An American man has had what doctors say is the most extensive face transplant in history. The man’s name is Richard Lee Norris and years ago he suffered massive facial injuries in a gun accident. The accident destroyed most of the man’s lips and nose as well as his jaw and left him with limited mouth movement and no sense of smell.

The surgery was performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and was paid for by the U.S. Navy as part of a program to develop techniques to help soldiers with facial injuries from combat recover. The surgery lasted 36 hours and gave Norris new teeth, nose, tongue, and jaw. Physicians say the man is now recovering well and has brushed his new teeth and shaved since the surgery.

Before the promulgation of worthwhile American sports such as baseball, football, basketball or hockey*, non-Americans were forced to content themselves with quasi-sports like croquet, Duck-Duck-Goose and soccer.  It’s no surprise then that these diversion-starved people began to invent their own increasingly bizarre ‘sports.’
However, the Yorkshire miners who in the 1970s invented ferret legging, also known as ferret-down-trousers, had no such excuse.  Although week after week, color television offered far safer and more athletically meritorious sports, the Yorkies designed a contest that very often results in bleeding genitals.

A French artist that calls himself MTO has done graffiti of famous movie roles all over Berlin. This German city is known for being the one with most street art in Europe. MTO has done anything from Ace Ventura the pet detective to Jack Torrance in The Shining.

The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most photographed monuments in the world. And while that makes it quite challenging to get an interesting and useful photograph of it, some people still manage to capture those magic images. We think these talented photographers have captured some great shots. Time to pack the bags for Italy!

Carnival Season for 2011 is nearing its end. All over the world, celebrations are held as a final party before the fasting of Lent, as a way to usher out the winter and welcome spring. Across Europe and the Americas, parades and festivals have been taking place for nearly a month, culminating in the largest, most famous party of all: the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The festivals in Rio continue until today, March 8th. Gathered below are images from the past several weeks of carnivals around the globe.