Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Girl Posts Birthday Invitation on Facebook, Gets Thousands of Unwanted Guests, Riot Ensues

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 03:57 AM PDT


A 16-year-old girl from Haren, the Netherlands, forgot to set her Facebook birthday invitation to private and got a few thousand more guests than she was expecting. And if that wasn’t enough, the revelers also started a riot in the small Dutch town.

Why don’t these young school girls ever learn? Jut last year a similar event took place after a German girl forgot to make her Facebook birthday invitation private and got 1,500 unwanted guests. Police were able to contain the crowd back then, but on September 21st 2012, things really got out of control in Haren. After the young girl posted her public invite on Facebook, her friends started sharing it with their friends, sites started posting about it, and soon the whole thing grew out of proportion to the point where 30,000 users confirmed their presence to the event known as Project X Haren. This was turning into way more than the girl had planned for her big day, so the authorities were alerted. The party was cancelled, and the police appealed to Facebook revelers, asking them not to descend on Haren. Despite their best efforts, at least 3,000 people from all over the Netherlands turned up, and they were not the most peaceful bunch either.

Photo: AFP

The girl who posted the invitation fled her home, and hundreds of riot policemen were detached to keep the party animals from vandalizing the small town with a population of just 19,000. But the revelers wearing “Project X Haren” t-shirts, after the recently released “Project X” film, about a party that grows out of control, didn’t feel like going home, and since they couldn’t attend the birthday celebrations, they decided to throw their own party, by throwing stones and bottles at the police, looting local shops, vandalizing and setting fire to cars, and damaging street signs and lamp posts. At least 36 people were injured, including a police officer, and 20 arrests were made. ”An incident like the one in Haren last night is unprecedented in the Netherlands,” Oscar Dros, Haren’s chief of police, said.

 

People always say Facebook is a powerful tool, if used right. I guess it’s pretty powerful if used wrong, as well…

via BBC

Girl Posts Birthday Invitation on Facebook, Gets Thousands of Unwanted Guests, Riot Ensues was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Dashrath Manjhi – The Man Who Moved a Mountain

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 02:56 AM PDT


Dasrath Manjhi, a landless farmer from India, made history after he spent over two decades chiseling away at a mountain with rudimentary tools, in order to create a road for his community, when the Government refused to.

If you’re looking for some motivation, stories don’t get much more inspirational than that of Dasrath Manjhi. 53 years ago, he set out to carve a 1mk-long path through a rocky hillside, all by himself, in order to make it easier for his fellow villagers to access schools, markets and neighboring villagers. “This hill had given us trouble and grief for centuries. The people had asked the government many times to make a proper road through the hill, but nobody paid any attention. So I just decided I would do it all by myself," Manjhi told Indian newspaper Tehelka, in 2007, a shortly before succumbing to the cancer that was plaguing him.  With just his chisel, hammer and shovel, this legendary man turned what was once a precarious one-foot-wide passage into a 360ft-long, 30ft-wide road accessible by bicycle and motorcycle. The hill kept the region’s villages in isolation, forcing people to trek through dangerous terrain for hours just to reach their lands or the nearest market town. Children had to walk eight kilometers to reach school, but thanks to Dasrath Manjhi’s handmade road, that distance has been reduced to three kilometers, and people from over 60 villages now use it every day.

But what empowered a single man to accomplish such a monumental task? For Dasrath it was the love for his wife. "My wife, Faguni Devi, was seriously injured while crossing the hill to bring me water; I worked then on a farm across the hills. That was the day I decided to carve out a proper road through this hill," the farmer said. Sadly, his beloved wife didn’t get to see the fruits of his labor, as shortly after the accident she fell ill and died, because she couldn’t be taken to the hospital in time. The tragic loss only made the ambitious man more focused on his task, and fellow villagers remember seeing him “ hacking at the hill day and night as if he were possessed”. But with the passing years, his motivation changed. "My love for my wife was the initial spark that ignited in me the desire to carve out a road. But what kept me working without fear or worry all those years was the desire to see thousands of villagers crossing the hill with ease whenever they wanted," Manjhi said in an interview.

Although you’d expect people to jump in and help someone working for the entire community, it wasn’t Dasrath Manjhi’s case. At first, people ridiculed him and called him mad for taking on such a herculean task, but as time went by, and the unfazed farmer continued to split the troublesome hill in half, he started getting some help. "Though most villagers taunted me at first, there were quite a few who lent me support later by giving me food and helping me buy my tools," he remembered. Now, all the people of the Gaya district have nothing but gratitude for the “mountain man” who single-handedly made their lives so much easier.

 

He never received any recognition from the Indian Government for his accomplishment, just a state burial, after he passed away, in 2007. "What I did is there for everyone to see. When God is with you, nothing can stop you,” Dasrath Manjhi once said.  I am neither afraid of any punishment from any government department for my work nor am I interested in any honour from the government." It took him 22 years to fulfill his self-imposed task, but it granted him immortality…

via Neatorama

Dashrath Manjhi – The Man Who Moved a Mountain was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Japanese Company Creates Mind-Controlled Cat Tails for Humans

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 12:52 AM PDT


Remember the Necomimi, those wacky brainwave-controlled cat ears we featured around this time last year? Well, the same Japanese company that makes those, Neurowear, has just released a fluffy mind-controlled tail to go with them.

I have to admit it’s kind of strange seeing a company that has the knowledge to create mind-controlled gadgets create stuff like cat ears and tails for humans, but then again this is Japan, so the weird factor is still pretty low. Anyway, much like the Necomimi cat ears, Shippo, the new tail developed by Neurowear is able to read your emotions and reflect your mood by wagging. Depending on how your heart beats and the extent to which alpha and beta brainwaves are activated, the tail moves from side to side or top to bottom at different intensities. The feline accessory also communicates with an app that records your mood and broadcasts it out via your social network, so anyone can know when you’re happy, sad and even in love. There is even a  database of places other people wearing these wacky cat tails found relaxing, so you can check them out whenever you’re looking to find some peace and quiet.

Photo: Tomonori Kagaya

Shippo is still just a prototype, but following the success of Necomimi, there’s no doubt in my mind this mind-controlled tail will be a commercial hit pretty soon. I mean there are a lot of cat people out there who have been dreaming about having their own fluffy tails for years. The only problem I see here is the tail actually replicates dog-like emotions. Cats really only wag their tails when they’re angry. But who cares, right? I mean you have a fluffy cat tail attached to your butt, the rest are just trivial details. Check out the promo video for the Shippo cat tail below:

  

via Io9

Japanese Company Creates Mind-Controlled Cat Tails for Humans was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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