I welcome the CTA acting to cut down on smoking and other prohibited behavior, but cutting federal funding isn't going to help people relying on public transit in Chicago (or Boston). chicago.suntimes.com/transportati...

Finished the Capital City Century bike ride. The last 40 miles were especially tough because of the 90+ degree temps.

Unclear if Paxton which version (Protestant or Catholic) of the Lord's Prayer recited -- but this sort of thing was the catalyst for beginning the Parochial school mvt in the 19th century. Nice to see my friend Mark Chancey quoted in WaPost wapo.st/3VyMUfd.

While I sympathize with the goal, I fear this lays the groundwork for when science-based leadership returns to the CDC, Red states will justify banding together to ignore science-based CDC guidelines. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Second time in two weeks #amtrak 319 has had problems with some passengers being sent by bus. Service seems less reliable than prior two or three summers. Anyone know if there are metrics about this?

This is a good training session -- recommended!

Another brick removed in the wall separating church and state, this time being taking out by the IRS rather than the Supremes. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/u...

Trump is the antithesis of Teddy Roosevelt - he may carry a big stick (or not) but he rarely speaks softly.

It's gonna be the best you'll have felt in days. Come on out with us!

Doesn't it make economic sense for insurance companies to pay for vaccines, even if RFK Jr's CDC doesn't recommend them? Vaccines are cheap and paying for measles or covid hospitalization is expensive. Wouldn't 1 patient in the hospital pay for hundreds (or thousands) of vaccines? wapo.st/3TBmtVd

I am happy that my TV thinks I have any interest in baseball, let alone a "top pick", because it suggests AI has some room for improvement. 😉

Whoops. Turns out that Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" mantra doesn't work well for the govt. #DOGE www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

this is like drake and kendrick lamar but they're both drake

Since Reagan, the GOP has argued that tax cuts would spark growth and be revenue positive. NEVER true: Reagan, Bush, Trump tax cuts always increased deficit. Sen. Thune explains that he "believes" the theory. Faith > reason? Prob not: useful political cover. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

The GOP's attack on higher education has been long-running (see what DeSantis has done in Florida). Reading about what's going on in Indiana (which employs some of my friends and relatives) shows why Harvard's resistance is so remarkable and important. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/u...

Interesting essay arguing that some Evangelicals are so focused on the vertical relationship with God that they are ignoring the horizontal relationship with other people. There is long tradition of individual-focused salvation, which may have its roots in slavery. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/o...

If former Israeli PM Olmert were to air this opinion at a US university, the Trump admin would accuse him of Antisemitism. It would also accuse the sponsoring organization of fostering Antisemitism. www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025...

Appointing inexperienced and/or incompetent (or industry shills) to important govt positions has long been a GOP strategy to ensure that its talking point (that govt is ineffective and useless) is correct. Agent Orange has taken this practice to a new height. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/u...

Fascinating example of how high tech might reveal the contents of an ancient library, perhaps significantly increasing the number of known documents from antiquity. #DigitalHumanities #classics www.economist.com/science-and-...

According to the Terminator movies #AI becomes self-aware in 1997. Cameron was off by 30 years, but #Skynet -like behavior - a system that will harm humans to preserve itself - is on the horizon. Need to program in #Asimov's three laws of robotics! www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tech...

Sen. Ernst's new media strategy is puzzling. She seems to be trying to "own the libs." But the people she insulted with her comments are Trump / MAGA voters. And while it's true that "we will all die," this doesn't justify GOP policies that will hasten that event. www.npr.org/2025/05/31/n...

The CPSC - where my dad worked for decades - protects consumers from getting injured/killed from poorly designed products. Every GOP admin has sought to muzzle CPSC. Trump fired them after voting to release a report about batteries igniting and killing people. www.theverge.com/news/664498/...

Contra MAGA accusations, "Lamestream Media" is NOT in the pocket of liberals / Dems. It goes out of its way to avoid upsetting Agent Orange, so much that it avoids accurately describing his actions.

Of course it was a #FloridaMan! cowboystatedaily.com/2025/05/07/f...

An amazing show of sportsmanship today with a bunch of Cardinals selecting and promoting someone from NL Central rival Chicago.

Lots of Pope Leo XIV memes in r/Chicago. The Malort in the background is an nice touch, since no one not from Chicago has ever tasted it. (Most Chicagoians contemplate becoming teetotalers after tasting it once.)

Programming Historian has just published my article: programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/c... Thanks to @fmvaldez.bsky.social and Rob Nelson for their reviews, to @nabsiddiqui.bsky.social for editing, and to the patient and helpful staff at PH for guiding me thru the process.

I've been enjoying a bunch of SF from Africa / African writers in the last couple of years. I haven't read these novels, but the reviews look promising (and the price can't be beat!).

I disagree with RJK Jr on many (most?) things but hope he succeeds in reducing the amount bad, ultra-processed food produced by the the food industry. Moss' _Sugar Salt Fat_ shows how the food industry has bad for Americans for decades. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/u...

Bad for IL to lose a senior senator, but good news for aspiring IL pols. Obama won an open seat in 2004. And good for the party to have some younger folks who will have to live under the laws and policies they approve (or don't) for years to come. #Durbin www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/u...

Trump's innovative economic and trade policies are paying off! #MAGA Truly a first 100-days for the history books. People will be talking about his bold leadership decades in the future. www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

I have no doubt the lecture fell on unlistening ears and an unwilling mind. Our vice president was there purely for a photo op with the Pope. He got it, and sadly for our vice president, that's all he will take away from meeting a better man than he. It's all he was capable of taking away from it.

May his memory be a blessing. www.economist.com/obituary/202...

Trump Admin mottos: * If at first you don't succeed, give up. * If something is hard, don't bother doing it. * Don't worry about long term threats, only immediate problems. MAGA without the gumption that won WWII and the Cold War. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/w...

If you hear crickets that’s the antisemitism task force springing into action

Making American Great Again by allowing foreign disinformation campaigns to further polarize and divide the "united" states.

SCOOP: sources tell me that the State Dept plans to eliminate its only office to counter foreign disinformation, as soon as today, delivering a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China—and the office's mostly conservative critics. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...

Reminds me of Chevy Chase's version of hapless President Ford. . . (Unlike Vance, Ford was quite athletic and didn't have butterfingers.) apnews.com/article/vanc...

More Dems need to get out in rural America and talk about issues important there: food deserts, healthcare deserts, helping farms sell crops internationally. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/13/c...

Fascinating article about Roman trial in Judea, ca 132, about evasion of taxes from trade and manumission of slaves. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/s...

Tech companies see the benefits of sycophancy and ~~bribes~~ donations to the administration. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hmmm. . . .

Terrible for international students who benefit from American educations. Terrible for domestic students who benefit from meeting international students. Remarkably (?), the Trump admin has created a policy that benefits no one. It does make xenophobes happy, tho.

This map by @insidehighered.com, with downloadable data that has links to sources, shows every school where students have had visas revoked. And yes, CMU has had 7 revoked. 1 in 3 students and 1 in 4 faculty are foreigners here in the US. This is terrorism on our campuses.

In times of chaos and uncertainty, APOD is a beautiful respite from the news.

Gov't welfare payments to farmers -- for a single year or two -- won't make up for not being able to sell to China for decades. Trump's policies are damaging -- massively -- the folks who voted for him overwhelmingly. #LeopardsAteMyFace www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04...

I'm calling for an investigation into whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors—all while working people and small businesses paid the price. Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping? It sure looks like corruption.

Parents: vaccinate your kids! Adults like me who got vaccinated with a less effective dead-virus based vaccine (1963-67), get vaccinated! (I got jabbed two weeks ago and will get the second in a fortnight.) www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/h...

Looking forward to Sec. Kennedy's "Jurassic Park for Viruses!" policy, bringing back ailments almost wiped out. This will paired with his "Medical textbooks from the 1940s" initiative, expanding doctor's diagnostic skills. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/w...

Impressive!