Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 117 of 153).

Coyote sighting

Late last night a man walking his dogs in the Cameron Park neighborhood spotted a coyote as it crossed the road about 20 feet in front of him. The coyote trotted on to the property of St. Mary’s College, apparently paying no mind to the man’s dogs.

I’ve had a friend report a coyote sighting in East Raleigh, too, but her sighting took place along the wooded Middle Crabtree Creek greenway east of Raleigh Boulevard. I think a coyote roaming around St. Mary’s is that much more unusual because of how urbanized that area is. It’s amazing how adaptable some wildlife is.

North Korea’s Supreme Internet Experts

Internet Expert

I’ve already given props to Great Commander Kim Jong-Il for his Great Internet Expertness. Now it turns out his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-Un, is also an Internet genius. Word on the street is that he’s such a wizard at the keyboard that his nickname is Computer Numerical Control, or C.N.C.

That’s right. Not only was he promoted to an instant four-star general and groomed to take over the country, Kim Jong-Un has a kick-ass Internet screen name, too.

No wonder North Korea is so cool. Its leaders are off the hook!

I <3 ImageMagick


I was looking for a way to stitch together multiple scans I’ve made into a multiple-page PDF. Each page when scanned became a separate image file and I didn’t want to attach each one separately.

Fortunately, ImageMagick came to the rescue! All it took was this command:

convert -adjoin *.png report.pdf

… and my PDF was created instantly. What useful little tools ImageMagick are!

Sayonora, sunspots?

A recent report says that our sun is not kicking out sunspots like it used to. The paper, by solar astronomers Matthew Penn and William Livingstone, says that the magnetic field strength of the sunspots appears to be waning.

If the trend continues, sunspots could vanish completely by 2016. The last time this happened there was a prolonged cooling spell on Earth, known as the Little Ice Age.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of this.

Earth’s helium reserves ‘will run out within 25 years’ | Mail Online

Earth’s supply of helium is dwindling fast.

It is more commonly known as the gas that fills cheap party balloons and makes your voice squeak if you inhale it.

But helium is actually a precious resource that is being squandered with Earth’s reserves of it due to run out within 25 to 30 years, experts have warned.

Earth’s resources of helium are being depleted at an astonishing rate, an effect which will spell disaster for hospitals which use it to cool MRI scanners.

via Earth’s helium reserves ‘will run out within 25 years’ | Mail Online.

High-altitude balloon launch

A group of friends is launching a helium balloon to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Josh Shaffer of the News and Observer wrote a story on it in this morning’s paper.

I am not involved in the project (I’m at the beach now), which kills me because I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. The best I can do is what everyone else can do, which is track the balloon online. Those in Raleigh can see the launch at Horseshoe Farm Park at 8 AM Sunday.

Update 23 August: Success! See the results!

Sound Choice in the news again

I was delighted to read the story in today’s Charlotte Observer about Kurt Slep and Sound Choice, fighting back against illegal copying of their karaoke music. The company took a beating when unscrupulous karaoke jockeys (“KJ’s”) downloaded their music rather than paying for it.

While I was sad to hear how devastating music piracy has been to Sound Choice, I was glad to read about the history of the company, including the time in 1985 when I was one of its first employees.

Kurt, give me a call if you need a vocalist!

Did the SBI set up Floyd Brown?

The story of the SBI’s treatment of Floyd Brown, convicted by a dubious murder confession, should make everyone shudder.

Some of the shine has come off former golden boy Attorney General Roy Cooper. It’s a shame, since I once thought Cooper could do no wrong.

Here’s Floyd telling his story, brought to you by Travis Long, Shawn Rocco, and Mandy Locke of the News and Observer.

Agents’ Secrets: A confession doesn’t add up from Travis Long on Vimeo.

Record-breaking hailstone

Hailstone from Vivian, SD storm


The largest hailstone ever recorded in the US fell in South Dakota on July 23rd. It weighed almost two pounds! NOAA scientists estimate the updraft required to keep it aloft exceeded 160 MPH!

During the late afternoon and early evening hours of 23 July 2010, thunderstorms developed over portions of central South Dakota. Several storms quickly became severe in an environment favorable for supercell thunderstorms. In particular, one very strong supercell thunderstorm moved southeastward across portions of Stanley, Jones, and Lyman counties. One of the hardest hit locations was the community of Vivian, South Dakota, where extremely large hail, destructive winds to 80 mph, and a brief tornado were reported.

A record setting hailstone was ultimately discovered in Vivian, measuring 8.0 inches in diameter, 18.625 inches in circumference, and weighing in at an amazing 1.9375 pounds!! This hailstone broke the previous United States hail size record for diameter (7.0 inches – 22 June 2003 in Aurora, NE) and weight (1.67 pounds – 3 September 1970 in Coffeyvile, KS).

via July 23rd Extreme Hail Event.

(h/t Mike Moss at WRAL)