Moeraki Boulders

The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve. The erosion by wave action of mudstone, comprising local bedrock and landslides, frequently exposes embedded isolated boulders. These boulders are grey-colored septarian concretions, which have been exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion.

Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of an Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe's captain. In 1848 W.B.D. Mantell sketched the beach and its boulders, more numerous than now. The picture is now in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. The boulders were described in 1850 colonial reports and numerous popular articles since that time. In more recent times they have become a popular tourist attraction, often described and pictured in numerous web pages and tourist guides.

Two Legged Pig

A Two Legged Pig which can walk on two legs has become a local celebrity in China. The 10-month-old porker is known by villagers as "Zhu Jianqiang" (Strong-willed Pig) after it was born with only two front legs and learned to balance on them well enough to walk.

According to its owner, Wang Xihai, it was one of nine piglets born in a litter this January.

He said: "My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it's a life. I thought I should give it a chance to survive and unexpectedly it survived healthy."

Several days after its birth Wang decided to train the two-legged piglet to walk by lifting it up by its tail.

He said: "I trained her for a while each day. After 30 days she can now walk upside down quite well."

Wang said since the birth of the pig, which currently weighs 50kg (110lbs), his home has been besieged by visitors.

A circus even offered to buy for the pig for a large sum but Wang refused to sell.

He said "She proved to us that no matter what form life is it should continue to live on. I won't sell it no matter how much the offer is."

Bacon Kevin Bacon Statue

Kevin Bacon sculpture made out of bacon J&D Foods, a US company specialising in bacon products, has commissioned an artist to create a life-sized bust of actor Kevin Bacon out of bacon.

The piece -- which took three months to make -- is called Bacon Kevin Bacon and comprises of a Styrofoam core covered in dried “bacon bits” a bacon-based crunchy salad topping. These were glued onto the bust and varnished to ensure longevity. It measures around 60 centimetres high and sits atop a marble base.

J&D Foods’ co-owner Justin Esch told AOL: "It should be in art gallery somewhere, but it would also look nice on a coffee table. I think it'll tie together any room nicely. Bacon makes everything better, including art."

Artist Mike Lahue created the artwork, which is due to be auctioned on eBay this week for charity Ashley’s Team, a non-profit organisation that helps children with cancer and their families. The charity was set up in J&D Foods co-owner Dave Lefkow’s daughter’s name. Four-year-old Ashley was diagnosed with leukaemia last year. The auction starts today and continues for 10 days.

The eBay ad advises that Bacon Kevin Bacon is not edible. The sculpture has been lacquered to ensure that the buyer doesn’t have a revolting piece of rotting meat on their hands.

According the auction page: “Owning Bacon Kevin Bacon will automatically make you the coolest person you will ever know, a champion of the underground meat sculpture movement and honestly should really tie any room together nicely. After all, bacon does make everything better.”

J&D Foods is responsible for a range of bacon-related novelties, including bacon-flavoured salt, lip-balm and mayonnaise (aka “Baconnaise”). It also created MMMvelopes, which taste like bacon when the seal is liked. The company partnered with Seattle-based bacon-crafting creative shop What Do Bacon Do? for the project.

According to the AOL report, J&D Foods obtained direct permission from Bacon to use his likeness to raise funds.









Source : Gizmodo

Real Life Pac-Man Discovered

Deviant Artist Kalapusa, best known for his Piranha Plant garden sculpture, is back at it, this time with a lifelike Pac-Man sculpture. As you can see, Pac isn't nearly as adorable when rendered in more than 8-bits, which is exactly why you should never make love to Ms. Pac-Man

has created a “realistic” yet very alien version of Pac-Man.





Source : Geekologie

Worlds Tallest Sand Sculpture

Worlds Tallest Sand Sculpture Officials from the Guinness World Records can be seen measuring the height of a sand sculptures in Zhoushan city in east China’s Zhejiang featuring a Nigerian tale on how a hummingbird become the king of all animals.

The 22.43-meter-tall sculpture was recognized to be the world’s tallest sand sculpture. Over 20 artists spent 75 days building it.

The former record holding sculpture was 20.91 meters tall.

The sand sculpture festival has attracted talents from home and abroad to create scenes on the theme of a trip to Africa.











Source : Faded Tribune

Chimpanzeess wedding ceremony

Chimpanzees celebrate wedding after arranged marriage A pair of chimpanzees have been married in a ceremony at a zoo in China - surrounded by photographers recording the happy occasion.

The happy groom for the day was four-year-old Yangyang, who it turns out is a bit of a toyboy (in chimpanzee years, at least), as his blushing bride Wanxing is six years old.

Admittedly, we don't actually know if she was blushing. We're not entirely sure how you'd tell if a chimpanzee was blushing. Do chimpanzees actually blush? Google isn't much help on this one.

The marriage was actually an arranged one - Yangyang, who was born in Guinea, moved to the wildlife park in Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui province after he was selected as being Wanxing's future hubby in 2009.

It wasn't a traditional white wedding - the bride wore a pink top and fetching multicoloured hat, while the groom wa sresplendant in a green, blue and yellow jumper and a rakish kerchief. Both also sported gigantic red ribbons, of dubious practicality.

The wedding was described as 'symbolic', although we're not entirely sure what it was symbolic of, other than the zoo's desire for the chimps to get it on good style. Which we're wholeheartedly in favour of.

Bra Life Saving Face Mask

Lingerie Disguises : The bra that can be converted into a life-saving face mask An 'emergency bra' has been created by a Ukrainian scientist that can be turned into a face mask to protect against lethal chemical attacks or biological hazards.

The uplifting garment can be worn as intended then easily removed, separated into two and converted into two face masks that filters out harmful airborne substances - one for the wearer, and for a needy by-stander - or onlooker.

According to the inventor, Ukranian scientist Dr Elena Bodnar, it doesn't matter what your cup size is either as the masks are fully-adjustable to give the same level of protection.

Bosom buddy: Dr Elena Bodnar demonstrates her Emergency Bra at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts Litt and separate: Dr. Elena watches as a volunteer demonstrates dividing the two cups in the first stage of mask making

The Associated Press reports that Dr Bodnarm, who's now based in Chicago, initially got her idea after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

She explained: 'If people had had cheap, readily available gas masks in the first hours after the disaster...they may have avoided breathing in Iodine-131, which causes radiation sickness.'

She also claims the brassiere could be useful in the event of biological terrorist attacks.

Explaining how the garment works, she expanded:'To use the bra-mask, the wearer unsnaps the brassiere from under her shirt, which breaks it in two.

'Because each cup has hooks on its side, the strap is wrapped around the head and hooked to the cup, which goes over the mouth.'

Apparently, with practice, the bra can be whipped off and the mask effectively put on in seconds.

She added that bra-mask could be also be used during such disasters as fires, dust storms or a swine flu outbreak.

She said: 'You have to be prepared all the time, at any place, at any moment, and practically every woman wears a bra.'

There might be a 'counterpart device for men', Bodnar added, although it was not clear in what shape or form it would take.

Bra-vellous: The life-saving brassiere is now onsale to well-prepared lingerie fans Red alert: Break bras in case of emergency

The invention was first acknowledged at the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize awards, a spoof of the actual Nobel Prize, which acknowldge 10 scientific achievements that 'first make people laugh, and then make them think'.

It's organized by the U.S. scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research and judged by actual Nobel laureates.

In her Ig acceptance speech, she joked: 'It takes only 25 seconds for average woman [sic] to use this personal protective device. Five seconds to remove, convert and apply your own mask, and 20 seconds to wonder who the lucky man is she is going to save.'

However, it only launched earlier this week after a year firming up 'safety engineering, economical design, and aesthetics'.

Dr Bodnar unveiled her life-saving lingerie at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday.

Unique sink concept idea to save water

Unique sink concept, designed by Yan Lu, encourages users to save water.


When in use, the level of water in the fishbowl gradually decreases (but never fully drains out); it will go back to normal once you turn off the water. To protect the fish and provide clean tap water, the bowl is connected to its own dedicated pipeline.

Man is Addicted to Eating Live Scorpions

A Chinese man says he has become addicted to eating live scorpions and reckons he's swallowed at least 10,000 over the last 30 years.

Li Liuqun, 58, says he got hooked when he was walking in mountains close to his home in Hunan province, central China, and was stung by a huge scorpion.

"I was so angry I picked it up and bit its head off. It tasted sweet and nutty and I never looked back. To me, they're delicious - like fried beans," he explained.

Now Li will eat 20 or 30 of the live beasts in a single sitting and seems to be immune to their venom, which can paralyse and kill humans in large enough doses.

"I still get stung but they have no effect on me," he said.

Medics say Li has probably become addicted to the venom, which is used in small doses in traditional Chinese medicine to relieve the pain of rheumatism.

Farmer Grows 3 Million Pumpkins

A British farm has harvested Europe's largest crop of pumpkins in time for Halloween despite our changeable summer weather.

The three million pumpkins growing at David Bowman Ltd farm in Spalding, Lincs., have been baked by heatwaves and battered by torrential rain.

But they have reached their autumnal orange ripeness the perfect time and 100 staff are now working around the clock to finish harvesting them before October 31st.

Seasonal workers at the farm have to process a staggering 100,000 pumpkins every day during the 30 day harvest.

Farmer David Bowman, 62, who has 37 years' experience growing pumpkins, admitted that he 'can't wait' for the harvest to end on November 1.

He said: 'It's been a very average year in terms of the pumpkin crop because the weather was either too dry or too wet over the summer.'

'But we still expect to harvest around three million pumpkins which is a marvellous crop for an average year.'

'We are so busy at the moment getting everything for Halloween and I will just be glad when it's all over on November the first.'

'When you are carving out your pumpkin this year think about us harvesting in the wind and rain.'

David sells some of his crop abroad in Holland and Spain but the majority of his pumpkins go to supermarkets across Britain.

His crop is the largest in Europe with three million pumpkins at his 500-acre farm.