Oddity Central

Oscar, the Nursing Home Cat Who Can Sense Death Coming
Artist Paints Famous Landmarks with Bicycle Tire Tracks
A Leap of Faith: NFL Star Player Gives Up His Career to Farm Sweet Potatoes for the Needy

Oscar, the Nursing Home Cat Who Can Sense Death Coming

Posted: 19 Nov 2014 09:12 AM PST

Meet Oscar, a cat with a supernatural ability to feel when people are about to die. In over 50 documented cases, Oscar, who lives in a nursing home , has curled up beside patients in their final hours, seeing them through to the 'other side'.

His unique story was revealed by Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, who claims Oscar's predictions have rarely been wrong in the past six years. In fact, he has even proved medical staff wrong at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, where he was adopted seven years ago as a kitten.

Dr. Dosa first told the world about Oscar's rare gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has accurately sensed even more deaths, convincing the geriatrician that it wasn’t just a series of coincidences. Dr. Dosa eventually wrote a book about his experiences with Oscar at the nursing home. It's called 'Making rounds with Oscar: The extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat'.

Posted: 19 Nov 2014 06:44 AM PST

Thomas Yang's art is simple, minimal, and brilliant. The Singapore-based designer/illustrator couples his artistic talent with his passion for cycling to produce 'bike print illustrations' of world famous landmarks with bicycle tire tracks.

Thomas calls the series '100 copies', because it is limited to, well, 100 prints per piece. The series consists of illustrations of some of the world's most notable architectural landmarks, made using only the bike tires coated with black pigment.

Some of the most popular works in the series include illustrations of the London Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, and the Empire State Building. Each piece comes stamped with a quirky name and edition number, along with its own special bike-themed description.

Posted: 19 Nov 2014 06:22 AM PST

Many would call former NFL Star Jason Brown crazy for giving up his career for a dream, but he is convinced it was the right thing to do. The 31-year-old, who was once ranked one of the best players in the league and was offered a $35 million contract to play for the St. Louis Rams, gave it all up to start a farm near his home in North Carolina. He now spends his time growing sweet potatoes and distributing the crop among the poor.

When Brown first decided to make the move back to his home county of Louisburg, his agent told him that he was making the biggest mistake of his life. But he was convinced that this was the right thing to do. "I looked right back at him and I said, 'No, I'm not. No, I'm not,'" Brown said.

"God revealed to me that he had something greater in store for me and that my family should move back to my home state of North Carolina and start a farm," Brown wrote on his website. "This really caught us by surprise because we knew nothing about farming. Yet, out of obedience, we started looking for available farmland."