For sale: water-tank castle

If you're in New Zealand and want to have the coolest playhouse/LARP-prop south of the equator, this Trademe ad is offering a concrete water-tank converted to a castle for a surprisingly reasonable $500 (you have to pay to move it, though).

This one off creation from an old concrete water tank makes a unique playhouse.
Downstairs dungeon with gate.
Ladder leads to timber & ply 1st. floor.
Painted roof to form turrets.
Perspex windows.
Pictures do not do it justice.

Castle Playhouse

 

Archaeologists Find Remains Of Previously Unknown Pharaoh In Egypt

The 3,600-year-old remains of a forgotten pharaoh unearthed this month in southern Egypt may be the first of several significant discoveries in a previously ignored burial ground that rivals the Valley of the Kings.

The discovery of King Woseribre Senebkay is the first firm evidence of a pharaonic dynasty whose existence archaeologists had suspected but never proved. About 20 previously undiscovered pharaohs may lie near Senebkay's tomb.

Our Global Village

The World Of 100

What the world would look like if it were a village of 100 people. From data visualization to infographics, we're big on the power of smart graphic design to covey big concepts that are otherwise hard to grasp in their raw numberness.

Designer Toby Ng's poster series 'The World of 100' is an experimental graphical representation of statistical information about the world, based on the allegorical scenario of reducing the world to a village of 100 people.

Monster surf hits Hawaii

Surfer Cole Clisby rides his surfboard off the top of a wave as the sun sets off the shores of Leucadia, Calif., January 15, 2014.
Monster swells hitting Hawaii this week are due to reach California shores soon, creating waves that may reach nearly 20 feet at some spots.

Some of the biggest surf in decades is pounding the North and West shores of Oahu and other Hawaiian islands this week. A high surf warning remains in effect, and waves of up to 40 feet are expected on some beaches today.
The famed Eddie surf invitational is a no-go because while the waves are higher than 35 feet at Waimea, the winds make surf conditions undesirable. At Jaws, or Peahi, on Maui -- 50 foot waves. I have never witnessed this in person, and I'm not there at this time, but my surfer buds say the earth shakes beneath your feet when you're on the beach. The waves are also making some coastal roads impassable, and threatening homes. The swell will hit California next, creating 10-19 foot waves along some popular surf spots.

Daily Comic Relief

Police doubt aggressive chicken attacked woman

A woman says an aggressive chicken attacked her in Tracy, California, but police are skeptical about her claim.

The woman told police the chicken scratched her as she walked passed it near Third Street and Central Avenue.

However, police say there are inconsistencies with her story, which include her address and why she waited a day to report the attack.
Police say the woman hung up on them when they called her back.

The road to extinction is paved with good intentions

In trying to save an endangered species of robin, scientists began moving eggs laid perilously close to the edge of nests. The problem: Natural selection. Without the negative pressure of losing those eggs, more and more eggs are being laid on the edge and an attempt to save a species could help undermine it.

Arthritic wombat given rare life-saving hip replacement surgery

A female wombat called Wanda is recovering at Adelaide Zoo's Animal Health Centre after undergoing hip replacement surgery.

It is the first time the operation has been performed on animal of her size.
At 22, Wanda is in her twilight years and had developed debilitating arthritis in her hip.

YouTube link.

She had stopped using one leg and needed a step to get into her nest. Vets decided surgery was the only option to save her life. Wanda is expected to make a full recovery.

Pigs have faces censored in Malaysian edition of International New York Times

Seemingly innocuous photographs of pigs on the front and inside pages of The International New York Times (NYT) were censored in the Malaysian edition of the paper.

A front page story featured a picture of piglets standing in the snow, but the printers of the Malaysian edition, KHL Printing Co, had blacked-out the faces of each animal.

A continuation of the story about rising demand for pigs reared in the open on page 19 of the paper was given the same treatment, with the faces of two adult pigs blacked-out. A representative from the printing company based in Shah Alam said that pictures of pigs are not allowed in a Muslim country like Malaysia.

“From last time also we do this. If there is picture of nudes or like this we will cover. This is a Muslim country,” the spokesman said when asked why the faces of the pigs had been censored. He added that the printing firm had not received express instructions from the authorities to censor the pictures.

A Ghost Ship Full of Cannibal Rats

An abandoned cruise ship has been floating in international waters for months, since it came loose in a storm while being towed off the coast of Newfoundland. The company that intended to sell the Lyubov Orlova for scrap, Transport Canada, wrote the ship off after it determined that the ship “no longer poses a threat to the safety of [Canadian] offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine environment.” But now it is feared that the drifting ship may be nearing the UK.

Two signals were picked up on the 12 and 23 March last year, presumably from lifeboats which fell away and hit the water, showing the vessel had made it two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic and was heading east.

A week later, an unidentified object of about the right size was spotted on radar just off the coast of Scotland – but search planes never verified the find.

Pim de Rhoodes, a Belgian salvage hunter who is among a number looking for the Lyubov Orlova off the UK coastline, told The Sun: “She is floating around out there somewhere.

“There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other. If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison.”

The head of the Irish coastguard, Chris Reynolds, said the ship was more likely than not to still pose a threat.

Rats eating each other? The most reasonable response I can think of is KILL IT WITH FIRE! Or nuke it from space -it's the only way to be sure. Read about the Lyubov Orlova at The Independent. -

Manatees on ice

When the polar vortex brought freezing temperatures to Florida earlier this month, the state's manatee population had to figure out how to survive. Despite their "sea cow" nickname and appearance, manatees don't have a lot of insulating fat on their bodies. If the water temperature dips below 68 degrees F for very long, they can get sick and die.
The solution: Manatees gather together in water that maintains its temperature year round, like this naturally hot pool at Florida's Blue Springs. The record for greatest number of huddled manatees is 567, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Besides natural springs, they also like the outflow from power plants. A coal-fired plant like the Big Bend Power Station near Tampa Bay uses quite a bit of water — coal is burned to heat water that turns into steam, which turns the electric turbines. The steam then cools a bit and turns back into water and is discharged from the power plant, still warm from its journey. The discharge makes a perfect environment for chilly manatees.

Time to coo over baby animals who aren't charismatic megafauna

Kaup's Caecilians are worm-like amphibians native to tropical regions. Unlike frogs, however, these amphibians give birth to live young. No eggs required. The really crazy thing here is that, instead of using a placenta to transfer oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the babies, Kaup's Caecilians seem to use an organ that looks very much like detachable gills. Babies are born with these gill sacs and then discard them after birth.

Video Link

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

The Pipes Are Calling  ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Celebrate being Scottish  ... !

Today is - Robert Burns Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Pikangikum, Saint John's, Templeton, Britannia, Thunder Bay, Joliette, Byward Market, Vancouver, Kitchener and Sioux Lookout, Canada

Quito, Ecuador

La Paz, Bolivia

Slodotna, Tustin, Kennewick, Ypsilanti, Tupelo and Nutley, United States

Concepcion, Chile

Lima, Peru

Mexico City, Mexico

Europe

Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk, Russia

Madrid, Basauri and Barcelona, Spain

Warsaw, Poland

Reykjavik, Iceland

Douglas, Scotland

Boulogne-Billancourt, Roubaix, Saint-Amand and Rouen, France

Utrecht, Netherlands

Osmaniye and Ankara, Turkey

Ivrea, Milan, Italy

Dublin, Ireland

Sulzbach, Bornheim and Rothe Erde, Germany

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Stockholm, Sweden

Varna, Ruse, Bulgaria

Zhovti Vody, Ukraine

Lucenec, Slovakia

Copenhagen, Denmark

Oslo, Norway

Palmela and Viseu, Portugal

Flash, England

Asia 

Riyadh and Al Qaysumah, Suadi Arabia

Beijing and Nanchang, China

Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Cimahi, Bangalore, Shimla, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, India

Port Louis, Mauritius

Bangkok, Thailand

Kuala Lumpur, Sungai Ara, Sentul, Taiping, Ipoh, Sibu and Seremban, Malaysia

Baghdad, Iraq

Islamabad, Pakistan

Rangoon and Pyinmana, Burma

Beirut, Lebanon

Tehran and Shiraz, Iran

Hanoi, Vietnam

Pontianak, Indonesia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Muscat, Oman

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Africa 

Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, South Africa

Abidjan, Cote D' Ivoire

Gaborone, Botswana

Algiers, Algeria

Al Jizah and Cairo, Egypt

Pacific

Homebush, Surrey Hills, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia

Sampaloc, Quezon City, Cebu City and Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Today in History

1533		Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn.
1787		Small farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, revolt against tax laws. Federal troops break up the protesters of what becomes known as Shay's Rebellion.
1846		The dreaded Corn Laws, which taxed imported oats, wheat and barley, are repealed by the British Parliament.
1904		Two-hundred coal miners are trapped in their Pennsylvania mine after an explosion.
1915		Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Thomas Watson in San Francisco make a record telephone transmission.
1918		Austria and Germany reject U.S. peace proposals.
1919		The League of Nations plan is adopted by the Allies.
1929		Members of the New York Stock Exchange ask for an additional 275 seats.
1930		New York police rout a Communist rally at the Town Hall.
1943		The last German airfield in Stalingrad is captured by the Red Army.
1949		Axis Sally, who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stands trial in the United States for war crimes.
1951		The U.S. Eighth Army in Korea launches Operation Thunderbolt, a counter attack to push the Chinese Army north of the Han River.
1955		Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock that is accurate to within one second in 300 years.
1956		Khrushchev says that he believes that Eisenhower is sincere in his efforts to abolish war.
1959		American Airlines begins its first coast-to-coast flight service on a Boeing 707.
1972		Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress, announces candidacy for president.
1972		Nixon airs the eight-point peace plan for Vietnam, asking for POW release in return for withdrawal.
1984		President Reagan endorses the development of the first U.S. permanently-manned space station.

Non Sequitur

Photos from the set of A Clockwork Orange

Here's a roundup of candid on-set photos from 1971's Stanley Kubrick movie A Clockwork Orange.

Behind-the-scenes of ‘A Clockwork Orange’: Stanley Kubrick and his Droogie buddies 

Did you know ...

That the corporate tax rate should be doubled - not eliminated

1 down, 49 to go - Koch bros. leave New Mexico

That  red states collect more federal aid than blue states

That shotgun weddings are on the decline

Governor Ultrasound Gets Ultra Indicted As Bob McDonnell Is Hit With 14 Counts

On Tuesday afternoon, Bob McDonnell and his wife were indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from gifts they had accepted while McDonnell was in office. The former repugican Governor of Virginia, McDonnell just recently left office after serving his single term (Virginia only allows one term for a Governor.) The scandal had been plaguing McDonnell for months to the point that he was a detriment to Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign, his hand-picked successor.
Among the 14 counts that McDonnell and his wife are charged with are three counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of lying to a federal credit union and multiple counts of obtaining property under color of official right. The indictment states that McDonnell and his wife received at least $140,000 worth of gifts, which included a Rolex, expensive designer clothes and golf clubs, among other things.
Obviously, McDonnell denied any wrongdoing whatsoever. After the indictment came down, the former Governor had this to say:

“I deeply regret accepting legal gifts and loans from Mr. Williams, all of which have been repaid with interest, and I have apologized for my poor judgment for which I take full responsibility. However, I repeat emphatically that I did nothing illegal for Mr. Williams in exchange for what I believed was his personal generosity and friendship.”

McDonnell has insisted that the gifts and ‘loans’ that he received from Johnnie Williams, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, were only received as a friend, and that Williams received nothing in return for his generosity to the McDonnells. McDonnell has stated that he has repaid Mr. Williams all the money that Williams ‘lent’ to him, as well as gave him back the gifts.
Even if McDonnell can somehow avoid jail time or a guilty verdict, his political career is pretty much toast. At one time, he was looked at as a rising star in the repugican cabal, as he was being groomed for a potential run at the Presidency. He easily won election in 2009 as Governor of Virginia when he defeated Creigh Deeds by 18 points. This was after serving as the Attorney General of Virginia.
However, things started getting sour for McDonnell even before the corruption allegations as, in 2012, he advocated for a measure that would require women who were seeking an abortion to submit to a trans-vaginal ultrasound. Many critics saw this as a way for wingnuts to shame women if they chose to have an abortion. The bill was changed prior to passage to require an abdominal ultrasound be done prior to an abortion being performed. Regardless, it was still seen as both intrusive and unnecessary and McDonnell started to see his approval ratings plummet.
By the middle of 2013, McDonnell and his family were plagued by allegations of improper spending at the Governor’s mansion. McDonnell paid the state back thousands of dollars to try to put it away, but by that time, the bigger scandal was starting to brew, as the word was out that McDonnell was using his position to straight up accept gifts and money in return for government favors.
Bye bye, Bob. It was nice knowing you. (Not really.)

Evidence Is Building to Support Hoboken Mayor’s Christie Sandy Aid Allegations

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and this picture is one that repugican Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) probably wishes had not been unearthed today. The Newark Star-Ledger newspaper was first in line to republish the photo (courtesy of Daytop NJ) of a September 26, 2013 meeting between the Governor, his wife, and Leslie Smith.

Smith is the executive vice president of the Rockefeller Group. The same Leslie Smith who has donated to Christie’s campaign and the same Rockefeller Group that is at the center of the allegations made by Mayor Dawn Zimmer, of Hoboken New Jersey.
But associations don’t translate to guilt. We leave that to the “pallin’ around with terrorists” types. The goal here should be the facts. To that end, Christopher Baxter of the Star Ledger reports, “The Rockefeller Group at the time was represented by Wolff & Samson, the law firm of David Samson, a former state attorney general and close Christie ally who also serves as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”
Samson, a huge behind the scenes power broker, is a Christie appointee, in fact. Smith has donated to two of Christie’s campaigns and to his 2010 inaugural committee. Smith also leads the Rockefeller Group’s developments in New Jersey.
Why does this matter? Because last weekend, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer made stunning allegations on MSNBC that the Christie administration had threatened to make her town’s Sandy Aid contingent upon allowing the Rockefeller Group to develop a specific area that the residents had been objecting to.
Zimmer met with U.S. Attorney’s office last Sunday, at their request, just a day after her allegations. She provided them with documents to back up her claims, including her diary.
I noted at the time that if indeed Hoboken, one of the areas that got hit the hardest, had not gotten that aid, the Christie administration would have some explaining to do. It turns out that the not only did they not get the aid they should have, but Brian Murphy, a TPM reporter from New Jersey, explained that tremendous pressure was brought to down upon Hoboken to move forward with the Rockefeller Group’s development. He opined, “And the Hoboken story clearly demonstrates the Christie administration took steps to aid the material interest of a client of the chairman of that agency.”
Murphy did the math, “Hoboken received only 1% of the aid they had requested for Hurricane Sandy relief and planning funds even though it was one of the hardest-hit communities in the state during the storm. At one point, 80% of the 50,000 person city was flooded…. 50,000 people. 80% flooded. $6 a head.”
Those are horrific numbers. 1% of the aid requested for a city that was 80% flooded?
Murphy’s insight into the politics of the area, specifically the long charge the Rockefeller Group has been waging against the wishes of some of the town’s citizens, merits a close read. He also revealed that there may be more than a diary to back up Zimmer’s claims, as she says that another Christie appointee made the offer that Sandy Aid money would flow if she would move forward with the Rockefeller project while miked, with audio technicians able to hear. She recorded their conversation in her diary:

In a diary entry made the next day, May 17, Zimmer wrote that Constable (Richard Constable, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who worked in Chris Christie’s office when Christie was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, and who was subsequently named commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs) said, “I hear you are against the Rockefeller project.” The mayor said she was not. “Oh really?” Constable asked in reply. “Everyone in the State House believes you are against it – the buzz is that you are against it.”
According to Zimmer, he added: “If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you.”

If you’re counting, that’s two people from the Christie administration who dangled the Sandy Aid as a reward for going along with the Rockerfeller development plans, according to the Hoboken Mayor.
So with all of that history, you can imagine that the Christie administration doesn’t want Chris Christie associated in any way with the Rockefeller Group. This picture is not in and of itself damning, but it’s a bad visual for the embattled Governor, especially because it’s not just a picture. There’s history there. And Hoboken didn’t get its money. And the Mayor of Hoboken used to be a big Christie fan, so this isn’t easily dismissed as a political agenda.
The pieces of the puzzle are in the early stages of coming together, and it doesn’t look good for Chris Christie. The repugicans want to paint this as a case of she said/he said, but the she in this case has a growing amount of evidence of wrongdoing by the Christie administration on her side.
The thing that might save Chris Christie is his willingness to throw everyone who worked for him under the bus. This character trait isn’t nearly as attractive to voters as it is to conservatives, however.
It’s hard to run for President as the guy who sold out all of his underlings, because eventually someone will ask him if he really knew nothing, what kind of leader is he?