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.
From Stephen Barnard in Idaho, Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in velvet (the covering of their horns).
The “velvet” is skin that protects and nourishes the cartilage that is the foundation material for the antler. Later, the cartilage turns into bone, and, when the bone dies, the velvet is shed, leaving the mature antler which is simply dead bone.
Note: I have spilled some water on my Mac keyboard, and I’m unable to log in (the capslock key appears to be stuck on “on” when I log in, and I can’t seem to do anything about it. (I made the mistake of restarting, so I can’t log on.
I’m using a substitute computer in the meantime, but posting may be reduced to very little until I return on Wednesday. If anybody has advice on how to fix that, please tender it below. With great effort I’m posting today’s Hili dialogue:
Hili: Cyrus, what are you doing?
Cyrus: Hush, I’m pretending I’m a black panther.
In Polish:
Hili: Cyrus, co ty robisz?
Cyrus: Cicho, udaję, że jestem czarną panterą.
Today was quiet and cooler, and the Princess came in after a night on the tiles. I noticed (after all this time) that her nose is two colors: pink and brick red (with a lining of black on one side). I’m sure you’re keen to see a picture of a cat nose:
Cyrus is still nosing about and preventing me from my Quality Hili Time, so when I temporarily leave her on the couch I block her from the d*g’s view so he won’t disturb her. A keen observer will see one white catsock protruding:
After a morning’s work, we had a typical lunch: ham, sausages (note the thin ones), cheese (including goat cheese), bread, and fresh tomatoes. And, of course cherry pie for dessert. It is almost gone, and that will be the last of the cherry pie for us, as the harvest is over and I’ve scoured the orchard. 🙁
Dinner was a succulent beef tenderloin with salad and a Polish specialty: pickled mushrooms, all washed down with a hearty Zubr beer. Oh, and of course cherry pie for dessert. I helped by browning the beef; it was good to do just a bit of cooking again. (There is now only one small piece of pie left. . . ):
Walkies after dinner with the whole family. Here are Andrzej and Malgorzata on the bluff above the Vistula:
And the non-hoomans. Can you spot Hili and Cyrus?
And so home again to a late snack, reading (de Waal really hates New Atheists; his book is gratuitiously larded with snipes at them and assertions of his own superiority). This is a typical view of Hili as she accompanies us through the orchard. Her white nose stripe is quite visible in the twilight:
I can’t believe it: it’s quarter of an inch (6.1 mm) across! You can spot it below on the back of the vehicle, part of a military load.
It was produced by reader Mark, who explains:
I build dioramas when I’m not reading WEIT. And I eat when I get the chance. This diorama is far from done, but I wanted to show you the smallest WEIT book ever created. It’s hard to spot, but the third photo I think reveals for those who can’t see it. Nightjars are real…as are anachronisms.
These U.S. tankers seek the truth, that’s why they keep their “bible” as part of their kit. I thought it turned out well. Your book still holds up at .24″ 😉
Just as fast as Turkey’s deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç declared that women of his country shouldn’t tarnish their pure image by laughing in public, so the women of Turkey are responding by laughing and tw**ting about it, laughing at Muslim Leisure Fascist Arınç at the same time. And some men are supporting them. As the Guardian reports,
On Wednesday thousands of women posted pictures of themselves laughing out loud, with the hashtags #direnkahkaha (resist laughter) and #direnkadin (resist woman) trending on Twitter.
Turkish men also took to social media to express their solidarity. “The men of a country in which women are not allowed to laugh are cowards”, tweeted one user.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the main opposition presidential candidate running against current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in next Sunday’s elections, joined a chorus of male voices criticising Bülent Arinç’s comment, tweeting: “More than anything else, our country needs women to smile and to hear everybody’s laughter.”
Other opposition figures pointed out that Arinç’s comments highlighted the dismal state of women’s rights in Turkey. Calling on people to protest against massive violence towards women at a demonstration next week, Melda Onur, an Istanbul MP for the main opposition Republican People’s party, wrote on Twitter: “We would have left Arinç to his fantasies and wouldn’t even have laughed about it, but while so many murders are being committed he makes [women] a target by stressing the need for chastity.”
I knew I could count on Turkish women to defy this stupid Diktat! Maybe there’s a chance for secularism after all.
Note: some of the pictures feature nudity, and you can see more at the Femen Turkey website. Here are a few of the pictures that are Safe for Work. ‘ Be sure to read the captions.
On holiday without their husbands!!!:
I love Turkey. I’ve been there several times, for both touristic and academic visits, and have found the people friendly, the scenery incomparable, and the food fantastic (is there any better confection than pistachio baklava?). The Muslim students with whom I’ve interacted have been amiable, but I’ve interacted only with the ones attending Middle East Technical University, where the headscarf (hijab) is banned and Muslim women like it that way.
Kemal Atatürtk’s attempts to secularize the country were largely successful—but now appear to be going astray as Islam begins to creep into one of the nations harboring less extreme forms of Islam. There are recurrent attempts to lift the ban on headscarves, which have been successful for women in government jobs, and creationism is making deeper inroads thanks to Adnan Okstar (Harun Yahya) and his band of thugs. Censorship is increasing, as the government—ultimately without success—tried to block Twitter and YouTube.
St. Paul famously said that women should remain silent in Church, but now Bülent Arınç has said that Turkish women shouldn’t laugh out loud in public. Who is Arınç? He’s the deputy prime minister of Turkey.
Think of the second-hand effects: cat staff getting SCRATCHED! And it could lead to other countries adopting catnip!
From you youTube notes:
Watch more short films curated by Sundance Institute: youtube.com/screeningroom
Written and Directed by Jason Willis. Starring Giovanni Dominice, Neil Kight and Terry Easley.
h/t: Aneris