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.
Colombia, FARC will announce peace deal: government sources
Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels will announce on Wednesday that they have reached a final peace agreement, three officials connected with the government negotiating team said. A deal would aim to bring an end to a half century of conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Read More...
Is the Library of Things an answer to our peak stuff problem?
The carpet is filthy. Guests are about to arrive. You have several choices: buy a carpet cleaning machine (around £130 upwards), pay for a professional cleaning company (about £40), or rent a machine from a private hire firm (around £29 for two days). Or, if you live in West Read More...
Denmark has figured out how to teach kids empathy and make them happier adults
Empathy, or the ability to read another person’s emotions, is a critical life skill. Many fear children are losing it—and that they’ll be less happy as adults as a result. A University of Michigan study of nearly 14,000 college students found that students today have about 40% Read More...
Germany's plans for the successful integration of refugees
As one prominent Canadian journalist put it, cities that have experienced a large influx of refugees can be “where the new creative and commercial class will be born, or where the next wave of tension and violence will erupt.” Germany wants to make sure it’s not the latter. In a new Read More...
Paris is redesigning its major intersections for pedestrians, not cars
Right now, the Place de la Bastille in Paris is basically a traffic island: A huge memorial sits in the middle of a road packed with cars. There's no way to easily cross the street on foot. But that will soon change. The square is one of seven major sites that Paris is redesigning for pedestrians Read More...
Locating and fighting poverty with satellite data
One of the biggest challenges in providing relief to people living in poverty is locating them. The availability of accurate and reliable information on the location of impoverished zones is surprisingly lacking for much of the world. Stanford researchers have found a way to use satellite Read More...
How to use color to improve nearly every aspect of your life
Color is an unspoken language that successfully communicates with our conscious and subconscious minds. Understanding how color affects each aspect of our routines can help us live more fulfilling lives. Here's a primer on all the different ways color can move you: The colors we use at home can Read More...
How to squeeze in meditation when you have absolutely no time
For eight years, I lived in a quiet, peaceful neighborhood surrounded by nature. I lived right by the beach in California and went on silent meditation retreats three times per year in the San Bernardino Mountains. On my first four-day meditation retreat, I was given the task of cleaning the dishes Read More...
How San Francisco’s hippy explosion shaped the modern world
On 12 July 1967, Florida newspaper the St Petersburg Times had an eye-catching front-page headline: “Dame Margot, Nureyev seized in hippie raid.” Police had busted a party in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, and unexpectedly ensnared two world-famous gatecrashers: Margot Fonteyn and Read More...
Twitter analysis shows that most Americans welcome refugees
The U.S. is a country built on immigrants—many of them, at some point in time, were refugees of some kind. That’s why the anti-refugee rhetoric that has entered American politics doesn’t fit. But an interesting analysis of Twitter tweets shows that a majority of Americans still support Read More...