With the opening of the Sochi Olympic games on Friday there are all sorts of things going on right now to remind us that the world is full of both hateful bigots (I’m looking at you, Putin) and wonderful people (Canada, Scotland, that would be you.)
This is what has popped up in the latter category in my various news feeds today. Enjoy.
On February 3rd, 1943, a small convoy named SG-19 was making its way across the Atlantic to Greenland from New York. It consisted of the United States Army Transport Dorchester and two smaller merchant vessels, the SS Lutz and the SS Biscaya, escorted by three Coast Guard cutters: Tampa, Escanaba and Comanche. Somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland at about 12:55 AM that morning, a German submarine torpedoed the Dorchester, knocking out her power as well as opening up her hull to the sea. Below decks were hundreds of young American servicemen, many of them on their first ocean voyage. They had been instructed to leave their life preservers on in case of attack, but the heat of the ship’s boilers and engines led many of them to take the jackets off. And with the loss of power they were all suddenly in the dark.
Among the personnel on board were four Army Chaplains, all First Lieutenants: George Fox (a Methodist); Alexander Goode (Reform-Rabbi); Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed); and John Washington (a Roman Catholic priest). The four had become fast friends at the Army Chaplains School on the Harvard University campus, right here in Cambridge.
A little while back Shakay sent us a link to this website. The design is fantastic and the fact that this is all designed for cats just thrills me to pieces.
It also terrifies me.
Today has not been beautiful per se, but it has been quite mild. The temperature reached about 50 degrees today, mild enough that I started a project that needed to be done outside. We have some old cat litter bins that I have cleaned out and cleaned up for using as storage containers in the kitchen. But obviously we don’t want them looking like old cat litter bins, so I got some of the spray paint that sticks to plastic. A nice navy blue that would match our kitchen seemed like a good choice, and so I waited for a day with decent weather so I could spray. Today seemed like the day. So I painted and then set everything out on newspaper in the back yard to dry.
Then it started to rain. The forecast said there was a 20% chance, and I guess the roll of the dice was just so. I hope the paint job isn’t totally ruined.
-Geoff
Sometimes, there is some wisdom in doing something yourself so you can actually understand it. Regarding the winter weather debacle in Georgia, this is NOT one of those times. This is not the sort of thing you want to figure out for yourself, any more than you want your architect to forget about silly things like plans so you can just “play it by ear”. Learn from the wisdom and experience of others. Hell, learn from your own experience, Atlanta. It’s been only 3 years since your last winter storm nightmare. Besides, your traffic is gridlocked in perfect weather on a normal day. I have been there, I know. Whenever I was driving to Macon for the weekend, I avoided Atlanta completely. What made you think having everyone go home at the same time during a snowstorm was a good idea?
Kelly found an article recently that she knew would interest me.
One of the things about zombies that is commonly accepted within the genre is that they are dead and rotting.* And in the normal world, all dead flesh is eventually broken down and picked apart by Mother Nature, leaving only bones, which will also one day disappear. Everything from bacteria to bugs to birds to bears, all feast on whatever carrion they can find. And so one scientist finally asks, how would zombies fare in the real world? Pretty poorly, apparently. As the author puts it:
Relax. Next time you’re lying in bed, unable to fall asleep thanks to the vague anxiety of half-rotten corpses munching on you in the dark, remember this: if there was ever a zombie uprising, wildlife would kick its ass.
-Geoff
*There are notable exceptions. The zombies in films like 28 Days Later and Zombieland, as well as the zombies in the Left4Dead video games, are technically alive, but have been turned into rabid/feral monsters due to some nasty disease.
These are mostly what has been popping up on my Google+ feed lately. Some of them are doozies. Enjoy.
Continue reading “Recent news roundup- Political cartoon edition”
This is a reminder post for you Boston area music lovers that tonight is the Opus Affair Punch Bowl Fund at PARK in Cambridge. It should be a great time, Geoff and I will be there, and we’re hoping to win the fund raising competition for Meravelha. Please, come and have a drink for a good cause.
Details are here.
See you tonight!
~Kelly
The snowstorm is pretty much over for us, although the winter storm warning is still in effect until 1 PM. It looks like we only got a few inches here in Cambridge, but you don’t have to go very far to see a lot more. I don’t anticipate having a lot of problems shoveling, aside from the ridiculous cold temperatures, plus wind chill. It’s currently about 6 degrees Fahrenheit here, with wind chills between -5 degrees and -20, depending on how hard the wind is blowing. And tonight it’s supposed to get even colder.
-Geoff
It looks like today will be the last “balmy” day for a while, insofar as the temperature was well above freezing most of the day. Starting tonight temperatures will begin to drop, and they are predicted to not go above freezing for a good while – possibly as long as two weeks. And we will probably get more snow too, starting tomorrow night. So enjoy today, Boston, but prepare to be cooped up inside for a while. You aren’t going to want to spend a lot of time outside after today. So go grab some DVDs from the library or Netflix or whatever and catch up on your favorite show or shows. You might have some free time in the near future. Or if you are like me, grab a stack of books. It will be a good time to curl up with that monster George R.R. Martin book with a cup of something hot to drink and some small furry companions at your side.
-Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 