Study identifies factors that influence the link between men’s body esteem and their ability to enjoy their sexuality

New research provides evidence that men’s self-evaluation of their bodies predicts their level of sexual esteem, and that this relationship is moderated by body-focused anxiety and male gender norms. The findings have been published in the journal Psychology & Sexuality.

While studies have demonstrated that having a poor body image is associated with a variety of negative outcomes, most of this research has focused on women. The authors of the new study sought to better understand negative body image among men, and were particularly interested in sexual esteem, which has been defined as “positive regard for and confidence in the capacity to experience one’s sexuality in a satisfying and enjoyable way.”

“From an interest in investigating male extremist groups, we had noticed that one extremist group in particular (‘incels’) held the collective belief that if men did not look attractive, they would not be able to find a romantic or sexual partner,” said study author David Hattie, a member of the O.R.G.A.S.M Research Lab who conducted the research as part of his honors thesis for his BA in Psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

“Particularly fascinating was how hyper-focused incels were on specific parts of the body; in particular, wrist size and skull shape could be arbiters of inability to find relational or sexual connections. We then determined to interrogate the connection between men’s body image and sexual satisfaction in the general population.”

The researchers recruited a sample of 298 male participants. The average age of the sample was 32.34 years. The participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including one known as the Body Esteem Questionnaire-Revised. The participants indicated how they felt about various body parts (e.g. arms, chest) and physical characteristics (e.g. energy level, physical coordination) on a 5-point scale.

Their responses were totaled into three separate dimensions: upper body strength, physical condition, and sexual attractiveness. Hattie and his colleagues found that all three dimensions of male body esteem were positively associated with sexual esteem. Body esteem related to the wrist, nose, jaw, and height were also associated with sexual esteem, which was “a particularly novel finding not reported in previous literature,” the researchers said.

In other words, those who had positive feelings about their body were more likely to agree with statements such as “I would rate my sexual skill quite highly” and disagree with statements such as “I sometimes doubt my sexual competence.”

“However, this relationship was complicated by incorporating other variables,” Hattie told PsyPost. “For instance, we found that body image anxiety negatively moderated the relationship between sexual attractiveness and sexual esteem; the strength of the relationship between sexual attractiveness and sexual esteem was weakest when body image anxiety was high, suggesting that increased body image anxiety has a negative impact on men’s sexual esteem.”

Those with a high level of body image anxiety agree with statements such as “I don’t like my partner to see me completely naked during sexual activity,” “During sexual activity I try to hide certain areas of my body,” and “I am self-conscious about my body during sexual activity.”

The participants also completed a questionnaire in which they reported the extent to which they agreed with a variety of statements regarding manhood. The questionnaire assessed male role norms related to restrictive emotionality, self-reliance through mechanical skills, negativity towards sexual minorities, avoidance of femininity, importance of sex, toughness, and dominance.

In an unexpected finding, the relationship between upper body strength and sexual esteem was not moderated by male role norm endorsement.

“Higher conformity to male gender norms did not impact the relationship between upper body strength and sexual esteem,” Hattie said. “We hypothesized that a macho/muscular body type would impact men’s sexual esteem especially for men who endorse male gender norms and we did not find this result. In hindsight however, perhaps this result is unsurprising, given recent trends of men’s body image shifting from a muscular ideal to a leaner/toned ideal.”

The relationship between sexual attractiveness and sexual esteem was strongest when male role norm endorsement was high. In contrast, the relationship between physical condition and sexual esteem was strongest when male role norm endorsement was low.

“Higher conformity to male gender norms had a negative impact on the relationship between men’s physical condition and sexual esteem,” Hattie told PsyPost. “One theory we had about this result was that men who conform to stereotypically masculine body types may feel pressure to maintain physical fitness to enjoy their sexuality, while men who are less likely to conform to male gender norms place more emphasis on other factors that contribute to their sexual esteem.”

“Collectively, our findings suggest that clinical and sexuality education programs should consider both the positive and negative influences of men’s body image in influencing their sexual satisfaction and esteem,” Hattie said.

The findings held even after the researchers controlled for overall levels of sexual activity and precarious manhood beliefs (or the belief that one’s status as a “man” is hard to earn but easy to lose). But as with all research, the study includes some caveats.

“There is always a need to investigate how the relationship between body esteem and sexual esteem influences other groups of peoples besides men,” Hattie explained. Demographic variables such as race, gender, or country of origin may all influence body image and sexual esteem in differing ways. Additionally, there is still work to be done exploring the relationship between functional (as opposed to aesthetic) body image issues and sexuality, especially for individuals with disabilities.”

“Body image is an ever-evolving concept; although rates of body dissatisfaction may differ among men, women, and non-binary individuals, negative body image in men can contribute to long-term issues such overexercising, depression, loneliness, social comparison, sexual dissatisfaction, and disordered eating. We believe that men should be given a space to discuss and process the impacts that negative body image has on their sexuality in both therapy, educational settings, and within society overall.”

The study, “The Effects of Body Esteem Dimensions on Sexual Esteem in Men“, was authored by David M. Hattie, Flora Oswald, and Cory L. Pedersen.

2023/01/01
© PsyPost

A combination of severe depression and conspiratorial beliefs is strongly associated with support for the January 6 riot, study finds



In a series of two studies, researchers examined the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and depression. Their findings indicate that depression is positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Additionally, a combination of severe depression and conspiratorial beliefs was found to be strongly associated with support for political violence. Based on their results, the authors of the new research argue that reducing depression could substantially reduce support for political violence in the United States.

“The last several years in American politics have unfortunately introduced concern about political violence,” said study author James N. Druckman, the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and author of “Experimental Thinking: A Primer on Social Science Experiments.”

“At the same time, the pandemic exacerbated rates of depressive symptoms such that roughly 30% of the population reported such symptoms. We were interested in understanding whether there were conditions under which the two relate to one another – with a very strong conviction that any such relationship is conditional and nuanced.”

“Put another way, we are very sensitive to not stigmatizing those who suffer from depression,” Druckman explained. “We thus developed a theory that suggests the relationship depends on conspiratorial thinking and/or a participatory disposition/efficacy.”

For their initial research, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Druckman and his colleagues analyzed three waves of data from the COVID States Project, a nationwide survey of behaviors and attitudes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their sample included 55,212 individuals from the United States.

The participants were asked to assess the accuracy of three prominent conspiracies related to the pandemic: that the coronavirus was created as a weapon in a Chinese lab, that COVID-19 vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses, and that COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that can track people. They also completed the Patient Health Questionnaire, a common screening tool used to assess depression in primary care settings.

In line with previous research, Druckman and his colleagues found several social and political variables that were associated with endorsement of the COVID-19 conspiracies. Evangelical Christians, Republicans, and conservatives were more likely to view the conspiracies as accurate, while women and older individuals were less likely to view the conspiracies as accurate.

The researchers also found a positive association between depression scores and conspiracy beliefs. In other words, those who experienced more depressive symptoms were more likely to view the COVID-19 conspiracies as accurate compared to those with fewer depressive symptoms.

Interestingly, the association between depression and conspiracy beliefs was stronger among White participants, men, those with higher incomes, and those who were more educated. The association was also stronger among those who had COVID-19 personally or had someone diagnosed with COVID-19 in their household. Having greater social support, in contrast, weakened the association between depression and conspiracy beliefs.

“Overall, our results highlight substantial heterogeneities in the relationship between depression and conspiracy beliefs. The connection appears strong among those with more advantaged status and among those who have challenging experiences and/or lack support in coping with such experiences,” the researchers wrote.

In a subsequent paper, Druckman and his colleagues built upon their findings by examining support for political violence and reactions to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The researchers reached out to individuals who had completed the November 2020 wave of the COVID States Project. A total of 2,044 of these individuals completed a follow-up survey in January 2021.

In November, the participants were asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “If it became clear to you that the 2020 presidential election was not conducted fairly, would you approve or disapprove of other people who reacted by using violence.” They also reported whether they had participated in at least one of six political actions in the past six months, such as volunteering for a candidate or posting about politics on social media.

In January, the participants were again asked about their support for political violence. In addition, they indicated whether they supported or opposed the storming of the Capitol building.

The researchers found that conspiratorial beliefs were associated with support for violence and support for the January 6 riots among those suffering from depression. Political participation was also associated with support for violence and support for the January 6 riots among those suffering from depression. This was true even after statistically accounting for the effects of support for Donald Trump and other factors.

“We found the effects are much stronger for men,” Druckman noted. “In retrospect, this makes sense given men react to depression differently and view political participation differently.”

A person who was both severely depressed and conspiratorial was 13 times more likely to support the storming of the Capitol compared to the typical baseline participant, the researchers found.

The findings indicate “that issues of health in general and mental health in particular have political implications,” he told PsyPost. “There are thus political, as well as social and health reasons, to invest in treatment for mental health.”

But the researchers emphasized that depression on its own did not appear to increase support for violence — it only did so in combination with conspiracy beliefs and/or a participatory disposition. Those who were moderately or severely depressed but were not conspiratorial or politically involved were “at or near 0” in their support for violence, suggesting that in some circumstances depression can have a demobilizing effect.

“The relationship is contingent, and commentators should not simplify it by suggesting those who suffer from depressive symptoms necessarily act in particular ways,” Druckman said.

As with all research, the new findings include some caveats.

“Our findings are based on observational data,” Druckman explained. “It would be difficult, although not impossible, to document a causal relationship. Also, more work can be done to isolate the psychological mechanism through which depression along with conspiratorial thinking and/or a participatory disposition relates to support for political violence. We suggest it may be a desire for control; anger also could play a role. Our hope is that scholars explore the relationship between health and politics more.”

The study, “Depressive symptoms and conspiracy beliefs“, was authored by Jon Green, James N. Druckman, Matthew A. Baum, David Lazer, Katherine Ognyanova, and Roy H. Perlis.

2022/12/30

© PsyPost

Inducing narcissistic feelings leads people to overestimate their intelligence

Does narcissism really make people think that they’re smarter than they are, even if they aren’t a narcissist? A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality suggests that inducing narcissistic feelings can lead individuals to overestimate their own intelligence.

Narcissism is often thought of as a fixed personality trait, but it can also be a temporary state. For example, when a person is being praised, their narcissism can increase. This means that state narcissism can also be manipulated. People high in narcissism tend to overestimate their own abilities in many domains, especially intelligence.

Overestimating one’s own intelligence has been theorized to be a catalyst for some of the other positive self-views narcissists have, including increased status, power, and success. This study sought to explore the relationship between state narcissism and self-assessed intelligence.

Marcin Zajenkowski of the Intelligence Cognition Emotion Lab and his colleagues completed a pilot study and two follow up studies. The pilot study utilized 141 Polish participants recruited through Qualtrics. The sample was predominantly female and students.

Narcissism was induced by asking participants to recall an event that made them feel admired by others and share how they felt special because of it. The control participants were asked to recall an event that made them feel no better or worse than others. Participants completed measures on narcissism to check if the manipulation was successful.

Study 1 utilized 277 Polish participants recruited through Qualtrics. This sample had a more even gender split. Narcissism was induced in the same way as in the pilot study. Participants then read a blurb about intelligence and were asked to rate their own in comparison to other people.

Study 2 utilized 371 undergraduate students to serve as their participant pool. This sample was predominantly female. Narcissism was induced as in the previous studies, and participants also completed measures on academic goal-pursuit, academic achievement, and psychological well-being.

Results showed that narcissism had a significant effect on self-assessed intelligence. There were no main effects of narcissism on academic goal-pursuit or academic achievement, although there were significant mediation effects of self-assessed intelligence in these relationships, suggesting that self-assessed intelligence could potentially help explain the relationships found.

“To the extent that narcissists show relatively high academic performance or [psychological wellbeing], this is due — at least in part — to their elevated [self-assessed intelligence],” the researchers explained

The study also replicated gender differences found in self-assessed intelligence, with men reporting higher intelligence than women. These results could suggest that perceptions of one’s own intelligence can be fluid and can change with one’s personality.

This study took interesting steps into understanding self-perceived intelligence and its relationship with state narcissism. Despite this, there are limitations to note. One such limitation is that the gender breakdown for two out of three of the studies was extremely skewed toward women, which could lead to skepticism about any gender differences found. Another limitation is that this study did not account for race, ethnicity, culture, or sexuality as possible confounding variables.

“In conclusion, a temporary infusion of narcissism leads to a comparatively positive appraisal of one’s intelligence,” Zajenkowski and his colleagues wrote. This appraisal has downstream consequences for academic goal-pursuit, academic achievement, and wellbeing. The findings open up exciting possibilities for understanding the effects of momentary variations in narcissism on the way they function.”

The study,

 “Induced narcissism increases self-assessed intelligence: implications for academic goal-pursuit, expected academic achievement, and psychological well-being“, 

was authored by Marcin Zajenkowski, Constantine Sedikides, Gilles E. Gignac, Jeremiasz Górniak, and Oliwia Maciantowicz.

2022/12/31
© PsyPost

Republican Party trashed for mocking Gen Z congressman because he doesn't have '6 residences'
Sarah K. Burris
January 01, 2023

Gun violence survivor becomes first Afro-Cuban and Gen Z-er elected to Congres

The Republican Party pushed out a video with new Generation Z Congressman, Maxwell Frost, who told ABC News that one of his struggles is he can't get an apartment in Washington, D.C. because he doesn't have good credit. Frost explained that he will likely have to couch surf for a while.

The GOP knocked Frost for getting the salary of $174,000 annually for his new job, but that hasn't started and won't until Feb. 2023. At the same time, that cash doesn't all roll in as a lump sum on the first day a member is inaugurated. It's part of his or her salary distributed over the course of the year. So, when Frost says he can't get an apartment before he's been paid for a job he hasn't started is a problem that many Americans understand.

It was something that millennial Nathan Rubin pointed out, "You know he’s paid bi-weekly over 26 pay periods right? He’s not just given $174,000 upfront before he starts working. It’s just like a normal job. You’ve had normal jobs before, right?"

The suggestion from the GOP prompted Erick Fernandez to proclaim: "I am going to ask my job to pay me my entire salary at the beginning of the year and see what they say because apparently, you think this is how it works."

At the same time, credit checks have become the norm for applying for apartments. Even if a young person has never had a credit card and has money, that's not considered good enough credit to get an apartment without a co-signer. A young person who has very little credit who has missed one payment over time is another way that youth can have bad credit.

Frost hit back, mocking the party for not knowing what's required for someone just to rent an apartment.

"Lol. So out of touch that they don’t understand how renting an apartment works," he explained. "Let me break this down: I don’t get my first paycheck till February and I don’t have a lot of money. When you move into an apartment, you pay first, deposit, sometimes 

He later added: "I find it interesting that the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' people take issue with me staying with friends until I save up enough to get an apartment. Maybe I don’t fit the demographic they like to applaud."

The disconnected comments prompted those who saw it to point out how far removed the GOP is from the plight of everyday Americans dealing with housing in a world where the rent is always too high. Unlike Donald Trump or Mitt Romney, Frost doesn't have a number of homes and country clubs where he can lay his head at night.

"Gen Z official indicates he might save money for a bit through generosity of friends. Party of rich old folks mocks him for not having six residences," said legal analyst Bradley Moss on Twitter.

Nothing says the party of geriatric old men and their over-botoxed trophy wives doesn’t grasp how Millennials and Gen Z might not be able to easily afford two residences on that salary more than this tweet. Amazing how Charlie Kirk and his conferences didn’t save them in 2022," Moss ranted.

@MidwestBest agreed, noting, "The party that gives tax breaks to billionaires and corporations is trying to talk about the working class? Must be an election year."

Brian Michael Scully was more direct: "It’s remarkable how confidently you punch yourself in your own genitals over and over and think it makes you look clever."

Republicans attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in 2018, when she came into office for having the same problem. She, too, began looking for housing after being elected, but without having her first paycheck, she was looking for a place that was in Washington, while also paying rent in New York City on a waitress salary. She had been living off of her savings at the time, quitting her job to focus on the campaign.

AOC's transition period was "very unusual, because I can’t really take a salary,” she told The New York Times. “I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real.”

One of the ongoing complaints from voters is that officials don't reflect the regular lives most have. This is one of many reasons why.

See the full interview with Frost  at the link here:

Honeybees are at risk, along with the crops they pollinate. These scientists think the solution lies in the insects’ brains

2022/12/29

A honeybee hovering at a flower. - Kevin Batchelor/Dreamstme/TNS

PHILADELPHIA — The honeybees looked perfectly healthy, buzzing about their boxy wooden hive on a warm autumn day in central Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Capaldi suspected otherwise.

Clad in a protective white suit and hat, the biologist reached out with a gloved hand to capture one of the insects in a small vial, then took it back to her Bucknell University laboratory to dissect its brain.

Her colleague David Rovnyak later placed a sample of the bee’s innards inside a large metal cylinder and pelted it with high-frequency radio waves — a type of scanning technology that revealed the amounts of certain telltale chemicals within.

Their goal: to identify early warning signs that a bee is under stress, so that beekeepers can try to rescue a threatened hive before it’s too late.

Honeybees have been in decline for decades, causing headaches and higher costs for farmers who depend on the insects to pollinate their apples, almonds and 130 other fruit, nut and vegetable crops. The issue made headlines in 2006 with the emergence of a mysterious new phenomenon called colony collapse disorder, but the broader downturn in bee health was underway well before that, and it continues to this day.

The causes include climate change, pesticides, and disease, said Capaldi, who studies insect behavior and neuroscience at the liberal arts university in Lewisburg. In bad years, the combination of insults can wipe out more than half of a beekeeper’s colonies.

“Honeybees are suffering,” she said. “All of these factors have united together to create a stressful environment for honeybee colonies across the country.”

She and Rovnyak, a chemistry professor at Bucknell, realized five or six years ago that the problem might lend itself to an interdisciplinary solution. The pair joined forces with colleague Marie Pizzorno, an expert in viruses — as one factor in the insects’ decline is a virus that deforms their wings.

They want to to identify chemical stress indicators that become elevated in a bee’s brain months before the insect displays any outward signs of decline.

The cylindrical device Rovnyak uses to detect these substances, called a spectrometer, would be impractical for any beekeeper or farmer. But once the researchers determine which chemicals are the best predictors of bee health, they want to develop a low-cost test that could be deployed in the real world.
Double the cost

Every spring, just as the apple blossoms are starting to bloom, a flatbed truck rolls up to Hollabaugh Bros. farm in the middle of the night, laden with 100 honeybee hives.

Workers set up the boxy containers across 150 acres that produce more than 50 varieties of apples, said Ellie Hollabaugh Vranich, assistant business manager of the farm in Biglerville, just north of Gettysburg.

“We try to get them spread out while it’s still dark, before the bees wake up,” she said.

A decade ago, the farm rented the hives for $50 apiece. A few years ago, the price rose to $60, and this past spring, it was $100, for a total of $10,000, she said.

Beekeepers have cited a variety of reasons for the increases, such as higher fuel costs and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But every year, a major factor in higher costs is that many colonies don’t survive the winter, meaning beekeepers must scramble to raise new ones in time for the growing season.

“You can’t just manufacture a bee on a processing line in a factory,” Vranich said. “They have to be bred and given time to develop new hives.”

Experienced beekeepers such as Capaldi, the Bucknell scientist, can often tell when a hive is starting to fail simply by looking at it. Perhaps the insects haven’t amassed long-term stores of honey, subsisting instead on liquid nectar. A lack of a brood is another warning sign.

But by that point, it might already be too late.

A year ago, Capaldi judged that her eight hives at Bucknell were under stress, likely because the fall asters and goldenrods had produced less nectar than usual. So throughout the winter, she supplemented the insects’ food with sugar.

Even so, just two of the hives survived.

Finding the culprits

The first sign of trouble for the insects came in the 1980s with the introduction of a parasitic mite from overseas, said Pizzorno, the Bucknell virologist.

Relative to the size of the honeybee, these parasites, called Varroa destructor, are enormous.

“It’d be like having a tick on your body that’s the size of a dinner plate,” she said.

Scientists later would discover that in addition to inflicting harm directly, the parasites also transmitted a virus to the honeybees that deforms their wings.

Researchers also have established that climate change affects the bees in a variety of ways, Capaldi said. Early warm spells or unusual rain patterns can cause flowers to bloom too early and disappear by the time the insects are looking for nectar.

“When the colony is growing, the flowers may not be available,” she said.

Certain pesticides and other practices of large-scale industrial agriculture also can add to the stress, she said. That includes the way the bees are deployed, trucked from farm to farm where they subsist on one crop for days at a time.

Increasingly throughout the 1990s, beekeepers reported that some of their colonies did not survive the winter. Then in 2006, beekeepers discovered that some colonies were dying in an unusual way. Instead of dying in or near the hive, bees were simply vanishing, apparently flying off to die elsewhere.

While beekeepers have reported fewer cases of this colony collapse disorder in recent years — in part because they have developed better management techniques — the causes remain somewhat unclear. Capaldi blames many of the same factors that are behind the bees’ overall decline that began in the late 1980s.
Telltale chemicals

The stout silver spectrometer at Bucknell contains a magnet more powerful than the ones used in MRI machines, said Rovnyak, the chemistry professor. To identify telltale metabolic chemicals in a bee brain, he places the tiny clump of material in a small receptacle at the center of the device, then hits it with radio waves, causing the various substances to resonate in such a way that their relative amounts can be measured.

“Each molecule rings with a distinct set of patterns, like a chord,” he said.

In one study, he and the others found that an amino acid called proline was elevated in the brains of honeybees that were infected with the deformed-wing virus — well before they showed outward signs of disease.

The scientists have since identified other protein fragments that may be signs of stress — possibly because the insects are changing their eating habits in response to infection — but more work is needed.

Once the Bucknell researchers narrow down the best chemical predictors of a bee’s decline, they hope to develop a low-cost rapid test that beekeepers could use.

“If we could come up with something for a few bucks, that might be appealing,” Rovnyak said.

He likened the approach to certain blood tests for humans, such as those that can identify metabolic signs of Type 2 diabetes years before the onset of disease. Much like humans with pre-diabetes can ward off disease by changing their diet, beekeepers could do the same for the insects. Feeding them sugar, for instance, but starting earlier than Capaldi did last year with Bucknell’s colonies. Or deploying other tactics that have shown promise in limiting colony collapse disorder, such as treating for mites, relocating hives, or swapping in a different queen bee.

In the meantime, significant fractions of colonies keep failing every winter — 30% one year, 40% or 50% the next, according to surveys by the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership. For now, breeders have kept up with the demand for new colonies. But at some point, maybe they won’t, Rovnyak said.

“It just seems to be getting more and more challenging every few years,” he said. “And there’s no sign this is stopping.”

Bees at the entrance to a hive. - Janis Smits/Dreamstime/TNS

Jayne McDevitt' 22 reaches for a specimen from Professor Beth Capaldi while professors David Rovnyak and Marie Pizzorno review data. - Emily Paine/Bucknell University/TNS/TNS

© The Philadelphia Inquirer

Cambodian leader orders Mekong safe zones to save rare dolphins

Agence France-Presse
January 02, 2023

An Irrawaddy (AKA 'PINK') dolphin (© GERRY RYAN / WWF-Cambodia/AFP)

Cambodian premier Hun Sen on Monday ordered the creation of conservation zones on the Mekong river to protect critically endangered dolphins, after three were killed by fishing nets and lines last month.

The Irrawaddy dolphins, known for their bulging foreheads and short beaks, once swam through much of the mighty Mekong but in recent decades have been limited to a 190-km (118-mile) stretch from northeast Kratie province to the border with Laos.

Their population has been in steady decline since the first census was taken in 1997, dropping from 200 that year to around 90 currently due to habitat loss and destructive fishing practices.

Speaking at a ceremony in Kratie, Hun Sen ordered authorities to set up floating markers around designated protection zones, in which there will be an "absolute ban" on all fishing.

"The Mekong river, which is home to near-extinct dolphins and fish species, must be well managed so that dolphins will not die from entanglement in gillnets," he said. Gillnets are nets strung across parts of the river to snare fish.

"The dolphin areas must be protected completely," he said, adding that the animals' presence contributed to local tourism.

Three healthy breeding-age dolphins died within a week of each other last month. The deaths alarmed conservationists, who called for both day- and night-patrols in order to protect the remaining dolphins from being killed by illegal fishing.
Eleven dolphins died in 2022, bringing the total number of dead dolphins to 29 in the last three years, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In a statement, WWF called on all relevant authorities "to enact and roll-out appropriate measures to urgently address the mortality" caused by the threats of gillnets and electro-fishing that take place in the dolphin conservation areas.

Cambodia is home to the largest population of Irrawaddy dolphins, which are also found in rivers and lakes in Myanmar, Indonesia, India and Thailand.


© 2023 AFP

Activists Sing for Climate Justice Outside Biden’s Home

Demand for Joe to hear... Declare an end to fossil fuels... For life in future years.

By Ted GlickJanuary 2, 2023

Z Article

Source: @BXEAction


Happy New Year from Z Friend, Ted Glick and BeyondExtremeEnergy @BXEAction

A rain-soaked, straggly but passionate group of 8 climate justice activists, and a dog, singing directly in front of Joe Biden’s house in Wilmington, De. as 2022 turned into 2023. We begin singing at the 4 minute mark. And below are the words we sang, to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

Auld Biden Syne

Should old acquaintance with fossil fuels be finally put to an end,
And renewables accelerate, a green new deal amen.
A green new deal,
A green new deal,
Is what the country needs,
And here we are at Biden’s house,
Saying: climate emergency, lead.

Will Biden pledge to change our course
And serve all human kind
No fossil fuels, no klepto rule
Joe Biden, now’s the time
The time is here, for this new year
Emergency declare
The stewards of this earth come forth, so we leave a world to share

The time has sadly passed us by
To avert a major loss
But we cannot lie soundly by
As we see a rising cost
Our brethren facing droughts and floods
Our forests burned to dust
But every life that we can save
Confronts us as a must

For auld lang syne, my friends
For auld lang syne
We’ll breathe a draught of fresher air
If Biden heeds the science
We’ll breathe a draught of fresher air
Extinction be postponed
But Joe must first his conscience search
And strike a righteous tone

When all the science goes for naught and politicians jeer,
We stand up for our grandchildren and call for Joe to hear.
We call for Joe to hear us now
Demand for Joe to hear
Declare an end to fossil fuels
For life in future years.

U$A
On this day, massive raids during the Red Scare

January 2, 2023 | by NCC Staff
More in Constitution Daily Blog

The Constitution faced a major test on this day in 1920 when raids ordered by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer saw thousands of people detained without warrants merely upon general suspicion. This occurred during the “Red Scare” of the 1920s, a period of anti-Communist fervor in the United States.



Facilitated by a young Justice Department official, J. Edgar Hoover, what became known as the Palmer Raids peaked on the night of January 2, 1920, when between 3,000 and 10,000 people in 35 cities were detained on suspicion of sympathizing with Communists or anarchists.

Earlier raids were smaller and one led to the deportation of anarchist Emma Goldman. “A. Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General, personally directed the raids tonight in radical centers throughout the country,” reported the New York Tribune, repeating Justice Department statements. The department said the arrests were lawful because the suspects advocated the overthrow of the United States government. Specifically, the department said their alleged membership in the Communist Party or the Communist Labor Party qualified them for deportation, subject to final decisions made by immigration officials.

Prominent lawyers protested that the arrests were unconstitutional. A group of legal scholars including future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Ernst Freund, and Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound published a scathing critique of the raids, saying they lacked arrest warrants, directed officers to seize documents at will, and permitted unrestrained force. The newly formed American Civil Liberties Union was a sponsor of the critical report.

“For more than six months we, the undersigned lawyers, whose sworn duty it is to uphold the Constitution and Laws of the United States, have seen with growing apprehension the continued violation of that Constitution and breaking of those Laws by the Department of Justice of the United States government,” the group said.

“We are concerned solely with bringing to the attention of the American people the utterly illegal acts which have been committed by those charged with the highest duty of enforcing the laws - acts which have caused widespread suffering and unrest, have struck at the foundation of American free institutions, and have brought the name of our country into disrepute,” they argued, citing numerous Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, and Eighth Amendment violations.

Undeterred, Attorney General Palmer justified the actions on several grounds, including a planned insurrection in the United States on May 1, 1920. Palmer also had aspirations to run for President that year, and the Palmer Raids had been met with some popular support.

However, the Immigration Bureau led by Assistant Labor Secretary Louis Post dismissed many of the warrants that had been served. Palmer’s supporters in Congress attempted to have Post impeached, but that effort failed when Post’s testimony supported his actions.

On April 30, 1920, Palmer warned of assassination attempts against “more than a score” of government officials the next day. But on May Day, nothing happened, and Palmer lost momentum as a presidential candidate.

By January 1921, Palmer has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the lawyers who wrote the report. Freund told the Senate that for the first time in the United States history, “aliens lawfully in this country are proceeded against without violating any law, but solely on belief of opinion.” Another scholar, Edwin Borchard, demanded that the Senate investigate Palmer since he believed the Attorney General didn’t believe equal protection applied to aliens on American soil.

And in a February 1921 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a statement from Columbia Law Dean Harlan Stone called Palmer’s acts “lawless and subversive of constitutional liberty for citizens and aliens alike.”

Palmer left office in March 1921 when the Harding administration took over the White House. Today, his name is primarily associated with the controversial Palmer Raids and the Red Scare.

Enthusiastic crowds greet Mummers as they strut to bring in 2023 amid near perfect weather
2023/01/01

Philadelphia’ s Mummers Fancy division“ Fly Eagles Fly” strut in the 2023 parade on Jan. 1, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. - Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

PHILADELPHIA — Harrath Araissi, 47, is a native of Tunisia but lives in Fishtown and considers himself a true Philadelphian now — and the Mummers are as integral to the city as the Liberty Bell, he says.

"I come almost every year," Arraisi said as he pushed his son, Rayyan, 4, in a stroller at the Mummers Parade Sunday morning. "It's so much fun. It's part of Philly."

Arraisi attended in 2022, and said it was cold and the crowd was sparse. He noted the thousand more that lined Broad Street this year. He staked out a spot at Broad and Chestnut Streets.

Indeed, multiple Mummers said it appeared to be the largest crowd in years helped by springlike temperatures and sunny skies. Last year was marked by not only cold, but a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.

It also marked a renewal of the Mummers of sorts, with a new TV contract and an effort to diversify by moving away from racist and culturally insensitive themes as they strutted a little more than a mile down Broad, from City Hall to Washington Avenue.

Further putting parade-goers into a good mood: an afternoon Eagles game against the Saints just down the street. Many donned Eagles jerseys and hats as they brought in the New Year at the parade, yelling 'Go Birds!' or chanting 'E-A-G-L-E-S!'"

It was the first Mummers Parade for Christine Calenza, 31, of Conshohocken, and she held a sign proudly declaring so. Calenza attended with a group of eight people headed to Lincoln Financial Field to watch the Eagles take on the Saints at 1 p.m.

"Oh my God, it's been so much fun," Calenza said of the parade. "I'm almost sad I have to leave soon to go to the game. It's just been excellent, and the party is just getting started. The music, the costumes, the energy — everyone is so nice today, Not one single mean person in the crowd."

Ken and John Bispels, both Mummers from Northeast Philly, and with the O'Malley wench club, said the clubs and crowds were enjoying themselves for the first time in years without worrying about COVID-19.

"The weather is a big bonus," Ken Bispels said as some people walked by in shorts and shirtsleeves as temperatures rose into the upper 50s with almost no wind.
Carrying ashes

The Mummers tradition runs deep in Philly, often spanning generations.

Julie Leinhauser, treasurer of the Uptown String Band, toted the ashes of longtime Mummer Frank Carberry, who died last January at 91.

Leinhauser, 32, of Somerton, agreed to carry the ashes at the request of Carberry's Northeast Philly neighbor, former Inquirer sports reporter Bill Iezzi.

Iezzi said Carberry played the banjo for Uptown for about 25 years beginning in 1959. Carberry's wife, June, sent the ashes from Port St. Lucie, Fla., to Iezzi. Overall, Carberry was a Mummer for 60 years and played with three other string bands.

"I was supposed to spread his ashes along the parade route," said Iezzi, who had second thoughts about whether that would be appropriate in front of the crowd.

Leinhauser, dressed as an orangutan as part of the band's safari theme, carried the ashes in a bag in her pocket so she would be free to play the banjo and perform.

"I'm happy to do it," said Leinhauser, who joined Uptown in 2013 but did not know Carberry, who had already retired as a Mummer.

Iezzi retrieved the ashes at Washington Avenue with plans to bring them back next year.

"As long as I'm alive, Carberry will continue marching," Iezzi said. "He was one of my favorite neighbors."

'Give us gin'

Such devotion to the Mummers is not unusual.

The annual Mummers Parade traces itself as the oldest continuous folk parade held in the U.S., dating back 100 years or more before its first officially city-sanctioned parade in 1901. European immigrants first brought the tradition of informal mummery, sometimes strutting through city streets on either Dec. 26 or New Year's Day when they would carouse neighborhoods with skits while asking for food or drink, and reciting poems such as:

"Here we stand before your door, as we stood the year before; give us whiskey, give us gin, open the door and let us in" — hence, the tradition of South Philadelphians hosting open houses on New Year's Day.

The 10,000 or so participating mummers are organized by clubs in one of five divisions: Comic, Fancy, Wench, and String Band. The Fancy Brigades separately perform their elaborate shows inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Over the past week, groups rehearsed at the Mummers Museum, which opened in 1976 at Second Street and Washington Aveue in South Philly. The museum contains a collection of costumes, oral histories, video and audio archives, an instructional exhibit for the famed strut, and a gift shop.

Modernizing Mummers

There, Scott Brown hopes to breathe new life into the institution. Brown, retired from the military, and also a member, became executive director of the museum in July, along with an entirely new board.

Brown said membership to the museum, ranging in prices from $25 to $1,500, had dwindled to 27.

"We're all friends," Brown said of the board. "And we're all we have one good vision for the museum. We started the first ever membership drive. ... We've brought in over 400 new members."

Brown said there is also a lot more diversity to the parade than in the past as women and people of color now participate. The groups have been stung in the past by accusations of racism over costumes and themes, such as the use of black face.

Sammy Regalbuto, president of the Philadelphia Mummers String Band Association, and a vice president of Quaker City, said the divisions have been training with the city. As a result, Mummers have moved away from themes that involve ethnic groups and more toward the realm of fantasy, comic books, or movies.

Maita Soukup, a spokeswoman for Parks and Recreation, said the clubs "receive training in understanding cultural appropriation, rules of satire, LGBTQ cultural competence, and bias awareness. These trainings were developed and led by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) and the City of Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs."

A new TV contract

However, Regalbuto said the pandemic crimped the diversity outreach mummers had hoped for. He said the pandemic also hurt finances, as string bands, which depend on money from performances all year long, could not play.

"We're working hard to take it into a newer direction," Regalbuto said. "And I think people are starting to see the hard work."

A new TV contract to air the parade on WDPN-TV (MeTV2) is part of that direction, he said. PHL17 had broadcast the event for the past 32 years. The Mummers also found a new sponsor and partner in Live! Casino & Hotel.

The pandemic had also made it difficult for Mummers to gather — which they need to do within a week of the parade to start planning the next year's theme. Now, that's back on track. Within the next few weeks, the groups will gather, assess their recent performance, and then start forming committees for the 2024 parade.

"You have to move quickly and start developing right away," Regalbuto said. "You have to get your artists and your designers to draw pictures of costumes and characters so that you can start to develop the process. It takes months and months."

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(Former Inquirer writer Bill Iezzi contributed to this article.)

© The Philadelphia Inquirer

Horse Slaughter In Apache-Sitgreaves Forest Highlights Frictions, Concerns

January 1, 2023 Cronkite News

Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service.

By Sydnee Wilson

SPRINGERVILLE – At least 30 horses were found shot to death in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in October, highlighting the tensions among scientists, hunters, government agencies and horse advocates.

The Forest Service is helping investigate the deaths, but this isn’t the first time feral horses have been slaughtered on federal land.

Wild horses are protected by the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971. In the Apache-Sitgreaves forests, the horses in the Heber Wild Horse Territory in the Black Mesa District area on the Sitgreaves side are considered wild and are protected by the act. Horses in the Alpine Ranger District on the Apache side are considered feral or unauthorized, so they’re not federally protected. The Apache and Sitgreaves national forests were administratively combined in 1974 and are managed as one from Springerville. The Forest Service uses legal designations laid out by the act to distinguish between wild and feral horses in an area that stretches over 2 million acres.

Rob Lever, a detailed deputy forest supervisor for Apache-Sitgreave, said the classification has to do with location and timing. Horses present during the passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act are protected, but those that arrived after that or were born out there are considered unauthorized livestock and aren’t protected.

Horses aren’t native to North America. Spanish conquistadors brought them to the continent in the late 1400s, and feral populations grew from escaped animals. Although horses were an integral part of pioneer life, they’re an invasive species that some scientists consider hazardous to the environment.

The Wild Horse and Burro Act established that “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.”

Lever said the horses found dead in October are classified as feral and aren’t protected by this act, but may be protected by other laws.

“Wild livestock is somewhat protected by Arizona state statutes, as far as animal cruelty, etc.,” he said. “They’re not protected as far as living in that landscape by the Apache-Sitgreaves forest because they’re not native.”

Some groups want free-roaming horses protected at all costs, while others are more concerned with the well-being of the environment. Passion from both sides has the Forest Service caught in the crossfire.

“We understand this is an emotional issue for a lot of people,” Lever said. “We take it very seriously. There are Forest Service employees, myself included, that own horses. So it’s not something we think is OK as far as the killing of those animals.”

The Forest Service doesn’t have investigatory jurisdiction over unauthorized livestock, but it is assisting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find out who’s responsible for the most recent slaughter.

To prevent future incidents like this, Lever said the Forest Service is focusing on the removal of feral horses.

“The best thing we can do is round those animals up that don’t belong on that landscape and place them in the best homes we can,” he said.

Removal may not only prevent further shootings, but it’s also a part of the Forest Service’s efforts to restore and prevent the damage feral horses may have caused to the environment.

“We’re managing the habitat here in the National Forest and we have an unauthorized non-native species out there,” Lever said. “It’s adversely impacting the habitat.”

Lever said the Forest Service has been using gentle methods of removal, such as bait-trapping feral horses in big pens. They’re held for five days, then put up for sale in small groups.

Biologist Bob Vahle oversees the northeast part of the state, which includes the Apache-Sitgreaves forest, for the Arizona Wildlife Federation. Vahle worked closely with the Forest Service on horse management and habitat restoration in the area.

Vahle said feral horses overgraze rangelands, trample streambanks and compete with endangered species, including the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and the Apache trout. In addition, he said, feral horses have damaged multiple streams in the Apache-Sitgreaves forests.

“If those animals camp on those spots and they continually are utilized and don’t move off and let things stabilize or restore, then what happens is that all those stream banks start to break down,” Vahle said. “The stream starts to widen, and now the water in the streams essentially gets shallower, the temperatures go up, and now they become less inhabitable by trout or some of the aquatic species that depend on cool water or aquatic insects. So there’s kind of a domino effect that can happen just when you overgraze or over trample a particularly sensitive area like a riparian or stream area.”

Vahle said the feral horse killings might be happening because people see the damage these animals can cause.

“These are animals that are competing with native wildlife,” he said. “They may be competing with a permittee’s livestock … you think everybody loves horses, but I kind of take it in this situation, they’re looking at them as having impacts on habitat, impacts on the wildlife that they may like or impacts on maybe a rancher’s livelihood.”

Although feral horse populations have gotten out of control, Vahle said there are more humane ways to deal with the issue and that the Arizona Wildlife Federation doesn’t condone these killings.

“We do condone the humane treatment of the horses that are there, but we are supporting their removal,” he said. “They’re not native and they have not been formally designated as wild horses under the Wild Horse and Burro Act.”

The Forest Service and other agencies have had many difficulties dealing with the feral horse issue because of some advocates’ emotional attachment to horses, Vahle said.

Horse advocates and organizations like the American Wild Horse Campaign, Salt River Horse Management Group and Heber Wild Horses disagree that horses damage the environment. The groups are fighting to give free-roaming horses a place on Arizona public lands.

Betty Nixon of Heber has been fighting for the horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves for years. She said feral horses benefit the environment.

Horses “have incisors unlike domestic livestock that’s put in the forest to graze,” Nixon said.

“They actually have upper and lower incisors, so they nip off the grasses, they don’t destroy the root system,” she said. “Also they move and roam as they graze and nip off pieces of grass here and there so the grass is able to regrow without the root system being damaged.

“They don’t they don’t urinate and defecate in the water sources like domestic livestock do. Also, because of the way their digestive system is, the seed that they take in when they defecate throughout the forest, those seeds are in their dung and it seeds the forest. When they walk, they stir up bugs and rodents for birds, coyotes and other animals that are looking for food sources.

“They also break frozen water like very thick ice on the water sources. They break that so that smaller, weaker animals are able to drink in the wintertime.”

Nixon blamed the environmental damage in the Apache-Sitgreaves on hunters, off-road vehicles, cattle, wildfires and the Forest Service’s failure to clean up litter. Large swaths of land have been damaged by off-road vehicles, she said, and the Forest Service has never tried to stop this. She said the Forest Service has also failed to clean up barbed wire from fences that were damaged by snow or wildfires, which can snare and injure wildlife.

Hunters have also played a big part in the forest damage, Nixon said. Irresponsible target shooting has led to damaged trees and litter from leaving targets and shotgun shells behind that the Forest Service hasn’t cleaned up.

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In a comment to the Heber Wild Horse Territory Plan team, Nixon said, “while the Forest Service feigns concern for the health of the forest when it comes to the horses, they show no concern for the forest when it comes to damage and destruction caused by people.”

Nixon said that because of the damage caused by humans, the feral horses don’t need to be removed.

The Salt River Horse Management Group also opposes the removal of these horses. It’s working to purchase the feral horses that were removed and put up for sale in the Apache-Sitgreaves, and it urges those in charge of managing the horses to use humane birth control instead of selling them to potentially harmful owners.

Nixon also said the horses never should’ve been classified as feral or unauthorized, but that’s not the Forest Service’s fault.

“It goes back to 1971, the Forest Service never wanted to manage wild horses and so they failed to do an inventory of those horses over in Alpine,” Nixon said. “I believe that there is adequate evidence that there were wild horses in the area. Horses were a huge part of history in Arizona. … I don’t think that they ever should have been classified as unauthorized livestock, but that’s already been OKd and the Forest Service has to abide by the laws.”

Nixon submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to see how the Forest Service had set parameters for the Heber Wild Horse Territory and if it had counted the horses as laid out in the Wild Horse and Burro Act. Nixon said she couldn’t locate any documents relating to the boundaries, size and territory locations for wild horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves forest, or proof the Forest Service had taken inventory of the horses. Without an accurate tally of feral horses, the service can’t prove overpopulation, she said.

“Should they be removed? Well, they (Forest Service officials) have to prove that overpopulation and they haven’t done that at this point,” Nixon said. “They’ve never kept an inventory, they’re just now starting to keep an inventory because they have to. They were forced to by a judge.”

In 2005, the Animal Welfare Institute and other animal advocacy groups sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service and other government agencies for violating the Wild Horse and Burro Act as it relates to the Apache-Sitgreaves forest. The parties involved settled this case by creating more specific guidelines for the Forest Service to follow in rounding up feral horses and forcing officials to take inventory.

“The Forest Service has a lot of mandates to meet,” Lever said. “There’s always a conflict or can be a conflict between mandates that are given to us by Congress.”

Lever said rounding up feral horses and selling them is the best the Forest Service can do.

“We analyzed our approach to this,” he said. “We analyzed whether these were wild or not. It takes analysis before we do any of that, National Environmental Policy Act analysis. So we’ve done those things and we believe that this is the correct course of action.”

Nixon said all free-roaming horses should be protected under the language of the Wild Horse and Burro Act, adding that the Forest Service is violating the essence of the act.

“The Forest Service failed to follow both the letter and the spirit of the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act,” Nixon said in a comment to the Heber Wild Horse Territory Management Plan team.

Nixon said the Forest Service has failed the horses and the American people.

“They’re not only an Arizona treasure, but they’re a national treasure and they should be preserved as a national treasure,” she said.