Weekly News Recap: February 17, 2023

Weekly News Recap: February 17, 2023

Michael and wish kid Donovan. (Photo: Make-A-Wish)

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. -- Michael Jordan

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • Vancouver photographer captures orca making a splash in Burrard Inlet (CBC) #Gorgeous "A wildlife photographer looking for birds off the shores of Vancouver's Stanley Park has instead captured an unforgettable image of a different animal in flight: an orca leaping from Burrard Inlet. Frank Lin says he was leading a group of volunteers conducting a water bird survey for the Stanley Park Ecology Society last week when a team member spotted a whale off Brockton Point."

  • Volunteer 'finishers' help complete knitting projects started by late loved ones (CBC) How wonderful a gift is this! "Annie Gatewood's mother was dying of lymphoma. Before her death, the sweaters she was knitting for her grandchildren weighed heavily on her mind [...] Around the time Gatewood thought of finishing her mother's labours of love, a friend of hers asked her to be a prototype project for a new non-profit she was starting, the Loose Ends Project. The project, co-created by longtime friend Masey Kaplan, seeks out volunteers around the world to continue knitting projects started by loved ones who died before finishing."

  • An Iowa teen, strangers helped save man and dog from an icy lake — and a drone caught it all (Des Moines Register) #Heroes "After a Jeep fell through the ice Saturday, 17-year-old Joe Salmon jumped into the water to save Thomas Lee, 83, and his dog Cooper, 6, who were trapped."

  • Six remarkable rescues in Turkey and Syria amid earthquake chaos (BBC) This tragedy is unfathomable but in the midst of it, hope. "More than 20,000 people are known to have died after Monday's earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, with the number expected to rise. But days after the disaster, people are still being freed from the rubble, bringing hope amid the tragedy."

  • All-female Super Bowl flyover team makes history (Good Morning America) "This [past] Super Bowl Sunday, a group of women made history. The flyover before Sunday's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs at Phoenix's State Farm Stadium was piloted by an all-female team. The four female pilots orchestrating the diamond formation honored 50 years of women flying in the U.S. Navy."

  • A Chiefs fan donated a kidney to an Eagles fan. Now they're going to the Super Bowl together (Today) A truly lifesaving gift. "These two football fans may be mortal enemies when their teams meet in the Super Bowl, but they are on the same side when it comes to saving a life. Philadelphia Eagles fan Billy Welsh will sit next to Kansas City Chiefs fan John Gladwell at the game on Sunday after Gladwell donated his kidney to Welsh more than two years ago."

  • Town of Crossfield celebrates 74-year-old animal lover who's saved thousands of cats (CBC) Thank you Edna. "It all started more than a decade ago when Edna Jackson, now 74, arrived at her former pet supply shop in Crossfield, Alta., around 50 kilometres north of Calgary. It was about 6 a.m. on a cold, September morning, and she says she saw a plastic bag tied to the door. Inside was a small calico kitten. 'That kind of edged me on because I'd had fish dropped off, I'd had snakes dropped off. Dogs, cats, you name it,' she said in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener Monday. 'I said to my husband, 'Honey, I got to start something. I mean, these animals are not being taken care of.' And so…put a second mortgage on the farm and started up a shelter.'"

  • That viral, back-flipping figure skater? He's a Calgarian with plans to uplift diverse athletes (CBC) #Inspiring "It's a move he's become famous for on social media. Elladj Baldé glides across an outdoor rink in Bowness, a neighbourhood in northwest Calgary, and once he's up to speed, he spins around. Gracefully, he swings one foot forward, thrusts his body into the air and slams back down onto the ice as he lands a backflip. His unique moves have garnered a lot of attention, Baldé says, but he suspects there's another reason why people are taking pause. 'I don't look like a typical figure skater,' he said. 'To be able to show the next generation of Black, Indigenous and people of colour that we are here and we can be successful is one of the most powerful messages that we can bring out into our community.'"

  • Hugs, smiles and tears greet Nuxalk totem pole as it leaves Victoria, B.C., museum (CBC) #Homecoming "Members of the Nuxalk Nation gathered outside the Royal B.C. Museum in downtown Victoria [...] to greet one of their totem poles, which was taken from a village on the central coast more than a century ago. Some members drummed and sang, one woman walked through the crowd smudging, while others stood with their eyes fixed on the top of the building as a crane extracted the pole through a hole made especially for the removal. They cheered as the pole, which is just over five metres high and a metre wide, was lowered to the ground."

  • Sask. man taking the fancy dance — and Indigenous culture — all the way to Super Bowl LVII (CBC) "A man from the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation in Saskatchewan [took] his talents to one of the biggest stages in the world. Patrick Mitsuing will help to shine a spotlight on Indigenous culture as he perform[ed] at Super Bowl LVII [last] Sunday. After growing up on the small First Nation, located northwest of Saskatoon, Mitsuing said the opportunity in front of him is worth savouring. 'It's a story I could tell my kids, and if I'm lucky my grandchildren as well,' Mitsuing said, speaking with CBC News from Glendale, Ariz."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Alberta invests $15M to train international nurses to aid health-care system (CTV News) Excellent! "The Alberta government says more than 600 new seats will be created in nurse bridging programs at three post secondary institutions to transition internationally educated nurses into the province's health-care system."

  2. Rideau Canal Skateway's uncertain future predicted 18 years ago (CBC) #Ugh "Even though he's an expert in his field, Daniel Scott doesn't like to be right. The professor and research chair at the University of Waterloo was tasked by the National Capital Commission (NCC) in 2005 to prepare a report on the long-term implications of climate change on the commission's tourism and recreational activities."

  3. Damar Hamlin Say's He'll 'Change The World' W/ Donation Money (TMZ) "Damar Hamlin has big plans for the millions that were donated to his foundation after his cardiac arrest medical emergency ... telling TMZ Sports he's 'gonna change the world.' Remember, over 240k contributors showed the Buffalo Bills' safety love in the form of U.S. dollars, donating over $9M to his Chasing M's Foundation following the terrifying incident during the Bengals game on Jan. 2."

  4. Trees Can Communicate With One Another via an Underground Web of Delicate Fungal Filaments (Nature World News) Or, maybe not. "The concept has gained traction in popular media, even being raised in the popular Apple TV show Ted Lasso, and has been dubbed the 'wood-wide web,' but the science behind those ideas is unproven, according to University of Alberta expert Justine Karst, as per ScienceDaily. Karst and two colleagues contest three popular claims about the capabilities of underground fungi known as common mycorrhizal networks, or CMNs, that connect roots of multiple plants underground in a peer-reviewed article published in Nature Ecology & Evolution that also shares their personal point of view. Molds, yeast, and mushrooms are all examples of fungi. They discovered that one of the claims, that CMNs are common in forests, is not supported by sufficient scientific evidence."

  5. 35 years later, Calgary's Winter Olympics legacy lives on but starting to show its age (Calgary Herald) "'Calgary did remarkably well until 2018 … winter sports are an enormous part of Calgary but it’s not fully appreciated,' [Reid] said. 'We’re somewhat at the crossroads of where we’re going.' In November 2018, Calgary voters by a count of 56.4 to 43.6 per cent turned thumbs down on pursuing the 2026 Winter Olympics — the majority soured on past Games boondoggles and on questions over who would pay for a $5.1-billion replay of 1988."

  6. The University of Richmond Faces Request for $51 Million Refund of 132-Year-Old Donation (NewsBreak) "In 1890 the estate of T.C. Williams Sr. gave the University of Richmond’s law school $25,000. Williams had attended Richmond College, was a Richmond College trustee from 1881 until he died in 1889, and was a benefactor of the institution. Eventually, the College named the law school after Williams, becoming the T.C. Williams School of Law in 1920. However, last year William's name was removed from the school, with the college saying that recently located public records showed his ownership of enslaved people [...] Now the family of Williams is seeking compensation citing the college has yet to prove that Williams was an enslaver or speak to his family since they removed his name from the law school. They are asking for $51 million from the college- calculated at 6 percent compound interest— of the initial $25,000 gift made in 1890."

  7. Yedlin: We need an all-of-the-above approach to accelerate Calgary's economy (Calgary Herald) "Alberta is at an inflection point. As a province endowed with an enviable resource bounty that has generated a significant budgetary surplus, we are also confronted with the twin challenges of decreasing emissions and energy security. At the same time, we are faced with challenges not unique to other jurisdictions — a shortage of talent, rising costs and the need to invest in new infrastructure and renew existing facilities."

  8. Canada is short of doctors — and it's turning away hundreds of its own physicians each year (CBC) "The country's health-care system is suffering from an acute shortage of doctors — even as hundreds of qualified Canadian physicians trained abroad are turned away each year because of a tangle of red-tape and bias, experts say. Canada is passing up a chance to add hundreds of these Canadian doctors to a strained system because, critics say, tight-fisted provincial governments have restricted the number of residency spots — and because the system explicitly privileges students who went to Canadian medical schools."

  9. NORAD shoots down 'unidentified object' over Yukon (CBC) "The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has shot down an unidentified object in Canadian airspace, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said [...] 'I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. [NORAD] shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,' Trudeau said in a statement on Twitter. 'I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,' he said." RELATED: Unidentified objects shot down | What to make of the Chinese response?.

  10. Why rent is so expensive in 3 Canadian cities (that aren't Toronto or Vancouver) (CBC) "Janice Rourke, 67, recently received a notice that rent in her downtown apartment was going up nearly 24 per cent, an increase it blamed on the rising price of utilities, maintenance and other costs. (Alberta doesn't have a cap on rent increases, though it does limit how often rent can be raised.) 'That was a huge surprise, when I saw the amount,' said Rourke, who is currently between jobs and said it will be a struggle to afford the new monthly bill."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Killing Your Darlings: The Reason Why I Deleted 2,793 Subscribers From My Email List (The Startup) Hard but...necessary.

  2. 5 ChatGPT Features to Maximize Your Writing Potential on Medium (Geek Culture) An excellent tool to help you overcome writer's block.

  3. How a simple confession beat my productivity issue (Hamidah Syahrir) Can you wrestle your emotions? This might help.

  4. Risky Business: The Pitfalls of Guessing Without User Research (Laura Riehl) Data rules.

  5. Sequence: Putting your learning in the right order (Personal Development Center) Excellent tips on how to really learn something new.

  6. How to Practice Positive Reframing (Better Humans) We could all use more of this.

  7. How to Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Habits (Change Your Mind Change Your Life) We all have them. This article is not the answer but it is a good start.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Michael Jordan Celebrates Milestone Birthday With Generous Donation (Parade) "Michael Jordan is giving back for his birthday this year. The basketball superstar is approaching his 60th birthday on Friday, and he's celebrating in a very big way with a very generous charitable donation. As confirmed by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jordan will be giving $10 million in the hopes of helping children who are waiting for their wishes to come true. The six-time NBA champion is no stranger to making history, and he just broke another record with his generous contribution, as $10 million is the largest donation ever received from an individual in the organization's 43-year history."

  2. Mellon commits $125 million to carceral arts, humanities initiative (Philanthropy News Digest) "The Imagining Freedom program will support artistic, cultural, and humanistic work centered on the voices of people directly affected by the U.S. legal system. To that end, the initiative will enable recipients to advance the participation of system-impacted artists, writers, storytellers, and scholars; support the creation of new scholarship, artistic, and cultural work that examines carceral structures and their effect on human dignity; broaden access to literature, knowledge, and humanities-based higher learning; and make visible the carceral system’s effect on families and communities."

  3. Anonymous donor gives stunning $30M toward earthquake victims (New York Post) "An anonymous donor contributed a stunning $30 million to the victims of two powerful earthquakes that have devastated Turkey and Syria, leaving more than a million displaced and tens of thousands dead. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif revealed Saturday the donor walked into the Turkish embassy in the United States to make the hefty donation as the death toll from the quakes has exceeded 33,000. 'Deeply moved by the example of an anonymous Pakistani who walked into Turkish embassy in the US & donated $30 million for earthquake victims in Turkey & Syria,' Sharif stated. 'These are such glorious acts of philanthropy that enable humanity to triumph over the seemingly insurmountable odds.' "

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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