Digging Up Positivity - February 2022

Hello and welcome to the February episode of Digging Up Positivity from a very, very windy Netherlands. Of course we have some lovely charities, including furries making a tremendous impact in Madison County, USA. Furthermore we have some lovely animation news. While I always get a little bit of mixed feelings with reboots, some of the upcoming ones do make me quite curious.

And we have some interesting developments regarding the environment and our special guest is a spectacled cat from the USA, chairman of the Western PA Furry Weekend, car enthusiast and owner of a golden voice: Manicknux. Oh, and if you like my art, or are a LEGO enthusiast, please do check out my twitch channel! Currently I am building the big Ecto-1, the famous car from Ghostbusters.

But now, first, the wonderful causes we have been raising funds for!

Radio Rabbithole

For over 11 years, Radio Rabbithole has been a free-form radio station for and by furries. But running an outfit like this does not come cheap. And every year they are asking around for a little bit of funding. And this year their $1,000 goal has been met as we are recording this episode. Thank you all for keeping the people behind the station and their loyal listeners going for another year!

Scotiacon

This month we had Scotiacon, Scottlands’ premiere furry convention, and they managed to raise over £9,000 for the Sunny Harbour Cat & Kitten rescue. For our American friends, that is well over $10,500 to make sure as many abandoned stray cats and kittens in and around Edinburgh and Fife will have a better outlook thanks to these amazing people!

Anthro New England

In the US we had Anthro New England raising a most impressive $27,000 for two charities

First there is NEADS, formerly known as the National Education of Assistance Dog Services and Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, which is more than a mouth-full, I see why their shortened it a bit. Today they offer a wide array of Service Dogs programs, holding true to their core mission: Providing Service dogs for individuals with disabilities.

The other charity supported by the fine folks of Anthro New England is Youth on Fire. An organization that provides a drop in center for homeless and street involved youth, ages 14 to 24. They provide resources to meet basic and urgent needs, age appropriate services, including health and medical care.

Thank you very much for raising such an amazing amount, you all are awesome.

Ridgeland Friends of the Library

Staying in the US, Mayor Gene McGee told the Madison Country Library System that his office would withhold $110,000 dollars in funding unless it got rid of all its “homosexual materials” citing that these books would go against his Christian beliefs.

Tonja Johnson, the executive director of the county’s library system told McGee that the library is not a religious institution and is there to service the entire community.

Their exchange resulted in the mayor telling the library that he will withhold their funds, and facing potentially devastating consequences in the fresh gap in their finances. Remember, we are talking $110,000, that, if not solved, would force the library to lay off all of their employees, they decided to start an online fundraiser.

Which in turn got noticed by Soatok, a member of the furry community, who boosted their signal and the ball got rolling from there! And not just by a little!

According to LGBTQnation.com they raised over $68,000 at the time they published about this wonderful development. And when the campaign ended, the total was a very impressive $112,771.20. Exceeding the $110,000 gap.

First Furry in space to receive their wings

In December, Meeps became the first furry in space. Some might argue that it was just a little trip over the border of space, but for many, he was a true inspiration. And after his trip in Blue Origin’s New Shepard he received the FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings. These are designed to recognize flight crew members who further the FAA’s mission to promote the safety of vehicles designed to carry humans (and furries) into space. Those who have demonstrated a fully completed FAA/AST licensed mission into space are eligible to receive them! Congratulations Meeps!

Cold Fusion

We are in the middle of an energy transition. But one thing is for sure! We are going to need more and more of it! And having a solar panels or windmills is not going to cut it. So we are looking for viable alternatives. In the short term, the nuclear option is viable, but very controversial. But around the world, people are working hard on
Cold Fusion.

In the UK they have managed to generate 59 megajoule of energy within 5 seconds in their last tests by smashing hydrogen atoms together. And the resulting amount of energy only yields a tiny fraction of short-lived radiation. While commercial power plants of this nature are still far away, the research has a very high potential to be a key factor in our future green energy needs!

North Sea Drinking Water

But energy is not the only thing in high demand for a sustainable future. We need proper drinking water! While our planet has plenty of water, only a tiny bit of it is drinkable. But in Belgium they have been working on a solution!

They have managed to successfully convert the seawater from the North Sea to drinking water on a big scale. And this project will eventually lead to a facility that will process 4 million cubic meters of drinking water each year. This would be enough to provide for 30,000 families. These new technologies will eventually help to scale up the current
solutions.

Futurama relaunched?

If there is one animated series that keeps on rearing its head every generation, it is Futurama. The amount of relaunches are noticeable to say the least. First we had 4 seasons, followed by season 5: 4 feature length episodes, and when we thought it was over, season 6 and 7 followed at Comedy Central. And when I heard Hulu was going to do season 8, I was ecstatic! But in this day and age, of course there has to be some controversy. From the looks of it, voice actor John DiMaggio will not return.

He voiced Bender, that chaotic booze chugging loud mouth of a robot. And to be honest, he was a big part of the show! The cited reason is that he would like to see not just more compensation for himself, but the other actors as well. But from the looks of it, HULU is now looking for a voice-alike for Bender. Which in my humble opinion is not the most respectful thing to do. But I will not have ill will to that new actor trying to replace this legendary voice. What will the future bring? Animaniacs missed several of their iconic characters and became a lovely watch, or will it follow the path of the Boondocks, where the project got cancelled in the end? Hmmm...

Rescue Rangers

Where Futurama is having one character possibly changed, Disney went the entire different route with the Rescue Rangers it seems. First we had the rumours of it being a live action movie, and well, that turned out to be true, but it sure is different. I do recommend to check out the trailer and see it for yourself.

It takes place 30 years after the series and it looks like the original crew has some difficulty trying to adapt to their new lives. The trailer is littered with both old and new characters, from the more known My Little Ponies to the now obscure DJ Skat Kat— I actually have the cassette single of one of his tracks somewhere. And since they radically changed the structure of the once beloved animated show, the reactions online are all over the place.

But with Disney, it could become awesome like the Ducktales Reboot or the 2007 movie Enchanted, that explored the ‘fish out of water’ concept with a Disney Princes being lost in New York. What will it be? It is going to be interesting, that’s for sure.

Featurette: Manick

[Video Interview]

Outtro

This concludes our February episode of Digging Up Positivity. If you are interested in LEGO and art, please do check out my twitch channel, thabomeerkat, I do try to stream at least once a week. If you are interesting in this awesome T-shirt or more, do check out our ArtworkTee store. Or if you want to support this channel through a little donation, feel free to subscribe on my twitch, patreon or subscribe star like these amazing critters: Cosmik with a K, Els Deckers, Falconeo, Hanzana, Ishnula, Kitako, Tantroo McNally, Taross, and Score Chaser.

The next Digging Up Positivity will be the 26th of March featuring a very sunny interview with an amazing photographer and I hope to see you there. Thank you all so much, and see you all around. And remember: All the hugs!