Discovering a thriving newspaper

In my handful of trips made to St. Charles, Illinois, I had never come across a local paper until this most recent visit. My hotel had a stack of Daily Herald papers in its lobby so I took a look. I have to say I’m impressed. I would’ve never thought that a paper could thrive in the shadow of giants like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times but this one apparently does.

The Herald serves the suburbs of Chicago. It keeps a decidedly-local focus but still carries occasional AP wire stories. It appeared to have a robust advertising business (including, regretfully, some of the same shyster “gold exhibit” type of advertising that I’ve taken the N&O to task for). Aside from the somewhat wingnut-flavored stories (OMG gummint employees are being compensated for their unused sick time!!!) it seems like a decent newspaper.

I think the Daily Herald may be validating my view that the way for media to succeed is to focus on the local. That, and don’t take on a mountain of debt!

N.C. Nearspace balloon launch

N.C. Nearspace launches helium balloon

If the Stormfest 2011 event wasn’t enough fun for one day, Travis and I had another fun event. We drove across town to the state fairgrounds to watch N.C. Nearspace launch another weather balloon (the club’s sixth).

Travis and I got there just as the team was inflating the helium balloon. An impressive crowd had gathered around, making it a challenge to actually see what was happening! We soon found a spot and watched as the team did its work.

With the crowd providing a lively countdown, the team released the balloon. Cheers rose with the balloon as it glided slowly through the hot, late-spring sky. The balloon eventually landed in a horse pasture in Ayden, North Carolina, just south of Greenville. It reached just over 60,000 feet on its meandering journey.
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Stormfest 2011

We had a great time biking into downtown Raleigh and checking out Stormfest 2011 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The museum was packed with people checking out all the storm-related tables ranging from information, science demonstrations, and local weather forecasters from both the National Weather Service and local news stations.

My first stop was the CERT table, where I picked up a schedule showing the upcoming training. I’d heard about CERT a few years ago when I invited the city’s emergency management director to my East CAC meeting. After my mailed application to join CERT came back undeliverable I gave up on the organization. It was only when I met volunteers helping with the tornado recovery in my neighborhood that I pursued them again. I hope to be in the upcoming classes, learning how I can better assist during a disaster.
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The (ever) continuing story of The Arcada


Remember my previous posts about the value of editors? Tuesday I found another doozie where a quick proofreading would’ve saved some embarrassment.

This one was on a city-owned sign in downtown St. Charles, IL next to a public parking lot. It tells the story of the Arcada Theater, a local music venue that dates back to the 1920s. I’d been intrigued by the venue so I eagerly read the sign while I waited for my friend to arrive. Just when I start getting drawn into its narrative, I read this:
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Cheap Thoughts: “Roaming” for cable modems

On the road this week, I was thinking it would be nice if I could temporarily bump up the speed of my home cable modem. I don’t need blazing-fast service all the time, but when I travel it’s nice to have speedy access to my home network and also to have a video chat with the family without buffering …. buffering …. buffering.

This is how I see this working. The subscriber goes to a special page on their Internet provider’s website. They fill out a form specifying a time frame during which their cable modem becomes “unlocked.” The subscriber pays a small premium (similar to a mobile phone’s roaming charges) during the time their Internet speed is boosted. At the end of the window, the speed reverts back to its original speed and the rate returns to its original. With DOCSIS 3.0 modems now in the field, I would think that this could be implemented fairly easily.

I would jump to the first provider who could offer this. If only we had real competition amongst Internet providers.

Tiring of hotels

Boy, it didn’t take me long to get tired of hotels. It’s not like I’ve been traveling much lately – in fact, I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to. The travel itself is fine, though: I love going to new places. It’s the hotels that I’m not fond of. For this week’s stay here in St. Charles, the best available hotel I could find was the Best Western. It’s turned out to be okay for what it is but it’s rather free of personality.

I was reminded the other day of the absolute joy I had with staying at a bed and breakfast during my weeks of consulting for NeTraverse for a project we were doing with AllTel in Jacksonville, Florida. I really looked forward to leaving work and joining the B&B owners on their front porch for wine, cheese, and deep discussions about all sorts of topics. Here, I come back to an empty hotel room, which is not that thrilling to say the least.

I think I’ll check out some of the area B&Bs and see if I can find something a little more lively for my trips to St. Charles.

Love red meat? Doctor warns of cancer risk

It looks like my daily ham-and-cheese sandwich is soon going to be a thing of the past.

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cancer killer in the United States, and a new study – the most comprehensive ever – finds that people’s diets could be linked to the disease.

A new report shows that, when it comes to colorectal cancer, a bad diet can be the enemy, specifically eating red meat, such as beef, pork and lamb.

via Love red meat? Doctor warns of cancer risk :: WRAL.com.

CACs and the Open Meetings Law

A question came up during last month’s RCAC meeting, regarding the legal standing of CACs with regard to the city. RCAC Chair Will Allen got an opinion from Raleigh City Attorney Tom McCormick. Will says:

Tom advises that the CAC is an organization created by the Raleigh City Council and is therefore a public body and subject to the Open Meetings law. Email is a type of communication that is covered by that law, and so any of the types of email communication involving CAC and/or city matters would be public record.

But the CACs aren’t advisory boards in the spirit of North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law. From the City’s own page on CACs (emphasis mine):

CACs are nonpartisan. They also are independent of the City Council. In fact, CACs are the only advisory boards to the City Council that are not appointed by the Council. Instead, residents of each CAC region elect the chairperson and other officers of their CAC.

Membership in a CAC isn’t by appointment like other city boards: one becomes a member of a CAC based on where one lives. That means every city resident is now subject to the Open Meetings Law. And since there are over 10,000 residents in the East CAC (for instance) and therefore 10,000 members in the East CAC, does that mean a quorum of this “advisory board” is 5,001 citizens?
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5,000th post!

I just checked the official MT.Net counter and this marks my 5,000th blog post ever! That’s 500 posts per year for almost ten years (November 24th marks my decade blogging anniversary).

Thanks to all of my readers who’ve found something useful in what I write. And here’s to many more years of blogging!

Family, projects, baseball

I enjoyed the weekend. It began Friday afternoon with Hallie’s violin performance in the Conn variety show. Our girl stood in front of half the school and absolutely nailed her piece. Kelly and I are constantly amazed that the complete confidence our kids have for performing in front of a crowd. She had not one whit of stage fright and played beautifully.

My parents came over to see the performance and Kelly’s parents came down for that and to stay the weekend. We spent Friday evening at Music on the Porch and were ready for bed around 10.

Saturday morning, I cooked pancakes for the family. Then we went to the NC Museum of History to check out a toys exhibit. It was fun looking through the exhibits, many of which I hadn’t seen before.
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