Portrait with 750 Pairs of Socks

Shanghai-based artist Hong Yi, aka Red known for her unconventional painting materials and methods is back with a portrait of famous Chinese film director Yimou Zhang made of socks. The large-scale monochromatic sock portrait is held together with pins and propped up with bamboo sticks. Using 750 pairs of socks, adding shadow and depth with a black, white, and gray scheme, the artist reproduces the face of one of her favorite directors over the course of three tireless weeks.

Red attributes the reasons for her medium of choice (this time around) to the inspiration she found from a tiny alleyway she came across when she first settled in Shanghai. There were clotheslines made of bamboo sticks hanging various articles of clothing above this fairly narrow path. It surprised her to see such a traditional slice of life in a big and bustling city.

Through her medium inspiration she found a connection to Zhang, who is known to incorporate bamboo sticks into his period films (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) as well as the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. Rather than creating the portrait with t-shirts to echo the hanging laundry, she opted to use socks because they were smaller and more cost effective. We're constantly amazed by Red's innovative expressions and can't wait to see what she has coming up!

The Snack Stadiums

The Snack Stadium. It's fast becoming a Superbowl tradition for parties all over America, and for good reason. Football, beers, and mountains of food are meant to be together... always... And what better way of kicking off that party with enough food to sink a small boat?

New facts that can make your jaw drop !

01. If you are struck by lightning, your skin will be heated to 28,000 degrees Centigrade, hotter than the surface of the Sun.


02. If you trace your family tree back 25 generations, you will have 33,554,432 direct ancestors – assuming no incest was involved.


03. The average distance between the stars in the sky is 20 million miles.


04. It would take a modern spaceship 70,000 years to get to the nearest star to earth.


05. An asteroid wiped out every single dinosaur in the world, but not a single species of toad or salamander was affected. No one knows why, nor why the crocodiles and tortoises survived.


06. If you dug a well to the centre of the Earth, and dropped a brick in it, it would take 45 minutes to get to the bottom – 4,000 miles down.


07. Your body sheds 10 billion flakes of skin every day.


08. The Earth weighs 6,500 million million million tons.


09. Honey is the only food consumed by humans that doesn’t go off.


10. The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.


11. A donkey can sink into quicksand but a mule can’t.


12. Every time you sneeze your heart stops a second.


13. There are 22 miles more canals in Birmingham UK than in Venice.


14. Potato crisps were invented by a Mr Crumm.


15. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in their correct order.


16. Eskimoes have hundreds of words for snow but none for hello.


17. The word “set” has the most definitions in the English language.


18. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating its letters is uncopyrightable.


19. Windmills always turn counter-clockwise.


20. The “Sixth Sick Sheik’s Sixth Sheep’s Sick” is the hardest tongue-twister.


21. The longest English word without a vowel is twyndyllyngs which means "twins".


22. 1 x 8 + 1 = 9; 12 x 8 + 2 = 98; 123 x 8 + 3 = 987; 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876; 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765; 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654; 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543; 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432; 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321


23. The word "dreamt" is the only common word in the English language that ends in "mt".


24. Albert Einstein never wore any socks.


25. The average human will eat 8 spiders while asleep in their lifetime.

Life Cycle of Gym (funny but true!)

The 7 Stages of Going to the Gym' where discovery (that you're fat) in stage one eventually leads you right back to the first stage... where you're still fat.

Friendliest Crocodiles of Paga Ponds in Ghana

Forty kilometres (about 25 miles) from Bolgatanga, along the Burkina Faso border, is Paga, home to the sacred crocodile ponds. These are purportedly the friendliest crocodiles in Ghana, and it is said that the souls of the royal family reside in them. The crocodiles roam freely throughout the ponds and it is unthinkable that anyone should harm them. 

Just for laugh gags ! !