SUSTAINABILITY  

Pedal revolution

London's love for cycles has been growing steadily thanks to its cycle superhighways, popular bike hire scheme, and a realization that cycling is the fastest way to get across the city. But while more people are joining the cycling revolution, many others lack the confidence, knowledge and equipment to get pedalling. A new pop-up bicycle library in Tower Hamlets (London's most deprived borough) is hoping to address that, and has transformed an empty shop into a 'cycle hub' where children and adults living locally can borrow bikes for free. Chrisp Street Community Cycles also provides free cycle advice, free bike repairs and guided rides to help people build their confidence. The month-long pilot is a partnership between the environmental charity Hubbub, Poplar Harca housing association, and the walking and cycling charity Sustrans. Their goal is to break down the barriers that prevent people from cycling in London and the bicycle library was inspired by other similar projects like Cycle Sisters, a charity that helps Muslim women find the confidence to get on a bike. 

INNOVATION

Bean-less coffee

Compound Foods, a 2020-founded Bay Area start-up, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to further develop their 'coffee,' which is made without coffee beans. The company uses synthetic biology to create coffee without coffee beans by extracting molecules, and uses food science to recreate a base formula for the taste of coffee. Coffee is the fifth-most polluting crop in the value chain and climate change is affecting coffee growers across the world. Compound Foods aims to create a coffee product that tastes good, but is also sustainable. They plan to use the new funding to improve their formula and scale up the brand so that they can have a soft launch by the end of this year. There are a few competitors in this space already (including Atomo, who we've previously featured), however they all use different technology from Compound Foods. 

THE LOW DOWN

• WhatsApp faces $267M fine for breaching GDPR
• Call for government plan to cut live music’s carbon emissions
• El Salvador to become first nation to make bitcoin legal tender
• Green skills training programme targets unemployed UK youth
• Komodo dragon at risk of extinction as rising sea levels destroy habitat
• Mexico becomes first country in North America to ban animal testing for cosmetics

#Showerthoughts

• Batman has unimaginable strength and endurance in comparison to other humans. He is also filthy rich. So it is a fair possibility that he is using a lots of high quality steroids with minimal side effects.
• The most terrifying sound a homeowner can hear is dripping water where there shouldn't be any.
• Poor rappers often pretend to be wealthy, while wealthy country stars often pretend to be working class.
• Addictive substances are a lot more fun to use when you're not addicted to them.
• The next big thing (like crude oil, the internet, or Amazon) probably already exists, we just don’t know it yet.
  
  r/Showerthoughts

#kwipuzzle

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Sleeping On My Dreams - Jacob Collier