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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I love a good omelet and I’ve been known to gobble down boiled eggs from tme to time, but Century Eggs? No freaking way!

Known also as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg or thousand-year-old egg, the Century Egg is a Chinese delicacy used in many traditional dishes. Fresh duck, chicken or quail eggs become Century Eggs after weeks, sometimes months of preservation in a mixture of clay, ash, lime, salt and rice. The process of “cooking” Century Eggs is believed to date back 600 years, when someone apparently found some old eggs preserved in a pool of slaked lime. Upon tasting them, he decided to produce some more, but this time with some added salt.

After the preservation is complete, the hull mixture and egg shell are removed to reveal the now dark-brown egg-white and a dark-green, creamy and pungent yolk.  It’s the alkaline that raises the ph of the egg from 9 to 12 or more and gives it a strong smell of ammonia and sulfur.

Century Eggs are consumed either raw, or as ingredients in other Chinese foods. There are those who associate them with smelly cheese, pungent but really delicious. Sadly there are others (myself included) who just can’t get past the disgusting colors and smell.

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What can you do with an old Ford Capri bought on eBay? Cover it in small toy cars and turn it into an art project, of course.

Young James Ford has spent the last two years working on General Carbunkle, a homage to General Lee, the legendary race car from The Dukes of Hazard. He thought of an original way to pay tribute to this popular ride and decided he was going to cover it in red and orange toy cars.

Ford relied on toy donations from all over the world, in order to complete his project, but did impersonate a toy-shop owner to get his hands on 2,000 toy cars. In the end he estimates he used between 3,500 and 4,500 cars, mostly T-birds and Double Decker buses.

Ford intends to auction the General Carbunkle on eBay, so his project can come full circle.

via Creative Review

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He may not have the supernatural abilities of comic-book superheroes, but Captain Australia is prepared to watch over the safety and tranquility of citizens all around the world.

I received a rather interesting email the other day, from a person who actually met Captain Australia. It seems our superhero isn’t too tech-savvy and needed an internet-ready computer set-up. When asked where the product should be delivered, Captain Australia said he is unable to provide contact information, as he can’t risk revealing his secret identity. The guy didn’t pay much attention at first, but when a dude dressed in a green-yellow costume came to pick up the computer, he was stunned. They’ve done business several times since then and it seems Captain Australia takes his superhero tasks very seriously.

As you can imagine, I was intrigued by this story, so I accessed Captain Australia’s website. That’s right, even superheroes have their own virtual homes these days. I was able to identify the Australian superhero’s four main goals:

1) To prevent crimes through acting as a deterrent by actively patrolling and thus intimidating the criminal element.

2) To intervene when I see criminal activity, or to solve crimes that I become aware of.

3) To inspire normal people to be better, by demonstrating a level of moral excellence that I hope will serve as an example to the people I meet.

4) If all else fails, I can accept simply amusing or shocking people – having ordinary citizens lighten their hearts by amusement or surprise.

Captain Australia’s symbol is an @, worn as a tribute to using the internet to channel his message globally, and because it looks like a combination of the c and a letters (Captain Australia). Our masked vigilante has a videographer following him during his patrols, to document his adventures as an inspiration for people everywhere and as possible evidence for criminal prosecution.

Australia’s number 1 superhero (and very possibly its only one) says he’s not in the same shape as he was when he first started out, but he’s working hard to remedy this. He does however posses a series of gadgets and abilities (Photoshop is not one of them, as you’ll see bellow) to help him protect the citizens.

So next time you’re in trouble just shout out for Captain Australia, who knows, he might actually show up.

Thanks Jacklord!

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I’ve seen a wooden car before, but this is definitely my first wooden super car. And who do you think built it? That’s right, the Japanese.

Maniwa was hand-made by wood craftsmen, for Japanese company Sada-Kenbi. Remarkably, Maniwa is drivable and can accelerate to a speed of up to 80km/h. It has a motorcycle handlebar instead of a steering-wheel, a working stereo and even cool wooden Lambo doors.

The wooden sport car has just one wooden front seat, for the driver, but can accommodate two passengers on the wooden bench in the back. If you’re thinking of buying Maniwa, you’ll be pleased to know it costs only $40,000.

Have a nice drive and try not to smoke at the wheel.

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It does make more sense for some rich dude like Bruce Wayne to roll in an over-the-top limousine than in a crappy old Batmobile.

The Dark Knight’s limo was spotted on the streets of New York, but strangely enough, he wasn’t the one driving it. Sadly, apart from the fact that its started out as a normal limousine (probably a Corvette C4), the photos and video below, there isn’t much info on the awesome Bat-limo. If you know something I don’t, do share.

via CarScoop and Autogespot

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Everyone loves the feeling of waking up on Christmas morning, knowing there are presents under the Christmas tree and all the traditional goodies on the table. Well, Mr. Christmas gets to experience that every day.

44-year-old Andy Park has earned himself the nickname Mr. Christmas for celebrating the happiest day of the year on EVERY day of the year. It all began on a sunny day in 1994, when, despite the nice weather, Andy was feeling down and bored. He decided to go home and put on all the Christmas decorations and pretend it was really Christmas. That actually made his day a lot better, so he decided to do it all again the next day, and the one after that, until he became hooked on Christmas.

Mr. Christmas buys himself presents which he opens the next day, has mince pies and sherry for breakfast, a whole roast turkey for lunch, complemented with sprouts. So far Andy estimates he’s gobbled through 5,450 turkeys, 7,360 mince pies, 2,350 Christmas puddings and 62,050 sprouts.

But the credit crunch affected even Mr. Christmas and he had to cut back from one bottle of champagne a day to one every two days, a smaller turkey. He also buys just one Christmas tree instead of the usual two and puts up fewer twinkling lights. But he’s not going to let something as minor as a financial crisis ruin his celebrations.

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It’s amazing what a passion for cars and amateur radios can create.

Scott’s 1985 Plymouth Colt can simply be described as HAM radio heaven. He has mounted HAM radios, police scanners and other video devices all throughout his vehicle and it’s really quite amazing how he can still find his way around them when he just needs to drive it.

the HAM radio enthusiast says it’s amazing what you can listen to when you’re inside his Radio Active Colt, but I fail to see how you can actually listen to anything when all those things are turned on. According to one of the photos I found the 1985 Colt sells for just $500 while the HAM equipment is worth $25,000.

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A bunch of people running in the streets in speedos, or how a small holiday stunt turned into a national phenomenon.

The Boston tradition known as the Santa Speedo Run began on a Saturday, in December of 2000, when 5 friends decided to do something completely crazy to spice up their weekly routine. The best they could come up with was running through Boston wearing nothing but speedos, Santa hats and fake beards. They tried to get another 20 runners involved, but one week later, at race time, it was still just the five of them.

But they kept their courage and went through with what the plan. People shopping on Newburry Street started screaming and cheering while the five naked Santas ran by. And that, in short, is how the Santa Speedo Run was born.

It has come a long way since then, turning into an annual charity event that raises money for various charities, and inspiring similar displays in other American cities. Anyone can enter the Santa Speedo Run as long as they raise the minimum $250 for charity and aren’t afraid to strip down to their speedos at race time.

Photos via Boston.com

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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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Announced for over a year now, the world’s largest underwater museum recently received its first exhibits.

The seabed of the Mexican Caribbean is now host to a series of life-size sculptures on display in Mexico’s Underwater Museum. But they are just a few of the 400 statues that will be lowered down to the bottom in the following months.

Located in the National Marine Park, the Underwater Museum aims to raise environmental awareness by creating an artificial reef. Scientists hope the statues will attract young algae that will color them vividly.

Photos by Jason de Caires/BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

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American artist Walton Creel found a way of deweaponizing the gun by taking away its destructive power and using it to create art.

Walton Creel is not the first artist in the world to use guns in his art. As he states on his official site, others have taken high resolution photos of bullets piercing a target or melted down guns and shaped them into something completely different. But he knew he wanted to deweaponize guns by taking away their destructive power and using it as a “tool of creation”.

The Alabama-based artist came across the concept of creating art by puncturing holes and though it was just what he had been searching for. Using painted aluminum sheets instead of canvas, he figured out how far apart the shots are to be fired in order to create a nice pattern. The power of the shot knocks off a little paint and “fuses the image together”.

via Cool Hunting

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From the creator of the internet-famous Hamburger Bed comes an even cooler sleeping installation, the Millennium Falcon Bed.

Kayla Kromer caused quite a stir on the interwebs, with her tasty-looking Hamburger Bed and now she’s back with every Star-Wars fan’s dream bed. Apart from the incredible design, the Millennium Falcon Bed features working headlights, hidden compartments for your every day needs, starfield projection and even cockpit space for you favorite Star-Wars action figures.

I’m definitely not the world’s biggest Star-Wars fan, but I’d love to own one of these…

Kayla Kromer via Neatorama

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I know I’ve said “you can turn anything into art”, but I never imagined someone could actually use household dust as material.

Paul Hazelton collects dust and manages to shape it into incredible works of art. The British artist says his affinity for dust might have something to do with his upbringing in a very clean environment. At one point n his life he noticed a layer of dust on a mask and realized he could pick it up. That was the beginning of an extraordinary dust-shaping career.

Paul works with ordinary household dust, which he gathers from furniture, hanging paintings, pictures, but never from vacuum cleaners. He stores the “precious” matter until he’s ready to mould it. Then he wets it, gives it the desired shape and carefully dries it.

It’s a painful process, but the 43-year-old dust artist loves it.

via Metro.co.uk

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Jacob Yarmuth, possibly the world’s biggest Stargate fan, spent $70,000 on a state of the art Stargate-themed home theater.

Featuring a fiber-optics starscape ceiling that shows galactic clouds and comets passing every few minutes, air pocket doors and faux finished walls complete with backlit panels, the Stargate Atlantis home-theater looks like it came right off the filming set. The circular screen is a perfect replica of the stargate and has a 10-foot diagonal.

Yarmuth equipped his futuristic screening room with two Sony megachangers able to accomodate 800 DVDs, Atlantic’s THX speakers seres, two Polk Audio in-wall subwoofers and a JVC light amplifier for HD imagery. Oh, and the airpocket doors are triggered by motion sensors.

Maybe he and Gary Reighn, owner of the Star Trek home-cinema should get together sometime, I’m sure they’d have a lot to talk about.

via Electronichouse

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