The Weekend Bravely (#10)
A desperate attempt to reach Europe, CBS News' alternate reality, and too many houses in Japan.
The Weekend Bravely is a (mostly) weekly round-up of stories you probably missed, but shouldn’t.
I took a little time off to enjoy Seattle’s first 70-degree days and plant the garden. Let’s catch up.
A three-year quest for names, with very few clues. ‘Adrift’, a gripping multi-media story from the Associated Press, chronicles the efforts of authorities in Trinidad & Tobago to identify 43 corpses that washed ashore in a boat on the Caribbean island of Tobago. The boat set sail from the African country of Mauritania, bound for the Canary Islands in Spain. It never arrived. Instead, it drifted 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, its occupants dying one by one. Investigators have spent three years trying to find out who they were. (via The Associated Press)
CBS News’ alternate universe. Shortly after SpaceX’s Starship rocket spun out of control and self-destructed, CBS News bizarrely tweeted about its “successful” launch. Not only was the rocket destroyed, but the launch also caused ‘catastrophic’ damage to the launch pad, and debris rained down on the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge and Boca Chica State Park - where it caused a 3.5-acre wildfire. Several Texas environmental groups and a non-profit representing Native Americans have filed a lawsuit against the FAA for greenlighting the launch. (via Twitter)
Too few people and too many houses. Faced with a cratering population and rural areas that are de-populating, small communities across Japan are attempting to take over and offload as many as 10 million vacant homes - about 14% of the country’s total housing stock. These homes are often abandoned by estates, unwilling to pay for the home’s upkeep or taxes. Japan is unusual in that homes are usually a depreciating asset - a legacy of poor post-WWII construction and ever more stringent building codes. With a home’s value usually being only in the land, estates or owners often opt to tear down the existing structure and build a new home. But in rural, emptying Japan, that doesn’t make much sense to do. (via the New York Times)
Hopes of finding Julian Sands fade. Henry Sands, son of missing actor Julian Sands, released a statement thanking search and rescue workers for their efforts to find his father, who went missing on Jan. 13th while hiking California’s Mt. Baldy. Sands, best known for his roles in ‘The Killing Fields’, ‘A Room With A View’, and ‘Warlock’, was an avid and highly-skilled hiker. (via Fox News)
Credit: Franco Origlia The state of Washington abolished the death penalty. On April 20, 2023, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5087, formally abolishing the death penalty and banning sterilization as a criminal punishment. Inslee ordered a death penalty moratorium in 2014, and in 2018 the Washington Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional. Washington is the 23rd state to outlaw capital punishment. (via CNN)
What I’m reading: ‘She Said’ by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor.
What I’m watching: ‘The Newsreader’, Australia’s most-nominated series in 2021. It stars the magnificent Anna Torv and Sam Reid. You can stream it for free on The Roku Channel.
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