Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Is maple syrup causing earthquakes through reverse fracking?
The Monitor just got a joking email - at least, I hope it's a joke - speculating that the recent small earthquake in Warner was caused by sap being pulled out of maple trees as part of sugar season. Fracking causes earthquakes by pumping water into the ground, so why...
Science fiction based on climate change – “sci-cli”? “cli-fi”?- is a big thing
I started reading science fiction around the time the first Earth Day was created, so climate-related disasters have always been part of the mix. But with real climate-related disaster on the horizon, that mix is getting more potent and is getting the message across...
Northern Pass dwarfed by proposed Midwest wind-power transmission lines
The NY Times has a story about federal approval of some Midwestern wind-power transmission lines, which shows how long and powerful they are - think Northern Pass times three or four. I've swiped their map above, which makes our massive proposal look kind of small. Of...
Recent New Hampshire patents
By Targeted News Service: DEKA Products, Manchester, N.H., has been assigned an ornamental design patent (D751,690) developed by four co-inventors for an ornamental design for an “apparatus to control fluid flow through a tube.” The co-inventors are Bob D. Peret,...
A fifth of New England’s electricity will be distributed generation within “a decade or so”
"In the next decade or so, New England’s power grid is on course to becoming a hybrid grid where up to 20% of the power system’s resources are made up of smaller power resources connected directly to retail customers or to local distribution utilities—and not the...
Forget global disaster – this is really important: Climate change is going to hurt real estate values!
I suspect that UNH researcher Cameron Wake, who has been warning about climate change for a couple of decades - I've been writing about him since at least 2004 - is getting a little tired of operating within academic restraints. At a recent editorial board meeting...
FAA to change airport lighting because it attracts too many birds
Reports the Guardian: The Federal Aviation Administration said it will change the lighting on towers across the US after its research found that birds are attracted to steady red lights that highlight obstructions to pilots at night. The research found that static...
New Hampshire’s two famous UFO events get the documentary treatment
A direct-to-download documentary called "Strange Septembers" is coming soon, examining New Hampshire's two claims to UFO fame: The first-ever reported alien abduction in 1961 if Betty and Barney Hill of Portsmouth, and a reported UFO sighting in 1965 near Exeter. The...
Utilities want to have “out-of-sight drones” to do power line inspections
From SmartGrid News: The Edison Electric Institute, the trade association for investor-owned electric utilities, is forming a partnership with Sharper Shape, to develop Unmanned Aircraft Systems beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in the U.S. - the idea being...
Roundabout? Traffic circle? Rotary? Traffic engineers goes round and round
The terminology surrounding circular roadway intersections can be confusing – traffic circle? roundabout? rotary? – but traffic engineers have embraced them in recent years as a way to allow traffic to flow through intersections with fewer accidents and less delay....
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