Way Downstream
In Huntingtown, Calvert Hospice’s 19th annual Festival of Trees added a new star — and seasonal symbol — to its traditional line-up of trees. Three-month old Jacob Michael Tammaro was christened at the festival, breathing hope in to the remembrance of lives cut too short …
In Annapolis, in the new year you can guide Maryland Department of Natural Resources on a proposed state policy that would lease public lands for wind power turbines. Wind power is one way to reduce the use of oil and coal but has triggered controversy because of construction, aesthetics and bird mortality. Voice your opinion at a public meeting from 6:30 to 9pm Thursday, Jan. 24 at Arundel Center, 44 Calvert Street in Annapolis …
Round about Annapolis, band Yellow No. 5 is trying out for the movie version of financial wizards Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner’s New York Times best-seller Empire of Debt, touted as “the most feared book in Washington” for its depiction of an imploding national economy. Wiggin heard the band at a gig at Baltimore’s Belvedere Hotel; they’ve since written “Squanderville” and “Bring on the Debt” (http://www.ourfreakinsite.com/iousa.html). YN5 players are Hall Williams and Matthew Pugh, who won prizes as a writer for Bay Weekly, both from Severna Park; and Baltimoreans Mark O’Dell and Andrew Ascosi. The movie, I.O.U.S.A, premiers at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival …
Along Chesapeake Bay, Boat U.S. takes sailboaters out of jeopardy by answering the question they hope they never have to ask: Why did my boat sink? By studying insurance claims, the boating organization concluded that the most common cause of dockside sinkings is deteriorated fittings such as intakes, seacocks and drains below the waterline. Stuffing-box leaks ranked No. 2, followed by keel and centerboard problems, then rain …
In Washington, Maryland first-term Sen. Ben Cardin was one of just five senators writing a letter to the White House last week warning of “unintended public health and safety risks” from vastly increasing our use of ethanol. The letter warned that efforts to increase the standard blend of 10 percent ethanol in gas to 20 percent or higher could damage engines. Increased corn production for ethanol also is blamed for damaging Chesapeake Bay with more nitrogen fertilizer …
In Virginia, the Farifax County Board of Supervisors is pushing the Virginia General Assembly to seek ways to stop the flow of chemicals harming androgynous fish in the Potomac River. The chemicals have damaged the reproductive ability of aquatic life, including causing male bass to produce eggs …
This week’s Creature Feature comes from Kenya, where a newly discovered species of giant spitting cobra has been given a name. The cobra is nine-feet long and has enough venom to kill 15 people. The snake was first seen three years ago, but DNA testing only recently confirmed that it differed from other cobras that emit projectile squirts of toxin when cornered.
The huge snake named Naja Ashei after James Ashe — called the Great Snake Man — who founded the Bio-Ken Snake Farm on the Kenyan coast where the huge serpents were found, Reuters reported. Lamented Bio-Ken director Royjan Taylor: “People don’t care about saving snakes. They talk of saving dolphins or cats, but never snakes.”
