Events

...the 1918-19 influenza pandemic began. Historian John M Barry studied the outbreak, summarizing his findings in a 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article that did nothing to help me feel more comfortable about our present circumstances: At its worst, the epidemic in Philadelphia would kill 759 people...in one day. Priests drove horse-drawn carts down city streets, calling upon residents to bring out their dead; many were buried in mass graves. More than 12,000 Philadelphians died—nearly all of them in six...

By "this," I don't mean the Covid-19 outbreak itself, though by cutting CDC pandemic funding 80%, ending epidemic prevention aid to 37 of 47 countries, or by appointing perhaps the worst possible administration official to lead the response effort, he has almost certainly increased the risk of infection to every person in the world. No, I mean that we're dangerously unprepared for the recession the virus outbreak appears to be encouraging. Economists have had a hunch we'd eventually get the stock-market...

Welcome to stop #11 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph St., ChicagoTrain lines: All Ogilvie and Union Station lines. (Also CTA Green/Pink lines, Clinton)Time from Chicago: 0 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 800 m from Ogilvie or Union (600 m from CTA) Haymarket has occupied their current plot in the West Loop for almost 10 years. They haven't changed a bit. I wish they had. The pub has pub grub, televisions, noise, confusion, and bits of interesting...

An AI demonstration website will show you photos of people who don't exist: You encounter so many people every day, online and off-, that it is almost impossible to be alone. Now, thanks to computers, those people might not even be real. Pay a visit to the website This Person Does Not Exist: Every refresh of the page produces a new photograph of a human being—men, women, and children of every age and ethnic background, one after the other, on and on forever. But these aren’t photographs, it turns out...

Some highlights: The Union of Concerned Scientists report that ride-hailing causes 69% more pollution than the services it displaces. Republican columnist Michael Gerson believes a Trump-Sanders matchup in November would "destroy our politics." Jeffrey Toobin explores the problems with Trump's pardons. Newly declassified documents make it clear that the NSA hoovering up phone metadata didn't accomplish anything, really. Medium tells the story of a $100m company that abruptly ceased operations last fall....

Welcome to stop #10 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: Ballast Point's Chicago taproom closed permanently in March 2021. Distillery: Ballast Point Brewing, 212 N. Green St., ChicagoTrain lines: All Ogilvie and Union Station lines. (Also CTA Green/Pink lines, Morgan)Time from Chicago: 0 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 1.2 km from Ogilvie or Union (400 m from CTA) After expanding a bit too quickly, Ballast Point found itself without enough cash and way too many beers to continue profitably....

A single 750 mL bottle of whisky sold at auction this week for £907,500, the highest price ever paid for a bottle: A European buyer [won] the 1926 Macallan Valerio Adami 60 year old on February 17, 2020, setting a record for Scotland’s most expensive whisky ever auctioned. It’s also the sixth standard-sized whisky bottle ever to achieve $1 million at auction, and the third-highest auction price ever achieved for a bottle of whisky. Even with the lower premiums charged by online whisky auction houses...

New research shows that global CO2 levels will likely hit 417 ppm this year, the highest ever in human history, and a level not seen since the oceans were 20 m higher: This year's rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to be 10 percent higher than normal, according to University of Exeter geography professor Richard Betts, head of the climate impacts division at the Meteorological Office, the U.K.'s national weather service. About 1 percent to 2 percent of the increase will come fromAustralia's...

Daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes, who either believed the world is flat or merely played the role of a Flat Earther, died Saturday trying to launch a home-made rocket in an effort to "prove" the belief: In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk. The plan: Float dozens of miles high in a balloon, then fly a rocket to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high...

Welcome to stop #9 on the Brews and Choos project. Distillery: CH Distillery, 564 W. Randolph St., ChicagoTrain lines: All Ogilvie and Union Station lines. (Also CTA Green/Pink lines, Clinton)Time from Chicago: 0 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 200 m (400 m from CTA) CH Distillery (named after carbon and hydrogen, principal ingredients in alcohol) opened in 2013 with a mission to create "the only organic vodka made from Illinois grain and a variety of core and specialty spirits." They no longer...