Tucked away in a modest office building in Shelburne, above a childcare center and down the hall from a massage therapist, a group of young engineers is trying to change the world. Their company, Resonant Link, is developing wireless charging technologies that may someday revolutionize how people power up cars, medical devices and even robots.…
Despite disabilities, beloved family member was “capable of feeling joy, sadness, pain, love and kindness — and expressing it in her own unique and special way”
Longtime Middlebury College coordinator made great contributions to her department and broader community
Handy family matriarch worked at Handy’s Lunch in Burlington until she was a “Super Senior”
(Little Hurricane Records, CD, digital) Raise your hand if you’ve ever been a 17-year-old girl. I have! And I am all too aware of the consuming emotions that come with the territory. Some teenage girls funnel these emotions into sports, others into the visual arts, but Lily James Roberts has chosen to work out her…
Believe it or not, I still remember my first Zoom meeting. That’s primarily because it was less a meeting and more a virtual dance party hosted by a good friend and DJ. It was very early in the lockdown of 2020, and I was one of dozens of virtual attendees who were all too excited…
(self-released, digital) Put on your headphones and enter the ether. With echoing whispers, chants and harmonies, Andrea Tomasi’s new album, Into the Mystery, drops listeners into mindfulness. The experience — at times like walking in the woods or watching ocean waves — is meditative, mellow and a reminder that a powerful voice is an interesting…
What goes up must come down — and that can be a problem for companies that rely on satellite-based technology. Burlington-based Benchmark Space Systems has an answer: a propulsion system that allows small satellites to maneuver in orbit and defy the pull of gravity. The 4-year-old company installs intricate mechanical components on small satellites that emit…
This week, in honor of the Tech Issue, I reviewed a film from Germany that asks that time-honored question: What if Mr. Right were actually an algorithm in a robotic body? Directed and cowritten by Maria Schrader (Love Life), I’m Your Man was a nominee for the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear award.…
The Lower Dover Field Station, a hotel in the tiny Central American nation of Belize, is nestled in a 100-acre plot of jungle. It boasts easy access to nearby ancient Mayan ruins, a winery and bird-watching opportunities. It’s also plastered with infographics about COVID-19 created by the Vermont Department of Health. Madeline Reynolds, a 65-year-old…
new in theaters DUNE: Director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) takes on the first half of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel about space colonization, political intrigue, drugs and mysticism. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac star. (155 min, PG-13. Big Picture, Essex, Marquis, Paramount, Playhouse, Roxy, Savoy, Star, Stowe, Sunset, Welden) THE ELECTRICAL LIFE…
Arts calendars are filling up again with live performances, and each seems like a gift in these pandemic times. In the opinion of this writer, certain classical concerts on the schedule shouldn’t be missed — because they offer not just the joy of hearing live music but also opportunities to support the musicians and singers…
Dear Reverend, Are you considered queer or gay if you ask your girlfriend to peg you? I’ve always enjoyed watching it, but I’m too hesitant to go through with it. Ben Dover (male, 58) Dear Ben Dover, I guess that depends. Do you consider yourself queer or gay? No? Then no. Since you didn’t say…
Janky and Guggimon are BFFs, though Guggimon likes to torture Janky. He’ll drive an ax into Janky’s head or slap him around or light his face on fire. Janky is a goof who gets into his own messes. In a video posted on TikTok in August, he jumps from the roof of a building holding…
They say all’s fair in love and war. But the adage falls apart when we take power and gender into consideration. Stowe Theatre Guild’s production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing heralds the romantic comedy as a battle of the sexes. Though the play’s female characters may triumph in skirmishes of wit, they never…
The number of ransomware attacks in the U.S. so far this year is up by 62 percent over the same period in 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That amounts to just over 2,000 complaints with losses totaling $16.8 million — a 20 percent increase in damages, the agency said. “This does not…
Many people were surprised by the wide-ranging consequences of the ransomware attack that hit the University of Vermont Medical Center last year. But not Justin Fimlaid, founder and CEO of the Colchester cybersecurity company NuHarbor Security. “What we saw at UVM, we’ve seen elsewhere,” Fimlaid said. The hack paralyzed scheduling for weeks and delayed some…
The robots will begin their mission when the snow melts next spring. Some no larger than a quarter, the insect-like devices will crawl under bridges, swim into storm drains and climb power lines — targets that are inaccessible to their human overlords. Swarms of these so-called “micro-robots” will deposit wireless sensors to monitor the structures’…
When Kerry Walker’s unemployment insurance payments halted without explanation in June 2020, she called the Vermont Department of Labor repeatedly to find out why. Eventually, she learned that there was a problem with her Social Security number. She’d never heard the number questioned before, and nobody she talked to at the state could explain just…
“Where are all the workers?” Employers in all sectors across Vermont are asking that question as they struggle to hire people during this pandemic period dubbed “the Great Resignation.” Back in 2008, the labor shortage was more specific: Local tech companies claimed they couldn’t find enough talent to grow their businesses here. They watched as…
LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Self-help author James Clear describes a scenario I urge you to keep in mind. He speaks of “a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two.” Clear adds…
Heidi Broner nearly didn’t become an artist. Chalk it up to teenage rebellion. Growing up on Long Island in New York, she didn’t especially get along with her father, whom she described as “a really good abstract painter.” Among four daughters, Broner said, he “picked me out” to follow his métier. She wasn’t having it.…
Whose Billboard Law? [Re WTF: “Do Mobile Advertisements Violate Vermont’s Ban on Billboards?” August 18]: My mother-in-law, Frances Bailey Pelkey, was the legislator who proposed Vermont’s billboard law. She was returning from a trip from Plattsburgh, N.Y., to Highgate and was overwhelmed by the sights along the highway and byways, thinking how advertisements were obscuring…
In Manon Belzile’s glass-walled office at Beta Technologies, a dry-erase board displays the words: “I don’t want to be bothered with limits.” The quote, Belzile said, is hers. “Or shoes,” she added, glancing begrudgingly at her wizened Blundstones. “I would also rather not be bothered with shoes.” In a perfect world, she explained, she would…
Teaching online during the pandemic made Elizabeth Allen-Pennebaker think of her father — not just because the octogenarian shared her home in Burlington’s Hill Section, near her office at Champlain College. William Boone Pennebaker Jr. (October 23, 1935-September 8, 2021 ) came to mind because he helped develop the technology that allowed her to keep working…
Humans are perpetually using technology to forge new musical frontiers, from adding new holes to flutes and recorders to the artificial intelligence programs of IBM’s Watson and Google Magenta’s NSynth Super. Thinking about the music tech trends that have occurred during my lifetime alone is dizzying. I recall the hand-wringing as CDs seemed to be…
Pro Pig Brewery’s outdoor patio in downtown Waterbury was packed with leaf peepers and hikers on a recent Saturday afternoon. Guests dipped chips into velvety housemade queso, nibbled on chorizo cauliflower tacos and sipped housebrewed pale ales. Before she could similarly indulge, Valori Sears of Portland, Maine, angled her phone camera to capture the QR…
Vermont’s first community-owned brewery, Full Barrel Cooperative Brewery & Taproom, hosted an outdoor beer garden on October 15 behind its new half-barrel brewery. It was the inaugural public event at the 6-year-old co-op’s first permanent home at 12-22 North Street. More than 125 people attended, according to Matt Cropp, a founding co-op member and board…
For decades, Vermonters have gathered to salute and savor the state’s edible and drinkable products. We celebrate the sweetness of maple, the richness of cheese and the abundance of local craft brews. This week, for the first time, a more obscure foodstuff takes the spotlight: chicory. A crew of enthusiastic friends, farmers and frisée fans…
Art Nouveau Saturday 23 Do androids dream of electric solo exhibitions? The wall-painting AIs created by UK studio Kaleider just might. As part of its Grand Reopening Ceremony, Burlington’s Flynn unveils “A Portrait Without Borders,” a new mural in the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery composed of hundreds of images of smiling Vermonters, drawn this month…
