Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Yemeni Girl Cries Stone Tears, Baffles Scientists

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 03:00 AM PST

We've seen people shedding tears of blood before, but this 12-year-old Yemeni girl's problem is truly baffling. When Saadiya Saleh cries, her eyes release small, hard stones. They form under her eyelids and get pushed to the front of her eyes, emerging as tears.

Doctors are unable to explain the strange phenomenon because Saadiya isn't suffering from any known disease. Yemen's satellite TV channel, Azal, aired a video that shows stones forming in her eyes. She is surrounded by family members and doctors, while a helper wipes her eyes with a napkin. The footage also reveals a small box full of stones that collected from Saadiya's eyes in a few hours.

stone-tears

Li Hongbo’s Flexible Paper Sculptures Will Blow Your Mind

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 02:00 AM PST

Chinese artist Li Hongbo's sculptures look no different from the classic white Roman-style plaster busts that many sculptors create. But the real magic begins only when you get close and touch them. What appeared to be plaster, reveals itself to be multiple layers of very thin paper.

Li's technique is stunning – He sketches his ideas before pasting glue in narrow strips across pieces of paper, and stacking them up to the desired height. He uses up to 8,000 layers for a single head. He then cuts, chisels and sands the block of paper using a band saw and angle grinder, just as though he were working with stone. So you could literally touch and play with the busts that Li creates. You could stretch the faces and distort features to reveal an accordion of paper layers, and then snap everything back together with ease.

Li-Hongbo-paper-sculptures4

A Fascinating Story of Exploding Toads and Clever Crows

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 01:00 AM PST

In April 2005, a small pond in Hamburg, Germany became the center of a great mystery, rather repulsive in nature. A documentary film made on the phenomenon reported:

"About 1,000 dead toads were discovered lying around the edges. Their bodies appeared to have exploded. Eye-witnesses said they swelled up to about three-and-a-half times their normal size and then simply burst. And they burst with such an explosive force that their entrails were blown over several square meters."

For several weeks, the common European toads in question received international attention. Scientists were totally baffled, unable to provide an explanation for the unnatural deaths. Health officials panicked – they suspected a virus spread by South American race horses from a nearby track. The tabloid press had a field day with the story, labelling the area 'The Pond of Death'. Things got worse when the epidemic spread across the border to a nearby Danish lake.

hamburg-toads

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