Middle East Animal Wars

November 16, 2017 Markozen.com Animals, War

Hamas ‘seizes Israeli spy dolphin’ off Gaza

Hamas claims to have captured a dolphin being used as an Israeli spy off the coast of Gaza, local media report.

The militant Palestinian Islamist group, which dominates Gaza, says the mammal was equipped with spying devices, including cameras, according to the newspaper Al-Quds (in Arabic).

It was apparently discovered by a naval unit of Hamas’s military wing and brought ashore. Al-Quds said that the newest recruit was “stripped of its will” and turned into “a murderer” by the Israeli security services.

It shows the extent of Israel’s “anger” and “indignation” at the formation of Hamas’s naval combat unit, the paper reports.

Israeli authorities have not commented on the media reports.

This photo was possibly released by Russian intelligence, apparently taken from a Russian mini-sub.

The dolphin appears to have some type of massive camera harnessed to its back

It is not the first time that Israel has been accused of using animals – and birds – for spying purposes.

In 2010 Israel dismissed Egyptian claims that a series of shark attacks in the Red Sea could have been the result of a Mossad plot.

A few weeks later a vulture found in Saudi Arabia with a GPS transmitter was accused of being an unwitting Mossad operative.

And in 2012, villagers in Turkey feared a small migratory bird found dead with a ring on its leg had been an Israeli spy. Their fear proved unfounded.

Israel controls most of Gaza’s borders, coastline and airspace

More animal wars:

A huge vulture detained in Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel has been returned home after UN peacekeepers intervened, Israeli officials said.

The bird, which has a 1.9m (6ft 5in) wing span, flew over the border from an Israeli game reserve and was caught by Lebanese villagers on Tuesday.

They became suspicious as the griffon vulture had a tracking device attached to its tail.

It is part of a conservation project to reintroduce raptors to the Middle East.

Wildlife officials say the vulture was brought from Spain last year and set free about a month ago in the Gamla Nature Reserve in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Tel Aviv University is involved in tracking the bird, and as well as a GPS transmitter, it had tags on its wings and an engraved metal ring on its leg saying: “Tel Aviv Univ Israel”.

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World’s First Floating City To Emerge In The Pacific Ocean By 2020

November 15, 2017 Markozen.com Engineering

The concept of floating cities may sound like something from a science fiction novel, but it could become a reality by 2020. Seasteading Institute, a San Francisco-based nonprofit has been developing this idea since the foundation of the organization in 2008, and it has reached an agreement with the government of French Polynesia to begin testing in its waters.

“If you could have a floating city, it would essentially be a start-up country,” Joe Quirk, the president of the Seasteading Institute told the New York Times. “We can create a huge diversity of governments for a huge diversity of people.”

The community in question should consist of about a dozen structures, including homes, hotels, offices, and restaurants. Engineers and architects have already visited an undisclosed location where the project should emerge. The main aim of the idea is to “liberate humanity from politicians” and “rewrite the rules that govern society”.

Quirk claimed that building this utopian offshore will cost about $167 million. The Seasteading Institute has already received seed funding from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, however for the next phase of the project the institute hopes to hold an “initial coin offering,” a crowdfunding campaign which raises money by creating and selling virtual currency.

Floating cities are no longer science fiction

Seasteading Institute, a San Francisco-based nonprofit has been developing this idea since the foundation of the organization in 2008

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It has reached an agreement with the government of French Polynesia to begin testing in its waters

“If you could have a floating city, it would essentially be a start-up country”

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“We can create a huge diversity of governments for a huge diversity of people”

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The community in question should consist of about a dozen structures, including homes, hotels, offices, and restaurants

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Engineers and architects have already visited an undisclosed location where the project should emerge

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The main aim of the idea is to “liberate humanity from politicians” and “rewrite the rules that govern society”

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Building this utopian offshore will cost about $167 million

Watch the video below for more information

Winnipeg Crime Statistics November 15, 2017

November 15, 2017 Markozen.com Crime, Winnipeg

So far in 2017 crime in Winnipeg is slightly down from 2016. However, there is still 6 weeks to go.

The Winnipeg police seem to have gotten control of the gangs in the city, they are not killing each other like they did in past years. There was a big gang bust just this week.

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Drunken party knife homicides are way down. Maybe the revelers in the North and West Ends are wearing Kevlar vests when they crack open the 24’s of brew. Shootings are way up. It has went from street brawling with fists, to pulling out big knives, to now pulling out a snub nose 44 to settle disputes.

Relatively good year.

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Canada will be legalizing Cannabis next July. This should make a major impact on the underground black market drug trade. Less money for the gangs.

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The police will have to keep a strong presence on the streets.

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Interesting Photos from around the World

November 15, 2017 Markozen.com Geography, Images

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McDonald’s in Norway

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Great reflection

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Street lights at the Zippo factory in Bradford, Pennsylvania

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Just a Cape Cobra checking out the beach near Cape Town, South Africa.

The warm climes are nice to live in, but you do have to deal with this kind of crazy nonsense.

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Powerful Atlantic storm off the coast of Ireland

7.8 earthquake in Ecuador

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Japan earthquake 2016

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Buddies

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Photo shot using tilt frame making Florence, Italy look like a miniature.

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4 legged tree

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Surfing whales

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Maori rock sculpture in New Zealand

Clint Eastwood was one resourceful actor back in the day

November 15, 2017 Markozen.com Movies

Clint Eastwood is a renowned actor who made great action movies. He is also a very accomplished director. He is a very accomplished musician to boot. He wrote a couple musical scores for movies he directed. On top of all this he became a mountain climber for a role in a 1975 action thriller.

The film Eiger Sanction has a segment where Clint climbs the Totem Pole in Monument Valley, Arizona. When I first saw the scene I was sure a double did the climbing for Clint, but no, Clint did it all the way to the top. The Totem Pole is a pillar or rock spire found in Monument Valley. It is a highly eroded remains of a butte. It is 470 feet tall. Clint practiced mountain climbing in the Sierra Nevada range in California. Talk about taking a role seriously.

Totem Pole.

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In what is perhaps the most memorable shot of the entire film, we find Eastwood arriving atop the Totem Pole, a very thin formation reaching several hundred feet high, to a waiting George Kennedy, who sits perilously close to the edge. The shot begins at medium length, which left me wondering if the scene was shot in a studio against a panoramic backdrop. But a short time later, all within the same shot, the camera pulls back wider and wider, becoming clear this is a helicopter shot and Eastwood and Kennedy are really atop the Totem Pole.

Apparently Kennedy and his mountain climbing props were dropped off by the helicopter, while Eastwood himself actually climbed. In reality, the Totem Pole is sacred to the Navajo tribe, and it was contractually agreed upon that permission would be granted to film in exchange for removing the pitons that had accumulated on the Pole over the years. This marked the last time anyone was allowed to climb the Totem Pole, making Eastwood the last person to scale it.

The Karakoram Highway

November 14, 2017 Markozen.com Geography

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The N-35 or National Highway 35, known more popularly as the Karakoram Highway and China-Pakistan Friendship Highway, is a 1300 km national highway in Pakistan which extends from Hasan Abdal in Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan with China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist attraction, and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range, at 36°51′00″N 75°25′40″E an elevation of 4,714 metres (15,466 ft). Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway AH4.

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BUY YOUR VERY OWN ANDY WARHOL CAMPBELL’S SOUP CAN CHESS SET

November 14, 2017 Markozen.com Art

Kidrobot has partnered with The Andy Warhol Foundation to release a collectible chess set featuring the late artist’s famed Campbell’s soup cans.

The iconic pieces in turn act as the chess figures, while the multicolored board comes complete with felt accents. Each vinyl three-inch Campbell’s soup can is labeled and printed on top with its corresponding piece to avoid confusion.

You can purchase the Andy Warhol x Kidrobot Campbell’s Soup Can collector’s chess set today for $500 USD.

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Yet another male celebrity accused of sexual impropriety

November 13, 2017November 13, 2017 Markozen.com Animals, Offbeat

The accusations are seeping out of the woodwork fast and furious. From Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey to Louis C.K., sexual misconduct reports have become a non-stop cascade in the last couple weeks. And now another bombshell.

A well known pitchman for cat food is now under the microscope. Morris the Cat is accused of improper sexual advances towards Hollywood female felines.

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Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials.

Morris has appeared in other media over the years. He debuted in the Robert Altman film The Long Goodbye with Elliott Gould, and starred in the movie Shamus with Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon in 1973.
Morris also appears as a “spokescat” promoting responsible pet ownership, pet health and pet adoptions through animal shelters. To this end, he has “authored” three books: The Morris Approach, The Morris Method and The Morris Prescription. He was quoted at the 1993 “end of year” edition of People magazine which noted deaths of 1993 to which he quoted a simple “Meow” in honor of the death of his friend, fellow advertising mascot, the dog Spuds MacKenzie.
In 2006, Morris was depicted as adopting a kitten, Li’l Mo, from a Los Angeles animal shelter, representing the first adoptee in a campaign known as Morris’s Million Cat Rescue.

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Six pussies have come forward with court dipositions alleging that Morris performed groping and unwanted sexual advances towards them in his Hollywood cat-house. Morris had lured the pussy cats to his house on the pretext of unlimited moist cat food, namely 9Lives.

Morris with one of his more recent lady friends

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A few of the accusers. They have signed a tell all contract with Buzzfeed media.

Caty Purry alleges that Morris kept pawing her behind even after she hissed continuously at him.

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Cindy Clawford put out a statement alleging Morris bit her ears while she was reading a script at his Tijuana villa.

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Lickers Wigglebutt has put forward court documents accusing Morris of unwanted pouncing and groping with his claws that left her an emotional basket case.

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Morris meowed no comment as his lawyer Bengal Tom said the accusations are sour grapes and that no such bad behavior ever happened. “Morris is an upstanding citizen and highly recognized professional actor” Tom put forward in a statement to reporters. “He could have had all the pussy he wanted”, no need for excessive advances on Morris’s part”.

The Diving Horses of Atlantic City

November 13, 2017 Markozen.com Animals, Bizarre

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For nearly half a century, Atlantic City, in New Jersey, United States, was home to an attraction almost too fantastical to believe—an apparently fearless horse with a young woman on its back would leap off a tower some 40 feet high into a pool of water below. The stunt took place at Atlantic City’s popular venue Steel Pier, where trained horses took the plunge up to four times a day and seven days a week.

The idea of the diving horse was invented in Texas by ”Doctor” William Frank Carver, a 19th century sharpshooter who toured the wild west organizing shows with trained animals and shooting exhibitions. The story goes that in 1881, Carver was crossing a wooden bridge over Platte River in Nebraska when the bridge gave away, plunging him and his horse into the river. The diving horse franchise grew out this mishap, and over time it became Carver’s most favorite act on his traveling animal shows. His son, Al, helped train and take care of the horses, while his daughter, Lorena, is said to have been the first rider. By the time his future daughter-in-law, Sonora Webster, joined the show in 1923, Carver had two diving teams on the road, each performing in a different city.

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The diving horse at the Hanlan’s Point Amusement Park, Toronto, Canada.

Carver died in 1927 due to poor health aggravated by the drowning of his favorite horse. Following Carver’s death, the diving horse show continued with Al Carver at the helm. In 1928 the diving horse show came to Atlantic City and became a permanent fixture at Steel Pier for the next several decades.

Allegedly, in all the years the show ran, there was not one reported incident of injury to any of the high diving horses. However, the same cannot be said for the riders. On average there were two injuries a year, usually a broken bone or a bruise. The most serious injury in the show’s history happened to Sonora Webster, who was the best-known of the horse divers. She joined Carver’s show in 1923 and made her first dive when she was just 15.

In 1931, during a dive, her horse dove into the tank off-balance, causing her to hit the water face first. Sonora failed to close her eyes quickly enough, resulting in detached retinas that left her sightless. Despite being blinded, Sonora continued with the act for eleven more years. Her story became the subject of the 1991 Disney film Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.

Later in an interview to the New York Times, Sonora’s younger sister, Arnette Webster, remarked:

The movie made a big deal about having the courage to go on riding after she lost her sight. But, the truth was, riding the horse was the most fun you could have and we just loved it so. We didn’t want to give it up. Once you were on the horse, there really wasn’t much to do but hold on. The horse was in charge.

Horse-diving continued until 1978, when pressure from animal rights groups forced organizers to shutter the show. In 1994, Donald Trump’s organization, which owns Steel Pier now, attempted to bring back the act by featuring diving mules and miniature horses, but public protests once again brought the act to an end.

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