Dump Trump rump
Three stories today:The President didn't know health care would be so hard to figure out, which is something almost everyone else in the world already knew.Meanwhile, he's started using a phrase so...
View ArticleMaybe the problem is too many guns, huh?
A 2015 theft of a gun shipment from a railroad yard in Chicago continues to plague the city:The guns had been en route from New Hampshire weapon maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. to Spokane, Washington....
View ArticleNokia dumbs down
The Finnish manufacturer is bringing back their 2000-era 3310:Given the rising angst of a society run by technology, Nokia might have picked the perfect time to introduce an antidote to the smartphone....
View ArticleEvidence of things unseen
Some stories from today:Andrew Sullivan sees Trump's insane Obama tweet as one more way to de-legitimize truth in general. Peter Beinart saw that too.President Trump, meanwhile, continues to claim...
View ArticleWait, didn't they kill all the bookstores?
Amazon is opening an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore right by the Southport Brown Line stop:On Tuesday, it will open the doors of a brick-and-mortar store in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, giving...
View ArticleSears Death Watch
Sears Holdings Corp. now admits its totally foreseeable and totally preventable death may happen soon:Sears Holdings Corp. acknowledged "substantial doubt" about its ability to keep operating, raising...
View ArticleStranger than fiction
The Washington Post chronicles how President Trump's difficult relationship with the truth extends even to trying to correct the record:President Trump had a remarkable interview with Time magazine on...
View ArticleYou don't have the votes, you don't have the votes!
Despite controlling two of three branches of government and most of the third, the Republican Party suffered a humiliating defeat this week when Paul Ryan couldn't muster enough votes to destroy health...
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Gobbling up your free time
I mean, come on Google. No fair:Starting now until April 4, you can chomp fruit, avoid ghosts, and collect PAC-Dots along city streets in Google Maps worldwide—all as Ms. PAC-Maps. Just tap on the Ms....
View ArticleStuff to read after After Hours
Now that we're four days from Apollo After Hours, of which I'm the committee chair, and given that I still have work to do at work, the articles I need to catch up on keep piling up:WaPo columnist Greg...
View ArticleThe BST of times, BBC style
Author Tim Harford, who wrote The Logic of Life and a few other books I've liked, yesterday published an explanation of what telling time is all about:Water clocks appear in civilisations from ancient...
View ArticleHistoric parking lot to be redevloped
The Archdiocese of Chicago is in negotiations to sell a parking lot at the southwest corner of Chicago and State to a real-estate developer:A venture led by Jim Letchinger, president of JDL...
View ArticleChattanooga's demented PR campaign rocks
Now, I'm not likely ever to move to (a) any city with fewer than 2½ million people, (b) any city south of the 37th parallel, or (c) any city in a state that once attempted to leave the U.S. so it could...
View ArticleBetsy DeVos behaving as predicted
When you have someone with the background, education, and beliefs of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, you know you're not going to get any policies that benefit education. Sure enough, yesterday she...
View ArticleDraining the river, 25 years ago today
On 13 April 1992, a hole opened under the Kinzie Street Bridge and drowned Chicago's Loop:During the Great Chicago Flood of 1992, 250,000 gallons of water had the city drowning by the hour.The leak...
View ArticleYou know your industry is in trouble when...
The United Airlines debacle at O'Hare last week underscored how much people really hate airlines:The severity of the situation really dawned on me last Thursday as I sat in an interview with a local...
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Spring is here
A combination of really nice weather, a shift in my project at work, and a loyal dog (who is now loyally pooped) has let me get some serious Fitbit steps recently:That 7-day total is my best since I...
View ArticleCracked nails it on defense spending
Cracked did a great video last November that everyone who hasn't paid attention to U.S. defense spending needs to watch:But hey, without the largest military in the world (times ten), we can't be New...
View ArticleStuff I'll read later
A little busy today, so I'm putting these down for later consumption:Via the Illinois State Climatologist, NOAA has released its state climate summaries for the country.Brian Beutler worries about...
View ArticleAnother milestone on the way to planetary disaster
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii announced this week that the atmosphere passed 410 ppm of carbon dioxide and is heading for a monthly average of 407 ppm, the highest values observed on earth in...
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