Published December 20, 2010

Still looking for a perfect gift for that Pats fan on your list? Unfortunately, you won’t be able to put playoffs tickets under the tree this Christmas.

OK, maybe you can put Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski under the tree, but not playoffs tickets. (Courtesy of New England Patriots)

Though the Patriots have clinched a playoff spot, we don’t know where they’ll be playing yet. (Anyone trying to sell you a playoff seat is a huckster worse than the Patriots’ run defense.)

Thanks to a Pittsburgh Steelers loss on Sunday, the Pats still cling to the top spot in the AFC. Sunday’s win over the Green Bay Packers helps the team’s cause, but won’t inspire much faith in the Pats’ quest for the conference’s No. 1 seed.

At 12-2, the Patriots are tied for the league’s best record. With just one win in their final two games, the Pats will lock down the No. 1 seed and be assured of both a first round bye and home-field advantage for each playoff round prior to the Super Bowl (which is played on a neutral site — this year, in Dallas.)

However, should the Pats lose both of their final two games (versus division rivals Buffalo and Miami) they’ll go on the road in a Wild Card playoff game, probably in either Kansas City or Indianapolis.

Now, the Pats dropping their final two games isn’t likely. The Bills are 4-10 and the Pats clobbered Miami 41-14 in October. Truth be told, and jinxes be damned, I think the roads to the Super Bowl go through Foxborough (in the AFC) and Atlanta (in the NFC.)

So, for all of you last-minute shoppers, maybe an airline gift card will do? Just make sure it’s for a carrier that flies to Missouri, Indiana and Texas.

Published December 20, 2010

Massachusetts had 14 congressional districts in 1900. Between 1900 and 1910, the state grew by 20 percent, increasing representation to 16 seats. Since, the delegation has been reduced, and could reach nine seats after the 2010 census is released. (Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center/Boston Public Library)

Tomorrow the Census Bureau releases its decennial tally of the U.S. population. The count plays a vital political role determining representative apportionment — a topic I covered in September, as Massachusetts is expected to lose a congressional seat. But ahead of all the political wrangling and hypothetical scenarios, a simple look at the facts and figures of our state is pretty interesting.

The bureau has an interactive graphic comparing population change, population density and political apportionment over the last 100 years. I’ve embedded it below; if you have any trouble viewing it, find it on the Census website.

Continue reading →

Published December 20, 2010

But this one was unusual:

A car traveling west on Commonwealth Avenue, near the BU Bridge, skid on ice and ended up right in front of a Green 'B' Line MBTA train. (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)

A black Lexus traveling west on Commonwealth Avenue, near the BU Bridge, found itself parked right in the path of a Green ‘B’ Line trolley. The passenger told me the driver hit a patch of ice. He steered right; the car veered right. The trolley did not hit the car.

No one was hurt, but many were miffed. Some T passengers chose to disembark and walk. Traffic on both sides of the road stretched as far as the eye could see.

Unlike many Green Line delays, this one cleared up relatively quickly. After two tow truck drivers argued about jurisdiction — city or MBTA property? — the car was removed from the tracks and the trolley toot-tooted away.

Update: Please drive safely. WBUR’s Traffic page has your commute covered.

Update 2: Wicked Local Newton snapped a photo of holiday J-O-Y over the Pike, where traffic is awfully slow-going in this first snowfall of the season.

Published December 20, 2010

Army Gen. David Petraeus advocated for bringing ROTC back to Harvard in a talk on campus in 2009. (AP)

Calling the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy a “historic step,” Harvard University President Drew Faust said she will move toward allowing ROTC on campus.

Faust released this statement, written Saturday:

The repeal of DADT is a historic step. It affirms American ideals of equal opportunity and underscores the importance of the right to military service as a fundamental dimension of citizenship. It was no accident that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation not only guaranteed freedom to Black Americans but at the same time opened the Union Army to their participation. Because of today’s action by the Senate, gay and lesbian Americans will now also have the right to pursue this honorable calling, and we as a nation will have the benefit of their service.

I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard’s full and formal recognition of ROTC. I am very pleased that more students will now have the opportunity to serve their country. I am grateful to the Massachusetts delegation for their unified support for repeal.

Harvard has banned the ROTC from its campus since the Vietnam War as a protest against what the university calls anti-gay discrimination.

Faust said last month she would bring back ROTC if Congress repealed DADT.

Update: In an earlier version of this post, I used the term “military recruiters” interchangeably with ROTC. The ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) is a significant recruiting organization, of course, but it’s much more than that. In fact, a university spokesman clarified that military recruiters already have full access to Harvard students.

This story should not be confused with the 25-year ban on recruiters at Harvard Law, which ended in 2002 under pressure from the Bush administration. (That story led to high-profile coverage of Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, who is now a U.S. Supreme Court justice.)

Published December 20, 2010

Our brains are not evolving nearly as fast as computers. (Emilio Garcia)

In computing, Moore’s Law states the number of transistors on a microchip will double every two years. It has held true ever since Intel cofounder Gordon Moore came up with the idea 45 years ago.

While processing speed grows exponentially, so does information. We are able to measure and record nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

And yet, by and large, the human brain’s capacity is not growing. Is that a bad thing?

The New York Times reports on IBM’s Center for Social Software in Cambridge, which studies “the modern-day challenges of collaborating across distributed, global enterprises.”

The lab tries to use increasingly sophisticated computers to act as information advisers.

“I do think of computers as augmenting people, not replacing them,” said Irene Greif, the director of the research center. “We need help with the limits of the brain, but there are some things that our brains can do that computers can’t do.”

The researchers essentially create programs that find patterns (and outliers) in the “fire hose” of information. Once patterns are revealed, it becomes easier to decide who or what is worth our undivided attention.

In other words, the human brain wants information to be YouTube-sized. “For better or worse, we are watching a C-Span version of our lives trying to fast-forward to the good parts,” the Times article notes.

We don’t remember every detail of every day of our lives — we don’t want to — we remember the births, deaths, celebrations and accidents, the important parts.

That is, most of us. Did you see Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” story on super-memorizers? It’s a fascinating account of five people known to have “superior autobiographical memory,” including, weirdly, Marilu Henner, the star of “Taxi.”

These people can remember every single day of their lives. And they can tell you the day and date of any event that occurred in their lifetimes, instantly. (In most cases, they can also tell you what they had for lunch that day.) One subject is apparently able to remember every Pittsburgh Steelers game ever played during his adult life.

Scientists will study their “endless memories” as we march on through the Information Age. In the story, Lesley Stahl poses a question: Would you want that kind of brain?

Well, would you?