New Zealand just became the first nation in the world to mandate paid leave for domestic violence victims.
Any worker who is subjected to domestic violence is eligible for 10 days paid leave so they can take the necessary actions to separate from their partner, protect their family, move locations, or take legal action. The victim is not required to show any proof of the violence, and the legislation will also require employers to offer additional workplace safety measures, such as changing work locations or contact information.
The legislation, which was approved this week by 63 votes to 57, will go into full effect in April.
Green MP Jan Logie, who has spent the last seven years working on the measure, worked in a women’s shelter before she became a politician – and as representatives cheered for the bill, she was reportedly seen with tears in her eyes.
“Part of this initiative is getting a whole-of-society response. We don’t just leave it to police, but realize we all have a role in helping victims. It is also about changing the cultural norms and saying ‘we all have a stake in this and it is not OK’,” said Logie, according to The Guardian.
Legislators hope that the initiative will be the first of many steps taken to help domestic violence victims in New Zealand, which currently experiences the highest rates of domestic violence of any other developed country.
“Domestic violence doesn’t respect that split between work and life. A huge amount of research tells us a large number of abusive partners bring the violence into the workplace,” said Logie. “Be that by stalking their partner, by constant emails or phone calls or threatening them or their workmates. And some of that is about trying to break their attachment to their job to get them fired or get them to quit so they are more dependent on their partner.”
Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Friends – RepresentativePhoto by Banc de Sang i Teixits
Dogs pretty commonly love three things: their humans, treats, and good sticks.
And judging by how hard Lupe the dog was fighting for her stick, it must have been a really good stick.
Anne Peavey of Washington state was walking through a park with her family when she saw the pup trying to get a massive tree branch through a small gate.
Absorbed in the task at hand, Lupe kept running into the gate with the stick sticking horizontally out of her mouth – nevertheless, she persisted.
“We were coming off the river through the school playfield when we ran into her,” Peavey told Caters Clips. “Her owners were a bit ahead of her and didn’t appear to have noticed that she was struggling to get the big stick through the gateway.”
Peavey and her family kept offering words of encouragement to Lupe until finally, she managed to drag the stick through the gate – and the crowd went wild.
(WATCH the amusing video below)
Be Sure And Share The Pawesome Clip With Your Friends – Photo by Caters News Agency
Quote of the Day: “Become a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that can ripple out to all those around you.” – Desmond Tutu
Photo: by Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 31 Million views), CC license
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
An honest-hearted cab driver is being praised for returning hundreds of dollars worth of fare to a Chinese-American tourist after they accidentally overpaid.
The Chinese driver, Zhang Peng, had been working in the capital city of Xian in the Shaanxi province when he checked the online wallet of his WeChat app and saw that one of his passengers had paid 6,500 yuan for a 65 yuan fare.
For perspective, that’s paying about $950 for a $9.50 ride.
Peng suspected that the payment had been a mistake – and based on the time of the payment, he guessed that it had been made by four tourists who he had picked up from the train station and dropped off at a nearby hotel.
When he failed to contact the group through his dispatchers, he simply went to the hotel where he had dropped them off and explained the situation to the clerk at the front desk.
The man who made the payment came downstairs to meet the cab driver and was stunned to hear about his mistake. It was his first time visiting the Chinese city, and he says that he had been confused by the app’s online payment system.
“These systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay are all new to me,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post.
“I don’t really know how to use them. In the US when I pay, there’s usually a space for decimal points, so I thought I had to do the same here and ended up accidentally paying so much more.”
He was even more stunned when Peng turned down a reward and insisted on refunding him all of the excess fare.
Needless to say, the tourist left him a sparkling review on WeChat.
“I can’t believe it,” he wrote. “For some people, money is their only goal, and 6,500 yuan is a lot of money. I felt so excited yesterday because you returned it. I really appreciate it.”
Be Sure And Share The Good Deed With Your Friends – Photo by Senfwurst, CC
An implantable bioartificial kidney may be ready for human trials by the end of the year, according to a recent update from the researchers.
If approved by the FDA, the breakthrough creation could save thousands of patients currently on the transplant list for a new kidney.
The Kidney Project, which is the coalition heading the contraption’s development, published an update today saying that they have been asked to conduct additional preclinical testing before receiving approval for human trials.
“While the request for additional evidence was not anticipated, it is a measure of the revolutionary nature of our project that there is no precedent for safety reviews of similar technology and materials,” wrote the organization. “In that light, it is understandable that the research ethics boards are requesting additional data to document the safety of the bioartificial kidney.”
The project, which is headed by researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the University of Vanderbilt, and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), says that they are optimistic about receiving approval for the trials by late 2018 or early 2019.
The coalition first started causing buzz on the internet after they published their groundbreaking research back in February.
Creating an artificial implantable kidney would be an epic advance in medicine and could address a chronic shortage of donor kidneys needed for transplant. Researchers have been at this quest for the past 15 years and keep coming upon one extremely knotty problem: how to keep the blood flowing smoothly through the artificial device without clotting. In such devices, as blood platelets respond to mechanical forces, they have a natural tendency to clot, causing a device malfunction.
While dialysis saves thousands, if not millions, of lives each year, it is not an ideal solution for kidney disease. Instead of continuous blood filtration, which keeps blood chemistry within a healthy range, dialysis results in ultra-cleansed and nutrient-depleted blood, which becomes gradually more toxic until the following dialysis treatment.
An artificial kidney would provide the benefit of continuous blood filtration. It would reduce kidney disease illness and increase the quality of life for patients. While researchers have made progress on wearable models, to make the device implantable—driven by the body’s own blood flows—the clotting problem would need to be resolved.
The implantable artificial kidney—a bioengineered device that combines a high-efficiency silicon filter and a bioreactor of kidney tubule cells– is designed to accommodate up to a liter of blood per minute, filtering it through an array of silicon membranes. The filtered fluid contains toxins, water, electrolytes, and sugars. The fluid then undergoes a second stage of processing in a bioreactor of lab-grown cells of the type normally lining the tubules of the kidney. These cells reabsorb most of the sugars, salts, and water back into the bloodstream. The remainder becomes urine that is directed to the bladder and out of the body.
The researchers generated simulation and optimization results for two device designs that each channel blood through the artificial kidney filter system. Through simulation, they calculated that an individual platelet may flow through the artificial kidney as many as 1,000 times, accumulating stress and increasing the tendency to clot with each pass. One design distributes blood through parallel channels that pass across multiple layers of filtering membranes. The other channels blood back and forth through a single serpentine path.
Both designs met the researchers’ predetermined criteria for the uniform flow of blood through the devices and accumulation of shear stress forces on the platelets against the walls of the device flow channels.
The simulation approach has accelerated the project by saving on animal experimentation and offering a viable alternative to examine the pros and cons of different devices that contact blood. “To do that in animal studies is time consuming, expensive, and at some level you never know if it is going to work out—because animal blood is not the same as human blood,” said Shuvo Roy, one of the study’s co-authors.
Will the device have all the functions of a native kidney? “No,” Roy said. “But the goal is for it to perform the functions that are critical, and to be a device that, once implanted, will allow a patient to eat and drink freely, have mobility, better health overall, and unlike a transplant, not require immunosuppressant drugs.”
“We are hopeful that the first clinical trial will begin this year,” Roy told Snopes back in March. “If all goes well and funds are available, we could be on the market as early as 2020.”
The Kidney Project says that they have already received an abundance of applications for the human trials. Screenings will proceed once they receive approval from the board of ethics.
(WATCH the explanatory video below)
Heal Your Friends Of Negativity And Share The News With Your Friends – Photo by iStock via NIH
Most bus drivers are on a tight schedule, but that didn’t stop from this compassionate transit worker from taking the time to help an older blind man maneuver a street that was under construction.
69-year-old Gene Hubbard is blind from diabetes, but he has still been going to work unassisted for the last 20 years. He knows exactly how to get to his place of work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from the bus stop, but when the intersection recently went under construction, he found himself in a tricky spot.
“If I don’t have a regular locating point to start from, I may as well be in the middle of the ocean,” Hubbard told WITI.
Thankfully, 28-year-old Thaddaus Turner could sense his distress.
When the Milwaukee County Transit System bus driver noticed the plethora of orange cones at Hubbard’s stop, he parked the vehicle, followed the man down the step, took his arm, and helped him to maneuver past the road work.
His job was made even easier by an oncoming car that stopped traffic to allow them to pass – little did he know that the driver, Sydney Kazmierczak, was simultaneously taking a photo of Turner’s good deed so she could sent it to news outlets and praise him for his kindness.
“I feel like I was placed there at the right time to capture this moment!!” writes Kazmierczak. “I am so happy I quick pulled out my phone to snap the picture! Thad deserves to be recognized!!”
Turner, however, doesn’t think much of the incident, beyond offering credit to his fellow bus drivers for the same kindness that they show their passengers every day.
“The route was barricaded, it was rough for me as a driver, I can only imagine how rough it was for him,” Turner told CNN. “I was surprised when I saw it in the news. I didn’t think I would be here right now over something that is second nature to me, and my colleagues.”
(WATCH the video below)
Drive Your Friends To This Story Of Pedestrian Kindness By Sharing To Social Media – Photo by Sydney Kazmierczak
Indian schools are adding a new element of education to their intensively academic curriculums: happiness.
Over 1,000 Delhi schools are now kicking off their school day with 30 to 45 minute-long happiness classes in which the kids are taught about mindfulness and self-care, rather than math and science.
Legislators hope that the program will help to relieve the anxiety and stress that is notoriously synonymous with Indian curriculums.
“We have given best-of-the-best talent to the world,” said Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s education minister, according to The Washington Post. “We have given best-of-the-best professionals to industry. We have been successful so far. But have we been able to deliver best-of-the-best human beings to society, to the nation?”
The news outlet goes on to emphasize the rigid structure of the nation’s educational system; top universities typically only accept students with test scores of 98% or higher; emphasis on grades and testing has triggered high rates of stress amongst public school students; and India’s industrialization process has pushed thousands of students to pursue careers in skilled labor positions, which has raised concern over whether grads and young citizens are ignoring the importance of creativity and wellness.
“If a person is going through our education system for 18 years of his life and is becoming an engineer or a civil servant, but is still throwing litter on the ground or engaging in corruption, then can we really say that the education system is working?” says Sisodia, according to The Post.
But with the happiness classes, teachers talk with students about inspirational figures and uplifting stories; pupils undergo guided meditation; and they are asked to visualize things that make them happy as a means of improving their mood and motivation. The best part? There are no grades, tests, or textbooks for the class.
Though Indian teachers only have anecdotal evidence of the course’s success since its recent implementation, a similar US-based meditation program has experienced dramatic success amongst at-risk students.
The Quiet Time Program showed a 65% decrease in violent conflict, a 40% reduction in stress and anxiety, and an 86% reduction in suspensions over a two-year period, along with a dramatic increase in self-confidence, creativity, and happiness.
Yale’s own course on happiness and wellness was so popular with their students, they started teaching it online for free.
An 11-year-old Delhi student summed up the lesson of the happiness classes quite nicely by saying: “We should work happily … [because] when you work sadly, your work will not be good.”
Be Sure And Share The Happy News With Your Friends – Photo by Travphotos, CC
A group of rescuers pulled off a daring extraction operation earlier this month as a means of saving an endangered climber.
A 27-year-old Texan man had climbed to the summit of Mt. Hood in Oregon where he planned on taking an excess of medication to commit suicide. Upon making it to the top of the mountain, however, the climber changed his mind.
But the man could not get down on his own – so after calling for help, the 304th rescue squadron from the Oregon Army National Guard arrived by helicopter to help.
The conditions were risky; due to the warm weather, there was an abundance of avalanches, and the rocks and ice were prone to falling.
Not to be deterred from their rescue, the pilot managed to pull off a “pinnacle landing” at 11,000 feet, meaning they parked the rear two wheels of the Chinook helicopter on the mountainside so the rescuers could board the aircraft by plank.
Frighteningly enough, the unusual positioning meant that the helicopter’s rotors were at chest height, rather than far above their heads.
“Because of the angle, we had to crawl out there just to get under the rotor blades,” the squadron’s Joshua Kruse told KOIN. “It’s kind of surreal but you just have to trust that the pilots know what they’re doing.”
Thankfully, everyone made it out safely. The whole rescue operation took roughly 30 minutes from take-off in Welches to landing. The climber was then loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
(WATCH the incredible video below)
Save Your Friends From Negativity And Share The Inspiring Clip With Your Friends – Photo by KOIN
Quote of the Day: “No man is a failure who is enjoying life.” – William Feather
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Lesson: Tony Robbins defines the single most powerful motivational function of the human mind: the desire to stay true to one’s identity. He banishes myths such as “lucky coincidences” and the notion that one can “stumble into success”; because the difference between people who are fit, wealthy, and have fulfilling relationships and those who do not is the standards to which they hold themselves. Those who fundamentally define themselves as people who are overweight, condition their minds in order to stay overweight – and those who define themselves as athletes will do whatever it takes to maintain their identity. In this talk, Tony Robbins breaks down these standards into bite-sized, daily pieces called rituals that make it possible for anyone to become more disciplined and achieve all of their goals.
Notable Excerpt: “I remember one time I was with my family at the circus and they had this big giant elephant and they take this little rope and put it around this elephant’s neck and they drive this stake into the ground and you know that elephant could rip down that entire tent with almost no effort and yet the elephant doesn’t struggle, doesn’t try. Why? Because the elephant is conditioned. And they take that elephant and condition it when it’s a baby elephant – that’s how they train them. When it’s a little baby elephant and it doesn’t have the power yet, they put a big rope around it and drive this huge stake in the ground and the elephant fights and fights and fights and one day finally that elephant decides – I’m not capable of pulling this out. And once that becomes the definition of an identity of anyone – an elephant, in this case – they don’t even try anymore. It’s just who I am, that’s how it is, that’s just the way it is in my life. I’d like to ask you to take a look at any place in your life with a limitation and ask yourself: when did I decide to accept that limitation?”
The Speaker:Tony Robbins is a best-selling author, motivational speaker, life coach, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. The California-based strategist has become such an influential lecturer, over 4 million people have attended his live seminars. In addition to founding several different companies (and his own foundation), Robbins has also done with work with such charities as Feeding America, Spring Health, and Operation Underground Railroad.
Most people would insist that their canine companions are good dogs – but this sweet new piece of research may prove that they’re even better than you think.
A study that was conducted at the Ripon College in Wisconsin researches whether dogs are empathetic animals who are upset by their owner’s pain. In order to study this claim, the researchers recruited 34 dogs and their owners for a social experiment. The dogs, who were of varying degrees of age, breed and training, were kept in one room while their owners were kept in another room that was separated by a transparent plexiglass door.
Half of the owners were asked to say the word “help” every 15 seconds in a distressed tone, and make crying noises in between. The other half of the owners were asked to say “help” in a normal tone, and hum “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” in between. The researchers then studied the dogs’ reactions to their owners.
Since the plexiglass was only secured by three small magnets, the dogs could easily open the doors as a means of getting to their owners. Roughly half of the dogs opened the doors for their owners – and although there was no difference between the dogs who opened their doors for the calm owners versus the distressed owners, the time it took for them to open the doors varied greatly.
It only took the dogs in the crying group an average of 23 seconds to open the doors, while the dogs in the humming group took an average of 96 seconds.
Additionally, dogs who did not end up opening the door in the crying group showed very clear signs of distress, such as panting and pacing, which imply that the canines were too anxious to know how to help because they may “love you too much”. The dogs who did end up opening the door showed lower signs of stress which implies that they were trying to keep a calm head in order to optimize their assistance.
“The idea is that if you can perceive someone else being in distress but it doesn’t overwhelmingly stress you personally, then you’re more likely to be able to provide help,” the study’s co-author, Emily Sanford, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Johns Hopkins University, told CNN.
Plus, the researchers say that owners should not be concerned about their dogs not opening the doors, because if humans experience varying degrees of empathy, then dogs probably would as well.
“There are some people who just don’t have as strong empathy toward other people,” said Sanford, according to TIME. “So we are not surprised at all to find that there’s a range in other species besides our own.”
Some might say that it’s luck that saved Michael Garth Sr.’s life after the Waffle House shooting back in April – others might say it was fate. Regardless, he credits his survival to a waitress whose simple actions led to his survival.
Virginia Stanley had been working at the restaurant in Antioch, Tennessee when Garth and his friends walked in looking for a meal. Since the waitress was washing dishes, she suggested that the group sit at a different table because she didn’t want to splash water on them.
This small suggestion put Garth and his friends just out of range of the gunfire that later hit the restaurant.
In the month following the incident, Garth’s mother Vickie Davis became determined to track down Stanley and thank her for the little gesture that saved her son’s life.
By chance, Davis was getting her tires changed when she happened to run into the Waffle House’s former manager, who then put her in touch with Stanley’s fiancé. As the two chatted, Stanley’s fiancé told Davis that they were soon getting married and his bride-to-be had been trying to get a wedding dress for the ceremony.
So as a means of repaying the waitress for her kindness, Davis contacted Glitz Nashville bridal store about securing a dress. Since the shop gives free dresses to women in the military, Davis, who is an Army veteran, made a special request to the store and asked them to donate a dress to Stanley.
Though it took some persistence, the store eventually obliged and gave Stanley her dream wedding dress for free.
Stanley and her fiancé have expressed their love and gratitude towards Davis for her compassion, but the determined mother isn’t done yet. Stanley has been in and out of the hospital since the shooting, and she has difficulty being around loud noises or large crowds – so now, Davis wants to pair Stanley with a therapy dog to help her deal with her anxiety.
“I’m on a mission today to try and find someone to donate her a service dog,” Davis told CNN. “I don’t know how, but I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
Be Sure And Share This Sweet Story Of Kindness With Your Friends – Photo by Michael Garth Sr.
Social media users were outraged on Sunday when a Twitter video was released of a Chicago Cubs fan who seemed to be getting away with a dastardly deed – and even though it turned out to be a misunderstanding, the incident highlighted true sportsmanship in everybody involved.
The video, which was published by sports outlet Cut4, depicted a Cubs player tossing a baseball to a young boy in the stands. The ball hits the floor, rolls behind the little fan’s seat, and is then snagged by an older man in the row behind him.
The man can be seen handing the ball to his wife as the boy looks on, and despite it being an incriminating image, the situation is not how it seems.
Thinking that the boy’s foul ball had been stolen by another spectator, the youngster was later given another ball that was autographed by Javier Baez, the Cubs’ infielder.
The boy was then delighted to be the proud owner of two game balls… that’s right, two game balls.
While the Cubs’s kind gesture towards a young fan may have been heartwarming enough, several Twitter users came forward to elaborate on the older man’s actions.
Chuck Mycoff was one of the spectators who had been sitting next to the man throughout the game. He took to social media to say that even though the gentleman looked like he had been stealing a prized possession from a kid, he had been catching foul balls throughout the game so he could give them to youngsters sitting around them.
A few innings previously, the man had caught a foul ball and given it to the very boy who received the Baez autograph – hence why he ended up with two game balls.
I was sitting next to this guy. That ball was between my feet. The kid already had a ball the same guy helped him get. He handed it to his wife. She took a picture of it and they gave it to the kid next to them. This guy was great. This story is BAD.
Japanese scientists have found that applying ultrasound waves to the brain can improve cognitive dysfunction – and possibly combat dementia.
The research found that applying low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to the brains of mice improved blood vessel formation and nerve cell regeneration without having obvious side effects.
The research, which was conducted by scientists at Tohoku University in Japan and led by cardiologist Hiroaki Shimokawa, shows promising results for human treatment.
“The LIPUS therapy is a non-invasive physiotherapy that could apply to high-risk elderly patients without the need for surgery or anesthesia, and could be used repeatedly,” says Shimokawa.
Despite dementia affecting about 50 million people worldwide, there are currently no curative treatments available for vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, the most common causes of dementia. Also, the cells lining the brain’s blood vessels are tightly packed, forming a blood-brain barrier that prevents large molecules from crossing into the brain tissue. This limits the types of drugs and cell therapies that could be made available to treat dementia.
Shimokawa and his team had conducted previous studies showing that LIPUS improved blood vessel formation in pigs with myocardial ischemia, a condition where there is reduced blood flow to the heart. Other studies have reported that LIPUS increases the production of proteins involved in nerve cell survival and growth, in addition to a role in promoting nerve regeneration. Focusing LIPUS treatment on a region in the brain called the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, has also been found to improve dementia in mice, but the details of how it does this need to be more fully investigated.
The Tohoku University team wanted to find out if whole-brain rather than focused LIPUS is effective in treating mouse models of dementia, and if it was, what was happening at the molecular levels to achieve this.
They found that cognitive impairment markedly improved in mice with conditions similar to vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease when LIPUS was applied to the whole brain three times a day for 20 minutes each time. The mice with vascular dementia received the treatment on the first, third and fifth days following a surgical procedure that limited the brain’s blood supply. The mice with a condition simulating Alzheimer’s disease in humans received 11 LIPUS treatments over a period of three months.
At the molecular level, genes related to the cells lining blood vessels were turned on. Also, there was increased expression of an enzyme involved in blood vessel formation and a protein involved in nerve cell survival and growth.
The researchers conclude that their study, recently published in the journal Brain Stimulation, provides the first experimental evidence that whole-brain LIPUS therapy markedly improves cognitive dysfunctions without serious side effects by enhancing specific cells related to dementia’s pathology.
The first clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the LIPUS treatment are already underway.
An anonymous stranger is making headlines after she picked up the tab for an exhausted group of EMTs who were eating breakfast after a long overnight shift.
The medics, who are on the Toms River First Aid Squad of New Jersey, had just finished eating their pancakes at an iHOP when they asked for the check.
Instead, they got a receipt from the woman who had already paid for their collective $77 meal, saying: “Thank you for all you do! Have a great day! –Recovering Addict”
Captain Alyssa Golembeski says that when she read the note, it brought an emotional hush over their “boisterous bunch” of medics.
Golembeski and her five other crew members tried to ask the manager who the anonymous benefactor was, but he said that the woman did not want anyone to know her name, and she had already left the restaurant.
“It was just a reminder that there is still so much good in the world. The note and paying for our breakfast…we are a boisterous bunch but that brought our table to complete silence,” Golembeski told nj.com.
Despite not being able to thank her properly, the First Aid Squad posted a picture of the note on Facebook with a caption thanking the woman for her kindness and wishing her luck on her road to recovery.
“This gift was amazingly thoughtful, and brought our table of tired EMTs to tears,” said the squad. “We are so blessed to be able to serve you and everyone else who lives and works in the greater Toms River area. Good luck on your journey of recovery!”
Pass On The Positivity And Share The Good News With Your Friends – Photo by Toms River First Aid Squad
Quote of the Day: “You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” – Yogi Bhajan
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Lesson: The Plastic Bank has two enemies: extreme poverty and ocean pollution – and their unique business model is bringing an end to both issues by selling essential products to people for the price of plastic waste, which they then give to companies for recycling. David Katz, Plastic Bank’s CEO, says that this brings us one step closer to closing the loop in the circular economy because “preventing ocean plastic could be humanity’s richest opportunity.”
Notable Excerpt: “We are the world’s largest chain of stores for the ultra-poor, where everything in the store is available to be purchased using plastic garbage. Everything. School tuition. Medical insurance. Wi-Fi, cell phone minutes, power. Sustainable cooking fuel, high-efficiency stoves. And we keep wanting to add everything else that the world may need and can’t afford.”
The Guest: David Katz is the founder and CEO of the Plastic Bank, the only organization that monetizes plastic waste and provides opportunities for the world’s disadvantaged to trade and collect plastic waste as currency.
(LISTEN to the inspiring talk below) – Photo by The Plastic Bank
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This organization is transforming piles of trash into a gorgeous way of fighting river pollution.
The Recycled Island Foundation has been collecting litter from the Maas River in Rotterdam and recycling it into floating islands that benefit people and the aquatic ecosystem on which they drift.
For a year and a half, the organization used litter traps placed at strategic points along the river to collect trash from the water.
The Dutch group then sorted and recycled the materials into hexagonal platforms that are designed to float on the river’s surface.
By filling the platforms with greenery and native plant species, the platforms can benefit larger land critters and offer up shelter and breeding grounds for microorganisms and fish.
After 5 years of research, development, and work, the foundation’s first recycled park just opened up in Rotterdam on July 4th. The innovative public space is 1,500 square feet of habitat made from 28 hexagonal platforms.
The organization is now looking for new locations to continue their mission and build more parks
(WATCH the video below)
Clean Up Negativity And Share The Good News With Your Friends – Photo by Recycled Island Foundation
French tire maker Michelin has announced that they will be replacing their tire’s oil-based ingredients with wood chips instead.
The gesture is part of the company’s efforts to make one set of their tires last a lifetime.
Additionally, using locally-source wood chips as a renewable ingredient in the products is expected to help curb the tire industry’s dependency on oil. Wood ingredients are also expected to drastically lower production costs.
Michelin’s first wood-based tire is expected to be unveiled in 2020.
“The elastomers from wood chips will replace the oil content in tires. 80% of the materials in tires are coming from oil,” says Cyrille Roget, the company’s worldwide director of scientific and innovation communication, according to Motoring.
“We have a project working with wood chips. We will use the waste from the wood industry to create elastomers that come into tires,” he added. “We believe it is a good solution for the future.”
The company is currently working with self-sustaining wood plantations in Brazil as a means of developing the process.
Another method that Michelin will be using to extend the lifespan of their tires will be using 3D printers to retread and repair tires as they’re worn down from use.
The company estimates that 3D printing tire surfaces will not come to fruition for another 10 or 15 years, but it may be much sooner depending on how the technology develops.
Roll The Good News Over To Your Friends And Share To Social Media – Photo by TheDaddy_Chazz, CC
A young man’s perseverance and spirit has earned him praise from around the world – and a big reward and friendship he didn’t see coming. Click above to hear The Good News Guru tell the inspiring story (from the July 20, 2018 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5 radio).
