Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Yanar Dag – The Eternally Burning Mountain of Azerbaijan

Posted: 08 May 2014 04:17 AM PDT

Azerbaijan, a small nation located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, is well known for its rich culture and history. The country is a great tourist destination, with a unique cuisine, ancient monuments, modern architecture, and mud volcanoes. And the most well-known of its volcanoes is Yanar Dag, also known as 'Burning Mountain'. True to its name, the mountain has been burning for as long as anyone can remember, and the fire isn't showing signs of going out any time soon.

Situated on the Absheron Peninsula, 25 kilometers northeast of the capital city of Baku, Yanar Dag is a 116-meter hill located on top of a pocket of natural gas that constantly erupts into flames. These flames jet out at least three meters into the air, through a porous layer of sandstone. Unlike the other mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan, Yanar Dag has no seepage of mud or liquid, so the fire always burns.

A 10-meter long wall of fire continuously burns alongside the edge of the hill. This makes for the most spectacular view, especially at night. The air around this open fireplace is always thick with the smell of gas. The heavy Absheron wind, twisting the flames into bizarre shapes, adds to the mystery of the region. Tongues of fire also rise from the surface of the streams located around the hill. These streams are called Yanar Bulaq, or 'Burning Spring'.

Awesome Dad Builds 50-Meter-Long Rollercoaster in His Backyard

Posted: 08 May 2014 03:51 AM PDT

I've seen a lot of parents flatly refusing to indulge their kids' outlandish ideas. That's why I find 50-year-old Will Pemble's spirit and child-like enthusiasm quite extraordinary. The father-of-two actually gave in to his son's bizarre request – to build a rollercoaster in their own back yard.  It really makes Will a strong candidate for the title of best dad in the world, don’t you think?

Will is an e-commerce professional, living in San Francisco with his wife and two children (Lyle, 10 and Ellie, 12). He said that he took on the rollercoaster project because he wanted to show his kids that anything is possible if you're willing to put in the effort. And he's also a bit of a physics enthusiast, so he thought the project would be a great time to teach his children a fair bit of science.

backyard-rollercoaster

Can You believe These Are Hyper-Realistic Acrylic Paintings and Not Actual Photographs?

Posted: 08 May 2014 02:42 AM PDT

We've seen lots of artists creating portraits that look like photographs, but very few have come as close to the real thing as Sheryl Luxenberg. Her work is fittingly called 'hyperrealism' – her paintings are just too real to be true. You probably need to stare at them for hours to spot one feature that doesn't look utterly lifelike.

Sheryl is an award-winning visual artist living in Ottawa, Ontario. On her websites, she says that she tries to present the objectivity of her subjects, taking advantage of illusionistic depth and emphasizing with paint a flattened three dimensional look. I'm an art-dummy, so I really have no idea what that means. But it's apparently the hallmark quality of the Photorealism Art Movement that began in the United States in the late 1960s.

Sheryl-Luxenburg-art

This Collection of Bat-Eating Spiders Is Probably the Scariest Thing You’ll See Today

Posted: 08 May 2014 01:19 AM PDT

It’s hard to imagine a fragile spider killing and eating a full-grown bat. I mean there's no way a tiny spider could have any sort of muscle power over a fully grown bat, right? Believe or not, there are eight-legged bugs out there that can pounce on bats and eventually devour them. And when they can't, they rely on their superior web-spinning skills to get the job done.

One of the earliest sightings of bat-eating spiders occurred way back in 1941, when Indian scientist G.C. Bhattacharya (of the Bose Research Institute) walked into a cowshed in a village near the city of Calcutta. In a letter to an unknown publication, he wrote a detailed account of his experience: "Entering into the cowshed, I noticed a pipistrelle bat struggling to drag itself out of a crevice between two bamboo strips of a wall and a big house-spider was seen firmly gripping the former by the neck with its powerful mandibles." No matter how much the little bat kicked, and screamed and flailed, the spider held on with a death-grip. "There was intermittent gasping and screaming of the bat," Bhattacharya wrote.

Eventually, he focused a torch on the spot and as soon as the light fell on the pair, the bat screamed loudly and managed to drag itself through a certain distance on the matted shed wall. About 20 minutes later, the bat, thoroughly exhausted, stretched out its wing and gave in.   Bhattacharya then captured both victim and predator in a glass jar and took them home for closer observation. The next morning, he found the spider resting peacefully at the top of the jar, while the bat lay dead at the bottom, untouched. It had visible injuries to its neck and had died sometime during the night.

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