Modern medicine can do some pretty miraculous stuff. Yet many dangers that kill people every year don’t need sci-fi technology to solve the problem. Often, humans are just careless, lazy, or shortsighted. Changing our habits prevents millions of deaths, and the solutions are sometimes shockingly simple.

10A Box Of Clothes Vastly Improved Finland’s Infant Mortality Rate

During the early 1940s, Finland had a big problem with infant mortality. At one stage, 9 percent of all babies died early in life. To tackle the problem, the government started giving all expectant mothers a box containing a selection of useful items. These included clothes, bedding, grooming products, and other newborn essentials. Today, parents even get condoms. Bottles and disposable diapers were in for a while but were removed in 2006 to encourage breast feeding and protect the environment. Reusable cloth diapers are included instead.

One of the box’s most unusual features is that it comes with a mattress,. For many Finnish babies, the cardboard box itself is their first bed. This has broken the habit of babies sleeping in the parents’ bed, which is a known factor in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As a result, Finland’s infant mortality rate has dropped significantly since the box was introduced.

The box has become a staple of parenthood in Finland, and it’s popular among people of all incomes. People can instead opt for €140, but only 5 percent of parents take the cash. Many who do are on their second child and simply reuse the box they got for their firstborn. It’s so important to the Finns that some expats, who aren’t eligible to get it for free, actually pay for one and have relatives send it by post.

9Smaller Packets Prevent Overdoses

Buying headache pills in the UK is very different from doing so in the US. Americans can pick up a 500-pill bottle of acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, quite easily. In the UK, it’s known as paracetamol, and the largest packet you’ll find in a supermarket holds 16 pills. On top of that, it always comes in blister packs, with each pill stored separately.

The difference is due to a law passed in the UK in September 1998. Restricting pills prevents overdoses. It’s still very possible to acquire 500 pills. Many stores stock them cheaply, and you can buy more than 100 at once without a prescription. It’s just inconvenient, but that’s enough to keep many people from abusing them.

In the first year after the law came into effect, one hospital in Newcastle saw average overdose referrals drop from 2.5 per month to 1. At London’s Royal Free Hospital, paracetamol overdoses dropped by 21 percent in the same period. A more recent study found that in the first 11 years after the change, an estimated 765 lives were saved. In addition, the number of registrations for liver transplants for people affected by paracetamol toxicity was reduced by 61 percent.

8Longer Colonoscopies Encourage Repeat Visits

When cancer deaths dropped in the US between 2006 and 2007, 65 percent of the lives saved across all cancers was due to improved colorectal screening. Yet it could be better—only half of eligible adults were getting the routine procedure. A lot of people got their first one but didn’t return for a second because they found it unpleasant.

Researchers thought that they could improve repeat screening rates by influencing how people remember the procedure. The method they came up with seems ludicrous: They left the camera inserted for a few minutes longer right at the end. The camera resting in the bowel once the screening ends is a much less uncomfortable experience than what comes before, when it moves around inside.

Patients reported the screening as less painful overall with the camera in for longer. The result was an increase in people returning for a follow-up colonoscopy, raising the chance of detecting cancer while it can still be treated.

7Nils Bohlin’s Seat Belt

The seat belt is one of the most well-known life saving devices in the world. Yet a belt only helps if people wear it. Every year in the US, around 5,000 people still die in accidents they’d have survived had they worn their belt.

That number would be higher but for Nils Bohlin. The aircraft designer worked for Volvo in the 1950s and realized human nature was the problem. He said, “The pilots I worked with were willing to put on almost anything to keep them safe in case of a crash, but regular people in cars don’t want to be uncomfortable even for a minute. ”

People skipped belting up because it took too long. His solution was the famous three-point belt with a simple clip, which can be put on in seconds with a single hand.

6Text Messages Save Diabetics

The human memory can be pretty awful. We’re easily distracted. That’s bad news for diabetes patients, who need to regularly check their blood glucose levels and take medication. Modern technology offers an interesting solution: Send people frequent reminders by text.

Teenagers get distracted a lot and also check texts a lot. A pilot study in Ohio found that text reminders increased treatment adherence among adolescents. In fact, after three months, patients who received frequent texts were three times less likely to forget to take their medication.

Another University of Chicago study on 74 staff members found similar results. Those with the worst blood sugar before the trial showed the biggest overall improvement. Total cost of care, including complications, dropped 8.8 percent.

People who aren’t diabetics get medical benefits from texts, too. Improper contraceptive use results in one million unintended pregnancies every year in the US. When researchers sent text reminders to women, the fraction taking oral contraceptives rose from 54 to 64 percent. Half even asked to continue receiving the messages once the study was over.

5Typed Prescriptions Reduce Errors

Among doctors’ many fine qualities, handwriting doesn’t rank very highly. That’s a big problem because handwritten prescriptions dominate in US healthcare, and one study found that 37 percent of these handwritten prescriptions result in an error. That doesn’t even count totally unreadable prescriptions, where pharmacists have to call the prescriber.

Every year, 7,000 die due to hospital medication errors. One study found that 61 percent of medication errors result from poor handwriting.

The solution is simple: Type prescriptions out on a computer. The 37-percent error rate for handwritten prescriptions drops to 7 percent with a computerized system. But there are two barriers to change. First, physicians are often set in their ways. Second, a suitable system costs money. While error reductions could save money in the long term, hospitals are reluctant to invest the upfront fees.

Australia addressed the problem in the 1990s with incentives, and now 90 percent of their prescriptions are issued electronically.

4K1 Syringe

Every year, dirty syringes kill 1.3 million people. While some victims use illicit drugs, most simply receive injections from clinics with limited funds. Using every syringe twice halves the number a facility needs to buy, adding up to significant savings. Yet given that diseases from reused syringes cost $100 billion annually, it’ll be much better for everyone if reuse just stopped.

Inventor Mark Koska’s solution was the K1 Auto Disable Syringe. It can be used only once—once the plunger goes down, it locks and can’t be drawn back. And it costs the same to manufacture as a standard syringe.

Koska received an anonymous video from Tanzania of a needle being used on four-year-old, then an adult HIV patient, and then a one-year-old baby. When he showed the video to a Tanzanian minister, the government agreed to use his syringes exclusively. The program costs an extra $7 million but will save $70 million each year.

3Tetris Reduces Trauma

After playing the game Tetris for an extended length of time, you start seeing blocks everywhere. There are blocks when you dream, blocks when you close your eyes . . . everything in your world becomes blocks. The same thing can happen with any repetitive pattern game—people may be more familiar with it from games like Candy Crush nowadays.

The widely experienced phenomenon speaks to the unusual way games like Tetris play with our brains. This convinced researchers to look into how it affects those with mental health problems, and they’ve found something curious. Tetris seems to protect against PTSD and flashbacks.

Researchers showed experiment participants a disturbing film. During the next six hours, some answered trivia, some played Tetris, and others did nothing much at all. Over the following week, people who’d played the 1980s classic had far fewer flashbacks.

The psychologist behind the study believes the spatial concentration required to play may interfere with how the brain consolidates traumatic memories.

2Lucky Iron Fish

Iron deficiency is the most widespread health problem worldwide. In developing countries, it affects half of all pregnant women and 40 percent of young children. Anemia contributes to 20 percent of maternal deaths. It impairs physical and cognitive development and reduces adult productivity. It’s the only nutrient deficiency that significantly affects industrialized nations. In total, it hurts around two billion people.

Cambodia is one of the countries most affected. Much of the population survives on less than a dollar per day and can’t afford red meat or other foods high in iron. Cooking food in an iron pot can leach iron safely into a meal, but iron cooking pots are expensive, and most of Cambodia’s population cook in aluminum.

In 2008, Canadian epidemiologist Christopher Charles had the idea to give locals a lump of iron to put in their cooking pots. Local women didn’t like the idea and used the lumps as doorstops instead. He tried an iron piece in the shape of a lotus leaf, but that proved just as unpopular. Then he hit a breakthrough.

Local elders told Charles about the kantrop, a popular fish considered good luck. Charles gave an iron fish charm to every household in a rural village. The local women happily put the symbol of luck into their cooking pots, and within a year, almost all cases of anemia in the village had disappeared.

The fish provides 75 percent of the daily requirement of iron, and lasts for up to five years. The work of distributing the fish is ongoing, and people can donate to the project online.

1The Sign That Stops Suicides

Japan’s most infamous suicide spot is Aokigahara, a forest on the northwestern base of Mount Fuji. Hundreds of people attempt suicide there every year. Many suffer from debt. For example, police found one 44-year-old man after two weeks in the forest, weak but alive. He owed 1.5 million Yen ($15,000) to a consumer loan company.

So in 2007, a loan shark victims’ association put up a sign in the forest. The sign includes the phone number of a hotline to talk about financial woes, along with the following simple message: “Your loan problem can definitely be solved.”

Within a year, 29 people called the helpline from within the forest itself. All had planned to kill themselves, and all decided not to.

+Lists Save Lives

Modern medical care can go spectacularly wrong, often due to doctors’ carelessness and forgetfulness. One effective way to overcome human error is to use simple lists.

For example, half of intensive-care patients in the US receive a catheter as part of their treatment. Around 80,000 of them end up with an infection as a result, and 28,000 die from their infections. A trial at nine hospitals in the US introduced a five-point checklist for people receiving catheters. The list was simple: Wash hands with soap, clean the patient’s skin, apply sterile drapes, wear sterile clothes, and then dress the catheter site. When the checklist was implemented, the hospitals eliminated all infections, saving 1,500 lives.

In industrialized countries, a quarter of inpatient surgeries result in complications, comprising half of all adverse events in hospitals. Half of those are preventable. To reduce those numbers, the WHO created a 19-point checklist for use in all surgeries. Some of the steps are surprisingly simple, including every team member introducing themselves at the start of a surgery. Yet it’s been tried in dozens of countries, and it reduced complications by one-third. In one analysis, deaths due to surgical mistakes were halved by having a checklist in place.

As the saying goes, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” This is never truer than when disaster strikes. In times of great misfortune and even catastrophe, there are often only a few people who have the strength and courage to go above and beyond to help others survive.

Many tragedies have led to stories of great self-sacrifice as people have shown immense bravery to save the lives of others. To ensure that their heroism is never forgotten, here are the stories of 10 people who sacrificed their own lives to save others.

10 Frank Foley

Frank Foley wouldn’t be most people’s idea of a typical British spy or hero. After all, he was reportedly small and a little potbellied. He also wore round glasses, so he appeared almost the opposite of James Bond. Yet, according to Sir Alex Younger, the current head of MI6, Foley was “a consummately effective intelligence officer.”

After Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of World War II, he went undercover as a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin. As he was fully aware of the poor treatment the Jews received from the Nazis, Foley decided to take action by forging passports and altering visas to help Jewish people escape Hitler’s rule.^[1]

Although he lacked diplomatic immunity, Foley even entered various Nazi concentration camps to issue travel documents and visas. Due to his heroic actions, he is believed to have rescued more than 10,000 men, women, and children in Nazi Germany.

9 Titanic Engineers

Unfortunately, many movies based on the sinking of the RMS Titanic have failed to depict the sacrifice of the liner’s 35 engineering staff members who lost their lives during the maritime disaster. As none of the engineering crew survived the sinking on April 15, 1912, there was sadly no firsthand account of the men’s actions at the official inquiry.^[2]

However, there is no doubt that every engineer remained aboard to maintain the RMS Titanic’s electrical power during the sinking. By keeping the liner’s lights on, they helped to reduce panic among passengers while enabling the wireless officers to send distress signals to nearby ships.

8 The Chernobyl Three

On April 26, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded, which led to 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima atomic bomb in 1945. However, the damage from the disaster would have been considerably worse if not for the heroism of three brave volunteers.

A few days after the disaster, scientists discovered that the molten nuclear material produced would melt through the concrete reactor flooring. Consequently, it would seep into the pools of water below. This would cause a radiation-contaminated steam explosion that would destroy the nuclear plant as well as the additional three reactors. It would cause irreparable damage to the world.

To prevent the nuclear fallout, the 20 million liters (5 mil gal) of water needed to be drained, which required the correct valves to be manually turned down. Senior engineer Valeri Bespalov, mechanical engineer Alexei Ananenko, and shift supervisor Boris Baranov volunteered to undertake the mission that many deemed to be suicide, although it would improve the fate of millions of people.

As some of the water was drained prior to their mission, the three men entered in wet suits with radioactive water reaching their knees and successfully shut down the valves. Thankfully, the three men survived the mission. Two of them are still alive to this day and continue to work in the nuclear industry. Unfortunately, Boris Baranov passed away of a heart attack in 2005.^[3]

7 Benjamin Clark

Benjamin Keefe Clark didn’t serve as a police officer or firefighter on September 11, 2001. He was working as a chef, prepping meals for those at the Fiduciary Trust Company on the 96th floor offices in the South Tower. When the plane hit the building, he didn’t try to escape the disaster himself. Instead, he took the steps to guide others to safety.^[4]

Reportedly, the former Marine ensured that everyone in his department as well as in all the 96th floor offices evacuated the building immediately. Following the tragic event, a Fiduciary official credited Benjamin with saving hundreds of lives. For example, once they reached the 78th floor, he reportedly assisted a woman in a wheelchair. Despite his undeniable heroism, he didn’t survive the tragic event.

6 John Robert Fox

World War II was undoubtedly filled with many brave soldiers who put their lives on the line to save their comrades. While we might sadly never hear of their acts of bravery, we do know the story of Lieutenant John Robert Fox. The 29-year-old GI served in Sommocolonia, a mountain village in Italy which was subject to brutal fighting between US and German forces.

On Christmas Day, the US forces had gained control of the picturesque town, with members of Fox’s unit kindly handing out cheese and chocolates to villagers. The next day, the German counterattack began in the early hours of the morning, as expected. As Fox was an artillery spotter, his role required him to radio coordinates to inform the units where to deliver their payloads.

As the Germans’ attack was severe, the US unit was forced to retreat. Hiding in his lookout position on the second floor of a house, he used the radio to contact his unit to request that artillery fire be directed at the village. This would provide the troops with enough time to retreat.

When the artillery officer stated, “Fox, that will be on you,” he reportedly replied, “Fire it. There’s more of them than there are us.” This sacrifice provided necessary cover for the retreating soldiers, which allowed the US unit to regroup and reclaim Sommocolonia a few days later.^[5]

5 Jack Phillips

Jack Phillips, a 25-year-old senior wireless operator, also proved to be one of the many heroes during the sinking of the RMS Titanic. On the evening of April 14, 1912, Phillips was working through a backlog of personal messages from the passengers and crew. However, he and Harold Bride, a junior wireless officer, did pass on several messages about iceberg warnings to Captain Edward Smith.

As the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 PM, Phillips continued to work in the wireless room. When Bride came to take over from Phillips, Captain Smith entered and ordered Phillips to send out a distress signal, calling for assistance from nearby ships and providing the liner’s estimated position.

Both wireless officers worked tirelessly until 2:00 AM sending distress signals. Then Captain Smith informed them that they had done their duty and ordered them to abandon ship. While Bride took the opportunity to throw flotation devices into the water to help others, Phillips remained at his post in the wireless room sending distress signals until the final minute of the liner’s sinking.

Although Phillips managed to climb onto the upturned Lifeboat B, he sadly passed away and slipped into the water. Thankfully, Harold Bride survived the event. He died in 1956.^[6]

4 Maximilian Kolbe

Many stories have emerged of truly brave individuals who selflessly risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust. One story that is impossible to forget is that of Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941.

The Nazis slowly starved prisoners at the death camp as they each received small rations that couldn’t sustain a child. Every prisoner received a cup of imitation coffee each morning and weak soup and half a loaf of bread following work. With everyone struggling to secure a place to receive their ration of food, Father Maximilian Kolbe would stand aside to allow others to eat, which meant there was often limited food left for him.

There was also a rule in Auschwitz that 10 men would be killed if one attempted to escape from the concentration camp. A man from Kolbe’s bunker escaped in July 1941, so 10 men were selected to be starved to death.

As Franciszek Gajowniczek, one of the chosen prisoners, cried in anguish, Kolbe stepped forward to the commandant and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.” The commandant accepted his request, and the priest took Gajowniczek’s place.

After two weeks of hunger and thirst, Kolbe was the only person in the group who was fully conscious. He raised his left arm to Bock, an executioner, who injected the priest with a fatal dose of carbolic acid on August 14, 1941.^[7]

3 Godwin Ajala

When Nigerian-born Godwin Ajala first arrived in the United States, he was forced to endure various poorly paid jobs until he secured a permanent position as an access control officer at the World Trade Center. His role required him to walk various floors and ride the elevators at the two towers to secure the building and provide assistance for small emergencies.

When he wasn’t working at the towers, he was preparing to take the New York State bar exam.

When the planes hit the World Trade Center, 33-year-old Ajala selflessly helped thousands of people to evacuate the towers. He reportedly held the door open for people as they fled the building, and he guided others out of the towers to safety. Sadly, he later succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a coma, passing away the following Sunday.^[8]

2 The Village Of Eyam

Although many stories have emerged of individuals sacrificing their lives for others, there are very few in the history books about whole villages selflessly risking their own lives. Yet this is exactly what happened when the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England, was subjected to the bubonic plague. The disease was carried into the village on a bale of damp cloth. It carried fleas from London, which was struggling with the Black Death.

Forty-two villagers passed away from the pestilence, which made its way across the small community between September and December 1665. Unsurprisingly, many people wanted to flee the village by spring 1666.

However, to prevent the Black Death from traveling to nearby towns, such as Bakewell and Sheffield, William Mompesson, the new rector, attempted to convince the locals to remain in the village to quarantine the plague. The villagers agreed to his request and remained in Eyam.

In little more than a year, 260 people passed away from the plague to ensure that their neighbors didn’t suffer the same fate.^[9]

1 Rick Rescorla

Rick Rescorla, a former British military officer, served as head of security for Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center’s South Tower. The 1993 terrorist attack on the complex left a big impression on Rescorla, who had already highlighted the security weaknesses prior to the 1993 bombing.

Confident that the World Trade Center would experience something similar in the future, Rescorla regularly made employees at the bank embark on escape drills, which saved their lives during the September 11, 2001, attacks.

On 9/11, Rescorla also led people down the stairs to safety while singing Cornish songs to boost morale. What’s more, he reportedly returned to the 10th floor of the South Tower to help others evacuate the building. Although Rescorla was one of more than 2,600 people who sadly died when the towers collapsed, his heroic actions are believed to have saved the lives of more than 2,500 employees.^[10]

It is always a good idea to save money, and these are some great tips to help you do that. How much you can save depends entirely on how closely you follow these ideas. These are tips we currently follow in our own home so we can live modestly but comfortably without having to sacrifice our family time with extra jobs. If you have any more tips, I’d love to see them in the comments!

It may not seem obvious, but a clean home can save a lot of money. Clutter can result in broken or lost items, and a messy home will always depress you- leading to a weakening of resolve to save money. This is nowhere more obvious than in the kitchen. You will be a lot more inclined to cook at home (and thus save money) if your kitchen is clean. Remember when cooking to keep a sink full of warm water to make clean up a breeze. If you can keep it clean, it will be much easier to…

You don’t have to go out to have a good time, especially if going out involves a bar or a club. It is lovely to go out from time to time, but it can mean hundreds a month in unnecessary expenses if you do it too often. Having friends over will be much cheaper than meeting friends at a bar, and will be more relaxed as well. If you do go out, take a set amount of cash and leave the cards home. This will stop you from over spending if (and when) your judgment becomes impaired.

This was a popular adage in the Great Depression, but has fallen out of fashion these days. Our waistlines would be smaller and our wallets fatter if we could all remember to only eat what we need to satisfy our hunger. There is nothing wrong with leftovers, and stretching a meal into two or three has serious financial advantages. This lesson is also important where children are concerned. Remember that children often eat much less than adults do. Only give a child a small portion of food. If they need more, they can have more, but there is no excuse for tossing out half eaten sandwiches or dishes with only a bite or two missing. Keeping a close eye on what goes on the plate and what is left behind will save a great deal of money.

Know what you have in your fridge, freezer and pantry (as well as throughout the rest of the house). This will prevent the purchase of doubles, and will help you use what you have before it gets a chance to go bad. There is no excuse for throwing away food! If it has gone bad, let it be a lesson to you to keep a closer eye on your supplies.

Take advantage of deals, especially where meat is concerned. There is nothing wrong with freezing a meal. You can purchase bulk packages of different meats and freeze in individual portions. Similarly, when cooking you can make extra to freeze. This works exceptionally well for soups. You can freeze soup conveniently by ladling into freezer bags and stacking. When they are needed later, all you need to do is add a little stock or water and heat up on the stove. In this way, you can keep your home stocked with weeks or even months of food, getting into the habit of only buying food on sale and saving incredible amounts of money.

Don’t go crazy for holidays or birthdays. Remember that it is the event you are celebrating, not the expense. Certainly it is ok to spend money on a holiday or birthday, but keep it within the importance of the event. A three year old’s birthday, for instance, doesn’t need a rented pony or a three tier cake. Christmas doesn’t require an expensive gift for absolutely every acquaintance, nor do the people you are buying for require triple digit present prices.

Trading with friends and neighbors just makes sense. Their old items can still be new to you and vice versa. Similarly, items you only use once in a blue moon can be shared among neighbors, from ice cream makers to pruning shears, saving everybody plenty.

It’s not just for kids anymore: Giving everyone in the house an allowance will prevent unplanned spending from the main budget. It will also seem easier to save up for something when you are working from a solid amount in your allowance instead of what’s left over in your paycheck.

Always have physical and dental checkups, and practice routine maintenance on your car and home. Preventative care is always many times cheaper than a repair. In addition, everyone should know how to fix minor things in their home and car.

Many homemade things are not only less expensive than their store bought counterparts, but taste or look better, too. Where food is concerned, the more from scratch it is, the better and cheaper it tends to be. Bread is an excellent example of this rule. If you could have tastier, fresher bread for a fraction of the price of store bought, why wouldn’t you? Another excellent home made item (depending on the laws in your state/country) is beer. Where I live, the initial investment to brew about 100 bottles of beer is $100, or a $1 a bottle. After you have the equipment, it is $30 for 100 bottles, or $0.30 a bottle. Not a bad price for the best beer in town.

Even the most frugal among us may have our resolve weakened by the glassy eyes and pouting lips of our children. Don’t give in! Of course your children can have toys and books and games and, on occasion, candy. The problem is, you will walk past about 300 of these kinds of items with your children every day. Remember that these things are meant to be special, they should never be an obligation. Few children truly benefit from getting everything they ask for.

Specialty items are luxury items. Few homes truly need a juicer, or an apple corer, or an ice cream maker. Make sure, when purchasing items for the home, that it is not only necessary, but that it is capable of performing a variety of tasks. An immersion blender, for instance, is cheaper than a regular blender and more versatile. A couple quality knives can do the work of dozens of specialty knives.

Keep your thermostat cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. If you get slightly chilly in your home, put on a pair of socks or cuddle up in a blanket before you fire up the furnace. If it’s too warm, make sure your home wouldn’t be easier cooled with an open window. Speaking of windows, keep them well insulated, by having them properly sealed and using blinds and drapes that will keep out the cold and keep in the warm. On hot days, keep the blinds shut on windows facing the sun. In addition, always remember to only use lights or other power items when you actually need them.

Every debt, as soon as it is incurred, especially if you are struggling to make ends meet. Bills are bad enough without late charges and interest piling up. Putting off a bill is never a good idea.

It may seem obvious, but then the current financial climate seems to prove this common sense is not so common. There are a few items in life you will likely need to get a loan for (a home, for instance), but everything else is meant to be bought outright. While it is actually a good idea to have a credit card (to help build credit), it becomes pointless if you can’t pay off the balance every month. If you find yourself struggling to maintain a credit card, get rid of it. They are too easy to get in over your head with. Owning everything outright is much cheaper and much less stressful, besides being beyond the realm of repossession should you hit exceptionally hard financial times.

Time. Time is money they say. Time is also freedom. We each have the same amount of time every day – 24 hours – to do everything we need to do to: to work, to eat, to rest, to sleep, to have fun, to relax, and often to try to suit everyone. Some of us seem to have all work and no play, and what free time we have is never free, it is lost to endless hassle and mindless tedium’s. So why not take time into your own hands by making it work for you for a change?

The laundry – everybody loves it! So lets start with this first. Pre-sorting the laundry can save a lot of time and mistakes. One red sock in a whites wash can throw away all your hard work; so as soon as it’s dirty – sort it. If you have enough space in your kitchen or laundry room, consider having four wash baskets/tubes (i.e. one for the whites, the coloreds, the woolens, and one for the delicates), then you can choose which basket is the most important and bung your materials straight into the washer. When they come out at the other end, nice and clean, hang them on the line or on a drying rack straight away. By hanging clothing to dry it can save a lot of time ironing and pressing them flat; and some items will naturally dry without creases if hung to dry.

Whenever kitchen and meal utensils are being used, it can be a good idea to have a bowl or hot water handy to slip your items into. Doing so can mean you can easily wash and rinse items while preparing food. At the end of the day, take out all the items you have accumulated in the washing bowl, and fill it again with hot water. Stubborn items can now be washed in a fraction of the time as most of the gunk will have softened or come off in the pre-soak. This tip is especially useful for pans, but just about anything will benefit from a pre-soak. It can also save water; as a pre-soaking will still be effective even if the water is cold and filthy, and most loads only require one bowl of hot water to finish the whole job. One word of warning though; don’t be tempted to leave the dishes for the next day – not only because it is so easy to put things off, but also because doing so can permanently stain the washing bowl; wasting time as you go out and buy a new one.

Now this may seem an obvious choice, but in practice this method can waste a lot of time for most people. In theory, working from home can mean all the time you would usually waste traveling to and from work can be saved – and spent doing more important things. In practice, those more ‘important’ things can quickly turn into house-work, web browsing, washing the car, scrubbing the toilet bowl – anything that doesn’t involve sitting down to work! Another disadvantage comes as an offshoot to this, as sometimes the person feels so guilty that they will work long into the evening to ‘catch up’. This then bites into personal time; the person goes to bed later; the person gets up later the next day; the cycle begins again.

If you travel to work on a train or a bus, the chances are that you could use this time to get some jobs done quickly en-route. Sending those all important emails can be done even before you set a foot inside work. Typing up a memo, working on a presentation, or simply writing up a ‘to do’ list (see #2) can shave those valuable little jobs off your agenda. Laptops can come in handy at school too; by typing things directly into a digital format, whole chunks of notes and thoughts can be dragged and dropped into your latest essay. Finally, with email taking the crown away from the postal service and the telephone as the most used communications medium, vital messages and files can be processed and analyzed on-the-hop; saving the sender and the receiver lots of ‘waiting’ time.

Not all of us work at the same time. Some jobs require working very late hours, or perhaps working through to the next day. In these cases, it can become a chore to do more work in the kitchen when you get home – when all you want to do is collapse. To save time, I used to do all my cooking all on the same day, and freeze the results. If cooking isn’t really your thing and you want to give this a try, I recommend creating at least four dishes: I.e., creamy pasta and tuna, chili, broth, a chicken dinner. Throw one of these together with potatoes and a choice of vegetables and you have a meal – to be stored on a reusable foil dish – and frozen. Then, instead of eating junk after work, you can simply pop one of your four choices of meal into the oven for half an hour instead. One roast chicken can be portioned out to be included in 10 meals. Sunday lunches and full English breakfasts can be pre-cooked in the same way. My personal record was 35 meals cooked and frozen in one day – and a whole months worth of making sure I ate properly after work.

For those people not enthused about grocery shopping, the obvious solution would be to buy all you need in one go. Can you buy everything you need for a month in just one day? Yes, particularly if you have a large freezer, a large trunk, and a small family. Buying in bulk can also be cheaper as larger packs and multi-packs can be much cheaper than buying individual items. Why buy one bar of soap when four can be bought together, more cheaply, and more time efficiently? Washing detergent is something we all need regularly and in good supply – so if you work out that you will get through four boxes over a year, save time by buying all four together – you will have to buy them all eventually! Another tip might be to shop online. This saves traveling time, buying time, and queuing time in a store. However for grocery buying, this tip only really works if you are entirely familiar with your grocery list AND the online stores’ layout; otherwise it can take just as long as shopping the traditional way.

When you get your groceries home, put as many things into long term storage as possible. Cans of food will last longer than a month. Dry goods and chemicals will last longer. Frozen goods can go in the freezer, and a lot of fresh goods can be frozen too. This all adds to the duration between trips to the store. If you are trying out tip # 10, and wonder how you can make perishables last longer – try freezing. Bread, for example, freezes well; particularly if you separate the slices before freezing, or by placing 4-8 slices in a sandwich bag together. Then you will always have bread – and a quick trip to the toaster defrosts every time. Milk can be frozen as well, and works especially well if you have a big ‘chest’ freezer to stand them up in. The note here is that due to the freezing process, whole milk will come out tasting like semi skimmed. Semi skimmed will come out tasting like skimmed, but by doing so, your milk will last for months at a time. Place your milk in the fridge to defrost the day before you need it. What else freezes? Some vegetables freeze well as most vegetables are water-based anyway. Eggs? If you hard boil an egg it works – though I haven’t tried from raw yet. Pies, pastry, cakes? No problem!

Most people have seen the old type office filing system – loads of cardboard wallets filled with papers, and marked with clip-on labels above each wallet. Accessing files is a matter of opening the drawer, finding the label and opening the wallet/file. To do this in the home saves an almost immeasurable portion of your valuable time, as all the things you may need to refer back to are all indexed and stored in ONE place. Each time a new bill comes in, pay it, and throw it into the correct file. Then, if you need to refer back (for your electricity company, or your phone company) all you need to do is open one drawer and pull the latest bill out. Banking problems? By placing all the bank statements in the ‘bank’ wallet, they will naturally fall into date order as this is how you placed them in. It then becomes a breeze to check back and find things. Anything from receipts, manuals, brochures, business cards, scraps of paper with phone numbers on them – all the things so easily lost around the house – can be on-hand when you need them. Also, part of the home filing system (which takes a day to set up), is having all your phone numbers listed on a single sheet of paper. If ever your home phone gets broken, or mobile goes missing, or you loose your address book, at least you have a backup. This is also great for emergency numbers; which are also all together and available on demand. In general, the better you can organize your home, the easier it is going to be to find things. In an emergency, knowing where you keep a torch, an extinguisher, your wallet, and the house and car keys, may save your life one day….

With the development and rise of the internet over the last 15 years, communications have moved on. Now it is possible to do nearly all your banking quickly and easily from home – saving the time it would normally take queuing up and waiting at a bank. Money transfers, bill payments, transaction accounts, overdrafts and applications are now available on most online banking sites, enabling you to use and distribute money on the same computer as you may use to budget, receive bills though email, or use for any number of other money related tasks. If you have several accounts with the same bank, online banking comes into its own; from being able to instantly check your balances, to transferring money over to other accounts if they look like they might go into the red.

Even though a modern PC is still not too great at multi-tasking, we as human beings have been doing so for millennia. If you can, arrange items on your ‘to do’ list (item #2) that can be done together at the same time. For example, printing pages while typing, burning discs or backing up while working, planning while eating. There may be any number of opportunities to multitask on a daily basis, and the most common way to achieve this is simply to have all your applications and files loaded into the computer at the same time. Then if you need to switch to a different priority, one click of the mouse (or an Alt.Tab) will get you there. It is useful to always have your email accessible at all times; perhaps having your mailbox as a tab in Firefox, already pre-loaded and ready to go. Another good example of multitasking may be to get everyone you need to see to come and see you, perhaps all together in one go. So, if you wish to see all your friends – why not invite them all over to one single venue. Christmas can also be a good time to get everyone together rather than to go off and visit people individually.

Perhaps the best example of multitasking is to delegate – i.e. to arrange for another person to do a task instead of you, or on your behalf, while you do something else. Then the whole job gets done more quickly, and hopefully just as completely as if you’d done it all yourself. An example of delegation would be to get your own family involved in the tasks you do: why not rope the kids in to help with household chores, ask others to pick the kids up from school, ask others to pick up groceries, or even ask others to grab you a coffee. Delegation can also be great for ‘getting someone else to pass a message on’, but be warned in this case that an exact message may become corrupted, a bit like Chinese whispers. Also be careful not to delegate tasks which you need to make sure get done on time, as if they don’t, it’s still your fault.

The larger tasks of the day are the ones which give the biggest headaches, and also offer the richest personal rewards. Some tasks can be split and delegated, but some need to be split in order for them to look smaller on the page. Self motivation is always the key when it comes to time management, and so it becomes much easier on the individual to move though a list of smaller tasks than to face the mountain of one large one. For example, if the task was to deliver a product from point A to point B, the task could be so much easier to work through if you split it down into ‘phone calls’, ‘paper work’, ‘mail deliveries’, ‘confirmation’, ‘feedback’ – rather than facing “This must be delivered today! – No Excuses!”

Another advantage of working through smaller goals, apart from the psychological and stress factors, is that there is a higher chance of getting things right first time. Life is always full of second chances, but each time you have to go back and do it again is just a waste of time. Who needs it? Never sacrifice quality for ‘due care and attention’, as poor workmanship or appliance of effort can lead to having pretty fragile offerings at the other end. Even if a long list of tasks has been broken down, it is important to get everything done, mindfully and completely, in an orderly fashion, and on the same day if possible. If things take longer than a day, don’t reply on your memory, or your motivation, to pull you through; trying to get into the mindset of the day before is harder work than just making sure things get done on the same day – first time.

‘To Do’ lists. Why bother? Why spend 10mins every day working out lists of things to do rather than just getting on and doing them? Well, the simple reason is because the human mind is not the most perfect thing ever created, and does forget things from time to time. To Do lists will not only allow you to arrange items for priority and convenience, but also allow you to pencil in all those little jobs you would normally not even think about. Telephoning ahead to make arrangements is a sensible idea, and a To Do list could remind you to do that before you remember to remind yourself – half way down the highway. Even in the home environment, remembering to contact a friend, or even to take out the trash, can be as insignificant as they are vital; and forgetting can mean waiting another day, or even another week, to catch up. If it’s worth remembering, note it. As a consequence, writing things down will also improve your memory for those everyday priorities – not only did you come up with them, you also wrote them, and perhaps read them back. Some people are so good at remembering their To Do lists that they wonder why they ever write them, not realizing the writing is the reason for the remembering! Another point is to keep things plain and simple, on one sheet of paper, or on a white board. Don’t have endless scraps of paper or Post It notes piled up on desks and stuffed in drawers. Planning ahead can also save time in all sorts of other ways. At the start of each month, write down any birthdays or special events so that you have plenty of time to organize gifts. In the case of Christmas, aim to buy at least two months before the 25th so that you have enough time to choose a thoughtful gift; last minute gifts don’t say much about the quality of your friendship. Finally, it is also a good idea to have a calendar which shows each month, or all the months, on one page. Diaries and weekly reminder books are a very poor way to plan ahead as you may not see an event coming up until it is too late to make arrangements for it.

In other words, don’t be tempted to put things off until a later time or date; for one reason, because you may forget to take it up or finish it! The other reason is because the best way to save time is to get on and do something about it. This may seem the most common sense aspect of this whole list, but really, procrastination can be a habitual bugbear for a lot of people. Going to work can be a hard task to instigate, especially if you haven’t even managed to get out of bed. Save time by not only getting up, but getting up earlier. That way you help beat the traffic, the journey takes a shorter length of time, and is generally less hassle; resulting in an easier start and a clearer head.

Doing things early is indeed the very best way to save time. This is not always possible, or appreciated, but there are a lot of advantages to getting things done early. For one thing, nothing impresses others more than hearing “already done it!”. For another, so much time is actually wasted by leaving things until the last minute and having to rush. Rushing is time wasting? Yes, because rushing often creates costly mistakes. If you know what you want to achieve, make your list, break it down, delegate, and aim to complete hard tasks first. That way the bulk of your ‘hard work’ will be over sooner, leaving the rest of the day to tidy up the loose ends. Hard jobs also get done more thoroughly in the morning when you have the motivation and the energy to do so. After lunch is the worst time to do, or start, large tasks as your bodies’ energy juices will be flowing AWAY from the brain in order to digest the food in your stomach. The last of the big jobs should be started no later than 3pm – as the body will naturally begin to wind down after this. Procrastination is as much about psychological security and job satisfaction as it is about putting things off. If you must, start by promising yourself a treat. Then get on with it. Some things are inevitable – they have to be done sooner or later, so rather sooner than later eh? Soonest fixed is soonest mended, and soonest home for tea.

Okay: you have anticipated the crisis well by stocking up on water, canned goods and ammunition in case of an emergency. Your flashlights all have fresh batteries with battery backups, the medical kit is stocked, and a portable camp grill sits ready for cooking. But here are some items you may not have given a thought, but which could be useful and may even save your life:





Yes, plain old chewing gum. The simple act of chewing on a stick of gum can suppress your appetite, thereby preserving limited food supplies from overindulgence, while aiding in necessary saliva production. While it will not substitute for a turkey dinner, and despite the common myth about its digestive properties, a stick or two also can be used in a pinch for short-term nutrition.







Have a superficial wound that needs stitching? No medical staff, no needle and thread or no sewing training? No problem. While it will not do much for penetrating wounds like gunshots, super glue as an emergency suture can quickly bind and protect minor lacerations that otherwise could become infected.







You’ve seen it in the movies: guy gets shot, breaks apart a few bullets, pours the gunpowder over the wound and lights it. Guess what? While excruciatingly painful, it does exactly what is needed by sterilizing and cauterizing the wound. While not the best solution, it is certainly an option when a trip to the emergency room or a doctor is out of the question.







Chances are, you already have charcoal on hand for weekend barbecues. While you may want to use the charcoal for cooking, there is another reason to have it handy: water purification. Drill a hole in the bottom of any type of plastic container (like a five gallon bucket), line it with the cheesecloth, place charcoal in it and pour in water – and voila, an instant water purification system! Afterwards, you can let the charcoal dry and cook up a can of beans or even that long-desired turkey dinner.







Vinegar is a versatile antibacterial and microbial that can treat skin burns, inflammations and infections. As a cleaning agent it sanitizes and deodorizes, and can mask any odors that you may not want to smell yourself, or which you’re afraid might give away your position to wildlife. A small amount mixed with water can also be swallowed to relieve an upset stomach, or to remove parasites from any contaminated water or undercooked venison you may accidentally consume. 







Any shiny object will do the job, but a compact mirror in your survival kit can be a lifesaver when used as a silent emergency beacon. It can be effective in both sun and moonlight, and can even start fires on a sunny day. While mirrors have been shown to be more effective than flare guns, a rescue team passing by still may miss your signal; an auditory signal from a whistle is certain to attract their attention.



Musical tones – regardless of the source – have been shown to stimulate both the creative and pleasure centers of the brain; to help maintain focus and concentration; and to reduce anxiety and pain. The harmonica – an inexpensive item easily obtained from many retailers – just might help maintain your sanity until the situation normalizes. (If nothing else, it gives you something to pass the time while you wait for your wounds to heal.)



Steve Sagarra is a freelance writer, journalist and historian from St. Louis, MO. His curmudgeonly ramblings can be read at his personal blog; or you can follow his 140 character ones on Twitter – @SteveSagarra

On July 10, 2008, the App Store was introduced to the world, and the way we consume and interact with technology has never looked the same. Apps became the go-to new format for brands and businesses to reach their audience. The introduction of apps has been the catalyst for all kinds of weird and wonderful, but more importantly, helpful.

There are numerous great innovative apps that change people’s lives for the better, and even some that have the possibility to save lives. These ten apps represent of sampling of the numerous versions that are available—not to mention the ones still in development with better tech and more dynamic features.

Related: 10 Times Smartphones And The Internet Saved Lives

10 ICE Medical Standard

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. This app has been developed to be the industry-leading medical ID for both iOS and Android phones. Medical ID is an app that lets you put your emergency medical contact information on your smart phone’s lock screen image overlay display. So if you are in an accident, first responders, EMS, EMTs, FEMA, and ER staff can find your emergency contact information as soon as they turn on your phone.

They created an easy-to-read color-coded system to allow the emergency responder to gauge how “high-risk” the individual is. Even the healthiest of individuals could benefit from having this app on their phone; you never know when an app like this could get you out of some serious trouble. Doctors can access your allergies, health conditions, and any medication you might regularly take within seconds of picking up your mobile. And, of course, you can decide which personal information is visible on your lock screen to protect your private information.^[1]

9 What3Words

In a time of emergency, it is vital to be able to describe exactly where you are. For example, imagine if you were out walking in the wild and found yourself in need of medical assistance, a street address certainly couldn’t help you then. So when needed, you must be able to precisely explain your location with more precision than a typical address.

This is where What3words comes in. This app gives every three-square-meter (9.8-square-foot) square in the world a unique three-word address—all 57 trillion of them. Three words have been randomly generated for each square and will always stay the same, so you can now direct someone to a specific square of the world with just three words.

It was originally designed as a solution for finding more unusual or remote addresses, but now their app covers the whole world with three-meter squares; the applications for this software are virtually endless. They’ve even created an extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla so that you can search a what3words address directly into google maps.^[2]

8 Zello PTT Walkie Talkie

Zello is an app that allows users to turn their mobile phones into walkie-talkies or two-way radios, providing they have a network or Wi-Fi connection. The service will even send communications over older 2G networks if nothing else is available. This app offers a way for people around the world to communicate even when they have poor cellular service.

It’s an easily accessible technology that helps emergency responders to communicate and receive alerts without needing the expensive traditional radio hardware. It allows clear and undisrupted communication across multiple teams of first responders.

Also, in the event of a crisis, channel owners can send out loud repetitive Channel Alerts. Alerts send out loud beeps every minute, along with a text message, to subscribers, whether connected or not to the channel. As a result, every day, tens of thousands of first responders use Zello in their operations, and eight billion live messages are sent monthly. This is solid proof that this app is making a seriously positive impact on many people’s lives worldwide.

They are further developing this technology by teaming up with AGIS (Advanced Ground Information Systems) to create LifeRing, an app to increase the efficiency of first responders and military personnel. Zello is clearly at the forefront of push-to-talk communications; it will be interesting to see the growing positive impact it has on the world.^[3]

7 Cairn

Cairn is the ultimate app to keep you safe when you want to go on long walks in the wilderness. It was released in 2015 and has helped many avid explorers enjoy their hikes with that extra peace of mind.

Their slogan “Get home safely from any adventure” highlights the sole purpose of this app. Some of the useful integrations on this app are trail alerts and real-time location tracking. Trail alerts will automatically contact your chosen contacts (friends/ family) if you’re overdue to return. If you’re walking somewhere a little treacherous alone, the real-time tracking could be a life-saver. It allows your contact of choice to be able to see where you are every step of the way.

Within the app, you’re also able to find which areas have cell coverage, so if you need to make a call, you’ll know where to head to. This element is crowdsourced, so every time a user opens this app on a new trail, it increases the amount of information available to the next hiker.^[4]

6 Stay Alive

Self-described as a “pocket suicide prevention resource…packed full of useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis.” They have created a free-to-use app that offers help and guidance to those that need it. If someone feels like they don’t have anyone to talk to about what they’re going through, Stay Alive changes that.

It offers multiple functions designed to inspire motivation and help individuals feel less overwhelmed. Some of the handy features include a safety plan, a “Lifebox” where you can store photos that are particularly important to you, and, of course, links to national crisis resources.

It was developed by Grassroots Suicide Prevention, a UK-based charity that supports communities in preventing suicide. They teach suicide prevention skills to community members and professionals. And although it may seem a tricky subject, it is incredibly important for charities like this to be creating free, up-to-date services.^[5]

5 First Aid by British Red Cross

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

The British Red Cross, the United Kingdom’s body of the worldwide humanitarian network—The International Red Cross—has created a series of apps that are designed to teach everyone the crucial techniques of first-aid. Being able to give first aid immediately can help to reduce a person’s recovery time and make the difference between the patient having a temporary or long-term disability. And encouraging people to learn the basics is certainly a worthy cause.

Their main app covers 19 skills that could help people give aid to themselves or others while going about their day-to-day business. It’s getting some much-needed information into many people’s hands with over 500 thousand downloads on the Google Play store alone.

It teaches users how to deal with incidents such as road traffic accidents and severe cold weather. It provides the information in engaging ways such as videos, interactive quizzes, and step-by-step guides.^[6]

4 Share the Meal

It has been said that one in nine people are hungry or undernourished worldwide. And according to the charity Action Against Hunger, about 2.3 million children die each year due to malnourishment. Share the Meal is an app that combats this serious matter. It was built alongside the United Nations World Food Program with a crowdfunding model.

The introduction of an engaging, easy-to-use app that both educates and enables people to donate received a warm welcome from many organizations. In 2020, it received recognition as one of the “Best Apps” by both Google and Apple. Its mission is to “make fighting hunger accessible to everyone,” and this app does just that. Most people would say they are willing to donate to charities, but maybe less have done so in the past due to the lack of ease around smaller donations. Now, Share The Meal allows its users to donate as little as 80 cents within seconds. It offers pre-set donation suggestions, describing how many meals each amount will provide, with the maximum suggestion being $293 to provide 365 meals to a family or individual.^[7]

3 Pulse Point

Pulse Point is a technology company whose mission is to use machine learning and automation to transform healthcare by creating platforms that help people in need receive assistance in quicker time frames. They have created an app that allows anyone with CPR training to provide help and assistance to people in their local area suffering from cardiac arrest. The “CPR Needed” alerts have a unique alarm sound and are programmed to override the do not disturb function on mobile phones. It is also a 911-connected app, so it will not only inform citizens in the local area, but it will also inform the relevant emergency services.

Users of the app can also help save lives even before they are in danger. They have created a function that allows anyone to pinpoint AEDs (Automated external defibrillators) anywhere on the map with a short description of the business it’s attached to along with a photo for the context of its location.

App users can now also choose to be notified of other events that may impact them and their families, such as wildland fires, flooding, and utility emergencies. And although it just covers North America currently, they are working on distributing this free service across the world.^[8]

2 My Earthquake Alerts

Another totally free app that has been designed with the safety of the world’s population in mind is My Earthquake Alerts. With over a million downloads and 4.5 stars in the Google Play store, this is an easy-to-use app designed specifically to inform users of earthquakes around the world. (12.)

It has been estimated that around 20,000 earthquakes happen every year globally, with 16 expected to be major earthquakes (at a magnitude of 7.0 to 8.0). Therefore, an app that informs people when they happen will undoubtedly have the ability to save lives. Users can choose which regions to receive notifications about, so they can have peace of mind about themselves and their loved ones, no matter where they are in the world. Available on both Android and iOS devices, it’s certainly an app that could have a positive impact on anyone who lives in (or visits) a region likely to have earthquakes.^[9]

1 Snug Safety

This is an app that has been designed as a daily check-in service for people that live alone, specifically targeted at seniors and the vulnerable. It provides a way for families to make sure their loved ones are keeping safe and well. Whether you need that peace of mind while on holiday away from your parents or grandparents or want a long-term solution to ensure that they are staying safe while living alone, this app can provide just that.

According to their website, they have already had two million check-ins. They have been featured in Forbes and AARP: The Magazine, so it’s clearly making a positive impact in the world of elderly care. The app requires the individual to check in at least once a day, indicating that they are safe to their loved ones. Previous to the check-in deadline, there are alerts to provide reminders. However, if the deadline passes without a check-in, it will send their emergency contacts a text message saying they missed the check-in. Also, the paid version of the app offers to call each of your contacts in order. And if they have still not checked in and the dispatcher does not have confirmation that one of their emergency contacts will check on them, they will request an official wellness check to their cell phone’s last known location.^[10]

Human beings are designed to be empathetic; they love each other to death, for some, almost literally. However, how much do you love and care for those around you? Are you willing to die for them? For most people, if anyone needs saving, they would find ways to do it without necessarily involving death. The crazy part is that some humans are selfless enough to use their final acts to save others. Don’t believe me? Here are ten times people sacrificed themselves to save others.

10 Sergeant Travis Atkins

The date is the first of June 2007, and the location is war-torn Iraq. The early morning of this fateful day saw Sergeant Travis Atkins call his family, saying he was about to take his men out on a mission. He also notified his mother that he had sent something in the mail for her. What Sergeant Atkins and his family did not know is that they were communicating for the last time. Several hours later, some soldiers came home to inform the Sergeant’s mother that her son had passed away.

While on the mission, Sergeant Atkins and his team set out to frisk two men suspected of setting up roadside bombs. To Sergeant Atkins’s surprise, one of the men had pulled the pin on a grenade to detonate a suicide vest. He bear-hugged the man, lifted him, and slammed him down. As the other officers recount, Sergeant Atkins shielded them from the blast while sacrificing his own life.

When the Sergeant’s parents opened the mail from Sergeant Atkins, they found a letter thanking them for everything they had done for him. Some would say that Sergeant Atkins had foreseen his death. Others would say that everybody sends a simple, ordinary Mother’s Day message. Either way, Sergeant Atkins was a brave, selfless soldier who sacrificed everything for the team. His family was presented with a medal of honor from former President Donald Trump, celebrating Sergeant Atkins’s actions.

9 Casey Jones

If you love ancient history, this is for you! The year 1900 marked the end of a great American locomotive engineer and a true hero. Jones died with one hand on the train’s whistle and the other on its brake. While on a train to Mississippi, he noticed another freight train was on the same track. Jones quickly ordered his partner to leap out of the train to safety as he struggled to bring the train to a halt.

After a lot of effort, Jones managed to slow the train down to the point that everybody in the train survived but him at the time of impact. This was seen as a remarkable effort, and he remains in the history books. Interestingly, Jones wasn’t supposed to be on this train. After driving the train from Canton, Mississippi, another engineer was supposed to take over from Memphis. Unfortunately, the engineer was sick, so Jones had to fill in.

8 Aitzaz Hassan

Fiftenn-year-old Aitzaz Hassan was on his way to school one morning with his friends when they noticed a man wearing a suicide vest. Even though the bomber was dressed in an attire similar to their school uniform, they could tell that he wasn’t a student. When the man approached them asking for directions, Hassan could tell that something was off. Upon realizing that his cover was almost blown, the bomber started to walk hurriedly toward the school gate, but Hassan took it upon himself to ensure he didn’t.

Hassan started pelting stones at the bomber in a bid to stop him. Hassan tackled the bomber as they approached the gate, prompting him to detonate the bomb. With students gathered inside the school for their morning assembly, Hassan sacrificed himself so his schoolmates could live.

7 Lieutenant John Robert Fox

We have all heard of the phrase “shoot yourself in the foot,” and we can all agree we cannot fathom the idea. Now, imagine calling on someone to bomb your location with a missile! Impossible, right? Not for one John Robert Fox, though. The American soldier dared to call on a missile to his location to stop an advancing enemy attack.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May 1915, John Robert Fox was a young, diligent, and intelligent man ready to conquer the world. When he joined the military at the age of 26, he had his whole career ahead of him. After graduating with the rank of Second Lieutenant, war broke out, and he was commissioned to join the 92nd Infantry Division.

In 1944, Fox found himself in a war against the Nazis in Italy. He was tasked with staying behind in a tiny village of Sommocolonia, Tuscany, to watch over the enemies as his team retreated. Watching from the second floor of the building, he could see the Nazis approaching. Fox used his radio to contact his colleagues, asking them to aim their missiles in his direction. When enough soldiers had moved closer to his location, Fox asked his colleagues to aim and fire the missiles. When asked if he was sure, Fox simply replied, “Fire it,” the missile was fired, killing him on the spot, along with hundreds of other Nazi soldiers.

Through this selfless act, the American soldiers could retreat successfully and eventually took charge of the town from the German soldiers. Fox’s story stood out when countless soldiers fought for their lives and country. He was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for his sacrifices.

6 Kiera Larsen

When American singer Bruno Mars belted out, “I’ll jump in front of the train for ya,” people thought he was just lyrical and a poet. After all, that is what musicians do. Kiera Larsen probably didn’t know about Bruno Mars’s song, but she was more than willing to jump in front of a moving car to save two toddlers.

“10-year-old girl sacrifices life to save others” is the headline that residents of Lakeside, California, woke up to one morning. Larsen was playing outside their house when she noticed that a car parked not far away was moving at about 10 miles per hour but increasing its speed.

Noticing that the vehicle was headed toward two other children playing in a nearby yard, she rushed and shoved them away from its path. Unfortunately, Larsen did not have time to rescue herself, and she was crushed by the car. Most adults would think twice in such a situation, but it was a no-brainer for Larsen. She is an undoubted heroine.

5 Muelmar Magallanes

In 2009, the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Ketsana, which killed more than 700 people and caused losses worth more than $1 billion. Among the people that died is Muelmar Magallanes, but he was special. Usually, a typhoon starts with heavy rains and overflowing banks. When Magallanes noticed this, he started evacuating his family using a rope tied to his waist. He pulled them from the flooded streets and led them to higher and safer ground.

After evacuating his family, Magallanes noticed his neighbors needed help too. After ferrying over 30 people to safety, Magallanes’s last act of kindness saw him rescue a woman and her six-month-old baby. After towing them to safety, he was so exhausted that he “let go” and drifted away to his death. If this were a movie, you would rage in anger, shouting how the hero deserved a “happy ending.” Unfortunately, life doesn’t have any special effects; it is cruel.

4 Scott Beigel

Scott Beigel, a geography teacher and cross-country coach, died while saving his students from a shooter. According to an interview conducted by ABC, student Kelsey Friend narrated how Beigel unlocked a door and ushered the students in but didn’t make it himself.

Kelsey explained that Beigel insisted on the students getting in first rather than going first. As the last student entered the room, Beigel was shot dead. With the students in the room panicking, the gunman walked away, probably thinking that the teacher was alone. Kelsey and the other students are forever indebted to this selfless act by their teacher. Talk about leading by example!

3 Rebecca Townsend

Most 15-year-old girls have dreams of what they want to achieve in life, but most are usually just fantasies. However, Rebecca Townsend was not an ordinary teenager. She knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish in life before dying, which she did. Before her death, Townsend lived in Danbury, Connecticut, where she was born.

Apart from being an amazing actor, the teenager was also academically gifted and set to go to college. Interestingly, Townsend had written a note describing all she wanted to achieve. At the time of her death, she had already achieved two. When Townsend pushed her friend out of the path of an oncoming car before being hit, she completed the third item on her bucket list with that heroic act, even though it left her dead. Even though many were hurt, those who knew Townsend were not surprised by her selfless act; they knew her for that.

2 Tyler Doohan

One morning, an eight-year-old Tyler Doohan woke up to find the trailer he was in was on fire. Instinctively, the first thing to do, especially for a child, is to rush out yelling. For one, Doohan, the story was different; he started running toward the fire, waking up everyone who was asleep.

Doohan managed to wake up six people, including two younger children. However, when he went in to rescue his grandfather, he succumbed to the raging fire. It is said he died trying to lift his grandpa. Were it not for Doohan’s bravery, the number of casualties would have been higher.

1Neerja Bhanot

In 1986, New York-bound Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked by terrorists. During a stopover in Karachi, a group of uniformed airport security forces approached the plane, claiming that there were terrorists on board who had masqueraded as passengers, forcing the aircraft to a halt. With the terrorists’ plan A now quashed, they resorted to killing everyone they identified. They ordered the flight attendants to collect everyone’s passports for identification.

Because the flight attendants hid passports belonging to American citizens, there was a 17-hour standoff. Some passengers started leaving through the exit doors, so the terrorists decided to kill everyone on board. Neerja Bhanot played a massive role in these evacuations, but unfortunately, she died. Bhanot saved many lives because of her selfless deeds, and for that, she is still celebrated today. Bhanot was awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest award for bravery in the face of an enemy—she was the first woman to do so.

According to the Doomsday Clock, it’s 100 seconds to midnight. Created in 1947, the clock is a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world. The furthest it has ever been from midnight was seven minutes, which is where it started when fear of nuclear war was the inspiration behind the project. The closest it has ever been is where it is right now. According to the group of scientists and experts who run the project, we’re on death’s door! But maybe these new technologies can help turn back the hands to those glory days of 11:53. 

10. Fusion Power

The world has been waiting for fusion power for decades. We have fission power in abundance. It’s the power all of our nuclear reactions generate. But the downside of fission is that it’s potentially dangerous and produces a lot of waste. And while it’s efficient, it’s nowhere near as efficient as fusion.

We know fusion can happen, and we can even create fusion right now. But we can create and sustain fusion and trying to do so uses more power than it creates. It’s what powers the sun, after all, and that seems pretty reliable.

Fusion creates four million times the energy that fossil fuels create. It can also produce 4 times the power of a fission reaction without the risk of a meltdown and no waste production. Because it’s hydrogen fueled, it would produce nearly limitless power and, arguably, could power the world for mere pennies compared to current power costs. 

With abundant clean, cheap energy, you can see how fusion could change the entire world. All we need to do is figure out how to make it with less power than we put into it. Maybe the ITER reactor that is being built to produce fusion at a net gain will pay off when it’s finished. We can only wait and see. 

9. Seabins

The oceans are a dump. Most of us know this. They’re so full of trash we have to distinguish between the country-sized garbage patches that float in them. Some researchers suggest there are about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic afloat out there. That’s just the plastic. So what’s the solution? It could be Seabins.

A Seabin is, in very simple terms, a floating trash can. Water passes over the top of the bin and trash flows in with it. A filter in the bottom allows water to continue to pass through but catches the trash. It’s not a complex machine by any means. But the impact is dramatic. A Seabin can collect upwards of 1.4 tons of trash per year, including pieces of plastic as small as two millimeters. A trial bin used in Portugal was found to collect almost 10 kilograms of trash per day. This included a significant number of nylon filaments from fishing nets.

The bins have been installed in many coastal cities, including ones on the Great Lakes. The benefits are very fast to accumulate and the bins, if widespread, would significantly reduce not just plastic waste but things like cigarette butts and even oil.

8. Plastic-Eating Bacteria

A Seabin can reduce trash in the ocean, but not destroy it. And there’s still lots of plastic waste on land. So what can we do to tackle that pollution issue? Bacteria may be the key, and in specific, bacteria that have been adapted to eat plastic. 

Back in 2016, Japanese scientists first discovered bacteria that had evolved on its own to eat plastic. Since that time, several others have been discovered around the world. Turns out that, with all the trash humans have dumped in the last century, the quick lifespan of most bacteria has allowed it to reproduce generation after generation and evolve to adapt to what we’ve been giving them. 

Since the initial discovery, enzymes produced by these bacteria have been studied and even more powerful versions have been isolated that can eat through plastic six times faster than previously witnessed.

Evolution is typically a very long process, but researchers are speeding this up considerably. Bacteria that normally would have taken years to completely degrade some plastic are now able to do it in days. Plants are already being designed to facilitate this plastic recycling on a mass scale and could begin operation in the near future. What had been an issue since plastics first appeared in the 1950s and has been growing steadily since then could be seriously ameliorated and reduced within the next decade or two as this technology progresses.

7. Nanobots

It’s been estimated that by 2030 you’ll be walking down the streets with microscopic robots running through your bloodstream doing whatever it is you’re hoping they do without making you a supervillain. The concept of nanobots has existed for years in fiction, but the downside to that is that it’s almost always portrayed in a decidedly negative light. For instance, Star Trek’s Borg. But in the real world, science still hopes nanobots will be used to make us healthy and not an army of intergalactic robo-zombies. 

In late 2020, the first xenobots were produced. A year later they were self-replicating. A xenobot is basically a living robot, a biological creation that can reproduce and, hopefully, not destroy all life in the galaxy. 

The intended goal for these xenobots and nanobots is to do things like detect and eliminate cancer and other diseases. In your body, these little machines could find cancer cells or virus cells as they reproduce and just destroy them before they get out of hand.

It’s also been theorized that nanobots could help humans and machines interface in such a way that, theoretically, maybe you could upload your mind into the cloud or another artificial storage. It’s all on paper now, but the science is progressing quickly. 

6. Lab Grown Meat

Livestock farming is not exactly good for the environment, but often no one explains why. They’ll say things like “cows produce gasses” and you’re left to fill in the blanks while childishly giggling about what that implies. In case you were wondering, livestock farming produces 7.1 gigatons of greenhouse gasses, or about 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gasses, which are the ones directly linked to human activity. That’s a sizable chunk. Finding an alternative could do a lot to save the environment and curb climate change.

One solution that shows potential is lab grown meat. And while there are hurdles to producing it at scale and for a reasonable price, it’s also possible those can be figured out as the technology improves.

Unlike things like Impossible Meat, which is a meat substitute made from plant matter, cultivated or lab grown meat is literal meat. When it says chicken, it really is chicken with one major difference – the chicken never existed. Instead, it takes cells from a real chicken and then grows them in a lab. The same way medical science may soon grow you a new kidney or lung that you need to live, these companies can grow a hamburger. 

Singapore is already on board with cultivated chicken, and if more countries put in place regulations, we could all still enjoy a hamburger without ever having to kill another cow or produce all that waste.

5. Carbon Capture

You’ve probably heard the term “carbon footprint” at some point, usually in the context of reducing it. Your carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gasses that we produce with our everyday actions. Reducing it will help save the world, they say, but let’s be honest. At a grassroots level is a nice idea, but major corporations need to be the ones taking the lead because major corporations are causing the most damage. It’s a bit disingenuous to expect the average Joe to take up the burden of saving the world without the help of major polluters reducing their footprints. Enter carbon capture technology.

Carbon capture works by capturing the carbon dioxide produced as industrial waste. It can also be pulled from the air. From there you have a couple of options which are use or storage. If storage is the plan, the CO2 is condensed and then stored, typically deep underground in old aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs. It makes sense in a way since most of those reservoirs probably contributed to the creation of CO2 in the first place.

Carbon can also be reused for other applications. It can be used in steel production, nanotubes, biofuel, concrete, all kinds of things. It’s believed carbon capture can achieve the 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that the world is aiming for by 2015. It may be the only practical method of reducing the harmful gasses in the atmosphere and curbing the effects of climate change.

4. Passive House Technology

Passive House, sometimes known by the cooler German name PassivHaus, is a technology applied to the building of houses that has some remarkable benefits. It’s a method of designing a home to be energy efficient that is almost bafflingly effective. It can reduce heating and cooling energy by up to 90%. Reduced energy costs obviously save you money as a homeowner, but in turn mean we need less energy overall, which reduces reliance on greenhouse gas-producing energy sources so it’s a net win for the world and everyone in it.

The major drawback to Passive House tech, which has been around for quite a few years but still isn’t catching on well outside of places like Germany, is that people just don’t believe it’s plausible. Tell someone they can heat their home with no energy and they don’t buy it. But the process involves the use of things like heat exchanges, triple glazed windows, and what they call “mega insulation.” It’s a method of building a home from the ground up, rather than something you apply to an existing home, although renovations can be made to certain buildings.

A properly built Passive House doesn’t actually require a heating system. A heat exchange for air and windows are able to supply nearly all heating needs. A small heater can be used if the weather gets too cold. The exterior or envelope of the building, the windows, the insulation and the ventilation system must all meet exacting standards. When they do, the efficiency of the system is optimized, and it works, as has been born out in thousands of homes built to the standard. 

At 90% less energy consumption for heating and cooling, the Passive House concept could drastically reduce energy consumption and waste production if it was widely adopted. 

3. Graphene

Graphene is an extremely simple material. It’s pure carbon, with the atoms held together in a hexagonal lattice.While that may not sound like much, the implications for what graphene can do for the world are stunning. For instance, how about energy from thin air? Graphene membranes are able to filter hydrogen atoms and strip away their electrons, producing power from ambient air. If this technology is refined and scaled up, an electric car could power itself just by running out in the open. 

The filtration ability can be applied to more than just air. Graphene is able to filter water, both salt and freshwater, to produce clean drinking water. Water molecules pass through, but the graphene is able to catch pollutants and salt molecules, meaning the potential for widespread clean drinking water around the world is much higher. 

Graphene-based paints are impervious to rust and can even be used to hold powerful acids. Products coated in graphene can last far longer, reducing waste from production and disposal as a result. 

2. Mycelium

Star Trek: Discovery put a lot of stock into something called the mycelium network, a subspace fungal network connecting the entire universe. It sounds utterly mad but, of course, it’s based on the real world mycelium network that exists not in space but on Earth. And, as it happens, mycelium is pretty amazing.

We already see the benefits from fungus all the time; penicillin came to us thanks to fungus. Also, many delicious cheeses and just regular mushrooms we eat. But there’s a lot more that fungus can do with incredible implications. One of the biggest is as a building material.

Today, concrete accounts for 8% of CO2 emissions. Mycelium bricks, made from mycelium and agricultural waste like corn husks, are just as durable and naturally fireproof. They also self-repair and produce far less waste. Plus, they are biodegradable if you ever need to tear a building down.  

Additionally, fungus can eat plastic like we mentioned earlier, and even feed on nuclear waste, cleaning up dangerous waste products. 

1. Artificial Intelligence

Of all the tech that the world has to look forward to, none is as promising or terrifying as AI. Pop culture has conditioned us to believe AI is the first step in the two-step process of human annihilation. But it may not be so. AI just might save us all.

Artificial intelligence is better at spotting cancer than human doctors. It can sequence DNA faster than humans. It’s helped identify compounds for making new medications. The potential benefits really range across almost every field of human endeavor and can result in everything being easier, faster, and more efficient. Or it’ll turn on us and kill us all. We’ll see.