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In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, sending a cloud of ash and hot gas sweeping through the ancient Roman town of Pompei. The writer Pliny the Younger—whose uncle, Pliny the Elder, died in the eruption—watched the catastrophe unfold from a vantage point across the Bay of Naples, later describing how inhabitants had tied pillows over their heads to protect themselves from falling debris and carried torches to find their way through the darkness. In 2024, archeologists discovered the skeletons of two of the volcano’s victims, likely killed as they tried to reach the sea, just outside Pompeii’s southern gates. The first skeleton was of a young man, who is thought to have died in a pyroclastic surge—a rush of superheated gas and hot ash that can literally boil blood. In an eerie echo of Pliny the Younger’s account, the second skeleton, that of a somewhat older man, was found with a terracotta bowl near his head. According to researchers, who published their fin...

Using artificial intelligence, researchers may have identified the previously unknown subject of a sketch by Northern Renaissance artist Hans Holbein, and reidentified the sitter for a related Holbein drawing. The study , carried out by Karen L. Davies and Hassan Ugail, was published in the journal npj Heritage Science . Holbein was born in Germany but moved to England to escape the European Reformation, initially under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell and Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn. He worked as a portraitist in the Tudor court starting around 1526 until his death in 1543. Both of the artworks in question—known as Anne Boleyn and An unidentified woman —are part of the Royal Collection Trust, which owns some 85 drawings by Holbein. Only 30 of these drawings, the study points out, are related to paintings whose subjects are clearly identified. Until now, this left historians to rely on inscriptions from 18th-century copies ...

Oriental-Rongotai stormed Helston Park for a seven tries to three win in their fifth round fixture on Saturday, which was for the Ash Pointon Cup. Ories scored seven tries – all converted by fullback Jordan Soli – and led 28-5 at halftime. Soli also scored a hat-trick of tries, whilst centre Daniel Tafili scored one...

It’s springtime in the art world, and that can mean only one thing. Not the Venice Biennale, though that is no doubt where many dealers, collectors, and artists are this week. No, we’re talking about the May marquee sales. This year’s sales arrive, as always, at something of an inflection point for the market. Following two years of sales declines, the global art market returned to modest growth of 4 percent last year, according to the most recent Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report. The total sales figure of $59.6 billion was buoyed not by collectors piling back into contemporary art but by a surge of high-quality consignments in the November sales, namely that of Leonard Lauder’s collection at Sotheby’s, which was headlined by a $236.4 million Klimt . While there are no works in the spring sales season expected to approach that eye-watering result, that doesn’t mean there aren’t trophy works. The major houses...

A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link — Tony Hsieh Canada’s recently released Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) focused on the need for more sovereign capabilities in support of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Foreign companies involved in supplying Canada with fighter jets and submarines have been particularly engaged in determining how to maximize sovereign supply chains to support long term in-service support. And the Minister of Industry Science and Economic Development Canada (ISEDC) Mélanie Joly regularly speaks of the importance of creating sustained jobs when discussing military acquisition projects, even hinting that Lockheed Martin should provide more jobs in Canada to support the US weapons sensors and combat management systems in the River Class Destroyers. These are logical developments in terms of the context in this moment. But when one looks under the hood, there are major challenges to overcome to make sovereign supply chains viable ...

Action from the Swindale Shield match at Ngati Toa Domain on Saturday. It’s Star Wars Day today, and with it a number of teams will be searching for the powers of the Force to jump-start their seasons as we enter the sixth weekend of Premier and Premier 2 competitions in Wellington and the fifth week...