A dim view of the sunrise at 7:28 and a bright view of trailside foliage at 7:46.

And then there was the second lakeside walk, at 4:02, in almost nonexistent rain:

Write about anything you want in the comments.

How to stop fretting about the coming and going of Daylight Savings Time and live by the light not the clock.

I know you have appointments and work and social obligations and need to observe the time of the clock to some extent, but your waking and sleeping and much of the rest of what you do — eating, going out walking, chores, reading, napping, conversing, and generally being the human animal that you are — can and should be done according to the time of the sun, which doesn't leap forward and fall back in one hour chunks semiannually, but changes very slightly day by day.

The easiest adjustment you can make is to get up at dawn, which is about half an hour before the sunrise. I recommend getting out and about and really experiencing the early light. Lots of health benefits to that — circadian rhythms and so forth. There's nothing about your "o'clock" affairs that should stop you from doing that. Set your day by the sun. I've done that since 2019, and I didn't need to be retired to do it. 

Now, I've been designing an app in my head for a while. I wanted something that would display Sun Time next to clock time. It would know where I am located and display the clock time of dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk along with the passage of the sunlight over the course of the day. I pictured Sun Time as a percentage, with dawn at 0% and the end of dusk at 100%. So every day in Sun Time has an equal number of daylight gradations understood in terms of percentages even though the number of hours in clock time varies greatly over the course of the year and includes the brutal jumps when DST comes or goes. The Sun Time gradations are perfectly gentle — because they are tiny and because they put you in close touch with the natural world of sunlight.

I thought I could get A.I. to write the code for this app I had in mind, but I had the sense to ask first if there already was such an app. There are a few. I picked Sundial. It looks like this:

I would like to see the Sun Time percentages displayed on the dial, but you can see at the bottom right that I was 45.1% into today's daylight when I took the screenshot. I want to maximize my thinking in terms of that percentage, which, of course, ticks by faster in the winter than the summer. But that's good if you want to be adjusted to nature. You've got to hurry a bit to get out for a walk (or whatever) in the daylight, and it's cold, so you'll want to move fast. You've got a longer night in the winter, but confront it, full on, and make something of the dark.

I've had it with complaints about Daylight Savings Time. I have shown you the better way to live. Step into the Sun Time and don't go back.

"A decade ago, Republican voters, furious with their leaders... tossed out all conventional notions of presidential fitness to coalesce behind Donald Trump."

"Platner is still a contender because a similar alienation is building among Democrats, and party elites seem to have no idea what to do about it."

Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "I Thought Graham Platner Was Finished. What I Saw in Maine Changed My Mind" (NYT).

The headline doesn't say why Platner looks finished: He had a big Nazi tattoo on his chest. How does Goldberg get around that? She explains punk culture:

"If transgender identity were an innate trait, like left-handedness, we would expect identification rates to rise at first when it became socially acceptable..."

"... then plateau and remain stable at a fixed level. If the phenomenon were instead driven by social contagion, we might expect a boom-and-bust pattern: a spike followed by a rapid decline once the social forces driving it weaken. Recent data offer a mixed picture.... The overwhelming majority of those driving the trans craze fall into the 'nonbinary' category -- adopting identities which are said to be neither, both, or somewhere between male and female. These include labels such as 'demiboy,' 'genderfluid' or 'two-spirit.' These are social identities, not biological ones. Unlike left- or right-handedness, which describe objectively measurable traits, 'nonbinary' identities have no anatomical or physiological referent. They are conceptual, political and responsive to cultural trends.... The social-contagion hypothesis was never hateful. It was purely descriptive: a recognition that social and cultural factors shape human behavior...."

I'm reading "Evidence Backs the Transgender Social-Contagion Hypothesis" by Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist, in The Wall Street Journal.

"Yes, Kim Kardashian, we’ve been to the moon before … Six times!"

Said Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation and acting secretary and acting head of NASA, quoted in "Nasa tells Kim Kardashian: Yes, we’ve been to the moon before/The reality TV star had claimed that the 1969 moon landing was faked, repeating a popular conspiracy theory" (London Times).

Kardashian responded to Duffy’s critique on X, commenting under his post: “Wait … What’s the tea on 3I Atlas?!?!!!!!!!?????”

I've got a few questions:

1. Why is a government official calling out a private citizen who expresses interest in a conspiracy theory? We're Americans. We have our conspiracy theories. Keep your government nose out of our business. You're only giving more ammunition to the conspiracy theorists. Why stick your neck out to deny what isn't true? You're making it more fun to believe the theory!

2. Why did we go to the moon 6 times — 6 times, in rapid succession, and then no more? What was the sense of all those repeated trips and then to stop for half a century?!

3. What is the tea on 3I/Atlas? I just heard Joe Rogan and Elon Musk talking about it — "The thing about the 3-eye-Atlas"/"That's it's a hell of a name... sounds like third eye or something":

"I’m obsessed with being first, or unique, with something. I was trying to make sure that the consistency wasn’t familiar in the mouth...."

"It’s not thick like a milkshake and not thin like hot chocolate. It’s a richness. It’s a consistency that’s not super familiar... Like a cream-based soup. Like a soup in the winter that’s just like, ‘Oh, this just feels like Mama,’ kind of."

Said Tyra Banks, quoted in "Tyra Banks Says It’s ‘Hot Ice Cream.’ Everyone Else Just Says, ‘Huh?’/Even those who have tried it struggle to describe the model’s baffling concoction. That includes Ms. Banks herself" (NYT).

The product is sold at Banks's "ice cream" shop in Sydney, Australia. In the U.S., you can't sell something as "ice cream" that doesn't meet the USDA definition of ice cream. That's why I put quotes around "ice cream." This is an American blog.

AND: An American poem parody for the occasion:

Some say ice cream will end in heat, 

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of defeat

I hold with those who favor heat....

Sunrise — 7:04, 7:28, 7:43.

Write about whatever you want.

"I’m not going to be distracted by, ‘Oh, does the guy have a big f–king hammer!?’ What about those babies!?"

"This guy wants to create a ballroom for his rich friends while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that babies are going to starve when the SNAP benefits end in just hours from now. Come on."

Said Kamala Harris, quoted in "Kamala Harris loses it, goes on expletive-laden rant about Trump’s donation-funded ballroom" (NY Post).

Eh. I don't believe she "lost it." She just delivered a mundane talking point. She got the memo: It's bad for Trump to spend a lot of money, even donated money, on the ballroom when the shutdown is about to dry up SNAP payments. 

I don't think peppering your speech with "fucking" means anything anymore... although... what about the babies?!! 

By the way, what percentage of those fed by SNAP are babies? I looked it up and got the answer 4.4%. Children of all ages make up 38.9%.

The woods, 17 minutes before sunrise.

UPDATE: Early afternoon — 1:43:

"Ahead of the verdict... most of them pleaded that they had a right to humor, satire, and impertinence, while others outright evoked the 'Charlie Hebdo spirit.'"

I'm reading "10 French Trolls Are Tried for Cyberbullying Brigitte Macron—and They’re Mostly Not Sorry/'I don’t think I’m part of any harassment,' said one defendant, who had called the first lady a 'degenerate pedo-satanist slut' and a 'shitty tranny'" (Vanity Fair).

The defendants’ tweets compared [Brigitte] Macron to an “old tranny” and “a first lady boy” “who wears size 47 shoes.” Jérôme A., for his part, wrote: “An ultra minority of weirdos have taken power in Paris. Who doubts Brigitte’s cock?”

“I’m accused of nine tweets spaced over four months,” he pointed out, as if surprised to find himself in court for so little. Why, in the flood of vulgar, insulting comments on the internet, did the law take an interest in him? “I wonder what I’m doing here,” he complained. “Today, you can send people to police custody for a few harmless tweets, end up in cells that smell of piss, be summoned for several days in Paris. It’s frightening.”

Vanity Fair shows close to no concern about censorship and government abuse of power. Notice the language: "as if surprised to find himself in court for so little," "he complained."

The author, Hugo Wintrebert, appears to be French. But France has a brilliant tradition of satirizing government officials that goes back to the Middle Ages, and there's plenty of sexual imagery to be found.

"When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling. It’s one of the first words of the year that works as an interjection..."

"... a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means."

Says Steve Johnson, "director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group," quoted in "'6 7' is Dictionary’s word of the year. What does it say about society? A phrase coined by the rapper Skrilla has swept social media, delighting teenagers and puzzling their parents" (London Times).

Perfect for our time, don't you think? A vocalization whose meaning is no meaning, shouted out repeatedly because it is shouted out repeatedly, that is, it's meme. But it is not just a meme — we're told — because it's a feeling, the feeling of repeating what has already been repeated.

I remember the old days, when words had meaning:

"It might seem strange that a gigantic, staggeringly good new Cecily Brown work has emerged in a former flophouse where Jack Kerouac hacked out his scrolls..."

"... on the same block as Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios—though it’s been established that Hendrix is very much a Cecily Brown muse. The work usually comes to, say, Paula Cooper Gallery, where there’s a long line of buyers, collectors who otherwise have to shell out millions for her paintings at auction. And yet Brown herself could not be more pleased. She’s a scholar of the restaurant mural: paintings that enhance the space without completely overwhelming it, and seem like they’ve been there forever. Her favorites: the Maxfield Parrish at the St. Regis’s King Cole Bar, where Dalí and Duchamp used to carouse. The Howard Chandler Christy series in the restaurant at Hotel des Artistes, where Norman Rockwell lived. And, of course, the murals of Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel...."

From "Cecily Brown on the 'Unsexy' Art Market and Her New Restaurant Mural: “It Can’t be Moved. It’s Not for Sale'/Chez Nous at the Marlton Hotel has a new mural by one of the world’s great painters—whose works sell for millions at auction—and it’s already in a league with the famous wall paintings at Bemelmans Bar" (Vanity Fair)(click through to see the busy, cheerful mural).

The article has a link on Jack Kerouac that goes to another Vanity Fair article, one that begins with this Jack Kerouac quote: "As far as I’m concerned the only thing to do is sit in a room and get drunk."

Was Jack talking about rooms like that fancy-schmancy Chez Nous at the Marlton Hotel? And was he really an indoorsy guy? Challenged, I sought out the context of that quote, which appears on a lot of "famous quotes" page. But it's in something from 1960 called "The Vanishing American Hobo." No hobos Chez Nous, I suppose. Here's Jack:

"There’s just mutual headshaking. It’s like you lock eyes and you shake heads and you move on"/"It’s a sense of betrayal, like, who are you? Were you always like this? I don’t know you anymore!"

Said unnamed acquaintances of Cheryl Hines, quoted in "Cheryl Hines’s MAGA Makeover Has Her Hollywood Colleagues Scratching Their Heads: 'I Don’t Know You Anymore!'/'It’s a sense of betrayal, like, who are you?' says one industry insider, of the Curb Your Enthusiasm star and wife of RFK" (Vanity Fair).

“Whatever her reasons for staying with that weird, imbecilic husband and whether or not she subscribes to his inane positions is of no real consequence,” [an unnamed "Hollywood heavyweight"] says disdainfully. "It isn’t as though we’re talking about Zendaya, whom one would desperately want to get into their movie.'...

One of the few close pals to publicly speak up about Hines in the Trump 2.0 era is Tig Notaro, who once cohosted a podcast with Hines called Tig and Cheryl: True Story.... “My friendship with Cheryl predated her marriage to Bobby.... And then he endorsed Trump, and then it just got hard.... It’s really sad, because Cheryl did bring me so much joy.”.. 

Sometimes it seems like Hines is living out some dementedly cringed-out Curb episode, where ordinary events spiral out of control. As Notaro pointed out, it was one thing when RFK Jr. was a free-floating conspiracy theorist (“a gnat on the arm,” as she put it); it’s quite another now that he wields so much power over the health of the American populace.

Remember how sometimes the rule is you never — ever — liken a person to an insect? That rule comes and goes, but I will deal with my dismay by savoring the small pleasure of using the "insect politics" tag one more time.

Try this AI prompt (I did): Tell me about the idea that it is very wrong to compare a human being to an insect, that once you start saying people are gnats or flies or something in need of swatting, you're going down a slippery slope to Auschwitz... or something like that.

Sunrise — 7:07, 7:32, 7: 34.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"During the boy’s screen test, the director asked him to strip to his swimsuit. 'When they asked me to take off my shirt, I wasn’t comfortable..."

"I wasn’t prepared for that. I remember when he posed me with one foot against the wall, I would never stand like that. 'When I watch it now,' he said, 'I see how that son of a bitch sexualized me.' He told The Guardian that Visconti was 'the sort of cultural predator who would sacrifice anything or anyone for the work.'"

From "Bjorn Andresen, Reluctant ‘Most Beautiful Boy,’ Dies at 70/At 15, he played the muse to an ailing composer in Luchino Visconti’s film 'Death in Venice.' He later said he’d felt sexualized by the director" (NYT).

"Lee Anderson, Reform’s chief whip, suggested the return of the 'Invacar' — or invalid carriage — a small single-seater microcar that was distributed by the NHS for decades..."

"... after the Second World War. Anderson told a press conference hosted by the party: 'I remember back in the day if you were on disability and you wanted a car from the state, it was a blue three-wheeler, anybody remember those? What’s wrong with that? Let’s go back to that.' The cars were banned from British roads in 2003 for being too dangerous, after reports of them overturning and catching fire, and ministers ordered that all remaining cars be crushed. Anderson made the comments as he criticised the Motability scheme, which allows disabled people to get cars through the benefits system. Labour ministers are considering removing BMWs, Mercedes and other luxury cars from the scheme, which provides such premium brands to more than 40,000 benefits claimants...."

From "Bring back three-wheeled cars for disabled drivers, Reform urges/The chief whip, Lee Anderson, suggests return of ‘Invacars’, which were withdrawn on safety grounds, as part of a replacement of the Motability scheme" (London Times).