The Real Coming to America

Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker’s documentary ‘God Grew Tired of Us‘ tells the odyssey of four boys from Sudan who embark on a journey to America after years of wandering Sub-Saharan Africa in search of safety. They are part of what remains of 27,000 Christian Sudanese boys who escaped from the oppression of their Muslim government in 1983 and walked more than one thousand miles over a period of five years.

Besides their astonishing and heartbreaking story, the film also provides a great deal of optimism and humor, as the three young men explore the technological marvels of the strange new world in which they find themselves living: food that comes prepackaged from a freezer, hot and cold water that comes flowing out of a tap, light that appears at the command of a switch. One of the boys even admits to never having “seen” electricity before moving to America, and he worries over whether he will ever be able to master its use.

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Houston, we’ve got a dome!

Houston, Texas, the fourth-largest city in the U.S., has always been vulnerable to severe weather and heat. A 2 million-square-meter dome should protect downtown from hurricanes and regulate the climate, though only covering 0,33% of the total Houston area.

Scientists made up plans to cover a part of the city with a polymer structure manufactured in Germany. Compared to glass, the light and durable material (ETFE) that withstands winds up to 290 km/h, is only 1% the weight.

A video at Discovery Channel shows how maybe one day this giant structure will save Houston from a terrible natural disaster.

On a different note, what will the weather be like inside the bubble? Will artificial rain still evoke the same reactions?

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