Nothing highlights a social awareness message like a giant Toilet-shaped House. That was the aim of Sim Jae-Duck, a member of the World Toilet Association, when he commissioned the construction of his new home, a gargantuan concrete and glass home that resembled a toilet.

Located in Suweon, south of Seoul, the strange home towers over everything else at 4,508-sq-foot and cost him 1.6 million dollars.

Sim, who is also the former Mayor of Suweon and current member of the parliament, hoped that this home would emphasize the importance of better sanitation in all countries.

“Toilets were once regarded as stinking and dirty places. Not any more. They must be treated as the sanctuary that protects human health,” was his take on the matter.

In fact, Sim has been so vocal on the clean toilet issue that, during his term in office, folks had started calling him Mayor Toilet.

As it is, given that his mother gave birth to him in a toilet, the loo theme has been a major part of the eccentric man’s life.

Where the unusual home is concerned, Sim has devised a plan where he can reel in funds for countries with backward toilets. He encourages wealthy folks to rent out the house at an impressive rate of 50,000 dollars per day. He assures that all profits from this rental venture will for needy countries who lack decent sanitation.

SOURCE: Weird Asia News

Everyone has favorite foods from home that they want to bring to holiday dinners, or items from their destination that they want to bring back home. Travelers are advised, however, that while pies are permitted through the airport security checkpoints, there are some other holiday staples that cannot make it into the plane as carry-on baggage.

The Transportation Security Administration provides this list of liquids, gels and aerosol items that you should put in your checked bag, ship ahead, or leave at home.

• Cranberry sauce
• Creamy dips and spreads
  (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.)
• Gift baskets with food items
  (salsa, jams and salad dressings)
• Gravy
• Jams
• Jellies

• Maple syrup
• Oils and vinegars
• Salad dressing
• Salsa
• Sauces
• Soups
• Wine, liquor and beer

Items that are purchased after the security checkpoint have been pre-screened and can be taken on the plane, although I seriously doubt there will be a gravy concession at most airports.

And I want to sit next to the people who carry on pies!

SOURCE: Transportation Security Administration

INDONESIA — Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:

Click to view an Indonesian news report

This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention.

“The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away,” report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release, along with a report from NASA dated Oct. 23rd, four days after the release of the Silber-Brown Report, and 15 days after the event. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That’s two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.

The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years.

“Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event,” say Silber and Brown.

SOURCE: SpaceWeather

Are square A and B the same color? They are. Are too.

The illusion, called the same color illusion, illustrates that purely human observations in science may be ambiguous or inaccurate. Even such a seemingly direct perception as relative color.

Similar illusions exist on the sky, such as the size of the Moon near the horizon, or the apparent shapes of astronomical objects. The advent of automated, reproducible, measuring devices such as CCDs have made science in general and astronomy in particular less prone to, but not free of, human-biased illusions.

But don’t just take my word for it. To prove it to yourself, click here to see them connected.

SOURCE Astronomy Picture of the Day

MOSCOW — The mayor of Moscow, famous for seeding clouds to prevent rain during parades, is escalating his war on weather with plans to slash this year’s snowfall by one-fifth in the Russian capital.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s office will marshal the Russian air force and air-defense systems to intercept advancing storm fronts and hit them with dry ice and silver iodine particles, city officials said.

The idea is to reduce the amount of snow that clogs Moscow’s frigid streets and costs the city millions to manage.

Instead, the snow would be dumped on poor villages and satellite towns far from Moscow city limits — which Luzhkov reportedly suggested would help crops in surrounding regions.

The initiative could cost $6 million, but the city hopes to save $10 million in snow removal. City officials declined to comment on details of the plan.

Philip Brown, cloud physics research manager at the British national weather service, suggested the idea is relatively untested, and there has been opposition to the anti-snow plan from environmentalists and officials from the province that rings Moscow.

One political analyst called the plan a populist measure designed to strengthen the eroding political position of Luzkhov, who has been mayor of Russia’s capital since 1992.

Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader and former regional governor, also denounced Luzhkov’s struggle against the snow.

“He is an old man and does not understand you cannot change a millennia-old climate,” said Nemtsov. “This plan will kill Moscow’s trees. They need snow to survive the winter. Luzhkov is simply dangerous to the people of Moscow.”

SOURCE: USA Today

Two illegal immigrants were found outside a Mexico/Texas border town asleep on top of bundles of marijuana.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent was following footprints left by six people near Brownsville Saturday morning when he came upon the group sleeping atop more than 350 pounds of pot, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Four of the men fled, but two were detained. They told authorities they had entered the U.S. illegally and had taken turns carrying the bundles over the border until they stopped to rest.

The two men were charged with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute the marijuana.

For the border agent? Splendor in the grass.

SOURCE: APP.com

I am currently on vacation and thought I might entice you to do the same by giving you glimpses of some rather odd places to stay. No, I do not have the luxury of staying in one these accommodations which you are seeing over this next week or so.

HANG OUT LIKE A TEAMSTER
For savoring the windswept Dutch landscape, nothing will lift you higher than the Harbour Crane, which for almost 30 years toiled at unloading timber at Harlingen, a port city an hour outside of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since 2003, the massive crane has housed a luxury hotel room for two, roughly 60 feet above the harbor docks. Don’t expect to sleep in an oily industrial hutch—the hotel’s lighting system is touch-screen operated, the chairs are Eames Lounges, and the spindle of structural steel around you has a certain sculptural elegance. But the big payoff: You and your guest can jump into the cockpit and seize the controls, swinging the 143,000-pound crane a full 360 degrees.

SOURCE: Budget Travel

In case you didn’t feel moved to sign up with Earth-Bound Pets to prepare for the Rapture, perhaps you will find this service, offered by Reincarnation Bank, more to your liking.

Reincarnation Bank offers a safe-keeping for any asset you wish to deposit through your transition into the next life.

There are people who say they can remember their past lives and use that knowledge to help them with their current existence. Some say they remember without any effort on their part as they simply see previous times.

If you leave nothing purposely behind when you die, then what is there here for you when you return?

Begin by believing and take control of your future.

The great end of life is not just knowledge but action, so act now and save for your reincarnation.

Reincarnation Bank is a banking facility for all believers of Reincarnation. The Bank offers a safe and secure management system for its clients — a place they can leave behind their assets and commodities for the return into their next life.

SOURCE: Reincarnation Bank

A post about a perky penguin seems fitting for our quirky compendium.

Colonel-in-Chief Sir Nils Olav is a King Penguin living in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland. He is the mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King’s Guard. Nils was visited by the Norwegian King’s Guard on the 15 August 2008 and awarded a knighthood. The honor was approved by the king of Norway, King Harald V. During the ceremony a crowd of several hundred people joined the 130 guardsmen at the zoo to hear a citation from King Harald the Fifth of Norway read out, which described Nils as a penguin “in every way qualified to receive the honor and dignity of knighthood”.

When the Norwegian King’s Guard visited Edinburgh Military Tattoo of 1961 for a Drill Display, a lieutenant called Nils Egelien became interested in Edinburgh Zoo’s penguin colony. When the Guards once again returned to Edinburgh in 1972, he arranged for the unit to adopt a penguin. This penguin was named Nils Olav in honor of Nils Egelien, and King Olav V of Norway.

Nils Olav was given the rank of visekorporal (lance corporal) and has been promoted each time the King’s Guard has returned to the Tattoo. In 1982 he was made corporal, and promoted to sergeant in 1987. Nils Olav died shortly after his promotion to sergeant, and his place of honor was taken by Nils Olav II, his two-year-old near-double. He was promoted in 1993 to the rank of regimental sergeant major. On August 18, 2005, he was promoted to Colonel-in-Chief2″> and on 15 August 2008 he was awarded a knighthood. He is the first penguin to receive such an honour in the Norwegian army. At the same time a four foot high bronze statue of Nils Olav was presented to Edinburgh Zoo. The statue’s inscription recognises the King’s Guard and the Military Tattoo. A statue also stands at the Royal Norwegian Guard compound at Huseby, Oslo.

Norway presented the zoo with its first king penguin in 1913, the year of its opening.

In Norwegian he is consistently referred to only as the mascot of the King’s Guard, although both the plaque on his statue, and the website of the Norwegian Government’s Consulate in Edinburgh, refer to his promotion to Colonel-in-Chief.

SOURCE: Wikipedia.org