Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Man’s Addiction to Heavy-Metal Earns Him Disability Benefits

Posted: 28 Dec 2012 02:41 AM PST

Here’s something worth banging your head over: 42-year-old Roger Tullgren, from Hässleholm, Sweden, was cleared for state disability benefits after he’s been certified by three psychologists as a heavy-metal addict who can’t function at his workplace unless he is allowed to wear black T-shirts and camo pants, and rock out to loud heavy metal music.

The Swedish edition of The Local first reported about Roger Tullgren back in 2007, soon after his addiction to heavy-metal was acknowledged by psychologists and the state employment service agreed to pay part of his salary. Apparently, his interest in heavy-metal started in 1971, when his brother came home with a Black Sabbath album. Since then he’s been hooked to everything that screams heavy-metal, sports long black hair, a collection of tattoos and wears skull and crossbones jewelry. Nothing really out of the ordinary so far, he’s not the only man in the world passionate about this culture. But in Tullgren’s case, it started interfering with everything else. Because he couldn’t help attending hundreds of heavy-metal shows and events every year, often skipping work, his employer eventually tired of his antics and the aging rocker found himself without a job and relying on welfare. Luckily, after some sessions with occupational psychologists who certified his addiction to heavy-metal as a disability, Roger Tullgren earned the right to a wage supplement from the local job center.

Photo: Myspace

“I have been trying for ten years to get this classified as a handicap,” Roger told The Local. ”I spoke to three psychologists and they finally agreed that I needed this to avoid being discriminated against.” I signed a form saying: ‘Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style. This puts him in a difficult situation on the labour market. Therefore he needs extra financial help’. So now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper.” He was also lucky to land a job as a dishwasher and an employer who allowed him to listen to his loud music as long he didn’t disturb guests and to attend as many heavy-metal gigs as he liked, if he made up for lost time at a later date.

Photo: Myspace

But while many news sites have recently picked up the 6-year-old story and present it as still relevant, the truth is Roger Tullgren no longer receives benefits. After his case became famous years ago, and many occupational psychologists in Sweden declared themselves baffled by the decision to support a man’s addiction with benefits instead of trying to cure it, the state soon canceled the original decision, at least according to a 2009 report by Barometern. He now makes a living as a sound engineer at heavy-metal events around the country, like the Sweden Rock Festival, and even plays in his band, Silverland. Although he wan’t too happy to see his benefits canceled, Tullgren admits he got a big PR boost for his music group after media picked up on his story.

Although the three occupational psychologists’ decision has expired, his addiction hasn’t. Heavy-metal is still a huge part of Roger Tullgren’s life, and the woman who once married him can confirm it. Years ago, his wife gave him an ultimatum – to choose between her and his love for hard rock. She is now his ex-wife…

Man’s Addiction to Heavy-Metal Earns Him Disability Benefits was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Modern-Day Samurai Can Slice a Speeding Bullet with His Blade

Posted: 28 Dec 2012 01:19 AM PST

There are some things you would only expect from superheroes or action heroes; like slicing a bullet in half with a blade. So when a real-life, modern-day samurai does it, it's certainly worth ooh-ing and aah-ing over. Isao Machii, who has been honing his sword skills since the age of five, is able to slice a pea-sized bullet traveling at 200 miles per hour, fired at him from a BB gun from about 70 feet away, in mid-air.

Isao Machii is now the headmaster of a samurai school, and what a fine example he is for his students. His hand-eye coordination is so precise that it earned him a Guinness World Record. His sword skills are so accurate that he is rumored to be unmatched by any other swordsman on Earth. He recently accepted a challenge from filmmakers, because what he does is impossible to view by the naked human eye. Shot at a firing range outside the hills of LA, Machii's feat was recorded at a speed 250 times slower than normal with one of the world's most sophisticated cameras . The witnesses were a filmmaker and Dr. Ramani Durvasula from California State University. Both were stunned to silence the moment Machii's blade hit the bullet.

The bullet is a tiny pellet, over 4000 times smaller than a baseball. Since the pellet is so small and travelling at such a high speed, a normal person would have no chance of seeing it at all. "I honestly don't believe I can cut this if it was stationary on a chopping block with a chef knife. He's going to do it while it's flying through the air, with a Samurai sword," says the filmmaker. When the BB gun is fired, it is a matter of milliseconds before the poised Machii makes the strike – and hits gold. "I heard it, but I didn't see it," says Dr. Durvasula. On the playback, it's clearly visible that Machii has managed to nick a piece right off the bullet. Later, the two pieces are found on the ground. According to the filmmaker, a normal person would take 3/10ths of a second just to register the sound of the gun being fired, before they can even start to think about reacting. By the time they move the sword into position, the bullet would have moved past them. Dr. Durvasula says, "This is about processing it at an entirely different sensory level because he is not visually processing it. This is a different level of anticipatory processing. Something so procedural, something so fluid for him."

 

Fluid or not, I never thought I'd see the day when a human could actually slice a bullet in mid-air…

Modern-Day Samurai Can Slice a Speeding Bullet with His Blade was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

The Blood Qur’an – A Holy Book Written with the Blood of Saddam Hussein

Posted: 28 Dec 2012 12:51 AM PST

We've heard of fanatical lovers writing letters to their beloved in blood. But Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein took this practice to a new level. In the late 1990s, he commissioned a calligrapher to make a copy of the Qur’an, using his own blood as ink. For the project, Saddam donated 7 gallons (27 liters) of blood over the course of two years – the time it took for the book to be completed. The book still exists, and no one knows what to do with it.

For now, Saddam's blood-inscribed Qur’an is being kept behind locked doors in Baghdad. The unusual book is both sacred and profane, so officials are quite unsure as to how to deal with it. Islamic clerics are confused over the decision to either destroy the book or preserve it as a reminder of the dictator's brutality. It is most likely that Saddam was quite aware of the controversy his project would spew, given the taboos in Islamic culture over human bodily fluids, but he went ahead with it anyway. His intentions were clear – he had said that the book was his tribute to God because his son had survived an assassination attempt. In the words of one Iraqi citizen, "On one flank had been the government, doing all it could to prevent access. The Shia-led regime is highly sensitive to the re-emergence of any symbols that might lionize the remnants of the Ba’athist rank and file, which still orchestrates bombings and assassinations every few days. And then there are the Sunnis themselves, who are fearful of government retribution if they open the doors and of divine disapproval if they treat this particularly gruesome volume of the Qur’an with the reverence of a holy book.”

Photo: Leadership.ng

What's creepy about the copy of the Qur’an that Saddam commissioned is not so much that it's written in blood, but that the blood used is human. According to Bruno Pouliot, a professor of art conservation at the University of Delaware, “blood is a common medium used in paint. Ox blood is one of the oldest forms, and a very stable form, actually, of paint.” It's only the fact that the artifact is actually a human remain, that shrouds it in controversy. Like Vicki Cassman, another professor at Delaware says, "”what’s different about things that involve human remains is that they are always controversial. There is that symbolism — that is, who it represents and if this person’s spirit lives on in the object." Well, whether Saddam lives on through the book or not, his blood sure will live a long time, should it be chosen that the book be preserved. It turns out that human blood is one of the toughest stains to remove and as blood dries, it forms a solid film. Preservation isn't going to be much of a problem, just maintaining it like any other book will do. The pathogens present in human blood also do not pose a risk, once it has tried up.

Photo via Looklex

During the course of this project, Saddam donated more blood than the average person would in a lifetime. The 27-litres he donated is approximately 5 times as much as the amount of blood he would have had in his body at any given time. In the United States, a donor is allowed to give only five to six pints of blood over the course of a year, which comes to less than a gallon. At that rate, it should have taken Saddam 9 years to donate all the blood that he did. Experts say that if the figure is indeed correct, the rate at which he donated blood should have made him anemic. Well, it appears as though Saddam was in a hurry to leave his mark in the world in more ways than one.

Source: Business Insider

The Blood Qur’an – A Holy Book Written with the Blood of Saddam Hussein was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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