Friday afternoon reading list
The following appeared in my inbox while I was in the air. I'll read them later:I started reading Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation on my flight. I'm already 3/4 done. (Thank you to my co-worker MK for...
View ArticleQueued up for the flight
I'm about to head to SFO after this very-quick trip to California. My sleeping Surface will have these articles waiting for me to read:The Economist's Gulliver blog grumbles about airlines squeezing...
View ArticleWelcome to the 2010s!
I'm on a train, using my mobile phone to tether my laptop to the Intertubes. I know this is an old technology, and also the reason I have unlimited data on my mobile, but I still love this stuff.Things...
View ArticleNo more daily PE in Illinois
For my entire school life, from Kindergarten to 12th grade, I had daily gym class. In 1957, Illinois became the first state to require all kids to have daily PE. This was the case until this school...
View ArticleTwo Constitutional amendments I'd like to see
Hyper-partisanship is not only bad in itself, but it's causing a long-term erosion of our civic institutions. When people suspect that judges are partisans, it reduces respect for the judicial system...
View ArticleDivvy income falls as rides and service area increase
Chicago's take of Divvy bike-share income was 31% lower in 2016 than in 2014 and 2015 as the city expanded the program into the South and West sides:Divvy income fell from $2.86 million in 2014 and...
View ArticleNew sunrise chart
Every six months or so, I put together a handy chart of what Chicago's sunrise and sunset times will look like for the next 12 months. The first one was in July 2006. Today I posted what I believe is...
View ArticleLink round-up
Today is the last work day of 2017, and also the last day of my team's current sprint. So I'm trying to chase down requirements and draft stories before I lose everyone for the weekend. These articles...
View ArticleThe end of the year as we know it (and I feel fine)
This time, I'm getting this in early, and posting it automatically just before midnight. So the numbers might be a tiny bit off.2017 saw almost no significant changes over 2016, except in Fitbit...
View ArticleCold weather and steps
My step count over the last week and a half has really suffered. Between Arctic temperatures and working from home (and a dog who hates boots), my average over the last 7 days of 2017 was just 8,441...
View ArticleCrap beer sales are going to pot
People watching the big-beer industry (think: Miller Lite and Coors Light) expect a 7.1% decline in mass-market beer sales—$2.1 billion annually—as more states legalize cannabis:"There's a ton of...
View ArticleFirst normal commute in weeks
Between my company's work-from-home week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the excruciatingly cold weather the week after, this morning was the first time since December 21st.It turned out that...
View ArticleWhy do we need to sleep?
The Atlantic reports on some new research in why animals all do this thing that could get them eaten:There are a handful of substances clearly demonstrated to cause sleep—including a molecule called...
View ArticleWhy I hate the suburbs
I spent over 3 hours in my car today in principal because there were no public transit options to my remote, suburban destination. That, plus all-day meetings, means that instead of outlining what I'm...
View ArticleMore stuff to read
What a day. I thought I'd have more time to catch up on reading up to this point, but life intervened. So an hour from now, when I'm cut off from all telecommunications for 9 hours, I plan to sleep....
View ArticleFriday afternoon link round-up
Where to start?President Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims in his first year in office—an average of nearly 6 per day.Meanwhile, his "cult of personality" is bringing fringe conspiracy...
View ArticleNo, that is not Scotch
Diageo, the international beverage behemoth that owns about a quarter of Scotland's distilleries (including Caol Ila and Talisker) is investigating how to produce horrible shite that isn't at all...
View ArticleAmazon as Tom Sawyer (with billions in cash)
Amazon's bidding process for its second headquarters (HQ2) has given the company a bonanza of information about what 238 cities are willing to give up in order to get a piece of the action, and thus...
View ArticleSetting up lunchtime reading
Over the weekend I made a couple of minor updates to Weather Now, and today I'm going to spend some time taking it off its Azure Web Role and moving it to an Azure Website. That will (a) save me money...
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