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.
Click on the image above to refresh it and see the disappearing “e”. Today’s Google Doodle – in France anyway – marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of Georges Perec (1936-1982). Here he is with a lovely cat.
Perec was a well-known French author who wrote in a very playful style – he loved word-games (he also wrote crosswords). His first published book was La Disparition in which the letter ‘e’ does not appear (this is a major feat in French!). According to legend, the reviewer in Le Monde did not notice… The significance of the missing ‘e’ goes back to Perec’s family, who were killed in the camps. ‘E’ in French sounds the same as ‘eux’ – ‘them’. The book has been superbly translated into English as A Void by Gilbert Adair. The blurb on Amazon begins thus:
Anton Vowl is missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, a group of his faithful companions trawl through his diary for any hint as to his location and, insidiously, a ghost, from Vowl’s past starts to cast its malignant shadow.
My favourite book of Perec’s is Life: A User’s Manual, though I also love his An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris – a series of descriptions of the ‘infraordinary’ in the Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris (based in turn on Raymond Queneau’s Exercises de Style), and his Je Me Souviens, a series of things he remembered, so beautifully written that you think you remember them, too. If you’ve never heard of Perec, try his writing – in French if possible, but the translations are all excellent.
All these works were part of what Perec called Oulipo – the workshop for potential literature, a group in which writers would set themselves an artificial framework and then write within it.
I sent the Doodle to Jean-François Ferveur, a friend who is also a good friend of Jerry’s, and a fellow Drosophilist. J-F (as he is known) wrote:
ah oui, Georges Perec… Je me souviens… au coin de la rue Vilin… l…La disparition.. la Vie mode.. que du très très bon. Merci de rapeller le souvenir de cet érudit chercheur du CNRS.
Perec was a librarian in the French research organisation the CNRS, where I used to work, where J-F still does. It was there that I first met PCC(E).
In 2012 Christophe Verdon made this enamel plaque, in the style of the Parisian street names:
I can only stand by helplessly as major magazines like National Geographic, and now Newsweek, tout spiritual woo, misleading people and, in the case of the latest Newsweek issue, even causing harm. Here’s their Special Issue on Spiritual Living, which Newsweek describes this way:
To live a spiritual life is to be better connected with the universe around you. This 100-page, special edition of Newsweek is your guide for all things metaphysical, from focusing the mind for meditation through yoga and more, to healing the body with crystals and essential oils. Featuring insight from notable names in the spiritual sphere including Gail Thackray, William Lee Rand and Brad Johnson, this is the issue for anyone looking to awaken their soul.
Miracle crystals? Essential oils? Holistic foods? Angel numbers? Oy! But perhaps the worst is the article “John of God, the Miracle Healer,” about a fake and quack of the first water.
John of God, or “João de Deus” is a psychic healer of great renown: Wikipedia reports that every week thousands of people stand in line to receive his numinous ministrations. That, of course, means he’s a very effective charlatan. Here are his methods, which have been debunked by numerous people including James Randi:
When called for a spiritual surgery by De Faria, patients are offered the choice of ‘visible’ or ‘invisible’ operations. If they select an ‘invisible’ operation (or are younger than 18 or older than 52) they are directed to sit in a room and meditate. De Faria also claims that spiritual physicians can perform surgery on the actual patient via a surrogate when the actual patient is unable to make the trip.
A very small percentage of people choose a ‘visible’ operation where De Faria operates without traditional anesthetic. Instead he says he uses “energized” mineral water and the spiritual energies present, the latter which are provided by groups of volunteers who meditate in a separate room called the ‘current room’. These practices such as inserting scissors or forceps deep into a nose and scraping an eye without an anesthetic or antiseptics have been scrutinized by medical authorities and skeptical investigators James Randi, who has called for De Faria to come clean and stop lying to the public about the existence of spirit and Joe Nickell have described these procedures at length as old carnival tricks.
See especially Randi’s takedown, which describes John’s “surgeries” as “carny stunts.” Naturally, John of God has been touted by Oprah (see Orac’s excoriating remarks on her endorsement). Randi especially decries the forceps in the nosestunt, used to “cure” a variety of ailments. See for yourself:
Here’s a bogus eye-scraping operation, with Newsweek’s caption:
Using a knife, John of God performs a visible spiritual surgery on a woman’s eyes. Some healings require only his hands, while others call for the use of tools. ERALDO PERES/AP IMAGES
Anyway, Newsweek‘s piece simply echoes the puffery of Gail Thackray, who describes herself on her website as as “spiritual educator, medium”. She also made a film about John of God, and experienced a life changing “conversation with God” while sitting in John’s prayer room. How objective is she in the piece? Well, judge for yourself from her words and this accompanying picture:
Newsweek caption: “John of God poses for a photo with author Gail Thackray COURTESY GAIL THACKRAY”
And the Newsweek piece describes, completely uncritically, John’s miraculous “healings”. There’s not a word of dissent, not a peep from his many critics. There’s just stuff like this (these are apparently excerpts from a longer piece in the magazine, selected by Newsweek editor Trevor Courneen):
For all the unanswered mysteries the universe presents, few are incredible enough to earn the label of miracle. Hyperbole is often tied to bewildering occurrences and practices, but a closer look can often lessen their profundity. Though tirelessly explored and frequently experienced, the divine-spirit-induced healing work of John of God remains an exception.
“It is hard to believe, but when you experience this, it is profound,” says Gail Thackray, co-creator of the film John of God: Just a Man and author of the accompanying memoir. An insisting astrologer would initially push Thackray to Brazil where she would first pursue and meet the enigmatic man who heals others by becoming inhabited by spirits. Eventually, Thackray discovered her own purpose was sharing the healings of John of God with the rest of world.
and this:
Whether the guidance of God, divine spirits or varying otherworldly beings are truly enacting the healings, the results of John of God’s work have a way of speaking for him. The energies may not be seen, but in many cases, the healings are. “Many times he takes someone out of a wheelchair, and the ailments literally disappear in front of your eyes,” says Thackray.
and this ending:
With his staggeringly vast reach, the degree of John of God’s exceptional nature becomes a resurfacing question. Even those who acknowledge that energy flows within all of us acknowledge that there hasn’t been anyone on Earth quite like John of God in quite some time. “We all have the ability to heal on some level and can develop this,” says Thackray. “But some are born with or receive a very special healing gift. John of God is rare indeed.”
This is absolutely reprehensible: a complete abnegation of journalistic duty. Yes, journalists can write about this faker if they want, but they’re ethically obligated to point out the many debunkings. What we have, instead, is a completely uncritical puff piece, and one that’s dangerous. By encouraging the afflicted to seek out John of God, Newsweek is hurting people. This isn’t Bigfoot, Nessie, or alien abductions: this is the touting of ineffective spiritual healing, something that kills and injures people.
To add insult to injury, the article appear’s in Newsweek’s online “Tech & Science” section. That was pointed out by the reader who sent me the article, a reader who’s created an entire website devoted to taking down the Brazilian Faker: John of God: the CON, and who has written a short piece on the Newsweek travesty.
This kerfuffle is a sign of the times—or rather of Time Magazine. In a post on February 25, Timegave a list of 100 female authors—their phrase; don’t go after me for not saying “women authors”—read most often in U.S. colleges. (Time‘s list was apparently culled from the list of the Open Syllabus Project.) Kate Turabian and Diana Hacker, who wrote style manuals much used for writing papers, were the most popular, but the real writers then followed: Toni Morrison, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Mary Shelley, and so on. (I can’t believe they left off Carson McCullers!)
But the item of interest to internet pedants, and curmudgeons like myself, was that #97 on the list was Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966). You don’t have to be very literate to know that in fact Evelyn Waugh had a Y chromosome:
PHOTO BY HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited, was, despite his Catholicism, admired by Orwell, Christopher Hitchens, and by Richard Dawkins, who called him “one of my favorite novelists.” And although I haven’t read Waugh (I suspect I wouldn’t be a fan, for writers like P. G. Wodehouse and Anthony Powell, who describe or satirize the lives of British toffs, leave me cold), I do know that he was a man. Shame on Time for not knowing that, too! Who’s editing their articles, and do they know anything about literature?
For a scathing critique of Time‘s faux pas, coupled with a lament about the ignorance of today’s youth—and, better still, an appreciation of Waugh’s literary merits—read Stefan Kanfer’s short piece “An ignorant Time” in City Journal. (As a former editor of Time, Kanfer has credibility about this.) I’m not so wild about Kanfer’s accusation that the younger generation is going to Ignorance Hell: such complaints have been issued by every older generations since ancient Egypt. But there is one difference between this younger generation and all those that went before: the Internet:
When once-formidable newspapers like the New York Times print regular, lengthy columns of misattributions and misinformation, and when a newsmagazine cannot identify the sex of an author, much less his/her significance, Americans can no longer depend on periodicals to set things straight. That job, ironically, has been ceded to the freewheeling and often irresponsible Internet.
I can’t hold the Internet responsible for Time’s gaffe, but it is good that corrections can come so quickly, thanks to bloggers and to Twi**er. On balance the Internet is a very good thing, even if it does reduce the attention span of people, making them less able to read real books.
I note that in the update of its piece, Time has issued a correction:
We are recently back from a tour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks that emphasized wildlife viewing, particularly wolves. Here are some of my more successful shots.
First, we visited the National Elk Refuge just outside of Jackson, Wyoming, which protects winter range for upwards of 5,000 elk (Cervus canadensis). The best way to visit is by horse-drawn sleigh or wagon (depending on snow conditions). The elk allow the wagons to approach much closer than they would tolerate people on foot. Most bulls had not yet dropped antlers when we were there.
In Yellowstone, bison (Bison bison) often hang out around the many hot springs and geysers, where the warmth reduces snow cover, making foraging easier. In the first shot, the steam is issuing from Old Faithful, which just finished erupting. Visitors are warned not to leave the walkways in the thermal areas, but the bison ignore this rule.
We had a particularly close encounter with a nice group of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis).
Finally, we were fortunate to see all three wild canids resident in the park. First, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). We saw, but did not manage to photograph, a remarkable feeding behavior. They listen for mice, voles, etc. moving about under the snow. After sitting very still, only moving the head and ears a bit to get a good triangulation on the sound, they leap about three feet in the air and come down nose first to penetrate the snow. The ones we watched came up with prey almost every try. [JAC: I am still amazed by this ability!]
Our closest look at a coyote (Caniis latrans) was on a cougar kill. The carcass was so near the road that the reclusive big cat did not stick around to guard her stash.
Finally, we saw over 30 wolves (Canis lupus) belonging to at least four packs. The sightings are at a greater distance than the other wildlife, but it was very exciting. One day we watched the largest pack in the park (16 members, all visible in one of the photos) for several hours as it moved some miles through the territories of two other packs. We saw no hostile encounters but heard them howling back and forth several times, and we were told that the number one cause of death among Yellowstone wolves is other wolves.
Among domestic animals, there’s nothing—nothing—cuter than a kitten at about 7 weeks of age. I brook no dissent here. Here’s a tw**t from Whiskas Ireland (sent, of course, by Grania) that makes me want to get a cat now.
It’s a short video, so be sure to press the arrow.
On this day in history, according to Wikipedia, in 321 “Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire.” On this day in 1965, it was “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, when a group of 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by police (see the excellent move “Selma” for a reenactment). Births on March 7 include John Herschel (1792), Luther Burbank (1849), David Baltimore (1938), and Bret Easton Ellis (1964). Those who died on this day include Alice B. Toklas (1967), Stanley Kubrik (1999), and Gordon Parks (2006). It’s Teacher’s Day in Albania (any Albanian readers out there?)
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is objecting to Andzej’s drinking milk with 0% fat: not suitable for a hungry cat!:
Hili: Are you really drinking this white water?
A: It’s very tasty.
Hili: (to herself) He’s gone mad.
(Photo: Sarah Lawson)
In Polish:
Hili: Ty naprawdę pijesz, tę białą wodę?
Ja: Jest bardzo smaczna.
Hili: (do siebie) On zwariował.
(Zdjęcie: (Sarah Lawson)
Out in Winnipeg, Gus is detailing the corners of his box. It’ll be gone soon, and I have no idea why he does this. The vet says that swallowing a bit of cardboard is ok, as it gives Gus “fiber”:
Finally the Dark Tabby of Wroclawek is reading, for everyone in his household reads.
Click on the image above to refresh it and see the disappearing “e”. 
