Oddity Central |
- 3 People Who Allegedly Cry Tears of Blood
- Training CampZ – A Zombie Survival Training Camp for All Ages
- Woman Donates Kidney to Her Boss, Gets Fired
- Guy Makes Life-Size Mummy Out of McDonald’s Food
| 3 People Who Allegedly Cry Tears of Blood Posted: 25 Apr 2012 04:53 AM PDT
Haemolacria is a real physical condition that causes people to actually cry tears of blood. The tears of people suffering from this condition may range from being just tinged red, to entirely made of blood. While the exact cause or cure for this condition is not clear, it is known to be a symptom of several blood-related diseases or tumors. Let’s take a look at the three most talked-about cases of haemolacria in recent years:
Photo: Nindyr Calvino Inman 15-year-old Calvino from Tennessee cries blood at least three times a day, with no warning when it's about to happen. All he says about it is, "Sometimes, I can feel it coming up like a tear. I feel my eyes watering. Sometimes, it will burn as it comes out." It hurt his feelings at first when his classmates began to say he was possessed, but now he says he's used to it.
When the blood tears first came, his mother was so terrified that she called emergency services. "The scariest thing in my life was when he looked at me and said, 'Mum, am I going to die?" She said it broke her heart. A lot of medical testing has gone on since then, including MRI, CAT scans and ultrasounds, but no doctor has been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation, yet. Mother and son have even been on TV in a hope that some cure could be found, but to no avail.
Twinkle Dwivedi Twinkle is also a teenager suffering from a rather ghastly version of haemolacria. The 13-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, India bleeds not just from her eyes, but also her nose, hairline, neck and the soles of her feet. It's almost like she's sweating out blood, but strangely it does not cause her any pain. Twinkle's 42-year-old mother is desperate to help her out.
Until a few years ago, Twinkle was a perfectly normal 12-year-old child. All of a sudden, she started to bleed anywhere between 5 and 20 times a day. "My school blouse went all red. No one would come near me or play with me. It was scary and messy, and my friends thought it was disgusting," Twinkle revealed. Soon the young girl was thrown out of her old school and another school bluntly refused to take her in. She was forced to study at home and didn’t get to see many other children. According to her mother, Twinkle was very pale and weak from all the blood loss.
Once again, the doctors are baffled by the condition and have no idea how to treat it. In fact, one doctor even had to nerve to accuse her parents of making everything up. Local villagers believe the girl is cursed and shout cruel things to her on the streets. However, a British specialist has offered an explanation to Twinkle's blood loss. He says she could be suffering from a clotting disorder, for which treatment is possible by a coagulation doctor. The family however, is very poor and hoping for a miracle to cure their daughter. Rashida Khatoon Rashida, from Patna, is another young Indian woman suffering from the blood tears condition. Blood drips from her eyes several times a day, and surprisingly she hasn't been ostracized for it. On the contrary, she is regarded as holy and worshippers come to her to witness the 'divine miracle'.
Her followers bow before her with reverence and shower her family with several offerings. Rashida herself says, "I do not feel any pain when it happens, but it is a shock to see blood instead of water." Medical speculations have suggested the cause may be brain tumor or a malfunctioning tear ducts, but no one can say for sure. 3 People Who Allegedly Cry Tears of Blood was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Training CampZ – A Zombie Survival Training Camp for All Ages Posted: 25 Apr 2012 04:20 AM PDT
It's wise to be prepared for all kinds of emergencies, perhaps even those that are very unlikely to happen. A zombie apocalypse, for instance. That's why a two-day Zombie Survival Training Course was conducted recently in Sandy, Oregon. Of course, the camp organizers do realize that zombie's aren't real; the course is actually oriented towards learning to survive outdoors and have some geeky fun while doing it. The adult-only program involves camping out for an entire weekend, and some pretty useful survival skills like how to build a fire without matches or lighters, how to build a shelter for protection and how to hunt and gather food. The premise for being outdoors was basically that if zombies ever invaded Portland, Step 1 would be to take to the wilderness. Of course, once there you would need to know how to survive, and that's where Training CampZ comes into picture. Tony Deis, founder, says, "You don't have to be dour and boring. You can be a bunch of geeks." The zombie element, he says, attracts people who wouldn't normally be interested in an outdoor class.
Photo: Shannon L. Cheesman/KATU.com Instructor Jamey Espinoza is equally enthusiastic about the concept. "Everybody wants to play zombies," he said. Participants aren't to be left behind; they have a whale of a time too. Sechin Tower, a participant who drove in all the way from Seattle said, "I'm really enjoying it. I don't have much opportunity to get out to the wilderness, living in an urban place. It also kind of opened my eyes to how under prepared I would be for a more realistic disaster, like an earthquake." Some of the things that are taught at the class include – avoiding infections, finding clean groundwater, stealth, using hatchets, and also cooking on smokeless fires. But most importantly, you can apparently learn how to dodge zombie puke that could turn you into an undead corpse. Sounds like a super-fun camp to attend.
via KATU.com Training CampZ – A Zombie Survival Training Camp for All Ages was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Woman Donates Kidney to Her Boss, Gets Fired Posted: 25 Apr 2012 03:59 AM PDT
47-year-old Debbie Stevens, a divorced mother of two from Long Island, donated her kidney to help out her boss. You'd think the least she could receive in return was some gratitude, but instead she was promptly fired. The behavior of the boss in question truly seems unfathomable. Stevens now contends that she was being set up and used by her 61-year-old boss, Jackie Brucia. Stevens and Brucia met as co workers at the billion-dollar Atlantic Automotive Group. At the time, Stevens was a clerical worker, while Brucia was one of the company's controllers. Later, Stevens left the company in June 2010 and moved to Florida, but she happened to meet Brucia again on a visit to Long Island. It was then that she came to know of Brucia's illness and difficulty in finding a kidney donor. As a 'naturally generous' person, Stevens offered to donate her own kidney if the need arose. To which Brucia replied, "You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer."
Photo: ABC News video caption A few months later, Stevens moved back to Long Island and asked Brucia if she could have her old job back. Within a few weeks she was rehired, this time to work under Brucia. After two months, in Jan 2011, Brucia called Stevens into her office and asked her if the offer for the kidney was still good. Stevens was still willing to go ahead with it. "She was my boss, I respected her. It's just who I am. I didn't want her to die," Stevens later told the media. But she now realizes that Brucia had only been "grooming her to be her backup plan." Stevens wasn't a close match for Brucia, so she instead donated her kidney to someone else, so that Brucia would move up the waiting list. Eventually, Stevens' kidney went to someone in St. Louis, while Brucia got hers from San Francisco.
After the procedure, Stevens experienced serious pain, discomfort in her legs and digestive problems. However, she was pressured to return to work just three weeks after surgery. When she finally went back to work on Sep 6, 2011, she didn't feel ready; even her boss was still recovering at home. Three days later, she was so sick that she had to return home. She then received a berating call from Brucia. Her words apparently were, "You can't come and go as you please. People are going to think you're getting special treatment." Even after Brucia returned to work, Stevens got yelled at in front of co-workers all the time. When she went to visit a psychiatrist and had her lawyers send a letter to the employers, Stevens was quickly fired.
Stevens' lawyers now plan to file a discrimination lawsuit against the company. "Brucia turns on her, and she should have been kissing her feet," one of her lawyers said. In spite of the bitter experience, Stevens does not regret what she's done. "I have no regrets I donated a kidney because it saved the life of a man in Missouri." via New York Post Woman Donates Kidney to Her Boss, Gets Fired was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Guy Makes Life-Size Mummy Out of McDonald’s Food Posted: 25 Apr 2012 01:12 AM PDT
Ben Campbell, a dude who refers to himself as “some kind of artist from west Texas”, sent us these photos of a life-size mummy he created out of about $200 worth of McDonald’s food. You’re probably thinking Ben needs a better hobby, but you have to remember he’s not just some guy with nothing better to do, he’s some kind of artist, so he has a pretty good explanation for creating his unique McDonald’s food mummy. Apparently, for the last couple of months, Campbell has been working on an art show to highlight the connection between ancient Egypt and modern society, and his meat mummy is the centerpiece. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it and Ben himself explains that “ancient Egypt was obsessed with achieving immortality through customs that included mummification and the construction of pyramids. Modern society is likewise obsessed with achieving a from of immortality through our own customs that include pursuing celebrity status and constructing corporations.” And since McDonald’s is one of the world’s biggest corporations… See the connection?
Since McDonald’s has a reputation for making food that doesn’t decay over time, it provided Ben with the perfect material to create a life-size mummy that archaeologists from the future looking for evidence of lost civilizations can dig up and use in the same way that we use artifacts and mummies to get an idea of life in ancient Egypt. Not a bad idea really, I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if McDonald’s food survived thousands of years and maybe even a nuclear catastrophe. But just in case his meat mummy doesn’t make it, Ben Campbell also has other “artworks”, like a one year old hamburger from Mickey D’s.
Now Ben is asking fans of his art to share it on the Internet and make it viral to a point where it actually gets McDonald’s attention. His Facebook initiative is called “Get Ben Sued by McDonald’s“. I don’t even know if I should wish him good luck with that.
Thanks a lot for the tip, and good luck, Ben! Guy Makes Life-Size Mummy Out of McDonald’s Food was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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