Rest in power, Jesse Jackson, one of the world's best-known Black activists who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr., died at the age of 84.

A notable “triad” of observances/calendar events happening at the same time:
🌙 Religious & Calendar Observances (the big three)
🌕 Lunar New Year – The start of the lunar/Chinese New Year (Year of the Horse) based on the lunar calendar, widely celebrated by Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other communities.
🍖 Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday – The last day before Ash Wednesday & Lenten season in the Christian calendar; celebrated with parades and feasting especially in places like New Orleans and other Catholic communities in the U.S.
🌙 Ramadan moon sighting window – Tonight (Feb 17) is when many Muslim communities globally will look for the new crescent moon to decide the official start of Ramadan; the fasting month most likely begins at sunset tonight or will start on Feb 18, depending on local sightings.

Among the past 13 presidents, Harry Truman received a 22 percent job approval rating, the lowest ever recorded, in a Gallup survey from Feb. 1952.

Forecasters are detecting what is known as a sudden stratospheric warming, or SSW, a phenomenon marked by a sharp temperature spike in the stratosphere roughly 10 to 50 kilometers above the surface. In some areas over the pole, temperatures are projected to rise by 40 to 50 degrees Celsius within days. Such events occur when atmospheric waves from lower levels of the atmosphere disrupt the polar vortex, slowing or even reversing the high-altitude winds that keep cold air locked in place. When that circulation weakens, the vortex can shift off the pole or split into multiple lobes. Sudden stratospheric warmings are not unprecedented, but an event of this magnitude in February would be considered unusually intense for this stage of the season. If the disruption materializes, impacts would not be immediate. Surface weather effects typically emerge one to three weeks later, as changes in the stratosphere work their way downward. That process can lead to a more amplified jet stream pattern, allowing Arctic air to spill into parts of North America, Europe or Asia. Not every sudden stratospheric warming produces significant cold outbreaks, and the extent of any surface impacts remains uncertain.

The seven continents, generally ordered by size from largest to smallest, are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia (or Oceania). Asia is the largest, while Australia is the smallest. Continents are defined as large, continuous, distinct landmasses, often separated by oceans and situated on tectonic plates. Various models exist, ranging from 4 to 7+ continents, depending on whether regions like Eurasia or America are combined, or if submerged landmasses like Zealandia are included. Visual Capitalist has published. List of nations and their locations.

My Good Buddy, Jumping Jack, or Brother Moon, as I often refer to him, drew up the following prediction for 2026 - Uniform Resource Locator: the address of a web page, Internet resource.

The world does not need more exhausted, self-critical, burned-out souls.
It needs people who decided, quietly, fiercely, that from this moment forward, they will live differently.
So if you are standing at your breaking point right now…
Draw the line. Whisper it if you have to.
From now on. Then begin again.
Love always！