Little boy, you are not yet ready

Today was the day I was going to try breeding a new generation of black widows. I gently introduced some males to some females, but then chickened out. No way were these males ready for the overwhelming majesty of a fully grown female.

That immensity is the female, on the left. The little guy on the right is a male, who I think is bit young for this exercise. He’s game, though, scurried right up to female and made a few tentative taps. It’s a bit like watching a mosquito getting the hots for a passing zeppelin.

I think I’ll have to tank up the males for a few more weeks.

Today I’m doing a “fool’s experiment” in the classroom

Fridays are the worst, from a teacher’s perspective, and Mondays are great. Students start out the week full of enthusiasm and slowly deflate, so today I’ve only got 50% attendance…and that’s typical. I try to pack Mondays with all the deep information, while on Fridays I try to do something different.

We’ve been talking about Darwin this week. I’ve given them an in-class exercise to browse through the Darwin project and begin to put together a short essay. Here are their instructions.

In your next essay, you’re going to be a real historian: I want you to read a few samples of primary historical references from Charles Darwin, and interpret and explain what he is writing about.

The Darwin Correspondence Project (https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/) is a massive archive of letters to and from Charles Darwin, containing about 15,000 documents that have all been indexed and made publicly available. I want you to dive into this pile of letters, pluck out a few, and read them carefully. You may have to do additional research to figure out who these long dead people were, but the Darwin Project has actually done a lot of that work for you.

Write a 750 word essay that explains the context and meaning of the letters you choose. Unlike most scientific writing, this kind of essay encourages quoting your source — but don’t use up more than 250 words in direct quotes.

You get to choose the topic of the letters. Some might contain heavy scientific arguments, others might be friendly chit-chat, some are questions about that flower you were supposed to mail to me. They’re all good and interesting! Peek into the mind of a famous scientist, and you’ll find both deep revelations and mundane conversation.

In class: before you go, summarize to the group what you intend to write about, or tell us something interesting that you found.

I’m in class, working in parallel with them, and occasionally interrupting to get an idea of what they’re focusing on. I was most interested in Darwin’s “fool experiments“. These were experiments where you figured that it would never work, or that the answer would be obvious, but you go ahead and do the experiment anyways.

‘I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them’, was one of the most interesting things the zoologist E. Ray Lankester ever heard Darwin say. ‘A great deal might be written as comment on that statement’, Lankester later recorded, but he limited himself to stating that ‘the thoughts which it suggests may be summed up by the proposition that even a wise experiment when made by a fool generally leads to a false conclusion, but that fools’ experiments conducted by a genius often prove to be leaps through the dark into great discoveries.’

That’s a really good idea. I should go do a fool’s experiment this afternoon, maybe I’ll be surprised.

My students are right now digging into Darwin’s religious beliefs, his love life, his speculations about the age of the earth, and are going to give me the details next week. This should be fun.

My political “dilemma”

Here’s the problem. The Democrats think it’s OK to murder Palestinians, but also think trans people should have rights. The Republicans think it’s OK to murder both Palestinians and trans people.

It’s not much of a dilemma, because of course I can’t vote for Republicans, but I can support part of the Democratic position, so I’ve got to vote Democratic party all the way down the line. It would make me much happier, though, if we could see some opposition to Israel’s genocidal actions.

I was surprised to see this evidence that anti-trans rhetoric is a key part of the Republican strategy.

They’ve spent almost $30 million on an ad that says Harris is providing humane social support to trans people in prison, which they think is deplorable, but I think is a point in her favor. Their second biggest focus is on immigration — they’re against it, I’m for it.

Their entire platform is built on hatred for non-white, non-straight people. Again, this is a crappy dilemma, because of course I’m pro-Democrat then.

Except that I wish voting for Harris didn’t also make me feel like I’m giving tacit approval to genocide.

Phase 2 complete

Phase 1 was moving the young black widows to new, spacious quarters and giving them a day to get comfortable. Phase 2 is giving them a big meal so they aren’t hungry when meeting their beaus.

Here’s one female who has just been given a hearty breakfast.

The splotches near the center are spider poop, I’m sorry to say. I’ve been keeping them well fed, so they had to, ummm, relieve themselves immediately after the move. I dropped a large mealworm in this morning — it immediately scurried under the coconut fiber on the left. The spider was very excited, though, and has one leg on its butt, and although you can’t see it, has a silk line attached to it already.

I expect the ladies to be fully satiated and ready for love when I introduce them to some males tomorrow. Friday should be exciting!

A map that explains so much

Here’s a map of average precipitation across the US.

I’m in the dry band that stretches from Texas to Minnesota, drawing a vertical line across the middle of the country. I grew up in the dark green to purple wet part of the country on the West coast, and my favorite part of the world is that dark purple blotch over the Olympic peninsula.

No wonder I’m thirsty. I need to get a drink of water and get to work now.

Go go go, Boeing workers!

Well, my mother’s house has been stripped bare. We hired a local contractor to sweep through and sort and dispose of everything she left behind, which leaves me feeling sad and depressed. She lived there for almost 50 years, and had gathered all these memories, neatly boxed and on display, of the family she loved, and I’ve ordered them all distributed to second-hand stores, Habitat for Humanity, and landfills. Sorry, Mom.

The house will be going on the market in a week or two. The asking price will be $435,000, which leaves me slightly stunned. Housing prices in the Pacific Northwest are out of sight, although it could be worse — the house could have been located in the Bay area.

Now I have to be concerned with selling it off to benefit all the heirs, all 9 of them. Complicating that is the fact that Boeing is on strike. This is a house that was owned by a Boeing family, with multiple Boeing siblings, and is located not far from a Boeing plant, so I feel like that’s the market it fits in. Unfortunately, Boeing machinists have rejected the latest offer.

Machinists on Wednesday rejected Boeing’s latest contract proposal, dashing hopes for an end to the nearly six-week walkout and further complicating the aerospace giant’s path to a more stable future.

The vote by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers districts 751 and W24 came on the same day the company reported a loss of more than $6 billion for the quarter that ended in September.

Boeing had hoped the sweetened deal, which included a 35 percent pay increase, enhanced health and retirement benefits and a $7,000 signing bonus, would be enough to end the walkout by 33,000 machinists, but some observers say they may have underestimated the mistrust and lingering resentment that remains among rank-and-file workers, particularly those who have been through previous rounds of contract negotiations.

My interests in this matter are all aligned. I want the union members to win a glorious victory and triumph with an excellent increase in pay and benefits because they deserve it, and I know Mom and Dad would be cheering them on (heck, Dad would probably be bringing coffee and donuts to the picket line), and darn it, I have a house to sell.

I’m in trouble with AiG and its lawyers

I have been informed that I must take down a blog post, this one. Apparently, Answers in Genesis does not own a whole jet, they lease 25% of one, and how dare I quote an investor site that says “The Cayman Islands are considered a tax haven” or that AiG has been grasping at tax breaks.

RE: False and Defamatory Statements

Dear Dr. Myers:

We represent Answers in Genesis, Inc. (“AiG”). We are writing to demand you and your blog, FreeThoughtBlogs, cease and desist further publication of your article Why are creationists so pasty pale at Answers in Genesis? posted at https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ 2024/10/17/why-are-creationists-so-pasty-pale-at-answers-in-genesis/ with a October 17, 2024 publication date (the “Article”). The Article contains several false statements and distortions of fact intended to defame our client.

The Article begins with the following statement: “AiG owns a private jet,” which is false. AiG has a lease for the fractional use of a private jet. In other words, AiG does not own a jet. It owns a percentage of an aircraft’s flight hours each year, approximately 25% of the allocated usage. The ministry has no oversight or involvement regarding the other 75% of use. The reasoning for the fractional use of a private plane is not about luxury but practicality, allowing the ministry to reach more people over a shorter period of time.

With that being said, it could very well be true that this jet “frequently darts down to the Cayman Islands for one-day visits.” However, that does not mean that those trips are taken by AiG. In fact, they are not. No AiG personnel have used the jet (or any other aircraft) for trips to the Cayman Islands.

Of particular concern are the following false statements on your blog:

“What are they doing down there? Why do they frequently fly there and then come straight back?” followed by “Wild guess: The Cayman Islands are considered a tax haven
… making it an ideal place for multinational corporations to base subsidiary entities to shield some or all of their incomes from taxation.”
“AiG has been working so hard to get all kinds of tax breaks here in America, why would they need to evade taxes even more than that?”
These veiled claims have no basis in fact.As you know and intended, when such allegations are directed towards a nonprofit ministry, they discredit and impeach the ministry. The intended implication in your false statements is not only that AiG aims to profit from its mission and that it violates laws for purposes of enriching itself, but it also partakes in additional illicit activity. Since there is no basis in fact, your blog’s publication of the Article (and your authorship of it) constitutes the tort of defamation. Under the laws of Kentucky, where the damage of your misconduct was directed and felt, your malicious defamation exposes you personally to liability, to include for punitive damages.

To our knowledge, you made no effort to contact AiG to verify or corroborate the story’s allegations. It further appears that no effort was made to independently verify the allegations via publicly available sources. Even a minimal effort in that regard would have revealed the falsity of these allegations. Indeed, had you bothered to look at the aircraft registration of the plane, which can conveniently be found on the same website your Article links to, you would have discovered that AiG does not in fact own the plane.

You and your blog acted with actual malice in that you knew your statements were false or, at best, you acted in reckless disregard to the veracity of the statements. This is not the first time you have been reckless in your allegations regarding the ministry. The insinuations your “expose” propagates are presented as truths, when in fact they are lies. Your statements have been circulated to the public, to include the media, which increases the scope and corresponding liability for your misconduct.

Implications that AiG has engaged in illegal or criminal activity is unacceptable, as are the enumerated claims above. Your statements damage AiG’s reputation and were done with intent to cause harm, i.e. maliciously. Your followers have circulated your false claims, including to the media.

We demand that you immediately and permanently remove the Article and release a statement retracting the article and enumerated claims above. Please confirm that you have done so within five days of the date of this letter.

In the meanwhile, since you are on notice of legal claims made against you, you have a duty to preserve all communications and documents concerning the Article, to include all communications and investigations relevant to the same. All electronic records, to include all forms of electronic communications, should be preserved. This demand is not a waiver of any other claims my clients may have against you. Do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or desire to discuss this matter.

OK, I’ll admit that they have a solid alibi, and I am removing the post.

I am not at all surprised that Ken Ham is extremely touchy about their money, but have never sicced a lawyer on me for all my posts refuting their creationist bullshit.

The happy couple, getting ready for the wedding

This is one of the black widow females I just moved into roomier quarters.

It does not have a red back. Our North American widows are a solid black, with a red hourglass on the underside of the abdomen.

This is one of the males, currently separated.

Seriously dimorphic, which is why he won’t be introduced until the female is fed again, and I can keep on eye on her shenanigans.

Antici…pation

An Australian reader sent me this photo of a redback, the Aussie version of Latrodectus. So pretty! And with an egg sac!

That reminds me…this is a big week in the lab, I hope. My second generation black widows are looking ready for breeding, so that means I have to prepare the nuptials. I’m moving the females to a larger, cleaner container and giving them time to make a cozy web today. Tomorrow I’m giving them a feast — gotta fill ’em up so they aren’t hungry when a visitor comes calling. Then on Friday I’m introducing them to second generation males.

I’m a little nervous about that. As usual, males are less common than females — more of them die during development. But the big concern is sexual dimorphism. Latrodectus males are so much daintier and distinctly tinier than the females, so it could be a bloodbath in two days. I’ll record video of the event, and maybe if it isn’t too disappointing I’ll post it then.

Walz has a way with words

First, it was recognizing that conservative Republicans are “weird,” out of touch with common values. Now he has absolutely perfectly pegged Elon Musk: he’s a dipshit.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Tuesday joked that Elon Musk is Trump’s real “running mate,” and mocked him for jumping “like a dipshit” on stage with Donald Trump earlier this month.

“I’m going to talk about his running mate,” Walz said during a campaign rally in Wisconsin. “His running mate Elon Musk.”

“Look, Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dipshit on these things,” the Minnesota governor said. “You know it.”

Oh man, that brought back memories of my father, a bedrock union man and staunch Democrat, because that was one of his favorite words to describe clowns lacking in dignity and publicly making an ass of themselves. That’s Musk in a single word, a dipshit.