Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
The article in question (click on screenshot from the International Business Times):
An excerpt:
Addressing the Senate for the first time, Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to take the issue of blasphemous activities to the United Nations.
“In the name of Freedom of Expression these westerners don’t realise how their blasphemous activities hurt the sentiments of Muslims all over the world,” the PM said on the announcement made by the leader of Dutch Freedom Party and Parliamentarian Geert Wilders to hold a competition of blasphemous caricatures.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office had called Netherlands Chargé d’Affaires to record a protest against the announcement by Wilders to hold a competition of blasphemous caricatures.
Let us remember, because I can’t forget it, that this website is entirely banned in Pakistan, with the ban enforced by WordPress itself (an American company), simply because I published a Jesus and Mo cartoon on Twitter.
Today is the birthday of Barry White (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003) and Jesse Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980).
Jesse Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1936 Games. His performance was credited as a single-handed defeat of Hitler’s Aryan Nation delusions of superiority. However, the truth may be somewhat more complicated than that. Owens is reported to have said “Some people say Hitler snubbed me. But I tell you, Hitler did not snub me. I am not knocking the President. Remember, I am not a politician, but remember that the [US] President did not send me a message of congratulations because, people said, he was too busy.” Whether Hitler was politer and had better manners than Franklin D. Roosevelt is a question for the historians. However, the time and place resulted in a set of chilling photographs.
Olympische Spiele 1936 in Berlin, Siegerehrung im Weitsprung: Mitte Owens (USA) 1., links: Tajima (Japan) 3., rechts Long (Deutschland) 2., Zentralbild/Hoffmann
Amazingly, he was also a pack-a-day cigarette smoker for 35 years and died of lung cancer.
Barry White, singer of songs of seduction and wooing, doesn’t really need any introduction.
Also in history on this day, Henry Hudson began his exploration of the Hudson River (1609); Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browning (1846) a relationship that was apparently successful and happy (such things do exist) and that gave us this poem:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace.
In 1959 The Soviet Union launched Lunik II at the moon. It became the first human-made object to land on the moon, and by “land” I mean hit, deliberately at 800km per hour.
In the wake of yesterday’s utterly bonkers and illiberal tweet by the South Yorkshire Police in the UK where they encourage people to report non-crime incidents that were “offensive or insulting”, they have decided to double down instead of calmly and rationally re-assessing their position.
South Yorkshire Police asked the public to report "non-crime hate incidents". Nick Ferrari's extraordinary interview with their Police Commissioner is 🔥🔥🔥. pic.twitter.com/M72FhwobkM
The Tweet that ought to break the internet or at very least irony meterseverywhere; but may or may not go completely unnoticed. Or maybe someone hacked his Twitter account. Or he found Jesus or something.
In the name of scientific research. Darrel Ray is a psychologist as well as an ex-fundamentalist preacher. He founded the Recovering from Religion organisation and wrote The God Virus.
Anna sent two sets of photos documenting what’s happening in Botany Pond, which is mainly that Honey and James are still there, happily married in the Peaceable Kingdom.
Here is “ducks being ducks”:
And then “all the animals”. Look how much larger James is than Honey. They’re still hanging around two weeks after Honey left last year, but she didn’t have a swain with her then. At some point, if they’re going to migrate south, they’ll have to join other ducks at a “staging area”, since they migrate in flocks of 12-35 individuals. Staging areas are often in cornfields and other fields of grain on the Mississippi Flyway, and I trust the pair will leave when the weather turns a bit cold. If not, we with withhold food to urge them along.
But I think they’ll leave on their own, and I fervently hope that they leave together.
There is no real way anyone can go through this day and not remember 2001, a day that changed so many things in the free world, and not for the better. Now in 2018 Cortlandt Street subway station in New York City has reopened for the first time since it was destroyed 17 years ago.
It’s the birthday of Harry Connick Jr., (1967); Anne Dell, Australian biochemist and academic (1950) whose work was helpful in explaining how HIV is able to evade termination by the immune system; South African golfer David Frost (1959); and Grateful Dead American drummer Mickey Hart (1943).
Also on this day in history in 1789 Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first secretary of the treasury, in 1962 The Beatles recorded their first single, “Love Me Do” at EMI studios in London. In 1998 Congress released Kenneth Starr’s report, which offered graphic details of President Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct and leveled accusations of perjury and obstruction of justice.
While Connick was already an established jazz pianist, the movie soundtrack 1989 When Harry Met Sally is what pushed him into more mainstream recognition.
From Poland today we have perambulatory thoughts.
Hili: What are we going to do when we return from the orchard?
Cyrus: We are going to go to the garden.
In Polish:
Hili: Co będziemy robili jak wrócimy z sadu?
Cyrus: Pójdziemy do ogrodu.
I do not read ancient Greek, let alone mirror image ancient Greek, so I can’t vouch for the translation.
Possibly the worst argument against evolution ever
Dear Twitter:
It's come to my attention that some of you think you resemble an elephant more closely than a chimpanzee.
If you think this is the case, please see a doctor immediately. Also a dentist, because those tusks are going to really hurt your dating game in the long run. pic.twitter.com/EEsOqsLlzF
This is typical for #thylacines. It's an interesting question – what's going on with stripe asymmetry? #Thylacine, zebra, tiger and numbat stripes are all more symmetrical near their rumps, and less symmetrical near their heads. Any ideas? https://t.co/33vF2lrH4Y
The ducks are still around, but it’s warm and not migration time yet. In the meantime, Anna sends this news:
Ducks are doing well! They seem to be taking their marriage very seriously and staying together peacefully. I caught a video of James swimming backwards.
JAC note: James has a skill that I haven’t heretofore seen in our mallard drakes: he can swim backwards. That’s one of many reasons he’s a good mate for Honey.
If this is likely to be in your path, please do everything you can to get to safety. It’s estimated it could make U.S. landfall late Thursday or early Friday, but might in the Carolinas as early as Wednesday night.
9/10 11 AM EDT: The earliest reasonable time that tropical-storm-force winds will reach the coast of the Carolinas is Wednesday night, but the most likely time is Thursday morning. #Florencehttps://t.co/tW4KeGdBFbpic.twitter.com/kzKpHv9o6J
Here are just a few photos and videos of our whale-watching trip that left from Moss Landing, California, and took four hours. I was accompanied by UCSC ecologist/ornithologist Bruce Lyon, who also showed us on this trip peregrines and the elephant seals I wrote about previously. Bruce has contributed many photo series to this site.
We were in search of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and I’ll let Wikipedia tell you about it:
One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 m (39–52 ft) and weigh around 25–30 metric tons (28–33 short tons). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Its purpose is not clear, though it may have a role in mating.
Bruce has better photos than I, as he is a much better photographer and has much better equipment, so I’ll post those later. In the meantime, here are two videos and a few photos I took with my point and shoot camera.
The humpbacks are herding and gulping down huge flocks of anchovies, helped by gazillions of seals (or sea lions; look for the ears to see the latter), with birds hanging around to eat the scraps. What one sees first is a literal carpet of seals and birds on the surface, which appear from nowhere. Then you know that a whale surfacing is imminent, as I think the seals help with the herding. Then the giants surface, audibly blowing through their blowholes and gulping huge mouthfuls of fish. The seals and birds enjoy the leavings.
Here’s what it looks like:
More of the same. After eating, the humpbacks, with a very small dorsal fin (what use is it?), dive again, usually lifting their flukes out of the water
This is what it looks like from underwater (a BBC video). Notice the huge gulp at the end with which these behemoths (baleen feeders) engulf an entire school of fish:
Three whales “lunge feeding”, driving fish to the surface and then, in a group (they often work together), rising to the surface with mouths open. These were close to the boat, as you can see, and the naturalist estimated there were about eighteen humpbacks feeding around our boat.
The seal carpet marking where the whales come up. Note its tiny dorsal fin.
That she blows! (And a fluke.)
Another lunge feeding:
Dripping fluke:
Common dolphin (Delphinus sp.; is it the short beaked dolphin?) playing by swimming at our bow:
And Bruce Lyon with his gigantic lens, happy (as was I) that we had a successful trip.
