Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Robots taking our jobs, cont’d: Burger-flippers & lawyers
The two latest bits of news on the "robots are taking all the jobs" beat: The national burger joint Wendy's says it will replace some workers with self-service kiosks at 6,000 of its eateries. A national law firm has "hired" an artificial-intelligence thingamajig from...
I’ve always thought *remembering* the past makes you repeat it – turns out, I’m not alone
I hate that line about "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" because as far as I can tell, it's people and cultures which can't forget the past who keep repeating it, like Confederacy-loving parts of the American South, the perennially war-torn Balkans...
UNH instruments gather first data on space-weather process called magnetic reconnection
By UNH News Service: A NASA rocket carrying instruments developed by scientists, engineers, and students from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center has obtained the first-ever data of traveling through an elusive magnetic reconnection event. The...
GraniteGeek on the air: Cartooning, engineering and a MOOC
It's hard to think about Massive Online Open Courses without thinking of that "Mean Streets" scene in which most of us first heard the word "mook" (here's the scene, if you missed it), but that's what I had to do with Peter Biello of New Hampshire Public Radio for our...
How do you measure DUI for pot smoking? Not with the equivalent of blood-alcohol levels
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety took a look at statistics about accidents in Washington state after marijuana use has been legalized to analyze "its potential effect on driving and driving safety" and found that "legal limits, also known as per se limits, for...
Reality TV for New Hampshire Fish and Game
If I have to cover any state government entity, I'll take Fish and Game every time - they do outdoorsy stuff, including research, that's usually interesting. So I can understand why reality TV thinks they'd be a good subject, too. "North Woods Law", which follows the...
No landline at home? You’re pretty common, although less common in the Northeast
The National Health Interview Survey of about 19,000 people in the second half of 2015 found that very nearly half of all adults - and nearly two-thirds of adults under age 35 - have no landline phone. They're wireless only. More than half of America's children live...
Eversource utility backs lab to research better storm-damage models
Eversource, the New England utility that includes what in New Hampshire was formerly called PSNH, is a major backer of a new Technology Park for the University of Connecticut. From UConn Today: "The newest anchor partner for the IPB is the Eversource Energy Center, a...
Subsidized ‘broadband’ for poorer homes isn’t broad enough, say senators
A federally subsidized program called ConnectHome is designed to help low-income families get broadband Internet access, but it's using a speed limit of 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. That has irritated some U.S. senators, including Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and...
TransAtlantic data cable just misses New Hampshire
In case you were wondering, Northern new England isn't the endpoint of any international submarine data cable, according to this interactive map from TeleGeography, an telecom analysis firm. The closest cable to New Hampshire lands at Lynn, Mass. It's owned by...
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