Thoughts & Musings

Can Chicago’s Media Expose Mayor Brandon Johnson?

Are There Any Smart People at the Intersection of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Media? In days of old it was the media's job. Twenty-five years ago every mayoral candidate had to sit down for a full hour every Sunday morning and be prepared for an in-depth discussion...

Reviewing the Impact of Mail-in Voting on Chicago

What's really going on with mail-in voting in Chicago? According to the Chicago Board of Elections' database, as of early August there were 2,115,542 registered voters in Chicago. Of those, 1,570,753 were in active status. Two addresses share the title of having the...

Sun to Flip its Magnetic Field Soon

The sun’s magnetic field is expected to flip in the next three to four months and it could lead to changes in our climate, storms and disruption to satellites. This solar event only happens once every 11 years and signals what physicists call the Solar Maximum - a...

National Debt (Strangely) Unchanged for 70 Days

The U.S. national debt for the past 70 days has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000, CNSNews.com reports, citing the Daily Treasury Statement for July 26.“That is approximately $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 that Congress has imposed...

More Bankruptcy Coming (to a city near you)

The top 10 biggest U.S. cities on the brink of pension bankruptcy. #1 Philadelphia - Unfunded liability of $9 billion, $16,696 per household, only 1 year before the pension accounts are empty #2 Chicago - Unfunded liability of $44.8 billion, $41.966 per household,...

Feds Ask Web Firms For Account Passwords

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed. If the...

IL Public Pension Debt at $133 Billion

Ten U.S. states have public pension liabilities that are at least as big as their annual revenues, according to a Moody's Investors Service report released on Thursday that found the Illinois pension bill was equal to 241 percent of its revenues.  ... According to...

Defend Yourself from Crazy People

This is blatantly lifted from Second City Cop.  No need to correct perfection. - - - - - - - Here's some brilliant freaking idea coming out of a "police executive" group. Confronting an attacker leads to less casualties: The speed and deadliness of recent high-profile...

FBI Admits Warrantless Cellphone Tapping

FBI investigators for at least five years have routinely used a sophisticated cellphone tracking tool that can pinpoint callers’ locations and listen to their conversations — all without getting a warrant for it, a federal court was told this week. The use of the...

Chicago’s Felons with Guns Go Free

Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th. Why doesn't NBC News start with, "Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago's dead last on...

Lockheed Martin’s Desalination Graphene Filters

Lockheed has developed a special material that doesn't need as much energy to drag water through the filter. Graphene is a substance made of pure carbon. Carbon atoms are arranged in a regular hexagonal or honeycomb pattern in a one-atom thick sheet. This special...

China Economy to Overtake U.S. by 2016

China's economy expanded last year at 7.8pc - its slowest pace in more than a decade - and recent data has fuelled concerns that any rebound in the country's growth is losing steam. However, the OECD was upbeat, predicting in a new survey of China's prospects that the...

It’s Big Brother Day

Just plain too damn spooky for all this to hit in the same day.  If you're not weirded out... you should be Let's start with the CIA keeping track of EVERYTHING you do. Discussing the goldmine of data that today’s technology has created, the Central Intelligence...