NPR News

While the weather is sultry in Houston, the Menil Collection has a cool exhibit about ancient Arctic cultures.

"Upside Down" is a rare display of artifacts from a place where there is still much to be discovered.

Show Re-Creates Arctic Environment

Humans are innately social creatures, and one need look no further than the Twitter to see how potent the urge to share information is. According to the social networking site, as of the end of June Twitter users from all corners of the earth were sending 200 million tweets per day.

After Sept. 11, there were widespread reports that public safety agencies responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center had trouble talking to one another. The problem: incompatible radios.

It was a common challenge among public service agencies nationwide. Different first responders had different radios operating on different frequencies. Billions of dollars later, federal, state and local governments have largely solved that challenge.

But many first responders still lack access to the kind of technology that many Americans carry on their waistbands or bags.

In Austria one of the strangest fights for religious freedom has come to an end: Niko Alm, a self-described "Pastafarian," fought for three years for the right to wear a pasta strainer on his head in his driver's license photo.

His argument? Alm claimed he belonged to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and wearing the strainer was part of his religion.

The BBC reports:

The Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, D.C., is in transition. Shiny new condos have sprouted up in recent years, attracting a rush of new restaurants and national retail chains — Target, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond.

The building boom almost swallows up the pockets of poverty. An austere cement medical building — which predates all the recent gentrification — is one of those pockets.

It's a health center run by Unity Health Care. The majority of patients here are uninsured or receive Medicare, and more than 90 percent live below the poverty line.