Devil Cat and Surgeon’s Assistant Cat

September 16, 2014 • 4:44 am

What are the chances? Two good cat cartoons today, both spotted by alert readers.

Reader Howard sent me the latest Dilbert strip, by Scott Adams, with the note:

Todays Dilbert… which combines Cats, Science, Money and Religion.  I thought you’d like it

Dilbert

The research, as far as I know, is correct. But I just wonder if this has anything to do with ISIS’s giving infidels the choice of conversion to Islam or death.

and reader jsp sent today’s “Off the Mark” strip by Mark Parisi:

of140916

They’ve left sponges in patients before; now it’ll be furballs.

Tuesday: Hili dialogue

September 16, 2014 • 2:49 am

For some reason this reminds me of the old joke where one guy asks another, “Do you like Kipling?” The second guy replies, “I don’t know—I’ve never kippled.”

Cyrus: Can you play the violin?
Hili: I don’t know, I haven’t tried yet.

P1010665

In Polish:
Cyrus: Czy umiesz grać na skrzypcach?
Hii: Nie wiem, nie próbowałam.

The fly emerges

September 15, 2014 • 1:24 pm

by Matthew Cobb

This brief macro video from Ammonite Films shows a fly emerging from its pupa. Some of you might find it NSFL, but I think it’s pretty cool. Put it on full screen and freak out your housemates/partners/officemates.

Things to note 1: The fly emerges from a circular hole at the end of the pupal case – this is the defining feature of the Cyclorrhapha, a group of flies that does just this. This “unranked” taxonomic term is apparently out of favour (especially at Wikipedia), and is more or less synonymous with “Muscamorpha”, but I’m no taxonomist and am happy to use it. Anyone with expert knowledge/opinions on the matter, please chip in (and explain!) below.

Things to note 2: More importantly, you can see the effort that the fly goes to in order to extricate itself from the case. There is an awful lot of squeezing and pushing that goes on, enabled by the fact that its cuticle is extremely soft. After emerging and literally blowing itself up as it goes, the fly will scuttle off to find somewhere dry and safe to inflate its wings and harden up its cuticle. [JAC: I’ve watched this many times with Drosophila flies and I never get tired of it.]

Things to note 3: Those movements the fly makes as it emerges are redolent of the movement shown by the maggot before it pupates, with waves of contractions.

Things to note 4: The video doesn’t show how exactly how the maggot turns into the fly inside the pupa. The reason for this is contained in those three most important words in science: we don’t know.

Obama vs. ISIS

September 15, 2014 • 11:45 am

I voted for Obama (twice) and was a huge enthusiast when he took office. His performance since then has been disappointing, but I blame a lot of that on the Republicans, whose program for the country seems to consist entirely of “block whatever Obama wants to do.” But in general, his views have been aligned with mine, i.e., liberal, and in favor of disengaging from futile wars in the Middle East. I don’t particularly like his stalling on immigration reform for purely political reasons, but what most bothers me now is that he seems directionless about the ISIS affair.

First he said he had no plan, then his plan was airstrikes, and now his plan is U.S. airstrikes combined with “boots on the ground” from other countries, like Turkey or Lebanon.  And that plan is just dumb. Not because it’s unworkable in principle, but because it’s unworkable in practice.  Really, who thinks that countries like Turkey are going to sacrifice a lot of their people while the U.S. just rains death from above? They risk the lives of their citizens; we don’t.

This is already clear as John Kerry scurries around the region trying to drum up support for ground troops, but without success. That was absolutely predictable. And that leaves us with U.S. and European airstrikes, and that’s not going to eliminate ISIS—or so the military experts say.

What do we do? I have no idea. Half the time I think that we should just disengage from the region completely, at least from the futile wars in which we’ve already lost so many lives.  Let ISIS do what they can; is it our responsibility to police the world? But then I think of all the innocents being slaughtered by that group, and how nobody but the U.S. can do anything about that, even if only by leading. Not only that, but clearly ISIS, if it becomes a dominant force in the region, will export its methods to our own country. It needs Lebensraum for its religion and its Caliphate.

Perhaps Obama is stymied by an unwinnable situation, and that accounts for his waffling. But right now all I see is that we’ll be pouring money and effort into a venture that is doomed to failure.

 

A great profile of Al Pacino

September 15, 2014 • 10:34 am

I’m not big on articles about Hollywood stars, but this is an exception. John Lahr, the head drama critic for The New Yorker (and son of Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion), has written a terrific profile of actor Al Pacino, and I’m pleased to say that it’s online for free.

Pacino hasn’t done much lately, for, as Lahr notes, he was swindled out of millions of dollars by his business manager (now in jail), and has had to take some pretty crummy roles, including a tour in which he simply talks to audiences, to recoup his dosh. But Lord, the man has some great roles behind him, including those in The Godfather series (especially #2), Scarface, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and a number of plays on Broadway that I’ve never seen.

What really struck me about Pacino, now 74 years old, is his absolute immersion in his craft and his character—to the extent that he lives his character well after the camera has stopped rolling, and and seems to have very little life beyond acting. He’s had children and girlfriends, but never a permanent relationship. Lahr discusses Pacino’s longest-term relationship, with actor Diane Keaton:

The conversation turned to Diane Keaton’s bittersweet second memoir, “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty,” which had been published the week before and in which she discussed “the lure of Al.” “His face, his nose, and what about those eyes?” Keaton wrote. “I kept trying to figure out what I could do to make them mine. They never were. . . . For the next twenty years I kept losing a man I never had.” Sola expounded on the astuteness of Keaton’s observation. “Al has this ephemeral, childlike quality about him,” she told me. “His friend Charlie used to say he’s like smoke. He’s there, but he’s not there. That’s maybe what drove the women crazy. You want to catch him, but you can’t because Al is—”

It sounds like an incomplete life, but, oddly, I found myself envying Pacino. He is in “the flow” nearly all the time, and that makes him avoid having what most people consider a normal life. He doesn’t seem to miss it, either. At any rate, I’d recommend reading Lahr’s “Al Pacino’s Driving Force.”

Beverly Hilton Hotel

My piece on “true faith” in The New Republic

September 15, 2014 • 8:34 am

My post from three days ago on what is a “true religion” has been condensed, edited, and now appears in The New Republic with the title, “If ISIS is not Islamic, then the Inquisition was not Catholic”  (subtitle: “There is no such thing as ‘true’ religion.”). Please go over and at least give them a click, if for no other reason than to see the comments (the text has also been considerably tightened).

Let me take this opportunity to thank the three editors I’ve worked with at TNR—Michael, Ryan, and Chloe—for their help. There’s nothing like a good editor to focus your prose!

Some of the comments are interesting. To wit:

Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.26.23 AM Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.27.15 AM Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.28.07 AM

I’m starting to realize that if one sees you’re an atheist, that automatically invalidates all your arguments. And yes, I’ve criticized Judaism’s superstition and malfeasance as well; I think the whole panoply of Jewish belief (superstition if you will) is bunk. It’s no less bunky than Islam, but, right now, Islam is more dangerous. Does that satisfy you, Mr. Halleck? It’s nothing I haven’t said before.

Oh, and we’ve already disposed of the fiction that ISIS is nihilistic—at least if you look up the definition of the word. Nor was the Catholic Inquisition nihilistic.