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Almanac for Aug. 28, 2026

Today is Friday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2026. There are 125 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech before an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Also on this date: In 1845, the first issue of Scientific American magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army retreated ...

Ditching Net Zero

What a difference a few years make. Not long ago, politicians said climate change was going to kill us, so we must move to "net zero" emissions. This is theoretically possible. Since vegetation removes carbon, we could get to net zero by burning fewer fossil fuels. Governments everywhere ...

Almanac for Aug. 27, 2026

Today is Thursday, Aug. 27, the 239th day of 2026. There are 126 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa erupted with a series of cataclysmic explosions. The explosions (which could be heard 3,000 miles away) and resulting tsunamis in Indonesia's Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra. Also on this date: In 1894, Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court. In 1964, the film "Mary Poppins" had its world premiere ...

What if factories had gotten the data center treatment?

When American manufacturing was truly coming into its own in the early 20th century, workers sometimes labored 12-hour days seven days a week and risked life and limb working near dangerous machinery, while factories blackened the skies of American cities. Yet some of the same people who ...

Almanac for Aug. 26, 2026

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 26, the 238th day of 2026. There are 127 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 26, 1944, French Gen. Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipers as he led a victory march in Paris, which had just been liberated by the Allies from Nazi occupation. Also on this date: In 1939, the first televised Major League Baseball games were broadcast on experimental station W2XBS: a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, and the Dodgers the second, 6-1. In 1958, Alaskans went ...

Never trust a politician

The woman in the grocery store checkout line had an accent. While we waited for our items to be rung up, I asked her where she was from. “Argentina,” she said. “Is the inflation rate in Argentina under 100 percent yet?” I asked. She smiled, “That’s what the politicians say, but ...