Friday, December 13, 2013
Located near the regional center of Rivne, Ukraine, is a small town called Klevan. As of 2001, its population was 7,470. One of Klevan’s main attractions is an overgrown section of railway that visitors can walk across known as the Tunnel of Love or Green Mile Tunnel.
According to Atlas Obscura, the railroad track is approximately 7km from the city center and stretches about 3km (1.86 miles). The private railway is used to transport wood to a nearby fibreboard factory so a train does run on these tracks up to three times daily. As you can imagine, the tracks are highly photogenic year-round.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Maine Coon is a breed of domestic cat. Its actual origin is unknown but they look quite wild and they’re usually pretty big. The biggest specimens weigh up to 11.3kg. But Rupert here is not just pretty big. He’s huge. He’s a “mega monster cat”, according to experts. Heck, this thing can probably kill you if he decided to.
Rupert is now 9kg, which is less than his biggest cronies. But he’s only two years old. By three he will be much bigger, say the vets, growing to the point in which he would be at least 14kg.
For comparison, male bobcats can get up to 14kg too. The Canada lynx goes up to 10.8kg, while the Iberian can reach 12.7. Only a male of the Eurasian lynx would be bigger than Rupert, at 18-27kg.
Still, Rupert will be 14kg of muscle, teeth, and claws. A domestic cat who looks pretty much like a real lynx. I’m not sure if I would feel safe around one.
A hippo and her round, innocent calf got a little too close to a bull elephant that was grazing nearby. The scuffle that took place between the two enormous animals was jaw-dropping.
This fully grown hippopotamus and her offspring got a little TOO close to elephants grazing nearby.
An elephant bull charged the momma hippo and her young.
The mother bravely defended her baby. The bull flipped her with his trunk.
Luckily, although the fight looks bad, the hippo walked away with merely a scratch.
Every mother in the animal kingdom knows what is most important: their young.
Fully grown hippos can weigh over 1.5 tons, but the elephant tossed her with ease.
The baby hippo and her mom were quickly reunited and finished grazing off in the distance by themselves.
It just goes to show that even animals that big would do backflips for their young (even if they didn’t mean to).
The house was built in the early 2000s. There was nothing to suggest there was anything weird about it.
Except when the new owners’ two songs were horsing around and dislodged a bookshelf…
That movable bookshelf revealed a secret staircase.
The tall, spiral staircase seemed to lead downward directly into a wall.
But halfway down, there was a crawlspace.
Inside, the two boys found the most terrifying thing: evidence that someone was squatting. In their own walls.
Whoever was living there had small objects with them, like the elephant seen here.
They also had a key that unlocked only God knows what.
And of course, they also found creepy dolls hidden in the room.
Because every stranger living secretly inside of your walls need dolls with soulless eyes.
The police are still looking for the individual that was living in their walls. Since there was little food, it seemed that he came and went as he or she pleased. There was a small pile of clothes around the bedding. The candy seen strewn about the room was actually one of the boy’s, but whoever was living in the wall crept out at night to steal some for himself.
Good luck falling asleep tonight.
You can only fight the urge to sleep for so long… and these 27 poor souls know it. Sometimes it happens in a car, sometimes at work, but whenever sleep comes a callin’ you just can’t resist. Unfortunately, most of these people ended up passing out around their awful friends, so the results are hilarious.
Just because Pinterest projects involve simple ingredients like toothpicks, watercolors, socks and cookie dough… it does NOT mean that you won’t fail hilariously every time you attempt one of these. Meticulously sewing together all of your socks and then dying them alternate colors doesn’t look fun or easy. Because it isn’t.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
- Melissa Bachman presents a series called Winchester Deadly Passion about hunting
- The 'hardcore huntress' posted a picture of herself with a lion she killed on Twitter
- The reaction was immediate condemnation
- A petition to prevent her from returning to South Africa, where she shot the lion, has been signed more than 13,000 times
TV presenter Melissa Bachman raised ire when she posted a photo of a mature male lion she allegedly shot and killed on Twitter and Facebook.
Within hours of the post, an online petition by Cape Town resident Elan Burman asking the South African government to ban Bachman from ever returning to the country was launched.
The picture depicts Bachman crouching over the carcass of a male lion with its eyes closed, paws either side of its head, as she holds her gun and smiles toothily.
Scroll down for video
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| Uproar: Bachman was forced to make her social media accounts private after sparking a furor with this photo of herself with a lion she shot dead |
The post provoked a furious response from many Twitter users, who called her 'disgusting' and 'vile.'
At the time of writing, Burman's petition had 18,891 signatures.
'She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation this country prides itself on,' wrote Burman.
VIDEO Self-styled hunter kills a gator and shows off the kill (video censored)
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| Not welcome: Many in South Africa are seeking to prevent Bachman from returning to their shores, and more than 13,000 have signed this petition |
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| Earning stripes: Bachman poses with her gun over the corpse of a zebra |
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| Outrage: Bachman's hunting exploits have earned her some very vocal critics who were quick to denounce her for killing a lion today |
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| Deadly passion: The 'Trophy Room' section of Bachman's website has 65 photographs of her posing with different dead animals |
Signatory Richard Robinson wrote, 'You didn't kill a lion, you stood behind a machine and pulled a little trigger, you pathetic, sad excuse of a human.'
The African lion is considered a vulnerable species. Numbers are rapidly declining due to loss of habitat and conflict with humans.
However, hunting lions is legal in several countries, including South Africa where Bachman bagged her big male.
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| Spot the typo: Ricky Gervais joined the many Twitter users who condemned Bachman |
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| Hardcore huntress: Bachman says she has been hunting since she was a small child |
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| Thrill kill: Detractors say Bachman is a 'heartless trophy hunter' |
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| Big game: Bachman works as writer, producer and star of the series Winchester Deadly Passion |
Bachman's social media pages and website reveal an array of huge beasts that have died after coming in contact with her. The 'Trophy Room' section of her website features a grinning Bachman with dead deer, antelope, alligators, turkeys and hogs.
This latest furor is not the first time Bachman has run afoul of anti-hunting groups.
Last year, she was slated to appear on the National Geographic Channel's Ultimate Survivor Alaska but was dropped after a Change.org petition that called Bachman a 'contracted trophy killer' was signed more than 13,000 times in less than 24 hours.
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| Twitter tirade: Bachman has disabled her Twitter account since the posting went viral |
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| On the fly: No game is too small for Bachman to take aim at |
Minnesota-based Bachman, whose blog includes posts such as 'Why every girl should try bowhunting' and 'Stupid hunting regulations I just can't stand,' is the host of a television series called Winchester Deadly Passion.
In each episode, she travels to a locale and hunts its native animals with a variety of weapons including her beloved bow and arrow.
Lourens Mostert, a manager at the Maroi conservancy where Bachman shot the lion said the hunt was legal.
'If it isn't right to hunt these lions, why does out government legally give us permission?' he told the Daily Telegraph.
'This is not the only lion that has been hunted in South Africa this year.'
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Among the hundreds of full-time jobs tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earn more than men in only two. On average, women working full time make only about 81% of the median earnings of their male counterparts.
To find out which jobs feature the biggest gender wage gaps, we compared the median weekly earnings of men and women working full time in 2012 in the same job titles, as reported by the BLS. We then ranked the jobs with the largest pay discrepancies in percentage terms.
As a broad category, sales appears to be one of the worst areas for women. In sales and related occupations, women make on average 62.2% of what men earn in those same positions, according to data from the BLS. Legal, management, production, and business and financial operations occupations also tend to pay women far less than men.
While the report doesn't speculate on why men significantly out-earn women in particular fields, firm size, geographic location, and industry may all factor into the discrepancies. Women may be more likely to pursue career paths at smaller companies and nonprofits, and may also be less successful at salary negotiations. Discrimination, either by employers or clients, may also contribute, particularly in legal, business, and management careers without clearly defined salary ranges.
To be sure, the wage gap as a whole has improved significantly over the past three decades. In 1979, women earned 62% as much as men in the same job titles. That figure has jumped 20 percentage points to women's current earnings of 81 cents on the dollar.
Most of that progress, however, came between the 1980s and the early 2000s. Improvements in the gender wage gap largely stalled after the onset of the Great Recession, and women's salaries have hovered around 80% of men's for roughly the past decade.
Here are the 15 jobs with the largest gender wage gaps, based on the latest data from the BLS:
1. Insurance sales agents
Women's median weekly earnings: $641
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 62.5%
2. Retail salespersons
Women's median weekly earnings: $436
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 64.3%
3. Sales and related workers (all other)
Women's median weekly earnings: $653
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 65.6%
4. Real estate brokers and sales agents
Women's median weekly earnings: $680
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 66%
5. Personal financial advisors
Women's median weekly earnings: $1,016
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 66.3%
6. Marketing and sales managers
Women's median weekly earnings: $1,110
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 67%
7. Education administrators
Women's median weekly earnings: $1,052
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 67.2%
8 (tie). General and operations managers
Women's median weekly earnings: $971
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 67.6%
8 (tie). Physicians and surgeons
Women's median weekly earnings: $1,418
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 67.6%
10. Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents
Women's median weekly earnings: $862
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 69.1%
11. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers
Women's median weekly earnings: $570
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 69.2%
12. Claims adjusters, appraisers, examiners, and investigators
Women's median weekly earnings: $803
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 69.3%
13. Financial managers
Women's median weekly earnings: $988
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 70.3%
14. First-line supervisors of production and operating workers
Women's median weekly earnings: $674
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 70.6%
15. Sales representatives (wholesale and manufacturing)
Women's median weekly earnings: $822
Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 70.8%
WE'RE a nation of animal lovers but none of us has quite as many as retired secretary Marlene who shares her house with her 40 cats.The cat enthusiast is surrounded day and night by the 40 felines who follow her around her home.
They are groomed and bathed every day, a procedure which can see Marlene up until the early hours of the morning as she prepares them for shows.
The unusal pet owner spends around £200 a week on the felines' food and although she received funds following her mother's death to feed the cats, she admis the money is running out.
Marlene's mother died nine years ago leaving her 14 pedigree Persians to add to her own 26 cats.
She said: "The cats never upset me, I like people but sometimes they can be aggravating. I have closed myself down to the only pleasure which is being with the animals I'm surrounded by."
Her best friend Coleen admitted that she had named Marlene 'her eccentric friend.'
Coleen added: "Her life is her cats. I couldn't imagine Marlene without her cats. I couldn't cope with 40 but she does."
Marlene's story is one of many exposed by recent Channel 5 programme Pet Horders.
Another pet horder came in the form of Deb and her family who share their Yorkshire home with a brood of chickens.
Her passion for poultry started when she passed a farm snd was overwhelmed by the shrieking of chickens being kept in terrible conditions.
She crammed 60 birds into her car and headed home.
Since then, Deb has sold the business that she used to run and now nurses and cares for them all on a full-time basis. Deb plans to rescue and care for more abused animals, no matter what species.
Letters chosen during one round of the Channel 4 show spelt the word “orgasmed” and the eight-letter contribution was displayed by presenter Rachel Riley.
Contestants had to find the longest word from the selection of nine letters chosen – E, A, S, R, P, G, O, M and D.
The best efforts by the players were the six-letter “grapes” and seven-letter “grasped” in the edition of the afternoon show.
But lexicographer Susie Dent, 46, in dictionary corner, came up with “orgasmed”. Host Nick Hewer, 69, said: “Oh, well done.”
Rachel, 27, who competed on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 before she was knocked out in week six, then arranged the letters on the board.
The word “orgasmed” has appeared on the show before. It was used in the final three years ago when Jeff Stelling was the presenter.
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