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.
We begin with the report from Stephen Barnard in Idaho, who tells me that all eleven ducklings of the gadwall mother he’s watching (Anas streptera) are still alive. And he took a photo of one adorable baby.
Gadwall duckling, about five or six days old, I think. One of the brood of eleven.
And a bunch of photos from reader Karen Bartelt; her notes are indented:
My husband and I went to Big Bend National Park in Texas for the second time this April. It was already hot (100 degrees F) at the Rio Grande at midday, and even the Chisos Muntains were pushing 90. Here are a few birds from the area.
We saw golden-fronted woodpeckers (Melanerpes aurifrons) last year as well. This year they were hollowing out a lot of nesting cavities. Bottoms up!
A new bird for us at Big Bend was this yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens). They can be found in the park near our house, too, but tend to hide. This guy was singing away.
Finally, a good look at a verdin (Auriparus flaviceps).
It’s Wednesday, June 28, 2017, and it’s National Tapioca Day! I love tapioca pudding, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I had it. Where would you get it anyway, unless you buy it and make it yourself? And in Poland, where I’m heading in early September, it’s Poznań Remembrance Day, honoring the 1956 rebellion of Poles against the Communist government. It failed, of course, and hundreds of people were killed or injured.
On this day in 1838, Queen Victoria was crowned the Queen of the United Kingdom. She ruled until 1901: 63 years! On June 28, 1846, Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone. It’s a good thing he wasn’t named Katzenellenbogen! And on this day in 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo—the incident that began the Great War. In 1969, the Stonewall riots began in New York City, usually taken as the formal beginning of the Gay Rights Movement. On this day in 1987, for the first time in recorded history, a civilian population was subjected to chemical attack. It was the Iranian town of Sardasht, the weapon was mustard gas, and the perpetrator was the evil Saddam Hussein. Finally, exactly one year ago today, terrorists attacked the Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, killing 42 and injuring more than 230. We all remember that well.
Notables born on this day include Peter Paul Rubens (1577), John Wesley (1703), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712), Paul Broca (1824), Richard Rodgers (1902), Mel Brooks (1926; he’s 91 today), and Lalla Ward (1951). Those who died on this day included James Madison (1836), and Rod Serling (1975). Here’s one of Rubens’s most famous works (he was known for portraying voluptuous bodies of women):
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili (looking very cute by the Vistula) recalls a famous painting, but criticizes it for not including enough noms:
Hili: I dream about lunch on the grass.
A: Manet’s?
Hili: No, something more substantial.
In Polish:
Hili: Marzę o śniadaniu na trawie.
Ja: Maneta?
Hili: Nie, coś bardziej treściwego.
Here’s the Manet painting to which Hili refers: “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (“Luncheon on the grass”; 1862-1863). I had remembered the repast as being more ample, but I see that Hili is right: there is just bread and fruit here—not good fare for a cat:
And in the garden of his future home near Dobrzyn, Leon is resting (and, as usual, scowling):
Leon: I woke up terribly tired.
Lagniappe: Senator Al Franken (it still cracks me up to say that title, but he’s been a good Senator) tells Rick Perry how science is done (h/t Matthew Cobb)
And here I am holding the only wild felid I ever held: a margay (Leopardus wiedii) in Costa Rica in 1974. It wasn’t really wild; it was the pet at a bar/restaurant at Playa del Coco, but it was wild enough to bite the Turkish puzzle ring I was wearing then, which bore a nick for years until the ring fell apart. This is a picture of a slide held up to the window, so the quality is lousy; but LOOK AT THAT ANIMAL!
A family out fishing last week caught more than salmon.
Ashton Phillips was on a fishing trip last Friday with his cousin and uncle in Kyuquot, B.C. on the northwest side of Vancouver Island when he captured a video of an eagle swooping down to grab a piece of salmon.
His group had pulled into a bay around noon to strip up a fresh piece of salmon for halibut fishing.
“As we were sitting there cutting pieces of salmon … I noticed there were a few eagles flying around,” said Phillips, who lives in Vancouver.
“I thought that was pretty cool because I hadn’t really been exposed to that too much.”
Phillips had his camera out to capture some of the scenery when out of nowhere, he saw a bird cut from the shore and head towards the boat — just in time for lunch.
The Congressional Budget Office is a nonpartisan outfit, and its prognostications are taken seriously. So when they analyzed the Senate’s GOP-inspired bill, and found that if it passes 22 million Americans will lose their health insurance, it doesn’t look good for the Republican Party. By cutting Medicaid, so the poor lose benefits, it will also reduce the budget, but I’d weigh sick and dead Americans more than the predicted $321 billion decrease in the deficit in the next decade. After all, the Republicans could just decrease the deficit by increasing taxes on the grotesquely wealthy, or getting rid of the new tax breaks for the same group.
What a heartless party Republicans are! I’ve just learned that Senator Mitch “Let ’em Die” McConnell, lacking sufficient Republican votes to pass this odious bill, is postponing the Senate vote until after the July 4 holiday. In the meantime, I suppose, he’ll be maneuvering to get those four or five votes.
The only upside to this, and I’m not sure it is an upside, is that many people who voted for Trump will realize what they got, and how America’s marginalized people will lose in the end. But that’s not really an upside, because who wants to lose by getting sick or dying?
. . . but of course that means nothing, for if it were a hoax—and the evidence is strong on this one—they would resolutely deny it. If they admitted it were a hoax, that hoax would be over for good, and there would be no point in continuing to add to the site.
A person at the New Zealand site Whale Oil wrote Medusa, asking them if they were genuine, as if their answer would settle the issue. Part of Whale Oil‘s post:
I came across an online Feminist magazine called Medusa Magazine with the byline Feminist Revolution now. As I scanned the headlines I wondered if it was a satirical site as once before I fell for a poorly written piece of satire thinking that it was a genuine piece. I didn’t want to make the same mistake with this site so I e-mailed them to check.
They were kind enough to reply.
_____________________
Hello,
Medusa Magazine is a blog that espouses feminist ideology. We make no apologies for this, and we stand by everything we publish.
That being said, the views expressed in each article belong to the author(s) alone. We would however never have published any of the articles if we didn’t think they had any value to add to intellectual discourse. Even the articles that you describe as “over the top” have started a discussion and debate online about important issues that need to be discussed.
Say Hi to your readers from us.
Cheers.
______________________
The thing is*, is that they continue to publish articles, and they’re close enough to the real thing to fool some people. But I’ve decided that they’re too over-the-top to be real. And, as a reader pointed out (see link in first line), the domain is registered to someone who would be expected to satirize feminism.
My old friend Ivan from Berkeley came to Chicago for a meeting yesterday, and I offered to take him to a Chicago steak restaurant (he took me to many great places when I visited him two years ago during the Great Cross-Country Trip). My first choice, which was a BYOB (I prefer to bring a really good bottle and pay corkage than buy from an always-overpriced wine list), was full, so we went to a place I’ve been before: the Chicago Cut Steakhouse.
The restaurant is on the north side of the Chicago River, and is right along that river, so you can have your meat outside with a great view of the water and the center city. Walking from the train station to the restaurant, and over the LaSalle Street Bridge, you get a great view of Chicago and its splendid architecture:
Ivan cabbed in from O’Hare, and I met him at the place. Here he is:
And here he is in 1972 when we first met—as graduate students at Rockefeller University. This is my group of pals among the first-years. I’m in the center and he’s on the right holding the guitar. 45 years have done a job on both of us. But we’re still here—and scarfing down steaks!
The appetizers: foie gras on buttered brioche toast for me, a salad (iceberg wedge salad, bacon lardon, and Maytag Bleu Cheese) for Ivan. This is not a place for vegetarians, though they do have, I’m told, good seafood:
Our steaks: we each had a big 35-day, dry-aged ribeye. Mine was rare, Ivan’s medium rare. This one’s MINE!:
The side dishes with the steak, which we shared, were sauteed mushrooms and truffled scalloped potatoes with cheese. The wine was a 2013 Guigal Gigondas, and was fine.
The sunset on the walk back to the train (taken with an iPhone). Chicago can be a lovely town when you’re enjoying its architecture with a belly full o’ beef:
I woke up this morning to find at least 10 emails from people—largely Aussies, I think— informing me about the new census data on religious affiliation in Australia. (Thanks to all—there are too many to h/t!) Australia seems a sensible country, and even though it has its share of religious extremists (it produced Ken Ham, for instance), I wasn’t surprised to see that, like Europe, Australia is undergoing secularization at a fast pace.
A pretty good summary of the data from the Australian Census of 2016 (apparently taken every five years) can be seen at news.com.au. The question about religious affiliation is the only question on the census that’s optional, which suggests to me that the percentage of nonbelievers could be even higher, as those would seem to be the group least likely to declare their (non)belief (perhaps Muslims are in there, too).
The major findings are these:
Those people saying that they had “no religion” rose from 16% in 2001 to 22% in the last census to 29.6% now: nearly a doubling in the last 16 years. This may be a further underestimate, at the site reports that
“The religion question was controversial this year, with Australians warned not to mark “no religion” on the Census survey by those afraid the nation would become a “Muslim country”.”
The “no religionists” now outnumber Catholics: those believers comprise 25.3% in the last census but now dropped to 22.6%
Declared Christians (which include Catholics) have dropped from 88% in 1961 to 74% in 1991 to 51% now. That’s a substantial decrease.
Islam rose from 2.2% in 2011 to 2.5% now: 14% increase from its former numbers. Islam surpassed Buddhism as the largest non-Christian religion.
The data are in graphical form below
People’s declared religion. It looks as if the “nones” outnumber every given faith unless you lump Christian sects together:
The changes in affiliation over the last ten years:
And the raw numbers:
Here’s the summary and a statement from an Aussie atheist:
The results show Australia remains a predominantly religious country, with 60 per cent of people reporting a religious affiliation but the trend towards “no religion” has some calling for changes.
The Atheist Foundation of Australia said it was time to stop pandering to religious minorities and to take religion out of politics.
AFA president Kylie Sturgess said political, business and cultural leaders needed to listen to the non-religious when it came to public policy that’s based on evidence, not religious beliefs.
“This includes policy on abortion, marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia, religious education in state schools and anything else where religious beliefs hold undue influence,” she said.
She said certain religious groups seemed to get automatic consideration in the public policy sphere and to enjoy a privileged position that wasn’t afforded to other large groups, such as the non-religious.
“That has to stop. Politicians, business leaders and influencers take heed: this is an important milestone in Australia’s history. Those who marked down ‘No religion’ deserve much more recognition. We will be making our opinions known, and there’s power in numbers.”
In the West, it seems, and as I’ve always predicted, secularization is inevitable. Some day there will be more nonbelievers than believers in Australia. That will happen in America, too, but we won’t see it in our lifetime, or even in our children’s lifetime. The reasons? Read Steve Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature.
