Events

This is pretty alarming: A gunman has been shot and killed inside Parliament Hill’s Centre Block and police are swarming over downtown Ottawa hunting for other possible suspects after several shootings Wednesday morning — including one at the War Memorial that wounded a soldier and another near the Rideau Centre mall. The War Memorial shooting occurred just before 10 a.m., and the shooter then apparently drove to the gates of Parliament Hill and ran inside the buildings. A witness also reported that...

After getting pounded by Uber and Lyft, Hailo has pulled out of its North American markets: Tom Barr, co-chief executive and president, said Hailo would concentrate on markets in Europe and Asia and enhanced products such as payment technology and a "concierge" service. "In the next phase of our growth, we have decided to put all of our energy and resources into these areas," Barr said in a statement to AFP on Wednesday. "We have therefore decided to end our operations in North America, where the...

Waiting at Heathrow for the flight home has only one consolation: the lounge and its open bar. Still, I've just spent four days doing essentially all of my favorite things to do in London, so it's a little melancholic being back at the airport. I also didn't take a lot of photos. Once I'm back in Chicago and can tell what time of day it is (tomorrow, most likely), I'll extract them from my phone. Regular blog postings should resume in the morning.

And still in London. Postings should resume tomorrow.

This is only my 7th time at O'Hare in the past month, but since two of those times were yesterday and the day before, it feels like I just never left. Today, though, I'm going to the Ancestral Homeland. That makes it all better. Well, almost. I mean, it's still O'Hare. And Heathrow isn't exactly the jewel in the British crown, either. And so far this week I've flown the equivalent of a trans-Atlantic trip already. No matter. Boarding in 20 minutes; dinner in London tonight. Mustn't grumble.

The New Republic today looks into the Mormon practice of baptizing dead people, and the church's related efforts to preserve genealogical information: “The core concept of why this church cares so much about genealogy stems back to the notion that families can be eternal organizations past death,” [Jay] Verkler, [CEO of Family Search, the Mormon organization that manages the vault's records and promotes genealogy throughout the world], explained. “Members of the church seek out their ancestors because...

Ubiquitous WiFi is of the benefits of flying on American's new 737-800s, especially on 4-hour flights between the West Coast and Chicago. And early-morning flights have a large proportion of business travelers. So imagine the collective despair of all the laptop-toting worker bees on my flight this morning when the entire entertainment system (which includes WiFi) was dark and inert. Then, suddenly, the entertainment system rose like Frankenstein's monster and a wild hope leapt into our hearts. Yes! We...

Microsoft's Scott Hanselman provides a list: "Knowing computers" today is more than just knowing Office, or knowing how to attach a file. Today's connected world is way more complex than any of us realize. If you're a techie, you're very likely forgetting how far you've come! The #1 thing you can do when working with a non-techie is to be empathetic. Put yourself in their shoes. Give them the tools and the base of knowledge they need. Backup everything. Is your entire company on your 10 year old...

I'm on my first of four flights over the next week. I expected the trip I'm on right now (to L.A.), but didn't have any confirmation until Friday. The trip Thursday, to the Ancestral Homeland, was planned in late August. Despite the efficiency of getting from home through the TSA checkpoint at O'Hare in under 45 minutes, I still really would rather have slept another two hours this morning. One other thing: the 7am flight is popular with business travelers, as evidenced by the 26 people on the upgrade...

Via the Illinois State Climatologist, NOAA has put out a two-page brochure outlining the El Niño forecast for this coming winter, and its benefits to the Chicago area: While no two El Niño events are alike, the typical winter weather pattern brings the polar jet stream farther north than usual, across Canada, while the Pacific jet stream remains in the southern U.S. As a result, the upper Midwest to Great Lakes area can be warmer than normal, with drier-than-normal conditions across the Great Lakes...