Disappointed

I had big plans for today. I was going to make a day trip to do some spider collecting — today is my wife’s day off, so it was a good time to take the car away. I had it all planned out: the route, I’d identified some parks and likely places to stop, and the trip was going to end at a museum I’ve never visited before, an hour away. We’ve had a week of sunny, warm weather (we hit 91°F yesterday!) so I thought there’d be a good chance some spiders would have emerged.

Then Minnesota weather got in the way. I woke up to a massive thunderclap, and the forecast is for thunderstorms and strong winds. Forget about spidering today.

I think instead I get to go into the lab and scrub fly bottles all afternoon. Gotta get the fly lab cleaned up.

This will not be fun.

Mary was not enthused about the trip anyway. She’s in gardening mode.

Do not trust IFLScience

I fucking detest IFLScience. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it started as a Facebook page, “I Fucking Love Science,” that later expanded into an independent web site, and it has always specialized in presenting bright colorful images and gushing enthusiastically over them with little understanding and gives the impression of a kid squealing at a cool picture. It’s Facebook science. It’s awful.

Here’s an example.

That’s a photoshopped image. It’s about a technique for inserting red fluorescent protein in a spider silk gland to make silk that can glow. It has an excitation wavelength of 558nm (so you shine a green light on it) and an emission wavelength of 583 (greenish yellow). You have to use a microscope with excitation and emission filters, and the emission filter has a long tail that lets longer wavelengths through, so what you actually see is a dark background with, in this case, a strand of silk glowing a dark red.

That is obviously not a fluorescent image.

The text is even worse.

One of the reasons why this has never happened before is that spiders themselves are difficult organisms to work with within the laboratory. They are a diverse group, have a complex genome structure, and their cannibalistic nature means that they have to be reared individually, otherwise their cage neighbors would be gobbled up. Despite this, new developments in Parasteatoda tepidariorum have allowed this species to become a research model.

That’s bullshit. I’ve found spiders easier to work with than, for instance, zebrafish, and zebrafish are far easier than mice. The cannibalism is routine. Zebrafish will line up behind a female laying eggs to suck them up as soon as they leave the oviduct; anyone who works with mice know that stressing the mothers can induce them to chow down on their newborn pups. This was written by someone with zero knowledge of actual hands-on biology.

For the record, when a spider egg sac hatches, the spiderlings can scamper around their mama with negligible risk that she’ll eat them. The babies will eat each other, though.

Of course, this summary is made from reading a real paper. It’s a techniques paper, just demonstrating the feasibility of KO (knockout) and KI (knock-in) mutations in Parasteatoda. This is what the real fluorescent images look like:

mRFP fluorescence within the major ampullate gland. a) Red fluorescence could be detected in the offspring of the KO mutant spiders in the major ampullate gland (scale bar: 277 µm). b) The cartoon recreates the major structures of the major ampullate silk gland: tail, sac, and spinning duct. c) The highest fluorescence intensities could be observed between the tail and the sac (scale bar: 140 µm).

That’s not sexy enough for IFLScience, though, so they cobbled up a stock photo of a spider and drew a bright red laser line shining out of its butt. That’s just what IFLScience does.

It’s a shame. They’re summarizing what isn’t a great paper, but a useful one, and making a mess of it.

I’m way ahead of you, Nature

I saw the rising tide of belligerent white nationalism coming, and knew I had to revise how I teach genetics. I’ve seen the kids who come out of public schools thinking that every feature is the product of simple Mendelian genetics, I’ve witnessed a president who declares that he’s got “good genes”, meaning white and German ancestry, I’ve read Quillette. There’s so much misinformation and bad science out there driving hateful ideologies, and my genetics teaching has been slowly adapting to combat it. I guess I’m going to have to accelerate my instruction, now that Nature has told me I must: Eugenics is on the rise again: human geneticists must take a stand.

I agree.

One of the things that made last semester rough is that I revised a big chunk of the class. I decided I had to abort a unit on developmental genetics — which hurt, I love developmental genetics, and it’s important — and we instead spent several weeks on ethical genetics. Throughout the term I brought up examples of the misappropriation of genetical ideas to prop up ugly ideologies, but then, damn it, we elected a know-nothing racist bigot to the presidency, and he immediately started flooding scientific agencies with bullshit.

At a hearing in February, the now-confirmed head of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, reiterated his past comments that Black children should receive different vaccine schedules from white children because of variations in their immune systems.

Kennedy’s motives in this regard are unclear. But after making numerous demonstrably false statements about vaccination, he is providing another layer of reasoning that the scientist whose work Kennedy cites described as “twisting the data far beyond what they actually demonstrate” while promoting racial essentialism: the false belief that people of different ‘races’ have inherently distinct biology.

Meanwhile, although Trump stated at his inaugural address that his administration “will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based”, an executive order he signed in March condemns as “corrosive ideology” the Smithsonian Institution’s promotion in its museums and research centres of the view that race is not a biological reality, but a social construct.

Yeah, I’ve got to start playing hardball here, and get explicit about rebutting specific racist ideas. I’ve been general about coaching students in ethical behavior and allowing them to bring up problematic topics, but I think next year I’m going to incorporate a few case studies of bad genetics, I’m not sure what I can pare out to make time, but there are definitely things I must expand.

Education is key to inoculating future generations against unscientific ideas and correcting currently held beliefs. Research into education at secondary-school and university levels has shown that particular teaching approaches, including those that focus on multifactorial inheritance and genetic ancestry, can help to guard against scientific racism and genetic essentialism.

These conversations must extend to researchers’ engagement with the public to both educate and advocate for science more broadly. Grass-roots efforts could help, such as Science Homecoming, an effort to encourage scientists to write opinion pieces in their local newspapers.

Yes! More about multifactorial inheritance! I think that will come at the expense of cutting back on Mendel. His ideas are fundamental, but I can cover them more succinctly. This stuff matters more than a limited set of experiments on pea plants, which were great in the 1860s, but are perhaps misleadingly simplified.

It’s also an important part of this goal:

Those in leadership positions must protect marginalized faculty members, staff and trainees, who will continue to be targeted in the coming years. Although many funding programmes focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) are no longer available, the ideals of DEIA — which are core to scientific progress — must be upheld.

Will do! Fortunately, I’m at a good progressive liberal university, and the students will be receptive to it all. The people who oppose DEIA are the freaky weird fringe.

The problem with putting limp-dick dumb-ass right-wingers in charge of the military

Pete Hegseth says transgender people “lack warrior ethos, are liars, lack integrity, are not humble, are selfish and can’t meet physical mental fitness requirements.”

Their priorities are all wrong. But then, I had no idea that so many military men lacked virility and needed chemical assistance.

The judge overseeing the case against the Defense Department’s firing of transgender service members revealed that the military spends eight times more on erectile dysfunction medication than on gender affirming care.

While discussing military spending with the Defense Department (DoD) attorney for the ongoing Talbott v Trump case, Judge Ana Reyes said the DoD spends approximately $5.2 million annually on medical care for service members with gender dysphoria.

Comparatively, the DoD spends $42 million a year on medication for service members with erectile dysfunction.

Also, right-wing lawyers don’t read.

At one point, attorneys had to admit to Reyes that they had never read articles which were included as evidence. Reyes then said they had “cherry picked” and “egregiously misquoted” studies put forward by the Pentagon on transgender people decreasing the lethality of the military.

That sounds like legal malpractice to me. But then, ignorance is the lubrication that keeps the Trump train rolling.

Making the whole world ring like a bell

And it tolled for 9 days!

Climate change is increasingly predisposing polar regions to large landslides. Tsunamigenic landslides have occurred recently in Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), but none have been reported from the eastern fjords. In September 2023, we detected the start of a 9-day-long, global 10.88-millihertz (92-second) monochromatic very-long-period (VLP) seismic signal, originating from East Greenland. In this study, we demonstrate how this event started with a glacial thinning–induced rock-ice avalanche of 25 × 106 cubic meters plunging into Dickson Fjord, triggering a 200-meter-high tsunami. Simulations show that the tsunami stabilized into a 7-meter-high long-duration seiche with a frequency (11.45 millihertz) and slow amplitude decay that were nearly identical to the seismic signal. An oscillating, fjord-transverse single force with a maximum amplitude of 5 × 1011 newtons reproduced the seismic amplitudes and their radiation pattern relative to the fjord, demonstrating how a seiche directly caused the 9-day-long seismic signal. Our findings highlight how climate change is causing cascading, hazardous feedbacks between the cryosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere.

Shorter summary: a glacier in Greenland collapsed catastrophically in a fjord, setting the water sloshing back and forth with enough force that seismologists all around the world could detect the clock-like movement.

Better summary: Someone who knows the geology explains the event and all the terms on Bluesky.

The thinning ice sheets in Greenland led to oscillating waves, 100 meters tall, bouncing between the rock walls of a fjord. Fortunately, no one was there to witness it. Or if they were, they didn’t survive it.

Recreational boating not recommended here. Surfing is right out.

Isn’t it exciting, just waiting for another unexpected side effect of our slow destruction of the planet? As if the predictable disasters aren’t enough!

Let’s chop the Endangered Species Act to bits, shall we?

Uh-oh. The lawyers have been deployed. They’re trying to parse the wording of the Endangered Species Act to legalize habitat destruction, narrowing its meaning to apply only to the direct killing of organisms, but killing the environment? That does not apply.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibits the “take” of endangered species. (1) Under the ESA, “[t]he term `take’ means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”  (2) This makes sense in light of the well-established, centuries-old understanding of “take” as meaning to kill or capture a wild animal. (3) Regulations previously promulgated by FWS expanded the ESA’s reach in ways that do not reflect the best reading of the statute, to prohibit actions that impair the habitat of protected species: “Harm in the definition of `take’ in the Act means an act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.”  (4) NMFS’ definition is materially identical: “Harm in the definition of `take’ in the Act means an act which actually kills or injures fish or wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation which actually kills or injures fish or wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including, breeding, spawning, rearing, migrating, feeding or sheltering.”  (5)

Then follows many paragraphs of Latin and reiteration of case law, but the intent is clear: the law simply says you can’t “take” wildlife, but we have laws that also say you can’t “harm” wildlife. Those all need to be reinterpreted, because “take” means literally kill individual animals, and that’s the only definition they’re going to use.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” in our Endangered Species Act (ESA or the Act) regulations. The existing regulatory definition of “harm,” which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term “take.” We are undertaking this change to adhere to the single, best meaning of the ESA.

Habitat modification shall not be policed anymore. You want to extract oil from a watershed? Go right ahead, poisoning the communities downstream is fine, since you’re not using a shotgun to kill the ducks and fish. Oops, you ‘accidentally’ dumped phosphates into the streams in Tennessee, and all the snail darters died? As long as you didn’t “take” the fish, you’re cool. Environmental law doesn’t apply to the environment, but only to individual animals that live in that environment you want to wreck.

Don’t worry! Our government is accepting comments on the changes to the interpretation of existing legislation. Go ahead, tell them that this is ridiculous, enabling habitat destruction is far more lethal than literally killing individual animals.

They won’t care. They’ve got lawyers who are willing to warp the law to enable more short-term profiteering and more long-term annihilation of the landscape. It’s America the Beautiful, don’t you know?

I can’t take accusations of blasphemy seriously

I wouldn’t normally quote the odious Matt Walsh, but I was amused that he was taking umbrage at a new version of the Bible. Then I read these excerpts, and actually sympathized with Walsh — a truly horrible sensation — because, yes, this was an embarrassing translation, something assembled by one of those old people who think they can be “cool” by naively aping slang they don’t understand.

It’s real. It’s something called The Word According to Gen Z: A 30-Day Devo Challenge, a month-long exercise in introducing young people to the Bible.

Over the next 30 days, the guys at Sunday Cool will guide you through unique daily devos written specifically for Gen Z. You’ll learn about the reverence, ministry, and application of God’s Word. You’ll also see how Scripture isn’t just about reading, but deep study and enjoyment of the very God who created you.

From the creators of the popular YouTube series with Cool Carll—the youth intern who grew up but never left.

If you have to call yourself “cool,” you aren’t.

I dug a bit deeper, and at least this video from Cool Carll suggests that there’s a little tongue-in-cheek action going on here.

They’re trying too hard. Most of my students would qualify as Gen Z, and I’ve never heard this kind of slang…but fine, I can believe some people talk like that, just as some people of my generation could talk like stoned hippies, man. But it’s all about context, we all know how to speak appropriately in different situations, and Gen Z kids don’t talk like that in the classroom, or in Bible study, unless they’re trying to get a laugh.

And then I found this interesting insight from a Christian blog.

Lifeway, the media and publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has long been known for its proclivity toward placing its bottom line ahead of biblical integrity when it comes to the materials they’re willing to peddle to Evangelicals and Southern Baptists for cash. Headed by Thom Rainer — and formerly, along with Ed Stetzer who now holds the Billy Graham Chair at Wheaton College — Lifeway has been criticized for its continued lack of concern over the heresy they publish and sell.

Lifeway is particularly dangerous because, being a part of a perceived conservative denomination, it is blindly expected that the store only produce, promote, and sell theologically sound materials. In reality, however, LifeWay’s model requires it to promote heretical garbage to maintain a steady income and it is part of the reason so much heresy has influenced the denomination over the years.

From its in-house Cash-Cow of Bashan, Beth Moore, who regularly fancies herself with silly stories of talking to God face to face who tells her to do silly things which sounds more like schizophrenia than anything biblical, to serial plagiarist, Christine Caine, Hillsong Australia’s rebellious version of Beth Moore, and others, such as Priscilla Shirer, Ann Voskamp, and practically any heretical lady-preacher you can think of, along with rank heretic and anti-Trinitarian, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Steven Furtick, and even at one time, “gay pastor,” Matthew Vines, the list is practicalkly endless — Lifeway has made millions over the years peddling this garbage.

But now, Lifeway is taking it a step further by selling what is being dubbed a translation of the Bible — the Gen Z translation which is part of a new pragmatic approach to millennials called “Sunday Cool” — which practically turns every verse of the Scripture into a mockery of God by downplaying and stripping the majesty and deity of God by using meaningless words and artificial language that even millennials can’t understand.

I don’t follow Christian media at all, but I do know that “Christian culture” doesn’t exist — there’s a wide range of beliefs from innocuous “faith” with little commitment to insane fanaticism, and in between there are a lot of grifters, like the ones listed above, who get wealthy by seizing the power of capitalism and making a buck by telling gullible people what they want to hear.

One thing is for certain: you can always find a Christian who will call some other Christian a “heretic” or “blasphemer,” because it’s all of it, every word of it, made up. There is no foundation to any of it, not even the Bible they hold sacred, because they’re always happy to mangle the words to get any interpretation they want, and will go to war with anyone who mangles it a different way.