Events

Chef's kiss: This hit me hard because... that is exactly what conservatives are arguing for with a straight face. https://t.co/NTeoOSwyEu — Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 3, 2022 In case it doesn't show up, here's the Tweet she's replying to: Although the Founders would not have allowed someone who looks like Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, here’s why their view on things should still guide every decision she makes. — New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) October 3, 2022 That...

I always find it interesting when a literary magazine takes on technology. In that spirit, the New Yorker does its best to explain the Network Time Protocol: Today, we take global time synchronization for granted. It is critical to the Internet, and therefore to civilization. Vital systems—power grids, financial markets, telecommunications networks—rely on it to keep records and sort cause from effect. N.T.P. works in partnership with satellite systems, such as the Global Positioning System (G.P.S.)...

James Fallows loves the new data visualizations from the Census Bureau: Through its existence the Census has been an irreplaceable trove of data. A minor illustration: this past April it released a searchable database of individual records from the 1950 Census, rendered in touchingly precise hand-written form. You can look up the name of anyone included in that Census here — as I did for my mother and father.1 Why the 1950 Census? Because by law personally identifiable Census records are kept...

As previously mentioned. Just check out those hand-inlays and working ca. 1800 hardware!

No, not the Covid booster. I'm getting the flu shot. You should too: "It's time to get your flu shot right now," advises Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University. "People should get them now," agrees Shaun Truelove, an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who's helping lead a new effort to project this year's flu season for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The usual flu season starts in November in the U.S. and...

A first-year undergraduate twerp with obvious narcissistic tendencies went through a homeless encampment handing out fake eviction notices earlier this week: The one-page notices titled “Maria Hadden’s Five Day Notice To Vacate” were stuffed into belongings and posted on signs in and around Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina St., residents said. They were dated Sept. 27 and listed the name of Hadden, the 49th Ward alderperson, in bold blue type over a line reading “landlord/agent.” The notice says Touhy Park...

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin illegally declared Russia has annexed parts of Ukraine, which literally no other country in the world has recognized: Speaking to hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a grand Kremlin hall, Mr. Putin said that the residents of the four regions — which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces — would become Russia’s citizens “forever.” He then held a signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of those four regions to start the official annexation...

The Registrar General for Scotland finally released a death certificate that raised more questions than it answered: Queen Elizabeth II’s cause of death is described as “old age” in the register of deaths released on Thursday. The registrar general for Scotland, Paul Lowe, confirmed that the Queen’s death was registered in Aberdeenshire on 16 September. Suspicious, innit? She survived in power for 70 years and this is the best you've got? Apparently Scottish law allows this sort of obfuscation: Old age...

Hurricane Ian has made landfall over Tampa, Fla., as a strong Category-4 storm: In a 3:05 p.m. update, the National Hurricane Center said the massive Category 4 storm made landfall on the southwest coast with 240 km/h maximum sustained winds. The most immediate and life-threatening concern was storm surge — the waters of the Gulf of Mexico pushed inland by Ian. The surge predictions from the National Hurricane Center soared overnight to 4 to 6 meters for Englewood to Bonita Bay, a forecast so high a new...

After Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's shocking mini-budget announcement last week, worldwide markets (and the IMF) have clobbered Sterling and the Conservative government in general. Today the Bank of England intervened in bond markets to try undoing the worst damage: The Bank will start buying government bonds at an "urgent pace" to help restore "orderly market conditions". So called Liability Driven Investment funds - which support defined benefit pensions schemes - were facing a collapse in the value of...