Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 100 of 153).

WRAL interview about recycling theft

Renee Chou rummages through my recycling


WRAL’s Renee Chou came by the house this afternoon to do a story tonight on Raleigh’s proposed recycling theft ordinance. As far as interviews go I was a bit uncomfortable as I was seated and I’m not used to doing interviews that way. I was also uncomfortable with having the contents of my recycling bin displayed for all the world to see. Then again, watching Renee rummaging through my recycling bin reminded me that this ordinance will actually help protect everyone’s privacy by keeping people out of bins. That’s a good thing, I think.

As typical, I though of my best talking point after the interview concluded, and that’s this: just like when I put a letter in my mailbox I expect that a postal employee will collect it, when I put something in my recycling bin I expect the city’s recycling crew will collect it.

Look for the interview to air at 6 tonight.

Raleigh might criminalize recycling thefts

The N&O’s Matt Garfield wrote up a story in the Midtown Raleigh News about the city’s response to recycling thefts. My blog got a shout out, too.

Mark Turner thought it was odd when a blue pickup truck stopped in his neighborhood one recent morning. A man hopped out, collected aluminum cans from a curbside recycling bin and continued down the street.

When Turner returned home later in the day, he spotted a man in a different truck doing the same thing.

The banditry was unusual for its brazenness. But city officials say recycling theft is becoming more common as marauders seek an easy, if time-consuming, way to make money.

via Raleigh might criminalize recycling thefts – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Update 8:55 PM: My friend Mitchell in Santa Cruz, CA tells me the City of Santa Cruz has had a big problem with recycling theft. The city passed an ordinance similar to Raleigh’s proposed ordinance, making anything put in city bins city property and a misdemeanor to remove anything. Mitchell sent a link to a recent City of Santa Cruz newsletter which discusses the problem (PDF).

I think some of the dire warnings by the Santa Cruz police chief are way overblown (“gateway crime?” Come on.) but it is absolutely true that pilfering aluminum cans jeopardizes the entire recycling program.

Making the “Open Source City” a bit more open

I was away from my home the other day and wanted to tune into the streaming video of the Raleigh City Council meeting using my smartphone. Lo and behold, the proprietary Microsoft Silverlight video format that the Granicus service uses to stream Raleigh’s government channel does not have a player for my Android phone. I’d be surprised if a client exists for iPhone, either, for that matter. It seemed I would need to be glued to my desk if I wanted to keep up with Raleigh politics.
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Republicans need more than rhetoric on defense

George Will takes aim at Republican blustering about defense.

Osama bin Laden and many other “high-value targets” are dead, the drone war is being waged more vigorously than ever, and Guantanamo is still open, so Republicans can hardly say that Obama has implemented dramatic and dangerous discontinuities regarding counterterrorism. Obama says that, even with his proposed cuts, the defense budget would increase at about the rate of inflation through the next decade. Republicans who think America is being endangered by “appeasement” and military parsimony have worked that pedal on their organ quite enough.

via Republicans need more than rhetoric on defense – The Washington Post.

Happy Two Years In Hell, Jefe de Jefe

Here’s a sobering look by a former federal officer at America’s failed drug policy and its disastrous effect on our neighbor south of the border.

Just a short while after the operation, the DEA’s intelligence chief — Anthony Placido stated: “Nobody left out there has the extensive contacts that Arturo had. He moved thousands of metric tons of drugs into the United States, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin,” Placido said. “In addition to that … he is responsible for much of the violence in Mexico. Arturo Beltran Leyva wasn’t a big fish. He was a whale.”

Though frustrating, I can’t help but brush off some of those comments. For starters, I’m in awe that he actually said there wasn’t anyone left out there with the extensive contacts that Arturo Beltran had. Secondly, I’m bewildered by the fact that marijuana is completely left out of the equation. Revenues from marijuana smuggling produce the majority of capital for Mexican drug trafficking organizations, and in the case of the Beltran Leyva Organization, I witnessed it firsthand. Yes, Arturo had plenty of contacts in the South American Andes, and for sure cocaine earned his organization boat loads of cash — but the coca plant played second fiddle to cannabis sativa as it nearly always does with the cartels in Mexico. Yet this DEA executive is reluctant to utter the “M” word, perhaps out of fear that mainstream America might soon wake up to the role that marijuana prohibition is having in the killing games being played out below the Rio Grande.

via Jamie Haase: Happy Two Years In Hell, Jefe de Jefe.

N&O’s editorial covers nuke plant mistake

I was happy to see today’s News and Observer editorial on the November mishap at Progress Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant. This time the hand-tight bolts part made it into print, unlike the previous article by John Murawski which left that part out of the print edition for brevity’s sake, apparently.

I’ve got another blog post pending on this topic, based on the report that NRC released. I hope this incident is a reminder to Progress Energy that when one deals with nuclear energy, “close enough” isn’t good enough.

The Nov. 16 shutdown at Brunswick’s Unit 2 was caused by a coolant leak from a pressurized vessel that produces steam. Mildly radioactive water flowed out of the chamber rather than boiling inside. At one point, according to an N&O account, “the water was flowing out at a rate of over 10 gallons a minute, about 100 times more volume than would flow out under normal circumstances.”

As a result, according to the NRC, “instead of pressurizing the tensioning device to 13,000 psi, the team actually pressurized the device to 1,300 psi.” Later, Progress Energy personnel were “able to rotate 8 nuts by hand, 10 nuts by wrench with no agitation, 31 nuts by wrench and agitation, and 15 nuts by wrench with additional agitation,” the NRC said.

Got that? Those investigating the leak were able to turn some of the nuts on a reactor pressure vessel by hand. That’s not tight enough for a tire change.

via Tighten up – Editorials – NewsObserver.com.

Facebook files for $5 billion IPO

Facebook filed for a $5 billion IPO today in what will likely be a wildly successful stock market debut.

I laughed when I recalled my post from five years ago in which I thought the idea of Facebook being worth $15 billion was crazy. That was before I got hooked on it, of course (along with about 800 million other people). Now $15 billion sounds like too little.

I’ve been astonished at the role Facebook has played in the recent revolutions around the world. It will be interesting to see how the company grows from here.