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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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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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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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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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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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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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 »

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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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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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)

Owning an Apple iPad is not such a big deal these days, but building one for scratch is definitely an impressive feat. That’s exactly what Chinese art student Wei Xinlong did, in the name of love.

Like many other college sweethearts in China, Wei Xinlong and Sun Shasha decided to settle for a long distance relationship in order to continue their studies or find better employment opportunities, after graduation. While some choose to end the relationship before parting ways, or reach that point after a certain period, Wei was determined to show his girlfriend how committed he is to their relationship and decided to prove it in a very special way. Although he attended art school, the young student had always been passionate about gadgets and loved building things with his own hands, so he set out to build Sun a touchscreen tablet PC for a daily video chat session. This way, when he leaves to Shenzen, they’ll be able to keep in touch easier.

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Peng Jiangya lost all of her fingers when she was only a child, after she fell into a flaming fire stove while her parents were away, but that didn’t stop her from finishing school, establishing a family and even creating beautiful art.

Growing up in a small village at the foot of the Fanjing Mountains on China’s Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Peng didn’t have the easiest childhood, but things got even worse after she burnt her hands severely after falling in a flaming fire stove. Her parents were too poor to afford reconstructive surgery, so the young girl had to learn to do everything without any fingers. At first she was unable to use chopsticks, and her parents had to teach her for a long time, but thanks to her strong will and a desire to do everything on her own and not rely on others, she managed to overcome those difficult times and is now capable of taking care of her own family.

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Sagaki Keita is an amazingly talented Japanese artist who specializes in recreating classic masterpieces from thousands upon thousands of childish doodles.

If you were to look at Sagaki Keita’s work from really up-close you’d only see familiar doodles like we all used to do back in school, during boring classes. But as you slowly back away, you realize that with every step the doodles seem to blend together until they form an incredibly detailed version of a classic work of art, like the Mona Lisa or an old Roman statue. His art really blows you away, and just thinking about the amount of time and effort that must go into each of his pieces, you can’t help but feel in awe.

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Mavericks, a popular strip club in Cape Town, South Africa, has recently launched a series of men’s fragrances called “Alibis“. As the name suggests, they provide husbands with an excuse for when they get home late.

Because most clients get a bit carried away when visiting Mavericks, and choose to have one more dance “to see what happens”, the joint’s owners were inspired to create a series of perfumes that could give married men an alibi for when they arrive home late.  ‘The fragrance market is a natural extension for the sexy, sophisticated and upmarket Mavericks brand, and the idea of a range of ‘Alibis’ is one that will appeal to many of our customers”, said Mavericks owner Shane Harrison. He expects buyers will find uses for the Alibis fragrances in a variety of day-to-day situations, and thinks the products will prove a hit during the upcoming Christmas season. Read More »

A German beef-selling website is offering clients the bizarre option of choosing how their favorite breed of cow gets slaughtered.

mycow.de, a beef-selling web-store owned by a company based in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is all about offering customers choices. They allow people to choose from various breeds of cattle, like the succulent Angus, or the delicious Galloway, and even to order steaks from specific farms they own in the German countryside. But the weirdest think is they actually let people decide how they want their cow slaughtered. That sounds kind of sick, right? Well I thought so too, but apparently the guys at mycow.de have an explanation for making this choice possible for their customers.

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