The Eagle Tribune

12/08/06
Finegold: Make law that has saved babies permanent
BOSTON - In the two years the state's Safe Haven Act has been in place, four babies have been left safely at state hospitals, and hundreds of pregnant women who were thinking of abandoning their babies received help through a telephone hot line.

12/07/06
Activists converge on Statehouse, rally to restore budget cuts
BOSTON - Hundreds of North of Boston community activists, union members, caregivers, the disabled and their families joined with some 2,000 activists for a Statehouse rally yesterday to protest Gov. Mitt Romney's $425 million emergency budget cuts.

12/07/06
Domestic violence on increase, advocates report
BOSTON - Collaboration between victims advocates and the police is crucial to helping the Bay State reduce domestic violence.

11/29/06
Reform sought for children's mental health care
BOSTON - Gloucester's Krissie Burnham said her 17-year-old son has been hospitalized in psychiatric institutions "too many times to count."

11/16/06
L'Italien, Tucker recognized for passage of home-care bill
BOSTON - State Rep. Barbara L'Italien faced a wrenching decision earlier this week when her 82-year-old mother suffered a debilitating knee injury.

11/15/06
Report: Hunger doubles in poorest Massachusetts cities Haverhill, Lawrence and Methuen among hardest hit
BOSTON - The number of poor people in Haverhill, Lawrence and Methuen who skipped meals because they cannot afford to buy food has more than doubled in the last three years, according to a study by the nonprofit organization Project Bread.

11/16/06
L'Italien, Tucker recognized for passage of home-care bill
BOSTON - State Rep. Barbara L'Italien faced a wrenching decision earlier this week when her 82-year-old mother suffered a debilitating knee injury.

11/09/06
Constitutional Convention: Legislature likely to act on gay marriage ban amendment
BOSTON - Massachusetts lawmakers today are expected to consider a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, nearly five months after they abruptly postponed consideration of the proposal until after Election Day.

11/10/06
Legislature again avoids gay marriage ban proposal
BOSTON - Supporters of same-sex marriages celebrated and opponents cried foul as the Legislature yesterday essentially killed a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Some job growth, but manufacturing jobs continue to lose out in region
BOSTON - Despite adding 900 new jobs in September, the North of Boston job market is not exactly heating up.

Gubernatorial race sparks surge in voter interest; Statewide registration nearly 4 million
BOSTON - A surge in voter registration apparently brought on by the intensity and historical significance of the gubernatorial race is a harbinger of a high turnout in next week's general election - perhaps one of the highest in recent memory.

Question 3 would allow child-care providers to unionize
BOSTON - With so much attention being paid to the governor's race, a ballot question that would allow some family child-care providers to unionize is getting little notice - so little, in fact, that many North of Boston child-care providers are unaware it exists.

North Reading gains $3.4M from Berry Center sale
BOSTON - A new law allows North Reading to receive close to 20 percent of the state's $18 million sale of the former J. T. Berry Rehabilitation Center.

Addison Gilbert gets help from state
BOSTON - As Massachusetts prepares for the implementation of the new health reform law, the state announced new grants to area health providers, including $500,000 to the Northeast Hospital Corp., which owns Addison Gilbert Hospital.

Record fundraising fuels fears that governor's office is up for sale to the highest bidder
BOSTON - Deval Patrick not only received the most votes across North of Boston in Tuesday's Democratic primary. He swept the field in fundraising, too.

Devers, Lantigua recount set for Saturday
BOSTON - Lawrence election officials said yesterday they will begin a recount in the 16th Essex House race on Saturday, after Marcos Devers challenged his sticker campaign loss against two-term incumbent Rep. William Lantigua in the Democratic primary.

Lantigua wins recount over Devers
LAWRENCE - A recount in Lawrence City Hall yesterday confirmed Rep. William Lantigua as the Democratic candidate for the 16th Essex House race. Election officials said the two-term representative had 1,849 votes to 736 for his write-in challenger, Marcos Devers. A final tally is expected Monday, City Clerk William Maloney said.

Police oppose selling of wine at food stores
BOSTON - Area law enforcement officials fear that a Nov. 7 ballot initiative to allow food stores to sell wine would make it harder to control underage drinking.

The Lowell Sun

12/08/2006

Hunger That Never Subsides

By ANA RIVAS, Special to The Sun

Article Last Updated:12/28/2006 01:44:05 PM EST


BOSTON -- Hunger is news at the start of every holiday season.
On television and radio, in newspapers and on the Web there is an annual rite of reports from church basements and massive feeding halls, in soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless.
The message has been consistent for the past decade. More people are seeking food assistance this year than last year.
But while demand for food continues to break records in the state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last month that more than 92 percent of the state's households in 2005 had access to enough food for a healthy life. In fact, the USDA says it has been that way, on average, since 1996.
How can it be that demand for food relief has hit historic highs? Why is it reported that hunger continues to be a growing industry?More

The Patriot Ledger

11/08/06

Green-Rainbow candidate Ross celebrates support for party

By ANA RIVAS
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Nov. 8, 2006

BOSTON - The handwritten signs at the door proclaimed this as the spot for the Green-Rainbow Party’s “Victory Celebration.”
But for gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross and a couple dozen supporters gathered last night in Roxbury, the party was over before it started.
Already?” was her first reaction, minutes after the polls closed, when the television news bulletins proclaimed Deval Patrick the overwhelming winner of the race. It wasn’t a surprise, given the weeks of polls proclaiming Patrick’s lead. But for Ross, the news still came too early. More

TheBostonChannel.com

Voter Registration Stats Indicate High Turnout

Political observers have called this year's gubernatorial race one of the most contested, negative campaigns in memory. But there are indications the campaign may earn a more positive ranking. More

Immigration Issues May Be Moot Under Law

llegal immigrants became a major topic in Massachusetts gubernatorial race as Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey raised such issues as in-state tuition, driver's licenses and immigration law enforcement. Yet many facets of the debate over illegal immigrants are moot. More

The Salem News

11/15/06
North Shore's poor getting hungrier
More and more North of Boston families are skipping meals because they cannot afford food, and local food pantries are scrambling to relieve our neighbors' hunger.



Teens say recovery high schools keep them clean and sober
BOSTON - Sitting on a marble stair at the Statehouse, Sabrinna Clark, 17, waited for her chance to tell a legislator how a state-funded high school for those recovering from drugs and alcohol helped her deal with her own demons.

Gubernatorial race sparks surge in voter interest; Statewide registration nearly 4 million
A surge in voter registration statewide, believed to be brought on by the intense, historically significant governor's race, augurs a high turnout in next week's general election - perhaps one of the highest in recent memory.

State honors Salem firefighters for four-alarm rescue
BOSTON - Salem firefighters were honored yesterday at Faneuil Hall for their valor a year ago, when they rescued a young mother of four, her week-old baby and several other people from a burning apartment building on Palmer Street.">State honors Salem firefighters for four-alarm rescue.

Salem woman wins unanimous OK to parole board
BOSTON - Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey presided over a fast-paced Governor's Council meeting yesterday that saw the unanimous approval of Pamela Lombardini of Salem to the state parole board.">Salem woman wins unanimous OK to parole board.

Rep: Council picks can wait for new governor
BOSTON - When the Governor's Council meets today to decide on Salem resident Pamela Lombardini's nomination to the parole board, her resume probably won't be the only consideration.">Rep: Council picks can wait for new governor.

Seniors grill candidates on kitchen-table issues
SALEM - Shirley Vassy, a senior citizen from Salem, hadn't gotten a close-up look at the candidates for governor. So she joined 75 seniors from Salem yesterday on a trip to Boston to see an AARP-sponsored debate among the three major candidates.

Money OK'd for sailmaker's move to Salem
SALEM - A state agency yesterday approved a $2.15 million bond allowing Marblehead-based Doyle Sailmakers to relocate to Salem this fall, creating a new product line, moving 34 jobs to Salem and adding six more.

Patrick trounces competition in fundraising
BOSTON - Deval Patrick not only received the most votes across North of Boston in Tuesday's Democratic primary. He swept the field in fundraising, too.

New law will help pay for artificial limbs
BOSTON - When Juliet Bryce lost her leg in a car accident in Salem in 2001, she discovered that the amount her insurance company would pay wouldn't cover the cost of the artificial leg that she needed.


Question 3 would allow child-care providers to unionizeBOSTON - With so much attention being paid to the governor's race, a ballot question that would allow some family child-care providers to unionize is getting little notice - so little, in fact, that many North of Boston child-care providers are unaware it exists.

BU Today > August - November

Marine bio students test the health of a Cape Cod estuary (Audio Slideshow)

Some Vote, Some Don't, and Why

Boston magazine highlights Pinsky in October issue

Philosophy in the city

Director of 21 Grams answers 21 questions



















Grant spurs imaging center to action

Cape provides CFA student with ideas and support

Healthy teamwork wins race

International students learn the ropes

Age no barrier for CELOP student

SHA ready to move

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Boston Phoenix > Summer 2006

FEATURES: The IberoAmerican Film Festival:
Boston’s IberoAmerican Film Festival, organized by the Boston Public Library in partnership with the regional consulates of each of the 13 countries, continues tonight and runs through August 26 at the BPL. The eleventh annual festival features a dozen movies that have been box office or critic favorites in their homelands, but barely released in the U.S. (Read more)


LOCAL MUSIC: Indie rock en Español: The Clandestino rock in Spanish party
If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish.






LIFESTYLE FEATURES: Patagonian express: A consumer's guide
Bruce Chatwin crossed the Rio Negro and entered the Patagonian Desert looking for an answer. What about this desert took such possession of Darwin’s mind? Why did these “arid wastes,” as Darwin termed the landscape, captivate him more than any other wonders he had seen in the Voyage of the Beagle?






NEWS STORIES: State boosts investment in arts and culture: Budget increase for Mass Cultural Council; Mass Cultural Facilities Fund granted
(Read more)


NEWS STORIES: Spectacular failures: An MIT instructor on the Big Dig disaster
Engineers have taken us out of the caves and up to the skies, linked us with far away shores, and connected us to distant lands. And along the way they’ve also made some pretty huge mistakes. (Read more)

FEATURES: Jogo bonito: An Argentinean take on Brazil vs. Australia
These days, every time somebody finds out that I’m from Argentina, I get some variation on the same comment: “Argentina? Maradona! Great soccer, right?” You could say that, yes.
(Read more)

EL PLANETA > August Clips

BU Today > SHA ready to move

August 17, 2006
SHA ready to move

New home will offer hotel-like atmosphere

By Ana Rivas (COM'07)


SHA's new space at 928 Commonwealth Ave.
When students enter the School of Hospitality Administration’s new building for the fall semester, the quarters will presage what their future workplaces may be like. In an industry where appearances matter, students often go on to manage splendid hotels and restaurants. Now they can have the same experience in SHA’s newly renovated space at 928 Commonwealth Ave., which combines state-of-the-art educational facilities with the warmth and charm of an upscale hotel.

The building was designed with the school’s international reputation in mind, says Dean James Stamas. “We designed it to be two things: first, great teaching and studying facilities, which they are, and second, to convey a proper image to the industry, an image of quality,” he says. “We wanted our building to look as good as our students.”

The renovations to the three-story building have created an ornate and spacious interior that looks nothing like its Charles River Campus neighbors.

“This new facility will change the face of our school, says Peter Szende, an SHA assistant professor of food and beverage management and human resources management.

Explaining that the building was designed specifically to meet the needs of SHA, Szende says that “it will emphasize open common areas and use architecture to foster interaction among students and faculty.”
Read the rest of the story

The Phoenix > MOVIES > The IberoAmerican Film Festival

The IberoAmerican Film Festival
Through August 26 at the Boston Public Library

By: ANA RIVAS

8/10/2006 3:10:11 PM

Boston’s IberoAmerican Film Festival, organized by the Boston Public Library in partnership with the regional consulates of each of the 13 countries, continues tonight and runs through August 26 at the BPL. The eleventh annual festival features a dozen movies that have been box office or critic favorites in their homelands, but barely released in the U.S.
About 200 people showed up for the opening film last Thursday, which was “the largest opening in years,” according to Alexandra Merceron, the festival’s communications manager. Below, a route map to future, free-of-charge screenings.

Venezuelan El Caracazo (August 10, 6 pm) was created in response to a special request by the multifaceted President — and TV star — Hugo Chavez, and produced completely with state funds. Chavez, according to the director Roman Chalbaud, called him to recount his recollection of the bloody popular rebellion in 1989 in Caracas. The movie fictionally represents the revolt called “Caracazo,” which began as a protest against an increase in bus ticket prices and ended up in hundreds of deaths after a violent reaction from the government of Carlos Andres Perez.

New Voices, a collection of short films from El Salvador, screens August 12, at noon, and, later the same day, the Costa Rican love story Caribe, screens at 6 pm. Guatemala’s developing cinema is represented by Donde acaban los Caminos/Where All Roads End (August 26, noon), a film based on writer Mario Monteforte Toledo’s autobiographical novel. Ecuador presents La Tigra/The Tigress (August 26, 6 pm) and the Peruvian selection is Paloma de Papel/Paper Dove (August 17, 6 pm).

The two Portuguese-language films come from — suprise — Portugal and Brazil, two countries with strong cinematographic histories. In Vale Abraao/Abraham’s Valley (August 15, 6 pm), Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira features a female character, Emma, said to be “so pretty that cars crash in her presence.” From Brazil, A Ostra e o Vento/The Oyster and the Wind (August 22, 6 pm) is a story of isolation and love.

Perhaps the best known of all these movies is the Spanish Mar Adentro/The Sea Inside, (August 24 6pm), a story where the euthanasia question is answered by characters rooted in Galicia’s seaside. In one of the most moving scenes, Ramon (Javier Bardem) takes us out of the bed where he has been lying for almost thirty years: he grabs the white sheets, and takes-off flying through the window.

A book display compliments the film festival, with Spanish and Portuguese language books on the cinema, art, culture, and history of the participating nations.

BU Today > Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

August 15, 2006
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

New digital pictures respond to facial expressions

By Ana Rivas (COM'07)

Visual art has long been regarded as a powerful means of expressing emotions, but perhaps never before has this been so literal. Now a new software program written by a team from BU and Bath University in England can change digital pictures in response to the facial expressions of the viewer.

A camera poised above the digital image registers the viewer’s expression, and the strength and shape of the strokes in the ‘canvas,’ as well as the colors, change accordingly, transforming the image into a nonrealistic representation similar to an impressionist oil. The artwork shows vibrant colors when the viewer has a happy face, but turns blue and the lines smooth out as the viewer expresses, if not genuine sadness, at least a convincing charade.

The project is a collaboration of Maria Shugrina (CAS’07), Margrit Betke, a College of Arts and Sciences associate professor of computer science and Shugrina’s mentor at BU, and John Collomosse, a professor from the University of Bath in England, where Shugrina studied last summer.

The computer science major was amazed by the response to a paper on the subject she presented recently in France. She was flooded with e-mails after an article about the program appeared in newspapers and blogs around the globe. Press inquiries and congratulations came from countries as distant as Brazil, Australia, and India, she says. One artist wrote asking whether the software could work backwards: instead of reflecting a person’s moods, could it affect moods and thus be used as a form of art therapy?

“I guess it is cool if a computer can figure out if you are smiling or sad,” Betke says about the response. But “we are not claiming that we could detect if someone is sad,” Shugrina quickly clarifies. “We are claiming that we can detect if someone is trying to make a sad face.”

The system is “trained” to recognize only Shugrina’s facial expressions at present, but “it’s an ongoing project,” Betke says, and can eventually be customized for other users, or standardized.

Using images collected through a webcam, the software analyzes eight key facial features — such as the position of the mouth and the arch of the eyebrows — and projects them into a graphic that describes the emotional state of the viewer with only two words: pleasure and arousal. Developed by BU, this technology has several applications, including a “facial mouse” that allows people with severe disabilities to click or type on a screen-keyboard by just winking an eye. But this project’s idea of interpreting facial features as emotions is new.

Programs that create nonrealistic representations of digital pictures are already available in simpler versions in most image-processing software systems and even on photo-print kiosks at drugstores. But changing the way the artist — or the system user — creates the outcome, called “empathic painting,” is a new form of painting.

“One of the things I am interested in is providing animators with more freedom,” Shugrina says, “so that they can have more impact on the final outcome.”

The project’s feedback from the artistic community is encouraging. Scott Dasse, lead designer at BU’s Office of New Media, has been working in interactive media for more than seven years and envisions gaming and interactive film applications. “Sounds like a new input device — like a facial mouse — that could be interesting in a virtual reality way,” he says. A potential field of application is computer-generated characters such as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dasse says ¬— “Imagine a CG character that can read and react to your nonverbal communication.”

“I think it’s a fascinating interface,” says George Fifield, director of the Boston Cyberarts Festival and curator of new media at the DeCordova Museum. “The history of interactive art has been using a great deal of instruments,” he says. Knowing how to use a mouse, a keyboard, or a computer has been increasingly necessary, but with this software, he says, “you just have to be you. It’s fascinating.”

There are many potential uses for the software. Artists could use it to create interactive art or as a painting tool. Betke points to another possible application: homeland security. “Understanding facial features could be used to try to find out if someone is lying,” she says. For now, it’s entertaining to imagine the next Van Gogh making faces to a webcam embedded in his brand-new laptop.

To see a video of an "empathic painting" in action, click here.

The Patriot Ledger

Green-Rainbow candidate Ross
celebrates support for party

By ANA RIVAS
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Nov. 8, 2006

BOSTON - The handwritten signs at the door proclaimed this as the spot for the Green-Rainbow Party’s “Victory Celebration.”

But for gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross and a couple dozen supporters gathered last night in Roxbury, the party was over before it started.

“Already?” was her first reaction, minutes after the polls closed, when the television news bulletins proclaimed Deval Patrick the overwhelming winner of the race. It wasn’t a surprise, given the weeks of polls proclaiming Patrick’s lead. But for Ross, the news still came too early.

Ross had arrived minutes before the polls closed, before the catering was set and before her supporters and reporters had taken their places.

For the next two hours, people came in and quietly stood in front of a TV screen while the campaign manager moved the antenna for better reception.

“I’m glad this is over,” said Martina Robinson, the Green-Rainbow Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor.

But then Ross climbed to the stage and organized the program: music, food, speeches and conversation.

“This is a victory for us,” Ross said as she was joined on stage by the party’s other candidates: Jill Stein, who was running for state treasurer and James O’Keefe, the candidate for secretary of state.

“There is no measure of the support that I have on the polling numbers that are showed there,” Ross said.

Ross sought to celebrate the party’s agenda in the gubernatorial debates. She also saw a victory in the big turnout.

“The people of Mass. won tonight because they took a stand toward what they care about,” Ross said.

It is estimated that the four candidates for governor spent $31 million. The Green Party spent $600,000 among its four races, said Treasurer Daniel Melnechuk. Yet, in five debates televised in prime time, Ross had equal time to voice her opinions. During the debates, she managed to express her point of view.

Ross’ support doubled, according to polls, from 1 percent in early October to the 2 percent she received.

Ross’ communications director, Coby Peterson, said the party’s campaign stressed the politics of inclusion. Ross hopes the issues she raised on the campaign could be included in the governor’s agenda.

“For us, at this stage of our development it isn’t a question of gaining the office,” said Chuck Turner, a city councilor from Roxbury and the highest-ranking elected official of the party. “It’s a question if gaining the minds and the hearts of the people of this state.”

The Phoenix > NEWS > State boosts investment in arts and culture

State boosts investment in arts and culture


Budget increase for Mass Cultural Council; Mass Cultural Facilities Fund granted

By: ANA RIVAS

7/26/2006 4:57:21 PM


After many weeks of vetoes and votes, the $13-million Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund was finally granted, and the Mass Cultural Council (MCC) got its largest budget increase in years. The 26% increase totals $12.1 million in Cultural Funding. This means more capital grants, loans, and planning assistance to renovate, expand, and repair cultural facilities. And perhaps most importantly, it sends a message of respect for the value of the arts, sciences, and humanities.

“Every time you can get people away from their TV sets and to a concert hall or a theatre, that’s how you build community,” said Dan Hunter, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Advocates for Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH). “I think the Facilities Fund will help to strengthen the infrastructure for tourism,” he said today from his office. That tourism is attracted to the state’s cultural capital was one of the strongest arguments for this decision. Over the past year, MAASH coordinated hundreds of advocates to testify at public forums, met with legislators on Beacon Hill, and sent them messages about the importance of public funding for arts and culture. “We are done for the year,” Hunter said, “and it was a good year.”

“We are deeply grateful to the Legislature and its leadership for their commitment to arts and culture,” said Mary Kelley, MCC’s Executive Director, in a press release. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override Governor Mitt Romney’s veto over the two proposals. “This investment will pay off in every community in the state by stimulating economic activity, expanding access to cultural programs, and enhancing education,” Kelley said. The MCC announced it would invest the additional funds in its core grant programs for communities, non-profit cultural organizations, schools, and artists.

The increase is not enough to reverse the effects of deep budget cuts to arts and culture during the state’s fiscal crisis in 2002. Before the cut, the MCC budget was $19 million, but there was nothing like the facilities fund, said Gregory Liakos, the council’s Communications Director. “Having both will help us to assess the real needs of the cultural organizations.”

On the Web
MCC: http://www.massculturalcouncil.org
MAASH: http://www.maash.org

The Phoenix > LIFESTYLE FEATURES > Patagonian express: A consumer's guide

Patagonian express


A consumer's guide

By: ANA RIVAS

7/28/2006 10:50:32 AM

Bruce Chatwin crossed the Rio Negro and entered the Patagonian Desert looking for an answer. What about this desert took such possession of Darwin’s mind? Why did these “arid wastes,” as Darwin termed the landscape, captivate him more than any other wonders he had seen in the Voyage of the Beagle? The answer, Chatwin finds, is that desert wanderers discover in themselves “a primeval calmness (known also to the simplest savage), which is perhaps the same as the Peace of God.” Well, my simple savages, the Patagonian wasteland to which these men devoted so much ink can be discovered in multiple ways ― through film and wine and books ― so that you yourself can experience what it is to be a desert wanderer without leaving Boston.

A fine start to the exploration is seeing what Chatwin and Darwin meant by “desert.” Tonight and tomorrow, July 28 and 29, the MFA will screen Bombón, El Perro, a terrific glimpse of Patagonia by Argentinean director Carlos Sorin. This road movie proves that unlike the deserts of Arabia, this is "not a desert of sand or gravel, but instead a low thicket of gray-leaved thorns that ooze a bitter smell when crushed." Sorin has said in interviews that he is only interested in “losers,” and through El Perro’s unemployed middle-aged hero, his daughter, and the widow —a wholly non-professional cast, including the dogs — you’ll hear the silent spaces conversations tend to have in a land that is as empty as Alaska.

For a taste of Patagonia, visit Dana Hill Liquor Mart on Mass Ave, in Cambridge, and ask Eric about their selection of Patagonian wines. They offer two versions of Estepa, a Malbec-Merlot-Syrah blend ($16.99) and a Cabernet Sauvignon ($13.99). Unlike other Argentinean or Chilean wines, these are made with grapes grown further south, and have the taste of the dryer, colder soil (the weather in the Patagonian Andes is as unpredictable as in New England), giving it a moderate, but strong character.

Other good mates for your red wine are the stories of some enthralling paperback travelers. Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia is a classic starting point, with his fascinating accounts of other travelers’ adventures, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who, according to the legend, hid for years as farmers in Patagonia. In The Old Patagonian Express, Massachusetts native Paul Theroux offers a travel narrative that takes much longer to get to Patagonia, starting right here, with a rush-hour T ride to South Station.

Lastly, and only for those who have developed a considerable addiction to Patagonia, Darwin’s papers — displayed through May at the Museum of Natural History in New York and then coming to the Museum of Science here in Boston in February, 2007 — can not only upset Intelligent Design’s activists, but also provide some answers the question: What is it that makes Patagonia’s arid wastes so mesmerizing?

The Phoenix > NEWS > Spectacular failures

Spectacular failures


An MIT instructor on the Big Dig disaster

By: ANA RIVAS

7/25/2006 3:06:12 PM


The Big Dig
Engineers have taken us out of the caves and up to the skies, linked us with far away shores, and connected us to distant lands. And along the way they’ve also made some pretty huge mistakes. Stephen G. Banzaert, an instructor at MIT’s Edgerton Center, teaches a course called “Spectacular Failures in Engineering and Other Experiments.” ThePhoenix.com checked in with Banzaert to see if the recent Big Dig disaster qualifies as a spectacular failure, and to find out his speculations on what, exactly, went wrong. What follows is an edited transcript of the e-mail conversation.
Would you consider including the Big Dig on your syllabus this fall?
Given how long I've now spent on the phone talking about the Big Dig, I think it's almost a certainty that it will be on the syllabus this Fall, although it may yet be too soon to draw any real conclusions from it.

What are the "Spectacular Failures" that you teach in your class?
We range from the Boston molasses flood, to an explosion of a gun on the USS Princeton, to both shuttle disasters, the THERAC-25, and the Bhopal chemical disaster. We focus primarily on disasters that present lessons to engineers and organizations on how to do better in the future.

What took you to teach your students the bad example?
My class is geared towards freshmen as an introductory course in the history and causes of engineering failures. Last year I had 20 students. It's a new version of a class I took as a freshman at MIT (class of '98), which had left the catalog a few years before I returned as an instructor. I started teaching it because I think engineers in general benefit from learning this history, and perhaps more importantly from learning how to recognize the environments that allowed some of the "classic" failures to happen. As I mention in the description of my class, it's a humbling proposition to think that most failures are caused by motivated, qualified, highly trained people who are doing their best and think they are succeeding. It's hard to see your own blind spots — hence, for example, the need for external review.

Can you shed some light on what went wrong with the Big Dig tunnel’s ceiling?
I have no idea what went wrong. Anyone who has direct engineering knowledge of those ceilings is, for now, not talking. Until we really understand the mechanism, there's no telling what happened.

The first bit of information that came from Big Dig authorities was that a hanger bolt failed and that caused the ceiling to fall. The question of the (early) hour was: Did the failure of one hanger bolt actually cause this collapse, or was there a larger network of failures (such as many weakened hangers, with one actually failing and precipitating the collapse)?

Typically, designs of this nature come with substantial redundancy such that the failure of a single member can't cause a collapse like what we saw. (For example, your car doesn't lose a wheel if a single nut comes unscrewed. You would either need several nuts coming off, or all of the nuts to be weaker than specified, in order to be able to rip a wheel off.) There's no telling what the actual scenario here is until some skilled structural engineers spend time poring over the blueprints.

Now the Governor and his engineering team are saying that none of the 1,146 epoxy bolt hangers can be trusted… maybe all of the nuts were weak after all. Do you know what this "epoxy" glue is, where else it's been used? Do the panels HAVE to be so heavy?
Unfortunately, I have no idea where else this technique is used. What I can say about other ways of building and the weight of the panels is: In any design process, you would consider all the options that met your design criteria and winnow them down until you were satisfied that you were looking at the best option. So at some point, I have to assume that all the alternatives that are being tossed around (use lighter panels, hang them some other way, etc.) were considered and rejected.

What's somewhat critical in understanding the process is for us to eventually find out what was rejected, why, and furthermore what were the design criteria in the first place? (As a simple design example, the decision to use 3-ton panels obviously carries with it a new issue — namely, that the hanging system needs to be basically infallible, since the consequences of a failure are tragic rather than simply inconvenient. So the question is, what do you gain by having panels that heavy, so that you're now willing to take on that new requirement? Presumably there's a good reason, but I don't know enough about the inner workings of that tunnel design to start speculating on what it might be.)

Can you speculate if it was a matter of bad math, too-fast construction, or too cheap materials?
Again, no idea. Could be any or all, or some combination, or something else entirely that nobody's thought of yet. Some failures can be traced back to a single batch of bad steel; others are caused by long chains of failures, the prevention of any one of which could have stopped the whole event

Would you drive through the broken tunnel?
Of course I'd drive in the tunnel. Just like I still drive a car, even though they've had failures in the past that have now been fixed. I have to trust that those responsible will learn from whatever happened and deliver a re-opened tunnel that's safer than it was before.

EL PLANETA > La Region > Un Verano Sano y Divertido

Un Verano Sano y Divertido
En Boston y sus alrededores, hay suficientes opciones para los niños en el verano
Ana Rivas
Después de ver su dinero escurrirse en niñeras y a sus cuatro hijos pasar todo un verano entre la televisión y el Nintendo, Ana Alonso aprendió que existen mejores opciones para los niños en las vacaciones.
Así es como este año, sus tres hijos menores pasan los días corriendo, nadando y aprendiendo en el programa de verano del YMCA en la escuela Umana/Barnes Middle School de East Boston, mientras que el mayor asiste a un curso de apoyo escolar. “Están activos, hacen ejercicio, y hasta es más económico,” dijo Alonso, cuya familia calificó para un subsidio y no tiene que pagar la matrícula completa –de $87,50 por semana. Todos los días, ella los pasa a buscar al salir del trabajo --nunca después de las 5 de la tarde, aclaró: “yo me desespero sin ellos.” Y aunque los niños están allí desde las 8 de la mañana, el pasado jueves el menor pedía quedarse un rato más en el gimnasio.
Para familias como la de Alonso, donde el tiempo de las vacaciones de los niños no es el mismo que el de los padres, la ciudad, las organizaciones comunitarias y hasta la policía ofrecen decenas de opciones, para todos los bolsillos y para todas las edades.
El YMCA de East Bosotn tiene, además del programa en que están los niños de Alonso junto con otros 130 niños de entre 5 y 12 años, un programa para otros 75 niños con la escuela Guild Elementary School, informó Christy Famolare, la directora de School Age Child Care. En este momento, los dos están completos, dijo, e insistió en la importancia de comenzar con los programas de después de escuela: “Para tener continuidad y además asegurarle a su niño un lugar en el verano.”
Pero aun hay muchas alternativas abiertas. El centro ABCD (por sus siglas en inglés) con sede en Boston, “trabaja para mantener a las comunidades informadas de los programas de verano,” dijo Jenny Sintron en una entrevista telefónica. “Tenemos un listado extenso, y buscamos una opción que esté de acuerdo con el ingreso de cada familia,” dijo.
María Mesa, que trabaja tiempo completo en el restaurante Mi Rancho de East Boston, tiene a su hijo mayor, de 14, en un campamento por dos semanas, y al menor, de 6, en la “Junior Police Academy” organizada por la Policía de Boston.
Y es que las opciones para los niños en las vacaciones hasta incluyen una verdadera academia de policía, explica el Sgt. Arthur M. McCarthy del Departamento de East Boston. En la academia, que dura una semana, los niños visitan la división de Caninos, donde juegan con los caballos y los perros, la división de balística, y, al final, se celebra con pizza, contó McCarthy a El Planeta.
Los verdaderos campamentos junto al lago, como aquel en el que está el hijo mayor de Mesa, son muy comunes en la zona. East Boston Camps está convocando a los niños hispanos, para las salidas programadas para el próximo mes, dijo a El Planeta el director de campamentos Chris Tremonte. Allí, durante una o dos semanas, los niños van a nadar todos los días, salen de pesca, juegan al básquetbol y hacen muchas otras actividades creativas. Los precios varían entre $180 y $330 por semana, de acuerdo con el poder adquisitivo de la familia, dijo Tremonte. “Los campamentos son muy accesibles, muy seguros, y una gran experiencia para salir de la ciudad en verano,” informó.
“Sí hay opciones, y muchas opciones,” dijo Norma Aguilar, coordinadora comunitaria de Centro Presente en Cambridge. Ella lleva a sus niñas de 6 y 9 años a al Kids Club de una Iglesia Evangélica en Lynn, Mass. “Yo me decidí por esta [opción] porque mis hijas no se iban a levantar a las 7 de la mañana, y además, porque no las sacan afuera,” explicó. Ella y su esposo trabajan tiempo completo, y encontraron la información en la misma escuela a al que van las niñas, antes de que terminaran las clases. “Las escuelas y las organizaciones tienen mucha información, hay que ver bien y buscar que no haya peligros,” recomienda.
Para más información y un listado completo de organizaciones a las que consultar sobre las opciones para los niños y adolescentes en vacaciones de verano, dirigirse a www.elplaneta.com

The Phoenix > MUSIC Feature Stories > Indie rock en Español

Indie rock en Español
The Clandestino rock in Spanish party

By: ANA RIVAS

7/12/2006 12:31:36 PM

If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish. “They call me the clandestine. I’m the lawbreaker,” sings Manu Chao on “Clandestino.” And it’s the spirit of that song that Hinojosa brings to the monthly party where Bostonians have a chance to experience the Latin American indie rock scene.

When Hinojosa first came to Boston three winters ago, he said he felt a “scandalous cold, first, and the mood for some rock in Spanish, second.” So he organized his first party for 250 people with a single Spanish band. Today, there are more than a dozen local crews playing rock in Spanish. The bands come from Colombia, like the Berklee student leader of Santiago Sin Tierra, or Puerto Rico, like Sendero, and the music is similarly diverse. Guillermo Sexo’s “dark Latin freakout action,” as they term it on their MySpace page, has little in common with the sweet pop lady’s voice of Pop Filter Music, or with the band playing this Friday, Dedos.

Rather than a rock concert, Clandestino is intended as a party. The night begins with a one-hour set from a local band. And when the concert ends, the dancing and the rock lesson begin. Hinojosa spins tunes by Gustavo Cerati, Miranda, Kevin Johansen, Andres Calamaro and El otro Yo ― rather than Maná or Juanes. “I think it’s too easy getting people to dance with those. I’d rather complicate things a bit more,” Hinojosa said. “I try, as much as I can, to pick independent bands that offer more elaborate products.”

Tip: if you miss the party, you can listen to the music online on the Clandestino radio at www.clandestino.us . The radio is another attempt from Hinojosa ― who confesses to being a big fan of the Salsa from the 80’s — to show that the Latin American music scene can’t be restricted to one genre. “Perhaps our music’s charm and its value lays precisely there: in that we are flexible, hybrids, mestizos and in that we are OK with it.”

Clandestino | July 14, 9:30 pm | All Asia Bar, 334 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge | 617.497.1544 | $10

On the Web
Santiago Sin Tierra: myspace.com/santiagosinisterra
Guillermo Sexo: myspace.com/guillermosexo
Pop Filter Music: myspace.com/popfiltermusic
Dedos: myspace.com/DEDOSROCKBAND
Sendero: www.senderomusica.com

Indie rock en Español

If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish. “They call me the clandestine. I’m the lawbreaker,” sings Manu Chao on “Clandestino.” And it’s the spirit of that song that Hinojosa brings to the monthly party where Bostonians have a chance to experience the Latin American indie rock scene.

When Hinojosa first came to Boston three winters ago, he said he felt a “scandalous cold, first, and the mood for some rock in Spanish, second.” So he organized his first party for 250 people with a single Spanish band. Today, there are more than a dozen local crews playing rock in Spanish. The bands come from Colombia, like the Berklee student leader of Santiago Sin Tierra, or Puerto Rico, like Sendero, and the music is similarly diverse. Guillermo Sexo’s “dark Latin freakout action,” as they term it on their MySpace page, has little in common with the sweet pop lady’s voice of Pop Filter Music, or with the band playing this Friday, Dedos.

Rather than a rock concert, Clandestino is intended as a party. The night begins with a one-hour set from a local band. And when the concert ends, the dancing and the rock lesson begin. Hinojosa spins tunes by Gustavo Cerati, Miranda, Kevin Johansen, Andres Calamaro and El otro Yo ― rather than Maná or Juanes. “I think it’s too easy getting people to dance with those. I’d rather complicate things a bit more,” Hinojosa said. “I try, as much as I can, to pick independent bands that offer more elaborate products.”

Tip: if you miss the party, you can listen to the music online on the Clandestino radio at www.clandestino.us . The radio is another attempt from Hinojosa ― who confesses to being a big fan of the Salsa from the 80’s — to show that the Latin American music scene can’t be restricted to one genre. “Perhaps our music’s charm and its value lays precisely there: in that we are flexible, hybrids, mestizos and in that we are OK with it.”

Clandestino | July 14, 9:30 pm | All Asia Bar, 334 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge | 617.497.1544 | $10

On the Web
Santiago Sin Tierra: www.myspace.com/santiagosinisterra
Guillermo Sexo: www.myspace.com/guillermosexo
Pop Filter Music: www.myspace.com/popfiltermusic
Dedos: www.myspace.com/DEDOSROCKBAND
Sendero: www.senderomusica.com

The Phoenix > LIFESTYLE FEATURES > Jogo Bonito

Jogo bonito

An Argentinean take on Brazil vs. Australia

By: ANA RIVAS

6/22/2006 3:49:32 PM


These days, every time somebody finds out that I’m from Argentina, I get some variation on the same comment: “Argentina? Maradona! Great soccer, right?” You could say that, yes.

The U.S. has been slow to catch World Cup fever, that work-skipping, flag-waving, hoot-and-hollering obsession that spreads around the globe in an every-four-year epidemic. In the rest of the world, all that matters during the World Cup is the World Cup. Here, that’s not yet the case -- although it seems that maybe the States’ immunity to the fever is growing weaker. Because there are certainly pockets throughout Boston that the soccer spirit can be found.

Sure, some of the big sports stores and fancy shops on Newbury Street have joined the marketing season of the World Cup, and a number of bars in town promote that they’re screening all the games. But the spirit is particularly evident in the Brazilian neighborhoods. Just as every Walgreen in mid-February is all pink-and-red sweet hearts, the shops and restaurants around Allston and Union Square in Somerville festoon the storefronts and spaces with Brazilian team paraphernalia –- t-shirts, hats, posters, and stickers.

I decided to go hunting for some of that spirit, and a Brazilian friend suggested some possible spots -- only after he asked if I wasn’t trying to cast some kind of “spell” against Argentina’s main rival. For Sunday’s game between Brazil and Australia, I joined a crowd in bright yellow and green watching a giant screen at the Green Field restaurant in Allston.

Thousands of miles away from where the match was being played, the ambience was intense: around 200 pairs of eyes, entire families, and groups of friends stared at the screens. Voicing directions to the players with anxious shouts of “Agora! Agora!” (Now! Now!), they asked a player to shine, to make a marvelous pass, to score. It appeared the scene was set for a true “Brazilian Party,” but for some reason, for the first 40 minutes of the game, there was no party at all.

I asked Alex Santos, 34, a Brazilian who’s lived in Boston for the past five years, why they weren’t singing, screaming, cheering, or standing up and he said: “Wait until Brazil scores.” Brazil beat Croatia in the first match in a tight 1-0 victory that, according to most reviews, had lacked the magic that the world’s favorite and five-time champion team was expected to show. An instant after Santos said that, he proved himself right. When the almighty Ronaldinho played the ball forward and Ronaldo served Adriano with a perfectly weighted pass, everybody stood up. The first “Goal!” was celebrated -- as is often the case in soccer -- a couple of seconds before Adriano actually scored. After that, as Santos had anticipated, everything changed.

After that first goal, people shouted at every pass. Now, the expectations of “jogo bonito” (beautiful play) were expressed aloud, with the pride and sense of community that perhaps only soccer can create between Paulistas and Cariocas, between the high and lower classes, between perfect strangers, no matter where, if in Allston, Germany, or Brazil.

Carla Fontana, a PhD student at Harvard Medical School from Sao Pablo, said she had watched the game with her classmates last time, and that she didn’t like the English-speaking version of it. “It was so calm -- millions of experts’ comments and no feeling,” she said. “We really care,” she said. So on Sunday, she and her husband were the loudest fans at the Brazilian restaurant. Sitting in third row, wearing matching Brazilian t-shirts, they enjoyed the transmission from the Portuguese TV network Bandeirantes, but were critical with the team’s performance. “I hope they are just warming up,” Fontana said.

After the second goal, the critics were silenced and everybody celebrated. The ghosts were gone, and faces showed just happiness. Laughs and applause accompanied every exquisite play, every precise pass, and every graceful move on the field.

In the end, with a final score of 2-0, people jumped up from their seats like kids hearing good news. Congratulating each other, the crowd split, leaving with the satisfaction of having seen their team win. They know that the World Cup is also just seven games in a row.


Copyright © 2006 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group

Cambridge Chronicle > Business News > The gay-wedding business: Tweaking traditions

The gay-wedding business: Tweaking traditions
By Ana Rivas

The best men and the family wear lilac-and-white flowers corsages –or boutonnières like the two grooms. The couple exchanges a pair of multi-colored gold-and-platinum bands with diamonds. Wine and hors-d’oeuvres are served to guests in the garden. After the ceremony, a jazz band starts playing and soon everybody is dancing.

Devin Mulhern and Glenn Mallinson married in Massachusetts in September last year. They had “a full formal wedding with all the traditional elements, except the bride or any religion,” Mulhern put it recently. There was no groom-and-groom miniature on top of the tree-tier chocolate cake either.

Their ceremony and the more than 7300 same-sex weddings held in Massachusetts during the last two years created a civil-rights revolution, but, for the most part, they have reaffirmed longstanding marital celebration traditions. This should not be surprising, because lesbian and gay take part in the larger culture in which marriage represents both an institution and a quite structured public ceremony. As the second anniversary of the day Mass. Court overturned the ban against same-sex marriages approaches on May 17th, a look at how the industry has approached the novel challenge of mounting same-sex marriage reveals that wedding traditions transcend the bounds of sexual orientation.

It might not be the one-groom-one-bride scene in front of the altar, but Sue Hyde, of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force offices in Cambridge, says she understands why most same-sex couples care for traditions. “I am sympathetic to other people feeling that they’ve gone to all this other weddings, of family members, and friends, and workmates, and neighbors, and they would like to have that too.” Besides Hyde’s, 800 of other same-sex weddings were performed in Cambridge, according to Deputy City Clerk Donna P. Lopez.

Same-sex couples are now learning that common cultural language of the celebration of marriage. And the $50-billion-a-year wedding industry has customized its offer, as it promptly responded to the new demand. Last Sunday at the third “Rainbow wedding” expo in Cambridge, more than 50 companies sponsored a tuxedo fashion show with models from the Boston ironsides Rugby team, and the first issue of Rainbow Wedding Network Magazine was distributed, featuring wedding tips, political information, stories and a vendor directory.

Mulhern and Mallinson’s wedding was orchestrated by Jeff Freeman, planner from the company “Signature Created Events.” Freeman helped them to choose invitations, florist, photographer, white limo and caterer. As justice of the peace he not only performed the ceremony but wrote the vows with them.

Wedding planners became so important for gay weddings, according to Hyde, primarily for one reason –ignorance. “There is a lot about the traditions of having a wedding that we don’t know anything about, because we’ve never been in a position to participate in this cultural event,” she explained in her office in Cambridge. “So that’s one aspect of wedding planning that I think distinguishes us as a client group from others.” This is exactly why Lissette Garcia, partner of the wedding planning company “It’s About Time,” said they work exclusively with same-sex couples. “We could offer a service that was needed in our community, and since we are a part of it, who better to go to?” Knowing the needs of their gay clientele is the key, Garcia said.


The marketing for gay and lesbian weddings offers from invitations and gifts to handmade clay figures shaped after a picture of the brides. “Have the cake top created to your exact likeness,” advertises the “Animated Butch-Femme Couple” in Kathryn Hamm’s Gayweddings.com advisory site and online boutique. Hamm’s mother realized there was an under-served market when she was looking for invitations for her daughter’s wedding in 1999. “Revenue has increased with each passing year,” Hamm said. The gay wedding and honeymoon market is estimated to reach $1 billion over a three-year period, according to Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based marketing firm.

At the same time, these firms are marketing more than just customized invitations and miniatures for the cake. “The gay community is very supportive of people who support the gay community,” said Daniel R. Spirer, owner of a jewelry store in Cambridge that has been selling commitment rings to gay couples for 20 years. The online jewelry store, “Love and Pride,” donates 10% of every purchase to the association Marriage Equality, designer Udi Behr said.

“We don’t want to work with any vendors who believe that gay marriage is wrong,” said Kelly Dunn, who is planning a June wedding. She opened a gift registry at Crate and Barrel. The national chain store is one among many others that has revised their forms for gender neutrality: instead of “bride” and “groom,” the terminology is “registrant” and “co-registrant.”

Among traditions Dunn and many other lesbian couples maintain, it is the white gown. She said she is going to wear a “very simple white dress,” and her partner will probably wear a suit. Same-sex couples’ interpretations of the wedding attire include also another more tempting option for designers: two bride gowns or two tuxedos. “It can be very convenient,” a clerk at the Cambridge-based store Classic Tuxedo said, after selling two complete tuxedos to a gay couple a morning last March.

While some options are customized or marketed towards gay and lesbian couples, others remain restricted to them. “We are both Catholic and we cannot have a Catholic ceremony, so we will have to change a few of our ceremony traditions,” Dunn Said. The Unitarian Universalist ceremony they’ll have is usually preferred among gay couples, next to secular and Reformist Jewish ceremonies. “The creative Jewish wedding” is one of the books that have been published lately to meet this need.

Still, the changes on the religious script of the celebration do not affect the core of the cultural traditions, Paula Treckel, a historian of the wedding ceremony in America and a professor at Allegheny College, Pasadena, CA, said. When the gay community asks for “a replication of the marriage partnership,” it is also willing to embrace the traditions involved in the public celebrations of marriage, she said. She said that gay weddings have had little affect upon how marriage is celebrated in our culture. Indeed, perhaps because of the myriad of changes Americans have experienced, the legacy of the traditional wedding ceremony lives on: “Our longing for tradition, security, ties with the past, as well as our hopes for the future, are embodied in this all-important public celebration,” Treckel explained.

One thing Dunn didn’t expect was her family expectations about traditions. “I thought that having a gay wedding would sort of prevent me from having my family getting really involved and saying ‘well of course you will do this tradition, and of course you will do that tradition,’ but that wasn’t true,” Dunn said. It turned out that one of her sisters was very upset that they didn’t want bridesmaids, and finally had to give in. “But she is not allowed to wear an ugly-bridesmaid dress.”

Cambridge Chronicle > Business News > Record store takes final spin

Home > Cambridge Chronicle > Business News

Record store takes final spin
By Ana Rivas / For The Chronicle
Thursday, February 9, 2006

Mojo Records' colorful lights and naked Bjork window poster are now covered with big black and white signs announcing that yet another Mass. Ave. record store is going out of business.
Skyrocketing rents and online sales have already closed half of the 20 record stores that once formed an imaginary line from Central to Porter squares. Pipeline Records and HMV Music Superstore are examples of the business that closed in the last five years.
"This actually was the last vestige of a cool Cambridge block," said Mike Feudale, the manager of Sandy's Music, a store specializing in musical instruments, a few steps away from Mojo's. Feudale fears the closing will affect his business. "We get a lot of sales from their clients and they get some from us," he said. "Now that Mojo is leaving, the cool block is shrinking."
Mojo's has been in business at 904 Mass. Ave. for five years; prior to that, it operated under a different name closer to Central Square. The store will close March 19.
Mojo's building is for sale. Potential new locations either asked twice the rent, or offered half the space, said Mojo's owner Mike White. And sales are down. Or, more precisely, they went online. White said he would not follow the trend. "I did that for a year, but it wasn't the same."
But beyond sales, the Internet presents another threat to the long-time cachet of these stores that were once meeting places for music fans, college kids and collectors. Along with the records, something else is going online: the space to cultivate a passion for music, and find advice and information.
While flipping through the half-priced CDs bin in Mojo's going-out-of-business sale, Philip Clendaniel tried to remember the name of a band. He saw them when they opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966. "It was a group called - let me think," he said.
But another customer anticipated the answer: "Tradewinds!"
Proudly, Clendaniel corroborated: "He knows!" It was his first time in Mojo's, but after meeting a stranger willing to start a conversation on a forgotten band from the 1960s, he said, "This is a great place."
The Internet works in the same way. A Harvard University study of consumer habits predicts that by 2010 one in four online music purchases will be driven by consumer-to-consumer "taste-sharing applications." Playlists and ranking tools built into online music stores and other music-related sites are replacing what music lovers used to look for in the stores: information.
"Customers have far less need to ever step into a record store today," said Derek Slater, co-author of the report released by Harvard's Berkman Center and consultants Gartner Inc. "Not only can they acquire the music online -whether used or new, illegally or legally, on CD or downloaded - they also have myriad sources of information to become exposed to new music."
Hernan Patrich, a 26-year-old music fan, agrees. "I read 80 reviews before buying a disc online," he said. "Having access to what other consumers think about the product is priceless."
But while automated recommendation engines appeal to many, some music fans might still prefer the personalized advice. Store clerks have often acted as a trusted expert with whom the music buyer can interact.
That is what many customers have found behind the counter of Cheapo Records, a Central Square fixture since 1948. Allen Day, the owner "has a deep knowledge of the '50s and '60s, specially black music," said Robert Thomas, the store's clerk.
Cheapo announces itself with a sign in the street level: "Yes! We have CDs!" Since 1997 it has been confined to a basement behind the subway entrance, between a Walgreens and a Starbucks. Since that year rent has tripled, Thomas said.
Thomas remembers a time when you could stop at a dozen of record stores in a line in the area. "In the past if you wanted to learn about music, you had to physically go to a place and talk to a person, do research yourself," Thomas said. "The thing is different now; you just can get everything very quickly [from the Internet]."
"It's not necessarily bad," he added. "But I think something gets lost in the translation."