Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Can I write about something that isn’t related to COVID, like hempcrete?
The weirdest thing has happened to me since the COVID-19 crackdown arrived. I’m actually feeling less stressed.Why? I think it’s because I can only consider one existential crisis at a time and apparently my lizard brain is less afraid of disease-fueled social...
We made the same mistakes with Spanish Flu that we made with COVID-19
Back in 1918, the excuse for downplaying a growing public-health crisis was World War I - didn't want to hurt the war morale, and then we had to turn buildings in downtown Concord into emergency hospitals. I wrote about it for the Monitor. This year, the excuse was...
Carbon Cash-Back proposal was supported in towns, 2.3 to 1
It seems a million years ago but back when we were only worried about global climate catastrophe and not also imminent disease-caused societal collapse, there was a push for a non-binding warrant to support “fee to be paid by vendors of carbon-based fuels based on...
Eversource shelves battery plan for N.H. town (with update)
UPDATE: See the bottom for Consumer Advocate Don Kreis' explanation of why his office opposed this plan. How about some depressing news not related to COVID? An intriguing proposal to use 7.1 megawatt lithium-ion battery storage and some demand control to improve...
COVID and America’s population stagnation
The U.S. was already facing a very slow rate of population growth, due to smaller families among non-Hispanic whites and to our crackdown on immigration, before COVID-19 scrambled everything. Now there's a possibility that deaths may exceed births in the country as a...
Yes you should clean surfaces, but COVID often spreads via aerosols – hence ‘distancing’
As the COVID-19 shutdown spreads, we know not to get close to other people. But what about pets? Swingsets in the park? The daily copy of the Concord Monitor? Should we stay away from those, too? This virus is so new that answers are still being developed, but a study...
Shutdown visible in NH driving, electricity usage
Traffic on New Hampshire turnpike system is plummeting, judging from trips at the state’s tollbooths. Data for the past four weeks: WEEK ENDING – TOTAL TRIPSMARCH 1 – 2,109,479MARCH 8 – 2,157,186MARCH 15 – 1,985,029MARCH 22 – 1,351,693 (lowest in past year by about...
Remembering Spanish Flu brings to mind the ‘doomed to repeat it’ line
America downplayed the Spanish Flu because they didn't want to harm the war economy, and Concord ended up turning Main Street buildings into emergency hospitals. That's one lesson I learned when I interviewed a local historian about how New Hampshir reacted to the...
As N.H. gets more COVID testing, we gaze with envy at South Korea
My dad fought in the Korean War and took photos of the devastated, dirt-poor country. Now we look at South Korea with envy as they have all the testing material to protect their society from COVID-19, and we have to ration our tests because we don't have enough gowns...
First a rush on toilet paper, now a rush on VPNs
The use of Virtual Private Networks has risen 124% in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, and risen even more in other countries. That's according to this report from a VPN company (so take it with a grain of salt). VPNs are a good way to protect your privacy, as...
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