3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Controversial Riot Training Experience Teaches People How to Cause Havoc
Prowler – New York City’s Real-Life Female Superhero
Bald Billboard – Man Uses His Head for Advertising Space for $320 a Day

Controversial Riot Training Experience Teaches People How to Cause Havoc

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 05:15 AM PST

English company Wish.co.uk has sparked controversy for giving people as young as 16 the chance to take part in an actual riot, during a day-long activity called the Riot Training Day Experience. Organizers promise noise, fire, smoke and fear as the main ingredients.

If the name Wish.co.uk sounds familiar, it’s probably because they’re the guys behind other unique experiences we’ve featured on Oddity Central in the past, like the Zombie Boot Camp and the Zombie Shopping Mall experience. After pitting people against zombies and werewolves, they decided it would be a good idea to offer them the opportunity to experience riots from both sides of the fence – the rioters and the baton wielding riot policemen. The adrenaline-packed staged riot takes place on an industrial estate, near the town Droitwich, Worcestershire, costs £79 ($127) per person, and has apparently been booked up every weekend for the next four months. Despite its commercial success, local authorities aren’t at all pleased a “riot training” is being allowed to take place. ’Not only are they showing people how to instigate a riot, they are showing them how to instigate a riot well. It is utterly irresponsible,’ local Member of Parliament Peter Luff told the Daily Mail.

Photo: Wish.co.uk

Most people think riots are just about screaming loudly, throwing things and “running into a crowd waving a big stick wearing a crash helmet”, but with the Riot Training Experience, Wish.co.uk aims to show people there’s much more to these anarchic events. Upon arriving on scene, participants are given a full briefing on modern riot control techniques, as well as a complete safety run down. Afterwards, famous riots in history will be profiled, and ex-police/military experts will teach them all about the tactics and formations they’ll be using during the staged riot, and get them familiarized with equipment like ballistic helmets, visors, batons and four foot riot shields. Learning about batons, snatch squads, casualty evacuation, they’re all covered in the quick riot training, as well as proper petrol bomb throwing.

After lunch, adrenaline junkies are split into two groups: rioters and the properly-equipped security forces who try to keep them under control. Then all hell breaks loose. As riot policemen “you’ll stand firm as you come under a barrage of debris, advancing forwards as smoke swirls around your waist. Brace yourselves as petrol bombs are thrown. Noise, fire, smoke and fear are the main ingredients.” Volleys of simulated baton rounds are fired into the rioters, and as you hear the “Snatch Squads prepare” command given by the professionals supervising the whole thing, you’ll head out toward the raging mob to grab ring leaders.

After playing a riot policemen, participants will get to experience a riot from a different perspective, as they step in the shoes of a rioter. This time, they’ll be bashing police shields, throwing stuff at them, flipping cars over and a bunch of other stuff rioters typically do. Although Wish.co.uk has made it clear they are not encouraging anybody to riot, the company has been criticized for bad taste, after England was devastated by unprecedented riots in 2011. ’Rioting is not a game. It is utterly irresponsible and insensitive not least because there are thousands of victims scarred to this day by the memories of what happened in that terrible August week of last year,” Birmingham MP Jack Dromey said.

How do you feel about the Riot Training Day experience? Is it just a fun weekend activity, or a worrying riot class?

Controversial Riot Training Experience Teaches People How to Cause Havoc was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Prowler – New York City’s Real-Life Female Superhero

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 02:39 AM PST

It's not the first time we've reported cases of real-life superheroes here on OC. But this sure is a first – a female superhero who has gladly shared her identity. And that's not all. She's also probably the first superhero to be concerned about her own safety. So she only patrols the streets of Brooklyn with fellow male superheroes. She is 'Prowler' by night, dressed in black spandex, red cat mask and clawed gloves, and Nicole Abramovici by day, a 32-year-old home-organizing businesswoman.

Abramovici is a part of the Big Apple chapter of a group called Superheroes Anonymous (only, she isn't). She came to know about this group of male superheroes patrolling the city through a newspaper article and was inspired to join them. "I am one of the very few females active as a real-life superhero," she said. "I wanted to help the homeless and the abandoned animals of New York, so pretty much immediately I decided on the name Prowler." Abramovici admitted that the name Prowler isn't always seen in a positive light, and is perceived as a person who creeps around at night, stealing. "But I wanted to make the prowler a force for good," she said. On most nights, you can find her seeking out the needy with her superhero mentor, 'Life'.

Photo: Canele Bernard/Rue89

Life said that he doesn't think gender makes much of a difference for real-life superheroes. It's all about helping people for him. Of his mentee, he said, "Prowler has always been very street savvy so my job was to show her the ropes as a superhero. She has been very helpful because she speaks Spanish and I don't." Abramovici's own inspiration is from the classic female superheroes like Cat Woman and Bat Girl, who were "super hot and empowered." She said that she feels like the same person under the costume, but what's different is the attention, and the fact that she is able to make homeless people smile. Her enemies – poverty, destitution and cruelty against animals; her weapons – food, clean clothes and toiletries, which she distributes to the homeless to help them survive. During her nightly patrols on the streets of the Big Apple, she also gives homeless people advice on hygiene and takes time to just talk to them and maybe put a smile on their faces.

Photo: Canele Bernard/Rue89

Abramovici is quite unfazed about the fact that her identity is no secret. Both her parents know about her night-time routine, but prefer not to speak to her much about it. "I am daddy's girl, so he worries the most, but they know I'm an adventurous person, and they trust me." But when this news first broke out in the media, her two boyfriends were still in the dark. Abramovici had hoped that if they did find out, they would support her. "If the guys I'm dating see this I hope they'll still treat me exactly the same. I'm still the same person," she insisted. We do wonder how that turned out.

Photo: Superheroes Anonymous

Sources: The Blaze, Rue89

Prowler – New York City’s Real-Life Female Superhero was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Bald Billboard – Man Uses His Head for Advertising Space for $320 a Day

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 01:57 AM PST

Last month, 27-year-old entrepreneur Brandon Chicotsky launched a unique service called Bald Logo, turning his bald head into a billboard for businesses willing to pay him $320 per day, and walking around Austin, Texas to get as much exposure as possible.

How does the old saying go, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? That’s exactly what Brandon Chicotsky did after he lost most of the hair on his head at a very young age. ”Because I didn’t get to choose to be bald I thought I’d bring bald and beautiful back,” said Chicotsky, who also decided to use his head as an actual business. Last month, the young entrepreneur launched Bald Logo, and since then he’s been flooded with inquiries from businesses interested in having their logos temporarily tattooed on his or one of his coworkers’ heads, for a fee of $320 a day. Brandon and his team have perfected the tattoos to withstand any weather conditions, and will spend six hours a day walking the streets of Austin garnering attention for their clients. Bald Logo currently has three “bald angelicals” on its staff, but the ambitious businessman plans to hire more walking advertising spaces and expand to other cities.

Photo: KXAN

In order to get as much attention as possible when parading around town with their logo tattoos, Bald Logo’s angelicas have devised a strategy that involves attractive girls, camera crews and full-body spandex suits. When they're working, Brandon Chicotsky and his bald co-workers are accompanied by two female actresses carrying signs or waving flags promoting the client’s business, as well as a third actor dressed in a full-body spandex suit. To turn even more heads, they’ll have a camera crew following them around. "When there are cameras, people tend to inquire, 'What is this about, what's on your head?'" Chicotsky said. I think it’s fair to say the guy’s using his head in more ways than one.

"It's a thrill because it truly garners attention," Chicotsky told the New York Daily News. "For the first time in my life, I was called out in a restaurant: ‘Hey, you're that bald guy I saw on YouTube!’ Bald Logo donates nearly half their proceeds to the national Alopecia Areata Foundation, which supports people with the autoimmune disease that causes hair loss from some or all areas of the body, usually from the scalp.