Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Solar carports in N.H.
Solar carports make a ton of sense. There's nothing more wasteful than a big parking area, so why not cover it with solar panels and at least get a little electricity out of it, while slightly reducing the need for summertime air conditioning in cars parked there....
More about that disc of messages that Apollo 11 left on the moon
As part of my 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 package, I mentioned a disc that Aldrin and Armstrong left on the moon which had microscopic messages from world leaders etched on it. It has a very tenuous New Hampshire connection - it was made by Sprague Electric in...
No power record over the nasty weekend, which is a good thing
This weekend's miserable weekend didn't quite cause New England to set a new record for electricity production: We maxed out Sunday at 23,917 MW, shy of the weekend record of 24,688 back in 2013, and well short of the all-time high of 28,130 MW on a Wednesday in 2006....
That baby turkey – is it quail size or pigeon size?
Wild turkeys have become so common in New Hampshire since their reintroduction four decades ago, you wouldn't biologists need any help keeping track. I see at least one virtually every time I drive anywhere. But New Hampshire Fish and Game would still like your...
A carbon-negative development sounds too good to be true
I wrote today about an ambitious - maybe unrealistic - proposal for a carbon-negative development in southern New Hampshire, with as many as three dozen units and a farm. You can read about it here. The incentive, of course, is the climate emergency, an over-the-top...
Deer flies are a plague this year (actually, every year)
Biting deer flies have been a real pest - worse than usual - at my house this year. And since I'm a reporter, I get to whine about it in print! My story from the Monitor is here. It includes an entomologist's comment that they don't seem any worse than usual this...
Not just a squirt gun – a crank-operated squirt gun!
Every week I link to the Monitor's list of patents issued to New Hampshire firms and people and to be honest, most of them are pretty boring. Then there's Patent 10,344,760, by Dean Kamen (yes, him) and a Brookline man, assigned to Kamen's firm DEKA in Manchester....
Hydropower without hurting fish runs
A Maine company called Ocean renewable Power Co. says its in-river turbines, which look sort of like egg beaters with the axis perpendicular to the river flow, can produce hydropower without requiring dams or interfering with fish runs. The system will get a test in a...
Outrage! FOOBAR can’t be used on a vanity plate
Computer geeks need to picket their local DMV office: The state has ruled that FOOBAR cannot be a vanity license plate. Presumably they confused it with FUBAR, meaning "effed-up beyond all recognition" - whereas FOOBAR is, of course, placeholder terminology long...
Private space flight will/won’t be important for space science
I've always wondered how much of the crowd that shows up for Science Cafe NH events is there for the food and beer. Last night we had a natural experiment: I moderated a special SCNH in the Discovery Center, without edibles or drinkables, and filled the hall with more...
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