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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San Francisco has been rendered by many other artists before, but never quite like this.

Scott Weaver always dreamed he would build the world’s largest toothpick model and 34 years ago he started working on it. Fast-forward to present day and he still hasn’t fulfilled his dream, but he did create one of the most impressive toothpick sculptures in the world.

“Rolling through the Bay” is a 9 feet tall, 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep toothpick model of san Francisco that features 4 pingpong ball rolling tracks and several entry points. That’s right, it’s the tracks that make this wooden masterpiece so unique. That’s how Mr. Weaver began his adventure in the world of toothpicks, by building abstract models and rolling pingpong balls on them. It just got out of hand at some point and turned into this amazing model.

Though “Rolling through the Bay” does feature some of the most iconic sights in San Francisco, like the Bay Bridge, Golden State Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alamo Square or the Cable Car tour, Scott Weaver says it’s just his view of the city and unlike more traditional models, his has rolling pingpong balls.

The toothpick model of San Fracisco took over 3,000 hours of work to complete and over 1,000,000 toothpicks. Luckily, a pack of 750 toothpicks costs just 99 cents, so Weaver can’t say his hobby is too expensive. Ripley’s Believe It or Not offered Scott $40,000 for his unique model, but he isn’t ready to part with it just yet.

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Face it Jurassic Park fans, you’d kill to own one of these. On second thought, who wouldn’t want to spend the night in the mouth of a T-Rex, right?

The dinobed was created by 3Murphys‘ husband, but unfortunately there isn’t any info on how it was built. It’s clear to see the guy has some real talent because that beast seems ready to come out of the wall and tear you to shreds.

It looks like a child’s bed, but I wonder if that isn’t a little to scary for children…Well, if the kid’s wets his bed a few times, I’d be ready to take that dinosaur bed off your hands.

via Geekologie

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Hundreds of contestants, from top cross-running athletes to  couch potatoes gathered in Peats Ridge for the first Mud Run race in Australia.

On December 5, over 750 Aussies showed up in Glenworth Valley to participate in one of the dirtiest races on Earth. Each of the two available courses (one 6 km, the other 12 km long) featured mud pits, bog-holes, mud rivers, grasslands and creek crossings.

The 2009 Mud Run in Peats Ridge was meant to be a competition for everyone, so any person over 12 years-old was free to register and because there was no time-limit they could run or walk the entire race. Competitors were encouraged to enter the Mud Run for a chance to help their favorite charity.

Getting down and dirty Down-Under, now that’s got to be a memorable experience.

via Zimbio

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It looks like something out of a nightmare in the daytime, but at night the Christmas Truck really gets people into the holiday mood.

Kris Marshall sells GMC trucks around Dallas and Iowa and he decided to turn his old pick-up into something outrageous that would draw attention. A moment’s inspiration turned into one of the most popular rides in the West, the Christmas Truck.

All Marshall needed to create his twinkling wonder on wheels, was a generator,  a few strands of Christmas lights and some duct tape. And that’s basically how the Christmas Truck was born. It has between 50 and 70 light strands, each featuring 50-100 light bulbs. That ads up to a total of over 3,000 lights.

Its maker knows the Christmas Truck is totally illegal but says most of the cops just look at it and smile. He only got a few tickets for improper use of lights.

via Jalopnik

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Project Runningblade is so fast it’s able to mow an entire football field in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

After a surviving major heart surgery, 48-year-old Don Wales decided to spend his new life doing something extraordinary. And since climbing Mount Everest involves too much hard work he chose to break the record for the world’s fastest lawnmower. He put together a professional team and created Project Runningblade, a mower capable of reaching speeds of over 100mph.

The current record stands at just over 80mph and Wales is confident he’ll be able to smash it and bring home a new world record for Britain. The attempt will take place on the 27th and 28th of February, on the smooth Pendine Sands, in South Wales. Project Runningblade will need to prove it can cut grass on the morning before the run, then its blade will be removed. For the record to be acknowledged it will need to run for a mile then drive back to the starting point, within an hour. The final time will be an average of the two runs.

via Gizmag

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They may look like just elaborate models of Christian, Jewish and Islamic holy places, but Al Farrow’s artworks have a much deeper meaning.

Al Farrow’s Religious Trifecta: A Synagogue, a Cathedral and a Mosque tries to reinterpret three of the world’s major religions according to their political, military and cultural history. As you surely know, religion played a major role in some of the greatest conflicts in history and that’s what the artist is trying to emphasize through his models. Built with used gun components, bullets and steel shots, these unusual holy places reveal the violent side of religion.

Al Farrow‘s steel masterpieces are displayed at the de Young Museum, in San Francisco.

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They say Disney heroes never die, but I had no idea this is what they meant.

A bunch of cosplay enthusiasts came up with the crazy idea of dressing up as undead Disney characters like Aladdin, Pocahontas, Belle, Cinderella and others.  That’s how they showed up at the London MCM Expo, this October. That’s where they met with other undead characters like Two-Face and a Jedi and decided to immortalize their historical get-together in a photoshoot.I’m glad they did!

via Neatorama

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A polar bear statue, carved out of a nine-ton block of ice and placed outside Copenhagen climate change conference center, sends a frightening environmental message.

Mark Coreth, the artist behind the Ice Bear Project created the sculpture in the hope of raising awareness to the melting of arctic ice due to increasing temperatures. A huge pool of water and the bronze skeleton of a polar bear is all that will remain as the ice statue gradually melts, revealing the fate of all real life polar bears, unless the global warming issue is addressed.

Coreth is urging all passers-by not only to look at the bear-sculpture, but also to touch it and help it melt, in the hope that more people understand how mankind “contributes” to the melting of the Arctic. Asked when his ice polar bear is going to completely melt, the artists said it is impossible to tell, just like nobody knows how long the Arctic will last.

Photos by XINHUA/ZHANG YUWEI

via People.com.cn

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The Grotto of the Redemption is an excellent example of what man can achieve with faith and hard work.

Paul Dobberstein was a German immigrant ordained as a priest in 1897. At some point he fell critically  ill with pneumonia and vowed he would dedicate his life to building a shrine to The Virgin Mary, if she would save his life. Father Dobberstein survived and soon after his recovery began gathering piles of rocks for his mission. His search for materials lasted 14 years.

Construction of the Grotto of the Redemption, in West Bend, Iowa,  began in 1912. Foundations were poured, stone slabs were set into place, all in the name of The Holy Virgin. Father Dobberson was actively involved in the building process and many times his hands would crack and bleed from all the cement. He would say “there isn’t any redemption without a little blood”.

Though West Bend isn’t the best place to look for crystals and semi-precious stones, Paul Dobberstein traveled to Hot Springs, Black Hills and Carlsbad Caverns and managed to gather truckloads of materials for his Grotto of the Redemption. The redeeming priest worked on expanding and improving the grotto until he died, in 1954, at the end of a long day’s work.

At the time of Dobberstein’s death, the Grotto of the Redemption was the size of a city block and is still expanding today. The crystals, semi-precious stones and petrified wood used to decorate the structures of the grotto are said to be worth over $4,300,000.

Considered “the world’s most complete man-made collection of minerals, fossils, shells and petrifications in one place”, the Grotto of the Redemption welcomes over 100,000 visitors every year. It reminds me a lot of the Ideal Palace.

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Do you know those dreams that start out all nice and dandy only they turn into horrible nightmares in the end? That’s sort of what Cakeland is like.

Cakeland is an art installation in Oakland, created to look like a delicious collection of cakes. Featuring cakes placed on tables, stacked on top of other cakes, mounted on walls and even hanging from the ceiling, Cakeland literally looks like heaven for sweet addicts. But alas Scott Hove’s cakes are anything but edible. Unlike the regular treats that last only until celebrations end, Cakeland cakes are made from acrylic, wood and cardboard and will last “as long as the artist or society have the wherewithal to preserve them”.

But that’s not the worst part of our nightmare. In order to protect their delicious beauty, the artists equipped some of the cakes with sharp teeth that act as defense. Hove says “without this aggressive aspect– call it the anti-cake– the beauty is vulnerable, transitory, and not to be respected”.

Cakeland is a very interesting place, but unlike Scott Hove who sees it as a pilgrimage site away from the problems of reality, some might consider it torture. After all finding yourself surrounded by seemingly delicious cakes, without the possibility of even tasting them can be a grueling experience.

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Because puppy, kitty and rat steaks taste so damn good.

During one of my daily internet surfing sessions, I stumbled on one of the weirdest sites I’ve ever seen. It’s called Rat Beef.com and it’s an online rat butchery (doesn’t that sound delightful). Sure, we’ve featured photos of cooked field rats before, but to see them commercialized online struck me as a tad bizarre. RatBeef states their rats are bred and raised in 100% natural conditions and they even offer a few cooking recipes.

While I was browsing the site’s pages, looking for some suiting pics, I found Rat Beef has two sister (to be read siNIster) sites, Puppy Beef and Kitty Beef which sell…well, you can guess. I know these types of meats are very popular in some Asian countries, but to see them sold on websites containing the words puppy and kitty is just ridiculous.

In case you don’t believe this is odd in anyway, at least you know where you can buy your exotic meats from now on.

Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum have always loved steampunk and decided to turn their passion into a business. That’s how ModVic Home Restoration was born.

The couples offer home-design services to people who want to restore their Vicrorian houses to their original beauty and, to prove their skills, they turned their 1901 Craftsman-style home into a steampunk paradise. Combining antique pieces with modern gadgets, the Rosembaum’s managed to preserve the original charm of their Victorian residence as well as incorporate all the modern gadgets of our times.

If you’d like to know more about this amazing steampunk house, head over to Steampunk Workshop and learn every little detail.

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Is this what they mean by brain food?

The disgusting-looking brain cupcakes you see below were baked by a girl named Pamela, back in August, but I just discovered them today and couldn’t help but share with you guys. Delicious red velvet raspberry cake, cream cheese frosting and chocolate brains, created with moulds, make up some of the weirdest deserts I’ve ever seen.

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