A simple addition to the standard wind turbine setup called a wind lens can double, or even triple, the power output. Professor Prof. Yuji Ohya of the Kyushu University research institute for applied mechanics (RIAM) has been working with a team to improve the efficiency of wind turbines. Combining an
Continue readingAuthor: Adam
Things Are Good: How to be Happier at Work (and beyond)
Here’s a fun TED Talk on happiness and how we can better achieve at as individuals and as a society.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Competitive Carbon Footprint: GreenPocket
A German company had created a ‘game’ called GreenPocket that aims to make shrinking your carbon footprint competitive and fun. I’m quite curious how this will actually work, but I’m happy to see that the idea of making energy conservation entertaining is gaining steam. Based in Cologne, GreenPocket is a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Vancouver Reduces Sexual Assaults by 10% Using Male-Targeted Ads
It’s unfortunate that we still need ad campaigns to remind women to be safe from sexual assault, it’s even more unfortunate that we target these campaigns at women when men cause the vast majority of assaults. In Vancouver they launched a campaign targeted at men called ‘Don’t Be That Guy’.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Function Better in Your Old Age by Playing Music
Admit it: you’ve always wanted to play guitar, or perhaps, you’ve been meaning to pick it up again. Either way, you should! New research has found that people with musical training on any instrument were able to certain task better in their old age when compared to non-musicians. So pick
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cargo Container Coffee
In very unsurprising news: Starbucks has opened a new coffee shop. In surprising news: that Starbucks store is made from repurposed cargo containers! With many containers scrapped at the end of an average lifespan of 20 years, the Starbucks solution served to convert a potential waste stream from the company’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Victory for Chickens in Europe
Being a chicken who’s sole purpose is egg-laying can be hard because of the horrible living conditions. Too many animals, in this case chickens, are held in enclosures that don’t allow for movement. This is starting to change for chickens in Europe as they have now been granted better enclosures
Continue readingThings Are Good: Female Politicians Inspire Young Women
A new study from MIT has concluded that female politicians boosts aspirations, educational achievement of young women. There have been a few international initiatives that look to improve the world by empowering women and now we know that getting more women into politics actually does make the world better! Based
Continue readingThings Are Good: Organic Farming Better Than Factory Farming in 30 Year Study
This is certainly good news for people who eat: organic and sustainable food production is just as good – or even better – than the standard factory farming setup. After an initial decline in yields during the first few years of transition, Rodale Institute claims the organic system soon rebounded
Continue readingThings Are Good: Board Game Jam 2012
Board Game Jam is happening in Toronto February 25-26! If you’ve ever wanted to make a game then this is a place to start! Here’s a special challenge to Things Are Good readers: make a game that is designed to educate or empower people to make the world a better
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ban on Fast Food Ads Decreased Bad Eating Habits
Some say advertising doesn’t work, reality says advertising does work. The Province of Quebec banned fast food ads and research has come out proving that Quebec had a good idea: junk food consumption decreased! By comparing English-speaking households, who were less likely to be affected by the ban, to French-speaking
Continue readingThings Are Good: USA Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline
Yesterday saw two very effective protest movements in the USA, one was in regards to SOPA/PIPA and the other saw the Obama administration reject the Keystone XL pipeline. There are also concerns about carbon emissions from oil sands production in Alberta, a western Canadian province. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why We Went Down Yesterday
Yesterday you probably noticed that most of your favourite websites were down yesterday or had a notice up warning you about two bills in front of the American government. Those bills are SOPA and PIPA and essentially if these bills pass the internet would be all but dead to American
Continue readingThings Are Good: Occupy 2012 and Beyond
Megan Boler has an inspirational article on The Mark about the coming year in the Occupy Movement. She did research into the Occupy Movement and interviewed many participants to see what some people are still wondering – what’s occupy all about? Well, Boler points out that at the core there
Continue readingThings Are Good: Madrid Turned a Highway into a Park
Madrid made a very wise urban planning decision and buried a highway to make room for people and nature. Thanks to a lack of foresight, the Rio Manzanares was surrounded by concrete and industrial spaces that made for depressing scene. The smart people in Madrid decided to change that and
Continue readingThings Are Good: How do We Define Life?
Most of the news that gets covered here is related to new discoveries and good events happening around the world, but sometimes we need to take a step back from those discoveries and think deeper about what it all means. Recently NASA launched its most ambitious mission to Mars and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Carbon-Absorbing Material can Clean the Air
A new material that is inexpensive to produce is also good at absorbing CO2 emissions in the air. Hopefully we’ll see this material being applied to the medians on highways and other places close to planet-damaging carbon emission sources. Reporting their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Over 50% of Germany’s Renewable Energy Production Owned by People
Consumer-ready renewable energy can destabilize the traditional energy utility structure in a similar way to how the internet destabilized a lot of other old school industries. This is a good thing because it makes the production of resources (be it knowledge or energy or physical goods) more democratic and resilient
Continue readingThings Are Good: Austin, Texas: A Green Capital
This may shock you as much as it did me: Austin, Texas may just be the best place in the USA for clean-tech companies. Time Magazine has a good article on how the socially regressive state is forward-looking in the corporate sustainable energy sector. Ironically, or rather appropriately, the same
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Future of Transit: Gondolas
The Gondola Project is all about bringing fast and cheap public transit to cities by using (what else?) gondolas! Some people may think that gondolas are only for ski resorts or tourists but there’s a lot of growing interest around the world in using gondolas as an alternative to light
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