Good Sunday morning. 62 degrees here, maybe reaching 70, maybe not, but sunny. Ladder Lady got to Mass this morning, walker and all, for the first time since the fall.
True story: Once I was visiting a certain church building that had an automatic lighting system to illuminate the stairs when in use while saving energy the rest of the time. But (as a friend informed me) someone had hooked the electricity up backwards so that when I started down the stairs, the lights got turned OFF instead of on! Grasping the handrail and thinking quickly, I loudly recited a verse from the Bible: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105) It didn't correct the lighting issue--I proceeded carefully in the available light and made it down OK--but it did show a sense of humor while demonstrating that I am not a heathen!
It doesn't look as though the Mothership is going to have a religion article this morning, so I'll offer some Sunday content here at the interwebs' leading publication.
Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte announced this week that the Diocese will have a single, dedicated location for the celebration of the "Traditional Latin Mass," a form of liturgy superseded by the reforms following the Second Vatican Council. It's important to note that the "TLM" is a whole liturgical complex, including having its own calendar, not simply holding Mass in the Latin language. A priest can celebrate Mass in Latin any time, if he has the language skill, just as he can celebrate Mass in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, or Polish, depending on the needs of congregants under his care.
The changes to the rules for the TLM were promulgated by Pope Francis in 2021, and the Diocese of Charlotte did a "transitional" compliance in 2023. Our now-retired Bishop Jugis was very ill at this point, so I expect the Vatican-approved delay was partly because he simply didn't have the energy to work on the real estate issue. It may also have partly been in sympathy with the spirit of staying in the past. I know quite a few of the TLM adherents, at least casually, and I know Bishop Jugis and some of his functionaries were close with them. But that is neither here nor there.
There is much wailing and gnashing going on among this cohort, including claims that the "Mass of the Ages" is being "suppressed" or "cancelled," as well as petitions going up the chain toward Rome. I sympathize with the people to some extent. If there had been an instruction from the Vatican or the Bishop that all services were to be in Latin, or that we couldn't have any in Spanish, or "no guitars," or something else that substantially impacted our experience of the liturgy, I'd be upset. However, one thing about being Catholic is accepting that the hierarchy has the authority to make these decisions.
In my opinion, the TLM "community" is effectively a separatist church, declaring themselves to be the True Catholics, literally "more Catholic than the Pope." Another word for that is "Protestant." It's ironic that the facility the Diocese has purchased and is renovating for their use was formerly used by a Protestant congregation. The TLM spokespeople find this scandalous, but I think it's spot-on.
I have some sympathy for traditional Catholics. They have been maligned by "progressive" Catholics for years. And the system setup by Pope Benedict allowing the TLM to be widely celebrated, was rather abruptly suppressed by Pope Francis, for reasons that seemed as much personal as pastoral.
Having said that, your Bishop's pastoral letter seemed a straightforward implementation of liturgical policy issued by the previous Pope, which many traditionalists (based on my reading at one trad website I frequent) choose to treat as persecution. It's one thing to have an esthetic or even spiritual preference for the TLM, which I can respect. it's quite another to maintain that they *must* have the TLM to worship as Catholics. That gets close to the "sedevacantists" who believe there has not been a legitimate Pope since before Vatican II. I don't call that "Protestant". I call that "schismatic".
I'm a protestant, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I can say I'm surprised. I think localizing worship makes sense mostly (e.g. having services in the native language of attenders). But the challenge becomes when local congregations drift.
I see this among Friends. Open worship is a time when anyone in attendance can speak out of the silence. Historically, one brought a very short message, it was very spiritual. Among progressive congregations, it's now "what's on your heart", which means talk best suited for sunday school now gets piped into open worship. Joy and concerns used to be 2-3 sentences (please pray for X, who has suffered Y. I know X via Z). Now, people want to give family histories on why a prayer is needed. Among evangelical, open worship is 2-3 minutes long at most. No one speaks out.
Progressives believe whatever is the latest emotional fashion coming down from college. Conservatives reject every fashion that comes down from college.
Both groups think they are correct, and the other side are foolish.
One reason we had our most recent schism (2012) was about local vs. hierarchical authority. Meetings who left want to retain local autonomy. They are finding, however, that other meetings who left also want that for very different practices that they do not support. And when this has been raised across congregations the response has been MYOB! So when one congregation began baptizing members, other congregations complained, to which I responded "wouldn't it be nice if every monthly meeting had the full autonomy to do what we expect"?
That's a very interesting point about congregations agreeing about "autonomy" but not much else.
The Catholic Church is very different from that. Any group or even individual - if involved in public activity - can be subject to oversight, although the active power of the oversight may be slight. If you're a YouTuber saying, "I'm Catholic!" and saying things that aren't actually part of Catholicism, you might come to the attention of a local bishop who would ask you to knock it off, but they can't make you. They could, if you're well known, publish information letting Catholics know that you are not teaching Catholicism.
You can have a Bible study group or prayer group at your house, but it you want to publicize it at your parish or say you're affiliated with a parish, you are agreeing to potential involvement from your pastor or his staff.
One point I'm seeing on a Trad Substack that shows up in my feed is a complaint that both Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV have appointed women religious (one each) to head a committee of this or that related to religious orders. This is being treated as The End of the World as We Know It, as though "being a man" is the key feature of the chairperson, rather than "being the head of a religious order."
This kind of thing is part of what I mean by saying TLM-ness is a whole batch of concepts, not just the form of Mass.
One of the features of some of the TLM clergy is that they refuse to celebrate any other liturgy, including on occasions such as the annual Chrism Mass with the local Bishop or Archbishop. Sometimes they'll even come out and say that other forms of liturgy are invalid. That is, as you say, schismatic.
It's one thing to have a parish that has Mass in more than one language, as needed to serve the faithful. The goal should be to integrate the members of the parish as much as possible, including in non-liturgical settings, but if you've got people who speak different languages, you just do.
It's something else again to have a parish that includes a community that doesn't believe the rest of the people of the parish are "really Catholic" or "really going to a real Mass."
I have encountered priests who normally celebrate the Vatican II Mass but have celebrated the TLM on occasion. One of those is my bishop, Earl Fernandes of Columbus (who permits the TLM in a Catholic oratory set aside for the purpose).
And there are religious orders loyal to Rome who celebrate the TLM exclusively, such as the FSSP. To them, the Chrism Mass presents a touchy situation.
I know enough about the TLM that it is more than just Mass in a different language. It is almost like the Eastern Catholic rites that celebrate their approved liturgies in their different languages, while still being united to Rome.
I agree with the rest of your post, however. The key is not the liturgy they celebrate, so much as unity with and submission to the Holy Father, including in the liturgies they celebrate.
"Loyal to Rome" is what distinguishes diversity from schism. A rejection of the authority of Rome to rule on liturgical matters is hard to square with "loyalty," and assertions that the Pope teaches heresy (such as Mr. Kevin Williamson of The Dispatch has made, possibly jesting) are sedevacantism.
Today’s special gross invasive animal friend is the giant African land snail, Lissachatina fulica. Native to east Africa, it can be eight inches long and up to two inches in diameter. It has a gracefully spiraled but dull brown shell. It is a super annoying, international invasive pest. One reason they end up all over the place is that they are popular in the pet trade. Ugh. They are also transferred accidentally as eggs or in a dormant state.
These snails are mostly herbivorous, with a varied diet of leaves, fruit, vegetables, fungi, etc. They also sometimes eat one another, and they consume shells, bones, and some small dead mammals as sources of calcium.
Yuck. They have been introduced to Florida, probably through release by pet parents, more than once. They were discovered in Miami in 2011, and it took until 2017 to eradicate them. They are hermaphroditic, and individuals can lay up to six clutches of up to 200 shelled eggs per year. They have recently been found in Pasco County, Florida.
The religious leader mentioned in the video is one Charles L. Stewart of Hialeah, a practitioner of a faith referred to as “El Africano,” which seems to be something he made up himself. Google has nothing. He had his followers consume the snail mucus. In addition to general grossness, destruction of plants, and competition with native animals, the snails are carriers of rat lungworm, a parasitic nematode known as Angiostrongylus cantonensis. It causes meningitis in humans and other mammals.
Yuck. The giant African land snail is found in China, India, South America, islands of the South Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean, and elsewhere. For further additional grossness, they will eat the stucco or paint off houses in search of calcium for the eggshells of their extremely numerous eggs.
It is illegal to own them in the United States, but everyone thinks obeying the law is for other people, so there you go. IUCN has not assigned a conservation classification to the giant African land snail. If you find one, call your county agriculture department, and don’t touch it with your bare hands. You could die unpleasantly.
I would venture to suggest that giant snails do not make good pets. Gastropods do not have a spinal cord, and their brain is rudimentary, consisting of a circle of ganglia. This suggests their nervous system would be incapable of supporting the level of social interactivity implied by the word "pet." I suppose someone could do an experiment to test this hypothesis, but it would be very boring--unless it were a thought experiment with clever (though presumably one-sided) dialogue.
I think there have been some experiments done on gastropod behavior, but they probably haven't found the qualities that would make them a "pet" as opposed to simply an animal in a container.
I suppose a home aquarium might count as "animal in a container," but the container allows for proper maintenance of the animal and enables humans to notice and appreciate an animal kept in a reasonable facsimile of its habitat. The fish and other water creatures presumably don't know they're in a container, if it's done right. Well, technically they don't "know" anything, but they would behave somewhat normally in an approximation of their normal environment.
Morning! Loud birds, indeed. And sunshine! Glorious.
The dance-recital-and-middle-school-graduation extravaganza is now behind us, and it’s time to flog the lawns back into shape. They don’t look too disorderly, but they’re high. And rain looks set to take over from Tuesday.
It's a little dim here. I was thinking of setting up my tent in the yard, so I could get a good night's sleep, but rain is in the forecast for the next few days.
Gonna run errands then off to a birthday party for a 1yo little girl. Pam's sister's granddaughter. I bought her a little dressy type thingy, that looks like a slice of watermelon. Katie went with me and actually liked it, so it is probably not an awful gift.
I let Katie have final approval on many gifts for that reason.
An otherwise minor and unknown Party official from an obscure prefecture here is in deep doo doo after his daughter, an aspiring actress, showed off her 2.3 million yuan (about $345,000) diamond and emerald earrings on social media. It seems that several billion yuan passed through the official's district years ago for major infrastructure improvements and accounting and audits were, uh, perfunctory. The official has also been outed as currently purchasing a retirement condo in Shenzhen for about $2 million USD. His annual salary never exceeded more than about $25k USD. Things don't add up, as they say.
The amounts are actually relatively small compared to some of the big boys that got taken down. A few of the top dogs had hundreds of millions, and in a couple instances, billions, stashed in closets in USD Benjamins.
But, given the general distaste that almost everyone has for the Party, it's exploded all over social and traditional media. I predict the gentleman's retirement plan is in trouble.
So, I guess now I'm expected to concede that social media actually does have *some* redeeming value, even if only accidentally? Well, alright. Just this once, though.
It's a different take on public service. Here, we steal money honestly. We get elected to the legislature.
A lot of the Chinese money blowing up housing costs in Vancouver, Toronto, and elsewhere was funded by stolen money. They're ex-officials on the lam. The Chinese government wants to repatriate them to claw back funds....not going to happen. It's the commies, who are the bad guys.
"Here, we steal money honestly. We get elected to the legislature."
Question: By "Here" do you mean here in America, or there in China?
Never mind. When it comes to politicians, that would be an answer without the distinction of a difference, I expect. But I love the thought expressed in those two sentences!! 🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍
Let’s put it this way: A significant share of “our” (Western, liberal-democracy inhabiting) politicians would *love* to have the chance for a comparable scale of corruption. But competition for high office undermines such behavior on a regular basis.
Dictatorial regimes spend a lot of time and effort trying to hide, obscure, and otherwise lie about their political failings, including corruption, but also everything else.
There’s a lot that leaks out of dictatorial countries before the proper authorities leap on it to quash it, or to trundle those who expose the truth off to face punishment, along with their families and associates.
As to "our" politicians and the "chance for a comparable scale of corruption", when it comes to those currently at the very top of the heap, if they don't yet have it it's not due to a lack of trying.
My pet theory has to do with why Trump appears to like autocrats and dictators so much. Political leaders in democratic societies are subject to laws against corruption and bribery. Dictators don’t observe such strictures. They can bribe with impunity. They are thus the highest bidders when it comes to getting Trump’s favorable attention.
A different angle is that the executive branch is the law-enforcing branch of our republic. If you put at its head someone who already doesn’t believe the constitutional framework or other laws apply to him, there’s no one at a higher level of police powers to do anything about it.
Oh yeah... The "Russian Mob" was deep into the game in the housing blow up of 2008, only the stealing was going the other way. The game was borrow, build something out and camouflage work so it looked farther along than it was, get the doofus bank guy out to inspect and approve final funds, then blow town with some number of millions and take it back to Belarus/Bulgaria/Wherever and live large.
Glenview and the North Shore burbs of Chicago had a lot of partially finished houses that were bank write offs.
I remember the Oakland A's from the 1970s when I was a big bseball fan. The A's winning the World Series with several times with players like Rollie Fingers (he of the handlebar moustache), Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter.
The Athletics were one of the original American League teams, founded in Philadelphia, under longtime manager Connie Mack. Moving to Kansas City in 1955, they came to Oakland in 1968. The move away from Oakland, from what FP reports, has to do with deteriorating conditions in their stadium, the Coliseum, owned by the city, For the next few years, they will play in Sacramento until their new stadium in Las Vegas is ready.
Wikipedia says that the A's have the second most World Series titles, tied with the Red Sox and behind only the Yankees.
I read that FP story. It was interesting, and I admire the effort. If people care about sportball - as so many do - working together to support an enterprise under very challenging conditions shows a much greater commitment than simply turning on a TV, and that makes it something different from just "fandom."
Snails. There's a wall in the apartment complex where the snails crawl up every night to about 1m. I assume it's to dodge the snail eating stuff that's crawling around at grade level.
Yes, I assume so, although it might also have to do with temperature difference between the ground and a little way up the wall, or an adaptation to stay out of the water when it rains.
Good morning, everyone. Son F is up and moaning, because I opened the door and turned the light on, and his roomie, Vlad, griped at him. His friend is coming to get him at 8:00.
I read the story and wondered if Dinets considered the idea that maybe the bird got the notion that crosswalk signals could actually be used for more than just the facilitation of pedestrians crossing the street somewhere else. Do we know if it's ever visited California?
The salt marshes along that stretch of coast are special.
I am guessing the snails and their antics help break down the grasses that eventually turn into the micronutrients that nourish the phytoplankton and other microscopic life at the bottom of the food chain. Is that right? That's how it used to work in the vast wetlands and marshes at the southern end of Lake Michigan.
"I am guessing the snails and their antics help break down the grasses ..."
Yes, the articles mentioned that the snails turn the grass into detritus, and that they keep the grass from overgrowing the whole ecosystem. I expect there are boom and bust cycles in the snail/grass relationship: if the snails eat too much of the grass, there's not enough for the next generation of snails, and the grass has time to recover.
I have been to that very salt marsh. We've stayed at Topsail a couple of times, and may do again. One of our goals for our next vacation is easy kayaking access from the rental house, which could mean the Wilmington area or could mean Lake Norman.
I'm so glad to know you know it! The easy access to the Sound and the beach is one of the best things about Topsail.
I have always found salt water refreshing in a way fresh water simply can not match. I'll take sharks and crabs and sea jellies over leeches and water mocasins any day.
https://www.jaynordlinger.com/p/im-alive
Jay Nordlinger (of NR) is starting this year's reporting from the Oslo Freedom Forum. I'm a free subscriber on his Substack!
Good Sunday morning. 62 degrees here, maybe reaching 70, maybe not, but sunny. Ladder Lady got to Mass this morning, walker and all, for the first time since the fall.
I hope this means Ladder Lady's recovery is progressing as it should.
It will probably take place in (cough, schlekk...'scuse me!) steps.
Maybe the church has an elevator along with stairwells?
There's probably a Led Zeppelin / Stairway to Heaven joke rolling around here somewhere, but darned if I can find it at the moment.
As we wind on down the road, I am sure the joke will come to mind. Will it be any good? Well, all that glitters is not gold!
True story: Once I was visiting a certain church building that had an automatic lighting system to illuminate the stairs when in use while saving energy the rest of the time. But (as a friend informed me) someone had hooked the electricity up backwards so that when I started down the stairs, the lights got turned OFF instead of on! Grasping the handrail and thinking quickly, I loudly recited a verse from the Bible: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105) It didn't correct the lighting issue--I proceeded carefully in the available light and made it down OK--but it did show a sense of humor while demonstrating that I am not a heathen!
Confession: I kinda like Amy Grant's song Thy Word.
I know, liking the queen of Christian bubble gum pop can be embarrassing, but I did like some of her songs.
I like it. That's a good story. Admirable presence of mind.
I'm pretty sure had that happened to me, the words I quoted wouldn't have been found in the Scriptures.
Gah.
Agree. 🙄
It doesn't look as though the Mothership is going to have a religion article this morning, so I'll offer some Sunday content here at the interwebs' leading publication.
Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte announced this week that the Diocese will have a single, dedicated location for the celebration of the "Traditional Latin Mass," a form of liturgy superseded by the reforms following the Second Vatican Council. It's important to note that the "TLM" is a whole liturgical complex, including having its own calendar, not simply holding Mass in the Latin language. A priest can celebrate Mass in Latin any time, if he has the language skill, just as he can celebrate Mass in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, or Polish, depending on the needs of congregants under his care.
https://catholicnewsherald.com/90-news/local/11679-latin-mass
The changes to the rules for the TLM were promulgated by Pope Francis in 2021, and the Diocese of Charlotte did a "transitional" compliance in 2023. Our now-retired Bishop Jugis was very ill at this point, so I expect the Vatican-approved delay was partly because he simply didn't have the energy to work on the real estate issue. It may also have partly been in sympathy with the spirit of staying in the past. I know quite a few of the TLM adherents, at least casually, and I know Bishop Jugis and some of his functionaries were close with them. But that is neither here nor there.
There is much wailing and gnashing going on among this cohort, including claims that the "Mass of the Ages" is being "suppressed" or "cancelled," as well as petitions going up the chain toward Rome. I sympathize with the people to some extent. If there had been an instruction from the Vatican or the Bishop that all services were to be in Latin, or that we couldn't have any in Spanish, or "no guitars," or something else that substantially impacted our experience of the liturgy, I'd be upset. However, one thing about being Catholic is accepting that the hierarchy has the authority to make these decisions.
In my opinion, the TLM "community" is effectively a separatist church, declaring themselves to be the True Catholics, literally "more Catholic than the Pope." Another word for that is "Protestant." It's ironic that the facility the Diocese has purchased and is renovating for their use was formerly used by a Protestant congregation. The TLM spokespeople find this scandalous, but I think it's spot-on.
I have some sympathy for traditional Catholics. They have been maligned by "progressive" Catholics for years. And the system setup by Pope Benedict allowing the TLM to be widely celebrated, was rather abruptly suppressed by Pope Francis, for reasons that seemed as much personal as pastoral.
Having said that, your Bishop's pastoral letter seemed a straightforward implementation of liturgical policy issued by the previous Pope, which many traditionalists (based on my reading at one trad website I frequent) choose to treat as persecution. It's one thing to have an esthetic or even spiritual preference for the TLM, which I can respect. it's quite another to maintain that they *must* have the TLM to worship as Catholics. That gets close to the "sedevacantists" who believe there has not been a legitimate Pope since before Vatican II. I don't call that "Protestant". I call that "schismatic".
I'm a protestant, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I can say I'm surprised. I think localizing worship makes sense mostly (e.g. having services in the native language of attenders). But the challenge becomes when local congregations drift.
I see this among Friends. Open worship is a time when anyone in attendance can speak out of the silence. Historically, one brought a very short message, it was very spiritual. Among progressive congregations, it's now "what's on your heart", which means talk best suited for sunday school now gets piped into open worship. Joy and concerns used to be 2-3 sentences (please pray for X, who has suffered Y. I know X via Z). Now, people want to give family histories on why a prayer is needed. Among evangelical, open worship is 2-3 minutes long at most. No one speaks out.
Progressives believe whatever is the latest emotional fashion coming down from college. Conservatives reject every fashion that comes down from college.
Both groups think they are correct, and the other side are foolish.
One reason we had our most recent schism (2012) was about local vs. hierarchical authority. Meetings who left want to retain local autonomy. They are finding, however, that other meetings who left also want that for very different practices that they do not support. And when this has been raised across congregations the response has been MYOB! So when one congregation began baptizing members, other congregations complained, to which I responded "wouldn't it be nice if every monthly meeting had the full autonomy to do what we expect"?
That's a very interesting point about congregations agreeing about "autonomy" but not much else.
The Catholic Church is very different from that. Any group or even individual - if involved in public activity - can be subject to oversight, although the active power of the oversight may be slight. If you're a YouTuber saying, "I'm Catholic!" and saying things that aren't actually part of Catholicism, you might come to the attention of a local bishop who would ask you to knock it off, but they can't make you. They could, if you're well known, publish information letting Catholics know that you are not teaching Catholicism.
You can have a Bible study group or prayer group at your house, but it you want to publicize it at your parish or say you're affiliated with a parish, you are agreeing to potential involvement from your pastor or his staff.
And so on.
One point I'm seeing on a Trad Substack that shows up in my feed is a complaint that both Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV have appointed women religious (one each) to head a committee of this or that related to religious orders. This is being treated as The End of the World as We Know It, as though "being a man" is the key feature of the chairperson, rather than "being the head of a religious order."
This kind of thing is part of what I mean by saying TLM-ness is a whole batch of concepts, not just the form of Mass.
One of the features of some of the TLM clergy is that they refuse to celebrate any other liturgy, including on occasions such as the annual Chrism Mass with the local Bishop or Archbishop. Sometimes they'll even come out and say that other forms of liturgy are invalid. That is, as you say, schismatic.
It's one thing to have a parish that has Mass in more than one language, as needed to serve the faithful. The goal should be to integrate the members of the parish as much as possible, including in non-liturgical settings, but if you've got people who speak different languages, you just do.
It's something else again to have a parish that includes a community that doesn't believe the rest of the people of the parish are "really Catholic" or "really going to a real Mass."
I have encountered priests who normally celebrate the Vatican II Mass but have celebrated the TLM on occasion. One of those is my bishop, Earl Fernandes of Columbus (who permits the TLM in a Catholic oratory set aside for the purpose).
And there are religious orders loyal to Rome who celebrate the TLM exclusively, such as the FSSP. To them, the Chrism Mass presents a touchy situation.
I know enough about the TLM that it is more than just Mass in a different language. It is almost like the Eastern Catholic rites that celebrate their approved liturgies in their different languages, while still being united to Rome.
I agree with the rest of your post, however. The key is not the liturgy they celebrate, so much as unity with and submission to the Holy Father, including in the liturgies they celebrate.
"Loyal to Rome" is what distinguishes diversity from schism. A rejection of the authority of Rome to rule on liturgical matters is hard to square with "loyalty," and assertions that the Pope teaches heresy (such as Mr. Kevin Williamson of The Dispatch has made, possibly jesting) are sedevacantism.
Today’s special gross invasive animal friend is the giant African land snail, Lissachatina fulica. Native to east Africa, it can be eight inches long and up to two inches in diameter. It has a gracefully spiraled but dull brown shell. It is a super annoying, international invasive pest. One reason they end up all over the place is that they are popular in the pet trade. Ugh. They are also transferred accidentally as eggs or in a dormant state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co-J-Y61PKw
These snails are mostly herbivorous, with a varied diet of leaves, fruit, vegetables, fungi, etc. They also sometimes eat one another, and they consume shells, bones, and some small dead mammals as sources of calcium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMmUByyFUz0
Yuck. They have been introduced to Florida, probably through release by pet parents, more than once. They were discovered in Miami in 2011, and it took until 2017 to eradicate them. They are hermaphroditic, and individuals can lay up to six clutches of up to 200 shelled eggs per year. They have recently been found in Pasco County, Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE4Y86TyjaY
The religious leader mentioned in the video is one Charles L. Stewart of Hialeah, a practitioner of a faith referred to as “El Africano,” which seems to be something he made up himself. Google has nothing. He had his followers consume the snail mucus. In addition to general grossness, destruction of plants, and competition with native animals, the snails are carriers of rat lungworm, a parasitic nematode known as Angiostrongylus cantonensis. It causes meningitis in humans and other mammals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRqQKJ82UrA
Yuck. The giant African land snail is found in China, India, South America, islands of the South Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean, and elsewhere. For further additional grossness, they will eat the stucco or paint off houses in search of calcium for the eggshells of their extremely numerous eggs.
It is illegal to own them in the United States, but everyone thinks obeying the law is for other people, so there you go. IUCN has not assigned a conservation classification to the giant African land snail. If you find one, call your county agriculture department, and don’t touch it with your bare hands. You could die unpleasantly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ1BXxmHsiU
Yuck. (I like that better than "Yikes"). I vaugely remember this pest being mentioned before.
Yes, I've published it at least once before. It looks like the most recent "outbreak" in Florida was observed in 2023.
I would venture to suggest that giant snails do not make good pets. Gastropods do not have a spinal cord, and their brain is rudimentary, consisting of a circle of ganglia. This suggests their nervous system would be incapable of supporting the level of social interactivity implied by the word "pet." I suppose someone could do an experiment to test this hypothesis, but it would be very boring--unless it were a thought experiment with clever (though presumably one-sided) dialogue.
I think there have been some experiments done on gastropod behavior, but they probably haven't found the qualities that would make them a "pet" as opposed to simply an animal in a container.
I suppose a home aquarium might count as "animal in a container," but the container allows for proper maintenance of the animal and enables humans to notice and appreciate an animal kept in a reasonable facsimile of its habitat. The fish and other water creatures presumably don't know they're in a container, if it's done right. Well, technically they don't "know" anything, but they would behave somewhat normally in an approximation of their normal environment.
"Animal in a container." Exactly.
Or a politician...
"Gastropods do not have a spinal cord, and their brain is rudimentary..."
Yikes!
Yikes is the 5-letter version of Yuck.
Yikes - fight or flight
Yuck - upchuck
I usually don't emphasize yuck regarding our animal friends, but sometimes it's the only reasonable reaction.
Agree! Along with a few sounds that not even the most skillful use of onomatopoeia can reproduce in written form.
Placido Domingo, everyone. Birds are loud this morning.
Morning! Loud birds, indeed. And sunshine! Glorious.
The dance-recital-and-middle-school-graduation extravaganza is now behind us, and it’s time to flog the lawns back into shape. They don’t look too disorderly, but they’re high. And rain looks set to take over from Tuesday.
Their tendency toward disorder or lack thereof probably depends on what it is, exactly, that they're high on... a little grass, maybe?
It's a little dim here. I was thinking of setting up my tent in the yard, so I could get a good night's sleep, but rain is in the forecast for the next few days.
https://open.substack.com/pub/colingorrie/p/why-english-spelling-will-never-make
Sense.. an interesting substack for English word and language origins stuff
Manul kittens!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XXuRwBTgS3k
Gonna run errands then off to a birthday party for a 1yo little girl. Pam's sister's granddaughter. I bought her a little dressy type thingy, that looks like a slice of watermelon. Katie went with me and actually liked it, so it is probably not an awful gift.
I let Katie have final approval on many gifts for that reason.
Trash pandas as predators? 😡 I hope they grow thicker shells just to frustrate them!
Does a rolling periwinkle gather moss, or do they suffer the same fate as stones?
An otherwise minor and unknown Party official from an obscure prefecture here is in deep doo doo after his daughter, an aspiring actress, showed off her 2.3 million yuan (about $345,000) diamond and emerald earrings on social media. It seems that several billion yuan passed through the official's district years ago for major infrastructure improvements and accounting and audits were, uh, perfunctory. The official has also been outed as currently purchasing a retirement condo in Shenzhen for about $2 million USD. His annual salary never exceeded more than about $25k USD. Things don't add up, as they say.
The amounts are actually relatively small compared to some of the big boys that got taken down. A few of the top dogs had hundreds of millions, and in a couple instances, billions, stashed in closets in USD Benjamins.
But, given the general distaste that almost everyone has for the Party, it's exploded all over social and traditional media. I predict the gentleman's retirement plan is in trouble.
What I'm understanding is that the reason this came to light was his daughter's social media post. Otherwise, he might not have been caught.
So, I guess now I'm expected to concede that social media actually does have *some* redeeming value, even if only accidentally? Well, alright. Just this once, though.
Hard to say, but the social media thing blew it up. He may have gotten have gotten away with it.
Very interesting. Multiply that by many thousands of similar cases in countries around the world ...
It's a different take on public service. Here, we steal money honestly. We get elected to the legislature.
A lot of the Chinese money blowing up housing costs in Vancouver, Toronto, and elsewhere was funded by stolen money. They're ex-officials on the lam. The Chinese government wants to repatriate them to claw back funds....not going to happen. It's the commies, who are the bad guys.
"Here, we steal money honestly. We get elected to the legislature."
Question: By "Here" do you mean here in America, or there in China?
Never mind. When it comes to politicians, that would be an answer without the distinction of a difference, I expect. But I love the thought expressed in those two sentences!! 🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍
Let’s put it this way: A significant share of “our” (Western, liberal-democracy inhabiting) politicians would *love* to have the chance for a comparable scale of corruption. But competition for high office undermines such behavior on a regular basis.
Dictatorial regimes spend a lot of time and effort trying to hide, obscure, and otherwise lie about their political failings, including corruption, but also everything else.
There’s a lot that leaks out of dictatorial countries before the proper authorities leap on it to quash it, or to trundle those who expose the truth off to face punishment, along with their families and associates.
As to "our" politicians and the "chance for a comparable scale of corruption", when it comes to those currently at the very top of the heap, if they don't yet have it it's not due to a lack of trying.
My pet theory has to do with why Trump appears to like autocrats and dictators so much. Political leaders in democratic societies are subject to laws against corruption and bribery. Dictators don’t observe such strictures. They can bribe with impunity. They are thus the highest bidders when it comes to getting Trump’s favorable attention.
A different angle is that the executive branch is the law-enforcing branch of our republic. If you put at its head someone who already doesn’t believe the constitutional framework or other laws apply to him, there’s no one at a higher level of police powers to do anything about it.
I think it must be "here" the US, because elected legislature isn't a thing in China. (Unless I'm wrong, of course.)
Well, they call it "congress" instead of legislature, and "elections" are not how we think of voting, but...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_China
Interesting, thanks.
Stolen Russian money is a factor in some major urban markets, as well.
Oh yeah... The "Russian Mob" was deep into the game in the housing blow up of 2008, only the stealing was going the other way. The game was borrow, build something out and camouflage work so it looked farther along than it was, get the doofus bank guy out to inspect and approve final funds, then blow town with some number of millions and take it back to Belarus/Bulgaria/Wherever and live large.
Glenview and the North Shore burbs of Chicago had a lot of partially finished houses that were bank write offs.
Does that partially explain the plague of McMansions in those burbs?
Lots of them.
Wow, that's really interesting.
My advice for him is to identify as a Boer and beg for asylum...That or apply to harvard.
Good morning. 46 degrees here. Sunny day head with highs in the 60s. Cool form Memorial Day weekend, but no rain.
The FP is headlining a story that indicates the baseball team the A’s have left Oakland, replaced by an independent minor league team the Ballers.
That story is in a few places. Except, "ballers" is what basketball players say. "He's a baller."
I remember the Oakland A's from the 1970s when I was a big bseball fan. The A's winning the World Series with several times with players like Rollie Fingers (he of the handlebar moustache), Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter.
The Athletics were one of the original American League teams, founded in Philadelphia, under longtime manager Connie Mack. Moving to Kansas City in 1955, they came to Oakland in 1968. The move away from Oakland, from what FP reports, has to do with deteriorating conditions in their stadium, the Coliseum, owned by the city, For the next few years, they will play in Sacramento until their new stadium in Las Vegas is ready.
Wikipedia says that the A's have the second most World Series titles, tied with the Red Sox and behind only the Yankees.
Yeah, Oakland is a mess and Las Vegas is the ultimate city to have a franchise in. It's no contest.
I read that FP story. It was interesting, and I admire the effort. If people care about sportball - as so many do - working together to support an enterprise under very challenging conditions shows a much greater commitment than simply turning on a TV, and that makes it something different from just "fandom."
Snails. There's a wall in the apartment complex where the snails crawl up every night to about 1m. I assume it's to dodge the snail eating stuff that's crawling around at grade level.
Invasive snails in Florida are known to climb stucco and concrete walls to eat the calciferous compounds.
https://www.cnet.com/science/biology/giant-concrete-eating-snails-trigger-florida-quarantine/
They also carry diseases transmissible to humans which must rank among the less pleasant snail surprises.
I have an article on the giant African land snail.
Yes, I assume so, although it might also have to do with temperature difference between the ground and a little way up the wall, or an adaptation to stay out of the water when it rains.
Good morning, everyone. Son F is up and moaning, because I opened the door and turned the light on, and his roomie, Vlad, griped at him. His friend is coming to get him at 8:00.
Good morning. The salt marsh between Topsail Island and the Intracoastal waterway is one of my happy places.
I came across this this morning and thought of Cynthia:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-young-coopers-hawk-learned-to-use-a-crosswalk-signal-to-launch-surprise-attacks-on-other-birds-180986685/
I read the story and wondered if Dinets considered the idea that maybe the bird got the notion that crosswalk signals could actually be used for more than just the facilitation of pedestrians crossing the street somewhere else. Do we know if it's ever visited California?
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/crosswalk-buttons-messages-imitating-mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk/3678025/
Great story, thanks for presenting it!
Very interesting story and not surprising at all.
The salt marshes along that stretch of coast are special.
I am guessing the snails and their antics help break down the grasses that eventually turn into the micronutrients that nourish the phytoplankton and other microscopic life at the bottom of the food chain. Is that right? That's how it used to work in the vast wetlands and marshes at the southern end of Lake Michigan.
"I am guessing the snails and their antics help break down the grasses ..."
Yes, the articles mentioned that the snails turn the grass into detritus, and that they keep the grass from overgrowing the whole ecosystem. I expect there are boom and bust cycles in the snail/grass relationship: if the snails eat too much of the grass, there's not enough for the next generation of snails, and the grass has time to recover.
Interesting.
I have been to that very salt marsh. We've stayed at Topsail a couple of times, and may do again. One of our goals for our next vacation is easy kayaking access from the rental house, which could mean the Wilmington area or could mean Lake Norman.
I'm so glad to know you know it! The easy access to the Sound and the beach is one of the best things about Topsail.
I have always found salt water refreshing in a way fresh water simply can not match. I'll take sharks and crabs and sea jellies over leeches and water mocasins any day.