Remember SAM, the ugliest dog ever, if you ask me.

So he died like 3 years ago, so what something like that doesn’t really die that easily you know, this kind of creature is hard to forget. SAM held the title of World’s Ugliest Dog for 3 straight years (2003, 2004, 2005) and he was striped of it by his own mortality, dying due to heart complications, at the age of 15…My guess is he looked in the mirror by mistake, but that’s less important.

SAM was a purebred Chinese Crested Hairless, but don’t imagine all of this race looks like that, oh no, he was just special. Taken in by Susie Lockheed back in 1999, SAM became an internet star, sporting his very own page on Wikipedia and some screen appearances.

To me, SAM will forever be the ultimate ugliest mutt, I don’t have a picture of him in my room or anything like that…

No link to Pixar’s animation movies, but just as interesting.

The Real Toy Story is an elaborate work of art and a homage to Chinese workers, who produce most of the world’s cheap plastic toys. It all began when German photographer Michael Wolf thought to surprise his son on his birthday. He went to the local flee-market, bought 600 second-hand toys and glued them on every available surface of the boy’s room. Upon further examination of the toys, they observed that every single one was made in China. His son said “I thought Santa and his helpers make toys” and that’s when the idea hit him. He immediately set off on a 30-day journey across California, in his van, stopping at every market and collecting all the toys that had a face and were made in China.

He managed to gather 20,000 toys which he shipped to his studio in Hong Kong, where he then sanded-down their backs in order to attach magnets. He then visited some Chinese toy factories and took pictures of the workers. He covered his studio walls with metallic surfaces and stuck the toys to them, also embedding the photos he took.

Source

I guess the “till death do you part” has no place here, does it…

I wish I could say I’m surprised to see such a display, but it’s not the first time I see something like this. A while ago I posted about the gothic wedding, which was pretty close to this. i suppose I can understand these people’s desire to do something different, break the rules and have their weddings truly be special, but can’t they have come up with some other theme? Maybe it’s just me but zombies, blood and horrific scars really don’t say nice wedding…

Before you start throwing rocks at little-old me, I’m not judging them, just stating an opinion!

If you’re a big beer fan, don’t throw away the bottles, build yourself a house instead.

Yet another example that with a god imagination you can build anything out of anything. The first bottle house was built in 1902 by William F. Peck, in Tonopah, Nevada, using approximately 10,000 beer bottles; the house was later demolished in 1980. Tom Kelly built himself a bottle house in 1905, in Rhyolite, Nevada, using 51,000 bottles masoned with adobe. He reportedly used bottles because other materials were hard to come by in that area.

There are quite a few bottle houses in the world today, but most of them have been built specifically as tourist attractions or simply as artworks.

White Diamond is thought to be the only albino crocodile in Europe.

And you can go see him if yo fancy a trip to the German village of Hodenhagen, at the Serengeti Safari park, until April 27. White Diamond was born in Louisiana, USA and grew up at an alligator farm in Florida, but has arrived in Germany as part of a traveling reptile show, called “Land der Reptilien“. White Diamond is 14 years old right now, and he’s lucky he lives in captivity, with that white-a-skin I doubt he could have sneaked up on his prey without being noticed.

So remember, if you want to see White Diamond live, visit Serengeti Safari park, until April 27, 2008.

Yes, he’s human…

He’s also in the Guinness Book of Records as the most tattooed man on the planet. He only has one tattoo (his own words) but it covers his entire body (including the inside of his mouth and ears) and it has multiple layers. He had thoughts about the most tattooed men and women ever since he was a child but he didn’t think about becoming one of them until he got his first tattoo, a small juggling club on his hip.

Lucky Diamond Rich was born in New Zealand but currently performs as a chainsaw juggling, sword swallowing entertainer in Australia. he has spent more than 1000 hours getting his body tattooed around the world, but he was not satisfied, so he opted for a black ink covering his entire body. He is now getting white designs on top of the black and colored designs on top of the white. I guess he really a work in progress, just like he says.

Did I mention he replaced all his natural teeth with silver ones? Read More »

Yet another place I’d like to visit at least once in my lifetime.

Sadly I might not get the opportunity, and not because I may not be able to reach it, but just because it may not be there for long. This extraordinary place is in danger, the underground river that supplies the water for Huacachina Oasis is now being plundered by the people of the neighboring city of Ika. It’s not specifically their fault, global warming is affecting water supplies everywhere, so it’s humanity’s fault, shame on us!

It’s a shame that a place that over the centuries has sheltered countless travelers, preventing them from finding their end in the sun-scorched desert dunes that surrounds it. Quite an unfitting end for such a unique location, that is just beginning to attract tourists from all over the world.

So if you have the chance, go to Peru and visit Huacachina Oasis, who knows if you’ll ever get the chance again…

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With an upside-down interior and everything!

If you’re ever in Poland, you might want to go see one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, in the village of Szymbark. Designedby Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Czapiewski, the house manages to draw in huge crowds every day. This project was meant to be a statement about the Comunist era and also about the current stet of the world. everything is upside-down and it’s up to mankind to fix it.

What’s even more unusual is that all of the interior is also upside-down and it took the workers 114 days to complete it, instead of the normal three weeks, because they needed frequent breaks to recover from getting disoriented by the weird angles of the house. Visitors also often complain about mild sickness and dizziness after just a few minutes spent in the house.

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Or Gigantes do Norte, in their native Portuguese tongue are a very…special soccer team

What makes them so special is the fact that they are all vertically challenged people, playing against under-13 soccer teams in their native Brazilian town of Belem. What’s even more amazing is that they are attracting huge crowds at their matches, because they’re apparently quite the entertainers.

They’re not just a freak-show doing this to earn money, as some people might think, they are coached by professional coach Carlos Luchena and they were put together “in an effort to raise the profile of dwarves in Brazilian society and challenge ‘sizeist’ attitudes.”

That’s commendable!

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If you’re not one of those people who thinks soccer is for pussies, you’re going to love this.

Believe it or not, this sport really exists, there are even organized championships in European countries like Finland and the United Kingdom. It originates from Finland, where it was first played by cross-country skiers who were training in swamps in the summer time. Now annual tournaments take place in Finland, Sweden, Iceland and the UK. There are three types of teams in swamp soccer, man teams, women teams and mixed teams and all consist of 6 players.

Although you have to get down and dirty, I have a feeling this sport is extremely fun to play and there aren’t many teams that play it for the competition’s sake. That trophy would look pretty sweet in my personal collection though…

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Ever been afraid that a house might fall on you and squash you?

I know what it looks like, but no, that house did not just fall out of the sky. It’s an artistic project of sculptor Erwin Wurm and it was set up especially to look like a house just fell out of the sky and landed on the Viennese Museum of Modern Art. Actually it took two large cranes to get that house in its place and secure it properly.

Wurm says his work of art is a statement against over-development, here are his thoughts on the matter: “There are hundreds of thousands of houses and they are spreading like a plague, like a cancer across our land.”

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Who knew something made of matchsticks could be so impressive!

Patrick Acton is an artist from Iowa and apparently a big fan of The Lord of The Rings universe, who uses matchsticks to create his masterpieces. What you see in these photos is just a work in progress, an incomplete model of Minas Tirith, the famous fortress city, as seen in LOTR3: The Return of the King. The details are remarkable and I can only imagine what it will look like when it’s finished, sometime in 2009.

Anton has become famous through his work and has been featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, Home and Garden TV and in magazines like AAA Travel wood, The Iowan and others. I admire him for his patience!

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She may be little but I’m sure she has a great spirit!

This it Jyoti Amge, a 15 year old girl from India, that’s about the size of your typical 3 year old. Jyoti suffers from a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia which prevents her body from fully developing; doctors say she’s going to look like a little girl even when she’s 30.

The little girl learned to accept her condition and even said she enjoys her celebrity status. She is no different than your average 15 year old, she loves listening to music, watching DVDs and hopes she’ll one day become a popular Bollywood actress. She has recently recorded a music album with her favorite singer, Mika Singh.

Not bad for someone who’s 58cm tall and weighs a mere 5 kilograms…not bad at all.

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Welcome to Stavropol children’s military camp, where Russian kids lose…no not their virginity you pervert, their childhood!

As the title suggests, this is not your typical summer camp, where people play games, have fun and learn cool stuff, this is the army baby, the Russian army. About 40 children, between 12 and 17 years old go through a rough training here and learn the basics martial arts and weaponry. Just like the Ansan civilian camp in South Korea, Stavropol run by former Russian servicemen and I bet they’re pretty tough.

I may seem soft but I wouldn’t send my kid there no matter what he did, I really think places like these rob kids of their childhood much too soon…

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This is El Avion, a famous plane now turned into a bar.

El Avion is a model C-123 Fairchild and it can be found in Costa Rica and it has quite an unusual story. I for one really didn’t get much of it, but the bottom line is that it was abandoned by the USA at the San Jose airport, in 1986, after its identical sister plane was shot down over Nicaragua, leading to the capture of a one Eugene Hasenfus by the Sandinista army. Apparently there was a huge scandal regarding this incident at the time, but right now El Avion remains just a place where you can come and get a really expensive drink.

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