Marvelous Finger and Palm Print Paintings by Zhang Baohua

In 1989 Chinese artist Zhang Baohua invented a new style of painting which requires the artist to use his finger and palm prints to create unique works of art.

It’s hard to believe such masterpieces can be created without any tools, but Zhang Baohuang manages to do it by using just his fingers and palm prints. His unique painting style is characterized by a concise, lively style and a sense of reality, and is considered a combination of traditional Chinese painting and the structural features of Western painting. Most of his works depict animals, especially dogs. Zhang’s works have been featured in art galleries all around the world, and he is known as “China’s world famous palm painting artist”.

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Designer Builds Functional Sound System from 5,000 Recycled Beer Cans

Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki teamed up with Mathew Kneebone to create an incredible beer can sound system for Red Stripe’s “Make Something Out of Nothing” project.

Suzuki and Kneebone were commissioned by Red Stripe, Jamaica’s most popular beer, to use their talents and create a work that reflects Jamaican DIY culture. The two came up with a sound system inspired by the towering, bass-driven sound systems that started out in the ghettos of Kingston and nowadays provide the rhythm of Jamaica street life. Because they can’t get their hands on expensive materials needed to build sound systems, Jamaican reggae groups often have to improvise and make them from scratch, using all kinds of stuff that doesn’t usually serve as components. This inspired the artistic duo to create their own DIY sound system from recycled Red Stripe beer cans.

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Couple Name Baby after “Skyrim”, Win Free Video-Games for Life

Megan and Eric Kellermeyer decided to name their baby born on 11/11/11 Dovahkiin, after the leading character in Bethesda Studios’ “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” video game.

Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer was born at 6:08 pm PST, and his parents explained their decision because they wanted to give their son an “awesome name”. Meaning “Dragonborn” in dragon language, Dovahkiin certainly sounds like a very interesting name, but it’s also one that will earn its bearer and his family free Bethesda games for life. You see, the video game developer posted a challenge back in February that whoever would deliver a baby on 11/11/11 and name him/her Dovahkiin, would get free games for life. Megan and Eric were the first to prove they’d completed the challenge.

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Learn to Fight Zombies at Real-Life Zombie Boot Camp

Zombie Boot Camp, a recently inaugurated one-day training course, promises to teach people specialized zombie-fighting skills for only 90$.

Whether you’re one of those crazy folks who believes a zombie apocalypse is imminent, or just a big fan of zombie culture, Zombie Boot Camp sounds like the perfect experience for you. The unusual training course taking place in the UK’s  Droitwich, Worchestershire, sees would-be zombie hunters take part in specialized training exercises with experienced military instructors, before putting on special armor and taking on a group of brain-eating zombies to prove they’ve mastered the skills necessary to survive during a zombie crisis.

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Belarusian Builds Impressive Car Part Bison Sculpture

Roman Beybutyan, a young car enthusiast from the Grodno region of Belarus has built an impressive bison sculpture exclusively out of car parts.

Using shock absorbers, springs, steering rods, clutches, chains and various parts from soviet era cars like UAZ, Moskvich and Lada, Roman and his father managed to create a life-size metal bison, in three months. Roman and his father got all the parts they needed from their neighbors’ garages and from the local scrapyard, and welded them together using a photo for reference. Although the young boy, whose family arrived to Belarus from Armenia, has never seen a real bison, he did a fine job recreating one from metal parts.

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Susan Stockwell Makes Victorian Gowns from Paper Maps and Real Money

We’ve all seen paper dresses before, but Susan Stockwell’s Victorian gowns made from maps and various bills are in a class of their own. A sculptural study on colonialism and the British empire, her series of life-size paper dresses are composed of ordinance survey maps and English bills glued together. By sing military maps to create women’s dresses, Stockwell addresses issues like English colonization and occupation of Scotland over 300 years, and mail domination in Western history. Based on styles of dresses worn by English women explorers during the Victorian period, the artist honors their role in history.

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Designer Creates Unique Wedding Dress from 250 meters of Hair

Legendary English designer Thelma Madine teamed up with Liverpool hair salon Voodou to create a one-on-a-kind wedding dress entirely out of human hair.

Brides usually opt for shades of white when picking their wedding dress, but this didn’t stop Thelma Madine and Voodou hair stylist, Ryan Edwards from creating a gown only Lady Gaga would wear. In fact, the duo say they would be more than happy if the popular singer would choose to wear it on her next tour. “It’s a unique creation, just like her, and I think it would be a hair match made in heaven!” Madine said. Considering Gaga’s past wardrobe choices, they might get their wish…

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Food Artist Makes Pancake Celebrity Portraits

Chicago-based artist Katherine Kalnes creates delicious pancake portraits of celebrities the likes of Justin Bieber or Ryan Gosling.

There are some fans out there that would kill for the chance to sink their teeth into Justin Bieber, so to spare the popular pop star any possible injuries, 25-year-old Katherine Kalnes has created a delicious portrait of the singer from pancakes. The young food artist uses a special pancake batter that comes in a spray can, called Batter Blaster, frosting, chocolate chips, blueberries and raisins to create edible portraits of celebrities like Drive leading man Ryan Gosling, Kelly Ripa, Ellen DeGeneres or Stephen Colbert.

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Ashes to Ashes? In Korea, It’s More Like Ashes to Beads

As a result of changes in traditional South Korean beliefs, more and more people are choosing to have their cremated loved-ones’ ashes turned into decorative beads they can keep around.

10 years ago, 6 out of 10 Koreans who died were buried, according to Confucian beliefs to respect the dead and visit their graves. But, due in part to western influence, but also to a strong government campaign to convince people to switch to cremation, Korean culture changed drastically. In a small, densely populated country like South Korea, space is very important, so in 2000, the country’s government initiated an aggressive pro-cremation campaign that included pamphlets, radio broadcasts and press statements, This culminated with a law passed in 2000, requiring anyone who chose to bury their dead, to remove the grave after 60 years. Largely as a result of these facts, only 3 out of 10 Koreans were buried last year.

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Artist Creates Mind-Blowing Mosaics from Thousands of Naked Bodies

New York-based artist Angelo Musco is taking the photography world by storm with his incredible mosaics made up of thousands of naked bodies.

Touching themes like birth, procreation and gestation, Angelo Musco creates complex structures of the natural world from an ant colony and beehive to a school of fish, using thousands of human bodies. “A swarm of fish captures a profusion of life, the safety of a symbolic nest, and a connection of one being to another. ‘It’s the strength derived from this collective force,” the artist says on his website. “The nests, as well, relate to the safe geography of birth and early life.” But Angelo Musco also draws inspiration for his unique mosaics from his traumatic early life experience.

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Swedish Church Uses Techno Music to Attract the Young

Last Friday, a church in Stockholm, Sweden turned into a 90s disco, during a techno Mass priests hope will draw young people closer to religion.

Instead of listening to the sermon and praying silently, the congregation inside the All Saints Church, in Stockholm were throwing their hands in the air, busting dance moves and singing to the lyrics of music, during the second ever techno Mass organized by the Swedish church. Special lighting installations, the techno sounds and raving crowd made the place look more like a dance club than a place of worship, but priests of the Lutheran church say this was just a successful attempt of making religion and attending church interesting for young people.

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Crazy Drinking Habits: Vodka Eyeballing

Last week I wrote about a dangerous drinking game using vodka-soaked tampons, and this week we continue the crazy drinking habits series with an equally bizarre method of consuming alcohol called vodka eyeballing.

Bet you didn’t know you can drink with your eyes, did you? Believe me, I was as shocked as you are right now, but this is apparently all the rage among daredevil teens around the world. Basically eyeballing implies pouring vodka in your eye socket, which some claim gets you drunk in record times. Just like in the case of vodka-soaked tampons, the explanation behind this bizarre drinking method has to do with alcohol being absorbed faster than the old fashioned way. However, specialists point out that only a small amount of alcohol can actually enter your system through the eye, so the claims are most likely fake. Read More »

Giant Artwork Created from 5,000 Poppies

Artist Ted Harrison scattered over 5,000 poppies on the floor of St. Paul’s cathedral, in London, creating a giant artwork that highlight the involvement of children in armed conflict around the world.

Seen from ground level, Ted Harrison’s art installation looks like a bunch of randomly scattered poppies, but looked at from the Whispering Gallery, under the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral, the flowers form an image of three child soldiers, one from World War 2 and two from more modern conflicts. The installation is part of the St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project, an ongoing programme which seeks to explore the encounter between art and faith, and was created to raise awareness to the issue of children being used as soldiers.

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School Tests Held Outside to Prevent Cheating

Cheating had become a real issue at a middle school in Whuhan, China’s Hubei Province, so the teachers came up with th idea of having kids take tests outdoors, on the school playground.

In most Western countries, children and their parents would have surely shouted “violation of human rights” if forced to attend classes outside, but at one Chinese learning institution this is seen as an effective way to thwart cheating attempts. Apparently, teachers at the Sihuang Middle School, in Wuhan, had become so desperate to effectively crack down on organized cheating rings, they finally decided the best thing to do was to have students take tests on the school’s playground, meters apart from their colleagues, and under the vigilant eye of supervisors.

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10 Coolest Finds of the Week #17

Infamous: Lindsay Lohan – The Comic Book (Dailymotion)

Snook Devoured by Massive Croc (Environmental Graffiti)

The Goriest, Raunchiest Chinese Classic of All Times (Asia Obscura)

Panda Poo Tea to Be World’s Most Expensive (China.org)

Russian Grave Robber Kept Women’s Bodies as Dolls (CTV)

Pregnant WOman Develops Craving for Roadkill (Daily Mail)

Praying Mantis Devouring Its Prey (Environmental Graffiti)

Terrifying See-Through Mountain Pass (Sky News)

World’s Most Expensive Photo Is Kinda Boring (The Guardian)

Artist Prints Out 24 Hours of Flickr Uploads, Over 1 Million Photos (Geekosystem)