Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): Science post: same-sex attraction in the animal kingdom, blue legged tarantulas, chestnuts

Monday, October 09, 2023

Science post: same-sex attraction in the animal kingdom, blue legged tarantulas, chestnuts

Yesterday, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Sitting Behind Daddy Donald" went up.

Kat's "Kat's Korner: Put away 'the hammers and the boards and the nails'" went up Sunday as well. It's Kat's review of JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES -- VOL. 3: THE ASYLUM YEARS (1972 - 1975) which is my favorite of the three archive releases so far.

Doing a science post tonight. Let's start with Amy Glover of the UK's HUFFINGTON POST:

We’ve recently written about how many members of Gen Z are LGBT+ (spoiler alert; it’s a lot). And a recent study recently showed that same-sex attraction is far from limited to humans; lots (like, up to 80% in some cases) of animals are sexually fluid, too.

The project examined all the existing research on same-sex activity among animals. It was led by scientists at Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas in Spain ― they created a database of all the studies’ conclusions.

They discovered that same-sex sexual activity has been recorded in 1,500 animal species, from birds to bees (literally).

Mammals were much more likely to be recorded as engaging with gay sex than other species (about 4%), with non-human primates particularly likely to display homosexual behaviour ― “it has been observed in at least 51 species from lemurs to apes,” they say.

That’s likely an underrepresentation of actual homosexual activities, the researchers add.

“This figure is probably underestimating the actual prevalence of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals, since this behaviour has attracted the attention of behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists only recently,” they say ― and there’s already a research bias towards mammals over other animals, which could explain some of the discrepancies.

In fact, longer-term studies find that homosexual activity occurred in 80% of the mammal population ― the more you observe the animals, it seems, the more sexually fluid they prove themselves to be.

There's no theme to this post, by the way, just some science stories I found interesting. Like blue-legged tarantulas:

Researchers have discovered a new species of tarantula lurking in mangrove swamps – and they have vibrant blue legs.

The arachnid was discovered inhabiting hollow trees, in Phang-Nga, Thailand. They like to live in humid and wet conditions.

Caused by its unique hair nanostructure, the spider omits an electric blue colour.

“The difficulty of catching an electric-blue tarantula lies in the need to climb a tree and lure it out of a complex of hollows,” said researcher Dr Narin Chomphuphuang.

“During our expedition, we walked in the evening and at night during low tide, managing to collect only two of them.”

I'm sure that they didn't catch them with their hands but even so I'd be a little scared catching them (and scared of hurting them by accident). Okay, remember in the late '00s when bed bugs popped back into our fears? When I was a child,you used a chemical -- now banned -- and got rid of them that way. I remember when it was used in my cousin's bedroom. The floor was gleaming, the wooden bedframe was as well. My mother told me not to touch anything but, when she left the room, I did go over to the mattress and smash things that were black (probably dead bed bugs). And when I was a child, I also believe I remember something that had a smell that warded them off. But when they came back in the 00s and I would mention that to my parents, they would say, "No, that didn't happen." So maybe I'm remembering that wrong but I thought about it when reading this:

As September rolls in, so does spider mating season, so you'd better be prepared for these eight-legged guests to crash at your pad unannounced. But with autumn comes other flora and fauna, like chestnuts, which taste crunchy and bitter when raw but almost like a sweet potato in their cooked form. It's thought that the chestnut's shiny look actually spooks spiders and that they can't stand the smell of the nut's oil. As opposed to its toxic fauna friend, the horse chestnut (also called a conker in Great Britain), chestnuts are the festive Yuletide snack that's roasted over an open fire during the winter holiday season.

According to the myth, scattering chestnuts strategically around your home, both inside and out, will spook spiders into having second thoughts about forced entry. Chestnut believers state that you should place a few in areas that these eight-legged critters gravitate to, like baseboards, windowsills, and the backs of closets and cupboards. The smell and sight of this fragrant nut will cause the spider to gag and hot-foot it in the other direction. Remember that while edible, chestnuts can pose a choking hazard, so if you share a home with pets or children, you'll want to stay extra vigilant.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, October 9, 2023. Julian Assange continues to be persecuted while some pin hopes on a meet up between the President of the United States and the prime minister of Australia, Iraq sharpens its international focus, and much more.

Starting with Julian Assange who remains persecuted for the 'crime' of journalism. A year ago, Amy Goodman and Dennis Moynihan (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted:

"Journalists are allowed to request documents that have been stolen and to publish those documents." So wrote U.S. federal Judge John Koeltl in a 2019 opinion dismissing a lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee against Julian Assange, Wikileaks and others. Assange published documents on the Wikileaks website in the very manner the judge described. Despite this, Julian Assange has been in solitary confinement in Britain’s maximum security Belmarsh prison for over three years. Before that, he spent seven years living in the cramped Ecuadorian embassy in London. Ecuador granted Assange political asylum as he faced mounting persecution from the U.S. government for his role in exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. is seeking Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom to face espionage and conspiracy charges and up to 175 years in prison. Assange’s legal team is appealing the U.K.’s approval of the extradition request. Meanwhile, a new case related to Wikileaks is before Judge Koeltl: journalists and several of Assange’s attorneys have sued the Central Intelligence Agency and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, alleging the CIA spied on them when they visited Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, recording conversations and secretly copying their phones and laptops.

Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist." Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs. And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own. For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs. Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:

A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat

Eric Lichtblau (GUARDIAN) has observed:

The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.

Yet Julian remains persecuted.

Friday, Eve Ottenberg observed at COUNTERPUNCH:

It’s long past time for the U.S. and U.K. to free Julian Assange. His flagrantly unjust incarceration is a global scandal, and the world is quite upset about it. Indeed, on September 19 at the United Nations, heads of state denounced this phony prosecution for the fraud and subterfuge it is – an assault on a free press, and an attack on Assange personally, for practicing journalism. For over four years, this publisher has been left to rot in a dungeon in Britain’s notorious maximum-security prison, Belmarsh. The reason? Well, they might not admit it, but U.S. sachems want him crushed for embarrassing them, by revealing the murderous criminality of the American military in Iraq and elsewhere.

Periodically, some world leader lets loose a geschrei of protest. “It is essential to preserve freedom of the press. A journalist like Julian Assange cannot be punished for informing society in a transparent and legitimate way,” railed Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to the assembled UN diplomats. Honduran president Xiomara Castro also denounced the official abuse of Assange. And on September 20, a delegation of Australian politicians brought a letter to Washington officials, demanding the U.S. drop its grotesque prosecution of Assange.

This is not the first time heads of state or other political bigwigs have urged American President Joe Biden to end Assange’s ordeal. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has twice written Biden, imploring him to release Assange and rightly fulminating over the damage done to a free press by his incarceration. In late 2022, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan leaders called for the publisher’s freedom. Colombian president Gustavo Petro vowed on social media to “ask President Biden…not to charge a journalist just for telling the truth.” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese also petitioned the U.S. on his Canberra constituent, Assange’s behalf. So far Biden appears unmoved.

Yesterday, SKY NEWS noted, "Julian Assange’s family hopes a meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden will help stop the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to America." Kieran Rooney (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) reports:

Julian Assange’s family is working out of the United States to fight his extradition, beseeching lawmakers there for help ahead of a looming meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Joe Biden.

They live in fear that their phones will light up with news that the WikiLeaks founder is about to be whisked from detention in the United Kingdom to a US prison – where they will lose him forever.

This heightened anxiety is fuelling their efforts to campaign for Assange’s release. They are meeting with key Democrats and Republicans, seeking the support of international leaders and drumming up public support to end the 13-year saga over his fate.

Speaking to The Sunday Age, Assange’s half-brother Gabriel Shipton said there were reasons to believe the long-running battle over his extradition could end without him sitting in a US prison.

Albanese’s US trip this month – during which he will meet with Biden – marks a key moment in their campaign.

Otis Grotewohl (WORKERS WORLD) concludes, "Despite the threats on Assange’s life, there is support from all around the world, and that brings his family some hope and optimism. People who defend Assange for leaking facts about U.S. war crimes outnumber the U.S. ruling class. History will show that those who support Assange are on the side of truth, peace and social justice."

Meanwhile, Iraq continues to build it's international presence. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani recently concluded a week-long visit to the US where he met with business leaders and politicians. MEMO notes he's schedule to visit Russia October 11th where he will meet with the president of Russia Vladimir Putin. A violent conflict, meanwhile, is taking place between the government of Israel and the Palestinians. MINT notes:

In a statement, Hamas commander has said that it launched attacks on the Israeli territory ‘in defense of Al-Aqsa’ which was stormed by Israeli settlers a few days ago. Al-Aqsa has been the flashpoint between Palestine and Israel. Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif, who released a recorded message after the attack, said the strikes were in retaliation for Israel’s “desecration of the Al-Aqsa" mosque in Jerusalem.