The world's largest comic convention is held in which city? The Saturday quiz
9 Dryden; Shadwell; Tate; Rowe; Eusden?10 Iqaluit; Yellowknife; Whitehorse?11 Button; Grecian; hawk; Nubian; Roman; snub?12 Bin (TV baking); blood (rugby); pizza (football); water (politics)?13 12 (20); 3 (6); 6 (3); 9 (11)?14 Bulbophyllum orchids; Rafflesia; Stapelia; titan arum?15 Wilhelmina; Juliana; Beatrix?
1 Antarctica (Esperanza Base).2 Twelve labours of Hercules/Heracles.3 OK boomer.4 Dickin medal (PDSA animal bravery award).5 Punjab.6 San Diego.7 John Lennon and Yoko Ono.8 Cuneiform.9 First five poets laureate.10 Capitals of Canadian territories: Nunavut; Northwest Territories; Yukon.11 Shapes of nose.12 Various '-gate' scandals.13 Clockface and corresponding dartboard numbers.14 So-called carrion flowers, with a smell like rotting flesh.15 Queens of the Netherlands (1890 to 2013).
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Scottish Sun
7 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Beautiful Croatian hilltop village that was used as a dupe for city of Nottingham in the Robin Hood movie
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ON the beautiful Istria peninsula is a tiny cobbled village that has doubled as the UK city of Nottingham. An hour away from the Croatian city of Pula is the pretty village of Završje, it sits on a hilltop, has winding streets and stone houses with terracotta rooftops. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Završje sits on a hilltop on the Istria peninsula Credit: Alamy 5 The village appeared in the 2018 adaptation of Robin Hood Credit: Alamy There are plenty of pretty hidden gems on the Istria peninsula, one of them being the Završje. The village is tiny, with the last population consensus in 2021 revealing that just 39 people lived there. More people might have seen it than first thought though, as in 2018 it appeared in a blockbuster movie. Završje stood in for 12th century Nottingham in the Robin Hood film starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx and Eve Hewson. The town's medieval look made it the ideal backdrop for the movie's scenes and were used for the end battle between Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Završje has its very own leaning tower - the church tower is 22 metres tall and leans about 40cm because of the unstable ground it was built on. Once you've had a walk around the tiny village, there's plenty more to do in Istria - the heart-shaped peninsula boasts incredible beaches, cities and historical sites. Its Ancient Roman buildings have led to many comparisons with Italy, and the city of Pula's Roman amphitheatre is the sixth largest in the world. It's also one of the best-preserved in the world with its outer walls and four side towers mostly intact. Tickets for entry to the Arena can be purchased at the main entrance - adults are €10 (£8.64) and students are €5 (£4.32). The sun-soaked Croatian island that's a secret a celeb hot spot 5 Pula's Roman amphitheatre is the sixth largest in the world Credit: Alamy 5 There are plenty of beautiful beaches on the peninsula Credit: Getty The best beaches on Tripadvisor in Istria include Fazana Beach, Cuvi Beach and Mulini Beach. One of the top attractions is the Punta Kamenjak National Park where you can go swimming and snorkelling. Essential spots to see include the Old Town, Baredine Cave, Port of Rovinj and Church of St Euphemia. Istria is also home to Croatia's largest waterpark Aquapark Porec Aquacolors. It boasts several huge waterslides, including the Freefall, a 48-metre long drop and Turbolance which features a steep drop, reverses and a splash pool, all while taking "crazy photos" of riders. However, there are also calmer rides for youngsters including family rafting slides. The park has a TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Award due to the number of positive ratings it has received. One visitor wrote: "Awesome place, so much fun and adrenaline. Would come again, definitely! Make sure you arrive early because there is so many slides you will want to try." Another person added: "The children's area was amazing! Our kids loved it!" You can fly direct from the UK to Pula Airport in just over two hours. Flights are with easyJet and Ryanair and start from £31. Discover more on Croatia including its largest island which has hilltop towns, sandy beaches and it's own airport. And the 'secret' pirate beach town on one of Europe's most popular coasts.
Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Daily Record
Roman shoppers race to bag 'flattering' sale dress that 'fits like a dream'
This versatile frock can also be carried through to wear on warm autumn days. Amidst another heatwave, there's no denying summer will be coming to a close soon. A positive will be all the end of season sales, with discounts across some of our favourite brands. Before autumn officially arrives, it's worth looking out for any versatile wardrobe items that can be carried through to warm autumn days such as this Abstract Print Shirred Midi Dress from Roman. Ideal for the current hot spell and the upcoming 'in between' season, this particular frock is on offer for 40 percent less at Debenhams, with the retailer slashing the cost from £42 to just £25. Falling to a trendy midi-length hemline, this frock has been crafted from a breezy woven material with an all-over black and white abstract pattern that makes it a "stylish statement" wardrobe item. Complimenting its cute design is the classic round neckline that can also be worn as a Bardot off the shoulders, alongside 3/4 length puff sleeves that add a touch of femininity to the overall aesthetic. Abstract Print Shirred Midi Dress £42 £25 Debenhams Buy here Product Description Another key feature that will impress many shoppers is the shirred waist that can provide a 'cinched' effect on the figure, with some buyers praising it as "flattering" and "comfy to wear." Available in sizes 10 through to 16, fashion fans can pair this sale frock with a pair of sandals during the remainder of the summer, but it would also suit being worn with a cardigan and ankle boots in autumn. New Look also offers a range of dresses with an abstract print for shoppers who like a standout item, with the Apricot Black Abstract Print Utility Midi Dress costing a rather budget friendly £20. Meanwhile, another similar style from the high street is White Stuff's Rua Jersey Midi Shirt Dress that features its own bold patterned design, with the price-tag cut from £65 to £52. It is worth mentioning that, while there are no reviews on Debenhams' website, the Roman dress has received a perfect five star rating on the fashion brand's website from pleased shoppers who say it is "easy to wear" and their "new favourite dress." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. One five-star review read: "Easy to wear dress. Dressed it up with black accessories and plan to wear it in warmer weather with white accessories. Comfortable flattering dress." A second glowing review read: "My new favourite dress. Fits like a dream, very comfy, flattering, I love love love it." Fashion deal of the week We might not want to admit it, but summer will soon be coming to an end. That means getting our wardrobe ready for the autumn season, and one affordable jumper from Next is already proving to be quite a hit with fashion fans who say that it has been "beautifully made." The firm is currently offering its Blue Stripe Layered Long Sleeve Collared Gold Detailed Button Jumper with Wool and 100 percent Cotton Shirt for £1.50 in its clearance sale. Described as 'effortlessly stylish', this blue striped number boasts a chic collared shirt underlay and a cosy 'soft touch' knit. The design also includes elegant gold-tone buttons on the shoulder and a neat collar, plus it's easy to care for being machine washable. Available in an array of colours and patterns, it can be bought in regular and petite sizes through X-Small to X-Large, though certain sizes are beginning to sell out. One satisfied customer shared: "I purchased this lovely shirt and jumper combination for a video interview, and I was really pleased with how it looked. "The bright white, soft cotton collar gives it a smart appearance and the jumper is made from a beautifully soft wool." The Blue Stripe Layered Jumper with Wool and Cotton Shirt is available for purchase from Next at a price of £19.50. It is worth noting that Roman's dress has not yet received any negative feedback from shoppers. However, on Trustpilot, while the retailer does boast a positive 4.6 rating, there has been some criticism for the quality of the materials. One such disappointed customer said: "Excellent service, quality of material poor." By comparison, someone who praised the quality in a positive review read: "Love the dress, fits perfectly, very versatile and good quality material.
Economist
3 days ago
- Economist
The largest dig in a lifetime is under way in Pompeii
Culture | Roman, not ruins What lies beneath the pumice in the ancient city is magnificent Was he her lover? The two skeletons, male and female, were clearly physically close when they died: she on a bed, he on the floor. Archaeology offers other hints. She seems to have been richer (or at least was carrying gold); they spent their last hours together (debris trapped them in the room); those hours were terrible (he, his injuries show, died first). Archaeology offers one final clue: their ages. She was in her 30s or 40s; he in his teens or early 20s. Perhaps they were lovers, or mother and child, or total strangers. Even at the distance of 2,000 years you find yourself hoping she did not watch her own son die. Welcome to Pompeii. This is the ancient city both as you have seen it before—graffiti, frescoes, tiles, toilets and some highly enviable terrazzo—and as you have never seen it before. The largest dig in 70 years is under way: 3,200 square metres have been uncovered and innumerable tonnes of soil, rubble and pumice have been moved. In them are, so far, three houses, a bathhouse, a fresco that looks so like a pizza that archaeologists call it the 'not-pizza' fresco, five human skeletons and, this being Pompeii, lots of phalluses. The dig feels faintly surprising, less for what is being found (little has been able to surprise archaeologists since Pompeii's infamous god-having-sex-with-a-goat statue was unearthed in 1752) than that there is anything left to be found at all. Pompeii feels so familiar: it has appeared in films ('POMPEII' in 2014) and fiction (Robert Harris's 'POMPEII') and non-fiction (Mary Beard's —guess what—'POMPEII'). In the three-odd centuries since excavations began, it has been used—and, critics say, abused—by almost every generation. It has been used as a stone quarry (nice stones) and a classical one (nice statues). It has been held up as a parable of sexual liberty (its frescoes); sexual immorality (that goat) and debauchery (ditto). It has been seen as a paradigm of civilisation (its plumbing) and barbarism (its slavery). Every generation has offered a reaction: Christians tutted at it; Mussolini had dinner in it; Professor Beard metaphorically winked at it. It is often called a 'lost city' but few cities have had such exposure per square metre. Its art is found on fridge magnets and its mosaics made into doormats. The city has been recast as a souvenir. So much of Pompeii is known that it is easy to forget how much is not known: one-third of Pompeii is still unexcavated. That is obvious once you look closely. Walk through the popular bits of Pompeii—past the theatre, amphitheatre and brothel—and keep going and you will find yourself in quieter streets with fewer people and more pigeons. There are shopfronts here too, but their windows open onto a wall of earth: nothing seems to be behind them. These are the undug streets. But, after an injection of EU cash, archaeologists started digging in 2023. The dig is 'complicated', says Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the site and author of 'The Buried City', a recent book. If you were to add an archaeologist to your novel, you would add Dr Zuchtriegel: German, handsome, he is fluent in three languages and mildly forbidding in all of them. (To cheer himself up, he reads the New Testament in ancient Greek.) Ask him his feelings on uncovering this stuff and he says 'nothing': you are just 'so concentrated'. The epigraph of his book comes from Herman Melville's diary: 'Pompeii like any other town. Same old humanity. All the same whether one be dead or alive.' To call this a 'dig' is to underplay the speed of it. Pompeii offers some of the finest archaeology in the world; it also offers some of the fastest. When Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, sending a cloud of ash 32km into the sky and surprising the locals—who not only did not know that Vesuvius was a volcano, but had no word for 'volcano'—what fell on Pompeii was not lava but pumice stones, so light that locals, as Pliny the Younger, a Roman writer watching from a nearby villa noted, 'tied pillows over their heads…for protection'. The stones kept falling at a rate of 15cm an hour. In three hours, they reached people's knees; in six, the height of a toddler. Most people fled—perhaps 90% escaped. Those who sheltered and stayed became, like the skeletons in the house, trapped. Their room, says Sophie Hay, an archaeologist, 'became their tomb'. Walls started to collapse under the weight (one killed the young man). Then the volcanic cloud collapsed and a wave of superheated pumice, gas and ash raced, at speeds of 100kph and temperatures of over 200°C, down the slope. In Pompeii, people suffocated. In Herculaneum, people's brains boiled. It is hard to imagine a more appalling end—or, for archaeologists, a better one. The grains of pumice beneath were so light and dry that they protected all they fell on; so easy to remove that archaeologists, says Dr Hay, call it 'Amazon packaging material'. You less excavate Pompeii than unbox it, brushing grey, frozen-foam crumbs of pumice from a fresco here and shovelling it out of a swimming pool there. In days columns start to emerge, inverse Excaliburs, from a slowly sinking lake of grey. The problem with Pompeii is not getting stuff out: it is keeping it upright once you have. The same pumice-pyroclastic one-two that caught bodies as if in freeze-frame—this one clawing at a throat, or that little boy writhing—caught buildings in the same way. A shattered column or wall mid-fall can be wholly held up by pumice. Take it away and, like a game of giant Jenga, the whole thing might fall. A cat's cradle of scaffolding winds its way around the walls (see picture on previous page). Dr Zuchtriegel likens digging to performing 'a complicated operation'. It has been worth it, as what has been found is breathtaking. That is partly because, like so much else in Pompeii, it is untouched by time and partly because, like very little else in Pompeii, it is untouched by archaeologists. Pompeii's relics have suffered as much from enthusiasts as eruptions. The Bourbons plundered Pompeii (you can still see the holes, cut as if by giant mice, in the walls). Napoleon's sister, Caroline, planned, with Napoleonic efficiency, to uncover it all in three years. Everyone has stolen from it. The new excavations, by contrast, are pristine. A bathhouse has such perfect curved steps on its plunge pool you could imagine slipping into it today. A nearby wall is painted with such rich pigment you might find it on a Farrow & Ball colour chart ('Cataclysmic Ochre'). Many of the houses are mid-refurbishment. In one, roof tiles sit stacked, ready, on the floor; a builder's plaster-splashed bucket waits by a wall. Archaeologists play a game—a Roman Rightmove—of which house is nicest: the not-pizza-fresco one? The baths one? It is a bit of fun. But there is a ghoulish guiltiness to ogling Pompeii. Posterity accuses the Bourbons of 'collector syndrome'—the urge to acquire antiquity. But, Dr Zuchtriegel suggests, tourists are guilty of it too, acquiring experiences as greedily as Bourbons snatched artefacts. Millions visit each year, sweating across its forum, smirking in the brothel where the audio guide tells you about 'la vie sexuelle de Pompéi' in nine languages. Dr Zuchtriegel has limited the daily number of visits to 20,000, down from 36,000. He would prefer people not to tick off lists but to look at one thing, carefully. Which thing? He shows a favourite: in a small house there are little charcoal drawings of some gladiators. When they first uncovered this last year, they thought it might have been a stylised adult's drawing. Then they dug further and found that the artist had, in their way, autographed it, drawing round their own hand in charcoal. To judge from the size of the hand, the artist must have been six or seven. When they see it, everyone does the same thing, Dr Zuchtriegel says: they stretch out their own hand to hold it over where the Pompeiian child put theirs. Same old humanity, whether one be dead or alive. Photographs: Danilo Scarpati
