Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Do those networked doorbells break New Hampshire wiretapping laws?
New Hampshire is one of 12 states that require everybody who is in a conversation consent to audio recording because it can be done. (That's why reporters as "do you mind if I record this interview?" instead of just turning on the app.) But those networked...
If cross-country skiing requires snowmaking, is it really cross-country skiing?
We all know things are going to change as the climate warps around us. But it’s still startling when a change actually arrives. Like this one: Cross-country skiing in New Hampshire needs snowmaking. This seems very wrong, even to a downhill skier like me. Donning skis...
UNH heading back to the sun – its orbit, at least
When the new Solar Orbiter blasts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in early February, it will carry with it an instrument designed and built by researchers from the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center (SSC) to study the Earth’s closest star, the sun....
Who should pay for recycling? Maine thinks maybe it should be the producer
As regular readers know, in the past year I have come to think that the recycling programs we grew up with are a figleaf that allows maximum production of stuff which lingers in the environment forever, while shoving all costs of cleanup onto taxpayers and volunteers....
Bill would require internet providers to reimburse for outages
New Hampshire's enormous legislature generations hundreds of bills, and while most of them go nowhere there can be some interesting ideas that get lost in the shuffle. Here's one, highlighted by Bob Sanders of NH Business Review: House Bill 1578 would require internet...
The other ‘flying car’ company in N.H. is starting to make noise
As I noted in October, there are two companies with a presence in New Hampshire developing or selling "flying cars" (more accurately called planes that can drive on roads). One is Terrafugia, which has been developing a four-wheel car with folding wings in...
R&D spending has gone up a lot in New Hampshire, but venture capital investment has nose-dived
The National Science Board has issued its 2020 Science and Engineering Indicators report, which looks at things like college degrees and spending on research and start-ups. Some conclusions for New Hampshire in 2018: About 5.3% of people working in New Hampshire were...
People in Vermont drive a lot more than people in New Hampshire
A little state-by-state crunching of numbers by a site called Green Car Congress found that in 2018, Vermonters drove more piles per person than other New England states - even more than Maine, which is much bigger. STATE - Miles per capita - rank Vermont - 11,766 -...
Coyote rabies, as found in N.H. attack, is rare
Rabies is a complicated disease with different strains that affect different animals species differently, and their prevalence waxes and wanes over the years for reasons not always obvious to us. The announcement that a coyote strangled by a New Hampshire dad after it...
13K miles of stone walls in New Hampshire — so far
The N.H. Stone Wall Mapping program is an online project that lets people identify stone walls via LIDAR images of the region. As of this moment, they have found 12,700 miles of walls all over New Hampshire. (I wrote about the project a year ago) (Only Strafford...
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