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Mummy returns: Voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian priest brought to life
Scientists have fulfilled a mummified Egyptian priest's wish for life after death - by replicating his voice with artificial vocal cords.Nesyamun's voice has been reproduced as a vowel-like sound that is reminiscent of a sheep's bleat.The priest lived during the politically volatile reign of pharaoh Ramses XI, between 1099 and 1069BC.
As a priest in Thebes, Nesyamun would have needed a strong voice for his ritual duties, which involved singing.
When Nesyamun died, his voice fell silent, but 3,000 years on, a team of researchers have brought it back to life.
They have done so by producing a 3D-printed voice box based Nesyamun's vocal tract, which was scanned to establish its precise dimensions.
By using the vocal tract with an artificial larynx sound, they synthesised a vowel sound meant to be similar to the voice of Nesyamun.

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It is believed to be the first project of its kind to successfully recreate the voice of a dead person through artificial means. In the future, the researchers hope to use computer models to recreate full sentences in Nesyamun's voice.

The research - carried out by academics at Royal Holloway, University of London, the University of York and Leeds Museum - was published in the Scientific Reports journal on Thursday.

The voice recreation technique "has given us the unique opportunity to hear the sound of someone long dead", said study co-author Joann Fletcher, a professor of archaeology at the University of York.

Prof Fletcher told the BBC it was Nesyamun's "express wish" to be heard in the afterlife, which was part of his religious belief system.

"It's actually written on his coffin - it was what he wanted," Prof Fletcher said. "In a way, we've managed to make that wish come true."

How exactly did they recreate Nesyamun's voice?
In humans, the vocal tract is the passage where sound is filtered. That sound is produced at the larynx - the organ commonly known as the voice box - but we only hear it once it has passed through the vocal tract.

To copy the sound produced by Nesyamun's vocal tract the exact dimensions of it were mirrored in 3D-printed

form
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But
this process is only possible when the soft tissue of an individual's vocal tract is reasonably intact. In Nesyamun's case, the fact that his mummified body was well-preserved made this more likely, and the team confirmed it using a CT scanner at Leeds General Infirmary.
Following the scans, a 3D-printed tract was created for Nesyamun, whose "voice" was then generated by an artificial larynx sound - a method commonly used in modern speech synthesis systems.

The next step for the researchers will be to use computer models "to generate words and string those words together to make sentences", said Prof Fletcher.

"We're hoping we can create a version of what he would have said at the temple at Karnak."

Who was Nesyamun?
Nesyamun was a priest at the temple of Amun in the Karnak complex at Thebes (modern-day Luxor).

He was a waab priest, which meant he had reached a certain level of purification and was therefore permitted to approach the statue of Amun in the most sacred inner sanctum of the temple.
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Studies revealed that Nesyamun suffered from gum disease and severely deteriorating teeth. He is thought to have died in his 50s, possibly following a severe allergic reaction.

As the only mummy to have been dated from the reign of Ramses XI, Nesyamun offers important insights. Scientific analysis of his remains has contributed to a greater understanding of ancient Egypt.

Nesyamun's mummified remains are on display at Leeds City Museum.
 

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Massachusetts serial pooper arrested after police catch her defecating in parking lot

A woman is accused of defecating in the parking lot of a Massachusetts outdoor goods store nine times over the past several months after police said she was caught in the act Wednesday.

Andrea Grocer, 51, of Ashland, was arrested Wednesday near the Natick Outdoor Store, according to a report from Natick police. Henry Kanner, the owner of the store said she'd done it nine times, but she was arrested on eight charges of defacing property.

Kanner said he installed surveillance cameras outside to catch shoplifters but ended up catching Grocer defecating in his parking lot.

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Massachusetts serial pooper arrested after police catch her defecating in parking lot

A woman is accused of defecating in the parking lot of a Massachusetts outdoor goods store nine times over the past several months after police said she was caught in the act Wednesday.

Andrea Grocer, 51, of Ashland, was arrested Wednesday near the Natick Outdoor Store, according to a report from Natick police. Henry Kanner, the owner of the store said she'd done it nine times, but she was arrested on eight charges of defacing property.

Kanner said he installed surveillance cameras outside to catch shoplifters but ended up catching Grocer defecating in his parking lot.

View attachment 8828
Her expression is priceless! It fits the accusation perfectly.
 

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Bermuda Triangle shipwreck discovered nearly 100 years after it vanished
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A team of experts has located the wreck of a merchant ship that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle in 1925.

The fate of the SS Cotopaxi has long been shrouded in mystery. On Nov. 29, 1925, the steam-powered vessel left Charleston, S.C. for Havana, Cuba. She never reached her destination and the bodies of the Cotopaxi’s 32 passengers were never recovered.

Now, however, a group of underwater explorers and maritime archaeologists have located the ill-fated ship about 35 nautical miles off the coast of St. Augustine, Fla. The discovery will be featured in the first episode of “Shipwreck Secrets,” a new Science Channel Series that premieres on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Subsequent episodes will air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET

In a statement, the Science Channel explained that marine biologist and underwater explorer Michael Barnette contacted British historian Guy Walters to help find the mysterious ship.

“Walters combed through ship records at the archives of Lloyd’s of London, who were the insurance brokers for the SS Cotopaxi,” the Science Channel explained. “There he discovered something previously unknown about the SS Cotopaxi’s voyage. The ship had sent out wireless distress signals with a position on December 1st, 1925, two days after it left Charleston.”

A shipwreck known locally as the Bear Wreck, which was found almost 35 years ago, is in that location.

Armed with the new information, however, and working with diver Al Perkins and experts from the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, researchers realized that the Bear Wreck is actually the Cotopaxi.

“After discussing and evaluating all the available evidence, the team felt confident that the Bear Wreck is indeed the final resting spot of the lost Cotopaxi,” explains the Science Channel, in its statement.

This information was also shared with Douglas Myers, the grandson of the Cotopaxi’s captain, Captain William J. Myers, at his home in Long Island, N.Y. “Myers agreed that the team had finally located his grandfather’s ship after being missing for almost 100 years,” the Science Channel said.

The Bermuda Triangle has long been a source of fascination. The body of water, infamous as a place where many vessels have sunk, stretches across a western part of the North Atlantic between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. The area, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, has claimed over 1,000 lives in the last 100 years, News.com.au reported in 2017.

In 2018 scientists in the U.K. noted that a natural “rogue wave” phenomenon could play a part in the Bermuda Triangle’s reputation. Busy maritime traffic in the area has also been cited as a key factor in its history.






 

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Shocking moment woman dressed as Minnie Mouse attacks a security guard on the Las Vegas strip - before Mickey and Goofy try and pull her away
  • A woman dressed as Minnie Mouse on the Las Vegas Strip ended up beating up a security guard working at a shopping mall
  • The performer had been yelling at the worker for a while before it came to blows
  • Her partner, dressed as Mickey, attempted to intervene but was also punched
  • Entire fight was caught on camera as surprised onlookers took out their phones
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'Terrifying' moment thousands of black birds swarm the parking lot of a Texas shopping center, resembling iconic scene from 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds

Thousands of birds are seen taking over a Texas parking lot, leaving the area practically deserted in a video that evokes flashbacks to the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds. One clip shows the swarm of grackles dominating the area in Fort Worth suburb Burleston on January 24, with a woman recording the moment later calling it 'terrifying'.

'This is just [expletive] crazy. Look at these birds, they're like everywhere,' the amateur videographer says. 'Just thousands and thousands and thousands…' As the camera pans, it shows many of the black birds soaring over the sky for an extended period of time. Some are also seen taking over areas on the ground where vehicles are positioned in bays and no people are seen walking through the lot.


 

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Man dies after getting stuck in Tennessee Walmart donation bin, police say
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A man has died after getting trapped in a donation bin outside a Walmart in Tennessee, Clarksville police said on Sunday.

Police and emergency responders were called to a parking lot outside the Walmart in Clarksville around 3:50 p.m., where they found the lower part of the unidentified 48-year-old's body protruding from out of it.

He was extracted from the bin and pronounced dead at the scene, Jim Knoll, a spokesman for the Clarksville Police Department told Clarksville Now.

Foul play is not suspected, the website added.

Knoll declined to say how long the man was in the bin or his cause of death, due to the ongoing investigation, according to ABC News.
 

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Watch: Diver Encounters 'Ghost Fish'

A diver swimming off the coast of Malta encountered a strange transparent creature that resembled a veritable 'ghost fish.' The wondrous oddity was reportedly spotted by Raniero Borg as he explored the waters near the coastal town of Marsalforn. "I was very curious about it," he recalled, marveling that "I have never come across anything like this during my 40 years of diving."

In footage captured during the dive, Borg can be seen reaching out and carefully examining the mysterious creature which he likened to "a miniature jelly whale or dolphin." Estimating that the curious specimen was around a foot long and eight inches wide, the diver noted that some kind of organ could be observed inside the odd blob.

A subsequent consultation with Malta’s International Ocean Institute provided Borg with an answer as to what he'd encountered during his dive. According to the organization, the creature in question was an organism known as salp. These gelatinous creatures are somewhat renowned in the marine biology world for their unique ability to propel themselves by passing water through their body.

 

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Watch: Diver Encounters 'Ghost Fish'

A diver swimming off the coast of Malta encountered a strange transparent creature that resembled a veritable 'ghost fish.' The wondrous oddity was reportedly spotted by Raniero Borg as he explored the waters near the coastal town of Marsalforn. "I was very curious about it," he recalled, marveling that "I have never come across anything like this during my 40 years of diving."

In footage captured during the dive, Borg can be seen reaching out and carefully examining the mysterious creature which he likened to "a miniature jelly whale or dolphin." Estimating that the curious specimen was around a foot long and eight inches wide, the diver noted that some kind of organ could be observed inside the odd blob.

A subsequent consultation with Malta’s International Ocean Institute provided Borg with an answer as to what he'd encountered during his dive. According to the organization, the creature in question was an organism known as salp. These gelatinous creatures are somewhat renowned in the marine biology world for their unique ability to propel themselves by passing water through their body.


It looks like a Salpa Maggiore at 9:16 into the video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKxCRxCW630
 

nivek

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Couple find a live frog INSIDE a whole pepper they bought at their local grocery store - leaving experts struggling to answer how it got there

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has no idea how a fully grown green tree frog appeared inside a whole bell pepper in the home of Canadian couple Nicole Gagnon and Gérard Blackburn. Nicole Gagnon and Gérard Blackburn from Saguenay, Quebec, were prepping a meal on February 9 when Gagnon discovered a live green frog in the depths of the pepper she had been chopping up.

The frog was later identified as a green tree frog, variants of which can be found in both Canada and Honduras, where it is believed the pepper was sourced. The Ministry of Food killed the frog by euthanasia as they investigated how it found it's way inside a whole pepper but have yet to discover a reason.


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Iranian Minister Passes Kid’s Costume Off as ‘Space Suit’

On Feb. 4, Mohammed Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, tweeted a photo of what he called a “space suit” bearing an Iranian flag patch next to an Iranian flag. The photo and caption were accompanied by the hashtag “#BrightFuture.” The tweet was posted a few hours before Jahromi met with a group of students, whom he told: “Our dream is to plant Iran’s flag on the surface of the moon.” This was days before a satellite launch to commemorate the 41st anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Not long after Jahromi tweeted the photo, observant Twitter users noticed the new “space suit” was suspiciously similar to a children’s costume sold by a company called Wonder Costumes. Among the giveaways were lines on the front of the uniform where the original patches had been removed. The costume typically sells for $39.09, but as of this writing it was on sale for as low as $20.19.

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Blind Man Claims He Regained Sight Again After Getting Hit By A Car

A man who had been blind for over two decades claims he miraculously regained his sight after being hit by a car and now works as a security guard at the hospital that treated him. Janusz Goraj, from the Polish city of Gorzow Wielkopolski, had been blinded at a young age when he had a bad allergic reaction. He was completely blind in his left eye and could only vaguely recognize shapes and lights in his right.

In 2018, he was struck by a car while using a pedestrian crossing. However, that seems to have ultimately helped him, as he claims to have regained his sight. He told reporters: "I fell on the car bonnet, hit my head and then I slipped and fell on the road." After his accident, he was taken to the Independent Public Provincial Hospital in the western Polish region of Lubusz Voivodeship, where he underwent hip surgery.

A spokesperson for the hospital, Agnieszka Wisniewska, told local media: "At a certain age such fractures do not heal so quickly, so he had to be hospitalised. "At that time, the doctors weren't concerned about his vision because of his injuries." While he recovered quickly - his injuries were mostly better within a fortnight - his doctors were even more shocked by the recovery of his sight.

The doctors as baffled as everyone else, and it's unlikely we'll get any further information because Goraj declined to take part in future tests, according to the local press. Ms Wisniewska said: "His eyesight did improve within two weeks. We don't quite know what caused it, maybe the mix of drugs he was getting during that time." That is one theory. It's been suggested that large doses of anticoagulant medicine mixed with other drugs he was on could have helped somehow. That's just speculation, though.

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Credit: Central European News

By all accounts, Janusz can now live an independent life and has now reportedly started work as a security guard at the very hospital where he received his post-accident treatment. Wisniewska concluded: "We don't know if he specifically asked for the job or if it's just a coincidence, but he is working here with us."

Well, the most important thing is that Janusz can see again. That's got to be good news.

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nivek

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Colorado Cops Respond to Report of 'Demonic Sounds' Heard at McDonald's



In a strange case out of Colorado, police officers working the overnight shift were dispatched to a fast food restaurant after workers called with concerns about hearing mysterious and unsettling sounds. The weird call reportedly came into the Pueblo police department from a McDonald's in the city at around 3:30 in the morning this past Thursday. In what one imagines was an unsettling experience at that lonely late-night hour, employees at the establishment "claimed that they had heard "a woman screaming and making 'demonic sounds.'"

Specifically, Captain Tom Rummel recounted in a tweet later that morning, the workers said that this unseen individual was "speaking in a strange language and barking." According to the law enforcement officer, the incident was so unnerving to the crew at the restaurant that "they said they wouldn’t be going back outside their building until after the sun came up." Unfortunately, when police arrived on the scene, the source of the sounds was nowhere to be found.


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Texas man drives to beer garden with ‘mangled corpse’ of pedestrian he hit, cops say
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A Texas man drunkenly ran a person over and then drove with the “mangled corpse” in his passenger seat for at least a half-mile — before stopping at a beer garden, police said.

Paul Joseph Garcia, 24, allegedly rammed into a pedestrian pushing a shopping cart Saturday at about 10:40 p.m. in South Austin, the Austin American-Statesman reported on Tuesday.

The victim went through the 2014 Ford Focus’ windshield and suffered traumatic injuries to the head, with some body parts becoming detached, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the newspaper.

But Garcia kept driving “with a mangled corpse in the vehicle,” the document states.

Witnesses saw Garcia park his car about a half-mile from the scene of the accident and then calmly get out, police said.

He then walked into the South Austin Beer Garden barefoot — “in a manner that caught the attention of the other patrons,” the affidavit said. He wasn’t served any alcohol at the bar.

Debris, including car and body parts, lined the road from the scene of the crash to where the car stopped, the document said.

Garcia had evidence on his body that matched the blood and body tissue found coating the inside of the vehicle, cops said.

Officers conducted a sobriety test on him and he was charged with intoxication manslaughter and accident involving injury.

He was being held Tuesday on $110,000 bail.
 

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Woman brings mini-service horse onto plane, into first class
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This flyer wasn’t horsing around.

A Michigan woman startled other passengers on a recent series of flights when she brought aboard a mini-service horse and traveled with him in first class to California.

Ronica Froese made the journey starting on Feb. 7 with her equine companion Fred, who was specially trained to make the high-altitude trip, according to WXMI.

“I paid an arm and a leg for tickets, but I did so because it was Fred’s first time and I wanted him to be comfortable,” Froese told the station.

“I wanted him to have the most room.”

Froese, who has trained Fred — who dressed in a sleek suit that made him look like a Lucha Libre wrestler — to be a therapy and a service horse, said everyone was “sweet as pie.”

She said that the “experience was way better than I actually anticipated.”

Fred’s flying days may soon be a thing of the past, however, with the US Transportation Department recently announcing plans to tighten the laws so that only dogs actually trained to help the disabled qualify for flights.
 

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Ukrainian Woman Comes Back to Life Ten Hours After Being Declared Dead



Doctors in Ukraine were stunned when an elderly woman who had been declared dead ten hours earlier came back to life and shared an amazing story of journeying to the 'other side.' The remarkable case reportedly began early one morning last week in the town of Stryzhavka when Ksenia Didukh's daughter called for help when her mother had fallen ill. Upon their arrival, emergency personnel found that the woman had no pulse and, as such, she was declared dead.

Since they were certain that Didukh had passed away, the medics departed the home and left her body behind with her heartbroken family. Her loved ones subsequently began making plans for her funeral, enlisting a priest to perform the service and even going so far as to start digging her grave. However, later that evening, they were stunned when a member of the family put their hand on Didukh's head and noticed that she felt warm to the touch.

Bewildered by this weird turn of events, the family raced to the hospital with the 'dead' woman where, to their profound amazement, she came back to life shortly after being admitted to the facility. Doctors overseeing the patient were understandably astonished by what had occurred with one official marveling that he has never seen such a case in twenty years of practicing medicine. Although it was later determined that Didukh had fallen into a coma, the woman offered up a far more fantastic version of events from her perspective.

At some point during the ordeal, Didukh vividly recalled, she 'crossed over' into a realm that she described as the kingdom of heaven. The woman even revealed that she was beckoned to stay in the afterlife by the voice of her late father. Why, exactly, she wound up returning to the Earthly plane is uncertain as Didukh merely mused that "apparently God had mercy on me." The priest who would have performed her funeral rights echoed this thought, declaring that "a miracle of resurrection has occurred."


 
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