Welcome to a Hump Day (“День горба” in Russian ): Wednesday, April 23, 2025. It’s National Cherry Cheesecake Day, the only viable alternative to plain cheesecake.

Camel sez (from Jesus of the Day):

It’s also National Picnic Day, Talk like Shakespeare Day, English Language Day, German Beer Day, National English Muffin Day, World Laboratory Day, and Spanish Language Day. Here’s a glass of Weizen, or German wheat beer, which I hope to be enjoying in Germany this fall. Its caption is “Augustiner Weißbier, a naturally cloudy Bavarian wheat beer“.  I’ll have it mit Schuss.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 23 Wikipedia page.

If the Nooz is shorter today, it’s because I spent much of the day yesterday dealing with my “writing piece”, which should appear soon in a venue near you. Stay tuned. It was hard and complicated.

Da Nooz:

*Colleges are striking back at the Trump administration’s attempt to blackmail them into behaving the way Trump wants by threatening to withhold government funding. I think Harvard’s refusal to kowtow to the government has heartened other schools. (Harvard has sued the administration; more tomorrow).

A day after Harvard sued the Trump administration over its decision to freeze billions in federal funds to the school, more than 180 higher education leaders from around the country released a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the administration’s efforts to control universities.

The government’s “political interference” and “overreach” is “now endangering higher education in America,” they wrote.

The link above to the joint statement may not work, but this one should. The University of Chicago, for reasons I’m unclear about, did not sign the statement. It may be because the statement, while rejecting the Big Stick approach, still is timorous in agreeing to “constructive reform” and “constructive engagement,” which to me means “bargaining with the Administration”. Two paras from the statement (my bolding):

As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.

. . . The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.

*I knew it and the Wall Street Journal agrees: Trump is fixing to blame any recession or economic downturn on the Federal Reserve Bank and its Chairman Jerome Powell. As usual, he’s claiming that Powell is on a witch hunt against him, even though Trump APPOINTED Powell, who’s a Republican.

President Trump is signaling that he will blame the Federal Reserve for any economic weakness that results from his trade war if the central bank doesn’t cut interest rates soon.

In the process, he might also be seeking to delegitimize the historically independent institution in a way that could undermine its effectiveness.

In a social-media post on Monday, Trump repeated last week’s demand that the Fed reduce interest rates now. “There is virtually no inflation,” he said, blasting Fed Chair Jerome Powell as “Mr. Too Late” and “a major loser.”

He also accused the central bank of lowering interest rates last fall to influence the 2024 election. “Powell has always been ‘To [sic] Late,’ except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected,” he wrote.

His Truth Social post developed one of Trump’s longstanding beliefs about the Fed: that it should be more responsive to what the president wants. His statement and those of other advisers allege that the institution, far from being above Beltway politics, has already become politicized.

By Trump’s account, Powell worked to help Biden during his term and is now unwilling to provide the same support to his own second-term agenda. He put no weight on the fact Trump appointed Powell to the role in 2018, that Powell worked closely with his administration in 2020 to provide unprecedented support when the pandemic hit, or that the Fed was prepared to saddle Biden with a recession in 2023 by raising interest rates sharply to bring inflation down.

Powell and his colleagues have said that the central bank doesn’t take political considerations into account when setting policy. Powell has spent much of his seven years as chair trying to shore up the institution’s apolitical DNA after bruising political attacks following the 2008 global financial crisis.

All of this gives me hope that Trump is going down. If there’s a recession or big-time inflation, will the Democrats win “bigly” at midterm, and will the Republicans still vote for Vance (who I’m sure is going to run) in 2028?  I’d like to see a poll of how those who voted for Trump feel now. UPDATE:  I understand that Trump has backed off on his intention to try to fire Powell.

*I’ve always been leery about young kids being exposed to things like “Drag Queen Story Hour” or “affirmative care” information, because it seems to me like forcing an ideology on people are too young. Now the Supreme Court has signaled that they agree, at least about LGBTQ stories:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared poised to side with a group of religious parents seeking to pull their children from public school lessons with LGBTQ+-themed books — a significant expansion of the long-standing practice of allowing opt outs for reproductive health classes.

The lawsuit over story time and books with titles such as “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” and “Love, Violet” is one of three major religious-rights cases on the Supreme Court docket this term.

At issue for the justices is whether public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, illegally burden the First Amendment rights of parents to freely exercise their religion when they require children to participate in discussions that touch on gender and sexuality that conflict with their faith. The case, which has implications for public school nationwide, involves the type of diversity and inclusion efforts the Trump administration has targeted on college campuses, and in government and private businesses.

In recent years, the court’s conservative majority has been highly receptive to religious rights claims and expanding the role of faith in public life.

During more than two-and-a-half hours of argument on Tuesday, several justices read aloud from the text of the disputed storybooks, some of which referred to drag queens and same-sex marriage. Conservative justices repeatedly pressed the lawyer for the Maryland school system on why it could not easily accommodate the religious parents and allow their children to opt out of objectionable curriculum.

“What’s the big deal about allowing them to opt out,” asked Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“I’m not understanding why it’s not feasible,” added Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who said he was “mystified” by the school board’s actions in the Maryland county where he grew up in and still lives.

Now I don’t see why there shouldn’t be a normalization of things like homosexuality or gay marriage, but it shouldn’t lapse into an ideology that is forced upon children. What I looked for in this article were some opinions of the liberal justices, but there were none given.

*The next government department to be torn apart is, of all things, the State Department, at least according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide as part of the Trump administration’s “America First” mandate.

The reorganization plan, announced by Rubio on social media and detailed in documents obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest effort by the White House to reimagine U.S. foreign policy and scale back the size of the federal government.

“We cannot win the battle for the 21st century with bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources,” Rubio said in a department-wide email obtained by AP. He said the reorganization aimed to “meet the immense challenges of the 21st Century and put America First.”

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce echoed that sentiment, saying the “sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats” but adding that it would not result in the immediate dismissal of personnel.

“It’s not something where people are being fired today,” Bruce told reporters Tuesday. “They’re not going to be walking out of the building. It’s not that kind of a dynamic. It is a roadmap. It’s plan.”

There will be a “reimagined” office focused on foreign and humanitarian affairs to coordinate the aid programs overseas still left at the State Department. The reorganization was driven in part by the need to find a new home for the remaining functions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency that Trump administration officials and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have dismantled.

The State Department reorganization plan appears to eliminate an office charged with surging expertise to war zones and other erupting crises and scale back work on human rights and justice.

Yes, but how can he cut the staff by 15% without firing anybody, without people “walking out of the building”?  One way is not to replace people who retire, but that doesn’t seem to be what is going on here.  I’m a bit worried about this not only because I don’t think Rubio is so great as a Secretary of State (Blinken wasn’t so great either), but because foreign affairs is going to be a big deal in the next few years.  However, I can’t name a department that the sticky tentacles of DOGE hasn’t touched.

*In its “oddities” section, the AP tells us how Marshmallow Peeps are made. Although most people find them disgusting, they are one of my favorite sweets; I like to cut the package open and leave it for a week or more so they become slightly stale and have a crunch.  If you don’t want yours, send them to me!  They have their own Wikipedia page, too!

How many Peeps are made each year?

On average, about 5.5 million are made each day.

That adds up to 2 billion a year — or roughly 6 Peeps for every man, woman and child across the U.S.

How many different varieties and colors are there?

First hatched in yellow, the sugary chicks and bunnies come in nine colors for this Easter season, including pink, blue and lavender. And there are even more flavors — 14 for Easter — from cookies and cream, to fruit punch and sour watermelon. The varieties and colors vary throughout the year with different holiday seasons.

How long does it take to make a Peep?

Before the early 1950s, making the candies by hand took 27 hours.

Bob Born, who became known as the “Father of Peeps,” came up with a way to speed up the process. He and a company engineer designed a machine to make them in less than six minutes. The same process is used today.

How are they made?

The main ingredients — sugar, corn syrup and gelatin — are cooked and combined to create marshmallows, which are then shaped and sent through a “sugar shower.”

A whopping 400 pounds (181 kilograms) of sugar is used per batch for Peeps’ colored sugars.

Freshly made Peeps — each chick weighs one-third of an ounce — then move along a conveyor so that they can cool before being packaged.

Do not denigrate them at the risk of being banned! Here is how they’re made; 5.5 million Peeps are made every day:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is uber-pessimistic again:

Hili: Everything is falling apart.

A: Yes, we are living in times of decadence.

Hili: Rozpada się to wszystko.

Ja: Tak żyjemy w czasach dekadencji.

And a bonus photo of baby Kulka:

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

From The Dodo:

From Things With Faces: a sad 3-liter milk carton:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

Masih is still silent, and so we have JKR, also fighting for women’s spaces. Here she excoriates Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his cowardice (he said nothing for a long time after the UK Supreme Court decision on sex):

Imagine being such a coward you can only muster the courage to tell the truth once the Supreme Court has ruled on what the truth is. https://t.co/FyixwulF7c

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 22, 2025

From Malcolm: tweets about the most beautiful places on Earth:

6. Namibia, where the desert meets the ocean 🌊 pic.twitter.com/eYMIIxESIW

— Raghu (@IndiaTales7) April 19, 2025

From Simon.  Simon says, “OMG it’s already a meme.” (Remember, the Pope died after the day that J. D. Vance met him.) Has J. D. Vance become Oscar the Death Cat?

JD Vance last person seen with the Beatles.

— weisselberger (@weisselberger.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T16:52:34.423Z

From my feed: can you guess what this is? Put your answer in the comments.

What the heck is this thing? pic.twitter.com/Yfv4QhUrup

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 22, 2025

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted.

If this Hungarian girl had not been gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz, she would be 92 today. But she was gassed at 10 or 11.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T10:28:00.336Z

Two from Matthew: the Powers twins, who are like conjoined twins but not conjoined.  They speak the same thing, and almost simultaneously. Amazing!  Do watch the whole video.

More from the twins youtu.be/MtEdP267TZ0

— (@newingtontrees.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T17:41:50.087Z

Matthew says of this one, “Probably right.”

Love the EarthIt’s the only planet that has cats.Happy Earth Day 😻

— MissyBBBobtail (@missybbbobtail.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T11:26:13.822Z

Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 and Jelly Bean Day. Like Reagan, I do love those Jelly Bellies. (There are two factories, one in North Chicago.) Here’s a short video about how they’re made (it’s complicated!)

It’s also Earth Day (I remember the first one), “In God We Trust” Day (the day when the offensive motto was approved for putting on U.S. coins in 1864), and April Showers Day.

There’s a Google Doodle for Earth Day. Click on it below to see where it goes:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I guess the death of a Pope is a big deal, judging by the front pages of the NYT and the AP. Again, I didn’t follow his career so all I can do is show the encomiums raining down at the Vatican. The Pope apparently died of a stroke, likely the consequence of his health issues, which included type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition.

AP:

From the NYT:

Pope Francis, who died on Monday at age 88, was praised by world leaders and Catholics around the globe who celebrated his long commitment to the poor, his outreach to marginalized communities and a legacy that could determine the future of the Roman Catholic Church.

Francis used his groundbreaking 12-year pontificate to seek, however haltingly, to reshape the church into a more inclusive institution. His death now has left its cardinals with a critical decision: choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach; or restore the more doctrinaire path of his predecessors.

As tributes poured in from global leaders offering condolences to the world’s Catholics and praising the pontiff’s commitment to the poor and marginalized, his death created a vacuum in the leadership of more than one billion Catholics. It also set in motion deliberations and machinations to choose a successor — driving speculation about possible contenders.

After early missteps, Francis made considerable strides in addressing the church’s sexual abuse crisis, and he tackled its murky financial culture. His remarkable global stature early in his pontificate — when liberal leaders around the world likewise emphasized climate change, migrants’ rights and income equality — gave way to a populist period when he sometimes seemed a solitary voice. But he never changed his approach, even focusing on migrants in his final remarks the day before he died.

Francis believed that the church’s future depended on going to the margins to embrace the faithful in the modern world rather than offering a cloister away from it. The coming days will determine how deep his support truly runs.

The conclave to begin the series of votes to elect a new pope begins in two to three weeks. In the meantime, you can read the full obituary here. If they want a reformist Pope, they should look for a young one, but of course the whole procedure involves selecting a seasoned Catholic cardinal who has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

*Trump has found a new enemy, and it’s not a good one: Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Trump wants him out, but he can’t get rid of him and Powell will not cut interest rates. Cue Trump blaming Powell for any inflation.  And, once again, the markets have tumbled. I predicted that we’ll be in a recession before too long. From the WSJ:

The “Sell America” trade picked back up on Monday.

Stocks fell, with the Dow industrials dropping 1,100 points and on pace for their worst April since 1932, and the dollar hit fresh multiyear lows against the euro and other major currencies. Yields on longer-term Treasurys rose and gold surged to a fresh record high.

Markets are on edge about President Trump’s tariff war as well as his threats to fire Fed chief Jerome Powell. Trump on Monday demanded lower rates in a post on social media, saying costs are trending downward and the economy could slow “unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”

On Friday when markets were closed, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett underscored the White House’s displeasure with Powell, saying officials were studying his removal.

An early set of data from trade bellwether South Korea showed a big drop in exports to the U.S. this month.

Major stock indexes were down, with the Nasdaq taking the biggest hit, falling more than 3%.

The day’s stock market selloff is broad—really broad.

Just a handful of stocks in the S&P 500 were up in recent trading, and not a single member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to FactSet.

All sectors of the S&P 500 were down at least 1.5%.

I’m writing this at about 1 p.m. on Monday, so things will change over the day–but probably not for the better.  (UPDATE: The Dow sent down 2.5% yesterday.) A recession might bring the Democrats back to power at midterms, but I don’t really want a bunch of middle-class or lower-class Americans losing their life savings. What a tradeoff!

*Here’s something I wondered about since I’m getting old: if you think you’re having a stroke or a heart attack, should you call 911 or make your way to the emergency room.  In my lab I’m about a five-minute walk from there, and 20 minute from home. The docs and first responders give a unanimous answer.

You’re having chest pain, or you fear that your spouse is having a stroke—and you’re thinking of just driving to a hospital instead of calling 911.

What do emergency department doctors think of that plan?

“I think it would be an extraordinarily rare situation where that’s a good idea,” said Dr. Eric Isaacs, director of the age-friendly emergency department at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Here’s why: He’s often seen people show up at the hospital, pounding on the door, with somebody in their front seat, not breathing and with no pulse, because they mistakenly thought it would be better to drive them, said Isaacs, who also is a clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Ameera Haamid, the associate emergency medical services medical director of the Chicago South EMS System, agreed that people should always call 911 when they’re having heart attack or stroke symptoms.

For a heart attack, those symptoms include shortness of breath; pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the chest; pain in the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach; and other signs such as nausea, a cold sweat or a rapid or irregular heartbeat. Stroke warning signs include face drooping, arm weakness, difficulty speaking or walking, confusion and severe headache.

The American Heart Association recommends calling 911 if any of these symptoms develop, or if a person experiences a sudden loss of responsiveness or can’t breathe normally, which are signs of cardiac arrest.

Haamid, who is also an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, said she has also seen families arrive at the hospital with someone whose heart stopped beating on the drive there. “And now we’re doing CPR because they’re in cardiac arrest.”

So, the emergency specialists’ advice is clear: Call 911. But for those who still might hesitate, here are some of the reasons why doctors think that way.

And then they give five reasons, among them “it puts you at the front of the line” and “faster diagnosis and treatment.” Read the rest for yourself, but only if you’re old or susceptible.

*After RFK Jr., I think that Pete Hegseth was Trump’s second-worst appointment. And now he’s in trouble for discussing military secrets again, this time in a second chatroom. That guy needs to be told, “You’re fired!”:

Pressure was mounting on the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Monday following reports of a second Signal chatroom used to discuss sensitive military operations, while a former top Pentagon spokesperson slammed the US’s top military official’s leadership of the Department of Defense.

John Ullyot, who resigned last week after initially serving as Pentagon spokesperson, said in a opinion essay published by Politico on Sunday that the Pentagon has been overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover in the initial months of the second Trump administration.

Ullyot called the situation a “full-blown meltdown” that could cost Hegseth, a 44-year-old former Fox News host and national guard officer, his job as defense secretary.

“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote.

. . .Donald Trump Jr pushed back on the opinion piece, saying the author is “officially exiled” from Trump’s political movement. “This guy is not America First,” Trump Jr wrote on X. “I’ve been hearing for years that he works his ass off to subvert my father’s agenda. That ends today.”

The warning came as the New York Times reported that Hegseth shared details of a US attack on Yemeni Houthi rebels last month in a second Signal chat that he created himself and included his wife, his brother and about a dozen other people.

The Guardian has independently confirmed the existence of Hegseth’s own private group chat.

According to unnamed sources familiar with the chat who spoke to the Times, Hegseth sent the private group of his personal associates some of the same information, including the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets that would strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, that he also shared with another Signal group of top officials that was created by Mike Waltz, the national security adviser.

You know what’s lacking in an administration loaded with these clowns? Gravitas!  They are not adults, but a bunch of kids screwing up and pointing fingers at each other. Hegseth was never qualified as a leader to begin with, but guess who appointed him?

*Robots are getting rapidly better all the time.  A bunch of robots just ran a half-marathon against humans in Beijing. The robots, though, ran only half as fast as humans.  That will change quickly.

In one small step for robot-kind — thousands of them, really — humanoid robots ran alongside actual humans in a half-marathon in the Chinese capital on Saturday.

The bipedal robots of various makes and sizes navigated the 21.1-kilometer (13.1-mile) course supported by teams of human navigators, operators, and engineers, in what event organizers say was a first. As a precaution, a divider separated the parallel courses used by the robots and people.

While flesh-and-blood participants followed conventional rules, the 20 teams fielding machines in the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon competed under tailored guidelines, which included battery swap pit stops.

The Sky Project Ultra robot, also known as Tien Kung Ultra, from the Tien Kung Team, claimed victory among the nonhumans, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

Awards were also given out for best endurance, best gait design and most innovative form.

Here’s a video of the race, including “some mishaps”. And there is a ton of pictures at the AP site.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is emphatic on the superiority of beef:

Andrzej: What are you thinking about?

Hili: About the superiority of beef over chicken.

Ja: O czym myślisz?

Hili: O wyższości wołowiny nad mięsem z kurczaka.

And a picture of Baby Kulka

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

From Things with Faces; Spud the Hutt:

From Animal Antics:

From Rivka:

Masih is STILL quiet, but here’s J. K. Rowling:

Can you see this for what it is yet? Or do you still think the vulnerable people in this scenario are those enjoying themselves by trying to intimidate girls and women as they go in and out of a public bathroom? pic.twitter.com/UcOy0tZ9ff

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 21, 2025

. . . a related tweet from Richard Dawkins via Luana:

Aggressively dominant male mammals typically urinate to scent-mark their territory.

“I’ll piss where I like.” “I❤️pissin’ on TERFs.”

They think they’re women. But can you imagine a better walking, talking, reeking advertisement for toxic masculinity? #SexMatters pic.twitter.com/CCFUxjjkJc

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 21, 2025

From Simon, and I wonder if that guy really got a pardon.

Mic drop

— Outspoken™️ (@out5p0ken.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T16:49:56.139Z

From Malcolm: a motorcyle-loving kitty:

Biker cat 😎 pic.twitter.com/ji8lGUuaIE

— Cats That Make You Go Awww (@CuteAdorableCat) April 14, 2025

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

A German Jewish woman, living in the Netherlands, was gassed to death upon arrival at Auschwitz along with her son. She was 42.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T10:15:19.249Z

Two posts from Professor Cobb. Identical twins speaking identically! They do this all the time, which is astounding, for it says something about how genetic similarity produces extreme similarity of speech patterns. You can read more about the twins here.

SORRY. Sorry.Have we seen this *incredible* news video coming out of Queensland? Wait for the witness/witnesses statement

— Jamie Dotsmy (@dotsmy.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T14:38:26.613Z

And a baby rattlesnake:

Carefully avoided an adorable baby rattlesnake on the trail at the Santa Rosa Plateau today. #iNaturalist #herps

— Flower Prof (@flowerprof.bsky.social) 2025-04-12T01:17:08.232Z

Welcome to Sunday, April 20, 2025 and it’s EASTERN. Here is a Jewish joke and some memes for you, both from Now That’s Wild:

h/t: Matthew:

He is risen.

— Paul Bronks (@slendersherbet.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T08:52:43.438Z

This is the best Easter post of them all (again, h/t Matthew):

I may have found the connection between Christ and the Easter bunny

— Laura Martínez 🥑 (@miblogestublog.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T14:09:52.419Z

Happy Easter!

— Larry the Cat (@number10cat.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T08:54:09.212Z

A joke I tell every Easter:

Don’t stop me if you’ve heard this before (and if you’ve read this site consistently, you have). I love a good Jewish joke, and this is an excellent one for Easter. It comes from the site Southern Jewish Humor, which gets the story from Eli N. Evans, who wrote The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.  Evans said he searched for the best example he could find of Southern Jewish humor.

He told the story of a Jewish storekeeper in a small town who was approached by the Christian elders to show solidarity for their Easter holiday.

Mr. Goldberg was chagrined but when Easter came, after sunrise services on a nearby hilltop, the mayor, all the churchgoers, and the leading families in the city gathered in the town square in front of his store.  The store had a new sign but it was draped with a parachute.

After an introduction from the mayor, at the appointed hour, the owner pulled the rope and there it was revealed in all its wonder for all to see: “Christ Has Risen, but Goldberg’s prices remain the same.”

It’s also Chinese Language Day, Lima Bean Respect Day (no, thank you), National Baked Ham with Pineapple Day, National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day (one of my faves), National Cheddar Fries Day,  and National Cold Brew Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 20 Wikipedia page.

I’m still busy writing, but we should be back to normal by Monday or Tuesday.

Da Nooz:

*The biggest news for Americans is something I’d hoped for: the Supreme Court curbing Trump’s hubris when he ignores lower courts’ rulings against palpably unconstitutional actions. Now it’s happened: the Supremes have put a “pause” on deportation of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act:

The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration early Saturday from deporting another group of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members under the expansive powers of a rarely invoked wartime law.

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,” the court said in a brief, unsigned order that gave no reasoning, as is typical in emergency cases.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. The White House did not issue any immediate response.

More than 50 Venezuelans were scheduled to be flown out of the country — presumably to El Salvador — from an immigration detention center in Anson, Texas, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The American Civil Liberties Union in recent days had already secured court orders barring similar deportations under the law, the Alien Enemies Act, in other places including New York, Denver and Brownsville, Texas.

The situation in Anson was urgent enough that A.C.L.U. lawyers mounted challenges in three different courts within five hours on Friday.

The White House had better obey THIS court, because if it doesn’t there will be a constitutional crisis. The Supreme court determines what the law is, and once that’s done, the Executive Branch has no choice but to obey it. If Trump flouts the Court this time, I don’t know what’s going to happen, especially because Trump controls the military. He would surely be in contempt, but then what happens?

*More from the Wall Street Journal:

Venezuelan men in the government’s custody have been transferred from across the country to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, in recent days and had been told they were at imminent risk of being deported using the wartime act, according to the ACLU and written declarations by several of the men’s attorneys.

The government hasn’t made clear how much time the men have to contest their deportations, lawyers said. In court documents, the ACLU said some were told they are being sent to El Salvador. The Homeland Security Department, which is carrying out the deportations, declined to answer questions about what a spokeswoman described as “ongoing counter terrorism operations.”

The expulsion of hundreds of migrants without hearings sparked legal battles that have gone to the Supreme Court twice in less than a month. The justices in a narrow ruling confirmed individuals designated as alien enemies are entitled to notice of pending removal from the country and an opportunity to challenge their deportations before a federal judge in the district where they had been detained.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling, individuals designated as alien enemies who are still held in U.S. custody have filed challenges in several states, and judges in those cases issued temporary blocks on categorical removals under the Alien Enemies Act.

Hearings are set for next week in several cases. The cases argue the government still hasn’t implemented a system of notice that would allow those slated for deportation to seek a court’s intervention in time.

“Saying to people, here’s your notice and we’re going to deport you immediately, do what you need to do. That is not proper due process,” said Michelle Brane, the executive director of Together and Free, an immigrant advocacy organization. “I don’t think that’s what any court means when they say give people a reasonable amount of time.”

The DHS spokeswoman said the agency was “complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

You have to give the ACLU a hand for this, as it’s been filing objections to deportation in many states to prevent the government from court-shopping, and it won this one. We don’t yet know how the court will rule, but at least, unless Trump is even more insane than I think, the snatch-and-grab-and-deport tactics of the Administration will have to stop for a while as the government cools its jets.

*The worst of the deportations attempts, in my view, concerns Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was snatched up by masked ICE-men and spirited away to Louisiana for nothing other than writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the student newspaper (you can read it here).  This can’t come close to anything warranting detention, and yet it happened. What’s worse, though she was kidnapped by the government in Massachusetts near Tufts, they flew her to Louisiana, hoping that a conservative Southern judge would approve her being taken to some place like El Salvador. Now, however, although she’s still in detention, she’ll be held in Vermont:

Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk must be transferred to Vermont while her lawsuit challenging the federal government’s detention of her as it seeks her deportation continues, a federal judge ordered Friday.

Ozturk was arrested by plainclothes officers, some of whom were wearing masks, on March 25 outside her apartment near the Massachusetts university. She was transported to a detention facility in Louisiana viaan airport in Vermont.

Ozturk, a Turkish national, was in the United States on a student visa, which was revoked without her knowledge on March 21.

She is among the many university students and teachers who are not U.S. citizens to have visas revoked and deportation proceedings initiated overpro-Palestinian statements or participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that the administration has revoked hundreds of such visas.

The State Department declined to comment on the judge’s order, citing ongoing litigation.

Critics have accused the Trump administration of transporting students and others with deportation cases to facilities in Louisiana and Texas that fall within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, widely considered the nation’s most conservative.

According to court documents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that Ozturk was transferred to Louisiana because there were no available beds in New England detention facilities. It added that detainees are “routinely” transferred out of state because of “operational necessity and considerations.”

That is a big fat lie!

*Even though Trump has called off for now a U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel is reported to still be making its own preparations for such an attack.

Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months despite US President Donald Trump telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.

Israeli officials have vowed to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and Netanyahu has insisted that any negotiation with Iran must lead to the complete dismantling of its nuclear program.

US and Iranian negotiators were holding a second round of preliminary nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday.

Over the past months, Israel has proposed to the Trump administration a series of options to attack Iran’s facilities, including some with late spring and summer timelines, the sources said.

The plans include a mix of airstrikes and commando operations that vary in severity and could set back Tehran’s ability to weaponize its nuclear program by just months or a year or more, the sources said.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump told Netanyahu in a White House meeting earlier this month that Washington wanted to prioritize diplomatic talks with Tehran and that he was unwilling to support a strike on the country’s nuclear facilities in the short term.

The short term is getting shorter, Trump has a ludicrous and unsupported trust in Iranian treaties, and Iran is one of the worst countries in the world to acquire nukes, arguably second to North Korea.

*Although I may unsubscribe from the Free Press (I will if Nellie stops writing TGIF, and the whole site is becoming too MAGA-ish  and imbued with respect for faith), I will keep on paying Andrew Sullivan for The Weekly Dish. Yes, he’s a conservative, but a sensible and eloquent one, and I benefit from his lucubrations. His latest column is called “The Bukele playbook Trump is following.” Bukele, of course, is Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador for six years.  He’s a bad egg and here’s what Sully has to say:

In some ways, the core character of the Trump administration can be seen in two Oval Office press conferences with two young, informally-dressed foreign leaders. The first was with Volodymyr Zelensky, president of a country invaded and now partly occupied by Russia, who has courageously kept his country free from total Russian domination. The second was with Nayib Bukele, a man who governs in a permanent emergency, has seized 83,000 people with no due process and put them in brutal gulags, strong-armed his Supreme Court to gain an unconstitutional second term, and is one of the worst human rights violators in Latin America.

So it’s obvious which one Trump and Vance prefer, isn’t it? They humiliated Zelensky while lavishing Bukele with encomiums for his collaboration in providing an extra-territorial, extra-judicial, concentration camp for whomever in America Trump wants to grab off the street, bundle into an airplane, and get Stephen Miller to call a terrorist. What’s not to like?

But the intense bromance between Trump and this populist dictator is rooted in more than the convenience of cheap gulags. The more you examine Bukele’s rise, tactics, and politics, the more you see that it offers not just an insight into what Trump has already done, but is a playbook for what Trump wants to do in the future.

. . . As president, Bukele bars journalists he dislikes from press conferences and directly communicates via social media. He has a domination complex: according to one of his former aides, Bukele “is explosive. He doesn’t listen, nor is he tolerant. If he meets with you, he’s not asking for your opinion. He just wants you to do what he says.”

He even staged his own January 6, a year before Trump’s. When the legislature in February 2020 balked at a further request for money to fight crime, Bukele assembled a mob of supporters outside the parliament building, rallied cops and military officers, and denounced legislators for any delay: “Let’s see if the Assembly is on the side of the people, or if they just talk nonsense on TV.”

Then he did what Trump didn’t have the nerve for. The mob yelling outside, Bukele led the armed soldiers into the legislature, sat in the equivalent of the Speaker’s chair, and proclaimed: “I think it’s very clear who is in control of the situation.” A year later, a tamed legislature removed the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber and the attorney general, so that Bukele could find a way to get a second consecutive term — explicitly barred by the constitution. The Steve Bannon Project avant la lettre.

, , , , And Bukele’s amazing record on homicides is only impressive if you ignore the fact that of course police states can reduce crime dramatically, if you don’t care about distinguishing the innocent from the guilty. There is not much crime in North Korea last time I checked (another dictatorship Trump adores). Currently, El Salvador has an incarceration rate of 1,659 per 100,000 of the total population — #1 in the entire world. Second is Cuba, with less than half that: 794 per 100,000. That’s the kind of country Trump loves. European democracies? Nothing but sneering contempt.

My view is that this week was a turning point. We have seen the true nature of this presidency and its enablers. As they welcomed Bukele into a tarted-up Oval Office, they also scoffed alongside him at the Supreme Court’s order that Trump facilitate the return of a man sent to a torture gulag by an “administrative error.” They laughed and then openly lied, with Bukele saying he had no power to return a “terrorist,” with Trump agreeing, even as just one simple request from Trump would resolve the stand-off.

. . . This is what is in front of our nose. The extinction-level event I foretold has happened in the last three months. There is only raw power now. And it’s coming for anyone who stands in its way. As Trump’s OMB director, Russell Vought, asks: “Do you know what time it is?” For him and core MAGA, what he means by that — and has always meant by that — is that we are now in a post-liberal order, and the Constitution is no longer in effect.

Only Trump. Now and always.

You can see why I like to read Sullivan; he’s miles better than what’s in The Free Press.  Now I happen to agree with him here, but of course we disagree on many matters, most notably religion (Sully is a semi-pious Catholic). But Sullivan, though a Republican, is a centrist one, and I still hope against hope that he’ll become a centrist Democrat. It hardly matters these days, though; remember that he voted for Harris.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili wants a lion cub. Malgorzata explains: “Hili adores baby lions (she has seen videos of them) and she wants one to play with. She knows she will not get one but she always asks even though she knows the answer.”

Hili: Can you buy me a baby lion?

Andrzej: No.

Hili: Always the same answer.

In Polish:

Hili: Czy możesz mi kupić małego lwa?

Ja: Nie.

Hili: Zawsze to samo.

 

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

From Stacy:

From America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy; a tongue surrogate for extreme ailurophiles:

From The Grammar Police:

Masih’s still quiet so, keeping on the pro-woman thread, we have a post from J. K. Rowling. Go have a look at the thread. Nearly all of them are trans-identified males:

The pictures in this thread really do paint a thousand words about the male-centric movement to which large sections of the media continue to pander. ⬇️ https://t.co/u1HGGLTfy7

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 19, 2025

From Richard Dawkins on the UK Supreme Court decision (see also here):

https://t.co/nRMfPPyP4q
Supreme Court rules that a woman is legally defined as . . . a woman. Congratulations.
And “The concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man”. Yes, the science was settled in the Precambrian. Nice that the law has finally caught up.

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 16, 2025

From Malcolm, a diva kitten:

STAAAAWP !! pic.twitter.com/RS66tPSY3v

— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) April 11, 2025

Two from my feeds. First, a nice man; but what is that mammal?

the internet was made for videos like this pic.twitter.com/N34U7Q5K6r

— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) April 18, 2025

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

A French Jewish boy was murdered by cyanide gas upon arriving at Auschwitz. He was five.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T09:23:52.731Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. This first one is scary:

A video showed a doctor with measles treating kids. RFK Jr later praised him as an ‘extraordinary’ healer.My @apnews.com story with comment from @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social @craigspencer.bsky.social @pauloffit.bsky.social –>

— Michelle R. Smith (@mrsmithap.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T20:31:48.433Z

Hares can jump BIGLY and also have SUPERFETATION:

The European brown hare is the only mammal with confirmed 'SUPERFETATION': multiple fetuses at different developmental stages, showing they're getting pregnant while ALREADY pregnant, which is separate from the more common phenomenon, multiple pregnancies in the same cycle, 'superfecundation'.

— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T20:08:09.180Z

Welcome to a cold Monday in Chicago: it’s Monday, April 7, 2025 and National Beer Day, celebrating the end of Prohibition:

National Beer Day is celebrated on the anniversary of the date that beer once again began being served, in 1933, after over thirteen years of Prohibition. Franklin Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933, which said that beer with up to 3.2% alcohol content by weight could again be sold, as long as states passed their own laws allowing the selling of beer.

But if I could drink only one beer for the rest of my days, it would be a British ale—this one. It is a great pint, and won the title of Supreme Champion Beer of Britain four times. Make sure, if you get a hand-pumped pint, that the publican knows how to cellar a beer properly.

It’s also Metric System Day, Sweet Potato Day, National Coffee Cake Day, World Health Day, and International Beaver Day.  Enjoy this adorable rescue beaver, Tulip (click on “Watch on YouTube”:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 7 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Breaking: the financial markets. Be poised for another meltdown today as Trump announced that his tariffs will stay, and he doesn’t care if he wrecks the world’s economy.

Stocks around the world plunged on Monday, and the S&P 500 was poised to drop again, as President Trump doubled down on global tariffs that have made investors increasingly pessimistic about the economy.

The main stock index in Hong Kong, where many mainland Chinese companies trade, plunged over 12 percent. In Taiwan, a hub for global technology, stocks were clobbered nearly 10 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index finished almost 8 percent lower, while benchmarks in South Korea tumbled more than 5 percent.

Stocks in Europe opened sharply lower. The FTSE 100 in London and the Stoxx Europe 600 were both down about 5 percent.

The moves reflected deepening concern that Mr. Trump’s significant new taxes on U.S. imports could disrupt global supply chains, cause inflation to accelerate and spark a severe economic downturn.

Wall Street, where financial titans spent the weekend surveying the damage of last week’s sell off, was bracing for more chaos on Monday. The S&P 500, which is already 17.4 percent below its February peak, was nearing a bear market, defined as a drop of 20 percent or more from a recent peak.

The benchmark U.S. index was set to open more than 4 percent lower on Monday, according to futures trading.

Mr. Trump on Sunday evening said that he would not ease tariffs on other countries “unless they pay us a lot of money.” He dismissed concerns that his steep new taxes on imports would lead to higher prices, calling them “a very beautiful thing.”

He is insane.  He wants a lot of money. A lot. This will be the most beautiful recession in the history of the world

*This next news is shocking and, if true. horrific and depressing. The press (and of course Hamas) have reported that the IDF have killed Red Crescent medics in Gaza, and then issued an incorrect statement about what happened, saying that the medics were traveling at night in cars without obvious markings and without flashing lights. Yet a NYT video shows that that is wrong: the cars and individuals are clearly marked. Further, there are assertions that the individuals killed (some of which, says the IDF, were found in a mass grave, executed and with their hands tied behind their back. The IDF is now investigating.   From the Times of Israel:

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged on Saturday evening that it had been incorrect in its initial account of an incident in southern Gaza’s Rafah last month during which troops fired on Palestinian emergency vehicles, killing 14 or 15 medics whose bodies were later recovered from a mass grave.

On Saturday, the army detailed the initial findings from its investigation of the incident, which it said was ongoing. It asserted that at least six of those killed had been posthumously identified as Hamas operatives, denied that any of those killed had been executed, and said troops had not attempted to hide the incident but rather had informed the UN of the location of the grave.

After the incident came to light, the military, which accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, had initially said the vehicles were without headlights or emergency lights, were uncoordinated, and arrived on the scene shortly after a group of terror operatives. As such, the IDF said soldiers deemed them “suspicious” and opened fire.

On Saturday, however, The New York Times published a video that appeared to show the emergency vehicles were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on when the IDF opened fire.

UN officials have said that 15 medics were killed by Israeli fire, while the military said that 14 people were killed and one survived.

Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of attempting to cover up the incident by burying the bodies in a mass grave. Claims have also emerged that some of the bodies had their hands tied and were seemingly shot dead from close range.

Following the emergence of the video Saturday, the military said that Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor would be re-investigating the incident. The complete findings will be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Sunday.

According to the military’s findings, the incident began on March 23 amid the resumption of fighting in Gaza, and a new offensive in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood.

Golani soldiers, who were operating under the 14th Armored Brigade, had set up an ambush on a road in Tel Sultan at around 4 a.m. At that time, the military said, several ambulances and civilians passed by without incident.

At around 4:30 a.m., a Hamas police vehicle drove through the area, and the Golani soldiers exchanged fire with the operatives inside, killing one and capturing two others, the IDF said. The Hamas vehicle remained on the side of the road.

At around 6 a.m., a convoy of ambulances arrived in the area, and the IDF soldiers opened fire, perceiving them as a threat. Drone operators flying a UAV overhead had reported to the Golani soldiers that the vehicles were moving toward them in a suspicious manner.

The initial investigation claimed that the soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road, next to the abandoned Hamas vehicle, and by several “suspects” jumping out of the convoy and running. The soldiers were said to have been unaware that the suspects were, in fact, unarmed medics.

The IDF acknowledged that based on the video, its initial statement asserting that the ambulances had had their lights off appeared to be incorrect, noting that it was based on the testimony of soldiers involved in the incident.

The new IDF investigation is examining that discrepancy.

The military also said that at least six of the bodies were identified by intelligence officials as Hamas operatives. It was expected to detail the names of the six operatives once the probe was concluded.

Relatives mourn during the funeral procession for members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services who were killed a week earlier allegedly by Israeli forces, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

The initial findings rejected claims that the soldiers had intentionally targeted the medics from close range, carried out executions, or tied up the hands of any of the medics.

The IDF also rejected the assertion that troops had buried the bodies in an unmarked mass grave without informing anyone.

Palestinian Red Crescent chief Dr. Younis Al-Khatib had said on Friday that the aid workers were “targeted from a very close range” and that Israel had “kept us for eight days in the dark” as to the whereabouts of the bodies.

According to the military’s initial probe, a deputy battalion commander in Golani and his troops collected the bodies in one spot, covered them with sand, and marked the burial spot.

An IDF Press Release from April 2 doesn’t clarify things much. The NYT video certainly shows lit-up trucks and workers with visible markings, though it also sounds like some of them were Hamas members. However, the burial of the dead people really bothers me, even though the IDF says it sometimes does that to keep vultures and other animals from destroying the bodies. I am not convinced, and I await a better explanation of what happened from the IDF.  I am convinced that if the IDF finds out that its soldiers violated the rules of war, they will punish them. But the IDF’s initial explanation was wrong, and that is disturbing.

*The Free Press has launched a “Culture and Ideas” column by Suzy Weiss, who happens to be the sister of founder Bari Weiss. Now I don’t mind Nellie Bowles, Bari’s partner, writing her TGIF column, because Bowles was a journalist and her columns are terrific. But Suzy Weiss’s pop-culture column seems boring and anodyne to me (perhaps because of my incipient geezerhood). The latest, “Love on the spectrum, bitter pop queens, studio Ghibli, and more!” seems boring and anodyne—almost a ripoff of Nellie’s column but minus the panache and humor. In fact, it seems like nepotism.  For example, I think Nellie could do a much better job than Suzy on this:

Everyone’s been talking about tariffs in the office this week. Apparently it’s the economic story of the moment. But discerning business journalists like me know that the real pressing issue is that Forever 21 is over. The fast-fashion store has gone bankrupt for the second time—and, it confirmed last week, will be liquidating its more than 350 stores across the U.S.

This is probably very good news for the planet. At Forever 21, clothes were sourced and slapped onto the rack as quickly and cheaply as possible to keep up with trends that cycle in and out of style as quickly as an Instagram feed refreshes. But the news made me feel almost nostalgic for when teenage girls actually left the house to go to the mall, instead of sitting online endlessly adding to cart.

Also, there’s yet another piece at TFP about the benefits of religion, an article called “Hallowed be Thy App“, about a Christian prayer app.  The subtitle is “Since it was launched in 2018, the Christian prayer app been downloaded 23 million times. Is this the beginning of a religious revival?” As I wrote this on Sunday, the article is the main piece on the sites’s webpage.  Here’s a short excerpt:

And the booming popularity of Hallow is part of a bigger trend, which is starting to look like a religious revival in the West. Though recent Pew data suggests Christianity’s decline may have stalled, among younger generations—especially men—it may even be in resurgence. On March 5, 2025, the first day of Lent, Catholics across the Western world reported unusually high turnout at Ash Wednesday services.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” wrote Robert George, a professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, on X. “Is something happening?”

Sarah has an answer, and it’s simple. There are many more people like her, she said, who are “starved for connection, for meaning.”

And people are beginning to realize that, really, they’re “starved for God.”

There’s that God-shaped hole again!  Although there’s a bit of negativity, it’s only about dubious people like Russell Brand who have endorsed the app, in general, the article recounts many “stories of salvation.” This buttresses my view that The Free Press is soft on religion, for this isn’t the first article with this tenor. As long as we have that God-shaped hole (I looked, but I can’t find mine), there will be God-shaped stories to be written.

*Skeptic Magazine, founded by Michael Shermer, has a new article called “Unfashionable but true: sex is binary“; the author is Robert O. Deaner, a professor of psychology at Grand Valley State University. It defends the sex binary from the point of view of a psychologist. For example:

Ideas also vary in their popularity and prestige across cultures and times. These days, mindfulness, sustainability, plant-based diets, and pet parenting are fashionable, while eugenics, homophobia, hierarchical work environments, and colonialism are not.

Perhaps the most fashionable current idea is that the binary distinction of females and males—and girls and boys, and women and men—is scientifically incorrect and harmful. Instead, leading social scientists, activists, and even professional journals and organizations, have adopted the view that sex should be considered a nonbinary variable, either a continuous spectrum or something with more than two categories.

Yet, the traditional, binary view of sex, despite being unpopular, is basically correct. Crucially, I am confident that holding this view is in no way at odds with being fully respectful to individuals who are transgender or intersex. Here are eight reasons for affirming that biological sex is binary.

Let’s review each of them in more detail.

Four of these are

People in all societies define sex based on reproductive traits, another binary framework. This framework builds on the gametes definition and is far more practical.

and

Third genders are nonbinary, but they do not challenge the biological sex binary, reproductive traits framework.

and

Intersex individuals challenge the binary, reproduticve traits framework, but they don’t invalidate it because they don’t reproduce in a third way.

and

No better nonbinary definition has been offered.

Here’s one quote:

What about the nonbinary definitions of sex? Because these have become influential, one might assume that they are better than the binary definitions. I want to note that there is apparently no nonbinary definition of sex that has been recognized as being the best. Nevertheless, a good place to start is with a review article by Hyde and colleagues entitled, “The Future of Sex and Gender in Psychology: Five Challenges to the Gender Binary.”²⁵ This article was published in 2019 in the American Psychologist, a leading journal of the American Psychological Association, the largest psychological society in the world. Hyde is one of the most influential sex and gender scholars, and this article has already been cited more than 1,100 times—a very high number for any academic article, particularly one published so recently. Hyde et al. offer this definition of sex: “The term sex is used here to refer to biological systems involving the X and Y chromosomes, pre- and postnatal sexual differentiation, and hormones that influence sexual differentiation of the external genitals, which, in turn, serve as the basis for sex assignment at birth.”

This is a terrible definition, on several counts.

I leave it to the readers to think of why this definition is “terrible.” I bet you can think of one way already (hint: turtles).

*Speaking of turtles, the Philadelphia Zoo has hatched four Galapágos tortoises, a first in zoo history. They’re considered critically endangered (h/t Norman):

The hatchlings’ parents, female Mommy and male Abrazzo, are the Zoo’s two oldest residents, each estimated to be around 100 years old. Additionally, Mommy is considered one of the most genetically valuable Galapagos tortoises in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP). She is also the oldest first-time mom of her species. The hatchlings, currently behind-the-scenes inside the Reptile and Amphibian House, are eating and growing appropriately, weighing between 70-80 grams (about the weight of a chicken egg). The first one hatched on February 27 and the animal care team is still monitoring eggs that could hatch in the coming weeks. The hatchlings will make their public debut on Wednesday, April 23, which is the 93rd anniversary of Mommy’s arrival at the Zoo. Stay tuned for details on their debut and for the chance to help the Zoo name them!

The babies are part of the AZA SSP breeding program to ensure the survival of this species and maintain a genetically diverse population. Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoises are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with threats including human-wildlife conflict, the introduction of invasive species, and habitat loss. The last clutch of Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoises to hatch in an AZA accredited zoo was in 2019 at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in South Carolina. Other zoos with breeding pairs of this species include San Diego Zoo, Zoo Miami and Honolulu Zoo.

There’s only one species of this giant tortoise, (Chelonoidis niger), though there have been arguments about it since some species are on different islands and do not meet. Even if they can produce fertile hybrids in zoos, that doesn’t mean they would even mate in the wild.

“The Galapagos Tortoise SSP program is thrilled to help Philadelphia Zoo welcome Mommy’s offspring,” said Galapagos Tortoise SSP Coordinator and Studbook Keeper Ashley Ortega at Gladys Porter Zoo in Texas. “This feat is even more incredible considering that Mommy is the oldest first-time producing female of her species in any U.S. zoo. Prior to the hatchlings, there were only 44 individual Western Santa Cruz Giant tortoises in all U.S. zoos combined, so these newest additions represent a new genetic lineage and some much-needed help to the species’ population. We are excited to learn more about how we can replicate this success at other accredited zoos since the team in Philly has accomplished something that was seemingly impossible.”

A bit of digging around on the internet has led me to conclude that turtles and tortoises are not evolutionarily distinct groups; that is, each group is paraphyletic. That means that some animals called “turtles” are more closely related to some animals called “tortoises” than they are to other animals called turtles. Apparently, “tortoises” are said to be land-dwellers and “turtles” aquatic or semi-aquatic. But that’s a matter of ecology, not evolutionary relatedness.  Here’s a video of the newborns from the Philadelphia zoo; aren’t they cute?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili faces The Cat’s Dilemma:

Andrzej: Come to the garden.

Hili: I have to consider all arguments for and against.

Ja: Chodź do ogrodu.

Hili: Muszę rozważyć wszystkie za i przeciw.

And reader Reese Vaughan’s cat Razz (short for “Raspberry”).  Caption: “Excuse me! I’m bathing here!”

Reese adds, “She was a survivor of Hurricane Harvey as a kitten in 2017 and also survived a recent illness, needing emergency hospitalization,  which is why I refer to her as The World’s Most Expensive Cat. So maybe 7 lives to go for her.”

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

From Irena. The penguins are UPSET with what Trump did, and are allying with Bernie.

From The Dodo Pet:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

Masih is quiet today, but we have this from Luana. Britain really has a problem with what in America is considered free speech. Again, I don’t agree with the sentiments, but that’s when you need free speech!

UK: After learning of the murder of three young British girls Lucy Connolly wrote, “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f’ing hotels full of the b’ds for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing… pic.twitter.com/eibfqpkaEi

— @amuse (@amuse) April 5, 2025

From Malcolm; cats vs. d*gs:

cat vs dog pic.twitter.com/a5YXvLPJ54

— Abim (@underect) March 28, 2025

Three from my feed:

Shoebill stork! Sound up!  (This may be the world’s weirdest bird.)

I’m so fascinated by these birds. They’re real, but prehistoric and animatronic all at once. pic.twitter.com/ZOEo8HgJTp

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 6, 2025

Bat!

SKY PUPPY EAR WIGGLES pic.twitter.com/3oOWfsKzpV

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 5, 2025

And from my Bluesky feed:

🪲 This Beetle is all dressed up and ready to party! 🎉 🎊 RafaelGlassArt.Etsy.com…#glass #artlover #artcollector #glassart #artist #art #borosilicate #flameworking #glasssculpture #sculpture #glassfigurines #animallovers #gift #handmade #craft #fire #flame #insects #beetle #dichroic

— Rafael Glass (@rafael-glass.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T17:46:57.174Z

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

A three-year-old Yugoslavian girl, Jewish, was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She would have been 84 yesterday had she lived.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T10:07:23.517Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, Obama goes after Trump:

“Imagine if I had done any of this.”— former president Obama, at Hamilton College this week

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T17:46:37.058Z

I need to read this as I once worked on fly migration (Drosophila pseudoobscura and D. melanogaster can go quite far!)

It's published! The largest research work I've ever undertaken:Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically importantPublished in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10….Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz1/x

— Dr Will Leo Hawkes (@willleohawkes.bsky.social) 2025-04-02T06:39:41.558Z