Sock – the pet Lama

I’ve heard of a seal as a pet, but a Lama, that’s something you don’t see every day. Sock is white Lama living in Muellheim an der Ruhr, a town in western Germany. She has been living in an apartment with Nicole Doepper for three years now, ever since one of her back legs had to be amputated. Nicole takes Sock the Lama everywhere with her but she hopes at one point she will get the Lama used to the wildlife. So far however, all attempts have failed, perhaps Sock just loves the comfort of the indoors too much.

pet_lama.jpg

pet_lama1.jpg

pet_lama2.jpg

pet_lama3.jpg

pet_lama4.jpg

pet_lama5.jpg

pet_lama6.jpg

Image source

Destruction Therapy

Is wacking away violently at used cars and broken home appliances a therapy against stress? Well it is in Spain.

Three Spanish entrepreneurs came up with the idea back in 2003 and it has evolved into a profitable business. Basically people pay to smash cars, washing machines, refrigerators, television-sets with jackhammers, thus relieving stress. It’s called Destruction Therapy or Destructotherapy and the latest session took place this Saturday in Castejon, northern Spain. Participants got to pick from different tools and use their rage to pulverize different objects.

One more interesting fact about this Destruction Therapy is that 40% of the participants are women. It’s not certain that Destruction Therapy (Destructotherapy) really has a therapeutic effect, but it’s definitely fun.

The photos are taken at the event that tok place this year in Castijon and the video was shot back in 2005.

destruction_therapy.jpgdestruction_therapy1.jpgdestruction_therapy2.jpg

destruction_therapy3.jpg

destruction_therapy4.jpg

destruction_therapy5.jpg

destruction_therapy6.jpg

destruction_therapy7.jpg

destruction_therapy8.jpg

Source

The man with the goldfish earrings

You may stumble across this merry old man if you walk around Tokyo, especially in the Harajuku district.

Ojisan used to be a postman but he always wanted to be an actor and be in the center of attention. As an opportunity to become a professional entertainer never emerged, he decided to claim the spotlight after he retired. These days he walks around dressed as you can see in the photos, wearing goldfish in plastic bottles as earrings and oversized funny hats and tourists just can’t help but take photos of Ojisan, as memorabilia.

oijisan.jpg

oijisan1.JPG

oijisan2.jpg

oijisan3.jpg

oijisan4.jpg

oijisan5.jpg

Image source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The ruins of Mesa Verde

Dating back to as early as 1150 ., the ruins of Mesa Verde are one of the oldest in America.

They are set in the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, USA and are all that is left of the ancient Pueblo people, also known as the Anasazi. Around 600 houses dug in the cliffs of Colorado can be found through the park, most of them very small, but some are absolutely huge, able to house more than 250 people. The Anasazi came to these places around 550 A.D., but only started digging their dwellings into the canyon cliffs around 1150.

ruins.jpg

ruins1.jpg

ruins2.jpg

ruins3.jpg

ruins4.jpg

ruins5.jpg

ruins6.jpg

ruins7.jpg

ruins8.jpg

ruins9.jpg

ruins10.jpg

ruins11.jpg

World’s most expensive home-cinema

This baby costs $6 million but it’s the ultimate home theater experience.

Jeremy Kipnis is a music producer that also invented this incredible home-cinema system. I’m sure you think $6 million is too much for something like this but if you’re really passionate about something, money is definitely no object..especially if you have lots of it.

The Kipnis home cinema is made up of a Sony SRX-S110 Professional Video Projector with a 4,096-by-2,160 resolution, the Stewart Snowmatte 1.0 Gain Laboratory-Grade Motion Picture screen (18×10 foot) , Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Player, Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player with SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total) and Mark Levinson N° 51 DVD/CD Media Player, HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE Laserdisc Player,VC HMDH-5U D-VHS recorder. Throw in a PlayStation 3 consoles for hardcore gamers and you have the world’s most “badass” home cinema.

sound_system.jpg

sound_system1.jpg

sound_system2.jpg

sound_system3.jpg

sound_system4.jpg

sound_system5.jpg

sound_system6.jpg

sound_system7.jpg

Image source

Oldest woman fisherman you’ve ever seen

This lady can hold her own against any experienced male fisherman though.

And she’s got the photographs to prove it, not some bogus fishing tales that guys like to use to show off to fellow fishermen. This old lady is Janet Larsen and she is addicted to fishing, as you can see. All these photos have been taken over the years in Alaska, where Janet loves to go fishing. Not bad for her age is it, I for one can’t brag about my fishing skills, so for me she’s a pro.

janet_larsen.jpeg

janet_larsen1.jpeg

janet_larsen2.jpeg

janet_larsen3.jpeg

janet_larsen4.jpeg

janet_larsen5.jpeg

janet_larsen6.jpg

Image source

World’s largest earthquake damper

You might just see a huge steel ball, but this tuned mass damper is so much more.

This 728 tons steel pendulum is installed in one of the world’s tallest buildings, the taipei 101 in Taiwan. It helps stabilize the building in case of strong winds and earthquakes, through simple mechanics, when the building moves in a direction it swings in the opposite direction reducing movement by 40%. You can understand how it works by looking at the small GIF image.

200px-tuned_mass_damper.gif

It cost #4 million to install the huge damper in the skyscraper but architects and engineers said it had to be done. It spans across 4 of the building’s stories and it was assembled on site because it couldn’t be lifted by a crane, due to its enormous weight.

earthquake_damper.jpg

earthquake_damper1.jpg

earthquake_damper3.jpg

earthquake_damper2.png

Here’s a video of the damper in action, on May 12th, when a horrific earthquake hit one of China’s provinces and the tremors reached as gar as Taipei. As the building started to shake, people ran towards the center to see the damper in action, it did it’s job.

Source 

The delicious Meat House

This house makes you hungry when you look at it.

Joel Richards from EASYJO.com created this delicious-looking house out of sausages, bacon and other eatable components and got some serious attention, deserved attention if you ask me, that house looks good enough to eat. Great job and looking forward to their next meat creation.

meat_house.jpg

meat_house1.jpg

meat_house2.jpg

meat_house3.jpg

meat_house4.jpg

meat_house5.jpg

meat_house6.jpg

meat_house7.jpg

meat_house8.jpg

meat_house9.jpg

meat_house10.jpg

meat_house11.jpg

World’s ugliest dog competition 2008

One of the wackiest competitions on Earth and also one of the funniest.

This year’s World’s Ugliest Dog competition was held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. Twelve dogs battled for the title of world’s ugliest dog, and in the end only Gus came out on top. Winers are selected from two classes, the Pedigree class and the Mutt class. Gus won the Pedigrees class and went on to beat Reggie who had won the Mutt class. After winning the competition Gus had to meet the Ring of Champions which included winners from the previous year.

Gus is a Chinese Crested, suffering from skin cancer, he only has three legs (one was amputated due to the skin tumor) and one eye (he lost the other in a battle with a tomcat) and no hair. He was adopted by a Jeanenne Teed and her daughter Janey after they had heard he was being kept in a crate in somebody’s garage.

For winning the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, Gus got $1,600 ,which the owners say will go to his radiation treatment.

ugliest_dogs.jpg

ugliest_dogs1.jpg

ugliest_dogs2.jpg

ugliest_dogs3.jpg

ugliest_dogs4.jpg

ugliest_dogs5.jpg

ugliest_dogs6.jpg

ugliest_dogs7.jpg

ugliest_dogs8.jpg

Image source

Geysir geyser in action

Set in Haukadalur valley, in the south part of the country, Geysir is one of Iceland’s largest geysers.

Geysers are quite a sight to behold when they erupt and they are also one of Iceland’s most precious resources. Geysir is one of the lazier geysers, it only erupts 4-5 times a day, while others do it at intervals of 5-10 minutes. Here are some photos of Geysir’s eruption caught on camera.

geyser.jpg

geyser1.jpg

geyser2.jpg

geyser3.jpg

geyser4.jpg

geyser5.jpg

geyser6.jpg

geyser7.jpg

geyser8.jpg

geyser9.jpg

The Coffin Bar

Although this is definitely one of the most original things I’ve seen lately, I don’t think I’ll be having a drink there.

The Ukrainian town of Truskavets, famous for its mineral springs, has just added another major attraction on its menu for tourists. A giant coffin, 20 meters long, six meters wide and 6 meters tall has been built by a group of undertakers and will serve as a bar. Named Eternity by its founders, the coffin bar will serve “Nine Days” and “Forty Days” salads to its customers on normal size coffins that will serve as tables. As you can see in the photos, the bar uses funeral flower arrangements and real coffins as decorations and according to one of the undertakers, the waitresses will be dressed to match the theme.

coffin_bar.jpg Read More »

Piercing gets under your skin

And I mean that literally, just take a look at these images and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We’ve posted many photos of unusual piercings on Oddity Central, but I think these are the most painful of them all. Just imagine somebody pushing some pieces of metal under your skin until they fit into place. Sure being unique isn’t easy, but this is too much…at least for me.

piercing3.jpeg Read More »

AntWorks – ant farm by NASA

That’s right, this is like a NASA-made ant farm.

Actually NASA only came up with the concept of AntWorks, developed so it could test the development of animal life in a 0 gravity environment. The prototype was created back in 2003 but these days you can buy your very-own AntWorks ant farm directly from the shop for about $40. This small ant habitat is filled with a special gel containing all the nutrients the ants need to survive so you don’t have to feed them, ever. Just sit back and enjoy watching the world’s strongest creatures (they are able to carry 10-20 time their own weight) at work. All yo have to do is lift the lid of the AntWorks colony so air can get in.

Pretty cool gadget this, I’m thinking of getting one myself since I live in an apartment and I’d just be torturing a dog if I kept it here.

ants.jpg

ants1.jpg

ants2.jpg

ants3.jpg

ants4.jpg

ants5.jpg

ants6.jpg

ants7.jpg

Source

Another home-made rollercoaster

People seem to love having a rolercoaster in their own backyards.

This guy must have seen Jeremy Reid‘s wooden rollercoster and said he simply must top that. And he did, in the way that he built an iron rollercoster in his own backyard. John Ivers from Indiana is the man who built The Blue Flash, a miniature rollercoster, just so he wouldn’t have to wait in line at the amusement park. Judging by the photos, I’d say he did a pretty good job, but apparently he wasn’t completely satisfied so he built an improved version called The Blue Too. Some people just have too much time on their hands, don’t you think?

coaster.jpg

coaster1.jpg

coaster2.jpg

coaster3.jpg

coaster4.jpg

coaster5.jpg

coaster6.jpg

coaster7.jpg

coaster8.jpg

coaster9.jpg

coaster10.jpg

coaster11.jpg

coaster12.jpg

coaster13.jpg

The Hungarian Eagle

You might think this helicopter is American when you first look at it, you would be wrong.

This painted masterpiece is actually a Mi-24 Hind helicopter and it belongs to the Hungarian Air Force. You might have seen photos of this beautifully painted aircraft on other sites, with descriptions like “this American Eagle helicopter is currently on duty in Afghanistan (or Iraq) raining hell on terrorists”, but the truth is The Eagle was painted by its own crew and it was never intended for combat, i is simply a vehicle presented at air shows. So remember, appearances can be deceiving.

eagle_helicopter.jpg

eagle_helicopter1.jpg

eagle_helicopter2.jpg

eagle_helicopter3.jpg

Source