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.
Hili: Do I look like a wild cat?
Jerry: You look like a nice domestic cat on a walk.
Hili: Pity, I like pictures of wild nature.
Hili: Czy wyglądam jak dziki kot?
Jerry: Wyglądasz jak miły domowy kot na spacerze.
Hili: Szkoda, lubię zdjęcia dzikiej natury.
UPDATE: Note that Malgorzata has kindly added the recipe for the cake in a comment. Note that the measurements are, in European style, in weight rather than volume, but any cookbook will give the volumetric equivalents (note: 1 lb. = 454 grams).
______
The weather has been fairly mild here, though I hear it’s dreadful in Chicago. It’s sunny and cold, just right for a walk along the Vistula followed by a bit of shopping. The sun is low and weak, but at least it shows its face.
Off to the butcher’s to buy sausages and an oxtail for Emma the d*g. As usual, the selection of encased meats was stupendous:
Emma got her oxtail and ran off to nom it:
Emma was a stray, and had apparently lived for three years as such before showing up here, filthy and starved. I have no idea how she survived the Polish winters. For the first several years after Andrzej and Malgorzata took her in, she was a bit wild and had to live outside for fear she would hurt Hili’s predecessor, the beloved tabby Pia. Finally, Emma calmed down and was allowed to move inside to be with her beloved “husband,” Darwin the d*g.
Here is the cozy two-room doghouse that Andrzej built for Emma during her outdoor years, complete with an inner chamber and warm blankets, as well as a thatched roof and her name over the door.
After we went to the supermarket (yes, there’s a small one here), we repaired to the smaller, locally-owned food shop, which Malgorzata and Andrzej patronize because it’s in danger of being forced out of business by the newer supermarket. There were many mirrors and I couldn’t resist a self portrait.
And, of course, at home awaits the comfort of Hili, soft of fur and prompt of purr.
What better way to read than ensconced with a cat? I’m reading Against Moral Responsibility, by Bruce N. Waller, which I believe was recommended by a reader.
The title attracted me because while I believe in responsibility, as an incompatibilist I don’t believe in moral responsibility. In fact, fourteen months ago Dan Dennett and I argued this issue for several hours in the car on the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston. I notice that Dan gave Waller’s book a mixed review, and that review and others’ discussion of it is here. I’ve only begun the book and so can’t judge it yet.
Hili would be on my lap but it’s hard to read that way when supine.
This evening Hili got up to a bit of mischief. The freshly washed and folded laundry had been dragged from the closet onto the floor, and I was told that Hili does this frequently. When I was photographing the crime, the feline miscreant returned to her depredations and continued them:
No cream for you!
After a dinner of spaghetti bolognese and salad, we had a brief computer-and-cat break, and then it was on to dessert. This was a stupendous German recipe that Malgorzata said was a “Karlsbad cake.” I helped make it, too!
It starts with a pound of butter creamed with icing sugar, and then six egg yolks are beaten in, one by one, by hand. Then you add a mixture of flour, baking powder, and finely grated almonds. After that you fold in the six egg whites along with chunks of dark chocolate. After the cake is baked, the top is topped with cherry jam (we lacked the specified apricot jam) and finely shaved milk chocolate.
Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a work of culinary art:
Oy, was it good! And there’s plenty left for tomorrow.
Every time I think that the folks at the Discovery Institute can’t get any denser, they surprise me. Over at the DI’s website, Evolution News & Views, the IDers have taken on my denial of libertarian free will in a post by neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, “When machines collide.”
Scouring my website (I guess he doesn’t have enough surgery to do), Egnor came across the post in which I described how my car was damaged by a hit-and-run driver, but how a helpful medical student took down the model and license number of the offending car. My calling the post “The good and bad of humanity” led Egnor to charge me with hypocrisy, to wit:
Coyne titled his post “The good and bad of humanity.” The cognitive dissonance is amusing. After all, Coyne has argued emphatically that man has no free will, and “choices” are really determined entirely by biochemistry and history. So “good” and “bad” don’t really apply to humanity. If Coyne is right about free will, then the guy who drove off has no more moral culpability than the car he was driving. The cars and the driver and Coyne himself have no free agency at all. If determinism is true, no other event was possible.
Coyne’s soulless deterministic world is merely an arena in which chance and physics and chemistry play. We’re all meat machines, incapable of free will. So a machine is angry that a machine damaged his machine.
The only flicker of libertarian free will in Coyne’s deterministic dystopia is when someone dents his fender.
The statement that “‘good’ and ‘bad’ don’t really apply to humanity” is Egnor’s own mistaken characterization of my views. Of course I see actions as “good” or “bad”, based on their salubrious or deleterious effects on individuals or society. And, if Egnor actually read what I wrote instead of filtering everything through his religious/libertarian worldview, he’d know that. Approbation and disapprobation are useful social tools, for, although we have no choice about how we act, we can influence how others act by giving their behavior labels and sanctioning or rewarding them accordingly. Presumably Egnor doesn’t think that dogs have libertarian free will, but you can train a dog to behave according to your liking.
Indeed, I don’t believe in moral culpability: that term is without real meaning if one denies the possibility of free choice. But there can still be still “culpability” based on the effects of one’s actions. (I’d be glad to hear readers’ feelings about why we should retain the term “morality” if there is no free choice.)
As for my using the terms “good” and “bad” as showing a “flicker of libertarian free will,” well, that’s just wrong. It’s bad for me, and bad for society, if people are allowed to damage other people’s property and then get off scot-free. Yes, the guy who hit my car had no choice in what he did, and I had no choice about reporting him, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not useful for me to report him.
Three things are clear in all this. First, Egnor doesn’t understand my views on free will—either that or he does understand them but mischaracterizes them on purpose.
Second, he—and no doubt many of his creationist colleagues—do indeed believe in libertarian free will: the “ghost in the machine,” as do many religious people. So those philosophers who say that few people are true libertarians are simply wrong. True libertarian free will is an essential part of many religions, and without it the foundations of faith would crack. And there are a lot of religious people. That is why I think that those philosophers who spend their time confecting ways to reconcile free will and determinism are wasting their time. There are more important jobs to do, like telling religious folks about determinism. In fact, even using the term “free will” helps enable religious belief.
Finally, Egnor’s blathering continues to show that the people at the Discovery Institute have run out of arguments for Intelligent Design. They’ve lost the battle against evolution: they lost it in Texas, twice, they lost in at Ball State, and they’ve repeatedly lost it in court. Now, bereft of success, they’re reduced to pointing out what they see as inconsistencies or character flaws in evolutionary biologists. (Remember when they allied me with Nazis, racists, and eugenicists simply because I visited John Scopes’s grave and said I’d like to shake his hand?) But it would at least behoove them to understand what their opponents are saying before they attack them.
This will no doubt inspire another rancorous fusillade by Egnor, but I thought it was worth correcting a common misunderstanding of incompatibilism. I don’t expect Egnor to understand this (after all, he’s only a neurosurgeon), but perhaps others might.
The Superior Person, Dear Leader, Shining Star of Paektu Mountain, Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love, Great Man, Who Descended From Heaven, Great Man, Who Is a Man of Deeds, Eternal General Secretary of the Party, etc. etc. etc.—in other words, the man God Incarnate Kim Jong-Il has written a book that you can buy on Amazon, On the Art of Opera.
In fact, he’s written several books, including On the Art of the Cinema and Our Socialism Centered on Masses Shall Not Perish. I would dearly love to look at these books by the late Dear Leader, but must be satisfied with this totalitarian boilerplate from Amazon, which doesn’t actually mention the book:
Independence, peace, art, literature and friendship are ideas that have been consistently adhered to by the government of the North Korean Republic in foreign relations. As in the past, we will actively endeavor to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with the peoples of the world’s various countries, including socialist countries and nonaligned countries, out of the principle of independence.The harmonious whole between the leader and the leader that has been all the more consolidated with belief and cemented with filial obligation is the most valuable gain of our revolution, as well as the source of the Republic’s invincible power.
Surprisingly, the books ranks quite high for something of its ilk, and I have no idea who’s buying it, for of course Amazon isn’t available in the DPRK.
A few days ago I criticized the Muncie Star-Press for leaving out the Eric-Hedin/Intelligent Design (ID) flap as one of their top ten stories of the year. They considered the opening of a few new stores in the town as more newsworthy!
Now, in the unfortunately titled “Gora’s ‘gag order’ a top story of 2013” by Seth Slabaugh, the newspaper corrects that. But really, Star-Press, was Ball State University (BSU) President Jo Ann Gora’s statement about not allowing ID taught in science classes a “gag order”? That language comes straight from the Discovery Institute, not objective journalism. “Gora’s ban on teaching creationism a top story of 2013” would have been more appropriate.
But there’s a more interesting part of Slabaugh’s article: an intimation that BSU’s recent hiring of ID advocate Guillermo Gonzalez may have involved someone in the university who likes intelligent design, as well perhaps a bit of duplicity in the hiring process.
I will simply reproduce Slabaugh’s report of what another astronomer told him:
Meanwhile, Michael J. I. Brown, an observational astronomer at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has alleged to The Star Press that BSU’s hiring last summer of Guillermo Gonzalez as an assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy appears to have been “rigged.”
Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, in 2004 published a book, “The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery,” that prompted more than 120 of his then-fellow faculty at Iowa State University to issue a statement condemning intelligent design as contrary to science. In 2008, Gonzalez was denied tenure at Iowa State, essentially a form of termination. [JAC: Gonzalez appealed his tenure denial, but was overruled by the Iowa Board of Regents, and sources cited in his Wikipedia article suggest that Gonzalez was denied tenure not for his advocacy of ID but for his lack of scholarship, students, and his poor funding. Gonzalez still claims that his denial of tenure was based on ideological bias.]
He taught at Grove City College, a Christian liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, before being hired by Ball State. [JAC: the Grove City job was untenured.]
Brown told The Star Press: “The number of astronomers who believe in ID/creationism is tiny, so it is unlikely that two ID-believing astronomers (Gonzalez and Hedin) would end up at the same university by random chance. It flags a potentially biased job search. It would be equally unlikely … if two astronomers who owned chimpanzees ended up in the same modestly sized astrophysics group.”
The timing of the hiring is also odd, and the university admitted (see below) that Gonzalez was given advance notice of the job before other candidates heard about it. In fact, he applied for the job before it was even advertised. That’s a sign that the University (or rather, the Department of Physics and Astronomy) wanted him. It’s also strange because the job ad itself that specifies what materials you are supposed to submit, so Gonzalez must have also seen the ad before it was published. And, of course, there are lots of good physicists who haven’t been denied tenure who are looking for jobs. Was BSU aware of all the interested candidates? I doubt it.
I’ve bolded the interesting parts of the next bit:
Brown questioned whether Gonzalez had become aware of the position before it was advertised, and Brown also raised questions about how the position was advertised.
“An obvious concern is Gonzalez was aware of the job prior to it being advertised, Gonzalez applied immediately, and no/few other candidates were seriously considered,” Brown said. “Gonzalez does have some strong publications … but it seems all .. are from 2001 or earlier. [JAC: 2001 was when Gonzalez was hired at Iowa state. When you begin your first job, the “publication” clock starts anew and your tenure depends on what you accomplish between the time you’re hired and when you come up for tenure.] His publication record since then has been solid but unremarkable.”
Todd, the BSU spokeswoman, said the position was first advertised starting Feb. 1, 2013.
A search committee considered applications until March 27, when a short list of three candidates culled from a total of 40 applicants was selected, Todd said. Gonzalez was picked as the top candidate on April 23.
But Brown says the job was not advertised on the American Astronomical Society’s website until March 1. Most astronomers looking for tenure-track jobs look at the AAS website rather than individual university websites, he said. In addition, the AAS ad gave a deadline of July 1 to apply for the opening, which may have resulted in potential applicants not choosing to apply until it was too late.
Ball State’s department of physics and astronomy was unaware of the mistaken July 1 deadline on the AAS website, Todd said.
The fair thing to do in this case was to extend the deadline to the advertised one—July 1—given that that was the date given in the most widely-read venue for job candidates in astronomy.
“Dr. Gonzalez was aware of the opportunity before it was advertised,” she told The Star Press. “The university received his materials on Jan. 28, 2013. It is common practice in higher education for potential candidates to become aware of opportunities before they are advertised. Faculty talking with their peers about opportunities in their departments helps build a strong pool of candidates.”
That is weaselly. My own department does not make candidates aware of jobs before they are advertised, though we will often seek out individual candidates for “special opportunity” positions that are not competitive. If someone has conveyed this information sub rosa, I don’t know about it, and we’ve certainly not gotten a formal job application before that job was advertised.
Citing personnel policy, Todd declined to disclose the names of the other applicants, including the other two on the short list.
“This all seems very odd,” Brown said. “Why headline the (AAS) ad with a misleading deadline if they were genuinely seeking the best possible astronomers for the position? And since the job was advertised (on the AAS website) on March 1, to be consistent with AAS policies they should have continued to accept applications until April 1 (a 30-day period).”
He added, “Apart from these oddities in the process” there remains the “remarkable coincidence” of two astronomers who believe in ID ending up at the same university.
To me, the timing smells fishy. It’s clear that someone at Ball State must have wanted Gonzalez and contacted him before the job was advertised. I don’t know who the other candidates were, so I can’t say whether Gonzalez was the best qualified. All I can say is that someone clearly had him in mind before the search was announced. And now Ball State University is graced with two ID creationists out of the 16 tenure-track faculty in its department of Physics and Astronomy.
Given the older demographic here, I suspect many of you will remember the Everly brothers—Don and Phil—whose wonderful and influential harmonies reached us through records and car radios in the late Fifties and Early Sixties. (Many of us in fact learned harmony by singing along to songs like “Devoted to You”.)
According to The Washington Post, Phil Everly died yesterday at 74 of obstructive pulmonary disease:
A woman who answered the phone at his brother’s home told The Washington Post that Mr. Everly died at Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center.
She said Don Everly was too upset to talk. “He expected he’d go first,” she told The Post. [JAC: Don was born two years before Phil.]
The medical center confirmed only that Phil Everly had died there.
“We are absolutely heartbroken,” Patti Everly told the Los Angeles Times, noting that her husband’s disease was the result of a lifetime of cigarette smoking. “He fought long and hard.”
As Wikipedia notes:
They hold the record for the most Top 100 singles by any duo, and trail only Hall & Oates for the most Top 40 singles by a duo. . . In 1986, the Everlys were among the first 10 artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, they were introduced by Neil Young, who observed that every musical group he belonged to had tried and failed to copy the Everly Brothers’ harmonies. . . The duo’s harmony singing had a strong influence on rock groups of the 1960s. The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkeldeveloped their early singing styles by performing Everly covers. The Bee Gees, the Hollies and all rock’n’roll groups that feature harmony singing were influenced by the Everlys.
(James Taylor and Carly Simon did a particularly good cover of “Devoted to You” [performance at the link].)
Here are some of their greatest hits; I’ve indicated my favorites with asterisks and will put my own all-time favorite at the bottom (you can find a comprehensive list here). Most of these songs were written by others, but a few, including “‘Till I Kissed You,” “Cathy’s Clown,” and “When Will I Be Loved” were written by one or both of the Everlys.
Bye Bye Love
*All I Have to do is Dream
*Cathy’s Clown
*Devoted to You
Wake Up Little Susie
(Till) I Kissed You
*Let it Be Me
*Walk Right Back
When Will I Be Loved
It’s hard to choose a favorite among the songs with asterisks, but I suppose it would be this one, performed live in 1985. (“Cathy’s Clown” and “Devoted to You” [peformances at links] would be close seconds.) Even twenty-odd years after their heyday, they hadn’t lost a lick. (The original version is here.)
The duo (Phil left, Don right):
Reader Merilee called my attention to a piece in the Dec. 31 New York Times called “The purrpose driven life.” It’s a lovely read, recounting the death of five notable cats in 2013, including, Tuxedo Stan, Homer, Alfie, Ugly Bat Boy (“the world’s ugliest cat”), and Arnie. If you’re an ailurophile, you’ll want to read them all. I’ll reproduce one—about Homer, the blind cat:
Homer was just two weeks old when he was found wandering the streets of Miami with a severe eye infection. Two people brought him to a veterinarian named Patricia Khuly and suggested she put him to sleep to end his suffering. Instead, Khuly surgically removed his eyes to keep the infection from spreading and began looking for someone to adopt the tiny obsidian kitten. Many people shied away from the special-needs feline, but when Gwen Cooper met him, she was smitten. She entertained several possibilities (her roommate suggested Socket) before naming the kitten after the blind Greek poet. Veterinarians warned Cooper that blindness could make him more timid than most cats, but he proved them wrong.
One night in 2000, Cooper wrote, she was awoken by Homer growling on her bed. An intruder was in her room, and when Cooper turned on the light, Homer launched himself at the trespasser’s face, biting and scratching ferociously. The man fled.
By the time Homer died on Aug. 21, at age 16, Cooper had sold more than 250,000 copies of her book, “Homer’s Odyssey,” which helped raise awareness about the plight of blind cats. “Because of Homer and his story, many shelters no longer euthanize blind cats immediately upon intake, and we’re seeing far higher adoption rates of blind cats,” Alana Miller, the executive director of Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary, told Cooper for an article. “He’s helped save countless lives.” — Daniel E. Slotnik
Here’s Homer:
And a short video about Homer and his owner:
Here are photos of the rest, minus their stories.
Tuxedo Stan (photo by Hugh Chisholm):
Alfie, the most famous cat in Wales:
Ugly Bat Boy (“Uggs”), the world’s homeliest cat (photo by WBZ TV):
And Arnie, from England’s Linton Zoo, who fostered a whole variety of animals. Here he is taking care of Zara, a lion cub (photo from the Linton Zoo):
Now go read their stories; you won’t regret it.
Because she’s on a diet, Hili hasn’t had a drop of cream in three weeks. She is suffering.
Malgorzata: They are economical with the truth!
Hili: Some are economical with the truth; others are economical with the cream.
Małgorzata: Oni oszczędnie posługują się prawdą!
Hili: Jedni oszczędnie posługują się prawdą, a inni oszczędzają na śmietance.