Tuesday: Hili dialogue

April 17, 2018 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Good morning from a rainy, grey Ireland.

At least we are not the only ones experiencing sucky weather.

From Twitter:

A fly you probably haven’t seen before.

The critter in flight

Cats are cats, no matter the century.

Speaking of cats, Hili is discussing her most favorite subject of all time: food.

Marta: Do you like such sausages?
Hili: I suspect that I like them very much.

In Polish:

Marta: Lubisz takie kiełbaski?
Hili: Zdaje się, że bardzo.

Other cats are contemplating adventure and far horizons.

Leon: So? Are we going to fly?

Matthew found the eponymous scaredy-cat

And a cunning disguise.

JAC addendum: my friend Andrew Berry found this toilet seat in Hong Kong and sent me the photo with a note:

I’m surprised to find that in these parts the image you use to represent yourself online (ceiling cat) has made it on to toilet seats.  I confess to being impressed by the reach of your brand. But you might want to talk to your licensing people about whether bog seat decoration is the right direction for you as you lay the foundations of your globalization strategy.

Back to Grania:

Instead of world history, today I am going to do some vicarious eating. (Blame the weather).

There’s an eclectic bunch of Youtubers who cover cuisine that you may not be able to get in local neighborhood. Here are my favorites.

TabiEats hails from Japan and has a mixture of reviews and recipes of local Japanese food by Shinichi and his partner Satoshi. Shinichi grew up in Hawaii so he has an instinctive feel for what Westerners need to have explained to them and what they will find weird or strange.

Mark Wiens lives in Thailand and has traveled all over the world to sample local delicacies and street food.

The Food Ranger, a.k.a. Trevor James, is a Canadian living in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He specializes in street food and has traveled the world in search of food that Westerners often never get to see or try. If you want to see food from remote places that are far off the beaten track, this one’s for you.

Canadian husband and wife team, Simon & Martina used to live in Korea but have now moved to Japan. Their channel covers more than just food, and includes (mostly) urban life, culture, customs from the view point of a foreigner living abroad.

Chris Broad is British and living in Japan. His channel Abroad in Japan is not only about food, and is from the perspective of a foreigner visiting Japan. He is frequently joined by his friends Natsuki and Ryotaro who accompany him on food adventures across the Japanese countryside.

Demand for Catholic exorcisms rise

April 16, 2018 • 2:52 pm

For those who think that the Catholic Church is becoming saner and more liberal, have a gander at this article from the Guardian (click on screenshot to read it). I’ve reported before on the frequency of exorcisms in the Church (see here for a number of posts), and on the unofficial Vatican exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, who died two years ago claiming to have exorcised 160,000 demons.

As is clear from the article, the Vatican has neither denied the existence of demons nor distanced itself from exorcism as a way to expel them. The report deals with Father Cesar Truqui of Mexico, and the many exorcisms he’s performed. While he admits that many of them don’t involve actual demons, but still provide some psychological relief for people (I’m willing to accept that), there are some true demonic possessions:

Despite what Hollywood would have us believe, Truqui says full-on demonic possession is very rare. The vast majority of people who see him have normal problems or mental illnesses, and he says he has sent people to seek psychiatric help. But he says 2-3% show signs of demonic “vexation”.

These people, he claims, are capable of feats of superhuman strength. Sometimes their voice changes and they growl or speak in tongues. He claims to have witnessed people with vexations who can suddenly speak in Hebrew or Aramaic even though they have never studied the languages. Some are obsessive and show knowledge of what Truqui calls “secret things”, like what a person who is not present is doing or wearing, and they are sometimes overwhelmed by feelings of discomfort when they are in places of worship.

“Most of the time, the people who see me are victims,” he says.

Truqui also spoke at length about Satan, who he described as a pragmatic foe. “The devil tempts the holy man in his holiness and the sinner in his sin,” he says.

And here are some other instances of the Hornéd One’s appearance as a malefactor:

In his decade working as a Roman Catholic exorcist, expelling demons from individuals who he believes are possessed or vexed by the devil, the Mexican priest says the oddest thing he witnessed was the sudden appearance of a “satanic nail” on a tabletop.

“There had been nothing on the table and then suddenly it was there, a rusted black nail. We all saw it. I wanted to keep it but then I thought, no, it’s like keeping a radioactive thing,” he said.

And these are clearly signs of Satan’s power:

[Truqui’s] subjects, he says, have problems that cannot be explained in normal medical terms. One, who he believes may have been cursed by her mother-in-law, feels an almost constant sensation of daggers entering her legs, knitting needles in her arms, and a clenched hand at her chin. Another was so obsessed by self-gratification that he masturbated 40 times a day. “Normally speaking it is humanly impossible … so that is a satanic thing,” says Truqui.

I’m not going to pronounce on the demonic implications of a high frequency of masturbation, but clearly the Church’s belief in demons and the ability of ritual to expel them is a delusion. Again, I’m willing to admit that a ritual may help people who are anxious or have mental health issues—what better placebo is there than a caring priest and your feeling that he really can cast out demons?—but I suspect that treatment by a health care professional, who doesn’t have to decide which aberrant behavior really does result from demons, is superior.

In the meantime, it’s been reported in several places, including USA Today and Newsweek, that this month the Vatican is holding a week-long conference in Rome to train priests how to expel demons. This is necessary not only because it takes skill to recognize and get rid of real demons, but also because private practitioners are horning in on the Vatican’s monopoly of de-demonizing. As the New York Post reports (my emphasis):

While many of the reported cases are actually related to psychological or spiritual problems, Palilla conceded, they must still be investigated.

But the church is concerned that many priests either haven’t learned or refuse to learn exorcism techniques.

“We priests, very often, do not know how to deal with the concrete cases presented to us. In the preparation of priesthood, we do not talk about these things,” Palilla said.

In France, the demand for exorcists has also soared, but independent contractors have taken up the jobs — charging $178 an hour — as the Catholic Church neglected training priests in the practice, The Economist reported.

Palilla warned against using an amateur exorcist because they “certainly make errors.”

Exorcism is recognized under the Catholic Church’s canon law and can only be performed with permission from within the church. The Vatican-backed International Association of Exorcists was founded in 1990 and has licensed some 200 members across the world.

Note that the Vatican officially backs the practice of exorcism and supports the International Association of Exorcists. It’s also well known that Pope Francis, like Antonin Scalia, believes that Satan isn’t just a metaphor but a real figure, which he says is “a personal being who assails us.”

That is the Church’s beloved and liberal Pope, who still believes in a literal Satan. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

h/t: Grania

My interview with Freethought Matters (FFRF)

April 16, 2018 • 10:30 am

My affection and respect for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is well known, and I was delighted to visit there last month and do a few “events”. Here’s one of them: a half-hour interview with Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker, the co-Presidents of FFRF,

As always, I can’t bear to watch my own videos, and I probably don’t say much that’s new to readers here. So be it. For the record, the video:

City of Manchester are the soccerball champs!

April 16, 2018 • 10:16 am

by A. Lone Chipmunk*

In the weird world of UK soccerball, the First League champions are the City of Manchester team – often known as Man City, because all the players are men. The City play in light blue shirts, except when the shirts are dark red or a kind of muddy grey-green. They are owned by a very rich man from the Middle of East who has bought victory by buying lots of great players and the greatest manager in the history of the great game, Pepito Guardola, playing great soccerball and bringing great joy to the hearts of UK soccerball fans up and down the great nation of United Kingdom.

As is their tradition, the City became soccerball champs without kicking the ball, as their great friends, the United Manchester – who play in red so you can tell the two teams apart – were beaten at home by a team known as the Baggies because of the long shorts they wear. Because of this win by the Baggies, United of Manchester were banned from winning the First League and joy was unconfined over the whole of Manchester and the East of Middle.

You can see how happy the captain of the City was in this video. Vince Company, a Belge-man, was at his wife’s family’s house watching the Baggies win, clustered round an iPhone. The whole family was very happy, especially the United of Manchester fan in the red shirt, whose name is Sharp:

And, as we know with Soccerball, it will all start again very very soon:

* As told to Bat Womb Tech.

 

Apalachicola: Day 1b (fishing)

April 16, 2018 • 9:00 am

On Sunday we went fishing for several hours out near the long, skinny barrier islands around Apalachicola. There were four of us, all in a skiff skippered by my old friend and colleague, Doug Schemske (a retired evolutionary biologist who worked on plants). We were told to call him “Cap’n Doug” and to unquestioningly and immediately obey every order he gave us.

Here he is in front of the skiff:

Putting it in the water: a tricky but amazing operation. Properly aligned, the just jumps out of the trailer into the water when the towing car abruptly brakes.  Putting the boat back on its trailer is a much tricker and more complicated operation.

On the water. Cap’n Doug fishing with Carolyn Johnston, his partner and a surgeon who works in Michigan (they are retiring down here early next year). I didn’t fish as I didn’t have a license and I’m not keen on fishing anyway, though I like to watch.

We caught two kinds of fish. This is a spotted seatrout (or “speckled trout” or “drum”), Cynoscion nebulosus. It’s a beautiful fish, and a predator with a huge mouth and sharp teeth. Here’s a drawing of one:

Every fish we caught was immediately released (I had to photograph it quickly); Cap’n Doug was quite experienced with hook removal and fish were usually out of the water for only a few seconds.

Removing the hook and lure. Look at the size of that mouth!

A closeup of its eyes and teeth. It’s clearly a predator. Be sure you see the sharp canine teeth in its upper jaw.

The other species we caught, finding them very close inshore (the water we fished in was shallow: between 1.5 and 4 feet. This is the red drum, (Sciaenops ocellatus). This was the fish nearly driven to extinction after chef Paul Prudhomme popularized the dish “blackened redfish”. They vary in their number of body spots. There is some speculation that the spots are false eyespots, so that a predator like a shark or diving bird would go for the wrong part of the body.

John Willis (a professor of evolutionary plant biology at Duke and avid fisherman), holding one of the several red drums he caught. This is a “three spotter.”

And Caroline with her “three spot”:

The formidable Cap’n Doug, aka the Kim Jong-un of the Sea:

Cap’n Doug poling the boat, the way you move it slowly when trolling in very shallow water. I was supposed to pole but wasn’t keen on it as you have to balance on a high platform at the rear of the boat (you can see it in the photograph of the skiff at the top). You also have to know what you’re doing, which I didn’t. I served as the expedition photographer instead.

Always concerned for his charges, Cap’n Doug was amidships when a heavy wave hit the boat, knocking the skipper into the drink! Fortunately the water was only about two feet deep, and our Dear Leader recovered quickly, hoisting himself back into the boat from the briny. He was, however, dripping wet.

The day was enormously fun for all of us. The fisherpeople caught quite a few fish, and released all of them, while I got to watch the process, and also saw my first wild dolphins, which were herding mullet to eat. I also saw a school of red drum herding finger mullets; pelicans, osprey, terns, and cormorants diving for fish; and a big manta ray swimming underneath the boat.  One thing I learned is that life for a fish is dangerous: danger comes not only from birds above but also from other predatory fish. No wonder they are wary and hard to catch!

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

April 16, 2018 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Good morning, and welcome to a new week.

On April 16, 2012, the Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, and it was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize. It’s a subtle way of telling everyone who produced a book that year that they sucked. The New Yorker published a piece by one of the jurors which entirely fails to shed any light on what really happened in spite of being subtitled “What really happened this year“.

The earliest recorded history for today appears to be the Battle of Megiddo, although there is apparently some disagreement whether “the 21st day of the first month of the third season, of Year 23 of the reign of Thutmose III” translates to 1457 BC, 1482 BC or 1479 BC. Whichever it was, Thutmose III of Egypt fought the King of Kadesh leading a coalition of Canaanite states which culminated in an Egyptian victory at the city-fortress Megiddo after a seven-month siege.

Over in Poland, our friend Hili is having a religious moment.

A: Hili, you caught a mouse again.
Hili: I knew that god would provide.

In Polish:

Ja: Hili, znów złapałaś mysz?
Hili: Wiedziałam, że bóg mnie zaopatrzy.

From the other Polish felid of note:

Leon: Did you see that? Hare!

In Polish: Widziałaś? Zając!

On Twitter today:

I remember heading out into the countryside at night to see Halley’s Comet in 1986. What I saw was not as spectacular as this, but of course no photograph or sighting that year was as good as the 1910 visit. I’m unlikely to be around for 2061 so I guess that was as good as it was going to get.

Keeping on the astronomical theme, here’s a piece of the moon and Mars at the same palm.

Finally, an historical newspaper front page, for yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln.