Category: Worldwide

If you Google “smartest dog breeds,” most lists you’ll find put border collies in the No. 1 spot, followed in some order by poodles, German shepherds and golden retrievers.

But a new study of canine cognition from the University of Helsinki puts a whole different breed at the top of the ladder—one that most of us have probably seen before but haven’t heard the name of—the Belgian Malinois.

Best known as a police or security dog, the Belgian Malinois is a shepherd breed that looks very similar to a German shepherd. Both breeds are of similar height and coloring, but the Malinois is lighter weight and its ears are more triangular-shaped, according to the American Kennel Club.

So what is it that makes the Belgian Malinois more intelligent than other dog breeds?

The study published in Scientific Reports analyzed 1,002 dogs from 13 different breeds using a battery of smartDOG cognition tests. These tests involve food reward tasks that determine a dog’s capacity for memory, problem-solving, impulse control, reading human gestures, copying human behavior and logical reasoning. Despite a wide field of research on dogs, according to the study, only a handful of studies have examined cognition of specific breeds instead of breed groups. Additionally, not much empirical research has been done on nonsocial cognitive traits such as memory, inhibitory control, spatial problem-solving and logical reasoning—all of which were covered in this study.

The researchers identified a few different tests as signifying high intelligence. For the most significant measure of intelligence, logical reasoning, the study revealed no significant difference between the dog breeds. So the three tests the authors singled out instead for measuring and comparing intelligence, according to The Telegraph, were:

– A V-detour test, in which a dog had to detour around a transparent V-shaped fence to get to a food reward, showing some problem-solving ability.

– A human gesture reading test, in which a dog’s response to five gestures—constant pointing, brief pointing, pointing with the foot, pointing at something while facing another direction and following a human’s gaze—was measured.

– An unsolvable task test, in which a dog tries to access food in an unopenable box, measuring independence and how quickly a dog asked a human for help.

The Belgian Malinois scored 35 out of a possible 39 points on these three tasks, making it the top scorer for high intelligence overall. Border collies came in second with 26 points and hovawarts came in third at 25 points.

The study authors point out that there are strengths and weaknesses in most breeds. Some score very high on some tests and very low on others. Some breeds saw middle-of-the-road scores across most tests.

According to IFLScience, one weakness the Malinois showed was in the cylinder test, in which a dog is taught to retrieve a piece of food from inside an opaque cylinder. The opaque cylinder then gets replaced with a transparent one to see if the dog will go around to the end of the cylinder to retrieve the treat, as it did with the opaque one, or try to go directly through the side of the cylinder to get to it. This test measures inhibition, and the Malinois scored among the lowest of all breeds on it.

Every dog has its bright and dim spots, but it’s clear why the Malinois is a dog of choice for security work. High intelligence, of course, but even being low on inhibition can be seen as a plus for a working dog that needs to be highly responsive and act quickly when needed.

“The Belgian Shepherd Malinois stood out in many of the cognitive tasks, having very good results in a majority of the tests,” study author and owner and CEO of smartDOG Dr. Katriina Tiira told The Telegraph.

“Border Collies also performed well in many of the tests,” she added.

Another day, another festival announcement. The latest is from Goldenvoice’s Just Like Heaven Festival 2023. While other festivals have broadened their musical lineup to match the multiple segments across the sonic landscape, the organizers behind Just Like Heaven stand firm in their indie rock and electro-dance roots.

The one-day event is slated to take place on Saturday, May 13. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs will headline the festival. MGMT will perform their critically acclaimed 2008 debut album Oracular Spectacular as part of their set. Near the top of the poster’s bill is the band Future Islands. Just Like Heaven will be held inside Brookside at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

2000s-era post-punk revival fans are in for a treat as The Walkmen will be reuniting for a special set. Additional performers on the lineup include Empire Of The Sun, M83, Hot Chip, Caribou, The Bravery, Fever Ray, Peaches, Azealia Banks, Ladytron, STRFKR, Metronomy, The Faint, The Sounds, and Cults.

The festival will also feature a live podcast taping of How Long Gone hosted by Chris Black and Jason Stewart.

Tickets for Just Like will be available for purchase starting on January 20 at 10 a.m. PT. To be added to the queue for tickets, click here.

Memphis rap icon Gangsta Boo was laid to rest this weekend. At her funeral Saturday (January 15), however, technical difficulties caused some video tributes from her bandmates and other prominent Southern rap personalities to be cut from the service. According to TMZ, the videos from Juicy J, Drink Champs cohost DJ EFN, and Yelawolf had to be nixed as the video files were unable to be played on the church’s projector. Instead, they can be viewed in full on TMZ.

In Juicy’s video, he says, “Rest in peace to the queen of Memphis… Prayers to the family, the friends, the fans… We lost a great one.” Meanwhile, Yelawolf’s video gets interrupted by a semi truck’s horn prompting him to joke that it’s Gangsta Boo herself, getting in one last jibe from beyond.

Although these names were absent from the service, one of Boo’s more recent collaborators — and arguable heir apparent — GloRilla was able to attend, telling reporters outside the church, “She’s still alive. You know what I’m saying? Big Memphis. We gonna keep representing. Long live Lola. Big Memphis. Let’s go!”

News of Gangsta Boo’s death was met with a wave of dismay from across the rap community. Collaborators such as Big Boi from Outkast, Latto, Missy Elliott, Monica, Project Pat, Run The Jewels, and her Three 6 Mafia bandmates all paid tribute on social media.

As music festival season in the US begins just a few months away, we’re starting to see more K-pop acts in the lineup.

Last week, it was revealed Blackpink would be headlining Coachella’s Saturday lineup as the first K-pop act and girl group to do so. Now, another girl group is on their way to being the first at this year’s Governors Ball.

Unveiled just hours ago today (January 17), SM Entertainment’s youngest power players, Aespa, will be performing on the Main Stage as part of its Saturday line up on June 10. The girl group is considered one of the biggest acts of the day ahead of other artists such as Rina Sawayama, Lil Baby, and Odesza.

“We’re super psyched to perform at Gov Ball,” the group said in an official press release. “Can’t wait to see our New York fans and have an amazing time at the festival! We’ll make sure to bring an amazing performance, so let’s have fun with everything we got!”

Last year, Aespa made their US music festival debut at Coachella as special guests during 88rising’s Head In The Clouds set. Now, the leading fourth-generation girl group continues their music festival high with a set of their own at Governors Ball.

Tickets are available for purchase now exclusively for Citi cardmembers from today, January 17th at 10 a.m. ET. Fan Early Access tickets will be available on January 19th at 10 a.m. ET. General public ticket sales will take place at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 19th.

The Disney+ MCU shows continue to pile up, and it’s hard to keep up with the sheer quantity. Still, those first few projects entertained with pleasant twists, including one genuinely surprising cameo from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That would be the moment when Julia Louis-Dreyfus arrives as Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (you can call her “Val”), and the Veep and Seinfeld star has spoken at length at how much fun it was to be smuggled onto set in one of the MCU’s better kept secrets.

Val was meant to debut in Black Widow‘s post-credit scene, in which she also talked to unenthused recruit Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) while she visited Natasha Romanoff’s grave (signaling Scarlett Johansson’s formal MCU exit). As it turns out, Val’s assembled group of ex-villain-types will take flight in the Thunderbolts movie, where they’ll presumably take on government-sponsored missions. In a wide-ranging Variety piece about her move into movies, Louis-Dreyfus says that she lobbied hard to “fight” in Thunderbolts, but now she realizes that getting jacked must happen. Oh boy:

In another unexpected move, Louis-Dreyfus has lobbied to kick some ass. “I pitched it; I told them I really want to fight. I haven’t seen the script yet — we’ll see if that happens,” she says. But she changes her tune when she thinks about the possible physical demands of a Marvel role: “”Ugh. I guess I’d better get in shape.”

Valentina previously swathed herself in all-black overcoats, so “jacked” wasn’t part of the equation, but fighting is a whole other ballgame. If you see how Louis-Dreyfus is clutching those Emmys in the photo at the top ^^ of this post, however, it’s obvious that she’s no stranger to being able to kick some butt. Hopefully, we’ll find out more when Thunderbolts starts filming this summer.

(Via Variety)

DJ Jazzy Jeff opened up about his experience with COVID during a new interview with AllHipHop. For those who might not remember, he was one of the first public figures to contract the disease at the start of the pandemic. It also hit him harder than fans might have known.

“I was one of the first people to get sick, and I almost didn’t make it,” Jeff said. “I got sick the day the world shut down. That was the day it hit me. I actually did a ski resort in Ketchum, Idaho, which was the nation’s first hot spot. I came home and realized the world wasn’t right.”

“We kind of looked at each other like, ‘OK, the store is going to be crazy tomorrow,’” he continued, telling a story about his wife. “The next words that came out of my mouth was, ‘Babe, I don’t feel good.’ And she was like, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘I’m just a little achy.’ She said, ‘OK, we have everything we need. Let’s go home and you can take a hot shower.’”

Jazzy Jeff also noted that, despite going to the doctor, it was written off as double pneumonia.

“Long story short, because I was in the first wave of people to get sick, I knew how serious this was very, very early,” he also shared. “I was like, ‘I know the world is not going to be in a place like we know it for at least two years.’ I knew that in April 2020 just because of how sick I was.”

Given his early experience with Covid, he appeared in a “town hall” type discussion with Dr. Fauci and LL Cool J to speak to the importance of vaccines in 2021.

After Disney+ dropped the new trailer for The Mandalorian Season 3, fans of the hit Star Wars series were left scratching their heads thanks to an awkward creative choice. If you’ve only been watching The Mandalorian, Season 2 ended with a tearjerker moment as Mando (Pedro Pascal) handed Baby Yoda/Grogu over to Luke Skywalker (an unholy CGI creation), so the little guy can begin his Jedi training. However, in the Season 3 trailer, you can see Mando and Grogu are clearly back together, which has caused a whole lot of anger and confusion as people learned that their reunion happened in The Book of Boba Fett.

Is it necessary to watch The Book of Boba Fett to understand The Mandalorian Season 3? Yes. To put it bluntly, Episodes 5 and 6 of The Book of Boba Fett might as well be the Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian. Very critical plot points are set up in addition to laying the groundwork for Mando and Grogu’s reunion, which goes down in The Book of Boba Fett‘s seventh and final episode.

If you’re not interested in the Boba Fett spinoff, the good news is that you can jump right into Episode 5 and be completely fine. Mando literally takes over the whole show. Episode 6 is equally as The Mandalorian-centric and continues the story from the previous episode, so you’ll also be fine there. As for the finale, all you need to know is that Boba Fett needed Mando’s help to fight some dudes, and it’s frankly no more complex than that. Granted, the finale is focused on that showdown, but it does contain the pivotal moment when Grogu and Mando finally reunite amidst the chaotic action. From there, you’re all caught up and ready to roll into Season 3.

The Mandalorian Season 3 premieres March 1 on Disney+.

Taylor Swift is arguably the most successful active pop star of this generation and shows no signs of slowing down.

Throughout 2022, the singer made history on several musical fronts. Despite the Ticketmaster debacle surrounding her upcoming The Eras tour, the shows have reportedly already brought in half a billion dollars. The songwriter also was dubbed the ‘Queen Of Vinyl’ after selling 1.695 million vinyl records across her entire catalog, including Midnights (at No. 1 with 945,000 sales); Folklore (No. 7, 174,000); Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 11, 153,000); Evermore (No. 14, 134,000); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 30, 97,000); and Lover (No. 36, 91,000).

Fast-forward to today, her last album, Midnights, released in October, has set yet another record for the musician. In addition, the breakout single from her tenth studio album, “Anti-Hero,” just set a new personal Billboard chart record for Swift.

For the eighth week, on the new Hot 100 chart dated January 21, the track has held onto the No. 1 spot, beating out SZA’s “Kill Bill” to become Swift’s longest-leading No. 1 hit. According to Billboard, “Anti-Hero” has dethroned Swift’s 2014 song “Blank Space” for that honor.

While Swift is no stranger to the charts, the success of “Anti-Hero” may very well set a few more records for the entertainer as it continues to grow in popularity thanks to social media platforms like the video app Tik-Tok.

Iggy Azalea is used to causing controversy but she really made waves on Friday (January 14) when she announced the launch of her official OnlyFans account to coincide with a new project, Hotter Than Hell.

The announcement was met with both skepticism and excitement after she had previously vowed never to join the platform, which is still mainly known for explicit media even though many creators have foregone such content. As with stars like Cardi B and Bhad Bhabie before her, what it seemed some fans wanted to know most, though, was how lucrative the pivot was for Iggy.

Thanks to gossip accounts like DJ Akademiks and SayCheeseTV, those fans believed they had their answer: $307,000. However, as is so often the case with those accounts, it doesn’t seem like they did much research into those figures (again, sources matter, folks. I’ll stop saying it when y’all start listening).

Iggy herself shot down the reports on her Twitter, writing, “Lol, Y’all just be saying sh*t to say sh*t at this point cause that number was pulled outta thin air.”

The Australian rapper certainly isn’t hurting for money in any case. In November, it was reported that she’d sold part of her publishing rights for an eight-figure sum.

If a movie makes twice its budget, it’s a success. If a movie makes 60 times its budget, it’s a sensation. Skinamarink is a sensation.

Kyle Edward Ball’s directorial debut was the talk of every film festival it played, and last week, the “early contender for the scariest horror movie of 2023” was released in theaters. It made $890,000 during the long weekend, which doesn’t sound like much compared to, say, Avatar: The Way of Water approaching $2 billion. Until you remember that Skinamarink only cost $15,000 to make — if Avatar 2 made 60 times its reported $250 million budget, well, let’s just say (because I don’t want to math) that James Cameron would have a blank check to make as many as Avatar movies as he wants.

Oh wait. He already does. Here’s more on Skinamarink:

Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. To cope with the strange situation, the two bring pillows & blankets to the living room and settle into a quiet slumber party. They play well worn videotapes of cartoons to fill the silence of the house and distract from the frightening and inexplicable situation. All the while in the hopes that eventually some grown-ups will come to rescue them. However, after a while it becomes clear that something is watching over them.

If you missed Skinamarink in theaters, it’s reportedly coming to Shudder next month.