Events

The International Olympic Committee has eliminated Chicago from consideration for the 2016 games. The defeat marked the first time since 1980 that the U.S. has failed in consecutive bid attempts. Los Angeles lost to Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980, but then was awarded the 1984 Games when it was the only viable candidate bidding. There was a stunned reaction in Chicago to the decision. Yes, the people gathered in Daley Center Plaza, including the Mayor, would be disappointed. I confess to being...

Blowing off the last game of the season I bought tickets for did not come easily. I struggled with the decision for most of the afternoon. I needn't have: The temperature at Midway has flattened out at 13°C as a thunderstorm has started passing overhead. Oh, and après le déluge, the Cubs can resume in the top of the 4th with the last-place Pirates beating them 3-0. So, you know, I think I made the right choice.

Actually, there will be a Cubs game, in about 10 minutes, but I won't be there, for the following reasons: It's cold out, it's raining, and I have a financial accounting exam in about a week for which I am slightly more prepared than I am to swim the English Channel. Instead of rainy Cubs photos, then, here is a great post about ghostwriting: I recognize the paradox [of ghostwriting celebrity memoirs]: the bookstores are already happy to sell this kind of fraud, so why can't online authors engage in the...

This time, though, Bloomberg picked up the story in the context of Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid: Chicagoans are angry about Mayor Richard M. Daley’s deal to lease the city’s parking meters to Morgan Stanley investment funds. So angry that Daley’s popularity is at a record low, according to a Chicago Tribune/WGN poll. So angry that the 20- year mayor may not have taxpayer support to lease or sell more assets and bolster the city’s budget. That means Daley is under even more pressure to abide by his pledge...

Via the Economist's Gulliver blog, British Airways has resurrected flight BA001 as an all-business-class flight from London City to New York's Kennedy. They're using tiny Airbus 318 aircraft that have to stop in Shannon, Ireland on the westbound leg to pick up fuel. Still, for less than £4,000 round-trip, it's a lot more convenient and just a bit cheaper than flying in the same class to Heathrow: Flying from London City means the planes need to land at a much steeper angle than normal - the Airbus A318...

I can't wait to see what they'll have us do after this: On the evening of Aug. 28, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister — and the man in charge of the kingdom’s counterterrorism efforts — was receiving members of the public in connection with the celebration of Ramadan.... One of the highlights of the Friday gathering was supposed to be the prince’s meeting with Abdullah Hassan Taleh al-Asiri, a Saudi man who was a wanted militant from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)....

I finally got around to looking in my cell phone's photos folder and discovered St. Paul's Cathedral: There were also a couple shots of me that a friend took. We'll skip those for now.

Duke will release our financial accounting exam on the 8th, and we'll have 24 hours from the time we download it to finish and hand it in. Our professor, when asked this morning for general guidance about the exam, seemed confident that someone who didn't need to look anything up (e.g., an accounting professor) could finish it in "four to five hours." In other words, until October 8th, I will likely post link lists, like this one. Sorry. The Economist's Gulliver blog highlighted the differences between...

People who live outside Chicago might find it shocking and dismaying to read a newspaper report that their city's Olympics bid will, if successful, make the mayor's friends rich. For us, it's actually comforting. I mean, we all knew someone would get rich; now we have a better idea who: Chicago 2016 committee member Michael Scott also served as a consultant to the developer on a condominium project near the proposed athletes village, a development that would increase in value if the city wins the...

With 10 games left in the season, the Cubs' elimination number is still a number: 1. (The rest of the NL Central has already been eliminated.) They're also within spitting distance of the Rockies for the wild card. Hey, it could happen.