Sunrise — 6:48, 7:09, 7:12, 7:27.

Finally, we got a richly colorful sunrise, the first one of December. 

Yesterday, we had a huge crowd of swans, and today they were entirely gone, from this side of the lake anyway. I thought I heard them in the distance. Maybe over by the terrace and the frat houses. But where we were the coots had reestablished cootville. Walking back, I thought I saw an eagle, and a bit later I heard an unusual bird cry. Eagles don't sound eagle-y to me. But it was an eagle. In fact, 3 eagles! 

Meade caught the birds:

Tomorrow, it will be difficult to get out at all. The National Weather Service is saying "wind chills as low as 29 below expected." That's a little crazy! 

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Why everything is ‘aesthetic’ to Gen Z and Alpha/'Aesthetic' is now an adjective and a one-word compliment. Why does it still sound wrong to older ears?"

That headline at the Washington Post sent me right to the OED to see when "aesthetic" first became an adjective. 

The relevant meaning is "Of a thing: in accordance with principles of artistic beauty or taste; giving or designed to give pleasure through beauty; of pleasing appearance." The OED traces that back to the 1800s:

"The exact spot that held me: 38°40'55.3"N 109°38'45.3"W. If nothing else, let this stand as a reminder to others. Quicksand is real."

"I didn't believe it before today. It does not care how experienced you are. It only cares that you stepped in the wrong place at the wrong time."

From the Reddit post, "I Had to be Rescued off the Hayduke Trail Today in Arches National Park After Getting Stuck in Quicksand."

The story appears at many news sites now, including "Stuck in Quicksand, a Hiker in Utah Has His SOS Answered/Austin Dirks used a Garmin satellite device to reach emergency responders, who rescued him in a remote canyon in Arches National Park" (NYT). That's a free link, and there's some good video there, showing the rescue.

A quote from one of the recipients of the call for help: "We always try not to be judgmental. But you’re thinking, Quicksand, really? It’s probably some tourist with their foot stuck in the mud somewhere."

AND: Dirks shows up the comments section at the NYT:

"Ex-Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore told mistress he was going to make her watch him kill himself — with butter knives, kitchen scissors."

 That's the disturbing headline in The New York Post.

The inconsolable 39-year-old [Moore] allegedly burst into the apartment of his executive assistant and mistress, Paige Shiver, on Wednesday, where he grabbed butter knives and kitchen scissors and told her he was going to make her watch him commit suicide. Shiver, 32, had broken off the illicit tryst with her boss just two days before, prosecutor Kati Rezmierski said during Moore’s arraignment on Friday afternoon.The pair has been in an “intimate relationship” for a number of years, she added.... Shiver reported their relationship to the University of Michigan’s athletic department when Moore continued to call and text her, despite her efforts to ignore him, prosecutors said.... Prosecutors on Friday described to the court how an enraged Moore told his mistress, “you ruined my life,” and that he was going to kill himself and “make you watch.”...

"Size of Life."

A beautiful and entertaining graphic depiction of the relative size of various life forms.

I've always loved perceptions about size. I've collected them over the years using my tag "big and small" — you know, the large boulder the size of a small boulder, the Santa Claus hat, and all the rest — so I'm happy to have something else, something so good, to add to my collection.

"Life is an excruciating phase in the life of everyone."

Wrote Nell Zink, in "Sister Europe,” quoted in the Dwight Garner section of the NYT piece "Our Book Critics on Their Year in Reading," and that's a free link to the NYT because Garner does such a fine job of finding sentences to quote.

Here's his book — which I've bought for myself and others — collecting quotes in the same manner you'll find in that "Year in Reading" piece: "Garner's Quotations/A Modern Miscellany" (commission earned). 

And here's the commission-earned link for "Sister Europe," which I bought on the strength of that one sentence.

Here's one more quote from that "Year in Reading" (this one's by Mariel Franklin): "There was something about air travel that made me think of Swiss euthanasia clinics."

"One possibility of what we get out of it is basically a spheres of influence kind of organization of the world..."

"... something we haven't really seen since the late 1800s. This is a world in which the United States dominates its own territory, that China dominates the Pacific, and that the Europeans dominate Europe — but if they don't get their act together, maybe Vladimir Putin dominates Europe.... I think this is where we see the America First doctrine becoming something closer to Americas First — Americas with an S — that he views the region as basically the subsidiary of the United States. And you know, I've traveled with President Trump. I've covered 5 American Presidents since I got back to Washington... and my takeaway is that Trump is really not an isolationist. He never has been. He's actually more of a unilateralist.... He wants the total freedom of action. He knows that he is not really interested in democracy promotion. He knows that he wants to prioritize economics and economic development over everything, even if those economics don't necessarily come with security benefits to the us.... [E]ach region of the world — and even our allies — are going to have to learn to depend on themselves.... I think the fundamental trust in the US as the defender of a certain set of concepts of the West has been shattered for some time...."

Says David Sanger in today's excellent episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "Trump’s Plan to Reorder the World."

AND: Here's the "National Security Strategy" document Sanger is discussing.

ADDED: There's some discussion of the Monroe Doctrine in that podcast, so

"Across the country, a small but growing number of educators are experimenting with oral exams to circumvent the temptations presented by powerful artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT."

"Such tools can be used to cheat on take-home exams or essays and to complete all manner of assignments, part of a broader phenomenon known as 'cognitive off-loading.' [One teacher] tells her students that using AI is like bringing a forklift to the gym when your goal is to build muscle. 'The classroom is a gymnasium, and I am your personal trainer,' she explains. “I want you to lift the weights.'"

I'm reading "To AI-proof exams, professors turn to the oldest technique of all/A growing number of educators are finding that oral exams allow them to test their students’ learning without the benefit of AI platforms such as ChatGPT" (WaPo)(gift link).

I stare the nerve-wracked student in the face and say "Is using AI is like bringing a forklift to the gym when your goal is to build muscle?"

The student, knowing his grade in my "Logic and Language" course depends on how fluently and sensibly he responds to that prompt, answers:

Sunrise — 7:16, 7:23.

After 3 days hiding from the ice and cold, I finally made it back out to the sunrise.

The swans were going crazy celebrating the coming of the light. Here's Meade's video:

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Forced to marry her cousin at 12, Kouhkan became pregnant at 13 and gave birth to a son. She suffered physical and emotional abuse..."

"... for years. On the day her husband was killed, Kouhkan found him beating their son, then aged five. She called her husband’s cousin, Mohammad Abil, for help. When he arrived a fight broke out which resulted in the death of her husband...."

From "Child bride spared execution in Iran after blood money is paid/Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husband" (The Guardian).

"Iran executes the highest number of women in the world, according to available data. Amnesty International said that at least 30 women were executed in the country last year. At least 42 women have been executed in 2025 so far – 18 for murdering their husbands, including two child brides, according to Iran Human Rights."

"Nuzzi’s book compares in first week sales to those like John Fetterman's 'Unfettered' (2,600 copies in its first week) and Michael Wolff's 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America' (3,000 copies)..."

"... both of which were largely considered busts. Experts theorized 'Canto' was an example of the disconnect between media elites and consumers, and that scandal-filled headlines preceding its release exhausted the public interest before the book even hit the shelves...."

From "Olivia Nuzzi’s 'Canto' Sells Just 1,200 Print Copies In First Week" (Forbes).

"The Trump administration wants to persuade four more countries to leave the European Union to 'Make Europe Great Again'..."

"... according to reports of a longer, still-classified version of the US national security strategy released last week. There are also suggestions of creating a new elite C5, or Core Five, forum of world powers to sideline the G7, comprising America, China, India, Japan and Russia. The four EU countries seen as targets to follow Brexit are Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland, according to leaked details reported by the US defence website Defense One. The classified version of the strategy, which warned of 'civilisational erasure' in Europe because of mass immigration and multiculturalism, is believed to call for the US to 'support parties, movements, and intellectual and cultural figures who seek sovereignty and preservation/restoration of traditional European ways of life … while remaining pro-American.'" 

 From "Leaked files ‘show US wants to persuade four nations to leave EU’ The countries seen as targets to follow Brexit are Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland, according to leaked details of the US national security strategy" (London Times).

Jasmine Crockett hits the ground running.

 

That's one of the best political ads I've ever seen. This video is excellent too:

"He describes how — in his view — his ex-wife weaponised gender medicine to cut him out of his daughter’s life..."

"... how his daughter went from being sectioned for anorexia to being affirmed in her trans identity by all the adults in her life except him, how she was given a prescription for testosterone after one online session with a counsellor, and how this was injected by her local NHS GP with no blood tests or clinical evaluation.... J was diagnosed with autism aged 13. At 14 she was sectioned because she had become severely malnourished.... Before she was sectioned, J had told her parents that she was a lesbian, and then she and her best friend said that they were in fact boys in a gay relationship. 'These are two autistic girls who were ostracised in school,' says [the father]. After J came out of hospital, she ate nothing for a week. Then her mother made a deal with her: if you start eating, I will let you take the gender drugs.... He remembers the last time he saw her.... 'When she said goodbye, her smile was the same girly shy smile she had as a little girl. Somewhere in there is my daughter.'"

From "Father’s anger at girl’s potentially fatal testosterone dose/The child, who was 15 at the time, was given the prescription by the private GenderGP clinic after one online counselling session" (London Times).

To be "sectioned" is to be forced into hospitalization.

"María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this week... dodged a reporter’s question about her views on the threat of U.S. military action in Venezuela."

"But she repeated the Trump administration’s talking points on Mr. Maduro’s government, comparing him to a criminal mastermind engaged in a vast array of illegal activities in partnership with America’s adversaries. 'Venezuela has already been invaded,' she said. 'We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents, we have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime. We have the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels.'... In response to questions about the seizure of the oil tanker, Ms. Machado said that she supported cutting the funds of Mr. Maduro’s government. She added that he finances himself with gold smuggling, human trafficking, drugs and illegal oil sales...."

From "Nobel Peace Prize Winner Machado Vows to End Maduro’s Rule in Venezuela/María Corina Machado reappeared on the global stage as the Trump administration ramped up its pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro" (NYT).

ADDED: I'm reading "How Nobel peace prize winner María Machado fled Venezuela, in a wig/The Venezuelan opposition leader took great risks to reach Norway, where her daughter had accepted the prize, making a surprise appearance hours later" (London Times): "... Machado left her safe house in the Caracas suburbs on Monday night, wearing a wig and a disguise.... [and] embarked on a ten-hour journey through ten military checkpoints before reaching the coast by midnight. After resting for a few hours at a coastal fishing village, she and two others set out at 5am on a traditional wooden skiff — a small lightweight fishing boat with a shallow bottom, designed to be used near shore — and made the 35-mile trip across the Caribbean Sea to Curaçao, an island nation within the kingdom of the Netherlands. Strong winds and choppy seas delayed her crossing.... [A] source said that the Machado escape team alerted the US government 'so that they would not blow up the boat.' The opposition leader has been a vocal supporter of the Trump administration’s increased military presence in the area...."

AND: The NYT quotes Machado: "I believe that President Trump’s actions have been decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever. You need to raise the cost of staying in power and lower the cost of leaving power. Only when you do that, this regime will break down. And that’s where we’re moving toward right now."

In the Wednesday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want... except the seizing of the oil tanker. There's a new post, just up, for that. All other topics are fine.