Results tagged “franklinparkzoo”

     

Good news from the world of science. The adorable but feisty cottontop tamarin is totally metal. Researchers at the University of Maryland, who were trying to replicate tamarin calls on a cello, discovered that, of all the human music they played a group of the apes, only Metallica elicited a reaction. And it made them chill out.

• While the Mass. ballot question on poker folded, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s ruled 25 ballot questions are constitutional. Backers of each can now gather signatures in support of each question. [ Boston Business Journal]

• In November, Maine residents will vote to uphold or repeal the state's gay marriage law. [Bangor Daily News]

The Globe's Metro Desk reports Mass. lawmakers are about to create a spending plan torestore funding to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston and Stone Zoo in Stoneham that was cut earlier this year. A vote on the bill, which also restores $40 million to cover health care costs for legal immigrants, may happen Wednesday. ZooNE should get $2.5 million of the $4 million that was cut back, which may or may not be enough to keep both zoos open. Regardless of the funding, there will be no animals killed.

Okay, The Zoo New England saga has become a full-fledged circus and it, fortunately, appears to have a happy ending as Zoo director John Linehan finally confimed that no animals will be killed due to possible budget cuts. Linehan started all of this crap by turning animal goodness into a dirty political prop by suggesting budget cuts could force the Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo to close and some animals to be euthanized. It turned out he was not telling the truth. Last week, Linehan confirmed his initial assertion that animals would die from budget cuts before finally admitting he was incorrect yesterday.

Hey, what's the absolute best news you could get on a sunny July weekend perfect for going to the zoo? Probably that this is your last chance to go there, because all of the animals are going to die soon! Wonderful. Be sure to check out the lions, tigers, and bears while you still can, because state budget cuts may force the Franklin Park Zoo to close soon, leaving lumpy piles of dead animals in its wake. At current rates, the zoo will run out of money by October, at which time it will have to find new homes for more than 1000 animals. Officials estimate that about 20% of the animals will be particularly difficult to place, meaning that these creatures may have to be put down. The Globe article does feel a little alarmist, but we'd still like to avoid seeing friends like Seamus leave us. Let's hope we can come up with the funds for a solution that's good for the state and the animals.

Who amongst us in the Ist-a-verse isn't drawn to news about animals? For example, the appearance of the Fenway Hawk might have been the highlight from Sunday's Red Sox loss.

-- Christopher Gardner Beaman, a descendant of Henry Cabot Lodge and a prolific organizer on Meetup.com, was sentenced last week for the brutal assault of his girlfriend. The victim, a 30-year-old Cambridge woman, described the crime as a culmination of the pattern of violence that marred their relationship.

--Nancy Pelosi is coming into town on April 4 to speak at the inauguration of former US Rep Marty Meehan as he becomes chancellor of UMass-Lowell. [Boston Globe]

--A truck crashed on the Revere Beach Parkway last night. No one was hurt, but the incident shut down the parkway in both directions. According to WBZ, "State police officials said a truck went under the overpass on Route 107 North heading toward Chelsea and smashed into the top of the Route 16 bridge, bringing concrete down onto the roadway and damaging Route 16." The road has since been reopened. [WBZ, WHDH]

Upon realizing that large chunks of Boston neighborhoods were left unmapped by Google Street View, Bostonist e-mailed Google HQ to find out why. We received a fairly standard response that the neglected areas would be mapped soon:

So many big court cases went down this week, so we're wrapping up the latest. --The first witness testified Tuesday in the Franklin Park Zoo Amok Ape Trial, which will determine the amount that will be awarded to a 2-year-old girl was attacked by an ape in 2003. The girl's mother, Terrasita Duarte-Scott, is suing Zoo New England because her daughter was injured and probably has a flood of nightmares thanks to the episode. Courtney...

I've been hearing about a tapir named Seamus on the news. What's a tapir?