My first meal in Hong Kong

November 3, 2016 • 11:00 am

I’ve been under the weather the past few days, with a sore throat that turned into a nasty cold with a hacking cough. Fortunately, I wasn’t too ill to do my events in Singapore, but now I’m resting for a day. And, mirabile dictu (have you learned that phrase yet?), one of my hosts here told me that one of the best beef brisket noodle joints in Hong Kong was right around the corner from my hotel.

I ventured out, and after a three minute walk was at Kau Kee, which specializes in this dish:

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Tons of beef brisket in a rich broth loaded with chewy E-Fu noodles. What a treat! Within seconds I was slurping the noodles with the locals (contrary to the link above, there were no tourists there). You don’t linger in a place like this: with a Chinese soup spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, you slurp, gobble, pay, and run.

Here’s a video of the two most famous brisket noodle places in Hong Kong, including Kau Kee:

I’m jumping the gun as I haven’t finished my Singapore food posts yet, but this is a one-off.

My talks in Singapore

November 3, 2016 • 10:00 am

I know I’ve concentrated on the food and sights in Singapore rather than my academic duties, but there’s not much to say about those. On Monday I gave a talk at the National University of Singapore (NUS)—co-sponsored by the Humanist Society of Singapore (HSS)—on the evidence for evolution and why it’s not accepted in America (religion!).

Several biology professors who teach evolution at NUS told me that they estimate 30-50% of their students to be young-earth creationists. That’s far more than I thought, but evangelical Christianity is making big inroads in Singapore and of course many Muslims are creationists. Still, there’s never been a national survey in Singapore of how widely evolution is accepted. And I doubt the government would want that to happen, especially if the outcome shows a lot of creationists.

That talk had a good turnout–between 400 and 600 people, with many students (WEIT is required for some of the biology courses at NUS). You can see 21 photos of that event at this flickr site. The post-talk photo below is my favorite, for I was inundated with curious students (and more than one creationist) after the talk, many of whom wanted their copy of WEIT signed as well as a photo. They were a great bunch!

It looks as if I’m thinking to myself, “Oy vey!”:

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After that talk, the Humanists to me to a local hawker center, and we had a huge feast of traditional Singaporean food (pictures coming soon).

The next night I was back at NUS, but this time at Yale/NUS College, a separate four-year college that’s a collaboration between Yale University and NUS. It was quite fancy, and this time I had a discussion about Faith Versus Fact with Philip Johns, a professor at the school who was also a Ph.D. student at Chicago about 20 years ago. He was, in fact, in my speciation class then. After our talk, during which Philip asked some good questions, I answered audience questions for about a half an hour.

The flickr photos of that second event are here. The first shows the discussion with Philip (note the luxurious auditorium), the second shows the post-talk Chinese buffet in which I appear to be ignoring the conversation and eating dessert, and the last shows Melissa, me, and John van Wyhe in conversation.

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h/t: Tatt Si, head of the HSS, for providing the photos and link, and the indefatigable Melissa Chen for helping arrange all this. I would be remiss to not mention her parents, Michael and Annie Chin, who put me up in their home for a week, proffered lavish hospitality, and introduced me to many of the sights and culinary delights of their country.

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Muslim infidels

November 3, 2016 • 8:45 am

The new Jesus and Mo strip, called “dear”, came with this note in the email alert:

Religion demanding respect again, and getting it.

The link to “getting it” doesn’t work, but it’s about the British gymnast Louis Smith, who got a two-month ban from his gymnastics governing body for getting drunk at a wedding, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” and pretending to pray toward Mecca. Tasteless? Surely, but it’s free speech and doesn’t deserve this kind of ban. I agree with the Guardian’s Marina Hyde, who said this:

Leaving those debates for another column (a column which I myself have written at least twice), sports are commonly agreed to be competitive physical activities. Capable of being inspiring, certainly, and frequently places where great spirit and whatnot is on display. But above all: sports. Not established value systems, and certainly not a forum for creating pseudo‑case law on free speech. To pretend otherwise is a dangerous category mistake.

. . . Then again, perhaps it is all of a piece. The same type of people who don’t trust the public to vote for the right sublebrities in meaningless competitions also don’t trust the public to be able to come to its own conclusions about an obviously stupid twat like Louis Smith. As I say, he is evidently a stupid twat (you could tell on Strictly, innit – and I’m not even getting into the man-bun). Yet what is more satisfactory in a case where there is no reasonable evidence of incitement to violence: that grown-ups come to that judgment themselves? Or that British Gymnastics, of all post-parodic entities, enacts a de facto blasphemy law?

When I heard about Smith’s ban, I thought, “I wonder if they’d ban him for mocking Christianity instead of Islam?” Hyde raises the same issue:

. . .  What if an athlete was of the belief that The Life of Brian was an excellent movie, or that Father Ted was hilarious? Naturally, something tells me mocking mass would be rather less frowned upon than mocking the call to prayer. But why on earth can’t athletes be derogatory about people’s beliefs?

As for British Gymnastics, it doesn’t appear to be anywhere near learning any useful lessons – but then, it takes its lead from the benighted fools at UK Sport, who bang on about the privilege of representing a country at the same time as cravenly denying that country’s essential freedoms. In many ways, it’s an old hypocrisy. Governing bodies have long come down like a ton of bricks on any athlete who gets political – yet I can scarcely think of anything more absurdly political than British Gymnastics operating a blasphemy law.

Well, watch the video that got Smith in trouble, and weigh in below about whether he deserves to be banned:

But I digress; here are Jesus and Mo:

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You can read more about Ahmadiyya here, and see why its members are considered infidels by other Muslims who see Muhammad as the final prophet.

Attenborough, Darwin and Obama

November 3, 2016 • 7:45 am

by Matthew Cobb

The new BBC series Planet Earth II, narrated by David Attenborough, airs in the UK on Sunday. I was lucky enough to chair a session at the Manchester Science Festival last week at which two of the film-makers, Chadden Hunter and Emma Brennand, presented some extracts from the series and talked about the challenges of filming wildlife (Emma brought along a big long stick that was used for keeping Komodo dragons away from the film-makers while filming them), and the new technology they employed (in particular drones and HD camera traps). Attenborough’s contribution is nowhere near as direct as in his earlier series (he is 90, after all), and he doesn’t appear on location in any of the scenes. Nonetheless, this promises to be a moving and powerful presentation of life on our planet.

To mark this event, here are fours videos, some of which you may have seen. The first is the extended trailer – put it on fullscreen and turn up the sound! Lots of fantastic kitteh action here.

Then the short, TV trailer:

Next is a nice piece with Attenborough talking about Darwin, recorded last year:

Finally, here’s Attenborough’s interview with Obama, from last year. Obama looks and sounds pretty knackered at the beginning – not surprising given his job – but he warms up over the 20 or so minutes.

 

Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!

November 3, 2016 • 6:45 am

Though I’m in far-off Hong Kong, I just got the news that my city’s beloved Cubbies finally won a World Series—after a 108-year drought. And it was a squeaker, too, with a rain delay and a 6-6 tie that sent the game into the 10th inning. And then the Cubs did it—they came back to win 8-7 over the Cleveland Indians, and in Cleveland. The last time this happened was when Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House.

What’s even more amazing is that the gutsy Cubs were down 3-1 in the Series, and Cleveland had to win only one game out of the next three to take the title. They failed.

I’m glad I’ll miss the election (I’ve already voted), but I wish I could be in Chicago now to see the jubilation that’s been waiting for over a century.

Here’s the Chicago Tribune online headline (click to go to the story):

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Here are the last inning’s highlights, with the moment of victory taking place at 3:40 when Martinez was thrown out at first. (The broadcast is in Spanish, but who cares?)

There’s going to be one hell of a celebration when the Cubs return to Chicago!

Thursday: Hili dialogue

November 3, 2016 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Ahoy-hoy. It’s Thursday already – this week feels extra-short to me as Monday was a public holiday here in Ireland to facilitate the clocks going backwards or forwards or something. I rely on the All-knowing Internet to reset my phone and computers so I am only peripherally aware of it.

Today in 1957, Sputnik 2 launched with unfortunate canine astronaut Laika aboard. She survived only a few hours into her first space flight due to overheating, although the true cause of her death was not admitted for many years.

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Alas, poor Laika

In 1954 the first Godzilla movie was released in Japan and claimed a spot for itself in movie history. It was a monster movie, of course; but also a comment on post-war Japan and nuclear programs particularly in the wake of the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The film has gone on to spawn numerous sequels and re-makings both in Japan and the USA.

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Here’s a clip from the original.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili casts a cold eye on life, on death, and on Cyrus:

Hili: He will catch it in a moment.
A: Who, what?
Hili: Cyrus: It’s fascinating how he runs pointlessly after this ball.
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In Polish:
Hili: Zaraz ją złapie.
Ja: Kto, co?
Hili: Cyrus, to fascynujące jak on bez sensu biega za tą piłką.

And as lagniappe, some more felids.

Robin Cornwell sent us a photo of her beautiful black cat Jerry. [JAC: Named after me!]

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And Taskin sent in a picture of the incomparable Gus: earless but fearless.

Gus has warmed up his spot in the window and the indoor bird watching season is now well under way.

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Contest winner: Dawkins/Julia Sweeney event in Grand Rapids

November 2, 2016 • 5:30 pm

As announced last week, a generous reader offered her two tickets to this event. Jerry requested a photo of a pet from readers wishing to attend. There were only three entries, but of course the readers had to be somewhere near Grand Rapids.

Cheyney sent this in.

Attached is a picture of our pretty adopted kitten, Isadore Lucille; Izzy Lu for short. It now has been a few years since Richard Dawkins started me on a path of understanding that flipped my understanding of the world around. I initially checked The Selfish Gene out at the library because of an interest I developed in the origin of the word meme. Little did I know it would lead me down a wonderful and education path of discovery of human ancestry, to include reading your books and following you. Thank you for your hard work and contributions to science and rational thinking.

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Rob sent us this.

While I fear I may be disqualified from your competition on the basis of not owning a pet…I would like to lodge an appeal based on my current life context: Firstly, I am currently on the “post-doc tour”…I’m starting out as a post-doc at UC Berkeley, having just spent two years in Hobart, Australia after completing my PhD in Cape Town, South Africa in 2014. Secondly, my wife and I both love animals (that’s me in the photo with my wife, Julia)…and we would LOVE to own a pet…but feel that we would not be able to offer it the kind of stability that we would like (see my first point). Thirdly, Richard Dawkins is one of my intellectual heroes…so I’m incredibly keen to see him in person.

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Claudia sent us this:

Here is a picture of my cat, Puddin’. This was taken at the end of last summer (2015), when she was ill and just a month or so before she died.

She was a rescue, who was about one or two years old, and who had been living in the woods, in Eastern Ontario, all alone. She was starving, worm-ridden and fearful, when my friend found her and I took her in. She became the most beautiful cat, with care, love and good food. Not too long after I got her, and before I had the chance to have her spayed, she got out and took off for a few days with a handsome tom cat who was hanging around. She had four kittens, one of which I kept, though I wasn’t going to keep any, because he was just so damn adorable.

Puddin’ was not feeling well all last summer, and probably should have stayed indoors resting toward the end. But, she liked to be near me, and, as I live on a lake, and am outside and down by the water most of the time, she would follow me there and hang out with me. And last summer was no different. Although she was weak and having some trouble breathing, she would come down to the water and sleep under the canoe on a life jacket. It was very touching, because I knew her days were numbered and somehow, she just wanted to be close by.

I have never had a cat who was so attached to me. (And I have had lots of pet cats since childhood.) It was almost like she was so appreciative of being rescued and well loved. It helped when she died, to think that I had given her a second chance at life and that we had a lovely time together.

I am including the picture of Puddin’s “baby” just to show that though he was twice her size when he grew up, he still wanted cuddles and she obliged.

She was named “Puddin’ because she was the sweetest-natured cat I have ever known. I miss her. But I am happy that I had the chance to live with her and love her for 12 wonderful years.

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This was a tough one, but in the end the story of Puddin’s rescue touched the judges’ hearts. And so Claudia has been declared the winner. If you are she, please email Professor Ceiling Cat, who will send you the super-secret code details that will enable you and your choice of companion to go to the Dawkins event.

And thanks to all three for sending their stories.