CTU’s financial scandal deepens. “Teachers are fighting their own leadership for the right to know where their money went. And that fight has finally reached Congress.” The Chicago Teachers Union is facing federal scrutiny over missing financial audits, with five […]
Cook County’s shifting tax burden. I have a property in Wicker Park that I finally got the tax bill for, and my taxes are up 50%. Reading about the issue, I discovered I have much to be thankful for. As […]
Pennies Are Trash Now “There is no plan.” The U.S. Mint has abruptly stopped minting pennies, leaving 300 billion of them in circulation without any strategy for their future. Unlike Canada’s organized withdrawal, the U.S. seems to have given up […]
First kiss was 21 million years ago. Researchers found that the mouth-on-mouth kiss dates back to our common ancestor with great apes. “We think kissing probably evolved around 21.5 million years ago in the large apes,” says Dr. Matilda Brindle. […]
Can you walk Wisconsin’s shorelines? Shorewood resident Paul Florsheim takes a stand after receiving a trespassing ticket for walking along Lake Michigan’s shoreline. “I really actually want to go to court because I don’t think I was trespassing,” he argues, […]
Academic papers need not suck. “Sometimes you just kinda phone it in for a year, you know? I didn’t do a whole lot of research this year. Spent a lot of time on Twitter. Played around with GANs a little. […]
Kalshi’s bold move. Kalshi, a prediction-market platform, is gearing up to compete directly with the U.S. stock market. “This is starting to look like a trillion-dollar market,” says CEO Tarek Mansour. ~ learn more
Shooting things to space. Longshot Space has an audacious plan: build a 6-mile-long space cannon to shoot objects into low Earth orbit. “If you want to send a 1,000 lb object into space at Mach 23, put 3,000 lb of […]
What we find in the sewers. “The sewer is the conscience of the city. Everything there converges and confronts everything else.” This article starts with a history lesson to remind us of the complex sewer waste systems beneath our feet, […]
Where do the children play? “In physical space, Western children are almost comically sheltered. But in digital space, they’re entirely beyond our command; and increasingly, that’s where children spend most of their time.” This article makes the point that our […]