January 12, 2012

There were 4 posts published on January 12, 2012 (this is page 1 of 1).

Big water bills coming due

I spent a little time this evening attending the inaugural meeting of the Midtown CAC. Among the presenters was the City of Raleigh’s Public Utilities Director, John Carman. Carman (as he’s known around the city) has been meeting with CACs and other civic groups on a speaking tour. He gave a similar talk to the East CAC back in April.

In his talk, Carman explains the many challenges of running his department, among which is the conflicting problem of water conservation. As you may remember, the city’s droughts have prompted many residents to drastically cut back on their water usage. This was good news to almost everyone but Carman, who has to fund his department through water bills. Thus when folks used less water, they actually get charged more because public utilities needs to make up the balance.
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Time for a new drug war strategy

I was surfing WRAL’s webpage the other day and, like many of their web visitors, got stuck in their gallery of arrest photos. Like the “rate me” sites like Am I Hot Or Not?, the parade of suspect photos pulls you in, making you want to click just one more time to see what’s next.

Anyway, I was clicking away one afternoon when I noticed a pattern. Of the suspects arrested for drug violations, the overwhelming majority of them were arrested for the possession or sale of marijuana. While there were some arrests for other drugs, marijuana was far and away the drug most often cited.

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Taking a u-turn on the one-way street

City of Raleigh Transportation guru Eric Lamb shared this story of one successful conversion of a one-way street to two-way in St. Catharines, Ontario. It provides hope that East Raleigh may also enjoy a renaissance once it banishes its one-way streets.

Two years ago, city crews went to St. Paul Street — the one-way spine of downtown St. Catharines, Ont. — took down the “no entry” signs, painted new lines and opened up the street to two-way traffic. According to planners, it would slow cars down, make the downtown more pedestrian friendly and spur retail development.

People, especially businesspeople, didn’t like it. And then they did.

“A prominent local businessman came up to me the other day and said, ‘I didn’t support it from the start, but this is the best thing you’ve ever done.’ ”

via Taking a u-turn on the one-way street | News | National Post.

Astronomers see more planets than stars in galaxy

The continuing discovery of exoplanets – planets outside of our solar system – is one of the most astonishing yet underreported advances in our understanding of the universe and our place in it. The number of known planets has more than doubled since 2008 to 700 and far more are waiting to be verified.

Astronomers are in agreement that at least 100 billion planets exist in our galaxy alone. That blows my mind. The universe is littered with planets, and life in one form or another is certain to exist on some.

“We’re finding an exciting potpourri of things we didn’t even think could exist,” said Harvard University astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger, including planets that mirror “Star Wars” Luke Skywalker’s home planet with twin suns and a mini-star system with a dwarf sun and shrunken planets.

“We’re awash in planets where 17 years ago we weren’t even sure there were planets” outside our solar system, said Kaltenegger, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

via Astronomers see more planets than stars in galaxy – Boston.com.