May 2011

There were 37 posts published in May 2011 (this is page 3 of 4).

Speeding motorcyclist killed

Many nights I’ve heard motorcycles racing down nearby State Street at insane speeds. Calls to 911 have produced mixed results, so much so that I stopped bothering to call when the motorcycles start up.

Previously, the racing had been confined to an area a mile away from my home but this week I’d been hearing the cycles racing down Glascock and turning south on to N. State Street. When more than one passed by Tuesday evening, I made two 911 calls to complain about them (the dispatcher on the second call actually asked me “what the crime was”).

Looks like Darwin claimed one of these idiots last night, when
Richard Jerrod McNeil was thrown from his bike after speeding over 100 MPH in a 35 MPH zone on S. State Street. I feel for his family but I have a hard time feeling sympathetic to McNeil. He knew what he was doing was dangerous, not only to himself but to the many neighbors who live along State Street. He was very lucky his recklessness didn’t kill someone else.

I’ve asked police to step up traffic enforcement along State Street because McNeil wasn’t the only one who loves to race in the area. It’s only a matter of time before another poor idiot on a crotch rocket meets his maker (or flattens an innocent kid).

Blind spots

Ghost Bike by Salim Virji


This weekend we visited a bicycle store on a quest to find a bike to fit our rapidly-growing daughter. While there, I remarked to the guy behind the counter about Raleigh being named as a bicycle-friendly city.

It was news to him, apparently. I know I’m tuned in to what happens with Raleigh but I figured someone working at a bike store would know about the bike-friendly thing.

“Well, someone should tell the drivers,” he responded. “So many drivers in Raleigh don’t respect cyclists.”
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That old neighborhood feeling

The neighborhood near mine (which I sometimes claim), Belevidere Park, was mentioned in today’s paper as being a friendly one. It’s great to see stories like these!

When author Peter Lovenheim came through town two weeks ago, he informed a rapt audience of 200 that interactions between neighbors are down 50 percent since the 1950s. But in a city with an entire department that devotes much of its resources to neighborhood connection, some in Lovenheim’s audience felt that Raleigh largely bucks that trend. After all, last month’s tornado gave evidence that Raleigh’s neighborhoods are plenty strong as neighbor turned out to support neighbor.

via That old neighborhood feeling – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Kegbot

I was talking to another geek in the neighborhood last night who was telling me about this interesting idea that appeals to geek beer fans: the Kegbot. He had been at a friend’s party where the Kegbot was used to track who had been drinking what, with charts generated on the web for bragging rights purposes.

According to the project website:

Kegbot is a free, open-source project to turn your beer kegerator into a computerized drink tracker. With Kegbot and our Arduino firmware, you can:

* Monitor exactly how much beer is left in your kegs and track the temperature;
* Record the volume of each and every pour;
* Set up user accounts to track who is drinking, how much, and all sorts of other nutty statistics;
* Use special keys (tokens, RFID tags, barcodes) to authenticate your kegerator users;
* Control access to your taps (with special valve hardware) to prevent unauthorized pours;

Many of my computer-geek friends are also beer geeks, so this scratches two itches for them. I look forward to encountering my first Kegbot and trying this for myself!

Roomba’s “other shoe” drops

I’d been enjoying our Roomba robot vacuum again now that it has a fresh battery and its automatic schedule has been set. That all changed yesterday when the Roomba did it’s “wiggle walk” again, indicating that the only remaining wheel sensor has busted.

It has been over a year since the first wheel sensor failed and was hard-wired into place to extend Roomba’s life. Now it looks like I’ll be doing more soldering to patch Roomba up yet again. At least this time I know what to do, though!

Crackdown reins in Bahrain activists

Nowhere will America’s commitment to democracy be tested more than in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Central Command.

The once massive pro-democracy protests in Bahrain have been reduced to small clashes between youth and police in predominantly Shia Muslim areas.

Security forces have launched a crackdown on protesters marked by beatings and sweeping arrests. Nearly 1,000 demonstrators have been imprisoned, among them doctors, artists and lawyers.

via Crackdown reins in Bahrain activists – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Stealth helo

I remember being on base in Pensacola during my Navy training in 1988 and being astonished when two helicopters in the distance suddenly went completely silent. Now I wonder if I was watching some of these stealth helicopters.

The May 2 raid on Osama bin Laden’s luxury compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, had it all: painstaking intelligence-gathering, a heroic Navy SEAL assault team, satellite and drone surveillance, and biometric forensics.

And now this: a possible super-secret, stealthy helicopter, unknown to the wider world before one crashed during the assault.

via Aviation Geeks Scramble to ID bin Laden Raid’s Mystery Copter | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Level that playing field

I read with concern today that the U.S. Post Office is closing a local mail station because of to the shrinking volume of mail being sent. Cited for this decline was the rise of email, online bill payment, and the growing use of commercial shippers like FedEx and UPS.

It’s a shame that private enterprise is allowed to compete with the government. These companies are using their commercial nature to unfairly compete with the public entities. If only there was a law that reigned in the predatory nature of private enterprise … you know, level the playing field, so to speak. Wouldn’t that be great?

The grand conspiracy

I suppose it was inevitable, with as many Parks board meetings we’ve had in the city council chambers, that eventually we’d attract some … ah, “unique” individuals during our public comments phase. That’s what happened during our last meeting.

One gentleman stood up and began to discuss the Walnut Creek greenway in Southeast Raleigh. His concern seemed to be that the water from the nearby wastewater plant would pose a health hazard to walkers on the greenway. Then he seemed to veer off into some crazy talk about the city purposefully pumping reuse water to the homes of Southeast Raleigh residents. Oh, and the “Freemasons” were in on it, too. No kidding, he actually said that. A conspiracy wouldn’t be complete without the Freemasons, you know.
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