Weekly News Recap: December 13, 2024

Weekly News Recap: December 13, 2024

Video Capture: In a groundswell of fury and defiance that erupted among South Koreans after their president declared martial law, curtailing the country's hard-won freedoms, this was perhaps the iconic moment.

Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • It's not yet official, but this is the world's smallest arcade machine. Guess what game it plays? (CBC) LONDON STORY #SoCool "A college student in London, Ont. has attempted to break the record for building the world's tiniest arcade machine, with a replica of a classic game that fits in the palm of her hand [...] 'Size is definitely something that is cool to me, to have the smallest something.'"

  • VIDEO: Taylor Swift gave Vancouver — and the world — what we needed (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY #LongLiveTheSwiftie "After five continents and about 150 concerts, the singer-songwriter performed her final show of the record-breaking Eras Tour Sunday night in Vancouver, admiring the passion and kindness fans have showed throughout the nearly two years of touring. 'That is I think the lasting legacy of this tour, the fact that you have created such space and joy and togetherness and love,' Swift told her fans."

  • VIDEO: Take a gander at how the Goosinator is herding geese in Lethbridge (CBC) LETHBRIDGE STORY #Scary "It's bright orange with menacingly sharp teeth. As it floats around on the water, its piercing yellow eyes appear to follow its target no matter where it moves. It also has a propeller for a nose. It's the Goosinator. [...] 'We have a goose-management plan to try to reduce the number of resident geese that hang out in Lethbridge over the winter,' said Erin McIlwraith, parks operations coordinator with the City of Lethbridge."

  • VIDEO: Women weren't supposed to race. But 'Motorcycle' Mary McGee was having too much fun to care (CBC) We heart #MotorcycleMary "Mary McGee's motto in life was: Always say yes. That's how she ended up driving race cars in the '50s when women were expected to stay home and raise kids. It's also how she became the first woman to compete in motorcycle races in the U.S., and the first person of any gender to complete the gruelling Baja 500 motorsport race across the Mexican desert solo. The pioneering racer died on Nov. 27 due to complications from a stroke at her home in Gardnerville, Nev. She was 87. The very next day, Motorcycle Mary, a documentary about her life and legacy, was released."

  • VIDEO: He's made dollhouses for sick kids since the pandemic — even after his own cancer diagnosis (CBC) TECUMSEH STORY #Lovely "His white beard is a little shorter than Santa's, and he's missing the red suit and hat, but Vincent Giannotti's propensity for making toys and giving gifts bears a striking resemblance to that of Kris Kringle. The 73-year-old's workshop, however, isn't in the North Pole — it's in the southwestern Ontario town of Tecumseh [...] He started this labour of love during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was forced to walk away from his day job after being diagnosed with prostate cancer that ended up metastasizing to his bones."

  • VIDEO: Manischewitz to sponsor first Jewish quarterback in BYU history (NBC) #Mazeltov "Brigham Young University's Jake Retzlaff, the first Jewish quarterback in program history, has signed an NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) sponsorship with the kosher food company Manischewitz, both announced Thursday. Retzlaff, who has adopted the nickname 'BYJew,' is one of only three Jewish students at the Latter-day Saints university."

  • VIDEO: Dick Van Dyke stars in Coldplay video as he turns 99 (BBC) Nice move Coldplay. Dick Van Dyke is a legend. "Filmed in his beachside home in Malibu, the moving video sees the star reminisce about his life and reflect on old age. 'I'm acutely aware that I could go any day now,' he says, 'but I don't know why it doesn't concern me. I'm not afraid of it. I have the feeling that I'm gonna be alright.'"

  • The 2024 Outsiders of the Year (Outside Online) I am impressed. "Thirteen adventurers, athletes, and renegades who pushed boundaries, toppled barriers, and shook up the outdoors."

  • Dave Eggers just opened a library of books written entirely by children (San Francisco Standard) Brilliant. "Dave Eggers didn’t know what to do with all the books gathering dust in his garage. These weren’t copies of the bestselling author’s award-winning books — though surely some of those were lying around too. These were books written by 6- to 18-year-olds from San Francisco and around the world, and Eggers felt pretty strongly that someone should be reading them. So in September, he soft-launched the International Library of Youth Writing [...] The library features the works of children and children only. No grown-ups allowed."

  • VIDEO: The cat came back: Jasper pet returns home after 100 days in B.C. wilderness (CBC) JASPER STORY Welcome home Felix. "Nicole Klopfenstein wonders what tales her family cat Felix would tell if he could speak. She wagers the best would be about how the four-year-old black and white tabby survived in the wilderness for more than 100 days after a ferocious wildfire forced the evacuation of the Rocky Mountain town of Jasper, Alta. this summer."

  • VIDEO: Iowa man decorates entire block to give wife with Alzheimer's a magical Christmas memory (CBC) Heartwarming. "John Reichart wants his wife to have as many good memories as possible to hold onto, so he transformed his entire block into a winter wonderland. Reichart, 74, decorated every house around him in Indianoloa, Iowa, as a gift for his wife of 53 years, Joan, who loves Christmas and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. VIDEO: Taylor Swift's daily impact on Vancouver may have exceeded 2010 Olympics, industry figure says (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY #Wow "Ian Tostenson, CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said Monday that his group estimates there was a $25 million boost for Metro Vancouver's establishments for each of the three days that Swift's concerts rocked B.C. Place Stadium. In comparison, a sold-out, highly anticipated Vancouver Canucks playoff game brings an estimated $3 million a day in economic impact, Tostenson said."

  2. Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers sell for record-breaking $28m at auction (The Guardian) Some things are priceless. "A pair of ruby slippers that were worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and stolen from a museum nearly two decades ago sold for a winning bid of $28m at auction on Saturday. Heritage Auctions had estimated that they would fetch $3m or more, but the fast-paced bidding far outpaced that amount within seconds and tripled it within minutes."

  3. VIDEO: In the 6-hour mayhem of South Korea’s martial law, a woman’s act of resistance was a defining moment (AP News) This woman is my hero for 2024. #Brave "In the groundswell of fury and defiance that erupted among South Koreans after their president declared martial law, curtailing the country’s hard-won freedoms, it was perhaps the iconic moment. As parliamentarians scrambled to get inside the National Assembly building to reverse the emergency measure, a woman in a leather coat confronted one of the soldiers who was trying to stop the lawmakers, grabbed his automatic rifle and tried to tug it away while yelling 'Aren’t you ashamed?' As the soldier backed away, he raised the rifle’s barrel toward the woman. She pressed on, grabbing it as it was pointed at her chest, still yelling, before he gave up, turned and walked away."

  4. Jealousy List 2024 (Bloomberg) I love this idea. "In Catholicism, envy is one of the seven deadly sins. In professional journalism, it’s a virtue, albeit too seldomly expressed. Which is why every year, Bloomberg Businessweek commits this cardinal act for all to witness, with our annual Jealousy List. [We’ve] asked our editors and contributors to identify that one story in 2024 that filled them with the kind of indescribable resentment that theologians once thought was a dangerous gateway to other sins. In this case, however, we simply hope to create a handy guide to some of the best business journalism of the year. And if rival publications are jealous of the Businessweek Jealousy List — so much the better."

  5. How The Rise Of Women-Led Giving Is Changing Philanthropy (Forbes) "'It’s not just that women are writing checks where they hadn’t before,' explains Amy Marks Dornbusch, a longtime philanthropist and founder of new social venture AtlasDaughters. 'We’re thinking critically about where our dollars go, the structural barriers that exist, and how we can address them in sustainable ways, and this is driving a tangible change in how the philanthropic industry operates.'"

  6. Polytechnique Montréal announces the recipient of the 10th Order of the White Rose scholarship, Makenna Kuzyk, who receives a $50,000 award (Le Lézard) MONTREAL STORY Congrats to this UofA engineering student. "'The past recipients of the Order of the White Rose are all young women driven by extraordinary passion, which makes them exceptional citizens,' said Maud Cohen, President, Polytechnique Montréal. 'Makenna Kuzyk has that same passion. It has the power to change the world, and so it must be encouraged to the greatest extent possible.'"

  7. Deep seabed mining: Bad for biodiversity and terrible for the economy (The Conversation) "The debate around deep seabed mining has been gaining attention as concerns mount about its potential impacts on ocean ecosystems. The ocean is host to countless species yet to be discovered, some of which could hold the key to breakthroughs in medicine. The impacts of deep seabed mining on ocean biodiversity are still uncertain. At worst, we face losing species without ever knowing them. For instance, one type of mining targets hydrothermal mounds, which are known to be unique ecosystems filled with extremophiles — sea life that has adapted to extreme conditions of heat and toxicity to thrive."

  8. Pantone's 2025 colour of the year is.... brown, which, yeah, sounds about right (CBC) I think I am going to stick with Mocha Mousse (not Brown) "The results are in, and the highly anticipated Pantone colour of the year — seen by many as capturing the current cultural zeitgeist and setting the tone for the year ahead — is brown. Yes, brown. Mocha Mousse, to be specific, which Pantone describes in its press release as 'an evocative soft brown that transports our senses into the pleasure and deliciousness it inspires.' The warming rich hue, the company says, appeals to our desire for comfort, with its suggestions of cacao, chocolate and coffee."

  9. VIDEO: This Canadian is the new world champion of spreadsheets, and he has the belt to prove it (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT I love this nerd. "It was down to the final 30 seconds at the Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas, and the crowd was going wild. Canada's Michael Jarman was in the lead, his eyes fixed on the scoreboard, desperately hoping nobody would come up from behind and snatch victory from his grasp. When the clock ran out, Jarman leapt from his computer and threw his hands up in celebration, as the spectators in the HyperX Arena erupted in cheers. Jarman, a Toronto financial modelling director, unseated Australia's three-time winner Andrew (The Annihilator) Ngai on Dec. 4 to become the undisputed world champion of managing spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel."

  10. She posted about her PhD, and went viral in the worst possible way (CBC) "When Ally Louks posted last week that she was 'PhDone' with her English literature thesis, she didn't expect to find herself at the centre of a culture war. Louks posted a picture of herself on X, formerly known as Twitter, smiling proudly and holding a bound copy of her University of Cambridge thesis on the 'politics of smell' in literature. One week later, the seemingly innocuous post has been viewed 117.1 million times, made headlines around the world, and put Louks on the receiving end of plenty of praise but also heaps of hate, including a rape threat that's now under investigation by police."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Mastering The Art Of The Humblebrag With ChatGPT And Generative AI (Forbes) I can spot (and admire) a good humblebrag from a mile away.

  2. Philip Glass for Christmas: Getting Creative Around Holiday Fundraising (Inside Philanthropy) A fun story about good intentions gone somewhat awry.

  3. Art As Civil Defense (Counter Arts) This is a beautiful piece, I highly recommend looking at the faux brochure at the end.

  4. The Return-To-Office Productivity Argument Is Over (Entrepreneurship Handbook) Interesting perspectives and not the typical corporate ones either.

  5. Why Gantt Charts Are Killing Your Project Success (And What to Do Instead) (Paco Cantero) Man, this really resonates with how our project planning works (and doesn't).

  6. What we measure reveals what we value (UX Design) The really resonated with me, especially when I think about our company.

  7. Overwhelmed Thinking About Marketing? Here’s How to Start Enjoying It. (The Startup) Sometimes you need to simplify.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Purina Announces $4.5MM Donation to Three Leading Veterinary Schools to Advance Pet Health (PR Newswire) "Veterinarians play a critical role in the health and well-being of our pets. To help support the next generation of veterinarians and in honor of International Day of Veterinary Medicine, Purina has announced its donation of $4.5 million to three top veterinary schools in the U.S. to drive innovation and excellence in pet health and veterinary education over the next five years and beyond."

  2. $1M donation will help Kingston further genomic research (The Kingston Whig) KINGSTON STORY "A Kingston real estate developer has donated $1 million to Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) to establish the organization’s first clinical chair in genomics. Jay and Kendal Patry, of Patry Inc. Developments, donated the money to create a position to explore the use of genomics to create personalized medicine and infectious disease surveillance."

  3. Could billionaire Oxford University donation benefit wine? (The Drinks Business) "The cash injection from the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) could enable more winegrowers and producers to bring their sustainable farming products to market, securing an additional revenue stream during more challenging vintages. And while EIT has said it intends to share the fruits of its joint research with Oxford University globally, the proximity of England’s winemakers to the facility may mean English Sparkling benefits first. In June, db reported that Britain is expected to be hit by a deluge of “never-ending rain” during the next 10 years, sparking concerns over rot in English vineyards."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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