Events

Not surprisingly, he behaves like a dick: Though Trump is pitching himself to voters as a dealmaker who wins, the 12-year drama of the Trump International Hotel & Tower offers a more complicated narrative. While it reinforces his preferred image as a bold risk-taker and consummate salesman, it underscores his darker reputation as a bullying businessman willing to back out of deals and trash the competition when it's convenient. And that big TRUMP sign on the front of the building fits perfectly with the...

I've been out of town twice in the last 10 days. First, to New York, where I found this light at the end of a tunnel in Riverside Park: This weekend I went to Indianapolis for a wedding, and stopped by the Indiana State Capitol: That building is home to what may be the stupidest legislative body in the Western world. Don't even get me started.

Wow, a Saturday post. Rare this year, yes? Tomorrow I'll have photos from New York and Indianapolis, including the latter's monument to stupidity. Check back. 

I had a meeting this morning to bring a new developer onto a maintenance-mode project. In doing so I went over some code I wrote 4 years ago. Yikes. We're doing a deep-dive on Monday...

After the criminal gang known as ISIS held the Mosul Dam in Iraq last year, it did not follow the campsite rule when it fled the Iraqi government's counter-attack. Consequently, engineers say the dam is in danger of imminent collapse: [P]ressure on the dam’s compromised structure was building up rapidly as winter snows melted and more water flowed into the reservoir, bringing it up to its maximum capacity, while the sluice gates normally used to relieve that pressure were jammed shut. The Iraqi...

Both United and American want approval for non-stop flights from Chicago to Havana: Initially, the customer pool for Chicago-to-Havana trips would be limited, given the ongoing trade embargo. The Department of the Treasury only permits travelers to fly to Cuba for a dozen reasons, including family visits, official governmental trips and humanitarian missions. But carriers are eager to establish a beachhead in the island nation, which might eventually prove a robust destination for leisure and business...

The GOP made their own bed:

From two years ago, and still relevant (and still NSFW funny):

The all-time Daily Parker posting average has inched up from 1.24 to 1.34 over the past five years, due to a pretty consistent pattern since February 2011 of posting around 42 entries a month. But in 2015, for a variety of reasons (mostly because I've been pretty busy), I slacked off, such that last month the 12-month moving average came within 0.005 of the all-time average, and would have dipped below it for the first time since July 2011 had I not posted yesterday: The blue line is average posts per...

When I read this, I couldn't help thinking of this: The silver Swan, who, living, had no Note,When Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.Leaning her breast upon the reedy shore,Thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:"Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes! More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise." In other burials of Caesar, former University of Chicago law students have had some unkind things to say about how Scalia treated minorities: Ben Streeter, now an...