Year of the Tiger and Chopsticks

Xīn nián kuài lè! A very happy and prosperous Lunar New Year to everyone who’s celebrating! 

This year, I didn’t find any nice CNY videos that I really liked to feature – and so I have a video about chopsticks instead. 

It’s not just about a pair of equal-length tapered sticks used for eating Asian food. Chopsticks play an important role in Chinese food culture – and this clip is really insightful:

 

There’s a lot of symbolism and meaning behind the chopsticks. 

FYI, the front end of the chopstick which picks up food is round while the rear end is square. The round front represents the heavens and the square end, land. It's a reminder that food is a blessing from heaven. The square back end represents paddy fields (land). 

Chopsticks are 7.6 inches long. Seven represent the 7 human emotions of happiness, anger, love, desire, sadness, pain, and worry. Six represent our 6 senses of taste, smell, vision, hearing, touch and proprioception. 

Chopsticks come in pairs representing balance/harmony of yin and yang. When in use, one stick is stationary (yin) while the second stick moves (yang) in a pinching movement. 

The five fingers of the hand represent the five elements that make up the world – metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The three fingers that operate the chopsticks represent the harmony of heaven, earth and humans. 

Hǔ hǔ shēng wēi! Wishing you fullness of the vigor and vitality of the tiger! (虎虎生威)

Monkey Island: Home of the Liberian Lab Chimps

I came across this Claudia Dehn piece in Deutsche Welle (or DW) yesterday about a clique of laboratory test chimps in Liberia that had survived medical experiments and two civil wars. 

Infected with contagious diseases, they now live on six islands off the coast and depend on humans for their survival. 

In 1974, researchers from the US non-profit blood bank, the New York Blood Center opened an experimental laboratory on the west coast of Liberia. Working with the Liberia Biomedical Research Institute, they trapped wild chimpanzees and used them to conduct research and drug trials. The animals were kept outside the capital, Monrovia, confined in cages like this at the Vilab II research facility.

Researchers infected them with various diseases, such as hepatitis B and river blindness, an eye sickness caused by a parasite, so they could study the effectiveness of different treatments. 

The total population was 85 chimpanzees. However, work at the research laboratory was severely disrupted during the two Liberian civil wars in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, the facility was closed for good and the apes were gradually relocated to six uninhabited islands in the Farmington River estuary. 

Today, animal rights activists go out regularly by boat to ensure the animals are fed. Staff from the Humane Society regularly bring buckets of fruit and drinkable water – both are scarce on the islands. 

Although they had pledged to pay for the chimps' care for the rest of their lives, the NYBC cut this funding in 2015. After an outcry, it gave another $6 million (€5.3 million) in 2017 – not nearly enough, said the Humane Society. 

On average, chimps can live some 30 to 40 years. 

The colony currently numbers around 65 apes, including babies. They often react aggressively when people approach their island. Strangers to the animals may be splashed with water or screamed at. The alpha chimps keep a close eye on everything. Releasing the apes elsewhere would be too risky, especially for other animals, because they still carry infectious diseases. 

As chimpanzees are not naturally able to swim, they never venture very far into the water. The volunteers bringing the food wear protective clothing and maintain a safe distance. Only a few of the animal welfare workers have established a close bond with the apes over the years. Once the chimps have gotten hold of their fruit, things are a bit more relaxed. 

The research conducted by NYBC on the chimpanzees led to successes: It contributed to the development of a hepatitis B vaccine, and a diagnostic procedure for hepatitis C. 

But in an interview in 2014, Betsy Brotman, the researcher who was in charge of the lab until 2005, said: "The animal rights activists were right. Chimpanzees really shouldn’t be used in experiments. I really do feel this way".

Holy Cow!

In India’s Uttar Pradesh, believe it or not, cow attacks are becoming increasingly common. That’s because of a ban on cow slaughter which has led to a huge rise in the cattle population.

Hindus consider the cow holy, but until recently many farmers took their old cows to slaughterhouses. 

"We used to sell our cows once they stopped giving milk or were no longer fit for ploughing fields. That was our back-up plan for hard times", says one paddy farmer. 

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party-led government have cracked down heavily on cow slaughter in keeping with their right-wing Hindu agenda – the practice is now illegal in 18 states, including Uttar Pradesh. 

In UP, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a hardline BJP leader himself, shut down allegedly illegal slaughterhouses after coming to power in 2017 – even though this is a huge business in his state, which is a major exporter of buffalo meat. 

Cattle traders, many of them Muslims or Dalits (formerly untouchables, who are at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy), have even been attacked and killed by vigilantes often linked to the BJP or local right-wing groups. 

Cow vigilante violence which is the use of physical force in the name of "cow protection" is on the increase. Since 2014, mob attacks targeting mostly illegal cow smugglers, but in some cases even licensed cow traders, have become prominent. 

The cow vigilante groups see themselves as preventing theft, protecting the cow or upholding the law in an Indian state which bans cow slaughter. 

According to data analytics site India Spend, 45 people were killed in 120 cases of cow-related violence reported across India between 2012 and 2018. The highest number of violent incidents were recorded in the state of Uttar Pradesh, with 19 verified incidents of cow-related violence resulting in 11 deaths. 

These days, farmers simply abandon old and unproductive cows. 

These homeless cattle are often seen roaming the villages and towns in UP, where farmers and locals say they turn hungry and aggressive. These vagrant cows destroy crops, create massive traffic, cause road accidents, spawn public health and hygiene issues and even injure or kill people. 

And nobody can do anything about it. 

The governing BJP's state spokesperson, Sameer Singh even came out to say: "These should not be called stray cows as the animal itself is part of the Hindu culture. We never leave our elders to die when they grow old, how can we leave our cows to die on the roads?" 

The cows are meant to be housed in cow shelters ("gaushalas") – in fact, the UP government have allocated millions of rupees to construct more shelters. They also imposed a special alcohol tax to maintain thousands of state-run cow shelters. 

But this hasn't solved the problem because the stray cow population vastly outnumber the number of shelters built to house them. Holy cow!

Insofar as cow vigilante violence is concerned, more than half the victims of lynchings over alleged cow slaughter have been Muslims. Hindutva groups use the cow as a tool to demarcate territories of fear and intimidation. The politics of communalism never hesitates to put symbols it holds sacred to utilitarian use. In any supremacist project, majoritarian pride is incomplete without its obverse (and perverse) side: prejudice and paranoia against minorities. The diktat is clear – minorities have to lose their identity or perish. 

As Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, author of "Looking for the Nation: Towards Another Idea of India" in an Al Jazeera piece published January 03, 2019 wrote: “Hindu nationalism seeks to make the minority feel minor. Hindutva’s cunning rhetoric pits a rigid idea of national unity against disunity, rather than accept legitimate (and competing) political and cultural difference”.

Cows seem to be a more pressing matter than humans. A police officer in Uttar Pradesh was killed on December 03, 2018, while investigating an incident of alleged cow slaughter, as the local government continued to focus on preventing the killing of cows. 

And until a few months back, states like Haryana had 16 members in its "Gau Seva Ayog", or cow service committee, while the state human rights commission had none.

Spider-Man: Work From Home

Spider-Man's movies have been generally very well-received – and they have collectively grossed over $6.3 billion at the global box office. Their latest two releases, "Far From Home" (2019) became the first Spidey film to gross over $1 billion worldwide and "No Way Home" (2021) is the biggest movie since "Avengers: Endgame".

"Spider-Man: Far From Home" earned $1,131,927,996, making it the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie at the time. And much of its success can be attributed to the fever-pitch hype of Avengers: Endgame, which had just concluded the Infinity War arc of the MCU storyline.

And "Spider-Man: No Way Home" has eclipsed every other entry in the franchise. It has already brought in an eye-watering $1.7 billion as at Friday. This latest entry is all the more remarkable, especially in wake of the 2021 MCU line-up, which saw every single film either flop or fall short of expectations.

In its North American home market, it is the fourth-highest grossing domestic release of all time. After this weekend, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is predicted to rack up more greenbacks to give it a total of around $734 million. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million) and “Avengers: Endgame” ($858 million) are probably out of reach at this point, though the bronze standing of “Avatar” ($760 million) is well within Spidey’s sights. We will know soon enough.

And, if you somehow didn’t know by this point, the monster MCU hit brings all of the Spider-Man stars on screen together! Tom Holland as well as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

But with Covid still spreading throughout the world, it would seem that even Spider-Man has not been spared. Like everybody else, he has been homebound for quite a long while! 

Now that the world is surely opening up, check out our web swinging superhero as he emerges from a prolonged Covid lockdown!

Watergate Bridge Secures Good Pre-sales

According to Chinese ticketing platform Beacon under Ali Pictures, the pre-sale of "The Battle at Lake Changjin 2: Watergate Bridge” has reached 119 million yuan ($18.83 million) as of Thursday. 

Methinks, it would be very challenging for the sequel to overtake "The Battle at Lake Changjin”.

I just read that the initial cut of "Changjin Lake" lasts about 6 hours, of which "Changjin Lake" is only the first half, and the second half which is "Watergate Bridge" is the real highlight. 

This fact alone should engender excitement amongst Chinese movie goers!

In a Scottish Premiership match yesterday, Celtic narrowed the gap on leaders Rangers to two points when the former beat Dundee United 1-0. 

In fact, the hardy and stubborn United back three stood firm the entirety of regulation time. As did their frankly unbelievable goalie who made save after save to keep his side level. 

Until Liel Abada fired home from close range as the game entered added time – his 12th goal of the season – to send Celtic Park into a mix of relief and rapturous applause. 

And Rangers' earlier 3-3 draw away to Ross County handed Ange Postecoglou's side the opportunity to pile on pressure before Wednesday's Old Firm derby.

Celtic can overtake their rivals at the top with a win!

Minnie Mouse to Ditch Dress for Pants

After almost a century of wearing polka dot dress, Disney sweetheart Minnie Mouse will be trading it for a pair of pants. 

Designed by Stella McCartney, Minnie's new look will be unveiled in March to commemorate two different events: The 30th anniversary of Disneyland Paris and Women’s History Month. 

A sneak peek of Minnie’s outfit, which consists of a dark blue and black polka-dotted pantsuit and matching bow in her hair, was shared by the park’s Twitter account. 

“Stella McCartney has designed Minnie Mouse’s very first pantsuit, and it’s gorgeous”, the account wrote. 

Speaking to D23, the official Disney fan club, about the collaboration, Stella (right), who is the daughter of Beatles legend Paul McCartney, expressed her delight at the opportunity. 

“Minnie has always had a special place in my heart”, Stella said in a press video shared with CNN. “We share the same values. What I love about Minnie is the fact that she embodies happiness, self-expression, authenticity, and that she inspires people of all ages around the world. Plus, she has such great style!” 

Minnie ditching her famed red dress comes on the heels of news that the Green M&M has traded her white go-go boots for comfortable sneakers. [Read my post "Women Are Free If They Wear Sensible Shoes" dated January 27, 2022].

Right-wing pundit Candace Owens joined the Fox News war on cartoon characters by attacking Mickey Mouse’s longtime sweetheart on Wednesday. 

"They're making her more masculine", Owens griped on "Jesse Watters Primetime" adding that Minnie Mouse in pants is an attempt to "destroy fabrics of our society". 

McCartney declined to comment on Owens' remarks.

Netizens, however, have pointed out that this is not Minnie's first time foregoing her dress. In 2019, Disney Cruise Line debuted Captain Minnie in a red and white maritime uniform with pants – both as an inspirational outfit for young girls and, presumably, a practical one to be out at sea. 

Besides, pantsuits are a staple in female leaders' wardrobes, with politicians including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Vice President Kamala Harris each having their own recognizable take on the style. 

And what do I think of Minnie's new outfit?

It's drab and it's ugly.

Unilever Come Under Fire

UK multinational consumer goods giant, Unilever are said to be really “obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials”. 

Sure, they possess a laudable ambition. After all, you can expect to earn more money and boost your bottom line when you make your business more sustainable. Reduced business costs, more innovative strategies, an improved reputation, and more new customers who value sustainability all work to increase the amount of money sustainable businesses earn. 

But that is only one part of the business equation. 

Like all business entities, other factors will be scrutinized – whether it is profitability, earnings growth, market share, liquidity, value creation and the other performance indicators that business practitioners are familiar with. 

Unilever’s issue is their lacklustre performance which has become a tad too obvious – it appears they haven’t done well enough in squeezing growth out of their existing $120 billion collection of brands! 

On Tuesday, the maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream revealed their intention to cull 15% of their senior managerial positions to speed decision-making and boost performance. 

Alan Jope (right) is making his biggest job cuts since becoming chief executive officer three years ago, eliminating about 1,500 positions as Unilever also reduce junior-management staff by 5%. 

And a major revamp of the consumer goods company is also underway. 

Their beauty and personal-care arm, which have been growing at the slowest pace of Unilever’s three major divisions, are being broken up into two under the new organization. 

They plan to separate their Foods and Refreshments business into two separate entities that will bring more transparency to the performance of their ice-cream operations, which includes brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike and Magnum. 

Additionally, Jope is seeking to reorganize the foods business around healthier habits, aiming to build a portfolio of plant-based meat and dairy alternative brands that will generate 1 billion euros worth of revenue by 2025. He has already expanded into the fast-growing vitamins, minerals and supplements space with the acquisition of Olly Nutrition in 2019. 

Of course, Jope is betting all of the above will produce the desired results. 

In any case, he knows only too well that he is at a critical juncture, coming under increasing pressure to chart a new course as the company’s share price lags rivals. Equally important, there is an urgent need to ease shareholders' concerns after a failed takeover bid. 

Unilever, whose shares have fallen about 13% over the past year, last week effectively abandoned plans to buy GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health care business for $67 billion. 

Their proposal, rejected by GSK, was widely criticized by investors as being a costly and risky distraction from dealing with pressing challenges to the business, such as surging inflation in emerging markets and weakness in healthy foods. 

The prevailing sentiment is that the purpose of all this strategic rethink and organizational overhaul is very clear: damage limitation. 

Still, no matter the direction that Unilever take, one thing stays concretised: The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. They will continue to advocate and promote the sustainability ethos of their brands. 

But what is it about a Unilever product that makes it so sustainable? Can a consumer goods giant which are active in 190 countries, have a portfolio of more than 400+ brands and annual sales worth $57.942 billion in 2020, really save the planet – and sell more products at the same time? 

It cannot be denied that Unilever’s sustainability strategy has been widely applauded. Admittedly, they do put more effort into saving the planet than many other companies – but don’t be so easily fooled by their rhetoric. 

They score well because they alone determine what constitutes ‘sustainability’! If you delve deeper into their practices, you’ll soon realize that the sustainability thingy is merely a business tool to boost their image, save money and create marketing opportunities. 

In fact, according to Ethical Consumer, their research highlights ethical issues concerning Unilever – and these include environmental reporting, habitats and resources, palm oil, pollution and toxics, human rights, workers' rights, supply chain management, irresponsible marketing, animal rights, animal testing, factory farming, anti-social finance, controversial technologies and political activities (Webpage https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/unilever). 

On top of that, there are naysayers who are kicking up a fuss that Unilever focus too much on environmental and social strategies and not enough on their core businesses.

At the end of the day, unless Unilever’s performance indicators can show an upward trend, the game-changing USLP won’t mean much at all to their investors and/or other stakeholders.

Covid Europe Starts to Reopen

We’re still seeing record Covid infection numbers – nonetheless, some European countries are determined to reopen. 

The Netherlands has lifted its toughest Covid controls, Denmark is to remove all restrictions within days and France will begin easing curbs next week. I’m sure other countries will soon follow suit. 

Also on Thursday, England has dropped ‘plan B’ restrictions. Meaning, compulsory use of face masks, vaccine certificates and work from home guidance all ended. 

Health Secretary Sajid Javid (left) said the success of the vaccine program, coupled with a better understanding of treatment for the virus, is “allowing us to cautiously return to plan A, restoring more freedoms to this country”. 

The moves come as data shows hospital and intensive care admissions are not surging in line with cases, and after the World Health Organization suggested the Omicron variant – which studies show is more contagious but usually less severe for vaccinated people – may signal a new, more manageable phase in the pandemic. 

As WHO’s Europe director, Hans Kluge (right) said on Sunday, it was “plausible” the region was “moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame” and that Omicron could have infected 60% of the continent’s inhabitants by March. 

Once the current surge is over, immunity through infection or vaccination should last “quite some weeks and months”, Kluge told Agence-France Presse, adding that Covid may come back at the end of the year but not necessarily as a pandemic. 

He cautioned, however, that it was still too early to consider Covid endemic.

“There is a lot of talk about endemic but endemic means it is possible to predict what’s going to happen. This virus has surprised us more than once”, he said, adding that other variants could still emerge.

Outside of Europe, the Covid situation is not any better. Even in Malaysia, we are still stuck in a vexing predicament. 

Yesterday, MOH reported 5,439 cases, up from the 4,744 cases the day before. The last time infections breached the 5,000-mark was on December 10, when 5,058 cases were recorded. 

But Health D-G Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (right) consoled Malaysians when he revealed that of the new infections, only 0.9% were Categories 3, 4 and 5 cases at the time of diagnosis.

Notwithstanding this, the fact remains that our caseload continues to stay in four digits and we haven't budged in a long while!

What, me worry? I'm already Covid-tolerant.

Diamond Pre-Order Sales in the First 2 Weeks

It’s been exactly fourteen days since we started pre-order sales for “The Diamond in Your Speech” – my post published January 14 refers. 

Doing sales is not for the faint-hearted. Still, we are aware that the success of any sales efforts often come down to patience, persistence and positivity. 

And we know too that a personal touch is just as important. After all, sales, at its core, is about the relationships we build. 

We are pleased to know that we've already amassed 56 pre-orders todate. Now, we're going for 44 more orders in the next 2 weeks to give us a tally of one hundred copies! Make us happy, folks!

For those of you who have yet to do so, please pre-order through the web link: https://bit.ly/3r9BNd4

523 Acres of California Forestland Returned to Indegenous Tribes

Native tribes in California, USA have regained ownership of 523 acres of redwood forestland they were forcibly removed from centuries ago. 

Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit, said the property is now owned by the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of 10 federally recognized Northern California Tribal Nations with cultural connections to the lands and waters of traditional Sinkyone and neighboring tribal territories. 

Formerly known as Andersonia West, the forest in Mendocino County will return to its original name: Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ. 

The name translates to "Fish Run Place" in the Sinkyone language.

"Renaming the property Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ lets people know that it's a sacred place; it's a place for our Native people", said Crista Ray (right), a board member of the Sinkyone Council on Tuesday. 

"It lets them know that there was a language and that there were a people who lived there long before now". 

A habitat corridor critical to many endangered species and home to towering old-growth redwoods, Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ now adds to about 180,000 acres of protected lands along the Sinkyone coast. 

This is the second time Save the Redwoods League have entered into a conservation agreement with the Sinkyone tribes. In 2012, they donated 164 acres of redwood – just north of Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ – to them. 

"We believe the best way to permanently protect and heal this land is through tribal stewardship", said the League's president and CEO Sam Hodder. 

"In this process, we have an opportunity to restore balance in the ecosystem and in the communities connected to it, while also accelerating the pace and scale of conserving California's iconic redwood forests". 

The Council and League plan to apply "a blend of Indigenous place-based land guardianship principles, conservation science, climate adaptation and fire resiliency concepts and approaches" to the newly tribal land. 

The League bought the land in July 2020 for $3.55 million through a conservation program set up by the Pacific Gas & Electricity utility company, one of the state's largest private landowners. 

Methinks, we should return ownership of all forestlands to indigenous people everywhere. I trust them to better care and protect these lands than governments can.

Women Are Free If They Wear Sensible Shoes

I read this Guardian article yesterday written by columnist Arwa Mahdawi who's saying she’s glad that the Green M&M mascot has ditched the white go-go boots for trainers. In case you don’t know, what I’m talking about, read my post “M&Ms' Characters Get a New Look” published five days ago. 

She intimates that she “recognised something profound: women would only be free when multinationals allowed anthropomorphised chocolate to wear sensible shoes”! 

Ah, don't get your panties in a bunch, Arwa! Besides, shouldn’t it be a matter of choice? And by the way, please don't assume that you "speak for every woman on Earth"! 

Fox News don’t seem to be quite so enthusiastic about the fact that chocolate characters that nobody with more than one brain cell gives a damn about are updating their footwear. They have this to say: “M&Ms will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous”. 

Not surprisingly, Arwa makes sure she has the last word – she has asserted that she’s not going to rest until Tony the Tiger comes out as non-binary! 

Oh me, oh my! 

In yesterday’s match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian, the former came away with a 2-0 win and ensured the gap at the Scottish Premiership summit remained at four points. 

Reo Hatate's ferocious long-range drive in the twenty-seventh minute gave Celtic their first goal and then just eight minutes later, the Glaswegian side add their second when the impressive Matt O'Riley's low cross from the right found Giorgos Giakoumakis, who guided in a delightful backheel flick. 

Hearts managed to pull a goal back in the sixty-second minute – still, Celtic finished the game with three points.

Perceived Corruption Worsens in Malaysia

The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released yesterday by Transparency International shows that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years. 

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). 

The CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the tenth year in a row, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. 

And Malaysia garnered 48 points, the first time the country’s score dropped below 50 since 2012. Undoubtedly, perceived corruption in Malaysia has worsened – and we are placed 62nd in 2021, or five rungs lower than the previous year. 

FYI, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are top of the index with 88 points each as “clean countries”, while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan are at the bottom of the index, with 13, 13 and 11 points respectively.

Covid is hurting education.

The scale of the number of children who have lost out on their schooling during the pandemic is “nearly insurmountable”, according to UN data released on Monday. 

Globally, disruption to education has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on the academic learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom. 

Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggested. 

Classroom closures continue to affect more than 616 million children globally, with younger and more marginalised children facing the greatest loss in learning after almost two years of Covid, according to children’s agency UNICEF, which called for intensive support to help students recover. 

Across the world, from Ethiopia and South Africa to Brazil and the US, children have lost basic literacy and numeracy skills and their mental and physical health has suffered. It is a worrying situation.

Listening to Music for 11 Minutes

To many people, music is an important part of their health and wellbeing – a musical supplement if you like. These ‘sonic vitamins’ play just as important a role as a morning coffee or glass of wine in the evening. 

According to Mona Lisa Chanda and Daniel Levitin, music does affect our neurochemical systems for reward and pleasure, stress and arousal, immunity, and social affiliation [“The Neurochemistry of Music”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2013), V.17(4), pp 179-193]. 

Already many studies have been conducted to help us understand how and why music affects mind body and emotions over the years but there is a significant gap in research that explores how we use music to help us process every-day emotions, self-regulate and even self-medicate. 

You must have heard too, of the famous line from a play by 17th century writer William Congreve, “Music has charms to soothe the savage breast” – but the line doesn’t say how long it takes. 

And so, researchers at the British Academy of Sound Therapy surveyed 7,581 people to learn about their relationship with music. 

It’s interesting to know that 89% of participants agreed to music being important for their health and wellbeing; 90.15% used music to relax; 28.15% to manage anger; 81.80% to make them happy; 32.53% to aid concentration and 46.5% to process and/or release sadness. 

They determined that the most common amount of time it takes for people to receive the therapeutic benefit from self-selected music preferences is 11 minutes. This is true across 3 of the four domains of relaxation (i.e. anger, happiness, concentration and sadness). 

The only exception is the domain of happiness where the most common length of time for people to become happier after listening to their chosen music is reduced to just 5 minutes, suggesting that happy music takes less time to take effect than other music. 

More studies would need to be undertaken to establish a ‘before’ and ‘after’ mood-state to support these findings – but I agree with Ray Charles that “music is powerful. As people listen to it, they can be affected. They respond”.

Booster Shots a Hobson's Choice

With Covid cases still soaring, many countries have expanded their vaccine booster programs or shortened the gap between shots as governments scramble to shore up protection. 

Two countries are already going for a fourth Covid booster shot – Israel and Chile – and this has prompted some scientists to caution that the plan could backfire, because too many shots might cause a sort of immune system fatigue, compromising the body’s ability to fight the coronavirus. 

The New York Times had even reported that people with compromised immune systems are getting unapproved fourth or fifth Covid-19 shots, despite uncertainty about their safety or effectiveness. 

There’s another reason why some people want boosters. They wish to avoid even the mildest of Covid-19 symptoms: They’re worried about developing long Covid – it can persist for weeks or even months after the acute disease phase. 

The symptoms include shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction ("brain fog"), as well as fatigue. Those are the three most common. 

However, there has been more than 200 symptoms that actually have been reported in patients such as chest pain or tightness, difficulty sleeping (insomnia), heart palpitations, dizziness, pins and needles, joint pain, depression and anxiety, tinnitus and earaches, feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite, a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste.

Note: Pardon the English. Malaysians' English is not what it once was! 

It has been claimed that you can get long Covid from even a mild infection – and in that regard, even Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute thinks booster shots may be justifiable. 

Anyway, Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Albert Bourla (left) had come out on Saturday to say that an annual Covid-19 vaccine would be preferable to more frequent booster shots in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Once a year – it is easier to convince people to do it. It is easier for people to remember. So, from a public health perspective, it is an ideal situation”, he added. 

If we agree on the above, then booster shots are a Hobson's choice.

Sandwich Shoes

A picture of sandwich-inspired shoes has sent the Internet into a frenzy and people absolutely go mad. 

There are those who are saying they're the must-have fashion accessory of 2022 – but for sure, not everyone is a fan! 

The 'Deli Sandwich Platform Sneakers' are made to look like a sandwich, with a beige bun area and 3D vegan leather salami, lettuce, cheese, and onion filling. 

It’s fair to say that not everyone is convinced by the £85 shoes from alternative clothing store Dolls Kill – and moreover, they'll probably admit that they don't go with most of your clothes as well. 

After being posted onto their Instagram page, Dolls Kill’s 3.8 million followers had something to say about the shoes. 

One person admitted: “I work at Subway and I’d so wear these to work”. 

Another added: “I’ll wear them, I’m different, you only have one life to live”. 

Of course, not everyone liked them, as some were in disbelief at the unusual pair of trainers – and proffered disparaging remarks. 

One person commented: “Hell no”. 

A second user added: “Get those out my face”. 

While a third user slammed: “Nasty". 

I suppose with these shoes, you'll either love them or hate them!

Malaysia’s High Court have ordered former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (right) to enter his defence over 47 counts of money laundering, bribery and criminal breach of trust involving a foundation he had set up. 

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled on Monday that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Zahid over misappropriation of funds totalling RM124.31 million from Yayasan Akalbudi, a foundation meant to eradicate poverty. 

Zahid is facing 27 money-laundering charges, eight for bribery and 12 for CBT related to the funds in a trial that began in November 2019 and has involved 99 prosecution witnesses so far. 

The former home minister and deputy prime minister, who is MP for Bagan Datuk in Perak, is also involved in a separate trial where he faces more than 40 counts of corruption in connection with the foreign visa system.

Peranakan Culture: Paintings by Tan Gaik Hoon

Here’s a short video on “Peranakan Culture: Paintings by Tan Gaik Hoon” sent to me on Sunday.

I had featured many of her super lovely paintings in my blog in 2021 – 3 posts had been dedicated exclusively to her, in fact – and this clip captures a little of the Tan Gaik Hoon magic!

 

This cartoon is telling!

And it so happens that whilst I was surfing the Net, I had stumbled upon a Newsweek piece dated January 25, 2016 that tells me that Facebook has turned the word "friend" into a verb. 

Noted – so, here’s a question. Just because you've friended someone on Facebook, does that make them your friend in real life? 

Not according to Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, who conducted research into how Facebook friendship correlates with real-life friendship. Of the 150 Facebook friends the average user has, Dunbar found that only 15 could be counted as actual friends and only five as close friends. 

"There is a cognitive constraint on the size of social networks that even the communication advantages of online media are unable to overcome", the study found. 

"In practical terms, it may reflect the fact that real (as opposed to casual) relationships require at least occasional face-to-face interaction to maintain them". 

Rather than increasing people's social circles, Dunbar suggests Facebook and other social media may function to prevent friendships "decaying" over time. 

"Friendships, in particular, have a natural decay rate in the absence of contact, and social media may well function to slow down the rate of decay", Dunbar wrote. "However, that alone may not be sufficient to prevent friendships eventually dying naturally if they are not occasionally reinforced by face-to-face interaction". Indeed, I find this so true.

In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.

Robot Vacuum Cleaner Flees From UK Hotel

A robot vacuum cleaner made a break for freedom after giving staff the slip at a Travelodge hotel in the UK. 

The automated cleaner seemingly failed to stop at the front door of the hotel in Orchard Park in Cambridge on Thursday. I guess it must have had enough of cleaning the lobby and made its bid for freedom. 

Staff at the hotel posted the story of the robot vacuum's great escape on social media, asking for it to be returned, if found. 

"Today we had one of our new robot vacuums run for its life", Phil Rodgers, the assistant manager wrote. "They normally sense the lip at the entrance [to the hotel] and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it". 

Its disappearance was not noticed for about 15 minutes and despite a search, it appeared the vacuum had made a clean break for it. 

While some readers joked about the robot's adventures, one feared for its safety in the great outdoors, pointing out that "nature abhors a vacuum". 

Other netizens expressed hope that the vacuum enjoyed its travels, as "it has no natural predators" in the wild.

However, much to everyone's relief, the device was found nestled under a hedge the following day by a (human) hotel cleaner sprucing up the front drive. 

It was dusted off and "is now back sitting happily on a shelf with the rest of its robot vacuum family", the hotel confirmed.

Liverpool picked up a vital three points with a hard fought 3-1 win against Crystal Palace yesterday. 

The Reds were in imperious form early on as they stormed into a two-goal lead through a Virgil van Dijk header in the eighth minute and a quick team sequence starting in midfield was fluidly passed from the right wing to the left, and Andrew Robertson crossed it over towards goal where an unmarked Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain received it, controlled it wonderfully and swung it into the net with his left foot in the thirty-second minute. 

Undaunted, the Eagles pressed on and should have pulled a goal back before half time only to be thwarted by Alisson Becker twice. 

Odsonne Edouard – he had played for Celtic (2018–2021) – halved the deficit in the 55th minute but Fabinho's penalty in the eighty-eighth minute ensured Liverpool’s victory in this Premier League game and quashed the other side’s revival.

 

In truth, after the first forty minutes or so, Liverpool were second best and had Alisson to thank time and time again for preventing Crystal Palace from scoring further goals. 

Liverpool now trail Manchester City by nine points with a game in hand.