Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
We use more electricity on Christmas lights than many countries do in toto
And now, for a wet-blanket moment on your news feed: Christmas lights are fun and delightful, but a federal study says this country uses more electricity to power them than many countries do to power their entire economy, including El Salvador, Cambodia and Nepal....
More science-y Christmas fun: Rudolph’s red nose
By Holly Ramer, Associated Press: Everyone knows Rudolph has a red nose, but what about his eyes? Prompted by questions from his 4-year-old daughter, Dartmouth College anthropology professor Nathaniel Dominy recently wrote a scholarly paper on how the unique...
Vermont says some solar firms are peddling fake renewable energy
Solar power is generally a good thing, but that doesn't mean some less-than-good attributes can't go along for the ride - like false marketing. That's what Vermont's attorney general is claiming, anyway, as the online news site vtdigger reports: The AG’s office has...
Car makers eye 48-volt battery system with “micro hybrid”
Car batteries, those lead-acid beauties, are 12-volt and have been for my entire life. They changed from 6-volt during the first half-century of car design, as engines got more complicated and batteries got better; the higher voltage allowed various improvements,...
Uber looking to expand through N.H. (but it can’t in the sky, says a judge)
The legal situation for the crowdsourced taxi firm Uber in Concord is a little squishy, as it is in many parts of New Hampshire, but the service is slowly expanding anyway, reports the Concord Monitor: Local cab companies have only noticed a minimal Uber presence so...
Mass. flying car gets OK for test flights (scale model, that is)
Terrafugia, the Woburn, Mass. firm that wants to make a flying car ("roadable aircraft" is their preferred term) has gotten FAA approval to test fly a one-tenth-sized model of their next-generation effort. This is not their original design, now called the Transition,...
Winter is warming faster than other seasons in N.H. – much faster
Today's depressing weather chart is shown above, taken from this analysis by Climate Central. It shows that on average, winter temperatures in New Hampshire (presumably meaning Concord, where the National Weather Service has its official site) have risen four times as...
Uh-oh – Nashua paper confuses Star Trek & Star Wars
My former newspaper, the Nashua Telegraph, has a big story today about the opening of the new Star Wars movie (as does my current paper and every other paper in the contiguous United States). Alas, I expect Nashua to be picketed by enraged geeks, because the big...
Chestnut tree farm near UNH, another step to fight the blight
From UNH: American chestnut has been under attack for a century from a persistent chestnut blight that has killed trees from Georgia to Maine and west to the Ohio River Valley. A potentially blight-resistant American chestnut tree plantation planned for the University...
Pithy Before The Colon: The Secret of Book Titles, At Least Sciencey Ones
Nature has a list of its 20 favorite science books of the year (why 20? if they weren't choosing the obvious 10 you'd think they'd pick a more scientific number like 16 (2^4)) - and it struck me that 19 of the titles include a colon. Examples include "Spirals in Time:...
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