The dogs of war
Even the stationery cupboard, so well insulated from the outside world, now resounds to the yapping of shiba inus. Cartoon versions of these goofy-looking dogs, sporting tracksuits and fatigues in trademark Volodymyr Zelenskyy chic, are popping up across social media in response to Russian disinformation about the Ukraine invasion. No sooner do you post a pro-Vladimir Putin line, than tens of thousands of GIFs and JPEGs appear in reply, showing the dogs blowing up Russian fuel depots and firing anti-tank weapons.
Behind the dogs lurks NAFO, the North Atlantic Fella Organization. Former US Marine @IamtheWarax says many of the Fellas are military personnel with time on their hands, and that Russian officials who used to dedicate their days to spreading disinformation are now having to fend off “up to 100,000 soldiers who are just doing soldier shit”.
Motherboard that the efforts have a charitable element, too: there are T-shirts for sale, you can adopt avatars and there is a chat server where the mutts arrange charity events, debunk Russian propaganda and share fact-checked news of the conflict.
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Social security
Now the stationery cupboard is tidy, Feedback has been making tentative efforts to rejoin society. Oh, but it is difficult. We have an especial horror of reconnecting with people out of the blue. What will they say? What will they do? Will they remember that evening? Have they forgiven us? Do we owe them money? On and on like this. According to an in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, such doubts are common – and quite unjustified.
Peggy Liu at the University of Pittsburgh and her colleagues have been using questionnaires and field experiments among college students to see how well people respond to being contacted by old acquaintances. Those doing the reaching out consistently underestimated how graciously and positively their messages would be received. We are also quite useless at asking each other for favours, says the study. We worry about what the favour will cost our friends, while forgetting how rotten they would feel if they refused to help.
The paper ends: “Our work provides robust evidence and an encouraging green light to go ahead and surprise someone by reaching out.” Excited and enthused, and in a spirit of free and open experiment, Feedback has written to Liu asking for money.
Pre-worn pendants
These tidings of good cheer remind us that Christmas will soon (ish) be upon us. To show willing, Feedback has been considering what gifts to recommend to our readers this year.
How about a 8200-year-old bone pendant from a burial site in Russia? Kristiina Mannermaa at the University of Helsinki in Finland and her colleagues have been investigating what species pendants from the cemetery were made from – and were disconcerted . Feedback feels the explanation for this doesn’t have to be dark though. Maybe this was just the Stone Age equivalent of carrying a bit of your grandma’s hair around in a locket.
Cold case
And who wouldn’t be thrilled to receive an antique vampire-slayer kit? The one recently under the hammer at went for £16,900 – six times its reserve price – as bidders piled in from all over the world. Is there something in the air? Can we take comfort from the fact that the triumphant bid came from the UK. Or that the kit, consisting of pistols, a brass gunpowder flask, holy water, a Bible, a mallet, a wooden stake, brass candlesticks and rosary beads, also contains some (rather baffling) paperwork from the Metropolitan Police?
Cast adrift
Or how about a gorilla skull? Do look after it, though. On 7 July, YouTuber Nathaniel “Coyote” Peterson, on the hunt for the legendary Sasquatch, conveniently stumbled upon an . “Leaking pics here before they are taken down and before government/official try to cease our footage,” exclaimed his , even as the skies darkened under drones piloted by the shiba inus of the deep state. The only snag being, it has been spotted that the skull bears a more than passing resemblance to a replica gorilla skull on sale on . That is no way to dispose of an unwanted present.
What could go wrong?
Feedback’s attention was also snared by an altogether this week. It seems that some species of parasitic nematode worm are attracted to cancer cells. Now, scientists from Osaka University in Japan are covering the worms – which usually live in marine environments “but can colonize humans when ingested” – with a thin hydrogel sheath loaded with anticancer drugs. As one Reddit observer put it, “they use the worms to kill the cancer. Then they use Chinese needle snakes to eat the worms. Then we found a species of gorilla that subsists entirely on snake meat. And in the winter all the gorillas freeze to death.” Seems reasonable to us.
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