The Daily Parker

Every day, my dad walks Reggie, his Austrailian shepherd, along the beach. Today, however, it rained. The humans had Gore-Tex® jackets. The dog didn't:

WLS-TV is reporting that the Chicago Sun-Times' Red Streak tabloid will end after the Thursday issue.

According to WLS, the Sun-Times launched the infra-tabloid because the Chicago Tribune started publishing its own tabloid, RedEye. Now that Tribune has given up trying to charge money for RedEye, which probably didn't affect the its revenue at all since no one in Chicago ever paid for it in the first place, the Sun-Times is declaring victory.

If anyone out there believes that either Red Streak or RedEye ever deserved to see the inside of a newspaper stand, I'd love to hear from you. Mostly I've thought of both papers as something to read on the El when I've forgotten my Economist and finished with the ads for divorce lawyers. But I understand many birds will allow them to be used as cage liners.

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly suggests that the wiretap scandal (reg.req.) may be worse than it appears:

It seems clear that there's something involved here that goes far beyond ordinary wiretaps, regardless of the technology used. Perhaps some kind of massive data mining, which makes it impossible to get individual warrants? Stay tuned.

Read the full story from Drum.

Praise be!

MSNBC is reporting this hour that the judge hearing the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board case has ruled that Intelligent Design is not science.

I think Doonesbury's strip last Sunday put the case into perspective quite nicely.

Tell me: would it be an appropriate response to the neo-Creationists to demand that we preach evolution in their pulpits? Just wondering.

Update: Full story from the New York Times (reg.req.)

Teran Loeppke, Boycott Organizer at UNITE HERE Local 1 in Chicago, sent us this information about the picket line at the Congress Hotel on South Michigan Avenue. As UNITE HERE says,

Workers at the Congress Plaza Hotel have been on strike since June 2003, after hotel owners cut wages and benefits. Hundreds of customers complained of poor service and hazardous and unsanitary conditions. Dozens of groups and conferences have moved or canceled their events after learning of the strike. Yet, the Congress still refuses to inform individual customers of the strike. Chicago visitors are not allowed to make an informed decision about having to cross the picket line or risk compromised service.

Here's Teran's comment and photo:

I just wanted you to see this wonderful moment we had in Chicago last Thursday at the Congress Hotel—our boycott rally and picket led by the strikers and the Alliance for Justice at the Congress Hotel.

For more information about the strike, or to find out how you can support hotel workers in Chicago, contact Clare Fauke at +1 (312) 663-4373 ext. 247 or read about it on the Web.

There's a lot going on this week as Anne and I prepare for the holidays. I expect to have some really interesting things to report soon. But I don't have them yet.

I will say, -18°C (-2°F) is really quite cold.

One thing of interest: Apparently there's a storm off the Pacific Coast that's generating some heavy surf. I'll be in Carmel, Calif., the day after tomorrow. I hope to have some photos of really big waves by Thursday.

Late addition, 26 March 2006: We have a dynamic version of this in beta over at http://beta.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.

Last week, I posted a short chart of how sunsets are getting later. Today, because I wanted to know for myself, and therefore I can't imagine anyone else not wanting to know also, I've figured out when certain sunrises and sunsets will occur for the next year.

Here is the chart for Evanston, Illinois:

You can get sunrise information for your location at wx-now.com.

Four stories from past week (two of them today) sadden all of us who love American democracy.

First, and most importantly, the President revealed today that he authorized secret surveillance of Americans because of—wait for it—9/11:

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States," Bush said.

So, he authorized violating our laws and Constitution, compromising our civil liberties, "under our laws and Constitution, to protect [our] civil liberties" then? Is he channeling Nixon? If so, maybe he'll end his presidency the same way. One can hope, anyway.

Notice, by the way, that he dropped this bombshell on Saturday morning, when people are listening to Wait Wait! Don't tell me instead of reading actual newspapers. This tactic is described in The West Wing episode "Take Out the Trash Day," which has special poingiancy this morning.

Second and third, former Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire died Thursday at the age of 90, and former Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy died last Saturday at age 89.

And finally, Emmy-winning West Wing star John Spencer also died, at 58. (Photo: NBC)

For a couple of years, Inner Drive has had a webcam pointing out the window. We've moved twice since the webcam first went online. From time to time, we've adjusted the webcam slightly. And, every so often, the webcam adjusts itself.

For example, the first cam image is from when we left the office last night, and the second from when I woke up this morning:

(The images are displayed at half-size, but you can view them at full-size by saving them from your browser. You'll notice that they have timestamps, which are in Universal time.)

The poor webcam was lying on the floor of the office covered by the box upon which it had previously sat. See how it sits precariously in this photo? Imagine it now in a heap under the chair by the window.

So, since we had to move it anyway, we decided to rotate it south 90 degrees, to this angle:

For those interested in history, here is what the image looked like yesterday during the day, and at 6, 12, and 18 months ago, respectively:

And finally, here is what the Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters looked like in October 2004 and October 2003:

(Yes, the image on the right is of my living room.)

Note: I didn't realize when I started this post that today is the second anniversary of the Webcam. As a special bonus, here is the very first Inner Drive Cam picture ever, from 17 December 2003 at 1:28 pm CST (19:28 UTC):

The San Francisco Chronicle today ran a long-overdue correction:

A story Nov. 15 about mathematical references on "The Simpsons" TV show mistakenly said that 1,782 to the 12th power plus 1,841 to the 12th power equals 1,922 to the 12th power. Actually, 1,782 to the 12th power plus 1,841 to the 12th power equals 2,541,210,258,614,589,176,288,669,958,142,428,526,657, while 1,922 to the 12th power equals 2,541,210,259,314,801,410,819,278,649,643,651,567,616.

(Linked from today's Romanesko. In the "Anne" category because she actually does know this kind of thing.)