Congratulations, you've made it through the week!

Have a Happy Thought:   The world can look very different, depending on your perspective. This is not only true when people go into space , it can be as simple as…   Focusing on the water, instead of the land: AltText: An alternative projection of the Earth, centred on Antarctica, showing how all of the world's oceans are connected to each other. Land is shown as darker portions on the map and take up the periphery. A map of ocean currents on the Spilhaus map projection, from https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/spilhaus-more-like-thrillhaus/   Or maybe you’re interested in how connected we all are, and you want to see all of the deep-sea cables AltText: Global map of submarine telecommunication cables, using a more standard projection, centred on the Atlantic Ocean, with land masses taking up most of the image From https://mastodon.energy/@pauleastwood/109649166925454437     Or maybe you’re wanting t...

Have a Happy Thought:  It’s been too long since I’ve just sent you cute photos for a Friday. So here you go. Meet two animals that are downright adorable.   The Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). Native to eastern China and the very southeast of Russia, these cuties are actually related to foxes, but then went and made themselves look like little bandits. (Look, seriously, ignore the fact that I only learned about these because they may have been one of the vectors for Covid-19 . The point is, they’re cute.) Alt text: a close-up photo of a furry animal with a blunt snout, black nose against a light grey muzzle. most of its face has very dark fur, up to just above its deep brown eyes. the rest of its fur is a light grey. it has round, fluffy ears on the top undefined  By Foto: Bernd Schwabe in Hannover - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29433030   Secondly, we’ve got the Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina). Th...

Have a Happy Thought:  You know how the really big, shiny things in the sky are (mostly) stars? And the biggest things that orbit those stars are (mostly) planets? (sorry, Pluto!) And the biggest things that orbit those planets are moons?   What happens if there’s something orbiting a moon? What do we call that?   The answer is….   Moon Moons. (sometimes written moonmoon) I’m not even kidding, that is the official wording used by astronomers! Ok, sometimes they call them submoons. Or subsatellites. I know which one I prefer. If you want the short version explanation about these, you can watch this video from an astronomer, reading a poem he wrote about the paper he wrote with another astronomer, defining moonmoons and when they could exist. The long version explanation is... reading the paper he wrote (linked in the video description)   No pictures for you, this week, since there are no moonmoons known, yet.     ...

Have a Happy Thought:    Actually, you get two-for-one today since we missed last week. But I’ll keep them short 😊   The Mercantile Library in Cincinnati has a 10,000 year lease on its building(yes, that is correct – ten thousand years). And yes, that lease is renewable. In perpetuity. You can say the name “MercanTILE or MercantTEEL… Either way is perfectly acceptable. You might decide to pick one and stick with it, or you might find it fun to alternate between the two… whichever makes you happy. OR, just say The Merc (merk)” The Iditarod (1,000-mile sled dog race from Willow to Nome, Alaska) is in the midst of its 50 th run. You can check out the race standings here . But more importantly, you can check out profiles of the dogs, including pictures, here . For example, meet Senior, a lead dog for Hunter Keefe’s team  Hunter Keefe’s dog Senior prepares for the Iditarod wi...