Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Take a Look inside a $11.5 Million Doomsday-Proof House

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 03:00 AM PST

If I had a house like this, maybe I wouldn't mind an end-of-the-world type scenario at all. I'm talking about a 4,200 sq. ft. mansion located in Yellow Jacket, a deserted town in Colorado, U.S. I call it a mansion only for its interiors. From the outside, it looks every bit like the disaster-ready, Armageddon-proof house that it's supposed to be.

The walls of this house are made of reinforced concrete and are lined with thick steel. This makes the structure so strong that it has been declared 'nuclear rated' by its online listing on Curbed.com. From the outside, it seems like a desolate and boring building in the middle of nowhere, but on the inside it's a luxury home, complete with designer furniture and beautiful interiors. The only proof that the house is a 'luxury survival bunker' are the overhead metal air ducts that traverse almost every room. The ducts are meant to close off in the case of emergencies, like if the air gets contaminated from a gas leak.

doomsday-prrof-house

Woman Runs 500 Kilometers in 86 Hours without Any Sleep

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST

Kim Allen, a 47-year-old ultra-distance runner from New Zealand, recently broke the world record for running the longest distance without sleep. She surpassed the previous record of 486 km (set by American Pam Reed in 2005) by running a whopping 500 km. It took her 86 hours, 11 minutes and 9 seconds of non-stop running to complete the challenge.

Kim began at 6 am on the 19th of December, in Auckland, and kept at it for four long days. She ran initially, but slowed down to a walk in the final laps. The mother-of-four called her achievement "Sleepless in Auckland." "It's all a bit surreal at the moment," she said, shortly after completing the feat.

This wasn't her first attempt; Kim tried to beat Reed's record last year, but she could only manage 370 km before she had to stop. This time, she reached her goal with blistered feet and swollen ankles. But Kim was so ecstatic about her achievement that she referred to her state as "just a bit weary." She also said that she was overwhelmed and could not believe her quest was over.

Kim-Allen-record

The Trovants of Costesti – Romania’s Unique Growing Rocks

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST

When I first read about trovants, I couldn't believe they were real. They sounded like objects Captain Kirk and his crew would discover on an alien planet. Strange rocks that grow when it rains and move from one place to another without any assistance. Totally sci-fi, right?

As I kept reading about them, I discovered that trovants aren't a part of science fiction, they are just an amazing geological phenomena. These stones seem to grow as if they are alive, even though they're not. They are found in the small Romanian village of Costesti. The word 'trovant' is a synonym for the German term “Sandsteinkonkretionen” (try saying that really fast), which means 'cemented sand'.

Cemented sand – that's a strange name for a rock, isn't it? But that's what trovants are – spherical shapes of sand that appeared on earth after powerful seismic activity. In fact, the earthquakes that brought these strange rocks into existence are said to have occurred 6 million years ago. Trovants grow when they come into contact with water. Stones as small as six to eight millimeters end up as large as six to ten meters. Some of them even move on their own. When cut, trovants reveal spherical and ellipsoidal rings, similar to tree trunks.

Trovants-of-Costesti

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