The question remains

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 😏 📺️