Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Unions: More offshore wind, please
I'm often surprised that offshore wind doesn't get more support from the big-corporate world in the U.S., since it requires big finance, big construction, big deals, just like oil and mining - in other words, it has lots of places where big corporations can make big...
The benefits of donating organs – in this case, a brain
When Ed Stein passed away in July after a long and happy life that was colored but not constrained by mild autism, his sister Kathy wanted to do something that would memorialize him. “He was the kind of guy where he would walk into a room and it would seem full,” she...
NH patents through Nov. 24
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through Nov. 24. *** Devices and Methods for Excluding the Left Atrial Appendage...
Remote weather monitoring expands on Mt. Washington
On November 21, five new remote weather monitoring stations went live along the Mount Washington Cog Railway, on the western side of New England’s highest peak. The expansion of the Mount Washington Regional Mesonet (MWRM) kicks off an extensive expansion to enhance...
Finding early (very early!) evidence of fish-trapping in Belize
Update: Ars Technica has a good article about this research: "Ancient fish-trapping network supported the rise of Maya civilization. The Maya were landscape engineers on a grand scale, even when it came to fishing." UNH News: An archaeologist from the University of...
NH solar net metering program left unchanged but timeline isn’t extended
New Hampshire regulators have left in place the state’s net metering program, which pays owners of solar panels when they send power to the grid, but a looming expiration date could make financing more difficult. The order from the Public Utilities...
Typewriters are riding the analog wave
It’s hard to remember now, but in the Good Old Days – the decade through my teenage years, which is everybody’s definition of Good Old Days – the typewriter was just about the most interesting piece of technology in people’s homes. Whether manual or electric, the...
Dartmouth course eyes A.I. from the humanities point of view
Dartmouth College has a new class called Critical AI that looks at the history and sociocultural impacts of the technologies known as artificial intelligence. Dartmouth News story is here. The Department of English and Creative Writing class is being taught this fall...
Thomas Kurtz, Dartmouth co-creator of BASIC and DTSS, has died
Thomas Kurtz, the Dartmouth professor who co-created BASIC and DTSS with John Kemeny, helping launch the whole idea of computing and networks, has died. He was 96. Dartmouth News has a long remembrance with some historic photos. I interviewed Kurtz via email in 2018...
Esports – competitive video games – becomes a varsity sport in NH high school
The NHIAA - New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association - has added esports to the list of competitive high school varsity sorts, reports the Monitor in this story. NHIAA has designated two games for official tournaments hosted at SNHU’s Esports Arena. The...
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