Competitors went toe to toe last weekend, for the title of World Toe-Wrestling Champion.

Who knew something as silly as toe-wrestling was an actual sport, right? Well, turns out it really is and people have been clashing their toes in the World Toe-Wrestling Championship for the last 14 years.

This year’s competition was held in Ashbourne, England. The rules were pretty simple. After a basic check for foot hygiene, two competitors “toed-it-out”, trying to push each other off the “toedium”. Toe-wrestling has become more and more popular lately and, this year, the championship drew-in contestants from all around the world, including Australia and the US.

The final toe-down was between two locals, last year’s champion Paul “Toeminator” Beech and Alan “Nasty” Nash. After a tough match, the judge decided “Nasty” had the stronger toes and awarded him his fifth World Toe-Wrestling Championship trophy.

via People’s Daily

BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE PHOTOS, BE WARNED, THEY ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!

Welcome to the village of Salba, 610 km southeast of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. This is where 600 Siberian Marals (a subspecies of Red-Deer) lose their antlers every year. These photos, taken June 15 2009, at a private ranch, in Salba, show the marals held in special devices, in order to have their antlers removed with a hand saw.

The antlers are sold to markets in Russia and East Asia, where antler velvet is used as a holistic medicine. Some people consume the antlers themselves, grinding and consuming them in small quantities.

Marals go through this brutal process every year and, even though some say it doesn’t cause them too much pain because they have no nerves in the antlers, I still call it animal cruelty.

Photos by REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

via Drugoi

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‘Surprisingly’ the US Texting Champ is a 15-year-old girl.

Kate Moore, a young girl from Des Moines, Iowa, took home the title of 2009 US Texting Champion and a prize of $50,000. But she had to work hard for every cent. LG, the contest organizer, made this year’s competition a very difficult one.

Contestants had to type tough messages while blindfolded, text acronyms, run an obstacle-course and text at the same time, and even text tongue-twisters while being taunted by actors dressed as emoticons. Moore made it to the final tie-breaker with runner up Dynda Morgan, and won the championship by typing “Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy…MY oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin’ my way….Zippitty Do Dah Zippity Aay! WondeRful Feeling Wonderful day!” faster than her opponent.

15-year-old Kate Moore stated she texts between 400-500 times a day and an average of 12,041 times a month.

CNN via Switched

More and more Chinese women turn to pole-dancing to keep in shape.

Great news for Chinese men, an increasing number of their women are registering for pole-dancing classes, to keep fit. These photos, taken in Luoyang, central China, show women learning to master the pole, under the guidance of professional instructors. It appears this is the latest trend in Chinese exercising and practically every gym and dance studios is offering classes.

Damn I hope this trend goes international real soon, I know a few guys who would gladly pay for their wives’ classes.

via CCTV.com

At least that was the case when young Kimberley Vlaminck asked for three stars tattooed near her left eye.

The young Belgian says she went to a tattoo parlor to get three small stars tattooed, but the foreign artist misunderstood her request and left her with 56 stars covering the left side of her face. How could that possibly have happened, you say? Simple, she fell asleep during the procedure and woke up when the artist finished his work.

Now, the guy who tattooed her doesn’t exactly look like the most trustworthy person in the world (he’s the guy in the last photo), but I find it hard to believe someone could fall asleep while getting a tattoo. Nevermind the pain, the noise of the tattoo-gun right next to her left ear would have been enough to keep her awake.

Kimberley says she must have been drugged by Rouslan Toumaniantz, the shop-owner and the guy who executed the tattoo, but he insists the girl specifically asked for 56 stars tattooed on her face. He says the whole scandal started when the 18-year-old went home and showed her family and boyfriend the permanent artwork. They went crazy, so miss Vlaminck returned to the tattoo-shop and accused Toumaniantz of misunderstanding her request.

Now Kimberley Vlaminck is suing Toumanintz for 10,000 pounds, the cost of a laser-procedure to remove his ‘mistake’. Although the tattoo artist maintains that the girl asked for 56 stars, and even brought in a witness to sustain his claim, he agreed to pay half of the procedure costs, just because he doesn’t want an unsatisfied customer.

Kimberley hasn’t accepted his offer yet.
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Why journey to Vulcan in a spaceship when you can just drive there?

The Canadian town of Vulcan, Alberta has become a true pilgrimage site for Star-Trek fans because of its coincidental link to the sci-fi series. Vulcan received its name in 1915, from a surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway who named it after the Roman God of Fire. It has no connection to Mister Spock’s home planet, but do trekkies care?

Of course not, anything that relates to the Star-Trek universe, accidentally or not, is worth a visit. So the people of Vulcan decided to capitalize on this great tourism opportunity and built a 5-ton replica of the USS Enterprise. And it paid out. This year trekkies gathered in Vulcan, Alberta for a celebration called Spock Days.

Photos show Klingons, Romulans, Tholians, Vulcans and even good old Captain Kirk had a great time in Vulcan this year.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Another unusual animal love story shocks the world. An 18-months-old dog and an 8-weeks-old wolf cub become best friends.

Ulrok, a fully grown Rottweiler was more than happy to become the father figure in young Beldaran’s life, after the poor baby was rejected by her natural mother. Kahlani, the wolf who gave birth to this little furry treasure, was too young herself and her maternal instincts didn’t kick in.

Caretakers at the Krisma Preserve, in Mt. Desert, Maine, tried to find another surogate parent for Beldaran, but Ulrok was the only one who accepted the young cub, when she was just four days old. Now they spend all their time together, playing in the sun, howling at the full moon and even sleeping together.

It’s nice to see them getting along so well and, no matter how down you are, just one look at them will put a big smile on your face. But, once Beldaran is old enough to take care of herself, she will be introduced to a pack of wolves, to make sure she grows up to be a wolf and not something else.

Photos by Bary Bland/ BARCROFT MEDIA

via Daily Mail

While other two-year-olds are just learning to walk and talk, the children of the nomad Vadi Tribe are introduced to the centuries-old art of snake charming.

All the children of the Vadi Tribe come face to face with a poisonous cobra at age two, and go through a ten-year ritual, in which they learn all the secrets of snake charming. Both boys and girls must learn to handle snakes. While men must be able to manipulate cobras by playing the flute, the women must know how to take care of the reptiles when their husbands or brothers are away.

The Vadi treat snakes like their own children, never keeping them away from their natural habitat for more than seven months. Any longer than that would be disrespectful to the snakes, according to Babanath Mithunath Madari, the 60-year-old Vadi chief-charmer. In fact, the only time a snake actually bit his charmer, was when he kept it for more than seven months.

Vadi snake-charmers don’t cut the fangs of their snakes, instead they feed them an herbal mixture which, they say,  makes their deadly poison harmless.

Unfortunately, in 1991, the thousand-year-old tradition of snake-charming was banned in India, and the Vadi tribe are stripped of their snakes whenever they are confronted by the police. They never spend more than six months in the same place.

Photos by BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

40,000 small terracotta soldiers storm into the Spanish Barn, in Torquay, Devon.

The Terracotta Army is a famous art collection, by British artist Anthony Gormley, featuring 40,000 clay figurines. They were all made in St. Helen’s, Merseyside, as a community project. Children and their families were given clay balls to manipulate into a human shape, with two eyes. Each person created up to 200 terracotta figurines per day.

Now the Terracotta Army has been moved from London’s South Bank Center into the Torre Abbey’s Spanish Barn, in Torquay, Devon. All the 40,000 lilliputian terracotta soldiers must face in the same direction and must be viewed from a certain angle. That’s why volunteers were needed to walk through the ranks and arrange the figurines.

The young lady in the second photo is one such volunteer, walking carefully among the 8 to 26-cm-tall statuettes, in her socks. If one of the soldiers were to fall, it could lead to a disastrous domino effect.

Anthony Gormley’s Terracotta Army will be stationed inside the abbey for the summer, if you fancy a visit.

Photos by SWNS

via Daily Mail

Some of the most adorable characters in cartoon history, the Smurfs have an incredibly large fan-base.

2,510 students from Swansea University, UK, got together on June 8th to stage the largest Smurf meeting ever, and set a new world record. Participants painted themselves blue and wore pointy white hats, just like their beloved characters.

The 2,510 Smurf fans managed to pulverize the old record for largest Smurf gathering, which was 1,253 Smurfs in one place, set in July 2008, in Castleblayney, Northern Ireland. Judging by the photos, the real-life Smurfs had a great time setting this record.

Photos by CFP

via China.org.cn

Chinese discover deadly combination: soccer and Kung Fu martial arts.

The first thing that came into my mind, when I first saw these photos, was the movie Shaolin Soccer. Ok, so it wasn’t the best film ever made, but it had a pretty cool idea, mixing a popular sport like soccer with martial arts. Now the Chinese bring fantasy into real life with the women’s kung fu soccer team.

The kung fu soccer team was founded in Tanggu, and the girls showcased their abilities for the first time on May 31, in Tianjin. From What I can see, these girls got game!

via China.org.cn

Don’t know what you were expecting, but this is not some high-tech, revolutionary vehicle. It’s just an interesting home-made amphibious bicycle.

Li Weiguo is the man who designed and built this floating bicycle, and the girl riding it in the photos is his daughter Li Jin. His amphibious bicycle has eight water buckets that act as pontoons and adjustable vane wheels that provide the driving power. It might not look as good as other custom made bikes, but at least you can ride it on water and land alike, and that’s the whole point.

The amphibious bike was presented on May 30 2009, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

via China.org.cn

What would your reaction be if you woke-up one morning and found an alligator swimming in your pool?

That’s what happened to Larry Bland, from Texas, who found a 5-foot-alligator cooling-in his backyard pool. Apparently the burning sun was too much for this reptile and Bland’s pool was the perfect getaway.

The uninvited guest was removed by Gary Saurage, a very brave trapper who went into the pool, brought it up to the surface and then pushed it out. That takes some serious “cojones”, I’ll tell you…

Photos by [CFP]

via China.org.cn

The CarGo Concept may not be the best-looking car out there, but with the ever-worsening traffic, it’s just what we needed.

CarGo is a battery-powered vehicle with three different configurations. It can go into Compact Mode, Narrow Mode (reduced width and better maneuverability) and Pick-up Truck Mode, which allows you to transport heavier stuff.

The storage pod, at the back, can be removed to make the vehicle even smaller in size. It’s a brilliant prototype that just might make its way to the market some day. God knows we need something like a 3 in 1 vehicle, during these tough times.

via Yanko Design

It doesn’t happen as often as it would if the fight was actually fair, but it’s nice to see the underdog win for a change.

Israel Lancho had the misfortune of getting impaled by a bull, last Wednesday, in Madrid. The bull’s horn went in 8 inches and doctors said it was a miracle that it didn’t hit the matador’s heart. 30-year-old Israel is now recuperating. I wonder if he’s ever going to go into the bull-ring again.

UPDATE:  One of our visitors left a comment saying the matador died of complications. That is not true, but, while he received medical attention, the bull did in fact die as a result of his wounds. Others said this is tradition and should be accepted as such…Well, the shearing of the beasts, donkey basketball, Grindadrap or Afghan dog-fights are also old traditions, but I refuse to respect them. Read More »