On matters historic

Taking a break from posts about my graduate school workload (although there's probably going to be another of those coming up later this week, and one I just posted this morning to my tech blog)

Today I wanted to post a couple of items I've been waiting to blog about for a while now, with a common thread of history. The first is a fascinating "best kept secret" of the Southern Maryland peninsula where we live, shared with me by a friend and co-worker: the Ghost Ships of the Potomac. Most people around here apparently don't even know this exists, but in a secluded corner of the Potomac River, reachable by the determined kayaker, lies an entire fleet of scuttled WWI-era wooden ships. How and why they ended up there is a fascinating story, and a perfect illustration of the astonishing inefficiency (some would say ineptitude) of government bureaucracy.

Here is a public placemarker I put in Google Maps that pinpoints the fleet, and here is a great set of pictures of the fleet from kayak-level. Someday when the kids are a little older, I'd love to rent some kayaks of our own and go check it out.

On another, not-at-all-related note, I love this short story about what an internet forum devoted to time travel might look like (hint: think of how dysfunctional most internet forums are, and add in the complexity of Grandfather paradoxes). Just like the best comedic science fiction, it's funny precisely because it's plausible.