Oddity Central |
- Ukrainian Artist Creates Fantastic Religious Icons from Millions of Knots
- Master Seducer Is Paid To Catch Cheating Girlfriends
- TV Channel for Canines Proves Television Is Going to the Dogs
- Woman Has Eaten Nothing but Pizza for the Last 31 Years
| Ukrainian Artist Creates Fantastic Religious Icons from Millions of Knots Posted: 21 Feb 2012 03:49 AM PST
Using a special knot weaving technique called macrame, Ukrainian artist Vladimir Denshchikov creates mind-blowing religious icons made almost entirely of linen thread. Born on July 1, 1952 in Kiev, Vladimir Denshchikov graduated the Kiev Theater University and went on to become and actor. He worked his way up to director and artistic director of the Simferopol Crimea Maxim Gorky Academic Russian Drama Theater, and since 2007 he has been teaching acting and directing at the Simferopol Institute of Culture. Quite an impressive professional career, but this national artist of the Ukraine is mostly known for his unique hobby – making incredibly detailed religious icons from linen thread, using a technique called “macrame”. Only the faces and hands of the saints in Denshchikov’s icons are painted on canvas, everything else is made from millions of linen knots. The artist doesn’t use any tools, like needles or crochets to make the knots, all the patterns and details are created directly by hand. The material used for these incredible artworks is created by the artist himself: he takes a piece of pure linen cloth (a fabric associated with Orthodox Faith), soaks it in water and takes it apart one string at a time. He uses linen threads between 0.5 and 2 meters long and works between 3 and 6 months on a single 40×50 cm icon. It might sound like a long time, but let’s not forget one of these things numbers up to nine million tiny knots, each made by hand. In 2007, Vladimir Denshchikov suffered a stroke, right before a theatrical premiere, which led to his taking a teaching job at the Simferopol Institute of Culture. While recuperating from this terrible condition, the artist continued working on an icon for the church of Malorechenskoye village, and as he struggled to weave little knots, he felt his partially paralyzed hand moving ever more freely, as if God was guiding it Himself. The artist made a miraculous recovery and continues to create wonderful macrame artworks.
Source: Arthit.ru Ukrainian Artist Creates Fantastic Religious Icons from Millions of Knots was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Master Seducer Is Paid To Catch Cheating Girlfriends Posted: 21 Feb 2012 02:45 AM PST
Men certainly seem to be willing to dish out large sums of money for love-related services. First it was to hire wingmen and then for breaking up. Now it's the turn of all the jealous boyfriends and husbands out there to spend some cash and prove their women are cheats. If you're thinking detective agency, you're wrong. Men are actually hiring this guy to directly flirt with and seduce women in order to prove their betrayal. The man who makes this possible is Jack Knowles, a handsome young Englishman. He has been working in stealth for men of varying ages and backgrounds for the past two years, and has so far made a whopping £200,000 ($315,000). The work that pays so well even has a name – Honey-Trapping. The master seducer works his charm on unsuspecting women; if they respond, it's break-up time for the couple in question. If the woman brushes him off, the relationship is effectively saved. Being cheated on himself, Jack could totally relate to his first customer. In 2009, he split up with his high-school sweetheart of two years. While he thought of her as his soul mate, she apparently thought nothing of cheating on him. Just a few weeks after the break-up, he was approached by a man at a nightclub in Birmingham. Jack had no idea about honey-trapping then. "He told me he thought I was a good looking guy. He then explained his wife was on a night out down the road and asked if I could flirt with her to see if she reciprocated and then let him know the answer," says Jack. The stranger offered him £100 in return for the favor. Given his recent bitter experience, Jack could completely empathize with the man and decided to help him out. Thankfully the woman never responded to his advances and the relationship was saved. After the incident, Jack realized that he could make good money this way. So in December 2009 he set up a website and advertised his company on Google. A week later, he had a client. After six months, he didn't even need to promote himself on the internet anymore, since people were coming in through word-of-mouth. He now has a steady stream of clients and charges according to the area. Since Birmingham is nearby, the rates are only about £300, but for far off places the prices would be higher and may include hotel expenses. In two years of honey-trapping, Jack has met all kinds of people. He did catch a few cheaters, like this wife of a top businessman who took Jack into her hotel room to spend the night. It wasn't a happy night when the jealous husband walked right in on them. But the strangest case was from a woman who wanted him to check if her lesbian lover was actually straight. Finding it too weird, he refused the job. Jack says his work doesn't affect his own love-life. The few girlfriends he's had have not been jealous since he's a professional and serious about his job. All said and done, Jack still believes in love. "I may be looking for love cheats but I am hoping to meet one girl that makes me realize that there is such a thing as true love." Until then, if any of you ladies out there find this man approaching you at a night-club, run for your life! via Daily Mail Master Seducer Is Paid To Catch Cheating Girlfriends was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| TV Channel for Canines Proves Television Is Going to the Dogs Posted: 21 Feb 2012 02:16 AM PST
Television in San Diego is going to the dogs. No, really. They have a new 24-hour channel that's just meant to keep dogs company when the owners are out of the house. DOGTV was launched on Time Warner and Cox digital cable systems last week. It's not uncommon for dogs to feel lonely when their masters leave the house, and some even wreck things out of anxiety. According to Gilad Neumann, CEO of DOGTV, there are several other behavioral issues that dogs develop due to loneliness. He says dogs experience stress too, and leaving the TV on for them could provide some comfort. So what kind of programs do dogs like to watch? Obviously, ones with other dogs. There are programs of dogs playing with balls, meant to stimulate pets, and dogs sleeping, meant to relax them. Since the concept is still very new, it's difficult to say if pets will really be interested in the channel or not. While Neumann says that it is intended to create a soothing and relaxing environment for dogs, professor of animal behavior Dr. Katherine Houpt thinks that the channel is not likely to be successful. She says that cats may be interested in TV, while dogs prefer the sound. Dogs don't even want to be entertained and like to sleep when alone, according to Dr. Houpt. Photo by ccho Of course, there's no way to know whether the dogs are really into DOGTV or not, unless cameras are set up to record their activities at home. So for now, it just looks like another way for TV networks to make some money off dog-owners.
via ABC News TV Channel for Canines Proves Television Is Going to the Dogs was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Woman Has Eaten Nothing but Pizza for the Last 31 Years Posted: 21 Feb 2012 01:44 AM PST
It isn't exactly food fit for a queen, but it's good enough for 33-year-old Claire Simmons. Claire loves cheese and tomato pizza so much that she's been eating nothing else for 31 years. Which means she's been eating the stuff since she was about 2 years old. That does sound too young to be eating pizza in the first place. But it's not that she doesn't want to eat anything else, it's just that she can't. She shudders at the mere mention of other food and will gag if she puts anything else other than plain pizza in her mouth. What Claire suffers from is actually known as Selective Eating Disorder. Experts say she's on the road to killing herself with her diet. But she disagrees. According to Claire, she keeps herself healthy by drinking plenty of water and getting lots of exercise. This doesn't convince her GP however, who says that if she keeps this up, the lack of vitamins and minerals will lead to huge problems in the future, such as a stroke or heart attack. Claire can't help it though, given that she's terrified of eating fruits and vegetables. "I get so angry when people think I'm being faddy – this is a real medical condition," she says. She does seem to have made it through 31 years on just pizza, and is still going strong. I wonder how she isn't sick of the stuff, though. Photo by VancityAllie Just last month we wrote about the very similar case of Stacey Irvine, a 17-year-old English girl who has been addicted to chicken nuggets for the last 15 years. Unlike Claire, she has already been hospitalized because of her diet. It seems these cases aren’t as rare as we would like to think. via The Sun Woman Has Eaten Nothing but Pizza for the Last 31 Years was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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