Boston was originally a near island, connected to the mainland by a very narrow isthmus. The narrow strand was called Boston Neck. All foot traffic to and from Boston entered via the neck; shortly after its founding, the city built a defensive gate there.
The neck was so narrow that British solders dug a trench across it during the occupation of Boston at the outset of the Revolutionary War, turning Boston into a true island, for a while!
Here's a colonial map of Boston; I've indicated the neck with an arrow.
Here's what it looked like from the ground:
No trace of the original Neck remains today, but I was curious. I went looking for maps that would superimpose the colonial city on a current ,map, but could find none. Some old maps in the Boston Public Library offered hints, but also added confusion:
The original main street in and out of Boston changed names along its way: It began as Marlborough Street, changed to Newbury Street after a few blocks, and then changed again to Orange Street. After the Revolution, the street was given a unified name --- Washington Street.
Marlborough Street, Newbury Street, and Orange Street vanished, for a while.
Wikipedia says the Neck was about where this red circle is, at the intersection of what's now East Berkeley and Washington Streets:
I played with the maps, and --- after some futzing to get the sizes more or less correct --- overlaid the old, colonial map on the new Google map:
For clarity, I outlined the original shore:
This begins to show how much of Boston is reclaimed land: The original city was something like 4 square miles; it's now about 40 square miles (10sq.km/100sq.km).
Marlborough Street and Newbury Street eventually came back to life as new streets in the reclaimed section of Back Bay, wholly unconnected to their original locations. There's an Orange Street miles away, in another town; but the only remnant of Orange Street that remains in Boston proper is the name of the "Orange Line" subway!
And now we both know a little more useless trivia about Boston. :)
A mostly personal-interest feed; tech, science and some weird humor thrown in --- just for fun.
Friday, January 31, 2014
That horrible Obama, abusing Executive Orders... wait, what?
Executive Orders issued by Presidents (from Truman on, broken down by term):
Source: The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Found: Rare 1927 color film footage shot in and around London.
"In 1927 Claude Friese-Greene shot some of the first-ever color film footage around London. He captured everyday life in the city with a technique innovated by his father, called Biocolour...."
Story, video: http://tinyurl.com/p4h9e34
Story, video: http://tinyurl.com/p4h9e34
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Google autocomplete reveals what people ask most about each US state.
Some silly fun:
@Amazing_Maps asked Google "Why is {name of state} so..." and compiled the autocomplete results in a map.
Some of the results are ego-bruising --- hello, Georgia ("backwards") and Illinois ("corrupt"); others are ego-buffing, like Massachusetts' "smart." :)
Click for larger version to your own state:
https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps/status/427137968789549056/photo/1
@Amazing_Maps asked Google "Why is {name of state} so..." and compiled the autocomplete results in a map.
Some of the results are ego-bruising --- hello, Georgia ("backwards") and Illinois ("corrupt"); others are ego-buffing, like Massachusetts' "smart." :)
Click for larger version to your own state:
https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps/status/427137968789549056/photo/1
Saturday, January 25, 2014
This 5 min symphonette was created using 37 years of Voyager spacecraft data
"An Italian scientist has taken 37 years worth of data from both Voyager space probes and turned it into music. The result is surprisingly good.
"The composer, Domenico Vicinanza, is a project manager at Géant — Europe's high-speed data network that powers Cern and the Large Hadron Collider. He used 320,000 individual measurements of cosmic particle data taken at one-hour intervals using the spacecrafts' cosmic ray detector."
Details, 5-min audio (very pleasant!) via io9.com: http://tinyurl.com/nel5pkx
(props: Karen Lopez @datachick)
Friday, January 24, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
2013 tally: 7th warmest on record --- global warming continues apace.
"An analysis of global temperatures by NASA scientists shows that 2013 was the seventh warmest year since 1880 (tied with 2006 and 2009). Nine of the 10 warmest years on record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the warmest. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reported that 2013 continued the long-term trend of rising air temperatures over the land and sea surface." http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82918&src=eoa-iotd
Monday, January 20, 2014
Rosetta, the comet-landing probe, should be awakening from its three-year hibernation about now...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqcDtRmJbKY
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Exploring Boston: Winter Birds on the Mystic
The Mystic River is a short waterway north of Boston that more or less parallels the lower end of the more-famous Charles River; both empty, side by side, into Boston Harbor.
Wikipedia says its name derives from the Wampanoag word "muhs-uhtuq", which translates to "big river." In an Algonquian language, "Missi-Tuk" means "a great river whose waters are driven by waves", alluding to the original tidal nature of the river. (The Mystic now has a flood-control dam that segregates its saline, tidal mouth from the fresh, tide-less upper river.)
During the "polar vortex" cold snap, the fresh-water portions of the Mystic froze solid, but with warmer weather, the flowing portions of the river have opened up again, and the local water birds have responded.
In addition to the usual gulls, the Mystic's open water near my apartment has seen an explosion of swans, canada geese, buffleheads, and large numbers of mallards and other common ducks.
A few cell phone snaps of the more unusual winter birds:
A hawk, probably a red tail:
A night heron, standing on the ice of a small tributary of the Mystic:
Swan on the partially-frozen river:
Wikipedia says its name derives from the Wampanoag word "muhs-uhtuq", which translates to "big river." In an Algonquian language, "Missi-Tuk" means "a great river whose waters are driven by waves", alluding to the original tidal nature of the river. (The Mystic now has a flood-control dam that segregates its saline, tidal mouth from the fresh, tide-less upper river.)
During the "polar vortex" cold snap, the fresh-water portions of the Mystic froze solid, but with warmer weather, the flowing portions of the river have opened up again, and the local water birds have responded.
In addition to the usual gulls, the Mystic's open water near my apartment has seen an explosion of swans, canada geese, buffleheads, and large numbers of mallards and other common ducks.
A few cell phone snaps of the more unusual winter birds:
A hawk, probably a red tail:
A night heron, standing on the ice of a small tributary of the Mystic:
digital zoom (alas):
Swan on the partially-frozen river:
Friday, January 17, 2014
Can you tell deliberately bad headlines from actual link-bait? Take the quiz!
http://www.headlinesagainsthumanity.com/
(the site is a gentle protest against "page view journalism")
(the site is a gentle protest against "page view journalism")
Monday, January 13, 2014
Exploring Boston: Middlesex Fells Reservation Winter Hike
The "Friends of the Fells" sponsored a midwinter hike in the Middlesex Fells Reservation this past Sunday. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_Fells_Reservation).
Oddly, the hike was more springlike than wintry: Saturday had seen torrential rains that melted much of the snow, and temps were around 40F/4C at the time of the hike. But it was still a pleasant ramble.
Some pix:
The heavy rains filled the smaller ponds so that what had been surface ice was now submerged. The layer of still, clean water over the white ice created some interesting mirror effects.
The rising water also dislodged leaves, pine needles, and other debris, bringing some to the surface, to complement the ice-embedded and -covered items from before the storm.
The larger ponds still had mostly icy surfaces; the rain drained through crevasses into the main body of the water.
A portion of Long Pond, in Winter.
From last Summer, a shot from the nearly same vantage:
The light was oblique enough to bring out the mineral veining of the local rocks.
We looped around to the west side of the large Middle Reservoir (this is a nearly 180 degree panorama):
It was a very pleasant walk, with the warm temperatures a special treat after the bitter cold of the "polar vortex" of the week previous!
If you're in the area, Friends of the Middlesex Fells Reservation has regular hikes all winter long: http://www.fells.org/
Oddly, the hike was more springlike than wintry: Saturday had seen torrential rains that melted much of the snow, and temps were around 40F/4C at the time of the hike. But it was still a pleasant ramble.
Some pix:
The heavy rains filled the smaller ponds so that what had been surface ice was now submerged. The layer of still, clean water over the white ice created some interesting mirror effects.
The rising water also dislodged leaves, pine needles, and other debris, bringing some to the surface, to complement the ice-embedded and -covered items from before the storm.
The larger ponds still had mostly icy surfaces; the rain drained through crevasses into the main body of the water.
A portion of Long Pond, in Winter.
From last Summer, a shot from the nearly same vantage:
The light was oblique enough to bring out the mineral veining of the local rocks.
We looped around to the west side of the large Middle Reservoir (this is a nearly 180 degree panorama):
It was a very pleasant walk, with the warm temperatures a special treat after the bitter cold of the "polar vortex" of the week previous!
If you're in the area, Friends of the Middlesex Fells Reservation has regular hikes all winter long: http://www.fells.org/
Saturday, January 11, 2014
I wonder if I can hold them to this?
I renewed Lookout for my android devices yesterday, and this was the receipt. I highlighted the interesting part:
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
The results of last week's snow storm, from space
It was still snowing in Boston when this was taken; just north of Boston received about 24"/60cm of snow.
Story, full-res image: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=82770&src=nha
57 years ago, the first hard drive was introduced.
It was as big as a washing machine, weighed more than a ton, had 50 separate magnetic platters... and stored all of 5 megabytes --- about as much as one MP3 or full-res digital pic.
Story: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/tech-time-warp-ibm-ramac
(thnx: @Alyssa_Milano, @matthiasrascher)
Story: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/tech-time-warp-ibm-ramac
(thnx: @Alyssa_Milano, @matthiasrascher)
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Boston First Night 2013-14
News Year's is celebrated at midnight just about everywhere, but First Night --- an extended, New Year's oriented, day-long, city-wide festival --- was started in Boston in 1975 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Night ). It's been copied in many, many cities and towns since then.
Last night's First Night in Boston was frigid (around 20F/-6C), but fun.
A few smartphone snaps follow; an album and slideshow are available; the latter works best at the "fast" setting.
Happy New Year!
Last night's First Night in Boston was frigid (around 20F/-6C), but fun.
A few smartphone snaps follow; an album and slideshow are available; the latter works best at the "fast" setting.
Happy New Year!
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