UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Blasts WHO Gender Committee

Romney to Biden: January 6 is a Political Dead Horse

South Korea announced today a new law that will aim to end the sale and slaughter of dogs for their meat by 2027.Currently‚ it is estimated that South Korea has around 1‚600 dog meat restaurants and 1‚150 dog farms in 2023‚ according to BBC News.In the country‚ dog meat stew‚ or "boshintang"‚ is considered a delicacy among the older generation but with younger people it has fallen out of favor.The ban will see that the raising and slaughtering of dogs for their meat will be banned‚ as will the practices of distributing and selling dog meat. The country’s national assembly voted to ban the breeding‚ butchery‚ distribution‚ and sale of dogs for their meat‚ it was announced. Under the new law‚ those that break these rules and slaughter dogs will face around three years in prison or a maximum fine of 30 million won ($23‚000)‚ while those selling dog meat or raising dogs for meat could serve a two-year sentence.The consumption of dog meat itself will not become illegal. The law will come into place in 2027 to allow those involved in the dog meat industry to phase out their business and find alternative employment. The government of South Korea has said that it will support those whose businesses are affected but details of what that will look like have yet to be released.The change reflects a different attitude among the younger generation in South Korea who are more inclined to see dogs as family pets rather than have the view that dog meat is the same as pork or beef or chicken. According to a survey by Gallup Korea‚ and reported by CNN‚ the number of people who had eaten dog meat in the last 12 months had fallen from 27 percent in 2015 to 8 percent in 2022.           Not everyone is happy about the new law. Traditionally dog meat was consumed in the summer to help people beat the heat and was a cheap source of protein. "We've eaten this since the Middle Ages. Why stop us from eating our traditional food? If you ban dog meat then you should ban beef‚" Kim Seon-ho‚ an 86-year-old Seoul local‚ told the BBC. Animal welfare campaigners on the other hand are thrilled with the news after they have been putting pressure on the government to make this change for many years.“This is history in the making‚” JungAh Chae‚ the executive director of Humane Society International/Korea‚ told the Guardian. “I never thought I would see in my lifetime a ban on the cruel dog meat industry in South Korea‚ but this historic win for animals is testament to the passion and determination of our animal protection movement."

While there is no shortage of complicated questions to ask about the universe‚ sometimes it's fun to go back to basics. In that spirit‚ here's the answer to a question people have asked time and time again on the Internet: "If there's no oxygen in space‚ how is the Sun on fire?"First off‚ there is molecular oxygen in space – just not a lot of it. It has been found in molecular form in a few places‚ including the Orion Nebula and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud‚ and the galaxy named Markarian 231. Even in the Orion Nebula‚ it is scarce‚ and it is definitely not the reason why the Sun "burns"‚ because it doesn't. Earth is the only place in our solar system where we know that there is fire. In fact‚ it is the only place in the universe where we are sure that fire exists‚ and yes‚ that includes stars and the Sun.To have fire‚ you need free atmospheric oxygen. Without it‚ combustion simply cannot take place‚ and for sustained combustion‚ experiments show that an atmospheric volume of around 16 percent O2 is required. Despite being the third most abundant element in the universe behind helium and hydrogen‚ free molecular oxygen has only been found in abundance on Earth‚ where our atmosphere is 21 percent oxygen.The Sun is 91 percent hydrogen and 8.9 percent helium in terms of its number of atoms‚ and around 70.6 percent hydrogen and 27.4 percent helium by mass. If you do the math real quick‚ you'll notice that doesn't leave a lot of room for oxygen to be present‚ let alone enough to sustain fire. Instead‚ heat and light are generated by nuclear fusion."The Sun's enormous mass is held together by gravitational attraction‚ producing immense pressure and temperature at its core‚" NASA explains. "At the core‚ the temperature is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius)‚ which is sufficient to sustain thermonuclear fusion. This is a process in which atoms combine to form larger atoms and in the process release staggering amounts of energy. Specifically‚ in the Sun’s core‚ hydrogen atoms fuse to make helium."It is this that produces the Sun's heat and light. But if the Sun isn't on fire‚ and space is a vacuum‚ how do we feel the Sun's heat on Earth?       With fewer particles to interact with in the (almost) vacuum of space‚ there is not enough matter to heat via radiation. The heat we feel on Earth is not direct heat energy from the Sun‚ but the result of solar radiation emitted from the Sun (wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum‚ including visible light) interacting with particles on Earth.

Ah‚ the honeymoon phase – when everything is new and exciting‚ and you can’t keep your hands off each other. It’s thrilling‚ nerve-wracking… and a really bad time to be making important financial or career decisions. For many years‚ science wasn’t clear on exactly why our brains go to mush when we’re falling in love‚ but a new study might just have some answers.“It is thought that romantic love first emerged some five million years ago after we split from our ancestors‚ the great apes. We know the ancient Greeks philosophized about it a lot‚ recognising it both as an amazing as well as traumatic experience. The oldest poem ever to be recovered was in fact a love poem dated to around 2000 [BCE]‚” said first author Adam Bode‚ a PhD student at The Australian National University‚ in a statement. Despite this long history‚ however‚ “We actually know very little about the evolution of romantic love‚” Bode added.Teaming up with Dr Phil Kavanagh‚ of the University of Canberra and University of South Australia‚ Bode conducted a survey of 1‚556 young adults who identified themselves as being “in love”. The questions aimed to assess the respondents’ feelings and behavior toward their partner.A second stage of the study looking at the intensity of early romantic love included only 812 of the original participants‚ who reported being in love for no more than two years.The scientists wanted to investigate whether the behavioral activation system (BAS) – the mechanism within the mind and body that promotes behaviors that might lead to a reward – plays a role in romantic love. Research has linked the BAS to various aspects of human behavior‚ as well as psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder‚ but this is the first time it’s been studied in this context.The results confirmed what many people will have experienced themselves when they’ve fallen in love – that the brain operates differently‚ with thoughts and actions (albeit temporarily) revolving around the new romantic partner.“The BAS is evolutionarily old‚” the authors explain in their paper‚ “and romantic love made use of this system in a novel way.”As to what drives these changes in behavior‚ Dr Kavanagh suggests that a rush of hormones may be to blame.“We know the role that oxytocin plays in romantic love‚ because we get waves of it circulating throughout our nervous system and blood stream when we interact with loved ones. The way that loved ones take on special importance‚ however‚ is due to oxytocin combining with dopamine‚ a chemical that our brain releases during romantic love.”“Essentially‚ love activates pathways in the brain associated with positive feelings.”Armed with these new findings‚ Bode and Kavanah are already turning their attention to the next phase of their research. They’re planning a study looking at the different approaches to love in men and women‚ as well as a global survey to categorize people who experience romantic love into four different types.There’s still a lot we can’t explain about love. You could easily argue it belongs up there with some of the greatest mysteries of the universe. But with research like this‚ we can move one step closer to understanding how it works.The study is published in the journal Behavioral Sciences.

Fire ant rafts enable these invertebrates to survive floods by aggregating in floating islands of living organisms. For a long time‚ their formation was thought to come down to something called the “Cheerios effect” – but new research has revealed that actually‚ pheromones could be a better fit as a trigger for the phenomenon.The Cheerios effect describes the way that floating objects act as if they’re stuck together‚ and it’s all to do with how surface tension interacts with the air. It’s a nifty bit of science you’ve probably witnessed if you’ve eaten the cereal of the same name‚ as when your bowl is a little lacking in those delicious hoops‚ they seem to flock together.The researchers put the Cheerios effect to the test using live and dead ants to observe how they behaved on dry and wet surfaces. The experiments revealed that the clumping effect we observe with cereal doesn’t match up to what we see in fire ants‚ dead or alive.“By showing that placing the fire ants on a dry‚ shaking surface can prompt them to aggregate and [that] dead ants in water do not form rafts‚ we demonstrate that the clumping of cereals in milk‚ a.k.a. the Cheerios effect‚ is not a good analogy to explain the fire ant raft‚” study author Tzay-Ming Hong of the Department of Physics at National Tsing Hua University told IFLScience.The team instead suggests that pheromones could have a role to play in the way that fire ant rafts form‚ something they demonstrated by displacing a raft from water onto dry land‚ making it harder for pheromones to diffuse among the group.       “That it takes twice the aggregation time for the fire ants to disseminate after the ant raft has been relocated to a dry solid ground collaborates the supremacy of pheromones scenario over the Cheerios effect‚” continued Hong. “The argument is that the relaxation time is constrained by the diffusion process for the pheromones‚ the messenger that calls on the fire ants to aggregate in times of danger‚ to disperse so that the intoxicated ants can finally sober up and leave.”Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) – so named for the burning bites they deliver – were the focus of a 2021 paper that found the rafts consist of layers‚ with a structural network of interconnected ants supporting a top layer of freely moving ants. The movement of structural ants to the free ant layer‚ and vice versa‚ means the raft isn’t stationary‚ but perpetually contracting as everyone on board shuffles about‚ enabling constant adjustments that can keep the raft stable.This new study has established that by having ants available to plug in holes‚ the fire ant rafts can have a zero Poisson’s ratio‚ which means they maintain their width and height even when stretched and squeezed. This is of particular interest from a biomimetics perspective – a field of science that borrows ideas from nature to innovate new technologies and materials – as the ability to stretch without getting thinner is typically only seen in objects with very specific and complex shapes.The ant rafts formed by vertical (a‚b) and horizontal (c‚d) shaking on dry land.Image courtesy of Tzay-Ming HongExactly how the dynamics of the raft were playing out was something researchers on the 2021 paper weren’t sure of‚ but this new research highlights that we may have been downplaying the role of pheromones in favor of the Cheerios effect all this time.“Pheromones were established to be essential for communication among ants by E. O. Wilson. We believe that millennia of evolution helped the fire ants to develop and secrete special chemical compounds as a cue for members to aggregate in times of imminent danger (to survive the flooding rain.)‚” added Hong. “What's interesting is that we found the alarm can be equally set off by shaking the fire ants. In other words‚ the formation of ant rafts does not necessarily require water or the Cheerios effect.”Back on the shelf with you‚ Cheerios effect.The study is published in the journal Physical Review E.

Often described as a ringing or buzzing noise in the ear‚ tinnitus affects millions of people around the world and yet has no cure. However‚ researchers have now found that‚ with the help of a smartphone app that gives users training and therapy‚ the debilitating impact of tinnitus could be significantly reduced in a matter of weeks.The findings come as the result of a trial exploring the use of an app‚ MindEar‚ to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)‚ which aims to change the way a person thinks about their tinnitus so that it becomes less noticeable.Researchers recruited 30 adults with tinnitus and split them into two groups; one received CBT via MindEar’s chatbot‚ Tinnibot‚ whilst the other had access to four 30-minute online counseling sessions alongside CBT with Tinnibot. The intervention lasted for 8 weeks‚ but the participants were followed up for a further 2 months.Study participants chatted to Tinnibot.Image credit: MindEarThe study found that in both groups‚ the participants’ tinnitus-related distress decreased significantly over time. “In our trial‚ two thirds of users of our chatbot saw improvement after 16 weeks. This was shortened to only 8 weeks when patients additionally had access to an online psychologist‚” said lead author and co-founder of MindEar Dr Fabrice Bardy in a statement.Tinnitus‚ which is thought to affect more than 740 million adults globally‚ can sometimes go away on its own. For those in whom it remains‚ however‚ the unpleasant buzzing‚ grinding‚ or ringing sounds that characterize it can be life-changing. People with tinnitus can experience significant changes to their hearing‚ concentration‚ and mood‚ sometimes to the point of anxiety and depression.Whilst there isn’t a cure for tinnitus‚ there are management strategies. “One of the most common misconceptions about tinnitus is that there is nothing you can do about it; that you just have to live with it. This is simply not true. Professional help from those with expertise in tinnitus support can reduce the fear and anxiety attached to the sound patients experience‚” said Bardy.The issue comes in accessing such help‚ as fellow study author and psychologist Professor Suzanne Purdy explained. “Cognitive behavioural therapy is known to help people with tinnitus‚ but it requires a trained psychologist. That’s expensive‚ and often difficult to access.” That’s where MindEar and Tinnibot hope to fit in‚ with the researchers concluding that their findings demonstrate that internet-based delivery of CBT represents a more accessible and highly effective tool for managing tinnitus. It’s also hoped that future studies will help to make the experience more individualized‚ figuring out if there’s a relationship between particular characteristics of a tinnitus patient and how successful different modes of therapy are.This isn’t the first attempt at using tech to treat tinnitus either. Back in 2022‚ scientists trialed an app using sound therapy‚ whilst earlier research even tried out tongue-zapping as a treatment.The study is published in Frontiers in Audiology and Otology.

Have you ever heard of the Mandela Effect? It’s a phenomenon where a large number of people remember something differently than how it actually is. For example‚ some people swear that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s‚ while others remember him becoming the president of South Africa in the 1990s. How can this be? One of the most famous examples of the Mandela Effect is the Fruit of the Loom logo. Many people remember seeing a cornucopia‚ or a horn of plenty‚ behind the fruits in the logo. However‚ if you look at the actual logo‚ there is no cornucopia at all. Just fruits. Like many others‚ I was convinced that the cornucopia has disappeared from the famous Fruit of the Loom logo‚ and in my opinion‚ it’s one of the strongest Mandela Effects‚ because of the left-over residual evidence of its existence‚ coupled with the huge amount of people that are certain it was there‚ including employees of the company. Artist recreation of logo: Cancelled TM filed by company mentioning cornucopia you can find here. Logo in “The Ant Bully”: Newspaper article from 1994. It says the logo had a cornucopia. Frank Wess album cover (inspired by the Fruit of the Loom logo): From South Park S16 E6 – I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining: All official responses from the company itself say that there was never a cornucopia in the logo: But how can so many people remember something that never existed? Did they see it in a different reality‚ where the logo had a cornucopia? Or did someone erase the cornucopia from their minds‚ and if so‚ why? One possible explanation is that these people are experiencing memories from alternate realities‚ where things happened differently than in our reality. Another possibility is that they are victims of psyops‚ or psychological operations‚ where someone deliberately manipulates their memories to achieve a certain goal. There are many theories and speculations about this mystery‚ but no definitive answers. Some people think that the cornucopia represents abundance and prosperity‚ and that someone removed it to make people feel less satisfied with their lives. Others think that the cornucopia is a symbol of ancient pagan religions‚ and that someone removed it to promote Christianity. And some others think that the cornucopia is just a random detail that people imagined or confused with something else. Whatever the case may be‚ the Fruit of the Loom logo is one of the most intriguing examples of the Mandela Effect‚ and it raises many questions about the nature of reality and memory. Is there more than one reality‚ and can we access them? Or are we living in a simulation‚ where someone can change things at will? Or are we just prone to errors and illusions‚ and need to be more careful with what we believe? What about you‚ do you remember the cornucopia on the Fruit of the Loom logo? The post Mystery of the Missing Cornucopia: A Mandela Effect Case Study appeared first on Anomalien.com.