Talk of the Towns 5/13/16

Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Going to Market: The Science and Safety of developing new food product in Maine

Key Discussion Points:
How do entrepreneurs make use of the services of University of Maine Cooperative Extension to develop and test new, value-added food products?
Using three examples (Soybeans to tofu, blueberrys to tea and development of a barbeque sauce), how have entrepreneurs addressed concerns about marketability and food safety?
What other advice do Cooperative Extension faculty and successful entrepreneurs have for folks interested in developing food products using raw materials and ingredients from Maine?

Guests:
Beth Calder, Extension Food Science Specialist, UMaine
Jason Bolton, Extension Food Safety Specialist, UMaine
Kevin Burgoyne, Rosssam LLC, BBQ Sauce
Theresa Gaffney Highland Blueberry Farm, Stockton Springs
Jeff Wolovitz, Heiwa Tofu, Belfast

RadioActive 5/12/16

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Nurses Win Safe Staffing Measures, Guatemala’s Historic War Crimes Trial, Guatemalan Lote Ocho Mining Case

Key Discussion Points:
1)Today we speak with a representative of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United. This week nurses at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth finally won the inclusion of safe staffing criteria in their contract with management.
2) And we speak with independent journalist, Lawrence Reichard about his recent coverage of the historic Sepur Zarco war crimes trail in Guatemala;
3) and another human rights case, Lote Ocho, currently being brought by a Guatemalan woman against the Canadian mining company Hud Bay Mineral, Inc, for rape murder allegedly committed by mine security personnel.

Guests:
A) Vanessa Sylvester, Maine Sate Nurses Association/National Nurses United
B) Lawrence Reichard, independent journalist, contributor to WERU FM, The Progressive, Counterpunch and columnist, “Bricks and Mortars”, published in Republican Journal, Camden Herald, Rockand Courier Gazette and VillageSoup.com.

http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/05/188718/gary-tyler%E2%80%99s-long-road-justice

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/12/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

In late 2015, Gordon Moore, after whom Moore’s Law is named, said that he thought the amazing doubling of computer power every 18 months or so that has been the case over the past four decades was probably coming to an end since current technology “eventually saturates out.” But there is a new technology in the wings that could make doubling of computer power trivial. It’s called quantum computing, and the first modest quantum computers are here. They could have a huge impact on what computers will be able to do in the not-too-distant future. Here’s why.