Events

Today is the 1 0000 0000th day of the year! Go hug a software developer.

Jeet Heer grapples with the depressing reality that we'll never be completely free of Donald Trump during his lifetime: For argument’s sake, let’s assume the best-case scenario: that we somehow manage to survive Trump’s first term and send him packing in 2020. At the moment, the odds of him winning reelection appear about equal to those of the Titanic triumphantly resurfacing under its own steam. His approval ratings are at historic lows, and he evinces no interest in finding a way to expand his base....

Deeply Trivial finds evidence for why there is little evidence about the safety of e-cigarettes: [T]he statistical sin here isn't really something the researchers have done (or didn't do). It's an impossibility created by confounds. How does one recruit people who have only smoked e-cigarettes or who at least have very little experience with regular cigarettes? What's happening here is really an issue of contamination - a threat to validity that occurs when the treatment of one group works its way into...

With only a very small group to insure, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois is leaving the Obamacare exchange for small businesses: Calling all small businesses with a Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois plan through the Obamacare public health insurance exchange: Look out for an email this week informing you that the state's largest insurer is officially leaving the online marketplace. That leaves small employers looking for an exchange plan for 2018 with one option: downstate Health Alliance....

The science of modeling hurricane storm surges started here in Chicago after the seiche of 1954: When the surge hit Chicago, it hit a city that housed one of the world’s great meteorology departments, at the University of Chicago. One of its professors was the meteorologist George Platzman.... The meeting of those two freak concepts—real but rare deadly Great Lakes storm surges, and the bizarre possibility of an atomic bomb detonating in Lake Michigan—along with his computer-forecasting experiments, led...

Credit reporting agency Equifax reported last week that thieves had made off with 143 million customer records: According to a person familiar with the breach investigation, Equifax appears to have been targeted initially because the company keeps on file millions of active cards, belonging to people who pay $19.95 or more per month to have Equifax monitor their credit reports and alert them to potential fraud. The hack, which the company says took place in late July, put as many as 143 million...

A meme is going around Facebook: change one letter of a musical's name to ruin it. Some of my favorites so far: On A Clear Day You Can Pee Forever Oklahomo Big Liver Legally Blande The Wound of Music Babes in Farms Sweeney Toad One musician friend posted this on his wall and got over 200 responses.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said yesterday that Hurricane Irma caused "enormous devastation," leaving the island without gas or electricity: Most communications with the outside world are being conducted via the military, he said, adding that there was “no clarity” on victims. The Dutch navy, which has two ships stationed off the coast of the island, tweeted images gathered by helicopter showing damaged houses, hotels and boats. French authorities have counted at least eight dead on the French side...

I'm on the Board of Directors for the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, and information technology is my portfolio. Under that aegis, I'm in the process of taking all of our donor and membership spreadsheets and stuffing them into a new Neon CRM setup. So far, it's going well, and it's going to make the organization a lot more effective at managing membership, events, and donations. That said, in the last 24 hours I've logged five bug reports, including one of the most frustrating user experience (UX) bugs...

I've visited St Martin/Sint Maarten twice, once in 2009 and again in 2014. It's unclear when I or anyone will spend a vacation there in future, because this morning the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic smashed directly into the island. At 8:43 AST, the Guardian posted these videos. Twitter user Kurt Siegelin posted this video at 9:12 AST. As of 9:30 AST, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb also said that government buildings on the island of Saint Martin - the most sturdy built...