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Are you wondering what are the best things to do in Vatican? I visited the Vatican a couple of times during my visit to Rome, Italy. The Vatican (The Holy See) is the centre of the Roman Catholic faith. I felt so privileged to have the opportunity to step and witness the beauty of this sacred place. I grew up in a Catholic family, and it is a dream come true to visit the Vatican city.

The Vatican has been an independent state ever since the Pope struck a deal with Mussolini in 1929, making it the smallest state in the world with a total land area of only 0.44 square kilometers. However, there are sufficient attractions and activities within its walls to keep tourists occupied for several days, which is why it is important to prioritize your sightseeing activities.

Therefore, I would like to share with you some of the more well-known attractions to the lesser-known gems, here is the definitive list of the best things to do in Vatican.

Best Things to Do in Vatican (The Holy See)

1. St. Peter’s Basilica

A visit to the Vatican won’t be complete without paying respect inside the St. Peter’s Basilica. The massive domes of the basilica are impossible to miss. The first time I saw St. Peter’s Basilica was bliss. The Vatican was one of my personal dream destinations to visit.

The magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica was constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries, replacing earlier structures that had begun in 326 on what is believed to be where St. Peter was buried. It is the focal point of the Vatican and one of the world’s best places to visit. Ironically, the sale of indulgences to finance this building in the 16th century prompted Martin Luther to begin the Protestant Reformation. These indulgences were sold to pay for the construction of this building.

The work of well-known artists can be seen even before a person steps inside the church. Bernini’s equestrian statue of Constantine and Giotto’s mosaic fragments can be found in the church’s portico, located just outside the main entrance. It was taken from the previously mentioned old church, along with the double bronze doors.

The enormous nave measures 185 meters in length and 46 meters in height, and it rises to a dome 119 meters above the ground. The nave has the capacity to hold more than 60,000 people. Examine it in comparison to the measurements marked on the floor of other significant churches. Behind the tempered glass to your right is Michelangelo’s famous Pietà, which the artist sculpted when he was only 24 years old.

Also located on the right is the ornate Chapel of the Sacrament, which features a tabernacle designed by Bernini and a bronze grille created by his rival Borromini.

The papal altar is located below the dome designed by Michelangelo and supported by four enormous pentagonal piers. Bernini designed a magnificent baroque bronze Baldacchino to cover the altar. The tomb of Saint Peter can be found down here. Bernini is also responsible for the bronze throne in the apse and is flanked by papal tombs. The right aisle contains the tombs of additional Popes.

You can climb 330 steep steps inside the dome to the lantern for a closer look at the dome’s structure and magnificent views over St. Peter’s Square. The stairs to the roof are located near the Baptistery (a lift is located outside near the Gregorian Chapel), and from there, you can access the roof. The Vatican Necropolis can be found underneath the church; it is the final resting place of several former Popes and is also rumoured to contain the remains of Saint Peter himself.

2. Vatican Museum

If you want to see the gems and treasures of the Vatican, then visiting the Vatican Museum is a must. I had a chance to visit the Vatican museum, I strongly suggest going early to avoid the long queues and big crowds. I also would like to highlight in dressing appropriately (no sleeveless, plunging necklines and shorts above the knee!) plus wearing your comfy shoes.

The Vatican Museums are undoubtedly one of the most significant draws to Vatican City. It was first established in the 16th century by Pope Julius II, and it is currently home to one of the most extensive art collections of any nation.

The Vatican Museum is home to a staggering fifty-four distinct collections housed within its walls. The Museums include works by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, ranging from paintings to sculptures and mosaics, covering an area equivalent to nine miles of masterpieces. It is estimated that the collection’s total value is greater than 15 billion euros. Therefore, it is most definitely a location that is worthy of one’s time to investigate further.

Some of the most well-known museums within the complex include the Gallery of the Maps, the Gallery of the Statues, the Vatican Historical Museum, and the Raphael Rooms. However, if you have the time, each museum is well worth your while; in many instances, this is a literal statement.

You should make it a point to see the Raphael frescos and the classical statuary in the Pio-Clementino Museum. Cortile della Biblioteca, Cortile della Pigna, and Cortile del Belvedere are the three breathtaking courtyards that can be found inside the building.

Walks of Italy offers tours that can be customized to meet visitors’ needs with various time constraints. These tours can take visitors on an in-depth journey through the Vatican or simply show them the highlights of the collections.

3. Sistine Chapel

I love visiting churches around the world and the Sistine chapel is probably one of my favourites. When I first stepped inside the Sistine Chapel, it felt like being transported to a big canvas of a magnificent work of art. This whole experience was something that I would treasure for a lifetime and memory. Unfortunately, photography is strictly forbidden inside the chapel.

The Sistine Chapel is a rectangular hall that was constructed by Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1484. It serves as the Pope’s domestic chapel and is also used for services and special occasions. The conclave to choose the next Pope is held here following the death of the current Pope.

The ceiling and wall frescoes by Michelangelo and others, which are regarded as the best examples of Renaissance art, underwent extensive restoration work between 1980 and 1994. This work involved removing layers of overpainting, varnish, grease, and candle soot to reveal the frescoes’ vibrant original colors.

Large frescoes depicting Biblical scenes against a backdrop of Umbrian and Tuscan scenery are painted on the side walls for Sixtus IV by the most renowned artists of the time, including Perugino, Botticelli, Rosselli, Pinturicchio, Signorelli, and Ghirlandaio. The concepts of humanism, which acknowledge people as unique individuals who play significant roles in history, are already evident in these paintings from the late fifteenth century. Scenes from the Old and New Testaments are displayed on the left and right walls, respectively.

Between 1508 and 1512, during the pontificate of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the frescoes on the ceiling almost entirely without the assistance of assistants. The ambitious plan of Michelangelo was to depict the Creation as it appears in the book of Genesis, starting with God dividing light from darkness, creating the sun and moon, dividing land from the sea, creating Adam and then Eve, and continuing through the story of Noah.

The prophets and sibyls are depicted as enormous figures below in the vaulting. The large fresco on the altar wall, which depicts the Last Judgment, the conclusion of the world’s story, was started by Michelangelo in 1534. It ranks as one of the pinnacles of European painting due to its dramatic presentation and artistic skill.

4. Gardens of Vatican City

In the 13th century, Pope Nicholas II commissioned the construction of the first sections of what would later become the Vatican Gardens in order to provide a place for quiet meditation. The landscaped gardens, grassy spaces, and orchards have grown to cover nearly one-half of the area of the tiny city-state and compete with some of the most beautiful gardens in Italy over the course of the past few centuries.

The Vatican Gardens are a tranquil haven in the middle of the hustling and bustling Vatican City. The gardens are designed in three different styles: Italian, English, and French.

In addition to the formal French Garden, visitors will discover a large number of individually potted plants along the paths. These plants, which contain stunning azaleas and other lush flowers, are scattered throughout the garden. A number of uncommon trees, such as an Australian silk-oak, as well as a significant number of trees that were brought as presents by official visitors have been planted among these and in the adjacent orchard.

Olive trees were given to Pope Francis by the state of Israel as a gift to symbolize peaceful relations with the head of the Catholic Church. Of all of these trees, the olive tree may be the one with the most historical significance.

5. Apostolic Palace

The Apostolic Palace serves as the official residence of whichever pope is currently in office. Located in the northeastern part of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in close proximity to the Palace of Gregory XIII and the Bastion of Nicholas V.

The building’s origins can be traced all the way back to the 16th century. It is also referred to as the Vatican Palace, and it houses a number of papal apartments, various offices of the Catholic Church government, the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library, the Vatican Observatory, as well as a number of private and public chapels.

Approximately one thousand rooms can be found within the palace. The Sistine Chapel and the rooms that Raphael worked in are both located in this area.

In addition to serving as the official residence of the Pope, the Apostolic Palace is home to a number of administrative offices that are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Vatican State. The fact that the Pope’s residence has been turned into a tourist attraction in Rome is probably the aspect of the building that is most significant.

The numerous gardens, fishponds, interesting museums, and natural conservatories, to name a few, are among the few notable features that the Palace is known for, and it is a location that should be explored because of this reputation. The palace is also known as the Papal Palace, the Vatican Palace, the Vatican Palace, and the Palace of the Vatican. Another name for the palace is the Palace of the Vatican.

6. Vatican Necropolis

A treasury of archaeological finds is waiting to be discovered beneath the magnificent dome and priceless frescoes of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Many people are familiar with the papal grottoes that are located just beneath the cathedral. Within these grottoes, former Popes are entombed in private chapels, and they are accompanied by a church that was built in the 12th century.

Some people are unaware that there are extensive ruins that have been excavated even further in the earth below, revealing burial grounds that date back to as early as the first century BCE. The level that is the deepest of the three contains a pagan burial site, and the level that is the next level up from that contains both pagan and Christian graves, in addition to ruins including stone crypts and arches that date back to the 5th century.

The Vatican Necropolis, also known as the City of the Dead, is located beneath the Vatican and is home to a number of historic tombs and mausoleums that have been kept secret for many years.

However, the most important discovery is a gravesite that is thought to contain the remains of Saint Peter himself, a relic that the Vatican is continuing to excavate with painstaking care. This discovery is taking place at the Vatican. It is highly recommended that tourists book a pre-arranged private tour of the Vatican necropolis in order to ensure admission.

There is a daily cap on the number of tourists who are permitted to visit, and tickets must normally be purchased directly from the Vatican Excavations Office.

7. St. Peter’s Square

Between 1656 and 1667, Bernini designed the opulent Piazza San Pietro in front of St. Peter’s Basilica to serve as a venue for the worldwide faithful to congregate. It still does an excellent job of fulfilling that function and is completely packed on Easter Sunday and other significant days.

The large oval space is 372 meters long and is surrounded by semicircular colonnades at either end. A balustrade with 140 saint statues adorns the top of the colonnades. A 25.5-meter Egyptian obelisk that was brought from Heliopolis and placed in the center of the oval by Caligula in AD 39 is surrounded by fountains on either side. Since the monument weighs 350 tons, moving it here in 1586 was no easy task.

However, the basilica’s facade draws attention because it is from its central balcony that the Pope issues blessings and announces beatifications and canonizations. The senior cardinal of the College of Cardinals also announces the name of the new Pope chosen by the conclave from this location.

A 40-meter-tall Egyptian obelisk stands in the middle of St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Pope Sixtus V ordered the placement of this obelisk on the square in around 1586. It is also known as the memorial needle or Obelisco Piazza San Pietro Città del Vaticano and has a colorful past.

The obelisk at St. Peter’s Square is the only ancient obelisk in the city that has survived since ancient times, despite the fact that there are many other Best Things to Do in Rome Italy, and obelisks to visit.

It is incredible to consider that this monument, which was carved out of red granite, was first built in Heliopolis, which is now a suburb of Cairo, more than 4,000 years ago.

(CNN) — Frozen custard and burger chain Culver’s is switching from Pepsi products to Coca-Cola — and Pepsi fans are not happy.

“This is in progress and will take time as our nearly 900 restaurants located in 26 states make the switch,” the Wisconsin-founded chain said in a statement, adding that its signature root beer, Dr. Pepper, as well as its sweet and unsweeteened teas will remain unchanged.

The chain is known for its ButterBurger — a toasted, buttered bun sandwiching a “never-frozen” beef burger — as well as its cheese curds and Bacon Deluxe, which comes with two strips of bacon, two burgers, two slices of cheese, tomato, lettuce and red onion.

Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist and Tropicana drinks are giving way to Coca-Cola products.

Fans of the chain, particularly in the Midwest, are furious about the change, which is now reflected in pictures on its website and also in hundreds of angry comments flooding Culver’s Facebook page.

“I cannot believe Culver’s is switching from Pepsi to Coke,” one commenter said. “It’s always been my all-time favorite place to eat. This is totally ruining it for me.”

“Switching to COKE?,” said another. “Come on!”

Others celebrate the change.

“Unpopular Midwestern Opinion: I, for one, am stoked that Culver’s is switching from Pepsi to Coke products,” one user tweeted.

During the first nine months of 2022, Coca-Cola held about 40% of the US retail market share by volume, followed by PepsiCo with about 29%, according to Beverage Digest data.

You may have heard of the Bombardier beetle since they have a rather interesting ability. Or as National Geographic (cited below) puts it, “the infamous ability to synthesize and release rapid bursts of stinky, burning-hot liquid from their rear ends.”

Tell me more about the bombardier beetle!

There are actually over 500 species of bombardier beetle (and about 40 in the US alone). These creatures live in many different types of ecosystems. The boiling hot chemicals they can shoot out of their rears as a defense mechanism can reach temperatures up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. And the beetle can shoot the spray multiple times in quick succession. The spray can also produce a loud popping noise as it is released, adding an extra deterrent.

The details are even more fascinating.

In the bombardier beetle, special cells produce hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide which then collect in a reservoir. In order to spray, the beetle has to open a valve controlled by a muscle in order to release the chemicals into a separate “reaction chamber.” This chamber is lined with cells that catalyze the chemical reaction that makes the compounds hazardous to the beetle’s predators.

The catalases and peroxidases lining the chamber also aid in the reaction that generates enough heat to bring the mixture to the boiling point (though some of it becomes vapor). The pressure created by the gases closes the valve and expels the chemicals at high speed. Amazing, right?!

Should I be afraid of this creature?

People don’t need to be afraid of the bombardier beetle. They’re too small to hurt humans (about the size of a fingernail), and they don’t go around indiscriminately spraying. They use that function only as a defense mechanism against predators.

Bombardier beetles usually keep to wooded areas and fields and don’t roam around places with lots of humans. They typically have dark abdomens and reddish legs, antennae, and heads, in case you want to keep an eye out.

How on Earth did this beetle feature evolve?

Funny you should ask. Some creationists like to use the bombardier beetle’s two-chamber system as an example of their theory of irreducible complexity. They insist that since the beetle’s defense mechanism wouldn’t operate without two complex parts, they could not have evolved via small modifications and are therefore a product of “intelligent design.”

Most of the creationist rhetoric masquerading as science gives an incomplete or sloppy description of the beetle’s inner workings.

In fact, a step-by-step evolution of the beetle is pretty straightforward (even if it does seem weird to us). The beetle likely developed its ability to secrete chemicals as a defense mechanism that was released via the epidermis to make it distasteful to predators. While the steps in between are all hypothetical since we didn’t see the creature evolve, the development of the beetle we know now is easily broken down into tiny evolutionary steps we’ve seen in other species.

You’ve got to wonder why a creationist would assume God created this beetle specifically to shoot chemicals out its rear end. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Bombardier beetles” — National Geographic

Related

AP– As kids’ behavior reaches crisis points after the stress and isolation of pandemic shutdowns, many schools are facing pressure from critics to rethink their approaches to discipline — including policies intended to reduce suspensions and expulsions.

Approaches such as “restorative justice” were adopted widely in recent decades as educators updated exclusionary policies that cut off students’ access to learning and disproportionately affected students of color.

But more students have been acting out, and some school systems have faced questions from teachers, parents and lawmakers about whether a gentle approach can effectively address problems that disrupt classrooms.

The latest example came this week in Newport News, Virginia, where teachers complained at a school board meeting that the school system where a 6-year-old shot his teacher had become too lenient with students. Students who assaulted staff were routinely allowed to stay in the classroom, they said, because of a misguided focus on keeping them in school.

The local school board said it would take “the necessary steps to restore public confidence” in the school system.

Both anecdotally and according to federal data, instances of misbehavior have been on the rise since students returned to classrooms from the COVID-19 pandemic. A National Center for Education Statistics survey of school leaders last summer found 56% of respondents said the pandemic led to increased classroom disruptions from student misbehavior and 48% said it led to more acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff.

New scrutiny of approaches to discipline could halt momentum for policy reform, said Rachel Perera, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies education.

“There’s a lot of pressure on schools right now,” she said. “Schools also say they don’t have the resources to address more behavioral problems, and I worry that that will translate to schools falling back on old practices that are not effective in terms of supporting students in the way they need.”

Policy reversals are already underway. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, the school board approved the use of a “restorative practices” program in August that was meant to focus on conflict resolution, repairing harm and rebuilding relationships in the classroom. But the district paused the program in December, with plans to restart it in the 2023-2024 school year, after concerns were raised over incidents in school, including a video of a student assaulting a teacher at a high school.

In Clark County, Nevada, district leaders announced in March that they would take a harder line on fighting and physical altercations, saying they would be grounds for expulsion. Some in the community had blamed a “restorative justice” approach for an increase in violence.

As of 2020, 21 states and the District of Columbia had passed legislation supporting the use of restorative practices in schools, according to research from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality.

Implementing the practice properly takes time, resources, and community support, said Rebecca Epstein, the center’s executive director.

“Change is hard,” Epstein said. “Change takes work and it also takes resources and educators are spread really thin. It can’t be up to individual teachers alone to shift the culture of automatically resorting to excluding students in response to disruptive behavior. It really takes a whole school cultural shift.”

Using restorative justice does not mean a school cannot remove a disruptive student from the classroom, said Thalia González, a professor at the UC College of the Law, San Francisco. But unlike other forms of discipline, restorative practices aim to address the root cause of student’s behavior and reintegrated them into classroom.

“That’s the problem with punitive discipline such as suspension and expulsion,” Gonzalez said. “You get removed and then you just come back. There’s nothing done to reintegrate into the community and rebuild the climate, the connectedness, the sense of safety, all the things that we know are so important to young people learning.”

Traditional discipline has widened inequities. Black children often are suspended or expelled at rates far higher than white children. Research has found that these discipline disparities can have lifelong consequences for children, such as worsened educational outcomes and higher rates of incarceration.

Newport News has its own history with restorative justice.

At a school board meeting in 2017 district officials discussed efforts to reduce school suspensions while implementing restorative practices. Tracy Pope, then the school system’s restorative practices specialist, said at the time that such practices did not do away with anything already in place, but was rather “another way to look at how we do discipline.”

Well before the Jan. 6 shooting of a first-grade teacher, not all educators were happy with the handling of student discipline. According to a spring 2022 survey of teachers and staff, only 60% of respondents said administrators were addressing negative student behaviors.

Michelle Price, a spokesperson for the Newport News schools, said in an email that the district’s code of conduct “fosters the school division’s mission to ensure all students graduate ‘citizen-ready.’

“It provides guidance for students, families, and staff, and details the many options available to NNPS staff to address student conduct,” she said.

In 2016, Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel, but he suffered a brain injury that rendered him comatose immediately after his trial — and he died without ever telling his side of the story.

Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old commerce and economics major at the University of Virginia, wanted to go on an adventure before his life became a never-ending stream of banking spreadsheets. So before heading to a semester abroad in Hong Kong, he decided to take a trip to North Korea — a decision that tragically altered the course of his life.

The U.S. State Department advised against the journey, and Warmbier’s parents didn’t love the idea, either. But Warmbier was an intelligent young man, a math whiz and a star athlete who had been the salutatorian, homecoming king, and prom king of his Ohio high school. As his mother later said, “Why would you say no to a kid like this?”

Unfortunately, Warmbier’s adventure turned into a nightmare when he was detained by North Korean authorities who accused him of committing a “hostile act against the state.” The crime? Allegedly stealing a propaganda poster.

The 17 months that followed were nothing short of harrowing, but when Otto Warmbier returned home, the true horrors of his imprisonment were revealed: He was in a coma with severe brain damage, and his health was rapidly declining. He died within a week.

To this day, no one knows what really happened to Otto Warmbier while he was being held in North Korea, but his family firmly believes his death was the result of “awful, torturous treatment.”

The Impressive Life Of Otto Warmbier

Otto Warmbier was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on Dec. 12, 1994, the eldest child of Fred and Cindy Warmbier. According to GQ, Warmbier was a well-rounded youth, graduating as the salutatorian of his class and showing prowess as a swimmer and a soccer player.

He was awarded the titles of both homecoming and prom king at Wyoming High School, which wasn’t surprising considering his “athletic prowess, classic good looks, and unending charisma,” as a classmate later wrote of him in the Post Independent. “But Otto still felt like everyone’s friend in our small town of Wyoming, Ohio, given his nondiscriminatory friendliness.”

During his salutatorian speech at his high school graduation, Warmbier found himself at a loss for words. He kept things simple, opting to quote The Office: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

After high school, Warmbier earned a scholarship to the University of Virginia. He was known to be studious and meticulous, and he even joined a fraternity full of “kind of nerdy dudes.” His friends said he put his studies and his family above everything else.

At the end of 2015, Warmbier was preparing to study abroad in Hong Kong the following spring — but he wanted to go on an adventure first. The college junior soon learned about Young Pioneer Tours, a Chinese company that advertised “budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from,” according to The New York Times. He signed up for a five-day, four-night “New Year’s Party Tour” to North Korea, and in late December, he boarded a plane to Pyongyang.

Upon their arrival, Warmbier and the other members of his tour group had their cameras confiscated and their smartphones searched for materials that could be considered “subversive” to the North Korean government — and then they entered one of the most repressive countries on Earth.

Otto Warmbier’s Shocking Arrest In North Korea

Warmbier’s roommate during the tour was a British man named Danny Gratton. “From the second I met him we hit it off,” Gratton later told BBC. “He was very bright, intelligent, and likable.”

The Young Pioneers were situated in a hotel commonly known as the “Alcatraz of Fun.” It sits on an island off the mainland and features five restaurants, a bar, a sauna, a massage parlor, and a bowling alley.

After a New Year’s Eve celebration held in Pyongyang’s main square, the group returned to their isolated hotel. Some headed to the bar, while others, like Gratton, went to the bowling alley. He later recalled that there was a “two-hour window” where nobody could account for Warmbier, but when Gratton got back to their shared room around 4:30 a.m., he found Warmbier sound asleep.

However, authorities had just captured grainy CCTV footage of some unidentifiable person tearing down a propaganda poster in a restricted area of the hotel — and they blamed Otto Warmbier. On Jan. 2, 2016, as the Young Pioneers went through immigration control at Pyongyang before boarding their plane back to China, North Korean officials tapped Warmbier on the shoulder and led him away.

“I made an ironic comment,” Gratton recalled. “I actually said, ‘Well, we won’t be seeing you again.’ He sort of laughed at me, and that was the last we saw of him.”

The ‘Confession,’ Confinement, And Death Of Otto Warmbier

Back in America, Warmbier’s parents had no idea what had happened to their son. He should have been gone for less than a week — but it wasn’t until late January that the North Korean government confirmed they had arrested Warmbier.

A month later, Otto Warmbier made his television debut.

Standing in front of two oversized portraits of North Korean “supreme leaders” Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, Warmbier spoke to the cameras and thanked the North Korean government for the “opportunity to apologize for my crime, to beg for forgiveness, and to beg for any assistance to save my life.”

Dressed in a suit and fighting back tears, Warmbier said he attempted to steal the propaganda poster as a “trophy” for a Methodist church back home to “harm the work ethic and motivation of the Korean people.”

Eventually, he could no longer hold the tears back. “I have made the single worst decision of my life,” he cried, “but I am only human.”

Of course, the story Warmbier told during the broadcast was littered with inconsistencies. For instance, Warmbier was Jewish and had no affiliation with a Methodist church. This led many to suspect that the words he spoke weren’t his own.

Regardless, in March 2016, the North Korean government sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state. Meanwhile, a campaign back in the United States pushed for Warmbier’s return.

It took more than a year, but a delegation of American officials finally brought the young student home in June 2017. Unfortunately, the occasion was anything but happy.

According to Daniel Kanter, one of the doctors who looked after Warmbier, he returned in “a state of unresponsive wakefulness.” He was unable to speak, but he showed “spontaneous eye opening and blinking.” According to the nurses who had cared for him in North Korea, Warmbier had been comatose since the day after his trial in March 2016. He’d never even made it to the labor camp.

Naturally, North Korea denied allegations that they had abused Warmbier in any way. Officials claimed that Warmbier had contracted botulism and suffered an allergic reaction to a medication. He died on June 19, 2017, surrounded by his family in the hospital.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier never believed North Korea’s story. They firmly believed that their son had been physically tortured while in prison. However, a medical examination found no signs that Warmbier had been beaten, noting that he’d fallen into a coma after suffering from a lack of blood and oxygen to his brain — potentially due to cardiopulmonary arrest.

It’s unlikely that the truth about Otto Warmbier’s suspicious arrest, trial, and death will ever be uncovered. “We don’t know what happened to him,” said coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, “and that’s the bottom line.”

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After learning about the tragic fate of Otto Warmbier, read the story of Lauren Spierer, another college student who vanished without a trace. Or, discover 46 facts about North Korea.

The world’s biggest pest-control group is planning to eliminate rats through the use of facial recognition, with trials now taking place in people’s homes.

The software – which Rentokil began developing 18 months ago alongside Vodafone – tracks rodents’ habits to help decide how to kill them.

Following laboratory trials, which helped the software learn about the creatures, it has now been used in real-life settings.

Rentokil says rodents are thought to be responsible for more deaths than all the wars over the last 1,000 years.

Andy Ransom, chief executive, told the Financial Times: “With facial recognition technology you can see that rat number one behaved differently from rat number three.

“And the technology will always identify which rat has come back, where are they feeding, where are they sleeping, who’s causing the damage, which part of the building are they coming from, where are they getting into the building from, whether it’s the same rodent that caused the problem last week.”

To develop the technology, Rentokil observed the rats in a controlled setting, with cameras monitoring behaviour and feeding this into the AI system.

This used machine learning to build the recognition capabilities.

It has since moved on to pilot programmes in customer’s houses to test the technology, and while it remains at early stages, the company hopes it will make pest control more effective and efficient.

Rentokil has been developing facial recognition for several years but it has moved a step further forward following the acquisition of an Israeli company.