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Northern Lights and Dr Pepper
Payton Mitchell & Hank Green
May 10, 2024
Hello!
I had a weird thing happen to me this week. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg came over to my house. In related news, my office is clean for the first time in months, which is nice! I talked to Pete for over an hour and edited our conversation down to around 20 minutes and you can watch it now.
I kept telling Pete how weird it was that he was in my office and he kept saying, "Why? I'm just me." Of course, I can relate to that. People feel the same way about me all the time. But in addition to it being weird that he was three-dimensional (instead of just on a screen), it was weird that he (or his people) thought that it would be worth his time to come to my office and talk. I do not know precisely what my job is because I think we're a bit out in uncharted territory here, but I do feel like I have been lent legitimacy and power by a lot of people and it is my responsibility to try and do the right thing with that power. Talking with a politician/bureaucrat about transportation policy, zipper merges, science, and politics seems necessary to me. But as I was editing it, I also felt like I needed to go meta on top of it, to add context, and to check some of the things he said...and that /I/ said. It's an interview I did with commentary by me. I don't know if that's fair to Pete, but it seemed more fair to my goals.
I'd be curious if anyone knows of folks who are making videos in similar ways because I don't think I've seen a video like that before, so I hope people like it.
Hank
i see your jetski and raise you my penny farthing @hankgreen
— 🐢🐢🐢Rachel🐢🐢🐢 (@dftbaRachel)
May 9, 2024
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This Week in Stuff
Professional cheesemonger Madelyn Varela makes videos about unexpected cheese pairings, most recently Dr Pepper.
John spoke with NOCD about how a lifetime of OCD inspired Turtles All the Way Down.
A new mammal was discovered! The 65 million-year-old fossil was found near Colorado Springs.
Dropout released a trailer for Dropout Presents, a new series of live-recorded comedy specials, starting this summer. One of those specials is Hank’s!
The northern lights will be visible in a lot of the US this weekend. Send us photos if you’re able to see it!
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
P4A 2024 Grant Recipients
We're excited to announce the organizations that will be receiving grants from 2024's Project for Awesome! 50% of funds raised during this year's P4A will be split evenly between the following 30 top-voted charities, awarding them $37,297.09 each:
Grants will also be awarded to Save the Children, Partners in Health, and Not Forgotten. You can learn more about all of these organizations and check out the full funding breakdown on the P4A website.
Thank you for making this year’s P4A incredible by uplifting charities, donating, and watching the livestream. If you want to stay up to date about all things P4A, make sure to subscribe to the brand new P4A Newsletter!
Happy birthday, @hankgreen!! 🥰
— Risa 🦋🌷 (@risarodil)
May 5, 2024
30% of the world's electricity came from renewable sources in 2023
Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado
Renewable electricity production is growing quickly, mostly thanks to the deployment of solar and wind.
Ember has just published its latest Global Electricity Review, which includes final updates on electricity generation worldwide in 2023. We have updated our Energy Data Explorer with all of this data.
As the chart shows, renewables produced just over 30% of the world’s electricity in 2023.
This growth was mostly driven by the rapid rollout of solar and wind technologies. Hydropower generation actually fell in 2023 as a result of severe droughts, especially in China.
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.
A Thank You to Teachers
Last week, we ended the newsletter by asking about your favorite teachers. Tuesday was Teacher Appreciation Day in the US, so we’d love to share a few of the stories we received. Thank you to all the teachers reading!
Ms. Phillips was my 8th and 10th grade English teacher. ALL my friends got awards at our end-of-year assembly one year, but I didn’t get one. She could tell I was pretty bummed, so she printed me a silly, custom award (for things like “most YouTube watching” and “best nail painter”) and gave it to me after school. I still have it, and it made a rough day so much better. She was always good at that.
Thanks to Mr. Crowder for teaching me us history but also that it's way more important who you are to the people you're around than what you accomplish.
My favorite teacher was my first elementary school teacher, Frau Vater - which literally translates to "Mrs. Father". She was the sweetest lady, and when she retired, she gave each and every one of her students a poem that reminded her of us. Mine was was about being happy and joyful without needing a specific reason. I still have the poem 19 years later. She made me feel so safe and helped me fall in love with learning and school and books. I would not be the same person today without her in my life.
My former high school English teacher, Mr. Thomas De Ceglie, impacted my life greatly. He’s made me a better critical thinker and a better person, and I’m still friends with him to this day (it’s been almost ten years since I met him). He’s a subscriber to the We’re Here newsletter, and he’s a wonderful and funny person. I feel lucky to have him in my life! Thank you Tom!
Big shoutout to my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Hansen, who lost her long battle with cancer shortly after my time in her class. I was a weird kid, and she believed in me. We all believed in her too. Regardless of our outcomes, that belief mattered.
My favorite teacher was my 9th grade physics teacher, Mrs. Barnwell. She inspired my love of science and helped me believe in myself. Ten years later, and I am an engineer that works with life saving left ventricular assist devices, and I am halfway done with my engineering master’s degree! I could have never done it without Mrs. Barnwell.
This Week at Complexly
How did we get the myth of the Great Artist? Are great artists geniuses? What's the difference between art and craft? In this week's episode of Crash Course Art History, we're thinking critically about how and why the perception of artists has changed over time.
In Episode 2 of Crash Course Pods: The Universe, Dr. Katie Mack and John Green discuss the fundamental forces of nature, the tiny ovens we know as particle colliders, and how we all can exist.
Some Games to Play!
Scrabble Tetris (by carykh)
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
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