Tag: news

4th Annual Helping Haiti Talent Show – Boston Medical Center

Many of the readers around here know that Geoff and I both have neurologists at Boston Medical Center.  You may also remember me singing in the Boston Medical Center Concert When Patients Heal You last November.  (Video is here, sorry for the sound quality)  I’ll be singing in the concert again this October.  Watch this space for more details.

Anyway, the BMC is loaded with great talent and with people who give their time and talent to not only give back to the community here in Boston but also but to raise money for others who need it, as well as to fund health care for those who would not otherwise have access to it.  I’m not performing in the concert listed below, the pianist/nurse/saint I’m performing with in October is.  Check it out.

stage lights

HELPING HAITI
BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY
Haiti Show from Keith top
Want to make a difference?  Here’s how.
Haiti Show from Keith

That’s globalhealthneurology@gmail.com with questions or to volunteer.  To donate, click here.  The concert has a $20 ticket/donation at the door.

The Baskt Auditorium is in A Building at 72 East Concord St. Boston, MA 02118 on the Boston University Medical School campus.

~Kelly

 

Charleston, the Confederate flag, and the Civil War

It has taken a while for me to process everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks. And truthfully, I am still processing it.

Never, in my life, would I have predicted that the discussion to get rid of the Confederate flag once and for all would begin in Charleston, South Carolina.

The same place where the Civil War began, all those years ago.

Continue reading “Charleston, the Confederate flag, and the Civil War”

2015 has been kicking my ass

Regular readers will recall that a little while back I said we’d be away for a while due to the death of a friend.  Truth be told, his loss was, at the time, the latest in a long string of Very Hard Things 2015 had handed us.

It seems, however, that June might bright A New Hope.  (Sorry)  But, before we get to the good stuff, let’s go over where we’ve been, shall we?

Continue reading “2015 has been kicking my ass”

It’s official – we broke the record

After the light snow we got last night, it seems that Boston has officially broken the record for most snowfall in a single season.  Our current snow total is now 108.6 inches, beating the old record of 107.6 inches from the winter of 1995-1996.  Here in Boston, they began keeping records of snowfall in 1872.

Thankfully a lot of snow melted in the last couple of weeks, so the new snow hasn’t really done a whole lot to make anything worse.  But as the snow melts, it is revealing all the garbage and other stuff that got buried in the massive piles.

Ah, spring.

-Geoff

Net Neutrality and why the FCC’s new rules matter

I was overjoyed to hear that the FCC voted 3-2 to adopt new rules that treat broadband internet as a utility, much like telephones.  The basic purpose of this would be to guarantee that internet service providers are neutral in terms of treating all customers and web content equally, and not favoring those who can pay more money or slowing down those that pay less.  It means that a cable company can’t slow down the traffic to their competitors’ websites.   It assures that the Internet remains a generally level playing field, so small businesses and start-ups don’t get squashed by huge corporate competitors who can afford to pay more to have their own service prioritized.  And critically for people like me who have complained incessantly about being at the mercy of a few big telecoms when it comes to broadband service, it also means that it will become easier to get more choices, especially if those choices mean expanding municipal broadband service where they were previously banned by state laws favoring those big telecom companies.

And yet, there are those who are still opposed to it and will fight this tooth and nail.  Needless to say, I am not a fan of those people.  But I am encouraged by the fact that so many people thought net neutrality would fail, and they turned out to be wrong.

Continue reading “Net Neutrality and why the FCC’s new rules matter”

Reasoning vs. rationalizing

Science is important.  It is something that both Kelly and I take quite seriously. It’s one if the reasons Kelly has worked as a science educator for a decade, and one of the reasons why even some of our hobbies involve a lot of science.   We feel quite passionately about it.

And it’s also why we both get so frustrated about the problems with scientific literacy in America – demonstrated by things like this survey that shows the gaps between scientists and the public when it comes to views of science.  And if you want to see scientific ignorance displayed in all its factually-challenged glory, and I mean some truly godawful stuff,  just turn on a television.

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Somerville Local is for Lovers Valentine Market

After a small break in January, we’re back at it, this time in time for Valentine’s Day.  Geoff and I will be vending at the Somerville Local First Local is for Lovers Market at the Armory in Somerville on Sunday February 8th from 10:00am – 3:00pm.  (For those of you scurrying to check your calendars, this is the Sunday after the Superbowl.)

This will be our first market with SLF since Singing Stones Jewelry became a part of Cambridge Local First.  I, for one, am really excited.

We’re also going to be back showing with the ever fantastic Gravestone Girls, Erica from Esoterica and Smiley Baby Hats, Q’s Nuts, and the good folks at Next Step Living.  This is, as always, a full on family event with Knucklebones there to entertain and enlighten the kids while the adults shop, listen to great music, and check out the hard cider vendor Far From the Tree Craft Hard Cider.

We really hope to see you there!

~Kelly

 

I thank God for our city council

The Cambridge City Council has voted in a policy order to make known that they are opposed to the 2024 Boston Olympic bid.   I get the impression that no one in the group to bring the 2024 Olympics to Boston thought to discuss their plan with surrounding communities to feel the waters, so to speak.

I cannot believe that any serious person would think that hosting the 2024 Olympics here in Boston is a good idea.  And with such a relatively small window to prepare, it is quite unrealistic.  In fact, it is hands down one of the dumbest ideas I have heard put forth in a long time.

Where would we put it all?

Yes, I know Kelly has talked about this already, but I have to throw in my own two cents worth, because this is something that has actually gotten me quite a bit fired up and angry.  It is yet another case of the privileged few dictating to everyone else.

Continue reading “I thank God for our city council”

#BlackLivesMatter & #NoBoston2024 – The intersection of money, race & power

Anyone who isn’t a moneyed plutocrat in the very tiny ruling elite here in Boston – Marty Walsh, John Fish, Charlie Baker, and Shirley Leung, I’m looking at you – likely understands that yesterday’s announcement that Boston “won” the USOC nomination for the 2024 olympics is a Very Bad Thing.  The Boston 2024 group has existed for about a year and, chaired by Fish, has been trying to essentially shame the populace into believing that if we do not do this thing, invite the world to come here for a 3 week-long party 9 years from now, we’re provincial losers and that Boston isn’t fit for the world stage.

To put it bluntly, the people at Boston2024 are liars.

Continue reading “#BlackLivesMatter & #NoBoston2024 – The intersection of money, race & power”