White with white

 

In the little town of Rockne in Bastrop County on March 10th
I portrayed a white bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) with dramatic clouds.

 

§

 

Update: I recently received an e-mail from an undergraduate student in Manitoba by the name of Mabel Currie, who was inspired by an iridescent green sweat bee in a 2022 post of mine to make a painting from it. Have a look back at that post, in which you can now click to see Mabel’s painting.

 

 

§

§       §       §

§

 

 

From time to time I’ve become aware of and pointed out problems that could be easily fixed but that never get fixed. Think of the times you’ve looked at an account number or membership number and couldn’t tell whether a certain character was supposed to be a zero or a capital letter O. Companies could easily generate as many account numbers and membership numbers as they want that never use a zero or a capital O—after all, 25 other letters and 9 other digits are available—but they don’t, and so the confusion persists.

 

  © 2024 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

First wildflower for 2024

 

Austin’s first native wildflower to appear each year is typically the ten-petal anemone (Anemone berlandieri). That thought came to me a few days ago, so I went to check a spot where I’ve counted on finding the species. Sure enough, I spotted at least a dozen already flowering. Because the wind was blowing too much for me to photograph any of them then, I returned on February 6th and took a bunch of pictures, including this close portrait of an anemone flower’s center. The most common color for these flowers in my area is white, with pink and violet occurring less often; once in a while there’s even purple.

 

 

✫

✫      ✫      ✫

✫

 

 

Do you know about Google Image Search? If you go to that site you can drag in a photograph and Google will attempt to track down its origin. Yesterday I tried it with some photographs I picked from different years of my blog and Google found almost every one of them. Even when it couldn’t find my exact photograph it offered up similar ones, so a person wanting to know what the picture showed might still get an answer.

 

© 2024 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

More views of rain lilies

 

Here are two more views of rain lilies (Zephyranthes chlorosolen) from September 17th.
The pointy reddened structure in the second picture is a bud sheath that
the growing flower had pushed its way out of as it rapidly rose.

 

 

 

§

§       §       §

§

  

 

According to the National Library of Medicine, “congenital limb malformations occur in 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 human live births and include both gross reduction defects and more subtle alterations in the number, length and anatomy of the digits. The major causes of limb malformations are abnormal genetic programming and intra-uterine disruption to development.”

Extreme cases, like the babies that the drug thalidomide caused to be born severely deformed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, are a great misfortune. Still, when biologists and anatomists and doctors describe the human species, they don’t claim that there are inherently different kinds of people categorized according to limbs: people with two arms and two legs, people with two arms but no legs, people with two legs but no arms, people with one arm and two legs, people with one leg and two arms, etc. That would be foolish, and it would also be unscientific. Members of the human species inherently have two arms and two legs, but on rare occasions something interferes with the normal development of a baby in the womb and leads to a malformation.

I’ve been thinking along those lines for several years and was reminded of it in the September 25th Quillette article by Zachary A. Elliott titled “Male or Female: There’s Nothing In Between.” The author affirms the biological reality that two and only two human sexes exist, male and female; biological sex does not fall along a spectrum. Biologically speaking, a species has to propagate itself, and sex is the mechanism. What distinguishes the two sexes in humans (and other mammals) is the kind of reproductive cells each sex produces. As the article explains:

 

It may be surprising, but the two sexes follow a universal biological definition that applies to all species with male and female systems: the male sex is the phenotype (or structure) that produces the smaller gametes (i.e., sperm), while the female sex is the phenotype (or structure) that produces the larger gametes (eggs). The sperm are numerous and fast, contributing half the genetic material of the parent, but no resources for the survival of the fertilized egg (zygote). The eggs are relatively few, and very slow, contributing half the genetic material of the parent and all the resources for the zygote’s survival. Combine these two different gamete types together and a genetically unique individual is formed.

 

Yes, rare errors in a developing fetus lead to “intersex” or “hermaphrodite” individuals:

 

For example, proponents of the sex spectrum will often point to chromosomal conditions such as XO, XXX, XXY, and XXXY as additional sexes. But when we return to the biological definition of sex, all such conditions collapse into two simple outcomes: males and females.

Those with XO and XXX chromosomes develop the phenotype that produces large gametes (i.e., eggs), and those with XXY and XXXY develop the phenotype that produces small gametes (i.e., sperm). This is due to the genes within the chromosomes, which control the development path. Genes such as SRY, the sex-determining region on the Y chromosome, develop fetuses into males, whereas genes such as WNT4 and RSPO1 develop fetuses into females. Atypical chromosome combinations are not examples of additional sexes, nor are they exceptions to male and female categories; they are developmental disorders within the two categories.

 

Zachary A. Elliott’s piece goes on to refute—calmly and in easy-to-understand terms—various things that activists have been claiming. I don’t know if the article is behind a paywall, as some Quillette articles are. Whether you can or can’t access it, you may well want to see the full exposition of the subject in Binary: Debunking the Sex Spectrum Myth, which is the author’s new book.

 

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

 

Strangety*

 

When I went out on September 17th to look at some of the rain lilies (Zephyranthes chlorosolen) that the recent rain had brought up, the first one I photograph was strangely constrained by a dried-out oak leaf. Whether the leaf fell on the rain lily in such a way that a hole in the leaf ended up surrounding the flower, or whether the leaf was already there and the rain lily came up through a hole in it, I have no way of knowing. Two possibilities seem to deserve two photographs, so here you have views of the unusual result from opposite sides.

 

 

* The English noun that corresponds to strange is strangeness, in which the first part comes from the Old French adjective estrange and the -ness is a native English noun-forming suffix. We have many abstract nouns in which both the adjective and the noun-forming suffix come from French, for example variety, sobriety, anxiety, piety, propriety, subtlety, safety, entirety, notoriety, nicety. It occurred to me that strangety—which doesn’t appear in the Oxford English Dictionary and as far as I can tell has never been used in English—would exemplify what the word means, namely ‘something strange.’

 

 

§

§      §      §

§

  

 

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” as Mark Twain did not say, even though many people mistakenly keep claiming he did. Mark Twain remains among the most magnetic of all writers, by which I mean that he attracts lots of fake attributions from people who want to give a thought more credibility than it would initially have if it came from someone little known to the public.

The Quote Investigator has tracked that thought, in different wording, to a 1965 essay by psychoanalyst Theodor Reik titled “The Unreachables”:

“There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with small variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.”

I bring that up now in connection with an excellent interview of historian Niall Ferguson by Chris Williamson as part of the latter’s Modern Wisdom podcast series. At the beginning of the interview, Niall Ferguson points out that Mark Twain wasn’t the author of the comment about history not repeating itself but rhyming. Instead, says Ferguson, Mark Twain had a more complex insight that used the analogy of a kaleidoscope:

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

I recommend the hour-long interview, which offers many other insights. If you’re not familiar with Niall Ferguson (who happens to be married to Ayaan Hirsi Ali), this is a good introduction.

 

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

 

For the first time in four years

 

In Great Hills Park on July 16th I made this portrait of Hedeoma acinoides, called annual pennyroyal. As far as I’m concerned, it could just as well be called annual lemonyroyal because the plant’s foliage has a pronounced citrusy scent. It’s been four years since I showed this diminutive species, each of whose flowers is only about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long (6–10mm).

 

  

§

§        §        §

§

 

 

Dr. John F. Clauser, born 1942, is an American theoretical and experimental physicist known for contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics. Clauser was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger, “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”

Dr. Clauser spoke in July at the event Quantum Korea 2023. What follows is a transcript of his remarks that prompted the International Monetary Fund to cancel his appearance this week, and began a predictable trajectory of broader cancellation.

 

So begins a July 25th Brownstone Institute article that gives the text of Dr. Clauser’s speech, “The Crisis of Pseudoscience.” Here are a few early paragraphs:

 

A long time ago, actually my whole life, I have been an experimental physicist. Have had the distinct privilege of literally being able to talk to God even though I’m an atheist. In a physics laboratory, I am able to ask carefully posed mathematically-based questions and correspondingly observe universal truth. 

To do so I make careful measurements of natural phenomena. In the physics laboratory, I once settled the debate between Einstein and Schrodinger on one hand, Niels Bohr and John von Neumann on the other. In a laboratory, I asked a simple question: which one of these two groups was right? And which one was wrong? 

I didn’t know ahead of time what answer I would get. I just knew I could get an answer. Nonetheless, I found real truth. For the answer. I assert that real truth can only be found by observing natural phenomena. By carefully observing natural phenomena. 

Good science is always based on good experiments. Good observations always overrule purely speculative theory. Sloppy experiments, on the other hand, are frequently counterproductive and provide scientific disinformation. That is why good scientists repeat each other’s experiments carefully. 

For inspiration to young scientists, I would suggest that today is an opportune moment for careful observations of nature. Why? The current world I observe is literally awash, saturated, with pseudoscience, with bad science, with scientific misinformation and disinformation, and what I will call ”techno-cons.” Techno-cons are the application of scientific disinformation for opportunistic purposes. 

 

And if you haven’t guessed by now why Dr. Clauser has gotten canceled, I’ll tell you: it’s because he’s been speaking out against climate catastrophism and the distortions being promulgated as a part of it. You’re welcome to read the rest of his speech. You may also be able to read a July 26th Epoch Times article about this latest cancelation.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

Exuviae and induviae

 

In Great Hills Park on July 16th I took a picture that exemplifies this post’s title. You’re looking at the cast-off exoskeleton (exuviae) of a cicada on a cowpen daisy (Verbesina encelioides); botanists call the flower head’s still-attached drying parts induviae. In case you’re wondering (which I doubt), no other English word has the same last three syllables as exuviae and induviae, which therefore rhyme only with each other.

 

 

 

 

§

§        §        §

§

 

 

“Harvard professor who studies honesty accused of falsifying data in studies”

 

That was the ironic headline of a June 25th article in The Guardian. You can read the full article for details.

 

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

Talayote flower and buds

 

In Great Hills Park on July 16th I found a talayote vine (Cynanchum racemosum var. unifarium) that was happily budding and flowering despite the heat and drought. The flowers are only about a quarter of an inch (6mm) across, and their fiveness is a hallmark of their milkweedness.

 

 

§

§        §        §

§

 

 

In March I ordered Alan Levinovitz’s 2020 book Natural: How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science. Only last week did I start reading the book, and one surprising—some would say shocking—thing I learned early-on is that of all “developed” countries, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate. In other words, more women die from childbirth here than in other developed countries. I went online to check the statistics, which a page at statista.com confirmed. The maternal mortality rate for the United States in 2020 was 23.8 per 100,000 live births. By comparison, developed but not-as-affluent countries did better. For example, the maternal mortality rate was 7.2 in Greece, 2.9 in Italy and Spain, and 1.8 in the Slovak Republic. You can see a chart and read more about this at Maternal mortality rates worldwide in 2020, by country.

A paragraph at the bottom of the chart noted, not surprisingly, that “rates of maternal mortality are much higher among women aged 40 years and older.” The following paragraph also pointed out discrepancies by race/ethnicity: “In 2021, the rate of maternal mortality among non-Hispanic white women was about 27 per 100,000 live births, while non-Hispanic black women died from maternal causes at a rate of 70 per 100,000 live births. Rates of maternal mortality have risen for white and Hispanic women in recent years, but black women have by far seen the largest increase in maternal mortality.”

Speaking of discrepancies, I didn’t understand how the overall American maternal mortality rate could be 23.8 when every component is a higher number than that. Then I noticed that the rates of the American components were from 2021, the year after the rates for countries. Turns out the rates rose a lot over that one year, presumably because of the pandemic. I also learned, however, that the rates had been going up significantly each year since 2018, even before the pandemic.

In any case, the fact that American maternal mortality rates differ among ethnic groups got me wondering if differing rates of obesity might be a factor, so I looked up those figures. At the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) I confirmed that obesity does vary among groups: “Non-Hispanic Black adults (49.9%) had the highest age-adjusted prevalence of obesity, followed by Hispanic adults (45.6%), non-Hispanic White adults (41.4%) and non-Hispanic Asian adults (16.1%).” Notice that obesity among Asians occurs only a little over one-third of the rate for all the other groups taken together. Now that’s a striking—and healthy—difference.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

Leafcutter bee on pavonia mallow flower

 

In Great Hills Park on July 16th I found this stately bee on a pavonia mallow flower (Pavonia lasiopetala). The folks at bugguide.net tell me the visitor was a female in the genus Megachile, whose members are known as leafcutter bees. You may recall a picture of their incisive “handiwork” from a post several weeks ago. And coming back to the pavonia mallow, notice the bud beginning to open at the left.

 

 

§

§        §        §

§

 

 

Imagine the uproar if an American school district announced that from now on no students will be allowed to play basketball before high school because it makes many white and Asian kids feel inferior when they see how well some of the black kids in middle school play basketball.

Of course no school district is actually proposing such a thing. What several American school districts aren’t just proposing but actually doing, however, is banning algebra before high school. The motivation is the same as in the hypothetical basketball scenario, only the groups being protected from feeling bad are blacks and Hispanics, and the group excelling is Asians. It’s yet another horrid example of “equity.” Unless everybody performs well, nobody will be allowed to perform well. It’s as much a manifestation of cancel culture as the censoring and banning of people whose ideas ideologues don’t like.

For more details about the recent banning of algebra in American middle schools you’d do well to read Noah Smith’s July 18th article “Refusing to teach kids math will not improve equity.” Here are several paragraphs from it:

 

It is difficult to find words to describe how bad this idea is without descending into abject rudeness. The idea that offering children fewer educational resources through the public school system will help the poor kids catch up with rich ones, or help the Black kids catch up with the White and Asian ones, is unsupported by any available evidence of which I am aware. More fundamentally, though, it runs counter to the whole reason that public schools exist in the first place.

The idea behind universal public education is that all children — or almost all, making allowance for those with severe learning disabilities — are fundamentally educable. It is the idea that there is some set of subjects — reading, writing, basic mathematics, etc. — that essentially all children can learn, if sufficient resources are invested in teaching them…

Now imagine what will happen if we ban kids from learning algebra in public junior high schools. The kids who have the most family resources — the rich kids, the kids with educated parents, etc. — will be able to use those resources to compensate for the retreat of the state. Either their parents will teach them algebra at home, or hire tutors, or even withdraw them to private schools. Meanwhile, the kids without family resources will be out of luck; since the state was the only actor who could have taught them algebra in junior high, there’s now simply no one to teach them. The rich kids will learn algebra and the poor kids will not.

 

You can read the full article, which includes a great rejoinder to the widely circulated cartoon of kids at an opaque fence standing on differing numbers of wooden crates, which is supposed to illustrate how “equity” works.

Noah Smith’s article also gives a link to another good one, Armand Domalewski’s “California needs real math education, not gimmicks.”

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

Major and minor pinks

 

What do dew drops do, do you duly think, but enhance a subject? So it was for this pink evening primrose flower (Oenothera speciosa) in the Merrilltown Cemetery on the morning of May 30th. Also from the cemetery came this dewless portrait of pepperweed (Lepidium sp.) gone to seed:

 

 

 

§

§        §

§

 

 

May 31, 2023. Earlier this week, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) one of the strongest anti- diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) bills in the nation. The bill was authored and sponsored by Senator Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) in the Senate and sponsored by Representative John Kuempel (R-Seguin) in the House. SB 17 has the support of the National Association of Scholars, along with many other organizations fighting for equality in America’s colleges and universities.

“Through one bill, the Texas legislature has offered the state’s citizens a freer future,” said NAS [National Association of Scholars] President Peter W. Wood. “SB 17 will fundamentally change the way Texas’s colleges and universities operate, by eliminating DEI offices and ensuring that no student, professor, or staff is admitted or hired based on the political litmus tests called ‘diversity statements.’”

SB 17 offers broad reforms for higher education in Texas. The bill shuts down DEI offices, ends mandatory training for students and staff in DEI, and prohibits diversity statements in hiring. Moreover, SB 17 does all of this while protecting the academic freedom of students and professors, ensuring that they may continue to publish and speak about DEI without fear of retribution.

Wood continued: “While many states have proposed anti-DEI legislation, few have managed to walk the fine line between the need to end public funding of divisive programs and the need to provide First Amendment protections. The bill’s sponsors were able to walk that line by providing a robust definition of DEI so that discriminatory actions of DEI offices cannot continue under another name.”

 

I’ve long pointed out that “diversity” is newspeak for ‘uniformity of opinion’; that “equity” means ‘the forced sameness of outcomes among groups regardless of effort or merit’; that “inclusion” is ‘the exclusion and often harassment of anyone who disagrees with radical leftist ideology.’ Taking steps to reduce those forms of oppression is a good move, even though I know that the ideologues who control universities will work to find—and probably will find—ways to circumvent the law. You’re welcome to read the full article.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

A tiny walking stick on a pink evening primrose flower

 

From April 17th on a pink evening primrose flower (Oenothera speciosa) in my part of Austin
comes this tiny walking stick whose body was only about half an inch long (13mm).

 

  

§

§        §        §

§

 

 

The other day I came across a reference to Austin in a 1955 letter that Marilyn Monroe possessed when she died in 1962. In the letter author John Steinbeck asked Marilyn for an autographed photo of her that he could give to his wife’s nephew, Jon Atkinson, a teenager living in Austin who idolized her. You’re welcome to read the letter.

In 2021, Michael Alberty investigated the matter and wrote the article “Unraveling the mystery of John Steinbeck’s letter to Marilyn Monroe.” There’s no doubt Marilyn Monroe had the letter, but was it really from Steinbeck? Steinbeck almost always hand-wrote his letters in pencil, yet this letter was typed, and the signature at the end didn’t look like Steinbeck’s. On the other hand, the initials of the typist, mf, appeared at the bottom of the letter, so maybe the typist signed for Steinbeck.

Michael Alberty did what apparently no one else had done: he tracked down Steinbeck’s nephew, Jon Atkinson. You can read Alberty’s article and learn what he found out.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman