Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Objective Adorableness Algorithm ™
There wasn't a Granite Geek newsletter last week because I was visiting my first grandchild, a baby girl. I figured I should approach grandfatherdom with a properly geeky attitude, so I crafted an Objective Adorableness Algorithm. I used such measurements as ratio of...
Carmakers do last-ditch effort to stop Mass. right-to-repair law
Massachusetts voters passed a law telling automakers who sell cars in Massachusetts provide consumers and independent repair shops with wireless access to the car’s “telematics” — digital information needed to diagnose the vehicle’s performance. With access to the...
Invasive green sunfish, probably released from aquariums, is spreading in N.H.
An invasive fish known as the green sunfish has been confirmed in the Piscataquog River downstream from the Weare Reservoir, also known as Horace Lake, and at Waukewan Lake. This is an expansion of the range: In 2022, biologists at the NH Department of Environmental...
Study: N.H. had the second-lowest death rate from COVID, partly because we trust each other
A major study has singled out New Hampshire as a model among U.S. states in response to COVID-19, having suffered virtually the lowest cumulative death rate from the pandemic. The state’s success, the study said, came about partly because of relative wealth,...
Switching a mixed bag of old buildings to electric heat is no easy task
On the long list of difficult things needed to reduce future climate change, weaning buildings off fossil fuels and onto electricity is near the top of the complexity scale. When you’re talking about a mish-mosh of old buildings in a New England town, it’s practically...
Turning on a nuke plant always goes over budget, but not turning it off
The Brattleboro Reformer reports that the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is on budget and schedule: Daniels said that work on demolishing the large turbine building had begun, and that the first layer of outside paneling — a distinctive green —...
Video tells of John Sununu’s oversized role in our failure to tackle climate change
A company called Brilliant has put together a video detailing how U.S. officials and scientists were alarmed about climate change as early as the 1970's and then how a FUD (fear-uncertainty-doubt) campaign financed by various industries kept us from doing anything...
Telehealth stays even as COVID fades
From the Valley News: Dartmouth Health continues to see as many as 700 outpatients a day via telehealth, which became vital for maintaining access to care during the pandemic. That’s equivalent to about 12% of daily outpatient visits across the DH system and about 17%...
Segway-ish wheelchair gets insurance coverage, finally
More than two decades ago I was one of the reporters who got an early peek* at an eye-popping machine being developed by Dean Kamen: a motorized wheelchair that could stand up on two wheels, raising its occupant to eye level with standing adults, and also climb...
Bubble curtain may cut noise during offshore-wind construction
Some whales blow bubbles to create a rising "curtain" that helps them trap fish. The folks doing the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm are looking into doing something similar during construction to reduce undersea noise. ReNews has the story. A bubble curtain, which...
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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.