Oddity Central |
- Footbrawl – A Sport That Combines Football, Martial Arts, and Rugby
- Stunning Flowers Are Actually Paint Splashes Photographed at the Right Time
- Disaster Café – Where Every Meal Comes with a 7.8 Earthquake
| Footbrawl – A Sport That Combines Football, Martial Arts, and Rugby Posted: 24 May 2012 05:20 AM PDT
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  |
| Stunning Flowers Are Actually Paint Splashes Photographed at the Right Time Posted: 24 May 2012 03:51 AM PDT
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  |
| Disaster Café – Where Every Meal Comes with a 7.8 Earthquake Posted: 24 May 2012 02:44 AM PDT
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  |
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