Outlawed by Amazon DRM « Martin Bekkelund

This is one of many reasons why I won’t buy an Amazon Kindle.

A couple of days a go, my friend Linn sent me an e-mail, being very frustrated: Amazon just closed her account and wiped her Kindle. Without notice. Without explanation. This is DRM at it’s worst.

Linn travels a lot and therefore has, or should I say had, a lot of books on her Kindle, purchased from Amazon. Suddenly, her Kindle was wiped and her account was closed. Being convinced that something wrong had happened, she sent an e-mail to Amazon, asking for help. This was the answer:

via Outlawed by Amazon DRM « Martin Bekkelund.

Armed Forces Show Overwhelming Support for Obama

The military strongly supports the President, it seems. So much for that myth that servicemembers and veterans always vote Republican.

Foreign policy, military funding and plans for U.S. troops abroad are providing plenty of chewy campaign fodder for President Barack Obama and his GOP rival, Mitt Romney. But fundraising reports shed light on what the armed forces think about the the candidates.

Former Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul received significant support from the military for his strong stance on bringing troops home, and that briefly continued even after Romney pulled ahead as the clear GOP candidate.

Now, though, the military’s support has shifted toward Obama. Romney has consistently received little financial backing from military donors.

via Update: Armed Forces Show Overwhelming Support for Obama – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets.

What’s up with Debra Goldman’s cash?

Debra Goldman


So after I’ve gotten over the initial shock of the extramarital hijinks allegedly going on between Wake school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone and the revelation that Goldman keeps six figures in cash in her home, I can’t help but be drawn again to the money.

Goldman gives a bizarre excuse for having so much cash:

Police asked Goldman why she kept so much money at home. According to the notes of Detective Joseph Lengel, who referred questions to Bazemore, Goldman said that she began to keep large amounts of cash at home in case of emergency because “she found it very difficult to get money from her bank in order to pay her bills” after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
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Tinariwen

Tinariwen


Ever since I’d missed out on the Afro Cubism show at the North Carolina Museum of Art earlier this year, I’ve been doing a little volunteer work with Friends of World Music, setting them up with a new website and keeping its Facebook page up to date. In my work of updating these pages, I learned that Grammy-winning artists Tinariwen would be coming to Carrboro’s ArtsCenter on a Saturday night. From the moment I learned this band was coming I knew I had to go. Last night my expectations were not only met, but wildly exceeded.

When they took the stage in their traditional Tuareg garb I really didn’t know what to make of them. The audience was also a bit hesitant. Before long, though, the crowd was clapping along. Soon a dancing group of audience members took over the area in front of the stage.
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Wake school board’s Goldman named colleague Malone in theft

Oh my God. With the possible exception of Deborah Prickett, the Republicans on the school board are nutjobs. This is crazy stuff.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman named fellow board member Chris Malone as a suspect in June 2010 when she reported a burglary from her Cary home of $130,000 worth of jewelry, cash and coins, according to a police report.

Cary police interviewed Malone and dropped him as a suspect after an investigation, but not before recording conflicting statements from both Goldman and Malone about whether they had a romantic relationship.

via Wake school board's Goldman named colleague Malone in theft – Wake County – NewsObserver.com.

Bloomberg/Businessweek.com ranks Raleigh 18th

Bloomberg and Businessweek.com came out with their latest 50 Best Cities list and ranked Raleigh 18th.

In its description of the city, Bloomberg and Businessweek.com had this to say about Raleigh:

Raleigh wins the Carolinas, with strong median household income, low crime, and five universities. As one-third of the Research Triangle region, Raleigh is just minutes from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University. The city features a major historical tradition with such properties as the Mordecai House and Tucker House. Residents who aren’t so interested in uninhabited old houses—especially younger residents—might prefer the sights at BugFest, the event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

See that? Raleigh is “just minutes” away from UNC and Duke, but the reporter apparently failed to notice the 35,000-student North Carolina State University located squarely in the middle of Raleigh.

While I’m fond of Mordecai Historic Park and Tucker House, I wouldn’t exactly say these properties are worthy of national attention. There’s no mention, for instance, that Raleigh is the state’s capital, either. It’s as if all the reporter’s research on Raleigh came from Wikipedia or something (though Wikipedia would be more accurate).

Amtrak through NC hits highest percentage of growth in nation

Rail travel is hugely popular in North Carolina!

Raleigh, N.C. — Amtrak’s Piedmont route, which runs from Raleigh to Charlotte, grew by a higher percentage of riders than any other route in the nation during the last fiscal year, according to the latest data from the rail service.

The route set a new record of more than 162,000 riders and had the best percentage increase of all Amtrak routes, with a jump of 16.2 percent over the previous year, Amtrak said. The 2012 fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

It sure makes me wish the USDOT had awarded our state something more than the paltry $1.5 million from the billions in stimulus rail funding that were awarded two years ago:
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Raleigh’s System Plan project

The City of Raleigh just created a video encouraging citizens to get involved with the upcoming System Planning project, where the Parks department will be creating a vision for our city’s parks for the next decades. It’s another one of the city’s dazzling videos about our wonderful parks. You can also catch a glimpse of me around the 56 second mark.

Find out more about the System Plan effort at the Your Parks Your Future website.

First Date anniversary

With all the anniversaries I’ve been mentioning, I figured today’s warranted a mention. It was fifteen years ago today that I finagled a trip up to visit my future bride, Kelly, in Boston where she lived. It was our first date and took place only weeks after we’d met at our high school reunion.

At the time I swore up and down that I originally booked the trip to visit my friend, Gordon, who lived in Beacon Hill. Funny how I never got around to seeing him. It was only years later that Kelly actually began believing me when I said he existed!