Papered over

From macramé to candle making, the ’70s were the decade of crafts. When it came to the classroom though, one in particular reigned supreme: papier mâché. Close your eyes…you can smell that paste now, can’t you? 🤣

Speaking of paper-based crafts, artist Yulia Brodskaya has elevated things to the level of fine art. Using intricately folded pieces of paper, she’s creating masterful illustrations with textures mimicking three-dimensional brush strokes.

Bet she could make some wicked roses ;)

Beginning January 15, we’re launching a revamped version of the daily retro trivia that you can find every day at the bottom of the newsletter.

What does that mean? More nostalgia for all us ’60s kids, all new questions, and best of all, a daily prize.

Each day, we’ll randomly draw from everyone who plays and give away a $25 Amazon eGift Card to one lucky player. Yes, you read that right, all you’ll have to do is play for a chance to win!

It’s gonna be a blast 😎 

You’ve likely heard the term “carbon capture” as a means of mitigating how much carbon is emitted by human-made industries. The most profound example of carbon capture on earth, however, is likely in your hand or on your desk right now.

Experts have a pretty good idea of how much carbon is emitted through the manufacturing of everyday gizmos and gadgets, but until recently, the data was murky on how much carbon is actually stored inside those gadgets.

According to a study published in Cell Reports Sustainability, billions of tons of carbon from oil, gas, and coal ended up stored inside such products over a period of 25 years. The study referred to this as the “technosphere.”

While this “stockpile” of carbon is currently captured, it won’t be forever, particularly when it comes to items that will ultimately get discarded and incinerated; as the gizmos and gadgets are burned, that carbon will be released from the technosphere and emitted into the atmosphere.

“We draw lots of fossil resources out of the ground and put them in the technosphere and then leave them sitting around. But what happens after an object’s lifetime?”, said Klaus Hubacek, an ecological economist at the University of Groningen and senior author of the paper.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a statement the other day saying in no uncertain terms that there is virtually no upside to consuming alcohol.

"Given the conclusive evidence on the cancer risk from alcohol consumption and the Office of the Surgeon General's responsibility to inform the American public of the best available scientific evidence, the Surgeon General recommends an update to the Surgeon General's warning label for alcohol-containing beverages to include a cancer risk warning," Dr. Murthy said in his statement.

The statement was intended to specifically call attention to the cancer risk associated with alcohol, one that often falls by the wayside in favour of warnings about heart and liver disease.

"Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk," Murthy said in a news release.

According to Dr. Murthy, alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States.

The act of fact-checking became a cultural lightning rod over the past decade, with the polarization surrounding it spilling over into the world of social media. Sites like Facebook and Twitter scrambled to implement mechanisms in order to correct misinformation in real time, but those efforts had a hard time keeping up with the rapid-fire flow of information in the digital age.

After purchasing Twitter (now X) in 2022, Elon Musk and his team implemented a tool called “Community Notes,” which allowed users fo the platform to determine the truth value of posts. If a post was deemed misleading or outright false, users could add a community note to provide clarity or context, and if enough users upvoted the note, it would become permanently attached to the post unless the post itself was deleted.

The tool has been one of the few successes of X since Musk took over and rebranded the platform. Recognizing that success, Facebook parent Meta is implementing a similar program and doing away with independent third-party fact-checkers that it says also operate with unavoidable subconscious biases.

"We've seen this approach work on X—where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context," Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a blog post.

PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) has experienced a groundswell of demand in recent years as trading cards enjoy a 21st century renaissance. In response, the company is moving its Canadian submission center from Halifax to Toronto, and is also opening its second facility outside of North America, this time in Germany.

Just a year and a half ago, PSA opened a facility in Japan amid skyrocketing demand in the Pacific Rim.

“The success of our ever-growing operation in Japan led us to explore where it makes the most sense for us to next create international footprints,” PSA President Ryan Hodge stated.

PSA says moving its Canadian operation to Toronto will allow for shorter authentication wait times, and therefore enable the company to conduct more authentications. The same goes for the German location, which will dramatically improve the experience of European collectors looking to determine the value of their collectible cards.

“The international collecting community becomes larger every year, and our European and Canadian expansion is a natural next step as our submissions from these regions are on pace to collectively grow by over 50% year-over-year,” said Ryan Miller, Head of International for PSA.

It was on this day in 1947 that the Starman (aka, Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, The Goblin King, etc.) David Bowie was born.

We lost Bowie back in 2016, but to celebrate what would’ve been his 78th birthday, today’s trivia will focus on the hits of the man with a thousand alter egos ;)

P.S. In case you missed the announcement above, we’ll be revamping daily trivia starting January 15. Get ready for even more nostalgia, all new questions, and a new daily prize! 😎 

Have a great day ahead Staker!

Trivia courtesy of funtrivia.com. Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.