The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA is the only museum of its kind. It was founded by non-religious icon collector and plastics entrepreneur Gordon Lankton.
John Hodgman reflects on Massachusetts.
A Russian wild boar, unusual in Massachusetts, was hit on route 2 in Lancaster, only about 35 miles from Boston.
(Image: Poster of the Hogzilla movie, based on the country's most famous giant pig).
An interesting discussion of anarchism with UMass professor Robert Paul Wolff, the author of In Defense of Anarchism, an important text on the subject.
A new series of plays use the T as both inspiration and constraint.
The whole event is sponsored by the Mill 6 Collaborative.
Revere: Revolution in Silver is a graphic novel set in colonial Boston where Paul Revere isn't just a silversmith and a hero of the American Revolution but must battle monsters like werewolves as well. Werewolves are vulnerable to silver so that could work.
Jason
Daniels and Medfield.TV are sponsoring the 2008 100 Second Film
Festival.
“Our objective is to stimulate people to create, watch and share videos (that are 100 seconds or less in duration).
It a showcase for unique visions, exceptional creativity, and vibrant, authentic voices. We are a grassroots, community spirited collaboration.
Naturally the festival has its own video blog.
You can also see past entries in their archives. If you've been hesitating about putting a video together for a competition you can't use length as an excuse any longer.
Info:
Entry deadline:
November 15
Cost:
Free
Daniel Ding is Massachusetts' man in China.
Massachusetts "has opened a new office in Beijing that will focus on attracting investments from China to Massachusetts, while fostering critical ties with government officials.
Watch the top short (under 3:30 minutes) films that are in the Boston division of the Diesel Film Racing 2008 competition. All films were made in a 24-hour period. Vote for your favorite. Kudos to "Third Date" (NSFW) for including a film within a film in an under 4 minute movie.
It's too bad all the films aren't up on YouTube or Blip.TV because they are quite slow to load from the Film Racing website
Daniel Gross explains more about the great lobster price decline that we've written about.
“At root, the global forces that are driving up the price of food don't significantly affect the vacation lobster business in Maine. Commercial and consumer demand doesn't vary much for off-the-boat lobster. Sure, many lobsters are sold to processing plants. But unlike other seafood products—think of canned tuna, or clam sauce, or frozen fish fillets—lobster is not produced or marketed on a mass global scale, which also means there are no speculators trying to make a killing on lobster futures. The fact that people are eating more and better in China and India isn't much boosting the demand for lobsters from Maine. Even in the United States, lobster remains to a large degree a regional product.
Braintree-based Bin Ends wine store is building a customer following by organizing wine tastings where fellow tasters interact over the Twitter messaging service and with wine makers.
Great idea to attract customers who might not want to head out to a wine tasting and especially for those who aren't in the immediate area of the store. Not only is it interactive but it overcomes the geography problem faced by a lot of smaller retailers. (via Metaboston Media)
Preserve Mass Barns works to preserve one of the most evocative symbols of Massachusetts' agricultural past, its barns.
"A barn is an expression of the people who built it. When we lose one, we’ve lost a part of our history, a part of ourselves."
A heartbreaking story about Hiu Lui Ng whose cruel and nightmarish treatment by the US Government took him through detention facilities in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and finally to Rhode Island where he died of cancer that had been untreated for months.
"He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons.
But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.
In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
On Tuesday, with an autopsy by the Rhode Island medical examiner under way, his lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the Department of Homeland Security which runs the detention system."
The invasive Asian longhorned beetle has been found near Worcester. The beetle infests hardwood trees. Once they are present, the only method to stop the infestation is to cut down the affected trees as was done in Chicago.
"The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis, "ALB"), a pest of hardwood trees including maple, birch and horse chestnut, was recently discovered in Worcester, Massachusetts. An astute resident of the Greendale section of Worcester reported the sighting, and it was confirmed by entomologists from USDA APHIS-PPQ earlier this week.
The Asian Longhorn Beetle is an invasive species native to China. It was first discovered in the U.S. in New York in 1996, and has also been found in Chicago and New Jersey. The beetles cause damage by tunneling within the trunks and branches of trees, disrupting the sap flow and weakening and eventually killing them.
This pest attacks a wide variety of hardwood trees, particularly maples, and is considered a serious threat to the nursery, lumber, wood products, maple syrup, and tourism industries in our state. If it became established over a large area, it could also significantly disrupt the forest ecosystem."
You can submit photos and a report if you think you see the beetle. (Image: Jennifer Forman Orth, Mass DAR)
An interesting discussion by University of Maine student Cameron McCormick.
(Video by BatGuys of a coyote in Sudbury).
A multiple vehicle accident on Rt. 395 south ripped open the refrigerated truck and spilled 11,000 pounds of live lobsters and fish and about 150 gallons of diesel fuel.
Some of the fuel spilled on the seafood in the crash leaving it exposed without refrigeration for hours, prompting Webster's director of public health to order the load destroyed Sunday."
If you don't admire our beautiful sport, you can compliment our heroic staff who help subdue disturbed airline passengers!
"Three staff members of the New England [Revolution], on an
American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles, helped subdue a
passenger who had stripped, put his clothes back on and then tried to
open an emergency exit door.
The American Airlines flight 725
was diverted to Oklahoma City after the passenger had tie wraps placed
on him. He was taken off the flight and placed under mental evaluation ."
An initiative sponsored by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy will appear on the November ballot.
"A marijuana decriminalization initiative has qualified for November's ballot in Massachusetts. The initiative would make possession of up to an ounce, currently a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, a civil offense with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. Pot smokers could not be arrested or jailed, and they would not have criminal records, which trigger ancillary penalties that can be far more onerous than the official punishment. NORML reports that a recent poll found supporters of the initiative outnumber opponents by 2 to 1."
A nice essay by Bill McKibben (from the Patagonia catalog) on the return of the moose to the Northeast, including Massachusetts, and how moose symbolize wildness.
"There’s something prehistoric about the moose – his size, his nearsighted manner, his lack of concern. The fact that he’s been able to roam back into this most relentlessly civilized of all North American regions makes us realize it’s not quite the place we’d thought. Its presence here can’t be taken for granted. Indeed, warming temperatures mean it’s unlikely to get much farther south, and there are already signs of its range starting to constrict as temperatures rise in the upper Midwest. But for the moment, the moose is a tonic symbol that the place we live in isn’t entirely civilized. That’s the idea that conservationists most need to get their work done, the sense that this is still a natural place, indeed more natural all the time. With a moose standing insouciantly in the nearest swamp, our constricted East Coast imaginations have precious freedom to roam."
Moms in Massachusetts are more likely to have more than one baby:
"Women who give birth in Massachusetts are more likely to be older -- and more likely to have multiple births -- and to be using techniques to assist conception which also increases multiples." (Image: Dionne quintuplets).
Once hunted for their fur, fishers were re-introduced to northern New England to help control porcupines. Since their reintroduction they've been spreading out as far as Rhode Island, Connecticut and suburban Boston.
"Sinewy, with bushy tails and beady eyes, fishers weigh 5 to 15 pounds and live on land and in trees. They are mainly carnivorous, typically eating squirrels, mice, voles and other small animals, as well as nuts and seeds. Fishers are also one of the porcupine’s few enemies, killing it by attacking its snout and flipping it on its back.
“Fishers are pretty vicious,” said Michelle Johnson, the animal control officer in West Greenwich.
The fisher belongs to the mustelid family, which includes weasels, otters and wolverines. It has the aggressive, carnivorous temperament of a wolverine and can climb trees like a marten. Like weasels, a fisher will kill multiple animals at a time in a confined space. Fishers are nocturnal and not easily spotted."
Although fishers can be dangerous to small pets and livestock they aren't a threat to humans.
"In suburban Lexington, Mass., officials hung fliers in the common area of a condominium complex urging residents to keep cats and small dogs indoors because a fisher was spotted in nearby woods. In Northborough, Mass., officials put a warning in the newspaper asking that residents seal all garbage cans and refrain from putting out food for animals." (Image: Fisher by John James Audubon)
Local activists in the Berkshires created a local currency called BerkShares to encourage the local economy. Tim Harford questions whether they do any economic good but thinks they may build community ties:
"The real benefits, if they exist, are not economic but social, and best explained not by an economist like me but by a sociologist such as Ed Collom of the University of Southern Maine.
Collom's work looks, at first glance, like bad news for the community-currency movement. He has found, for example, that most currency schemes in the United States last only a few years before collapsing. The ones that thrive are in places which already have strong, liberal, middle-class communities, such as Portland, Ore., or Ithaca, N.Y. In the Rust Belt areas that would seem to need them more, they have not taken root. The schemes take a lot of effort to set up: Brixton LETS, for instance, remains nascent.
But despite the obstacles, Ed Collom is convinced that local currencies can strengthen neighborhood ties and allow people to make friends: They are a focal point for the community-minded, even when they do not last."
Tyler Cowan thinks more of the idea arguing that "private currencies can serve as a form of price discrimination. By accepting private currency from your local customers, and indeed only your local customers, you can charge them a lower net price and without being very public about it."
Twelve is an anthology with a film for each month set in and around Boston. June, Noah Lydiard's summer vacation adventure is above, and with the 11 others will be shown on Sunday.
"This eclectic but unified collection of short stories forms both a love
letter both to Boston and an impressive showcase for the area's
burgeoning indie filmmaking scene. Executive producer Scott Masterson
conceived an experimental collaborative project in which each film is
written and directed by a different filmmaker, while all of the artists
were required to contribute in some way to every other short in the
project. Knowing cohesion would allow the project to shine, he devised
a simple but inspired theme: each of the twelve films represents a
month of the year and was shot entirely in that month. The directors
simply had to capture the spirit of their month however they wished.
The
result is a smorgasbord of different genres: comedy, drama, ghost
story, crime melodrama, documentary, and even-quite
unexpectedly-musical. Together we meet a robot-sport inventor, a young
woman obsessed with following a stranger, several beekeepers, and a man
who hasn't slept in two years. What holds these variety of visions
together is its local flavor: TWELVE guides us from famous sightseeing
spots to familiar neighborhoods, beckoning us into Boston's bookstores,
bars, and candlepin bowling alleys, leading us along the Charles and
down Mass Ave. Part of the fun lies in spotting the different ways each
filmmaker incorporates a particular Public Garden tree and in
recognizing characters from one film when they pop up in another. It is
this combination of individual creation and collaborative inventiveness
that makes this film both unique in itself and distinctively Bostonian."
Sun, Apr 27, 07:00 PM at the Somerville Theatre.
The Greening of Southie documents the construction of the Macallen Building, the first sustainable condominiums in South Boston and shows over the weekend.
"The film covers everything from the pouring of the first concrete to
the arrival of the first tenant, acquainting us with each specially
chosen material and conscientiously designed energy system.
Accompanying the journey are a lively soundtrack by Force Theory, the
jovial banter of the construction crew, and a frequently updated tally
of points—toward the coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) gold rating.
Cheney's is a photographic
sensibility; he pinpoints and captures the latent beauty in a pile of
scrap metal, a smear of glue, a dusty steel girder. The result is a
kinetic and detailed exploration of this exciting experiment: the
values Macallen is intended to promote, the sometimes dubious attitudes
of workers and neighbors, even the unexpected and occasionally
embarrassing setbacks."
Sat, Apr 26, 01:00 PM at the Somerville Theatre
Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey held a meeting in Second Life where a congressional subcommittee discussed issues relating to virtual worlds:
"A self-admitted group of virtual-world newbies, the politicians, led by Rep. Ed Markey (D - Mass.), asked a wide-ranging group of questions. In an era where technologies can catch on and become mainstream quickly, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet wanted
to know some basics. Could Second Life be used as a place to launder
money? Are children safe in online worlds? Are there churches in there?
Are you making any money?"
(Image of Markey's Second Life avatar: Markey website)
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)
A significant number of endangered right whales are congregating off Massachusetts to feed on plankton and fish in the Stellwagen Bank.
"Observers say about one-fifth
of the world's population of North Atlantic right whales is feeding off
the coast of Massachusetts.
The Center for Coastal Studies in
Provincetown, Mass., which has done aerial surveys of Stellwagen Bank,
puts the number at 79, the Boston Globe reports. There are believed to
be only 350 North Atlantic right whales remaining."
Right whales acquired their name because of their popularity with whalers because they are slow and their corpses float. (Image: Greenpeace)
Ricky Gervais' blog of his first film as director This Side of the Truth (currently shooting in Lowell) is funny.
"We shot our first outdoor scene today too and a huge crowd filled the
streets to watch. Usually I would hate this and get stressed out, but
because the people of Lowell were so quiet and polite it was actually
quite pleasant.
It was like filming in front of a studio audience. They even laughed when I fucked up.
However, the Lowell sun misbehaved a bit. Not the newspaper, the
gigantic ball of burning gas 93 million miles away which was meant to
drop behind a building by 3.15.
It didn't.
In fact at one point I'm sure it actually went up a bit.
So in those scenes I will be squinting like a fat little mole type creature"
(via boston.com)
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court says nakedness in Harvard Square is a violation of state law.
"The SJC ruled today that the state’s open and gross lewdness law is legit. The law was challenged by a Cambridge woman, Ria Ora, who was arrested for dancing naked in Harvard Square."
Ora's naked dance was a protest against Christmas commercialization.
Given the number of buskers and leaflet passers in Harvard Square nakedness is probably one of the only ways to get any real attention.
Mass Travel & Tourism's new ad campaign features 90 ads of different places of interest from Naumkeag to Newbury Street as a way to showcase the variety of Massachusetts attractions.
Ad Rants likes the 90 ads ideas but thinks something's missing:
"You know what would really have spiced this whole thing up? A Mooninite or two, Where's Waldo?-style."
Travel & Tourism should also allow embedding so the spots will get more viewings.
Would you like to be a Republican candidate in Massachusetts? The Massachusetts Republican Party wants to meet you. (via Joho the Blog)
Ian Bowles, the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and greenhouse gas emissions auctions.
"Later this year, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states will hold the
nation's first auction of greenhouse gas emissions permits. Congress
should take note: this market-based, technology-neutral auction is a
model for how to encourage power generators to limit their emissions.
And it could provide the foundation for a federal-state partnership to
revolutionize energy use.
Auctions
make sense. When Europe first tried regulating greenhouse gases under a
cap-and-trade program, in 2005, it gave away, or "grandfathered,"
emissions permits to its power generators, which made modest changes in
their operations and then sold the permits to others at a premium. The
result: windfall profits for the power companies. Europe is now
switching to emissions auctions and plans to finance programs promoting
climate protection, economic growth and energy security with the
proceeds.
These
Northeastern states, members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,
stand to raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually that can be
used to help residential and business customers make the equipment
upgrades that will allow them to live and work with less electricity.
This will be a welcome investment. But imagine how much more money such
auctions could raise if they were conducted by the federal government,
and how much we would help the environment if a big chunk of the
proceeds were devoted to reducing energy use and curbing emissions in
all 50 states."
****
"Here in Massachusetts, we have cut the annual growth in electricity demand by nearly one-third. Through rebates, incentives and low-interest loans, we've helped business and residential customers reduce their energy consumption and save money at the same time. As a result, Massachusetts has one of the highest gross state products per unit of energy used in the country.
Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders here are also trying to create a new electricity marketplace where energy efficiency competes directly with power generation to meet growing demand at the lowest cost. That's why Massachusetts is upending a century-old rate structure that rewards utilities for selling as much electricity as possible - an incentive profoundly at odds with curbing greenhouse gas emissions."
Why do we get piles of phone books dumped at addresses around the city when there is increasing concern about generating waste and carbon footprints?
Because they contain ads that the phone book companies have sold. The mass delivery of phone books then is basically junk mail or very heavy spam.
"For those who don't want it, there is little recourse. Unlike services that let consumers sign up for no-call lists to stop cold-calling advertisers, it's not so easy to avoid getting the phone book. Some directory companies have phone numbers that residents can call to stop phone book deliveries to their homes, but the numbers can be hard to locate. And governments say they are constrained in imposing blanket restrictions.
"It's a First Amendment issue," said Sharon Gillett, commissioner of the state Department of Telecommunications and Cable. "How are they different from free newspapers or political fliers?"
They could enforce a requirement that directory companies need to pick up any unused copies after a reasonable period and of course there is a difference between commercial and political speech.
Maine-based Hannaford Brothers supermarkets, with 25 Massachusetts stores, is the latest retailer to report that outsiders gained access to its payment information compromising the security of possibly millions of customer credit and debit cards.
"Hannaford didn't mention the number of payment cards that were compromised. But citing company officials, the Associated Press reported that as many as 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers may have been taken, and that about 1,800 cases of fraud have been reported as a result of the breach thus far."
Computerworld has some interesting theories on how the theft was accomplished:
"Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said that based on the alerts sent to banks by Visa and MasterCard, the intrusion at Hannaford appears to have involved the theft of magnetic stripe data from the back of credit and debit cards. Such data "can be used to make counterfeit cards," Litan noted. "Otherwise, Visa and MasterCard wouldn't have bothered notifying all these banks."
Under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard mandated by the major credit card companies, retailers are prohibited from storing magnetic stripe data in their systems. In this case, Litan said, the card information appears to have been stolen while it was in transit from Hannaford's systems to those of the financial institution that processes transactions for the chain.
"Thieves are going after data in transit," she said, noting that as companies get better at protecting stored data, more attackers are targeting information while it's being transmitted. According to Litan, many merchants still don't encrypt such data, even though doing so is a requirement under the industry security standard, which is known by the acronym PCI."
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.”"
"* 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.
What attacked a dozen sheep on a Shelburne, MA farm last fall? Scientists now say it was a gray wolf, a species that has been rare in the state for more than 150 years after examining the body of the animal which was shot.
"According to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the wild gray wolf was considered extinct in Massachusetts by about 1840. One was recorded in Berkshire County in 1918, but was believed to have escaped from domestic captivity.
A handful of confirmed spottings have been reported over the past decade of wolves being found in parts of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, but determining if they were wild or had been kept as illegal pets was difficult.
New England's large stretches of interconnected woods, mountainous regions and rural farmland offer good north-south corridors for wolves on the move.
***
Wolves can travel hundreds of miles as they wander from where they were born, seeking food, mates and new territory.
If this wolf originated in Canada, the experts say, it likely crossed the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, went through Maine, then navigated hundreds of miles of roads, rivers and communities before reaching Shelburne."
Another example of how a wildlife renaissance in New England is bringing back species common in colonial times and forces the region to confront some of the wildlife issues present in the West.
You can see wolves nearby in Ipswich, MA at the Wolf Hollow nonprofit sanctuary. (image: Nina, one of the Wolf Hollow wolves: Wolf Hollow).
Paintings by Courbet and Hassam stolen 30 years ago in Shrewsbury have re-emerged in Rhode Island.
"Three paintings stolen more than 30
years ago are now the subject of a court fight after turning up in the
home of a prominent Rhode Islander. The paintings, valued at about $1 million, were taken during a violent home invasion in Shrewsbury, Mass., in 1976. Patrick
Conley, a lawyer and developer from Bristol, R.I., said he received the
paintings from his younger brother as collateral on a $22,000 loan." Nice that he is trying to keep the paintings.
The weather's not too great today right? Well it could be worse. A lot worse. Today is the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978 as the invaluable Mass Moments reminds us.
"The Blizzard of '78 claimed 54 lives in New England, 29 of those in
Massachusetts. Seventeen thousand Massachusetts residents sought cover
in shelters, while emergency workers evacuated another 10,000 people.
By the time the storm ended on February 8th, over 11,000
homes were damaged or destroyed. Several historical treasures were lost
to the sea — the Outermost House on Cape Cod, Motif #1 in Rockport, and
the Peter Stuyvesant long moored next to Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant in Boston."
"Almost 30 years later, the Blizzard of '78 still sets the standard for
winter storms. People who lived through it can still tell you exactly
where they were and what they were doing when it hit. Some remember the
terror of having their homes flooded by the sea or their cars buried in
snow. But most recall the spirit of cooperation — even heroism — that
prevailed. An occasional seaside home still displays one of the bumper
stickers that once adorned nearly every Massachusetts car: "I survived
the Blizzard of '78.'"
MBTA loses $55 million on debt derivatives
"'It appears the MBTA was willing to accept short-term cash for
long-term debt,' said [State Auditor Joe] DeNucci, 'and then paid millions of dollars in
termination fees when the interest rates changed and became unfavorable
to the authority.'”
***
“'These rate swaps
were highly speculative, risky and complex, and have proved costly to
the riders who are paying increased fares and the taxpayers who
subsidize the MBTA,' said DeNucci."
How long until a rate increase?
Mass Moments is a daily podcast (and website) describing diverse historical events that took place on that day in past years. The podcast is a minute long with more detailed information on the website. Recent historical events of significance have included the birthday of the first African-American Harvard graduate, Bill Belichik's appointment to the Patriots' coaching job, and Boston's Great Molasses Flood.
Logan is one of 10 U.S. airports beginning to use new 10 finger fingerprint scanners for all foreigners arriving at the airport.
The London Times reports that there have been claims of false identifications made by the scanners:
" Miguel Espinoza brought a lawsuit against Identix in 2004 after his prints were wrongly assigned to a convicted murderer. The case was dismissed after the judge ruled that human error, and not the scanner, had caused the mix-up, but human-rights groups say overdependence on technology will continue to put travellers at risk."
There have also been increasing concerns that fingerprint evidence may not be as reliable as once thought.
The MBTA will begin to provide free WiFi service on trains on the 45 mile Worcester-Framingham-Boston line this week with plans to eventually extend service to all commuter lines.
"The Worcester-Framingham-Boston line, [Lt. Gov. Timothy P. ] Murray
said, is a good place to start testing the service, in part to make up
to commuters for some of the problems with periodic delays. 'This is a
way to mitigate some of the problems we have had over the last year as
we try to improve service, and we really want to bring it to the whole
commuter rail system,' he said."
A great idea for using that dead time on the train; will the spread of WiFi on commuter trains and other public transport help to speed the decline of paper newspapers? Interesting that commuters noticed the WiFi as it was being tested before any official announcement.
While trains overseas have WiFi this is an apparent first in the U.S.
"This would be likely be the largest deployment of train-based Wi-Fi outside of Europe, where GNER in the UK and SJ in Sweden have a couple dozen trains on a small number of lines unwired. This trial uses Sprint’s EVDO service through an external antenna mounted on each car; 45 coaches are currently set up for Wi-Fi. The authority has already received piles of enthusiastic comments. No word on which service provider (if any) is involved among the several companies that unwire trains." (There's more technical info from WiFi Net News on the plan for the aficionado).
(via Endgadget)
Massachusetts' new 211 number is intended to provide a source for callers to get information on government services without burdening 911 with non-emergency calls:
"2-1-1 is an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable number that makes a critical connection between individuals and families seeking services or volunteer opportunities and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies. 2-1-1 makes it possible for people to navigate the complex and ever-growing maze of human service agencies and programs. By making services easier to access, 2-1-1 encourages prevention and fosters self-sufficiency."
Yet Somerville is one of the only local cities to use the 311 service to guide callers to city services that has been so successful in New York.
(via Boston Traveler)
Roadkill proves bobcats are living in southeastern Massachusetts. Coyotes not the only threat to small pets. (Image: John James Audubon)
Cape Cod is old:
"About a quarter of Cape residents are over 65, compared to about 13 percent nationwide.
Another
telling statistic shows the Cape had 5,000 more deaths than births from
2000 to 2006, the sixth-highest percentage loss in the nation. That
puts the Cape ahead of retiree-laden Florida's Pinellas, Volusia and
Pasco counties."
Respond to jury duty in Massachusetts online through new JuryDuty website
Respond to jury summons online through a new Massachusetts government website: JuryDuty.
Massachusetts has been in the news for a proposed ban on spanking but what is the current state of the law about spanking or physical discipline? Pretty unclear.
""in Commonwealth v. O'Connor,
407 Mass. 663, 667 (1990), the court discussed such a right, noting,
however, that, as of that time, "[n]o Massachusetts decision or statute
grants parents or others a right to use reasonable force in
disciplining a child."
However, it also says, "Instruction 3.15
of the Massachusetts Superior Court Criminal Practice Jury Instructions
(1st Supp. 2003) proposes a jury instruction stating that "[a] parent,
or one acting in the position of a parent and who has assumed the
responsibilities of a parent, may use reasonable force to discipline
(his/her) minor child."
An interesting interview with documentary film director Frederick Wiseman and the banning of 'Titticut Follies' in Massachusetts.
"It has been 40 years since the premiere of Titicut Follies, a
bleak and scathing documentary about an asylum for the criminally
insane. The audience at that first screening saw a cascade of
disturbing images of mistreatment and neglect, most notoriously a
brutal force-feeding of a naked inmate. As the prisoner is fed through
the nose, a guard tells him to “chew your food”; the tube itself is
lubricated with grease, and a doctor dangles a burning cigarette over
the funnel.
--
The movie was both a landmark piece of
journalism and a landmark work of art. It made the Massachusetts
Correctional Institution at Bridgewater one of the most infamous
madhouses in the country, and it is now one of the most celebrated
documentaries of the ’60s. It is also notable for two reasons that have
nothing to do with its merits. It was the first picture to be directed
by Frederick Wiseman, a former law professor who at age 37 was
beginning a long series of rich and challenging films. And it is the
only movie in U.S. history to be banned for reasons other than
obscenity or national security.
The staff at the asylum
cooperated with Wiseman as he shot the picture, and by his account they
initially liked the movie. But as audiences’ horrified reactions to
what they were seeing became clear, the authorities turned against the
film, arguing that it violated the privacy of the prisoners and moving
to have it legally suppressed. (For a modern parallel, imagine applying
the same argument to the photos taken at Abu Ghraib.)
--
On January 4, 1968, Superior Court Judge Harry Kalus ruled for the state, denouncing Titicut Follies
as “80 minutes of brutal sordidness and human degradation.” Playing
critic as well as judge, he also attacked its experimental structure
(“a hodge-podge of sequences”) and its willingness to let viewers find
their own meaning in the material (“There is no narrative accompanying
the film, nor are there any subtitles”). He not only ruled that all
screenings should cease but called for the movie itself to be
destroyed. An appeals court only partially reversed the decision: The
picture could still be shown in Massachusetts, it declared, but just to
professionals and students in relevant fields. Since Wiseman was a
citizen of Massachusetts, he wasn’t able to show it freely outside the
commonwealth either—and he controlled nearly all the copies of the
film. The ban wasn’t lifted until 1991."
You can't escape insects even in the cold seasons as the MetroWest is plagued by European winter moths, a new and voracious invasive species with no natural predators. (Image Tom Peterson, Fermilab)
