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Cities

An artistic depiction of the duck.

Cool Finds

Copenhagen Might Install a Giant, Energy-Gathering Duck in Its Harbor

The duck would be both a tourist attraction and a means of helping the city become carbon-neutral by 2025

Handlebars on the Blackline model let you know when to turn.

Tech Watch

What a City Bike Needs: Handlebars That Let You Know When to Turn

Designers are transforming bikes with new tech to make it safer and easier to navigate city streets

New Research

Playing Outside Enhances Kids’ Love of Nature and Animals

Exposure to the great outdoors could also influence kids’ ideas about the importance of conservation

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Tech Watch

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

Cool Finds

Suburban Skunks are on the Rise

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is basically enveloped in a cloud of stink

Cool Finds

Chicago Is Trying to Blackout-Proof Its Downtown

Chicago is installing a cable that will prevent blackouts, at least within the Loop

This is what an actual Goodwill box looks like.

Cool Finds

Fake Clothing Drop Bins Use Your “Charity” Donations To Make a Profit

From Tampa to Charlotte to New York City, non-legit Goodwill boxes are proliferating

In cities, where the urban heat island effect can raise the local temperature several degrees higher than nearby rural areas, summer is a time to cool off wherever you can.

New Research

Why the City Is (Usually) Hotter than the Countryside

The smoothness of the landscape and the local climate—not the materials of the concrete jungle—govern the urban heat island effect, a new study finds

Cool Finds

You Could Visit Dubai And Never Step Outside

The proposed Mall of the World features temperature-controlled walkways

Cool Finds

New York Could Add Two City Blocks to Manhattan’s Southern End—Just to Stop Flooding

A new study shows that building a massive levee on Manhattan’s Lower East Side could actually be feasible

Trending Today

Buy A Vacant Lot in Chicago for $1

Chicago is selling off some of its vacant lots—but only to current neighbors

Cool Finds

This Electric Bus Can Charge in 15 Seconds

A new method for charging buses is an attractive alternative to having unsightly wires strung across the street

Cool Finds

Goats Evicted In Detroit

An attempt at urban farming runs afoul of city ordinances in Detroit

Yan'an, China is flattening some of the mountains surrounding the city, seen here in a photo from 2012

Trending Today

China Is Tearing Down Mountains to Build Cities

Land creation projects are proceeding apace without scientific research to back them up

Lodgers in a crowded Bayard Street tenement, 1889.

Pioneering Social Reformer Jacob Riis Revealed “How The Other Half Lives” in America

How innovations in photography helped this 19th century journalist improve life for many of his fellow immigrants

How a Tightknit Community of Ghanaians Has Spiced Up the Bronx

From fufu to omo tuo, Ghanaian immigrants are adding their own distinctive flavor to the New York City borough

Tuberculosis Pavilion Lobby

Exploring New York City’s Abandoned Island, Where Nature Has Taken Over

Nestled in between the Bronx and Manhattan, North Brother Island once housed Typhoid Mary, but now is an astonishing look at a world without humans

Tokyo

Coastal Cities Don’t Just Need to Worry About Rising Seas; They’re Also on Sinking Land

Some cities are facing a future of rising sea levels while the ground under their feet is sinking

Anthropocene

Pavement Cracks And Chain-Link Fences Are the New Ecosystems of the Anthropocene

The “natural” world is gone, and it’s not coming back

James Rouse talks about the future of the American city at one of his many speaking engagements

James W. Rouse’s Legacy of Better Living Through Design

There are still lessons to be learned from the visionary businessman who built a city

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