My next attempt at learning another language was a year of Spanish with Ms. Gibbs in high school. It was nice, and interesting. I started the year with a lot of enthusiasm for it, but my best friend had opted for French, which resulted in a lost opportunity for more fun and helpful practice.

Growing up, though, the language that really interested me was German. Why? Everone asks me that and by now I should have an answer — but I don’t. It had something, vaguely, to do with the movie The Sound of Music and my Swiss-American girlfriend in High School.

My own family background is Scots-Irish, like that of many families in Western North Carolina where I grew up. No one I knew spoke or taught Gaelic, so it never crossed my mind that Gaelic was option for a second language. The neglect of Gaelic has been a real problem, even in it’s native lands. An extreme example is Manx, an off-shoot of Old Irish Gaelic once spoken on the Isle of Man. ‘Once’ means that it died with the last native speaker.

Yet, somewhat like Frankenstein, it’s back. (You have to admit that academics do have their uses.) In this case, academics have preserved and promulgated Manx as a usable language.

This article in Science Daily celebrates the rejuvenation of Manx as a viable language on the Isle of Man. Check out ScienceDaily.com.

Since I committed early to the German language, I have to disclose that I’m reporting this resurrection of Manx on behalf of my cats, both are Manx, adorable, great personalities, bob-tailed, brother and sister — however, they ended up with German names — Fleck and Kai. They would saw hello in Old Gaelic, if they knew how.

My iPad has not be the topic of a blog post until now. Maybe that is because I’ve had so much fun browsing the Internet and reading books with it that I’ve not stopped to write about it; besides, so many people have written, and continue to write, about the iPad that anything I might think to say would be surplufuous — other than the heretical wish that it had a tiny track ball like my Nexus One Android phone has for fine positioning of the cursor between letters. My finger tips are not well designed for navigating 10 pt fonts, even with the pop-up magnifying bubble to assist.

Magnification is, in fact, the topic that brings me to mention my iPad today. I’m excited about a purchase I just made to outfit my iPad for fun, education, and maybe a bit of citizen science. I just ordered the ProScope Mobile, a wireless, wifi-enabled microscope with exchangeable lenses. The microscope creates a wifi-hotspot and to transmit images to the iPad (or an iPone, iPod) and accessed with AirMicroPad (or AirMicro) software. Actually, it can transmit to over 250 devices at once, which is a bit of overkill even if it is being used by students in a large classroom. AirMicroPad can display stills and video from the microscope.

I am so looking forward to playing in the garden and woods with this. In addition to exploring tiny things to whet my own curiosity, I see this as being useful on HumboldtSociety.org field trips. Once I get it I’ll post some pictures from the micro-world here and give a review of how everything works. I wonder if AirMicro might someday be available in an Android version?

I don’t doubt that Rivertyde has also been deleted from blog rolls of former readers. Long stretches of inactivity don’t justify keeping a link active, and Rivertyde has indeed been inactive.

It is not dead, however, and I’m giving thought to reviving it in some form or other, but deciding what types of posts to publish is not a small thing for me. I’ll probably retain a rather science-friendly content, since that is what interests me, and I’ll probably stay away from too much personal journaling, since that is probably not what interests other people. Besides, it seems that blogs have diminished in popularity with the rise of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz. Even I must admit that Twitter distracted me from this blog for a while, until I moved on to the more expansive and multimedia-friendly Buzz. Facebook has never appealed to me, although I do have an account so I can eavesdrop on family and friends.

All the while that I was not writing in this blog I was also not reading other blogs. So what has changed? Honestly, I don’t know and perhaps nothing at all has changed. Intending to pick up Rivertyde again is not the same as doing it. We’ll see if that really happens. If you have been checking back with me here — Thanks! I’ll see if I can give you something to make it worth your while to do so.

A couple of years ago, I traveled to Florida’s Space Coast and visited the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL. I had a great time. The area was even more interesting than I had expected, and my expectations were more developed than those a kid might have on a family outing to the Space Coast today. The names Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach were spoken in my house 5 days a week for 5 years. They came through the TV soaked in the comedy and magic of I Dream of Jeannie. In addition, the glamor of the place was also enhanced by the very real successes of the folks who lived there during my childhood. I was privileged to watch Neil Armstrong and the others walking on the moon through live TV broadcasts.

So, I had an idea of what Cocoa Beach would look like. It doesn’t look like that of course. It actually looks like a smaller, tamer version of Myrtle Beach, SC, but since I grew up vacationing at Myrtle Beach I adjusted to that very quickly. The images of my childhood, though, paled in comparison to my adult interests that were fully engaged by the close-up tour I took at the Kennedy Space Center and the excellent time I had birding the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I was as happy to see the threatened Florida Scrub Jay from no less than 10 feet away as I was to walk around the enormous carcass of a Saturn V rocket lying on its side. [Flickr photos]

This reminiscing was sparked by an article I read this morning on Tampa Bay’s 10Connects.com titled: “Economically, Space Coast better off than when Apollo program ended.” The reference is to the unemployment the area is expected to suffer with the ending of the Shuttle Program this year and into early 2011. The overall impact on Brevard Co. will not be as great as it was when Apollo ended, although it will come on top of an already depressed economy in general. Real Estate prices might drop even further.

After I read the article the thought struck me — man, it would be a good time to get a beach house in Brevard Co. or even just take a birding vacation there in 2011 for Spring Migration. Eventually, there will another boom when the next manned-space flight program cranks ups, whether that will be aiming at the moon, at Mars, or at the asteroids in between, and prices and crowds will grow again.

Three years ago I learned of a Caribbean island called Roatan by following news about hurricane Felix. That was 2007 and the entry was called: Discovery by Hurricane. That brief post is one of the most visited on this blog, probably because of folks searching for Roatan as a cruise destination. Well, I’ll be actually visiting Roatan myself in a couple of weeks. My partner is taking me on a Caribbean cruise for my birthday this month.

I’ve never been on a cruise before, but I know that I love being on boats and the open water. The cruise is with Norwegian Cruise Lines and runs from Miami to Isla Roatan, Belize City, Coasta Maya, Mexico, and Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. In addition to the cruise he booked two snorkeling excurisions one in Belize and one in the Bahamas.

It’s hard to say what I’m looking forward to the most — being out in the Caribbean on a ship or snorkeling the Belize Barrier Reef. As I mentioned in my 2007 blog entry, that reef is the world’s second largest. Since I snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef once, this will be an excellent experience to add to that.

I’ve been studying a field guide for Belize since I learned we would be going. If my photos turn out well I’ll post them to my Flickr account where I have currently pictures from our Jan. 2009 trip to Ecuador.

I’m also looking forward to birding while in the Caribbean. From the map of our route it looks like we will be passing near the Cuban coast on the way out from Miami and back. There might be some good pelagic birding opportunities and I’m considering taking our birding scope and tripod to see shearwaters, petrels, tropic- and frigatebirds, etc.

This trip is an excellent present and a great, although belated, follow-up to that blog post from 2007.

Friends and acquaintances who’ve done NaNoWriMo have said it can be an intense experience and a real challenge of will to slog through it. The average word count per day is 1,667. Maybe it is crazy for me to take this on in November, the beginning of busiest retail season of the year; nevertheless, I’m going to try.

Originally, I planned to modify the rules and write 2 short stories rather than one novel. I even had two vague story ideas. Twenty-five thousand words is too much for a short story though — more like a novella or even ‘novelette’, and wrapping up one story then immediately launching a new one seems like an onerous thing to do under pressure. In the last week one of those ideas stuck in my head and has engaged me enough to commit to this one story and go for the full novel.

Wish me luck.

Thanks goes to Muzell for updating us on the successes of Philadelphia’s (still new) efforts at serious recycling. The one non-useful piece in his article is the comparison between Philadelphia and Germany, which he says has diversion rates up to 99%. Since 1991 Germany has had an ordinance that requires manufacturers to take responsibility for recycling their own packaging materials so a comparison between Philadelphia and Germany is not very meaningful. Even a city of our size does not have the market leverage to accomplish what Germany has.

It would be more enlightening to see how our city stacks up against other US cities and communities. That would be closer to an apples-to-apples comparison, and I suspect that we would not yet rank very high even in that group. The really good news is that our mayor is serious about improvements and an incentive program, such as the one Muzell reports on, might add to the momemtum we’re building toward being a much more environmentally responsible community.

One of Philadelphia’s greatest assets is it’s Delaware River waterfront. It is a real shame that the city does not seem to know how to use it. The Penn’s Landing amphitheater and festival area were steps in the right direction but they come across as rather half-hearted, neglected, and now out-dated. During Mayor Street’s administration there were plans for a retail mall, an outlet-type mall no less, which fell through — luckily. The festival area was even closed for several years and the cultural celebrations which took place there each summer were re-located to a pier further north then to a huge, ugly parking lot at Broad and Washington.

That nightmare seems to be over and Penn’s Landing is now being used again by Philadelphians for summer fun. Even the fountains have been filled with water – such extravagance! But, seriously, Philadelphia should be ashamed that it has squandered this potentially awesome space.

Now it seems something sensible has happened which could lead to environmentally responsible and asthetically appealing development. Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Jeff Shields reports that the Philadelphia City Council passed a bill to require 100-foot setback from the river for green space. Developers, of course, are ticked off and claim it will hinder development. Well, what has passed for development/plans for development over the last 20 years has sucked. Now, any future plans must respect the uniqueness of the waterfront and its value in the civic life of the city. This is one little ground rule, but an essential beginning, in responsible, world-class civic space development for the city of Philadelphia.

Rittenhouse Square Trash Muncher

Last July I blogged about a small test the city of Philadelphia was running with 3 solar-powered trash compactors ( Solar-powered Trashcan Test ). Cool idea, I thought, but I did not hear anything else about them. Then over the last three weeks I’ve started seeing them everywhere. Even better — they are now paired up with recycling bins. Clearly, I missed this article on May 1 on Philly.com: Hot idea: Solar-powered trash crushers. There will be 500 of these “Big Bellies”, as they are called, distributed around Center City. 210 will be paired with recycling bins (see picture above).

This is great news for a city that has long been plagued by litter. I’ve come to realize that most (okay, many) Philadelphians will use a waste basket. In truth, the 700 wire baskets with plastic liners that are being replaced were really a  main part of the litter problem. Those baskets were often overflowing, and since they had no tops the wind would often pluck light stuff out of them and spread it down the streets. Sometimes a strong gust would completely lift the liner out of the mesh basket and dump everything out. Yet now, nothing will escape the ‘big bellies’ once they have a hold of it, and compactors offer a lot of advantages for a cash-strapped city hoping to clean up its act:

The compactors require fewer collections, which saves the city on fuel for sanitation vehicles and frees up workers for other tasks, officials said.

They also hold up to 200 gallons of trash, compared with the 55-gallon capacity of a regular wire trash basket.

Because of that capacity they require five weekly collections, compared with the 19 for a regular trash basket. That means only eight workers will be assigned to collect litter baskets, compared with the current 33, said Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson. (Philly.com)

The presence of the recycle bins in high traffic areas, like Rittenhouse Square, will also serve to remind and encourage folks to do just that — recycle. It is easier to do when it is made so convenient.

Former Mayor (and current PA Governor) Ed Rendell made huge strides in rejuvenating Philadelphia. I moved to the city the year before he was elected and I saw the progress first-hand. Now, current Mayor Michael Nutter seems ready to take it to the next level.

See also:
Philly Brings on the Big Bellies
Philadelphia Begins Rollout…
Solar Trash Compactor Firm BigBelly Raises $3.2 M