Events

Everyone who isn't a highly-paid executive at a health-insurance company believes that health care costs way too much in the US in part because health insurance companies take about 30 cents of every dollar we spend on it. Even people who support Republican politicians know this is true. We have to change how it works here.

Sir Keir Starmer MP (Lab.-Holborn & St Pancras) met with King Charles at 11:30 BST this morning and formally tendered his resignation as Prime Minister. A few minutes later, the King asked Andy Burnham (Lab.-Makerfield) to form a new government in his name.

The smoke that went away yesterday has returned:

She doesn't look like a middle-aged lady, does she?

The air quality in Chicago has cleared up to near-normal levels—or, at least, levels that would have been normal in the 1980s:

The AQI has dropped to 204 at Mayfair, Chicago reporting station, just barely in the "very unhealthy" category and almost down to "unhealthy." For the first time in two days, I can see the beach 1,300 meters away:

It looks like the Canadian Smoke Monster will move off to the east in a couple of hours:

The miserable air quality I mentioned earlier has somehow gotten worse. At 3pm, the AQI hit 817 in the northern suburb of Northbrook, Ill.:

Manitoba and Minnesota have massive wildfires right now, the smoke from which has covered much of the northeastern US including Chicago:

I spent the morning on a bit of contracting I was glad to do, as it involved maintaining an application I wrote that I'm glad to see is still running and being used by actual users. This, after taking Cassie on a 4.9 km (3.1 mi) walk before 7 am during which the heat index got up to 36.2°C. We have a light lake breeze, but the heat index is still 36.4°C, so Cassie only got a 12-minute walk after lunch with absolutely no need to rush.