Spot the dragonfly!

July 13, 2016 • 7:30 am

There are more “Spot the. . . . ” features coming in, so I’ll put up one today at the expense of “Readers’ Wildlife Photos,” which I still need more of. This puzzler comes from reader Mark Sturtevant, who contributed yesterday’s photos of butterflies. I’ll put up the reveal at noon Chicago time, and I’d place this one in the “pretty hard” category. You’ll surely have to enlarge the photo to find the odonate.

Mark’s notes:

Reader Barbara Wilson had recently posted a very good ‘spot the dragonfly’ picture. I regularly go out to take pictures of insects, and I chanced upon an opportunity to do this as well. So, spot the dragonfly in this picture. Oh, and for fun natural selection decided to make this dragonfly green. Mwa ha ha haaa.’

As usual, if you find it by all means gloat in the comments, but please don’t reveal the location!

spotthedragonfly2

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

July 13, 2016 • 6:30 am

It’s July 13, Wednesday already, and in Mongolia everyone’s celebrating the last day of Nadaam, an ancient festival that involves games of archery, horsemanship, and wrestling. I’d like to go to that country but doubt I’ll ever make it. On this day in history, the New York City Draft Riots, a protest against conscription, began in 1863. In 1923, the famous “Hollywood” sign was dedicated in Los Angeles; it originally read “Hollywoodland,” but the “land” bit was removed in 1949. In 2011, the infamous Bombay (Mumbai) bombings took place on July 13, and, in 2016—today!—Theresa May succeeds David Cameron as Britain’s Prime Minister, the second woman to hold that office after You Know Who. The good news is that May will keep on Larry, the ineffectual Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, at 10 Downing Street.

Notables born on this day include Kenneth Clark (1903), and Harrison Ford (1942). Those who died on this day include Sioux Chief “Young Man Afraid of His Horses” (1893), Alla Nazimova (1945), and Nadine Gordimer (2015). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is being splenetic about children. But notice how noble she looks, and how much she’s slimmed down this summer:

Hili: Small children are sheer horror.
A: Why?
Hili: They run around and shout. Human young should sleep more.
P1040531
In Polish:
Hili: Okropna sprawa z tymi małymi dziećmi.
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Biegają i krzyczą. Ludzkie maluchy powinny więcej spać.

This excellent tw**t came from a reliable source of solace, the “Emergency Kittens” site. It was sent by reader Gethyn, and the staff of this lovely kitten had the temerity to title the short video, “I hate her.” Seriously? Be sure to press the arrow to start.

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/752967070984331264

Popularizer of stovetop espresso machine buried in one

July 12, 2016 • 3:11 pm

This story is five months old, and has languished in the nether regions of my dashboard, but it’s still amusing. Apparently, the man who made famous the familiar Italian stovetop expresso machine died, was cremated, and his ashes preserved in. . yes. . a replicate of his great invention.

As Indy100 reports:

Renato Bialetti, who made stove-top espresso makers an international commodity, passed away last week – and his memorable funeral saw him buried in one of his famous pots.

Bialetti’s father Alfonso bought the patent for the aluminium design in 1933, but it was Renato who got the business going – he invested heavily in marketing and made himself the model for the famous L’omino con i baffi (the little man with a moustache) who still adorns each Moka pot today.

Here’s a video of the final mass.

 

I’m sure the readers can think of a gazillion puns here, like “he’s not in the ground, but he’s still grounds.” Knock yourself out.

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h/t: Matthew Cobb

Purdue student called to meet Dean over Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter

July 12, 2016 • 11:00 am

UPDATE:  I sent an email to the Dean, as well as to the President of Purdue. I reproduce both my email and the President’s response below. President Daniels denies there were any threats, but calling a student into an administrative meeting to “explore possible ways to establish a dialogue” seems to me like intimidation. Well, read for yourself.

Me to Andrew Pettee, copied to Purdue’s President and Dean of Students:

Dear Dr. Pettee,

I was distressed to learn that you have called one of your university’s  students, Joshua Nash, to your office for a discussion about his “alleged comments on Facebook.”  I have read Nash’s comments about the  Black Lives Matter movement, and find those comments deplorable, but that’s no reason to call him to account, scare him by holding a meeting  whose subject is withheld from him, and especially, as he’s said, to threaten him with expulsion. As you’re surely aware, what Nash says on social media counts as free speech, and should not be dealt with in anyway by your university. (An exception would be if he harasses or threatens other students, which he apparently didn’t).

At the University of Chicago we wouldn’t have any administrative contact with a student about his or her remarks on social media, for our  University has an unremitting policy of free speech. Apparently Purdue doesn’t.

I’ve written about this incident on my website, which has over 41,000 followers. I hope Purdue finally learns to do the right thing and stop threatening students for their extracurricular statements.

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2016/07/12/purdue-student-called-to-meet-dean-over-facebook-post-criticizing-black-lives-matter/

Yours sincerely,
Jerry Coyne

From President Mitch Daniels to me;

Thank you for your inquiry.  Purdue Northwest has never suggested, let alone threatened, the idea of disciplining the student in question for exercising his right to freedom of expression.  When, as here, an administrative meeting is called with a student on our Calumet campus, the purpose is to explore possible ways to support or establish a dialogue with that student, not to discipline him or her.  The idea is to see if there might be a teachable moment opportunity for the student, not to treat it as a conduct matter.  Protecting free speech is of central importance to our university, a commitment recognized by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education when it conferred on Purdue Northwest its highest “green light” rating for its speech policies.  Nothing involved in our administrative meeting process represents an abridgement of that stance.

*******

I have mixed feelings about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. They have eminently justifiable complaints about racism, but, as someone who grew up with the nonviolence and peaceful protests of the civil rights movement of the Sixties, I see some of their tactics as counterproductive. It was unconscionable, I thought, for the BLM to block the Gay Pride parade in Toronto and hold it hostage until their list of demands was met.  That’s hardly civil disobedience! Nor do I see criticism of the BLM, a generally positive movement, as equivalent to racism. Back in the day, for instance, one could criticize the Black Panthers while praising the NAACP.

That aside, a student at Purdue University named Joshua Nash apparently did criticize the BLM—on his Facebook page (see story here and here). As Reason.com reports:

“Black Lives Matter is trash because they do not really care about black lives,” Nash recalled writing on Facebook, according to The College Fix. “They simply care about making money and disrupting events for dead people.” Someone reported the comment to Facebook, which removed it and suspended him for a month.

On Twitter, Nash describes himself as a gay conservative Christian who uses the pronouns “God, Overlord, and #DangerousFaggot,” the latter being a reference to Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos. A Purdue administrator told Nash that describing himself in such a manner was “homopohobic,” according to The Fix.

At any rate, Nash’s comments‚—which I deplore—have gotten him in trouble with his University. On his Twi**er page he reproduced a letter he got from the Director of Student Assistance, Leadership, and conduct, asking for an “administrative meeting” regarding “alleged comments [he] made on Facbook:

https://twitter.com/ConservativeJZN/status/751126069449752576

Now it’s not clear that Nash’s problematic comments refer to the Black Lives Movement, though I suspect they do, but it doesn’t really matter. Whatever Nash says on social media—besides threatening or harassing other students, of which there’s no report—counts as free speech, and should not subject him to sanctions, much less the chilling request for an “administrative meeting” with the Purdue administration.

I can imagine how scared Nash, a biology major, is about this meeting—a meeting about which the University will provide no details, although they’ve apparently threatened him with expulsion.

Since receiving the summons, Nash said he asked the university for more details during a phone call. He alleges that, over the phone, a campus official said his social media comments could result in his expulsion. The College Fix could not immediately reach a campus official Friday to confirm or deny the claim.

Nash said the campus official he spoke to called the “#DangerousFaggot” in his Twitter bio “homophobic” over the phone.

“Those were their words,” according to Nash.

The #DangerousFaggot hashtag was made popular by Yiannopoulos, who toured college campuses nationwide under that moniker.

Nash told The Fix campus officials rejected his request for an email outlining specific details regarding the nature of his summons. He alleges they told him he must wait until he attends the required Administrative Meeting. Nash said he plans to attend the meeting, now slated for early August, with an attorney.

Pettee apparently runs the office of the Dean of Students (though not himself the Dean) at Purdue, and his website is here, along with an email address that you can use (and I will use) to email him.

Defending bigots is not the world’s most pleasant task, but it’s something we have to do for a greater good: preserving the free speech that undergirds all democracy.

 

“The solution lies not in our bullets, but in our ability to galvanize civil society”: Maajid Nawaz on how to stop Islamist terrorism

July 12, 2016 • 9:00 am

Maajid Nawaz was once an extremist Islamist—a recruiter for terrorist groups who spent years for his activity in an Egyptian prison. Nawaz then realized the dangers of Islamism is pernicious, became a liberal, and founded the London think tank Quilliam, dedicated to countering extremism.  Nawaz has criticized, as he does in the following video at the recent Oslo Freedom Forum, the invasion of Iraq, the use of drones by Americans, and the execution of Bin Laden. I agree with him on all these points. We should not be murdering people without a trial—if we’re able to capture them safely.

Despite Nawaz’s criticism of U.S. and British policy, he’s still demonized by Regressive Leftists, and for reasons I can’t fathom. He’s a Muslim, not an atheist;  he was once part of a terrorist network, so he’s seen it from the inside; and he’s espousing a peaceful, discussion-oriented solution to the problem of Islamist terrorism. What’s not to like?

Yet Nawaz is constantly criticized by the Regressive Left; they’ve called him a “porch monkey” as well as Sam Harris’s “Muslim validator” and his “lapdog.” The odious Nathan Lean, for whom I have nothing but contempt, took him apart in The Atlantic for, among other things, being too well dressed. I am beleaguered on email by nutjobs trying to convince me that Nawaz is a plant: a spy for terrorism who really intends to further the Caliphate! How dare Lean, or other Regressive Leftists, presume that they know better than Nawaz how to deal with the terrorist mentality.

Actually, even Nawaz’s solutions, discussed below, are problematic, for though I think he’s correct in arguing that we can’t shoot our way out of the problem, his solutions seem unworkable. Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, he calls for “galvanizing the grassroots and working with civil society activists”—trying to change the Islamist narrative into one in which Muslims develop constructive goals and accept democratic values. Yes, that’s the solution, but it seems far beyond reach. How can you persuade a faith whose adherents (not all of them!) accept the literal truth of the Qur’an to abandon the narrative of worldwide domination, to accept women and gays as equals, and to stop demonizing nonbelivers, apostates, and those of other faiths?

So although I’m energized by Nawaz’s talk, I am also pessimistic about his solutions. Nevertheless, one thing he says not only makes eminent sense, but is actually workable. And that’s this: “The solution lies in giving people permission to have this conversation. The problem with President Obama was that it was anything but wanting to have the conversation.”

The conversation, of course, is about the influence of a pernicious religious ideology on people’s behavior. We recognize how Catholicism and Christianity can erode people’s empathy and humanity, but we’re loath to do that with Islam. Instead, we’d rather blame the U.S. for the entirety of terrorism, with the ridiculous assumption that if we just pulled out of the Middle East (we’re largely out of there anyway), every bit of terrorism would stop.

Nawaz is right: we need to start having the discussion rather than avoiding it. Believe me, if a million Catholics started killing gays, subjugating women, and trying to establish the Pope’s reign over the entire world in the name of the Church, we wouldn’t have a problem criticizing the religious dogma causing that behavior. Nor would we claim, as does Bill Donohue, that Catholics are simply marginalized as persecuted. No, it’s only with Islam that we bridle. That’s partly because we’re scared of criticizing the faith (we all know the consequences of that), and partly because we consider Muslims, unlike Catholics, as oppressed “people of color.” But pigmentation doesn’t equate with virtue.

It’s time to have that conversation.

h/t: Malgorzata