Quiz: name that arthropod!

July 15, 2017 • 8:15 am

Here’s a tw**t sent by Matthew; your job is to guess what this thing is. At least you should be able to get the order! Answer at 12:30 Chicago time.

by Matthew Cobb

JAC: A “holotype” is the one physical specimen of a species whose physical traits were used to describe the species. There’s only one per species, and it’s precious. Nowadays with DNA their usefulness is not as great as it once was, but museums send these things out all the time to people wanting to know whether what they’ve collected is a member of the holotype’s species.

The “MCZ” is Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, whose laboratory annex is where I did my Ph.D. research.

Readers’ wildlife photos

July 15, 2017 • 7:30 am

It’s been a while since we’ve had a collection of photos from Stephen Barnard in Idaho, though I’ve posted his documentation of The Gadwell Clan. Here are some non-duck photos with his captions:

I look for these Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) when I’m fishing. When they show up in numbers (which they do most mornings and evenings this time of year), there’s going to be a mayfly spinner fall. I caught this Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) about half an hour after I shot the nighthawk photo, using a fly that’s an imitation of the mayflies in the next two photos: a female and male trico (Tricorythodes) respectively.

 The male:

Tricos (genus Tricorythodes, species unknown) have an interesting life cycle. The male duns emerge at night and roost in the vegetation, where they molt into spinners and fly out to meet the emerging female duns, like this one. It happens in the morning, before the brutal midday sun can dry them out. You can almost set your watch by it. Tomorrow it will start about 9am, but will move later as the days shorten.

After the females mate, they molt to become spinners. They fall on the water to lay eggs, and they might even take off again for another go, but soon they’re spent and the fishing gets interesting. These mayflies are tiny but there are millions of them, and I think they must be tasty. Trout abandon their usual territorial behavior and gather into pods, aligned on prime feeding lanes, hoovering rafts of tricos from the surface.

This photo is a bunch of male spinners, distinguished from the females by their black abdomens. Another sexual dimorphism is the length of the tail, which is far longer in the male, as shown in the photos above. They’re called “tricos” because they have three tails. Most mayflies have two.

These two photos were sent yesterday:

While I’m sending fish photos, here’s a brown trout (Salmo trutta) I caught about 1/2 hour ago. This is a decent fish even by New Zealand standards.

Male Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus):

 

Spot the mantid!

July 15, 2017 • 7:25 am

Reader Gabe McNett sent a hard “spot the mantid” photo. His notes and the photo follow (enlarge it to aid your sleuthing):

I thought I would share a few pictures for a possible “Spot the ….” entry to your blog. I saw this mantis in the field this morning, which I believe is a late-stage nymph of the introduced Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis). I would not have seen it if it hadn’t moved.

I rate this “pretty damn hard.” The reveal will be at noon Chicago time.

Saturday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

July 15, 2017 • 6:35 am

Good morning; it’s the weekend for most people: Saturday, July 15, 2017 and—Ceiling Cat help me—it’s National Gummy Worms Day! This is clearly the handiwork of Big Gummy, and I firmly eschew these gelatinous annelids. It’s also Social Media Giving Day, celebrating the use of that media to create social good instead of hounding New Atheists and showing that video games are tools of The Patriarchy.

On July 15, 1099, during the First Crusade, Christian soldiers, after a hard siege, captured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. On this day in 1799, one of Napoleon’s soldiers found the Rosetta Stone in the eponymous Egyptian village. Having the same inscription three times over, but in ancient Greek, demotic Egyptian, and hieroglyphic Egyptian, it was a key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. Inscribed in about 196 BC, it was taken from the French by the British, and now resides in the British Museum (it’s behind glass; formerly you could get real close to it). The Egyptians have asked for its return, but there’s about as much chance of that happening as the Elgin Marbles going back to Greece (see Hitchens’s book on the Marbles; he favors their return). Here’s the Rosetta Stone:

On this day in 1834, the Spanish Inquisition officially ended after more than 350 years of Catholic persecution. And you know what I’m going to put up next:

It’s a banner day for nonbelievers, for on July 15, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered a controversial address to six graduating students at Harvard University’s Divinity School: the famous Divinity School Address. Among other things, Emerson cast doubt on the miracles of Jesus described in the Bible and asserted that one’s moral intuition was a better guide to ethics than was Scripture. As you might imagine, it caused an outrage. Finally, on this day 11 years ago, Twitter was launched. I suppose in the main it’s a good thing, but I don’t engage in battles on it and depend on others to call my attention to good tw**ts. This website takes enough time.

Notables born on this day include Rembrandt (1606), my colleague Leon Lederman (1922; he’s 95 today), Carl Woese (1928), Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943), Linda Rondstadt (1946), and the miscreant Ariana Huffington (1950). Here’s an improvement over one of Rembrandt’s great paintings: “Aristotle Contemplating his Moggie”:

Those who died on this day include Anton Chekhov (1904), Hermann Emil Fischer (1919), and John J. Pershing (1948). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is affronted by the trash left by the river by a group of thoughtless Polish lads. (Malgorzata and Andrzej always take a bag on their walkies to collect trash.)

Hili: Take a bag for the rubbish.
A: Why?
Hili: Yesterday a few young men were admiring the beauty of the river.
In Polish:
Hili: Weź torbę na śmieci.
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Wczoraj kilku młodych mężczyzn podziwiało piękno rzeki.

And nearby, where Leon and his staff are still awaiting the arrival of their house, his staff has made a restorative–but one not to Leon’s taste:

Leon: Can’t we, instead of an infusion of marigold make an infusion of tuna?

Reader Charleen sent a cat tw**t (one thing Twitter is good for!):

Friday Cat rescue

July 14, 2017 • 2:30 pm

I like showing nice people helping out animals in the work week’s last post. Reader Graham called my attention to an article and video from the Belfast Telegraph about a cat trapped in (and rescued from) a wall in Northern Ireland. The paper reports this:

A man who started demolishing his partly-built house when “the walls started meowing” has safely returned stricken feline Francee to her owner.

Campbell Baird (46) was left baffled on Tuesday evening when he went to check on the building work at the site of the new-build on Woodburn Road in Carrickfergus.

“I could hear the walls meowing and I couldn’t understand how,” he said.

“There’s no stairs yet, but there’s a set of ladders to get to the first floor – I knew whatever it was, it had to have got in there from upstairs.”

. . . Campbell, a fire extinguisher engineer, consulted with his girlfriend Slavka Smith, who informed him that cats can climb ladders.

“I went on YouTube and right enough, they can,” he said.

“Once I realised the cat had fallen into the cavity between the walls, I went and got a drill, chisel and hammer, I was happy to do it.

Click on the screenshot to go to the article with the video:

“It didn’t cause too much damage, I just knocked a few bricks out.”

After successfully chipping away at the brick work to make a hole big enough for 10-year-old Francee to escape, Mr Baird, (right) took to social media to help track down the owner.

He posted on Facebook to astonished friends: “Just spent the last hour knocking holes in my wall to get it out.

“Think its front leg is broken. Not looking any damages repaired, just glad to get her out.”

Luckily, Francee escaped unharmed and two hours later she was safely returned home – with a tail to tell.

All’s well that ends well, and we have a cat with eight lives left. By the way, where did the myth that cats have nine lives come from? DO NOT read the Wikipedia article on this; not only doesn’t answer the question, but it will ruin the good mood you just acquired.

Steve Pinker responds to Harvard’s plan to restrict student membership in non-Harvard groups

July 14, 2017 • 1:45 pm

This morning Greg Mayer posted a description and critique of Harvard University’s new plan to prohibit students from joining non-University groups that, the school thinks, reflect poorly on Harvard and its “mission.” Go read the article first, and then read this. Here’s a precis of what Harvard forbids:

Harvard students may neither join nor participate in final clubs, fraternities or sororities, or other similar private, exclusionary social organizations that are exclusively or predominantly made up of Harvard students, whether they have any local or national affiliation, during their time in the College. The College will take disciplinary action against students who are found to be participating in such organizations. Violations will be adjudicated by the Administrative Board.

One problem is that this plan is apparently being pushed through by Harvard’s deans and its President without any assent of the faculty as a whole. Although the plan was concocted by a committee that included faculty, there won’t be a faculty vote, and the one committee member I know, level-headed evolutionary biologist David Haig, dissented publicly from the plan.

Now another friend, Steven Pinker, who of course is also Harvard faculty, has publicly criticized the plan—and eloquently. His statement is on the website of FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), and here it is:

This is a terrible recommendation, which is at odds with the ideals of a university.

  1. A university is an institution with circumscribed responsibilities which engages in a contract with its students. Its main responsibility is to provide them with an education. It is not an arbiter over their lives, 24/7. What they do on their own time is none of the university’s business.
  1. One of the essential values in higher education is that people can differ in their values, and that these differences can be constructively discussed. Harvard has a right to value mixed-sex venues everywhere, all the time, with no exceptions. If some of its students find value in private, single-sex associations, some of the time, a university is free to argue against, discourage, or even ridicule those choices. But it is not a part of the mandate of a university to impose these values on its students over their objections.
  1. Universities ought to be places where issues are analyzed, distinctions are made, evidence is evaluated, and policies crafted to attain clearly stated goals. This recommendation is a sledgehammer which doesn’t distinguish between single-sex and other private clubs. It doesn’t target illegal or objectionable behavior such as drunkenness or public disturbances. Nor by any stretch of the imagination could it be seen as an effective, rationally justified, evidence-based policy tailored to reduce sexual assault.
  1. This illiberal policy can only contribute to the impression in the country at large that elite universities are not dispassionate forums for clarifying values, analyzing problems, and proposing evidence-based solutions, but are institutions determined to impose their ideology and values on a diverse population by brute force.

All very powerful, and I especially favor #4: Harvard, widely seen as American’s best university, shouldn’t become an Ivy League version of Evergreen State College. As time goes by, I’ve watched my alma mater becoming more and more of a Cntrl-Left institution (e.g., see here), and it sucks.

AP stylebook tweaks language in a political direction

July 14, 2017 • 12:45 pm

There’s an article at The Hill (a nonpartisan site) by Rachel Alexander (a conservative writer) about the increasing politicization of language in an influential writing guide: “How the AP Stylebook censors ‘pro-life’ and other conservative words.” Her thesis is that the Stylebook is subtly changing its guidelines for journalists so as to favor a liberal agenda–all by using terms favored by the Left.

The stylebook is well known and influential; as Wikipedia notes:

. . . the AP Stylebook, is an English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Press over the last century to standardize mass communications. Although it is sold as a guide for reporters, it has become the leading reference for most forms of public-facing corporate communication over the last half-century. The Stylebook offers a basic reference to grammar, punctuation and principles of reporting, including many definitions and rules for usage as well as styles for capitalization, abbreviation, spelling and numerals.

. . . Writers in broadcasting, magazine publishing, marketing departments and public relations firms traditionally adopt and apply AP grammar and punctuation styles. Over the last 50 years, the AP Stylebook has become a leading style for non-journalistic publishers such as corporate marketing and public relations departments. Its simplified grammar, such as dropping the Oxford comma and using figures for all numbers above nine, saves scarce print and web space.

Here are the areas where, according to Alexander, language has been slanted. Her words are indented, my take is flush left.

Abortion.

A pro-life author who submits a piece taking a position against abortion will see the words “pro-life” changed to “anti-abortion,” because the AP Stylebook instructs, “Use anti-abortion instead of pro-life and pro-abortion rights instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice.” It goes on, “Avoid abortionist,” saying the term “connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions.”

I’ve always disliked the way both sides try to use euphemisms to make their stand more palatable. “Pro-life” irks me because many who oppose abortions also oppose government medical care, making them anti-life. Let’s just be consistent and use “pro-abortion” and “anti-abortion”, or “pro-abortion rights” and “anti-abortion rights.”  The term “abortionist” does sound a bit creepy; I’d prefer “abortion provider.”

Terrorism

Words related to terrorism are sanitized in the AP Stylebook. Militant, lone wolves or attackers are to be used instead of terrorist or Islamist.

I agree with Alexander here. Words like “attackers” or “lone wolves” don’t give as much information as “terrorists”. This is clearly an attempt to sanitize language, probably to draw attention away from Islamist terrorism.

Immigration

Illegal immigrant” and “undocumented” aren’t acceptable anymore either. “Illegals” and “alien” were already forbidden a few years ago. Although “illegal immigration” is still acceptable, it’s not clear what words are supposed to replace the forbidden words. The word “amnesty” contains no reference to illegal immigrants, instead instructing, “See pardon, parole, probation.”

“People struggling to enter Europe” is favored over “migrant” or “refugee.” While it’s true that many struggle to enter Europe, it is accurate to point out that they are, in fact, immigrants or refugees.

It’s surprised me a bit that “illegal immigrant” and its euphemism “undocumented immigrant” are now verboten. The first phrase is a perfectly good description of someone entering a country illegally; the second, which was a euphemism produced to make illegal immigrants seem less illegal, is now off limits as well. What words do we use for someone who enters a country to live or work without legal permission?

And “migrant” or “refugee”, which were perfectly good words, lacking pejorative connotations, and are being sanitized to cater to those who favor immigration but think those words seem pejorative.

Guns

The stylebook also instructs writers to use confusing language about guns in order to create a negative impression about them. Semi-automatic rifles that have add-on parts intended to increase shooting accuracy are to be called “assault weapons,” despite the fact the term has referred to fully automatic weapons used by the military for years. The latter are now referred to as “assault rifles,” and the two are often conflated. Adding even more to the confusion, the phrase “military style” is recommended to describe assault weapons.

I agree that this change has been made not to convey accuracy, but to demonize guns. I’m in favor of stringent gun control, and total banning of these types of weapons in private hands, but let’s at least be consistent in how we describe them.

Climate-change denialism

Separately, the phrase “climate change deniers” is everywhere today in news articles. This is because the stylebook instructs, “To describe those who don’t accept climate science or dispute that the world is warming from man-made forces, use climate change doubters or those who reject mainstream climate science. Avoid use of skeptics or deniers.” The entry includes an extensive discussion with seemingly authoritative evidence of manmade global warming. These words tell the reader that climate change theory is true, or at least “mainstream.”

I don’t quite get it, as the phrase in use is the one the stylebook doesn’t recommend. Yes, climate change theory (i.e., it’s our fault) is mainstream, and anthropogenic global warming can be regarded as provisionally true. But the words “skeptics” or “deniers” seem okay to me, just as we have “evolution skeptics” or “evolution deniers.” I can’t be arsed to worry about this one, except to say that articles on climate change and its “doubters” do need to convey the consensus view of climate scientists and not imply that the views of both sides have equal weight.

I did find it interesting that language is being policed by the AP, and it seems to be a policing pushing language to the Left. I’d prefer simply accurate and consistent usage rather than euphemisms or politically correct language. That was all pointed out, as I’ve mentioned recently, by George Orwell in his famous essay “Politics and the English Language” (1946).