The Coromoto Ice-Cream Shop – 900 Weird Flavors and Counting
Coromoto, an ice cream shop in Merida, Venezuela, is probably the closest you can ever get to Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans from Harry Potter’s wizarding world. The place sells ice creams of virtually every flavor you can think of. Granted, you won’t get vomit or earwax, but you’re sure to come across a few […]
Coolest Finds of the Week #34
Heavyweight Pets Enter Slimming Contest (The Sun) The Deceptive Beauty of Indonesia’s Deadly Acid Volcano (Environmental Graffiti) 86-Year-Old Gymnast Proves Age Is Just a Statistic (MSNBC) Back to the Future Fan Creates Iconic Delorean Replica (Brian O’Neal) Amazing Fabric House Models by Do Ho Suh (Design Boom) World’s Oldest Performing Clown (Chicago Suntimes) Thailand’s Treetop […]
Living with the Dead – Manila’s Cemetery Dwellers
Graveyards in Manila can be a strange sight for first-time visitors. Some of them hold a strong resemblance to mini-townships, with no sign of the eerie quietness that usually shrouds such spaces. Mausoleums house shops that sell canned sardines, noodle packs, candy, candles and other essential items. Even prepaid cards for mobile phones are available. […]
Build It and They Won’t Come – World’s Largest Shopping Mall Is 99% Empty
The New South China Mall in Dongguan, China is the biggest in the world. With an area of over 7 million square feet that can accommodate 2,350 stores, and attractions such as roller coasters, ghost trains and a replica of the bell tower of St Mark’s Square in Venice, you would think the place would […]
Size Doesn’t Matter – Man Builds $200 Tiny Eco-Homes from Ordinary Household Junk
A tiny house doesn’t necessarily have to be shabby. And a stylish one doesn’t really have to cost a lot of money. Proving these points is carpenter Derek Diedricksen, who makes small wooden dwellings out of junk at $200 apiece. They look nothing like junk, though. The decorative detailing in these houses make them pretty interesting […]
Sarajevo Roses – Painful War Memories Etched in Asphalt
They sound like something beautiful, and they are quite nice to look at, but as soon as you learn the story of the Sarajevo Roses, you realize they are really the legacy of a truly tragic event, the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Between 1992 and 1996, Bosnian Serb Forces bombarded the city of Sarajevo […]
World’s Quietest Place Lets You Hear Your Internal Organs
The mad and hectic pace of life, sometimes makes us all crave some peace and quiet. But then, as they say, too much of a good thing can actually be bad for you. That applies to silence, as it turns out people can’t stand to be in the world’s quietest place for too long. The […]
Can’t Get a Girl? Website Lets Guys Hire Fake Girlfriends for $5
GirlfriendHire.com is a new website where you can hire a girl to do ‘girlfriend-type’ things for you at a cost of just $5. Now before you get your hopes up, there are no ‘dirty’ services available. The website targets tweens and teens, so typical girlfriend activities would include doing your homework, flirting on Facebook, sending […]
Chinese Millionaire Becomes Miner to Stop Gambling
Addictions are a life-long struggle for most people. There are very few who manage to successfully kick self-destructive habits for good. 39-year-old Chinese millionaire, Qijang Zhang Yongqiang, is one such person. He was able to get rid of his gambling addiction by taking up a unique hobby – mining. Zhang is the owner of a […]
5 Real-Life Dolls Who Have Achieved Internet Fame
Dolls hold a strange power of attraction over little girls. I suppose it is normal, but is it really if the attraction turns into an unhealthy obsession as they grow older? Some grown-up girls seem to be so infatuated with dolls that they want to look exactly like their plastic playmates. And a handful of […]
Tuvan Throat Singing – A Unique Mongolian Tradition
As with any other piece of music, it is quite impossible to describe through words what exactly Tuvan throat singing is. I could try to explain to you the physics of how it is done, but then you could always get that information from Wikipedia. I could try to explain what it sounds like, but […]
Famadihana – Dancing with the Dead in Madagascar
The people of Madagascar have a unique ritual to celebrate family ties called Famadihana, also known as ‘turning of the bones’. It is a festival celebrated every 7 years or so, during which family crypts are opened up and the remains of dead ancestors are brought out to be wrapped in a new cloth. The […]
The Mind-Blowingly Realistic Wine Paintings of Thomas Arvid
If you’ve been hanging around Oddity Central for a while, you probably know I have a thing for hyperrealism. I find it amazing how some artists can simply guide a paintbrush to create photograph-like artworks that almost always fool the naked eye. Case in point, Thomas Arvid, a self-taught painter who creates wine-related paintings that look […]
Maquech Beetles – Mexico’s Controversial Living Breathing Jewelry
The Maquech Beetle can make any nature lover or animal rights activist scream in horror. Entomophobics (creepy-crawly-haters) would probably run as far away as possible from this kind of jewelry, and for good reason, as every Maquech is actually a live bejeweled insect. As hard as it may be to even conceive wearing bugs as […]
Croatian Woman Creates Popular Made-to-Measure Penis Warmers
If we can have warm clothing for our heads, hands and feet, why leave out male genitalia? That’s exactly the attitude of the Croats, who used hand-knitted woolen penis warmers in the past. The centuries-old tradition has now been revived by a 55-year-old Croatian woman, Radmilla Kus. An avid knitter, she started off by making […]