The Daily Parker

Once again, here's a list of news items I haven't fully digested but want to when I have a few free minutes:

• The Supreme Court split 4-4 on President Obama's immigration amnesty, which means the lower court decision stands, and 3 million people are now once again at risk of deportation.
• Oak Brook-based McDonald's is going to be Chicago-based McDonald's in 2018.
• Crain's thinks bankruptcy might be a good option for the City of Chicago.
• Meanwhile, the City Council approved new rules for ride-sharing companies and AirBnB.
• Closer to my house, an abandoned hospital will soon be torn down and replaced with a new condo complex after the City Council approved a deal with the developer yesterday. The hospital has been vacant since 2008, and off the tax rolls for 70 years, so this will be a boon to the area.
• Jeet Heer has a critique of Trump's anti-Clinton speech.

There's another major story that I'm following, about which I'll post in a few minutes.

Yesterday I started a new job as a Principal Architect at SPR in Chicago. It's a cool gig, and I'll be working with lots of great people, including some I already know (and to whom I'm sure I now have to pay hefty bribes for the references).

I'll be writing more later this week, but I'm kind of swamped at the moment.

Last night some friends and I drove out to the middle of nowhere and popped off fireworks. It's a longer story than that, but it was tons of fun. I'll have photos when I get around to it.

Note: Parker did not join us.

Also, tomorrow I'll have some news. Check back.

As promised, here is Parker on his 10th birthday, yesterday:

I don't think he's aware that it's his birthday, nor does he really have the concept of any number larger than two, but to me it's a big deal.

Yesterday's walk had a number of consequences, including some discomfort that has persisted until today. But I also blew away my Fitbit personal records. Yesterday's results:

Which makes my top 5 now look like this:

Yesterday's weather worked out, too. It was almost completely overcast, until I hit the heavily-wooded sections of the trail up in Glencoe and Highland Park. And it was cool; I don't think it got above 20°C. So I didn't sweat too much and I was able to keep a fairly brisk pace.

I will now limp to my lunch appointment. And I'll post Parker's birthday photo later this afternoon.

Today's light walk: 28.95 km in 4½ hours, totaling 32,595 steps. Voilà:

I am now going to take a shower.

Parker's birthday photo will be up tomorrow. He's 10!

Yes, I'm a little obsessed with finding out how far I can walk in one day, but you won't have to read about it much longer. Tomorrow's forecast looks perfect: sunny skies, 24°C, and some good breezes to keep the air clear and me cool.

And even as I'm contemplating walking 30 km or so, I have to stop and just be awed by British marathoner Sara Hall's Fitbit data from her 2 hour 30 minute running of this year's London Marathon. Her average pace (3'35" per kilometer) is roughly three times faster than I'll go tomorrow. And given that she only took 28,914 steps to cover a marathon, her stride was a full 144 cm—just a few shorter than I am tall.

Also, don't worry about Parker. He's not coming on a five-hour walk with me. He'll be at doggy day camp.

I'm traveling to the Land of Uk (aka The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) next week, which got me wondering if I've actually seen the country in every month of the year. So I worked it out, and yes, as of 1 September 2013, I've seen the UK in every month of the year:

* Planned

In all, I've made 34 discrete trips to the UK since my first on 11 June 1992, with 31 arrivals at Heathrow, 2 at Gatwick, and 1 at Dover (by ferry from Belgium). Oddly, only half—17—have been on non-stop flights from O'Hare. And I've never flown non-stop from O'Hare to any UK airport other than Heathrow.

File this away under "personal trivia."

The appeals court that is typically the last stop for regulatory disputes has ruled that the Internet is a utility:

The court’s decision upholds the F.C.C. on the declaration of broadband as a utility, the most significant aspect of the rules. That has broad-reaching implications for web and telecommunications companies and signals a shift in the government’s view of broadband as a service that should be equally accessible to all Americans, rather than a luxury that does not need close government supervision.

The ruling may open a path for new limits on broadband providers. Google and Netflix support net neutrality rules and have warned government officials that without regulatory limits, broadband providers would have an incentive to create business models that could harm consumers. They argue that broadband providers could degrade the quality of downloads and streams of online services to extract tolls from web companies or to promote unfairly their own competing services or the content of partners.

This is very good news to those of us worried about the dominance of carriers. There's not other way to solve the "last mile" problem, I think, than this, forcing your local telco or cable company to treat all Internet traffic equally. It's still subject to appeal to the Supreme Court; here's hoping they don't grant certiorari.

The weather forecast for today doesn't look great, so I'm putting off my long walk until Thursday. Today we're expecting thunderstorms from 11am onward, and it's going to be a warm and sticky 26°C; Thursday's forecast is for partly sunny skies, dry 22°C air.

I've met people who do athletic things in all conditions, and I don't understand why. I want to enjoy the walk. So, it's no big deal to postpone it until there's a much higher likelihood of good weather.