I swear Hello Kitty is trying to take over the whole world. It’s everywhere these days, even on things that used to belong to us manly men, like guns and Gundam robots and it even got its very own Hello Kitty castle.
And if thing weren’t bad enough, I’ve just come across some dreadful photos of a Hello Kitty car, taken in mother Russia. Someone went through an awful lot of trouble converting a perfectly nice Suzuki into a hideous girly-pink ride.
Dozens of pigs wearing make-up and funny costumes are displayed through the streets of Malolos, during the Hog Parade.
Highlighting a week-long food festival in the Philippines, the Hog Parade took place on September 12, in the town of Malolos, Bulacan province. The tasty protagonists were dressed as Superman, Popeye, clowns, queens and even brides.
After the fun Hog Parade, the people of Malolos feasted on some free roasted pig, offered by the local authorities. Malolos is the main supplier of pigs in the Philippines.
Photos by Erik de Castro/REUTERS
Featuring custom painted flames, taillights, headlights and side-view mirrors, the Harley-Davidson Armchair is probably the manliest chair ever made.
Designed and built by the guys at First Impressions, the Harley-Davidson can make anyone feel like a hardcore biker, right in the comfort of their own home. When you kick out the chair’s footrest, the chair’s speakers reward you with a motorcycle engine sound that lasts about 10 seconds. Armchairs just don’t get cooler than this.
First Impressions has created custom home theaters for celebrities the likes of Don Johnson, Vanilla Ice or Michael Winslow. The home-theaters at Neverland and Graceland are also masterpieces of the above mentioned company.
The Harley-Davidson Armchair is priced at $6,950, but you can have your custom built First Impressions home-theater, starting at $150,000.
via Gizmodo
With most species of tigers about to become extinct, cat breeders are trying to help their cause by creating a tiny tiger replica, called Toyger.
Jennifer Santee has always had a thing for tigers and dreamed of having one as a pet. But knowing that wasn’t ever going to happen, she decided to make a tiger of her own, one that she could keep in her house. Together with a small group of cat breeders, she managed to create the Toyger (for toy tiger), a breed designed “specifically to preserve the beauty of an exotic animal”.
Although Toygers don’t actually have any tiger genes, their rusty color and dark stripes closely resemble those of the Bengal tiger. But they are friendly and playful animals that will go for walks, play fetch and come when they are called. Unlike the Margay, they are perfect human companions.
Santee says 25 breeders all around the world are working on perfecting the Toyger breed, to make the cats resemble tigers even more. The new species is already in demand and, although each specimen costs over $3,000, they have all been sold. Part of the profits go towards the conservation of wild tigers, the inspiration behind the Toygers. The breeder estimates will truly be tiger replicas by 2010, when the last tigers will disappear from zoos.
Created by artist Jean Shin, Chance City is made-up of $32,404 worth of discarded “Scratch & Win” lottery tickets, displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
What can you do with thousands of apparently worthless losing lottery tickets? Not much, either recycle them or use them as building material. Jean Shin opted for the second choice and created a number of urban buildings she chose to call Chance City.
The structures of Chance City are sustained only by gravity and friction, yet some of them have been around since 2002, when the project started. Back then, the design contained $17,119 worth of lottery tickets, but it grew to $24,496 worth in 2004 and plans to expand even more.
Chance City is the embodiment of failed hopes of ordinary people, while its fragile-looking, yet resilient buildings “are symbols of the American Dream representing how labor, money and resilience defy the odds of a fragile existence”.
Judging by the amount of trash we generate every day, it’s no wonder people are beginning to build structures using it.
100 tons of PET bottles, pressed into bales, were used to create the Temple of Trash, presented at the 2007 Follydock Festival, in Rotterdam. The idea behind this project by Salzig Design is future generations might actually end up believing human kind worships the trash it produces and dumps into landfills.
The Temple of Trash was a temporary installation, but, although it’s not standing anymore, it can still be admired on the official site of Salzig Design
via Treehugger
Tattooed Parrot Fish and other species of ornamental fish are becoming quite popular at a pet-shop in Chengdu, China.
Known as Fortune Fish, these tattooed swimmers bear patterns, such as flowers and rainbows, and characters that are said to bring good fortune and happiness to their owners. The tattoos were apparently done with lasers and made the common Parrot Fish quite popular.
A normal Parrot Fish sells for 10 yuan, while a tattooed Fortune Fish sells for 25 yuan.
via ImagineChina
At the Sidney International Food Festival, the flags of participating countries were recreated using popular foods of each nation. I tell you, I’d love to eat my way through Switzerland, but France doesn’t look half bad either, if you’re ok with stinky cheese. And, for desert, Vietnam is tasty and healthy at the same time.
Which ones are your favorites?
via Toxel
ITALY
Milan Karki, an 18-year-old from Nepal, may have solved the world’s increasing energy problems, by inventing a solar panel that uses human hair instead of expensive wiring.
The young Nepalese, together with 4 classmates, has been trying to come up with a way of producing cheap, renewable energy for his home village ever since he went to school in Kathmandu, but now he dreams of powering up the whole world with his invention.
Milan has discovered hair not only makes us look good, but is also light sensitive and a great energy conductor, because of the melanin it contains. So he replaced the silicon in normal solar panels with human hair and thus invented a new type of solar panel, four times cheaper than the ones on the market today.
The inventor says he has already sent out a couple of his prototypes to districts in Nepal, to be tested for feasibility, but is confident he has found an answer to his country’s energy issues. He says buying half a kilo of human hair is not only cheaper than a set of batteries, but also produces energy for much longer period of time. And anyone can replace the hair, so the solar panel doesn’t require a lot of servicing.
Photos by Tom van Cakenberge/BARCROFT MEDIA
via Daily Mail
I’m sure that’s what Patit Paban Halder thought to himself when he decided to open up a fish hospital in the comfort of his own home, in India.
The Fish Hospital of Chandannagore, India, is the only one of its kind. Halder, together with his wife and son, has set up a 32-aquarium facility where they observe and treat sick ornamental fish. The fish doctor does rounds, takes blood sample, checks them for fungus and bacteria and even gives the tiny fish injections.
I don’t know how many of his patience actually make it out of the hospital, but the mere effort of trying to save them is worth my respect.
Photos by DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY/AFP/Getty Images
via LIFE
I knew Russian modders had some mad skills, but it seems the ones from the Czech Republic are just as good. This Cooker PC mod is proof of that.
I don’t speak Czech, so I don’t know much about the building process of the Cooker Computer, but apparently it was done last year, starting from scratch. No photos of it in action have been found yet, but I’m sure it works just fine. After all it’s all about the look, and a computer in a stove is just about as fresh and cool as modding gets.
Considering you speak Czech and want to know more about the Cooker Computer project, check Modding.cz. Maybe you could give us some more details too. I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.
It might also be the biggest, but Cho Woong’s Star-Wars collection is by far the coolest one I’ve ever seen.
Cho Woong is a Korean dude who managed to put together what might actually be the ultimate Star-Wars collection and actually made it a part of his home. Everything in Cho’s apartment, including his entertainment system, coffee table and even the bathroom is somehow connected to the Star-Wars universe.
Some people collect coins, stamps or even cigarette packs, but this is on a whole other level. And unlike the crazy Pokemon collection, his Star-Wars collection actually looks neat and well-organized, managing to complement his apartment.
Photos by Cho Woong
Dan Phillips has become a regular celebrity in his home town of Huntsville, Texas, for building 14 fully functional recycled houses out of construction waste and scraps.
The 64-year-old constructor has lived a varied life, working as an intelligence officer in the army, a college dance instructor, antique dealer and even as a puzzle maker. He has spent the last 12 years building affordable houses for the poor, using discarded materials.
Anything durable people throw away is a potentially useful building material for Dan Phillips. He runs down to construction sites and landfills and takes away almost everything they throw away. His houses are not all the same, he builds each one with the materials at hand, but he views that as a good thing. After “repetition creates pattern”.
Dan Phillips’ recycling philosophy has changed the way the entire community sees the recycling process and he has even been contacted by companies who wanted advice on how to build recycled warehouses.
Dan uses his very own construction company to build the houses, but always asks the beneficiary to take part in the building process. This way, if something ever breaks, they’ll know where everything is and how to fix it.
via New York Times
With Halloween not so far away, it’s time to think about this year’s horrible pranks and this hacked-up human body may be just what you need.
Made-of durable latex, the axed male body from Fright Catalog will scare the hell out of anyone who lays eyes on it. Hacked up into bloody bits and pieces, the hacked-up body also features a lot of disgusting guts, to add to the horror effect.
All the items are hand made, but some of the clients complained the models aren’t as detailed as they could be. Still, I’d buy one of these just to see my friends faces when they see me “hacking it up” in the bathtub.
The “Day of the Geese” is a Spanish Fiesta in which “brave” contestants have to wrench the head off a goose while being plunged into the water.
In the Basque fishing-town of Lekeitio, near Bilbao, people have a rather unusual way of keeping themselves entertained. Every year, during the Day of the Geese, young men try to prove their skill at tearing the head off a goose.
Geese are strung up on a wire, above the town’s harbor, as young men approach in boats and try to grab them. They are then lifted up into the air and plunged into the water repeatedly, until they pull the head off the goose or fall into the water.
Quite a challenge but at least the winner gets a worthy price: he gets to keep the goose…I can’t say I’m surprised to see this kind of display in a country fascinated by archaic traditions like Corrida or the Shearing of the Beasts, but at least here they kill the goose beforehand (if that can be considered a positive aspect). The Day of the Geese used to be celebrated with live geese. Read More »
