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Apple Now Has iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max At Lower Prices – Forbes Apple Now Has iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max At Lower Prices – Forbes Apple Now Has iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max At Lower Prices ForbesApple begins selling discounted refurbished iPhone 15 models in the *** The Apple PostApple Refurbished iPhone 15 and 15 Pro Back in Stock iPhone in CanadaApple Is Selling Refurbished iPhone 15s for up to $230 Off VICERefurbished iPhone 15 Models Now Available From Apple’s Online Store in U.S. and Canada MacRumors Source link #Apple #iPhone #Pro #iPhone #Pro #Max #Prices #Forbes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Anna Hay: The Good, Bad and Ugly from round nine as West Coast show life, Sean Darcy hurt again Anna Hay: The Good, Bad and Ugly from round nine as West Coast show life, Sean Darcy hurt again The Eagles are edging closer to their first win of the season. I can feel it, or should I say, I can hear it, writes Anna Hay. Source link #Anna #Hay #Good #Bad #Ugly #West #Coast #show #life #Sean #Darcy #hurt Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

WWE Backlash predictions, expert picks: 2025 card, matches, start time, PPV preview, location, date – CBS Sports WWE Backlash predictions, expert picks: 2025 card, matches, start time, PPV preview, location, date – CBS Sports WWE Backlash predictions, expert picks: 2025 card, matches, start time, PPV preview, location, date CBS SportsFull WWE Backlash 2025 results WWEWWE Backlash 2025: Match card, time, how to watch and more USA TodayJohn Cena vs. ****** Orton: The brutal, iconic history of WWE Backlash’s decades-long rivalry Yahoo SportsWWE Backlash card, date, 2025 matches, rumors, match card, start time, location, latest news, complete guide CBS Sports Source link #WWE #Backlash #predictions #expert #picks #card #matches #start #time #PPV #preview #location #date #CBS #Sports Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Albania votes as PM Rama seeks fourth term Albania votes as PM Rama seeks fourth term Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is seeking a fourth term with a campaign focused on EU membership and economic growth. Source link #Albania #votes #Rama #seeks #fourth #term Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

2 No-Brainer High-Yield Stocks to Buy With $100 Right Now 2 No-Brainer High-Yield Stocks to Buy With $100 Right Now AGNC Investment has a massive — and risky — 16% dividend yield. Realty Income’s yield is 5.6%, backed by 30 annual dividend hikes. Toronto-Dominion Bank’s yield is 4.7%, and it has paid a dividend since 1857. 10 stocks we like better than Realty Income › If you are a dividend investor, the market sell-off might have you on the hunt for new investment ideas. With as little as $100, you can add one of these high-yield stocks, but make sure you don’t reach too far for yield. If you do, you might end up with a stock that doesn’t actually do what you want it to. Here’s why AGNC Investment (NASDAQ: AGNC) is a high-yield stock you might want to avoid, while Realty Income (NYSE: O) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) are two high-yielders worth buying today. AGNC Investment is a mortgage real estate investment trust (mREIT). This niche of the broader REIT sector is known for offering lofty yields, with AGNC Investment’s 16% yield toward the high end of the range. That high a yield can be a siren’s call to an investor trying to live off of the income their portfolio generates. The company, however, is very clear about its goal: “Favorable long-term stockholder returns with a substantial yield component.” AGNC data by YCharts To summarize that in two words, AGNC Investment’s goal is total return. Sure, dividends play a role in that, but the real benefit only comes if you reinvest those dividends. The chart tells you all you need to know. Notice how the dividend has trended lower for years, with the stock price heading lower with it. If you spend the dividend on living expenses, you would have ended up with less income and less capital. The only reason total return is positive is that the huge dividend has more than offset the price decline, so long as the dividend was reinvested. There’s nothing inherently wrong with AGNC Investment. It is living up to its objective. But that objective just isn’t the end goal that most dividend investors are attempting to achieve. There are better options available. Image source: Getty Images. Sticking with the REIT theme, Realty Income has a yield of 5.6%. The dividend has been increased annually for 30 consecutive years at a rate of around 4% or so a year, annualized. Realty Income is something of an income tortoise, but that’s likely to sound pretty enticing to investors during turbulent times like today. Adding to the allure here are an investment-grade-rated balance sheet and industry-leading portfolio of over 15,600 properties. Indeed, Realty Income is more than three times the size of its next closet peer. It has the capacity to take on deals that its peers are too small to manage, and it has advantaged access to capital markets, so it can compete aggressively on price when buying properties. On top of that, it has exposure to both North America and Europe, giving it multiple levers for growth. Story Continues Realty Income won’t wow you, but it can be a foundational dividend stock for your high-yield portfolio. And, as if all of that weren’t enough, Realty Income pays its dividend monthly, making it something like a paycheck replacement that provides regular annual pay raises. Toronto-Dominion Bank, or just TD Bank, has a 4.7% dividend yield. That yield is well above the bank average of around 2.7%. Unfortunately, there’s a good reason for the lofty yield, given that TD Bank’s U.S. division was used to launder money. U.S. regulators found out and hit the bank with a big fine, forced it to upgrade its internal controls, and have placed the U.S. division under an asset cap. None of this is good, but nor is the situation likely to derail TD Bank over the long term. This is, after all, a bank that has paid a dividend every single year since 1857. The fact is that investors are shunning the bank because of something that is likely to be a short-term headwind. Yes, growth will be slower than many investors hope. However, the stock price decline that happened, along with the regulatory issue, has resulted in a yield that will compensate you well for sticking it out. And, more the point here, the company’s foundational ********* business is unaffected. So the core is still very strong for TD Bank, and there’s likely no reason to be overly concerned about the dividend, given the low-risk turnaround story that’s slowly unfolding. TD Bank and Realty Income can both be had for less than $100 a share, so you can get started with these attractive dividend stocks fairly easily. The key, however, is that they are likely to provide a dividend investor with the outcomes they are looking for. You can buy AGNC Investment for less than $100 a share, too, but reaching for that mREIT’s yield is likely to leave you with a business you don’t really want to own if you are a dividend investor. Before you buy stock in Realty Income, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Realty Income wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $614,911!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $714,958!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 907% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 163% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025 Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Realty Income and Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Realty Income. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 No-Brainer High-Yield Stocks to Buy With $100 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #NoBrainer #HighYield #Stocks #Buy Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Shingles vaccine has unexpected effect on heart health – AOL.com Shingles vaccine has unexpected effect on heart health – AOL.com Shingles vaccine has unexpected effect on heart health AOL.comShingles vaccine reduces risk of heart disease by 23%, study of one million people finds CNNShingles vaccine recipients see lower cardiac event risk over time CIDRAPZoster Vax & Heart Disease; Jewel WCD OK’d; Carotid Revascularization for Low-Risk? MedPage TodayShingles vaccine may lower heart disease risk by up to 8 years Medical News Today Source link #Shingles #vaccine #unexpected #effect #heart #health #AOL.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

WA Player Watch: Jesse Hogan, Bobby Hill, Mitch McGovern and Nic Martin WA Player Watch: Jesse Hogan, Bobby Hill, Mitch McGovern and Nic Martin Greater Western Sydney star Jesse Hogan has put his name back into the Coleman Medal conversation with a seven-goal haul ahead of a reunion with former club Fremantle on Saturday. Source link #Player #Watch #Jesse #Hogan #Bobby #Hill #Mitch #McGovern #Nic #Martin Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Just announced Razr Ultra leaves the Z Flip 6 in the dust with this free storage upgrade deal – PhoneArena Just announced Razr Ultra leaves the Z Flip 6 in the dust with this free storage upgrade deal – PhoneArena Just announced Razr Ultra leaves the Z Flip 6 in the dust with this free storage upgrade deal PhoneArenaI’ve Been Testing the Motorola Razr for a Day and It’s Already a Fun Companion CNETDeals: Motorola Razr foldables arrive next week, plus a look at some Android and Windows tablets – GSMArena.com news GSMArena.comHow does the Razr 2023 compare against the new Razr 2025? Android CentralSamsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 needs more than a spec bump to compete with Motorola Yahoo Source link #announced #Razr #Ultra #leaves #Flip #dust #free #storage #upgrade #deal #PhoneArena Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Truck driver Brian Robbins captures video of spectacular meteorite light show over Goldfields sky Truck driver Brian Robbins captures video of spectacular meteorite light show over Goldfields sky A truck driver travelling through WA’s Goldfields was left amazed after being treated to the spectacular sight of a fireball in the sky on Sunday morning. Videos posted to social media show a bright light travelling through the sky just before 6am on Sunday and crackling with green and orange flashes of light before getting dimmer and disappearing as it got closer to the ground. The green and orange light show was witnessed by G&B Haulage owner and truck driver Brian Robbins outside of Coolgardie. Mr Robbins said it was like nothing he had ever seen before. WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE “What caught my eye was what I thought or to believed to be lightning on the north side . . . it was quite cloudy and overcast this morning, it was still dark obviously and then you could just see the light, the flame flaming up and then extinguishing a couple times as it bolted through between the breaks of the clouds and across the horizon,” he said. “I thought ‘oh yeah bloody shooting star’ which it was well and truly too bright, too fast to be one, I didn’t think much of more of it, in all honesty, I was just quite amazed what I’d seen.” Mr Robbins said it was a one in a million shot of seeing such a light show. “I’ve seen plenty of shooting stars, like I said though they’re nowhere near as bright, or had the effects with the explosions or the flames like that did have,” he said. Camera IconThe green and orange light show was witnessed by G&B Haulage owner and truck driver Brian Robbins. Credit: Brian Robbins/G&B Haulage Esperance “Out on the Eyre Highway doing a lot of night drive and you see the old Min Min lights from a great distance, not that you’d ever get near them but they just be there for an hour or two or you’d see them or out on the paddock. “This morning was definitely a once off, and probably never again.” The spectacle was likely caused by a meteorite which had been orbiting the inner solar system according to Matt Woods from the Perth Observatory. “It looks like from the different footage that has been put up on the internet, that it’s come over the central Wheatbelt,” he said. “Something like that probably would be anywhere between the size of a cricket ball to a basketball coming into the atmosphere. “It might have survived, it’s one they’re still trying to figure out its orbit and whether it would have survived.” Source link #Truck #driver #Brian #Robbins #captures #video #spectacular #meteorite #light #show #Goldfields #sky Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Iran to send Russia launchers for short-range missiles, sources say Iran to send Russia launchers for short-range missiles, sources say (This May 9 story has been corrected to clarify that Iran’s statement came from its permanent mission to the United Nations, not the United States, in paragraph 8) By Jonathan Landay, Jonathan Saul and David Ljunggren WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Iran is preparing to deliver in the near future launchers for short-range ballistic missiles that the U.S. said Tehran sent to Russia last year for use against Ukraine, according to two Western security officials and a regional official. Iran denied it had such plans and dismissed the idea as “utterly absurd”. The delivery of the Fath-360 launchers – if it occurs – would help support Russia’s grinding assault on its neighbor and reaffirm the deepening security ties between Moscow and Tehran. With a 75-mile (120-km) range, the Fath-360 would give Moscow’s forces a new weapon to fire at Ukrainian frontline troops, nearby military targets, and population centers close to the border with Russia, analysts said. The U.S. last September said that Iran delivered the missiles to Russia on nine Russian-flagged ships – which it sanctioned – and three sources told Reuters at that time that the launchers were not included. The Western security officials and the regional official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delivery of the Fath-360 launchers was imminent. They declined to provide further details of the pending transfer, including why they thought the launchers were not delivered with the missiles. Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations dismissed what it called “baseless allegations” against Tehran. “So long as conflict persists between the parties, Iran will abstain from rendering any form of military assistance to either side,” it said in an emailed statement. Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. National Security Council referred inquiries to the State Department, which did not respond immediately. The CIA declined comment. Russia and Iran have previously denied that Tehran had shipped the missiles or any other arms to aid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Moscow launched in February 2022. U.S., Ukrainian and European officials say Iran has provided Russia thousands of drones and artillery shells. In an apparent reference to the Fath-360s, U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of U.S. Central Command, last month told U.S. lawmakers that Iran had donated to Russia more than 400 short-range ballistic missiles. There have been no public reports of Iran transferring any other kinds of short-range ballistic missiles to Moscow or of Russian forces using the Fath-360. POSSIBLE COMPLICATION FOR PEACE TALKS Russia’s deployment of the missiles could complicate U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to arrange a ceasefire and peace talks between Ukraine and Russia and to strike a separate deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program. The regional official said that the indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks mediated by Oman are among “several reasons” for the delayed delivery of the launchers. The talks have encountered turbulence, although Iran on Friday said it agreed to hold a fourth round in Oman on Sunday. Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said that Iranian officials would consider the issue of sending arms to Russia as separate from the nuclear talks. “That the Iranians are negotiating on nuclear issues with the U.S. will not be seen as connected to what they might do in collaboration with the Russians,” he said. Analysts said there could have been another complication: Iran had to modify European-made commercial trucks on which to mount the launchers for its own Fath-360 arsenal, and it may have had to do the same for Russia given its massive losses of vehicles in Ukraine. With the launchers, Russia will be able to increase pressure on Ukraine, said the experts. “It would be much easier (for Russian forces) to launch a strike much faster … against high-value targets,” said Fabian Hinz, a research fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “They (Fath-360s) don’t need a lot of launch preparations. Their flight time is incredibly short.” Deploying the Fath-360 could allow Russia to reserve its more advanced missiles, like the Iskander, for longer-range strikes at critical infrastructure, including the power grid, straining Ukraine’s precious missile defenses, the analysts said. The Fath-360 “is designed to be handled and operated by people with relatively little training,” said Ralph Savelsberg, an associate professor at the Netherlands Defense Academy. “Why would they (Russia) buy inferior Iranian missiles? The only reason I could think of is that they cannot produce a sufficient number of their own missiles,” he said. “They’re not super accurate and they don’t carry a very large payload. But it just adds to Ukraine’s headaches.” (Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Jonathan Saul. Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in London, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Don Durfee, Alistair Bell and David Ljunggren) Source link #Iran #send #Russia #launchers #shortrange #missiles #sources Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Trump is already playing with fire with his tariff plan, adding a tax hike could mean GOP civil war – New York Post Trump is already playing with fire with his tariff plan, adding a tax hike could mean GOP civil war – New York Post Trump is already playing with fire with his tariff plan, adding a tax hike could mean GOP civil war New York PostTrump Revives Push for Higher Taxes on the Rich The New York TimesTrump’s float of a tax hike for the wealthy quickly runs into GOP resistance NBC NewsTrump Brings Millionaire Tax Idea Back to Life, Considers Backing a Rate Increase WSJTrump says he’s OK with taxing the rich but warns of political fallout Reuters Source link #Trump #playing #fire #tariff #plan #adding #tax #hike #GOP #civil #war #York #Post Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Scott McTominay: How the Scotland midfielder became a Napoli icon Scott McTominay: How the Scotland midfielder became a Napoli icon Naples is a one-club city, with only a handful of pockets of real success in their history. They really idolise their heroes, most notably Diego Maradona. McTerminator, MacGyver, apribottiglie (the bottle opener) and McFratm are some of the other nicknames McTominay has been called by fans this season. He says McFratm – which roughly translates as McBro in Neapolitan slang – is his favourite, and a fan recently got that name and McTominay’s number eight as a tattoo on his leg. There are McTominay birthday cakes and internet memes depicting him as the new Pope. “I saw the passionate fans, I saw the coach, I saw the players and I saw an opportunity,” McTominay told BBC Scotland in December. “I took it, I didn’t look back. It didn’t take me long to make the decision because I knew that was what I wanted and I’ll never have any regrets in my life. As soon as I put my mind to something I want to do it, that’s it. There’s no holding me back. “I love this place, I love the fans, I love my team-mates.” San Ciro’s restaurant in Edinburgh have a Scotland flag up with the words ‘Napoli. McTominay. Pizza. In that order’. That says a lot for a pizza restaurant. Brothers Ciro and Santo Sartore, who were born and raised in Scotland to Neapolitan parents, run the restaurant together. About McTominay’s popularity, Ciro said: “In my opinion, it’s because of how well he has taken to Napoli. “Napoli fans love when a player commits to the city, and him kissing the Napoli badge shows how much the love and appreciation means to him. Obviously, scoring a lot of goals helps too.” A shrine emerged to McTominay in San Nicola a Nilo this week. “Napoli fans could not be happier – he is the symbol of the attitude of this Napoli, with his intensity and sacrifice in every game,” added journalist Credendino. “This is something the fans appreciate a lot, as they liked his kiss on the shirt in the match against Palermo in September and the fact he is learning Italian and even Neapolitan.” And another way to make himself popular with Napoli and Italian fans? Praising their tomatoes. McTominay told the Athletic, external recently: “Oh my goodness, the tomatoes. I never ate them at home, they’re just red water. “Here, they actually taste like tomatoes. Now I eat them as a snack. I eat all the vegetables, all of the fruits. It is all so fresh. It’s incredible.” Source link #Scott #McTominay #Scotland #midfielder #Napoli #icon Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

South Fremantle star Jamaine Jones reveals ‘shock’ of loss to West Coast sparked response against Claremont South Fremantle star Jamaine Jones reveals ‘shock’ of loss to West Coast sparked response against Claremont South Fremantle swingman Jamaine Jones says last week’s defeat at the hands of previously winless West Coast was the harsh reality check his side needed to remain grounded in 2025. Source link #South #Fremantle #star #Jamaine #Jones #reveals #shock #loss #West #Coast #sparked #response #Claremont Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump cannot use new executive order to skirt ‘sanctuary’ cities ruling, judge says Trump cannot use new executive order to skirt ‘sanctuary’ cities ruling, judge says By Nate Raymond (Reuters) – A federal judge warned on Friday that a new executive order from President Donald Trump that calls for cutting off funding to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that do not cooperate with his immigration agenda cannot be used to evade a court order barring his administration from doing just that. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco issued Friday’s order at the urging of 16 cities and counties nationally that had already secured an injunction barring the administration from withholding all federal funding to them. Those cities and counties, led by San Francisco, sued after Trump signed two earlier executive orders in January and February that they said unlawfully threatened to cut off funding to them unless they cooperated with federal immigration law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The jurisdictions include the cities of Minneapolis; New Haven, Connecticut; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Seattle, all of which have laws and policies that limit or prevent local law enforcement from assisting federal officers with civil immigration arrests. Four days after Orrick issued the injunction in April, Trump signed a new executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to create a list of sanctuary jurisdictions and for agencies to then identify grants and other funding to them they could cancel or suspend. The 16 local governments argued Trump issued the new executive order in “blatant disregard” for Orrick’s court order and urged him to enforce his injunction. Orrick, who during Trump’s first term in office blocked enforcement of a similar 2017 executive order targeting sanctuary jurisdictions, said on Friday that the latest order had some material differences from the earlier ones and, in some respects, may even resolve problems he identified in them. He said the administration could potentially identify funds to rescind if there was enough of a connection between the funding stream and the jurisdiction’s “sanctuary” policies. But Orrick said if Trump’s latest order was used to instead target funds unrelated to sanctuary policies, their suspension would violate the U.S. Constitution just as the earlier executive orders did. He said the context surrounding Trump’s new order raises the threat that the government would use it “to unconstitutionally coerce the cities and Counties (and other jurisdictions like them) into changing their policies and practices to conform with the second Trump administration’s preferences.” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in a statement said Friday’s order “makes clear that the federal government cannot use Executive Orders or other agency action to withhold federal funding as a coercive threat against sanctuary jurisdictions.” The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien) Source link #Trump #executive #order #skirt #sanctuary #cities #ruling #judge Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Öztürk arrives at Logan Airport after 6 weeks in ICE detention – WBUR Öztürk arrives at Logan Airport after 6 weeks in ICE detention – WBUR Öztürk arrives at Logan Airport after 6 weeks in ICE detention WBURTufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk arrives back home after spending six weeks at a Louisiana detention center CNNRümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student held by Ice, vows to continue legal action after jail release The GuardianRümeysa Öztürk lands at Logan after release from immigration detention in Louisiana The Boston GlobeJudge orders immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts student detained by ICE Politico Source link #Öztürk #arrives #Logan #Airport #weeks #ICE #detention #WBUR Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stranded Villa Vie Odyssey couple marry at sea Stranded Villa Vie Odyssey couple marry at sea Villa Vie Residences Angela and Gian said their wedding was “incredible” They should have been on a round-the-world cruise for the next three years – instead they were stranded in Belfast. The Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship was to depart from Northern Ireland last May, but issues with its rudder stocks meant its guests were marooned in the city for more than four months. Shipmates Angela Harsanyi and Gian Perroni met while commuting daily from hotel accommodation to the ship, where they were allowed to work remotely during the day while repairs were carried out. Behind schedule, and on the dry dock, the maintenance work was long enough for the pair of strangers to meet, fall in love and get engaged by the River Lagan. PA Media Angela Harsanyi and Gian Perroni met while their cruise ship was stranded in Belfast They “started to become friends, then best friends, and then romance bloomed”, Gian said. From delays to departure, the next step was “I do” – on board the liner itself, off the coast of Costa Rica in April. They got engaged on the banks of the River Lagan in Belfast – and Gian said the location was “just as exotic” as Costa Rica. It was to be Angela’s first time down the aisle, while Gian has children from a previous marriage. The couple also got matching Celtic trinity knot tattoos. PA Media The couple met in August 2024 while stranded in Belfast They told BBC News NI the wedding ceremony on board was “incredible”. “It’s been magical, it’s beyond my wildest dreams,” said Angela. “We’re on a perpetual honeymoon now, for real. “After we got engaged, he looked at me so sincerely and said, ‘you know honey, I’m going to take you on a world cruise for our honeymoon’. “I just cracked up laughing of course, because that’s what any woman would want to hear, but it’s our life, so it’s pretty wonderful. He was a man of his word.” ‘From Belfast to Forever’Villa Vie Residences The celebration was held on board the cruise liner – and included a conga line The pair had a private ceremony with family and friends on board, before a second ship-wide event with 300 guests the following day, including around 100 of their original Belfast shipmates. They had friends and family fly in “from the four corners” to the wedding off the coast of Costa Rica, before sailing north towards central America. Celebrations included conga lines, bubble machines, dolphins swimming in the ocean alongside them, and sunsets burning orange on the horizon. PA Media The couple lived in hotels in Belfast city centre while they waited for the ship’s departure Belfast delay ‘a funny story’ Their foundations in Northern Ireland played a part in the nuptials 5,000 miles away. “From Belfast to Forever” was inscribed on the flooring used as the wedding aisle for Angela to walk down. Both the officiators at the two ceremonies mentioned Belfast in the weddings. The second ceremony was officiated by the ship’s captain which the couple described as an “honour”. Gian added: “He was there for the whole four months in Belfast as well, and he understood the frustrations. “At the time it was a sore point – ‘we’re still here’ – but now it’s kind of a funny story.” Villa Vie Residences One of the ceremonies was officiated by the ship’s captain Gian said the couple will return to Belfast as soon as they can. “We can’t wait to visit again to retrace our steps,” he said. “I’m half-Irish myself, but I truly understand the luck of the Irish now. It’s pretty cool.” The couple’s families had met before the wedding, but it was a chance to meet each other’s friends for the first time. “It was really nice to get everyone in one place, and for them to have that destination wedding.” What is Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey? The Odyssey is a residential, around-the-world cruise that was scheduled to depart from Belfast in May 2024, but was beset by months of delays as the ship underwent repair work. The company’s website states that the cost of buying a cabin can range from $99,999 to $899,000 (£75,000-£685,000). Passengers on the cruise were given the option of buying their cabin outright rather than paying a daily rate for their room like a traditional hotel. It allows them to remain onboard beyond the Odyssey’s initial three-year tour. Residents on the cruise are encouraged to treat the ship like their home, with some opting to bring pets aboard for the journey. Source link #Stranded #Villa #Vie #Odyssey #couple #marry #sea Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Sony Fixed Their PS3 Launch Mistakes How Sony Fixed Their PS3 Launch Mistakes N4GTG|1d 12h ago |News|1| ▼ Info Add Alt Source Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today unveiled the Razer Clio, in innovative gaming chair accessory designed to deliver headset-like immersive audio without the constraints of wearing one. Commerce Game product manufacturer PC Razer terminalgamer.com Read Full Story >> [Hidden Content] terminalgamer.com Source link #Sony #Fixed #PS3 #Launch #Mistakes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Subi Blooms X Gather transforms Subiaco into floral wonderland for Mother’s Day Subi Blooms X Gather transforms Subiaco into floral wonderland for Mother’s Day Mums were the stars but flowers stole the show in Subiaco this weekend, where art, petals and plenty of love spilled into the streets for a blooming beautiful Mother’s Day. Subi Blooms X Gather transformed roads and shop fronts into living canvas of colour, creativity and culture on Sunday, where visitors of all ages honoured the most important women in their lives. The floral wonderland consisted of a trail of 15 breathtaking art installations, all tied together under one theme: “Roots to Bloom”, which invited artists to explore heritage, culture and the hidden natural world and beautifully reflected the essence of Mother’s Day – honouring where we come from and how we grow. The festival, which first burst into bloom on Friday and ran the entire weekend, was held in collaboration with Gather: A Floral Community led by renowned florists Rebecca Const and Lara Rose. Wembley mum Tanya Benwell said the kaleidoscopic collection was “fantastic” and a beautiful way to celebrate all mothers. “We come every year and yeah we really enjoy it,” she said. Camera IconTanya Benwell with her children Madeline and Harvey. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West *********** The 39-year-old said her children Madeline, 6, and Harvey, 8, had woken her up “bright and early at 6am on Sunday” to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. “Apparently my super power is cleaning,” she said of one of the handmade gifts her daughter had made at school. “Which made me giggle. They both made some beautiful things for me. Camera IconMother’s Day at Subi Blooms x Gather: Yuka Mochiji her children Miori, left and Kanaho. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West *********** “And they tiptoed in at the crack of dawn, it was very sweet.” Both Harvey and Madeline’s favourite art installations at Subi Blooms x Gather was a colourful tapestry of flowers that to them felt like a “fairy land”. “We all loved that one. And the bike installation,” the mother-of-two said. “It was very special.” Camera IconCharissa Sharp with her son Harry. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West *********** Source link #Subi #Blooms #Gather #transforms #Subiaco #floral #wonderland #Mothers #Day Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

NES Games That Hold Up Brilliantly NES Games That Hold Up Brilliantly Unlike most SNL special guests from the 00s, a lot of NES games just do not age. Source link #NES #Games #Hold #Brilliantly Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Book Review: ‘The Emperor of Gladness,’ by Ocean Vuong Book Review: ‘The Emperor of Gladness,’ by Ocean Vuong THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS, by Ocean Vuong We first meet the hero of Ocean Vuong’s second novel, “The Emperor of Gladness,” as we did George Bailey in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”: on the edge of a bridge, contemplating suicide. Rain pelts him rather than snow. Hai is 19 in September of 2009, “in the midnight of his childhood and a lifetime from first light,” a Vietnamese-born college dropout who’s returned to a bleak Connecticut town called East Gladness, which fell far south of any gladness even before the recession. His salvation, his Clarence the angel, arrives in the form of Grazina: an 82-year-old Lithuanian widow who, after a Who’s on First-like exchange, insists on calling him Labas, which means “hi” in her language. Mid-stage frontal-lobe dementia has not yet kneecapped her knee-slappers. “You wanna be a writer and you want to jump off a bridge?” she teases him. “That’s pretty much the same thing, no? A writer just takes longer to hit the water.” But Vuong, named for the largest body of water there is, has been soaring. In an era when readers need to be gently coaxed to read poetry, his is widely heralded. His first novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” (2019), told in the form of a letter to the narrator’s illiterate mother, was a best seller, though some critics found it disjointed and overcurlicued. Like that book, the new one has some clearly autobiographical elements. But “The Emperor of Gladness” — its title echoing both Wallace Stevens (a habitué of nearby Hartford) on ice cream and Siddhartha Mukherjee on ******* — is a more conventional example of the form, divided into seasons. Hai moves into Grazina’s dilapidated clapboard house, crammed with watchful owl tchotchkes, as a part-time caregiver and companion. The arrangement helps him maintain the fiction he’s told his mother, a nail-salon worker who numbs her own sorrows with endless games of Tetris: that he’s attending medical school in Boston. These odd roommates are bonded by pills. Hai lost a friend to a fentanyl overdose and has been to rehab himself, but can’t kick oxy and codeine. Grazina has her senior regimen of Aricept, Lipitor and more. They are shadowed by familial war traumas (her little brother’s death; his uncle’s mysterious wound) and self-soothe by re-enacting ludicrous battle scenes, during which Labas morphs into “Sergeant Pepper.” Grazina’s rich son is lurking in the background, eager to stash her in a nursing home, “the only true egalitarian wing of the American dream.” Through a cousin named Sony (after the Trinitron television), Hai also gets a minimum-wage job at a lucrative franchise of HomeMarket, a “fast casual” restaurant higher on the food chain than Wendy’s or Dunkin. Though it’s “not so much a restaurant as a giant microwave,” there is a measure of community and dignity there. Or at least, a fresh start. “He had become an employee and thus had obtained an eternal present, manifested only by his functional existence on the timecard. He had no history because one was not required of him, and having no history also meant having no sadness.” As at “The Office,” one of Grazina’s favorite TV programs, HomeMarket is the stage for an array of diverse and daffy personalities: the 6-foot-3, buzz-cut female manager who aspires to the pro wrestling circuit; the diabetic “chicken man” on the grill who looks like a portly Al Green; the foulmouthed Irish cashier whose son died; the nose-ringed drive-thru guy known as Russia. Food, its byproducts, processes and essential grossness, strafes this crew. They are doused in cheese sauce when trying to help a guest overdosing in the bathroom; pelted with pizza in the parking lot by an independent rival; offended by an asparagus festival packed with white people; and doused with blood and emotion during a freelance stint slaughtering hogs. (It is, of course, infinitely worse for the hogs.) Much is made of the line between cornbread and cake, sugar being the opiate of the masses. Meanwhile, Grazina gleefully stomps dinner rolls and stockpiles Stouffer’s frozen dinners, reveling in American plenty after surviving Stalin’s purges. She claims her father invented fruit salad. There is a terrific ripeness to the pages of “The Emperor of Gladness” that sometimes edges into bruising. The reader is forever being dragged along, metaphorically speaking, as someone slips slow motion on a banana peel. For sure this is a book deeply attentive to oft-overlooked populations and simple survival; Hai may be reading “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “The Brothers Karamazov,” but he’s living out of “Fast Food Nation” and “Nickel and Dimed.” (That noted, Vuong should know that Medicare doesn’t cover live-in nurses.) There are trenchant observations about even ambitious people being “soft and scared,” a species “mushy” like overcooked peas or spaghetti. The dialogue does a lot for the story — maybe too much. Little incongruities have slipped past the poet’s sensitive ear, linguistic viralities from a more recent internet: an E.M.T. with a mullet saying “’preciate chuh,” which rose to prominence after “Ted Lasso”; a counselor in rehab marveling that Sun Tzu “doesn’t miss, huh?”; Hai asking his mother incredulously during an argument, “We’re really doing this?” Comparing a bad case of acne on a young man’s face to “weathered cuneiform on old marble”? In an Ocean Vuong novel, we’re really doing this. THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS | By Ocean Vuong | Penguin Press | 416 pp. | $30 Source link #Book #Review #Emperor #Gladness #Ocean #Vuong Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

25 Ways to Get in on Dance Music’s Renaissance 25 Ways to Get in on Dance Music’s Renaissance 5 Ways to Club Anywhere Boiler Room What began in 2010 as a single livestream called Boiler Room, with a webcam taped to a D.J. booth, has become not just a global proving ground but a rite of passage, and a catchall term for a format that’s changed the course of dance music. Start here: Kaytranda’s devilishly chaotic, often hilarious 2013 Montreal session; a fun hour of soulful dance music that foreshadows big things to come for the artist and the format alike. The Lot Radio Started in 2016 on a triangle-shaped patch of gravel in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the Lot has drawn a wide range of top-tier talent to D.J. inside its sticker-covered booth (or as Charli XCX did last summer, dance on top of it). Start here: The Japanese video game composer Takuya Nakamura, blasting an elegiac trumpet solo over drum-and-bass to mind-expanding effect. NTS Radio Femi Adeyemi created what may be the greatest anti-algorithm collection of D.J.s and music today, while reclaiming the power of live broadcast and the lost art of the radio show. (He was also involved in the founding of Boiler Room.) To wit: 40 percent of the music on NTS can’t be found on Spotify. Start here: Moxie’s recent set at Public Records in New York brings the literal sound of the club right into your headphones — two purely excellent hours of house. HOR Berlin A D.J. in a tiny, tiled room, at the base of a former East Berlin broadcast tower — that’s it. And yet: In a raw, entirely unadorned environment that leaves nothing unexposed between decks and D.J., HOR Berlin has become an essential incubator for up-and-coming talent since it started in 2019. Start here: HOR’s broadcast of the journeywoman D.J. Avalon Emerson’s set from Amsterdam’s Dekmantel festival in 2023 is absolutely electric. Rinse FM Born in 1994 in the great tradition of U.K. pirate radio, Rinse.FM had a few scuffles with the law before it eventually secured a broadcast license. It has always been an essential hub for the country’s homegrown talent, from grime and dubstep and well beyond: Rinse put out chart-topping records as a label and, in 2014, started Rinse France. Start here: Any episode of Hessle Audio’s show. The label, co-founded by Ben UFO (a true D.J.’s D.J.), is eclectic, fun and wildly au courant. — Foster Kamer Source link #Ways #Dance #Musics #Renaissance Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

They Don’t Matter, and Will Soon Be Obsolete They Don’t Matter, and Will Soon Be Obsolete Talk to a teacher lately, and you’ll probably get an earful about AI’s effects on student attention spans, reading comprehension, and cheating. As AI becomes ubiquitous in everyday life — thanks to tech companies forcing it down our throats — it’s probably no shocker that students are using software like ChatGPT at a nearly unprecedented scale. One study by the Digital Education Council found that nearly 86 percent of university students use some type of AI in their work. That’s causing some fed-up teachers to fight fire with fire, using AI chatbots to score their students’ work. As one teacher mused on Reddit: “You are welcome to use AI. Just let me know. If you do, the AI will also grade you. You don’t write it, I don’t read it.” Others are embracing AI with a smile, using it to “tailor math problems to each student,” in one example listed by Vice. Some go so far as requiring students to use AI. One professor in Ithaca, NY, shares both ChatGPT’s comments on student essays as well as her own, and asks her students to run their essays through AI on their own. While AI might save educators some time and precious brainpower — which arguably make up the bulk of the gig — the tech isn’t even close to cut out for the job, according to researchers at the University of Georgia. While we should probably all know it’s a bad idea to grade papers with AI, a new study by the School of Computing at UG gathered data on just how bad it is. The research tasked the Large Language Model (LLM) Mixtral with grading written responses to middle school homework. Rather than feeding the LLM a human-created rubric, as is usually done in these studies, the UG team tasked Mixtral with creating its own grading system. The results were abysmal. Compared to a human grader, the LLM accurately graded student work just 33.5 percent of the time. Even when supplied with a human rubric, the model had an accuracy rate of just over 50 percent. Though the LLM “graded” quickly, its scores were frequently based on flawed logic inherent to LLMs. “While LLMs can adapt quickly to scoring tasks, they often resort to shortcuts, bypassing deeper logical reasoning expected in human grading,” wrote the researchers. “Students could mention a temperature increase, and the large language model interprets that all students understand the particles are moving faster when temperatures rise,” said Xiaoming Zhai, one of the UG researchers. “But based upon the student writing, as a human, we’re not able to infer whether the students know whether the particles will move faster or not.” Though the UG researchers wrote that “incorporating high-quality analytical rubrics designed to reflect human grading logic can mitigate [the] gap and enhance LLMs’ scoring accuracy,” a boost from 33.5 to 50 percent accuracy is laughable. Remember, this is the technology that’s supposed to bring about a “new epoch” — a technology we’ve poured more seed money into than any in human history. If there were a 50 percent chance your car would fail catastrophically on the highway, none of us would be driving. So why is it okay for teachers to take the same gamble with students? It’s just further confirmation that AI is no substitute for a living, breathing teacher, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. In fact, there’s mounting evidence that AI’s comprehension abilities are getting worse as time goes on and original data becomes scarce. Recent reporting by the New York Times found that the latest generation of AI models hallucinate as much as 79 percent of the time — way up from past numbers. When teachers choose to embrace AI, this is the technology they’re shoving off onto their kids: notoriously inaccurate, overly eager to please, and prone to spewing outright lies. That’s before we even get into the cognitive decline that comes with regular AI use. If this is the answer to the AI cheating crisis, then maybe it’d make more sense to cut out the middle man: close the schools and let the kids go one-on-one with their artificial buddies. More on AI: People With This Level of Education Use AI the Most at Work Source link #Dont #Matter #Obsolete Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Sony's PSSR2 Upscaling Will Allegedly Improve Image Quality & Require Less Frametime Sony's PSSR2 Upscaling Will Allegedly Improve Image Quality & Require Less Frametime Sony is allegedly working on PSSR2, which aims to improve visual quality & reduce the performance overhead associated with AI-based upscaling. Source link #Sony039s #PSSR2 #Upscaling #Allegedly #Improve #Image #Quality #amp #Require #Frametime Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Dartmouth Has Avoided Trump’s Retribution So Far How Dartmouth Has Avoided Trump’s Retribution So Far Some 600 college leaders recently signed a letter opposing the Trump administration’s interference in higher education. The only Ivy League president who did not sign the letter was Sian Beilock, the president of Dartmouth College. Instead, she wrote her own letter to her campus, saying that higher education institutions should strive to do better, “to further our standing as a trusted beacon for knowledge and truth.” “Reflection does not mean capitulation,” she added. It is the kind of message, her critics and supporters say, that has so far helped to keep Dartmouth out of the Trump administration’s cross hairs. Six of the eight Ivies are facing major funding threats, to the tune of billions of dollars, as the federal government attempts to punish them over concerns about antisemitism and other issues. Harvard University alone could lose over $2 billion. And every Ivy but Dartmouth is being investigated over allegations that they have allowed antisemitism on campus. While Dartmouth hasn’t been targeted specifically, it would not emerge unscathed if the Republican administration gets its way. Higher endowment taxes could bring a significant financial blow, for example. And the administration’s visa crackdown has entangled some current and former Dartmouth students. Dr. Beilock’s supporters see her as a champion of free expression and dialogue among people with different political viewpoints. They say she has been consistent, supporting these ideas long before the Trump administration or even the ****** attack on Israel complicated campus politics. “It’s just so clear to me this is something she’s genuinely committed to,” said Malcolm Mahoney, the leader of the Dartmouth Political Union, a nonpartisan group that sponsors debates. “It’s not something she does for political ease.” But to her critics, she is trying to placate conservatives in a bid to spare Dartmouth from retribution. They say she has hurt, not helped, political tensions on campus, pointing to a police crackdown on a pro-************ demonstration last year that many students and faculty said was unnecessary. A number of reasons may also explain why Dartmouth has not faced the same pressure as its peers. Dartmouth, a small liberal arts college in rural New Hampshire with a tightly knit student body, may be off the radar of Washington lawmakers. It has also been known for having a more conservative bent. And Dr. Beilock appears to have carefully positioned her school in territory friendly to conservatives. She has hired a former Republican Party official for a key administrative job, focused on free expression in her public messages and taken a hard-line approach toward protesters. She has also sought friends in high places. White House officials have recently heaped praise on Dartmouth. “I was so impressed to learn how Dartmouth (my alma mater) is getting it right, after all these years,” Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump loyalist who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote on social media last week. Ms. Dhillon said Dr. Beilock had recently met with her team in the message. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.) “Kudos to Dartmouth!” Ms. Dhillon added. In an interview, Dr. Beilock said her university has been careful about protecting free speech. “But free expression does not mean robbing other people of free expression, shouting down speakers, taking over shared space and declaring it for one ideology,” she said. Dr. Beilock said she reached out to Ms. Dhillon, adding that she talks to alumni across the political spectrum. They talked about academic freedom, viewpoint diversity and “the importance of being fiercely independent as an institution,” she said. At 49, Dr. Beilock is the youngest Ivy League president and has been on the job less than two years. A wave of her peers — the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — resigned following backlash over how they handled pro-************ student protests. Dr. Beilock, by contrast, won praise from conservatives as a model of university leadership. In what her supporters and critics describe as a watershed moment for the university, she authorized armed state police to end a protest encampment on the college green. Student activists said the protest was peaceful, but the school said the tents were unauthorized. It was a contrast from how the university handled another famous protest on the green in the 1980s, when the president tolerated a shantytown that students created to protest apartheid in South Africa. One night, a dozen students, mostly from the conservative student newspaper, smashed the shanties with sledgehammers. After President Trump took office, Dr. Beilock named Matthew Raymer, the former chief counsel at the Republican National Committee, as the university’s top lawyer. As late as January, Mr. Raymer had argued in support of Mr. Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship. Mr. Raymer now oversees Dartmouth’s Office of Visa and Immigration Services, a move student activists say has terrified international students. The hiring of Mr. Raymer represents “the kind of difference in viewpoint across my team,” Dr. Beilock said. “We hired Matt not as Dartmouth’s Republican lawyer, but as Dartmouth’s lawyer,” she added. “And I don’t hire people based on political party.” Her posture toward the Trump administration has divided the campus. More than 2,500 Dartmouth alumni have signed a petition calling on Dr. Beilock to “join the growing ranks of colleges and universities that are resisting.” “You’re Embarrassing Us,” read a headline in the student newspaper. Dr. Beilock’s posture represents “a wink and a nod to the Trump administration,” said Roberta Millstein, a member of the Class of 1988 and an organizer of the alumni letter. But another alumnus, Gerald Hughes, also from the Class of 1988, started his own petition describing Dr. Beilock as a “free speech leader” who is “taking a measured and deliberate approach.” It has received more than 500 signatures from alumni, faculty and students. Dr. Beilock, a cognitive scientist who studies how high-performing people choke under pressure, said she is not going to change her approach. Dr. Beilock served as a faculty member and then executive vice provost at the University of Chicago. That school was an early champion of institutional neutrality, the idea that school officials should avoid opining on politics or social issues except when central to the university’s mission. Dartmouth recently adopted a similar policy. Dr. Beilock said her experience at Chicago had “a big impact on how I think.” Chicago also hasn’t signed onto the letter from the university leaders. Neither has Vanderbilt, which is led by Daniel Diermeier, a former Chicago provost. Amid the uproar, the university continues to sponsor programming meant to bridge the differences on campus. On Thursday, Mr. Hughes, who started the pro-Beilock petition, moderated a panel with university administrators about how to improve “the environment for open dialogue, respectful disagreement, and academic freedom.” (Mr. Hughes was one of the students who took part in the sledgehammer attack on the shanties, a situation he declined to discuss in detail.) In the interview, Dr. Beilock said that she is supportive of other universities as they navigate a difficult political climate but that her campus would continue to make its own way. “We can stand with our peers and also speak in our own voice,” she said. “Those are not mutually exclusive.” Source link #Dartmouth #Avoided #Trumps #Retribution Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive One day in the year 79, Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash and rock into the atmosphere, pummeling the ancient Roman trading hub and resort in a ceaseless hail of tiny volcanic rocks. Many residents ran for their lives, trying to find safety with their loved ones before searing volcanic debris buried the estimated 1,500 residents who remained in Pompeii. In a study published last month in the journal Scavi di Pompei, scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky, known as lapilli. The small-but-well-appointed residence is known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated fresco in the dining room. It depicts the mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle escaping their wicked stepmother on a winged ram only to have Helle fall and, ominously, drown in the sea below. As with many ancient Roman residences, its atrium, an open-roof room centrally located in the home, was used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day, the recess allowed volcanic rock to more rapidly overtake the space. Most Pompeians “had no clue what was happening,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, an author of the study and the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. “Many thought the end of the world had come,” he added. In the years that followed, the hot ash that eventually buried the home solidified and left an imprint that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that remained. The technique helps illustrate the horror of the Pompeian dead in their final moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were situated in their environments. The skeletal remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The lapilli, which reached heights as high as nine feet in some locations, could not be controlled, and researchers believe the people made a final attempt to escape, leaving the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They got only as far as the triclinium, the formal dining room where their remains were found. “The family in the House of Helle and Phrixus probably died when the so-called pyroclastic flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the building collapsed,” Dr. Zuchtriegel said. He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people found in the home were from a family that stayed behind and may have included some enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don’t know for sure if they lived there or simply took refuge after the homeowners had already escaped. “It’s not certain that the individuals found in the house as victims were part of the family,” said Marcello Mogetta, an associate professor of Roman art and archaeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study. Among the skeletal remains was a bronze bulla that belonged to a child. The ancient amulets were worn like lockets around the necks of young free boys to shield them from danger until they reached adulthood. “The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there’s a cruel irony to the fact that it didn’t,” said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study. Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out rudimentary excavations of Pompeii that disturbed the skeletal remains of the victims found in the House of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunneled into the residence in search of valuables like jewelry and artwork, they left behind holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either in respecting their preservation, dignifying their deaths or studying their material culture. But today it’s the human toll that feels most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belonged to those who were indeed family will be something that researchers may try to uncover through DNA analysis in the near future. Family or not, it doesn’t change the human tragedy of the story. “Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people to offer each other comfort at the end,” Dr. Barrett said. Source link #Final #Moments #Pompeii #Family #Fought #Survive Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]