Links to cool places or things.
There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 137 of 153).
Long-time MT.Net reader ‘Mom” sent me a link to a company that’s breeding algae that produces lipids for fuel. According to Valcent, the company, one acre of New Mexico land could produce 20,000 gallons of oil annually. Watch the video to learn more.
My engineering mindset loves finding novel uses for everyday things. I loved Lloyd Godson’s biosphere experiment where he breathed oxygen generated by an algae tank. Generating fuel from algae seems like another great step.
When my buddy Ben blogged about how awesome Pandora is, I decided they needed to know about it. They’re sending me some schwag in return! In a week I should have a sweet Pandora T-shirt to show off.
I can’t count how many bands I’ve discovered thanks to Pandora, and many of my friends have, too. That’s a company I don’t mind advertising about!
(And just so you know they’re hooking Ben up, too.)
Here’s a great analysis of Russia’s comeback as a superpower by columnist Michael Ventura. Its also a sobering look at how far America’s influence has fallen.
Russia’s sitting pretty now and they know it. Heck of a job, Bushie!
My place of employment was featured in today’s Triangle Business Journal. Included is a picture of my boss forecasting the weather near the Black Sea (forecast: “mushroom cloudy”).
I’ve been following the fight against leukemia waged by brave little Esten Maxwell, son of local musician Tom Maxwell. Tom posted today about Esten’s recent visit to the sedation clinic. Its a very emotional read.
Get well soon, Esten! You’ve got a lot of fans out here on the Internets.
Dave Barry described perfectly what its like to catch a cab in Beijing. I took many cab rides that turned out exactly like this.
It looks like a replay of my Kerry-Edwards encounter four years ago will take place tomorrow. I’ve been given a VIP spot onstage with Barack Obama for his talk in Raleigh tomorrow night, again due to my being a veteran. While I’m still not happy that Obama voted to throw the Fourth Amendment under the bus, he beats the alternative.
Look for me on TV wearing my goofy, oversized Navy ball-cap.
A local company is seeking volunteers to go to the moon. the volunteers won’t themselves go the moon, but they will help in the effort of local group TeamSTELLAR to win the Google Lunar X Prize by being the first private company to land a rover on the moon.
TeamSTELLAR is made up of a number of local businessmen and N.C. State engineers. The group is seeking volunteers to assist in a number of tasks, including administrative, fundraising, legal and engineering roles.
If you’d like to find out more, TeamSTELLAR will hold a presentation from 7 to 9 PM Tuesday, August 19th, on the first floor of Engineering Building II, Centennial Campus, N.C. State University (map here).
You’d have to be looney to pass up this opportunity.
A local group called Triangulator is planning to hold a scavenger hunt here in downtown Raleigh on Saturday, August 23rd. Looks like fun to me! Their announcement is below.
(By way of the Historic Oakwood email list)
Triangulator Part Deux: City of Oaks
People of the Triangle,
Back in May we held our inaugural Triangulator scavenger hunt in Durham. Over thirty people participated in the six hour multi-media, multi-modal (sub)urban (mis)adventure.
In the Bull City we climbed, we rhymed, and we memorialized, discovering coal chutes and hidden swimming pools and secret passageways in the process. We learned about why Durham was the city of medicine long before Duke Hospitals, unearthed the ghosts of the city’s industrial past and experimented with new uses for Fufu flour and Waxy Corn. But most importantly, we were able to see Durham in new ways: finding new intrigue and beauty in the places and people we pass by every day and discovering parts of the city (sometimes right around the corner) that we never knew existed. Check out some of the photos from the event on our interactive map (circa 1923).
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I found out Tuesday from the excellent New Raleigh blog that the North Carolina State Archives has posted a number of its historical photographs to Flickr. This is without a doubt totally awesome.
For me the juiciest photos are the ones of early Raleigh, most of which are from the Carolina Power and Light Photograph Collection. I’ve always wanted to know where Raleigh’s trolley tracks used to be, and here’s a mess of photos that shows just that.
Kudos to the State Archives for making these historical photographs so easily available!
