Join Book Revue in Huntington for the sixth episode of Write America live on CrowdCast on Monday, March 8 at 7 p.m. The evening will feature Emmy Award-winner Alan Alda & award-winning author Arlene Alda as they read and discuss their works and about how books and art might bridge the deep divisions in our nation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
ALAN ALDA, 7-time Emmy Award–winner, played Hawkeye Pierce and wrote many of the episodes on the classic TV series M*A*S*H, and appeared in continuing roles on ER, The West Wing, 30 Rock, The Blacklist and Horace and Pete. He has starred in, written and directed many films, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Aviator. His interest in science led to his hosting the award-winning PBS series Scientific American Frontiers for 11 years, on which he interviewed hundreds of scientists. Also on PBS, he hosted The Human Spark, winning the 2010 Kavli Science Journalism Award, and Brains on Trial in 2013. On Broadway, he appeared as the physicist Richard Feynman in the play QED. He is the author of the play, “Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie” and “Dear Albert,” a reading for the stage of Einstein’s letters. He is a member of the Board of the World Science Festival, which has drawn more than 2.9 million visitors since its 2008 inception. He is a Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, which has trained over 15,000 scientists and doctors around the world.
His latest book is “If I Understood You Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.”
He hosts several podcasts: Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda, Science Clear+Vivid, and Soldiers of Science (from Audible Originals – audible.com)
ARLENE ALDA graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College, received a Fulbright Scholarship, and realized her dream of becoming a professional clarinetist, playing in the Houston Symphony under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. She switched careers when her children were young and became an award-winning photographer and author who has written nineteen books, including Just Kids from the Bronx. She is the mother of three daughters and the grandmother of eight. She and her husband, actor Alan Alda, live in New York City and Long Island.
The Stony Brook University Physics Building. Photo courtesy of SBU
According to QS, one of the leading ranking organizations for international rankings, the Stony Brook University’s Physics and Astronomy program has ranked #89 in the top 100 Universities in the World.
“Our Department of Physics and Astronomy is world-class, and this ranking reinforces Stony Brook University’s position as a premier American public research institution,” said Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University. “We take pride in the cutting-edge research, scholarship, creativity and innovation that have made Stony Brook what it is today.”
“It is so rewarding to receive this recognition,” says Axel Drees, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It highlights the outstanding work and dedication of our faculty, staff, and in particular our students who are an integral part of our research efforts. This QS ranking confirms that Stony Brook University’s Physics and Astronomy program is leading the way in research and discovery.”
The Department of Physics and Astronomy pursues a broad range of research programs across many areas of physics and astronomy. It consistently ranks amongst the best and largest in the country. The Department shares faculty with the CN Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, a leading center for high energy physics, string theory and statistical mechanics; the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, a research center devoted to furthering fundamental knowledge in geometry and theoretical physics, especially knowledge at the interface of these two disciplines; and the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, with an aim to advance biology and medicine through discoveries in physics, mathematics and computational science.
Recent highlights include world-leading advances in quantum internet development by Associate Professor Eden Figueroa and the award of the New Horizons Prize to Rouven Essig, associate professor in the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP) and Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
Many Stony Brook faculty hold joint appointments with Brookhaven National Laboratory, where faculty and students are involved in research activities and access unique user facilities.
This is the second year that QS has ranked universities, but the first World University Subject Rankings for the company. Stony Brook University overall was ranked No. 45 nationwide and the fifth best university in New York State, after Cornell, Columbia, NYU, and University of Rochester in the 2020 QS Survey. The World Rankings By Subject covers 51 disciplines.
Suffolk County Police have arrested a man for animal cruelty in Selden.
On March 4, Suffolk County Police 6th Precinct Crime Section officers received a complaint of possible animal cruelty, where a puppy was brought to an animal hospital with severe injuries.
Daniel Keelan brought his chocolate Labrador named Coco to the hospital on March 3, and told the staff Coco was struck by a vehicle. The hospital staff determined Coco’s injuries were not consistent with being struck by a vehicle and called law enforcement.
Investigation by 6th Precinct Crime Section officers revealed Keelan threw Coco against a wall, and punched and kicked the dog in front of his two children at his home at 40 Cedar Street on March 2 at approximately 11:30 p.m.
Coco suffered a fracture to his distal femur, fracture to mid shaft tibia, and multiple broken ribs. The femur and tibia injuries required emergency surgery, requiring placing pins and a metal plate to repair.
Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers executed a search warrant today and retrieved a four-month old silver Labrador Retriever named Lucky. Keelan was arrested tonight at approximately 5:30 p.m.
Lucky was brought to a local animal hospital to be examined. Coco is staying at the veterinary hospital recovering. Lucky will be transported to the Brookhaven Animal Shelter upon release from the veterinary hospital.
Keelan, 35, was charged with Aggravated Cruelty to Animals, and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He was held overnight at the 6th Precinct and was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on March 6.
The Long Island Museum has partnered with Preservation Long Island for a moderated conversation to coincide with the release of the LIM’s publication Long Road to Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island written by LIM Curator, Jonathan Olly. The event will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, March 10 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The evening will feature:
A live panel discussion moderated by Darren St. George, Director, Education & Public Programs, Preservation Long Island featuring Jonathan Olly, Curator of The Long Island Museum, Mark Chambers, Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at SUNY Stony Brook, and Lynda Day, Professor of Africana Studies, Brooklyn College-CUNY.
The new publication and discussion on the ways historians, museums, and professors are working to make Long Island’s past more accessible.
Current approaches to teaching Black history, as well as how conversations around Northern (and specifically Long Island) slavery has changed over the last few decades will be examined.
Registration is FREE, but limited and will be taken on a first come, first served basis.
Through the month of March, Comsewogue Public Library in Port Jefferson Station presents a virtual exhibit, A View Through the Lens, by local photographer Gerard Romano. The exhibit showcases over 20 images of local scenes, flora and fauna, many of them featured in Times Beacon Record News Media’s Photo of the Week series. Check them out at www.cplib.org/exhibits-gallery/
Evan Fox (7) is congratulated after doubling on his first collegiate swing and scoring en route to being named America East Rookie of the Week.
The Stony Brook baseball team came up just short of a season-opening series sweep against Sacred Heart last weekend.
The Seawolves did sweep the first America East weekly player honors of 2021 on Monday.
Sam Turcotte earned Pitcher of the Week, John LaRocca earned Player of the Week and Evan Fox earned Rookie of the Week recognition.
Turcotte, a graduate student from Toronto, retired the first 21 batters he faced in a 7-1 win in Game 2 of Friday’s season-opening doubleheader against Sacred Heart. He then surrendered a single with his 85th and final pitch against the first batter of the eighth. That baserunner eventually came around to score for the only earned run surrendered by Stony Brook in the three-game series.
LaRocca, who transferred from Division II New York Tech after the suspension of that school’s athletics program, set the tone for the season by driving in the lone run in a 1-0 victory in Game 1 on Friday. The center fielder produced a team-best .556 average (5-for-9) with two doubles, two runs scored, three RBIs and two steals during his first games with the Seawolves.
Fox, a freshman from upstate Ballston Spa, earned his first start in Friday’s second game. He doubled with his first collegiate swing and scored what ultimately became the deciding run. Fox (1-for-3 in the game) also had a diving catch in left field after exclusively playing infield throughout his teenage years.
The Seawolves (2-1) return to play with noon doubleheaders against UMass on Saturday and Sunday at Joe Nathan Field.
Dawn Olenick of Baiting Hollow captured this amazing photo on Feb. 6 in Port Jefferson. She writes, ‘Just made it down to Port for the sunset. It was awesome weather and this [horizon] just kickstarted the weekend for me. Mother Nature sets the stage and I just snap it!
Henry Golding in a scene from 'Monsoon'. Photo courtesy of Dat Vu
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Writer-director Hong Khaou made his feature film debut with the critically acclaimed drama Lilting. It is the story of a mother’s grief after her son’s untimely passing, along with her attempts to communicate with her son’s lover, even though they don’t speak the same language. His beautiful sophomore outing, Monsoon, focuses on a different kind of loss and addresses the barrier not just of language but also of culture.
The film opens with a bird’s eye view of traffic, with cars and motorbikes flowing in and around each other, paying no heed to lights or lines. This world is a strangely organized chaos into which Kit (Crazy Rich Asian’s Henry Golding) steps.
Parker Sawyers and Henry Golding in a scene from the film.
Kit has traveled to Vietnam, having left at the age of six. His family had escaped and sought refuge in England after the Vietnam War, and now he has returned to scatter his parents’ ashes. The plot is simple, but his burden runs deep: Thirty years later, he realizes that he no longer feels a part of his home country. He is incapable of speaking his native language and does not recognize so much of the changing landscape.
Along the way, he reconnects with a childhood friend, Lee (David Tran), whose happiness to see him is muted by wariness. Lee reveals that Kit’s mother had lent Lee’s family money to set up a small business. Lee is afraid that Kit will ask for a repayment of what Lee perceived as a loan. While trying to find his bearings, Kit’s one-night internet hookup with an American entrepreneur, Lewis (Parker Sawyers), turns into a romance.
Kit decides that he doesn’t want to bury his parents’ ashes in the Saigon family home because it seems on the verge of being torn down. So, he ventures to Hanoi, his parents’ birthplace. He takes the thirty-eight-hour train trip to see if it would be a more appropriate resting place. On the train, he briefly encounters a traveling Frenchman, Stephane (Edouard Leo), who mistakes him for a native. Once again, Kit feels that he is a man out-of-place. (Whether or not they hook up is left open-ended.)
The film consistently shows and does not tell with moments of tempered joy. Lee brings Kit to the location of the pond where they used to play. Long gone, now it is the site of a half-finished building, with stacks of bricks and scaffolding. And yet, there is a faint glint of happiness in Kit’s eyes as he remembers the bridge that spanned the pond. It is a small moment and shows a modicum of hope.
A scene from the film.
He strikes up a friendship with Linh (Molly Harris), a curator/guide who gives Hanoi’s art tours. She brings him to her family home, where he partakes in the scenting of lotus tea, her family’s business for generations. It is a scene of great charm and simplicity and one that gives Kit another opportunity of belonging.
Monsoon is an intimate movie. It is about inward reflection and searches for identity. Much of the film watches Kit try to take in the new Vietnam to understand his roots. Across from his upscale hotel are barely livable shacks. Great wealth lives side-by-side with crushing poverty. Kit stands in the center of this whirling metropolis — in the eye of the storm. He feels the pulsing of the city in all its relentless intensity. The story is more episodic than linear, a series of experiences where Kit tries to bring past and present together.
For much of the film, the dialogue is minimal; the narrative relies upon Kit’s reactions. It is a quiet film but not told in silence. There is the constant cityscape of noise and traffic that underscores almost every moment.
Monsoon only touches on the Vietnam War, but it is always looming. Lee speaks of it and its devastating aftermath but does so in hushed and tacit tones. Lewis shares his father’s eighteen months in the War and twenty confirmed kills. Years later, he committed suicide. Whether these two things are related is never made clear.
Sawyers makes Lewis likable and slightly enigmatic. His ability to convey his understanding of Kit enriches their relationship. Tran is a bit stiff as Lee, but this could be intentional; he never seems at ease, making his interactions with Kit appropriately uncomfortable. Harris is delightfully outgoing, and her engaging brightness gives energy to her brief scenes.
But the film is entirely Kit’s, and Golding is remarkable. He looks; he walks; he touches; he stops; he explores. Golding makes each moment count. His Kit is complicated, often incredibly warm, and almost absent at the same time. He conveys Kit’s sense of being more tourist than someone returning home, with his refrain, “I hardly recognize this country anymore.”
Monsoon is not so much a movie of plot or even character. It is more a study of what it is to have lost your roots and the desire to find them again. It is a film of observation and alienation. But it is also a story in which there is a deep and satisfying sense of awakening. While there is no full closure and much is left unanswered, there is a sense that Kit has taken his first steps towards understanding his journey. And, with Monsoon, it is a journey worth taking.
Not rated, Monsoon is currently streaming on demand.
Taking a deep gulp of air sometime in October, probably around the middle of the month, the diamondback terrapin slipped beneath the surface of Conscience Bay, swimming downward to its muddy bottom.
Of course, the turtle didn’t know it but that breath of air would be the last one it was to take for many months; perhaps for as long as half a year or more. All terrapins are asleep now, perhaps dreaming deeply reptilian thoughts, during the many months they’ll spend on the surface of, or ensconced within, the muddy bottom of Long Island’s harbors and bays.
Out of sight but not out of my mind, this fascinating adaptation for survival is a cold-weather strategy, the turtle having gotten its cue that its time for winter dormancy (known as brumation, it is the reptilian equivalence of mammalian hibernation) from the cooling water temperatures of autumn. Here in their muddy beds, formally known as hibernacula, terrapins metabolically shut down, significantly decreasing their need for oxygen. The little amount of dissolved oxygen received to fuel their metabolism comes from the water and is absorbed through skin near the cloaca. They will wait for Spring’s cue — warming waters — to trigger their re-emergence in their cyclical and alternating pattern of life: dormancy, activity, dormancy, activity.
The diamondback terrapin, so named for the diamond-shaped scutes on its back, is a gorgeous, brightly marked coastal turtle that frequents brackish waters around Long Island. They are found in all of Long Island’s north shore coastal embayments. I’ve seen them in Stony Brook Harbor, Setauket Harbor, West Meadow Beach and creek, the aforementioned Conscience Bay, Little Bay, Mt. Sinai Harbor, and the lower, more saltier reaches of Nissequogue River. The species is also found in the Peconic Bay system as well as the South shore bays and creeks.
Off Long Island it is found in the lower stretches of the Hudson River and, further afield along the East Coast, it occurs from Massachusetts south to Florida, wrapping around the Gulf Coast to Texas. There are seven recognized subspecies.
Diamondback Terrapin
Terrapins re-emerge in May and become active, warmed by the strengthening sun. Soon the species turns its attention to two primal instincts: feeding and reproducing. With a strong beak pretty much anything in the marshes, along the shoreline, water column, and bay bottom is fair game — hard shelled crabs, snails, and mussels, fish if they can catch them and carrion. During the first several days they satisfy a ravenous appetite, driven by a desire to replenish what they’ve lost during the long winter dormancy.
Mating takes place in water with the much smaller males (the females can be 2x to 3x bigger than the males) clasping onto the female’s shell, assisted by wrapping their long tails underneath to anchor. And soon it is the time when most terrapins are seen, as the female leaves the water and move ashore in search of suitable sandy locations into which to lay her precious cargo — her pink-tinged grape-sized eggs containing the next generation of terrapins.
When she finds the place to her liking (often by sniffing the sand), she slowly and methodically excavates the sand with her back feet, using the webbing as a sort of shovel, quickly making a flask-shaped nest cavity about six inches deep into which she’ll drop between as few as four to as many as twenty eggs (the average is about a dozen for clutch). If all goes right they’ll hatch in about seventy to eighty days. Eggs laid later in the summer will often overwinter and the hatchlings emerge the next Spring, thereby avoiding exposure to freezing temperatures.
Terrapins face a gauntlet of threats in a human-populated world. They are hit by boats and jet skis, run over by cars on their way to nesting sites, drown in crab pots (lured into the pots by the bait) and intentionally killed for food. Fortunately, steps have been taken to address these last two threats. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) closed the legal season in 2017 so terrapins can no longer be legally harvested for food.
Terrapins have long been eatenby humans — terrapin soup and stew were once enormously popular dishes — and in such numbers that boggle the imagination. As but one example, in 1891 in Maryland alone, 45 tons of terrapins were harvested. If you assume an average terrapin weighs a pound each that’s 90,000 terrapins killed in one year in one state. Given this intense pressure it’s no surprise that terrapins have declined steeply in abundance.
New York State closing the legal harvest was quickly followed by steps to curtail drowning in crab pots. Conservationists successfully advocated for a requirement to have crab pots placed in shallow water be equipped with terrapin excluder devices (TEDS). TEDS , 1 3/4 inches high by 4 3/4 inches wide, are placed on the vents of the pot secured by zip ties or hog rings. The TEDS allow for blue-claw crabs to enter the pot but block out 80 to 90% of the terrapins.
In an effort to defray the financial impact to baymen, both the Seatuck Environmental Association and the Long Island Chapter of The Nature Conservancy purchased thousands of TEDS and distributed them free of charge to baymen through NYSDEC’s Division of Marine Resources in East Setauket.
Climate change may be the mother of all impacts to terrapins and underscores how the changing and generally warming climate can cause little understood or realized adverse impacts to species. As it relates to the sex development of the embryo in the egg, terrapins exhibit (as do many turtles and other reptiles) what is known as temperature sex determination, meaning the sex is not genetically determined but, rather, is determined by the temperature of the egg in the nesting cavity.
Lower temperatures produce males while higher ones create females. Historically, in cavities one could expect a mix of sex ratios, probably close to 50/50, with females nearer the surface of the nest cavity where it’s a little bit warmer and males created in the lower portion of the cavity where its cooler. The fear of climate change, then, is that it may create increasingly skewered sex ratio toward females and away from males if ambient air temperature continues to increase, as it is expected to do.
We are still very much in the grips of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, but the Earth continues its circuit around the sun. So Spring WILL arrive and with it those harbingers of Spring Long Islanders look forward to seeing — garden bed snowbells first, followed by crocuses and daffodils, red-winged blackbirds returning from the South, and the choruses of Spring Peepers ringing out from ponds and sumps.
A bit later, as the Earth moves further along in its sojourn around the solar system’s central radiance, the heads of terrapins will appear, like so many floating wine bottle corks, dotting the wavelet surfaces of our local bays and harbors. But for now — in the middle of winter’s embrace — we leave them to their dreams.
A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
Jimmy Morrell (29) charges forward during the first quarter against Hofstra on Saturday.
The Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team entered the USILA rankings this week for the first time in four years. And things are looking bright under second-year head coach Anthony Gilardi.
However, the 17th-ranked Seawolves suffered their first blemish of the season on Feb. 27, falling to host Hofstra, 20-17.
With the teams deadlocked in the third quarter, Dylan Pallonetti had a pair of goals and Wayne White also scored to open a 14-11 lead. However, Hofstra answered with five straight goals to take a two-goal lead early in the fourth quarter.
Pallonetti’s fifth goal of the game stopped Hofstra’s run and pulled the Seawolves within 16-15 with 11:35 remaining. But Hofstra did not relinquish the lead the rest of the way.
Pallonetti finished with a team-high five goals in the defeat. Tom Haun and Mike McCannell each added a hat trick. Haun moved to 99 career goals.
Stony Book won only 14 of 41 faceoffs.
“Obviously it’s not the result we wanted in a rivalry game,” coach Anthony Gilardi said. “It came down to making stops and winning faceoffs. We struggled in those two areas. Credit to Hofstra. They did a great job of earning high-quality shots and finishing the ball. We will watch the film, learn from it and get back to work on Monday as we open America East play.”