Hey it’s Guy here!
This is the inaugural one of these so I really hope you like what you see.
I have decided after many months of thought, mainly procrastination, to finally put together the kind of newsletter that I want in my own inbox.
I will do my best to share interesting things and takes on current affairs that caught my eye for one reason or another. I’ll also have a look at what we are doing in the areas of science and technology, an important topic to me. As a photographer I will include my favourite images of the week too.
My goal is simply to draw your attention at a glance & a scroll. This won’t be full stories/articles, I’ll simply link the sources (where relevant) for further reading.
I will try to always leave you go with something to think about and something to smile about.
So here goes nothing..
I came across this 🗺️
Much cooler than using “LOL”
This should not have surprised me as much as it did so I’m curious as to whether you’ve ever thought about it....
I’m not fluent in a second language so I have never socially texted anyone except in my native English.
Even at my peak ability learning French in school, we only wrote letters and long form pieces.
What struck me is that people use text abbreviations in other languages... I mean of course it makes perfect sense, but it caught me off guard.
In French for example, as in the article by dictionary.com which highlighted it to me, here are some popular acronyms:
JTM - “Je t’aime” (I love you)
A+ - "à plus tard” (see you later)
Dak - “d’accord” (okay)
MDR - “mort de rire” (dying of laughter)
Something we need to talk about 💬
Mass Shootings
I saw this headline, it really puts what we already know into perspective.
The number of mass shootings across the U.S. so far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year… (CBS News)
This tweet was later updated to correct the US number from 249 to 250, as a second shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio just hours after the atrocity in El Paso, Texas.
You couldn’t make this up…
What have we (👪humans) learned?
Climate change made the European heatwave up to 3°C hotter
No surprise here but it is truly alarming how fast we are seeing frightening results of climate change…
A second record-breaking heat wave of 3-4 days took place in Western Europe in the last week of July 2019, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in many countries including Belgium and the Netherlands where temperatures above 40°C were recorded for the first time. In the U.K. the event was shorter lived (1-2 days), yet a new historical daily maximum temperature was recorded exceeding the previous record set during the hazardous August 2003 heatwave.
See the graph below, regardless of the variance in labs, all in different countries, they are all recording the same stark increase of the mean.
This is a long report but some of the findings are alarming. Read the full report as a PDF - July2019heatwave.pdf
What are we (👪humans) working on?
This Is the World's First Image of Quantum Entanglement
What is that you ask? well it’s pretty complicated…
Quantum entanglement describes the phenomenon where two particles which interact with each other can remain connected, instantaneously sharing their physical states no matter how far apart they are. This connection is at the heart of quantum mechanics, even though it violates the concept of local realism and many elements of special relativity.
I personally think quantum mechanics is fascinating and will wreck your head as you try to understand it. Feel free to read up on it, I can’t unfortunately explain it here, but there are some fab resources across the internet.
Smile 😊
Photography 📷
Think about this 🤔
“Bubble wrap was invented by humans in order to protect things, only for us to end up massively enjoying it's destruction”
That’s all for now 🤙🏽
Feel free to Reply ↩️ to this email - let’s start a conversation!
I want to hear what you think.
Please Share ❤️
If you enjoy reading this every week or believe something needs to be shared, it would mean the world to me if you could pass this on to all your friends!!
Thank you,
Guy