Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
For 140+ years, Canada has been the source of most of our immigrants
If you want to know why Northern New England is the most Anglo (non-hispanic white) part of the country, a great map from Vox explains it. The map shows the top country of origin for each state at each dicennial census. In 1850 and 1860, Ireland was the biggest source...
An important new-car metric: How many emus will it hold?
Tesla's new model has way-cool wing doors that flip up. You know what that means? It means you could load TWO emus into it at once! (If you've confused, check the photo on the Monitor story about the end of the Great Wandering Emu Caper.) Apparently Tesla isn't...
No MacArthur “genius” grants in new Hampshire this year
Nobody from New Hampshire won a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation this year. Two winners were at Harvard, one at MIT, one (a poet) from Vermont. (List is here) Seven winners have had strong N.H. roots over the history of the award, including the prize given...
Can government be more “Moneyball”-like?
There is a push to make governments design and implement programs which are objectively testable, and then to test them when deciding whether to continue. This is, of course, the basic approach of science. So it's seems a good idea to expand it to government. I...
Social-science papers cite more references than physical-science papers
The web comic Ph.D. has made fun of graduate-student life for many decades and even produced two short movies based on long-running characters. It's a fun comic, well worth following - check it out here. Every now and then, it provides some insight into real science....
Dam removal in Penobscot River is creating a fishing boom (or a least boomlet)
"Biologists say that for the first time in decades, they are hearing from Bangor-area fishermen trying to figure out the best way to catch shad, the largest type of herring known for its savory meat." That a telling sentence in this Portland Press-Herald story about...
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a UFO – or how about a lens flare
Concord Patch, one of the few functioning chapters left from that noble effort to create a national network of local news outlets, has posted an item with pictures from some people who say they saw a UFO over Concord. It's the classic "I don't know what it is,...
Orchard reshapes apple trees to help mechanize the harvest
Really interesting piece on NHPR today about one orchard's reshaping of apple trees to improve harvest per acre, and also make things easier for the harvest to be partly mechanized. (Read or listen to the whole thing here - it's worth clicking through.) The result is...
A sort-of N.H. connection to the Ig Nobels
You can't have too much Ig Nobel news, so let's have some more. In response to an earlier post of mine lamenting the shortage of New Hampshire winners of Ig Nobel prizes, a lament that showed up on NHPR, I recieved an email from Dr. Thomas Michel, a professor of...
NH business leaders warn us about climate change
Dave Solomon of the Union-Leader writes today in weekly energy column about a new report in which 100 New Hampshire business leaders urge action against climate change because they're afraid of the hit that their businesses are going to absorb as weather gets more...
Return to the Concord Monitor