Welcome to CaturSaturday, September 27, 2025: shabbos for good Jewish cats as well as International Rabbit Day. Now I know that this painting (“Young Hare” by Albrecht Dürer, 1502) is a hare, not a rabbit, so don’t come after me. It’s close enough, and it’s beautiful:

It’s also Museum Day, Astronomy Day, National Chocolate Milk Day (my choice in elementary school), National Corned Beef Hash Day, and National Wildlife Ecology Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 27 Wikipedia page.

The news may be truncated a bit today as I drank and ate too much last night at an Argentinian steakhouse, and hence arose, after a restive night, quite late. As always, I do my best.

Da Nooz:

*The WaPo’s article on Trump’s new tariffs, “Trump’s fresh tariffs could inflate consumer prices for months to come” is wrong in one word: “could” should be “will.” OF COURSE consumer prices will go up. How could they not, as American companies have to pass on inflated costs of goods from other places to the consumer? This is on top of the inflation we already have, and the only good news is that it may drive Republicans away from Trump in the next election.

The new tariffs range from 25 percent to 100 percent and target pharmaceuticals, heavy trucks, kitchens cabinets, bathroom vanities and upholstered furniture. They will take effect Oct. 1.

It’s already a challenging period for consumers. Fresh data from the Commerce Department on Friday showed core inflation — the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of underlying price pressures — grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in August. That was in line with expectations but up from a 2.5 percent rate in April.

“At a time when it’s looking increasingly like the U.S. is experiencing an acceleration in underlying inflation, the new tariffs announced by President Trump will only exacerbate the challenges facing households and will only make it harder for the Fed to continue cutting interest rates, as the president wishes,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

And remember—that’s from a “right-leaning” institute.  If you haven’t noticed that virtually all prices are up, you haven’t bought anything.  Since Americans always pay close attention to their economic well being at election time, I’m crossing my fingers—not so much for the midterms, since regardless of what happens Trump will have a veto, but surely for the 2028 election.

*My conversations here with people from Harvard are consistent, with faculty saying that they think President Garber is doing a good job fighting against their multi-billion-dollar levy from the Trump administration. But of course Garber is also bargaining on the side for a settlement that may make Harvard’s lawsuit against the Administration moot. The decision on whether to fight or bargain with Trump is plaguing American colleges, as they decide whether to “give in or fight back.”

The Trump administration has attacked the University of California system’s research funding, launched a swarm of investigations and demanded that it pay more than $1 billion.

But people across the 10-campus system are at odds over how to fight back, stirring a war within about countering President Trump’s tactics. In many ways, the conflicts reflect academia at large, which has not mustered a consensus about how to fend off the White House’s campaign to remake American campuses.

California administrators have tried to negotiate with the same government that professors have sued. The university system’s regents have huddled behind closed doors while one, Gov. Gavin Newsom, has publicly called for defiance. And system leaders have clashed with campus-level officials over giving the Trump administration the names of scores of students and employees connected to complaints about antisemitism.

“This has nothing to do with antisemitism, and everything to do with capitulating,” Peyrin Kao, a Berkeley lecturer who was included in the files that went to the federal government, told regents last week.

. . . The tensions stem from the question of what universities should prioritize. Should battling incursions into academic freedom take precedence? Or protecting students and cherished values like diversity? Or should retaining federal research funds come first?

Well, in my own view the present structure of DEI at universities should go, as it forsters neither diversity of opinion, promotes equity at the expense of merit, and is not inclusionary, forcing a critical-race ideology on everyone, with dissenters not welcome. But I digress:

. . . The University of California system, which has about 560,000 students and employees, receives more than $17 billion in federal funding each year.

Most of the federal money for the university system, which includes six academic health centers, is related to patient care covered by Medicare and Medicaid. But more than $7 billion is tied to research and student financial aid. If federal funding were to largely vanish, officials predict that the academic, economic and social repercussions would reshape California, where the university system is among the largest employers.

The Trump administration has had the system on edge for months.

Of course both actions make sense, and either could be construed as creating the best for the university.  Either keep the research going or maintain your principles. My Harvard colleagues have lost tons of grant money and have had to get rid of some of their lab workers.  This is an impasse, and I’m just glad I don’t run a university. My preference would be to defend the principle of academic freedom, but is that worth having valuable and sometimes life-saving research shut down?

*This week’s news-and-snark column by Nellie Bowles in the Free Press is particularly good, and I wish I could reproduce it all. But you’ll have to subscribe to see it: “TGIF: Pass the Tylenol.” As always, I’ll steal a few items from the inimitable Bowles.

→ Quick check-in on free speech: Outside the Turkish consulate in London, a knife-wielding man, Moussa Kadri, attacked a protester who was burning a copy of the Quran. Kadri shouted “I’m going to kill you!” as he slashed at the protester, chased him, and kicked him while he was on the ground, before spitting on him. It’s all on video. But Kadri was spared jail time by a judge, who said:

I note however that you are now 59 years old and someone of hitherto exemplary character. . . . You are a loved husband and father. A hard worker and someone who those who have written on your behalf cannot praise highly enough. You are relied upon as a carer and much respected in your work with charity.

The Quran burner who Kadri attacked with a knife? He was found guilty in June of a “religiously aggravated public order offense” and ordered to pay a fine. Fascinating. Is he a father?

Has there ever been a more peaceful transition of power than this one? So gentle. Ushered in with empathy and love. Goodbye, gentle Europe! If someone stabs you for complaining, they won’t go to jail anymore, you sweet soft shell crabs. Take comfort in the fact that the man wielding the knife is of otherwise exemplary character.

→ Oh my god:

The Dems are in very big trouble. Only 35 percent of respondents in this poll said they approved of Trump’s management of the economy—a similar number to those who approved of the economy under Biden last year. Even still, respondents said the Republican Party is better at managing the economy than Democrats. Dems, this poll is a five-alarm fire. One option: Moderate and embrace the abundance agenda, which is just Becoming Bill Clinton Again. It’s Free Markets plus, I guess, a solar panel somewhere. Abundance is Allbirds with a vape. It’s an agenda that says, Hey, kids, what if the subway was funded and also safe, just don’t ask questions. Embrace abundance and elevate my kings, Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias. Recognize their superiority. The Clinton family was great, guys. Stop trying to do anything better—it can’t be done.

→ I love Kamala on her book tour: Kamala Harris’s book tour began in earnest this week—with the former vice president set to crisscross the country to market 107 Days, where each chapter details one day in her compressed presidential campaign. The book is filled with surprising tidbits of truth, such as Harris being unable to choose Pete Buttigieg as her running mate because he’s gay and she’s married to a Jewish guy, and Americans like Broadway, fine, but let’s keep it in the theater, huh? The revelations have made for an interesting media tour:

Rachel Maddow: It’s hard to hear. . . . You’re the first woman elected vice president, you’re a black woman and a South Asian woman elected to that high office, very nearly elected president, to say that he couldn’t be on the ticket effectively because he was gay, it’s hard to hear.

Kamala Harris: No, no, no, that’s not what I said. . . . My point, as I write in the book, is that I was clear that in 107 days—in one of the most hotly contested elections for president of the United States against someone like Donald Trump, who knows no floor—to be a black woman running for president of the United States, and as a vice-presidential running mate, a gay man, with the stakes being so high, it made me very sad, but I also realized it would be a real risk.

So, in other words, Maddow is exactly right and Kamala didn’t think she could win with a gay guy? It’s okay! I couldn’t win a game of Taboo with a gay guy—but mostly because I don’t get their references.

It’s amazing to watch Kamala Harris on tour now, given that throughout her entire presidential campaign, Harris didn’t hold a single formal press conference. Not a single one. Trump chases after every camera he sees. When you take a selfie in Washington, D.C., Trump materializes next to your face to ramble about tariffs. At every wedding at Mar-a-Lago, Trump emerges to take questions and weigh in on the dresses. He’d hold a presser on a Little League game—no event is above commentary from him. There’s a lesson in that.

*In The Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan proffers a bit of a rant, but a justified one: “Our post-literate, post-liberal era.” Sullivan claims that when the Internet arrived, the pictures and videos of the Internet would displace reading: “win any contest for eyeballs.” And, he says, he was right: America has been dumbed down, and this dumbing down has led to the rise of strongman Trump.” A longish excerpt:

I’m not touting myself as some kind of Cassandra, and my memory is probably flattering me. But, as I tried to imagine practically how a literary and political magazine [he was editor of the New Republic] could adjust to the web, I just didn’t see how it could — except as a peripheral, minor preserve of a few. (Hence my gravitating toward blogging a few years later.) What I failed to consider was how this would have a huge cultural and thereby political effect that would shake the reasoning and deliberating foundations of liberal democracy. It meant we would think and read less, and see and feel more. It meant our attention span would attenuate to make long-form reading rarer and rarer. And that, in the end, would matter.

I detest the notes accompanying articles in many venues that say things like, “Reading time: 4 minutes.”  As if you could judge whether yo wanted to read a piece by its length, not by its content. But now I’m ranting, too. Back to Sullivan:

A brilliant little Substack essay last week reminded me of all this in a flash. James Marriott helps you see how a post-liberal politics is deeply related to a post-literate culture. Deep reading is in free-fall everywhere in the developing world, as the smartphone has hijacked our brains. Professors at even elite colleges are finding their students have lost the ability to read at length and in depth; talking has replaced reading; images have replaced ideas; engagement has supplanted reflection; and the various cognitive skills that reading once conferred to the masses since the printing press are fast atrophying.

Which cognitive skills? Neil Postman explains in Amusing Ourselves to Death:

Writing freezes speech and in so doing gives birth to the grammarian, the logician, the rhetorician, the historian, the scientist-all those who must hold language before them so that they can see what it means, where it errs, and where it is leading.

No wonder global IQ levels are now falling for the first time. No wonder the reading scores of American high-school students are the worst since 1992, according to a new report. No wonder the next generation communicates in memes, not words, let alone sentences. AI is surely compounding this even further, allowing you to have an increasingly sophisticated bot read something for you. College itself, as a period when you devote yourself to long and deep solitary reading, is becoming obsolete:

[L]arge language models have created an existential crisis for teachers trying to evaluate their students’ ability to actually write, as opposed to their ability to prompt an LLM to do all their homework. “College is just how well I can use ChatGPT at this point,” one student said. “Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate,” a professor echoed.

No wonder that Gen Z and younger — having been denied the solace of knowing actual history, experiencing serious religious faith, and being transported by big, complex novels into other distant minds and places — feel adrift, searching for meaning and perspective, lost in phones, prey to cults. Trans-furries and budding neo-Hitlers: an emotive, irrational, grievance-obsessed generation of lonely souls — increasingly prone to violence.

One reason Trump is president now is because all this made his ascendance possible. A post-literate president rose through the irrational, emotive Twitter revolution, with social media simultaneously making it hard to gain any perspective, overcome any emotional trigger, or concentrate for more than a couple of minutes. I noticed this as the Dish progressed toward its 2009+ era: the perfect pace to maximize traffic was a single brief post every 20 minutes. We had no serious analytics; but you could feel the collective attention span wither and die after a few seconds as surely as that pace and frenzy turned my own brain and body into a twitchy, dopamine-addled fog.

You want a perfect example of a post-literate moment? Ponder the UN speech by President Trump this week. Even written down, it was “the weave” — a series of unconnected rants and digressions, baseless assertions and unseemly insults, a stream of addled and angry consciousness with no real relationship to coherence, or reason, or persuasion.

Imagine the head of a small country standing up at the UN and saying:

I’m really good at predicting things, you know?… I don’t say that in a braggadocious way, but it’s true. I’ve been right about everything.

All I can say is that although this sounds curmudgeonly, it also sounds correct.

*Finally, Ghost, the Giant Pacific octopus starving herself to death as she tends a batch of unfertilized eggs at the Aquarium of the Pacific, is still alive. There’s a bit of news about what will happen to her after she dies:

. . . . the Aquarium of the Pacific is sharing what will happen to Ghost’s remains after she passes away. In an update on Ghost’s condition, Nate Jaros, the aquarium’s vice president of animal care, tells PEOPLE exclusively that Ghost, who “continues to rest comfortably behind the scenes,” will be cremated.

“After she passes, our veterinary team will do a necropsy examination similar to a human autopsy to learn as much as we can about her health to ensure we are providing optimal care and nutrition; and her remains will be cremated,” Jaros tells PEOPLE.

Ghost arrived at the aquarium in May 2024 after a scientific collector brought her into the facility. As Jaros explains, “Our giant Pacific octopuses are sustainably and humanely collected from the wild by permitted specialists that conduct scientific collections.”

“Sustainably collected”? What does that mean. They collected her so the aquarium could make money. Had they left her in the ocean, she’d still die tending her eggs, but those eggs would be fertilized. As it is, her genetic lineage is doomed (they breed only once).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili are down again:

Hili: We need to wake up from this bad dream.
Me: Unfortunately, that’s not possible.

In Polish:

Hili: Musimy się obudzić ze złego snu.
Ja: Niestety, to nie jest możliwe.

*******************

From Divy, who said she would have to skip this “captcha”. They’re ALL loaves!

From Things with Faces, and I think it’s picking its nose:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Masih: Iran won’t let men look at women’s legs showing underneath dresses:

So the Islamic Republic hides the legs of European ministers… That’s not a government, that’s a fetish club with nukes. and here is my question to both of you @elinavaltonen @mariastenergard and your people in Sweden, and Finland: You want to talk ‘peace talks’ with these guys… pic.twitter.com/WLNHnmBRoE

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 26, 2025

From Luana, the first of 15 tweets. I haven’t read the paper yet:

🧵 1/15 – “THERE ARE ONLY TWO SEXES AND THERE CAN NEVER BE MORE” – my publication in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Thread with link and very brief summaries of the main points I cover in the paper… pic.twitter.com/0wmrUFcDaM

— Francis (Sid) Dougan (@F_Sid_Dougan) September 22, 2025

From Simon: Trump’s approved design for the White House ballroom. I don’t think he has the power to build it.

CBS got their hands on a rendering of Trump's big White House ballroom. We'll let you pass judgement in the replies here.

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-09-25T16:50:51.037Z

From Malcolm:  one advantage of cats over d*gs:

Good boy getting a trimpic.twitter.com/dYAUAqXDyf

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

Steve Pinker and Tyler Cowen discuss the advantages and disadvantages of anonymity on the Internet . In general I think people should take responsibility for their words: no anonymity.

In the clip below, Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen) and I discuss common knowledge in relation to anonymous accounts on social media, shaming mobs, and noble lies.

Full Conversations with Tyler podcast here: https://t.co/7A21KLGYm4 pic.twitter.com/yP16JMw7Bn

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) September 26, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

27 September 1937 | A French Jewish girl, Myriam Bloch, was born in Metz.She arrived at #Auschwitz on 20 December 1943 in a transport of 850 Jews deported from Drancy. She was among 505 of them murdered in gas chambers after the selection. –Children at Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/aYKx_zpLSqA

— Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) 2025-09-27T02:00:06.690324826Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. I have no idea where he found this advice:

Useful advice from the early Greek poet Hesiod in 'Works and Days':

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-09-26T13:40:14.376Z

Now this is bizarre:

South Texas game cam catches a raccoon riding a javelina (Dicotyles tajacu).The deer feeder corn attracts a lot of other species, but maybe we should worry about them all teaming up against us?(📷: Jeff Davis, TAMU-Kingsville alumni forum)

— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T14:50:20.652Z

Welcome to Friday, September 26, 2025, and National Dumpling Day. I’m told by One Who Knows that the place in Taipei shown in the video blow is the best dumpling place in the world. (Taipei is widely acknowledged to be the world’s Dumpling Epicenter). I love them, but when I went to a highly reputed dim sum place in Chicago with a person from Taipei, and I loved the dumplings, I was told that they were nothing compared to the ones in Taipei! So now I have to go to Taiwan.

It’s also National Bakery Day, National Better Breakfast Day (pie is a better breakfast), Native American Day, German Butterbrot Day (arrant cultural appropriation), National Key Lime Pie Day (when you buy or order one, make sure it’s made with real Key limes rather than the less tasty Persian limes), and Lumberjack Day. Which reminds me. . .

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 26 Wikipedia page (note that the page needs more citations).

Da Nooz:

*Trump is going after his enemies one by one:  he must have had a “Little List” of targets for his second term.  Yesterday he went after a big one:  James Comey, the former FBI director under whose aegis the agency investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the 2016 election. After Trump fired Comey in 2017, the director released memos of private conversations he’d had with Trump, showing the Orange man pressuring hm to drop investigations against others. This is the background ffor yesterday’s indictment of Comey, since Trump perceives Comey as an enemy and in fact has called the ex-director a “sick man”:

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, a culmination of President Trump’s relentless demand for retribution after the bureau investigated his 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia.

Mr. Comey was indicted on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding in connection with his testimony before a Senate committee in September 2020.

The indictment, filed in Alexandria, Va., came over the objection of career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia who found insufficient evidence to support charges but were overruled by Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist handpicked by the president to run the office a few days ago.

It represents the most significant legal step yet by the Trump administration to harry, punish and humiliate a former official the president identified as an enemy, at the expense of procedural safeguards intended to shield the Justice Department from political interference and personal vendettas.

The bare-bones, two-page indictment was signed only by Ms. Halligan, a former defense lawyer for Mr. Trump who personally presented the case to the jury, despite her lack of any previous prosecutorial experience. Typically such filings are also endorsed by career prosecutors who have gathered the evidence in the case.

Court records indicate that Ms. Halligan also tried to get the grand jury to indict Mr. Comey on a second false statement charge, and that it was rejected.

Here are the charges ag, which hinge on whether or not Comey had authorized someone to be an “anonymous news source” for the FBI:

This is trivial, though if it’s illegal Comey should be punished. But going after something like this clearly shows that a.) Trump is behind it, and b.) such charges would not normally be brought. They reflect Trump’s strong retributive streak.

Halligan is a neophyte, and no doubt picked simply because she agreed to prosecute Comey. I predict this will come to nothing, despite the indictment by grand jury.

*Trump has announced that he’ll block any plans Israel has to annex the West Bank, presumably through blocking U.S. sale of weapons to Israel if Netanyahu allows the settlements to expand. The WSJ also reveals Trump’s plans for a postwar Gaza.

President Trump said he would block Israel from annexing the West Bank, issuing a new ultimatum to head off a move that other Western and Middle Eastern powers warned could further inflame regional tensions and jeopardize Israel’s normalized ties with some Arab nations.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, publicly reiterating a pledge he made to Arab leaders privately earlier this week.

Trump’s comments mark a rare escalation of public pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he expands Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and while Western countries such as France have said they would recognize a Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s government has approved controversial projects in recent months to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank on tracts of land that Palestinians seek for statehood.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

And here are Trump’s plans for The Day After:

The White House has proposed a postwar plan that would include former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair serving as interim administrator of Gaza and a potential Arab-led security force, according to Arab officials and a senior U.S. official familiar with the plans. Blair, the officials added, would oversee a body known as the Gaza International Transitional Authority, or GITA, which could temporarily control the enclave after the conflict ends.

The U.S. official said that Netanyahu isn’t wholly sold on the plan, as questions remain about how to staff a potential Arab-led security force and whether GITA’s authorities could interfere with Israel’s Gaza policy.

A White House spokeswoman said regarding a Blair role in postwar Gaza: “A variety of proposals are being considered—but this will not be relevant unless Hamas releases every single hostage, living and deceased, and surrenders.”

I don’t have much of a dog in the West Bank, except that it seems unwise to increase settlements by Israelis, violating the Oslo Accords, but the peace plan is better. And Tony Blair has considerable diplomatic background. But an Arab-led security force? Will any Arab state be willing to take on this task? (I leave out the terrorist-supporting Qatar).  What would be in it for them save fighting and heartache? But it’s reassuring that Trump still demands the release of all the hostages and the surrender of Hamas.

*I find Bret Stephens, though described as a “neoconservative” (he detests Trump), a much clearer thinker and writer than mushy NYT columnists like David Brooks or, Ceiling Cat forbid, Tom Friedman.  Stephens’s columns on the Hamas/Gaza war are the best in the NYT op-ed section, and today’s is on the hypocrisy of the Left’s views on free speech, which until recently have evinced some tendency for suppression, but suddenly, with the murder of Charlie Kirk and the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel (who’s back again), the Left is, says Stephens, all “we love free speech” again.  Click to read, or find the piece archived here:

An excerpt:

Because there’s a silver lining for most things in life, maybe there’s also one for ABC’s craven (if brief) suspension, under thuggish government pressure, of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show. To wit: Now the left is once again all but unanimous in wanting to defend free speech.

That hasn’t always been the case in recent years.

It wasn’t the case when, a day before Kimmel’s suspension, Amy Klobuchar called on Congress to prevent violence like Charlie Kirk’s murder by cracking down on speech online. “I’m not for censorship, but I do think that more has to be done online,” said the Democratic senator from Minnesota. Sentences that begin “I’m not for censorship, but …” are usually calls for censorship.

It wasn’t the case this spring when Democrats in the Colorado legislature sought to criminalize some speech that “misgendered” or “deadnamed” transgender children, including custody threats to parents who refused to use their child’s preferred pronouns.

It wasn’t the case in 2023 when a RealClear Opinion Research poll found that three-fourths of Democrats believe government has a responsibility to limit “hateful” or inaccurate social media posts, as compared with roughly half of Republicans.

It wasn’t the case when, in the summer of 2021, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski asked, with clear relish, whether social media companies shouldn’t be “open to lawsuits” for publishing what she and the government deemed to be “misinformation” on the Covid vaccines.

What particularly galls me is when writers, literary types, or publishers, who should know better, are in favor of censorship.  Young adult fiction, for example, is a cesspool of boring and woke books, made anodyne of “sensitivity readers”:

And so he ends reminding the Left (and all of us) of a lesson we should have learned a long time ago, winding up wishing us a Happy New Year in Hebrew (it was Rosh Hashanah):

It’s a cliché, but can’t be said enough, that speech is genuinely free only when it’s speech we like the least from those we dislike the most. Rosa Luxemburg put it well: “Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.”

Shana tova.

At least the NYT let him use the last two words!

*The Guardian, of all places, reports substantial participation of biological men in women’s track and field competitions since 2020 (h/t Ginger K.)

Between 50 and 60 athletes who went through male puberty have been finalists in the female category in global and continental track and field championships since 2000, according to a senior World Athletics official.

World Athletics has introduced SRY screening, a gene test that uses a cheek swab to assess if someone is biologically male or female, for the world championships in Tokyo.

In a presentation to a scientific panel in the Japanese capital on Friday, Dr Stéphane Bermon, head of health and science at World Athletics, outlined why the sport’s governing body believes such screens are necessary as he presented data collected over the past 25 years. He said it showed that athletes with differences of sex development (DSD), who have a 46 XY karyotype with male testes but were reported female at birth, were significantly “over-represented” in major finals and that it “compromises the integrity of the female competitions”.

It’s easy to detect an XY karyotype, which is highly but not perfectly correlated with male “sex”, as is by the presence of an active Y-linked SRY gene, which turns on male function. Using both chromosomes and DNA analysis is a pretty good way to to detect biological males, though presence of testes (internal or external) would make this airtight (I’m not sure how they detect them if they’re internal). More:

“Everyone is watching World Athletics and we are leading in this area,” Bermon said before telling his audience that there were “approximately 50-60 cases of DSD in athletics”.

In total between 2000 and 2023, Bermon said there had been 135 DSD finalists in elite international events, given some of the 50 to 60 athletes competed in more than one final. He also showed a slide that said that DSD cases are 151.9 times more likely than would be expected given the number of DSD individuals in the general population.

The numbers, which were derived by anti-doping tests that revealed high testosterone levels – and arguably therefore may not capture every case – are significantly higher than many in the sport had expected.

There have been several high-profile cases of athletes with a DSD athlete winning global medals, most prominently the South African Caster Semenya, who won women’s 800m Olympic gold at the 2012 and 2016 Games. Christine Mboma also made significant headlines four years ago when the Namibian claimed a silver medal in the women’s 200m at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Neither athlete has competed at elite level since World Athletics ­introduced rules requiring DSD ­individuals to suppress their ­testosterone levels.

Semenya and Mboma were males, both having elevated levels of testosterone (which Semenya refused to reduce) and thus had DSDs.  I doubt they’ll take back their medals, but the new rules are a vast improvement over what went before.

*We’re into the quarter finals of Fat Bear Week, in which Alaskan brown bears (“grizzlies”) compete to see who can pack on the most weight before winter hibernation. And there are two matchups today in which you can vote (go here to see all the bears and the results so far). Here are today’s two contests. The winner of the first gets the bear into the final competition, while the winner of the second goes into the semifinals against a yet-to-be determined bear.

The page describing the bear competitors is here. Below is bear 909 (left) versus 128, the famous Grazer (right), who won the championship in the last two years. (She’s the first mother bear ever to win.)

The site shows the wrong photos for today’s competition, between bears 856 and 910, so I’ll put their real photos below (the before-and-after shots show the weight gain). Bear 856 looks like a ringer:

Be sure to vote twice today and also on Tuesday for the finals. The winner gets no prize save a long, safe hibernation.

The finals are on September 30, and you can see the bears below live (so long as it’s daylight in Alaska; at other times they show reruns):

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is engaged in the Remembrance of Times Past.

Me: Are you asleep?
Hili: I’m thinking about the past.

In Polish:

Ja: Śpisz?
Hili: Nie, jestem w czasie przeszłym.

*******************

From Give Me a Sign:

From America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy (be sure to look at the bottom):

From Cats That Have Had Enough of Your Shit:

From Masih: hijabis at age 7. Oy!

Heartbreaking to watch. Western media can watch Pezeshkian at the UN and call him “reformist.” But this is what reform looks like in Iran: little girls forced into hijab at age 7 just to go to school.
It’s The Handmaid’s Tale in real life. It’s gender apartheid. A regime that… pic.twitter.com/drb8DjYbOS

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 25, 2025

From Luana, a culture clash in New Zealand. But I’m surprised that Māori declare their country a “Christian nation”:

In New Zealand, native Māori are protesting against Islamic immigration, tearing down a jihadist flag while performing the traditional Haka.

“New Zealand is a Christian nation!
The jihadists are not welcome here!” pic.twitter.com/aPLz0wY7Nx

— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) September 23, 2025

From Bryan, a clever siphon, though I’m not sure when you would use this:

Physics trick to remove water pic.twitter.com/0XLZnF8Oh4

— Earn Knowledge (@earnknowledgee) September 24, 2025

From Barry: the classic battle of the titans. Whale wins!

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

— Rebecca R Helm (@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T20:30:21.505Z

From Malcolm: a man who is doing good:

Francisco Oliveira is a hair prosthesis specialist. He creates and styles hair additions that go much beyond a simple wig, especially for kids who experienced accidents or serious illness.

[📹 franciscoprotesecapilar]pic.twitter.com/FGVnPysAoY

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Italian Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was six years old, and would be 88 today had she lived.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-26T11:08:48.582Z

Three from Dr. Cobb. Of this first one (click embedded post for link), he says “Sacré bleu!”:

I don’t get this “illusion”. All the discs look purple to me!

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue. The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115…

— Pascal Mamassian (@mamassian.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T10:16:30.695Z

Finally, Matthew humbly tenders his new Crick bio, which is THE definitive bio of a very smart man. It will soon be out and is ripe for ordering:

And here we are. Another damn’d thick, square book. A real wrist-sprainer. UK edition (pictured) has endpapers showing Crick and Brenner’s blackboard and colour plates. Both U.K. and US editions have sections heralded by a double page photo as here. Loads of illustrations. Out in November!

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-09-26T09:36:02.013Z

Welcome to Thursday, September 25, 2025, and National Lobster Day.  I still eat them (though I can’t remember the last time), but I abhor the practice of boiling them alive, which must cause terrible distress for the crustaceans.  Much better to kill them instantly by cutting into the head with a sharp knife (see video here).  But perhaps they’re best left in the sea. Here are lobsters with rare colors or morphologies; most of these are either put back in the sea or saved for display in aquariums. There is even a white one, which must be leucistic rather than albino.

It’s also National Comic Book Day, National Quesadilla Day, National Cooking Day, World Maritime Day, and National Crab Meat Newburg Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I once opined that of all Trump’s appointments to cabinet-level positions, Pete Hegseth, now “Secretary of War”, would do the most damage to America. But I’ve changed my mind and now put RFK Jr. on the top (i.e., the bottom).  The latest act of idiocy by Trump, the claim that childhood autism can be caused by pregnant women taking Tylenol—a claim pushed by RFK Jr. without evidence—has just been repudiated by none other than the World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization has joined the international pushback against the Trump administration’s warnings that acetaminophen use during pregnancy leads to autism, saying Wednesday there is “no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link.”

Public health leaders and organizations around the world have been sounding off since President Donald Trump on Monday called to limit use of acetaminophen — the active ingredient in Tylenol and more than 600 other medications — during early pregnancy except in cases of high fever, aligning himself with “Make America Healthy Again” activists and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his health secretary,who have long called for more investigation into the causes of autism.

The move is a sharp departure from the accepted guidance on a medication that many major medical associations have deemed safe, and it was met with swift criticism domestically and internationally from doctors and autism advocates. The WHO added Wednesday that the exact cause of autism has not been established and that “it is understood there are multiple factors that can be involved.

“Extensive research has been undertaken over the past decade, including large-scale studies, looking into links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism,” the organization said in a statement. “At this time, no consistent association has been established.”

Well, even if Tylenol were banned, nobody would die, but this claim pushes research on autism down the wrong path (I foresee many grants given for work on the drug).  But vaccinations—well, that’s a matter of life and death. . .

*I was more or less horrified to see David Brooks’s long column in today’s NYT: “We need to think straight about God and politics” (article is archived here). It is an argument that without spiritual values—and, it seems, Christian spiritual values—American politics has no moral underpinning. Some excerpts:

Some people are made nervous by this mingling of God talk with politics. They legitimately fear that religion is such a divisive and explosive force or that it’s being imposed on them, that it should be kept from the public square and practiced in the privacy of church and home. Keep God and politics separate.

I wonder how much such people know about American history. The founders believed that democracy could survive only if citizens could restrain their passions, be obedient to a shared moral order and point their lives toward virtue. They relied on religious institutions to do that moral formation. As John Adams put it, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Well, yes, Adams was right about the “moral” part: no government can do its best for its citizens if it’s immoral.  But religious?  Nope: secular humanism will do, as it does in northern Europe. Remember that France’s explicit policy is laïcité, the removal of religious influence from government. Now I know what many would say: those countries still retain the values of Christianity.  But the values that keep countries like France and Denmark on the rails are also the values of secular humanism, so we can just ditch the concept of religious/spiritual/Christian values as an important ingredient in politics 

Brooks babbles on: 

, . . American public debate was healthier and the conversation more profound when religious leaders like Reinhold Niebuhr, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fulton Sheen brought their faith to bear on public questions. Today morality has been privatized and left up to the individual. The shared moral order is shredded, and many people, morally alone, have come to feel that their lives are meaningless.

Yep, there’s that God-shaped hole again. Note the Brooks throws in one token Jew (Heschel), but if you think his “good” values were no different from those secular humanism, you’re wrong.  Religion is divisive; secular humanism is not. But Brooks babbles on—at tedious length:

My friend Jonathan Rauch likes to remind people that he is a gay atheist Jew, but in his recent book “Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain With Democracy,” he argues that faith and politics do not exist independently of each other: “I came to realize that in American civic life, Christianity is a load-bearing wall. When it buckles, all the institutions around it come under stress, and some of them buckle, too.” A crisis within Christianity is a crisis for all Americans.

And here Brooks tacitly admits that superstition is inimical to good government:

[Rauch] goes on to argue that far from being separate, spirituality and liberal democracy need and rely on each other. Human life revolves around four big questions: What is the meaning of life? What is the ultimate source of right and wrong? How can we reduce the amount of suffering and injustice in the world? How can we understand the world without resorting to magic, using reason and evidence instead?

Reason and evidence are characteristics of humanism, not religion.  The first two questions need not be answered to confect a government, as they are meaningless unless you want to answer them by invoking God.  And the answer “God is the ultimate source of right and wrong” was demolished by Plato over 2000 years ago. It goes on and on. To his credit, Brooks does warn about excessive religious influence in politics. But he still claims that faith is essential for good government:

What happens when people operate without any coherent theory of how religion should relate to politics?

First, people treat electoral politics as if it were a form of spiritual warfare. A battlefield mentality prevails between the forces of Jesus and the forces of Satan. Fear replaces the traditional Christian virtue, hope: We’re under attack, and we have to destroy our enemies! That’s the easiest way to mobilize people.

Second, the process of moral formation is perverted. Instead of discipling people in the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity, people get discipled in the political passions — enmity, conquest and the urge to dominate.

Note that Brooks was born Jewish but converted to Christianity about twelve years ago. And there is no zealot like a convert.  Now the man, whose writings I find smarmy and unconvincing, is trying to tell us that we must put Christianity back in politics, as Christianity gives us a solid moral foundation.

I don’t see how anybody observing what’s going on with Republicans today can adhere to this view. My theory, which is mine, is that in these troubled times of war abroad and violence at home, the MSM will start pushing religion as a palliative for troubles, sort of like Ayaan Hirsi Ali writ large.

*Remember when Elliott Abrams wrote a long piece about the unfeasibility of the two-state solution? (See my piece about that here.) Now another Republican diplomat, Mike Pompeo, has written a similar article for The Free Press: “There is no Palestinian state to recognize.” He takes Iran to task more than did Abrams. An excerpt:

he recognition of the so-called Palestinian state by Britain, Portugal, France, Canada, and Australia this week was nothing short of perverse.

It was practically absurd, morally reprehensible, and will only prolong the danger to Israel and the anguish of everyday Gazans. Perhaps worst of all, it distracts from the real problem preventing peace: the Iranian regime, which provides terror groups with the money and arms needed to carry out their most horrific attacks.

Far from advancing the cause of peace in the region, the move has thrown a lifeline to Hamas at a time when the civilized world should be uniting in support of Israel’s efforts to defeat the terror group once and for all. It likewise disincentivizes Gaza’s leaders to agree to a ceasefire, let alone release the remaining hostages, dozens of which remain in Hamas captivity.

Make no mistake: The decision by these countries to treat “Palestine” as an independent state ratifies the logic of the terrorists who, nearly two years ago to the day, perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The twisted logic that this move will somehow isolate Hamas by empowering the illegitimate, unpopular, terror-supporting Palestinian Authority is beyond fanciful. As the perpetrators of the October 7, 2023 attack, Hamas—which has already lauded the move as “a deserved outcome of our people’s struggle”—will continue to claim that achieving statehood was their doing. And they will be right. Far from damaging Hamas, it will empower them, while broadcasting to the Middle East and the world at large that terrorism gets results.

The actions taken by these countries represent the worst kind of diplomatic fantasy. Diplomats must be in the business of dealing with the world as it is, not as they’d like it to be. That’s not what they’re doing here.

. . .When I served as Secretary of State in the first Trump administration, we recognized that neither the Hamas-led government in Gaza nor the corrupt, terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority in the West Bank had any interest in a peaceful two-state solution. With the historic Abraham Accords, we took a new approach that isolated bad actors and incentivized constructive engagement and recognition of Israel as the path to regional peace.

The path being pursued by our allies in Europe and elsewhere does the exact opposite: rewarding the terrorists and kleptocrats who seek to destroy Israel, and who keep their own people oppressed and immiserated.

Genuine peace will only come with the total defeat of Hamas and its most important backer: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I can imagine a two-state solution even if Iran isn’t “totally defeated” (which I suppose means replacing the Jew-hating Palestinian theocracy with a peaceable government), but it would be much easier if Iran wasn’t gunning for Israel as well as Hamas. But Hamas must be wiped out or surrender, and there must be a Palestinian government that renounces terrorism and doesn’t teach antisemitism to its children.

*Today’s Boston Globe takes up an issue I’ve long argued with my baseball-loving friends, the increasing changes in the game that remove it from its traditions. The one under discussion is the use of an electronic umpire to call strikes and balls by creating a monitored “strike zone.” It is not good, as Finnegan Schick argues in his piece “The strike zone belongs to human judgment, not computers” (h/t Tim). Granted, the computer won’t call all the strikes and balls, but it is the ultimate arbiter when there is an argument:

A tradition as old as baseball is coming to an end. Major League Baseball announced this week it will be extending video review into the last stubbornly human corner of the game: balls and strikes. Beginning next year, each team will be allowed two challenges of an umpire’s call at the plate, which will be checked instantly against an Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System installed in the ballpark. Instead of the umpire having the final say, a computer using cameras and tracking software will decide where the strike zone is. The verdict will be flashed on the stadium screen, with the umpire standing by as the technology announces the call.

This may sound like progress. We live, after all, in an age of replays, frame-by-frame reviews, and apps that can tell you in real time whether a pitch caught the edge of the plate. To some, it seems only natural that the game should keep pace, that getting it right should trump everything else. But to my eyes, this latest change to the game is a swing and a miss.

For one thing, fallibility is the umpire’s charm; indeed, it is the source of his authority. Every child who has ever stood fidgeting in a Little League batter’s box learns, sooner or later, that the strike zone is as much a function of personality as it is geometry. One ump is generous on the corners; another favors the high fastball. They all have quirks, preferences, blind spots. You don’t argue with the strike zone; you adjust to its contours over the course of a game. You learn that authority is human, and that humans can err. Sometimes they call it your way, sometimes not. In a world ever more allergic to imperfection, the umpire’s fallibility is a rare reminder that rules and judgments come wrapped in flesh and blood.

The counterargument is that, in the era of constant replay and computer overlays, the umpire’s mistakes only corrode respect for his authority. Why should baseball fans or players respect a strike call that everyone knows to be wrong? In this light, the new review system seems almost merciful: a chance to rescue the umpire from his own errors, to uphold his office by outsourcing his judgment in decisive moments.

But there is a world of difference between respecting an umpire only when it is convenient and respecting him no matter what. Authority, at its best, commands respect not only because it coincides with perfection but because it requires deference even in its imperfection. That deference is part of the social contract: We agree, all of us, to live with the outcome, even when the outcome seems unjust.

By introducing computer technology into this most fundamental part of the game, MLB has flipped that dynamic: Respect is now conditional, subject to appeal, a matter for the cameras and computers to arbitrate. The umpire is reduced to a functionary, his rulings provisional until overruled. And unlike with replay review, ABS does not appear to involve any human judgement. When technology makes the call, there is no one for coaches to shout at, nobody the fans in the park can hurl blame on. Perhaps this is a desirable change, but I would prefer a pugilistic, live, in-your-face kind of sport to an anodyne one in which conflicts are resolved by an out-of-sight machine.

Although I may seem curmudgeonly, I agree. Can you imagine a computer trained on all four bases, and on the outfield, with no need for umpires? They’ve already made the bases bigger so stealing is easier, and when there’s a tie at the end of the ninth inning, they now start off each inning with a runner already on second base. Not to mention that if you go to a double header, as I used to with my dad, you have to leave the stadium after the first game and buy another ticket for the second.  Some rules, like the pitching clock, are good, as they speed up games that were going on too long, but replace the ump with a computer? Nope.  This is the first step towards eliminating them entirely, with a machine instead of a human behind the catcher.  Baseball would be poorer for that. Perhaps more accurate, but poorer.

*Ghost, the senescing Giant Pacific Octopus in California, is dying as she starves herself to death while brooding a batch of infertile eggs. (this is normal behavior in that species). I just want to report that she’s still alive, for I, like much of the public, find this behavior both sweet and ineffably sad.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is, as usual, feeling peckish:

Andrzej: What are you looking at?
Hili: At the clouds, to check if any of them look like a mouse.

In Polish:

Ja: Na co patrzysz?
Hili: Na chmury, czy przybierają kształt myszy.

*******************

From Beth:

From Give me a Sign.  This is very clever:

From Now That’s Wild:

Masih is quiet again today, but JKR is not:

I wonder what it is about a movement campaigning to allow men into protected spaces for women and girls that might attract sexual predators. A mystery for the ages. https://t.co/Fif3AtrDZw

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 23, 2025

From Simon; Brent spoofs the Administration again, this time about the Tylenol mishigass:

Tylenol

— Brent Terhune (@brentterhune.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T00:21:00.103Z

From Luana, who comments, “Leftists are going to look bad again”:

The man suspected of firing 3 shots into the window of an ABC affiliate in California after the Kimmel decision is a former teacher’s union legislative director whose X feed is full of far-left rhetoric encouraging escalation. pic.twitter.com/rxwVi7cg4u

— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 20, 2025

From Malcolm, a warning not to photograph LIDAR detection systems for self-driving cars.  Wikipedia says this:

Autonomous vehicles may use lidar for obstacle detection and avoidance to navigate safely through environments.

While filming, this car’s LiDAR system breaks the phone camerapic.twitter.com/e3Xf0Ermmj

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

One from my feed; live and learn:

Just found out that rabbits can swim. Also learned their ears go into swim mode when they do. This is important news. pic.twitter.com/EqD7J658yT

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 24, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was four years old. Had she lived, she'd be 87 today.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T11:24:46.437Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb, soon to be celebrated for his Crick biography. First, one on the Rapture That Didn’t Happen:

Leave this on the street to scare your local evangelical

— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T15:43:32.458Z

And a page from a “Little Nemo” cartoon, one of the finest strips ever offered to the public:

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Araw ng umbok” in Filipino): September 24, 2025, and its National Punctuation Day (see what I did there?) I highly recommend always using the Oxford comma lest you make mistakes like these (yes, I got them from AI, so sue me):

• Without the Oxford comma: “We invited the strippers, Stalin and Lenin.”
• With the Oxford comma: “We invited the strippers, Stalin, and Lenin.“ 

• Without the Oxford comma: “I want to thank my parents, Oprah Winfrey and God.”
• With the Oxford comma: “I want to thank my parents, Oprah Winfrey, and God.“ 

You can change the meaning of a sentence by omitting the Oxford comma, but I can’t think of a case where you can go wrong using it.

It’s also National Bluebird of Happiness Day, National Cherries Jubilee Day, Kiss Day, and National Horchata Day (I love it, but they never give you enough: you should have at least a quart with a good Mexican meal).

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 24 Wikipedia page.

I am a ball of fire today because I went to bed at shortly after 9 pm and woke up at about 6 am, giving me an unheard-of nine hours of sleep. That is balm to an insomniac.  My pre-waking dream involved me making friends with a giant white squirrel, and then discovering that its den was an underground hole right next to the steps into a house where I do not live. Readers are free to interpret this dream if they wish.

Da Nooz:

*Jimmy Kimmel is back on ABC, and tendered a sorta apology (I don’t think they should have taken him off the air), but he also mounted a defense of free speech in his first show.

Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence on Tuesday night in an emotional return to ABC’s airwaves, by turns defiant, joking and somber as he addressed the controversy that temporarily sidelined his late-night show and set off a national debate over free speech.

His voice breaking at times, Mr. Kimmel said he understood why his comments last week about the suspected shooter of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk seemed “ill-timed, or unclear, or maybe both.” He added, “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”

But Mr. Kimmel also had harsh words for President Trump and the government regulator who suggested that the Trump administration would punish ABC because of his remarks, saying that “a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”

“This show is not important,” Mr. Kimmel said in his opening monologue. “What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”

. . . On Tuesday, Mr. Kimmel said he disagreed with Disney’s decision to pull his show. But he also credited the company, where he has worked for 22 years, for defending his right to poke fun at the powerful.

“Unfortunately, and I think unjustly, this puts them at risk,” Mr. Kimmel said. “The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”

Here are some excerpts and an ET report:

*This link, which came from reader Barry, is the first of two pieces laden with irony. Click screenshot to read.

An excerpt:

On Friday, CBC News reported that a major education reform document prepared for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador contains at least 15 fabricated citations that academics suspect were generated by an AI language model—despite the same report calling for “ethical” AI use in schools.

“A Vision for the Future: Transforming and Modernizing Education,” released August 28, serves as a 10-year roadmap for modernizing the province’s public schools and post-secondary institutions. The 418-page document took 18 months to complete and was unveiled by co-chairs Anne Burke and Karen Goodnough, both professors at Memorial University’s Faculty of Education, alongside Education Minister Bernard Davis.

One of the fake citations references a 2008 National Film Board movie called “Schoolyard Games” that does not exist, according to a board spokesperson. The exact citation reportedly appears in a University of Victoria style guide, a document that teaches students how to format references using fictional examples. The style guide warns on its first page that “Many citations in this guide are fictitious,” meaning they are made-up examples used only to demonstrate proper formatting. Yet someone (or some AI chatbot) copied the fake example directly into the Education Accord report as if it were a real source.

Aaron Tucker, a Memorial assistant professor whose research focuses on AI history in Canada, told CBC he could not find numerous sources cited in the report despite searching the MUN Library, other academic databases, and Google. “The fabrication of sources at least begs the question: did this come from generative AI?” Tucker told CBC. “Whether that’s AI, I don’t know, but fabricating sources is a telltale sign of artificial intelligence.”

Since the inception of AI language models, generating fabricated citations has been a continuous problem. The tendency to confabulate academic citations often causes particular trouble in academic and legal contexts, where fabricated sources can easily slip past lazy human review because they appear properly formatted and contextually appropriate.

Yep, AI does that. If you use AI (and I have done so and will in the future) BE SURE TO DO AN INDEPENDENT CHECK OF A CLAIM OR FACT YOU FIND. It is a way to get tentative responses, but should not be used as a sole source.

*More irony, and this is too rich; thanks to Luana for sending me the link. The other day I read that Greta Thunberg was replaced as a member of the steering committee of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the group of ships bringing a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza. That puzzled me, but now we understand, thanks to this article at Break Free Media (click below to read):

It’s because of a clash of values: the flotilla is pro-Palestinian and (as the article shows) also pro-Hamas, but the flotilla also had LGBT+ members, so there was a clash of values. The pro-Pals won, and Greta was removed, presumably for hiding the identity of the non-cis sailors:

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was reportedly removed from the Global Sumud Flotilla’s (GSF) leadership team amid growing rifts over its “woke” political agenda, including the inclusion of LGBTQ activists.

Outrage erupted when it was discovered that participants like Saif Ayadi, who defines himself as a “queer activist,” were a part of the expedition. The controversy led to the resignation of a key coordinator and other activists.

Wael Navar of the flotilla steering committee has close ties with Hamas terrorists. “The war against Israel cannot be mixed with the LGBT crusade,” he said.

Why the big surprise? Don’t they know that despite what we are told in the West, any gay person should be killed in Islam? The flotilla was supposed to be for a Muslim cause, closely tied to Hamas, not the LGBTQ community.

The flotilla committee had many members with close ties with Hamas.

In June, Greta denied any knowledge of members of the flotilla having ties to Hamas. Now, she is being accused of hiding her LGBTQ activists from her flotilla partners.

What are we to believe anymore, little Greta?

Other participating activists, including Mariem Meftah and Samir Elwafi, referred to LGBTQ activism as a “red line” that crossed their “societal values.”

Samis Elwafi: “Palestine is first and foremost the cause of Muslims, and this cause cannot be separated from its spiritual and religious dimension. What do you expect a Muslim to think when he hears the slogans of this queer movement during a mission launched in the name of a sacred and central cause? It cannot be degraded in this way”.

. . . Do you think the “woke” activists in the West will stop? Of course not. They will sweep this under the rug and keep on fooling the man on the street that they are supporting some righteous cause, when they are actually promoting the worst death cult on earth.

This is the instantiation of the lunacy of groups like “Queers for Palestine”: it is a living oxymoron. But remember that a more serious clash may come when the Flotilla comes up against the Israeli Navy.

*Trump has now reversed his stand on the Ukraine/Russia war, declaring that, in his view, Ukraine is entitled to take back all the territory occupied by Russia (save Crimea, I guess), which means that the country returns to its pre-war borders. Should that happen, Russia would lose the war.

President Trump said for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its territory and encouraged allies to shoot down Russian aircraft if they entered North Atlantic Treaty Organization airspace, an extraordinary shift that raised pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin as world leaders gathered Tuesday at the United Nations.

After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.N., Trump in a social-media post said Moscow’s conduct of the war was aimless.

“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he said.

“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger.’”

Trump’s remarks offer the latest twist in his efforts to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine. Kyiv and NATO allies have fretted for months over his intentions and whether he would continue to embrace diplomacy with Putin or turn the screws on him.

On Aug. 11, Trump said Russia and Ukraine would engage in “land swapping” to bring about an end to the war, and that it would be “good” and “bad” for both sides.

Of course if you think Putin will heed Trump’s words, I have some land in Florida to sell you. There is no way that the Russian autocrat would admit that his invasion of Ukraine was fruitless, especially after so many of his soldiers have been killed. Nor, given his possession of nukes, do I think that NATO allies would shoot down Russian aircraft entering their airspace. But this does show that the U.S. will not broker any peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine that gives away Ukrainian land to Russia. I fear, though, that without US endorsement of a “land swap,” Putin will go ahead and conquer all of Ukraine, something that is a distinct possibility. Will the US and NATO prevent that with military action? I doubt it. But what do I know? I’m a retired biologist, not a pundit.

*Ghost, the Giant Pacific Octopus who is starving herself to death while brooding a batch of infertile eggs in a California aquarium, is still alive. At least I have no reports of her death.  It will be a sad day for me when she goes. Again, do watch the fantastic movie, “My Octopus Teacher,” which ends that way and will make you cry. But it is a wonderful documentary, and won an Oscar.

*Benny Gantz was a former defense minister, deputy prime minister of Israel, and member of the War Cabinet who ultimately resigned. He is no fan of Netanyahu. Nevertheless, he has a new op-ed in the NYT supporting Israel’s war aims.   “What the world gets wrong about Israel.”

Too often, Western leaders view our policies in this war not through the lens of national security, but through the prism of individuals — and, in particular, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversation is often framed as a question of what serves the prime minister, as if Israel’s national security begins and ends with one man. This view is mistaken and counterproductive to global stability, regional normalization and Israel’s own security.

There are deep political divisions and disagreements in Israel. I myself have been a vocal critic of Mr. Netanyahu. But the nation’s core security interests are not partisan property. Today more than ever, they are anchored by a national consensus that is rooted in the hard realities of our region. Opposition to the recognition of Palestinian statehood stands at the heart of that consensus. Any path forward for broader Palestinian civil autonomy must first incorporate a proven long-term track record of accountable governance, comprehensive de-radicalization reforms and a successful crackdown on terror elements targeting Israelis.

The growing support in the West for recognition is too often framed as a rebuke of both Mr. Netanyahu and his war policies. More and more states’ recognition of Palestinian statehood is propelled not merely by domestic political pressure, but also appears to be driven in part by personal animosity between leaders. The truth is that international recognition of Palestinian statehood under current conditions is not a rejection of Mr. Netanyahu. It is a rejection of Israel’s bipartisan security consensus.

Gantz is right and the many countries who have okayed a Palestinian state are wrong. What on earth do they think they’re accomplishing besides giving confidence to Hamas.  There will be no two-state solution unless and until Hamas is no more and the Palestinians can confect a government that recognizes Israel and rebukes Islamic terrorism.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej are beset with futility:

Hili: We have to admit we won’t change the world.
Andrzej: I’ve been leaning toward that opinion for some time now.

In Polish:

Hili: Musimy przyznać, że świata nie zmienimy.
Ja: Od pewnego czasu przychylam się do tej opinii.

*******************

From Give Me a Sign:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Cat Memes:

From Masih, a lament for the death of Fereshteh Ahmadi, another woman shot by the Iranian authorities for no good reason. Let her death be a spur to revolution:

A mother of two 32 years old stood up for young protesters in Mahabad. They shot her in the chest to silence her. Her daughter, only in first grade, saw her fall. but every mother, every child, every Iranian echoes her name now.
Say her name:#FereshtehAhmadi#فرشته_احمدی pic.twitter.com/kkujTTUklb

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 21, 2025

This was retweeted by Masih’s stand-in, J. K. Rowling, who issues a lot of tweets decrying the oppression of women by Muslim theocracies:

Today 1465 days which Afghan girls are still banned from school by the Taliban.
And world leaders watching.
Please help Afghan women 🙏💔 pic.twitter.com/SYuJKUCswg

— WDI.Afghanistan (@WDIAfghanistan1) September 22, 2025

From Luana, a good example of self-censorship (I’m assuming it’s real as there are no “community notes” below it):

“How many genders are there?”pic.twitter.com/gW6dRrvnG7

— Community Notes & Violations (@CNviolations) September 21, 2025

From Michael, an accurate cat-map:

The purr-fect map pic.twitter.com/0ywxIRU8KE

— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) September 21, 2025

From Simon: Nature imitates academia, or is it the other way round?

"It's not the end of the world, let's just send it to another journal"

— Oded Rechavi (@odedrechavi.bsky.social) 2025-09-03T15:07:30.191Z

From Malcolm, a view of Dubai from way high: the world’s tallest structure: “with a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding the antenna, but including a 242.6 m spire)^[2] of 828 m (2,717 ft).”

View of Downtown Dubai from the tallest building on Earth, Burj Khalifapic.twitter.com/ncYjivFYjp

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Polish woman, apparently not Jewish, lived exactly two months in Auschwitz before she died.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T11:46:00.064Z

And one from Matthew, whose biography of Francis Crick is coming out in the U.S. on November 11 (buy it!).  This is the Onion mocking reports that the Rapture was going to happen yesterday. Needless to say, it didn’t (I wonder if they took bets in UK betting parlors? But those betting on the Rapture couldn’t collect if they won!

Returning Jesus Christ Downed By U.S. Missile Defense 30,000 Feet Before Making Landfall

— The Onion (@theonion.com) 2025-09-23T16:38:02.467191973Z

Welcome to Tuesday, September 23, 2025, and the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began at sunset yesterday and lasts until sunset tomorrow. No work is permitted! But wait: there’s more, for this is the onset of the High Holidays (no weed is permitted!). After that comes the holiest day of the year for religious Jews: Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, which in 2025 begins at sunset on October 1 and ends at sunset a day later. No work is permitted!

Finally, that leads into Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, a whole week beginning at sunset on October 6 and ending at sunset October 13.  No work is permitted on October 7-8, but limited work is permitted the rest of the time. If you have the means, you can hire a goy to do your work for you.

It’s all very confusing, isn’t it?  But all tof he holidays can be summed up in three short sentences:

They tried to kill us.
We won.
Let’s eat!

I made it to Boston (actually I’m in Cambridge) with minimal fuss, and the weather yesterday was gorgeous. I love this town, and have often thought of moving back. But at my advanced age, even the thought of doing that is taxing.  I suppose I’ll croak in Chicago.

And don’t forget that today begins Fat Bear Week, when voters throughout the world vote on the Bear of Greatest Size in Alaska.  Cast your ballots here; voting is from September 23 to 30 between 12 – 9  p.m. Eastern/ 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Pacific time.  In the meantime, you can watch these brown bears live, catching sockeye salmon and packing on the pounds at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park in the video below:

Da Nooz:

It’s mostly bad, as usual. And I have promises to keep, and friends to see before I sleep, so we’ll take a pass on most news today.

Some bad news (among much other bad news) is that Trump and other health officials issued a warning that pregnant women taking Tylenol could produce babies with autism. There is no evidence for this claim.

On the better news side, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show will return to ABC this evening, although perhaps not on all affiliates. He had been kicked off for remarks about MAGA Republicans after the murder of Charlie Kirk.

In the educational news, Bari Weiss has a 1.5-hour video conversation at the Free Press with Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, in which he explains the workings of this most secretive organization, which has pulled off some amazing feats.

Feel free to add more news in the comments, and kvetch away.

But we will sill have Hili, who, in Dobrzyn, is agreeing with Andrzej:

Hili: Even debates can be fruitless sometimes.
Andrzej: Much more often than you think.

In Polish:

Hili: Nawet debaty są czasem bezpłodne.
Ja: Znacznie częściej niż myślisz.

*****************

Some cientists are again trying to demonstrate that there is no sex binary in humans, but have done so by showing, in a new paper (see below), that gene expression for various traits like height showoverlap between the sexes. But we already KNEW that! The sex binary is the dichotomy between individuals with the equipment evolved to produce large, immobile gametes (eggs), which are female, and individuals with the equipment evolved to produce small, mobile gametes (sperm), which are male.  There are no other type of gametes; i.e., there are only two. Nobody ever said that all other traits are binary and nonoverlapping. But Luana sent me this series of tweets by the savvy and funny Emma Hilton at the University of Manchester, taking the overlapping-trait argument apart.  I will post screenshots of Emma’s response, since for some reason Twitter won’t let me embed them.

To go to the thread with all replies besides Emma’s nine posts, go here. First I’ll give the original paper; click on the title below to go to it:

And a popular summary in Phys.org, which you see below in Natalie Bennett’s tweet (click headline to read):

Emma’s thread is on the paper as well as Bennett’s tweet below. Natalie Bennett was the head of the Green Party, identified this way by Wikipedia:

Natalie Louise Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (born 10 February 1966), is an Australian-British politician and journalist who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2012 to 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in Theresa May’s 2019 resignation honours.

It’s no surprise that a Green Party person would go after the sex binary as she does below.  However,note that one trait is nonoverlapping.

People like Bennett are desperate to show that “nature doesn’t do binaries.” Sadly for those folks, it in fact does: for gametes.

A few more tweets. First, Masih in appropriate dress.

Sorry, I couldn’t follow the dress code of #TIME women of the year event but my outfit was the most beautiful last night because it depicted the brave women of Iran who had lost their eyes by the Islamic republic in a revolution, called “Woman, Life, pic.twitter.com/Fzo0Oe5xSL…

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 9, 2023

From Malcolm. You have to be creative in an apartment this small. But that’s what you get in Brooklyn for $650.

This tiny apartment in New York City goes for $650 a month

[📹Caleb Simpson]pic.twitter.com/Vff3i6MWQy

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

One from my feed. this d*g is really freaked out!

Dog seeing a horse for the first time pic.twitter.com/9uWDBw2PrO

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 22, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

Two Czech Jewish siblings went as refugees to Norway. They were both deported from Norway to Auschwitz, and gassed to death as soon as they arrived in the camp.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T10:02:19.936Z

Two from Dr. Cobb.  The first one is, as they say, a “LOL”:

another sad case of a good kid gone bad

— Uncle Duke (@uncleduke1969.bsky.social) 2025-09-02T16:49:48.592Z

. . . and what Matthew calls a “weepy”:

Robert Vaughn appeared on Junior Points of View – kids were invited to send questions. I loved Napoleon Solo and TMFU so, age 7, I wrote asking if he would marry my mum – my Dad had died in 1961. They read the letter out! Can’t remember RV’s response (kind, no doubt). My poor mum burst into tears.

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T20:16:08.838Z

There will be a truncated Hili dialogue today as I’m heading to Boston and Cambridge. I will do my best to post stuff when I’m gone (about a week or so).

It is the first day of fall! The autumn equinox takes place at 1:19 p.m. Chicago time. Beware of pumpkin lattes!

Welcome to Monday, September 22, 2025, and as you read this i’ll be in the air. I’ll be back in a week if my planes don’t crash. If it does, it’s been nice knowing you. It’s World Rhino Day, and here’s a photo of a rhino I took in Manyeleti Nature Reserve in South Africa in August of last year. Note that the horns have been removed to deter poachers:  Note as well the oxpecker birds that have a mutualism with the rhinos (the birds get a meal, the mammal gets rid of insect parasites).

It’s also Hobbit Day (the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins), National Centenarian’s Day (misplaced apostrophe, but note that there are about 101,000 centenarians in America), National White Chocolate Day, National Ice Cream Cone Day (there was a U.S. patent on cones on this day in 1903), and National Elephant Appreciation Day.  Again, here’s an elephant photo I took in Manyeleti:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the September 4 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*More politically-based proceedings from Trump: the Orange Man has demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi step up her prosecutions of people who have opposed him. It came after a U.S. attorney resigned rather than lay charges against two of Trump’s enemies.

President Donald Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi move swiftly to prosecute several political opponents in a series of extraordinary social media posts Saturday, a breakdown of traditional fire walls that have existed between the White House and Justice Department on prosecutorial discretion.

He urged the prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), former FBI director James B. Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), claiming all three were “guilty as hell” and that his supporters were noting “nothing has been done.” Comey and James were both investigated but ultimately not charged by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia this year. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

“We cant delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump said in one message to Bondi. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Trump’s messages were one of his most overt attempts to date to override the traditional restraints on the president’s involvement in law enforcement investigations after months of calling for criminal charges against those he perceives as political enemies. It comes a day after he called for the ouster of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert, who resigned amid pressure over his decision not to seek indictments against Comey and James.

In one of the posts, Trump announced he intends to nominate Lindsey Halligan, a White House adviser and his former personal lawyer, to be the U.S. attorney in that high-profile office based in Alexandria.

Halligan, a former Florida insurance lawyer who joined Trump’s personal legal team in 2022 and was at his Mar-a-Lago compound when the FBI executed a search warrant in its classified records investigation, is the White House adviser tasked with removing “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution. She has no prior experience as a prosecutor.

“She will be Fair, Smart, and will provide desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump’s beefs? From Politico:

Trump has long accused Comey, Schiff and James, without evidence, of criminal conduct. Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017 amid frustrations over the investigation of his campaign’s contacts with Russia. Schiff led Trump’s first impeachment trial over his decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine over a demand that the Ukrainian government investigate his political rivals. And Trump has railed against James for her sprawling lawsuit against his business empire that led to a massive civil judgment against him.

Trump is blurring the boundaries between the executive and judicial branches, using the latter to punish those that irritate him.  Today we have a one-man Saturday Night massacre, but there will be others.  I’ve been trying to wait three years without blowing an artery, but one unconscionable act follows another.

*As a reward to Hamas for killing Jews, and a punishment to Israel for responding to Hamas’s attack, Keir Starmer, the blockheaded (Labour) PM of the UK, announced Sunday the recognition by the UK of a Palestinian state. Starmer’s rationale, which everybody know is totally bogus, is that giving Palestine their own state will bring about comity between Israel and Palestine. Yeah: that’s why Palestinians have rejected a state over and over again since 1947. Oh, and Canada and Australia joined the off-key chorus, too:

From the WaPo:

The UK is making a mistake, but there’s not really a danger of a two-state solution in the near future. The mistake is taking a position that is not only ineffective but immoral.  Look: here is a man who is talking pure bunk, and he surely knows it:

Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/yrg6Lywc1s

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 21, 2025

Einat Wilf is one of the more eloquent defenders of Israel on the Internet; YouTube identifies her as “a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Independence and the Labor Party.” She’s also a prolific writer with seven books under her belt. For what it’s worth, she also has a Ph.D. in political science from The University of Cambridge.

In the 36-minute video below, Wilf discusses the proposed two-state solution, which she says will fail because there is an “irreconcilable conflict” between the Jews and the Palestinians. The Jews want their sovereign state, and the Palestinians want it gone.  And by “Palestinians,” she means, “nearly all Palestinians,” as she finds (and polls show) only a handful of Palestinians who still want a Jewish state to exist. She adds that although the world treats Palestine as a “charity basket case,” pouring billions into the territory, Palestinians are in fact savvy adults with the ability to plan something like October 7 and turn Gaza into a sophisticated Hamas instrument riddled with underground tunnels. And yet the money keeps pouring in, as well as the sympathy from misguided gits like Kier Starmer. Palestine, says Wilf, deserve to be treated with respect and taken at their word: a murderous and Jew-hating word.

But I digress. Listen for yourself. You should because people like Greta Thunberg and her cronies, bent on ignoring their ideological opponents, will stop their ears and shout “na-na-na-na-na!”.

*And, buttressing Wilf’s pessimism, there’s a new WSJ article called, “The world sees hope for a two-state solution. Israelis and Palestinians see none.”

The expected recognition of a Palestine state by France, the U.K. and several other Western countries is part of an effort to breathe life into a dying solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states living side by side.

On the ground, the two-state solution is more remote than ever. Trust between the two peoples of the Holy Land is plumbing historic depths, as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza—by far the deadliest round of war in the century-old conflict—escalates once more.

Polls, which in the 1990s and early 2000s consistently indicated majority support on both sides for two states, have in recent years shown that only a minority of Israelis and Palestinians support the idea—or think it is feasible in practice.

The expected recognition of a Palestine state by France, the U.K. and several other Western countries is part of an effort to breathe life into a dying solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states living side by side.

On the ground, the two-state solution is more remote than ever. Trust between the two peoples of the Holy Land is plumbing historic depths, as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza—by far the deadliest round of war in the century-old conflict—escalates once more.

Polls, which in the 1990s and early 2000s consistently indicated majority support on both sides for two states, have in recent years shown that only a minority of Israelis and Palestinians support the idea—or think it is feasible in practice.

Ain’t gonna happen.

*You can get your covid shots now, after the CDC threatened to limit them only to specific groups. But they backed off in a meeting, and now you can get one if you so desire (I’m waiting a bit, as I already have over half a dozen). And most will be covered by insurance—with the possible exception for some whose “coverage” is from United Healthcare.

Drugstores are ready to deliver updated COVID-19 vaccines this fall and insurers plan to pay for them, even though the shots no longer come recommended by an important government committee.

On Friday, vaccine advisers picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to specifically recommend the shots but said people could make individual decisions on whether to get them.

The recommendations from the advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention require sign-off by the agency’s director, but they are almost always adopted.

Those recommendations normally trigger several layers of insurance coverage and allow drugstores in many states to deliver the shots. But insurers and government officials have said coverage will continue, and several states have allowed for vaccine access through pharmacies, the most common place to get shots.

Will insurers cover these shots?

The VFC program normally automatically covers any vaccines recommended by the CDC committee.

The trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said earlier this week that its members will continue to cover the shots at no cost to patients through 2026.

That group includes every major insurer except UnitedHealthcare. And that insurer has said it will continue covering the vaccine at no cost for its standard commercial coverage, which includes plans offered for individuals and through small businesses.

Should you get one? Ask your doctor, of course, as I did. But also don’t forget that if you’re going to get a flu shot, now is the time. My doctor told me to get mine between mid- and late September, and that seems to be what Internet Sites of Expertise say. And if you’re a geezer, don’t forget your other shots, like pneumonia and (if you haven’t had it) shingles. Again, ask your doctor.

*Good Ceiling Cat!  Now, due to Trump’s tariffs, they’re contemplating making Swiss Army knives in America instead of Switzerland. And I bet Trump will insist on them being called “GreatAmerican War Knives.”

The United States has long been Victorinox’s most important market, Mr. Elsener said, raising his voice above the din of machinery. But after President Trump blindsided Switzerland last month by imposing a 39 percent import tariff, the highest for any Western country, the treasured ties were thrown into question.

“It was a shock,” said Mr. Elsener, who, like many Swiss executives, had anticipated an outcome more like that of the European Union, which negotiated a 15 percent tariff, or Britain, which was slapped with a basic tariff of 10 percent. “No one had expected such a drastic step,” he added.

After decades of easy entry into America, a wall has gone up for the Swiss. If the tariffs stay in place, Victorinox will face a $13 million U.S. import tax bill next year. After keeping U.S. prices steady this year, Mr. Elsener may have to raise them. The company’s professional kitchen knives suddenly cost more than those of European competitors. And U.S. customs paperwork, once simple, is now a Kafkaesque ordeal.

“The new tariffs are hitting Switzerland’s export-oriented economy hard,” said Jan Atteslander, a director at EconomieSuisse, the lobbying group for Swiss businesses. “A swift agreement on reducing tariffs is essential.”

. . . But like the Swiss Army knives he makes, Mr. Elsener, who is fourth generation in his family to run the company, is staying pragmatic. “I’m hoping for the best, but I’m also prepared for the worst,” he said in an interview at Victorinox’s headquarters in Ibach-Schwyz. It is a bucolic industrial region in central Switzerland ringed by pine-covered mountains and dotted with timbered houses, colorful church spires and the occasional herd of cows.

. . . Mr. Elsener said he was considering shifting some final stages of production, including the cleaning and packaging of professional knives, to the United States, a move that would save $500,000 in tariff charges.

But for him, the Swiss Army knife itself could never be made in America. “It’s a Swiss icon that is inseparably tied to the promise of “Made in Switzerland” quality,” Mr. Elsener said. “Moving its production abroad would undermine the very essence of our brand.”

Well, it looks like the headline (“If the Swiss Army knife is made in America, is it still Swiss?”) was a bit precipitous; at best they’ll be packaged here. I’ve had many over the years, and still have the two smallest ones with two blades and small scissors, but I also have the biggest one, a fat monster with a gazillion blades, including a pen and a magnifying glass. None have ever broken (though I’ve lost one or two), and they are terrific products. They had better not make them here!

*Finally, Ghost, the dying giant Pacific Octopus, wasting away to nothing as she guards a batch of unfertilized eggs, is still alive. She’s been given her own private tank so she can cross the Rainbow Bridge without tons of visitors gawking at her. And the Aquarium of the Pacific has already acquired a replacement octopus for Ghost’s death, expected in one to three months. The funeral meats are going to coldly furnish forth the aquarium tables.  They should allow a decent period of mourning before they unveil the new octopus. But they like those dollars. . .

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej disses my pal:

Hili: Things were worse in the past.
Andrzej: Steven Pinker claims that, and he’s right in some respects, but how is that helpful to anyone?

In Polish:

Hili: Dawniej było gorzej.
Ja: Tak twierdzi Steven Pinker i pod pewnymi względami ma rację, ale komu to pomaga?

*******************

From Stacy:

From Joyce:

From Cat Memes:

Masih is back, and posting brave (and now dead) Iranian women who protested against their theocracy:

Before regime’s bullets killed her, she recorded a video in the street: ‘If change is coming, I want to be part of it.’ She was only 20 and walked into the protest for freedom. They shot Hadis Najafi’s body full of bullets But her courage lives on. Say her name:#HadisNajafi pic.twitter.com/jDqKaTYC3f

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 20, 2025

From Luana, a schnorrer who wants a passport:

Lmfao what did I just watch. pic.twitter.com/9MlueLsLdy

— Darth Powell (@VladTheInflator) September 18, 2025

A cat from Cate:

3200 year old sketch of a cat on a flake of limestone – the ancient equivalent of a post-it note.#Caturday #ancientegypt #Egyptology #cats pic.twitter.com/FTcG5rSc5V

— Dr Campbell Price (@EgyptMcr) September 20, 2025

From Frau Katze, a baby wolf learning to howl:

everything is terrible so here’s a baby wolf puppy learning to howl pic.twitter.com/NWdWrWDOAs

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 17, 2025

From Malcolm; a monkey risks getting stung to get some tasty wasp larvae:

A capuchin monkey tears apart a wasp nest in order to get to their larvaepic.twitter.com/n1yIo8rPNX

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2025

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was three years old.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T08:22:47.558Z

Two from Doctor Cobb. I can only imagine where James Joyce’s hand was (I’ve read his letters):

— Rob Palk (@robpalk.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T21:49:55.732Z

. . . and some fantastic fossils:

Beautiful #Ediacaran fossil light on the E surface at Mistaken Point 🤩

— Emily Mitchell (@egmitchell.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T23:01:22.425Z