Oddity Central

Oddity Central

The Matchstick Fleet of Bernardo Cassasola

Posted: 17 Dec 2012 05:31 AM PST

Argentinian artist Bernardo Cassasola has spent a large part of his life building ship models exclusively out of matchsticks. Now, he’s the proud owner of an entire fleet of incredibly detailed wooden vessels.

“It’s related to life. When I want to be somewhere I just sit down and I can fix my gaze on what I do. I feel wonderful sensations. I can be anywhere in the world because I’m just working with matchsticks,” Bernardo Cassasola once said, in an interview with Reuters. The 63-year-old artist from Argentina has been creating matchstick models since the age of 13, and as the years past, his creations became larger and more detailed. His impressive collection numbers millions of matchsticks, and includes musical instruments like guitars, banjos and violins, architectural models and impressive ship replicas. Throughout his life, Cassasola created a number of extremely accurate matchstick galleons, but his most noteworthy masterpiece is, without a doubt, the 10 feet six inches (3.2 m) war ship he worked on for 7 and a half years. This painstaking labor of love features stunning details like a tiny wooden helm, a scope, down to the handles of the ship’s doors. The multi-decked galleon was unveiled in 2008, when Bernardo Cassasola also announced his next challenge – a 10-meter-long replica of the Titanic made from matchsticks. This guy should definitely meet Wayne Kusy, the man who builds ships with toothpicks, I’m sure they’d have a ball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos © Bernardo Cassasola

The Matchstick Fleet of Bernardo Cassasola was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Overtoun Bridge – Scotland’s Mysterious Canine Suicide Spot

Posted: 17 Dec 2012 01:50 AM PST

There are some things in this world that are simply beyond explanation. Like the fact that in the past 50 years, about 50 dogs have jumped to their deaths from the exact same spot on the 100-year-old Overtoun Bridge in Milton, near Dumbarton, Scotland. In 2005, five dogs had jumped in a span of just 6 months. The canine suicide spot is located between the last two parapets on the right-hand side of the bridge, which is where all the dogs took the fatal leap. And to add to the strangeness, almost all the incidents have taken place on clear, sunny days, the dogs always being long-nosed breeds – collies, retrievers and labs.

The situation, according to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is a 'heartbreaking mystery'. "There are lots of owners whose dogs have died and who are trying to find out why they jumped," the Society says. One of the victims on the bridge was collie dog Ben, who leaped to his death in 1995 while taking a walk with his owner Donna Cooper, her husband, and her son, Callum. Without any warning, Ben just leapt over the parapet and landed on the rocks below after a 50ft fall. Suffering a broken paw, back and jaw, the vet decided that it wasn't worth putting him through the pain. "Callum still asks about Ben. He was very upset by the dog's death and wants to know if his leg has been fixed in heaven," said Cooper, a year after Ben's death. The case of golden retriever Hendrix was pretty much similar, although she got very lucky. Kenneth Meikle, her owner, said, "I was out walking with my partner and children when suddenly the dog just jumped. My daughter screamed, and I ran down the bank to where the dog lay and carried her up to safety. Next day, thank goodness, she was fine. We were lucky because she landed on a moss bed which broke her fall."

Photo via The Animal Behavioral Clinic

Several theories have surfaced, of course, to explain the bizarre effect that Overtoun Bridge has on dogs. The bridge itself was built in 1895 by Calvinist Lord Overtoun. The Victorian structure, 50 ft in height, runs over the Overtoun Burn stream below. The most obvious theory that's been doing the rounds is that the bridge is haunted – the oldest reason in the book. Rumors state that in 1994, Kevin Moy, a local, threw his baby boy from the bridge, calling him the anti-Christ. Shortly, he made an unsuccessful attempt to end his life at the same spot. He later said the bridge was haunted. Celtic mythology offers and explanation as well – that Overtoun is a 'thin place', an area where heaven and Earth are at their closest. Since dogs are more sensitive than humans, they are believed to pick up the vibrations more easily, leading to their strange behavior. The question remains –  are the dogs spooked by something supernatural, prompting them to leap to their deaths?

Photo: njellis 

Surprisingly, the phenomenon does not seem to affect all dogs. Psychic Mary Armour took her own Labrador for a walk on the bridge, to test the theory of the supernatural. Nothing unusual happened in her case. "Animals are hyper-sensitive to the spirit-world, but I didn't feel any adverse energy," she said. On the contrary, Mary said she felt "pure calmness and serenity" but she did admit her dog pulled a little towards the right. Attempting to debunk the supernatural theory is the more scientific explanation that dogs are able to sense the feelings of their owners. Austrian Dr. Rupert Sheldrake's famous experiment is often quoted in this case. The experiment had explicitly proved that dogs do pick up on their owner's thoughts and intentions, even from a great distance. The correlation here being that perhaps the dogs picked up on their owners' suicidal thoughts and took the plunge themselves. Dumbarton is indeed said to be a place of economic decline and one of the most depressing places to live in Britain. But on further investigation, it was revealed that none of the owners whose dogs jumped from Overtoun Bridge had any suicidal feelings. So that theory has been pretty much ruled out as well.

Photo: RYDOJ

Canine psychologist, Dr. David Sands, was sent to Dumbarton to get to the heart of the mystery. He conducted a series of experiments, the first of which was to recross the bridge with the only canine known to have survived the fall, 19-year-old Hendrix. This time around, the dog walked happily across, until the exact spot at the end was reached. Over here, she began to tense. It was observed that while something clearly caught her attention, she could not bring herself to jump because of her advanced age. Dr. Sands concluded that one of her senses – sight, sound, or smell – must have been stimulated to such an extent that she had an overwhelming urge to investigate. Sight was eliminated as the cause, since the only thing visible from dog's eye view at that point is the granite of the parapet. So it had to be either sound or smell, and to determine the culprit, a team of experts from a Glasgow acoustics company and David Sexton, an animal expert, were summoned.

 

The acoustic experts found nothing unusual at all, after a thorough investigation. But Sexton did find something worth mentioning. In the undergrowth beneath the bridge, he found mice, mink and squirrels; the odor emitted by any one of them could have been the cause. To determine which one, he conducted another experiment, testing the three scents on 10 different dogs. 70% made straight for the mink scent. And so far this has been the most plausible explanation – the strong musty smell emitted by minks, exaggerated on dry and sunny days, must have proved irresistible to dogs. So why would the dogs only want to attack the mink under this particular bridge, when there are 26,000 others in Scotland? Simple, says Dr. Sands, "When you get down to a dog's level, the solid granite of the bridge's 18-inch-thick walls obscures their vision and blocks out all sound. As a result, the one sense not obscured, that of smell, goes into overdrive." Well, it just goes to show that even the strangest of occurrences have the silliest explanations behind them.

Sources: Daily Mail, Skeptoid

Overtoun Bridge – Scotland’s Mysterious Canine Suicide Spot was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Indian Believers Roll in Food Scraps of Higher Caste to Cure Their Illnesses

Posted: 17 Dec 2012 01:12 AM PST

A century old ritual in India dictates that those considered low-caste Hindus must roll in the remains of food eaten by members of a higher caste. But it's not the ritual itself that's strange. The strange part is that while social activists are actually seeking to outlaw the practice, the 'low-caste' Hindus don't want to stop rolling in the leftovers.

The ritual, called Madey Snana (Spit Bath) is specific to the state of Karnataka, during an annual event at the famous 4000-year-old Kukke Subramanya temple in the coastal district of Mangalore. It is also followed at the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi town. As a part of the century-old Snana, Dalits (members of a lower caste) roll over leftover food eaten by Brahmins (the upper caste) every year, in the belief that all their troubles will disappear and ailments will be cured. It is practiced every year on the festival of Champa Shasti or Subramanya Shasti. Last year alone, 25,000 people rolled over the 'spit' of the Brahmins. This happened even as the district administration watched helplessly after their attempts to ban the practice failed.

Photo: Desi Dime

According to lower-caste Dalit welfare organizations, the Snana ritual is 'inhuman' and 'unacceptable'. "If it can cure diseases effectively, the state government should close down all the medical colleges and hospitals," Panditaradhya Shivacharya Swami remarked sarcastically. He drew tremendous applause from a meeting of holy men in the state's capital city, Bangalore. "This evil is not less than the tradition of Sati (the banned practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands) and child marriage and the government must act tough," he said. Social Welfare Minister A. Narayanaswamy, also a Dalit, is furious about the practice. "It promotes untouchability," he said. "I don't care which caste rolls over the leftover spit of the Brahmins. Irrespective of whether Brahmins themselves do the rolling or it is the lower castes, the practice is disgusting and unscientific. I have sought a report on the matter, but I am clear on the issue. The social welfare department will formally write to the muzrai (temples and endowments) department, demanding a ban," he had said last year.

 

For all the efforts made, the practice was actually banned last year, as announced by the district Deputy Commissioner (DC) N.S. Chennappa Gowda. He had taken the decision after several protests made by activists. But the day before the Madey Snana, things took a turn for the worse. The DC was forced to lift the ban after coming under pressure from the Dalits and the government. A particular section of the Dalits, called the Malekudiyas, insisted that they be allowed to practice their ancestral tradition. They threatened that if they weren't, they wouldn't take part in any of the events scheduled at the temple during the festival. After a social activist, K.H. Shivaram was beaten up for protesting against the practice, the ban had to be lifted and devotees allowed to pursue their ritual.

 

An explanation for the otherwise bizarre-sounding Snana is given by one of its staunch believers, astrologer Kabyadi Jayarama Acharya. According to him, the Snana has nothing to do with caste distinctions. "The Brahmins who eat there are considered the representatives of Lord Subramanya himself, and their spit is that of the Lord. When I was 16, I myself rolled on the food and got my skin ailment cured. (According to legend) Lord Krishna's son Samba was cured of leprosy after rolling on the leftovers, as stated in the Skanda Purana (an ancient text). All castes roll on food and believe their problems will get solved. It is a psycho-therapeutic solution that also has its roots in Ayurveda. It should not be banned without some scientific basis," he said. Activists, however, are quick to dismiss Acharya's theory. They say that the 'scientific basis' may have been true many years ago when the shrine used to be a snake pit. "The mud from the snake pit was said to have healing capabilities, so perhaps that is how the practice began. But later it took the shape of a Vedic ritual and came to be dominated by upper caste people. It is nothing but an affront to the dignity of human life," insisted activist K.Y. Narayanaswamy.

While the debate over the need for the ritual continues, the only way it can be banned is if the people practicing it are convinced. And that, for now, might just take a very long time.

Sources: India Today, BBC

Indian Believers Roll in Food Scraps of Higher Caste to Cure Their Illnesses was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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