Events

I agree with Jeff Atwood that learning to code isn't really a good goal: The "everyone should learn to code" movement isn't just wrong because it falsely equates coding with essential life skills like reading, writing, and math. I wish. It is wrong in so many other ways. It assumes that more code in the world is an inherently desirable thing. In my thirty year career as a programmer, I have found this … not to be the case. Should you learn to write code? No, I can't get behind that. You should be...

For the last day or so, Chicago has had record-low humidity of all things, with dewpoints below 0°C for much of it: This is the third day this year and only the 19th day in 142 years dating back to 1871 that the city has officially logged a relative humidity below 20%. At Midway Airport the relative humidity also dropped to 17 percent at 5pm. This is the lowest relative humidity recorded in Chicago in more than six years since another 17 percent humidity was logged on February 20, 2006. The other two...

Via Sullivan, a suggestion from Dan McAdams about the difficulties some people have accepting natural selection theory: A story is a narrative account of a motivated character who acts to achieve certain goals or ends over time. Every great story you can think of—from Homer’s Iliad to your favorite television show—involves characters who pursue goals over time, characters who want something and set out to achieve it. In this sense, the classic biblical creation stories are very good stories. You have a...

Or, as Krugman puts it, Eurodämmerung: Some of us have been talking it over, and here’s what we think the end game looks like: 1. Greek euro exit, very possibly next month. ... 4b. End of the euro. And we’re talking about months, not years, for this to play out. Good thing I only have about €15 in cash. Though I do have some escudos and pesetas somewhere...

It looks like we're not hearing the truth about anthropogenic climate change. Who's keeping the lid on the data? Climate scientists: Climate scientists have been consistently downplaying and underestimating the risks for three main reasons. First, their models tended to ignore the myriad amplifying carbon cycle feedbacks that we now know are kicking in (such as the defrosting tundra). Second, they never imagined that the nations of the world would completely ignored their warnings, that we would...

Leave it to a British newspaper to create such a clear diagram of states' policies: On the same subject, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn today promised to pass a gay-marriage law...someday: Supporters of the gay marriage bill pending in the Illinois House aren't likely to call it for a vote before lawmakers are scheduled to go home May 31. "I think we have a few other things on our plate, like pensions, health care, Medicaid, public safety, education, the state budget, and I think that's going to take all...

And the office dog is doing what he does best:

The President's announcement yesterday and a new ad this morning make it clear the election 179 days from now is about the future vs. the past: Sullivan comments: One small note. Above, Romney says that we should not discard 3,000 years of history of one-man-one-woman marriage. Ahem. His own family were ardent polygamists only a century ago - and went to Mexican colonies to escape US federal oppression of their version of marriage (which also goes back a long, long way and still exists across the...

The President's stance has evolved: video platform video management video solutions video player Question: when will Romney say something?