Stuck on a word

It’s Erica with your new dose of Feel Good News — stories to remind us the world’s not so bad after all.

1. Appeals court blocks Republicans’ bid to dismantle Grand Canyon national monument

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed every argument from the Arizona Legislature, including claims about lost mining revenue, in a lawsuit challenging the creation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The court ruled that the legislative leaders lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because all of the harms they claimed the monument would cause were speculative. The monument was designated by President Joe Biden in 2023 in response to advocacy from Native American communities whose ancestral homelands are located in and near the Grand Canyon. The court rejected the legislature’s claims about lost tax revenue, water supply, and energy prices, and found that the legislature failed to show any concrete injury from the monument’s creation.

2. Sweden goes back to basics, swapping screens for books in the classroom in attempt to reverse declines in reading, math, and science.

Sweden is moving away from a heavy reliance on digital technology in schools and returning to more traditional teaching methods, including the use of physical textbooks and handwriting. This shift is in response to declining test scores and concerns that excessive screen time and digital distractions have hindered students’ learning, especially in foundational skills like reading and writing. The Swedish government is investing heavily to provide every student with physical textbooks and has also announced plans to make schools cellphone-free. While digital technology is not being completely removed from classrooms, the goal is to introduce it more selectively and at later stages of a student’s education, after basic skills have been firmly established. This recalibration of technology’s role in education reflects a growing debate, not just in Sweden but also in the US, about the potential drawbacks of excessive digitalization in schools.

3. Carney announces $3.8B to protect nature. Government plans to create new national parks and marine reserves.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $3.8 billion in new funding to protect nature, as part of the federal government’s goal to protect 30% of Canada’s lands and waters by 2030. The government plans to create new national parks and marine reserves, including the Wiinipaawk Indigenous Protected Area and National Marine Conservation Area in eastern James Bay, and the Seal River Watershed National Park in Manitoba. Up to 14 new marine-protected and conserved areas and up to 10 new marine conservation areas would also be created, aiming to protect 28% of Canada’s waters. The federal Conservatives criticized the announcement as “illusions”, arguing that the government has failed to meet its own environmental targets in the past.

4. Despite claims of his death spreading on social media, the world’s oldest known land animal, a giant tortoise named Jonathan, remained alive and well on Wednesday, April 1, the reptile’s caretaker said.

Despite claims of his death spreading on social media, the world’s oldest known land animal, a giant tortoise named Jonathan, remained alive and well on Wednesday, April 1, the reptile’s caretaker said. Jonathan the tortoise is very much alive, and the account claiming his death is a fake. Jonathan has spent most of his life living in St. Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean, and is thought to have been born around 1832. He holds the records for the world’s oldest living land animal and the oldest chelonian, the category of reptiles including all turtles, terrapins and tortoises.

———-

That’s it for last week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

'Not What You Saw' [2024-ongoing] by Keerthana Kunnath

Shot across beaches, fields, and village edges in Kerala, India,

AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE !!

dedication of the crater to carroll

the messy floating group hug after the dedication to carroll

the nutella flying by (it was a cry laugh but did make me emotional because it was just so human and ridiculous)

reid (?) saying hello to his kids and making heart hands and showing off his bracelet and mission control saying "copy heart, copy bracelet"

christina was talking about seeing the moon during her status report (?) and she said that she had a moment where she realized that it was a real place that actually exists and not just a poster, and that she imagined herself walking on the surface

again when victor's report said the same thing

"copy, full moon joy"

the announcement of beating the apollo record and the statements/speeches to follow, specifically when they said they wanted to inspire the next generation to beat their record soon

"we will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear" ohhhh man

every time the crew gave an exciting detail in their reports and the science team at mission control nerded out. reminded me of those deep sea diving videos where marine biologists laugh at creatures they've never seen before

victor saying "hey babe" when he was told his wife was visiting in the viewing bay, hearing christina laugh in the background, and then him adding "i love you from the moon"

all of the clear & respectful communication about the light shade on the window. idk why it got me but it did. kind professionalism is crazy

pre-blackout goodbyes....real tears

"as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still going to feel your love from Earth. and to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon." "when we burned this burn from the Moon, i said that we do not leave Earth, but we choose it. and that is always true. we will always choose Earth. we will always choose each other." come ONNNNN #hopecore #girlwhoisgoingtobeokay

the return speeches as well

"integrity, from Earth, our single system, fragile and interconnected, we copy. those of us that can are looking back."

seeing the integrity, the moon, and the earth all together in one shot. i took like 30 screenshots

mission control literally jumping up and down over impact flares

everything about the eclipse shot including the radio-in saying it was too incredible to capture on camera and "we're going true sci-fi"

everything else

my coworker in her 70s looking over my shoulder every 20 minutes and gasping and saying "that's just so incredible......i hope my grandkids are seeing this"

That’s 1972

29 years before AVEN was started online,

and 47 years before the present.

And that’s only the date that Manifesto was written, so asexuals as members of a community must have existed at least some time before that.