3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts

THE FACTS

* The NAACP’s founders were all white. On February 12, 1909, Mary White Ovington, William English Walling, and Henry Moskowitz established the NAACP as an advocacy organization for black civil rights. Recognizing the importance of having an African-American on the governing board, they invited W.E.B. DuBois (in photo, above), a Harvard educated lawyer, author, and the founder of the Niagara Movement (which advocated equal rights for blacks) to join them.

* AOC was not in the Capitol Building during the January 6 riots. On February 2, she posted a video talking about the trauma she had experienced, locked in her office, during the invasion. The video went viral. The NYT hailed her for her bravery. The next day, Fox News reported that her video did not come from the Capitol Building, where the rioting was going on, but from the Cannon House Office Building, two blocks away, where she was safe and sound and protected by the Capitol Police. The NYT has not yet corrected its reporting.

* “The Quietest Place on Earth” is located in Minneapolis. It’s inside what is called an anechoic chamber in Orfield Labs. The chamber is designed to be completely silent at -9.4 decibels – conditions that have been known to cause hallucinations. The room is so silent that one’s bodily functions become as loud as car traffic. It’s so disorienting that, according to Orfield, “If you’re in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair.”

 THE NUMBERS 

* $43,625 – the value of a single Bitcoin during its high on Monday, February 8, after Tesla invested $1.5 billion in it. Several other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum and Ripple, also rose in value. Bitcoin is up 50% this year after gains of more than 300% in 2020.

* $16.1 trillion – the total economic costs of COVID-19 in the US (according to data gathered by Visual Capitalist). This includes a GDP loss of $7.6 trillion, a cost of $4.2 trillion in health impairment, and $4.4 trillion in premature death. For reference, the combined cost of all post-9/11 wars was $6.4 trillion.

* $29.5 million – the amount earned by 9-year-old YouTube star Ryan Kaji in 2020. His channel, where he reviews toys, has more than 28 million subscribers. He started doing this at the age of 3, when he posted a video reviewing a Lego train set – a video that has had more than 50 million views.

 THE THOUGHTS 

* “I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also much more than that. So are we all.” – James Baldwin

* “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” – Isaac Asimov

* “You can’t act one way and be another. Your behavior is your character. It is who you are.” –  Michael Masterson