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.
Here are some of the most bizarre creatures that live in the sea, and some of the world’s most spectacular example of mimicy. This is a video by “Bubble Vision,” described as “Part 7 of my documentary, ‘Mucky Secrets’, about the fascinating marine creatures of the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia.” Note the bits about reverse sexual selection, in which females compete for males who will gestate their eggs.
I’ve been remiss in posting about animal cams, but I don’t want you to miss this really nice Perigrine FalconCam in Fargo, North Dakota. You can see a live feed here, and I’ve posted a screenshot I just took below. Isn’t she lovely?
And you’ll be able to watch the chicks hatch and be raised! According to the information page, the mated pair produced four eggs, but one had a hole in it and was consumed by the parents for nutrition. According to Those Who Know, the eggs should begin hatching in 5-8 days.
You can see another livestream of the same nest, along with a list of current events here. That page also has recordings from past events, and, if you’re of a salacious bent, you can see the pair copulating (it takes just a few seconds).
Don’t miss the livecam, for the resolution is fantastic and the view very close.
h/t: Miranda
Reader Simon Hayward, a professor of Urolic Surgery at Vanderbilt University and the staff of Titan, the Ten-Legged Cat, sent this photo he took, which epitomizes the worst of the U.S. His note:
I pass this place every time we go to Wake, and it always reminds me that I’m in Tennessee. So on the way to Sarah’s graduation I noted which exit it was – just south of Bristol on 81. Nothing like an AK47 to reinforce the blessed savior’s message of peace! (The guy even has AK47 in his phone number as an added bonus)
Guns and God: as American as apple pie! (Click to enlarge.)
I basically got nothing today, and I have to write my book, which means I cannot brain about anything else. Ergo you’ll have to be satisfied with persiflage like this.
Anthony Lane of The New Yorker is my favorite film critic. He’s a lively writer, seems to have a prodigious knowledge of film, and, most important, agrees with me about most movies. A bonus is that he’s a lover of cats, having written a great introduction to The Big New Yorker Book of Cats, which, courtesy of a thoughtful friend, I now own.
But I think Lane made a rather egregious biological error in his latest review: that of the new version of Godzilla, now showing in a small room at your local and overpriced multiplex.
His review begins this way:
Wrinkled and crinkled, huge in Japan, heroically reluctant to give up, and forever touring the world on a mission to make us scream, Godzilla is the Mick Jagger of giant amphibians.
Yes, that’s a cute simile. But I ask you, does this look like a giant amphibian?
An early mock-up:
It’s got scales and a spiky tail! Now it might be an amphibious reptile, or a hybrid between a reptile and something else, or a completely fictitious creature, but one thing it’s not is an amphibian. What happened to the vaunted fact-checking of The New Yorker? Perhaps I should hire myself out to Mr. Lane as a “biological film consultant.”
At any rate, Lane pans the film, faulting the plot, the misuse of good actors, and a bunch of other stuff. His final words are these:
Best of all, as the light thickens and dies over the Bay Area, toward the end, the movie does grind and smash its way into a kind of majesty—a shadow play, almost, with airborne troops dropping in free fall through the storm clouds, devil-red flares strapped to their heels, and Godzilla and his cronies going mano a mano in the murk. By now, the beasts are barely distinguishable: an abstract, infernal chaos of warty skin and swipes of vicious claw. That’s what the perfect “Godzilla” should be: no character development, no backstory, no winsome kids, just hints and glimpses of immeasurable power—enough to make you jump and twitch and leave you sweating for more. Luckily, that ideal already exists, and it requires only two minutes, not two hours, of your time. So, skip “Godzilla” the movie. Watch the trailer.
So, to save you $10 and two hours, here’s the trailer:
Hili’s ordeal continues unabated. . .
Hili: I’m besieged!
A: What now?
Hili: Cyrus is in the living room and Fitness is on the balcony.
Hili: Jestem oblężona!
Ja: Co znowu?
Hili: Cyrus jest w salonie, a Fitness na balkonie.
This cat is obviously affronted by his staff’s attempt to lip synch to a song, which I’ve identified as “Let It Go” from the Disney film “Frozen”.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from federal judge John E. Jones III, but you’ll surely remember him as the judge who presided over the Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District et al. case in Pennsylvania in 2005. And, though a George W. Bush appointee, a Lutheran, and a Republican, Jones simply threw the defense’s case for teaching Intelligent Design (ID) into the trash, calling ID “not science” and accusing the defendants of “breathtaking inanity.”
Now he’s made another landmark decision, and again in the liberal and rational tradition. According to CNN (and many other venues), yesterday Jones struck down the Pennsylvania anti-same-sex marriage law as unconstitutional. And he gave no stay on his decision, so it will be effective immediately:
Other courts’ decisions have been stayed, pending appeals — meaning gay and lesbian couples can’t marry in those states until an appeals court weighs in. Same-sex couples in Oregon began getting marriage licenses Monday after a similar federal court ruling, which that state did not appeal though the National Organization for Marriage subsequently did.
Jones issued an order Tuesday permanently barring authorities in Pennsylvania from preventing same-sex couples from getting marriage licenses. That means people could apply for licenses right away, even if weddings don’t happen so fast: Pennsylvania has a waiting period of three business days between applying for and obtaining a marriage license.
. . . In his ruling Tuesday pertaining to Pennsylvania, Jones echoed many assertions made recently by his federal court colleagues.
“The fundamental right to marry as protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution encompasses the right to marry a person of one’s own sex,” Jones wrote, adding that both Pennsylvania’s banning of same-sex marriage within its borders and its failure to recognize such unions performed in other states are unconstitutional.
The judge added that there is no “important governmental interest” that would warrant preventing gay and lesbian couples from marrying.
You can read the whole decision as a pdf file here, but I’ve taken a screenshot of the very last lines, which will make your heart swell. (The CNN site also has a nice video.)
Lift a glass to a Republican whose heart is in the right place—Judge Jones:
h/t: Ginger
