Inspirational and good news.
Back in 1885, the Canadian government put a $500 headtax on Chinese immigrants entering the country (an amount equivalent to 2 years’ salary), after workers were no longer needed for the railway. This was later replaced with a ban of Chinese immigrants altogether, which wasn’t fully repealed until 1967.
However, the Canadian government has now agreed to compensate descendents of these immigrants.
Japan’s Princess Sayako has recently chosen to wed a non royal ‘commoner’ and has agreed to renounce her title to do it. After saying her farewells to the imperial family, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito abandoned her title as Princess. She is the first to do so in 45 years since her aunt married a non royal in 1960.
In this day and age many formal hiarchies aren’t holding as much power as they used to. For a woman to make a choice to lose her royal status (and royal allowance) for love is not only a very beautiful thing, but a step for woman everywhere who have their fate chosen for them.
The Japanese royal household currently faces a succession crisis, with no male heir produced for 40 years. As a result moves are under way to change the law to let women ascend the throne.
Yay woman power!!!
Meditation makes your brain bigger and better according to some new research. The act of meditation can increase grey matter in a few regions of your brain. This is a big thing because it is, as far as I know, the first time that meditation can actually impact the physical layout of the brain.
Canadian researchers have found a new way to easily detect fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Previous attempts to detect FAS have been mired by other factors, for instance it is hard to tell if a child has poor impulse control as a result of FAS or other factors like how they were raised.
The researchers found that doing a series of simple eye-tracking tests that children FAS had a similar patter, while those not diagnosed with FAS did not. Eye-tracking has been used to find other neurological problems, but now it has been applied to FAS with positive results.
Wireless technology has made small remotely-placed electronics more practical, but there was always a problem of how to power the electronics.
An inventor has found a way to make small windmills practical by using piezoelectric crystals. The crystals, when bent, produce a small electric current with more than enough power for a small device.
The breeze moves the fan which, in turn, compresses the crystals which, under pressure, release an electric current, then the power can be used for whatever.