This week Awesome Stories brings you whale communication, better education, animal freedom, mental health and fuel from water.
Communicating with Whales
Scientists at The University of Queensland have been able to decipher and learn how to communicate with whales. Optus, an Australian telecommunications company, hired M&C Saatchi, Sydney to explore communication between humans and animals, specifically Humpback whales. Watch this awesome video, the result of their collaboration.
Education Ideas from Finland
Kelly from FillingMyMap wrote a great article on the differences in Finnish education. She is chronicling her adventures in education and life while teaching and researching in Finland. It seems that overall, they focus more on quality with less of many things we hold near and dear. Kelly wrote 11 Ways Finland Education Shows Less is More. The differences really struck a chord for me. Even though I did well in school, I did not enjoy the process and this is part of why I didn’t go back for an advanced degree. The differences are very telling, especially the shorter hours for students and teachers, the same teacher for 6 years, less testing, more depth in topics and more choice given to the students. Finland consistently performs at the top of developed countries for education, so let’s hope our education leaders are paying attention!
Costa Rica has just announced that it will close its zoos and free the animals to return to the wild. I admire Costa Rica for its progressive attitude and leadership in protecting and preserving nature. They have no army, more land devoted to conservation, banned hunting for sport, and continue to lead in environmental preservation. Kudos to Costa Rica for cherishing and protecting nature!
Coercion Leads to Mental Illness
I found this to be an enlightening view on mental illness by Bruce Levine, Ph. D. His conclusion is the coercion that permeates our culture is actually a contributor to mental illness. “Coercion—the use of physical, legal, chemical, psychological, financial, and other forces to gain compliance—is intrinsic to our society’s employment, schooling, and parenting.” Whereas, cultures who are often considered “less developed” that don’t rely on coercion have much lower instances of mental illness. As I’ve written about before, we don’t thrive under threat, punishment and coercion. Hopefully, we learn to parent, teach and work with more love and acceptance.
Audi Motors is partnering with Sunfire to produce synthetic fuel from water, hydrogen and air. The best part is that the fuel would be carbon neutral because the process pulls CO2 from the air as part of the conversion of water and air into a bio-fuel. Right now, it’s more of a small scale test, but hopefully it can be streamlined to produce in large enough quantities to make an impact. There are many great ideas being tested around the globe. The best thing we can do is consume less and live simply.
Live simply that others may simply live. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Maybe try simplifying some things in your life and have an awesome week! 🙂