“At 72,000 square feet, a gigantic private residence being built south of Ozark is stirring plenty of talk — at home and far way. Todd Wiesehan, planning and zoning administrator for Christian County, is fielding calls from all over the U.S. about the massive home. “It’s got to the point where it’s capturing national attention,” he said. The residence — called Pensmore — is to be the home of Steven Huff, chairman of Wisconsin-based TF Concrete Forming Systems. Huff has family ties in Missouri, Wiesehan said. It’s not clear why Huff is building such a large home — messages left at his office were not returned — but a website does try to explain its existence, much to the relief of Wiesehan… All the speculation over its sheer size — once completed, it will be considered one of the largest residential homes in the U.S. — and the fact that it’s being made of concrete has caused plenty of rumors to go around, Wiesehan said.” w/ photos

“The largest gun ever built was the ‘Gustav Gun’ built in Essen, Germany in 1941 by the firm of Friedrich Krupp A.G. Upholding a tradition of naming heavy cannon after family members, the Gustav Gun was named after the invalid head of the Krupp family – Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The strategic weapon of its day, the Gustav Gun was built at the direct order of Adolf Hitler for the express purpose of crushing Maginot Line forts protecting the French frontier. To accomplish this, Krupp designed a giant railway gun weighing 1,344 tons with a bore diameter of 31.5″ and served by a 500 man crew commanded by a major-general. Two types of projectiles were fired using a 3,000lb. charge of smokeless powder: a 10,584 lb. high explosive (HE) shell and a 16,540 lb. concrete-piercing projectile. Craters from the HE shells measured 30-ft. wide and 30-ft. deep while the concrete piercing projectile proved capable of penetrating 264-ft. of reinforced concrete before exploding! Maximum range was 23 miles with HE shells and 29 miles with concrete piercing projectiles. Muzzle velocity was approximately 2700 f.p.s.” w/ photos

“This skier really meant it when he said he was going off-piste as he leapt off a mountain cliff face and landed safely 600 feet below. Daredevil Tomas Bergemalm, 35, decided to try the extreme drop as one of his last challenges before spending more time with his wife and family. And luckily for his beloved Fia and their young son Noah, he managed to pull it off and made it home without a scratch. The breathtaking stunt was a culmination of Mr Bergemalm and photographer Patrik Lindqvist’s vision to push the sport of skiing to its limits.” w/ photos

“Why did the Squirrel cross the road? To be able to see a Lamborghini LP670-4 SV pass by at 100+ MPH.” — socalspeedzone

“A bar bill that runs into six figures might cause more than a headache the next morning for most people. But when you’re a millionaire American gambler buying the world’s most expensive bottle of champagne it’s just a case of using up small change. Gambler Don Johnson, 49, broke the world record at a London nightclub for the most expensive bottle of bubbly ever bought during a night that saw him spend $271,000 on drinks.” w/ photos

“The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion. That’s more than NASA’s budget. It’s more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It’s what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia. “When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we’re talking over $20 billion,” Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. Anderson is a retired brigadier general who served as Gen. David Patreaus’ chief logistician in Iraq. Why does it cost so much?” w/ photos

“Apparently, it costs a ton of money to operate iTunes. We know that there are 15 billion songs downloaded on iTunes, 130 million books downloaded, and 14 billion apps downloaded along with $2.5 bill paid out to developers. Along with that data, market intelligence firm Asymco took some other figures, worked the numbers, and came up with what it thinks iTunes costs to operate. The number is a whopping $1.3 billion each year. That works out to about $113 million monthly! That is a lot of money no matter how you slice it.” w/ photos

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch, at least not with Warren Buffett. An anonymous bidder paid $2,626,411 to eat lunch with the legendary Berkshire Hathaway investor, setting an eBay record – sort of. Bidding closed at $2,345,678, which would not have been a record, so once the auction closed, the bidder jacked up the price. Proceeds benefit go to the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco. Buffett offers himself up as a lunch companion every year in an annually auction that has raised nearly $9 million in the last 12 years. Last year, an anonymous bidder paid $2.6 million, and in 2008, a Chinese investment fund manager paid $2.11 million. “I’ve met a lot of nice people through this,” Buffett said.” w/ photo

“These stunning aerial images of a King Penguin colony in South Georgia show just how extraordinary penguin parenting really is. In what looks to be the world’s largest creche, thousands of King Penguins instinctively herd their recently born young into giant huddles to stop them freezing to death. Parental instinct takes over in the inhospitable climate of the South Atlantic and the chicks with their long, brown, downy coats are made to crowd together to retain their body warmth in the equivalent of bird creches – visible as brown swathes on our photo. Meanwhile their extraordinary parents waddle down to the shore to bring back dinner for their offspring.” w/ photos

“I felt that from here… and i’m in Jersey!”