51-year-old David Reynolds, a dormer oil rig worker, spent 15 years of his life creating a matchstick replica of the Brent Bravo oil platform, from the North Sea.

The 21-foot-long, 12-foot-high wooden model weighs over half a ton and contains more than 4 million matchsticks, each of them polished and glued into place. David started working with matchsticks when his son bought him a matchstick train to build. He completed it in a few weeks, then started working on an oil rig.

He first built a smaller replica of an old platform he worked on for five years, before starting work on the big one. He calls them the Cathedrals of the Sea and spent up to 10 hours a day creating the finest details.

David Reynolds said he thought about destroying his masterpiece because he needed the space in his shed, but his wife convinced him to put it on display at the brickworks museum, in Southhampton. He also added he spent around 1600 British pounds buying matches from a wholesaler, buying them from a corner-shop would have put a 46,000 pound hole in his budget.

David’s matchstick oil platform is a worthy competitor for Patrick Anton’s matchstick Minas Tirith

via Telegraph.co.uk

And I don’t mean it’s slightly larger than your every day carrot-muncher, Benny is a regular bunny giant.

Two year-old Benny is a Flemish buck who’s about to receive the title of longest rabbit in the world. He probably also holds the record for the world’s heaviest bunny, but the Guinness Book of Records no longer certifies this title, due to problems with owners who overfed their animals.

Benny’s owners also set up a website for him on Facebook and use it to promote the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary, which faces serious financial difficulties. Benny already has 270 online friends.

The giant buck measures 85 centimeters in length and weighs over 10 kilograms. Benny is house-trained, knows how to ask for treats and spends a lot of time with the family dog. He kisses him often and the owners think Benny doesn’t know for sure if he’s a rabbit or a dog.

Photos by Caters News Agency Ltd

via Daily Mail

On June 19, Glamour Magazine challenged 100 German women to a race on high heels and win 10,000 euros.

Held in west Berlin, Germany, Glamour Stiletto Run 2009 had 100 women compete in a 100 meters race on stilettos. There were only two rules, the heels had to be at least 7 cm long and at most 1.5 cm wide.

The winning time of 14.7 seconds was obtained by local girl Denise Hanitzsch, who was the runner up in last year’s race, because one of her stilettos broke. Denise confessed she didn’t train for the race, because she didn’t have to. She works in an office but is forced to run on high heels daily.

Asked was she was going to spend the 10,000 euros, the winner answered “On shoes! What else?”.

Photos by CodeNet.de

via Glamour.de

Wataru Itou, a talented art student from Tokyo, spent 4 years of his life building this trully incredible paper castle.

Named Umi no Ue no Oshiro (A Castle on the Ocean), this paper craft castle features electric lights and even a moving train, made of paper. It is set on exhibit at Uminohotaru, a service area between Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture and you can check it out with Google Earth.

Whether you’re a fan of paper craft or not, you must admit this paper castle is wonderful work of art. The Japanese like to take their time (see the LEGO Yamato Warship), but at least they deliver.

via Tokyobling

Rosemarie Fiore is a very special artist who paints her masterpieces using fireworks.

Armed with gloves and a gas-mask, Rosemarie lights the fireworks and releases them on a smooth concrete surface, creating abstract paintings over 2 meters wide. Of course she wouldn’t be a true artist if she just watched them rolling around and just take credit for whatever traces they left.

Miss Fiore uses several techniques to control the fireworks, including covering them up with a bucket, to contain them, tying them to the end of  a pole and restraining them with rails. The different sizes and colors of the fireworks-circles are the result of different chemical compounds.

Photos by Rosemarie Fiore/BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

Balancing on a wire is a tough job for a human, let alone for a goat. Still, the animal trainers at a Chinese circus managed to teach this goat how to keep its balance while having a small monkey perform stunts on its head.

And I thought Eskil Ronningsbakken’s balancing stunts were impressive. What this goat does is ten times cooler.

via bbs.163.com

These lovely old ladies have spent a long time knitting their classic British village of Mersham.

It all started 23 years ago when the 12 women were reading an article in Women’s Weekly about another group of women who had accomplished a similar feat. They said to themselves ‘we should give it a whirl’, but had no idea it would become such an important part of their lives.

These knitted masterpieces might not look like much to the untrained eye, but all the buildings are knitted to scale and took thousand of hours to complete. When it was finished, the knitted village was presented at craft fairs and raised 10,000 pounds for the Mersham village hall fund. This Saturday, it will be up for sale in the Mersham Hall. With the media coverage this fabric work of art has received so far, I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of buyers present in the Kent village.

I dare say the knitted village looks even better than the very original knitted bike

via Daily Mail

Sure, rabbits hop all the time, but not many do it over miniature fences, like showjumping horses.

15-year-old Matthew and Thomas Haslam are the proud owners and trainers of some of the smartest pets in Britain. Bubbles and Lilac are two of the twenty rabbits that like to jump over small fences, in the boys’ backyard. These two have shown particular skill and have participated in the Ultimate Pet Show, between the 2nd-4th May.

The two boys suffer from Asperger’s Syndrome, a sort of Autism and spending up to seven hours a day, for the last nine years, playing with rabbits has really helped them a greatr deal.

via Daily Mail

If you’re one of those parents who want to show their offsprings what the real world is like, from an early age, than here are some great Christmas toys for them. Deadly car accidents, riots, train wrecks, man-slaughter, theft and more are all available for your children. Not the kind of present I’d buy my kids, but maybe there are people out there who are interested.

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Mice aren’t the most water-loving creatures in the world, but apparently Australian Shane Wilmott has trained his three little mice not only to love water but also to ride the waves on surf-boards. Shane says this way he has merged his love for surfing and for his three little rodent pets. Make sure you watch the video at the bottom of the post.

What happened to the good all days when dogs did what they were supposed to do, chase cats? I’ve seen dogs restrain themselves from attacking felines because of their masters but this display of unusual friendship between a cat and a dog is a little hard to take? what’s next, hamsters sleeping next to snakes?

We’ve seen piglets taken in by a dogs, tiger pups raised by a monkey, it won’t be long until we see kittens nursed by dogs…what a world!

Taste worth dying for!

That’s the motto of Heart-Attack Grill, a restaurant that prides itself on offering its customers probably the fattest, most dangerous food they’ll ever eat. But, like we all know, the greasiest food is also the tastiest. Heart-Attack Grill‘s menu includes the simple, double, triple and quadruple Bypass Burgers, Flatliner Fries (deep-fried in pure lard), Jolt Cola and no-filter cigarettes.

If you want to put your life on the line to experience the heavenly taste of fat food, all you have to do is travel to Chandler, Arizona, where Heart-Attack Grill is located. In case you do get a heart-attack, there are nurses in the restaurant, the only problem is they have no medical training, they just serve the food and look very hot, but that’s beeter than nothing right?

The Japanese have decided to release a series of woman self-defense instructional images to help them fight-off aggressors. Judging by the moves depicted I have to say I pity the fool who would dare attack a woman trained in these martial arts. that head-blow alone would bring any man to its knees, the other blows are just for fun. Beware women-aggressors, you may become the victims.

I always knew being a professional athlete meant making serious sacrifices and that gymnasts don’t really have a childhood, but this like modern day torture to me. It’s nice to compete and win a title for your country but I have to wonder if it’s worth going through all this… As a parent I couldn’t let my kids go through anything like this, no matter how much I wanted them to be successful in sports, it’s just too much.

I always believed elephants were incredible animals, but I never imagined they could something as extraordinary as painting, hell I have opposable thumbs and I can’t paint like that.

The elephants at the National Elephant Institute in Thailand have a particular skill that others animals and some humans don’t posses, they can actually pick up a brush and paint on a canvas. Thai elephants in particular are born artists, you often see them pick up a stick and start noodling in the dirt, and when properly trained they turn into genuine artists with a brush. Take a look at the photos and video and see for yourselves.