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Vaccines without needles.
The patch is not just for smokers and cruise-ship newbies anymore, reports Fast Company. Intercell USA and Ideo have developed a method of transcutaneous immunization (if you want to be scientific about it). It's in advanced FDA trials and will target diarrhea, then the flu.
Cobblers.
Shoe-repair shops are booming in non-boom times as people try to get extra wear out of every pair.
A cleaner Amsterdam.
The capital of the Netherlands is curtailing its red-light district in an attempt to shine up its image, crack down on prostitution, and prop up tourism. "We know that the tourists that come here now, the rowdy Britons, aren't always the tourists you'd like to have in the city," one city councilman told the Associated Press.
Flight delays.
The Route Availability Planning Tool (RAPT), developed at MIT, crunches weather data and helps air-traffic controllers predict speedier routes. A prototype is being tested in New York, says Wired, and has cut delays in the area by 2,300 hours.
Newspapers and libraries.
The Fitch credit-ratings firm predicts dire consequences and perhaps even default for newspapers in "several cities." Eleven of 54 branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia are set to be closed to save money.
Aspens in the Rocky Mountains.
"Sudden aspen decline" (SAD) may be a result of droughts that have weakened the trees and made them more susceptible to insects, fungi, and diseases, reports Smithsonian.
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