ON/OFF (Déjà-vu), paintings by Henni Alftan, whose work is on view this month as part of the exhibition Fire Figure Fantasy at ICA Miami © The artist. Courtesy Sprüth Magers, London, and Karma, New York City
The increasing conservatism that comes with age is largely a consequence of raising children; small children, but not macaques and capuchins, can perceive faces in inanimate objects; and psychopathic traits, particularly meanness and disinhibition, protect against PTSD. Cooperation among strangers in the United States increased slightly between 1956 and 2017. Americans and Chinese who are considered to possess superior morality by their acquaintances report greater than average happiness, and condomless intercourse among metropolitan Chinese men who have sex with men has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic. An evaluation of natal males and natal females using the Core Autogynephilia Scale found low autogynephilia among the non-autogynephilic. A survey of five cultures found that laughter shared by romantic partners sounds warmer, more feminine, and more submissive than laughter shared by friends. Researchers proposed that the concept of “lesbian bed death” be replaced with “lesbian bed intimacies,” and pointed out that in their most recent sexual encounter, lesbians were more likely than straight women to have said “I love you.” Further study was recommended on the adaptive function of cunnilingus in preindustrial societies.
Children in imperial Roman Thessaloniki were weaned in a manner consistent with the precepts of Soranus’s Gynaecology, the presence of Nile crocodile remains in the mortuary complexes of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II’s courtiers were analyzed with reference to the spells of the Coffin Texts, and archaeologists at Unguja Ukuu in Zanzibar found a crystal cabochon seal engraved with the words “for God.” A new study on self-control found that children in Kyoto wait three times as long for food as for gifts, while children in Boulder wait nearly four times as long for gifts as for food. Americans pervasively view vegetarianism as white. Doctors recommended banking one’s own stool for gut rejuvenation in old age, and the loss of Y chromosomes among aging men leads to premature death. Solitariness was observed among elderly female red deer on the Isle of Rum. Crowdfunding saved a Cambridge corvid intelligence lab, which now plans to gauge the birds’ responses to mirrors and magic. Researchers concluded that more research is needed to understand sighing.
The World Organisation for Animal Health unveiled a new acronym, WOAH. Lumpy skin disease was spreading among Gujarati cattle, Rift Valley fever was suspected among Burundian cattle, African swine fever was detected in a Moldovan pig, an unvaccinated Floridian donkey tested positive for strangles, a miniature filly in Tennessee tested positive for Potomac horse fever, a German wild boar tested positive for pseudorabies, and a second Zurich elephant died of herpes. The threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza induced France to launch a vaccination trial among its ducks. Cases of Japanese encephalitis were reported in India, of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Iraq, and of Q fever among Russians along the Ukrainian border. QX disease threatened the rock oysters of Port Stephens. Children in India tested positive for tomato flu. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus was spreading, and unidentified diseases were afflicting onions and cabbages in Uganda, which was on the verge of being overrun by banana bunchy top virus. Australian authorities urged the public to report banana freckle and advised growers of oats to report red leather leaf. Following the spread of monkeypox to dozens of non-endemic countries, positive orthopoxvirus tests were assumed not to indicate cowpox or camelpox. A Thai veterinarian was presumed to have contracted COVID-19 when a cat sneezed in her eyes.
