Oddity Central |
- Swearing Hotline Lets Germans Blow Off Some Steam, for a Fee
- Robin Hood Mayor Robs Supermarkets and Gives to the Poor
- World’s Deadliest Card Player Slices Fruits an Vegetables with Plastic Playing Cards
| Swearing Hotline Lets Germans Blow Off Some Steam, for a Fee Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:43 AM PDT
Boss giving a hard time at work? Wife can’t seem to stop nagging you when you get home? Do you feel like lashing out at people all the time, but are afraid of social consequences? Fear no more, as an innovative new hotline allows frustrated people to use their most fowl language as a way to blow off steam. It’s called “Schimpf-los” (German for “swear away”) and it’s an innovative new hotline that has operators standing by 24/7 ready to take serious verbal abuse from people who feel like blowing off steam by swearing. ”We don’t judge people who are angry,” said Ralf Schulte, one of the creators of this offbeat service. ”It happens. It’s natural. With us you can blow off steam no strings attached.” The 41-year-old entrepreneur set up Schimpf-los along with partner Alexander Brandenburger, after drawing inspiration from their own stressful daily routine. They realized their idea would help people avoid altercations at the workplace or at home, by providing an alternative place to release all tension. ”If you’re stressed out at work, you go home and your partner gets an earful,” Schulte comments. “Even though it’s not her fault.” With Schimpf-los, angry folks need not worry about this kind of scenarios anymore. But let’s face it, swearing at someone who doesn’t talk back is no fun. And that’s precisely why the operators of this swearing hotline will always try to provoke callers who aren’t creative enough with their swearing or find themselves out of words. Lines like ”That’s the third time I’ve heard that today” or “Is that all you’ve got?” are just some of the weapons Schimpf-los use to taunt their clients. The service is available seven days a week and costs €1.49 per minute, which according to its creators is a bargain considering it helps you get everything off your chest. Source: Reuters Swearing Hotline Lets Germans Blow Off Some Steam, for a Fee was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Robin Hood Mayor Robs Supermarkets and Gives to the Poor Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:18 AM PDT
The story of Robin Hood and his merry men is centuries old, but even in this modern age their example is as popular as ever. In the Andalucia region of Spain the roles of outlaws are nowadays played by a village mayor and a group of Socialist extremists, who instead of rich royalty rob local supermarkets and give the loot to the poor. Andalucia was hit particularly hard by the international economic crisis and the collapse of the construction industry. The whole of Spain is struggling, but in this region the unemployment rate has reached 34% and some people have difficulties even putting food on the table. The dire situation inspired a group of members from the Andalucia Workers Union, led by Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, a member of the regional parliament for the United Left party in Andalucia and mayor of the village of Marinaleda in southern Spain, to stage Robin Hood-style attacks on local supermarkets to get food for the needy. Although authorities see this kind of acts as crimes, Sanchez Gordillo and his modern merry men are heroes to the Spanish poor, who welcome the food products with open arms. The outlaws take supermarkets by storm, armed with food carts and don’t let anyone stand in their way as they storm out the doors without paying a single cent. Although the staff does its best to stop them, it’s nearly impossible to resist hundreds of extremists who won’t take no for an answer. Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, who has been called a modern Robin Hood by media in Spain, didn’t take part in the actual raid, but coordinated his men from outside the supermarkets via loudspeaker. He says that he and his group only focus on basic food items like beans, pasta, oil and biscuits, and give them to the poor of Andalucia who are too poor to take care of themselves. Sanchez Gordillo says everything they have taken is less than 1% of what supermarkets throw out every day, because it’s past its expiry date.
But unlike in the books and movies, these merry men didn’t get away with it. Authorities have arrested two of the outlaws and their leader is also facing charges for leading the raids. "If I end up in jail because I highlighted the crisis, it will be a honour," Jose Manuel Sanchez Gordillo said, while another of his men commented that "Taking some food and giving it to families who are having a really hard time, if this is stealing, I am guilty." Source: El Pais Robin Hood Mayor Robs Supermarkets and Gives to the Poor was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| World’s Deadliest Card Player Slices Fruits an Vegetables with Plastic Playing Cards Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:37 AM PDT
Ye Tongxin, a 48-year old man from Nanjing, China, has a very unique talent. He can slice various fruits and vegetables by throwing plastic cards at them from meters away. I guess you can say he’s a real life fruit ninja. You probably thought Oddjob was cool for slicing stuff with his hat, but Ye Tongxin’s skill is much more impressive – he’s able to slice fruit and veggies with common plastic playing cards. We’ve all tried doing at some point, but it’s a much harder trick to pull off than most people think. Mr. Ye has been practicing his ability for the last ten years, and although he spends two hours every day throwing cards at hanging plastic bags shaped as cucumbers, he says training to become the world’s best fruit slicer is much more complex. Apart from just throwing cards, he also runs between 8 and 10 laps up high ground, in order to improve his strength, because unlike other card throwing ninjas he needs to cut through tougher fruits like watermelons and apples, instead of just soft cucumbers. According to Ye Tongxin himself, the cards he throws travel 50 meters in a half second, so that means his plastic projectiles fly out of his hand at 360km/h, about as fast as a high-speed train. No wonder they pierce even the hard shell of a watermelon and hard green apples. Ye’s best slicing performance so far has been 12 cucumbers in 47 seconds, but he plans on setting a new Guinness record, which means he’ll have to go through 19 cucumbers in under a minute.
World’s Deadliest Card Player Slices Fruits an Vegetables with Plastic Playing Cards was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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