Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Keep your automated infrared algorithmic ice-spotted eyes on the road
Of all the forces that we learned about in high school physics, “friction” is the one that grips our attention in winter. Especially when it doesn’t grip anything else. A very low coefficient of friction is bad enough when you’re on foot but can be fatal in cars....
Ugh – southern pine beetle has shown up here
From UNH News Service: Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have discovered the southern pine beetle, one of the most damaging tree-dwelling insects in the Southeast, in forests in Maine and New Hampshire. The southern pine beetle has never been seen this...
Lots of recycled arguments when the legislature ponders open source software
It’s been three decades since Linux launched the modern world of free, open-source software but you’d hardly have known that at a state legislative hearing Tuesday. The hearing, concerning two bills that aim to have New Hampshire government use more non-proprietary...
Fake snow is less forgiving, skiers find
Another victim of climate change: The safety of high-speed skiers on cross-country tracks. Reports AP: Many top Nordic skiers and biathletes say crashes are becoming more common as climate change reduces the availability of natural snow, forcing racers to compete on...
Vermont pays farmers not to produce phosphorus
Creating pollution is often cost-free and getting rid of it can be costly, so no wonder humans generate so much. The "market based solution" (i.e., channeling humanity's endless greed) is either to make pollution expensive, which is the idea of fines and mandates, or...
Hybrid school, hybrid work, why not hybrid play?
Note: This story ran Monday. The same day, the concert was postponed a month because of COVID. Sigh .... Almost 300 people could be sitting in the Bank of NH Stage this week to watch a rocking country show on the stage, but the real question is: How many will also be...
Follow that raindrop to the sea!
A raindrop falling in New London, N.H. flows west to the Connecticut River and down to Long Island Sound. If it fell a few miles east in Warner, it would flow east to the Merrimack River and down to the Gulf of Maine. How do I know this? Because of a very cool...
N.H. patents through Jan. 9
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Jan. 2 to Jan. 9. *** Atrium Medical Assigned Patent for Chest Drainage Systems, Methods Atrium Medical, Merrimack, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,213,617, initially...
A benefit of climate change? Great Bay oysters may be spawning earlier
There are indications that as waters warm in the Great Bay, oysters may be spawning earlier than in the past, helping efforts to replenish this important species. The finding "suggests that spat brought in to augment current sites of active restoration should be...
Move 19 tons and what do you get?
(NOTE: I used to live in coal country, hence that potentially confusing headline referencing a Tennessee Ernie Ford song) There are a couple of drawbacks to New Hampshire geology. One is that we don’t have fossils – they were all melted by our igneous rocks or scraped...
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