Raleigh

Community-focused posts

There are 776 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 69 of 78).

Astounding water savings

Last week Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker drew some flak for putting forth the goal for everyone to limit themselves to using only 25 gallons of water a day, per person. The mayor’s own water bills showed his household consumption to be around 33 gallons per person per day.

Being of the curious mind, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and see just how MT.Net was measuring up against this goal. Last Monday evening, I carted a flashlight and screwdriver out to the meter and noted the usage. The meter displays water use in cubic feet, and mine read 7,936.7. One cubic foot of water equals 7.48 gallons for those keeping score at home.
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Converting Raleigh’s streaming media into open formats

The City of Raleigh now makes the meetings of the city council and other boards available as streaming media hosted by the company called Granicus. These streams are helpful for getting citizens (particularly geek citizens locked in a cubicle) a look at government happenings but they are offered in a proprietary Windows Media 9 format and not an open format like Xvid, MPEG4 and the like. Linux media players like Totem and Mplayer can play the existing streams but the streams’ lack of an index makes it impossible to skip through the sessions.
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Truck snags railroad crossing gate at Durant Road

Damaged Crossing Gate

A bread truck traveling east on Durant Road caught a railroad crossing gate as it descended this morning, spilling loaves of bread onto the road and causing minor damage to the gate. No one was injured. A northbound CSX freight train was delayed for two hours while CSX workers repaired the gate. The accident happened around 8:30 this morning.

Raleigh police distributed the bread to motorists.

Ted Turner to speak at UNC

This afternoon at 4, broadcasting magnate Ted Turner speaks at UNC at a free public event. Growing up in Atlanta in the 1970s, I remember watching shows like Gilligan’s Island on WTBS Channel 17. At school I would jokingly refer to him as “Uncle Ted” whenever my friends would ask if we were related.

I’m going to see if my schedule allows me to hear what Turner has to say today. I hope to ask him about his new venture, DT Solar, and what he thinks about the outrageous campaign finance requirements presidential candidates have as a result of not freeing the airwaves.

Google Earth updates Raleigh imagery

I noticed that Google Earth’s satellite imagery of Raleigh has been recently updated. Its actually showing imagery taken this year. I note that trees are green, traffic is moving on the Knightdale segment of I-540, and Falls Lake is full so I’m assuming the pic was taken in late spring. I’m also feeling embarrassed to have the greenest yard in the neighborhood, which is a switch for me: I was probably pretty darn proud at the time.

The spring and summer seasons are a terrible time for satellite imagery as the goal is normally to capture the details hidden by the foliage. Still its good to see somewhat recent pictures.

Cary police charge driver in Ponce-Perez death

Cary police yesterday charged the driver in the death of Maria Soledad Ponce-Perez, a jogger who was struck and killed last week. Beverly Alice Castelli, age 51, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle in the incident.

Kelly and I agreed that this is an unfortunate move on the part of Cary PD. Its tragic that Ponce-Perez was hit by Castelli’s car, to be sure. Its something Castelli will have to live with the rest of her life. On the other hand, Ponce-Perez was jogging with her back to traffic. Not only that, she was jogging in the middle of the road! The article doesn’t specify but it wouldn’t surprise me if she was also wearing headphones like a lot of joggers do.

Any kid can tell you that you that if you’re a pedestrian you’re supposed to face traffic and if you play in traffic you’re going to get hit. I don’t know what kind of reaction time Castelli may or may not have had, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Ponce-Perez was in the wrong here and solely responsible for endangering herself. She was jogging in a manner and place that made it inevitable she would be hit. Its the same as if I decided to play on the power lines: no one would blame the power company if I get electrocuted.

Now Castelli will have to go through the spectacle of a trial in addition to the grief she already must feel. Unless Cary Police know something I don’t, there’s no way Castelli should have been charged.