The Odd Files

Hampstead Heath lavatory is up for sale or rent, with the owner hoping the bottom doesn't fall out of the market. A toilet in the posh London surburb of Highgate has been put up for rent at £3,000 a month. The owner, builder James Atherton is looking to rent or sell the unusual piece of real estate - a stand alone loo he owns inside a block of flats at the bottom of Highgate West Hill. It is by a bus turnaround point and next to the bottom of Hampstead Heath. The facility is being promoted with a sign on the wall offering a "toilet space", hoping to catch the attention of bus drivers who need stop to relieve themselves at Parliament Hill Fields. Mr Atherton also predicted a surge in interest if Camden Council follows through with its controversial plans to close the public toilets in Pond Square in Highgate village and the Victorian toilets at the entrance to Hampstead Heath were demolished in the 1990s. Mr Atherton's toilet has been left unused for...

It’s the kind of poky apartment estate agents might like to describe as ‘cosy’ rather than ‘cramped’. Time-saving tenants will have the luxury of being able to go to the toilet while cooking their dinner given the flat’s unorthodox interior layout- although food hygiene might be an issue. The all-in-one kitchen/bathroom/bedroom is available to rent for €200 (£169) a month in the French city of Reims. Situated in the heart of the traditional site for crowning French kings, the property doesn’t exactly exude pomp and splendour. Somewhat loosely described as a ‘kitchenette’, the tiny 9m² flat also comes with a bunk bed and a cooking plate. With a shower overlooking the kitchen, tenants will be also able to have a wash while keeping an eye on their cooking. The ad was spotted by Louise Wiseman, a 23-year-old English lecturer from Hertfordshire who is renting in Reims. She said: ‘I saw quite a lot of flats like that before I found my one, albeit not quite th...

If you're shopping for a pickled brain, a shrunken head, a two-headed calf, or a necklace made from human teeth, Evan Michaelson and Mike Zohn are here to help. Zohn and Michaelson are co-owners of New York City's Obscura Antiques & Oddities, and together with Ryan Matthew, they star in Science Channel's "Oddities" TV show. With more than 100,000 fans converging on New York Comic Con this weekend, the Oddities team is planning some big surprises. They've been a fixture at NYCC the last three years, and their Friday panel discussion will feature exclusive clips from the new season and artifacts that will show human body parts in gloriously macabre way. HuffPost Weird News executive editor Buck Wolf is moderating the Oddities panel. He and HuffPost Live's Mike Sacks sat down with Evan and Mike Thursday to examine a severed hand, artwork made from human hair, and a two-headed turtle. Watch the full video at Huffington Post

Hand in hand as many as 200-300 people formed a human chain outside the St Anthony’s Church adjacent to the District Police Lines at the Empress Road, in a show of solidarity with the victims of the Peshawar church attack two weeks back, which resulted in over a 100 deaths. The twin suicide attack on All Saints church occurred after Sunday mass ended and is believed to be the country’s deadliest attack on Christians. Huff Post

Citizens of Scott Township, Pa., are in a nutty battle over a set of concrete pillars that some people feel look like concrete penises. The pillars, actually bollards, were recently erected to keep traffic from driving into nearby structures. Four were installed at a bus stop near a church while six others are arrayed across the street, Philly.com reported. In theory, most locals were behind the idea, but the elongated shape and rounded top of the pillars have aroused the wrong kind of community, according to resident Pat Martin. "People are laughing at it. They're calling it Penis Road," she told the township commissioners Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. One commissioner, Eileen Meyers, said she didn't see the bollards before they were ordered and conceded that she would have preferred "something more antique" Commissioner Bill Wells suggested flattening the tops of the bollards might improve the appearance, but offi...

Almost 2,000 Brits and 20,000 people in total threw 130 tons at the annual Tomatina festival held at the town of Bunol near Valencia. Six trucks carrying vegetables were brought to the town for the hour long event and portable showers were set up for revelers to wash in afterwards. The town's streets and walls also had to be washed with hoses after the food fight finished. The rules of the festivals state that tomatoes have to be squashed before being thrown to avoid injuries. The town's folklore claims the annual vegetable battle was inspired by a food fight that took place amongst children in 1945 in the town square. Last year the event attracted 40,000 people, but to restrict number participants were charged £8.60 to enter by the local council for the first time. The entry fee will also help boost public funds for the recession hit town. However, some 5,000 residents will allowed to take part in the mass food fight free of charge. ...

A farmer has flooded the home of children’s TV favourites the Teletubbies – because she was sick of tourists trespassing on her land in  Wimpstone, Warwickshire. Teletubbies home The hill house used by Dipsy, Laa-laa, Tinky Winky and Po in the CBeebies show has been turned into a pond by the farmer. When the Bafta-winning show, which was shot on the farm from 1997 to 2001, was axed the television set was removed leaving just a gentle grassy slope. But Teletubbies fans kept trespassing on the hill until owner Rosemary Harding moved the diggers in and turned the site into a pond. ‘People were jumping fences and crossing cattle fields,’ said the 63-year-old, who runs an aquatics shop at the countryside location. ‘To be honest, we’re pleased to see the back of it,’ she told the Sunday People. The hill was decorated with a magic windmill, windows and flowers during the show’s four-year run, which is still being shown on children’s TV channel CBeebies. T...

vandalism everywhere...anyone will do TOKYO —Being a teacher is tough. In a sincere effort to mold young minds, many educators have to endure strict regulations, tight budgets, and the unreasonable demands of monster parents. It’s too much for some to handle, as we can see in the case of Yusei Yoshikawa, the 26-year-old teacher who has recently been racking up an arrest per month for vandalizing and robbing his own school. According to Aichi Prefectural Police, from the night of July 1 to early morning the next day, Yoshikawa allegedly broke into Obuminami Junior High School where he taught. Once inside, he scrawled his height, weight, and hobby on the windows. He is also said to have stolen some lights from their fixtures. This is the second time Yoshikawa was arrested. On June 6, he was charged with vandalism after reportedly breaking and entering the same school and writing the names of Japan’s National Soccer Team members in permanent ink. Patrols of the Obuminami...

Call it "the Dubai diet." gold incentive for losing weight? In a bid to combat the western-style obesity that has crept into the Persian Gulf city, officials are offering citizens one gram of gold (valued at about CAD $42 on Wednesday afternoon) for each kilogram of weight they lose in a month. They have to lose at least 2 kg to qualify, and the top three biggest losers will win gold worth 20,000 Arab Emirates Dirhams - about CAD $5,600. Municipal director general Hussain Nasser Lootah, in a report on Emirates247.com, encourages Emiratis to get active by walking at any of the city's 91 recreation areas, like parks, squares, tracks and beaches. The Your Weight in Gold program is "aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle and encouraging members of society to achieve and maintain their optimal body weight," the report said. Citizens have until Friday to sign up and do their initial weigh-in. Source: Sun News

 A building in a park in Funing, Jiangsu province looks like the Sydney Opera House. The Wenling People's Court in Zhejiang province looks like the US Capitol building.  With its cobbled streets, mock Tudor buildings, Thames Town in Shanghai's Songjiang district, Aug 29, 2008. The fake town once triggered a spat between property developers in Shanghai, and a British pub and chip shop owner in 2006. A replica of Arch of Triumph named "Weiye French Town" in Dongtai city, Jiangsu province. Tourists visit a copycat Tian'anmen Square in Huaxi village, the richest village in China, in Jiangyin city, East China's Jiangsu province, Oct 10, 2011. Replicas of famous scenic spots such as the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, the US Capitol Building, the Arc de Triumph in Paris, and Sydney Opera House of Australia, have been erected in the village in commemoration of the village's 50th anniversary.  Source: China Daily

Sinkhole image ( source ) A 6-year-old boy remained in critical condition Saturday after he had been buried under 11 feet of sand for more than three hours at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, officials said. The boy from Sterling, Ill., whose identity has not been released, had become trapped Friday afternoon in what appeared to be a sinkhole on the northern slopes of Mount Baldy, a well-known and highly popular landmark at the eastern edge of the park. The boy was found three or four feet beyond a rope that was cordoning off a section of the dune where grass and other plants were being replaced, park spokesman Bruce Rowe said Saturday. He may have been able to survive for so long because of an air pocket that formed as the sand collapsed around him, Rowe said. “I don’t know if (officials) physically saw an air pocket, but that’s what we’re all presuming there had to be for him to be alive,” Rowe said. In a rescue effort that involved more than 30 people,...

Would you fire your secretary? The governor of an Indonesian province has ordered his top staff to replace their female secretaries with men following a series of extra-marital affairs. Rusly Habibie, the governor of Gorontalo province on northern Sulawesi island, claimed that many government office heads were involved in affairs. "They treat them much better than their own wives. They bring them presents from official trips like perfumes or branded bags while their poor wives get nothing," he said. "For these reasons, I ordered them to replace their female secretaries with male assistants or with old women who are no longer attractive." Mr Habibie is convinced that his subordinates will follow his instructions, though there will not be any punishment for those who fail to comply. "This is a moral sanction. I'm pretty sure they will follow my order, and all of them will get a male secretary soon," he said, adding that there we...