Weekly News Recap: December 29, 2023

Eighth Generation allows Indigenous designers to retain the rights to their designs so they remain in control of their own creations. (Brittney Couture Photography)

Not only are Indigenous people forced to shoulder the burden of colonialism; we are expected to celebrate it. -Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer from northern Canada

SOME GOOD NEWS

Thai farmer creates cat-themed art in his rice field (CNN) #Stunning "A sleeping cat hugs a fish in a picture seen from the air, picked out in sprouting rainbow seedlings in a rice field in Thailand to illustrate a traditional proverb about abundance."
VIDEO: Dog named Moose does impressions (CBC) #Talented "Lynn Gulliver submitted this video of Moose, her chocolate Lab, doing an impressive rendition of a fire truck while a fleet passes her home."
VIDEO: Meet the 2 miniature horses bringing joy to the streets of an Ontario town (CBC) It's now a two-horse town. :-) "Three years ago, Barrie, Ont. resident Chris Anderson received a unique inheritance from his mother: two miniature horses. The pair, named Oreo and Ember, are gaining local celebrity status as they regularly travel alongside Anderson for daily walks throughout the city."
Reclaiming blanket designs: 2 approaches to healing (CBC) I heart this. "At powwows as a child, Tsuut'ina Nation designer Stephanie Crowchild desperately wanted to be like the other kids wearing their Pendleton coats [...]. Now the owner of Stephanie Eagletail Designs and mom of four has spent much of the last two years travelling across Canada teaching other Indigenous people how to make their own coats from Pendleton and Hudson's Bay Company blankets. She said the act of cutting and resewing the blankets from those companies — whose histories are entwined with harm of Indigenous people — is an act of decolonization."
VIDEO: B.C. film photographer creates a gingerbread camera (CBC) Yummy and useful. "New Westminster's Dmitri Tcherbadji loves film cameras so much, he decided to make one out of gingerbread. It took hours to draw blueprints, bake, and craft a lens out of sugar, but he successfully created an edible, gingerbread camera."
VIDEO: UNB curler brings down the hammer with one-of-a-kind prosthetic (CBC) This is super cool. "The University of New Brunswick's Carly Smith is no ordinary student athlete. Smith, who is from Moncton, was born missing part of her left arm, from right above the elbow, but that didn't stop her from taking up curling at the age of seven."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2023 (Smithsonian Magazine) It has been a busy year for science. "In 2023, a whirlwind of science headlines swept across our screens, from the find that our ancestors nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago to the discovery of a brilliant green comet in the sky. In major health news, the coronavirus public health emergency expired, and the disease took up less of our attention, though it continued to have disastrous impacts."
Best of 2023: Maclean’s top Big Ideas (Maclean's) "What can be done to mitigate Canada’s raging forest fires? Deal with our gargantuan food-waste problem? More efficiently track UFOs? This year, Maclean’s asked doctors, engineers, politicians, top tech minds and more to tell us their most ingenious ideas for tackling Canada’s trickiest issues and transforming the country for the better."
Pulling strings: Calgary's Old Trout Puppet Workshop takes centre stage in seventh episode of Fargo (Calgary Herald) Congrats to Old Trout. "The scenes involved marionette versions of the characters of Season 5: Jon Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tilmman, Juno Temple’s Dot/Nadine and Joe Keery’s Gator Tillman. There is also a new character introduced. The episode is called Linda, which is also the name of Tillman’s first wife (played, at least in human form, by Lethbridge expat Kari Matchett.) Dot seeks her out at a remote, new-age shelter for abused women in hopes of bringing her back to testify against Tillman. Dot blames Linda for abandoning her with the abusive sheriff when she was only 15, pushing her towards him as a would-be replacement 'wife' so she could escape."
In your province or territory, what industry emits the most CO2? (CBC) You might be surprised.
The federal government wants Canadians to switch to electric vehicles. Are they interested? (CBC) More please. "With electric vehicle sales in Canada breaking records every year, the demand is clear, say advocates of EVs. 'There is currently very high interest, and that interest is growing,' said Louise Lévesque, director of policy at Electric Mobility Canada, a national industry association that works to advance electric transportation."
VIDEO: The King’s Christmas message for 2023 (CBC) "King Charles III addressed Britons and the Commonwealth in his second annual Christmas message, where he discussed the importance of service to others at a time when there is real hardship for many."
Thousands will soon be moving into Calgary's converted office towers. What are they going to do there? (CBC) "It is a staggeringly ambitious plan. Given the situation, it had to be. When the economy started slumping in 2015, office vacancies in downtown Calgary began to climb. By 2020, the vacancy rate was sitting at over 30 per cent — about 14 million square feet of office space sat empty."
Philanthropy 4.0: What Form of Giving Enables Transformative Change? (Field of the Future Blog) An important read. "Faced with accelerating disruptions and social and environmental breakdowns, traditional forms of philanthropic giving may be less effective than they once were. Confronted with societal divisions, wars, and the climate crisis, core actors in philanthropy have begun to ask how philanthropy can respond more effectively in moments of a polycrisis. How can philanthropy deal with new forms of hypercomplexity? What is the role of philanthropy in responding to breakdown, and how can it promote regeneration and transformation?"
Hermès billionaire plans to leave half of fortune to ex-gardener and cut ties with charity (The Guardian) "A descendant of the Hermès luxury handbag empire is engulfed in a public battle with the charitable foundation he founded after reports that he planned to cut its funding and instead adopt his 51-year-old former gardener and bequeath him billions."
From ‘Data Lake’ to ‘Doom Loop,’ the Philanthropy Buzzwords We’ll Be Hearing in 2024 (Chronicle of Philanthropy) "Questions about the best and most ethical ways to use artificial intelligence have consumed much of society this year, including the nonprofit world. Media coverage has celebrated generative A.I. for encouraging increased efficiency and new ways of problem-solving — while also warning of its risks."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

How To Do A Weekly Planning Session. (The Working With...) Even if you have read stuff like this before, this is a worthwhile read.
Tactics To Create Impressive PowerPoint Decks In Hours, Not Days (Better Humans) I use this method. Very helpful.
How Top Consulting Firms Do Strategy (Yvonne Wang) So interesting. This is my gift to #StrategyNerds
VIDEO: Trust Based Philanthropy: Reimagining the Future of Philanthropy (YouTube) A fun and informative video on an important trend in philanthropy.
Philanthropy 2.0: Why Nonprofits Need a Bold Vision (NonProfitPro) A short primer on what we need to be doing to be seen as relevant to the next generation of donors.
Want to avoid the post-holiday meal nap? Eat more turkey (CBC) Ha, I knew it!
How to Get Better at Risk Taking (Better Programming) We can all get better at understanding and working with risk.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

BP donates £50bn to British Museum (Yahoo! News) "BP is to give the British Museum £50 million in the single biggest corporate donation to the arts in the UK. The oil giant has pledged to support the museum through a major redevelopment of its Bloomsbury site."
WellSpan puts $1.5 million donation to use to boost local nursing opportunities (Lebtown) "WellSpan Health has received a $1.5 million donation that will provide a boost to nursing opportunities in the region."
St. Louis teacher leaves a $2.2 million surprise donation (St. Louis Post Dispatch) "'It was like a first date conversation,' she said about that single, long-ago meeting with Steve Bilane. She wanted to get to know a little more about him and what mattered to him. Bilane had taught science from 1964 to 1988 at John Burroughs School. He had been retired for more than a dozen years. Now, he was planning ahead. He didn’t have any children and was thinking about his legacy. He cared about education and had been referred to the nonprofit by a friend."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

Welcome to our recap of the week's news, articles, and information of note. ViTreo Group Inc. provides this information for the benefit of our clients, associates, staff, partners, and stakeholders. The content is collected and curated by ViTreo President & CEO Vincent Duckworth. If you would like to submit a link for consideration, please send an email to info@vitreogroup.ca.

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Vincent DuckworthDecember 29, 2023Comment