"We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released." --Jean Houston
Hello everyone! This week, we share simple but extraordinary examples of ingenuity, kindness, and creativity being released into our world. In Britain, drones are used to help save lives by delivering much-needed medicine; in Maine, homes are made entirely of wood fibers and bio-resins using 3D technology; and in France, scooters become a highly favored means of transportation. Every day, people are doing remarkable things and making our world a better place. Wishing you a good week ahead!
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Apian
England's National Health Service (NHS) is trialing using drones to deliver fragile medicines to cancer patients living on the Isle of Wight. Chemotherapy drugs can have short shelf lives meaning patients often have to make the expensive hop over to the mainland for treatment. Delivering medication by car and ferry takes around four hours, but drones slash the journey time to just 30 minutes. The use of drones enables clinicians to make same-day orders, which can be couriered from the pharmacy in Portsmouth to the hospital on the Isle of Wight. NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said, "Delivering chemo by drone is another extraordinary development for cancer patients and shows how the NHS will stop at nothing to ensure people get the treatment they need as promptly as possible – while also cutting costs and carbon emissions." Elsewhere in the UK, drones have been used to shuttle COVID-19 test samples, medicine, and PPE between medical facilities.
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University of Maine
Researchers from the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) have unveiled a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable home that was created using 3D printing technology. Assembled in half a day, BioHome3D significantly cuts down construction time and hence the cost of labor. The floors, walls, and roof of the 600-square-foot home are made of sustainable wood fibers and bio-resins. The home building materials are not only recyclable but they replace the need for cement, a key ingredient in concrete that generates more greenhouse gas emissions than the airline industry. The ASCC hopes that BioHome3D will make homes more affordable and, in turn, help address the pressing issue of housing shortages in the US.
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Vlad B | Unsplash
Four years after electric scooters first appeared in France, they are here to stay. In 2021, 900,000 were sold in France, up 42% from 2020, with an estimated 2.5 million regular scooter users. France is now "the leading European market, ahead of Germany, Spain and Italy," said Rudy Godoy, sales director for a Chinese manufacturer. Germany authorized scooters from June 2019, as long as they were registered and used only for self-service. By the time France followed suit a few months later, scooters had already been in circulation for two years. In the Netherlands, they are still banned. Apart from sales figures, there are no studies to assess the sector's total economic size and no one has a clear idea of how many direct jobs it creates. While the pro-bike movement is trying to relocate the industry to France, the vast majority of scooter production is imported from China. In the meantime, users are facing new challenges as some shopping malls and businesses no longer allow them inside.
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Amber Marie Green Photography
Dion's Chicago Dream moves more fresh produce than Walmart, quips Diona Dawson, who started the nonprofit in 2020. It feeds 2000 people in 23 Chicago neighborhoods with 15,000 pounds of fresh produce each month and delivers to 375 homes a week, at a weekly cost of $550. Project Dream Fridge in Englewood has provided more than 36,000 pounds of fresh food and water weekly. In 2020, he raised $2,500 on GoFundMe, bought 100 pounds of food and fed 96 families. Then he learned to set up a nonprofit and in September 2020, began stocking the Englewood community fridge. He delivers exclusively fresh produce -- bananas, cucumbers, spinach, mango, whatever is in season and available from his wholesale supplier, JAB Produce. He operates on a first-come basis, taking applications by phone, and has 412 homes on his waiting list. He doesn't ask to see pay slips or other proof of need. The American Diabetes Association has just signed on, saying this is a model to replicate across the US.
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Indiana Hansen, ABC Coffs Coast
Born in 1916, Elma Miller has experienced a lot, from the Spanish flu to COVID-19, numerous wars, four kings and a queen, and the advent of modern computers and mobile phones. But at "106 and three quarters", being kissed by an alpaca was "something strange". An avid knitter throughout her life, she wanted to know about alpacas but had never seen one, said granddaughter Kerry Miller, who travelled from Victoria to join family and Elma's local community in Woolgoolga, New South Wales, to tick it off her bucket list. Elma will turn 107 in next March, and Kerry says her plan is to reach 110. "We haven't seen the wish list for that one yet," she said.
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