The FBI finally agrees with culture jammers. Online advertising has gotten so bad that the FBI now suggests everyone should make use of tracking blocking software, also known as ad blockers. During the last big consumerism celebration in December, the FBI noticed malicious actors paying for ads to solicit unaware
Continue readingAuthor: Adam Clare
Things Are Good: New Maritime Law at UN Protects Ecosystems
Pirates love the high seas and so do illegal fishers and poachers; heck cruise ship companies love the high seas as a place to dump sewage. All in, we don’t respect the ecosystems in the oceans because there’s only a few laws that can be broken and enforcement is weak.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Diagnosis by Dreams
What you do while dreaming might be a sign of things to come. This isn’t non-scientific phooey, rather this is real science that can help doctors and patients address neurological issues. There’s been an increase in scientists looking at what people do while dreaming to see if they have Parkinson’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Largest GPS Bicycle Reminds us Bicycles are Rad
The most efficient form of transportation is the bicycle, and to remind us how great the two wheeled vehicles are a couple drew a giant bike in Europe. They used a GPS to record their trip as they rode through multiple countries, and that meant riding in giant circles to
Continue readingThings Are Good: More Trees Means Less Death
In the cold of winter you might not be thinking of the nice hot summer days as a negative thing. In the winter when temperatures get really low people suffer from hypothermia or worse, whereas in heat they can suffer from heat stroke or worse. When it comes to the
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Engineering of a Passive Off the Grid House
A sustainable home doesn’t need to be off the gird, but for some people interested in sustainability they reach a logical conclusion that off the gird makes sense. Of course, that means not being part of the electric grid and, for some, not even part of a public water system
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let’s Startup Airships
Silicon Valley millionaires keep trying to solve problems that don’t exist like juice pressing and “smart” appliances. So when thinkers in the valley promote solutions to actual problems it’s a breath of fresh air. And in this case, it is air. Airships to be precise. It’s well known that air
Continue readingThings Are Good: Change the Game, Change the Climate
As a game designer who creates games about the climate crisis and what we can do about it, this recent article in the Guardian warmed my heart. The article looks at how games can help people understand the climate crisis and that there’s still hope that we can do something
Continue readingThings Are Good: Big Bank in Canada Wants Socialized Housing
The housing crisis in Canada has been decades of policy failures in the making arguably starting in the 90s when the federal government stopped building housing for people. Now, the housing crisis has grown to the point where one of Canada’s largest banks is calling for socialized housing to be
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let the Coal Corpse Lay
Why don’t we just let it die already? Coal companies keep getting bailed out by governments around the world despite the climate crisis, this needs to stop. Over at Climate Town they have a great idea (above) that captures coal’s contentious use and how governments prop up the industry. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: Hop Aboard the Free Transit Movement
Our contemporary financial approach to moving people around a city subsidizes individual automobile use, which leads to more car use and worse mobility for everyone. An easy solution to this problem that’s gaining popularity is to change what mode of transportation get subsidies. The most direct way to stop subsidizing
Continue readingThings Are Good: Putting Eco Back in Economics
Traditional economists ignore reality to justify their thinking, and anyone who studies economics is well aware of this. From the myth of the “rational human” to trickle down economics, to the very idea markets are “natural” all ignore the actual state of the world and people. Due to the mainstream
Continue readingThings Are Good: Judo Falls for the Elderly
When old people fall the results are likely to be far worse than when younger people hit the floor. There’s a long history of technology assistance for elderly individuals who fall from the infamous “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” device to the modern smartwatch with fall detection. As always,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Catching Illegal Fishers
Many people reduce their meat intake (which is good!) by swapping it with another animal protein source of fish. The problem here lies in how fishing is done around the world and the crimes committed by too many fishers. Indeed, crime on the high seas is alive and well with
Continue readingThings Are Good: Pompeii Powered by Polymer Panels
Historic sites that attract a lot of tourists know that if they loose their historical look that the tourists will stop coming, so how do you locally produce renewable energy while not looking modern? This question has been answered by the stewards of Pompeii with a simple solar solution. A
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Heat Pump Uses Sound
Normal heat pumps make use of chemicals to modulate temperatures, in the future they may all use sound. A new French startup has announced they will sell a residential heat pump using acoustics. It’s not loud since the sound waves stay in the system to change the temperature, which also
Continue readingThings Are Good: Pigeons Outperform Radiologists
Radiology is very complex and even doctors with years of training and experience can make misdiagnoses. So far AI systems haven’t been competitive with humans; however, pigeons are. Researchers trained pigeons to identify cancers in radiology images and concluded that the birds are just as good, if not better, than
Continue readingThings Are Good: Radical Idea: Libraries
If the idea of a library was purposed today it simply would be laughed out of existence because a library embodies an idea that is often ignored: that people, no matter their status, should be given a chance at no cost. In fact, libraries are free for all and generate
Continue readingThings Are Good: 22 Problems Solved in 2022
2022 ends in two days, and the team at Wendover Productions put together a list of 22 problems that have been “solved” during the year. It’s a nice video recap of some of the good things that humanity got up to this past year. Let’s hope 2023 sees even more
Continue readingThings Are Good: Taxing the Ultra Wealthy Can Save the Planet
A wealth tax could be a way to not only address inequality, it’s also a way to reduce the damage done to the planet by greedy billionaires. Oxfam looked into the investments that the ultra rich hold and found that their investments alone do more damage to the planet than
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