[prokroustis]

NAZCA GEOGLYPHS DISCOVERED USED AI DEEP LEARNING



Archaeologists from the Yamagata University have used AI deep learning to discover new geoglyphs in the northern part of the Nazca Pampa in the arid Peruvian coastal plain.
Geoglyphs in the Nazca Pampa were first identified during the 1920’s, with ongoing studies since the 1940’s revealing various figurative geoglyphs of zoomorphic designs, geometric shapes, and linear lines.

Geoglyphs can be categorised into three main types: figurative, geometric, and lineal. Archaeologists suggest that the lineal geoglyphs were created by the Nazca, a culture that developed during the Early Intermediate Period and is generally divided into the Proto Nazca (phase 1, 100 BC to AD 1), the Early Nazca (phases 2–4, AD 1 to 450), Middle Nazca (phase 5, AD 450 to 550) and the Late Nazca (phases 6–7, AD 550 to 750).

The relief type dates from the Late Formative period (400 to 200 BC), as the iconography of the geoglyphs are similar to that of Formative petroglyphs found on outcrops of rock. During this period, the region was inhabited by the Paracas Culture, an Andean people that emerged around 800 BC until 100 BC.

Since 2004, Yamagata University has been conducting geoglyph distribution surveys using satellite imagery, aerial photography, airborne scanning LiDAR, and drone photography to investigate the vast area of the Nazca Pampa covering more than 390 km2.

In 2016, the researchers used aerial photography with a ground resolution of 0.1 m per pixel to create a detailed survey of the region. Overtime, the team have identified various geoglyphs, however, the process is very time consuming, so they have adopted AI deep learning to analyse the photographs at a much faster rate.

The results of a study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, has revealed the discovery of four new Nazca geoglyphs using this new method by creating an approach to labelling training data that identifies a similar partial pattern between the known and new geoglyphs.

The four new geoglyphs depict a humanoid figure, a pair-of-legs, a fish, and a bird. The humanoid geoglyph is shown holding a club in his/her right hand and measures 5 metres in length. The fish geoglyph, shown with a wide-open mouth measures 19 metres, while the bird geoglyph measures 17 metres and the pair-of-legs 78 metres.

According to the study authors: “We have developed a DL pipeline that addresses the challenges that commonly arise in the task of archaeological image object detection. Our approach allows DL to learn representations of images with better generalisation and performance, enabling the discovery of targets that have been difficult to find in the past. Moreover, by accelerating the research process, our method contributes to archaeology by establishing a new paradigm that combines field surveys and AI, leading to more efficient and effective investigations.”

[Misstee]

Mystery Of Why Romans Poured Liquid Gypsum Over Bodies In Stone Coffins
A family tragedy was uncovered by looking at an ancient burial using a Roman concrete ingredient.
author

Tom Hale




For the first time, archaeologists have used cutting-edge imaging techniques to understand the unusual Roman burial practice of pouring gypsum over the remains of loved ones. By delving into this mystery, the team stumbled across a “poignant family tragedy” they weren’t expecting.

In this obscure form of burial, a liquid form of gypsum – a mineral used to make the mysterious “Roman concrete” – is poured into the coffin, covering the deceased body and eventually hardening. This creates a negative cavity where the shape, size, and original position of the dead are perfectly preserved like a cast.

The researchers note that Roman gypsum burials have been found across Europe and North Africa, but they are particularly common in Roman Britain where at least 45 such burials have been documented.

In the new research, the team collected 3D scans of 16 gypsum burials that are held by the Yorkshire Museum in the UK. This kind of burial typically only contains a single person per coffin, but their scans revealed that one of the gypsum coffins contained a family of two adults and an infant who died at the same time.

"The 3D images allow us to witness a poignant family tragedy almost 2,000 years after it occurred, reminding us not only of the fragility of life in antiquity but also the care invested in the interment of this group of people," Professor Maureen Carroll, chair of Roman archaeology at the University of York, said in a statement.

"The contours of the three individuals in the gypsum can be seen with the naked eye, but it is difficult to make out the relationship of the bodies to each other and to recognize how they were dressed or wrapped. The resulting 3D model clarifies these ambiguities in stunning fashion," Professor Carroll added.

The team presented their findings at the York Festival of Ideas on June 3. In the next part of the research on the bodies, the team will use further analysis to determine their age, sex, diet, and even geographic origin.

Unfortunately, their work was not able to expose why the Romans occasionally opted for this type of burial, although it does appear to be associated with people from a high social status.

Even though its purpose is still obscured, this type of burial is extremely useful for archaeologists who can use the imprint of the figures to learn about aspects of the individual that would usually have been lost to time, such as their clothing.

As this latest project also highlights, they also make for great 3D images which show imprints of past lives like never before.

“These advanced scanning technologies have been game-changing. Researchers can better analyze archaeological material for details often not visible to the human eye, while the public can explore interactive digital versions of ancient objects in new, more engaging ways” said Patrick Gibbs, Head of Technology at Heritage360 who worked on the digital imaging.

“The potential for 3D scanning to offer us a unique window into the past is quickly being realised,” added Gibbs.

Little Boy Lost for 6 Days in Harsh Kenyan Wilderness is Rescued: ‘An Amazing Moment’

By Andy Corbley - Jun 5, 2023


Ayub is rescued by his uncle – credit Roan Carr-Hartley

Kenya’s vast Tsavo East National Park is no place for the solitary. It’s easy to get lost in the dense bush, a fact 4-year-old Ayub from the Asa community will remember for the rest of his life.

The boy faced a terrifying ordeal, lost for 6 days amid a territory 66% larger than Yellowstone, and populated by killers like elephants, buffalo, and rhinos.

But this story of survival had a happy ending thanks to the help of two Kenyan-British pilots: The Carr-Harleys—Roan and Taru.

“When I was flying around, I saw lots of hyenas, jackals, and it was pouring with rain,” Roan Carr-Hartley, a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft pilot who works with his brother at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, told CBS News about the rescue efforts.

“It’s such a harsh and unforgiving environment for a tiny boy, there’s nothing or no one there. And so you start worrying and fearing the worst, you feel so hopeless.”

Ayub went missing from his village during a storm. The community chief had phoned the Carr-Hartleys asking for help because he and some other villagers were already tracking the boy’s footprints.

They searched for days with no luck, until on the 6th, Roan got a call from the chief saying they had picked up fresh tracks about 15 kilometers north of their village, and shortly after arriving in the area, Roan spotted Ayub under his left wing, describing him as this “tiny guy in the middle of nowhere” who was weak and stumbling.

Coordinating with the searchers on the ground, it was Ayub’s uncle who got to him first, picking him up and swinging him in the air.

Roan explained that it’s tradition in Asa culture to chant songs of gratitude on a walk back to the village.

“When his mother saw him, she just burst into tears. She couldn’t believe it. She was totally in hysterics,” Roan said. “He also reunited with his dad and the rest of his family. It was an amazing moment. Doctors arrived, we administered first aid, replenished his electrolytes, and tested him for malaria.”
While Roan and his brother Taru normally are looking for humans with malintent (poachers) and rescue four-legged members of the Tsavo East community (elephants), Ayub is not the first person they’ve rescued this year.

GNN reported on a Sheldrick Wildlife Trust release in May when the brothers piloted their helicopter to the rescue of a tanker truck driver who had been stranded on a flooded road section.

Dwarfed by the angry river, the tanker had flipped onto its side, and the driver, James Rufus Kinyua, had climbed out of the cab and was lying on the door. Slowly, the pilot lowered the helicopter closer and closer to the tanker where the driver sat crouched in the swirling winds from both the flooding and the rotors.


Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

“I was told he had been there since 10 am, in extreme fear I am sure,” Taru Carr-Hartley told Nation Africa. “He was hanging half out of the window, lying on top of the truck, and I could see the windscreen was smashed and the whole cabin was filled with water.”

All in a day’s work for the Carr-Hartleys, born as the third generation of British-Kenyans who work in wildlife conservation and biology in the East African nation.

Italy Displays 750 Objects Worth Recovered from Disgraced Antiquities Dealer Robin Symes


Etruscan fragment of gilt bronze sheet with embossed decoration of oriental motifs (7th Century BCE)



Italy recently displayed 750 artifacts, estimated to be worth $12.9 million, that its Culture Ministry and heritage police officers had recovered from the liquidated company of convicted art dealer Robin Symes.

The artifacts—dating from the 8th century BCE through the Middle Ages—included clay vases, clothing elements, precious metals and jewels, weapons, tools, furnishings, sarcophagi, funerary urns, detailed mosaics, painted decorations, as well as a variety of statues in bronze, marble and limestone.

The illegally exported items came from “clandestine exacavations” and “offer a cross-section of the many productions of ancient Italy and the islands,” including “numerous and diversified archaeological contexts (funerary, cultural, residential and public) … concentrated in particular in Etruria and Magna Graecia,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture.

The most valuable artifacts were identified as a bronze tripod table, two parade horse headboards from the Appulo-Lucan area, two funerary paintings, several Imperial-age marble heads, as well as a wall painting depicting a small temple likely taken from a Vesuvian residence.

The items were recovered from the English company Robin Symes Ltd through an investigation by the Carabinieri cultural heritage police, in collaboration with the Italian Culture Ministry, the State Attorney General and the Italian Embassy in London. According to a press release, the company belonging to Symes had opposed “repeated recovery attempts” by the Italian Judicial Authority, and was also sued in Italy through the State Attorney General.

The repatriated items were presented during a press conference at the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome on May 31 led by Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano and the head of the Carrabinieri, Vincenzo Molinese.

Symes’ legacy of trafficking antiquities also popped up last month when Greece recovered 351 antiquities also from the art dealer’s liquidated company after a 17-year legal battle and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office repatriated an item to Iraq. Symes was convicted of contempt of court for lying about antiquities he held in storage locations around the world in 2005. He sentenced to two years in prison, but only served seven months.

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
WEDNESDAY JUNE 7
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Woman who hit headlines after 'marrying' a rag doll claims her partner has cheated on her AGAIN – leaving her so upset she removed his 'penis'

A woman who hit the headlines after 'marrying' a rag doll that her mother made for her claims her partner has cheated on her once again.

Meirivone Rocha Moraes, from Brazil, has become well-known over the past few years for sharing the ins and outs of her and the inanimate object's relationship.

Following the alleged cheating, the 37-year-old says the love rat is now sleeping on the sofa and she even took away his 'penis'.

She said: 'I found out when my friend sent me a message one evening saying that he was cheating on me.

'So that night, I got really mad and made him sleep on the couch.'


Following the alleged cheating, the 37-year-old says the love rat is now sleeping on the sofa

And as his punishment, Meirivone, decided to detach Marcelo's dildo penis.

She added: 'It is just a white rubber dildo, which measures about 16cm. So I decided to take it off. I've done it before.

'I'm afraid other women will touch Marcelo's penis so I like to put it in the [underwear] drawer when we go out to bars or shows.

'Then, there is no chance of any other women lusting after him.'

Marcelo has allegedly cheated on Meirivone in the past.

She said: 'Last time, I found a bright pink thong on the floor.

'I found out that Marcelo had been with another woman but when I asked whose they were, he didn't answer me.


Meirivone Rocha Moraes, from Brazil, claims her partner has cheated on her once again so she took away his 'penis'

'Marcelo is naughty, he goes after women and then lies to me that nothing happens.'

She also claims that the rag doll has over 500 contacts on his WhatsApp, all of which are women.

She added: 'Every now and then I catch him in a conversation with a girl, and when I ask who it is, he tries to say it's his cousin.'

For now, Marcelo continues to sleep on the sofa, and hasn't received his penis back yet.


He has over 500 contacts on his WhatsApp, all of which are women

It comes after Meirivone launched a desperate bid to find their ragdoll child after he was 'kidnapped'.

Meirivone claimed baby Marcelinho is being held hostage by captors who are demanding £161 for his release.

The concerned mother revealed the worrying development following a rollercoaster romance with the ragdoll, which has also involved a cheating scandal in which she accused her husband of an affair.

As she waits to hear news on her baby son's whereabouts, she posted a TikTok video of herself putting up flyers in her neighbourhood urging people to come forward if they have any information.

Meanwhile the helpless mother, who has quit working while she searches for her son, revealed she is 'terrified' after receiving a video of her son sat in a corner of an abandoned building earlier this week.


Marcelinho is being held hostage in an abandoned building as his captors demanded £161 (BRL 7,000) for his return

Meirivone said: 'There's part of me worried they will set him on fire.

'I can't sleep, Marcelo is up all night calling out his son's name.

'Diego and Carol are sad because they can't understand where their brother is.'

Revealing she is 'terrified', she said the stress and worry is 'all too much'.

She claimed she and Marcelo have enlisted a group of friends and family to scour the streets looking for their youngest child.

She added: 'I just love him so much. I'm left here thinking are they giving him a bath? Are they giving him clean milk? Are they taking good care of him?

'Deep down my mother's intuition is telling me he's fine.

'But I just don't know what is happening.'

Meirivone, who is the sole breadwinner of the family, revealed she has given up work while she searches for her son as the captors demand 7,000 in Brazilian Real for his safe return. In her bid to find Marcelinho, the mother has uploaded videos of herself putting up missing person posters on her social media accounts.

In one video – which has over 990,000 views on TikTok – she sits with her husband as they announce the devastating news.

Meirivone announced last summer that she had welcomed her third child with her ragdoll husband just as the pair returned home from their honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro.

She 'gave birth' in just 35 minutes at home, with a doctor and nurse on site, while livestreaming the event to an audience of 200 people.

(I am not sure what frightens me the most, the fact she is so connected to a rag doll or that she is not unique and there is more than one person out there like her...)

[lush]

Woman Locks Boyfiend in Her House for Three Days to Prevent Him from Cheating
05172023*

An extremely jealous woman in Argentina was recently arrested for keeping her boyfriend a prisoner in her house for three days to make sure he didn’t cheat on her.

On Saturday, police in the Argentinian city of La Plata rescued a 29-year-old man from a locked room in his girlfriend’s house. He claimed to have been locked in there for over 72 hours following an argument with his girlfriend of six months, who happened to be extremely jealous. After uninstalling WhatsApp from his phone and then smashing it against the floor to prevent him from talking to other women, the unnamed woman reportedly locked the man in a room. She kept him there for three days straight, until he was somehow able to steal her phone and text a friend for help.


Photo: Karsten Winegeart/Unsplash

When police arrived at the house on Villa Ponsati Street, in La Plata, they could hear the desperate man screaming for help from the locked room, so they arrested his 30-year-old girlfriend and gave him back his freedom. The man told them that his girlfriend had been jealous since the beginning of their relationship, going as far as to set a ‘time of return’ whenever he went out with his friends.

“She threatened me that if I didn’t arrive at such and such a time or another, she would come to wherever I was to look for me,” the man told police, adding that her jealousy only got worse as time went by.


Photo: El Dia

The victim said that she told him that he was keeping him locked up to make sure he didn’t cheat on her. It’s not clear how he managed to get his hands on her mobile phone to text his friend, but had he not done so, he would probably still be in that room.

The jealous woman has been arrested and charged with “illegal deprivation of liberty”.

[goldie0608]

Mom and Her Six Daughters Go Viral After Wearing Wedding Dresses Out to Dinner: ‘Ridiculously Fun!’

"My favorite part was just making a spectacle and being silly with my girls," Terri Bonin tells PEOPLE. "We definitely made a memory that will last a lifetime"



Here come the brides!

A Texas mom, four of her daughters and two of her daughters-in-law went viral last month after going out to dinner in all white wedding gowns.

“We decided that the most expensive dresses we owned deserved to be worn & enjoyed for more than just one day in our lives,” Alexis Houston captioned the May 19 video on her Instagram, which had since amassed over 4.7 million views.

Terri Bonin, who is mom to 11 children (5 sons and 6 daughters) ranging in age from 9-31, says that she and her girls have a monthly dinner tradition, “to get out together without husbands or toddlers and eat and talk late into the night,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The inspiration for their eye-catching wardrobe came after one of her daughters saw an Instagram reel of a woman joking about all the things you can do in a wedding dress. Once the video was shared in the sister's text group, they decided to break out their gowns for a night on the town.

“It was a ton of fun and we 10/10 recommend it,” adds Bonin.

The group met up beforehand to get everyone into their dresses, before Bonin and her daughters, Madeleine, 28, Alexis, 25, Annalise, 23, Kate, 18, (who is not married, but got a dress for the occasion just for fun), plus her daughters-in-law: Hannah Joy, 26, and Sydnie, 25, headed out to True Food, located outside of Houston for dinner.



At the table, the women dined on roasted vegetables, burgers, ancient grain bowls with steak and chicken with pepper pesto. Despite the all-white ensembles and colorful entrees, "there were no accidents,” jokes Bonin. Following dinner, the group then hopped over to another restaurant Sixty Vines for dessert where they shared cheesecake and enjoyed cappuccinos and lattes.

The sight of seven brides caused quite a stir among other diners. ““It was hilarious!” says Bonin. “We unknowingly picked the busiest night to go to Market Street. A local High School was celebrating a graduation on the grounds. We felt a little bad about stealing the show, but we really didn't know there would be a graduation there. The valet guys parked us for free.”

Bonin, who is a podcast host and women’s mentor, had one small hiccup to deal with before their ladies night out.

“I lost my wedding dress,” she says. “I have no idea how or when. But thankfully Sydnie, my daughter in love, had loaned her high school prom dress to Kate a few years ago so it was hanging in one of our closets. I tried it on and it fit perfectly! Literally saved the day!”

Hannah Joy, who is married to Bonin’s eldest son, Ethan, 31, adds that her favorite part of the night was,“Having to unload in front of all of those people at the graduation. Red in the face. And people trying to understand why there were two babies in the group of brides,” she says. “Also people thinking we had just gotten married and were just out and about without our grooms!”

Bonin says that they all agree that the wedding dress themed would be to do annually, but just getting dressed up and making a scene was “ridiculously fun!”

She adds: “My favorite part was just making a spectacle and being silly with my girls. We definitely made a memory that will last a lifetime.”

[Fatima99]

Tesla Model 3 Has a Life-Cycle Ownership Cost Equivalent to the Cheapest Car in America



No one sees a Tesla or a Tesla owner and thinks “budgeter” but as it turns out, the total cost of ownership of the new Model 3 is about the same as the cheapest car in America.

This is according to the astute arithmetic of Paul Fosse writing for Clean Technica, who compared the most popular EV brand’s latest offering to the internal combustion-powered 2023 Mitsubishi Mirage, the cheapest car in America.

Using “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) meaning all the costs of owning and operating a vehicle spanning 5 years, Fosse shows that over the mid-term, a Tesla is actually an economy class car.

For starters, the 2023 Mitsubishi Mirage lists new for $16,245, while the Model 3 is twice as much up front, which is nothing to sneeze at and is usually the only cost relavent to car buyers selecting their prefered option.

From there, Fosse uses as a five-year TCO from Edmunds.com as a baseline measurement but found that their estimates of Tesla value depreciation, taxes, financing, and trade-in value to be significantly awry.

For starters, his own deep research has shown that Tesla cars, unlike high-end luxury or performance models, don’t depreciate nearly as fast—about 4% a year (or $6,066 after 5 years). Next, he predicts that the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit will still be available in five years, and that buying a used EV still confers a $4,000 credit, allowing retailers to sell them used for more than before.

Then Fosse adjusts the taxes and financing costs to reflect the new up-front price that’s nearly $16,500 less than shown in the Edmunds estimate.

While the cost of insurance is about 3 grand more, Tesla 3 owners would more than make up for it with reduced fuel (a variation depending on your zip code) and maintainence costs, (Teslas have 1 moving engine component) as well as the tax credit.

His totals show that despite being significantly slower and sparser, a Mistushibi Mirage has a 5-year TCO of $31,349, just $1,000 less than a brand new Model 3 Tesla, as well 200 more grams of CO2 per mile accounting for many metric tons more ove 5 years.

Gen Z doesn’t need college to nail career success: ‘Not the only way’




The generation coming up in the post-pandemic world is questioning the value of a four-year degree.

According to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college enrollment is still far below pre-pandemic levels.

In fact, there are more than 1 million fewer college students today than there were in 2019.

As total student debt nears $2 trillion and many major employers drop degree requirements, a mere 41% of high school students say they think they need a four-year degree to get a good job.

One study, by NerdWallet, suggests this year’s high-school graduates are likely to borrow an average of $37,300 to get through college.

The Post spoke to four Gen Zers who decided to forego the traditional college route and pave their own way.

Farrah Carr never went to college.

And yet, by age 18, she bought herself a car.

At 19, she moved out on her own.

And now, at just 22, Carr is raking in a 6-figure salary as a self-made entrepreneur running her own one-woman nail salon.

That entrepreneurial spirit, she says, doesn’t require a degree.

“I just want to work for myself,” the Atlanta resident told The Post. “My ultimate goal is to not have a salary that someone else can put a cap on.”

But, as an AP honors student, Carr said “it was just an expectation” for her to go to college — and that her high school failed to teach her that there were alternative routes to success.

“It was just like, ‘Y’all are getting ready to go to your four-year. It’s either you’re gonna do that, or you’re gonna end up broke or dead or in jail,’” she recalled.

She was planning to go into tech or engineering but changed her mind at the last minute in senior year when she realized she could make it on her own as an entrepreneur.

“Of course, being an honors student, people looked at me like I was crazy,” she said. “But that didn’t affect me in any way.”

Drawing on her love for doing her own nails since childhood, Carr began doing nails out of her friend’s basement.

Pretty soon, thanks to word of mouth endorsements and self-promotion on TikTok and Instagram, her business exploded.

“It literally just started to take off. I didn’t plan for it to take off like that. But I just kept working,” she said.

She expanded into a rented suite where she now operates her salon, Farrah Nailed It. The secret to her success: her personality.

“There are a lot of people that do nails way better than me,” she said. “I think that my success has to do with my energy and how I make people feel at their appointment, really.”

With a solid list of 80-plus regular customers, she’s met her goal of a 6-figure salary: “I knew that it wasn’t going to be that hard, you know, $100,000 is only $274 a day.”

But Carr still isn’t satisfied.

“Sometimes I do give myself a pat on the back, but I know that I’m just getting started,” she said. “My end goal is financial freedom. I want to stop working for money and have my money work for me.”

Carr says she got that entrepreneurial spark from her father, Desmond, who owned a shoe store but passed away right before her 18th birthday.

Although he’s not here to see her successes, she knows he’d be proud.

“My dad wanted me to go to college to have something guaranteed and stable,” she said. “But, more than anything, he wanted me to have my own business.”

According to Carr, making it big is easier today than ever before — even without a degree.

“People are realizing that college is not the only way now,” she said. “Maybe in the past before the internet, it was harder to start or promote your own business. But today you can make money sitting down. You don’t even have to get up at this point.”
The HVAC handyman: “I came out of a trade school with a job in hand”

Dean Harper always knew he wanted to work with his hands.

But, at his private Christian high school, he says the trade school route wasn’t celebrated.

“They were really pushing college,” the Lexington, South Carolina, native, said. “In high school, they started saying you need to be doing college visits and SAT and ACT prep.”

But when Harper, 22, started working for a local heating and air company during his summer breaks in high school, he realized there was a massive demand for young men going into the trades.

“That’s when I really started opening my eyes to the fact that you don’t really need school to do this job right here,” he said. “I see a lot of older men running companies as one-man shows. It’s just them, and when they die this establishment is gonna be no more.”

So, when college application season came around, Harper opted to go to trade school for heat and air.

In the summer of 2020, he graduated with a mere $2,000 tuition bill — and a guaranteed job.

“Coming out of college with a four-year degree, you got $100,000 in debt and you might not have a job if you went and got a degree that there’s just no market for,” he said. “But I came out of trade school with basically a job in hand.”

He was immediately hired by a HVAC specialist who runs his own company as an extra set of hands.

Harper also runs his own handyman business, Dean and Done, which he says is “going pretty strong.”

He hopes one day he’ll build up enough savings to invest in real estate and be a property manager.

As for his decision to forego college, Harper has zero regrets — even as his former classmates graduate this year.

“The trade knowledge I’ve gained over four years at such a young age at 22, I don’t think I could take that back,” he said. “I know a lot of people in their 30s, 40s, even 50s who are just now getting into a trade, and they really wish they did earlier.”

As the trades market begs for more young blood, he says the stigma around choosing trade school over college is lifting.

“I think there’s a conversation opening up to, ‘Hey, we need more trades people. Trades are ok,’” he said. “I mean, we’ll always need people to fix the AC when it’s hot out.”
“Being an influencer got me to Hollywood — community college didn’t”

Dustin Vuong, 20, is the son of Vietnamese immigrants.

College, he says, was their unwavering expectation.

“Growing up in an immigrant family, education was always highly valued, and we were always pushed to work hard and get straight A’s,” Vuong, who had a 4.0 GPA in school, told The Post. “In their generation, a degree was everything.”

Growing up, he worked in his family’s Sacramento, California, vegan Vietnamese restaurant.

But when his YouTube channel began to take off in high school, he pulled back from the family business.

“YouTube just took a lot of time, and they didn’t understand why I couldn’t work at their restaurant as much and why I had to do so much work on my social media,” he said.

But Vuong’s toil paid off.

By the time he graduated from high school in 2020, he had around 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, where he posts videos discussing fashion, love, mental health, and the challenges of modern life.

But Vuong still felt like he had to go to college, even though he was already succeeding in the career he loved.

“Back in high school there was definitely a negative connotation towards gap years and different tracks,” he said. “I didn’t really want to go to college, but I knew that I quote unquote ‘had’ to go to college. I knew that my parents and my entire family, like everyone, always said, ‘Go to college, it’s the norm.’”

So he decided to enroll in his local community college during the pandemic because he didn’t want to pay full tuition at a major university just to do Zoom classes.

But Vuong says the online school experience “disillusioned” him: “It was very lackluster, very boring. All the classes were online. It felt like I wasn’t even in school.”

Within a matter of months, he knew he wasn’t going back.

“I was like, what am I doing right now?” Vuong recalled. “My creative passions were thriving at that point. I realized [my social media] is an opportunity that I can take right now.”

He didn’t tell his parents about the decision to drop out until the enrollment period for his second semester had passed.

And, much to his surprise, his family came around to support him.

“I thought they would get really angry at me. They were a little shocked, but they weren’t freaking out or anything,” he said. “They were surprisingly, very, very okay with it, I think because I had a job already.”

Now that he’s freed up to lean all the way into his social media presence, it’s paid dividends.

Today Vuong has 466,000 YouTube subscribers and 470,000 TikTok followers.

“Dropping out just relieved me from the stresses of school and gave me the opportunity to focus on what I love,” he said.

Vuong says being an influencer truly is a full time job.

Just one YouTube video alone, which he posts weekly, can take up to 25 hours to edit.

Since dropping out, he’s landed major sponsors like McDonalds, Uniqulo, and BetterHelp — deals that helped him finance his move to Los Angeles in 2021 to pursue his dream in Hollywood.

As Vuong’s family comes around to his dropout decision, he understands it took a while because the prospect of a full time social media career is still so novel.

“Now there are so many different jobs that we didn’t even know existed, especially in creative arts and the entertainment industry,” Vuong said. “I think there are just so many opportunities now that weren’t available back in their day.”
‘My parents didn’t want me to be an apprentice. Look at me now.’

At just 22, Shekinah Griffith already has a four-year career at a Fortune 500 company under her belt — thanks to IBM’s partnership with a specialized New York City high school.

The Brooklyn native first heard of P-Tech — short for Pathways in Technology Early College High School — when then President Obama visited the school in 2013.

“I was like, ‘Wow, I wonder why Barack Obama is in Brooklyn, New York, out of all the places he could be,’” she told The Post.

His visit inspired her to attend P-Tech, where she learned she could take college-level courses while completing high school.

While there, Griffith discovered a love for technology during a course introducing cybersecurity.

“It wasn’t very traditional,” she said of the P-Tech experience.

In five years, she was able to graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree.

And, although Griffith originally planned to get a four-year degree after graduation, she realized it wasn’t necessary, thanks to an apprenticeship program IBM developed in collaboration with her high school.

“The opportunity presented itself to apply straight to IBM, and I did,” she recalled.

But, in a family of all college-grads, Griffith got some pushback. “My parents were very, very traditional, and getting a four-year degree was definitely something that I was supposed to be doing,” she said. “I had to really sell this to my parents.”

The apprenticeship program set her up with a program manager to help her transition into the corporate world as a fresh high school grad.

By age 19, she landed a full-time gig as a cyber security technical sales specialist.

Griffith currently lives in Jackson, New Jersey, and spends her days selling IBM security to customers — and pulls in 6 figures while she’s at it.

She says she has “no regrets” for taking an unconventional path into corporate America.

“I’ve learned more here than I could have possibly ever learned at college,” Griffith said. “I’ve had a taste of the associate’s degree, so I know what I left versus what I have now.”

One day, she aspires to ascend to a managerial position.

In the meantime, she hopes more schools and corporations will follow in P-Tech and IBM’s footsteps.

“I 100% feel like it’s a necessity, especially for underserved communities,” she said. “Not a lot of students are interested in going to college anymore nowadays, so embedding technology early on in these communities is really important so kids don’t shy away from the corporate world.”

https://nypost.com/2023/06/03/gen-z-doesnt-need-college-to-nail-career-success/

Two San Diego Collectors Surrendered 65 Archaeological Objects to Mexico




Two collectors in San Diego voluntarily surrendered 65 pre-Hispanic artifacts to the Mexican government earlier this month.

Norm Werthman and Pete Mechalas returned the items in a handover ceremony at the Mexican consulate in San Diego on May 16. The restituted objects date back to the Preclassic, Classic and Mesoamerican Postclassic periods, and originate from locations across the Central Mexican Plateau and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The group includes a clay pedestal from the Mesoamerican Classic period (100-900 CE) and clay bowl or cajete decorated with delicate red dots and line motifs n the artistic tradition native to the Shaft Tombs, large underground burial chambers native to common to pre-Hispanic Western Mexican communities.

“I thank these citizens of San Diego for the generous and selfless gesture of returning these pieces to the people of Mexico,” González Gutiérrez, the consul general, said in a statement. “This is part of the permanent effort of the Mexican government to reintegrate pieces of historical and archaeological value that are part of the nation’s heritage.”

The artifacts will be returned to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), where they will be inspected, according to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez has made the restitution of objects made by the ancient cultures that once inhabited the lands of present-day Mexico a focus of his administration. The movement, called “My Heritage is Not for Sale”, is continuously making requests for restitution, and has campaigned to halt the sale of such artifacts at auction houses worldwide.

More than 5,000 archaeological objects from Mexico have been recovered in the last several years, the Mexican government has estimated.

“The action of these people, from the San Diego community, sets an example that we hope will encourage the restitution of objects and assets of historical value that legitimately belong to Mexico,” added González Gutiérrez.

[PennySerenade]

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto is hosting its first ever Pride party on June 7 with a drag show.

Called Click Clack, the event will allow you to explore the museum's many exihibits and witness a performance by drag queen Miss Moco, a runway presentation by Fashion Art Toronto, and music by DJ Sophie Jones.



The event will also feature an appearance by the first-ever winner of Canada's Drag Race, Priyanka.



The museum is acquiring a pair of Priyanka's shoes to add to their existing collection.

This is the Bata Shoe Museum's first-ever Pride party and a rare occasion to drink and party in the venue on Bloor St. which is normally just home to shoe exhibits.

[Misstee]

Origins of masturbation traced back to primates 40m years ago

Behaviour predates humans by tens of millions of years but evolutionary purpose is less clear, scientists say




Evolutionary biologists have traced the origins of masturbation to ancient primates that predate the first humans by tens of millions of years.

The findings emerged from what scientists believe is the largest dataset ever compiled on the activity, and confirm that humans arose on a branch of the tree of life replete with self-pleasuring predecessors.

“What we can say is this behaviour was present around 40m years ago, in the common ancestor of all monkeys and apes,” said Dr Matilda Brindle, the lead researcher on the study at University College London. “It’s not that some species woke up one day and started doing it. This is an ancient, evolved trait.”

Brindle and her colleagues delved deep into the history of the behaviour in the hope of understanding the origins of what at first glance seems an evolutionary conundrum. From an evolutionary perspective, masturbation appears costly, distracting, wasteful, even risky.

To reconstruct the history of the act, the scientists pulled together hundreds of publications, questionnaire responses and personal notes about masturbating primates from primatologists and zoo keepers. They then mapped the information on to primate evolutionary trees, revealing how the activity reached back through time.

Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team describes how masturbation appeared common across primates of all sexes and ages. But why it evolved more than 40m years ago is less clear. Historically, biological studies have neglected females, giving the authors little good data to go on. For males, however, there are at least hints.

The scientists’ analyses found support for the idea that male masturbation boosted the chances of impregnating a mate. For example, a low-ranking male may masturbate just enough to increase their arousal before sex, meaning they inseminate their partner faster – and before a burly competitor has the chance to knock them off and spoil the fun. Masturbation could also help males to shed old sperm, leaving them with fresher, more competitive sperm for sex.

That was not the only apparent driver. The researchers found that male masturbation in primates rose in line with levels of sexually transmitted infections. One explanation could be that masturbation after sex helps flush the genital tract, reducing the risk of an infection taking hold.

Brindle said more data was needed to nail down the evolutionary drivers for masturbation in females. One idea is that masturbation before sex affords female primates some influence over which male gets them pregnant: by making the vagina less acidic, it becomes more hospitable to the chosen mate’s sperm.

“This is such a common behaviour across the animal kingdom, I find it absolutely baffling that nobody has researched it before,” said Brindle. “For people who think masturbation is wrong, or unnatural in some way, this is perfectly natural behaviour. It’s part of our healthy repertoire of sexual behaviours.”

Woman wins two $1M jackpots from same lottery game in 2 months

By Ben Hooper


Altovise Morris of Orlando, Fla., won two $1 million jackpots from the same scratch-off lottery game in a two-month period. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

A Florida woman scored a $1 million prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket after previously winning the same amount from the same game two months earlier.

The Florida Lottery said Altovise Morris, 41, of Orlando, scored her first $1 million prize from a 500X The Cash scratch-off ticket she bought from the 7-Eleven store on West Colonial Drive in Winter Garden.

Morris used her winnings to put down a down payment on a new house.

"After closing on my house, I stopped at a Sunoco Foodmart in Clermont, and it happened again. I still can't believe this is happening," Morris said.

Morris' second $1 million prize came just two months after her first visit to lottery headquarters.

The two-time winner did not reveal whether she has any immediate plans for her latest prize.

[prokroustis]

UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONDUCT RESTORATION WORKS OF SUBMERGED ROMAN MOSAIC



Underwater archaeologists from the CSR Restauro Beni Culturali are conducting restoration works of a recently rediscovered mosaic in the submerged remains of Roman Baia.
Baiae is an archaeological park consisting of a partially sunken town from the Roman period, located on the shore of the Gulf of Naples in the present-day comune of Bacoli in Italy.

Baiae developed into a popular Roman resort which was visited frequently by many notable Roman figures. The town would never attain a municipal status, but instead gained a reputation for a hedonistic lifestyle. This is supported by an account by Sextus Propertius, a poet of the Augustan age during the 1st century BC, who wrote that Baiae was a “vortex of luxury” and a “harbour of vice”.

Due to the position of the town on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields, an active and volatile volcanic region, local volcanic bradyseismic activity raised and lowered the geology on the peninsula that resulted in the lower parts of the town being submerged.

The mosaic, known as the “mosaic of the waves”, was first discovered over 40 years, but due to sediment changes on the seabed, its location was lost until an announcement of its rediscovery by the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park in January 2023.

The mosaic would have been part of a high-status building in the Portus Julius area of Baiae and shows a pattern of waves surrounded by borders of pink and black tesserae on a white background.

Underwater archaeologists from the CSR Restauro Beni Culturali are currently removing incrustations from the mosaic and repairing missing tessera by using coloured mortar to match the colour of the original tiles.

The Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park intends for the mosaic to be an underwater attraction after restoration works have completed. The park is a protected area established in 2002 as a unique example in the Mediterranean of archaeological and natural protection underwater.