Events

New information has come out that retired Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the convicted (and pardoned) war criminal, did some truly abhorrent shit while fighting in Iraq: The trove of materials also includes thousands of text messages the SEALs sent one another about the events and the prosecution of Chief Gallagher. Together with the dozens of hours of recorded interviews, they provide revealing insights into the men of the platoon, who have never spoken publicly about the case, and the leader...

Yesterday we broke a heat record; today the temperature feels more or less normal for late December; this weekend it will get warm again. Welcome to Chicago: The record-breaking warmth comes on the heels of another historic ranking. With a high of 57 Wednesday, this year now ranks No. 2 on the list of warmest Christmas Days in Chicago since the mid-1800s, when records started being kept. The warmest Dec. 25 ever in Chicago was 17°C degrees in 1982. But after the daytime high pushes the record for...

Yesterday's 14°C high temperature made it the second-warmest Christmas on record in Chicago, missing by a lot the 17°C record set in 1982. The warmth continued overnight: the temperature at O'Hare hit 14°C just after midnight, surpassing the 13°C record for December 26th set in 1971. Today's forecast calls for 20°C. These temperatures would be normal in October and April—or Atlanta and Dallas. Yesterday Parker got an hour and a quarter of walks; today he'll get about the same. And I may even open...

Nineteen years ago, I banged the drum pretty hard that 2000 was not the first year of the 21st Century, because the Christian calendar has no year zero. But yesterday, I disagreed entirely with Sandi Duncan, managing editor of the Farmers' Almanac, during her interview on NPR: RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: I mean, it feels like a big deal, 2019 to 2020. Why is there such a debate about whether or not this is the end of the decade? SANDI DUNCAN: You know, it's really interesting. But I hate to tell you it's not....

Every year at this time, it's important to talk about language skills. There is a tribe in the remotest part of the Amazon forest who, every December 25th, dance around a large pile of dirt, singing to it and telling it stories. This is because of a tragic mistranslation by a missionary centuries ago, who told them, "On this day the ton of sod was bored."

Eddie Lampert continues to destroy the once-great retailer Sears piece by piece. Yesterday, the company revealed that it has sold the DieHard battery brand to Advance Auto Parts for $200m in cash: The move follows news in October that Sears had hired investment bankers to advise it on potential asset sales, including the DieHard brand, according to the Wall Street Journal at the time. Sears has spent the last several years selling key brands to receive cash infusions and survive. In 2017, it sold the...

First event: Last night around 7pm, my main data drive seized up after storing my stuff for a bit less than 4 years. Let me tell you how much fun Micro Center is at 9pm two days before Christmas. After 12 hours it looks like it's about 75% restored from backup, and I didn't suffer any data loss. Second event: Just look at this lovely, peaceful scene: That's the cemetery in my neighborhood a few minutes ago. And that's what we call "dense fog," with about 200 m visibility and what they call...

Actually, Christmas Island crabs, which migrate around Christmas, and were the subject of an NPR story yesterday: Palm fronds, turquoise lagoons and a clattering army of crustaceans making their way from the island's forest to the beaches. Christmas Island red crabs - 50 million of them. Jahna Luke works for Christmas Island's tourism association and lives there. She says everyone has a hand in the crabs' journey. JAHNA LUKE: We have all these measures in place to keep the crabs safe while they make...

Armed with an InstantPot, a Cuisinart, and some basic understanding of cooking, I made this today: Starting here: Ingredients used (amounts where known): Hot Italian sausage, 300 g Salt Mild Italian sausage, 150 g Pepper Diced pancetta, 50 g Butter Tomato puree, 800 mL Juice of 1 lemon Tomato paste Juice of 1 lime Olive oil Basil Mirepoix (onion, carrot, celery) Sage Shallot Rosemary Garlic Thyme Romano Smoked chile powder Parmesan Chipotle powder Red pepper flakes Mushrooms Coriander Bay leaves I...

A year ago today, I got this lovely plug-in hybrid: Because she (her name is Hana, or 初夏) has an on-board computer (well, probably a couple dozen, to be honest), I know exactly how well she did: Total distance 6,969.4 km Total fuel consumed 186.7 L Fuel economy 2.7 L/100 km Farthest north 43.68°N Farthest south 41.32°N Farthest east 79.37°W Farthest west 87.96°W Sad to see she never made it all the way to the 88th meridian, given that I live only about 21 minutes east of it. But she did make it to five...