Events

With the passing of midnight just a few moments ago in Samoa, the world has officially and completely moved into 2017. Whew.

2016 has officially ended here in Chicago. About fucking time.

In about 10 minutes, time will once again stop for just a moment as clocks go from 23:59:59 UTC to 23:59:60 before slipping to midnight: In a bulletin released this summer, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, or IERS, said it would be necessary to introduce a "leap second" at the end of December. Timekeepers use this added second much as leap years are used — to bring the world's atomic clocks in sync with the Earth's own distinctive rhythm, which in this case is determined...

I spent an hour and a half this morning dealing with an engine failure light on my car. Since I just got it back from having a repair done yesterday, the warning light ("Engine malfunction! Get to a dealer!") did not make me happy. It turned out, the repair had completed a job started on a sensor wire previously by...rodents. And apparently, I'm not alone: NBC 5 Responds found consumers nationwide who say they’ve experienced rodent-damages wires in several carmaker brands. It’s a problem so widespread...

Even though there are about 58 hours left in the year, I still have work to do. Meanwhile, a few things to read have crossed my RSS feeds: Maybe I should retire to Ecuador? 538.com lists the best and worst data stories of the year. Will President Obama violate previous norms of office to weigh in on the Trump administration's egregious violations of previous norms? One can hope. What's Brexit going to do to London, and vice-versa? OK, back to work.

From the Intertubes: Paul Krugman, "Greed Springs Eternal." What happened to O'Hare Terminal 4? Imagine how much New York's Hell's Kitchen stank in the 1860s. Deeply Trivial has a lot to say about Carrie Fisher's untimely death. 538.org rounds up their 11 favorite stories of 2016 (that they didn't write). There are a bunch of improvements (and fare increases) coming to Chicago's transit network next year. I'll also have some blog entries in January. December seems to have been pretty light.

I didn't spend a lot of time blogging this weekend. Once I have a chance to go through the photos I took in London, I'll post some. (Probably Thursday.)

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