Happy birthday, DuSable Bridge!
The bascule bridge over the Chicago River at Michigan Avenue turned 100 today. The Chicago Tribune has photos.Also:The Tribune explains how the various Covid-19 tests work, and where Illinois is in...
View ArticleMostly tangential news
Today I'll try to avoid the most depressing stories:The North Shore Channel Trail bridge just north of Lincoln Avenue opened this week, completing an 11 km continuous path from Lincoln Square to...
View ArticleDomestic terrorism in Michigan
Charlie Pierce, noting that "[p]eople with firearms forced the civil government of the state of Michigan to shut itself down," wants to know in what sense this isn't terrorism. In other fun weekend...
View ArticleAnother time people ignored dire warnings
On 18 May 1980, forty years ago today, the Washington-state volcano Mt St Helens exploded, killing dozens of people who had been warned to evacuate days earlier:I was 150 miles away on May 18, 1980,...
View ArticleEvening round-up
Long day, with meetings until 8:45pm and the current sprint ending tomorrow at work, so I'll read most of these after the spring review:Tara Smith warns about the unholy alliance of anti-vaxers and...
View ArticleDid someone call "lunch?"
I think today is Tuesday, the first day of my 10th week working from home. That would make today...March 80th? April 49th? Who knows.It is, however, just past lunchtime, and today I had shawarma and...
View ArticleWettest May ever
So far—and keep in mind, we're only 2/3 done with the month—Chicago has had more precipitation this May than in any previous May, with 216 mm total. It's interesting to note that 2019 and 2018 were...
View ArticleLunchtime roundup
You have to see these photos of the dark Sears Tower against the Chicago skyline—a metaphor for 2020 bar none. Also:The Chicago Teachers Union has sued the Chicago Public Schools and Betsy DeVos over...
View ArticleCovid-19 updates
Briefly:Illinois surpassed 100,000 cases of Covid-19 as of today, but all four regions of the state remain on target to move into phase 3 (think: outdoor restaurant seating) a week from Friday.Josh...
View ArticleThe sun! Was out! For an hour!
Since January 2019, Chicago has had only two months with above-average sunshine, and in both cases we only got 10% more than average. This year we're ticking along about 9% below, with no month since...
View ArticleHe wants us to fire him
Author Franklin Schneider, who wrote a book about getting fired from 13 jobs in 10 years, thinks the president is begging someone to fire him:We didn’t need insider exposés about “executive time” spent...
View ArticleMassive security failure in Washington
A total failure to imagine a likely risk scenario has lost the State of Washington possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to thieves who defrauded the state unemployment agency:Employment Security...
View ArticleSaturday morning news clearance
I rode the El yesterday for the first time since March 15th, because I had to take my car in for service. (It's 100% fine.) This divided up my day so I had to scramble in the afternoon to finish a work...
View ArticleSaturday afternoon thunderstorm reading
I'm setting these aside to read after I race around my house closing windows in a few minutes:Midland, Mich., native Ben Mathis-Lilley examines why his home town flooded, and what could come next for...
View ArticleFatal moments in crew resource management
If the initial reports prove correct, the fatal crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303 on Friday may have resulted from the pilots missing a key line-item in their landing checklist:On...
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Day 71
It's a little comforting to realize that we've only dealt with Covid-19 social distancing rules about 5% as long as we dealt with World War II (1,345 days from 7 December 1941 to 13 August 1945). It's...
View ArticleMany whine! Much sad!
The most powerful man in the world threw a hissy fit yesterday when Twitter finally—finally!—slapped a misinformation warning on one of his lies:President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened social...
View ArticleThe grim reaper's league table
We hit a new milestone today. So, to put things in perspective, here are the number of Americans who have died from:European genocide of Native Americans (1492-1900), ~25 million over 500 yearsMotor...
View ArticlePredicting the future based on history
This morning, the Labor Department reported 2.1 million new unemployment claims, bringing the total to almost 41 million since the pandemic hit the US. As horrifying as that number is, I actually...
View ArticleMinneapolis police "inadvertently" arrest reporter live on air
As CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his crew asked riot police where they would like them to move early this morning, the police abruptly arrested the group:Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke with CNN...
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