According to Mashable Disney aquired Marvel Entertainment today.
Disney CEO Robert Iger says “Disney’s marketing channels will help unlock Marvel’s ‘treasure trove’ of characters.”
It was a deal that found Marvel receiving $4 billion. Marvel Shareholders will receive $30 for every share they own plus 0.745 Disney shares.
From Mashable: Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion
This weekend past my friends and I visited O’Derin. It’s a small island in the middle of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. It takes about an hour to get there by boat from the near harbour.
O’Derin was once a small collection of fishing communities of Catholics and Anglicans. At its peak there were approxiamately 250 people living on this island. Now there is no one.
The father of one of my friends grew up on O’Derin just prior to the resettlement. His old home is one of the few remaining buildings on this desserted island. Half of those buildings are now summer cabins. The rest are rotting apart.
Many of the old residents towed their homes off the island when they had to resettle. An arial photograph of the area from the 1950′s shows many buildings all round the island. Almost none of those buildings are still standing.
Other buildings have unknown origins. This concrete foundation below may have belonged to a church long since gone. Now there are fully grown trees growing up through it.
The scenary on this island is absolutely stunning.
The island is the perfect size for anyone visiting. It’s just large enough that there’s plenty to do and see but just small enough that you can walk anywhere.
Pirate Treasure
O’Derin has its very own pirate treasure myth. The story goes that in the 18th century pirates landed on the shores of of this island and buried their treasure at the bottom of a shoreline gully. They say the bottom of this minature pond has wooden planks covering the treasure.
About fifteen years ago an ambitious man who was aware of the pirate treasure myth took it upon himself to seek it out. His strategy was to drain the water from the gully and dig from there. He dug a trench that lead from the gully to the ocean, which is about 30 metres. Today the trench remains 4-5 feet deep.
The story goes that he spent years of his life digging the trench and got no where. As quick as the water drained from the pond it filled back up. He retrieved no treasure.
There is another story of grave robbers digging up a set of old 18th century french graves hoping to find the treasure.
Anglican Graveyard
There was a graveyard at the top of one of the hills, but it wasn’t your typical graveyard.
All of the graves were scattered amongst the trees in the woods. Some were in some pretty thick bush.
There were even some that had been there so long that trees had grown near them with branches pushing the marble of the headstones over.
Many of the tombstones werer over 100 years old. The average lifespan on this island seems to have been between 10 and 30 years old. Many young kids buried here. It’s not unbelievable when you see some of the dangerous cliffs and the waves crashing in on all sides.
O’Derin is a very beautiful and interesting island and I cannot wait to revisit.
A while back I posted about the worst URL on the internet. If you thought therapistinabox.com was bad, check these bad domain’s out:
If you read some of these domains with a dirty mind, you can see why they were bad choices for domain names.
From CosmoBC.com Jokes: Bad Domain Names
There is no word on it yet, but Duckworth Street and Water Street was closed down. Traffic is backed up.
From driving past I could see a firetruck parked into from of the building across The Spout.
I’ll update as I know more.
It’s no surprise that only weeks after the announcement of the new Alice in Wonderland movie that Warner Brother’s would announce the rerelease of Wizard of Oz. Only, it’s not going to be what you think.
According to sources the new Wizard of Oz will be a sequel featuring Dorothy’s granddaughter who is less a helpless little girl and more like the “Ripley character from Alien.”
Will they do the classic hit movie justice or will they bastardize the name with crappy spinoff for quick money? That remains to be seen.
The popular outfitters department store Mountain Equipment Co-op is well know for being a green company. From providing bike racks to building a self-sustaining prairie environments on their downtown Toronto department building, they have a track record for setting the green bar high.
Their latest store in Burlington, Ontario has taken going green to another level.
For starters their white rooftop detracts heat from the sun while their rooftop windows provide free, bright light. Additionally there are two massive solar arrays that provide heat in addition to electiricy.
Water is collected from the roof from rain and snow and used for their toilets and there is special reserved parking for energy efficient hybrid vehicles.
The building is 68 percent more energy efficient than other department stores of similar size.
Part of that is due to their new air conditioning system. In so many words, they will be using ice to keep their store cool during hot summer days.
They are using a system known as Ice Bear. It’s essentially a refrigeration system that freezes water in a large cube and then distributes the cool air from the ice.
MEC acknowledges that there is certainly no ROI on investing in the Ice Bear. It is double the cost of conventional air conditioners. But it’s much better for the environment.
As a result of all there greener innovations they have been awarded the LEED Gold Rating.
From TheStar.com: Utilities warming to ice-storage air-cooling systems
From The Urben Country: Mountain Equipment Co-op Takes Home Gold
In Arkhangelsk, Russia, a man known as Nikolai Sutyagin has built a homemade skyscraper out of his house.
During Perestroyka he inherited some money and with that he started to build his dream home. He hired an architect who planned the first two floors.
From there he spent the next fifteen years building his house upwards. Right now it soars high over the city with thirteen floors. It is the taller structure in the city looking down on even the tallest cement buildings.
Some people in the city love it; others are afraid for their homes and for their skyline.
Either way, this is one interestingly ambitious project.
From CommonGate: Homemade Wooden Skyscraper
From Picdict: Wooden Skyscraper
Today Jason mentioned how his gummi bears were hitting the spot. It led him to send this around:
