Author: Paul

Antilia Tower is the home of the Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family. When you factor in the cost of both the land and the construction, this is the most expensive personally owned residence in the world (Buckingham Palace has a higher value, but it is property of the Crown).

Antilia is 27 stories high, but those stories are extra-high, so it’s height is representative of a 60 story building. The Ambani’s have a staff of over 600 people at the residence to service the 5 full time residents and 49,000 square feet. Each story is completely different from all others by design. There is a “Snow room” that has equipment spitting out artificial snow so that the Ambani’s and their guests can build snowmen in the 40°C+ temperatures of Mumbai.

By A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace) –

The building is the subject of many, many controversies. Among them include:

• The building is seen as an example of the vast rift between the rich and poor in Indian Society. Ratan Tata, the former chairman of The Tata Group, reportedly said about Antilia, “It makes me wonder why someone would do that. That’s what revolutions are made of.”
• The land was previously deeded as a waqf to an orphanage. Transferring the land should not have been legal, and the price paid was slightly more than 10% of it’s prevailing market value. The land issue seems to have gone away based on several additional payments to various government organizations.
• The Indian Navy has a standing restriction on helipads in that area of Mumbai. The buildings 3 helipads have also been the source of various noise complaints.
• The building’s car park has numerous licensing and potentially structural issues

Those who found this architectural nightmare before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Lighthouse
• Eloy Cano
• Phil Ower
• Ashwini Agrawal
• Garfield
• hhgygy
• Steve Hoge
• Glenmorren
• Ann K.

And those who stayed behind sharpening the pitchforks and wrapping the torches until the hint:

• Maureen
• Chris Nason

Built on what used to be an orphanage for about $1 billion.

This simply has to be the most polite land dispute in history (though Saint Martin/Sint Maarten is pretty close).

This is what the place looks like:

and this is where it is:

According to a 1933 ruling by the “Permanent Court of International Justice” (which, oddly enough, no longer exists), Hans belongs to the Danish, but given that it is actually slightly closer to Canada, and the fact that when the League of Nations was dissolved, the power of the court went away as well so rulings from that court no longer had the rule of law, the Canadians have laid claim to the land.

From time to time, the Danish will drop by the island, raise the flag of Greenland, and leave a bottle of Brandy. Sometime later, the Canadian military will swing by and change flags, take the brandy, and leave a bottle of Canadian whiskey. Rinse, repeat.

There are negotiations to jointly administer this bare chunk of uninhabited rock with no natural resources, but in the meantime, the internet is having a lot of fun with the “whiskey war”. See, for example, this tongue in cheek website.

Those who have no respect whatsoever for 1933’s justice and found it because it is listed as a “dispute” included:

• Glenmorren
• Garfield
• hhgygy
• Lighthouse
• Phil Ower
• marisa boraas
• Robin
• Eloy Cano
• Maureen
• Tim
• Max_Power
• Junebug

And those who just assumed all along it was part of Greenland, so they couldn’t find it until the hint made them realize there was some sort of controversy:

• Ann K.
• Romano
• Steve J
• Joe9000

Not likely to see any blood shed over this.

Originally founded around 143 BCE, Chengdu Shishi tries to lay claim to being the oldest school in the world. Because the school has been destroyed and rebuilt several times (even though it is on the same site), and there have been periods when it was not in use, the claim of being the oldest is usually disputed by schools like Kings School in Canterbury, England, which has been continuously in operation since the 6th century.

Those who made it to class on time included:

• Lighthouse
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• hhgygy

And those who were tardy but still get a point:

• LawnBoy
• Junebug
• Maureen
• Ann K.
• Ashwini Agrawal
• Eloy Cano
• RicardPG
• steven simmons
• Chris Nason
• Max_Power
• Glenmorren
• Paul Voestermans
• joe9000

At the time the first iteration of this institution was founded, the city was called “The Brocade City”. Because it has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times, the folks in Canterbury don’t like anyone calling it “The Oldest …”.

An active stratovolcano with a large caldera lake (named “Heaven Lake”), Mt Paetku sits on the Chinese/North Korea border.

Following the death of Kim Jong-Il in December of 2011, the official, state-sanctioned broadcaster for North Korea, KCNA (Korean Central News Agency), reported some serious things happening on Mount Paetku.

The official line is that Mr. Kim was born there (even though Soviet records show him as being born in Vyatskoye in far eastern Russia while his father was stationed there during WWII). Upon the mountain realizing that he died, KCNA states that a furious snow storm paused and the ice built up on the lake cracked so loud “it seemed to shake the Heavens and the Earth”. They further reported that following the storm’s sudden end, the metal signs that Kim had installed in 1992 on the mountain that spell out”Mount Paektu, holy mountain of revolution. Kim Jong-il. 1992-2-16″ – glowed brightly until sunset.

Those who embraced the glow included:

• Lighthouse
• Eloy Cano
• Robin
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• hhgygy
• Glenmorren
• Max_Power
• Ann K.
• steven simmons