Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Amazing Woman Turns Her Apartment into Hospice for Terminally Ill Cats

Posted: 27 Aug 2014 04:24 AM PDT

Most people aren't aware of this, but an alarmingly large number of cats die of leukemia every year. To raise awareness about the plight of these suffering cats, Maria Torero has converted her own two-story, eight-room apartment into a feline hospice. The 45-year-old nurse from Lima, Peru, currently has 175 patients residing with her, and spends over $1,500 a month just to care for them.

Maria has been caring for the diseased cats for the past five years now – she brings unwanted strays into her home and nurses them as they slowly succumb to their deadly illness. The mother-of-three doesn't distinguish between her own children and her cat-patients. In fact, she says that she considers it her duty as a nurse to take in creatures that no one else wants to care for.

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Hitofude Ryuu – The Japanese Art of Painting Dragons with a Single Brush Stroke

Posted: 27 Aug 2014 02:48 AM PDT

The talented Sumie painters of Kousyuuya Studio in Nikko, Japan can paint the body of a dragon with a single stroke of the brush. The delicate technique is known as 'hitofude ryuu', which literally means 'dragon with one stroke', and it's been around for four generations.

Watching these painters create a perfect dragon – with all the shades and scales – in just a couple of seconds is a true delight. It all looks so effortless, but there's a lot of hard work and practice involved in getting the stroke right.

To create a single dragon painting, the Sumie artists first make the ornate head with various flourishes, using a smaller brush. Then, they dip a much larger sumie brush into the desired paint color and simply swipe it across the canvas in one swift movement. You really have to watch a video to realize the brilliance of the technique.

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16-Year-Old Creates Revolutionary Flashlight Powered Solely by Body Heat

Posted: 27 Aug 2014 01:09 AM PDT

16-year-old Ann Makosinski, from Victoria, Canada, has come up with a marvelous invention – a flashlight powered solely by body-heat. Her project won second prize at a local science fair, and made it all the way to the 2013 Google Science Fair, where she was declared the winner for her age group. She also updated it to a handsfree version this year – a body-heat powered headlamp, for which she won the 2014 Weston Youth Innovation Award.

Ann's project is truly remarkable for its sheer simplicity and brilliance. I mean, it isn't every day that you come across a light source that doesn't use batteries, solar power, or wind energy. The device just powers on as soon as you hold it in your palm. If that isn't genius, I don't know what is!

The secret behind Ann's invention is thermoelectric technology, and devices called Peltier tiles. And it's really surprising that no one's ever thought to use that kind of technology to power a flashlight before. Think of all the AA batteries we could avoid using!

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