Eric Bender
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ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Eric Bender
@ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
5 followers 0 following 120 posts
Retired science writer. Follow the climate crisis and research on type 1 diabetes, particularly cell therapies that seem the best bets for a cure.

Enjoy kayaking […]

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ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Transforming complex research into compelling stories

New oral communication studio at MIT supports professional development in STEM.

"Practice your oral presentation in front of two **simulated** audiences... Receive instant personalized feedback on 9 […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Photo of an informally dressed young man, hands in pockets, looking at a virtual audience. This is MIT's WCC Communication Studio, "a self-service recording and editing space designed to help users sharpen their oral presentation and communication skills."
November 17, 2025 at 12:09 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
What will the latest study of Boston Harbor ferry service find for Everett and especially Chelsea?

MassDOT and MBTA Are Studying Expanded Ferry Service

Possible new ferry route destinations include other coastal cities and towns like Gloucester, Salem […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Schoolchildren from Lynn, mostly smiling, gathered on the foredeck of an MBTA ferry, the newly renamed Frederick Douglass .
November 11, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Plagued by earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, fires and floods, Japan offers deep lessons on how to proactively prepare for and recover from such disasters.

The remarkable Miho Mazereeuw, head of MIT's Urban Risk Lab, just published Design Before Disaster […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Woman with short ponytail and black shirt, arms crossed, in a ruined building in front of a demolished landscape with a body of water in the distance. This is MIT prof Miho Mazereeuw after the 2011 Tohoku disaster, taken by Len Rubinstein.
November 2, 2025 at 10:12 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #venice
An unoccupied Venetian vaporetto (water bus), black with white superstructure, tied up at a dock in early morning.
October 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #venice
A cloudy day looking across Venice's Grand Canal to a row of palazzos, orange and gray and pink, with the wooden Accademia bridge on the left and a white water taxi on the right.
October 26, 2025 at 9:26 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Plagued by earthquakes, fires, floods and tsunamis, Japan offers deep lessons on how to proactively prepare for and recover from such disasters.

Last month Miho Mazereeuw, head of MIT's Urban Risk Lab, published Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Conceptual illustration of tsunami risk published in Design Before Disaster, showing estimates of expected damage and potential human casualties at various land elevations.
October 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
A fishing schooner from the Venetian lagoon, at Venice's naval history museum.

Other boats also seen this week: https://ericbender.co/safe-harbor/

#venice #boat #history #museum
A wooden two-masted fishing schooner in Venice's naval history museum, with a black hull topped by a patterned yellow stripe and an angel blowing a horn pained on the bow. Her lug sails are also gaily decorated in red, blue and yellow patterns.
October 22, 2025 at 5:11 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#nytimes again doesn't consider millions marching as top news.

#nokings
Current New York Times home page. You must scroll to see any mention of what may be largest protest in US history,
October 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I blog about Boston Harbor, climate resilience and related matters at https://ericbender.co/safe-harbor/.

Just vanity-published a printed scrapbook filled with this stuff […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Cover of "Safe Harbor" book showing a tug with black hull and white topsides under a sunny sky.
October 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #boston
Yellow Spirit jetliner coming in for a landing over a harbor with a sloop moored in the background. Logan Airport, this sunny morning.
October 5, 2025 at 4:50 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #boston
Empty red plastic kayak tied up on the bank of an entrance to a lagoon with trees in the background, on a sunny day. This morning on Snake Island, Winthrop.
October 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.

On October 18, millions of us are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.

https://www.nokings.org/

#nokings
Map showing locations across the U.S. of the No Kings events that will bring millions of peaceful protesters into the streets on October 18th.
October 3, 2025 at 10:35 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Luna, the first diesel/electric tugboat in Boston Harbor, celebrates her 95th birthday with a major overhaul.

#boston #harbor #maritime #history
Large wooden tug with white hull and varnished topsides hauled out on a marine railway in Chelsea, MA on a sunny calm day. This is Luna, built in 1930, now outfitted with new propeller and rudder.
September 30, 2025 at 9:08 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Here's another of Sophie Poe's beautifully written and photographed snapshots of museums I don't expect to visit...

in this case the House Museum of Kamol Khujandi in Tajikistan...

which includes a thoughtful microessay on the concept of home […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Room with a large loom-like structure on colorful rugs, in front of white decorated walls and below a wooden ceiling whose beams are also decorated. Photo by Sophie Poe, in the House Museum of Kamol Khujandi in Khujand, Tajikistan.
September 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #capecod #sailing
Varnished Cotuit Skiff catboat, with blue deck and raised centerboard, on a mooring in front of a wooded beach.
September 14, 2025 at 10:49 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #capecod #sailing
Small white Cape Cod catboat tied up on a float on a sunny day with puffy clouds.
September 14, 2025 at 10:46 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
In the winter of 1844 the merchants of Boston cut a 7-mile canal through the frozen harbor so that the Cunard liner Britannia could make it out to sea.

More on the century of close ties between Boston and the Cunard line […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Monochrome 1876 print of a paddlewheel steamer making her way out through a canal cut through thick ice, with a crowd cheering her on.
September 13, 2025 at 10:46 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The 210-foot superyacht Athos, claimed to be the largest privately owned two-masted schooner in the world, was up for sale a few years ago for around $50 million. This gray morning she was tied up on a Charlestown dock .

See […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Very large white schooner yacht tied up on a gray day (profile view). Very large white schooner yacht tied up on a gray day (bow view). Very large white schooner yacht tied up on a gray day (stern view).
September 10, 2025 at 7:04 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #sail #capecod
White wooden sloop Eowyn, on a mooring with her rigging taken off for winter, pointed toward a small red wooden catboat and the sunrise.
September 7, 2025 at 11:46 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #sail #capecod
16-foot Cotuit Skiff catboat, white with blue deck, moored in front of a beach with two people on a sunny day.
September 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Veteran Cape Cod catboats in their native environment.

#capecod #sail
White wooden Cape Cod catboat on a white-and-blue mooring buoy, on a calm sunny morning with a wooded shore in the background. Catboat is Rugosa, in Cotuit Bay. White wooden catboat Old Sculpin tied up at a dock on a calm sunny morning, with vacation houses in the background.
September 2, 2025 at 11:07 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ospreys in Stage Harbor.

#capecod
Osprey flying away from its nest on a platform at the edge of a salt marsh in Stage Harbor, Chatham. Stern view of sailing catamaran "Osprey" on a mooring on a sunny day in Stage Harbor, Chatham.
September 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Labor Day ends the racing season for Cotuit Skiffs and I've still never seen any under sail, but they look almost absurdly picturesque sitting on their moorings.

https://churbuck.com/2006/08/07/one-hundred-years-of-cotuit-skiffs-2/

#sailboat #capecod
A Cotuit Skiff (14-foot sailboat with a large gaff mainsail) with white hull and blue deck, on a mooring in front of a beach on a sunny day. Stern view of a varnished Cotuit Skiff (14-foot sailboat with a large gaff mainsail) on a mooring in front of a beach on a sunny day. A Cotuit Skiff (14-foot sailboat with a large gaff mainsail) with lavender hull and white deck, on a mooring in front of a beach on a sunny day. A Cotuit Skiff (14-foot sailboat with a large gaff mainsail) with varnished hull and blue-and-yellow centerboard, on a mooring in front of a beach on a sunny day.
September 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#capecod #sailboat
Slim white sloop tied up on a wooden dock leading toward a summer home, on a sunny day in Stage Harbor, Chatham.
September 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
ebender00.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #capecod #boat
Small red-orange dory, varnished inside, anchored in a salt marsh in front of a small hill with a house. This morning in Stage Harbor, Chatham.
August 31, 2025 at 10:02 PM