Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Fiber-to-the-home broadband spreads in southern NH due to – wait, the phone company?!?
Spurred by a 2018 change in state law and new private investment, the state’s biggest phone company is building fiber-optic connections to tens of thousands of homes in southern New Hampshire, the most extensive expansion of fast internet that rural New Hampshire has...
‘Gluten free’ means something. ‘Natural’ doesn’t.
There aren't many things more complicated than determining a "healthy diet." A new website, launched by Vermont Law School helps those of us with the patience to read the confusing food labels. The Valley News has a story (here); Beyranevand said that “the most...
SEC case against NH’s LBRY video/crypto business continues
Mark Hayward of the Union-Leader takes a look at the SEC case against Manchester's LBRY video hosting service that also issues a cryptocurrency. In case you missed by earlier stories, like this one in March, it's a good catch-up. His story is here; nothing new seems...
The Russians were here, the Russians were here!
Going through old stuff in boxes, I found a copy of an article I wrote in 1993 that starts like this: "It's a scene straight from a Cold War spy novel: several Russians huddled around a computer in an unmarked apartment, receiving information from satellites overhead...
Why do wind turbines have three blades? Why not just two?
I will go down in history as the person who asked the last question on AskSam, the NH Public Radio series in which reporter/podcaster Sam Evans-Brown answers listener questions. Sam is leaving radio to become a clean-energy advocate. My question was: Why do all wind...
How much rooftop solar in N.E.? Three Seabrooks!
ISO-New England, the folks who run the six-state power grid, estimate that there are 4,000 MW of "behind-the-meter" solar (i.e., rooftop, although some of that is ground-mounted) in the region. That's a little more than three times the output of Seabrook Station nuke...
N.H. patents through June 27
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 20 to June 27. *** University of New Hampshire Assigned Patent for Opto-Coupler with Field-Shaping End Caps The University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, has been...
5,000 tons of concrete to help submarines float into dry dock
From AP: A $158 million project that’s part of the Navy’s plan to make Portsmouth Naval Shipyard more efficient and less dependent on tides took a big step forward Monday with the arrival of a key component. The 5,000-ton precast concrete entrance for one of the...
Old copper mines are polluting the Upper Valley
It's taken 20 years and $96 million or so to clean up a closed copper mine in tiny Strafford, Vermont. Two other closed mines in the region are still a problem. The Valley News has a story here. Old mines can be a real environmental disaster. Yet another thing that...
N.H. considers regulations for sidewalk delivery robots
By MIKE DUNBAR/ Citizens Count HB 116 is a such bill that would regulate how ground-based delivery robots would be allowed to operate in New Hampshire. New Hampshire wouldn’t be the first state to invite delivery robots to our sidewalks. Last week in Austin, Texas,...
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