Naked Security Guards Police Sauna

Parkbad Fitness Centre is located at Linz, Austria and, just like so many fitness centres, it has it's own saunas and steam rooms attached to it.

Sauna's on Amazon Here

It's sauna centres have both sexes mixed up and nudity is compulsory, however reports of customers constantly engaging in unauthourised sexual acts have propted the management to do something drastic.

And what did they do?

Management hired undercover security guards who also go naked and pose as fellow customers among the naked crowd.

And so far they have caught some couples in the act. They have been banned from returning.

Effective?

Ask me again.

Click here to buy Saunas on Amazon

The Nomadic Hyena Handlers of Nigeria

The following are the accounts of photographer Pieter Hugo on his trip to Nigeria to investigate the Hyena Handlers.

The Naraative and pictures are from his book The Hyena and Other Men.

It all started with the picture above. A friend had emailed photographer Pieter Hugo this bizarre image taken on a cellphone in Lagos, Nigeria. The caption read, ‘The Streets of Lagos’, and a newspaper publishing the photo reported that the men were bank robbers, body guards, drug dealers and debt collectors.

The image went viral online and the myth of these street toughs in Nigeria with Hyenas grew. Pieter was captivated and knew he had to learn more.

Through a journalist friend, Hugo tracked down a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Abiola, who said that he knew the Gadawan Kura as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: ‘hyena handlers/guides’). A few weeks later, Pieter was on a plane to Lagos.

Abiola met me at the airport and together we took a bus to Benin City where the ‘hyena men’ had agreed to meet us. However, when we got there they had already departed for Abuja.

In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown – a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them.

The spectacle caused by this group walking down busy market streets was overwhelming. I tried photographing this but failed, perhaps because I wasn’t interested in their performances. I realised that what I found fascinating was the hybridisation of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals – sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel.

I started looking for situations where these contrasting elements became apparent. I decided to concentrate on portraits. I would go for a walk with one of the performers, often just in the city streets, and, if opportunity presented itself, take a photograph. We travelled around from city to city, often chartering public mini-buses. 

I agreed to travel with the animal wranglers to Kano in the northern part of the country. One of them set out to negotiate a fare with a taxi driver; everyone else, including myself and the hyenas, monkeys and rock pythons, hid in the bushes. When their companion signalled that he had agreed on a fare, the motley troupe of humans and animals leapt out from behind the bushes and jumped into the vehicle.

The taxi driver was completely horrified. I sat upfront with a monkey and the driver. He drove like an absolute maniac. At one stage the monkey was terrified by his driving. It grabbed hold of my leg and stared into my eyes. I could see its fear. 

Two years later I decided to go back to Nigeria. The project felt unresolved and I was ready to engage with the group again. I look back at the notebooks I had kept while with them. The words ‘dominance’, ‘codependence’ and ‘submission’ kept appearing. These pictures depict much more than an exotic group of travelling performers in West Africa. The motifs that linger are the fraught relationships we have with ourselves, with animals and with nature.

The second trip was very different. By this stage there was a stronger personal relationship between myself and the group. We had remained in contact and they were keen to be photographed again. The images from this journey are less formal and more intimate.

The first series of pictures had caused varying reactions from people – inquisitiveness, disbelief and repulsion. People were fascinated by them, just as I had been by that first cellphone photograph. A director of a large security company in the USA contacted me, asking how to get in touch with the ‘hyena group’. He saw marketing potential: surely these men must use some type of herb to protect themselves against hyenas, baboons, dogs and snakes? He thought that security guards, soldiers and his own pocket could benefit from this medicine.

Many animal-rights groups also contacted me, wanting to intervene (however, the keepers have permits from the Nigerian government). When I asked Nigerians, “How do you feel about the way they treat animals”, the question confused people. Their responses always involved issues of economic survival.

Seldom did anyone express strong concern for the well-being of the creatures. Europeans invariably only ask about the welfare of the animals but this question misses the point. Instead, perhaps, we could ask why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalised. Or why Nigeria, the world’s sixth largest exporter of oil, is in such a state of disarray.

Sworn Virgins of Albania Who Live All Their Lives As Men.

In the European country of Albania there are women who live all of their lives as men. They have taken a vow of chastity (usually at an early age) and becomes Sworn Virgins or Burnesha.

This elevates her to the status of a man and such women usually cut their hairs, wear male clothings and could even change their names. Male gestures, swags and expressions are practiced until they become second nature. All these together with a vow of celibacy turns a "She" into a "He".

This step is usually necessary because of a society that generally maintains an oppressive rule over the female gender. Women are seen as properties of their husbands and the rights to vote, drive, conduct business, drink, smoke and even to swear were the exclusive preserves of men.

This means that a family without a partriach or a male heir is usually in danger of losing everything and so a female needs to come in and become the partriach.

With modernisation and civilisation this practice is increasingly becoming obsolete, but it is still practiced in not a few places...even till today.

Amazing Beard Pictures

These pictures were taken by photographer Greg Anderson at the 2013 Just For Men National Beard and Moustache Championship organised by Beard Team USA.

What Makes This Sentence Unique?

Here we see a twenty-word sentence where each successive word increases in length by a single letter until we arrive at the last one, incomprehensibleness. A literary gem!

Embarassing Situations That Can Happen To Any One.

All of us have, one time or the other, found ourselves in particularly embarassing situations. Here are examples of some that could happen to almost anyone:

The Wave

You are sitting down alone or walking on the road. Then someone waves at you, and you are momentarily confused.

Do you know them? Maybe, because they are looking straight at you.

Then you decide to wave back, and they look very confused.

Then you realise that they were waving at the person behind you.

Sick with embarassment, you desperately look for somewhere to crawl and hide.

Tripping Over Nothing

You are walking on the road minding your own business and hoping that no one notices you when, suddenly, you trip over nothing or on a small object.

You barely catch your balance or you are left sprawling, lying flat on the ground.

Suddenly every single person within a hundred miles is staring at you and you are left wishing how sweet it could be to magically disappear from that very embarassing situation.

The Angry Text

Your friend, Vivian, did something to you that left you terribly angry, so  you decided to text another friend, Paul, about it.

So you compose a text and send it to Paul. But no, you mistakenly sent the text to Vivian instead.

The Enclosed Space

You are in an enclosed space(probably an elevator, a cubicle, a car or wherever) with a very dashingly attractive lady(or the other way round).

Then you decided to relieve the pressure in your stomach by releasing some gas.

It was silent but the smell was horrid leaving even you breathless. He/she knows its you and for you it is the longest and most embarassing journey of your entire life.

The Sex Scene

You are in the sitting room and you are with your parents. The whole family is watching an interesting movie when suddenly the scene changes and you were left petrified.

It is a sex scene!

You look around but the remote control is nowhere. What do you do? Do you leave the room or you wished that the TV would just magically turn-off.

The Body Odour

You are sitting alone in a public place enjoying the moment when, suddenly, you smell something rancid.

You know that smell, its the smell of someone with a terrible body odour. So you look around to see who the person might be but there is nobody closeby.

And then you realise that the smell is coming from your armpit, you forgot to apply the deodorant this morning and now you armpit is smelling like a three-week old dead body.

From that moment on you will have to move around with a heavy self-consciousness, with your arms by your side and an almost audible prayer that no one should notice the smell.

The Stubborn Door

You walk up to a public door and you pull. But nothing happens.

You pull again, but still no response.

Then you begin to wonder why they are closed at 2 pm. You pull again, this time harder, then you look closely at the door and realise it is a push-door.

You surreptitiously glance around, as you push the door to enter, to see if any body noticed your little embarassing ignorance.

The Favourite Song

You are inside a car and suddenly your favourite song is playing on the radio. You turn up the volume and then you begin to sing loudly, the song is so into you that you sing even louder.

You look back and realise that everyone in the car is staring at you, your little performance has become an attraction for every one, even the little baby.

You are so embarassed that the song suddenly stuck in your throat.

The Spilled Drink

You are sitting down in the public comfortable and having a drink when someone bumps your arm.

The drink spills on your crotch creating a very embarassing stain. No one will believe that you did not wet yourself.

A good day suddenly turns bad.

The Facebook Status

You are trying to check on someone (for whatever reason), you type their name in the search bar and you press enter.

But there are no results.

You suddenly realise, with horror, that you just typed in your status bar!

Your Facebook status is now the name of that person you are secretly creeping on. And now the whole world can see it, including him.

Whats The Name?

You are somewhere and you are introduced to someone that is so important for you to impress (for whatever reason).

A few minutes later you met the person again but you have forgotten the name (without realising it) and you called Katherine, her name is Rachael.

You spend the rest of the day wondering why you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Unusual and Amazing Animal Friendships

This cat and fox were spotted and photographed by fishermen on the shores of Lake Van in Turkey. No one knows much about their story except that they are a very playful pair.

Kasi and Tani were raised together and became good friends. However when the Cheetah became bigger he became more interested in the female Cheetahs nearby, but both dog and cheetah are still very good friends.

Anjana the Chimpanze became a surogate mother and caretaker for two White Tiger cubs who have become seperated from their mother.

This wild Maquee male monkey was seen taking excellent care of a deserted orange kitty cat at Monkey Forest, Bali, Indonesia.

Bonedigger the lion has been the best of friends with these Daschunds(four of them) ever since they were puppies and he a little cub.

This cat helped raise four hedgehogs when their mother died. The cat took them in and raised them as her own.

Tigers, Bears and Lions are ordinarily not friends in the wild but the trio of Baloo the Bear, Leo the Lion and Shere Khan the Tiger have been living as close friends ever since they were taken at a house by police during a drug raid in 2001.

Rosco, the blue tick hound, made a lasting friendship with Suryia, the Orangutang when both of them met at a reserve for endangered animals in South Carolina. They have since garnered World Wide attention including featuring in National Geographic and on Oprah Winfrey.

These Lion cubs were abandoned by their mother and they found another mother in this dog who cared for them and nurtured them.

This lamb was rejected by it's mother and some Australian dog breeders took in the spoted lamb. It was soon adopted by their Dalmatian, Zoe who probably thought it was a Dalmatian puppy.

Koko the Gorilla adopted several kittens during her lifetime and cared for them as a parent would. When her first kitten was killed by a car, Koko expressed her sadness by sign language.

Kate, the Great Dane adopted Pippin the Deer when she was a baby. When Pippin matured she moved into the forest to start a family of her own. But she still comes to visit Kate and her owner Isobel.