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Palm oil is farmed 2 ways: One produces a lot of smoke and distress, and one keeps all life in mind.

A country's biggest export used to also be their biggest problem.

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Unilever and the United Nations

Palm oil is in just about everything.

From cosmetics to crackers...


...to soap and pizza dough...

...and candy.

It's also in shampoo. And ice cream.

And it's used as biodiesel fuel. It's in almost everything.

Of course, that huge global demand for palm oil is being met by any means necessary. When palm oil farmers find themselves needing land, they turn to jungles for space.



Farmers often use "slash and burn" techniques to clear trees ... sometimes with animals still living in them.



It's pretty bad.

In tropical Indonesia, that land is full of endangered species — the Sumatran orangutan, for one. There are also elephants, tigers, slow lorises, and other animals that live in the rainforests throughout the country.

These palm oil plantations can displace animals, like orangutans that are already endangered, from their natural habitat.

Of course, it has to stop. And that's where Paul Bakri comes in.


Paul Bakri, an Indonesian "smallholder" sustainably farms palm oil — and is one of the first in his country to do so. When the WWF (the creators of the video below) talked with Paul, he told them how he does it.

A smallholder like Paul farms 50 hectares or less — that's almost 100 football fields worth of land. Nothing to sneeze at. He used to work as a construction worker but didn't make enough to feed his family. He started harvesting palm oil with his brother. Afterward, his life improved dramatically. His family is living much better now because of his harvesting job.

Many people like Paul are in a tough situation. If they didn't cut down forest, they couldn't farm. And they might not even find work otherwise.

So, what's the solution?

An Indonesian palm oil plantation. This used to be all jungle.

There's another way to make a living without destroying everything living around you — and Paul is doing it.


The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
certifies products made by companies that use oil farmed sustainably, and Paul is a part of that program.

But right now, only 6.4% of palm oil is farmed sustainably. That means orangutans like this one are still in danger because people like us love buying instant noodles and pizza and margarine. And that's upsetting.


By buying certified sustainable palm oil when possible, we can do our part to help.

If you see the logo above on a product containing palm oil, that means it's certified.

Bakri is now certified to farm sustainably. He's hopeful that sustainable palm oil in Indonesia will be profitable. If people like us buy the environmentally friendly alternative, farming — without destroying the natural beauty of Indonesia — will be the way of life.

Watch the full video below for more:

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

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Democracy

This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

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Family

Woman bakes cheeky curse word pies for her grandma and it becomes a quirky holiday tradition

2023's pie is an homage to her favorite word to use while stuck in traffic.

Canva

You never know where a holiday tradition will come from.

Tried-and-true holiday traditions certainly have their merit, but there’s something quite special, magical even, about discovering personal rituals that commemorate one’s unique life. In my household, for instance, nothing quite rings in the Christmas spirit like sipping my partner’s delicious coquito and putting up a cardboard gingerbread house for my cats.

The beauty of creating customized holiday traditions is that they can be as festive, sentimental, or as silly as you want them to be. And you never know how one small moment can become the catalyst for a tradition that sparks joy year after year.

For Jess Lydon, that tradition is baking expletive-laden pies for Thanksgiving. (This is your profanity warning—the images below contain swear words.)

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Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

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Peter Bence's piano cover of "Africa" by Toto

Peter Bence’s performance of “Africa” by Toto has over 17 million views on YouTube because of his creative reimagining of the song and, well, just about everyone loves “Africa.”

Bence is a Hungarian composer and producer who has become a viral sensation for his Michael Jackson, Queen, Sia, and Beatles covers. He has over 1.1 million followers on YouTube and has toured the globe, playing in more than 40 countries across four continents.

His performance of “Africa'' is unique because it opens with him creating a rhythm track and looping it by strategically tapping the piano and rubbing its strings to create the sound of shakers and congo drums.

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Joy

Family posts a very chill note to neighbors explaining why their dog is on the roof

“We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door.."

via Reddit

Meet Huckleberry the dog.

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog's welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, "Uh, I'm not sure if you know...but there's a...dog...on your ROOF."

Well, the family inside is aware that there's often a dog on their roof. It's their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

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Family

12 hilariously relatable comics about life as a new mom.

Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

All illustrations by Ingebritt ter Veld. Reprinted here with permission.

Some good not so good moments with babies.



Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

Illustrator Ingebritt ter Veld and Corinne de Vries, who works for Hippe-Birth Cards, a webshop for birth announcements, had babies shortly after one another.

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