July 3, 2022. Moss Point, Mississippi. A car carrying 3 teenage girls drives down the I-10 boat launch and plunges straight into the Pascagoula River.
The driver later tells police she was following her GPS. She had no idea it was leading her off the edge and into the water. By the time she realizes what's happening, the car is already floating. Then sinking.
The vehicle drifts 20 feet from shore. Then more. The girls climb onto the roof of the car as it goes under. The water is black. It is the middle of the night. And the Pascagoula River is known for one other thing most people don't think about until it's too late.
Alligators.
Corion Evans, age 16, a student at Pascagoula High School, is nearby when it happens. He hears the girls screaming for help.
He doesn't hesitate for a single second.
He throws down his phone. Pulls off his shoes. Strips off his shirt. And jumps in.
He later says: I was just like, I can't let none of these folks die. They need to get out the water. So I just started getting them. I wasn't even thinking about nothing else.
The car is nearly submerged. The girls are panicking. The water is deep and dark and moving. Corion swims out — 25 yards from shore — and reaches them.
His friend Karon Bradley, known as KJ, jumps in right behind him. Together they help get the girls onto the surface of the sinking car.
But here is what most people miss: Corion doesn't just help them float. He swims them back. 1 at a time. Into shore. Through the dark water. With legs that are burning and lungs that are working as hard as they ever have.
2 girls make it to shore. The 3rd can't swim. She is still on the roof when a responding officer arrives.
Moss Point Police Officer Gary Mercer swims out to help. He reaches the remaining girl and begins pulling her toward shore. Then the girl panics. She grabs him. She pulls him under. Officer Mercer begins to drown.
Corion turns around.
He sees the officer going under. He hears him calling for help. He is already exhausted. His legs are already spent. He has already pulled 2 people through 25 yards of alligator-infested river in the dead of night.
He swims back out.
He grabs Officer Mercer. He says later: I went and I grabbed the police officer and I'm like swimming him back until I feel myself I can walk.
All 4 people make it to shore alive.
Officer Mercer and all 3 girls are taken to the hospital. All of them recover. Chief Brandon Ashley of the Moss Point Police Department later says publicly: If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely.
Moss Point Mayor Billy Knight presents Corion with a certificate of commendation from the city. He says: We are proud of the young man for having the courage to forget about himself and jump into the water. It's not often enough that you see people put others above themselves.
The recognition doesn't stop there. The Mississippi Senate formally commends Corion Evans by name in Senate Resolution 32 of the 2023 legislative session — a rare honor for a teenager from a small town.
His mother, Marquita Evans, speaks to reporters afterward. She says: I was really proud of Corion because he wasn't just thinking about himself. He was trying to really get all those people out the water. I'm glad nothing happened to him while he was trying to save other people's lives.
Corion tells reporters he has been swimming since he was 3 years old.
He is asked if he was scared. He says: Anything could've been in that water. But I wasn't thinking about it.
That is the part that stays with you. He knew the risks. The darkness. The distance. The wildlife beneath the surface. The weight of another person pulling you under. He knew all of it and he swam out anyway. Not once. Not twice. Three times.
4 people are alive today because a 16-year-old boy decided, without hesitating for even a moment, that strangers were worth saving.
A student can now complete modern education in the West without reading a single page of Homer, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Chaucer, or Milton.
This is how you erase a culture.
If schools and universities won't teach the Great Books of Western Civilization, we must form our own reading circles independently.
These are some of the texts we've read together at Athenaeum, or intend to cover soon. We are reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics right now.
Please join our reading group if you'd like to study the great works in dialogue with others.
Consider a paid subscription if you'd like to support — it makes a huge difference to the time and resources we can dedicate to this.
You'll get:
- Live book club discussions (biweekly)
- Access to our incredible community chat
- Essays to guide you through the Great Books
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Welcome!
May you attract someone who naturally brings out your childlike playfulness, makes you laugh, and loves you a little extra on your worst days. Someone who soothes your nervous system and genuinely feels lucky to have you. Someone you never have to heal from.
Today we are officially launching The Local Intelligence Project. If you are interested in building your own AI sustainably, creating community, building resiliency against centralized power in tech, or dream of being involved in a digitally terraformed future, this is for you!
Ivan the Terrible, the notorious Tsar of Russia, committed a heinous act when he killed his son, Ivan Ivanovich, in a fit of rage. This tragic event was depicted by the renowned Russian artist Ilya Repin in one of his most famous paintings. The artwork captures the aftermath of the son's untimely demise at the hands of his father. Ivan the Terrible, a complex figure known for his intelligence and devout nature, also had a dark side characterized by paranoia, rage, and bouts of mental instability that worsened with age. The painting attempts to convey Repin's interpretation of the emotional turmoil that ensued after the fatal encounter.
The motive behind Ivan the Terrible's dreadful act was a result of a confrontation with his son over the son's pregnant wife.
The Tsar had beaten his son's wife severely for wearing what he considered promiscuous clothes, causing her to suffer a miscarriage.
When Ivanovich confronted his father about this cruel act, the Tsar struck him on the head with his sceptre, a blow that proved fatal and led to Ivanovich's slow and agonizing death over three days.
In the painting, Ivan the Terrible holds his deceased son with a mixture of sorrow, regret, and lingering anger. The young child's eyes are filled with tears, and he clutches his father's arm, revealing signs of potential forgiveness, helplessness, and the devastating effects of the fatal blow he endured.
Repin's creation of this masterpiece was no easy task; it required an immense amount of time and constant revision to achieve the desired result.
The artist himself admitted to not enjoying the process due to the frequent reworks, but art critics worldwide have hailed the painting as a true masterpiece.
It's worth noting that the image presented here is a 3-D version, providing a higher quality that allows for zooming in.
While some may have reservations about the addition of 3-D elements, it was done to enhance the painting's quality and capture more realistic features rather than alter its essence. The painting continues to be a subject of political debate, historical insight, and reflection on the complexities of the human condition.
Learn more: https://t.co/Tc1IqK2Zlp
So much would change in relationships if those who depend on others practiced more gratitude,
and those who take care of others practiced more boundaries.
But too often,
the takers are enabled to keep taking, while the givers are guilt-tripped for not doing enough.
When you learn to appreciate every chapter of your life, including the difficult ones, you unlock something most people spend a lifetime searching for.
Elder Justin Parvu taught on the end times:
“The time will come, and it has already come, when the Christian will no longer be persecuted for prayer, but for his refusal to deny himself. Do not be deceived: the apocalypse does not arrive with frightful thunder, but with a cunning silence. Men will be enslaved unchained, controlled unknowingly and instructed to love convenience more than Truth. Peace will be demanded at any cost, but the price will be the soul. Blind obedience will be required, but not to God, but to spirits foreign to Christ. So, anyone who remains firm in their faith in Christ will be considered crazy, extremist, dangerous. Know this: it is not technology that makes the world lose, but the denial of God. It is not the mark on the hand that is more frightening, but the mark in the heart, when man stops fearing sin. When you stop confessing, when you stop crying about your mistakes, when you get accustomed to evil as something natural, that's where the end begins. Churches can stand, but if conscience collapses, nothing remains. There won’t be time for halves or quarters. It will be: either with Christ or without Him. Either cross or rejection. Whoever wants to preserve this life at any cost will lose it, and whoever will suffer for the Truth at risk of losing earthly life, this will be written in Heaven. Don't be afraid of what people are going to do with your body; be afraid of the moment when you will be tempted to keep quiet when you have to confess the Truth. That's where the great battle will take place.”
In 2017, marine biologist Nan Hauser was snorkeling near the Cook Islands when a massive 50,000 pound humpback whale began repeatedly nudging and lifting her through the water.
At first, she believed the whale was acting aggressively and feared for her life as it pushed her with its head and fins for several minutes.
But moments later, she spotted the real danger nearby: a tiger shark circling beneath her.
Hauser later realized the humpback whale may have been trying to shield her from the predator and guide her toward safety.
Footage from the encounter showed the whale repeatedly placing itself between her and the shark until she finally reached her boat safely.
🚨 5 Reasons Anyone with a Brain Should Be Skeptical of the Rapid Expansion of Data Centers
1. Cronyism as "innovation:"
Massive tax breaks, sweetheart land deals, and utility subsidies, all funneled to the same tech giants already worth trillions. It’s state backed infrastructure capture dressed up as progress.
2. 5K more than any other country:
The U.S. has roughly 5k more data centers than any other country. (Yes, even China.) Nobody seems to know why or is even asking why. That level of centralization has obvious long term political risk.
3. Community pushback gets overridden:
Residents who raise concerns about zoning, water use, noise, or power demand are often dismissed by city officials aligned with powerful industry interests. Some have even been arrested at city council meetings or for social media posts.
4. Surveillance Infrastructure:
Data centers increasingly support AI training, mass data processing, and surveillance adjacent systems. It’s distributed digital infrastructure makes large scale monitoring cheap and scalable, worrying privacy advocates who can see the writing on the wall.
5. Environmental and resource strain:
These facilities are extremely energy-intensive, loud and water-hungry, often placing heavy demand on local grids and cooling systems. They create "heat islands", pollute the air, and the cost is externalized to communities while profits are centralized.
Concerns about data centers are NOT a left/right issue (even though they are now trying to make it political.) This isn’t about opposing innovation or capitalism, it’s about accountability, surveillance infrastructure, concentrated power, and externalized costs.