Cambridge

Cambridge's Culture, which bills itself as "the word on cheese," is seeking an editor. Think you're gouda 'nough? At least five years' print experience required.

Shortly before 7 a.m., a driver managed to firmly wedge his box truck into the underpass eastbound at the Harvard Bridge, causing a nice little blockage just as rush hour was getting underway. He tried moving the truck back, but all he did was set of a shower of sparks from where his truck's roof scraped against the top of the underpass.

UPDATE: After working on the truck for around 45 minutes without success, the Cambridge Fire Department ordered an electric saw to the scene to cut the top of the fool thing off.

They've been workin' on the railroad at Central. Photo by MBTA.

UPDATE: The T reports service resumed around 2:10 p.m., with, of course, residual delays.

Ruddy S. reports a broken rail. The T says it's now busing between Kendall and Harvard.

Dani B., who took the photo below, tweets:

One lousy bus waiting for us at Kendall #shocker

Red turns yellow at Kendall.

The Boston Business Journal reports Avis Budget will pay $500 million for the locally based car-sharing service.The move will let Zipcar users rent Budget cars on the weekends.

Some local Zipcar fans were not pleased this morning. Lalunkee tweets:

I expect that this will ruin a wonderful thing. Crap.

Nathan Spencer adds:

I saw what Avis did to Budget and I worry this will be a reversal of what Zipcar was founded upon. Also, not for nothing, this is another example of a good Boston-based company moving up and out.

Although the companies say Zipcar will keep its local headquarters - and will still move them from Cambridge to South Boston, Spencer is not convinced that means much:

Oh, right, just like Gillette. It's not Avis' fault. Boston needs to find ways to keep successful companies here.

The Times marvels: Biotech Players Lead a Boom in Cambridge.

Boston and Cambridge divers conduct search. Photo by BFD.

UPDATE: The Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports the victim was 32 and from Boston. "Multiple witness statements suggest that the man who went over the bridge did so intentionally, and foul play is not suggested at this time." His body remains unrecovered.

The Boston Fire Department reports a man jumped into the Charles River around 3:30 a.m. today:

Three Cambridge men were arrested early this morning after Boston Police officers on routine bar-closing patrol started hearing gunfire in the area of South Street, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

By Giamarie Greene, who writes:

I saw Amanda Palmer singing at a holiday karaoke at Whole Foods and asked her to sing a duet of The Time Warp with me. This is the magic that ensued.

Xconomy seeks answers in the help wanteds for Amazon's local expansion.

Darryl Houston captured the daylight-powerful lights on Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park - put up by a guy who rents an aerial lift to ensure no surface is unilluminated.

Uma Mirani photographed Cambridge Common:

Truck Stop Tea Party captured the scene at Charlie's Kitchen in Cambridge the other day.

Copyright Truck Stop Tea Party. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Mamajoan captured an altered sign on an MIT door.

Also see this photo from the other Cambridge, in England.

The Tech reports last week's Cambridge power outage blew out so many wireless access points across campus that the school has had to order replacement units:

Until then, IS&T recommends connecting to the MIT network via Ethernet connections whenever possible. Students may visit the IS&T office in E17-110 to pick up an Ethernet cable.

The MIT Tech provides the most detailed explanation you'll ever read of last week's Cambridge blackout, including an answer to the question:

Why didn't MIT's 20 megawatt cogeneration turbine power the campus like a lighthouse in a sea of Cantabrigian darkness?

The Crimson reports:

Flyers Under Students' Doors Say 'No Fucking Jews'

Just as the Cambridge blackout was lifting, three cars failed to occupy the same space on Memorial Drive by the Mass. Ave. Bridge. Brian D'Amico, who took this and several other photos, reports two people were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

An officer at the scene stated that even after the Accord struck the second car, it kept accelerating forward for awhile.

Earlier, around 10:25 a.m., a roving UHub photographer snapped a car taking things one step at a time on Morton Street, near Blue Hill Avenue, in Mattapan:

Top photo copyright Brian D'Amico.

Can you spot the Cambridge/Boston line on the North Point bridge? Photo by Matthew Woolf.

UPDATE: Power began coming back on around 6:20 p.m.

Reports pouring in of power outages from across the city: Kendall, Central and Harvard squares all without lights. Cambridgeport is dark. The Cambridgeside Galleria and the Museum of Science? Powerless. Even the Harvard Business School across the river might be out.

Some people got stuck in an elevator at Harvard. A family with a baby got stuck in an elevator at the River Street Whole Foods.

Cambridge Police report:

Arnold Reinhold watched workers yesterday as they began repairs to the Grand Junction bridge - the only link in the Boston area between rail lines to the north and south of the city. Inspectors shut the bridge two weeks ago, forcing the MBTA, Amtrak and CSX to send trains on a 108-mile loop through Worcester County.

Via A.P. Blake and Railroad.net. Photo posted under this Creative Commons license.

The story behind HoboJacket, in which the author spends most of his time discussing how he built the site and ends with a comparison to Mark Zuckerberg (note to kid: He went to, um, Harvard). Among the valuable life lessons he learned from making bums/Caltech the butt of his joke:

People like to mess with you. The forms on the page are only capable of submitting integers to the database server (ie. every state and university has a numerical id; all data transmission is conducted by passing around those ids and some other datum.). I took a look at some of the server log files. People were sending post requests to donate "balls balls balls" on behalf of "dicksuniversity". I'm glad I took the effort to sanitize inputs or else the database would have been wiped several times already.

Oh, yes, thank goodness for sanitized inputs!

Via Boston Daily.

Cambridge Day reports on the impending shutdown of the physical store on Mass. Ave.

The Crimson reports Cambridge officials are considering building permanent restrooms as part of an overhaul of Cambridge Common.

Councilor Minka Y. vanBeuzekom emphasized the need for a public restroom to ensure that the homeless population - as well as children, sports teams, and other visitors to the Common - are not forced to use private restrooms in Harvard Square.

And then, in 50 years, they could turn it into a sandwich stand.

Dan Bricklin reports on a JavaScript emulation of the original IBM PC that lets you run the original spreadsheet program he co-wrote. He notes the emulator is even designed to emulate the 4.77 MHz speed of original PCs.

Sooz thought it was, until she noticed the woman burning incense. As she concludes: "WTF."

Columbia Street fire. Photo by Jake Kassen.

WFXT reports a man in his 50s died early this morning after a fire broke out in the third floor of a triple decker on Columbia Street. Associated Press reports the cause is still under investigation.

Jake Kassen, who happened to be passing by Cambridge and Hampshire on his way home, reports:

It was around 12:20am. The police had just arrived but not the fire department. Looks like it took them 20 minutes or so to extinguish the visible flames (From my vantage point) but the house is likely a goner. Sad.

The Crimson reports the recent elections mean the number of Harvardians in the halls of Congress will increase from 34 to 43.