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Peru

In Peru, A Highway Billboard That Turns Wind Into Water

LIMA - You've seen highway billboards advertising some rest-stop or hotel: "Oasis, Next Exit." Now in Peru, there's a billboard that actually is itself something of an oasis.

The Technology and Engineering University of Peru has installed a billboard panel along the Panamericana Sur (PanAmerican highway) highway that generates 96 liters of drinkable water a day with a built-in humidity condenser.

Under the slogan “ingenuity in action”, the Lima university team designed the billboard and installed it on kilometer 89.5 of the Peruvian section of the major Latin American highway.

(UTEC'S video of the panel)

Alejandro Aponte, the project’s chief explains the inner workings of the panel: “Inside the panel are five machines that absorb environmental humidity and then, through an electronic multi-filtering system (activated carbon, antistatic filters and UV lamps), the water is purified and turned into a ready-to-drink source."

Aponte says each machine produces 28 liters of water every day, and needs a minimum humidity percentage of at least 70% in the environment, which is normal in Lima.

The water produced is available for anyone who wants to stop and take it. A storage tank holds the water that neighbors or spontaneous thirsty drivers stop by to collect -- or just have a drink.

“The concept of this project is to show people how technology and engineering can change the world," says Juan Donalisio, from the Mayo agency, which launched the campaign together with Humberto Polar and Aponte. "This is why I wanted to expose one of my applications live and in public. So it is tangible and useful for people."

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food / travel

When Racism Poisons Italy's Culinary Scene

This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.

Photo of Mareme Cisse cooking

Mareme Cisse in the kitchen of Ginger People&Food

Caterina Suffici

-Essay-

TURIN — Guess who's not coming to dinner. It seems like a scene from the American Deep South during the decades of segregation. But this happened in Italy, in this summer of 2023.

Two Italians, in their sixties, got up from the restaurant table and left (without saying goodbye, as the owner points out), when they declared that they didn't want to eat in a restaurant where the chef was what they called: an 'n-word.'

Racists, poor things. And ignorant, in the sense of not knowing basic facts. They don't realize that we are all made of mixtures, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. And that food, of course, are blends of different ingredients and recipes.

The restaurant is called Ginger People&Food, and these visitors from out of town probably didn't understand that either.

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