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Returned to Iraq from Hobby Lobby

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Contact Lens of the Future Is Remarkable Ethiopia Planted 353M Trees —in Half a Day Egypt Opens “Bent Pyramid” Meet the New Electric Road Egypt opened two of its oldest pyramids, Ethiopia claims it has smashed a world located about 25 miles south of the capital record in the name of climate change— Cairo, to visitors for the first time since and the tree planting isn’t even done. 1965. Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany More than 353 million tree seedlin told reporters that tourists are now allowed gs were planted across the country in to visit the Bent Pyramid and its satellite pyramid in the Dahshur royal necropolis, which is part of the Memphis Necropolis, You may one day drive down roads charged with electricity that your vehicle automatically detects and sucks up through an automatic arm—if a just 12 hours as part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Green Legacy refores tation campaign. The campaign hopes a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bent Swedish project gains any headway. Called eRoad- to see 4 billion indigenous trees plant Pyramid, which the AP reports was built during the Old Kingdom of the Pharaoh of Sneferu, in about 2600 BC, is unique in that Arlanda, it has turned 1.2 miles of road outside Stockholm into a kind of slot-car track where electric trucks insert movable arms into a rail to recharge the vehicle’s battery while driving. Designed between May and October. Citizens had been encouraged to plant 200 mil lion trees but Ahmed tweeted that 150 it has two internal structures. El-Anany said ers say the technology is weather-proof and the million had been planted after just hours. At the end of 12 hours, the country’s minster for innovation and te chnology, Getahun Mekuria, announced 353,633,660 seedlings had gone into the ground—more than five times as many trees as were planted in India over the Bent Pyramid represents a transitional form of pyramid construction between the Djoser Step Pyramid (2667-2648 BC) and arm will rise automatically when one car passes another, Sky News reports. The rails are also said to be safe to the touch. 12 hours in 2017. Some schools and government offices closed to allow stu dents and civil servants to take part, which notes 2.6 billion trees have now been planted across Ethiopia. The Guardian reports each citizen is asked to plant at least 40 seedlings. The goal is to transform Ethiopia’s landscape, which the Meidum Pyramid (also about 2600 BC). The Guardian notes its "unusual" shape: The first 160 feet rise at "a steep 54 degree angle, before tapering off towards the top." “One of the most important issues of our time is the question of how to make fossil-free road transportation a reality,” says eRoadArlanda Chairman Hans Säll. “We now have a solution that will make this possible, which is amazing.” Among its pluses, is seeing degradation, soil erosion, deforestation, and droughts and flooding tied to agriculture. About 80% of Ethiopia’s population relies on agriculture to make a living, with the result that just 4% of land is now forested, com pared to 30% at the end of the 19th century, according to Farm Africa. Per El-Anany also announced that Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a collection of stone, clay, and wooden sarcophagi, some Säll says the electric road lets vehicles have smaller batteries and therefore makes vehicles cheaper to produce. The $7.7 million project will be tested with a truck fleet for two years, and if the government approves, it could be implemented for $1.9 Al Jazeera, a recent study estimates that 1 trillion new trees could pull al most 750 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—or about as much as humans have released in the last 25 years—over several decades of them with mummies, in the area. He said archaeologists also found wooden funerary masks along with instruments used for cutting stones, dating to the Late Period (664million per mile and include buses and cars. “Sweden is at the cutting edge of this technology, which we now hope to introduce in other areas of the country and the world,” Säll says. US Teen Wins $3M at Fortnite World Cup 332 BC). Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said they also uncovered large stone blocks teen contestants Emil Bergquist Pe dersen from Sweden and David Wang from Austria shared a $3 million prize. Art Expert Gives Museum Some Really Bad News A museum in southern France suffered a terrible blow when experts declared that over half its paintings are forgeries, The Pennsylvania 16-year-old Kyle along with limestone and granite fragments Terrus museum, dedicated to the work of painter Étienne TerGiersdorf plays 8 to 10 hours of Fortnite a day, but his parents aren’t complaining: Giersdorf, indicating the existence of ancient graves in the area. Egypt has been whipping up publicity for its new historical discoveries in rus, apparently knew nothing of the fakes until an art historian informed them. “It’s a catastrophe,” the mayor of Elne, where the museum resides, tells the Telegraph. “I put myself in the place of all the people who came to visit the museum, With a total prize pool of $40 million provided by Epic Games, Fortnite’s pa rent company, the tournament broke an better known as ”Bugha,” won the hopes of reviving a devastated tourism who saw fake works of art, who paid an entrance fee. It’s in- e-sports record, though that record is expe a record-breaking $3 million at the inaugural Fortnite World sector still recovering from the turmoil following a 2011 uprising that toppled tolerable and I hope we find those responsible.” Police have taken the fakes and are trying to find those responsible. cted to be broken by an August event cal led “The International” Giersdorf, the first longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Cup at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The contest featured player in the North American East Region to qualify for the tournament, was domi 100 participants out of around nant in the six-game series, beating rivals 40 million who entered the on- including runner-up Harrison “Psalm” line competition. Giersdorf, who Chang, who took home $1.8 million. won the solo event in front of a Giersdorf was hugged by his family after packed stadium, says he plans to the win. “This is life-changing for him,” save the prize instead of going mother Darcy Giersdorf says. “He’s been on a spending spree. ”All I want playing video games since he was three, so is a new desk and maybe a desk this is his passion. He told us he could do for my trophy. In the duo event this, he put his mind to it and he di

15 Years Later, Tsunami’s Toll 12 Year Old Steals Moms Credit Card.. Heads on Vacation France Won’t Let Go of Long-Lost MasterpieceRemains Mind-Boggling It still haunts me.” The line from 28-year-old Thai resident Suwanne Maliwan to Reuters expresses a common sentiment Thursday, the 15th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed 230,000 lives. Maon April 21, 2016, and the heirs can’t quit squabbling. Here’s a look at where things liwan, for instance, lost both her parents and five other relatives. ”Sometimes I dream that A 12-year-old Australian boy has pulled off a bold feat that drew international headlines: He stole his mom’s credit card and managed to fly to stand: Even though it’s been nearly two years since Prince died, the executor of the estate, Comerica Bank and Trust, can’t split the money among Prince’s six surviving siblings until the Internal Revenue Service and executor agree on the estate’s value a wave is coming,” she says. Vigils and memorials across Asia were commemorating Bali, Indonesia, for a posh, four-day vacation before getting caught. As recounted in the Australian program A Current Affair, the boy did some research online and figured out he could fly alone without needing a It’s not clear when that might happen. The IRS and state of Minnesota are entitled the staggering loss of life in what was one of the world’s deadliest natural disasters. A 9.1 letter from a parent on Jetstar Airways. He nabbed his mom’s credit card, tricked his grandmother into giving him his passport, took a train to the airport, and flew to Bali. “They just asked for my student ID and to collect about half, though the estate can stretch out the payments over time. Court magnitude earthquake off Sumatra island passport to prove that I’m over 12 and that I’m in secondary school,” filings several months after Prince’s death suggested that it was worth around $200 million before taxes. The actual value remains one of the biggest secrets in the case, the morning after Christmas in 2004 trigsays the boy, identified only as Drew. He then checked into a four-star hotel, having made reservations in advance, telling the clerk that his hidden in sealed and redacted documents. The actual valuation could have gone up gered the tsunami and unleashed waves as older sister would be joining him soon. or down since then. That’s because the various attorneys, accountants, and industry experts at that point had not yet finished appraisals and deals for the use of his music, high as 57 feet. And there he stayed, having a fine time while his panicked mom reportvideos, and assets including his Paisley Park studio. ed him as missing back home. It wasn’t until the boy posted a video of Coastal areas of Thailand, Indonesia, India, himself in the hotel pool that his vacation finally came to an end. “I was shocked and disgusted, there’s no emotion to feel what we felt when sentative contacted school officials Thursday about the surprise message, says a spokeswoman for the district. Sri Lanka, and other countries were deluged. One of the first areas hit was Indonewe found out that he’d left overseas,” says mom, per news.com.au. One reason she’s ticked: Her son had actually tried this stunt twice before, only to be turned away at the airport by Qantas and Garuda Airlines. Johnson said he admires Kelzenberg's courage but that he won't be able to attend sia’s Aceh province, notes CBS News. In fact, most of those killed were in Indonesia alone, Mom says she was informed her son’s passport would be flagged by federal authorities as a result, but that apparently never happened. In the aftermath, Jetstar promises to tighten up its policies. “He just doesn’t prom because he'll be in Hawaii filming Jungle Cruise. Instead, Johnson rented out a nearby movie theater on Saturday for where 170,000 deaths were registered. ”No words can describe our feelings when we like the word no and that’s what I got, a kid in Indonesia.” Kelzenberg and more than 230 friends and family to watch his latest movie, Rampage. Johnson even covered the cost of snacks tearfully saw thousands of corpses lying on this ground 15 years ago,” said acting Aceh Apparently 82 of the museum’s 140 works are phony, spotted at times because they contained buildings constructed after and drinks for the theater. "I couldn't believe it. I was so surprised," Kelzenberg says. "I just kept thinking, 'He saw me! He Gov. Nova Iriansyah at a ceremony in Sigli. ”And now, we can see how people in Aceh Terrus died in 1922. Acclaimed for his landscapes of French Catalonia, Terrus was close with artists Aristide Maillol and Henri Matisse and lived mostly in Elne, a town on the Tech knows who I am!'" Kelzenberg says she became a fan of Johnson's five years ago. Her favorite movies of his include Central were able to overcome suffering and rise again, thanks to assistance from all IndoneRiver that’s less than three miles from the Mediterranean coast of Languedoc-Roussillon. The museum spent over $190,000 acquiring paintings they thought were his. But the Intelligence and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. sians and from people all over the world.” Terrus likely isn’t alone: Art experts say at least one in five paintings in the world’s top museums may well be fake. Shop In RI 5

France is trying to hang onto a medieval painting with a crazy backstory. The nation has blocked the export of a small, 13th-century work by the Italian artist Cimabue, a painting that hung unnoticed for decades above a hotplate in a French woman's kitchen. An auctioneer spotted the painting as the elderly woman was preparing to sell her house, and Christ Mocked then sold for a staggering $26 million at auction earlier this year, recounts the Guardian. The buyers are anonymous, but they're believed to be a group of Chilean collectors based in the US. Now, however, it looks like they won't be able to own the painting after all. France's culture ministry has declared the work to be a "national treasure" and has at least temporarily overruled the sale, reports USA Today. The ministry hopes to hang the painting permanently in the Louvre, and it now has 30 months to come up with the money to buy it. In the meanti me, the family of the unidentified woman who displayed the painting for years, unaware of its origin or its worth, must continue to pay to have it insured. They also owe a multi-million-dollar inheritance tax, and they'll likely have to work out a deal to pay it after the sale goes through. Looking to permanently while away your days overlooking the Tasman Sea and sipping on vino while watching "nice animals" with other "nice people"? Karl Reipen wants to hear from you. The Guardian reports the German multimillionaire has placed an ad seeking 10 people up to age 70 to come live in what he calls his "paradise," a 550-acre, $5.6 million estate in Awakino, on New Zealand's North Island. "If you are interested to live a life with a Group of Interesting people it can be a new life for you," reads the ad, which Stuff NZ reports was published twice in the New Zealand Herald. Reipen,

who made his fortune in canned iced coffee, notes in the ad that the estate boasts a winery "for social meetings and dining," and that residents "can enjoy walking, fishing, shopping, kayaking, bird watching, swimming or looking at the nice animals." There are also stables and an indoor equestrian center on-site, and Reipen says, "If you would like to bring your own horse it is possible." Interested parties who prefer privacy will like that the property is an hour and a half from the nearest large town or city. The current government under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put in place a ban on foreigners owning homes in New Zealand, but Reipen scooped up

Multimillionaire Invites 10 People to Come Live in ’Paradise’ the property years before that manda te. He still had to get the OK from the nation's Overseas Investment Office, which signed off on his purchase after it determined he had the experience and means to build the property up and maintain it. "It took me 10 years to bring it to the standard of today," he writes in the ad. It's not clear how fu ture dwellers in Reipen's self-proclai med utopia will be selected.

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ICON 3D Prints the First Simulated Mars Surface Habitat for NASA

A 3,500-year-old clay tablet looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago and bought by Hobby Lobby in 2014 is now officially Iraq’s property again. Hobby Lobby had agreed to forfeit the clay tablet considered the property of the Iraqi government, which it bought for $1.6 million in 2014. The retail chain purchased the 5-by-6-inch rare cuneiform tablet from a London auction house, which offered up a provenance letter claiming the tablet was found in a box of ancient bronze fragments purchased in an auction in 1981. That same letter had been used to sell the so-called Gilgamesh Dream Tablet— one of 12 tablets found in the ruined library of an Assyrian king in Nineveh, northern Iraq, in 1853—at other times. It was also fake. The uncleaned tablet had in fact been illegally imported to the US by an antiquities dealer in 2003. After realizing what he had, the dealer sold the tablet with the false provenance letter in 2007. The tablet written in Akkadian, and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, is among the oldest known works of literature. US authorities had seized it from Washington, DC’s Museum of the Bible, funded by the family of Hobby Lobby founder David Green, in 2019. Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, called it “an important milestone on the path to returning this rare and ancient masterpiece of world literature to its country of origin,” noting the office is “committed to combating the black-market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted artifacts.” ICON, developer of advanced construction technologies including robotics, software, and building materials, today announced it has been awarded a subcontract through Jacobs supporting NASA’s The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) to deliver a 3D-printed habitat, known as Mars Dune Alpha, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. ICON’s next-gen Vulcan construction system will complete a 1,700 square-foot structure, designed by world-renowned architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, that will simulate a realistic Mars habitat to support long-duration, exploration-class space missions. CHAPEA, is a sequence of three one-year Mars surface mission simulations at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The analog missions will provide valuable insights and information to assess NASA’s space food system, as well as physical and behavioral health and performance outcomes for future space missions. NASA will use research from the Mars Dune Alpha simulations to inform risk and resource trades to support crew health and performance for future missions to Mars when astronauts would live and work on the Red planet for long periods of time. Future space exploration habitats have the potential to be 3D printed with additive construction technology to eliminate the need to launch large quantities of building materials on multiple flights, which is cost prohibitive. “This is the highest-fidelity simulated habitat ever constructed by humans,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO, ICON. “Mars Dune Alpha is intended to serve a very specific purpose -to prepare humans to live on another planet. We wanted to develop the most faithful analog possible to aid in humanity’s dream to expand into the stars. 3D printing the habitat has further illustrated to us that construction-scale 3D printing is an essential part of humanity’s toolkit on Earth and to go to the Moon and Mars to stay. ” Life in Mars Dune Alpha will resemble the expected experience for those living in a future Mars surface habitat. Designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, the layout of the innovative structure is organized in a gradient of privacy. Four private crew quarters will be located on one end of the habitat; dedicated workstations, medical stations and food-growing stations are located on the opposite end, with shared living spaces found in between. Varying ceiling heights vertically segmented by an arching shell structure accentuate the unique experience of each area to avoid spatial monotony and crew member fatigue. A mix of fixed and movable furniture will allow crew members to reorganize the habitat according to their daily needs, as will the customizable lighting, temperature, and sound control – helping regulate the daily routine, circadian rhythm, and overall well being of the crew.