Germany were struck by the curse of the champions as they crashed out of FIFA World Cup 2018 after a humiliating 0-2 defeat to South Korea at Kazan in their final Group F match.This is the third successive World Cup where the defending champions crashed out in the first round. In 2010, Italy were knocked out in the group stages while Spain bowed out of the group stages in 2014.In the final frantic minutes in front of 41,835 flabbergasted fans, Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min finished off Joachim Loew’s Germany side with two stoppage-time goals to condemn them to finishing bottom of the group on three points.The Germans, who have won four World Cups and finished runners-up four times, entered this year’s tournament heavily backed to retain their title.Instead, they will head home after a scarcely believable failure, having been unable to break down the South Koreans and after a shock 1-0 loss to Mexico in their opening group match.MATCH HIGHLIGHTSLoew struggled to explain it.”I cannot say why this was for us,” he told reporters. “It was a bit of overconfidence ahead of Mexico – that we can press the button and win.”It turned sour. I must take responsibility for this. The entire German football lost, the team lost. A lot of things we built up since 2006, always at least (a) semi-final. We have to apologise for that.”The South Koreans, who had no idea of the score in the other match, rejoiced as if having won the tournament, while 11 German players hoped the ground would swallow them.advertisementSweden won the group after thrashing Mexico 3-0 to also deny South Korea a spot in the knockout stages.Once the Swedes had taken the lead in their concurrent match, the equation grew grim for Germany.Loew sprung changes after the break, bringing on Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller, who was dropped from the starting side, but a collective paralysis seemed to have taken hold.FREE HEADEROffered a free header from close in with minutes left on the clock, Mats Hummels missed the ball completely, a perfect snapshot of an afternoon of serial ineffectiveness going forward.”We believed until the end even with the 0-1 (deficit) we tried to turn it but we could not score,” said Hummels, after Germany became the tournament’s third champions in succession to go out at the group stage.”We had a lot of chances, even me I should have scored in the 87th (minute).”Today it was not easy but, yes, no team could get through easily.”Toni Kroos, the hero in the 2-1 win over Sweden, tried desperately to spark his side in the second half but was denied by South Korea’s Cho Hyun-woo in the 88th minute, one of a number of fine saves by the keeper.”We were playing for the Korean people,” said Cho, a cult figure at home for his ostentatious, orange bouffant.”It was only after the match that we found out the other score, of course we were disappointed and thats why some of us cried.”Kim Young-gwon broke the deadlock in added time when he found himself alone in front of goal after a corner and poked the ball home from close range.2018 FIFA WORLD CUP: FULL COVERAGE The goal was ruled out offside on field but confirmed by use of the Video Assistant Referee.South Korean celebrations went up another notch when Son sprinted to retrieve a long ball, and with Germany’s captain and keeper Manuel Neuer having gone upfield to try to help his side score, the Tottenham forward fired a low shot into the net to wrap up the win and leave the Germans distraught.”We need to congratulate our opponents,” Loew said.”We didnt deserve to win the title again, we didnt deserve to get into the last 16. We wanted to win but we didnt have what it takes.”The four-time winners, who had not been eliminated in a World Cup first round since 1938, were a shadow of their once dominant selves, managing only two goals in their three group games.Before today, the Germans had not been eliminated in a World Cup first round in 80 years, had a scrappy first half and almost gifted Korea a goal when keeper Manuel Neuer spilled a free kick in the 19th minute but recovered to slap the ball away.FIXTURES | POINTS TABLEAll Germany needed was to score one goal to get ahead of Mexico and consolidate a last-16 berth. But there was none of that late magic from Toni Kroos.advertisement It was a miserable afternoon for German fans who saw their World Cup dreams slip away. Sweden finished group toppers while Mexico finished second.Remarkably, Korean hopes of reaching the round of 16 were still alive despite losses in their first two matches – they had to beat Germany by two goals and hoped Mexico would beat Sweden.At the end of the day, while South Korea did win by two goals, Sweden were just too good for the Mexicans.(With inputs from Reuters)
Testing chimps in Tanzania over decades suggests personality types are stable
Jane Goodall is among the most famous researchers in the world today, still nearly a half-century after her groundbreaking work studying chimpanzees in their natural environment in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Back then, many have noted, the consensus among scientists was that personality traits in animals were invented by amateurs succumbing to anthropomorphism. Goodall was one of the first to suggest very strongly that this was not the case and that animals, particularly chimpanzees, had unique personalities every bit as real as humans. To offer proof, she and her colleagues took and administered tests to one another that served to classify the personality traits they found in the chimps they were studying. Each of the researchers was asked to rate each of the chimps under observation regarding their personalities for such things as how aggressive or trustful they found them. Since that time, a lot of research has been conducted regarding animal personalities and the consensus has changed—now, it is believed that most animals have unique personalities. In this new effort, the researchers have revisited the histories of the same chimps that were tested in the 1970s and have tested other chimps to learn more about the stability of personality traits as the chimps live their lives over many years.The researchers used different tests, but note the categories in the new tests could be correlated with traits on the original tests. To learn about trait stability in the original chimps (most of which have died), the researchers asked people who had studied them over the years to take the tests. In addition, they also asked other workers studying other wild chimps to take the tests at different points in time. The researchers then compared the personality scores for all of the chimps across multiple time periods. They report that they found remarkable consistency. While there were some caveats and some minor changes due to accumulation of wisdom as the chimps aged, their basic personalities, like those of humans, remained intact. Explore further This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. More information: Alexander Weiss et al. Personality in the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, Scientific Data (2017). DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.146AbstractResearchers increasingly view animal personality traits as products of natural selection. We present data that describe the personalities of 128 eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) currently living in or who lived their lives in the Kasekela and Mitumba communities of Gombe National Park, Tanzania. We obtained ratings on 24 items from an established, reliable, well-validated questionnaire used to study personality in captive chimpanzee populations. Ratings were made by former and present Tanzanian field assistants who followed individual chimpanzees for years and collected detailed behavioral observations. Interrater reliabilities across items ranged from acceptable to good, but the personality dimensions they formed were not as interpretable as those from captive samples. However, the personality dimensions corresponded to ratings of 24 Kasekela chimpanzees on a different questionnaire in 1973 that assessed some similar traits. These correlations established the repeatability and construct validity of the present ratings, indicating that the present data can facilitate historical and prospective studies that will lead to better understanding of the evolution of personality in chimpanzees and other primates. A team of researchers affiliated with institutions in the U.S., the U.K. and Tanzania has found evidence that suggests personality traits in chimpanzees are relatively stable over long periods of time. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Data, the group describes the history of the testing, the types of tests given and what they revealed. © 2017 Phys.org Credit: CC0 Public Domain Citation: Testing chimps in Tanzania over decades suggests personality types are stable (2017, October 26) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2017-10-chimps-tanzania-decades-personality-stable.html New research suggests apes have human-like personalities
Watch Elements of destruction can become elements of salvation – Archbishop Scicluna
Archbishop Charles Scicluna, in a vlog, has spoken about how fire and water which can be the elements of destruction, can also become elements of Salvation. Mgr. Scicluna was referring to the gutting of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris last Monday at the start of the Holy Week.Mgr. Scicluna spoke about how the fire which burned down the 850 year old Cathedral of Notre Dame, and water which was used to control it, are also the same elements which are blessed on the Holy night of Easter. He explained how the same way that the Cathedral needs a lot of work in order to be rebuilt, Christians need to rebuild the temple of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.“The physical temple can be ruined, but the true Church will stay alive through its followers,” said Mgr. Scicluna.The Archbishop concluded his vlog by wishing everyone a happy Easter, filled with peace and joy.WhatsApp SharePrint <a href=’http://revive.newsbook.com.mt/www/delivery/ck.php?n=ab2c8853&cb={random}’ target=’_blank’><img src=’https://revive.newsbook.com.mt/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=97&cb={random}&n=ab2c8853&ct0={clickurl_enc}’ border=’0′ alt=” /></a>