Readers’ wildlife photographs

April 26, 2017 • 8:30 am

Now that I’m back, be sure to send me your good wildlife photos (please):

Reader Anne-Marie Cournoyer, with some urging from me, established the “Cafe Sauvage” in Brossard, outside Montreal. It’s basically a large feeding station for birds and mammals in her backyard, colorfully painted and bearing a warning sign, “Do not eat the other customers.”  Here are some of those customers, with her notes indented:

Birds and rabbits, and squirrels and even siffleux [groundhogs] are happy clients at Le Café. Every morning, many birds are waiting for me to come out with the food while the dogs relieve themselves. It brings me a lot of joy. A wonderful way to start the day. Feels so good to be recognized by them. There is always some action taking place in the larch and the cherry tree. Light being one of the most important parts of a photo, it affects how the animals appear. It gives tone, mood… Here are some photos taken at different moments of the day.

I’ve been watching that Agelaius phoeniceus / red-winged blackbird for a while…until the sunset light transformed his plumage.

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura):

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus):

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis):
And two more photos, this first one from Rob Bate:
Here is a picture of the Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), one of the earliest spring migrants passing through the Atlantic Flyway.  It is one of the four warbler species that walks: the others all hop when they’re on the ground.  It feeds primarily along running water in streams.
Finally, a reptile from reader Barbara Wilson:
Here is a particularly Lovely Common Garter Snake (Thamnopsis sirtalis) photographed at the E. E. Wilson Wildlife Area north of Adair Village, Oregon, on 2 April 2017:

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ moral relativism

April 26, 2017 • 7:30 am

Today’s Jesus and Mo, titled “basis”, came with the emailed note, “Moses is back again, with his newfangled book-learnin’.”

The strip implies that “normative” moral relativism, which is prescriptive behavior rather than merely a description of variance across societies, is a good thing. That puzzles me a bit, for, after all, most of us aren’t moral relativists about the perfidies of Islamic doctrine: oppressing women doesn’t become “right” because it’s done by Muslims. It’s just that the morality of Jesus and Mo seems wrong, In fact, when Moses implies that “judging people” is wrong, he’s off the mark. It’s just that Jesus and Mo are on the wrong mark.

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

April 26, 2017 • 6:30 am

Top of the morning to you on April 26, 2017. (Or, as a friend used to say, “Grease the new day!”)  It’s National Pretzel Day, and make mine one of those soft German pretzels sprinkled with coarse salt and daubed with mustard. That and a liter of Löwenbrau. It’s also Hug a Friend Day, but be sure to ask permission first, or you’ll be in big trouble.

On this day in 1564, William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon. Although the date of his birth is unknown, the baptism is recorded:

On April 26. 1933, the Gestapo was established in Germany, and in 1964 the nation of Tanzania was formed when Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar, Finally, on this day in 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in the Soviet Union.

Notables born on this day include John James Audubon (1785), Eugène Delacroix (1798), Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889), I. M. Pei (1917), Carol Burnett (1933), Duane Eddy (1938), and Joan Chen (1961). Those who died on this day include Arnold Sommerfeld (1951), Gypsy Rose Lee (1970), Count Basie (1984), Lucille Ball (1989), and Jayne Meadows (1915). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili quotes some modified scripture while on a walk with Andrzej and Malgorzata:

Hili: And a little cat shall lead them.
Cyrus: But we know the way.
Hili: Lesser mortals need shepherds.
In Polish:
Hili: I kot będzie ich prowadzić.
Cyrus: Przecież my znamy tę drogę.
Hili: Maluczcy potrzebują pasterzy.
Lagniappe: Today’s animated Google Doodle marks the impending demise of the Cassini spacecraft as it begins its dives to Saturn, beaming its last bunch of images (here a selfie) before it’s destroyed in the planet’s atmosphere on September 15 of this year. A bit sad, really.

Ice cream sex from “Bill Nye Saves the World”

April 25, 2017 • 3:00 pm

No comment needed, except this may be from the same show that featured “My vagina has its own voice“. You can judge whether it’s appropriate for the show.

p.s. I don’t really understand what this is about; maybe I’m dim. But i’m pretty sure it doesn’t have much to do with science.

Heather Hastie on female genital mutilation and Islam

April 25, 2017 • 2:15 pm

The other day I wrote a bit about those apologists who claim that female genital mutilation (FGM) has nothing to do with Islam (it’s all culture, Jake!), citing an earlier refutation of that claim by Heather Hastie.  FGM apologists like Reza Aslan are ubiquitous, and how many people know enough about the issue to evaluate the claims?

Heather’s now put up a new post, “Making excuses for Islam and FGM,” updating and buttressing the connection between FGM and Islam, and covering the practice in various places. If you need to evaluate claims by people like the unctuous Aslan, her two pieces are a good start. The good news is that FGM is on the wane as the moral arc bends towards justice.

The intractable problem of North Korea

April 25, 2017 • 1:00 pm

As you may know, North Korea, the world’s most repressive nation, is about to test a new nuclear weapon. Within two decades, says the New York Times in an article published today, the DPRK will have the ability to deliver nuclear weapons via intercontinental missiles. That means the U.S. will be in danger.

So far there’s no stopping that country. Weapons development has been faster than predicted, sanctions haven’t worked, and China doesn’t have the stomach to apply the pressure it should, perhaps because they actually want the U.S. to be threatened.  Trump is making threatening noises, but really, what can he do? If he takes unilateral action, North Korea will simply destroy Seoul, only a few miles south of the border. There’s little doubt of such a reprisal, except that it will be a suicidal move by Kim Jong-un.  But the man is not rational, so who knows?

The problem seems to me intractable, and my only solution is this: do nothing.  I doubt that the DPRK will launch a unilateral strike, because they know it would destroy their country for no reason.  Let them have their weapons and hope that they don’t use them. After all, Pakistan has The Bomb and Iran will, too, despite our negotiations.

This is not a great solution, but it’s the only one that would seem to avoid the threat of killing millions. If you have a better solution, by all means put it below.

(From the NYT): The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with what the C.I.A. calls “the disco ball.” The sphere is supposedly a nuclear weapon, shrunken to fit inside the nose cone of a missile. Credit Korean Central News Agency