Wow. It occurred to me that today is the 200th anniversary of the burning of Washington, D.C. by a British invasion force. I am struck by how such a historic event has largely been forgotten.
Continue reading “Largely forgotten, the burning of Washington 200 years ago”
Regular readers will know that I use the Free section on Craigslist to amuse myself. As today is a sort of vacation day for me, I popped over there just now to see if there was anything funny worth tweeting. I found something absolutely totally and completely NOT worth tweeting. It was so awful, especially in light of all of the horrible racist atrocities happening in Ferguson, MO and elsewhere right now, that it merited its own blog post.
What could possibly be that bad you might ask? I’ll show you. Be prepared.
a fairly sizable asteroid has been spotted on a trajectory that gives it a fairly decent chance (about 1 in 4,000) of striking the Earth. That is actually better odds than the chance you will get killed in a traffic accident any time you get in a car (1 in 6,700). At one point the odds were actually being calculated at 1 in 300. So this particular object has raised a few eyebrows, to put it mildly. Enough that some people think it would be time to call the drilling crew together. Or something.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of water for life. It’s one of the reasons why so many human cities and human civilizations sprung up in places next to rivers or lakes where fresh water was plentiful. And in many places the bringing in of fresh water is one of the first public utilities to appear. Even here in Boston, a public water system was available by the end of the 18th century.
So how is it that in the 21st century, we have so many places, not just in the developing world but right here in the United States, that are struggling just to provide potable water for their population?
Continue reading “When suburban uniformity and reality collide”
Somerville, formerly known as “Slummerville” has the most artists per-capita of any city in the US second only to NYC. That’s not bad considering Somerville is a suburb of Boston (though functionally it is as much a part of Boston as Cambridge.)
If you’re a resident of Somerville, if you work in the ‘ville, or if you make art, play in a band there, or spend a lot of time doing Somerville related things, this post is for you. (If not, you should read it anyway, it’s about communities and people working together.)
Continue reading “Live, Work, or Play in Somerville? Wanna be on TV?”
Kelly and I decided to take a quick road trip down to the South Coast to New Bedford so we could catch the Charles W. Morgan before she left. It also gave us the chance to stop in at New Bedford Antiques at the Cove, one of our favorite antique malls anywhere and definitely one of our favorite places on the South Coast.
Two gorgeous old historic ships are in the news this week. Both of them were built here in Massachusetts (although more than 40 years apart), both of them are among the last surviving examples of classic American wooden shipbuilding, and both of them are ships I have visited more than once over the years. One is the oldest vessel in the United States Navy, and the other is the last surviving wooden whaling ship in the world.
Harvard University and the Harvard Square Farmer’s Market are having a huge freecycle event on July 8th, 2014 on the Plaza in front of the Science Center. There will be tons (ok, maybe not tons, it depends on how much is donated) of stuff there for people to take and reuse.
Donations will be accepted as early as 9:00am. Details on the website are here. You can bet I’m going to be there to drop off the growing pile of stuff Geoff and I have in our “To Donate” corner of the guest room.
Tell your friends, coworkers, family, etc. I’ll see you there.
~Kelly
ETA: Month fixed. I was tired.
I had to go to our branch office in Bedford, New Hampshire on Friday, which gave me a chance to have dinner with my sister Liz and her family in Lee. It also allowed me to make a trip to Mt. Washington the next day to do some hiking for the Longest Day with coworker Jason Lynch and his team. I had never been to Mt. Washington before, but I have wanted to climb it for years. So I finally had my chance.
Continue reading “Quick trip to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire”
No, our blog hasn’t been hijacked or hacked and this isn’t about some internet gambling site. This is about something that most people deal with every day and probably don’t even know it. I first ran into the idea in Childfree circles and discovered that it pretty much applies to everybody in one way or another.
It’s called Internet Bingo. There are many forms of this “game”. It happens online and offline and it certainly happens to all of us. Trolls do it to us, well- meaning friends and family do it to us, even strangers do it to us. You know what you get when you fill your Bingo card? Congratulations, you’ve just been “Bingoed”.
Ready for the tutorial?
The Books are Taking Over... 