Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
It feels like we’re past COVID – but we’re not
If you're reading this after the newsletter landed in your inbox, I will have been vaccinated for about two hours. Woo-hoo! Unfortunately, since I wrote this Monday NH's COVID numbers haven't improved; in fact, the number of people in the hospital jumped yesterday....
Get ready to dial the area code on most in-state calls
Many things have changed in the way we use our telephones in the past decade but one thing hasn’t: I don’t dial the area code when making local calls on my desk phone. Alas, not for much longer. By June 2022, you and I and everybody in the state will have to dial 10...
Six N.H. residents charged with money laundering via bitcoin
Six people including a novelty candidate for governor were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in New Hampshire on charges of participating in a conspiracy to launder money using virtual currency such as bitcoin. According to an indictment handed down by a U.S....
It’s still legal for NH state employees to modify the weather, even with a ground-based gun
I'd hate to choose just one section of New Hampshire laws that is the weirdest, but Chapter 12-F has to be in the running. It says, in totality: Any department or agency of the state may, with the approval of the governor and council and within the limits of...
N.H. gets deliberate fires to prevent accidental fires
New Hampshire has long seen prescribed burning around Concord Municipal Airport, in order to maintain the ecosystem that supports the Karner blue and frosted elfin butterflies. (Story here) But now, as NHPR reports (here), we're going to start seeing some deliberate...
Tick tubes or bait boxes – which kills more ticks?
The snow is gone or going, depending on where you live in the state, so it's time to start worrying about ticks. There's a new study of two similar methods to get small rodents to apply pesticide to themselves: tick tubes and bait boxes. I I wrote about tick tubes...
Great explainer about solar for towns
UPDATE: Town meeting passed this easily. The town of Bristol wants to build a 200-kw solar array to cut costs for their wastewater treatment plant. Their energy committee has created a terrific 17-minute video pitching it to voters that covers a lot of questions you...
N.H. patents through March 14
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from March 7 to March 14. ***Centripetal Networks Assigned Patent for Systems for Protecting Secured Network Centripetal Networks, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No....
At UNH they’re looking for an aqueous battery breakthrough
From UNHInnovation: Xiaowei Teng is a professor and chair of chemical engineering at UNH. His research focuses on aqueous electrochemical energy storage devices that use a water-based electrolyte, which is less likely to burn if exposed to air or moisture. Teng...
February: colder than average, warmer than normal
There’s no better measure of how New England’s winters are changing than this: February a bit colder than average in New Hampshire but it was a bit warmer than normal. Confused? Blame terminology – and climate change, of course. In this case, “average” is a comparison...
Return to the Concord Monitor