Last Thursday around lunchtime a truck with a huge industrial freezer crashed into the Gregson St railroad trestle – the “truck guillotine”  as some are calling it. This time I was there and I had my camera with me, so in addition to the actual crash footage I also shot some footage of the crash [...]

The North Carolina constitution actually bars atheists from public office – in Article VI, Section 8:
Sec. 8.  Disqualifications for office.
The following persons shall be disqualified for office:
First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.
(…)
NC Constitution, Article VI, Section 8
This, and all other religious tests for public office were invalidated [...]

Not sure if this is funny or just sad … a middle school in Goldsboro, NC had the brilliant idea to try selling grades as a school fundraiser. Yes – $20 gets you 20 point on your next test. That can turn a B into an A or an F(ail) into a D (=pass).
Jay Leno [...]

Today, I ran 3 one-mile stretches on the beach. Sand is a great training tool because your feet give you instant feedback at every step. On asphalt you get feedback, but sometimes only too late, when you already got that blister. In sand you can feel how deep your feet sink in and where. That [...]

Last Saturday I participated in the second edition of the Doughman – but not in the competition this time around. Instead I helped document the World’s premier Quadrathlon  as one of four volunteer videographers. Due to our trip to Togo I was a bit late with the registration, and by the time I got serous [...]

Not to dwell on the weather, but this is pretty intense, even for North Carolina. Last week, the official low temp. was 18 Deg. F (-7 ° C) and today the high was 81 F (27 °C). In the 50 hours from Wed AM to Friday PM temperatures went up by 50 Deg. F.

Right now [...]

Sunday night central North Carolina was blanketed in 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) of snow. This is our third snowfall this winter, which makes this a pretty “wintry” winter for NC. Last year the temperatures hardly dipped below freezing. Last night it was 14 Deg. F (minus 11 Celsius). The kids enjoyed building their first snow-person. [...]

An inch of snow on the ground and, as usual, most of Durham shuts down. And since no one here owns a set of snow tires, I think it’s a pretty reasonable decision to stay at home. So we made some waffles and coffee and settled in to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as [...]

2008 was a pretty good year for us. We stayed healthy, sane (more or less) and employed. Jacob and Julia grew a lot. We had a great family vacation in the mountains of North Carolina and we did a couple of short trips to the beach. Both kids changed schools. Jacob and I started learning [...]

This is sweet! Today I am especially proud to be a Tar Heel! North Carolina turned blue for Obama. It looks like the Democrat won by a few thousand votes in NC. This is the first time since President Carter that a Democrat won this state. The map above shows results county by county and [...]

Right now I am in Atlantic Beach, on the North Carolina coast. I am sitting on the deck of a friend’s beach house with a drink, waiting for the last load of laundry and the dish washer to get done, so I can pack our stuff and head back to Durham. I can hear the [...]

Meet Joey – he’s a 18-hands Clydesdale and a member of the Express Clydesdales Team.
When the team visited Durham last weekend, we were lucky enough to know where they were staying. so we got a special, personal encounter with these amazing hoses. (see below)

Wednesday morning I rode my bike to work for the first time. It was a nice morning for a bike ride, and it took me about 40 Minutes to get to work – no big deal. However, riding in traffic is really not very enjoyable and many drivers passed me with just a few inches [...]

Ugh – I’m melting! North Carolina in August is certainly supposed to be hot, but tripple-digit temperatures are still unusual. Yesterday we hit a new heat record for the day and came within one degree of the all-time highest temperature ever recorded at RDU airport. It was 104 Fahrenheit – 40 Deg. Celsius – [...]

The BIG list was abuzz today with interpretations of the new biodiesel tax situation in North Carolina. There were some questions about how these recent changes, like how the tax exemption for homebrew biodiesel will be applied to SVO use. Matt Rudolph, the ED of Piedmont Biofuels explained that under NC law, veggie oil as [...]

The North Carolina General Assembly has adjourned for this session, and last Thursday the legislators passed S1272: Motor Fuels Tax Exemption for Biodiesel, which removes the requirement to pay road tax on homebrew biodiesel. That’s awesome – a great incentive for homebrewers. Also, legislators changed the tax law to remove the $2000 bond for [...]

FOR SALE: SECLUDED COUNTRY HOME WITH BIKETRAIL
Two-bedroom secluded brick ranch with biketrail/walking path and large basement in Bahama (20 minutes North of Duke Campus). The single-track trail is a .33 mile figure eight on the 2.5 acres wooded lot. The trail runs through the forest, crosses the creek and climbs a nice hill.  The path [...]

The Story is a syndicated radio show produced at WUNC in Chapel Hill. The show is hosted by Dick Gordon, who interviews people who have an interesting story to tell. Today, they aired the segment where Laura and Agbessi get to tell the story of the library in Yikpa, and the impact it had on [...]

Over the years, in conversations about sports, I have always identified myself as a biker – a mountain biker. Not a particularly competitive specimen, I lack the colorful outfit and fancy bike, but I do enjoy very much taking my 17-year-old Simonelli bike on a challenging single-track out in the woods. We’re just a 10-Minute [...]

Durham is supposedly number 8 of the best places to live in the US:

Yay, Durham – the birthplace of … uh … [CTRL]+[ALT]+[Delete]!??