I never knew traditional Nigerian Boxing is one of the deadliest sports in the world.

Practiced by traveling young African men, Dambe is one of the few ways they can become famous in a country like Nigeria. The winner of a Dambe tournament gets around $100, a TV-set and the honor of being a champion, not much for what he has to go through.

All a fighter has to do to win a fight is knock down his opponent only once in three rounds, but if the two are evenly matched, a fight can go on for hours. As you can see in the photos, fighters wear a flax cord rapped around one of their fists. They wet the string and sprinkle sand on it to make his punches more painful. The other hand is used to taunt and trick the opponent into letting his guard down. Many have been seriously injured and even died practising this blood sport, but as many fighters complain, there isn’t much an unemployed Nigerian can do to find fame.

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And I don’t mean in heaven, just 50 meters above the ground.

If you really want to surprise your friends or business partners and want to throw a dinner that they’ll never forget, you might consider a Dinner in the Sky. All you have to do is contact the guys at Diner in the Sky.com,tell them how you’d like them to customize the table and they’ll come with their giant crane in any place on earth as long as there is a 500 square meters surface that can be secured. You can invite up to 22 people to this unbelievable dinner in the sky for a period of 8 hours. You’ll only be accompanied by a chef, waiter and an entertainer, so you’ll have the whole sky to yourself.

Quite an original service these guys are providing, I’m sure business must be good.

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No one actually smoked this cigarette, it was created as a statement.

A 9-meter cigarette butt was dropped in the middle of Trafalgar Square, London, at the beginning of this month as a protest against the city’s burning littering problem. Ever since smoking in indoor public places was banned, Londoners have been smoking outdoors and throwing the stubs on the streets, with no concern for the environment. The Keep Britain Tidy campaign installed the giant structure to remind people that cigarette butts litter 78% of streets in all of Great Britain.

Maybe somebody should start advertising the e-cigarette more, it would solve the littering problem and keep smokers happy.

Building Antena Span Earth

That’s what the acronym B.A.S.E stands for. This incredible sport is derived out of sky-diving and it looks a lot harder too. BASE jumpers have to make use of their wingsuits and be very careful at their body-attitude so they don’t start tumbling. The parachute is only opened at the last second which makes the adrenalin rush even more powerful.

Valeri Rozov, one of the world’s most talented BASE jumpers made a jump from the Alps “Grandes Jorasses“, a place experts had deemed impossible for a free-fall, but he proved anything is possible.

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It might look cute and cuddly but it’s as deadly as any other weapon.

As a form of protest against assault weapons bans in the US, a dude from California decided to “alleviate the fears of (his) fellow citizens and gun-banning legislators” and created a legal AR-15 rifle for his wife. He painted all the parts in harmless pink, added a twisted logo of Hello Kitty holding a rifle and some flowers. This was back in 2006 and it created a lot of controversy, with some people blaming its creator of trying to portray deadly weapons as harmless and others asking where they could buy one.

As somebody who hates guns and thinks they should be banned for all civilians, I can’t say I like this “toy” and I have to say I never thought men in the US give guns as presents to their better-halves.

You can read more about the Hell Kitty Ar-15 assault Rifle on its creator’s website, Riflegear.com

The gun is another, more recent example of evil black or silver turned cuddly pink.

It seams most things in India are done on the streets.

Although they’re not quite as interesting as India’s famous street dentists, the street barbers are one of the country’s trade-marks. Sure the street is not the cleanest place to get a shave or a haircut but in a country where most can’t afford to go to fancy salons, they are a necessary evil.

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It may not be the tallest tree in the world, but it’s is definitely the largest by volume.

General Sherman is a 2300-2700 year old sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of the Sequoia National Park, near Visalia, California. In 2002 the volume of its trunk measured about 1487 cubic meters and it was identified as the largest in the world after a close fight with the nearby General Grant tree, after which wood volume was accepted as the determining factor. It’s not short either, it reaches 275 feet in height.

It was named after general William Tecumesh Sherman, the American Civil War leader, by naturalist James Wolverton in 1879.

Another interesting thing about the Sherman tree is that because of it’s extremely large volume it is also the largest known single organism by volume.

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While this particular factory is hardly a place for children to play in, you can easily get confused.

This is one of the many amusement-park-looking cement factories belonging to Zapa Company, in the Czech Republic. Thanks to the unusual ornamentation of its equipment and transportation vehicles. Zapa has managed to become not only one of the most successful companies in the country, but also one of the most popular attractions. Although I doubt any parent would let their child play in such a dangerous environment, I have to admit it’s a very original idea and, on a subconscious level, makes the company more likable.

Just follow this link to Zapa‘s home site (which is also very colorful) and take a look at the photo gallery there.

A great architectural wonder built on the edge of a cliff.

Swallow’s Nest is an ornamental castle built in Yalta, Crimea peninsula, Ukraine, built between 1911-1912 by Russian architect Leonid Sherwood. It lies on the 130foot-high Aurora Cliff, overlooking the Black Sea. Over time it has been a restaurant, a reading club headquarters and, lately, a very popular tourist attraction. In 1927 it survived a strong earthquake (between 6 and 7 on the Richter scale) with only a few decorative elements falling in the sea, but the cliff itself developed a huge crack, so access to the Swallow’s Nest was restricted for almost 40 years. In 1968 the castle was renovated and a monolithic concrete plate console was used to strengthen the cliff.

I love the way it looks, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting a place that looks like it could fall into the see any second.

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I know, it looks like something that came out of an ostrich-impregnated turkey, but it’s actually very dangerous.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Cassowaries are the world’s most dangerous birds, capable of dealing fatal blows. They are very unpredictable, aggressive creatures, especially if wounded or cornered. The Cassowary lives in the rain forests of Australia and New Guinea and are actually pretty shy animals if undisturbed, but if you get to close and it thinks you’re a threat you could receive a bone-breaking kick or get sliced by its dagger-like sharp claws. During WWII, soldiers stationed in New Guinea were warned to stay away from these birds, but some of them still became victims.

The Cassowary is also one of the most difficult animals to keep in the Zoo because of the frequent injuries suffered by Zoo keepers that look after them. I like a bird that can take care of itself, but, unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to help it very much against human cruelty and it is on the endangered species list, along with so many others…

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Shilin is a wonderful place that you must visit if you ever have the chance…

Because as an old Chinese saying goes ” If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time” and I couldn’t agree more. Shilin is an intricate krafts formation in the south-west of China, one of Yunnan province’s most popular tourist attraction. The tall rocks, that seem to be bursting out of the ground, reach heights of 30 meters and their numbers really create the illusion that you’re looking at a petrified forest.

There are many local legends inspired by this incredible place, but the most famous one says the gods created this huge stone labyrinth for lovers to get lost in and be together. Scientists say this 2,670 square kilometers area used to be a sea and when the waters pulled back some 270 million years ago, these formation emerged and the surrounding elements eroded.

Who knew huge limestone rocks could be so beautiful…

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Turning in to a tree must be a horrifying experience…

Dede is a 35 year old Indonesian fisherman who until recently thought he would be killed by the tree-like worts covering most of his body. It all started after he accidentally cut his knee as a teenager. Small warts started appearing on his hands and feet and, in time, they got so big and numerous that he lost use of his hands and couldn’t perform any household activity. His wife walked out on him and he had to take care of his children in terrible conditions. He was forced to join a local freak show, alongside people with different, peculiar diseases, just to put food on the table.

The local doctors could do nothing to help him and he was sure he was going to die from his condition, as the warts started to spread all over his body. Thankfully, a famous US dermatologist, from the University of Maryland, learned of his condition and thought he could help. He came to Indonesia, examined Dede, took blood samples and discovered that this terrible condition, that’s literally turning a man into a tree is caused by the common Human Papilloma Virus responsible for the small warts people get on their hands. Unfortunately for Dede he had a genetic fault that made his immune system helpless against the virus, it just couldn’t contain it, so it was free to grow inside his body. He came to the conclusion that a form of vitamin A could reduce the quantity of warts and hopefully help him regain control of his hands.

After a series of financial and political setbacks, Dede has started receiving treatment and is currently making progress.

That’s right, in this Austrian town, when you can’t bury bones, you paint them.

Hallstatt is a very small town in Austria with a very interesting ossuary, definitely the town’s biggest tourist attraction. The story behind it goes like this: Back in the 16th century, Hallstatt’s small cemetery had reached its limit and the people there had to come up with a solution. So people who died were only buried in the cemetery for 10-12 years, after which their bones were dugg up, bleached in the sunlight for a few months, then painted with the person’s name, dates of birth and death and some decorations and, finally placed in the ossuary.

The city is much smaller now and most of the people are cremated anyway, but this practice still take place on request, the latest of the 1200 skulls dates back to 1997. In the old days all the bones were placed in the ossuary, but these days its getting pretty crowded in there so only the skulls are allowed.

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That’s what the organizers say anyway.

Welcome to the world of lunatics and masochists – that’s what it says when you visit the “About” page on the official site of Le Marathon des Sables. And I don’t think they’re just saying that, I think they mean it. After all we are talking about 243 km of desert over a period of 6 days. That’s 5 and a half normal marathons of running through the sand, with a backpack on, in a temperature of over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

You have to prepare your own food, so be careful what you bring with you as well as set up a tent to camp out over night in the unwelcoming Sahara desert. Food is rationed and handed out at specific checkpoints, so you have to reach them in order to get some water. Equipment is apparently very important as the rough terrain can do irreparable damage to your feet ( you’ll be running on uneven, rocky, stony ground as well as sand dunes).

Now comes the crazy part, if you’re crazy enough to register for Le Marathon, you’ll need to come up with $5000 to pay the entrance fee, not to mention all the money you have to spend on equipment, traveling and training. They should’ve said most expensive race too!

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As a manga and anime enthusiast, I must say I love these girls’ style!

I’m sure most of you are already familiar with this fashion style, very popular in Japan’s biggest cities and even though you didn’t know it was called Harajuku, you’ve surely seen some oddly dressed girls, wearing lots of make-up, they’re all over the internet.

Harajuku style was named after Harajuku district in Tokyo, the place where it’s believed it all began and where all the kids gather to scout for new funky clothes in the numerous shops and boutiques, or just to show off their new outfits. The nice thing about this fashion trend is that it’s not big brands or fashion designers telling people what to wear, but just the opposite, the kids are dictating what sells.

Japan is very “absorbent”when it comes to Western culture, so the Harajuku style is a trademark for those independent spirits that don’t go with the flow and choose to freely express themselves.

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