Axel Erlandson (December 15, 1884 – April 28, 1964) was a Swedish American farmer who shaped trees as a hobby, and opened a horticultural attraction in 1947 advertised as "See the World's Strangest Trees Here," and named "The Tree Circus."
The trees appeared in the column of Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not! twelve times. Erlandson sold his attraction shortly before his death. The trees were moved to Gilroy Gardens in 1985.

A man carries the body of his son for burial after he was killed when a rooftop of his house collapsed due to heavy rain in the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan April 27, 2015. A severe storm in northwest Pakistan, dubbed a “mini-cyclone”, has killed 44 people and injured more than 200, officials said, raising their previous death toll. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

For the Torajan people of Indonesia, death is part of a spiritual journey: families keep the mummified remains of their deceased relatives in their homes for years – and traditionally invite them to join for lunch on a daily basis – before they are eventually buried. Here: Todeng died in 2009. A young relative of his, Sam, lights him a cigarette and changes his glasses. (Photo by Claudio Sieber Photography/The Guardian)

“Actor and director Mel Gibson has pleaded no contest to a “misdemeanour” battery charge after a fight with then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in 2010. Gibson, 55, was placed on probation for 36 months and ordered to attend a year of domestic violence counselling. The complaint accuses Gibson of “wilfully and unlawfully” using force and violence against Ms Grigorieva. A misdemeanour charge is generally considered a lesser criminal act than a felony charge in the US”. – BBC News

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva arrives at the premiere Of Warner Bros. “The Edge Of Darkness” held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Do you ever get the irresistible urge to light matches on fire, especially if there are many of them in one place? If you do, you shouldn’t come near the giant globe made by an American artist Andy Yoder. The thing is, this 42” globe is made entirely out of matches on the outside, while the center was made using plywood, foam, and cardboard. It took Andy two years to complete his work, finally finishing in 2014. Each of the matches used was hand-painted and then glued in place. Also, in order to prevent his masterpiece from catching fire, Andy Yoder has doused his work with a flame repellant.

Some people joke about having clowns at their funeral, but how about having a coffin that looks like a gigantic cellphone? It is impossible to tell at the first glance that these colorful sculptures are actually coffins. The coffins were made by Kane Kwei and his assistant Paa Joe more than twenty years ago and have been a somewhat grim tourist attraction ever since. These coffins were probably made as an advertisement for the actual business, since it would hard to imagine someone actually ordering a coffin such as this.

An Israeli soldier prays in front of a tank at a military staging area near the border with the Gaza Strip, in this July 24, 2014 file photo. Israel's long-running struggle to balance modern standards with Jewish tradition has come to a head in the military, where new orders curtailing beards among soldiers have met protests from some rabbis. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)