Sunday noon
We've got a day and a half of autumn left in Chicago. Here's what I'm reading on a lazy Sunday:Chicago's North Pond in Lincoln Park needs $7m in restoration work which it may not get next year.The...
View ArticleWelcome to Winter 2020
Winter began in the northern hemisphere this morning, which explains the gray cold enveloping Chicago. Nah, I kid: Chicago usually has a gray, cold envelope around it, just today it's official.And...
View ArticleSome good Covid-19 news
The UK announced this morning that the National Health can start distributing a vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech next week:Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to...
View ArticleSure Happy It's Thursday
So many things to read at lunchtime today:Philip Bump calls a video the soon-to-be-ex-president posted yesterday "the most petulant 46 minutes in American history."But whatever, because as David Graham...
View ArticleStar Trek: Discovery's 3rd season irks me
Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the latest Star Trek series immensely. But the third season's handling of its pretty stark historical implications bug me to death.Warning: spoilers possible...
View ArticleGrim milestone, mostly preventable
Today, for the first time, the United States had more deaths from Covid-19 in a single day (3,100) than the total number of deaths from the September 11th terror attacks (2,996).To understand how this...
View ArticleAn unusual house up for landmark status
If you're interested in funky architecture, a modernist house in Galewood that actor Kim Novak won in a church raffle is up for landmark status—and that's not even the strangest part of this...
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Yesterday got away from me
Just reviewing what I actually got up to yesterday, I'm surprised that I didn't post anything. I'm not surprised, however, that all of these articles piled up for me to read today:Dunn County, Wis.,...
View ArticleMixed news on Tuesday morning
Today's news stories comprise a mixed bag:Famed test pilot and Air Force General Chuck Yeager died yesterday, on the 4th anniversary of astronaut John Glenn's death and the day before the 40th...
View ArticleThere's a meme going around
I saw a slightly-inaccurate version of this on Facebook and corrected it.Here's a list of the most single day, single cause deaths in American history, through yesterday. See if you can spot the...
View ArticleChicago to provide free Covid-19 vaccinations
The city's plan would vaccinate every adult who lives or works in Chicago in 2021:Initial vaccine doses will be sent to all 34 hospitals in Chicago, city officials said. Health care workers who treat...
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Iceberg the size of Delaware about to hit island the size of Delaware
Iceberg A-68a broke off from Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf in September 2017. It has drifted more or less intact since then, and later this month will very likely hit South Georgia Island in the south...
View ArticleFloating holiday: achievement unlocked
My company gives us the usual American holidays off, and adds two "floating holidays" you can take whenever you want. I took my first one in January and just remembered last week that I hadn't taken...
View ArticleHow to talk to irrational people
I'm not good at it, personally. But NBC News has some advice they've titled "How to talk to your friends and family about Covid, vaccines and wearing masks:"“You always want to offer your empathy...
View ArticlePresident-Elect of the United States Joe Biden
The Electoral College has voted, and with no surprises, as of 16:37 Chicago time Joe Biden has received the requisite 270 votes to be elected President of the United States. And yet, we had a few...
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Updated statistics on the horror of it all
I posted a table about a week ago showing the number of American deaths per day from various disasters that we've had over our history. I did a bit more research, and we've had a lot more Covid-19...
View ArticleOther things to read this evening
Happy Hanukkah! Now read these:Thomas Edsall summarizes the sociology of resentment, hypothesizing that status is the single biggest indicator of political affiliation.Jelani Cobb digs into the...
View ArticleThe cruelty is the point
Josh Marshall outlines how the STBXPOTUS and his friends in the Senate have structured vaccination funding to give President Joe Biden a black eye within two weeks of taking office:Here are some basic...
View ArticleStupid is as stupid does
Welcome to the (abbreviated) lunchtime roundup:Not only have attackers breached hundreds of networks due to a subtle flaw in a complicated piece of software, it turns out that a Dutch software engineer...
View ArticleTwo weeks left in 2020
We're in the home stretch. We have 14 days until 2021 starts, and 32 days until the Biden Administration takes office. As Andrew Sullivan said in his column today, 2021 is going to be epic....
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