Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
N.H. infected with way more malware than any other state, claims anti-malware company
Companies that make software to fight malware issue lots of alarming press releases about malware and I take them with a grain of self-serving salt. But here's one that tweaked my Granite State interest: Computer users in New Hampshire were three times as likely to...
Dartmouth on list of 100 top patent-producing colleges
Dartmouth College is on the National Academy of Inventors’ top 100 list of universities worldwide granted U.S. patents in 2016, marking the fifth consecutive time the College has made the top 100 since the list was launched in 2012. More details are here.
“Beaming” a neurologist into the ambulance can help stroke victims
Catholic Medical Center in Manchester has started a program in which neurologists can have a two-way telepresence in ambulances carrying stroke victims to the hospital. Manchester Ink Link, an independent news organization started by longtime local reporter Carol...
It’s surprisingly complicated to figure out how good (or bad) it is to burn wood for power
It has always seemed obvious to me that it would be good for battling climate change, as well as good for local jobs and taxes, if tree-filled Northern New England created more electricity and heat by burning wood rather than burning coal, oil or gas. After all,...
Why so little fuss about FairPoint’s sale?
Ten years ago, when FairPoint Communications said it would buy most of the state’s landline telephones from Verizon, everybody freaked out. It was the biggest story in the state for months, even years, and the air was thick with portents of doom. Last week, FairPoint...
Fresh New Hampshire strawberries in November; yeah, right. Wait – that’s “Yeah, right!”
By UNH News Service: DURHAM – Researchers with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire have succeeded in quadrupling the length of the Granite State’s strawberry growing season as part of a multi-year research project...
When you’re a reporter and you see a weird house, you get to find out why it’s weird
I commute past a really odd-looking house in the town of Hopkinton. In summertime news can get slow, making it hard to fill the paper at times. So let's find out about the house! That's what I did: The story is in the Monitor, and you can read it right here.
State’s biggest paper ends online comments: Censorship? Long overdue? Do emojis count?
(This story appeared in the July 6 Monitor. As of this writing, all the comments posted at the end of it are thoughtful, well-written and in complete paragraph form. Go figure.) This week’s decision by the New Hampshire Union Leader to end readers’ ability to post...
Rise up, geeks, and demand that baseball be more like the Coriolis effect!
This column is for geeks, who like innovative ideas that upend stodgy old industries, so to celebrate Fourth of July wanted to come up with an idea that will upend something traditionally American. Since mom and apple pie are fine as they are, I decided to upend...
As the electric system morphs, negative power prices are happening in NH
Dave Solomon of the Union-Leader wrote about the fact that negative pricing for electricity is starting to be seen in New Hampshire during low power-usage times, part of a trend caused in part by renewables (especially solar and wind): A 2014 change in the energy...
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