Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 96 of 153).

Gen. Shelton

Me with Gen. Shelton


Tonight Kelly’s employer, Leadership North Carolina (LNC), held a graduation and awards ceremony for its 19th class at the State Capitol building. I rarely get to attend the LNC events as I’m either stuck working or parenting while she’s gone. Kelly needed a photographer for tonight’s ceremony, though, so I got to tag along.

LNC presented a leadership award to General Henry Hugh Shelton, USA (ret.) and (after my photography chores were done) I got to have my picture taken with him.

Bernie Sanders Warns Republicans that Sarkozy’s Fate Will Soon Be Theirs

Bernie Sanders is spot on. The American middle class won’t take kindly to shouldering the lion’s share of the economic recovery while the ultra rich get richer.

The backlash has already hit Europe. I would not want to be an incumbent when it hits America.

Sen. Sanders has it nailed. The American people don’t like extremism. Since the 2010 elections, Republicans have been pushing fiscal extremism, and the bill is about to come due in 2012. The Republican Party is out of step with what most Americans really want. They want their Social Security and Medicare left the way they are. They want taxes to be raised at least a little bit on those who can afford it the most, and they want the social safety net to be strong and left in place.

via Bernie Sanders Warns Republicans that Sarkozy’s Fate Will Soon Be Theirs.

Oskar Blues coming to NC

Oskar Blues's G'Knight

Hot on the heels of two other breweries moving into the North Carolina mountains, Colorado-based Oskar Blues announced that it will be building a brewery in Brevard, NC:

In a statement released late Tuesday, founder Dale Katechis, a mountain biking enthusiast, said he has kept a bike in Brevard, on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest, for years, and travels there frequently to go mountain biking and to attend the annual Mountain Song Music Festival.

“This place rings true with the same eclectic mountain charm that inspired Oskar Blues to put Dale’s Pale Ale in a can back in the day in Lyons,” Katechis said in a statement announcing his plans.

I’d never heard of Oskar Blues’s beers until Kelly and I enjoyed a pint of Gordon (now G’Knight) in Fredericksburg’s Capital Ale House. I remember that it tasted amazing. That beer will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Welcome to North Carolina, Oskar Blues! I hope to visit your brewery when it opens!

Weather is here, wish you were beautiful


View Larger Map

Futzing around with Google Maps this morning, I noticed that the Mount Weather doomsday facility hadn’t been reviewed yet using Google Places. So I had a little fun writing a review:

I sheltered here during the Armageddon and would never do it again! The cots were way too hard, the rations were somewhat tasteless, my room had NO windows, and it was next to impossible to get the generals’ attention when the sheets and towels needed changing. What you see in the brochure doesn’t match the actual experience. Take my advice: the next time the world ends, steer clear of Mount Weather! Go with a Hampton Inn or similar chain. You’ll be glad you did!

“Force Quit” Yourself to Get Your Sleep Schedule Back

I suppose some people need this.

It’s easy enough to decide to go to bed strictly at a certain time, but actually doing it is another story. We often get carried away in the late hours of the night, trying to knock off just a few more things we wanted to do, whether it’s for work or fun. The next day, we’re tired and filled with regret yet we don’t stop. If this sounds like you, it’s time to start “force quitting” yourself at the end of the day. Here’s how.

via “Force Quit” Yourself to Get Your Sleep Schedule Back on Track and Avoid Another Day of Fatigue.

Why Young Americans Are Driving So Much Less Than Their Parents

More about the shift away from driving.

“Unfortunately for car companies,” Jordan Weissmann noted at TheAtlantic.com a couple weeks back, “today’s teens and twenty-somethings don’t seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They’re not even particularly keen on driving.”

Now a major new report from Benjamin Davis and Tony Dutzik at the Frontier Group and Phineas Baxandall, at the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, documents this unprecedented trend across a wide variety of indicators.

Their two big findings about young people and driving:

The average annual number of vehicle miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) in the U.S. decreased by 23 percent between 2001 and 2009, falling from 10,300 miles per capita to just 7,900 miles per capita in 2009.

The share of 14 to 34-year-olds without a driver’s license increased by 5 percentage points, rising from 21 percent in 2000 to 26 percent in 2010, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

via Why Young Americans Are Driving So Much Less Than Their Parents – Commute – The Atlantic Cities.

Is Traffic Making Us Lonely?

One nation, on the road, indivisible.

This month’s Atlantic cover story, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?,” has contributed to an ongoing national debate over whether Americans are more socially isolated than ever before, and whether our dependence on electronic communications is keeping us from forming meaningful social ties.

But a generation ago — long before the invention of social media — a man named Donald Appleyard was investigating how automotive traffic isolates us from one another and diminishes our human connections.

via Is Traffic Making Us Lonely? – Commute – The Atlantic Cities.

Ting – a different mobile phone provider


Frustrated by the glacial pace of Virgin Mobile to add newer phones to it’s prepaid service, a friend alerted me to a new phone provider called Ting. Ting was started by Tucows, the first company to bring competitive pricing to domain registrations, so I have high hopes Ting can shake up the telecom world.

Ting offers pay-for-what-you-use pricing plans. If you don’t use the minutes or data you signed up for, Ting credits your account. You have very finite control over how your plan looks as well, choosing very specific amounts of minutes, texts, and data you think you’ll use.

Ting also offers tethering with its phones, allowing you to share your phone’s Internet service with up to 5 computers. Ting also supports power users and seems open to allowing its subscribers to extend their phones’ functionality.

Overall, Ting looks to be setting itself up to make some waves in the mobile phone provider market. I hope to purchase one of Ting’s phones soon and give their service a test drive.