Playas del Coco resucita el trueque como manera de pago en medio de la pandemia

Small towns located deep in the valleys of steep mountains, like Rjukan, Norway, and Viganella, Italy, can be cut off from sunlight for almost half a year but computer-controlled mirrors are helping to change that. The tailor-made, computer-driven motors on giant mirrors track sunlight throughout the day.

As the coronavirus pandemic forces healthcare workers to perform potentially critical duties that they are not used to, a company named Health Scholars is adapting its training software from virtual reality to internet websites. Their program offers simulated experiences for healthcare workers to learn how to respond in varied situations, though they have adapted it to train all healthcare workers in advanced cardiac life-support. The company is offering $1 million in grants to get their software to as many as 14,000 healthcare providers so far and has already been sent to hospitals in NY and MI.

As personal protective equipment becomes increasingly hard to find, university labs, engineers, and individuals are taking part in a crowdsourced effort to create alternatives. Although their 3D designs and repurposed shields don't take the place of PPE, they do act as safe back-ups for frontline workers facing a shortage.

When jails and prisons released people early as a pandemic precaution, New York City responded to the threat of increased homelessness by temporarily housing more than 400 people in hotels while providing them with re-entry services aimed at preventing new crimes. Exodus Transitional Community, the city's contractor, provided a combination of emergency shelter and counseling that would be unavailable in standard homeless shelters. No COVID-19 cases have been reported in the hotels, while residents praise the service for giving them the stability and safety they need to restart their lives.

Depuis le début de la crise sanitaire, des centaines de milliers d'enfants auraient été « perdus » par leurs enseignants, d’après le ministre de l’Éducation. Malgré le manque d’équipements informatiques ou les difficultés des élèves à travailler à la maison, des professeurs, associations et bénévoles sont en partie parvenus à maintenir le lien.

Las Ollas Comunes son comedores comunales que proporcionan almuerzo a los miembros de las comunidades aledañas de manera gratuita. Las ollas funcionan con el trabajo organizado y voluntario de las mujeres de las comunidades, quienes se aseguran de dividir los alimentos que logran recolectar, de manera equitativa.

The Flight of the Angel attraction has helped the area to create more jobs and improve the economy through tourism. In 2007, when the attraction opened, there were only two restaurants and two hotels in the city. But now, there are about 50 bed and breakfasts, eight restaurants and over 130,000 visitors annually.

Hawaiians are restoring fishponds to working order with tasks like fixing rock walls and removing pollution to reimplement land practices of the past into daily life. These ponds consist of a rock wall, a gate for midsized fish to enter, and things the fish feed on like algae and coral.

The Red Cloud smart city project is greatly improving local residents’ quality of life and leading to reduced crime rates in the city. The project installed new LED streetlights with AI-enabled overhead cameras, Wi-Fi access in homes that didn’t have access previously, as well as air quality monitoring devices. Since the new improvements were made, morale in the city has significantly improved and there are plans in place to scale the program and improve neighboring cities, as well.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church's overnight parking program offers those who are temporarily unhoused a place to stay, typically by camping in their cars or RVs. Recently, the Church partnered with local social service agencies to add three semi-permanent housing huts to their parking lot. Residents staying in the hut have access to amenities in the Church, like a kitchen, and are welcome to stay as long as they need to until they decide to move into more permanent accommodations.