Penguin dads, meaningful music and skijoring!

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Penguin dads, meaningful music and skijoring!

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February 5, 2022

The Winter Olympics are back, and I have so, so many questions. How does one get into ski jumping? Do they just wake up one morning with a burning desire to hurtle themselves into the sun? Who invented CURLING? Who watched someone luge, reckoned it was just too safe, and decided to go down HEAD FIRST instead?! I know there are good answers, and I respect (and fear?) the many athletes who have perfected these pursuits. But as someone who prefers to be A. warm B. dry C. not in active danger, I will never not be amazed at those among us who look at a snowy precipice or sheet of ice and think, "Yeah, I'm going to conquer that."

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

The Beat Goes On
Every February, the Stax Music Academy in Memphis puts on a stunning Black History Month celebration, taking listeners on a journey through the legacy of Black American music artists from B.B. King to Beyoncé. Memphis is certainly the place for such a production. Not only has the city been a crucible of soul music and Civil Rights activism for decades, it's also the home of the legendary Stax Records, for which the academy is named. Last year, because of the pandemic, the Academy had to move the performance from a live show to an online one. It turned out to be a magical decision. The show racked up more than 100,000 views from all over the world. This year, they're hoping to replicate that success and turn in another Black History performance for the ages. "Soul of America: An Evolution of Black American Music" goes live on February 15, is free to download, and comes with a study guide. That last part is important, because as the Academy's director Pat Mitchell Worley points out, the songs are just the beginning: When you start to listen for the trials and triumphs behind the music, there's so much more to learn.

A royal idea
While we're talking music, you have to check out this TikTok creator who wrote an entire musical for a Disney-style Korean princess. When Julia Riew realized there was no Disney Princess of Korean descent, the Harvard student took her years of music writing skills and transformed herself into Shimcheong, a brave young woman at the center of a Korean folktake called "The Blind Man's Daughter." A short clip of her performing her original song "Dive" in traditional dress caught on big in Korea, and has made it around the globe with people adding their own voice parts and even making sageuk-worthy fan art of the princess (with various magical sidekicks, of course). Disney may not have picked up the script yet, but Riew has already heard from producers and filmmakers interested in bringing the story to bigger audiences. "I think stories are so important for kids," Riew says. "Especially as someone who, as a young person, never saw herself represented in media, or in film, TV or on stage -- that was something I always longed for."

Couple goals
Valentine's Day is coming up soon, so now is a good time to remind you that many penguins are top-level relationship role models. For one, they share parenting duties, like incubating their eggs and feeding the babies. They're usually monogamous, too, and they follow their hearts! That's why you see so many adorable stories of same-sex penguin couples building little lives together. Such is the case for Elmer and Lima, two penguin husbands at the Rosamond Giffords Zoo in Syracuse, New York. The couple just became first-time dads, and are the zoo's first same-sex foster parents to successfully hatch an egg. The zoo's staff is careful in how they choose foster parents, and they selected Elmer and Lima because they were "exemplary in every aspect of egg care." High praise! Their new baby, a boy, has yet to be named. Zoo director Ted Fox also delivered a very (unintentionally?) romantic summary of the couple's relationship: "The penguins are free to choose who they want to spend time with (pair with) and in their case, they chose each other."

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Raise a glass to...

Photo credit: Getty Images

MacKenzie Scott, who just donated $133.5 million to educational nonprofit Communities in School, an organization that helps students navigate issues inside and outside of the classroom. Communities in School works in 2,900 schools in America across 26 states, reaching a total of about 1.6 million kids. Their goal is to support students at risk of dropping out and provide resources to help young people be successful. Partly because of Scott's donation, CIS says it will now be able to expand its operations. Since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Scott has donated more than $8.5 billion to organizations focused on a range of issues.

A bright idea

Look closely, and you'll notice that this cow is wearing ... fitness trackers! Stellapps, an Indian dairy-tech startup, has created wearable tech for cows so farmers can keep a better eye on their health and other needs. For instance, this pedometer will alert farmers when a cow is moving less, which could indicate illness, or moving more, which could indicate peak fertility times. India is home to world's largest dairy industry, but it's still new and very fragmented. Technology like this can help standardize some aspects of the industry, leading to bigger yields for farmers -- whose herds are often very small -- and better price and product confidence for customers, many of whom buy from local hubs.

Wanna get away?

Photo credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Firefall will be back soon at Yosemite National Park. This occasional, catch-it-if-you're-lucky event happens when the water flow at Horsetail Fall catches the sun juuust right, making it look like lava is flowing over the rocky surface. The reason it's rare is because the falls tend to only flow in the winter, the sky needs to be perfectly clear and of course, the positioning of the sun needs to be exact. Park experts are expecting one this month, with another possible occurrence in the fall.

Hear, hear!

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

- Former US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American judge to serve on the high court bench.

Who knew?

What do you get when you take chariot racing, put it in the snow, eliminate the chariot and add some skis? Skijoring! Exhibited at St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928, skijoring holds the honor of being the first ever demonstration sport at a Winter Olympics. However, it's not an Olympic sport, despite its interesting history. Experts say the tradition began in Lapland with skiers being pulled by reindeer. It expanded to dogs and horses -- with or without a rider -- and some versions even include people being pulled by cars and planes! There are still skijoring communities and big-ticket races all over the world, and the sport enjoys a healthy following in the US and Canada.

Impact your world

What do you listen to when you need to get in the flow? Here's what I prefer:

Classical music, of course.
Any music without words. It doesn't have to be boring! Movie soundtracks are great to chill out to. One of my favorites is the Kazumi Tateishi Trio, who can turn anything into a gorgeous, chill jazz moment.
Meditation frequencies, especially those created with meditation bowls or other instruments. The key is to find a frequency that works for you!
"Study with me" videos on Youtube. I'm working with one open right now! These are great for when you need to get a lot of work done and want to feel like you're not doing it alone. This is my favorite channel, run by a young person studying in Dublin. Gorgeous!

A lot of people also listen to ASMR, which stands for "autonomous sensory meridian response." That's the tingly feeling you sometimes get on your scalp. The trend took off in 2013 and since then, millions of "tingleheads" have been drawn to the whispered narrations, nail-clicking, hair-brushing and other unique audio cues that supposedly elicit this "brain-gasm" (their words, not mine!) response. Not sure if you're into it? Read more about ASMR here!

Rec of the week

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The top comment on this video killed me: "I love belugas. They're like playful, happy scoops of vanilla ice cream." The accuracy! (Click here to view)