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WXXI Public Broadcasting: Emma Jacobs

Former WRVO/Central New York reporter for the Innovation Trail.

Emma Jacobs is a native of Boston. She studied history, so she went for more practical training in public radio at NPR member-stations WNYC and WBUR. She helped shape Wired's Haiti Rewired project, a 2010 Knight Batten Innovations in Journalism Awards notable initiative. 

She's contributed to NPR's National Desk, and to Living on Earth, The Environment Report, Only a Game, Voice of America, and Word of Mouth.  She now reports for WHYY in Philadelphia.

All Tech Considered
2:53 am
Fri December 7, 2012

To Catch A Suspect — On Pinterest

Credit Pinterest
People wanted by the police in Pottstown, Pa., are displayed on the Pinterest page of a local newspaper. The police department's social media strategy, which aims to get the images of criminals seen by more people, has also been adapted in Philadelphia.
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Originally published on Fri December 7, 2012 9:35 am

Pinterest is known as a place where people share recipes, crafts or fashion. But a new set of images have started showing up on the social media site: mug shots.

Bonnie Stankunas has come to the post office in Pottstown, Pa., her entire life. She remembers, as a kid, spotting "most wanted" posters hung on a wall.

"It kind of reminded me of the Wild, Wild West," Stankunas says.

None of the people at this post office remembers exactly when the posters went away, but the FBI stopped sending the notices out a couple of years ago.

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The Salt
4:28 pm
Mon November 12, 2012

Kind of Like 'eFarmony': Matching Farmers With Urban Landowners For Fun And Profit

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Credit Emma Lee / WHYY
Chris Costa and one of her chickens on her farm in Downingtown, Pa. Costa and her partner, T.J., found the land for this farm through a sustainable agriculture program.
Credit Emma Lee / WHYY
Eleanor Morris Illoway samples greens from farmland that she leased to organic farmers.
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Originally published on Mon November 12, 2012 6:15 pm

Many farmers want their farms to be located close to a city - especially organic farmers who'd like to sell their produce at big urban farmers markets. But the price of land within range of a big city is sky high and only getting higher.

Most small farmers buy their land, but some are now looking to lease in suburban or exurban areas. And to do that, they're using something straight out of Fiddler On The Roof: A matchmaker.

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Around the Nation
5:10 pm
Mon April 2, 2012

America's First Celebrity Robot Is Staging A Comeback

Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Musician Lois Kendall plays the bass while the robot Elektro "conducts" on stage as part of a Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing demonstration at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.
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Before IBM's Watson and Deep Blue, there was another celebrity robot: Elektro.

The first robot introduced to Americans, Elektro was the 7-foot-tall man who greeted millions of visitors who streamed through the gates of the 1939 World's Fair. He even appeared on film, in The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair.

The robot was built as a showpiece for the manufacturer Westinghouse, which made clothing irons and ovens in Mansfield, Ohio, at the time.

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World
11:30 am
Thu March 1, 2012

An Inuit Builder Crafts His Last Canoe

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Credit Emma Jacobs
Goudie's last canoe hangs next to the form used to mold the wood. The unfinished canoe is weighted down with sandbags to keep the canvas taut.
Credit Emma Jacobs
Joe Goudie uses clamps to stretch the canvas tightly before nailing it to the canoe's wooden frame. The task takes three pounds of brass tacks.
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In a remote corner of northern Canada, Joe Goudie is at work on his very last boat for sale.

The Inuit community in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador once used wood and canvas canoes to navigate the rivers of Labrador.

Goudie, 72, is Inuit, but grew up as that tradition was drawing to a close.

Today, he's the last person building wooden canoes in this corner of Canada.

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The Salt
3:27 am
Wed February 29, 2012

Newfoundland Gives Whole New Meaning To Ice Cold Beer

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Credit Courtesy of Quidi Vidi
Quidi Vidi's lager is brewed with 25,000-year-old water harvested from Newfoundland's icebergs.
Credit Emma Jacobs for NPR
Charlie Rees, who gives tours of Quidi Vidi Brewing Co., holds a bottle of Iceberg beer.
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The year the Quidi Vidi Brewing Co. started brewing beer with iceberg water, a giant iceberg floated up against the cliffs around St. John's, Newfoundland.

"It was a big berg and it jammed right across the harbor here," says Charlie Rees, the brewery's tour guide.

Rees says Newfoundlanders have a curious relationship with icebergs. On the one hand, they're a fact of life. On the other, when that iceberg was in the harbor's mouth, hundreds of people came down to gawk. He took pictures.

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Your Money
12:01 am
Mon January 30, 2012

Employees To Face 'Term Limits' At Casino

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Credit Emma Jacobs / WHYY
The new Revel casino, which sits along the boardwalk in Atlantic City, has drawn criticism for its employment policies.
Credit Wayne Parry / AP
Workers wait to unload slot machines at Revel casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Once the casino is open, some of its front-line employees will face term limits of four to six years, the company says.
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Originally published on Mon January 30, 2012 8:44 am

A new casino set to open in Atlantic City, N.J., has announced it will set term limits for its front-line staff. When employees' terms run out, they'll have to go through the hiring process again. The casino says the policy will keep its service fresh. Others say the company is taking advantage of a tough job market.

From bellhops to dealers, employees of the new casino — called Revel — will be hired for terms from four to six years. After that, they have to reapply for their jobs and compete against other candidates.

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World
8:00 am
Sat December 24, 2011

Cape Race: 'Still A Place For A Lighthouse'

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Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Off the northeastern tip of North America on Newfoundland lies a stretch of the coast known as the graveyard of the Atlantic. The rocky shoreline has sunk hundreds of ships. Reporter Emma Jacobs traveled to the red and white lighthouse on the tip of Cape Race that still warns ships away from the coast.

EMMA JACOBS, BYLINE: The day I visited in late fall was the kind of day the Cape Race lighthouse was built for. Twenty-foot swells rolled in towards the point through a thick fog.

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The Salt
3:05 pm
Wed November 23, 2011

Where Turkey Is The Guest, Not The Entree

Credit Emma Jacobs / WRVO
Isabella Colbdorf feeds salad to a turkey at this year's Feeding of the Turkeys ceremony in Watkins Glen, in upstate New York, on Nov. 20, 2011.
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Originally published on Wed November 23, 2011 6:12 pm

Most people think of turkeys as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal. But at one farm, the turkeys are the guests.

At the 26th annual Feeding of the Turkeys ceremony in Watkins Glen, in upstate New York, a line of turkeys come walking out the door of the barn. They stroll towards long low tables set up on the lawn, with scarlet tablecloths and seasonal squash centerpieces.

There, a feast awaits. There's pumpkin pie topped with cranberry, and platters of green salad — hold the dressing. The spread is surrounded by a crowd of spectators.

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