Events

Sigh. Astute readers will gather from the preceding post that I am out of the office for a couple of days. And pessimists will agree that, if something were going to go wrong in the office, it would go wrong the day I left. Pessimists: rejoice! The Inner Drive Webcam has decided to add a new page to its history: Now, as nearly as I can figure it, you're looking there at the back end of the computer that hosts the camera (highlighted below), upside-down. I'll have to review the archives on Saturday to...

Every day, my dad walks Reggie, his Austrailian shepherd, along the beach. Today, however, it rained. The humans had Gore-Tex® jackets. The dog didn't:

WLS-TV is reporting that the Chicago Sun-Times' Red Streak tabloid will end after the Thursday issue. According to WLS, the Sun-Times launched the infra-tabloid because the Chicago Tribune started publishing its own tabloid, RedEye. Now that Tribune has given up trying to charge money for RedEye, which probably didn't affect the its revenue at all since no one in Chicago ever paid for it in the first place, the Sun-Times is declaring victory. If anyone out there believes that either Red Streak or RedEye...

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly suggests that the wiretap scandal (reg.req.) may be worse than it appears: It seems clear that there's something involved here that goes far beyond ordinary wiretaps, regardless of the technology used. Perhaps some kind of massive data mining, which makes it impossible to get individual warrants? Stay tuned. Read the full story from Drum.

Praise be! MSNBC is reporting this hour that the judge hearing the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board case has ruled that Intelligent Design is not science. I think Doonesbury's strip last Sunday put the case into perspective quite nicely. Tell me: would it be an appropriate response to the neo-Creationists to demand that we preach evolution in their pulpits? Just wondering. Update: Full story from the New York Times (reg.req.)

Teran Loeppke, Boycott Organizer at UNITE HERE Local 1 in Chicago, sent us this information about the picket line at the Congress Hotel on South Michigan Avenue. As UNITE HERE says, Workers at the Congress Plaza Hotel have been on strike since June 2003, after hotel owners cut wages and benefits. Hundreds of customers complained of poor service and hazardous and unsanitary conditions. Dozens of groups and conferences have moved or canceled their events after learning of the strike. Yet, the Congress...

There's a lot going on this week as Anne and I prepare for the holidays. I expect to have some really interesting things to report soon. But I don't have them yet. I will say, -18°C (-2°F) is really quite cold. One thing of interest: Apparently there's a storm off the Pacific Coast that's generating some heavy surf. I'll be in Carmel, Calif., the day after tomorrow. I hope to have some photos of really big waves by Thursday.

Late addition, 26 March 2006: We have a dynamic version of this in beta over at http://beta.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx. Last week, I posted a short chart of how sunsets are getting later. Today, because I wanted to know for myself, and therefore I can't imagine anyone else not wanting to know also, I've figured out when certain sunrises and sunsets will occur for the next year. Here is the chart for Evanston, Illinois: Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 21 Dec Solstice, 18:35 UTC 07:16...

Four stories from past week (two of them today) sadden all of us who love American democracy. First, and most importantly, the President revealed today that he authorized secret surveillance of Americans because of—wait for it—9/11: "This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I...

For a couple of years, Inner Drive has had a webcam pointing out the window. We've moved twice since the webcam first went online. From time to time, we've adjusted the webcam slightly. And, every so often, the webcam adjusts itself. For example, the first cam image is from when we left the office last night, and the second from when I woke up this morning: (The images are displayed at half-size, but you can view them at full-size by saving them from your browser. You'll notice that they have...