Slow it down

On my morning walk my still-kinda-dreaming eyes fell on the 25 MPH sign next to Dennis Avenue.

I thought about that wide-open stretch of road and the role the speed limit plays in taming it. Must have been like a racetrack before, I thought.

Then I thought of the mini-highway that New Bern Avenue became when it became one-way, and the mini-highway that Capital Boulevard is near my home. Seemed to me the first step in rejuvenating these areas would simply be to slow down the traffic. This could be a sophisticated operation like returning the streets to two-way traffic. Or, it could simply be dropping the speed limit.

I’m thinking all it would take to pump some life into some of Raleigh’s troubled neighborhoods would be to reduce the speed limit. It’s a simple and cheap solution, too.

Republicans need more than rhetoric on defense

George Will takes aim at Republican blustering about defense.

Osama bin Laden and many other “high-value targets” are dead, the drone war is being waged more vigorously than ever, and Guantanamo is still open, so Republicans can hardly say that Obama has implemented dramatic and dangerous discontinuities regarding counterterrorism. Obama says that, even with his proposed cuts, the defense budget would increase at about the rate of inflation through the next decade. Republicans who think America is being endangered by “appeasement” and military parsimony have worked that pedal on their organ quite enough.

via Republicans need more than rhetoric on defense – The Washington Post.

N.C. panel touts wind energy use

The Wright Brothers came to North Carolina for a reason!

RALEIGH — A new study released Wednesday by Gov. Bev Perdue said North Carolina had the largest offshore wind resource on the East Coast and that the state should work with industry to develop the wind energy industry.

The 15-member panel said wind energy along North Carolina’s coast and sounds offered significant opportunities for renewable energy and for job creation.

“North Carolina’s extensive coastline and large offshore wind resources appear to make it a prime area for offshore-wind development,” the panel said.

via N.C. panel touts wind energy use – Technology – NewsObserver.com.

Great customer service

Northland Cranberry Pomegranate

I love Costco. It’s a company that just does things right. I love seeing the same familiar faces at the registers of my local Costco. Their cashiers are pros at their jobs and honestly want to help you. When they ask “did you find everything you needed,” their “baggers” (such as they are) drop what they’re doing to find whatever you missed for you.

I was distressed two weeks ago to find one of my favorite drinks (Northland Cranberry Pomegranate juice) was no longer being sold by Costco. True to form, when I noted its absence the front-end staff jumped up and checked their computerized inventory. Sadly, they confirmed it was no longer available. They encouraged me to fill out a comment form (which I did) but I thought I’d take my request a little more public than that. I wanted to see what would happen if I took it up with them on Facebook.

When I returned from the store, I posted this comment on Costco’s Facebook page:

Mark Turner posted to Costco
Costco, please bring back the Northland Cranberry Pomegranate juice. It’s so much better than the rest!
Like · · February 4 at 11:00am ·

Within an hour (on a Saturday!), one of Costco’s support staff had responded:
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Playing catch-up

I’ve got a lot on my plate now with work, the RCAC, the Parks board, and running the house while Kelly is away from work. It doesn’t leave me much time for blogging at the moment, thus the radio silence.

I’m hopeful I will come up for air by this weekend. Got a few posts pending but need the time to compose them.

Happy Two Years In Hell, Jefe de Jefe

Here’s a sobering look by a former federal officer at America’s failed drug policy and its disastrous effect on our neighbor south of the border.

Just a short while after the operation, the DEA’s intelligence chief — Anthony Placido stated: “Nobody left out there has the extensive contacts that Arturo had. He moved thousands of metric tons of drugs into the United States, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin,” Placido said. “In addition to that … he is responsible for much of the violence in Mexico. Arturo Beltran Leyva wasn’t a big fish. He was a whale.”

Though frustrating, I can’t help but brush off some of those comments. For starters, I’m in awe that he actually said there wasn’t anyone left out there with the extensive contacts that Arturo Beltran had. Secondly, I’m bewildered by the fact that marijuana is completely left out of the equation. Revenues from marijuana smuggling produce the majority of capital for Mexican drug trafficking organizations, and in the case of the Beltran Leyva Organization, I witnessed it firsthand. Yes, Arturo had plenty of contacts in the South American Andes, and for sure cocaine earned his organization boat loads of cash — but the coca plant played second fiddle to cannabis sativa as it nearly always does with the cartels in Mexico. Yet this DEA executive is reluctant to utter the “M” word, perhaps out of fear that mainstream America might soon wake up to the role that marijuana prohibition is having in the killing games being played out below the Rio Grande.

via Jamie Haase: Happy Two Years In Hell, Jefe de Jefe.

“Let me run this by you”

One of the biggest compliments anyone can pay me is to tell me “let me run this by you.” I’ve been hearing this more often from friends and colleagues and it never fails to humble me to hear that people value my opinion.

Water system bills, revisited

Remember how I said that John Carman, Raleigh’s Public Utilities Director, has been going around telling anyone who’ll listen that Raleigh’s water infrastructure is aging rapidly and will soon need major maintenance? The Raleigh Public Record looked at the report put out by the city’s Water Utility Transition Advisory Task Force (WUTAT):

Raleigh’s underground water infrastructure, mainly pipes in the ground, needs more than $7 billion in repairs, according to City Public Utilities Director John Carman. These are not immediate costs, he said, but now is when Raleigh should be planning to replace pipes that will age out during the coming decades.

Carman told the Record the current financial model for the system does not put away any money to pay for replacing pipes that have a lifespan of anywhere from 60 to 100 years.

“We have $500 million worth of pipe that was installed before World War II,” Carman said.

Kudos to the Raleigh Public Record for raising awareness about this issue.

Outlet mall to become Chinatown

Last week, I made my first trip to the Prime Outlets mall in probably ten years. The outlet mall, across I-40 from the RDU airport, was a very popular place to shop in its prime (pardon the pun). It was also an even more popular place for RTP workers to grab lunch as there were very few restaurants in RTP for the longest time. It was obvious from last week’s visit, though, that times have changed for the mall. I was shocked at how empty it was, with storefront after storefront dark. Fortunately for me, my clothing store was still around but few other stores were.

Still, I was struck by how clean and tidy the mall was, in spite of its lack of tenants. It was obviously being well kept. There was no decline in its care. I told Kelly later that night that if I had a few million lying around, I would buy that mall. We agreed that the Triangle was a good market for an outlet mall.

Turns out someone beat me to it, someone with plans to make it the Triangle’s Chinatown.
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N&O’s editorial covers nuke plant mistake

I was happy to see today’s News and Observer editorial on the November mishap at Progress Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant. This time the hand-tight bolts part made it into print, unlike the previous article by John Murawski which left that part out of the print edition for brevity’s sake, apparently.

I’ve got another blog post pending on this topic, based on the report that NRC released. I hope this incident is a reminder to Progress Energy that when one deals with nuclear energy, “close enough” isn’t good enough.

The Nov. 16 shutdown at Brunswick’s Unit 2 was caused by a coolant leak from a pressurized vessel that produces steam. Mildly radioactive water flowed out of the chamber rather than boiling inside. At one point, according to an N&O account, “the water was flowing out at a rate of over 10 gallons a minute, about 100 times more volume than would flow out under normal circumstances.”

As a result, according to the NRC, “instead of pressurizing the tensioning device to 13,000 psi, the team actually pressurized the device to 1,300 psi.” Later, Progress Energy personnel were “able to rotate 8 nuts by hand, 10 nuts by wrench with no agitation, 31 nuts by wrench and agitation, and 15 nuts by wrench with additional agitation,” the NRC said.

Got that? Those investigating the leak were able to turn some of the nuts on a reactor pressure vessel by hand. That’s not tight enough for a tire change.

via Tighten up – Editorials – NewsObserver.com.