The same old magazine-replicated décor can easily become dry. To breath new life into yawn-worthy interior design, you can consider bold accent pieces, a paint makeover, among other options. But for some people, a splash of color or a furniture overhaul is not enough to satisfy their craving for a truly noteworthy home. Take a trip around the world with this international compilation of houses that break the mold of what a living space can look like. Stretching the limits of conventional house building wisdom, architects have tested all extremes. In Poland, for example, architect Jakub Szczesny designed the Keret House, a structure so thin that a bed spans the width of the house. If you want to experience a similarly quirky, fantastical environment but find yourself hesitant to commit to an actual house, check out some of the world’s most out-there hotels. Maybe a taste of the bizarre will inspire you to one day dream up your own bizarre house.
Monday 16 February 2015
Floyd Mayweather Buys $400k Rolls-Royce 'So Daughter Can Ride In Style'
The spending spree continues ... now TMZ Sports has learned Floyd Mayweather dropped another $400k on a brand new Rolls-Royce so "his 14-year-old daughter can ride in style."
Here's what we know ... Floyd called up Obi Okeke at Fusion Luxury Motors around 2AM a few days ago and ordered up a clean white 2015 Rolls-Royce Wraith.
Okeke says Mayweather explained that he'd be giving the car to his daughter's mother -- because he wants the kid to "ride in style."
Okeke tells us he IMMEDIATELY started moving on the car -- and shipped it to Vegas later that day.
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"When his daughter and [the mother of his child] saw the car, they went nuts," Okeke says ... "They were so appreciative and thankful."
#ItsGoodToBeRich
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2015/02/16/floyd-mayweather-buys-400k-rolls-royce-for-14-year-old-daughter/#ixzz3RxJggNTJ
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2015/02/16/floyd-mayweather-buys-400k-rolls-royce-for-14-year-old-daughter/#ixzz3RxJVEREg
Egypt bombs Islamic State targets in Libya after 21 Egyptians beheaded
Men in orange jumpsuits purported to be Egyptian Christians held captive by the Islamic State (IS) kneel …
By Omar Fahmy and Yara Bayoumy
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- Egypt bombs Islamic State targets in Libya after 21 Egyptians beheadedReuters
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- Egypt calls for anti-Islamic State coalition to confront militants in Libya Reuters
- Sisi warns of response after Islamic State kills 21 Egyptians in Libya Reuters
- Egypt strikes IS group in Libya after video of mass killing Associated Press
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across its border.
Egypt said the dawn strike hit militant camps, training sites and weapons storage areas in neighbouring Libya, where civil conflict has plunged the country into near anarchy and
created havens for armed factions.
While Cairo is believed to have provided clandestine support to a Libyan general fighting a rogue government in Tripoli, the mass killings pushed President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi into open action, expanding his battle against Islamist militancy.
Libya's air force also participated in Monday's attack on Derna -- an eastern coastal city seen as a base for Islamic State fighters in the oil-rich nation.
"There are casualties among individuals, ammunition and the (Islamic State) communication centres," Libyan air force commander Saqer al-Joroushi told Egyptian state television, adding that between 40 to 50 militants were killed.
It was not possible to confirm those numbers.
"More air strikes will be carried out today and tomorrow in coordination with Egypt," said Joroushi, who is loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government, which has set up camp in the eastern city of Tobruk after losing control of Tripoli.
The rival Tripoli-based parliament, which is supported by some Islamist groups, condemned Monday's strike as an assault on the country's sovereignty.
Cairo also called on the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to broaden the scope of their operations to include Libya, highlighting how the militant group is expanding its reach around the Arab world.
Since the fall of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, a number of Islamist movements have taken hold. Recently, some have declared ties to Islamic State and claimed high-profile attacks in what appears to be intensifying campaign.
Last month, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, killing nine people, including an American security contractor and a Frenchman.
CHRISTIAN CONDEMNATION
Egypt is not the only Arab nation sucked into confrontation with Islamic State by the gruesome killings of its citizens.
Jordan has taken a leading role in conducting air strikes against the group in Syria and Iraq this month after the militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.
The 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had gone to Libya in search of work, were marched to a beach, forced to kneel and then beheaded on video, which was broadcast via a website that supports Islamic State.
Before the killings, one of the militants stood with a knife in his hand and said: "Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for." Afterwards, he says: "And we will conquer Rome, by the will of Allah."
The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, condemned the killings. "They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians," he said at the Vatican. "It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians!"
Egypt's Coptic Christian pope was one of the public figures who backed Sisi when he, as army chief, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against him.
The beheadings could pile pressure on Sisi to show he is in control of Egypt's security, even though he has already made progress against Islamist militant insurgents in the Sinai.
Egypt has been trying to project an image of stability ahead of an investment conference in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in March designed to lure billions of dollars into an economy battered by turmoil since the 2011 uprising.
"It's swift and decisive, it's not about strategy, it's about containing anger within Egypt," said Hassan Hassan, co-author of a book on Islamic State.
"Just like in Jordan, it's more about saving face, saying: 'You can't mess with us'. .... It’s likely to evolve into a sustained strategy of helping in the fight against ISIS (Islamic State) in neighbouring countries."
Sisi sees radical groups in Libya as a major threat to Egypt's security. Fears the crisis there could spill across the border have prompted Egypt to upgrade its military hardware.
France has said Egypt will order 24 Rafale fighter jets, a naval frigate and other equipment in a deal to be signed in Cairo on Monday worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion).
French President Francois Hollande said on Monday that he and Sisi wanted the United Nations Security Council to discuss Libya and take new measures against the Islamic State.
Italy also called for a U.N. response.
"In Libya, the situation is difficult but if it wants to, the international community has all the instruments necessary to be able to intervene," said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi after talking by telephone to Sisi.
Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, has not taken part directly in the U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria, focusing instead on the increasingly complex insurgency at home.
Security officials say militants in Libya have established ties with Sinai Province, a group operating from Egypt's vast Sinai Peninsula that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Sinai Province has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since Sisi toppled Mursi and launched a crackdown which killed hundreds of Islamists and jailed thousands of others.
Cristiano Ronaldo Shames Defender With Ankle-Breaking Nutmeg (Video)
Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t need to do this to Manuel Pablo. Ronaldo made the Internet buzz Saturday with an ankle-breaking move on Pablo in the first half of Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga (Spanish first division). The soccer superstar nutmegged Pablo with an “elastico” that left the veteran defender on the ground. Pablo, 39, tried to stay on his feet as coaches have told him to do through the years, but Ronaldo’s “elastico” dribble made the Deportivo fullback lose his balance and fall to the turf.
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/02/cristiano-ronaldo-shames-defender-with-ankle-breaking-nutmeg-video/
Ronaldo’s jaw-dropping dribble didn’t end with his team scoring a goal, but that wasn’t the point of this particular post. Ronaldo probably will score in Real Madrid’s next game, anyway.
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/02/cristiano-ronaldo-shames-defender-with-ankle-breaking-nutmeg-video/
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/02/cristiano-ronaldo-shames-defender-with-ankle-breaking-nutmeg-video/
Ronaldo’s jaw-dropping dribble didn’t end with his team scoring a goal, but that wasn’t the point of this particular post. Ronaldo probably will score in Real Madrid’s next game, anyway.
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/02/cristiano-ronaldo-shames-defender-with-ankle-breaking-nutmeg-video/
5 Things That Happen When You're In A Healthy Relationship
(Photo: Arthur Elgort)
We’ve talked about how to spot a toxic relationship—the kind where keeping score, name-calling, and belittling are the norm. But what exactly does a healthy relationship look like? While “healthy” may look different from couple to couple, there are at least a few universal things you’ll both do when you take the health of your relationship seriously. Here are five.
1. You give each other alone time. Couples naturally spend copious amounts of time together, but being attached like Siamese twins crosses into dependent territory. Healthy couples are able to part ways when needed so their individual interests can flourish—whether that’s reading quietly in the bedroom or leaving home for a dance class.
2. You’re able to say, “I’m sorry.” Just because you’re in a good relationship doesn’t mean you’ll never do wrong. Healthy pairs are willing step up to the plate of responsibility and offer a sincere apology and a strategy for not letting the misdeed repeat itself.
3. You trust each other. In a healthy relationship, you don’t feel compelled to snoop to get the scoop because he’s already totally transparent. This can take time—especially for those of us with exes who’ve given us reasons to automatically mistrust our S.O.—but a good partner will take the time to prove he’s trustworthy until you simply know it in your heart.
Related: 27 Cringeworthy Fashion DON’Ts
4. You make each other better people. When he’s around, you’re wittier, funnier, kinder, more generous—because that’s what he inspires in you. You encourage one another to take chances, and you build each other up when you’re down.
5. You show each other gratitude. You don’t take the little things for granted. In fact, you can turn him taking out the trash or emptying the dishwasher into a five-minute-long compliment about how thoughtful and helpful he is. And he can give it right back.
What are some other signs you’re in a healthy relationship?
By Jillian Kramer
More from Glamour:
Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State
By Isabel Coles
DUHOK, Iraq (Reuters) - Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.
Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 – a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favorite verses highlighted.
“It's very different," he said, asked how the experiences compared. "Here I’m fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal."
Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.
The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.
A map on the wall in the office of the Assyrian political party affiliated with Dwekh Nawsha marks the Christian towns in northern Iraq, fanning out around the city of Mosul.
The majority are now under control of Islamic State, which overran Mosul last summer and issued am ultimatum to Christians: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most fled.
Dwekh Nawsha operates alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect Christian villages on the frontline in Nineveh province.
“These are some of the only towns in Nineveh where church bells ring. In every other town the bells have gone silent, and that’s unacceptable,” said Brett, who has "The King of Nineveh" written in Arabic on the front of his army vest.
Brett, who like other foreign volunteers withheld his last name out of concern for his family's safety, is the only one to have engaged in fighting so far.
The others, who arrived just last week, were turned back from the frontline on Friday by Kurdish security services who said they needed official authorization.
"STOP SOME ATROCITIES"
Tim shut down his construction business in Britain last year, sold his house and bought two plane tickets to Iraq: one for himself and another for a 44-year-old American software engineer he met through the internet.
The men joined up at Dubai airport, flew to the Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah and took a taxi to Duhok, where they arrived last week.
“I’m here to make a difference and hopefully put a stop to some atrocities,” said 38-year-old Tim, who previously worked in the prison service. “I’m just an average guy from England really.”
Scott, the software engineer, served in the U.S. Army in the 1990s, but lately spent most of his time in front of a computer screen in North Carolina.
He was mesmerized by images of Islamic State militants hounding Iraq's Yazidi minority and became fixated on the struggle for the Syrian border town of Kobani -- the target of a relentless campaign by the jihadists, who were held off by the lightly armed Kurdish YPG militia, backed by U.S. air strikes.
Scott had planned to join the YPG, which has drawn a flurry of foreign recruits, but changed his mind four days before heading to the Middle East after growing suspicious of the group's ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
He and the other volunteers worried they would not be allowed home if they were associated with the PKK, which the United States and Europe consider a terrorist organization. They also said they disliked the group’s leftist ideology.
The only foreign woman in Dwekh Nawsha's ranks said she had been inspired by the role of women in the YPG, but identified more closely with the "traditional" values of the Christian militia.
Wearing a baseball cap over her balaclava, she said radical Islam was at the root of many conflicts and had to be contained.
All the volunteers said they were prepared to stay in Iraq indefinitely.
“Everyone dies,” said Brett, asked about the prospect of being killed. “One of my favorite verses in the Bible says: be faithful unto death, and I shall give you the crown of life.”
(Editing by Stephen Kalin and Stephen Powell)
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