Emperor

Last week, the Vatican unveiled Luce, a Japanese-style cartoon character that will serve as the Catholic Church’s mascot for its upcoming jubilee year, as well as its Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican's chief organizer for the jubilee year who presented Luce to the world, said that the mascot was "created from the desire to enter into the world of pop culture, so beloved by our young people".

I believe his excellency should have considered his desires more carefully, because there is no clearer sign that Luce has indeed entered pop culture and is beloved by young people than the fact that there are now dozens of AI-generated hardcore pornographic images of her on the internet.

On Civitai, a site for sharing custom AI models and generating images, users have created at least a dozen different Luce-themed AI models specifically for generating images of the Vatican’s mascot. These models are not explicitly designed to produce adult content, but as I’ve reported previously Civitai makes it easy to modify AI models and combine them with others that are designed to produce pornographic images, and that is often what users on the site do with any AI models of any character or real person.

Looking at just one model page, Luce - Vatican's Mascot [PONY], in the section where users share images they’ve created with that model, I can see images of Luce nude, covered in semen, and a nude Luce alongside what appears to be a Luce Fleshlight-type sex toy.

“If you came here for what everyone else came here for, then you won't be disappointed,” one user said in a comment on the model’s page. “Lord forgive me for what I am about to do,” another user said.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has revealed he considered resigning after a report found the Church of England covered up sexual abuse by a barrister for years.

John Smyth QC, who abused as many as 130 boys and young men at Christian summer camps, could have been brought to justice a decade ago, an independent review found.

Smyth - believed to be the most prolific serial abuser associated with the church - died in Cape Town in 2018 at the age of 75.

Mr Welby "could and should" have formally reported the abuse to authorities in 2013, the review said.

It found that "had that been done, on the balance of probabilities" Smyth could have been brought to justice "at a much earlier point" than a Hampshire Police investigation in early 2017.

Speaking to Channel 4 News on Thursday, Mr Welby said: "I have been giving [resigning] a lot of thought for actually quite a long time, there is nothing over the last 10 years that has been as horrible as dealing with numerous abuse cases.

"I have given [resigning] a lot of thought and have taken advice as recently as this morning from senior colleagues, and, no, I am not going to resign."

Asked if he considered resigning on Thursday morning, Mr Welby said "yes".

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In a statement, Mr Welby said he was "deeply sorry that this abuse happened" and "sorry that concealment by many people who were fully aware of the abuse over many years meant that John Smyth was able to abuse overseas and died before he ever faced justice".

He added: "I had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013.

"Nevertheless the review is clear that I personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated."

Snake handler Drew Godfrey, who works for Hervey Bay Snake Catchers in the Australian territory of Queensland, had the task of removing two coastal carpet pythons, also known as Morelia spilota mcdowelli, from a customer's toilet bowl.

"The homeowner contacted us as he found the snake when he went to use the toilet," Godfrey told Newsweek. "It was a female that was likely in there to soak its skin before shedding.

"Two days later, we were called back to the same house to remove a male from the same toilet. The male most likely entered looking for the female as that was the last place she would have left a scent trail," he continued.

...

"Coastal carpet pythons are nonvenomous and serve as an asset around the home, as they keep down rodent and other pest species," Godfrey told Newsweek.

"They grow to over 3 meters but are placid animals that are friendly toward humans. They only ever bite in self-defense," he continued.

An “anticyclonic gloom” has been blamed for cloudy weather across parts of England, with one village receiving absolutely no sunshine since October.

Odiham, in Hampshire, has reportedly recorded zero minutes of sunshine since October, but forecasters are predicting that the fog, drizzle and low cloud should start clearing from Sunday.

The phenomenon, dubbed an “anticyclonic gloom” by experts, has led to the UK experiencing an average of just three hours of sunshine over the past week. But fronts moving in from the north-west bringing rain to the west of Scotland throughout Sunday ought to allow a change of air mass across Britain – with less cloud.

Martial arts movies aren't usually known for their gripping stories, but a rare few of them can break the mold of the genre with genuinely fantastic narratives alongside gripping action. For the most part, martial arts movies are given a lot of leeway when it comes to their stories, with gripping hand-to-hand fight scenes being the primary draw for audiences of the genre. That being said, some of the best fight scenes in martial arts movie history come from films with brilliant narratives that compliment the action.

Martial arts movies with earnestly great stories come in multiple varieties. Often, the period setting of martial arts films allows for some fascinating political and cultural drama sprouting from the relevant movements or historical events of the time they take place in. In other cases, lovingly choreographed action is used as an emotional vessel for two characters to hash out their relationship, mirroring the intimacy of other areas in life with the intimacy of combat.

1. House of Flying Daggers
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Drunken Master II
4. The Prodigal Son
5. Come Drink With Me
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. Dragon Inn
8. Ip Man
9. Five Deadly Venoms
10. Last Hurrah For Chivalry2

A 32-year-old man was killed after accepting a dare by his friends to sit on a box of lit fireworks in Bengaluru, India.

An Indian publication, The Hindu, reported that the man died after he accepting a challenge to sit on a container which had a box full of firecrackers in it to win an auto rickshaw that was placed as a bet.

The publication said the horrific incident was captured on a neighbour’s CCTV camera on Friday.

It is believed that one of his friends offered the deceased his new auto rickshaw if he sat on the box full of lit fireworks.

Speaking to the publication, Deputy Commissioner of Police Lokesh Bharamappa Jagalsar, said the deceased and his friends were drunk when the incident happened.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19675702

About 1,000 London buildings including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery could soon be warmed by low-carbon heat sourced from the River Thames, London Underground and sewer networks.

Plans to develop the UK’s biggest heat network to supply decarbonised heat to buildings across Westminster were set out on Wednesday by the government as part of its pledge to back seven heat network zones with more than £5m of public funding.

The plan will involve a network of pipes constructed to carry excess heat captured underground to power hot water and central heating systems in the area.

The £1bn scheme will be developed by a joint venture – between heating specialists Hemiko and Vital Energi – known as the South Westminster Area Network partnership, designed to save the area about 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent to planting 1.2m trees.

About 1,000 London buildings including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery could soon be warmed by low-carbon heat sourced from the River Thames, London Underground and sewer networks.

Plans to develop the UK’s biggest heat network to supply decarbonised heat to buildings across Westminster were set out on Wednesday by the government as part of its pledge to back seven heat network zones with more than £5m of public funding.

The plan will involve a network of pipes constructed to carry excess heat captured underground to power hot water and central heating systems in the area.

The £1bn scheme will be developed by a joint venture – between heating specialists Hemiko and Vital Energi – known as the South Westminster Area Network partnership, designed to save the area about 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent to planting 1.2m trees.

Australian scientists have solved a mystery which has gripped Sydney: what were the sticky dark blobs which washed up on some of the city's famed beaches last month?

Initially believed to be tar balls, they were in fact a "disgusting" combination of human faeces, cooking oil, chemicals and illicit drugs, researchers say.

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Last month authorities in New South Wales (NSW) said they suspected the objects were a mixture of fatty acids, fuel oil and chemicals found in cleaning and cosmetic products.

But further testing found the material is unlikely to have originated solely from an oil spill or waste from a ship, as some had thought.

Each ball was slightly different but had a firm surface - hardened partially by accumulating sand and minerals like calcium - and a soft core.

Inside was everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, to blood pressure medication, pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs.

"They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you've ever smelt," lead investigator Associate Professor Jon Beves, from the University of NSW, told 9News.

Professor William Alexander Donald said they resembled fat, oil, and grease blobs - often called fatbergs - which are commonly formed in sewerage systems.

Detecting this along with recreational drugs and and industrial chemicals had "pointed us to sewage and other sources of urban effluent", he explained

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19673493

An enigmatic stone and turf structure on Bodmin Moor that was previously thought to be a medieval animal pen has been found to be 4,000 years older – and unique in Europe.

The rectangular monument was built not in the early medieval period to corral livestock, as recorded by Historic England, but rather in the middle Neolithic, between 5,000 and 5,500 years ago, archaeologists have discovered.

Nothing like it is known in Britain or farther afield, according to experts, meaning that the original purpose of the monument known as King Arthur’s Hall is a mystery.

“There isn’t another one of these anywhere,” said the lead archaeologist, James Gossip. “There is nothing built at that time or subsequently in prehistory that is a rectangular earth and stone bank with a setting of stone orthostats around the interior. There is no other parallel.”

The so-called “hall”, which sits on the western side of Bodmin Moor near Helstone in Cornwall, consists of a banked enclosure measuring 49 metres by 21 metres, lined on the inside with 56 standing stones up to 1.8 metres tall.

An enigmatic stone and turf structure on Bodmin Moor that was previously thought to be a medieval animal pen has been found to be 4,000 years older – and unique in Europe.

The rectangular monument was built not in the early medieval period to corral livestock, as recorded by Historic England, but rather in the middle Neolithic, between 5,000 and 5,500 years ago, archaeologists have discovered.

Nothing like it is known in Britain or farther afield, according to experts, meaning that the original purpose of the monument known as King Arthur’s Hall is a mystery.

“There isn’t another one of these anywhere,” said the lead archaeologist, James Gossip. “There is nothing built at that time or subsequently in prehistory that is a rectangular earth and stone bank with a setting of stone orthostats around the interior. There is no other parallel.”

The so-called “hall”, which sits on the western side of Bodmin Moor near Helstone in Cornwall, consists of a banked enclosure measuring 49 metres by 21 metres, lined on the inside with 56 standing stones up to 1.8 metres tall.

One of the wilder Joaquin Phoenix stories to have emerged recently involved his threatening to leave Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” unless Paul Thomas Anderson was brought in to do rewrites.

In an interview with Total Film, Scott added that Phoenix getting cold feet on the film happened just 10 days before production was set to begin on “Napoleon” Scott had also told Empire that he literally rewrote the entire “Napoleon” script based on Phoenix’s relentless notes.

We weren’t really sure if Scott actually agreed to Phoenix’s demands in hiring PTA to help out with rewrites, but Scott seems to have confirmed just that to the New York Times):

Tommy was doing “Licorice Pizza,” advising me how to do “Napoleon.” It turned into a lot of fun, actually. Three of us in this room screaming with laughter.

So, there you have it, at some point during “Napoleon” pre-production, PTA, Scott and Phoenix were working together on the script and having a grand-ol time with it.