World's Weirdest Festivals

How oddballs compete, from pole-sitting to goat polo

(NEWSER) - If curling strikes you as a strange sport, you've obviously never heard of wife carrying or bottle kicking. The London Times explores the weirdest pastimes from across the globe:

1. Wife-carrying, Maine, USA: Wives hang on for dear life as husbands tote them through an obstacle course, upside-down. Winners receive the wife's weight in beer.

Gigs that straddle the line between necessary and absurd

(NEWSER) - From Parisian sewer guides to a coconut safety engineer in St. Thomas, some travel industry jobs straddle the line between necessary and absurd. Travel and Leisure highlights some of the strangest.

1. Tourism ambassador, Japan. Diplomacy never looked so soft and cuddly after Japan appointed elder statesfeline Hello Kitty for PR duty in Hong Kong and China.

Things are heating up around the globe

(NEWSER) - Even though it's freezing outside, you don't have to shut yourself up at home. Party on three continents at these amazing festivals, selected by Sherman's Travel:

1. Barbados Jazz Festival, Jan. 14–20
2. Buenos Aires Tango Festival, Feb 22-Mar 3
3. Carnival in Rio, Feb 2–5

Don't fly away yet! That packaged deal may be too good to be true.

(NEWSER) - Before you pack your bags, check out Foreign Policy's list of the five most overhyped tourist locales:

1. Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt: Famous beach and diving locale actually tacky and overcrowded.
2. Ibiza, Spain: Hippy haven and hedonistic paradise turned into dirty and pricey hole.

Panama, Finland, and Myanmar top the list

(NEWSER) - If you like cool design, upscale safaris, or a forbidden communist island, the New York Times can recommend 45 locales to visit in 2012. Among them:

• Panama. See the world-famous canal before its expansion, then stay for Panama City's economic boom and Frank Gehry's first design in Latin America—a natural history museum called BioMuseo.