TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee")

2026-05-20T13:43:12.701-05:00

Santa Marta, Colombia. An activist demonstrating during a conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels. Photograph: Iván Valencia/AP, via The Guardian.

Neolithic trackway in Somerset

2026-05-20T13:33:02.120-05:00

This interesting image was in a Guardian article describing and illustrating several of the most ancient pathways in England. Shown above is the "Sweet Track", "built nearly 6,000 years ago (3806BC) by early farmers who needed access to an island, the collapsed boardwalk was preserved in peat."

It was interesting to me because of the technique used to secure the planks - suggestive of more sophisticated engineering than the most common corduroy roads.

The other ancient paths at the Guardian link are also interesting for different reasons; the article is worth a quick browse if you enjoy walking.

Top image cropped for size from the original, credit Craig Joiner Photography/Alamy. Lower diagrams from Avalon Marshes.

Satire

2026-05-20T13:12:27.628-05:00

Fortress Washington, drone-proofed and with friendly snipers

2026-05-20T13:07:51.225-05:00

Holly Baxter of The Independent reported today that in the midst of all the chaos—including his war on Iran and rising fuel and food prices—Trump called a sudden, urgent press conference today as Blanche was testifying. But what was on his mind was not Iran, or prices, or his corrupt agreement with the Department of Justice. He wanted to talk about his ballroom.

Trump’s comments in that press conference have invited commentary suggesting he is turning the White House into a fortress. Describing the ballroom, he said: “Between the drone-proofing, the missile-proofing, we have ah, and the drone capacity upstairs, we can have all sorts of military—I hate to use the word snipers—but we have great sniper capacity. It’s built for our snipers, not enemy’s snipers, our snipers. And because of the height we get a very clear view of everything all over Washington.”

Via Letters from an American, May 19. This is the report in The Independent. I know some readers think this is normal behavior, not mental illness, but really... WTF?

Odd structure found "in the middle of nowhere"

2026-05-19T14:05:39.032-05:00

I was delighted to discover what it is and was impressed to note how well-designed and constructed it is. Read all about it at the whatisthisthing subreddit.

The economic cost of the Iran war

2026-05-19T13:51:04.631-05:00

The embed is a screencap because I don't know how to embed the live graphic. So by the time you read this the numbers are way out of date. Go to this link to see the live numbers changing:

Energy Cost Tracker

Note that this does not include the cost of the military equipment being expended or destroyed (or replaced). This is important, so please share the link freely.

A tip of the blogging cap to reader Kyle, who included the energy cost tracker link in a comment.

The antithesis of "diplomacy"

2026-05-18T12:34:52.781-05:00

If anyone sees a way to a "negotiated settlement" based on this rant, please let me know. This is a rant by a mentally ill man facing defeat and unable to accept such. My only hope is that his hand-picked military brass who replaced the seasoned veterans can find a way to sweet-talk him out of putting more U.S. troops at risk.

Addendum: Live coverage from Al Jazeera English at 1300 CDT (~10 pm in Qatar) indicates that Iran and the IRGC are expecting a resumption of active hostilities targeting Iranian government and military facilities very soon. Lots of coverage there also of the Ebola outbreak in Africa; much less attention to that in Western news media.

Update: A couple hours later Trump posted this message on Truth Social, indicating a postponement of aggressive action, which he describes as being in response to pleas from Gulf leaders (not because his military is advising him against it).

So perhaps less risk fot hot war (unless Netanyahu opts to intervene), but no obvious way forward to resolution, which means increasing pressure on world oil prices.

Why bus steering wheels are so big

2026-05-17T17:24:51.067-05:00

I had never considered the question before, but thought I'd share an answer I discovered in the explainlikeImfive subreddit:

Back in the late Cretaceous when I was learning to drive, most cars and trucks did not have power steering. Larger/heavier vehicles had larger steering wheels because you actually had to muscle the front rolling wheels around to turn the vehicle, and the additional leverage from a larger steering wheel was important. (Incidentally, you could tell if one of your tires was low because it literally got harder to steer. Local truckers and other frequent drivers tended to build up their arm muscles from navigating corners.) My dad's little MG sports car had a 13" steering wheel; my VW van had a 16" steering wheel; pickup trucks' were more typically 17"; and buses were more typically 18-20".

Nowadays, practically every vehicle has power steering assist, but (CyberTruck aside) they're basically all designed so that if the power steering fails, you can still steer the car -- it's just harder to do so. So the big bus steering wheels are still around, as a safety measure.

Additional information at National Bus Sales:

A bus driver has to maneuver through lanes the same size as small cars but with a lot less clearance. With a smaller steering wheel, any adjustments could be too abrupt for safety. With a larger steering wheel, you can make a correction without changing the turning radius of the bus too dramatically. Smaller adjustments won’t cause any instability.

And this response to why the wheel is more horizontal:

This feature has changed over the years and varies in vehicles, but initially, the large steering wheels on buses sat almost horizontally. The driver sits directly above the tires, so for the steering column to correct the tires, the steering wheel needs to be positioned at a different angle. More recent bus models have options for the driver to adjust the position of the wheel.

Increasing upward pressure on oil prices

2026-05-17T17:14:58.969-05:00

As reported by CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel):

Oil prices rose Friday as President Donald Trump is likely to turn his attention back to the stalemated conflict with Iran after leaving a summit in China with President Xi Jinping.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for July gained more than 3% to close at $109.26 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for June advanced more than 4% to settle at $105.42 per barrel.

Trump told Fox News that he is losing patience with Iran. “I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal,” the president said in an interview that aired Thursday evening.

Trump is talking tough, but there is nothing he can do. I can confidently report from frequent views of broadcasts on Al Jazeera that the current Iranian leadership do not intend to bow to pressure, including military pressure. They are under an economic strain because of prior sanctions and the current situation, but are willing to outlast Trump from what they consider a position of strength. If Trump increases hostilities, Iran has enough weaponry still available to wreak havoc on U.S. military bases and on Gulf Coast allies of the U.S. (several of whom have already denied the U.S. continuing access to their airbases for maneuvers). If Trump does nothing, the Strait remains closed or subject to limited passage by ships paying tolls to Iran. Many countries with absent fuel reserves are already instituting restrictive measures on their citizenry. The price of oil is going to continue to increase. Trump's idea of rescinding the U.S. tax on gasoline is a drop in the bucket and will not materially sustain the U.S. economy. The only logical response to the current crisis would be for Trump to "declare victory" and withdraw.

Those who want to "play" the situation financially and don't want to trade commodity futures directly might consider JETS on the NASDAQ. That is the symbol for an exchange-traded fund that holds shares of major U.S. airlines (top holdings are DAL, AAL, UAL, and LUV. Put options are available.

Chart from Trading Economics.

Addendum: The Economist has an insightful article about why world oil prices have not increased more than they have (optimism by traders of an imminent Gulf settlement, tapping of strategic reserves, and some demand destruction).

Egyptian mummy buried with text from Homer's Iliad

2026-05-17T16:48:14.667-05:00

Researchers discovered the mummy at a funerary complex located south of Cairo, in Al Bahnasa, the modern-day location of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Oxyrhynchus, during an excavation in late 2025. Upon examination, the team revealed a sheet of papyrus inside the mummy’s abdomen that contained text from the Iliad, the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic account of the siege of Troy.

The passage is from Book II of the epic poem, in which Homer cataloged the Greek ships that came to do battle with Troy after Helen, the queen of Sparta and a daughter of Zeus, was taken there by Paris, the son of the king of Troy.

The researchers previously found scrolls in some of the other mummies interred inside three limestone chambers at Al Bahnasa, all of which date to the era of Roman rule over Egypt, which began in 30 B.C.E. and ended around C.E. 640. The newly examined mummy’s tomb dates to about 1,600 years ago, according to the researchers. None of the scrolls discovered inside other mummies at the site, however, contained any references to the Iliad, which would have already been considered a literary classic at that time.

I think it is reasonable to assume that this was not incorporated in the mummy as reading material for the afterlife. More likely intended to grant safety for the "voyage" of the deceased.

Image and text excerpt from Scientific American.

The White House doubles down on Christian Nationalism

2026-05-17T16:27:26.220-05:00

Pastor Paula White (2nd L) and other faith leaders pray behind US President Donald Trump during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 1, 2025. © Jim Watson, AFP

As reported by France 24:

Thousands of people gathered Sunday in downtown Washington for a mass prayer festival featuring speeches by top Trump administration officials – an event critics see as an overt display of Christian nationalism undermining the separation of church and state...

The gathering was organized by the White House as part of a program of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary and, in a video message inviting Americans to attend, Hegseth said it was an opportunity to "rededicate this republic to God and country."

Muscular Christian nationalism has enjoyed a prominent platform since Trump's return to power, and evangelicals form a core element of the president's support base...

Attendee Sarah Tyson, holding a "Jesus Saves" sign, said she believes Trump was chosen by God to lead the nation through a new spiritual revival.

Addendum: Just to clarify one point, citing Heather Cox Richardson:

But the United States of America was not founded as a Christian nation. The Founders were quite clear about that. In the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, ratified unanimously by the Senate just a decade after the Constitution went into effect, U.S. leaders said “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” and has “no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of” Muslims. They went on to say that “no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between” the U.S. and Tripoli.

Thomas Jefferson, the key author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison of Virginia, the key thinker behind the Constitution, both wrote explicitly about the importance of keeping the government separate from religion. Jefferson wrote that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship.” “[T]he legitimate powers of government reach actions only,” he wrote, “[and] not [religious] opinions.”

A university adapts to changing times

2026-05-17T16:19:34.116-05:00

Headline from The New York Times. A couple excerpts:

Syracuse University is closing or halting enrollment in about 20 percent of its academic programs, in a move that the school’s provost said was designed to create a university that would be “more focused, more distinctive and more aligned with student demand.”...

In all, 93 of the 460 academic programs at the school will be closed or paused, meaning that no new students will be able to enroll in those majors. Coursework in the areas will still be offered, and minors in many of the subjects will continue to be available.

Similar changes are happening at universities around the country, as students seek out fields that they believe will more directly translate into higher-paying jobs, a recent analysis by the American Enterprise Institute showed. College administrators, following the market, have been reducing humanities offerings...

“A university carrying nearly twice the number of programs as peer institutions is not a sign of strength; it is a sign that regular, honest assessment is overdue"...

At Syracuse, the most popular majors include psychology, information science, economics and sports management...

Like other universities, Syracuse is confronting a decline in enrollment of international students. Two years ago, 12 percent of the freshman class was from abroad; in September, international enrollment dropped to 5 percent. Chancellor Kent Syverud, who has led the school since 2014, said last September that the drop was attributable mainly to challenges in students getting visas. That represents a significant revenue hit because most international students pay the full $66,580 tuition.

Very interesting pattern on this rock

2026-05-14T11:24:59.249-05:00

Found in a creekbed in Montana and posted in the whatsthisrock subreddit, where there is a detailed explanation of how such a complex pattern could evolve.

Posted for the delightful image, which as an old rockhound I find fascinating. The explanation about how cracks can form in quartz because of differential strain between hard quartz and soft(er) surroundings is well over my head, and I will never remember that this is "the very first phase of boudinage," but it is a cool image and belongs in the blog.

Addendum: A tip of the blogging cap to a reader who provided two excellent link in their comment: a detailed explanation of the process of boudinage, and a relevant video on the topic. Both are well done academic presentations.

Asbestos-bound version of Fahrenheit 451

2026-05-14T11:17:57.077-05:00

New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. First edition, #106 of 200 copies with limited issue asbestos binding, hand-numbered and signed by author on colophon. [viii], 199, (3) pp. Johns-Manville Quinterra asbestos binding, lettered in red. Fine, with light wear to crown heaviest to the rear, light bumping to bottom corners, trivial soiling. Two tiny spots to the textblock edge. Issued without a dust jacket. The classic dystopian, anti-censorship novel, plus two short stories "The Playground" and "The Rock Cried Out." A sought-after signed limited edition extremely uncommon in such stellar condition.

Image and description from a listing on eBay. I did not know (or had forgotten) that such versions existed. A tip of the hat to Neatorama for the info. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one at our next library extra books sale.

The "cool S"

2026-05-14T11:05:00.425-05:00

The Cool S, also known as the Universal S, the Super S, the Pointy S, and the Graffiti S, is a graffiti sign in popular culture and childlore that is typically doodled on children's notebooks or graffitied on walls. The exact origin of the Cool S is unknown, but it became prevalent around the early 1980s as a part of graffiti culture.

This cultural icon is cited as an example of "childhood folklore" in an interesting article at Cup of Joe, where the extended discussion thread (350 comments so far) cites other examples of childhood folklore that are more familiar to me ("Rabbit rabbit" on the first of the month, "step on a crack...")

Via Kottke.

Addendum, courtesy of reader Drabkikker:

Debunking the myth of American exceptionalism

2026-05-14T10:46:35.907-05:00

Late last night I was browsing the Al Jazeera English channel, looking for early clues as to whether to expect any change in the adamant position the Iranian leadership has taken (short answer: no), when I encountered this video. This is a longwatch (25 minutes) interview with Richard Wolff, who is emeritus professor of economics at UMass, and was a schoolmate of mine back in the 1960s (tho I never met him). Wolff is a self-described Marxian economist, which is evident in his views on American capitalism.

This video is a thorough takedown of claims of the United States as a world-leading empire. The language is harsh, but the content is supported by relevant facts.

Remarkable losses suffered by the U.S. in the war

2026-05-13T22:09:38.856-05:00

This is a brief report on France24 (equivalent to PBS in U.S.) about the unreported losses by the U.S. in its current war with Iran. Losses that already put the country at a disadvantage in the war and for the future.

No time for that? 6 minutes is too much time to spend? Try just looking at two screencaps:

Backyard woodland garden in springtime

2026-05-13T17:46:30.635-05:00

About 25 years ago when we arrived in Wisconsin, this wooded area behind the house was wall-to-wall buckthorn and honeysuckle. I spent two summers grubbing those out, and within a year or two the native plants began to appear, presumably from dormant seeds that were being shaded out and starved of water by the invasives. Jack-in-the-pulpits began popping up, along with native violets and other spring ephemerals. I added some cinnamon fern, which loved the thick leaf litter.

We planted a few white trillium, which went on to form clusters and then metastasized to distant parts of the woods.

Red trillium are doing the same, and also the yellow trillium (here popping up in a bed of Lilies of the Valley).

For dramatic color in a woodland setting, nothing beats bleeding hearts (Dicentra), but TBH I have never seen the native bees or the bumblebees visiting these introduced flowers. The bluebells next to them get visited, but AFAIK not the bleeding hearts.

The champion of the woodland garden in the opinion of the pollinators is the vinca, which has spread as a groundcover to such an extent that I need to restrain it by pulling it out at the perimeters I want.

One other favorite of the bees is the wild ginger, which multiplies and spreads readily. The blossoms are net to the ground and not visible to casual human visitors unless you pull back the overlying leaves. But the bumblebees find them - and perhaps other insects as well.

For beautiful foliage, my overall favorite is the pulmonaria - so named because the leaves were once thought to resemble diseased lungs (and that is not a bad analogy, to be honest). The flowers (not captured in this photo) are small and delicate and are visited by bees, but I like the plant for the foliage, which dramatically adds patterns to the woodland floor.

"Age is no barrier"

2026-05-13T17:19:46.176-05:00

At a time of national and international turmoil, there is a certain comfort that comes from watching senior citizens enjoying bodysurfing. (A "grommet" is surfing lexicon for a "newbie")

Via Nag on the Lake, where there's always something interesting.

Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes)

2026-05-13T13:48:39.156-05:00

This one eclosed late this afternoon; when I photographed him, he was still fanning his wings to dry and stiffen them. (Males are characterized by prominence of the yellow pattern on the forewing and subtlety of the blue spots on the hindwing above the eyespots).

This one is a little small in body size, as is typical for the late-season ones which overwinter here as a chrysalis (the caterpillars often don't get very fat in the fall before the cold weather forces them to pupate), but the outstanding beauty of the wings is wonderfully characteristic of the species - click to enlarge to bigger-than-screen size.

He will spend the night on our screen porch, then warm himself in the sunshine before heading out for whatever adventures await. Five more chrysalids from last autumn's batch are still waiting to hatch.

Reposted from last month to add a photo of the latest one to eclose:

The color patter on the underside of the wings is truly remarkable and not usually visible when you see them soaring around your garden.

Reposted from 2022 to add the first BST of the year for 2026:

This fellow showed up in our garden as a caterpillar on the rue by our mailbox (see link for pix including cat and chrysalis). Last autumn he was wandering on top of the rue looking for a place to form a chrysalis, so I brought him into a terrarium in our screen porch and within a day or two he did his magic transformation into chrysalis form (file photos below):

He then proceeded to tolerate late-January temperatures to -20 degrees Fahrenheit on the unheated screen porch. My only contribution to his welfare was to spritz the chrysalis with water mist on those days when in nature it would have been snowed or rained on.

The photo above on the wire porch screen was taken with the wings backlit by the morning sun while he was drying the wings and letting them harden. After about an hour I moved him out to a branch of an oak tree that extends over our back porch and took another photo -

This time the full afternoon sun was behind him and me. Note he has those wings spread horizontally to the max to soak up the solar energy. And note how the color spots are more vivid with reflected light rather than the transmitted light in the earlier image. That color pattern is different from that of the female, who has more subtle coloration presumably to make her less susceptible to predation.

Truly magnificent creatures. I don't know how anyone can not be in awe of their beauty and the incredible transformations they undergo in their life cycles.

Congenitally blind people don't get schizophrenia

2026-05-12T13:02:00.002-05:00

In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn’t quite add up. Hector Chevigny, a writer who had lost his sight in adulthood, and psychologist Sydell Braverman were studying the psychological lives of blind people when they stumbled upon an intriguing pattern: schizophrenia, a serious mental illness affecting people across virtually every known society, appeared to be entirely absent in people who had been blind from birth.

The observation sat largely ignored for decades, held back by limited understanding of the disease and a lack of patient data. Then, in the early 2000s, large national health databases allowed researchers to follow entire populations from birth into adulthood, and the pattern held up.

The most rigorous evidence comes from a 2018 whole-population study tracking nearly half a million children born in Western Australia between 1980 and 2001. Of those, 1,870 developed schizophrenia, but not one of the 66 children with cortical blindness did.

That sample of blind children is small, but the pattern holds across more than 70 years of evidence: not a single congenitally blind person with schizophrenia has ever been reported. The protection seems to be specific to cortical blindness, which is caused by damage to the brain’s visual cortex.

People who lose their sight later in life, or whose blindness is caused by damage to the eyes rather than the brain, can still develop the condition. This makes it clear that blindness itself isn’t the deciding factor. Something specific about the visual brain is.

This might seem odd. Schizophrenia is most commonly associated with hearing voices or holding unusual beliefs, not with vision. But the explanation lies not in what people see, but in how the brain uses vision to make sense of the world.

Fascinating and new to me. You learn something every day.

Text and cropped image from The Conversation, where there is more explanatory text. Via Neatorama.

Details regarding the "Trump phone"

2026-05-12T12:45:00.001-05:00

Lots of outrage expressed in various media stating that Trump sold phones to his supporters, failed to deliver them, and pocketed the $ without refunds. The details are more complex, as summarized in the cartoon above and expressed by Heather Cox Richardson below:

As Judd Legum of Popular Information explains, on June 16, 2025, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric announced the launch of a new, gold plated, Trump smartphone, “proudly designed and built in the United States.” It would be available in August 2025 for $499. Its website urged customers to “pre-order” the phone by depositing $100 toward it. Don Jr. said the phone would be “American hardware, built in America, without the potential of…[a] backdoor into the hardware that some of our adversaries have installed in there.”

And yet a disclaimer on the website said the Trumps and the Trump Organization were involved only in the branding of the phone; they had nothing to do with the design, development, manufacture, distribution, or sales of the item. As Legum notes, the idea of a superior U.S.-made phone was always a fantasy, and within two weeks the phone’s description changed from “MADE IN THE USA” to “designed with American values in mind.”

The phone never shipped, and on April 6, Trump Mobile updated its terms to say the $100 deposit was not actually a deposit for a pre-order, but rather “a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.” It went on to say the deposit “does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms” and that “[e]stimated ship dates, launch timelines, or anticipated production schedule are non-binding estimates only.”

A new phone has recently gotten clearance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Trump Mobile executives say they are waiting for approval from T-Mobile, the company whose network Trump Mobile wants to use. Legum points out that T-Mobile relies on the federal government for approval for business activities, creating an enormous conflict of interest.

Medical movie mistakes

2026-05-11T13:55:00.001-05:00

Screencap from an otherwise enjoyable movie I watched recently. This scene has not been recorded at the classic Movie Mistakes website, but I can guarantee that the height of those IV fluids is worthy of mentioning.

Reposted from 2024 to add this howler:

Those are screencaps from a decent program I watched recently (the name of which I can't recall). Documented because the medical error is so egregiously bad that even non-medical people in the viewing audience must have cringed. Does nobody fact-check scripts any more??

Calamint for your pollinator garden

2026-05-10T09:56:00.001-05:00

Several years ago while visiting Olbrich Botanical Gardens here in Madison, we saw several unfamiliar mid-sized plants that were hosting a virtual cloud of small native bees. The name tags read "Calamint" (Clinopodium = Greek "bed" + "little foot). We found a baby one in a 4-inch pot at a local garden store.

The photo above is from this week after cleaning the winter debris in a front yard south-facing garden. The calamint has grown to the size of a basketball. It has a nice conformation, with dense tight foliage that has been spared the depredations of local rabbits. The photo below shows the same plant in the autumn of 2024 when it would have been a quarter of its current size, and in full bloom...

It is my understanding that bees and other pollinating insects do not share with humans an interest in large showy flowers. The double ("peony") tulips by the mailbox draw more views from local people walking by than they do from bees. Bees and beetles love the garden plants with thousands of minute flowers (the goldenrod is an autumnal favorite alive with insects in September). I'll try to remember to get a followup photo of this calamint this fall, especially if I can figure out how to embed a small phone video of the bees.

A cure for forbidden love

2026-05-09T13:14:00.360-05:00

"If you are enchanted by forbidden love of a woman, you must put on a pair of shoes and walk about until the feet sweat. But walk quickly, so quickly that the feet do not begin to smell. Remove then the right shoe and drink from it some ale or wine, and at once all love for her will be lost."

I found that remedy in Olga Ravn's The Wax Child, which has been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. I won't be reviewing the book for the blog, but thought I'd post this tidbit now, in case any readers are having relevant problems. Sounds like it might work...