(Photo: Vice)

It is an ancient ceremony of mysterious origin. Every May, farmers in La Esperanza, Guerrero, Mexico, plant crops. The seeds need water to grow, so the villagers perform rituals that encourage rain.

This means collecting human blood in buckets and plowing it into the ground. The blood is the result of fistfights that the women have for the occasion. Rodrigo Cruz of Vice reports:

The villagers quickly began arriving in their dozens, forming a human perimeter while they waited for their out-of-town adversaries to reach the makeshift battlefield. Once the neighboring communities began to show up, women immediately started seeking out opponents and challenging them to a fight. The mothers and grandmothers, many of whom had been warriors in the past, got busy urging the younger generation of girls to get out in the ring, to split some skulls and spill some blood.

Once they were set on an opponent, the women faced each other, tying their hair up and removing rings or anything else that might get in their way. Then, often with their eyes closed, they threw the first punch. Occasionally they'd grab a handful of dirt to dry the sweat on their hands, or ask for a time-out to clean their bloodied noses, but they'd always carry on relentlessly tearing into each other, with cries of support resounding from all sides of the fight pit.

-via Oddity Central (warning: auto-start video)

ローソンにとんでもないお客が！びっくりやわ。 pic.twitter.com/Mg51J9t31y

— 若さん@7/11お奈々大阪 (@radio_skyblue12) June 11, 2015

Lawson is a convenience store chain in Japan. Recently, a mother duck and her babies waddled into a Lawson outlet in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture. They eventually wandered out. And though Japan's convenience stores are legendary for having anything you could want, they didn't buy anything.

そういえば朝ローソンにカモさん親子がいたんだけど、可愛すぎるんだけど‼︎ 定員あれからどうしたんだろう。 pic.twitter.com/7bT6VeWGqw

— たぁくん♡彡のぞにこ♡彡 (@takun_nozonico3) June 12, 2015

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Baby raccoon needs to climb, but he isn't born knowing how. Mama raccoon will teach him, though. She lifts him up by her forepaws, encouraging him to grasp the bark of the tree. It's working!

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

This is "The Potato Chip Man." It is a song and music video by the Norwegian comedy duo Erlend & Steinjo. It consists of repetitions of a simple lyric:

Do you have more Potatochips?
No, we have not.

(Video Link)

He is a golem created out of potato chips in order to serve humanity's base drive for food. Yet he was also created with a soul that yearns for a deeper meaning for himself. The two men go on a quest for that meaning and additional potato chips.

-via Dave Barry

(Photo: Thomas Bird)

Mad Men is over, so you can put away your suits and fedoras. Now, if you want to look good, the cool thing to do is dye your hair (face or scalp--wherever it appears on your body) vibrant, pastel colors. It's a fashion called merman hair. Check it out:

Eva Krbdk, a tattoo artist in Turkey, makes cross stitch-like patterns that create vivid impressions of their subjects. The stitch marks are clear, crisp, and perfectly arranged. It's like wearing a framed sampler on your skin! 

Kermit Tesoro, a fashion designer, calls this shoe design Polypodis. If you've ever wanted to feel like you're been caught in the tentacles of a creature eager to devour you, then these are for you. I'd like to see Brandon Cohen repeat his experiment and try to spend an entire day in these. But he'd probably have to fail a sanity check to even consider it.

-via Laughing Squid

It is a great calling. Few people can do what pizza delivery drivers do: bring hot, delicious pizza to your doorstep. Perhaps more than anyone else, pizza delivery drivers consistently bring joy into everyday life.

Anson Lemmer, 19, is a member of that honored profession in Glenwood, Colorado. Recently, by his own admission, he became a pizza man when he used CPR to save the life of a customer. The Post Independent reports on one delivery run that became extraordinary:

Instead, when he arrived at the address on Valley View Road with a hot pizza, he saw a man turning blue outside of the house. Two other people were with the man — one attempting CPR and one on the phone calling it in.

“When I pulled up there, I knew something was wrong, and I had to act. They asked me right away if I knew CPR,” Lemmer said. “I jumped in right away to do those chest compressions.”

EMTs arrived 10-15 minutes later and took the man to the hospital. Lemmer says that the people at the address didn't want the pizza. But he's glad that he came anyway.

-via reddit | Photo: Post Independent

Nature is amazing!

This BBC documentary shows a swamp in Australia. Bats are hungry for prey in the water. Crocodiles are hungry for the bats themselves.  This video, which has been lightly edited by YouTube member Blackhawk, shows how these natural enemies battle for scarce resources. In the savagery of the swamp, they hold nothing back, bringing lasers, lightsabers, and air-dropped bombs into action.

(Video Link)

-via Gizmodo

(Image: Amazon)

A neurological study found that reading Shakespeare enhances your ability to think. This is your shortcut to that advantage. YOLO Juliet is a textspeak and emoji-filled retelling of Shakespeare's most famous play. It's part of the OMG Shakespeare series of translations, including srsly Hamlet, A Midsummer Night #nofilter, and Macbeth #killingit. The books are marketed specifically at the teen and young adult reading market in the hope of making Shakespeare's classics accessible to them. Here's what a typical page looks like:

(Photo: Canvas Chameleons/Nick Henn)

Nick Henn is the owner of Canvas Chameleons, a chameleon supply company in Reading, Pennsylvania. He recently had a baby panther chameleon hatch out of its egg. The baby was struggling, so Henn cut at its eggshell with little scissors. He found inside the shell this adorable dime-sized ball of chameleon. National Geographic describes the process:

Under Henn's close watch, the panther chameleon eggs grow in their leathery shells for seven to eight months. When the big day arrives, the chameleon uses a special "egg tooth" on its upper jaw to slit the egg's inner membrane, which then contracts. 

It's "like a swimmer peeling off a wet bathing suit," says Robin Andrews, a biologist at Virginia Tech.

(Photo: S.J. Bennett)

For the first time, scientists have discovered that a species other than humans has a handed dominance. Just as humans are mostly right-handed, kangaroo species are mostly left-handed. Lead researcher Yegor Malashichev and his colleagues found this tendency among eastern grey kangaroos, red kangaroos, and red-necked wallabies. The researchers think that handedness may result from a species evolving into an upright posture and walking on the hind legs. BBC News reports:

In terms of handedness, Dr Malashichev said this confirmed for the first time that "we are not alone in the Universe; we are two - humans and kangaroos".

He and his colleagues suggest that their discovery is an example of "parallel evolution". This is because handedness seems to have appeared in primates, which belong in the group of placental mammals, as well as the marsupials in the new study, but not in related animals across these two branches of the evolutionary tree.

-via National Geographic

In 15 years, this little boy will be the guy behind you who honks as soon as the stoplight turns green. He's been waiting in line long enough--all of 5 seconds!--and is ready for traffic to keep moving.

(Video Link)

-via Tastefully Offensive

Etsy seller Patrick Hoesterey came up with a great, original idea for a household lamp. He built it into an old popcorn popper. He replaced the internal components with a lamp receptacle that powers a 25 watt bulb. Hoesterey selected an orange bulb which, when paired with acrylic chunks, creates the impression that it's about to spill out real popcorn.

-via Recyclart

(Photo: Orange County Fair)

Chicken Charlie calls himself the “Deep Fry King of California.” When he sets his wits to work to devise the most extreme fair foods, no one can top him. The results at this year’s Orange County Fair include Charlie’s caviar-covered Twinkie. It costs $125. That’s a lot, but most Twinkies are worth it.

And if that’s not enough for you, Charlie also offers deep fried Slim Fast bars, deep fried cherry KoolAid, and a deep fried Sharpie marker.

-via First We Feast