The Silbo Gomero language sounds as sweet as the tweeting of Nightingales. Listening to this beautiful means of communication makes me wonder if birds are actually able to talk to each other in the same manner. Because the people of La Gomera island in the Canaries certainly do one heck of a job of talking through chirp-like whistles.

Silbo Gomero is the name given to the language of whistles spoken on the small island of La Gomera, off the coast of Morocco. It is structured in such a way that the islanders are able to mimic the spoken language of the region – Castilian Spanish – through whistles. While there have been reports of other whistling languages in the world, Silbo Gomero is the only one that is fully developed and practiced by an entire community. It is so organized and thorough that every vowel and consonant can be replaced with a whistle. Depending on the pitch and the number of interruptions, the sounds can be distinguished from each other.

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If you’ve ever dreamed of living in New York, here’s one more reason for you to move there – Jordana Serebrenik. The name of her business explains it all. She is the founder, owner and sole worker of Catch Your Cat, which pretty much sums up what she does. This 45-year-old resident of Murray Hill will come to your home, catch your cat and will do with it anything you want her to.

Let’s face it. Although cats are very adorable creatures, they are fierce when it comes to personal space. Even a hint of threat to their independence and some of them they will even snarl at their own masters. So imagine trying to get a pet cat into a carrier to go to the vet. It could be quite a daunting task. More so, for the elderly or the physically impaired. That’s where Jordana and Catch Your Cat step in. For about $80, she will make sure the cat is in the box in no time at all.

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These are some of the freakiest shoes I’ve ever set eyes on. Made by German designer Iris Shieferstein, the footwear is actually created from body parts of dead animals. She uses horse hooves and skin, snake skin and even whole dead birds as decorations.

I really doubt there are a lot of people out there willing to walk around with a pair of stuffed birds on their feet, but that isn’t stopping 45-year-old Iris Shieferstein from using all sorts of dead animal parts to make unique shoes. She agrees her creations aren’t exactly as comfortable as trainers, but she still wears them around the house. The designer says that her footwear is mainly meant for ‘aesthetic pleasure’. The animal shoes have been displayed at exhibitions around the world and Dolce & Gabanna have even created a range based on her designs. But so far, no company has had the courage to produce them for the general public.

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If a filmmaker could shoot an entire movie on a smartphone, a course on iPhone Photography doesn’t really seem like a bad idea. It’s actually pretty neat that two colleges in London are planning to offer a course that’s dedicated to the ever-popular iPhone. According to course tutor Richard Gray, all you need to attend the course is a passion for photography, a creative mind and, of course, an iPhone. The course fee is £115 (that’s about $178) with an additional £20 ($30) for the purchase of required apps.

The iPhoneography course starts in a few weeks, so it’s still unclear as to who will be interested in taking it. Of course, the iPhone doesn’t compare to high-end DSLR cameras, but for photography-enthusiasts who don’t really have big bucks to spend on this kind of equipment, the course might just be pretty useful. Also, according to Gray, the iPhone camera is not to be underestimated. “With the right apps and skills, it can be a powerful creative tool,” he says, adding that “No longer do you need expensive equipment to produce great images.”

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It sounds cruel when I write about it, but watching a bunch of dwarfs running around with calves that match their size could invoke quite a bit of laughter. There’s nothing cute about this however, the fighting is quite real and dangerous. Thankfully, the calves and the men are usually unharmed.

Wondering what I’m talking about? Meet the bullfighting dwarfs of Mexico, a group of short entertainers who are by no means ashamed of what they do. The sport, for obvious reasons, has earned the title of being one of the most controversial in the world. Animal lovers say it’s cruel. Human rights activists agree. Critics worry about stereotyping. But there’s no denying the fact that it provides a steady means of income for those who otherwise would find it very difficult to get a job. Since employment discrimination is pretty widespread in Mexico, the dwarf community has actually benefited from the bullfighting shows. More often than not, the bullfighters are laughed at, and although this is the main purpose of their act, they would also like to be respected for what they do.

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If you’ve read or watched the Harry Potter series, you’d know that Quidditch has Bludgers that are hurled at opponents to make them lose control of the ball. While this could be fatal in real life, no one’s ever thought much of it since it’s only make-believe. But what if there really was a sport where players were armed with weapons to cause serious injuries to their opponents? That, my friends, is exactly what Ultimate Tazer Ball is all about. The weird sport actually allows players to use stun guns on members of the opposing team.

I watched a few short videos of the sport being played, and in my opinion, there’s nothing fascinating about it beyond the use of the stun guns. The ball used by the players is actually pretty huge, like a beachball, which makes it look like grown men running behind a kid’s toy and trying to stun each other in the process. Menacing expressions are adopted, which I’m guessing is to provide the audience with some entertainment while in reality, nothing much is going on. But again, that’s just my opinion, so let me tell you the rules of the game, and then I’ll let you be the judge.

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People who renew their wedding vows will generally go to any lengths to get everything right the second time around. So this man from Quinlan, Texas, thought things through and realized that no one could make a better best man than Wildthing, his pet buffalo. A 2008 picture of the ceremony shows Ronald Bridges and his wife Sherron posing along with the towering Wildthing. You’d think the picture was morphed if you didn’t know it really happened.

The Bridges run a ranching business in Texas, and Ronald is actually pretty experienced in working with farm animals. So when Wildthing was born in 2005, Ronald decided to tame and raise him as a part of the family. When the buffalo responded beautifully to domestication, the Bridges kind of went overboard. They actually gave him a room of his own in the house where he could eat, sleep and come and go as he pleased. The only time he’s not allowed inside is when they have guests over, as American Bison can actually be pretty temperamental and dangerous around people.

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Men certainly seem to be willing to dish out large sums of money for love-related services. First it was to hire wingmen and then for breaking up. Now it’s the turn of all the jealous boyfriends and husbands out there to spend some cash and prove their women are cheats. If you’re thinking detective agency, you’re wrong. Men are actually hiring this guy to directly flirt with and seduce women in order to prove their betrayal.

The man who makes this possible is Jack Knowles, a handsome young Englishman. He has been working in stealth for men of varying ages and backgrounds for the past two years, and has so far made a whopping £200,000 ($315,000). The work that pays so well even has a name – Honey-Trapping. The master seducer works his charm on unsuspecting women; if they respond, it’s break-up time for the couple in question. If the woman brushes him off, the relationship is effectively saved.

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Television in San Diego is going to the dogs. No, really. They have a new 24-hour channel that’s just meant to keep dogs company when the owners are out of the house. DOGTV was launched on Time Warner and Cox digital cable systems last week.

It’s not uncommon for dogs to feel lonely when their masters leave the house, and some even wreck things out of anxiety. According to Gilad Neumann, CEO of DOGTV, there are several other behavioral issues that dogs develop due to loneliness. He says dogs experience stress too, and leaving the TV on for them could provide some comfort. So what kind of programs do dogs like to watch? Obviously, ones with other dogs. There are programs of dogs playing with balls, meant to stimulate pets, and dogs sleeping, meant to relax them.

Since the concept is still very new, it’s difficult to say if pets will really be interested in the channel or not. While Neumann says that it is intended to create a soothing and relaxing environment for dogs, professor of animal behavior Dr. Katherine Houpt thinks that the channel is not likely to be successful. She says that cats may be interested in TV, while dogs prefer the sound. Dogs don’t even want to be entertained and like to sleep when alone, according to Dr. Houpt.

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It isn’t exactly food fit for a queen, but it’s good enough for 33-year-old Claire Simmons. Claire loves cheese and tomato pizza so much that she’s been eating nothing else for 31 years. Which means she’s been eating the stuff since she was about 2 years old. That does sound too young to be eating pizza in the first place. But it’s not that she doesn’t want to eat anything else, it’s just that she can’t. She shudders at the mere mention of other food and will gag if she puts anything else other than plain pizza in her mouth.

What Claire suffers from is actually known as Selective Eating Disorder. Experts say she’s on the road to killing herself with her diet. But she disagrees. According to Claire, she keeps herself healthy by drinking plenty of water and getting lots of exercise. This doesn’t convince her GP however, who says that if she keeps this up, the lack of vitamins and minerals will lead to huge problems in the future, such as a stroke or heart attack. Claire can’t help it though, given that she’s terrified of eating fruits and vegetables. “I get so angry when people think I’m being faddy – this is a real medical condition,” she says. She does seem to have made it through 31 years on just pizza, and is still going strong. I wonder how she isn’t sick of the stuff, though.

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A princess talking to angels – sounds like a chapter right out of a fairy-tale, doesn’t it? Turns out it isn’t. Real-life Norwegian Princess Martha Louise can not only converse with the unearthly beings, but also teach you how to do it. Last Thursday saw the release of her second book on the subject, with co-author Elisabeth Nordeng. The book called ‘The Secrets of Angels,’ is a sequel to the 2009 ‘Discover Your Guardian Angel.’

According to the two women, angels are real and they do exist just for us. In fact, the angels supposedly want to be in touch with us and help us, all we need to understand is how they operate and how they get in touch. Princess Martha Louise says that she realized her innate abilities to contact angels and read people’s inner feelings as a child. She is also trained in physical therapy and has always been interested in alternative forms of treatment.

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In a world where all things small are considered beautiful and cool, a photographer is doing something quite drastically different from the norm. Dennis Manarchy is in the process of creating a camera that is so huge, it captures 24-foot tall realistic photographs of incredible detail. Photoshop-ing these pictures would be totally out of the question.

The camera itself is a thing of wonder. It’s huge, to say the least. At 35 feet long, 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, it’s large enough to fit a small apartment into. Manarchy is in the process of collecting more funds to make the camera functional, and in the meantime, he has a working immobile model, equally large, fixed in his studio. It uses negatives that are 4.5×6 feet in size. An actual window needs to be used as a lightbox to view them. As opposed to dipping the negatives in chemicals, they need to be showered with the stuff in order to be developed. The resulting photographs are of such pristine detail that even the fleck of an eyelash or pores on the skin can be viewed clearly.

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Some hobbies are downright disgusting. Like this guy from Thailand who collected 10,000 pairs of women’s underwear. No that’s not the gross part. What’s truly disturbing is that he smelled them all the time, even while he was driving. Ewww, right?

Apparently, his obsession was not just for underwear, but also for the stealthy way he obtained them. The police were tipped off about the thief after he broke into a building in Chinatown, Bangkok along with an accomplice. When they raided his home, to their surprise, they found not cash or jewels, but a whopping 10,000 pairs of underwear. And an additional 1,000 were in his vehicle. He then admitted that he had been breaking in and stealing female panties since the age of 18. He is now 48, so there was actually was literally 30-years-worth of underwear in there! Unfortunately, they could only arrest him on grounds of breaking and entering, since no one had actually reported any missing underwear. And I don’t suppose anyone would be interested in getting their missing garments back, either.

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Who could have thought that videos showing tiny amounts of dirt being pushed around by remote-controlled earthmovers would receive nearly 3 million hits on YouTube? Unbelievable, but true. The videos are those of Canadian Joe Murray digging a basement in his home. He’s been doing so for the past 9 years.

Okay, so 9 years seems absolutely unnecessary to do something as simple as excavate a basement. But not where Murray lives. In Saskatchewan, Canada, winters get as harsh as -15C for several weeks. So what he did was convert the seemingly small job into a long-term hobby, by using small tools. Murray works as a farmer of grains and cattle by day. Toying around with the basement is what he describes as his “escape from everyday realities.” Just take a look at the videos and you’ll realize how much fun he’s having with his little remote-controlled toys. The plus side is that his house gets a new basement. In a few more years, of course. After all, the excavators shift only about three cubic meters of soil every year.

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“I look for Smiths.” That’s how Bob Ziegler, from Minot, North Dakota, describes his hobby of 30 years. While most people are content with collecting stamps and bottle caps, Ziegler’s hobby is a little more complicated. He looks for people with the last name Smith and writes to them with a simple request: to send him their business cards. In the last 30 years, he has managed to track down thousands of Smiths, and sent them handwritten letters. Included with the letter is a stamped, self-addressed envelope that can be used to send him back the business cards.

Since 1982, Ziegler has sent over 2,500 letters, and collected 1,014 cards. The Smiths in his collection are spread in all 50 states of the US, and also seven other countries. Some of the responses he has received are a lot more interesting than the cards themselves. For instance, the chief deputy at Escambia County Sherriff’s Office, Larry E. Smith wrote, “It is an honor to serve the public whether it is providing assistance in times of need or providing a business card for someone’s collection because my last name is Smith.” The late president of American Pop Corn Co., Wrede H. Smith, sent not just his own card, but those of his son and nephew. He even threw in coupons for free JOLLY TIME popcorn. Of course, not everyone has been so enthusiastic to participate in Ziegler’s weird hobby. “What – are you nuts?” wrote back one Smith, with no card in the envelope. A few Smiths have been honest enough to admit that they did not have business cards.

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