Oddity Central

Japanese Skating Rink Freezes 5,000 Marine Creatures in Ice as Promotional Gimmick
Man Sleeps in His Car for a Month to Catch Serial Car Scratcher
Company Celebrates Black Friday by Asking People to Crowdfund Useless ‘Holiday Hole’

Japanese Skating Rink Freezes 5,000 Marine Creatures in Ice as Promotional Gimmick

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 09:00 AM PST

Japan’s Space World theme park sparked worldwide controversy after it froze 5,000 fish, crabs and other shellfish in the ice of its newest skating rink, aptly-named ‘Freezing Port–Ice Museum’.

On November 12, Space World, a popular theme park in the city of Kitakyushu, south-west Japan, opened its newest attraction – a skating ring embedded with 5,000 frozen fish, crabs and various other shellfish, as well as enlarged photos of larger marine creatures, like stingrays and sharks. It was advertised as the first of its kind in the world, and in the beginning, the reaction of the public was very positive. Space World officials said that since Freezing Port opened two weeks ago, they had an unprecedented number of visitors, but things went south very fast after the bizarre ice rink received coverage on a local TV station, on November 26. Inquiries and criticism started pouring in, and the Space World Facebook page was bombarded with negative comments.

frozen-fish-skating-rink4

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 06:50 AM PST

A Belorussian man who had had his car scratched over 20 times in the last six months, finally managed to catch the perpetrator in the act after sleeping in the vehicle for a month.

Finding your car scratched is unpleasant, but definitely not uncommon, which is why Kot Matroskin, a driver from Minsk, Belarus, didn’t pay much attention when it first happened to him, about six months ago. But after noticing subsequent scratches on the fender of his Volkswagen Polo, in a relatively short period of time, he started looking for clues about who might want to scratch his car and why. He was soon able to deduct that the scratching occurred only when he parked his car near a pedestrian walkway at the entrance of a park, and seemed to be done with the same object, as the scratches all looked very similar.

In a story posted recently on automotive forum Scooter Club, Kot points out that he only parks in that particular spot when there aren’t any other places available near his apartment building, and always makes sure not to leave his car on the grass or block pedestrian traffic. But that didn’t seem to matter to whoever had it in for him, as new scratches kept showing up on his vehicle. He started thinking about people he might have had conflict with recently, but revenge didn’t seem likely, as scratching only occurred when he left his car near the park.

car-scratching

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 05:22 AM PST

Instead of spending their money on crazy Black Friday deals, Cards against Humanity, the company behind the popular namesake board game, asked people to donate to the digging of a useless ‘Holiday Hole’ in celebration of the holiday. Believe it or not, they managed to raise over $100,000.

This past weekend, as Americans spent billions shopping, one company managed to convince some of them to throw their money into a real-life money pit. More specifically, Cards Against Humanity decided to dig a Holiday Hole to celebrate Black Friday and asked their fans to keep donating to this purpose to see how deep the hole could get. As long as people kept donating, an excavator kept digging, with each dollar donated paying for half a second of digging time. The idea of a pointless hole apparently appealed to a lot of people, as the company managed to raise a whopping $100,573 and keep that excavator busy until Sunday, when donations started to dwindle and the digging timer on the Holiday Hole website eventually expired.

holiday-hole