Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

When I was faster i was always behind.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Hang Your Rhinos By Their Heels

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Hang Your Rhinos By Their Heels

by | 236 Comments

This post is in: ,

I’m not a fan of grief pr0n, so here’s something literally more uplifting:

… What could seem more daft than hanging 12 rhinos upside down for 10 minutes?

But wildlife veterinarian Robin Radcliffe, from Cornell University, and colleagues did exactly this in Namibia because they wanted to know if the health of the animals might be compromised when slung by their legs beneath a helicopter.

It’s an activity that increasingly has been used in African conservation work to shift rhinos between areas of fragmented habitat.

However, no-one had done the basic investigation to check that the tranquillised animals’ heart and lung function coped with upside-down flying, said Robin.

It turns out, the animals coped very well. In fact, there was evidence the rhinos did better in this unusual position than simply lying chest down or on their side.

“I think the reason for that is, when a rhino is on its side, you have positional effects of blood flow. So in other words, the lower parts of the lung are getting lots of blood flow for gas exchange, but the upper part of the lung, just because of gravity, is not getting perfused well, so when a rhino is hanging upside down, it’s basically like it’s standing upside up; the lung is equally perfused…

Other jackal-pleasing winners (full list at the link):

Biology Prize: Susanne Schötz, for analysing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat-human communication…

Medicine Prize: Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.

Peace Prize: Ethan Beseris and colleagues, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face…

Reader Interactions

236Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Peace Prize: Ethan Beseris and colleagues, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face…

    Didn’t we start out as hairy pre-homo?

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Medicine Prize: Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.

    “I was trying to pick up a chick at the bar and things got out of control.”

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    The more humans recognize how much we have in common with other species, the more I like it :)

    Though I think focusing on verbal cat communication is entirely the wrong track. Sure, a talky boy like Tristan communicates that way. But there’s far more nuance in their native language: body language.

  5. 5.

    germy

    This thread brought back memories of all the craziness of the Bush years:

    Post 9/11 thread for people to post the wildest shit they remember from 01 to 06

    I’ll start:

    People thought Osama had an entire mountain hollowed out that he was using as his base and that’s why AQ was hard to find and that somehow a group of like 30 dudes arranged this. pic.twitter.com/lQDupNdpTp

    — grimm (@ExileGrimm) September 10, 2021

  6. 6.

    Nicole

    @Baud:

    Didn’t we start out as hairy pre-homo?

    We did, and anthropology scientists who didn’t win the Ig Noble prize (but should have), figured out that you could determine when in our evolutionary history we evolved away from body hair because the lice that infest our heads are a different species from the ones that infest pubes.  Likewise body lice vs head lice give us a ballpark idea of when humans started wearing clothes.

    (Although the pubic louse is very closely related to the louse that infests gorillas, so it’s also possible early Homo had some serious beer goggles going on.)

    Ugh.  Now I’m itchy.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    @germy: Of course, I remember where I was when I saw the plane hit the tower.

    And I remember what went through my mind:

    • this is a terrorist attack on the Towers that worked
    • because Bush and company are incompetent idiots
    • and they will use this to be even more rotten and corrupt

     

    Lo and behold, it was all true. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    Peace Prize: Ethan Beseris and colleagues, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face…

    So men have prehistoric Nazis to thank for their beards.

  9. 9.

    germy

    The final act of the U.S. war in Afghanistan was a drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 people. Our latest investigation shows how a man the military saw as an “imminent threat” and “ISIS facilitator” was actually an aid worker returning to his family: t.co/eUX5WSImrD

    — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

    We really needed to get out of there. Biden did the right thing, no matter what Richard Engel says.

    NEW:The Pentagon called its last attack in Kabul a “righteous” hit on an ISIS operative. An NYT team found the “operative” was an aid worker, “explosives” in his car were likely water jugs & the hit – killing 7 children – may have been tragically misguided t.co/8UTRc7vWep

    — Matt Purdy (@mattbpurdy) September 10, 2021

  11. 11.

    germy

    @WereBear:

    My cat uses all sorts of subtle body language, but she also does a thing where she imitates human speech.  If she’s calling me from another room, and it’s a matter of an empty food dish, she’ll make all sorts of sounds “rowell awrall oy”  like she’s a standup comedian doing a bit in front of an audience of cats:  “Humans be like…”

    She also has about ten different purrs.  It’s wonderful to hear.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    @germy: I had to go to DC for a conference right after people had been mailed anthrax there. I told a friend I was afraid to go to DC, and he said, “Just don’t go near any mailboxes.”

  17. 17.

    RandomMonster

    Medicine Prize: Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.

    Something we allergy sufferers already knew, but glad you confirmed.

  19. 19.

    The Pale Scot

    Economics Prize: Pavlo Blavatskyy, for discovering that the obesity of a country’s politicians may be a good indicator of that country’s corruption

     

    So, We’re doing better than we have been recently

  24. 24.

    Warren Senders

    My father was awarded an Ig in 2011 (for work he’d done in the 1960s).  He regarded his IgNobel as one of this high points of his career and kept the actual physical prize in a prominent position in his house (he died in 2019).  In the video below, he can be seen receiving the “Public Safety” prize from Marc Abrahams at 1:31:48 onwards.

    youtube.com/watch?v=j_wu19NA4yo&t=5668s

  26. 26.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    I had to fly to Florida for a sales conference just after Pan Am 103 was bombed. Standing in line in JFK for hours and everybody nervously eyeing everybody else, it was exhausting.

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    We’re the only primate species with whiskers. And I’ve never seen an artist’s impression of a male hominid who had whiskers, either.

  34. 34.

    Ken

    “Hang Your Rhinos By Their Heels” would work as the first line of a song chorus.  But what genre? Eh, doesn’t matter, it’s clearly a novelty song however it’s packaged.

  43. 43.

    Gbear

    Now I have two things to like about Namibia. One of my fave YT channels is a group called Ocean Conservation Namibia that removes ocean garbage entrapments from seals who live on the beaches. Watching the rescue videos is one of my current addictions.

  52. 52.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @germy:  If true, this further emphasizes to me the poor ROI we get from the MIC. ROI as used here means way more than money – it means our treasures of lives, aspirations. good will — everything.

  54. 54.

    Olivia

    @germy: My cat does the imitation human talk too. I once asked a young person from Spain how American English sounds to a Spanish speaker who doesn’t know English. His response was utterances that are very similar to what my cat sounds like when he is pretending to speak human.

  55. 55.

    Catherine D.

    Oh the bodger on the bonce!
    The bodger on the bonce!
    Pity the poor old Rhino with
    The bodger on the bonce!

    Flanders & Swann

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    Absolutely, I have some online friends who do!

    I’ve toyed with doing so: perhaps the expense could be a business deduction now that I’m a full-time Cat Consultant :)

  57. 57.

    germy

    @Olivia:

    Yes, it sounds like when comedians do a fake  accent.

    Sid Caesar in the 1950s would pretend to speak in German or French, but all nonsense.

    My cat figures “I’m in another room, they can’t see me, I’ll have to use their human language.”  It’s a good approximation, too.

  58. 58.

    germy

    @WereBear:

    I have a theory.   I think the book industry imploded some years ago.  Downsizing and consolidation. Lots of talented people fell through the cracks.

    If you’d shown up in the 1960s or early ’70s, you’d be a best selling author, promoted by a major publisher.

    I’ve never seen any other writer display the sensitivity and understanding you have about felines.  It’s extraordinary.  But nowadays you have to be a one-person operation.

  59. 59.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Ken: Reminds me of the old joke:

    Dog: “Humans provide all for me — food, a place to live, toys! — everything! She must be a god!”

    Cat: “Humans provide all for me — food, a place to live, toys! — everything! I must be a god!”

  62. 62.

    Betty

    @WereBear: They may have started verbalizing to communicate with humans who don’t understand body language. “What do I have to do to get something to eat around here?”

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    @germy:

    I have a theory.   I think the book industry imploded some years ago.  Downsizing and consolidation. Lots of talented people fell through the cracks.

    If you’d shown up in the 1960s or early ’70s, you’d be a best selling author, promoted by a major publisher.

    I’ve never seen any other writer display the sensitivity and understanding you have about felines.  It’s extraordinary.  But nowadays you have to be a one-person operation.

     
    Thank you so much! You’ve made me very happy this morning :)

    And yes, I have launched a Cat Business with books, consultations, and soooooon… a Youtube channel! And podcast…

    SO much to do.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Bastet (Egyptian Cat Goddess) is communicating with a modern tabby:

    B: Tell me Grand Daughter, do humans still worship us?

    Tabby: Well, I shit in a box and humans clean it.

    B: Good, good!

  68. 68.

    Raven

    I’m sitting outside of a bakery in Waynesville, Nc. It was in the 50’s last night and it is going to be a great day for an outside wedding! The princess is on major flower duty so I was told to vanish. There is no connectivity at the site so no football for Raven!

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @RandomMonster: ​
     

    Something we allergy sufferers already knew, but glad you confirmed.

    A lot of scientific hypotheses come from more casual observations. But there’s some real benefit to putting these existing beliefs to a rigorous test.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @germy:

    I would love for Trump to go to Brazil! His Secret Service detail would shit themselves trying to cover that mess. It wouldn’t be the same as full presidential coverage.

  81. 81.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    So, it’s “vet recommended, vet approved!” to give RINOs the “Mussolini treatment”?

    Good to know!

  84. 84.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense:

    My rhymes are so potent
    that in this small segment
    I made all of the ladies
    in the area pregnant

    ETA, My friend and I at work like to tell others, “Why? why? Please be more constructive with your feedback.”upl

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @Ken:

    Just program it with “Obey me, human lackeys.” It’s the only thing a cat would ever want to say to the two-legs.

    I  think I saw a video of someone who had trained her cat to use those buttons, and its favorite was the “angry” button.

  87. 87.

    frosty

    @Raven: No connectivity for football? Radio? Are any of your games on?

    We’ve recently cut the cable cord (to quit paying Fox News) and the major hangup is watching the Ravens. Every streaming service that covers the major networks also includes Fox News. So we bought Fubo for a month and I have a couple more weeks to figure out how to route the coax out to the garage where we’re putting up an antenna.

  89. 89.

    Roger Moore

    It’s OT, but there is very good news about AsianGrrlMN. She is off her ventilator, conscious, and able to talk. She doesn’t remember anything from the day she collapsed, but she does remember things from earlier in that week. She will need a lot of rehab, but it sounds as if she is doing as well as could be reasonably hoped.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense:

    September 10, 2021
    Journal Entry by Steven Hong 

    6am picked up the parents from the airport and dropped them off at home. I had to go show some houses, so I told them to take an Uber to the hospital. That was an experience.

    1:00pm minna was extubated around 10:15 this morning and she can talk, although her voice is raspy, as to be expected. She didn’t remember the actual event that precipitated this, but she does remember things from earlier that week. I told her the story of how this whole thing started and how she ended up in the hospital, and how lucky she is to be at the point of where she is right now.

    We had a care conference with a few of the doctors and nurses to discuss what the next steps are. It sounds like she’ll still need to be in the hospital for days / weeks, and then into rehab for weeks / months. This could mean a week in the hospital, and a month in rehab. Or something like that.

    My mother asked the question of the staff, of patients that come in in this condition, how many make it? And they head nurse there said 10%.  We should have bought ten lottery tickets when she was admitted.

    Minna was asking to talk to Ian, so we did manage to get him on zoom. She does remember talking with Julie and ian the day before, so her short-term memory is there even right now. I showed her a video I took of Shadow her cat, and she smiled.

    Things are looking really good, but there’s going to be quite a bit of work ahead of her.

    I won’t be able to visit her in the hospital today, because the hospital has a strict policy of two adult visitors per day. Today that will be my parents.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    John Pavlovitz@johnpavlovitz
    Three weeks from today I’ll be in the ICU recovering from my brain tumor removal—providing I don’t get bumped by people who could easily prevent themselves from being in those beds, but who refuse to.

    The fact that I even have to be concerned about that makes my blood boil.

  105. 105.

    MomSense

    Well with happy news of Minna and a head full of verses – I’m off to buy guitar strings.

    Music video shoot tomorrow in the barn with a crew coming from LA.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    I’m off too — brunch at my friend’s house I’m taking caprese from the garden. But I had no time to make my own mozzarella…

  115. 115.

    kindness

    ‘Humans evolved beards.’  That’s a funny line.  Like the facial hair wasn’t there but popped up in an evolutionary quirk that ended up protecting the face.  I think it’s backwards.  See my notions of evolution would be we previously were covered with hair much like our critter cousins and over multiple evolutionary cycles came out with less and less.

  116. 116.

    Honus

    @Roger Moore:a few years ago I read great contemporary description by one of the early explorers of the James River.  It was 17th or early 18th century before any pollution and he described native Americans lounging on large oyster reefs in the middle of the river, with oyster shells the size of garbage can lids.  Of course he didn’t use that imagery.

  120. 120.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:  That’s incredible, about her short-term memory, etc.

    Time is the great healer.  And while it was bad that Minna had the stroke, her youth is likely what helped to save her.  That and very good medical care.

    We can keep her entertained while in hospital and rehab!  Keep her spirits up.  And ours.

  124. 124.

    Steeplejack

    I heard from my brother this morning that his husband’s COVID test came back positive. I don’t know any details at this point. The BIL is young (36), healthy and vaxed, so hopefully this will be a minor thing.

    And of course as I say that I think of the ESPN guy who said, as his partner reported on somebody going on the disabled list with a “minor groin pull,” “Hey, it’s only minor when it’s someone else.”

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack (phone):   I just worry that TFG would flee from Brazil to somewhere with no extradition treaty with the US.  Wonder if he would even be allowed to leave the country, given the cases against him and his organization being prepared in New York.

    Would love if his boasting about trying to re-elect Bolsonaro would get the prosecutors to go RICO on his ass a tad earlier than planned.

  129. 129.

    oatler

    @Honus: Ever read “The Sotweed Factor”? Should have been the Great American Novel but was probably too creepy and prophetic for 1966.

  131. 131.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    That @ExileGrimm thread is great. I recommend it to everyone. It’s not about 9/11 per se—I am studiously avoiding the treacly media coverage of that—but about our grievously flawed response and, more generally, the tsunami of Bushian malfeasance and right-wing bullshit that followed. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. PTSD, I guess.

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: My neighbor across the street had a freak accident on his bicycle and the news was totally grim.  Not being able to care for himself, with much brain impairment, if he even lived.

    But he came back nearly 100%.  He gets overwhelmed easily being around too many people, and of course he’s frustrated by the remaining 2% that he lost, but he is totally a miracle.

    But that’s the kind of person Martin always was – always doing something, always thinking about the next project, always thinking ahead to the next thing he wanted to learn, and the next after that.

    The day after we got such discouraging news about asiangrrrl, I woke up thinking of Martin and thinking that if anyone else could beat the odds it would be asiangrrl.  And here we are.

  138. 138.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack:  I am avoiding the 9/11 portentousness pretentiousness too. All the grief drama llamas, although it certainly is a day for grief.

    Michelle Goldberg had a great column in the FTF NY Times.  Worth a click, and read the reader responses too.  Worth a BJ thread, actually.  On the misuse of the 9/11 tragedy, and the aftereffects of Bush-Cheney-vengeance seeking Americans’ response.

    The FTF NY Times keeps retitling it.  LOL.  Started out as “What bin Laden won” or something like that.  Then “How 9/11 Damaged America.”  And now, in the hour since I refreshed that page, it’s

    How 9/11 Turned America Into a Half-Crazed, Fading Power

    What will the next headline be?  And why do they keep changing its title?  They’ve even changed its URL to remove the bin Laden.  LOL again.

    They’ve closed the reader comments after 1,000 plus.  Now that they’ve put up that clickbait title, 3rd and counting.

  141. 141.

    Caphilldcne

    @germy: this literally makes me ill. Also, why has Milley not been forced to resign for participating in the Lafayette Square photo op?

  142. 142.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I read a Krugman article the other day about how right wing media is basically funded by the nutritional supplement industry. That industry is poorly regulated and, as a result, there have been ample cases where nutritional supplements have done more harm than good. This is one of those cases where tighter regulation can BOTH to protect the public from problematic products AND defund the right-wing noise machine. Right now, supplements have tiny caveats on their labels that indicate that what they are claiming hasn’t been confirmed by the FDA. That needs to be more explicit AND potential harms of the products need to be put out there in bold. Plus, people hawking these products need to have restrictions placed on what they can say when pimping these products and those restrictions need teeth.

  144. 144.

    Citizen Alan

    I can’t help but hear “Hang Your Rhinos by Their Heels” as sung by Buck Owens to the tun of “Tiger By the Tail.”

  146. 146.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    Thanks for the Michelle Goldberg link. I’ll read that.

    When I was writing earlier I was trying to think of a synonym for hagiography (“biography that idealizes its subject”), but for events, not people. Couldn’t come up with one.

    I was only nine years old on the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1961, but even so I don’t remember anything close to what we go through every year with 9/11. Maybe it’s because we definitively won the war and closed the book. By 1961 the Japanese were our allies and trading partners!

    Olbermann’s comment linked by NotMax above is also good.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Viva BrisVegas: No DC Sniper or Anthrax, either.

    And the 20+M emails were found – kinda sloppy there.

    He’s right that 9/11 wasn’t 70,000 hardened fighters out to kill us all in our beds.  It was half a dozen guys who took some classes at flight school with some muscle to back them up.  The W response was incredibly damaging…

    I’m not watching any of the treacle today.

    Peace to the survivors.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Steeplejack: opinion: It’s a legacy of 20 years of trying to sustain public investment in our middle eastern adventures.

    One of the big lessons learned I see pushed about Vietnam is that we “lost” because we lost the “will of the public”. We in this case being all the people who wanted us to stay and continue fighting for whatever reason we were there.

    I’m guessing that over the next few years this morbid celebration will decline and eventually get rolled into the veterans day and memorial day celebrations. With longer life in places directly impacted such as New York City.

  149. 149.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @WereBear: Tightening regulatory controls could really make a difference. The whole point of regulation is to protect the public from crooks and scammers.

  151. 151.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Steeplejack:

    I’ve wondered why that is, myself; that 9/11 is still remembered the way it is compared to Pearl Harbor.. What I can up with is this:

    1. 9/11 was an attack on American civilians, not servicemen.
    2. 9/11 also occurred in a major American city (NYC). While Pearl Harbor was technically American soil, Hawaii was still just a territory in 1941.
    3. Non-stop, televised coverage of the attacks and the aftermath probably compounded the national trauma.
    4. And as you said, we defeated the Empire of Japan. While we may have killed Bin Laden, it wasn’t the same I guess
  152. 152.

    Kent

    Jumping into this thread late because I just got back from walking the dog and making coffee (Pacific Time Zone here).

    But is the rhino hanging by it’s toes some sort of metaphor for the United States in 2021?  Seems like a good one if it is.

  156. 156.

    Rob

    I love how the rhino research is in the Transportation category rather than in the Ecology or Biology categories.

    I rolled my eyes at the Entomology winner (Entomology Prize: John Mulrennan Jr and colleagues, for their research study “A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines”.) because this research was done some 50 years ago. I thought that the prize winners would be fairly recent.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I still hate the sound of Bush’s voice, but this is interesting.

    Aaron Rupar @atrupar
    George W Bush on 9/11: “We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within … they are children of the same foul spirit and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

    Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC 1h

    Almost weeping, George W. Bush rebukes those Americans who have turned their backs on “the America I know.” Important speech.

    MAGAts are freaking out. Like so many here, I’m trying to avoid the wallowing, but I may look for a write-up of this later, or wait for my dead-tree Sunday papers

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    actually, according to the book, it was a woman who ate the first oyster (as it was gathering rather than hunting) and shehad to also figure out the tides in order to do so safely.

    Backwards, and in high heels.

  161. 161.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: he failed the country in the summer of 2001, and again from 2016-2021. I think he’s irredeemable.

    But like I said, interesting.

  162. 162.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I blamed gay people and abortionists.  No, wait, that was Falwell.

    I don’t remember ever seeing you in the same room/place as Falwell, ya know.

    Just sayin’

  167. 167.

    Kelly

    @Kent: I read it as hanging RINOs by their heels and thought it would be about the end stages of the Trumpist take over of the Republican party.

    (also Pacific Time Zone)

  172. 172.

    Anotherlurker

    @Steeplejack: Hi!  On last night’s dead thread about Proud Boys leader, Enrique Da Jerk, I talked about my adopted Golden, Addie.

    You speculated about the cost of traveling a rescue dog from China to L.A.  .  It is more expensive than a Stateside rescue by 2X.   My donation to adopt Addie was $850.00.  This price included the travel crate.

    The correct website is http://bunnysbuddies.org

    This morning,Addie is doing well, after her surgery.  She is sore and logy but starting to eat and drink.

  173. 173.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @WereBear: 
    The more humans recognize how much we have in common with other species, the more I like it :)

    I’ve mentioned it before, but one of my favorite non-fiction book that I’ve read in the last few years was Frans de Waal, Are we Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

    He covers many species, but one of my favorite things is his discussion of primate politics and political campaigns.

  174. 174.

    germy

    Our founders designed a system that treated citizens as more than just children. Our grand experiment is designed for a free people. Yes, that entails risk. Yes, I’ll take risk and freedom over a paternalistic government any day.

    — Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 9, 2021

    In Texas, you have to swear to the state you support the occupation of the West Bank before you can sell your local school district office supplies t.co/c6rsIz2kYq

    — Christopher Hooks (@cd_hooks) September 10, 2021

  175. 175.

    CaseyL

    @eclare: Much better, thank you for asking!

    We’ve had a lot of work being done around here (roofs, tree removal) and it’s possible the noise and everything upset his system.  This is HIS TERRITORY and he doesn’t like uproar.

    He’s almost his usual self.  I was so scared for him yesterday, and so relieved today.

  176. 176.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Update on the Sighthound Hall mob:

    COVID-positive brother-in law has been quarantined in a big guest bedroom with en suite bathroom locked in the old tower with the madwoman and the subhuman half-brother (joke for Immanentize). Bro’ Man is going to take an at-home test today, but he and the two kids are scheduled for drive-through tests at Kaiser tomorrow morning. ?

  178. 178.

    frosty

    @Honus: ​
     We don’t have a problem streaming over wifi, although I just plugged in an ethernet cable. The problem is that Sling also carries FoxNews. Or at least one of the “colors” of Sling does.

  179. 179.

    germy

    i do love that so many columnists who after 9/11 were like "maybe we should carpet bomb a bunch of Muslim countries" still have jobs where they're considered experts on these countries. meanwhile, you sign a letter asking for fairer coverage of palestine and you're reprimanded

    — Sarah Hagi (@KindaHagi) September 10, 2021

  180. 180.

    scav

    @Steeplejack: No demented & forgetful nanny for the ruinous half of the hall?  How will the baby be left to the sole care of the drooling hounds near an untended blazing fire!

  181. 181.

    Steeplejack

    @Anotherlurker:

    Thanks! I saw your response in that thread. I usually circle back until a conversation looks really dead, especially if it’s sort of an “overnight” thing.

    One of my minor pet peeves is when someone asks the jackaltariat for advice and then seems to disappear after a very short time. Do they miss good advice posted later or do they just not acknowledge it? Closure is good!

  183. 183.

    zhena gogolia

    @CaseyL:

    I’m glad to hear it. Cats’ anxiety is so easily manifested in physical symptoms. Once when my former husband was in the hospital for an extended period, one of our cats started peeing on all my books.

  186. 186.

    Anotherlurker

    @Steeplejack: Soon after my post I nodded out. I woke up about 4 am (Paciffic)  and shut down the computer and turned out the light. It was a long day for me and Addie.  I’m glad I could answer your question about the transport costs in this thread.

  187. 187.

    CaseyL

    @WereBear:  A weekend’s respite before it all starts up again…though they may be done with the tree removal, which was worse than the roofing.

    @zhena gogolia:

    Good point! I was going through such a long list of things that might be wrong.  He kept moving from hidey-hole to hidey-hole in the house, and at one point I found him laying very still with his eyes open, not responding to my voice, and thought he was dead.  Terrible moment, afraid to touch him to see if he was alive or not. You can imagine my sheer happiness to see him so much better today.

  189. 189.

    Steeplejack

    @scav:

    Inorite. I have a lot of problems with the quality of estate management over there, but I’ve learned to keep my nose out of it. Hasn’t been the same since the former housekeeper, Mrs. Flinders, was found drowned in the marsh.

  191. 191.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    BTW – am in Crete on a lovely leisure trip that was beyond cheap. Free flight, low cost stay, low cost food. The locals are really responsible on vacation policy and masking, particularly in the north, in Chania. Did a vow renewal at a historic Orthodox parish in Chania, and are spending some second honeymoon time at a naturist resort (don’t judge us – it is really tame with an average age of about 60 and no woo-woo, as they’re all English or German) in another part of the island.

    I really needed this trip. We both did.

  194. 194.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @frosty:

    Failed from 2016 – 2020 except for one moment: “That was some weird shit.”

    He also didn’t invite TFG to his mom’s funeral. Melania went, though, and had a ball.

  197. 197.

    JPL

    Grand Imp was here over night, and didn’t leave until noon.   I’m just now watching some of the rememberances from the anniversary of 9/11.     I applaud Bush for his speech and pointint out that the home grown terrorists and children from the foul evil.

  205. 205.

    geg6

    About to get up off my ass and get ready for my niece’s long delayed wedding. Absolutely stunning day for it. So happy for her and her husband-to-be.
    9/11 is always a weird day for me. My parents were married that day and we have always celebrated that day, even after they passed, because they had a true love story for over 50 years. Then 2001 happened and we didn’t know how to celebrate properly. My niece and Zach are bringing us back to the joy we always approached this date in the before times.

  207. 207.

    Mike in NC

    We see a lot posted here about imbecile anti-mask, anti-vax Republican governors like Abbott and DeSantis, but will nobody weigh in on the gun-loving clown down in South Carolina who just might be worse than both of them combined? McMaster even has a weird frizzy hairdo that Albert Einstein might have envied.

  210. 210.

    ShadeTail

    Fellow Californians: Has anyone not voted yet? I just dropped off my ballot this morning. I voted No on recall, and Jackie McGowan to replace if Yes wins.

    I understand why the CA Dems are saying leave the second question blank; they don’t want to give the false impression that they’re campaigning against Newsom in the election. But I think actually doing that would cede the replacement choice to the Nazis who have taken over the GOP, and we can’t afford to give them a hat trick. And of the 7 Dems who are running in the Replace race, McGowan seems the best to me. The fact that she focuses on her marijuana legalization efforts as a metaphor of her qualifications is a, shall we say, interesting choice, but hey, she’s probably locked up the stoner and libertarian cast-off demographics.

    As for the rest, John Drake at least has some great positions on his platform, enough so that he was a close second for me, but he seems far too naive about how he could actually transform his ideas into action. Holly Baade comes across as an outright crystal-healing-style wackjob who is trying to make herself look like an old-school hippie stereotype; no solid platform or plans, just lots of artsy-fartsy language. And the other 4 Dems in the race are just different shades of Republican trying to pretend there’s really a D in front of their names. That goes double for Kevin Paffrath, the media-annointed front-runner of the 7. Variations on “vaccination is a personal choice” idiocy are particularly popular among the 4 of them.

    Vote soon, if you haven’t yet. And vote smart.

  211. 211.

    sdhays

    @SiubhanDuinne: I wasn’t sure how to grade him during 2016-2019 because the fact is his miserable failure of a Presidency was a big contributor to the current state of the nation and his party. He’s not popular even among Republicans. He was an albatross around his brother’s neck in 2016.

    But in 2020, he should have endorsed Biden and said Republicans don’t deserve to win with a man like Trump leading the ticket. But loyalty to party still came first.

  215. 215.

    James E Powell

    @ShadeTail:

    Sent my ballot in a while ago.

    I’ve been texting & getting almost 100% positive response. Not like 2020 when I was texting Ohio for Biden & one out of three were “FU! I’m voting for Trump!”

    I am still disappointed that I’m seeing Sanders, Warren, and Obama for Newsom ads, but no Newsom for Newsom ads.

  218. 218.

    Mo MacArbie

    I guess I missed the large mammal rap battle. Still torn between LF Ant and Will Da Beast anyway.

  220. 220.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: Shit.  I’m sorry.  Hoping for the mildest possible case for brother and BIL.  Hoping the kids don’t get it, too.

    I have a friend who got a breakthrough case which knocked her on her ass for 2 weeks, but not hospitalized, at least.  Fingers crossed.

  221. 221.

    Comrade Colette

    @James E Powell: @ShadeTail: 

    Thanks for the nudge – I need to get mine in. I’ve been waiting because Colette jeune – whose first election this is, poor kid – wants to talk it over and I want to have my ballot on hand for reference while we’re discussing it.

    No on Question 1, of course. For Q2, I’m going for the harm-reduction strategy, and I think I’m going to hold my nose (and possibly cover my entire body with a hazmat suit) and vote for Faulconer. He’s an unredeemed asshole but at least he’s not Larry Elder.

  226. 226.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Niece (7 next month) and marginally competent (vaxed) “manny” (early 20s) both tested negative today (at-home tests). Waiting for a friend to bring another test for the 5-year-old nephew.

  227. 227.

    James E Powell

    @Comrade Colette:

    I am very much anti-Faulconer. He’s the only R on the list who, if he wins, could get re-elected

    And while we are on the subject. I don’t watch local news, but right after the NFL game on Thursday night the Los Angeles affiliate ran a short local news segment that included a story on the recall. It was basically a two minute, pro-recall commercial. Apparently all the firefighters in California are defying their union and supporting the recall.

  229. 229.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    Pearl Harbor was far away out in the ocean, the towers were in the city. That whole day was televised live as it was happening, Pearl Harbor revealed itself through newspapers and radios, often hours or days later. Wouldn’t this explain at least part of the difference?

  230. 230.

    Geminid

    @debbie: Also, the U.S. was immediately launched into a world war and a nation-wide mobilzation. There was too much going on and Americans were too busy to observe commemorations.

  231. 231.

    Warren Senders

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 
    My father timed his speech so he finished just as “Miss Sweetie Poo” was starting her walk across the stage.

    A benefit of being an Ig-adjacent person: my daughter was “Miss Sweetie Poo” two years in a row. She still remembers her line.

    PLEASE STOP. I’M BORED. PLEASE STOP. I’M BORED.

  234. 234.

    PST

    @Elizabelle: Yes, Goldberg’s column is remarkable. I love this phrase, although it is peripheral to the argument:

    Faith in human freedom has curdled into the petulant solipsism of the anti-vaxxers.

  236. 236.

    fancycwabs

    Medicine Prize: Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.

    Huh.

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