Icky bugs, icky Postal Service, icky AI
Spotted lanternflies to Millennium Park tree: Drop dead
August 23
From four a few days ago to countless yesterday: Mary Ellen snapped a horde of spotted lanternflies on a tree at Millennium Park, not doubt communing on the best way to use their mouth parts to bore into the tree and extract its sap, and then sit around, doing the equivalent of post-prandial belching - excreting toxic wastes that further weaken the tree.
Postal Service to Boston federal judge: Drop dead
August 23
In a rare Saturday "motion to enforce," the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and other voting-rights groups yesterday asked a federal judge in Boston to do something about the way the US Postal Service read her order barring it from fucking with mail-in voting this November, then ignored it and got ready to publish a rule that will bar mail-in voting in states that refuse to hand over all their voting rolls - a move that would hit states with Democratic majorities, such as California, the hardest, of course.
AI to Boston historical accuracy: Drop dead
August 23
There's a Facebook page called Historic Boston Archives that purports to show photos and videos of Boston of yesteryear. The photos are real, even if most have been colorized and even if the sources of the photos are never credited. But the videos?
USS Constitution cannons fall silent; at least it wasn't new Navy Yard residents complaining
August 22
The USS Constitution announced yesterday it's ceased its daily 8 a.m. and sunset cannon fire, not because of complaints from newly arrived Navy Yard residents but because of some vague "current restrictions."...
Little spotted tree killers showing up in force in Boston
August 22
Spotted lanternflies, which bore into trees for sap, are popping up across Boston.
Cambridge officers shoot and kill man they say was pointing a loaded gun at them in Central Square
August 22
Cambridge Police say officers responding to a report of four suspicious people in a parking lot behind 675 Massachusetts Ave. at Prospect Street in Central Square fatally shot a man in his 60s who got out of a car and pointed his own gun at them shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday.
You have just left the REI and entered the Twilight Zone
August 21
Former Westroxer peered into what's left of the REI at whatever they call Landmark Center these days and spotted this scene that looks like it belongs in a remake of that Twilight Zone episode with the department-store mannequin who forgets she's a mannequin after her month among the living.
Now would be an especially good time not to jump into the Charles River Basin
August 21
The Boston Public Health Commission reports another blue-green algae bloom in the Charles River Basin, so it's time for another warning to stay away from the water from the Mass. Avenue Bridge to the locks.
Woman sues over burns from hot tea she says was poured into her lap at Allston cafe
August 21
A Lynn woman yesterday sued Turkish Lazuri Cafe, 1 North Beacon St. in Allston, over what she says is permanent scarring and loss of feeling in one leg from having hot Turkish tea "negligently" poured in her lap while seated at a table there on July 12, 2025.
Hyde Park garage took woman's car for a ride - hundreds of miles, she says
August 21
WBZ reports on the case of the woman who dropped her SUV off at River Street Auto Center in Hyde Park only to get it back with hundreds of new miles on the odometer - and a crappy reused transmission instead of the new one she was...
MIT researchers figuring out how to computerize plant roots and leaves
August 21
MIT News reports some researchers there have figured out how to make transistors out of live bacteria that can then be printed on a "growth medium" in a Petri dish.
Cars win over bikes on Bennington Street in East Boston
August 21
Streetsblog Mass reports the city Public Improvement Commission yesterday approved a proposal by the Boston Transportation Department to remove a planned protected bike lane on Bennington Street between Day Square and Neptune Road and instead put in spaces for motorists to parallel park.
Now ain't that a peach? Dead train at Revere Beach
August 21
Bright and early, at 6:11 a.m., the MBTA reported a Blue Line train huffed into Revere Beach and then decided it needed more coffee and wouldn't move until it got some, and never mind that meant 15 minute delays all along the line. The T reported at 7:18 a.m. that workers got the troublesome train off the tracks and service had gone back to ...
