MA vacation hotspots

so it's the vacation time of year. the MA legislature recently released a list of the top 1000 places to visit in MA in order to help boost tourism. according to one state rep, "The difficult part was getting down to 1,000 places," from the initial list of over 13000.

so when the list is finally finalized and released...

A list of the top 1,000 attractions released with much fanfare by the Legislature last week was intended to promote tourism, but the Boston Herald reports that some sites don’t exist any more, some are closed to the public, and some are listed in the wrong towns.

The list – which actually has 996 places – included the Baker Robinson Whale Oil Refinery in New Bedford, which has been gutted to make way for a hotel; and Worcester’s African Cultural Center and Ashland State Park, both closed.

One place, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Adams, was ordered closed by the Springfield Diocese two years ago although parishioners remain in vigil.

oh well, at least they are trying. come visit us in new england!

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global warming flashback

last friday the nixon library released 100,000 pages of presidential records. among those pages are memos that show the nixon administration was debating the possible effects of climate change.

a memo from nixons democratic advisor daniel moynihan:

Moynihan wrote in a September 1969 memo that it was "pretty clearly agreed" that carbon dioxide content would rise 25 percent by 2000, "This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote. "This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter."

so how correct were those statements from 40 years ago?

regarding the CO2 levels:


















regarding the temperature increase:










regarding the sea level rise:













so moynihan predicted:
** a 25% increase in CO2 levels yet it appears that CO2 rose by 64%.
** a 7 degree fahrenheit rise in global temperature yet it only rose 0.6 degrees celsius or 1.08 degrees fahrenheit
** a 10 foot rise in sea level yet we only witnessed a 75mm or 2.9 inch rise. im sure residents of new york city and washington dc are grateful that my moynihans predictions of their cities being submerged were inaccurate.

so despite a carbon dioxide level increase that was more than double what was being predicted, the global temperature and sea level rise predictions were drastically off.

now, im not saying that we shouldnt do anything to get away from fossil fuel usage and move to renewable energy supplies. or that we shouldnt be doing things to generally protect the global environment. however, it has to be taken with a grain of salt when people start trying to predict what the climate will be like in 20, 40 or 100 years from now.

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the boys of summer

so i had the opportunity to enjoy myself in the bleacher seats at fenway park earlier this week and watch my red sox beat tampa bay. as is typical when im at a game, i feel like i have ADD. sure im paying attention to the play on the field but there is so much downtime during a game that i start watching the crowd, dugouts, umpires, bat & ball boys, security, field crew...you get my point.

a few years ago major league baseball decided to be a little more fan friendly. part of this initiative was throwing balls into the stands as fan souvenirs at the end of innings. which got me to thinking about how many balls does a major league baseball team use during the course of a season and at what cost?

MLB seems to be fairly tightlipped on any specifics but after doing some research it seems to break down fairly close to this.

** the home team is required to have 5 dozen balls at the ready for a game
** a balls typical lifespan is 6-9 pitches
** there are roughly 250-300 pitches thrown per game
** which means that 35-50 balls are used per game
** which means that each team uses 2800-4100 baseballs in a season
** which means MLB uses between 84000-123000 baseballs during the course of a season (i did read in some places that it could be as high as 160,000 but in doing the math it seemed a little too high)

** im assuming that MLB has a special bulk contract with rawlings since they use so many balls in a season. but lets stipulate that they pay the normal rate.
** rawlings charges $170 for a dozen baseballs
** which means every team spends between $39000-$174000 per season on baseballs
** which means MLB spends between $1.1M-$1.7M per season on baseballs


so my initial thought from the bleachers was that giving away baseballs to fans was an expensive way to gain fan loyalty to the team and league. but if you consider that the average ticket price at fenway park is now slightly over $50 (MLB baseball average is $27), it may not be such a bad idea. 35000 fans at $50 each is just shy of $2 million PER GAME! or the cost for 11 seasons worth of baseballs.

happy 4th of july everyone!



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