Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is observing events closely:
It’s Friday, July 25th. The clock has picked up speed. Paulina and Mariusz are present upstairs and downstairs. The administrator works from home in the morning. After a few hours, he gets in the car and disappears. Attempts to discipline Paulina prove futile. She’s in her element. The administrator calls her granddaughter and lets her do whatever she wants. She, the new owner of the house, is introducing a new order. She’s taken over the “Letters,” the computers, the garden. Always with Julia, who does whatever she wants with the administrator. It might seem he’s given his whole heart to these two women—one just over a year old, the other 28. However, it seems that something much more serious is happening in the other house. He’s also on the phone with Justyna, explaining what she needs to read and write now that he’s dealing with the adoption. There’s much, much more. Julia tried to poke me in the eye today.
In Polish:
Jest piątek, 25 lipca. Wskazówki zegara nabrały rozpędu. Paulina i Mariusz są obecni na górze i na dole. Administrator rano pracuje w domu. Po kilku godzinach wsiada do samochodu i znika. Próby zdyscyplinowania Pauliny okazują się bezskuteczne. Ona jest w swoim żywiole. Administrator nazywa ją wnuczką i pozwala jej na wszystko. Ona, nowa właścicielka domu, wprowadza nowe porządki. Przejęła „Listy”, komputery, ogród. Zawsze z Julią, która robi z Administratorem, co chce. Mogłoby się wydawać, że oddał całe swoje serce tym dwóm kobietom – jednej mającej niewiele ponad rok i drugiej mającej 28 lat. Wygląda jednak na to, że jakieś znacznie poważniejsze sprawy dzieją się w tym drugim domu. Równocześnie rozmawia przez telefon z Justyną i wyjaśnia, co ma czytać i pisać teraz, kiedy on zajmuje się adopcją. Jest dużo, dużo więcej. Julia próbowała mi dziś włożyć palec w oko.
Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili has been explaining things to Justyna
The administrator is indeed on vacation, returning only for the night. The house was completely empty, and Paulina had also left. We didn’t miss them. Before going to bed, the administrator was writing his account of the first day of vacation. It turns out that it’s impossible to determine whether this was the first day of vacation since November 1998, or whether he and his wife had been on continuous vacation since 1998, and today’s trip to the countryside is just a new form of more active recreation.
In Polish:
Administrator rzeczywiście jest na urlopie, wraca tylko na noc. Dom był całkiem pusty, Paulina też wyjechała. Nie tęskniliśmy za nimi. Administrator przed snem spisywał swoją relację z pierwszeg dnia urlopu. Okazuje się, że nie daje się ustalić, czy był to pierwszy dzień urlopu od listopada 1998 roku, Czy też on i jego żona mieli nieustający urlop od 1998 roku, zaś dzisiejsza wyprawa na wieś, to tylko nowa forma bardziej aktywnego wypoczynku.
Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili has an update on Andrzej:
Hili: Our Administrator returned without ever leaving. He made a promise and broke it, cracked open the gates to paradise and shut them again. Now he insists that he really will take that vacation, stop yelling, and finally begin his time off – he just has a few things to take care of first, and then, today, he’s off. He said he’s going to the countryside, and either he’ll be back tonight or he won’t. Yes, I know exactly where he’s going. By car, it’s only a few minutes away. If he starts yelling again over there, the mood will turn sour, and he’ll come right back here. Which means the door to Paulina and Mariusz’s apartment will be locked. Then Paulina will show up with little Julia, because Julia is the one who calms the Administrator down the most.
In Polish:
Nasz Administrator wrócił nie wychodząc. Obiecał i obietnicę złamał, uchylił drzwi do raju i ponownie je zamknął. Zapewnia teraz, że on naprawdę na ten urlop pójdzie, przestanie wrzeszczeć i zacznie urlop, on musi tylko załatwić kilka spraw i już, dziś, idzie na urlop. Powiedział, że jedzie na wieś i albo wróci na noc, albo nie. Tak, ja wiem gdzie on jedzie, Samochodem to tylko kilkanaście minut drogi. Jak znowu będzie tam wrzeszczał, atmosfera stanie się ciężka i natychmiast wróci tutaj. A to oznacza, że drzwi od mieszkania Pauliny i Mariusza będą zamknięta. Potem Paulina przyjdzie z małą Julią, bo Julia najbardziej Administratora uspakaja.
So much for a vacation. He got back last night. Probably had a fight. Only lights up when he sees Paulina and Julka. Paulina slid a few documents his way to sign. What are they plotting now? The administrator turned on the computer, but the screen stayed black. He propped up his head and closed his eyes. Then turned the screen on, but didn’t type the password. Same mess on the screen and on the desk. He’s examining Word files with a magnifying glass. A pretty pipe bowl arrived from Katowice, without a stem. He cut a birch twig and then whittled it with his penknife. That’s how Sławek found him.
In Polish:
Niby urlop. Wczoraj wrócił wieczorem. Pewnie się pokłócił. Rozpromienia się tylko na widok Pauliny i Julki. Paulina podsunęła mu kilka dokumentów do podpisu. Co oni jeszcze knują? Administrator włączył komputer, ale ekran pozostał zgaszony. Podparł głowę i przymknął oczy. Włączył ekran, lecz nie wpisał hasła. Na ekranie i na biurku ten sam bałagan. Z użyciem szkła powiększającego ogląda pliki Worda. Przyszła z Katowic śliczna główka fajki, bez cybucha. Uciął patyczek brzozy, potem strugał go scyzorykiem. Tak zastał go Sławek.
JAC: This extra bit was also on Listy, and Slawomir is probably the Slawek mentioned above. Don’t ask me why there are cherries in the photo. Apparently Slawek came to visit while Andrzej, after his one-day vacation, was making a stem for the pipe bowl he’d received. Don’t ask me why the pipe came without a stem, or where Andrzej will get pipe tobacco in Dobrzyn. . .
What I Know Today About Letters from the Orchard Sławomir Holand
I found Andrzej sitting in a wicker chair, in the shade under a lilac tree. He was peeling bark from a stick with a small pocketknife. He was delighted to see me and asked if I wanted something to eat or drink. When I said no, he said it would be a pipe, that he’d gotten a beautiful one, but without a bowl. With deep concentration, he finished peeling the bark, then carefully and carefully smoothed it with the blade of his pocketknife. He told me to check if it was smooth enough. Then he said, “It should sit for two years now, but I don’t have time.” We went to the kitchen, he left for a moment, and returned with a hairdryer.
Hili: The administrator of “Letters” said yesterday he’s going on vacation for a week. I was worried – who would feed me now? And then a miracle happened. The door to our apartment is wide open. The door to Paulina, Julia, and Mariusz’s apartment is wide open too, bowls downstairs and upstairs – full. The window to the veranda roof is slightly open. We can run all over the house. We have to put pressure on him to extend his vacation for the whole summer. Paulina is poking around the Administrator’s computer. She knows the password. We all do, even Kulka. He always yells that awful curse when he starts the computer. Paulina is sitting with Julka on her lap and typing something. For now, just in case, I’m not asking anything. Paradise, don’t end!
In Polish: Administrator „Listów” powiedział wczoraj, że jedzie na tydzień na urlop. Bałam się, kto mnie będzie teraz karmił. I stał się cud. Drzwi naszego mieszkania są otwarte na oścież. Drzwi do mieszkania Pauliny, Julii i Mariusza są otwarte na oścież, miseczki na dole i na górze — pełne. Okno na dach werandy uchylone. Możemy biegać po całym domu. Musimy wywrzeć presję, żeby przedłużył urlop na całe lato. Paulina grzebie w komputerze Administratora. Hasło do komputera zna. Wszyscy je znamy, nawet Kulka. On ten okropny bluzg zawsze wrzeszczy, kiedy odpala komputer. Paulina siedzi z Julką na kolanach i coś pisze. Chwilowo, na wszelki wypadek, o nic nie pytam. Raju, trwaj!
A special quiz Hili today, because, meanwhile in Dobrzyn… we don’t know. The internet tubes between here and Poland are evidently bunged up at the moment.
Hili’s photo should arrive shortly, followed at some point by the dialogue.
Your task, should you choose to accept it, is
a) Before the photo is posted, to describe, in the comments, the photo of Hili.
b) After the photo is posted, guess what the Dialogue will be, and put your best shot in the comments…
JERRY: Here is the photo. As Mattew noted, you make up the dialogue and put it in the comments. The real dialogue will be posted at 10 a.m. Chicago time.
Remember, the dialogue is between Andrzej (right) and Hili, and can be anywhere from two to four lines.
*I have finally got a tenuous handle on the Jeffrey Epstein case. Tell me if I’m wrong, but there is no evidence that the government has a list of Epstein’s clients, nor any evidence that he died other than by suicide. If this is the case, why is the public, especially Republicans, going nuts? My theory, which is not mine, is that MAGA-ites want there to be a conspiracy as they are addicted to such theories (remember QAnon?), and are going nuts since there’s no evidence of a conspiracy with Epstein. (Side note: t the QAnon January 6 shaman is not going to get his spear and helmet returned.) Trump has even ordered attorney general Bondi to show what the government has got:
The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as President Trump seeks to dispel a storm of criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters.
The request was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where Mr. Epstein was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges six years ago when he was found dead by hanging in his jail cell about a month after he was arrested. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.
The government also sought the unsealing of grand jury testimony from the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite who in a 2021 trial was convicted of helping Mr. Epstein facilitate his sex-trafficking scheme and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction.
“Public officials, lawmakers, pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, wrote in a motion to the court seeking to unseal the transcripts. “The time for the public to guess what they contain should end.”
Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche referred in the motion to Mr. Epstein as “the most infamous pedophile in American history,” and called the facts of the case “a tale of national disgrace.”
The filings on Friday followed Mr. Trump’s announcement in a social media post Thursday night that he had authorized Ms. Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”
Does the plea deal Epstein got in Florida look unusually sweet? Yes. Does Epstein’s death seem weird to me? It does.
There is a remainder, a remnant, that will probably never be resolved. But I don’t find it easier to resolve that remnant in a conspiracy so total that no government, no law firm, no media organization, seems able to breach it.
What MAGA wanted out of Epstein was the same thing it wanted out of QAnon: a story that collapsed reality down to something that is well-ordered.
. . . But now Donald Trump is pitting himself against that fantasy. The reason the fizzling of the Epstein case has mattered in MAGA is it does something worse than undermine a conspiracy theory. It undermines a worldview.
*At a time when it’s becoming increasingly hard for researchers to get NIH and NSF grants to support their scientific work, Duke University’s med school has implemented a policy that seems almost draconian. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) plans to implement new faculty productivity guidelines that would tie tenured professors’ salaries to external research funding, according to documents reviewed by The Chronicle.
Set to go in effect in 2026, the proposed policy would apply to the school’s basic science units, which include departments ranging from biochemistry to neurobiology and various centers and institutes such as the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. These units rely heavily on grants from the National Institutes of Health, which have been increasingly difficult to come by due to slowdowns in grant review processes, an uptick in terminations and a lack of new funding opportunities since President Donald Trump assumed office.
Under the guidelines, each department must establish a minimum expectation for external grant funding. Tenured faculty members who do not meet the threshold — measured as a three-year average — would be given the option to either enter a 12-month “Safe Harbor” period, after which further inability to meet productivity standards will result in salary reductions, or consider career transition alternatives.
SOM administration initially proposed the guidelines in late May, drawing backlash that they had sidestepped shared governance processes. The May proposal stated that faculty members who failed to secure the minimum externally funded effort would be subject to a 10% salary “decrement” every six months to a minimum base of $50,000 a year — an amount lower than the salary of most postdoctoral researchers.
Note that while the standards are called “productivity” standards, they say nothing about what researcher’s have produced, but only whether they have garnered federal money. Granted, one’s scientific productivity is usually correlated with ability to support research, but for some areas, like theoretical work, the connection is more tenuous. In the end, though universities should do what mine does: explicitly judge a faculty member on production of scientific research, explicitly ruling out any discussion of grant funding.
*Remember Uri Berliner, the NPR editor who, in a widely-publicized Free Press piece last year, called attention to National Public Radio’s move towards progressivism, a slant on the news that he (and I) see as unconscionable given the public funding (not large) of NPR. He got in trouble and then quit NPR.
Now Congress has cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partly funds NPR and PBS, and it’s because of this slant (if an organization purports to give objective news to a public that partly pays its way, it’s obligated to be as objective as possible.
Anyway, Berliner has followed up his original piece by celebrating NPR’s “independence day” (independence on public funding, which was, again, so meager that its absence won’t much hurt NPR. Click below to read it or find the piece archived here for free:
From Berliner’s piece.
The vote is a victory for Republicans who have long had National Public Radio (NPR) in their sights. But it is also a victory for those of any political stripe who believe the government has no business funding the media.
I didn’t use to count myself among them. But over the past year, under the leadership of a divisive new CEO, instead of taking criticisms of its coverage to heart, NPR instead doubled down on agenda-driven journalism. So, as someone who had spent most of his career at the network, I didn’t support defunding. I instead suggested that NPR could build back credibility by voluntarily giving up federal support. Obviously that didn’t happen.
. . .Embracing the mantras of the Great Awokening, NPR became a caricature of itself with headlines like these:
These Drag Artists Know How to Turn Climate Activism into a Joyful Blowout
Inside NPR, rules on the use of language reflected the direction and mindset of the organization. We were told to avoid the term biological sex, warned not to say illegal immigrant (a hurtful label). A racial punctuation hierarchy was imposed; black would be uppercase, white lowercase. NPR adopted the phrase “gender affirming care” to describe childhood medical interventions that can mean sterilization and the surgical removal of genitals. These were not merely style choices. They were tribal signals, ideological markers.
NPR could have addressed these failings. I wrote my essay because I hoped the network might rediscover the values on which its success had been built. NPR could have regained some equilibrium, reclaimed a smidgen of independence, by copping to this reality even a little. It could have taken some visible steps back to the journalism gold standard of neutral impartiality. And it could have done all this prior to Trump’s reelection, so it wouldn’t look like NPR was caving to pressure from his administration.
No saying “biological sex”! Oy! I listen to NPR when I’m driving, and its descent into wokeness is palpable, and unpalatable even to left-centrists like me. Taxpayers should not be funding the organization, but cut it loose to be as woke as it wants.
*I guess when I was in the Arctic the government decided to start supporting Ukraine again, perhaps because Putin had become recalcitrant. European and American sanctions on Russia are in the offing, and that’s good. But what’s even better is that the U.S. is again helping deliver weapons to the beleaguered Ukraine:
The Trump administration has moved Germany ahead of Switzerland for the next Patriot air-defense systems off the production line, paving the way for Berlin to send two Patriots it already has to Ukraine, according to three U.S. officials.
The U.S. promise to quickly replace Germany’s Patriots is the first instance of the Pentagon facilitating weapons deliveries for Ukraine since President Trump announced earlier this month that he favored sending more arms.
But the move also underscored the difficulty in providing Patriots and other weapons to Kyiv, as defense production lines in the West struggle to keep up with Ukraine’s appeals for help defending its cities and front line forces against increasing Russian missile and drone attacks.
The effort to speed Patriots to Ukraine by backfilling Germany with systems from the American production line is consistent with Trump’s vow to have NATO allies pay the U.S. as part of providing additional weapons for Ukraine.
The initial deal is similar to a move made in 2024 by the Biden administration, which moved Ukraine to the front of the line to receive air defense interceptors directly from the U.S.
Ukraine may lose this war, and lose it big time, giving up much or even all of its territory to Russia. But if America stands for anything, even in these Trumpian days, we should stand for the defense of freedom against the incursions of despots like Putin. We should re-arm Ukraine to the best of our ability.
*Finally, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news-and-snark column, called this week “TGIF: The Client List.” (This of course refers to the brouhaha about Jeffrey Epstein that has erupted since I flew to Finland, and I still don’t understand what all the hubub is about
→ How to score a Beamer in London: This story is from March, but it’s new to me, so bear with me. In the UK, the government will give disabled people cars. It’s a really lovely idea. The trouble: You can claim any disability, including depression. It kind of relies on people acting in good faith, in a high-trust society where people don’t lie about such things. Did I mention that the government will help you get a brand-new BMW? And give you a new one every three years? You’ll be shocked to hear the program is now so popular that roughly one out of every five new cars sold in Britain is provided via this government program for the disabled. And what sort of disabilities are people reporting when they come for their Beamer? A huge number of people claiming disability in the UK report mental health issues, depression and anxiety and such (I assume it’s depression over not having a BMW). As in, “I’m too anxious to take the Tube; I need a Beamer.” Some of the car recipients actually report that their disability is acne (good, hide in the car, I don’t want to see that mountainous chin looming at me on the Tube). A handful of claimants even suffer from “factitious disorder,” in which your disease is thinking you are diseased. They get Beamers too, and a new speaker system thrown in so that they can really relax on those long drives to the NHS to check out another benign mole. This all comes from a Telegraph report on the program and is 100 percent real. I repeat: Beamers for Acne. Beamers for Fakers. Time for me to make a little trip to ye bonny England.
→ Doing reporting I don’t like is literal murder: Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times, is freaking out at The Washington Free Beacon, which has been getting huge scoops on things like universities investigated for illegal DEI hiring methods and apparently race-conscious submissions practices at the Harvard Law Review. Or, in Jill’s telling: The site has been “a potentially lethal weapon aimed at elite universities.” Which is a weird way to describe reporting, if you’re ostensibly a member of and fan of the press? But that wasn’t the end of her reporter-as-murderer assessment: “It’s not just that the Beacon is conservative; it’s that it seems to be on a jihad, publishing scoops that have left blood on the floor at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, and other prestigious corners of academia.” Lethal weapon, jihad, blood on the floor.
She goes through all of the greatest hits of Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium—who I guess is a hitman or a jihadi? “Besides helping to bring down Claudine Gay, the Free Beacon bedeviled the Harvard Law Review in May by publishing insider documents leaked by a whistleblower on its staff.” Aaron Sibarium is stabbing administrators in the chest and dragging their bodies through marble halls (which is how it feels emotionally when he reports on their meetings).
I love that she’s articulating her philosophy so clearly. I’m personally forever indebted to legacy media’s belief that ignoring the most interesting stories will make them go away. And I can only hope they continue. Jill, run every newspaper! Now if I could get Aaron—that absolute killer, that stone-cold stunner, that literal jihadist murderer, like guys, he has a knife—to join The Free Press.
. . . and I can’t wait for this one! Mexican coke (available at a premium in some American towns) at American prices!
→ Trump trying to distract everyone with soda: While his party was undergoing its first civil war, Trump was trying to shore up his MAHAs over on Truth Social: “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them—You’ll see. It’s just better!” Soft drink soft power at work, folks. Catch me at the soda fountain next Tuesday, with a big old scoop of vanilla ice cream and an old-fashioned Coke. I don’t know if this makes America great again, but I am all for it.
And one extra:
→ Americans are getting very comfortable with political violence: Following a wave of antisemitic violence, the ADL conducted a survey “to assess the national mood toward antisemitism” and found that 24 percent of people felt recent violent attacks on Jews were understandable, with 13 percent saying they were justified. So that’s been keeping me up at night. No jokes here, just a knot in my stomach and a bigger hunch in my back.
***********
Today’s Caturday feature. First, a sign I saw yesterday in downtown Reykjavik:
Andhere’s moggie from Reykjavik sent in reader Ken Phelps. Titled “Reyk Cat”, Ken added this caption:
Here’s one tough cat in Reykjavik. Graciously accepted a a bit of head scratching, then gave me a good swat and moved away about a foot before sitting back down and dismissing me.
