The Daily Parker

I would be remiss not to mention that today is the 50th anniversary of Tea for the Tillerman, Cat Stevens' best and most popular album. It's also one of my favorites.

Cover art by A&M Records (US), Fair use, Link

To thoroughly depress you, SMBC starts the week by showing you appropriate wine pairings for your anxiety. In similar news:

• Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) seeks a 19th term as Speaker, but new Federal indictments and that people voted against Democrats statewide because they don't want him around anymore have made his bid unlikely.
• Vermont and South Dakota have similar demographics and both have Republican governors, so how did Vermont keep Covid-19 infections low while South Dakota didn't? Hmmm, could it be what kind of Republican governors they have?
• The Tribune describes the ghost town of Singapore, Mich., that vanished in the 1870s.

Time to take a walk.

As promised, I did get some photos of the place where I stayed this past weekend. The weather lent itself to drone flying for about an hour yesterday before the winds picked up. Today was a mix of clouds and a bit of sun that didn't excite me.

Here's the house, from 50 meters out and 15 meters over the lake:

And here's what my DSLR thought of the sunrise, which you can compare to the photo from my phone I posted yesterday:

I think the DSLR gave me richer colors and more texture, not to mention better control over the composition. But the HDR feature in my phone did a pretty good job with what it had.

Oostburg, Wis., 6:59 am:

I brought my real camera and my drone, so early next week I hope to have better photos.

I've taken myself and a few books up to a cabin in Wisconsin for the weekend. So far, the view fails to suck:

It's clear tonight, so I'm hoping to see stars. We don't see many in Chicago.

Every morning I get an email from The History Channel with "this day in history" bullet points. A couple stood out today:

• Two hundred years ago today, the American whaler Essex lost a fight with an 80-ton sperm whale. Only five of the twenty crew survived.
• On this day in 1945, 75 years ago, the Nuremberg trials began.
• In 1985, 35 years ago, Microsoft Windows came out.

And now, the sanity. Via author John Scalzi, (conservative) attorney T. Greg Doucette explains why the president will leave office on January 20th no matter what chicanery he tries to steal the election:

Even though Parker has consumed my thoughts since the election, there are a few other things going on in the world:

• Epidemiologists estimate that yesterday we passed 250,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US.
• The original Morton's Steakhouse on State Street, opened in 1978, closed permanently Tuesday, ending my tradition of going there on my birthday each year.
• In a little bit of good news, the National Register of Historic Places designated Wrigley Field a National Historic Landmark today.

And as I sit in my home office trying to write software, it's 17°C and sunny outside. I may have to go for a walk.

No, not a reference to a now-famous article of amendment to the US Constitution. One of my favorite movies, The American President, was released 25 years ago today.

I plan to watch it again tonight.

While I wait for my frozen pizza to cook, I've got these stories to keep me company:

• Jakob Nielsen has updated his classic article "10 usability heuristics for UI design."
• Steve Coll tries to figure out what the president gets out of contesting Biden's win.
• Paul Krugman looks at the way half the country ignores the science in ending the pandemic and despairs at how we can forestall climate change.
• Patrick Smith reminds us that we've gone more than 19 years since the last major US air carrier crash, which shows us how far aviation safety has come in the last 50 years.

Going to check my pizza now.

Happy Sunday. Tonight the sun sets in Chicago at 4:30pm, and won't set after 4:30 again until New Year's Eve. So in the few hours of daylight I have left, I'll read a few things:

• A low pressure area northeast of Chicago has brought 100 km/h winds to the area, but at least it won't snow today.
• Entomologists in Washington State eradicated a "small" nest containing several hundred murder hornets. They worry a couple of queens might have escaped.
• The BBC fact-checked rumors that 10,000 dead people voted in Michigan, and spoke with several of them without consulting psychics.

I'm going to return to doing nothing of value today, which is the point of Sundays.