Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
In a Manchester park, a piece of planet-wide species extinction (update)
In 2021, I wrote about an unlikely ecological event in a city park in Manchester: Botanists will soon announce the official extinction of an inconspicuous plant with the inconspicuous name of smooth slender crabgrass that once lived only in Rock Rimmon Park. It will...
“Beer Tasting: The Science of Savoring” at Science Cafe, Wednesday
Science Cafe NH in Nashua will have a session titled "Beer Tasting 101: The Science of Savoring". A public discussion where you'll learn the art of tasting and appreciating different brews! Whether you're a casual drinker or a budding connoisseur, this event is...
Flooding means Vermont (and northern NH) need to change
Globe has a good story about Vermont facing reality: Flooding is part of life now and the state needs to change. State and local leaders are also asking tough questions about climate adaptation and what it means for the Green Mountain State. The questions span from...
Vineyard Wind OK’d to restart some construction
Canary Media reports that Vineyard Wind has been given permission to resume building supports for its offshore wind turbines after the blade on one of them broke, fell in the see, and floated onto the beach. It has not gotten permission to install blades while the...
NH finally getting a large (well, large-ish) utility solar array
Unitil, an electric and natural gas provider in New England, is about to build the first utility-owned solar array in New Hampshire. Its 4.9 MW in capacity - sneaking under the state's 5 MW limit on net metering. It's in Kingston, sufficiently remote that they're...
Heat pumps are great, say those who have them, but they’re not magic
There’s a good reason why the federal government is giving $450 million to New England to help get electric heat pumps into homes and businesses: They’re great machines and not just for climate change reasons. “I have been saving about $1,000 a year,” said Natch...
NH patents through Aug. 11
(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 Aug. 11 *** Trigger Housing for a Firearm Q, LLC, Portsmouth, New Hampshire...
There’s a new pay phone in Vermont (except it’s free)
The Valley News has a good story about an electrical engineer who put a public pay phone into the general store in North Tunbridge, Vermont - it hooks into the internet and is free. The whole story is here. The operation is called, semi-tongue-in-cheek, the Randoph...
If you like funky stamps, get mail from the Aviation Museum of NH
When the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire sends out snail mail, the envelopes are often covered with old aviation-related stamps, as shown above. The museum buys air mail stamps in bulk from dealers at a discount - "sometimes as much as 50 percent," according to a...
Recycling virtually all of a nation’s food waste is possible – Vermont’s not as crazy as I thought
Vermont is in the process of mandating that no food waste go into landfills. That sounds extreme, but the Washington Post reports (here) that South Korea does it, nationwide. When they were first implemented, South Korea’s food waste policies were met with pushback...
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