World's Most Tattooed Woman

While most women in their 60s are settling down for a quiet life, Isobel Varley is travelling the world - showing off her tattoos and piercings.

The bubbly woman is almost covered from head to foot with colourful tattoos and has 49 piercings in a number of places, including 16 in her pants area.

She's just returned to her home in Stevenage from a tattoo convention in Switzerland, has two days before flying out to Belgium and appeared on Channel 4's The Salon the previous week. Life is busy for the woman who holds the title as the world's most tattooed senior woman.

"The last tattoo I had was a rose and heart on my forehead yesterday," she said. "I had it done at the convention in Lucerne. It was a little painful, but it looks really nice and I can cover it up with my fringe if I want."

But Isobel didn't start having tattoos until her late 40s in 1986. The mother-of-one finished covering her body with tattoos in 1997 - her favourite is a family of tigers lying on her stomach.

"I went to a tattoo convention and had one tattoo - and then it just went from there. This came about as I was so impressed by the sheer beauty of the tattoos and I found that the people there were ordinary people from all walks of life and were not strange," she said.

But Isobel warned: " If you're going to have one done, you've got to think about it carefully because it's going to last a very long time so you've got to be sure it's what you want.

"Having a tattoo removed is expensive and I think you should only get one done if you're old enough to know what you want for the rest of your life."

The pensioner started having the piercings in 1989 - having her first as an experience so she could write about it.

She has 29 in her ears, two in her nose,one in each nipple, one in her belly button and 16 in various places in her nether regions.

"The most painful is nipple piercing - I've had to have them redone three times for various reasons. The tops of your ears take a long time to heal, but the ones down below heal very fast."
Source: BBC

Man-Made Desert Paradise

This seems more like a heaven in hell..

Fireworks Factory Explosion

A dutch firework factory explodes. Guess thats why they dont let you smoke in these places..

Crazy Hot Air Balloons

Hot air balloons are the oldest successful human carrying flight technology, dating back to the Montgolfier brothers' invention in Annonay, France in 1783. The first flight carrying humans was made on November 21, 1783, in Paris by Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes.

A hot air balloon consists of a bag called the envelope that is capable of containing hot air. Suspended beneath is the gondola or wicker basket (in certain, long distance or high altitude balloons, a capsule) which carries a source of heat capable of producing a sufficient temperature gradient between the air inside the envelope and the surrounding air mass to give enough lift to keep the balloon and its passengers aloft. Unlike gas balloons, the envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom since the rising hot air only exerts pressure on the upper hemisphere of the balloon to provide lift. In today's sports balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric and the mouth of the balloon (closest to the burner flame) is made from fire resistant material such as Nomex.

Today, hot air balloons are used primarily for recreation. There are some 7,500 hot air balloons operating in the United States.

Hot air balloons are able to fly to extremely high altitudes. On November 26, 2005, Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highest hot air balloon flight, reaching 21,290 meters (69,852 feet). He took off from downtown Bombay, India and landed 240 km (150 miles) south in Panchale.

The furthest that a hot air balloon has ever been flown is 7,671.91 km. On January 15, 1991, the Virgin Pacific Flyer balloon completed the longest flight in a hot air balloon when Per Lindstrand (born in Sweden, but resident in the UK) and Richard Branson of the UK flew from Japan to Northern Canada.

With a volume of 74,000 m³ (2,600,000 ft³), the balloon envelope was the largest ever built for a hot air craft. Designed to fly in the trans-oceanic jetstreams the Pacific Flyer recorded the highest ground speed for a manned balloon at 245 mph (394 km/h).

The longest duration hot air balloon flight ever made is 50 hours and 38 minutes made by Michio Kanda and Hirosuke Tekezawa of Japan on January 2, 1997.