By applying layer upon layer of brown packaging tape on plexiglass light boxes, Mark Khaisam creates amazing paintings.

Philadelphia-based Mark Khaisam used to work on stained-glass windows, before discovering the packaging tape, and though the two art forms seem unrelated, the artist says they are just different ways of painting with light. As he uses up to ten layers of tape for the darkest spots on his paintings, Mr. Khaisam needs around three 100-meter packaging tape rolls per week, to complete his artworks.

The artist doesn’t sketch out the images first, as you might imagine, he simply works with stills from his favorite films, increases them to actual size, then starts adding pieces of packaging tape directly on the light boxes. Using different number of layers to create darker areas and shadows, and thinner pieces of tape to achieve brush strokes, Mark Khaisman manages to create detailed paintings that look amazingly loose.

The packaging tape paintings of Mark Khaisman sell for as much as $10,000.

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Richard T. Porter has earned the nickname “The Thermometer Man” by putting together a collection of around 5,000 thermometer of various shapes and sizes.

The small village of Onset, in Wareham, Massachusetts, may not be among the world’s top travel destination, but Richard T. Porter has been working long and hard to put this settlement on the tourist map. He spent decades putting together his thermometer collection and opened the Porter Thermometer Museum. The founder, curator and educator of this unusual museum has been featured by Ripley’s Believe Ir or Not, and is in the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest collection of thermometers.

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The Bottle Tree Ranch created by Elmer Long is one of the most impressive attractions along Route 66, featuring hundreds with bottle-filled trees.

Elmer Long is the quirky artist behind the now famous Bottle Tree Ranch. He looks a lot like one of the guys from ZZ Top, but he’s really a fascinating man who loves greeting and getting to know the people who visit his roadside masterpiece. As a kid, Elmer used to travel through the desert, with his dad, who would collect any objects they found, and keep extensive notes about their location.

After Elmer’s dad died, he was left with a sizable collection of colorful bottles, but he had no idea what to do with it. One day, it hit him – he decided to build his first bottle tree. He got to welding and after he completed his work, knew that he had to go on. Elmer Long started the Bottle Tree Ranch in 2000, and since then has created over 200 scrap metal bottle trees.

Visiting the Bottle Tree Ranch of California’s Mojave County isn’t just about admiring the beautiful art installations, or hearing the sweet melody created by the wind going through the bottles, it’s also about meeting the artist. Elmer Long is just as fascinating as his bottle ranch, always welcoming guests and willing to strike up a conversation. He always complains about how people now prefer the interstates, even though they are completely soulless, compared to the old routes. He longs for the old days when people also traveled to discover the towns and wonders along the roads.

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If you thought bullfighting was cruel and barbaric, you’ll soon learn there are far worse ways to kill an innocent animal in the name of primitive entertainment.

Every year, on the second weekend of November, a horrific show takes place in the streets of Medinacelli, an otherwise picturesque Spanish town. As soon as the sun sets, bulls are brought into the town square, surrounded and restrained by the “bravest” of participants. Big balls of pitch are attached to the bull’s horns and the animal is set loose through the town.

This savage bull run is known as Toro Jubilo, and the bull is called Toro de Fuego, which translates as “bull of Fire”. As the pitch burns like a bonfire on the horns, it scorches his eyes and face causing it unspeakable pain. Disoriented and in agony, the bull often runs into walls and hurts himself even more, while the crowd run around him and cheers.

After hours of immense pain and eventually being blinded by the flames, the bull dies in agony. If this wasn’t cruel enough, the animal’s carcass is cut up and split among the participants to the event. Toro Jubilo is viewed simply as a form of entertainment by the people of Medinacelli, but this kind of animal cruelty doen’t qualify as such.

If you feel this is an old tradition that should continue, in the name of cultural diversity, just read this post, look at the photos and get back to what you were doing, but if you want to put a stop to it, make sure you sign this petition (I did) and share it with your friends.

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The Drill Baby is a bizarre artwork created by New York-based artist Jason Clay Lewis. It is inspired by the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Remember Sarah Palin’s famous “Drill, baby, drill” remark? Jason Clay Lewis named his artwork the Drill Baby in respons to her infamous line. The Drill Baby is a peaceful looking baby made of vinyl rubber, mohair, plaster, oil paint and aluminum armature, covered with tattoos inspired by the BP disaster.

Oil covered seaguls and pelicans, a Koi fish swimming in dark waters and an isolated island surrounded by oil – these are the victims of the oil spill depicted on the infant’s tattoos, while the perpatrators are reprisented by a dark ship followed by floating oil barrels. Even the Virgin Mary is depicted holding a dripping gas nozzle.

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Lottery tickets don’t mean much after you’ve scratched away the glittering layer only to see your hopes go up in smoke, but that doesn’t mean the little paper slips can’t serve a brand new purpose.

Ghosts of a Dream is an artistic duo made of Adam Ecksrom and Lauren Was, two talented graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design. They take the used lottery tickets and recreate what people usually dream of winning when they buy them. You could say the tickets go from dreams to complete garbage and finally turn into something (sort of) real.

Everything Ghosts of Dreams creates is made of various salvaged objects and thousands of discarded lottery tickets.  Among their most impressive projets are the Dream Home, a make-belief home made from $70,000 worth of lottery tickets, the Dream Car, a Hummer mockup made with $39,000 worth of lottery tickets, or the Dream Vacation created with $29,000 worth of tickets.

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French rtist Lionel Scoccimaro creates unique art installations by working with unusual mediums, such as sugar cubes. A big fan of Evil Knievel, skateboarding and surfing, Scoccimaro employs a great deal of fun into his art, but he says “I’m very serious about the way I ‘have fun,’ because it’s my only way of renewing myself and finding pleasure in my studio.”

Throughout the years, Scoccimaro has  created a variety of artworks, but his sugar-cube structures are definitely the most impressive. His Snow Landscape installation was 40 square meters in size, while White Lanscape was done using 400 kilograms of sugar.

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Bee beards have been around since the 1700s and up until a hundred years ago, honey vendors used them to attract customers, but now these organic disguises have their very own competition. Ever year, the world’s bravest apiarists gather in Aylmer, Ontario for the Clovermead Bees & Honey, Bee Beard Competition.

It’s not exactly the kind of contest people are dying to get into, for obvious reasons, but there are those who enjoy having tens of thousands of honey bees around their necks, or even covering their faces. The object of the Bee Beard Competition is to get as many bees on your body as possible. Contenders are weighed before and after they are covered in bees, and the heaviest one wins.

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Featuring automotive-themed rooms and beds made from famous cars, the V8 Hotel, in Stuttgart, is the ultimate retreat for any car fan.

Located in the center of Stuttgart’s Meillenwerk – one of Germany’s hot-spot for car dealers – the V8 Hotel is a regular tourist magnet. Practically everyone who comes to Meillenwerk wants to spend the night at this classy auto-themed hotel. At $490 per night, the rooms at the V8 are not the cheapest, but that doesn’t stop guests from booking them. Even Stuttgart locals come here to spend at least one night in the uniquely styled rooms of the hotel.

Built inside the old Boblingen Airport, the V8 Hotel has 34 rooms, each with its own unique interior, including one three level suite, set up in the old airport tower. The four star establishment uses antique accessories and original car parts as decorations for its rooms, and the car beds are made from classic cars like old Cadillacs, Mercedes or Moris Minor.

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I know it sounds incredible, but the world’s first one million star hotel is not what you’d expect. If you love the outdoors, it’s actually better.

Five star hotels are awesome, seven star hotels are incredible, so just imagine what a million star hotel would be like. I bet you’re not picturing a corn field, are you? Well, that’s exactly what the world’s first million star hotel looks like – a building-like shape carved into a corn field, near the German village of Bad Kissingen.

42-year-old Monica Fritz thought it would be a great idea to offer tourists the chance of living in a million star hotel that actually offers a view of all the stars in its title. She carved out the hotel, installed hay beds, and dug holes in the ground as kitchens and toilets. Not exactly the luxury most people would expect from such a pompous sounding establishment, but the owner says the night view of the stars and the fresh air are compensation enough.

The so-called rooms of the one million star hotel cost between 3 and 7 euros and, believe it or not, have been booked in advance. Monica Fritz says that despite the short summer season (the corn will be harvested soon), her hotel already has 400 reservations for the following weeks.

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A bike shop owner in Germany attached over 100 bicycles to his shop’s façade in order to draw attention to his business.

Alreadythe owner of  one of the most popular bike shops in Atlantsberg, north-east Berlin, offering over 1,000 bicycle models from both children and adults, Christian Petersen came up with an original advertising idea to get even more exposure. Somehow, he managed to get 120 bicycles attached to the front of the shop. Now, bike lovers can spot his business from a mile away.

It’s a good thing this bike shop is in Germany, if someone did something like this in my country, those bikes would probably get stolen in one night.

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With a capacity to seat up to 300 people, the bench of Littlehampton Beach is already the longest bench in Britain, but is preparing to snatch the title of longest bench in the world.

Designed by the guys at Studio Weave, the 324-meter-long bench of Littlehampton is definitely a sight to behold. It was made from tropical hardwood, salvaged from landfills and old seaside groynes, thus making it a monument to modern recycling.

Built along the promenade, the unique bench twists and turns, bends around trash bins, meanders around lampposts, and even goes into the ground to allow easy passage between Littlehampton’s Blue Flag Beach and the green that surrounds it.

The project may have been executed by the designers of Studio Weave, but it was initiated by locals and entrepreneurs of Littlehampton, who wanted something special for ther beloved venue. Students from a local school provided valuable insight about what makes Littlehampton Beach unique, and offered ideas about the color pallet used on the bench.

With its one-of-a-kind design and color scheme, the Littlehampton bench is already a famous British landmark, but the residents of the seaside resort have their sight set on a place in the record books. They are preparing to extend Littlehampton bench to 621 meters, and make it the longest bench in the world.

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By carefully folding simple pieces of paper, German artist Simon Schubert creates amazing 2D masterpieces.

Cologne-based Simon Schubert creates two-dimensional architectural sceneries by simply folding paper sheets, and without any pen or pencil. His artworks are definitely colored enough without drawing instruments. While subtle, his folded paper artworks invite you to appreciate the level of craftsmanship that went into making them.

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Measuring 16 feet across and weighing a whopping two tonnes, the God-grilla claims the title of world’s largest barbecue. It would probably get the title of all around largest BBQ, if it weren’t for the Big Taste Grill, a giant truck converted into a traveling barbecue. More on this amazing contraption, soon, for now let’s discover God-grilla.

God-grilla was designed by 31-year-old Jack Henriques, owner of the Bespoke BBQ Company. It is fitted with hinged pannels that allow easy access to add more logs, and has seven separate coal trays that allow you to cook up to seven whole lambs, at once. You can also use the God-grilla to grill 1,000 sausages or 500 hamburgers.

But, as you would expect, using a cooking monster like the God-grilla comes at a high cost. You need 14 bags of coal to get this beast started, so you better make sure your frinds pitch in at the next barbecue party.

Jack Henriques spent three months and over $15.000 to create God-grilla, and says he’s already working on an even more impressive cooking machine.

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Danish artist Jacob Dahlstrup loves to build miniature boats, but instead of using wood, he builds their hulls out of ripe bananas. His works were recently on display at the Shoreditch Town Hall, in London, and you can see his entire portfolio on his official site. While I’m pretty sure they don’t float (not the way a boat is supposed to, anyway), Jacob Dahlstrup’s banana boats make great, nutritious snacks.

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