Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire

In warmer climates, a native fungus becomes a threat to white pine
“This disease is of great concern because it consists of native fungi that are behaving in new ways.”

In the North Country, sugar maples have a very hard time returning after a clear-cut
As if New Hampshire sugar maple forests didn’t have enough to worry about – like voracious new bugs, climate change, invasive plants – long-running research has found another one: North Country soils make it very hard for them to rebound after a clear-cut. “This...

If you think the metric system is part of a globalist conspiracy, you won’t like this
Let’s see – do I multiply by 2.2 or divide by 2.2 to get my real weight?
N.H. House says electric & hybrid vehicles should pay an extra fee
The New Hampshire House has approved a plan to charge a sliding fee to vehicles based on their efficiency, starting with those that get as little as 21 mpg, to compensate for paying less gasoline tax. The bill passed Thursday, 168-152, on a roll call vote. It would...

Who still uses a rotary phone? Way more people than you’d think
Dial N for Nostalgia – except a whole bunch of these phones are still in daily use.
Company wants to train commercial drone pilots at NH airport
A company that trains corporate and government clients to operate drones wants to set up shop at the Concord Municipal Airport to help figure out how unmanned vehicles can work alongside piloted aircraft. If the plan goes through, this would be one of the first such...

We don’t have to worry about that Chinese space station (just barely)
I am happy to say for my fellow New Hampshire residents that we are too far north for the out-of-control space station Tiangong-1 to land on us, but our friends on the south side of the border with Massachusetts might want to keep an eye on the heavens. In its orbit...

At a big enough scale, N.H. is like a washboarded dirt road
UNH researchers used data collected from extremely high-resolution LiDAR laser scans of the region to discover that the landscape was riddled with washboard-like ridges.
Oh boy, it’s Box Elder Syrup Weekend! Wait – it’s not?
Why do sugar maples dominate our syrup conversation? There are good biological reasons (plus one added by a reader in the comments that I missed).

Yeah this is a good, long-running blog – but check Cow Hampshire!
If you want to know why the lowest possible Social Security Number (001-01-0001) was issued to a New Hampshire woman, then a blog as old as mine is the place to go.