Story Archives of 'Public Insight'

The economic downturn put the brakes on plans to revitalize the northern economy. Now studies show that it may take the North longer to get out of the recession than the rest of the state. We’ll check in on how the recession has hit the North Country and what it may take to let the good times roll once again.

Guests

• Barbara Tetrault, reporter for the Berlin Daily Sun
• Peter Riviere, Executive Director of the Coos Economic Development Corporation

We'll also hear from

• Peter Powell, owner of Peter W. Powell Real Estate in Lancaster and former NHPR board member

From 1961 to 1971, the United States military sprayed millions of gallons of defoliants and herbicides over south Vietnam. Agent Orange was the most commonly used defoliant. It was later found to be contaminated by dioxin, a human carcinogen. It permanently altered the landscape, as well as the bodies of millions of Vietnamese.

A graduate student at Dartmouth College recently visited the country to capture the legacy of Agent Orange through a unique process she calls "documentary sculpture." Our producer, Avishay Artsy, went to have a look.

(Photo by Kirk Torregrossa)

Lucky as they may sound, these top-performing students have their own problems - especially being bored and disengaged at school. And there are complaints the No Child Left Behind Act is leaving these kids behind. We’ll look closer at the issues and, given limited time and money, how much attention they may get.

Guests

• Joseph Renzulli, professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, Director of the National Research Center On the Gifted and Talented and author of the book Light Up Your Child’s Mind
• Theresa Morris, Gifted and Talented Coordinator for the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District

We'll also hear from

• Ted Comstock, Executive Director for the New Hampshire School Boards Association
• Ken Relihan, coordinator for gifted and talented policy at the New Hampshire Department of Education

The term “volunteer computing” conjures an image of good-hearted people devoting hours to help those who can’t compute, or maybe populating spreadsheets for non-profits. Well, not quite. Volunteer computing lets you use your computer’s idle processing speed to do calculations for scientific research in everything from astronomy to climate change. Brady Carlson, Word of Mouth’s resident internet sherpa, is with us to explain.

Media Post: Intel Marries 'Volunteer Computing' To Facebook

A list of Volunteer Computing Projects

(Photo by Craig Rodway via Flickr/Creative Commons)

The Exchange's monthly discussion series is back, and our first question is on truth. Can we be wrong in our beliefs or are all beliefs equally correct, simply because they’re a matter of perspective and the product of different cultures? What evidence do we have either way? Most would say that two plus two equals four or that the Earth revolves around the sun. Fundamentalists in religion and politicians on the fringes take core truths even further by saying that their way is the right and only way. But then there are many who feel that almost anything can be considered as opinion whether its religion, morality, or law. Even scientific ideas like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or the Ideal Gas Law cannot be 100% proven. If there are core truths, what are they and how can we verify that they are certain?

Guest

• Nick Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire, Advisor to the Socratic Society at UNH and Project Advisor to the Socrates Exchange