Events

Alexandra Petri has a suggestion: Unsure what to get your family for the holidays this year? Have you considered something that Devin Nunes is clearly enjoying, that even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delights in, that Donald Trump made for his own amusement in the 1980s and has since gotten to share with more and more people as demand increased? It’s Your Own Set of Facts! From the people who brought you Alternative Facts, but also, somehow, from Russia, Your Own Set of Facts will transform the way...

A new United Nations report projects that the world's average temperature will hit 3.9°C above pre-industrial levels in 80 years without massive, immediate cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. The additional energy the atmosphere has absorbed in the 80 years has given us the perfect Thanksgiving weekend travel environment: Not one, not two, but three powerful storm systems will make travel difficult to near impossible at times both before and after Thursday’s holiday. A record-breaking “bomb cyclone”...

Yesterday, the President of the United States mused aloud why we haven't celebrated the centennial of the 19th Amendment's passage in 1920 sooner: After working his way through the prepared remarks, Trump interjected with his own riff. “They’ve been working on this for years and years,” he said, suddenly wondering, “And I’m curious, why wasn’t it done a long time ago, and also — well, I guess the answer to that is because now I’m president, and we get things done. We get a lot of things done that nobody...

As I try to understand why a 3rd-party API accepts one JSON document but not another, nearly-identical one, who could fault me for taking a short break? Feargus O'Sullivan explains in more detail why London wants Uber gone. Hypocrisy and absurdity collide as Franklin Graham literally demonizes the president's opponents. A man from rural California explains to Brits in the Independent why his neighbors support Trump. Continuing the Republican Party-as-farce stories, Columbia University Graduate School of...

I came across this photo of the Aragon Ballroom from 1956: Here's the same location about half an hour ago: I may have to re-shoot this with a longer lens and from farther back. It's interesting how little has changed though.

Transport for London (TfL) has declined to renew Uber's operating license for that reason: Uber has lost its licence to operate private hire vehicles in London after authorities found that more than 14,000 trips were taken with more than 40 drivers who had faked their identity on the Uber app. Transport for London announced the decision not to renew the ride-hailing firm’s licence at the end of a two-month probationary extension granted in September. Uber was told then it needed to address issues with...

Driving to Kirtland, Ohio, and back this weekend used 63.2 liters, at an average efficiency of 5.1 L/100 km. Not bad, but not great, due to a pretty stiff headwind today. But I think I may have filled my car for the last time in 2019. Also, I didn't have time to blog.

Two articles came out today about dogs. The first, in the New York Times, explores how dogs became so indiscriminately friendly: In the early 2000s, when Dr. [Clive] Wynne began research on dogs, one of his experiments was a follow-up on the work of Dr. [Brian] Hare who had concluded that dogs were better than wolves or other animals at following human directions. In particular, dogs followed human pointing better than other animals. Dr. Wynne and Monique Udell, an animal behaviorist at Oregon State...

In case you had questions about what to do when THC becomes legal for recreational use in Illinois in six weeks, Chicago Public Media has your back: What type of high are you looking for? The type of high you get depends on what strain of weed you use. The three most common categories are indicas, sativas and hybrids. Indica is a strain of weed that’s meant to help you relax or sleep. Sativa is a strain of weed that’s supposed to give you energy. And there are hybrid strains that are a combination of...

The first debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn last night probably didn't sway anyone: In a testy live debate on ITV, during which the prime minister repeatedly returned to the claim that he would “get Brexit done”, both men lavished praise on the NHS, but Corbyn said Johnson would put it up for sale. Throughout the debate, Johnson continually tried to bring the focus back to Brexit, on which Corbyn repeatedly declined to say how he would campaign in a second EU referendum, while...