Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Good news about pedestrian deaths in NH
I’m sure you’d like to hear a little bit of good news these days, so how about this: At a time when pedestrian deaths are soaring in this country, New Hampshire has the best record of any state by a pretty good margin. Don’t get too carried away with your high-fives;...
N.H. patents through July 30
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through July 30. *** Medical Pump DEKA PRODUCTS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, Manchester,...
For the power grid, the more weather data, the better
The big two of renewable energy - solar and wind - are weather-dependent on a minute-by-minute basis and the other big one, hydropower, is dependent on it over the course of weeks and months. So it makes sense that ISO-New England, which runs the six-state power grid,...
Heavy use, no zigzags, lots of rain, thin soils – why our hiking trails are rough
Perhaps my favorite of all the columns I've written in three decades concerns the visitor who complained that New Hampshire's hiking trails were too rough and that we should smooth them out. Here it is from 2017. New Hampshire Bulletin, the excellent online-only...
New Hampshire’s C&S grocers is a robot leader, says NY Times
A big article in Saturday's Times about the arrival of robots in industrial settings talks about C&S Wholesale Grocers, which is based in Keene (it's owner is the state's richest person, although you don't hear about him much). The company is a wholesaler for...
Climate change is making insurance a lot more important, and more complicated
With massive floods to the west of us, huge wildfires to the north and continuing sea-level rise to the east, New Hampshire homeowners would be wise to prepare for the worst. They can start by checking their home insurance. That’s the message from the New Hampshire...
It’s your own personalized placebo
No New Hampshire angle here, but I am fascinated by this study which shows that placebos - fake medicine that patients think is real - work better if they are presented as being tailored specially for the individual. Our minds are wondrous things. Check it out:...
A (very) local history of the telephone system
I love the history of telephone systems - the way they grew from tiny separated systems, with a wire connecting two buildings, into town-wide networks, then regional, then national. The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in Peterborough, published a nice look at how they...
Rooftop solar in N.E. boosts grid reliability even in winter
I missed one of the big stories in the recent ISO-NE analysis of the New England grid. I reported on the way it shows rooftop solar reduces costs for everybody, even those without solar - but I didn't notice that ISO-NE acknowledged that behind-the-meter solar has...
Combined heat and power: The leafy greens edition
In a recent column about wood-fired cooling I celebrated combined heat and power as the combination that makes burning wood a viable option for society. There's an interesting example coming to the North Country, but unfortunately they're using natural gas to generate...
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