Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Database says only 19 NH schools have solar panels
Schools are an obvious place to put solar panels, since they use most of their power during the day and have big, flat roofs. But upfront funding is a problem. A national database (here) lists 19 New Hampshire schools with installed solar, a couple of them private but...
The power-line drone is cool – but holy cow, what a camera!
Eversource is rolling out a program where it uses quadracopter drones to do some transmission-line inspections. As I note in my story (read it here) these are replacements for helicopter inspections because they have to flown within line of sight of the ground...
The science establishment doesn’t support the Ig Nobels (for shame!)
Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Awards, drew a standing-room-only crowd to Science Cafe NH in Concord last night - in fact, we had to turn a few people away. I can't take notes while moderating so I can't give you a blow-by-blow of the two entertaining hours,...
Can a three-story building be net-zero with its own solar panels?
People tend to over-estimate how much electricity is put out by solar panels, so I was very dubious when I heard that a 29-unit apartment complex coming to West Lebanon would get all of its energy, including heating and cooling, strictly from panels on the building....
Emerald ash borer has spread so much in NH that quarantines are no longer worth it
Five years after the invasive insect known as the emerald ash borer was first spotted in Concord, it has spread so far throughout the state that officials may end the quarantine which tried to contain it. The move would not be a surprise since scores of other states...
Less public radio, more podcast
For the last four* years I've been a pretty regular interviewee on the Tuesday broadcast of All Things Considered on New Hampshire Public Radio, talking about my column in the paper that week. It's a labor-non-intensive way (and free - no money changed hands) to get...
I’m not the only one trying to honor the creation of BASIC
As a loyal reader, you know that I am in the midst of a drive to create a highway historical marker honoring the creation of the computer language BASIC and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System. (Here's a reminder, if you need it.) I gathered more than enough signatures...
From fruit thieves to road kill, those $%^#! squirrels are everywhere
(Squirrels and chipmunks wiped out my raspberries and peaches and blueberries this year - they are a plague. Road kill is justifiable payback.) The population explosion of squirrels and other small rodents in New Hampshire is proving to be a nuisance in more ways than...
Dockless bikes in Nashua are a hit, maybe
Veoride, an Indiana-based company that runs dockless bike operations around the country, including at New England College in Henniker, says its biggest New Hampshire operation hit 10,000 rides in two months. The company announced the number on its blog, saying it hit...
Knowing the shape of solar ejections can help analyze space weather
From UNH News Service: Revisiting some older data, researchers at the University of New Hampshire discovered new information about the shape of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – large-scale eruptions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun – that could one day help...
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