This is what happens when Airbnb’s cofounder joins the government. “Work is super high impact, redesigning government interfaces that suck.” National Design Studio is on a mission to modernize user experiences in government systems, and they’re seeking top-notch engineers and designers to join the effort. Their new sites certainly look like a big improvement over other government sites. ~ learn more
“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 years of audits demanded by Congress. The union’s refusal to release these audits has sparked a legal battle and could lead to reforms in federal labor law. ~ learn more
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 the treasurer’s report highlights, “When the Loop gets a cold, the rest of the city gets pneumonia.” Neighborhoods on the South and West sides are hit hardest, with tax increases reaching up to 133%. ~…
“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 on finding a solution for its ubiquitous one-cent coins, creating a perplexing dilemma. ~ learn more
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. ~ learn more
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, emphasizing the public’s right to Lake Michigan’s shoreline access. The verdict could set a precedent for public vs. private beach rights in Wisconsin. ~ learn more
“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. I had a little momentum left over from last year [12] [1]; I managed to make some improvements to YOLO. But, honestly, nothing like super interesting, just a bunch of small changes that make it…
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
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 packing material around it that you don’t mind when it simply ablates into vapor,” he explains. ~ learn more
“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, which are rediscovered today for their potential in resource recovery and epidemiology. ~ learn more