Inside the Vicious World of Competitive Yoga

Posted by Miss Cellania in Sports on October 28, 2009 at 12:32 pm

The 7th Annual Asana Yoga Competition was recently held in New York. New York Magazine has a glimpse at the extreme poses competitors used to impress the judges. Link -via Buzzfeed

 
Comment (10)    Permalink   Please share:  email this         

Neatorama Shop » Home & Garden » Kitchen Gadgets
See more Kitchen Gadgets »

The Sunflower Boy

Posted by Miss Cellania in Baby & Kids on October 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm

7-year-old Wyatt Wilke was looking forward to entering his best sunflower in a competition at the Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana.

“He loved growing his sunflowers,” said his mother, Cathleen Wilke. “Every year we talked about coming into La Porte for the Sunflower Fair, but we never got around to it. Wyatt really wanted to be part of the contest.”

That’s what they had planned — a day at the fair, to enter his sunflower. He was a healthy, constantly laughing boy — he loved school, where he was in the second grade, he loved horses, he loved his big brother John, with whom he shared a bedroom. The Wilkes lived in the tiny town of Hamlet, about 15 minutes from La Porte; Wyatt would look out the back window, watching for blue jays and cardinals.

“He planted his sunflowers in our garden,” Cathleen Wilke said. “He was so careful with them. A few weeks before the fair, there was a heavy windstorm that knocked his biggest sunflower over. He called to me: ‘Mom, it’s on the ground — my flower, it’s down.’ He was afraid it was ruined. But he managed to save it.”

But a bacterial infection struck Wyatt and he died in just a few days. His stunned parents realized the fair had started the same day he died and took Wyatt’s sunflower to the competition, just as he had planned. They had never been to the Sunflower Fair before.

They waited together as all the categories were judged. No one around them had any idea.

And then, through the loudspeaker system at the fair, the winner of his category was announced:

“First place. . .Wyatt Wilke.”

There is more to the story, but you’d better have your handkerchief ready if you go read it. Link -via Fark

 
Comment (14)    Permalink   Please share:  email this         


Boxers Before and After Fights

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Sports on September 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm

This series of photographs by Howard Schatz won a second place prize in the Sports Stories category of the World Press Photo Contest. He took pictures of boxers before and after fights. It hurts just to look! Also be sure to check out other contest winners. Link -via J-Walk Blog

 
Comment (7)    Permalink   Please share:  email this         


Winning Weiners

Posted by Miss Cellania in Food & Drinks on July 5, 2009 at 11:22 am


The Minneapolis StarTribune hosted their first annual Hot Dog Dressing Contest for Independence Day. The weiner winners included the pictured entry entitled “Dog Gone” by Mel Ferrer and Joanne Haas. You can see all the dressed dogs in their slide show. Link -via Buzzfeed

 
Comment (4)    Permalink   Please share:  email this         


The Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008 Competition Winners

Posted by Queuebot in Blog & Internet, Pictures on June 6, 2009 at 1:17 pm

It may have taken some time to decide them, but the last votes have been cast and the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008 has been chosen.  This extraordinary set of images certainly puts to rest the notion that the best pictures on the internet are always copyrighted by their owners.


Photo credit: T. Nathan Mundhenk (personal website)

4chan has animated gifs of a certain kind but the ones on Wikimedia are of a completely different ilk aka education. This amazing gif shows the transformation of the cicada from its pupa to the adult form. Although the whole process took over two hours there is a gap in the middle of about thirty minutes while the cicada took a rest from the strenuous activity of becoming an adult. Other than that gap the shots are at intervals of thirty seconds and this builds up beautifully in to a record of one insect’s emergence.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

 
Comment (15)    Permalink   Please share:  email this         

Neatorama Shop » Shop by Character & Theme » Bacon Store
See more stuff from the Bacon Store »

World Beard Champion

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on May 25, 2009 at 11:05 am

David Traver of Anchorage, Alaska won the World Beard Championship on Saturday with his 20.5 inch beard. 300 competitors were in Anchorage for the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships, and about half were competing for the beard award. Traver’s beard was dyed several colors and woven into a snowshoe shape.

With his beard stylist, Ledjha Carson, Traver months ago started brainstorming a beard shape that was “out of the box,” he said. They considered eagle wings, moose antlers and a sled dog team before settling on the snowshoe. It took Carson 90 minutes to weave it the day of the competition.

“She wanted it right. She was very meticulous,” he said. “But my neck is still stiff.”

Traver, who is 43 and works as a driver for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, got into facial hair competition locally about 10 years ago with the Mr. Fur Face competition during Fur Rendezvous. After that, he got involved with the South Central Alaska Beard and Moustache Club, which bid to bring the international championships to Anchorage this year — beating out Liechtenstein. He dedicated his win to his father, David Traver, who died in September

Traver is willing to shave off his award-winning beard to raise money for his favorite charity, Covenant House. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: ACVB / Rebecca Coolidge)

 
Comment (8)    Permalink   Please share:  email this