Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 94 of 153).

Triangle Chick-fil-A backers say: eat chicken, not words

I’m sure this man supports the First Amendment and rights for everyone. Uh-huh. Boycotts are fine except when they’re not.

Mike Darlington criticized the outrage with Cathy.

“That’s the great thing about our country, we have the First Amendment,” Darlington said.

Darlington also pointed that across the parking lot was a Home Depot, which denotes money to gay pride events. Does he shop at Home Depot? “No” was his one-word answer. His view was that people have the right to boycott, but “just don’t make a big deal out of it.”

via Triangle Chick-fil-A backers say: eat chicken, not words – Local/State – NewsObserver.com.

After acrimony, Wade CAC chairs seek smoother relations

I like the N&O’s Matt Garfield. He works hard and has sat through marathon meetings when even I wanted to jump out of my chair and disapppear. When my friend wrote about this past week’s Wade CAC election, though, he didn’t tell even half of the story.

I suppose someday soon I will fill in the blanks here on MT.Net, and there’s also value in simply moving on. For now I’m happy that Citizens Advisory Councils (CACs) are getting the attention they deserve.

Mike Rieder and Mary Jane Clark have a lot of work to do.

The newly elected Wade CAC chairman and vice-chairwoman take office following a contentious election to succeed longtime predecessors Bill Padgett and Louise Griffith.

Rieder defeated Seth Hollar and Craig Ralph in a vote that attracted an overflow crowd of 170 people to the Jaycee Community Center. Clark was unopposed.

The pair will try to restore a sense of cooperation to the Wade CAC, a community advisory council that encompasses some of the city’s most historic and politically active neighborhoods.Created in the 1970s, CACs weigh in on issues ranging from zoning to mass transit.

“This process was damaging to the community,” Clark said. “We have a lot of healing that needs to take place.”

via After acrimony, Wade CAC chairs seek smoother relations – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did – Forbes

Here’s an eye-opening look at how closely (and eerily) Target tracks its customers’ purchases.

This isn’t the half of what stores can do, though. Before I got my current gig, I did a telephone interview with a company which made recognition software for in-store video systems. Supposedly this software could track customers as they made their way around the store, including how long a customer lingered on a particular aisle. It was Big Brother to the extreme and while I needed the work, I’m glad I didn’t have to get into that spooky stuff.

Raleigh council seeks solution to goose overpopulation

Speaking of the N&O, I was quoted earlier this week in the Midtown Raleigh News.

The ever-growing Canada goose population in parks throughout Raleigh has caught the attention of the City Council.

The council passed a Waterfowl Management Resolution last week, calling for city parks to put up signs telling people about the trouble caused by feeding ducks, swans and especially, geese. The plan was one of many presented to the City Council by the Raleigh parks and recreation board.

“I think it’s a good first step,” said board chairman Mark Turner.

via Raleigh council seeks solution to goose overpopulation – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

N&O online site to switch to paywall

McClatchy announced that will soon be locking up its content behind a paywall, including the News and Observer’s website:

The company also announced that it would install metered pay walls at its newspaper websites, including NewsObserver.com. It did not disclose specifics of the plan, which will begin later this year, but in general readers will get certain number of page views free each month before being required to pay a subscription.

I’ve never thought paywalls were a good idea. Opinions differ about their effectiveness. Poyntner says 52% of media professionals leave a website when encountering a paywall. Other newspapers’ efforts to establish a paywall resulted in the opposite of their intended effect:
Continue reading →

Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ

This is quite alarming. The NYPD was caught spying … in New Jersey! Be sure to listen to the 911 call for yourself.

A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.

“What’s suspicious?” the dispatcher asked.

“Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about — has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios.”

“Really?” the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.

The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD’s biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department’s jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.

via “What?” Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ :: WRAL.com.

Lightning and nuclear reactions

We had a few close bolts of lightning during last evening’s thunderstorm. One of the bolts caught fire to a neighbor’s backyard shed. It was one of the scarier lightning storms I’ve experienced.

I decided to look up some info on lightning today and came across this PBS page written by a lighting expert. Dr. David Dwyer, Associate Professor of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology, answers questions about lightning. I found this Q&A particularly intriguging.

Q: Within the NOVA Web site I read that lightning heats the surrounding air of a lightning bolt to ~50,000°F, or hotter than the sun. The sun, as I understand it, generates heat through fusion reactions. So why don’t we see fusion reactions taking place within the surrounding air of a bolt of lightning? Casey, La Jolla, California

The surface of the sun is about 10,000°F, which is much cooler than the hottest part of lightning. However, the nuclear fusion that powers the sun occurs only near the center where the temperatures are much higher (30 million°F) and the pressures are very large. In comparison, lightning is downright chilly. As a result, no nuclear reactions are expected to take place during lightning. Having said all this, several independent research groups have recently measured nuclear by-products associated with lightning, which according to our standard picture doesn’t seem possible. If these results are correct, then something very unusual is happening with lightning—so stay tuned.

I did more poking around and found some articles of studies that seem to show that lightning can produce gamma rays. Those bolts may also be hurling antimatter into space! Fascinating!

via NOVA | Lightning: Expert Q&A.

In getting it wrong the NCAA might have actually found their voice

The NCAA slapped Penn State with a massive $60 million fine, vacated a decade of victories, and took away scholarships for four years as punishment for the Jerry Sandusky scandal. While I don’t know how Joe Paterno slept at night knowing the evil that Sandusky was committing, I’m not sure sanctions are right for this case. Paterno’s actions may have been cowardly and cold-hearted but the athletes and alumni aren’t at fault. Punishing them seems misguided.

Meanwhile, over in Chapel Hill it’s beginning to stink to high heaven with the allegations of egregious academic fraud, yet those in Baby Blue get off with a slap on the wrist. Go figure.

To me, as heinous as this matter is — and it is undeniable that it is far worse than impermissible benefits or academic fraud — it was still a matter for law enforcement as opposed to the fellow member institutions that make up the NCAA. The people responsible for what occurred are either in jail for life, headed there, or dead. What has happened today, with the announced penalties, severely punishes hundreds of people who had exactly nothing to do with the past culture of football isolationism.

via In getting it wrong the NCAA might have actually found their voice – WRALSportsFan.com.

Little Raleigh Radio kicks off its donation campaign!

Little Raleigh Radio


Little Raleigh Radio, the LPFM station I’m helping launch, has gone live with its Kickstarter donation campaign! After just one day it’s already reached 1/3rd of its goal of $10,000!

Help bring really local radio to Raleigh! Donate today!

We are building a community radio station and we need equipment so we can start broadcasting.

We are doing this. We are starting a community radio station in downtown Raleigh and we are doing it legit.

This studio will launch our internet broadcast stream and it will also prepare us to be on the air with a low-power FM signal in 2013. We need to populate the studio with more hardware than a couple of laptops and microphones borrowed from our volunteers. We are using Kickstarter to raise $10,000 to purchase gear including soundboards, CD players, turntables, microphones, speakers, cables and supportive equipment. We need your help. We believe in the value of community and we want our volunteers to be able to create community through radio.

via Little Raleigh Radio // We'll do it live! by Little Raleigh Radio — Kickstarter.

Milk: it does a body good? Perhaps not.

Here’s an interesting take on milk and how we’re probably drinking too much of it.

Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is a mere three cups daily — still 1½ pounds by weight — for every man, woman and child over age 9. This in a country where as many as 50 million people are lactose intolerant, including 90 percent of all Asian-Americans and 75 percent of all African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Jews. The myplate.gov site helpfully suggests that those people drink lactose-free beverages. (To its credit, it now counts soy milk as “dairy.”)

There’s no mention of water, which is truly nature’s perfect beverage; the site simply encourages us to switch to low-fat milk. But, says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Sugar — in the form of lactose — contributes about 55 percent of skim milk’s calories, giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda.”

via Got Milk? You Don't Need It – NYTimes.com.