Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Eating fish is good for you. Mercury is bad for you. Eating mercury-tainted fish is …
One of the most depressing results of industrial pollution is the way that fish in even the most remote, pristine of New Hampshire lakes are tainted by mercury, deposited there by fumes from coal-burning (mostly) power plants - to the point that pregnant women, or...
100-megawatt solar farm proposed at former Air Force base way (way, way) up in Maine
Former military bases cry out to be reused. Sometimes it works pretty well - Pease Tradeport in New Hampshire is finally taking off - but often they just end up mostly sitting there, a collection of decaying buildings and in-ground pollution that is too expensive to...
Weird lawsuits against imaginary plaintiffs are aimed at quickly changing Google search results
The Washington Post has a fascinating story (right here) about a number of perhaps related lawsuits filed around the country against imaginary plaintiffs. Why? Because ... The answer is that Google and various other Internet platforms have a policy: They won’t take...
Raw vegetable oil replaces heating oil at Keene State (no cafeteria jokes, please)
I've done a lot of stories about biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol over the years, so my initial reaction to a press release from Keene State College saying that they were burning vegetable oil for heat was "ho hum". But it turns out this is a different technology -...
My backyard rain chart shows why wells are running dry
The chart above is the water year (October to October) chart of precipitation I've measured at my house for CoCoRaHS. The solid line is the estimated 30-year average, based on long-term measurements nearby. The dryness started in April of 2015, as this chart from the...
Electric companies want to buy and sell natural gas, which seems weird
The electric grid is all about technology - you can argue that it's the biggest, most complicated machine ever made - but regulations and finance are at least as important to its operation. That's why I wrote a story about (take a deep breath) the decision by state...
Longtime patent fan judge decides software patents are bad and probably shouldn’t exist
Open source fans are excited by a judge's ruling in major software-patent spat (Intellectual Ventures, a patent troll, vs. Symantec et al) that some are saying could spell the end of many, if not most, software patents. Wording like this has them psyched up: Software...
This story has the best photo of an empty hole I’ve ever seen
Well-drilling companies are having a field day in this drought, as I discuss in today's Monitor. The story includes a Geoff Forester photo down an empty dug well that will send shivers down the spine of many a worried homeowner.
Patents are like murder trials: The reality is much duller than you’d think
If BAE System’s “N-path cascode transistor output switch for a digital to analog converter” gets your pulse pounding, then lists of patent filings are for you.
Skating indoors? Thank brine
I usually write about brine - a mix of salt and water that has a lower freezing temperature that plain old water - as part of its use clearing roadways in winter. But today in the Monitor, I get to write about it as the technology that lets you ice-skate indoors....
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