Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 120 of 153).

Jonathan Trappe rides balloons across English Channel

Jonathan Trappe's SpiritCluster

My balloonist friend Jonathan Trappe flew his balloon chair across the English Channel today. He landed safely in a cabbage patch in Dunkirk, France after a five-hour flight.

“It was just an exceptional, quiet, peaceful experience,” Trappe told Sky News television, which covered the adventure.

Asked why he went, Trappe replied: “Didn’t you have this dream, grabbing on to a bunch of toy balloons and floating off? I think it’s something that’s shared across cultures and across borders – just this wonderful fantasy of grabbing on to toy balloons and floating into open space.”

Just so you know, Jonathan isn’t like the nuts who attach balloons to lawn chairs and take off without any training or preparation. Jonathan is a fully-licensed FAA balloonist and meticulously plans each and every flight. He obtains all the proper clearances and absolutely knows what he is doing. This flight was anything but crazy for Jonathan, but it would be quite crazy for you to try it without proper training.

Congrats to Jonathan on his most exciting flight yet! Find out more about him at ClusterBalloon.Com (currently melted down due to all the publicity. Jonathan should consider a clustered webserver!) Here’s a link to find out more about Jonathan.

New position. (id – 52ZC)

Looks like I’ve got another great job opportunity sent my way. I’m going to be rich!!1!!!1!1!!111!!

From: trek Stanley trekstanleyqnu@hotmail.com
To: riverad@consultant.com
Subject: New position. (id – 52ZC)
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 05:06:38 -0500

Good dayHow are you? I am a Dealcom LTD staff manager and I’m responsible for headhunting among the candidates for the open positions with our company. We have read with interest your resume detailing your qualifications and relevant work experience and want to offer you a well-paid part-time vacancy. We believe you can be considered as a successful candidate for the position. If you are interested in our company as well as in more information concerning this opportunity please e-mail the recruitment at Recruitment@dealcomltd.com. Thank you for your consideration and have a nice day.Take care.

Of course, I’d have to risk going to jail as it’s simply a money mule scam, but what the hey.

Amtrak’s Piedmont hits truck, derails

NCDOT's Engine 1792, The City of Raleigh

This morning, the Amtrak Piedmont train hit a flatbed truck that was stuck on the tracks in Mebane. No one was killed but a dozen people were taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises. The locomotive, number 1792, was heavily damaged and caught fire immediately after the collision.

This particular Amtrak train, the Piedmont, is run in part by the State of North Carolina, and the train carries the state’s red, white, and blue livery. The locomotives are quite distinctive. I saw the photographs of the damaged train and recalled that I’d taken some shots around the NCDOT’s Raleigh yard a few years ago.

Above is my photograph of the 1792 in better days. It was being overhauled at the time to rejoin the other locomotives in Carolinian and Piedmont service. I don’t know if the engine can be repaired but it couldn’t come at a worse time for the state’s passenger rail service: the state is adding mid-day service in June.

NCDOT's Gray Squirrel

Here’s also a picture of the Gray Squirrel passenger coach. The Gray Squirrel wound up on top of the errant tractor-trailer, so it will likely be out of service for a while, too.

Be sure to read the chatter about the crash on the Train Orders site.

[Update: 1:48 PM Friday ] More railfan speculation on Trains.com.

Lybian jet crashes

An Afriqiyah Airlines jet from Johannesburg crashed during landing at the Tripoli airport today, killing 92 people and leaving an 11-year-old boy as the sole survivor. While it’s early in the investigation, with an 8-month-old plane, an otherwise-sterling safety record, and clear conditions at the time of the crash, I’m betting the pilots simply forgot to check their fuel.

Greenway ride to lunch

Today Kelly wanted to take advantage of the beautiful Mother’s Day weather to ride our bikes someplace for lunch. We opted for the Quizno’s sub place on Six Forks Road. Rather than pile our bikes in the van and haul them to the greenway, this time we let our kids ride with us through the neighborhood to the greenway.

It worked like a champ! We got to Quizno’s within 30 minutes and greatly enjoyed the novelty of getting there without a car. We enjoyed a fun lunch on the restaurant deck before moseying over to Borders to browse books. Then it was back home via the greenway. Easy! The kids didn’t even balk at the long, slow climb up Dennis Avenue: the home stretch.
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Farmville maker raking in the cash

We were in Borders today chatting with one of the staffers. Somehow the conversation veered to Facebook, when mentioned an amazing statistic about the service. He told us the company that makes the (addicting or annoying, depending on your point of view) games Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook is on track to make $450 million this year, selling non-existent livestock and guns.

Sure enough, Business Week has the scoop on this three-year-old company named Zynga. Now where can I find a book on the Facebook API?

Court rules against FCC in Net Neutrality case

A federal appeals court ruled today that the FCC lacks the authority to enforce Net Neutrality in a case against Comcast.

“This decision destroys the F.C.C.’s authority to build broadband policy on the legal theory established by the Bush administration,” said Ben Scott, the policy director for Free Press, a nonprofit organization that advocates for broad media ownership and access.

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