I’ve often criticized Laura Helmuth’s editorship of Scientific American, as she seems to have transformed what was once America’s best popular-science magazine into a propaganda bulletin for progressive Leftism. Yes, the magazine still has ideology-free science articles, but more and more often the “science” articles are polluted by ideology (see here for my many posts criticizing the content of the magazine).

Michael Shermer, who wrote a monthly column for the magazine that began in 2001, was fired 18 years later after a run of 214 consecutive essays, apparently for espousing uncomfortable truths. He documented his deteriorating relationship with the magazine in a Skeptic column called “Scientific American goes woke: A case study in how identity politics poisons science.” If you don’t want to review all my posts at the first link, Shermer’s essay summarizes the problem.  I will point out a related incident invoving me and a bunch of other evolutionary biologists who wrote a letter to the magazine criticizing an article charging biologist E. O. Wilson with racism. (Mendel was also accused of racism, though there’s not the slightest evidence that the monk wrote anything about race.) Despite the egregious and tendentious nature of the article, written by Monica R. McLemore, our letter was rejected.  That was expected, since it flouted the magazine’s politics.

I pin much of the decline of Scientific American, and its increasing embrace of progressive ideology, to editor Laura Helmuth.  And nothing documents her fervent embrace of politics better than her petulant reaction to the election of Donald Trump 0n Tuesday. I didn’t like the election results, either, but Helmuth had a public meltdown that was noticed by a lot of people, including the Free Press.

One good thing about free speech, first pointed out by Mill in On Liberty, is that it identifies views of people who may have kept them hidden, and even if you don’t like those views you now know who holds them.  In this case I share Helmuth’s distress at the election results, but there are ways and ways of reacting, particularly if you’re the editor of a magazine which, breaking with 175 years of journalistic neutrality, first endorsed Joe Biden for President in 2020 and then Kamala Harris this year. Well, Sci. Am. won one but lost this one, and Helmuth threw a public tantrum on BlueSky, as you see below.

The tweet below is from  Benjamin Ryan, a health and science writer who’s published in the Atlantic, the NYT, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and other places (a similar tweet was issued by Michael Shermer, who called Scientific American “a shill for far-left progressives.” He retweeted something put up by data scientist Kevin Bass.

The editor in chief of @sciam, Laura Helmuth, has increasingly pushed the publication to take ideological stances on scientific issues, such as gender medicine. Despite evidence that when Nature endorsed Joe Biden, this compromised readers’ trust, she had SciAm endorse Harris. https://t.co/QjyNP17wJw

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) November 6, 2024

She first apologizes for her generation X as being “full of fucking fascists”  As the Free Press pointed out in its morning newsletter, “Fifty-four percent of Gen X voted Trump.”

The second tweet speaks for itself, “Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high school classmates are celebrating early results [presumably Trump moving ahead of Harris] because fuck them to the moon and back.”  Unfortunately, the antecedent of the people who are supposed to be “fucked to the moon” is unclear, but she presumably means those backing Trump.

The third tweet continues the meltdown: “Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect the people who stayed and are trying to make it less racist and sexist. The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself.”  The “moral arc” trope is from Martin Luther King, Jr. The whole quote imputes Harris’s loss to racism and sexism, and implies that Indiana is full of people with those vices.

The entire tweet is just an ill-tempered and unwise outburst—a tantrum—taking aim at all Trump supporters as mean, dumb, racist, and sexist, as well as fascists. This is not good optics for the magazine, but it does explain its increasing progressive slant. Realizing the bad optics, Helmuth removed the tweets, but it was too late. The Internet is forever.  I didn’t see these directly, but heard about them from several readers as well as The Free Press. Currently, Helmuth’s tweets are protected, even though she follows me. I have no interest in requesting access.

Helmuth later added one request to the tweet-set before deleting them all, requesting solutions to what is presumably the Scientific American staff suffering from a lack of consoling hot chocolate, puppies, and Lego sets (that’s what I’d advise her).

Update pic.twitter.com/YnTgAiBCuU

— Kevin Bass PhD MS (@kevinnbass) November 6, 2024

Yes, of course many of us are distressed by the election results. Does any centrist or liberal really want to live through the next four years? We know what is in store: lies, lawsuits, braggadocio, and assurance that “America has entered its golden age,” not to mention the partition of Ukraine. But we gain nothing by demonizing all our opponents as fascists and telling them to self-copulate to the Moon. We’ll see how much bipartisanship is in store in the next term—perhaps not much—but right now I don’t feel like throwing tantrums or calling names. I suggest living with the election results, perhaps criticizing and analyzing them for a bit, but then move on, doing whatever political acts you think would improve the country. My prediction about Scientific American, though, is that iut will not move on. Its strong leanings toward progressive liberalism that border on the unhinged is surely something that alienates centrist readers from not only the magazine, but also from science itself. I don’t think Helmuth realizes that her and her magazine’s politics has helped forge the problem she wails about.

Here’s a screenshot of Ryan’s following tweet (hard to embed from Twitter)

And here are a few readers’ comments, one from Shermer, that I found apposite. I’ve used some screenshots of tweets since it’s impossible to embed them without repeating the tweet that spawned them. Click tweets to see them.

A video showing Harris as a Libra arguing about what to watch on television:

This is her “science” candidate endorsing astrology. pic.twitter.com/Ll2WAMZhkb

— Augustina 🇻🇦 (@AugustinaJJD) November 6, 2024

From Shermer (the link is to a Qullette podcast):

Actual headlines from Scientific American. @jonkay and I discuss these and the larger problem of woke progressivism in science, academia, and journalism:https://t.co/o6KTSf0qpX pic.twitter.com/hUIPkC0ty9

— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) January 18, 2022

To quote Lenin, “What is to be done?” Well, I wouldn’t subscribe to the magazine, but everyone has to make their own choice. But I remain amazed that the owners of Scientific American continue to let it circle the drain (actually, half of it is already in the drain).

Rongoā Māori is the “indigenous way of healing”: a combination of herbal and spiritual medicine used by the Māori of New Zealand.  As The Encyclopedia of New Zealand notes, there were both supernatural and human illnesses, with the former treated through spiritual means (e.g., prayers, dunking in water, and other treatments described below), and the latter through herbal remedies. Here, for example, are the supernatural maladies and remedies:

Mate atua – supernatural illnesses

Mate atua were supernatural afflictions, sometimes caused by malevolent spirits when a person had broken a tapu (religious restriction). Dealing with mate atua required a tohunga (priest). His first job was to determine the hara (transgression) committed, and to identify the spirit. The tohunga took a thorough case history of all the patient’s actions before they got ill, sometimes including the patient’s and family’s dreams.

A tohunga’s job

Tohunga were experts in various fields, including the arts, agriculture, fishing, warfare and healing. They were also seen as the earthly medium of the gods, and were intensively trained in whare wānanga (houses of higher learning). Tohunga held a position of authority and respect, but also had the huge responsibility of keeping their people healthy.

Finding the cause was the first stage of treatment, followed by exorcism of the spirit that had possessed the patient. The next stage was a whakahoro (purificatory rite) to remove the effects of the tapu. This usually involved dipping the patient in a stream while the tohunga performed a karakia (prayer) or incantation.

Mariunga

The Ngāti Porou leader Tuta Nihoniho described the mariunga – a wand of wood such as karamū, māpou or maire, which was touched to the body of an invalid and received their essence. It was then taken to a tohunga, who could tell whether the patient would recover.

Takutaku rite

Another rite, the takutaku, involved touching the patient with a karamū leaf, which was then floated downstream. The malevolent spirit would be carried to sea and then to Te Waha o te Parata (a huge whirlpool, caused by a great monster), and finally to the underworld. Freed of the spirit, the patient was then sprinkled with, or immersed in, water.

The site also lists a number of herbal plants used for “human” illnesses, although, as far as I know, none of them have been tested by the gold standard of modern medicine: controlled, randomized, and double-blind testing. I have no doubt that some of these plants do work, but in the absence of testing we won’t really know which ones, and how efficacious they are.

As Wikipedia notes, these forms refer. .

. . . . to the traditional Māori medicinal practices in New Zealand. Rongoā was one of the Māori cultural practices targeted by the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907, until lifted by the Maori Welfare Act 1962. In the later part of the 20th century there was renewed interest in Rongoā as part of a broader Māori renaissance.

Rongoā can involve spiritual, herbal and physical components. Herbal aspects used plants such as harakeke, kawakawa, rātā, koromiko, kōwhai, kūmarahou, mānuka, tētēaweka and rimu.

The practice of Rongoā is only regulated by the Therapeutics Products Bill in the case of commercial or wholesale production so that “Māori will continue using and making rongoā just as they have for generations.”

The Tohunga Suppression Act outlawed traditional medicine in favor of “Western” medicine, but, as the note above shows, the ban lasted just 55 years, and Rongoā Māori is now again legal, though its practitioners often realize that they need to send patients to modern doctors if a traditional cure doesn’t look propitious.

However, there seems to be a move afoot to make Rongoā Māori coequal to modern medicine, if not in curative properties at least in “deep mutual respect.” But, those two items are not independent, for how can a modern physician respect medicines that haven’t been properly tested, much less have any respect for supernatural cures?

What is bad about the attempt to get “deep respect” for indigenous medicine that hasn’t been properly vetted, is that with medicine, unlike with incorporating other indigenous ways of knowing into teaching (e.g., Māātauranga Māori), human lives and health are at stake, so I do have issues with the article below in the ANZ Journal of Surgery (click to read for free).

This study is really an anecdotal one, and with a very small and geographically limited sample, too. The authors recruited four colorectal “Western” surgeons (WS) from the Christchurch region of New Zealand, all of whom had expressed interest in Rongoā Māori (RM). Likewise, the authors recruited seven Rongoā Māori practitioners, four of whom volunteered to be part of the study. Therefore we have a total of eight subjects, all of whom were asked their views about the medicine practiced by the other group. The interviews took place once, and were 30-60 minutes long.  The actual study thus lasted a maximum of eight hours.

The upshot:

Western surgeons’ perspectives on RM

The results are no surprise: the doctors didn’t know much about RM. But they were “open to collaboration”, though it wasn’t clear what kind of collaboration. (I can understand that a Māori patient might want a Māori RM practitioner around, at least for solace and cultural comfort.)  And of course the doctors thought that, in general, there needs to be better communication between practitioners of modern and of indigenous medicine. Finally, the surgeons cited “systemic barriers, such as bureaucratic hurdles and the absence of clear referral pathways” as impediments to collaboration or “integration”.

Rongoa practitioners’ perspectifes on modern medicine

The indigenous doctors “often feel overlooked within the healthcare system.  And this leads to the article’s theme: that modern medicine must be infused in some way with indigenous medicine: a “genuine collaboration”. For instance we read this:

Rongoā practitioners often feel overlooked within the healthcare system. This highlights the need for initiatives that aim to raise the profile of Rongoā Māori within New Zealand’s healthcare system (Table 1). One practitioner mentioned ‘collaboration is minimal, at this stage like the non-Māori community certainly don’t even know that Rongoā exists or anything about it and so that’s not being referred’.

. . . Formulating a genuinely collaborative approach requires recognition of Rongoā Māori as a an option in the patient care journey. ‘Building relationships is key… maybe starting with shared learning experiences,’ one practitioner suggested, proposing foundational steps towards effective collaboration.

. . . . This perspective challenges the healthcare sector to move beyond tokenistic inclusion, advocating for a genuine integration of Rongoā Māori that honours its potential to contribute to improved health outcomes, particularly for Māori patients.

. . . Understanding Rongoā Māori in its full depth requires acknowledging and valuing its comprehensive approach to health, which integrates the spiritual, mental, and physical dimensions of well-being.

The problem here is that we do not know the potential of RM to contributed to improved health outcomes–not without scientific testing of RM remedies, especially the “spiritual” ones. The article refers repeatedly to “mutual respect” of the two types of medicine, as well as the advantage of RM in being “holistic” (presumably meaning it uses spiritual cures as well as medical ones).

The conclusion, which was inevitable, is that modern medicine should collaborate with RM in curing patients. I quote from the paper (bolding is mine):

As identified in the interviews, it is imperative that a curriculum for healthcare professionals encompasses not only the theoretical concepts but also the practical applications of Rongoā Māori. This requires a willingness to move beyond a cursory acknowledgement of Indigenous practices within the medical education system to embedding it as a vital component of healthcare training. It was proposed that an effective educational initiative could take the form of an immersive wānanga on a marae, where tauira (students) and tākuta (doctors) would have the opportunity to learn directly from Rongoā practitioners in a setting that honours the roots of the mātauranga.^28–30 In addition to this, incorporating placement based learning would further enable Western practitioners to observe the holistic model of care first hand. This aligns with the insights from the interviews where it was emphasized that Rongoā Māori is dynamic in its practice and does not follow a prescribed regimen.¹⁷ By having the opportunity to experience this personalized approach, healthcare professionals can better appreciate the value of nurturing this collaborative relationship.

. . .Recognizing the immense benefits that a holistic model of healthcare offers, there is an unequivocal need to navigate and dismantle the systemic barriers that Rongoā practitioners are faced with. This necessitates a concerted push to ensuring Indigenous healing practices are formally recognized within healthcare frameworks to facilitate a collaborative coexistence with Western medical practices. Moreover, establishing structural support to facilitate funding and infrastructure is an essential component to enhancing the capacity of the current healthcare system to address a diverse range of health needs and allowing this to thrive. It is paramount that this collaboration is guided by Rangatira and Tohunga in this field to ensure the delivery of health services is culturally congruent and responsive. The move towards an inclusive healthcare system that respects the diversity of cultures aligns with Te Tiriti o Waitangi’s principles, honouring Māori sovereignty and self-determination over their health.

“Te Teriti,” of course, is the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which made England the sovereign government of New Zealand, conferred on the Māori British citizenship with all the attending rights, and allowed Māori to keep their lands and possessions. But there is nothing about health in that treaty at all, though of course anybody can “self determine” whether they get care, and whether they get RM care, modern medicine, or both. But the Treaty of Waitangi has assumed an almost sacred position in New Zealand culture, now viewed as mandating that all aspects of Māori culture and “ways of knowing” must be considered coequal in the country. Right now there’s a big battle about how far Māori “ways of knowing” are taught as coequal to science in schools, and the indigenous people seem to be winning that fight. This article is just a salvo in the battle for medicinal hegemony.

But before they win the Battle of Medicine, any RM-based cures, whether they be based on plants or supernaturalism, must be tested—and tested according to the best procedures of modern medicine, usually double-blind, randomized, and controlled trials. Without those trials, you simply can’t be sure that a treatment works. Saying “our tradition shows that it works” is not sufficient, nor is the claim “well, it worked for me!”  We all know the power of confirmation bias and of the placebo effect, and the kind of testing described above is designed to eliminate these effects. (As Richard Feynman famously said, “You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”)

So no: there cannot be deep mutual respect between indigenous medicine and modern (aka “Western”) medicine until indigenous treatments are tested according to the standards of Western medicine. It will not work the other way around.

I am heartened that some RM practitioners recognize when herbs and superstition won’t work, and summarily hand their patients over to modern doctors.  But I don’t think RM should be integrated with modern medicine, or treated with great respect.  Until it’s proven efficacious, the null hypothesis should be that the untested treatments of RM comprise quackery

Don’t forget to set your clocks BACK one hour before you go to bed tonight, as Daylight Savings time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday. It’s a pity that it doesn’t end on Monday morning, as then you can sleep an hour later on a work day!

We need to get rid of this stupid time adjustment. In fact, two American states do not observe this time change. Can you name them? Try guessing, but don’t spoil for others by putting their names in the comments. Just say “got it” or “didn’t get it.” The answer is here.

Caturday felids are resuming again, though I’m pondering deep-sixing this feature.  But today, at least, we have the usual three items.

First, some sad news from the Tokyo Weekender: Asoshima, one of Japan’s “cat islands” where a gazillion felines roam free and tourists come to feed them, may lost its allure. As the article below notes (click to read), because of spaying and neutering no kittens have been born there, and the existing feline residents are aging.  Click headline to read, and go to this Atlantic article to see some cool pictures.

An excerpt:

It’s an island without accommodation, shops, cafés or even any vending machines. Located a 30-minute ferry ride off the coast of Ozu city in Ehime Prefecture, it’s also a tricky place to get to. Yet despite all of this, Aoshima — commonly referred to as Cat Island — has become a popular tourist spot down the years. The reason is, of course, the large number of cats that inhabit the place. Sadly, though, this feline paradise won’t be around as a tourist destination for much longer. Earlier this month, a tweet on X by aoshima_cat titled “The Future of Cat Island” revealed the gravity of the situation. 

The number of cats is gradually decreasing,” it read. “The felines are getting older. Currently, the cats on the island are all over 7 years old. Since the spaying and neutering carried out in October 2018, no kittens have been born. We think the cats will cross the rainbow bridge in a few years. There are currently five residents on the island. As tourists stop coming to the island, there will be talk of reducing or maybe canceling the regular ferry service. When ‘Cat Mama’ grows old and leaves, that will be the end of Cat Island. It’s a sad story.”  

“Cat Mama” refers to a 73-year-old resident of the island who provides the most care for the felines, including storing food for them. This has become increasingly important as tourist numbers have been dwindling recently, which means the cats are being fed less. Though they receive food donations from all over Japan and eat small creatures on the island, it is believed that without Cat Mama’s support, many of them would go hungry. 

Save the cats! Here’s a 7½-minute video of a visit to Aoshima, which notes the waning number of cats:

A brief history of the island:

Aoshima was previously a remote fishing village that thrived thanks to the huge numbers of sardines in the surrounding waters. It was a great location for fishermen, but they had a rodent problem as rats were gnawing away at their nets. The solution was to adopt stray cats they encountered at various ports. They brought them back on their boats and often left them on Aoshima. This helped kill off the rats and later boosted tourism. Eventually, though, the number of sardines in the area started to decline and residents began to leave. 

The population, which was around 900 after World War II, dropped to 13 in 2017. At the same time, the number of cats was in the hundreds. Aging residents felt there were too many of them and not enough people to look after them. The Aoshima Cat Protection Society, therefore, recommended that every cat on the island be spayed or neutered in order to gradually reduce the population. The sterilizations took place in 2018.

A view on Wikipedia of the cats being fed on Aoshima. Note the preponderance of orange cats. Is that a founder effect?

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Meet Defib the cat, an appropriate name for a cat living in an ambulance station. The article below from the BBC (click to read) tells a more heartening tale than the one above. Defib was going to be given the boot, but he eventually stayed!

An excerpt:

Defib from the BBC:

Edward, who used to work at the ambulance station and knew Defib for a decade, told BBC London: “He is very friendly and therapeutic.

“I’m happy that they’ve (LAS) changed their stance, and decided to change their minds.

“It gives Defib a safe, secure place to live for the rest of his days, and also provides staff that outlet and stress relief that pets bring.”

Defib’s message on the petition website concluded, saying: “Thanks so much for giving one small cat such a huge voice. I cannot express how grateful I am.

“Nose boops for all!”

9.5 minutes of Defib on the news:

And a short Tik Tok video showing Defib in action before he was saved:

@rapidblues

Save Defib the cat ❤️ Victory! Defib wins! ❤️🐈‍⬛ “With all your help, love and kindness a decision has been made to let me stay in my beloved home with my amazing friends. Thanks so much for giving one small cat such a huge voice. I cannot express how grateful I am. Nose boops for all!” #xyzbca #ambulancedriver #fyp #ambulance #paramedic #emt #nhs

♬ You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Michael Bublé

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Now here we have some SCIENCE: to wit, an article from the eponymous journal showing that cats outstrip babies in the task of associating words with images. Click below to read about feline smarts:

An excerpt:

Even if your cat hasn’t gotten your tongue, it’s most likely getting your words. Without any particular training, the animals—like human babies—appear to pick up basic human language skills just by listening to us talk. Indeed, cats learn to associate images with words even faster than babies do, according to a study published this month in Scientific Reports. That means that, despite all appearances to the contrary, our furtive feline friends may actually be listening to what we say.

Cats have a long history with us—about 10,000 years at last count—notes Brittany Florkiewicz, an evolutionary psychologist at Lyon College who was not involved in the work. “So it makes sense that they can learn these types of associations.”

Scientists have discovered a lot about how cats respond to human language in the past 5 years. In 2019, a team in Tokyo showed that cats “know” their names, responding to them by moving their heads and ears in a particular way. In 2022, some of the same researchers demonstrated that the animals can “match” photos of their human and feline family members to their respective names.

The article is actually in Nature Scientific Reports, and you can access it by clicking below:

The summary (from Science, not the article above) tells how they assessed the cats’ facility at word association:

“I was very surprised, because that meant cats were able to eavesdrop on human conversations and understand words without any special reward-based training,” says Saho Takagi, a comparative cognitive scientist at Azabu University and member of the 2022 study. She wondered: Are cats “hard-wired” to learn human language?

To find out, Takagi and some of her former teammates gave 31 adult pet cats—including 23 that were up for adoption at cat cafés—a type of word test designed for human babies. The scientists propped each kitty in front of a laptop and showed the animals two 9-second animated cartoon images while broadcasting audio tracks of their caregivers saying a made-up word four times. The researchers played the nonsense word “keraru” while a growing and shrinking blue-and-white unicorn appeared on the screen, or “parumo” while a red-faced cartoon Sun grew and shrank. The cats watched and heard these sequences until they got bored—signaled by a 50% drop in eye contact with the screen.

Next, the team gave the animals a short break and then ran the images on the screen four more times. On this round, though, there was a twist: Half the images came with the “wrong” word audio—keraru for the Sun, and parumo for the unicorn.

Visibly perplexed, the cats spent an average of 33% more time looking at the screen when hearing such mismatches—a sign they had learned to associate the original words with images, Takagi says. “Some cats even gazed at the screen with their pupils dilated during the ‘switched’ condition,” she says. “It was cute to see how seriously they participated in the experiment.”

Surprisingly, the vast majority of the cats had learned each word-image association after only two 9-second lessons. By contrast, most 14-month-old human babies need four 15-second lessons, including hearing each word seven times per lesson, as opposed to four. “Cats pay attention to what we say in everyday life—and try to understand us—more than we realize,” Takagi says.

It’s amazing that the cats learned the association after only 18 seconds of exposure—less than a third the time needed by 14-month-old babies! A few caveats, though (and I’ve left out the comparison with d*gs):

Still, the results don’t necessarily mean human babies are slower to learn words than our feline friends, says Janet Werker, a developmental psychologist at the University of British Columbia. Despite the cat test being modeled after one she and her colleagues designed in the late 1990s for babies, there are still notable differences in the methods. The cats in Takagi’s study heard three-syllable words in highly exaggerated speech by their own caregivers, for example, whereas babies heard one-syllable words spoken in a range of intonations in an unfamiliar voice.

. . . . Critically, cats appear to be learning these word associations without any training or clear promise of reward for doing so—the same way babies learn languages, Takagi says.

For Dror, however, comparisons with other species hardly matter. “What’s really relevant is that they are doing it,” she says. “And for me, that’s the most interesting part.”

That last bit reminds me of a famous (and misogynistic) quote by Samuel Johnson:

“Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

h/t: Barry

If you find cat-related material, send it along (one reader already does).

From Cosmos we see that scientists have developed new ways to give brain scans to cats, which of course don’t want to wear electrodes on their head.  Click headline to read:

An excerpt:

Knitted wool caps are a good way to give cats brain scans, according to a new study.

Cats tend to chew off wires and electrodes in electroencephalograms (EEGs), which means that they need to be sedated to get a scan.

This hinders vets’ abilities to assess chronic pain from conditions like osteoarthritis.

But a Canadian research team, publishing in Journal of Neuroscience Methods, has developed a less invasive method.

The team’s solution is a hand-knitted cap, embedded with ten gold-plated electrodes.

“The knitted hat helped to keep the electrodes in place during the evaluation and prevented cats to try to play with or chew the wire,” the team writes in their paper.

They used this cap to take EEG scans of 11 cats, assessing each cat’s response to stressful and soothing stimuli, like scented oils and coloured lights.

“One cat was able to shake its head and to remove the electrodes. In this case, we stopped the procedure, re-placed the electrodes, and resumed recording,” write the researchers.

“The entire procedure lasted around 45 min per cat, including positive reinforcement (treats and petting) between the sensory exposure.”

The team was able to collect EEG data from all cats, and analysed 4 in detail.

They’re now looking for funding to perform more scans, “to enable us to establish a genuine EEG signature for chronic pain, and many other applications that will enable us to automate chronic pain detection in the future,” according to co-lead researcher Professor Éric Troncy, a researcher at the Université de Montréal.

Here’s are some EEGs from scanned moggies:

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Here we have my favorite genre of YouTube video: an animal rescue, and particularly cat rescues. This cat must have fallen or climbed onto the pipes, and then jumps into the water to escape. The soggy moggy was rescued by a nice man with a net, though the rescue wasn’t straightforward. The man wields the net with great dexterity, and finally snags it. This reminds me of how I rescued some ducks with a net (though I was actually in the water). I hope the cat found a good home.

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Maybe if Marxism was explained by a cat, we’d understand it better. Here’s a 2+-minute short explanation of Marxism using cats. The YouTube notes:

There is nothing the internet loves more than cats. So here is a very brief introduction to Marxism, explained by Bosley.

There is also a book that helps teach kitties about Marxism: Marx for Cats.

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Lagniappe:  A cat rescue story; click to read. Toilet water! Click to read the Telegram article:

The piece:

When stray pets are left to wander under the Texas summer sun for days and weeks on end, it could lead to a death sentence. But one cat in the Lone Star State proved his will to survive by finding at least some refuge.

When Edd was discovered by Houston SPCA investigators, he was living in a closed-down tanning salon, living off toilet water with no food in sight, the shelter said in an Aug. 27 Facebook post. He was also underweight and skittish.

“Shoppers and fellow business owners said they could see him in the window,” Julie Kuenstle with the Houston SPCA told McClatchy News. “It’s estimated that Edd was inside the closed store for around a month but survived on the water in the toilet.”

Now, weeks later, Edd is ready to start a new chapter of his life — his now-healthy life.

The SPCA ad for Edd is below.  There’s a happy ending, as the article says,

Kuenstle told McClatchy News that it didn’t take long for someone to offer Edd a forever home — he was adopted at the end of September.

h/t: Barry, Ginger K., Michael

Welcome to Tuesday, October 8, 2024, and National Pierogi Day, celebrating the toothsome Polish dumpling that, thanks to Chicago’s big Polish population, you can find in my own town. But here is a plate of pierogi and trimmings I was served during a seminar visit to Poznań , Poland on August 16, 2016:

A musical concert put on last night by Hillel in memory of October 7. A lot of people showed up. The venue was the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, and the players shown below are Kobie Malkin on violin and Shai Wosner on piano, one of five musical groups that performed.  Malkin is playing a “rare 1701 Pietro Guarneri violin.”  The music was somber and beautiful, and included Ravel’s musical version of “”Kaddisch,” a Jewish prayer often said as a memorial for the dead (it was composed for voice and piano, but the voice was replaced by violin).

Here is “Kaddisch” with Jacques Israelievitch on violin and John Greer on piano:

It’s also Ada Lovelace Day, World Octopus Day, Alvin C. York Day, International Lesbian Day, National Salmon Day, and National Fluffernutter Day (a vile mixture of peanut butter and marshmallow spread). 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 8 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT has a moving series of photos from the Gaza war, mostly depressing but some heartening.  Both sides are depicted, and the images are amazing. You can see the pictures at the NYT site (I can’t reproduce them), which is also archived here.

*And over at the NYT as well, Tom “I’m an Idiot” Friedman is still peddling the two-state solution, even on the anniversary of the October 7 massacres. He blames Netanyahu for not saying that two states are in order:

*The Jerusalem Post reports some blackmail that the U.S. has offered to Israel. This may be “fake news” but it’s unsavory:

The US has reportedly offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrains from attacking certain targets in Iran, according to a report in Kan11 on Sunday.

Amichai Stein told them that he had received reports from US officials that the US had offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrained from hitting specific targets in Iran.

This package was offered during negotiations between officials of the two countries on the type of response to the attack from Iran.

The package would include a total guarantee of comprehensive diplomatic protection as well as a weapons package and was offered directly in return for holding off on striking certain targets in Iran.

Stein summed it up, saying, “An American official said, ‘If you don’t hit targets A, B, C, we will provide you with diplomatic protection and an arms package.'”

“Israeli officials responded saying, ‘We consider the United States and listen to them. But we will do anything and everything we can to protect the citizens and the security of the State of Israel.'”

The IDF has been in ongoing discussions with the United States over its response. Currently, US CENTCOM Chief General Michael Kurilla is in Israel as part of the discussion.

Israel has vowed a response to the attack, which saw over 180 missiles fired at Israel, killing a single Palestinian in the West Bank.

*The Democratic Party, including Kamala Harris, is making a big push to get rid of the filibuster rule in the Senate. With a divided Senate, and 60 votes required to get legislation passed, it’s no wonder that even if Harris wins, her legislative effort will likely be stymied by the Senate.

It wasn’t a topic Senate Democrats were expecting musician John Legend to ask them about.

But during a 2019 donor event held at Legend’s California home, the pop star pressed lawmakers on how they would actually pass the policies they were proposing—given the hurdle of the Senate filibuster. That rule requires 60 votes for most bills to advance, rather than a simple majority, and Legend wanted Democrats to end it.

“That was the first time I heard that raised at a fundraiser,” recalled Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), who was at the event. “Now it’s commonplace.”

After years of rising complaints from activists and donors, Senate Democrats say they are still working to find a way around that rule—if they can manage to win both the White House and Senate in November. Senate Republicans say they are fiercely opposed to any changes, while former President Donald Trump remains a wild card.

The filibuster effectively gives the minority party veto power and has frustrated Democrats’ efforts on issues including voting rights and abortion. In 2022, Democrats made a run at carving out an exception to the rule for a voting-rights bill. The effort failed, with two members of the Democratic caucus refusing to go along.

But the coming retirements of those lawmakers—Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—as well as recent comments from Vice President Kamala Harris reiterating support for weakening the filibuster to pass abortion protections, are rekindling Democrats’ interest. Any rule change would only require a majority vote.

. . . Changing the Senate’s rules could have broad implications. While various proposals have been floated, any weakening of the filibuster could make it easier for Democrats to codify abortion rights as well as overhaul election laws or raise the minimum wage. GOP critics warn Democrats could entertain more contentious ideas, such as single-payer health coverage, tighter environmental laws or the addition of justices to the Supreme Court. Some business groups have also decried getting rid of the filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said the rule is something Democrats would discuss next year, while candidates on the campaign trail have thrown their support behind changing it.

But, as the WSJ adds, “Some priorities for the party—such as cutting taxes—can be accomplished through a separate budget-related process called reconciliation that requires only 51 votes.”  And if the filibuster rule is eliminated and the Senate goes Republican, well, watch out!

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media – false rumors about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather.

Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits. Others accuse the administration of President Joe Biden of using federal disaster funds to help migrants in the country illegally, or suggest officials are deliberately abandoning bodies in the cleanup.

And is there a Congresswoman dumber than this? (What about Lauren Boebert?):

Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Thursday night: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The conspiracy theories come at a pivotal time for rescue and recovery efforts following the storm, one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes this century. And the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is just over a month away.

Republicans and Democrats alike say the rumors are causing problems.

“I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. ‘fill in the blank,'” said Kevin Corbin, a Republican in the North Carolina Senate – a state that is one of the hardest hit by Helene. “98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions,” he added.

“Disinformation of this kind can discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most,” a White House memo said. “It is paramount that every leader, whatever their political beliefs, stops spreading this poison.”

The memo highlighted a claim by Trump during a rally this week that Biden and Harris had used federal emergency funds “on people that should not be in our country.””This is FALSE,” the memo said. “No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All.”

In response to a request for comment for this article, the Trump campaign repeated accusations that FEMA funds had been spent on housing migrants in the country illegally.

Well, the powerful can control a lot of things, but they can’t created a damn hurricane!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron share a good plate of cat food:

Hili: New feed, very good.

Szaron, Yes, we have to get the name of the producer.

Hili: Nowa karma, bardzo dobra.

Szaron: Tak, musimy się dowiedzieć z jakiej firmy.

*******************

From Jesus of the Day, an unbreakable rule.

From Allison:

From The Dodo Pet:

From Masih, highlighting a new article in Reuters detailing Iran’s plans to kill or kidnap people in America and Europe:

Dissidents living in the US like Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad are among those allegedly targeted in what Washington and its allies say has been a sharp rise in Iran-linked plots in the West https://t.co/4RgP41TCeC by @MaltezouRenee @CassellBryanLow @phildstewart pic.twitter.com/lp1aH58gLF

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 6, 2024

From Aya: a Queen Song cancelled for “weightism” (see the Torygraph article archived here):

🎶 The suggestive 1978 single in praise of “dirty ladies” with fuller figures was a chart success but has been dropped from a greatest hits compilation targeted at younger listeners.

Read more here ⤵️https://t.co/fn0S96oAwM pic.twitter.com/QydKngh5mx

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 20, 2023

From Malcolm, a skateboarding kitty:

Kitty rides a skateboard better than me 😭 pic.twitter.com/Wk6sOb0H67

— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) October 1, 2024

From Luana, who says “Kamala is confusing poverty with color – as if hurricanes were racist… 

Kamala Harris thinks that aid for floods, hurricanes, tornados, & fires should be distributed based on race:

“Communities of color need more” pic.twitter.com/Lldd8tbcds

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 27, 2024

From my feed (Matthew should have sent it!):

NASA released the clearest view of Mars ever. pic.twitter.com/kVXlsRXJLV

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 6, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted:

Gassed to death upon arrival at the camp. He was nine. https://t.co/J1uC43fX0W

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 8, 2024

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, politics:

That explains it.😂 pic.twitter.com/zt8hBBmNaV

— MoJoX222 (@MojoX222) July 29, 2024

And then space. This is a lovely video:

Comet NEOWISE seen from ISS pic.twitter.com/ybvZKxqR65

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) July 27, 2024