Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
A clever container for a statue of a “father of video games”
Today in Manchester they unveiled a statue of home video game pioneer Ralph Baer, about whom I have written many times. It shows him sitting on a bench playing with the "brown box" that was the first iteration of what eventually became Maganvox Odyssey, the first...
World’s most famous Tesla mechanic is in New Hampshire
YouTube is horrible for many things but it's awesome for training videos. My wife and I have used them for everything from very minor car repairs to fixing the sink to learning the Shim-Sham (a lindy hop dance - which we're still trying to learn). These repair videos...
N.H. may outlaw phone-number spoofing
Scammers and some telemarketers change Caller ID information to get past your defenses. That may soon draw a $5,000 civil penalty in New Hampshire - although good luck finding the real perpetrators, especially if they're overseas. Here's my story today in the Monitor:...
Half-empty Manchester airport is trying to rebound
When I moved to New Hampshire, Manchester airport (they hadn't added the "Boston" name) was still in the old terminal. You'd walk out to the planes, and park on the street. They'd put envelopes under the windshield wipers and ask you to mail in $3 (I think it was) per...
More science talks amid beer
There are two ways to approach holding science talks in a bar or restaurant - programs that have names like Science Cafe or Science by the Pint or Science on Tap. One is to invited local scientists to talk about their research. That's the route frequently taken by...
Talking about research on Mars (well – Utah)
Erika Rydberg, a 3D printing expert with the interesting job title of Digital Creation Technologist at Plymouth State University, spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, where people go to simulate life on Mars (except for the gravity) to help...
You can either listen to me or you can listen to me
You can listen to me talk about the collapse of recycling with Chris Ryan on Concord's WKXL radio (here) or you can listen to me talk to the Monitor's Steve Leone on our Granite Geek podcast (here). Or I suppose you could listen to one with your left and the other...
A gigantic 3-D printer turns wood waste into – whatever
A 3-D printer the size of a small room that can produce pieces up to 6 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet made of a 50-50 mix of plastic resins and wood cellulose, at the rate of 110 pounds an hour, is being installed at the University of Maine, with hopes that it will open new...
Hybrid-vs.-GMO disagreement is heating up in efforts to restore the chestnut tree
As I mentioned in March, an effort to develop a genetically modified American chestnut tree to resist the blight that largely destroyed the species a century ago has split long-running effort to develop a resistant strain through cross-breeding. Researchers at the New...
Letting trains know what’s going on around them is surprisingly complicated
150 years ago a New Hampshire native named Thomas Hall received U.S. Patent No. 89,308 for improved electrical signals to trains - basically, using new-fangled electricity to move large round signals known as a "banjo switch" to let train engineers know what was...
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