Metaboston

Can the Gardner Museum Overcome the Touch of Evil?

Abby Goodnough looks at how the Isabella Gardner Museum is trying to overcome the legacy of Gardner's restrictive will and the devastating unsolved theft.

"[T]he museum has labored in recent years to shed its fusty image and move past the theft that has, for better or worse, given it a reputation of being “touched with evil,” as Douglass Shand-Tucci, who wrote a biography of Gardner, once put it. Its latest goal, a 65,000-square-foot new building designed by Renzo Piano to sit behind Gardner’s century-old mansion, is the boldest yet.

***

Now, in a victory the Gardner had been awaiting for months, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on March 4 that the museum can depart from the strict parameters of Gardner’s prickly will. It called the expansion a “reasonable deviation” from the will because it is in the public interest to protect the building from overuse.

According to the will if the arrangement of any of the museum’s holdings changes, the entire collection, the building and the land beneath it must be turned over to Harvard.

Goodnough's article presents a museum that seems to labor under the legacy of a Jamesian secret history.  Although the thefts are a subject of recurring interest they seem to have infused the museum with melancholy in this presentation. 

It does seem too bad that very particular and eccentric museums like this have to be improved with the worst example being the plan to move the Barnes Collection.  That said, the Gardner's plans to expand and bring in new blood come across as a form of exorcism here.

Ice Circles on the Charles

Beautiful circles of ice form in some rivers including the Charles.  With warmer weather the river ice might break up and and reform with chances to see ice circle.  Although rational theories have edged out aliens as explanations there still seems to be uncertainty about

The lack of a clear explanation from the scientific community allowed conspiracy theorists to add the ice circles to the annals of “unexplained phenomena” until 1993 when MIT attempted to end the debate.

Ice circles began to form on the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which runs through the MIT campus, prompting scientists at the university to study their formation.

David Ricks, an ocean engineering graduate, helped systematically rule out effluent from submerged pipes, down draughts from helicopters, alien activity, bubbles from decomposition and underwater springs.

He concluded that eddies from the Harvard bridge caused parts of the sheet ice to break away and the movement of the ice created circular holes which were filled by further ice formation. Other theories suggest that slow moving rivers can create eddies which spin the ice until it takes on a circular shape.

(Image:  Ice Circles in Campotosto, Italy by aquilano76)

No Surveillance Cameras in Cambridge

Surveillance cameras rejected from Cambridge by City Council despite officials trying to argue they will not be used to spy on residents.

Although one argument was that they will be used to monitor evacuation routes in an emergency it is not clear why the cameras should be on in non-emergency situations.  Another problem is that it would be impossible to tell how the cameras are being used.

(Image:  of Banksy's One Nation Under CCTV)

Framingham State Fundraisers: Blah, Blah, Blah

Framingham State College's fundraisers offend alumni by acknowledging that no one reads their letters.  It's funny that the letter which read in part, With the recent economic downturn and loan crisis, it has become even more important for Framingham State College to receive your support. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,"  will get more attention than the typical letters that go right to the trash.  So while the school apologizes they are probably quite happy.

Interview with Star Simpson

Boing Boing has a long interview with Star Simpson, the MIT student at the center of the Logan security debacle, where she gives new details about her arrest and why she is disappointed in MIT. They also put a transcript.

Loren Coleman, Cryptozoologist, at Museum of Science

The Museum of Science ventures into the misty regions of cryptozoology with a lecture by Loren Coleman, the most famous researcher into bigfoot and other great folkloric creatures.

"Could hair samples be used to verify the existence of Bigfoot? Are unexplained animal droppings evidence of a new species? Do footprints hold the key to unlocking the mystery of the yeti? World-renowned cryptozoologist Loren Coleman has spent decades researching the existence of fantastical creatures and interviewing witnesses who have sighted sea serpents, lake monsters, Sasquatch, thunderbirds, and yet-to-be-verified animals.  Join us to explore the science behind these mythic beings.

Time:  Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008,  7:00 pm
Location:  Museum of Science, Boston/Cahners Theater
Cost:  Free  "Seating passes are available to the general public in the Museum lobby beginning at 5:45 pm the evening of the program.  First come, first served."

Cape Cod Blogging Suit

A blogger on Cape Cod Today and a blog commenter are being sued over discussion of a dredging issue.  David Ardia at the Citizen Media Law Project has a really interesting explanation of the legal issues.

"Peter Robbins, author of the Robbins Report, a blog that appears on the popular community website Cape Cod Today, and an anonymous commenter have been sued over statements they made criticizing a group of Barnstable, MA residents who opposed the dredging of Barnstable Harbor.  The case raises a host of interesting questions, including whether the statements at issue are protected opinions and the potential applicability of Massachusetts' anti-SLAPP and retraction statutes.

The dispute arose over a March 11 post by Robbins entitled Barnstable Harbor: Filling in and falling in, in which he criticized a number of individuals, including Joseph Dugas and his lawyer Paul Revere III, who had challenged orders issued by the Town of Barnstable Conservation Commission and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that authorized dredging in Barnstable Harbor (not surprising for a community that is so intimately tied to the water, dredging in the harbor is quite a controversial topic). 

Bruce Schneier on the MBTA

The always-interesting security guru Bruce Schneier provides an essay on the lessons of the MIT-MBTA security issue:

"This preference for secrecy comes from confusing a vulnerability with information about that vulnerability. Using secrecy as a security measure is fundamentally fragile. It assumes that the bad guys don't do their own security research. It assumes that no one else will find the same vulnerability. It assumes that information won't leak out even if the research results are suppressed. These assumptions are all incorrect.

The problem isn't the researchers; it's the products themselves. Companies will only design security as good as what their customers know to ask for. Full disclosure helps customers evaluate the security of the products they buy, and educates them in how to ask for better security. ***

In a world of forced secrecy, vendors make inflated claims about their products, vulnerabilities don't get fixed, and customers are no wiser. Security research is stifled, and security technology doesn't improve. The only beneficiaries are the bad guys.

This seems particularly on point because it appears that the MBTA didn't understand the vulnerabilities of the product they had purchased in order to implement the Charlie Card. 

Don't Have a Basement Chemistry Lab in Marlboro, Massachusetts!

While many people are applauding the revival of the individual tinkerer, it can get you into trouble with local authorities as one Marlboro man found out.

"Victor Deeb, the retired chemist who stored hundreds of chemicals in his house, was allowed to return home yesterday after authorities spent three days dismantling his basement laboratory.

None of the materials found at 81 Fremont St. posed a radiological or biological risk, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. No mercury or poison was found. Some of the compounds are potentially explosive, but no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products.

All potentially hazardous materials were removed from the house, which the Deebs have owned since 1988. A cleanup company, contracted by DEP, is continuing to test the chemicals in a lab.

“Ultimately, they will be disposed of,” said DEP spokesman Joseph M. Ferson, who said the city’s Department of Public Works is making sure nothing seeped into the sewer lines.

Mr. Deeb declined to comment yesterday. Authorities say he has patents pending and had been using his basement as a science lab to conduct experiments, possibly for many years.

MIT & the MBTA: The Judge

Dan Kennedy points out that it shouldn't be a surprise that Judge Douglas Woodlock issued the injunction in the case of the MBTA students who hacked the Charlie Card.

"For those of you with long memories, you may recall that Judge Woodlock is a piece of work. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Woodlock ruled that a cage set up by officials for the use of protesters was "an offense to the spirit of the First Amendment" — but then declined to do anything about it."

MBTA Tries to Cover Up Charlie Card Vulnerabilities Exposed by MIT Students

Last week we wrote about Zackary Anderson's warcart used in research into security flaws in the MBTA's Charlie Card that would allow the cards to be copied or value to be added without payment.  Anderson and two other MIT students were due to give a presentation on the issues at the  DEFCON hacker convention.  Now the MBTA has sued the 3 students to prevent the presentation from going forward.

"The lawsuit surprised many DEF CON attendees, who are accustomed to relatively cordial relations with software companies who are informed of security holes. It also surprised the students, who said they had until then gotten positive reactions from the MBTA. (More below)

Boston's Secret Land in Burlington and Woburn

 

Boston owns 210 acres of land in Burlington and Woburn that was given to the city on the death of the owner Mary Cummings.  She wanted Boston to use it as a "public pleasure ground." 

Boston doesn't really do anything with it, although Boston officials thought about developing it, before deciding they couldn't under Cummings' will.  Now residents of Burlington and Woburn are trying to get control of the land and actually turn it into a real park.

 "The residents, organized as Friends of Mary Cummings Park, filed a complaint last week with Attorney General Martha Coakley's Public Charities Division alleging that city officials have neglected the land, abused a trust fund by using it to pay legal and survey work, and plotted to sell the valuable tract near Route 128 for a residential development.

Residents complain that last year the city ripped out handsome, hand-carved welcome signs neighbors placed on the property at their own expense, while keeping "No Trespassing" signs posted around the property.

The organization is asking Coakley's office to strip the city of its oversight responsibilities and to place the park in the hands of local and state park advocates."

Boston does not want to give up the land for reasons that aren't totally clear.  Although perhaps Boston officials hope they can develop the land at some future point or that it will otherwise have value.  In the meantime it doesn't look like there is money to pay for what would be other towns' parks.

Boston seems to be doing a terrible job handling the land and undoubtedly has other priorities.  Hopefully the the Friends of Mary Cummings Park will be able to turn the land into an actual park and not just a placeholder.

Why is Harvard's Werner Otto Hall Being Torn Down?

An interesting article about why Werner Otto Hall, the building housing Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum of German art, is being torn down.

"Today, 17 years later, its exterior walls have deteriorated so badly that Harvard says the only way to repair them would be to take them off entirely and start over.

Yet this disaster was created by the best and the brightest.

The client was Harvard, or more specifically, its Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The architect was the firm Gwathmey Siegel, known for its superb 1992 addition to another museum, the Guggenheim in New York, among other buildings. The general contractor was Walsh Brothers, a Boston firm now in its fourth generation that has long been regarded as one of the region’s best.

***

"So what happened? What’s the diagnosis? To put it simply, the guys who worried about the museum’s art were not the guys who worried about the weather. It was a classic failure of communication. We'll call them the art guys and the weather guys."

In author Robert Campbell's terms, the art guys are the curators and museum officials (the clients) and the weather guys are the architects, engineers and builders. 

Failure to communicate does seem clear but the article seems to come down more on the architects' side or at least that a failure to communicate means both sides are equally at fault.  This seems strange given the unequal levels of knowledge about construction    It seems like the architects, etc. are the ones who really have to communicate though.  Clients can make their demands, suggestions, requests but the architects need to explain what is doable.  The clients aren't going to know what the moisture effects are going to be.

There also seems to be a bit of a disconnect on the "weather guys'" side as to how buildings will be used.  One expert Campbell talks to refers to problems at "the Davis Museum at Wellesley, a building by another Pritzker-winning architect, Rafael Moneo, the curators themselves caused problems. They ruptured the vapor barrier by drilling holes to hang artworks."  But couldn't this action be anticipated by the fact that it is a museum?

It seems like Werner Otto Hall represents the product of a time when architects considered exteriors and use of space more than the actual use of the building.  (Image:  Harvard)

Former Harvard Professor Downsized by Former Student

And not that happy about it.

"A certain Harvard professor is tired of babysitting teaching those "post-pubescent children of notables" who can buy and sell him! Especially Jared Kushner, son of real estate developer Charles Kusher—also known as the boy who bought the New York Observer. Professor John H. Summers recalls him as a student—which was not that long ago, as Kushner is 27. The juicy bit? Kushner's Observer takeover resulted in a pay cut for Prof Summers, who did freelance reviews there."

Nantucket Confronts Diversity

View Larger Map Long regarded as enclave of the rich and white Nantucket's population is quickly becoming more diverse and the island is facing issues surrounding the increasing heterogeneity, including culture clashes, policing problems and questions of racism.

"In the Nantucket School District, where a decade ago more than 95 percent of the students were white, 25 percent of this year's nearly 1,300 students are members of a minority group and 10 percent grew up speaking another language.

And then there is the Rev. Donovan Kerr's growing New Life Ministries church, which on Sundays attracts as many as 150 congregants, nearly all of them black or Hispanic.

"We represent the other side of Nantucket," said Kerr, who founded his ministry six years ago with six congregants and recently bought land to build a church. "We represent the changes.""

Why Can't You Swim in Jamaica Pond?

 

Let us count the reasons:

• There are official and perhaps dubious reasons:

"Officials told [one man who asked] that it would be too dangerous and that he could be arrested for trespassing, but, to him, it seemed easy enough to hire lifeguards and allot an area along the beach designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Officials said it would ruin the serenity of the pond to have children screaming and splashing, even though he thought it could be limited to a few months and be regulated by time and numbers. Officials told him it was a backup for the city's water supply, but the 68-acre, spring-fed pond has not provided water to the city since 1848 and would have to be treated if it were ever reconnected to the system."

• "environmental" reasons:

Gerry Wright, director of the Jamaica Park/Olmsted Park Project, says"allowing swimming to return would threaten the delicate ecology, now in Zen-like balance, along the 1.5-mile trail surrounding the water." 

Maybe but it would be interesting to get some independent confirmation that the "delicate ecology" actually is in "Zen-like" balance.

• official and "environmental" reasons

"[Toni Pollak, commissioner of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department]  "worries that swimmers would endanger local wildlife, such as the snapping turtles, mallard ducks, and double-crested cormorants that frequent the pond. Then there are the potential liability issues." 

Although none of those species seem to be endangered.

•  NIMBYism:

""Can you imagine the deafening din of children from every corner of the city descending on the pond? Yikes!" yelped Patrick Lally.

• and some reasons that don't come across well:

""It would become brackish and dirty with children and adults using it as their bathtub," said Emily Tisei Moscol, 28, of Dedham. "Not allowing swimming is one way of actually preserving the pond.""

Because dirty people want to use it to bathe.

(Image:  Wikipedia)

Abraham Obama Street Art: Legal and Illegal

Ron English's Abraham Obama mural went up on a wall outside Gallery XIV in Boston and fans of the artist papered the neighborhood with posters.

"The next morning, Gallery XIV's phone was ringing with residents and business owners in the South End complaining about the vandalism. The posters had popped up on utility boxes, on the sides of private homes, and outside law offices and restaurants. [Gallery XIV' director] Kerr estimated that dozens of the unauthorized posters were plastered around the South End and that he personally received about four or five phone calls from angry property owners."

English, known for his illegal billboards, approves of the fan action.  One person's street art is another's graffiti.

Pet-Renting to be Banned in Boston?

FlexPetz, a small company that serves as a Zipcar for dogs faces a City Council hearing on July 9th that will determine whether it will be able to expand to Boston from its current operations in New York, Los Angeles and London.

"The company, which counts frequent travelers and busy urbanites among its clientele, maintains a stable of dogs that have been rescued or "rehomed." Clients can check out a dog for a few hours up to a number of days. There are initial fees of about $250 to sign up in addition to a $100 monthly membership fee. It costs about $45 to rent a dog for a day. Members are charged for at least four "doggy days" each month regardless of whether or not they take out a dog. The company will drop off dogs at a customer's home or office and pick them up later for additional fees."

Opponents are disturbed by the stress on the dogs from frequent changes and the objectification of the animals

Harvard's Psychedelic Flashback

Decades after Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert and the controversial Harvard Psylocybin Project, researchers at Harvard and elsewhere are trying to do serious research with psychedelics.

"[Creator of LSD Albert] Hofmann, who died this past April at the age of 102, watched it all play out, horrified by the behavior of both drug users and opponents. He winced as the hippies took LSD with wild abandon, and wrung his hands as the government, here and abroad, criminalized LSD and other psychedelic compounds. But Hofmann also lived long enough to see it all come full circle. By the time he died, legitimate above-ground psychedelic research was alive and well at places like Johns Hopkins and, even more telling, at Harvard University, the latter under the guidance of Dr. John Halpern. Sitting a little to the left and outside of Halpern is Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit research group that, through the support of members and donors, helps fund scientists to do bona fide work with psychedelics in the hopes of legitimizing their therapeutic use. Together, the two men form a kind of psychedelic odd couple: Halpern is young but traditional and cautious, a scientist first and foremost. Doblin is a veteran in this world, a little rougher around the edges, and speaks openly about his own psychedelic adventures and his vision for less drug prohibition.

Rat Attacks in Clement Morgan Park

A rat problem in Cambridge's Clement Morgan Park claimed a young girl as a victim yesterday when her finger was bitten by a rat lurking a trash can.

Edith Wharton House Nears Foreclosure

Tomorrow's the last day to contribute to the organization that runs Edith Wharton's Berkshires mansion, the Mount, which is facing foreclosure following heavy reliance on debt financing for their renovation.

"The Mount is faced with imminent foreclosure, which could result in         this National Historic Landmark being closed to the public forever.       

Please make a contribution now! To prevent foreclosure, The Mount estimates         that it needs to raise up to $3 million through the Save The Mount campaign         before April 24, 2008."

From their website it looks like they've raised about $760,000 at this point so things don't look great with only one day to go.  However, they say they have a matching fund pledge which brings them considerably closer. (Image above:  Edith Wharton Restoration)

Nicholson Baker at Porter Square Books

Nicholson Baker is a novelist best known for close examinations of life books like The Mezzanine which takes place on an escalator ride and for outrage about libraries' discarding of materials.  Now he's written one of the most controversial non-fiction books of the year, Human Smoke, a re-examination of newspaper accounts in the years leading up to World War II, that argues that WWII was not a "good war."

He'll be speaking tonight at Porter Square Books at 7:00pm.

"Human Smoke" delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources -- including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries -- the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust."

'The Soiling of Old Glory,' Stanley Forman and Busing in Boston

A fascinating story on a photograph by Stanley Forman that epitomized the bad old Boston in the days of busing.

"On April 5, 1976, at an anti-busing rally at City Hall Plaza, Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald-American, captured a teenager as he transformed the American flag into a weapon directed at the body of a black man. It is the ultimate act of desecration, performed in the year of the bicentennial and in the shadows of Boston's Old State House. Titled The Soiling of Old Glory, the photograph appeared in newspapers around the country and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977."

The article connects the photo to other iconic photographs.  Another interesting aspect, this isn't even Forman's most disturbing picture.

Harvard's Political Surveillance Unit

The ACLU accuses Harvard of maintaining a political intelligence unit within their police department according to this interesting article by the Crimson:

"The nation’s preeminent civil liberties group is accusing the University of maintaining a political intelligence unit within the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), an allegation that comes after two protesters were arrested during a demonstration in the Square.

The protesters allege that undercover HUPD officers were photographing the demonstration, according to John Reinstein, the legal director of the Massachusetts division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“What we found really quite surprising and disturbing is that the Harvard police department has an undercover, plainclothes, political intelligence unit which so far as I know has never been acknowledged by them before,” Reinstein said.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano declined to comment, and a University spokesman did not comment as well.

The protesters, Patrick Keaney and Lisa Nieves, were arrested March 3 in front of the Holyoke Center according to the HUPD’s police log. The log said that “officers were monitoring a demonstration” prior to the arrest."

The arrest came when one of the demonstrators took her own picture of one of the "undercover" officers.

"Reinstein said that Nieves noticed a bystander in plainclothes taking photos of the protest and decided to go photograph him. When she did, the man informed her that he was an undercover police officer with HUPD and placed her under arrest for refusing to delete the photos."

Cambridge Common also notes some examples of apparent surveillance:

"I have heard stories from people who were involved in the 2001 Living Wage Campaign that corroborate such activity. During the time of the sit-in, campaigners had planned an action that was coordinated partially over email but not advertised publicly at all. When they showed up to the location of the action, HUPD was waiting for them. It seemed that the only way that HUPD could have known the action was taking place was if the authorities had been spying on the group, either electronically or by other means.

More shadiness of this kind took place during the Stand For Security Campaign last year. During the hunger strike and the daily actions that accompanied it, a plainclothes man with a nice camera was taking pictures of us almost every day. I went up to him one day to see what he was taking the pictures for and he told me that they were for the Harvard Gazette. I am sure the Harvard Gazette has photographers, but this guy was there almost every day and he was not taking pictures of things that you would really put into a magazine."

(via Cambridge Common)

Finding "Ancient Roads" in Vermont

Towns and groups all over Vermont are engaged in researching the paths of Vermont's "ancient roads." 

"The point is to comply with a 2006 state law that gives Vermont’s cities and towns until early next year to identify all their “ancient roads.” At that point, they can add the elusive roads to official town maps, ensuring that they remain public, or turn them over to owners of adjoining land.

Unlike many other states, where towns automatically forfeit rights to roads that go unused for years, Vermont requires that they remain public until formally discontinued. That has brought fights between towns and landowners whose property abuts or even intersects ancient roads, with the towns eager to preserve public access for outdoor pursuits and the owners seeking clear titles and privacy."

It seems like a fascinating process, hopefully some of the research will be posted on the Internet:  Google Maps anyone? 

"Peter Vollers, a lawyer in Woodstock . . ., said he loved getting out and looking for hints of ancient roads: parallel stone walls or rows of old-growth trees about 50 feet apart. Old culverts are clues, too, as are cellar holes that suggest people lived there; if so, a road probably passed nearby.

Mr. Vollers heads the Vermont Expedition Society, a group of off-roaders who treasure ancient roads as a recreational asset. He recently started a company, Vermont Overland Guide Services, to help off-roaders navigate ancient roads and other rural byways."

That said, it must be nerve-wracking if you own property in Vermont and some amateur historians' fun means you will lose access to some of your land or find a troup of SUVs heading across your lawn, especially if the "road" was last used in 1795

Harvard's Gym Problem

Harvard has received a lot of criticism and commentary for its decision to close one of its gyms to men so that .  Sahil Mahtani, a Harvard student, makes the interesting point that there apparently wasn't a lot of student demand for the policy despite the claims of "appeasement":

"One of the most surprising aspects of this story is how detached Harvard's Islamic community was from a decision for which it is being castigated. The impetus came from Howard Georgi, the master of one of Harvard's residential houses, who told me via e-mail that he was approached by one of the house administrators--he couldn't remember which--who had been contacted by "some of the Muslim women in the House." He then sent an e-mail to Susan B. Marine, the Director of the Harvard College Women's Center, asking her to look into the policy. Ola Aljawhary, the student Marine asked to confirm the interest on behalf of the Muslim community, told me that she casually consulted with friends "who certainly didn't mind the idea"--which administrators took as sufficient demand to adopt the policy. Neither Georgi nor Marine spoke directly to the women who requested the policy in the first place. The Harvard Islamic Society--the active campus organization for undergraduate Islamic affairs--did not know about the change until it was being formalized and in its final stages, according to the society's president. This clearly wasn't Harvard "capitulating" to Islam, considering how minimally Muslim students were involved in the decision.

 

But the decision put Harvard in the awkward position of having to arbitrate what constitutes legitimate religious practice. Marine claims there was a "moral and ethical responsibility" for the administration to act on this request, telling the Associated Press last month that "it's a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code ... and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment." But according to Aljawhary, "It's not like we can't work out when men are around." In fact, "we were not 'demanding' women-only hours," Aljawhary said. If the administration had said no, she said, "it would have been okay

"

Campus Competitions Lead Collegiate Startup Competition

Companies started by Yale and Harvard undergrads are rivals in developing campus-based games of Risk.  The games played with teams of students who compete to capture territory on campus maps.

"[T]wo separate Internet companies, GoCrossCampus and Kirkland North, ... have sprung up to commercialize the concept behind Old Campus Tree Risk, a team-based online strategy game staged by a group of Yale undergrads in early 2007.

Both companies’ systems help college groups and other organizations mount simulated, massively multiplayer campaigns to conquer “territory” such as the campus green—or the entire Northeast, in the case of an Ivy League championship run by GoCrossCampus last fall. The games resemble the classic board games Risk or Diplomacy, but with the board transposed onto online maps representing real geographies inhabited by the players, and with the action coordinated in a combination of online sessions and real-world team meetings."

There have been suggestions of anger between the two start-ups but they seem to be overblown.

New Massachusetts Bill Would Target Video Games

Although the video game industry has been doing pretty well in Massachusetts, the legislature is focusing on them for some tough treatment with a new bill being proposed and discussed on March 18th:

"HB1423 attempts to restrict the sale of video games with violent content to minors, making the sale of such titles illegal. No similar law is currently in effect as pertains to video games, movies, music or literature with violent content.

The bill, taking the “games-as-porn” approach, is titled such because it uses the rational that sexually explicit material and violent video games are equally harmful to minors. If this bill is passed, it would officially change the legal definition of content that is “harmful to minors” to include anything that “…depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors; is patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committed as to suitable material for  such minors; and  lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.”"

Some Boston game developers are worried about the effect of this bill noting in an email message that:

"* This bill would violate the First Amendment rights of video game developers and the public for whom we make video games. In particular, on Monday a federal appeals court confirmed a ban on a similar law in Minnesota.  (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895920-7.html). The bill is a waste of taxpayers' money.
* The video game industry has an effective rating system in place to distinguish which games are no  appropriate for minors. In particular, it's more effective and provides far more information than the ratings system in place for movies.
* ----. The Massachusetts game industry is booming, employs thousands of people and provides many hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the Massachusetts economy. H. 1423 sends the wrong message, that Massachusetts does not welcome the video game development industry."

Mayor Menino says he supports the bill but it looks likely to be overturned given its similarity to other laws that have been overturned around the country.

Harvard Grad Students Hacked!

10,000 Harvard grad students' records were cracked by a hacker with data being exposed and epic headaches for the students.

"A Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Web server that contained summaries of GSAS applicant data for entry to the Fall 2007 academic year, summaries of GSAS housing applicant data for the 2007-08 and 2006-07 academic years, and administrator information was hacked by an outsider and compromised in a way that the data on the server could have been viewed or copied. The GSAS site was taken down from Feb. 17 until Feb. 21 in order to investigate the incident and to improve security.

The University’s initial examination did not reveal the full extent of the hack. As the investigation continued, it became apparent that some sensitive applicant data, including Social Security numbers, could potentially have been accessed. The University has informed the GSAS community, and has apologized for the error. At Harvard’s expense, identity theft recovery services are being made available to the people who might be potentially affected."

Over 6,000 of the students had their Social Security numbers posted online.

"The hacker made a portion of the server’s contents available for download through a popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing site, “The Pirate Bay,” where users can easily obtain large files.

The data made available through that site contained no personal information, [Harvard Chief Information Officer Daniel] Moriarty said, but the hacker would have had access to all the information on the server."

Kennedy School Professor Power Resigns From Obama Campaign

Kennedy School professor Samantha Power resigned after calling Hilary Clinton a monster and was forced to resign as an adviser to the Obama campaign:

"Samantha Power resigned as a foreign-policy adviser to Barack Obama yesterday, hours after the Scotsman newspaper quoted her as making a disparaging remark about Hillary Clinton-- although, immediately after uttering the comment, she asked the reporter not to use it. As the story recounted

" 'She is a monster, too -- that is off the record -- she is stooping to anything,' Ms. Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.'"

Edith Wharton House Faces Foreclosure

Edith Wharton, chronicler of rich and snobbish New Yorkers in novels like The Age of Innocence , built a massive summer house in the Berkshires and in a blow to her posthumous dignity it is in imminent danger of being repossessed.  Now the organization that restored and runs The Mount, as Wharton's house is known, is facing the property's foreclosure. 

"To stave off creditors -- including, most prominently, Berkshire Bank -- so the home, which is listed as a National Historic Landmark, can continue to be a viable business venture, it must raise $6 million by March 24." 

They seem to have lined up a person willing to match $3 million of the debt.

After having borrowed million to pay for restorations the organization cannot pay the debt and has already missed one mandatory payment.  Borrowing that much seems like a very risky strategy when the usual approach seems to be to raise money first and then begin a big project. 

House museums often aren't all that popular so it remains to be seen whether there will be the kind of grassroots support that saved Toscanini's.  Do people like Edith Wharton the way they like ice cream?

(Image of The Mount:  Edith Wharton.org)

Comcast Packed FCC Hearing

Comcast hired people off the street to pack the recent FCC hearing at Harvard Law School.

"Comcast — or someone who really, really likes Comcast — evidently bused in its own crowd. These seat-warmers, were paid to fill the room, a move that kept others from taking part."

And now they admit having done so.

"Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early and hold places in the queue for local Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing.

Some of those placeholders, however, did more than wait in line: They filled many of the seats at the meeting, according to eyewitnesses. As a result, scores of Comcast critics and other members of the public were denied entry because the room filled up well before the beginning of the hearing.

Free Press campaign director Timothy Karr said that he showed up at the hearing 90 minutes early, only to find the room "75 percent full." "The only reason these people were in the room, it seemed to me, was to keep seats warm and exclude others," Karr said."

(Photo of sleepers at the hearing - Free Press)

Toscanini's Tax Controversy Makes the NY Times

Toscanini's tax controversy makes the NY Times after donations help the store re-open while the donation request sparks complaints from taxpayers.

"[Sam] Mehr [a Toscanini employee who set up the donation website], who first tasted Toscanini’s ice cream as an elementary-school student and has helped invent flavors like summer blue lemon (blueberry ice cream with lemon zest) and plum and red wine sorbet, said even he felt ambivalent about the outpouring of cash.

“There are a lot of nonprofit organizations that ethically the money could be better suited for,” he said. “But food is something that people really, really care about. Food is a really integral part of our lives, and people do not want to see Toscanini’s go.”

Senator: Why were the Patriots' tapes destroyed?

On the eve of the Super Bowl Senator Arlen Spector, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to Washington to explain why the NFL destroyed the evidence in the Patriots spying case.

"When Mr. Specter was asked if he could envision a situation in which employees of the Patriots or the N.F.L. were called to testify before the committee, he said he wanted to take the investigation 'one step at a time.'”

“'It could,' Mr. Specter said. 'It’s premature to say whom we’re going to call or when. It starts with the commissioner. He had the tapes, and he made the decision as to what the punishment could be. He made the decision to destroy them.'"

The Vermont Independence Movement

The Second Vermont Republic is a group of Vermonters who want to secede from the United States.

"Here’s how it will be with Vermont:  The leaders of its secessionist movement, the Second Vermont Republic, want to feed, shelter, clothe, and fuel a free republic broken from the empire. This doesn’t mean the little country will sink into Albanian isolation, its citizens ceasing to trade with China or refusing to watch the rot beamed on DirecTV satellites. It will continue to be a tourist destination, its slopes welcoming New Yorkers and Quebecois equally. But the state's secesh want to keep their tax dollars at home and put them toward localized food economies (calling it "food sovereignty"), energy supplies based on wind and water, and credit lines out of community lenders freed from the distant tyrannical rate controls of central banks." (via Bookforum)

You can up with Vermont independence ideas at Vermont Commons, a newspaper and website "dedicated to the proposition that Vermonters should peaceably secede from the United States Empire and govern themselves as a more sustainable independent republic once again."

Meanwhile what might be a sign of Vermont iconoclasm or idealism, residents of Brattleboro will vote at their March 4 town meeting "on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont." (via Digg)

Why Medford is divided about the Green Line extension; Will Medford become Somerville or Arlington?

Why Medford is divided about the Green Line extension.    Some look forward to higher property values others worry about gentrification, crowding, and noise.  Will Medford become Somerville or Arlington?  And behind all those issues is frustration that residents have "been given little chance to provide input to a project that seemed ordained by officials elsewhere."