Delivery vehicles are a significant cause of delays in city as they stop and block other transportation modes at a frequent basis. I’m sure everyone can relate to being frustrated while a truck or van blocks a bike lane (or car lane) while they unload. Urban planners and logistics professionals
Continue readingAuthor: Adam Clare
Things Are Good: Video Games Don’t Harm Brain Development
Video games are fun, and they won’t cause harm to your kid’s mental development. Of course, moderation is key since it’s good to experience a multitude of things to do; however, the evidence that video games themselves harm development just isn’t there. So play video games and let your kid
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plant Based Diet Connected to Lower COVID-19 Rates
It’s been years that we’ve been living with COVID-19 and it looks like we missed the window to fully eradicate it, which means we need to adapt our lifestyles to ensure that rates of transmission are as low as possible. Of course, the obvious things involve collective action like improving
Continue readingThings Are Good: Batteries Still Works in Winter
The myth that batteries are useless in the winter continues to spread despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This myth has slowed the uptake of elective vehicles, which is a bad thing. The CEO of a an EV car company is trying their best to dispel that myth and
Continue readingThings Are Good: House Eating Mushrooms are Good for the Planet
For the last one hundred years in North America we’ve been building low density energy inefficient housing and now we need to deal with the economic and environmental harm from this approach. In Cleveland they are using mushrooms to deal with housing that is no longer habitable while also cleaning
Continue readingThings Are Good: Brazilian City Planting Mangroves to Protect Itself Against Climate Change
Down in Brazil there’s a city in that is increasing the size of their local mangrove forest to protect itself against raising seas and more intense storms. Mangrove forests are excellent at buffering against storms due to their root systems (and that trees in general are good at slowing storms)
Continue readingThings Are Good: Get Your City to Experiment With Joy
A new book wants you to make your city a better place by brining joy into the equation. In The Joy Experiments the authors who work in real estate and architecture argue that we need to have more fun and levity in our cities. In this easy to read book
Continue readingThings Are Good: Greenhouse Gases Now Count as Maritime Pollution
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has ruled the greenhouse gas emissions can count towards damage to our oceans. Small island nations have praised the ruling because they are the most threatened by raising sea levels and the boiling of local waters. The ruling also shows how
Continue readingThings Are Good: mRNA Vaccine Used to Fight Brain Tumour
Brain tumours are scary and very difficult to deal with, current treatments include invasive surgery and/or radiation. The advent of mRNA based vaccines is making a difference in how we can treat various brain cancers and the early results are looking promising. A team just found a way to get
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Solar Supports Ukraine
In the ongoing war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine power plants have been attacked by both sides to hurt military and civilian operations. Beyond the obvious horrors of war the loss of power generation makes heating homes more challenging and people are suffering as a result. As Russia continues
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bike Lanes are Really Good for Businesses (seriously, there are too many studies proving this)
Bike lanes are good for business and everybody knows it, except for business owners and local politicians afraid for of small minded businesses. Over at Business Insider they’re running an article that summarizes the current knowledge about bike lanes and how good they are. Like anything, there are winners and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Packing Potential Power: Better Batteries Blasting Baselines
Source: Ziegler and Trancik (2021) before 2018 (end of data), BNEF Long-Term Electric Vehicle Outlook (2023) since 2018, BNEF Lithium-Ion Battery Price Survey (2023) for 2015-2023, RMI analysis. The baseline power that a battery can deal out is increasing at a faster rate than anticipated. This s-curve of growth reflects
Continue readingThings Are Good: Walking Increases Wellbeing and Productivity
Are you looking to improve your productivity AND your well being? Then just go walk it off. Walking is a good way to stay fit and have fun, but it’s also a good way to relax your mind. By going for a walk you give yourself space to let the
Continue readingThings Are Good: This 28-ton Kite Provides 1.2MW of Power
One of bizarre criticisms of solar power is that it only works when the sun hits them which means some areas are hesitant to install large solar arrays (honestly, this criticism is so strange since energy use is highest during daytime). Lunar energy, on the other hand, works all day
Continue readingThings Are Good: Improve Your Mental Health by Ignoring Celebrities
Are you interested in the comings and goings of the celebrity set? If so, you may want to put down your mobile and go touch grass. Researchers have found a direct connection between mental health and the worshipping of celebrities, as in people not doing so well will tend to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cool Cities Have Botanical Gardens
If you live near a park you know that even a small amount of nature can cool the local environment, and you know that the bigger the park the more cool it is. In terms of a land-to-cooling-effect ratio certain types of parks are more efficient than others with the
Continue readingThings Are Good: eBikes are Killing the Oil Industry
This Earth Day it’s good to reflect on one’s own love for the planet Earth. If you want to express your love and appreciation for this ball of rock and air that orbits then Sun then you should ride a bike everyday. If an ordinary bike isn’t your style then
Continue readingThings Are Good: Floating Flowers Clean Pollution in Waterways
Industrial farming, golf courses, and some industries all contribute an incredible amount of nutrient runoff that enters our waterways. This influx of unexpected nutrients can cause algae blooms and otherwise damage the local ecosystem. To combat this damage from runoff a team from the Florida International University created a floating
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let’s End Gas Subsidies
For some strange reason countries like Canada keep giving tax money to ultra wealthy oil and gas companies even though they keep killing all life on the planet. Let’s stop this. The team at Solar Share hosted a good information session on how we can reduce government money going to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Hot People are More Likely to be Depressed
There’s a popular theory that hot people have it easier in life, and that might be true for looks but not for temperature. People were asked to self report their levels of depression and it turns out that there’s a correlation between their body temperature and mood. The results revealed
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