The Washington Post reported on Friday that the DOD is taking what was supposed to be a decommissioned warship and turning it into a large floating base, reportedly headed to the Middle East somewhere.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

In late December, the citizens of Nago, a town in Okinawa's impoverished rural north, voted by 54% to 46% not to let the American Marine Corps moor a floating helicopter base off the beach, near its existing Camp Schwab.

ECONOMIST: Left on the beach

Royal Dutch Shell, an oil company, will use Darwin as a maintenance base for a floating processing plant for LNG from the Prelude field off Western Australia.

ECONOMIST: Australia��s Northern Territory: Northern lights | The

And there are plenty of variations on the theme: A version of the Levitron called "Floating Ideas" gives you a base over which you can float a variety of objects, including models of the space shuttle, a VW Beetle and a picture frame.

FORBES: Toys Your Techie Friends Will Love

Floating-rate mortgages last year reduced many borrowers' payment burden as the Bank of England dropped its base rate to 0.5% and lenders adjusted their standard variable rates downward in response.

ECONOMIST: Houses and prices