Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/16/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Cars with whizbang technology are much in the news these days, and while the tech is pretty amazing and getting lots of attention, what isn’t getting nearly as much attention is how these new digital cars are going to affect our relationship to them. It’s another case of tech outstripping law and culture. Here are some reasons why.

We also mentioned in passing how many photos from drivers licenses, as well as other unexpected sources, have found their way into a huge facial recognition database- “really huge,” as someone might say on Twiter. More info at www.perpetuallineup.org.

Maine Currents 11/14/17

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

“THE ELECTION OF TRUMP: ONE YEAR LATER” – a panel discussion held at the University of Maine on 11/9/17. The panelists were Kimberly Hammill, of the Bangor Racial and Economic Justice Coalition, Maia Dendinger of the Socialist Party of Maine, and Doug Allen, a Professor of Philosophy and peace activist who also moderated the discussion


Maine Currents- independent local news, views and culture, Tuesdays at 4pm on WERU-FM and weru.org

BoatTalk 11/14/17

Producers/Hosts: Alan Sprague & Mike Joyce
Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: variety of topics, maine boatbuilder’s conference, downeast institute, global warming, railroad tugs, drifting in the pacific, comments on last month’s show
Key Discussion Points:
a)comments on lasts months report on el faro sinking,
b) comment about untangling an outboard from lobster lines
c) report about the downeast institute on beals island
d) john johansen talks about the upcoming maine boatbuilder’s conference in bath
e) two women drift for five months in pacific – why?

A Word in Edgewise 11/13/17

Producer/Host: R.W. Estela

Today’s show was not recorded. Here is a transcript:

11/13/2017 — R.W. Estela, A Word in Edgewise

Today is the 13th of November, the 317th day of 2017, with 48 remaining in this year.
A couple of hours ago, just before sunrise, a close pairing of our sky’s two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, occurred low on the eastern horizon. At their closest, they’ll be 0.3 degrees apart, less than the apparent diameter of the moon, which is 0.5 degrees —close enough to each other to fit inside the same binocular field.
Later this week, the waning crescent moon will swing by these two worlds.
One week ago marked the four hundred and forty-fifth anniversary of Tycho Brae discovering a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia — this before the telescope had been invented.
By Friday morning, the Leonid meteor shower should be peaking in the constellation Leo the Lion . . .
Today thirty-five years ago, near the end of a week-long national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict that would cost nearly 58,000 Americans their lives.
Today is my sister’s birthday. Some folks call us Irish twins, as our birthdays are only ten months apart. Happy Birthday, Karyn!
Yesterday I moseyed through the garden that my girlfriend and I have harvested many a delicious vegetable from.
A few days back before the first of last week’s hard frosts hit, we brought in the sole remaining pumpkins, eggplants, and cherry tomatoes. Now only the carrots and red onions will be able to withstand what November brings to the scene.
Poet Thomas Hood didn’t seem to think much of November:
“No sun — no moon! / No morn — no noon — / No dawn — no dusk — no proper time of day,” he writes.
But Hood was writing before the age of fleece and other lightweight insulation:
“No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, / No comfortable feel in any member,” he continues, finishing with “No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, / No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds — / November!”
Hood’s hyperbole is easily hewn, however, as we wake to a low sunrise and then watch the day’s arc of our principle star not much above the treetops.
And we know, here in the northern hemisphere, that our daylight is on a constant wane for at least another month, when at the solstice we might again celebrate the daily increase of light . .
So that every bit of enduring life takes on considerable value, by its simple presence proclaiming its membership among the many miracles abounding up here on the tundra.
* * * * *
From Orono, Maine, Here’s to a great day!
rwe edgeword @ 2017