Barnaby Barford is a British artist who takes both mass-produced and antique porcelain statuettes and reshapes them into sinister figurines representing the world of today.

Mister Barford says his most recent collection is called ‘The Good, The Bad and The Belle‘, and represents how the today’s youth is perceived by older generations. The pieces depict scenes of teen violence, our fascination with junk food, graffiti artists, and each has a witty name.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Photos by NOAH COSTA/STOLENTNEWS.BIZ

‘Do It Again, I Didn’t Press Record’

‘Happy Meal’

‘Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses’

‘Always The Best Way To Earn Your Wings’

‘Wonderland?! What F*****g Postcode’s That?…’

‘Family Feast’

‘Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of War’

Are you one of those people that doesn’t know when they’ve had one too many drinks? If the answer is yes, SOBEaR might just become your best friend.

SOBEaR is the most adorable robot bartender in the world. Shaped as a panda teddy-bear for trustworthiness, he can tell you how drunk you are just by “smelling” your breath. The sensor is under his chin and the green, yellow and red LEDs on his chest and belly light up according to how drunk you are. If he feels you’re drunk enough he’ll pour you some juice, from one of his servo-controlled arms.

Of course you can just have SOBEaR hold two alcohol bottles, but what would be the fun in that?

via jmsaavedra

SOBEaR v02 :: the responsible robot bartender from j saavedra on Vimeo.

Invented during the 1930s as a cheap form of recession entertainment, donkey basketball remains a popular sport in midwest America.

Basically, the tow four-player teams have to shoot hoops while riding on the donkeys. The animals often just lay down, crushed by the players’ weight and, in these situations, competitors are allowed to dismount and drag the donkey to the hoop. Donkeys can carry up to 68kg, but many of the donkey basketball players weigh considerably more.

This unusual sport is played mostly in school gyms, by school staff and local celebrities. PETA has denounced donkey basketball as animal cruelty, but the folks in Iowa, where these pics were taken, say they don’t pay much attention to that. ‘We’re just a bunch of good ol’ boys and farmers down here in rural Iowa, so we’re not worried about PETA.’ said Angela Stufflebeam, event organizer.

Before the beginning of a donkey basketball match, an announcement is made, saying the animals are treated humanely. But protesters say the donkeys are starved so they don’t defecate during the match, they are often kicked, pulled by their tails and ears, and get stressed by the chaotic atmosphere.

Donkey basketball has been banned in Portland, Oregon, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but it’s still thriving in Iowa.

I say this is just as bad as riding ponies on thin ice.

via Daily Mail

Photos by The Associated Press

Daniel Eindhoven is the talented designer who created this cool-looking coil gun that cost only 100 euros and 40 hours to make.

This bad boy weighs 5 kilograms and fires 14 42-gram projectiles, at a speed of 110km/h. Featuring incredible laser effects, a laser pointer and a digital voltage display, the home-made coil gun needs 8 seconds to charge the 300V it needs to fire a projectile, when connected to a power source, and 90 seconds when using its internal batteries.

via Hacked Gadgets

Tony Alleyne is a British hardcore Star-Trek fan who decided to transform his home into the ultimate home-made Star-Trek set.

Tony began his project in 1999, after his wife left him, he aimed to give his flat the ultimate make-over and turn it into a Star-Trek bachelor pad. He finished his masterpiece in 2004, but then decided to turn it into the Voyager starship.

Now his 500 square feet apartment features voice-activated lighting, air conditioning, LED lights, but is missing a bed. A few years ago doctors advised Alleyne to sleep on the floor to cure his sciatica, so he took this opportunity to transform his bedroom into a transporter room.

After hand-crafting the decor elements himself, Tony Alleyne opened his very own design company. Unfortunately this over-the-top project also got him broke. His ex-wife, who owns the apartment, put it up for sale, but so far no one is interested. Tony says he’s happy the deal didn’t go through, as he loves living in his very own Voyager ship.

If you are interested in acquiring the Star-Trek apartment or if you just want to take a virtual tour, visit 24thcid.com.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Thrill-seekers have a new reason to be happy. Volcano-surfing, a new kind of extreme sport, is growing more and more popular.

Phillip Southan is the young owner of Green Pathways Tour, the company that organizes volcano surfing sessions on Cerro Negro, one of Nicaragua’s most active and dangerous volcanoes.

Dressed in protective gear, adrenalin-junkies climb 726 meters up Cerro Negro and slide down on specially-built plywood boards. Southan admits there is a chance the young volcano could erupt, but says the biggest danger is the volcano surfers might fall off the board and injure themselves.

The volcano surfing tour has only been around for 4 years, but 10, 000 people have already participated.

via Telegraph.co.uk

The Heidelberg Project began in 1986 when Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey started painting houses in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, which began to fall apart after the riots of 1967.

Guyton and Mackey painted the abandoned houses in bright colors and decorated them with salvaged items, similar to those used by Bogdan Litniansky for his trash house and garden, transforming it from one of the city’s most dangerous places, into a regular local attraction. The Heidelberg Project attracts over 270,000 tourists every year, making it one of Detroit’s most popular tourist destination.

The Heidelberg outdoor art environment project faced demolition twice since it was started, but Tyree Guyton and his supporters filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Detroit and managed to protect it. This year The Heidelberg Project celebrates its 23rd anniversary.

Tim Burke’s studio gallery – Detroit Industrial Gallery

The Heidelberg Project official site

The world’s most popular doll just turned 50 and celebrated her birthday by getting a few trendy tattoos.

Little by little Barbie is turning into Trash Talkin’ Turleen, one of the trashiest dolls ever. Mattel launched the newest Barbie with a tattoo gun and a collection of about 40 temporary tattoos, for girls to apply on their doll. Soon, we’re bound to see piercing Barbie, or pot-smoking Barbie sitting on retailer shelves.

via Daily Mail

I always say true artists can make something beautiful out of anything, and these slipper-sandwiches are a perfect example. Food-art is one of my personal favorites, since I like art and love to eat, so you can imagine how happy I was when I stumbled over these pics.

Take a look, but be careful, they cause mouth-wattering!

via mimibazar.cz

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

Yes, you read right, some bats really are adorable. The tiny White Bats of Honduras are among the cutest rodents on Earth.

Also known as Ectophylla Alba, the Honduran White Bats are only 37-47mm long and can be found in Central America and The Caribbean. They cut the side veins of the Heliconia plant leaves causing them to fold into a protective tent. The small bats live in colonies of up to six individuals, one mail and a harem of females.

The natural tent protects the White Bats from rain and predators and they only take flight when their home is no longer safe.

On April 21 2009 Rome celebrated 2762 years of existence, and its modern-day Romans organized all sorts of events in honor of this occasion.

As most of you know, old Rome loved competitions. Gladiator fights and chariot races were social events that everyone loved. As a tribute to the old times, the current inhabitants of Rome organized an old fashioned chariot race. Well, sort of…

The modern chariots were pulled by bicycles instead of horses and the riders were actually cyclists. The competitors had to race three laps around the old Circus Maximus.

via Etoday

First of all, no they are not pornstars, so if that’s what you were looking for, there’s nothing to see here. But if you’re into design and bicycles, you’re gonna love this.

Young Canadian designer Jason Battersby definitely doesn’t like conventional bicycles, so he decided to build two of them by his own taste. That’s how the incredibly cool-looking Tequila Sunrise and Eye Candy were born.

Battersby‘s creations were showcased for the first time on May 2. If you want to know more about these orange and green wonders, check out Jason Batersby’s website.

Everybody knows the popular animation movie Shrek has a large fan-base, but some of those fans go as far as to get married dressed as their favorite characters.

British nurse Christine England and her fiance Keith got married last month, wearing the costumes of Fiona and Shrek. They spent over three hours putting on the costumes and green make-up, but it was worth it, since it was a wedding neither of them will forget.

Christine tried to get her 18 years old son to dress-up like Donkey, but “he wasn’t having any of it”. The 100 guests attending the wedding were also dressed in funky, fairytale costumes.

via Daily Mail

The Citroen Karin is one of those “what might have been” old concepts, that never went into production.

Looking back at the car industry of the 1980s, the Citroen Karin, was one of the most revolutionary concepts. Because it didn’t have any new models to present at the 1980 Paris Auto Show, Citroen gave car designer Trevor Fiore the go-ahead to create an original model. The Karin never made it onto the production line, mostly because it was an unpractical vehicle, but the futuristic design inspired other designers to get passed their traditional way of thinking, and opened the way for the beautiful vehicles we see on the streets today.

via Detointernational