Events

Parker and I were surprised last week to come home after work and discover this in the yard: The neighbors were also surprised. And their landlord. And everyone connected with the operation except, perhaps, the roofing company, who only got the order the day before and started work without so much as a text message. Note to small-business owners: It's one thing to provide speedy service, quite another to provide speedy, disruptive, destructive, unplanned service.

In sum: Cubs still in first place, Cardinals slip farther into third, and the White Sox fall—or perhaps, saunter vaguely downwards—into last place.

What a great way to wake up. The Cubs have moved into first place. Only by half a game...but still, it's a nice way to wake up.

Old rug, old sock, sunbeam. Dog is happy: Also, yesterday's note from the dog walking service made me feel almost as warm and fuzzy as Parker is: He met a puppy and he was very gentle and patient. Very nice. (No #2) That's my boy.

Yesterday I posted about a bike that hadn't been ridden in a while. This morning the bike had gone:

The Chicago Tribune on one of the worst divisional contests in recent memory: It could be the worst divisional race in recent memory, but someone has to win the National League Central. The Brewers blew an 8 1/2-game lead, the Cardinals are coming out of their midsummer funk and the Cubs are turning into the Cubs with another mini-meltdown after two straight months of winning baseball. What's in store for the Not-So-Big Three the rest of the month that Lou Piniella said would separate the boys from the...

Someone appears to have slacked off from his exercise program:

Via Bruce Schneier, a really good article about security theater: At the time, it seemed reasonable. Richard Reid tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoe while aboard a December 2001 flight from Paris, so Congress banned butane lighters on planes. But in retrospect, the costs of the ban outweighed the benefits. Airport retailers had to stop selling lighters. Lighter vendor Zippo Manufacturing Co. laid off more than 100 workers in part because of the prohibition. Transportation Security...

I think winds affect my biking regardless of what direction they're coming from. This morning, for example, in calm winds, I set three personal records on a 60 km ride: best distance over 1 hour (30.9 km); best time for 40 km (1:18:14, beating my previous PR by 4:01); and best time for 60 km (1:58:28, beating my previous by 3:22). Next week I'm planning to ride 110—120 km as part of my North Shore Century training. Maybe another PR or two?

Newsweek just published an article laying out how oil, gas, and other similar industries have bamboozled the American public for close to 20 years about climate change: Since the late 1980s, this well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change. Through advertisements, op-eds, lobbying and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not...