This is Good News Friday, where we find some good economic, energy, and environmental news and share it with PP readers. Please send any positive news to dd@peakprosperity.com with subject header "Good News Friday." We will save and post weekly. Enjoy!
Economy
Teachers Begin To See Unfair Student Loans Disappear (jdargis)
“Two years of us fighting this,” McCollum said. “We won,” she tells NPR. “We raised our voices and they finally heard us. Disbelief followed by a relief like I have not felt before.”
The Farmworkers Who Pick Your Halo Mandarins Just Organized a Massive Labor Strike (tmn)
Through four days of protests at the edge of the fields, the workers—with assistance from UFW—not only won their wage rate back from one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the country. They’ve also begun to expose a predatory and mostly under-the-radar farm labor contractor system, and they’re part of a larger effort to revitalize and empower workers in the food system.
Is Dancing the Kale of Exercise? (jdargis)
Mr. Manning shimmied and taught dance classes around the world 40 weekends a year until he died. “Dancing is what keeps me young,” he said in a television interview with the ABC affiliate in Seattle in 2007, just before his 93rd birthday. “If I was not dancing, I don’t think I would be living to be this age.”
How the (Once) Most Corrupt Country in the World Got Clean(er) (jdargis)
When Suharto, the longtime dictator, fell from power in 1998, he left a legacy of corruption that permeated every level of society. He is estimated to have pilfered up to $35 billion during his three decades in power—earning the title of world’s most corrupt leader. His example filtered down from ministers doling out project funds in gilded offices to traffic cops hustling payoffs on dusty street corners. Police seldom investigated even the clearest cases of graft, and prosecutors rarely took even the most winnable cases to court.
Highly efficient thermoelectric generation, but only in the cold (jdargis)
But if you choose the right materials, it doesn’t have to be that way. Recent research shows that it might be possible to convert heat energy to electrical energy with an efficiency in the range of 15-20 percent. If that can actually be realized, it would be a truly incredible advance.
60% of bird species came from Australia (tmn)
Previous hypotheses about passerine evolution and diversification suggested that perching birds originated in South America. But it turns out, according to the new research, published April 1, 2019, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that the Carolina wren at your feeder actually has a very long-lost ancestor, 47 million years ago or so, in the Land Down Under.
Growing tomatoes in the middle of the desert (Sparky1)
The UAE imports more than 80% of its produce. Startup Pure Harvest Smart Farms is developing greenhouses to allow agriculture to flourish in the desert.
This small island is taking on a big problem — climate change (tmn)
“Four years ago, my wife said, ‘We’ve got to do something about climate change. If we don’t, nothing else is going to matter.’” Friedmann, who lives in Bar Harbor and was a member of the town’s council at the time (he’s now the chair), started pushing for a solar installation on a municipal building to power some of the town’s facilities. He and Glenon rallied residents to show up for a crucial vote. The initiative passed. Revved up by the success, community members started meeting over potluck dinners to talk about expanding renewable energy and addressing other sustainability issues.
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 5/3 – Good News Friday: Growing Tomatoes In The Desert, Is Dancing the Kale of Exercise? appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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