In Tuban, a village in the East Java  province of Indonesia, earth is used to make “ampo” a creamy snack believed to have medicinal properties.

According to Rasima, the ampo cook of Tuban, there is no real recipe to making this bizarre snack. All she does is look for clean, gravel-free soil, in the village’s rice paddies, pound it into a solid block, using a stick, and scrape rolls out of it,with a bamboo dagger. The rolls of soils are then baked and smoked for an hour. Rasima then takes the earthy snacks to the village market, where she earns about $2, to supplement her family’s income.

Tuban is the only earth-eating village on the planet. There are people, around the world, who enjoy eating sand, or kaolin, but not baked soil. Villagers believe ampo is a natural pain-killer, and that it makes babies’ skin softer, if eaten by their pregnant mothers.

As for the taste of ampo, “it’s nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach” says one of the Tuban locals, who has been eating ampo, ever since she was a child.

via REUTERS

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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The “most talked-about landmark” of San Luis Obispo, California, the Bubblegum Alley is a 21 meter-long alley lined with chewed-up pieces of bubblegum.

The exact history of the Bubblegum Alley is unknown, but there are a few theories about how this sticky tradition began. Some say it started during World War II, as a graduating class event, while others are convinced it dates back to the 1950s, as the result of the rivalry between San Luis Obispo High-School and Cal Poly. Whatever its beginnings, by the 70s, Bubblegum Alley was already covered with plenty of gooey material.

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Dolphins are smart, talented creatures,no doubt about that, but I had no ides painting was one of their skills.

Xiaoqiang, a dolphin from Qingdao, in China’s Shandong Province has learned to paint, under the guidance of his trainer. Looking at his work, I’d say he still has a long way to go before becoming the second Rembrandt, but he’s well on his way. Surprisingly enough, Xiaoqiang is not the world’s first painting mammal, the painting elephants of Thailand and Cholla the painting horse have been doing it for years.

Photos by Xinhua/REUTERS via Xinhua

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In an event organized by Odor-Eaters, 11-year-old Trinette Robinson proved she had the stinkiest sneakers, and took home the $2,500 prize.

The 35th edition of the Annual National Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest had nine kids, aged six to sixteen, battle it out for the title of “wearer of the stinkiest sneakers”. It was a hard contest to judge, considering all participants had already proven their stinky valor, at regional level. To make sure the winner was decided fairly, organizers brought in members of the jury with some serious sniffing abilities. Among them were George Aldrich, chemical specialist for NASA space missions, and Rachel Herz, author of the Scent of Desire, and professor at Brown University.

Pungent sneakers were judged on the condition of the sole, tongue, heel, toe, laces, overall condition, but especially odor. This year’s winner of the Rotten Sneaker Contest was Trinette Robinson, an 11-year-old girl from Bristol, Connecticut. She confessed she played hard in Girl Scout Camp, did a lot of community walks for charity, and took part in the “no-child left inside” program, in order to get her sneakers to smell as bad as they do.

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It makes sense doesn’t it? Easter is a major Christian holiday too, so it should have its own version of the popular Christmas Tree.

Strangely enough, such a thing as an Easter tree already exists, and it can be found in Germany. Around 1945, when he was just a young boy, Volker Kraft saw his very first Easter Tree (Eierbaum, Osterbaum or Ostereirbaum, in German), and decided he would have one of his very own, when he grew up. Time passed and young Volker became a married man, with a family and everything. But his childhood dream stuck with him and he decorated his first Easter Tree, in 1965. He used 18 colored plastic eggs.

But the tree was growing fast and he and his wife, Christa couldn’t afford to waste so many Easter eggs. So they began drilling holes into the eggs, using the contents in the kitchen, and the painted shells as decorations. When their children grew up, they started helping with the decorating,and the Easter Tree became a family tradition, known not only in their home town of Saalfeld, but all of Germany.

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I’m mad about cool looking cakes, and if you’ve been here before, you already know that. Now, I know I said stuff like “I wouldn’t eat this!” about other disgusting-looking cakes, but compared to this Alien facehugger cake, they all look mighty delicious.

Presented at the “That Takes The Cake 2010” sci-fi themed cake show, in Austin, the edible Alien facehugger looks like it crawled right off the set of an Alien movie. I’m sure it’s tasty and everything, but just looking at it, instantly kills my appetite.

I know many of you wouldn’t mind having this particular facehugger grab a hold of your face, but their are much nicer looking cakes out there. Hat’s off to the artist that made this, though.

via GreatWhiteSnark

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Blasphemy, I say! This is blasphemy! Why someone thought making Star-Wars characters, that transform into vehicles, would be a good idea, is beyond me.

I stumbled across some photos from the Toy Fair 2010 event, and my eyes almost went blind when I saw Master Yoda looking all robotic, and ready to transform into an Attack Shuttle. Apparently, someone has tun out of ideas, and decided to capitalize on both Star-Wars and Transformers in one go. Brilliant idea Einstein, but I don’t think fanboys will go for it.

Scroll down to see even more Star-Wars meets Transformers abominations.

via ToyArk

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An old lady, in her 70s, has taken China by storm, after some photos of her appeared on a Chinese forum.

It might seem unusual for a lady of her age to act all goofy like that, but according to Sun Linchong, the woman’s grandson, and the man behind the camera, this adorable granny is very open and cool with new things. Together they set up some props and take funny photos, just for laughs.

When he uploaded the first set of photos, Sun Linchong had no idea his grandmother would become a Chinese internet sensation, but people who’ve seen were instantly mesmerized. Now the duo regularly upload funny photos that apparently remind viewers of their beloved grannies. Take a look at this cool gal:

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Using the power of no less than 500 LEDs, this dude created a home-made flashlight that can easily be mistaken for a high-powered light projector.

Before you think about the amount of power this thing needs to actually work, you should know LEDs are much more effective than old-fashioned light bulbs, have a longer life span, and lower heat dissipation. The LED bazooka flashlight features several brightness adjustment switches, and compared to two Maglite flashlights, is infinitely powerful.

If you want to fry someone’s eyes or even signal an airplane in flight, the 500 LED Bazooka flashlight is just what you need. Check the video at the bottom, for the making-of and to see this light beast in action.

via Gadgetonian

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A unique tunic-like dress, made out of countless human hairs, was presented by a model, in the center of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi.

Human hair appears to be a popular material fro Asian artists. After a Chinese hairdresser recreated Tiananmen Square out of human square, and made a hair sculpture of Barrack Obama, Kim Do, a Vietnamese hairdresser creates a tunic made from hair.

Material for the dress was gathered from 54 different people across Vietnam, including popular local artists like Le Dung, Thanh Lam, Hong Nhung or Ha Kieu Anh. The 1 million meters of hair were then died and sewn into a dress, using a needle. On the front side of this unusual garment, you can see the shape of a dragon, made from long brown hair.

Kim Do’s hair dress comes with a hat, also made from hair and decorated with the design of Vietnam’s Turtle Tower.

via 24h.com.vn

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Cats aren’t known as the bravest animals on the planet, at least not when they’re confronted by a larger adversary. But this kitty is an exception.

Meet Lynx, a playful house cat who lives in the frozen taiga of the Kamchatka peninsula. Every day, the purring feline goes paw to paw with wild animals drawn in by the smell of food, cooked by her masters. Foxes can’t resist the smell of bacon and pancakes in the morning, so they carefully approach Lynx’s house. What they don’t know is this little ball of fur turns into a lion as soon as something comes within a 50 meter radius of her house.

Her masters say she often confronts passing bears, and although they’re not very troubled by her, this doesn’t stop Lynx from displaying her courage.

via Shpilenok

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We’ve featured a large variety of stuff made out of LEGO bricks, but this is the first LEGO boardroom table I’ve ever seen.

The newly formed Boys and Girls advertising agency asked the guys at abcg to transform a gorgeous Georgian house into a worthy headquarters. The new place had to be playful, but not juvenile. With that in mind, the designers made the bold move of creating the boardroom table out of LEGO pieces. It took a total of 22,742 LEGO bricks to complete the 1.2 x 2.7 table, but the end result was more than satisfying.

The LEGO bricks that form the boardroom table are stuck together the old fashioned way, without the use of glue. The pieces are set on a slate of steel and covered by a 10 mm-thick layer of toughened glass.

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The small town of Rivarolo, near Turin, Italy, hosted a Guinness World Records attempt for the longest chocolate bar in the world.

The record to beat was 6.98 meters, but A. Giordano, a local chocolatier, and his team outdid themselves and made an 11.57 meter-long chocolate bar. The event was sponsored by a Rivarolo shopping mall, who also brought in the Guinness representative to acknowledge the attempt.

As you can imagine, the crowd gathered during the event was treated to a delicious piece of chocolate delight.

via Guinness World Records

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All of Alexa Meade’s artistic creations look like they’ve just escaped from a famous painting and are trying to fond their place in the real world. One of the best body-painters in the world, Alexa Meade uses acrylic paint to make her subjects look like real-life paintings.

I know it’s hard to believe, but these are indeed just photographs, not paintings. Ms. Meade skilfully applies acrylic paint onto the subjects and their backgrounds, creating the illusion of a painting. It’s not until the subjects appear in real-life settings that you realize they’re actually real people.

Check out more of Alexa Meade’s real life paintings on her website and flickr stream.

Photos are copyright of ALEXA MEADE

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Featuring a 10-inch tall platform, made out of elephant poop, these crazy stilettos stink, for real.

Created by London-based designer, INSA, the elephant dung shoes are a response to the famous work of Chris Ofili, who used elephant dung in all of his paintings. INSA retraced Ofili’s footsteps, from over 15 years ago, and used dung from the same family of elephants Ofili preferred. Just to be clear, we’re not talking about dung taken directly off the ground and slapped on the shoes.The material is treated to avoid putrefaction.

If you thought those hoof-shaped shoes were weird, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these elephant dung stilettos. I wonder if they still stink, though…

via designboom

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