15 January 2014

THE HOBBIT HOUSE: A 4,700$ STEP TO FUTURE


Where real estate prices are sky-rocketing out in the markets, Simon Dale has made for himself a dreamland fairytale house just in 3,000£ (about 4,700 USD)! The enchanting house of the Dale family is in Wales, the western part of Great Britain.


According to Dale, the reason for his building the home is his passion for the perseverance of the mother Earth.
He has stated -- “One reason for building it is that it’s fun. Living your life, in your own way, is rewarding. Following our dreams keeps our souls alive.” 
Another reason that he gives is, “Our society is almost entirely dependent on the availability of increasing amounts of fossil fuel energy. This has brought us to the point at which our supplies are dwindling and our planet is in ecological catastrophe. We have no viable alternative energy source and no choice but to reduce our energy consumption. The sooner this change can be begun, the more comfortable it will be.” [next]
He adds, “For our energy consumption to decrease we must reduce consumption and dramatically increase the productivity of our land. This will require developing infrastructure and skills to enable locally self-reliant living. The simplest, sustainable solutions involve small-scale permaculture type land management systems centered around individual or small groups of dwellings.”He said.



According to him, “The major obstacle is access to land. The price of land with residential planning permission is not commensurate with the income from this type of living. This will change, but these projects need time to develop and reach productivity. If allowances can be made within the planning system to grant access to land, and the right to live on it, to those wishing to live this life, we can allow a grass-roots tide of people to make real progress towards a sustainable society.”[next]
So house has the building of the house saved our ecological system?

Surprisingly, the house-building required pretty simple tools – a chainsaw to cut down 30 small trees, hammer, and a 1-inch chisel. The plot was given to him as an exchange for caretaking. Though the house was built only by Dale and his father-in-law, it was ready to serve just in 4 months. Dale wasn’t an engineer or architect, but tried his best in every way; and did turn out to be awesome indeed. He told the Daily Mail: “Being your own have-a-go architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass-produced box designed for maximum profit and the convenience of the construction industry.”



He has used stone and mud for retaining walls and foundations; straw bales in floors; plastic sheet and mud in the roof; and the air from the underground foundations to cool the fridge. He has actually built a house that required the least number of resources, but produced and safeguarded almost the maximum of the world’s beauty. He is now involved in more house building projects, and to bring archaic beauties in the trend again.[next]
                                                                                   Image source
What Dale has done is certainly a step towards a healthy environment. But not everyone has the same mentality. While the natural beauty of his home is pleasing to eyes, most would unfortunately prefer skyscrapers and multi-floored, air-conditioned buildings. Though we really think that Dale’s house can serve as an instigator for a better and beautiful future, but are we courageous enough to let it be so? We can’t guarantee that everyone would follow in his steps, but if they do, he’s surely gonna make History interesting to study in the upcoming years. We hope that as the imposing house stands, so do millions of its look-alike in the near future.




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posted by Now You Know @ 2:51:00 am   0 Comments

12 January 2014

GRAND CANYON BECOMES A CLOUD-CUCKOO LAND

"We are currently experiencing an after Thanksgiving treat," said Erin Whittaker, a park ranger who witnessed and captured these photos. "No, it's not more pumpkin pie.
 It's a once in a lifetime, outstanding, crazy, amazing, mind blowing inversion.”
Canyon is a word used to describe a deep gorge, usually filled with river. But what if the river is hiding in a blanket of vapors flowing over it in an exquisite beauty due to none other than a rare natural phenomenon? Then perhaps they won’t mind changing the phrase, “I’m on the ninth cloud,” to “The ninth cloud is over me.”

A weather phenomenon known as the ‘temperature inversion’ (a typical process of winters) occurred at the Grand Canyon where the cold air was sandwiched along with the fog by the warmer air above.

“Park rangers can wait years to see a weather event like the one that occurred last week at Grand Canyon National Park.” Inversions are not rare at the Canyon, only they happen to fall on cloudless days and fill it entirely with fog, causing nothing more than a ‘mucky view.’

 Usually, the temperature falls down to one degree for every 165 meters in height we go. But during a temperature inversion, the temperature tends to rather increase with height. The warm air, which is lighter, acts like a lid and traps the cold air with the fog, preventing it from rising. The inversions take place once or twice a year, but take decades to form such a full-fledged view. Some lucky visitors, who thought of the clouds there an ordinary thing, were actually disappointed for not being able to see the river. (Now imagine the look at their faces when they’ll come to know about this. Ha!)
"First, there was higher-than-normal moisture in the canyon," he said. "There was 0.75 of an inch of liquid precipitation that fell between Nov. 20 and Nov. 24 at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport [both snow and rain]. Normal precipitation during that time is only 0.19 of an inch, which converts to nearly 400 percent of normal precipitation within about a week of the event. Additionally, the average high temperature for this time of year is about 48 degrees Fahrenheit, which means there would be less evaporation of that precipitation than there would be in the summer months. This allowed more moisture to stay in the air inside the canyon.” ~ Meteorologist Andy Mussoline.

"A high pressure system settled into the region late last week and allowed for clear skies and calm winds, two important weather conditions that allow the air near the ground to cool rapidly," Mussoline said. "The rapid cooling of the ground allowed a temperature inversion to form."

Snow had fallen in the Canon beforehand and was starting to melt. The layer of the snow made the ground super cool and wet, and released cold air just above the surface. This cold air later combined with the fog to result in the process. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, two inversions occurred. One on Friday and the other on Sunday.
But we’ve been well warned to not confuse the two concepts of fog and temperature inversion. While temperature inversion refers to the sandwiching of cold ground air between warm ground and air, fog is a collection of water droplets that typically form over bodies of water. A temperature inversion can cause a fog, but a fog can't cause a temperature inversion.

The inversions last until air temperatures are warm enough to let the clouds disperse. "Freezing fog dominated yesterday and is reflected in great patterns on this Kaibab Limestone. By the end of the day, the sun was able to burn it all away"— the National Park Service said in a statement. The fog "simply drained into the canyon," McCollum said. "Within 48 hours it expanded to fill every valley in northeast Arizona via the Colorado River."
The Grand Canyon’s facebook page joked – “it was better than black Friday.”
When nature has a work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.





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posted by Now You Know @ 1:32:00 am  

27 December 2013

Dragons Do Exist; Surprising Discovery In Indonesia

Dragons are the heroes of many movies and fairy tales, “but they are always a myth”.

To break the above statement, the land of Thousand Islands – Indonesia gives us a surprise.

A new species, which resembles the structure of a dragon, was discovered in Indonesia. It was given the name “Agni”, meaning fire in Sanskrit, because of it red colored wing.
Agni is only a week old and scientists expect that its size will get tripled within three weeks based on its current growth rate.
    Image source
Agni as of now only eats ant and small insects, but it is expected to eat birds and rodents as it grows.
    Image source
“Breathing fire”- the typical characteristic of a mythical dragon, was not yet observed in Agni .But one has to notice that the place where Agni resides has many number of “scorch plots”, that is placed which is burnt.

Though the Sighting of any adult species was not yet found, there are several evidence for their existence near Agni’s habitat. Scientists say that the adult species may be in hibernation for many years.

The incident which gives the added proof for the existence of the adult species is the disappearance of fifteen cattle in a nearby land. Two scientists who assigned for the search of adult dragons are also disappeared mysteriously!

So, are the dragons real? Is our childhood dream of having a pet dragon coming true?? Let’s wait and see.

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posted by Now You Know @ 4:19:00 pm  

BODY GEEKS : PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE DEFINITION OF BEAUTY

1.)  The much popular 28 year old Canadian artist and fashion model Rick Genest, is also known as "Rico the Zombie boy," for the skeletal tattoos covering a major part of his body. Before having the tattoos, Rico was diagnosed with brain tumor, and was told that his survival chances were very slim. Though he survived the surgery with minimal complications, he made a point to live the remaining of his life fully. According to his video, he started living "an anarchistic lifestyle". He claims to have already  been introduced to punk rock, the punk scene and freak shows before his decision to tattoo himself.
    Image source
After being tattooed, Genest began working in freak shows and slideshows across Canada. Not long after beginning his facial tattoos, he was first introduced to the public on November 13, 2006 in a blog post by Shannon Larratt on BME's ModBlog, which was followed in March 2008 by his first interview, by which time his tattoos were largely completed. In this interview Rick clarified that he preferred the moniker "Zombie" to "Skullboy", as BME had been referring to him.
                                                             Image source
On March 5, 2010, a Facebook fan page was created about Genest's unusual choice of tattoos. This page reached 1,526,292 members (as of November 19, 2011). Later, he created a website by the name of www.rickgenest.com. He then barelylooked back and went on to working as a feature icon for Theirry Muggler men's collection; for Lady Gaga's video "Born this Way", with Gaga wearing make-up to replicate his outlooks; and in the editorial "Hard to be passive." He was a major part of the campaign "go beyond the cover," promoting professional make-up products.  The commercial success of this campaign led to a 2-year endorsement contract with L'Oreal for Rico, who became its first ever male spokesperson. He later appeared in the music video of the Polish pop singer "Honey," in her song "Sabotage." He even made his appearances as characters in San Diego Comic Con and 47 Ronin. 


 2.)  If you thought that Skullboy is the only creepy, weird and yet interesting and utterly beautiful thing that existed in this world, then we're certainly gonna prove you wrong.  54 year old Dennis Avner, commonly known as the "Stalking cat" or the "Catman," spent years trying to look like a tiger. He went under 14 surgical procedures to hold the record for "Most permanent transformations to look like an animal." Born in Michigan and earlier a Navy, he left his job and began working as a computer programmer. In his early 20s, he took the name "Stalking Cat" and began the modifications. Stalking Cat stood out in the small town where he lived, and the local newspapers occasionally ran articles on him. One article referred to Stalking Cat as "a cigarette-smoking, out-of-work, registered Republican who owns firearms and left California because he believes it'’s become a “communist state". Tess Calhoun, his close friend was quoted as saying that Stalking Cat was "living in a family for really the first time",and that "it takes some adjusting”". He later moved to Nevada. 
On November 5, 2012, he passed away when he was 54 years old. The news of his death came in air a week later, though the cause remains unknown.

3.)  The world's most inked woman has 95% of her body tattooed, including her face. Commonly known as the "Illustrated Lady," 53 year-old Julia Gnuse developed porphyria in her mid 30s - a condition in which sunlight causes blistering on a person's skin. To cover herself from these blisters, she started to tattoo herself all over her body. However, even these tattoos couldn't prevent the blisters; they are purely aesthetic. She now lives in Foothill Ranch, California. 

4.)  Kala Kawai, also known as the "Horned Man," has 67 piercings and 75 % of his body is tattooed so it’s a good job he chose a career in body modification, running his  own studio in hawai. He holds the world record for the world's largest implanted horns.

 5.)  Tom Leppard or the "Leopard 'Leppard' Man," spent 8983.7 USD on his extensive skin piercings, which cover nearly whole of his body in a leopard-like pattern. He was a former soldier, and was even considered by the Guiness Book of World Records as the most tattooed person of the world. . Until 2008, He lived in a small cabin on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. He now spends the rest of his life solitarily in a terraced house on Broadford, scotland.

6.)  Born on June 12, 1972, he had his teeth sharpened, full-body tattooed of green scales, tongue bifurcated, subdermal implants and recently, green-inked lips. Erik Sprague or the "Lizard Man," must be the only lizard who can't climb a wall and you'll still love him. There have been rumors of him hoping to get a tail transplant, however those have been debunked because according to Erik himself, it would be impossible. A performer by profession, he made screen appearances in the 2005 documentary Modify (Stories of people who regard augmenting their bodies as a way of life, whether for artistic reasons or out of pure vanity.) He also had a small part in the 2007 independent mockumentary comedy film Boxboarders!. On July 12, 2008, the Lizardman was a guest on The Tyra Banks Show. He also makes numerous other paid television appearances. He even writes articles on the Body Modification E-zine.His rock band, LIZARD SKYNYRD, released an album in late 2010, they performed in many tours and stages across the world. His official website : thelizardman.com

7.)  Ever got a chance to see a were-zebra? Here it is. The professional performer Horace Ridler took the name of "The Great Omi," or the "Zebra Man," after he got his body tattooed in black in white stripes, resembling those of a zebra. He was born in an upper-class family in London, and willed to take chances in his career.  In 1922 he received his first few pictorial tattoos, and began exhibiting himself in small sideshows. This afforded him a meager living, but was not the success he had hoped for. At some point between 1927 and 1934, Ridler George Burchett, and inquired about having himself all "tattooed over." Burchett performed a more than 150 hours of tattooing Ridler in a zebra-like pattern. Though Ridler claimed to have spent 10,000$ in the process, Burchett says that he paid only 3,000$ of them. Later, he decided to take his transformation a step further, having his ears pierced and stretched to accept large-gauge jewelry, and acquiring a large septum piercing from a veterinarian. He hired a dentist to file his teeth and began to wear elaborate costumes, completing his physical transformation. He took to wearing lipstick and nail polish and signed his pitch cards, ‘the Barbaric Beauty’. He became popular after a World's Fair in Queens, and was reported to be attacked along with his wife shortly after the fair, though it held no proofs. It was later said that the "attack" may have been a public stunt. Despite his appearance, “underneath it all, I’m just an ordinary man,” he insisted shortly before his death in 1969.


8.)  "Pain was worse than childbirth, but I made history." The list of animal-like piercings have not ended yet. The tiger lady, Katzen is a performer who has received extensive body piercings in the pattern of a tiger.  She received extensive tattooing on all parts of her body and wears tiger whiskers attached via piercings on her face. She is the ex-wife of the famous performer Enigma, and now works at a tattoo shop in Houstan, Texas. 
 9.)  The most pierced woman in the world, Elaine Davidson or "The Black Princess," is said to have 9,000 piercings according to the Guiness Book Of World Records.  Only after several readings and measurements, this number could be finalised in March 2012. She has more piercings in her genitalia than in any other part of the body - 500 in all, externally and internally. The total weight of her internal piercings is estimated to be about 3 kilograms. Born in Brazil, Davidson runs an aromatherapy shop in Edinburgh; where she resides with her husband Douglas Watson, a man with no piercings at all.
 Image source

                                              Image source
10.)   Born in 1971, Gregory Paul McLarren holds the world record for the "world's most tattooed person" after Tom Leppard. Also known as the "Lucky Diamond Rich," he is 100 percent tattooed all over his body, including the inside of his eyelids, mouth, ears and foreskin. He has spent over 1,000 hours having his body modified by hundreds of tattoo artists. The 41 year old began by having a full collection of colourful designs from around the world tattooed over his entire body. But not content with stopping there, Lucky next opted for a 100% covering of black ink, including eyelids, the delicate skin between the toes, down into the ears, and even his gums. He is now being tattooed with white designs on top of the black, and coloured designs on top of the white. 

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posted by Now You Know @ 4:43:00 am  

23 December 2013

A famous James Bond woman was actually a man

James Bond movies are always famous for action, thriller and beautiful girls.

 Caroline Cossey is a English model, who is also a famous transgender women appeared in the 1981 James Bond movie “For your eyes only” along with the famous actor Roger moore.
 Image source: www.tattoopins.com
Cossey was born in 1954 and was raised as a male with the name Barry Kenneth Cossey. After puberty she had several feminine changes in her body which was later identified as a genetic disorder.

 At the age of seventeen Cossey underwent a hormone therapy which completely transformed her into women. She also did a breast augmentation surgery and sex reassignment surgery.  

 She changed her name in 1972 to Caroline and was widely known as “Tula”. After 1974 she began to work as a full time model and she also worked with a Tabloid newspaper.
Image source: www.guayageek.com
She played as an extra actor in the James Bond movie in the year 1981.  Shortly after the release of the movie the tabloid News of the World was released with a front headline saying  "James Bond Girl Was a Boy." Caroline was too upset and decided to suicide , but later she replied them by releasing her autobiography “I Am a Woman”.

 In 1991 she released her second biography “My Story”, in which she described her transition and her troubles during the phase. She married David Finch in 1992 and the live together till now.

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posted by Now You Know @ 2:55:00 am  

18 December 2013

Believe It Or Not - Honey Bees Can Be Trained To Detect Cancer In Just 10 Minutes....

We know that honey bees are great workers, but recent studies proved that they are great detectors too.

 Honey bees are highly sensitive to smell. Their olfactory lobes filled antennas and feet work better than the noses of dogs.

Image source: nationalgeographic.com
The above fact gave idea to the Portuguese scientist Susana Soares to invent a two-chambered glass dome which can be used to detect cancer with bees inside.
Image source: susanasoares.com
This dome shaped glass container consists of two chambers, a larger one with bees and a smaller one through which one has to exhale.

Susana says that the bees can be trained in 10 minutes to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals and odour.
“The glass objects have two enclosures: a smaller chamber that serves as the diagnosis space and a bigger chamber where previously trained bees are kept for the short period of time necessary for them to detect general health. People exhale into the smaller chamber and the bees rush into it if they detect on the breath the odour that they were trained to target”, Susana wrote in her website.
When a person exhales into the smaller chamber the bees immediately moves near to it if they detect the same smell which they have been trained.

 Susana adds that this technique should undergo several more studies before it is used for the public.

 If this technique is going to be a great success, this will be the most inexpensive way of detecting cancer.

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posted by Now You Know @ 2:16:00 am  

16 December 2013

Bride (25) Wears ileostomy Bag In Bikini On Her Honeymoon After Having Her Large-Intestine Removed.

A young woman, suffering from Crohn’s disease, made a life changing decision to wear a waste-bag for the rest of her life.

 Lauren Henderson was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was just 21. The disease causes the lining of the digestive system to become inflamed, providing great discomfort, pain and frequent visits to the loo, often at the most inconvenient times. Weighing the permanency of having her intestine removed and having to wear an ileostomy bag to collect her solid digestive waste for the rest of her life against living with this debilitating disease, Lauren had no easy decision to make when doctors informed her that she had to undergo surgery for her condition. She said: “I feared the unknown – what people would think, whether my relationships would change.”
         Image source: dailymail.co.uk
Image source: www.dailymail.co.uk
In the end, she was very happy with her decision to go ahead with the surgery and said: ”After everything, it’s been perfectly managable and I’m so glad I had the surgery. I can’t believe I went for so long being in such pain.” She found the perfect bikini for their honeymoon in Jamaica, which she wore with the bag in plain site without caring the slightest what people thought, after she got married to Kieran Henderson in March 2013. Mrs. Henderson is now enjoying being able to eat what she wants and says that she feels free to be herself. 
    Image source: dailymail.co.uk
Image source: dailymail.co.uk
Today Lauren connects with people online who are considering whether to go through with bowel surgery.
 “I’ve been contacted by several people  - mostly women, but some men, who have found it useful to hear about my experiences.”“If I can help make anyone feel less anxious about there decision, then I think that’s wonderful.”

 Image source: dailymail.co.uk                         Image source: dailymail.co.uk
The cause of Crohn’s disease is not fully known, but what is known is that many sufferers produce too much of a protein called TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor) which attacks the intestines causing the inflamation and ulceration and symptoms can be eleviated with medication or natural supplements to reduce the level of TNF. The intestine is a warzone for bacteria where the ‘good’ bacteria is supposed to control the ‘bad’ bacteria. When an overgrowth of the ‘bad’ bacteria, like candida, occur, the body basically starts attacking itself and in time all sorts of disease and conditions rise up. Prevension is better than cure and by maintaining a decent diet and supplementing the body with a proper, natural probiotic you can help your body to maintain it’s natural rythm and dominence over bad bacteria overgrowth. 
  Image source: dailymail.co.uk
A last thought is that Western Medicine does not have all the answers and that sometimes a more holistic approach is quite often much more powerful and successful. 

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posted by Now You Know @ 4:13:00 am