Thoughty Thursday: Popping your mental corn, April 2-8, 2023

April 13, 2023April 9, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

My last thoughty Thursday! Parting is such sweet sorrow. Feel free to peruse the archives if you need to get your mental corn popping in the future.

Picture of a moon emerging from behind clouds.

Kaelyn Forde introduces us to the women fighting one of the harshest abortion laws in the Americas. The Walrus

Candace Maracle: Elisapie gets nostalgic with Inuktitut rendition of Blondie’s Heart of Glass. And it’s freakin’ awesome! CBC Indigenous

Guy Kawasaki interviews Temple Grandin: different minds for different times. The Remarkable People Podcast

Sagy Zwirn is all about the fire and brimstone, or how the dichotomy of heaven and hell came to be, and why it bears no resemblance to what the Bible actually says. JSTOR Daily

Lorne Cook and Matthew Lee: Finland joins NATO in major blow to Russia over Ukraine War. Associated Press

Anne Trafton reports that new nanoparticles can perform gene editing in the lungs, offering hope for Cystic Fibrosis and other lung disease patients. MIT News

Nicole Schmidt wonders, will groceries ever be affordable? The Walrus

Stephen Clark: NASA names crew for first human mission to the moon in over 50 years. Spaceflight Now

Brett Tingly explains why NASA’s Artemis II will only fly around the moon, not orbit, or land. Space.com

JWST scores another ringed world with new image of Uranus. Shiny! NASA

Gaia discovers a new family of black holes. Phys.org

Davide Castelvecchi: light waves squeezed through “slits in time.” Nature

Ashawnta Jackson: money, murder, and Mrs. Clem. JSTOR Daily

Erin Blakemore explains why England’s “lost king” ended up buried beneath a parking lot. National Geographic

Henry Grabar explains how Paris kicked out the cars. Slate

Bob Weber: scientists confirm first Canadian fossil of a dire wolf, Ice Age predator featured in Game of Thrones. The Globe and Mail

Researchers discover birds with neurotoxin-laden feathers in New Guinea. Phys.org

Annette McGivney takes us inside the stunning brains of natures hardest workers: “Bees are sentient.” The Guardian

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you took away something to inspire a future creative project.

Until my next chapter update (returning to it’s monthly format, so the first weekend in May), be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

Thoughty Thursday: Popping your mental corn, April 17-23, 2022

April 28, 2022April 24, 2022 / Melanie Marttila

It’s time, once again, to get your mental corn popping!

Ibram X. Kendi: the danger more republicans should be talking about. (Spoiler: it’s white supremacy.) The Atlantic

Whitney Bauck interviews Reverend Lennox Yearwood: culture-building as climate work. Atmos

Mariupol mayor urges residents to flee as Russia mounts eastern Ukraine offensive. CBC

Emily Zarevich introduces us to Lesya U k rainka: Ukraine’s beloved writer and activist. JSTOR Daily

Amy Cassidy, Mostafa Salem, Caroline Faraj, Obayda Nafaa and Jack Bantock: dozens injured in Sweden in riots after Quran burning. CNN

Laurentian mess didn’t bubble up; it trickled down. Sudbury.com editorial board

Melody Wilding lists eight signs of overfunctioning that lead to burnout (and how to stop). Forbes

Sadhbh O’Sullivan says there’s a reason we procrastinate, and it isn’t laziness. Refinery 29

Deepa Purushothaman and Lisen Stromberg: leaders, stop rewarding toxic rock stars. Harvard Business Review

Clark Quinn says we’re using the wrong bucket lists. Learnlets

Harold Jarche considers writing at electric speed. Then, he looks at the power of story.

Erin Blakemore tries to explain why Easter is celebrated with bunnies and eggs. National Geographic

Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver: UN IPCC report shows the globe is on “track toward an unlivable world.” USA Today

Solar superflares and aurora science. Physics Girl

Guy Kawasaki interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson: astrophysicist, planetary scientist, and author. The Remarkable People Podcast

Nadia Drake explains why NASA has been ignoring Uranus. That may soon change. National Geographic

Bob McDonald interviews Riley Culberg about how the ridges on the surface of Europa could mean water—and life. CBC’s “Quirks and Quarks”

Florence + the Machine – Free

Thank you for visiting. I hope you found something to inspire a future creative project.

Even though May first is Sunday, I won’t be composing my next chapter update until the first full weekend in May. That’s the May 7-8 weekend. Just so you know.

So, until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Dec 13-19, 2020

December 24, 2020December 20, 2020 / Melanie Marttila

It’s Thursday (or Friday eve)! It’s also Christmas Eve. You know what that means. It’s time to open some virtual presents and get your mental corn popping.

Isaac Abrak and David McKenzie report on the more than 300 students still unaccounted for after Nigerian school raid. They have since been found/rescued, thank goodness. CNN

Eric Levitz asks, should NYC axe “gifted” programs to integrate its schools? Yes, this is from last year, but it’s an example of another aspect of our lives affected by racism. And it still hasn’t been addressed. New York Magazine

Jeff Zeleny, Dan Merica, Gregory Krieg, MJ Lee and Kate Sullivan: Biden taps Deb Haaland as first Native American interior secretary. CNN

A new variant of coronavirus identified in England. The messaging is to remain calm and wait. Other than to know that it’s more transmissible, they haven’t learned much about it. BBC

Leah Asmelash and Cheri Mossburg report that after 51 years, two amateur codebreakers crack the Zodiac Killer’s cipher. CNN

Loren Grush: Virgin Galactic aborts first powered space flight from New Mexico airport. The Verge

Uranus smells like farts (and other smelly facts about our solar system). SciShow Space

Why do remember the past but not the future (or, how your brain is like an asteroid)? PBS Space Time

Seven-billion-year-old stardust is the o l dest material found on Earth. In Geology

Annie Lennox performs Dido’s Lament with London City Voices. So touching.

Capture the Atlas presents the 2020 northern light photographers of the year.

Sara Burrows: photographer captures the northern lights taking the form of the firebird. Return to Now

True facts about army ant riders. Ze Frank

Rachel Nuwer says young ravens rival adult chimps in a test of general intelligence. Scientific American

Two of the most beautiful voices. Dala – The Christmas Waltz

Thank you for visiting. I hope you took away lots of inspiration for a future creative project.

Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. Have a peaceful and safe holiday. The world needs your stories!

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, March 11-17, 2018

March 22, 2018March 18, 2018 / Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping.

Kelli Foster shares 24 essential recipes for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. So what is St. Patrick’s Day has passed? Enjoy these Irish treats any time of the year. The Kitchn

Patti Neighmond: the heart gets younger with exercise, even if you’re middle aged. NPR

Yes, the headline is click-bait-y (and the writers did have some fun with it, I’m sure), but NASA is, in fact, planning robotic missions to Uranus and Neptune: NASA wants to probe deeper into Uranus than ever before. The Space Academy

I woke up on March 14^th, Pi day, the Ides of March, and the first news that greeted me was the passing of Stephen Hawking. Another heartstring broken. Here is Cambridge University’s tribute to Stephen Hawking.

Yonette Joseph shares Stephen Hawking, in his own words. The New York Times

Benjamin Shingler reports on the troubling pattern emerging from the MMIWG in Quebec. CBC

Indigenous students learn to build tiny houses, from start to finish. Jules Knox for Global News.

Caris Cruz writes about Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree. Tales by Trees

And now, a feel-good story: a dream workshop with the New York City Ballet. Upworthy