‘Professional Back-Scratchers’ Charge Up to $130 Per Hour
The Scratcher Girls is an unconventional relaxation therapy studio that charges clients up to $130 per hour for back-scratching and tracing services so relaxing they can put people to sleep. Over the years, we’ve featured our share of unusual services here on Oddity Central, from renting fat people by the hour to professional cuddling and […]
88-Year-Old Finishes 26-Mile Marathon, Proves Age Is Just a Number
At an age when most people struggle to move around without a cane or a crutch, 88-year-old Ploutarchos Pourliakas just completed his 12th consecutive Athens Marathon (42.195km / 26.22 miles) If you ever need a bit of extra motivation to get up off the couch and go for a jog, remember that an 88-year-old man […]
Living on the Edge in Bolivia’s ‘Suicide Homes’
Hundreds of buildings located on the edge of a steep earthen cliff on the outskirts of El Alto, in Bolivia, have been dubbed “suicide homes” because of the high risk of a devastating landslide. Located on Avenida Panorámica and in La Ceja, one of the busiest commercial areas of the city of El Alto, Bolivia’s […]
Japanese Ultra-Luxury Bottled Water Can Cost Up to $10,000 Per Liter
Fillico Jewelry Water is a Japanese company known for selling one of the most expensive bottled waters in the world, with exclusive limited editions selling for up to $10,000 per bottle. Water is one of the most basic human needs, so marketing and selling it as an ultra-luxury product is a pretty big challenge, even […]
Couple Who Married and Divorced 12 Times in 43 Years Investigated for Fraud
An Austrian couple who married and divorced each other a total of 12 times in the last 43 years is currently under investigation for financial fraud. Police in Vienna, Austria, are currently investigating the bizarre case of a couple who got married and then divorced 12 times over a period of 43 years in order […]
Cash-Strapped Student Extorts Hotels with Dead Cockroches and Used Condoms
A 21-year-old student from Taizhou, China, managed to extort over 60 different hotels for free stays and financial compensation by creating fake hygiene problems and promising to take actions against them. Jiang, a resident of Taizhou City, in China’s Zhejiang Province, came up with a particularly gross way of funding his traveling habit when he […]
Man Spends 3 Days Stuck in Well Because People Mistook His Cries for Ghost Wailing
A 22-year-old man spent three days trapped at the bottom of a 12-meter-deep well because villagers who heard his cries for help thought he was a wailing ghost and wouldn’t approach the well. It’s unclear what Liu Chuanyi, a young Chinese national, was doing in the forest on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, but […]
Young Thai Singer Allegedly Dies After Getting Neck-Twisting Massage
The whole of Thailand was shaken by the death of a young singer as a result of getting a neck-twisting massage that left her with a herniated spine disk in her neck. Doctors in Thailand started issuing warnings against getting neck-twisting massages after the tragic death of Phing Chyada, a young woman from Udon Thani […]
Chinese Police Introduces Autonomous Spherical Patrol Robot
Viral videos shared on Chinese social media show human law enforcement patrolling the streets alongside AI-powered spherical robots capable of detecting and stopping crime. A couple of months ago, Chinese robotics company Logon Technology unveiled the RT-G autonomous spherical robot, a “technological breakthrough” designed to assist and even replace humans in dangerous environments and situations. […]
Man Who Doesn’t Speak Spanish Wins Spanish-Language Scrabble World Championship
Nigel Richards, a 57-year-old New Zealand scrabble phenom, recently won the 2024 Spanish-Language Scrabble World Championship despite not speaking the language at all. It’s been almost a decade since we first wrote about the talented Mr. Nigel Richards; He had just won the 2015 French-Language Scrabble Championship despite being completely unable to have a conversation […]
Respected Italian Nun Arrested for Working with Infamous Mafia Family
Sister Anna Donelli, a respected nurse from northern Italy, was recently arrested under suspicion of having colluded with a powerful clan of the ‘Ndragheta mafia family. The arrest of 57-year-old Anna Donelli, a respected nun and recent recipient of the Golden Panettone, an annual Milanese civic award, for her volunteer work in prisons and in […]
Death Clock – The Controversial AI-Powered App That Predicts When You Die
Death Clock is an innovative app that uses artificial intelligence to accurately predict a person’s life expectancy based on a number of factors like diet, exercise level and sleeping habits. We’re all going to die someday, but wouldn’t it be nice to have an idea of when that will be? Many people would probably answer […]
Man Spends 21 Days in Jail After Police Mistake Talcum Powder for Drugs
An Argentinian man was wrongfully imprisoned after police mistook 18 containers of talcum powder for cocaine and it took three weeks to analyze the true nature of the substance. In early October, Maximiliano Acosta got on a bus in the town of Mendoza towards the capital, Buenos Aires. Shortly after, the bus was stopped in […]
Japanese Bank Executives Vow to Pay with Their Lives if Found Guilty of Irregularities
Shikoku Bank’s leadership has come up with a bizarre way of reassuring clients of its commitment – promising to pay with their lives if found guilty of ‘financial irregularities’. Banking executives are always held to high ethical standards, considering that they handle the wealth of thousands, sometimes millions of people, but while they face serious […]
Star1 – The World’s Fastest Humanoid Robot
Chinese robotics company Robot Era recently unveiled Star1, the world’s fastest bipedal robot capable of reaching and maintaining speeds of up to 8 mph (12.98 km/h). Photos and videos of a sneaker-wearing robot running through the Gobi Desert went viral on Chinese social media last month, inspiring all sorts of humorous comments from the public, […]