[prokroustis]

MAYA RITUAL OFFERINGS DISCOVERED AT UXMAL



Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered ritual offerings in the Maya city of Uxmal.

Uxmal was a Maya polity, located in the Puuc region of the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Most of the city’s major construction works took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Maya state around AD 850 to 925.

The architectural features of Uxmal embody the distinctive Puuc style, characterised by smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes inspired by traditional Maya dwellings. These are represented by columns (symbolising the reeds used for the walls of the huts) and trapezoidal shapes (representing the thatched roofs).

Excavations have found ritual offerings from the Late Classic Period (AD 750 to 900) consisting of a tripod bowl and four vessels, where archaeologists recently discovered a stela depicting a god and a goddess that signified the duality between life and death.

The discovery was made in Structure 26 of the architectural group known as El Palomar (House of the Doves) during conservation works led by site archaeologist, José Huchim Herrera.

According to Herrera, the arrangement of the four vessels evokes the four corners of the universe and the four cardinal points, which contained a sacred liquid for the gods.

The vessels include a fluted pot with a short neck that corresponds to the Late Classic Period, while the remainder are from the Muna ware type from the Terminal Classic (AD 900 to 1100). The polychrome tripod bowl served as a container that may have symbolised the cosmos and the harmonic continuity of the universe.

The offerings have been removed to conduct micro-excavations to determine if they still contain any food residue or organic materials for dating when the offering was deposited.

[PennySerenade]

Incredible moment young opera fan in the audience stands up and sings the missing tenor’s part



When Lisette Oropesa was performing "Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata" at the Teatro Regio di Parma onstage, she was stunned to see an impromptu duet by a fan from the audience. The famous Cuban American soprano was solo performing a Verdi, generally a duet, in Parma, Italy, when opera fan Liu Jianwei stood up from his seat and sang the male lead portion of a song, per Classic FM. Oropesa sang four encores, the last being a rendition of the song “Sempre Libera,” meaning “Forever Free,” which features a male tenor from off stage, as if singing from below a balcony. Jianwei 24, a student at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, was familiar with the lyrics and noticed no accompaniment in the first bar, so he joined in.



“I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he said. When Jianwei chimed in at the second bar, Oropesa was surprised and uttered an entranced ‘Oh!’ and a ‘Grazie’ that she dropped in was an original addition to this beautiful moment. When it was her turn to sing, Oropesa changed the lyrics of “Lover” to “Thank you”. After the video went viral and made the rounds on the internet, Jianwei was called a “hero” on Chinese social media for offering the tenor a helping hand from the back of the hall.



However, Jianwei took to Weibo and added he would not pull a singing stunt like this again. “It is not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated,” Jianwei stated in a video. “Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior,” he added. “Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future.” After the concern, Jianwei apologized to Oropesa, who was gracious enough to take picture with him and even have him her autograph. Oropesa is one of the most celebrated singers of her generation and has sung in over 100 performances in many different roles since, and has appeared in concert halls and opera stages worldwide since graduating from the young artist program in 2008, according to her website.



While many disagree with Jianwei on the "worthy of pride" bit, many commented on the video and were thrilled to see the unexpected singing and the reaction soprano. "You can tell how much she loved this moment. She was surprised but you can tell how happy she was when he joined in. She even sings “O grazie” where the “o amore” is written," said @hannahchristine5240. "Normally, you DO NOT sing along at an opera. But this man rightfully broke the rules and created an experience no one would have believed had it not been recorded. Beautiful. added @milktea4270.



Many people in the comments also said that it was "not rude" of Jianwei to sing the male tenor's part and that he did so with utter admiration. "To those who think he was rude or impolite - you are wrong. He was not singing her parts. He was singing a part that has been missing which completes the entire piece. It was an unplanned encore piece. Also, it's not like he was just a random guy. He is a trained tenor. Unexpected? Sure, but not rude," added @DannyChean. "Liu Jianwei is right that this isn't something you should just do. Still, because he is clearly a skilled opera singer himself, he managed to create a really beautiful moment. Hearing Lisette work off another human voice just adds that little bit of magic. So yeah, while I agree with him that he shouldn't do it again, nor anyone else, I am glad this little moment of deep mutual love for opera exists," said@VeWatchesVideos.

Thousands of couples tie the knot in mass Indian wedding

By Emily Lefroy June 9, 2023


Over 2,000 couples were married at the same time in an Indian wedding ceremony.
Guinness World Records

They said “I do” — along with 2,000 other couples.

The guest list was not capped at this giant wedding in India, where 2,143 couples exchanged their vows in under six hours — breaking two world records in the process.

The mass celebration with thousands of guests in attendance took place in Baran, India, on May 26.

Every couple received a blessing from state government officials on their big day, including the likes of Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, and Rajasthan Minister of Mines, Pramod Jain Bhaya.

The wedding was organized by a registered trust called Shri Mahaveer Goshala Kalyan Sansthan, which is committed to “serving the marginalized sections of society.”

The ceremonies included both Hindu and Muslim marriages, with government officials presenting a marriage certificate to each couple.

The weddings commenced with each bride and groom exchanging garlands, which were made of yellow, pink and red flowers bunched together on a string.


The mass wedding took place in India on May 26 — with over 2,000 couples tying the knot.
Guinness World Records


Thousands of guests attended the world-record-breaking wedding
Guinness World Records

According to Guinness World Records, once each couple had garlanded each other, they were escorted to the next area, a “sacred structure called The Mandap,” where they would be officially married.

The couples then performed the most important rite of a Hindu wedding ceremony, a ritual known as “saptapadi,” where the new spouses circle a holy fire seven times.

The record-keeping entity noted each couple was also given an assortment of gifts, including jewelry for the bride, a mattress with bedding, kitchen utensils and household appliances such as a television, a refrigerator, a cooler and an induction cooker.

The goal of the event was to help underprivileged couples get married and start their lives together, officials said.

[Misstee]

Taylor Swift fans wearing adult diapers to concerts so they can soak in every song

by: John Clark


Posted: Jun 2, 2023 / 10:54 AM CDT

Updated: Jun 2, 2023 / 01:24 PM CDT





(WTVO) — Some Taylor Swift fans say they will be attending the sold-out Eras concert in adult diapers so they don’t miss a song and won’t need a restroom break.

According to Glossy, Swift’s cult-like fanbase — or, Swifties — have taken to TikTok to share their concertgoing outfit checklist, which includes adult diapers.

“The amount of stress and time it took me to get Taylor Swift tickets, I will be getting an adult diaper because I’m not missing a minute of it,” said @therealkatherine.

Another user, @madelinedolaway, showed a friend putting an adult diaper underneath a sparkly gold fringe dress. “I’ve been waiting for someone to bedazzle Depends for their Eras Tour outfit,” said one commenter.

For those not ready for that level of endurance, Reddit users have been sharing their “bathroom break songs.“

Swift’s 52-date Eras Tour is self described by the singer as “a journey through the musical eras of my career (past and present!).”

[HogwartsExpress]

Hundreds attend church service generated by ChatGPT



FUERTH, Germany (AP) — The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord.

The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.

“Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany,” the avatar said with an expressionless face and monotonous voice.

The 40-minute service — including the sermon, prayers and music — was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna.

“I conceived this service — but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% comes from the machine,” the 29-year-old scholar told The Associated Press.

The AI church service was one of hundreds of events at the convention of Protestants in the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and the neighboring Fuerth, and it drew such immense interest that people formed a long queue outside the 19th-century, neo-Gothic building an hour before it began.

The convention itself — Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag in German — takes place every two years in the summer at a different place in Germany and draws tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing and discuss their faith. They also talk about current world affairs and look for solutions to key issues, which this year included global warming, the war in Ukraine — and artificial intelligence.

This year’s gathering is taking place from Wednesday to Sunday under the motto “Now is the time.” That slogan was one of the sentences Simmerlein fed ChatGPT when he asked the chatbot to develop the sermon.

“I told the artificial intelligence ‘We are at the church congress, you are a preacher … what would a church service look like?’” Simmerlein said. He also asked for psalms to be included, as well as prayers and a blessing at the end.

“You end up with a pretty solid church service,” Simmerlein said, sounding almost surprised by the success of his experiment.

Indeed, the believers in the church listened attentively as the artificial intelligence preached about leaving the past behind, focusing on the challenges of the present, overcoming fear of death, and never losing trust in Jesus Christ.

The entire service was “led” by four different avatars on the screen, two young women, and two young men.

At times, the AI-generated avatar inadvertently drew laughter as when it used platitudes and told the churchgoers with a deadpan expression that in order “to keep our faith, we must pray and go to church regularly.”

Some people enthusiastically videotaped the event with their cell phones, while others looked on more critically and refused to speak along loudly during The Lord’s Prayer.

Heiderose Schmidt, a 54-year-old who works in IT, said she was excited and curious when the service started but found it increasingly off-putting as it went along.

“There was no heart and no soul,” she said. “The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they said.”

“But maybe it is different for the younger generation who grew up with all of this,” Schmidt added.

Marc Jansen, a 31-year-old Lutheran pastor from Troisdorf near the western German city of Cologne, brought a group of teenagers from his congregation to St. Paul. He was more impressed by the experiment.

“I had actually imagined it to be worse. But I was positively surprised how well it worked. Also the language of the AI worked well, even though it was still a bit bumpy at times,” Jansen said.

What the young pastor missed, however, was any kind of emotion or spirituality, which he says is essential when he writes his own sermons.

Anna Puzio, 28, a researcher on the ethics of technology from the University of Twente in The Netherlands, also attended the service. She said she sees a lot of opportunities in the use of AI in religion — such as making religious services more easily available and inclusive for believers who for various reasons may not be able experience their faith in person with others in houses of worship.

However, she noted there are also dangers when it comes to the use of AI in religion.

“The challenge that I see is that AI is very human-like and that it’s easy to be deceived by it,” she said.

“Also, we don’t have only one Christian opinion, and that’s what AI has to represent as well,” she said. “We have to be careful that it’s not misused for such purposes as to spread only one opinion.”

Simmerlein said it is not his intention to replace religious leaders with artificial intelligence. Rather, he sees the use of AI as a way to help them with their everyday work in their congregations.

Some pastors seek inspiration in literature, he says, so why not also ask AI for ideas regarding an upcoming sermon. Others would like to have more time for individual spiritual guidance of their parishioners, so why not speed up the process of writing the sermon with the help of a chatbot to make time for other important duties.

“Artificial intelligence will increasingly take over our lives, in all its facets,” Simmerlein said. “And that’s why it’s useful to learn to deal with it.”

However, the experimental church service also showed the limits to implementing artificial AI in church, or in religion. There was no real interaction between the believers and the chatbot, which wasn’t able to respond to the laughter or any other reactions by the churchgoers as a human pastor would have been able to do.

“The pastor is in the congregation, she lives with them, she buries the people, she knows them from the beginning,” Simmerlein said. “Artificial intelligence cannot do that. It does not know the congregation.”

src; https://ktla.com/morning-news/technolog ... y-chatgpt/

[lush]

Parents Gift 5-Year-Old Daughter a Luxury SUV to Motivate Her to Go to School
04142023*

Malaysian social media has been abuzz with the story of a young well-off couple who recently bought a Mercedes SUV as a present for their 5-year-old daughter to motivate her to go to school.

Earlier this month, Malaysian businesswoman Farhana Zahra posted a TikTok video asking her daughter, Fatima, what she wanted as a birthday present, to which the young girl answered that she wanted either a green Mercedes G Wagon or a BMW. In the same video, Farhana makes the girl promise that she will go to school if she gets what she wants and then they seal the deal with a pinky shake. Apparently, Farhana and her husband had been having problems convincing Fatima to go to school, because she hadn’t turned five yet, and they used this opportunity to persuade her. Just like our parents used to do back in the day…


Photos: TikTok

In another TikTok video posted on April 10, a blindfolded Fatima can be seen being guided by her parents to her surprise birthday gift, which, turns out to be just what she had asked for, a greenish G Wagon in a transparent gift box. In the captions, the girl’s mother wrote that she was so excited about the car that she couldn’t stop holding the keys. How sweet is that!

@farhanazahra91 Hari tu alasan dia xnak g school sbb belom birthday dia so xcukup lagi 5 tahun , sekarang dia mintak cikna BMW dengan G wagon plak baru nak g school, bmw cikna tahu la , g wagon menatang hape weyh??? #farhanazahra91 #fypシ #fyp ♬ original sound – Farhana Zahra
In the 21-second video, Farhana Zahra explained that she and her husband decided to get Fatima exactly what she wanted to motivate her to go to school and fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. The car is basically meant to be a driving force for her ambition.

@farhanazahra91 Happy birthday Nur Fatima Az zahra yang ke 5 happy dia dapat G Wagon yang dia nak, sampai dia asyik mintak nak pegang kunci je hahaha

♬ original sound – Farhana Zahra
Reactions to the TikTok videos were mixed, with some congratulating Fatima and telling her how lucky she was, and others criticizing the parents for spoiling the young girl with gifts she can’t even use or understand.

Three New Shipwrecks Found In The Mediterranean, Dating Back As Far As 100 BCE
The finds were made in the perilous waters around Keith Reef, between Sicily and Tunisia.



An international team of underwater archaeologists made an incredible discovery last year, when they found three new shipwrecks in the treacherous Mediterranean waters off the coast of Tunisia. One of the wrecks is ancient, dating back to somewhere between 100 BCE and 200 CE, while the other two are thought to be from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

The finds were made during a mission to the Skerki Bank, an area approximately 200 nautical miles in length that sits between the Sicilian and Tunisian coastlines in the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, this was one of the busiest shipping channels in the world, providing a direct trading route between the great city of Carthage and the Roman Empire. More recently, the area played host to several naval battles during World War 2.

But the area also poses significant hazards to the vessels that seek to traverse it, with the most dangerous section being Keith Reef. The rocky elevations here reach almost to the surface of the water at one point, an invisible deathtrap that helps explain why dozens of wrecks have already been found in the region.



For the first time, the archaeologists on this mission were able to produce a detailed bathymetric map of the seafloor around Keith Reef, which allowed them to spot the three newly discovered wrecks. They sailed on new research vessel the Alfred Merlin, and used a robot called Hilarion, as well as multibeam sonar, to gather as much information as possible about the region.

The first of the new finds is the wreck of a large, motorized, metal vessel from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. No trace of any cargo was found, which could indicate that it had none or that the cargo was perishable. The fact there’s no indication that any lifeboats were present may indicate that the crew was able to escape the ship before she sank.

The second wreck is of approximately the same age, but made of wood and probably not motorized. Again, no cargo was found, and since this wreck was smaller (at 15 meters [50 feet] long), the team speculates that it could have been a fishing boat.

The third and final new discovery, however, is significantly more ancient. Likely a Roman merchant vessel, the team dated it to between the end of the first century BCE and the middle of the second century CE. It’s thought it may have been carrying wine, as the remains of some amphorae were also found.



Along with the incredible new finds, the team was also able to get a close look at some other wrecks closer to the Italian coast, which had previously been documented by US explorers in the 1990s.



The mission, bringing together 28 experts from Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Tunisia, was coordinated by UNESCO as part of a wider goal of conserving underwater heritage. As UNESCO outlined in a statement:

“Underwater heritage is vulnerable to exploitation, trawling and fishing, trafficking and the impacts of climate change, therefore this mission aimed to demarcate the precise zone in which many shipwrecks lie, and to document all the artefacts.”

https://www.iflscience.com/three-new-sh ... -bce-69334

[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
SUNDAY JUNE 11
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.
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OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
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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.
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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$
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All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
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So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Uproar as cheese company ‘castrates’ Dorset’s Cerne Abbas Giant

A cheesemaker has been accused of ‘emasculating’ Dorset’s Cerne Giant by censoring the naked figure’s famous appendage on its packaging.

The Oxford Cheese Company has been slammed for featuring an image of the giant on its ‘Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar’ – minus the figure’s oversized phallus.

The manufacturer has been accused of censoring the giant’s manhood to avoid causing offence among the ‘woke.’


Famous Dorset landmark the Cerne Giant has been featured on cheese packaging with one large, glaring omission

At 180ft, the Cerne Giant is Britain’s largest, and possibly best-known, chalk hill figure.

Various theories abound the club-wielding giant and his mysteriously large appendage. Many believe the carving is an ancient fertility symbol, whilst others say it depicts the Greco-Roman hero Hercules.

In 2021, after extensive scientific analysis, National Trust archaeologists concluded the giant was probably first constructed in the late Saxon period.

Now, in 2023, the omission of the giant’s genitalia from cheese packaging has sparked outrage.

Vic Irvine, head brewer at Cerne Abbas Brewery was left “apoplectic” after discovering the famous landmark had been castrated – and believes the giant has been ‘watered down’ to spare the blushes of the easily-offended.

“He has been emasculated,” Mr Irvine said. “I think (the cheese manufacturers) are terrible rotters for taking our giant and taking his penis off him.

“I feel as if it were my own one that was taken off – it’s terrible.”

The brewery’s own product imagery features the giant in all his naked glory. Mr Irvine said the company is “strongly proud” of Dorset’s heritage. “To deface a national monument to sell some smelly old cheese is a disgrace,” he added.


Oxford Cheese Company's packaging has sparked censorship row

Asked whether he thinks the cheese manufacturer should apologise over the ‘cock-up,’ the head brewer said: “I just want them to stop doing it – and for God sake I hope they don’t send us any cheese because we won’t eat it.

“It’s just terrible I don’t know why they’re doing it – if you’re going to use the giant, use the giant – don’t take his appendage off him.

“It’s watering it down in case they upset people - it’s not on. An erect penis is an erect penis.”

The Oxford Cheese Company has been contacted for comment.

(I think I'm most confused at an Oxford company using a Dorset landmark on a cheese type associated with Somerset)

[goldie0608]

Goodbye, Mellow: Entire town turns out for dying dog’s last walk



He’s not just man’s best friend — he’s an entire town’s.

Mellow the dog had walked the streets of Dupont, Pennsylvania, with his owner, Kevin Curry, twice a day since September 2019.

Tragically, the rescue pup was recently diagnosed with a fast-spreading lymphoma — so Curry led Mellow on one final lap Saturday as a farewell before he reaches “doggie heaven.”

“It is a heartwarming and heartbreaking story,” KJ Warunek, who lives in the area, told The Post on Tuesday.

“There were at least 25 people [on the first block]. When I looked to the next block, there was another 20. I’m going to say that was how the whole walk went.”

Warunek said Curry left a heartbreaking flyer in neighbors’ mailboxes, informing them about Mellow’s goodbye trot. He has been “slowing down” due to the terminal cancer, making it difficult for him to make the daily trek.

“Regardless of how well we know each other, you have made my life so much richer than any rescue dog could have hoped for,” Mellow “wrote” in the tear-jerker of a note that Warunek posted to a local Facebook page.

“I am so grateful to have such a caring neighbors and live in a community that looks out for one another so well,” the message continued. “I’m not sure when exactly I will go, but each day over the past few weeks has been a struggle for me to get around the neighborhood like I used to.”



“[I] would love to say goodbye face-to-face if you are available,” it continued. “Come out to pat me on the head or rub my belly and I will be forever grateful.”

The note included a map of the route and $5 to buy a gift for a dog or donate to charity.

Warunek said Mellow’s event was somber when she arrived with her husband, Mark. People were patting the pup and giving him treats.

“Others just stood in the back and cried, so as to not upset Kevin,” she recalled. “However, Mellow knew he was the belle of the ball — he pranced around.”

She said the neighborhood gave the greatest send-off the pup — and his owner — could have hoped for.

“He even got free ice cream at Choo Choo’s, our local shop,” she added.

Warunek said despite his illness, the pooch lived his best life with Curry.

“[Mellow] only has a few more days on Earth, but his dad gave him the best life when he adopted him,” she said. “And you can clearly see he was man’s best friend.”

[prokroustis]

POLICE SEIZE DOZENS OF CLAY PAVEMENT BRICKS WITH IMPRINTS OF THE LEGIO X EQUESTRIS



Israeli Police in Jerusalem have seized dozens of clay pavement bricks with imprints of the Legio X Equestris during a raid against antiquities smugglers.
The Legio X Fretensis “Tenth legion of the Strait”, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army formed around 41/40 BC. The legion was centrally involved in the Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66–73), the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire.

By around AD 70, the majority of Roman rule had been reinstated in Judea, with the exception of a few fortresses and the significant city of Jerusalem. The Legio X Fretensis, joined by the V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, and XV Apollinaris legions, lay siege to the city, and after several battles, Jerusalem and the Second Temple was destroyed.

According to contemporary historian, Titus Flavius Josephus, “Jerusalem…was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation.”

An operation by police in the Beit Hanina neighbourhood in East Jerusalem has led to the discovery of several cartons in a car trunk containing the pavement bricks. The bricks were likely part of a public building such as a bath house, which has since been looted in modern times for sale in the illegal antiquities trade.

The bricks date from roughly 2,000-years-ago and show the stamp of the Legio X Fretensis from when the legion built a military camp after Jerusalem’s destruction.

Amir Ganor, Director of the Theft Prevention Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: ” After the uprising, soldiers of the legion settled in the greater Jerusalem area where they constructed workshops to make bricks. The seals of the legion – “LXF” – were imprinted on them to mark the movements of the legion’s units throughout the country. The bulk of the distribution of bricks was identified in the Jerusalem area and in the Roman colony built on its ruins – ‘Aelia Capitolina’.”

Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority: “Discovering ancient bricks in the trunk of a car with fresh dirt and being displaced is heart-breaking. If archaeologists had found the bricks on the site itself, we would have been able to gain information for archaeological research as well as add another archaeological site on the historical map of our country. Now, we are left to try and find out through investigative operations where the bricks were dismantled and looted from.”

We ask 3 Broadway photographers: How do you turn a live show into a still image?

Theater is, by its nature, evanescent; every performance is different, based on the chemistry of the cast and the audience. But there are ways theater fans can relive their memories: Playbills and souvenir programs, scripts, cast recordings – and production photos.

Only a handful of theater photographers work on Broadway and their challenge is to capture the essence of live performance for generations to come. Three of them spoke with NPR about their craft.
Marc J. Franklin: 'Energy that only musical theater can give you'

Marc J. Franklin was Playbill's photo editor for years. Now, he's a production photographer. Last season, he took pictures of the Tony Award-winning musical, A Strange Loop. This season, he photographed the Tony-nominated shows Some Like It Hot and Topdog/Underdog.

"Anybody can set up a tripod and click a button," said Franklin. "There is this electric, ephemeral thing that happens in a room, depending on who is in that room, both onstage and off. And that affects your performance. That affects the energy that the audience feels. And so, when I take photos, I really try to capture that."



"This was a tough shot to get," Marc J. Franklin says of this photo he took for Some Like It Hot.
Marc J. Franklin

For this Some Like It Hot picture, above, Franklin set up the shot at a photo-call. "This was a tough shot to get, because you have to make sure that everybody is all in unison," he said. "You have to make sure that everybody is looking at you. For me [it] really captures the spirit of musical theater and this energy that only musical theater can give you in a still image, which is always the challenge!"

Franklin often chooses to take close-ups from an angle. "We rarely experience life in very centered, linear ways," he said. "You know, we'll be walking down the street and we're not directly in the center of the sidewalk. And you look to your right and you see something, or you look to your left and see something. And having that angle gives us more of a sense of place than something directly head on. So, I always try to capture that, especially when it is a more contained, close-up image."

Joan Marcus is the current dean of Broadway photographers. She started taking production shots while she was a graduate student in Washington, D.C., and eventually moved to New York to take photographs of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows full-time in the late 1980s. She says she's worked on about a 1,000 shows and she's received a special Tony honor for her body of work.

When Marcus started, production photos were shot on film and developed in a dark room. Most were black and white.

"I like what I do, essentially," Marcus said. "It's kind of fun to work on a big hit; you know, something that runs forever and ever and ever and ever."

Marcus takes thousands of photos at dress rehearsals and photo-calls – like she did at The Thanksgiving Play, which opened this spring. She then culls them down to 300 to 400 images to give to producers and press agents "and then they whittle it down."

Sometimes her favorite shots fall by the wayside because of the needs of the production. "They have to market a show," she said. "You know, it's not just reporting what the show is. It's like what's going to sell the show, too. So, it's not a totally pure aesthetic."
Jenny Anderson, a Mississippi native, has been working as a Broadway photographer for 15 years. Her specialty is backstage shots, which have become more popular now that there's Instagram and theater websites.

"Eighty percent of my gigs are Broadway and theater, which is lovely, because I feel like I'm fully a part of the community," Anderson said. "And so now as a freelancer, I get hired by producers and publicists of shows to do opening nights, backstage, behind the scenes, anything really. I shoot a lot of opening nights."

"It's kind of crazy and wild and a little frustrating sometimes to make sure you get the right photos of the right people and everyone's happy and all that," Anderson said. "But I love it so much. And I pinch myself every day that I am anywhere near Broadway, much less an active member."

See:
https://www.npr.org/sections/picturesho ... till-image

Audio and digital story edited by Jennifer Vanasco. Audio produced by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Digital story produced by Beth Novey.

[Fatima99]

NHS to deploy street mental health teams to help England’s rough sleepers



The NHS will deploy street mental health teams in English locations from Devon to Doncaster in an attempt to curb a rise in rough sleeping in England.

Fourteen outreach teams will aim to get more rough sleepers on to a path to counselling, medication or other treatments and will seek out people “who have often been through incredibly traumatic experiences to ensure they get the help they need”, said Prof Tim Kendall, NHS England’s clinical national director for mental health.

The latest data showed a 15% annual rise in new rough sleepers in London, while an England-wide snapshot taken last autumn revealed a 26% annual rise.

The £3.2m plan comes amid warnings of parallel, deeper council budget cuts to homelessness budgets that charities fear will worsen the problem.

Homeless Link, which represents frontline organisations, welcomed more mental health support but, in the context of cuts, described it as “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. Reductions in support for rough sleeping would lead to far greater need for mental health support, said its policy director, Sophie Boobis.

Devon county council plans to cut its £1.5m adult homelessness prevention fund, prompting a warning from the YMCA in Exeter of “potentially disastrous consequences”. The council has been warned the cut would increase rough sleeping, mental health issues including suicide ideation, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Kent county council has announced that its £5.3m-a-year Kent Homeless Connect service will be decommissioned. Porchlight, a homelessness charity, has estimated that this will result in £8m costs to the public sector in a worst-case scenario, once the impact on the NHS, mental health services and the judiciary are taken into account.

The new NHS clinics extend an existing scheme that has proved successful in places such as Hull, where a team including a psychiatrist, psychologist and social workers took on 33 new cases last month.

Michael, 48, who was helped by the Hull clinic when he was found sleeping in a shop doorway, said he had been “at the gates of hell” and used to dread waking up in the morning, but after a long period of help “now I can’t wait to get up”.

Common mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and panic disorder are more than twice as high among homeless people, with cases of psychosis up to 15 times as high, NHS England said.

The new outreach teams will be established in Brent, Westminster and Camden in London; Somerset and Devon; Medway, Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead in the south-east; Peterborough and Great Yarmouth; Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin; East Riding, Sheffield and Doncaster in Yorkshire; and Greater Manchester.

[PennySerenade]

Mom and Her Six Daughters Go Viral After Wearing Wedding Dresses Out to Dinner



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 to 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.”

[Misstee]

Conor McGregor knocks out Heat mascot in bizarre promotion at NBA Finals




Former MMA fighter Conor McGregor punches Burnie, the Miami Heat mascot, during a break in Game 4 of the basketball NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, Friday, June 9, 2023, in Miami. The man who occupies Burnie's costume needed medical attention. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MIAMI (AP) — Former UFC champion Conor McGregor knocked out the Miami Heat mascot in a midgame bit that went wrong.

Burnie — more specifically, the man who occupies Burnie’s costume — briefly sought medical attention Friday night after taking two punches from McGregor during a third-quarter stoppage of Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and the Denver Nuggets.

The Heat said Saturday that the employee, who was not identified, received pain medication and was resting at home.

McGregor was there as a promotional gimmick for a pain-relief spray — and was booed by many in the Miami crowd even before the bit started. The flame mascot was wearing oversized boxing gloves and a robe akin to what a fighter would wear entering the ring for a bout. McGregor hit Burnie with a left hook, knocking him down, then punched the mascot again after he hit the floor.

McGregor then tried to “spray” the mascot with the pain-relief product, while several members of the Heat’s in-game promotional team dragged Burnie off the court.

McGregor hasn’t fought since injuring his left leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. His last win came in January 2020.