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Ten years to the day
On this day in 2011, Chicago got so much snow it shut down the city for almost 48 hours. So it's fitting we're having the biggest snowfall of the winter so far right now:With 241 mm of snow recorded at...
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Not 2011, but still a pile of snow
It's pretty, though:And today, we've even got sunlight. Happy February.I also had a houseguest last night, who has made a thorough job of covering my couch with hair:Thanks, Sophie.
View ArticleCities don't actually collapse like that
Annalee Newitz, author of Four Lost Cities, explains that urban collapse doesn't look anything like dystopian fiction would have it:It’s always lurking just around the corner, seductive and terrifying,...
View ArticleParty like it's 1850? 1828? 1964? Who knows
I've often compared this era in American politics with previous eras, most notably the Antebellum period from Jackson on. Yale historian Joanne Freeman zeroes in on 1850—at least as far as our...
View ArticleWe invite you to support this bipartisan bill
Senate Democrats gave the opposition three whole days to stop dicking around with the latest Covid-19 relief package. Then today, with no more than a shrug, they told the Republicans they're tired of...
View ArticleSunny and (relatively) warm
It's exactly 0°C in Chicago this afternoon, which is a bog-standard temperature for February 3rd. And it's sunny, which isn't typical. So, with the forecast for a week of bitter cold starting Friday...
View ArticleLeni Riefenstahl on the Ellipse
Writing for Just Security, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley decodes the structural and content similarities between the propaganda film that introduced the XPOTUS on the Ellipse on January 6th...
View ArticleIce fishing, orcas, and budget reconciliation
These are just some of the things I read at lunch today:Ezra Klein looks at how a $1.9 trillion proposal got through the US Senate and concludes the body has become "a Dadaist nightmare."Several groups...
View ArticleNope, not getting 10k steps today
At least, I don't think so. I'm about to go to a very small wedding where somehow we'll all stay two meters apart, meaning I'll be in my car or indoors all day. Outdoors, meanwhile, it's -13°C. It got...
View ArticleAccurate predictions
Yesterday I predicted that I would not get 10,000 steps for the first time in 2021. I was right: I got 7,092. Respectable, but not a goal.Right now I'm at 4,753, so I could get to 10,000 just by going...
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I got this 10 years ago already?
Facebook reminded me this morning that 10 years ago today I got the first digital camera I've ever owned whose photo quality approached that of the film cameras I had growing up. My new Canon 7D...
View ArticleHow lazy usability can make your day harder
This morning I posted about some frustrations in getting our CRM system to import donations from our fundraising events so that we can then match donations with addresses to send out end-of-year tax...
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New York, 10 years ago
Shortly after upgrading from my old Canon 20D to a new Canon 7D, I flew to New York for business. My company let me fly in on Saturday instead of Sunday as the lower airfare offset the extra hotel day,...
View ArticleYou remember we won, right? (Fire DeJoy edition)
The New Republic's Alex Pareene finds the obvious way to cut the Gordian knot tying Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to his post:If you’ve sent or received any mail over the last few months, you may have...
View ArticleWhen software bugs kill
The Daily WTF today takes us back to one of the worst software bugs in history, in terms of human lives ruined or lost:The ETCC incident was not the first, and sadly was not the last malfunction of the...
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A quarter of Texas has no electricity
Extreme cold and winter weather slammed Texas over the weekend, dropping temperatures to -9°C in Houston and causing snow in Galveston. But Texas politics has made the situation far, far worse as power...
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Reminder from OneDrive
Microsoft has started sending little reminders of things that happened "on this day," no doubt taking cues from Google Timeline and Facebook Memories. But I did enjoy getting a reminder that I took...
View ArticleAnd I hate Ted Cruz
The junior US Senator from Texas, Republican Ted Cruz, has demonstrated a particular unfitness for office this week:Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Ted Cruz jetted to Cancún. And although the emperor...
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More winter photos
If the forecast holds, today will be the 15th of 16 straight days of below-freezing temperatures, and the 19th consecutive day with 30+ centimeters of snow on the ground. On Sunday, though the...
View ArticleThe ossification of right-wing "constitutional originalists"
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) Tweeted yesterday morning, "Protecting and defending the Constitution doesn’t mean trying to rewrite the parts you don’t like." Josh Marshall wasted no time taking her to...
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