Lengthening reading list
I have three books in the works and two on deck (imminently, not just in my to-be-read stack) right now. Reading:Neal Stephenson, Seveneves.Christopher Dickey, Our Man In Charleston.Gene Kim, et al.,...
View ArticleNew research clarifies where the moon came from
In the last 40 years, astronomers have gathered more and more evidence that our moon came out of a scarcely-imaginable collision between a baby (100-million-year-old) Earth and another proto-planet...
View ArticleEddie Lampert's murder of Sears
Sears, Roebuck & Co. was founded only a couple years after the Chicago fire (and the Apollo Chorus). For decades people equated the Sears brand with mail-order retail. They could deliver anything,...
View ArticleWhat is it with weekends?
It's odd that I haven't posted on a Saturday since January 23rd, and I haven't posted on both weekend days since December 5th-6th. I'm not sure why, really.This time, it's because last night I had a...
View ArticleToo many things to read during lunch
A medium-length list this time:A Megabus exploded outside Chicago yesterday, but that shouldn't scare you away from intercity buses.Let's not forget that Antonin Scalia tried to take the country...
View ArticleFreakin' NuGet
While I'm going through a boring cycle of NuGet updates, unit tests, and inexplicable app-publishing failures related to the above, I'm piling up a crapload of articles to read on my flight...
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Need to post more
The all-time Daily Parker posting average has inched up from 1.24 to 1.34 over the past five years, due to a pretty consistent pattern since February 2011 of posting around 42 entries a month. But in...
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Warm, but still a miss
Yesterday's temperature at O'Hare got up to 21°C, which we last hit on November 5th, and is the normal temperature for May 15th. It was quite a lovely day, in fact. Tom Skilling pointed out that this...
View ArticleWhat Amazon looked like when I was a kid
I have a couple hours to kill in the Loop after having lunch with a friend. I don't really want caffeine or alcohol right now, which rules out the two classes of places to where I would most likely go....
View ArticleRoméo, Roméo
I really, really like the Original Pronunciation movement started by David and Ben Crystal. Through analysis and performance, they're trying to understand Shakespeare's plays as audiences 400 years ago...
View ArticleIn the Navy
At trivia (pub quiz) on Tuesday, we had this question: Name 4 of the 6 U.S. presidents who have served in the Navy or Naval Reserves. We got it wrong, unfortunately, and the answer surprised me.All six...
View ArticleHackers attacking law firms
Interesting. A Ukrainian criminal has essentially announced his intention to attack 50 law firms worldwide in order to get insider information on securities:The mastermind, a broker named "Oleras"...
View ArticleBrussels Airlines routes around the damage
Cranky Flier thinks Brussels Airlines has done a remarkable job keeping its passengers moving after its principal hub closed for repairs last week:Two days after the bombing, Brussels Airlines started...
View ArticleBusy weekend
Again, the post Friday was not an April Fool's joke. And since then I've had non-stop things going on, including today going over the silent auction donations for our coming Apollo After Hours...
View ArticleSocial psychology, A-Z
The Ph.D. psychologist at Deeply Trivial is participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge this month. She's six posts into a great primer on social psychology, starting with last Friday's Attribution through...
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Chicago from Space
Via Chicagoist, astronaut Tim Kopra snapped this from aboard the International Space Station earlier this week:The city's borders show up brilliantly because unlike most of the surrounding suburbs,...
View ArticleReading list
Here we go:Sam the Dog is missing after being launched into the stratosphere; an English primary school is sad.You really can have too much grit.Chicagoist is trying to find the best beer brewed in...
View ArticleWait, what?
I'm just going to re-publish Bruce Schneier's post from this morning:GCHQ detectedapotential pre-publication leak of a Harry Potter book, and alerted the publisher.Is this what British national...
View ArticleBye, bye, Andy Jay
The Treasury has dropped its plan to change the $10 note, and instead, has decided to put Harriet Tubman on the $20:The move [Treasury Secretary Jack] Lew is announcing Wednesday is intended as a way...
View ArticleDecent weekend so far
Today's weather was finally spring-like, meaning twenty degrees warmer away from the lake than near it. But Parker still got over an hour of walkies, I've gotten (so far) about 18,000 steps, and all...
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