Straight vs queer: Who does the housework?

McKinsey researchers looked at who bears the greater domestic burden in dual career couples—30,000 people who were opposite-gender and over 900 same-gender couples, both with and without children. They discovered absolutely nothing new about straight couples… women still do most of the housework, but men think they do their fair share etc.  But there was a huge difference when the partners were in same-sex relationships:

“Same-gender partners were significantly less likely to feel one person had to ‘downshift’ their career after having children… Same-gender couples appear to value both careers, beyond how much money they brought in, the researchers noted. Same-gender couples’ ‘approach to household responsibilities often reflects a deep, abiding assumption each partner’s career is equally important—irrespective of who’s the breadwinner,’ the authors wrote.”

Quartz has more on this illuminating study.

Russia vs Ukraine: The latest update

Contrary to its claims, Russia has added 7,000 troops to its forces along the border—or so says the US. British intelligence issued a rare statement citing sightings of additional armoured vehicles, helicopters and a field hospital moving towards borders. NATO is drawing up plans for new combat units to be deployed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Meanwhile, Ukraine is holding unity drills to keep morale up. The big picture as per Washington officials: “Every indication we have now is they mean only to publicly offer to talk, and make claims about de-escalation, while privately mobilising for war.” (Reuters)

A breakthrough cure for HIV

A New York City woman who received a stem cell transplant using umbilical cord blood seems to have been cured of the disease. This is the first case of its kind. Why this matters: “Cord blood is more widely available than the adult stem cells used in the bone marrow transplants that cured the previous two patients, and it does not need to be matched as closely to the recipient.” (New York Times)

In other good medical news: A comprehensive review by UK health authorities found that being vaccinated greatly reduces the risk of long Covid—including medium—or long-term symptoms such as fatigue, headache, persistent muscle pain, hair loss, shortness of breath, loss of smell or scarring of the lungs. Also this:

“There is also evidence that unvaccinated people with long Covid who were subsequently vaccinated had, on average, reduced long Covid symptoms, or fewer long Covid symptoms than those who remained unvaccinated.”

In other Covid-related news: According to a new study, the number of deaths in India is between 6-8X the official count. The total: between 3.2 million and 3.7 million people by November 2021. The official tally: around 509,000. (The Telegraph)

Arif Khan exits Beijing

India’s sole representative at the Winter Olympics was unable to complete his first race in the men's slalom event. This was the second event for Khan—who finished 45th of 89 competitors in giant slalom on Sunday. This is the end of the Olympics for Khan. (ESPN)

NASA issues SpaceX warning

The agency has submitted a letter to telecommunications authorities in the US warning against the company’s planned launch of 30,000 second-generation satellites. One big concern: severe congestion in low orbits close to Earth—which increases the risk of collisions. NASA also warned of possible threats to the International Space Station and potentially astronauts. Translation: too much traffic leads to a greater number of accidents. (Wall Street Journal or BGR)

Speaking of Elon Musk: who owns SpaceX, he is in the news for all the right reasons: for donating nearly $6 billion worth of Tesla shares to charity last year. This makes him the second-biggest donor after Bill and Melinda Gates who gave $15 billion the same year. But here’s the mystery: No one knows which cause or organisation was the beneficiary of such lavish generosity. (New York Times)

Speaking of space: Virgin Galactic announced plans to sell tickets to the general public on its space flights. The going price: $450,000 plus a $150,000 deposit. A thousand tickets will be available later this year. (USA Today)

This is your daily wine quota…

A UK study of the sugar content of 30 different bottles of wine shows that drinking just two medium glasses is enough to hit the recommended daily quota of 30 grams. And those two glasses contain more calories than a McDonald’s burger. FYI: none of the wines displayed their sugar content—and only 20% showed how many calories they contain. (Sky News) 

Bollywood enters the metaverse

The production house Pooja Entertainment bought virtual land for around $5,000 in Cryptovoxels. Dubbed Poojaverse, offers a movie-theatre-like experience and will host the upcoming ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff. It will be the first Hindi film to be screened in the metaverse. Forbes has more details. The trailer is a bit underwhelming, TBH.

Speaking of entertainment: The first season of ‘Super Pumped’ has not aired as yet, and has already been renewed. Likely reason for this excess enthusiasm: It focuses on all the biggest tech titans. The first season—subtitled ‘The Battle For Uber’—stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as CEO Travis Kalanick, alongside Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington and Hank Azaria as Apple's Tim Cook. The second season is all about ‘Sheryl & Mark’—as in Sandberg and Zuckerberg. We can’t wait to see who they cast for that one. Sadly, this is a Showtime production and unavailable in India unless you have a VPN. Well, at least we can enjoy the trailer for season one. (Mashable)

Three things to see

One: UK authorities have banned this gratuitously sexualised ad for a t-shirt sold by the fast fashion retailer BooHoo. And their reasoning was impeccable:

“We noted that neither the partial nudity nor the bikini bottoms were relevant to the product and that the images did not show the product as it would usually be worn. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad objectified and sexualised women. It was therefore irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.”

FYI: We’re showing you the ad only so you know exactly what they cracked down on—and more power to them. (The Guardian)

Two: New Zealand scientists have discovered a baby ghost shark—a species of fish found in the depths of the ocean. Ghost sharks are rarely seen and their young are even more elusive. Well, it’s not exactly a looker. (BBC News)

Three: The trailer for the sequel to the ‘Downton Abbey’ film just dropped—and it has some new masala elements: A Hollywood movie production plus a villa in the south of France.