Events

Julia Ioffe, a Soviet refugee who knows more about Russia than just about any other American journalist, fills in the gaps on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's childhood. In sum, he's an angry, insecure street kid from the 'hood: The West’s obsession with Putin’s K.G.B. past often misses the biographical detail that for most Russians, especially those of his generation, is especially glaring: Putin is the street urchin, all grown up. The way he sits, slouching contemptuously; the way he only trusts...

At 7am Monday, it was 12°C at Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters. By 6pm the temperature had gone up to 26.5°C, then 29.8°C at 2pm Tuesday, then 29.1°C at 3:15pm yesterday, before a cold front finally ploughed through and got us down to lovely sleeping weather right before I turned in: The slow rise in my indoor temperature from 7am to 5pm was just my normal A/C program, as was the decline when the A/C turned on at 5. Then at 6, I discovered that the cold front had gone through, so I opened the...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Update: Mikkeler Bar closed permanently in October 2022. Had it not, I would have dropped it from the official list because, it turns out, they didn't actually brew on premises. Brewery: Mikkeler Bar, 34 Mason St., San FranciscoTrain line: BART, PowellTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 200 m While in San Francisco last weekend, I happened across a brewpub that would fit the Brews & Choos ethos perfectly, were it in...

I popped out to San Francisco this past weekend, then had a ton of things to work on today that precluded posting any of these photos. So, from south to north order, starting with Moss Beach, including a WWII-era anti-aircraft bunker on the left: Just a short way from there is what used to be a scary section of the Pacific Coast Highway, now a bike trail: The Powell end of the Powell & Mason cable car, at Market St: The Ferry Building: Looking up California St. from Sansomme: Transamerica Pyramid: And...

Sheesh: Eriq Gardener provides four reasons not to think a Supreme Court insider leaked Justice Alito's (R) draft opinion. NPR reports that Justice Thomas (R) of all people complained about people losing respect for the Court. Alex Shephard agrees with me that the GOP caught the car with the Alito leak, but that won't stop them from threatening every other privacy-based right Americans have. Military analyst Mick Ryan examines where the Ukrainian army might engage the Russians next, and how they have...

According to my Garmin, I got almost 18 hours of sleep the past two nights, but also according to my Garmin (and my groggy head), few of those hours made a difference. I take some of the blame for that, but on the other hand, someday I want to stay in a hotel room where I can control when the air conditioner turns on and off. Anyway, while I slept fitfully, these stories passed through my inbox: EJ Dionne reminds us that the current Supreme Court has decided many more anti-democratic cases than just the...

A little-known United Nations agency would like its $22 million back, please: At the United Nations, two officials had a problem. The little-known agency they ran found itself with an extra $61 million, and they didn’t know what to do with it. Then they met a man at a party. Now, they have $25 million less. In between was a baffling series of financial decisions, in which experienced diplomats entrusted tens of millions of dollars, the agency’s entire investment portfolio at the time, to a British...

Chicago actually had clear skies and lovely spring weather today. That said, I'm in San Francisco this weekend, where the weather is almost exactly the same (12°C and clear). Posting will be sporadic until Tuesday.

Gray skies, day 45: they say the sun will come out tomorrow. I would not bet my bottom dollar on that. In any event, I'll be in San Francisco for a couple of days, where they've had sun on and off for a while, with sun predicted tomorrow and Sunday. Then, if the predictions hold true, I'll come back here Monday in time to throw open all my windows. We'll see. But I am really sick of the rain and clouds already.

South Texas College of Law Houston Law Professor Josh Blackman sketches out a timeline pointing to a right-wing Justice's clerk as the likely source of the Dobbs leak: First, where did the leak come from? Most people are presuming this leak came from someone with access to the opinion, such as a Justice or a clerk. That presumption is probably correct, but it is also possible there was some illegal exfiltration of the document. ... People who are fanatical about abortion may go to great lengths to...