Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
NH patents through Nov. 27
The US Patent Service has changed the way it reports patents and we can no longer include direct links to each patent. You can find them here, using the patent number. By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire...
Tearing down Vermont Yankee (including its radioactive water)
Bloomberg has an article (here it is) about tearing down Vermont Yankee. Apparently it's going better than planned - the site may be ready for redevelopment by late 2026, four years earlier than planned. This detail surprised me: "There’s 1.2 million gallons that were...
Vermont ready to join Calif., ban sale of new gas cars by 2035
Vermont is a tiny auto market and its decisions have little national repercussions but this (as reported by the VT DIgger via Valley News) is still impressive - it may join the program adopted by California in August: State regulators are on the cusp of adopting a...
Bio-based (mostly wood product) 3D-printed home unveiled at the University of Maine
Interesting project at UMaine. (Full story here) The 600-square-foot prototype features 3D-printed floors, walls and roof of wood fibers and bio-resins. The house is fully recyclable and highly insulated with 100% wood insulation and customizable R-values....
Coping with climate change shows up even in golf carts
Nobody in their right mind can downplay the unfolding disaster of the climate emergency now that global evidence has, unfortunately, become overwhelming. But there’s still plenty of room for debate about how we should react. A perfect example occurred at the Concord...
N.H. patents through Nov. 20
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Mastodon, here I come
Twitter has been a great website - I've made connections with people and learned a lot in a dozen years. On the assumtion that it will either die or become so unpleasant I won't want to stay, I have set up a Mastodon account. Mastodon uses different servers; I...
Vermont is No. 1 in EV chargers (per capita, that is)
A study by CoPilot using federal data says Vermont has 140 EV charging ports per 100,000 residents, the highest rate in the country. California is No. 2 and Massachusetts is No. 3 but its per capita rate is half that of Vermont. Rhode Island is No. 6 and Maine is No....
1940s precedent based on citrus farm may hurt NH file-sharing startup
Great story from New Hampshire Bulletin about the latest legal challenge for LBRY, a New Hampshire startup for file-sharing that uses "tokens" which regulators say act like securities and should be regulated as such. It has an interesting historical backdrop with...
Wild venison is the most eco-friendly food around
This time of year, thousands of natural-food enthusiasts are prowling through New Hampshire’s forests, rifles in hand, hoping to obtain the most ecologically-sound meal possible. What meal is that? Wild venison: the muscle and fat from a deer you’ve recently killed...
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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 WGIR-AM 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.