Alligator wrestling has been a big part of Seminole culture, and a popular sport, until the 1990s. Now, Seminole entrepreneurs hope to bring it back to its former glory, and make a fortune, in the process.

The Seminole Indians have come a long way, from living and hunting in swamp areas, to owning the Hard Rock chain of restaurants and hotels. Now they’re getting involved in a business venture closely tied to their native culture: alligator wrestling.

Richard Bowers, president of the Seminole Indian tribe of south Florida, says alligator wrestling has immense growth potential as long as there’s always going to be a part of the population who will want to see blood sports. And it doesn’t get much bloodier than going toe to toe with a reptile that could turn a human limb from limb.

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Alligator wrestlers have ten minutes to get the alligator out of its water-hole, somehow drag it to dry land, where each shows off a series of tricks, like kissing the gators or placing their heads and hands between the reptiles’ jaws. The prize money for this sort of competition adds up to around $10,000.

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Men with sticks watch vigilantly, in case one of the competitors is caught in a dreaded “death-roll”, by the alligators, but spectators are advised to just sit down and watch the carnage, in case anything goes wrong. After all, if an alligator wrestler gets bitten, there’s not much anyone else can do to help.

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

Photo by ALEX QUESADA

via TimesOnline

I know there’s nothing weird about babes stripping for husbands, but the title can be a bit misleading.

On a drizzling morning, a group of eight young girls, from Guangzhou, China, showed up near a local metro station, and started handing out fliers to male passers-by. There was nothing overly odd about them, apart from the masks covering their faces.

All of a sudden, music began playing, and the girls started dancing while holding signs that read stuff like “Marry me, please!” or “My mum’s been pestering me to get married. Marry me, please!” Their dance quickly turned into a striptease act, with the girls tossing off their clothes, all the way to their underwear.

The unusual even attracted over 100 curious onlookers, as well as several vehicles stopping by to check out what was going on. People were cheering, clapping or taken pictures, but their joy was short-lived, as the metro station staff quickly crashed the party.

In an interview with Guangzhou Daily, the mysterious dancers explained their behavior. Although they are young, attractive and successful, they haven’t been able to find a suitable husband. Most of them blame it on their professional careers, which apparently scare men away. “Some guys hesitate to date us because of our high qualifications. We hope we can find our other halfs, through this,” said Xingzi, the leader of the group.

Sadly, the public stripping didn’t help much either, and many of the men watching their performance shook their heads in disapproval, when asked if they would date the girls.

Photos via mop.com

Over 900 people took part in the World’s Longest Lunch event, during the 2010 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

On March 12, Melbourne weather was almost perfect for the longest lunch in the world. nearly 1,000 hungry strangers gathered at a 400-meter-long table, and enjoyed several scrumptious dishes and various types of wine. The oriental theme of this unusual event included entertainment like dragon dances, martial arts and parasol dancers.

But the true unsung heroes of the 2010 World’s Longest Lunch were the servers. This disciplined fleet of swift-footed soldiers made sure everyone was served almost at the same time. And that’s no small feet.

Photos by Agencies via CCTV

Toby Elles, a 22-year-old from Lancaster, Britain, set off to make himself a late-night snack, but got a lot more than he bargained for.

After drinking a few beers with his housemate, Toby thought some bacon would make a great snack before hitting the sack, so he put it into the frying pan, turned on the oven and lied down on the couch. An hour later, he woke up to a house filled with smoke and, worse still, burned bacon. It was a true culinary disaster that could have had dire consequences.

But after scraping the bacon off the pan, young Toby Elles learned miracles can  be born out of disasters. The face of Jesus Christ was staring back at him, from the pan! The greasy image had eyes, nose and all the distinctive features of our Lord. Toby now thinks it was, no doubt, some sort of miracle, and decided never to wash the sacred pan. He’s even taking into consideration placing it in a glass cabinet, so it can protect him, in the future.

All I have to say is this: If this doesn’t prove the divine nature of bacon, I don’t know what will!

Photo by CATERS NEWS via Telegraph.co.uk Above photos by CATERS NEWS via Daily Mail

The small town of Cape West May, New Jersey is currently being “terrorized” by a group of “despicable” people who wrap trees, stop signs and even lamp posts in knitted covers.

You can clearly understand why the local authorities want them brought to justice, right? Of course you can’t, but they do offer a useful explanation: “It’s bright, it’s pretty … but in a community and in law your rules have to be consistent.” In other words, they want the people behind the Mystery Knitter project to come clean. But without the mystery, would something like this even be worth mentioning?

Signs of the Midnight Knitter first appeared in Cape West May, a few months ago, and since then more and more knitted covers keep showing up, over the cover of darkness. No one know who’s responsible for all this, but pretty much everyone loves their work (except authorities, of course).

One of the Midnight Knitter members told the Daily News a trio of knitters is knitting donated yarn and placing their work around the city, at night. He described their work as a form of graffiti, without the destructive effect. And everyone agrees it’s a lot better than someone spray-painting their walls.

via PressOfAtlanticCity

The American card-stacking master has just beaten his own previous world record, by completing a model of the Venetian Macau hotel and casino, made completely out of playing cards.

Brian Berg, the man behind the famous key-card hotel, spent 44 days working on the amazing model, using a total of 218,792 playing cards. The fragile piece of architecture, which is now on display in the heart of Macau’s Cotai Strip, was Berg’s most challenging project yet.

The playing card model of the Venetian Macau weighs an impressive 272 Kg, is 35 feet long and 10 feet tall. The most impressive thing about Brian Berg’s masterpiece is it contains no glue of tape.

Photos via Daylife

Photo by REUTERS

Photo by REUTERS

Photo by REUTERS

Photo by AP

Photo by REUTERS

Photo by AP

Sujet Salee is a 29-year-old Thai boxer who fought his way to becoming a champion, despite being blind, since birth.

Sujet began his boxing career in October of 2008 and since ten has won 5 fights and drew once. He fights against other boxers, who are blindfolded to even the scales. According to his trainers, Sujet Salee has an edge over his opponents, because of his heightened remaining senses. As soon as he makes contact with his opponent he begins attacking, often knocking him down with an elbow hit.

The blind champion’s father was a Muay Thai fighter, and, in spite of his handicap, Sujet wanted to walk in his footsteps. At first, he admits he didn’t think he could handle it, but after years of training, he has become a season fighter, able to fight anyone in a match of blind Thai boxing.

Cherdchai Sangketkij, owner of the boxing camp where Sujet Salee trains, has been blind for 20 years, and understands Sujet’s desire to succeed. He hopes, one day blind, Thai boxing will become a national sport for the blind, and not be perceived as a violation of the rights of the handicapped.

Photos by REUTERS via Reuters

The Pig Contest of Guanshan Village, Guangdong Province, China, is a centuries old tradition dating back to the Qing Dinasty.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists, from all over China, travel to Guanshan, every year, to take a look at the hundreds of pigs on display at the Pig Contest. This year, around 500 oinkers were sacrificed, cleaned up and set on display to be admired by passers-by.

After the most handsome pig is allected, the festivities end in a gargantuan feast, when the tasty participants are sliced up and served to the public.

Photos via Xinhua

Three friends from Bellevue, Green Bay, managed to build Bigloo, the world’s biggest igloo, in just three months of work.

Paul Steckart and his friends were standing in his backyard, after a snowstorm, and one of them said “Why don’t we build an igloo?”. So they did some online research, employed the concept of the spiral, and managed to build a pretty sturdy igloo. That was last year. This year the Bellevue gang set off to build the biggest igloo in the world.

To complete Bigloo, Paul Steckart used all the snow in his backyard and started bringing in more building material, from his neighbors’ yards. He says it’s a fun way to spend time with friends, but building a monster igloo is more than just fun. It requires a lot of math and patience. The snow is mixed with water and thrown into a snowblower, before it’s stuck into plastic containers. Each Bigoo block weighs between 60 and 100 pounds, depending on the amount of water used.

The 17-feet 4-inch tall and 27 feet in diameter Bigloo is the largest igloo ever built, surpassing the previous record of 13 feet 8 inches tall and 25 feet 9 inches wide, dating from 2008, in Canada. All it needs now is official confirmation from a representative of the Guinness Book of Records.

Photos by Evan Siegle via GreenBayPressGazette

If you’re a fan of Discovery Channel, you know about Bear Grylls’ crazy adventures from “Man vs. Wild”, and particularly about the famous camel carcass he used to protect himself in the Sahara Desert.

In an original advertising move to promote the new season of “Man vs. Wild”, Discovery Channel placed a replica of the camel carcass in Sydney’s Wynyard Park and put it up for rent, on a popular website.

Passers-by had the chance to crawl inside the carcass, dubbed Camelot,  to see how Bear felt during his survival test in Sahara, and also fill in a form telling Discovery why they would be the best tenant for this unusual property, for the chance to win a holiday voucher worth $2,500.

Photos by Handout/Getty Images AsiaPac via Zimbio