Hello!
As I write this, I am watching over a gaggle of kids who are dancing to a parody of "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus called "Massive Meme Low Taper Fade," which, I'm going to admit, I don’t understand but actually enjoy a little bit. I mean, I don't know that I would listen to it on my own, but it does seem to be having the intended effect on the children.
I've been doing this thing where, occasionally, I bring a bunch of kids home from school along with Orin so they can just be goofs together and, well, they do not disappoint. They're constantly developing new games, trying to impress each other, showing off, and giggling. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and I've only had to put steri-strips on one of them once!
They're now running around singing the Scatman song, btw.
I had a nice week where I kinda got to goof in my own way. John did a lovely video pointing out that, somehow, I have had a weird project of some kind for every letter of the alphabet except Z. So, I spent a good hunk of the week creating a Z... an ambient noise/focus/sleep/white noise YouTube channel called Zonderia. The twist is that 100% of the profit from the videos goes to charity. Will it work? Probably not. But it was a good goof.
Having kids around is nice both because they are ridiculous and cute, but also because it reminds me that being an absolute goof is, in part, the point. These days, I often need some potential payoff to even do a goof, but these kids do not, and they seem to be doing OK for themselves.
Anyhow, one of the children is now yelling, "HEY GOOGLE PLAY FARTING IN THE USA...FAAAARTING!" So, I should probably intervene.
I hope you have a goofy moment this weekend. You deserve it.
Hank
You can always email us at [email protected]
This Week in Stuff
Hank spoke about God, science, and alien consciousness on Alex O’Connor’s podcast Within Reason. (YouTube)
A nerdfighter is volunteering 100 hours while trying to raise $2500 for Feeding America by December 25th. You can donate here! (feedingamerica.org)
There’s a suburb that holds its own Olympics every four years. (TikTok)
Ina Garten’s brownie pudding recipe (YouTube) has taken over TikTok.
An artist created a sketch animation of the poem The Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin. (Instagram)
Created by Lo
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are likely to increase this year, while those from land-use change will fall
Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado
Have global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions gone up or down this year?
The latest projections from the Global Carbon Project give us some insight. Their researchers and analysts do invaluable work in estimating greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, helping us understand how the situation is evolving.
Today, they published their latest “carbon budget”. The chart shows their historical estimates, as well as their projections for 2025.
They project that this year, emissions from fossil sources — that is, from fossil fuels and industrial processes — will increase by around 1%. Emissions from all three fuels — coal, oil, and gas — are expected to increase. Meanwhile, emissions from land-use change have decreased due to fewer extreme wildfires and reduced deforestation in South America.
This reduction in land use may offset the increase from fossil fuels, resulting in a global total similar to last year. Note that estimates for land-use emissions are much less certain than for fossil fuels.
While many countries have made progress in reducing emissions, global fossil emissions continue to rise. To tackle climate change, they need to peak and rapidly decrease in the coming years and decades.
Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here.
This Week at Complexly
Dracunculiasis is a painful parasitic disease caused by the Guinea worm. Where it once affected millions of people, after years of effort, there were only 15 cases in 2024. We hope that soon there will be zero. Since the Guinea worm is a member of the animal kingdom, are we talking about eradication, or are we planning an actual extinction?
Green, black, herbal, with milk, in a bag, cold brewed... the ways to make tea are endless. And depending on whether you drink it for the caffeine, health boost, nostalgia, or whatever other reason, your tea might look totally different from someone else's. Yes, researchers have investigated the best tea for each of those scenarios.
Some Games to Play!
Letroso (by Daydash)
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
This Gubbins postcard was made by Alexis. Send yours to [email protected]
If you post your results on social media, we’d love it if you post a link for folks to subscribe to “We’re Here” (https://werehere.beehiiv.com/subscribe)
Your Third Things
Last week, John talked about how important third things (the interests we share with the people we love) are. Thank you to everyone who emailed us to tell us about your third things!
Me and my best friend have a bunch of third things, but one I've enjoyed specifically is Buffy the vampire slayer, which she introduced me to a few years ago. We don't live in the same city so we watched almost the entire show together over the phone, and then proceeded do analyze the plot and characters for hours after each episode. Truly one of the best media experiences I've had, both because the show is amazing and because I loved sharing it with this person I really love. And we still discuss Buffy very regularly and Buffy references have become a part of our daily communication.
My grandmother started cross stitching shortly before I was born; ~21 years later, I asked her to teach me. It's been such a joy to be able to discuss our projects in the last 7+ years, and she always has cross stitch magazines waiting for me to peruse when I come home to visit.
My partner Laura and I live less than a mile from a national airport; we can watch airplanes taking off and landing from our bedroom window every 5-10 minutes. We've made a game of being able to identify each model of aircraft that operates out of this airport (there are maybe ~20 really common ones). On the weekends we will sometimes wake up and start playing this game; seeing how many we can correctly identify in a row together, checking our answers with a flight radar website.
My closest person isn't a romantic partner, but my best friend of fourteen years. A constant third thing in our relationship is tabletop roleplaying games, the most famous of which is undoubtedly Dungeons and Dragons. It's a wonderful way to create stories together, whole worlds springing up through our imaginations.
My partner and I build small-scale space systems together for our research lab. Our walks are never dull when we're discussing our work, and getting to watch his eyes light up while he works reminds me why I fell in love with him.
My wife and I bought a Sherlock Holmes video game that was on a steep sale. It was arguably the worst game we’ve ever played, but the plodding pace of this single-player mystery allowed us to pass our baby back and forth while we took turns being frustrated and delighted by the convoluted minigames. In one, she had to set a bone as Doctor Watson. In another, I had to shine the shoes of my quarry so they wouldn’t suspect I was tailing them.
We had so much fun. We’ve now completed four games in the series, but none will bring the thrill of “Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter.”
My “third thing” is that I’ve been doing cryptic crosswords with my dad since I was 12 and it’s aways been how we’ve connected and made time for each other. Even now I’m at uni we’ll still call a few times a week to do one together.
Third thing I share with my mum is going to the art gallery each month! We probably seen the same exhibition each time we go but it's something fun to do and interact with each other.
UNL women's basketball with my partner of 28 years. We have season tickets and we enjoy watching and commentating and sharing the joys and defeats together.
I have a friend group that formed around loving birds. We look at birds through our binoculars, and we watch documentaries about how smart parrots are, and we meet up regularly to play Sibley's Bird Trivia after buying the pack at the Yosemite Gift Shop. I think birds are really cool, but really I like looking at the world with my friends, and telling funny and sad stories about our lives while the Sandhill cranes dominate the sky.
A Last Minute “Thank You” for a Great Holiday Season
You showed up in a big way for Good Store this season: so big that our DFTBA warehouse team briefly hit “pause” just to make sure every order got the care it deserved. The great news? They worked their holiday magic and are officially caught up and shipping at full speed again!
While we can’t guarantee delivery before the holidays anymore, every order will be packed and shipped as quickly as possible. Need one last gift (or a little treat for yourself)? Now’s the moment — and as a year-end thank-you, enjoy 15% off $50+ with code ENDOFYEAR at good.store!
That’s all for now!
What’s something goofy that has brought you joy recently? Tell us about it!
Send your goof to [email protected].
