Oddity Central |
- Flight of the Living Dead – The Tiny Fly That Turns Bees into Zombies
- Chinese Grandmother Carries Handicapped Granddaughter on Her Back Every Day So She Can Attend School
- The Harmless Far East Eses – Thai Men Dressing Up Like Mexican Gang Members
| Flight of the Living Dead – The Tiny Fly That Turns Bees into Zombies Posted: 25 Mar 2014 04:31 AM PDT Human zombies might be a figment of the imagination, but 'zombie bees' actually exist. They are 'created' when regular honeybees get infested with a particular type of parasite. The bees begin to display highly erratic and bizarre behavior that’s very zombie-like. These infested bees were first discovered in 2008 in California by John Hafernik, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University. Ever since the initial discovery, zombie bee-sightings have been reported in Oregon, Washington State, California and South Dakota. According to Professor Hafernik, "They fly around in a disoriented way, get attracted to light, and then fall down and wander around in a way that's sort of reminiscent of zombies in the movies. Sometimes we've taken to calling it, when they leave their hives, 'the flight of the living dead.'" The culprit here is the Apocephalus borealis, a parasitic fly that is known to implant its eggs in ants. The fly larvae live off the ants' brains, dissolve their connective tissues and eventually finish off the ants. Researchers now have reason to believe that the flies have found a new home for their eggs – European honeybees that are common in the United States. The flies lay their eggs in the bees that eventually hatch, wreaking havoc in their hosts' bodies. |
| Chinese Grandmother Carries Handicapped Granddaughter on Her Back Every Day So She Can Attend School Posted: 25 Mar 2014 03:21 AM PDT There's nothing quite like a grandparent's love, and this sweet story from Yibin City in China's Szechuan province proves it. Even though 14-year-old Fang Mei Qiu is handicapped, she doesn't miss a day of school. And she's always on time! All thanks to her 66-year-old grandmother who actually gives the girl a piggy back ride every morning. Together, they cover four kilometers of mountain roads on foot each day to and from school. Fang Mei was born with abnormal kneecaps that aren't able to support her weight. So she can't stand for more than a few minutes without excruciating pain, let alone walk to school. She is constantly in need of help to move around. Sadly, her father left when she was just a baby and her mother remarried soon, leaving Fang Mei in the care of her grandparents. And what loving grandparents they've turned out to be! While the grandfather is too old and sick to do much, the grandmother takes care of the small family's needs. Grandma wakes up at 5 am each morning and prepares for the day ahead. At 7 am, they begin their journey to school with Fang Mei on grandma's back, stopping to rest at least five times during the trek. It takes them one-and-a-half hours to cover the two-kilometer journey on foot. And they are never late – grandma makes sure they reach school by 8.30 am every single day. They've been doing this for five years now, covering over 4,000 kilometers so far. |
| The Harmless Far East Eses – Thai Men Dressing Up Like Mexican Gang Members Posted: 25 Mar 2014 02:05 AM PDT In an interesting new trend in Thailand, young men are choosing to dress themselves as Mexican gangsters. Their clothes (or lack thereof), hairstyles, and tattoos are all inspired by criminal gangs in Mexico and the US. They have even formed their own gangs – Balcony Pain, Fratez, and D Sixty, to name a few. But of course, copying dressing style won't really make criminals out of decent men. None of these young copycats actually appreciate the brutal violence associated with real-life Latino gangs, they are just really big fans of the gangs’ fashion style and brotherhood mentality. More than anything else, these men appreciate the 'clean and simple' gangster aesthetic because it suits the Thai weather very well. You'd actually be surprised to know that most of them hold nine to five jobs as teachers, policemen and bureaucrats. Some are family men who ask their wives' permission before getting inked. Needless to say, they don't fight, shoot each other or deal in drugs. They're more like this large brotherhood of style-conscious men who bond well over their passion for gangster lifestyle and clothes. |
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