Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 98 of 153).

Best Buy CEO Resigns Amid Competitive Pressures

Best Buy catches up with reality.

You know how much I dislike shopping at Best Buy? I was given a Best Buy gift card well over a year ago and still haven’t used it. How bad is a store when I can’t even be bothered to spend free money there?

I’d also say that in spite of the reporter’s speculation, people probably don’t use Best Buy as a showroom, mainly because they hate going into Best Buy as much as I do.

There’s ever-growing speculation that Best Buy now is serving too much as a showroom for its possibly toughest competitor yet, online retailer Amazon.com. The thought is that customers are perusing the aisles at Best Buy, trying out or considering games, cameras and phones, then buying them cheaper online, and sometimes with less sales tax, through Amazon or some other online merchant.

via Best Buy CEO Resigns Amid Competitive Pressures, Search for Direction – Yahoo! Finance.

US Navy deploys 2nd aircraft carrier to Gulf

Two of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers are now in the Persian Gulf. These carriers certainly raise visibility, though in a bathtub-sized body of water like the Persian Gulf they’ll be spending most of their time just getting out of each other’s way.

One comment to this story was from a former sailor who talked about how boring it is to be on a ship. That is especially true in the Gulf, where one can enjoy “hours upon hours of boredom punctuated with sheer moments of terror.”

The U.S. Navy said Monday it has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region amid rising tensions with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks one of the few times the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating in waters near the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The two carriers will support the American military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia’s coast and in the Gulf of Aden, she said.

via US Navy deploys 2nd aircraft carrier to Gulf :: WRAL.com.

Apple plans nation’s biggest private fuel cell energy project at N.C. data center

I’ve been meaning to blog about this all weekend. The N&O’s John Murawski has uncovered a very interesting aspect to the datacenter Apple is building in North Carolina: the country’s largest private fuel cell project.

North Carolina will be home to the nation’s largest private fuel cell energy project, a nonpolluting, silent power plant that will generate electricity from hydrogen.

Apple (yes, that Apple) filed its plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission on Thursday to build the 4.8-megawatt project in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. That’s where Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has built a data center to support the company’s iCloud online data storage system and its SIRI voice-recognition software.

The fuel cell project, the nation’s largest such project not built by an electric utility company, will be developed this year. It will be located on the same data complex that will host a planned 20-megawatt solar farm – the biggest ever proposed in this state.

But it’s the fuel cell project that’s generating buzz, eclipsing anything ever dreamed of in California, the nation’s epicenter for fuel cell projects.

“That’s a huge vote of confidence in fuel cells,” said James Warner, policy director of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association in Washington.

I’ve written before about how large companies build their datacenters in North Carolina to take advantage of the cheap electricity: electricity generated from dirty coal. Yet, fuel cells are (still) incredibly expensive and are among the cleanest energy sources around.

Why would Apple build a fuel cell plant in our state? It’s ironic, really, since all of Apple’s products are manufactured in China – powered by coal-smoke-belching power plants.

Does this mean that my dream of one day having a dishwasher-sized fuel cell power my home is moving closer to reality? What’s really going on here?

via Apple plans nation’s biggest private fuel cell energy project at N.C. data center – Business – NewsObserver.com.

Festival au Desert

If the ancient Mali city of Tumbuktu wasn’t already remote and exotic enough, now it’s in the hands of Tuareg rebels after a coup took place in Mali March 21st.

For over a decade, Mali has been the home of an annual African music concert known as Festival in the Desert. I’ve long wanted to travel to this concert and see the Sahara Desert and the city of Timbuktu but the security situation in the country brings this into question.

It’s not that I was ready to jet off to West Africa any time soon but I still hope one day to ride a camel to hear some of the most beautiful music on earth.

Who is the Route 29 Batman? This guy

Courtesy Montgomery County Police Department

I saw the picture on Facebook of Batman getting pulled over on Route 29 in Maryland, so naturally I wanted to find out more.

What a touching story. This Batman really IS a superhero!

Police pulled a man over on Route 29 in Silver Spring last week because of a problem with his plates. This would not ordinarily make international news, but the car was a black Lamborghini, the license plate was the Batman symbol, and the driver was Batman, dressed head-to-toe in his full superhero uniform.

HOLY MOVING VIOLATION!

Continue reading →

Young Americans not buying cars

Wow. Transformational. The world is truly going to look a lot different very soon.

Kids these days. They don’t get married. They don’t buy homes. And, much to the dismay of the world’s auto makers, they apparently don’t feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car.

This week, the New York Times pulled back the curtain on General Motors’ recent, slightly bewildered efforts to connect with the Millennials — that giant generational cohort born in the 1980s and 1990s whose growing consumer power is reshaping the way corporate America markets its wares. Unfortunately for car companies, 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.

The Times notes that less than half of potential drivers age 19 or younger had a license in 2008, down from nearly two-thirds in 1998. The fraction of 20-to-24-year-olds with a license has also dropped. And according to CNW research, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 buy just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, a far cry from the peak of 38 percent in 1985.

via Why Don’t Young Americans Buy Cars? – Jordan Weissmann – Business – The Atlantic.

James Cameron begins solo dive to the bottom of the ocean

Film director James Cameron has the biggest balls of anyone I know. Titanic and his other hit films made him boatloads of money. Cameron never has to work another day in his life and still he chooses to dive to the most remote. most inhospitable place on our planet … alone!

I am in awe.

Film director and ocean explorer James Cameron began his one-man plunge to the bottom of the sea Sunday afternoon, Eastern Time, in a scientific and film-making quest to touch the deepest spot on Earth, a gash in the western Pacific Ocean that reaches nearly seven miles below the surface.

Seven years in the making, the descent by one of the most successful Hollywood directors of all time (“Aliens”, “Terminator”, “Titanic”, “Avatar”) was delayed for some 16 hours by choppy seas.

via James Cameron begins solo dive to the bottom of the ocean – The Washington Post.

Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park

News and Observer reporter Matt Garfield wrote a captivating article about the Devereux Meadows site one day being a park again after 30 years as a trash truck parking lot.

It reminded me of Leo Suarez’s look back at the old ball park from two years ago.

RALEIGH — An expanse of land just north of downtown moved closer to a greener future this month when the city began relocating a sanitation and fleet yard to a new home outside the Beltline.

The land, which has spent the past 30 years as a parking lot for garbage trucks, is envisioned as a park and greenway that supporters hope will enliven an aging gateway into downtown.

Called Devereux Meadows, the planned 15-acre park takes its name from the minor league ballpark that once anchored the site along the west side of Capital Boulevard between Peace Street and Wade Avenue.

via Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park – Wake County – NewsObserver.com.

AP Hires Worst CEO in Newspaper Industry

Ouch.

The Associated Press hired the worst CEO in the newspaper industry as its 13th chief executive. Its board of directors should be ashamed, as should anyone who works at the news company. Gary Pruitt, the head of McClatchy NYSE: MNI, will move to the AP after destroying the newspaper chain he has run. He will move on with his former firm still in tatters.

Pruitt became the CEO of McClatchy in 1996. The chain took on about $2 billion in debt, a great deal of it to buy rival Knight Ridder for $4.6 billion in 2006. In 2009, it teetered close to bankruptcy. A restructuring of obligations saved it, for a while at least. McClatchy is in financial trouble again. Pruitt leaves for the AP just in time to avoid leading McClatchy as it heads toward a new crisis.Pruitt has decided to leave his company, and its shareholders, at a time when they are in great peril, again.

After his AP appointment, Pruitt said, “The Associated Press is the most important news organization in the world and an essential force in democracy.’ That it true. As such, it deserves a better leader.

via AP Hires Worst CEO in Newspaper Industry – 24/7 Wall St..