This smartphone app lets farmers control where their cows graze from afar
When left alone, livestock will often cluster in certain areas of a field while leaving other regions alone. That causes some sections to be overeaten, which makes the grass and soil there less healthy over time. The neglected areas—left to overgrow and develop weeds, and without the benefits Read More...
A new mandate in Boston could lead to more protected bike lanes across America
In many European cities, bicycles are king. Bicyclists have their own lanes, they have the right of way, and the city tries to do everything they can do to support bicycle-riding. In America, it’s a much different story, with cars dominating the roads and respect for bike lanes being Read More...
Tesla’s new Gigafactory is as high-tech as you might have expected—and more
When it’s fully complete, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, will be the largest building in the world, sprawling over 15 million square feet on a plot of land more than three times larger than Central Park. The building, which Elon Musk has called “the machine that builds the machine,” Read More...
This is what makes the Impossible Burger look and taste like real beef
At the Optimist Daily, we tend to write quite a bit about meat alternatives. After all, getting people to eat less meat (thus creating less emissions) by offering faux meat that looks and tastes just like the real thing seems to be working pretty well. Just look at Impossible Foods, which has Read More...
Scientists come up with device that generates electricity from snowfall
These days it seems scientists are finding ways to produce energy out of just about anything, from sunlight and wind to waves and cow manure. Generating electricity from falling snow can now be added to that list after scientists at UCLA developed a small device that does just that. Apparently, Read More...
Community solar projects are finally including low-income households
Although community solar projects are on the rise in America, there’s one major flaw: less than half of US community solar projects have any participation from low-income households, and of the projects that do include lower-earning families, only about 5 percent involved a sizable share above 10 Read More...
What educators can learn from the elementary school Lebron James set up
The elementary school that superstar basketball player Lebron James set up in his hometown of Akron, Ohio isn’t like other schools connected to celebrities. That’s mainly because the I Promise school, as it’s known, is not a charter school run by a private operator but a public school Read More...
The ‘electric quadricycle’ could soon replace delivery trucks in busy cities
The air quality is really bad in cities like London and the traffic is really slow. Meanwhile, with the growth of online shopping, there are more and more delivery trucks clogging the streets. That's where Electric Assisted Vehicles, or EAV, come in to play. The company just introduced an electric Read More...
Pro surfing just became one of the first US sports to pay men and women equally
The fight to achieve equal pay for both men and women has won a battle in a rather unlikely place: The World Surf League’s Championship Tour. When Stephanie Gilmore won the 2018 Rip Curl Pro competition, she earned $65,000 for her victory, while her male counterpart, Italo Ferreira, got $100,000 Read More...
Struggling with leisure guilt? Here are 5 ways to deal with it
Have you ever tried to enjoy some time away from your daily obligations only to feel guilty for doing so? If you have, you’re not alone. Plenty of people feel guilty when they try to take a moment off to relax, even after working all day on something. And while this might say something positive Read More...