3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

New York Giants Fan Creates Breathtaking Replica of Football Team’s Old Stadium
World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is Made from Elephant Dung
Vietnamese Man Shows Off Car Made Almost Entirely Out of Wood

New York Giants Fan Creates Breathtaking Replica of Football Team’s Old Stadium

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 05:56 AM PDT

Don Martini, a 75-year-old fan of the New York Giants has taken his devotion for his favorite football team to a whole new level. The Blairstown-native spent the last two years and $20,000 building an astonishing replica of the Giant’s old stadium in his garage.

The crazy idea came to Don in the middle of the night. The next morning, he got up and told his wife "I'm going to build Giants Stadium”, but all he got out of her was “You’re crazy!” But not even she thought he would be crazy enough to actually go through with it. The truth is, Don Martini was in search of a new project. After turning his backyard into a miniature village complete with an elevated rail for model trains, a working windmill and a lighthouse, the man was looking for a new challenge, something bigger than everything he had created in the past. He decided to combine his love for the New York Giants with his passion for building stuff, so he actually started work on this astonishing model of the football team’s stadium.

Photo: Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger

As you know, beginning are always the hardest, and Don Martini had no idea where to start his project. He had found some photos and general specs on the internet but not much else, and he had no idea how he was going to make all those tens of thousands of seats. He spent weeks, through trial and error, trying to get the pitch of the three-level stadium just right, but then he was faced with the seat problem again. The craftsman considered making them one at a time, but that alone would have taken him years to finish, so instead he decided to take 8-foot-long pieces of a special moulding and make a small cut with his table saw every three-quarters of an inch. "It was tedious, but I knew I had to do 100 a day or I'd never get done," he told NJ.com. "I couldn't work on those all day because I'd go cuckoo." He tried to get every little detail just right, but one of the main problems was finding the right parts. He had to buy 235 tiny 5-watt halogen bulbs for the light stanchions, at $1.96, that he fastened into place with special hose washers, install two small TVs, one in each end zone, and bend strips of metal used on electric fences for handrails. He added benches, tiny orange Gatorade jugs, and even sponsor billboards.

Photo: Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger

The 20 feet long and 17 feet wide stadium model took two years to complete and put a $20,000 hole in Don Martini’s budget, but he has no regrets. His garage is now a tribute to the team he has loved all his life, and one that impresses every other Giants fan that walks through the door. Once in a while, another fan walks into his bagel shop in Blairstown, New Jersey, and he takes them out back to see his masterpiece. "And then they walk through the door," he says, "and without fail, they say, 'Hoool-eee …' " And who can blame them?

Photo: Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger

Although his son suggested he give the awesome replica to the New York Giants, Martini is not sure he wants to part with it. “Maybe I could build another one”, he said.

Source: NJ.com

New York Giants Fan Creates Breathtaking Replica of Football Team’s Old Stadium was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is Made from Elephant Dung

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 04:48 AM PDT

You probably didn’t know this, but the world’s most expensive coffee is pretty crappy, literally. Black Ivory coffee is made from beans eaten and digested by Thai elephants, and is priced at $1,100 per kilogram. Enjoy!

I knew elephants in Thailand were good at painting, but I didn’t know they also make great coffee. The rare Black Ivory blend is served at only four resorts around the world, three in the Maldives and one in Thailand. The people behind the exclusive Anantara Resorts came up with the unusual idea of making coffee from elephant-digested beans. As weird and disgusting as it sounds, their idea actually makes sense, in theory. According to research, enzymes in the elephant’s stomach break down the proteins in the coffee beans, and since proteins is one of the main factors of its bitterness, less protein means less of a bitter taste. The drink resulted from the elephant-refined beans is said to be floral and chocolaty, with the taste containing notes of ‘milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries.’

Photo: MarkSweep

If you’re worried you might accidentally be drinking coffee made from elephant dung at your local coffee shop, don’t be. The Black Ivory blend is in very short supply, with only around 50 kilograms of the stuff available for purchase at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, in Thailand. Not to mention the crazy price of $1,100 per kilo ($50 per cup) only makes it a treat for fine coffee lovers with very deep pockets. Why so expensive, you ask? Well, there are multiple reasons for the steep price. One, raising elephants in a natural reserve isn’t cheap, and 8% of the proceeds from the sales of Black Ivory coffee go to olden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. Then, while they might be good at pooping out delicious coffee, elephants aren’t very efficient. The elephants are fed only Thai Arabica coffee beans grown at an altitude of around 5,000 feet, but they need to eat more than 72 pounds of coffee cherries to produce 2.2 pounds of coffee beans. No one can confirmed it yet, but I bet those elephants get a caffeine buzz after every meal.

Photo: fir0002

Strangely enough, the former most expensive coffee in the world, kopi luwak, is also made from animal dropings. In Indonesia, civets – weasel-like creatures – are fed coffee cherries which are then harvested from their excrement. So when life gives you crap, make coffee!

via About

World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is Made from Elephant Dung was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Vietnamese Man Shows Off Car Made Almost Entirely Out of Wood

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 03:54 AM PDT

It’s not the world’s first wooden car, but it is the first of its kind in Vietnam. Featuring a body made exclusively from high-quality wood and decorated with intricate carvings, the Achilles has been turning heads on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

The one-of-a-kind vehicle was created by Le Nguyen Khang, owner of Binh Duong-based wood processing firm Le Lumber. He told reporters the idea of building a wooden car started off as a joke, while he was talking to an English friend who works in the travel business. One day, he jokingly asked Khang, "Working in the wood processing industry, can you make me a wooden car?". Little did he know the silly question would plant a seed in Le Nguyen’s brain, who started thinking seriously about making a car from wood. After all, he had all the materials he needed, and could count on the help of several professional woodworkers from his company. The sketch for his unusual automobile was completed in April of 2011, and with the help of 11 of his best employees, he worked on it for 16 months. The Achilles was finally completed last month, and as soon as he started driving it around the city, people assaulted him with all kinds of questions and requests to have their pictures taken with it.

"I named the car after Achilles, one of the greatest warriors in Greek mythology, whose entire body, except for his heel, is invulnerable. I know that my vehicle is not perfect," Khang explained the name of his car. The entire body of the 4.6m-long and 1.8m-wide vehicle is made from imported wood like xylia xylocarpa, ash, and walnut, and features beautiful carvings. His company logo is carved on the front of the car, on the background of a dragon, while the two front sides are covered with the patterns of a dragon, unicorn, turtle, and phoenix, the four traditional sacred animals which represent power, beauty, and nobility. Le Nguyen Khang says his drivable masterpiece has one serious drawback – its weight. The wooden body weighs nearly 1.5 tons, and he says that “only the BMW engine is able to withstand the heavy wooden body of the car.” So he imported essential parts of the car, like the engine, gearbox, chassis and transmission system from the German automaker, and tried to replace everything else with wood. Despite it’s strange look, the Achilles actually works like a normal car and reaches a top speed of 60 km/h

In the month since it’s been spotted in Ho Chi Minh City, photos of the Achilles have gone viral on various Vietnamese websites and got mixed reactions. "There are positive as well as negative responses, but I respect all of them," Khang says, adding that many people don’t understand the idea behind his wooden car, as they criticize that the car lacks high-tech equipment such as a speedometer and even electric and lighting systems. "It's simple to install such systems into the car, but what's important is I don't want to have those 'modern' things in my traditional car," he explained. "My purpose while making this car was to prove the talent of wood processing workers in Vietnam in general, and Binh Duong in particular. So except for the essential engine, I don't want to have any other materials but wood on the Achilles."

The Vietnamese businessman said so far four customers, including foreigners, have expressed interest in his wooden can, and offers average at around $24,000. He wants to sit down with all of them and find out if they want to buy it for “adequate reasons”. The proceeds from this deal will go to charity. But he’s only parting with the Achilles because he has bigger plans to focus on. He’s negotiating with local authorities to allow him to build electrical wooden cars to carry international tourists around the city's downtown.

If you’re curious about that weird numbered licence plate, it’s actually Le Nguyen Khang’s phone number. "It's to help those who want to contact me easily," he said. So if you want to have a conversation with him, you know what number to dial.