I was home with the kids this week, so I took them to one of my favorite places where some “damned” things are on display — Yale’s Peabody Museum. It’s a good place to whet their curious young appetites — like many of you, I remember going there as a kid, but of course now as a grown-up kid, I better appreciate what specimens they have on display.

Speaking of, I almost forgot that the first “damned” thing you see walking through the front door is the giant squid model hanging from the lobby ceiling –

Courtesy of Yale

With apologies to Nessie and Bigfoot, there may be no more elusive cryptozoological-type creature actually proven to exist than the giant squid. This renowned life-size 35-foot model was designed and built in the 1960s by New Haven native Harry Townshend, who went in search of the creature repeatedly in the waters off of New Foundland and offered a bounty for a specimen.

Of course, he could’ve held out for the even bigger and more rare are the colossal squid, like this one caught last year in New Zealand, which came in at over 1,000 pounds and 39 feet in length.

I think they’re going to need a bigger boat …

As mentioned in a recent blog post, the Peabody is also home to the much-heralded Weston meteorite, which sits in a case on the third floor near some other rocks from the heavens. The museum used to be home to artifacts from Hiram Bingham’s 1911 discovery of the lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru, but recent dust-ups between Yale and the Peruvian government has lead the museum to scale back its offerings on this subject. Next month, the new exhibit Darwin: 150 Years of Evolutionary Thinking opens at the museum, a continuing celebration of the guy whose theories were once quite damned, and has come a long way since.

The Peabody also has all sorts of other unusual things, from mastodon skeletons to live poison dart frogs to an actual mummy. What’s not to like?

This week was “Dino Days,” and as the kid in you might remember, the museum houses the skeletons of lots and lots of dinosaurs, plus the famous “Age of Reptiles” mural by Rudolph F. Zallinger.

We have the puzzle . . . somewhere.

Anyway, one of the things I find interesting about dinosaurs is that, like meteorites, they are relatively recent discoveries in the annals of science, and ones met with much debate that, in retrospect, seems kind of naive and silly. Although random dinosaur bones had been found for hundreds of years, it was only during the late 1700s and early 1800s that it became accepted that there may have been a very different geologic past than previously thought, with creatures never imagined. The term “dinosaur” (meaning “terrible lizard”) wasn’t even coined until British scientist Richard Owen came up with it in 1842 — which is amazing when you consider that these creatures ruled the planet for a few hundred million years.

As you’re probably already thinking, Connecticut has even deeper dino-connections, including Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill. But that’s a another trip for another (warmer) day.

Steve brought to my attention this story about a mysterious fireball that was spotted streaking through the skies over Texas. Here video of the event –

As you might expect, a few sonic booms accompanied it.

From a few reports, no one is quite sure what it was. At first, it was speculated that it was some of the debris from the collision of a U.S. Iridium satellite and Russian Cosmos 2251 communications relay satellite a few days ago, but that was quickly ruled out. Most likely, it was a meteor (which I guess is technically space debris, now that I think about it).

As you might expect, this got me to thinking about the skies above Connecticut, and I found that just a few weeks ago on January 23, a meteor hit the earth’s atmosphere above southeastern Massachusetts and was witnessed by residents of the state’s Quiet Corner. As someone who tends to enjoy looking up into the night sky, I’ve been lucky enough to see a few meteors streak across it.

Courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum

Of course, Connecticut played a major role in meteor history two hundred years ago with the celebrated Weston meteorite of 1807, on display at Yale’s Peabody Musuem. It may be hard to fathom, but before then, people didn’t think that rocks could just fall from the sky — whenever meteors were seen, it was believed that they had been sent skyward by volcanoes or some other Earthly cause, and were simply coming back down. The sheer size and spectacular nature of the Weston meteorite’s impact made it the first recorded meteor fall by European colonists in American history, and started the ball rolling toward acceptance of the “meteors are from space” theory. It was such a significant event that it even garnered the attention of then-president Thomas Jefferson, who allegedly scoffed at the two Connecticut scientists who investigated the “space rock” by saying, ““I would more easily believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven.”

If you’re interested in more about the history of the Weston meteorite and its importance, here’s a story that ran during the 200th celebration of the event in 2007.

Our pal Margey and her friends of the Fairfield Chapter of Drinking Skeptically are having their monthly meet-up on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 6:30 at the Beach Cafe in Fairfield.

On tap is a special guest speaker. According to Margey:

“Our guest speaker is Patty Pieniadz, an ex-Scientologist who once was the Executive Director of Narconon Connecticut and director of Rehabilitation for the Church of Scientology. Patty will be speaking about the inner workings of Scientology and her personal experience with the cult, I mean, religion.”

We are going to try and be there — sounds like an interesting evening!

If you aren’t familiar with the Drinking Skeptically group, from their website:

Had enough of astrologers, psychics, homeopaths, and spirit channelers? Yearning to talk with someone rational for awhile? Meetup with other local skeptics for some refreshing and sane conversation.

Drinking Skeptically does not take “official” positions on political, religious, academic, or other matters. For example, Drinking Skeptically is not an “atheist” organization; nor is it a “non-atheist” organization. All we are interested in is providing a social venue for rationalists, critical-thinkers, and skeptics to meet, have a good time, and get to know each other.

We went last month and enjoyed a casual evening of interesting discussion with some very intelligent and friendly folk. Hope you can make it!

In case you haven’t heard, this week marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin, the scourge of intelligent design and the grower of one of the best 19th-century scientist beards ever.

To celebrate, Feb. 12 has been declared Darwin Day, and as such, there will be numerous events happening around the world. Here in Connecticut, there are a few events on the 12th and beyond –

• At Fairfield University on Feb. 12, there is a film festival and a roundtable discussion (with cake!).
• The Yale Center for British Art welcomes the exhibition Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts from Feb. 12 to May 3, which is accompanied by special lectures and tours throughout the run.
• In Norwalk, the first Darwin Day dinner will be held on Feb. 13, featuring a talk by Dr. Laurie Santos, assistant professor of psychology at Yale University.
• On Feb. 14-22, Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill plans on myriad activities and events Darwin-related.

Not surprisingly, here at Damned Connecticut we’re fans of the Darwin Awards, which honor those who help natural selection by stupidly removing themselves from the gene pool. Last year’s “big winner” was the priest from Brazil who attached a bunch of balloons to a lawn chair in an effort to ascend gloriously into the heavens. As evolution would have it, he succeeded, although not in the manner he planned.

No winner or nominee from Connecticut last year, but hey, there’s still plenty of calendar left for 2009. Come on, people!

I’m beginning to think my husband Steve has a specter–a ghostly apparition hanging around him, who is apparently technologically inclined. It’s really unfair that I have to be the one to write this post because Steve and Ray probably orchestrated this whole thing and are laughing at me right now. But here goes:

Is it possible that after visiting so many haunted places (Remington Arms in Bridgeport; the White Lady in Easton; the Little Gennessee Settlement in Guilford; Downs Road in Hamden), that something may have climbed in the the car and come home with us? I have heard that if you take items with you from places like Dudleytown that you can experience paranormal activity. Maybe you don’t just have to take items. Maybe you just have to capture images.

I admit I’m the gullible one around here, but even Steve can’t deny that something weird is going on.

Last night my sister-in-law used her contact list in her cell phone to call me and she swears a male voice answered and asked her if she is an idiot. I get the urge to ask people that all the time, but she swears this was a MALE voice. She double-checked her call list and it was indeed my phone she called. Yeah, I guess lines can be crossed.

But now tonight my other sister-in-law is telling us she’s sure Steve called her tonight, but we know that he didn’t.

Maybe Steve is pulling our legs. Or maybe something followed us?

In our ongoing salute to the International Year of Astronomy, I was intrigued by this recent story detailing how a Scottish scientist has estimated that  there are at least 361 “intelligent” civilizations in our galaxy, and possibly as many as 37,964.

I don’t know if I’m more amazed by the fact that there could be so many other neighbors out there in space, or that the scientist, Duncan Forgan of Edinburgh University, came up with such specific numbers! Seriously, considering how we have yet to discover one intelligent civilization out in the cosmos, to pick out specific numbers as 361 and 37,964  seems a bit bold, doesn’t it?

Well, if we find even one planet with one intelligent group of life forms on it, there could be a bigger problem. As Forgan points out, “If alien life forms do exist, we may not necessarily be able to make contact with them, and we have no idea what form they would take.”

Ay, there’s the rub. We finally find life somewhere else, but yet we can’t communicate with them. Oh irony, you cruel mistress! Of course, if they were frakkin’ cylon skinjobs, those damn toasters could be  here among us already, waiting to destroy humanity and … uh …

Sorry. Excuse my inner geek getting out.

Anyway, Forgan hypothesizes that either life is easy to form but struggles to find intelligence, or that life struggles to form but can evolve easily. No doubt that there’s numerous scenarios in between, too. And because it’ll probably be impossible to count the total intelligent civilizations in the galaxy for a few millenia or so, I guess he’ll be considered his theories will hold as true. Who knows, right? Currently, all the mysteries of the universe — including if and where there may be other intelligent life — are not for us to know.

Then again, if intelligent alien civilizations saw stories like this, they might question our “intelligence” and just not bother.

The other day, we posted a story about the recent discovery of a “lost” painting by renowned painter John Trumbull, a Connecticut native whose work hangs in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as well as illustrates most American history books. His painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is probably his best-known work; an interesting side story about that painting is that he was commissioned to paint it in 1817, almost 40 years after the event, so rather than wing it when it came to what each signer looked like, Trumbull traveled the country to visit each living one to sketch them.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the post, a little known fact about Trumbull is his final resting place. One of his favorite subjects was his personal hero, Gen. George Washington, whom Trumbull formerly painted numerous times. And when Trumbull died in 1843, he requested to be interred alongside his wife at the foot of one of his favorite portraits of Washington, which was hanging in a special gallery and tomb of his creation in conjunction with Yale University. This request was honored . . . and then some.

When Yale built a bigger art gallery on Chapel Street in 1953 to better showcase its collection, it moved all the paintings from the old gallery, including Trumbull’s portrait of Washington. And where the painting went, so went Trumbull. As you read this, he and his wife continue to rest peacefully at the foot of the beloved portrait, in a special tomb underneath Yale Art Gallery.

For a brief but well-done biography of Trumbull, you can do worse than this article over at AmericanHeritage.com.

I saw this article today, and for those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, I guarantee at some point in the next three years, you will:

December 12, 2012 is the end of the Mayan calendar, and therefore, will be the end of days.

Everyone panic!!!

Okay, not quite, although like Y2K or when the planets aligned perfectly in 1983, you will hear all sorts of doomsday predictions about 12.21.12. (Quick side note about 1983 — there was a science teacher in my high school who was convinced the world would truly end on the day the planets aligned, and even went so far as to take the day off and cower in her basement with her family. You can imagine her embarrassment when Life went on.)

Heck, there’s even an upcoming movie capitalizing on the alleged soon-to-be-upon-us predicted end of the world — simply titled 2012, and starring John Cusack!

For those who are unfamiliar with the growing hype, the theory goes that the Maya, a surprisingly advanced peoples who inhabited much of Central America for 11,000 years or so, were ancient whizzes at math, language, architecture and of course, astronomy. Among their many other amazing achievements, they were able to create a complicated yet incredibly accurate calendar that has precisely predicted everything from eclipses to solstices to other celestial events. And as it turns out, their 5,126-year calendar abruptly ends on — you guessed it — December 21, 2012, the winter solstice and a date coincidentally when our sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way galaxy!

[*insert ominous "dun-dun-dun!!!*]

Fire and brimstone, earthquakes and eruptions, asteroids and celestial destruction! Hello apocalypse!!

Sadly, many people will be swept up in the myth, mania and hearsay, and very few will take the time to discover that the demise of the Earth isn’t exactly what the Maya predicted. Actually, very little of what the Maya thought of the date is available. The end of Mayan calendar cycles were generally times of change and transformation, not cataclysmic destruction, so it’s more likely that the date is a positive experience, a step forward for the planet toward a better existence.

But hey, why let the facts get in the way of an impending apocalypse and all the glorious hysteria that can bring, right?

If you’re interested in reading something non-hysterical and fairly informed, including the myriad flaws in the Mayan end-of-days scenario, we suggest Exit Mundi.

In our ongoing salute to the International Year of Astronomy, we thought we’d mention one of our favorite mysteries from this solar system: The hexagon of Saturn!

Yes, every grade school kid knows about the pretty rings of Saturn, but less people are familiar with this odd formation at the northern pole of the planet. Originally discovered in 1979 by Voyager and then confirmed to still be in the same location by the Cassini probe in 2006, it appears to be a perfectly geometrical and enormous swirling cloud vortex — sixty miles high with six clearly defined and even sides!

There has been some debate as to exactly how it’s formed, why it’s in the same spot and how it could have such straight edges. Of course, there are some who think it’s the portal to another dimension or a sign from extraterrestrial life. Most likely, it’s just a natural formation caused by planetary oscillation.

Still, something that big and symmetrical just spontaneously forming on its own is just plain weird.

Here’s a little NASA-produced clip about it that I saw recently.

Oh, and if all this plus the rings isn’t enough to convince you that Saturn may be the oddest place in the solar system — apparently, it even sounds freaking spooky!

While researching this post, I also came across this .wav file — a recording by the Cassini probe of radio emissions from Saturn. Warning: Don’t listen to this by yourself in a dark room. Seriously, if NASA is calling it “eerie,” then it’s actually quite spooky.

Saturn: One damned weird planet!

Okay, this isn’t a pure Connecticut story, but since Alzheimer’s disease affects over 155,000 state residents, I thought I’d give it a quick mention here in the blog . . .

I was cruising around the web the other day, and I came across this story from the Daily Mail (a U.K. publication) — it caught my eye because I’m a fan of author Terry Pratchett (Sir Terry to his royal fans), who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Essentially, it boils down to this: Pratchett has been wearing this prototype anti-dementia helmet for 10 minutes a day, every day, for three months. As a result of this treatment, Pratchett has allegedly seen a “small improvement.”

The theory behind it is that it “directs intense bursts of infrared light into the brain to stimulate the growth of brain cells.”

Obviously, it’s going to have to go through a battery of clinical trials and other tests first, but if it turns out to work, it’d be a great breakthrough for such a terribly crippling disease.

I just like the idea because it’s outside of mainstream medical research. Of course, some would argue it’s too far outside, in the gray usually associated with snake oil and quackery, but hey, at one point Joseph Lister was scoffed at for his work sanitizing medical instruments and operating rooms to prevent infections.

I’m not saying the helmet is the cure everyone is looking for, or even works for that matter, but I’m not automatically dismissing it, either. What’s the harm in trying a few things outside the established conventions? Like the old Wayne Gretzky theory says, “One hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, don’t go in.”