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.
I was going to refer you in this post to a 52-minute conversation that Dave Rubin had with Roseanne Barr, but it was so painful to listen to (Barr was all over the place and at times sounded almost insane) that I can’t recommend it at all. Listen at your own peril.
However, Rubin by himself is fine. If you’ve been baffled by the new term “alt-right,” as I have, here’s Rubin discussing it in an 8-minute video.
Short take: The alt-right is a diverse group of powerless “keyboard warriors and professional trolls vying for attention for people in power.” The key is the use of the Internet to amplify one’s views. Rubin claims that it’s generally associated with fascists, anti-Semites, racists, neo-Nazis, or extreme conservatives, which he despises, but of course he’s a free-speech advocate and doesn’t feel they should be censored. And he thinks the group, such as it is, is a mixture of serious wackos and those who simply want to get attention.
Rubin adds that he sees the Regressive Left as far more of a societal danger than the alt-right, and the former, he claims, gave rise to the latter. I’m not sure to what extent Trumpism and alt-rightism is truly a reaction to Regressive Leftism, for I think most of the chowderheads who support Trump don’t follow the shenanigans of regressive leftists. How many Trump supporters or neo-Nazis, for instance, even know about Brandeis’s withdrawal of an honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or about the Great Halloween Costume Fracas at Yale?
At any rate, Rubin names only one alt-rightist, and that’s Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and apparently a fan of Trump. He’s had a conversation with Adams, which you can hear here (I haven’t yet listened).
I’m scheduled to do a show with Rubin in January, and I’m excited.
According to Minnesota Public Radio, the beloved Beatrix Potter started writing a gender-bending book about a cat—but the book was never completed (it’s now been finished and illustrated by others):
Here’s the backstory to this “new” Beatrix Potter book: Two years ago, a woman named Jo Hanks who’s an editor at Penguin Random House in the United Kingdom came upon a reference to a letter that Potter wrote in 1914. In that letter, Potter mentioned working on the manuscript of a story about “a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat who leads a rather double life.”
Hanks dug into Potter’s archives at The Victoria & Albert Museum and she found the manuscript of The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots. Potter had written three drafts of the story and had done one watercolor illustration of Kitty, but for various reasons, she died in 1943 without completing the book.
Skip to the present and this lavish debut edition of The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots.
What is it with cats and boots? (Not that I mind!) Here’s that one illustration, and they even look like cowboy boots:
Kitty is apparently genderfluid, which will appeal to younger Snowflakes-to-Be:
[The] ominous tone is set in the very first story when Peter Rabbit’s mother gives him and his sisters — Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail — a warning: “Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, “you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.” In its own quaint way, Potter’s landscape is every bit as Gothic as the Brontes’.
And, sometimes, as in The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, Potter’s stories are nearly as surreal as Lewis Carroll’s. The “Kitty” in question here calls herself “Miss Catherine St. Quintin,” and she does, indeed, lead a double life. By day she’s the docile pet of a kind old lady; by night she’s a poacher who prowls the countryside armed with an air-gun and dressed in “a gentleman’s Norfolk jacket, and little fur-lined boots.”
Kitty is such a convincing gender nonconformist that she’s mistaken for “a sportsman” by Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, the hedge-hog from an earlier tale. Other recognizable furry faces include fellow feline Tabitha Twitchit, Mr. Tod the creepy fox and a much older Peter Rabbit, described as “stout” and “very fat.” Rest assured, this is the closest we come here to that dread Atticus Finch moment in which a beloved character is changed for the worse.
The book will be released in three days, and you can order it on Amazon, where it’s already #1 in Children’s Classics.
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HiHomer tells us about a gang of farm cats (they look to be in very good shape) owned by Corey Karmann of Nebraska. Here’s a video of the herd showing up at feeding time. Listen to those yowls! The owner, who goes by the name karmanno, promised on YouTube to reply to the many critical comments (you can just imagine what was said!), but I haven’t yet seen his reply.
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Finally, I’ve written before about Giant Felt Cat Heads, which can scare the bejeezus out of anyone; but there’s a new report, with new pictures, at cattime.com(see also RocketNews24).
What better way to turn heads on the street than with a head? That’s the philosophy behind these awesome new cat masks designed by Japanese wool artist Housetsu Sato, who uses wool felt to make natural-looking cats heads that fit perfectly atop a human body. The artist has been perfecting the cat head design since April 2015, after he made a two-metre tall beckoning cat for a school festival that became incredibly popular. Sato found that the cat head on its own was a hit with students, who looked like hybrid feline-human beasts when they put it on.
. . . The heads are made of wool and look incredibly realistic if you don’t consider how big they are, and the eyes look like they’re following you wherever you go. All the heads are individually handmade, and the short-haired cat heads can be completed within a month. You can even get a head of your own cat made if you send the artist a photo.
I’ll have a Hili head, please! Ten to one you’d scare the hell out of your cat if you put one on.
. . . The heads don’t come cheap, however. They sell for 648,000 yen, which is about $6,220 US dollars. You can purchase them online from the Japanese site Dwango. The cost is pretty steep, but can you really put a price on walking around with a giant cat head and creeping out everyone around you?
For lagniappe, go read “Careless Whisker” (great title!) at the Guardian, describing an album of music for cats that will be released in late October.
Today we’re catching up with the backlog of photos I have from Mark Sturtevant. Be sure to keep your own wildlife photos coming in; I prefer to get between 4 and 10 photos, and please give IDs, including Latin binomials. Thanks!
Mark’s notes are indented:
Here is another installment of arthropods that I have photographed over this summer.
The first is one of our most familiar jumping spiders, the ‘bold jumper’, or Phidipus audax. This very pregnant girl was found on what I have dubbed my ‘magic tree stump’, since it is where I have made several very good finds. The caterpillar she is carrying appears to be for the eight-spotted forester moth (Alypia octomaculata).
Next is another jumping spider. I occasionally see these, and was curious to learn what they were. It turns out that it is probably one of many subspecies of Phidipus audax, and that not all of them have green chelicerae. I was rather surprised to learn that.
Next is this dragonfly, and my d*g it is the hairiest odonate I have ever seen. I would frequently see this species patrolling meadows as this one was, but I could never get a picture since they would not land. After once again not getting a picture of this mystery dragonfly, I was later chased out of the woods by an approaching rain shower. On my way to the car I checked the meadow where I had earlier seen one on patrol, and saw it perched, maybe retiring as I was because of rising winds and increasing rain. So at last I got a picture. It is probably the common baskettail (Epitheca cynosura), but I cannot entirely rule out the very similar slender baskettail (E. costalis). They are really hard to tell apart, differing in tiny details like the amount of pigment at the base of the wings (and the pigment is variable), and the height of the tooth that projects downward from the cerci at the end of the abdomen.
Although it is kind of random, readers in the Midwest and also Eastern U.S. might want to check out this web site developed by the Ohio DNR. It contains a lovely series of online field guides to various animal groups in Ohio, and it was from their field guide on dragonflies and damselflies that I easily narrowed down identifying the above dragonfly.
Next, ever have a loudly buzzing and rather scratchy insect land on the back of your neck? For most people you can at least swat it away, with some chance of not getting stung if it was a bee or wasp. But I can’t do that since I might want to take its picture. Anyway, I took a chance and grabbed this large insect that had landed on my neck, and was rewarded by this beautiful metallic wood borer (Dicerca sp.).
Finally we have this rather odd looking ant, with a strangely small head and remarkably long legs. It turns out to be a male black carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus).
We’re set for a beautiful and COOL weekend in Chicago, with highs today about 74°F (23°C), and no rain. And hooray—today is National Hummingbird Day! Since many readers have hummingbird feeders, make sure you check yours, and perhaps give them a special treat, like maple syrup or honey!
On this day in 1935, Malcolm Campbell became the first person to exceed 300 mph in a car, driving on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and averaging 301.337 mph (484.955 km/h) in two runs. Exactly 8 years later, in 1943, Zyklon B, which produces cyanide gas, was first used by the Nazis to exterminate people. That was at Auschwitz, and the victims were Soviet prisoners of war.
Notables born on this day include the actor Alan Ladd (1913). Below is my dad (right) with Ladd (left) in front of the Parthenon in Athens; Ladd was there to film Boy on a Dolphin with Sophia Loren, in 1956. My dad, an Army officer, had helped the film crew procure vehicles and gas from the Army motor pool, for gas was still scarce in postwar Greece. I also have a photo of my dad with the young Sophia Loren, which I’ll post on her birthday (Sept. 20; someone remind me the day before!).
Those who died on this day include Ivan Turgenev (1883), E. E. Cummings (1962), Pauline Kael (2001), and Sun Myung Moon (2012). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is quoting Karl Marx (“Freedom is consciousness of necessity”)! How did she learn that quote? Anyway, she looks cute:
A: What are you thinking about?
Hili: About the problem of consciousness of necessity.
A: And?
Hili: It’s a weak consciousness.
In Polish:
Ja: Nad czym myślisz?
Hili: Nad problemem uświadomionej konieczności.
Ja: I co?
Hili: Słabo uświadomiona.
And in Winnipeg Gus, like all cats, drinks out of inappropriate vessels:
This is gratifying, despite the numerous creationists infesting the comments—people who don’t know squat about biology and nevertheless feel compelled to pronounce on it. Several people said, “We know nothing about speciation,” apparently unaware that I wrote a 450-page book telling biologists what we know (and want to know) about that very field!
Even worse are those who, having no arguments, just call me names; as Hitchens said, “If they start insulting you, you know they’ve got nothing.” Or something like that. (By the way, should remarks attacking the evolution of humans be called ad hominin?) Fortunately, my skin is too thick to be disturbed by them, though I briefly thought of playing the victim and starting a pity-based Patreon.
Let’s end the week with Kuli, the Surfing Cat. Apparently, as you can see from the second video, Kuli went into the ocean of his own accord. And why not? As second video notes, Kuli was brought up in constant contact with water because of his messy eating habits, and from there, the sky—or rather, the sea—is the limit!
Here’s the YouTube description:
Surf’s up for this floating feline! A cat has been seen out in the surf, riding on the backs of its owners.
Nankuli, known as Kuli, the cat, from Honolulu, Hawaii, has been surfing with owners Alexandra Gomez and Krista Littleton for over a year after they rescued the on-eyed moggy.
Kuli, whose name means to look blind, was adopted weighing only one pound, but has gone on to become an expert in riding the waves.
Note that Kuli has a safe space! He’s a snowflake!
Finally, some full surfing footage from National Geographic. He looks a little scared at first.
I’ve heard various rumors that Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter, better known as the “Ark Park”, isn’t drawing the huge crowds of goddies—or young goddies-to-be—that it predicted. According to The Friendly Atheist, Ken Ham said the park would lure 2 million visitors a year, or 5,500 visitors a day, but it didn’t even get those numbers the first week it opened. Maybe Ham was lying to draw funds for his venture (after all, he lies to draw people to his ministry), or maybe he was overoptimistic.
Now, according to DeadState, things look even more dire. The site gives some drone footage (video below) taken of the Park’s parking lot last Sunday. Sure enough, it looks like the opening session of the National Procrastinator’s Association.
To be sure, DeadState notes that this footage was taken 30 minutesbefore the park opened at noon, so it’s not all that convincing. Maybe all the good Christians were in Church that morning and would show up later. Still it’s worrisome—to Ham, not me, as I’m delighted. Who wants big attendance at an exhibit devoted to purveying lies to children?
Well, whoever sent that drone over the Park: please do it on a weekend afternoon. That would be more telling.
We’ve all seen plenty of examples of speeches at universities disrupted by offended students, speech invitations withdrawn because of student protests, and honorary degrees rescinded because of political offense (viz., Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis). But this is the first case I know of where a presentation was cancelled out of fear that it might offend students. And that fear was unsubstantiated and would have been unwarranted.
What happened, in brief, is that Syracuse University planned a conference next spring called “The Place of Religion in Film”, and a documentary filmmaker was invited to show a relevant (and well regarded) film there. The invitation came from a professor at the University of Nebraska who was also an organizer of the conference. The film was by Simon Dotan, and I’ll quote from The Atlantic:
The award-winning filmmaker, who sits on the faculty of New York University’s graduate school of journalism, recently finished a feature length documentary,The Settlers, that chronicles the history and present state of the religious settler movement in the West Bank, where more than 400,000 Israeli Jews live on occupied land.
The film is “one of the first close-up views of the motives and personalities in a group that rarely opens up to outsiders,” The New York Times noted. Variety raved that its festival presence is assured, and said that it is gripping enough to break out to wider audiences.
More about the film’s message later, but it’s not what you’re probably thinking.
After the invitation to Dotan was extended, with an offer to fly him from Israel to Syracuse, and then to Omaha for another screening, Professor M. Gail Hamner, a professor of Religion at Syracuse, put the kibosh on the invitation. Not because there were protests, mind you, but because she feared that the BDS group (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, a notoriously nasty and anti-Semitic outfit) would object. But Hamner hadn’t even seen the film, or, apparently, knew anything about it. Here’s the letter she wrote to Dotan rescinding the invitation (my emphases):
Dear Professor Dotan,
I know you have been in contact with my Omaha colleague, Bill Blizek, about screening The Settlers and serving as plenary speaker at a religion and film conference in Syracuse in March, 2017. I am the convener of that conference and I found Bill’s description of your work, and the reviews I read of it exciting.
I now am embarrassed to share that my SU colleagues, on hearing about my attempt to secure your presentation, have warned me that the BDS faction on campus will make matters very unpleasant for you and for me if you come. In particular my film colleague in English who granted me affiliated faculty in the film and screen studies program and who supported my proposal to the Humanities Council for this conference told me point blank that if I have not myself seen your film and cannot myself vouch for it to the Council, I will lose credibility with a number of film and Women/Gender studies colleagues. Sadly, I have not had the chance to see your film and can only vouch for it through my friend and through published reviews.
Clearly I am politically naive. I also feel tremendous shame in reneging on a half-offered invitation.
I do want to stress that my colleague who Chairs our SU Jewish Studies program, Zak Braiterman, was fully willing to strongly support your coming, even though he too has not yet screened your film.
Obviously, my decision here has nothing to do with you or your work, and nothing to do with Bill, who contacted you in good faith. I feel caught in an ideological matrix and by my own egoic needs to sustain certain institutional affiliations.
I sign off in hopes that I do have the chance to engage your work one day, and in prayer that you’ll forgive me. My sincere apology and best wishes,
M. Gail Hamner
Professor
Religion Department
Affiliated Faculty in Women and Gender Studies
Affiliated Faculty in Film and Screen Studies
Syracuse University
And so Dotan’s film will not be shown because of the mere perception and fear that BDS activists would make trouble, and Hamner’s reputation would be sullied! I know of no similar cases.
But here’s the real kicker: BDS wouldn’t be making trouble if they knew about the film, for it’s not pro-settler! As Friedersdorf notes:
The political viewpoint of The Settlers shouldn’t matter. But a final irony is that the documentary, while allowing all sides to speak in their own words, portrays the settlements in a negative light, and is skeptical, at the very least, toward many settlers. A typical educated audience member would emerge with new knowledge of terrorist acts perpetrated by Israeli settlers, explicit racism in the settler movement, and a sense of the apartheid culture that has been created in the West Bank. Had I seen the film before learning of this controversy rather than after, I would have expected any attempts to stop it from being screened to come from the pro-Israel faction that has threatened free speech at the University of California.
Now I’ve argued that using the “apartheid” trope isn’t really appropriate to Israeli treatment of Arabs, but I’m not going to get into that argument now. The film deserved to be shown because of its quality and because it would provoke discussion. I haven’t seen it, but I would go to see it, and I would never protest its being shown.
If you don’t think that The Offense Culture of students has had a chilling effect on free speech, read the above. In fact, it’s prevented the showing a film that the Perpetually Offended would have welcomed. They’re hoist with their own petard, but so are the rest of us—as this toxic student culture spreads through the US and UK.
