Events

Fortunately, I have a couple of long flights coming up in two weeks. Unfortunately, not all of this will be relevant then: Mike Huckabee's entry into the presidential race may mean the Christian right is deteriorating. Bourbon's popularity, and the longevity of oak trees, is a problem. Did Jeb Bush trigger an Iraq War watershed? The Southern Regional Climate Center has a new climate tool that I'm going to play with...someday. Only one more Mad Men episode. I'm sad. ICYMI: Upgrading to Windows 10 will be...

After Moody's cut our credit rating this week, people are starting to compare Chicago with Detroit: here are five reasons, now more than ever, that suggest Chicago is akin to Detroit—or, by some measures, even worse. Or, as Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner put it last month: “Chicago is in deep, deep yogurt.” BIG, SCARY NUMBERS: Chicago's unfunded liability from four pension funds is $20 billion and growing, hitting every city resident with an obligation of about $7,400. Detroit's, whose population...

It surprised no one at all that Moody's cut Chicago's credit rating to junk yesterday: Chicago today became the first victim of the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling on pensions, as Moody's Investors Service reduced the city's credit rating to junk bond status. In a statement that specifically cited the court's May 8 decision overturning cuts in state pensions, the credit rating agency said the city's options now “have narrowed considerably.” The downgrade is a blow to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who during the...

Via reader SHL, the Beatles' Abbey Road "You Never Give Me Your Money" sequence vocal tracks only:

First, because NASA's reputation is such that climate-change deniers have difficulty refuting the agency, Republicans in Congress are trying to get NASA out of the discussion: As has been widely reported, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee recently approved a bill that would cut at least $300 million from NASA's earth-science budget. This comes after the head of the Senate committee overseeing NASA claimed the agency should stop doing earth-science and focus only on space exploration....

The Chicago Tribune has a graphic this morning showing that tree pollen counts are the highest they've been in Chicago in 120 years of record keeping. Also, yesterday we hit 2,300 mold spores per cubic meter—a new record—breaking the previous record of 2,200 on...Friday. Feeling congested much?

It's just past 9am on Monday and already I'm reduced to this kind of blog post. Tomorrow I may have some more time to read these things: Cranky Flier analyzes Malaysia Airlines' struggles. Microsoft is building subsea fibre cables between the U.S. and Europe and Asia. TPM explains exactly what Jade Helm 15 really is. Missed Microsoft Ignite this year? Here's the Channel 9 page. We're starting to set up JetBrains TeamCity to handle our continuous integration needs. Explain, however, why the user manual...

Taking a moment to surf through the UK papers this morning in the aftermath of the Tory election win Thursday, I find that the usually Labour-friendly Independent has some unkind things to say about the both parties: With some of politics biggest players bowing out, just how did they take losing? Lord Mandelson twists the knife Billionaire Mike Ashley adds £100m to fortune as Sports Direct shares rise after election Now the election is over and David Cameron no longer needs to appeal to voters, he has...

Instead of worrying how to put together another coalition (or even minority) government today, David Cameron has won an outright majority: At the time of writing, with almost all 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had 325, Labour 229, the SNP 56 and the Liberal Democrats eight. In practice 323 Members of Parliament is the number needed to form a majority government. As Cameron drove to Buckingham Palace to notify Queen Elizabeth that she had a new government from day one, rather than the chaotic...

Polls have closed in the UK, and early exit polling suggests a Tory plurality of 316 to Labour's 239. This puts the Conservatives withing 8 seats of forming a government—though with the Liberal Democrats apparently holding onto just 10 seats, and hating every fibre of the Tory party, they will have to count on the right-wing parties to push them over the top. I'll have more later on.