Thursday Things: Pet a Dog Edition
10 August 2023. Vol 5 No 32. By Dan McGirt. #209
Welcome to Thursday Things! If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know.
This is win-win. Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash
Dog rustling
I have more affinity for cats than dogs. (Why? Because cats are highly evolved killing machines. And the only (allegedly) domestic animal to have (allegedly) domesticated themselves.1 I respect that.)
But dogs are cool too.
There are many benefits to owning a dog — like companionship, exercise, improved cardiovascular health, and even stress reduction from merely petting a dog.
But if what if you love dogs but don’t have a dog of your own?
Well, it turns out that petting other people’s dogs can get you many of the same benefits:
Petting other people's dogs, even briefly, can boost your health
…evidence is accumulating that levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop in people after just 5 to 20 minutes spent interacting with dogs — even if it's not their pet. "Also, we see increases in oxytocin, that feel-good kind of bonding hormone,"
Which is validation for notorious dog stalkers everywhere, like people who go out of their way to pet their neighbor’s dog, pet every dog they meet on the street, or go to a dog park specifically to pet dogs that aren’t theirs.
It’s for medicinal purposes! It’s science!
And while being around dogs is good in itself, it seems actually petting dogs brings the most benefit:
She says there's some evidence that the act of actually touching a dog might be an important part of their calming effect. For instance, one study done in Canada found that college students reported less stress and reduced feelings of homesickness after brief interactions with dogs, and that effect was much bigger in those who actually got to pet the animals. She's currently running a study that's finding similar results.
But wait! There’s more!
Not only can dogs help calm your stress — it seems hanging out with dogs can make you smarter:
For example, there's some evidence that brief bouts of puppy love may help us think better. Gee collaborated on a randomized controlled trial of 8 and 9-year-old school children in the U.K. She and her colleagues found that kids who had twice-weekly, short exchanges with dogs in the classroom had less stress and improved executive functioning – the cognitive processes that allow us to do things like plan, stay on task and block out distractions. And she says those benefits lingered.
Dogs!
Walk this way
This just in: walking is good for you!
Could walking extend your lifespan? - study
The number of steps you should walk every day to start seeing benefits to your health is lower than previously thought, according to the largest analysis ever to investigate this.
The study, just published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that walking an average of at least 3,967 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, and 2,337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases.
The new analysis of 226,889 people from 17 different studies around the world has shown that the more you walk, the greater the health benefits. The risk of dying from any cause or from cardiovascular disease decreases significantly with every 500 to 1000 extra steps you walk. An increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, while an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a 7% reduction in dying from heart disease and stroke.
Don’t obsess about taking “10,000 steps” every day. Just walk.
Of course, if you have a dog, you’re getting a twofer here!
Spot the face peeler. Before it spots you. Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash
Panic in Peru
Ancient aliens used to fly across the galaxy to come to Peru and help the Incas levitate huge blocks of stone to make walls and cities. Or so television tells me.
But modern aliens are not so helpful.
Nope, that doesn’t sound helpful at all. Unless the aliens are bringing some kind of advanced treatment for clogged pores?
A group of Peruvian villagers are living in fear as believe they are under attack by mysterious 7ft-tall 'aliens' they have named "Los Pelacaras," which translates to "The Face Peelers."
In a remote district of Alto Nanay, located northeast of Lima, members of the Ikitu tribe, hailing from the San Antonio native community, have recounted chilling encounters with these extraterrestrial beings.
Descriptions of the alleged extraterrestrial beings include large heads, yellowish eyes, and immunity to the villagers' hunting weapons. Some villagers have likened the 'aliens' to the mythical "pelacaras" from folklore, creatures said to feast on human faces, fat, and organs.
Yeah, no one wants their face eaten by a 7-foot-tall alien.
Multiple incidents have been reported, with the most recent involving a 15-year-old girl who was hospitalized after a confrontation with the 'aliens.'
According to community leader Jairo Reátegui Dávila, the girl narrowly escaped an encounter, but not without injury. "As a result of the struggle, they cut part of her neck," Jairo explained.
Fearing for their safety, the villagers have taken matters into their own hands. Night patrols have been organized by the community to 'protect women, children, and the vulnerable' members of the village.
They have appealed to the authorities for military intervention to address the perceived ongoing threat. Local media reports that many villagers are unable to sleep due to the heightened state of fear.
Not that I doubt the genuine fear of the villagers, but this incident has the hallmarks of a mass sociogenic illness (MSI), or mass hysteria. It reminds me of a similar panic in India back in 2001 — the Monkey Man of Delhi!
Early reports claimed that some mysterious monkey-like creature attacked many residents in New Delhi, leaving fear, scars, and ultimately even dead bodies in its wake. The Monkey Man, as it came to be known, made international news as police and news media struggled to make sense of the mysterious menace.
The Monkey Man saga had the same plot as the Face Peeler reports from Peru — multiple sightings and reports of encounters, conflicting descriptions of the mystery creature, people reporting injuries and narrow escapes, an appeal to authorities for help, and locals organizing their own patrols against the menace.
In the final analysis the Monkey Man panic has all the hallmarks of mass sociogenic illness (MSI), or mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is often misunderstood as being an illness that sufferers are making up. In fact the symptoms are verifiable and not imaginary. The issue is instead what is causing the symptoms—whether some external environmental contaminant or instead a form of suggestion-driven social contagion.
Social contagion can easily spread from person to person in tight quarters, and especially during times of high stress and anxiety.
The Monkey Man article lists many other examples of such phantom menaces across history:
Examples include Spring-Heeled Jack, the mysterious dark-cloaked figure reported threatening and scaring people (mostly women and children) in London from the 1830s through the 1870s; the Phantom Slasher of Taiwan, who was reported stalking the streets of Taipei in 1956 trying to slash people (again, mostly women and children) with a razor; and the phantom clowns, reported to lurk near schools trying—thankfully in vain—to abduct children.
I’d rather take my chances with the face peelers than a phantom clown. Clowns are scary.
Anyway, my guess is the panic in Peru has similar origins to those of the past. Peru has had a fair bit of societal stress and conflict lately — the perfect time for face peelers to attack. I imagine things will settle down before too long.
Unless it isn’t mass hysteria and the face peelers are real.
But what are the odds of that?
Thank you for reading!
Please click the hearts, leave a comment, and use the share feature to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!
Seriously. Cats just showed up one day and said “I live here now. Feed me! Pet me! What are you waiting for, humans? Get to it!”
Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows
Overall, cats became a domesticated companion of humans without changing much, says evolutionary geneticist and article coauthor Eva-Maria Geigl. Domestic cats look similar to wildcats, but they aren’t solitary, tolerating both humans and other cats.
This is in contrast to dogs, the first animals to be domesticated, Geigl adds. Dogs were selected to perform specific tasks—which never was the case for cats—and this selection for particular traits is what led to dogs’ diversification to the many breeds we see today.
“I think that there was no need to subject cats to such a selection process since it was not necessary to change them,” Geigl says. “They were perfect as they were.”
Presumably Eva-Maria Geigl’s cat was listening during that interview.