Events

Via Sullivan, Salon presents four possible scenarios that could very well happen: Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood, 22 years for...

Sullivan included my note to him about The Duke of Perth in his thread on America's corner pubs. The whole thread is worth reading, as most Americans don't seem to know that such thing as a corner pub exists—except those of us who live in actual cities: I'm sitting in a great pub in Chicago right now: the Duke of Perth. It's walking distance from my apartment, has wonderful Shepherd's Pie (though they assure me it contains no shepherds), Theakston's Twisted Thistle IPA on draught, and 90 varieties of...

Sitting in a cube farm outside Cincinnati, Ohio, I start to wonder...is jail anything like this? Researchers have documented the soul- and productivity-sucking effects of cubicles for about 20 years, with other related research going back to the 1950s. Someday I will understand why no one acts on this research...

Lincoln Park, Chicago, this morning:

Via Sullivan, a collection of data and infographics about "the battlefield of love:" There are many opportunities for failure with 3 million first dates every day worldwide. It turns out that sex is pretty important as 56% of adults claim to be unhappy with their sex life and 22% of married people worldwide have had an extramarital affair. Turkey has the highest rate of affairs with 58% of married people, and Israel the lowest with 7%. Cheating is one of the most popular reasons for breaking up with 25%...

Parker hasn't gotten to play in this yet because I had an 8am class, but as soon as that's over we'll hit the park. Welcome to winter:

As in, the window guys are back today actually to put trim on the windows. Not that the pink fiberglass isn't the height of chic: I forgot from the first set that I'll have to paint the trim once they get it in there. I have no idea when I'll get around to this. Time to call my guy... Parker doesn't care about the windows, but he's no fan of the process. When he got home yesterday, he didn't check out the new windows because this scene made him very, very nervous: I mentioned yesterday that not having...

I've always thought Iowans were generally sensible and tolerant. Apparently not all of them: Wow. (Hat tip TPM.)

Guys are installing new windows at IDTWHQ, completing the project begun in March 2009. (I split it into two phases to spread the cost over two years.) I ordered this set mid-August. We thought they'd be done in October, but no such luck. Here's the effect, according to the Inner Drive Technology International Data Center Monitor: The bottom axis shows local time, the vertical shows degrees Celsius. Also keep in mind that servers produce heat, so the server rack usually runs about 2°C warmer than the...

Remember that bit about our unusually warm autumn? Meteorological winter began yesterday, leaving no doubt of its arrival: Chicagoans shivered through the coldest December open in 27 years Wednesday. The day's biting 48 to 56 km/h gusts generated wind chills which ranged from single digits to the mid teens [Fahrenheit] as bursts of snowfall dusted the ground and produced the city's first measurable (3 mm) accumulations at Midway and O'Hare. The snowfall generated patches of black ice which led to a...