BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Parking lots might not seem like climate solutions, but South Korea is proving they can be. Starting this month, any parking lot in the country with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar canopies or carports. The new requirement applies not only to new parking lots…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The saying “less is more” has never rung truer than during these unpredictable and tumultuous times. If our collective concern for the environment isn’t enough to encourage us to minimize our carbon footprints by rejecting consumerism, then the financial stress and/or job instability that the past couple of years…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Dementia is something that touches more and more families every year. Globally, someone develops dementia every three seconds. In the U.S. alone, more than 6 million people live with some form of the condition, and that number is expected to double by 2060. Even if you haven’t yet supported…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Lately, headlines and social media threads have warned pregnant people to avoid acetaminophen (often known by the brand name Tylenol), implying that using it could increase the risk of autism or ADHD in children. These claims have stirred confusion, worry, and even guilt, often without solid scientific backing. A…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Native American Heritage Month begins in November, a month when many Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. While this cultural month has excellent intentions, it is significantly more complicated for Native Americans. Thanksgiving is a difficult period for many Native Americans because of the numerous massacres that occurred around this time. In fact,…
Small business owners know that managing a business often means juggling dozens of disconnected tools. Intuit wants to change that. Starting today, QuickBooks users will be able to call on their virtual assistant-like AI Agents to help with tasks across major business functions, including accounting, customer management, finance, and project management. Built on the Intuit…
Canadian-founded and San Francisco-based alternative lodging company Sonder Holdings is winding down its operations following the termination of its licensing deal with hotel giant Marriott International. The company announced this week that it will wind down operations “immediately” and that it expects to initiate a Chapter 7 liquidation of its United States business while starting…
I am thrilled to welcome Sarah Rieger as BetaKit’s new managing editor. A media professional with over a decade of editorial experience at publications like The Huffington Post and the CBC, Sarah was most recently a senior news writer at Wealthsimple Media, where she helped grow the TLDR newsletter to over 2 million weekly readers. …
Toronto-based BenchSci has teamed up with Montréal’s AI research centre Mila to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can automatically create new scientific hypotheses and forecast the outcome of drug-related tests before they are conducted. BenchSci and Mila say this work could mark “a major step” on the path to autonomous drug discovery. Together, the…
Toronto-based, Y Combinator-backed Terminal has made its first chief operating officer (COO) hire as the telematics startup prepares to move from startup to scaleup status. Eran Ben-Ari is joining the startup after working since 2021 as chief platform officer, and later COO, at Toronto-based life sciences scaleup BenchSci. Ben-Ari plans to bring his experience leading…
