The opposite of dry reading
The Concord Public Library (45 Green St., Concord, 225-8670, concordnh.gov/1983/Library) found itself very, very damp, after a ceiling leak during the night on Sunday, Dec.14. As reported in a Dec. 16 online article by the Concord Monitor, water had come down “through the ceiling in the children’s room and pooled down on the first floor.” On Monday, Dec. 15, the Library posted on its Facebook page, “We have sprung a leak! Please excuse the mess as we dry out. The Main Floor is open for public use with the exception of the adult fiction collection. The Children’s Room and Lower Lounge will be closed for the day. We will be happy to get materials for you from the children’s and adult fiction collections.” The Monitor quoted Library Director Todd Fabian. “A few hundred library items were affected by the leak,” he said, “but how many books are a loss won’t be known for a few days.”
QOL score: -1
Comment: According to the Monitor’s story, the Library has had “a few sizable leaks of this kind” in recent years. Last year the room housing its computer servers was flooded, and the Concord Room, which houses the Library’s historical archives, was flooded before that.
An astronomical achievement
As reported in a Dec. 19 online article by WMUR, a team of students from Nashua has won a competition to have an experiment performed on the International Space Station. “Team Hydra” from the Academy for Science and Design wanted to look more closely at the effects of precipitation in microgravity. As explained by WMUR, “The experiment will analyze how calcium chloride and sodium carbonate interact in space, with potential applications for water filtration systems on Earth and in space exploration.”
QOL score: +1
Comment: Tech company Space Tango will implement and monitor the students’ experiment in space sometime in the next year. The Academy’s team competed against 10 other teams from across the region.
The cost of dog ownership can be ruff
A recent study by online discount platform WeThrift has ranked U.S. states by how much the residents in each spend on their dogs. According to a Dec. 18 press release, “New Hampshire ranks as the eighth most [expensive] state for pet owners, with a total cost of $1,883.38, 12.36% above the average annual cost across all states.” According to the study, some factors that contribute to the state’s pet spending include the cost of pet food (“an annual cost of $761.60, 11.54% above the national average”), veterinary care (“$75.32, which is 8.55% above the average”) and vaccinations (“The state’s annual dog vaccine cost is $233.46, which is 4.88% above the average”).
QOL score: -1
Comments: The study found that Massachusetts has the highest dog spending in the U.S., at $2,275.97. The most affordable state dog-maintainance-wise is Kansas, with yearly spending of $1,403.40.
QOL score last week: 73
Net change: -1
QOL for the end of 2024: 72
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