Events

Oh, Sears. You've come to represent much that is wrong with American corporate culture, especially a CEO who embodies the Dunning-Krueger Effect with every syllable he utters. Crain's Joe Cahill argues that Eddie Lampert, while Sears' proximate cause of death, didn't act alone in its murder: There's no denying the hedge fund mogul who thought he knew more about retailing than the retailers made critical errors that turned Sears' struggles into an inexorable decline. But Sears started down the wrong path...

Anyone who has traveled from the US to Canada or Europe notices quickly that their transit systems simply work better. Londoners may moan about the Tube, but one can get from any part of Greater London to any other at almost any time of day using trains or buses. Writing for Citylab, Jonathan English explains why and how the rest of the world got it right and we got it so very wrong: [T]o briefly summarize: Transit everywhere suffered serious declines in the postwar years, the cost of cars dropped and...

Crains is reporting this morning that Sears has hired bankruptcy advisors and could file in the next couple of days: [S]taffers of the advisory firm, New York-based M-III Partners, have been observed at the troubled retailer's Hoffman Estates headquarters in recent days. Sears, meanwhile, continues to evaluate other options that could still avert a trip to Bankruptcy Court. Separately, Sears added restructuring expert Alan Carr to its board of directors as the company faces critical debt repayments and...

Washington Post political reporter Philip Bump lays it out: [T]he effects of the increased heat are much broader than simply higher temperatures. In an effort to delineate what scientists expect to see as the world warms, I spoke with Alex Halliday, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Direct effects of higher temperatures Increased health risks. One of the most immediate effects of higher temperatures is an increased threat of health risks such as heat stroke. As noted above, this is...

I started reading Jessica Powell's online novel The Big Disruption last week. It's hilarious. And it has a lot to say about the archetypes of software development. The premise is that the monarch of a fictional country has been exiled to California, where he found work first as a janitor at Stanford and then at a hot startup. He applies to a Google-like company and gets hired—but by accident, as a product manager. Sample: Arsyen washed his hands and returned to the cubicle, armed with his new...

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an alarming new report this weekend: The world stands on the brink of failure when it comes to holding global warming to moderate levels, and nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade, according to a landmark report by the top scientific body studying climate change. With global emissions showing few signs of slowing and the United States — the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon...

As in, "nice work, Dutch military, for unraveling a GRU operation and blowing 300 GRU agents worldwide:" Dutch authorities have photographs of four Russian military intelligence (GRU) operatives arriving at the Amsterdam airport last April, escorted by a member of the Russian embassy. They have copies of the men’s passports — two of them with serial numbers one digit apart. Because they caught them, red-handed, inside a car parked beside the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The...

I'm not sure how I feel about CH Distillery buying the Malort wormwood liqueur brand: Since the 1970s, Malort has been distilled in Florida, though its primary market has remained Chicago. Many Malort enthusiasts would agree that the liquor’s powerful aftertaste assaults the taste buds, a phenomenon that’s ironically helped grow the brand’s popularity on social media and in Chicago bars. Why would Tremaine Atkinson, founder of CH Distillery, want to purchase Malort? “Oh my gosh, why not? … I love...

If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, it will be only the second time in U.S. history that an Associate Justice nominated by a president who lost the popular vote will be confirmed by senators representing less than a majority of the country's population: Let’s walk through it. Obviously, Trump got almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Clinton got about 48 percent of the votes cast for president. Trump got about 46 percent. Kavanaugh will join the Supreme Court despite...

This weekend will involve packing, painting, and waiting for deliveries. Which is why blogging is a little slow right now.