PC: Free Press Indiana News Rick Sparks never intended to build a village. The Tolkien fan originally planned a single Hobbit-inspired house on a 3½-acre property outside Connersville, Indiana, as a weekend getaway. Seven years later, that house has become his residence, and the site has grown into Rackshire, an 11-building fantasy village. Its Tolkienesque…

Image: Puskar Basu/ Discover Wildlife A remarkably elusive Pallas’s cat has chosen an unexpected nursery in the high-altitude village of Hanle in Ladakh. The female entered a local couple’s home through an open window and settled there with three kittens. Farmer Tsering Topgyal and his wife, Palmo, alerted the Forest Department after discovering the wild…

A retired military aircraft has found an unusual second life beneath the Red Sea after Jordan deliberately sank it off Aqaba in 2017 to create an artificial reef. The Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a roughly 30-metre-long military transport aircraft, was placed underwater on November 16, 2017, about 300 metres from the Aqaba shoreline. It now rests…

Two Michigan builder brothers bought Ypsilanti’s crumbling 1861 Gilbert Mansion for just $1 in 1986 (Image Credit: Christopher White via Realtor.com) A historic mansion in Ypsilanti, Michigan, that once appeared headed for demolition has taken a remarkable turn over the past four decades. Christopher and Steve White, two builders who had previously renovated historic properties…