3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Portland Dog Kissing Contest Will Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth
Star Wars Fan Turns Living Room into Large Scale Battle of Hoth Diorama
The Guinea Pig Festival of Huacho Has Rodents on the Menu

Portland Dog Kissing Contest Will Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 03:31 AM PST

They say a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s but is that any reason to actually kiss your canine, even if it’s on Valentine’s Day? The answer is “YES”, at least according to participants at a dog kissing contest in Portland, Maine.

The 9th Annual Valentine’s Day Dog Kissing Contest took place yesterday, at the Planet Dog Company Store in Portland, and yes, there was a lot of face licking going on. The rules of the adorable/disgusting competition are pretty simple. Owners let their canine pets lick their faces – yes, that includes their lips – and the longest cross-species kiss is declared the winner. The big prize for first place? A $75 gift certificate to the Planet Dog store. So it’s safe to say people who enter the dog kissing contest don’t do it for the money, considering everyone actually has to pay a $5 entrance fee. It’s probably just a great opportunity to show off their dog’s affection or maybe it’s to be part of a charity event (all the proceeds go to the Planet Dog Foundation). If you’re easily grossed out about mouth-to-snout smooching, I recommend you don’t watch the video at the bottom.

Photo: Bangor Daily News

This year’s winners of the Dog Kissing Contest were beau, a 12-year-old Yorkie and dachshund mix, and his owner, Linda Walton. Their very wet kiss lasted 45.8 seconds, which was a few seconds shorter of the nearly full minute smooch that won him first prize last year, but it was enough to lick the competition. Second place went to Sunny, a Staffordshire terrier, and owner Casey Mountain, with a 16.8 second kiss, while Django and owner Erik Boucher came in third with 11.7 seconds.

While most doctors agree there’s not much danger in letting your dog give you a big long kiss, it’s always good to remember an animal’s mouth can host a lot of bacteria, and if you’re not cleaning your pets’ mouths regularly, it’s best not to get too kissy-kissy with them.

Source: Bangor Daily News

Portland Dog Kissing Contest Will Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Star Wars Fan Turns Living Room into Large Scale Battle of Hoth Diorama

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 02:07 AM PST

What would you do if you had 140 feet available in your living room? You’d probably do something lame, like get a couple of armchairs, a sofa and a coffee table right? But then again you’re not an awesome Star Wars fan like Barry “Zipidi Doodah”. He turned his living room into an awe-inspiring diorama of the Battle of Hoth, from the Empire Strikes Back.

Looking at the photos below, you’re probably thinking something like “wow, this guy has sick Photoshop skills”, but the truth is none of the pics are altered in any way. The special effects you see exist in real life and were built by hand, by Barry himself. It’s unbelievable, I know, and I’m not even that big a Star Wars fan. This guy somehow got his wife to agree to let him use the 140-feet living room space, and went on to recreate the iconic Battle of Hoth with almost perfect detail. Giant AT-ATs, Imperial Probe Droids, tauntauns, gun turrets, stormtroopers, gliding starfighters, he has them all right there in his living room. Sure it’s a bit difficult to maneuver around, especially when you’re in a hurry to get to the bathroom, and there are wires hanging from the ceilings to support some of the decor, but like Barry himself admits, nothing attracts the ladies like having a big Star Wars diorama in your living room.

Barry’s home-made Battle of Hoth is still a work in progress; he still has some stuff to add like the shield generator and ion cannon, but it looks amazing just the way it is. For those of you who are into building dioramas, Barry has an excellent tutorial on how to build those realistic-looking explosions with stuff you can find around the house. Take a look at the pics and make sure to pick up your jaw off the floor when you’re done.

Photos: Barry/Facebook

via Nerd Approved

Star Wars Fan Turns Living Room into Large Scale Battle of Hoth Diorama was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

The Guinea Pig Festival of Huacho Has Rodents on the Menu

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 12:33 AM PST

It's funny how a cute and furry pet in one part of the world can be considered a delicacy in another. But that's exactly what guinea pigs are in the small town of Huacho in Peru. In fact, they have a whole festival dedicated to dressing up and cooking the hairy rodents – The Festival of the Guinea Pig, or as the Peruvians call it, the Cavies.

As a part of the festival that has been around since the mid-2000s, guinea pigs are dressed up as kings, miners, peasants, traditional folk singers and also in modern costume for fashion shows. There are prizes for best costume, so every effort is made to impress judges during the show. As cute as they may look in their little outfits, it’s disturbing to know that sometimes, in an effort to make the costumes stay on the guinea pigs, the people of Huacho do not hesitate to use staples. Prizes are handed out for the biggest, fastest, best-dressed and even the tastiest animal of all. Because once the parade is over, it's time to eat the models! The guinea pigs are taken out of their costumes and cooked in various ways, like baking, frying, or roasting on an open flame. The locals love their cavies served whole on a plate – complete with the heads, guts, paws and even claws. Garnishes include tomatoes, cucumbers, Andean potatoes, and large Peruvian corn calledchoclo. And the best way to eat the animal, according to the Peruvian folk, is to pick up the entire guinea pig and simply suck the meat off the bones. A single dish of whole fried or baked guinea pig with all the garnishes costs approximately $7. According to festival visitor, Juan Rojas, "Guinea pig meat is very nourishing and contains lots of vitamins and other things." Native to the high Andes, the meat of guinea pigs is considered to be low in fat and an important source of protein.

Things are changing at the Guinea Pig Festival of Huacho, however, now that tourists are visiting more often. Sometimes, the animals are cooked without the head or the paws, to make them look more palatable and less cringe-worthy. After all, it can’t be too easy to sink your teeth into a cute creature that looks so much like your childhood pet. According to chef Pilar Fox, "Here we are trying to show all the work implied, their breeding, their diet, how we can get a better product, we are trying to present it to the world so that people don't have any prejudices. This is also to give an incentive to the communities who breed Guinea Pigs so they can see that it is a way of life, if they can get a good product they can sell it and try to enter in the international markets." For now, the festival is turning out to be a great attraction for several people who want to try their hand at winning the costume contest and then taste the meat of guinea pigs. And those who do say it tastes like a cross between dark chicken meat and rabbit. Is your mouth watering, yet?

Peruvians eat about 65 million guinea pigs a year, and they created the Guinea Pig Festival of Huacho to give landowners and farmers a chance to meet, close agreements, and to boost the export of the animal to the rest of the country.