Month: July 2021

How Did Nicolas Cage Blow Through A $150 Million Dollar Fortune

Aside Markozen.com Celebrities


I always liked Nick Cage as an actor. ‘Raising Arizona’ got me hooked, very funny movie. But how did this guy waste so much money?

One person who definitely knows what it feels like to owe a little bit of money to Uncle Sam is Nicolas Cage. Nick is unfortunately one of dozens of high profile celebrities who happen to be way better at acting or throwing a ball than they are at taking care of their personal finances. After years of extravagant over-spending, not only did Nicolas find himself owing the IRS $13 million, but he also managed to blow through a $100 million fortune. How, in the name of ZEUS’ BUTTHOLE, did this happen?

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I have to admit, Nicolas Cage is probably my favorite actor of all time. The Rock, Lord of War, Con Air, National Treasure, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, Snake Eyes… I celebrate the man’s entire catalog. I realize that some of Nick’s movies can be perceived as slightly cheesy or even flat out bad, but you have to admit his movies are rarely dull. At the peak of his career, Nick was one of the highest paid celebrities in the world who pulled down as much as $40 million per year. Between 1996 and 2011 Nick earned more than $150 million from acting alone. He earned $16 million for Snake Eyes, $20 million for Gone in Sixty Seconds, $20 million for Windtalkers, $20 million for National Treasure… just to name a few.

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Nick Cage’s $1 Million Ferrari Enzo

Not surprisingly, as his income went up so did his spending habits. Actually, to be fair, as his income increased Nick’s spending habits SKYROCKETED. Between 2000 and 2007 Nick went on a spending spree that would make the Sultan of Brunei blush. During that time Cage made the following purchases:

15 Personal Homes: Cage’s property portfolio included an $8 million castle in England that he plunged millions more into remodeling. He never spent a single night in the castle. He also bought a second castle in Bavaria, two multi-million dollar mansions in New Orleans, a $17.5 million palace in Bel Air, a $10 million Malibu beach house, a 24,000 square foot home in Rhode Island, a mansion in Las Vegas and a getaway property on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

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Bel Air mansion

A Private Island: Apparently having a house on Paradise Island didn’t fill Nick’s penchant for the Bahamas because in 2006 he spent $7 million on a 40 acre private island 85 miles south of Nassau.

Four Luxury Yachts: Cage at one time owned four luxury yachts including one called Sarita that had 12 master bedrooms that was valued at $20 million.

A Fleet of Exotic Cars: At its peak, Nick Cage’s garage contained dozens of high end luxury vehicles including nine Rolls Royces. He owned an extremely rare $500 thousand Lamborghini and a $1 million Ferrari Enzo, one of only 349 produced. Cage also owned 30 motorcycles.

A $30 Million Gulfstream Private Jet

Other: Nearly 50 expensive works of art, dozens of jewels, a 67 million year old dinosaur skull, two extremely rare albino King Cobras.

When you total everything up, it becomes pretty clear that Nick was living well beyond his means even for a guy who makes $40 million a year. To make matters worse, while he was spending money like there was no tomorrow, Nick wasn’t paying his taxes. By 2009, his unpaid tax bill and penalties totaled more than $13 million! Nick immediately began attempting to dump as many of his assets as possible, starting with the houses. It didn’t help that 2009 was quite possibly the worst time in the last 100 years to try and sell a house in a pinch.

The good news is that Nick is still a bankable Hollywood star. In 2013 alone Nick has starred in several big budget films. He also sold his prized Action Comics #1 for a record setting $2.16 million. Hopefully Nick can churn out a few decent movies, pay down his debts and move on with his life. Fortunately, agent Stanley Goodspeed loves pressure. He eats it for breakfast.

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Now worth around $25 million (as of May 2017), Cage is reportedly “taking [film] roles left and right” in order to pay off his remaining debts.

A very Big helicopter for the very Big jobs

Aside Markozen.com Aviation

The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is an American twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter. It is the civil version of the United States Army’s CH-54 Tarhe. The S-64 Aircrane is the current production version, manufactured by the Erickson Air-Crane company.

The Sikorsky S-64 was designed as an enlarged version of the prototype flying crane helicopter, the Sikorsky S-60. The S-64 had a six-blade main rotor and was powered by two 4,050 shaft horsepower (3,020 kW) Pratt & Whitney JFTD12A turboshaft engines. The prototype S-64 first flew on 9 May 1962 and was followed by two further examples for evaluation by the German armed forces. The Germans did not place an order, but the United States Army placed an initial order for six S-64A helicopters (with the designation YCH-54A Tarhe). Seven S-64E variants were built by Sikorsky for the civil market.

The early military versions

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Notice the insignia on the beast above is the 1st Air Cavalry Division. Colonel Kilgore’s unit from Apocalypse Now

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Originally a Sikorsky Aircraft product, the type certificate and manufacturing rights were purchased from them by Erickson Air-Crane in 1992.

Since that time, Erickson Air-Crane has become the manufacturer and world’s largest operator of S-64 Aircranes and has made over 1,350 changes to the airframe, instrumentation, and payload capabilities of the helicopter. The Aircrane can be fitted with a 2,650-gallon (~10,000 litre) fixed retardant tank to assist in the control of bush fires, and it has proved itself admirably in this role.

S-64 Aircranes have been sold to the Italian and Korean Forest Services for fire suppression and emergency response duties. Those in the Erickson Air-Crane fleet are leased worldwide to organizations, companies, and Federal Government agencies for either short-term or longer term use in fire suppression, civil protection, heavy lift construction, and timber harvesting.

Erickson is manufacturing new S-64s, as well as remanufacturing existing CH-54s. Erickson gives each of its S-64s an individual name, the best-known being “Elvis”, used in fighting fires in Australia alongside “The Incredible Hulk” and “Isabelle”. Other operators, such as Siller Brothers, have followed with their Sikorsky S-64E, Andy’s Pride. The Erickson S-64E nicknamed “Olga” was used to lift the top section of the CN Tower into place in Toronto, Canada.

Erickson currently operates 20 Air-Cranes.

Erickson Air-Cranes being used for energy infrastructure placement

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Fire Fighting

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Logging

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Other uses include moving heavy AC equipment to high rooftops.

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Placing the refurbished statue on top of the Capital dome in Washington D.C.

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General characteristics

  • Crew: 3 (pilot, co-pilot), plus one engineer or rear-facing observer
  • Capacity: up to 5 total persons
  • Payload: 20,000 lb (9,072 kg)
  • Length: 70 ft 3 in (21.41 m (fuselage))
  • Rotor diameter: 72 ft 0 in (21.95 m)
  • Height: 18 ft 7 in (5.67 m)
  • Disc area: 4070 ft² (378.1 m²)
  • Empty weight: 19,234 lb (8,724 kg)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 42,000 lb (19,050 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney JFTD12-4A (T73-P-1) turboshaft engines, 4,500 shp (3,555 kW) each

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 109 knots (126 mph, 203 km/h)
  • Cruise speed: 91 knots (105 mph, 169 km/h)
  • Range: 200 nmi (230 mi, 370 km) max fuel and reserves
  • Rate of climb: 1,330 ft/min (6.75 m/s)

Worst Costumes at Comic Con

Aside Markozen.com Offbeat

San Diego Comic-Con International is a multigenre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego, California.

Originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fantasy related film, television, and similar popular arts, the convention now includes a larger range of pop culture and entertainment elements across virtually all genres, including horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. According to Forbes, the convention is the “largest convention of its kind in the world;” Publishers Weekly wrote “Comic-Con International: San Diego is the largest show in North America;” it is also the largest convention held in San Diego. In 2010, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees.

The 2021 comic-con has been postponed until 2022, There is an online event however.

Many attendees adorn costumes of their favourite characters, the results can be funny, and lets say, embarrassing.

Some eclectic costumes

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Lots of effort went into this disaster

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Bringing the Orion Slave Girls down a notch

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Oh Wonder Woman! What have they done?

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The Storied History of San Francisco’s Cliff House

Aside Markozen.com Buildings

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Cliff House 1890

 The first Cliff House was built in 1858, above Ocean Beach, in west San Francisco. It has been rebuilt five times since for various reasons, such as remodeling or damage.

In 1894, the third, and most photographed, incarnation of the house was built by Adolph Sutro, a successful mining engineer. Sutro built the seven-story mansion in Victorian style, an elaborately decorated structure dubbed the “Gingerbread House.” It was a hotel for most of its incarnation.

Cliff House was the scene of a number of historic events, including several shipwrecks. A wreck in 1887 caused damage to the second Cliff House when the dynamite on the ship exploded. The first ship-to-shore transmission, using Morse Code, was received here in 1899 and in 1905; the first radio voice transmission was sent from the house to a point a mile and a half away.

–“Select a table next to one of the western windows and order a breakfast that is served here better than any place we have tried. This breakfast will consist of broiled breast of young turkey, served with broiled Virginia ham with a side dish of corn fritters. We have discovered nothing that makes so complete a breakfast as this.”Clarence E. Edwards, 1914–

Cliff House survived the earthquake that struck San Francisco in 1906 with only minor damage. It burned to the ground the following year, however. Sutro’s daughter began the construction of a new Cliff House restaurant in 1908, but on a vastly smaller scale. And so it is today.

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In 1937, George and Leo Whitney purchased the Cliff House, to complement their Playland-at-the-Beach attraction nearby, and extensively remodelled it into an American roadhouse. From 1955 until 1961, a sky tram operated across the Sutro Baths basin, taking up to 25 visitors at a time from Point Lobos, enhanced by an artificial waterfall, to the outer balcony of the Cliff House.

In the 1960s, upon the closing of Playland, the Musée Mécanique, a museum of 20th-century penny arcade games, was moved into the basement of the Cliff House. The building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1977 and became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

In 2003, as part of an extensive renovation, many of Whitney’s additions were removed and the building was restored to its 1909 appearance. A new two-story wing was constructed overlooking what were by then the ruins of the Sutro Baths. (The Baths burned to the ground on June 26, 1966). During the site restoration, the Musée Mécanique was moved to Fisherman’s Wharf.

More than thirty ships have been pounded to pieces on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House.

The area immediately around Cliff House is part of the setting of Jack London’s novel The Scarlet Plague (1912).

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Bin Laden receives new batch of Virgins in Jihadi Heaven

Aside Markozen.com Terrorism

In August, 2001, the American television channel CBS aired an interview with a Hamas activist Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: “I described to him how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness.”  There are also reports of unlimited free wine.

Shark Attacks

Aside Markozen.com Animals


A diver has died after being attacked by a shark in front of his daughter, off the Tasmanian coast in Australia. The pair were collecting scallops near the town of Triabunna on Saturday morning when the attack happened.

The woman returned to their boat with the shellfish, but became concerned after her father, who was in his late 40s, did not resurface. She jumped back into the water to check on him and saw him being mauled by “a very large shark”, according to police.

“She immediately returned to the surface where she raised the alarm through setting off a flare and by making an emergency phone call,” said Tasmania Police Inspector David Wiss.

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Earlier sighting

Sailors in the area rushed to the scene and hauled the man from the sea using the air line he was attached too.

But his injuries were too severe and he was pronounced dead.

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The term shark attack is used to describe an attack on a human by a shark. Every year around 75 attacks are reported worldwide. Despite their relative rarity, many people fear shark attacks after occasional serial attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and horror fiction and films such as the Jaws series. Out of more than 480 shark species, only three are responsible for two-digit number of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger and bull; however, the oceanic whitetip has probably killed many more castaways, not recorded in the statistics.

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Actor Robert Shaw between takes during the filming of the movie “Jaws.”

Lil Durk: Grammy-nominated US rapper in shootout with intruders

Aside Markozen.com Crime

US rapper Lil Durk, who was nominated for two Grammy Awards earlier this year, has been involved in a shootout with intruders at his home.

Georgia police said the residents exchanged gunfire with several suspects on Sunday, but were not injured.

The Chicago star has been touched by gun violence before, with several relatives and members of his circle reported to have been shot dead.

In June, his new album hit number one in the US and number five in the UK.

The 28-year-old has had 33 songs in the US Hot 100 chart so far this year, more than any other artist, according to Billboard.

And the song Laugh Now Cry Later, his collaboration with Drake, was up for best rap song and best melodic rap performance at the Grammys.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told BBC News that officers had been called to “an aggravated assault/home invasion incident” early on Sunday.

“During the incident, the suspects and the residents exchanged gunfire. The residents were not injured during the incident,” she said.

Real name Durk Derrick Banks, he is himself facing attempted murder charges relating to a 2019 incident.

What is it with Rappers and gun violence? It’s so common.