Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Home sellers cut prices in July, bring national median down again; A surprising new way to get a little more fibre into your diet; Enemies leave a stronger impression than friends; and The Eagles take The Sphere out for another spin…

Let’s get into it!

A study presented at last week’s annual general meeting of the American Society for Nutrition looked into the differences in nutritional content between prebiotic sodas and more common beverages like regular soda, diet soda, fruit drinks, and flavoured sparkling water.

The researchers found that sodas containing prebiotic fiber, probiotics, or a combination of both typically contained more fiber than the commonly purchased beverages.

On average, a prebiotic soda has 35 calories, five grams of sugar, and five grams of fiber per 12 ounces. That averages out to less sugar, fewer calories, and more fiber compared to regular sodas and fruit juice.

For years, soda consumption was in steady decline as consumers radically shifted away from excess added sugar, and consciously began looking for healthier options. The rise of prebiotics and probiotics has helped reverse the trend, creating a $777 million market that’s currently one of the fastest growing beverage categories.

“Prebiotics are types of fiber that are used by bacteria in the gut as a source of energy,” explains Carlos R. Soto Díaz, a study co-author and researcher in the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. “For this reason, prebiotic sodas typically contain added fiber, which also serves as the basis for their prebiotic and gut health marketing claims.”

Several incidents have been reported recently involving AI agents proactively breaking out of their testing environments or hacking into other AI codebases, all while trying to cover their tracks.

While problematic, those in the industry insisted those actions incidents weren’t as apocalyptic as they may have seemed to the average onlooker.

However, the most recent incident may be something to raise the alarm over, because it took place on the public internet—intentionally—rather than in the testing environment where AI agents are meant to remain.

Testers gave Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model access to the public internet and some say it was the definition of opening Pandora’s Box. Despite it’s advanced capabilities, it’s usually pretty limited, because there’s not much it can do in a staging environment.

On the public internet, it’s whole other ballgame, and according to Britain’s AI Security Institute, both Anthropic agents and OpenAI agents were found intentionally using deceptive tactics in order to accomplish the things they were prompted to do.

In one instance, an agent tried to hack into a simulated corporate network by asking a human engineer to input a malicious line of code in the network’s codebase. It made this request using a fabricated bug report, and when it eventually detected people were onto it, it began trying to cover its tracks.

According to a study published recently in Communications Psychology, our minds don’t just remember people, but relationships and stories as well, which serve to contextualize who other people are and what they mean to us.

The researchers recruited 21 college students and had them watch the first six episodes of the television show Suits. They scanned their brains beforehand, while looking at photos of the eight characters featured regularly on the show.

After watching, they were asked to evaluate the personalities and relationships of several pairs of characters making up the eight, and had their brains scanned again while doing so.

The researchers found the mind used narrative and storytelling as a way of understanding the characters, including who was a friend, a villain, or an antagonist.

They also found when it comes to friendships versus antagonistic relationships, the latter leaves a much stronger impression on the region of the brain where such data is stored.

The Vegas Sphere may not be a hotel, and it’s certainly not in California, but the Eagles appear to be learning something very clear about the venue: you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

The band has once again added additional shows at the Sphere, with four set for Jan. 15, 16, 22, and 23, 2027. Presale tickets go on sale on Aug. 12, and the general public sale begins on Aug. 14.

The Eagles already have the longest-running residency at the iconic venue, and if the new shows actually end up being the final four, the residency will wrap up at 72 concerts. The first ones took place in Sept. 2024.

Don Henley said in an interview earlier this year that 2026 would likely be the end of the road for the Eagles.

However, according to a press release announcing the new dates, they were added to address “overwhelming demand,” seemingly suggesting that not only will the Eagles not be done at the end of 2026, but could continue playing well into 2027.

Sing it loud and proud

You might need to get those pipes ready, because it’s time for another round of guess the lyric, with today’s trivia 🎤 🎶 

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Number of foreign buyers purchasing U.S. homes plummets; Understanding why we laugh; and what’s with all the doctored bird photos…🤔

Let’s get into it!

Despite the thousands of cultural differences between peoples on earth, there are plenty of universally-expressed and universally-understood common denominators, including laughter.

No matter where you go in the world, what someone is feeling when they’re laughing is more or less interpreted correctly. It’s what makes stand up comedy such an honest form of art; the audience evaluates it in real time, and that evaluation can’t be faked.

In the hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, the causes of laughter have basically remained the same, though the neurological mechanisms that control it have evolved, too.

A study called “The Neural Basis of Laughter,” published in Trends in Neurosciences, identified two separate neurological systems that produce laughter. One is responsible for emotion, play, bonding, and primal social instincts, and the other is almost born out of social instincts, relating to conversation, timing, manners, and voluntary control.

The latter is particularly interesting; it’s almost a microcosm of the evolved human capacity for consciousness, defined by our ability to make choices—to think about our thoughts, if you will. Recognizing that a social situation calls for laughter as an expression of friendliness and mood-setting is very different from the instinctive and involuntary reaction to finding something funny.

There’s always been tension between the constitutional right to privacy in Western democracies, and a government’s mandate to defend the country from threats, both foreign and domestic.

That tension has been steadily growing since the birth of the internet, kicked into overdrive after 9/11, and has been almost irreconcilable since smartphones went mainstream.

The federal prosecution of Atlanta-based police-militarization activist Sam Tunick could be a watershed moment in the battle between privacy and security. He was detained at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta in January of last year on what the Department of Homeland Security said was suspicion he possessed sexually exploitative images of children.

The crime he’s accused of, however, is violating a rarely-used federal statute that prohibits the destruction of property to prevent it from being seized. Tunick’s Google Pixel phone had an operating system installed called GrapheneOS, which allows the user to enter a PIN that wipes the phone’s entire contents when trying to unlock it.

The case’s first hearing happened last week, and it will likely be several months before any further developments occur.

Birders enjoy watching these magnificent winged creatures for the sake of their magnificence, but the mark of a true successful day is finding a bird in a place one wouldn’t normally expect to.

Schemers on the internet know this, and have been using AI to alter images that make it look like rare birds have been found in wildly unlikely habitats.

That’s the worst example of the growing problem of AI-altered bird photos. At the same time, the zone is being flooded with less-suspect, but equally fake images that have been subtly filtered to enhance the apparent quality of the photograph. For example, someone can upload a photo on ChatGPT and ask it to remove a leaf that’s slightly blocking the outstretched wing of a heron, and then publish the altered image.

A recently-penned article in the journal Nature described the situation.

“My experience of looking at Facebook these days is that a huge volume of wildlife photos now are simply AI-generated imagery,” said Dr Alexander Lees, an ecologist at Manchester Metropolitan University who authored the journal article.

“The idea that we could maybe use those photos to help us understand where species are in space and time is very difficult.”

Metal bands live every day subconsciously begging the metal gods not to make it the day they have their Spinal Tap moment.

In the case of Judas Priest, that day arrived on Aug. 19, 1991 in Toronto, when their frontman Rob Halford (ironically nicknamed the metal god) took a spill off his motorcycle while driving onto the stage, knocking himself unconscious, and resulting in the band playing the entire first song without any vocals, unaware that Halford was even on the stage.

“That was a horrible moment, really,” former Priest guitarist K.K. Downing told BraveWords in a recent interview. “It’s a big outdoor venue. And from the stage to the dressing rooms it was a car ride. [W]e couldn’t find the car keys to start off, and we were late getting in the car.

“And so…they started the intro tape when we were still driving to the stage…[W]e didn’t get to the stage in time.”

“[A] set of stairs in the middle of the stage [were meant to] kind of rise up, and then Rob [was to] ride the motorbike out onto the stage. But the stairs didn’t go high enough, and Rob drove out and collided with the stairs and knocked himself out.

“By this time we got the guitars, we went on stage, but there was dry ice and smoke…we didn’t know Rob was on the stage, because he was flat out. So we played the first song without any vocals!”

Halford ultimately got up and played the gig, but unbeknownst to anyone at the time, it would be his last with Priest for 14 years.

Hot ticket

Have you ever thought about how many big movies came out in August during the ‘80s? If you need a refresher, just check out today’s August ’80s blockbuster trivia 🎥 😎 

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. 

Let’s get into it!

A study conducted by Yanolja Research in conjunction with Purdue University and Kyung Hee University informed what’s called the Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index. It was designed to determine if the degree to which tourists find cities attractive can be quantified scientifically.

The methodology involved looking at the “cognitive awareness” of popular tourist destinations, evaluating the visibility and how “top of mind” each city was, along with each place’s “affective attractiveness.” This was measured by scoring the overall memorability and enjoyability of each destination.

The scoring system was constructed by compiling a list of 419 words and phrases related to travel, and categorized them based on urban aesthetics and natural scenery, culture or history, experiential tourism, and hospitality.

"The 2026 index shows that the most competitive tourism cities are no longer simply the most visited or most heavily promoted places,” said Dr. SooCheong (Shawn) Jang, Professor at Purdue University and Director of Yanolja Research. “They are cities that successfully convert global awareness into emotionally meaningful visitor experiences.”

The following were the top ten cities overall:

• 1. New York, USA

• 2. Paris, France

• 3. Osaka, Japan

• 4. Kyoto, Japan

• 5. Seoul, South Korea

• 6. London, U.K.

• 7. Rome, Italy

• 8. Bangkok, Thailand

• 9. Okinawa, Japan

• 10. Chicago, US

  
  

Social media can be a cesspool of clickbait, but every now and then, something posted with the sole intention of getting clicks actually has scientific validity—similar to how even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

In the case of sleep advice content, a technique that helps cool the body down and usher in a blissful sleep state has gone viral over the last week.

“You’re putting your hands up in the air. Your feet ideally should be flat to the floor,” sleep therapist Amanda Jewson told CTV Your Morning the other day.

“Gently move them…for about one to two minutes. Slowly place the arms to the side. And then you move straight to bed and voila, you go to sleep.”

What she was referring to was a technique that’s at least 100 years old, originating in Japan. Its designed to draw heat towards the body’s extremities; more specifically, to draw it away from the core. A 1999 study confirmed when the core is cooled off and circadian rhythms are in sync, a person can almost automatically fall asleep.

Therapy dogs are some of the most beloved creatures on the planet, demonstrating a capacity for empathy that many humans could learn from.

For all the work they do, though, the most resources are focused on recording how the human companion is progressing while working with their furry friend. Perhaps understandable, but it begs the question: does anyone ever think to ask how the dog is doing?

The Pawsitive Connections Lab at the University of Saskatchewan is doing just that through the work of Dr. Colleen Dell, who studies what’s going through the dog’s head while performing therapy tasks.

“All that we’re doing here can also translate to everybody’s home in the relationship that we have with dogs and other pets in our home: really recognizing who they are and what their likes and their wants and their needs are; that they have feelings too,” shared Dell.

The lab also just secured a multi-million dollar grant that will go towards furthering Dell’s research into the puppy perspective.

“Part of our larger grant is to begin to understand how it is that we account for the animal’s perspective. So, we have the dogs going out, say, to visit in hospice. How I need to be very in tune, as does any other therapy dog handler, of how I know if she’s comfortable, if this is somewhere where she wants to be,” she said.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day shattered box office records this past weekend, opening with a U.S. and Canada gate of $360 million, eclipsing the previous opening weekend record of $357 million set by Avengers: Endgame.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the king of the silver screen these days, with Endgame in 2019 overtaking the record previously held by Avatar. Endgame still holds plenty of other records, including the fastest film to reach $1 billion in global sales (currently under threat), and the highest-grossing film ever made.

There could be a brand new sheriff in town though when it comes to some of these records, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s momentum isn’t slowing down.

Furthermore, the latest instalment of the Spidey saga is contending with Chris Nolan’s immensely popular The Odyssey. Not only were they released just two weeks apart, but the epic poem adaptation has also boxed Spider-Man out of IMAX showings, which could have helped put more space between it and Endgame.

Actors Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal certainly aren’t complaining, though. Can you think of the last time two actors both appeared in a single summer’s top two blockbuster movies? We’re stumped!

Which came first?

We’ve got an interesting one for you today, Staker. We’ll be testing your memory and quizzing you on of which TV event came first, with today’s trivia 😏 📺️ 

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Big box retailers and ecommerce giants biggest winners in GLP-1 sales; Airfare costs likely to remain elevated; New study identifies therapeutic target for treating Alzheimer’s; Solar storms create a wrinkle for Mars exploration; and how your mindset can reframe aging…🤔

Let’s get into it!

A study published by researchers at the University of Minnesota in Nature Neuroscience identified a type of protein that could be the key to new therapeutic treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

The main two culprits normally targeted when treating the neurodegenerative disease are amyloid proteins and tau tangles, which slowly destroy the axons that form neural pathways, before killing the neurons themselves.

The researchers found a type of mitochondrial plaque that may form independently of, but in tandem with, the amyloid proteins that typically represent what physicians look for in early-stage assessments.

"This discovery identifies mitochondrial plaques as a previously unrecognized feature of Alzheimer's disease," said Paul Robbins, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "By understanding how these plaques form and contribute to disease progression, we may be able to develop new strategies to slow or even prevent Alzheimer's disease."

Research presented at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting revealed the previously undiscovered intensity of solar storms on the Red Planet, and how they would make human exploration of it more difficult.

The research was conducted to investigate what happened to NASA’s Opportunity rover after it stopped communicating on June 10, 2018. It was known that it likely died in an intense dust storm, which is a common weather event on Mars.

What the researchers didn’t know prior to the study was how dust storms can be dramatically intensified by the climatological effects of solar storms.

Mars has a weak magnetosphere and extremely thin atmosphere, meaning solar storms have a significant impact on the planet, including during dust storms.

“Dust storms were not originally part of our investigation, so finding one happening at the same time as the heating was unexpected,” Lancaster University physicist Lana Williams, who studies Martian space and atmospheric plasma dynamics, said in a statement. 

Dust storms are unbelievably chaotic on Mars on a good day. The charged particles at high Martian altitudes picked up by the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter suggest the solar-infused dust storms could present difficulties, both in landing on Mars and exploring it.

There are physical realities that come with aging that no amount of mental positivity can contend with. Father time may get the last laugh…but he doesn’t have to be the only one.

As long as there’s breath in your lungs, electricity in your heart, and a lightbulb on upstairs, nothing can stop the will of the human spirit except the human him or herself.

This is the mentality of psychologist Carol Dweck, who introduced the idea of adopting a growth mindset over a fixed mindset at any age in order to harness control over and take of advantage of one’s own wellbeing.

Some examples of having a fixed mindset include: “I’m too old to start exercising”'; “I’m too old to make new friends”; “my memory isn’t what it used to be.”

In each of these cases, the person is surrendering control of their journey to father time.

Why are you too old to make new friends? Do you enjoy friendly relationships and companionship? Go get some more.

Do you want your mind to be sharp? Eat well, exercise, sleep right, and socialize.

Do you like being strong and nimble? Strength and flexibility can be cultivated at any age.

The reality is we’re all on the long road to the same destination, but how fast you drive, what car you’re driving, and who’s riding shotgun are all choices made by the person at the wheel. 💪

Fine in ‘79

We’re throwing it back to this week in 1979, quizzin’ you on the top of the charts and the top of the box office with today’s trivia 😎 

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Inflation is still too high and savings are down; Understanding the pros and cons of carbs; and get ready for a super deluxe version of Rubber Soul… 🎵

But first, our weekly poll!

For decades, marketing campaigns and pseudo-nutritionists have successfully led a large slice (pardon the pun) of the population to believe carbohydrates are the enemy. While some carb-containing foods are less healthy, there are also plenty that should be incorporated into any nutritious diet.

Carbs are, after all, our primary source of fuel, and the right kind can have a positive impact on digestive, cardiovascular, and general gut health, just to name a few.

A study published in the Journal of the American Nutrition Association looked into how misaligned the general public actually is with the scientific realities. The researchers surveyed 1,438 nutrition experts and everyday consumers, asking for their thoughts on carbs and various carb-containing foods.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found a sizeable difference of opinion between the experts and general public in 85% of the questions asked.

A major part of the disconnect lies in a lopsided distribution of mixed messages. In other words, the truth about the complexity of carbs hasn’t gotten through over the easy-to-understand assertion that people should “cut back on carbs.” When most people hear the simple take, they ultimately conclude anything with carbs is bad.

In reality, the body needs carbs to function. Consuming them in the form of whole grains, fibre, and coupled with protein and other important macronutrients are just some ways of laying a foundation for a healthy and balanced diet.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, and found global levels of malnourishment have fallen back below 8% for the first time since the COVID pandemic drove a spike in global hunger.

The FAO found 7.8% of the world’s population is considered malnourished, which still represents hundreds of millions of people, but is an almost miraculously-low number compared to in the 1970s, when around 35% of people living outside North America and Europe were living in hunger.

Southeast Asia and Central Asia have been the greatest success stories since 2010, where levels of malnourishment have fallen from 11.6% to 5.1% and 7.7% to 2.8%, respectively.

Chief among the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals was the commitment to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. While not fully achieved, it was cut in half between 2000 and 2015 compared to levels in the 1990s. Over a billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty, driven largely by the industrialization and development of societies previously unincorporated into the global village.

According to the FAO’s report, global malnourishment is expected to drop to the lowest rate in recorded human history by the end of the decade.

The number of adults over 60 being defrauded for $10,000 or more has multiplied by 4x since 2020. It’s a rapidly growing criminal practice, and one way of insulating oneself from such schemes is to have a scam script.

Scam scripts are simple prepared statements that stop the fraud in their tracks. The most common tactics for frauds targeting older adults are to speak with urgency and to prey on emotions.

For example, grandparent scams typically involve the impersonation of the person’s child or grandchild using AI, usually speaking in a panic about an immediate need for money. A scam script in this case would involve remaining calm as the person finishes whatever they’re saying, and replying, “thank you, I’m going to call you back directly at the number I have.”

The benefit of a scam script is it eliminates the need to think fast while also likely dealing with the influence of emotion. It disarms the key components of a fraud’s arsenal, very likely saving thousands of dollars in the process when the threat is legitimate.

Other examples include, “I don’t provide personal information over the phone,” “please mail this to me if it’s that important,” “I’m going to call the [bank, government agency, etc.] back at the number I have for them,” and simply, “thank you; goodbye.”

Rubber Soul was recorded in four weeks between October and November of 1965 so that it could be released just ahead of Christmas.

It was the first Beatles album cover to not actually feature the band’s name—a risk for probably any other band, but not one that had become, as John Lennon infamously said the following year, “more popular than Jesus.”

The album cover simply featured the title and a psychedelic-looking photo of the four members of the band. The somewhat warped appearance of the picture was actually an accident, caused by the photo projection card tilting backwards during a viewing session with the band’s longtime photographer, Robert Freeman.

The album hit number one in the U.K. within weeks of its debut, and held the spot for seven weeks after that. On this side of the pond, it reached number one about a month after debuting, and held the spot for five weeks on an altogether run of 56 weeks on the charts.

61 years later, it’s as popular as ever, and on Oct. 2, the band will release a mega-deluxe version of Rubber Soul. It will contain four CDs, five LPs, and an 88-page hardbound book containing an intro by Paul McCartney, and a foreword containing words by John Lennon.

Quizmaster’s choice

It’s Friday, so you know what we’ve got for you today. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that with another round of à la carte, for today’s trivia! 😎 

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Consumer confidence fell again for third consecutive month; Mixologists have found a new way to combat mosquitoes; The more we use AI, the less trustworthy it becomes; and Tony Iommi has a new solo album coming…

Let’s get into it!

A new study suggests the common mosquito repellant DEET has, over time, accidentally trained the insects to “associate [it] with a blood meal using Pavlovian conditioning,” according to the researchers.

In other words, DEET is likely having the exact opposite impact it’s intended to have, making alternatives all the more important during the height of mosquito season.

Tamworth Distilling in New Hampshire may have come up with an effective and wildly creative solution in the form of a whiskey-based cocktail enhancer, cleverly called Skeeter’s.

It’s intended to be poured out of the metal can and into the atomizer before being sprayed atop a readymade cocktail. The key ingredient is called nootkatone, which is a naturally occurring citrusy sesquiterpenoid chemical, and while it’s enjoyable to humans, it’s often deadly to pests.

“When nootkatone binds to receptors in the insect octopamine receptor pathway, they are sent into potentially deadly spasms, and the plant lives for another day,” said Matt Power, head distiller at Tamworth Distilling, who described the chemical as “deliciously versatile” with the “deep rosy notes of grapefruit.”

According to the product description on the distillery’s website, “the only buzz you should be dealing with is the one in your cocktail.”

The Bentley University-Gallup Survey tracks the general public’s sentiment towards AI, and in the years since it began in 2023, a trend has developed; the more familiar people become with AI, the less they seem to trust it.

39% of respondents said they think AI does more harm than good in this year’s survey, up from 31% last year. 47% of those between 18 and 29 feel that way, which is significantly higher than the 27% of young people who felt that way in 2024.

Almost 70% of respondents said they are somewhat or very knowledgeable about AI, up from 64% last year.

At the same time, nearly 75% said their level of trust in companies to use the technology responsibly is either “not much” or “not at all.”

In fact, when it comes to AI in the workplace, public opinion is trending towards unanimity, with 79% of respondents saying they believe it will cause the overall number of jobs to shrink. That number has risen every year since the tracking poll began, and the number rises to 84% when accounting just for respondents between 45 and 59 years old.

The photo above is a massive impact crater, yet it’s only a tiny fraction the size of the crater left by the dinosaur-eradicating rock that struck Earth 66 million years ago.

A new study conducted by researchers at Purdue University and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences found the blast from the impact was so large, it ejected 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock into the planet’s atmosphere, most of which turned to dust and formed a nearly-impermeable cloud above the entire planet for years and perhaps even decades.

This was like the greenhouse effect on steroids—like a lid on top of a pot full of boiling water.

“That much kinetic energy has to go somewhere and eventually it is converted to heat,” said lead author Brandon Johnson. “With the dust cloud trapping thermal radiation, it was like the surface and everything on it was being charbroiled.”

In fact, the study suggests the dust was likely the most lethal aspect of the entire extinction-level event.

“Without the dust cloud, it would have been bad. It would have killed a lot of creatures. But it wouldn’t have been a planetary catastrophe,” said Johnson.

The human riff machine Tony Iommi is back at work a year after saying goodbye to Black Sabbath and the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne.

The guitarist announced his new solo album From the Dark will be out everywhere on Oct. 23. The announcement also included a music video for the album’s first single, World Alone, which you can view here.

He made the announcement on a live stream yesterday held from his home in Birmingham, England, revealing the record will contain eight brand new songs, and two bonus features of 2022’s Scent of Dark and 2024’s Deified, both of which were initially released as singles.

The mighty Jorn Lande features as the vocalist on the album. Known for his frequent appearances with supergroup Avantasia, as well as projects with Russell Allen, the band Masterplan, and Yngwie Malmsteen, Lande is one of the most versatile and powerful tenor metal voices in the game.

Iommi and Lande have collaborated before, most famously during a tribute to Ronnie James Dio they played together with Geezer Butler in 2010 shortly after Dio passed away.

First in line

You’ll know all these albums, but will you know which one came before the others? Find out, with today’s which-album-came-first trivia 🎶