For those of you who love Christmas but can’t stand falling needles and cheap plastic, Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka has created the ultimate Christmas tree –  made of pure gold and worth a whopping $2 million.

After making a 24-karat gold horse for Japan’s newborn prince, and creating another tree worth $850,000, Ginza Tanaka decided to step it up even more and came up with a solid gold Christmas tree for this holiday season. Measuring 2.4 meters high and weighing around 12 kilograms, the luxurious tree is decorated with golden plates and around 60 heart-shaped ornaments, and covered with ribbon. It’s the most expensive thing Ginza Tanaka has ever made, but while I do appreciate the craftsmanship and the effort that went into it, I’m not sure gold is right for such an important symbol. After all, what kind of presents are you supposed to put under such a tree, anyway?

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As a kid, cars play a big role in life as they are generally boys’ favorite toys. If you’ve got a father that’s as passionate about cars as you, you may end up going to a motor show and seeing them live.

Once you’re there however, things go a little bit wrong, after the ten or so supercars and a couple of off-roaders you realize it’s not really that interesting. There’s just tons of boring cars for daddy, mommy and whoever else can actually drive. Since odds are that you’re still calling the models “pretty women” there’s no appeal in that either. Car shows aren’t always as fun as you’d imagine they could be when you’re five years old. Unless you went to the LA Motor Show this year.

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The mother of all DIY projects has arrived. And this one involves making something you, and only you will ever use. Your coffin.

A class that teaches people to build their own caskets is indeed available in Grand Marais, northern Minnesota. It is run by a forty-five year-old professional wood worker, Randy Schnobrich. The three-day course costs around $750, $470 of which is spent on materials alone. Participants are taught and supervised while they construct a coffin from cabinet grade pine, an inch in thickness.

The USP of this class, apart from building coffins of course, is the fact that very few power tools are used. Most of the construction work is done using hand tools such as planes and saws, as opposed to heavy machinery. Schnobrich feels that the use of hand tools is, in some ways, the very essence of the school.

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Have you ever heard of kids making some cash on the side, simply by studying? Well, it’s happening and we’ll tell you how. High schools in Virginia Beach are offering cash incentives to students as well as teachers for receiving good grades on their Advanced Placement exams.

As unbelievable as it might sound, it’s really true. The first few schools to adopt this new technique to get kids back to their books are Salem and Green Run High Schools. Apparently, a pat on the back just won’t do it anymore. A student can receive up to $100 for each AP exam on which they score 3, 4 or 5, on a five point scale.

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Businesses would go any lengths to gain publicity. Even if it means attempting to beautify a crocodile. A day spa in Darwin, Australia has had its employees do just that.

As unbelievable as it may seem, this croc-makeover has happened for real. Or so the pictures suggest. The Parap Day Spa recently managed to acquire the saltwater creature from a crocodile research center in Darwin. According to the spa, their staff then spent hours exfoliating the crocodile, giving it a mani-pedi and a proper bikini wax. A few pictures reveal a limp crocodile surrounded by a bunch of enthusiastic women, attacking it with gloves, waxing strips and nail-polish.

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The relationship between a dog and its master has always been a special one, and is often depicted in books and films as well. Dogs tend to know things instinctively, and it’s no secret that a dog is possibly one of the best companions to human beings.

Time and again, we have heard stories of courage and love displayed by these furry four-legged creatures. One such story has emerged from a village in Eastern China. A story, where love and loyalty transcend even the barriers of death.

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You all know the soccer mom; it is a dominant sort of individual in the suburbs and easily noticeable at any PTA meeting or sporting day of any school.

This stands true pretty much everywhere, except St. Ignace, Michigan where soccer moms have managed to do something genuinely surprising.

Instead of sitting around yelling at the players at least twice as much as their coach, these proud parents have decided to join in on the action by, well, getting closer to the action.

Since the St. Ignace high school has no more than 215 students and pretty much none of the ones outside the team have any interest in the sport the football team was facing a serious disaster. They were facing every teenage jock’s nightmare as there were no cheerleaders to motivate them.

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Karl Rabeder, the Austrian businessman who last year decided to give away his large fortune, because he realized money didn’t make him happy, now lives on just $1,350 a month.

It was one of the most shocking headlines of 2010. Karl Rabeder a millionaire from Telfs, Austria, announced he was in the process of selling his luxury properties and businesses because he had realized money is counterproductive and actually prevented him from being happy. His goal was to “have nothing left, absolutely nothing”. Mr Rabeder, who came from a poor family where the rules were to work more and achieve material things, confessed that for a long time he believed more wealth automatically brings more happiness. But lately he kept hearing a voice telling him to stop what he was doing and begin his real life. He started to feel like a slave working for things he didn’t actually want or need.

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Megan and Eric Kellermeyer decided to name their baby born on 11/11/11 Dovahkiin, after the leading character in Bethesda Studios’ “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” video game.

Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer was born at 6:08 pm PST, and his parents explained their decision because they wanted to give their son an “awesome name”. Meaning “Dragonborn” in dragon language, Dovahkiin certainly sounds like a very interesting name, but it’s also one that will earn its bearer and his family free Bethesda games for life. You see, the video game developer posted a challenge back in February that whoever would deliver a baby on 11/11/11 and name him/her Dovahkiin, would get free games for life. Megan and Eric were the first to prove they’d completed the challenge.

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Zombie Boot Camp, a recently inaugurated one-day training course, promises to teach people specialized zombie-fighting skills for only 90$.

Whether you’re one of those crazy folks who believes a zombie apocalypse is imminent, or just a big fan of zombie culture, Zombie Boot Camp sounds like the perfect experience for you. The unusual training course taking place in the UK’s  Droitwich, Worchestershire, sees would-be zombie hunters take part in specialized training exercises with experienced military instructors, before putting on special armor and taking on a group of brain-eating zombies to prove they’ve mastered the skills necessary to survive during a zombie crisis.

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Roman Beybutyan, a young car enthusiast from the Grodno region of Belarus has built an impressive bison sculpture exclusively out of car parts.

Using shock absorbers, springs, steering rods, clutches, chains and various parts from soviet era cars like UAZ, Moskvich and Lada, Roman and his father managed to create a life-size metal bison, in three months. Roman and his father got all the parts they needed from their neighbors’ garages and from the local scrapyard, and welded them together using a photo for reference. Although the young boy, whose family arrived to Belarus from Armenia, has never seen a real bison, he did a fine job recreating one from metal parts.

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Legendary English designer Thelma Madine teamed up with Liverpool hair salon Voodou to create a one-on-a-kind wedding dress entirely out of human hair.

Brides usually opt for shades of white when picking their wedding dress, but this didn’t stop Thelma Madine and Voodou hair stylist, Ryan Edwards from creating a gown only Lady Gaga would wear. In fact, the duo say they would be more than happy if the popular singer would choose to wear it on her next tour. “It’s a unique creation, just like her, and I think it would be a hair match made in heaven!” Madine said. Considering Gaga’s past wardrobe choices, they might get their wish…

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Last Friday, a church in Stockholm, Sweden turned into a 90s disco, during a techno Mass priests hope will draw young people closer to religion.

Instead of listening to the sermon and praying silently, the congregation inside the All Saints Church, in Stockholm were throwing their hands in the air, busting dance moves and singing to the lyrics of music, during the second ever techno Mass organized by the Swedish church. Special lighting installations, the techno sounds and raving crowd made the place look more like a dance club than a place of worship, but priests of the Lutheran church say this was just a successful attempt of making religion and attending church interesting for young people.

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Last week I wrote about a dangerous drinking game using vodka-soaked tampons, and this week we continue the crazy drinking habits series with an equally bizarre method of consuming alcohol called vodka eyeballing.

Bet you didn’t know you can drink with your eyes, did you? Believe me, I was as shocked as you are right now, but this is apparently all the rage among daredevil teens around the world. Basically eyeballing implies pouring vodka in your eye socket, which some claim gets you drunk in record times. Just like in the case of vodka-soaked tampons, the explanation behind this bizarre drinking method has to do with alcohol being absorbed faster than the old fashioned way. However, specialists point out that only a small amount of alcohol can actually enter your system through the eye, so the claims are most likely fake. Read More »

Artist Ted Harrison scattered over 5,000 poppies on the floor of St. Paul’s cathedral, in London, creating a giant artwork that highlight the involvement of children in armed conflict around the world.

Seen from ground level, Ted Harrison’s art installation looks like a bunch of randomly scattered poppies, but looked at from the Whispering Gallery, under the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral, the flowers form an image of three child soldiers, one from World War 2 and two from more modern conflicts. The installation is part of the St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project, an ongoing programme which seeks to explore the encounter between art and faith, and was created to raise awareness to the issue of children being used as soldiers.

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