Howdy Traipsers,
 

Full-bore winter here! Cute neighborhood kids sledding in our driveway, sheet metal screws in my running shoes, and hopefully piles of snow for a bulwark against the fire season.

This Week's Newsletter:

Surfing the sagebrush sea, hummingbird drones, inviting the world over for dinner, and therapeutic art.

Onward!
Dakota

P.S. In case you missed it last week, check out my short blog on ditching a self-bullying mindset.

Wandering the sagebrush sea

The sagebrush sea is a wide swath of terrain spreading from Oregon into Washington, Nevada, across Idaho and beyond. It's the most wide-spread ecosystem in the U.S.
Pronghorn antelope and sage grouse perfectly evolved to thrive there. Fun facts: The pronghorn can sprint up to 60 mph, whereas the grouse gulps a gallon of air to supercharge its systems for a strutting mating display.
I know you're thinking, "WOW, your sagebrush knowledge is AMAZING." Where did you learn all that?

Why, in this beautiful story map featuring images of stunning terrain and videos of pronghorns being rad. Plus plenty of cool facts to impress your biologist buddies. We all have some.

Hummingbird drones and butterflies

Let's continue the nature theme with monarch butterflies! Check out this hummingbird-size drone capturing shimmering clusters of monarchs as they wait for temps to rise in the morning. When the sun hits them, POOF, they explode like vampires at dawn.

Just kidding. They fly around in swirling gusts of butterfly magic. Watch the Youtube video to see for yourself.

Inviting the world over for dinner
 

Over the years, a Scottish guy named Jim invited 150,000 random people over for dinner in Paris. And I thought we were social.
Jim hung out with Lennon and Bowie, traveled the world, did it all. Read the entire BBC article here or sections below for the flavor of it.

There would be a buzz in the air, as people of various nationalities - locals, immigrants, travellers - milled around the small, open-plan space. A pot of hearty food bubbled on the hob and servings would be dished out on to a trestle table, so you could help yourself and continue to mingle. It was for good reason that Jim was nicknamed the "godfather of social networking". He led the way in connecting strangers, long before we outsourced it all to Silicon Valley.

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For Jim, non-national passports seemed to encapsulate his ideals of peace and global freedom. So he turned his home into an "embassy" and started producing world passports for anyone who wanted one. The documents were so convincing that some people used them to cross borders.
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What a cool human!

Drawing all the way through a presidency

One drawing is cool; over 1,000 is a magnificent effort.
For the entire four years of the recent tumultuous presidency (<--massive understatement), Warren Craghead sketched out a scene on his TrumpTrump Tumblr account. They're brilliant!
 

For an interview with Warren, choice drawings and more background on the project, check out this CJR.org interview. (H/T to Austin Kleon.)

Thanks for spending a few minutes hanging out with me. Chuck some snowballs, frost your eyelashes on a winter outing, and I'll catch you in February!
 

P.S. For some classical music to go, check out these two Spotify playlists: the Brooklyn Duo (piano/cello), or Víkingur Ólafsson (best Viking name ever) showing off on the piano with interpretations of Philip Glass.