No smarter than the average bear
It turns out, trying to demonstrate that canis lupus familiaris are smarter than other similar animals winds up proving the null hypothesis instead:If you are convinced your dog is a genius, you may be...
View ArticleLong weekend
The Apollo Chorus of Chicago performed yesterday with the Peoria Symphony, which involved two 3-hour bus rides and two complete runs-through of Händel's Messiah. Coming up this week, we have two full...
View ArticleIn praise of B students
Research (and life experience) suggest strongly that kids who get straight As in school may not actually have the best preparation for real life:The evidence is clear: Academic excellence is not a...
View ArticleThe good and bad in Chicago this morning
Two good stories and a bad one.First, a good story: Chicago now has more breweries than any other city in the US:The metro region has surged past several longtime stalwarts to become home to more...
View ArticleUniversity of Wisconsin kills liberal education
Wisconsin, founded in a tradition of liberalism, is shifting its world-class university away from actually educating students into giving them vocational training instead:In March 2018, the school’s...
View ArticleDeploy the border collie!
Meet Piper, who clears out the birds at Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, Mich.:
View ArticleGrisly Chicago history
Forty years ago, Des Plaines, Ill., police arrested John Wayne Gacy on suspicion of murder. Then they found more than 20 bodies in his crawlspace. The Tribune has a retrospective:John Wayne Gacy’s...
View ArticleHammurabi, 2018
Engineer Mark Rober came up with a beautiful response to people stealing packages from his front porch:I sense a Kickstarter in his future...
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Just what I like to see before a trip
I'm heading to the Ancestral Homeland in a few days, and this chart is a veritable Christmas present from the Brexit idiots:The last time Sterling was this low was Christmas 2016—the last Christmas I...
View ArticleHow sellers use Amazon's monopsony power against each other
Via Bruce Schneier, a report on how third-party Amazon sellers use Amazon's own policies to attack their rivals:When you buy something on Amazon, the odds are, you aren’t buying it from Amazon at all....
View ArticleFifteen names in urban history
Citylab has a list:Georges-Eugène, Baron Haussmann, 1809-1891It’s hard to overstate the urban legacy of Baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine during the reign of France’s Emperor Napoleon III. Between...
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Interesting coincidence
The December solstice happens today at 22:21 UTC, which is 16:21 here in Chicago, which it turns out is the exact time of tonight's sunset. This is also true for everywhere along the lightest gray line...
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Personal update
Yesterday was a bit busy. I spent my morning getting this:I haven't named it yet. Current thoughts are Hinata (一陽), Hana (初夏), and Asahi (旦陽). (The new car was built in Naguro, Japan; thus, a Japanese...
View ArticleStuff to read on the plane
Just a quick post of articles I want to load up on my Surface at O'Hare:Dana Milbank says that we've now lost the Cold War. In his preceding column, he said "Rudy Giuliani is the fool for our time."BBC...
View ArticleTime for a kip
I've arrived safely in the Ancestral Homeland, and as my body will tell you, it's too early to text anyone back home to let them know.Right now I plan to sleep. Assuming I wake up sometime today, I'll...
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Boxing Day
Jennifer Finney Boyan explains the English tradition, along with its Irish counterpart:In England, it’s Boxing Day; in Ireland and elsewhere, it’s St. Stephen’s Day. When I was a student in London, my...
View ArticleTo the dogs!
A couple of news stories have dogged me this week.First, the TSA has determined that travelers—particularly children—find floppy-eared dogs less threatening than pointy-eared dogs:TSA Administrator...
View Article2018: Hitting reset
In the last half 2018, I made a number of changes in my life that I had put off for years. I moved, got a new car, repaired my dog, and made a couple of changes in my personal life to clear a solid...
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