I was amused to read in Valleywag that the Google-YouTube deal was almost broken up by a cop.
Check It Out
Links to cool places or things.
There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 146 of 153).
Torture Plane Visits RDU
Remember how the planes used in the CIA’s kidnapping ..er, “rendition” operation are flown from local Triangle airports? Most of the flights used the quieter Johnston County or Kinston airports. Last week things changed a bit when a plane linked to extraordinary renditions made a rare stop at RDU airport.
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On my reading list: HOAs
I am such a geek when it comes to government. Listen to this: last week the thought actually crossed my mind that writing a book on the power of homeowners associations might be fun. The thought of a homeowners association essentially being a private government intrigues me. If city and county governments derive their power from the state, from where do homeowners associations derive theirs?
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Be ye reminded, ye scallywags
Tomorrow be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, lest ye wench-chasing, grog-guzzling ways have caused ye t’forget.
Arrrr!
Opposition mounts to Butner pathogen lab
Greg has alerted me to opposition forming against the BNAF, the Butner pathogen lab I wrote about earlier this summer. I can’t find any other links to the opposition, though. Bummer.
According to Greg’s post, the DHS will hold a public meeting at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 18th at South Granville High School. Wouldn’t it be great to see biohazard suits in the audience?
It all makes me wonder … is Ebola drought-resistant?
Google sponsors Moon X-Prize
This is interesting. Google kicked in money to fund a $30 million award to the first private group to land a robot rover on the Moon. The rover must be equipped with high-definition cameras, must roam 500m, and must do this before the year 2012. Google is teaming up with the Ansari foundation, sponsors of the X-Prize, to manage the award, officially called the Google Lunar X Prize.
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Keirsey Personality Test
I was clicking through the Internet – you know, looking for the end – when I came across a link to the Jung/Myers-Briggs/Keirsey personality test. It had been about ten years since I last took the test, so I figured what the heck, I’ll take the test again to see what I’ll score.
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Koopman meet-and-greet
On my last deployment to the Persian Gulf, a pair of TAD (temporary assigned duty) guys joined my ship for the countless doughnuts we did there (the Persian Gulf, in spite of its fearsome reputation, is unbearably dull 99.9% of the time). One of these guys was Chuck, a wet-behind-the-ears E-4 who thought he knew it all. We delighted in proving him wrong with the typical “new guy” pranks.
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Hero found
Scott is now officially a hero, having volunteered to ride in this weekend’s MS 150, raising money for multiple sclerosis research for the National MS Society.
Why not kick in a few bucks to Scott’s campaign and become a hero yourself?
Google Earth Flight Simulator
The latest version of Google Earth has a crude flight simulator as an Easter egg. Simply hit Command-Option-A in the Mac version and a flight simulator dialog will pop up. After you’ve “discovered” the Easter egg, it will appear in the Tools menu for future flights.
I tried flying it and was wildly unsuccessful. Didn’t try it with a joystick or with my yoke or pedals. I still prefer the freeware flights that Flightgear provides. Still, its kind of cool flying around with picture-perfect scenery, even if you wind up crashing into that scenery a bit too often.
(h/t, Marco via Boing Boing)