mattlary's weblog

I was reading an article about Moses, and apparently, because of a mistranslation of the Hebrew word qaran in the Latin Vulgate Bible, people thought Moses had horns. The verse is now translated, …the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with [God] ( Exodus 34:29 American Standard Version; Excerpt)

Interesting stuff; probably one of the lesser known big oopses in history!  When talking about why Moses’ skin shone, one person referred to it as a type of Divine Radiation Burn.  I thought that was funny (and probably accurate!)

I just came across this randomly and thought I would share it- I’ve gotta find this and thumb through it. Benjamin Franklin must have been the loud FratBoy of the founding fathers.

I just read something on the AAA website- I didn’t realize how much we pay in taxes on gas. Here’s the breakdown according to the AAA:

Motorists have been paying ever-increasing gasoline costs and the resulting windfall (from the 4% [state] sales tax) in the states’ coffers should be suspended immediately. New York State motorists are paying various other fuel taxes (18.4 cents per gallon federal taxes, 8 cents per gallon excise tax, 14.6 cents per gallon petroleum business tax, a testing fee of .05 cents per gallon) as well as local sales tax. All of these taxes are added to the price of a gallon BEFORE the state sales tax is calculated. Thus, motorists are paying “taxes on taxes.” Additionally, gasoline sales tax revenues are deposited into the State’s General Fund and are not dedicated to highway and bridge projects/maintenance.

A bit surprising. They have a petition to end the 4% state sales tax on gas on their website (www.aaa.com).

Update: Good thing it wasn’t a 2 hour meeting

Bran Muffin + Large Strong Coffee + 1 Hour Morning meeting… I’ll let you know how it goes.

Can’t sleep tonight; not sure why.  I’ll be paying for this tomorrow…