Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
England’s Harold Godwinson was crowned today (1066), as were the Holy Roman Empire’s Philip of Swabia (1205), Serbia’s Stephen Uroš III (1322), Italy’s Charles I of Bohemia (1355), the Byzantine Empire’s Constantine XI (1449), and the Holy Roman Empire’s Joseph I (1690). Also, the Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published their findings (1721), President-elect Franklin Pierce and his wife Jane survived a train wreck that killed their last son Benjamin (1853), Congress issued and President Benjamin Harrison signed the charter for the Washington National Cathedral (1893), Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center in Rome (1907), New Mexico became the 47th state on the same day Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift (1912), Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta (1929), President Franklin Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms in his State of the Union Address (1941), U.S. Daylight Savings Time began four months early in response to rising oil prices under the OPEC embargo (1974), the U.S. returned the Crown of St. Stephen to Hungary (1978), and Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (1994). And Edgar Ray Killen was arrested in the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner (2005).
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 6, 2013 at 6:01 am
Yesterday on Campus
Morning Feature – Pound Foolish, Part III: Searching For Security (Non-Cynical Saturday)
Campus Question – Should any Iraq War cheerleader be taken seriously on foreign policy issues?
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – GOP Gone Wild? (Ask Ms. Crissie)
Noontime News at noon
Campus Question at 6pm ET
Evening Focus at 7pm ET – Silly Sunday: Over the … Whew!
Our Earth at 8pm ET – Eco News Roundup
January 6, 2013 at 6:41 am
Good morning! It’s currently 20 degrees, and predicted
to get around 25 as a high today. What constantly amazes me is the rapid change in the predictions. On Friday, they predicted a warming trend next week. Yesterday, it was supposed to be remaining cold for the rest of the week, now they’re back to “warming trend.”
To all the Vikings fans … well, wait till next year.
January 6, 2013 at 6:58 am
It has to hurt doubly for the Viking fans when they defeated Green Bay only last week to win a spot as a wildcard. I hope they recover from injuries and come back next year hotter than ever.
As to the weather, I’ve concluded it’s gone crazy, and it’s making it harder to predict. Our forecasts here often aren’t good even three days out now, and they used to be much more accurate. I’d hate to be a meteorologist trying to model the weather these days.
I awoke this morning to see that areas that had recently had heavy snow are now going to get rain. That’s so unusual. Once the snow arrives, albedo changes and things stay colder for a while… and you don’t move from snow to rain in one week at this time of year.
Well, maybe we didn’t use to.
Winter is looking more like spring. Wonder why that is? (snark)
January 6, 2013 at 7:17 am
I’ve gotten to be a fairly good amateur meteorologist, not because I want to be, but because I have to. In the winter, since I work indoors, it doesn’t really matter much except to answer “how much shoveling am I going to do tomorrow?”
Summers, it matters a lot. I swear, the more information the weather people have, the worse they’ve gotten at predictions. 
January 6, 2013 at 7:36 am
I’m going to hazard my own guess: the climate is becoming less predictable. Looking at the big picture, it gets harder. What I can predict from day-to-day has no bearing on trying to make forecasts 3-10 days out.
The jet stream, for example, has been making some wild, fast swings. The melting of the Arctic is having impacts that are only now being measured. So I’m not going to blame the weather guys at all.
I can look out my window, remember yesterday, judge the clouds and say it’s going to be warm and rainy today. Despite the fact that three days ago the weather predicted a cooling trend by now. But hey, the jet stream jogged again. Maybe we should blame Shell instead of NOAA.
January 6, 2013 at 7:46 am
Up here, the joke has always been “Don’t like the weather? Wait 5 minutes.”
But more seriously, while I can see climate change happening here, and its effect on the overall weather, when you’re looking at “what is it going to do today,” it would help if they were in the ball park.
January 6, 2013 at 7:28 am
I sent off a Congrats to my few Packer fan friends. Hard to have watched the game and read the sports writers who said “this is the play-off game to watch.”
This one? really?
January 6, 2013 at 7:56 am
I watched the first half of last night’s NFC Wild Card game, and it was obvious the Vikings weren’t in the same class without starting QB Christian Ponder.
It reminded me of a computer football strategy game back in the late 80s where the designers made a considered choice to ignore injuries in their simulation. (To offset that, each team had only 30 players rather than the NFL’s 45.) It was a very sophisticated model that allowed gamers to draft their own teams, design their own plays, and even set up online leagues. The designers said that injuries were so arbitrary, and their effects often so large, that gamers wouldn’t want to invest all that time only to see their teams lose because a random algorithm decided a key player got hurt.
I’m thinking Vikings’ fans – not to mention their coaches and other players – felt about the same way last night.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 6, 2013 at 7:01 am
International Monetary Fund Admits It Severely Underestimated Cost Of Austerity
Oh really? I am fighting the urge to knock on some wooden heads and see if anyone is at home.
Hugggs and good morning!
January 6, 2013 at 7:19 am
I have that urge every time I hear what the Republicans in Congress are saying.
January 6, 2013 at 8:01 am
When “the experts” are wrong the first time, the credibility of their corrections becomes suspect too. Next some TGOPer denounces science and goes back to proposing whatever they wanted to do in the first place and reminds us that science can’t be trusted. I do think we have seen this movie before.
January 6, 2013 at 8:13 am
According to one article at the economics blog CrookedTimber, the Great Recession revealed major flaws in mainstream macroeconomics. That site has several other articles on the same topic. The gist: economists know the mainstream macroeconomic models are wrong, but they haven’t yet reached a consensus on exactly what is wrong or by how much.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 6, 2013 at 7:39 am
When I watch Gov. Christie, I think back to Gov. Jesse Ventura. You may remember the former wrestler, former actor, former small town mayor who ran on a third party and won. At first the blunt talking truth to power governor seemed to some like a breath of fresh air. Then he just kept blowing and blowing and even supporters had had enough fresh air.
He did cut motor vehicle license tab fees and support light rail big time. He also “redistributed” the state surplus back to the taxpayers and left the rainy day fund empty. Of course then it rained big time. Now the bobble head dolls that were part of his campaign have pretty much disappeared.
I watch Christie with Ventura in mind. I rather doubt he is “the future” but then I have been wrong before.
January 6, 2013 at 7:48 am
I have the same feeling when I watch Cuomo. While he’s popular at the moment, he’s also antagonized a lot of people by being rather high-handed. The nickname he’s picked up around Albany is “Prince Andrew,” and it’s not a nice connotation.
January 6, 2013 at 8:00 am
Trying to keep the state report on fracking secret probably won’t help him either. And it seems they “overlooked” potential health problems in their study. I’m sure you are hearing the calls for transparency even louder than I am down here.
January 6, 2013 at 8:26 am
So did the release of regulations that were supposed to be waiting on another agency completing their evaluation.
They’ve “been withdrawn for further study.” 
He’s a little better at it, but has the same problem that Spitzer did: A “My way or the highway” attitude.
January 6, 2013 at 8:19 am
Chris Christie ‘performs’ the role of governor well, as Jesse Ventura did. Both could give blunt speeches that made people cheer and nod. The problem is … ultimately governing requires more than good public performances.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 6, 2013 at 8:48 am
Shades of St. Ronnie?
January 6, 2013 at 9:13 am
January 6, 2013 at 8:24 am
Morning, all. Still dragging a bit – need more coffee. We survived the woodworkers show yesterday – only bought a book on designing a shop and a $50 router bit for $10.
Sat in on a seminar on making cabinets easily. Debating on whether to make the cabinets in the new house or buy them. Right now I’m leaning toward making them…
January 6, 2013 at 8:27 am
IOW, you’re coming up with more excuses to buy new tools.
January 6, 2013 at 8:43 am
Don’t really need an excuse to buy more tools. However, for building cabinets, I only really need two more tools (one of which is already mostly paid for – I just need to go get it when I have room for it), and those tools were already on my list of tools that I wanted before I built the house anyway.
January 6, 2013 at 8:47 am
I am hoping for photos that document your progress, trs. Especially if you make the cabinets. I used to love watching Norm build stuff.
January 6, 2013 at 8:54 am
Good morning!
The snow lingers, but we have 35 degrees this morning, so mebbe it’s on the way out? Spent the day in the shop piddling yesterday, rec’d telephone calls from 2 pals, one a former boss I hadn’t seen or talked to since ’96. Was nice to catch up a bit…… Kenny Wenny came over in the afternoon, and we did some catching up then too.
Sounds like trs got off pretty light at the woodworkers show. Some would call a place like that, “Guy Heaven.”
Have a decent day!
Best, G
January 6, 2013 at 9:07 am
I did get off light, G – but I spent thousands in my mind…
January 6, 2013 at 9:58 am
That’s the place to do it!
January 6, 2013 at 9:59 am
Mom would say, “Time to get your tail in the wind!”
So had better get going…… See you later…….
Adios, G