Working from home is still working
While I do get to sign off a bit earlier today, I might not read all of these articles until tomorrow:Block Club Chicago lists 21 neighborhood spots that are great for working from home. (Do you think...
View ArticleTwenty Years of Punz
Punzun Ltd.™, an Illinois corporation doing business as Inner Drive Technology™, turned 20 years old today. I actually dreamed up the name in my high-school algebra class on 20 March 1985, so the...
View ArticleI actually LOL'd when I saw this news alert
The President was busy this morning:President Trump has commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell...
View ArticleSo much corruption! We're going to do corruption like you've never seen it
President Trump's list of felons to whom he granted clemency yesterday seems to have a common element. First, Rod Blagojevich, possibly the most corrupt governor Illinois has ever had, which is saying...
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Smylie Bros. Brewing Co., Evanston
Welcome to stop #7 on the Brews and Choos project.Brewery: Smylie Bros. Brewing Co., 1615 Oak Ave., Evanston, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Evanston–Davis St. (Also CTA Purple Line,...
View ArticleFriday afternoon reading backlog
I was going to lead off with a New Republic article about Michael Bloomberg, but they just put up a paywall yesterday and lost my subscription information. And their new "subscribe now" page doesn't...
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Flat Earther died trying to prove it
Daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes, who either believed the world is flat or merely played the role of a Flat Earther, died Saturday trying to launch a home-made rocket in an effort to "prove" the belief:In...
View ArticleCO2 like you've never seen it before
New research shows that global CO2 levels will likely hit 417 ppm this year, the highest ever in human history, and a level not seen since the oceans were 20 m higher:This year's rise in atmospheric...
View Article£53,676 per pour
A single 750 mL bottle of whisky sold at auction this week for £907,500, the highest price ever paid for a bottle:A European buyer [won] the 1926 Macallan Valerio Adami 60 year old on February 17,...
View ArticleOdd day in the news
Some highlights:The Union of Concerned Scientists report that ride-hailing causes 69% more pollution than the services it displaces.Republican columnist Michael Gerson believes a Trump-Sanders matchup...
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After all, who's really signing this contract, anyway?
An AI demonstration website will show you photos of people who don't exist:You encounter so many people every day, online and off-, that it is almost impossible to be alone. Now, thanks to computers,...
View ArticleTrump and the Republican Party have left us dangerously unprepared for this
By "this," I don't mean the Covid-19 outbreak itself, though by cutting CDC pandemic funding 80%, ending epidemic prevention aid to 37 of 47 countries, or by appointing perhaps the worst possible...
View ArticleA century ago, in Kansas...
...the 1918-19 influenza pandemic began. Historian John M Barry studied the outbreak, summarizing his findings in a 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article that did nothing to help me feel more comfortable...
View ArticleTribune feature on the Southwest Chief
Freelance writer Alexandra Marvar took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles:I boarded the 2:50 p.m. Southwest Chief out of Chicago’s Union Station on a Friday. By mid-morning Sunday, we’ll...
View ArticleHow would Aaron Sorkin write the Democratic Primary?
For one thing, he'd make it interesting, as he says in an interview with the New York Times' David Marchese:Given your inclination toward politics and idealism, is there a Democratic presidential...
View ArticleThat time when the CIA made encryption products
For about 50 years, the CIA and its (West-) German equivalent, the BND, owned Crypto AG in Switzerland, giving them access to the secrets of dozens of countries:From 1970 on, the CIA and its...
View ArticleHappy 42nd Birthday to a hoopy book that knows where its towel is
BBC Radio 4 first broadcast The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyon this day in 1978. On thus august, er, March anniversary, ponder this: "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" The answer:...
View Article7,002
Just a housekeeping note: my post on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the 7,000th since this blog relaunched in 2005. (It was the 7,196th since the proto-blog began in 1998.)Thanks for reading.
View ArticleRainy Monday readings
After yesterday's perfect spring weather (18°C and sunny), today's gloom and rain reminds us we live in Chicago.Also, it's eerily quiet at work...so maybe I'll also work from home the rest of the...
View ArticleGreat security, guys
Via Schneier, it seems that our security services have not done a great job at, you know, security:[J]ust how bad is the CIA’s security that it wasn’t able to keep [accused leaker and former CIA...
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