Miscellaneous
Fighting for freedom of the press
Freedom of the press is not a given in many African countries. In Liberia it was impossible for many, many years to write anything critical about government leaders. Now, in 2014, it’s getting better. That is in part due to the long fight for freedom of the press by the journalist Tom Kamara, who Read More...
Sharing economy expands to cities and states
The sharing economy works well for people, services like ride-sharing platform Lyft, and the apartment rental service Airbnb are showing. A new website, MuniRent, aims to bring municipalities into the sharing arena. MuniRent allows cities, counties, and states to rent, or rent-out large equipment Read More...
Digital currencies promise to serve and empower people
There’s hardly anything that can have a deeper impact when it comes to changing the world for the better than a more fair and just money system. The current financial system works best for established institutions and a few individuals—that 1% is not such a bad guess. But in this field as well Read More...
Global cooling and the need for kindness
Italian psychologist and author of The Power of Kindness, Piero Ferruci warns against the dangers of “global cooling”. As the pace of our lives increases and there’s more and more technology around us, our communication tends become less and less personal. The drive for efficiency and profit Read More...
Lego paleontologists
‘Boys as well as girls should be able to play with the same Legos’, that is one of the ten commandments of Lego (Yes, the company came up with that themselves). However, most Lego characters are still men, discovered the Dutch scientist Ellen Kooijman. Kooijman works in Stockholm as an isotope Read More...
Marriage of F1 technology and public transit make buses more efficient
A hybrid motor that made its debut on the F1 circuit will be used in London’s public buses to increase fuel efficiency. The technology called Gyrodrive is a high tech flywheel (a mechanism that stores energy as momentum) and harnesses power that is usually lost as heat. The way Gyrodrive works, Read More...
Electric car sales more than doubled in Europe
Sales of electric cars are surging in Europe. In 2013 nearly 50,000 electric vehicles were sold in European Union member countries, more than twice the number, 22,000, sold in 2012. The analysis of data collected by the Transport & Environment (T&E) campaign group points to three new Read More...
Man-made leaf could produce oxygen for deep space travel
One of the major barriers to humans embarking on deep space travel has been the challenge of taking enough oxygen for humans to survive—plants are extremely difficult to grow in zero gravity. A new leaf designed by Julian Melchior as part of the Royal College of Art’s Innovation Design Read More...
One happy man
Below is the the last winner of our Optimist of The Month contest. Know some one we should feature for the next issue? Send Optimist of The Month nominations to editor[at]theoptimist[dot]com. [caption id="attachment_306951" align="alignright" width="200"] HappyWe app creator Chiel van der Linden Read More...
Anger is healthy
Historically, many societies have viewed anger as “bad”—an emotion that must be suppressed or concealed, lest it do terrible damage when it’s unleashed. But it’s natural to feel anger in the course of our daily lives, whether it’s triggered by trivial annoyances (another driver cuts you Read More...