World Cup 2010 Behind Bars is a soccer competition, held in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Central Prison, between 18 seven-player teams, made-up of inmates.

On June 10, the opening match, between Mexico and South Africa, was played on a muddy soccer pitch, inside the Thai prison, under the watchful eyes of dozen guards. It ended in a 1-1 draw, but the prisoners on the sidelines enjoyed every minute of the rare spectacle. They cheered and banged cow bells for the entire match, showing their support for the teams.

The World Cup Behind Bars was also held in 2002 and 2006 and this year it features 18 seven-player teams, from 45 different countries, picked from the prison’s 1,000 inmates population. They can each represent whatever nation they want, even if it’s not their own, and free spots are taken by Thai prisoners.

The winners of the World Cup Behind Bars 2010 will receive a replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy.

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Five resourceful Chinese students have managed to built a fully functional Bugatti Veyron out of 10,280 empty cigarette packs.

This incredible project began when the five students, from Xi’an Electrical Mechanical University, decided to do something to determine their fellow students to quit smoking. Cigarette packs were a part of their project, from the start, but at first they wanted to arrange them into different anti-smoking logos. But as they gathered more and more empty packs, the idea of an environment-friendly electric car became more attractive.

During an inspection, university officials found the empty cigarette packs, and were ready to punish the five But after learning the reason of their effort, the university backed their initiative 100%, offered them work space, expert advice from experienced teachers and got all the 2,500 students of the school to help them gather empty cigarette packs.

The five students were thus able to finish their cigarette pack Bugatti Veyron, in time for the World No Smoking Day. Their incredible creation is just 300 kilogram heavy, and apart from the steel frame, engine, break system and gearbox, it’s made out of 10,280 empty cigarette packs.

It’s hard to imagine a Bugatti Veyron made of cigarette packs actually works, but this one actually does, and you can see it for yourself, in the video, at the bottom. Sorry about the low quality pics!

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As if ridiculous costumes for cats and dogs weren’t enough, The Horse Tailor creates over-the-top outfits for horses.

Ever wondered what Harry Potter, or Scooby Doo would look like as a horse? Well, now you no longer need to imagine it, thanks to The Horse Tailor you can see it with your own eyes. Although The Horse Tailor provides all kinds of apparel, accessories and costumes for horses and riders, it’s their custom division that really impresses. You can ask for whatever you’ve always dreamed of dressing your horsey with, and Donatella and fer team will probably make it for you.

So far, the Horse Tailor has dressed horses as the Pink Panther, hamburgers, bees, college graduates, lions and I doubt they’ll stop here. Next time you get a wacky idea about playing dress-up with your horse, you know who to call.

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With the Glastonbury Music Festival drawing near, Orange decided it was time to present their latest eco-invention, a pair of wellies that can charge up mobile phones.

Created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind, these charging wellies have a ‘energy generating sole’ that transform the heat from your feet, into electricity. All you have to do is attach your mobile phone to one of the wellies, and start walking.

It sounds like revolutionary technology, and it is, but you’ll need to do a lot of walking to create enough energy. For example, for one hour of charge time, you have to walk for about 12 hours, in the wonder wellies. But you can speed things up by running, or dancing. The idea is to get your feet as hot as possible, to produce more energy.

The charging wellies, made by Orange, will be presented at the upcoming Glastonbury Festival.

via Orange Newsroom

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A young mother, from Exeter, Great Britain, is selling her breast milk online, to earn extra cash, while on maternity leave.

26-year-old Toni Ebdon gave birth to a boy, earlier this year, and was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the amount of breast milk she was producing. One of her friends even joked that she should start a dairy, with the extra milk, and cash-strapped Toni took the idea seriously. Using a breast pump she drained the excess milk and stored it in the freezer. Next she went online and put an ad for breast milk, on Gumtree.

Although she was expecting some replies from new mothers who couldn’t produce enough breast milk for their babies, Toni Ebdon was surprised to find that most of the interested clients were men. It might sound weird, but many adults use breast milk to maintain good health, or cure illnesses such as cancer, diarrhea, or diabetes. Toni charges $26 for 113 grams of her precious milk, and sells it both fresh and stored in the fridge.

The young mother says she hasn’t made loads pf money from selling her breast milk, but since she doesn’t receive full maternity pay, and the baby’s father isn’t able to support them, the extra income is more than welcome. Toni will continue selling breast milk until she dries up, and she’ll definitely do it again, if she has another baby.

via SWNS

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Peter Hennessey, an artist fascinated with science and astronomy, has created a life-size model of the famous Hubble space telescope.

Judging by the artworks featured on his official website, Peter Hennessey has a thing for satellites, Mars rovers and other NASA equipment, but his latest creation, a model of the Hubble telescope, is his most impressive achievement yet. Made entirely from pieces of laser-cut plywood and steel, “My Hubble” accurately follows every detail of the original.

Rather than using 3D computer software to model every part of his plywood model, Hennessey just used 7 photos of the Hubble space telescope and Adobe Illustrator. Creating the giant model took three months, of which 6 weeks were dedicated to cutting the individual plywood pieces, while the rest was taken up by assembling them.

The life-size plywood and steel model of the Hubble space telescope is now on display, on Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour, as part of the Bienalle of Sydney 2010.

Photos by DesignBoom via DesignBoom

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Zhang Haiting, a 58-year-old car buff, from Shanghai, China, has built a mini electric vehicle, all by himself.

But we’ve seen people build their own cars before, the thing that makes Zhang Haiting so special, is that his particular creation is environment-friendly. The resourceful Chinese inventor and machinery veteran designed and put together his electric vehicle, by himself, using all kinds of salvaged parts and materials.

Zhang has been using his zero-carbon emissions electric car, on his daily commute, for about a year, and Shanghai locals have begun noticing. They regularly get close and curiously check out the weird looking buggy that looks more like a bumper car than a real vehicle, and never miss the chance to get behind the wheel.

The home-made vehicle, built by Zhang Hiating, reaches a top speed of 30 km/h and runs for 50 km, with a fully charged battery. Seeing the reactions of passers-by, its creator is now thinking of commercializing his invention, for the price of just 5,600 yuan ($820).

via ImagineChina

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H.A. Schult, the designer behind the famous Trash People, has teamed up with beer-make Corona to create the world’s first hotel made of garbage.

The initiative to build the “Save the Beach” garbage hotel was started by Corona, in order to raise awareness to the huge amount of waste being washed up on our shores, every day. And who better that H.A. Schult, a designer who has used trash as art medium since 1969, to build a hotel out of the trash collected from various European beaches?

The doors of this bizarre hotel, made of garbage, have opened to the public, last week, in Rome and has already received the support of various celebrities, like Helena Christensen, the famous model, who agreed to spend a night in the Save the Beach Hotel.

H.A. Schult, the creator of the trash hotel said “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?”

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Over 500 contestants, from all over Europe, gathered at the Brunsbüttel dike, near Hamburg, Germany, for the 7th edition of the Mud Olympics, on June 6.

The event is unique on the North Sea coast, and features different wacky games, like mud football, mud volleyball, tug of war, or the eel relay race, all of which involved getting covered in mud, of course. And since playing in mud is apparently one of the most fun activities known to man, the 2010 European Mud Olympics drew in contestants from Italy, Switzerland, Belgium or Denmark, all looking to have a good time.

Prizes were awarded for winning the wacky events, as well as for the best team name, best team fans, or the funniest competing team. The good thing is participants to the Mud Olympics weren’t only fighting for themselves, but also for a good cause: the proceedings, over 100,000 euro, will be donated to the Schleswig-Holstein Cancer Society.

via Spiegel.de

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Ari Krupnik uses dice and various other materials to create intricate pixelated mosaics of celebrities and historical figures.

A Software Engineer, in Silicon Valley, California, Krupnik says he uses dice as an art medium because they offer six different shades of gray, depending on which facet is up. He uses a computer to calculate the size of his mosaics and render several variations of the dice. But that’s the easy part, putting them together, by hand, and finding the right adhesive to glue the dice, those are the tough parts.

Apart from dice, Ari Krupnik has used M&Ms and bullet casings, to create some of his mosaic masterpieces. The bullet casings mosaic depicts Eric S. Raymond, author of “The Art of Unix Programming” and features about seven thousand .40 brass casings.

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The western world has the Transformers, Japan has Voltron, but what about China? Having decided they want their own transforming robot, a group of students went on to build an original Chinese Transformer. This one is for real, and it’s not even copied (I know, right?).

If you’ve studied Chinese history, the Three Kingdoms period, to be exact, or if you’ve played any of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms video games ( I know I did), than the name Guan Yu definitely rings a bell. He was one of Lord Liu Bei’s top generals, along with Zhang Fei, and was known for his combat skills, loyalty and righteousness.

A group of graduating students, from China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, chose Guan Yu as the model for their original Transformer statue. Using the parts of an old Jiefang truck, for which they paid roughly $4,500, these talented students have created a 9.4-meters-tall, 4-ton-heavy Transformer. According to its creators, only his face and blade are original pieces, the rest all came from the truck.

To celebrate their achievement, the talented students also created a video of their awesome Guan Yu Transformer, in action. Check it out.

via 163.com

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Yang Youd, a Chinese farmer living on the outskirts of Wuhan City, has created his very own canon, and it using it against eviction teams who seek to drive him off of his land.

Using an old wheelbarrow and some pipes, Yang made himself a canon, in a desperate attempt to prevent getting evicted. As ammunition, the brave farmer uses fireworks, sold at local shops, around Wuhan. To make his projectiles reach longer distances, Yang Youd has also built himself a makeshift defense tower, which he climbs from the roof of his house. From there, the home-made canon has a range of 100 meters.

So far he has fended off to eviction attempts. Once, in February, when his rockets ran out, he was saved by the local police, and in May, he successfully drove off 100 people, by firing his canon from the tower. There have yet been no reports of injuries, but if Yang Youd keeps at it, I’d say it’s inevitable.

The resourceful farmer has been offered 300,000 yuan, for his land, and all of his neighbors have already accepted the deals they were offered, but Yuan Youd wants five times the amount, and he’s not going down without a fight.

I know it seems a bit strange a mere farmer could build a canon, but we’ve already seen a Chinese farmer build robots, so this should come as no surprise.

via ImagineChina

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Chile-based artist, Don Lucho, has created a whole apartment using cardboard and a black marker. His work is called ‘Casa De Carton‘.

Don Lucho’s Casa De Carton is unlike any house you’ve ever seen. It’s got pretty much everything a person needs, only it looks taken out of an old cartoon. Using cut-up cardboard boxes, the artist built an incredible pad, even though no one could really live in it.

the most amazing thing about the ‘Casa De Carton’ is the attention to details: the water in the toilet bowl is actually colored, and there’s even a light-bulb hanging from the ceiling. It might not hold out against bad weather, but at least you can recycle it.

Photos vi Flickr

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With so many people to drive around, it’s no wonder the Chinese taxi business is so competitive, but authorities are finally doing something about those unlicensed cabs that are ruining perfectly legitimate companies.

To show the world they are committed to riding China of illegal taxi cabs, authorities in Chengdu have invited 50 taxi drivers to publicly destroy 140 illegal vehicles, captured by the police. Armed with iron bars, the drivers released all their anger and frustration on their competition’s cars, until they reduced them to mere scrap metal.

Out of the 140 destroyed cabs, 73 were knock-offs, and 67 were illegal vehicles whose drivers failed to pay their fines, in due time. Most of the illegal taxi cabs in China are put together from scrap metal parts, and made to appear brand new. Their severely used parts and tires often lead to severe accidents, and the cars are very difficult to chase down.

Photos via ImagineChina

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Fascinated by art, science, technology, and the link between the three, Devorah Sperber uses thousands of spools of thread to recreate pixelated, inverted images of masterpieces, which look like colorful abstractions, from up close.

You must be wondering why the New York based artist uses inverted images, in her art. As I said before, she is interested in science and art alike, and she is trying to address the way our brain perceives visual information versus the way most of us think we see. By hanging thousands of colorful thread spools upside down, she is referencing that our eye lenses project an inverted image of our surroundings onto the retina, which is then corrected by our brain.

In Devorah Sperber’s art, the brain is represented by a clear acrylic sphere that not only inverts the spool artworks, but also focuses in on them, so they look like sharp reproductions of original paintings. Most of her masterpieces are made out of around 5,000 spools of thread, and take between one and six months to complete.

via Yatzer

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