WORLD NEWS
Brittney Griner announces plans to return to basketball in 2023
Brittney Griner said she's "grateful" to be back in the United States and plans on playing basketball again next season for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury. Her comments came a week after she was released from a Russian prison, freed in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange.
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"It feels so good to be home!" Griner posted to Instagram on Friday in her first public statement since her release. "The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help."
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Griner was arrested in February in Russia on drug-related charges and was later convicted and sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail. After months of strained negotiations, and an extraordinarily rare public revelation by the Biden administration that it had made a "substantial proposal" to bring home Griner and another detained American, Paul Whelan, the case resolved last week with a prisoner swap in which the WNBA star was exchanged in the United Arab Emirates for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
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"President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too," Griner said. "I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole."
Fresh Pal Farms/Dong Jianyi; YouTube
A Chinese agronomist has helped Canadian greenhouse technology move forward, curiously by moving backward.
Dong Jianyi uses only materials and the laws of thermodynamics to grow cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and more—even in the frigid Alberta winter—all without using a single watt.
A geologist who abandoned the oil industry due to crashing oil prices, Dong Jianyi’s Fresh Pal Farms is believed to be the largest “passive greenhouse” in Canada.
Growing vegetables in China’s cold north necessitates innovation, and passive greenhouses which don’t use electricity are common in that part of the country.
“In north China, it also gets really cold and pretty dark in winter, but people can grow year-round,” Dong told CBC. “Where I lived in China, there were so many passive solar greenhouses. But in Canada, I didn’t see any on the commercial
scale,” he said.
The 300-foot long, 30-foot wide greenhouse is constructed out of a steel frame with two polyolefin plastic roofs. An electric
motor allows operators to extend and retract an insulating blanket to trap heat absorbed during the day. This keeps the 10,000-square foot interior space at 82°F (28°C) compared to outside December temperatures of 20°F (-7°C).
On the north side lies a 24-inch thick clay wall, which captures light more easily from a south-lying sun. At night the clay radiates heat into the space, further ensuring the plants can survive winter temperature that in Olds, Alberta can fall to -31°F (-35°C).
Last year Dong grew 29,000 pounds of tomatoes alone last year while saving $30,000 in energy and heating costs.
The passive solar greenhouses have a high upfront cost, Dong admits, but they pay back the investment in subsequent years through energy savings, as greenhouses tend to be powered by natural gas.
Elon Musk loses status as world's richest man, as he sells billions more in slumping Tesla shares
Billionaire has sold $23B of his shares this year even as they've lost half their value
Elon Musk sold another $3.58 billion US worth of Tesla stock this week, but it wasn't clear where the proceeds were being spent.
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The Tesla CEO and new owner of Twitter sold the shares from Monday through Wednesday, according to a filing posted Wednesday night by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Musk has sold nearly $23 billion US worth of Tesla stock since April, with much of the money likely going to help fund his $44 billion US acquisition of Twitter.
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Recruiting Women Essential to Canada’sTransportation and Logistics Industry
Over the past year, Canada’s transportation and logistics industry has had an increased impact on the lives of millions of Canadians. However according to a new survey by Federal Express Canada Corporation (FedEx Express Canada), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the world’s largest express transportation company, very few professional women see themselves being a part of this sector. Less than one in ten women (eight per cent) stated they considered a career in transportation, logistics, and supply chains an “appealing career choice.”
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The first-ever FedEx Express Canada Women in Transportation and Logistics survey of 1,039 Canadian professional women, conducted by Angus Reid Forum, found that employers in transportation and logistics have much to do to encourage more women to be a part of the industry. Included among the survey findings:
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ï‚· Nearly half of women (48 per cent) surveyed stated that they would not be open to a career in
transportation and logistics.
ï‚· Of those, over a third (37 per cent) stated that they did not have enough knowledge of the
sector to know if there were professional opportunities that would appeal to them, suggesting
that the industry needs to do more to educate prospective women candidates.
ï‚· Roughly one third of those surveyed (32 per cent) said they were actively taking steps to
advance their career or planned on returning to school.
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A machine that recycles waste back to life
The world of over-consumption contributes to world pollution. Businesses and consumers do not always recycle their old furniture.
A brilliant idea
Dave Hakkens, from the Netherlands, has found a solution to give these objects a second life. Creative and talented, he recycles all used objects thanks to his machines. He has already recycled electronic waste into modular phones. His latest project is the Precious plastic machine that has made him known worldwide. The creator chose the word precious because plastic is a very polluting and abundant material. The machine looks like a container, making it easy to recycle plastic into any object. It only requires some imagination!
This is an easy-to-use system because the machine grinds plastic into flakes. Processed plastic is placed into a mould
and heated to a high temperature. The machine is already available in Sri Lanka and Morocco. Recycling plastic
stimulates creativity, and it becomes very easy to create new objects while reducing ecological impact.
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Making plastic recycling accessible
Hakkens sells his machines, even if most end up in non-profit organizations, so that anyone can recycle plastic. He has generated many collection points to facilitate access to recycling. However, if there are none nearby, the creator offers simplified machines allowing anyone to create a collection point. Thanks to his committed work, all of the designer’s recycling points have collected more than 540,000 kg of plastic waste in one year. About 1,200 kg per collection point per year. This is minimal compared to the large traditional recycling companies. But Hakken’s goal is to make plastic recycling
accessible and creative to encourage as many people as possible to engage with recycling around the world. Since it requires simplified machines, anyone can use it and create beautiful pieces!
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