The terms Yin and Yang are part of our cultural vocabulary. They often get mashed into a single word, "yinyang", or often mispronounced as "yingyang". So I've taken some license here in applying these terms to the state of humanity at the moment. By "this moment" I mean a retrospective look at the month gone by.
I chose the following definition from Britannica.com: "yinyang, [or yin-yang or in-yo in Japanese]... the two complementary forces that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption. It is present in even numbers, in valleys and streams, and is represented by the tiger, the color orange, and a broken line.
Yang is conceived of as heaven, maleness, light, activity, and penetration. It is present in odd numbers, in mountains, and is represented by the dragon, the color azure, and an unbroken line.
The two are both said to proceed from the Great Ultimate (taiji), their interplay with one another (as one increases the other decreases) being a description of the actual process of the universe and all that is in it. In harmony, the two are depicted as the light and dark halves of a circle."
From my POV, September 2022, was skewing more toward the Yang--more dragon than tiger. To me, Yang representing much of our planet's testosterone-driven bad news and misadventures, and Yin representing earth, positive femaleness, and good news.
So, I compiled a list of more "Yin-leaning" topics in the list below. I added the fifth item in the hope that you might laugh--or at least smile. If you have other "Yin" topics you'd like to contribute, you can post them below.
#1 Yvon, Malinda, Fletcher and Claire Chouinard
Yvon and his family are "walking the talk" by giving away their company, Patagonia, in order to help protect our planet and undeveloped lands around the globe. Wow! details
#2 Hank and John Greene
These brothers continue to produce great science and history-related videos. They also launched a vlog brothers channel, which you can visit here:
Two years ago they announced that over a period of five years they would be donating $6.5 million dollars to Partners in Health, Sierra Leone. I believe this was inspired by one of their heroes, Paul Farmer, the physician and co-founder of Partners in Health. I mentioned Paul Farmer in a previous blog; for more details, I recommend watching John Greene's tribute to Paul Farmer here.
#3 Dr. Becky Smethurst Vlog
Dr. Becky is a very enthusiastic Oxford astrophysicist who hosts a youtube channel. In this video she has a conversation with Dr. Libby Jones who is part of the MIRI science team on the James Webb telescope. Take a look... And if you really want to take a more in-depth dive into some of the technical details, here's one reference.
#4 Husband/Wife physics team, Jie Shan and Fai Mak, Cornell University
"How Two Physicists Unlocked the Secrets of Two Dimensions". They have apparently figured out a way to create artificial atoms in the lab. Just one more example of the many wonderful contributions that immigrants have made to this country.
#5 Animation
I've seen these animations multiple times and they always make me chuckle. I hope they do the same for you: here's the first one, "Chop Chop" from the very creative folks at Birdbox Studio.
AND... as a bonus, here's another wonderful animation -- an allegory for our times. Think climate change.
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