GOOD

Weightlifter’s Bizarre Flailing About In Middle Of Competition Makes Wonderful Sense

If he can’t win your heart, then no athlete can

 Kate Ryan
08.19.16

Image via YouTube/NBC Universal

If you were looking for a favorite Olympian to cement these 2016 Rio Games as the most memorable yet, then do we have a guy for you. During the 105kg weightlifting competition on Monday, David Katoatau showed the world his epic dance moves in between lifting enormous weights.

Spectators from around the world, however, might be surprised to learn he wasn’t dancing to celebrate his sixth-place finish. Rather, he danced his heart out to bring awareness to Kiribati, his island nation and home currently getting swept away by rising tides. Located in the South Pacific, rising sea levels spurred by climate change have been creeping up the shorelines of Kiribati’s 33 coral atolls, endangering the lives of the island’s 102,000 residents.

In an interview with Reuters, Katoatau said, “Most people don’t know where Kiribati is. I want people to know more about us, so I use weightlifting, and my dancing, to show the world. ... I don’t know how many years it will be before it sinks.”

Getting to the Olympics from Kiribati was an accomplishment in itself. “There was no gym when I started training as a boy, and there is no gym now,” Katoatau told Reuters, “I trained on the beach in the open sun. The bar [on the weights] would become too hot to touch so I had to train at 6 in the morning.”

In an open letter published last fall by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Katoatau wrote of global warming’s extreme consequences and the imminent dangers facing Kiribati. He wrote,

“Everyday my people fear for their lives as their homes are lost to the rising sea levels. We live on an atoll with nothing but flat land and ocean surrounding us. We have nowhere to climb and nowhere to run to… The simple truth is that we do not have the resources to save ourselves. We will be the first to go. It will be the extinction of a race. Open your eyes and look to the other low-lying level islands around the Pacific—they will soon fall with us.”

To learn more about how climate change is currently devastating Kiribati, check out the masterful reporting documented by AJ+ below. And head over to International Business Times to learn how innovators are proposing to build artificial islands to save Pacific Islanders from a disastrous fate.

Image via YouTube/NBC Universal

Sports

The EPA announced it will begin to phase out animal testing

It will be cruelty-free by 2035.

Ottawa Humane Society / Flickr

The Trump Administration won't be remembered for being kind to animals.

In 2018, it launched a new effort to reinstate cruel hunting practices in Alaska that had been outlawed under Obama. Hunters will be able to shoot hibernating bear cubs, murder wolf and coyote cubs while in their dens, and use dogs to hunt black bears.

Efforts to end animal cruelty by the USDA have been curtailed as well. In 2016, under the Obama Administration, the USDA issued 4,944 animal welfare citations, in two years the numbers dropped to just 1,716.

Keep Reading Show less
enviornmental protection agency humane society andrew wheeler Humane Society PETA epa to end animal testing
Science

Woman dreams she swallowed her engagement ring and wakes up with it missing

Dreams can have a powerful effect on us.

via I love butter / Flickr

We often dismiss our dreams as nonsensical dispatches from the mind while we're deep asleep. But recent research proves that our dreams can definitely affect our waking lives.

People often dream about their significant others and studies show it actually affects how we behave towads them the next day.

"A lot of people don't pay attention to their dreams and are unaware of the impact they have on their state of mind," said Dylan Selterman, psychology lecturer at the University of Maryland, says according to The Huffington Post. "Now we have evidence that there is this association."

Keep Reading Show less
enagement rings san diego california dreams woman swallows wedding ring CNN MSNBC Fox News woman swallows engagement ring
Health

BIll Maher started a debate about fat-shaming and James Corden finished it beautifully

Who do you think is right?

via Real Time with Bill Maher / YouTube and The Late Late Show with James Corden / YouTube

A controversial editorial on America's obesity epidemic and healthcare by comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show "Real Time" inspired a thoughtful, and funny, response by James Cordon. It also made for a great debate about healthcare that Americans are avoiding.

At the end of the September 6th episode of "Real Time, " Maher turned to the camera for his usual editorial and discussed how obesity is a huge part of the healthcare debate that no one is having.

"At Next Thursday's debate, one of the candidates has to say, 'The problem with our healthcare system is Americans eat shit and too much of it.' All the candidates will mention their health plans but no one will bring up the key factor: the citizens don't lift a finger to help," Maher said sternly.

Keep Reading Show less
fat-shaming obesity and health care bosy positivity Bill Maher james corden bill maher fat-shaming
Politics

Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is calling for a "Green Amendment" to the Constitution

assets.rebelmouse.io

There is no shortage of proposals from the, um, what's the word for it… huge, group of Democratic presidential candidates this year. But one may stand out from the pack as being not just bold but also necessary; during a CNN town hall about climate change Andrew Yang proposed a "green amendment" to the constitution.

Keep Reading Show less
politics presidential race green new deal
test

‘Me Too’ at-home rape kit draws criticism: ‘There is absolutely no benefit here for victims’

Me Too Kit

The creator of the Me Too kit — an at home rape kit that has yet to hit the market — has come under fire as sexual assault advocates argue the kit is dangerous and misleading for women.

The kit is marketed as "the first ever at home kit for commercial use," according to the company's website. "Your experience. Your kit. Your story. Your life. Your choice. Every survivor has a story, every survivor has a voice." Customers will soon be able order one of the DIY kits in order to collect evidence "within the confines of the survivor's chosen place of safety" after an assault.

"With MeToo Kit, we are able to collect DNA samples and other tissues, which upon testing can provide the necessary time-sensitive evidence required in a court of law to identify a sexual predator's involvement with sexual assault," according to the website.

Keep Reading Show less
sexual assault me too rape kit
Health