Rolling Through The Bay - Toothpick Sculpture

Rolling through the bay is an abstract toothpick sculpture of San Francisco made by Scott Weaver. It has about 100,000 of toothpicks. The amazing part, is that is has four ping pong ball paths that roll through different landmarks of San Francisco. It was built in about 3000 hours over a period of 34 years and the only glue used is Elmer’s.

His friends and family members also collect toothpicks in their travels for him. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at their wedding.

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Camouflage Homes

Ever wish you could just disappear? Well, a camouflage home may be the answer! These noticeable or unnoticeable homes are the examples of amazing architectural skills. From modern estates to funky little mud huts built by hand.

                             Wood House, Hilversum, Netherlands

This mini-dwelling is disguised as a pile of wood that's been stacked for the winter. In actuality, the building is a pre-fab structure made of steel and plastic. The log-like appearance was achieved by applying a wood veneer.

                            Casa do Penedo, Fafe Mountains, Portugal

What looks like left-over boulders from the Stone Age is actually a house. Casa do Penedo or the 'House of Stone', was built in 1974 with four different boulders.

 

                            Leaf Box, San Francisco, California

This modern cube, which stands behind a San Francisco row house, is actually an art studio. The verdant plant life that grows on its walls was introduced to make the boxy building blend into the property's adjacent parkland.

 

                            Dune Home, Atlantic Beach, Florida

Carved into the dunes of Atlantic Beach, Florida, these two psychedelic apartments are pure 1970s. Native landscaping on the exterior ensures comfortable 70-degree temperatures indoors. Created by architect William Morgan, they were constructed using technology that was devised to create unite swimming pools.

Dragon Rock, Garrison, New York

 Industrial designer Russell Wright designed this retreat, called Dragon Rock, in the 1960s. Nestled into a rocky hillside among 75 acres of trees and woodland gardens, the house and studio overlook a quarry pond.

  

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Hello Kitty themed hospital

A Hello Kitty-themed maternity and pediatric hospital has opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan.

It is hoped that the white cat will ease the pain and fear associated with childbirth and being admitted into hospital. It will help the mothers to recover faster.

Hello Kitty is one of the most recognizable cartoons in the world.

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Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms. Oxymorons can be divided into expressions that were deliberately crafted to be contradictory and those phrases that inadvertently or incidentally contain a contradiction. Examples of oxymorons are: dark light, original copy, bitter sweet, serious joke etc.

The word oxymoron is itself contradictory. The term “oxymoron" is derived from the Greek words oxy, meaning "sharp" and moron meaning “dull”.

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The Smurfs Village

(AP Photo/Sergio Torres) Source: AP

The inhabitants of a Spanish village which was painted entirely blue for the filming of box-office smash hit The Smurfs movie voted to keep their houses a vivid shade of azure, instead of returning to traditional white.

The 221 residents of Juzcar, in southern Spain, were promised by Sony Pictures six months ago that their homes would be returned to their former dazzling white state but found The Smurfs animated movie brought them an unexpected lifeline in tough economic times.

Juzcar became the world's first official Smurf Village and, whereas 300 tourists a year would pass through, an estimated 80,000 have been to see "Smurftown" in the past six months.

The village put it to a vote and the inhabitants overwhelmingly decided - 141 in favour to 33 against - that their homes should stay painted entirely in that unique hue, Smurf blue.

The village has eagerly embraced its new role, holding events such as a Smurf moonlight fun run, Smurf painting competitions and permanently running Smurf trade fairs. There are even Smurf-themed weddings to keep fans of the squeaky little blue folk coming.

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The opposite of ‘sparkle’ is ‘darkle’

While most of us have seen things shimmer with light and described it as sparkling, there is an equal opposite to sparkle. The word, darkle, means to become cloudy, gloomy, dark, or be concealed in the dark!

Darkle word  originated in the 1800s, and it is believed that the original use of darkle was ‘darkling’.

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Mind-blowing sand sculptures around the world

Mark Renders/Getty Images

Sculptures made of sand inspired by fairy-tale are seen at the Annual Sea Sculpture Festival on June 28, 2008 in Middelkerke, Belgium.

Graham Denholm/Getty Images

A sand sculpture entitled "Alice and the Caterpillar" carved by Christina Mija from Australia is seen at the Creepy Crawlies Sandsculpting Exhibition on the Frankston waterfront on December 26, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. International sand sculpture artists from around the world teamed up with their Australian counterparts to create the insect themed exhibition that will be open to the public until April, 2011.

Check out more pictures here.

Hitler ordered sex dolls for Nazi troops

Adolf Hitler ordered the Nazis to develop sex dolls for his soldiers so that they would not be affected with diseases after having sex with prostitutes, says a new book.

The synthetic sex dolls - that were smaller than life-size and called 'gynoids' - were made from silicone and designed to prevent soldiers from being hit by diseases like syphilis.

Hungarian actress Kathe von Nagy was reportedly asked if the doll could be modelled on her but she refused.

The doll was later 'left bland' with only blonde hair and blue eyes so that 'soldiers could apply their own fantasy', the book said.

Author Graeme Donald uncovered the sex doll 'Borghild Project' while researching the history of the Barbie doll.

He wrote the sex doll story in his book, 'Mussolini's Barber', a compilation of bizarre tales.

The doll project began in 1940 after Hitler's SS chief Henrich Himmler wrote: 'The greatest danger in Paris is the widespread and uncontrolled presence of whores, picking up clients in bars, dance halls, and other places. It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health just for the sake of a quick adventure.'

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Toilet paper wedding dress

For most people, toilet paper serves one purpose. But for a few inventive women, the potential is limitless. The Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest, now in its seventh year, announced the best dress creation today. Sponsored by the website Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com, readers are asked to put their DIY skills to work for the chance to win $1000. That's about the cost of your average bridal confection, but these creative contestants (not all them brides) prove all you need are a few bucks, or even a coupon, to create a look that's worth marrying for.

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The Malay word for water is ‘air’!

The Indonesian word for water is ‘air’!

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“Galaxy” means “milky circle”

The word galaxy derives from the Greek term for our own galaxy, galaxias (γαλαξίας), or kyklos galaktikos, meaning "milky circle" for its appearance in the sky. In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera's breast while she is asleep so that the baby will drink her divine milk and will thus become immortal. Hera wakes up while breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing an unknown baby: she pushes the baby away and a jet of her milk sprays the night sky, producing the faint band of light known as the Milky Way.

In the astronomical literature, the capitalized word 'Galaxy' is used to refer to our galaxy, the Milky Way, to distinguish it from the billions of other galaxies. The term Milky Way first appeared in the English language in a story by Chaucer.

"See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë
Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
For hit is whyt."

—Geoffrey Chaucer. The House of Fame, c. 1380.

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Nike : The Winged Goddess of Victory

Nike is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympic pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence, symbolizing victorious encounters, Nike presided over history's earliest battlefields. A Greek would say, "When we go to battle and win, we say it is Nike” The Nike 'Swoosh' embodies the spirit of the winged goddess who inspired the most courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization.

More information is available on Nike’s website.

Amazing Picture

A Chinese woman poses with a four-dimensional (4D) painting on display at a contemporary art exhibition in Jilin, northeast China's Jilin's province on May 14, 2011.

World's Flashiest Museum

In Mexico City, telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, widely cited as the world's richest man, recently opened a new museum to showcase his extensive collection of over 60,000 works of art from all over the world.

The outside of the museum is a windowless, metallic, six-story structure shaped like a surrealist hourglass. It is really spectacular…

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3000 new words for Scrabble’s official reference books

Street slang including thang, innit, blingy, Wiki and Myspace have been added to an "official" reference book for Scrabble players.

The Collins Official Scrabble Words also now includes, from Indian cookery, keema, alu, or aloo, and gobi among nearly 3,000 new additions to those allowed in the game.

Technology-related words such as webzine, darknet and Facebook have also made the book.

The list for the latest edition of the Scrabble words book was created by staff at Collins Dictionaries based in Glasgow.

The publishers say it is the "most comprehensive Scrabble wordlist ever produced".

Penis museum in Husavik, Iceland, gets first human specimen

In life, Pall Arason was an attention-seeker. In death, the 95-year-old Icelander's pickled penis will be the main attraction at one of the world's most bizarre museums.

Sigurdur Hjartarson, who runs the Phallological Museum in the tiny Icelandic fishing town of Husavik, says Arason's organ will help complete his extensive collection of whale, seal, bear, and other mammalian members.

The museum has been open since 1997 but Hjartarson has long waited for a human specimen to round out his display.

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OMG! Included in Oxford English Dictionary

OMG! The exclamatory online abbreviation has won the approval of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The term - short for "Oh my God" or "Oh my gosh" - is one of dozens of new entries in the authoritative reference book's latest online update.

Other internet-inspired expressions given the stamp of approval include LOL, "laughing out loud"; IMHO, "in my humble opinion"; and BFF, "best friends forever."

Although the terms are associated with modern electronic communications, some are surprisingly old. The first confirmed use of "OMG" was in a letter in 1917.

Not all the new abbreviations originated online. One new entry is wag, for "wives and girlfriends." First used in 2002 to describe the female partners of the England soccer team, it is now used to denote the glamorous and extravagant female partners of male celebrities.

The new update includes about 900 new words and meanings, from "flat white" - a milky espresso-based drink originating from Australia and New Zealand - to "muffin top," defined as "a protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers."

The dictionary also includes a new entry for "heart" as a verb, a casual equivalent of "to love" that is represented with a symbol, as seen on millions of souvenirs proclaiming "I (heart) New York."

The internet version of the online Oxford Dictionary was launched in 2000 and is updated every three months.

Different Versions of Cinderella

Rossini's story of Cinderella is very different from the Disney version, the one best known to American children today. There is no fairy godmother, no pumpkin coach, not even glass slippers. In fact it is not even a fairy tale but a comedy of manners written for adults. However, neither is Disney's like most of the over 700 known versions of the story. The Cinderella story and its history have been studied more than almost any other work.

The oldest true Cinderella story comes from the China of 850-860 A.D.

Cinderella is known as Zezolla in Italy, Yeh –hsien in China, and Rashin Coatie in Scotland.

In the Chinese version, there is no fairy godmother. Instead, Yeh-hsien receives her nice clothes by praying to the bones of her dead pet fish. In the Italian version, Zezolla gets her clothes from a magic tree and she actually kills her stepmother. In the Scottish version, Rashin Coatie kills her evil sister with an axe to rescue her pet cow. The cow then provides her with her nice clothes.

Find out more about different versions of Cinderella here.

Match Stick Marvels

Iowa artist Patrick Acton has glued over 3 million ordinary wooden matchsticks into more than 60 incredibly detailed scale models of life-like sculptures, complex machines, and world renown architecture. Acton has used the tiny 2 inch long sticks to build huge models like his 13-foot long true-to-scale model of the battleship USS Iowa, and a 12-foot lighted model of the United States capitol. The Matchstick Marvels display has drawn visitors from all over the United States and dozens of foreign countries. 

Check out more of such match stick marvels.

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday" referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which started on Ash Wednesday.

In many areas, the term "Mardi Gras" has come to mean the whole period of activity related to the celebratory events, beyond just the single day. In some US cities, it is now called "Mardi Gras Day" or "Fat Tuesday". The festival season varies from city to city, as some traditions consider Mardi Gras the entire period between Epiphany or Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday. Others treat the final three-day period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras.

In Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras-associated social events begin in November, followed by mystic society balls on Thanksgiving, then New Year's Eve, followed by parades and balls in January and February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday. In earlier times parades were held on New Year's Day.

Find out more about Mardi Gras.