Events

The O'Hare CTA station closed after Monday's train crash, and just re-opened.

Because of some new tasks related to my job, I haven't been able to post the last couple of days. Today it's 10°C and sunny, and getting warmer, so I have to go outside and play. There is a chance that today will be the warmest since November 17th. If that happens, I will post again today. If not, I'll just enjoy the weather quietly, to myself.

Gail Gygax, widow of Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax, is trying to get a statue to her late husband in Lake Geneva, Wis.: Since 2009, Gail has been trying to make a Gary Gygax memorial happen in Lake Geneva. And it should. Or, at least, some form of a memorial to Gygax, whose influence on contemporary culture is vast and underrated, should happen. As David Ewalt, an editor at Forbes magazine and author of the 2013 history "Of Dice and Men," said, Dungeons & Dragons took the raw materials of...

I got home with no difficulty and bypassed the dead El train at O'Hare through the simple expedient of taking a taxi. I'm catching up on work right now, so further comments will issue later. It also turns out, apparently, that a virus had made a beachhead in my nose, so I will have to fight that off before my wit and verve returns. In totally unrelated news, today is the 30th anniversary of the fictional Breakfast Club.

I'm now at Heathrow where I've got a really great perch overlooking the approach end of runway 9L. A JAL 777 has just floated down to the runway and a BA 747 is taxiing past the window. It's a little piece of aviation heaven in Terminal 5 as I wait for the 787 to Toronto. As I mentioned earlier, however, my trip home tomorrow morning may end a little differently than usual because of this: (Photo credit.) Fortunately, no one was hurt. Unfortunately, the El still missed its flight. Never try to carry too...

Just checking the local news in Chicago a moment ago I see a weather forecast of -2°C and blowing snow for Tuesday, rain for the rest of the week, and a crash at the O'Hare subway station: Thirty people were injured after a CTA Blue Line train derailed and hit a platform at O'Hare International Airport about 2:55 a.m. Monday. The injuries are not life threatening, according to early reports from the scene to Chicago Police Department headquarters, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron...

It's 11pm on Sunday and everything is closed, so I'm taking a break from my break. My body still seems to think it's on Chicago time, which will help me rejoin American civilization on Tuesday, though at the moment it means my body thinks it's 6pm and wonders what it will do for the next three and a half hours or so. I have accomplished what I set out to do this weekend. I visited the British Museum, the Southampton Arms, and another pub a friend recommended, The Phoenix. I've also finished Clean Coder...

I debated this question with someone at a dinner a couple weeks ago. She suggested higher megapixel numbers told you more about the ego of the camera buyer than about the quality of the images. I said it depends on how you're using the photos, but generally, more data yields more useful photos. Here's an illustration, using a vaguely-recognizable landmark that I happened to pass earlier this weekend, and just happened to have photographed with three different cameras. All three photos are from...

The equinox, when the sun appears directly over the equator so that night and day is approximately equal all over the planet, happened Thursday. Today comes the consequence to the earth continuing in its orbit as the south pole appears to point farther away from the sun, as it's done since the last solstice. In just about two hours, at 17:09 UTC, the sun sets on the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and doesn't rise again until around 01:18 UTC on September 20th. Good luck to the over-winter crew at...

Thursday morning: Thursday evening: More photos tonight.