The Tiger Temple

A place where tourists can pet tigers just like they do their cats, here’s something you don’t see every day.

The Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua is Theravada Buddhist forest temple, in Thailand. It has been a sanctuary for many endangered animals for quite some time now, including several tigers. It was founded in 1994 as a forest monastery, where animals could find sanctuary and in 1999 they received their first tiger cub, which died soon after. But they kept receiving tiger cubs from the villagers who probably encountered them wondering through the forest after their mothers were killed by poachers.

The Tiger Temple has raised money over the years and can now accommodate 12 mature tigers and 4 cubs. they live in cages and once a day they are taken to a nearby quarry, where they can roam freely. Tourists may watch from 10 meters distance and sometimes they are allowed to pet these magnificent creatures. Only one serious attack took place in the history of the temple.

The priests at the Tiger Temple are now gathering funds to build a larger facility and create an almost natural environment for the animals, so they can one day be let out into the wild where they belong.

In case you’re wondering, yes this is the place featured on Animal Planet.

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The Real Toy Story

No link to Pixar’s animation movies, but just as interesting.

The Real Toy Story is an elaborate work of art and a homage to Chinese workers, who produce most of the world’s cheap plastic toys. It all began when German photographer Michael Wolf thought to surprise his son on his birthday. He went to the local flee-market, bought 600 second-hand toys and glued them on every available surface of the boy’s room. Upon further examination of the toys, they observed that every single one was made in China. His son said “I thought Santa and his helpers make toys” and that’s when the idea hit him. He immediately set off on a 30-day journey across California, in his van, stopping at every market and collecting all the toys that had a face and were made in China.

He managed to gather 20,000 toys which he shipped to his studio in Hong Kong, where he then sanded-down their backs in order to attach magnets. He then visited some Chinese toy factories and took pictures of the workers. He covered his studio walls with metallic surfaces and stuck the toys to them, also embedding the photos he took.

Source

Zombie wedding

I guess the “till death do you part” has no place here, does it…

I wish I could say I’m surprised to see such a display, but it’s not the first time I see something like this. A while ago I posted about the gothic wedding, which was pretty close to this. i suppose I can understand these people’s desire to do something different, break the rules and have their weddings truly be special, but can’t they have come up with some other theme? Maybe it’s just me but zombies, blood and horrific scars really don’t say nice wedding…

Before you start throwing rocks at little-old me, I’m not judging them, just stating an opinion!

White Diamond, the albino croc

White Diamond is thought to be the only albino crocodile in Europe.

And you can go see him if yo fancy a trip to the German village of Hodenhagen, at the Serengeti Safari park, until April 27. White Diamond was born in Louisiana, USA and grew up at an alligator farm in Florida, but has arrived in Germany as part of a traveling reptile show, called “Land der Reptilien“. White Diamond is 14 years old right now, and he’s lucky he lives in captivity, with that white-a-skin I doubt he could have sneaked up on his prey without being noticed.

So remember, if you want to see White Diamond live, visit Serengeti Safari park, until April 27, 2008.

Giant sandstorm in Iraq

Yeah these photos may date back to 2005, but a giant wall of sand moving at 60mph never gets old!

These amazing photos were taken by a civilian contractor who was supporting US troops in Iraq. he might be an amateur photographer but he did a pretty good job with these pictures, I must say. I wonder what was going on in the minds of the people in that camp, seeing something like that coming towards you at an incredible speed messes up your thinking completely.

I’ve never seen a sandstorm like this, maybe just in movies like The Mummy, but that doesn’t count, it was computer generated. Mother nature sure has some powerful weapons at her disposal…

Oasis of the Americas

Yet another place I’d like to visit at least once in my lifetime.

Sadly I might not get the opportunity, and not because I may not be able to reach it, but just because it may not be there for long. This extraordinary place is in danger, the underground river that supplies the water for Huacachina Oasis is now being plundered by the people of the neighboring city of Ika. It’s not specifically their fault, global warming is affecting water supplies everywhere, so it’s humanity’s fault, shame on us!

It’s a shame that a place that over the centuries has sheltered countless travelers, preventing them from finding their end in the sun-scorched desert dunes that surrounds it. Quite an unfitting end for such a unique location, that is just beginning to attract tourists from all over the world.

So if you have the chance, go to Peru and visit Huacachina Oasis, who knows if you’ll ever get the chance again…

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The Boy and the Python

Would make a nice book title wouldn’t it?

Oeun Sambat is a six-year old boy from Cambodia, who has a very unusual best friend, a huge python called Chamerun (Lucky). If you ask me that should be the boy’s name, he’s lucky that thing hasn’t eaten him yet. Anyway he’s become really popular in the surrounding area, people from the neighboring villagers flock to see this miracle and say he has supernatural powers because he was the son of a dragon in a previous life.

It’s a pretty cool situation, still if was one of the boy’s parents I wouldn’t let him keep that thing as a pet…snakes are very unpredictable creatures, especially if they aren’t tamed in any way.

 

The Giants of the North

Or Gigantes do Norte, in their native Portuguese tongue are a very…special soccer team

What makes them so special is the fact that they are all vertically challenged people, playing against under-13 soccer teams in their native Brazilian town of Belem. What’s even more amazing is that they are attracting huge crowds at their matches, because they’re apparently quite the entertainers.

They’re not just a freak-show doing this to earn money, as some people might think, they are coached by professional coach Carlos Luchena and they were put together “in an effort to raise the profile of dwarves in Brazilian society and challenge ‘sizeist’ attitudes.

That’s commendable!

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Swamp Soccer

If you’re not one of those people who thinks soccer is for pussies, you’re going to love this.

Believe it or not, this sport really exists, there are even organized championships in European countries like Finland and the United Kingdom. It originates from Finland, where it was first played by cross-country skiers who were training in swamps in the summer time. Now annual tournaments take place in Finland, Sweden, Iceland and the UK. There are three types of teams in swamp soccer, man teams, women teams and mixed teams and all consist of 6 players.

Although you have to get down and dirty, I have a feeling this sport is extremely fun to play and there aren’t many teams that play it for the competition’s sake. That trophy would look pretty sweet in my personal collection though…

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Matchsticks-made Minas Tirith

Who knew something made of matchsticks could be so impressive!

Patrick Acton is an artist from Iowa and apparently a big fan of The Lord of The Rings universe, who uses matchsticks to create his masterpieces. What you see in these photos is just a work in progress, an incomplete model of Minas Tirith, the famous fortress city, as seen in LOTR3: The Return of the King. The details are remarkable and I can only imagine what it will look like when it’s finished, sometime in 2009.

Anton has become famous through his work and has been featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, Home and Garden TV and in magazines like AAA Travel wood, The Iowan and others. I admire him for his patience!

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Retro laptop

I’d love to get this thing as a birthday present.

This cool music-box looking thing is Datamancer’s Steampunk laptop. Don’t be fooled by its retro look, there’s a perfect running HP ZT1000 laptop, underneath all that wood and metal gears, it’s even capable of running both Windows and Linux. But nobody really cares about how good a laptop it is now do they? It’s all about that Victorian look, the elaborate clockwork under that glass screen, the brass key operated on/off switch, the claw legs…it’s simply gorgeous, and don’t tell me you don’t like it, you’re just jealous you don’t own one.

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World’s smallest girl

She may be little but I’m sure she has a great spirit!

This it Jyoti Amge, a 15 year old girl from India, that’s about the size of your typical 3 year old. Jyoti suffers from a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia which prevents her body from fully developing; doctors say she’s going to look like a little girl even when she’s 30.

The little girl learned to accept her condition and even said she enjoys her celebrity status. She is no different than your average 15 year old, she loves listening to music, watching DVDs and hopes she’ll one day become a popular Bollywood actress. She has recently recorded a music album with her favorite singer, Mika Singh.

Not bad for someone who’s 58cm tall and weighs a mere 5 kilograms…not bad at all.

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Japanese Rock’n-Rollers

Here’s what watching movies like Grease too many times can do to a man.

I haven’t been able to dig up too much on these silly looking guys, I just know they are some kind of entertainers in Yoyogi Park, Harajuku in Japan. Please, if you know more, don’t hesitate to let everybody know through a comment. I don’t what else to say but: LONG LIVE ROCK’N-ROLL!

 

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Real elf ears

How far would you go just to look as your favorite fantasy creature?

Well I don’t know if this lady is a big World of Warcraft fan or not, but she definitely has a thing for elves and especially their pointy ears. She even went ahead and surgically modified them just so she could look more as an elf. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I thing those things look great on her, and hey if you don’t go as far as Catman did, it’s all good.

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Cool PC command stations

I didn’t know what else to call these babies and I thought the kinda looked like command stations.

I’d be willing to bet the farm that the people who built these bad boys only did it so they can prove they could and to show them off. I mean I can’t imagine what you could use one of these for, they don’t look built for surveillance, that would have made more sense. Some of these seem designed for gaming, but why not use one big plasma screen rather than all these monitors? I’m not that good with computers so the real answer may be alluding me.

Whatever purpose they may serve, they look smokin’ and that’s what matters!