Results tagged “markboyer”

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Chicago took another step towards fulfilling Mayor Daley’s vow that by 2016, we’ll have cameras on “almost every block.”

The Chicago Journal has an update on the Green Exchange, the eco-themed shopping mall that's slated to open in the old Cooper lamp factory on Diversey. There are two bits of news in the article: first, the Green Exchange is expected to open by the end of 2008, and second, "city planners are exploring the possibility of creating an eco-industrial park or green-themed planned manufacturing district nearby."

Last week, it was announced that one of the U of C Law School’s biggest superstars, Cass Sunstein, will be leaving for Harvard in the fall. Sunstein attended Harvard as an undergrad and for law school, and he later clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. He’s been on faculty at the U of C for 27 years, and during that time he has written and edited at least a dozen books. Now, he's going to Harvard to "head a new program at Harvard on risk regulation," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

According to a new Sun-Times analysis of last Tuesday's county-wide primary races, those candidates that attempted character assassination of their rivals by associating them with unpopular Cook County Board President Todd Stroger lost, almost across the board. Stroger's approval ratings are basically in the same territory as President Bush's—somewhere between rock bottom and Herbert Hoover—so the prevailing logic was that if you could associate a candidate with Stroger, it would be like transferring his unpopularity onto them. Makes sense, right?

Surprise, surprise: Chicago will not be banning retail stores from distributing plastic bags anytime soon, but steps are being taken to institute a plastic bag recycling program. According to the Sun-Times, Alderman Ed Burke from the 14th Ward proposed a "San Francisco-style ban on non-compostable plastic bags" last May, but he was ultimately forced to compromise. Now, Burke is joining Economic Development Committee Chairman Marge Laurino from the 39th Ward in proposing a much softer ordinance that instead of banning bags creates bag recycling options.

"Museum of Modern Ice", was officially unveiled in Millenium Park Friday. Canadian artist Gordon Halloran, who started as an abstract painter, created the work out of large pieces of colorful ice, and according to the Sun-Times, "he and a team of six have been working 12 to 14 hours a day since mid-December to ensure the project is complete [in time for its] unveiling." The exhibit stays up through the end of February.

Bill will chill has been answered with the announcement of the former president's campaign itinerary. Next stop on the legacy-tarnishing express: Edwardsville, IL. Hillary's more controversial half will be campaigning in the small town near St. Louis tomorrow morning, hosting a "Solutions for America" rally at Southern Illinois University at 7:45 a.m.

U of C Business School Assistant Professor Nicholas Epley has been on faculty at the GSB for three years, but this week he's been making headlines around the world. Today's Financial Times profiles Epley as a "professor to watch," focusing on his application of behavioral science methods to business education. According to the article, Epley's brand of mind-reading, which basically amounts to knowing one's coworkers, "looks at how people intuit others' thoughts, how good they are at it and the consequences of what he calls 'mind-reading mistakes.'" The study finds that our perceptions of others and what others think of us are distorted (we think people like us more than they actually do), and these distortions can be improved with better communication. However, "if you want to avoid ambiguity, never depend on e-mail," the article warns.

Tribune sportswriter Mike Downey briefly departs from the sporting world to announce the end of a glass ceiling today in his "In the Wake of the News" column, True equality: Both Sexes can be Ingrates". The column includes a roundup of "publicly humiliating stunts that female TV personalities have pulled" in recent months, beginning with ESPN's Dana Jacobson, who got liquored up at an off-air "Mike and Mike" roast last week and laid into Notre Dame's sacred "Touchdown Jesus" (she's an alum of rival Michigan).

The above study in irresponsible parenting, "CARMICHAEL & shane" by Alex Weinress and Rob Carlton, is just one of the finalists to make it into the Chicago Short Film Brigade's Best of 2007 lineup that will be screening tonight at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Thirteen films have been selected from the 52 shorts that were screened in the Short Film Brigade's four 2007 episodes, and one lucky winner will walk away at the end of the night with the $350 Audience Award.

In case there were any lingering skeptics, this recession thingy is for real.

The CTA bailout passed, and now we can move on to that other chronic political problem: Governor Blagojevich. Just how much of Mr. Testicular Virility are Illinois residents willing to take? Judging by a new Chicago magazine article about the embattled gov, "Mr. Un-Popularity," not much. In that article, the Capital Fax Blog's Rich Miller suggests that Blago is the most unpopular governor in the country, with approval ratings that have sunk as low as 16 percent (which, Bernstein notes, is worse than President Bush polls in Illinois, one of the country's bluest states).

It's been a week since Venkatesh's most recent book, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets was published, and the critical response is unanimous: OMG! What a total badass!

Hillary Clinton's "Emotional Moment" in the Portsmouth, NH café on Monday has already become the stuff of myth, with many pundits directly and indirectly attributing Clinton's surprise victory in Tuesday's primary to the tears that almost fell (but never actually did). Leave it to Chicago's own Jesse Jackson Jr., co-chairman of Barack Obama's national campaign, to siphon the tears out of the excretory ducts of Clinton's eyes and leverage them for political gain:

No Pants 2K8, a no-slacks spectacle that was started by the New York-based performance comedy group, Improv Everywhere, is upon us, and you know what that means: Drop trou, pronto!

The Museum of Science and Industry announced today that a fully-functional, three-story "green" home will be built just east of the museum on its Jackson Park grounds in Hyde Park this spring. The foundation is currently being laid, and it will be open to the public from May 8, 2008 through January 4, 2009. The 2,500-square-foot home will exhibit some of the latest environmentally-friendly technologies and offer a primer on incorporating these innovations into our homes.

Hair Fairies – The Head Lice Helpers," a national delousing agency, to Lincoln Park. Our natural first reaction to this sort of news was, of course, horror at the thought that Chicago might be in the midst of a head lice epidemic (not true), which then gave way to curiosity.

After months of anticipation, the $21,400,000 suspension bridge that's gradually been taking form at North Avenue appears to be nearing completion. This morning, for the first time since construction began in mid-2006, traffic is actually passing over the bridge, instead of being diverted to the temporary bridge that sits just to the south.

Word to the wise: try to keep from talking to yourself, sweating excessively or hyperventilating the next time you pass through security at O'Hare. [] In light of this fall's news that TSA screeners had missed about 60 % of hidden bomb materials that were sneaked through security by tiger teams at O'Hare, the TSA is upgrading its strategy and employing new "psychological tactics." Sounds creepy, right? Really, it just means that screeners are now on the lookout for strange behavior.