Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Tired of reading my nonsense? Then listen to it!
Last week I was the comic relief for the annual meeting of the N.H. Joint Engineering Society, giving an hour-ish talk via Zoom about a few topics that have cropped up in Granite Geek over the years which I thought might interest a few folks: Benford's Law ("first...
Quantum time dilation. Need I say more?
Combining quantum mechanics and relativity remains the big unsolved problem in physics - it flummoxed Einstein, so I don't feel too bad about my confusion. Anything that combines the two is intriguing. New research led by Alexander Smith, who is part of not one...
Patents through Oct. 25
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Oct. 18 to Oct. 25. *** BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Assigned Patent for Spectrum Sharing System BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems...
The lockdown increased NH electricity use – wait, increased it?!?
Surprisingly (to me, anyway) New Hampshire used slightly more electricity than normal during the pandemic lockdown (April through June), with increased residential use from us work-at-homers compensating for shut factories and hotels. That's according to a study by...
It’s now or never for Concord’s crumbling gasholder building
The most interesting building in Concord - the whole state, if you're a history-of-energy wonk - is the gasholder near Exit 13 of I-89, which held and distributed gas made from coal before natural gas arrived in 1952. I have written about it many times, including...
You can’t cut your greenhouse gas emissions if you don’t know where they come from
If only greenhouse gases were fabric dyes, it would be a lot easier to limit climate change. I say that because of stories I’ve heard from old-timers who tell of the days before New England’s textile industry moved south, when you could guess what was being done in...
Our oak trees are better for booze barrels than Midwestern oaks!
OK, that headline is a bit of a stretch. What's true is that New England white oak "contains more trans-whiskey lactones and fewer tannins than Midwest white oak" which might be of interest to particular brewers or distillers looking to store their wares. So maybe...
Most N.E. governors want the power grid to change (guess which one doesn’t?)
Governors of five New England states have called for big changes in the regional electricity market, as well as the transmission planning process and how the New England power system operator is run. There are, of course, six New England states. No prizes for guessing...
Electric Co-op members add “broadband” to utility’s job
According to reports, 88.4% of New Hampshire Electric Cooperative members approved adding broadband internet service to its core function. That far surpassed the 67% needed to change the bylaws and turnout was about 10,000, which I'm told was "a whopping big turnout...
Vermont embraces “virtual battery” w/ homeowners’ Powerwalls
Green Mountain Power's pilot program in which the utility controls Tesla Powerwall batteries in hundreds of customer homes to create a virtual statewide energy-storage system as gotten the official stamp of approval: Regulators have given it a "tariff," or an amount...
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