On the topic of oil spills:

Oil spills are bad, but this is so cute!

Weird Science

I learned recently that as part of the ongoing Deepwater Horizon natural resource damage assessment, people are traipsing across the Gulf coast putting dead birds on beaches and letting them rot! In science speak, this is called a "bird carcass persistence" study. Government agencies stockpile frozen bird carcasses around the country for exactly this purpose: when the need arises, they ship the birds to the study site, and people place them on beaches, marshes, wherever, checking back regularly to see how long it takes the birds to decompose or disappear (i.e., be eaten). The results are used to adjust surveys of oil spill damage to account for the number of dead birds that weren't still around by the time the surveyors got there.

How gross! This is one work assignment I do not want.

(Interestingly, I remember that Mary Roach's book Stiff  describes a similar study of human decomposition, but presumably the results of that one aren't used as often for survey adjustments.)

From the Olden Golden Days

Boston is a very old city--like, really old.  To my friends who love history--come visit me!! We can fill up a weekend with tours and museums and still have more to see!!

Between visiting Boston from Brown, visiting friends in Boston from Michigan, and living here for three months, I've more or less seen it all. This last weekend, I went to see one of the few major historical sites I hadn't yet toured--the USS Constitution.

"Old Ironsides" (who is made of wood) is 214 years old this month, and still makes 6-8 voyages a year. (The rest of us can only dream of being that active at that age.) Mostly, though, she docks in Charlestown at the north end of the Freedom Trail. (The Freedom Trail, for those of you who haven't seen it, is like the yellow brick road to Oz, except it's red and leads to each of the oldest, most important historical sites in downtown Boston.) Of all the impressive things about this sailing ship, I was most interested to see that the ceiling height below deck was just barely tall enough for me not to bump my head. Clearly, if environmental consulting does not work out, I should be a tourguide. I also found the idea of sleeping in a hammock fascinating, and the myriad rope ladders climbing the masts made me nervous. I really wanted to see the Constitution crew climb one.

I'll share a few of my photos, but be warned that it was really sunny and I was snapping these on my phone, which is impossible to see in direct sunlight. So the pictures do not always capture the view I intended; whoops! :) Regardless, this is one beautiful ship, and although it's certainly worth paying for, the tours are always free.

I wonder if you would get more or less seasick sleeping in a hammock.

Cannons on the gun deck.

So many ropes! They actually used to manufacture the ropes at the Charlestown Navy Yard, since typical rope quality wasn't good enough for battleships.

SNREds are so talented!

After my walk around Pfizer today, I spent the evening glued to my computer (because TV decided they didn't want to show the Michigan game so I had to follow online) and this is what I discovered:

The minister of the Unitarian church in Cambridge is an SNRE alum. That's cool. He was named by Grist magazine as one of fifteen Green Religious Leaders worldwide. That's very cool. And he plays in a folk band, singing songs that sound like Sesame Street:

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Makes me wonder what other religious leaders do in their free time. (Actually, I know from last Sunday that the Episcopalian one follows his fiancée along on hikes, hilariously lamenting the mud staining his shoes.)

(And don't worry--Michigan won their game against Northwestern, bringing our season total to 6-0!)

Frustration

Today was unseasonably warm for October (82 degrees, wow!), so I put most of my Saturday errands on hold and decided it was instead the perfect day for exploring the Alewife Brook Reservation (supposedly my new favorite place, according to my last post). After an exhausting morning of walking miles around town to do the absolutely necessary errands, I took the T to Alewife and started hunting for the Reservation. It was supposed to be adjacent to the T stop and is 120 acres, so I figured it would be obvious, right? Well, I couldn't find it. I found what looked like an entrance, but it was under construction and closed. Then I found a very nice bike path that did not count as a park or hiking trail, despite me walking a mile or so down it just to check. So then I walked a half mile or so in the other direction to see if I could find an alternate entrance. Nope. All I found was a giant Pfizer industrial park. Incredibly annoyed and footsore, I got back on the T and came home, where I searched rigorously online until I found the disappointing news that construction closures will be in effect through summer 2013. Moreover, the "120-acre urban wild" seems to have been encroached upon by houses, as the map shows houses edging the ponds and trails.

I am so disappointed. I thought I had found my outdoor getaway! Instead I spent the most beautiful fall day traipsing around Pfizer.

Another Story

This one written by the New York Times about my old home!! Once a Michigander, always a Michigander.

Not to say that Cambridge isn't awesome; I'm starting to love it. I may not have a farmer's market, but I have a nursery and a Japanese grocery down the street. And I haven't actually been there yet, but this place is at the end of an 11-mile bike path and has the potential to become my favorite spot in the city.  And although nothing - NOTHING - can compare to exuberant Football Saturdays at the Big House, I can watch the games with a hundred other exuberant UM alums at a bar one block from my apartment. And to give the Boston sports scene some credit, at least when teams lose here (*ahem, Red Sox*), they do so spectacularly.