Whether you’re looking for a fun way to get BACK into sport, spice up your boring training or struggling to escape constant injuries, there’s no better way to do it than retro running.

Running backwards may look like a weird, unnatural way to move, but it’s apparently very beneficial for the human body. In fact, the Chinese have been practicing walking and running backwards for thousands of years as a way of staying in shape and reducing the risk of injuries. It wasn’t until the 20th century that retro running developed in the United States, but today it’s recognized as a very efficient workout by many fitness gurus and athletics experts, and competitions are regularly organized all around the world.

Photo: Men Media

If it weren’t for people being to embarrassed to give backwards running a try in public, they’d be able to enjoy a much more efficient and healthier training than regular jogging. Garret Doherty, a retro running champion, explains that the sport burns three times more calories than forward running because it uses more muscles. Also, instead of landing heel to toe, which is known to affect joints in the long run, in retro running you land on the correct part of your feet, which helps ligaments and ankle bones. In forward running, it’s the muscles in your lower back that get all the workout, while in backwards running it’s the muscles in the lower abdomen that do all the work. Very few people know that retro running can actually prevent a lot of injuries and is also used for athletes recovering from injuries, because it balances out the strain caused by forward running.

Because walking or running backwards doesn’t really come naturally to humans, you’re likely to find it a little cumbersome at first, but you’ll get used it quite quickly with a bit of practice. Just start by walking backwards and gradually speed up. Obviously, not seeing where you’re going can be a problem, especially if you’re not familiar with the terrain, so it’s recommended you have a forward-running friend with you, to act as your eyes, while you concentrate on your workout. Tripping in backwards running can be dangerous, so it’s best to learn how to drop in a backward roll, in order to avoid any serious injuries.

Retro Running – The Fine Art of Putting One Foot Behind the Other was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Beijing Sets “2 Flies”Limit for Public Toilets (BBC)

British Farmers Use Sun Cream to Save Piglets’ Bacon (Cumbria Crack)

Fujairah’s Amazing Bullfighting Tradition (Environmental Graffiti)

World’s Smallest Artificial Heart Saves Baby’s Life (Geekologie)

World’s Meatiest Sandwich Has 41 Different Cuts of Meat (Daily Mail)

Stuntman Skydives without Parachute (YouTube)

Zillion Dollar Fritata – World’s Most Expensive Omlet (Mirror)

Man Rides Mountain Bike Down 1,000 Steps (Newslite)

Delicately-Crafted Glass Sculptures (My Modern Met)

15 Freakish Creatures from the Depths of the Russian White Sea (Environmental Graffiti)

Coolest Finds of the Week #40 was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Mao Sugiyama, a young Japanese illustrator from Tokyo, recently made headlines after he decided to have his genitalia removed. To top it off, he offered to sell his organs as a cooked meal, for ¥100,000 ($1.250). Six people pre-ordered…

“Please retweet. I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen…. I will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location.” This was the tweet that started it all. Sugiyama, who calls himself an ‘asexual’, is a 22-year-old illustrator who aspires to be so devoid of sexual features that he will be able to publicly wear transparent clothing. To achieve his goal, the young man decided to remove all his genitalia. For the sake of argument, let’s just say you could somehow understand his wish, but what comes next is even more shocking. At first, he considered consuming his own genitals, but later decided to offer them up on Twitter, for ¥100,000 to the first person or group interested. He got six orders…

Mao Sugiyama

After his tweet went viral, Mao announced he was organizing a public banquet, in which he would cook and serve his own organs as per the request of his clients. Called “Ham Cybele – Century Banquet”, the event took place at the Asagaya Loft A event space, in the Suginami Ward of Tokyo. If you’re pondering the name of the event, Cybele is the name of an Anatolian goddess whose priests were all eunuchs, while “century” is a homophone for the Japanese word “genitals”. The day before the event, the artist tweeted “I’m starting to thaw them out” along with a very graphic photo. On April 13, a crowd of about 70 people showed up at the banquet location. One of the six buyers was a no-show, but the rest were ready to get what they had paid for.

Photo from Ham Cybele – Century Banquet

Dressed as a cook, Mao Sugiyama sliced and cooked his own genitalia and served it to his curious customers. Calorie Lab, the website that broke the news in the US, thoroughly describes the look and taste of the ‘dishes’ and even has some photos of them. I’m not going to go into details here, but I can say the guest found them almost inedible. In order to be completely devoid of any sexual features, Sugiyama also removed his nipples and was planning on serving them as well, but after burning them with sodium hydroxide, there was apparently not much left to cook.

Before going through with the banquet, the Japanese illustrator had himself tested for sexual diseases. The five people crazy enough to eat his genitalia also had to sign a waver releasing Sugiyama and the organizers of the event from any liability arising from the consumption of human genitals. Since the whole event, Sugiyama has been constantly defending his actions and answering questions on Twitter. He’s talking about his operation, his decision and the corset he’s currently wearing to help maintain an androgynous shape as his female hormone therapy progresses.

After news of this bizarre event became popular in Japan, the Tokyo police was apparently notified by concerned citizens, but hey were unable to pursue the matter because there is no law against cannibalism in Japan. I think that’s probably weirder than Mao’s story… However, a police spokesman said, “We’re going to talk to the people at Asagaya Loft A and ask them what is going on and why they hosted such an event.” Good luck with that!

via Huffington Post

SHOCKING: Tokyo Illustrator Has Genitals Removed, Cooks and Serves Them at Public Banquet was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Los Angeles-based Cecilia Webber takes nude photos of the human body and assembles them in the shape of flowers and butterflies, to create some of the most stunning images you’ve ever seen.

Three years ago, Cecilia Webber was a neuroscience graduate from USC, working in the lab all day and indulging in photography in her spare time. And then one day, it happened… “It was an accident, really,” the young artist told Modern Luxury. “I shot a nude figure against a black background and it looked so much like a petal I just went with it.” A Photoshop expert, Webber began layering hundreds of photographs she shot into a single piece to create vibrantly colored flowers made up entirely of the human body. Legs became petals, arms became stamen, and she kept finding new ways of turning instances of the human form into parts of her unique flowers.

But while she does use Photoshop to create her stunning images, Webber’s work isn’t as easy as you might think. The production process requires serious sketching and planning to figure out exactly what kind of poses are needed for each project. She often takes over 50 photos of a single pose to make sure she achieves the perfect form. Then comes the hard part – digitally cutting, rotating, coloring and assembling the human nudes into complex flowers. She layers up to 700 images to achieve the desired effect and sometimes works as long as two months on a single piece. But all that hard work pays off in the end, as the finished pieces are always stunning to look at.

The most difficult part is orchestrating the relationships between the different poses,
and thinking of the human body as a three dimensional object collapsed into a 2D plane to form a shape‘ Webber says. She has recently created series on birds and butterflies out of human nudes and plans an entire exhibition on sea creatures.

Photos are copyright of Cecilia Webber

Cecilia Webber Uses Naked Bodies to Create Human Flowers was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

They say you can’t put a price on love, but a mysterious Chinese millionaire is trying to prove everyone wrong by spending a matchmaking service 5 million yuan( $788,000) to find him a suitable wife.

On May 20th, the Garden Hotel, in China’s Guangzhou City, hosted a special event entitled “Multi-Millionaire Seeking Spouses in Ten Cities Show”. The ‘show’ was basically a competition between 320 female candidates battling for the heart of a mystery billionaire looking to settle down. According to China Smack, the anonymous businessman contacted a local matchmaking service and offered them 5 million yuan to look for the women of his dreams, in 10 cities nationwide. Just like other important bachelors we’ve featured on OC, he’s probably too busy to look for love himself.

Sounds like easy money for the matchmaking business, but the billionaire also has a few standards his would-be wife has to meet: she must be between 20 – 26 years old, weigh around 50 kg, be no shorter than 162cm and no taller that 170cm,  she must have above junior college education, be good-looking, have a nice figure, and most importantly, she must have a pure body (be a virgin). In order to get the girls attention, the guy revealed a little something about himself: he’s under 50 years of age, is a well-known Chinese entrepreneur, enjoys golf, has a strong healthy body. Come on, how could a girl resist that?

The 320 women who participated in the Multi-Millionaire Seeking Spouses in Ten Cities Show were chosen from 2,800 applicants who hoped they could melt the heart of the anonymous billionaire. The girls were thoroughly screened by employees of the matchmaking firm, to make sure they fit the requirements of their employer. To improve their chances of finding the perfect candidates, matchmakers decided to outsource some of the work, by setting up a “Talent Scout Award”. Anyone who knows a girl who might have a chance to impress the entrepreneur should recommend her to the dating service, and if the girl is invited on a first date, they get a 50,000 yuan ($7,882) commission. Should she become the lucky wife of the billionaire, the person who recommended her will get a 3 million yuan ($473,000) residential apartment as prize.

Asked about the ‘pure body’ requirement, most of the candidates said they didn’t have a problem with it, but there was one who expressed her concerns, should an examination be required as well. Another girl didn’t seem too worried about that, saying anyone could pass that with the help of reconstructive surgery. I don’t know how you guys feel about this, but the fact of paying for a ‘pure wife’ seems totally wrong to me… One has to ask the question, if these girls came for the money, can they still be pure?

This kind of matchmaking events for the rich have been rather popular in recent years, and a school for gold diggers has opened in Beijing for the sole purpose of teaching women how to land wealthy, powerful men…

Chinese Billionaire Pays $800,000 to Find ‘Pure Wife’ was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Footbrawl is a controversial team sport invented during the late 1980s, in Australia, as a training aid for martial arts students. Despite violence concerns, footbrawl has been growing in popularity and may soon become an internationally played sport.

New Martial Arts Football, or Footbrawl, is a full contact sport in which participants have to fight to score and survive the game in one piece. As in many other sports around the world, the main goal of footbrawl is to get the ball into the net and score more points than the opposing team, only that’s not as easy as you might think. Combining elements of mixed martial arts, football, rugby and even ice hockey, footbrawl is a unique game that gives “footbrawlers the chance to let off some steam without any serious injuries, and offers spectators an unforgettable spectacle of non-stop thrilling action.

The history of footbrawl can be traced back to the late 80s, when Queensland martial arts instructor Glen Parmley started looking for a more realistic training aid for his students. At first, footbrawl was played in a church hall with a doorway as the goal on one side and a tressel table placed length-ways on the other. The original footbrawl ball was a rolled up uniform tied with a belt, and most of the games were played without any kind of protection, on a wooden floor. Despite the rudimentary equipment and the violent nature of the sport, Parmley noticed footbrawl didn’t attract a high rate of injuries, thanks to the strict rules and code of conduct that he had thought up. It was a humble beginning for this innovative sport, but it was certainly promising.

Footbrawl has come a long way since the 80s, and thanks to a series of additions it has evolved into a spectacular show, for both footbrawlers and spectators. A game of footbrawl is played between two teams of five players and three referees. All participants are equipped with protective gear like helmets and chest pads, and the goalies of each side are ‘armed’ with padded sticks, called Brawler BOs. Like in basketball, the ball is thrown into the air by a referee, and from there on, all Hell breaks lose onto the field. Footbrawlers are allowed to kick, punch and throw their opponents in order to get the ball and score points. They can either throw or kick the ball into the net, but they’re also allowed to pick up whoever is carrying the ball and just hurl them into the goal for points, if they can.

What people love most about footbrawl is the freedom that they can do almost whatever they like on the field. Players can punch and kick their opponents (as long as it’s only in the padded areas), throw them or catch them in arm and leg locks or chokes. Goalies have even more freedom, because they can use the Brawler BOs to hit whatever part of their opponents’ body they like, in order to guard the goal, including the face and legs.

“It’s exactly like a street fight”, one footbrawler says about the sport, it just allows you to let out all that aggression. Although the main goal of the sport is to score points, some guys don’t even care about the ball, they go straight for kicks and punches. Kids as young as six are practicing the sport, but not everyone feels it’s just fun and games. Some say it sends out the message that violence is ok on a sporting field, when it’s not, but organizers say footbrawl is well managed, and its strict code of conduct keeps players from going too far.

Despite all the controversy surrounding Footbrawl, it’s becoming quite popular in the Land Down Under, and world championships may become a reality in just two years time.

If you like this kind of sport, you may want to check out comBATON, another version of martial arts football.

Footbrawl – A Sport That Combines Football, Martial Arts, and Rugby was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

I love splash photography, but this is the first time I’ve seen an artist using this technique to create unique flowers, some with their own liquid flower pots. The patient man behind this amazing art is Jack Long, a talented photographer who spends months planning and experimenting to create these stunning pieces.

Armed with superhuman patience, a high-speed camera and lots of paint, Jack Long set out to create a series of beautiful images called ‘Vessels and Blooms’ in which he tried to create liquid flowers out of colored paint droplets captured in mid-air. The skilled photographer spent several months planning and testing different techniques in order to achieve the best results possible, and judging by his photos, I’d say his work paid off in the end.

Photo © Jack Long

The clever artist uses water mixed with dyes, pigments and thickeners and as this cocktail is suspended in the air for just a split second, he takes high-speed photos hoping to capture the right moment. Jack won’t reveal the exact technique used to create his paint flowers, though. “This series was a culmination of months of planning and testing. Hundreds of captures are made in testing and then many more during the actual final capture stage. A very few stand out as being the best,” the artist from Wisconsin said about his latest series.

Photo © Jack Long

You’re probably looking at these gorgeous liquid flowers and thinking ‘wow, these are so Photoshopped’, and I don’t blame you, but Jack Long says he uses the popular software just to clean up his photos and enhance them with basic tools. ’All of my images are created in one single capture. One picture. I do not make composites from multiple images, unless otherwise noted. All of my fluid flowers are as captured,” says the American photographer. He adds that the thing he likes most about his art is that it’s different from other splash photography.

Photo © Jack Long

Photo © Jack Long

Photo © Jack Long

Photo © Jack Long

For more mind-blowing liquid flowers and other examples of brilliant splash photography, check out Jack Long’s Flickr profile and 500px page. You won’t regret it!

Stunning Flowers Are Actually Paint Splashes Photographed at the Right Time was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

If a 7.8 earthquake happened during lunch time, most of us would forget about food and run for our lives, but at the Disaster Café, in Lloret de Mar, Spain, quakes happen all the time, and all you can do is try to keep your balance and hope drinks don’t get spilled.

Normally, people are terrified of earthquakes, but at the Disaster Café, people actually pay to experience a simulated 7.8 quake while they enjoy a tasty meal. I’ve never been, but according to online customer reviews, the place is so popular you actually need to make reservations in advance, in order to be get a table. I guess people’s appetite for disaster is stronger than I thought.

From the outside, the Disaster Café looks very ordinary and certainly doesn’t show any real warnings about what goes on inside. As you enter, you realize the ground level is an alien-themed restaurant for kids, decorated as a spaceship. During the weekends, little ones can enjoy a show with wacky aliens and lots of fun activities, but for the grown ups, the fun stuff happens below ground. An elevator takes thrill-seeking customers to “the depths of the Earth”, where they’re be seated in a cave-like restaurant. The first odd thing you’ll notice is the staff wearing construction helmets and other safety equipment, then when the food comes, you’ll realize that, for some reason, dishes are a lot heavier than normal. Something is definitely going on, but you’re not going to waste time thinking about it with all that delicious food waiting to be devoured. And then it happens…

You always have to be on your toes at Disaster Café, because you never know when disaster strikes. Here, it’s always in the form of a simulated 7.8 earthquake that shakes the place up pretty good. Lights start to go out, women begin screaming, chairs, tables and pretty much everything in the room starts moving and there’s nothing you can do but wait it out and hope for the best. Unlike during natural quakes of this magnitude, there are never any serious injuries at Disaster Café. In fact all you have to remember is not to wear you’re finest outfit, because spilled drinks and food are very common here. The heavy dishes will stop your meal from flying off the table, but accidents do happen quite often.

You’ll be too scared to savor it, waiting for the tremor, but the food at Disaster Café is apparently pretty good and if you throw in the unforgettable adrenalin rush, this place is definitely worth a visit the next time you’re in Costa Brava, Spain.

Disaster Café – Where Every Meal Comes with a 7.8 Earthquake was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Making the impossible possible is just a matter of time, according to Dmitry Itskov and the people involved in his project, called Russia 2045. It’s by that time they hope to recreate a whole new civilization with the help of android avatars into which to transfer humans’ personalities after their bodies die.

It sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, but Russia 2045 is a real project, with a team of real scientists working on a way to make us all immortal. It was founded by Dmitry Itskov, a man who’s been doing media projects, especially on the Internet, for the last 12 years. At one point he became interested in the prolongation of life and the idea of immortality through cybernetic technology. Neither a scientist nor a philosopher, he had no idea how to expand on these ideas to attain the ultimate goal of attaining immortality,  but he used his skills to create a social movement with the goal of connecting scientists, philosophers,visionaries and public figures to work on this common goal. They’ve already started working on androids, or human avatars, that will soon replace us physically, but carry on our spiritual and intellectual legacy.

This might sound like sci-fi now, but according to propaganda material from Russia 2045, by the year 2015 humanoid robot avatars will be as popular as cars are today. By 2020, this robotic copy of a human being will be remote-controlled via BCI (Brain Computer Interface), and by 2025 we’ll be able to transfer a person’t brain into one of these avatars, after they die. By 2035 these androids will be so advanced they’ll be able to support a human’s personality as well (Data himself would be jealous), and finally, in 2045, humanity will have created holographic avatars able to carry our legacy beyond the stars and practically render us immortal. I sure hope they’re calculations are correct, because if everything goes well, I’ll still be around in 2045, and I can certainly see myself as a handsome hologram.

To begin with, scientists from Russia 2045 have presented half of an android that looks like a creepy robotic version of Dmitry Itskov. It has some basic face recognition functions and can move its arms, but the project is clearly in the early stages of development. It can’t even blink yet, but its creators are confident they can get it to walk in a year or two. I have to say this is hardly enough evidence Russia 2045 will reach its goal in due time, but they certainly are very optimistic about it.

What has the organization accomplished so far, except that half android, you ask? Well, they’ve managed to recruit 5,000 members from different countries, defined various projects and even started working on some, got the support of the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science, and most importantly, they got Steven Seagal to write an open later to the Russian Prime Minister inviting him to cooperate. No, it’s not a joke, THE Steven Seagal supports Russia 2045, so there must be something to it. Medvedev/Putin (which one of them is prime minister these days) better lend a hand or they’ll have one of Hollywood’s worst actors to answer to.

On the Russia 2045 website and in his propaganda materials, Itskov has a way of making everything sound very believable, but I remember those old 50s and 60s shows that predicted moon colonies and flying cars by 2000, so I’m a bit skeptical about all this. But the Russian media professional appears convinced of the success of his pet project. He believes “it is our right to be free and immortal” and says he’s ready to dedicate his entire life to realizing this dream. More power to you, dude, and don’t forget about my hologram avatar!

We’ve posted three videos by Russia 2045, but you can learn a lot more about their vision and goals, by visiting their official site and reading this particular article.

via Plastic Pals

Russia 2045 Claims Immortality Is Just a Few Years Away was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Finger wrestling, or “fingerhakeln”, used to be the way the men of Bavaria settled disputes back in the 17th century, but now it’s just an obscure sport that draws hundreds of strong men to the German region, for the annual Finger Wrestling Championship.

Now, I knew about thumb wrestling and toe wrestling, but I was totally oblivious to finger wrestling. That’s probably because it never caught on outside Bavaria, but the men there take it so seriously they even have a championship to determine which one has the strongest middle finger. The 35th edition of the annual Finger Wrestling Championship was held in Schnaitsee, Chiemgau, right in the heart of Bavaria, and brought together 156 competitors ready to snap their fingers for the title of champion.

The rules of finger wrestling are pretty simple. Two contestants, usually men, sit on opposite sides of a wooden table and thread one of their fingers into a strap. Once in position, they wait for the referee’s signal to pull with all their strength, hoping to pull the other person across the table and win the match. They can only use one of their fingers and most prefer the middle one, because of its size and strength. Although it seems like a silly game, contestants train hard to prepare their fingers for the annual event. Some prefer to squeeze tennis balls, while other choose to sustain their whole body weight with one finger, or do a crazy number of single-finger press-ups.

In the 2012 edition of the Bavarian Finger Wrestling Championship, contestants participated in nine different categories, dressed in Leiderhosen, the national dress of Germany. Like in most other competitive sports, it was the heavyweight category match-ups that sparked the interest of the over 400 spectators present in Schnaitsee. It was Josef Utzschneider, from Werdenfels, in southern Germany, who had the strongest finger this year, with Andreas Lindenthaler finishing as runner up.

via 3News

Test Your Middle Finger at the Bavarian Finger Wrestling Championship was originally posted at OddityCentral.com