Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Old & new: Wood-burning stoves and heat pumps can work together
Embarrassingly for somebody who's an avid heat-pump fan, I heat my house with an oil-fired hot-air furnace. I also have a pellet stove in the living room, which I use as supplemental heat in winter evenings, when we tend to huddle in the living room anyway. This keeps...
Utility poles are boring, overlooked and incredibly valuable
I've long been fascinated by utility poles: They're so ubiquitous we don't notice them and yet they're amazing: 40-foot-tall straight trees are grown by the millions (there are somewhere around 500,000 utility poles in New Hampshire alone, and the North American Wood...
Too many bodies, not enough pathologists
The Monitor's Teddy Rosenbluth has a story about the state's chief medical examiner struggling with performing enough autopsies due to lack of pathologists amid the continuing fentanyl overdose surge. "The office has been trying to hire another full-time pathologist...
Our rooftop solar out-produced nuclear power for hours
A sunny, cool weekend in spring is prime solar-power-percentage time: Total usage is relatively low and solar panels are more efficient when it's cool. Still, it startled me to learn that for several hours of Saturday, April 2, in the six states of New England, the...
Portsmouth, NH, accepts cryptocurrency for payments
Portsmouth, by many counts the wealthiest city in the state, will accept various cryptocurrencies for payments of taxes and fees, although it has to be done through PayPal, Seacoast Online reports. Depending on your point of view, they are either leading the way into...
N.H. patents through April 3
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from March 27 to April 3. *** DEKA Products Assigned Patent for Adhesive, Peripheral Systems, Methods for Medical Devices DEKA Products, Manchester, New...
Co-op’s switch from plastic bags has proved a behavior ‘nudge’
When Concord Co-op decided to stop using plastic bags at the checkout counters, the idea was to make some physical improvement in the environment. Turns out, it has made some mental improvement, too. “It has changed the mindset of people going through the store, it...
A summer class that involves digging in the dirt (very carefully)
An interesting field school will be taking place in Bear Brook State Park this summer, finding more details about New Hampshire’s deep past, and you can be part of it. But I’m not going to tell you where it is. “People start looking and they can destroy things...
Red Sox say carbon offsets make them ‘carbon neutral’
The Red Sox "has signed an agreement with climate finance company Aspiration, whereby a portion of proceeds from each ticket sale will be used to purchase carbon offsets. The credits not only would cover the direct and indirect impacts of operating Fenway, such as its...
They’re working on how to make maple syrup out west?!?!
There's one thing we're certain about in New England: Despite upstarts like Michigan and Wisconsin, this is the Land of Maple Syrup. (Counting New York state as honorary New England for the moment) But climate change, as has been reported many times, will be hard on...
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