January 2013

There were 25 posts published in January 2013 (this is page 2 of 3).

Another doomsday threat dies out

Looks like the killer asteroid Aphohis won’t become a killer any time soon. New data shows it passing Earth in 2036 (2068 may be another matter).

Radar observations made during this week’s close encounter with the asteroid Apophis have ruled out the risk of a catastrophic cosmic collision in 2036, NASA says. Experts say it’ll be much farther away at that time than it is right now.

The crucial readings came on Wednesday when the space rock, which is thought to measure at least 885 feet (270 meters wide), approached within 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers) of Earth. NASA is monitoring Apophis with its 230-foot (70-meter) Goldstone radio dish in California. Optical readings also have come in from the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico and the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii.

The bottom line? "We have effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said today in the all-clear news release. “The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future.”

via Another doomsday threat dies out: Asteroid Apophis won't hit us in 2036 – Cosmic Log.

Highlights of 2012: Herndon High School reunion

Ever since Kelly and I attended our 20th high school reunion I’d been looking forward to attending another one at our 25th year. With no one else willing to make it happen, I decided to organize it.

This time around we had Facebook to help track down classmates. Using nothing else but Facebook’s search tools and event functionality, I picked homecoming weekend for our reunion and let the Facebook group know.
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Highlights of 2012: Neighborhood happenings

It was a year full of interesting happenings around the neighborhood.

The year started off with a bang (fortunately not literally) when I helped catch a burglar as he was breaking into a neighbor’s car. Unlike other suspects I’d seen who were up to no good, I got no subpoena for this incident because a police officer witnessed it, too. If only an officer was always just around the corner whenever a crime occurred it would make things so much easier.

A few months later I was surprised to see a number of police cars entering my neighborhood. My neighbors became the victim of a mid-day breakin, with the thieves having enough time to neatly stack their booty behind the home before the cops rolled up. Fortunately for everyone but the hapless crooks, the cops blocked the getaway car in the driveway, which provided not only a wealth of fingerprints but a curious parade of passersby, all unusually interested in a crime that hadn’t been publicized. The perps were caught a few weeks later, their getaway car having belonged to someone they knew.
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Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life

I first got an inkling of just how big of a problem fundraising is for Congressional members when I went to the Veterans Campaign seminar a few years ago. A large portion of the training emphasized the need to raise funds. The underlying message was that one would never be a good politician unless one were also a good fundraiser. It was an eye-opening introduction to the real world of a Congressional representative.

The question is what to do about it? Implement four-year terms for House members? Public financing? How does America wrestle its representation back from those who have bought and paid for it?

The amount of time that members of Congress in both parties spend fundraising is widely known to take up an obscene portion of a typical day — whether it’s "call time" spent on the phone with potential donors, or in person at fundraisers in Washington or back home. Seeing it spelled out in black and white, however, can be a jarring experience for a new member, as related by some who attended the November orientation.

via Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life.

Highlights of 2012: Jupiter the Cat

Jupiter the cat


This past year was a notable one for the way the feral cat that occasionally appeared on our doorstep wound his way into our lives. Jupiter the cat not only came back to us after I put him through the traumatic process of getting fixed, he basically adopted the whole family!

I bought a heated pad to keep him warm in the cold and put out food and water for him. He has taken to spending long stretches parked in the lap of whomever sits in the rocking chair, purring up a puddle of drool in the process.
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Highlights of 2012: Hopscotch


One thing I had to look forward to for almost all of 2012 was Raleigh’s Hopscotch music festival. Kelly gave me Hopscotch tickets as a Christmas 2011 present and for months just thinking about the show made me smile. When September showed up I was ready to go. And you know what? It lived up to its hype!

I scoured all the local websites and picked the brains of my musically hip friends to find out what bands to see. Some of those suggestions were unbelievably good while others were so-so. With a festival as big as Hopscotch you can usually find something that you like.

I decided at the end of the festival the perfect plan for picking what to see at Hopscotch. I will take all the band suggestions gathered from friends and music authorities and then go see all the other bands! I found the most interesting bands were the ones that no one was talking about. Those gems made it all worthwhile.

I hope we can go again to this year’s Hopscotch so it can make next year’s list of highlights!

Home invasion shocks neighborhood

Monday’s home invasion and shooting in Oakwood has left Raleigh’s downtown neighborhoods in shock. It has also shocked me as well. This took things to a new level and as good as the Raleigh Police Department is, there was little they could’ve done to stop it. As the saying goes, shit just got real.

Fortunately, the perps picked the wrong neighborhood to mess with. Oakwood is as close-knit as neighborhoods come, and residents spotted the suspects immediately. Brothers Shabar Marshall and Jahaad Marshall were arrested shortly afterward.

I learned this morning that the rumored neighborhood home invasion did, in fact, occur. A neighbor shared the details today and this previous crime was just as scary as the one this week. The evening of November 19th, a burglar broke into a home on Wake Forest Road in Mordecai and held the daughter at gunpoint there for 10 minutes while he looked for cash. The suspect escaped before anyone was hurt but it shook the family up so much that they moved away. No mention of this incident was made in the media, nor did RPD make any announcements. If it weren’t for the chat I had with the man at the local restaurant over the holidays I wouldn’t have known about it at all.

The good news is that the victim of the previous home invasion believes that Shabar Marshall was the perpetrator of the previous crime. He’s now behind bars, but for many neighbors that’s not good enough. This serious escalation deserves an escalated response from the community. The question is, what do we do?

Home (is germ) free

Kelly started feeling better Saturday afternoon, when we all got out of the house for some outdoor time at Horseshoe Farm Park. By yesterday she was feeling back to 90%.

I think we’re out of the woods on this thing now. While there was nothing funny about my family being sick, I find it amusing that I avoided getting sick and I’m the only one who didn’t get a flu shot. Y’all already know how I feel about flu shots, don’t ya.

Google Fiber shout out in the N&O

N&O Editor John Drescher gave a little shout out to Google Fiber today in his column praising mayors. Says Drescher:

“In Kansas City, Sly James has attracted technology startups by working with Google to provide Internet service 100 times faster than typical broadband.”

I’m hopeful the Triangle area will one day be successful in luring Google’s service here. Our broadband pipes should be collectively owned like our streets and other infrastructure.