Over 650 unicyclists from 23 countries, and even more spectators gathered in Wellington, New Zealand, for the 15th 15th International Unicycle World Championships and Convention (UNICON XV).

UNICON is held every two years and welcomes anyone who can ride a one wheeled-bicycle. This year, the 10 day event took place between December 27, 2009 and January 7 2010 and hosted  all sorts of fun competition, performed on unicycles, of course. There were 30 different events, of which the most interesting were MUni (mountain-uni-cycling), Road Racing, Track and Field, Unicycle Hockey and Unicycle Basketball.

Yup, basketball and hockey played while riding a unicycle. Maybe you’ve seen this kind of display before, but it’s definitely new to me. I found some photos from UNICON 2010 and added a couple of videos, so you can better understand the game.

I guess these fall in the same weird category as underwater rugby.

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Around 3,000 people stripped down to their underwear, on Sunday, for the 9th annual No Pants Subway Ride.

Started in 2002, with just seven participants, the No Pants Subway Ride has turned into an international tradition. This year, people from 43 cities, in 16 countries joined their New York peers and boarded the subway in their undies.

Some participants to the New York event were met by protesters carrying banners and asking people not to strip, but the joy of the strippers quickly convinced the protesters to take of their pants and join the party. Wearing all kinds of underpants, from bikinis to male thongs, commuters braved the cold and spent No Pants Subway Ride 2010 talking or reading magazines, like they normally do.

No Pants Subway Ride was initiated by Improv Everywhere, an organization that made it its mission to create “scenes of chaos and joy in public places.”

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The Bulgarian men of Kalofer celebrate Epiphany, an important Orthodox holiday, by performing a traditional dance in the freezing waters of Tundzha river.

On January 6, the small town of Kalofer, located 200 km east of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, was the scene of an unique event. The men dressed in traditional costumes and, carrying national flags, headed for the neighboring Tundzha river. Here they entered its freezing waters and performed the customary Horo dance.

During the Epiphany ceremony, an Orthodox priest throws a metal cross in the water and young men plunge in to retrieve it. Whoever finds it first is said to stay in perfect health throughout the entire year. After a swim like this, I have my doubts…

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Kevin van Braak, a young artist from the Netherlands, has transformed his common caravan into an extensible garden he can take anywhere.

In a world where real gardens, with trees and grass are still available, Kevin’s creation can seem a bit odd, but in a few years, it might be the closest many of us will come to real nature.  It looks just like any other caravan, from the outside, but the artist cut it in two, so it would reveal the lavish garden inside, when open.

Kevin van Braak’s mobile garden comes with fake trees, silk grass,  stuffed animals, an electric barbecue and even bird-songs coming through the van’s speakers. It sounds fake, but the young Dutch says many people prefer his garden over the real thing. His caravan garden is for sale, he just hasn’t fixed a price yet.

via Daily Mail

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Record attempts are very frequent in Mexico and most of them have to do with food. On January 3rd, Mexican chefs managed to create the world’s biggest sweet bread, called “Rosca de Reyes”.

Popular around the Three Kings holiday, in Mexico, Rosca de Reyes never looked as big and tasty before. The cooking of the sweet bread has been sponsored by Mexico’s National Bakers’ Association, but this year the bakers outdid themselves and came up with the largest Rosca de Reyes ever.

Measuring 720 meters in length and weighing over 10 metric tons, the world’s largest Rosca de Reyes took over 21,000 man hours and $128,000 to make. 50,000 eggs and 2,900 kg of sugar were “sacrificed” during the cooking process.

The giant Rosca de Reyes was shared among 250,000 locals gathered in Mexico City’s Zocalo Square. Many of them couldn’t afford to buy sweet-bread on their own so this event came like a godsend.

Photos via Xinhua

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Meet Oscar, the luckiest dog in the world. This year he and his master traveled across 5 continents and 29 countries.

Five years ago, Joanne Lefson found Oscar in a South-African kennel and took him in. In May of this year, Joanne sold her house and went on a trip around the world, accompanied, of course, by her beloved pooch. Their incredible journey was meant to inspire people everywhere to take stray dogs of the streets and offer them a home.

Here are some amazing photos of Oscar taken in some of the most amazing locations in the world. Oh, and check out the full of list of countries he visited, at the bottom.

Photos by CATERS NEWS AGENCY

via Daily Mail

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Every year, the people of Singapore celebrate the coming of the New Year by launching wishing spheres in the Singapore River.

The tradition of the wishing spheres was launched years ago by Singapore’s authorities as a way to bring people together and now it’s become an international event. People travel from all over the world to write their wishes for the new year on a giant white sphere and throw it in the Singapore River.

This year, a record 10,000 wishing spheres were available for inking, but they still weren’t enough to cover demand. The wishing-sphere-covered Singapore River is quite a sight to behold this time of year, especially at night, when the spheres are lit.

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No need to buy a Christmas tree this year, just get yourself a Tesla coil and you’re all set for an electrifying experience.

Tesla-coil-enthusiast Peter Terren, from TeslaDownUnder.com, has posted some breathtaking photos of his 2009 Christmas tree, built using, you guessed it, a Tesla coil. This is Peter’s second Tesla Christmas tree. The one he built in 2007 has been featured on the Discovery Channel and in the Metro newspaper, but he says his newest version is even more impressive.

I have to say I’m not very familiar with Tesla coils myself, so I didn’t get all the details Peter Terren posted on his site, but I know beauty when I see it.

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27 -year-old Lucian Craita, from Romania, parted ways with his pet lion, Richie, after raising him in his backyard for over a year.

Lucian has always had always had a thing for lions and when he had the chance to buy one for a pet, from an animal market, he didn’t hesitate. Richie cost him just 1,000 euros and he never regretted spending the money. Over a year and a half of living together, Lucian and Richie developed a truly special relationship, so you can imagine the young man’s grief when he had to hand his pet lion over to the Vier Pfoten animal association.

The Romanian gave up his friend voluntarily, after realizing he couldn’t offer it the life it deserved. Now Richie will be taken to Lion’s Rock Lion Reservation, in South Africa, where he can be with his own kind. Because Richie spent so much time as a house pet, he will never be a real lion, but at least he’ll enjoy being free in the savanna.

Photos by REUTERS via Xinhua

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That’s the Guinness Record Filipino cooks and cooking students attempted to break yesterday, in Manila.

Chefs from the finest cooking school in Manila gathered at the Araneta Coliseum and attempted to create 5,000 cheese-based dishes, in order to beat the previous record of 4,668, set by India, in 2007.

Alex Tacdera, a representative of Kraft Foods Philippines, said the event was organized to celebrate Filipino originality and love for food, in a time of great challenge for their nation. Guinness Book of Records announced it is waiting for evidence on the result to confirm the new record.

Kraft Eden will also be organizing a “Keso de Gallo”, an event where people will try to use Eden cheese to prepare a feast for families affected by the Ondoy and Pepeng typhhons, who don’t have the means to celebrate Christmas this year.

via Daily Mail

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Project Runningblade is so fast it’s able to mow an entire football field in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

After a surviving major heart surgery, 48-year-old Don Wales decided to spend his new life doing something extraordinary. And since climbing Mount Everest involves too much hard work he chose to break the record for the world’s fastest lawnmower. He put together a professional team and created Project Runningblade, a mower capable of reaching speeds of over 100mph.

The current record stands at just over 80mph and Wales is confident he’ll be able to smash it and bring home a new world record for Britain. The attempt will take place on the 27th and 28th of February, on the smooth Pendine Sands, in South Wales. Project Runningblade will need to prove it can cut grass on the morning before the run, then its blade will be removed. For the record to be acknowledged it will need to run for a mile then drive back to the starting point, within an hour. The final time will be an average of the two runs.

via Gizmag

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It may look like an ordinary old stagecoach, but, in truth, there’s nothing ordinary about this colorful masterpiece.

After seeing a smaller model of a stagecoach made from toothpicks in the window of a store, Terry Woodling  decided he was going to build his own life-size replica. This was back in 1981, but he didn’t really get started until Thanksgiving of 1994. Also known as “Me. Toothpick”, 72-year-old Terry spent 15 years of his life working on his one of a kind toothpick stagecoach, in Warsaw, Indiana.

More than 1.5 million flat toothpicks went into the project, bound together by a whole lot of glue. The fact that it’s glued was  actually why his stagecoach didn’t get acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records. But Mr. Toothpicks isn’t too disappointed and decided to donate it to the local Warsaw Museum. But his extraordinary creation caught the eye of Ripley’s Believe It or Not and got a place in their famous museum.

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Brixels is an Austrian company that specializes in creating portraits using LEGO bricks. Just send them a photo and they’ll send you back the perfect Christmas gift.

The amazing LEGO mosaics you see below were created with thousands of  1×1 bricks in four different colors (black, white, dark gray and light gray). Although the guys at Brixels have made LEGO portraits of celebrities like Barack Obama, Marylin Monroe or Bruce Lee, it doesn’t mean you can’t have your face recreated with LEGO.

In fact, the company presents its clients with two options. Other send them the photo and receive a LEGO kit that you can put together yourself, or have them piece it together. Sure the last option is more expensive, but considering these things are made of up to 4,600 pieces, you migt one to consider it.

Brixels (cool name, don’t you think?) was founded by Stefan Sacherer, a 29-year-old graphic designer from Salzburg. A big LEGO fan, Stefan built his first mosaic as a present for his girlfriend. The positive reactions of their friends inspired him to open Brixels, in order to allow people to create their own LEGO portraits.

Damn good idea, if I do say so myself!

Check out the high-speed of a LEGO mosaic being assembled, at the bottom.

Photos by REX FEATURES

via Telegraph.co.uk

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One of Britain’s most bizarre racing events, the annual Pantomime Horse Grand National Race is also one of the most fun.

Designed as a parody of the Grand National horse race held in Antree, the Pantomime Horse Grand National draws in thousands of people to the city center of Birmingham, all eager to watch the competitors and bet on the winner.

Contestants pay a 50 pounds fee to enter the competition and slip into their plush horse costumes for a chance to win the grand prize, a bottle of champagne. I know it’s not much, but it really isn’t about the winnings at all. All the money raised from entrance fees, sponsorships and betting on the sidelines go to the Lord Mayor’s charity funds.

This year, the 7th edition of the Thomas Vale Pantomime Horse Grand National had contestants competing in a grueling 12-jump course. In the men’s race James Bamber and his “horse” Hoof Hearted claimed the no. 1 spot, while in the girl’s challenge Nicki Mills and her Spank The Donkey came first. The funny event raised around 4,000 pounds.

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48-year-old Peter Longstaff is living proof that ambition and hope can overcome pretty much anything. Although he is armless, he manages to create artworks most of us couldn’t paint with three hands.

Ever since he can remember has had get around using only his feet. He had the misfortune of being born in a time when mothers were given thalidomide, a drug that alleviated morning sickness. But it also caused serious deformities in newborns and Peter was seriously affected by it.

Fortunately, this serious handicap didn’t affect the artist’s ambition and, starting from an early age, he figured out how to get things done with his feet. Now he says his right foot is like a normal person’s right hand. He can operate switches, open doors, all while gracefully balancing on just one leg.

Before embracing art, Peter Longstaff worked on a pig farm where he had to drive tractors, stack hay and handle the animals. He didn’t leave because work got too much for him, but because the market was getting to crowded. He retired and turned to art. He quickly enlisted in a movement called “Mouth and Foot Painting Artists”, as a student, and now his works are displayed all over the world.

Peter specializes in landscape paintings and also makes Christmas cards. His works are on display at the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt, Britain, from Friday till Christmas Eve.

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