“Whilst the season of giving might be over for yet another year, it seems one computer gamer has marked the end of the festivities by treating himself to one final Christmas gift. The avid gamer spent a staggering $16,000 on a virtual sword – the only one of its kind, which he will use when he eventually begins playing a martial arts game that has not yet gone on sale in the Far East. The man who won the auction will now be able to slay characters using his sabre when the highly-anticipated martial-arts game Age of Wulin is released in Mainland China.” w/ photos

“There may not quite be 101 of them but these playful dalmatian pups are already proving quite a handful. In fact the surprise litter of 15 – double the average number – left mother Pebbles so exhausted that her human family had to be called in as puppysitters. Owner Kay Sullivan said: ‘We had to care for them for two days because Pebbles was not very well. She was very weak because they had taken all the energy out of her… She also admitted the new arrivals were stretching the family finances – so would have to be sold. Mrs Sullivan said: ‘We’re not breeders. They’re already costing us an arm and a leg to be honest.” w/ photos

“When Stephen Goodman heard his grandfather never received a single card during his military service in Vietnam, it left him deeply saddened. Never wanting another serviceman or woman to feel unappreciated, the 11-year-old decided to write every single one a thank-you card. Now, 18 months later, the schoolboy from Surprise, Arizona has completed a staggering 181,612 cards for U.S. troops serving overseas.” w/ photos + video

“Reason number 1,535,923 on why you shouldn’t live in NYC.”

“Xin entertained the crowds when he balanced on his head on the end on a spike. Putting his hands out to the side, he balanced all his 66kg (10st 7lb) body weight, putting intense pressure on his skull. The 47-year-old has practiced the stunt for more than 20 years. He can hold the pose on top of the spike for more than ten seconds – impressive, seeing as most people would struggle to keep their balance doing a floor head-stand. After the stunt, Li Xin leaned forward to show off a small but definite indent on the top of his head.” w/ photos

“She has endured over 100 silicone injections on her lips, spending around $6,200 on them. Kristina claims that her goal is to look like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, whom she claims, is her idea of a perfect woman. She had been unhappy with her thin lips since the age of four, and envied her sisters big, pouty lips. Incidentally, Kristina was bullied and teased by her school mates as ‘ugly’. This led her to believe that she could look more beautiful if her lips were bigger. Kristina opted for her first lip enhancement when she was just 17-years-old. When the results made her happy, she just couldn’t stop herself from getting more injections. She realizes that she might be addicted, but even then has no plans to stop.” w/ photos

“A man ravaged by a shocking skin disease has revealed himself in public in a bid to save his children from the same fate. Chandra Wisnu, 57, suffers from a rare disease that has left him covered in tumors resembling pink bubble wrap. The father of four – known as ‘The Bubble Man’ in his home village in Indonesia – rarely leaves his house. When he does, he wears three jackets, a balaclava and sunglasses so he doesn’t frighten children. “People are afraid, they are frightened of my horrible face and worried they might catch the disease,” he said. “So instead I avoid people, I rarely go out except to pick up my daughter from school. “And when I do I cover my head and my face because I don’t want my daughter’s friends to bully her for having ‘the dad with the horrible face’.” Mr Wisnu said the lumps first appeared when he was 19. By the time he was 24, they had spread to his back. At 32, his entire body was covered.” w/ photos

“A large rainstorm in San Pedro caused an enormous stretch of coastal road to collapse into the Pacific Ocean Sunday, and left a gaping hole where the road once was. The thoroughfare, located along an 800-foot section of Paseo del Mar in San Pedro, had been closed to traffic for several months as the road sunk and shifted. Signs also served as a warning to residents to stay away from the unstable section. Peter Sanders, spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, says the road is likely irreparable, and that plans for a new roadway must now be considered. Though no one was injured, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich told The Daily Breeze that was ‘just luck.’ ‘It’s bad. We’re lucky no one got hurt,’ Mr Trutanich said. No homes were directly in the path of the San Pedro landslide.” w/ photos + video

“You’d be praying for intermission if you attended even just a fraction of the world’s longest concert. Now in it’s 10th year, ‘Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible),’ by avant-garde composer John Cage, is just getting started. The concert began in 2001 at the former St. Burchard church in Halberstadt, Germany, and is scheduled to conclude in 2640, for a duration of 639 years. Though Cage did not specify a duration for his piece, the length was chosen because the start date for the performance is 639 years after Nicolaus Faber built the first church organ. Other performances of the piece have lasted between 29 and 70 minutes.” w/ photo

“Storms on Saturn make the ones we moan about on Earth seem positively puny – and this year’s northern storm is a record-breaker, even by the standards of the gas giant’s legendarily foul weather. The storm – shown here in a mosaic of images collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft – has been raging for 200 days. It encircles the planet, and breaks a record set by a 1903 storm which battered Saturn for five months. The large disturbance imaged 21 years ago by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope – and comparable in size to the current storm – lasted for only 55 days.” photos