Events

Astronomers have discovered compelling evidence of alien life on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Evidence of alien life is "unequivocal" on the comet carrying the Philae probe through space, two leading astronomers have said. [Astrobiologist] Chandra Wickramasinghe said: "What we're saying is that data coming from the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very...

The weather's perfect, there are holiday parties, and possibly some hiking. So not much blogging this weekend. There was also a small Ribfest nearby, but aside from Rod Tuffcurls & the Bench Presses, kind of disappointing (especially the vendor who ran out of ribs). More later as circumstances warrant.

Here's the semi-annual Chicago sunrise chart . (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx .) Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 2015 2 Jul 8:30pm sunset 05:20 20:30 15:09 16 Jul 5:30am sunrise 05:30 20:24 14:54 9 Aug 8pm sunset 05:53 20:00 14:07 16 Aug 6am sunrise 06:00 19:50 13:50 29 Aug 7:30pm sunset 06:13 19:30 13:16 14 Sep 6:30am sunrise 06:30 19:03 12:32 16 Sep 7pm sunset 06:32 18:59 12:27 23 Sep Equinox , 03:21 CDT 06:39 18:47 12:10 26 Sep...

Here's the semi-annual Chicago sunrise chart . (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx .) Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 2015 2 Jul 8:30pm sunset 05:20 20:30 15:09 16 Jul 5:30am sunrise 05:30 20:24 14:54 9 Aug 8pm sunset 05:53 20:00 14:07 16 Aug 6am sunrise 06:00 19:50 13:50 29 Aug 7:30pm sunset 06:13 19:30 13:16 14 Sep 6:30am sunrise 06:30 19:03 12:32 16 Sep 7pm sunset 06:32 18:59 12:27 23 Sep Equinox , 03:21 CDT 06:39 18:47 12:10 26 Sep...

Remy Porter at The Daily WTF points out the implementation issues with marriage equality: In a landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court revised the business requirements and integrity constraints on the marriage relationship, removing some legacy constraints and essentially updating to better reflect the actual needs of their end users. This policy decision now has to be implemented in every state, county, town and hamlet across the country. Every change breaks somebody’s workflow, and this...

As feared, last month was the wettest June on record in Illinois, and the second-wettest month of all time: The statewide average precipitation for June 2015 in Illinois was 242.1 mm, based on available data through June 30. That is 135.4 mm above the average June precipitation, and the wettest June on record for Illinois. In addition to being the wettest June on record, it is the second wettest month on record for Illinois. Only September 1926 was wetter at 244.4 mm – just 2.3 mm higher. Meanwhile, in...

For no reason other than it was out last night:

And the Daily Parker suffers. This is my 38th post this month, making June 2015 the slowest month on the blog since November 2010, the last month of my MBA. Let's see if I can do better in July.

No, really. Today will have 86,401 seconds in it, as opposed to the usual 86,400 seconds that every day for the last 18 years has had. Because the earth interacts with lots of other gravity sources in the universe—most notably the moon—its rotation sometimes speeds up and sometimes slows down. Over the last 18 years or so, the planet has lost an entire second because of these perturbations, requiring us to update our most accurate clocks to compensate. Of course, when those clocks get updated, there's a...

People in Los Angeles talk about the "June Gloom," a common weather pattern that makes L.A. weather gloomy in the late spring. We don't typically have this phenomenon in Chicago. This month, however, is the gloomiest June ever here, with only 45.7% of possible sunshine through yesterday, and clouds today and predicted for tomorrow. This month is already the fourth wettest month in Illinois history (and the wettest June in state history) with statewide average precipitation of 227.8 mm through Saturday....