Dolphin babies!
July 31, 2008
People love babies. We love human babies, we love polar bear babies and we sure as heck love dolphin babies. That’s why when the National Aquarium in Baltimore announced today that a healthy, female dolphin calf was born last Sunday, just two weeks after a disappointing stillbirth to another expecting mother in the pod, only one question was on my mind: when do we get to see it?
Never.
No, that’s a lie. Can you imagine? But the truth is almost as painful to the animal enthusiast in me: almost never. According to Aquarium spokeswoman Jen Bloomer, it may be a couple of years before the new calf is weaned from her mother and free to leave the nursing pool, which is strategically located in the back of the amphitheater where visitors “may catch a glimpse of the baby as she surfaces with her mother for a breath of air,” the news release says, but don’t have any chance of seeing the tot up close.
The truth is, as much as I’d like to pet the slippery bundle of joy, the trainers seem to be doing the right thing by keeping the public at a distance.
“The natural pattern of the animals is to stay with their mothers, and we don’t disrupt that,” Bloomer said.
Sure, the Aquarium could use the calf as a marketing ploy to attract massive crowds of “Flipper fans” to the downtown tourist attraction, but I respect them for not taking that route. People may love babies, but they also love organizations that don’t sacrifice babies’ well-being for a buck (err, 29 bucks, the going-rate for an all-inclusive adult ticket.)
Of course, for those of us who REALLY love babies (and dolphins, and interactive tours and spending large sums of money), the Aquarium offers a Dolphin Encounter immersion tour, where, for a measly $195 per person, “bottlenose buffs” can actually touch the Aquarium’s most popular talent. And, according to Bloomer, “people that do our immersion tours — they get an opportunity to kind of see the dolphins in the back pool.”
For those of you who need help with the math, back pool = nursing pool = baby dolphin.
So what do you think? Is the Aquarium doing the right thing by not marketing the new baby, even if it could pull in an influx of visitors? And, while we’re at it, do you think it’s worth $195 to get a glimpse of the new calf?
ANNE RILEY, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentForeclosure affects all of us, BIG and small
July 31, 2008
Just when you thought the slumping housing market couldn’t sink any lower, a member of U.S. royalty has been victimized. Well, feline royalty, at least.
A 44-pound New Jersey cat who has been dubbed “Princess Chunk” was found wandering around the Garden State, apparently abandoned by her owner — whose house was foreclosed upon. Soon after hitting the media circuit and schmoozing with Regis, the cat was discovered to be a male, i.e. Prince Chunk, and his real name was revealed as Powder.
On top of the housing crisis that “Princess Chunk” is struggling with, much like the rest of the nation, it seems he also is facing an obesity and identity crisis.
Overweight, without a home, trying to cope with self-image in a superficial society. Is this the new face of our struggling nation?
FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentWho wears short shorts?
July 31, 2008
One of my coworkers recently attempted to break the workplace taboo against shorts. It was unsuccessful. (She asked me to note here that she believed the $60 price tag of the shorts would make them suitable for the office. So noted.)
And now she sends me a story from The New York Times, discussing whether the growing casualness of the workplace has finally opened the door for office shorts. The story gives some examples of the once-forbidden — sock-less loafers, tie-less necks and the entire concept of Casual Fridays — and a couple quotes from people who, I’m guessing, are painfully hip.
Then these few sentences bring us plunging back to reality:
“Yet none of the New York City banks, law firms, stock brokerages or hospitals contacted by a reporter last week considered shorts an acceptable part of a work uniform, and for reasons that varied from the need to preserve institutional decorum to hygiene (imagine a hairy leg in an O.R.)
Still, it is probably worth remembering that there was a time when politicians were seldom seen, even out of the office, without their decorous suit coats, and never in short pants (Nixon famously wore shoes on the beach). And it was only a short while ago that news anchors who ventured out on combat assignment did so in more protective khaki than a Victorian ornithologist braving the wilds of Borneo.”
So what do you think? Can you imagine a world where it will ever be appropriate to go to work at “banks, law firms, stock brokerages or hospitals” while wearing shorts?
JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist
Sphere: Related ContentWhen is a victim not sympathetic?
July 30, 2008
Possibly when he or she lives for more than a year in a half-million dollar home while paying next to nothing.
In “Rescue is quirk of timing” in Wednesday’s edition of The (Baltimore) Sun, the lead anecdote is Veronica Peterson, a 45-year-old single mother of three who says she can’t keep up with the mortgage payments on a $545,000 house in Columbia. She says she expects an eviction notice any day. The story presents her as a victim of the foreclosure crisis.
However, that’s apparently not the full story. I’ll let the City Paper explain:
…in the comments section below the article, hundreds of readers pointed out what the Sun’s reporters and editors could not, apparently: that Peterson had no business in that house, and that she’s lived there for more than a year rent- and mortgage-free. “Where do you think we can get in on this deal?” one commenter, calling himself Henry Bowman, asked another.
The City Paper goes on to dissect the loan numbers:
The online court and land records show that Peterson closed on the house on Nov. 3, 2006, with two loans from Washington Mutual. The main mortgage, for $436,000, had a starting interest rate of 8.5 percent, adjusting in December of this year to the London Interbank Offered Rate plus 4.99 percent. The second loan, often called a “piggyback,” totaled $109,000 with an interest rate of 11.5 percent, according to The Sun.
Those two payments together would have totaled $3,386.17 per month. That’s before property taxes, upkeep, utilities, etc. Peterson would have to earn at least $50,000 per year just to make her house payments.
But it appears that Peterson made few–if any–payments. The foreclosure was filed July 31, 2007. The balance on the main note then was $435,735.86, plus unpaid interest accrued from Jan. 1, 2007, plus $1,005.72 in late charges. This suggests that Peterson made, at most, one payment on her house: the December, 2006 payment. Given the grace periods typical in home-mortgage business, it is at least as likely that her first payment was not due until January 2007, which would mean she has made zero payments.
Had she made all of her payments, Peterson would have spent about $64,335 so far. Had she rented a similar place, she would have been charged around $2,500 per month–a total of $47,500–since January 2007. Instead, she apparently paid nothing.
Not much of a “victim,” I’d say. I’m also shocked that someone would take out a mortgage for the full price of a home. Am I missing the down payment in this transaction?
JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist
Sphere: Related ContentProfessor Obama
July 30, 2008
The New York Times has a story today about what Obama was like during his time teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. On the one hand, he was apparently an engaging professor, if a touch overly pleased with himself:
As his reputation for frank, exciting discussion spread, enrollment in his classes swelled. Most scores on his teaching evaluations were positive to superlative. Some students started referring to themselves as his groupies. (Mr. Obama, in turn, could play the star. In what even some fans saw as self-absorption, Mr. Obama’s hypothetical cases occasionally featured himself. “Take Barack Obama, there’s a good-looking guy,” he would introduce a twisty legal case.)
On the other hand, he sometimes got so wrapped up in the intellectual arguments surrounding an issue that he didn’t do anything about it:
While students appreciated Mr. Obama’s evenhandedness, colleagues sometimes wanted him to take a stand. When two fellow faculty members asked him to support a controversial antigang measure, allowing the Chicago police to disperse and eventually arrest loiterers who had no clear reason to gather, Mr. Obama discussed the issue with unusual thoughtfulness, they say, but gave little sign of who should prevail — the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the measure, or the community groups that supported it out of concern about crime.
What, if anything, do you think this all says about what kind of president Obama would be? A broader question: do academic types make good political leaders? Are there similarities between the skill set required to be a law professor and the one needed to be president? Or are we talking about two very different personality types here?
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentHow to tell when the judge is annoyed
July 30, 2008
In my story yesterday about a legal battle between a defense contracting firm and its former employee, I mentioned that the judge “appeared annoyed” by the sparring in the second day of cross-motions for preliminary injunctions.
That wasn’t very specific, and there are those who’ve moved for a more definite statement (or, since this is federal court, should I say a bill of particulars?). Anyway, here were some of the clues:
Shortly into plaintiff Dennis Glynn’s testimony, opposing counsel began objecting to the questions Glynn’s own lawyer was asking him. The questions improperly called for the witness to speculate or to draw legal conclusions, according to the Winston & Strawn lawyers representing Impact Science & Technology.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz overruled the first couple objections without incident but eventually could not contain his disapproval, calling the tactics of the W&S attorneys “absolutely outrageous.”
Motz said the frequency of objections during an earlier deposition was an “absolute disgrace” that reflected badly on the international firm — and set a bad example for the firm’s younger lawyers.
Later, in response to a further objection about hearsay, Motz included Glynn’s attorneys from The Employment Law Group in D.C. in his criticism.
Between the first day of the preliminary injunction hearing two weeks ago and Monday, Motz said, he had dealt with other pairs of opposing legal teams — and the difference between them and the lawyers in this case was like “night and day.”
“Unfortunately, I’m in the dead of night,” Motz said.
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentKubatko leaving Sun, joining MASN
July 30, 2008
It’s the end of an era — for the last three years, veteran Sun sportswriter Roch Kubatko has been entertaining Baltimoreans with his “Roch Around the Clock” blog and running commentary on Baltimore sports. Drawing more than 100,000 page views every week, Kubatko’s blog quickly became one of the most visited blogs at the Baltimore Sun and was often the most visited sports blog within its parent Tribune Co.’s newspapers.
But with The Sun’s recent overhaul of staff and content (dictated by the Tribune) and the second round of buyouts and layoffs since January, it appears as though Kubatko, who has been at the paper for 21 years, has had enough.
After taking the buyout offered companywide, Kubatko said “goodbye” in his last Sun blog posting today. Just hours later, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network announced Kubatko will be joining its team officially on Friday and bringing his popular blog to MASNsports.com. It begs the question, how difficult was it to get Sun management to let him keep his blog, title and all, to a competing news medium?
Kubatko will also appear on MASN’s O’s Xtra and Ravens Xtra, the Orioles Hot Stove Show and the Anita Marks show. During baseball season, he will also co-host several pre- and post-game shows for the Orioles Radio network.
Kubatko is just one of the more visible examples of the longtime writers who will be soon leaving The Sun due to its staff cuts and paper redesign. How big of a loss is this for The Sun and how big of a gain is this for MASN?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
At a loss for words?
July 30, 2008
I never played Scrabulous, the Scrabble imitator W4I1L1D2L1Y4 popular on Facebook. Personally, I don’t like playing regular Scrabble because I view it as a no-win situation as someone who makes a living with words: if I lose, I’m a dope; if I win, I’m supposed to.
Still, I read with interest the decision by the Scrabulous creators to remove their game from Facebook after Scrabble-maker Hasbro filed a lawsuit against the online application developed by two brothers from India in 2005. Many of my friends played Scrabulous, among a reported 500,000 users daily, so I’m sure they were upset. Members of a Facebook group, “Save Scrabulous,” were posting last night and into this morning, annoyed at Hasbro for ending Scrabulous and replacing it with their own, inferior version.
“To say that I was disappointed is an understatement,” one wrote. “Will we ever get closure? Are thousands upon thousands of us doomed to live the rest of our profiled lives with our unfinished games in internet limbo?”
But another user pointed out Scrabulous was a blatant Scrabble knock-off and was surprised it took Hasbro this long to file a cease-and-desist order.
I guess the moral of the story is Scrabulous was quixotry. You can’t score a triple-word score circumventing copyright infringement laws.
D2A1N1N1Y4 J8A1C3O1B3S1, Legal Affairs Writer, with an assist from Pholph’s Scrabble Score Generator.
Sphere: Related ContentBaltimore setting an example with trash
July 30, 2008
When I moved to Baltimore in 2006, I was put off by an exchange with a carryout clerk in Charles Village. I had finished off a bottle of soda or iced tea or something, and I asked where I should put the bottle so it could be recycled.
The gentleman looked at me as if I had asked him to do a chore like mop the kitchen of my apartment or feed my fish. He pointed to the garbage can. “So that’s how it is here,” I thought. I’ve never really seen anything to change that view. The opportunities to recycle anywhere seem basically limited to a biweekly visit from the city’s public works department, though I have seen faithful participation around my neighborhood on that front.
So imagine my surprise today when I read the Washington blog DCist, which reports that Baltimore recycles a “very respectable 42 percent” of its refuse.
That beats Washington (22), Philadelphia (38) , New York (34), and Boston — where I came from (15). San Francisco recycles 69 percent of its waste! DCist gets its figures from a New York Times article and from the trade publication Waste News.
“It’ll be a dark day in a garbage-filled hell before Baltimore and Philadelphia can tell us how to deal with refuse,” the unimpressed DCist writes.
The Times article says recycling has been pushed by increasing public awareness campaigns in cities. I wonder how much Mayor Sheila Dixon’s Cleaner Greener Baltimore push has to do with our showing.
ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentMultimedia: The laptop effect
July 29, 2008
As Danny Jacobs wrote in Tuesday’s paper, wireless access has been banned during the bar exam at the Baltimore Convention Center. That means 650 people who used their laptops on the essay portion of the exam had to upload their answers elsewhere by midnight.
I was on the scene this afternoon as hundreds of fatigued participants walked by. Even though they were in a rush, several laptop users were willing to talk about where they were planning to go for wireless access.
Check out the video and hear what some of them had to say.
RICHARD SIMON, Multimedia Reporter
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