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

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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 »

Wang Guohua has his sight set on entering the Guinness Book of Records for his impressive cigarette pack collection.

The Chinese collector began his search for cigarette packs 6 years ago and now he is the proud owner of 30,000 packs of cigarettes from over 100 production areas of more than 10 countries. He has prepared an application for the Guinness Book of Records, as the man with the biggest cigarette pack collection on Earth.

As you can see in the photos, he’s even used some of them to cover up an entire room inside his house.

Photos by ImagineChina

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Located on the Croatian Island of Bisevo, the Blue Cave is one f the most spectacular caves in the world.

Croatian fishermen have known about the existence of the Blue Cave for a long time, but it has been revealed to the rest of the world in 1884, when a small entrance was blown-up in the side of one of its walls.Before this happened, the only way to access the cave was to dive underneath its wall.

The best time to visit the Blue Cave of Bisevo is on a sunny day, between 11 am and 12 pm, when the sun rays penetrate the water and reflect off the limestone bottom of the cave, filling it with an incredibly beautiful blue light. It’s a truly unique experience that makes visiting the Blue Cave totally worth it.

via Atlas Obscura

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Sarah Kaufmann earned herself the nickname of The Cheese Lady through her ability to carve stinky works of art from cheddar cheese.

Using a small carving tool, The Cheese Lady takes between six to twelve hours to create her “cheesy” artworks. Her tasty masterpieces are often featured at children’s parties, birthdays and even hotel openings.

Photos by Sarah Kaufmann/REX FEATURES

via Telegraph.co.uk

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Zhang Tingting, a popular kung-fu artist from China, managed to tow eight cars using only the incredible power of her hair. This was her last performance before becoming a Buddhist nun.

52-year-old Zhang Tingting has been touring China for decades, mesmerizing people with her unique kung-fu talents. Using the power of her braided hair, Zhang is able to pull cars and even cut paper. She has been practicing the ancient art of kung-fu ever since she was 17 years old, but has now decided to quit and become a Buddhist nun.

The talented artist has been living the life of a nun for the last two years, but decided to give one last performance, for the people in her native town of Kaifeng, before shaving her precious hair. On August 25, Zhang Tingting pulled off one of the most amazing stunts ever, towing eight cars for a length of 20 meters.

She has shaved her unusually strong hair, but it has not been lost. Authorities chose to preserve it and are considering sending it on a pilgrimage to Buddhist temples in Tibet, or displaying it in a museum.

Photos by ImagineChina

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Tao Xiangli, a 34-year-old amateur inventor from China, spent two years building a fully-functional homemade submarine.

Tao is not the first person to build a homemade submarine, but that doesn’t make his achievement any less impressive. Especially since he did it using oil barrels and tools purchased from a second-hand market.

After two years of hard work and testing, on September 3, young Tao Xiangli presented his invention to the world and took it for a test dive in a lake just outside Beijing. His homemade submarine features a periscope, electric motors, a manometer, two propellers, depth-control tanks and it only cost $4,385 to make.

Photos by Reuters

via Drugoi

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Gao Xianzhang has managed to create what some would call the holiest fruits ever, pears shaped like Buddha.

Gao has been working on his pear-growing technique for six years and this season he managed to grow 10,000 Buddha-shaped baby pears. Each fruit is grown in an intricate Buddha mould and ends up looking like a juicy figurine. The ingenious farmer says the locals in his home village of Hexia, norther China, have been buying his Buddha pears as soon as he picks them from the trees. Most of them think they are cute and that they bring good luck.

Gao Xianzhang pears aren’t cheap, roughly $1.8 each, but their success in China convinced him to start exporting them into Europe.

Photos by Central European News

via Daily Mail

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Suang Puangsri, a 38-year-old man from Thailand lives in perfect harmony with his 4,600 pet scorpions.

Scorpions, grasshoppers, locusts and other insects are considered delicacies in Thailand and Suang Puangsri has been eating them for the last 10 years. To atone for this “crime” he has adapted his home in Uttaradit province, 600 km north of Bangkok, to live with 4,600 dangerous scorpions.

He feeds them and cares to their every need and ultimately releases them in their natural habitat, in the forests of Uttaradit. As you can see in the images, he has no problem with his creepy pets crawling all over his body and even in his mouth.

Inspired by his scorpion pets, Suang makes insect figurines out of seeds and branches.

Photos by Reuters

via Yahoo

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Over 200,000 blue rubber-ducks took part in the 2009 Great British Duck Race, on September 6, on the Thames, in London.

Last year the tradition of the blue ducks began and this year they returned in even greater numbers, literally covering up Molesey Lock, on the River Thames. As we’ve mentioned in our coverage of the 2008 Great British Duck Race, the duckies are blue because, in 2007, when they were yellow, people threw their own ducks in the water, without paying the entrance fee.

The Great British Duck Race is a contest between rubber ducks, to determine which is the fastest floating one. People have to pay 2 pounds to “adopt” a blue rubber duck and enter it in the competition. The winner’s prize is 10,000 pounds and the rest of the earnings go to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Last year’s record of 200,000 blue rubber ducks on the Thames was beaten this year, with over 205,000 “contestants” registered for the race.

Photos by Xinhua/Reuters

via Xinhua

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More than one hundred belly surfers from all over the world gathered in Cornwall, Britain, for the annual World Belly Board Championships.

You might be surprised to know surfing wasn’t always about standing up on the board and riding the waves. British surfers practiced the sport on their bellies, using short wooden planks, over one century ago. On September 6, 2009 belly surfers from as far as Australia and America gathered in Cornwall for the annual charity event for the National Trust and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The World Belly Board Championships began back in 2002 as a way to commemorate the beginnings of British surfing.

Cornwall has been the main surfing area in Britain and it’s recognized as the first place where a British surfer actually stood up on a surf board. The first photographic evidence of this dates back to 1929.

Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images Europe

via Zimbio

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One of the most amazing sights in Antarctica, the Blood Falls have been a mystery ever since they were discovered, in 1911.

A bloody column of water coming out of a glacier isn’t what you’d expect to see in the frozen land of Antarctica, but if you visit Taylor Glacier, that’s exactly what you’re going to find. At first, scientists thought they were dealing with some sorts of red algae, but further research proved the bloody color was caused by something spectacular.

It turns out a small lake was sealed under Taylor Glacier roughly 2 million years ago. Incredible, isn’t it?!? Actually no, what’s incredible is the glacier acted like a natural time capsule for the ancient microbes living in the lake. These invisible forms of life have survived without oxygen, light or heat and are considered to be the “primordial ooze” out which every living thing on Earth evolved.

The Blood Falls are proof life can be found in the most extreme environments, probably even on other planets, like Mars.

via Atlas Obscura

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Made out of what looks like a bunch of kitchen utensils, this stainless steel skull sculpture, by Subodh Gupta, is one of the weirdest artworks I’ve seen recently. I’m sure it has some kind of meaning, but so far I haven’t been able to figure it out. let me know if you know something I don’t.

via bookofjoe

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I know of Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, but I had no idea they also had their eye on Hasbro, owner of the Transformers franchise.

Meet the adorable Donald Duck, like you’ve never seen him before. Takara Tomy, a famous Japanese toy manufacturer has decided to give the popular Disney character a radical makeover and turned him into a Transformer. Donald now turns from a skateboarder into a buggy-driving duck in seconds and might just steal Bumblebee‘s part in the new Transformers movie.

via Cool Buzz

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