Thugs at the borders, a fascist president who wants to annex us (currently not saying so, but still) and ongoing disgusting behaviour around trans citizens and reproductive freedom. It's principled: my principles don't align with the regime in power, so I'm staying away (again).

Exactly! Sideburns added just prior to trip back, as camouflage.

I took it as a good omen when we saw the aurora, in St. Andrew's, NB, the night before I got married.

I know no Arizonan lore. Can't help.

People outside the US: given the number of guns at play, it was just a matter of time.

Believe red skies foretell the death of kings, in some places where aurora are rare, so deemed portentous. Whether that is a bad omen/disaster will always be subjective/context-based.

Lovely, was still seeing small groups of swans on my walk to work and weekend hikes, two weeks ago. Quiet groups, so likely tundras. There is a crew of trumpeters that overwinters, southeast of me (still within Yukon) where a section of a large/shallow river stays open, all winter.

Cool, so maybe a short-eared. They migrate south for the winter. The recent sightings I saw (on Yukon FB bird page) seemed to be them in unexpected places, so maybe that's going on generally with them right now.

Hmmm.. Boreals are tiny: size of a robin. Have heard there have been some short-eared owls moving around, but they like open areas and might be too big: crow sized. You could go look at the Cornell Bird ID's for both. Body shape also: boreals are big head/little body. Short-eareds have bigger body.

Close talk! I like the beak snapping also.

In our neighbourhood, we had one that imitated the short siren burst a cop car does when they put lights on behind a car that should pull over. Heard one in September that seemed to be imitating sad, newly fledged short-billed gulls.

The author specifically identifies his subject as Harvard types who said Epstein was "smart" and "misunderstood". If your friends/family were also saying that, maybe re-think. If not, this post isn't about them. If you read the post, it is clear which ones he is talking about.

What kind of safety/anti-violence stuff is being taught at Yukon schools, specifically, but not exclusively, to boys? What kind of counselling is available to violent offenders, at Whitehorse Correctional and the Youth Offender facility? Is first charge for first offense? Probably not.

Wary of the "what is happening to our City", comments around this. What "new" things are folks going to blame? Been here since 2000 and random assaults against women (day/night) are easily found in old newsreports. Reported victims usually white, suggesting others attacked do not go to police. 1/2

Today is Remembrance Day. What the artist did: used thousands of star-headed brass pins, removed from Canadian armed forces service papers, to make giant star charts of the night sky the day after major (Canadian involved) battles of WW1. #war #Remembrance #history

For non-Canadians, or those not familiar with Canadian WW1 history: the Military Service Act was passed in the fall or 1917, requiring all men 20-45 to sign up. My grandfather was not a volunteer; he was drafted.

Oh yes. When I lived in Saint John, NB, Canada, in the 1990's there was one downtown shoe repair place, run by an elderly Czech(?) dude. Would mostly say "shoe not worth repairing". He's likely passed on, but, also, most people in the place don't have any footwear worth repairing.