Oddity Central |
- Monkey-Man Keinichi Ito – The Fastest Man on All Fours
- Man Tries Out To Become Cheerleader for Denver Broncos
- Dutch Insect Cookbook Will Have You Eat Bugs
- Japanese Goggles Make Food Look Bigger, Help You Lose Weight
| Monkey-Man Keinichi Ito – The Fastest Man on All Fours Posted: 20 Apr 2012 03:36 AM PDT
29-year-old Kenichi Ito, from Tokyo, says he has loved monkeys ever since he was a child. He has always been able to identify with animals, and harbored an ambition to adopt one of their traits. His deep desire has been fulfilled, now that he is actually able to move around quite comfortably on all fours, just like a monkey. It all started one day when he witnessed a monkey running quickly. From that point on, he claims he practiced running like the animal every day, until he became the fastest man on all fours. “You know, my face and body kind of look like a monkey, so from a young age everybody used to tease me, saying ‘monkey, monkey,’” Ito said in his neat apartment, sitting in front of a large poster of a chimpanzee. But I wasn’t really bothered because I really liked them, and somewhere inside of me I had this ambition to adopt one of their traits. When I saw a monkey that could run fast, I knew I’d found it – and from that point on I practiced running like a monkey every day,” Keinichi Ito says about how it all started.
Photo: BBC (caption) It took Ito about eight-and-a-half years, but he has managed to develop a unique style of running, inspired by the African Patas monkey. All these years, he performed his household chores and moved about his neighborhood on all fours. He would even squat while talking to other people. In time, he developed five different styles of moving on four limbs. The speedy gallop earned him a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 m run on all fours., which took him only 18.58 seconds. That's really fast, probably faster than I can run on my two legs, in fact.
The monkey-man does attract stares for his strange form of movement, but that's the least of his worries. There was a time when he was practicing in the mountains and a hunter almost shot Ito, mistaking him for a wild boar. Ito isn't completely alone, though. He has a few other four-legged running fanatic friends with whom he has occasional races. They even bring in cats and dogs to add to the fun. A well-trained dog can usually outrun the humans. Obviously, you can't beat animals at their own game, now can you? via Global Post Monkey-Man Keinichi Ito – The Fastest Man on All Fours was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Man Tries Out To Become Cheerleader for Denver Broncos Posted: 20 Apr 2012 03:21 AM PDT
I don't think there are any rules against men becoming cheerleaders. But even if there was one, it wouldn't stop Sacha Heppel, from Colorado, whose dream is to join the ranks of professional NFL cheerleaders. His current mission, to become the first male cheerleader for the Denver Broncos, however, fizzled out when he was rejected by the judges. Heppel competed with 200 other women at the first round of the 2012 Denver Broncos Cheerleader tryouts last Sunday, dressed in a turquoise shirt and tight fitting black pants. Heppel's love for dance is what compelled him to try cheerleading. He is not a professional dancer, although he enjoys it very much. "When I dance, I lose myself," he says. His previous job involved standing at a street corner with a sign where would do several dance routines to keep people entertained. He was disappointed when he didn't make the cut, but he says he will try hard again next year.
One might wonder if Heppel was discriminated against, on the basis of his gender, but Broncos Cheerleaders director Teresa Shear says he was treated equally to all other participants. The required turns, leaps and kicks and even simple choreography were explained to him before he gave his audition, but he still couldn't make it. The NFL has never employed a male cheerleader, although Heppel isn't the first to try. It will be quite interesting to see who will eventually become the first male cheerleader of NFL. Heppel's dancing wan’t awful, but looking at the audition video, you can clearly see he isn’t cheerleader material, yet.
via NY Daily News Man Tries Out To Become Cheerleader for Denver Broncos was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Dutch Insect Cookbook Will Have You Eat Bugs Posted: 20 Apr 2012 03:07 AM PDT
Some people will eat anything that moves or even crawls. While the rest of us are wrinkling our noses at them, they're actually at an advantage, because insects are considered to be very rich in proteins. A group of Dutch insect munchers love their creepy crawly snacks so much they’re releasing a special Insect Cookbook, next week. Their creation is said to be dedicated to promoting insects as a great source of nourishment. I haven't read it myself, but I've heard it contains some pretty unique recipes like how to add worms to your chocolate muffin mix, or grasshoppers on a mushroom risotto. For obvious reasons, many people aren’t too enthusiastic about the Insect Cookbook, but a few feel that it couldn't be coming out at a better time. According to Marcel Dicke, a professor at Wageningen University, the world population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, and there may not be sufficient land to raise livestock that meets everybody's needs. We might just have to turn to bugs as a protein alternative. The university also said the nutritional value of insects is quite similar to that of meat, and it is more environmentally friendly to raise insects instead of livestock. "I see this as the next step towards the introduction of insects on restaurant menus in the Netherlands. I also expect people to buy the book and start cooking with insects at home," says Dicke. However, he does admit that there might be some resistance towards insect foods, especially from the countries where people consume large portions of meat.
Photo: Michael Kooren/REUTERS For the launch of the book, Henk van Gulp, a Dutch chef who specializes in insect recipes, is planning to bake the world's biggest grasshopper pie. There's also a restaurant in the town of Haarlem, Spectakel, where a five-course menu of insect dishes was served in the past month. One of this month's specials is meat pie sprinkled with nuts, seeds, and of course, worms. Even so, Spectakel's chef, Mark Van Kimmenaede, doesn’t think insect food is going to take off too soon and the peculiar taste of insects is to blame for this. "It does not go well with fish, for example," he says. "It is nice to have one or two dishes with insects on the menu, but it has to stay fun." Perhaps the chef does not realize that the Chinese could be his biggest customers. They serve all kinds of creepy crawlers as fast food.
Photo: Michael Kooren/REUTERS Insect-based cuisine isn’t something new. According to Daniella Martin, the host of web-based cooking show Girl Eats Bug, 80% of the world’s cultures eat bugs. I think that may be a slight exaggeration on her part, but if this cookbook becomes a hit, we might see a growing interest in these crunchy delicacies.
Source: Reuters Dutch Insect Cookbook Will Have You Eat Bugs was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Japanese Goggles Make Food Look Bigger, Help You Lose Weight Posted: 20 Apr 2012 02:25 AM PDT
A team of Japanese researchers at Tokyo University have invented a pair of “slimming goggles” that make food look larger to help you eat less and thus lose weight. Sounds simple and effective, doesn’t it? We’ve posted our share of wacky Japanese inventions, here on Oddity Central, from the creepy anti-aging mouthpiece and the brainwave-controlled Necomimi to the poop-powered toilet bike. But this latest creation might be a bit hard to swallow, literally, because it makes food look 50% bigger. Professor Michitaka Hirose and his team of researchers at Tokyo University have created a pair of special goggles that can be set to make food look bigger or smaller, while keeping your hands and surroundings at their original sizes. This supposedly tricks you into eating less and ultimately helps you shed some of that extra weight.
According to its creators, the pair of goggles actually works. After testing them on a group of 2 men and women, the researchers found that the slimming goggles helped the subject eat 9.3% less cookies than normal, when the tasty treats were shown 50% larger. They also got an interesting result when they set the invention to reduce the size of the cookies by 33%. The people wearing the goggles ate 15% more cookies than those not wearing them.
Although the Japanese don’t really have a serious obesity problem, their invention could prove to be a godsend for the Western world, if it ever goes into production. I know I’d wear these babies if it means never having to go through diets ever again. via The Verge Japanese Goggles Make Food Look Bigger, Help You Lose Weight was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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