Ancient bone box called oldest Christian artifact
Long-unrecognized lettering confirms that first-century artifacts found within an ancient Jerusalem tomb are the earliest representations of Christianity ever found, researchers say.
Two Hebrew scholars who examined photographs showing the inside of the tomb agree that markings on an ossuary — a box made to hold human remains — are stylized letters that spell out the name of Jonah, the researchers said Thursday (April 19). Jonah was the Old Testament prophet whose story of being swallowed by a great fish was embraced by the early followers of Jesus.
The tomb, located 6.5 feet (2 meters) below an apartment building in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, was discovered in 1981 but resealed after Orthodox Jewish groups opposed its excavation. Two decades later, the group got license to enter the tomb, which has been dated to before A.D. 70.
Researchers led by James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte did not enter the tomb themselves but instead used a remote camera to explore it. Their analysis of the images was reported Feb. 28 in the journal The Bible and Interpretation.
The Hebrew scholars’ translation of the stylized letters on the ossuary have yet to be published.
Troubled tomb
On one of the ossuaries was an inscription depicting “divine Jehovah,” and a second had a picture that appeared to be a fish with a stick figure in its mouth, said to represent Jonah. If they fully understand these drawings, the researchers said, then they have found the oldest Christian artifacts, the earliest Christian art and the first evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection. Similar depictions of Jonah were used by later Christian groups and became an important expression of the faith in later centuries.
‘The engraver has rather ingeniously combined the stick figure of Jonah with the Hebrew letters spelling out his name.’
– James Tabor, University of North Carolina
When the tomb and its contents were first disclosed, many biblical scholars offered alternate interpretations of the iconography and disputed the tomb’s connections to Christianity. They said the image is more likely a funerary monument and not a fish at all. [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]
Hebrew hint
After the initial announcement, the team continued to examine the images from their robot scout. Strange markings inside the fish head stood out to the researchers, and they called upon James Charlesworth, a Hebrew script scholar from the Princeton Theological Seminary.
The researchers said Charlesworth confirmed their interpretation of the marks: The lines that make up what they thought was a stick figure could also be viewed as four Hebrew letters. The script is similar to that from the Dead Sea Scrolls and seems to spell out “YONAH,” the Hebrew name of Jonah.
“This discovery by Professor Charlesworth is quite remarkable and had been overlooked in our initial analysis,” Tabor said in a statement. “The engraver has apparently rather ingeniously combined what we took to be the stick figure of Jonah with the four Hebrew letters spelling out his name.”
Tabor also asked other Hebrew researchers for their opinion on the interpretation. Robert Deutsch of Haifa University confirmed Charlesworth’s reading of YONAH, and Haggai Misgav of Hebrew University agreed there were definitely letters, but Misgav read them as “ZOLAH,” Tabor said.
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Apple releases iOS 5.1.1
Apple releases iOS 5.1.1
Apple’s iOS 5.1.1 update includes handful of fixes for mobile operating system powering the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
. What’s this?
Apple on Monday released iOS 5.1.1, a small update for the mobile operating system that powers the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
The update includes a small handful of fixes: Taking HDR photos from the Lock Screen shortcut should now work more reliably. Safari bookmark and Reading list syncing is also improved.
Bugs that prevented the the third-generation iPad from successfully switching between 2G and 3G networks are also addressed. Other bugs afflicting AirPlay video playback are corrected, too.
And if you’ve ever seen an “Unable to purchase” alert after successfully purchasing something on iOS, good news: The 5.1.1 update also resolves that issue.
You can install the update directly from your iOS device, if you’re running iOS 5 or later: Launch Settings, tap General, and then tap Software Update. As a delta update, the iOS 5.1.1 upgrade is a much smaller file than iOS updates before iOS 5 generally were; on my iPhone 4S, the update weighed in at less than 60MB.
Facebook’s ‘life-saving tool’ — an organ donor feature
The wide-reaching social network now offers the ability to share whether you are an organ donor, in the hopes that this will save more lives on a daily basis.
Mark Zuckerberg in a video tease for his appearance on Good Morning America.
Facebook has launched a new “life-saving” tool, allowing its 900 million users to share their organ donation status on their timelines.
The world’s largest social network now allows U.S. and U.K. users to include a life story on their profile pages, and offers a link urging users to sign up for official organ donation services in their region.
Writing for ABC News, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg note how “amazed” the two were in how people use Facebook to share “billions of stories, updates and photos,” and how “people use these same tools and social dynamics to address important issues and challenges in their communities.”
Zuckerberg said his friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October of pancreatic cancer, was one of the driving forces in harnessing the social network for spreading awareness.
“We never could have anticipated that what started as a small network would evolve into such a powerful tool for communication and problem solving.”
More than 114,000 U.S. residents are waiting for organ donations, according to the U.S. Department of Health. “Many of those people — an average of 18 people per day — will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need,” Zuckerberg and Sandberg said.
Using the power of Facebook, they want those figures to fall.
While organ donation is a very worthy cause, it may not have been what was expected in the run-up to the today’s announcement. Considering there has been a noticeable rise in cyberbullying in recent years with Facebook often at the hub of the issue, some had expected the social network to announce a plan to combat the problem.
Polish groups protest over Madonnas Warsaw show
Catholic and veterans’ groups in Poland are protesting against a concert by Madonna because it falls on the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
Some are urging ticket-holders to boycott Wednesday’s show, which comes 68 years after the city’s failed revolt against Nazi occupation began.
Organisers of the concert have agreed to show a short clip about the events of 1944 before the performance.
Every year, Poles commemorate the 200,000 lives lost during the uprising.
One Catholic group called Krucjata Mlodych, or Youth Crusade, has started an online campaign urging people not to attend the concert.
They say more than 50,000 people have signed up to their Don’t Go To See Madonna campaign.
The group also says anti-Madonna Mass services and street prayer sessions have been held.
They accuse the singer of offending their faith through her use of burning cross and crown of thorns imagery, and say she promotes pornography and sexual deviation.
Billboards around the capital promoting the concert have been defaced with the sign of the Polish Home Army, the largest underground army in Nazi-occupied Europe, reports the BBC’s Adam Easton in Warsaw.
‘Important moment’
Every year, at 1700 on 1 August, sirens wail across Warsaw and people stand still to pay their respects to the victims of the 63-day uprising, our correspondent says.
Conservative opposition MP Stanislaw Pieta has appealed to the government not to allow the concert to go ahead in Warsaw’s National Stadium, Polish Radio reports.
Concert organisers have agreed to a proposal by city officials to show a short film about the uprising in the stadium before the show, in an attempt to appease the protesters.
Ania Pietrzak, a spokeswoman for concert organiser Live Nation, told the Press Association: “It is an important moment in Polish history, so we have decided to remind people of that moment.”
It is the latest controversy to hit the 53-year-old singer’s MDNA tour.
In Paris, some fans booed her when she ended the show after only 45 minutes.
She also angered supporters of France’s right-wing National Front party, by showing a swastika imposed on the face of the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen.
Another excuse to eat chocolate Dark variety can help heart-risk patients and cut diabetes
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Lovers of dark chocolate have known for some time that their favourite treat can help protect them against high blood pressure and cut the risk of diabetes.
But now scientists say that it can even benefit those who are already at high risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Although regular chocolate eating doesn’t work quite as well as drugs, the researchers say it has virtually no side effects and, perhaps not surprisingly ‘high rates of compliance’.
A team of researchers from universities in Melbourne, Australia, used a mathematical model to predict the effects and cost effectiveness of daily dark chocolate consumption in 2,013 individuals at high risk of heart disease over a decade.
They all had metabolic syndrome – a mix of problems including raised blood pressure, obesity, high fat levels in the blood and an inability to control blood sugar levels – but no history of heart disease or diabetes and they were not on blood pressure drugs.
Daily consumption of 100g of dark chocolate could potentially avert 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people treated over ten years, according to the study published on bmj.com.
This could be considered an effective intervention, said the researchers. It would be cost-effective too, costing £25 a year per head of population.
This would cover advertising and possible subsidising of dark chocolate for the less well-off.
The protective effects have been shown only for dark chocolate which is at least 60-70 per cent cocoa. Milk or white chocolate does have not provide the same benefits.
It is rich in flavonoids which are known to have heart protecting effects.
Previous research shows eating chocolate reduces blood pressure and improves insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of diabetes. |
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Pitbull to receive top Latin gong
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Pitbull to receive top Latin gong
The Latin Awards are scheduled to take place in March
US Rapper Pitbull is to receive the prestigious president’s prize at this year’s BMI Latin Awards, organisers have announced.
The top award is presented to artists who have “distinctly and profoundly influenced the entertainment industry”.
Last year the 31-year-old had a string of hits including Give Me Everything, Shake Senora and Rain Over Me.
Previous recipients of the award include Taylor Swift, Gloria Estefan and Willie Nelson.
Born in Florida to Cuban parents, Pitbull’s real name is Armando Christian Perez.
His music incorporates a wide range of genres, from reggae and hip-hop to dancehall and Miami bass.
Although his lyrics are often bilingual – in Spanish and English – he refuses to be pigeonholed by his background.
“I’m not a Latin rapper,” he told one interviewer at the start of his career. “I’m a rapper that happens to be Latin, you feel me?”
Pitbull hit number one in the UK last April with Give Me Everything, which went on to become the sixth best-selling single of the year.
His album, Planet Pit, went to number 11 later in the year.
The BMI (Broadcast Music Inc) Latin Awards take place on 30 March at the Encore Wynn in Las Vegas. |
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บทเรียน วิชาภาษาอังกฤษพื้นฐาน 5 