“The past is not dead, it is not even past,” as William Faulkner put it
Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water. "Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun."
How to keep junk snail mail out of your mailbox forever (sort of)
Washington Post: “…Mail volumes in the United States peaked in 2011, but junk mail has continued almost unabated. Last year, roughly 63 billion catalogues, postcards, credit card offers and coupon booklets arrived in America’s mailboxes. That’s 62 percent of all U.S. household mail, reports the U.S. Postal Service. This takes a heavy environmental toll. The typical American receives about 41 pounds of junk mail each year, according to the Center for Development of Recycling at San José State University, and much of it ends up in landfills. While recent numbers are hard to come by, the Sierra Club estimates 80 to 100 million trees are cut down each year to print junk mail, while cities and counties spend $1 billion a year to collect and dispose of it. So after years of ignoring or recycling it, I finally set out to get my mailbox as close to zero junk mail as possible. Services now promise to take care of the problem, and I tried several. After bracing for an extended battle against marketers unseen, it took less than half an hour of work to get rid of most of my junk mail. You can do it, too…”
