Julia Gnuse - nicknamed the 'illustrated lady' - has 95 per cent of her body covered in ink, ranging from jungle scenes and cartoons to her favourite actors. Miss Gnuse, from California, started getting tattoos on her legs after developing a skin condition called porphyria, which causes the skin to blister when exposed to sunlight.
She then turned her attention to her stomach, arms and back and before long was addicted to body art.
In an interview, Miss Gnuse said although the ink did not stop her skin from blistering, it covered up the scars and allowed her to be exposed to the sun.
'I did this for the reason of covering scarring from the blisters. They get as deep as three degree burn,' she said.
'I had a friend who is a plastic surgeon, who suggested tattooing my skin the same color to the scarring that I had, seeing if we can match my just pale-looking skin that I had.'
'That didn't work. We tried it. It was very difficult to match that. So I had the idea of a colorful tattoo, then I got hooked. I got addicted.'
Miss Gnuse said there was medication available for her condition, but said taking it could have placed her at risk of blindness.
Recently, a tragedy occurred during a bullfight in Madrid, Spain: Well-known bullfighter [matador] Julio Aparicio was gored in the jaw by a heavily injured bull, with the bull’s horn protruding out from Aparicio’s mouth, the scene being extremely horrific.
The environmentally-friendly house was built with straw bale panels and could pave the way for the first housing estate of straw buildings.
After putting the dwelling through its paces, tests confirmed it was 'more than strong enough' to withstand hurricane force winds.
The team, from the University of Bath in Somerset, said the success of the house completely rewrote the famous fairytale involving the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.
The BaleHaus@Bath building was built by industrial partners ModCell to assess the performance of straw as a sustainable building material.
The two-storey building was officially opened by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud last year.
The research team, led by Professor Pete Walker, Director of the University's Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, has been monitoring the house since October last year for thermal performance and humidity level.
The team has now tested the structure of the house for resisting winds of up to 120mph.
It used hydraulic jacks which pushed horizontally against the walls with a total force exceeding four tonnes, equivalent to the dynamic force of a hurricane.
During the tests, the walls moved no more than four millimetres under peak loads, well within design requirements and as predicted.
The researchers will use this data to develop a theoretical computer model of the house to simulate how a three-storey, or even higher, BaleHaus building would withstand such winds.
Professor Pete Walker said: 'Straw is a very environmentally-friendly building material because it is renewable and uses a co-product of farming.
'The crop used to make the straw locks in carbon dioxide as it grows and can be sourced from local farms, saving on transport and minimising the carbon footprint of the building.
'The recent test result is excellent as it has both confirmed the robustness of BaleHaus and validated the computer model, so avoiding the need for further tests and providing basis for safe and efficient structural design.
'We hope the data we're collecting on the BaleHaus will help strengthen the case for the mainstream building industry switching to using more sustainable building materials such as straw.'
Craig White, director of ModCell, said: 'This is a fantastic result. All too often, we are asked whether building with straw is durable.
'Our research at BaleHaus@Bath shows conclusively that building with straw using the ModCell System is not only safe, secure and durable, it is also fit for the 21st century challenge of reducing our CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
'These tests will offer proof that renewable building materials are a realistic option for building on a large scale.
Locals in a small Canadian town have been stumped by the appearance of a bizarre creature, which was dragged from a lake.
The animal, which has a long hairy body with bald skin on its head, feet and face, has prompted wild internet speculation that it is a more evolved version of the famous 'Montauk monster'.
The creature was discovered by two nurses in the town of Kitchenuhmaykoosib in Ontario, Canada, while out on a walk with their dog.
Went to watch Ip Man 2 over the last weekends...
For those who like martial arts movie, this is indeed an interesting movie.
But how much do you know about Ip Man real life story who is also Bruce Lee's Shifu?
Does the movie potrays Ip man real life story? Click here for his biography.
A Master’s gift to the world is his life. By seeing his life or at least by seeing the portrait of his life as painted in the stories of those who knew him, a Master’s life becomes a sketch of a path to Mastery.
From stories shared by his son, this book paints a portrait of the famous Wing Chun Grand Master, Yip Man, providing a set of fifteen principles as a guide to mastery. While there are broad lessons to be learned from this portrait, the details must be savored. Many of the great figures of history are shrouded in the mists of aggrandizement, but here the details, the fine strokes of the portrait, have remained to show the humble seeker something about the life of a Master.
Each chapter provides a principle or set of principles to contemplate. You will be
richly rewarded if you seek to discern the principles and the man who strove to
embody them.
These stories and the principles drawn from them are commended to you for your benefit and learning and enjoyment. Let them guide you in your journey, but do not look for them to tell you every step. In this portrait are great treasures for the taking, but not simply for the asking.
Photos of Ip man
Passport of Ip Man
Ip man practising on a wooden dummy
Ip man practising on a wooden dummy
Ip Man practising with Bruce Lee
Ip Man with Bruce Lee
Close Up shoot of Ip Man with Bruce Lee
Ip Chun (Elder Son) & Ip Ching (Younger Son) - Both are sons of Ip Man
A 2010 Happy Boy southern division contestant Liu Zhu (刘著) are attracting more attentions recently because he went on the show looking just like a girl, wearing heavy makeup, pink stockings and high heels.
Liu Zhu was born in January 9, 1991, 1.68 meters tall from Nanchong, Sichuan province. He is currently a student of Sichuan Conservatory of Music.
Check out this video when she went on the show in front of the judges, she was repeatedly interrupted because one judge just wouldn’t believe that he is a boy. Judge Annie Rose (安妮玫瑰) first asked if his hair was real then asked to see his id, and then even asked to examine his gender.
“I am still suspicious about your identity. Can we examine your gender?”
“How do you examine?”
“Do you choose a male judge or a female judge to verify? I still have doubts about your identity. I think you are a girl.”
“I didn’t lie. Thank you.”
“But I feel if you are lying, you are playing tricks on us and the viewers.”
“I didn’t lie or play tricks on you.”
“Then I hope the netizens will human flesh search you! Can you swear on your dignity?”
“I can swear on it on anything…”
According to the interview after, Liu Zhu has always been this way since he was young. He always dressed this way in everyday life, and his family has already accepted him. “This way is more natural, if I purposely dress like a boy just for this contest, I think it would be very fake.” “I am indeed a boy, and I dress like this every day, but I think everyone has their own choice, their own way of life.”
NIKITA Verevki is an emerging talent in her antive Ukraine. Get a load of those voices.
Verevki is no saddo Lady Gaga in need of fashion gimmicks and oddity.
Verevki just gets down to the naked voice.
The song is a dedicated to Susan Boyle, who has made it possible for a woman like Verevki to strip away the flim-flam and just expose the raw talents of her voice.
A brilliant new Chinese train innovation - get on & off the bullet train without the train stopping. VERY COOL CONCEPT !
No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time. If there are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou , just stopping and accelerating again at each station will waste both energy and time.
A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!
The passenger at a station embarks onto to a connector cabin way before the train even arrives at the station. When the train arrives, it will not stop at all. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on the roof of the train.
While the train is still moving away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin mounted on the train's roof. After fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.
When the train arrives at the next station, it will simply drop the whole connector cabin at the station itself and leave it behind at the station. The outgoing passengers can take their own time to disembark at the station while the train had already left. At the same time, the train will pick up the incoming embarking passengers on another connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof. So the train will always drop one connector cabin at the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof at each station.
A Swedish artist has turned the world on its head by taking images of everyday life and distorting them into mind-boggling works of art.
In one shot a man appears to pick up a tarmac road and drag it behind him like a sheet; in another a young man seems to be ironing his own body.
In all photographs everyday scenes are given quirky twists, offering the viewer a different take on reality.
Erik Johansson, 24, used a computer programme to manipulate his original pictures into mind-boggling pieces of art.
The artist said his crazy ideas just come to him after trying to perceive ordinary events differently.
He sets out with his camera with a concept already in mind, before snapping pictures of everyday situations such as a man cycling along a road.
He then manipulates the images on his computer to create mind-boggling effects.
Mr Johansson utilises the Photoshop programme to bend roads, distort human bodies and change the landscape of the countryside.
In one, a man picks up a road and drags it casually behind him like a sheet.
Another shows a perplexed cyclist staring down a chasm as the street drops off vertically before him.
A third depicts a normal-looking man ironing his own flattened body and another shows a labourer playing naughts and crosses in the road with a digger.
Erik, who lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, said: 'I get inspiration from almost everywhere. I actually get most of the ideas from things that happen in my daily life.
'To look at a situation in a different and unexpected way can sometimes generate ideas but the best ideas I get just come to me.
'Everything I do is very well planned. I almost never go out photographing without any idea about what I will do with the photos.
'Looking for the right place to shoot the photos is actually what takes up most of my time.
'The time required to put the photo together is very different depending on the photos that I have. It mostly takes between 10 to 20 hours, sometimes more.
'I like to change my photos in impossible and strange ways.
'From the beginning I started to modify photos just for fun, and I still think it is.'
What a drag! Sensational photographer Erik Johansson shows a man pick up a road and drag it casually behind him like a sheet
Flat out! A normal-looking man irons his own two-dimensional body
Noughts and Crosses: An idle street worker takes on a digger
The sky's the limit: A labourer lays a reflection on the road
Walking in the air: A dog owner gives her lazy pet a lift with balloons
Something fishy? Much like an iceberg, this island lacks the firmest foundations
Water colours: An art lover sees her painting live up to its name
Out there! A man appears to leap out of an apartment window
