bank).  In other words, he thinks he’s doing a good thing by recognizing two states run by terrorist organizations. What is the man thinking? If he thinks he’s leaving a legacy of peace, he’s sadly mistaken, and any fool knows that.  So Hamas stays in power in Gaza, and that is supposed to leave Israel in peace? Sorry, but in this respect Macron is a blithering fool. The Prime Minister of Italy, on the other hand, is more sensible, for she says that she will not recognize a Palestinian state before it’s established. (Macron simply wants to establish one by fiat.)

*Chicago is a “sanctuary city,” in which local lawmakers are not generally required to help the federal government enforce immigration policy. The Department of Justice sued Chicago over this behavior, but a federal judge just threw out the lawsuit on the grounds that the feds lack standing to sue.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed “in its entirety” the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago over “sanctuary city” policies that the Trump administration has said impede its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division said the Trump administration “lacks standing” to invalidate the state, city and county laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, adding in her ruling that “contrary to the United States’s arguments, the Sanctuary Policies here do not comparably regulate [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] operations or meddle with the contractual rights of private individuals working with ICE.”

“The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies; Cook County Board of Commissioners is dismissed because it is not a suable entity separate from Cook County … The United States’s complaint is dismissed in its entirety without prejudice,” Jenkins wrote.

In February, the Trump administration sued Illinois and Chicagofor interfering with the federal immigration crackdown, arguing that the city’s Welcoming City ordinance and the Illinois Trust Act reflects “an intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe.”

The lawsuit also named Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling and Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

The judge also ruled that compelling Chicago and Illinois law enforcement authorities to assist federal agents with deportation efforts is unconstitutional.

I don’t particularly have a dog in this fight, and if the government doesn’t have standing, well, it doesn’t have standing.  The apprehension of undocumented immigrants is a federal issue, and so long as local governments don’t impede that effort, they’d not doing anything illegal.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s ears are perked up because Andrzej got an big award (Hili’s monologue is called “Prize”, or “Negroda” in Polish

Hili: Guys, what’s going on here?

In Polish:

Hili: Ludzie, co tu się dzieje?

Listy gives the details of Andrzej’s award:

B’nai B’rith International is hosting a ceremony to honor Polish citizens who have shown commitment to preserving Jewish heritage in Poland and to fostering Polish-Jewish relations. The award, now in its third consecutive year, is called Wdzięczność–Gratitude–הכרת הטוב – in Polish, English, and Hebrew – and recognizes outstanding contributions by individuals and institutions in these areas.

Starting this year, the award will be presented in honor of Marian Turski (1926–2025), a Polish-Jewish journalist, historian, Holocaust survivor, and member of the B’nai B’rith Poland lodge. The B’nai B’rith organization has been active in Poland (with interruptions) since 1923.
This year’s recipients are:

Robert Kobylarczyk, Andrzej Koraszewski, and Ireneusz Socha.

Jerzy Luty accepted the award on my behalf.

On July 26, Jerzy Luty and his wife Agnieszka came to Dobrzyń nad Wisłą and personally handed Andrzej Koraszewski the diploma and statuette in the garden belonging to Paulina Raniszewska, who hosted the meeting held for this occasion and also served as the resident photographer. Paulina is not Andrzej Koraszewski’s biological granddaughter – she is his supernatural granddaughter, capable of everything and more.

Andrzej getting his award (and he’s not even Jewish!).

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

From Meow:

From Things With Faces, a happy cloud:

From Another Science Humor Group:

From Masih, Azizi Pakhshan, sentenced to death by Iran last year for political activism. It looks like she will soon be hanged.

The regime wants to hang her to make an example.

The death sentence of #Pakhshan_Azizi has been confirmed for the third time.

She is one of many brave women the Islamic Republic is trying to punish for the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.

And yet… the free world still does… pic.twitter.com/yvRv79pTdP

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 24, 2025

Speaking of Islamist denial of women’s rights, here’s a letter from an Afghani woman sent to J. K. Rowling:

From an Afghan woman to Dear @jk_rowling ,

I am writing to you as an Afghan girl whose only crime is being born a woman in a land where womanhood is punished.
Here, we are not allowed to speak loudly. Even our voices are considered threats.
We are locked inside our homes,… pic.twitter.com/JycBUBxvN7

— WDI.Afghanistan (@WDIAfghanistan) July 25, 2025

From Simon, a science nerd post:

When your lab has its own confocal

— Oded Rechavi (@odedrechavi.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T19:02:13.611Z

From Malcolm. Is this really a family? Is Mom so small?

Family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/1QF84yYdIz

— Cats all the way (@nekocatts) June 15, 2025

From Barry:

Field Marshall Otto Von Pussmarck

— "Radical" Russ Belville (@radicalruss.com) 2025-07-19T21:21:49.697Z

One that I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A German Jewish woman who spent two years in the camps and perished at 24.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T10:02:27.538Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, cat t.v.:

Who wants to come over and watch squirrels

— Michael 🌲🏴 (@champl.in) 2025-07-25T14:01:33.231Z

Matthew calls this one a “nutjob”:

The technical term for this is 'batshit bananas bullshit'. If he believes it, he's a nut. If he's lying about believing it, he's a conman.

— Dr_Aust_PhD (@draustphd.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T15:58:10.705Z

Welcome to Caturday Saturday, July 26, and we’re almost into August already! It’s National Day of the Cowboy, and, since it’s Caturday, I’ll show you an ad that combines both. You’ve probably seen it before, but watch it again. It is, in my view, the best television ad ever made:

It’s also National Bagelfest Day, National Coffee Milkshake Day, and World Tofu Day.  Do not spurn the tasteless tofu: it’s all about texture.

Da Nooz:

*As I mentioned yesterday, Trump’s pressure on both Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania have caused these schools to cave: that is, to avoid losing federal money, they’ll abide by some stipulation of the Administration (article archived here):

White House officials have reached deals with two Ivy League universities and are now armed with a proven strategy to pressure other schools to rewrite their policies and reorient campus politics.

First, they strip away hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding, based on vague accusations that a university abets antisemitism or unlawfully supports transgender rights. Then they make demands, wearing down school administrators until making concessions to the White House appears to be the only way forward.

The strategy worked twice in the last month, with Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. That leaves at least five more embattled schools — Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern and Princeton — with decisions to make about whether to fight or to bargain.

The White House has touted the deals with Columbia and Penn as victories. But they also offer frameworks for wary college administrators as they consider which sacrifices are worth making to try to placate a president bent on bringing elite institutions to heel. Now Columbia has shown that a fragile peace can be purchased.

Under the deal announced Wednesday night, Columbia will pay $221 million and stand by an array of previous pledges, like limits on protests and greater internal oversight of certain academic programs. But it secured a provision saying that no part of the agreement “shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions, or the content of academic speech.”

Penn did not agree to pay anything, but promised, among other terms, that its athletics policies would align with the Trump administration’s beliefs about participation by transgender people.

“Two hundred million dollars is not a lot of money when you have billions at stake, and any corporate person will tell you that,” said Donna E. Shalala, who was health secretary under President Bill Clinton and has led four schools, including the University of Miami and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Basically, they’re cutting their losses and ensuring their future — for at least a short period of time.”

Assessments like Dr. Shalala’s are deeply unnerving to many people in academia. Professors have spent months warning about how history shows that aspiring autocrats seek to tame and bully universities. They worry that settlements like the ones signed by Columbia and Penn will encourage the White House to conjure reasons to make more demands, and give administrators on campuses across the country cover to make agreements that could poison American higher education.

If this bullying turns out to be legal, and I don’t like it (those who suffer are, by and large, not those who are accused), then Harvard may have to cave as well. Fortunately, the University of Chicago has so far avoided this kind of sanction, but I have my fears. . .

*And the WSJ reports that Trump, having broken the spine of Columbia and Penn, is now pursuing other schools, including the big prize: Harvard:

The White House is seeking fines from several universities it says failed to stop antisemitism on campus, including hundreds of millions of dollars from Harvard University, in exchange for allowing the schools to access federal funding, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The deal that the Trump administration struck with Columbia University on Wednesday is now a blueprint for negotiations with other universities, a White House official said. Columbia agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government over three years to settle allegations it violated antidiscrimination law and to restore its federal grants.

*Damn Nellie Bowles! She keeps going on vacation and leaving others, far less snarky and humorous, to do her weekly news summary at the Free Press. The column this week, called “Skipping town,” is by Will Rahn. Well, I’ll still steal a few items, but I wish Nellie would stay put.

→ Et tu, Rupert? Trump keeps insisting there’s nothing to see here, and if you keep asking questions you’re just a Democrat agent, and it’s making even the most conspiracy-skeptical among us believe that he has something to hide. Fresh off a Wall Street Journal story about a birthday letter Trump allegedly sent to Epstein, the president is so hopping mad he’s suing everyone in sight. That includes Rupert Murdoch, whose paper also revealed that the president was warned in advance that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files.

That warning, as delivered by Attorney General Pam Bondi, reportedly came in May. The White House, of course, called it a “fake news story,” and the Journal notes that Trump’s name appearing in the files doesn’t necessarily mean he did anything illegal. It just means that he’s in there. Okay, so it’s illegal to have friends with islands now?! Geez.

The paper likewise reports that FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, the erstwhile conservative radio star Dan Bongino, want to release more of the documents. Bongino in particular is worried the administration’s refusal to get more info out will damage his standing with his fans—which is just what you want the FBI deputy director concerned with. God forbid he solves a crime; it may cannibalize his engagement.

→ Melania’s moment: Trump’s enduring (and somewhat endearing) obsession with the Kennedy Center—a glittering Potomac palace where Washingtonians go to feel cultured—is finally starting to pay off. Before Mike Johnson sent them home, House Republicans on the powerful Appropriations Committee introduced an amendment that would rename the Kennedy Center’s opera house after Trump’s third wife and our first lady: Melania Trump.

Now, with the House on the lam until September, we have no idea whether this will actually get done. The language renaming the opera house after Melania was tucked into a routine spending bill for the Interior Department and related agencies by Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson. He says it’s an “excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.”

This would normally be an opportunity for Democrats to trot out a bunch of elderly Kennedys on the Sunday shows to say such a move denigrates JFK’s legacy and this isn’t why their grandfather made a deal with the mob or whatever. But all the old Kennedys—your Eunices, Teds, and Ethels—are dead. They don’t even have anyone in Congress anymore. And the most prominent member of America’s most prominent clan of Irish hooligans is, of course, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is having way too much fun banning food dyes to weigh in against his boss here.

I don’t see Rahn mention that Beigitte Macron has three children by her previous husband. Isn’t that worth mentioning? I hope Macron sues the pants off the odious Owens.

Rahn thinks that they should “throw Melania a bone,” but I think this naming is horrific. It’s superfluous and stupid. Melania Trump has not been a particularly outspoken patron of the arts.

→ Sacre bleu balls! Far-right podcaster and reliable TGIF content generator Candace Owens is being sued by French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte for defamation. Her offense? Insisting that Brigitte Macron is actually a man.

Owens devoted a whole eight-episode podcast series to her belief that Madame Macron is trans or something. That is, objectively speaking, a very funny thing to do. Not that we believe it, but credit it where it’s due: Owens might be insane, she might be an insipid troll and bigot, but getting millions of people to spend their precious free time watching YouTube videos about how the French president’s wife is or was a dude is some kind of accomplishment.

“After looking into this, I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man,” Owens said on X last year. And she might get the chance to prove it in a Delaware court, which is where the Macrons’ filed their suit.

Now, I’m no expert on defamation, though I was bullied in middle school, so I have some thoughts. America has a long and proud history of letting insane people say whatever they want. So I guess my money is on Owens winning this one? I don’t know. It’s just hard for me to imagine a jury

*While Trump is busy demanding that sports teams re-assume names that used to be seen as disparaging, like “The Washington Redskins,”, he’s also ordered U.S. National Parks and monuments to remove material that is “anti-American.” He presumably means anything that would highlight the racism and bigotry in a lot of American history:

At Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, the Trump administration is set to review, and possibly remove or alter, signs about how climate change is causing sea levels to rise.

At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the administration will soon decide whether to take down exhibits on the brutality of slavery.

And at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida, Trump officials are scrutinizing language about the imprisonment of Native Americans inside the Spanish stone fortress.

According to internal documents reviewed by The New York Times, employees of the National Park Service have flagged descriptions and displays at scores of parks and historic sites for review in connection with President Trump’s directive to remove or cover up materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

In an executive order in March, the president instructed the Park Service to review plaques, films and other materials presented to visitors at 433 sites around the country, with the aim of ensuring they emphasize the “progress of the American people” and the “grandeur of the American landscape.”

Employees had until last week to flag materials that could be changed or deleted, and the Trump administration said it would remove all “inappropriate” content by Sept. 17, according to the internal agency documents. The public also has been asked to submit potential changes.

In response, a coalition of librarians, historians and others organized through the University of Minnesota has launched a campaign called “Save Our Signs.” It is asking the public to take photos of existing content at national parks and upload it. The group is using those images to build a public archive before any materials may be altered. So far, it has more than 800 submissions.

Since I’ve been gone for three weeks, it looks as though Trump has now assumed the power to do whatever he wants, including whitewashing American history. That’s not to say that the 1619 Project is accurate, but who can doubt that American history involved a ton of oppression of minority groups, including Asians, who have largely overcome that bigotry.  But our history should not be redacted to make American history look more sanitized than it was.

*Finally, zookeepers in Prague are using vulture puppets to save rejected baby vultures:

 Zookeepers in Prague sometimes have to become puppeteers to save newborn birds rejected by their parents. This was the case for a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick hatched three weeks ago.

Bird keeper Antonín Vaidl said Thursday that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signaled to keepers that the parents were not ready to care for their two babies, despite doing so in 2022 and 2023.

The first-born is being kept in a box and fed using a puppet designed to mimic a parent bird, while another is expected to hatch in the next few days.

Vaidl said the puppet is needed to make sure the bird will be capable of breeding, which it won’t if it gets used to human interaction.

He explained that the puppet doesn’t have to be a perfect replica of an adult bird because the chick responds to certain signals, such as the pale orange coloration on its featherless head and neck.

AD

Lesser yellow-headed vultures live in the wild in Latin America and Mexico. Prague Zoo is one of only three zoos in Europe that breed them.

In the past, the park successfully applied this treatment to save the critically endangered Javan green magpie and two rhinoceros hornbill chicks. The puppet-feeding technique is applicable for birds that live in pairs.

Here’s a video, and it looks like it’s working!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili seems to have taken over Malgorzata’s chair:

Andrzej: Do you prefer that chair now?
Hili: Yes, I think it’s better here.

In Polish:

Ja: Wolisz ten fotel teraz?
Hili: Tak, wolę ten fotel teraz.

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

From Cinemma:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Stacy:

Masih has a tough problem now that the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran, creating more sympathy for the theocratic regime she’s trying to overthrow. But she’s still posting testimony from women shot in the eye while protesting.  These women break my heart, but they are STRONG.

Want to know what anti-war activists from Iran are saying right now?
While Western activists have gone quiet on Iran, I’ve invited the ones who actually getting shot at, to speak. They’re not debating war. They’re surviving it. Every. Single. Day.@kosareftekharii… pic.twitter.com/9ZCg2KUtWP

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 23, 2025

From Luana. You can read Colin’s whole piece here.

🚨New Data Flips the Transgender Bullying Narrative on Its Head

A new Finnish study found that trans-identified adolescents—especially those who identify as “nonbinary”—were more likely to bully others than they were to be bullied.

This study complicates the dominant… pic.twitter.com/QLdVHFfkGK

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) July 24, 2025

From Barry. Yes, they should eat some fruit before they die, though they used to be called “vinegar flies”:

giving all the lab fruit flies some fruit to eat for the first time in their lives, just to feel something

— Caroline Bartman (@cbartman.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T11:01:24.214Z

From Malcolm: Look at the size of this tree!

The sheer size of this baobab tree pic.twitter.com/EaIbob6UvB

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 19, 2025

From my feed: dog and dolphin pals:

Friendship knows no species boundaries pic.twitter.com/2o7IHYjlI6

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) July 25, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

Gassed to death within an hour or two of arriving at Auschwitz, this Hungarian girl was only two? Her crime: she was Jewish.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T10:30:14.746Z

Two posts from Professor Cobb. I think this first one makes a fallacious argument, because things have changed once you’re alive and have been here!

. . . and a mystery fossil. Any guesses?

What the??? At a Miocene fossil track site there's a trackway from huge arthropod moving sideways (like a crab). If it was an insect it would've been 50-70 cm long based on estimates. It's freshwater/marshy deposit. No idea what made it. link.springer.com/article/10.1…

— Fossillocator (@fossillocator.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T17:15:23.371Z