Life in The World's First Upside down House

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This bizarre upside down house was created on the grounds of a German zoo. The roof is reinforced with steel girders

A meal down under: All the dining room utensils had to be stuck on individually.

A confused visitor checks out the kitchen

Bathroom inside the unusual 40-tonne wooden house in Gettorf

KOMPAS.com - Looking at this house you could be forgiven for thinking the world had turned upside down. Standing on a pointed roof and supported by steel beams in the attic, the house amazes neighbours  and passers-by alike.

And inside the front door things are even weirder - everything from the bathroom to the fruit bowl on the kitchen table are hanging over head. The 23ft-tall house has an upside-down kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom.  It was also built on a slight incline to challenge the viewer's perspective still further.

Thankfully the topsy-turvy building was not designed to be lived in. Instead it was created for a local zoo in Gettorf, Germany. Local carpenter Gerhard Mordhorst and his colleagues Gesellse Splettstößer and Manfred Kolax put the unusual building together.

'It was a challenge for us,' Mr Mordhorst said.

'You had to constantly think of the mirror image.'

They described the job as the 'craziest' one they had been asked to do and found the bathroom the trickiest to put together because of bulky items like the shower.

In total they screwed 50 separate pieces into the floor-ceiling, including beds, tables, a microwave and pictures. The heaviest piece of furniture was a 100lb wardrobe with mirror.

The men spent months to perfect every little detail and even took to needle and thread to keep the bed linen in place. But Mr Splettstößer said their pains were worth it.

'It's a nice feeling, so to make something unique,' he said.

The zoo owners hope the house will give visitors a 'totally new perspective on a familiar view.'

The 'crazy house' is reminiscent of a home described in Roald Dahl's children's book The Twits. In the children's story a group of monkeys are forced to hang upside down by their owners. They have their revenge by sticking all of the couple's furniture to the ceiling and convince them to stand on their heads.

The 'crazy' house was thought up by Hamburg investor Dirk Oster. He will open it to the public on March 30.

Diknas Ingin Ujian Nasional Digelar Online

Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Mohammad Nuh berharap ujian nasional (UN) di masa depan bisa digelar secara online lewat akses internet di sekolah. Saat ini, efektivitasnya masih diuji terlebih dulu melalui program Try Out UN Online.

"Kita tunggu saja hasil evaluasi Try Out online yang digelar Telkom. Kalau soal anggaran tidak usah ditanyakan. Berapa butuhnya, nanti saya bayar, kita kan punya anggaran triliunan," kata Nuh di sela try-out online di gedung Telkom.

Berdasarkan keterangan tertulisnya, Senin (15/3/2010), program Try Out Online ini digelar Telkom mulai 15 hingga 20 Maret 2010. Sedangkan ujian nasional dijadwalkan pada tanggal 22 hingga 26 Maret 2010.

Telkom sendiri diharapkan dapat mendukung program pemerintah untuk meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan dengan mencapai tingkat kelulusan yang lebih tinggi.

Try Out UN Online baru dilakukan di enam kota di wilayah barat, seperti Sumatera, Jabodetabek, dan Jawa Barat. Namun tak menutup kemungkinan akan menjangkau seluruh daerah di tanah air.

"Kita lakukan secara bertahap sebab Indonesia ini luas. Bayangkan ada berapa jumlah sekolah di negara kita. Kalau langsung diterapkan ke semua daerah, jaringan kita bisa down," seloroh Direktur Network Solution Telkom, Ermady Dahlan.

Namun, ia punya harapan agar program yang jadi inisiatif Telkom ini dapat menjadi program rutin Kementerian Diknas. "UN secara resmi akan dilakukan mulai tanggal 22 Maret nanti, artinya tinggal tinggal beberapa hari lagi. Ya, kita tunggu program ini efektif atau tidak," ujarnya.

Menurutnya, jika evaluasi nanti hasilnya cukup memuaskan, pemerintah akan coba menerapkannya secara nasional. "Kalau semua murid di Indonesia jadi pintar, Telkom juga yang akan diuntungkan. Penggunaan internet Speedy akan tumbuh pesat," tandas Ermadi.

"Kiamat" Bukan 2012 Tapi 2013

LAPAN (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional) memperkirakan puncak siklus badai matahari bukan terjadi pada 2012. Peristiwa yang kerap dihubungkan dengan 'hari kiamat' itu bakal terjadi pada Oktober 2013.

Demikian disampaikan Kepala Bidang Aplikasi Geomagnet dan Magnet Antarika Lapan Clara Yono Yantini pada sosialisasi mengenai Fenomena Cuaca Antariksa 2012 hingga 2015 di Kampus Universitas Udayana, Jl Sudirman, Denpasar, Selasa (9/3/2010). Sosialisasi ini dihadiri puluhan ilmuwan dari Asia Tenggara, Jepang dan Rusia.

Perkiraan ini berbeda dengan isu kiamat 2012 yang diramalkan Suku Maya. Masyarakat pun banyak menghubungjan antara badai matahari tersebut dengan isu kiamat 2012.

"Siklus matahari terjadi pada rentang waktu 2010-2015. Puncak siklusnya, menurut perkiraan Lapan, terjadi pada bulan Oktober 2013. Penelitian oleh negara lain juga memperkirakan terjadi pada pertengahan 2013," kata Clara yang juga sebagai Peneliti Bidang Matahari dan Antariksa Lapan.

Lapan menjelaskan badai matahari akan mundur pada 2013 karena hingga saat ini belum menemukan tanda-tanda adanya aktivitas matahari yang ekstrim sebagai puncak siklus.

Siklus matahari terjadi rata-rata sekitar 11 tahun. Siklus ini menunjukkan adanya masa awal, puncak dan akhir siklus. Saat ini, matahari sedang mengalami siklus ke-24. Saat, puncak aktivitas matahari terjadi ledakan besar di matahari.

"Ini tentu mempengaruhi kondisi cuaca antarika, termasuk menyebabkan gangguan di Bumi," kata Clara.

Efek akibat aktivitas puncak matahari ini menyebabkan terjadinya perubahan iklim. Suhu bumi akan meningkat dan iklim berubah. Partikel-partikel matahari yang menembus lapisan atmosfer bumi akan mempengaruhi cuaca dan iklim bumi. Dampak yang paling ekstrim menyebabkan kemarau panjang. "Ini yang masih dikaji para peneliti," ujar Clara.

Ghosts Trapped in Holy Water for Sale

Daily Mail

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Message in a bottle: Ms Woodbury decided to get rid of Les the ghost and his fellow unnamed spirit from her New Zealand home

KOMPAS.com - A New Zealand woman has solved the mystery of what gift to get for the person who has everything. But she's raised a whole lot of other questions in the process.

Avie Woodbury claimed she was so tired of being haunted that she called in an exorcist to rid her house of two ghosts. The exorcist trapped the spirits in bottles of holy water - which Ms Woodbury has now put up for sale on internet auction site TradeMe.

'The holy water dulls the spirits' energy, sort of puts them to sleep' she said.

Ms Woodbury added: 'We have had no activity since they were bottled on July 15th 2009 . So I believe they are in the bottles.'

Bids on TradeMe have already shot as high as NZD$2,000 (£923).

'I just want to get rid of them as they scare me,' Ms Woodbury, from Christchurch City in Canterbury, wrote on the site. 'But someone might like these to play with.'

For the ghosts can be released from the bottles, she explained.

'To revive the spirit, I have been told that you pour into a little dish and let it evaporate into your house,' she wrote on the website.

The bottles are carefully labelled so users can tell which ghost they are releasing, she claimed. Ms Woodbury said she had managed to identify one of the ghosts as a man named Les Graham, who died in her house in the 1920s.

The exorcist, from a spiritualist church, told her that Les likes to spook people - but is a weak ghost. The other spirit, that of an unidentified little girl, is far stronger, the exorcist claimed.

She 'likes to move things and turn things on and off,' Ms Woodbury said. The auction has drawn plenty of interest - not the least from sceptics.

'What do you reckon would happen if I were to pour these into a shot glass and drink them?' one user wrote. Another wanted to know if the little girl does anything 'constructive, like put the dishes away?'

Others drew the inevitable comparisons to the hit 80s movie Ghostbusters, warning Ms Woodbury not to 'cross the streams' if she were to capture any more ghosts. A final user quipped that he, also, was the proud owner of two spirits in bottles - adding that their names were Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker.

But, with two days of the sale still left to go and the price tag swiftly approaching £1,000, it seems it will be Ms Woodbury who has the last laugh. The sale closes on Monday.