Events

Happy 22! That's a little geek humor. See, 01/01/10 is 22. Get it? You know, like, "There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't"? Right. Starting off the year well, I can see....

...could be today, depending on which competing definition you use: A blue moon is a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years (7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is...

It's time for the semi-annual update of the Chicago sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.) An interesting note about 2010: the sunset on November 6th will be the latest sunrise in Chicago (7:30am) until 2021—and that, only within 4 seconds of precision. Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 2010 3 Jan Latest sunrise until Oct. 29th 07:19 16:33 9:14 27 Jan 5pm sunset 07:08 17:00 9:51 4 Feb 7am sunrise 07:00 17:10 10:09 20 Feb 5:30pm...

Not only does Ben Gurion Airport have, by every measure, more effective security than at U.S. airports, but they move passengers through more quickly, too: Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, the security set-up at Israel's largest hub, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. How do they manage that? The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International...

Do you have the feeling you're no better off today than you were ten years ago? That's because, probably, you aren't: It was a decade with basically zero job creation. ... And private-sector employment has actually declined — the first decade on record in which that happened. It was a decade with zero economic gains for the typical family. Actually, even at the height of the alleged “Bush boom,” in 2007, median household income adjusted for inflation was lower than it had been in 1999. And you know what...

After five visits to O'Hare in 8 days, I'm going to stay in one spot for at least a week. Yesterday's 9:45 flight took off at noon, getting me home two hours before I'd planned (even the CTA cooperated), and except for having to get up at an obscenely early time this morning, everything went well. Still, I have space for one more gratuitous photo of Half Moon Bay, which is a wonderful place to visit:

I'm leaving this: For this: THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CST THIS EVENING. At least I'll get there earlier than planned. I tried to get on the 11:30, but because the 7:30 had left at 9:30, and the 9:45 was delayed, they put me on the 9:45 which actually leaves (we hope) at 11. So instead of 7 hours at home before traveling again tomorrow, I get 9. I hope. Update: Well, the 9:45 actually now leaves at 1pm, in theory...

Half Moon Bay, Calif.: A few minutes earlier:

In honor of the most sweeping legislation since Medicare, it's good ol' Bill:

That's Chicago's weather today. Except I'm not there, I'm here: Also, if you live near a Peet's Coffee, they're giving away free cups of coffee all day.