Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Tomorrow night: “Bitcoin & Beyond” at Science Cafe Concord
Want to escape the Iowa caucus results tomorrow night? Come to The Draft Sports Bar for Science Cafe Concord, a Q&A session titled Bitcoin & Beyond - discussing not just the confused state of the cyber-currency, but the incredible promise in its underlying...
If the skeeters don’t get him then …
Today I am writing stories about the Zika virus and tainted city drinking water, so a variant of the chorus from the cheezy song "Everglades" is stuck in my head: "If the skeeters don't get him then the lead-pipes will." (No, I don't have anything good to put in the...
The long-term effects of the Challenger disaster, 30 years on
Today is the 30th anniversary of the Challenger shuttle explosion, which was a sad and painful moment for Americans, for space fans, and for Christa McAuliffe's home town of Concord. The Concord Monitor has a package of stories about that day and what has happened...
GMO-labeling discussion even got into Jewish dietary restrictions
The most surprising, to me, part of my story today about a law proposing GMO labeling was the final bit: The most unusual argument in favor of the bill came from Rabbi Robin Nafshi of Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, who discussed concern that eating genetically modified...
Humanity is doomed: A.I. can even beat us at Go
Chess : checkers :: Go : chess That statement ("chess is to checkers as Go is to chess") is a succinct, if arrogant, expression of the belief held by many that the east Asian board game of Go is far deeper than the western board game of chess. (I'm crappy at both but...
An island full of rattlesnakes in Massachusetts? Cool!
The Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife wants to establish a breeding population of timber rattlesnakes on an island in the middle of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts, to help the endangered species. The Globe reports that some locals are...
Solar is no longer trivial in New England’s power grid
ISO-New England, the folks who run the power grid for the six-state region, issued a report yesterday about the state of the system. It emphasized the growing importance of natural gas, and noted that in winter, coal and oil are making something of a rebound as...
RIP Marvin Minsky, pioneer of A.I.
The 1988 book "The Society of Mind" by MIT's Marvin Minsky was my first introduction to the world of artificial intelligence - and judging from this piece in BoingBoing, I'm not alone. Minsky died Monday at age 88 (obit here). Even if AI hasn't exactly blossomed the...
An easier way to detect toxins from blue-green algae blooms in lakes
From Lori Wright, UNH News Service: Researchers with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire have invented a low-cost method to monitor lakes for dangerous airborne toxins that have been linked to liver problems. Jim Haney, professor...
‘Not making electricity’ can be priced the same as ‘making electricity’ – hooray!
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an obscure-sounding ruling from the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency that is a big deal for re-jiggering the entire electric grid and helping us use resources more efficiently, as I learned from Politico via New Hampshire...
Return to the Concord Monitor