Some day we’ll all be tourists in space, but for now, tourists are streaming into Mexican border towns, not to buy drugs (at least not the illicit kind), but for medical procedures that are much cheaper there–and often done by US-trained dentists and physicians.
read more
Despite increasing numbers of multiethnic neighborhoods in the United States, relatively few black or white families are actually moving into these them.
This segregation doesn’t just happen in the US–it’s prevalent all over the world. The Economist talks about how, for thousands of years, cities have been divided along racial lines. During the period of colonialism, white Europeans grabbed the safest, healthiest and nicest parts of the urban landscape for themselves.
read more
A sewer is where your toilet flushings, shower and dishwashing water go, and it’s a pretty warm place. That heat can generate energy, meaning that a sewer system can take care of heating and cooling a whole city. The small city of Brainerd, Minnesota is trying it out. This could be the ultimate recylcing.
On NPR.com, Conrad Wilson quotes Scott Sjolund, the town’s public utilities supervisor, as saying, "Everybody heats water up, and all that gets drained down the sewer, and that’s potential energy that could be extracted. That’s part of the equation." The bigger problem is "actually extracting it in an economical fashion."
read more
The mysterious object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea could be a relic from World War II placed there by the Nazis (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show) in order to disrupt Soviet submarine navigation by interfering with their radar signals.
read more