The state may soon have its first 'green' laboratory. According to a report today in the Bangor Daily News, the new research building for the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor will be built according to the standards of the US Green Building Council. That means it will be well-insulated, operate on a relatively small amount of energy, and will be constructed using renewable materials like granite. Local building materials will be used as much as possible.

The lab will also, according to BDN, "be kept as free as possible of volatile organic compounds, which are found in varnishes and glue." Glue is bad for your health, especially if you sniff it. But you knew that.

The building will cost $6.5 million, including the projected cost of the lab equipment it will hold. It should be finished by fall 2007.

The lab reportedly will "have an old-fashioned look" and will probably not resemble this California building which looks like an enormous hedge. But it sure would be sweet if it did.

7/31/2006 5:11:38 PM by Sara Donnelly | Comments [0] |  

Maine's Senator Susan Collins has made another list of women who could be president. Pink Magazine, a women's mag with the slogan 'a beautiful career, a beautiful life,' chose Collins as one of nine women who could be president. The article is part of Pink's August/September issue. You can't read the part about Collins online, but you can check out the website anyway here. 

Collins, a Republican, denies any interest in running for the big seat.

Too bad, since she's made a handful of other 'women who could be prez' lists, including one in O magazine, one in Parade magazine, and one from the White House Project, an organization which advocates for women running for public office.

Collins was joined on the Pink list by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (who some consider to be the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination), Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.

7/28/2006 5:25:36 PM by Sara Donnelly | Comments [0] |  

Area artists can now apply to buy a live/work studio at the former Sacred Heart School in Portland. Peter Bass, the owner of Random Orbit, Inc. and the developer of the property at the corner of Sherman and Mellen Streets is now accepting applications for studio condominiums there. The deadline is August 15.

Bass began renovating the old school on June 1 and is scheduled to wrap up the work on September 1. The school will be renamed Parkside Studios; it will contain eight live work spaces - studios with work space in the basement - together totaling around 1000 square feet each. Working artists with income at or below 80 percent of the median for Portland are eligible to apply (in March, Bass said the units will probably cost around $135,000). Applicants must also prove they are working visual artists through a series of criteria.

For more on the Parkside Studios and how to apply to buy a space there, check out www.randomorbitinc.com. Click on "New Projects."

A view of Parkside Studios from Mellen Street.

7/26/2006 11:37:44 AM by Sara Donnelly | Comments [0] |  

The Maine Sunday Telegram this week brought with it the usual freakish insert of Parade Magazine, a national tabloid-like publication distributed only through Sunday newspapers. In this week's, though, was a disturbing article called "Could You Have a Rare Disease?" (full text available online tomorrow).

In the article, it asks whether the reader might have a disease called "Jumping Frenchmen of Maine condition." Research by an interested Portlander who contacted us suggests that this was originally considered a medical condition, related to "hyperekplexia," or "excessive startle response."

One article archived at the National Institutes of Health indicates that the condition was described in 1878 as involving such an immediate and unquestioning response to an abrupt verbal command that "if one of them was abruptly asked to strike another, he would do so without hesitation, even if it was his mother and he had an ax in his hand." (One asks: how did they test this theory?)

A 1986 study ultimately determined that the condition was "not a neurologic disease" but instead a result of conditioned behavior related to life in Maine lumber camps in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Which means that lumber camps were so dangerous, if anyone shouted at you to do something, you did it or you died - even if it was swinging an ax at your mother.

7/25/2006 10:15:23 AM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

UPDATED 6:52 pm July 24 with comments from the Baldacci campaign.

You heard it here first - Baldacci's spokesman says he will not dramatically outspend his opponents, and may not even spend $1.2 million.

The Maine Democratic Party made much hay out of little political grass today, filing a complaint with the state Ethics Commission, seeking a ruling on whether it was illegal for members of the Chandler Woodcock campaign to give $5 donations to the Clean Elections effort of Barbara Merrill, and for members of the Merrill campaign to do likewise to the Woodcock effort. (See the Dems' shrill press release here.)

But the real question is: If the "Democrats continue to support Clean Elections and feel that the ground breaking law has been a huge success," as the press release says, why is John Baldacci not running as a Clean Elections candidate?

Even if Merrill and Woodcock are playing fast and loose with the letter of the law (and there has been no ruling to say whether they are or not), Baldacci (whose Dem-backed budget restocked the Clean Elections Fund earlier this year) is ignoring its spirit entirely by paying for his campaign purely with private dollars.

We can think of a few reasons - like wanting to be sure to raise more money than his Clean opponents, and wanting to use up as much of Maine taxpayers' money as possible in funds matching his own private fund-raising - but we seek your speculation.

We ran those ideas by Jesse Connolly, Baldacci's press man, and Connolly says the gov isn't running Clean because "he felt that it would be unfair to ask the taxpayers to pay for his campaign," especially in light of recent state budget tightness. Connolly also hinted that the campaign-finance reports that become public tomorrow (available here) might show that the gov's camp is not going to spend a massive amount of money, and may not even trigger maximum matching (of $1.2 million per candidate) for Baldacci's opponents.

7/24/2006 1:39:08 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Alert the Israelis and Hezbollah. Peace Action Maine, the state's largest group that draws attention to the human cost of world conflict, has called for an "immediate cease-fire" in the Middle East, in a press release issued today.

Admittedly, at the very end of the announcement, the group "calls on" the state's US representatives and senators, and President Bush, to support efforts toward a cease-fire. But barring an Act of Congress or a US foreign-policy shift, those efforts seem unlikely to succeed.

Is there a point to statements like this one, in which local or state groups condemn actions by foreign powers or terror groups? Do they actually make a difference? Or are there other things the groups could do that would further their aims more directly?

7/20/2006 1:42:52 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

According to a post at UnlockableBox.com, the home of a lesbian couple living in Poland, Maine, was basically entirely destroyed in what appears to be a hate crime. (There are pictures and video on the site, as well as a text description of the damage.)

To protest this act of violence, there will be a rally in Monument Square, Portland, at 11 am Saturday, July 22, held by Equality Maine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence.

If you want to see the pictures or the video, click on the "media" link on the site. For a fuller accounting of the story itself, click "read the story."

7/19/2006 9:53:34 AM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

A posting on Indybay.org that was redistributed by the Maine Global Action Network (MeGAN) in an e-mail today makes all kinds of unsupported allegations about Bono, a US computer-game company called Bioware/Pandemic Studios, and US government agencies.

But the best part is that the posting calls on Bono to "block the manufacture and distribution of this videogame," as one promoting violence and otherwise involving (and by extension, presumably endorsing) other actions to which the poster - and presumably the person who e-mailed it to the MeGAN group - is opposed.

Should games and other forms of activities be banned because of their content?

7/18/2006 3:12:42 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

The Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance is taking an "inventory" of creativity, seeking to include information about artists of all types, as well as local arts-related nonprofits and businesses. You can join by visiting PACA's Web site, www.portlandarts.org.

The hope appears to be that in addition to having a contact list (available online), PACA will be able to use that information as part of the city's ongoing discussion about the "creative economy" (see the previous blog entry "CREATIVITY - Path from the Summit").

A note from Andy Graham, owner of Portland Color and a student at the Muskie School at USM, to members of creativity-based businesses says in part, "Industries like tourism, shipping, real estate development, and health care have all received special attention from the city and state because they have a high profile and quantifiable economic effect. If the creative economy can demonstrate that it is an industry with a large number of workers and significant financial impact then perhaps our issues will addressed by the policy-makers."

Graham's note does not specify what those "issues" are, or how they might be "addressed by the policy-makers."

But if you're an artist or in a creativity-related organization, it certainly wouldn't hurt to at least see what you can offer.

7/5/2006 1:39:38 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |