Brady Carlson

This week officials with Amtrak’s Downeaster marked ten years in service.

The train line between Portland, Maine and Boston includes several stops in New Hampshire. Ridership is up and there are plans to expand the service next year.

Peter Griffin is president of the New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association. He tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson about the Downeaster's ten years in service.

From this Friday forward, Here's What's Awesome will bring you a fresh meme from the depths of web culture. This week, Misleading Doctor - who sets you up with a little news at the top of the image, only to turn that news on its head at the bottom of the image.

Local food with a capital L: New York-based Brightfarms builds greenhouses on top of grocery stores and warehouses. So if the cucumber section is running low, just run upstairs and you're good.

The system is designed to save the grocer money - if the veggies are on your roof, shipping costs go down, and the food is fresher, with a longer shelf life, meaning storage costs go down too.

Every since I was a young boy, I played the... gumball? The Gumball Pinball Machine is a real-life mashup of two iconic machines - turn the gumball machine handle and three candies roll onto a baseball-themed pinball board.

Sadly, losing a ball doesn't mean snack time - it goes back into the rotation.

On a slightly related note, I found what may be the world's greatest pinball dance while writing this column. If the lighting had been better, total meme fodder. Dancing Pinball Player never tilts!

The hospital delivery room is not a fun place for surprises - the more parents and medical staff know going in, the better the outcome usually is. The Predibirth system helps keep surprises to a minimum by MRI-scanning Junior in the womb* and running virtual simulations of labor - if it sees a potentially serious problem, like baby's head being bigger than expected, doctors can consider planning a c-section in advance.

Here’s a story worth sharing on your smartphone: new research says there is NOT an epidemic of teen sexting.

Janis Wolak is senior researcher at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. She’s co-author of two studies on sexting being released in today’s edition of the journal Pediatrics, and she tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson the UNH data shows a rate of sexting much lower than the 20 percent number commonly cited in news reports.

Each year the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire surveys business owners to guage the state’s economic climate and what’s on the minds of business owners.

Some participants in the Occupy New Hampshire protests are heading to Washington DC to take part in what’s being called “Take Back the Capitol.”

Krista Rand of Suncook says she’ll be there. The unemployed civil engineer wants Congress to promote jobs in her field by putting more federal dollars toward roads and bridges. “We all know that the state of our infrastructure in this country is quite abysmal. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our infrastructure a D, and our bridges a C, so that’s really a problem," she said.

PART 1

 “Clean coal,” refers to technologies that reduce heavy metal, carbon and other emissions from the burning of coal. The development of technologies that could, potentially, filter greenhouse gases and store CO2 permanently is moving ahead. “Carbon Sequestration” is an important step in testing the potential of clean coal technology. We spoke with Maggie Koerth-Baker, Science Editor for Boing-Boing; she visited a carbon sequestration demonstration in Alabama.

plus

The University of New Hampshire football team is back in the playoffs. It’s the eighth straight playoff appearance for Wildcat Football.

Allen Lessels has been following the team for the New Hampshire Union Leader. He previews the Wildcats' game against Montana State with All Things Considered host Brady Carlson.

Word of Mouth's Awesomator Brady Carlson is back with his latest super cool round-up from the world of the web.

BRADY'S AWESOME LINKS:

Pepper Spray Cop is a Meme...

10 things Siri will help you get instead of an abortion...

Word of Mouth’s internet sherpa Brady Carlson is back. After his weekday shifts hosting All Things Considered, Brady likes to unwind by gathering new items for Here's What’s Awesome, our frequent look at the web and its endless list of memes, trends and viral hits.

New Hampshire’s Immigration Story includes the stories of many refugees, people who come to the United States because they can't stay in their native countries, due to violence or famine.

Many of those refugees are resettled in Manchester, but the city’s mayor, Ted Gatsas, says that needs to change. He wants a moratorium on new placements to avoid straining city services.

H-1B visas help employers find skilled workers they can’t find in the US workforce.

Something else that’s hard to come by these days for some businesses is credit.

Turns out there’s a visa program for that too. Foreigners can apply for an EB-5 visa, as long as they agree to invest a half million dollars or more in capital investment project for an American company.