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. Northwest wind between 16 and 14 km/h.
The weather actually made the front page of the Chicago Tribune:
"It's still coming down—all the way to Ottawa," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Wilson.
It will also stay around for a while. Temperatures won't reach significantly above freezing before Saturday, he said.
The Illinois Department of Transportation warned motorists to take it easy—and if at all possible to take trains to work this morning.
So instead of my usual walk-Parker-to-daycare-bus-to-the-office routine, I drove. I think this was reasonable, even given the ten minutes it took to dig my car out this morning.
I feel guilty about it, but I'll get over it.
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.
For those of you keeping score at home, it was last this cold in Chicago (-7°C) on March 8th.
It builds character, doesn't it?
I've finally brought a new server online to take over from three old ones. By "old" I mean a Windows 2000 box with gerbils powering it and two salvaged desktops, one with a whopping 640 MB of RAM. Together all three have performed the tasks of one fully-functional server. And now, I have one fully-functional server.
A couple of problems have emerged.
First, which I knew would happen, the IDT Webcam that used to run on the old Windows 2000 server needed a new home. I've moved it to my spare laptop.
Second, apparently Symantec Endpoint Security does not run on 64-bit operating systems. Never mind that Windows 2003 x64 has been around since—wait for it—2003; Symantec apparently missed the memo. They're telling me I need to keep an old, 32-bit computer (they actually suggested a Windows XP machine) as the central antivirus server for the network. Um. No.
Finally, the rails that shipped with the new server don't fit my server rack. I am now looking for new rails.
Otherwise everything is hunky-dory, and as soon as I figure out the antivirus situation, I can decommission the old Windows 2000 box (along with the two old desktops.)