Mark Turner Dot Net

I was all into the Independent Weekly’s look at Raleigh when I came to this story by Vernon Coleman, called Seeing the city through a conventioneer’s eyes: Wanderlust in Raleigh. Its the same old tired story of Durhamites looking down their noses at Raleigh. Coleman spends an afternoon wandering around downtown, asks advice from some homeless people, and assumes that since he is totally clueless that there’s nothing going on here. Moron.

Just when I think the Indy is finally on the Raleigh bandwagon they trot out tripe like this. I never thought I’d say I miss the Spectator.

My place of employment was featured in today’s Triangle Business Journal. Included is a picture of my boss forecasting the weather near the Black Sea (forecast: “mushroom cloudy”).

The N&O editor cheerfully set science aside with today’s headline Feds debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories. The story is about NIST’s report claiming the 47-story WTC7 building’s structural failure was due to fire.

Like hell it was. At least the Associated Press’s headline (“Feds: Fire took down building next to twin towers”)was not so judgmental against those who can plainly see NIST’s theory is bullshit.

In light of the Bush administration’s blatant politicization of science at every possible turn, wouldn’t you think that announcements like these deserve a more critical eye? Wouldn’t a healthy grain of salt be prudent? At the very least, perhaps not be so dismissive of those skeptical to the “official” story?
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Thank you, George W. Bush, for giving the United States no moral leg to stand on while our once and future enemy Russia systematically dismantles Georgia. You’ve plainly made the world a safer place by tying us down in a never-ending war while pumping billions of dollars of oil profits into the hands of Russian-dictator-for-life (and your soulmate) Vladimir Putin.

Yeah, we need four more years of this kind of leadership.

Does anyone else find the N&O’s obsession with John Edwards a bit strange? I mean, Edwards is no longer running for anything. He’s not a vice-presidential candidate. He’s not even on his local town council. He wasn’t much involved in party politics before he was elected and he hasn’t been since. He’s kept a relatively low profile after dropping out of the presidential race. In short, what John Edwards does or does not do is of absolutely no consequence to anyone. So why is he emblazoned on the front page of my newspaper?
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I wrote the Barack Obama campaign expressing my displeasure with his flip-flop on the Senate FISA bill. I got the following canned reply in response. Figured I’d post it to save y’all the trouble.

Form letter or not, it doesn’t cut it. Obama says “trust me.” That doesn’t cut it, folks. Not for me. I’ve had enough with having to trust kings.

As a former cryptographer I’m intimately familiar with the safeguards put in place on this activity. They’ve worked well for decades. “Grave threats” are not enough reason to chuck the Bill of Rights, our biggest safeguard of all.
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Today’s News and Observer headline story about Mary Easley’s so-called pay raise may be the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as my being an N&O subscriber goes. I have no great love for the Easleys but the only way to describe this is overblown if not downright misleading.

Mary Easley is an accomplished lawyer in her own right. She lectures at NCSU and she recently went from part-time to full-time there. Her salary, while quite large from my point of view, is a pittance to what most attorneys earn. The N&O is twisting the facts. I can’t hep but think its punitive after the governor ducked out on an N&O reporter and his email deletion policy came to light.

Trust is critical to any news source; lose it and its gone for good. I have been an avid newspaper reader since I learned to read but that’s about to end. Unless the News and Observer cleans up its act pronto, it will find itself with one fewer subscriber. At least.

Remember the Neuros Recorder2, the tiny MPEG4 recorder I’ve raved about?

Old and busted! The new hotness is the FlyCamOne2. It is a gadget with 640×480 video and audio recording, built-in camera, and an infrared motion sensor. It records straight to an SD card. Heck, it even charges from a USB port! And the whole thing is just 100 bucks!

This thing might be small enough to mount on my mythical weather balloon project.

Update: Nevermind….the FlyCamOne2 is old and busted, too. That didn’t take long. The new hotness is the Oregon Scientific Action Cam, which apparently has better video (and the upcoming 3K release supports 4GB SD cards). The 2K model can be had for $92 at Circuit City.

Check out the videos [warning: self-playing flash] from the ATC 2K, including this cool model rocket video.

Dear fellow drivers,

In case you haven’t noticed, gasoline now costs $4 a gallon. At that price, I want to buy as little gas as I can. Therefore, when I’m first at a traffic light, don’t expect me to burn rubber the instant the light turns green. In fact, you may see me gradually accelerate my not-so-fuel-efficient minivan in order to conserve gasoline.

This is fine. Perfectly acceptable. In fact, you might save gas and money trying it, too! At any rate, we’ll both get to Capital Boulevard’s next red light (and the red light beyond that one, and the one beyond that one) in approximately the same time.

KTHXBYE,
Mark

60 Minutes featured a new nonlethal weapon the Pentagon is testing. Dubbed the “Ray Gun,” it transmits a painful beam of microwave energy to disperse crowds. The 60 Minutes reporter said it felt like being put in scalding water.

While I’m all for nonlethal weapons, I take offense at how they demonstrated it. A group of soldiers playing the role of “peaceful” protesters (complete with “world peace” signs), began attacking uniformed soldiers - only to be cooked by the Ray Gun.

Hey, guys? You’re U.S. soldiers. Your enemy isn’t your peace-loving fellow Americans, its the terrorists of the world. How about suiting up as North Koreans? Or Hamas militants? Or Somali pirate gunboats? How about something a bit closer to the real threats you face?

To show this weapon being used against peace activists shows how low our military has sunk in its original mission to support and defend our Constitution. As a veteran I am ashamed and insulted.