Events

Before coming to 10th Magnitude, I was an independent consultant, mostly writing software but occasionally configuring networks. I hate configuring networks. And yet, since 2008, I've had a 48U server rack in my apartment.* A “U” is 25mm, so this means I have a 1.2 m steel rack behind an antique dressing screen in my living room home office, which sits between my dining room and my bedroom in a compact apartment in Chicago: It looks modest enough, yes? On the server rack are three 2U and one 1U rack...

As promised, Parker's birthday photo from yesterday: 1/250 at f/5.6, ISO-3200, 116mm

Parker turns six today: That was then (September 2006, when he was about 11 weeks old). The "now" picture will come tomorrow.

...and only four blocks from my house:

The Dept. of Homeland Security announced today that most undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children will not be deported: Those who demonstrate that they meet the criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and will be eligible to apply for work authorization. “Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” said [Homeland Security] Secretary [Janet] Napolitano. “But they are not designed to be blindly...

Because it sounds utterly ridiculous when grown-ups use her arguments: Sen. Paul is basically reading from Atlas Shrugged. And it's nonsense, as Sen. Sanders demonstrates. Further, I think Paul knows it is. If you're just tuning in, Ayn Rand believed (as apparently Rand Paul believes) that taxes were only taken by force, and were therefore always illegitimate. She believed that a government levying taxes and providing services from those taxes was doing so "at the point of a gun," even if nearly...

Via Sullivan through Lloyd Grove's review of tonight's HBO documentary on President George H.W. Bush: Touting his qualifications for the presidency, including jobs as U.S. envoy to China and director of the CIA, he tellingly remarks: “It wasn’t like out of the clear blue sky some hick from West Texas coming in.” I wonder who he's comparing himself to, there... Nope. Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent.

The branding cops from the International Olympic Committee are making sure the London 2012 sponsors get their £1 bn worth: With far more Olympic funds coming from taxpayers than sponsors, there is some resentment that the public is underwriting a massive advertising platform for big companies who then treat the games as their sole property. Stricter still are rules within the 35-day Brand Exclusion Zone due to be thrown about half a mile around London’s Olympic Park, where any advertising or endorsement...

Via WBEZ, the new route will help eliminate "pride island:" The parade, which will be held on Sunday, June 24, has grown annually, with over 800,000 attendees last year. The growth has made handling the auto and pedestrian traffic an arduous task for the city and organizers. Last year, crowds were difficult to disperse and streets took longer than usual to clean and open up to traffic. The parade traditionally circled from north Halsted Street, then headed south on Broadway Street. Now, the route is...

Robert Wright wonders: A few decades ago, Darwinians and creationists had a de facto nonaggression pact: Creationists would let Darwinians reign in biology class, and otherwise Darwinians would leave creationists alone. The deal worked. I went to a public high school in a pretty religious part of the country--south-central Texas--and I don't remember anyone complaining about sophomores being taught natural selection. It just wasn't an issue. A few years ago, such biologists as Richard Dawkins and PZ...