The Bay Head Beacon

Taking a shortcut to get someplace is a smart thing to do. A shortcut lets you get where you're going more quickly and with less effort. So it comes as no surprise that the smartest mammals in the sea have figured out how to use a manmade shortcut. Whales, specifically Killer Whales, or Orcas, have been seen using the Point Pleasant Canal to avoid swimming longer distances at sea. Dr. Gillian Taylor of the Cetacean Institute in San Diego has come to Point Pleasant to observe the phenomenon. "Until recently, I had been studying two humpback whales almost exclusively. I thought that was my future, but after a while I really wanted to focus more on Killer Whales, or Orcinus Orca, to be precise. When I heard about what was happening here in Point Pleasant, I had to come." Dr. Taylor has been working with state police Chief Martin Brody. "It's been interesting working with the Doctor. When she first showed up with all her equipment all I could think was, 'we'r...

Plans for the first annual Point Pleasant Borough Earth Day Celebration are well underway. Event coordinator, Tierra Giorno, says that it should be a great event. "Earth Day is a worldwide event that everyone should commemorate," said Giorno. "It is a day when we appreciate our shared planetary home and consider ways to save her. Our Celebration will help raise awareness of the importance of Earth." The Earth Day Celebration will be held at Community Park and will include a cookout, carnival games, and even kid rides on Bella, the burro of Point Pleasant . Giorno says that the borough was lucky to get some sponsors to help fund the event. "I was able to get a major oil company to provide prizes for our carnival games," said Giorno. "We'll have plastic inflatable Earth beachballs, some Styrofoam glider planes, a bunch of toy cars, and some nice plastic dolls. For the adults, the oil company will be giving out free quarts of oil. Isn't that grea...

5G is the future of wireless communications. With true broadband speed, 5G has the potential to replace cable as the primary source of internet access, even within the home. Because of this potential, mobile carriers are scrambling to install 5G towers throughout the country.  In the coming months, many towns at the Jersey Shore will be seeing more and more 5G towers installed primarily at parks and playgrounds. "We found that the open spaces at public parks are ideal for our 5G towers," said Sam Suhng from 5G Broadband Alternative Directive (BAD.) a promotional agency for the cellular industry. "There are no structures in the way of the signal so it is stronger and can carry farther. We at 5G BAD. want people to know that 5G will make cable broadband obsolete, so the sooner wireless carriers install these towers, the sooner everyone can cut that cord." Despite the positive aspects of 5G, there are many who object to its expansion. The grass-roots group Wireless Has...

In a small room in Milan, Italy, Bay Head resident, Dr. Falsa Nomé is rewriting Renaissance history. The room in which she works had been sealed up for five centuries and was only recently discovered when repairs were made to the ancient building where it is located. The building is now a museum, but was once the residence of Leonardo Da Vinci, the man many consider the greatest genius in history. The little room seems to have been used as a vault by Da Vinci, and inside Dr. Nomé is discovering unimaginable treasures. Dr. Nomé is a professor of Renaissance studies at Rutgers and one of the world's top experts on Leonardo Da Vinci.  For her, this is the discovery of a lifetime. “It is truly extraordinary and exciting,” said Dr. Nomé. “Almost everything we are finding are completely unknown works by Da Vinci. We have just begun to explore this room and already we are amazed at what we have found.” What she has found most interesting is that the majority of the work seems ...

This week our Editor-in-Chief was under the weather and was unable to write a story. Luckily, his eight year old twins stepped up to the plate and helped him come up with something. They even created a logo. Enjoy! Story by S.C. and C.K. Local beekeeper, Windy Bea, recently lost all of her bees to a strong wind that swept through her backyard hive in Bay Head. When she woke in the morning she realized all her bees were gone. "I was thinking, maybe it's just a dream, so I pinched myself and... I did feel it," Windy said. "I was so upset that I was shaking, I didn't know where I would get my honey to feed my bears, feed myself and how to calm myself down!" Artist depiction of queen and worker bees escaping. Windy did eventually find 3 of her bees. "I was able to verify them by scanning them," she explained. When Windy first got her bees, she put a small chip in each one. These chips are similar to the ones they use for lost dogs, not the kind you fin...