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.
It’s Sunday, and tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S., so we get a “bank holiday.”And the brutally cold weather will begin tomorrow: the onset of a real Chicago winter. My book discussion went well yesterday: a full house with standing room only (about 50, I’d say), and lots of books sold. The people were interested, smart, and asked good questions, and the event, scheduled for an hour, went 2.5. Now I’m hoarse (at least I don’t have a slight colt). Many were Communists (American Communist Party) and it was strange to hear well-dressed people talking about the coming revolution (which I strongly doubt will come). On this day in 1977, Gary Gimore (subject of Normal Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song) was executed by firing squad in Utah (I remember it well), and, in 1991, Operation Desert Storm began the Gulf War. In 1998 the Lewinsky scandal broke (“I did not have sex with that woman”). On January 17, 1922, Betty White was born, as was Jim Carrey in 1962. In 2001, Gregory Corso, the beat poet, died—one of three Beats I actually encountered (the other two were Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsburg). And, in 2008, Bobby Fischer, chess whiz and weirdo, died at the age of 65. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is still interested in living noms, though I wonder if she means “the wintertime eating of birds.”
Hili: We are living in interesting times.
A: A penny for your thoughts.
Hili: I adore the wintertime feeding of birds.
In Polish:
Hili: Żyjemy w ciekawych czasach.
Ja: Co masz na myśli?
Hili: Uwielbiam to zimowe dokarmianie ptaków.
I don’t want to harp on this issue too long, but I’m more or less forced to because of those who keep blaming every bad action of Muslims on the West or on “colonialism,” rather than features inherent in the faith itself.
One of those actions is child marriage, practiced by Muhammad himself, reputed to have deflowered his wife Aisha, whom he married at the age of six, at the ripe old age of nine. The practice does have a lot of cultural rather than religious background, and occurs in non-Muslim countries like India and Nicaragua, but is also officially endorsed by some schools of Islam.
The age of marriage and of sex varies among those schools, with some maintaining that one should not have intercourse with a woman (even if married younger) until she reaches puberty. That, of course, could be as young as 10 or 12. Other schools maintain that even pre-puberty intercourse is okay if it’s not “injurious to health.”
The problem of child marriage is at times justified on the basis of religious foundations. Historically, it can be explained as a reaction to invasions by foreigners; desire to perpetuate the cult of the family by marrying the son early; by marrying the daughter early to escape the discredit caused to the family by the presence of grown-up maiden; or by desire of mother to marry her son early so that she may sooner obtain the possession of a daughter-in-law in whom the mother could inculcate her habits of obedience and who could share the domestic chores with the mother. In the case of parents, sometimes it is due to their keenness to relieve themselves of the responsibility of marrying their daughter. They are also considered socially acceptable for reasons of responsibility and economically desirable for saving marriage expenses, bride price\dowry.
Despite moves to raise the marriage age of women in Pakistan to 18, comporting with the age for males, those measures have been rejected, and a sizable proportion of women (20%) are married before 18, while 3% are married at 15 in violation of the law. In some provinces the proportion of illegal marriages is much higher. There’s clearly a reporting problem in getting good statistics.
At any rate, according to the Express Tribune, a measure to eliminate child marriages in Pakistan has been turned back as violating religious dictates:
Another move to ban child marriages in Pakistan has fallen at the first hurdle. The bill to prohibit underage marriages has been withdrawn after the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) declared it un-Islamic.
The ruling party lawmaker, who moved the bill, withdrew her proposal on Thursday following staunch resistance from the council, which advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is Sharia-compliant.
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony rejected the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014 after the CII dubbed it ‘anti-Islamic’ and ‘blasphemous’.
Last week, lawmakers in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly had also blocked a bill seeking ban on child marriages over similar concerns.
It’s hard to find solid information on this bill. Apparently many Pakistani girls are already being married in violation of the law, but these marriages are not reported. I gather the new bill would bring all marriages into compliance with the official law (also raising the age for women to 18), with stringent punishments for violation. The problem is that Pakistani law does not comport with the Islamic “law” that allows marriage at puberty (my emphasis):
The CII has already ruled the minimum age stipulated for marriage in the Child Marriages Restriction Act of 1929 does not comply with Islamic laws.
In May 2014, amid severe criticism from various quarters, the council had endorsed its earlier ruling that girls as young as nine years old were eligible to be married “if the signs of puberty are visible”.
The rejected bill would have introduced tougher punishments for those entering into marriage with minors, including prison terms for up to two years. It also proposed raising the minimum age for marriage up to 18.
Current legislation is already in violation of Islamic law, according to CII, since it requires a minimum age of 16 for girls to marry.
In contrast, the CII believes that girls as young as nine could be married off, “if the signs of puberty are visible,” according to a May 2014 statement.
If this has nothing at all to do with religion, why are Muslims citing Islamic law when fighting this bill?
Just to show you how low American politics have fallen, here’s a video of the “entertainment” during a Donald Tump Rally in Pensacola, Florida three days ago.
Read a bit more about the “Freedom Kids” at Mother Jones.
The tune, if you don’t recognize it, is “Over There” by American showman George M. Cohan, written to whip up patriotism during World War I. The words of the Trump version, however, are by sone right wingnut.
For an immeasurably better rendition of the song (with the original words), here’s a scene from the fantastic 1942 movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” in which James Cagney played George M. Cohan. Cohan is shown writing the song, performing it during WWI, and then, years later, during the Second World War, visiting Roosevelt in the White House. Afterwards, he falls in line with some soldiers heading Over There, unrecognized but joining in as everyone sings his song. The bit when he dances down the White House stairs is fantastic.
It’s schlocky but I love it. The movie won a passel of Oscars, including a Best Actor award for Cagney. See it if you can. I used to watch it every Fourth of July when I was a kid. Do they even show it any more?
Another great scene, showing off Cagney’s dancing talents, is here. He plays Johnny Jones, a jockey who loses a big race. The end of this clip also features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney doing the same song in “Babes on Broadway.“
As usual, the good people at Operation Migration are helping the captive-born whooping cranes (Grus americana) fly south to their wintering grounds in Florida. To give you an idea of how hard this is, the whole megillah starts in Wisconsin where the cranes breed, and then it moves south in hops, with the ultralight plane taking off daily as the whoopers follow. Today’s departure is delayed because of fog, but you can see it by clicking on the screenshot below. Keep an eye on it to see if the fog lifts.
If they don’t fly today, they’ll take off Monday, but reader Tara Tanaka promises to be there when they fly near her home in a few days. Let’s hope she’ll give us some good video!
Meanwhile, here’s a YouTube video of the operation; the action starts at about 7 minutes in. Note that the pilot is wearing a whooping crane suit:
Yes, sometimes people can be good, like those who dedicate so much of their time to saving a single species of bird.
I now have a comfortable backlog of Caturday Felids, so I can be at ease, leaving me to worry about the other stuff. We start with a tw**t from Ryan Eby, showing, to my knowledge, the first time a cat has ever been helpful to a human:
Second, you probably know the story of Hachiko the Akita Dog, the loyal pet of a Japanese professor. Hachiko accompanied his master (d*gs have mastere) to the train station every day on his way to work, but one day in 1925 the master didn’t come home: he had died at work of a cerebral hemorrhage. And so, it is said, the loyal Hachiko went to the station every day for ten years waiting in vain for his master to return. The dog has become a national hero in Japan, renowned for his loyalty, although some speak darkly of Hachiko’s fondness for the yakitori treats that admirers would buy him at the station. The d*gs story was made into an American movie, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale“, starring Richard Gere as the professor and an adorable (for a d*g) Akita. Here’s the original Hachiko:
As Wikipedia notes, statues to Hachi have been erected in Japan and the U.S.:
In April 1934, a bronze statue in his likeness was erected at Shibuya Station (35°39′32.6″N139°42′2.1″E), and Hachikō himself was present at its unveiling. The statue was recycled for the war effort during World War II. In 1948 The Society for Recreating the Hachikō Statue commissioned. Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist, to make a second statue. When the new statue appeared, a dedication ceremony occurred. The new statue, which was erected in August 1948, still stands and is a popular meeting spot. The station entrance near this statue is named “Hachikō-guchi”, meaning “The Hachikō Entrance/Exit”, and is one of Shibuya Station’s five exits.
The Japan Times played an April Fools’ joke on readers by reporting that the bronze statue was stolen a little before 2:00 AM on April 1, 2007, by “suspected metal thieves”. The false story told a very detailed account of an elaborate theft by men wearing khaki workers’ uniforms who secured the area with orange safety cones and obscured the theft with blue vinyl tarps. The “crime” was allegedly recorded on security cameras.
A similar statue stands in Hachikō’s hometown, in front of Ōdate Station. In 2004, a new statue of Hachikō was erected on the original stone pedestal from Shibuya in front of the Akita Dog Museum in Odate.
The exact spot where Hachikō waited in the train station is permanently marked with bronze paw-prints and text in Japanese explaining his loyalty.
After the release of the American movie Hachi: A Dog’s Tale filmed in Woonsocket, RI, the Japanese Consulate in US helped the Blackstone ValleyTourism Council and the city of Woonsocket to unveil an identical statue of Hachiko at the Woonsocket Depot Square, which was the location of the “Bedridge” train station featured in the movie.
The Hachiko statue located outside Tokyo’s Shibuya Station is a famous landmark, and the space surrounding it is usually crawling with people, especially in the evenings and on weekends, as it serves as the go-to meeting spot in the area.
Being among the ranks of the busiest railway stations in Japan, Shibuya Station sees millions of passengers on a daily basis, and some of them have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Hachiko’s new companion, a well-groomed kitty cat who was spotted hanging out with Hachiko on several occasions.
By the looks of it, the cat is probably not a stray since it has been sporting different “fashion styles” on different days. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but since it was wearing pearl necklaces, we’re guessing Hachiko just got himself a new gal pal.
Someone’s thoughtfully provided the moggie with a cushion. One thing’s for sure: it’s not waiting for its staff!
The Rocket site has several tw**ts from locals showing the unlikely pair.
*******
From Ranker we get 37—count them, 37—photos of cats crashing Nativity scenes. They apparently resent fealty being paid to baby Jesus instead of felids. Here are three of them:
*******
Update: Reader Charlie Jones sends his own Nativity Cat and the background:
Although we are not a religious family, we do have a nativity scene, but all of the characters are squid. As soon as the scene went up we found Buster at least once a day sitting on the pad in front of it or resting his head inside of it. It was Buster’s first Christmas, and I think this will be his annual tradition.
In the photo you can see the archangel squid reading some announcement to the cat. In the manger you can see Mary Squid, Baby Squid, and at least one of the three wise squid.
*******
And, as lagniappe, here’s a tw**t from Harry Shearer showing a cat’s diffidence towards its fancy new toy. Press the arrow to play:
As a Saturday special, I’ll show two digiscoped videos made by reader Tara Tanaka (Vimeo site here, photography site here). The first shows male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) bathing (note the sexual dimorphism), and a bonus vireo. Tara adds that if you follow the Vimeo link in the lower-right corner of the video and watch in full-screen, 1080 HD, you’ll get the best viewing experience.
Cardinals are our most common yard bird, but I am still amazed at their beauty every time I see one. Each bird seems to have its preferred bathing style. I’ve tried to get video of the [White-eyed] Vireo [Vireo griseus] in the water, but finally learned it’s better to wait for him to return to the branch between lightning-fast dips in the water. Many male Cardinals like to soak in the water like the female in this video, but this one seemed to enjoy a light shower on this day. My favorite move is “the ol’ right-dip — left-dip” of the female Cardinal.. Enjoy!
Digiscoped using manual focus in 4K with the GH4 mounted on a Swarovski STX 85 using the Digidapter, 1300mm equivalence.
A few weeks ago I looked out the window to see the first Red-bellied Woodpecker [Melanerpes carolinus] I’ve ever seen in our water feature. As I watched, a Northern Flicker [Colaptes auratus] joined her! I’ve wanted to get a good photo of a Flicker for years, but it has eluded me.
I started going out in my blind every afternoon, but I soon realized that getting even a quick photo of the Flicker wasn’t going to be easy. The first time I saw him I was sitting well back in the darkness of my blind, and he landed just over the bush that provides cover next to the water. I move about 2″ forward toward the camera, and he was gone. On the days that followed as soon as I would hear him in the distance, I would get behind the camera and do my best not to move at all. Finally one afternoon he landed on a stick in the shadows behind the water, in front of our field of yellow daisies. He dropped to the water after about 10 seconds, and I had to pan painfully slowly down to where he’d landed so as not to frighten him with the movement of the camera. I silently mouthed “Don’t leave! Don’t leave!” during what seemed like forever to pan to him in the water.
I think that the extreme drought is only reason we have had woodpeckers at the water, and that it hadn’t rained in so long that all of their knot holes and other water sources had finally dried up. It rained yesterday, so it will be interesting to see if either species returns to the water – I can only hope they do.
Posting will be light today as I have a book event to attend. Fortunately, although the weather will be cold (high of 29°F, -2°C), no snow is predicted. And I will eat tacos. It’s also the beginning of a three-day weekend in the U.S., as Monday is Martin Luther King Day. On this day in 1959, Fidel Castro (who is still alive, hanging in there like Franco did) became Premier of Cuba. It’s hard to believe I was already 9 years old then. There were two events in Chicago on this day: in 1961 the DuSable Museum of African American History, just a few blocks from where I live, was created, as was the first computer bulletin board in 1978, at CBBS in Chicago. On this day in 1822, biologist Francis Galton (Darwin’s cousin) was born, as was Kim Jong-Il in 1941 (yes, the second Dear Leader), who died in 2011, when all the birds sang in Korean. And, last year on this date, singer Lesley Gore (“You Don’t Own Me”, “It’s My Party”) passed away. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the beasts are cuddled up against the cold weather, and Hili is pensive.
Hili: I’m thinking about all of it.
Cyrus: Yes, it takes some chewing over.
In Polish:
Hili: Myślę sobie o tym wszystkim.
Cyrus: Tak, nie bardzo wiadomo, z której strony to ugryźć.
