As of this past Saturday, Mount Washington was a staggering 7.4 degrees (F) warmer than the average November, 6.71 inches of liquid precipitation dryer then the average November and a whopping three feet of snow behind  where we should be.

OK, so we can’t connect particular weather events to climate change - after all, last winter at this time, we were way ahead of the usual snowfall and well below average temperature.

Still, speaking as somebody who thinks it is *wrong* to be wearing shirtsleeves outside when it’s almost December, I demand a scapegoat!

There are plenty of educational concerns when putting ninth-grade back in to the junior high. I just looking at this from an athletics standpoint.

First of all, does he really think Manchester schools will be able to compete with the rest of the state after following through with the above? There are no sports in Manchester junior high schools. Where will these players learn how to play sports without the feeder programs. Freshmen come in very green, and are developed separately from the upper classmen in most big schools. If his ideas go through, sophomores will become the equivalent of freshmen in experience on teams. They will not be able to come with the other much larger schools in Division 1. What was he thinking?

-Bob Hammerstrom

After a lengthy selection process, each has chosen to attend Amherst College. Both looked closely and visited Amherst’s arch rival In the New England Small College Athletic Conference, Williams, before selecting Amherst. Each has applied for early decision in the admissions process and will know by Dec. 15.

Jellison, who finished his senior season with 1,350 yards and 28 touchdowns, gained 237 yards and scored five touchdowns in the 49-29 championship game victory over Portsmouth. He averaged over nine yards a carry this fall.

Petropulos, an accurate and productive passer, didn’t throw his first interception of the season until the title game.

Jellison, who had been offered a scholarship by the University of New Hampshire, let the UNH staff know he was applying for early decision at Amherst. He chose Amherst, in part, because he’ll have an opportunity to continue to play running back. He was projected to play another position at UNH, most likely on the defensive side of the ball.

The all-time leading rusher in the history of Amherst College is Souhegan graduate Fletcher Ladd, who rushed for 3,817 yards from 2001 to 2004. Ladd also has the school record for the longest run from scrimmage, 95 yards, against Bowdoin during his senior year.

Casuarina trees colonizing a lava field on La Réunion island in the Indian Ocean. Photo by Y. Dommergues, courtesy UNH

University of New Hampshire microbiologist Louis Tisa has received two grants totaling $498,115 to advance understanding of the actinorhizal plants, widespread woody plants with potential to enrich nutrient-poor and contaminated soils.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded Tisa, a professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences, $399,000 to explore the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria Frankia and Casuarina, an actinorhizal plant. Frankia forms root nodule structures on Casuarina that convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, allowing Casuarina to access nitrogen from the air and to thrive in areas with nitrogen-poor soil.

Working with colleagues at the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement in Montpellier, France, Tisa is researching the signaling process in the relationship between Frankia and Casuarina that lets each organism identify as beneficial.

“The plant has to know that the microbe is a friend, not a foe, and the microbe needs to tell the plant, ‘build me a structure,’” Tisa says. “What we’re interested in is, what are the words? How are they talking?” Tisa and his collaborators, who together will have sequenced 10 Frankia genomes, know that the signal is chemical but not whether it is secreted or exists on the surface.

The USDA grant will help fund five graduate students and one undergraduate student working with Tisa. “We’re excited. There are lots of preliminary results,” he says. “If we can figure out how these things communicate, we can figure out how to enhance the performance of these trees.” Tisa notes that actinorhizal plants pose a more sustainable solution to stabilizing and enriching soils than the introduction of chemicals.

His second grant, $99,115 from the U.S.-Egypt Science and Technology Joint Research program through the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, will fund outreach, exchange and collaboration with Egyptian scientists to study Egyptian Frankia strains and their relationship with Casuarina, which is being used in Egypt to reclaim desert areas. The three-year grant supports collaboration with Samira Mansour from Suez Canal University in Egypt, who was a visiting scientist in Tisa’s laboratory.

Tisa’s work receives additional funding from the Agricultural Experiment Station and the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture at UNH.

On Saturday, my wife and son convinced me to go see The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock. They didn’t have to twist my arm far. I watched the previews on a commercial, of Bullock walking across the football field with a mammoth player. That football player is the Baltimore Ravens‘ Michael Ohre, a six-foot, four-inch, 309-pound rookie tackle. The movie conveys him as a powerhouse, knocking down defensive linemen like traffic cones.

What amazed me about this movie, is that it’s true. The screen writers didn’t have to make up a bunch of far-fetched, gobbly-gook to make the character stand out. Michael Ohre’s life story is so interesting, that extra drama isn’t needed. I recommend all parents of athletes to go see this one.

Here’s my Top Ten List of Football Movies

1) The Blind Side

2) Brian’s Song

3) Remember the Titans

4) We are Marshall

5) Friday Night Lights

6) The Longest Yard

7) Jerry Maguire

Varsity Blues

9) 4th and Long

10) Invinceable

-Bob Hammerstrom

Photo by Bob Hammerstrom

What brought my attention to them was the bloody looking veins. A few days later the red disappeared into the leaves. In fact, I shot the same leaf a couple days later, and it didn’t look anything like this.

Photo was taken with a Canon EOS 1-D, Mark III, and a 100mm lens. Kind of spooky!

-Bob Hammerstrom

I wrote in June about one bit of debunkery from Dartmouth College geography professor emeritus Vincent Malmström, who pointed out that the supposed end-of-calendar date in December 2012 is an estimate. I’d link to the article, but we’ve changed our Web host and many old links have broken, and I can’t figure out how to make new permanent links - so instead you can click here to read his paper, titled “The Astronomical Insignificance of Maya Date 13.0.0.0.”

(Info-graphic spotted via Bad Astronomy)

As long as we’re talking about traditional audio stuff, take note that the ever-quirky David Sedaris has released his latest audiobook on vinyl. (NY Times item here.) This is so weird a move that I figure it’s done for publicity alone - and hey, it worked!

I have recorded virtually all of my few-hundred LPs into digital, complete with pops and hisses because it’s too much of a pain to clean them up. As a result, I have listened to that music more than I have since early post-college days, when having a record playing at virtually all times was a requirement for daily life.

For Bodden, it was three interceptions, one returned 53 yards for a TD, and he caused a fourth with a corner blitz. For Welker, it was a  whopping 15 catches for 192 yards, his longest a 43 yarder that set up the first of two Laurence Maroney TD runs.

“Wes Welker and Leigh Bodden had big days,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, “but they had a lot of help.”

First, the thoughts of Bodden on his day:

“Some of the balls were low, the two balls I caught were low,” he said. “The first one, I don’t know if it was a miscommunication with the route, but I was on my man (Jericho Cotchery) and I just looked back at the quarterback and saw the ball in the air and I just went to get it. I really can’t tell you if it was accuracy or what, but they probably weren’t on the same page today.”

Bodden talked how the secondary got together on Tuesday and talked about a few things after the tough game vs. the Colts.

“We just talked a little about what we should hav done and what we could have done better ourselves in winning that game,” he said, “and tha was pretty much it. Then it was on to the Jets. you can’t dwell on teh loss no mater who it is or what it was, so that’s what we did.”

And the Patriots stressed turnovers going into the game. They knew Sanchez was good for it.

“We actually look at turnovers every week on Saturday,” he said. ”He’s (Sanchez) thrown some balls to guys and we definitely knew we could probably get some of those today. We just had to catch them. that’s what one of my old coaches said, ‘You just gotta catch the ones they throw to you and we did today.”

 Now Welker, whose 15 receptions was a club record for the most catches in a non-overtime game:

“You know, I don’t look into it rally too much,” Welker said of his numbers. “I’m out there trying to do my job, and trying to do it well and everythng else kind of falls by the wayside. It’s definitely cool to be able to get those catches, and I’ll probably look back at the end of the year and be able to reminisce about it. But right now it’s just going out there and doing my job.”

Welker missed the loss to the Jets and the Patriots certainly missed him that day. Yesterday he more than made up for it.

“To his credit,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said, “it wasn’t like he was just blowing coverages, you know. If we played zone, he found a soft spot in the zone. We had one busted coverage for a long one, but other than that, this guy was doing a great job. Sometimes we had two guys on him and (Pats QB Tom) Brady had such confidence in him that he was still feeding him the football.”

“He played big and he always does,” Brady said of Welker. “What a performance.”

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Sunday was Brady’s fifth straight 300-yard game, and sixth of the season. He also went over 3,000 yards for the season, tying him with his predecessor, Drew Bledsoe with his seventh 3,000-yard campaign…

Maroney, who had two TDs on Sunday, became the first Patriot in a decade to have as many as five straight games with a rushing touchdown. The last was Robert Edwards, who had six straight in 1998…

Since 2003, the Patriots are now 21-1 following a loss, losing back to back games only once (Colts and Jets in 2006)…

The Patriots evened their all-time series with the Jets at 50-50-1….

Pats linebacker Junior Seau didn’t play a snap for the third straight game. He was active for all three….

Tully Banta-Cain, having a superb season in his return to New England, recorded two sacks to give him a team-high five on the year….

Patriots fourth-round draft pick Rich Ohrnberger, with lineman Stephen Neal out, made his Patriot/NFL debut in the first quarter, lining up at right guard. He had been inactive for the first nine games. Dan Connolly started in Neal’s place…

The Patriots visit the unbeaten New Orleans Saints next Monday night.

– TOM KING

For the Jets, who sent the ex-Patriots out for the coin toss again, former Pats QB Kevin O’Connell was the emergency third QB. Inactives included QB Erik Ainge, corner Justin Miller, linebacker Vernon Gholston, linebacker ryan Fowler, linebacker Kenwin Cummings, guard Matt Slauson, and defensive end Ropati Pitoitua.

– TOM KING

Don’t ever go changin’, 99.

What’s your favorite local chain and why?

Speaking of disappointment, it’s too bad that an article this well done confused kilowatts and kilowatt-hours, as so many people do. (Including me, if I’m not paying attention. We really need to think of better units.)

Yes, tomorrow, November 21, is the opening of firearms deer hunting season in Wisconsin, and oh boy, do I miss it. So, if any of my readers have some spare venison summer sausage to spare, I can give you an address to mail it. Hint, hint! It was always either warm, or really cold the first day, with feet of snow on the ground. Snow is nice for tracking, but makes it a bit difficult for walking up and down the hills of Trempealeau County, my old stomping grounds.

Yes, I have the racks from a few bucks I shot there and in Minnesota, but many of my deer hunting days only produced frostbite and “big buck” stories to share with friends and family afterwords. I remember getting up in the wee hours of the morning, driving up to the Laursen’s and hunting across from the big round barn. There were plenty of jokes to share while eating breakfast, and suiting up for the hunt. Marty was full of them!

I would find a stump and sit while waiting for the deer to move around after dawn. It was a great time to reflect and think, while keeping an eye out for movement in the woods. There were the loud squirrels jumping through the leaves, only to have the barrel of my rifle pointed between their eyes and my heart beating rapidly. An occasional partridge would drum in the distance, and the crows converged on the cut cornfield nearby. Sometimes a hunter would walk through, who I could hear from hundreds of yards away.

When a deer would finally appear, it was either silently sneaking up on me, or running like a bolt of lightning. If I heard a gunshot nearby, I would stand up still and prepare for something to come running by.

It was a good mile or so of a walk up and down the hills to get there, so layers of clothing came in handy. That was the easy part. Dragging the deer out was the back breaker. At noon it was time to drive in to Pigeon Falls for a pancake breakfast, and register our deer if we were lucky. Deer hunting is so much a part of most everyone’s tradition there that churches and clubs hold big breakfasts for hunters, and blaze orange dots the woods and fields. There was no school for the days leading to Thanksgiving while hunters were busy during the nine-day-hunt.

It’s been many years since I’ve gone back to hunt with Peter, Paul, Penny, Larry, and Marty, who passed away a few years ago. But those memories have my blood pressure rising as I sit writing this entry.

-Bob Hammerstrom

Check out The Telegraph on the web for hundreds of galleries full of pictures taken at high school games, over the past few years. There are also plenty of items like mugs and tshirts to have the pictures printed on. We use the company MyCapture on our web site to print the images for customers. You can browse galleries, search a topic, or search for a specific event. Check it out!

-Bob Hammerstrom

I spotted this one and its mate in a Hudson home yesterday while shooting pictures of a couple guys who operate an internet radio station from the kitchen table. You’ll have to check The Telegraph regularly to find that story.

I like the way this one looked at me with his head cocked to the side, as if he or she had just walked out of a bar after a long evening with friends. It didn’t say anything, which was a little disappointing. Who knows where I’ll find the next “strange bird” out there.

-Bob Hammerstrom

Since it’s carbon-free and very large-scale (Seabrook can generate roughly half the total electricity output of all New Hampshire’s power plants), many people say it should be central to our future. Since we have no way to handle radioactive waste, it can contribute to the spread of nuclear arms, and since the plants cost mind-boggling amounts of money to build, many people say we should forget it and charge hard at alternative sources.

It’s very complicated. I’m pro-nuclear, but I’m ready to waffle at the drop of an isotope.

We have a miniature version of this debate in New England, concerning the future of the relatively small and dilapidated Vermont Yankee site, which is seeking to extend its operating permit past 2012, when it expires. (Its wikipedia article has a reasonable summary of its history, although some might find it slightly anti-VY; here’s a Reuters story about some recent developments)

Anyway, the issue is so contentious that now there’s a push to take the ultimate New England action: Put it before town meeting!

Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom

I was covering an arraignment for Autumn Savoy, who is the fifth man allegedly involved in the Cates murder in Mont Vernon. It’s not easy, nor is it fun to cover hearings in court. There’s a lot of waiting around, and only a few seconds to photograph the defendant ushered into court. Most involved in the case don’t want you there, and few want their photos taken.

-Bob Hammerstorm

But here’s a great example, from this story in the Burlington Free-Press: IBM’s semiconductor plant near Burlington, Vt., has single-handedly caused water used in the regional water district to fall 20 percent in a decade. It didn’t do it to be “green” but to save $3 million a year in the cost of pumping and disposing of that water. Even for a big company and big factory, that’s real money.

Speaking of conservation and money, however, the federal fumbling over a national cap-and-trade carbon emissions bill, plus the nation’s lowered energy needs in the recession, are driving the futures price for RGGI allotments down and down. From CarbonPositive.net: “The benchmark December futures RGGI contract closed at $2.21 on Thursday on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange after eight days of falls. There may now be little to stop prices falling to a minimum level set by regulators of $1.86, one market analyst said.”