Events

I am officially an uncle. Good morning, Conner. Welcome to the world. Don't let your last 13 hours turn you off to it. It gets better. Nick, Jeanine: congratulations, you crazy kids. Let me know when you're ready to have me corrupt him.

Yes, more links: Qatar Airways has joined the oneworld alliance. The Economist's Gulliver blog has the story; Cranky Flier had analysis yesterday. Fun and games for the election with an endorsement of Mitt Romney that is either subtle satire or true hathos, and bad lip reading of the debate. Russia goes back and forth about daylight saving time, to the confusion of all. Later today I'll also have a new post on the 10th Magnitude blog.

I have just inflicted this on my friends; you're next: After the "incident" with Esmerelda, the Cathedral of Our Lady in Paris—Notre Dame—needed a new bell-ringer. A man showed up for the job. The bishop in charge of hiring noticed he had no arms. "Pas de problème," said the man. "I hit the bells with my head, like this." He then proceeded to play a magnificent carillon using only his face. As he reached a crescendo, the glorious music reaching out across Paris, he slipped, fell from the bell tower, and...

I haven't any time to write today, but I did want to call attention to these: Parker is fine, though it appears likely he pulled a hind leg muscle on Sunday. He spent much of Sunday crying and really, really hating the stairs; today he was able to stand up and grab a treat from my hand. Tomorrow he'll get a 3 km walk in the morning. Alex Brown, my boss, has a new blog entry up. The Smithsonian wrote about a CIA burglar who went rogue. Reuters' Felix Simon argues against high-frequency trading. Andrew...

Aaron Sorkin, writing for Maureen Dowd's column today, imagines the conversation: BARTLET And that was quite a display of hard-nosed, fiscal conservatism when he slashed one one-hundredth of 1 percent from the federal budget by canceling “Sesame Street” and “Downton Abbey.” I think we’re halfway home. Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.” Let’s replay some of Wednesday night’s more jaw-dropping...

Two aviation articles this morning. The first, via the Economist's Gulliver blog, examines how checked baggage tags have cut lost luggage down to nearly zero: In July alone, 53 million passengers boarded domestic flights. Only about one-third of 1 percent reported a mishandled bag. Given the phenomenal scale of American aviation (measured in seats and miles, the U.S. market is three times larger than any other) and our reliance on luggage-juggling hub airports, that’s an excellent result. Even caged...

I just discovered something that should have been obvious: Chicago Public Radio dropped Car Talk too early. Starting yesterday, WBEZ moved its Saturday schedule around, dropping Car Talk from the 9am slot, bringing Wait Wait! Don't tell me and This American Life forward, and putting new show Snap Judgment in TAL's noon slot. Last week I listened to what I believed at the time to be the last Car Talk episode ever, and found it...oddly routine. Well, duh. Tom and Ray will continue recording until later...

Friday's cold front brought the chilliest weather in Chicago since April 12th. Friday night's low of 1°C yielded cool, cloudy day yesterday and today. It's now mostly cloudy and 6°C with a northwest breeze. This is significant because right now 45,000 people are running their asses off right around my house. For a variety of reasons I will not be chasing the street sweepers again this year, the chief reason being that while this temperature feels great to a runner, it kind of sucks for a biker. Good...

The temperature in Chicago dropped 13°C in six hours yesterday, taking us from summer to autumn between lunch and dinner: One minute it was summer, with the Chicago area basking in the warmest temperatures of the past 22 days---the next, howling northwest winds were delivering an autumn-level chill. Readings surged to 27°C at Midway and the Lakefront by mid afternoon but were soon on the run with the arrival of gusty showers—a few with lightning and thunder. These initiated the impressive temperature...

Behold, the Like-a-Hug: Designed by MIT researchers, the Like-A-Hug coat senses when a Facebook friend "likes" your picture of a sweater-wearing cat or wistful update about finding true love. Then, via some complicated electronic mechanism that's not quite clear, it rewards the wearer by filling with air to mimic a "hugging" sensation. So basically this is an article of clothing that broadcasts the owner's craven need for approval, as well as suggesting his or her crushing failure to attract hugs from...