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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/tribe-practices-finger-cutting-as-a-means-of-grieving-2/

Tribe Practices Finger Cutting as a Means of Grieving

In some cultures amputation is a form of mourning. This was especially true of the Dani tribe from Papua, Indonesia. The members of this tribe cut off their fingers as a way of displaying their grief at funeral ceremonies. Along with amputation, they also smeared their faces with ashes and clay, as an expression of sorrow.

It isn’t very surprising to learn that women were mostly subjected to this gruesome ritual. The religious beliefs of the tribe prompted this sort of ritual. If the deceased person was considered to be powerful, it was believed that their spirits would contain equal power too. In order to appease and drive away these spirits, several shocking practices were followed. Girls who were related to the dead had the upper parts of their fingers cut off. Before being cut, the fingers would be tied with a string for over 30 minutes. After the amputation, the finger tips were allowed to dry, before they were burned and the ashes buried in a special area.

Another explanation offered for the finger-cutting ritual is that the physical pain symbolized the suffering and pain due to the loss of a loved one. In such a case, the finger would be cut by a close family member, like the mother, father or a sibling. In a similar bizarre ritual, the tip of the little finger of babies are bitten off by their mothers. This perhaps originated from a time when most newborns died, from several causes. The hope was that by biting off the finger tip, the baby would be different from the others, and would perhaps, live longer.

The practice has been banned in recent years. However, older women of the tribe are often seen with snipped fingers – all five of them.

Photo via Brummel

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/crazy-drinking-habits-teens-drink-bleach-to-pass-drug-tests/

Crazy Drinking Habits: Teens Drink Bleach to Pass Drug Tests

Where there is a will there is a way, they say, and this definitely seems to hold good for teens these days. Especially the ones on drugs. While it is no secret that a vast number of teenagers choose to use illegal substances these days, it is shocking to see the lengths to which they would go, in order to pass a drug test.

Drug testing is common in almost all schools across America. Testing positive could be devastating for kids, because it could mean getting kicked off a sports team or other important events. Students have always devised new methods to pass the test, and the latest according to the Sheriff’s Office of Mobile County, Alabama, is bleach. Yes, teens are actually ingesting bleach in the hope that it will purge any traces of drugs that they have consumed. While there are several products advertised on the internet that claim to help wash away drugs from the system in the form of drinks, chewable tablets, etc., teenagers seem to be throwing caution and common sense to the wind, looking no further than the kitchen sink. According to Sergeant Joe Mahoney, the Sheriff’s office has seen cases where kids have ingested straight bleach that caused significant damage to the body.

Considering the fact that household bleach is strong enough to strip odors, stains and chemicals off fabrics and other surfaces, it’s scary to even think of what it could do inside a human body. Mahoney warns kids that damage to the body organs is all that can be accomplished from the consumption of bleach. Drug testing techniques have gotten quite sophisticated, and there are ways to detect the presence of drugs in the system despite these precautionary measures.

It is shocking to see the extent to which teenagers will go, without regard for their own bodies. As far as drinking bleach is concerned, I wonder how they were able to tolerate the smell long enough to gulp it down!

New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/70-year-old-cyclist-rides-to-france-just-to-buy-his-wife-her-favourite-coffee/

70-year-old cyclist rides to France just to buy his wife her favourite coffee

This 70-year-old cyclist must have done something really bad if he had to ride to France and buy his wife’s favourite coffee to make it up to her.

Or maybe David Pedlow just really loves Jackie and was willing to travel 250-miles to please her.

Yep, that’s the reason and we apologise for our previous cynicism.

Mr Pedlow rode to the rescue when he realised his wife’s Grand Mere coffee, which is only available across the channel, was running out.

After recently losing their car he decided to put his new electric bike to the test.

He set off from the couple’s home in Plymouth, Devon, and cycled the short distance to catch the overnight Brittany Ferry to Roscoff.

After reaching France he travelled a few miles to the hypermarket in Saint-Pol-de-Leon where he stocked up with 30kg of Grand Mere, costing him 166 Euros (£120).

He embarked on the return journey that evening to a delighted Mrs Pedlow.

‘I didn’t go with him because I’m not a good traveller, particularly on the sea,’ she said.

‘I would’ve had to take tablets and it takes me a couple of days to get over taking just one of them.’

The couple, who have one child, have been drinking Grand Mere since 1980.

Source: metro.co.uk

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/girl-without-fingers-creates-beautiful-embroidery-art/

Girl without Fingers Creates Beautiful Embroidery Art

Peng Jiangya lost all of her fingers when she was only a child, after she fell into a flaming fire stove while her parents were away, but that didn’t stop her from finishing school, establishing a family and even creating beautiful art.

Growing up in a small village at the foot of the Fanjing Mountains on China’s Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Peng didn’t have the easiest childhood, but things got even worse after she burnt her hands severely after falling in a flaming fire stove. Her parents were too poor to afford reconstructive surgery, so the young girl had to learn to do everything without any fingers. At first she was unable to use chopsticks, and her parents had to teach her for a long time, but thanks to her strong will and a desire to do everything on her own and not rely on others, she managed to overcome those difficult times and is now capable of taking care of her own family.

She slowly learned how to use what was left of her hands to hold a pen and, with the help of her teachers, managed to finish junior middle school. She married at the age of 18 and soon gave birth to her first child, Now she has a family of 4, but because they all relied on one mule to put food on the table, Peng realized she needed to do something to contribute to the family budget. One day she found herself looking at the vivid colors of a cross-stitch artwork and decided to try it for herself. As you can imagine, handling a needle without fingers is painfully difficult, and the young woman failed numerous times. Still, she never gave up, and although it took her days to complete her first simple embroidery, her stubbornness helped her master the art of cross-stitch.

Nowadays, Peng Jiangya needs less than five seconds to fit a thread through the needle, and many say she’s a lot faster than many normal embroidery artists. It took her around two months to finish a complicated cross stitch work, “Crane standing on a pine tree, symbol of longevity” and is now working on a new complex work of art, called Fortune. “I will finish it, put it in a frame and hung it on the wall of my room, hoping that it would bring good fortune to the family,” Pneg says.

Her village of Yinjiang Tujia has now become a tourist attraction both because her incredible story spread throughout the country, and thanks to the unique natural scenery offered by the Fanjing Mountains.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/woman-tattoos-favorite-rappers-name-on-her-forehead/

Woman Tattoos Favorite Rapper’s Name on Her Forehead

How responsible is a tattoo artist for the strange things that people get tattooed on various parts of their body? This was the very question that Kevin Campbell faced this week, when he helped a woman get her favorite rapper’s name tattooed on her forehead.

While the name or identity of the woman remains unknown, her pictures have been circulating the internet and have turned viral. This woman has done the unthinkable, even for die-hard fans. She apparently wanted to show off her love for Drake, the Canadian rapstar, so she got his name etched in a place that no one could miss. The photographs themselves were taken by Kevin’s manager and co workers from Will Rise, the L.A. tattoo shop. A close-up shot shows that the woman has shaved off her hair and eyebrows. Kevin confirms this. He says that she came in to the shop that way, asking specifically for the tattoo to be made on her forehead. She had even picked out the font beforehand. According to Kevin, she seemed to be a little high, but pretty sure of  what she wanted. But when the tattoo job was nearing completion, she seemed to have lost a bit of her enthusiasm.

He did lose a night’s sleep after making the tattoo, afraid he’d be called  the a-hole who tattooed “DRAKE” on some drug addict’s forehead.  But he does feel that he’s done the best he could to prevent her from going ahead with it. Kevin says he’ll ask his clients three times if they are sure they think it’s a good idea, and also tell them about the potential consequences of getting a tattoo on the face. Beyond that, it’s up to the customer to take the decision. He does admit though, that he had the choice to turn her away, and didn’t take it. And for that, Kevin’s already facing a lot of criticism from other tattooers. Well, the deed is done, and quite irreversibly at that. Apparently the woman only got the outline done, and didn’t have enough money to pay for the filling. But she’s assured the folks at Will Rise that she’ll be back for more.

Story via Vice

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/10-year-old-girl-is-worlds-youngest-sake-expert/

10-Year-Old Girl Is World’s Youngest Sake Expert

Akane Niikura, 10, has passed the Sake Institute of Japan’s expert test even though she’s 10 years too young to even taste the traditional rice wine.

Akane was already considered a child prodigy in Japan, for her cooking skills, but now that she’s an official sake expert, her notoriety is expected to grow even more. Although it will be around 10 years before she is allowed to taste sake, the 10-year-old connoisseur can already tell what dish will complement a certain variety of sake, simply by smelling it and observing the way it clings to the glass. Her small nose proved so accurate an instrument that the Sake Institute of Japan had to acknowledge Akane Niikura as a sake expert, after she passed their tests without drinking a drop of rice wine.

As the daughter of a sake bar owner, Akane was always around different types of rice wines from various regions of Japan, and in time managed to tell them apart and learn what foods they best go with. After school, this amazing fourth-grader helps her mom in the bar by recommending sake to customers. Most of them seem pleased with her choices and that’s when the little girl feels happiest. When she grows up, she wants to be a sake bar owner, just like her mother.

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/guy-has-over-10000-urls-tattooed-on-his-body/

Guy Has over 10,000 URLs Tattooed on His Body

Pat Vaillancourt is the current record holder for the most web addresses tattooed on his body, with over 10,000 URL’s inked on his back and shoulders. That sounds like a lot, but he’s not stopping until his body is covered by 100,000 website addresses.

In 2010, 30-year-old Vaillancourt, from Quebec, Canada, decided he wanted to set a world record of his own, and because he wasn’t an athlete and he couldn’t do extreme stunts, he chose tattooing as the way to leave his mark on the world. “I want to break a Guinness World Record, but more importantly, I want to help others. And this is my way of doing so,” he said back then. People and businesses can pay $35 to have their URL tattooed on Pat’s body and listed on his website, Back2thelight.com, with half the proceeds being donated to help the people of Haiti and Somalia. Vaillancourt says the other half is used to pay for his tattoos and promote the project. If my calculations are correct, he hopes to ultimately raise $3.5 million, including expenses.

This unusual project wasn’t Pat’s first idea of making the world a better place. He first started a website asking people to donate $10 for the Haiti Relief Fund, but that didn’t work out very well. Still he kept thinking of ways to raise money, and when he woke up one day he got this unusual idea that would allow him to reach his goal and set a new world record at the same time. He plans to have the first layer of 50,000 web addresses tattooed in black ink, and the other half tattooed in fluorescent ink that should make him very noticeable in nightclubs. He’s currently nearing the 15,000 tattooed URLs mark, and claims over 16,000 companies have already reserved a spot on his body. His friend, a tattoo artist, takes between 1 hour – hour and a half to execute 100 URLs, so Vaillancourt says the project will be completed in 10,000 – 12,000 work hours. When it’s done, Pat will be covered in URLs from his neck to his ankles.

Pat Vaillacourt is also accepting Facebook and Twitter profile URLs, so if you want yours inked into his skin and listed on his site, all you have to do is fork out 35 bucks. At least half of it will go to a good cause.

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/crocodile-gets-beauty-treatment-for-annual-mating-season/

Crocodile Gets Beauty Treatment for Annual Mating Season

Businesses would go any lengths to gain publicity. Even if it means attempting to beautify a crocodile. A day spa in Darwin, Australia has had its employees do just that.

As unbelievable as it may seem, this croc-makeover has happened for real. Or so the pictures suggest. The Parap Day Spa recently managed to acquire the saltwater creature from a crocodile research center in Darwin. According to the spa, their staff then spent hours exfoliating the crocodile, giving it a mani-pedi and a proper bikini wax. A few pictures reveal a limp crocodile surrounded by a bunch of enthusiastic women, attacking it with gloves, waxing strips and nail-polish.

The most obvious question that comes to mind is, “Why?” Why on earth would someone want to provide spa services to a crocodile, beauty being the least of its concerns. Apparently, the spa was engaged in an attempt to show off their skills. Fair enough, after crocodile scales, exfoliating human skin must seem like child’s play.

Another reason quoted by spa manager Louanne Grasmeder for the bizarre grooming session was the upcoming crocodile mating season. “Breeding season is just around the corner, and we want her to look  her best,” she said. “The lengths we go for training,” added staff member Jamillah Allen.

All said and done, the spa is earning quite a bit of publicity over its endeavors. Which was probably what it was all about in the first place. In fact, a closer look at pictures reveals that the staff might be posing, as opposed to actually being at work. The hair on one of the waxing strips does not seem to have come off the crocodile at all. Not very convincing.

We only hope the crocodile didn’t have to suffer too much. Whether it had a relaxing day at the spa or not, is something we will never know.

Source: Parap Day Spa

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/woman-destroys-a-65000-car-because-its-allegedly-too-small-as-pedestrians-watch-strange-scene/

Woman destroys a £65,000 car because it's allegedly too small as pedestrians watch strange scene

A £65,000 car is something that most people can only dream about, so why was this woman smashing hers up?

Most of us would be overwhelmed and surprised if we received a car as an unsolicited gift.

However, this woman, seen in the clip destroyed a car that her husband bought her because it was too small.

According to Yahoo, the angry woman smashed up the car because it was too small for family use.

The clip shows the woman battering the vehicle with an unknown object as confused pedestrians look on.

The car is thought to be an Audi Q7, worth about $100,000 or just over £65,000.

The clip, which was uploaded to LiveLeak, has been viewed over 57,000 times and attracted comments such as: “I got socks for Christmas, I wanted something more but I didn’t smash them up” and “entitled b****”.

Another user said: “More like found out her husband was cheating” speculating on why she was damaging such an expensive car.

Source: mirror.co.uk

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/vietnamese-man-still-sleeps-with-his-dead-wife/

Vietnamese Man Still Sleeps with His Dead Wife

Le Van, the man who made headlines two years ago after it was discovered he had been sleeping with his dead wife for five years, has confirmed he is still sleeping with his beloved, and authorities can’t do anything to stop him.

The story about Le Van’s bizarre sleeping habit broke out at the end of 2009. Vietnamese papers posted photos of a man sleeping with a human-shaped gypsum statue that contained the body of his dead wife. we covered the story, but long story short, the man couldn’t cope with the loss of his soul mate so he dug up her remains, put them inside the statue and continued sharing a bed with her. It was one of the strangest news of 2009, but I was sure that once word got out, local authorities would somehow convince Le Van to bury the remains of his beloved wife. I was wrong.

Reporters from the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper recently visited Le Van’s house in Quang Nam, and were surprised to find the creepy gypsum statue containing the remains of his wife still on their bed. The 57-year-old man said he sleeps with his dead wife to train to return to his previous incarnation. “I was not a human being in my previous incarnation. I committed a sin in my previous incarnation, so I must be a human being in this incarnation. In this incarnation I have to train myself to return to the previous incarnation,” That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, and neither does allowing his little boy to share a house with his mother’s bones encased in gypsum.

Apparently, the local government urged Le Van to bury his wife’s bones after media reported his story in 2009, but he simply refused and they don’t have the power to force him. He clearly didn’t pay much attention to the “till death do us part” part of their wedding ceremony.

Source: vietnamnet

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/swedish-church-uses-techno-music-to-attract-the-young/

Swedish Church Uses Techno Music to Attract the Young

A church in Stockholm, Sweden turned into a 90s disco, during a techno Mass priests hope will draw young people closer to religion.

Instead of listening to the sermon and praying silently, the congregation inside the All Saints Church, in Stockholm were throwing their hands in the air, busting dance moves and singing to the lyrics of music, during the second ever techno Mass organized by the Swedish church. Special lighting installations, the techno sounds and raving crowd made the place look more like a dance club than a place of worship, but priests of the Lutheran church say this was just a successful attempt of making religion and attending church interesting for young people.

Olle Idestrom organized the first techno Mass in April, and although during Sunday services several pews remain empty, they had to turn away people, for lack of space. This time they had extra seating in the church which has a normal capacity of 400, and feedback was mainly positive. “It was super fun; it was really kicking. I didn’t think it would be this good before I came. The church isn’t really my kind of thing, but after this, it seems like it is great,” said Ella Schwarz, 15. Everyone who attended seemed to have a good time and this made the priests hope some will even start attending normal services.

It might be a little difficult to take in, especially if you’re a very religious person, but the church in Sweden isn’t governed by the same rules as the Catholic Church. It has become increasingly progressive during the last 50 years, allowing women to become priests and even ordaining an openly gay bishop. Unusual services like the techno Mass are just a further development on the road to progress. Still, over the last 10 years, membership in Sweden’s Lutheran church has fallen 13 percent and attendance at regular Sunday services plunged 50 percent to 4.6 million visits last year. “People say this is exactly what the Church of Sweden needs,” Idestrom said. “We need to develop the services so that we have a service also for people, mainly from the younger generation, who like this kind of music,” he says. Apparently Sweden already has a hip-hop Mass, a rock Mass and a Jazz Mass, but club music is the country’s favorite so it seemed like the natural choice for All Saints Church.

Of course, not everyone approves of such extravagant events. Some believe there are plenty of entertainment venues around Sweden, and that the church should “remain a place for quiet contact with spirituality.”

Source: Huffington Post

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/incredibly-talented-artist-paints-with-her-lips/

Incredibly Talented Artist Paints with Her Lips

Natalie Irish is one of those artists who doesn’t need to use her hands to create mind-blowing masterpieces. Like someone said, she has more talent in her lips than most do in their entire body.

You probably haven’t seen Natalie’s art before, neither had I, and that’s a real shame because she creates some pretty original stuff. Using only her lips and a lipstick, she creates detailed portraits, like the one of Marilyn Monroe, pictured below.  The Houston-based artist simply puckers her lips and kisses the paper canvas thousands of times, until she gets the desired result.

Get ready for the coolest thing you’ll see all day:

Source: Youtube

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/this-festival-of-the-dead-might-seem-strange-to-you-but-its-touchingly-beautiful/

This Festival Of The Dead Might Seem Strange To You, But It's Touchingly Beautiful

All cultures have a way of celebrating the ones who have passed away. It might be funerals, it might be simply telling stories, or it might be the huge holiday we in the U.S. know as Halloween. But few come as close to the dead as the Ma’Nene festival that takes place in the Tana Toraja province of Sulawesi, Indonesia, where people spend quality time with their deceased loved ones — quite literally.

Ma’Nene is a festival of ancestor worship. When a person dies, their body is mummified using natural ingredients and buried in rock graves. This preservation allows for the family to come back and visit each year.

The festival, which has no set date but is usually held in late August, allows people to revisit their loved ones. This woman is having an emotional moment over the casket of her late husband.

But it goes further than just seeing the caskets.

The mummified bodies are removed from their coffins and lovingly tended to. This includes cleaning the bodies, removing their old clothes and giving them new ones.

Some of the bodies are even propped up so the family can gather around them, just as they would when the person was alive.

Looking into the face of death like this isn’t seen as scary or sad, but rather as a way to connect with death — and transcend it.

This mummy is especially heartrending — it’s a baby.

Dust and debris are removed from the body, and then the bodies are dressed. Their personal effects, like this man’s glasses, are kept, as well.

The photos you see here were taken by photographer Paul Koudounaris, who specializes in capturing the way different cultures approach, deal with, and celebrate death. This festival might seem macabre to people from other cultures, but to the people in Tana Toraja, it’s a heartfelt expression of a love that even death can’t conquer. “To the villagers it is sign of the love they still share for those who have passed on but are still present spiritually,” he explains. “It is a way of showing them respect by letting them know that they are still members of the family group, and still hold an important place in local society.”

Many people think looking into a face like this is frightening, but to the people in Tana Toraja, these are still the faces of their beloved relatives.

Ma’Nene might seem strange, maybe even distasteful, to those outside of this culture. But in a society that seeks to get as far away from death as possible, it’s refreshing to see people embrace and celebrate it so readily.

You can see more of Koudounaris’ photography on his website and Facebook page, where you can also learn about the ways people all around the world honor their dead.

Source: viralnova

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/turkish-doctors-use-islamic-music-as-medicine/

Turkish Doctors Use Islamic Music as Medicine

A group of doctors at the Memorial Hospital in Instanbul, Turkey, have started using traditional Islamic music as complementary treatment for various illnesses.

Using music as therapy might sound strange in an age where medicine is relying more and more on science and technology, but the benefits of musical treatments have been known for almost 1,000 years. The makam, a musical mode unique to traditional Arabic and Turkish music, was used in Islamic medicine as early as the 9th century, when philosopher al-Farabi cataloged the effects of different musical modes on the human body and mind. Makam defines the pitches, patterns and development of a certain musical piece and the different tone scales must be largely played by ear.

Doctors at Istanbul’s Memorial Hospital are convinced different makams have positive  psychological and physiological effects on their patients. Dr. Eroll Can discovered musical therapy while working at a hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, where they used a tape recorder and headphones, but after he immigrated to Turkey in 1996, he started using live instruments and noticed the effects were even more significant. Now he, along with professor Bingur Sonmez and Mehmet Susam are masters of traditional instruments like the ney (Turkish flute), yayli tan bur (Ottoman violin) and the guitar.

But treating patients with music isn’t as easy as you might think, especially since not all makams have the same effect. “There are makamlar that agitate, and there are makamlar that relax.” Sonmez says. “The so-called rast makami has a positive effect if a patient suffers from anorexia, whereas the hicaz makami should be played if a patient needs to be kept on a diet. A restaurant that plays music in the hicaz mode would probably go out of business after a while, because it keeps customers from eating.”

he doctors wanted to clarify that they are not using makams as an alternative to contemporary treatments, but as complementary therapy. Ten minutes of live music will lower a patient’s heart rate and blood pressure without having to prescribe additional medicine.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/rolf-buchholz-the-most-pierced-man-in-the-world/

Rolf Buchholz – The Most Pierced Man in the World

Rolf Buchholz, from Dortmund, Germany has a total of 453 studs and rings all over his body, and has recently been acknowledged by Guinness as the most pierced man in the world.

The 52-year-old computer expert discovered the world of piercing 11 years ago, and loved it so much that he has since then had 453 piercings in various parts of his body. Looking at him, you’d probably think most of them are  on his head and face, but you’d be wrong. Rolf has 94 piercings in and around his lips, 25 in his eyebrows, 8 in his nose, and a whopping 278 in his genital area. I don’t need to see it to believe it, but I wonder how he managed to fit that many in such a small area. Apart from his passion for piercings, Bucholz also has a thing for tattoos, and sports a full body suit that covers his entire torso and limbs.

Although he has more piercings than any other man in the world, Rolf Bucholz has a long way to go if he wants to become the most pierced person in the world, seeing as Elaine Davidson, the most pierced woman in the world, sport almost 7,000 piercings all over her body. Rolf, along with several other record holders has been featured in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of Records, available now for $28.95.

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/worlds-only-dog-chapel-faces-shutdown-due-to-unpaid-debts/

World’s Only Dog Chapel Faces Shutdown Due to Unpaid Debts

Created by artist Stephen Huneck as a place where people of all religions could celebrate the spiritual connection they have with their dogs, the famous Dog Chapel of Vermont is now in danger of being closed down due to unpaid property taxes.

Stephen Huneck loved dogs for as far as he could remember, but growing up in a family with seven children, he couldn’t afford to get one of his own. That all changed when he became an adult, and the special bond between him and his dogs was never stronger than when he came out of the hospital, following a two-month coma caused by a serious fall, 14 years ago. His four legged friends stood by his side as he learned to walk again. They would go into the forests to walk on trails and the dogs walked two feet in front of him and always looked after him and waited for him to catch up. The dog’s behaviour during this time really moved him and he felt like he was in the hands of God’s helpers…Stephen truly believed “dogs make us better people” and that “they can teach us more about love than most relationships we enter into”.

In 2000, Stephen Huneck and his wife Gwen opened the Dog Chapel – a special church that celebrated the special relationship between man and dog – in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and people from all around the world started making their pilgrimage to the 150-acre property known as Dog Mountain. They walked their dogs on the green fields surrounding the chapel , and paid their respects to lost pets by posting thousands of tributes (photos and notes) on the chapel’s walls. Dog Mountain and Dog Chapel were always non-profit ventures, and Stephen’s only income came form selling dog-inspired artworks, but when the recession came in 2008, business went sour and they couldn’t pay proerty taxes anymore. Then Stephen Huneck died two years ago and Gwen has been fighting to keep Dog Chapel alive ever since.

In July of this year the amount of unpaid property taxes amounted to $50,000 and the local authority threatened to sell Dog Mountain. Gwen organized a marathon sale of her husband’s artworks that could save Stephen’s legacy, and managed to raise $20,000 in donations and sold artworks. Now she has to come up with another $35,000 before the authorities’deadline. ‘I am still in a state of grief but it is nice to know just how much Stephen and Dog Mountain is loved. It has given me a purpose in life to keep Dog Mountain open and I am now planning to make the place into a charity so that people can enjoy it after I’m gone. Stephen’s vision was to bring dogs and people closer to nature in these beautiful surroundings. But he also wanted to give people a place where they could come to grieve the loss of a pet.’

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New Post has been published on http://www.weirdlife.com/pizza-rat-goes-viral-after-being-filmed-carrying-massive-slice-down-subway-steps/

'Pizza Rat' goes viral after being filmed carrying massive slice down subway steps

This is the incredible moment that a small rat manages to carry a massive slice of pizza down the steps – becoming an internet hit.

#PizzaRat began trending on Twitter after the bizarre footage emerged last night.

It was filmed by Matt Little, a New Yorker who was on his way home from work after a long day.

And when he spotted the hungry creature, he knew he had to film it.

He told BuzzFeed News: “It’s all a metaphor for living in New York. You have too far to go and too much carry. But life gives you as much as you can handle.”

Mr Little was at the 1st Avenue stop on the L train when he filmed the spectacular moment.

“There were only about 5 or 6 people on the platform,” he added.

“And we were coming down the stairs, me and my friend Pat, and we noticed it. If you watch on the video, you can hear him say to the rat ‘Live your best life’.

“He pulled it down a couple of steps before I even started filming,” he said.

“This was a real journey.”

Source: mirror.co.uk

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