Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Vermont eyes per-mile fee instead of per-gallon for road fund as EVs get more popular
Vermont legislators are looking at ways to change from increasingly outmoded gasoline tax to a mileage tax for vehicles, so that road-repair funds won't run out as people switch to electric vehicles. (Valley News story is here.) Officials have described a possible...
Ballot-counting machines galore are getting tested in N.H.
Three different vote-counting machines were tested during last month’s local elections in New Hampshire and all handled the complicated town meeting ballots just fine, according to reports from election workers. More tests are set during May elections as the...
Are you talking on the phone to your grandchild or a scammer’s AI? Don’t be so sure
It is a sign of the times, I’m afraid, that normal people like you and me need to seriously think about creating a password system for talking to our loved ones on the phone. This sounds ridiculous, I know: “Hi, Dad! Before we go further, what’s...
Using our softwoods in engineered timber
Like many people, especially in tree-filled Northern New England, I'm a big fan of engineered lumber, aka mass timber, aka CLT, aka several other terms. They have huge climate advantages by replacing steel and concrete in buildings as tall as 20 or more stories and...
Over-the-air TV is getting an upgrade to become sort of interactive
An interesting upgrade is happening right now to a technology that you have used all of your life, but I would bet dollars to donuts that you have no idea it exists. I didn’t until recently. I refer to ATSC 3.0, rebranded as NextGen TV, which has the option of...
Maine & Canada are trying to keep Atlantic salmon runs (NH has given up)
Although New Hampshire has given up its efforts to return Atlantic salmon to our rivers, efforts are continuing in Maine and eastern Canada. The federal agency NOAA ruled Monday that one of the last wild Atlantic salmon runs in the country, on the Kennebec River in...
What’s old is new again, vinyl edition
I don't know how geeky it is, but I did a profile of a large, booming record (as in LP) store in the center of Concord. I sold him most of my vinyl last year and got far more than I expected! Pitchfork sells plenty of brand-new records, as well, both reissues of...
N.H. patents through April 2
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through April 2. *** Luminescent Cold Shield Paneling for Infrared Camera Continuous Non-Uniformity...
Community power is set to go in NH and for-profit folks would like a bit of the action
The Valley News has an article (here it is) about the arrival of community power in NH, which lets towns/cities buy power on the wholesale market and sell it to residents. While the non-profit Coalition of New Hampshire has gotten most of the attention, there are...
Sometimes getting the power back on quickly takes a big (telescoping) stick
NOTE: You can see lots of Geoff Forester's photos at the Monitor version of this article (here). Many good ideas seem obvious once somebody has thought of them. RapidPole is a good example. “It’s kind of surprising that something like this hasn’t been done already,”...
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