In Poland there is a small forest of pine trees that grow with a bend in the middle of their trunk and no one knows why. They kind of look like a cartoon tree that is trying to avoid being chopped down, bending whenever the lumber jack swings his ax.

In a tiny corner of western Poland a forest of about 400 pine trees grow with a 90 degree bend at the base of their trunks – all bent northward. Surrounded by a larger forest of straight growing pine trees this collection of curved trees, or “Crooked Forest,” is a mystery.

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Beards From Below is a website dedicated to taking pictures of beards…. from below. Why would someone create a website of such unique facial hair perspectives? The about page only says “about awesomeness!” I think you will agree, the best ones look like a neck with no head.

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The ranks are based on what the company called "engagements" – basically how people interact with a particular blog post. Posting a comment, making a tweet, or voting one digg count as an engagement event. PostRank aims to analyze these engagements throughout social media – kind of like what Technorati has been doing in the blogosphere.

I’m tickled to find out that Neatorama won in the field of Oddities! But that aside, the entire list provides quite a good starting point in discovering blogs in many different niches: Link – via Lijit

Oscar, who is actually a female cockatoo, was given six months to live, but thanks to a diagnosis of a contagious beak-and-feather disease, she was spared… and that was twelve years ago! The near-naked bird with nothing more than a tuft of feathers on her head is enchanting people world-wide as she gives real meaning to beauty comes from within. She can also do a mean Mick Jagger dance too.

Video: YouTube