#1. The World Doesn’t (Entirely) Suck
Let's face it, folks: the world is a mess right now. To some extent the world is always a mess, but here in America it seems like it's raging. I don't love that. But at the same time, I don't know what to do about it. I was a poli-sci major, history minor, and I wish that gave me some insight into how change the world for the better, but in the past sixteen years of being on social media, I doubt I've changed any minds about anything.
So I'm trying something new.
Indira Gandhi said that "you can't shake hands with a closed fist," and I think that's been what I've been trying to do all of these years. (Yes I know that it's okay to punch Nazis. As St. Henry Jones Jr. said: 'Nazis. I hate these guys.") The point is that I want to provide something to the world that isn't just ranting on Facebook.
Because YES, I need to address the world as it is: we need to stand up for the marginalized; we need to take care of the poor; we need to be that Shining City on a Hill. But, for the mental health of me (and you) I'm starting this newsletter, and even if I'm just shouting into the wind, at least I'll be shouting into the wind on my own terms.
That's enough preamble.
I’m starting a newsletter.
Not a big deal, right? Doesn’t everyone have newsletters? Yes, they do. But I never have.
What can you expect from this newsletter?
Hope but nothing saccharine. I'm not trying to sugarcoat this dystopia, merely trying to endure it well. This isn't Chicken Soup for 1984. This is me trying to show you, as Sam said:
Sam: It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
And that's what I hope to provide here, every week, starting now.
Here are some good things that you may not have known about this week:
This week we honor James Harrison, a man from Australia who passed away at the age of 88, and was known as the "Man with the Golden Arm." He had a rare antibody in his blood called anti-D, which is needed when unborn babies don't have the same blood type as their mother. Over the course of almost seventy years, starting in 1954, Harrison donated blood 1,173 times and is estimated to have saved the lives of 2.4 million babies. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, the highest honor a civilian in that country can receive. The thing that I find cool about him, though, is that he started donating blood twice a month a decade before it was discovered that he had the antibody--he, who had undergone major surgery as a teen, knew how important blood donation was even before learning how precious his antibodies were.
James Harrison
Fun and Fascinating Things in the News:
#1. A 22-year long study in the journal "Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World" shows that men are doing more housework than they have in previous generations (though women still do more). The ratio of housework done between men and women was 4.2:1 from 2003-2005, but by 2022-2023 it had dropped to 2.5:1. Men: we can still do better! If my wife is reading this: yes I promise to do better, and I'm deeply sorry.
#2. For the first time ever, a private craft has landed on the moon. The Blue Ghost, developed by Firefly Aerospace, landed and took this epic shot of the distant Earth. Private companies have tried landing on the moon in the past with no success--last year one from Intuitive Machines hit the ground so hard it broke its legs and fell over on its side. Say what you will about private companies going to space, but we're on the moon again, baby! It's been a long, long time.
The Blue Ghost taking a picture of itself
#3. We have all joked about welcoming our coming destruction, but the good news is that the asteroid known as "2024 YR4" has now been downgraded in its odds of hitting the earth. Previously, the chances of being struck by this football-field sized asteroid were as high as 3.2%, but are now near-zero. While it was nowhere near as big as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, it was compared to the one that created the Tunguska Event, which flattened trees in a 2100 square kilometer area in Siberia, back in 1908. (There is still a chance that the calculations for the asteroid may change--this all isn't supposed to happen until 2032, so things happen.)
#4. A California boat captain caught on drone camera a massive pod of more than 2000 dolphins. As if this wasn't cool enough (dolphin pods generally top out at 100-200) this group also contained the Northern Right Whale Dolphin, which are rare this close to shore--they were only 11 miles out. The pod also had little baby dolphins! You can watch the video here.
Interesting and/or Fun Videos to Cheer You Up:
(not necessarily new, but lots of fun nonetheless)
Studson Studio, one of my favorite YouTube craft channels, builds--from literal garbage--a gorgeous two-foot-tall recreation of Howl's Moving Castle. And if you don't think that sounds awesome, then I don't know what's wrong with you. (He's also very funny.)
Physics Girl finally answers the long and weird mystery of why large rocks move around in Death Valley, leaving trails behind them to show their meandering paths. These Sailing Stones have been a mystery for a hundred years, but science has now cracked the case.
Adam Savage (who you might remember from MythBusters used his prop-building skills to convert and custom-build a Nerf Sniper rifle as a Christmas present. It's one of his older videos, but it's really fascinating, and the finished product is gorgeous.
Wait: If This is a Newsletter, Then Why Is It a Blog Post?
Because I only came up with this idea recently and I’m having some technical troubles getting my Google Workspace setup for mailing. (It’s rather incredibly infuriating.)
