Events

This is one of my favorite milestones. Thanks to the analemma, tonight's sunset (4:20 pm) is the earliest of the year in Chicago. Of course, the sunrise still gets later every day until January 4th. At least tomorrow we'll have just a smidge more evening light than we'll have today.

The Stanford law professor is focusing on corruption as a way of combating creeping copyrights: Mr Lessig has concentrated for a decade on copyright law and its interaction with the internet. So he left some people feeling confused earlier this year when he announced a new focus for his campaigning efforts: tackling corruption. Not everyone understood that this change in academic and activist emphasis is more of a shift in strategy than in substance. For years Mr Lessig has presented legal arguments...

Princeton economist (and New York Times columnist) Paul Krugman thinks Tresury's subprime plan won't do much: [W]e're almost surely looking at less than $10 billion in losses avoided. Meanwhile, estimates of subprime losses to investors are currently running in the $300 -$400 billion range. So the back of my envelope suggests that this plan is a drop in the bucket.

When we woke up this morning the temperature was -16°C. Did Parker care? He did not:

This one from the Washington Post. Unlike the one I mentioned from WQAD, WaPo's limits you by party, and to the top 5 in each. I came up all Edwards again, mostly because of his positions on health care.

At the moment, a stiff wind is blowing snow straight down Chicago Avenue. It's -2°C. Overnight 13 cm of snow covered the ground, and people are just now shoveling it off the sidewalks. Here's the forecast: Temperature rising to near -1°C by noon, then falling to around -4°C during the remainder of the day. Blustery, with a north northeast wind between 32 and 40 km/h. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 5 to 10 cm possible. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around -9°C....

No sooner had our first snowfall melted when we started to get our second one: On the walk back from Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters he forgot his leash discipline a little, as when he nearly yanked my arm out of its socket when he saw a rabbit bounding through the snow. He was just so excited to see snow he couldn't contain himself.

Via my dad, an interesting tool to help pick your primary-election candidate from the NBC affilliate in the Quad Cities. Apparently I'm closest to Kucinich, though of the three front-runners in my party, I'm closest to Edwards. (Which I knew anyway.) Only 65 days until the Illinois primary...and only 414 days, 21 hours and 42 minutes remain in the worst presidency the Republic has ever known.

This leash used to be longer. I wonder what could have happened: Another $30 bitten in half by the Destrcuto-Beast.

The first snow of the season has begun in Chicago. Yippee.