A Strange Wonder of Thailand

The Maeklong Railway Food Market – A Strange Wonder of Thailand

Posted: 28 Jan 2013 03:06 AM PST

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Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory loves trains, but I’m not too sure if he’d like this particular one. The Maeklong market railway passes right through the middle of a tightly packed market – so tight, that passengers can probably grab a few vegetables as they pass through. The market’s stalls are actually set up on the train rails, but shopkeepers know the train’s schedule, so just before it passes through, they quickly drag their goods into the shops and pull the roofs down. After the train has passed through, it’s back to business as usual. This happens no less than 8 times a day.

The Maeklong market has become so popular with tourists that there might actually be more people visiting to see it rather than buy anything. Located 72 km or an hour’s drive south-west of Bangkok, Maeklong is the capital of the Samut Songkhram province. Most people compare the market to something like a movie set; it’s that surreal. It’s amazing how every inch of space available has been utilized. The small stalls on either side of the railway track are made from tarpaulins and sometimes just a bedspread. They consist of plastic trays filled with vegetables and vibrant Thai fruit like mangosteens and rambutans. You can also find fresh-cut flowers, fragrant spices, cuts of meat, fresh seafood and poultry. And it doesn’t just stop with food; there are other goods to be purchased as well, like clothes, lingerie, toys, and pirated DVDs. Sometimes there aren’t even stalls, just people sitting on the ground with trays of fruit at their feet.

Photo: Hai Thinh

The marketplace is great, but the best time to visit it is exactly before a train is about to make an appearance. That’s when the magic happens. The shopkeepers start working calmly and quickly, like a chain reaction. But there isn’t any train whistle or horn to warn them. Thankfully, the train is always on time, so the schedule can be adhered to. Trays are dragged in, the awnings are folded and everything is put away neatly. Tourists are reminded to step back. And then the train rumbles through the market. It passes in what only seems like milliseconds, after which the stallholders will set up shop once more, as though nothing ever happened.

Photo: Travel Tour Planet

Despite the passing train, Maeklong market is a pretty safe place.  Only two people have ever been killed so far, and that was so long ago hardly anyone remembers it. Nobody really knows why the market even exists this way, although it’s been around for about 50 years. “This is Thailand, there doesn’t need to be a reason,” is the best answer you’ll get out of locals. No one even knows which came first – the market or the railway…

 

The Maeklong Railway Food Market – A Strange Wonder of Thailand was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Cyberpunk Collages

Beautiful Cyberpunk Collages Made with Discarded Computer Parts

By Spooky on January 30th, 2013 Category: Art, Pics

I’ve always been a big fan of steampunk and cyberpunk art, and the beautiful collages of Anna Dabrowska, a.k.a. Finnabair, are some of the most intriguing works I’ve ever seen. The mixed media artist hailing from Warsaw, Poland, uses all kinds of materials, from used computer components to old buttons and even dead moths.

“I love texture and believe in power of recycling and upcycling. I just adore flea market supplies,” Finnabair says on her official site, and it shows in her works. The Polish artist can take the boring household item and turn into the centerpiece of an engaging work of art. Whether it’s metal screws, artificial flowers, or even plain buttons, she manages to turn recycling and upcycling into exciting artistic processes that spark viewers’ imagination. Finnabair says her art is more than just a job or hobby: “It gives me moments when I forget about the world, working hard [in my] head, hands translate, paint, stick… I cannot stop.” Judging by the time and patience she needs to painstakingly place every single element in the right place and then paint the whole picture in vibrant colors, it’s obvious she pours her heart and soul into her art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Finnabair via Tech Graffiti

Realistic Drawings are Awe Inspiring

I believe this gentleman will go down in history along with the greatest artist of all times.  I truly am in awe of his talent. -nae

(this article from odditycentral.com  one of my absolute favorite sources)

Kelvin Okafor’s Photo-Realistic Drawings Are Simply Mind-Blowing

By Spooky on January 31st, 2013 Category: Art, Pics

 Look closely at the images below, and tell you don’t see artistic black and white photos? Well, they’re really just incredibly detailed pencil and charcoal drawings by talented British artist Kelvin Okafor. Mind blown, I know.

It’s safe to say some of the world’s most talented photographs couldn’t capture  all the details in Kevin Okafor’s portraits, and instead of high-resolution cameras, his only tools are a set of pencils, a piece of paper and sometimes a stick of charcoal. But then again, not many people have his amazing talent. Like other new-generation artists like 22-year-old Diego Fazo, or the incredible Dirk Dzimirsky, London-based Kelvin Okafor works wonders with his pencils. Too poor to leave the house and socialize, the gifted artist spent most of his childhood and teenage years improving his drawing skills. Instead of partying and clubbing like other kids his age, he found refuge in drawing, and is now reaping his rewards – he charges between £800 ($1,300) to £3,000 ($4,750) for commission works, and some of his best portraits are already being sold for as much £10,000 ($16,000). It might seem like a lot of money, but considering the quality of his work and the amount and time and patience that go into each piece, I’d say it’s worth even more.

Mother Teresa

Kelvin’s parents came to England from Nigeria, in the hopes that their children could grow up to reach their full potential there. They struggled to raise him, his brother and two sister and made sure “they instilled the message that hard work pays off”. “Most teenagers experiment a lot with their life. They have their experiences” the 27-year-old artist told Daily Mail. “I didn’t have that. But, to be honest, I didn’t want it anyway. I was too busy trying to focus on my craft.” In fact, he was always so absorbed by his work that he didn’t even notice the terrible riots that occurred right in his neighborhood, in 2011. But Kelvin also believes he wouldn’t have become an artist had he not needed a distraction from all the hardships he and his family had to endure during his childhood years. When he was just 11 years old, they came home from a vacation only to find their home had been repossessed. They didn’t have a home for the next three years, which they spent moving “from place to place, from cousin to cousin.” “‘It was a struggle. That’s why I spent a lot of time by myself, drawing. I didn’t have the luxury of going out and spending money” the artist explains.

Beyonce

As you can probably imagine, Kelvin Okafor puts a lot of time into every one of his works. “Before I start drawing, I spend a few hours — even a few days — analyzing the face from every angle,”he says. “I usually start with the eyes. From there, I make the whole shape of the face and I work in the detail. I draw in sections. I’m right-handed so I work from left to right. After I’ve finished the left eye, I work the nostrils, then the left side of the cheek, then the lips. I always work in that order. I work for four hours in one go, take a half-hour break, work another four to five hours, then have another half-hour break. After that I’ll work for as long as I can. Sometimes I might work ten to 15 hours in one day. It takes me on average 80 to 100 hours to do a portrait.” It’s painstaking work, but the end result is simply breath-taking.

Tinie Tempah 

Zoe Saldana 

King Hussein of Jordan

Lauren Hill

For more of Kelvin Okafor’s ultra-realistic drawings, check out his Blogspot art blog and Flickr stream.

Source: Daily Mail

All photos are © Kelvin Okafor

Living Art

Famous Museum Pieces Painted on Human Bodies – by Spooky at Oddity Central

Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector have found an ingenious way to combine their passion for 19th century art with modern body-painting. The artistic duo recreate classic paintings from museums around the world on to Chadwick’s body, in a special art collection aptly named “Museum Anatomy“.

We’ve featured some pretty impressive example of body-painting in the past, but nothing like what Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector create. The two artists from Austin, Texas, contact museums across the world, asking for permission to access and photograph their 19th century paintings. According to Peta Pixel, they’re always looking specifically for works that haven’t been exhibited in the last 50 years (if ever). After they’ve found a painting they would like to recreate, they either take a photo of it, or ask the museum to send them a professional documentation. Then the real work begins – repainting the artwork on Chadwick’s body. They start by projecting an image of it on to his body, while he tries different positions until they find the perfect pose. Once that’s done with, Laura spends between 8-15 hours in one sitting trying to reproduce every detail, using special-effects makeup. But the painstaking process yields some mind-blowing results.

“The recreated paintings of these historic portraits recapture the subjects in their own moment in history. The resulting photographs reveal a unification of art combining antiquity, history and technology in a contemporary context,” Gray and Spector say about their Museum Anatomy.

“The recreated paintings of these historic portraits recapture the subjects in their own moment in history. The resulting photographs reveal a unification of art combining antiquity, history and technology in a contemporary context,” Gray and Spector say about their Museum Anatomy.

Photos © Chadwick Gray & Laura Spector

The Car Part Sculptor

 

 

James Corbett takes used card parts and, using them like pieces in a puzzle, creates amazing steampunk sculptures.

Corbett showed artistic talent ever since he was a little boy. Colleagues at his Redcliff school would always tell him he’d grow up to be an artist. But, at 36 years old James was running a motor wrecking business. That’s when he started welding together a bunch of car parts and awakened the dormant talent inside. In just 18 months he closed his wrecking business and became a full-time artist.

James Corbet says he makes these original sculptures because he can and it would be a shame to waste his God-given talent. The Car Part Sculptor has exhibited his works in galleries all

across the world.

 

If Not For Bad Luck, I’d Have No Luck At All

This story reminds me of whether the glass is half-empty or is it half-full? There are so many ways to look at situations.  No wonder we often find ourselves making the wrong decision. Personally, this is why I like to draw upon opinions of others when I feel an uncertainty.

The title of the piece below, is what makes me question my theory of the water glass. To me the title should be “Truly the World’s Unluckiest Man….hands down, no questions asked…throw the damned glass out along with its stagnant water. After reading this article, I want you to ask yourself one simple question….”Would you volunteer to sit next to this man on a plane?” My answer is a resounding “Hell No!” Therefore, is this man lucky or unlucky?  This is one of few situations with only one right answer, unless assisted suicide is your” thing”. There is not a rabbit dead or alive with a foot big enough to carry the kind of luck this poor guy needs….Enjoy! _ – Renee-

Frano Selak – Truly the World’s (Un)Luckiest Man

By Sumitra on January 2nd, 2013

What would you call a man who has managed to cheat death seven times, and also win the lottery? ‘World’s luckiest man’, might just be an understatement. But that’s exactly the story of Frano Selak, an 81-year-old music teacher from Croatia.

At first glance, there’s nothing noticeably special about Selak. He looks pretty much like your average, everyday octogenarian. But the life this man has lived is quite extraordinary. He survived one plane crash, several train and car wrecks and other disasters such as falling out of a plane through a door that was blown open, only to land on a haystack. Obviously lady luck’s favorite son, the icing on Selak’s record came when he won a £600,000 (almost $1 million) lottery about 7 years ago, on the occasion of his fifth marriage. Until recently, he owned a luxury home on a private island and a vast fortune. But Selak realized that “money cannot buy happiness,” so he sold his home, gave away his fortune to family and friends and moved back to his old home – a modest dwelling in Petrinja, south of Zagreb, right in the middle of Croatia. The only bit of winnings that he kept for himself was to pay for a hip replacement operation and to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary as a way of thanks for his luck. He now enjoys his life with his wife in his humble home.

Selak’s first brush with fate came when he was traveling from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik in 1962. The train he was on jumped the rails and fell into an icy river below. While 17 people drowned in the accident, he escaped with a bout of hypothermia, shock, a few bruises and a broken arm. The second time was just a year later, on his first and only flight from Zagreb to Rijeka. The cockpit door flew open and threw him out; 19 people died but Selak landed on a haystack. In 1966, he was traveling on a bus that skidded into a river. 4 people drowned, while Selak swam to safety with a few cuts and bruises. 1970 saw his fourth accident, when the car he was driving caught fire on a motorway. Luckily, he was able to flee the car mere moments before the fuel tank exploded. Just three years later, his car gave him trouble again. The faulty fuel pump sprayed petrol over the hot engine, blowing flame through the air vents. This time around, he lost most of his hair, but the rest of him was intact.

That’s quite a record already, and if you’re thinking Selak had had quite enough, well, you will be surprised that there was more to come. His sixth and seventh accidents happened in consecutive years – 1995 and 96. In ‘95 he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb, but he suffered only minor injuries. In 96, a UN truck came straight at him when he was driving around a corner in the mountains. He crashed through the barrier and down the 300 ft precipice. Thankfully, at the last minute he was able to leap out of the car and land on a tree, while his car hit the bottom and exploded. After I read about all of Selak’s escapades, I did wonder if he is indeed lucky or actually unlucky. It seems to me as though fate was after him with a vengeance and he got away each time out of his sheer presence of mind. But as though life was trying to compensate for all the rough times he was put through, he won the lottery as a nice finishing touch

Selak says he’s never been happier, now that he’s given away most of his wealth. “All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything,” he says. For a man who’s been through so much, it’s surprising that he considers his wife to be his sign of good luck. “When she arrived, I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life. I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place.” But people waste no time in telling him that he’s very lucky. To that he says, “You can’t tell people what they don’t want to believe.”

Dog Suicides of Scotland

Overtoun Bridge – Scotland’s Mysterious Canine Suicide Spot
By Sumitra on December 17th, 2012 Category: Animals, News

There are some things in this world that are simply beyond explanation. Like the fact that in the past 50 years, about 50 dogs have jumped to their deaths from the exact same spot on the 100-year-old Overtoun Bridge in Milton, near Dumbarton, Scotland. In 2005, five dogs had jumped in a span of just 6 months. The canine suicide spot is located between the last two parapets on the right-hand side of the bridge, which is where all the dogs took the fatal leap. And to add to the strangeness, almost all the incidents have taken place on clear, sunny days, the dogs always being long-nosed breeds – collies, retrievers and labs.
The situation, according to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is a ‘heartbreaking mystery’. “There are lots of owners whose dogs have died and who are trying to find out why they jumped,” the Society says. One of the victims on the bridge was collie dog Ben, who leaped to his death in 1995 while taking a walk with his owner Donna Cooper, her husband, and her son, Callum. Without any warning, Ben just leapt over the parapet and landed on the rocks below after a 50ft fall. Suffering a broken paw, back and jaw, the vet decided that it wasn’t worth putting him through the pain. “Callum still asks about Ben. He was very upset by the dog’s death and wants to know if his leg has been fixed in heaven,” said Cooper, a year after Ben’s death. The case of golden retriever Hendrix was pretty much similar, although she got very lucky. Kenneth Meikle, her owner, said, “I was out walking with my partner and children when suddenly the dog just jumped. My daughter screamed, and I ran down the bank to where the dog lay and carried her up to safety. Next day, thank goodness, she was fine. We were lucky because she landed on a moss bed which broke her fall.”

Several theories have surfaced, of course, to explain the bizarre effect that Overtoun Bridge has on dogs. The bridge itself was built-in 1895 by Calvinist Lord Overtoun. The Victorian structure, 50 ft in height, runs over the Overtoun Burn stream below. The most obvious theory that’s been doing the rounds is that the bridge is haunted – the oldest reason in the book. Rumors state that in 1994, Kevin Moy, a local, threw his baby boy from the bridge, calling him the anti-Christ. Shortly, he made an unsuccessful attempt to end his life at the same spot. He later said the bridge was haunted. Celtic mythology offers and explanation as well – that Overtoun is a ‘thin place’, an area where heaven and Earth are at their closest. Since dogs are more sensitive than humans, they are believed to pick up the vibrations more easily, leading to their strange behavior. The question remains – are the dogs spooked by something supernatural, prompting them to leap to their deaths?

Surprisingly, the phenomenon does not seem to affect all dogs. Psychic Mary Armour took her own Labrador for a walk on the bridge, to test the theory of the supernatural. Nothing unusual happened in her case. “Animals are hyper-sensitive to the spirit-world, but I didn’t feel any adverse energy,” she said. On the contrary, Mary said she felt “pure calmness and serenity” but she did admit her dog pulled a little towards the right. Attempting to debunk the supernatural theory is the more scientific explanation that dogs are able to sense the feelings of their owners. Austrian Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s famous experiment is often quoted in this case. The experiment had explicitly proved that dogs do pick up on their owner’s thoughts and intentions, even from a great distance. The correlation here being that perhaps the dogs picked up on their owners’ suicidal thoughts and took the plunge themselves. Dumbarton is indeed said to be a place of economic decline and one of the most depressing places to live in Britain. But on further investigation, it was revealed that none of the owners whose dogs jumped from Overtoun Bridge had any suicidal feelings. So that theory has been pretty much ruled out as well.

Canine psychologist, Dr. David Sands, was sent to Dumbarton to get to the heart of the mystery. He conducted a series of experiments, the first of which was to recross the bridge with the only canine known to have survived the fall, 19-year-old Hendrix. This time around, the dog walked happily across, until the exact spot at the end was reached. Over here, she began to tense. It was observed that while something clearly caught her attention, she could not bring herself to jump because of her advanced age. Dr. Sands concluded that one of her senses – sight, sound, or smell – must have been stimulated to such an extent that she had an overwhelming urge to investigate. Sight was eliminated as the cause, since the only thing visible from dog’s eye view at that point is the granite of the parapet. So it had to be either sound or smell, and to determine the culprit, a team of experts from a Glasgow acoustics company and David Sexton, an animal expert, were summoned.

The acoustic experts found nothing unusual at all, after a thorough investigation. But Sexton did find something worth mentioning. In the undergrowth beneath the bridge, he found mice, mink and squirrels; the odor emitted by any one of them could have been the cause. To determine which one, he conducted another experiment, testing the three scents on 10 different dogs. 70% made straight for the mink scent. And so far this has been the most plausible explanation – the strong musty smell emitted by minks, exaggerated on dry and sunny days, must have proved irresistible to dogs. So why would the dogs only want to attack the mink under this particular bridge, when there are 26,000 others in Scotland? Simple, says Dr. Sands, “When you get down to a dog’s level, the solid granite of the bridge’s 18-inch-thick walls obscures their vision and blocks out all sound. As a result, the one sense not obscured, that of smell, goes into overdrive.” Well, it just goes to show that even the strangest of occurrences have the silliest explanations behind them.

Sources: Daily Mail, Skeptoid

Read more at http://www.odditycentral.com/news/overtoun-bridge-scotlands-mysteri…

uhhh, Really? Invisibility?

Camouflage Company Makes Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak a Reality

By Spooky on December 11th, 2012 Category: News, Tech

 Created by Canadian camouflage design company Hyperstealth, Quantum Stealth is a is a material that renders its wearer completely invisible by bending light waves around it, which is in effect very similar to the invisibility cloak worn child wizard extraordinaire, Harry Potter.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could put on your very own invisibility cloak and just roam around undetected? Sadly, that’s not going to be possible for most of us, but if you’re a US soldier, this fantasy could become a reality sooner than you think. Apparently, the US Military is currently backing development of special materials to make American soldiers completely invisible on the battlefield, and according to one camouflage design company, it might soon get its wish. Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. CEO, Guy Cramer, says their new “Quantum Stealth” material has finally made the sci-fi/fantasy technology a reality. Unfortunately at this time, we can only take his word for it, as its development is so secret that the company cannot even show footage of how it works, on its website, offering only mock-ups of its effects.

Still, Cramer remains unfazed by the wave of skepticism, saying that “the people that need to know that it works have seen it”. And no, he doesn’t mean the students of a real-life wizard school, but command groups from within the US and Canadian Military. “‘These groups now know that it works and does so without cameras, batteries, lights or mirrors…It is lightweight and quite inexpensive.” the Hyperstealth CEO said. ” Both the U.S. and Canadian military have confirmed that it also works against military IR scopes and Thermal Optics.” Instead of going into details about how Quantum Stealth manipulates light waves to conceal even the target’s shadow, Mr. Cramer talked about how he sees the technology being used. In his opinion, it would be invaluable for pilots stranded behind enemy lines in order to avoid capture, but also for special units carrying out raids in broad daylight. Also the next generation of aircrafts could be invisible not only to radars but also to the naked eye, while tanks and submarines could only be detected by the sound of their engines and guns.
In a recent interview with CNN, Guy Cramer said he only disclosed information about Hyperstealth’s breakthrough to attract the attention of the US Military. After it got enough exposure in the press, the Military asked to see Quantum Stealth in action, to verify if it really works. So there you have it folks, the next time you see an invisibility cloak in real life, it’s most likely it won’t be concealing a spectacled wizard, but a machine gun-wielding soldier…
Read more at http://www.odditycentral.com/news/camouflage-company-makes-harry-potters-invisibility-cloak-a-reality.html#UCzqXhfwzvRIg5Ux.99

Oddity Central – Weird Places, Odd Events, Bizarre News, Strange People and A Lot More

Oddity Central – Weird Places, Odd Events, Bizarre News, Strange People and A Lot More.

Take a look at some amazing illusions by Eduardo Relero. Enjoy!

Aogashima Island – Living inside a Volcano | Oddity Central – Collecting Oddities

Aogashima Island – Living inside a Volcano | Oddity Central – Collecting Oddities.

Breathtaking pics of a village inside an active volcano.  I think I am brave enough to stay there on vacation.  Are you?