Today a Wake County Sheriff’s deputy was trapped inside his car for 3 hours as 50,000 honeybees swarmed the car’s exterior. CNN got in on the story with WTVD’s coverage.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently announced that Plug-In 2011 – an international conference of expert insights on technical advances, market research and policy initiatives shaping the future of plug-in hybrid and electric transportation – will be held in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, July 18-21, 2011.

The Raleigh Convention Center will be the first venue for the Plug-In Conference that will be held outside of California. The shift in location was envisioned as a way to offer wider access to potential attendees. Next year’s conference will be co-organized by EPRI, Progress Energy and Duke Energy. 

“We decided to offer a bit of geographical balance to our conference schedule as a way of exposing more people to the significant progress made toward integrating plug-in hybrid and other electric vehicles into the transportation system,” said Mark Duvall, director of Electric Transportation at EPRI. “The Research Triangle area is an appropriate location that is well-known as an incubator of entrepreneurship, innovation and thought-leadership.”

The Plug-In Conference was launched in San Jose in 2008, moved to Long Beach (Southern California) in 2009 and returned to San Jose this year. It attracts automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, electric utilities, government agencies, the environmental community and academia to exchange ideas and gather information needed to make key decisions related to plug-in hybrid and electric transportation.

Plug-In 2010 includes high-level plenary sessions and 21 breakout sessions and mini-panels focused on driving, connecting and launching technologies required to fully commercialize and integrate electric drive into the marketplace.

The exposition floor, which includes vehicles, electric infrastructure and batteries, and related components, features more than 40 exhibitors. July 27 is Public Night, an open forum where visitors can see the exposition floor and participate in a panel discussion. For more information about Plug-In 2010, organized by EPRI and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, visit www.plugin2010.com.

(and don’t go squatting plugin2011.com just because this group hasn’t gotten the wherewithal to buy it yet!)

The Joel Lane House will host a lecture, "North Carolina’s Role in the American Revolution", by James T. Cheatham on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7 pm. The lecture takes place in the Joel Lane Visitors Center. Admission will be $15 for the general public and $10 for members of the Joel Lane Historical Society. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and advanced payment is required. Please call 919-833-3431. Tickets are non-refundable (unless the event is cancelled).

Born in Greenville, NC, Mr. Cheatham possesses a strong interest in various aspects of American history. He wrote and produced a short film called "First in Victory – First for Independence – NC’s Role in the American Revolution" in 1997 and has written several books and articles on NC history. He is a Past President of the NC Society of the Cincinnati and a retired attorney living in Chapel Hill. Commissioned in the US Navy in 1957, he was educated at UNC-Chapel Hill for both his undergraduate and law degrees.

Money Magazine has released its best small towns list, and two triangle towns are in the Top 40. Chapel Hill comes in at 40, and Cary ranks #23.

The results are interesting. Living in Chapel Hill is a distinct experience. All residents definitely feel the center of the town, the Franklin Street/Carr Mill axis. However Cary feels more like a series of subdivisions and strip shopping centers. Cary certainly feels different than Chapel Hill and North Raleigh, but does Cary really have a distinct vibe, or is it just a coincidental collection of new developments in Triangle, USA?

I’m headed up to Chicago and Milwaukee with a jam-packed itinerary. Much food awaits! Travel along with me by following my updates on Twitter (@gogoraleigh).

It’s easy to fall in love with Evernote, the cloud-based note organizer. There is a desktop application as well as a slew of mobile apps for entering and quickly finding notes one has made. Use-cases include corralling perpetual shopping lists for certain stores (ie. Home Depot, Grocer, Office Depot, Costco…), lists for CDs to hear, movies to see, shows to watch, wines you loved, as well as a perfect clipper/organizer for recipes.

The list of use-cases goes on. That’s why some Evernote fans in the area are organizing a meetup on Wednesday, June 23 at the Tribeca Tavern where even more use-cases can be bounced around. More information is online as well as on Twitter (#CaryEvernoteMeetup hashtag). Please signup today so that the group can get an organizer party pack from Evernote.

The HTC EVO went on sale this morning. The phone, only available on Sprint, is the latest Android phone that trumps the iPhone (for now at least). Along with having a replaceable battery, a free range of apps, a decent carrier network, the possibility of Flash support soon, freedom from iTunes, multitasking, a kickstand, “unlimited” data, desktop widgets, miniSD memory expansion, the ability to mount as a drive, video chat, tethering, and multi-notifications, this phone runs on the 4G data network. The network is reported to be 8X-10X faster than 3G. Some tech reporters, in fact, are saying that now is the time for people to consider dropping their land data lines and going to a tethered 4G phone instead.

4G service is only available in 33 cities. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, Miami, Denver, and Pittsburgh are among the cities that don’t have coverage, but Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill do! The full list of included cities is after the break:

read more…

Portfolio.com recently published their rankings for Quality of Life and Raleigh ranks #1 in the survey. The survey used a 20-part formula to assess 67 cities. Raleigh ranked high in areas like Adults 25-44 (#3), Growth (#1), Jobless Rate (#8), Jobs (#4), News Houses (#2), Houses with 9+ Rooms (#9), Adults with High School Diplomas (#13), Adults with College Diplomas (#6), and Adults with Advanced Degrees (#11).

Other cities of interest are Austin (#9), Atlanta (#11), Charlotte (#16), Richmond (#20), and Nashville (#22).

fashionSPARK is the largest annual fashion show in The Triangle. Last year alone, the event drew a crowd of over 1,500 spectators. fashionSPARK is an affiliate of SPARKcon, a Triangle-wide celebration of creativity in the Arts, Business, Technology and Culture. All applicants for fashionSPARK 2010 must be based in/operate their business out of The Triangle. Exceptions might be granted on an individual basis for designers who are natives of The Triangle, or who have ties to universities in The Triangle area. Please specify your personal ties to The Triangle, if needed, on your application.

In an effort to create a more eco-conscious SPARKcon, fashionSPARK has teamed up with greenSPARK to analyze how to showcase sustainability within fashion. Therefore, in addition to traditional fashion design applicants, fashionSPARK 2010 is also encouraging “green” designers to apply. In order to qualify as a “green”, designers must use recycled, re-used, re-purposed, or sustainable materials to fabricate your garments.

Although this is a continuing discussion and there will be many elements involved in the ‘greening’, fashion designers have an incredible opportunity to showcase creativity by including green in creations.

Due to the fact that they receive such a high volume of designer applications, fashionSPARK is not able to offer acceptance to all designers. Designers will be accepted through a juried process. Designers who have participated in the past must reapply, and will not be guaranteed acceptance into this year’s fashionSPARK, based solely on past participation.  All applications & payments must be complete, 100% accurate, & post-marked on or before June 05, 2010 in order to be considered for this year’s fashionSPARK. There will be absolutely no exceptions in regards to this year’s deadline. Designers will be notified of their acceptance between June 10-15, 2010.

fashionSPARK thanks everyone for their interest in fashionSPARK 2010. The enthusiasm is contagious, and they hope to see fashionSPARK continue to grow.