GRETA THUNBERG AND MALALA YOUSAFZAI

In 2014, then-17-year-old Mulala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her education rights activism.

This year, now-17-year-old Greta Thunberg is nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for her climate change activism.

The two young women met for the first time this week in the U.K. I wonder what amazing things are they going to accomplish in their lives.

Read more at Huffington Post.

TODAY IS LEAP DAY

February 29 happens only every four years. It's easy for Americans to remember when it occurs because it is also always a presidential election year.

Here's astrophysicist Neal DeGrasse Tyson to explain why we add a day to the calendar every fourth year.

HISTORIC FOOTAGE 1945 BATTLE OF IWO JIMA

While one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater of World War II raged on the island of Iwo Jima, 50 Marine combat cameramen operated across the island, the YouTube page tells us.

Curator Greg Wilsbacher at the University of South Carolina Libraries has been working with the U.S. Marine Corps History Division to digitize this footage. In this film, he provides commentary on some of the highlights of this newly digitized footage.

The footage was mainly intended to be used for intelligence and training, but it provides an intimate look at the battle, and also the Marines who were a part of it.

Read a lot more about the battle and film at The Conversation.

BOOKNOOKS

Booknooks are miniature inserts for book shelves that tell a story all their own. They are clever, beautiful and enchanting. Here are three samples:

There are a lot more at Bored Panda where I found these. And people who make booknooks have their own subreddit with a whole lot more.

JIMMY CARTER'S SOLAR PANELS

Mother Nature Network this week reported on former President Jimmy Carter's solar array in his home town of Plains, Georgia.

”Carter, who served as the 39th U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, set aside 10 acres of farmland outside Plains in 2017 for a 1.3-megawatt (MW) solar array. Developed by SolAmerica Energy, the installation was projected to generate over 55 million kilowatt hours of clean energy in Plains — more than half the town's annual needs.

“In February 2020, SolAmerica President George Mori confirmed to People magazine that the solar farm still operates 'in its original size' and does in fact provide more than half of the town's electricity.”

Carter is not new to building solar arrays. When he was president, he had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. Here's the video:

You can read more at Mother Nature Network.

WATER IS WEIRD, REALLY WEIRD

As the YouTube page notes, “Did you know that the water inside you has previously been inside dinosaurs, bacteria, the oceans. Science journalist Alok Jha explains why water is so incredibly weird.”

WE SURE NEED A LOT OF HOPE THESE DAY

And I've got some beautiful hope for you from my friend, Stan James. You've met him before in these pages when I featured some of his previous beach calligraphy.

This time, he did some serif writing on a San Francisco beach making a gift of hope to us all:

Stan also sent me this beach calligraphy from two years ago, done for the wedding of his friends, Kari and Manuel. The video has been recently edited and it has the further virtue of featuring my birth date in 2018:

There is more of Stan's calligraphy work at his Facebook page.

IF ZOO ANIMALS WERE RATED LIKE AMAZON REVIEWS

Recently, Bored Panda explained:

”Back in 2018, there was a glorious weekend in which several zoos took to Twitter and with the hashtag #rateaspecies, zoos, scientists, and academies of sciences all aired their thoughts on their animals in the style of an Amazon review.

“It was a wonderful animal-filled weekend and we felt it was time for it to resurface...”

Here are three examples - it's the captions that make these so much fun:

More at Bored Panda.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” at the top of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog.