SCOTLAND NECK -- The black-headed duck of South America is a lousy parent.
Rather than build its own nest, it simply lays its eggs in ones built by other birds, regardless of species, and never looks back. Left to fend for themselves, the ducklings somehow know to hatch at the same time as their stepbrothers and sisters.
"How it knows to do that, I don't know," said Mike Lubbock, founder of the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Center on the edge of this small town 85 miles northeast of Raleigh.
This 18-acre zoo for birds - primarily ducks, geese, cranes and other water birds - has about 180 species on display. Each, like the parasitic black-headed duck, has a story.
Read more:  http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/31/656004/honk-if-you-love-water-birds.html

Esteemed Eastern North Carolina Film Commission board member died July 23, 2010, of respiratory failure following an operation in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mr. Timberg, 64, a professor of media and popular culture and a social activist, died July 23, 2010, of respiratory failure following an operation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Timberg wrote two books, “Television Talk: A History of the Television Talk Show” and “Fair Use and Free-Inquiry: Copyright Law and the New Media” (co-edited with John Lawrence), and filmed dozens of films, including oral histories and documentaries about small towns. His most recent film was “From the Old World to the New: The Jewish American Experience in Hollywood Film.” His films were shown at festivals around the world, including most recently at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in 2009 and the ECU Humor Festival and Conference in 2008.

Read more:  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary.aspx?n=bernard-mahler-timberg&pid=144530991

Sponsored by Magnolia Arts Center and the ENC Film Commission

The Blu Moon Independent Film Festival seeks submissions for its 2010 installment. Professional, Amateur, and Student filmmakers of all ages, skill levels, and genres are welcome to submit for awards and cash prizes. Submissions are free but limited to one per filmmaker or group.

The Festival's due date for submissions is October 1.  The Festival will be screening October 8-10th.

Research Triangle Park-based nonprofit MCNC will receive more than $75 million to upgrade the infrastructure needed for broadband connections in 69 rural North Carolina counties, Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office announced Wednesday.

Read more:  http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/08/16/daily35.html

Forbes magazine ranks the University of North Carolina Wilmington No. 17 among "America's Best College Buys."

Forbes said it divided each school's overall quality score by its average tuition and fees for 2008. Schools with a graduation rate of less than 20 percent are excluded.

Forbes remarked that "the North Carolina university system is well represented on the list, with four schools in the top 25 and seven in the top 50."  The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill ranked the highest at 13, followed by UNC-W; Appalachian State at 20; UNC Asheville, 21; N.C. State, 35; East Carolina, 36; and UNC Greensboro, 37.

Read more:  http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100816/ARTICLES/100819696/0/news01

BEAUFORT -- Pirates were everywhere Saturday. They hung out on hotel balconies that overlook Taylor's Creek, drank in chunky mugs at local bars, and cheerfully accosted men, women and children as they walked up and down Beaufort's historic waterfront streets.

A handful of pirates, most of them in costumes that were historically accurate, first appeared in town Thursday afternoon. They set up their tents and camp at the Beaufort Historic Site preparing for the annual Pyrate Invasion.

By Saturday, thousands of adults and children mingled with about 100 costumed men and women who transformed the town into a living history lesson on a 1747 invasion by Spanish pirates.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/15/629702/beaufort-once-again-is-invaded.html

In the upstairs bath of a 220-year-old home one cotton field away from the Perquimans River in Hertford, N.C. , a knot of 7-year-old boys crowds around Nancy D. Rascoe.  She is “Miss Nancy” to them. And right now, shortly after breakfast, she is closely examining their sink.

“Look, children, so you’ll learn,” she says, drawing out velvety North Carolina vowels. And the trio with first names right out of a sleepy Southern novel – Smedes, Jack and Hazen  – leans in attentively as Miss Nancy wads a bit of tissue and shows them how to wipe a stray dab of toothpaste right out of the bowl.

Read more:  http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/youngsters-learn-manners-ettiquete-summer-camp#rfq

Snow Hill may just be the perfect setting for a horror flick —at least filmmaker Willie Dixon thinks so.

Specifically, it’s Fourth Street that gives the residents of the small Greene County town the chills.

“Every time someone walks on that street, something strange happens,” Dixon said.

Read more:  http://www.reflector.com/news/snow-hill-filmmaker-debuts-ghost-4th-street-tonight-42965

Hatteras Yachts, a boat maker that shed hundreds of jobs in North Carolina during the recession, has reaffirmed its commitment to one eastern North Carolina town.

The company, a division of Brunswick Corp., plans to add 350 jobs over the next five years at its New Bern manufacturing facility. The additional jobs are the result of Hatteras Yachts consolidating its operations and closing a plant in Southern California that makes Cabo brand yachts.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/21/590665/new-bern-boat-factory-to-hire.html

SOUTH MILLS — Traveling the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway to the Dismal Swamp Canal is like a scene from “The African Queen” — minus the alligators — says a Duke University environmentalist looking for practical solutions for maintaining the boating thoroughfare.

Linwood Pendleton, director at Duke’s Nicholas Institute of Environmental Policy Solutions, tied up his trawler at the docks of the Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor’s Center on Friday on his journey of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Pendleton’s enjoyment of the scenery was obvious, but his mission extends beyond sightseeing.

He’s searching for better ways to preserve the waterway’s future, through better funding and better erosion management.

Read more:  http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/duke-prof-studying-intracoastal-waterway-26582