Events

The temperature at O'Hare just reached -18°C for the first time since 11pm Sunday, 39 hours ago: This was pretty much as forecast. The updated forecast predicts continued warming through the weekend (click for full size): Perhaps by tomorrow, walking to the bus stop won't cause my eyelashes to freeze.

The temperature outside has gone up a whopping 0.9°C (to the tropical -23.6°C) since this morning. At O'Hare, it looks like the temperature bottomed out around 8am: Let's hope it continues to rise. I'm really curious what this graph will look like in three days.

Just now, at Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters: (Compare with four years ago, when I bought the thermometer while sojourning in North Carolina.) The official temperature at O'Hare is -27°C, breaking the previous record of -25°C set in 1988. We might even break the record low maximum temperature—the coldest high temperature ever on this date—of -18°C set in 1912. I have not gone outside today, and until I take Parker out after he gets back from day care, I have not plans to do so. At least the...

I've gone to my remote office to do some work. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me sit in the beer garden: Fortunately, I found an acceptable seat inside: My real office is closed tomorrow because no one wants to commute on the coldest day since 1995. I hope something is open. Or at least, I hope someone delivers.

The snow has fallen for about 20 hours straight. We're still enjoying it, mostly, because it's Sunday morning and not everyone has put pants on yet. (Parker insists I put pants on every morning by 8. He still hasn't learned how to put on his own leash.) So it's still kind of pretty: As I sit in my (eerily quiet) apartment Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters, watching the snow swirling around out there, I am very glad I replaced my windows and have a washer and dryer inside. I'm not pleased that my...

Right before Christmas I removed the four dormant servers from the Inner Drive Technology International Data Center (IDTIDC), vowing to complete the job posthaste. Well, haste was Wednesday, so now, post that, I've finally finished. There are no more servers in my apartment. The only computers running right now are my laptop and the new NAS. (The old switch, hidden under a chair, still has a whirring fan. I may replace it with a smaller, non-fanned switch at some point.) Here's before: And here's the...

We proudly welcome the oncoming polar vortex tomorrow evening: The polar vortex is an area of cold low pressure that typically circulates around the Arctic during the winter, spreading tentacles of cold southward into Europe, Asia, and North America at times. Except this time, it’s not a small section of the vortex, but what one forecaster, Ryan Maue of WeatherBELL Analytics, called “more like the whole enchilada” [that's visiting the eastern U.S.] The Chicago Weather Center predicts starting Sunday...

Via Sullivan, writer Josh Barro responded to someone upset by his Duck Dynasty comments. It's worth reading in full: "Do you dislike women because of your mother or some other woman?" I like women just fine; I just don't want to have sex with them. I don't think my lack of sexual attraction to women has anything to do with my mother or any woman in particular. "Have you ever had sex with a woman?" No. I am not at all sexually attracted to women but I'd like to have sex with a woman someday, out of pure...

At least, it's sunny and warm in my office. Outside it's sunny and -18°C. I experienced what may be characterized as a "brisk" walk from the bus this morning. This, believe it or not, will lead to a brief respite from the winter we didn't really expect. The Tribune reports this morning that the 50 hours of snowfall we had earlier this week put down more snow than any other storm since February 2011. It gets better: There’s plenty of snow to blow around. The 620 mm on the books to date for the 2013-14...

Andrew Sullivan, commenting on evidence that requiring visas keeps tourists away, explains why arriving in America generally sucks for most people: This may seem trivial, but it isn’t with respect to American soft power. Most [of my readers] are American citizens, so they don’t fully see what it is like to enter the US as a non-citizen. It’s a grueling, off-putting, frightening, and often brutal process. Compared with entering a European country, it’s like entering a police state. When you add the sheer...