Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Vermont utility to offer home storage batteries to customers
Green Mountain Power, the Vermont utility that has received national attention for its very Vermont-ish approach to producing and distributing electricity, has taken another interesting step: It is partnering with Tesla to offer home storage batteries for...
Kiwi fruit – savior or menace? NHPR podcast wants to know
The hardy kiwi is a variety of the small green fruit that a UNH professor thinks could be a new cash crop for the North Country, if it gets a little more domesticated through breeding. But as is reported in the first episode of a new N.H. Public Radio podcast called...
Is this a funny word? Let me get my calculator and see …
Quartz has a post about an attempt to mathematically determine how funny a word is. You can read it here, but be warned: The math is wrong, because it thinks the nonsense word "finglam" is funny. It's not funny.
With pine scale set to arrive, it makes sense to cut down the trees while they’re still healthy
The Union-Leader has a good story today (read it here) about Manchester Water Works harvesting red pine trees in watershed land it owns because red pine scale is on the way and will probably kill the trees. Manchester Water Works plans to remove stands of red pine...
West Coast adelgid-eating insects eyed to control our hemlock adelgids
Northern Woodlands is an excellent quarterly magazine from the Center for Northern Woodlands Education in Vermont. It's a terrific mix of touchy-feely outdoorsy stuff, science reporting on environmental, outdoors, wildlife and other issues, and information about the...
Edward Snowden to do a live feed from Russia for Manchester gathering of Free Staters
New Hampshire Liberty Forum, an annual gathering of Free Staters and like-minded folks, says the world's most famous whistleblower, Edward Snowden, is going to be a keynote speaker at the February meeting in Manchester - which is very cool, regardless of your opinion...
Does this patent mean Dean Kamen wants back into the Segway-ish business?
Dean Kamen and a bunch of folks associated with his Manchester R&D firm Deka have received a patent that seems to allow you to operate a Segway-like vehicle by leaning the handlebars back and forth, as shown in one patent illustration above, or perhaps by twisting...
Rules delayed to require pedestrian-warning noises from electric cars
I learned from Green Car Reports, via Reuters, that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration missed a November deadline to produce rules requiring electric and hybrid cars to emit noises to warn pedestrians. An earlier proposal called for vehicles "to...
Gene editing with CRISPR (topic of a Science Cafe next year) is powerful – and scary
A report from the Globe's STAT health-and-science section: "Hundreds of scientists are convening in Washington today for an international summit on genome editing, fueled by the development of the technology called CRISPR. The technology, which lets scientists easily...
MedFlight helicopter can land in Boston using GPS
The Boston Business Journal reports that Boston MedFlight helicopters have been cleared to use GPS to land in Boston, near Logan airport: "helicopter ambulance systems in New Hampshire and Maine have utilized GPS to land at hospitals, Boston MedFlight is the first in...
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