The plants of the genus Platycerium are more commonly known as Staghorn or Elkhorn ferns. They grow on trees, but are not parasites, because they generate their own nutrition from water and sunlight. However, they grow on other trees, and produces two types of fern fronds -one to catch sunlight, the other to surround its roots, hold water, and connect the plant to the tree. Read more about these fascinating ferns and see lots of pictures at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: D. Gordon E. Robertson)

Most pregnancies last for about 9 months and doctors are likely to induce labor if pregnancy goes on too long. That being said, it is possible to be pregnant for a whole year. The world’s longest pregnancy lasted 375 days, strangely, the baby was only a little under seven pounds.

It certainly puts a whole new perspective on being a few weeks late, doesn’t it?

If you are pregnant, ask your doctor before you start to worry about these weird things you just found out. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user ChepeNicoli)

This DIY Juice To Alcohol Kit is a great gift for those alcoholic science nerds out there and for really bad parents who can’t think of a better way to get their kids interested in science. Just add juice and a packet of the magical alcohol powder and you will have your own homemade liquor in only 48 hours. The resulting booze will be up to 28 proof -it might not be moonshine, but it sure won’t make you go blind.

Personally, I’d love to receive the magic wand that turns the TV off! Link

The origins of this tentacled tradition began in 1952 when fewer NHL teams meant that the road to the Stanley Cup only took eight playoff wins. Thus, the 8 legs on an octopus would symbolize the road to the Stanley cup with 8 winning games. Since then, hundreds of octopi have rained down onto the Redwing rink.

A list of recommendations state that the octopus should be cooked, as a raw octopus tends to leave slime on the ice. Link

Circumstantial Evidence? …English politician and justice of the peace Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was found murdered on October 17, 1678. His body had been left in a ditch on Greenberry Hill in London. Three men were arrested and tried for the crime. Their names were Robert Green, Henry Berry, and Lawrence Hill.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by MrGhaz.

Spontaneous human combustion is not a recent phenemenon. In a contemporary illustration from Bleak House by Charles Dickens, William Guppy and Tony Weevle discover the smoking ashes that were once the evil Krook. Some people, however, have survived SHC. In 1974 Jack Angel lost his right arm after a fire. Some believe that the fire started internally!

On the night of November 12, 1974, he parked his trailer, which he had converted into a traveling showroom, at a Ramada Inn in Savannah, Georgia. He made up the bed, changed into his pajamas, and went to sleep.

Four days later, Angel woke up. He noticed that his right hand was black from the wrist to the fingertips. “It was just burned, blistered,” he told Arnold.” And I had this big explosion in my chest. It left a hell of a hole. I was burned … on my ankle, and up and down my back, in spots.”

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by MrGhaz.

Superheroes from all corners of the world, who have powers you might not think useful, or who were created just to be weird! For example, Matter-Eater Lad:

Say this out loud without laughing we dare you. The true name of Matter-Eater Lad is Tenzil Kem and he’s got the ability to eat matter in any form. Hailing from planet Bismoll this strong stomached wonder first appeared in Adventure Comics as part of the DC Universe. From his story line we find that all inhabits of the planet Bismoll developed their remarkable constitutions when the food on their world became inedible. If you wondered about the fact that Bismoll sounds a lot like Pepto-Bismoll the tummy medicine we’re sure it’s just a coincidence.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rale87.

Coal the bulldog had cancer which led to the amputation of his paw. But his owner shelled out £10,000 for a titanium leg for the disabled dog! The benefit is not only his. Coal is also a research subject for new limb prosthetic techniques that will benefit injured humans.

Vet Noel Fitzpatrick told the Enfield Independent: ‘This is unique in that its the world’s only implant into which skin and bone grow. It is the holy grail of research.

‘If you have an accident and your bone sticks out through your shin, skin will try to grow round it. People have been trying for this for years and years -because with this we get an umbrella of skin attached to the metal.’

Link – via dogcentral

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rappin.

Lopsided games, games that went downhill for the strangest of reasons, and stupid mistakes that led to failure, all are profiled in these losses in a variety of sports. Take, for example, the 1940 championship game between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. The Bears won, 73-0!

The coaches George Halas and George Preston Marshall hated each other from way back. Before the game Marshall called the Bears quitters and cry babies. He also sent Halas a telegram saying how happy he was the Bears had made it to the final so the Redskins would have another chance to beat them. You see, shortly before the championship game the Bears had lost to the Redskins 7-3. Halas was pissed and worked his team up into a winning frenzy. Less than a month later they would deliver a 73-0 thrashing, all thanks to Marshall’s trash talk.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rale87.

Silversmith and offbeat artist Polly van der Glas creates jewelry made from human teeth, hair, and sterling silver.  Aside from rings, she also makes necklaces, earrings, purses and more.

All works are handmade in Melbourne, with sterling silver, human hair and human teeth. Human teeth are locally donated and sterilised, and human hair is either locally donated or sourced from India and China.

Teeth are particularly difficult to come by, so any donations are gratefully accepted.

Link (Photo via OddityCentral.)

Adam Kommel was perusing Google Maps, looking for open swaths of green one day when he accidentally stumbled across this field near Minden, Nebraska.  It looks just like Nebraska, and a casual search finds little more information than what Strange Maps has:

The only other pattern thriving in this checkered landscape is the circle, touching the edges of many squares (as seen on the left of this picture): a sign of the popular method of centre-pivot irrigation. As pretty as that might look from the sky, all these squares and circles are practical first and foremost. This is not a topology of frivolity. Why lose a bit of perfectly arable land only to sculpt something as pointless as a map?

The mysterious Nebraska Field does not seem to have achieved even local fame. The town of Minden only boasts a Pioneer Museum, and each December hyper-decorates itself to defend its reputation as Christmas City.

Link |   Here’s the Google Map.

EVA Airways launched the Hello Kitty Jet in 2005, with the blessing of Sanrio. Take a look at the biggest Hello Kitty tribute yet, and see the amenities inside the Airbus A330 in this set of photographs.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Ssquared22.

Could this 43,000 year old bone of a cave bear be a musical instrument? If so, it could be evidence that Neanderthals were musically-inclined!

The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it is the world’s oldest known musical instrument, but this is in dispute. The continuing dispute notwithstanding, the artifact remains on prominent public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum’s visitor leaflet maintains that manufacture by Neanderthals “is reliably proven”.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rappin.

The young sharks have been taken to a “nursery” tank with some baby eagle rays, where visitors can see them before they are released into the wild.

Link (Photo: Richard Robinson)

Update (11/11/2009): The mother and her eight babies are all doing fine.  Link to Daily Mail story with video.

Photo: AFP

If you want the world to listen to your cause, shouting just won’t work.  You have to get weird.  That’s what Alice Newstead did last summer to raise awareness about shark endangerment.  With oversized fish hooks, a Paris boutique, and silver spray paint, Alice hung around briefly, but it got people’s attention.

The painful stunt went on for 15 minutes, as shoppers came to have a gander at the weird protest in the window of cosmetics store Lush. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) some 100 million sharks are caught in commercial and sports fishing every year, and several species have declined by more than 80 per cent in the past decade alone.

Oddee has nine other strange protests we have been subjected to… and took notice of.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

Animals come in different forms, some are cute, some are cuddly, some are adorable while some are just plain strange. Talk about giant salamanders and rabbits that have overgrown hair. Web Ecoist has compiled this list of the 9 weirdest animals on earth. 

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by manilenio.

This is one strange cat. It looks like it’s in some sort of trance or seizure but it reacts to physical touch. I also noticed that it doesn’t blink either. Then, all of a sudden, up it goes as if nothing was. Weird.

Source: Metacafe