IFLScience: Scientists Just Examined The Shroud Of Turin, And They Found Something Awkward

Now, researchers from the University of Pavia, Italy, have used modern forensic techniques to analyze the blood patterns on the shroud in the first study of its kind. Taking a crime scene approach, the team simulated blood flows with the help of both a mannequin and a live volunteer, who (it might be worth adding) was not harmed in the process.

The team ran seven bloodstain tests using real and synthetic blood on different body parts, including the chest, hand, forearm, and lower back. During these tests, blood was pumped around the model and released at the various wound points shown on the shroud. This enabled the researchers to see at what angle the blood should naturally flow when left to gravity. [...]

The blood splatters on the shroud could not be replicated from any one pose. Instead, the angle of gravity that would be required to make the patterns on the shroud varied by body part. For example, blood marks from the hand would suggest they were held at a 45-degree angle, whereas those from the forearms would suggest that they had been held at a 90-degree angle. [...]

Given the conclusion, it is slightly surprising that the purpose of the experiment was to find out whether the shroud suggested a T-shaped or Y-shaped crucifixion, rather than whether it happened at all. The result so far: no evidence of crucifixion, T-shaped, Y-shaped, or otherwise, can be found in the cloth.

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CityLab: Photographing Urban 'Under-Spaces' (MAR 17, 2016)

In 2011, photographer Gisela Erlacher visited Chongqing city in China and became fascinated with urban “under-spaces”—small, unlikely pockets of life wedged between or tucked away under towering megastructures like expressways and bridges. She’d seen these before. Near her home in Vienna, Austria, stood a tiny house, with its roof just a few feet under two mammoth highways. [...]

While taking the photos for her book, Erlacher noticed some regional trends. In Chongquing, for example, these hidden spaces contained benches, parks, and tea houses where older folks could relax. In Europe, on the other hand, younger people typically occupied playgrounds and skate parks located in the shadows of colossal infrastructure.

But if there’s was one big lesson that Erlacher believes applies across the board, it’s that rapid, functionality-driven urbanization over the past couple of decades didn’t occur uniformly. “Now we (and future generations) need to come to terms with the consequences,” she says.

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Politico: Theresa May caves in on Brexiteer amendments to head off rebellion

Unless May is able to claw back enough support among MPs for her compromise plan, it is likely the impasse will only be resolved if either the U.K. crashes out with no deal at all, a solution favored by some hardline Brexiteers, there is a second referendum, which a small number of pro-EU MPs publicly endorse, or the prime minister can find a way to ask Brussels for more time.

In a bid to see off a Brexiteer uprising, No. 10 Downing Street accepted four “wrecking” amendments laid by hardline Euroskeptics in Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group of Tory MPs, all designed to undermine the prime minister’s new Brexit proposal agreed at Chequers, but insisted the new amendments did not undermine government policy. Defense Minister Guto Bebb quit after voting against one of the key changes, defying official government policy. [...]

In a major test of parliamentary strength for both sides of the Brexit debate, the government saw off the pro-EU rebels’ bid to remove the Euroskeptic clause banning any future customs arrangement with the EU which sees the U.K. collecting tariffs for Brussels without the EU doing the same for Britain in reverse. [...]

The fact May felt compelled to accept all four amendments proposed by Brexiteers exposes the precariousness of her situation in parliament as she battles to find a compromise Brexit deal with Brussels acceptable to both wings of the Conservative Party. Experts said the clause effectively killed off the prime minister’s proposed “customs facilitation agreement” — the center-piece of her Chequers plan for a compromise customs model designed to keep the Irish border open while also allowing the rest of the U.K. to strike free trade deals with new countries.  

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Al Jazeera: As Trump engages Putin, his deal with Kim collapses

Yet, there is little evidence to suggest his "fire and fury" diplomacy is working. Trump's self-proclaimed success in engaging North Korea is on the verge of becoming a failure, exposing the paucity of his strongman diplomacy. [...]

In late June, reports emerged detailing Pyongyang's expansion of nuclear facilities and its arsenal in advance of the Singapore summit. Trump was quick to respond to growing doubts about the results of his diplomatic efforts with North Korea, saying talks were "going well".  [...]

The problem is that if Trump were to choose to return to his prior brinkmanship, threatening North Korea with "preemptive war", the US will almost certainly find itself isolated this time. After all, Trump has helped transform the image of the North Korean supreme leader from a mad villain into a young peacemaker. [...]

And if Kim, the leader of small, impoverished North Korea, is able to play Trump and get what he wants out of him, then what can we expect from a strongman like Putin?

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The Atlantic: The Crisis Facing America

The United States was then a comparatively poor and vulnerable country, so the Founders imagined corruption taking the form of some princely emolument that would enable an ex-president to emigrate and—in the words of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—“live in greater splendor in another country than his own.” Yet they understood that even the most developed countries were not immune to the suborning of their leaders. As Morris said, "One would think the King of England well secured [against] bribery. … Yet Charles II was bribed by Louis XIV.”

The reasons for Trump’s striking behavior—whether he was bribed or blackmailed or something else—remain to be ascertained. That he has publicly refused to defend his country’s independent electoral process—and did so jointly with the foreign dictator who perverted that process—is video-recorded fact.

And it’s a fact that has to be seen in the larger context of his actions in office: denouncing the EU as a “foe,” threatening to break up nato, wrecking the U.S.-led world trading system, intervening in both U.K. and German politics in support of extremist and pro-Russian forces, and his continued refusal to act to protect the integrity of U.S. voting systems—it adds up to a political indictment whether or not it quite qualifies as a criminal one.  

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