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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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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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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With the Suburban Tipi, anyone can experience the life of a nomad.

Combining three types of nomad housing, the yurt, the tipi and the igloo, designer John Paanen managed to create a modern tent-like house that can be fitted pretty much anywhere. The Suburban Tipi is 16 feet tall, 18 feet in diameter and provides 255 square feet of living space.

To prove its practicality, John Paanen lived in a Suburban Tipi from January to July 2007. It took around three months to build, but it can be taken a part and stacked for relocation in three hours, by a three person team.

John Paanen’s Suburban Tipi can be observed at AguaFina Gardens International in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.

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Yes, believe it or not, there is such a competition as Sauna World Championship.

Held in Heinola, Finland, the Sauna World Championship brings together around 200 competitors from all around the world. These hot heads can withstand sauna temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius.

Inaugurated in 1999, this crazy competition has both a men’s and women’s challenge. The Finish men have proven unbeatable every year since the 1999, while women from Belarus and Russia managed to steal the trophy on a number of occasions.

The rules of the Sauna World Championship are simple. Contestants, dressed in just their bathing suits, go inside a steaming sauna and have to stay there for as long as they can. As water is thrown over the stove, temperatures reach 110 degrees Celsius. The last contestant to leave the sauna, on his own two feet, is declared the winner.

This year the men’s title went to veteran Timo Kaukonen, and the women’s trophy was snatched by Russian Tatyana Arkhipenko.

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Very different than traditional bullfighting, bull dallying is a lot more fun and doesn’t involve killing the bull at the end.

People in San Sebastian, a small town in central Spain, have come up with a way of having fun and keeping the bull as a part of their ancient tradition. Instead of torturing and finally killing the animal to show off their matador skills, the brave Spaniards simply taunts the bull and try to dodge its attacks.

That’s it, no swords, no blood, no animal cruelty, just pure guts and, they say, a lot of fun. I have to say I like bull dallying a lot better than old fashioned bullfighting and I just wish they had thought about this sooner.

Photos by Xinhua/Chen Haitiong

via Xinhua

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Similar, in a way, to the Hanging Houses of Cuenca, the Hanging Temple of Hengshan is an amazing display of architecture.

The Hanging Temple of Hengshan literally hangs on the side of Hengshan Mountain, sustain by only a few wooden poles. You would think this kind of a building couldn’t for hundreds of years, but it is believed the temple was built during the late Northern Wei Dinasty (386-534AD), by a monk called Liao Ran. It was restored during the 1900s.

The gravity-defying Hanging Temple of Hengshan is comprised of 40 chambers, liked through a network of passageways, and hosts not one but three religions. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are all worshiped here, in harmony.

via Atlas Obscura (one of my favorite sites!)

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Ralph, a nine-year-old Humboldt penguin wears a custom-made wetsuit that might just save his life.

Ok, so it’s not designed by Armani or Versace but it’s good enough to protect Ralph from the harmful rays of the sun. Unfortunately for him, Ralph lost all of his feathers in just one day, instead of five weeks, as it usually happens, so the caretakers at Marwell Wildlife Center had to find a way to protect his sensitive pink skin from sunburns.

They came up with the original idea of converting the leg of a human wetsuit into a penguin wetsuit. It didn’t seem to bother Ralph and the other penguins, although curious at first, accepted Ralph into the group.

via People.com.cn

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I can’t understand why someone would go through the trouble of creating the world’s biggest porcelain jar, but they did, so here it is.

Porcelain master Xu Sijin and a team of painters worked for more than a year to complete this giant black and white porcelain. The painting on the jar depicts the three gorges of the Yangtze River. The giant porcelain jar stands 1.36 meters tall, has a diameter of 6.8 meters and weighs over 1,500 kg.

The world’s biggest porcelain jar has been unveiled in Jingdezhen, east China and is waiting for recognition from the Guinness Book of Records.

Photos by Xinhua/Shi Weiming

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It’s hard to believe a dog can walk on his back paws without losing its balance, but Chouchou proves it’s not impossible.

Chouchou may look like just a small dog, but he’s one of the biggest stars in Chongqing, Southwest China. People stop and stare every time he goes out for a walk with his master, and it’s not because of his looks. Unlike most dogs, he enjoys walking like a man, on his back paws, and can do it for long periods of time.

He has been practicing his human walk with his master and he’s gotten quite good at it. The only other dog I know can walk on two paws only is Faith the Wonder Dog, who has no choice, since she has no front paws.

Photos by icpress

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Looking at it, Heaven of Delight looks like a beautiful painting, but in reality, it’s made out of one million six hundred thousand jewel-scarab wing cases.

In the 19th century, it was customary for the king of Belgium to give a space in the Royal Palace to contemporary artists. This tradition died with King Leopold II, in 1909. Fortunately, Queen Paola is an art enthusiast and decided to revive the custom by commissioning an artwork by artist Jan Fabre.

With the help of 29 young artists, Fabre created Heaven of Delight,  a fresco in the Hall of Mirrors, completely out of the glowing shells of jewel-scarabs. It contains various shapes that glow in a greenish-blue light, depending on the angle from which they are viewed.

Jewel-beetles are not a protected species so it was easy for Jan Favreau to gather them from countries like Thailand, where they are eaten as a delicacy, and use them for his Heaven of Delight. This masterpiece can be admired in the Royal Palace of Brussels

via Angelos

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