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Massachusetts may ban large institutions from throwing food waste in the trash
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, May 4, 2012
In what might be considered a far-sighted move or the heavy hand of government, depending on your point of view (I vote for the former), Massachusetts may ban places that … Full story »
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Autonomous, wave-powered, data-gathering "surfboard" to prowl the Gulf of Maine
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, May 3, 2012
AP writer Clarke Canfield has an excellent lead on his story (read it here) about a solar- and wave-powered, autonomous vessel being tested for long-term data gathering in the Gulf … Full story »
The full moon this weekend will be particularly big and bright, because it's relatively close
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, May 3, 2012
The full moon on Saturday will be "as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter" than the other full moons this year because it will be a perigee … Full story »
Harvard and MIT say they'll go halfsies on a free online learning project
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The presidents of Harvard and MIT say their universities are going to join forces on a free, online college-level course offering under what the Boston Globe calls "a superbrand called … Full story »
Aliens travel billions of miles in order to silently buzz rural areas, Chapter CXVIII
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, May 2, 2012
This is definitely my favorite paragraph of the day: New Hampshire is a current UFO ALERT 5 rating, with a low number of UFO sightings nationally. New Hampshire had 4 … Full story »
Can a "flying car" use aircraft plastic for its windshield when cars have to use glass?
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I've written about Terrafugia, the Wobourn, Mass., company making a "roadable aircraft", many times over the years, but nonetheless I was interested in a recent NY Times story on the … Full story »
Study says Boston has fastest average Internet speed in the country
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Akamai, the network company, says average Internet speeds in Boston are 8.4 Mbps, the fastest of any American city (although way behind the South Korea average of 17.5 Mbps). Take … Full story »
Smart electric meters are coming - in some parts of NH, at least
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 30, 2012
My column today is about the push by two utilities with an NH presence to add digital/smart meters as a first step toward creating a 21st-century power grid. You can … Full story »
Kickstarter proves successful for Vermont pig-farm slaughterhouse
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 30, 2012
Kickstarter has come through for Sugar Mountain Farm in central Vermont, raising $25,000 to give a boost to its plans to build a much-needed slaughterhouse. I wrote about their effort … Full story »
Pilgrim Nuclear Station near Boston looks like it will get a license extension
Posted by David Brooks | Saturday, April 28, 2012
Vermont Yankee gets all the nuclear power will-it-or-won't-it relicensing attention, but Pilgrim Station in Plymouth, Mass., is also up for renewal. Its path is easier because Massachusetts has no say … Full story »
In the 19th century, were electric bills measured in ampere-hours, not kilowatt-hours?
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, April 27, 2012
PSNH has launched a very cool Tumblr feed with historic photos and other old stuff - it's a lot of fun.Check it out here. But I'm puzzled by an 1897 … Full story »
The power of the press, electric car division
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, April 27, 2012
I was at Balcom Brothers in Milford last weekend, renting a chipper, when another customer drove up in a Nissan Leaf electric car. We got to talking, and I mentioned … Full story »
At least one place realizes Tupac at Cochella wasn't a hologram (it wasn't 3-D)
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 26, 2012
The LA Times has a correction that will warm the cockles of a geek's heart: "(We) referred to the late rapper Tupac Shakur having appeared as a hologram during a … Full story »
Two NASA ships in N.H. harbor, ready to track SpaceX rocket (if it ever takes off)
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 26, 2012
The launch of the private SpaceX rocket from Kenney Space Center has been delayed until at least next week by software issues, but WMUR-TV reports that two NASA support ships … Full story »
Hybrid formula racing by engineering students at the NH Speedway next week
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Six years ago, I attended the first Formula Hybrid competition, sponsored by Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, at the NH Motor Speedway. It's a hybrid-car version of the long-running Formula … Full story »
Maine tidal-energy company may be sending power to the grid by this summer
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Maine's Public Utilities Commission has set terms for a power-buying contract from Ocean Renewable Power, the Maine company developing tidal-power units near Eastport, at the eastern tip of Maine in … Full story »
Telepresence robots - will they show up in Consumer Reports next?
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 24, 2012
How do you know when a technology is verging on the mainstream? How about this: Somebody creates a way to let buyers compare competing versions. Which means the launch of … Full story »
Copper nanoparticles in the environment can damage plants
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Science Cafe NH about nanotechnology held last week (if you missed it, kick yourself; it was excellent) touched a bit on health questions. The basic concern is that engineered … Full story »
The 'Wal-Mart of intro math' approach finds success of Virginia Tech
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 23, 2012
Virginia Tech has built an "emporium" for introductory math that uses computer-aided learning to make the whole process cheaper, and possibly more effective. Reports the Washington Post: Eight thousand students … Full story »
MIT figures out how to play Tetris on an entire building
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, April 22, 2012
They're calling this a "hack" but I'm not sure it really is - MIT hacks should really be in violation of some authority rule. Otherwise it's just clever goofing around. … Full story »
Burning trash to make energy is big in Maine, but problems loom (economic, mostly)
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, April 22, 2012
Maine is second in the country in terms of percentage of trash that is burned for energy, according to an in-depth look at the issue in the Portland Free-Press. (The … Full story »
A sort-of BBS that still lives, called SDF, gets notice on NH Public Radio
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 19, 2012
New Hampshire Public Radio has a piece on what it calls a "throwback social network" called SDF. It's a public-access Unix system, run on DEC Alpha AS1200s, that dates back … Full story »
How fast does your hair grow in nanometers/second, and other interesting questions
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Written late Wednesday night: I just got back from the April Science Cafe, which concerned nanotechnology and which was excellent. Two hours of really, really interesting discussion about the biological … Full story »
At our latitude, the earth is 50/50 land and ocean
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Today's interesting tidbit comes via Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, in a discussion about the likelihood of a falling satellite hitting land. You can read the whole thing here, and … Full story »
Today's depressing invasive-species news: Ash borers have crossed the Hudson River
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 18, 2012
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Emerald ash borer, the invasive beetle that has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees over the past decade, has been found east of the Hudson … Full story »
Nanotechnology is the topic of tonight's free Science Cafe - be there or be small
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Nanotechnolgy is the topic of Wednesday's Science Cafe NH in Concord. (THAT"S TONIGHT FOLKS!) Panelists include Mark Banasch of Nanocomp, which weaves carbon nanotubes into fabric with weird properties and … Full story »
UNH InterOperability Lab (big IPv6 fans, among other things) opens up for a public tour
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 17, 2012
One of the geekiest places in New Hampshire has to be the InterOperability Lab at UNH, which tests varous networking equipment to make sure it meets standards and specs, notably … Full story »
Fiber to the tower (not to the home) is a success for FairPoint
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Forgive me for talking about business rather than technology, but a trade publication with the slightly silly name FierceTelecom has a good story about how FairPoint is making a good … Full story »
A visit to a PSNH power substation finds cool stuff that can kill you really fast
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 16, 2012
I got to visit a PSNH power substation recently, just to see what's there. The answer: Lots and lots of electricity (345 kV to start with) that basically runs through … Full story »
Landline phones start to disappear from regulation, too
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, April 13, 2012
On Thursday, Maine's governor signed a law removing many regulatory requirements from landline phones. That's all I know at the moment, because no real news outlet has covered it (FairPoint … Full story »
Bat-killing fungus was brought here from Europe, probably by humans, says study
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 12, 2012
Many people have long assumed that the fungus causing the white-nose syndrome that is destroying entire populations of bats throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada was brought here from Europe, … Full story »
Want an app to tell you if you're about to run into a whale? UNH helped make it
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 12, 2012
By UNH News Service: Researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM) helped develop a new iPad and iPhone application that aims to protect … Full story »
Making repairs to a cable on a 1,200-foot-tall tower is not easy (which is why Channel 4 was out)
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I filed an update with the Telegraph today with large chucks of geekish information taken from AVSforum (read the discussion here, with more details) - it might be of interest … Full story »
Phil Plait, of "Bad Astronomy" fame, talks at UNH on Wednesday night
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Phil Plait, an extroverted astronomer who has turned his debunking-pseudoscience book "Bad Astronomy" into a blog and secondary career, will talk at UNH-Durham on Wednesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. … Full story »
Carole King's first band was called the Cosines
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 10, 2012
NPR is interviewing zillion-selling songwriter/singer Carole King, and I just learned that her first band, formed in high school, was a doo-wop group called The Cosines - "we got the … Full story »
Smart meters for electricity can be stupid when it comes to being hacked, says FBI
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 9, 2012
Smart electricity meters, allowing two-way communication and interaction, are the wave of the future. They will allow utilities to make better use of their power production plants, and possibly let … Full story »
Hunting down a savings account from a long-defunct bank - Usenet (yes, Usenet!) to the rescue
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 9, 2012
While doing some home-finance stuff over the weekend, I found a savings account booklet with a $100 deposit and no other action, from almost 25 years ago. (We had established … Full story »
No fracking will be coming here, due to our geology
Posted by David Brooks | Saturday, April 7, 2012
Chuck Wooster, a columnist with the Bennington Banner, has a nice little explainer about how the geology of New Hampshire (and Vermont, since he is a Vermont writer) means we … Full story »
An analysis of blackboards in classroom scenes from porn films (this is why the Internet was created)
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 5, 2012
The always-wonderful Improbable.com blog from Marc Abahams of Ig Nobel fame (if you don't check it daily, you're missing out) pointed me to a fabulous site called "Blackboards in Porn." … Full story »
Robots are cool, 3-D printing is cool - so why not combine them? Printable robots!
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, April 5, 2012
Robots are cool, as I noted this week. "Additive manufacturing" - a.k.a. 3-D printing - is also cool, as I have noted recently. So being able to print out a … Full story »
Nanotech firm expands, even as Science Cafe prepares to discuss the topic
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Nanotechnology coming to Science Cafe this month, and Nanocomp, the state's most high-profile is expanding into Merrimack so it can ramp up production and snag more defense and space business. … Full story »
Concord Steam is an old-fashioned, and maybe taste-of-the-future, energy source for a city
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Portions of downtown Concord are heated by an old-fashioned method that some say should be the wave of the future for our biomass-rich region: Concord Steam, which burns 50,000 tons … Full story »
You never know what's hidden in HTML on web pages ...
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 3, 2012
I needed to contact the Merrimack Village Water District for a story this morning, so I Google'd them looking for a phone number. (Phone book? What's that?) A portion of … Full story »
What does coyote meat taste like? The shocking truth!
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Hawkeye, a monthly hunting-and-fishing newspaper published in Milford, had an article recently about eating the Eastern coyote, since the state population of these varmints (Hawkeye is the kind of publication … Full story »
'Street-legal airplane' prototype passes its flying test, says Terrafugia
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 2, 2012
Terrafugia says its flying car, a.k.a. "roadable aircaft" or, in their new phrase, "street-legal airplane," completed a successful test flight last week at an airport in Plattsburg, N.Y., getting this … Full story »
FRED and UFED let Nashua police probe digital lives
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, April 2, 2012
The Telegraph has a story today (read it here) about the Nashua police using two hardware/software packages to extract data from cell phones and wireless tables, and the other to … Full story »
Earth Hour at 8:30: turn out the lights (not that anybody really does this)
Posted by David Brooks | Saturday, March 31, 2012
For several years I've written about Earth Hour, the annual attempt to get people around the world to turn out their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time as a visual … Full story »
Canada will stop making the penny this year
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 30, 2012
In general, I think it's fair to say, geeks think we should get rid of the penny. It's inefficient, expensive, unnecessary. Canada must be geeky, because the country agrees, reports … Full story »
Salmon restoration project changes tack after years of no success
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 30, 2012
The decades-old effort to restore salmon to the Merrimack River watershed is changing course this year, as I reported Monday in The Telegraph (sometimes I forget to link to my … Full story »
Maine Orange Growers - "embracing change through global warming"
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, March 29, 2012
The newsroom got a clever press release today from the Maine Orange Growers Association, a tongue-in-cheek group formed in Hallowell, Maine, in 2010. (They have a Facebook page here, and … Full story »
Our weird weather, result of global warming? Perhaps
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, March 29, 2012
I've been writing about weird weather lately (first it's insanely warm; now it's seasonal and that's hurting trees fooled into blossoming, etc.) but haven't touched the underlying "is it due … Full story »
A motorcycle rickshaw powered by zoo-animal dung (I want one)
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 27, 2012
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the motorcycle rickshaws of Lahore, Pakistan, and how they're often powered by compressed natural gas. This makes the air cleaner, although it … Full story »
Another move forward for IPv6: Akami to make it universal
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The long, slow slog toward IPv6 addressing on the Internet is taking a big step, with Akami (which allegedly carries more than 20% of all Net traffic) making it available … Full story »
Beaver dams are cute - until they take out a rail line, that is
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Beavers are cool, of course, with all the engineering that they do (theres a reason beavers are the mascot of more than one engineering school). But the way their dams … Full story »
Like moths drawn to flame? How about moths drawn to beer!
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 26, 2012
The Nature Conservancy is doing its annual moth survey at its Ossipee Pine Barrens Preserve (which has 18 species of moths that are tracked due to their value in the … Full story »
Skeptoid podcaster talks tonight at New England College, Henniker
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 26, 2012
Brian Dunning, host and producer of the podcast "Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena,"will give a talk titled “Sounds from Beyond!” tonight at New England College Simon Center, in Henniker, … Full story »
N.H. scientists join thousands online in "open source" boycott of academic publisher
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 26, 2012
Several New Hampshire academics - three at UNH, one at Dartmouth that I know of - have joined an online boycott of Elsevier the huge publisher of science journals (Cell … Full story »
Earliest ever "ice out" at Lake Winnepesaukee (second record in three years)
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 23, 2012
"Ice-out" was declared on Lake Winipesaukee this morning - it's the earliest day that it has ever been declared. Two years ago it was declared on March 24, which at … Full story »
Acorn boom in 2010 = Lyme disease boom now?
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, March 22, 2012
We had a full house for last night's Science Cafe NH about Lyme disease. There was some disagreement - polite and informed, of course - between panelists Dr. Jodie Dionne-Odom, … Full story »
A tidal-power idea on the NH seacoast fizzles, while Bay of Fundy works goes forward
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Of all the alternative-energy ideas, tidal power might be the most frustrating. It should be easy to tap, with tons of predictable energy running past us twice a day, but … Full story »
Bad news: Bats at Acadia National Park have white-nose syndrome
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 20, 2012
(UPDATE: White-nose syndrome has also been found in the Great Smokey National Park for the first time. I used to live an hour from those very nice mountain ridges, which … Full story »
Driving an electric car is fun ... within limits
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 20, 2012
I interviewed the owner of what appears to be the first Nissan Leaf in the area - here's my story in the Telegraph. He says the car is a blast … Full story »
Heat records are falling all over the U.S., not just here
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 19, 2012
(Illustration: U.S. temperature records set between March 12-19. Credit: HAMweather.com) My family is planning to camp overnight this week in a barely-heated cabin near Mount Adams in the Whites, well … Full story »
Controversy and confusion over Lyme disease, at Science Cafe on Wednesday
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 19, 2012
This Wednesday's Science Cafe New Hampshire is about Lyme disease, and features two physicians on opposite sites of a major medical debate: Whether long-term Lyme disease exists and if so, … Full story »
Mercury levels are making loons 'foggy headed'
Posted by David Brooks | Saturday, March 17, 2012
Mercury, mostly caused by the burning of coal, is so pervasive in the Northeast that pregnant women shouldn't eat fish caught in even the most pristine of North Country lakes. … Full story »
Beach grass replanting aims to replace invasive honeysuckle
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 16, 2012
From the state Department of Environmental Services: On Monday, March 19, a rare habitat restoration project will take place at Odiorne Point State Park using wild beach grass salvaged from … Full story »
Astonishing! A politician mangles the history of technology to make a rhetorical point! That's never happened before, I'm sure
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 16, 2012
Rutherford B. Hayes isn't exactly our most prominent president - although he has a great name - but he still deserves better than to be help up as an anti-telephone … Full story »
New Hampshire House rejects anti-evolution bills
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, March 15, 2012
This story will be in tomorrow's paper, from me and Kevin Landrigan (our statehouse guy): CONCORD – A bill that would have required public schools to teach evolution “as a … Full story »
I'm speaking today at NH Science and Engineering Expo ... wonder what I should say?
Posted by David Brooks | Thursday, March 15, 2012
I'm going up to Concord shortly for the NH Science and Engineering Expo, which is sort of like a statewide science fair. I've been asked to talk during the lunch … Full story »
All together now: "3.14159, we think pi is mighty fine!"
Posted by David Brooks | Wednesday, March 14, 2012
I did not get up at 1:59 a.m. to celebrate Pi Day to six significant digits because (a) I went to bed at 1 a.m. because yesterday was Town Meeting, … Full story »
Encyclopedia Britannica will stop publishing a printed edition (see Wikipedia for details)
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
It was inevitable, or at least has been inevitable for the past half-dozen years, but it's still kind of sad: Encyclopedia Britannica says it will stop publishing its printed edition. … Full story »
Mystery foam atop pig manure vats causes (ugh) explosions by trapping methane
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
If you had to think of something you wouldn't want to happen near you, an exploding pit of pig manure would be high up the list. This explains why a … Full story »
For this "March madness" you can become a national weather-watcher
Posted by David Brooks | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
If you're not a college basketball fan, there's still a March Madness you can participate in: CoCoRaHS, the national network of precipitation-measuring volunteers, has an annual competition this month to … Full story »
Anti-evolution bills have been squashed in NH statehouse
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 12, 2012
I'm way behind the curve here, but while I was on vacation, the House Education Committee in the N.H. Statehouse effectively killed two bills that would have watered down the … Full story »
Compressed natural gas as a fuel: A view from Pakistan
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, March 12, 2012
My Telegraph column today is about compressed natural gas as a transportation fuel: It's the wave of the future, say many in the U.S., so it was interesting to find … Full story »
Effort to save the New England Cottontail go online (no Peter Rabbit jokes, please)
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, March 11, 2012
The New England cottontail is endangered because of habitat loss (although the similar Eastern cottontail is doing well, oddly). As I noted in an article last year (here) rabbits are … Full story »
Nazi rules for playing jazz: No cowbell, stay in major keys, easy on the wah-wah
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, March 11, 2012
UPDATE: It appears this list isn't real, but is a part of Czech fiction writer Joseph Škvorecký’s story “Eine Kleine Jazzmusik”, published in 1966. (See here) I knew it was … Full story »
This has been the least-snowy winter on record for the area
Posted by David Brooks | Saturday, March 10, 2012
Meteorological winter - December, January, February - saw just 8.2 inches of snow in Greater Nashua, the lowest total in more than a century of record keeping. The entire month … Full story »
A video portrait of NH's video game guru, Ralph Baer
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 9, 2012
Back in 2001 when I wrote about how Manchester's Ralph Baer had led development of the first home-video game (sold as Magnavox Odyssey) while working at Sanders Associates in Nashua, … Full story »
New Hampshire Press Association 2011 Best Blog
These free, informal get-togethers at The Barley House restaurant in Concord features discussion among the audience (everybody is welcome) and experts in various fields. Check the website here.
NEXT CAFE: Wednesday, June 20, 7 p.m.: "Arsenic in our environment"
PAST TOPICS:
May: "Invasive species in New Hampshire" April: "Nanotechnology in business and the lab". March: "Lyme disease in NH". Feb: "Seasonal Affective Disorder." Jan: "Biomass energy". Nov. 2010: "Science of Polling." Oct.: "Digital Privacy." Sept: "Vaccinations." June: "Future of Food." May: "Climate Change."
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Alternative power map
Click here to see my alternative-power Google map
showing large-scale solar, wind, hydro and nuclear plants in N.H., plus intriguing alternative-power items.
