November 3, 2005

From Behind Bars, ‘Orphan Mage’ Author Erik Jensen Pens Fiction, Reaches Out To Troubled Teens:

(PRWEB) November 3, 2005 — While many authors bemoan the time and effort needed to conduct a book tour in support of their work, Erik Jensen would be happy to embark on one. He can’t however. That’s because Jensen is an inmate at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley, Colorado, where he is serving a life sentence without parole for his role in a murder that took place when he was only 17 years old.

There’s always some obfuscation in the stories of these convict fantasy authors.

Another outstanding article by Blodget.

Sam Alito, Financial Whiz - Why his great investment strategy suggests he’ll be a good justice. By Henry Blodget:

To make his investment choices, therefore, Alito has had to ignore what most people around him believe, doubt the spellbinding stories he is being told by supposed experts, and, instead, focus on the facts. This, most of us would agree, is an extremely desirable quality in a judge. (Of course, Alito may have just hired a talented financial adviser, but even this implies an above-average ability to reject perception and act on empirical reality.) Alito also resists the excitement of trading and the violent, emotional swerves of the herd, suggesting he is conservative in a traditional way: He resists change and doesn’t make it for the sake of change.

This is pretty cool:
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China finds ancient observatory:

Archaeologists in northern China have reportedly found one of the world’s oldest observatories.

The remains, discovered near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province, are thought to be about 4,100 years old.

Wang Shouguan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state media that the discovery would help the study of ancient astronomy.

Chinese astronomers are thought to have made some of the earliest recorded observations of the stars.

The observatory consists of a semicircular platform 40 metres (130 feet) in diameter, surrounded by 13 pillars which were are believed to have been used to mark the movement of the sun through the seasons.

It “was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites,” He Nu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua news agency.

“The ancient people observed the direction of sunrise through the gaps, and distinguished the different seasons of the year,” he said.

In order to test this theory, archaeologists reportedly spent 18 months simulating ancient uses of the site.

They found that the seasons they calculated were only one or two days different from the traditional Chinese calendar, which is still widely used today.