Tag: news

There be WHALES here!

Or at least dolphins. Cetaceans of some kind for sure.

Yeah, I love me some whales.  Cetaceans of any kind, really, because porpoises and dolphins are also pretty cool.  On the rare occasions that I get out on the water, especially someplace like the Stellwagen Bank, I usually see at least a few.  Nothing spectacular, but still pretty cool to see stuff in the wild.  But I have never in my life seen anything like this mega-pod of dolphins spotted near San Diego.  It stretched across seven miles of ocean.  They think there may have been as many as 100,000 altogether.  Can you imagine?

Makes me want to go whale watching.  Or fishing.  Or both.  Just to be out on the water.

-Geoff

Objects in Space

I have had an interest in astronomy for much of my life, and for much of the past 15 years or so that interest has focused on comets and asteroids.  I even own a fragment of a meteorite that I keep on a shelf with my science books (along with my jar of ash from Mt. St. Helens – that’s another story).  Years ago I wrote a paper on the Impact Theory as the cause of the dinosaur extinction and have been fascinated by the subject ever since, even going as far as to visit several impact crater sites in the Southeastern United States: Wetumpka; Flynn Creek; and Wells Creek.  And I even managed to have an e-mail discussion with the Dr. Walter Alvarez that I was able to incorporate into my paper.  I dare say that was one of the most memorable and meaningful experiences of my life.

This week, two distinctive events have brought the subject of cosmic impacts on the Earth back to the forefront of my mind: the spectacularly close passing of Asteroid 2012 DA14 tonight; and the equally spectacular destruction of a slightly smaller meteorite (about 1/3 the size of 2012 DA14) over the Ural Mountains that actually caused damage to buildings and injuries to bystanders.

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Good research and archaeology pay off

One of the great things about history and archaeology is when things that are known in the historic record can be verified by actual physical evidence.  But often the evidence simply cannot be found for historic events, even as historians and archaeologists have searched for years.

But sometimes, careful research (with a bit of luck) pays off.

Researchers in Britain have found the long-lost grave of King Richard III, the Plantagenet monarch long slandered by his Tudor successors (and by none other than William Shakespeare as well).

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Firearm safety and assumptions

In my life I have spent a fair amount of time around firearms of one type or another.  I have learned how to safely handle them from a fairly young age, and won my first shooting trophy when I was nine.  I still own several.  I have hunted deer and done various kinds of target shooting.  I am not a “gun nut” in that I have fetishized my firearms the way so many American men have.  I do not feel the need to carry everywhere, and I would never, ever call one of my firearms a “toy”.  I think I have a healthy amount of fear and respect for firearms in general.  And that is why when I see stories like this I am just astounded.  And angry.

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How cool is this?

JCPenney has issued a new Father’s Day ad campaign that really makes me smile.  It features a family with two dads.  And it turns out this is an actual family, not just actors portraying a gay couple with children.

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News of the undead

No, this isn’t Geoff posting.

To continue on our slightly macabre thread from yesterday, I’m following up with this story that popped up on Boston.com the other day.  I am hoping that this one won’t generate the Google hits that yesterday’s post did.  Traffic we like, really disturbing search terms bringing people here, not so much.

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A sign of our technological brilliance… and our general social ignorance.

Kelly found an article on Boston.com recently about the new application for smart phones that allows people to report a complaint if they feel they have been treated unfairly by the TSA.  It was created by the Sikh Coalition, who saw the need for it probably because so many Americans, including many of those who should know better, can’t tell the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim.

Continue reading “A sign of our technological brilliance… and our general social ignorance.”

So it’s not just here in Greater Boston

I saw this article this morning while I was doing my usual morning news read.  Now, I have had my own issues with UPS in recent months, most notably a couple of months ago when I was forced to go out to the UPS facility in Watertown to get a package that should have been delivered to our house.  Supposedly they had attempted to deliver a package to our house twice but failed and so left us the little official notice post-it on the front door.  On neither occasion did the driver ring the doorbell.  Both times we were home.  The second day I specifically made sure that I was home so I could get the package.  At one point the dogs started barking and so I ran to the front door as fast as I could, getting there in less than 20 seconds, only to watch the truck drive off yet again.  I was flabbergasted and furious.  Going out to the distribution center and having to stand in line for an hour outside in the rain to get my package because the delivery guy could not expend any real effort trying to get me my package was not my idea of how I wanted to spend a Friday evening.

So it isn’t just me.  It isn’t just here.  If this is becoming the norm for UPS all over the country, then perhaps they need to examine their business model and figure out what the hell is wrong.   And I imagine that laying more people off is not the answer.

-Geoff