Warm nights getting much warmer
A predicted consequence of anthropogenic climate change is that the air won't cool as quickly overnight, leading to ever-increasing temperatures overall. It's happening, and it's dangerous:Nationwide,...
View ArticleChicago's last Sears closing tomorrow
I despise Eddie Lampert. The harm he has caused Sears and the people who work for the company should be criminal. But he's going to continue to get rich driving it into the ground selling the real...
View ArticleCool new feature in Weather Now
I've finally gotten around to extending the historical weather feature in Weather Now. Now, you can get any archival report that the system has, back to 2013. (I have many more archival reports from...
View ArticleToo many things in my inbox
I probably won't have time to read all of these things over lunch:President Trump is repaying Vladimir Putin for his 2016 win right in front of us, while still avoiding the consequences of Russia's...
View ArticleThat's not a moon, that's a--wait, no that's a moon
Astronomer Scott Sheppard has discovered 10 more moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the gas giant's coterie up to 79:Sheppard found them with the help of a ground-based telescope in Chile that had...
View ArticleYou're not wrong, voice-command assistant UIs are horrible
The Nielsen-Norman Group has released recent research on user interactions with intelligent assistants like Alexa and Google Home. The results are not great:Usability testing finds that both voice-only...
View ArticleThe intensifying battle against voting
The Republican Party has been stepping up its program of voter suppression in an increasingly-desperate effort to remain in power despite being in the minority. Having hitched its wagon to the older,...
View ArticleUnprecedented heat in Northern Europe
London has very few air conditioners compared with North American cities, because the 30°C temperatures they've got right now happen so rarely it hasn't made a lot of sense to install them. But this...
View ArticleEvidence suggests people heard Earhart's distress calls
More data has emerged about Amelia Earhart's final days:Across the world, a 15-year-old girl listening to the radio in St. Petersburg, Fla., transcribed some of the desperate phrases she heard: “waters...
View ArticleChicago's first opera
On this day in 1850, Chicago had its first (sort-of) professional opera performance. It wasn't exactly up to the Lyric's standards:In New York, P.T. Barnum was paying Jenny Lind—“The Swedish...
View ArticleLunchtime reading
Happy August! (Wait, where did April go?)As I munch on my salad at my desk today, I'm reading these stories:New Republic wonders if Charles Koch really thinks mainstream Democrats will embrace his...
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American Land Use
Bloomberg published on Monday a super-cool analysis of U.S. land use patterns:Using surveys, satellite images and categorizations from various government agencies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
View ArticleLate afternoon reading
When I get home tonight, I'll need to read these (and so should you):The New York Times magazine has a long article on how we almost fixed climate change between 1979 and 1989; New Republic has a...
View ArticleNew evidence of the Mayans' fate
Sediment under Lake Chichancanab on the Yucatan Peninsula has offered scientists a clearer view of what happened to the Mayan civilization:Scientists have several theories about why the collapse...
View ArticleHow the McDonalds Monopoly game was rigged
Via Schneier, the head of security for the marketing firm running the game stole the million-dollar game pieces:[FBI Special Agent Richard] Dent’s investigation had started in 2000, when a mysterious...
View ArticleAnother look at Hiroshima
Yesterday was the 73rd anniversary of our nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan. On the event's 50th anniversary, The Atlantic asked, "Was it right?"I imagine that the persistence of that question...
View ArticleThirty years ago in Chicago
On 8 August 1988, the Chicago Cubs played their first night game at Wrigley Field. The Tribune rounds up memories from people who supported and opposed the installation of lights at the park:Ryne...
View ArticleThe TSA finally talks frankly about security
Bruce Schneier says that the TSA's thoughts about security at smaller airports are exactly the conversation they should be having:Last week, CNN reported that the Transportation Security Administration...
View ArticleThe state of American craft brewing
The Chicago Tribune reported today that the largest craft brewer in the United States is now...AB InBev, AKA Anheuser-Busch:Between 2011 and 2017, Anheuser-Busch bought 10 breweries from coast to...
View ArticleFallows on the Seattle plane crash
Friday evening, a baggage worker at SEATAC airport outside Seattle stole an empty commuter plane and crashed it into an uninhabited part of an island in Puget Sound. Pilot and journalist Jim Fallows...
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