You might have a hard time trying to spot the creature in a few of these photos, but that’s because the Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko is a master of disguise. All 9 cm of the gecko literally looks exactly like a leaf, right down to the grungy, dead leaf tail. And those eyes! Guess that’s where the “Satanic” part of its name comes from! The creature has small crests over his glassy eyes that give him a menacing look. Some Satanic Leaf-tailed Geckos even have red eyes which i’m sure really freak other animals out when all they think they had been looking at was a leaf to begin with.



 


 

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Archaeologists have discovered the missing head of one of the two marble sphinxes guarding a huge Macedonian tomb under excavation in Amphipolis, Greece.
The statue's head has wavy hair that falls to its left shoulder, and it bears traces of red paint, according to an update yesterday (Oct. 21) from the Greek Ministry of Culture. Excavators also found fragments of the broken wings from the pair of sphinxes that stand at the entrance of the tomb.
Enclosed by a marble wall 1,600 feet (490 m) in perimeter, the monumental burial mound at Amphipolis in northern Greece could be the largest of its kind in the Greek world. The archaeologists leading the ongoing excavation have not yet determined who is buried in the tomb (or if it is even intact), but they have said they believe the complex dates back to the fourth century B.C., during the era of Alexander the Great.

The head belonged to the eastern sphinx (at right) guarding the entrance to the Amphipolis tomb.

 

The excavators don't expect to find Alexander the Great's long-lost grave inside the tomb, as historical records indicate the Macedonian empire-builder died in Babylon and was buried in Alexandria. But dig leader Katerina Peristeri told reporters last week that whoever was buried there must have been "extremely important."
The dig attracted widespread attention after the headless sphinxes at the entrance to the tomb were revealed in August. As the archaeologists have probed deeper into the tomb's soil-filled inner chambers, they've made some remarkable discoveries. Last week they uncovered an elaborate floor mosaic made from colorful pebbles arranged to show the Greek goddess Persephone being whisked away to the underworld by Hades in a chariot drawn by a pair of white horses. The messenger god Hermes is also present in the figurative scene wearing his signature broad-brimmed hat.



The newly revealed sphinx head was missing part of its nose, but was otherwise quite intact. It was found beyond the floor mosaic, in the fourth chamber of the tomb, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture. In Greek art, sphinxes typically have the body of a lion, the wings of a bird and the head of a woman. In the face, the sphinx somewhat resembles the larger-than-life, intricately carved caryatids discovered in the Amphipolis tomb a few weeks ago. The caryatids — female statues that take the place of columns or pillars — flank the doorway of the second entrance to the tomb. read more →

Love can take many forms, but I never thought it could take the forms presented here. We will see 10 Most Weirdest marriages collected from world, in which, human not only married animal, but also objects like Eiffel Tower, Berlin Wall and fairground ride. And of course, such marriages as are allowed by tradition, or within a culture, are often symbolic or ritual, rather than the more usual recognition of a relationship.
1. Man marries cat
A postman in Germany has married his black-and-white cat. The blushing ‘bride’ even dressed in white for the biggest day of her nine lives – although an actress had to play the registrar after stunned officials refused to carry out the ceremony.

   


2. Woman with objects fetish marries Eiffel Tower
Erika La Tour Eiffel, 37, a former soldier who lives in San Francisco, has been in love with objects before. But it is the Eiffel Tower she has pledged to love, honor and obey in an intimate ceremony attended by a handful of friends. She has changed her name legally to reflect the bond.

3. Man marries himself  This one happened in China, 2007. A man and his photo in woman’s costume get married with the witness of more than 100 friends and relatives.

4. Woman married to Berlin Wall for 30 years Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, 54, whose surname means Berlin Wall in German, wed the concrete structure in 1979.

5. Man in Japan weds anime game character  A man named Sal9000 married the love of his life in November, 2009. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, and she lives inside of a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus. The wedding took place during a Make: Japan meet-up held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

6. Woman getting married to fairground ride Miss Wolfe, 33, from Pennsylvania, will change her surname to Weber after the manufacturer of the ride she travels 160 miles to visit 10 times per year, according to reports.

7. Woman marries dolphin  Sharon Tendler said Cindy (dolphin) was love at first sight. She finally took the plunge and proposed in January, 2006. The lucky “guy” plunged right back.
In a modest ceremony at Dolphin Reef in the southern Israeli port of Eilat, Tendler, a British citizen, apparently became the world’s first person to “marry” a dolphin.

8. Woman marries snake  A woman, Bimbala Das, who claimed to have fallen in love with a snake got married to the reptile as per Hindu rituals in India. Bimbala said: “Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way. Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the Cobra lives, it (the snake) always comes out to drink.”
When Bimbala disclosed her idea of marrying a snake, villagers reportedly appreciated it saying the marriage will bring good fortune to the area. They also came forward to offer a grand feast for those who came to attend the marriage.

9. Women marries her dog  An African woman, Emily Mabou, of Aburi, Ghana, married her 18-month-old dog in a ceremony this week attended by a priest and local villagers.

10. Man marries pillow  Lee Jin-gyu’s beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the ‘magical girl’ anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. Lee is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere. He has wed the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest.

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Clever Hand Painting

 

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Today we travel outside the US to explore the lip plate, a form of body modification that’s still practiced in Africa among a few indigenous tribes, particularly in the central and southern part of the continent, as well as among some tribes in the Amazon rain forest. Women from the Mursi tribe in southwestern Ethiopia are particularly notable for this practice because their village has turned into a tourist attraction for Westerners to come and get their gawk on.
The lip plate is made out of wood or clay and is also known as a lip disc or a lip plug. The term “labret” is associated with any kind of lip piercing ornament, including lip plates. Archeologists have discovered evidence of women adorned with labrets in Sudan and Ethiopia (≈8700 bc) and in various countries in South America (≈1500 bc), including coastal Ecuador (≈500 bc).
It is uncertain how this bizarre custom came into being. One theory is that lip plating originated as a deliberate disfigurement designed to make women and young girls less attractive to slave traders. Some researchers claim that the size of the lip plate (the bigger the better) was a sign of social importance or wealth within the tribe. Another analysis indicated that the bigger the size of the lip plate, the bigger the dowry a bride would receive on her wedding day. For example, the larger the lip plate, the greater number of cows the bride’s father can demand in his daughter’s dowry. But some researchers dispute this theory, arguing that marriage of most tribal girls, as well as the size of their dowries, is prearranged long before their lips are cut. Others suggest that lip plating is simply an ornamentation meant to symbolize a woman’s strength and self-esteem. The practice is also described as being a sign of social maturity and reaching reproductive age, thus indicating a girl’s eligibility to become a wife.

The objectification of African tribal women wearing lip plates marks an unfortunate practice in the history of the US. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, African woman wearing large lip plates were brought to Europe and North America for exhibit in circuses as sideshow freaks. In the 1930s, for example, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus promoted the viewing of female members of a tribe originating from near the Ubangi River in central Africa, popularizing the derogative term "Ubangi lipped."

In actually, most tribes consider an enormous lip plate a traditional sign of beauty. It’s a different story for tribal men. For example, in some Amazonian tribes, young males traditionally have their lips pierced as a rite of passage and to indicate status and prestige. In the Kayapo tribe, an indigenous Brazilian group from the plain islands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, senior tribal men wear saucer-like discs up to 8 inches wide; the largest lip plate is worn by the tribe’s great orator and leader, Chief Raoni.
The lip-plating ritual varies from tribe to tribe. The Mursi of Ethiopia adorn their lower lips; some tribes insert lip plates in their upper lips, while other tribes insert lip plates in both the upper and lower lips.

Here’s how it works for women. In some tribes, an initial lip plate is inserted at puberty. In other tribes, the first lip plate is inserted 6 to 12 months prior to the girl’s marriage. Other tribes perform the inaugural insertion when a tribal girl reaches the age of 15 or 16. The ritual is performed by the girl’s mother, a kinswoman, or another woman in her settlement. The process is quite simple but it’s really not so much fun for the girl. A small hole is cut into the girl’s lip. Typically, 2 lower teeth are removed as well; some tribes extract 4 lower teeth. A small circular wooden or clay disc is inserted into the hole in order to stretch it. After the cut heals, the initial disc is replaced with increasingly larger discs, making the hole in the lip bigger and bigger until a desired size is reached and the final plate is put in place. For tribal woman, it’s usually a little over 4 inches wide. The lip-stretching process could last a year, depending on how wide the final plate is; this technique is similar to earlobe stretching (also known as gauging). The girls often craft their own plates and include personal ornamentation. The tribe typically celebrates the installation of the first plate with a feast.
It’s rumored that in contemporary culture, Mursi girls 13 to 18 years of age may make their own decision as to whether or not to wear a lip plate. Recently, some tribal women have been refusing to have their lips pierced because the process of removing their lower teeth can be traumatizing.
Check out this amazing video of an African tribal woman with huge lip plates drinking water from a bowl:

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Body piercing in the Western world has evolved considerably in recent decades. Pierced ears led to multiple ear piercings, which forged the way for belly button and nose piercings, which helped to popularize eyebrow piercings as well as lip, chin, and tongue studs. Standard shapes for jewelry have included beads and barbells. But certain body modification aficionados have taken body piercing to a new level of “whoa!” These gals and guys are now into what they’re calling body armor. Simply put, it’s body piercing taken to the extreme.
Typically, body armor complements folks who have tribal tattoos, we’re guessing, to make them look more fierce, or elegant, depending on your point of view. It’s a hybrid of tattoos and body piercing that creates a 3-D effect with shiny flashes protruding from tattooed skin. This type of 3-D body art is the ultimate form of self-expression in order to stand out in a society soaked with millions of its people sporting run-of-the-mill tattoos. Advocates feel it’s quite an enchanting extreme.


 
Machined Metal Tattoo Enhancements
Sculpted metal forms forged in the shape of tribal warrior symbols (similar in shape and style to tribal tattoo designs) are manufactured specifically for body piercing purposes and are readily available for enthusiastic participants. How it’s done is slightly different from the normal earlobe piercing a teenager might get in a mall, where the routine process is to quickly shoot an earring post through the earlobe using a piercing gun.


 
Body armor piercing is more of a clinical art form because the finished product needs to be aesthetically pleasing. The technical name for the procedure is surface piercings. Surface piercings are performed on flat areas of the body and are much less invasive than transdermal or subdermal implants, which are more extreme forms of body art.


 
The piercing needles used in the procedure are made of surgical steel and are specially designed to pierce the flesh and cause the least amount of pain. These types of needles promote faster healing and come in a variety of gauges; the smaller the gauge number, the larger the needle. Body armor piercings are usually never below 12 gauge. (In comparison, nostril and lip piercings are performed using a 14- to-16-gauge needle.) Gauge size selection is crucial to help prevent implanted body armor migration or pieces of armor tearing away from the skin; larger-size gauges can help with this possible post-op problem. To also help prevent such occurrences, the needles used for body piercing, in general, are extremely sharp with laser-cut precision edges that cut cleanly through the skin without much tear or pull. These hollow needles actually cut a tiny hole cleanly through the skin being pierced without bruising flesh or skin.
Some body piercers clamp the skin with forceps to secure and steady the area to be pierced; others use their fingers to pinch as they puncture. If a client seems to be flinching, surgical pliers can be used to keep the skin in place before piercing. A cork backing beneath the pieces of body armor can add a touch of comfort before and after the process. Once the needle is removed, the armor jewelry is put into place immediately.
Then, with their body armor securely in place, these body mod enthusiasts are ready for battle!

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