Cloud seeding to alter precipitation isn’t a bogus idea, of course, as this Scientific American interview shows, but it’s far from a precise science.

I don’t know of any New Hampshire submissions to this effort - which is defined here by Google.

A public/private partnership, Maine Fiber Co., won a $25.4 million (stimulus) grant to build what is called the Three-Ring Binder, an middle-mile fiber optic network that will include three fiber rings in Western, Northern, and Downeast Maine. Maine Fiber’s intent is to lease dark fiber as an open access network, and not to sell commercial services…. It is now facing a challenge from FairPoint Communications Inc. , which … has gotten a bill introduced in the state legislature prohibiting the state and state-owned divisions from providing telecom services to non-state entities. In addition, the non-profit Maine Fiber has been unable to gain CLEC status — since it is an open access network and not a service provider — and so it now needs special action by the state legislature to gain access to 36,000 utility poles before it can begin construction. With a 2012 deadline looming to get the network up and running, delays are a major concern.

At the heart of the dispute is Fairpoint’s insistence that Three-Ring Binder is a government-funded duplication of its own fiber optic network. Those who want the new network built complain that Fairpoint refuses to lease dark fiber on its network, that its fiber optic network lacks the necessary capacity, and that its leased services are too expensive.

This sounds like the early days of trying to get dial-up in the boonies - small ISPs constantly complained that Verizon (or maybe it goes back to NYNEX; my memory is fading) wasn’t providing them fair and reasonable-cost access to the network. Change copper lines to fiber-optic lines and the overall theme sounds unchanged.

Daily usage kwh

It’s partly the warm winter, partly the fact that our second kid is now at college and partly (I hope) our new pellet stove, which causes the electricity-sucking fan on our oil burner to turn on far less often - but for whatever reason, my household electricity usage has fallen mightily this winter compared to last. The 12-month running average through March is 18.65 kwh/day, a whopping 15 percent drop from the 22 kwh/day at this point last year - and only about 60 percent of the 32 kwh/day I was using three years ago.

The chart shows my PSNH bill’s 12-month running average, calculated monthly; you can see how it has consistently fallen. Part of this is cheating - two kids no longer live here full-time - but part of it is 2 1/2 years of effort and expenditure, including a new fridge, solar water heater on the roof, CF bulbs, extra insulation galore, and the pellet stove. Short of setting up PV panels (which ain’t gonna happen while the kids are in college) I’m not sure there’s much more we can do.

As a side note, our heating-oil usage has fallen this winter by at least one-half and probably more. Again, weather and kids are a chunk of that, but the pellet stove contributes.

Disney is great at handling masses of people. Even the in the lines snaking back and forth gave us a chance to talk with people, find out where they are from, take a few photos and generally just indulge in people watching.

After the fireworks display at 21:00, we joined the tide heading back to the parking lots. Here, the technical aspects of herding cats really shined. After a short ride on the monorail, we were directed to the trams. These seven car assemblies take thirty to forty people and kids in each car. Time seven, thats an average of about 250 per tram. At the peak, they were running 2.5 minutes apart, so 24 runs an hour for 5000 to 6000 people per hour. That’s an efficient movement of people. The lines ran quickly and except for an occasional child way overtired, everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

3-point-1-4-1-5-9

we think pi is mighty fine

Wrap some ra-di-i a-round

their circle, and two-pi you’ve found!

Add “e” and “i” and toss in a boiler

plus 1 and 0 - you’ll get Identity of Euler!*

So the last couplet doesn’t scan - my favorite poet is Ogden Nash and he loved to not scan.

*copyright 2010 Literary Estate of David Brooks Esq.

Folks, if you need interesting possessions to make yourself seem interesting, find something less destructive to own than non-native reptiles.

Buying and selling them is destructive in two ways: The species get harmed by the pressure to collect them and snag some of the ridiculous sums you’re fooled into forking over, while your location may be harmed when the beastie escapes or you dump it because you got bored. That’s why Florida, which is having problems with escaped constrictors among other creatures, wants to largely ban the trade in exotic reptiles.

The problem isn’t limited to warm climates, a fact that was brought home by a startling story from Saco, Maine, of all places. A gaboon viper (one of the deadliest snakes in the world) was found dead from the cold behind a store - and good thing the cold got it before it got a passer-by.

Here’s the Press-Herald story. This quote is very telling:

“I’ve worked in poison control for 20 years, and almost all the bad bites we have is people being bit by their pets, and many of those were intoxicated people,” Simone said. “You’re not faster than your snake.”

If you’re absolutely crazy about reptiles, contact NH Fish & Game - they’ve got a fine reptile and amphibian reporting program you can join (Web site here). You’ll be a far more interesting person than a goofball with a poisonous snake in an aquarium.

As a cat owner, I am comfortable making the following statement: If you let your cat outdoors, you are a bad person.

Oh, yes, you are. No matter what excuses you hide behind, you have chosen to release a wildlife-slaughtering machine on the great outdoors: You might as well be scattering poisoned birdseed and filling the woods with mousetraps

It hasn’t drawn as many comments as I expected - only 8 so far, and no frenzied response from the “it’s unnatural to keep your cat indoors” crowd.

Go board

Go is the finest of all board games. I was never able to raise myself above lousy - 15 kyu at the best - when I played regularly, but it still fascinates me.

If it fascinates you and you are a lot younger than I am, consider the Youth Go Tournament being held in Boston on March 20. Here’s the Web site. There are 17-and-under contests, and some for 12-and-under, with wicked cool trophies. $20 entry fee.

I suspect the level of play will be quite high - it’s a qualifier for the US Youth Go Tournament, and is held at the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association, a reflection of the way East Asian players dominate. Not for the faint of heart.

If you don’t know anything about Go but would like to learn, a group meets many weekends at the Barnes & Noble in Nashua to play. Email Peter Gousios (pgousios@myfairpoint.net) to learn more.

When it rains, it pours - especially when it rains tritium!

Here’s the story, hosted by the Free-Press.

He has developed a proprietary technology called radiant energy transfer. It uses electromagnetic radiation to break the hydrogen-oxygen bond at certain frequencies. The process was demonstrated last fall in the lab by filling a balloon with hydrogen made from wastewater. The radiant energy transfer unit … can be scaled up in modules, uses minimal energy and produces hydrogen at a rapid rate.

OK … sounds delightful, but there’s many a slip twixt lab and shipping, to coin a phrase. Still, there’s no harm in trying, and an easy cheap way to produce hydrogen gas would be a boon for alternative energy. Here’s the inventor’s site; perhaps those with more knowledge than I could apply the baloney-meter and see what it says.

But as YouTube demonstrates, an electric fence will keep the bear away from your hive.

We have four cats, and one of them goes crazy with delight when you come out of the bedroom in the morning, rubbing all over you and everything else within reach, purring like mad. I swear the blackout happened this time, as well as the last time a week ago, when the cat scraped past the computer tower. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but I wonder if there was some sort of static electricity buildup involved? This cat might as well be a cloth rubbing against a glass rod in a science class.

If so, it would be Item No. 147 on the List Of Ways That Cats Can Annoy You. (Item No. 1 on the list has to be the time we were cat-sitting a relative’s felines and I walked into my bathroom to find one happily chewing on my toothbrush. The horrible part was the thought: how many times has it done this before?)

http://www.popsci.com/announcements/article/2010-03/new-browse-137-years-popsci-archive-free

I have several boxes filled with issues going back to 1936 up through the 1950’s stored under the eaves of our house. I’ll still keep them for the quality of the early cover artwork and the pleasure of smelling and holding these relics from the past. Tossing these into the recycling bin would be too much like ripping out part of my personal history. My wife or kids can deal with them as they please when I’ve made the final phase change.

I acquired them when the local library in Searsport, Maine cleared out all their shelves of these and other magazines. Fortunately, the dump truck driver was convinced to bring them to my house and my mother allowed me to keep them. I consider those magazines my primary incentive to become an engineer. Now, Make Magazine, Nuts & Volts and a few others fill in the gap that was missing for a few years. Popular Science is returning to its roots, featuring how-to-do-it articles as regular features.

(Spotting via Treehugger)

The instance of extremely low ebb tide and periods of increased storm activity have revealed the stumps of the cedar and pine trees, dating back more than 3,600 years, according to carbon dating. They’ve been seen only four other times in recent history, in 1940, 1958, 1962 and 1978, said Herlihy, though there has been at least one other non-recorded sighting. …

The belief is there was forest extending far beyond what the elements have managed to uncover, said Herlihy, as the coastlines of world were altered radically due to glacial shifts and rising waters. He said the New Hampshire coastline might at one time have stretched up to 75 miles farther out to sea from where it is at present. One clue supporting that theory are the stumps of the cedars and pines. Those species do not thrive if their roots are in salt water.

The story says a similar forest exists further north, near Odiorne Point in Rye, but is visible at a number of low tides.“When portions of the forest were uncovered previously, the original Atlantic Cable, laid in 1874, could be seen among the stumps.”

]]> http://granitegeek.org/blog/2010/03/07/storm-reveals-sunken-forest-along-nh-seacoast/feed/ http://granitegeek.org/blog/2010/03/06/mits-media-lab-gets-90-million-building/ http://granitegeek.org/blog/2010/03/06/mits-media-lab-gets-90-million-building/#comments Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:52:21 +0000 david brooks http://granitegeek.org/?p=6275 MIT’s Media Lab, which if nothing else is the highest-profile geeky place on the Eastern Seaboard, having generated more news stories than any equivalent space this side of Cupertino, Calif., has a new $90 million, 163,000-square-foot building. It’s not as funky looking as the Stata Center, which is probably a good thing - perhaps it won’t have the need for a multi-million-dollar lawsuit about leaking roofs - but is drawing some rave reviews for looks, at least from the outside. Hiawathat Bray’s story in the Globe describes the sort of stuff that the Lab is known for:

A team led by composer Tod Machover was preparing a vast high-tech chandelier for the September premiere in Monaco of Machover’s new opera, “Death and the Powers,’’ about a man who uploads his consciousness into a machine. In another lab, researchers William Lark, Ryan Chin, and Michael Lin showed off their efforts to design a two-passenger electric car that can be folded to half its normal size when parked. Doctoral candidate Grant Elliott demonstrated research in “biomechatronics,’’ advanced prosthetic devices that use digital technology to help amputees walk normally and with less effort.

http://anotherj.blogspot.com/2010/02/space-and-numbers.html

Earle Rich

I love this paragraph:

Elz Curtiss, noting that the application team had been unable to make the sound on a Google video audible during the meeting and that one member was unsure what a gigabit was — Google said it wants to provide a connection of one gigabit per second, much faster than currently available technology — wondered if the city had people available to negotiate with the technical experts at Google.