After polls closed, Knoblock and Ortiz were named victorious.

The job of the Fair Elections and Practices Committee is as straightforward as the lines on a referee’s uniform — to prepare the arena and supervise the match in its entirety to ensure a fair result. But for the second year in a row, that FEPC failed to fulfill their expectations.

Vice presidential runner-up Gavin alleged in an article in The Maine Campus (“Knoblock, Ortiz elected as new SG executives, A1”) that he fielded more than 160 complaints from individuals unable to access the FirstClass voting boxes, which were supposed to be made available on every student’s desktop that day.

Littered throughout voting proceedings for the 2010 student body campaigns were several other fallacies which inevitably tripped up not only the candidates, but student voters as well. A delay at the start of the voting process, lasting approximately 40 minutes due to technical issues, initiated election day poorly, but the substandard quality of the affair began long before 9:00 Thursday.

Due to this and the fact that an e-mail detailing the election process, which was supposed to be delivered to every student’s inbox by current Student Body President Brian Harris, was directed to the voting folder only, the inefficiencies of the process have become blatantly apparent.

Not only were some students unable to vote online, but many were not even informed that day of where to cast their votes in person. For the candidates who dedicated a sufficient amount of time and took the process seriously, the FEPC’s continued floundering is unacceptable.

But how do we go about correcting such a faulted system? Basic mechanics would have us go to the heart of the machine. In the case of the FEPC, the core of the problem lies with chairwoman Skye Landry and if she remains, it’s not outlandish to assume that election inaccuracies would continue to flood the court like debris from unruly spectators.

Last year’s election, with Landry at the helm, went almost as badly. According to a Nov. 2009 article in The Maine Campus, Landry and another FEPC member said six particular votes in the presidential election “were likely not from eligible student voters, but neither said they were positive.” Harris went on to beat runner-up Zachary Jackman by a mere five votes.

Dropping the ball once is excusable, but if it is done on every occasion, you’re going to get cut. Landry is unreliable and her contribution to the student government team is practically nonexistent, which warrants her nothing more than an outright release.

In theory, the FEPC is a good idea, but under Landry’s reign it fails to get the plays down. Starting anew with fresh leadership is the only feasible route to follow if the hardworking campaigners and voters of UMaine are to be rewarded.

I am an athiest. In my life, I have encountered a number of ridiculous, hate-filled rants about my decision to live a life with dignity but without faith. I have heard dumb jokes and listened as I was condescendingly told that I had no capacity for morality, decency or love because I did not accept the lecturer’s choice of religion.

Unlike Campbell, I concluded that ignorance and incivility from athiests is not the solution to ignorance and incivility from theists.

While I suspect Campbell would make no apologies for his incivility, I doubt he would be as happy about his ignorance. And his ignorance is on full display.

“Religions” did not become monotheistic over time. Most pantheistic religions died natural deaths; some exceptions survive in Asia (notably, Hinduism and Shinto, though they don’t have a real parallel to the Western “God” concept). Monotheistic religions were always monotheistic; no one looked at a budget and cancelled the extra God expenditures.

His other articles about Horus and Christ have already been thoroughly dismantled, but prove further that Campbell’s conclusions are spurious. People should always be suspicious of zealots, especially zealots who don’t understand what they are fighting. Campbell is that kind of zealot.

Had Campbell ever talked to any Christians with a shred of empathy, he might see that this “faith in self” concept comes through in a majority of them. However, I suspect that Campbell’s investigation into religious faith has ended with second-hand reports about a handful of Southern Baptists or other closed-minded and fundamentalist branches that have dominated American political discourse since 2002. Religion, of course, doesn’t help anyone when it resorts to bullying, name-calling or any other number of its ills. But neither does atheism. It is unforgivable in both cases.

For many, the experience of God is simply a reminder to elevate one’s self to a
higher and more noble purpose. This has room for human rights, civil rights and the option to love whoever you want.

While Campbell may be self-directed toward finding his willpower, his faith (and mine) still comes from imaginary friends who died hundreds of years ago. His philosophy, as expounded here, is Nietzsche’s. These sources of inspiration — Nietzsche, the Bible — are both external references for internal conditions. They are the words of wiser people than us. Does Campbell’s source of faith – a vast body of excellent atheistic philosophy — “undermine his faith in himself?” I should say not. Nor would referencing a bible, or a community, when life gets hard or questions can’t go unanswered. Such as the question of death.

I stopped believing in God when I did an experiment in an airplane. Terrified of flight, my natural inclination at a moment of great turbulence was toward prayer. I decided not to pray. If I survived, it would prove that I would have survived anyway, and probably would have attributed it to God. You can guess what happened.

Indeed, Campbell and I would agree that the fear of death is ultimately the source of religious power. Though I do note that Campbell betrays himself as an agnostic when he answers that he “doesn’t know” what happens when we die. In fact, he ought to, if his faith in biological textbooks is so certain. His brain activity will cease and his body will begin to decompose.

It’s a fate that all of us will inevitably meet. In Japan, buildings are left to decay without any attempt to repair them. Nature overtakes our greatest monuments. These places are left visible to remind us of this truth: That death is final, and that our death reveals in us the dignity and truth of how we lived.

And so ultimately, the choice to have faith, or to deny faith, will have no meaning. What matters, instead, is how we choose to live. Campbell and I agree on this much. But after landing on the ground and disembarking from my plane, I decided to live a life where I tried hardest to understand and respect the different paths everyone takes to make sense of their eventual demise.

I say this as a person who faces the end of his life with absolute certainty. If Campbell can’t be so certain, I wonder where he finds the inner authority to reject any possible explanation for what comes “next.” Indeed, is merely entertaining the possibility of an afterlife any different from the certainty that God exists? Both assume the possibility for a world beyond our comprehension.

If you take nothing else from my writing, Mr. Campbell, please note this: Looking closely at the two jokes you cite at the start of your article, neither is actually funny.

Eryk Salvaggio is a 2010 graduate of the University of Maine and currently living in Fukuoka, Japan. He was the editor and chief of The Maine Campus from 2007 to 2008 and during the Spring 2009 semester.

If the sidewalks are slick, they are pasted with tissue paper foliage; if the sidewalks are dry, they crackle under your feet like a chorus of firecrackers following you home.

But there’s no crackle to be had in sixty-degree weather, no cozy sweater to be donned if you’re peeling off trench coats with unceremonious wrist flicks and a rolling of eyes.

Sure, we can blame global warming and in turn blame ourselves, but what’s really missing? In a world where nostalgia reigns supreme, how much longer will it be until the best parts of this season are only memories swapped around in reality?

A yard sale of memories flecking your lawn; beach days with large hats and snowy evenings with cinnamon scented potpourri packed into boxes and sold to the loneliest bidder. Walking through campus in the fall is a pleasure we all take advantage of. They don’t stick that image on the University of Maine homepage for nothing. It’s enticing, cozy and implies something intangible that you want and want now.

But when you’re sweating from the hike in your hipster garb, the romance is gone. Is it our fault the environment is now a mustachioed villain bent on tying our nostalgia to the railroad tracks?

Post-Halloween delivers holiday season madness a swift kick in the pants, encouraging a decent running start by Thanksgiving — Not specifically Thanksgiving so much as the Thanksgiving Day Parade, where Santa makes his first commercial appearance and all the advertisements in between floats become holiday-themed.

Beforehand, we had crescent roll commercials, but now we have full-on snow globes, and it’s part of the beauty. It kick starts a myriad of celebrations with the scent of brunt wood and we are powerless to resist.

But before we get there we are forced to pay the toll. Not unlike the ferryman, fall steers the boat of seasons around the bend. There are nubbly fisherman’s threads to be donned, apples to be snatched from trees, pumpkins to be viciously gutted and so on to pay our toll to the season sufficiently.

I need not list everything that makes this season great because chances are, they aren’t universal. But I’ll tell you what is: the closeness it brings. Maybe you don’t drink apple cider, maybe you don’t trick or treat, maybe you hate the flavor of nutmeg; whatever it is, we can still all agree on that fireside manner. Coldness brings closeness. You can sit in coffee shops without feeling like you’ve wasted the day. You can take a walk arm-in-arm without appearing sappy.
These will be postcards we tape to a wall if this grossly-named ‘Indian Summer’ keeps up. What’s to be done? We can’t reverse any environmental damage we’ve done, or at least entirely. And even if we could, the effects wouldn’t be immediate and dammit, I want my tweed now!

Have we upset the seasonal gods? As author Neil Gaiman suggests, gods are created by what we sacrifice to them and if our season is missing anything, it’s a good dose of upper magic. But the farms are running low on goats to be sacrificed and finding a virgin might prove even more difficult, so let’s stick to the basics: sacrifice by example. Beg fall into existence by practicing your traditions regardless.

Don’t let the number on a thermometer get you down, hell, get down regardless. There’s something to be said for faith in the face of adversity and if there’s anything I have faith in, it’s a good cup of coffee on a chilly fall afternoon.

Sarah Mann is observing the freshly fallen snow and contemplating how the seasonal gods misinterpreted her sacrifice.

The assumption all my high school counterparts shared with me was how our parents would still hang over the local student’s shoulder and be as involved in our everyday life as they were in high school. The whole point of college is to get away, to get your own independent education. Luckily for me, what I view as UMaine’s biggest flaw was my saving grace.

I worked things with my folks out very well, and actually moved the 50 feet away from home into a residence hall. After pushing my mini-fridge all the way over on a skateboard, I plugged in my stereo, made a Facebook and officially became a college student.

I had the same limited amount of contact with my folks as any of the other new college student my age who had gone off to live hours away from their hometowns. UMaine has won awards for the amount of things available for students to do on campus. I went to hall programs, ate at the commons and shopped at the bookstore. Life was completely self-contained on campus.

I’ve since unplugged from the UMaine. I moved off campus my junior year, got a job in Bangor, and now student teach at Orono’s elementary school. Becoming involved in this town as a student teacher has made me realize how few students bridge the gap between their education and their community.

All this rekindled my thoughts on the connection between UMaine and the town of Orono. Orono is not your typical college town; it’s missing the big box stores and obvious symbols of university pride as you drive through, but those are some of the reasons of why I love Orono.

On this same level, UMaine probably doesn’t develop here because it doesn’t need to. There’s more than enough land on campus to create anything needed, and the student services are quite self-sustaining, but college life can be so much more. There are endless possibilities for partnerships between the university and the town.

The university handed out its first olive branch about a year ago when the school districts between Orono and Old Town were thinking about combining into one RSU. UMaine offered to help out by providing the land on which a new school could be built. Unfortunately for these two towns, the deal never went through.

The town of Orono succeeded in reaching out when it made an agreement with the university to share the costs of a shuttle service, now known as the Black Bear Express, which loops between Mill Street and the Memorial Union every half hour. This is a perfect first step to try and link the town and the campus community, but we need to go further.

At a recent meeting of the Future Planning Committee, a group set up by the town of Orono to look forward at what can be done to help the community, I sat with a group of residents to brainstorm how to help the UMaine and Orono connect on more levels.

Some thought we missed the chance entirely by not sharing a school with Old Town. Others saw the potential for a retailer to set up shop in town and sell “Go Blue!” apparel and Black Bear merchandise as the solution. One member of the group caught my ear when he identified other universities that create partnerships with the towns they are in to send education majors into the local schools.

As an education student, I had to fight to be a student teacher in the town where I go to school. It shouldn’t be so hard to help the community in which you live. We should expand the model that seems to work for the preschools on campus. Students in the College of Education and Human Development should be working with Orono students at all grade levels, both on and off campus. Benefiting the education of students as well as the young minds in the community would easily help tie the two worlds together.

We also need to find ways to inspire students to access the variety of resources off-campus. This year, first-year students worked on service projects around campus and adjoining communities. Why not include more projects focused on the town of Orono? Maine Day would be a perfect opportunity to bring the college to the community. I’m sure there are local merchants who would love to have some help putting up a fresh coat of paint or installing a bike rack.

By working in the Orono community, students will have the opportunity to explore the town and recognize its benefits. A lot of students will live in Orono for four years without drinking a cup of coffee from The Store & Ampersand, getting their bike tuned-up at Rose Bike, or wolfing down a panini at Harvest Moon.

The university has many resources that can benefit the entire community of Orono, and the town offers many experiences that can make college life unique. Once students plug into the town as much as they do the campus, the two entities can intertwine.

While I understand the popular opinion of the day is to blame the administration and the Democratic Party for the shortcomings of our economy, and for promises that have not been kept, I would urge you all of you eligible to vote to consider a few things.

First is that for all of you who voted for members of the current government, I would like to remind you that you are the ones who put our representatives, senators and least of all, the president in office, and now it is your job to support them. The current administration has had less than a full term to try and complete its agenda, and so I would argue that voter anger against the party for not making good on 100 percent of election promises is premature.

Second I think it is important to take a serious look at the extreme right-wing views of the Tea Party movement and its candidates, including Paul LePage. Their views are extreme and their candidacies are propelled only by anger towards the Democratic Party.

While I can understand the anger of millions of Americans, I would hope that anger would not be the cause for voting into power a faction of a party that has anti-EPA views, and in the case of Delaware senate-hopeful Christine O’Donnell, wishes to bridge the necessary gap between church and state.

Voting is only a few days away, and I simply ask that you seriously consider each candidates platforms before making your decision. All Americans have a choice to make on Nov. 2, and I would hope all who are able to vote do so. But if you vote now out of frustration and distrust for one party, there will definitely be consequences down the road, and by voting the Republican Party into power, you are destroying this administration’s chance of making good on anything they promised during the campaign.

Let the president do what he promised he would two years ago, promises that you voted for by electing him. If you don’t vote with this mindset, the Tea Party will become a big faction in the House and Senate and allowing this will surely be something you regret long before you have a chance to vote them out.

Anthony Jackson

Student

Abort financial irresponsibility, vote “no” on ballot questions

How about we vote “no” on all three questions on the Nov. 2 ballot and get back to basic fiscal responsibility, conservative values and less future debt that our children will be paying for otherwise? Let’s get people off the couch and back to work by first cutting taxes to businesses that create and provide the jobs to us in the first place.

Say no to all the underlying, underhanded schemes that are just more stimulus packages we already know don’t work. Repeal the healthcare bill that spends taxpayers dollars to pay for someone else’s poor moral choices to abort babies if they didn’t want to have them in the first place. They should have thought about that before getting into the act that resulted in the pregnancy in the first place.

Legalized abortion is why social security doesn’t work. 43 million babies could have been the workforce in America that may have made a difference. Stop lying to yourselves that communism, or socialism is the answer to all your problems. Big government just doesn’t work!

Patricia Lawrence

The GOP is poised to make big gains if advance polls are correct. The Republicans, who are expected to rein in spending and reduce the federal budget deficit, are erasing the traditional advantage held by the Democrats.

Riding a wave of voter dissatisfaction two years after they lost 21 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans stand a good chance at gaining the 39 seats needed to win a majority and the 10 seats required to take control of the Senate.

Last week, a Gallup poll was released showing a record-setting enthusiasm gap between conservatives and liberals. Despite prolific rallies by Democrats across the country and an emboldened “get out the vote” effort by the Obama administration, Republicans appear to have the advantage over a majority of incumbents.

The poll, which surveyed 918 registered voters, showed enthusiasm and favorability at only 37 percent for Democrats, while the Republicans carried 63 percent. Even so, the Democrats are fighting to hold their ground to the very last minute.

“If everybody who voted in 2008 votes in 2010, we are confident we will win this election,” President Barack Obama said at an Oc t. 25 support rally in Providence, R.I.

What’s more, the 2010 elections have been costly. According to the latest data from the Federal Election Commission, $2 billion has been raised by House and Senate candidates. Democrats are said to have outraised Republicans according to some reports. This frantic fundraising has largely been overshadowed by a tide of spending by outside interest groups in an election year that finds Democrats struggling to stay in office and fend off criticisms.

The atmosphere in Maine is no different, as all three big-ticket races remain competitive in the eleventh hour. The latest gubernatorial polls show Republican candidate Paul LePage with a big lead and independent Eliot Cutler surging ahead of Libby Mitchell, the Democratic candidate.

In a poll of 400 registered voters conducted by Pan Atlantic SMS Group, a Portland-based polling firm, released last Friday, LePage was ahead with 37 percent, followed by Cutler with 31 percent and Mitchell at 22 percent. Independents Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott combined for 4 percent, with the remaining 7 percent undecided.

Two polls released last Thursday showed LePage with 40 percent support.

The first of Thursday’s polls, a Rasmussen poll, had Mitchell and Cutler tied at 26 percent, while the second, a Public Policy Polling survey, showed Cutler at 28 percent and Mitchell at 24 percent.

Also in the race for the Blaine House, the political fodder of the 2010 midterm election continued throughout last week as Cutler decried the actions of his major party opponents. At a press conference last Monday, Cutler disparaged a recent series of attack ads from both the Republicans and Democrats depicting him as an oil spiller, job outsourcer and tax raiser during his time as a lawyer.

The independent candidate from Cape Elizabeth was outraged as he once worked with U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie on a series of environmental protection laws in addition to calling for major reforms to Maine’s tax structure throughout the campaign.

“These types of ads have the ability to drown out any real discussion of the issues and any real debate over ideas,” Cutler said.

Cutler then pledged to continue running a clean campaign, but his opponents claimed they could back all the accusations. Mitchell’s spokesman, David Loughran, questioned Cutler’s timing and said he wondered why the candidate chose to wait until a week before the election to fight back over ongoing accusations from his time in the private sector.

Maine’s gubernatorial candidates have also engaged in a costly race, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Cutler leads the pack with $1.5 million spent, followed by LePage who has spent $950,000. Mitchell’s campaign has been publicly financed by the Maine Clean Election Act, to date totaling $1.7 million. All figures do not include money spent by non-campaign organizations to air advertisements targeting a specific candidate.

In Maine’s other major races, Democratic incumbent representatives Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud appear to have lost the momentum they had enjoyed earlier in the race in the first and second U.S. Congressional districts.

In the second district, recent polls show Michaud’s Republican challenger Jason Levesque with a slight lead. And in the first district, Pingree finds herself in a statistical dead heat with Republican challenger Dean Scontras.

In addition to considering candidates for governor and a portion of Maine’s congressional delegation, votes will be tallied for the Maine state legislature, a referendum question and two bond questions.

Question 1 is a citizens’ initiative that would permit developers to build a casino and resort in Oxford County. Pan Atlantic’s poll released on Friday showed the measure receiving 51 percent support against 46 percent opposition.

Question 2 will ask if residents should allow the state to borrow $5 million from private investors to create a dental school and upgrade community dental clinics.

Question 3 will ask if residents wish to allow the state to borrow $9.75 million, which will be matched by federal funds, for the purpose of land conservation, working waterfront preservation and investment in state parks.

The bond questions have been met with mixed support, with proponents of the measures citing a need to develop the state’s resources on all levels and critics denouncing the act of borrowing due to the state’s economic distress.

However, Knoblock, his opponent student Sen. Nelson Carson and vice presidential runner-up Ryan Gavin are contesting the legitimacy of the election. Over the weekend, Gavin drafted a formal contest form and submit it to the Fair Elections and Practices Committee of the General Student Senate.

“The results may or may not show the actual outcome,” Knoblock said in a conference call on Friday with Gavin and The Maine Campus. “According to these results, I won the election. But, at the same time, I don’t see the results of that election being completely and totally representative of the student body.”

Gavin said he fielded more than 160 complaints of voting boxes not being available to students on their FirstClass desktops. He also said an e-mail was promised to be sent by current Student Body President Brian Harris to all students about the election’s issues and how to vote.

The message ended up being placed in that FirstClass election box instead — making it invisible to the students who did not have the box in the first place.

The complaint, provided by Gavin to The Maine Campus, lists three subsections with specific complaints against the University of Maine Information Technologies Department for its handling of the election on FirstClass, against Harris and against the FEPC and its chair, Skye Landry.

Knoblock and Carson both confirmed that they would co-sign the document with Gavin while Ortiz voiced opposition to their efforts.

Ortiz, reached Friday, said the problems with the election did not put any one candidate at a disadvantage.

“The technical issues affected everybody — everybody had people that were trying to vote,” he said. “I obviously think everyone should have the right to vote if they want to. I also think there were opportunities for any student who really wanted to vote to go to [vote in person at] the Wade Center.”

“There were three different options if you really wanted to vote,” he continued, referencing online elections, paper ballots and absentee ballots.

Gavin and Knoblock responded harshly to Ortiz’s characterization of the vote.

“That right there embodies what’s wrong with student government right now,” Gavin said. “The notion that it was unfair to everybody so it’s fair to everybody — I think that’s complete crap.”

“There’s no way to quantify how unfair it was to each person and that’s the real problem here,” Knoblock said. “It kind of does disappoint me.”

The election tallies were reasonably close, as Knoblock defeated fellow student Sen. Nelson Carson 891-762, while Ortiz beat Gavin 931-886. 2,011 votes were cast by students on FirstClass as opposed to 14 in person.

The election was marred early on by a 37-minute delay in establishing the online voting system.

According to FirstClass administrator Colleen Willett Martin, students who tried to vote when the voting period began at 9 a.m. were unable to do so. A database problem prevented students from voting online until 9:37 a.m. The deadline for the election’s end was extended to 6 p.m. to compensate for time in which students could not vote.

“All of those problems should render the election completely illegitimate,” Gavin said. “The things that we saw yesterday were completely ridiculous.”

Gavin said complaints about the election on subjects such as Information Technologies are heard by the Fair Elections Practices Commission, but complaints about the FEPC’s handling of the election itself are heard by the General Student Senate. Since he expects to author his document as a complaint against both, the senate will hear it either at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting or at a special meeting within the week.

“I think the senate needs to know what’s going on here and senate needs to decide,” Gavin said.

Knoblock said though he was “upset” at Ortiz’s remarks, it would not affect their working relationship should the current election results stand.

Renault’s visit was part of a series run by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. The Distinguished Maine Policy Fellows Program is designed to provide students with access to high-level public officials and to provide the officials with information about UMaine.

Renault joined the Maine Office of Innovation in January of 2007. The Office of Innovation is part of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (MDECD). According to Maine.gov/decd, the MDECD is “dedicated to positioning Maine for growth in a global economy, while maintaining the quality of life that Maine is known for.”

Renault earned her doctorate in public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her 16 years in the field of economic development include work in the well-known Research Triangle Park at the University of North Carolina. Renault was a senior research associate in the Office of Economic Development at Chapel Hill.

Renault visited the Advanced Manufacturing Center for a tour first. The AMC program began in 2000 and received a $6 million bond in 2002. The building was completed in 2004.

“People bring in their intellectual property and we help them improve it,” said AMC Director John Belding. “We’re not trying to take their business. We’re trying to complement it.”

Belding added the AMC is “getting ready to start a large engine development project.”

The program has a full-time staff of four and employs 10 engineering students from UMaine. In 2009, the AMC program completed more than 200 projects for 50 customers.

The AMC building offers students majoring in engineering a chance to get hands-on experience while providing class credits. AMC employs mostly mechanical engineers and electrical engineers.

Belding made a brief presentation to Renault before taking her on a tour of the facility. He talked about the work that the AMC program has done with Falcon Performance Footwear, a Maine company known worldwide for its boots. Falcon has a contract with the U.S. Military to provide boots for soldiers.

The boots need to have composite toes, and the only country in the world that produced the material needed is China. The U.S. government did not want to buy a Chinese-made toe for its boots. Falcon came to the AMC program, and together the two have designed a manufacturing mechanism to create the composite toes in the state of Maine so the boots are entirely American-made, enabling the company to accept the government contract.

“It’s a great story all the way around,” Renault said. “I’m really glad [AMC] was involved.” Renault said a program that is able to come in and help a Maine company shows the usefulness of such programs and is always a success story.

The tour included a visit in the main lobby of the building. In the lobby there are multiple ice drill bits that AMC helped develop. Belding showed the lab area and highlighted the area with an ice drill demonstration. Renault took time to talk to students working in the lab. Belding said 50 percent of what the AMC program does is “on-campus support.”

Following her visit to the AMC building, Renault made a quick visit to the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology in Barrows Hall.

“When this opportunity came up I said, ‘Who haven’t I visited?’” Renault said, adding that she had not visited the laboratory in years.

Bob Lad, the director of the LASST, provided a tour of the facility. Lad said the laboratory produces “all next generation stuff.” The facility works primarily in the field of nano-technology, and the laboratory works primarily with “sensors and other micro devices,” according to Lad.

Lad took time to highlight a government contract the laboratory has with the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force contracted the LASST to develop an engine sensor to detect problems in jet engines for fighter planes that can withstand a temperature of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to Lad, such a sensor could help detect the severity of the engine problem and the length of time until the part will break. A sensor like this could save the Air Force a great deal of money in repair factors, Lad added.

Renault was also shown the building’s “big shiny machine.” The machine is used for thin film technology and applies atoms down one atom at a time onto a surface. The atoms form a protective covering on microchips, semiconductors and other sensitive electronics. Lad said the laboratory is also becoming involved in solutions for the energy crisis due to lucrative research opportunities.

Renault spoke at a lecture in the economics department following her tour and concluded her visit at Fogler Library where the Distinguished Maine Policy Fellows Program held a reception for her.

Sushi Now, owned by 24-year-old Ahm Kongsuriya, opened up next to Lissus’ Pizza in downtown Orono on Oct. 16.

Kongsuriya, along with his business partner Oscar Ody, started working on their concept to create the “Subway of Japanese food” three months ago.

“I think it’s going to be good. We’re not Ichiban’s — we have reasonable prices and you can get it quick,” Kongsuriya said.

According to Kongsuriya, the work needed to convert the storefront space to a restaurant was a challenge the young entrepreneur welcomed.

“This used to be a barber shop. I did everything from scratch in two weeks,” he said. “I always had this in mind, so I walked into the space and knew what I wanted. It’s fun — I like a challenge.”

When he was 16 years old, Kongsuriya moved with his family to Hampden from Thailand. The family quickly established themselves and now his relatives run several of the Thai restaurants in the Bangor area including Orono’s Thai Orchid, which is owned by Kongsuriya’s cousin, Eddie Sarisodsai.

Kongsuriya learned the art of sushi rolling from the chef at his aunt’s Thai Siam in Bangor. Six years ago, Thai Orchid’s attempt to add sushi to its menu proved an unpopular move, but Kongsuriya believes the Orono market is now ready for eel, squid and California rolls.

“They didn’t want to try new things, but now young kids, teenagers, they like to eat it,” Kongsuriya said.

Kongsuriya has taken on one employee so far. The two skillfully weave around each other in the small space, using a small stove top, a toaster and cooler of fresh fish to create all the menu items.

“Oh, don’t call him an employee, he just makes it worse,” Kongsuriya joked.

While years spent learning the secrets of the family business helped, Sushi Now is a self-financed operation for Kongsuriya that has so far proved to be a good investment. In the first month he has already met his revenue projections for two to three months from now.

However, Kongsuriya said he intentionally set his goals low.

“I saved up. The bank wouldn’t give me a loan, even though what I had in the bank would have covered it twice,” he said.

Kongsuriya’s and Ody’s plans for Sushi Now do not end in Orono. Originally, the pair had considered running a Subway at the Bangor Mall, but for the cost of starting one of those franchises they believe they can open 10 Sushi Nows. Even when factoring in the weekly trips Kongsuriya will make to the Sun Market in Portland for fresh sushi-grade fish, Sushi Now is a small enough investment that Kongsuriya believes they can safely replicate it around Maine and New England.

So far, Sushi Now has been busiest Friday and Saturday, which is when you might see co-owner Ody’s sister taking your order, but all other times you will be asked to write down your selections yourself.

“When I’m here alone, I’m not taking your order,” Kongsuriya said with a smile.

Based on customer suggestions, Kongsuriya said he will most likely start offering late-night service from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The plan is to offer only the four most popular menu items: California rolls, salmon rolls, spicy tuna rolls and miso soup.

Kongsuriya said he was initially hesitant — “I’m here 12 hours a day already, I don’t need to be here any longer” — but feels up to the challenge.

The newest Orono restaurant is an experiment as the partners figure out how to make the healthiest, cheapest and fastest sushi around. Speed is key and the space is small, so Kongsuriya said customers should call first and expect a wait of no longer than a 20-minutes.

“We were thinking of a Japanese name, but then we thought, ‘no, people want sushi right now’ — so we chose that name,” Kongsuriya said.