Brands find new take on used clothes in Japan

A new fashion trend coming out of Japan? Used fashion and a used car?

(157) Brands find new take on used clothesーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS - YouTube

Exploring the medieval roots of romance

How romantic were the knights in shining armor?

How often are such stories provided before or on Valentines Day?

Exploring the medieval roots of romance | Stanford Report "Stanford historian Jenna Phillips discusses the influence of medieval customs on Valentine’s Day traditions, highlighting how 12th- and 13th-century poets and musicians shaped our modern understanding of love."

Fiction or reality?

Very bad German habits exposed at the international airport of Frankfurt (FRA)!

I just happened to come through my hometown airport on a very recent trip to Germany!

This kind of German arrogance stinks to heaven. It reminds of  Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen [It surprises me that there is no English language Wikipedia article on this subject])! Google translation: "The world should/shall heal from the German essence"

As a German I was deeply appalled by this! It reminded me why I emigrated from Germany to the US many years ago.

The Smoking Lounge of the terminal reminds passengers that smoking is deadly! I have never been a smoker myself, but some of my friends are.

All passengers (domestic and foreign) are reminded to follow the profoundly German obsession with pervasive garbage separation/sorting (Trennmüll). All garbage receptacles at the airport look like that. I deliberately ignored it! Notice they forgot to translate "Abfall"! What an oversight since this trash can definitely does not look very familiar!

Pac-Man's 45-year cultural legacy

As a teenager I found these video games too boring!

What’s it like to grow up in Reykjavík, Iceland?

Recommendable!

Adorable 😍... PM Modi’s bond with his cows as he feeds them on Sankranti

Holy cow!

How "Exotic" Fruits & Vegetables Took Over India's Plates with Palki Sharma

Recommendable! How prosperity and openness to the world changes the diet of Indians.

Listen to these traditional Māori flutes | The Magical Flute: Beauty, Enchantment, and Power

Enjoy!

At least 41 young men in South Africa have died in recent coming-of-age circumcision rites

Just a reminder: Not only females suffer from genital mutilation!

"At least 41 young men in South Africa have died in recent coming-of-age circumcision rites, prompting government officials to call for more accountability measures for traditional schools that hold the ceremonies."

Global Health NOW: Understanding America’s Mounting Malnutrition Rates; and Navigating Zimbabwe’s Deadly Roads

Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual practices dating back about 9,500 years ago

Amazing stuff!

"About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in what is now northern Malawi, according to a new study ... It is the first time this behavior has been documented in African hunter gatherers. 

The study ... provides the earliest evidence of intentional cremation in Africa and describes the world’s oldest known in situ cremation pyre containing the remains of an adult.

While burned human remains have been found (at Lake Mungo, Australia) dating back as far as 40,000 years, cremation pyres — intentionally built structures of combustible fuel — do not appear in the archaeological record until nearly 30,000 years later. ...

"Cremation is very rare among ancient and modern hunter-gatherers, at least partially because pyres require a huge amount of labor, time, and fuel to transform a body into fragmented and calcined bone and ash," ..."

From the abstract:

"Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures.

We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers.

A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to ~9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation.

Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles.

High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments."

Recent discovery reveals Africa's oldest cremation pyre and complex ritual practices

Ancient cremation pyre offers glimpse of tropical hunter gatherers’ mortuary practices "A new study ... provides evidence of the earliest intentional cremation in ancient Africa."

Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in Africa (open access)

Sediment block with striped ash layers

Fig. 1 HOR-1 site in context.

Fig. 4. Bone modifications made with stone tools.

Fig. 5. Reconstruction of the cremation ritual.

Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve

So true! Who would argue with that? However, crude, primitive Marxism ideology has spoiled this research!

I am not sure I agree with the strong inductive biases of this study that asserts a rather static bifurcation in society between rich and poor. The term "vulnerable communities" is a give away!

Why should not e.g. less affluent individuals without social safety nets take more risk to advance their living standards etc.? The more open and free a society is the more opportunities for e.g. less affluent individuals.

"... a model for how a person’s resources and environment incentivize learning strategies that influence their personal proclivity toward risk. The model, published in Psychological Review, makes predictions that mirror many aspects of modern society, such as how wealth inequality leads vulnerable communities to rely on traditions to manage risk more [???] so than wealthier communities, which can make them slow to adapt when conditions change. This can help explain political polarization and why cautious attitudes persist for generations following shocks like recessions and wars.

“We’re basically linking short time scales — within a person’s lifetime — and generational time scales to gain an overall view of why people vary in their disposition toward risk,” ..."

From the abstract:

"We use cultural evolutionary models to examine how individual experiences and culturally inherited information jointly shape risk-taking behavior under environmental uncertainty.
We find that learning processes not only generate considerable variation in risk beliefs and behaviors, but also that conservative learning strategies—emphasizing the preservation of generational knowledge—excel in high-risk settings, promoting risk avoidance and long-term survival but limiting growth when conditions improve.

In contrast, exploratory learning strategies—leveraging juvenile exploration and peer influence—foster risk tolerant behaviors that thrive in affluent, low-risk settings where wealth buffers [???] and social safety nets [???] reduce the costs of miscalculations.

Introducing economic stratification to the model reveals how wealth disparities and interclass interactions reinforce these patterns, exacerbating differences in learning strategies and risk-taking behaviors within populations, and perpetuating socioeconomic inequalities [???] through the cultural inertia of excessive risk avoidance.
By uniting developmental, social, and evolutionary perspectives, our framework provides a novel lens on the cultural evolution of risk-taking behavior and its broader societal implications. ..."

Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve | Santa Fe Institute

The development of risk behaviors and their cultural transmission. (no public access)

Chart of the day

Good news! The population of India is fast becoming an affluent society in particular in rural areas. Just 50-30 years ago India was still so poverty stricken.

Source

 

Why Indian Cities Are Cracking Down on Pigeon Feeding with Palki Sharma

Food for thought! Pardon my pun! This video does not even mention that urban areas are facing bird overpopulation issues due to lack of predators.

I would also argue that e.g. there is a bird overpopulation issue going on here in Phoenix metro, Arizona.

Why does India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi always travel to foreign countries without his wife?

I was wondering! In some sense I would compare Narendra Modi with Mahatma Gandhi (e.g. he too was married when he was a teenager, only 14 years old).

Arranged marriages as teenagers: Something to be reconsidered or to be reformed in India if it is still practiced!

Google answered: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels alone because he and his wife, Jashodaben Modi, have been estranged and living separately for decades. The marriage, arranged by their families when they were teenagers, was never a traditional living arrangement, and Modi left shortly after to pursue his personal path and political work. 

Key reasons why Jashodaben does not accompany him on foreign trips:

Long-standing separation The couple separated around 1971, only spending a total of about three months together in a three-year period, and have not lived together since.

Personal choice and political image Modi has cultivated an image of being an incorruptible leader who is detached from family demands and dedicated entirely to the nation, often stating that "the country is his family". This persona is a significant part of his public image.

Life choices Modi's involvement with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization that values celibacy among its senior leadership, influenced his decision to leave his family life behind.

No formal role Jashodaben is a retired school teacher who lives a private life in Gujarat with her brother. She does not participate in official engagements as the Prime Minister's spouse, although she has stated that she would join him if he were to call her. 

Modi only publicly acknowledged his married status for the first time in an election affidavit in 2014, a legal requirement to run for office. This formal admission made their long estrangement a subject of public discussion, but they maintain separate lives."

The guy has a long index finger! 😊 (Source)

Nigeria’s Afro Hair Festival celebrates culture and creativity

Nigerian women a major consumers of whigs and extensions! 😊

Seema Anand: Rewriting India’s conversation on sex and intimacy

Recommendable! She is an expert on Kamasutra and is an acknowledged authority on Eastern Erotology. She does not seem to have a Wikipedia page. I think, the interviewer was not too great!

With flags and fireworks, Syrians celebrate one year since fall of al-Assad

Good news! It appears to be a great celebration by the people! The Assad dictatorship was ruling the country since 1971! The son was apparently a monster compared to his father.

Immer mehr junge Leute fangen eine Ausbildung zur Bestattungsfachkraft an

Wenn die Bevölkerung altert ist das wohl keine schlechte Berufswahl für junge Leute!

Ein Beruf mit Zukunft so lange Roboter das nicht erledigen können.

"die Zahl der Auszubildenden zur Bestattungsfachkraft hat sich seit 2015 verdoppelt. Warum wollen junge Leute plötzlich Bestatter werden?

So makaber das klingen mag: Der Job ist zukunftssicher. ..."

Ausbildung zum Bestatter: So viel verdient ein Azubi | FAZ "Immer mehr junge Leute fangen eine Ausbildung zur Bestattungsfachkraft an. Azubi Lena Wolf erzählt, was sie antreibt und wie viel sie verdient."

Image of the day

Nativity Scene Artwork displayed in the capital of Belgium, the Brussel Christmas market. Modern art? Provocation? DEI?

Credits: Maria, Josef und Jesus ohne Gesicht – Brüssels inklusive Weihnachtskrippe

Without faces! (Source) 

 

Louisiana prison reunites prisoners with their daughters at father-daughter dance

Good idea!