Latest news with #Pongo
West Australian
26-05-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Karratha Falcons fly high as Josh ‘Pongo' Stanley hits 250-game milestone in NPFL round five
The Karratha Falcons soared into round five of the North Pilbara Football League with a dominant display against the Wickham Wolves at Bulgarra Reserve on Saturday, May 24. With a big crowd of local footy faithfuls turning out for the clash, the Falcons wasted no time setting the tone in the League game, storming to a convincing 17.16 (118) to 9.9 (63) victory. But the biggest roar of the day wasn't just for the scoreboard, it was for a club legend. All eyes were on Falcons' veteran Josh 'Pongo' Stanley, who celebrated a massive milestone: his 250th game in the red and blue. A beloved figure in the club since his U10s days, Pongo has built an incredible legacy – five-time Falcons Reserves best and fairest, two-time NPFL Mathieson Medallist and multiple-time Reserves premiership player. Over at Kevin Richards Oval, the Karratha Kats were in fine form, brushing aside the South Hedland Swans 16.15 (111) to 6.3 (39) in the League game. The Kats Reserves also displayed a powerful performance with a 17.11 (113) to 8.0 (48) victory, along with the women's team 6.9 (45) to nil. There was more to celebrate for the Kats too, as League player Luke Pearson notched up his 50th game for the club. In Port Hedland, it was a tale of mixed results. The Dampier Sharks battled hard for a gritty 10.11 (71) to 8.8 (56) League win over the Port Hedland Rovers on the Rovers' home turf at Colin Matheson Oval. The Rovers Reserves dug deep to grind out a hard-fought 12.14 (86) to 10.3 (63) win, while the women's side stood tall with a strong 5.6 (36) to 1.4 (10) victory.
Scottish Sun
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
The ancient market town in the UK that inspired a Disney classic
It's also home to a kid-friendly National Trust property SWEET SUFFOLK The ancient market town in the UK that inspired a Disney classic Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SUDBURY is a charming ancient town in Suffolk that people may not realise was the inspiration for a hit Disney film. Locations in Sudbury, like the drinking fountain and horse trough by St Peter's Church featured in 101 Dalmatians - because the author lived nearby. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 The charming town of Sudbury inspired a Disney classic Credit: Alamy 5 The old drinking fountain in Market Hill featured in 101 Dalmatians Credit: Alamy Dodie Smith, who was famous for writing the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians, spent her adult life living in the Essex village of Finchingfield. As a result, she used to regularly visit Sudbury, which was half an hour away, to do her shopping. Parts of Sudbury was used for the setting of the classic children's story, including the drinking fountain and horse trough by St Peter's Church. It is mentioned as the place where Pongo and Perdita stop to have a drink while trying to track down the lost puppies. The town is even named in the book, it reads: "Just before midnight they came to the market town of Sudbury. Pongo paused as they crossed the bridge over the River Stour." Walt Disney visited Dodie at her home in Finchingfield called The Barretts. It's rumoured the Grade II listed Georgian manor Greys Hall, in the nearby village of Sible Hedingham, was the inspiration for Cruella de Vil's home. 101 Dalmatians is honoured in The Talbot Trail - which is a series of 14 statues around Sudbury. The trail depicts the town's history, other statues include the town gaol. On Gaol Lane is the statue that was the gateway to Sudbury Court where prisoners were locked up to await trial. Suffolk weekend with the kids 5 Sudbury has its own trail to honour events through the town's history Credit: Alamy 5 The Children's Country House is a National Trust fun house for kids Credit: Alamy There's also 'The Running Boy' which tells the story of James Bigmore, a boy who ran alongside a coach, all the way from Sudbury to Norwich in six hours. Another is the fearsome Queen of the Iceni, Boudicea as well as the artist Thomas Gainsborough. Sudbury is also home to the National Trust property The Children's Country House. It re-opened after a big makeover in 2022 - with its property and gardens all aimed at entertaining kids Unlike most National Trust properties, children are encouraged to go wild, run around and touch everything with no roped-off areas. While features of the historic country home can still be enjoyed, the new wing includes everything from interactive displays to a dressing-up room. One British celeb lives in Suffolk – here are his favourite places to go from smallest pub in UK to beachside brewery. And why Southwold in Suffolk has more than enough for a weekend's exploring.
The Irish Sun
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
The ancient market town in the UK that inspired a Disney classic
SUDBURY is a charming ancient town in Suffolk that people may not realise was the inspiration for a hit Disney film. Locations in Sudbury, like the drinking fountain and horse trough by St Peter's Church featured in 5 The charming town of Sudbury inspired a Disney classic Credit: Alamy 5 The old drinking fountain in Market Hill featured in 101 Dalmatians Credit: Alamy Dodie Smith, who was famous for writing the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians, spent her adult life living in the Essex village of Finchingfield. As a result, she used to regularly visit Sudbury, which was half an hour away, to do her shopping. Parts of Sudbury was used for the setting of the classic children's story, including the drinking fountain and horse trough by St Peter's Church. It is mentioned as the place where Pongo and Perdita stop to have a drink while trying to track down the lost puppies. Read More on Suffolk The town is even named in the book, it reads: "Just before midnight they came to the market town of Sudbury. Pongo paused as they crossed the bridge over the Walt Disney visited Dodie at her home in Finchingfield called The Barretts. It's rumoured the Grade II listed Georgian manor Greys Hall, in the nearby village of Sible Hedingham, was the inspiration for Cruella de Vil's home. 101 Dalmatians is honoured in The Talbot Trail - which is a series of 14 statues around Sudbury. Most read in News Travel The trail depicts the town's history, other statues include the town gaol. On Gaol Lane is the statue that was the gateway to Sudbury Court where prisoners were locked up to await trial. Suffolk weekend with the kids 5 Sudbury has its own trail to honour events through the town's history Credit: Alamy 5 The Children's Country House is a National Trust fun house for kids Credit: Alamy There's also 'The Running Boy' which tells the story of James Bigmore, a boy who ran alongside a coach, all the way from Sudbury to Another is the fearsome Queen of the Iceni, Boudicea as well as the artist Thomas Gainsborough. Sudbury is also home to the National Trust property It re-opened after a big makeover in 2022 - with its property and gardens all aimed at entertaining kids Unlike most National Trust properties, children are encouraged to go wild, run around and touch everything with no roped-off areas. While features of the historic country home can still be enjoyed, the new wing includes everything from interactive displays to a dressing-up room. One British celeb And why Southwold in Suffolk has more than enough for a weekend's exploring. 5 Sudbury is a town in Suffolk that inspired a Disney classic Credit: Alamy
CNN
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The science behind why dogs look like their owners may surprise you: ‘I don't think people should feel embarrassed'
Disney fans probably remember the scene in the classic 1961 film '101 Dalmatians' in which the Dalmatian Pongo sits by a window, watching other dogs and their owners walk by outside. Each dog that goes past looks uncannily like its owner. Dogs who resemble their human owners has been observed in research, too. In one study, published in 2015, women with long hair tended to prefer dogs with similarly long ears, and women with short hairstyles preferred prick-eared dogs. Experts say this psychological phenomenon is a result of us humans preferring pets, people or even objects that resemble ourselves. After all, we are exposed to our own faces daily in the mirror. If we choose a dog that resembles what we see in ourselves, it can be comforting. The dog's features may feel familiar. 'Let's say you're at a shelter and you're looking at lots of different potential options. You're not necessarily spending a lot of explicit time trying to figure out what features of each dog you want. It's more of this overall feeling, and when you have those overall feelings, then you've got to understand what drives those. One of the things that drives that feeling that something is desirable, is that it has some familiarity to it,' said Art Markman, a cognitive scientist and senior vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. 'There's lots of ways that something can begin to feel familiar to you, one of which is you might have had a dog just like that as a kid,' Markman said. 'But another thing that could make something feel familiar is that it resembles something that you've encountered before – like, say, yourself.' The dog may have a mop of hair like yours or the same quizzical look on its face, Markman said. 'Whatever it is, it's something that you recognize,' he added. 'That flash of recognition gives you this feeling that this is something that you resonate with, which can then increase your likelihood of picking something without ever realizing that you've chosen it, in part, because of its resemblance to yourself.' In another study, published in 2004, strangers who looked at 45 dogs and their owners who were photographed separately were able to match the purebred dogs with their people, based on the images alone. 'Our research showed that people were able to match pictures of dogs and owners together at a rate higher than chance. However, this only worked when the dog was purebred. We think that this is likely because purebred dogs are predictable in both their looks and their temperament. This allows people to pick a dog that best fits them in looks, personality, and activity level,' Michael Roy, an author of the study and a psychology professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, said in an email. 'The resemblance between dog and owner can be at a physical level – they look similar – or at an overall level – this looks like the type of person who would own that type of dog,' he wrote. 'For example, you might match someone that looks outgoing and outdoorsy with Labrador over a Chihuahua.' Some experts say this is an example of the 'mere-exposure effect,' a psychological phenomenon in which people prefer things that they have been exposed to – and this can go beyond pet dogs. Another example includes people who may be more likely to enjoy a song if they have listened to similar music before. 'Think about it like this: When you go to a rock concert, somewhere during the show, the band plays the song that's been on the radio recently, and the crowd goes wild,' Markman said. 'The crowd goes wild not because that is objectively the band's best song but because it's the band's most familiar song.' Another study, published in 2014, found that observers were able to match car owners with the front views of their vehicles because they resembled each other. Even with consumer products, people tend to be attracted to something more when they are exposed to it more. 'More we see or hear something, the more we tend to like it. It would not necessarily explain why you might like a specific dog but can explain trends in dog ownership. If most of the people around you have Labradors, your liking of them might grow due to seeing them often, thereby increasing your chances of getting one too,' Roy said in the email. The phenomenon appears to emerge only when selecting a dog as a personal companion, not when choosing one for an occupation, such as to work with a police department or on a farm, according to researchers. This might be because, for decisions related to occupation, more time and research is put into making the selection process. 'There seem to be these two systems underlying the way we think. One of those systems is a fast, kind of intuitive judgment system, and the other is a slower, more deliberative system,' Markman said. 'These effects, like the mere-exposure effect, tend to influence decisions you make based on that faster, more intuitive system,' he said. 'When you allow yourself to be slower, to be more deliberative, to really write down the strengths and weaknesses of the decision that you're making, and to the extent that you try to rely on other expert opinions, you'll get less of an influence of factors like the mere-exposure effect.' In some cases, this intuitive attraction toward things that feel familiar or resemble ourselves – characterized as 'self seeking like' – may occur when selecting not only a pet but a human companion too, said Klause Jaffe, a scientist at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela. He has researched how humans choose their pet dogs based on a phenomenon known as assortative mating, which has been studied experimentally among various species and even plants. It appears that the principles governing this phenomenon are the same whether applied to human relationships or to those between animals and humans; similarity or familiarity play a key role. 'In order for sexual organisms to be successful, they have to choose a partner that somehow resembles them,' Jaffe said. 'If a donkey tries to mate with a cow, nothing happens. 'Similarly, we attract partners who reflect some of our characteristics, and this happens outside of someone's race, skin color and sexual orientation,' he said. Similarities between partners can range beyond appearance to having familiar mannerisms, experiences, education, similar tastes in fashion or even daily habits. According to researchers, no matter the intricacies or type of relationship, the theory still appears to apply. 'The relationship we found between dogs and owners is like other relationships. The best indicator for sustained friendships and romantic relationships is similarity,' Roy said. 'We surround ourselves with people that are like us in some way.' So when faced with that decision of choosing a pet, people shouldn't worry or stress about the role that the mere-exposure effect or other psychological phenomena may play, Markman said. 'If your decision gets driven in part because the pet feels familiar, and that happens because it looks a little bit like you, that's not a bad thing,' he said. 'I don't think people should feel embarrassed that that went into their decision in some ways. I think if that's going to make you love the pet more, hey, more power to it.'
CNN
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The science behind why dogs look like their owners may surprise you: ‘I don't think people should feel embarrassed'
Disney fans probably remember the scene in the classic 1961 film '101 Dalmatians' in which the Dalmatian Pongo sits by a window, watching other dogs and their owners walk by outside. Each dog that goes past looks uncannily like its owner. Dogs who resemble their human owners has been observed in research, too. In one study, published in 2015, women with long hair tended to prefer dogs with similarly long ears, and women with short hairstyles preferred prick-eared dogs. Experts say this psychological phenomenon is a result of us humans preferring pets, people or even objects that resemble ourselves. After all, we are exposed to our own faces daily in the mirror. If we choose a dog that resembles what we see in ourselves, it can be comforting. The dog's features may feel familiar. 'Let's say you're at a shelter and you're looking at lots of different potential options. You're not necessarily spending a lot of explicit time trying to figure out what features of each dog you want. It's more of this overall feeling, and when you have those overall feelings, then you've got to understand what drives those. One of the things that drives that feeling that something is desirable, is that it has some familiarity to it,' said Art Markman, a cognitive scientist and senior vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. 'There's lots of ways that something can begin to feel familiar to you, one of which is you might have had a dog just like that as a kid,' Markman said. 'But another thing that could make something feel familiar is that it resembles something that you've encountered before – like, say, yourself.' The dog may have a mop of hair like yours or the same quizzical look on its face, Markman said. 'Whatever it is, it's something that you recognize,' he added. 'That flash of recognition gives you this feeling that this is something that you resonate with, which can then increase your likelihood of picking something without ever realizing that you've chosen it, in part, because of its resemblance to yourself.' In another study, published in 2004, strangers who looked at 45 dogs and their owners who were photographed separately were able to match the purebred dogs with their people, based on the images alone. 'Our research showed that people were able to match pictures of dogs and owners together at a rate higher than chance. However, this only worked when the dog was purebred. We think that this is likely because purebred dogs are predictable in both their looks and their temperament. This allows people to pick a dog that best fits them in looks, personality, and activity level,' Michael Roy, an author of the study and a psychology professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, said in an email. 'The resemblance between dog and owner can be at a physical level – they look similar – or at an overall level – this looks like the type of person who would own that type of dog,' he wrote. 'For example, you might match someone that looks outgoing and outdoorsy with Labrador over a Chihuahua.' Some experts say this is an example of the 'mere-exposure effect,' a psychological phenomenon in which people prefer things that they have been exposed to – and this can go beyond pet dogs. Another example includes people who may be more likely to enjoy a song if they have listened to similar music before. 'Think about it like this: When you go to a rock concert, somewhere during the show, the band plays the song that's been on the radio recently, and the crowd goes wild,' Markman said. 'The crowd goes wild not because that is objectively the band's best song but because it's the band's most familiar song.' Another study, published in 2014, found that observers were able to match car owners with the front views of their vehicles because they resembled each other. Even with consumer products, people tend to be attracted to something more when they are exposed to it more. 'More we see or hear something, the more we tend to like it. It would not necessarily explain why you might like a specific dog but can explain trends in dog ownership. If most of the people around you have Labradors, your liking of them might grow due to seeing them often, thereby increasing your chances of getting one too,' Roy said in the email. The phenomenon appears to emerge only when selecting a dog as a personal companion, not when choosing one for an occupation, such as to work with a police department or on a farm, according to researchers. This might be because, for decisions related to occupation, more time and research is put into making the selection process. 'There seem to be these two systems underlying the way we think. One of those systems is a fast, kind of intuitive judgment system, and the other is a slower, more deliberative system,' Markman said. 'These effects, like the mere-exposure effect, tend to influence decisions you make based on that faster, more intuitive system,' he said. 'When you allow yourself to be slower, to be more deliberative, to really write down the strengths and weaknesses of the decision that you're making, and to the extent that you try to rely on other expert opinions, you'll get less of an influence of factors like the mere-exposure effect.' In some cases, this intuitive attraction toward things that feel familiar or resemble ourselves – characterized as 'self seeking like' – may occur when selecting not only a pet but a human companion too, said Klause Jaffe, a scientist at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela. He has researched how humans choose their pet dogs based on a phenomenon known as assortative mating, which has been studied experimentally among various species and even plants. It appears that the principles governing this phenomenon are the same whether applied to human relationships or to those between animals and humans; similarity or familiarity play a key role. 'In order for sexual organisms to be successful, they have to choose a partner that somehow resembles them,' Jaffe said. 'If a donkey tries to mate with a cow, nothing happens. 'Similarly, we attract partners who reflect some of our characteristics, and this happens outside of someone's race, skin color and sexual orientation,' he said. Similarities between partners can range beyond appearance to having familiar mannerisms, experiences, education, similar tastes in fashion or even daily habits. According to researchers, no matter the intricacies or type of relationship, the theory still appears to apply. 'The relationship we found between dogs and owners is like other relationships. The best indicator for sustained friendships and romantic relationships is similarity,' Roy said. 'We surround ourselves with people that are like us in some way.' So when faced with that decision of choosing a pet, people shouldn't worry or stress about the role that the mere-exposure effect or other psychological phenomena may play, Markman said. 'If your decision gets driven in part because the pet feels familiar, and that happens because it looks a little bit like you, that's not a bad thing,' he said. 'I don't think people should feel embarrassed that that went into their decision in some ways. I think if that's going to make you love the pet more, hey, more power to it.'
