More ugly phrases

January 17, 2015 • 11:25 am

I present two phrases that annoy me when used in either speech or prose, and I encourage readers to add their own.

“At first blush. . .” I heard this on NPR this morning, and, as always, it irritated me (though not as much as Krista Tippett irritates me). It means “without previous knowledge,” or, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (which gives some early usages), this:

Screen Shot 2015-01-17 at 9.15.23 AM

I think this usage is both superfluous and pompous. Why can’t you just say, “If you didn’t know better, it would seem that the Pope would be nonviolent,” or something along those lines. When I hear the “blush” part, I always think of a peach.

“Sea change”:  All this really means is a “big change”, as in “There’s was a sea change in the attitude towards terrorism after 9/11.” I doubt that people who use it even know its origin. It was in fact coined by Shakespeare in The Tempest to indicate a change actually caused by the sea. Here’s the OED definition:

Screen Shot 2015-01-17 at 9.20.49 AM

And the full reference from The Tempest:

“Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.”

But when people use the phrase now, they’re virtually never referring to a change caused by the sea. Rather, they just mean “a change.” If that’s what you mean, just say that, or say, “A big change.” Why bother to add the word “sea,” which adds nothing to what you say except to make you sound smart?

I suspect that even Steve Pinker would approve of this trimming of phraseology, though I haven’t asked him. At any rate, what phrases annoy you?

Requests to readers

January 17, 2015 • 10:50 am

Tidying up the website today, I’d like to make three requests to readers:

1. Please do not accuse anybody of a crime in your comments, even if you’re joking. For instance, on the thread about Pope Francis, one reader called him a pedophile and another a child rapist.  While priests have indeed been convicted of those crimes, there’s no evidence that the Pope himself is a criminal.  Remember that making such accusations, unless you have facts to back them up, can be an offense for which you (and I) can be sued. If you want to criticize people, there are other ways to do it.

2.  I’m getting so many emails that they’re beginning to get lost. Some readers send me items several times a day, and I don’t think that I can keep up with that volume of email.  Since I often use readers’ suggestions for posts, and don’t want to lose them, could you accumulate all the items you want to send me on a given day and put them into just a single email?  Thanks.

3. I’ve found that some people are reposting my pieces, sometimes in their entirety, on their own websites. I’d like this to stop, as the material is in effect copyrighted and it’s both illegal and unethical to put someone’s work up on your own site. It’s okay to post snippets with links, and if you want to post more you can email me to ask. I’ll formulate a policy about “fair use” in the next week, and post it as a “page” on the left margin, along with Da Roolz.

 

Finally—a BBC show that doesn’t whitewash Islam

January 17, 2015 • 10:00 am

This superb video, “The Battle for British Islam,” is a recent BBC Panorama documentary narrated and moderated by John Ware. Unlike the Beeb’s recent cowardice about criticizing Islam, this is an honest and hard-hitting documentary, one that even shows a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Muhammad. The link was sent to me by reader Malcolm, who added a note that serves as a good summary:

I don’t know whether you’ve had the chance to see this programme of earlier this week but I think you would agree with most of it.
It’s the BBC at its best and most serious and it is very different from the normal deferential and respectful stance towards Islam in its news output. It allows moderate Muslims to say that there is a connection between extremist Islam and violent extremist Islam. It says that Foreign Policy is not the problem but rather it is a puritanical, conservative form of Islam that fosters an “us and them” attitude towards the West which opens the door to violence. It also poses the question ”what can be done” and suggests that the solution, if any, is largely the responsibility of muslims.

If you’ve followed the doings of European Muslims, it won’t suprise you that there are a fair number of “extreme nonviolent Muslims” who favor things like killing apostates and stoning adulterers, as well as a replacement of Western democracy by a caliphate under sharia law. (I wonder why they’re called “nonviolent”!). And talk about “Islamophobia”—one talking head,Shaikh Abu Usamah al-Thahabi, an imam from Birmingham, proclaims (at 7:50; see also at 12:48) that “the problem with being a non-Muslim is that they are liars—usually, usually.” Anyone saying something like that about Muslims would be excoriated (and rightly so), for bigotry, or maybe even killed for criticizing the faith. But it’s apparently okay when a Muslim harbors sentiments like this: after all, they’re an oppressed minority.

Note that several Muslims point out that extremism among “nonviolent” Muslims is growing in the UK, with Muslim “faith schools” teaching anti-Semitism, anti-Westernism, and contempt for other faiths. Meanwhile, the president of the Muslim Association of Britain tries to dismiss the “extremist” views as simply “conservative.”

Finally, at 20:50, Adam Deen, president of the Deen Institute, places the blame where it belongs, not on Western oppression but on “this type of puritanical Islam.”

I highly recommend that you take 28 minutes and watch this program. While I advocate calling out the violent, misogynistic, and oppressive aspects of Islam whenever possible, the best thing said in this video occurs at 28:34, when Muhammad Manwar Ali, chief executive of the Muslim charity JIMAS, asserts that  “The solution to extremism from Muslims lies with the Muslims, obviously because it is our faith that needs to be moderated or channeled, devised in such a way that it never contributes to harm or injustice.”

I’m not holding my breath.

Caturday felid trifecta: Mercury the kangaroo cat has no front legs, Mango the cat lived in a Tesco store, and reader’s felid artwork

January 17, 2015 • 8:53 am

Mercury is a lovely young tabby who lost most of his two front legs in 2013 after an unfortunate encounter with a weedwhacker. Fortunately, he was taken into a loving home whose staff helped him heal and taught him to overcome his handicaps (story here and here).  Here he is:

1401698_1422091151341384_341055969_o

He’s a fun-loving cat, as this photo shows:

JMYIj9I

And here are three videos of this adorable moggie, who moves a bit like a kangaroo. Here’s his first attempt to climb stairs:

He chases a laser pointer:

And Mercury wants his fusses!:

It’s amazing how animals can compensate for injuries and deformities through both behavioral and developmental change. But, after all, bodies are adapted to respond to physical challenges by strengthening bones and muscles needed when the body is altered. Perhaps the most famous example for biologists is that of “Slijper’s goat,” a goat born without forelegs that was named after the Dutch vet who studied it. During development, the goat underwent substantial modifications of its anatomy that allowed it to get around pretty well (I won’t dwell on its sad fate).  Here’s a video of a similar two-legged goat whose movements resemble that of an ostrich:

*******

 Finally, from both the Daily Mail and the marginally more respectable Torygraph, we learn about Mango, a cat who, despite having a home, has parked himself inside a Tesco in Tiverton, Devon for four years, sleeping in the carts and roaming the aisles. Here’s the proud apple-headed Moggie:
24A9B3CE00000578-0-image-a-44_1421148633763
mango-tesco-cat_3163223b
And of course he has his own Facebook page. As the Torygraph noted:

Tabby Mango spends much of his time sleeping in the entrance to the store in Tiverton, Devon, or curled up on a mat.

However, he is so well-loved that he has his own dedicated page on the social network.

It was set up by an unknown customer to give Mango’s fans an outlet to share their love

Citing their reasons for creating the Facebook page, the anonymous account holder wrote: “Our children love this cat so much that my husband suggested we make a page for him.

“What a good idea. So here it is. To put a smile on people’s faces. Thank you for your support for this lovely moggy.”

At one time, the moggy was a regular sight within the store – but now he often does not stray further than the entrance.

Maureen Saunders, one of Mango’s fans, said: “He’s a dear little thing.”

Despite Mango’s near-constant presence at the store, he has an owner and a home of his own just a stone’s throw away.

Sadly, Mango has just been removed from the Tesco for being—get this—a health and safety risk. The store has set up a cage for him nearby and will evict him from the store if he enters again. That’s heinous! They want him to draw the customers but won’t let him inside! A Mirror poll at the link just cited shows that 89% of voters want Mango back inside the Tesco.  (I have voted.)
*******
Finally, reader Ken Elliott sent two splendid specimens of his cat-related artwork:
I wanted to share a couple of pieces of artwork I recently made of the two cats on whom my wife and I serve daily.One piece is black ink on white paper and is a simple depiction of just the stripes of our cat Zizou. His fur is dark gray and the black stripe patterns are quite striking, at least to my wife and I. Zizou was named after the great French soccer player Zinedane Zidane, formerly of Real Madrid and Juventus, as well as a highly instrumental member of the French national teams that won the ’98 World Cup and the ’00 European Championship.
I really like this picture:
CAT 2
The other piece is colored ink stipple on sketch paper of our cat Gunner when he was just a few weeks old. Gunner was named for the Gunners, the nickname of Arsenal Football Club of London. I was an avid Arsenal fan from 1999 until 2014 and my youngest son remains their staunch supporter.
Gunner Kitten
What talent we harbor on this site!
h/t: pyers

Readers’ wildlife photos

January 17, 2015 • 7:00 am

As I hoped (and halfway expected), reader Stephen Barnard from Idaho, though on a fishing trip to New Zealand, couldn’t resist taking photos of non-fishy beasts. That is, moar birds. Today we’re the benefits of this largesse. His first set of photos shows a bird (a form of rail) that I didn’t even know existed. (Read the Wikipedia article (link below) to see how precarious its existence is. Stephen’s comments are indented:

This is a very rare flightless New Zealand bird, the buff weka (Gallirallus australis hectori). They’ve been nearly wiped out by introduced mammalian predators. I was fortunate to gain access to the Motatapu Station where they are being bred in captivity.

P1000693

RT9A4182

RT9A4186

RT9A4191

RT9A4202

Another bird that’s not common in New Zealand. It has an alternate common name: the “great crested grebe”:

This is a very rare New Zealand bird, the southern crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus). They’re nesting in the Wanaka marina where a  retired scientist has established floating nest platforms that they prefer.

RT9A4284

RT9A4288

Isn’t it pretty?

RT9A4309

Information about this marina is in the second photo below:

RT9A4326

RT9A4378

RT9A4408

And, finally, a threatened and endemic gull:

The black-billed gull (Chroicocephalus bulleri)—the most threatened gulls in the world. Wanaka, New Zealand.

Gull

Now, is it too much to hope for pictures of a kea—or even a kakapo?

Saturday: Hili dialogue

January 17, 2015 • 4:21 am

Professor Ceiling Cat gets a STEAK today, thanks to a kindly reader who has offered to buy him lunch in a fancy Chicago steakhouse! (I ate almost no meat while in India.) Sadly, Hili doesn’t get one: as she’s on a diet, her concerns are more mundane. The last line in the English dialogue doesn’t appear in Polish because, although Andrzej wanted to add it to the Polish version, there’s no Polish equivalent for that English phrase.

Hili: I’m wondering…
Cyrus: What about?
Hili: Whether your peeing on the plants might possibly harm them.
Cyrus: Piss off!

P1020212 (1)

In Polish:
Hili: Tak się zastanawiam…
Cyrus: Nad czym?
Hili: Czy to twoje obsikiwanie roślin nie może im przypadkiem szkodzić?