“The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather “jacket”. The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Military officer carries the “football”, which carries nuclear launch codes, on South Lawn after returning with U.S. President George W. Bush to the White House January 7, 2002 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Construction continues on One World Trade Center (TALLEST BUILDING AT LOWER LEFT) as the memorial footprints of the twin towers are seen (BOTTOM C) on August 12, 2011 in New York City. Upon completion, One World Trade Center will be New York's tallest skyscraper, topping out at a symbolic 1,776 feet, with 3 million square feet of office space. More than 2,700 people were killed when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked U.S. passenger jets and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Nearly ten years after the crippling attacks on Lower Manhattan, business, tourism and new construction like One World Trade Center have rejuvenated the formerly devastated cityscape.(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“A Double Eagle is a gold coin of the United States with a denomination of $20. (Its gold content of 0.9675 troy oz was worth $20 at the then official price of $20.67/oz). The coins are made from a 90% gold (0.900 fine = 21.6 kt) and 10% copper alloy”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A “Double Eagle” gold twenty dollar coin is displayed above a catalogue picture showing the reverse side of the coin at Goldsmith's Hall on March 2, 2012 in London, England. Nearly half a million of these coins were originally minted in the midst of the Great Depression in the US. Only 13 are known today after the rest were melted down before they ever left the US Mint, sacrificed as part of a strategy to stabalise the American economy. In 2002 a Double Eagle sold at auction for $7.6 million. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

“Sixteen pilot whales died when they became stranded at Pittenweem, near St Andrews, on Sunday morning, Forth Coastguard said.

The mammals were part of a group of 26, of which 10 were refloated and returned to sea by vets and more than 50 volunteers from the emergency services and British Divers Marine Life Rescue. The whales were kept cool and hydrated with wet blankets and sheets on the shore”. – WalesOnline

Photo: Emergency service personnel walk near beached whales as they continue in their rescue attempt to save a large number of pilot whales who have beached on September 1, 2012 in Pittenweem, Scotland. A number of whales have died after being stranded on the east coast of Scotland between Anstruther and Pittenweem. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)

Inga Paltser is a young painter from Severodvinsk known for her watercolor illustrations and paintings of owls. Inga prefers working with paper, but sometimes also creates on textile, wood, and canvas. She started painting in her childhood at the local school of arts. However, after high school Inga decided to become a biologist and now she works as a researcher. Even though art hasn’t become her profession, Inga finds time to create wonderful paintings presented on this website. Her first owls were painted spontaneously – Inga decided to utilize small pieces of watercolor and pastel paper and created two cute owls called “Friends”. Inga’s owls instantly received recognition across the web and social networks and now are greatly loved by thousands of people around the world.

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Dunnottar Castleis a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-east coast of Scotland, about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Dunnottar has played a prominent role in the history of Scotland through to the 18th-century Jacobite risings because of its strategic location and the strength of its situation. Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, were hidden from Oliver Cromwell's invading army in the 17th century. The property of the Keiths from the 14th century, and the seat of the Earl Marischal, Dunnottar declined after the last Earl forfeited his titles by taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. The castle was restored in the 20th century and is now open to the public.

Welcome to Cardboard Box Office – our homemade creations of some of your favorite movie scenes built from some of our favorite domestic junk. The project began after finding that we had accumulated both a lot of cardboard boxes (due to moving to a new country) and a baby (due to giving birth). With our social lives drastically altered we decided to find a way to make some of those housebound weekends a little more fun. The costumes, props, and sets in Cardboard Box Office are created entirely out of everyday household items, toys, cardboard, and three individuals slowly losing their sanity. Enjoy!