Oddity Central |
| Bizarre Pilgrimage: Guy Tours England LICKING Cathedrals Posted: 04 Jul 2012 04:02 AM PDT
26-year-old Lawrence Edmonds is a man with a taste for religion. In the last 13 months he has traveled 5,000 around England, licking 42 Anglican Cathedrals. I know what you’re thinking, but Lawrence isn’t mad, at least not officially. This bizarre journey of his is the result of a bet two of his friends made at a pub, one night. Adam challenged Dan to lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK. If he agreed and failed to perform the task, Dan would have to run naked around the York Minster, but if he did do it in time, Adam would have to perform the streak. After talking with Dan and learning he had only licked Exeter Cathedral, he asked Adam if he could take the bet in Dan’s place. His friend accepted so he started traveling around England, taking photos of himself licking various holy cathedrals, and posting them all on a blog. So far he has put his tongue on 42 edifices, but recently discovered he has 20 more to go in order to win the bet. Photo: Cathedral Licking blog After he told Adam he had discovered 20 more Anglican cathedrals in Scotland, Wales and Ireland that weren’t originally included in the bet, his friend agreed to give him six more months to lick them, as well. Now the deadline is December 16, 2012, and Lawrence is confident he won’t be the one streaking. He has to take photos of himself licking every Anglican cathedral, and he even makes comments about their taste on his blog. Apparently, Wakefield was the worst yet. "Now I've tasted some pretty revolting things in my life, from rotten shark meat to a sheep's eyeball, but Wakefield Cathedral defeats them all," Edmonds noted. Photo: Cathedral Licking blog Asked why the weird bet was centered on licking cathedrals, Lawrence Edmonds said “we have no idea, it just was”. About his plans once he reaches his goal, the 26-year-old said he doesn’t know what the future holds, but he’ll try to make sure what ever it is, it involves travel. "Some friends in Scandanavia recommended that I should go and lick cathedrals out there too, but I think that might be taking it a bit too far…" he told York Mix. Photo: Cathedral Licking blog Photo: Cathedral Licking blog Photo: Cathedral Licking blog Bizarre Pilgrimage: Guy Tours England LICKING Cathedrals was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Austria’s Green Heroes: Family Lives a Life without Plastic Posted: 04 Jul 2012 01:12 AM PDT
Can you imagine your life without plastic? That means no computer, no mobile phone. no car and a whole lot of other stuff we’ve come to consider basic necessities. It sounds a nearly impossible task, in this day and age, but a family in Austria has proven it can be done. Sandra Krautwaschl, from a village near Graz, Austria, has recently written a book called “Plastickfrei Zone” (Plastic-Free Zone) in which she tells the story of how she and her family started living a life without plastic. It all began in the summer of 2009, when during a vacation in Croatia, Sandra was surprised how often her three children asked where all of the trash on the beach came from. This made her think harder about how plastic really affects our world. Although recycling works very well in Austria, it’s not as effective in other parts of the world, so the petroleum-made material ends up clogging up landfills and polluting the environment. The 40-year-old physical therapist realized that as long as we keep buying products made of or wrapped in plastic, we’re just contributing to the problem. Then, shortly after she returned from Croatia, Sandra saw the documentary “Plastic Planet”, and learned how toxic plastic is for our planet. Photo: Sandra Krautwaschl According to the film , made, by Austrian filmmaker Werner Boote, it takes hundreds of years for plastic to break down, but we produce around 240 million tons of it every year polluting the soil and oceans and poisoning ourselves with carcinogens in the process. Krautwaschl also learned plastic was made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource, using energy-intensive production methods which also affected the environment. ”It was the last straw and I was really outraged,” Sandra told Spiegel Online. “And I thought: ‘It can’t go on like this any longer.’” Photo: Sandra Krautwaschl The Krautwaschl-Rabensteiners decided to try and live a normal life without plastic, for a short period of time, to see if it could be done. Only what started as a month-long experiment eventually turned into a way of life. The first thing they did was try to eliminate all plastic objects from their home, in Eisbach. The front cover of Sandra’s book is a photo of her family surrounded by all their plastic possessions in front of their house. It says a lot about how important a role plastic has in our everyday lives. Next, they had to find alternatives, starting with wooden-handle toothbrushes, metal milk canisters, and food packaged in metal, paper or glass. They admit this radical change was difficult at first, and required ample research, but it also altered their entire shopping philosophy, in that they learned to stop and think if they really needed a product before buying it. Photo: Sandra Krautwaschl Probably the toughest hurdle to overcome in their transition to a plastic-free lifestyle was replacing plastic-wrapped toilet paper. First the kids suggested they use old newspapers, but that proved somewhat problematic, so they tried switching to tree leaves, but that didn’t work out very well either. Finally, they discovered recycled paper towels, used by many hotels and restaurants. They’re just as good as toilet paper, come wrapped in paper and can be purchased in bulk, to save money. Photo: Sandra Krautwaschl “Some people believe we’re living like it’s the Stone Age, but it’s not like that,” Sandra says. “Life has just become a bit simpler, quieter and more comfortable.” The Krautwaschl-Rabensteiners soon realized they couldn’t really live a life completely without plastic, because even the stuff made of metal and glass often has a bit of plastic in it, but they just learned to limit their use of the petroleum-made material to a minimum. They still use electronics and necessities like bike helmets, but share a car with another family, and try to buy second-hand products whenever they need something made with plastic.
“People who are as prosperous as we are can afford to think about these things, and often they can make a change,” Sandra Krautwaschl concludes. She and her family managed to reduce their plastic consumption to “almost nothing”. proving it can indeed be done. If the German language isn’t a problem, you can check out the Krautwaschl-Rabensteiners’ site on life without plastic. Austria’s Green Heroes: Family Lives a Life without Plastic was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
