Latest news with #1800s
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Five innovations that changed sports cards: From refractors to inserts to autos
The sports and trading card hobby has experienced hundreds of changes and innovations since the earliest issues arrived in the 1800s. And though Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin recently placed his company's introduction of the Rookie Debut Patch Autograph card at the top of that hierarchy, there are a number of innovations that have arguments for changing the course of collecting. Advertisement Here are five sports card innovations that cllct believes reshaped the hobby for good. 1. Pack-inserted autographs Upper Deck's 1989 "Find the Reggie" campaign placed 2,500 signed Reggie Jackson cards into packs. (Credit: eBay) Autograph chasing has long been part of the hobby, but Upper Deck changed collecting entirely when it delivered the first pack-inserted autographs in 1990. Just a year after revolutionizing the hobby with the first premium baseball card product in 1989, Upper Deck's 'Find the Reggie' campaign saw the company place 2,500 autographed Reggie Jackson cards into 1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series packs. Those first pack-inserted Reggie Jackson autographs are credited by many as the hobby's first 'chase' cards, and decades later, pack-pulled autographs are often key parts of many of the most important products. Advertisement In the ultra-modern era of collecting, on-card autographs are among the most coveted chases while sticker autographs, which are signed in bulk and placed on the card at a later date, are popular but less desirable. 2. Game-used memorabilia Cards featuring game-used jerseys and memorabilia have changed the game. (Credit: eBay) Though the Rookie Debut Patch has a good argument as one of the hobby's greatest innovations, it's hard to ignore the earliest iterations of memorabilia and jersey cards that came before it. Press Pass started the game-used memorabilia trend — or in this case, race-used — when it included race-used NASCAR tires in the 1996 Press Pass Burning Rubber set. Upper Deck then introduced game-used jerseys into cards with 1996-97 Upper Deck Hockey, and the hobby has been chasing swatches of fabric ever since. Advertisement Where the Rookie Debut Patch does deserve credit is how it links the card's patch to a specific moment in time. The ultra-modern era of collecting has been plagued by ambiguous language to describe memorabilia, with descriptions ranging from game-used and player-worn to the dreaded 'not associated with any player, team or event' language. Collectors want to know when and where the patches were worn, and no program has done a better job at connecting a card to a moment than the RDPA. 3. Refractors and parallels Considered one of the most influential and important sets of all time, 1993 Topps Finest Baseball arrived as an ultra-premium product with chromium stock and the hobby's first refractors. Advertisement Featuring a rainbow-like finish, refractors easily stand out compared to their base counterparts, and are now among the most important chases in the hobby. The success of 1993 Finest not only led to expanded chrome offerings across various manufacturers, the introduction of the refractor laid the foundation for the 'rainbow' chase. Though Topps' basic 'Refractor' and Panini America's 'Silver Prizm' are highly coveted, the ultra-modern era of collecting now features hundreds of different refractors and parallel variations that range from popular colors such as Red, Green, Blue, Black and Gold to geometric patterns such as Prism, RayWave, X-Fractor, Mojo, Shock and Cracked Ice. There are even animal-themed parallels such as Zebra, Tiger, Snakeskin and Elephant. Advertisement For some hobbyists, collecting the entire 'rainbow' of parallels for a player or team is a key part of the experience. The concept of 'color-matching,' which pairs the colors on a team's jersey with the color of a parallel, has also become extremely popular during the era. 4. Super short-printed inserts Depending on one's preferred definition, insert cards can be dated back to some of the hobby's most influential early sets. There's little doubt interest exploded in the 1990s, however, and the hobby hasn't been the same since. Featuring their own themes and designs separate from the base set, insert cards have become some of the most coveted chases in recent decades — super short-printed inserts can even eclipse key rookie cards on the secondary market. Advertisement Originating in the '90s, inserts such as Precious Metal Gems, Scoring Kings, Jambalaya and Big Man on Court have resonated with collectors years later. Today, the ultra-modern era of collecting has been dominated by inserts such as Kaboom, Color Blast, Downtown and Stained Glass. 5. Print-to-demand Topps NOW ties a specific moment to an instant card. (Credit: Topps) The current marketplace for print-to-demand cards was first introduced with Panini Instant and Topps NOW in 2016, and though it took years to catch on, the concept has carved out a significant place in the hobby during the ultra-modern era. Hoping to capture important moments as they happen, the Instant and NOW programs design cards that are available a la carte during a limited release window. Collectors can purchase as many cards as they desire, and the companies print the cards needed to fulfill all orders. Advertisement Interest in print-to-demand cards was relatively light to start, but has since exploded as Panini has included more autographs and parallels, and Topps has added random chases that can be included with orders of the base card. The print-to-demand market experienced its biggest moment when Topps released a NOW card celebrating Team USA's gold medal in the 2024 Olympic Games. Topps added a number of 1/1 chase cards to the drop, including a triple autograph of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. The chase for the triple autograph resulted in collectors purchasing 588,035 base cards — a then-record for the NOW program. The triple autograph remains one of the most important cards that has yet to surface publicly. Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'The Gilded Age' Season 3 premiere: Release date, trailer, new cast members and how to watch. Plus, what fans can expect.
Marriage proposals, robber baron business deals and new characters — oh my! You're cordially invited to the unfolding of juicy melodrama among high society in 1800s New York with the Season 3 premiere of HBO's Emmy-nominated show, The Gilded Age. So pull up an opulent velvet chair and grab your opera glasses as we take a closer look at what's to come in this period drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. Season 3 of The Gilded Age drops this Sunday, June 22, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and will also be available to stream on HBO Max. There will be a total of eight episodes this season, with a new episode airing every Sunday through Aug. 10. The battle between old and new money families continued… Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), whose family is considered 'new money' because of her railroad tycoon husband's fortune, was still shut out by old money elites like Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), an influential patron at the well-established Academy of Music. Bertha was fed up with Mrs. Astor denying her family an opera box, which was seen as a symbol of status and power. Hell-bent on climbing the social ladder, Bertha started an opera war and used her family's wealth to support the newly built Metropolitan Opera. The new venue threatened audience attendance on opening night at the Academy of Music. Bertha won the opera war when the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) ultimately decided to attend the Met opening, which was met with high societal fanfare. But Bertha's victory came at a cost, it seems, which is implied at the end of the season that she promised her daughter Gladys's (Taissa Farmiga) hand to the Duke. The Russell family patriarch, George Russell (Morgan Spector), faced backlash from the steelworkers who manufactured his railroads and demanded fair pay and better working conditions. Tensions reached a boiling point when armed militia were ready to shoot the protesting laborers. George called off his men before things turned violent and granted some of the laborers' demands. Meanwhile, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) found out that her son Oscar (Blake Ritson) had lost the family fortune. Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), Agnes's sister, learns that her late husband left her a substantial fortune, and the power dynamic Agnes had with Ada has started to shift. The period melodrama included juicy romances in the love lives of Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and Peggy Scott (Denée Benton). Marian realized she's in love with Larry Russell (Harry Richardson), while Peggy shut down her affair with T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), a married man. According to a media release from HBO, the Russell family is poised to take their place at the head of high society, following Bertha's victory in the opera wars. 'Bertha sets her sights on a prize that would elevate the family to unimaginable heights, while George risks everything on a gambit that could revolutionize the railroad industry — if it doesn't ruin him first,' HBO says. Bertha has high hopes for a marriage between her daughter Gladys and the Duke, despite her daughter's interest in another young man, Billy Carlton (Matt Walker). In Season 2, George had also promised Gladys she could marry for love, even if it went against Bertha's wishes. This leads to greater conflict between George and Bertha in the new season. Across 61st Street from the Russell household on the Upper East Side, Agnes struggles to accept Ada's new position as lady of the house with her newfound wealth. Peggy meets a new love interest from Newport, R.I., whose family isn't keen on her career as a writer and journalist. The Gilded Age features a big cast of show regulars, including: Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell, Christine Baranski as Agnes Van Rhijn, Cynthia Nixon as Ada Forte, Morgan Spector as George Russell, Louisa Jacobson as Marian Brook, Denée Benton as Peggy Scott, Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell, Harry Richardson as Larry Russell, Blake Ritson as Oscar Van Rhijn and Ben Ahlers as Jack Trotter. New additions to the cast in Season 3 include: Jordan Donica, Andrea Martin, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Hattie Morahan, Leslie Uggams, Merritt Wever, Bill Camp and Phylicia Rashad.
BBC News
11-06-2025
- BBC News
Crumbling Castle Cornet bridge in Guernsey set for reconstruction
A historic bridge will be rebuilt to "modern standards", under new plans submitted by Guernsey Ports to the Castle Cornet Bridge, part of which dates back to the 1800s, will be replaced "like-for-like", according to the large island castle and its bridge forms the breakwater of Guernsey's main harbour in St Peter piers supporting the bridge, which is suffering corrosion and wear to its underside, would be kept in the revamp, which was expected to start in the winter of 2026/27 to minimise disruption during the tourist season, the application said. The design "closely resembles" the existing structure "with slight modifications to improve load-bearing capacity and meet current design codes", said Jenny Giles, head of infrastructure delivery at Guernsey Ports.
Forbes
30-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What's New On Max In June 2025? ‘A Minecraft Movie,' ‘The Gilded Age' And More Streaming
The Gilded Age / A Minecraft Movie June is just around the corner, marking the beginning of summer and an exciting lineup of movies and TV shows heading to Warner Bros.' streaming service, Max. Highlights include the second highest-grossing film of 2025, the third season of a beloved HBO original and several classics. If you didn't watch A Minecraft Movie in theaters, the blockbuster hit will be arriving on Max in June (though the streamer has yet to announce the specific date). The film follows a group of misfits – Henry, Natalie, Garrett, and Dawn – who are sucked into a portal and thrown into the cubic world of Minecraft. To get back home, they embark on a magical quest with expert crafter Steve, played by none other than Jack Black. Another highly anticipated release is the Emmy-winning period drama The Gilded Age, returning to Max on June 22. Season 3 will continue to delve into the fierce rivalry between old and new money families in 1800s New York. "Bertha sets her sights on a prize that would elevate the family to unimaginable heights while George risks everything on a gambit that could revolutionize the railroad industry," the synopsis reads. The third season of the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… will continue to roll out on Max throughout June following its late May premiere. This season, Carrie is trying her hand at fiction writing, while her relationship with Aidan is on the rocks after he proposed a five-year hiatus in the Season 2 finale. Other movies coming to the platform including action films like Bullet Train, Parasite and the Superman movies, as well as the full Hunger Games roster (which you can binge before the sequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, arrives in theaters next year). Harry Richardson and Louisa Jacobson Read on for the full list of TV shows and movies coming to Max in June. (Stay tuned for the exact streaming release date for A Minecraft Movie.) June 1A Hologram for the King (2016)A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)A Perfect Getaway (2009)Backtrack (2016)Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)Black Patch (1957)Blues in the Night (1941)Casino (1995)Fight Club (1999)Gentleman Jim (1942)Hellboy (2004)I Am Not Your Negro (2017)Igor (2008)Illegal (1955)In the Good Old Summertime (1949)Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)Kid Glove Killer (1942)Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)My Scientology Movie (2017)Numbered Men (1930)One Foot in Heaven (1941)Parasite (2019)Presenting Lily Mars (1943)Pride & Prejudice (2005)Public Enemies (2009)Reign of the Supermen (2019)Serenade (1956)Silver River (1948)Spaceballs (1987)Split (2017)Strike Up the Band (1940)Summer Stock (1950)Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)Superman: Red Son (2020)Superman: Unbound (2013)Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)The Death of Superman (2018)The Fighting 69th (1940)The Harvey Girls (1946)The Hunger Games (2012)The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)The Match King (1932)The Mayor of Hell (1933)The Mortician (HBO Original)The Nitwits (1935)The Prince and the Pauper (1937)The Sea Chase (1955)The Sea Hawk (1940)The Sunlit Night (2019)The Verdict (1946)They Made Me a Criminal (1939)This Side of the Law (1950)Three Faces East (1930)Three Strangers (1946)Total Drama Island, Season 2 (Cartoon Network)Wagons West (1952)Words and Music (1948)You'll Find Out (1940)Ziegfeld Follies (1946) June 2BBQ Brawl, Season 6 (Food Network) June 3Bullet Train (2022)Ugliest House in America, Season 6 (HGTV) June 41000-lb Roomies, Season 1 (TLC)Fatal Destination, Season 1 (ID) June 5Bea's Block, Season 1C (Max Original)Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose, Season 1 (Max Original) June 6House Hunters International: Volume 9, Season 201 (HGTV)Parthenope (A24) June 10Virgins, Season 1 (TLC) June 11Guy's Grocery Games, Season 38 (Food Network) June 12Bitchin' Rides, Season 11Mini Beat Power Rockers: A Superheroic Night (Discovery International) June 13Cleaner (2025)House Hunters: Volume 10, Season 240 (HGTV)Maine Cabin Masters, Season 10 (Magnolia Network)Super Sara (Max Original)Toad & Friends, Season 1B June 16Hero Ball, Season 3B June 17Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Animal Pharm (CNN Originals, 2025)Super Mega Cakes, Season 1 (Food Network) June 19Expedition Unknown, Season 15 (Discovery)Mystery At Blind Frog Ranch, Season 5 (Discovery) June 20House Hunters: Volume 10, Season 241 (HGTV)Lu & The Bally Bunch, Season 1C (Cartoon Network)Now or Never: FC Montfermeil (Max Original)Teen Titans Go!, Season 9B (Cartoon Network) June 21The Kitchen, Season 38 (Food Network)The Never Ever Mets, Season 2 (OWN) June 22The Gilded Age, Season 3 (HBO Original) June 23Match Me Abroad, Season 2 (TLC) June 24Enigma (HBO Original)Mean Girl Murders, Season 3 (ID)The Invitation (2022) June 25Rehab Addict, Season 10 (HGTV) June 27House Hunters: Volume 10, Season 242 (HGTV)My Mom Jayne (HBO Original)Pati, Seasons 1&2 (Max Original)The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2025) June 29#Somebody's Son, Season 1 (OWN)Family or Fiancé, Season 4 (OWN) June 3090 Day Fiancé: Pillow Talk, Season 11 (TLC)Truck U, Season 21 *A Minecraft Movie - Release Date TBA
ABC News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Do people really behave differently in a crowd?
Sana Qadar: There is this long-standing idea that when people get in a crowd, when they're among a mass of other people, they get more irrational. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: By the mere fact that he forms part of an organized crowd, a man descends several rungs of civilization. Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual. In a crowd, he is a barbarian. Sana Qadar: Wow. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: That is, creature acting by instinct. Sana Qadar: These are the hugely influential words of Gustave Le Bon, a French social psychologist working in the late 1800s, early 1900s, who is considered the father of crowd psychology. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Basically, what he theorized is that by the sheer fact that people are in a crowd of people, they lose the sense of self. And he later on concluded that because of this, crowds are basically trouble in the making. Sana Qadar: It's an idea that's reverberated through history. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Le Bon has had many fans amongst dictators. Mussolini was a fan, for example. And he has said here and there in writing that he has learned a lot about crowd behavior by studying the book that Gustave Le Bon wrote. So because of this, Le Bon is often referred to as the father of crowd psychology. But it's safe to say that crowd psychology has not had the best father. Sana Qadar: But was Gustave Le Bon wrong? Like, aren't crowds sometimes dangerous? How does crowd psychology really work? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Nowadays, we know much more about crowd behavior. There are modern day social psychology theories that have debunked the theory of Le Bon. And we know much about crowd behavior that is more connected to reality. Sana Qadar: This is All in the Mind. I'm Sana Qadar. Today, from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, to the London bombings in 2005, to the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, South Korea in 2022. We find out what modern research tells us about how crowds really behave and how to keep yourself safe in one. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Many authoritarian figures in the history have resonated basically with Gustave Le Bon's message. Sana Qadar: Why did he hate crowds so much? Where was he getting these ideas from? Do you know? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Um, it's speculative, my answer. But I think it's just a dog whistle to the authoritarians of the time. You know how sometimes us researchers say something to appease politicians so we get funding? I think this could be something equivalent with the provisions of the time, whatever it was, whatever advantage he was going to get, because he knew that would be a dog whistle. Sana Qadar: This is Milad Haghani, an associate professor of urban mobility at the University of Melbourne. And he says more than a century later, Gustave Le Bon's assumptions about crowds still turn up in decision-making by leaders. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Prime examples of that we can trace to the management of the COVID-19 disaster in the United States. News archive: (Donald Trump) And I don't want people to be frightened. I don't want to create panic, as you say. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: If you remember, Donald Trump did an interview with Bob Woodward about the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he was asked, you knew about the serious danger of the pandemic months earlier than you took actions. Why did you not warn people earlier? And the response he gave was that I did not want people to panic. News archive: We don't want to instill panic. We don't want to jump up and down and start shouting that we have a problem. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Right. And that speaks to the same line of ideas that has been borrowed from Le Bon's theory, that the sheer fact that people have the information can make them impulsive and irrational and can make them act panicky. And that has been time and time again used as an excuse to withhold information from people at times of emergencies. Sana Qadar: Now, that idea about not wanting to cause panic, that's not totally without merit. Some research has shown that emotions like anxiety, fear, and panic can spread in a contagion-like effect. But Milad also makes the point that sometimes what's dismissed as panic is really just people acting quite rationally in threatening circumstances. More on that a bit later. But here's just one other thing I want to clarify. If we go back to Gustave Le Bon's original writing in his book The Crowd, A Study of the Popular Mind, to be fair, Milad says it's possible Le Bon was really just thinking about rioters and mobs when he developed his ideas. But he says that nuance wasn't elucidated. The way Le Bon wrote his views, simply being in a crowd of any sort, made individuals prone to losing rationality and acting impulsively. But there are all kinds of examples in the century or so since he was writing that show us this isn't the whole picture. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: One of the most contemporary psychological theories that explain the behavior of crowds is the social identity theory that explains when people are in a crowd, not in just a physical crowd, a crowd that has some sense of shared identity, it creates a sense of in-group versus out-group and that can moderate their behavior. That is why you see the sense of rivalry in soccer stadiums, for example, in the UK. That can explain crowd behavior better than the sheer fact that just because people are in crowds, they act irrationally. But also it's got implications for the management of emergencies. As I mentioned, not every crowd has a sense of shared identity. If you are waiting for your train in the morning, peak hour on a platform that is very crowded, you do not necessarily have a sense of shared identity with other people. However, if something of risky nature happens in that moment, all of a sudden a crowd that is of purely physical nature, the crowd becomes a social crowd. The sheer fact that they are in a dangerous situation together, it creates a sense of shared social identity. It has been documented in relation to many mass emergencies. News archive: Good evening, this is Peter Cave with a special edition of PM. There have been a series of explosions on the London Underground and there are also... Associate Professor Milad Haghani: In particular, for example, in relation to the 2005 London bombing that had affected commuters in the morning peak hour. News archive: Within the past five minutes, I've seen a line of about 20 people walk past me who are walking wounded. People with cuts all over their face and blood dripping down their faces and bandages. Sana Qadar: During the 2005 London bombings, four suicide bombers attacked the city's transport network. Three bombs went off on the Underground and a fourth on a double-decker bus. 52 people were killed that day, July 7th, and nearly 800 others were injured. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Retrospective interviews and research with the survivors of the attack has shown that people not only did not act selfishly and irrationally, rather, they made conscious decisions to help and to assist other individuals and basically acted in ways that are completely opposite to the notion that people in an emergency lose their mind. And this is not an isolated example in relation to many other cases of emergencies. This has been documented that a physical crowd can suddenly become a social crowd that has a sense of shared identity. And that is a more modern way of viewing the crowds and how it can be managed in times of emergencies. It has created the sense that crowds can be looked upon as allies that can assist in times of emergencies, as opposed to an element that needs to be controlled or an element that needs to be denied information at times of emergency on the assumption that if they have the information, they are going to panic and that is going to be a bad outcome. Sana Qadar: So the London bombings is a really positive example of crowd behavior, what can happen. But you talked also about soccer crowds. We've seen a lot of soccer gatherings descend into hooliganism. What's the difference there? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: One of the most challenging crowds, obviously, can be found in football stadiums, soccer stadiums in the UK. And the modern day social identity theory has also helped UK authorities and especially the UK police to change the way they approach crowds. When you look back at 20 to 30 years ago, there were a lot of crowd disasters happening every few years in the stadiums in the UK. The Hillsborough disaster is the most prominent one. News archive: I see people lying down. I see people there shaking their heads at John's ambulance people there. Sana Qadar: If you're not familiar with that event, it is the deadliest disaster in British sports history. News archive: More than 30 ambulances ferried the dead and wounded to surrounding hospitals. Sana Qadar: It happened in 1989 at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, during an FA Cup semi-final. Ninety-seven people, men, women and children, died in a crowd crush that developed. News archive: The victims were killed when a big crowd at the FA Cup semi-final surged in packed terraces. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Since then, the approach in managing crowds has significantly changed and has been aligned with the modern day crowd psychology. And that is thanks to the effort of some of the social psychologists that are crowd experts and are based in the UK who have helped sharing these ideas with the UK police. And they have shifted basically from a heavy-handed approach of crowd control to seeing crowds as allies and managing the crowds in a form that is more of a dialogue, in an understanding that they are not dealing with trouble necessarily, but the way they approach the crowd can create trouble as a result of their actions. Sana Qadar: That is essentially what happened in the Hillsborough disaster. An inquest later concluded that some police and stewards were so focused on preventing possible hooliganism that their actions made things worse. They penned fans into tight packs as a way to prevent possible trouble, which had the effect of trapping people in a confined space. News archive: Because they knew we had more supporters. And the supporters suffer like that. News archive: It's now clear that the anti-hooligan fences, a standard feature at all British grounds, were the cause of many of the 94 deaths as people were crushed against them. Sana Qadar: Milad says a lot of lessons were learned from the events that transpired that day. And as a result, we haven't seen disasters like Hillsborough in the UK since. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: However, some other countries might not have necessarily kept up with the science. The most prominent example is the crowd disaster that we had in 2022 in Indonesia, for example, where tear gas was used in the stadium, even though FIFA bans using the tear gas in the stadiums. That resulted in a lot of behaviour that would not have otherwise shown by the crowd. People getting stuck at the exit doors and getting caught in a bottleneck that eventually led to the death of many people. Sana Qadar: In that more recent crowd crush, at least 125 people died. News archive: Police say the gate was partially open, allowing for a frenzied scrum of hundreds to exit only one or two at a time. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: So that approach, that heavy handed crowd control, top down view approach is still being practised in some parts of the world. And we do still see the disastrous outcomes. Sana Qadar: So basically how authorities treat crowds can influence how they behave. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Absolutely. You need to understand the sense of shared identity, the sense of us-ness. You know, when you are in a crowd where you feel a sense of shared identity with others, one unfair action by a police member, for example, can create a sense of hostility because other crowd members would see that as an offence to themselves as well. Of course, in cases of unlawful behaviour, actions need to be taken. However, the unnecessary provocation of the crowd, as soon as something happens, deploy the tear gas, for example, that is going to escalate the situation. So the art of de-escalation is being practised in some areas of the world, not necessarily in some other areas. And as a result of that, we see the differential outcomes. Sana Qadar: But we do also know that emotions are contagious. Isn't that partly what plays out in, you know, on a large scale in crowds when things go wrong? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Yes, emotions are contagious, but not in the way that it's been framed in old-fashioned socio-psychological theories. Not in the way that it results in deaths. Yes, when something happens that lifts up the mood of a crowd, we might get some extra level of happiness by seeing our fellow soccer fans being happy. That's some sort of contagion effect. However, this effect has not been documented to have resulted in any of the crowd disasters. The disaster in Itaewon, Seoul, for example. Sana Qadar: That disaster is the crowd crush that developed on Halloween in 2022, when tens of thousands of mostly young people arrived in a part of Seoul called Itaewon, which is a nightlife district. More than 150 people were killed, and three police officers were later imprisoned for professional negligence. With a court ruling, the disaster could have been prevented or minimised if police had prepared properly for the number of people that were expected that night. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: It did not happen because the panic spread throughout the crowd. It was the opposite. People found themselves in a very stressful situation, and as a result, they got anxious. But it was not the anxiousness of the crowd that caused the situation. It was not the spread of anxiousness through contagion effect that caused the situation either. Sana Qadar: Why is that so key? You've kind of touched on it, but why is it so key to understand that order of events? It's not anxiety and panic that causes the issues. It's the circumstances, the physicality of the space they're in, the action of authorities that then leads to these emotions. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Well, the immediate consequence of this type of framing is that it stops you from getting to the root causes of the problem. Because if the default assumption is that people die in crowds because they act irrationally, because they panic, then that exonerates authorities from looking back at what they did during that event that resulted in the deadly consequences that they observed. And that has major consequences for future planning of crowds, for future practices. And it basically stops us from learning about the lessons that are hidden in these types of disasters. Sana Qadar: This is All in the Mind. I'm Sana Qadar. Today, challenging our assumptions about crowd behavior. Milad Haghani is an associate professor of urban mobility at the University of Melbourne. He says while panic, anxiety and emotion don't in themselves produce crowd crushes, a view that is shared by many other experts in crowd behavior. There are certain characteristics of a crowd that can make them more prone to a crush developing. And one type of riskier crowd is a religiously motivated crowd. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: There are many reasons for that. Religious crowds are highly motivated. They need to do an act of worship. They need to do some form of, for example, dipping in the water, getting themselves to the location, depending on what type of religious gathering we are talking about, whether it is Hajj or the Kumbh Mela or other religious events. So they are highly motivated. And when you are in that mindset, you are willing as an individual to accept a higher level of risk in the hope of getting the outcome that you want. And when you're dealing with a very, very large number of highly motivated people like this, you face a great deal of risk and uncertainty. And it's a type of crowd that becomes really difficult to protect, basically. Sana Qadar: A very quick explainer, if you're unfamiliar, Hajj is the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Attendance is often capped, but about 2 million people attend each year. The Kumbh Mela is a Hindu festival and pilgrimage. It changes location each year, rotating between four different sites, each of which are tied to a river that's considered sacred. And it's actually the world's biggest gathering, drawing tens of millions of people. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: And it's a type of crowd that becomes really difficult to protect because of the fact that they see their act for a noble and justified cause, and they are happy to take risk for it. And this usually happens in open space areas, not in indoor areas that are structured. And that also adds to the complexity of managing who is going to what direction and who is going to do what. It is not for the lack of preparation and precaution. During the Hajj, you see a lot of precautionary measures in place. During this year's Kumbh Mela, there was no element of technology that was not in place to prevent these kinds of crowd disasters. AI cameras that are equipped with AI analysis and can communicate to a control room center. All of that was in place and still could not prevent deadly consequences that we saw during the event. Sana Qadar: This year, at least 30 people died at the Kumbh Mela, which ran from mid-January to late February. Sana Qadar: But you're saying if those crowd control strategies, even using AI, couldn't stop crushes in places like the Kumbh Mela, what extra precautions or planning are needed to keep religiously motivated crowds safe? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: That is an excellent question. And that brings me to the modern way of keeping crowds safe. And the way that I try to advocate for in my research as well. So we have the traditional top-down approach of managing and controlling crowd. We know that that is not necessarily the solution because there is so much authorities can do when crowd disasters are in the making. In those kinds of situations, the actions of people can make a difference. They can understand the risk if they can come up with subtle actions that would mitigate the risk that can change the outcome. And that is something that I quite heavily pursue in my research as well. Sana Qadar: In his research, Milad has looked extensively at how people can be equipped with strategies to keep them safe and which strategies work best. Over the years, he's done research using computer simulations, as well as running experiments with real people. Let me describe one series of experiments that he conducted over four days in September 2022. So what he did was gather about 250 recruits at the University of New South Wales campus in an event space with eight-metre high ceilings. That was key so his cameras could clearly record the movements of people on the ground. Now, Milad and his team used cardboard to create pretend walls and hallways, carving up that big space into rooms, so to speak. So participants had a more confined space to operate in. In one of the many scenarios he tested out, Milad gave about 20% of the crowd a specific instruction on how to exit. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: So it could be something as simple as, instead of following the majority of people in your navigational decisions, try to follow the minority of people. Or instead of being rigid in your decision making, try to be more flexible in your navigational decision making. Sana Qadar: One question, was there just one exit for people to get out of or were there multiple exits? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Each experiment has its own setup. It was rarely the case that there was only one exit because you need to introduce certain levels of complexity and room for people to make navigational decisions, basically. And then the same task gets repeated again for a couple of times. And you see later on in the data that the system, same system became a little more efficient. And then you do the same thing with another 20% of the crowd. The system becomes a little further efficient. Sana Qadar: When you say efficiency, do you mean the crowds were exiting the building more quickly or more safely? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: That's one of the key metrics. There are a range of metrics that you can use in order to assess the safety of crowds, how efficiently and how quickly, for example, they discharge a venue is one thing. The number of near collisions that they have. There are a range of indicators you can use, but they usually align with each other. So when one improves, the other ones also improve as well. And then you realize that once 50 to 60% of the crowd is equipped with a good decision-making strategy, the crowd is already gaining the full benefit that they can. Sana Qadar: He gives the analogy of vaccinations. If a certain number of people are inoculated, you get herd immunity. Same thing kind of happens here. And so here are the messages or strategies that he found were most effective for helping the crowd exit safely. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: If people had the mindset that when navigating the crowd, they should follow the direction that the minority of people are going to, that had a positive impact on the system, because that means a more even distribution of the crowd across the system. If people were more open to change their navigational decisions when they face crowdedness, as opposed to saying that, no, we have chosen this direction and we are going this direction, that had a positive impact on the efficiency of the system. Sana Qadar: And in situations where he simulated an emergency exit Associate Professor Milad Haghani: People reacting to the risk quickly and not hesitating, that had a positive impact on the system. Sana Qadar: You might think that last one is a bit strange. Like, duh, people would leave quickly in an emergency situation. But there are countless real world examples that tell us often people will hesitate, whipping out their phones to record whatever is happening, instead of immediately leaving. One of Milad's most interesting findings, though, is how to get families or other groups to evacuate more safely. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: When you have a crowd of solo individuals and compare it to the same size of the crowd that is composed of families and friends, the second one is far less efficient. Sana Qadar: Is that because people want to stick together? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: That's the whole root cause of it. But how can that be fixed? Sana Qadar: People aren't going to leave their children behind if they're in a crowd. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: They're not going to leave their children behind. You cannot ask people to separate. These kinds of strategies have to be sensible, have to be easy to remember, and have to be practical. People have to accept them, otherwise they are useless. I tested this strategy, for example, I asked people to hold their hands, the groups of families or simulated families, and do not let go of each other's hands. And that did not help the crowd at all. In fact, it made it a little bit worse. But then I said, this time, instead of holding hands, you hold the back of another group member's clothes, basically form a line, form a snake. And once they did that, the whole inefficiency introduced by the presence of social groups disappeared and some more efficiency was gained. The crowd even became more efficient than a crowd of solo individuals. And that gave me just the idea that these strategies that we need to communicate to people, they don't need to be so complex. They can be ad hoc strategies that can even be communicated to the crowd on the site as something is happening. This is not something that takes too many words to communicate to people. Sana Qadar: That strategy worked because groups basically took up less space if they moved towards the exits in a line formation. So is this something you should do in real life if you find yourself in a crowd with your family or friends? Well, Milad says it would work best if everyone or a significant portion of the crowd was also informed of this strategy and was also deploying it. But even if that's not the case, it can still be a useful strategy for exiting quickly and together. So based on your own research and whatever other research exists on this kind of thing, for people listening who are wondering, you know, if they find themselves in a crowd, what they should do, what would your advice be? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Some of the most generic ones could be to read the room and the congestion being built in the space around them. That is for the prevention of crowd crushes, basically. And if they see that the density of the crowd is increasing, the crowd is going up without any control, best thing you can do is to remove yourself from that situation and try to stay somewhere else before joining that crowd that is getting denser and denser. That could be one thing. If you're navigating yourself in a highly crowded situation, try to be open-minded about revising your decision. If you see that in this direction, the crowd is getting really heavy and there is an alternative way of exiting, even if it's a little bit further, and it requires you to walk for longer. If people have that mindset, the entire crowd becomes more efficient. And I have tested that. Sana Qadar: And if you happen to find yourself in an emergency situation, he says, don't stop to whip out your phone and record what's going on. Get out of there immediately. Sana Qadar: How much our crowd crushes a risk here in Australia? We've talked about a lot of examples from overseas. How much is this a worry in Australia? Associate Professor Milad Haghani: Sana, we are lucky in that one, we have a really good crowd safety culture overall. According to my observations, people are relatively good and crowd safety savvy. They are patient. They do not necessarily behave impatiently when they find themselves in a slow moving crowd. And also on the management side, our venue operators, our local councils, they are really safety savvy and they are keeping in touch with the latest science. That is a really positive thing that can keep us hopeful. However, that doesn't mean that we get to become complacent because we have had near miss accidents in Australia. Especially of concern is New Year's Eve celebrations in our major cities, including Melbourne and Sydney. I've made an example of religious crowds and how they are motivated and that creates additional elements of risk. The New Year's Eve crowds are also somehow comparable. Not that they are religiously motivated, but there are elements that translate into by and large similar behavior. Imagine a crowd of several hundreds of thousands of people. And there is one particular moment during the night and that's the fireworks. And after that, the crowd is not interested. Everybody wants to go home. And they are highly motivated to go home because they think that transport options could be limited. That is why I described the dynamic, you know, somehow similar to religiously motivated crowds. And that creates a high level of risk. And over the last few years, we have seen cases where we got close to accidents. Sana Qadar: One example is a crush that started to develop in Sydney just before midnight on New Year's Eve in 2022. The crowd surged towards a vantage point for a better view of the fireworks, pushing through an open security gate and into a ticketed area in the rocks. Thankfully, security guards quickly managed to contain the situation. No one was injured. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: We have been very lucky that these accidents have not translated into deadly outcomes. And as a result, it has created a certain level of consciousness around keeping the crowds during the New Year's Eve safe. Sana Qadar: So while we are pretty lucky here in Australia, Milad's main takeaway is that safety is a shared responsibility. Associate Professor Milad Haghani: It is not just the responsibility of organizers and authorities. It is also our responsibility as well to be vigilant. In fact, our vigilance makes a bigger difference in terms of safety outcomes. And being safety savvy and vigilant does not mean that it's something that can ruin our experience. It can be something very subconscious, just having these things that we just discussed in the back of our minds. That can make a huge difference in how us as individuals and also people around us are kept safe in crowded environments. Sana Qadar: That is Milad Haghani from the University of Melbourne. We'll link to a bunch of his research and other studies as well on crowd behavior in our show notes and on our website if you're interested in learning more. And that's it for All in the Mind this week. Thanks to producer Rose Kerr and senior producer James Bullen. Our sound engineer this week was Roi Huberman. I'm Sana Qadar. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time.
