Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire

If you want more rattlesnakes in a chilly climate, you need more places for them to bask
The timber rattlesnake is the only poisonous snake living in New Hampshire but there aren't many of them, partly because we're at the northern edge of its range and partly because people have destroyed much of its habitat. New Hampshire Fish and Game biologists are...
N.H. patents through Dec. 13
By Targeted News ServiceThe following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Dec. 6 to Dec. 13. *** Evolution RF Assigned Patent for Small Cell Mobile Signal Aggregator Evolution RF, Manchester, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 10,863,584, initially...
New England’s got plenty of electricity, although COVID complicates forecasts
The pandemic is altering and possibly reducing New England’s need for electricity, and the region has more than enough production available this winter. That’s the conclusion of the annual winter projection from ISO-New England, the group that oversees the six-state...
A secretive game designer from NH created Undertale (including the music)
I am not familiar with the 8-bit game Undertale but it has a rabid following. The Union-Leader's Mark Hayward has a great column about the guy who made it, Toby Fox, who is from Manchester. But it has a twist because Fox is interview-hesitant: Usually at this point in...

Solar power can save money even for people who don’t have it
Considering how absolute it sounds, “Live Free or Die” can be pretty squishy sometimes. For years the most confounding example of this paradox has been cannabis. New Hampshire loudly defends the right to expose our skulls on a motorcycle or stroll into the Gulp-N-Go...
Vermont utility tries out vehicle-to-grid connection
Green Mountain Power has deployed what it says is a first-of-its kind vehicle-to-grid charger to reduce energy use on the grid during peak demand. A bi-directional Fermata electric vehicle charger was installed at its Colchester, Vt. office in October. The charger is...

Time and tide wait for no one, especially now
Slowly rising sea levels are having many unpleasant effects, of which King Tides or Sunny Day Floods are one of the less dramatic but most telling. These terms describe when the sea at high tide goes into places where it didn't used to go, without any storm or other...
How to make one of those iPad telepresence robots? Magnets!
I've been helping the local high school's FIRST Robotics team for a decade, although not technically - they've got real engineers. I write and put together the kids' parody musical as part of their fund-raising night, and they are much better than you're thinking...
Men are the weaker sex when it comes to COVID-19
One of the poorly understood aspects of COVID-19 (one of many) is that it affects males more severely than females, if I may be binary when considering gender. This July study on the CDC page, for example, found that globally, "the overall COVID-19 case-fatality ratio...
Opinions still run high over that Antrim wind farm
National Wind Watch came to see how folks felt about the Antrim Wind Power after it was finally built following a long, contentious legal battle. You will not be surprised to hear that opinions built up over years of debate haven't changed much: Almost a year after...