Month: June 2016

June 29

1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway. 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island. 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground. 1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey 1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in...
STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

Lower Manhattan Has a New High Line

Lower Manhattan’s inventory of uplifting public spaces will increase by one today at 11:45 am, when the new Liberty Park is dedicated and opened. The elevated, one-acre green space (bordered by Liberty, West, Cedar and Greenwich Streets) will connect Battery Park City with the World Trade Center site and the Financial District, spanning a 300-foot...
An aerial view of the elevated Liberty Park as it neared completion in recent weeks.

EYES TO THE SKY

On the summer solstice, June 20th, I was out in a canoe on a small pond shortly after sunset, botanizing and birding. The sun sets slowly during the weeks on either side of the solstice; daylight lingers in the sky. It was awhile before dusk, when I began to scan the sky for the brightest...
This illustration greatly exaggerates the eccentricity - or oblongness - of Earth's orbit, but you get the idea. Courtesy EarthSky.org

RiverWatch

Thursday, June 30 Anthem of the Seas Inbound  6:30 am (Bayonne); outbound 4:00 pm; Eastern Caribbean Carnival Sunshine Inbound 7:15 am; outbound 4:30 pm; St. John, N.B., Canada Friday, July 1 Norwegian Breakaway Outbound 4:30 pm; Eastern Caribbean Queen Mary 2 Inbound 5:30 am (Brooklyn); outbound 5:00 pm; Halifax, N.S./Boston, MA Saturday, July 2 Norwegian...

June 28

1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosull. 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. 1519 – Charles V is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. 1776 – Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged...
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo

Rowing The Atlantic

A good day with 11 hours rowing, pleased with the progress, but fairly exhausting and as I write can hardly keep awake! Fog this morning, fog again tonight, but in between was a lot of sunshine and blue skies. And quite hard work… Bright sun meant good charging, topped up all devices, made 15 l...
Dr. Stein Hoff began his row across the Atlantic on Sunday morning May 15th, 120 years after George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen.