Quote of the Month
Maintaining order rather than correcting disorder is the ultimate principle of wisdom. To cure disease after it has appeared is like digging a well when one already feels thirsty or forging weapons after the war has already begun.
~ Huang Di Nei Jing
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This breathtaking photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
Quote of the Month
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead
Inspiration : Train Commuters Sing Along to Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Train Commuters Sing Along to Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Original article here: http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/morning-train-commuters-sing-along-to-somewhere-over-the-rainbow-watch/
Remember in October when we showed you a viral video of a dance party launched on a commuter train in Perth, Australia?
The same group who danced their way into the hearts of 40 million YouTube viewers has just followed up with shenanigans on another commuter train–this time a singalong.
On a wintery run of the 7:51 express train, they led passengers in a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a bold attempt to chase away the Monday morning blues with a ukulele player keeping time.
Peter Sharp, the founder of the participatory arts group called it, “Easily one of the most uplifting experiences we’ve ever helped create.”
Hilarious Couple Sing Karaoke at the Gas Pump on Hidden Tonight Show Camera (WATCH)
The Liberators, as they call themselves–named for the sense of freedom they want people to feel when expressing themselves in public–have coordinated five different experiences on trains from story telling, to dancing, and singing.
“This is my full time job,” Sharp told the Good News Network. “I am able to get paid doing DJ gigs that combine these acts of freedom at music festivals & family festivals and working with businesses to create interesting and ethically driven video content.”
They recruited some of their own people to ride the train and help get the singalong started, but reported that around 60 percent of those on board were actual commuters.
Read more about their mission, and a crowd-funding campaign to bring their antics to trains in Europe on their blog.
(WATCH the heart-warming moments below)
Inspiration - Teen Invention to Clean Ocean Launches Next Year
Original Story at Grist.org
Dutch Teen's Ocean-Cleaning Invention to Launch Next Year
By Liz Core
Don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Netherlands has an unstoppable deluge of unusual (and kinda amazing) green ideas, infrastructure, and, apparently, youths. Boyan Slat, boy inventor, has been working on a plan to clean up plastic waste in the ocean since 2012. His invention underwent a year-long feasibility study with a team of scientists and engineers. And now, the project is moving forward with a two-year trial off the waters of Japan in 2016.
A boy genius teaming up with a hundred researchers to help save the ocean? I sense a new Disney movie in the making, people! Slat’s idea, The Ocean Cleanup Array, consists of solar-powered spinning booms that act as a floating barrier and use the ocean’s currents to concentrate plastic. The trial version will be 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) long.
The 20-year-old said in a press release that if the project is successful, The Ocean Cleanup would soon begin a series of other deployments. Al Jazeera reports:
Within five years, the organization aims to deploy a 62-mile-long array that will be capable of capturing about half of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Slat said. According to a feasibility study conducted by the team of 100 scientists and engineers working with Slat, the giant array will be able to do that over 10 years.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding this big-thinking kid’s project, but there are reasons to be wary. For one thing, the best way to prevent plastic in the ocean is intercepting plastic before it hits water, as shit gets complicated fast. Case in point: The contraption likely won’t be able to clean up microplastics (broken-down pieces of garbage and microbeads) which are a major source of pollution and interfere with marine life ecosystems. Speaking of ecosystems, the stationary machine could destroy plankton, an effect The Ocean Cleanup claims would be short-lived under the worst-case scenario. The group also says not to worry about those other ocean animals: “Because no nets are used, entanglement of fish and mammals is virtually impossible.”
The array will also release a sizable amount of carbon (equivalent to several hundred cars), but, reads the company’s website, it’s a “negligible amount compared to the potential alternatives.”
In the chance that The Ocean Cleanup Array works flawlessly, we’d have Slat to thank for a gigantic ocean cleanup. Here’s hoping you don’t pull an Ice Town, kid.
Please read about the progress here: https://businessconnectworld.com/2018/02/21/the-ocean-cleanup-project/
The beautiful Featured Image Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash
Inspiration - Equador Tree Planting One Day Record
THIS IS AWESOME. And we all need a little more awesome. :)
Original Article here - http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ecuador-tree-planting-record/
Thousands of people teamed up this weekend to break a world record while doing something good for the earth. They planted 647,250 trees in a single day Saturday.
More than 44,000 people in Ecuador planted the trees at 150 sites across the country, snatching the Guinness World Record from a group in the Philippines, who broke the world record last year.
This was the most diverse single-day tree planting program anywhere in the world, with more than 200 species of trees planted to soak up carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen.
Ecuador holds another environmentally friendly record — the most plastic bottles recycled in a single week, 87,363 pounds.
You can read the full story on Discovery News - http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/ecuador-breaks-guinness-reforestation-record-150517.htm
Equador Tree Planting One Day Record : Chinese Medicine Living
