Think It, Feel It

It is possible to catch leprosy from an armadillo if you are a human or an armadillo. Were you to handle an infected armadillo and contract the disease unwittingly you might never notice, around 95% of humans are immune to leprosy. Even if you did contract leprosy it could easily be stopped early on. That is for real leprosy, what about imaginary leprosy? What happens if I told you that you had leprosy – and you believed me?

If you believed that you had leprosy from your excessive armadillo handling sessions, something curious would happen. You would look up the symptoms, then they would manifest. Your skin might become rough, your muscles would feel much weaker and you might notice that the nerves in your hands and skin aren’t working, it is harder to feel things. The problem is this; nothing at all is hurting you, you should be healthy. Then medicine enters.

Medicine would have little physical effect on you, after all there is nothing to fight. You would suffer the side effects, but if you believed the medicine would work, your symptoms would disappear.

In The Mind

It all felt real, in fact those effects were real, though there was only one external factor. The idea of leprosy. A person believing they had a disease, as long as they know the symptoms, will develop the symptoms. This is the extreme case of mind over matter and it is most definitely a real problem. This is the nocebo effect. Nocebo comes from the Latin for I will harm. It is the evil twin of the more famous Placebo effect.

Deployed on 30 May, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

Cherenkov Radiation: When Things Go Faster Than Light

Cherenkov radiation from a nuclear reactor core 300,000 kilometres per second is the limit, the speed of light, nothing can exceed that speed. This is one of the most famous results of Einstein’s famous e = mc². That is nice, and convenient, except for that things can go faster than light. Why? The speed of light, the ultimate limit, is only reached in the vacuum of space, otherwise, we can slow light down, and overtake it.

Light always slows down when it passes through matter, and when objects overtake it we get Cherenkov radiation. It is a visual sonic boom, and it works in the same way. Sonic booms are the result of reaching the speed of sound; sound ahead of the object can’t dissipate or get away, so pressure builds. When the speed is exceeded the pressure is released as a terribly loud shock wave that bludgeons the ears of anything within a few kilometres. Cherenkov radiation is similar, but quieter. To observe it, you will need a nuclear reactor core and a lot of water.

Deployed on 26 May, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

The Explosive Dogs of War

An anti-tank dog in training.

Once upon a time in the Soviet Union, the Anti-tank dog was invented. It was a simple idea, but not so simple a process. In 1924 the Revolutionary Military Council permitted the use of dogs within the military: to assist with this a special military dog training school was founded in the Moscow Oblast. It was then realised that they had a school but no teachers, and so a motley crew of animal trainers was assembled from such varied persons as hunters and circus performers.

Leading animal scientists produced a wide-scale training program for the dogs. For a while it was the ‘normal’ stuff; rescue, delivery of first aid, enemy attack and carrying messages. Then came the 1930′s and the big idea. Why not make the dogs… blow up?

A further 12 regional military dog training schools were built and three of them produced these rather unusual weapons. There were some teething problems.

Deployed on 15 May, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

Death By Utopia

John B. Calhoun relaxing in Universe 25

In the late 20th Century, John B. Calhoun decided to make Utopia; it started with rats. In 1947 he began to watch a colony of Norway rats, over 28 months he noticed something, in that time the population could have increased to 50,000 rats, but instead it never rose above 200. Then he noticed that the colony split into smaller groups of 12 at most. He continued to study rats up until 1954. Then in 1958, he made his first lab.

He bought the second floor of a barn, and there he made his office and lab. For four years he had Universe 1, a large room hosting rats and mice alike. It was split into four spacious pens connected by ramps, each filled with rats. The thronging mass of rodents produced an odour so strong that unaccustomed visitors took several minutes until they could breathe normally. In 1963 he produced his most famous creation, Universe 1. The worlds first mouse mortality-inhibiting-environment.

2.7 metres square with 1.4m high walls. The ‘Universe’ was surrounded by 16 tunnels leading to food, water and burrows. No predators, no scarcity, the mice would have to be blind to not see the utopia around them. At least it began as Utopia. Four breeding pairs of mice were introduced into Universe 1. After 104 days they adjusted to the new world and the population began to grow, doubling every 55 days. By day 315 the population reached 620. Then is stopped. The population grew much more slowly as the mice came against the limit of space, their only limiting frontier.

Society broke. Young were expelled before they had been properly weaned and were arbitrarily attacked by excessive aggressive male mice. Females became more aggressive, non-dominant males became passive, not retaliating to attacks. The last healthy birth came on the 600th day. Then there were no new mice. Then there were none.

Deployed on 13 May, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities 36 Current Replies

Jumping From Space: The World’s Greatest Fall

The high point of Kittinger’s career.

The fastest speed ever reached by an unaided human is just under the speed of sound, achieved under the name Project Excelsior. In 1959 and 1960 The United Stated Air Force ran a series of 3 parachute jumps. Jumps so high that they bordered on space, the highest parachute jumps to have ever been attempted. The 3 jumps were undertaken by a Captain Joseph Kittinger and the records he set still stand today.

Project Excelsior was started in the 1950′s with the lofty ambitions of tackling the threats of the new altitudes being reached by military jets. Many kilometres up, ejecting was not safe. Test dummies released at those heights would spin uncontrollably as they descended, exerting lethal forces on their bodies. Additionally pilot’s suits weren’t designed for the extremes of cold faced in the upper atmosphere. Were an incident to occur up there, a pilot would literally catch their death of cold.

Under Project Excelsior a multi-stage parachute was designed to prevent the spinning. Then a special suit that could combat both extreme pressure and the cold was made. Combined, the whole ensemble weighed as much as an entire person, but tweaking could wait. With the test data from dummies, a prototype and one willing test subject, the first jump was made. Excelsior I.

16 November 1959, Kittinger was sent up in an open gondola attached to a vast balloon. He went up with the suit, parachutes, a heart monitor and a couple of water bottles. Slowly he drifted up to the test height of 23 kilometres. His altimeter told him to go, and Kittinger made to jump – there were difficulties. The water bottles had frozen and expanded. Whilst leaving the gondola he brushed against one and set off the parachute deployment timer.

The moment he was outside his first parachute stage deployed. At those low speeds it fell with him. The main parachute tangled around his body,ensnaring him while cords were wrapping around his neck. Without the parachutes working properly he fell into the death spin. The forces from his rotation restricted blood flow and he lapsed into unconsciousness. At the worst point his extremities were subjected to 22 times the force of gravity.

3,400 metres above earth, the reserve parachute opened out and he landed safely. Excelsior I was a success, he had survived – if barely. He was not deterred.

Deployed on 25 April, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities 1 Comment

Sun, Sea and Snake Island

Ilha da Queimada Grande

Just off of Brazil’s coast lies the quiet Ilha da Queimada Grande. A picturesque island covered in verdant rainforest and surrounded by azure seas. Oddly enough, given its favourable location and pleasant climate, it is totally uninhabited – uninhabited by humans at least. It makes up for this with an abundance of other wildlife, specifically an abundance of poisonous vipers. Vipers so deadly and so numerous that nobody has successfully lived on the island.

Now snakes were mentioned, but there is only one type of snake on the island. The Golden Lancehead Pit-Viper. This snake ranks among the most poisonous on earth, so poisonous it presumably killed any other species of snake, because no other species of snake are found on the island. Fortunately for the rest of the world, these snakes are only found on Ilha da Queimada Grande, meaning humans, and other species of snakes can rest easy.

Initially this shouldn’t be a problem, they’re just snakes. They cannot operate tools, work with fire or plan. The Brazilians can deal with snakes. The problem with the island is not snakes, it is A LOT of snakes. Compared to anywhere else on earth, the sheer density of snakes found there is on an entirely different scale.

Deployed on 16 April, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities 2 Current Replies

Taking the Water from A Waterfall: The Dry Niagara Falls

Reduced from a roar to a trickle.

Autumn 1969, the Niagara Falls verged on collapse.

So was the prediction made by the United States Engineering Corps. They believed that the constant rushing of the water was causing damage at the base of the cliff, destabilising the rock. Year on year retreat due to erosion was fine, but any major rock collapse could cause damage to anywhere downstream. They needed to perform a geological survey of the cliff and perform what work was necessary. The Niagara Falls push 2800 metric tons of water over the edge every single second, somewhat of a problem.

They needed to get rid of the water, and the Army Corps of Engineering did exactly that. An operation of great scale and precision, they removed the water from the waterfall. It was rerouted through a newly cut riverbed which allowed the water to rejoin the river further down. For the first time in the history of the United States, they could see the dry cliffs, and the desiccated riverbed. Read more

Deployed on 6 April, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

Something to Bragg About: California’s Glass Beach

Smooth glass left after 30 years of abrasion.

From a distance it appears to be a normal beach, slightly mottled. As you get closer the sand seems rather large and irregular, it seems to glimmer. This is no ordinary beach.

Starting in 1949 the occupants of the city of Fort Bragg, California made a specialty of cheaply disposing of unwanted item. Hauling the items over the nearby cliff and letting gravity do the work. Cars, Washing Machines and normal household rubbish was disposed of in the same way, littering the beach beneath the cliff. The idea was patently rubbish but the behaviour continued, earning the entire area the nickname of ‘The Dumps’.

In 1967 the local authorities refused to put up with the refuse and they closed off the area entirely. Slowly but surely they engaged in a series of cleanups to return the area to its previous pristine state, allowing locals to drink in the previously beautiful scenery. This was not a job they would complete. Read more

Deployed on 19 March, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

The Famous Nameless Face

In 19th Century Paris, just as with any other time in Paris, there were suicides. In Paris, the Seine was a favourite, at a time when most could not swim the large river was a simple death sentence. Bodies would often drift up onto the banks of the river where they were then put into the care of the authorities. In the 19th Century, they had a special method for identifying the damp deceased. An exhibition.

A cooled room was set up and up to 14 bodies placed within it. At one end of the room was a large window, any passer-by could peer inside and, hopefully, identify one of them. Parisians and travelers alike were fixated by the chilling sight, neatly arranged bodies only slightly too still to be sleeping. In the volume ‘Unknown Paris’ it was noted that:

“There is not a single window in Paris which attracts more onlookers than this.”

In the 1880′s there was one particular body. She was dragged from the Seine with not a scratch or spot. Suicide they said. The body was presented behind a window and the people peered at the restful smile which sat across the features. No name came and the body rotted, it was placed in an unmarked grave, but the smile remained. An unknown pathologist had been so taken by the beauty that they decided to take the beauty. A plaster cast mold of the face was taken and a death mask made, an object to preserve the image of one deceased. Through odd contrivances and circumstances now lost to time the mask got out and garnered a following. The face became famous.

Read more

Deployed on 18 March, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities Leave a message?

Morgellons: The Non-Existent Epidemic

Supposed Disease Fibres

It spreads like wildfire beneath the skin, the slight prickling sensation of itching. Tiny and innumerable fibres seem to poke through the skin and tiny parasites creep beneath the surface. The urge to pick at the fibres arrives, fingertips reach and simply start to scratch. Later sores appear over the body near where the picking occurred, it feels as though the fibres are causing it.

This peculiar condition is called Morgellons. In the past 11 years 12,000 people claim to have been affected. Yet, according to the consensus among medical professionals, it does not exist.

The first case was in 2001, Mary Leitao’s son had sores around his mouth and complained of feeling ‘bugs’ beneath them. She examined his skin with a toy microscope and found an astonishing array of coloured fibres peppered over his skin. She did some reading and found a reference in a 17^th Century text referring to a condition in which people had long dark hairs grow on their backs. From this text she got the word ‘Morgellons.’ She maintained that it was a new condition and set up a foundation to research it.

After 12,000 reported cases a million dollars(USD) was set aside by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) in the United States of America to research it. They followed the symptoms and tracked down those claiming to have morgellons. Sufferers described their compulsion to pick at the fibres, often displaying a strong conviction that they were the products of other creatures beneath or on the skin. Morgellons sufferers were looking for a little information and a confirmation of the conditions existence. The CDC more than scratched the surface, the drilled deep.

Deployed on 10 March, 2012 by Alexandre Coates in Macro Oddities 2 Current Replies

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