Why Evolution Is True

Welcome to Sunday, September 6, 2026, the second day of a three-day weekend, for tomorrow is Labor Day in America. It’s also National Read a Book Day (note, they don’t say “Listen to a book”). I’m on a Maggie O’Farrell kick, and after reading and enjoying Hamnet and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, I’m now … Continue reading Sunday: Hili dialogue

We’re back with another Caturday post with three—count them, three—items of substance, and two of lagniappe. The first one is from The Independent; the “love hormone: turns out to be oxytocin, which has this complex structure (it’s a neuropeptide, with the amino acid residues labeled): Click the headline to read how the “love hormone” soothes us … Continue reading Caturday felid trifecta: The lov…

Yesterday, after second lunch for the ducks, I was chatting with a grad student in medical research when I was—as I often am—besieged by squirrels begging for nuts.  After several months of getting them habituated to me and to the way I look and smell, I have made them fairly friendly (I want to avoid … Continue reading I kissed a squirrel and I liked it

Welcome to CaturSaturday, September 5, 2026. It’s shabbos for Jewish cats and National Hummingbird Day. Here are five facts you didn’t know about hummingbirds, but even if you knew some of them, there is some nicc video here: It’s also International Bacon Day, International Vulture Awareness Day, National Cheese Pizza Day, and World Samosa Day. Readers … Continue reading Saturday: Hili dialogue

Very few people are sending in wildlife photos, so if you have some good ones, shoot them my way, please.  Fortunately, ecologist Susan Harrison has come through with another batch from Oregon. Susan’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them. Mt. McLoughlin, Oregon   In southern Oregon at the … Continue reading Readers’ wildlife photos

Welcome to Friday, September 4, 2026, and National Wildlife Day. Today you should not just photograph the animals with your iPhone camera and move on, but stop to look at the animals. (This is one of my pet peeves about visitors to Botany Pond.) Here are three species of cats I photographed in game reserves … Continue reading Friday: Hili dialogue

I thought I was through writing about Jason Arday, but I didn’t anticipate that he would become some kind of hero, or at least that many people would emphasize how he was hounded to death—always pushing the “racism” angle and blaming Cambridge and the press but neglecting the fabulism and preferential hiring that got Arday … Continue reading Nature extols Jason Arday

Today’s arthropod photos come from a visit to Poland from reader Jan Malik.  Jan’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them (once or twice): During my visit to Poland in June this year, I spent a few hours with a macro lens, looking for arthropods in three … Continue reading Readers’ wildlife photos

Welcome to Thursday, September 3, 2026, and it’s Welsh Rarebit Day, celebrating the British concoction of toasted bread covered with melted cheese. It’s supposed to give you weird dreams, which is the subject of Winsor McCay’s fantastic comic strip of the early 20th century, “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.” The theme: someone would eat a … Continue reading Thursday: Hili dialogue

I guess I’m at the time of life when all my heroes are dying off, because of course they were older than I and I’m no spring chicken. The latest to leave the planet is Gloria Steinem, who died yesterday at 92. Activist, feminist, one of the big figures of “second wave feminism” that promoted … Continue reading Gloria Steinem died

Bruce Lyon has returned with Part 2 of his adventures with Arctic foxes, including photos and several videos.  Bruce’s captions and narrative are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them. Here is a second batch of photos and videos of arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) on St Paul island. First batch here. A parent resting … Continue reading Readers’ wildlife photos

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Dina Punuk” in Javanese), Wednesday, September 2, 2026, and National V-J Day, celebrating the surrender of Japan in WWII, ending the war for good. When I was in Hawaii in 2018, I visited the ship U.S.S. Missouri where the surrender document was signed. Here’s a photo of the spot where … Continue reading Wednesday: Hili dialogue

It’s time for another report on the ducks of Botany Pond. (No turtle report today, but we now have six after two new ones were put into the Pond.) The Brood of Four, having hatched on July 18 and entered the Pond the next day, are thriving, as you can see below. They have turned … Continue reading New Botany Pond videos and photos, featuring Miss Duck and her Brood of Four

Welcome to Tuesday, the Cruelest Day and also September first. Yep, we’re into another month, starting with National Acne Positivity Day. Given the demographics of our readers, I doubt that acne is a pervasive problem, but if you have it, embrace the face you have. Here’s the depiction of September from the 15th-century manuscript Les … Continue reading Tuesday: Hili dialogue

Well, I suspect that the magazine Scientific American, now 121 years old, has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. Apparently it’s been going downhill for some time, losing revenue and subscribers, and went even farther downhill content-wise under the previous editor Laura Helmuth, who decided to use the magazine as … Continue reading Scientific American on the skids, sold by Sprin…

Welcome to the tail end o’ the month: it’s August 31, 2026 and We Love Memoirs Day. Well, I love biographies more, as they’re not distorted by the self-image issue of a memoir, and yesterday I posted a short list of my favorite biographies, inviting readers to name their choices. It’s also Eat Outside Day, … Continue reading Monday: Hili dialogue

I noticed, while preparing tomorrow’s Hili Dialogue, that tomorrow is We Love Memoirs Day. Well, I’m not a fan of memoirs so much as of biographies, for memoirs can easily be distorted because the writer is the subject.  That’s not so true of biographies, and it got me thinking about the biographies I’ve loved the … Continue reading My favorite biographies

Although the respected New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has the right to publish what it wants, and African-American gynecological oncologist Kemi Doll has the right to write about what she thinks, their intersection in a new NEJM “voices” piece is hyperbolic and misguided to the point of toxicity. Doll’s article simply poisons the debate … Continue reading A hyperbolic and misguided articl…

Welcome to Sunday, August 30, 2026: Sabbath for goyische cats and the sixth weekiversary since Miss Duck and her brood came to Botany Pond. Here are the babies on July 20, the second day after they came to the pond (they presumably hatched one day before Pond Entry Day). There are few animals more adorable … Continue reading Sunday: Hili dialogue