Via National Geographic: ‘It’s one thing to have a tolerant meeting with a wild wolf that goes on for a matter of minutes. But this went on for six years, so we got to know this wolf, whom we came to call Romeo, as an individual. And he got to know us and our dogs.

For want of a better word, the only thing I can say from a human perspective is that it amounted to friendship. If you wanted to be scientifically correct, it would be “social mutual tolerance.” But it was more than that. The wolf would come trotting over to say hi, and give a little bow and a relaxed yawn, and go trotting after us when we went skiing. There was no survival benefit. He obviously just enjoyed our company.’

Via Big Think: ‘Scientist running the world’s biggest physics experiment — the Large Hadron Collider located in Geneva, Switzerland — will soon begin trials that will test for the presence of alternate universes existing in different dimensions of hyperspace.Since detecting the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle, which explains how matter originally obtained mass, the collider has been shut down for two years while undergoing renovations. When it reopens, it will be able to reach energy levels higher than ever before: 13 tera electron volts (TeV). The Higgs boson was discovered at levels of 5.3 TeV.

Sergio Leone

Via Open Culture: ‘Trust a genre-loving auteur like Quentin Tarantino (and one who made his very own Django a few years back) to know Spaghetti westerns inside and out. While even those of us who never turn down the chance to enjoy a good Spaghetti western might struggle to name ten of them, Tarantino can easily run down his personal top twenty:

• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
• For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)
• Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
• The Mercenary (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
• A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964)
• Day of Anger (Tonino Valerii, 1967)
• Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroni, 1967)
• Navajo Joe (Sergio Corbucci,1966)
• The Return of Ringo (Duccio Tessar, 1965)
• The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966)
• A Pistol for Ringo (Duccio Tessari, 1965)
• The Dirty Outlaws (Franco Rossetti, 1967)
• The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
• The Grand Duel (Giancarlo Santi, 1972)
• Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead (Giuseppe Vari, 1971)
• Tepepa (Giulio Petroni, 1968)
• The Ugly Ones (Eugenio Martin, 1966)
• Viva Django! (Ferdinando Baldi, 1967)
• Machine Gun Killers (Paolo Bianchini, 1968)

You can watch all the trailers of these Spaghetti western masterpieces in the playlist…, created by The Spaghetti Western Database.’

This is a revelation for me. I have always loved Sergio Leone’s films, but I am excited to learn that there is a rich body of work of at least five or six other auteurs of the genre waiting for me out there!

Via The Psychologist: ‘Over the past 25 years the pace of progress in neuroscience research has been extraordinary, with advances in both understanding and technology. We might expect that this would stimulate improved understanding and treatment of mental health problems, yet in general this has not been the case. In fact, our standard treatment approaches have barely changed in decades, and still fail many people suffering from mental distress.’