Some of the ugliest dogs in the world gathered at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, California to compete for the title of World’s Ugliest Pedigree Dog.

Just like last year. the contest was dominated by a pure breed Chinese crested hairless. 15-year-old Miss Ellie has only a few of her back teeth left, cataracts in both eyes and her hairless body is covered with moles and pimples. Her dream is to travel the world and prove that ‘ugly’ is just a word and says nothing about her great personality.

Having been rescued herself, Miss Ellie hopes she can be a spokesmodel for not-so-cute rescue dogs. Along with the title of World’s Ugliest Pedigree Dog, Miss Ellie also received a big trophy and $1,000.

I wonder if, Gus, World’s Ugliest Dog 2008 competed this year, he was a great deal uglier than Miss Ellie.

via Daily Mail

Canadian needle-worker, Joanna Lopianowski-Roberts, spent eight years making what could be considered the most amazing replica of the Sistine Chapel paintings.

Inspired by a magazine cut-out of the Sistine Chapel, stuck-up on her bathroom wall, Joana spent eight years knitting Michelangelo’s masterpiece. She says starting was the hardest part, because she just didn’t know where to begin.

To make sure her knitted work-of-art follows every detail of the original painting, Joanna made close-ups of every section of the artwork and even bought some books from Rome. After a total of 3,572 hours of work, Joana Lopianowski-Roberts created a perfect 40 inches by 80 inches replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

Her knitted masterpiece now sits safely in Joana’s home, but the artist says she would consider selling it for the right price. I’m sure she already has plenty of offers. The old-ladies who knitted their village managed to sell their creations, so finding a buyer for this should be a breeze.

Photos by BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

Remember He Ping Ping, currently the shortest man in the world? Well, you’ll soon forget all about him as he’ll be stripped of his title by Khagendra Thapa Magar.

Nicknamed “Little Buddha“, by his fellow Nepalese villagers, Khagendra Thapa Magar is just 4 months away from officially becoming the world’s shortest man.He will be turning 18 and the Guinness Book of Records will have to acknowledge him as the tiniest human on the planet.

Khagendra has become quite  a sensation in  Nepal and even India and even his country’s politicians are fighting to see him recognized as the world’s smallest man. He travels Nepal as part of a dancing group only to let people know he will soon be in the record books.

Otherwise a very healthy individual, Khagendra has a malfunctioning pituitary gland that caused him to grow very slowly. His parents admit they were ashamed to be seen with him in the beginning, but now they feel proud to be the parents of the shortest man in the world. Khagendra Thapa Magar measures just 2 feet, 5 inches less than He Ping Ping.

A big karate and dancing fan, the petite Nepalese said he can’t wait to officially receive his title and fullfil his dream of traveling to the USA, to show the western world his dancing and karate skills.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Times Square is one of the most crowded places on Earth, but that didn’t stop 200+ people from practicing yoga right in the middle of it.

On the morning of the Summer Solstice, on June 21, 2009 more than 200 yoga enthusiasts gathered in the “Crossroads of the World” for the seventh annual free yoga classes. Participants probably thought it would be  a challenge to achieve total peace and calmness in the center of Time Square.

I wonder if yoga granny took part in this unusual yoga session.

Photos by REUTERS/XINHUA

via People.com.cn

A young, inspiring fashion designer created her prom dress using nothing else but coffee filters.

18-year-old Aimee Kick, from Missouri spent an entire month making her own prom dress out of coffee filters. Apparently Aimee spends a lot of her free time in local coffee shops and is known as “the girl with a coffee cup” so I guess she wanted to create an appropriate theme dress for her prom at Francis Howell North High School.

via The Fashion Police

The bride and groom, both sci-fi fans, decided they didn’t want a conventional wedding so they opted for one in total weightlessness.

Noah Fulmore and Erin Finnegan, two love-birds from New York City, spent nearly $20,000 on a 90-minute-long zero-gravity wedding. The ceremony was performed in a modified Boeing 727 jet that takes roller-coaster-style dives, used to simulate the zero-gravity experienced by astronauts in space.

The couple also exchanged wedding rings made out of precious metal from a meteorite that crashed in Namibia 30,000 years ago. They said the experience was everything they hoped for.

Photos by REUTERS

via Daily Mail

Competitors went toe to toe last weekend, for the title of World Toe-Wrestling Champion.

Who knew something as silly as toe-wrestling was an actual sport, right? Well, turns out it really is and people have been clashing their toes in the World Toe-Wrestling Championship for the last 14 years.

This year’s competition was held in Ashbourne, England. The rules were pretty simple. After a basic check for foot hygiene, two competitors “toed-it-out”, trying to push each other off the “toedium”. Toe-wrestling has become more and more popular lately and, this year, the championship drew-in contestants from all around the world, including Australia and the US.

The final toe-down was between two locals, last year’s champion Paul “Toeminator” Beech and Alan “Nasty” Nash. After a tough match, the judge decided “Nasty” had the stronger toes and awarded him his fifth World Toe-Wrestling Championship trophy.

via People’s Daily

At least that was the case when young Kimberley Vlaminck asked for three stars tattooed near her left eye.

The young Belgian says she went to a tattoo parlor to get three small stars tattooed, but the foreign artist misunderstood her request and left her with 56 stars covering the left side of her face. How could that possibly have happened, you say? Simple, she fell asleep during the procedure and woke up when the artist finished his work.

Now, the guy who tattooed her doesn’t exactly look like the most trustworthy person in the world (he’s the guy in the last photo), but I find it hard to believe someone could fall asleep while getting a tattoo. Nevermind the pain, the noise of the tattoo-gun right next to her left ear would have been enough to keep her awake.

Kimberley says she must have been drugged by Rouslan Toumaniantz, the shop-owner and the guy who executed the tattoo, but he insists the girl specifically asked for 56 stars tattooed on her face. He says the whole scandal started when the 18-year-old went home and showed her family and boyfriend the permanent artwork. They went crazy, so miss Vlaminck returned to the tattoo-shop and accused Toumaniantz of misunderstanding her request.

Now Kimberley Vlaminck is suing Toumanintz for 10,000 pounds, the cost of a laser-procedure to remove his ‘mistake’. Although the tattoo artist maintains that the girl asked for 56 stars, and even brought in a witness to sustain his claim, he agreed to pay half of the procedure costs, just because he doesn’t want an unsatisfied customer.

Kimberley hasn’t accepted his offer yet.
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Why journey to Vulcan in a spaceship when you can just drive there?

The Canadian town of Vulcan, Alberta has become a true pilgrimage site for Star-Trek fans because of its coincidental link to the sci-fi series. Vulcan received its name in 1915, from a surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway who named it after the Roman God of Fire. It has no connection to Mister Spock’s home planet, but do trekkies care?

Of course not, anything that relates to the Star-Trek universe, accidentally or not, is worth a visit. So the people of Vulcan decided to capitalize on this great tourism opportunity and built a 5-ton replica of the USS Enterprise. And it paid out. This year trekkies gathered in Vulcan, Alberta for a celebration called Spock Days.

Photos show Klingons, Romulans, Tholians, Vulcans and even good old Captain Kirk had a great time in Vulcan this year.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Another unusual animal love story shocks the world. An 18-months-old dog and an 8-weeks-old wolf cub become best friends.

Ulrok, a fully grown Rottweiler was more than happy to become the father figure in young Beldaran’s life, after the poor baby was rejected by her natural mother. Kahlani, the wolf who gave birth to this little furry treasure, was too young herself and her maternal instincts didn’t kick in.

Caretakers at the Krisma Preserve, in Mt. Desert, Maine, tried to find another surogate parent for Beldaran, but Ulrok was the only one who accepted the young cub, when she was just four days old. Now they spend all their time together, playing in the sun, howling at the full moon and even sleeping together.

It’s nice to see them getting along so well and, no matter how down you are, just one look at them will put a big smile on your face. But, once Beldaran is old enough to take care of herself, she will be introduced to a pack of wolves, to make sure she grows up to be a wolf and not something else.

Photos by Bary Bland/ BARCROFT MEDIA

via Daily Mail

What would your reaction be if you woke-up one morning and found an alligator swimming in your pool?

That’s what happened to Larry Bland, from Texas, who found a 5-foot-alligator cooling-in his backyard pool. Apparently the burning sun was too much for this reptile and Bland’s pool was the perfect getaway.

The uninvited guest was removed by Gary Saurage, a very brave trapper who went into the pool, brought it up to the surface and then pushed it out. That takes some serious “cojones”, I’ll tell you…

Photos by [CFP]

via China.org.cn

Jonathan McCullum was a perfectly healthy 17 years old boy, weighing at 155 pounds. That all changed went he signed for an exchange student program in Egypt. His hosts were Coptic Christians, who fast an unmatched 200 days a year and the boy says he was denied sufficient food, all four months that he spent there.

When he returned to the states, Jonathan was unrecognizable, weighing a mere 97 pounds and struggling to carry his own baggage and climb up stairs. He had to be hospitalized for two weeks because he risked having a heart attack.

Despite the whole ordeal, the boy doesn’t regret his experience and sees it as a mere clash of cultures, he plans on going to Zimbabwe this summer as part of a volunteer program. Take some food with you this time buddy!

The cold wave that hit Greece these last few days really produced some incredible photos of places that use to bathe in the sunlight all year long. I never imagined I’d think of Greece and think snow dunes, icy streets and -15 degrees Celsius temperatures…no matter what anyone says, I blame this on global warming, it’s just not normal!

Officials have decided! According to a report, Indonesian commuters riding on the roofs of trains will be sprayed with colored liquid so that security officers can identify and arrest them.

Rush hours are the most stressful. Electric trains that link Indonesian capital to the towns nearby are full of passengers during rush hours, with many sitting on the roofs due to a lack of space inside or to avoid paying.

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