An apparently fake user registered on my blog this morning:
New user registration on your site Mark Turner dot Net:
Username: BethOverton
E-mail: beth.overton@jazzmusicianspace.com
This could very well be related to the infographic mystery as jazzmusicianspace.com uses the same nameservers as paralegal.net:
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Who is Peter Kim?
Out of the blue a few weeks ago I got an email from a complete stranger who had this to say:
From: Peter Kim hello.pkim@gmail.com
To: “Mark” blah blah blah at gmail.com
Subject: Re:SOPA and PIPA
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:16:40 -0800Hi Mark,
I was wondering if this is the correct contact in regards to the content on the http://markturner.net. I came across the site while searching for resources around PIPA and SOPA. I just created a graphic on the topic and was wondering if you’d be interested in taking a look, I’d love to get your thoughts.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Peter
Well, I don’t normally have Copious Free Time to be dicking around with critiquing infographics. But what the heck, I decided to humor the guy and answer:
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Today’s forecast high is in the 80s, 20 degrees above normal. Something tells me we will pay dearly for this when August comes.
Safer than a signal?
Part of the plan includes removing the traffic signal at Glascock and Brookside in favor of stop signs. Some neighbors in Oakwood expressed concern about this change, fearing that it would cause confusion, especially when kids are walking to school.
Well, I have kids at the local school and we either walk or ride bikes there every school day. Glascock isn’t part of our preferred path because, not only is Edmund Street more convenient for us but also too many cars speed on Glascock. Even so, I walk through the Glascock/Brookside intersection nearly every other morning and can say that even with traffic signals (and pedestrian heads) crossing there remains a dicey undertaking.
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My friends at N.C. Nearspace are aghast at the skyrocketing cost of helium used to fill their balloons. One of the planet’s most irreplaceable resources, helium may vanish completely from Earth within 30 years, and the primary cause is a 1996 law passed by Congress. Read more about this crisis from the Independent (UK):
It is the second-lightest element in the Universe, has the lowest boiling-point of any gas and is commonly used through the world to inflate party balloons. But helium is also a non-renewable resource and the world’s reserves of the precious gas are about to run out, a shortage that is likely to have far-reaching repercussions.
Scientists have warned that the world’s most commonly used inert gas is being depleted at an astonishing rate because of a law passed in the United States in 1996 which has effectively made helium too cheap to recycle.
The law stipulates that the US National Helium Reserve, which is kept in a disused underground gas field near Amarillo, Texas – by far the biggest store of helium in the world – must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price.
The experts warn that the world could run out of helium within 25 to 30 years, potentially spelling disaster for hospitals, whose MRI scanners are cooled by the gas in liquid form, and anti-terrorist authorities who rely on helium for their radiation monitors, as well as the millions of children who love to watch their helium-filled balloons float into the sky.
via Why the world is running out of helium – Science – News – The Independent.
Update: Looks like I posted about this before, but it bears mentioning again.
Triangle Radio Reading Service
Then at 6:15 I was headed over to Triangle Radio Reading Service for a volunteer shift. Earlier today I’d gotten an emergency call from TRRS’s volunteer scheduler that they desperately needed a reader for tonight’s USA Today session. I checked with Kelly to see if she’d have things under control with the kids and, once she agreed, I accepted the shift.
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I enjoyed our beautifully warm weekend. It was the weekend of the ACC basketball tournament, so I had the TV on while I worked Thursday and Friday. Kelly’s brother and his family came to visit so we spent time with them, heading downtown to the train station to take a tour of the Amtrak train.
Upon returning from the train, David joined me on the couch to watch Saturday’s horribly-officiated game between N.C. State and UNC. I cooked a lasagna dinner and we relaxed a bit after that.
Sunday morning, we headed over to Adventure Landing on Capital Boulevard for some go-kart racing and Putt-Putt golf. The kids (no matter what age) enjoyed it all. Then after lunch at Chubby’s we said goodbye to David and Anna and headed back home. Kelly got in a 5 mile run and I got in a 10 mile bike ride. We also visited with our neighbors for a bit as the sun went down.
It was a nicely-paced, fun-filled weekend, and it was nice to enjoy every minute of it!
Kelly returned from her three-day business trip yesterday and, while I missed her, I’m happy to say that I never missed a beat while she was gone. I took the kids to Hallie’s basketball tournament, appeared (briefly!) before City Council, met friends for lunch, got the kids to Hallie’s soccer practice, chaired my Mordecai Historic Park board meeting, cooked dinner, made school lunches, kept the kids in clean laundry, did some blogging, and even got a lot done at work. I even found time this week to help push a disabled Jeep off of Wade Avenue.
Dads can certainly do the “Mr. Mom” routine. The first few weeks take getting used to, and sometimes I still mix up the kids’ lunches, but overall it’s worked out very well to have Kelly away at the office while I hold down the fort at home.
Today, the original purpose of daylight saving time — maximizing the amount of light during waking hours —still holds true. But more studies are popping up suggesting that people who are already susceptible to certain health problems, such as high blood pressure and depression, will feel the effects even more when the clocks move forward.
A Swedish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 found the risk of a heart attack increases in the days right after the daylight saving time change.
via How to survive the daylight saving time switch – Calgary – CBC News.
This looks like fun!
How often do you hear the whistle of a train these days? Probably not as often as 40 years ago, when Amtrak first opened its passenger cars to America and transformed the way people get around. Chances are, if you hear a whistle in Raleigh on March 10-11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., it will be the free Amtrak Exhibit Train heading to the downtown Raleigh Amtrak station to commemorate the train’s 40th anniversary!
via Amtrak 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train « visitRaleigh blog.
