Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Bitcoin network reaches capacity, transactions slow to a crawl
Bitcoin has a scale problem - it's growing too fast for its underlying mechanism to handle. The Verge reports "The average time to confirm a transaction has ballooned from 10 minutes to 43 minutes. Users are left confused and shops that once accepted Bitcoin are...
Mosquitoes almost eliminated from Pacific Island by sterile-bug releases
Stat, the medical/biotech specialty publication of the Boston Globe, has a good long piece about efforts to entirely eliminate mosquitoes from a small Pacific island via the release of sterile males infected with a natural bacteria that interferes with the bugs'...
Guess which Monitor story was put on Reddit?
Sex, crime and gambling are good clickbait, but nothing beats unnatural relationships between man and beast. (The number was much higher yesterday, closer to the publication date - 78,000+)
AAA (which depends on drivers) says 75% of people “afraid” of self-driving cars
AAA conducted a survey of its members and says that "three out of four U.S. drivers report feeling “afraid” to ride in a self-driving car." Here's the press release. Since a switch to self-driving cars would probably decimate membership (in literal and figurative...
Rounding to nearest integer fools NY Times into thinking NH blew GOP delegate count
A NY Times column/blog called The Upshot has accused New Hampshire of giving Marco Rubio one too few delegates after the GOP primary, but as I discuss in the Concord Monitor today, they're wrong. They misinterpreted the confusingly worded state law which says how...
How many Leap Day Babies live in NH? Get the back of an envelope, quick!
I have a pleasant little feature story in the Monitor today about a Leap Day Baby born in Concord, which includes a little back-of-envelope calculation about how many such people live in New Hampshire: Since there is one Feb. 29 every 1,461 days – with slight...
Science Cafe Concord to discuss the scientific process that can change your life the most
Here's an advance look at my column which will run in tomorrow's Concord Monitor and Nashua Telegraph - maybe it will prod you into attending Tuesday's Science Cafe Concord - 6 p.m. at The Draft Sports Bar. Free, of course. CRISPR and its ramifications are more likely...
UN says pollinators are in trouble – but we knew that already
The United Nations has issued a warning that the worldwide loss of natural pollinators like native bees, flies and butterflies, above the troubles facing honeybees, is posing yet another threat to global food supply. But we knew that: UNH sponsored a "pollinators in...
Maine may try an innovative way to spur solar power
The Maine state legislature is considering a novel plan that appears to move rooftop solar power into more mainstream marketplace, reports Greentech Media: The bill proposes to replace net metering -- which credits rooftop solar customers at the full retail...
Atlantic salmon return to the Connecticut River – 5 of them, at least
The long attempts to bring Atlantic salmon back to the big rivers of southern New England, the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, has pretty much failed. They just couldn't overcome all those dams preventing the fish from moving between sea and spawning ground, plus...
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