Canada: New inventions to keep seniors safe at home
With limited health care dollars and shifting demographics, the hunt is on for innovative ideas to keep seniors healthy — and living at home — longer.
Leading the charge is the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, where the team at the state-of-the-art iDAPT facility is using cutting-edge technology to develop simple solutions to everyday problems. ... (Read more)
The Star
Australia: Two Australians in the running to set up a human colony and spend the rest of their lives on Mars
Ever wondered what it would be like to live on Mars?
A year ago, a Dutch entrepreneur launched a global campaign to find aspiring astronauts for a one-way mission to Mars, to be funded by a reality TV show. More than 200,000 people applied. Just 705 candidates are still in the running, including 28 Australians.
Kesha West spoke to two hopefuls whose ambition has astounded their family and friends. ... (Read more)
ABC News
Africa: Nigeria: Interview - Meet the Man Who Generated #bringbackourgirls Hashtag
As at May 31, a Twitter analytic tool, Topsy, estimated that more than 3.1 million tweets have been sent using the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag.
Mr. Abdullahi coined the hashtag via his twitter page, @abu_aaid, after a speech by ex-World Bank Vice-President, Oby Ezekwesili, at the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 event on April 23. ... (Read more)
All Africa
Ireland: Ireland’s mental hospitals: the last gap in our history of ‘coercive confinement’?
At the age of 19, Hanna Greally was admitted to St Loman’s Psychiatric Hospital in Mullingar. It was the mid-1940s and she had just returned home from London, where she had witnessed the horrors of the blitz.
She thought she was being admitted to the hospital for “a rest”. Despite several escape attempts and pleading letters to relatives to sign her out, she remained there for the best part of 20 years. ... (Read more)
The Irish Times
South Korea: Art struggles to find space in Ulsan
Every summer for the past eight years, art sculptures and installations popped up along the Taehwa River that cuts through this port city, home to the world’s largest automobile assembly plant and its largest shipyard.
But the Taehwa River Eco Art Festival seems to have had little impression on citizens of Ulsan, despite its stated aim of stimulating public interest in art. ... (Read more)
Korea Herald
Japan: Magnetic tie helps relieve dear
The tie was developed by the Osaka store in collaboration with a medical equipment company that produces magnetic therapy necklaces. The part of the tie that wraps around the wearer’s neck contains 10 round magnets, each about a centimeter in diameter, that are meant to improve circulation. ... (Read more)
Asahi Shimbun
Panama: Free ride on Metro is history
THERE'S no such thing as a free lunch and in Panama no longer a free Metro subway ride. On June 15 passengers start to pay 35 cents a ride.
It’s a price that critics say is far too low... (Read more)
Newsroom Panama
*Image of Panama City via Shutterstock
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