Don’t know if this is normal or not (I’d put my money on the “not”) but hail has fallen in Africa, Kenya specifically. Don’t think Kenyans are worried though, global warming is probably the last thing on their minds. Look at them all happily surprised, little do they know this could be yet another sign that our planet is going to hell really fast.
I always knew the Star-Wars universe was pretty popular and that there are those that build their entire lives around it, but this is the first time I’ve seen a Star-Wars themed wedding.
You wouldn’t catch me dead at a Star-Wars convention, but from what I see in the photos this Star-Wars wedding turned out pretty cool.
Manuel Uribe, the 42-years old previous holder of the World’s Fattest Man title was finally able to leave his home and take a trip around the Mexican town of Monterey. Although he wasn’t able to walk on his own, the now 310 kilograms-heavy Mexican was able to enjoy a light snack on the shore of a lake and even exchange a few words with the locals.
Uribe is struggling to lose serious weight and so far he’s doing a good job, remember, he used to weigh a half-a-ton. He was carried through town in a special bed using a kind of forklift.
Held every year on the first Sunday of August, in Catoira, Spain, the Viking Festival is a fun celebration in which the locals celebrate the role played by Catoira in the defense against viking invaders.
The highlight of the Viking Festival is the disembarking of viking-dressed locals from a 11th century viking ship and the battle between the Spanish defenders that always leads to all the combatants being drenched in wine.
Every year, on the first day of August a very unusual festival takes place in Twinsburg, Ohio. Twins and multiple siblings from all-across America join in a unique celebration called Twins Days. Participants have a chance to enter fun sporting events, have a good meal and spend time with “members of their own species” as they sometimes like to refer to each-other.
Everyone can enjoy Twins Days, even regular people just as long as they pay the entrance fee.
Can you say FOOD FIGHT?
If you’re one of those people that loved starting food fights in the school cafeteria, you’re going to love La Tomatina festival. every year, on the last Wednesday of August, thousands of people gather on the streets of Bunol, Spain and throw over one hundred metric tons of tomatoes at each-other. Tradition says the tomato fight of La Tomatina is supposed to begin when someone manages to climb up a two-story high greased wooden pole and grab a piece of ham, but since that takes forever the battle starts all of a sudden.
During La Tomatina people just come at you and tear the shirt right off you, even if you’re a woman so don’t act all surprised or scared. The whole tomato battle lasts for an hour aftewhich everyone goes to Bunol River to wash up. If any stragglers are still on the streets after the fight, the locals are more than happy to hose them down.
La Tomatina helps keep the towns streets clean through the acid properties of the tomatoes.
Held every year in the village of Sabucedo, Spain “La Rapa Das Bestas“, as the Spanish call it, is a 400-year-old festival where horses that are caught in the hills are rounded up and guided into an arena of sorts called the Corral of Sabucedo, where they are sheared and branded.
This year’s festival was held on July 5 and, as you can see, it’s very very brutal. I am old for the preservation of old traditions and customs but I truly believe this “festival” should be banned. I mean just look at what they are doing to the poor animals, they jump on them, grab them by whatever they can and try to immobilize them to cut their tales and tag them. This is medieval stuff!
A strange crater appeared in Potters Field, London on Saturday revealing a strange, unidentified object. The area was soon surrounded by a fence and men in black are guarding the strange machine. Nothing has been revealed about this UFO-looking object that is emitting smoke and strange noises.
All everyone knows about this unidentified object is that is part of the new Insignia launch by Vauxhall. Have they invited aliens to their car launch? That would so bury the competition.
Playing in the mud, every child’s dream and every mother’s nightmare came true this year in Westland, Michigan during the Mud Day celebrations.
200 tons of topsoil, 20,000 gallons of water and over 1000 children under 12 years old, now this is what I call chaos. Mud Day is the only day of the year when playing in mud is not only allowed but encouraged. Sponsored by Westland Country Parks and Recreation, Mud Day 2008 had several events like a wheelbarrow race through the mud or the crowning of Mister Mud 2008 as well as free activities like kids covering each-other in mud and just wearing mud on their heads.
So remember, next year, if you have a kid under 12 and want to reward him with an entire day of frolicking in the mud, head over to Westland on July 8 for Mud Day.
Very popular in childhood cartoons, flying with party balloons never really seemed possible in real life.
Kent Couch, a petrol-station owner from Bend, Oregon fulfilled his childhood dream of lifting up to the sky with a little help from a hand-full of balloons. Fine, so they were like 150 party balloons tied to a garden chair, but the fact that he managed to fly for more than235 miles in about nine hours is quite the accomplishment.
His party-balloon flight won him a place in the Guinness Book of Records and helped him become a sort of local celebrity. Couch first tried to reach Idaho last year, but he only covered 193 miles before running dangerously low on helium and having to land his unusual flying machine, but this time he made the proper modifications and succeeded.
Kent Couch left Bend on July 5th carrying a BB-gun and a blowgun to pop balloons if he went to high-up and a few 15-gallon barrels of cherry-flavored Kool-Aid as ballast, to release if he got too low. That’s how he managed to land his balloon carried garden chair, he popped balloons until he touched the ground.
One of the world’s most fascinating legends is Jason and the Argonaut’s journey for the Golden Fleece. Now there are those who want to retake the unbelievable journey in an identical wooden ship.
A replica of the Argo has been built according to the known designs for warships in the Mycenaean era, equipped with a ram used to break the hull of enemy ships. The ship will carry 50 oarsmen with another 22 standing by on a ship sailing behind the Argo. The modern argonauts will spend 2 months at sea, sailing 2000 nautical miles (3700 km), but unfortunately won’t be able to follow the journey of the original Greek heroes. Turkey has refused to guarantee safe passage for the 28.5 meters long ship through the Bosporus Strait, so the adventurers won’t be able to reach the city of Colchis, in modern Georgia. It will however retrace part of the argonauts return voyage.
Argo and the 50 argonauts left on June 13 and will reach their destination on August 11.
Is wacking away violently at used cars and broken home appliances a therapy against stress? Well it is in Spain.
Three Spanish entrepreneurs came up with the idea back in 2003 and it has evolved into a profitable business. Basically people pay to smash cars, washing machines, refrigerators, television-sets with jackhammers, thus relieving stress. It’s called Destruction Therapy or Destructotherapy and the latest session took place this Saturday in Castejon, northern Spain. Participants got to pick from different tools and use their rage to pulverize different objects.
One more interesting fact about this Destruction Therapy is that 40% of the participants are women. It’s not certain that Destruction Therapy (Destructotherapy) really has a therapeutic effect, but it’s definitely fun.
The photos are taken at the event that tok place this year in Castijon and the video was shot back in 2005.
One of the wackiest competitions on Earth and also one of the funniest.
This year’s World’s Ugliest Dog competition was held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. Twelve dogs battled for the title of world’s ugliest dog, and in the end only Gus came out on top. Winers are selected from two classes, the Pedigree class and the Mutt class. Gus won the Pedigrees class and went on to beat Reggie who had won the Mutt class. After winning the competition Gus had to meet the Ring of Champions which included winners from the previous year.
Gus is a Chinese Crested, suffering from skin cancer, he only has three legs (one was amputated due to the skin tumor) and one eye (he lost the other in a battle with a tomcat) and no hair. He was adopted by a Jeanenne Teed and her daughter Janey after they had heard he was being kept in a crate in somebody’s garage.
For winning the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, Gus got $1,600 ,which the owners say will go to his radiation treatment.
China’s water supplies threatened by blue-green algae outbreak.
Chaohu Lake is China‘s fifth fresh water source, providing fresh water to over 300,000 people and is now being invaded by blue-green algae. Scientists say that, in order to thrive, these algae need a constant temperatures of over 25 degrees Celsius, at least 3 days of direct of sunshine and a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. And, once again, man is to blame for this natural disaster, because it supplied the lake with the chemicals the algae needed to multiply at an increasing rate. The local area became increasingly polluted after cities became industrialized. The heavy snowfalls that eventually melted and carried the nitrogen and phosphorus into the lake, didn’t help very much either.
So, for the last 4 months the Chinese authorities have been trying to keep the situation under control while locals get involved and try to fish the blue-green algae as they know best. After all their drinking water source is at stake.
The melting of Briksdal Glacier in photos shot over the years.
Briksdal Glacier used to be the largest glacier on the European mainland, in Norway. But due to global warming it has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. Once a great tourist attraction of the Scandinavian peninsula, Briksdal Glacier is now no longer available for glacier tours. As you can see from the photos the effects of global warming are undeniable and they say you can here the ice melting because of the caverns formed between the glacier and the rocks. It’s a tragedy, but, as always, nobody gives a damn and no one with some real power does anything about it.
2001
