The Wackiest Toilets From Around The Globe

There is no way anyone could describe these toilets as bog standard.

This hilarious collection of toilets from around the world has become an internet sensation after they were posted on the blog Oddee.

The pick of the bunch are a set of obscure urinals which resemble coffins complete with a foot flush that are found in a restaurant toilet in Bogota, Colombia.

This men's urinal with a big red open mouth can be found in Frankfurt.

These urinals which resemble coffins complete with a foot flush are found in a restaurant toilet in Bogota.

There is also a bizarre line of urinals that are shaped like brass instruments in a pub in Freiburg, South Germany.

Another amusing latrine comes in the form of kitted out toilet that boasts a cushioned seat as well as a computer and phone close by designed clearly for the most avid workaholic.

These unusual urinals at a pub in Freiburg, South Germany, were put in by landlord Martin Hartmann.

This toilet gives the user a friendly welcome.

A pipe shaped toilet, a urinal in the form of a mouth, and a strange row of buckets make up the set.

This toilet complete with phones, a fax machine and PC is perfect for the workaholic.

These bucket urinals come with an incredible view of Bratislava.

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Hawaiian Surfer Breaks Wave-Riding Record

A 44-year-old Hawaiian surfer has officially been recognised by Guinness World Records for riding the biggest wave ever thought to have been ridden. Last November Garrett McNamara caught a 78ft wave at Nazare, off the coast of Portugal, beating the previous 2008 record by more than a foot.

McNamara began surfing at age 11 and became professional six years later. He has described his achievement as a stroke of luck and has used his feat to urge people to follow their passions.

The giant wave was located above an underwater canyon famous for being the world's biggest wave generator. McNamara said that on the day he broke the record, at first he'd not wanted to take a ride but his friends urged him to catch a few waves. "Everything came together. Everything felt right," he said.

Hundreds of thousands have viewed the video and photographs of McNamara's ride. They show his figure dwarfed by a giant wall of water.

"I knew it was big, but I didn't know how big," he said.

He later sent the footage and pictures to surfing expert Sean Collins, who guessed the wave was 85-90ft tall. Collins died in December.

Last week, McNamara was awarded $15,000 (11,600 euros) for the ride at the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards in California. Judges for the awards examined the footage and pictures from different angles.

They also compared McNamara's height in a crouch and the length of his shin bone with the wave's top and bottom before reaching a verdict, event director Bill Sharp told the Associated Press.

Commenting on the record, McNamara said: "The world would be a much better place if everyone was doing what they wanted to do."

However, the UK Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying: "I'm not sure I want to ride that peak again."

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Chinese 'Instant' Builders Put Up 3 Storey Flat Pack Block in 9 Days

It's like Ikea writ large - a firm of builders that claims it has mastered the art of flat pack and shown how a three storey block can be put up in just nine days. The Chinese construction company's innovative 'instant' building techniques recently allowed it to finish this workers' cafeteria.

Now the man behind it, Broad Sustainable Building CEO Zhang Yue, wants to build a 220-storey skyscraper, potentially the world's tallest, in just four months.

If he realises this ambition it will dwarf the Shard in London - Europe's tallest building - and put its completion time of more than three years to shame.

Under conventional methods the low-carbon canteen would have taken a year to complete, but here even the nine days it took to finish the building, in the city of Yueyang, in Hunan province, was considered a missed target.

This is par for the course for BSB, which conjured a 30-storey hotel in the same city over the course of just 15 days in December.

Mr Zhang said: 'In the past, when we said that in a day or so we could build a six story building, or in more than 10 days we could build a 30-story building, everyone said it was impossible, especially as we were building these buildings very cheaply, using even less money than is needed to build a traditional one.

'People say: "You're using so much so-called technology, isn't it expensive?" I say: "Firstly, I can build it that quickly, secondly, I can build it that cheaply, and thirdly, once it's built, it's more comfortable than the rest".'

Construction site director Xiao Changgeng said: 'The entire building process is extremely simple, and it doesn't require very experienced workers. It's very much like a child using modeling blocks to build a house.'

The concept is based on factory-made 'modules', which include all the necessary pipes and cables before they are slotted into place. This means more than 90 per cent of the work is done before the builders even arrive on site.

It also drives costs down, with the prefab buildings coming at a price of about 4,000 yuan (£396) per square metre. This means the 4,500-square-metre canteen came to a total of 18million yuan (£1.78million).

The flat modules, the largest of which are about 13ft by 49ft and form the buildings' floors and ceilings, are prepared in two factories in Yueyang, near the BSB headquarters in the provincial capital Changsha.

'It's very easy to learn the construction - all the workers need to do is fasten the bolts,' said Liu Zhijian, a 23-year-old site worker from the nearby city of Loudi.

'There's no welding, no dust, no water,' he said. 'It's not at all like traditional construction, which is all about bricks and concrete.'

Such rapid construction has become a necessity in China, where the building business is booming as urban populations explode and the industrial sector continues to expan

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Sci-Fi Brothel To Open In Nevada

Have you ever found yourself jealous of Captain James T. Kirk and his er intergalactic conquests? Do you longingly watch Jabba the Hutt’s dancing slave (her name is Oola, if you’re interested) and wonder, what if? Do you long to go where no man has gone before? Well, once a new sci-fi brothel, Alien Cathouse, opens in Nevada, you'll be able to dine to your heart's content.

Nevada is the only state where prostitution is legal and although it's home to two dozen licensed brothels, none are sci fi-themed... yet. Nevada businessman and documentary star Dennis Hof just bought a run-down brothel 90 miles from Las Vegas and is planning on turning it into his newest business venture: Alien Cathouse.

The brothel will feature girls from around the galaxy for men willing to pay. Hof’s interplanetary vision doesn’t end at the cathouse door, though. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he is looking to transform not only the brothel, but the entire plot of land into an Area 51-themed tourist destination. Fun for the whole family — though perhaps not.

Hof is an expert in building buzzworthy brothels – his Moonlite Bunny Ranch is the setting for the HBO reality show called Cathouse — but when it comes to dreaming up sexy alien girls, he needs a little assistance. The Las Vegas Review-Journal explains that as Hof crafts his out-of-this-world bordello filled with girls from other planets, he is getting some help from one of earth’s experts, the infamous madam Heidi Fleiss. “She’s the chief alien design queen,” Hof told the paper.

The old friends are working together to plan the costumes and decor for the sci fi-themed brothel and are hoping to open their doors in a month. Start planning your intergalactic travel plans now, guys.

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Choose How Your Cow Dies (for your steak)

A German website is offering its carnivorous customers the option of having their cows slaughtered in the field while they're grazing because it supposedly produces more delicious beef.

Visitors to the website www.mycow.de, based in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 2010, have several options for ordering fresh beef. They can order steaks from specific farms and pick between a succulent Angus or delicious Galloway cow. They can also choose whether cows are killed traditionally in a slaughterhouse or in a field as they happy graze away their final moments.

Considered more humane, the field method also supposedly results in tastier beef because the cow isn't unduly stressed before its demise. Trips to the slaughterhouse can be enormously unpleasant for animals and their surging adrenaline is said to toughen up their meat.

Few farmers use the field-killing method because it’s more expensive and difficult. It necessitates someone quickly stunning and then shooting the cow, which then has to be rushed to a butcher. A 5 kilogram packet from www.mycow.de starts at about €75.

“This is a much more gentle slaughtering process,” Susanne Marx, the website's operator, told The Local, saying that the beef www.mycow.de sells comes from “happier cows.”

But Marx acknowledged that there is a limit to how much people want to know the specific cows they eat – this is why www.mycow.de doesn’t allow them to get to know or select specific cow for slaughter.

She also said there are a lot of variables that factor into how beef on someone's plate tastes.

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Welsh Council Embarassing Teenagers about their Acne

Cardiff Council is considering installing streetlights that show up skin blemishes which they hope will have youngsters fleeing with embarrassment

Deterrent: The council plans to turn teenagers' spotty skin against them
Getty.

A council has found a quirky way of tackling antisocial behaviour – acne.

Cardiff Council is planning to exploit spotty skin to deter teenagers from hanging around on the streets.

The local authority is considering installing streetlights that show up skin blemishes which they hope will have youngsters fleeing with embarrassment.

The scheme, thought to be the first of its kind in Wales, has been backed by South Wales Police.

But the concept was criticised by the National Youth Agency which said “anything that aims to embarrass people out of an area is not on”.

NYA development officer Peta Halls added: “Why waste limited resources on something which moves all young people out of an area?

“They will move on to somewhere else.”

Acne lights are the latest bizarre idea trialed by councils to combat antisocial behaviour.

In 2005, the Mosquito alarm was introduced to deter youths from loitering by emitting a high pitched noise audible only to people under 25.

Some shopping centres have also tried using soothing classical music to calm young people and prevent antisocial behaviour.

West Midlands Police saw a dramatic drop in the number of youths hanging around in public areas after piping Beethoven through the PA system, adding: “They clearly don’t like our choice of tunes”.

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Earthquake Wallpaper - A Scientific Breakthrough

A wallpaper that holds brick walls together during an earthquake has been welcomed as a major scientific breakthrough by Christchurch quake experts. The 'earthquake wallpaper' has been developed by German scientists to keep bricks and masonry from falling during violent shaking; giving people time to run to safety.

Professor Lothar Stempniewski, of the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology and who developed the technology for Bayer MaterialScience, said the wallpaper made walls more elastic and resistant to cracking. He said: "Our goal was to give people more time to get out safely into the open in the event of an earthquake.

"Even smaller earthquakes can cause dramatic damage, especially to masonry buildings. The degree of destruction depends less on the severity of the earthquake on the Richter scale than on how long the structures are shaken by the destructive energy from below the ground."

The special wallpaper design, which features fibres running in four directions, distributes energy evenly when walls are shaking, making them elastic and resistant to cracking. The seismic material was tested on a replica house in an earthquake simulator.

"Because of the earthquake wallpaper, we were unable to make the building collapse," researcher Mortiz Urban said. "In the New Zealand quake in early 2011, a great many walls crumbled and many houses collapsed completely as a result."

The scientist estimated that the wallpaper system could have prevented 60 to 70 per cent of the damage, adding: "Often it doesn't take much to prevent the collapse of a building." The wallpaper is pasted on using an adhesive with polyurethane beads.

Stefano Pampanin, associate professor in structural design and earthquake engineering at Canterbury University, welcomed the technology, saying it was also being developed in New Zealand.

He said: "It's a good thing. Fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been developed quite significantly over the last decade for the retrofit of existing reinforced concrete or masonry buildings.

"Across the world there is an increasingly emphasis on using this sort of new technology. Here in Canterbury we have been testing FRP products and have found that they are a feasible solution for retrofitting buildings, as they are not too invasive."

He said "many lives" could have been saved in Christchurch if this technology had been in place.

The quake wallpaper is expected to go on the commercial market later this year.

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Cell Phone Air Bag to Stop Breakages Forever

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, has applied for a patent on a mobile phone safety feature that would deploy an airbag if the device falls.

According to the patent filing, which was submitted in February 2011, but has only just been made public, tiny airbags would be deployed from the phone if the in-built accelerometer detected that was falling.
 
The patent submitted by the Amazon boss also suggests using a laser or even radar to determine the distance between the phone and the ground.
 
Other suggestions for protecting a falling phone include springs that would be released from the casing to ensure that the phone safely bounced on hitting the ground. The patent application also suggests that a gyroscope or jets of compressed air could be used to alter the angle of the device in the air.

 
The application describes a method for “determining if a risk of damage to the portable device from the impact exceeds a damage threshold; when the risk of damage to the portable device exceeds the damage threshold: altering the orientation of the portable device such that the air bag first impacts the surface; and deploying the airbag prior to impact with the surface.”
 
The invention is credited to Mr Bezos and Amazon vice president Greg Heart but the patent has not yet been granted. Mr Bezos, 47, started Amazon in 1994.

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Monkeys Can Read

You may think that the only thing separating some of your friends from monkeys is their ability to at least read. Time for a rethink: new research shows that baboons are capable of learning how to tell the difference between real and fictional English words.

A study carried out by Jonathan Grainger from Aix-Marseille University, France, shows that baboons can read. They can, for instance, identify that "wasp" is an English word, while "telk" is not. Of course, it doesn't follow that these words actually mean anything to them, but it does suggest that their ability stretches beyond purely recognizing shapes. In fact, it demonstrates that the animals have a capacity for orthographic processing essentially, the mental ability to unite letters into words.

Grainger trained the baboons to recognize English words, and also to tell them apart from similar, but nonsensical, words. They picked it up quickly, according to the research published in Science, and became able to categorize words they'd never even seen before with 75 per cent accuracy. It's worth pointing out that the fake words weren't randomly generated: instead of a string of characters like "gsfn", words were chosen to look similar to real words, like "dran" or "virt", making the process much more challenging.

Stanislas Deheane, an expert in the science of reading, told Not Exactly Rocket Science that "it fits very nicely with my own research, which suggests that reading relies, in part, on learning the purely visual statistics of letters and their combinations." Indeed, the researchers speculate that this is a skill hard-wired into the brain of the animals and were probably evident long before any human even thought of scrawling a word.

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Robot prostitutes the future of sex tourism

The future of sex tourism lies in robot prostitutes, according to two Victoria University researchers. Management professor Ian Yeoman, a futurist with an interest in tourism, and sexologist Michelle Mars have explored how red light districts might operate in the year 2050.

The futuristic scenario of sex tourism suggests android prostitutes will reign supreme, eliminating the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections in an industry free from sex slavery.

Their paper:  Robots, Men And Sex Tourism, published in the journal Futures, imagines a sex club in Amsterdam named Yub-yum. Sexual tourists will pay about 10,000 Euros for an all-inclusive service from massages and lap dances to intercourse from the scantily-clad sexbots parading around.

In an increasingly youth and beauty-fixated society, Yub-yum would provide a range ''of sexual gods and goddesses of different ethnicities, body shapes, ages, languages and sexual features.''

Yub-yum would be licensed by the council and staffed by androids, meaning it could be regulated and used to market the city as a sex tourism destination.

''Amsterdam's tourist industry is built on an image of sex and drugs. The council was worried that if the red light district were to close, it would have a detrimental effect on the city's brand and tourism industry.''

The androids would be made of bacteria resistant fibre and would be flushed for human fluids, guaranteeing no STIs would be transferred between consumers. Clients could feel guilt free as they actually have not had sex with a real person and would not have to lie to their partner.

''Robot sex is safer sex, free from the constraints, precautions and uncertainties of the real deal.''

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Twin Sisters & Cousin Who All Share Same Husband

From their brunette hair to their dress sense, twin sisters Vicki and Valerie Darger have a number of things in common. But the 42-year-olds share more than just their looks - they are both married to the same man. The sisters are in a polygamous marriage with Joe, 43, who is also wed to a third woman - their cousin Alina. The Dargers, who are fundamentalist Mormons from Salt Lake City, Utah, live together in a large family home and have 24 children between them. Vicki, currently a stay-at-home mother, has been married to Joe, who runs a construction company, for 22 years. Valerie joined the family as his third wife in 2000.

In the eyes of their Fundamentalist Mormon religion, all three women are equally married to Joe.  They each have their own bedroom, and Joe alternates between the three rooms each evening. Valerie, who works in the family cleaning business with Alina, 43, said: 'The fact that Joe was married to Vicki didn't bother me at all. I took it as a sign he would be a good husband for me as well.

'As teenagers, Vicki and I liked some of the same guys. I thought it might even be good if we married the same man.'

Vicki added: 'I know that some people are uncomfortable at the thought of two sisters sharing a husband. 'But there's a good chance if a husband is compatible with one sister, he'll be well matched with another.'

Joe was just 18 when he began dating Vicki and her cousin Alina at the same time. He married them in a joint Mormon ceremony in 1990.

'Even in our community joint courtships are rare,' said Vicki. 'We knew we were taking on a huge challenge and responsibility. 'The accepted pattern in our culture is for a couple to prove themselves first in a monogamous marriage, before taking on the challenges of a second wife.'

Describing their joint dates, Joe said: 'Since Alina and Vicki were close friends and were interested in pursuing me together, the best thing I could do was to nurture that combined friendship. 'I was attracted to both girls and knew that individual relationships would develop in time.'

Vicki and Alina had been married to Joe for ten years when they both encouraged him to start pursuing a relationship with Vicki's twin Valerie.

Valerie had just gone through a divorce after her marriage to an older man Donald, who had six wives, broke down due to his gambling and abusive treatment. One evening, while Valerie and her five children were staying with the Darger family, she felt a sudden spark of chemistry with Joe.

Joe admitted: 'I had a connection with Valerie, but the fact she was Vicki's twin was weird - they both had the same mannerisms. But Vicki opened my mind to it.'

Alina added: 'I was excited at the prospect of Val becoming part of our family. I had a genuine love and concern for her and wanted her to be the happiest she could possibly be.'

Joe and Valerie married in another Mormon service in their home, with Vicki and Alina standing beside them, and celebrated with a family meal.

The Dargers were investigated by state authorities several years ago for their beliefs and attempted to keep their plural marriage secret for many years. But two years ago, they decided to talk about their relationship to raise awareness, and to try to overcome prejudices against their religion and lifestyle.

Although polygamy is generally illegal in all 50 states, practitioners are almost never prosecuted unless there is evidence of abuse, statutory rape, welfare fraud, or tax evasion.

The three wives and their husband have co-written a book 'Love Times Three', and some of their adult children also contributed to the story.

'We hope that by talking about our way of life, polygamy will step closer to being an accepted lifestyle and the laws that criminalise it might change,' said Joe.

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Zoo Keeper Licks Constipated Monkey's Bottom for 1hr

Zhang Bangsheng, a very dedicated Chinese zoo keeper, had to lick a constipated money's bottom for over an hour after the three-month-old Francois Leaf monkey swallowed a peanut whole. The monkey showed signs of stomach problems and was unable to defecate. It was too young to be given laxatives so the only way to encourage it was by licking its behind (Zhang used warm water to clean the area before he began). His efforts were rewarded an hour later when the monkey defecated a single peanut.

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S. Korea Customs Targeting Baby Human Flesh Pills

South Korea says it will increase customs inspections targeting capsules containing powdered human flesh. The Korea Customs Service said it had found almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled into the country from China since August 2011.

The powdered flesh, which officials said came from dead babies and foetuses, is reportedly thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina. But officials said the capsules were full of bacteria and a health risk.

Nuclear Bomb Accidentally Dropped on America

Their awesome power had been harnessed by the Americans ten years earlier to help bring about an end to the Second World War but a US Air Force crew nearly wrought similar destruction on its own people after accidentally dropping a nuclear bomb on south Carolina at the height of the Cold War.

Thanks to remarkable good fortune no one was killed in the incident on March 11, 1958. That afternoon sisters Helen and Frances Gregg, aged six and nine, and their nine-year-old cousin Ella Davies were in the playhouse their father had built for them in the woods behind their house in Mars Bluff, South Carolina.

At around four o’clock they decided to move from the playhouse to the side yard 200 yards away. It was a decision that kept them from becoming the first Americans killed by a nuclear weapon released on U.S. territory.

Minutes later the woods behind the playhouse were destroyed by a nuclear bomb.The high-explosive trigger in the bomb blew up on contact with the ground, leaving a crater 50 feet across and 35 feet deep.

The girls were all injured but it could have been much worse - all that remained of the playhouse were a few twisted shards of the corrugated metal roof.

As reported by American Heritage, the device had been dropped from an American B-47E bomber that was flying from Savannah, Georgia to England's Bruntingthorpe Air Base in Leicestershire for routine exercises. Specifically, it was carrying a Mark 6 30-kiloton fission bomb.

The captain of the bomber, Bruce Kulka, decided to go into the aircraft's bomb bay to look at the weapon after difficulties during the flight with its locking pin. But the unfortunate captain had no idea where to find the locking pin in the bomb release mechanism.

He searched for the pin for 12 minutes before rightly realising it was high up in the bomb bay. He jumped up to see where he thought the locking pin was but unfortunately chose the emergency bomb-release mechanism for his handhold.

The three-ton bomb broke the doors of the plane open and fell towards the earth. The captain somehow managed to grab onto something and haul himself to safety.

But shortly afterwards, the plane felt the shock of the nuclear bomb hitting the ground. Luckily, the nuclear core of the bomb had been stored elsewhere on the plane.

But, as RoadsideAmerica.com also reported, Walter Gregg, 37, was not so lucky. The 7,600 pound bomb fell adjacent to his home in Mars Bluff, South Carolina.

The blast completely destroyed his vegetable garden and the playhouse of his two daughters and created a massive crater measuring 70-foot-wide and 35-foot-deep.

Remarkably, nobody was killed. However, six members of Mr Gregg's family were injured in the blast.  The family went on to sue the Air Force and were given $54,000.

When the crew of the aircraft returned to their base they were met by armed guards and were all detained. The Air Force initially suspected the bombing was an act of sabotage but they managed to tell their story and eventually avoided reprimand. The bombing crew also went on to apologise to the Gregg family.

If one accidental dropping of a nuclear weapon on its own soil wasn't enough, the Air Force managed to do it again just a few years later. It happened on midnight on January 24, 1961, over Goldsboro, North Carolina. A B-52G bomber broke up when the crew onboard noticed a leak during mid-air refueling.

The wreckage of the aircraft fell over the town of Faro and five of the eight-strong crew managed to survive. But this was the least of the worries of the Air Force. The aircraft was carrying two Mark 39 thermonuclear weapons. One of them gently parachuted to the earth.

But the other flew into a farmers field at 700 miles per hour. The force of the impact led to it losing its uranium. Unlike the first incident, three years earlier, this crash could have had terrible consequences.As reported by 109.com, the deactivator of the bombs, Dr. Jack Revelle admitted, 'How close was it to exploding? My opinion is damn close.'

The then secretary of defense Robert McNamara, admitted that when the bomb was found its arming mechanism had gone through every step but one of the seven stages of detonation.

More worrying, it later emerged that the bomb had broken into several pieces, including one which was never found. This missing piece contained uranium and its believed to have sank deep into the earth.

Sensibly, the Air Force decided to purchase the land.

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'Squatter' secretly builds incredible (but illegal) treehouse

It took months to find the right tree to build on, and when he did, it was on public land looking down on a row of multi-million dollar Canadian homes but that didn't stop Joel Allen from building this incredible egg-shaped treehouse in Whistler forest.

The computer technician-turned-carpenter started off by creating a scale model of his design to test its strength and durability, before beginning the months-long quest to find the perfect tree.

Without the money to buy property, he decided to do it on Crown land in the forests of Whistler.

'Finding that perfect spot on Crown land wasn't so easy,' he said. 'I had an informal checklist of requirements, the most important ones being that it within a reasonable distance to a road, yet out of sight and out of earshot of human traffic.

 'The other requirement was hard to qualify, but was of prime importance: the shape of the egg would need to suit the environment and be proportionate to the tree. I couldn't explain exactly what that was but I figured I would know it when I saw it.'

Mr Allen found it in a patch of old growth near a development of multi-million dollar homes, then began secretly constructing it. The process took years, thousands of dollars, and many free items found on Craigslist.

Finally, he created the HemLoft.

Asked by a friend why he did it, Mr Allen said: 'I found myself grasping for some sort of rationalisation that would make me seem less crazy.
'She said "no, why did you really build it?" For the first time in my life, I was forced to face the truth about it. I said "I guess… I just wanted to build something cool".'

'Since the treehouse was built on crown land, I don't technically own it, and so its fate is uncertain.

For three years I kept the HemLoft secret, but now that I'm finished, I've found myself wanting to share it…Coming out of the bush about the HemLoft is fun, however it poses a few problems; if people know about it, they might try to find it. And if the wrong people find it, they may make me take it down.

'It took a lot of work to build it, and I'd rather not take it down, just yet. So I've been thinking of ways to expose the HemLoft, while somehow making it legal.

'To the best of my knowledge, Squatting on Whistler Mountain, beneath some of Western Canada's most luxurious mega-homes would not be looked favourably upon.'

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