It’s been a week of unexpected wins. A desert bloomed, a meme was born, and a very large bear prepared to defend his title. Welcome to a roundup of the good news you might have missed.
Let the Chonkening begin
Fall has officially arrived, and with it comes Fat Bear Week, Alaska’s annual single-elimination bracket to crown the chunkiest brown bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve. The competition, hosted by the National Park Service, invites the public to vote for the bear they believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.
Returning champion Chunk is back, hoping to reclaim his beefcake crown. He won last season by packing on the pounds with boatloads of salmon — even with a broken jaw — and looking large and in charge on camera. But he’ll face stiff competition from bears with names like Marshmallow, Bucky, and Backpack, each sporting their own impressive before-and-after transformations.
Last year’s winner, Grazer, beat Chunk 2:1 and became the first mama bear to take the tournament two years in a row. The event isn’t just about size; it’s also a chance to learn how different bears coexist, what they eat, and how humans care for their habitat. You can follow along via the park’s live feed or the National Park Service Instagram, where the commentary on bears doing bear stuff before hibernation is, frankly, elite.
Elizabeth Holmes: from fraudster to meme
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Theranos founder convicted of fraud, has found an unlikely second act: internet meme. A teaser for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s new documentary, You Can See Everything, shows Holmes in what appears to be a staring contest with Fielder. “I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you?” she says. Fielder responds with a skeptical “Okay.”
The exchange has spawned a wave of viral memes, with people applying Holmes’s line to everything from taking dogs to the vet to finally finishing cross-stitch projects to not skipping leg day. Holmes was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors, but her on-screen earnestness — and the irony — has proven irresistible online.
A desert in bloom
El Niño may get a bad rap for unseasonable temperatures, but in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, it’s worked a kind of magic. Thanks to history-making rainfall, millions of dormant seeds have sprung to life, transforming the arid landscape into a “flowering desert,” or desierto florido. Over 200 species of wildflowers have carpeted the sand in a technicolor display. It’s a reminder that anything is possible.
Garbage, cement, and the art of the everyday
Sometimes the most compelling stories are about the things we never think about. This week brought news of a memoir called Trash by actual refuse-collecting author Simon Pare-Poupart, who has been called the Anthony Bourdain of garbage collecting for humanizing the people who do our dirty work.
Then there’s filmmaker John Wilson, an introvert who opened a 42-seat micro movie theater in Queens called Low Cinema. His quirky documentary, The History of Cement, is literally about cement. Shot on the streets of New York with a mockumentary tone, it made $90,000 during a one-theater run. “The project of changing the way people see things is never-ending. It’s what art-making should do,” Wilson says. The film introduces viewers to the Ghostbusters of sidewalk gum pressure washing, “Elvis Prezzle,” and the motto: “Never forget why you’re doing it: Because you love it.”
One last bit of inspiration
If the road ahead feels impossibly long, consider the truck driver who carved a replica of all five New York City boroughs out of balsa wood. It’s now on display at The Museum of the City of New York, bringing joy to fans two decades after he started his hobby project. Keep going. And make those fat bears proud.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/bright-side-a-convicted-fraudster-a-fat-bear-and-a-very-happy-accident