HoodedHawk

The Maryland Renaissance Festival opened this weekend, and the boys and I spent the day enjoying the festivities. Brandon and Dylan got to participate in the Human Chess Game (Brandon as Black Rook and Dylan as the Red King); they got a kick out of that.

Note that clicking on any of the thumbnails in this post will start a slideshow – you can go to the next/previous picture by clicking on the left/right of current picture.

From an essay in “Intelligent Thought”:

theistic evolution – the view that God got the ball rolling with the Big Bang (or even earlier) and has kept his hands off the universe ever since. In this view, evolution occured as part of God’s plan but also according to the laws of physics and biology and without supernatural intervention. Theistic evolution is simply neo-Darwinism with the addendum “God started it.”

Have you ever wondered exactly what the “light, sweet crude” was referring to when you hear a commodity price quote? Well, it refers to partially refined crude oil. Crude oil (out of the ground) is made up of various components, which can be separated by boiling point (related to the density of a component) – “fractionated”. Lighter fractions are more desireable (such as gasoline and diesel), while heavier fractions contain more sulfur (“sour”). For use, this sulfur needs to be removed, i.e., the oil needs to be made “sweet”). The goal is to go from a “heavy, sour” crude oil to a “light, sweet” crude – i.e. partially fractionated with a higher percent of light components, like diesel, with most of the sulfur gone.

The boys and I recently went camping, and we decided to take a hike along the Patapsco River. A bit of the trail parallels the local train tracks. I had my wife’s little Canon A80 with me (left my larger Nikon back in the car for this hike), and took this shot on the tracks. It wasn’t planned; just noticed the reflection while walking along. Actually, from a standing angle, I didn’t realize it was such a total reflection of Brandon. I put the camera down on the track and took a shot while Brandon walked away. Just goes to show that any camera is better than no camera!

Do you have a hardcover version of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? If so, check your copy for the following “points” to see if it is the true first edition, first printing, first state. Such a copy in Fine condition is worth somewhere in the range (as of today) of: $1,000-5,000.00 – especially if signed.

Points:

• “skitoma” is misspelled on p.243 (later printings correct it to “scotoma”)
• Reference to “Lyon” on pg. 152 (later printings changed to “Lille”)
• Jacket price of $24.95.
• Stated First Edition, with full number line, 10 thru 1 in the front pages of book.

The prices being realized for The Da Vinci Code are amazing, considering that it came out only 3 years ago. The book is in its 104th printing, and there are something like 60 million copies of the Da Vinci Code in print, but only this true first edition, first printing, first state is worth the $$$. You would think prices wouldn’t be so high since the first print run was 260,000 copies – so there should be a lot around!