Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Checking out a game jam (the event, not the confiture) in Concord
My favorite part of the Game Jam held last weekend at NH Technical Institute in Concord are the house rules: Participants MUST sleep at least four hours, eat meals and take one shower every 24-hour period. Here's the story.
2,538 tons of leaves at 5 grams per leaf equals …
I have a story in today's Monitor about collecting leaves in Concord which includes numbers - numbers! Granite Geek loves numbers, so here they are: A few numbers about leaf collection by the street department of the city of Concord: Amount collected: 2,538 tons in...
200,000 miles on my car – I remember when 100,000 was astonishing
Until this week, I have never owned a car with 200,000 miles on the odometer despite our family policy of driving cars into the ground. We have owned lots of Subarus, which tend to rust out somewhere around 175,000, so congratulations to Honda for making a Civic that...
GPS inside our heads may be a key to treating Alzheimer’s
One of the skills that seems to have deteriorated with age, for me at least, is wayfinding. I used to have a quite good internal compass and could wander through strange cities without getting lost. These days, however, I get turned around pretty easily, and it takes...
Giant wind farm considered near Martha’s Vineyard. Nobody will complain about that
A giant Danish energy firm with a name to delight all 13-year-olds (DONG Energy) wants to build a huge wind farm - 100 turbines, as much as 1 gigawatt of output - 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard. The U.S. is ridiculously behind in offshore wind, especially since...
In Vermont, “green burial” headstones can be nothing but GPS coordinates
A new law in Vermont is encouraging people to think about "green burials," which have no casket, embalming fluid or even cemetery, says the Burlington Free Press: A state law passed this year releases public cemeteries from constraints such as fencing and formal...
Coasting in neutral uses *more* gas than coasting in gear. Really?!?
I have a story in the Monitor today about a trio of auto-related LSRs, the larval phase of bills - that is, they will metamorphisize into possible bills when the Legislature returns to session, although the bills may emerge from committees to see the light of actual...
Push to resurrect “Amazing Stories”, the iconic science-fiction magazine, gets a TV boost
Efforts by NBC to resurrect Steven Spielberg’s Twilight Zone-inspired TV show seem poised to boost Steve Davidson’s effort to resurrect something entirely different: The original science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. In the process, he hopes writers can scoop up...
Efficiency and solar power means New England will see no growth – none – in need for electricity
A startling statement from ISO-New England, the folks who oversee the six-state New England electricpower grid: With growing levels of photovoltaic (PV) and energy-efficiency (EE) resources, the 10-year forecast of demand shows the summer peak growing at 0.6% per year...
State’s biggest solar farm (although it’s not all that big, really) goes online Friday
PETERBOROUGH – The state’s biggest solar-power facility gets turned on Friday at the Peterborough Wastewater Treatment plant. The facility falls just short of a megawatt, at 942 kilowatts, and is located on five acres of former wastewood lagoons. It has about 3,100...
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