It's a Miracle!

the church that started it all                        Andrea Giannotti, Gabriele Rossetti

It seems that a special kind of pavement, as in streets and sidewalks, that has been sprayed with titanium dioxide can help cut down on nitrogen oxide pollution by as much as 45 percent: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/smog-eating-pavement-cut-pollution_n_3563472.html
   Interestingly, this is not a new invention, nor was it invented by the Dutch, as is stated in a recent LA Times article. It was invented by an Italian company in 2006, and that, in itself, is an interesting story. It all started with a Richard Meier-designed church on the outskirts of Rome: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/world/europe/28smog.html?_r=1&
   More about the church, including lots of photos: http://www.archdaily.com/20105/church-of-2000-richard-meier/

What a Doll

Well, here's some singular trivia to trot out at your next social gathering, courtesy of the folks at wisegeek.com:

"The Barbie doll has had a belly button since 2000. In 1959, the doll was created by Ruth Handler, who with her husband, Eliot Handler, went on to co-found the Mattel toy manufacturing company. The original Barbie was the first adult-proportioned doll and was modeled after the glamorous image of Hollywood actresses of the 1950s, with either brunette or blonde hair, red pursed lips and highly arched eyebrows but no belly button. The design was updated in 1971 to give Barbie bright blonde hair, whiter teeth and tanner skin, but the body was not altered to include a belly button. In 1997, after

Some Kind of Wonderful

From the wonderful people at one of my favorite sites, the wonderful mentalfloss.com, and to counteract all the rather discouraging things we keep hearing in the news, "11 Places Where Wonderful Things Are Happening" (make that 12, including the Mental Floss offices ~ wonderful!): http://mentalfloss.com/article/51651/11-places-where-wonderful-things-are-happening

Snowden's Entourage

Meet some of the people who are helping NSA leaker Edward Snowden ~ and the one who's in love with him (and, no, it's not his former girlfriend): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23247002

Fixing DNA

Gene therapy that corrected mutations in the DNA of three children with the genetic disease metachromatic leukodystrophy seems to have been successful. They're all in kindergarten now and doing well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23269778

A Census Consensus

As of July 11, World Population Day, there are 7.2 billion people on this planet. It is projected by that the year 2050, we'll be at ... well, the U.N. and the Population Reference Bureau say 9.6 and the U.S. Census Bureau says 9.4. How do they know this, why can't they agree, and why, in 2000, did the U.N. predict that the number would be 8.9 billion?: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/1307011-population-census-united-nations-un-demographics-world-population-day-birthrate/

Take Two Poems and Call Me in the Morning

Forgive me, body before me, for this.
Forgive me for my bumbling hands, unschooled
in how to touch: I meant to understand
what fever was, not love.
   So begins a poem by Dr. Rafael Campos, who teaches and practices general internal medicine in Boston. A good poem, he says, is "not so different from providing the best, most compassionate care to our patients”: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/07/poetry_and_medicine_rafael_campo_and_why_doctors_need_the_humanities.html?wpisrc=most_viral

Atlas Didn't Shrug

You can download the interesting Atlas by Collins app (for iPhone and iPad) for free during a trial offer they're having. While the reviews are not stellar (but whose are?), they are pretty good, and now might be the right time to try it and see what you think (video):  http://atlasbycollins.com/2012/10/17/watch-the-atlas-by-collins-app-video/

Behind Every Successful Summit ...

the Earth's highest mountain

I remember wondering about this when I first heard about Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and then learning about all the Westerners who have summited Mount Everest with the help of Sherpa guides. Why were they the ones written about, and not the Sherpas, without whose hard work and courage, in most cases, they never would have made it? (print, audio versions, slideshow): http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/mountaineering/Disposable-Man-History-of-the-Sherpa-on-Everest.html?page=1

Who's Who in Egypt ... Now

So the names we've heard most so far have been those of deposed president Mohammed Morsi (the Muslim Brotherhood), Gen. Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi (the military), and Mohamed ElBaradei (the National Salvation Front). But others are coming to the front, too, like Adly Mansour (the Supreme Constitutional Court) and Mahmoud Badr (the Tamarod). As we watch events unfold in a country half a world away, a guide to the key players: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23186408

An Open (Face)Book

When Facebook introduced News Feed in 2006, many users were upset. There were petitions, some people left, and some of those came back later. News Feed is still there, and everyone's used to it. So now we have something new: Graph Search. It's being introduced slowly and carefully, and so far, no petitions: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/07/a-radical-new-way-to-look-at-facebook.html
   How you can try to salvage a modicum of privacy: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/facebook-graph-search_n_3563010.html

Ringing Mr. Putin

screen shot

Call it The Case of the Super Bowl Ring, or Kraft vs. the Kremlin. Back in 2005, Russian president Vladimir Putin met New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and who knows exactly what happened there. Putin contends Kraft gave him his Super Bowl ring, and that's what Kraft said at the time, but now, Kraft swears he showed it to Putin and that Putin pocketed it. Confronted with this charge, Putin came up with a solution to what he facetiously referred to as a "complicated international problem," and this entertaining column in the New Yorker takes it from there: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2013/07/08/130708sh_shouts_frazier
   Here's the news coverage of the whole kerfuffle, in case you missed it (video): http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/vladimir-putin-super-bowl-ring-russian-leader-accused-19418335

Sounds of Silence

Wow! Two Korean researchers have come up with a window that lets in the breeze but keeps the noise of the city (or wherever) out. Seriously: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/07/these-new-windows-let-the-summer-breeze-in-but-block-the-street-noise/

Another Modest Proposal

from docstoc.com

There was the time ~ 1729, to be exact ~ when Jonathan Swift (remember Gulliver's Travels?) suggested that the Irish could solve the problem of poverty and hunger by selling their children as food. Imagine. (It was satire, btw.) And now this: Someone is actually suggesting that the solution to the growing number of poor, elderly baby boomers can be found in the trailer park. Imagine!: http://www.psmag.com/health/how-the-trailer-park-could-save-us-all-55137/

A Different AAA

Charles Mulamata, with partner Maria Mabira and happy plants Gerald Tenywa/newvision

A Ugandan entrepreneur and trained engineer falls in love, tinkers, dares to dream big, and holds a successful first meeting of the Africa Aquaponics Association: http://www.pri.org/stories/business/global-development/ugandan-entrepreneur-turns-to-aquaponics-in-effort-to-improve-food-system-economic-position-14296.html

Radio Stars

Four recently detected radio bursts could be from stellar explosions or black holes or maybe colliding neutron stars, but what astronomers think they know for sure is that the farthest one was from 11 billion light years away, and that's way beyond the edges of our galaxy: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-216&cid=release_2013-216

It's Not Easy Being Green

Green hair is just one of the unwanted side effects of spending a lot of time in a chlorinated pool, but swimming is just so invigorating, so much fun, so relaxing ... Herewith, some ways in which you can keep the pool and get rid of the chlorine. Some may be a little more expensive, some may take a little more time, but, really, being green is easier than, well, being green: http://www.care2.com/causes/4-eco-friendly-pools-worthy-of-your-backyard.html?page=1

Babies' Blood

Starting in July, hospitals in Mississippi are being required to take and store a sample of umbilical cord blood from babies born to under-age (under 16) mothers who won't or can't name the baby's father. The samples will be used in an effort to track down the father by matching the baby's DNA with that of someone in the state's DNA database (print and audio versions): http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/03/188423215/miss-turns-to-cord-blood-to-track-down-statutory-rapists

Living on the Van Plan

home, sweet $1,500 home                                                                Ken Ilgunas

After graduating from college with a mountain of debt and realizing that the jobs he was getting weren't going to help him out from under, Ken Ilgunas got himself a van and lived in it while going to grad school. And then he wrote about it (story with lots of photos): http://www.businessinsider.com/ken-ilgunas-lived-in-his-van-to-pay-for-college-2013-6?op=1
   You can read Ilgunas's columns at http://www.salon.com/writer/ken_ilgunas/

A Race A-Brewing

a floating ambulance, one of this year's entrants              © Ludo Kuipers 2013

Among the many anniversaries that make this year particularly auspicious is the 40th birthday of the Darwin Beer Can Regatta in Australia: http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130701-australias-beer-can-regatta