By the miracle of instinct and enormous exertion, a little bird, the red knot, migrates from the Canadian low arctic to the tip of South America and back each year.
But a decade or so ago, their number dropped dramatically. And the reason for it makes for one of those scientific detective stories that illustrates the interrelatedness of things to each other, and to us.
A second case of swine flu has been confirmed on the Vineyard. There may have been many more; but we’ll probably not be advised of them.
The state guidelines for dealing with the pandemic now recognize the fact that for the great majority of people who catch it, swine flu is not a serious health problem. So public health officials have ceased daily county-by-county updates.
The Cape Cod Commission has petitioned the state’s highest court to overturn the approval by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) of the Cape Wind project.
At stake for the commission, though, is more than just the question Cape Wind’s future; it is the broader principle of its power in regulating development, and by extension, the power of its sister body, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Thousands upon thousands of books now line the new shelves of the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, ready for its reopening this Saturday. But one book in particular played a big role in determining the new look of refurbished business.
It is Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: the Science of Shopping. The wider aisles, the more open look to the place, even the repositioned sales desk, all are down to what owner Dawn Braasch learned from Mr. Underhill
In these tough times, Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson is as eager as anyone else to find some tiny cause for optimism, and thinks he might at last have found one.
The number of people riding the ferries to the Vineyard has ticked up at last, just as the tourist season is starting.
Not by much. The number of passengers carried by SSA ferries rose 0.9 per cent for the month of May, compared with the same month last year. And the number of cars rose 2.4 per cent.
It was in 1995, when new storm water drains were being put in along the Beach street extension in Vineyard Haven, that Eric Anderson first learned of the serious contamination of the groundwater under his property.
He and several other landholders in the area were required by state environmental authorities to begin an extensive program of sampling to find out the source of the pollution, with a view to remediation.
