Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Eversource, it’s really hot – please make my house warmer
One of these summers on a really, really hot day, Eversource might present its customers with an odd-sounding proposal: Let us make your house warmer. The state’s largest electric utility is seeking permission in New Hampshire and its other New England markets to...
Science Cafe NH is back up to full strength!
After a two-month hiatus, caused when the bar where we've been holding sessions decided to make different use of its extra room, Science Cafe NH is returning to Concord next month. Yippee! We'll be at Makris Lobster and Steak House on Route 106, a family-owned Concord...
Scattering sharp little rocks all over the road is actually a good idea
Putting sand on roads instead of salt is better for the environment but not ideal. Sand has its issues, too. It tends to wash off into ditches and then streams/lakes, where it can carry pollutants or clog plants and other aquatic life. One solution? Use very small...
Are voles the secret weapon against invasive buckthorn shrub?
From UNH News Service: Planting grass turf in tilled agricultural soil greatly reduced the ability of new growth of the invasive shrub glossy buckthorn to establish itself in a new area by seed, according to researchers with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment...
Startup wants to make it easier for ‘the little guy’ to hire lobbyists
EchoRidge, a Concord startup company, wants to do something that might strike a lot of people as a terrible idea: Make it easier for people to hire political lobbyists. Hold your criticism, says Jeff Allan, the company’s CEO and founder. “Lobbying is associated with...
Thanks to LIDAR, I’m closer to having climbed all the 4,000-footers
LIDAR mapping found that Mt. Tecumseh in New Hampshire is only 3,995 feet tall, potentially* removing it from the list of 4000-footers/ Or so says this article by the Appalachian Mountain Club. *I added the "potentially" after the comment below noted that I'd jumped...
Aviation museum will celebrate NH’s first woman pilot
From NH Aviation Museum: More than a century ago, her dad started Blake's Creamery in Manchester, a company still going strong today. But growing up in the 1920s, Bernice Blake wasn't interested in the food business. Instead sshe took flying lessons at then-new...
Why does the US have a higher overdose death rate than other countries?
Study says it’s probably the way our health-care system is set up. The incentives exist to sell lots of pain pills, and we take them.
Giving up on new gas pipelines & hoping for carbon pricing
(Don't trust my reporting? You can look at the whole presentation on the ISO-New England web page here.) There’s an “elegant and simpler” way for New England’s power grid to deal with concerns about running out of fuel during a cold snap while meeting climate-change...
Feeding deer in winter causes more harm than good to them
Back in 2015, a dozen deer were found dead in South Hampton, NH, due to over-feeding during winter - an extreme case of how well-meaning attempts to help deer in winter can backfire. Northern Woodlands magazine - which is, by the way, a great magazine; you should...
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