Having zero tolerance policies in schools is a truly horrible way to treat children. It can blunt curiosity and punish severely for minor infractions, combine such oppressive control with bizarre rules (like no playing schoolyard games) and you’ll bored, agitated and disengaged kids. When children aren’t able to express themselves
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Things Are Good: Earth Rangers Launches Battery Blitz
Earth Rangers has launched a new campaign for kids to learn about the potential danger of batteries. Battery Blitz Mission encourages kids to collect used household batteries and dispose of them properly. When batteries are improbably thrown out it can cause a lot of harm to the environment due to
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Scientific Approach to Better Urban Design
Urban design is not an easy activity because of the multitude of variables that impact the overall urban experience. There are buildings, traffic (foot and vehicular), landmarks, natural occurrences like rivers, and abstracted economic forces. Space Syntax is a company has set out to make better urban design by using
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Day We Fight Back Against Spying
The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance is today! Thanks to Edward Snowden we have learned about America’s and other countries illegitimate and immoral mass surveillance operations. More revelations about the extent of the surveillance programs are sure to come. Just in the past couple of days it was
Continue readingThings Are Good: Infographic: Footloose and Car Free
Riding bicycles is not only fun, it’s also great for the environment. Readers of this site already know many benefits of switching from a car-fcoused transportation society to one focused on sustainability and humanity. Because the internet is what it is, some people put together this infographic about the benefits
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Power Rising in the Gulf
2013 saw great things happen on the Arabian Peninsula in relation to energy production. The region has invested heavily in installing solar power plants and reducing their own reliance on oil (so they can export more). In fact, the UAE is looking to start export in renewable energy! For the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cities Are The Key For Adjusting To Changing Climate
Readers of this site have seen lots of evidence that in the 21st century the best place one can live for a small carbon footprint is in urban areas. Things like increased infrastructure costs and higher costs of living associated with automobile use in rural & suburban places are obvious
Continue readingThings Are Good: Walking or Biking Through Neighbourhoods Makes You Like Them More
Walking or biking through neighbourhoods will increase the likelihood that you think positively of that space. A bunch of research has concluded that people have an increase tendency to positively judge an environment when exposed to it using more personal means of transportation. Whereas people who opted to drive a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Iceland Demonstrates Magma Power Plant
Iceland recently demonstrated that it’s not only possible to use the core of our planet to generate power, but it’s feasible. Iceland’s geothermal operations are the envy of the world and they tend to push boundaries in their search for more energy. Due to this recent development geothermal operations in
Continue readingThings Are Good: 100in1Day Spreads to More Cities
On June 7th Toronto will be one of many cities having an intervention. 100in1Day is being brought to Toronto through the efforts of Evergreen meaning that Toronto will join many other cities in random acts artiness. 100in1Day uses art and other fun activities to break the routines and everyday sameness
Continue readingThings Are Good: Art + Activism = Craftivism
Some crafty people are up to some crafty activism. Craftivism is using your skills at crafting things you like to send message to make the world a better place. Through activities such as teaching knitting lessons, crocheting hats for the less fortunate, and sewing blankets for abandoned animals, craftivism allows
Continue readingThings Are Good: Philosophy is Needed in Corporate Boardrooms
It’s not often that you hear CEOs and other executives call for philosophers to be among their boards. In a recent Financial Times article, there is an argument that businesses need philosophers. People who are trained philosophers tend to look root causes and issues that impact whatever it is that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Focus on Sustainability Film Festival
York University in Toronto will be hosting their third annual film festival all about sustainability. This year they are running films about oil. If you’re in Toronto next weekend or nearby you should check out what’s playing and take the bus to the festival. Planet in Focus with York University
Continue readingThings Are Good: New Technique For Restoring Historic Videos
USC Shoah Foundation has a large collection of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. Old physical media formats are susceptible to damage from fires to improper storage and USC has had to deal with this. The tech department at the foundation has figured out a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Wind Becomes Largest Source of Energy in Spain
Spain makes use of a plethora of energy sources and they are leaders in Europe when it comes to utilizing solar and wind energy. Energy policy is always under debate in the country and hopefully they will continue their overall trend of helping sustainable energy develop. Wind accounted for 20.9
Continue readingThings Are Good: 4 Theories Why US Teenagers Are Driving Less
Cars are horrible for the environment and car infrastructure can have very negative impact on local economies so it’s nice to see enthusiasm for driving diminishing in younger generations. American teens are less likely to have a license and less likely to want to own a car than previous generations.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using Drones For Studying Ecologies
Drones are popularly associated with American air strikes on civilians and thus have a negative reputation. The technology underlying the drones can be used for good though. One example of a good use of drones is for aerial surveillance of plants and animals in hard to access/expensive areas. What are
Continue readingThings Are Good: China’s Wind Turbine Industry Booming
For years China has been trying to improve its sustainable energy production but to do so Chinese companies had to rely on patents and techniques from the rest of the world. Due to an increase in demand (and production knowledge) China is now poised to make the best, most efficient,
Continue readingThings Are Good: In One year, Rooftop Solar Power Doubled in California
In one year California was able to increase power output from solar panels installed on roofs from 1,000 MW to over 2,000 MW. This is impressive and hopefully this trend continues in the very sunny and warm state! To put this in perspective, it took California over 30 years to
Continue readingThings Are Good: More Evidence That Streetcars and Light Rail Improve North American Cities
In Toronto there is a crack smoking mayor who believes that streetcars and light rail are an urban blight. The evidence that rail-based transit is an economic boom to cities in North America continues to grow and more cities on the continent are benefiting from political decision (not made while
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