If this thing was for real, you’d need a lot more than a can of Raid, to hold on to your blood.

Back in 2007, Biologists from the Tyumen Regional Museum, who were examining the Noyabrsk area, for creating an eco-tourism route, for kids, stumbled across what they considered the most bizarre find, in their careers, in Lata village. A giant mosquito, as tall as an average person, was staring them in the face.

Luckily for them, this particular blood-sucker was just a sculpture, made from scrap metal. Local artist, Valery Chaliy built this strange monument, using old car and truck parts. It’s not exactly a monument, since we’re talking about a pest that no one would really miss, but the artist admits he was inspired by the millions of mosquitoes inhabiting the neighboring swamps.

Photos via svintuss

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I know you’ve heard of a woolly mammoth, but did you know there’s actually such a thing as a woolly pig? Well, there is, and it’s called Mangalitsa.

Seen from a distance, these pigs look like sheep, and it’s only when you spot their snouts and hear their growl, that you realize they’re actually pigs. Commonly referred to as “sheep-pigs” these strange breed is called Mangalitsa, and it’s on the brink of extinction. That’s right, even though their wool makes them very resistant, both in summer and winter time, it doesn’t do a damn thing against man’s appetite.

Mangalitsa pigs originated from Austria and Hungary, and they come in three color varieties: blond, brunette and redhead. Apart from their bizarre appearance, these pigs have another trait that made them even more popular: their meat, apparently, tastes delicious and is considered a delicacy.

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A talented Gainesville artist found an original way of paying homage to Gators quarterback, Tim Tebow. He created a mosaic using thousands of plastic balls.

John O’Hearn claims he can recreate any image or photo, using just 5 color plastic balls (red, blue, green, black and white). He is a big Gators fan and thought this would be a great way to honor what Tebow has done for the team. O’Hearn started out as a sculptor, but began experimenting with BB gun balls, in recent years.

The Tebow mosaic measures 4 feet by 6 feet, and contains 207 tubes, each with 204 plastic balls. The grand total adds up to 46,308 small BB balls. Such an impressive work of art couldn’t go unnoticed by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, who bought it for the Orlando Odditorium.

Plastic ball Tim Tebow was purchased, by Ripley’s, in December of 2009, but since the Odditorium is getting a little crowded, O’Hearn is put on the trading block. Anyone who wants a shot at this unique piece of art, has to offer another oddity, perform an amazing stunt, or make a donation. If that’s you, make an offer!

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That there must be a really interesting book, to attract the attention of a cat.

These purring fur ball has become an internet sensation, in China, after its owner took some pictures of her, reading a book. The cat seemed to be drawn to that pile of books, always trying to get a sneak peak, when her master was reading. Noticing her peculiar behavior, the man took a camera and immortalized the cat’s reading activity.

As you can see, the feline seems focused on reading every Chinese character, but that made her little brain very tired. After every reading session, the cat needed a good nap, to recover, and get back to her book.

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60-year-old Cliff Penrose can put even the hoppiest bunny in a trance, by using the mysterious art of hypnosis.

Cliff needs just a few seconds to subdue a rabbit. After making a squeaking sounds, to attract the animal’s attention, Britain’s only rabbit whisperer applies some pressure and gives the rodent a little massage. To make sure the hopper doesn’t feel at all threatened, Cliff lowers his head, and finally closes its eyelids.

According to this unusual animal tamer, this technique places any rabbit in a trance, with its paws in the air, for up to 10 minutes at a time. But you have to be confident when handling the animal, and never try to do it when you’re stressed, scared, or nervous. According to Cliff, rabbits are incredibly intelligent animals that react to your state of mind.

Cliff Penrose has placed hundreds of bunnies, under his spell, and even has a special phone line, for troubled owners. Because of his special gift, he is in high demand, among vets in St. Austell, Cornwall.

via Daily Mail

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Featuring over 26,000 bunny-inspired items, the Bunny Museum of Pasadena, California, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest bunny collection.

It all began when she called him honey-bunny, and he gave her a stuffed bunny, for Valentine’s Day. Steve Lubanski and Candace Frazee, met in 1992, at a singles seminar, and both discovered their love for bunnies. At first, each gave the other bunny gifts, on holidays, then, every day, and even several times a day. At their wedding reception, in 1994, Steve showed up in a bunny costume, they both did the bunny hop, and ate carrot cake.

In just a few years, the couple already had an impressive collection of bunny memorabilia, so, in 1998, they officially opened the Bunny Museum, right in the house they live in. It was included in the Guinness Book of Records, as the world’s biggest collection of bunnies, in 1999, when it only numbered 8,437 items.

But the collection kept growing, and the Bunny Museum now features over 26,000 bunny-inspired things, from stuffed toys, to wind chimes, phones and pretty much anything you can imagine. Since Steve and Candice actually live in the Bunny Museum, admission is free, but by appointment only. So far the cute museum has been visited by 16,000 people.

If you decide to visit, make sure you don’t call the bunnies “rabbits”, Candice doesn’t like that very much.

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Wu Yulu, a Chinese farmer, from a small village, outside Beijing, has created a series of 47 robots, out of scrap metal. They can accomplish various functions, from drinking, to walking and even pulling a rickshaw.

Ever since he can remember, Wu Yulu has been fascinated with the mechanics of movement. He always dreamed of building robots that could imitate human behavior, and in 1986, he decided to put his dream into practice. 24 years later, our techie farmer is the proud inventor of 47 home-made robots.

But Wu Yulu has made many sacrifices, in the name of science. He almost lost his wife and two children, after burning down the house, while working on a robot, accumulated great debt, and was even sprayed with battery acid. But like any respectable mad scientist, our man didn’t give up.

And now his effort are finally being rewarded. Mr. Wu has been invited to showcase his scrap metal creations and their functionality, at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. This after already receiving a number of prizes and contracts with universities. But he doesn’t get all this go to his head. he still lives in his modest village house, surrounded by pieces of metal and broken doll parts.

The strangest thing, about Wu Yulu, is he declared he loves his metal robots, more than he loves his own kids. He refers to his rickshaw robot as his 32nd son, and even programmed it to say “Wy Yulu is my dad, I take him out on the town.” How cool is that!

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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They don’t make them like this, anymore, that’s for sure. This bad boy is called Big Bud and it’s the world’s largest farm tractor. It’s 27 feet long, 20 feet wide and 14 feet tall.

Big Bud was built in 1977, in Havre, Montana, by Ron Harmonn and the crew of the Northern Manufacturing Company. It was commissioned by the Rossi Brothers, for their cotton farm, in Bakersfield, California. The main purpose of Big Bud was deep ripping, and it did the job for 11 years, until in moved to another farm, in Florida.

In 1997, 20 years after it rolled out of the Northern Manufacturing Company, Big Bud returned to Montana, to serve the farm of the Williams Brothers. Here, the giant tractor is used for cultivation purposes, pulling an 80-foot-wide cultivator. Even if you have no agricultural experience, you can tell that’s a damn big cultivator.

Equipped with custom-built tires, made by United Tire Company of Canada, Big Bud can work more than an acre of land in just one minute. The Williams Brothers made some minor modifications to the engine, and the tractor is now able to produce 900 bhp, instead of the initial 760 bhp.

When its gas tank is full, Big Bud tips the scale at 50 tons.

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It doesn’t happen very often, but people do grow horns. They’re called cutaneous horns and they are the result of a wide range of epidermal lesions. According to the World Journal of Surgical Oncology, cutaneous horns appear in men over 55 and women over 65. Rare as these cases may be, cutaneous horns have been around for quite some time, with the first documented case appearing in the 1500s. Let’s have a look at seven of the most recent cases of horned people: Read More »

Held every six years, in the Nagano area of Japan, Onbashira Festival is believed to have continued uninterruptedly, for the last 1200 years.

Onbashira, literally translated as “the sacred pillars”, is a Japanese tradition that symbolizes the renewal of Suwa Grand Shrine. It consists of two phases: Yamadashi and Satobiki, the first held in April, and the second in May. Before Onbashira begins, 16 tree trunks, cut form 200-year-old Japanese fir trees are cut down. Each tree can be up to 1 meter across, 16 meters tall and weigh up to 12 tons.

Yamadashi is translated as “coming out of the mountains” and is the most popular part of the festival. Teams of men have to drag the logs down the mountain, to Suwa Shrine. At some points they encounter steep slopes where they must slide the tree trunks. In a ceremony called Ki-otoshi, brave young men risk their lives by climbing on the trunks and riding the all the way down the muddy slopes. It takes 3 days to move the sacred tree trunks, over 10 kilometers, to the shrine.

Satobiki involves placing the logs at the four corners of the four buildings that make up Suwa Grand Shrine. Using ropes, teams have to pull up the giant tree trunks in a vertical position, with young men sitting on them. Those still on the logs after they are positioned, perform all sort of feats.

On Sunday, during the 2010 edition of Onbashira Festival, a man was crushed to death by a tree trunk, during Satobiki. One of the ropes came loose and hit the 38-year-old man in the head. Several others were injured in the accident.

Photos via Daylife

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The guys at This Is Freakin Ridiculous have come up with an original way to celebrate Bacon Day: create a 3 feet-tall Bacon AT-AT.

For bacon-munching Star-Wars fans out there, it just doesn’t get any better than this. Last year TIFR celebrated Bacon day with the BA-K-47 and decided to follow up with something even cooler. And what’s cooler than 40 lbs of bacon slapped on a foam model of the AT-AT?

This baby took 21 hours of non-stop work to complete, and the guys who made it strongly recommend you never cook 40 lbs of bacon in one sitting. It’s just too dangerous. But the result is so awesome, I can say it’s the best bacon sculpture I’ve seen so far.

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21-year-old Sven Goebel set a new Guinness World Record for the biggest house made of regular beer coasters.

The five-room flat Goebel had been working on, since January, was presented to the media, on Sunday, April 11, in Volgeslang, near the German town of Schleiden. The beer coaster house, which was partially furnished with armchairs, a table and a fireplace, was made up of around 300,000 individual beer coasters.

The young German designer spent 6-8 hours every day, seven days a week, adding up to 1,000 beer coasters, daily, to complete his delicate masterpiece. But, on Sunday, he sent his own work tumbling down,with just one quick flick of the wrist, and a few kicks.

Why would anyone do that, after so much work, you ask. Well, apparently, young Sven Goebel wanted to prove to everyone that his beer coaster house wasn’t held together by glue, or anything else.

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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Dia de los Natitas (Day of the Skulls) is an ancient Bolivian ritual where skulls are decorated with flowers and pampered with cigarettes, coca leaves and other treats.

Every November 9, the central cemetery, in La Paz, Bolivia, becomes the scene of a bizarre pre-Columbian tradition, known as Dia de los Natitas.  Women carrying skulls, in decorated wooden or cardboard boxes, fancy glass cases and even in plastic bags, gather outside the cemetery to show off their skulls. They are usually decorated with flower petals (hydrangeas and roses) and covered with knitted colorful caps.

Some Bolivians believe a person has seven souls, and one of them remains in the skeleton, after they’ve been buried. Once the other souls have left for heaven, the remains are dug up and the skull taken home and cared for. If they’re not respected, skulls can bring bad luck to a household, ruin the harvest and even break up a family. But if they’re properly taken care of, you can ask the skull for favors.

A big part of caring for the skull is represented by the Dia de Las Natitas celebration. Skulls are offered cigarettes, coca leaves, alcohol and are even serenaded by street musicians. Read More »

I remember seeing a tree that had flowers on most of its trunk, but I’ve never even heard of a tree that laid fruit directly on its trunk. Have you?

Jabuticaba, also known as the Grape Tree, is a unique tree found around South-American countries like Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Unlike other trees, its fruit can be plucked and eaten right off the trunk. In order to survive, Jabuticaba has evolved in order to make its fruit more accessible to animals who can’t climb. This way they can reach the fruit, eat it and expel the seeds far away from the parent tree.

Jabuticaba fruits are purple, juicy, and can be either eaten fresh, used in jellies, or left to ferment and made into wine and strong liquor. Dried Jabuticaba fruit peels can be used to treat asthma and diarrhea, and scientists hope it will prove useful in the fight against cancer, as several anti-cancer compounds have been identified in the fruit.

It may look like these tree have been infected by some sort of plant disease, but it’s just evolution at work.

via Kuriositas

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A Thai theme-park, outside Bangkok has become a popular tourist attraction by organizing orangutan boxing matches.

Huge crowds of tourists and “sport” enthusiasts gather at Safari World to watch orangutans duke it out in 30 minute-boxing matches. Forced to wear boxing gloves and shorts, the two primates have been trained to hit each other for the entertainment of man. Although organizers claim the orangutans have been trained to simulate being knocked-down, animal activists say it’s a clear case of animal cruelty.

It’s sad to see thousands of tourists cheer as two 250-pound primates pummel each other, or hear them whistling when a female orangutan, wearing a bikini, displays the round number, but it’s the world we’re living in. These peaceful creatures don’t fight because they like to, but because they’ve been trained to do so, an because they would be beaten if they didn’t.

The Thai government shut down the monkey boxing matches, in 2004, and it’s yet unclear how this bizarre and cruel show is still allowed.

Photos by Barcroft India

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