Congratulations, you've made it through the week!

Have a Happy Thought:     People are hard at work making sure that more and more people can access what they need – both in the physical world, and in this weird world of the interwebs and computers.   In the physical world (did you know some people call it “meatspace”? that’s just… a little too weird for me), there’s this thing called Universal Design (it has a bunch of names, but we’ll stick with this one for now). It looks at how we design buildings, streets, seats, traffic lights, and more. The idea is if you design a city to work for people that find it hard to navigate, then it makes that city easier for literally everyone.     If you’re thinking “hey I don’t need this, everything works for me right now”, first of all – congratulations, you’re already benefiting from the fact that people have put thought into designing for people who think, move, and are shaped like you! Any time you’re using something adjustable – like moving a car seat forwar...

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...

Have a Happy Thought:  Winnie the Pooh, the beloved children’s book character, was based on a real bear! Here’s the story, as inscribed on a plaque in the city of Ontario: “On August 24, 1914 Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, V.S., of the 34th Fort Garry Horse & Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, purchased a black bear cub at WHITE RIVER, Ontario, while enroute overseas. He named her WINNIE after his hometown, Winnipeg. WINNIE became the soldiers’ mascot, and was left in the care of the London Zoo on December 9th, 1914, while Lieutenant Colebourn served in France. In 1919, he gave her to the Zoo for permanent keeping where she was watched and loved by many, including author A.A. Milne and his son Christopher.” Winnie accompanied Harry to England ,became the Brigade’s mascot and found a home in the London Zoo. Here, staff said that Winnie was the most popular animal at the zoo and she earned a reputation with her keepers as the most tame and gentle bear the zoo had ever had. (Pho...

Have a Happy Thought:    Whether you’re stuck in the midst of winter, or you’re bunkering down for yet another drenching storm (checks notes – yep, that covers pretty much everyone on this mailing list) It can be good to have some comfort food ready to hand. Or mouth. Or hand to mouth.   And in case you feel the need to write an article, blog post, or whatever, and want to be absolutely sure you’re writing and spelling according to the Associated Press guidelines (and let’s be honest, that’s the first thing you think about, right?), here’s how to spell some, well, favourites??   Naan Kimchi BLT PB&J Doughnut Fluffernutter (a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme usually served on white bread) Image By Fluffernutter_before.jpg: Keiteiderivative work: Hic et nunc - This file was derived from: Fluffernutter before.jpg:, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18716453   Horchata Ketchup (sorr...

Have a Happy Thought:  You know when you go visit a website and realise it’s not quite… finished yet? Or when you’re creating a document and you just need to have some text on the page/screen to see what it’ll look like? Then you’ve encountered Lorem ipsum . This is a very fake Latin-looking set of words that are used as, well, placeholders. And have been used by typesetters for centuries. The idea is that these nonsense-words and sentences distribute letters across a page in a way that let you really see what a final piece of writing will look like – whereas if you just put “placeholder text blah blah blah” the words don’t break and flow across a page in quite the same way.   Here’s the “full” paragraph, created by some unnamed person, probably a printer or printer’s assistant, sometime in the 1500’s: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud ...

Have a Happy Thought: Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate! On Sunday, many countries are entering the Year of the Rabbit, including China, Korea, Japan, and Cambodia, amongst others. Zodiac rabbit, showing the tù (兔) character for rabbit Image: Alice-astro (picture)+User:Miuki (modified caracter) - wikimedia commons. CC BY 3.0   However, some countries that also have significant Lunar New Year celebrations are instead entering the Year of the Cat. These traditions include Vietnam and Nepal. One explanation for this is that the zodiacal name for this year is Mão/M ẹ o 卯 which is similar in pronunciation to the Vietnamese word Mèo for cat. A ginger cat lies curled up on a hiking backpack Image: supplied   Meanwhile, the Malay (including eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and parts of Borneo) are entering the year of the mousedeer. A chevrotain or Lesser mouse-deer (Tragulus kanchil), a small (7–16 kg (15–35 lb), 45 cm (18 in) long, average heigh...

Have a Happy Thought:  2022 was, as they say, a mood . But this did give some opportunities for wonderful news headlines. Sometimes you get a great headline because the thing being reported was just. that. bonkers. Sometimes it's just really good copy-editing!   Here are a few that were compiled online - I've chosen my favourites but you may want to click through to find some more that tickle your fancy :)   Coffey urges staff to be positive, be precise, and not use Oxford commas --The Guardian, 15 September 2022 Is that…? Yes, that is an Oxford comma in that headline!   Top scientist admits ‘space telescope image’ was actually a slice of chorizo By Toyin Owoseje, CNN Updated 10:23 PM EDT, Sun August 7, 2022 --CNN, 7 August 2022 An example of an April-fool's-day-type joke getting well out-of-hand.   Man who paid $2.9m for NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet set to lose almost $2.9m --The Guardian, 14 Ap...