Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,515 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 63 of 152).

We Can’t Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership | WIRED

You should have the right to use anything you own the way you want to use it. John Deere needs to get a grip.

It’s official: John Deere and General Motors want to eviscerate the notion of ownership. Sure, we pay for their vehicles. But we don’t own them. Not according to their corporate lawyers, anyway.

In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.

”It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.

via We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership | WIRED.

Former Obama Pilot: TWA Flight 800 was shot down, here’s why – NY Daily News

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Was TWA Flight 800 shot out of the sky?As a former pilot, that is a question I get asked about all the time.

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but let’s be clear: Yes. I say it was. And I believe the FBI covered it up.

There are many reasons to disbelieve the official explanation of what happened to TWA 800 almost 19 years ago, on July 17, 1996, off the South Shore of Long Island. There’s hardly an airline pilot among the hundreds I know who buys the official explanation — that it was a fuel-tank explosion — offered by the National Transportation Safety Board some four years later.

Lots can go wrong with an airplane. Engines can fail; they can catch fire. Devices can malfunction. Pilots make errors.

But jets do not explode in midair.

via Former Obama Pilot: TWA Flight 800 was shot down, here's why – NY Daily News.

Obama to Remove Cuba From State Sponsor of Terror List – ABC News

Obama removes Cuba from the terror sponsor list. I wonder if Raul Castro will remove America from Cuba’s terror sponsor list?

The terror designation has been a stain on Cuba’s pride and a major stumbling block for efforts to mend ties between Washington and Havana.In a message to Congress, Obama said the government of Cuba "has not provided any support for international terrorism" over the last six months. He also told lawmakers that Cuba "has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future."

via Obama to Remove Cuba From State Sponsor of Terror List – ABC News.

Lessons learned from a month of EV ownership — Technology Musings — Medium

Good advice from a new EV driver.

I’ve lusted after a Tesla since they debuted, thought seriously about getting a Nissan Leaf too, but it was after I took a test ride in a BMW i3 that I found a perfect happy medium. I picked one up last month and learned plenty in the short time I’ve been driving it. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live with an electric vehicle (EV), here’s a list of things I’ve learned since taking the plunge.

via Lessons learned from a month of EV ownership — Technology Musings — Medium.

Why skeptics think a South Carolina sailor lied about being lost at sea for 66 days – The Washington Post

This guy is a liar and a nutcase to boot.

It’s rare that a man is lost at sea and returns home looking even healthier than before he disappeared.

But that’s exactly what skeptics of Louis Jordan have pointed out as they question the 37-year-old’s miraculous account of surviving 66 days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.

via Why skeptics think a South Carolina sailor lied about being lost at sea for 66 days – The Washington Post.

Cisco Shipping Hardware To Bogus Addresses To Throw Off NSA Intercept-And-Implant Efforts | Techdirt

Cisco became an inadvertent (and very unwilling) co-star in the NSA Antics: Snowden Edition when its logo was splashed across the web by a leaked document detailing the agency’s interception of outbound US networking hardware in order to insert surveillance backdoors.

It moved quickly to mitigate the damage, sending a letter to the President asking him and his administration to institute some safeguards and limitations to protect US tech companies from the NSA’s backdoor plans. To date, there has been no direct response. So, Cisco has decided to handle the problem itself.

via Cisco Shipping Hardware To Bogus Addresses To Throw Off NSA Intercept-And-Implant Efforts | Techdirt.

New Hampshire legislatures kill fourth graders’ bill and dreams.

What assholes.

Last Thursday, fourth graders from Hampton Falls, New Hampshire visited their state legislature to observe a bit of democracy in action. The children had previously proposed House Bill 373, establishing the Red Tail Hawk as the New Hampshire State Raptor, as part of a civics lesson in how bills become laws. Their measure had already sailed out of the Environmental and Agriculture Committee. Now the young students gathered in the House galley to watch their bill pass its next hurdle.

via New Hampshire legislatures kill fourth graders' bill and dreams..

Google Fiber: Kansas City offers Charlotte ‘Digital Divide’ lessons | The Charlotte Observer The Charlotte Observer

CharO talks about Google Fiber and the Digital Divide

In a past job in Kansas City, Julie Porter was part of an intense, door-to-door campaign to get residents in economically challenged, mostly minority neighborhoods to sign up for Google’s high-speed Internet service.

Community organizers didn’t want residents in these areas to face an even wider Digital Divide.

Now the head of a Charlotte housing agency, Porter has urged local leaders here to get an early start encouraging residents to embrace broadband service, long before Google Fiber makes its planned Charlotte debut.

“It was just very, very challenging,” said Porter, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, of the Kansas City situation. “I wanted to make sure that Charlotte didn’t have the same experience.”

via Google Fiber: Kansas City offers Charlotte ‘Digital Divide’ lessons | The Charlotte Observer The Charlotte Observer.

The magically-filling fuel tank

Earlier this week I got to experience a phenomenon very unique to electric vehicles.

I was driving out of the parking deck at work on a warm day that had started much cooler. Batteries are sensitive to temperature and don’t provide less power when it’s cooler. My electric car had dialed back its expected range on my cooler morning commute and kept it there as my car waited in the cool parking deck for me to get off of work.

As I drove out at the end of the day, the car’s thermometer rose briskly as it went from the cool parking deck to the warm afternoon air. I watched in amusement as my car’s range began increasing as I drove! It was like someone was adding fuel to my tank! I gained 20 miles of range on a six-mile drive.

Only in an electric car can one drive somewhere and actually get an increase in range!