Events

Here's a fun comparison. This is the building adjacent to the north side of the northbound platform at the Northbrook Metra station. First, October 1985: Here's the same wall almost exactly 31 years later: The pharmacy long ago disappeared. The building now contains an Italian restaurant and a hair salon.

One more from Vieques. These guys were all over the island:

With Trump set to appoint Rep. Mike Price (R-Ga.) to head Health and Human Services, he's making good on his threat to destroy Obamacare. Even if the legislation doesn't disappear, Price will do everything in his considerable power to hobble it until it stops working altogether. Here's Greg Sargent: Unlike many Republicans, Price has at least given a lot of thought to how to replace the ACA. But Price’s own replacement proposal would roll back the Medicaid expansion, a substantial portion of financial...

Google now has a tool that will show you a time-lapse of any part of the world from 1984 to present: In 2013, we released Google Earth Timelapse, our most comprehensive picture of the Earth's changing surface. This interactive experience enabled people to explore these changes like never before—to watch the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, and the impressive urban expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, we're making our largest update to Timelapse...

Even though it rained every day during my trip to Puerto Rico last week, it did stop raining every so often. Wednesday I was able to go to the Playa Negra (black sand beach) on Vieques, with tons of sunscreen and very uncomfortable flip-flops: The rain made the "road" to Playa Negra more challenging to walk down, however, as it doubles as a stream: Finally, on Thanksgiving—my last day on the island—the sun did what it should have done all week:

James Fallows implores the news media to report that Trump actually lies when he lies: The United States is seeing both a chronic and an acute new version of this public-information problem. ... The acute version is the emergence as president-elect of a man whose nature as a liar is outside what our institutions are designed to deal with. Donald Trump either cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, or he knows the difference but does not care. Tiniest example: On a single day during the...

I'd expected to explore Old San Juan this past week, take some long walks around the islands, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, it rained consistently from my arrival Sunday afternoon through Monday night, stopping long enough for me to thoroughly drench myself on a bioluminescent bay tour, before resuming on the drive back. Here's my hotel's rooftop bar that I didn't spend a lot of time on, as it was pouring: So instead of 17th-century buildings, I'm posting photos of my hotel room: That little guy on...

I read half of Hamilton in Puerto Rico, and now I'm catching up on everything I refused to do over the past six days. Photos and more details to follow.

Vieques is part of Puerto Rico and, therefore, part of the United States. So I haven't missed entirely everything. For example, I have these things queued up to read...someday: Trump's election is already hurting Chicago businesses. One concept explains all of Trump's outrages. Trump is unaware, shocker!, that his new office has 18th-century constraints. The Trump Time Capsule will continue. Encryption is good for you. Especially if Trump is president. Wow. It's almost as if this guy can destroy...

It finally stopped raining in Puerto Rico late this morning. That was a few hours after half the main island and all of Vieques lost power. Ordinarily I'd link to the news report but, it turns out, an island-wide power failure isn't actually newsworthy here. And yet I'm really loving this place. Vieques has a rare combination of undiscovered and verdant that I find compelling. My only other experience in the tropics is Saint-Martin, which I love (because airplanes!) but which hordes of people visit by...