Miscellaneous
Possibility: Milk without the moo
From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 Our parents knew milk comes from cows. Our children may think, as the joke goes, milk comes from the supermarket. Their grandchildren, however, may think it comes from breweries. A pair of young, vegan bio-engineers in the U.S. are producing milk in a radical Read More...
Possibility: Keeping refugees afloat
From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 A quarter of a million. That’s the number of immigrants and asylum seekers who have already tried to get to Europe in 2015 by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the highest number on record, according to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees. Thousands Read More...
This is what Tibetan monks and Navy SEALs have in common
Abraham Maslow once famously said, “When all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” What he meant was, when it comes to problem-solving, we tend to get locked into using familiar tools in expected ways. The technical term for this is the Law of the Instrument. Give someone Read More...
Research finds common grass could help boost food security
Australian researchers have discovered that the common Panic grasses could hold the secret to increasing the yields of cereal crops and help feed the world with increasing temperature extremes and a population of nearly 10 billion people by 2050. The findings, published in Nature Plants, show the Read More...
Bitcoin has hit a three-month high
Bitcoin rose to an almost three-month high amid a surge in volume as the yuan extended a six-year low, bolstering Chinese demand for alternative assets. The cryptocurrency jumped as much as 4 percent from Friday to $655.50, the highest since July 29, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read More...
Regenerative agriculture: More important now than ever
Last week’s news that Monsanto and Bayer would merge to form the world’s largest agribusiness company sent shockwaves throughout the food industry. Will our food system continue to unify under a few conglomerates? Or can alternatives, like regenerative agriculture, shift the Read More...
'One million children' join Buddhist meditation event
Every year, a project called V-Star Change the World brings schoolchildren to a Buddhist temple in Thailand for a day of meditation. Organisers claim that one million children attended the most recent event at the Phra Dhammakaya temple near Bangkok. The temple has attracted controversy in the Read More...
Unique meditation pavilion in the Netherlands generates its own mist
The Meditation Pavilion and Garden were designed to cultivate a tranquil atmosphere and harness the calming potential of water. The enclosed volume spreads from bank to bank and draws the water inside to blur the line between the interior and exterior space. It houses changing rooms and a bathroom Read More...
Cooking with a meal kit may waste 62% less food than grocery store ingredients
Like other meal-kit-in-a-box startups, Blue Apron is premised on convenience. But the company has always argued that their model has another benefit—slashing food waste. Each meal comes with only the precise amount needed for each ingredient, whether it's a single carrot, three dates, or a Read More...
How to be mindful with a cup of coffee
“It would seem that meditating by coffee is an oxymoron,” says Gloria Chadwick, the author of “Zen Coffee: A Guide to Mindful Meditation.” “Coffee jazzes you up and meditation calms you down.” Focus on the sensations coming from your coffee. Notice the warmth, the rising steam. How does Read More...