Duck curve meets turkey-cooking curve
(Oops; I forgot to post this yesterday - the Portland Press-Herald's excellent energy reporter Tux Turkel did a story about it today) From ISO New England, the folks who run the six-state power grid: For the first time since at least 2000, and possibly ever,...
read moreMountain vs. clouds, New Hampshire edition
The National Weather station in Gray, Maine, which also covers most of New Hampshire, puts some interesting stuff on its Facebook page. This is from today (Dec. 14): Mount Washington isn't that tall by global standards, or even U.S. standards, but its relative...
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Loons are big-boned, which is a problem when lakes freeze up
I've seen loons a few times while kayaking around New Hampshire, but I've never seen one take off. I have, however, seen ducks take off from the water - and it's a long, laborious process, whereas a robin can take leap right off the ground and start flying. I never...
read moreWill municipal broadband ever arrive in New Hampshire?
Tiny Charlemont, Mass. (population 1,250 or so) has rejected an offer from Comcast to provide broadband in town and will instead pursue a $1.4 million town-owned broadband system, reports the local paper. Community-owned Internet has long been a goal for a subset of...
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Quebec hydropower coming south – to New York, not New England
The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE). a 300-mile underground high-voltage line carrying hydroelectricity from Quebec dams down to New York City, is finally moving ahead with construction likely to begin in 2020, reports the Canadian newspaper National Observer....
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Salting icy roads without killing everything else is tough
Government awards given to state employees do not usually carry amusing titles. Unless you’re talking about de-icing technology in New Hampshire. Then you’ve got awards like “Salt-n-Peppa,” “Shaken Not Stirred” and “Salt of the Earth” – given out annually by the N.H....
read moreAnalyzing tree interiors with ‘sonic tomography’
The exterior of a tree isn't always a good reflection of its internal condition - think of it as "can't judge a book by its cover" applied to books' raw material. In Connecticut, as NPR reports (read/listen to the story here) there's an interesting research project...
read moreIf you’re going to teach IP law, why not teach it online?
The UNH School of Law in Concord is about to take its first big steps into the world of online education, and if all goes as planned it will go further and create what it calls the nation’s first specialized law degree. The school is awaiting permission from the...
read moreCell-phone blimp gets a test flight in N.H.
The MIT-connected startup Altaeros Energies has built a blimp hangar in Fremont, N.H. – halfway between Manchester and the Seacoast – to do R&D on their plan to use blimps as cheap cell towers in rural areas. The Union-Leader reports that they had their first test...
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New Hampshire patents
The Concord Monitor runs a list of patents that have been issued recently to companies or individuals in New Hampshire. Check it out.
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Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 - yes, that long - and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on New Hampshire Public Radio.
Brooks earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you'll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.