Murders in Boston

Mashups and Google Maps allow interesting visualization of data, making things suddenly more concrete. Dorchester has a reputation as being one of Boston's toughest areas: this map of 2008 murders in Boston brings it home.

Cambridge has a relatively low murder rate, though I haven't been able to find a similar mapping of murder stats. From a quick search, anecdotally I think it's been a couple of years since the last murder in Cambridge, though there have been recent homicides which appear to be accidental. Somewhat bizarrely, someone originally from Cambridge was recently killed in Salem. The method of murder?... being run through with a sword.

Spring Rain

Spring in Cambridge certainly lives up to the adage "April showers bring May flowers". Today was a lovely April day and in between thunder storms I captured some cloudscapes.

Well, mostly between showers. That black cloud at the top of the "Spring Rain" shot got me :-)

Regatta, Rugby, Red Sox

While Peter was in soggy Vancouver I had a very sunny weekend of sport in Cambridge.

• The 43rd Head of the Charles regatta was held on October 20th and 21st (photos).
• The Springboks won the Rugby World Cup... I had to text score updates to Peter who was turned away from apparently the only pub in Vancouver showing the match. I am very impressed that he turned into a rugby fan after only watching a couple of matches - goes to show he really is an african at heart.
  
• The Red Sox came from behind to win 4 games in a row and turn a 1 - 3 deficit into victory in the ALCS.

The Red Sox are playing again tonight - Game One of the World Series.

(even as a baseball fan, I still think it's daft to call it the World Series when only [north] American teams compete)