Saturday, April 2, 2011

These Homes Will Really Float Your Boat

Image: House boat on Lake Union in Seattle (© Benjamin Benschneider)  
Houseboat living offers the comforts of home without a lawn to mow & with the best water access

Houseboat havens

There are many ways to live on the water, including living in sailboats, yachts, cabin cruisers, houseboats and more conventional-looking homes built on floats.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association's Discover Boating website says that a vessel qualifies as a residence under tax rules if it has basic living accommodations that include a place to sleep (berth), a toilet (head) and a place to cook (galley).
Here's a look at modern and traditional houseboats, as well as where they reside.
around.
Houseboat havens (© Wayne Roach)   
Boat as second home (© Stardust Cruisers)  

Did You Know These Celebrity Secrets?

Image: (From left) Janet Jackson, Neil Diamond & Leighton Meester (© Charles Sykes/AP; Lucas Jackson/Reuters; Matt Sayles/AP)
Which starlet was born in prison? Who was the muse for a favorite song? We've dug up the dirt for you.

 
 
 

Search: Unbelievably Weird State Laws

Image: Boy playing pinball (© Gen Nishino/Getty Images) 
Regulations against minors playing pinball, lying on city sidewalks, prank-calling pizza orders & other codes that go from fairly odd to all-out legal lunacy.

Search: Weird state laws

Check out this array of crazy codes of conduct from across the nation. Some are no longer on the books (thank goodness), some might be urban legends and others are truly letter-of-the-law lunacy.

(Clockwise top, left) Florida, New Hampshire & South Carolina (© Mitchell Funk/Getty Images; Marcus Brooke/Getty Images; SuperStock)
 

Ssssearch is over: Missing Bronx Zoo cobra found

Snake that has become a Twitter phenom is in good condition, resting after adventure .

The venomous Egyptian cobra that vanished from her quarters at the Bronx Zoo last week was found on Thursday, safe, sound and all coiled up in a dark corner of the zoo’s reptile house. 

Image: Recovered Egyptian cobra (© Julie Wilson Maher/WCS) 

The adolescent female snake is in good condition after her weeklong foray into cageless freedom.
“We’re really happy to announce that cobra missing for seven days has been found,” Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. “She’s alive and well ... resting comfortably and secure.”

Emergency landing after hole in fuselage

In this photo provided by passenger Christine Ziegler, passengers take photos of a hole in the cabin on a Southwest Airlines plane Friday, April 1, 2011 in Yuma, Ariz. (AP photo/Christine Ziegler)      

 Southwest Airlines passengers describe the drop in cabin pressure after a rupture in the ceiling.

Fuselage hole forces Southwest emergency landing

In this photo provided by passenger Christine Ziegler, shows an apparent hole in the cabin on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011 in Y
PHOENIX – A "gunshot-like sound" woke Brenda Reese as her Southwest Airlines flight cruised at 36,000 feet. Looking up, she could see the sky through a hole torn in the cabin roof.
The Boeing 737 lost cabin pressure after the hole developed Friday, prompting frightened passengers to grope for oxygen masks as the plane made a terrifying but "controlled descent."
A passenger called it "pandemonium." Another watched as a flight attendant and another passenger passed out, apparently for lack of oxygen, their heads striking the seats in front of them.
Officials said Flight 812 lost pressure because of a fuselage rupture. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot made a "controlled descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet altitude."
His safe emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, about 150 miles southwest of Phoenix, drew applause from relieved passengers.
No serious injuries were reported among the 118 people aboard but a flight attendant was slightly hurt, according to Southwest Airlines. The cause of the hole was not immediately known. The FBI called it a "mechanical failure," not an act of terror or other foul play.