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.
Reader Gary called my attention to this magazine, which is over a year old already. In case you don’t know, AARP stands for the American Association of Retired Persons, described by Wikipedia as “a membership organization for geriatrics”. I get mailings from thm all the time, asking me to join, buy life insurance, etc. I won’t, though, as I’m not geriatric.
We don’t get very many submissions of plant photos, and I know we have some botany lovers out there, so enjoy these photos from reader Ken Phelps from the Pacific Northwest:
A foliose lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata??) growing in the moss that substitutes for lawn in our yard.
Bracket fungus on tree trunk. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these with a seascape painted on the underside and made into a lamp. I consider that a mercy.
Leaves (or “leafs” for Ontarians) sprouting on a young maple.
Arbutus, as we call them here, with stripes of peeling bark.
Another close-up of the intense arbutus colors.
Some very mossy maple trees (and a few alders) on a flood plain adjacent to the Nanaimo River earlier this spring. By now, this is all dry.
And let me (PCC[E]) throw in two photos I took of birds at the Chilika Wildlife Sanctuary in India. I don’t know from birds, so help me out here.
April is wending to a close, and although the temperatures have been in the 80s (F) the past few days, they’re going back down to the cool fifties for the rest of the week. On this day in 1584, Shakespeare was baptized, and, in 1785, John James Audubon was born. And, in 1989, comedian Lucille Ball, namesake of one of Stephen Barnard’s eagles, died at 77.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Princess imagines herself as a tiger, but Andrzej slaps her down:
Hili: Can you imagine me 50 times bigger?
A: Yes, I can.
Hili: And what would you think?
A: That I would prefer you to be 50 times smaller.
In Polish:
Hili: Umiesz sobie wyobrazić, że jestem 50 razy większa?
Ja: Umiem.
Hili: I co byś teraz pomyślał?
Ja: Że wolałbym, żebyś była 50 razy mniejsza.
Bonus Hili and Cyrus photo from the Family Walkies:
Meanwhile in Wroclawek, Leon appears to have a bit of spring allergies. Or maybe he just smells a mouse.
Reader Randy E. found this on tw**er, and it’s pretty funny:
Of course “pics” here means “reliable evidence,” as of course there was no photography when most religions arose. But just think how many words theologians have written to circumvent this criticism!
I haven’t rewritten WEIT, and, sadly, didn’t have time to write a new foreword to the book, but it’s just joined the Oxford University Press’s “Landmark Science” Series, acquiring a spiffy new cover (the design of all the covers is similar):
Here’s a complete list:
Daniel Nettle: Personality
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene
Dawkins: The Extended Phenotype
Dawkins (ed.): The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing
Roger Penrose: The Emperor’s New Mind
Addy Pross: What is Life?
Nick Lane: Oxygen
James Lovelock: Gaia
Michio Kaku: Hyperspace
Jerry Coyne: WEIT
Here’s Nick Lane’s Oxygen for comparison:
And The Selfish Gene, which is in its 40th Anniversary edition and so gets a special black cover:
First a Bangladeshi professor, Rezaul Karim Siddique, was hacked to death on Saturday; ISIS has taken credit and the “reason” given was Siddique’s atheism. The only thing is, Siddique’s daughter says that he believed in God. The BBC reports there may have been other reasons:
Siddique, 58, was a professor of English at Rajshahi University in the country’s north-west. He was attacked with machetes as he left for work.
He founded a music school and edited a literary magazine, his family said.
Police believe he may have been targeted by extremists because he was involved in cultural activities. They have detained a member of an Islamist student organisation for questioning.
Hardline Islamist groups dislike anyone involved in the cultural field, the BBC’s Dhaka correspondent Akbar Hossain says.
Yep, being involved in the “cultural field” should certainly be a reason to kill someone.
And now there’s been another killing in Dhaka, just reported by the BBC. This time the victim, Julhas Mannan, was an editor at Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine. Mannan was also hacked to death—by three people posing as couriers. Being hacked with machetes has to be one of the more painful ways to be murdered.
It’s time for the Left to stand up against the Islamic demonizing and murder of gays and nonbelievers and the oppression of women. Can we expect to see Britain’s National Union of Students to now condemn the misogyny and homophobia of Islam?
I’ve presented data on women before, which you can see at the Pew Report On the World’s Muslims. Here are Pew’s data on views of homosexuality and Pew’s summary (remember, they didn’t survey Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran or Yemen).
Muslims overwhelmingly say that homosexual behavior is morally wrong, including three-quarters or more in 33 of the 36 countries where the question was asked.25 Only in three countries do as many as one in ten Muslims say that homosexuality is morally acceptable: Uganda (12%), Mozambique (11%) and Bangladesh (10%). In most countries surveyed, fewer than one-in-ten Muslims believe homosexual behavior is not a moral issue. The exceptions are Bangladesh (14%), Guinea Bissau (14%) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (10%).
Note as well that 89% of Muslims in the liberals’ favorite country, Palestine, see homosexual behavior as immoral. An out gay wouldn’t last a week there, making it even more hypocritical when LBGTQ organizations, as well as feminists, condemn gay-friendly Israel but give strong support to Palestine. In contrast, in Bangladesh “only” 67% of Muslims see homosexual behavior as immoral. But they still kill gays there.
What does it mean that the Left overwhelmingly (and properly) came down hard on Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to gays in Kentucky, but keeps very quiet about the much more vicious persecution of gays by many Muslims?
The result of Islam’s bigotry? This man is no more:
