Welcome to Sunday, the sabbath for goyische cats, and we’re now  into June. It’s June 1, 2025.  Here is the June illustration from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (ca. 1412-1416).  It’s time to reap!

It’s also National Hazelnut Cake Day, Wear a Dress Day (I address this to Luana, who refuses to wear dresses), World Milk Day, Dinosaur Day, Heimlich Maneuver Day, National Frozen Yogurt Day, and National Olive Day.

Refresh yourself with this video about the Heimlich Maneuver, and don’t forget the back pounding:

There’s a Google Doodle today, celebrating “hyperpop” music, which, says the site, is “a genre/anti-genre of electronic music pioneered by LGBTQ+ artists.” Click below if you want to see where it goes (it’s Pride Month):

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

Da Nooz:

*More tariffs in store: Trump is planning to double the tariff on foreign steel and aluminum. Just another stupid move in the endless tariff wars. The news last night (sans Lester Holt, my fave, who left) announced the European countries already pay less for these metals than we do. We’re only going to fall farther behind.

President Trump said on Friday that he would double the tariffs he had levied on foreign steel and aluminum to 50 percent, a move that he claimed would further protect the industry.

The announcement came as Mr. Trump traveled to a U.S. Steel factory outside Pittsburgh to hail a “planned partnership” that he helped broker between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, a corporate merger that he opposed last year as a presidential candidate. Although the details of the U.S. Steel deal are still murky — and Mr. Trump later admitted he had not yet seen or signed off on it — the president used the moment to cast himself as a champion of the embattled industry.

Speaking to a crowd of steel workers, Mr. Trump claimed that foreign countries had been able to circumvent the 25 percent tariff he put in place this year. The higher tariffs would “even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” Mr. Trump said.

It is not clear how much doubling the tariff rate would actually bolster the domestic steel sector, but the move gave Mr. Trump the opportunity to wield tariffs at a time when his other import taxes have proved vulnerable to legal challenges.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said that the tariffs would take effect on June 4 and that they would provide a “big jolt” to American steel and aluminum workers.

A big, big, BIGLY jolt. In fact, the highest jolt in the history of the WORLD!  But while it may boost American metal production, we all know that it will also boost the prices of goods made with steel and aluminum, and the net effect on the American economy would be negative.  I could have written about many other maladaptive things our “President” is doing, including issuing pardons to bad people (see below), trying to block or rescind visas for foreign students, cutting grants, and so on.  But I don’t want to turn this site into a Trump-bashing venue, for there are many other places you can go to see that.

*The Times of Israel, quoting a reliable international organization, says what anybody with brains already knows: Iran has been sneakily trying to build a bomb while hiding its activities from the rest of the world:

Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states seen by Reuters.

The findings in the “comprehensive” International Atomic Energy Agency report requested by the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors in November pave the way for a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for the board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

A resolution would infuriate Iran and could further complicate nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.

VIENNA — Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states seen by Reuters.

The findings in the “comprehensive” International Atomic Energy Agency report requested by the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors in November pave the way for a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for the board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

A resolution would infuriate Iran and could further complicate nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.

While many of the findings relate to activities dating back decades and have been made before, the IAEA report’s conclusions were more definitive. It summarized developments in recent years and pointed more clearly towards coordinated, secret activities, some of which were relevant to producing nuclear weapons.

It also spelled out that Iran’s cooperation with IAEA continues to be “less than satisfactory” in “a number of respects.” The IAEA is still seeking explanations for uranium traces found years ago at two of four sites it has been investigating. Three hosted secret experiments, it found.

The IAEA has concluded that “these three locations, and other possible related locations, were part of an undeclared structured nuclear program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s” and that “some activities used undeclared nuclear material,” the report said.

Whatever made U.S. and world leaders think the Iran was enriching uranium for “peaceful” purposes? Blindness, stupidity, or both, I guess. This should be a wake-up call to Trump to stop trying to strike a “stop-the-nukes” deal with Iran in return for loosening sanctions.  Iran is lying, it’s always lied about this, and Trump should just go ahead and let Israel try to take out the bomb-making facilities-. In fact, the U.S. and Israel should do that jointly,

*At the Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan asks us to “Pardon the Death of Liberal Democracy“, and it’s about Trump’s numerous and unjustifiable pardons:

I suppose you can say that at least Trump is not a hypocrite. Fathomlessly corrupt himself, he has been particularly assiduous in pardoning his fellow white-collar criminals.

Just in the past month, he gave a pardon to a former Connecticut governor who pled guilty to honest services fraud, mail fraud, and tax fraud; to a nursing home exec who pled guilty to tax crimes; to reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, for bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax dodging; to a former Staten Island congressman, for tax fraud; to a former Detroit mayor, for fraud and racketeering; to a labor union leader who took gifts up to $315,000 and didn’t report them; to a federal judge in Missouri, for Medicaid fraud; to a former member of the Cincinnati City Council, for bribery; and to a Nevada pol who embezzled the money raised for a statue honoring a murdered police officer and spent it on plastic surgery. Then there’s the infamous former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who tried to sell a Senate seat.

. . . . Trump can empathize, of course. His own company was convicted of tax fraud, and he tried to steal an election. There is nothing in the presidency he wouldn’t monetize — as his latest $1 million-a-plate crypto dinner and the Qatari 747 prove beyond any doubt. He and his family are now, and always have been, emphatically for sale; and he regards any other approach to life as stupid. But it’s also striking how the huge majority of his pardons have been for Trump-supporting Republicans. Even Blagojevich calls himself a Trumpocrat. Fraud is fine and pardonable — if you like and support Trump. It’s the only criterion that matters.

The foulest by far was his pardon of all the participants who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power by mob violence. This mega-pardon of more than 1,500 people, at the very beginning of his second term, was not a validation of fraud, but an actual presidential endorsement of political violence. The pardon process used to be painstaking, methodical, and careful. Trump made the J6 decision with the words: “Fuck it: Release ’em all!” His open mulling over whether to pardon the conspirators to assassinate governor Gretchen Whitmer adds a touch of specific menace.

The concept of a pardon, of course, is extremely hard for Trump to understand. Traditionally, a pardon is due to someone who has completed (or nearly completed) their sentence, expressed remorse, and turned their life around — and thereby been the recipient of mercy. But remorse is a concept unknown to a pathological narcissist. Mercy is even stranger. After all, who wins and who loses in an act of mercy? It’s one of those acts defined by grace — another literally meaningless concept for Trump. For him, all human conduct is built on a zero-sum, winner-vs-loser foundation. So a pardon is always instrumental — a way to reward allies, win credits, and enlarge his power by announcing to the world that he alone is the ultimate rule of law, and can intervene at any point to ensure his version of justice is the dispositive one. A monarch, in other words.

. . . .So of course, he is using the pardon power all the time, rather than waiting till the end of his term. It replaces the rule of law with monarchical discretion. That’s why he could not tolerate Jeff Sessions all those years ago. Because Sessions, for all his passionate partisanship, still understood the system he was operating in and still believed that the appearance of impartial justice was integral to liberal democracy’s survival. Sessions was an American.

The core reason Trump is an existential threat to liberal democracy is because he literally cannot understand this. I don’t even think he is that cynical about it. He honestly believes that people on his side can only be prosecuted out of political malice, and that people on the other side are always guilty. A judge who rules in his favor is wise; a judge who rules against him is ipso facto corrupt. And his wily capacity to wriggle free of the many impeachable offenses he committed in office, and legal accountability thereafter, has only deepened this belief.

Yes, we all know now that Trump behaves like a petulant child, lashing out at perceived enemies and rewarding his toadies. I thought it was bad to live through the Nixon era, but Trump beats all.  And if the Democrats don’t get their act together, we’ll have President Vance in 2028—and eight more years or Republican rule.

*At Richard Dawkins’s Substack, he reproduces his new foreword to George Williams’s classic book on evolution, Adaptation and Natural Selection. Richard’s intro is called “Foxes in the snow.”

On opening it I have the feeling of being ushered into the presence of a penetrating and outstanding mind, the same feeling I get, indeed, from reading The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, although Williams, unlike Fisher, was no mathematician. In George Williams we have an author of immense learning and incisive critical intelligence, who thought deeply about every aspect of evolution and ecology. Williams not only enlarged the synthesis, he exposed with great clarity where many of its followers had gone astray, even in some cases the original authors themselves. ‘is is a book that every serious student of biology must read, a book that irrevocably changes the way we look at life. Throughout my career as an Oxford tutor, I obviously recommended many books to my students. But I think this was the only one I insisted that all should read. Here’s a list of major mistakes a student is likely to make before reading this book, but will not make afterwards.

You can read the mistakes for yourself, but it really is a great book, and must be one of the first books that a beginning student in evolutionary biology reads.  Here’s a bit about “spandels”: things that look like direct adaptations but are adaptive byproducts of other features installed by natural selection (“spandrels” comes from Gould and Lewontin’s 1978 paper, a mixed effort):

A ‘spandrel’ is a non-adaptive by-product. The name comes from the gaps between gothic arches which are a necessary but non-functional by-product of the functionally important arches themselves. Long before the word was introduced into biology, Williams, a leading advocate of adaptation as a proper subject for scientific study, gave an incisive critique of what would later be called spandrels. His vivid example, which regularly grabbed the attention of my Oxford students, was a fox repeatedly running along its own tracks in the snow. Its paws increasingly flattened the snow, which made each successive journey easier and faster. But it would be wrong to say the fox’s paws were adapted to flattened snow. They can’t help flattening snow. This particular beneficial effect is a by-product. Williams summed up the message pithily: adaptation is an ‘onerous concept’.

If I might paraphrase the Anglican marriage service in a way that Williams might not, any attribution of adaptation should not be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of Occam’s Razor. You must first assure yourself that you could, if called upon to do so, translate your adaptation theory back into the rigorous terms of neo-Darwinism. The ‘adaptation’ you postulate must not just be ‘beneficial’ in some vague, panglossian sense. You must clearly set out, and be prepared to defend, a strictly Darwinian pathway to the evolution of the alleged adaptation. The ‘benefit’ must accrue at the proper level in the hierarchy of life, which is the unit of Darwinian natural selection. And the proper level, for Williams as for me, is that of the individual genes responsible for the putative adaptation.

. . .Return for a moment to Williams’ picturesque example of the fox in the snow. I think he’d have accepted the following reservation to his ‘spandrel’ or by-product lesson. Natural selection actually could favour an adaptive broadening of fox paws for the function of flattening snow.

But only if the resulting path benefited the fox itself (and its family) alone, rather than foxes in general. It might, for example, be connected to the individual fox’s own territory. This brings me to the central core of the book, which is Williams’ critique of ‘group selection’. This is as needed today as it was in 1966, for group selectionism won’t lie down. With its magnetic allure, perhaps politically or even aesthetically motivated, group selectionism keeps coming back for more, in ways that, I can’t resist confessing, remind me of Monty Python’s Black Knight.* Williams admits that natural selection could theoretically choose among groups.

For another prescient attack on group selection, which indeed won’t lie down, see Steve Pinker’s 2012 essay at Edge.  But all beginning grad students in evolutionary biology should read Williams’ book. Seriously.

*I’m an Everest fan (I’ve trekked to the mountain, without climbing it, twice), and so was fascinated by this Wall Street Journal article about four Brits who set a record: flying from London and summiting Everest within five days.  It usually takes weeks, but they ameliorated the climb by pre-adapting by inhaling xenon gas:

. . . the four British army veterans prepared for the world’s highest peak using a new pre-acclimatization regime involving inhaling xenon gas—once used as an anesthetic but now more commonly found in rocket propellant.

Their ascent is rocking the mountaineering community and Nepali authorities, with their use of a substance banned from competitive sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency provoking the criticism this amounts to cheating.

Nepal’s mountaineering authorities are studying the climb and its implications.

On May 29, when the country marks the first recognized summit of the mountain in 1953 as Everest Day, Nepal’s prime minister lamented the use of xenon.

“Dishonesty even with Mount Everest?” he said. “If it did happen, it should be stopped.”

Well, is it more dishonest than using supplemental oxygen?  A bit more:

After hearing [Austrian mountaineer Lukas] Furtenbach speak on the radio in 2018 about his efforts to help climbers pre-acclimatize, Fries said he contacted him to propose his idea: breathe in xenon gas before a challenging climb. The gas, said Fries, appears to have neuroprotective properties and prompts the production of a hormone that triggers red blood cell production, improving the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.

Furtenbach had the four British climbers prepare for weeks at their homes in the U.K. by sleeping for a total of over 500 hours each in tents that simulate the low-oxygen conditions on Everest. That has long been part of Furtenbach’s expeditions offering a “flash” ascent of Everest in about three weeks. The men also worked out using masks that simulated thin mountain air.

Their regime included a new feature—a roughly 20-minute, one-time hit of a mix of xenon and oxygen some weeks before the men began their climb in Nepal. The formulation was developed and administered to the men in Germany by Dr. Michael Fries, head of anesthesia and intensive-care medicine at St. Vincenz Hospital in the German town of Limburg an der Lahn.

. . . . The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation said in January that scientific literature didn’t support the idea that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains.

Given how swiftly it can work—putting people to sleep in a minute—highly experienced medical supervision is vital, said Fries.

If I had a bucket-list dream that I know won’t be fulfilled, it would be to stand atop Everest. I’m too old now to perch on the Earth’s highest spot, but I have been at the lowest.  It’s not the same, though. . .

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Editor-in-Chief claims her rights:

Hili: Don’t even think about it.

Andrzej: About what?

Hili: About sitting in my chair.

Hili: Nawet o tym nie myśl.

Ja: O czym?

Hili: O siadaniu na moim fotelu.

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

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Now That’s Wild:

World Boxing has instituted mandatory sex testing for women boxers, banning Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif, almost surely a man raised as a woman, from boxing until s(he) takes the test. From Luana:

Finally men won’t be allowed to smash women in the face live on TV and win medals for it. Well done, World Boxing

Shame on the IOC (who allowed it in Paris) & male sports writers who cared more about a man’s feelings than the safety of women & their right to fair sport 🥊 pic.twitter.com/vAOFetaSP0

— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) May 30, 2025

Rowling’s comment:

You really need to be more careful with those Freudian slips. Khelif isn’t trans, but by casually equating him to a trans women you admit that you know the latter, too, are men. According to the rules of your favourite game, you’ve just been extremely transphobic. pic.twitter.com/d9wtBqnbnT

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 31, 2025

From Pinkah via reader Bryan: the advice is “Kill your darlings.” He’s right, too:

Steven Pinker: The simplest way to improve your writing pic.twitter.com/36JFVW4W1x

— David Perell (@david_perell) May 29, 2025

A screenshot from FB. and I have to say that the headline is dumb:

From Malcolm. I’m not sure exactly how this is helping:

Helping. pic.twitter.com/9LH5MbcfXt

— cats with jobs 🛠 (@CatWorkers) May 17, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was twelve.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-01T09:44:14.455Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb.  The first compares the cuts in American science funding with two other political alterations of the direction of science, although they aren’t precise parallels:

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

— Peter Gleick (@petergleick.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T04:43:12.825Z

A new paper on the origin of teeth (have a look) from the lab of Chicago colleague Neil Shubin:

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05…Open Access Paper: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41…News and Views: http://www.nature.com/articles/d41…

— Neil Shubin (@neilshubin.bsky.social) 2025-05-21T15:27:13.160Z

Welcome to the last Friday of May: It’s May 30, 2025, and June begins in two days.

It’s also Mint Julep Day, celebrating a drink that’s excellent when made with good bourbon and fresh mint: here’s one served in the traditional way, in a frosted silver cup:

It’s also National Heat Awareness Day and National Creativity Day.

Posting has been and will continue to be light as I’ve had another bad attack of insomnia, but also because there seems to be adearth of interesting news. Or maybe it’s me. Bear with me, though: I do my best. Today I have a Zoom call and a 1.5-hour podcast to do (more on that later), so don’t expect much today.

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

Da Nooz:

Lots of Trumpy news today:

*After a fractious tenure as head of DOGE, Elon Musk is finally leaving the Trump administration.

Elon Musk, a key adviser to President Donald Trump who oversaw the U.S. DOGE Service, said Wednesday that he is leaving the administration after leading a contentious effort to reshape the federal bureaucracy and slash government spending.

Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, that his “scheduled time” as a special government employee had come to an end.That designation, which exempts him from financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules that apply to full-time government workers, also means he is not permitted to work more than 130 days in a 365-day period.

In the post, Musk thanked Trump for the “opportunity to reduce wasteful spending” and said DOGE’s “mission will only strengthen over time.”

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed Musk’s departure and said his offboarding will begin Wednesday night.

A day earlier, in a major break with the president and Republicans, Musk said he did not approve of Trump’s spending bill — officially known as the One Big Beautiful Bill — with its massive tax cuts.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in an interview with CBS News.

Trump — who in February sat alongside Musk for a Fox News interview that saw the two men praise each other effusively — has yet to comment on Musk’s departure, though the president has posted unrelated memes and video on social media since Musk’s announcement.

For weeks, Musk has signaled that he plans to wind down his government work and refocus on his companies. Privately, he has grown frustrated with the challenges of achieving results within the federal government, along with the backlash he has faced — both personally and toward Tesla, his electric-vehicle company, The Washington Post has reported.

Well, all I can say is “good riddance,” but it’ll take years until America heals from the slash-and-burn cost-cutting strategies of Musk in collaboration with Trump.  Musk, the world’s richest man, can go back to blowing up rockets in his futile attempt to put people on Mars.

*Federal judges have blocked many of Trump’s new tariffs, including the steepest ones on China and other countries (article archived here).

A panel of federal judges on Wednesday blocked President Trump from imposing some of his steepest tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, finding that federal law did not grant him “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country around the world.

The ruling, by the U.S. Court of International Trade, delivered an early yet significant setback to Mr. Trump, undercutting his primary leverage as he looks to pressure other nations into striking trade deals more beneficial to the United States.

Before Mr. Trump took office, no president had sought to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law, to impose tariffs on other nations. The law, which primarily concerns trade embargoes and sanctions, does not even mention tariffs.

But Mr. Trump adopted a novel interpretation of its powers as he announced, and then suspended, high levies on scores of countries in April. He also used the law to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico in return for what he said was their role in sending fentanyl to the United States.

On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade, the primary federal legal body overseeing such matters, found that Mr. Trump’s tariffs “exceed any authority granted” to the president by the emergency powers law. Ruling in separate cases brought by states and businesses, a bipartisan panel of three judges essentially declared many, but not all, of Mr. Trump’s tariffs to have been issued illegally.

Below is a graph that tracks the lawsuits against Trump, taken from The Washington Post, which adds,

President Donald Trump is facing about 250 lawsuits over his executive orders, far more than had been filed at this point during his first term. The unprecedented flood of legal action has stymied many of Trump’s priorities, but judges and appeals courts — up to the Supreme Court — have cleared some to move forward while litigation continues.

Judges have blocked — for now — his efforts to punish law firms and Harvard University, as well as to deport migrants without due process. Courts have allowed Trump to fire independent regulators while litigation continues. On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade blocked the 10 percent tariffs Trump imposed on all foreign products as well as the higher levies applied to imports from several dozen nations.

Most of the rulings are temporary. Their final outcomes will go a long way to shape what Trump is able to accomplish in his second term. Here is our rundown of some of the biggest cases.

*Speaking of China, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (those words stick in my craw) has announced that he’ll revoke the visas of many Chinese students—”aggressively”:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday evening that the Trump administration would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in “critical fields.”

He added that the State Department was revising visa criteria to “enhance scrutiny” of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong.

The move was certain to send ripples of anxiety across university campuses in the United States and was likely to lead to reprisal from China, the country of origin for the second-largest group of international students in the United States.

Mr. Rubio’s brief statement announcing the visa crackdown did not define “critical fields” of study, but the phrase most likely refers to research in the physical sciences. In recent years, American officials have expressed concerns about the Chinese government recruiting U.S.-trained scientists, though there is no evidence of such scientists working for China in large numbers.

Similarly, it is unclear how U.S. officials will determine which students have ties to the Communist Party. The lack of detail on the scope of the directive will no doubt fuel worries among the roughly 275,000 Chinese students in the United States, as well as professors and university administrators who depend on their research skills and financial support.

American universities and research laboratories have benefited over many decades by drawing some of the most talented students from China and other countries, and many universities rely on international students paying full tuition for a substantial part of their annual revenue.

Last year 20% of student visas were granted to Chinese people, and I have to agree with both of the last two paragraphs.  Some of the most talented STEM people in America (in my experience) came from China, and those who stay vastly enrich scientific culture. This is just more Trumpian retribution against China, and retribution that works to the detriment of America. But will the person in the street care about this? I doubt it; they worry more about the price of groceries. But those will rise, too, helping Democrats. I worry a lot about the next Presidential election, but the 2026 midterms will give us a clue about national sentiment. (It won’t give us a Democratic government, though, and remember that Trump has veto power until his term is up.

*Newsweek reports a new policy of massive grade inflation in San Francisco, and you know why (h/t Williams Garcia): all must have prizes!

San Francisco’s public high schools will implement a sweeping change to their grading system this fall, replacing traditional methods with a policy that allows students to pass with scores as low as 41 percent.

The initiative, part of a broader “Grading for Equity” push, is stirring concern among educators, students and parents over academic standards and college readiness.

The context [JAC: I’ve put the gist of the new plan in bold]

Similar policies across other Bay Area districts—such as Dublin, Oakland and Pleasanton—have seen mixed results and strong community reactions. Dublin Unified attempted a pilot of equity grading in 2023, which included removing zeros for missed assignments and awarding a minimum of 50 percent for any “reasonably attempted” work.

That pilot, however, was met with outrage and resistance. Parents created petitions, formed WhatsApp groups and filled school board meetings to protest what they saw as a lowering of standards for their children. The Dublin school board eventually suspended the initiative, though individual teachers were still allowed to use the methods at their discretion.

The experiment in San Francisco comes amid — or despite — a broader rethinking of DEI initiatives after the election of Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of excising what he and many others said were “unfair” equity practices in the government and private sectors.

. . . . The new policy, set to affect more than 10,000 students across 14 high schools, significantly changes how academic performance is measured.

Homework and classroom participation will no longer influence a student’s final grade. Students will be assessed primarily on a final exam, which they can retake multiple times. Attendance and punctuality will not affect academic standing.

The plan was first revealed in the fine print of a 25-page agenda and reported by The Voice of San Francisco, a local nonprofit. The outlet reported that the district is hiring Joe Feldman, an educational consultant known for his book Grading for Equity, to train teachers this summer.

“If our grading practices don’t change, the achievement and opportunity gaps will remain for our most vulnerable students. If we are truly dedicated to equity, we have to stop avoiding the sensitive issue of grading and embrace it,” Feldman said in a 2019 blog post for the School Superintendents Association (AASA).

Feldman’s book outlines how traditional grading can reinforce socioeconomic disparities and proposes alternative strategies for more equitable assessment. According to The Voice of San Francisco, the new system will be modeled in part on the San Leandro Unified School District, where students can earn an A with a score as low as 80 percent and pass with a D at just 21 percent. Under the forthcoming San Francisco policy, a score of 41 percent will qualify as a C.

. . . . Supporters of the policy say it better reflects real student learning by de-emphasizing behavior-based penalties like late work or missed assignments. However, critics warn the policy could harm students who are already on track for college placement.

“Nowhere in college do you get 50 percent for doing nothing,” said Laurie Sargent, an eighth-grade English teacher in the Dublin Unified School District, in a 2024 Mercury News report. “Nowhere in the working world do you get 50 percent for doing nothing. If I don’t show up to work, they don’t pay me 50 percent of my salary—even if I made a reasonable attempt to get there.”

Put me on the side of Laurie Sargent.  There is only one real motivation for this heinous laxness and grade inflation: to make the poorer students, often members of minority groups, look better.  But in the end, I think it will actually hurt those students, for it weakens the meritocracy, hiding those minority students who are standouts, and takes away the incentive from every student to work (how many students will come to class if they don’t have to, and will take exams over and over again until they get a decent score.

*I signed up for emails from Colossal Biosciences, and got one yesterday with good news and bad news. The good news is that the endangered red wolf, reduced to only 14 individuals in captivity, which reduces genetic variation, is part of a Colossal plan to boost the genetic variation. Here’s what they propose.  First, Colossal cloned a “ghost wolf” (a coyote/red wolf hybrid from the wild) that had a lot of natural red wolf genome; the cloning was done using a domestic dog surrogate mother.  Later, the firm plans to insert some genuine red wolf genome (based on DNA taken from captive wolves) into the genome of ghost wolves (see the video here and discussion on the Colossal website here), making Colossal “one step closer to restoring the species”. While this may up the genetic variation in captive red wolves, it’s not clear how much red wolf genome will be boosted in the “restored species”, and I don’t know how serious a problem the lack of genetic variation poses anyway (habitat loss and hunting may be far more serious problems). So we may get more red-wolfish individuals (where will they be released?), but as far as I can see, they won’t be genetically pure red wolves.  We’ll have to wait and see. The project has its good aspects, but, as usual, I think there’s some hype here.

The bad news is that Colossal is STILL referring to the dire wolf as a “de-extincted” ancient animal, despite having admitted previously that they did not bring back dire wolves and in fact produced only grey wolves with 15 DNA edits derived from the dire wolf genome out of 20 total edits.  So Colossal has backtracked bit time.

Here’s a screenshot from the email, followed by a breathless video praising the bogus “de-extinction”.

Here’s a rah-rah video, heavy on the PR and devoid of any caveats.

Clearly, Colossal has decided to dig in its heels and argue that, yes, they have “de-extincted” the dire wolf. They most certainly have not. But the mainstream media has let the public down by buying into Colossal’s hype.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej gets a rebuke from Hili:

Hili: You made a very bad decision with this gravel.

Andrzej: Why?

Hili: You forgot that cats walk without shoes.

Hili: Z tymi kamykami to bardzo źle wymyśliłeś.

Ja: Dlaczego?

Hili: Zapomniałeś, że koty nie chodzą w butach.

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

From Meow:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Masih: Iran’s built its own version of Hell to scare the bejeezus out of its citizens:

The Islamic Republic just built its own version of Hell in Iran to terrify people into obeying Islamic laws.

Fake flames. Cheap props. Government-paid demons in Halloween costumes all designed by the IRGC and meant to scare people into obeying Sharia law.

Show your hair? Burn… pic.twitter.com/MTGQDvDvX3

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

From Luana: Brown has just adopted institutional neutrality, as laid out in Chicago’s Kalven Report. It’s only the 32nd university or college to make this sensible move:

BREAKING: Brown University has adopted institutional neutrality: pic.twitter.com/3cd0Aa6IiL

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 28, 2025

From Malcolm; Person adopts wolf pup (not knowing what it was), person bonds with wolf pup, person releases grown wolf to its pack, but wolf sometimes visits. . .

I accidentally raised a wolf… pic.twitter.com/io9Hn3WUOI

— We don’t deserve cats 😺 (@catsareblessing) May 16, 2025

Two from my feed.  Propaganda at Harvard graduation. Sure, it’s free speech, but it’s misleading and inappropriate free speech.

Please watch these 7 minutes of my graduation ceremony at Harvard.

People need to understand the shocking levels at which Harvard students are indoctrinated.

There are *77 million* stateless Tamils.

There are *68 million* stateless Cantonese.

There are *30 million* stateless… pic.twitter.com/47POt52ByZ

— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) May 28, 2025

Should I try this for my insomnia?

In the city of Shenyang, China, a very unusual method is being used to treat insomnia: people are hanging from their necks with a belt and gently swinging for a few minutes.

Those who try it claim their sleep problems have significantly improved. pic.twitter.com/SgQaHfjcTJ

— HOW THINGS WORK (@HowThingsWork_) May 28, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

An eight-year old Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was seven.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T09:33:45.065Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb.  He finds this first one lovely:

Something a bit different for today's #foxoftheday . Watch some newts , accompanied by a drinking fox's tongue , shared by @urbanponds101 ! Top work !

— Chris Packham (@chrisgpackham.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T07:02:58.870Z

Matthew posted this Existential Comics strip, calling it “metaphysics in the morning.” He says that Spinoza comes closest, which is true, but Spinoza, as a pantheist, thought not that God was part of the physical world, but was one with the physical world:

From the incomparable @existentialcomics.com. Spinoza comes closest, obvs. static.existentialcomics.com/comics/Early…

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T07:08:29.352Z

Welcome to Thursday, May 29, 2025, and National Biscuit Day (didn’t we just have a similar day?)  Southern style biscuits (not the British style, which are “cookies” to us) are, as I say constantly, America’s best indigenous breadstuff. Here’s a plate, which would be much improved with sausage gravy or butter and homemade preserves.

It’s also Ascension, International Coq Au Vin Day, and  End of the Middle Ages Day (“Many historians consider May 29, 1453, to be the date on which the Middle Ages ended. It was on this date that Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Empire, after being under siege for almost two months”).

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

Da Nooz:

*Trump and Netanyahu are apparently disagreeing about what to do about Iran. While Trump continues to press for a deal to curb nuclear weapons, Israel may be making plans to strike Iranian sites involved in enriching uranium and making bombs.

As the Trump administration tries to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been threatening to upend the talks by striking Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, according to officials briefed on the situation.

The clash over how best to ensure that Iran cannot produce a nuclear weapon has led to at least one tense phone call between President Trump and Mr. Netanyahu and a flurry of meetings in recent days between top administration officials and senior Israeli officials.

Mr. Trump said on Sunday that there could be “something good” coming about his effort to limit Iran’s nuclear program in the “next two days.”

Others familiar with the negotiations said that at best there would be a declaration of some common principles. The details under discussion remain closely held and would likely only set the stage for further negotiations, starting with whether Iran could continue to enrich uranium at any level, and how it would dilute its stockpiles of near-bomb-grade fuel or ship them out of the country.

The New York Times reported in April that Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as this month but was waved off by Mr. Trump, who wanted to keep negotiating with Tehran. Mr. Netanyahu, however, has continued to press for military action without U.S. assistance.

Israel is not a participant in the negotiations between the United States and Iran. At the core of the tension between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump is their differing views of how best to exploit a moment of Iranian weakness.

In October, Israel destroyed key elements of Iran’s strategic air defense system, which helped to protect the country’s nuclear facilities. That would enable Israeli aircraft to approach Iran’s borders without fear of being targeted.

I think that bombing Iran’s nuclear sites is an existential necessity for Israel, as one bomb in Israel would pretty much wipe out the whole country, and Iran has said it won’t be hesitant to do that. And don’t think that Iran wouldn’t, even though the Iranian people probably wouldn’t want more war.  A destroyed Israel can’t retaliate.  But if Israel bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities, the U.S. may decide not to sell weapons to Israel. What with Trump being unpredictable. there’s no telling what will happen–either whether there’s a bombing and, if so, how the U.S. responds.

*The WSJ reports that North Korea is getting cash from Americans through a scam involving unwitting American “influencers” who funnel money to North Koreans living abroad.  They use the story of Christina, a Tik Tok “influencer”

Chapman was one of an estimated several dozen “laptop farmers” that have popped up across the U.S. as part of a scam to infiltrate American companies and earn money for cash-strapped North Korea. People like Chapman typically operate dozens of laptops meant to be used by legitimate remote workers living in the U.S.

What the employers—and often the farmers themselves—don’t realize is that the workers are North Koreans living abroad but using stolen U.S. identities. Once they get a job, they coordinate with someone like Chapman who can provide some American cover—accepting deliveries of the computer, setting up the online connections and helping facilitate paychecks. Meanwhile the North Koreans log into the laptops from overseas every day through remote-access software.

Chapman fell into her role after she got a request on LinkedIn to “be the U.S. face” for a company that got jobs for overseas IT workers, according to court documents. There’s no indication that she knew she was working with North Koreans.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the scam more broadly involves thousands of North Korean workers and brings hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the country. “That’s a material percentage of their economy,” said Gregory Austin, a section chief with the FBI.

Besides spying, they can also steal identities, and can get a lot of money. Ultimately, of course, the beneficiary is the DPRK, the world’s most oppressive regime.

*In another move that’s likely to be unconstitutional, the Trump administration has paused issuing new student visas.

The State Department on Tuesday suspended foreign students’ visa appointments as it weighs expanded guidelines for screening applicants’ social media accounts, according to an internal cable obtained by The Washington Post.

Experts called it a troubling development in the Trump administration’s campaign against universities that it says foster antisemitism.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (E, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued,” which will happen in coming days, the cable said to agency staff. Unclaimed visa appointment times “should be immediately removed from availability.”

The document was first reported by Politico. A senior State Department official confirmed to The Post the accuracy of the cable on the suspension of visa processing.

The Trump administration has led an unyielding battle against universities that it alleges allow antisemitism, most recently attempting to bar Harvard from hosting international students and directing federal agencies to cancel or redirect contracts with the Ivy League school. The government also has orchestrated a crackdown on foreign national students who have expressed pro-Palestinian political beliefs, often citing social media posts and campus protests as grounds for detaining them and revoking their legal status.

Much of these efforts — like Harvard’s certification to admit foreign students and students’ deportations — are mired in legal fights. But the administration has pressed forward to target visa processes.

Homeland Security last month, citing White House executive orders aimed at addressing antisemitism, said it will begin screening noncitizens’ social media accounts for antisemitic content as reason to deny visa and green-card applications — including visa applications from foreign students. The policy change drew backlash from immigration-law and free-speech experts who said it could violate people’s First Amendment rights; the author of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism recently told NPR that the White House has abused the term.

I doubt that this will be found legal, and it’s also inimical to the welfare of the universities and the U.S., as many foreign students stay and enrich the country, and, as I’ve said before, it’s a good thing for the U.S. to help out students from other countries who may go home and enrich their own lands.  Note that “antisemitic content” is the main disqualifying feature, which brings up the First Amendment issue noted above.

*The Washington Free Beacon (who else would do this?) reports the names, photos, and information about the students arrested for storming the Columbia University Library three weeks ago. It’s interesting to see who they are and what their background—including their majors—is:

Below are the names of the individuals arrested on May 7. All but one was charged with criminal trespassing for storming the Columbia library, while the outlier, Hamza Mankor, was charged with misconduct and threatening behavior. The vast majority were students of Columbia or its affiliates, Barnard College and Union Theological Seminary.

I count 21 people. Of these, only one appears to be a scientist (partly majoring in evolutionary biology!), and the rest are mostly humanities students, with many concentrating on social work, psychology, art, history, and the like. The dearth of scientists is striking but, based on my experience at Chicago, where most of the pro-Pal faculty are in the humanities, it rings true.

*Education Week and the WSJ op-ed section report on a Supreme Court decision that is watering down the First Amendment, or at least using a double standard for speech in secondary schools. Frist from EW:

Over the sharp dissent of two justices, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the case of a student who was barred by his Massachusetts middle school from wearing a T-shirt with the message, “There Are Only Two Genders.”

The court’s refusal to take up the issue offers schools no additional clarity for now on student speech that many school administrators perceive as harmful to LGBTQ+ students or other vulnerable populations.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in a dissent from the denial of review that was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said, “This case presents an issue of great importance for our nation’s youth: whether public schools may suppress student speech either because it expresses a viewpoint that the school disfavors or because of vague concerns about the likely effect of the speech on the school atmosphere, or on students who find the speech offensive.”

The case of L.M. v. Town of Middleborough involves Liam Morrison, who was a 7th grader at Nichols Middle School in April 2023 when he wore the “Two Genders” shirt—a message he and his father viewed not as targeting any group, but as a comment on the debate over gender identity, according to court papers.

School administrators, citing concerns for several transgender or gender nonconforming students at the school, invoked a provision of the student dress code that barred “hate speech or imagery that target[s] groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification.”

Morrison was not disciplined, but his father came to school to take him home when he refused to remove the T-shirt. Later, the father told administrators that the shirt merely stated his son’s view “on a subject that has become a political hot topic.” The student was later barred from wearing the shirt with the words “Only Two” covered with a piece of tape with the word “Censored” written with a marker.

Morrison sued under the First Amendment, and you might think they had a case based on how speech in secondary schools is treated (wearing slogans can be banned). But, according to the WSJ, ideological speech was permitted at Nichols Middle School:

Yet [the school] encouraged others to wear “Pride gear to celebrate Pride Month.

But that could offend students who, on religious grounds, are offended by homosexuality. Further, the “two genders” clearly means “two sexes”, and stating that there are two sexes, and only two, happens to be a biological fact. (If the student really meant “sociosexual role” for gender, that would be different, but I suspect that he didn’t.) And I’m sure that a tee-shirt that read “there are only two sexes” would also be banned.  A bit of law from the WSJ:

. . .The touchstone case is Tinker (1969), when the High Court upheld the right of public-school students to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against L. M., saying schools may ban passive speech if the message is “reasonably interpreted” to “demean” anybody’s “characteristics of personal identity,” and if it’s “reasonably forecasted to poison the educational atmosphere due to its serious negative psychological impact,” leading to “substantial disruption.”

There’s a tension between a student’s free speech and a duty to maintain an educational environment, and the First Circuit emphasized that everyone seemed to agree that schools could ban t-shirts printed with slurs: “L.M. conceded that a school could bar a shirt displaying the message ‘All Trans Kids Are Retarded.’”

Yet Justice Alito says the First Circuit’s approach “cannot be squared with Tinker,” in part because the First Circuit simply ratified the views of school officials. The judges first deferred to administrators that the boy’s shirt could be reasonably read as demeaning. Then Justice Alito says the judges deferred to the school’s “speculation about the likely effects of the t-shirts on students—even though L. M.’s speech resulted in no actual disruptions.”

*Speaking of sex, over at Colin Wright’s Substack “Reality’s last stand,” Aaron Kimberley has a somewhat surprising piece called “Sex and violence: What the data on trans offenders really show.” The gist of the piece can be summarized in these plots, which the article explains:

This article explores Canadian data from Correctional Service Canada, individual studies, and large community-based surveys on sexual violence, analyzing conviction and victimization rates across sex and gender identity.

. . . . The charts below visualize conviction profiles based on Correctional Service Canada reports, breaking down assault and sexual assault convictions of women, men, transmen (female), and transwomen (male). For context, the first chart presents the overall proportion of inmates: men make up the vast majority (94 percent) of the incarcerated population, and among the “gender diverse” group, 61.6 percent were transwomen. Trans-identified inmates overall represent approximately 1 percent of the inmate population.

The far higher proportion of male than female inmates is no surprise: men always commit more crimes than women, and part of the reason is likely biology: men take more risks and are more violent. But it’s the second chart that’s surprising:

This chart shows the conviction profiles of inmates in Canadian federal custody, broken down by group. Each bar represents the percentage of individuals within that group who were convicted of a given type of offense—not their share of total convictions across all inmates.

For example, if the bar for men convicted of assault is slightly above 10 percent, that means more than one in ten male inmates had at least one assault conviction. It does not mean men committed 10 percent of all assault crimes.

The sexual assault chart showing a much higher rate of offenses among transwomen (men who identify as women) and biological men among women or transmen is no surprise, as women or transmen (women who identify as men)  commit barely any sexual assaults compared to men.  What’s surprising to me is that transwomen on average are convicted of sexual assault a lot more often than are cis-men, and far, far more often than bioogical women than women, who don’t even show up on the graph. (There are zero biological women or transmen who commited sexual assault.) But why the higher rate in transwomen? Kimberly’s explanation:

The divergence in sexual assault convictions is especially significant when viewed through the lens of biological sex. None of the women nor transmen in the dataset had been convicted of sexual assault. By contrast, 16.9 percent of male inmates and an alarming 31 percent of transwomen had such convictions.

Of those transwomen with sexual assault convictions, 94 percent committed the offenses prior to identifying as transwomen, and 44 percent had prior convictions for sexual offenses. More than half (55 percent) of the victims were women. These patterns strongly suggest that some high-risk male sexual offenders are exploiting gender self-identification policies to gain access to women’s facilities.

This interpretation aligns with criminologist Dr. Jo Phoenix’s analysis of the same dataset and is further supported by international data compiled by Clare B. Dimyon, showing comparable trends in the UK, Australia, and the United States. The concern is not local—it’s universal.

. . .These findings also present a significant challenge to the common belief that circulating testosterone levels is the primary driver of aggressive or sexual behavior. If sexual violence were chiefly caused by elevated testosterone levels, we would expect transmen—females taking exogenous testosterone—to exhibit higher rates of sexual offenses than females in general. Yet none were convicted of such offenses. Conversely, if testosterone suppression reduced the risk of sexual violence, we would expect transwomen with lowered testosterone to offend at lower rates than biological males—but the opposite appears true.

Unless we assume that prenatal exposure to testosterone is solely responsible for these outcomes, the data strongly suggest that sexual violence is not primarily hormone-dependent. Instead, the evidence points to a clear, persistent pattern grounded in biological sex, not identity or current hormone status.

That seems to make sense, and such attempts by biological men to get into women’s prisons may work in Canada, but in the UK you now can’t get into a women’s prison simply by presenting a gender-change certificate.

The other striking feature here is the much higher rate of assault convictions among transmen (biological women) than among members of any other group, especially cis biological women and both cis men and transmen. Kimberly explains this counterintuitive observation this way:

A more plausible explanation considers co-occurring developmental and psychiatric conditions. Gender dysphoria is often associated with elevated rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)—all conditions characterized by emotional dysregulation and impaired impulse control. Some research suggests that testosterone may further impair impulse control, potentially amplifying these symptoms in transmen undergoing hormone therapy.

What we may be seeing in this data, then, is a comparison between a subgroup of females (transmen) with high rates of neurodevelopmental disorders—possibly exacerbated by testosterone—and a control group of females with lower prevalence of such conditions and no hormone treatment. Unfortunately, the dataset lacks finer diagnostic details, so this remains a hypothesis that cannot be directly tested with the available information.

That last explanation smacks somewhat of ad hoc-ism, but if the data are as Kimberley presents them, an explanation is needed.  There are other provocative data in this article, but I’ll leave you to inspect them yourself One conclusion that does seem firm, though, is—at least as criminal behavior is concerned—the mantra that “transwomen are women” is false. But that also seems to hold for men and transmen.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is a bit enigmatic (I’m told that “us” means everyone in the world, individually):

Hili: Some say that everything depends on us, others say that nothing depends on us, so how is it?

Andrzej: Conduct an experiment: try not to make any decisions for half a day.

Hili: Jedni mówią, że wszystko zależy od nas, inni, że nic od nas nie zależy, to jak to jest?

Ja: Zrób eksperyment, spróbuj przez pół dnia nie podejmować żadnych decyzji.

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

From The Language Nerds:

From Things With Faces, an infant cinnamon roll:

From Now That’s Wild:

From JKR, the decision of the Supreme Court of the UK. Short and sweet:

The court order has now been issued by the UK Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/ZBWXyTiJx2

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) May 27, 2025

Titania has tweeted again!

I’m utterly horrified to learn that only 4% of Hispanic Americans use the term “Latinx”.

The other 96% are suffering from internalised racism and need our help.

I stand with the Latinx community.
✊🏽🌮 pic.twitter.com/Gqnf2Fy3O3

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) May 24, 2025

An ineffably sweet tweet from Malcolm:

A mother cat comforts her kitten who has a nightmare
pic.twitter.com/WOv2Xrtd3h

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 15, 2025

Two from my feed. First, d*g on a plane!

I will pay anything to have him on my flight pic.twitter.com/oIjsXOjgIa

— Puppies 🐶 (@PuppiesIover) May 27, 2025

Is this fair? (Sound up.)

This is what professional bribery of a judge looks like pic.twitter.com/Cc0P2Sh6z3

— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) May 27, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

French Jewish girl was gassed upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was 9 years old.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T09:50:40.955Z

Two from Dr. Cobb. I think the first statement violates academic freedom, not freedom of speech, as Matthew suggested:

Linda McMahon: "Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by the laws and in sync, I think, with the administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-28T14:54:10.483Z

A snarky remark:

they’re called hooves, dummy🙄

— (@kattsdogma.bsky.social) 2023-08-17T14:27:43.684Z

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Rahina Bonggol” in Balinese): Wednesday, May 28, 2025, ergo June is coming soon. And it’s National Brisket Day, celebrating America’s finest BBQ. Here I am in 2004, consuming one of Texas’s finest BBQ brisket at the City Market in Luling, Texas (don’t forget the sauce, and see this video). Note the pickle and stack of crackers (the only other condiments are raw onion and bread). For me it’s in the top three or four BBQ joints in Texas, which means also in the U.S. as a whole.

It’s also International Hamburger Day. Voilà, where the late Anthony Bourdain got his burgers. It was his favorite restaurant in Los Angeles:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 28 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Is WWIII impending? Well, I hope not, but Trump, considering more sanctions on Russia, has said that Putin is “playing with fire” and the U.S. is eyeing the Baltic and Scandinavia as sites for us to reinforce NATO.  A bit of each WSJ story:

President Trump expressed renewed frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian leader was “playing with fire” as peace talks with Ukraine have sputtered.

The high north and the Baltics have been thrust into the center of U.S. war planning, as their access to shipping routes, territory and energy reserves will be crucial to the West in a new era of geopolitical conflict. The region is hawkish on Russia and is driving European efforts to rearm and boost defense budgets, including support for Ukraine’s armed forces.

During a three-week exercise, U.S. and U.K. forces joined Nordic and Baltic troops to practice potential war scenarios including live-fire drills, blood resupplies by drone and airborne jumps above the Arctic circle in Norway.

The goal was twofold: deter Russian aggression and more firmly integrate allies in this strategic corner of Europe, including new NATO members Finland and Sweden.

This is one thing I’m optimistic about, because I don’t think that either the U.S. or Russia wants to be destroyed.  But remember that Trump’s finger is on the button. . .

*In Liverpool, a man drove his car into a crowd of fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title. It does not seem to have anything to do with political terrorism.

The driver of the car that hit fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title has been arrested on suspicion of drug driving and attempted murder after he “followed” an ambulance past a roadblock, police have said.

The 53-year-old British man, from the West Derby area of Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving offences and driving while unfit through drugs. He is being interviewed in custody.

Detectives have been given additional time to question the man until around lunchtime on Wednesday.

“It is believed the driver of the Ford Galaxy car involved in this incident was able to follow an ambulance on to Water Street after the roadblock was temporarily lifted so that the ambulance crew could attend to a member of the public who was having a suspected heart attack,” Merseyside’s assistant chief constable Jenny Sims said.

“There was no intelligence to suggest an incident of this nature would take place,” she added, reiterating that it was not being treated as terrorism.

Fifty people were treated in hospital, Sims said. Eleven were still in hospital for treatment on Tuesday afternoon. She said all were in a stable condition and “appear to be recovering well”.

There were no “major traumas” or life-threatening injuries among the victims, medical staff at Royal Liverpool university hospital said. Marc Lucky, the divisional medical director for surgery at Aintree university hospital, said: “We were very, very fortunate yesterday, I must say.”

The Washington Post notes that the description of the suspect differs from normal police reporting:

“We can confirm that the man arrested is a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area,” Liverpool police said in a post on X while paramedics were still treating injured fans and getting dozens of them to hospitals.

The biographical detail was a departure from the typically closed-mouth approach of British police as investigations unfold, especially in their early hours. But officials were seemingly determined to head off the kind of dangerous backlash that has accompanied other shocking attacks and accidents, some of which have been followed by a wave of racially charged disinformation that leads to further violence.

*The administration is continuing its crusade against Harvard University, and announced that it intends to deep-six all federal contacts with the university.

The Trump administration is set to cancel the federal government’s remaining federal contracts with Harvard University — worth an estimated $100 million, according to a letter that is being sent to federal agencies on Tuesday. The letter also instructs agencies to “find alternative vendors” for future services.

The additional planned cuts, outlined in a draft of the letter obtained by The New York Times, represented what an administration official called a complete severance of the government’s longstanding business relationship with Harvard.

You can read the GSA’s letter, apparently publicized before it was sent to Harvard, at this site. The letter mentions Harvard’s “race discrimination”, as well as antisemitism, as trouble aspects of the University that apparently prompted this latest move (see below). But this again seems like retributive punishment of Harvard (probably because it’s elite), and will undoubtedly wind up in the Supreme Court. I expect Harvard to file a lawsuit within two days.

*French President Emmanuel Macron appears to have been slapped or shoved in the face by his wife as the door opened.  Now it’s a big deal all over the Internet:

To me it looks like a push, and while it may or may not be playful, it is not a “slap”. But Macron and his wife resolutely ignore each other as they descend the stairs.

And reader Christopher sent a screenshot of the Telegraph front page this morning, which reported both stories but seems to have gotten its photos mixed up:

*At the famous Sutton Hoo archaeological site, workers have finally uncovered the function of an ancient (6th century) Byzantine bucket. the “Bromeswell Bucket”.

Archaeologists say they have crackedthe mystery of a 1,500-year-old bucket unearthed from an Anglo-Saxon royal burial site, with new analysis revealing it contained cremated human and animal remains — suggesting it was used to bury an important person.

The Bromeswell bucket is a 6th-century artifact that was discovered in 1986 at Sutton Hoo, an Anglo-Saxon royal burial site in Suffolk, England.

For many years after the bucket was discovered, researchers puzzled over what it wasused for andwhy it was buried. It is believed to have made its way to England from the Byzantine Empire, according to Britain’s National Trust. Archaeologists began to find answers when missing pieces of the bucket were uncovered in 2012 and last year.

Now, they believe it was used to bury the cremated remains of “an important person in the Sutton Hoo community,” National Trust archaeologist Angus Wainwright said in a news release. The person’s identity is still not clear.

“We’ve finally solved the puzzle of the Bromeswell bucket — now we know that it is the first of these rare objects ever to have been used in a cremation burial,” said Helen Geake, an Anglo-Saxon expert with the television program “Time Team,” which has documented the dig.

The discovery “epitomizes the strangeness of Sutton Hoo — it has ship burials, horse burials, mound burials and now bath-bucket burials,” Geake added in the news release. “Who knows what else?”

After scanning and X-raying it, they realized it contained the base of the Bromeswell bucket, and that the bucket was filled with cremated human and animal bones, as well as a double-sided comb that was probably made from an antler.

The bucket’s design features a hunting scene, with armed men and animals including lions and dogs. The contents and fragments of decorative features suggest “that it was being kind of reinterpreted and reimagined as a … very special kind of cremation vessel,” because the remains of Anglo-Saxon cremations “were normally contained in ceramic vessels in pots and urns,” said Helena Hamerow, a professor of early medieval archaeology at Oxford University, who was not involved in the dig.

“So this, we assume, was a very, very special individual from a very important family whose cremated remains were interred in this extraordinary object,” she saidin a phone interview Sunday.

Here’s a video showing the bucket and an interpreting archaeologist:

*Finally, reader Jack tells me that the Site that Shall Not Be Named “is officially off the edge and over the cliff”. After recounting the story of two French girls in WWII who joined the Resistance and, before being caught, had actually executed Nazis, the post finishes with a rousing call to arms, which clearly suggests that we should start executing Americans as well, presumably odious people like United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, assassinated by Luigi Mangione. I guess Thompson was a Nazi. . .

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili isn’t sure she’s been complimented:

Andrzej You are looking like a beaver.

Hili: Is it a compliment or the opposite of it?

Ja: Wyglądasz jak bóbr.

Hili: To komplement, czy wręcz przeciwnie?

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

From Now That’s Wild:

From CinEmma:

From Cats:

Masih is still quiet, but here’s an exchange featuring J. K. Rowling:

You’re a 42-year-old male who was permitted to play on a supposedly all-female hockey team. Men like you aren’t victims and you most certainly aren’t women. 2/X pic.twitter.com/caoXbRSIw7

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2025

From Luana; someone “deconstructs” Cathy Young:

“DEI policies are quite popular when they aren’t DEI policies”

How is this complicated? If you introduce any criterion besides merit, it necessarily competes with merit. pic.twitter.com/kgxK11hsnM

— Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort) May 21, 2025

From Bryan, who says these are real names. I’ll take his word for it.

Road trip, anyone? pic.twitter.com/cTnfayXNzD

— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) May 26, 2025

Two from my feed.  First, the eloquent Natasha Hausdorff takes apart Amnesty International and its bogus claims. How far that organization has fallen!

Debunking the obscene allegation of ‘Genocide’ and calling out the misinformation by Amnesty International and others.
University of Copenhagen 26 May 2025. pic.twitter.com/gb8uD655ZJ

— Natasha Hausdorff (@HausdorffMedia) May 27, 2025

A d*g who plays volleyball!

Wow the dog realizes they won and celebrates. pic.twitter.com/WakNNKqcE8

— The Figen (@TheFigen_) May 25, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A Jewish girl, aged 1.5 years, was gassed, together with her mother, upon arriving at Auschwitz.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T10:12:06.200Z

Two posts from Matthew. First, a genet:

This was the first time I’ve managed a good view of a Large-spotted Genet – I usually only see the eyes of this nocturnal and often elusive species reflecting in a light!📍Akagera National Park, Rwanda.#NaturePhotography #Wildlife

— Will Wilson (@2wsphotography.bsky.social) 2025-05-21T11:37:23.092Z

George R. R. Martin is the author whose novels were turned into the t.v. series “Game of Thrones,” and that series features a dire wolf. Beyond that I doubt he made any contribution to this Colossal paper (except, perhaps to give the grey wolves they produced a white color, as in the series):

George RR Martin is an author on the dire wolf paper. Presumably to make sure there’s plenty of incest, cos these wolves will have no one else to fuck except each other.

— Adam Rutherford (@adamrutherford.bsky.social) 2025-04-12T07:35:31.728Z

Welcome to the Cruelest Day (and the first day back from the Memorial Day Holiday for most Americans: it is Tuesday, May 27, 2025, and National Grape Day. The grape we’re honoring today is Pedro Ximénez, which, as I noted the other day, when dried before pressing makes the finest sweet sherry (try the Lustau version). If you don’t like sweet wines, well, it’s your loss. . . .

It’s also Cellophane Tape Day (patented on this day in 1930),  and National Grape Popsicle Day.  Here’s an early package of the most famous brand, Scotch Tape. “Seals instantly without water” tells you how they were sealing stuff before.

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

Da Nooz:

*Here’s the “President”‘s message on Truth Social for Memorial Day.  What a stupid, juvenile, and retributive thing to say on a solemn day (the NYT calls his behavior yesterday ridden with “self valorization”):

*Once again Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine, just after Trump had rebuked Putin for Russia’s attack two days ago.

Russia launched its largest-ever drone-and-missile assault on Ukraine overnight into Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, defying President Trump’s calls for an end to the bombardment.

I wish Trump (and Vance) would lay off Zelensky. He didn’t start the war, and if the Russians want to negotiate, they should declare and observe a cease-fire.  But I still believe that, in the end, Ukraine will lose: not just a lot of Ukrainian lives sacrificed to defend their country, but will also have to give away (at the least) a big chunk of eastern Ukraine. The NYT notes that despite Trump’s criticism of Putin, he won’t join the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU, nor will he give additional arms to Ukraine:

Mr. Trump has long said he enjoys a “good relationship” with Mr. Putin, and it was not the first time he expressed shock that the Russian president was unleashing attacks on Ukrainian civilians. A month ago Mr. Trump wrote “Vladimir, STOP” as a barrage of missiles and drones hit Ukraine, including crowded playgrounds. But Mr. Trump has never linked the attacks with his own decision, reaffirmed last week, to refuse to join the Europeans in new financial sanctions on Russia, or to offer new arms and help to the Ukrainians.

The result is a strategic void in which Mr. Trump complains about Russian’s continued killing but so far has been unwilling to make Mr. Putin pay even a modest price.

*The NYT describes how thousands of people, most of them Venezuelans, have given up trying to get into the U.S. and are returning, often in dangerous ways, to their home countries.

There is no clear figure for how many people have decided to leave the United States or given up on reaching it, and migration at the southern border had dropped sharply even before Mr. Trump took office for a second time.

But in one indication that some migrants are starting to return to South America, more than 10,000 people — virtually all from Venezuela — have taken boats from Panama to Colombia since January, according to Panamanian officials, who say that more are setting out each week.

That is a tiny number compared with the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who entered the United States and Mexico in recent years, but the busy new boat route toward South America is a sign, according to migrants, officials and rights groups, that the Trump administration’s harsh tactics are having an effect.

“The world is hearing our message that America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders.”

For those in the United States, she said, “it’s an easy choice: Leave voluntarily and receive $1,000,” referring to the government’s offer for “voluntary self deportation.”

While the administration may claim success, experts say, many migrants face so many barriers to heading home that even if they are willing, it is extremely challenging to turn back.

“They’re stuck, wherever they are,” said Juan Cruz, who served as Mr. Trump’s top Latin America adviser during his first term, noting that many migrants are impoverished and indebted and lack travel documents. Venezuelans, he added, also face a government hostile to those who left for the United States.

This is a tough situation, but the government made it clear that it will not accept undocumented immigrants. I heard Kristi Noem on t.v. saying that if they return to their home countries, they “have a chance to come back” to the U.S., but I don’t think that chance is very large!

*With the U.S. negotiating with Hamas, Trump has suggested a cease-fire deal, but it was roundly rejected by Israel.

Responding to a Lebanese report that a new outline for a hostage and ceasefire proposal had been agreed upon in principle by Israel, a senior Israeli official said Monday the deal has been rejected.

“The proposal received by Israel cannot be accepted by any responsible government,” the official told the media, without giving any further details.

“Hamas is setting impossible conditions that mean a complete failure to meet the war goals, and an inability to release the hostages,” he said.

The main organization representing the families of hostages also rejected the reported deal, saying it would not include the return of all of the captives and a final end to the war.

A flurry of reports cited sources saying that a new ceasefire deal was in the offing, similar to previous agreements, under which fighting in the Gaza Strip would halt for a period of time during which Israeli hostages would be released and humanitarian aid to the enclave boosted.

The Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen, which is affiliated with the Hezbollah terror group, reported that Israel had agreed in principle to a draft proposal that called for a ceasefire of about 70 days during which 10 living hostages would be released in two phases, modifying the so-called Witkoff outline, which laid out a shorter ceasefire for the release of about 10 living hostages.

But the Israeli official described the proposal as one that “does not indicate a real desire to bridge the gaps between the parties” and said it was “very far” from the one originally proposed by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

“There is no genuine willingness on Hamas’s part to move forward with a deal. Israel remains committed to the Witkoff framework,” he said.

This is a no-go, even for the families of the still-living hostages (the IDF thinks there are between 24 and 27 living hostages). Letting them go in dribs and drabs is not acceptable, and I’m also glad that the hostage-family-representing organization demands a “final end to the war,” which I take to mean a surrender by Hamas.  Not mentioned in this article is Hamas’s inevitable demand for the return of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, but for sure there would have been one.

*With the Democratic party so riven that people are even floating the idea of running Kamala Harris for President in 2028, the Party is now arguing about. . .  language. But if that sounds picayune, remember that Democratic wokeness was likely an important factor in the last election. The Washington Post reports:

Maybe it’s using the word “oligarchs” instead of rich people. Or referring to “people experiencing food insecurity” rather than Americans going hungry. Or “equity” in place of “equality,” or “justice-involved populations” instead of prisoners.

As Democrats wrestle with who to be in the era of President Donald Trump, a growing group of party members — especially centrists — is reviving the argument that Democrats need to rethink the words they use to talk with the voters whose trust they need to regain.

They contend that liberal candidates too often use language from elite, highly educated circles that suggests the speakers consider themselves smart and virtuous, while casting implied judgment on those who speak more plainly — hardly a formula for winning people over, they say.

The latest debate is, in part, also a proxy for the bigger battle over what the Democrats’ identity should be in the aftermath of November’s devastating losses — especially as the party searches for ways to reverse its overwhelming rejection by rural and White working-class voters.

“Some words are just too Ivy League-tested terms,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona). “I’m going to piss some people off by saying this, but ‘social equity’ — why do we say that? Why don’t we say, ‘We want you to have an even chance’?”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear — who like Gallego is considered a potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful — made a similar point.

“I believe that over time, and probably for well-meaning reasons, Democrats have begun to speak like professors and started using advocacy-speak that was meant to reduce stigma, but also removed the meaning and emotion behind words,” Beshear said, citing such examples as using “substance abuse disorder” to refer to addiction.

But of course “equity” is not at all the same thing as “equality”, and is an “even chance” the same as “equal opportunity”? Yes, given that the election showed a tendency towards populism, it’s not a good thing for Democratic politicians to sound like college professors.  The same goes for “sex spectrum”; I think people have about had the “there-are-not-two-sexes-in-humans” argument up the ying-yang, as evidenced by the very lame performance of Agustín Fuentes’s new book, Sex is a Spectrum. James Carville has been saying this for some time, and the old curmudgeon is right!

*Feminist Susan Brownmiller had died at 90.  She became famous for popularizing the view that rape was an act not of sex, but of power. From the NYT:

I mourn her loss for we were, for a while, email friends, and discussed the idea of Thornhill and Palmer that rape was an evolutionary adaptation rather than a “spandrel.”  She even bought me a vial of Cuba Gold Eau de Toilette when she learned that I smoked Cuban cigars (I no longer smoke, but I still use the cologne, which is excellent and a bargain). Sadly, we lost touch because I could not agree with her that rape was 100% about power and 0% about sex, as I thought it involved a mixture of both.  I still think it does, but nevertheless, Brownmiller made a big advance in emphasizing the power and male-domination character of rape and discussing its history.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili thinks that humans should sleep, like cats and hominin ancestors, when the sun is down:

Hili: How did people live without electricity?

A: LIke cats in those times.

Hili: Jak ludzie żyli bez elektryczności?

Ja: Tak jak koty w tamtych czasach.

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

From CinEmma:

From Jesus of the Day, how you can go wrong with bad grammar:

From Seth. a cartoon by Dennis Goris:

Masih is back, and decrying America’s negotiations with Iran:

To those who say “America First,” let me be clear:
For Islamist terrorists, America is First too.
Their war begins by attacking American values, poisoning our youth, and infiltrating university campuses.

Millions of Iranians know the truth: the Islamic Republic CANNOT be… pic.twitter.com/09tRhfd6MP

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) May 25, 2025

From Luana; more violation of women’s spaces:

The entire four-person “women’s” team in a video-game competition is composed of biological men. (Though women are apparently allowed to watch and smile and clap when the men do something good.) https://t.co/KaZEJJ6ZfR

— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) May 26, 2025

From Barry, a cat and a d*g play Debussy. Barry notes, “Some impressive technique here.”

can’t think of a better, more productive use of time tbh

— Amy Hoy (@amyhoy.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T23:28:18.605Z

From Malcolm, a cat enjoying the sun:

Oh to be an orange kitty sunbathing in the sun pic.twitter.com/pLDahVLoHS

— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) May 14, 2025

Two from my feed. This first moggy is pretty, but I’ve seen prettier:

Oh to be an orange kitty sunbathing in the sun pic.twitter.com/pLDahVLoHS

— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) May 14, 2025

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. . . :

Sound of a kookaburra bird
pic.twitter.com/5KQ89wgeLB

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) May 25, 2025

One that I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A 50-year-old French woman was gassed upon arriving at Auschwitz.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-27T09:56:08.522Z

Two posts from Professor Cobb, slowly recovering. The video is below the post:

he definitely cries during this

— onion person (@junlper.beer) 2025-05-25T19:16:59.998Z

I’d love to watch this one, but it’s too long. If you do, put in the comments the place where he cries:

Here’s a paper showing strong natural selection, though I haven’t read it yet:

🚨New paper alert!🚨We show that hummingbird beaks have changed in shape & size since around WWII, driven by the rise of commercialized feeders! 🧵📄 Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb….#ornithology #evolution #GlobalChangeBiology

— Nicolas Alexandre (@nicmalexandre.bsky.social) 2025-05-21T13:20:01.895Z