Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
N.H. bill would give privacy protection against ISPs that federal government has rejected
This story ran in the May 10, 2017 Concord Monitor: Internet providers in New Hampshire would have to alert customers before selling information about their online practices under a proposal that seeks to replicate at the state level internet privacy regulations that...
Hot, humid days raise NH deaths by 5% – and we’ll be seeing more (maybe lots more) of them
Deaths in New Hampshire and two other New England states rose by 5 percent and hospital emergency visits rose by 7.5 percent during hot weather spells that seem likely to increase in frequency. The results come from a study published this week in the...
That drone-pizza-lawsuit story was a joke – fake news, if you will
(Subscribers to my free newsletter saw this yesterday.) Last week I mentioned an online Forbes article that riffed on a New Hampshire lawsuit over damages caused when a pizza was dropped by a delivery drone - an accident, and a lawsuit, that never actually happened....
‘100-year storms’ are becoming routine ‘for whatever reason’ says Eversource head
I have a story in today's Monitor about a project between Eversource Energy (PSNH to us NH old-timers) and Plymouth State University to extend and improve a project that Eversource has with Univ. Connecticut to focus weather forecasting to better predict power outages...
What do a Nashua dam and the Arctic ionosphere have in common?
From UNH news service: UNH’s Broadband Center of Excellence (BCoE) has awarded two grants to UNH researchers: one to a team that will bring the Internet of Things to water quality monitoring in the city of Nashua, and one to researchers who will create sensors to...
Vermont researchers nudge middle-aged forests to be more like old growth forests
Most of the forests in northern New England stopped being logged in the early 20th century, so all the trees tend to be relatively uniform in age - like a city where everybody is 30 years old. This isn't great for environmental diversity and, it turns out, reduces...
Making gigawatts of electricity is really complicated
When I first started reporting, energy was a boring subject, dominated by ponderous utilities and stagnant technology - even the nuclear-power debate was largely settled (sorry, Clamshell Alliance). Then deregulation came along, and solar power, and climate change -...
Keene group was planning for electric cars in 1993, and they’re still waiting
In 1993, which is a zillion years ago in technology time, a group of planners and designers in the city of Keene won a national award for their ideas of what local infrastructure was needed to get ready for electric vehicles. A quarter century later, they're still...
Arsenic in well water – talk at McAuliffe-Shepard Center on Wednesday
The Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program will be hosting a public talk on "Arsenic in New Hampshire: Understanding Arsenic in Food, Water & Other Sources" this Wed, Apr 26 at 2 pm at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord. In celebration of...
Wanna see something cool? Look at a variable-message highway sign through your cellphone camera
Turns out, those variable-message digital signs along the highway have a high refresh rate - when I tried to take a picture of one for an upcoming story, it flickered like some weird alien message. Fortunately, I was wearing my tinfoil hat and was able to take a...
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