These days, it is easy to be pessimistic about palpable issues facing the world such as ocean plastic pollution. However, artist Solveig Egeland, distressed by the plastics frequently washing up along the shores of her hometown Fredrikstad, was determined to make a local difference. She began partnering with local children to build small cottages out of the waste. Eventually, her initiative culminated in the larger Håpets Katedral (Hope Cathedral), a unique art project meant to lead the way for much larger sustainability goals.
Although built in the style of a traditional Norwegian stave church and supported by the Church of Norway, Hope Cathedral is meant to be an inter-faith space for weddings and self-contemplation. Starting from a wooden frame, Its ceiling was filled in with rainbow-colored fishing crates found on local beaches. Although usually anchored in Fredrikstad, its location on a barge means that it is occasionally tugged to other ports as well.
The share of American workers in unions edged up in 2025, the first rise in years despite the Trump administration’s attacks on federal government unions and the agency that enforces collective bargaining rights.
Union membership increased by a tenth of a percentage point to 10 percent last year, because of successes in union organizing and slower labor market growth.
About 14.7 million workers were union members in 2025, an increase of 410,000, according to data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the number of workers represented by unions rose to the highest level since 2009. That figure, which represents workers covered by union contracts generally, is higher than union membership numbers, because some workers opt out of membership in unionized workplaces, even though they receive the benefits of a union contract.
Despite the attacks on federal government unions, union membership in the public sector grew in 2025 and continued to be about five times higher than the private sector, at 32.9 percent. That boost came, in part, from a rise in union membership in the federal government, as tens of thousands of civil servants joined unions amid attacks on their jobs from the Trump administration.
Two quick points. First, of course the workforce is a lot bigger today than in 2009, but it’s still good news to set total worker representation highs like this. Second, we’ve seen workers respond to anti-union attacks before by flocking to their unions. My own union for example, which was pretty sclerotic when I arrived here in 2011, only had actual membership in the 50s before the Janus case put public sector unions at risk. The idea for the anti-union people in Janus is that a national right-to-work (which really means right to leech off actual members) policy for all public sector unions would mean people would leave those unions since the union would still have to represent them, member or not, thus weakening the union. But what actually happened is that unions responded by actually organizing their members internally. My own union’s membership rate is now in the high 70s. Trump’s attacks on higher education in the last year raised that from the low 70s. Sometimes, people finally do get it through their skulls why unions matter. And it helps if the unions themselves actually do the work of organizing.
The recent smear campaign spearheaded by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) against His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew reinforces how the Kremlin and Moscow Patriarchate march in lockstep, weaponizing religion for geopolitical purposes while slandering the first among equals of the Orthodox Church.
By attempting to label the Ecumenical Patriarch as an “Antichrist in a cassock,” the actions of Russian authorities serve to highlight the extent to which the Moscow Patriarchate is used as an arm of state power and disinformation.
For example, European security services and political analysts have documented this unholy alliance: in parts of Northern and Eastern Europe, ecclesiastical buildings and related religious organizations have been strategically positioned near critical infrastructure and transport routes serving as cover for Russian intelligence.
On the outskirts of the strategically important city of Västerås in Sweden, the Russians have constructed a church structure that has raised significant concerns among local authorities about its true purpose and intelligence gathering capabilities.
The irony of Russian intelligence accusing the Church of Constantinople of being influenced by Western powers or a tool of foreign actors is limitless, especially considering the fusion of state and religious structures in that country.
The outburst by Russian officials is not a new phenomenon but the continuation—and escalation—of an unrelenting effort to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate; it is also further confirmation that for the Kremlin, Orthodoxy is yet another battlefield of information warfare. Many years ago, I detailed this trend, exposing “How Russia’s Information Warfare Targets the Church of Constantinople.”
In recent years, such nefarious tactics replete with “imaginative scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information…” as aptly described in the Phanar’s response to the SVR statement, have become increasingly sophisticated, targeting new converts and seekers exploring the Orthodox faith through online platforms.
Russia‑aligned voices attempt to correlate Constantinople as being manipulated by Western forces, while simultaneously elevating the Moscow Patriarchate as the only guardian of true Orthodoxy.
Notwithstanding the attacks and continued disinformation campaign, the on-the-ground reality paints a different picture. In many European countries, governments, clergy, and faithful are pushing back and slowly disentangling themselves from the Moscow Patriarchate.
For example, the government of Lithuania has formally recognized a new Exarchate under Constantinople following a 2023 visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Vilnius and subsequent high-ranking engagements.
In Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, security services in those countries have launched investigations into whether the Moscow Patriarchate’s operations threaten democratic order, with Bulgaria expelling Russian-linked clergy who were working to shape political processes in favor of Kremlin interests.
Similarly, in 2024, the government of Estonia refused a residency permit extension for the local metropolitan under Moscow, citing threats to national security.
In many Russian dioceses, clergymen who refuse to endorse Moscow’s military aggression—or worse, speak out against it—are removed from their posts and often punished, with some seeking canonical refuge under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
These examples show that it is not only Ukraine that is moving to curb or eliminate Moscow’s influence, but a broader coalition of nations who recognize the risks of a Kremlin-Moscow Patriarchate alliance infiltrating their societies.
Against this backdrop, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not acting as a geopolitical rival, but exercising its responsibilities in line with its canonical prerogatives as conferred upon it by the Ecumenical Councils.
Moscow, by contrast, has repeatedly rejected conciliar and canonical mechanisms when they do not align with its interests, unilaterally breaking communion, boycotting pan-Orthodox gatherings—such as the 2016 Holy and Great Council in Crete—and insisting on a model of primacy rooted in political weight rather than in canonical order.
Orthodoxy finds itself at a crossroads between two contrasting visions. On one side stands Constantinople that, despite ongoing slander, seeks to serve as a unifying and pastoral center, open to dialogue and committed to the freedom of local churches within the canonical tradition. On the other stands a church‑state complex increasingly described—including by a leading Russian hierarch in Moldova—as suffering from “institutional bankruptcy.”
The more Russia’s intelligence services attempt to paint Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as “mired in mortal sin,” the clearer this contrast becomes. The recent attacks are prompting many believers, clergy, and governments to ask which vision is faithful to Orthodoxy and free from state control.
In that sense, the campaign against the Ecumenical Patriarchate and His All-Holiness is a backhanded acknowledgment—and reminder—of their enduring moral leadership and spiritual authority. While Moscow deploys the language of intelligence services and propaganda slogans, the Phanar continues its quiet work, responding with the silence of prayer and the word of truth, confident that spiritual freedom, not secret service intrigue, is the true foundation of the Church and an authentic ecclesial life.
Team USA figure skating has had a shockingly rough Olympic run. Our “Quad God” psyched himself out, our ice dancers were robbed (don’t argue with me), and our pairs didn’t even make it to the podium. Which means, as always, it’s up to the women.
Tuesday was the women’s short program, and despite the powerhouse trio that is Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, and Isabeau Levito—aka, the Blade Angels—only Liu (really) remains in the running to win a medal. Levito had a lovely Olympic debut, but is 8th going into Friday’s free skate, and Glenn—a gold-medal favorite, the reigning three-time U.S. champion, and the only U.S. woman landing a triple axel—made a crucial error and finished 12th. She walked off the ice in tears, and microphones picked up her saying, “I had it.” It was more heartbreaking than watching Ilia Malinin blow his entire program because she really did have it, but popped her triple loop into a double, losing a devastating seven points.
But Liu finished third, behind Japan’s Ami Nakami and Kaori Sakamoto, which means she’s Team USA’s likely last chance to break its women’s figure skating 20-year Olympic medal drought. It’s a ton of pressure, and we’ve already watched pressure break plenty of U.S. figure skaters this Milan Cortina Olympics. But not feeling pressure is Liu’s whole thing now. And watching her skate–especially on Tuesday—you can see her sparkling mental health radiate off her.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but I really don’t feel, like, nervous or, like, I don’t feel the pressure,” Liu told NBC Olympics after the short program. “There’s nothing like holding me down, holding me back. I invite it all in. So no matter what happens, like, it’s a story. It’s a story.”
Liu’s story is that, in 2019, she became the youngest-ever U.S. national champion at 13—younger than Tara Lipinski. She was crowned a prodigy and basically became a minor celebrity, even going on Jimmy Fallon. But after finishing sixth in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and winning bronze at the 2022 World Figure Skating Championship, she retired at 16 and went on to live what she called a “normal, teenage-girl, older-sister life,” like going to UCLA and hiking to Mount Everest base camp. So norm.
“Heyyyyy so I’m here to announce that I am retiring from skating,” Liu wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “I started skating when I was 5 so that’s about 11 years on the ice and it’s been an insane 11 years. A lot of good and a lot of bad but (you know) that’s just how it is. I’ve made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I’ll have for the rest of my life.” Girlfriend was burned the fuck out.
But legend has it that she went on a ski trip with friends and realized how deeply she missed competition, so she casually returned in March 2024 and then won the 2025 World Championships at 19.
“I had no art to show before. People were making me skate to this [music], putting me in that dress, I had no control,” Liu told ESPN in the fall. “I didn’t even know who was making the decisions and I didn’t want to be there anyways. … The vibes are so different now. The way I was being treated before is a lot different than I am now.” Now she has halo-striped hair, a frenulum piercing, and, at least for the short program, ditched the typically bedazzled costumes for an ethereal gem-less dress. Even as a [REDACTED]-year-old who considers herself relatively well-adjusted, I’ll admit I’m completely inspired by her clarity and how fully she’s inhabited herself.
She skates her short program to “Promise” by Laufey, a haunting and fitting piano ballad about struggling to let go of a long-term love. And while she’s always been lauded as a graceful and artistic skater, watching her skate on Tuesday was an otherworldly experience, in which we briefly entered a parallel universe where our relationships are healthy, our skin clear, and our anxieties a far and distant memory.
I can go on. It was like watching a rock skip endlessly across a glittering lake or a pair of scissors glide effortlessly across a sheet of gold wrapping paper—a visual ASMR feast. My brain? At ease. My soul? Cleansed.
“I connected with my program (today) on another level compared to the rest of the season,” she said, and scored an all-time personal best with 76.59. She got a small penalty on her triple loop, but attacked her triple Lutz-triple loop combination—the most difficult combination of any of the competitors—and landed it like it was the only thing she was put on Earth to do.
NBC commentators (and former Olympians) Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski were also both spellbound by her performance, with Weir saying, “it’s like she skates on a cloud,” and Lipinski saying how she skates with “such freedom and lightness.”
I want to say that I hope that lightness will float her right to the top of the Olympic podium on Thursday, but I know she doesn’t care either way, soooooo, I guess she’s already won.
She skates her short program to “Promise” by Laufey, a haunting and fitting piano ballad about struggling to let go of a long-term love. And while she’s always been lauded as a graceful and artistic skater, watching her skate on Tuesday was an otherworldly experience, in which we briefly entered a parallel universe where our relationships are healthy, our skin clear, and our anxieties a far and distant memory.
On this spot on a chilly winter's night in 1845, while returning from an evening drinking in a local pub, William Thomson, who would later go on to become Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest scientists ever to study at Glasgow University, tripped and fell into the river below. In doing so, he instantly became the coldest thing in the entire universe, and thus the concept of Absolute Zero was born.
As he pulled himself out of the water, Thomson realised he needed to create an entirely new way of measuring temperature to describe just how cold he felt after his unfortunate immersion. He named this the Kelvin Scale in honour of the river which had inspired what turned out to be the most important discovery of his illustrious career.
This plaque was erected in 2025 by the Lord Kelvin Appreciation Society to mark the 180th anniversary of this fortuitous event.
June is the traditional month for graduations and weddings. Across this country and many others, young people are completing middle school, high school, technical schools, colleges and universities, and at a solemn ceremony are listening to advice from graduation speakers.
At my college graduation the scheduled speaker was Martin Luther King, but he was assassinated two months earlier, so Coretta Scott King took his place. One would think that the words from such a memorable occasion would be forever seared into my memory, but in fact I remember not a word of the event.
But I do often think of the words of the "Wear Sunscreen" speech. This was an essay written by Mary Schmich in 1997, and published in the Chicago Tribune. The subsequent history and musical adaptation of the words are elucidated in this Wikipedia entry. The original text is stored here, and at many other places on the net. Over the years this reasonably brief essay has developed an iconic status similar to the "Desiderata" text I blogged last month.
A week from now John and Melanie will be married in Oregon; I regretfully won't be able to attend, but were I there I would offer you the following text of the "Wear Sunscreen" essay as my advice for your future together:
"Wear Sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year- olds I know still don't. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone. Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody's else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen."
Originally posted in 2008, then reposted in 2011 - and again now.
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