The Telegraph published a letter to the editor on Thursday that said the new decade doesn’t begin until 2011 - a variant of the “millennium didn’t begin on Jan. 1, 2000″ argument. Check it out here, and read the many, many comments that it drew (a few of which are kind of mean, but such [...]

A “blue moon” - the second full moon in a calendar month - will arrive Jan. 31. Here’s the NASA press release. which explains that this meaning of blue moon is a pretty recent term.

This is of zero astronomical significance, but it allows me to hum “Blue Moon of Kentucky” until my co-workers go insane!

I’m not a betting man, but if I was I might have a flutter on this betting pool started from an online bwetting  called Paddypower.com: Bet on the next volcano to explode around the world, after Mayon in the Phillippines. Here are the odds at the moment:
3/1     Mt Unzen (Japan)
9/1     Mauna Loa (USA)
10/1   Ulawun (Papua [...]

Here’s a weird one: the mayor of Moscow (as in Russia, not Maine) tried to keep snow away from his city this winter with cloud seeding. It didn’t work, reports GlobalPost.
Seeding clouds to control rain/snow is a practice that lies somewhere between science and wishful thinking, since it’s so very difficult to do controlled studies [...]

I have a story in the Telegraph today (read it here) updating the state’s rebate program for small scale (under 5 kilowatt) solar and wind projects. From the story:

Since July 1, the state has received 229 applications from households for the rebates, totalling about $1.2 million. Most of them – 194 – were for solar [...]

The case of a woman who got anthrax in Durham, apparently due to a group drumming session that used some African drums with animal hides as drumheads involves the first-ever case of gastrointestinal anthrax - as compared to anthrax affecting lungs or skin - reported in the U.S. Drum heads made from animal hides are [...]

A number of colleges built nuclear reactors in the ’50s and ’60s as part of their nuclear engineering programs but are closing them down. This includes Worcester Polytech, which has shut its reactor down, and UMass-Lowell, which still has its reactor. (Note: This article originally said, wrongly, that UML was also shutting.)
Among the schools with [...]

Powerspan, the Portsmouth-based company that is working on a carbon-capture system for coal-fired power plants, says tests have gone well at the 1-megawatt pilot unit in Ohio. Portsmouth Herald story (well, rehashed press release) here.
Many people are dubious about carbon capture, both from a technical standpoint and a policy standpoing (they fear that chasing it [...]

I mentioned last week the way a local pond had frozen in such a way as to create an amazingly sharp boundary between dark ice (very few bubbles) and solid white ice (very bubbly). Well, here’s a photo of it - worth 1000 words and all that, you know.

Alas, Sunday’s rain ruined what had been a spectacular week of ice skating. Now it’s time for snow!

UPDATE: The paper has a video up of the explosion - linked in this article.
They’re blowing up a bridge that crosses Lake Champlain because its supports are so damaged that it’s unsafe for traffic. The Vermont governor is going to push the button at 10 a.m. Free-Press story here.

Washington Post columnist Mike Musgrove has a column about two sites (www.gazelle.com and YouRenew.com) that buy last year’s iPod/laptop/camera/etc., then refurbish it and sell it on eBay or the like. The companies want the used electronics business to grow like the used car business, but since electronics depreciate much faster than autos, not everyone agrees. [...]

The Globe has a story today about a “hidden world of abandoned tunnels and (subway) stations” underneath Boston, remnants of the first subway system in the state. The story tells of a tour by the Boston Street Railway Association that will leave folks who love exploring underground urban tunnels gnashing their teeth in envy.
It [...]

NORAD - the folks who watch for Soviet missiles coming over the North Pole - have long had a “Santa Tracker” service, and took it online pretty early. Here it is.
As part of Google’s effort to take over the entire world, you can see it on Google Earth, too; there’s a NORAD Santa Tracker function [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the comment below makes clear, I am confused: two biomass plants have been proposed in Berlin, and part of the debate involves which should go forward since there isn’t grid capacity for both.
As this article from the Berlin Reporter (that’s Berlin, N.H., for confused out-of-state readers) makes clear, not everybody is happy [...]

The national quota H1-B visas, mostly used to bring in high-tech workers from overseas, lasted more than nine months this year, reports the Boston Globe, compared to less than a week in the past two years.
I don’t know if this is good news (American tech workers have become so good they fill the roles needed), [...]