13. The Cocooned Trees In Pakistan
These may look like giant cotton candy, but they are certainly not edible. What you are looking at are trees covered in spider webs. The rare phenomenon is observed in Pakistan where, in 2010, rainfall poured onto Pakistani villages and cities, completely ravaging them. When the rain stopped, the locals started noticing the cocooned trees. Because of the slow retreat of the water in the flooded areas, the insects, spiders, and other living creatures were forced to seek shelter above ground. This resulted in the trees looking like this, only wrapped in spider webs that were visible from yards away. Actually, it’s possible that not spiders, but moth larvae were the culprits for the natural phenomenon, which looks as bizarre as it is scary. However, the presence of these little creatures and their massive webs had a positive impact on post-flood Pakistan. It’s an astonishing fact that in the areas where the cocooned trees appeared, the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes diminished significantly.
12. The Rainbow Hot Spring In Yellowstone
The Great Prismatic Spring might seem Photoshopped but the stunning colors have an actual scientific explanation. The secret behind the vibrant spring’s colors is the heat-loving bacteria that call the spring their home. Water at the center of the spring reaches temperatures around 189 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it too hot to support life. Because of the absence of life in the center of the spring, the water has a deep-blue color, thanks to the scattering of blue wavelengths. But as the water spreads out and cools, it creates concentric circles of dissimilar temperatures and colors. What is more, each ring creates a unique habitat for different bacteria, and it is precisely the different types of bacteria that give the hot spring in Yellowstone its rainbow colors. What you have to keep in mind if you are to visit this natural phenomenon for the first time is that the area around the spring is void of any kind of shade. This can be extremely challenging for tourists as the UV light becomes extremely harsh and can be harmful.
11. The Sculpture That Looks Like Cartoon Kleenex
Neil Dawson is a prominent New Zealand sculptor who creates eye-popping sculptures. His best known works are large-scale pieces crafted from aluminium and stainless steel. One of his most emblematic works is undoubtedly the one called Horizons. From a distance, it looks like a giant crumpled piece of paper dropped from the sky, but if you approach it, you’ll find out it’s made of welded and painted steel. Actually, it wouldn’t be that easy to inspect the statue from a close distance as you have to make an appointment in advance to do that. The reason is that it sits in a private art park owned by a New Zealand millionaire. He commissioned this piece together with 21 other sculptures by different artists, such as sheep, giraffes, zebras, a water buffalo, and a couple of yaks.
10. The Man With A Hole In His Face
Before 2009, Billy Owen was a motorcycle mechanic with a loving family, and his life was going from good to better. Until he started having headaches. What is more, he couldn’t breathe because his right nostril was constantly blocked. A couple of months later, he was diagnosed with sinonasal carcinoma – a rare form of cancer affecting the nasal cavity that has only a 10 percent survival rate. In Owen’s case, the cancer cells had spread so extensively that surgeons had to remove half his face, including his right eye, and the muscles and nerves. The patient beat death, but now he has this giant hole where his right eye was. When he removes his dental plate, he can actually stick his finger into the hole and have it come out of his mouth. No trick, it’s all real. Billy was featured on an episode of the AMC reality series Freakshow, and the host of the show called him the strongest man alive.
9. Model Hanging Off A Skyscraper In Dubai
Her name is Viki Odintkova and she is a Russian model and social media celebrity. In her latest stunt, the Eastern European beauty took capturing the perfect Instagram shot to new and literally terrifying heights. While on a trip to Dubai, Odintkova decided to go to the top of Cayan Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, and, for fun and media glory, to take a breath-taking photo. In the shots from the video, she is seen leaning backwards off the side of the skyscraper without any safety equipment, holding only a male assistant’s arm. She then dropped off the side of the building, and the resulting photos are so surreal that they look Photoshopped. Although this death-defying photo- session went viral, people couldn’t help but ask in awe: Why risk your life for a shocking shot when you could have just as good of an image with the help of Photoshop?
Well, not all models are stupid, but some models are beyond stupid. And we may say this young lady is living evidence of it!
8. The Shark-Within-A-Shark
In July, 2013, researchers at the University of Delaware’s ORB LAB posted on Facebook this totally mind-blowing photograph of a shark within a shark. The lab members were throwing manhaden (small fish used as bait) to recapture sharks carrying tags containing valuable information about the species encountered by these ocean predators. When they caught this large female, they certainly didn’t expect to see her like this! The unlucky “little” dogfish just couldn’t resist the temptation of the manhaden, and ended up a victim himself. The dogfish was about three feet long and was completely swallowed by what is considered to be one of the most dangerous predators in the bay.
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