Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
What if your septic field was above ground? Sometimes they are
A proposal by Mount Sunapee Resort to expand parking has drawn attention to a half-century old portion of the sewage treatment system that includes three wastewater lagoons next to the access road, near a brook that flows into Lake Sunapee. “This is a method that was...
NH patents through June 16
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through June 16. *** System and Method of Object Tracking Using Weight Confirmation...
Really Bad Chess would send Kasparov off the deep end
A lot of news sites are adding puzzles/games to help retain readers (as the NY Times notes) , and the Concord Monitor is among them. However, there are only so many different word/shape/number puzzle games in the world so there are a lot of...
Mirror Lake’s crazy winter, another sign that weather is no longer predictable
Note: I ran a quickie version of this story in the blog/newsletter on May 31. This expanded version ran in the Monitor on June 10: Mention the concept of “ice in” and “ice out” to a New Hampshirite and chances are we’ll think of Lake Winnipesaukee. Our biggest lake...
NH patents through June 9
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through June 9. System, Method, and Apparatus for Infusing Fluid DEKA RESEARCH...
NHPR looks at sorry state of grid connections in NH
All over the country - in much of the world, in fact - there's a logjam of renewable-energy projects trying to get connected to the grid. Basically the problem is that the system in most countries was built for the old grid, where power went one way from a relatively...
Your pine trees look bad? Don’t worry
Several readers have emailed me in the past week or two, asking why their pine trees look so crummy. This is the answer, from the state: White pine trees in New Hampshire have been dropping needles, but that is to be expected after last year’s rainy late spring and...
NH was hard hit by “missing births” during COVID lockdowns
An analysis of US births of babies conceived during the pandemic lockdown says births fell 3.7 percent, on average, across all states but fell an estimated 16% in New Hampshire, more than any other state. Notably, the report says that while births fell sharply as the...
Wait – there’s a nuclear reactor *where*?!?
If you want to win a bar bet, try this question: Where’s the closest nuclear reactor? People will say Seabrook, of course, but depending on where you are in the state, the answer might actually be Lowell, Mass. (Check distances on a map before making the bet.) This...
I found a software license printed on a 115-year-old metal plunger
NOTE: Hunting through old blog items, I found this piece from 2016. I thought it was entertaining enough to rerun Don't you just hate software licenses and the way they mean you don't really own the things you buy? Of course you do, and you also think they're an...
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