Modern technology is a wonderful thing. We can write things on a screen, erase things we have written on a screen and wish we could erase things we have foolishly written on paper and have forgotten to shred. However, one of my favorite achievements is temperature control. In summer, air conditioners keep us cool and in winter we have heaters to keep us warm. Whether there's a blizzard dumping a foot of snow, or the sizzling sun blanches the molten streets, we can poke our nose at Nature from our thermally controlled environment. It's a statement of defiance: no matter what Natures throws at us, we can still make funny faces without breaking a sweat or suffering from frost bite. (At least until the Big One hits and destroys the air conditioners.)

The only place on earth where thermal control fails is in my office. It's not particularly limited to one office, but whereever I seem to work, it's too damn cold. I must have upset the God of Thermal Control in a previous life, because no matter how much the Building People tinker with the settings, it remains cold in my office. And they're serious Building People too; they have moustaches, speak in diffident tones with just the right amount of Amsterdamese that qualifies as them Building People Who Know Buildings. These are not people buildings should mess with. Deep furrows run down their brows at they look into my office, sizing up the Demon of Cold as it lurks on my windowsill, eyeballing it with a look that says "your days are numbered, buddy." They nod gravely, make a grave note, and say with a calculated mix of gravity and reassurance that they'll fix it.

But they don't. It's still cold. By afternoon, I go to the lavatory once an hour to let hot water run over my frost-bitten fingers. By evening, I when I get into the car, I turn the heater up to 80 so I can warm up on the drive home. When I get home, I take a hot bath.

Any recommendations for space heaters?