Sunrise — 6:32, 6:37, 6:51, 6:55.

Things not believed.

You released 425,000 convicted criminals into the public.

No one believes you. pic.twitter.com/ddq048Eqv9

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 27, 2024

"Sleep disorders can become more common as people age, and older adults tend to sleep more lightly and go to bed and wake up a little earlier than they used to..."

"... that is completely normal. But if there are dramatic changes in someone’s sleep habits, where they are starting their morning at 3 a.m. or are unable to stay awake during the day, it can be a sign of dementia.... One change that can occur specifically with dementia with Lewy bodies — another type of progressive brain disorder — is that a person might begin acting out their dreams. This is also true for Parkinson’s disease, which is related to dementia with Lewy bodies. Ordinarily, our muscles become paralyzed while we’re in REM sleep, which is when we tend to have the most vivid dreams. But in these two neurodegenerative disorders, toxic proteins attack the cells in the brainstem that control sleep paralysis."

From "Memory Loss Isn’t the Only Sign of Dementia/Here are five other common red flags to look out for" (NYT).

The other 4 are financial problems, personality changes, driving difficulties, and loss of smell.

I have loss of smell, so it was disconcerting to see that description of sleep.

You know, Hillary used to try to promote herself with drinks.

I see Kamala is using alcohol as a come-on to Hispanic voters: Trump wants to tax "your tequila, Modelos, and Coronas." 

I remember Hillary using beer:

"WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani abruptly stepped down Friday after a two-year stint that included a controversial embrace of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy."

The NY Post reports.

Sistani pushed the 61-year-old company — famous for in-person meetings and portion control — to buy a telehealth platform that connected patients with doctors who can prescribe the popular obesity medications. However WeightWatchers’ shares have been in freefall, plummeting more than 90% this year. The stock was down nearly $3 Friday, trading below $1.

The interim CEO is Tara Comonte, the former president of Shake Shack.

Is there some mysterious order in that chaos?

Professor vividly demonstrates the problem with the duty to retreat.

 TikTok, after the jump:

"Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its longtime leader, in an airstrike on the organization’s underground headquarters near Beirut, hours after Israel said he had been killed."

The NYT reports, just now.

The death of Mr. Nasrallah is a major escalation in Israel’s rapidly expanding campaign against the Iran-backed group.... Beirut was gripped on Saturday by a feeling that the capital was no longer safe after months of Hezbollah clashes across the country’s remote border with Israel. Thousands of people from outside Beirut spent the night sleeping on the streets and beaches of the capital....

"Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, has an office on a quiet street in Hudson, N.Y., where he sits at a desk under a poster of Mao Zedong, the former communist leader of China."

"Why? Maybe to signal how ideas can be dangerous? Nope, no particular reason. There are two other Chinese communist posters on the wall, too. 'I found them online for like $10,' said Mr. Gladwell, 61. 'I just think it’s funny.'"

From "Malcolm Gladwell Holds His Ideas Loosely. He Thinks You Should, Too. As he releases 'Revenge of The Tipping Point,' the best-selling journalist talks about broken windows theory, Joe Rogan and changing his mind" (NYT).

What if he had a Hitler poster and said "I just think it’s funny" and they were really cheap? Before you answer, remember when Jordan Peterson "bought like 400 Soviet paintings on eBay."

"The Democratic party that I grew up with — the Democratic party of John F Kennedy, of Robert Kennedy — does not exist today."

"The Democratic party that I grew up with — the Democratic party of John F Kennedy, of Robert Kennedy — does not exist today. This was the party of Peace. Today, it's the party of war. And we saw President Zelensky come over here. I was so proud of President Trump today who did at a press conference was with Zelensky. And the Democrats had on their own press conference, and you know what he got them to do? He got them to sign artillery shells....  I was so proud of President Trump.... He was the epitome of diplomacy.... He was kind and civil to President Zelensky. He was also firm in his resolve, and he said I've had a nice meeting, but I have not changed my mind. We need a peace, and we need to do it very quickly, and we need to protect US interests, not the interests of a country in which we have no strategic interest, and no treaty. And he was polite he was kind, he was firm in protecting our country, and that's what Donald Trump will always do. And it was especially impressive to me because I know what Donald Trump would was thinking while he was having that meeting he was thinking I want to turn this guy over and hold him by his legs and shake all the money out of his pockets and I hope it adds up to $28 billion?"

Said RFK Jr. at yesterday's Trump rally in Michigan.

To see the clip of Trump with Zelensky, see "Trump meets Zelensky and says it's time to end Russia's war" (BBC).  An excerpt from that article:

Sunrise — 6:51.

"I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran: If you strike us we will strike you."

"There is no place in Iran that long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that is true of the entire Middle East.”

Said Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the U.N., quoted in "Netanyahu Gives No Ground in Address at U.N./The Israeli leader made no mention of moving toward cease-fires in Lebanon, where conflict with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has spiraled, or in Gaza" (NYT).

He also criticized the U.N. itself as a “swamp of antisemitic bile” and said its members concern for Gaza was motivated not by humanitarianism but by dislike of Jews.

“It’s not about Gaza,” he said of criticism over the last year of his government’s handling of the war. “It’s about Israel. It has always been about Israel. About Israel’s very existence.”

Goodbye to Maggie Smith.

The wonderful actress was 89.

NYT obituary here.

ADDED: Sorry my embedded video doesn't put Maggie Smith in the freeze frame, but she does appear prominently in the clip, and it's a great clip from one of my favorite movies, "A Room With a View." Smith plays the stilted chaperone for the main character, who is an exuberant young woman, but feeling the emotion of the repressed older woman is crucial to the deepest understanding of that incredibly moving film.

"Trump’s Huge Civil Fraud Penalty Draws Skepticism From Appeals Court/A five-judge New York appellate panel questioned both the size and validity of a judgment of more than $450 million against Donald J. Trump at a hearing."

That's the headline in the NYT this morning. 

Justice [David] Friedman... asked [Judith N. Vale, New York’s deputy solicitor general] to identify any other case in which the attorney general’s office had sued 'to upset a private business transaction that was between equally sophisticated partners.' Before she could respond, Dianne T. Renwick, the court’s presiding justice, who generally seemed supportive of the case, added her own question. 'And little to no impact on the public marketplace?' she asked....

The questioning by the five-judge panel was vigorous. 

"Do you think it’s at all reasonable for the mother of a teenage boy to worry about a false accusation of sexual assault? Or is that just like, a normal maternal anxiety?"

Asks Ross Douthat of Tressie McMillan Cottom, who answers: "I think it is about as normal as worrying that you’re going to be sex trafficked at the shopping center if you are a Middle America mom. That is to say, is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No. And is there a much bigger threat out there that might be a better use of your maternal anxiety?... The feminist philosopher Kate Mann calls it 'himpathy; — this default sympathy for men and for the male condition and that it is so deeply embedded in our culture."

That's part of a conversation at "Diddy and Our Culture’s 'Himpathy' for Powerful Men/How the allegations against/Sean Combs change the way we talk about #MeToo, rumors and powerful men" (NYT)(and that's my last gift link of the month, which should tell you there's a lot more to read there).

"The powerful Category 4 hurricane came ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast and quickly moved into Georgia, where it dumped record amounts of rain."

The NYT reports.

Did anyone here experience Helene? Perhaps you wouldn't be on line if you did. 

"Early indications from Florida’s Big Bend coast were of catastrophic damage to small, marshy villages like Cedar Key, which sits on a series of islands jutting into the Gulf of Mexico. 'It looks like a nuclear bomb went off,' said Michael Bobbitt, a novelist and playwright who lives in the heart of the island community."

Anyone waiting, right now, in her path?

"Flooding and tornadoes were forecast across much of the Southeast, and 'significant landslides' were predicted across the southern Appalachians through Friday. In Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., nearly 400 miles from Florida’s Gulf Coast, forecasters warned that the storm could be one of the region’s 'most significant weather events' in modern history."

Sunrise — 6:52.