Emperor

Bite marks from a lion on a man’s skeleton, excavated from a 1,800-year-old cemetery on the outskirts of York, provide the first physical evidence of human-animal combat in the Roman empire, new research claims.

While clashes between combatants, big cats and bears are described and depicted in ancient texts and mosaics, there had previously been no convincing proof from human remains to confirm that these skirmishes formed part of Roman entertainment.

Prof Tim Thompson, an anthropologist and first author on the study at Maynooth University in Ireland, said: “This is the first time we have physical evidence for gladiators fighting, or being involved in a spectacle, with big cats like lions in the Roman empire.”

Excavations at the Driffield Terrace burial site, near York city centre, began more than 20 years ago and uncovered about 80 decapitated skeletons. Most belonged to well-built young men and bore signs of brutal violence, leading experts to suspect they had uncovered a gladiator graveyard.

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Dr John Pearce, an archaeologist from King’s College London and co-author of the study published in Plos One, said York doubled as a Roman town and legionary fortress at the time, making it the second largest population centre in Britain after Londinium.

He said: “These may be gladiators who trained in a gladiatorial school at York linked to the Roman legion based there, and their comrades from the arena or training ground took responsibility for burying them.”

If the researchers are right, their discovery raises questions about where gladiators fought their battles.

An arena probably exists beneath the city of York, but uncovering it will not be easy. “One of challenges with York is that so many old buildings are preserved, you can’t do the excavations underneath them,” Thompson said.

It is not the only mystery that remains. “This shifts the conversation,” Thompson added. “We now know that these events happened in the provinces of the Roman empire, but it raises other questions. How, for example, do you get a lion from Africa to York?”

Yostin Andres Mosquera faces trial for the murders of Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on July 8 last year in the flat the two shared in Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London.

The defendant, 35, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, admitted the manslaughter of Mr Alfonso during a hearing at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, but denies and is being tried on both charges of murder.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told jurors at the Old Bailey on Wednesday that Mosquera "could hardly deny" killing Mr Alfonso, telling them the attack took place while the defendant and Mr Alfonso were having sex - with both the sex and the killing recorded on film.

But the court heard Mosquera blames Mr Alfonso for the death of Mr Longworth.

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The court heard Mr Alfonso liked "extreme sex" which Mr Longworth, who knew about it and accepted it, had "nothing to do with".

Mr Alfonso would engage in acts with other men, including Mosquera, jurors were told - with the defendant described by the prosecution as a "pornographic performer".

It was said Mosquera visited the UK more than once and spent time with Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth, engaging in sex acts with the former in exchange for payment, and that the couple also visited the defendant in his home country of Colombia.

"They seemed to enjoy one another's company," Ms Heer said of the trio.

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At around 11.30pm on July 10, a cyclist making his way across the Clifton Suspension Bridge spotted Mosquera standing next to a large red suitcase and stopped to see if he was OK, thinking he was a tourist, the court heard.

The witness also spied a large silver trunk a few metres away from the defendant before Mosquera told him the luggage contained car parts, jurors were told.

"That was a lie," prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said.

"In fact, the suitcases contained the decapitated and dismembered bodies of Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso, which the defendant had transported to Bristol from their home in London where they had been killed two days before."

Police found their other remains at their flat in a chest freezer, the court heard.

UK licensing bodies have announced a “pioneering” collective licence that will allow authors to be paid for the use of their works to train generative AI models.

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) – which is directed by the Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), representing publishers and authors – will develop the licence, set to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Expected to be made available to AI developers this summer, it will allow copyright holders “who are not in a position to negotiate direct licensing agreements with AI developers” to be paid for the use of their works.

“When we surveyed our members last year, they made it clear that they expect us to do something about their works being used to train AI,” said ALCS CEO Barbara Hayes. 81% of respondents said that they would want to be part of a collective licensing solution if ALCS was able to secure compensation for the use of writers’ works to train AI in cases where individual, case-by-case licensing is not a viable option.

The announcement comes as the UK government reviews responses to a consultation on its proposals for a copyright exemption for text and data mining, allowing AI companies to freely use copyrighted works unless rights holders opt out. The new licence “shows that a copyright exception is neither necessary nor desirable”, said the ALCS.

The government’s proposal “would give very limited choice, wouldn’t remunerate creators or provide any transparency about which works are being used”, said Hayes.

The collective licence, on the other hand, “will further demonstrate that licensing is the answer and can provide a market-based solution that is efficient and effective”, said Mat Pfleger, the CEO of CLA.

So no:

• AI generated memes of images
• AI generated answers to questions

edit: this applies to feddit.uk communities, we won't block AI art communities on other instances or sanction our users for posting on them.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/28031394

A medieval cemetery unearthed near Cardiff Airport is continuing to confound archaeologists, as the mysteries surrounding it are multiplying.

The discovery of the site, dating to the 6th or 7th Century, was announced last year, with dozens of skeletons found lying in unusual positions with unexpected artefacts.

Now researchers have learned nearly all of those buried in the cemetery are women, and while their bones show signs of wear and tear - indicating they carried out heavy manual work - there are also surprising signs of wealth and luxury.

Another unexpected find has been a woman tossed in a ditch, in stark contrast to all the other people who were buried with great care.

"Every time we think we understand something, something else crops up and the picture gets more intriguing," said Andy Seaman from Cardiff University, who is leading the project.

A United Airlines plane was forced into an emergency landing after it caught fire after a rabbit was reportedly sucked into its engine.

The flight in the US issued an alert following a “giant fireball” after the reportedly got stuck in the plane’s engine before take off.

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The plane was turned around after around 75 minutes in the air and landed safely. There were no reports of injuries.

An unusual startup announced the world's first sperm race -- a race involving actual sperm -- will be held April 25 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Sperm Racing, a startup founded by a team of young millionaires, announced representatives from two competing schools -- the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles -- will provide the microscopic swimmers for the inaugural Sperm Race.

The race will take place under a microscopic camera that will track the progress of the sperms as they attempt to cross to the finish line.

The startup said there will be three races held to determine the overall winner, and play-by-play commentary will be provided during each heat. There will also be instant replays, leaderboards and betting through approved partners.

The angry man can be seen confronting the vegan campaigners, who held up screens showing animal slaughter and used the megaphones to get their point across to shoppers.

One man took direct action against the protesters, grabbing a loudhailer from an activist named Ella Wild and breaking it on the ground before walking away.

Ms Wild posted a video of the incident on her Instagram, calling the shopper who retaliated "an angry customer".

Most of the commenters sided with the shopper, with one saying: "Good man glad someone done it".

Good? Bad? Indifferent?

The notorious “Am I The Asshole?” subreddit is being turned into a gameshow for Comedy Central UK hosted by LOL: Last One Laughing UK’s Jimmy Carr. Jimmy Carr’s Am I The Asshole? will invite members of the public to come before the host and a panel of two other comedians to ask controversial questions. These questions will cover everything from jaw-dropping relationship disputes to the pettiest of family squabbles and stories of behaviors that are guaranteed to split opinion. The “Am I The Asshole?” sub-reddit is famous worldwide and uses the acronym AITA. The BBC mined Reddit in the past for its hit comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?, which is also a famous subreddit. Jimmy Carr’s Am I The Asshole? is being produced by STV Studios-owned Tuesday’s Child. The series will be filmed in late spring and is due to air later this year on Comedy Central UK. Carr said: “There are an impressive number of assholes in our country and they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve on national television.”

Note: because of markdown formatting I have had to change "a**hole" to 'asshole". While it should obviously be "arsehole", it isn't actually clear what the series will be called, it might actually be using the bowdlerised version in the title.