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Thread: Strange News

  1. #151
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Modigliani's 'Reclining Nude' Sells For $ 170 Million


    A painting by Amedeo Modigliani fetched $170.4 million at an auction Monday, setting a world record for the artist and achieving the second highest price ever garnered for a work of art at auction.

    "Reclining Nude" was sold at Christie's in Manhattan after a protracted bidding battle. Considered one of his best known works, the 1917-1918 painting nearly created a scandal when it was first exhibited in Paris. It depicts an unknown nude model reclining on a crimson couch and blue cushion.

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    Megastructures: seven wonders of the modern world near completion

    Beijing airport


    In the 1980s, British architect Norman Foster revolutionised the airport terminal with Stansted airport. His innovations involved streamlining the systems and machines that make up this most complex of buildings. Now, Zaha Hadid has been brought in to add her magic to Beijing’s Daxing airport, set to be the world’s largest.

    Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge


    The Chinese have been planning to bring Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai closer together ever since they took back Hong Kong island in 1999. A new road link under construction combines long bridged sections with cable-stayed spans and an immersed tunnel, the mouths of which are housed on new artificial islands. At 50km long, it’ll take the title of the longest water span in the world.

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    'UFO Clouds' Are Real. Here's How They Happen

    Technically called “lenticular clouds,” the weird phenomenon seen over Cape Town has a simple explanation.


    Meteorologists call them lenticular clouds, which form when strong, moist winds blow over rough terrain, such as mountains or valleys. Picturesque Cape Town is framed by such features, including the 3,500-foot (1,066-meter) Table Mountain.

    As the wind flows over large features it may cool, causing it to condense into disk-shaped clouds that develop perpendicular to the direction of the air flow.

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    What Does Herpes Do To Your Brain?


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    How to: frozen bubbles


    frozen bubble are very fragile creatures, so I’ve (not me) experimented with different recipes to create a durable bubble wall that won’t pop in the slightest breeze; dish soap for the bubbling, corn syrup to thicken the wall and sugar to help crystallization. I let the mixture chill in the freezer to help speed up the freezing once outside:
    - 200ml warm water
    - 35ml corn syrup
    - 35ml dish soap
    - 2tbs sugar
    - chill in the freezer

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    Get rid of cataracts with eye drops, thanks to new research


    Cataract eye surgery may soon become a thing of the past, thanks to new eye drops that promise to “shrink down and dissolve” the protein build-ups that affect around 22 million Americans over the age of 40. The drops are being heralded as a potential game changer for those who live in areas where surgery may not be an option, saving untold numbers from blindness and other cataract-related complications.

    The magic lies with a particular molecule (lanosterol, a naturally-occurring steroid), which when applied in eyedrop form was able to “partially reverse cataracts in mice and restore some transparency in isolated human lenses,” according to Scientific American. Because cataracts are the result of damaged crystallin proteins that misfold and harden into cloudy clumps within the lens of the eye, researchers believe that molecules capable of binding to these proteins will effectively reverse the damaging process.

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    In November 2012, Salvador Alvarenga went fishing off the coast of Mexico. Two days later, a storm hit and he made a desperate SOS. It was the last anyone heard from him – for 438 days. This is his story,…….


    It wasn’t until a year later, when the fog of confusion subsided and he scanned the maps of his drift across the Pacific Ocean, that Alvarenga began to fathom his extraordinary journey. For 438 days, he lived on the edge of sanity. “I suffered hunger, thirst and an extreme loneliness, and didn’t take my life,” Alvarenga says. “You only get one chance to live – so appreciate it.”
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  2. #152
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Cop Stops Self-Driving Car, Finds There's No One To Ticket

    "After 1.2 million miles of autonomous driving... we’re proud to say we’ve never been ticketed!"


    A police officer near Google's Mountain View, California, headquarters pulled over a car Thursday for driving too slowly, only to find no one in the driver's seat.

    This episode with Google's experimental, self-driving car underscores just how difficult it is for society to embrace a technology that could be the biggest innovation in transportation since the automobile itself.

    The Mountain View Police Department reports an officer noticed the car going 24 mph in a 35 mph zone and opted to take action.

    A statement from the department outlined the events:

    "The officer stopped the car and made contact with the operators to learn more about how the car was choosing speeds along certain roadways and to educate the operators about impeding traffic per 22400(a) of the California Vehicle Code. The Google self-driving cars operate under the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Definition per 385.5 of the California Vehicle Code and can only be operated on roadways with speed limits at or under 35 mph. In this case, it was lawful for the car to be traveling on the street as El Camino Real is rated at 35 mph."

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    A bulldog in Peru named Otto broke the Guinness World Record for the longest human tunnel skateboarded through by a dog — 30 people.


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    New York plastic surgeon performs 'most extensive' face transplant ever


    Eduardo Rodriguez provided a former firefighter with the face of a young man left braindead after a cycling accident, New York magazine reported

    A plastic surgeon at New York University’s Langone Medical Center has performed the “most extensive” facial transplant ever.

    Dr Eduardo Rodriguez performed the transplant over 26 hours in August. In that time, he gave a 41-year-old former firefighter from Tennessee, Patrick Hardison, the face of David Rodebaugh, a 26-year-old bike mechanic from Brooklyn who became braindead after a cycling accident this summer.

    The procedure and the stories of the two men’s lives were extensively detailed in a piece written for New York magazine by Steve Fishman and published on Sunday.

    Hardison was badly burned when responding to a house fire in Senatobia, Mississippi, on 5 September 2001. He was given the semblance of a face with flesh transferred from his thighs, but in the years leading up to his surgery at Langone he underwent 71 operations at a rate of seven a year and became dependent on painkillers, wrecking his family life.

    Of his appearance before the transplant, Hardison told Fishman: “Kids ran screaming and crying when they saw me. There are things worse than dying.”


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    Why Do All Airplane Windows Have A Tiny Hole In Them?


    Looking out the window of a plane – with many hours to burn and a god-like perspective of the world – can get you pondering some of life’s big questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did it all begin? Is there purpose to our existence? Wait, what are those little holes in airplane windows?

    Thanks to the curious mind of Robbie Gonzalez from io9, the latter of those questions might be answered. After finding no sturdy answer on internet forums, he decided to track down a copy of a maintenance manual for the Boeing 737 on Wikileaks and contact Marlowe Moncur, Director of Technology for GKN Aerospace, the world leader in passenger cabin window design development.

    As you might have already guessed, it’s to do with regulating pressure.

    He found that most cabin windows consist of outer, middle and inner panes – all of which are made of a superstrong synthetic resin. Typically, it’s the middle pane that has the mysterious little hole.

    Only the outer and middle panes are actually structural, while the inner is pretty much there as failsafe and to protect the other layers. Moncur said it’s only there to maintain cabin pressure in the extremely rare event that the outer pane becomes fractured.

    Cruising at 10,600 meters (35,000 feet), the pressure is around 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) per square inch. This is too low for the human body to stay conscious, so the pressure is artificially maintained at around 3.5 kilograms (8 pounds) per square inch. But of course, if you increase pressure inside, the structure has to be strong to hold the difference between the external pressure and internal pressure.

    The outer pane is the thickest of these and is the primary layer that bears the pressure of the cabin. According to Gonzalez, the little hole is there to act as “as a bleed valve, allowing pressure between the air in the passenger cabin and the air between the outer and middle panes to equilibrate.” Simply put, it ensures that only the strongest outer pane is bearing the pressure, leaving the middle pane available in case of an emergency.

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    New "tricorder" technology might be able to "hear" tumors growing

    A new technology has promise to safely find buried plastic explosives and maybe even spot fast-growing tumors. The technique involves the clever interplay of microwaves and ultrasound to develop a detector like the Star Trek tricorder.


    When Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy needs to diagnose an ill member of the Starship Enterprise, he simply points his tricorder device at their body and it identifies their malady without probing or prodding. Similarly, when Capt. Kirk beams down to an alien world, his tricorder quickly analyzes if the atmosphere is safe to breathe.

    Now Stanford electrical engineers have taken the latest step toward developing such a device through experiments detailed in Applied Physics Letters and presented at the International Ultrasonics Symposium in Taipei, Taiwan.

    The work, led by Assistant Professor Amin Arbabian and Research Professor Pierre Khuri-Yakub, grows out of research designed to detect buried plastic explosives, but the researchers said the technology could also provide a new way to detect early stage cancers.

  3. #153
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    A 14-Year-Old Just Solved A Rubik’s Cube In Under Five Seconds


    Fourteen-year-old Lucas Etter is now the Roger Bannister of the Rubik’s cube. On Saturday, Etter became the first person to solve a Rubik’s cube in less than five seconds under sanctioned competitive conditions. That’s the kind of breakthrough that Bannister made in 1954 when he became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes. Etter’s time was 4.90 seconds, 0.35 seconds better than the record-holder going into Saturday’s competition, Collin Burns.1 The chart above shows the progression of the official world record, according to the World Cube Association.


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    What's The Most Dangerous Drug In The World?


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    Lucara Makes Diamond History; Recovers 1,111 Carat Diamond


    The high quality diamond producer with assets in Botswana, is pleased to announce the recovery of a 1,111 carat gem quality, Type IIa diamond.

    The magnificent stone, which originated from the south lobe of Lucara's Karowe Mine, is the world's second largest gem quality diamond ever recovered and the largest ever to be recovered through a modern processing facility. The stone was recovered by the newly installed Large Diamond Recovery ("LDR") XRT machines. The stone measures 65mm x 56mm x 40mm in size and is the largest ever to be recovered in Botswana.

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    1,700-Year-Old Ancient Gold and Onyx Ring Depicts Cupid, God of Love


    An exquisite onyx and gold ring from about the 300s AD depicting the god of love Cupid, found by a metal detectorist, will go on display in an English museum. Eros or Cupid was regarded by some ancients as a primordial force that preceded the other gods. A later myth is told of Cupid’s love and rescue of Psyche, a strikingly beautiful woman who became immortal when their marriage was celebrated on Olympus.

  4. #154
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Japanese scientists create touchable holograms ( )



    Japanese scientists create touchable holograms, believing this could contribute to architecture and medicine.

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    The World War II meme that circled the world


    We know about the epic drama of World War II, but what about the jokes? The above video tells the story (as best as we can). The iconic piece of graffiti that was known in America as "Kilroy" traveled the world in a fashion remarkably similar to a modern meme.

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    Where Is the World's Deepest Cave?


    Veteran cave explorer Bill Stone has announced that in 2017, he'll lead an expedition into the Chevé Cave system, a sprawling underground complex in the Oaxaca region of Mexico, which water flow suggests may descend nearly 1.6 miles into the Earth. If that turns out to be true, Chevé would earn the title of the world's deepest cave, taking away the distinction currently held by Krubera Cave in the Western Caucasus mountains in Georgia, which is about 1.36 miles deep.

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    Massive California Methane Leak Made Visible

    A ruptured gas well is spewing 62 million cubic feet of invisible methane into the San Fernando Valley each day — and, for the first time, the massive leak has been made visible.

    The Environmental Defense Fund, working in tandem with conservation organization Earthworks, recently released footage of the Aliso Canyon leak that calls upon specialized infrared technology to make the clear gas visible:


    Since late October, an estimated 73,000 tons of methane has escaped the well. The highly flammable gas is 20 times more potent by weight than carbon dioxide, and contributes significantly to the greenhouse gas effect.

    In a letter to customers, CEO Dennis Arriola says that the company hopes to have the leak sealed by February 2016. To do so, engineers must drill more than 8,000 feet into the ground to intercept the leak at its source.

    “As of December 19, we have drilled about 3,300 feet and are in our second of five phases of the drilling process,” Arriola writes.

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    Here’s What Sex Looks Like From INSIDE The Vagina


    Warning: This video is not safe for work. Or home. Or the bus. Or prison. Basically, it’s completely obscene – but since it counts as science, we’re going to show it.

    A couple of participants had cameras attached to all of their saucy parts and jiggly bits, and then were filmed having sexual intercourse in the missionary position. Via a tiny lens placed inside the vagina itself, viewers can get a close-up of the penis as it enters, stimulating the clitoris and the front vaginal wall, where the G-spot is located.

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    Why Do We Have A Little Groove Under Our Nose?


    We all have them, though it’s puzzled biologists for a long time as to why we do. I’m talking about that odd little groove found below your nose that runs to your top lip. Technically, it’s known as your philtrum and it’s as ubiquitous to the human face as the nose or eyes. But what is it, and why the hell do we have it? Well fascinatingly enough, it all relates to how faces are formed within the womb during development.

    What the philtrum marks is the location where different parts of the face merge into one. “It is the place where the puzzle that is the human face finally all comes together,” explains Dr Michael Mosley in a clip from the BBC program Inside the Human Body. “The three main sections of the puzzle meet at your top lip, creating the groove that is the philtrum.” The development of the face happens between months two and three of being in the womb, and if the face doesn’t form during this window, for genetic or environmental reasons, then it never will.


  5. #155
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Swiss Chocolatier Barry Callebaut Creates Heat-Resistant Chocolate to Survive Global Warming


    Other chocolate companies, like Nestlé and Hershey, are also developing heat-tolerant chocolates to sell in warmer regions.

    In an effort to introduce its products to new markets, including warmer climates, Swiss chocolate company Barry Callebaut has introduced commercially available heat-resistant luxury chocolate, a new blend that can resist temperatures up to 38 degrees Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit — four degrees higher than normal.

    The new chocolate, according to Barry Callebaut CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique, does not sacrifice taste and could “fundamentally change the game” of chocolate production.

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    Animals Kept In Deep Freeze For 30 Years Brought Back To Life

    Microscopic creatures kept frozen for more than three decades have been successfully brought back to life.

    The 1mm long tardigrades were collected from a frozen moss sample in Antarctica in 1983, according to a new paper published in the journal Cryobiology.

    Japan's National Institute of Polar Research stored the 8 legged, segmented critters at -4F for just over 30 years. They thawed and revived two of the animals, which are also known as water bears or moss piglets, in early 2014.


    One of them died 20 days into the experiment, reports the BBC. But its companion survived and managed to reproduce with a third tardigrade that had been hatched from a frozen egg. It went on to lay 19 eggs, of which 14 survived.

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    World’s oldest man dies at 112 in Japan


    The world’s oldest man, Yasutaro Koide, died on Tuesday at the age of 112 in central Japan, a local official said.

    Koide, born just months before the Wright brothers made their first successful flight, died in hospital in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, where he had lived for many years, said the city official.

    The super-centenarian, recognised as the world’s oldest male at 112 last year, died of heart failure and pneumonia, the official added.

    Koide, a former tailor who was born on March 13, 1903 in Fukui prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, received a certificate from Guinness World Records confirming the achievement after another Japanese man who was just a month older died in July.

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    Japan sushi boss pays US$ 117,000 for endangered tuna


    A Japanese sushi boss paid more than $117,000 Tuesday for a giant bluefin tuna as Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market held its last New Year auction ahead of a much-needed modernisation move.

    TOKYO: A Japanese sushi boss paid more than US$117,000 Tuesday (Jan 5) for a giant bluefin tuna as Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market held its last New Year auction ahead of a much-needed modernisation move.

    Bidding stopped at a whopping 14 million yen for the enormous 200-kilogramme fish, an endangered species, that was caught off Japan's northern coast.

    The price was three times higher than last year but still far below a record 155.4 million yen paid in 2013, when a Hong Kong restaurant chain weighed in, for a slightly larger fish of similar quality.

    The New Year auction is a traditional feature at Tsukiji, where bidders pay way over the odds for the prestige of buying the first fish of the year.

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    Robot Solves Rubix Cube in 1 Second


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    Bandages made from crab shells can rapidly heal wounds


    Scientists at the University of Bolton have developed a bandage containing crab shell components that accelerate the healing process within wounds. The bandage, a world first, has been designed by the university’s Fibre Science and Technology team.

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    You may have heard that chocolate is high on the list of things that dogs should not be eating, but have you ever wondered why? One molecule, theobromine, is the central culprit to chocolate's toxicity to dogs.



  6. #156
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Solar Impulse 2 lands safely in San Francisco after historic flight over Pacific

    Plane powered only by sun flies over Golden Gate Bridge after spending 56 hours coming from Hawaii on riskiest leg of its journey around the world

    A solar-powered plane accomplished a 56-hour, record-setting flight over the Pacific Ocean, flying by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and landing in Mountain View, California late Saturday night.

    “I crossed the bridge. I am officially in America,” said pilot Bertrand Piccard, as he guided the Solar Impulse 2 toward its landing after an extended journey around the world.

    “Can you imagine crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a solar-powered plane just like ships did in past centuries? But the plane doesn’t make noise and doesn’t pollute,” Piccard said a live video feed on the website documenting the journey.

    “It’s a priority to link the project we have with the pioneering spirit in Silicon Valley,” he added.

    The aircraft started its around-the-world journey in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan. This is the ninth leg of the circumnavigation.

    The trans-Pacific leg of its journey was the riskiest part of the solar plane’s global travels because there were so few places where the plane could make an emergency landing.

    “It is more than an airplane,” Piccard later said in a celebratory statement. “It is a concentration of clean technologies, a genuine flying laboratory, and illustrates that solutions exist today to meet the major challenges facing our society.”

  7. #157
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Brazil police recover art masterpieces stolen in elderly con



    Police in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday were seeking the arrest of six people accused of involvement in stealing 16 artworks together valued at more than 700 million reais ($139 million), some of which were recovered.

    Police said in a statement that the group stole the works from an 82-year-old widow, who had been married to an art collector and dealer.

    The haul included museum-quality pieces from Brazilian masters Tarsila do Amaral and Emiliano Di Cavalcanti. Video provided by police showed them finding more than 10 works underneath a bed and, at the bottom of the pile, was “Sol Poente” - a do Amaral painting of a brilliant-hued sunset.

    “Wow! Look who’s here!” one officer exclaimed as she removed bubble wrap from the work. “Oh, little beauty. Glory!”

    The theft was orchestrated by the widow's daughter, according to the statement, which didn't provide either of their names. The daughter was among those arrested Wednesday, according to local media, which also showed images of a woman attempting to escape through a window as police arrived.

    The paintings weren’t stolen in a heist, but rather through a bizarre con. In January 2020, a self-proclaimed soothsayer approached the widow in the Copacabana neighborhood and informed her that her daughter was sick and soon to die, according to the police statement.

    The widow, who holds mystical beliefs, was compelled to make bank transfers totaling 5 million reais over the course of two weeks for supposed spiritual treatment. Her daughter, who encouraged the payments, proceeded to fire domestic employees so her accomplices could enter the residence unimpeded and remove the artworks. Upon receiving threats from her daughter and the accomplices, the widow made additional bank transfers.

    Three of the artworks, collectively worth more than 300 million reais, were recovered in an art gallery in Sao Paulo. The gallery's owner told police he had purchased them directly from the widow's daughter, and sold two others to the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, according to the statement.

    A press officer for the world-renowned museum told The Associated Press that its founder, Eduardo Costantini, purchased the works for his personal collection, and possible display at the museum in the future. The museum identified the widow as Genevieve Boghici and said Costantini has maintained direct contact with her throughout the acquisition of the paintings and since.

  8. #158
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    The theft was orchestrated by the widow's daughter, according to the statement, which didn't provide either of their names. The daughter was among those arrested Wednesday, according to local media, which also showed images of a woman attempting to escape through a window as police arrived.
    Bladdy hell. There's some filial piety right there!

  9. #159
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    Fornication made illegal in Qatar during the world cup.

    Qatar Reportedly Bans Single World Cup Fans From Sex, Could Face 7 Years Behind Bars

  10. #160
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Pregnant HOV lane mom gets first ticket dismissed, then gets another


    Brandy Bottone, the pregnant Plano mom who attracted international attention when she received a traffic ticket for riding solo in a high-occupancy lane, wanted to prove a point.

    She said she believes that under Texas’ new abortion law, her unborn baby counted as a second living person, so she was not in violation of the law that requires two people in a vehicle in an HOV lane.

    Her traffic citation was dismissed earlier this month without a court hearing.

    The Dallas County District Attorney’s office moved to dismiss the ticket with the following legal language: “Based on a review of the facts and circumstances of this case, and the applicable law, the state moves to dismiss the case.”

    Translation: With the state’s new abortion law declaring a fetus to be a living human being, legal questions are still to be determined. The Texas Legislature is expected to clarify this in next year’s session.

    The DA’s office said Monday that will serve as its response for now.

    Bottone, 32, said in an interview Sunday that earlier this month she received a second ticket for the same offense at the same location.

    She said she wasn’t trying to prove a point. She was just trying to get where she needed to go. Because the matter is unsettled she believes she could still drive in an HOV lane.

    She said she did not disclose the second ticket until now on the advice of her lawyer. A hearing on her second ticket has not been scheduled.

    “Nobody is answering whether it’s right or wrong,” she says. “They dismissed it. Why do I have to change my belief? ... It doesn’t answer the question. Did I get it right or did I get it wrong?”

  11. #161
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    New York investigators seize over $13 million worth of artifacts from Met

    New York investigators have seized dozens of artifacts worth more than $13 million from the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the last six months, alleging they had been looted from around the world, according to the New York Times.

    Why it matters: The seizures indicate that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is stepping up efforts to close backlogged repatriation cases and crack down on the theft, looting and illicit trafficking of cultural property.


    • The seizures were spearheaded by Manhattan district attorney’s antiquities trafficking unit working with federal officials.


    By the numbers: In total, 27 artifacts were seized from the Met through at least three search warrants, according to the Times.


    • The antiquities are expected to be returned to their countries of origin in repatriation ceremonies set for next week.
    • Twenty-one of the relics will be returned to Italy and six to Egypt.
    • At least eight of the artifacts had been acquired by the Met through Gianfranco Becchina, who maintained a gallery in Switzerland and was convicted in Italy of illegally dealing in antiquities


    The big picture: Last month, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that the antiquities trafficking unit made two other seizures of looted artifacts, returning two books authored by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to Spain and a 14th century sculpture to Nepal.


    • The books had been stolen from a Spanish library, sold by a Barcelona auction house in 2011, passed between three private collectors before showing up for auction in New York in 2021.
    • The Nepali sculpture was stolen from a shrine in the 1960s and resurfaced on the New York art market in 2022, where it was seized by the antiquities trafficking unit.


    https://www.axios.com/2022/09/02/new...met-13-million

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    Interesting of course theft deception passing off hardly strange in LOS where the smile may not always be friendly. Wonder if the self righteous invaders of esp in the red(neck) states USA will support return of custodianship of N America to the indigenous?

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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    New York investigators have seized dozens of artifacts worth more than $13 million from the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the last six months, alleging they had been looted from around the world, according to the New York Times.
    Good. They don't belong to or in this museum . . . but seizure?

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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Good. They don't belong to or in this museum . . . but seizure?
    "Sinds Sie so nett und bringen Sie Trumpf in sein heimat zurück" Trump go back to the farter land, yes to Trump is to emit a noxious odour

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    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    . . . but seizure?
    Sounds like the Met didn’t want to give them up

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    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    27 artifacts
    Only 27?

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    Researchers may have just found evidence of the world's oldest amputation, dating back to the Stone Age, in a cave in Indonesia, according to a new study.


    The big picture:
    The discovery means humans may have been practicing amputation earlier than previously thought without medical tools and medications that are deemed necessary today.

    Details: Scientists in a new study — published Wednesday in the journal Nature — discovered a 31,000-year-old skeleton without a foot that appeared to have been removed through surgery.


    • The amputation likely happened to a child, who lived many years after the foot was removed.
    • Before this research, the oldest confirmed amputation likely occurred 7,000 years ago on a man's arm in France, according to Science.
    • Multiple scientists involved with the study did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.


    Zoom in: Researchers discovered the footless skeleton in a cave on the island of Borneo, which is believed to have some of the earliest rock structures in the world, the Associated Press reports.


    • The skeleton did not have a left foot and was missing part of its lower left leg. Scientists investigated the remains and concluded that the foot was likely removed rather than lost, AP reports.


    What they're saying: Co-author Melandri Vlok, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Sydney, told Science that the shin bones appeared to be fused at the bottom, which indicates the person may have been healed there after surgery.


    • “It looks exactly like what you would expect if a sharp blade cut completely perpendicular to the bone,” Vlok said, per Science. “It made us confident this was surgery.”


    The bottom line: “It had long been assumed healthcare is a newer invention,” Alecia Schrenk, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the AP. “Research like this article demonstrates that prehistoric peoples were not just left to fend for themselves.”

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    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    I’ve been to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It wasn’t well maintained and the security at the building was laxing. I understand how/why some of the items below might have ended up at The Met. Preservation

    _________




    Egypt is set to repatriate 16 artefacts that were stolen and smuggled out of the country after they were recovered by the authorities in the United States as part of their investigations in a major case of international trafficking in Egyptian antiquities.


    The repatriation of these stolen artefacts was made possible through a collaborative effort between the country's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the one hand, and the Office of the Attorney General in New York, on the other hand, after the completion of all necessary investigations.

    Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, the supervisor general of the Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, broke down the identity of the artefacts to be repatriated.

    First, six artefacts were seized by the Manhattan District Attorney after they were recovered from prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City during the ongoing major investigation in the smuggling of Egyptian antiquities to the United States and France.

    The six include a part of a painted coffin depicting the facial feature of a lady; limestone relief engraved with hieroglyphic text and offering scene; five linen Fragments of a wall illustrating the biblical Book of Exodus that date back to between 250 and 450 BC; a bronze statue of a famed musician named Kemes; and a portrait depicting a Roman-era lady in Fayoum.

    Second, nine of the artefacts were seized after they were found in the unlawful possession of an American businessman.

    The nine include distinguished ancient Egyptian objects and a Ptolemaic-era coin.

    All recovered artefacts will be handed over to the Egyptian Consulate in New York within days in order to make their way back home.

    In June, New York prosecutors announced seizing five Egyptian artefacts worth more than $3 million from the Met as part of an investigation into international trafficking in Egyptian antiquities involving Jean-Luc Martinez, the former president of the Louvre museum, who was charged in May with comlicity in fraud.

  19. #169
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Michael Jordan's 'Last Dance' jersey fetches record $10.1m


    A jersey worn by basketball icon Michael Jordan during the opening game of the 1998 NBA Finals has been sold for a record $10.1m (£8.8m).

    This is the most a piece of sporting memorabilia has fetched in history.

    Auction house Sotheby's says the item drew "palpable excitement" from sports fans and collectors.

    It was reminiscent of a sporting season - chronicled in Netflix documentary The Last Dance - which saw Jordan winning his sixth and final NBA title.

    On Thursday, Sotheby's said Jordan's Chicago Bulls jersey attracted a total of 20 bids.

    Sotheby's head of streetwear and modern collectables, Brahm Wachter, said bidders were "eager to own a rarefied piece of history".

    "Today's record-breaking result... solidifies Michael Jordan as the undisputed G.O.A.T, proving his name and incomparable legacy is just as relevant as it was nearly 25 years ago," Wachter said. G.O.A.T is an acronym for "greatest of all time".

    The jersey outstripped a previous record of $9.28m, paid for a shirt worn by football star Diego Maradona at the 1986 World Cup.

    It was auctioned with a June 1998 Sports Illustrated magazine, which features Jordan on the cover.

    Jordan is seen by many as the best player in the history of basketball. He spent most of his career with the Chicago Bulls, became a global icon and helped raise the NBA's profile around the world.

    Although the Chicago Bulls lost the opening game of the NBA Finals against Utah Jazz, it won the next three games. Then Utah Jazz took the next game by two points.

    In the sixth game, Jordan put the Bulls up 87-86 with just 5.2 seconds left on the clock, and secured his final NBA title.

    The comeback was cheered by basketball fans around the world.

    Jordan had abruptly retired from basketball in October 1993, following the murder of his father in North Carolina. The star had won seven scoring titles and led the Chicago Bulls to three straight championships.

    "I have always stressed... that when I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it's time to leave," Jordan said.

    Jordan, who is now aged 59, hung up his boots for the final time in 2003.

  20. #170
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Seven decades after cheetahs died out in India, they’re back.

    Eight big cats from Namibia made the long trek Saturday in a chartered cargo flight to the northern Indian city of Gwalior, part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce cheetahs to the South Asian country.


    Then they were moved to their new home: a sprawling national park in the heart of India where scientists hope the world’s fastest land animal will roam again.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the cats into their enclosure Saturday morning. The cats emerged from their cage, tentatively at first while continuously scanning their new surroundings.

    “When the cheetah will run again … grasslands will be restored, biodiversity will increase and eco-tourism will get a boost,” said Modi.

    Cheetahs were once widespread in India and became extinct in 1952 from hunting and loss of habitat. They remain the first and only predator to die out since India’s independence in 1947. India hopes importing African cheetahs will aid efforts to conserve the country’s threatened and largely neglected grasslands.

    There are less than 7,000 adult cheetahs left in the wild globally, and they now inhabit less than 9% of their original range. Shrinking habitat, due to the increasing human population and climate change, is a huge threat and India’s grasslands and forests could offer “appropriate” homes for the big cat, said Laurie Marker, of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an advocacy and research group assisting in bringing the cats to India.

    “To save cheetahs from extinction, we need to create permanent places for them on earth,” she said.

    Cheetah populations in most countries are declining. An exception to this is South Africa, where the cats have run out of space. Experts hope that Indian forests could offer these cats space to thrive. There are currently a dozen cheetahs in quarantine in South Africa, and they are expected to arrive at the Kuno National Park soon. Earlier this month, four cheetahs captured at reserves in South Africa were flown to Mozambique, where the cheetah population has drastically declined.

    Some experts are more cautious.

    There could be “cascading and unintended consequences” when a new animal is brought to the mix, said Mayukh Chatterjee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    For example, a tiger population boom in India has led to more conflict with people sharing the same space. With cheetahs, there are questions about how their presence would affect other carnivores like striped hyenas, or even prey like birds.

    “The question remains: How well it’s done,” he said.

    The initial eight cheetahs from Namibia will be quarantined at a facility in the national park and monitored for a month to make sure they’re not carrying pests. Then they will be released into a larger enclosure in the park to help them get used to their new environment. The enclosures contain natural prey — such as spotted deer and antelope, which scientists hope they’ll learn to hunt — and are designed to prevent other predators like bears or leopards from getting in.

    The cheetahs will be fitted with tracking collars and released into the national park in about two months. Their movements will be tracked routinely, but for the most part, they’ll be on their own.

    The reserve is big enough to hold 21 cheetahs and if they were to establish territories and breed, they could spread to other interconnected grasslands and forests that can house another dozen cheetahs, according to scientists.

    There is only one village with a few hundred families still residing on the fringes of the park. Indian officials said they’d be moved soon, and any livestock loss due to cheetahs will be compensated. The project is estimated to cost $11.5 million over five years, including $6.3 million that will be paid for by state-owned Indian Oil.

    The continent-to-continent relocation has been decades in the making. The cats that originally roamed India were Asiatic cheetahs, genetically distinct cousins of those that live in Africa and whose range stretched to Saudi Arabia.

    India had hoped to bring in Asiatic cheetahs, but only a few dozen of these survive in Iran and that population is too vulnerable to move.

    Many obstacles remain, including the presence of other predators in India like leopards that may compete with cheetahs, said conservation geneticist Pamela Burger of University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

    “It would be better to conserve them now where they are than to put effort in creating new sites where the outcome is questionable,” she said.

    Dr. Adrian Tordiffe, a veterinary wildlife specialist from South Africa associated with the project, said the animals need a helping hand. He added that conservation efforts in many African countries hadn’t been as successful, unlike in India where strict conservation laws have preserved big cat populations.

    “We cannot sit back and hope that species like the cheetah will survive on their own without our help,” he said.

  21. #171
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    You appear to have a strange grasp of the 'strange'.

  22. #172
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    1 day ago

    Chess player denies using anal beads to cheat in match against world champion


    9 Shares18/09/2022

    JACK PEAT

    It has been suggested that vibrations could have let the underdog know the best move

    A chess player has denied using anal beads to pull off a shock win against the world champion.




    Nineteen-year-old chess grandmaster Hans Niemann managed to defeat Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis.
    The youngster was the lowest ranked of the ten players in the tournament and Carlsen had not been beaten in 53 sittings, leading to speculation over how he pulled off the shock victory to run rife.
    Discussing the matter on Twitter, one influencer added weight to the claim that Niemann could have used a vibrating sex toy during the competition in order to cheat.


    Elon Musk even shared the video (now deleted) and quoted philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, writing: "Talent hits a target no one else can hit, genius hits a target no one can see (cause it's in ur butt)."

    Eventually, Niemann addressed the cheating allegations, admitting he had cheated during virtual Chess.com tournaments when he was younger. However, Niemann said, he never cheated IRL.


    “I have never cheated in an over-the-board game. If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it,” Niemann offered. “I don’t care. Because I know I am clean. You want me to play in a closed box with zero electronic transmission, I don’t care.”
    Still, social media couldn’t get enough of it:

    Chess player denies using anal beads to cheat in match against world champion | JOE.co.uk
    Lang may yer lum reek...

  23. #173
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    Beyond Meat: Vegan food executive accused of biting man's nose

    Vegan food giant Beyond Meat's chief operating officer has been arrested for reportedly biting a man's nose during a row in the US.


    Douglas Ramsey, 53, faces charges of "terroristic threatening" and third-degree battery, court records show.


    He was released after posting a $11,085 (£9,711) bond on Sunday.


    The incident occurred on Saturday night as he left a parking garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas after a football game, a local TV channel said.


    He became involved in a dispute with another driver and bit the man "ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose," according to KNWA/KFTA, a US television station which cited a preliminary police report.


    The Fayetteville police did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

    more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62964369

  24. #174
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Egyptian archaeologists unearthed the empty, 3,200-year-old coffin of Ptah-M-Wia, a high-ranking New Kingdom official


    Archaeologists excavating Saqqara, an ancient necropolis south of Cairo, have unearthed a 3,200-year-old sarcophagus crafted out of pink granite. The coffin belonged to Ptah-M-Wia, a high-ranking official who held multiple administrative titles during the reign of Ramses II, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

    Ptah-M-Wia’s mummy was long gone by the time archaeologists from Cairo University discovered his empty sarcophagus. The coffin’s lid was broken, suggesting grave robbers removed the remains, likely in antiquity, reports Live Science’s Owen Jarus. Traces of resin in the sarcophagus testify that it once contained a mummified body.

    Per a translation by Agence France-Presse, Mustafa Waziri, who oversees Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, says hieroglyphs inscribed on the sarcophagus indicate that Ptah-M-Wia was a “royal secretary, chief overseer of cattle and head of the treasury” at Ramses’ funerary temple in Thebes. The official was also in charge of “divine offerings to all the gods of Upper and Lower Egypt.”

    In the statement, Waziri attributes the find’s significance to Ptah-M-Wia’s relationship with Ramses, who ruled from roughly 1292 to 1190 B.C.E. As Nevine El-Aref reports for Ahram Online, Ptah-M-Wia’s tomb is located in a section of Saqqara that houses the burials of prominent New Kingdom officials, including royal ambassador Basir, military commander Eurkhi and mayor of Memphis Ptah-Mas.

    Archaeologists discovered Ptah-M-Wia’s tomb last year but have only unveiled his sarcophagus now. The coffin is the latest in a series of amazing discoveries made at Saqqara in recent years.

    In May, excavators uncovered 250 sarcophagi and 150 bronze statues at the ancient burial site. In late 2020, they discovered over 100 intact wooden coffins with hieroglyphs and well-preserved mummies inside. Experts also unearthed carved statues, mummified cats and numerous works of art.

  25. #175
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    2 October 2022

    A climate activist has sparked fury by pouring a bucket of what she says is human faeces over a memorial to a beloved UK figure in a bizarre protest over the use of private jets.

    Maddie Budd, 21, vandalised a memorial to Captain Sir Tom Moore, a World War II veteran who rose to fame early in the COVID-19 pandemic by walking laps of his garden to raise money for the UK's National Health Service (NHS). He ended up raising £32,796,355 (NZ$65,434,422), won admirers around the world, and was knighted for his efforts.

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