Oddity Central |
- Insect Body Snatchers – How the Jewel Wasp Turns Cockroaches into Zombies
- Dangerous Hands – Ukrainian Hairdresser Cuts Hair Blindfolded
- Meet the German Family Who Lives without (Almost) Any Money
| Insect Body Snatchers – How the Jewel Wasp Turns Cockroaches into Zombies Posted: 20 Feb 2013 06:41 AM PST If you're a Harry Potter fan, I don't need to tell you what the Imperius curse is. For the rest of you, it’s a spel used to control people's minds. Now, if you thought something like this was possible only in J.K. Rowling’s world, well here's some news for you. Nature's obviously one step ahead. The Jewel Wasp or 'Emerald Cockroach Wasp' is actually able to control the mind of its prey, the cockroach, by injecting venom directly into its brain. The secret to the Jewel Wasp's 'captivating' abilities lies in a neurotransmitter called octopamine in the cockroach's brain that contols its movements. The wasp's venom blocks the octopamine, literally converting the cockroach into a zombie. This 'zombie' cockroach is completely unable to fight back as it is pulled by the wasp into its underground lair. If you're wondering why the wasp would go through all this trouble to just eat a cockroach, here's the really weird part – the cockroach is meant to unwillingly play the part of surrogate mother. The wasp lays an egg into the cockroach's abdomen, and the larva later hatches and eats the live cockroach from inside out. It takes 3 or 4 days for the larva to hatch, after which it slowly feeds on the roach's internal organs, keeping it alive the whole time. This process takes about 7-8 days, during which the meat needs to be fresh for the larva. And because a dead cockroach rots within a day, the wasp prefers the 'stun' method. Once the roach is eaten up completely and it dies, the larva forms a cocoon inside it. A fully-grown wasp emerges from the cockroach carcass a month later.
Photo: Orion Mystery The Jewel wasp is quite clean and precise in its injection of the venom. It starts by stinging the cockroach around its midsection. By doing this, the front legs are paralyzed. Then, the wasp proceeds to make a more precise sting, injecting the venom directly into the brain to block the octopamine. At this point, the cockroach is still able to move around and can flee if it wants to. But that's the trouble, the venom works on the roach's free will causing it to lose all motivation to run away from potential danger and pain. So now the wasp is pretty much free to coerce the cockroach into the direction of its choice by tugging and guiding its prey. And you know what happens next.
Photo: The Silent One Jewel wasps are normally found in the tropical regions of Africa, India and the Pacific islands. In a single mating session, a female wasp is able to produce enough fertilized eggs to place on several dozens of cockroaches. The phenomenon is so fascinating that scientists have conducted several experiments in an attempt to understand it better. Over the course of several investigations, they've figured out that octopamine is quite similar to noradrenaline in humans, which is involved in the fight-or-flight reaction in the vertebrate brain. They found out that the wasp injects the venom into a very specific area of the roach's brain. So when researchers reversed the process by injecting an octopamine-like substance into the same part of a 'zombie' roach's brain, it resulted in significant recovery and restoration of its free will. Scientists have also observed that the Jewel wasp will sting a cockroach continuously for up to 3 minutes in order to determine the right spot, the sub-esophageal ganglia.
The Jewel wasp is one-of-a-kind, the only known parasite that injects its venom directly into its host's brain. But there are other parasites that control their prey's behavior in several ways. Makes you wonder at how amazing-yet-scary nature is, doesn't it? Insect Body Snatchers – How the Jewel Wasp Turns Cockroaches into Zombies was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Dangerous Hands – Ukrainian Hairdresser Cuts Hair Blindfolded Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:17 AM PST Oleg Maksakov, a hairdresser from Sevastopol, Ukraine, has a very unique way of cutting his clients’ hair – wearing a blindfold and masterfully wielding two pairs of scissors at the same time. Most clients visiting a hairdresser are worried they might get a bad haircut, but Oleg Maksakov’s customers are more worried about getting one or both of their ears sliced off. That’s because the young Ukrainian likes to cut hair with both hands and wearing a blindfold. He has been a hairdresser for 10 years, but only recently took up the dangerous challenge of cutting hair blindfolded. “I wanted to test my skill level,” he told TSN. First he learned to cut hair with his left hand, than with both hands at the same time, and finally, while blindfolded. ”It’s kind of like meditation,” Oleg says. “Each haircut for me is extreme. The structure of hair, different people, it all goes a different way every time.” According to local media, Maksakov has become very popular after word of his special skills spread in Sevastopol, but his very first client was the person that trusts him the most – his mother. The gifted Ukrainian started cutting hair when he was just 10 years old. One of his first “victims” was a long-haired action figure. After seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, he realized long hair wasn’t made the toy look too feminine, so he grabbed the scissors and turned him into “a real man”. He refined his hair-cutting skill during military school, in Saint Petersburg, and realized that’s what he wanted to do with his life. Coming from a military family, he had some trouble explaining to his relatives that hairdressing was his real passion, but says it was worth it because “you cannot run away from yourself, otherwise you’re just living someone else’s life, and you’ll never truly be accomplished.”
Mastering his blindfolded technique began with studying Leonardo Da Vinci. The Rennaissance master wrote his notes backwards and using both hands. He then learned this technique was recommended for developing both hemispheres of the human brain, so he started practicing. Then, during a televised talent show, he saw a little boy with a had pulled over his head, cutting something, and realized nothing in this world in impossible. He decided to apply the skill to his hair-cutting craft and began practicing on mannequins. When Oleg thought he was ready, he practiced on his first living model – his mother. Taking advantage that she usually watched TV while he gave her a haircut, he just closed his eyes. Both her ears remained intact and the hair came out great.
Now Olek Maksakov practices his blind hair-cutting at the salon where he works, but only charges for regular haircuts. The extreme ones are offered for free to patrons brave enough to allow him to sharpen his skills. Dangerous Hands – Ukrainian Hairdresser Cuts Hair Blindfolded was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Meet the German Family Who Lives without (Almost) Any Money Posted: 20 Feb 2013 03:05 AM PST 29-year-old Rafael Fellmer and his family lead a very frugal lifestyle, one that requires them to spend almost no money at all. They get their food from organic supermarket dumpsters, “pay” their rent by doing all kinds of chores around the house and use a barter system to get the things they need. They only use money when they absolutely don’t have any other choice. Rafael Fellmer was born in a good German family. His father is a successful architect and his mother an art therapist. He himself graduated in European Studies, in Hague, so there’s no question he could have gotten a good job, if he so wanted. But a few years back, Rafael realized there were things in this world much more important than money. He started gradually reducing his expenditures by doing things that didn’t require him paying anything. The economic crisis, the global food and water shortage, climate change, they all inspired him to live a frugal lifestyle, and made him realize that giving up money is a sure way to a more stable world order. Although there are those who consider him a “deadbeat” for not getting a proper job and providing for his family from supermarket dumpsters, Rafael Fellmer commands a lot of respect from those who share his views, and he is considered the leader of the life-without-money movement that is gaining a lot of popularity in Germany. For Rafael, the journey to a life without money began two years ago, with a trip to Mexico. A friend of his invited him to his wedding there, so he and a couple of buddies decided to travel there without spending a dime. He hitchhiked, offered to work on sailboats in exchange for transportation, slept in trucks on the street, in schools and at fire stations, but after 11 months he reached Guatemala’s border with Mexico. Two reach Italians had taken him on their yacht to the Brazilian coast. Fellmer cooked, scrubbed the deck and kept watch during the night, to return the favor, and then made his way through Central America, all the way to Mexico. He found the whole experience so rewarding that he decided to start living a life without money. It was in Central America that he met his wife, Nieve. She soon became pregnant, so the life-without-money project had to be interrupted. An airway employee they contacted on the Couch Surfing website negotiated a flight back to Germany for the couple, for just 150 euros. Photo: Vimeo Back in his home country, Rafael decided to stay with his parents until he could find a place where they could pay the rent in services: guarding the house, cooking, cleaning, computer maintenance and even pet care. Now the family lives in a small apartment in the basement of a villa in Kleinmachnow, near Berlin. They take care of the gardening and repairs and only have to worry about electricity and water bills. Fellmer says the pay very little, as they only use these resources when they absolutely have to. Still, the couple admit they sometimes have to pay for things with cash. Like when Nieves had to see a gynecologist during her pregnancy, and in order to get health insurance. “We’re not perfect,” Raphael Fellmer says. “We are trapped in the mill of money, without meaning to.” Photo: Forward Revolution Still, the Fellmer’s way of life is very different than most other people’s. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization , between a third and a half of the food in Europe and America ends up in the trash, 30% of which is discarded unopened. To Rafael this is complete madness and an insult to the people who work so hard to produce the food. Most of the organic foods he retrieves from supermarket dumpsters are perfectly edible. His pantry and “refrigerator” - a shelf in the yard under a tarp – are always full. He makes about three or four scavenging trips per week, usually around midnight, equipped with a head lamp and a big backpack, ready “to save food from the garbage.” Although entering supermarket property is considered trespassing in Germany, most companies don’t have a problem with people like Rafael. Some even instruct the staff to sort still-edible food from garbage.
The life-without-money movement has really been gaining in popularity in lost of German cities. There are forums full of useful information, from risks associated with dumpster diving to recipes for dishes made with scavenged foods. Rafael Fellmer says people like him are one step ahead of the Occupy movement: You can’t just camp outside banks to protest against the system. They boycott by no longer using its “fuel” – money. Sources: Welt, WZ Newsline Meet the German Family Who Lives without (Almost) Any Money was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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