Apr 2, 2015

LIKE A ROCK

Pyura chilensis is a creature that not only looks like a rock, but is also completely immobile like one, too. It eats by sucking in water and filtering out micro-organisms. Its blood also produces a rare element called vanadium.

It is born male, but becomes hermaphroditic at puberty. It also reproduces by tossing clouds of sperm and eggs into the surrounding water and hoping they knock together.

Locals of Chile or Peru (where it's found) eat it raw or in stews. They say it tastes “soapy” and "bitter."

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT IDEA


Frog purses!

Apr 1, 2015

HAPPY MOTHER'S


THE VOICES ARE BACK

I’ve always had trouble sleeping at night. Noises have disturbed me my whole life. I found out years ago that I have Hyperacusis (hypersensitive hearing), picking up all sorts of background noises.

Doctors couldn’t fix it, they only recommend the obvious techniques to mask the problem. Not that I hadn’t tried these already.

Ear muffs, listening to music, and even things like meditation. None of it worked. In fact, it made the situation worse. It made her more desperate.

I hear her most nights, no one else can. Why does she only come to me? There’s always the dread of lying there each night in dark silence, anticipating when she will come, and when I will hear her again. Usually, she likes to wait until I’m drifting to sleep, so that I jump back to my senses in fright to the sound of her presence.

Most of the time it begins with faint crying. She tells me that she “wants to make it end.” I know she’s getting closer to getting me and some nights I can even feel her cold breath in my ear.

I can sense when she is lying close beside me in the darkness staring at me, and sometimes she whispers things like “It’s only me,” right into my ear. She’s toying with me, like a cat does to a helpless insect before killing it. The thing is, I could never see her, but it slowly felt like she was becoming more real.

The doctor later informed me that I suffer from schizophrenia. I have been taking medication for a long time but it wasn’t really working. It just made me feel more helpless. It was difficult for a girl as young as me to deal with this. At least now I could accept that she wasn’t real. It was all in my head and there was nothing real to fear. That was until last night…

Last night, her presence felt more real than ever. I could hear her whisper, feel breathing on my neck and even smell her breath, it was all too realistic to handle. I got so scared that I fell back into my old habit of running through the darkness of the house into my mother’s bed to sleep beside her where I felt safe.

Now that I was older, I knew she was hoping I had grown out of this phase, although I had only stopped doing it because it made her sad, and I didn’t want her to be disappointed in me anymore. She was all I had. If I had the choice I would be in there beside her every night without fail.

I knew my mother had been awoken by me, probably more saddened that I reverted to old ways when she thought the medication had been helping me. But it wasn’t helping, I lied all this time to keep her happy and let her sleep in peace.

I curled up in bed beside her and began to sob quietly. My mum looked uncomfortable from the noise I had made, and began stirring under the sheets so I whispered into her ear… “It’s only me.” She sat up abruptly, looking anxious. In the darkness I saw her reach over for her cell phone and begin to dial a number. I noticed on the screen that she was calling the doctor.

“The voices I used to hear,” she said. “They’re back…” 
 
 
 
Story source unknown.

Mar 31, 2015

TIME BOMB

When Ana Elvia went to feed her cows in the morning, four men quickly approached her and put a bomb around her neck. They ran away, leaving a tape that asked for a large sum of money. They also warned her that if she disarmed the bomb (or tried to) that it would go off.

A bomb tech (Jairo Hernando Lopez) showed up later that morning, without any of his tools, and tried to dispose of the bomb. He also came without his bomb-suit so he wouldn’t scare her. He was given a bandsaw and penknife which he failed to disarm the bomb with. Elvia didn’t think she was in any real danger; she kept telling her sister she had an idea who one of the men were. Later in the afternoon, they decided to take a break and the bomb went off. It killed Elvia and took off Lopez’s arm. Lopez later died in the hospital. The people responsible for the bomb have not been found and the case remains unsolved.

This photo was taken a couple of hours before the bomb exploded.

VAMPIRE SQUID

The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis, lit. "vampire squid
of Hell") covering its body with tentacles.