Lifestyle
Alongside taking care of other people and the planet, make sure you take good care of yourself. The Lifestyle section at the Optimist Daily has solutions for everyday wellbeing on topics like food, beauty, fashion, and the latest trends. Curious about caring for houseplants, eating plant-based, or parenting tips? It’s all in there.
Bitcoin helped a home buyer make a $1.3 million profit off his home purchase
Sometimes, making a payment results in a big payday — for you. At least, if you’re making that payment with a volatile cryptocurrency that has a tendency to undergo rather large swings in worth. One bitcoin enthusiast managed to luck into not only a new house, but a $1.3 million profit Read More...
Crowdfunding and blockchain: A perfect match?
In the last few years, sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have revolutionized the world for startups. Ideas that didn't have mainstream business appeal were not only getting off the ground, but flourishing. Blockchain crowdfunding might just be the next step in startup evolution, helping Read More...
Finland’s “baby boxes” for new mothers are going global
All new mothers in Finland receive a “maternity package” for themselves and their newborn babies. The practice was introduced in 1938 when the infant mortality rate in the country was 65 deaths per 1,000 births. Today that figure stands at 1.3 deaths per 1,000 births—one of the lowest in the Read More...
How we launched a refugee centre from scratch in 96 hours
One Wednesday late last year I took a call from the Home Office asking my charity, Catch22, to set up and run a respite centre for up to 70 refugee boys arriving imminently from Calais. Our challenge, within 96 hours, was to find a site, assemble and prepare an adequate number of staff and await a Read More...
Uber passes Starbucks as business travelers' no. 1 expense
A new study found that 6 percent of all business travel transactions in 2016 were with Uber, making the ridesharing company the most common expense, in terms of transactions. Uber grabbed the honor from Starbucks, which remains the most popular meal expense. Certify, a provider of travel and Read More...
The US can learn from India's move towards a cashless society
Published Silicon Valley fancies itself the global leader in innovation. Its leaders hype technologies such as bitcoin and blockchain, which some claim are the greatest inventions since the Internet. They are so complex that only a few mathematicians can understand them, and they require massive Read More...
Study: For anxiety, mindfulness meditation works
A clinical trial backed by the National Institutes of Health has provided new evidence that mindfulness meditation effectively fights anxiety. Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry worked with 89 patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders to Read More...
Study: A “psychological vaccine” inoculates against the dangers of fake news
This would be funny if fake news wouldn’t be a serious issue. Psychologists have found that a type of “psychological vaccine” could stop the spread of a piece of fake news by exposing people to weakened forms of it—just as vaccines immunize people by exposing them to a weakened version of a Read More...
No walls: More people than ever traveled around the world in 2016
We increasingly live in a global village and that’s not going to change. Despite all the talk of borders and walls, more people than ever traveled around the world in 2016. There was a record of 1.23 billion international tourist arrivals last year. Europe was the top destination with 620 million Read More...
Self-propelled lifesaving buoy zips out and retrieves drowning swimmers
Here's a nifty lifesaving idea from Noras Performance out of Portugal. U-Safe is a lifesaving buoy that can drive itself around in the water by remote control, meaning it can reach a victim quickly, and transport them to safety if need be. The U-shaped U-safe is a battery powered device you can Read More...