I love all my Chicago friends who are Bears+White Sox fans, but feel really badly for them. And I still root for the Sox, who should send their leaders to sports management school in Green Bay.

Just one comment from the perspective of this odd, geographically divided loyalty: the Micah Parsons trade shows why the Packers, who have no owner, are in another cosmos from the White Sox, who have... well, you know.

Switching gears to my mindless sports-fan mode... As an itinerant Midwestern kid, I grew up a fan of the Chicago White Sox and Green Bay Packers. My Dad covered them both, including the end of the Lombardi dynasty as an anchor in Madison.

Rainer Weiss, Who Gave a Nod to Einstein and the Big Bang, Dies at 92

"When he was about 13, shortly after World War II ended, he began going to Cortlandt Street in Lower Manhattan to buy military surplus electronic components, using them to build radios and amplifiers." For more on Radio Row: 'City in the Sky,' by J. Glanz & E. Lipton
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/s...

How Much Damage Did U.S. Strikes Do to Iran’s Fordo Nuclear Site? It may be quite some time before outside experts can gauge exactly how seriously Fordo was damaged. But a look at the bomb used, the facility’s structure and the site’s geology offers some clues.

Why is it so difficult to know how much damage U.S. strikes did to the underground Fordo nuclear site in Iran? For the same reason it was so hard to hit in the first place.

How Much Damage Did U.S. Strikes Do to Iran’s Fordo Nuclear Site? It may be quite some time before outside experts can gauge exactly how seriously Fordo was damaged. But a look at the bomb used, the facility’s structure and the site’s geology offers some clues.

Zigzagging air shafts, a 30,000-pound bomb moving at around the speed of sound, and a bunker protected by volcanic tuff and reinforced concrete. How much damage did the GBU-57 do at the underground Fordo nuclear site in Iran?
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The first anti-vaxxers worried that the original vaccine, which used cowpox against smallpox, would turn them into cows, a bizarre fear depicted here by caricaturist James Gillray—today is his day.

Trump Pulls Military Into Another Political Issue

Trump’s decision to send 800 National Guard troops into the streets of Washington to fight crime is the latest example of how he has used the military to advance domestic his policy priorities
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/u...

How Trump’s crackdown on Harvard and other universities is affecting the world Mr. Trump’s ideological war on universities is putting students, professors and scientists under pressure. That could undermine the global dominance that American science has enjoyed for decades.

This is the rare piece in which the NYT quotes NYT journalists: "The smartest people in the world are also the least limited in their mobility," said one of Katrin Bennhold's sources. "Scientists are wanted everywhere. They're the ones who will fly free." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The fight between the Trump administration and Harvard has become a test for the president’s ability to impose his political agenda on all 2,600 universities in the U.S. Our reporters break down how the crackdown is affecting the world. https://trib.al/IZ4aZU8

South side forever — even in Rome.

Pope Leo XIV rocked a White Sox cap at his general audience Wednesday in Saint Peter's Square.

📸 White Sox on X

World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts

“If things continue as they are, American science is ruined,” said David W. Hogg, a professor of physics and data science at NYU. “If it becomes impossible to work with non-U.S. scientists, it would basically render the kinds of research that I do impossible.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/w...

Bayesian Superyacht Sank After ‘Extreme’ Wind Gust, Report Says

It was the yacht called “unsinkable” by its manufacturer. In fact, it blew over sideways in a wind gust and sank in minutes. The crew was taken by surprise but otherwise acted admirably. The initial investigation confirms our story from October.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/w...

You were not only extremely helpful for my reporting, but also very gracious and one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever interviewed.

Thank you.

What the Black Hawk Pilots Could See, Just Before the Washington Crash A 3-D model created by The Times visualizes the helicopter pilots’ field of view minutes before a fatal crash with a jet in Washington.

Our 3-D model visualizes what Black Hawk helicopter pilots could see minutes before a fatal crash with a jet in Washington.

What the Black Hawk Pilots Could See, Just Before the Washington Crash A 3-D model created by The Times visualizes the helicopter pilots’ field of view minutes before a fatal crash with a jet in Washington.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Power, Pollution and the Internet (Published 2012) Helping to process the staggering amount of Internet activity that occurs, data centers waste vast amounts of energy, belying the information industry’s image of environmental friendliness.

Storing data in a "cloud" of diesel fumes. Comatose, indeed. Thank you, James Glanz @NYTimes for this great article.

nyti.ms/SkoL83

Video: What Happens When Undersea Internet Cables Snap? The internet is made up of hundreds of cables crossing the floors and the canyons of the earth’s oceans. So what happens when the cables snap? James Glanz, an investigative reporter for The New York T...

Fabulous James Glanz @nytimes.com look at a big issue for the physical backbone of the Internet - undersea cable damage. www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

How Wildfires Came for Southern California Many Californians thought wildfires couldn’t reach deep into their cities. But the Los Angeles fires showed how older homes became fuel that fed the fires.

The U.S. is in a new era of great urban fires — the result of flammable housing, scientists say

“No one in California should be surprised by this at all,” Dr. Kerber said. “This is a disaster that is human created.”

By Soumya Karlamangla, James Glanz & Rob Gebeloff

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/u...

Happy New Year!!

I believe one of the best was working that night — Eric Nagourney, who I think is barely visible behind a champaign flute as we’re toasting in the picture. Why, oh why, didn’t they ask him to do a second read before engraving the date?

I hope you got one! Here’s the funny part: The only glitch that night was on the engraving of the date on the glasses. I don’t know if Steve put that in the story (I promise to read). I think they read 1-0-00

Who recognizes this reporter a couple months after he was hired?

It was a great party.

At long last, Dick Allen is inducted into the Hall of Fame A posthumous induction of Dick Allen to the Hall of Fame didn't feel too late to a joyous room of his family members at the Winter Meetings in Dallas

Hall of Fame, baby

soxmachine.com/2024/12/at-l...

Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede

H/t @kakape.bsky.social

www.science.org/content/arti...

Notre-Dame reopens to the public this weekend.

The achievement thus far is astonishing and historic, our architecture writes. Here’s an inside look at the rebuilding effort of the cathedral since the 2019 fire. nyti.ms/4ilgX4r

Coming for Selfies, Staying for Art: Dakar’s Biennale Draws Young Crowd (Gift Article) Encouraged by Senegal’s new president, teenagers and young adults, with social media tools in hand, have thronged an art exhibition that is usually the exclusive realm of the wealthy and elite.

Young visitors thronging Africa’s hottest art show with selfie sticks, portable lights and phone stabilisers.

New story on the popularity of the Dakar Biennale among young Senegalese, encouraged by the country’s president and TikTok influencers.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/w...

It’s overcast in NYC. Too bad. Also cold as an ice cube sweater.

Is that happening imminently? Lara gets very pumped when we can see Venus near the moon. It looks like a tough get tonight with the weather and timing if that’s the only shot.