Inspirational and good news.
A new test has been created to test for the human form of mad cow disease, CJD. The new test for CJD is predicted to be a great step forward for finding a cure!
“Screening the population could energise the search for vCJD treatments, since drug companies are reluctant to carry out research on treating a disease that has caused about 150 deaths, with the numbers of cases declining from a peak in 2000.”
The World Cup has scored a green goal! Sorry, I couldn’t resist such cheesy writing. Seriously though, the World Cup organizers in Germany have surpassed their own goal of making the event have a small ecological footprint as possible. One thing they wanted to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that normally would have been released for such a large event by encouraging bike riding and riding public transit. They did more too!
“There are water-free urinals, overflow limiters on the wash-basins and electricity-saving measures, which are all things that save resources but go virtually unnoticed. The fans also don’t get to see the solar panels on the stadiums, which is a shame.”
The infamous 5-second rule is true. You know, it’s the rule when you drop food on the ground and it’s still good for 5-seconds so you can still eat it. Basically, a lot of surfaces are actually cleaner than we think so they don’t contain a lot of bacteria. I’ve also heard that it some bacteria (and some other gross things) need more time to cling to food than just 5-seconds.
“”Jillian swabbed the floors around the University in the lab, hall, dormitory, and cafeteria to see how many organisms we could isolate,” Agle tells WebMD. “We examined the swabs, and there were very few microorganisms. That surprised me. I told her to do it again.”
The results were the same. Agle has since earned her doctoral degree and is a scientist in new product development for Rich Foods in Buffalo, N.Y. “I think the floors were so clean, from a microbiological point of view, because floors are dry, and most pathogens — like salmonella, listeria, or E. coli — can’t survive without moisture.” “
A personal friend and overall great thinker once recited that books tended to reveal themselves to people at the right time and place. Some might say coincidence, I say fortune. Book Crossing attempt to engineer that experience by seeding the luck market.
The idea is simple. Register your book online and recieve a free BC-ID (Book Crossing IDentification) and release your book into the wild. This could be your favorite coffee shop, under a tree or any place of significance. Random people discover your book, read about book crossings, re-register the book online and begin reading. Users can track the books they release and monitor the progress. Alternatively, you can “hunt” for books in your local area.
Since consumers are the best critics, book crossings are an excelent way to discover books that impacted other peoples lives. I quote from the Ray Anderson the founder of Interface who attributes his companies environmental paradigm to a chance reading of the Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken.
A new website has been launched by two mothers as a reaction to increasing tuition fees in the UK that allows parents to swap children. Student Swaps is exactly as it sounds. The idea is that for two families to save money they can have one child trade bedrooms with another – for free.
“The principle behind Student Swaps is to enable students to literally swap family homes. The website will hold a database of students who would like to swap and link them with suitable matches. So those from one town/city could swap with those from a different town/city. ”
This a great idea! It will allow for students and their families to save money and broaden their horizons.