On this day 42 years ago, the Israeli military attacked an unarmed American ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 American sailors and wounding another 171.
Check It Out
Links to cool places or things.
There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 128 of 153).
Car smashes into New Hope Valley train
My friend Bryan Johnson took his family for a ride on today’s excursion run of the New Hope Valley Railway and got some unexpected excitement. A station wagon smashed into the side of the train as the train approached the station.
As Bryan pointed out, the New Hope Valley is a big yellow train moving about 5 MPH across a crossing marked with bells and flashing red lights. We’re not talking about the Acela or Union Pacific Big Boy roaring out of nowhere at 80 MPH.
Check out picture one and picture two of the accident scene.
Update: 9 Jun 2009: Passenger Matt Cooley got a video of the crash. Thanks, Matt!
Raleigh talks about car-sharing
After I just blogged about the need for a car-sharing program here in Raleigh, Triangle Transit announces a forum to discuss just that. Coincidence? I think not.
See the announcement below.
(h/t Urban Planet, by way of Bob Geary)
Triangle Transit, in cooperation with the City of Raleigh and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, invite you to join us for an exploratory, interactive discussion about car-sharing potential in downtown Raleigh.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
At the Raleigh Urban Design Center
(light refreshments will be served)
Continue reading
Total Eclipse of the Heart – Literal Version
Dog’s water bowl starts fire
This is just bizarre:
Fire officials in Bellevue, Wash., have tracked down the apparent culprit in a $200,000 fire to the back of a home and they found that, well, nobody is to blame, KIRO-TV reports.
Turns out that sunshine beaming through a dog’s glass water bowl on a bright sunny day combined to start the fire on the wood deck.
Read more.
Why we can’t let ISPs prevent the next Google
Cory Doctorow takes on the telecoms in an article in the Guardian today. Cory talks about the dangers of traffic shaping and why metered billing in ISPs would chill Internet growth. He also reminds us that telecoms are riding high on the public’s dime through the use of public right of way, a point I made here before.
It’s worth a read.
Raleigh wiki page
Did you know the City of Raleigh has a wiki page? Neither did I until tonight! Apparently it’s been around since last year. Who knew?
Each department seems to have their own Mediawiki installation, which kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me. If you want to see what’s publicly available, visit the Raleigh wiki site and poke around.
N&O covers broadband backwater fight
The N&O ran the following story today on the fight to derail H1252/S1004, the [Un-]Level Playing Field Act.
Cable TV fights towns’ fast Web links
The industry backs a bill to impede municipalities offering high-speed service.
By John Murawski – Staff Writer
What started as an experiment in a small tobacco community in Eastern North Carolina has shown how a local government can provide its residents with some of the fastest Internet speeds available anywhere.
Read full article.
How to give a lecture
Rob Weir provides a great article illustrating how to give a compelling lecture. Very good advice! As an occasional public speaker I will take this to heart.
(h/t Boing Boing)
Online stories of the broadband backwater fight
Fast Company: Time Warner’s Antics in Wilson, N.C. Give Another Reason to Snip the Cable
Alternet: Suck It, Telecoms! Public Broadband Gets Reprieve in North Carolina
Zeropaid: Major Opposition Mounts By Eve of Municiple Broadband Vote
Independent Weekly: Anti-muni broadband bill will go to study committee
Loobin the Tubes: The Playing Field (excellent analysis of the issues and the bill)
Metafilter: The Playing Field
Best Broadband: North Carolina Broadband Bill Shelved – For now — State will study bill’s impact in more detail…
Salisbury Post: Bill to restrict cities’ broadband services sent to study committee
Greensboro News and Record: Municipal wireless bill and studies
Mobilejones: Time Warner Targets North Carolina in War on Consumer Broadband