Daily Archives: August 13, 2010

This Week's 5 Trending Stories

Published August 13, 2010

The five WBUR stories you read, listened to or talked about the most this week:

  1. Schizophrenia Might Not Just Be In The Brain

    A team of scientists, physicians and researchers at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital say they have found evidence of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in parts of the body besides the brain. They hope to one day diagnose illnesses earlier as well as improve existing treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (Radio Boston)

  2. Mike Huckabee (AP)Huckabee on Immigration: Don’t Punish the Kids

    In a Wednesday interview, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 GOP candidate for president and a potential candidate again in 2012, said he did not favor repeal of the 14th Amendment, or birthright citizenship, and said that all children of illegal immigrants should have a path to citizenship. (On Point)

  3. The designer Rob Stewart imagined subway lines in places without public transit and then mapped his creations, such as this one for Martha's Vineyard.Fake T Lines In Real Places

    It can be a nightmare to get around Martha’s Vineyard by car. Why not take the subway? Just take the Blue Line to Oak Bluffs. Kidding, of course, but that’s what a Northampton designer has dreamed up. (Hubbub)

  4. Elaine Howley (David Boeri/WBUR)In The Light Swim, Water Buffalo Rise

    If you manage to swim it in a straight line, it’s eight miles. If you want to know if you can wear a wetsuit or anything else to keep warm, don’t bother entering. And if you’re worried about your weight, don’t: It hasn’t stopped the winners. In this eighth installment of our summer series, “Looking Out: A New View Of Boston Harbor,” we go on the Boston Light Swim. (WBUR)

  5. Jamie of the Interrupters (George Hicks/WBUR)A Real ‘School Of Rock’ In Boston

    Mike Irwin has inspired many young people to take up instruments and form bands at his real-life School of Rock in Boston. (Here & Now)

What stories piqued your interest this week?

A 16-Mile Swim In Pristine Boston Harbor (Video)

Published August 13, 2010

This isn’t lake swimming in Maine, folks. This is Boston Harbor.

WBUR’s David Boeri observed all seven hours and seven minutes of Thursday’s record-breaking Double Light Swim — from Southie to Little Brewster Island and back. From his story:

They swam east into sunrise above America’s first lighthouse, which emerged from sea smoke and fog on a surface so smooth the swimmers made their own wake, their arms and shoulders reflected in the water. You could imagine a polished floor of the Atlantic all the way to Spain.

Boeri brought back this lovely little bit of video.

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In Case You Missed The Meteor Shower…

Published August 13, 2010

If you couldn’t see the Perseid meteor shower — supposed to be visible from parts of Greater Boston — you might have had better luck driving to a mountain road south of the Macedonian capital, Skopje. That’s what AP photographer Boris Grdanoski did last night. He captured this long-exposure image:

A meteor is seen sparking along the Milky Way while entering the earth's atmosphere, during the Perseid meteor shower early Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, in this long exposure picture taken on a mountain road just south of the Macedonian capital, Skopje. (Boris Grdanoski/AP)

A meteor is seen sparking along the Milky Way while entering the earth's atmosphere, during the Perseid meteor shower early Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, in this long exposure picture taken on a mountain road just south of the Macedonian capital, Skopje. (Boris Grdanoski/AP)

Anyone see it? David Aguilar, of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said it was supposed to be “spectacular.”