Events

Have a really big fire right next to the El: All CTA trains on the Red, Brown and Purple lines north of downtown were halted for nearly three hours at the height of the evening rush because of an extra-alarm fire that broke out in a furniture store along the tracks near DePaul University. Adding to commuting headaches, a Metra train struck a person on the Union Pacific North Line near the Ravenswood stop on the North Side around the same time, causing the cancellation of at least one train and delays of...

Via reader AS, a frustrating story of suburban kids not allowed to bike to school: [Saratoga, N.Y.,] Maple Avenue {Middle School]'s student body of 1,650 is delivered via 39 school buses—and as at thousands of other communities around the country, many parents elect to drive their children. Thus, every weekday morning, scores of idling cars line up behind dozens of buses disgorging waves of kids. Amidst this, Janette and Adam—each of whom was about 5 feet tall—seemed like a pair of diminutive daredevils...

I'm not sure what to make of this: Inside, the capsule's sole passenger would ride in a near-standing position, wearing a G-suit to help force blood to the head during acceleration. The passenger's head would sit in a transparent hemispheric dome topped with an aerospike for better supersonic performance. It gets better. Dimensions of the capsule's cabin area are roughly two feet (diameter) by 7.5 feet (length). There will be no room in the capsule for movement once the vehicle goes weightless. After...

The bridge opened for foot traffic on 27 May 1937: Naturally, the city is having a party.

The last time I flew home from San Francisco, we landed in Rockford after missing the approach at O'Hare because of wind shear. Yesterday, we didn't divert to a different airport, but neither did we take the most direct path: We almost flew into Canada, according to the captain. As it is we were only about 20 minutes late.

Before leaving for California last weekend, I made sure to park my car on a street not scheduled for street cleaning while I was away. At 9:02 this morning, with me still half a block away, I watched a cop put a ticket on the car. Two minutes. Because I stopped for coffee. Herp derp.

I'm once again in an airport, on my way home. While you're waiting eagerly for my next blog post, check these out: A tool to calculate travel times in Europe during the Roman era; A review of letters from P.G. Wodehouse; and Some 40-year time lapse photos of Toronto storefronts. Share and enjoy. Oh, and there's a Lufthansa Airbus 380 parked here today. I really must see one of those monsters up close someday.

At dinner last night with some of my B-school friends, conversation turned to the two most perplexing stock offerings of the last year: Facebook's and Groupon's. In both cases, the companies' very young owners and very rich venture capital investors got rich, but what happened after that? Here's Facebook's performance this week: And Groupon's: This morning, Groupon announced a proposed settlement in the class-action suit accusing them of practicing their well-known business model: If you purchased or...

The fog will roll in after noon, but at 7am there wasn't a cloud: This is my fourth-favorite city in the world.

This evening's eclipse, through clouds: Also visible in the shadows: An hour later, it's a lot brighter out.