Most doctors claim tobacco smoke causes serious diseases, but at the Griya Balur clinic, in Indonesia, it’s used as a cure for cancer, autism or emphysema.

In most western countries, a clinic that uses tobacco as a remedy would have been closed down immediately, but in the city of Jakarta, it’s one of the busiest treatment centers. People suffering from serious illnesses, some ironically caused by years of smoking, come to Gryia Balur searching for miraculous cures associated with tobacco smoke. Its founder, Dr Gretha Zahar told AFP that she has treated over 60,000 people from all over the world, in the last ten years.

The treatment for cancer or emphysema sufferers includes blowing smoke from “divine cigarettes” infused with “nanotechnology”, through a tube, to remove cancer-causing “free radicals”. Smoke is blown into the mouth, nose and ears of the patients.  Zahar claims that smoking actually manipulates the mercury found in tobacco cigarettes, curing deadly diseases and even slowing down the aging process. On her website, she says her theories don’t need to be published in medical journals or subjected to clinical tests, and that she doesn’t have the financial resources to “fight Western medical scientists”.

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Slovak artist David Havetta has created a collection of unique sculptures from thousands of nicotine gum pieces he chewed himself, while trying to give up smoking.

The 65-year-old artist says he started smoking as a young boy, but decided to quit about 25 years ago, so he searched for alternatives to keep him busy and away from cigarettes. At one point he discovered nicotine gum, but had no idea it will eventually become the main medium of his unique art. During work, David started sticking the chewed up pieces of gum on a pen holder he had in his office until he formed one big lump. When he pressed his finger on it he noticed it was good, malleable material, so he decided to try and sculpt it, out of boredom.

Havetta’s first chewing gum artwork was the head of a woman, and he liked working with the material so much that he spent the next few months creating a body for it, as well. It took a lot of time and a total of 500 pieces of nicotine gum, but for the artist it was all worth it. Just so you realize how long it takes to make one of his nicotine gum sculptures, you should know David has only created a few dozens of them in the last twenty years. They include a horse, flowers and even an old table clock modeled after The Toilet of Venus by Diego Velasquez. They are all made of hundreds, sometimes thousands of pieces of gum.

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Adele Edwards, a 31-year-old woman from Bradenton, Flrida, has been eating foam from insode sofa cushions every day for the last 21 years.

The woman remembers she first felt the bizarre craving when she was just 10 years old. Her cousin had decided to chew a piece of sofa for fun, and something inside her head just kept telling her she should try it too. She liked the way it felt in her mouth and although she started out by just chewing on the bits of foam and spitting them out, it wasn’t long before she began swallowing them. Three years ago, Adele woke up in the middle of the night, feeling an excruciating pain in her stomach, and after trying to get up she collapsed by the side of the bed. An ambulance rushed her to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed her with a serious blockage in her lower intestines. After six days of trying to clear remove the mass, medical staff was getting ready for surgery, but fortunately for miss Edwards, the strong laxatives she was given were finally able to push the blockage through her body. Doctors were shocked when they saw it was the size of a grapefruit and made of pure sofa.

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La Jenny Naturist Course, on France’s west coastline, is the only golf course in the world where nudity is not only allowed but a must.

US media has recently put together a top 10 of the world’s coolest golf courses and La Jenny Naturist course gathered the most number of votes. While it does boast breathtaking ocean views and impeccable playing conditions, many wondered how a small 6-hole course ended up claiming the number one spot. But the judges’ decision sounds pretty sensible when you learn players who want to tee it up at La Jenny are required to do it in the nude.

People willing to show off their…golfing skills must however follow a strict set of rules. First, nudity is not optional, you must take off all your clothes in order to be allowed on the green. Secondly, shyness has no place here, so players must show respect for the body and not try to hide their nudity. On the other hand, showing off isn’t allowed either so golfers blessed with big, long…chest hair shouldn’t parade it around for everyone to see. Read More »

Wanda Matthews, a 20-year-old woman from Greater Manchester, England, has an unusual passion for everything pink, which made her transform her house into a regular shrine dedicated to the popular colour.

Wanda has always had a thing for pink, but over the last three years things have really gotten out of control. She has converted her three-bedroom home into a giant version of a girl’s Barbie house, where everything from the walls, to the furniture and even the carpet is pink. And since she wears pink every day, the wardrobe is full of pink clothes, shoes and accessories.

Most people who know Wanda, have gotten used to her pink fetish, but those who walk into her house for the first time, usually start out a conversation with “wow, that’s a lot of pink”. But the pink-addicted mother-of-two doesn’t mind, she knows some people might think her love of everything pink is a little strange, but she just likes to surround herself with the girly colour.

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Two students from the University of Virginia have created a pixelated replica of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” using around 8,000 colorful bottle caps.

I don’t know how they got their hands on so many bottle caps, but I’m sure Ross Thomas and Elizabeth Farrell made quite an impression on their teachers and colleagues when they unveiled this recycled version of Starry Night. Around 8,000 bottle caps were used to complete the 7′ by 9′ masterpiece, but although the number itself is pretty impressive, what I find most amazing is how they used the colors and logos of the caps in just the right places to create a beautiful artwork.

I don’t know what it is about Van Gogh’s masterpiece that bottle cap artists love so much, but I think it just might be the most bottle cap reproduced artwork in history. Take a look at some other versions of Starry Night, at the bottom.

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Dani Shay, a 22-year-old American folk singer from Orlando, Florida, has become famous for being a spitting image of teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber.

As if you hadn’t had enough of Justin Bieber, right? Well, I’m sorry to torture you like this but I thought this news was pretty funny. A video of Shay doing a cover of Eminem and Rihanna’s “I love the way you lie” has recently become viral after viewers were shocked at the striking resemblance between the singer and Bieber. Some even thought it was a hoax and that Justin Bieber was actually the one performing in the video.

But this is old news for Dani Shay who says that even before she knew who Justin Bieber was, no matter where she went, people asked her for photos and autographs. Now, being assaulted by mobs of crazy fans everywhere she goes is all in a day’s work for the talented Florida singer. She’s gotten used to it and even describes herself as a “lesbian who looks like Justin Bieber, but is uniquely different in her own ways”, on her Facebook page.

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Everybody loves bacon and I have to admit I knew it was just a matter of time before someone took its tastiness, bottled it and sold it as the best perfume ever.

Fargginay Bacōn is made with “11 popular pure essential oils and an ever so slight hint of . . . bacon” and it’s already being marketed as bacon in a bottle. The wacky cologne is supposed to be a rediscovered secret recipe by John Fargginay, a Parisian butcher who, at the beginning of the 20th century, “discovered the ability to elevate his customers’ mood” using a combination of bacon, essential oils and herbs. Unfortunately, the original recipe was lost during a fire in 1924, but John Laydon, current owner of Fargginay, has attempted to recreate the scent and bottled it up as Bacōn.

The world already had bacon chocolate, bacon jam, baconaise, so why not add some bacon perfume to the mix, right? And while Bacōn won’t really make you reek of bacon, the discreet scent will probably have hungry dogs chasing after you for a piece of ultimate goodness. But, at least it has a pretty decent commercial:

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Nude House, a software comapny from Buckinghamshire, England, has placed a job ad for female web programmers willing to work in the nude.

Company founder, 63-year-old Chris Taylor, claims Nude House is the only business in the world whose employees don’t wear any clothes. It’s apparently every naturist’s dream work environment – warm, clean and great fun – and since most of the business is conducted online, nobody needs to know they’re naked. Mr Taylor himself has been a naturist for 20 years, and says that hasn’t affected his business at all. In fact it’s going so well he’s thinking of opening another office, soon.

In case you’re wondering why the ad asks specifically for women, it’s because Nude House wants their office to be less male-dominated. There are currently seven nude guys working hard over there, and only one woman, so management is looking for more females to balance the number.  “Sex does not concern us and is not promoted by us – we merely provide an environment where the staff may be in offices that are all naturists,” Taylor told the Daily Telegraph. Read More »

60-year-old Bob Gibbins, and his wife Lizzie, 55, have a rather unusual collection of 240 different kinds of love dolls that they like dressing up and taking on shopping trips.

Bob says he has always been interested in dolls, but his passion really started to develop when he used to buy rag dolls and other toys for his two kids. He then moved on to buying shop mannequins for a few years and amassing a pretty impressive collection, but it wasn’t until he found an online forum about silicone dolls that he realized that’s what he really wanted to collect. With the help of his wife, Gibbins acquired his first silicone doll, Beverly, in 2007, for around $4,000. But that was only the beginning, as the couple continued to buy different kinds of love dolls, from cheap blow-up dolls costing $639 at most, to realistic silicone dolls like Jessica, who put a serious $11,202 dent in the family budget. All in all, Bob and Lizzie Gibbins estimate they’ve spent around $160,000 since they started collecting love dolls.

You’re probably wondering what someone does with 240 dolls and mannequins, especially when they live in a not so spacious bungalow. Well, according to the wacky couple, they love dressing up the dolls, washing them and fixing them up so they look their best, and since they’re both very picky about their dolls’ appearance, this takes up a lot of their time. Silicone dolls are apparently very needy; they sweat and need to be washed regularly, which can be a problem considering they’re pretty heavy, but Bob and his wife spare no effort tending to their precious collection.

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Scotish ship enthusiast Stan Fraser has spent eleven years of his life building a 100-foot model of the Titanic, in his own backyard.

The 46-year-old former lighting engineer has always had a thing for the Titanic as well as maritime items in general, and his house in Inverness is filled with life jackets, models of other ships and copies of old newspaper articles reporting the Titanic’s tragic accident. His mother used to tell him lots of seafaring stories when he was a child, and he developed a strong passion for the sea that stuck with him throughout his life. He chose a nautical theme for his house and turned his cousin’s old rowing boat into a pirate ship for his kids.

But it was the famous Titanic that fascinated Fraser the most, as he says it was the most beautiful ship ever made, even compared to modern sea liners. He started working on a small replica of the Titanic for fun, but he kept making it bigger until he decided on a 1:100 scale model of the ship. Stan used two caravans he had in the garden as the base of his masterpiece, then someone gave him an old shed to use as material, and another friend who was building a house, helped him out with wood and nails. This got him started, but he spent the next eleven years working on his incredibly detailed model.

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Regina Mayer, a 15-year-old girl from Laufen, Southern Germany, rides her pet cow Luna as if she were a well-trained show horse.

The young girl always wanted her own horse, but her parents kept saying “no”, and since she had a stable full of cows at her disposal, Regina decided she was going to try and ride one. After hundreds of hours of training and many baskets of treats, she managed to teach Luna to jump over home-made hurdles, just like a show horse.

Regina remembers that she knew Luna was special ever since she was born, three years ago. The calf came right up to her, she wasn’t shy like most other young cattle, and they developed a special friendship ever since. The 15-year-old began riding Luna about six months ago and she even contacted a riding school in Switzerland, and received some tips on how to train and equip the bovine in a way similar to a show horse. The two went for long rides around the countryside of Southern Germany and Luna become more and more comfortable, especially since her friend Regina made sure to give her delicious carrots during each outing.

Young Regina Mayer says Luna is definitely very clever, she knows what she can do and what she can’t. Right now she’s able to jump over a-meter-high hurdles, but the rider is confident this year they will reach 1.20 meters. She admits people always look at her funny when they see her riding a cow, but she wouldn’t dream of trading Luna for a horse. The trained cow has become her best friend, following her around wherever she goes, something a horse would never do.

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A man from eastern Missouri decided to show his appreciation for women’s underpants by making his very own ladies underwear quilt.

Louis Garret, from Louisiana, first saw a pantie quilt in a magazine he was subscribed to, and since he already had a collection of mannequins he loved to dress in old underwear and dresses, he decided to make a pantie quilt for himself. Garret, known to his friends as “Shovelhead”, becuase of his passion for Harley-Davidson bikes with shovelhead engines, asked his female friends to give him any old panties they weren’t going to wear anymore, and although some of them raised their eyebrows to his strange request, he ended up with some nice donations.

Shovelhead would go into women’s garments stores and pick out the pairs of underwear he liked, and he would tell all his new female clients about his special quilt and then asked them to donate their panties. But we’re talking about a man who wanted pure quality, so he wouldn’t accept any cheap, dollar-store polyester undies, just silk and nylon Victoria’s Secret-looking stuff.

The finished underwear quilt features 58 different ladies panties, and although recent media coverage could earn Louis Garret a hefty sum if he decided to sell it, the motorcycle aficionado says he never considered selling it, because he known most of the women who gave him their panties, so it has a weird sentimental value.

I wonder if he washed them panties before stitching them to the quilt…

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Live fish and small turtles sealed in plastic keychains have become increasingly popular items sold at subway entrances and train stations across China.

The living keychains containing  Brazilian turtles or king fish swimming in colored water are considered good-luck charms by many Chinese, but animal protection groups are outraged and call them a perfect example of “pure animal abuse”. Business is booming according to Chinese online newspaper Global Times, which reports one fish and nine turtle rings have been sold in just five minutes, on Tuesday, at the Sihui subway station, in Beijing.

According to vendors, the colored water in the 7-centimeter-long keychains contains nutrients that allow fish and turtles to live inside for months. While that may be true, Mary Peng, cofounder of the International Center for Veterinary Services, says they couldn’t survive in the sealed bag for very long, due to lack of oxygen.

While animal rights activists are protesting loudly against the sale of living keychains, there isn’t much else they can do, because China only has a Wild Animal Protection Law – if the animals are not wild animals they fall outside the law’s scope. Until the law changes to protect all kinds of animals, activists can only appeal to people not to buy them, and hope the market will die due to lack of customers.

Although some people buy these bizarre keychains to carry around for good-luck, there are those who buy them just to free the poor creatures from their tiny plastic cage.

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Susan Braig, a 61-year-old cancer survivor from Altadena, California, began making jewelry from medication as a form of therapy, but now sells her creations to pay her medical bills.

Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer and started chemotherapy in 2004. She remembers she bought her first round of medicine our of her own pocket; it cost her $500 and looking at the little pills she got for that much money, it made her wonder if they were little gems. But the idea of actually using medication as jewelry came to Susan Braig in 2007, when she participated in a medical-themed art exhibition organized by the NewTown Pasadena Foundation. She decided to create a mock Tiffany & Co. jewelry advertisement for the exhibition, using different kinds of pills as diamonds, rubies and emeralds, but she eventually ended up making a princess’ tiara encrusted with her leftover cancer pills, as well as several other pieces. They were a hit, and many show-goers told Susan she should open her own jewelry line.

Now, seven years after starting her treatment, Susan Braig is cancer-free and running her own jewelry line, called designer Drug Jewelry. Friends and fellow cancer survivors donate their own old and leftover medicine, and she uses them to create colorful accessories priced between $15 and $150. She sells them at craft shows, where she wears a white medical robe, and is considering distributing them to hospital gift shops. The pills used for the over 500 pieces she designed so far are coated with a sealant and glued to the costume jewelry, to make them “non-abusable” as she says. The jewels come in an ordinary pill bottle, wrapped in a ribbon and placed in small bags made from surgical face masks.

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