Today’s footie, with added biology

July 5, 2014 • 7:31 am

Yesterday Matthew was rooting for France, as he lived there for many years—he speaks fluent French—and has written two books about the Resistance and the liberation of Paris. Sadly, France lost to Germany 0-1 in a pretty dull game, and Matthew consoled himself with a bowl of Eton Mess.

Brazil beat Colombia 2-1, in a fast-moving game that showed that Brazil is not nearly as bad as it has looked so far. Colombia just couldn’t control the ball, but did have one good goal (on penalty) by James Rodríguez. Brazil clinched the win with a wonderful free-kick by Luiz from 68 feet (21 meters) out. I managed to watch both games.

Today’s schedule is also a corker, and I’ll try to watch both games, as I’m almost finished polishing the Albatross. I’m rooting for Argentina, of course,  and, although the Dutch will likely win, my heart is with underdog Costa Rica.

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Here are the highlights from yesterday’s games:

Germany/France (click on screenshot to go to videos):

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Brazil/Colombia (Luiz’s kick):

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Did anybody notice that Rodríguez, the young star of Colombia, had a huge grasshopper on his arm when he made his successful penalty kick against Brazil? The Telegraph reports with photos; clearly the orthopteran brought luck:

James Rodriguez threw his side a lifeline late in the semi-final defeat by Brazil when he scored a penalty and celebrated the strike, unaware that a huge green insect had been hitching a ride on his arm.

He calmly slotted the spot-kick past Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar, with the grasshopper still clinging to his shirt.

Eventually it flew off, together with Los Cafeteros’ hopes of reaching their first ever World Cup semi-final as the Brazilians prevailed 2-1 in the quarter-finals in Fortaleza.

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Such is football in the tropics. Can anyone identify this insect?

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Rodríguez had six goals in the tournament, and although his team is through, this young man has plenty to be proud of.  But he was in tears after the post-game exchange of jerseys, and, after being hugged by his coach, walked forlornly off the field.

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Here’s a take on the tight US/Belgium match from a piece in Slate called “This GIF shows how tantalizingly close the US came to tying Belgium.” It’s US-centric, of course, and we lost in overtime 2-1.

First, Jermaine Jones streaks in front of Michael Bradley, helping to camouflage the Americans’ true intentions. Bradley then taps a diagonal ball to the cutting Chris Wondolowski. The Belgian wall, which had been primed for a Bradley shot, busts apart as five players scatter aimlessly. As the Red Devils scramble, Clint Dempsey races to the front of the goal, and Wondolowski’s pass hits him in stride. At this point, the Belgians have been thoroughly beaten. The men in red are standing, watching, and hoping that the play breaks down, somehow.

It does. Dempsey’s first touch is heavy, perhaps because Wondolowski struck his pass with a bit too much pace. Instead of gathering it smoothly and smashing it into the net, Dempsey now races to control the ball.

There’s also one Belgian player who’s not absolutely dumbstruck. To his credit, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois comes off his line quickly. It’s a world-class move by a world-class player: Courtois is just fast enough to slide in and dispossess Dempsey before the American forward can regain possession.

If Courtois had stayed in place, Dempsey would have slotted the ball in and tied the match 2-2. Instead, the Belgians held on for a deserved victory. In the end, this play stands as a microcosm of the Americans’ performance at the 2014 World Cup. It was surprising, thrilling, and not quite good enough to beat one of the best teams in the world.

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Finally, today’s Google Doodle; I think they’re running out of ideas! Click on the screenshot to see the animation:

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h/t: Steve, pyers

Caturday felid: kitten rescue in Szechuan!

July 5, 2014 • 6:05 am

Speaking of Chengdu (the capital of Szechuan), I got a completely unsolicited email from a Chinese student named Yi, who, with his girlfriend Xixi, found a passel of five abandoned kittens on the campus of his university in Chengdu. After some back and forth, the kittens all got saved. Here’s the story, with photos (Yi’s emails are indented):

Me and my girlfriend, a junior at the Southwest University for Nationalities (SWUN, in Chengdu), recently bumped into a bunch of kittens around the university’s south gate. They were hanging around the bush, as shown in the photos attached. According to the guards at the gate, they seem to live underneath the curb surrounding the bush.

When we first met them, we couldn’t tell how many. In fact, we could barely see them, as they were scattered around in the bush, only making the sound “miao, miao…” There are perhaps 5 or 6 of them. Our guess is that they were recently given birth to by their mother, who is owned by some of the students at SWUN. But it seems they are left unattended because we have never seen a “mother” cat around. Of course, we hope their mother is around and does come to take care of them at times.

At any event, everyday we pass by the place, my girlfriend and I bring them a type of Chinese hotdog, made of meet and mostly starch — the food is usually eaten along with ramen noodles in China. Although we feed them on a daily basis, we rarely see them. We just leave the food at the entrance to their “home,” in the hope they come to eat it. They do. Every time we come back checking, the food is gone.

my GF feeding them

This afternoon, it was raining hard. I was hesitant to go feeding them, but my girlfriend insisted. She even imagined the kittens might be waiting for us (or their food). Surprisingly, although it was raining, they were actually waiting at the entrance (or so we thought). My girlfriend was so excited and started to prepare the food for them immediately upon hearing their voice , while I was holding the umbrella for her. She saw at least 4 kittens, two black and two yellow, in the hole. My girlfriend even caught sight of them fighting to get food; one black kitten fell over after being pushed by a yellow one. Because I was holding the umbrella, it was hard for me to take photos, to say nothing of the darkness inside their home. However, I did snap a couple, where you can vaguely see a yellow kitten facing down and enjoying her food. We were soaked in the end, but it felt fantastic as this was the first time we actually saw them eat our food and, more importantly, we got to feed them (well, my girlfriend did). We will keep doing this until we have to leave the campus in a couple of weeks, when the finals are over. Hopefully someone interested would come to adopt them at some point.

Can you make out the yellow kitten here?

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My girlfriend wants me to add: the kittens are barely the size of her palm.

We finally managed to snap a few clear photos of them. When feeding the kittens, unfortunately, we suspect their eyesight seems a bit poor. It is perhaps due to malnutrition. We are bringing a diversity of food, including milk and egg. Also, the yellow kitten in the photos seems most active of all, and least afraid of strangers.

Just like Jerry Coyne the Cat!

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All five of them!

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This one looks like Jerry Coyne the Cat. Xixi has given it milk.

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When Yi wrote me with the photos, I was sad because a Chinese street kitten has virtually no chance of survival. And although Yi and Xixi were feeding them, the kittens surely couldn’t survive on starchy Chinese hotdogs. I told him that I would be much happier if the cats were captured and put up for adoption.  Luckily, Yi and Xixi are kind, and did exactly that:

We want to thank you, also. When we first met the little cats on campus, we weren’t so sure what to do about them except for bringing some food over. It was at your encouragement that we became more serious about the idea of adoption. Even after we knew there were people willing to help us, I was still worried if we would be able to catch all of them. Thank goodness it all worked out — my beloved girlfriend played the big part!

And, sure enough, they got them all and found a nice lady to take care of them:

Today, my girlfriend and I found a lady to take care of the kittens about whom you were worried. She’s coordinated several grass-root groups devoted to saving street cats here in Chengdu. She’ll be taking care of the “babies” until all of them get adopted. Good news is that two have already been spoken for! The lady checked on each kitten when we handed them over to her. To our great delight, the babies were in a better shape than we had thought. Also, rest assured the little babies are in good hands, judging from the way she checked on each of them. She’s also a very nice person. Attached are some photos for you.

This one was labeled “They were put in this box”:

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Yi called this one “A bit crowded”. Indeed, but they’re on their way to a home!

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Yi called this photo “The nice lady to take care of them”:

the nice lady to take care of them

I then expressed my concern to Yi that the kittens might have eyesight and other health problems, and that I hoped the “nice lady” would take them to the vet.” (I can’t help it!). And she did, and they’re fine! Yi’s final report:

This is just a note that all kittens have been taken to vets by the lady who is helping them find adopters. To our delight, they are all in good shape. Attached are a number of their recent photos.

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So here’s to Yi and Xixi for their kindness and persistence. They’ve saved five little lives, and I’m enormously pleased.

Thanks, guys!

Chicago: four moods and Chinese food

July 5, 2014 • 4:15 am

Here are four photos of downtown Chicago I’ve taken from my crib over the last two weeks. The weather has been variable, and I’ve taken them in storm, sun, sunrise, and sunset.

Storm coming:

Chicago 1

After-storm fog; Lake Michigan is still cold from winter, causing fog when the air is warm.

Chicago 2

Sunrise yesterday:

Chicago 3

Sunrise this morning:

Chicago 4

And, at the end, there’s lagniappe: a bowl of mapo dofu (“Pock-marked Ma’s Bean Curd”) from the Lao Sze Chuan restaurant, one of my favorites in Chicago. This was only one dish in a meal with friends, but I was so famished that I forgot to photograph the other plates before nomming. I asked for ground pork to be added, as is traditional in Chengdu, Szechuan, where I had this dish at the very restaurant where it was invented.

This is a classic Szechuan dish, very hot with peppers, but is best served only slightly warm in temperature, just a tad above ambient (I like the leftovers). It’s made with tofu, scallions, a variety of spices, red chiles, and, most important, the fragrant Szechuan peppercorns, hua jiao. Somehow the ones the restaurant gets are better than the ones I can buy at the Chinese grocery.

mapo dofu

Saturday: Hili dialogue

July 5, 2014 • 2:33 am

I am worried at Hili’s increasing tendency to quote scripture!

Hili: In the beginning there was Meowing.
A: Really?
Hili: Yes. You’ve read it. And the Ceiling Cat meowed: Let there be whatever”.

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In Polish:

Hili: Na początku było miauczenie.
Ja: Naprawdę?
Hili: Tak. Czytałeś: I miauknął Ceiling Cat: ‘Niech się stanie cokolwiek'”.

Guest post: The truth about that Pallas’s cat video

July 4, 2014 • 11:49 am

JAC note:  Poor Matthew!  He is deeply dispirited because he was rooting for the team that just lost its World Cup match. I won’t give a spoiler, but I found the game very dull, and also had trouble finding a station to watch it on.  At any rate, Matthew tells me he’s “gone out for some whipping cream for Eton Mess”, which is complete gibberish to me. But yesterday he was nice enough to make a post about my favorite cat: Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), also known as the manul.

This week several readers sent me what purported to be a video of a manul leaving its den in the Himalaya, filmed by a remote cam. I was suspicious because the video was just too good, and I sent it to Dr. Cobb. He investigated, found out that it was actually from a zoo, but managed to find real (though inferior) video of a manul in the wild. Here’s his post:

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by Matthew Cobb

Jerry is busy with THE BOOK so has asked me to post this. A number of readers, knowing Jerry’s affection for Pallas’s cat (aka Pallas’ cat or ‘the Pallas Cat’), have sent in this charming video, which it is claimed shows footage from a camera trap in Nepal:

This is indeed a Manul (as they are also known) an animal which is primarily found in Central Asia. Sadly it is not from Nepal, or indeed from a camera trap, which starts recording when an animal passes by. You might get some clues from a) the fact that this animal is mooching about in daylight, b) the couple of random bits of foliage in front of the den and c) the amazing amount of bird noise you can hear on the soundtrack.

This was in fact filmed at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, and was originally posted by user ‘Scarce Worldwide’ to YouTube (with no mention of Nepal or Lympne) in 2013, where it has since been seen around 500,00 times.

I first saw the video on John Hutchinson’s Tw*tter feed the other day (no mention of Nepal or camera traps), where it drew an immediate response from one of his tw**ps:

Neville is Neville Buck, the Section Manager for small cats at Port Lympne. It looks to me like he set up a video camera in front of the Pallas Cat den and left it running. Not a camera trap. The cat saw the unusual object in its enclosure and came over to investigate, having a good sniff. Hence the video.

If you still doubt, do a Google image search for Pallas Cat Lympne and you’ll see that the enclosure is exactly the same as on the video. Here’s an example, taken by Sara F of Rochester, England, from here:

If you want to see a whole load of beautiful pics of the beast at Lympne, go here.

So how come the internet has suddenly got all excited about Neville’s video and suggested it was taken in Nepal? For example, this article from KSBW Action News 8 where Digital Media Manager Amy Larsen clearly says this was recorded in Nepal. Other sites like this are more circumspect, but a) suggest this was a camera trap and b) are not clear about the location (presumably because they didn’t know).

The mix-up comes from the fact that camera traps in Nepal did indeed accidentally reveal the presence of the Pallas Cat, earlier this year. The quality of the Nepalese trap image, and the fact that it was taken at night (these animals are so elusive, the locals did not even know they were there), contrasts with Neville’s lovely video. Here’s one of the trap images, taken by the Snow Leopard Conservancy Program and set out by Tashi R. Ghale. The cat appears to be doing its business – a rather undignified way of being caught for posterity:

A diary entry by Bikram Shrestha, a Coordinator for the Snow Leopard Conservancy Program, describes how the image was collected and then identified:

On 19 September 2012, I reached remote Manang,a four-day walk from the nearest motorable road. As the SLC’s coordinator of the Snow Lepard Scouts and  Science program, I led twelve students on a trek to Yak Kharka — some four hours walk from Manang village.  We stayed two days there and students learned about snow leopard habitat, its prey species and camera trap technique. After that, I set up 5 camera traps in the area of Ladar, Yak Kharka, Manang and Aangumie Lapche with local assistant Tashi R. Ghale who was then responsible for monitoring the camera until December.

I received the camera trap data in November 2013 to analyze and send to Snow Leopard Conservancy-USA. The camera trap from Aangumie Lapche captured the strange species. I was surprised because it was the small size of a snow leopard cub. But no adult snow leopard was captured with it. It was also not similar to other small mammals like the leopard cat and lynx which were recorded in ACAP, so these images continued to confuse me. I sent the report to Dr. Som Ale on 26 November 2013 and our team continued studying all images in attmepts to identify the species.

I had conducted the similar snow leopard environmental awareness camp in Manang in 25-28 September 2013. This time I installed 11 camera traps, again with the help of local assistant Tashi R. Ghale, in Ledar, Yak Kharka, Kerken-Manang, Tilicho, Praken-Manang and Aangumie Lapche to learn more about snow leopard and the strange unknown cat species. On 29 December 2013, Tashi R. Ghale informed me the camera trap installed at the same place in Aangumie Lapche again captured the strange cat. I was elated to know this news. He sent me six full images and I sent them to experts to identify.  The experts of small cat species Jim Sanderson and Angie Appel, and Biologist Prof Karan Shah confirmed it was Pallas’s cat, which is the first record of them in Nepal.

SLC-Nepal and NTNC/ACAP conducted a press conference to officially announce the identified Pallas’s cat–a new species to record in  Nepal– on 12 February 2014.

There’s one final mystery I have to solve – what exactly is the genus of Pallas’s Cat? It was identified in 1776 by Pallas (well duh), and its full name should be Otocolobus manul. Some taxonomists have Otocolobus as simply part of the Felis genus, and everyone agrees that Pallas’s cat is closely related to the domestic cat, like the Sand cat and the Chinese desert cat. The marvellous database at timetree.org tells us that the domestic cat and Pallas’s cat split only 6 milion years ago.

However, this article from the Revue Suisse de Zoologie in 1975 gives the latin name as Octocolobus manul, and for whatever reason this mangled typo-version has spread on the internet, even as far as the Cincinnati Zoo.

The Telegraph: Stop treating the Palestinians like children

July 4, 2014 • 7:34 am

Here’s an unusual occurrence: a British journalist criticizing Palestinians instead of Israel. The journalist is Alan Johnson at the Telegraph, and his piece (on his website at the paper) is called “It’s time to stop infantilising the Palestinians.”

The first paragraph has a number of links to images I’ll reproduce, and excerpts from Johnson’s piece are indented:

The jubilant reaction of many Palestinians to the kidnapping of three Israeli teenage boys has been met in the West with a bit of a shrug. The official daily PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida has published cartoons mocking the three students and celebrating their capture.

A cartoon that appeared in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper referring to the kidnap of three Israeli teenagers, June 15 2014. (screen capture: Palestinian Media Watch) Read more: PA, Fatah cartoons gloat over teens' kidnappings | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-fatah-cartoons-gloat-and-jeer-over-kidnappings/#ixzz36V1cFkDa Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook
A cartoon that appeared in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper referring to the kidnap of three Israeli teenagers, June 15 2014. (screen capture: Palestinian Media Watch)

The Fatah Facebook page featured a cartoon of three rats dangling from a line.

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Can you believe this? What a monstrous mentality is evinced here.

Sweets have been handed out on the streets (a traditional gesture of joy and celebration).

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Celebrating the murders with free sweets.

Many children have been photographed by their parents, holding up three fingers and smiling.

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(Sources of the photos and documentation here.)

An internet campaign gathers pace and “popular support for the abduction has continued to proliferate on Palestinian social media” according to the journalist Elhanan Miller. Hamas, of course, is exultant. Yes, Abu Mazen has condemned the kidnap and there have been some brave Palestinian voices raised in defence of the three youngsters, but their voices are isolated; Palestinians calling for the return of the three students have been threatened.

If you haven’t learned from this site about how the Palestinians celebrate the murder of innocents, and how their media (unlike that of Israel) is saturated with hatred towards their enemies, how cartoons like the above are a staple in Arab lands (not just Palestine), and how even children’s television shows teach young Arab children to hate Jews, you haven’t been paying attention to this site. Notice that the cartoons above appeared in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper and the Fatah Facebook page.

Johnson continues:

In part, because an anti-Zionist mindset that has taken root in the West, and at its heart is unexamined assumption – that Israelis and Palestinians are different kinds of people. Israelis have agency, responsibility and choice, Palestinians do not. In short, the world treats the Palestinians as children – ‘the pathology of paternalism’ it has been called

The unarticulated assumption of anti-Zionism is that Palestinians are a driven people, dominated by circumstances and moved by emotions; qualities associated with the world of nature. Israelis are the opposite; masters of all circumstances, rational and calculating; qualities associated with the world of culture.

This dichotomous thinking has three bad consequences.

I will just give one or two sentences about each of those consequences; do read the piece for yourself to see it all (these are direct quotes from Johnson):

  • First, by granting only one side to the conflict agency and responsibility, the dichotomy distorts key events of the conflict (e.g. the war of 1948, the collapse of the Camp David peace talks in 2000, Gaza after the 2005 disengagement). The Palestinians are cast as passive victims; a compelled people. . .
  • Second, the dichotomous understanding of Palestinians and Israelis distorts our understanding of Israel’s security. The threats Israel faces are discounted and the security measures taken by Israel reframed as motiveless and cruel acts.
  • The third consequence of this dichotomous thinking about the nature of the two peoples is the infantalisation of the Palestinians: they remain perpetually below the age of responsibility; the source of their behaviour always external to themselves, always located in Israel’s actions.

I think this third point is important, for it explains the double standard applied to Palestine vs. Israel. Were cartoons like the above published in official Israeli papers or documents, or were Israelis to hand out sweets and celebrate en masse when that Palestinian youth was killed yesterday, the world would come down hard on that behavior (especially the British media, which abhors Israel). But when Palestinians do such things,they get a pass. At best commenters will briefly mention this vicious hatred in one sentence and then go on to excoriate Israel in several paragraphs.

Have you seen any of these cartoons reproduced in Western mainstream media like the New York Times? Probably not, but of course they’re everywhere in the Middle East. Palestinians, like the outraged Muslims who killed people over the Danish cartoons, or stuck a knife in Theo van Gogh for making a 10-minute movie about Muslim misogyny, are treated like children having tantrums, and their petulance is coddled until they stop crying.

Of course there are reasons Palestinians are angry, and I don’t dismiss those reasons. As you know, I favor withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories and the creation of two states. But what I can’t condone is the murder of innocents (like the murder of the Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem two days ago, still unsolved) nor, especially, the kind of callous inhumanity that leads to things like the cartoons and pictures above.  Can you really deny that the world holds Israel to a far higher standard than they do the Palestinians? That’s a form of reverse bigotry, and kudos to Johnson for pointing it out.

His final paragraph echoes my thoughts completely:

Of course, Israel has to compromise and divide the land, making possible a Palestinian state. But if the Palestinians are treated as children, never held accountable for cultivating a culture of hate, then they will never make their own excruciating compromises for peace. And without those compromises – in a Middle East departing further from the norms of human behaviour by the day – Israel will not take risks for peace. Nor should it.

 

 

Flies and the Declaration of Independence

July 4, 2014 • 6:42 am

Who would have guessed? Today’s post by Gwen Pearson (formerly “Bug Girl”) at Minifauna shows a clear connection between members of the order Diptera and the holiday Americans are celebrating today: the fourth of July, or “Independence Day.” That was the day in 1776 when the Continental Congress finally approved the wording of the Declaration of Independence, the formal notice that the colonies were separating from our tyrannical masters in the UK.

From ConstitutionalFacts.com:

But July 4, 1776 wasn’t the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).

It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).

And it wasn’t the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn’t happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).

So what did happen on July 4, 1776?

The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They’d been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

But Pearson puts an arthropodian spin on the event, describing what happened on that day when the delegates were putting the final touches in the document at Independence Hall (named later) in Philadelphia:

Someone opened the windows to let in a breeze… but as they were down the street from a stable, what actually came into Congress was blood-sucking flies.

Congressional Precedent established.

From Parton’s 1874 Life of Jefferson: (page 191):

“During the 2d, 3d, and 4th of July, Congress were engaged in reviewing the Declaration. Thursday, the fourth, was a hot day; the session lasted many hours; members were tired and impatient. Mr. Jefferson used to relate, with much merriment, that the final signing of the Declaration of Independence was hastened by an absurdly trivial cause.

Near the hall in which the debates were then held was a livery-stable, from which swarms of flies came into the open windows, and assailed the silk-stockinged legs of honorable members. Handkerchief in hand, they lashed the flies with such vigor as they could command on a July afternoon; but the annoyance became at length so extreme as to render them impatient of delay, and they made haste to bring the momentous business to a conclusion. “

As another historian put it, “treason was preferable to discomfort”, and members closed debate, hustled to sign, and exited stage left, pursued by horse flies.

Horse flies (Subfamily Tabaninae) are still common in the US. Horse and deer fly mouthparts are basically scissors and a sponge; they slash you and then lap up the blood that pools up. This is extremely painful. The amount of blood a horse fly can suck up varies, but 40 to 200 mg of blood seems to be the range of a single fly.

Why horseflies (Tabana atratus) instead of houseflies (Musca domestica)? My guess is because the delegates parked their horses outside the hall, and horses were everywhere in those times. Houseflies would not have been so annoying nor, I think, forced a hasty exit from the meeting.

Pearson also shows a painting portraying the event, not quite anatomically accurate (caption from Perason’s post):

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Declaration of Independence Signing: The REAL Version. 1819 Painting by John Trumbull, slightly updated.

Happy Fourth, everyone! I’ll be working on The Book and watching footie.

h/t: Matthew Cobb, who won’t be watching both games.