Taking Raleigh back?

Raleigh mayoral candidate Billie Redmond says “it’s time to take Raleigh back.” The question I have is “back to what?”

It seems to me that Raleigh is doing just fine, thank you very much. Raleigh has topped so many best-of lists in the past few years that I’ve lost count:

  • #1 Among Best Places for Business and Careers – Forbes, 2011
  • #2 Next Big Boom Town – Forbes, 2011
  • #3 America’s Cleanest Cities – Forbes, 2011
  • #1 Best Situated for Economic Recovery – Newsweek, 2011
  • #1 Great Cities for Raising Families – Kiplingers, 2010
  • #3 Best Places for Business and Careers – Forbes, 2010
  • #2 Cheapest Midsized Market to Do Business – KPMG LLC, 2010
  • #1 Top Business Climate in North Carolina – Site Selection, 2010
  • #2 Best City to Live, Work and Play – Kiplinger’s, 2008
  • #1 Best Place to Live in the U.S. – msnbc.com, 2008
  • #1 Best Place for Young Adults – Bizjournals, 2008
  • …and many, many more.

Does this sound like a city in distress to you?

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A little bird told me

It’s been said that the newsroom at the News and Observer has been so quiet lately that one can hear a bird chirp. That’s no surprise to anyone who works there because the latest addition to the newsroom is a bird.

Sources say a bird somehow found its way into the N&O’s cavernous press room and has spent the past few weeks flying around in a panic. The desperate bird has apparently rebuffed all efforts of N&O staffers to rescue it.

N&O staffers might be better off convincing the bird that calling a large, air-conditioned room home might not be so bad now that our outdoor temperatures are routinely topping 100 degrees!

Norway terrorism

By Johannes Grødem, Wikimedia Commons


I was working away yesterday when I got news that an explosion had rocked government buildings in Oslo, Norway. Later evidence pointed to it being a bomb, that a far-right Norwegian may be responsible, and that the same Norwegian is accused of a mass shooting at a summer camp soon afterward.

The first thing I noticed is that a mere 10 minutes after the bombing, I was seeing photos sent through Twitter from eyewitnesses on the scene. Putting the loss of the tragedy aside for a moment, it’s an amazing world we live in now where most everyone carries a camera and anyone can break news. It’s become my habit to turn to Twitter, Twitpic, and other direct-from-eyewitness sources whenever a big story is breaking. Nearly every one of these breaking news photos on Twitpic has comments from a media company or wire service, asking permission to run the photo. It’s obvious I’m not the only one who goes straight to these sources.
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Peace College to Become William Peace University

More of the public domain pictures I took of Raleigh landmarks for Wikipedia are turning up in the wild. Today, my photograph of Peace College was used to illustrate a story in Raleigh Downtowner magazine.

Raleigh — The Peace College Board of Trustees announced today that Peace College plans to become William Peace University.

“Becoming William Peace University reflects our growth as an institution and will deepen and broaden our ability to help our students succeed,” said Beth Cherry, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and a Peace alumna. “This will be such a wonderful opportunity for our students.”

via Peace College to Become William Peace University.

Google Maps car

Google Maps car


I just spotted the Google Maps camera car driving through our neighborhood. Fortunately I had my camera ready and snapped a dozen photos of it as I stood in my driveway.

I can’t wait to see the new Google Maps imagery with this crazy old bald guy standing behind a bush with a camera!

Update 7 July 2012: Got it!

Compelling photograph

N&O photograph by Takaai Iwabu

I was sad to read in yesterday’s News and Observer about a fire at the Gorman Crossing apartment complex in Raleigh. Accompanying the story was a compelling photograph of one of the affected residents, Connie Starkey, being comforted by her father, Fred Starkey.

Connie’s grief screams out of the photo. Her face told me all I needed to know about what happened there – and how I should feel about it. Everyone who sees this photograph knows what this woman was feeling at that very instant. It’s a powerful image.

N&O photographer Takaaki Iwabu captured a masterful photograph. I believe it’s the best photograph I’ve seen in the News and Observer in months, if not years. It’s outstanding photojournalism.

As for Connie, I hope she’s able to recover from this tragedy.

Update 22 July: While Connie lost all of her possessions in the fire, at least her dog and one of her two cats survived. Hooray! See the NCSU Technician’s excellent photos of the efforts to save Starkey’s cat, Sissy.

Update 2: WTVD’s Anthony Wilson spoke with Connie a day after the fire.

CERT training

Tonight was my first night of CERT training. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team and it’s a free program designed to get people trained to help their neighborhood in the event of an emergency.

Tonight’s topics were disaster preparedness and CERT organization. The next class will go over fire safety and disaster psychology. There will be other fun things to do as well.

Being in tonight’s class convinced me that I already know a lot of this stuff, having helped out in disaster events before. I know I still have more to learn, though, and I’m looking forward to improving my knowledge.

Tonight’s class also reminded me that I still have to blog about the lessons I learned from the April 16th tornado. There are plenty of ways the response could’ve been improved and I made notes of this immediately afterward but never shared them. That’s a blog post for another night, though, folks!

Gerrymandering

The problem with gerrymandering (no matter who does it) is that it makes it impossible to vote for leaders solely on the basis of who has the best solutions to our common problems. The goal should not be “how can we remain in office?” Instead, the goal should be “how can we find the best solutions to our problems?” If one team has a better idea of how things should be done let’s put that team up for an honest vote, not a vote that’s a foregone conclusion. We voters aren’t stupid – why shouldn’t we be trusted? Why are politicians afraid of giving us a fair choice?

I guess I’m old-fashioned, but the partisanship-at-all-costs stuff got old a long, long time ago.

Earthlink’s email blocked by Hotmail?

It looks like I’m not the only one who’s been going to battle against Microsoft Hotmail’s anti-spam measures. Now Hotmail is rejecting emails from Earthlink accounts. We’ve seen our emails sent there being bounced for the past few days. Here’s the message:

[redacted]@hotmail.com
SMTP error from remote mailer after MAIL FROM:<[redacted]@[redacted]>
SIZE=3777:
host mx4.hotmail.com [65.55.92.184]: 550 SC-001 (SNT0-MC4-F19)
Unfortunately, messages from 207.69.195.66 weren’t sent. Please contact your
Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list.
You can also refer your provider to
http://mail.live.com/mail/troubleshooting.aspx#errors.

Like many ISPs, Earthlink has its own anti-spam measures. I’ve not found anything on Earthlink’s website that explains the current Hotmail block, however.