Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/10/22: AI Snake Oil

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Suppose you were an academic who posted some slides from a lecture on your university’s archive page and suppose that tens of thousands of people found them and downloaded them and 2 million people read your Twitter feed on the subject. Would you be surprised? This really happened to Avrind Narayanan and therein lies the source of a book in progress and blog underway entitled “AI Snake Oil.” That title alone should make it worth listening to today’s episode of the Electronic Cottage.

Here are links to the sources mentioned in the program:

AI Snakeoil, Substack
How to Recognize AI Snake Oil, Arvind Narayanan, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University
A checklist of eighteen pitfalls in AI journalism, Sayash Kapoor, Arvind Narayanan. September 30, 2022

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Talk of the Towns 11/9/22: Breaking Bread

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves
Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme music for Talk of the Towns is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording.

Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities

This month:
A conversation about Breaking Bread, Essays from New England about Food, Hunger and Family, published in 2022 by Beacon Press, to benefit Blue Angel, a food bank in Hancock County, Maine
How do our stories about food connect us to our families and our heritage?
How was Blue Angel food bank, created?
How did the book, Breaking Bread, come about?
What has been the response, both from those who contributed essays, and from those who have come to book talks or who have read the book?

Guest/s:
Deborah Joy Corey, Novelist, co-Editor of Breaking Bread, founder of Blue Angel, Castine
Stuart Kestenbaum, Maine Poet Laureate, author of several books of poetry, including Things Seemed to be Breaking, Deerbrook Editions, Deer Isle
Kim Ridley, science writer, children’s book author, including Wild Design & The Secret Pool, Brooklin
Margery Irvine, lecturer in English at UMaine, Scholar/Facilitator for the Maine Humanities Council, Brooklin
Carl Little, poet, author of William Irvine: A Painter’s Journey, and other books, Mount Desert, Maine

About the hosts:

Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

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BoatTalk 11/8/22

Producers/Hosts: Alan Sprague, Jon Johansen

BoatTalk is the call-in show for people contemplating things naval

This month: boatyard report, new book about lobster boat builders, golden globe race, rowing across the pacific
1 author dan lee talks about getting material for his new book, maine lobster boats downeastbooks.com
2 boatyard report for October mainecoast.com
3 golden globe round the world slow race goldengloberace.com
4 rowing the pacific alone pros and cons offcenterharbor.com

Guest/s:

About the hosts:

Alan Sprague is a retired boat carpenter and a volunteer at WERU for over thirty years. He and the late Mike Joyce started Boattalk in 2003 and Alan carries on.

Jon Johansen is the editor and roving reporter for the Maine Coastal News. He is Chairman of the Board of the Penobscot Marine Museum, President of Maine Built Boats, President of Maine Lobster Boat Racing, and Director of the International Maritime Library in his spare time.

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Outside the Box 11/8/22: “Everyday Assumptions”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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The Nature of Phenology 11/5/22: Oak apple galls

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Oaks and beech trees both hang onto their leaves a bit longer than our other deciduous trees, like maples, so the top layer of leaf litter where oaks grow is likely to be predominantly oak leaves. In these places, there’s a special little prize you can find on the freshly fallen oak leaves. Oak apple galls are spherical growths attached to the occasional oak leaf and they’re always a treat to come across.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com

About the host/writers:
Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate about fishing, cooking, and making things with his hands. He has both an MBA in Sustainability and an MS focused in Environmental Education. Joe can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Hazel Stark lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder and Naturalist Educator at Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide. She loves taking a closer look at nature through the lens of her camera, napping in beds of moss, and taking hikes to high points to see what being tall is all about. She has an MS in Resource Management and Conservation and is a lifelong Maine outdoorswoman. Hazel can be reached by emailing [email protected]

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Earthwise 11/5/22: The Deer

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley

About the host:

Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

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