Got a new rug for my office…actually, it’s an old rug, used to be in our bedroom, it got relocated when we put in a new bed. My wife has stopped by this morning three times to let me know it ties the room together.
The cat better not pee on it.
The right-wingers are fighting among themselves again, inspired by Hegseth’s bombing of boats. Claire Lehmann, the terrible racist founder of Quillette, starts the bickering by complaining about the sinking…not that she opposes murdering random people from South American countries, but that it doesn’t look good and you should be more quiet about the slaughtering:
This is really grotesque.
(And look I get it that sometimes hard men need to do ugly things. But if you’re going to do this, don’t broadcast it, & don’t brag about it. FFS)
Billionaire Joe Lonsdale responds. If you’ve forgotten who he is, he made his fortune by starting out under Peter Thiel at PayPal, and then got really rich with Palantir, the company that profits from spying on your internet usage all around the world. Later, he was one of the founders of the University of Austin, the fake college for far-right and libertarian freaks. He wants more publicity for extra-judicial murder.
She’s just wrong. Leftist schoolmarm leaders cause violence and evil in our civilization.
Sinking narco boats publicly helps deter others. As does hanging repeat violent criminals.
Killing bad guys is DoW job. He should brag more. Masculine truth: bold, virtuous men deter evil.
He’s a good example: bold, virtuous men failed to deter Joe Lonsdale. He might be on to something here, that maybe it’s time to hang a few billionaires to teach a lesson to those greedy parasites. He wants more than killing a few “narcoterrorists” (who haven’t been tried and convicted of anything), just public hanging for lots of crimes.
If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law.
We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others.
Our society needs balance. It’s time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.
For future reference, this is how billionaires want to run their utopia, in a “masculine” fashion with lots of public violence. I say we should hang them first. Viva la revolución! Give them what they want.
It’s not just Jesus with an AK47, now Santa is packing, too.
If you’re in Homeland Security, you’re a twisted, evil person.
Remember this guy? A local chiropractor put up signs all around town touting “The Cancer Cure” (but taking care not to promise one, since he’s only a chiropractor). Those signs suddenly disappeared shortly after I complained, but it’s typical of these fringe wellness quacks — publicly veiling their promises while implying miracles. These guys are still in operation, of course, and still making bizarre claims, like that chiropractic allows the body to heal itself by removing any nervous system interference
.
You won’t be surprised to learn that, on the national scale, chiropractors are generally big fans of Robert Felching Kennedy Jr.
When Kennedy ran an anti-vaccine non-profit before running for president, chiropractors were hefty donors. In 2019, for instance, they donated nearly half a million dollars to the cause — about a sixth of the organization’s revenue that year. When Kennedy created the MAHA Alliance super PAC for his presidential candidacy, more than half of its initial donors were chiropractors. And when Kennedy’s nomination to lead HHS seemed like it was on the rocks, a raft of chiropractors signed a letter of support for him.
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President Donald Trump, shakes hands with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alongside Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner (L) after Trump signed the "Fostering the Future" executive order the East Room of the White House on November 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.Many of Kennedy’s most ardent chiropractic supporters are now at the forefront of his Make America Healthy Again movement, posting on social media and finding TikTok virality in a bid to spread his agenda to a larger audience and recruit more disciples. Their passion for Kennedy is palpable.
To be fair, not all chiropractors are on the MAHA train.
“RFK Jr. is a natural fit, because those people who believe in that vertebral subluxation myth are the same ones who think, ‘No, you don’t need vaccines because we can just align your spine so that your body can heal itself,’” says Aaron Kubal, a chiropractor based in Minnesota who does not subscribe to the spine theory and has gone viral online for his videos debunking MAHA-aligned chiropractors.
“align your spine so that your body can heal itself” sounds like what our local chiropractor, Christopher Wollner, preaches. I wonder if he’s a MAGA/Trump voter? Because that kind of unscientific idiocy meshes perfectly with that brand of political idiocy. It’s totally free of any nervous system interference
, after all.
The NY Times did one of those things they’re so fond of: take an unscientific and inadequate sample of a subpopulation of voters, and ask them what they think of a recent policy decision. This time, they asked 6 Republicans what they think of bombing Venezualan boats. I’m not sure what the point is, except to let us know that Republicans are assholes.
Edward Padron, 67, thinks in principle that killing people in boats is OK, but killing survivors is wrong.
“I don’t agree with the second shot,” Mr. Padron said. “I do agree with them being stopped.”
Warning: Mr Padron holds the moral high ground in this group. It’s all downhill from there.
Erwin McKone, 55, has reservations about killing low-level guys in boats.
“If we were serious about the cartels, we would probably try to cut off the head of the snake,” he said, speculating that many of those who have been killed are “poor Venezuelans that see this as an opportunity to feed their families.”
I suspect he’d be fine if we just openly declared war on Venezuela.
Charles Vaughters, 25, favors killing alleged drug traffickers without much evidence.
“Drug traffickers are criminals who rape, murder and kill people, and they are dedicated to getting the product to Americans,” Mr. Vaughters said. “They don’t care if it harms Americans. I don’t think we should be feeling much sympathy.”
Rachel Uecker, 53, has a pragmatic perspective.
“If we take them to the courts, we’re going to have to pay for that and support them in prison,” she said. “If they’re bringing drugs into our country, I don’t care who gets rid of them.”
Brian Kozlowski, 41, wants more violence.
Brian D. Kozlowski, who is a strong Trump supporter, said the U.S. military should be used “more proactively to keep Americans safe.” He blamed the Biden administration for what he described as not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the country.
He’s a lawyer. Let’s get rid of that troubling concept of presumed innocence.
But my very favorite example of twisted moral reasoning comes from Naomi Villalba (no age given), who cites the Bible as justification.
Ms. Villalba said the second strike was also justified, and she does not believe the United States is indiscriminately targeting boats.
“They should have done that strike regardless,” she said. “Every human being does have value, but if you’re caught up in something that’s very detrimental to society, I think that you should die.”
She compared these strikes to a story in the Bible, when Jesus healed someone on a Sunday, contradicting religious rules that forbid work on that day. Some laws are worth breaking for the betterment of mankind, she said, just like the biblical story was trying to show.
Well, yeah. If Jesus could break one of the ten commandments to heal someone, then Pete Hegseth can also break one of the commandments to murder two people clinging to wreckage in the ocean. Same thing. Every human being does have value, but….
Does being caught up in something detrimental to society also include evangelical Christianity and MAGA?
I take back my disparagement of the NY Times’ methods of taking the pulse of the country. I did learn something after all.
It’s a typical scenario this time of year: Ol’ Grandpa has a festive wreath on his door, delivery driver drops off a package at his door, Ol’ Grandpa emerges to call ICE and 911 because the driver speaks Spanish.
Ol’ Racist Grandpa explains that this is Wyoming, not Colorado, while the driver says “thank you,” and just tries to get in his car and leave, which Ol’ Racist Grandpa doesn’t allow.
I think someone ought to call the police on Ol’ Racist Grandpa.
Ol’ Racist Grandpa needs to be arrested and fined for wasting the time of 911 services.
Ol’ Racist Grandpa needs to be retired to an old folks’ home, before his hatred hurts someone.
I hope Ol’ Racist Grandpa isn’t allowed to have a gun in his home, although this is Wyoming, they probably allow it.
MAGA has really poisoned the country, hasn’t it?
I know that a pile of bones of Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops gets all the attention and popular press, but what gives me a thrill is seeing a well-preserved Cambrian invertebrate, especially if it represents an early developmental stage. Here’s a real beauty, the phosphatized larva of Youti yuanshi, from Yunnan, China.
YKLP 12387. a, External scanning electron microscopy, right side. Damage to posterior epidermis exposes lining of perivisceral cavity, demonstrating blind gut. b, External scanning electron microscopy, left side. c,g–j, Median virtual dissection from X-ray computed tomography (XCT) data (c), showing location of transverse slices intersecting digestive glands (g,i) and transverse membrane (h,j). d, Semi-manual segmentation of internal chambers from XCT data, viewed from the left side. Dorsolateral aspects of the peripheral cavity are omitted for clarity. e,f, Virtual dissection parallel to coronal plane, looking ventrally (e) and dorsally (f), showing digestive glands, pericardial sinus, transverse membranes within perivisceral cavity, and oblique membranes within peripheral cavity. g–j, XCT sections at positions indicated in c at position of digestive glands (g,i) and at position of ventrolateral lacunae and transverse membrane (h,j). g,h, Sections close to the anterior trunk, reflecting segments at late developmental stage. i,j, Sections close to the posterior trunk, showing superior preservation of internal tissue. k, Segmentation of internal chambers from XCT data, viewed from the dorsal perspective at anterior, middle and posterior trunk. Aspects of peripheral cavity are omitted for clarity. a, appendage; cb, central body of brain; db, dorsolateral body of brain; dia, diagenetic grain; dg, digestive gland; dm, dorsal membrane; dp, dorsal projection; dv, dorsal vessel; fb, frontal body of brain; irr, irregular chamber; lig, ligament; om, oblique membrane; pc, pericardial sinus; pph, peripheral cavity; pn, perineural sinus; pv, perivisceral cavity; tm, transverse membrane; vl, ventrolateral sinus; vv, ventral vessel. Scale bars, 200 μm.
Superficially, it looks like a grub you might dig up in your garden, but this was found in marine sediments and was less than 4mm long, so you’d be unlikely to find anything like it today. It’s from a paper titled Organ systems of a Cambrian euarthropod larva by Martin R. Smith, Emma J. Long, Alavya Dhungana, Katherine J. Dobson, Jie Yang & Xiguang Zhang. The specimen is so well preserved that it can be studied at the level of organs and organ systems.
The Cambrian radiation of euarthropods can be attributed to an adaptable body plan. Sophisticated brains and specialized feeding appendages, which are elaborations of serially repeated organ systems and jointed appendages, underpin the dominance of Euarthropoda in a broad suite of ecological settings. The origin of the euarthropod body plan from a grade of vermiform taxa with hydrostatic lobopodous appendages (‘lobopodian worms’) is founded on data from Burgess Shale-type fossils. However, the compaction associated with such preservation obscures internal anatomy. Phosphatized microfossils provide a complementary three-dimensional perspective on early crown group euarthropods, but few lobopodians. Here we describe the internal and external anatomy of a three-dimensionally preserved euarthropod larva with lobopods, midgut glands and a sophisticated head. The architecture of the nervous system informs the early configuration of the euarthropod brain and its associated appendages and sensory organs, clarifying homologies across Panarthropoda. The deep evolutionary position of Youti yuanshi gen. et sp. nov. informs the sequence of character acquisition during arthropod evolution, demonstrating a deep origin of sophisticated haemolymph circulatory systems, and illuminating the internal anatomical changes that propelled the rise and diversification of this enduringly successful group.
Here’s a helpful diagram to help sort out what’s going on inside the worm.
a, Organ system disposition in sagittal view. Dotted lines denote location of sections shown in e,f. b, Organ system disposition in transverse view. c,d, Head, from lateral perspective (c) and as medial transverse section (d). e,f, Transverse sections through trunk at location of digestive glands (e) and transverse membranes (f). g–j, Coronal sections through head, from ventral (g) to dorsal (j) planes. Colour scheme as in Fig. 1.
Most interesting is the comparative analysis with other Cambrian organisms, especially with regards to the organization of the nervous system.
Phylogenetic analysis situates Youti yuanshi within the AOPK clade containing Anomalocaris, Opabinia, Pambdelurion and Kerygmachela. Under our preferred model, the circumoral brain ring of cycloneuralians corresponds to the panarthropod prosocerebrum, which innervates the first appendage pair (onychophoran antennae, tardigrade stylets or euarthropod labrum). We interpret the archicerebrum as a distinct development dorsal to the prosocerebrum, associated with sensory receptors: specifically the eyes, and the dorsal projections (Kerygmachela rostral spines, tardigrade cirri, crustacean frontal filaments or anterior paired projections of stem euarthropods; homology with the anteriormost onychophoran lip papillae is plausible, but may not be parsimonious). The taxa depicted in this figure are selected in order to depict the evolutionary context of Youti; the relationships shown are recovered under all analytical conditions.
Over half a billion years ago, the oceans were filled with diverse wormlike animals that were exploring different arrangements of their squishy bits — it was a complex ecology and every individual discovered should fill us with awe. Each of these forms has a deeper history that we need more fossils to decipher.
The science and math party is on Monday, and I had to figure out what to bring. I don’t want to be the lazy drone who brings a six-pack or beer or some cookies from the store (there’s nothing wrong with my peers who do that, I’m aiming for just one step higher), but I also don’t want to spend a lot of time on something more challenging, so I googled for a traditional, simple, healthy, vegetarian food associated with the holidays. My search returned something called a green bean casserole — it’s common enough that I’ve heard of that as a typical midwestern food, and it really is pretty basic.
One catch: although it’s supposedly traditional, I’ve never had it, let alone made it. I’m a bit like an alien trying to fit in, but I decided to try it out. It’s just green beans in a matrix of canned mushroom soup, with a few little extras. So I whipped up a concoction from a recipe this afternoon to see if I could produce something edible…a test run. Then I put it before my guinea pig test animal wife to see if it was OK.
This is the end result.
She’s never had it before either, but she and I managed to consume it. I have no idea if it tastes like an authentic green bean casserole, but I guess I’ll try it on Monday. Maybe all the native born midwesterners will recoil in horror, but my midwestern ancestors didn’t rise from the graveyard to curse me. Yet.
I’ll be teaching cell biology next fall. Should I be worried?
Little girl: Sings "Jesus loves me"
Teacher: "Uh, no Sally. That's…uh, that's wrong. The powerhouse of the cell is actually the mitochondria."
Little girl looks stunned.
Cut to teacher being burned at the stake.
We just struggled to figure out how to put fitted sheets on a split-top bed, so I’m too tired to do it. Here are a few videos to do the job.
This first one is looking at spiders from an evolutionary perspective — it’s at a basic level, since the first thing it has to explain is that spiders aren’t insects.
This second one is more about spider cognition. It has a similar problem, since what it says isn’t really new. I took a grad-level physiology course from Michael Land in 1980 that focused almost entirely on jumping spiders, and we talked about similar things.
That course was the highlight of my first year of grad school. I guess it’s not surprising that I returned to spiders here in my dotage.
