“Barbie Man” Spends $30,000 a Year Collecting Barbie Dolls and Memorabillia
41-year-old Stanley Colorite, who calls himself “the Barbie Man” has been collecting Barbie dolls for the last two decades, and has turned his home into a virtual museum to the popular Mattel toy. A house-cleaning business owner from Florida, Stanley Colorite bought his first Barbie doll in 1997. Now he has over 2,000 of them, […]
Extreme Athlete Attempts Mary Poppins-Inspired Umbrella Skydive
Remember Mary Poppins, that lovable nanny played by Julie Andrews in the 1964 movie adaptation of P.L. Travers’ children books? Growing up I always asked myself if floating around with an umbrella was possible in real life. Now, thanks to the stunt of extreme athlete Erik Roner, I finally have an answer. I remember wanting to climb on to the […]
Share Breakfast with the Long Necks at Giraffe Manor
How do you talk to a Giraffe face-to-face? By peeking out of the top-floor window of a very high house, of course. That’s exactly what the owners of Giraffe Manor, in Kenya, do. And you could too, if you went to spend a few nights in one of the 6 rooms of the old manor […]
The Shark Whisperer – Young Conservationist Dances with Great White Sharks
Most people wouldn’t dream of going anywhere near a Great White Shark, and yet shark conservationist Ocean Ramsey has no problem swimming with the deadly predators and even hitching a ride with them, in her efforts to prove they’re not the monsters films like Jaws made them out to be. 27-year-old Ocean Ramsey got the […]
The Electrifying Painting Performances of David Garibaldi and His CMYKs
David Garibaldi is a successful performing artist who combines his passion for painting, dance and music in truly inspiring performances. Holding a paintbrush in each of his hands, he strokes the canvas as he dances to modern tunes, creating incredibly detailed portraits of pop icons. Born in Los Angeles to entrepreneur parents, David Garibaldi moved to Sacramento when he […]
Twi-line – A Phone Line for Twilight Fans Struggling to Cope with the Series’ End
One of the biggest film franchises ever made, the Twilight Saga came to an end with the launch of Breaking Dawn – Part 2. It was a celebrated moment by fans of the series, but now that all the hype is gone, many of them are struggling to accept the fact that their favorite blood-suckers […]
Bathing in Fermented Sawdust – The Latest Bizarre Beauty Treatment from Japan
Forget about greasy creams, mud wraps and even Botox shots. All you need to keep your skin looking healthy and beautiful is a good old fashioned fermented sawdust bath. It’s all the rage right now in Japan, and everyone seem to love it. Women will do all sorts of weird things to their bodies in order […]
The Creepy Life-Like Giants of Ron Mueck
Things are not as they seem, when it comes to the mind-blowing artworks of London-based sculptor Ron Mueck. Seeing his larger-than-life sculptures of the human body for the first time, you’d be tempted to think you are looking at real-life giants. Australian-born Ron Mueck is the so of two toy makers, so it’s really not […]
China’s MMO Video Game-Inspired Restaurants
Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games are very popular in China. Combine that with the country’s culture of fakes and copycats and you get lots of unofficial merchandise and even venues inspired by popular virtual reality universes. One such place was the World of Warcraft-themed restaurant on Chaoyang Road, in Beijing. Opened in 2008, by a […]
Bedazzle Your Food with the World’s First Edible Spray Paint
I never would have imagined humans would one day be eating spray paint, and yet here we are…Food Finish is the world’s first edible spray paint, and according to its German manufacturer, it’s a great way to add some strange color to your food. People have been eating strange things for a long time. There’s […]
The Photographic Pencil-Drawn Portraits of Franco Clun
Italian artist Franco Clun uses only pencil and paper to create these incredibly realistic portraits that can easily be mistaken for photographs. Believe it or not, he’s a self-taught drawing master who has never studied art… I’ve always found hyperrealism fascinating, and the collection of articles on this amazing art genre that I’ve posted on Oddity Central […]
Bizarre Dog-Spinning Ritual Believed to Ward off Rabies
When we were kids, we played this game where we would twist a pencil innumerable times into a loop of thread and then let it go, watching with fascination as it spun around at top speed. It was a fun game, but I never imagined that somewhere in the world, the same thing was being […]
Japan’s Lonely Youth Turns to Rent-a-Friend Services
Making friends is not as easy as most people think, but it seems that for young men and women in Japan it’s really, really hard. According to a recent article published in the country’s biggest newspaper, some people are finding it so difficult to make people like them that they prefer to pay for rent-a-friend […]
Belarusian Woodcarver Makes Intricate Clocks Exclusively from Wood
In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine someone making accurate clock mechanisms without using a single piece of metal. And yet, Andrey Martyniuk, a woodcarver from Belarus, manages to create intricate clocks exclusively from wooden components. As a child, Andrey Matyniuk loved to sketch. He then got an education as an engineer, and […]
The Indian Coin Divers of Yamuna River
It sometimes amazes me how humans are able to find a source of livelihood in almost any type of environment, in accordance with their surroundings. Case-in-point, the coin divers of the Yamuna River, in Delhi, India’s capital city. This unique group of men works around the year, braving the bone-chilling cold waters even during winters, […]