Nikolay Orekhov, from the village of Kemerovo, eastern Russia, has built his house to look like a miniature replica of Noah’s ark. Not that he’s ever seen the real thing, but we’ve all been blessed with an imagination.

47-year-old Nikolay Orekhov has spent more than a year working on his unusual house shaped like some sort of ugly ship. According to Russian site Life.ru, the reason behind this modern version of Noah’s ark is Nikolay’s fear of floods caused by climate change. He says he’s not a fanatic but he does strongly believe in the possibility of a serious flood.

But according to the livejournal of Viktor Borisov, who also took some photos of Orekhov’s ship-shaped house, the weird craftsman actually dreamed about building the strange structure, and has really no fear of an actual flood. Regardless of his reasons, Nikolay Orekhov managed to create a truly unique piece of architecture, and he did it all without any blueprints. All the plans he needed were all in his head, and frankly, you can tell by the final result.

Located in his backyard, Nikolay Orekhov’s strange house measures 9 meters in height and 14 meters in length, and is three levels high. On the first floor, the Russian builder created a bathroom (complete with sauna and swimming pool) and a small kitchen, the second floor features two bedrooms and a nursery, while the third one is a greenhouse.

Nikolay began building his ship-shaped house on the “sacred” date of July 7, 2007, and is now living in it with his family. His neighbors have started referring to his weird creation as the “Ark of Nikolayev”.

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Known as the Angolan Jaw of Awe, 20-year-old Francisco Domingo Joaquim has earned the title of “world’s widest mouth”.

Francisco, known as Chiquinho, had become an Internet sensation about two years ago, when videos of his incredible mouth stunts became viral on Youtube, but scouts of the Guinness Book of Records just recently managed to track hm down, in his Angola hometown. His jaw-dropping tricks have been viewed thousands of times, earning Francisco quite a reputation as the man with the world’s largest mouth.

To prove there is nothing false about his reputation, Francisco participated in the Italian competition known as “Big Mouth”, where contestants literally put their jaws to the test. They put all kinds of strange things in their mouths, including saucers, coffee cups, bottles, but none could beat Chiquinho’s coke can stunt. Francisco Domingo Joaquim  easily won the contest and thanks to his rubbery 16.99 cm wide mouth, he also became the man with the world’s largest mouth, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Even more amazing is the fact that despite putting a Coke can in his mouth every day, and having never been to a dentist, his teeth are perfectly healthy.

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An Australian wood sculptor has created an amazing wooden replica of the Ferrari 365GTB V12 engine and is now selling it on eBay.

I couldn’t find much info about this one-of-a-kind wooden masterpiece, other than it’s entirely handcrafted from wood, including the manifold, and it weighs approximately 25 kilograms. It’s roughly the same size as a Ferrari 365GTB V12 engine, and unlike it the original, all it needs is care and love to run for a lifetime.

Most of us will probably never get to own a real Ferrari engine, let alone a whole sports car, so this wooden replica of the engine could be the closest you’ll ever get to owning an Italian wonder of engineering. The asking price is $6,000 and the owner is willing to ship it anywhere around the world.

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Dead Horse Bay is located on a beach near New York City which was once called the Barren Island.

The whole thing began in 1850s when horses were the main source of transportation. After horses and other animals were giving their last breath, their carcasses were still useful for creating glue, fertilizer and other products. After that, the boiled bones were dumped into the bay.

By the 1920s, when horses were no longer the main way of transport, only one rendering plant was still working and huge amounts of sand, garbage and coal were poured into the surrounding waters. Today, what was once the Barren Island is covered with bottles, toys, horse bones, letter shoes, rusty telephones and many pieces of plastic and metal  which are continuously leaking into the ocean.

The apocalyptic image that depicts the beach today is immersed in a scary silence that gives you the feeling of the doomsday.

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The Freestyle Music Park was inaugurated in April 2008 near Myrtle beach, South Carolina. The 55-acres amusement park is also formerly known as the Hard Rock Park because it was designed on a rock-and-roll theme. In September 2008, the park was closed and reopened for public in May next year.

The amusement park is known for its Stonehenge replica. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument from Wiltshire, England and is one of the most famous sites in the world, dating from 3000BC, according to archaeologists. The replica near the Myrtle beach is made from red old British phone booths and doesn’t fully resemble the original but only a semi-circle structure containing three inner trilithons.

Even if the Phonehenge from the Freestyle Music Park is not a very successful replica of the original Stonehenge monument, it has its role in attracting visitors at the amusement park, like any other replica around the world.

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Chito is one Costa Rican who loves to play with the crocodiles. Yes, I know, he must be crazy but the man plays, swims and feeds the giant crocodile, Pocho.

Also known as the “Crocodile Man”, Chito’s friendship with the crocodile began 20 years ago when he found the croc shot near the left eye by a cattle farmer, near the Parisima River. He called his friends to help him load it into a boat when he realized the croc was dying and he decided to bring it home to survive.

Pocho was skinny and very ill but the Costa Rican helped him to overcome that terrible moment giving him food, medicine and, the most important thing, affection. After he took care of him, Chito left Pocho in a lake near the house but when he got away from the lake, Pocho got out of the water and followed him home.  He even slept next to the croc so that the reptile won’t feel alone for any second.

After several years, Chito realized that Pocho is not a threat anymore. He made his courage and approached him, closer than ever. It was just a matter of time before the two became best friends. A few years ago, Chito invited some friends to show them some tricks, including getting Pocho to close his eyes on command.

After that, Chito decided that he and his friend Pocho must be on a show and now they are an important tourist attraction. For a few dollars, everyone who travels in the lowland of tropical town of Sarapiqui can watch Chito and Pocho in action on the lake near their house.

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Shain Erin was drawn to art since childhood, making amazing works of art in painting, sculpture and digital media over the years. But Erin’s true passion have always been the mummies, which, according to him, are like “time capsules of ancient cultures and the lives of individual people. They are like books waiting for an audience.”

The artist has studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and he received not long ago the title for the Bachelor of Fine Arts. In the last years, Erin created several series of small figures that have been exhibited in the U.S., Australia, England, Norway, France, Germany and Canada.

Shain Erin was very pleased using dolls as an art medium and, while traveling around the world with his works of art, he challenged conventions and preconceptions about art and art-making. The artist also claims that his work won’t stop because there is an infinite array of expressive possibilities for the mummy dolls. Erin used Paperclay and fabric to create the dolls which are fashioned as zombies, skeletons, ghosts, monsters, mummies and not only. Read More »

You probably all know the famous fisherman from Animal Planet’s River Monsters, Jeremy Wade. While he was on a fishing expedition with his crew in Africa, up the Congo River, the British angler made an amazing and rarely catch : he grappled with a giant piranha and managed to defeat the monster after a serious fight.

The result was astonishing as the 52-year-old fisherman pulled out of water a 5ft long goliath tigerfish and held it with both arms for fear of being bitten by its 32 razor-sharp teeth that have the same dimensions as those of a white shark. The goliath tigerfish is well known as being one of the most dangerous freshwater fish in the world, so Wade said he was extremely cautious when he pulled it out of water.

The 100lbs monster hasn’t been caught more than a few times before because of its ferocity and its habitat, which is very hard to reach. The giant piranha seems to consume prey the same size at itself and there have been cases when others have seen it tearing apart crocodiles or even people.

Jeremy Wade’s catch, the “giant piranha”, can easily be on top when we talk about world’s most terrifying creatures.

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Lindsay Hayward is a 23-year-old woman born in Walnut Creek, CA who is now known as a professional wrestler in the U.S.

Her story began early in the childhood when, because of the abnormal height ( 6ft 9ins at the age of 13 ) and the wickedness of others , Lindsay began to drink on her own, only making it worse. At the age of 16, during a fight with another girl, Lindsay lifted her off the ground and then threw her into a brick wall. Not long after, she left home and started a career as a model, where we can see that she began to have a good feeling about the way her body looked.

Lindsay Hayward began her professional wrestler career in June 2008, at which point she started to train hard at the gym, eating 5oz of chicken every two hours in order to build muscle and gain strength. Known by the fans as Isis, the 109Kg female signed a contract with WWE ( World Wrestling Entertainment ) in the summer of 2010 under which Lindsay received a new stage name, Aloisia, and she was going to be part of their NXT show. But, with this amazing debut very close to her, on September 15th 2010, Vickie Guerrero announced that the contract between the two parties ( Lindsay Hayward and WWE ) ended. The reason seems to be some pictures taken, according to Lindsay, 5 years ago.

Read Lindsay Hayward’s statement about this event after the jump

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An Estonian sculptor, Mati Karmin, came up with this idea of creating furniture from old, rusty naval mines recovered from an ex-Soviet fortress on Naissaar Island. It seems that the naval mines were used in World War 2 and they had a “Blok” device and two electro-magnetic antennas, with the upper antenna kept steady by a buoy.

Mati Karmin has been trained in the Estonian Academy of Art and it started with bronze and stone sculptures. He drew attention for the first time in 1981 with the “Military Fox” sculpture that was made out of corroded scrap metals.

The Estonian sculptor’s passion for  furniture items created from underwater mines began 5 years ago on the Estonian Finnish Coast, which was populated with corroded mine shells. Karmin started to collect the naval mines due to their perfect and uniform aspect, with holes, spires and shackles. For creating furniture, he used only two forms of underwater mines, the hemisphere and the cylinder and the result was great. The sculptor managed to create impressive armchairs, aquariums, writing desks, toilets, beds, cupboards, swings, fireplaces, bathtubs and many more.

You can see some of Mati Karmin’s sculptures after the jump

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You have to go on a date but you have no idea in choosing the location? Looking to impress the girl of your dreams? Then, if you’re somewhere around Tokyo, you shouldn’t miss the Vampire Cafe in Ginza.

This gothic themed restaurant is located in a block in Ginza, which is a famous region in Tokyo. Once you get there, take the elavator up to the 7th floor, where waitresses wearing dark French maid outfits or waiters dressed in tuxedos will greet and lead you to the booth where you have your reservation. Throughout the restaurant you can hear Baroque music and the place is decorated with skulls, crucifixes, candelabras, spooky spiders and Dracula’s coffin that will give you the feeling that you’re in a horror movie.

When it comes for your order, is a little bit complicated because all the menu items are written in Kanji. The food is a mix of French, Italian and Japanesse traditional preparations. For appetizer, you can order delicious cheese rolls or spring rolls filled with tuna. Also, you can have marinated octopus, smoked salmon, duck or herb-crust chicken. Drinks are also good, for example, a red mix of wine with fruit juice is really refreshing. The price is a little spicy, considering that a dinner for two can cost over $100.

Even so, the Vampire Cafe in Tokyo will offer you a unique dining experience, so you shouldn’t miss it at all.

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This huge book was made by scientist Michael Hawley and is one of the eleven models available worldwide.

Called “Giant visual odyssey through the Kingdom of Bhutan”, the book has a height of 1.52 meters and a length of 2.13 meters and weighs about 60 kilograms. In its 112 pages, the book offers stunning and high quality images of the Last Himalayan Kingdom, taken on four trips through Bhutan. The entire book requires 1 gallon of ink and 1 day to be printed and the total costs are nearly $2000.

The Giant Books sells for $10.000 and all the money is donated to various charity institutions.

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Stewie is a Maine Coon cat from Reno, Nevada, who proudly holds the record for being the world’s longest domestic cat.

Robin Hendrickson and Erik Brandsness, Stewie’s owners, have the cat since 2005 from a breeder in Hermiston, Oregon, and they decided to contact Guiness Book after seeing their friends astonished by the cat’s size. Measuring 48.5 inches (around 4 feet long), the Maine Coon Stewie is now the longest domestic cat in the world. The previous record holder was also a Main Coon that had a length of 48 inches from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, with only 0.5 inches less than Stewie.

Robin Hendrickson also said that the Main Coons are considered the “gentle giants” of the cat world.

Taking a  nap in a public, surrounded by strangers isn’t very easy, but Spain’s first National Siesta Championship was a succes and it was aimed at reviving this tradition of afternoon sleep. With all the demands of modern life, this old Spanich custom is slowly dying and something had to be done to prevent this.

The competition was attended by hundreds of people who were connected at pulse monitors for 20 minutes, which is the optimal duration for an afternoon sleep.  The contestants were judged according to the amount of time they slept in the 20 minutes granted to each. Points were also given for unusual positions during sleep, funny and eye-catching PJs and, of course, lots of points for snoring. The winner of the inaugural round was a 47-year-old construction worker who managed to doze off for a whopping 18 minutes of the total 20. Judging by his line of work, I don’t think the noise and being outdoors bothered him much.

The nine-day competition is taking  place in a shopping center in Madrid and is set to end on October 23rd. Winners receive various gift certificates to use in the shopping center. When theNational Siesta Championship ends, the contestant with the most points will receive a certificate worth 1,000 euros.

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Sushi may be a Japanese dish, but that didn’t stop a team of Norwegian chefs from creating the world’s largest sushi mosaic, at their country’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

As China celebrated its ten millionth imported Norwegian salmon, last week, Norway decided the creation of a giant sushi mosaic would be a great way to recognize the milestone. Norwegian chefs arranged 8,734 sushi pieces into a beautiful mosaic depicting the intertwined Norwegian and Chinese flags.

Relations between China and Norway have been a bit tense since a Norwegian committee  awarded the Nobel Piece Prize 2010 to Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, on October 8. By emphasizing on the importance of salmon in the diplomatic relations between the two nations, Norway hopes to come to better terms with  China.

Check out the making-of video of the world’s biggest sushi mosaic, at the bottom. It takes a while for the chefs to actually start arranging the sushi pieces, but it’s worth it.

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