One of the world’s most fascinating legends is Jason and the Argonaut’s journey for the Golden Fleece. Now there are those who want to retake the unbelievable journey in an identical wooden ship.

A replica of the Argo has been built according to the known designs for warships in the Mycenaean era, equipped with a ram used to break the hull of enemy ships. The ship will carry 50 oarsmen with another 22 standing by on a ship sailing behind the Argo. The modern argonauts will spend 2 months at sea, sailing 2000 nautical miles (3700 km), but unfortunately won’t be able to follow the journey of the original Greek heroes. Turkey has refused to guarantee safe passage for the 28.5 meters long ship through the Bosporus Strait, so the adventurers won’t be able to reach the city of Colchis, in modern Georgia. It will however retrace part of the argonauts return voyage.

Argo and the 50 argonauts left on June 13 and will reach their destination on August 11.

Source

Image Source

One think I’ve never done is eat in the toilet, well it seems many people would love to do that and pay for it.

A new Toilet Restaurant has opened in Hangzhou, China as a result of the impact the first Toilet Restaurant, from Taipei, Taiwan had on the public. Now, the company is thinking of opening a whole network of Toilet Restaurants across the world and I’m pretty sure they are going to be successful.

Toilet Dining concept is about sitting on a toilet seat, serving your food from a toilet bowl or a bidet and wiping your mouth with toilet paper-looking napkins, practically everything you see around you has nothing to do with a real restaurant or kitchen, it’s all toilet-wear.

I wouldn’t try it, I’m sure my appetite wouldn’t be the same in that place, but tourists love this stuff, so Toilet Restaurant is a sure hit.

Image source

If during your net-surfing sessions you stumble across anything (articles, images, videos) that you think would fit on Oddity Central, get involved, fill in the form below and send us the link. We’ll check it out and if it’s interesting we’ll write a post and credit you for the find. Also, if you happen to have personal photos, images or videos of any kind of oddities, hand it over and let the whole world see what you see.

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.

Source

A fountain in Rome holds a car in the air.

This unusual fountain set up in Rome, Italy is the work of Spanish artist Juan Galdeano who wanted to make a statement that would hopefully draw attention to the issue of global warming. The fountain was built to look like it’s sustaining a hatchback Seat Ibiza, when in reality the car is being supported by an intricate installation. Let’s face it, that would have to be quite a powerful jet of water to sustain the car. The fountain is available to the public from June 5 to August 10.

Nice artwork and an important stetment to the world, bravo!

Read More »

Coober Pedy is a place where people like to live underground.

Coober Pedy is a small Australian town, famous for being the opal capital of the world because of the large quantity of opal stones that are mined here. What people don’t know about this place is that the locals mostly like to live underground. A tradition that goes back to the early 1900, when the first miners arrived in the area, cave-boring in the hillsides is still popular. The temperatures here during the Summer are unbearable for some, so they opt for underground living quarters, at approximately the same price as a surface-built house. The first one keeps a constant, cool temperature during the Summer while the second needs air-conditioning. It can get quite cold during the winter, though.

One of the most popular attractions in Coober Pedy are the underground churches.

Read More »

Angel waterfall in South America is the highest waterfall on Earth

Set in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, Angel is also one of the most beautiful falls on the planet. It’s a clear 802 meter drop right into the Kerep River flowing at the base of the falls. The water falls from so high an altitude that it’s turned into mist by the powerful winds, before it even reaches the bottom.

This incredible place was unknown to the outside world until aviator James Crawford Angel spotted it in 1933, while he was looking for a precious ore bed. He tried to land his plane on Ayuan-tepui in 1937 but it got stuck in the muddy ground, so he and three other companions had to descend by foot. It took them 11 days but they finally made it down and were able to tell the world about their incredible adventure, which eventually became popular and the falls were named Angel in his honor.
‘s plane remained there for another 33 years before being lifted out by a helicopter.

Read More »

This is one of the most beautiful glaciers in the world.

Named after explorer Francisco Moreno, Perito Moreno glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The 30 km-long ice formation sometimes advances into the L-shaped”Lago Argentino” acting as a natural dam and separating its two halves. The water on one side of the river rises with up to 30 meters higher above the normal level of the lake, in its attempt to brake the icy barrier. The enormous amount of pressure produced by the pushing waters sometimes breaks the frozen dam in an extraordinary event. This glacier rupture cycle isn’t regular, it occurs between once a year and once in more than a decade, but if you happen to see it, it’s totally worth the wait.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the world’s third largest fresh water reserve.

Read More »

How would you like to see what people in New York are doing all across from London?

The Telectroscope was born from a very old, wacky idea of digging a tunnel to the other side of the world. Many of us had this idea or at least saw it in practice in children’s cartoons but nobody was crazy enough to try it. Nobody except artist Paul St. George who actually did it…sort of. He came across a 19th century article where a reporter misspelled the word electroscope, a device that measures electrostatic charges, and even misunderstood what it does, saying it was a device for the suppression of absence. The idea was a big thing at the time and people’s imagination started working, so St. George thought he’d try to put it in practice.

The Telectroscopes built in London and New York allow passers-by to take a look at what people are doing on the other side of the devices, not through a tunnel built between them but through a trans-Atlantic broadband network and HD cameras. So during the day Londoners can take a look at New York during the night and vice-versa.

The Telectroscope will be available for the public until June 15 and the company that created it wants to host special reunions between family and friends and even a marriage proposal from the other side of the Atlantic.

Read more on this incredible device right here

Read More »

This is the world’s largest hourglass.

Unveiled on May 1st 2004 to commemorate Hungary’s entrance in the European Union, The Time Wheel is made out of red granite, steel and bullet-proof glass and it combines one of humanity’s most primitive time measuring devices with a very precise computer. It lies in Budapest near the entrance to City Park. The sand in the hourglass flows from one side of the device to the other for an entire year and the last grains are programmed to flow exactly at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The flow is then turned manually so that it can start measuring time for another year. It takes 45 minutes for 4 people to turn it 180 degrees using metal cables.

The Time Wheel hourglass was designed by Istvan Janaki.

Read More »

It’s not exactly The Splitting of The Red Sea but it’s pretty close.

Jindo Island, in South Korea, is host to one of the world’s most amazing natural phenomenons, called the Moses Miracle. Two times a year, during a low tide, a land path 2.8 kilometers long and 40 meters wide is revealed, uniting the islands of Jindo and Modo for a period of one hour. A festival is dedicated to this natural wonder and people from all around the world attend every year. However the Moses Miracle was largely unknown until 1975, when a French ambassador visited South Korea and wrote about in a French Newspaper.

The legend behind this Korean phenomenon goes like this: a Jindo village was attacked by tigers and all the villagers ran to Modo island for shelter. All, except for a helpless old woman who was left behind, out of despair she prayed to the Sea God, who split the sea and helped her escape the bloodthirsty animals.

The Moses Miracle just took place on May 18th.

Read More »

It never struck me like a sport for senior citizens but…

Apparently old people love it! at least the ones at Corpus Christi Catholic Home for retired priest and nuns in Melbourne, Australia, do. The over 80 years old athletes have been learning the art of fencing for nine months now, and apparently they are getting quite good at it. One of the care-takers from the home said the old people were a bit reluctant at first but after having a talk with the convincing instructor, they said yes.

Even 93 years old Sister Dolores says she loves the sport, even though she admits it’s a chalenge at her age and she’s always afraid she might fall over.

Read More »

Now this must be fun!

Yves Rossy, a Swiss airplane pilot had a dream many of us share, to fly through the clouds, like a bird, but unlike most of us, he chose to actually do something about it and in 2006 he became the first man to fly with wings and four jet engines strapped to his body. On Wednesday he took to the sky in his amazing vehicle in his first public demonstration in Bex, Switzerland, in the Swiss Alps. The stunt also included an emergency parachute landing, programmed to immediately deploy if he blacks out. It was an amazing 6 minutes-performance that showed the world flying isn’t only done in an airplane.

Rossy is now preparing for a flight over the English Channel and he says he dreams of flying through the Grand Canyon, but for that he needs stronger propulsion engines. Right now, his equipment allows him to fly at about 300km/h, so I wonder what bigger engines can do?

One of the most amazing things about the Fusion Man is that he does all his steering just by using his body, which can get really tricky at high speeds.

Read More »

Not even polar bears can resist watermelons.

If the rest of the polar bears in the world would learn that one of their brothers ate something other than meat, they’d probably lynch him or at least treat him like a pariah. But come on now, I understand him, after all watermelons are so delicious that no one could resist a taste, he just gave in to temptation.

Kind of like the statues on Easter Island aren’t they?

Manpupuner is a mysterious site in the northern Ural mountains, made out of seven rock towers bursting out of the flat plateau, also known as the “7 strong men“. Manpupuner is a very popular attraction in Russia, but not on an international level and information regarding its origin is scarce. We now however that their height and abnormal shapes make the top of these rock giants inaccessible even to experienced rock-climbers. Manpupuner is very hard to reach, it lies in a very harsh environment, but once there you’ll be able to enjoy a view unique in the whole world.

People who have visited this incredible site, say they have no cravings for water, food or rest, they just want to contemplate the 30-80 meter rock towers, where natives say spirits used to gather in ancient times.

Read More »