Tuesday 28 May 2013

Desert Rose

It is the name given to rosette formations of the minerals gypsum and barite with sand inclusions. The 'petals' are crystals flattened, fanning open along characteristic gypsum cleavage planes. The rosette crystal habit tends to occur when the crystals form in arid sandy conditions, such as the evaporation of a shallow salt basin.Desert roses are mineral formations that are found on the surface and are awesome examples of the natural power of the shaping forces of wind, water and pressure in dry, arid regions.Desert roses are only found in deserts, which is how they got the name.

 

Sunday 26 May 2013

The Man Who Doesn't Sleep For 33 Years

Thai Ngoc or Hai Ngoc is born 1942 a Vietnamese insomniac. According to Vietnamese news, he is known for his claim of being awake for 33 years. Thanh Nien also claimed that Ngoc acquired the ability to go without sleep after a bout of fever in 1973, there was no apparent cause. I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I am still living healthy life and running farm normally like others. Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4 kilometers of road to return home every day. His wife said, "My husband used to sleep well, but these days, even liquor cannot put him down. When Ngoc went to Da Nang for a medical examination; doctors gave him a clean bill of health, apart from a minor decline in liver function. Ngoc currently busy with farming and taking care of chickens all day. His 6 children live at their house in Que Trung. Hai Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to prevent theft, he is also busy in three months of sleepless nights to dig two large ponds to raise fish farm.

Friday 10 May 2013

Taisia Sidorova, Develops Artistic Talent After Losing Half Of Brain.

There is something called God’s gift. Some people are blessed with an inherent ability to learn things more quickly than others; some are showered upon the gift of intelligence while some excel in sports or other activities. We normally call such people “gifted”. Such people are in a different league than normal people. However, there is one girl who is not gifted but still gifted. I don't think this new ability is a compensation, as they say. It is more like "using what is left". I think that before the accident she was using more the left hemisphere and now there is no other choice than to use the right hemisphere (which is the one responsible with space, distance, colours, movement vision). Loosing the logic and analytic part, she now uses the artistic one - because that's all she has now. And, from my point of view, this is a positive fact, you can call it "a gift from God", I do agree.
Taisia Sidorova from St. Petersburg suffered a horrific car crash. That accident not only broke her skull into fragments and chunks but the doctors gave up saying there wasn't much chance of survival. Twenty one (21) year old girl stayed in coma for while after the doctors removed the left hemisphere of her brain. That part of the brain is apparently responsible for logic and analysis. The doctors had to place a protective plate inside her head after removing the analytical half.
While the medical practitioners believed that the Taisia would be disabled for her entire life, her mother Irina believed in the opposite. The strong willed Taisia finally woke up on New Year’s Eve and out emerged a completely new facet of her life.
She returned home and demanded complete recovery. Two (2) years after that she learnt to hold a pencil and then a brush. She started sketching for therapy and was rated as the topper of her class. Taisia started living a new life. She had not been interested in painting or sketching before the car crash, however, some incidents do have the power to change lives.
The doctors admit that the brain is human body’s exceptionally remarkable part. The part of her brain that was intact grew to compensate for the missing one. This was the logic behind Taisia’s artistic ability. Due to the missing part, Taisia’s vision is limited and so is her right hand’s movement. As a result, she paints with her left hand. Two things I find a bit off here: "It's God's gift" and all the oohs and aahs about the painting(s) and the new found ability. We seem to 'forget' that she did lose half her sight and the use of her right hand. She had the ability and artistic flare to do this before the accident but just didn't have as much time or opportunity as she was busy living. On her road to recovery (I know) in thereby etc art therapy is a huge part as that is how they can truly get to the unspoken. I guess she found a talent through that which was already in her this just gave her the right opportunity for that. Is that a full life I'm not so sure and not sure I would want to call it a gift either. Just my humble opinion but I'm no scientist.
The effects of such a trauma have, in most cases, a negative effect on the (healthy) life expectancy of the individual. To be clear, I'm amazed as well about the ability of the brain to compensate for such damages sustained. But in the end that's all you get, a compensation, not a replacement of the lost left hemisphere. To call this a 'Gift of God' is a bit silly and overly emotional. A 'true' God's gift in this case would be a new left hemisphere growing while at the same time becoming more artistically minded, as peoples abilities are usually determined by their whole brain and the influences both hemispheres are exerting on each other. Since she didn't express an interest or any talent in painting/drawing before the accident and the following therapy, it's unlikely that the talent that has now surfaced, was dominantly present in her. But it most likely was present nonetheless. This is not a special thing by itself since virtually all of us have potential talents present in our brains. Everybody can draw or paint for example, but not everybody can produce a drawing/painting that looks realistic and is considered to be beautiful or artful. The fact that the remaining right hemisphere is compensating for the loss of the left one will almost certainly be the reason for her increased artistic ability. The therapy will most likely have served as a trigger to let her increased talent further develop and surface.
Anyway, she was extremely lucky since most people that suffer this sort of trauma either die or live in a seriously hampered physical/mental condition and that's hardly a 'gifted', let alone 'donated by God', situation.


Tuesday 7 May 2013

Incan Girl Who Had Been Frozen For 500 Years.

Well initially this might look to you like any normal girl being treated by a doctor; the girl in the photo is not any normal living girl but the mummy of a 15 year old child who has been dead for about 500 years. She was discovered in 1999 near Llullaillaco's 6739 meter summit. An Argentine-Peruvian expedition found the perfectly preserved body and she was nicknamed "La doncella" which means “The maiden”. According to the Inca she was chosen to go and live with the gods. But in reality she was a sacrifice to the Inca Gods and had been viciously killed in the name of religion.

Scientists say that her organs are unbroken and it’s as if she had died just a few weeks ago. From testing the samples of her hair they could determine the type of diet she was on before her death. This unique discovery leads that the Incan fattened their children before killing them. Months or even years before the sacrifice pilgrimage these children were given diets which were those of the elite, consisting of maize and animal proteins. Guessing from the plight of the body, it is hardly believed that she was drugged and left to die in the mountains.

It would not have taken a great deal of time for her to die due to the high exposure. The Incan high priests took their victims to high mountain tops for sacrifice. As the journey was tremendously long and difficult, particularly so for the younger victims, coca leaves were fed to them to aid them in their breathing so as to allow them to reach the burial site alive. Upon reaching the burial site, the children were given an intoxicating drink to reduce pain, fear, and resistance, then killed them either by strangulation, a blow to their head or by leaving them to lose consciousness in the extreme cold and die of exposure. A lot of Inca children were offered as sacrifice during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca (who was the emperor) or during a famine. These sacrifices were known as capacocha.
 





 


In Thailand Buffalo Gave Birth To Human Face Alike buffalo

In Thailand, a buffalo gave birth to a human-like baby.This is a image of a buffalo very akin to human especially its face which is dominantly similar to human. Although, its hands and feets are more similar a buffalo. But generally the buffalo-boy has most organs of a cow having human shaped. It has expired immediately after it was born. Local thais believes this is some sort of phenomenon that brings luck and everyone in that village were praying for blessings. The face of this mystery human-like baby buffalo was totally deformed that I can’t know whether it looks like a buffalo or human face.


 

Saturday 4 May 2013

Portrait Made of 2.1 Million Ink Dots

Now, what does the portrait with a million dots got to do with Benjamin? Well, it was when the United States of America denied a social security number to Benjamin by arguing that he has already got one, that Miguel Endara was inspired to help the poor man through his art. This inspiration was establish after the screening of Finding Benjamin at Tribeca Film festival. What Endara did is a work of a factual artist. The portrait of Benjamin that he drew is an epitome of persistence and perseverance. This beautiful painting is thought to have around 1.2 million dots done with a pen at the speed of 4.25 dots a second. This amazing work took 138 hours to come up and has been circulating in prints in order to assist raise money for Benjamin to fetch him a new social security number.