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Keyword search: Granite Geek

By DAVID BROOKS

Thomas Kurtz, the Dartmouth professor who co-created the computer language BASIC and the networking system DTSS with John Kemeny, helping launch the computer revolution, has died. He was 96.Kurtz was interviewed via email for the Monitor’s Granite...

By DAVID BROOKS

Last week I wrote about interesting stuff that UNH is doing in space, but there’s something interesting on the ground in Durham, as well. A big something. Big and cold.Admittedly, it doesn’t sound all that interesting. It’s just a giant water storage...

Plymouth State University has become one of the first colleges in the country to offer an accredited in-person bachelor’s degree in three years, an example of higher education adapting in the face of tightening enrollments and changing public...

By DAVID BROOKS

New Hampshire is known for a lot of things: Mt. Washington, the presidential primary, our slightly alarming motto. And then there’s heliophysics expertise.“I checked and in the last 30 years we have been the lead on at least 22 NASA or NOAA missions”...

A person has been hired to fill to role of official snow observer in Concord, who collects data four times a day on snow depth and moisture content. Their record is the official snow tally for the state.The current observer is stepping down after 20...

Eleven years ago an amusing little controversy arose around New Hampshire elections: Whether the novel act of posting “selfies” online (this was 2013, remember) could legally be applied to pictures of your completed ballot inside the voting booth.The...

By DAVID BROOKS

The city of Concord is making a final push to fish and remove lead from water lines, even private ones – except they don’t expect to find any lead. What they’re really looking for is galvanized steel lines installed decades ago.“Say I was building a...

By DAVID BROOKS

The most basic of all the questions around the future of Concord’s middle school is numerical: How many students should it be built to hold?This sounds like a simple question but demographics is rarely straightforward. Consider a 2019 enrollment study...

By DAVID BROOKS

A very dry and warm October has raised the possibility of wildfire in New Hampshire, with officials declaring today as the first “high” fire danger day of the season.The risk is unlikely to improve any time soon, with little or no rain in the forecast...

By DAVID BROOKS

If you’re one of those people who loves to brag or complain about how much snow you get – and since this is New Hampshire, of course you are – now’s your chance to one-up everybody else.With one caveat: You have to live close to Concord Municipal...

By DAVID BROOKS

The projected price tag for the long-discussed expansion of I-93 and I-89 in Concord and Bow has risen to $370 million, almost 50% more than projections made before the pandemic, with the purchase of rights-of-way now slated for 2026 and first major...

By DAVID BROOKS

A hands-on program to help people reduce window drafts by building them insulated inserts is coming to Canterbury Town Hall – which is, it turns out, a most appropriate location.“We convinced the town that our 200-year-old Town Hall could use it,”...

By DAVID BROOKS

Decades of working with and watching New Hampshire’s woods and wildlife has left Eric Orff with a feeling that unfortunately is not very common among outdoor folks these days: Optimism.“If you read through the book you’ll see we’ve come a long way in...

By DAVID BROOKS

A just-released look at the attitudes of people in New Hampshire tells a sobering story: In recent years Granite Staters have been feeling more isolated and less connected to their town or city, have become more suspicious of government and are...

By DAVID BROOKS

A couple of recent events have created a really horrifying thought for me: “Oh my gosh, what if the cranks were right and I was wrong?!?”In this case the cranks – my term, not theirs – are the people who say fluoride shouldn’t be added to public...

By DAVID BROOKS

The carnage left in the wake of Hurricane Helene has reinforced the importance of one of the oldest forms of communication technology still in widespread use: Ham radio, officially called amateur radio.“The devastation from Hurricane Helene is one...

By DAVID BROOKS

In a rare bit of good news about climate change, UNH researchers say that two negative effects of the altered environment seem to cancel each other out, suggesting that soil carbon in our forests won’t be hurt in the way people had feared.The...

By DAVID BROOKS

An electric vehicle charger is being unveiled in a Concord parking lot Wednesday and it’s gathering a lot of attention for a very odd reason: It’s really slow. “The reality is that cars are parked over 90% of the time. This is a great way to harness...

By DAVID BROOKS

When it comes to climate change, most of us have finally worked our way through the five stages of grief.Some lunkheads are still stuck on denial but the onslaught of global weather disasters such as Hurricane Helene means the bulk of humanity has...

By DAVID BROOKS

The pun, you’ve probably heard, is the lowest form of humor, the verbal equivalent of a Three Stooges eye-poke. Don’t tell that to Richard Lederer.“Edgar Allen Poe, of all people … wrote of puns: ‘It has been said that those who dislike them are those...