The World’s Smallest Cell Phone Looks Like A Toy

When it comes down to it, we all love to marvel at the world’s smallest blanks, but they’re generally not that practical. That’s why we doubt we’ll ever find ourselves snapping pics with the world’s smallest camera, keeping fish in the world’s smallest aquarium, or shooting targets with the world’s smallest revolver. But the world’s smallest cell phone might make sense… assuming you don’t need to play Angry Birds, browse the internet, or do anything other than make phone calls. Actually, okay this is probably just as useless as those other things. Still, Japanese company Wilcom thinks the tiny new Strap 2 phone will be a big hit… presumably among people who like working gadgets that look like doll toys from the early 2000’s. Available in white, black and pink, the phone features a one-inch display and an antenna. It will be available in Japan for $380.

Read more...

8 Most Extreme Cultural Body Modifications

It is impossible to say who the first people were with stretched ears, or why they did it. Today, many cultures (including our own!) practice the art of ear stretching for many different reasons. Religion, coming of age ceremonies, warding off evil, sexual enhancement and physical beauty are common motivations. However, that just barely scratches the surface as there are many other reasons, as well. People all over the world still practice ear stretching. From the Masai tribes in Kenya to the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon Basin, stretched ears are still a common sight. It is a fascinating testament of human culture that a Western youth can walk into a piercing shop to select stretched ear jewelry while a Hmong youth in Thailand selects from an array of silver tubes.

(Link | Photo)

 

 

The Apatani tribe lives in the Ziro valley in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India's northeast. Apanti women were considered the most beautiful among the Arunachal tribes; so beautiful, in fact, that they had to make themselves look unattractive as protection from invaders from other tribes. Hence, Apanti women wore large wooden plugs in their noses, a tradition not carried forward by the younger members of the 26,000 people-strong tribe today.

(Link)

Most Dinka boys and girls don't cry when the local sorcerer takes a red-hot knife to their dark faces. If they wince or cry or react to the pain they will lose face in the community, so it's best to sit through the process in peace. Facial scarification is practiced throughout Sudan, and various marks across the faces of tribesmen give identity to the tribe and beauty to its women.

Men of the Dinka tribe in South Sudan scar their faces with three parallel lines across the forehead in a rugged display of courage to the tribe. Dinka boys receive their scars around adolescence to mark the transition to manhood, when they take the responsibilities of the other men in the nomadic tribe.

(Link)

For some people, this would be totally extreme, but for local Thais, this is completely normal. They ignore the pain because this ritual is a rite of passage to adulthood. This is an annual ritual performed in public to announce to the whole world that they have become adults.

The vegetarian festival in Phuket sees a great deal of devotional activities in the Chinese communities. Trance and heavy piercing are part of the tradition. This festival is held on the Southern Thai island of Phuket every year in October. Most impressive are the processions that are held almost every morning during the ten days of the festival. The processions feature devotees of the different city shrines which act as "mediums" for the Chinese Gods. Some of the mediums put sharp objects (mostly metal objects) through their cheeks as an act of devotion for themselves and for the whole community. Other rituals that are performed include walking barefoot over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs.

All the mediums act involuntarily while in a trance, which allows them to endure the long piercing sessions. Although the wounds are said to be healed completely after the service, scars accumulate on their faces year after year.

(Link)

Human tooth sharpening is the practice of manually sharpening the teeth, usually the front incisors. Historically, many cultures have practiced this form of body modification. In Bali, teeth were filed down because it was thought that the teeth represented anger, jealousy, and other similarly negative emotions. The teeth were also sharpened as a rite of passage for adolescents. Teeth filing was also used by Aborigines for spiritual reasons, similar to assorted Vietnamese and Sudanese tribes. In Mayan culture, the teeth were sharpened, and sometimes had designs carved into them, to distinguish those in the upper-classes. Many cultures would sharpen their teeth to imitate animals, such as the Wapare of inter-tropical Africa, who sharpened their teeth to imitate sharks, as well as kicking out some mandibular teeth during puberty.

(Link)

Though scarification is done by people all over the world, it is practiced heavily by Sepik River tribes in Papua, New Guinea as part of an initiation ceremony for men. This is only a small part of a ceremony that lasts for weeks and includes public humiliation, but it's ridiculously painful. The elders of the tribe use razor blades to cut the young men all over their bodies in a pattern that closely imitates the rough skin of an alligator. They believe that the alligator will then consume any semblance of a boy left in their bodies, and they will become men.

(Via)

The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular, made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. Archaeological evidence indicates that labrets have been independently invented no fewer than six times, in Sudan and Ethiopia (8700 BC), Mesoamerica (1500 BC), and Coastal Ecuador (500 BC). Today, the custom is maintained by a few groups in Africa and Amazonia.

In Africa, a lower lip plate is usually combined with the excision of the two lower front teeth, and sometimes all four. Among the Sara people and Lobi a plate is also inserted into the upper lip. Other tribes, such as the Makonde, used to wear a plate in the upper lip only. In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching the lip and the wishes of the wearer.

(Link)

The Kayan women of Northern Thailand are known for the exquisite and incredible brass coils they wear around their necks. They are often called the "long necks" or the "giraffe women" by outsiders and can wear up to 25 coils, which many never take off.

Myth has it that the women will break their necks or be unable to support them if the coils are removed but this is simply not true. Maeneng, above, is the matriarch of her village, and while she is the only one to wear 25 coils, she often helps adjust and repair the coils of other women.

Children are often given their first set of coils at age 5. This consists of a set weighing about 4 1/2 pounds, then new rings are slowly added. In actuality, the Kayan women do not have their necks elongated; instead, it works in the other direction. As the weight of the coils press down, the clavicle is lowered, and with each addition to the neck rings it falls further, compressing the rib cage as well. The shoulders finally fall away to give the appearance of an elongated neck.

(Link | Photo)

Read more...

Photos That Will Make You Laugh Hard

Read more...

Most Expensive Rolex Recently Sold for Over $1 Million

The most expensive Rolex ever sold at auction was purchased yesterday at Christie’s Important Watches sale for $1.176 million. According to the auctioneers, Rolex only made twelve of these exquisite timepieces, and only eight of them are known to still exist today. To further emphasize the rarity and exclusivity of this piece, we’ll tell you that only five have ever been sold at auctions.
The 1942 Rolex reference 4113 is part of a special collection of watches that were never meant to be sold on the open market. They were manufactured as gifts to Italian and British race drivers of the time who needed the watches’ chronograph functions to monitor their lap times. So now you understand why ref. 4113 timepieces are the most valuable and most desirable Rolexes in the world.

Read more...

Unbelievable Interactive Projector

Read more...

The Nike shoes, clothing and supplies sports shoes created a wonderful aquarium.

Where they were manufacturing the shoe of glass Alfolaze which can not easily break and put fish Accessories colorful and beautiful inside and can through a hole is closed and opened to feed the fish in Enter the shoe in addition to cleaning and emptying the water in it and put other waters instead to have any oxygen in it and you breathe fish found are included.

The aquarium occupies the soles of the shoe, while the upper part of it is used as a template for it. This shoe was on the Japanese name "Abuku" any "bubble".

The organizers of the Nike explains the relationship between the fish and the air as a microcosm of human life, which is in the earth, nature and the creatures. They also express the hope that people receive boot impressive and make them stop thinking about the natural environment around them false.

Read more...

Liyer Bird - amazing bird that can imitate any sound

Read more...

Diamond and 24k Gold Macbook Pro

There is now a gold plated MacBook Pro available to purchase from Computer Choppers. There are two versions available to buy, a 24kt Gold & Diamonds 15″ Macbook Pro and the 24kt Gold 15″ Macbook Pro.



The 24kt Gold & Diamonds 15″ Macbook Pro comes with 2.2GHz or 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n wireless, up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory with a faster, 800MHz frontside bus, 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB internal drive, internal 8x double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics with 256MB SDRAM, and a 15.4″ TFT display.

The 24 karat gold-plated MacBook Pro comes with its exterior finish in polished 24kt and the interior is satin 24kt gold. Other specs are about the same as that of the 24kt Gold & Diamonds 15″ Macbook Pro.

It’ll cost you $1200-$1500, and take from two to four weeks, but that does include paint matching the keyboard (picture below) and trackpad, and re-etching the keys so the backlight shines through. If you really want to splash out, you can specify a diamond studded logo of your own choosing to replace the glowing apple:

 

Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive will surely wince when they see what Computer Choppers have done to their beautiful machine, but for readers who weigh in on the wrong side of the Taste:Cash ratio, the 24 karat gold plated MacBook Pro might be just the thing.

These very nice MacBook Pros are being sold through Powermax, an Apple authorized reseller. In case, gold is not the what you like, they are taking custom orders as well. The Gold & Diamonds model sells for $8999 while the gold version is priced at $5999.

Read more...

Wildllife on Roads in Africa

Read more...