Toilet Seat Art Museum

Started by a retired master plumber, Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum is an ever-growing collection of artfully decorated bathroom castoffs that show off the more whimsical side of a notoriously dirty fixture.

Covering every inch of the museum's walls and even hanging from the rafters are toilet seats and lids decorated with all manner of mixed media (save fecal matter, thankfully). Smith was inspired by his father (also a master plumber) who had a penchant for mounting plaques and trophies. Smith noticed a similarity between the mounting boards and the toilet seats he worked with every day, and soon began collecting used seats that he would then paint or adorn with bright trinkets.


Working in his garage, the space filled up over the years with his creations and once the local media caught on to his idiosyncratic arts, the attention was great enough that Smith decided to open it as a "museum" to anyone who wanted to take a look at his toilet seats.

The gracious and welcoming Smith is happy to show off his garage collection to anyone interested enough to drop by. He even encourages visitors to bring in their own toilet seats since he prolific enough to always be running out. If someone does bring in a seat that he ends up using, Smith will engrave the donator's name on the seat so that future generations will know where it came from.

Smith is getting on in the years, but unlike many outsider artists, he has taken measures to preserve his artistic collection. Not only has his daughter agreed to look after the works when he passes, but the Bemis Company, one of the leading manufacturers of toilet seats has said that they would like to move the entire collection into their headquarters.

Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Facebook

Casa Terracota (Villa de Leyva/ Colombia)

Colombia’s Flintstone House Is Made Entirely from Baked Clay

64-year-old architect Octavio Mendoza literally baked the house that he lives in. He calls the 5,400 square foot house ‘the biggest piece of pottery in the world’. Casa Terracotta, or Casa Barro in Spanish, was built exclusively by hand using clay and baked in the sun. Located in Villa de Leyva, a colonial mountain village in Colombia, it is also known to locals as the ‘Casa de Flintstone’ or Flintstone House.

From the outside, Casa Terracotta looks like a huge mound of clay, loosely fashioned to resemble a cottage. It is surrounded by lush green farmland, set against a breathtaking backdrop of the mountains. Inside, the rooms curve and flow into each other, as though the entire house was cast in a single mold.

Rustic as it seems, the clay cottage does offer a few modern conveniences – solar panels for hot water, toilets and sinks covered in colorful mosaic tiles, two floors with lounge and sleeping areas, and a fully functional kitchen. Of course, the kitchen table and all the utensils are all fashioned out of the same material – clay. The beer mugs that adorn the kitchen are made of recycled glass and the lighting fixtures from scrap metal.

Mendoza, who spent most of his career designing homes, commercial buildings and churches, calls the clay house his ‘project for life’.
He started to work on it over 14 years ago – his goal was to demonstrate how soil can be transformed into habitable architecture by simply using the natural resources at hand.

So Casa Terracotta doesn’t contain an ounce of cement or steel. Mendoza, who is also an environmental activist, said: “Think of it this way.
In desert places (which exist all across the planet), soil is perfect for this type of architecture. This means that for all those regions, a system like this could bring housing to millions of families.”


“Casa Terracotta is a unique space, destined not only to embody and promote my philosophy but also to spark off architectural and artistic experimentation,” said Mendoza. “This means that we are always encouraging the creation of alternative proposals for the use and decoration of its spaces – all with the help of those same four elements of nature.

For this we are in constant contact with artisans, artists, architects, designers and other craftsmen who are interested in helping us take the project even further.”

While Mendoza lives in another house in the village, he spends most of his time at Casa Terracotta, working on clay furniture and utensils. The house is open to visitors as well; it costs only $3.50 for a self-guided tour.




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Wilds of the South Pacific

TAKE AN AMBIENT JOURNEY THROUGH Melanesia and Polynesia in this immersive video created by filmmakers Richard Sidey and Aliscia Young.

Filmmakers: Richard Sidey and Aliscia Young
Location: Western Papua, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago and Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

This Taiwanese Couple Have Their Own Hilarious Take on Travel Photography

With the internet and social media in general now overrun with overly saturated and edited travel photos that set a totally unrealistic representation of what travel is truly like, these photos of Taiwanese couple Forrest Lu and Agnes Chien are a breath of fresh air.

Some of you may remember the photos taken by Murad Osmann and Natalia Zakharova as they travel the world and now Agnes and Forrest have done the same with their own comical twist. Instead of holding hands and looking into the distance in an almost romantic and idyllic pose Agnes can be seen dragging Forrest by his nostrils, ears and hair. It may not be a fair representation of how every couple spends their holiday, but it's certainly more down to earth than the version that first inspired it.

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7 Awesome Rideables You Should Try

Everyone Should Try These Rides

Links:
S3TR http://www.s3tr.hr/
Walk Wing http://www.walkwing.com/
DTV Shredder http://bpgwerks.com/
Bolt http://www.boltmotion.com/
Mr Hoverboard https://www.crowdsupply.com/mr-hoverboard/hoverboard...
Walk Car http://www.cocoamotors.com/
GaussWheel Spirit http://www.gauswheel.com/

5 Insane Machines Everyone Wants to Ride

These 5 rides will shock you!

Links:
Wesll Leaning Vehicle http://wesll.com/
Joystick Bike http://www.joystickbike.ch/
EV4 Electric Rollerblade http://www.ev4.pl/offroadrollerblades...
Leaux Trike http://www.leauxracingtrikes.com/
Swincar http://www.swincar.fr/

Monument to The Taxi Driver, Buenos Aires

Located in the square of the Avenue of the Italians and Macacha Guemes, in the neighborhood Puerto Madero, in Buenos Aires, the Monument to the Taxi Driver is a tribute to the thousands of men and women who provide an important public transportation service to the city. Inaugurated in 2012, the monument depicts a bald and mustachioed taxi driver casually leaning on to the side of a classic 1967 car model of a Siam Di Tella — an old Argentinian manufacturing company, and one of the most popular choices for taxis in the Argentinian capital in the 1960s and 70s.

Photo credit: Waymarking

The sculpture was created by the artist Fernando Pugliese, and appears like bronze but is actually made of a synthetic material commonly used in the shipbuilding industry. This special polymer can withstand the rigors of the weather and can receive a special patina that makes them appear like bronze.

Photo credit: Raúl Alejandro Rodríguez/Flickr

Nearly 40,000 yellow-roofed taxis run in the Argentinian capital, providing employment to 70,000 drivers and as many families. The official taxi service has existed in Buenos Aires since 1902. For a long time, taxis could be painted in any color and identified only by the "flag" of the clock, which bore the word "free" in white letters on a red background. Then a rule was introduced in 1967 requiring they be painted in yellow and black.

Sources: www.clarin.com / Waymarking

Handerpants -- The Underwear for Your Hands

Handerpants: Support Where You Never Knew You Needed It

Do you ever find yourself lacking support, your middle and index fingers dangling all over the place?—yes!—well you're in luck, Handerpants are here to save the day.

The Handerpants are made of 95% cotton and 5% Spandex to ensure a comfortable fit, and are a bargain at $11.95 a pair.

If you still can't get enough Handerpants magic after watching the video, there is a free ringtone so you can relive the wonderment everytime you get a call.

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10 Crazy Ways People Quit Their Jobs

Handing in your notice can be a defining moment in anyones career, but for the 10 people on this list, a resignation letter wasn't enough.

From hiring a marching band, to jumping out of a plane.

It Happens Only In India !

These are some of the rare picks from the extra ordinary lifestyles of Indian human beings. The weirdness in the following photographs shows the personality of individuals of India.

Some of the snaps are very interesting to watch as they have a fusion of the culture with the modern world. To summarize in short, it can be said that every picture is rare to watch and no other country can have this kind of talent.

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