Dead Horse Bay – Where Bottles Go to Die

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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Stonehenge Replica at Freestyle Music Park, South Carolina

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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Shain Erin’s Creepy Mummy Doll Series

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 »

Amazing Catch in Congo River : 5ft long 100lbs Giant Piranha

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 Haward, the Amazon Wrestler

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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The Giant Book of Bhutan : Last Himalayan Kingdom

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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World’s Largest Toast Portrait Is Best Birthday Card Ever

Trying to come up with an original birthday present for mother in law, a museum curator managed to set a new world record for the world’s largest toast mosaic.

27-year-old Laura Hadland, a museum curator from Leicester, wanted to offer her mother-in-law a really special gift, on her 50th birthday. Together with 40 friends and volunteers, Laura spent six hours toasting thousands of bread slices and arranging them into an amazing mosaic of the woman she calls not only a great mother-in-law, but also one of her best friends.

The world’s largest toast mosaic was created using a set of ten bread toasters and measures 32 feet 8 inches by 42 feet 3 inches. Its made up of 9,852 slices toasted to varying degrees of brown, which add up to about 600 bread loafs.

As a museum curator, Laura Hadland has had plenty of experience working with ancient Roman mosaics, and admits she was thrilled to create a modern mosaic out of her favorite food. Her mother-in-law says it’s a bit weird seeing her face recreated from pieces of toast, but at the same time very flattering.

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Excessories Odd-Yssey – The Ultimate Shoe and Hand-Bag Art Car

To show off her love for style and fashion, artist Kelly Lyles turned her old Honda Odyssey into the ultimate fashion-themed art car.

Appropriately named Excessories Odd-Yssey, this lavish art car is covered with dozens of fashion accessories, from hand bags, to shoes, glasses and jewelry. The hood of of the car is decorated with a magnetic Paperdoll version of the owner, together with a series of magnetic outfits. The inside of Excessories Odd-Yssey, including the dashboard, is covered with colorful clothes.

Driving around in the Excessories Odd-Yssey, on the streets of the mostly gray Seattle, Kelly Lyles manages to bring some color to the rainy city. She has done so for the last 20 years, since she created her first art car.

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Fred Conlon Turns Old Army Helmets into Beautiful Sculptures

Old army helmets seem pretty useless in these modern times, but artist Fred Conlon has found a pretty good use for them, and it doesn’t involve a museum.

Growing up in small Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Fred Conlon was always fascinated by art, but it wasn’t until he graduated from the University of Utah, with a degree in Public Communications, that he decided to open a pottery shop. With only his family’s support and 15 credits in pottery classes, Fred fulfilled his dream and opened Sugar Post Pottery, in Salt Lake City. Throughout the years, he discovered his passion for working with metal, old war gear in particular, and his original helmet sculptures are just some of his wonderful creations.

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Vaulting at the World Equestrian Games 2010

If you thought riding a horse was difficult enough, equestrian vaulting will seem like an impossible feat. Still, it’s practiced worldwide, and it’s even an event at the World Equestrian Games.

Equestrian vaulting is best described as gymnastics and dancing on horseback. Its origins are pretty unclear, with some saying it originated in ancient Rome, and other claiming it came from he island of Crete. One thing is for certain – horseback vaulting has been around for over 2,000 years, and it’s still a entertaining and exciting sport. Vaulting is particularly popular in countries like Germany and France, but it’s gaining a lot of followers in other parts of the world, like Brazil Australia or the United States.

In competitive equestrian vaulting athletes compete by themselves or in teams of two or more. Both the vaulters and the horse are judged according to their performances and receive scores from 0 to 10. Beginners perform their routine during the horse’s walk, while experienced vaulters perform on the horse at a canter. Horses used for vaulting are trained especially for this kind of events, and they are controlled by a lunger who keeps them moving in 15-meter circles.

The components of a vaulting exercise include a mount and dismount, as well as various maneuvers like kneeling, standing, handstands, flips, and tossing teammates into the air. While the vaulting horse is not saddled, it does wear a surcingle fitted with special handles that help vaulters.

The latest vaulting exhibition took place at the World Equestrian Games 2010, and was won by the US team. You can see an entire vaulting routine, in the video at the bottom.

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Carl Warner’s Mouth Watering Foodscapes

London-based artist Carl Warner creates amazing food landscapes he refers to as foodscapes. They are totally edible, but why would anyone want to ruin such masterpieces simply to satisfy their hunger?

Inspired by the work of American landscape photographer Ansel Adams, and literary works like The Wizard of Oz and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Carl Warner began creating his own unique landscapes out of food. Whether he uses vegetables, various bakery products or meat, his incredible foodscapes look absolutely mindblowing.

While he likes to get involved in setting up the foodscapes, Carl admits he often asks for the help of model makers and food stylists to create his sets. The process usually starts with him drawing a sketch of the foodscape, then the set is created, and finally, he takes photos of it and retouches them on his Mac. It sounds simple enough, but the foodscapes are photographed in different layers, a laborious process that can take up to a few days. He also spends a lot of time staring at vegetables in the supermarket, which may sound weird, but finding the right looking veggies for a foodscape is very important to him.

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Zac Freeman’s Incredible Junk Portraits

Looked at from up close, Zac Freeman’s artworks look like common piles of junk, but take a few steps back and you’ll discover amazingly detailed portraits.

You know that stuff most of us throw away after a while, things like old buttons, LEGO bricks, keyboard keys? That’s exactly the kind of material Zac Freeman uses to create his unbelievable portraits. He began gathering junk and found objects in 1992, and started gluing them to pieces of wood, creating various portraits.

In the words of the artist:

“I was interested in communicating through visual representation in apparent 2-dimensional space and through the actual objects used for the medium in 3-dimensional space. It is very important to me that I incorporate the actual objects into the art as opposed to a picture or rendition of it because it better expresses the intention of the artwork. I feel the junk is more powerful being present. It is an actual thing to be reckoned with that existed in this time and place and carries energy in and of itself.”

I was thinking about how many artists use junk as an art medium these days, and then it hit me: it might seem like a peculiar thing to use in art, but junk is everywhere around us, and so easy to come by, so it’s no wonder artists use it in their artworks.

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Naaman Amer – World’s Youngest Pepper Eater

20-month-old Naaman Amer, from the city of Nablus, West Bank enjoys eating hot peppers and is considered the world’s youngest pepper eater. The young Palestinian boy has been gobbling down green peppers since he was just 14 months old, and his parents are quite proud of his appetite for the throat-burning veggies. Naaman eats them at every meal, and so far he hasn’t had any health issues, but I still think it’s pretty weird for a boy this young to eat so many hot peppers.

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The Watchman – Milwaukee’s Real Life Superhero

Armed with a flashlight, a can of pepper spray and a cell phone, the Watchman patrols the streets of Riverwest, hunting for criminals and evil doers. But he’s got a job, so he only plays superhero on weekends.

Although he doesn’t have any real superpowers (or even weapons), The Watchman likes to refer to himself as a real life superhero. Instead of gadgets and weapons, he opted for a simple Motorola phone, which he uses to report the crimes he happens to witness while patrolling. Contacting the police or calling an ambulance is sometimes more important than intervening in person, so he prefers to let authorities handle emergencies.

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The Food Packaging Fashion of Katell Gelebert

French designer Katell Gelebert has created a line of clothes, made from various food packaging, that expresses her position as an environmentalist and human rights activist.

By using the packaging of everyday foods like pasta, frozen vegetables, coffee and even cat food, Katell Gelebert has created some pretty amazing pieces of clothing that have great potential for re-use and are also esthetically pleasant. Using only low-tech means, the French artist managed to combine design and reusable materials, without creating more waste.

If you’re interested in more packaging artworks, check out Jason Clay Lewis’ rat poison packaging art.

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