World’s tallest treehouse. It’s HUGE!
Horace Burgess’s treehouse may be as close to heaven as a body can get in Cumberland County.
It rises 97 feet into the sky, the support provided by a live, 80-foot-tall white oak 12 feet in diameter at its base. Six other trees brace the tower-like fortress, but Burgess says its foundation is in God.
“I built it for everybody. It’s God’s treehouse. He keeps watch over it,” said Burgess, who received his inspiration in a vision that came to him in 1993. “I was praying one day, and the Lord said, ‘If you build me a treehouse, I’ll see you never run out of material.”‘
And thus far, as Burgess sees it, the Lord has provided. Most of his materials are recycled pieces of lumber from garages, storage sheds and barns. Now into his 14th year of construction, he is not finished.
The treehouse has 10 floors, averaging nine to 11 feet in height by Burgess’s reckoning. He has never measured its size but estimates it to be about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. He did count the nails that he has hammered into the wood — 258,000, give or take a few hundred. And he guesses he has sunk about $12,000 into the project.
Lots more incredible pictures over at Funster
Councillor Cleared of Witchcraft Allegation
A Liberal Democrat has been cleared of insulting a Conservative colleague by calling her a witch – after a taxpayer-funded investigation.
Pat McCloud, who represents a ward in Forest Heath district in Suffolk, was initially found guilty of accusing Cllr Lisa Chambers, 39, of witchcraft by the council’s standards committee.
But the decision was overturned on appeal by the Adjudication Panel for England after an investigative process costing more than £3,000.
The controversy centred on comments that Cllr McCloud, 77, made in an email to council staff following a dispute involving the pair in a council meeting.
Cllr McCloud, who felt he had been prematurely interrupted at the meeting, wrote: “How could [Cllr Chambers] possibly know what I was about to say, how could anyone know until I finished, you know they used to burn witches at the stake for having such abilities.”
Chris Hughes, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, said that although the comments were inadvisable, they did not constitute personal abuse.
Local pagans have said they are disappointed that the reference to witchcraft was thought to be an insult by both Cllr Chambers, who does not practise witchcraft, and the council’s standards committee.
Telegraph (thanks, Kirsty)
Google Unexplained Phenomenon Doodle: The Theories
Several competing theories have emerged about the true significance of the Google doodle featuring a UFO stealing an ‘O’, which was on the site on September 5.
One of the theories was put forward by the Telegraph’s own Shane Richmond, who concluded that it was put up in honour of Zero Wing, a 1980s Japanese video game.
Google put up a tweet with the following message after the UFO appeared: “1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19″
Mr Richmond’s theory held that the alpha-numeric transcription – “All Your O Are Belong To Us” – is a joke based on a popular mistranslation in the Zero Wing game which said: “All your base are belong to us.”
He noted information added to Wikipedia on September 6, which gave the release date of Zero Wing as September 5, 1989.
Therefore, he said, the appearance of the Google UFO must be to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the game.
However, other bloggers claim the editing of the Wikipedia entry a day after the UFO arrived is proof that it must be a reaction rather than the true explanation.
Telegraph (thanks, Fosca)
Natural History Museum Bets On Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness monster will go on display at London’s Natural History Museum if it is caught under a deal negotiated with bookmakers William Hill.
The museum has secured the rights to showcase Nessie’s remains should it be captured, in exchange for verifying her existence on behalf of the bookmakers.
Under the deal, formalised in 1987 and revealed in archive documents released by the museum, William Hill pays the museum an annual fee on return for the guarantee its experts will provide “positive identification” of the elusive creature.
The agreement, which has netted the museum at least £22,000, also covers the Yeti.
The bookmaker currently offers odds of 500/1 on the existence of the Loch Ness monster being proved within a year and 200/1 for the Yeti.
Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill, said: “We have maintained our relationship with the Natural History Museum and are delighted to do so.
“As we rely on the Met Office to rule on white Christmases, we are dependent on the museum to tell us whether any carcass that may emerge from the loch is a haddock, or a previously unknown creature from the deep.”
Cheap publicity stunt? read more at Telegraph (thanks, Tammy)
Optical Illusion with iPhone – do you know why this happens?
This photo was taken on an iPhone. The propeller was spinning at somewhere around 2000 rpm. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a rather weird effect as the image is so seamless. Is this a natural phenomenon or a result of the camera hardware or software.
I’m sure there’s some dashingly clever individual out there that is going to comment and tell us exactly why this occurs – so we’ll let them.
Update: for those of you that think this is a photoshop we’re stating to see more examples like this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdub/3732616314/
The jury’s still out on whether internet use affects the brain
Advances in technology have revealed that our brains are far more altered by experience or training than was thought possible. The memory-storing hippocampus region of the brain in London taxi drivers is bigger, and the auditory areas of musicians more developed, than average. Even learning to juggle can result in a certain amount of rewiring of the brain.
So the Lord Chief Justice’s suggestion that a lifetime spent on the internet will alter the way we think and process information is well founded. But whether these changes will enhance or degrade our powers of imagination, recall and decision-making has divided scientists.
Baroness Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, was among the first to warn that today’s children may grow up with short attention spans and no imagination. Others suggest that the abandonment of books means people will lose the ability to follow a plot from start to finish. However, as yet little or no evidence has emerged to support these fears.
Short-term studies have, if anything, shown internet use to have a positive impact on our mental powers.
Church of Scientology defied coroner on suicide
THE Church of Scientology refused to provide records demanded by a coroner investigating the death of a soldier who committed suicide two days after finishing one of the church’s intensive courses.
It emerged yesterday that the American headquarters of the church instructed its Australian branch to send the soldier’s “audit file” to the US — which is outside the coroner’s jurisdiction — before warrants were issued.
Edward Alexander McBride was found electrocuted and hanged at an Energex substation at Everton Park, in Brisbane, on February 7, 2007. The soldier, who was based at Brisbane’s Enoggera Barracks, was on leave from the army at the time and had been doing Scientology courses almost full-time for about a month.
McBride had paid the church $25,000 for the courses and finished the last one two days before he died. In interim inquest findings handed down last week, coroner John Lock said that was when “something unusual happened”. Mr Lock said requests by police and him for the Church of Scientology to see McBride’s audit file were unsuccessful.
Mr Lock said the Australian church authorities appeared to have been obeying orders issued by the church’s US headquarters. “A clear inference can be made that this course of action was taken as a deliberate decision (by the US church) not to produce the auditing file,” he said. In the days leading up to McBride’s death, church members tried to contact him repeatedly on his mobile phone, and sent text and voice messages mentioning an “audit” and “LRH” — a reference to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
The coroner found that McBride’s suicide was not “reasonably foreseeable” by his family, the Australian Defence Force or members of the Church of Scientology.
Full story at The Australian.
Mashable Open Web Awards
Thanks for those who have voted for Derren (@derrenbrown) for “Most Interesting Twitter User to Follow”. As you know Derren’s a fan of the platform as are the rest of the crew (@lordcoopy – art updates, @phillisdorris – sillyness, and @abeoDBArt – tech support) all of whom have been voted for nothing. 
Vote over at Mashable
Postal strikes cause havoc at Brown Towers
Due to the postal strikes we will be holding back the posting of items.
We have had so many losses, delays and foul ups via her Majesties service that we decided to hold back during the strikes. We have seen delays of 2 months on some items and we are striving to get things to you. At the moment we’re averaging 10-15 days for a 1st class delivery – we expect this to increase.
If you have ordered anything more than 3 weeks ago and not received anything please email us on lostatsea@derrenbrown.co.uk
We are very sorry about this and are hoping it will all go away soon. Please accept our full apologies, please mount all blame on Phillis for everything and not Derren, Coops or Abeo (they are just too lovely).
Anyone entering in to the (now not so) hidden competition should email Lost at Sea for a temporary poster number and an entry form.
Enigma Crew
