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Gone are the days when a child¡¯s best bet for a dose of mega-violence was a clandestine visit to Dad¡¯s collection of Arnold Schwarzenegger VHS tapes. According to a new study, there are ¡°shocking¡± levels of violence in children¡¯s films and television shows, including Peppa?Pig. Psychologists who carried out the study in the UK and Canada said the programming ¨C which also included Finding?Dory and Octonauts ¨C could give children a warped view of violence. Abbie Jordan of the University of Bath, who was one of the study¡¯s researchers, said: ¡°These programmes could do much more to help by modelling it in different ways and, crucially, by showing more empathy when characters experience pain,¡± according to . Come to think of it, the episode where Daddy Pig leads an elite paramilitary rescue team into a confrontation with a relentless intergalactic killing machine in the jungles of Central America might have been a bit much.

Researchers are usually not averse to?adding a bit of humour into the titles and abstracts of academic studies, and?this predisposition appears to have been richly rewarded by one of the literary world¡¯s most prestigious awards ¨C the Diagram prize for oddest book title of the year. Two academic studies vied for the top slot of this year¡¯s award, with A?Dog Pissing at the Edge of a?Path pipping Introducing the Medieval?Ass to win, reported. The winning book is a study by University of Alberta anthropologist Gregory Forth that looks at how animal metaphors have been used by indigenous people in parts of eastern Indonesia. The runner-up, meanwhile, looks at ¡°the?ass¡¯ enormous socio-economic and cultural significance in the Middle Ages¡±. Tom Tivnan, managing editor of The Bookseller, which runs the award, said the winner had managed to combine ¡°the three most fecund Diagram prize territories¡±: university presses, animals and bodily functions.

Former British prime minister Clement Attlee might be credited as the architect of the modern welfare state, but students at University College, Oxford were a little short on compassion when asked to adopt a cat named after the Labour politician. ¡°Clement Cattlee¡± was found on the college grounds and a motion was put before the junior common room to adopt him, reported. However, the proposal was defeated, with undergraduates raising concern about spending ?650 on caring for a cat when they felt that student well-being was not being given sufficient priority. However, this cat¡¯s tale has a happy ending, with the college itself stepping in to cover the costs. Second-year student Hannah, who proposed the motion to adopt Clement, said that she was ¡°overjoyed¡±. ¡°He is such an affectionate cat and [this] truly is the good news we all needed at the end of what has been an awful year,¡± she said.

A renowned physics professor has provoked an angry online backlash in Asia after making a lewd ¨C and incredibly obvious ¨C joke about black holes during a lecture, according to . Li Miao was speaking at the Chinese University of Hong Kong¡¯s Shenzhen campus when he said: ¡°The French thought of the concept of black holes in an amusingly different way¡±, before asking ¡°the boys in the room ? not the girls ? to think about this a bit more¡±, which most have taken as a clear reference to vaginas. The professor appears to have been referencing, incorrectly, an age-old joke in French physics that plays on the fact that ¡°trou noir¡±, the French for ¡°black hole¡±, is?used as slang for ¡°anus¡± in the country. Even after being challenged over the sexism of the remark, Professor?Li refused to back down or apologise, prompting an outpouring of vitriol, including one Weibo post that read: ¡°Instead of telling dirty jokes, he should really work on his lectures.¡±

Lab access during the pandemic has, of course, been difficult but it has led some university teachers to go back to basics in the search for more home-grown ways to explain complex concepts. Some of these methods were on display at the latest annual meeting of the American Physical Society¡¯s division of fluid dynamics, where researchers showed just how much can be taught by using materials available in most kitchens. They include investigating viscosity by observing pancake batter expanding on a flat surface; studying ¡°hydraulic jumps¡± by looking at running taps in a kitchen sink; and using the stability of foam in beer and bread to look more closely at the behaviour of ¡°thin films¡±. Beer bubbles in particular make for a rich research environment, according to one of the event¡¯s attendees, among other obvious compensations.