Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
More (but not enough) details about our Christmas Eve almost-brownouts
There has been a lot of semi-informed discussion about what happened in New England for a few hours on Christmas Eve, when power prices went through the roof - spiking at 10 times their usual rate - and we came semi-close to not having enough electricity to meet...
ChatGPT has us flummoxed in NH just as much as everywhere else
Hands up, anybody who is old enough to remember ELIZA. That “natural language” program came out of MIT in the mid-1960s and caused a flurry of interest by creating text conversations online that fooled some people into thinking they were dealing with a human being....
N.H. patents through Jan. 15
(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 Jan. 15 *** Deployable Stabilization Feet for a Portable Medical Imaging System...
What’s urban? What’s rural? Only the Census Bureau knows for sure
If you were planning on visiting that great urban cluster of Charlestown, New Hampshire, any time soon – sorry, you’re too late. It’s now rural. Same with Epping and Farmington. Until this year those three communities rubbed shoulders with Concord, Keene and the...
Audit: Open-source voting machine did fine, mostly
The open-source software worked well but the hardware had a few issues. That’s the conclusion from audits of a new ballot-counting machine that was tested in three New Hampshire towns during the November election. The device, developed by a nonprofit called...
Southern New England is frustrated that Northern New England keeps blocking Quebec hydropower
New Hampshire, as you know, blocked the Northern Pass line to bring roughly a Seabrook Station's worth of Quebec hydropower into New England, then Maine probably blocked a similar attempt there. We're perfectly happy to burn natural gas carried on big, noisy,...
Syrup is a tradition-filled industry adapting to climate change
If you’re looking for an industry that is adapting to the pain that accompanies climate change, take a walk in a hardwood forest until you find plastic tubing stretching off into the distance. That’s the tradition-bound maple syrup industry tossing tradition aside....
Vehicles took out 275 utility poles in NH last year (actually, lots more than that)
There are approximately 500,000 utility poles in New Hampshire, plus or minus 100,000 or so (as I noted in 2016) and every year roughly 1/20th of one percent of them are knocked down by cars. That's my conclusion based on data from Eversource New Hampshire, the...
N.H. patents through Jan. 8
(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 Jan. 8 *** C-Arm With Integrated CT System DEDICATED2IMAGING, LLC., Portsmouth, New Hampshire...
If chestnut trees can avoid the blight, can they avoid the deer?
As regular readers know, there are two ongoing efforts to restore the American chestnut tree to our forests after it was virtually exterminated by disease. One cross-breeds it with resistant Chinese chestnut trees, the other uses genetic modification and is getting...
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