If only I had a flight coming up this week
...I might have time to read all of these:President Trump's new rule, announced by acting USCIS chief Ken Cuccinelli, could radically change who gets to become an American.This week is the 10th...
View ArticleLatter-day horoscopes
Today's Washington Post takes up the world-bending news that people put their Myers-Briggs types into their dating profiles:The Myers-Briggs assessment categorizes people into one of 16 personality...
View ArticleWhat are you really asking?
Time for another logical fallacy, this time one commonly felt but not always understood.Plurium interrogationum"Many questions" or "complex question" means that a sentence appears to contain a single...
View ArticleAnti-daylight saving time article is early this year
Apparently the morning people haven't let up in their assault on us night people:[S]o far, legislation to go on year-round daylight saving time has passed in at least seven states, including Delaware,...
View ArticleHow to combat influence operations
Bruce Schneier has an eight-step plan—though he recognizes Step 1 might not be possible:Since the 2016 US presidential election, there have been an endless series of ideas about how countries can...
View ArticleLogic, reasoning, and SQUIRREL!
In The Daily Parker's occasional series on logical fallacies, we now come to my favorite:Non sequitur"It does not follow." That is, the argument does not have anything to do with the point under...
View ArticleLunchtime queue
I'll circle back to a couple of these later today. But at the moment, I've got the following queued up for my lunch hour:The Washington Post charitably describes yesterday's press conference in France...
View ArticleSlow news day? Pah
It's the last weekday of summer. Chicago's weather today is perfect; the office is quiet ahead of the three-day weekend; and I'm cooking with gas on my current project.None of that leaves a lot of time...
View ArticleHappy autumn
Summer ends in about two hours here in Chicago, after a kind of perfect late-summer day. The day is ending with a cool, gentle rain, which will clear up before dawn.The end of August being the end of...
View ArticleFrank Bruni's timely column yesterday
I don't know that Frank Bruni reads The Daily Parker, but his column yesterday made for a nice coincidence with my post earlier today:My interactions in Central Park are partly about having a dog but...
View ArticleFunny things
First, something legitimately funny, especially if you're Jewish:And some things that are funny, as in, "the President is a little funny, isn't he?"Vice President Mike Pence will stay at a Trump resort...
View ArticleNot a slow news day
Let's see, where to begin?The UK House of Lords today agreed to progress the Benn Bill, clearing the way for it to go to the Queen as early as Monday.Boris Johnson's brother resigned from Parliament...
View ArticleAnother anniversary
Monty Python's Life of Brianturned 40 on August 17th. The BBC has a retrospective:The Pythons’ satire wouldn’t target Jesus or his teachings, instead caricaturing political militants, credulous crowds,...
View ArticleLoose lips sink ships
Remember back in May 2017, barely a couple of months in office, when the president bragged to the Russian Foreign Secretary about some intelligence we'd developed on ISIS in Syria? That disclosure...
View ArticleLunchtime link roundup
Of note or interest:The BBC's political editor asks if the Brexit deadline is even possible now.The New York Times has a good recap of yesterday's marathon Commons sitting. So does the Washington...
View ArticleWhither foliage?
WaPo has an interactive map:Cue the 2019 Fall Foliage Prediction Map on SmokyMountains.com, a site promoting tourism in that region. The interactive tool is one of the most helpful resources to...
View ArticleLunch links
A few good reads today:Bruce Schneier compares genetic engineering with software engineering, and its security implications.The Atlantic has goes deep into the Palace of Westminster, and its upcoming...
View ArticleParker update
The old dog had a semi-annual vet visit yesterday. He's now had all his shots, including the 3-year rabies booster, which twinged a little because of the high probability that he'll never have another...
View ArticleHow the parties aligned on urbanism
CityLab has a good take on how the Democratic Party became the party of cities in the US:The story begins in the late 19th century, in the filthy, sweaty maw of the Industrial Revolution. To reduce...
View ArticleLunchtime must-reads
Just a few today:Cokie Roberts died yesterday at 75. She will be missed.The Washington Post traced all 47 dogs seized from convicted felon Michael Vick's dog-fighting operation. You will not get...
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