Goalie Scores a Goal

For only the 16th time in NHL history, a goalie scored a goal. 

Two days ago, Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins put on in in the last minute of the game, into an empty net after the opposition pulled their goalie.

 

All of these have been since 1979.

I assume all goalies dream of this. Only 13 have scored. Some scored multiple times -- three for Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils, and two for Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers, who is now the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins (who aren't doing so great this season).

Here are more if you want to see them:

About Ukraine

Record Warmth in New England

In an article about the loss of ice for skating in New England, the Washington Post wrote: 

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont all experienced their warmest Januaries ever. After a short burst of extreme cold early this month, the mild temperatures returned.

The article is about this beautiful resort on the Vermont-New Hampshire border hasn't been able to open its famous four-mile ski trail on a lake until early February, and with only six inches of ice.

There's a saying that "Vermont is nine months of skiing and three months of bad skiing." Looks like that needs updating. 7 and 5? What a shame.

New England is warming faster than nearly every other part of the country, and the region’s winters are warming twice as quickly as the other seasons, said Stephen Young, a professor of sustainability and geography at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Any activity that relies on the cold, whether skiing or making maple syrup, is looking at an unstable future.

In New Hampshire it's been the same. The "ice-in" date for Lake Winnipesaukee -- the date when the boat MS Mount Washington can no longer make it to every one of its ports on the lake -- wasn't declared until Feb 5th. It's the latest ice-in date on record, and the first time it's happened after February 1st.

They've also had to cancel several winter activities there, or move them to a smaller lake: ice fishing, fishing derbys, hockey tournaments, a think a car fell through the ice....

New England in January is really beautiful, so cold and pristine it's like a different planet. March, April and the first half of May are tough though, when cabin fever sets in. 

It's so sad that these kind of experiences are going to end for so many people. Even growing up in Pennsylvania I have very fond memories of sledding down hills and nearly getting killed by trees, sledding down driveways and trying to avoid cars, even roads when there was a big snowstorm and school was cancelled. We used to stay out late on weeknights to where my mother could barely pry our boots off when we came into the cellar, they buckles were jammed up with ice. Warming back up actually hurt sometimes. 

Maybe kids don't go outside anymore anyway -- when was the last time you saw a group of kids playing baseball or football in a vacant lot? They were all over the place when I was a kid. I guess video games are too enticing now. Or they won't leave the security of Mommy and Daddy. Or Mommy and Daddy are afraid to let them run off on their own. Or they're off playing in traveling teams where they have to drive hours every weekend for a tournament. Honestly, I kind of feel sorry for today's kids.

Not my photo, not my field, before my time. But it 

was something like this.

Wild Sweet Orange

 It's a crime this band never made it.

Just got my external Bose speaker working again. Nice.

Stuff

"The richest 1 percent of people on Earth made almost two-thirds of the new wealth created since the pandemic began, Oxfam said in a report released Monday, the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps." (WaPo, a while ago) 

Humans have the largest ratio of brain mass-to-body mass of any mammals, but of all species ants have the largest ratio at about 15% (NdT)

(Ants are insects, not mammals.)

Anyway why is it the ratio that matters? If the brain is basically a computer, why isn't its size (proportional to the number of neurons and synapses?) the relevant metric, and not its relative size to body mass?

The Japanese Meteorological Association has measured 2022 to be the 6th-warmest year since 1890.

I also heard on YouTube Shorts that all mammals take 21 seconds to empty their bladder, regardless of their mass and size. (Can't find the link, sorry.) My own investigations have varied somewhat, but I'm no longer at the optimum human age. 

I don't want to live in a world without elephants, if from human avarice and stupidity they ever go extinct. What a miserable planet that would be. Just take me too.

Book recommendation: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Once I started it was difficult to put down.

Then, don't ever see the movie. How dare they.

Sea Ice Extent Update

Sea-ice extent in the Arctic was 3rd-lowest for Januarys, starting in 1979.

For the Antarctic it was the lowest ever for Januarys. 

But the Antarctic SIE continues to be...weird...inscrutable...confusing...intriguing. Here's its 12-month moving average:

The data are here -- choose #2.