Events

Writing in today's Times, Richard Florida explains the long-term costs of red state/blue state differences: The idea that the red states can enjoy the benefits provided by the blue states without helping to pay for them (and while poaching their industries with the promise of low taxes and regulations) is as irresponsible and destructive of our national future as it is hypocritical. But that is exactly the mantra of the growing ranks of red state politicos. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a likely 2016 G.O.P....

Today's Fitbit numbers will probably not wow anyone, owing to the 2°C rain keeping our layer of slush from solidifying entirely. Enter next week's forecast to put things into perspective: Tuesday A 30 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near -6°C. Tuesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around -18°C. Blustery. Wednesday Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near -16°C. Blustery. Wednesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around -20°C. Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near -10°C....

Simple: Go down to Amundsen-Scott Station and walk around the pole. But if you don't want to cheat, get a very fast airplane: Jeremy Newton is an Air Force veteran who flew F-18s, but, when contacted by e-mail, suggested the F-22 for a variety of reasons. First, it can fly at 1.5 Mach (about 1,000 mph) without using its afterburner, meaning it burns much less fuel. It tops out at 2 Mach, though that burns more fuel. Second, it can refuel in 10 minutes -- in mid-air while traveling at 400 mph. And third...

At the beginning of 2014, I took a look at some of my personal numbers in the preceding year. I also predicted I'd travel more. Well, here's the update: To last year's 9 trips, this year I took 26 and flew 49 segments, visiting 11 states and 5 countries*. All but the number of states visited is a new record. (I visited 36 states in 1991. That will be tough to beat, ever.) I flew 122,776 km, also a new record. The Daily Parker had 512 posts, so the daily mean dropped to 1.40, a slight decline from 2012...

Just passing through Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters after a mini-vacation for the new year...and realizing I haven't posted anything since 2014. Tomorrow I'll have 2014 end-of-year stats, and possibly one or two other ideas from the 143 unread emails I have in various Outlook folders.

Here's the semi-annual Chicago sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.) Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 2015 4 Jan Latest sunrise until Oct 29th 07:19 16:33 9:14 28 Jan 5pm sunset 07:08 17:00 9:53 5 Feb 7am sunrise 07:00 17:11 10:11 20 Feb 5:30pm sunset 06:40 17:30 10:50 27 Feb 6:30am sunrise 06:29 17:39 11:09 7 Mar Earliest sunrise until Apr 12th Earliest sunset until Oct 30th 06:17 17:48 11:31 8 Mar Daylight savings time...

We woke up this morning to a brisk -16°C with an even brisker wind chill around -25°C. It hasn't been this cold in Chicago since the -19°C we had on March 3rd, 303 days ago. And still, no measurable snow in December, which has happened only four times in recorded history. Even Parker didn't want to go for much of a walk this morning. And I'm not confident about my Fitbit numbers for the day... Also: Happy New Year to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, and in less than an hour, Singapore.

Vacation. It always makes me a little crazy. I need stuff to do. And even though the temperature has plummeted to -12°C overnight, that means going outside and not sitting at my computer. When Parker and I get too cold, I'll start reading these articles: Ezra Klein's interview with Paul Krugman. Eric Jaffe's explanation of "Broken Windows" policing and its defenders. Walter Laqueur's description of Russian epistemic closure. Cranky Flyer's story of the horrors of traveling with children. And because my...

As of Saturday, Chicago set a new record in gloominess by having no sunshine at all for 17 days in December: Low pressure passed to our north and a cold front swept through our area from the west Saturday. Winter Weather Advisories for 50 to 200 mm of snow were in place from northeast Nebraska through northern Iowa and southern Minnesota into northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, while cloudy skies and widely scattered light rain showers prevailed across the Chicago area. But those clouds cut off the...

The brilliant Central Coast morning that produced the photo I posted earlier gave me a hell of a view climbing out of SFO an hour ago: Home in four hours...