Events

This great speech by New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson may help explain why:

Via Sullivan:

For five whole days of the past seven, I saw sunlight. Not a little; I saw tons of it. There were rumors of clouds, but mostly, just sunlight. Since I returned home Tuesday night we've not had any. Instead, we've had this: Storm totals in just the last 14 hours have gotten up to 125 mm in places, flooding highways and making life a wet hell: The first expressway closures occurred around 5 a.m. The Edens Expressway was closed between Foster and Touhy avenues and between Winnetka and Willow roads, and the...

The Chicago Tribune reported this morning that, 8 years into the O'Hare Modernization Project, some nearby residents are horrified to learn they might get more noise: Residents of Edgebrook, Sauganash, Forest Glen, North Park and other Northwest Side Chicago communities are up in arms over the impending increases in noise pollution, which were forecast in Chicago Department of Aviation environmental impact documents in 2005, the same year the Federal Aviation Administration approved the city's O'Hare...

Yesterday American's scheduling and ticketing systems went offline around 11:00 CDT. By noon CDT, the Dallas Morning News had this: “American’s reservation and booking tool, Sabre, is offline,” American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said at midday. “We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as we can. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.” (American subsequently absolved Sabre of any blame. ”We apologize to Sabre & customers for confusion.”) She confirmed that the problem is causing some...

I had a few hours of free time yesterday, so I went up to the Gloria Ferrer winery in Sonoma. I don't know how people can live like this:

For months, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, and 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney have wrestled over the scope and manner of making necessary renovations to 99-year-old Wrigley Field. They appear to have reached a deal: The city and Mr. Tunney have agreed to allow the Cubs to erect a video screen in left field, as well as a right field advertising sign "in the style" of the existing Toyota sign that currently sits in left field. The Cubs will work with the city on placement of both...

I think I had a better time than the people freezing to death at Wrigley:

In my profession, I get to sit at Peet's Coffee at 6:30am and watch action-packed videos like this: I know what you're thinking: "slow down, tigerblood. Slow down." I'm also pushing a new build of customer software up to production, and waiting for my coffee to kick in. At least I'm not blowing three runs in the 10th with a damned balk, like other people I could name.

...or, how I took advantage of the Middle Class Housing Subsidy but skipped an important step. In December 2011, I reduced my home mortgage interest rate from 6.25% to 3.125%, which thanks to the commutative property of multiplication, reduced my home mortgage interest by 50% year-over-year. What I forgot to do, however, was reduce my tax withholding allowances for 2012, which increased the taxes I owe for 2012 by an amount equal to 1/3 of the amount I saved on mortgage interest. Well, I just filed my...