Anna, Schaefer, Macy and I went to DuPont State Forest just outside of Brevard, NC for a nice hike on Sunday.
We had a great time and Macy is quite the little hiker…
Category: Status
The Moon and Venus
The two closest celestial bodies to us are still rather close to each other from our own point of view on this Pale Blue Dot.
If you go outside tonight or tomorrow, you’ll see Venus (althought it’s inching away from it’s closest point last week) very near a crescent Moon and it’s quite beautiful.
I’ll try to grab a pic on the telescope tomorrow night.
Ghost Town Returns
I LOVED Ghost Town when I was a kid during our visits to the mountains around Asheville, NC. There was something magical about that place. It was the first place that I ever rode a roller coaster (which looked as it if were going to fall off the top of the mountain).
Odd that I live here now and it’s great to see Ghost Town back. We’re headed over soon!
(Thanks to Jon NeedsABlog Williams for the link).
MAGGIE VALLEY — Along the streets of downtown Maggie Valley, hotels and shops display signs of hope for a great tourist season ahead: Ghost Town is back.
After five years of sitting vacant, the mountaintop amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky is set to reopen Friday.
CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Maggie Valley cheers Ghost Town’s revival after 5-year hiatus, hopes for boom
Asia Has Claims Upon New England in Libraries
Weird to see that my little book on Assyrian art at Yale University is in a number libraries around the country…
Asia has claims upon New England : Assyrian reliefs at Yale by Sam B Harrelson
WorldCat: Asia has claims upon New England : Assyrian reliefs at Yale
Yale Assyrian Reliefs Exam from 2002
Tonight I was going through some old files and stumbled upon a data CD with a label from 2002. Curious as to what was on the CD, I popped it into the laptop and up came nine images from my days at Yale.
Specifically, these were images I took from an examination that was done on the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection of reliefs from the palace of Assurnasirpal II (in modern day Mosul in northern Iraq… so who knows what condition the palace is in today).
We were checking to see what remnants of paint there were (we know these reliefs were once covered with bright paint) on the reliefs and to see if we could figure out what was the actual composition of the paint.
If you’re interested and would like to learn more, you can read a book I wrote on how/why the reliefs got to Yale in the mid 1800’s and why they were so important for a number of (at the time) small colleges in the Northeast of the US. The book was (I thought cleverly) titled “Asia Has Claims Upon New England: Assyrian Reliefs at Yale” and is available at Amazon or the Yale University Art Gallery Store. I’ve also got a few left over (but my supply is dwindling).
Anyway, interesting stuff. Check out the pictures on my Flickr set…
For North Carolina Residents: Take Action to Stop Insurance Hikes
Just got this via email from the Buncome County Democrat Party…
| Take Action! Your home & auto insurance about to increase 125% |
| Home & Auto Insurance Rates at Risk |
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| This message comes to you at the request of Insurance Commissioner Jim Long:
URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Immediate action is needed on SB 901 because the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up the bill this coming Tuesday, May 22nd at 11 a.m. in Raleigh. With the “crossover” deadline looming only 2 days later, any thing could happen … and that is very, very dangerous for consumers and payers of insurance premiums here in North Carolina. Here is the summary: If SB 901 passes, then insurance companies will be able to file and use higher insurance rates automatically. If SB 901 had been in place in 2006, then insurance companies would have been able to charge homeowners in eastern and coastal NC up to a 125% increase in homeowners insurance premiums. If SB 901 passes, then the “burden of proof” – a powerful legal concept – will be moved from the insurance companies seeking rate increases to the Insurance Commissioner instead. What that means is that the Insurance Commissioner will have to prove that insurance rate hikes are unreasonable and excessive, etc., instead of insurance companies having the burden to prove why they should charge higher rates. If SB 901 passes, then it will remove the limitations for automobile and workers’ comp rate filings: Those insurance companies will be able to make multiple rate filings and rate hikes in one calendar year. If SB 901 passes, then the filed rates will go into effect immediately and would remain effective unless the Commissioner disputes the filing and a special Superior Court judge agrees with the Commissioner. If SB 901 passes, then the rate-setting authority will be shifted to a Special Superior Court Judge in Wake County and away from an Insurance Commissioner elected Statewide. If SB 901 passes, then a judge unfamiliar with the technical, complexities of insurance rate-setting – and without sufficient staff – will hear insurance rate-setting cases instead of the Commissioner of Insurance and his bevy of independent specialists working in the NC Department of Insurance. If SB 901 passes, then you are guaranteed that your automobile insurance rates will go up. Why? NC already enjoys being the 5th lowest in auto insurance premiums in the country. With SB 901 there is no where to go but higher premiums. If SB 901 passes, then insurance companies will even benefit from a new enormous windfall in the millions of dollars: Instead of having to refund excessive premiums to North Carolinians from the date the rates were raised by the companies, the insurance companies will only have to refund the amount of monies paid in unfairly since the decision by the Court. That is a huge change that will cost citizens and small businesses millions and millions of dollars. If SB 901 passes, the Department of Insurance anticipates that workers’ compensation premiums for NC small businesses will rise just as quickly as auto insurance. If SB 901 passes, then it will allow insurance companies to charge rates that are higher than the maximum approved rates. If SB 901 passes, then we know for certain that homeowners insurance premiums will rise up to 125% because of what insurance companies sought on the coast and in eastern NC in 2006, and based upon the activities of many of those companies in neighboring southern States. HERE’S THE LIST TO HELP YOU CONTACT THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Senator R.C. Soles, Jr. DEM Senator Tony Rand DEM Senator David W. Hoyle DEM Senator Tom Apodaca REP-116 (Co-sponsor) Senator Doug Berger DEM Senator Phil Berger REP Senator Julia Boseman DEM Office: 309 Legislative Building Phone: (919) 715-2525 E-mail: juliab@ncleg.net Senator Walter H. Dalton DEM Senator Katie G. Dorsett DEM Senator Tony Foriest DEM Senator James Forrester REP Senator Linda Garrou DEM Senator W. Edward Goodall REP Senator Steve Goss DEM Senator Malcolm Graham DEM Senator Kay R. Hagan DEM Senator Neal Hunt REP Senator Jim Jacumin REP Senator John H. Kerr III DEM Office: 526 Legislative Office Building Senator Vernon Malone DEM Senator Floyd B. McKissick, Jr. DEM Senator Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. DEM Senator Robert Pittenger REP Senator William R. Purcell DEM Senator Larry Shaw DEM Senator Richard Stevens REP |
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| We need you to take action! To learn more and take action, go to: http://www.buncombedems.org/actionalerts/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ActionDetail&actionalertid=31 |
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Heliocentric Atheism
This has got to be a ‘fake’ or parody blog.
Please someone tell me it’s a parody blog.
Where I’m Getting My News
After becoming increasingly dissatisfied with offline newspaper and cable news, I find that I’m getting most of my news information from either RSS feeds from various sources or from the BBC and NYTimes Twitter feeds.
For instance, tonight I got this at 12:22am from the BBC’s Twitter stream…
bbcnews: Israeli aircraft fire missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing three people, at least two said to be Hamas fight.. http://tinyurl.com/33masq
You don’t get that on CNN or on the local news.
Times they area a changin’…
Affiliate Fortune Cookies
I’ve started a new blog to help newbie and veteran affiliate marketers increase their productivity and learn some new tricks of the trade called AffiliateFortuneCookies.com.
In one day, it already has a good number of feed subscribers (close to 75… it took CostPerNews a month to get that many) and double the daily traffic of CPN. Of course that traffic will level off as the novelty wears off, but I think it’ll be a fun and interesting place to blog.
Wilco’s New Album SkyBlueSky
I’ve had a copy of Wilco’s SkyBlueSky for a few weeks, but it was officially released on Tuesday here in the States (5/15). In support of all the free streaming and encouraged sharing they do, I bought a copy. So, now I technically have 4 copies (1 vinyl, 2 cd’s, 1 digital). The recording industry could really learn something about sharing and record sales from Wilco.
I’ve read a few reviews and most of them agree with my sentiments… the record is one that grows on you.
It’s like a brain virus that seeps in quietly then you find you have symptoms at random times much later after a listen.
Critics are saying it’s “less experimental” than previous Wilco albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Summerteeth (or even a ghost is born), but I think the chord progressions and texturing are more complex than anything Jeff and the guys have done up to this point. Steal My Face (track 2), for example is a series of complicated twists and turns that somehow blends into one melody.
I’m finding new things with each listen, which is what music is all about.
Thanks to Royce for sending over the vinyl copy of the album!