3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

University Graduate Lands Job as Human Scarecrow
Indian Food Lover Feeds Family Curry Every Day for a Whole Year
High-Tech Jacket Gives You a Hug Every Time Someone Likes You on Facebook

University Graduate Lands Job as Human Scarecrow

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 04:11 AM PDT

It’s not the kind of job students dream of during university years, but for 22-year-old Jamie Fox being a human scarecrow in a rape field really is a great gig. It gives him the chance to sit down, read a book and even improve his ukelele-playing skills.

Jamie graduated from Bangor University this summer, with a degree in music and English, but until he finds a job he likes in the music business, he’s more than happy to put on a bright orange suit and play a scarecrow in a rape field, in Norfolk, England. ”The farmer said to me, ‘Bring a deckchair and a good book’,” Mr. Fox says, and that’s exactly what he did. Now he just enjoys the peace and quiet, and the fresh air while catching up on some reading, listening to podcasts and playing the ukelele during his daily 8-hour shifts. ”I get to sit and read for a lot of the time but whenever I see the partridges, I have to get up and scare them off,” the young man said. ”A couple of my friends in busier, more generously-paid jobs, are slightly envious.” And for good reason, who wouldn’t want to earn £250 ($400) a week just sitting around in the great outdoors?

The farmer who hired this human scarecrow couldn’t be happier either. Before he had Jamie, his rape fields were devastated by partridges who ate all the leaves leaving the plants to die. He tried conventional scarecrows, using bangers to scare them away, but nothing seemed to work. He claims ”The only way to get rid of them is to walk down the field and push them off”, and Jamie seems to be very good at that. “You can really see the difference,” the rape grower says.

via HuffPost

University Graduate Lands Job as Human Scarecrow was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Indian Food Lover Feeds Family Curry Every Day for a Whole Year

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 03:26 AM PDT

During the last year, 47-year-old Dan Toombs, better known by his online alias, The Curry Guy, has cooked 365 different kinds of Indian curry dishes for him and his family.

After spending a fortune on takeaway Indian food, North-Yorkshire-based businessman Dan Toombs decided it would be cheaper and healthier if he did the cooking himself. So he set himself the challenge of making a curry dish for his family every day for an entire year. He even set up a blog documenting the experiment,posting photos and recipes of everything he prepared in the kitchen. ”The children took a while to get used to Indian food every day but grew to love it. On Christmas Day I put Indian spices under the skin of the turkey and cooked it with Bombay potatoes and a broccoli curry. It was a great success and the turkey leftovers lasted for days,”. Toombs said. In the beginning, he used curry cookbooks to get the dishes just right, but he was disappointed with the results, and noticed traditional Indian food was very different than takeaway versions. So The Curry Guy started cooking takeaway food in the comfort of his own home.

Photo: The Curry Guy

After news of his 365 days of curry challenge spread online, he managed to get over 30,000 Twitter and loads of praises for his delicious recipes. The success of his cooking endeavour even inspired Toombs to publish a book on the subject – “How to make British Indian restaurant style meals”. His hobby-turned-passion even improved family life and saved him a fortune in takeaway expenses. ‘They [the children] come home from school and we cook as a family, it has been great for us to spend time together. We make a big batch of one particular sauce which can make several different curries and then during the week when we are busy dinner takes no time at all and I have saved lots of money not going to restaurants.” he says, adding that even though his year-long challenge has been completed, they still eat Indian food at least three or four times a week.

Photo: The Curry Guy

via Mirror.co.uk

Indian Food Lover Feeds Family Curry Every Day for a Whole Year was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

High-Tech Jacket Gives You a Hug Every Time Someone Likes You on Facebook

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:58 AM PDT

Created by MIT student Melissa Chow, the “like-a-hug” jacket makes virtual experiences a bit more realistic, by inflating and giving you a hug whenever someone likes you on Facebook. Soon, real friends will probably be obsolete.

Having people like you on Facebook is nice, but don’t you wish you could feel the love whenever they hit that “Like” button? Well, thanks to the innovative “like-a-hug” jacket, now you can. Inventor Melissa Chow, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says it ”allows us to feel the warmth, encouragement, support, or love that we feel when we receive hugs”. The concept behind this Facebook jacket is fairly simple - air pockets inside the jacket inflate every time your smartphone sends a signal that a new “like”has been received. Better still, you can send hugs back to your friend by simply squeezing the jacket and deflating it.

“We came up with the concept over a casual conversation about long-distance relationships and the limitations of video chat interfaces like Skype. The concept of telepresence arose, and we toyed with the idea of receiving hugs via wireless technology,” Chow says. The Like-a-Hug jacket is only a prototy, but considering Facebook’s popularity right now, it could soon turn into the world’s trendiest fashion accessory.

This type of long distance relationship gadget isn’t exactly new. During the last couple of years, other wacky inventors have been busy creating devices that could allow people to interact with each other from thousands of miles away. Kissinger, the kiss transmission device, and Hugvie, the huggable robotic pillow phone are just two of their latest attempts.