[ By Steph in Food & Health, History & Trivia. ]
The world is truly a hypochondriac’s nightmare, full of thousands upon thousands of painful and debilitating diseases and medical conditions, from the mundane to the highly unusual. But you don’t see these 15 disorders every day. Extremely rare and unbelievably bizarre, the world’s weirdest health issues range from ‘possessed’ hands that can’t be controlled to a metabolic disorder that makes sweat, urine and breath stink like putrefying fish.
Alien Hand Syndrome
(image via: film journal)
It’s the plot of a few horror movies, but also a very bizarre reality for some: hands with minds of their own that move and behave seemingly independent of the sufferer’s intentions. The ‘alien’ hands undo buttons, manipulate tools and even grope people without the awareness of those to whom the hands are attached. The individual has full sensation in the hand, but it seems ‘possessed’. It’s caused by a separation of the lobes of the brain whether through injury or surgery, and there’s no cure other than to distract the errant hand with an object to handle.
Bodies Turned to Stone
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Some people’s bodies are a little too proficient at healing injuries, going so far overboard as to turn a joint to stone. The extremely rare condition known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva involves a mutation of the body’s repair mechanism, which causes muscle, tendons and ligaments to ossify when damaged. For people with this medical condition, operations on their injuries will only cause additional bone growth. In the most extreme cases, patients may be rendered completely immobile within decades.
Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome
(image via: mapbutcher)
Imagine having 200+ orgasms each and every day – not just in the privacy of your own home, but on the train, in meetings at work and at dinner with your parents. As opposed to hypersexuality, persistent sexual arousal syndrome is more physical than psychological and is usually detached from sexual desire. One study connected the disorder to restless leg syndrome. There’s no known effective cure.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
(image via: jackieleigh)
When objects appear much small or larger than they should – like dogs the size of mice, or ladybugs as big as a house – you’re either on drugs or experiencing Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, a temporary condition that affects our perception of the world around us. Sometimes associated with migraines and often occurring at the edge of sleep, the disturbances affect sense of size, depth and even time. Doctors believe that it may involve the brain’s occipital lobe, which controls visual information.
Exploding Head Syndrome
(image via: joseph gray)
If the jarring sound of an explosion wakes you up in the middle of the night, it’s usually because a transformer blew or your cat knocked over some dishes. But for some people, hearing such sounds is an everyday occurrence – and it’s all in their heads. People with Exploding Head Syndrome hear all kinds of racket in the night, startling them out of a deep sleep. Such incidents are thought to be brought on by anxiety or extreme fatigue, and the condition is not associated with any physical ailment.
Walking Corpse Syndrome
(image via: dan hollister duck)
Walking Corpse Syndrome isn’t just the name of a metal band. It’s an utterly mystifying phenomenon in which the afflicted person is convinced that he or she has died or lost some vital part of the body, but are still aware and walking the earth. Officially known as Cotard’s Syndrome, this mental illness can sometimes be brought about by a brain injury. Very rarely, people with Walking Corpse Syndrome believe they’re immortal and begin testing that theory, resulting in suicide.
Progeria – Accelerated Aging
(image via: wikimedia commons)
We all dread the symptoms of aging – baldness, wrinkles, losing our teeth. But sometimes, they come all too early. Children with the extremely rare disorder known as Progeria begin to look elderly before they’re even two years old, while maintaining age-appropriate intelligence. Sadly, most people affected by Progeria begin to suffer from the same ailments as the elderly including arthritis and cardiovascular disease and rarely live past the age of thirteen.
Foreign Accent Syndrome
Imagine waking up to find that you suddenly have a foreign accent, and it’s completely out of your control. Crazy as it sounds, Foreign Accent Syndrome is not just a pretentious affectation among people who want to sound exotic or sophisticated. This involuntary change in speech usually occurs after a brain injury like a stroke or head trauma, although in at least one case it seems to have been caused by a severe migraine. The specific way in which speech is affected varies in each individual, making it sound as if the person has an accent specific to a particular area of the world.
Aquagenic Urticaria – Allergy to Water
(image via: metro)
Being allergic to substances like milk or peanuts is difficult enough – but imagine breaking out in painful, burning welts every time your skin was touched by water. That’s daily life for people with Aquagenic Urticaria, who are allergic to water in all forms – even tears. One British woman with this highly unusual condition can’t even hold her son because if he sweats, she “gets covered in sore lumps.” “I am a prisoner in my own body,” Michaela Dutton told The Metro. “I don’t see friends because they wrongly think it’s contagious.”
Cold Urticaria – Allergy to Cold Temperatures
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Almost everybody gets goosebumps in cold weather, but breaking out in hives is another matter altogether. People with cold urticaria are actually allergic to cold temperatures. Most people with this condition only get mildly itchy when it’s cold, while others suffer from severe welts on any part of the body exposed to cold, including the mouth and throat when cold beverages are consumed. Some people with severe cold urticaria can’t go swimming, because cool water temperatures could cause them to go into shock and drown.
Congenital Insensitivity to Pain
(image via: dadjanda)
A word without pain sounds great, right? Except that it would be a complete disaster. Just ask anyone afflicted with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. Sure, they’re immune to torture and won’t ever complain of a toothache or a sprained ankle, but for children in particular, this disorder often results in debilitating injuries. It’s all too easy to scratch your eye, burn yourself, bite off the tip of your tongue or walk around on a broken bone oblivious to the problem. The condition is caused by either large amounts of endorphins in the brain, or congenital mutations that dull pain-sensing neurons.
Human Werewolf Syndrome
(image via: mental floss)
How much body hair is considered abnormal? It’s generally subjective, but for people with severe Hypertrichosis, hair grows profusely in all sorts of unusual places, leaving no question that something unusual is going on. Sometimes referred to as “human werewolf syndrome”, severe hypertrichosis involves excessive hair growth all over the body which grows back even after laser treatments. Only about 50 living people are currently known to have this condition.
Tree Bark Skin Disorder
(image via: popfi)
People go to great lengths to get rid of a single wart. What if your entire body were covered in them? That’s reality for the few people in the world who have ‘Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis‘, a hereditary skin disorder in which skin growths caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) spread out of control. One of the most severe cases is that of Dede Koswara, an Indonesian Man who has been called “Tree Man”. 95% of his warts were removed in 2008, but most of them grew back, making it clear that he will require 2 surgeries a year for the rest of his life to keep them at bay.
Blue Skin Disorder
Skin comes in all colors – even shocking shades of blue and violet. For the Fugate family of Kentucky, blue skin was a hereditary trait that passed down from one generation to the next over 162 years due to a rare blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Essentially, because blood is less oxygenated, it appears blue rather than red through the skin. Since the cause of the family’s disorder was discovered, all members carrying the gene have been treated and appear normal. But sometimes people get a strange blue tinge to their skin even without this affliction – argyria is a blue skin disorder associated with consumption of the health supplement colloidal silver.
Fish Odor Syndrome
(image via: joost j baker ijmuiden)
How would you like to walk around emitting insanely noxious odors, no matter how good your personal hygiene may be? People with trimethylaminuria, sometimes called ‘fish odor syndrome’, can’t control the very strong smells that are emitted through their sweat, urine and breath because their bodies don’t properly break down a fishy-smelling organic compound found in food. The smell is so strong that this rare disorder can be life-disrupting. There is no known treatment, but some people manage it through diet and antibiotics.
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Mad Medicine: 14 Crazy Cures from Ages Past
[ By Steph in Food & Health, History & Trivia. ]
Many modern alternative medical practices are bizarre and even frightening, and in all fairness, within a century or two historians will likely look back at many of our mainstream treatments and see them as crazy, too. But few contemporary medical ideas are quite as terrifying as those used in ages past, from Ancient Greece to the early 20th century. Torture devices and quackery in the name of health were par for the course from intentional brain damage as a cure for mental illness to giving children heroin for coughs.
Trepanation – Drilling Holes into the Skull
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Got a migraine? Maybe it would feel better if a doctor drilled a hole into your skull – without anesthesia. But probably not. The process of intentionally punching a hole in the skull – known as trepanation – was once considered the best option for epileptic seizures, mental disorders and head injuries, and involved some of the most amazingly terrifying medical instruments you’ve ever seen. It has been around at least since neolithic times, and some people actually believe that it has a place in modern medicine.
Consumption of Honey-Coated Cadaver
(images via: surlygirl, wikipedia)
One man’s death by honey was another man’s health boon for broken bones centuries ago in Arabia, if 16th century Chinese sources are to be believed. The story goes that elderly Arabian men would offer themselves up as sacrifices for the health of others, consuming nothing but honey and even bathing in the sticky substance, eventually putting out nothing but honey as bodily waste and perishing from this all-honey diet. After death, the bodies were placed in stone tombs to steep in even more honey for at least a century, at which point they had become delicious confections ready for black-market purchase and consumption.
Metal Hooks and Back-Door Surgery for Bladder Stones
(image via: braceface)
Bladder stones are painful enough on their own, especially when they prevent urine from leaving the body. But imagine your doctor telling you that in order to remove them, he’d have to put a rigid metal hook into your urethra to coax them out. Ouch. But if you think that sounds bad, the traditional procedure was much worse: after forcing a patient into a ‘jack-knife’ position, held down by two assistants, the doctor would work the stone toward the entrance of the bladder and then cut it out through the anus.
Curing Coughs with Snail Syrup
(image via: debs)
For centuries, one of the best remedies people had for sore throats and coughs was consuming the mucilaginous essence of snails. One doctor wrote in 1728, “They abound with a slimy juice; and are experienced very good in weaknesses and consumption, especially for children and tender constitutions. To make a syrup of snails, take Garden snails, early in the morning while the dew is upon them, one pound; take off their shells; slit them; and with half a pound of sugar, put them in a bag; hang them in a cellar and the syrup will melt and drop through; which keep for use. It possesses in the best manner all the virtues of snails.” But that’s not even the worst of it. Some people would prick a snail to bring forth that slimy, foamy juice and then drop the whole thing into the ear to cure an earache.
Curing Hemorrhoids with Hot Irons
(image via: mckinney collection)
In the most severe cases of hemorrhoids, draining some of the blood via incision and then cauterizing the wounds is a painful-sounding but effective method used in modern medicine. But back in the day, they didn’t have fancy painkillers and electrical wires or lasers with which to do the surgery. Doctors used a plain old cautery iron to burn those blasted swollen veins into oblivion.
Heroin Cough Syrup for Children
(image via: logo design love)
Heroin is known today as one of the most addictive substances in the world, but few realize that it was actually sold by Bayer as a cough suppressant for children. Scientists believed that it was a non-addictive alternative to morphine, from which it was synthesized, but of course, that was soon proven wrong. Test subjects often said the drug made them feel ‘heroic’, which led to the choice of brand name. Heroin was seen as a godsend for sufferers of tuberculosis, including children. In 1913, as hospitals teemed with patients miserably addicted to the ‘medicine’, Bayer decided to stop making it.
Bloodletting to Drain Illness
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Ancient physicians theorized that since a woman’s body naturally cleared out “bad humors” through menstruation, drawing blood from the veins of both sexes was a great way to let illness out of the body. Bloodletting was extremely common, and not just for serious ailments: some doctors recommended it for indigestion and even acne. The only real benefit might have been relieving hypertension in certain patients, but that was probably purely accidental and very rare. Bloodletting fell out of favor by the late 19th century.
Icepick to the Brain
(image via: npr)
How to cure the mentally ill? Remove their ‘extra emotions’ by cutting out a piece of their brains. Like trepanation, lobotomies were once performed by drilling a hole into the head, but psychiatrist Water Freeman quickly ‘improved’ the procedure by switching to a faster icepick-through-the-eye-socket method. Performed after rendering the patient unconscious via electric shock, it took only ten minutes, but the results varied wildly, from the successful to the tragic. Its usage declined as effective antipsychotic drugs became available in the 1960s.
Mummy Powder for Health and Home
(image via: wikimedia commons)
The story of mellified man may not be confirmed, but another medicinal usage of carefully prepared human remains is without question. Starting in the 12th century, Arabs – who didn’t consider ancient Egyptians to be there ancestors, and thus thought nothing of it – began grinding up mummies and using the powder for various health ills, both internally and externally, and even household uses. The crudely mummified bodies of peasants, dug out of sand pits, went for a pittance while the embalmed remains of aristocrats fetched a pretty penny.
Malaria as Treatment for Syphilis
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Malaria kills up to three million people per year, and many poor communities must go to great lengths to stop the spread of this mosquito-borne disease. But in the 1920s, one doctor discovered that malaria has an interesting side effect: killing syphilis, a comparably less insidious disease that nonetheless has a 100% fatality rate once it affects the brain. Malarial fevers reach temperatures high enough to kill the bacteria that causes syphilis. While Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel Prize for this discovery, it’s no longer considered a great treatment option, to say the least (but that’s not stopping Dr. Heimlich of the famed Heimlich Maneuver from recommending it as a cure for AIDS.)
Tobacco Smoke Enema
(image via: tophat tobacco)
For a short period in medical history, tobacco was considered a panacea; the addictive and poisonous effects of nicotine were not yet known. The warmth and stimulation provided by tobacco smoke was thought to be a treatment for “apparent death”, so smoke was literally blown up the behinds of recent drowning victims, cholera victims, people near death and often simply as a ‘health tonic’.
Sugar Coma for Schizophrenia
(image via: mel b.)
Like a glucose-induced lobotomy, deliberate insulin comas were designed to change the personalities of people with schizophrenia. Unfortunately, they were usually fatal. In the 1940s, psychiatric clinics (particularly in Germany) would deprive patients’ brains of glucose, the sugar-based fuel that the brain needs to function, and then “re-awaken” the brain with a glucose injection. This process had a tranquillizing effect – because it was causing severe brain damage.
Shocking Cure for Impotence
(image via: wastatelibrary)
If a certain part of the male body isn’t functioning as it should, perhaps a jolt of electricity will get it going. That’s what doctors believed back in the 1800s, when “electrotherapeutics” were a popular cure-all. “It is especially in the genital organs that electricity is truly marvelous. Impotence disappears, strength and desire of youth return, and the man, old before his time, whether by excesses or privations, with the aid of electrical fustigation, can become 15 years younger,” wrote one medical historian. But as shocking as that may seem, modern Israeli scientists believe it’s still a valid idea. Their research has shown that electric shockwaves can induce the growth of blood vessels.
Tapeworm Diet
(image via: museum of quackery)
“Eat! Eat! Eat! And always stay thin!” If you are willing to house a wriggling tapeworm in your bowels, at least. The Tapeworm Diet involved the intentional consumption of parasite eggs in order to maintain a trim figure, due to the fact that the tapeworm gets most of the nourishment you consume. But not only does tapeworm infestation have its own serious health effects, it can also cause abdominal distention – not exactly the look most dieters are going for. While this diet should have died a long time ago, it was recently tossed back into the limelight with an appearance by several would-be tapeworm ingesters on a daytime talk show.
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12 Most Bizarre Modern Alternative Medical Treatments
[ By Steph in Food & Health, History & Trivia, Science & Research. ]
The only thing that makes a medical theory or practice ‘alternative’ is the fact that it hasn’t been accepted by the mainstream medical community – yet. And when the world is teeming with such ideas, there are bound to be some that are a bit strange, to say the least. These 12 bizarre modern-day alternative medical treatments and theories range from “offbeat but possibly effective” to “what they hell are they thinking?”
Cryogenic Chamber Therapy
(image via: the daily mail)
We’ve all heard about cryogenic freezing, the process of suspending bodies in liquid nitrogen just in case science is ever able to reawaken them for another shot at life. But could spending even just a few minutes in a cryogenic chamber improve the life you’re living now? Cryotherapy advocates say that three minutes of whole-body exposure to temperatures of minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit shocks your system, sending out a jolt of hormones that relieve pain, boost immune response and even improve sporting performance.
Urine Health Tonic
(image via: crimsong19)
Urine isn’t waste – it’s nourishment. In fact, one website touting urine therapy even says that “urine can be compared to the leftovers from a meal”. Yum. Drinking one’s own urine is said by some to cure a wide range of ills including cancer, heart disease, allergies, diabetes and athsma. While this practice has occurred for thousands of years, no medical benefit has ever been proven.
DNA Healing
(image via: divineerror)
If you’re depressed, maybe it’s because inherited emotional imprints got passed down from your ancestors. So says the theory of DNA healing – the method of removing such handicaps. The exact process by which this is purportedly done is unclear (though DNA healers claim it can be done over the phone), but proponents even claim that it can release you from genetic tendencies like alcoholism and cancer.
Rebirthing Therapy
(image via: fresh breath uk)
Being squeezed down a tight canal from a warm and cozy relaxation chamber into the bright, cold world can be traumatic, but proponents of “rebirthing therapy” believe that trauma can be undone through “conscious and connected breathing”. Rebirthing Breathwork supposedly allows one to let go of current psychological and physical problems by recalling aspects of birth, gestation and early childhood to release unwanted emotions that accompany those experiences.
Energy-Deflecting Golfer Pendant
(image via: emf news)
Have you noticed that many golfers tend to wear a strange pendant while out on the course? That little black or silver triangular pendant isn’t a fashion statement. Many golfers swear by the ‘QLink’ pendant, which is said to increase mental and physical performance and lower stress levels by recharging your ‘biofield’, an invisible energy force that extends beyond the body and can be affected by all sorts of daily disturbances like electromagnetism. Do biofields really exist? Surprisingly, some mainstream scientists say it’s possible.
Maggot Debridement Therapy
(image via: zimpenfish)
Maggots will forever be associated with death and decay because – well – that’s just how they roll. These little white squirming fly larvae thrive on all things disgusting, from rotting food to putrefying flesh, which is exactly why they work so well to clean out infected wounds. The age-old treatment called maggot debridement therapy, while just recently considered antiquated, is now enjoying a resurgence of popularity due to the advent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Placed in a wound, the maggots actually dissolve infected tissue, kill the bacteria and promote healing. Once all the dead and infected tissue is gone, they seek to exit the wound and are removed.
Kill Cancer-Causing Parasites
(image via: wikimedia commons)
“All cancers are alike. They are all caused by a parasite. A single parasite! It is the human intestinal fluke. And if you kill this parasite, the cancer stops immediately. The tissue becomes normal again. In order to get cancer, you must have this parasite. . . .” So claimed Dr. Hulda Clark, naturopath and author of the books “Cure For All Cancers” and “Cure for All Diseases”. If only it were that easy. Ironically, Clark herself died of cancer in 2009.
Leech Therapy
(image via: oakley originals)
Like maggots, leeches seem like they should be avoided at all costs. But it turns out that letting these little suckers get fat on your blood really can have health benefits: they’re sometimes used to get a patient’s blood flowing in reattached limbs. Demi Moore admitted that she uses leech blood detoxification to keep herself looking preternaturally young, but the whole blood sucking thing isn’t the only weird part; you have to bathe in turpentine first.
Beer Spas
(image via: czechtourism.com)
Aside from being a frat boy’s dream, bathing in beer has its pluses and thousands of people flock to ‘beer spas‘ in places like the Czech Republic to kick back in a vat of yeasty beverage. It’s supposed to soothe muscles and joints (like any other hot bath), improve the complexion (all those vitamins?) and induce relaxation (yes, the alcohol can be absorbed through your skin).
Ozone Anti-Aging
(image via: ozone therapy spas)
A constant subject of controversy between skeptics and believers, ozone therapy is hailed by the latter as a miraculous cure for cancer, AIDS and virtually all other ails. Ozone gas, produced from medical grade oxygen, is administered through injections, saunas and other methods. The USDA considers ozone toxic with no known medical benefits, but the results of peer-reviewed studies have been mixed.
Whole Body Transplant
(image via: wikimedia commons)
For many people, death comes after trauma to or failure of some part of the body that has nothing to do with the brain. So, why can’t we keep our consciousness intact and simply move the brain into a new, healthier body? As bizarre as it may sound, whole body transplants may not be technically impossible, though there are certainly rough moral seas to tread. Ethics aside, if current research into nerve regeneration is successful, this sci-fi sounding theory might be medically viable.
Head Transplant
(image via: shadowplay)
If brain transplants could theoretically work, why not whole head transplants? You’d have to trust that the scientists decapitating you would be able to successfully graft your head onto someone else’s body, but given that the procedure has been performed with limited success on animals, it’s not unthinkable. Stem cell research may make such a task more realistic in the future.
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Warthog Anus, Goat Fetus and 11 More Gross Delicacies
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, Food & Health, Geography & Travel, History & Trivia. ]
Imaging breaking open an egg to reveal a partially-formed duck fetus and licking your lips with anticipation. Most of us can’t, but that just goes to show how wildly tastes can vary – and the fact that one man’s vomit-inducing nightmare is another’s tasty treat. And even when they don’t involve feces, rotting flesh or animal fetuses, some obscure delicacies are taboo because they’re just plain awful for the environment, threatening endangered species with extinction.
Hákarl – Rotten Shark
It smells like a neglected public men’s room and looks something like diced cheese, but the horrible truth of hakarl is much worse than these attributes imply. In Iceland, the putrefied flesh of a basking shark is traditionally served during a midwinter festival and associated with hardiness and strength. That might be due to the fact that you need an iron stomach to avoid gagging while eating it. But wait – it gets ever so much worse.
Kiviak – Seagull-Stuffed Seal
(image via: sfgate)
Recipe for one super-delicious traditional Christmas meal from Greenland: take one beheaded seal carcass and stuff it with a dead, de-feathered seagull. Bury it under the permafrost and allow the flavors of fermenting bird to mingle with those of the seal’s intestines for seven months. Dig it up, bite off the bird’s head, suck out all those pungent juices and have a very happy holiday.
Balut – Duck Fetus Boiled Alive
(images via: deep end dining)
What is it about balut – a hard-boiled duck egg with a fetus inside – that inspires people not just to consume it, but to do so with lip-smacking relish? Is it the broth/amniotic fluid? The shiny, vein-covered outer membrane, or perhaps the gnarly shape of the fetus itself, with its bones and beak somehow mysteriously maintaining a soft, egg-like texture? It’s hard to imagine, but this delicacy is a beloved street snack in the Phillipines.
Endangered Bushmeat
(image via: national geographic)
Most of us wouldn’t dream of putting endangered chimp on the barbie. But illegal types of bushmeat – wild animal meat such as monkey, ape, leopard and elephant – are a thriving underground trade in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Demand for the meat of such animals is considered the top immediate threat to the future of wildlife in many areas around the world and has already resulted in widespread local extinctions.
Warthog Anus
(image via: wikimedia commons)
What’s the grossest thing you could possibly eat on a trip to Namibia? Traveling celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain found out when he got up close and personal with a feast of warthog anus. It was prepared by gutting the warthog, pulling out the anus and a foot of intestine, squeezing out the feces and throwing the whole thing on some hot coals. Said Bourdain, “This is one time when well done is eminently desirable, but no, this Hershey highway is served al dente.”
Baby Mice Wine
(image via: junch)
Contrary to some portrayals in the West, not all Chinese people regularly consume things that we consider bizarre and disgusting. However, things like ‘Baby Mice Wine’ do exist. This Chinese health tonic consists of newborn mice, their tiny eyes still closed, drowned alive in a bottle of rice wine and allowed to ferment for a year.
Monkey Brains
(image via: blog.ratestogo.com)
It’s not just an urban myth or a scene out of Indiana Jones: some people really do eat raw monkey brains, though the oft-told story of scooping them out of a live monkey’s head is hard to verify. A traveler in Cambodia got a photo of brains for sale at a public market, and tales abound on the internet of gross monkey brain-eating experiences.
Casu Marzu – Maggoty Cheese
If a food inspires most of the population to moan, “Oh, God, why?” and is disgusting enough to actually be banned, perhaps it’s best left uneaten. But Sardinians aren’t keen on giving up their national treasure Casu Marzu – rotting, maggot-infested pecorino cheese. If that doesn’t sound bad enough on its own, consider this: wearing protective eyewear is recommended, because the “cheese fly” larvae that have been intentionally allowed to hatch inside the cheese can jump up to six inches right into your face. Tasty.
Shark Fin Soup
(image via: wikimedia commons)
After maggot cheese and monkey brains, shark fin soup may not sound so bad. But though it may not be physically disgusting, this Chinese delicacy is a huge strain on international shark populations – not to mention cruel. Once finned, shark bodies – which aren’t valued – are often dumped back into the ocean to die painfully. Over 64% of the world’s known shark species are considered threatened or vulnerable, and some species are nearly extinct. Worse yet, the shark fin doesn’t even add much flavor or nutritional value – it’s little more than a garnish.
Kopi Luwak – Cat Poop Coffee
(images via: wikipedia)
Cream, sugar or cat crap? In Indonesia, coffee beans that have been eaten and defecated by civet cats are in high demand for their supposedly superior flavor – in fact, it’s the most expensive coffee in the world at $100-$600 per pound. The benefit of a less-bitter taste comes from the effect that a civet cat’s digestive enzymes have on the beans, which pass whole through the cat’s system.
Whale Meat Sashimi
(image via: fuyuhiko)
Why are Japanese whalers so intent on killing these graceful creatures, despite international (and sometimes violent) opposition to the practice? The blubbery, bland, gamey-tasting meat may not be palatable to most Westerners, but many Japanese love it and demand is high despite the threats to endangered species. Not that it only happens in Japan – a Santa Monica, California restaurant was recently shut down for serving endangered whale meat to customers.
Kutti Pi – Goat Fetus
The pronunciation of this delicacy – “cutie pie” – may have applied to these animals if they had been born alive, but it’s hard to describe cooked fetuses as cute. Kutti Pi is an Anglo-Indian delicacy that’s only eaten on the rare occasion of a pregnant animal (usually goat) being slaughtered, and is considered to have medicinal value, especially for pregnant women.
Bull Penis
(image via: winejuice.blogspot.com)
In some parts of the world, bull penis is considered an aphrodisiac, but you don’t even have to travel to China to get some. California restaurant Pho Nguyen Hue serves it in a dish called “pho ngau pin xe lua.” LA Mag says “The name translates to “noodle soup cow testicles train,” and it delivers what it promises and more. The “more” is the meat from a cow penis, which is rubbery like a tendon and comes drifting in a savory beef bone broth.” Yeah, there’s a reason that package is priced $6.66.
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14 Offbeat Green Cleaning & Personal Care Recipes
[ By Steph in Food & Health, Home & Garden, Tricks & Hacks. ]
If putting laxatives on your face and vodka in your laundry sounds like something you’d only do when you’ve had a few too many alcoholic beverages, you’re not alone – yet these bizarre tips might actually serve a purpose. For all the goofy, oddball cleaning and personal care recipes passed around the internet, there are a few that actually work – like polishing silver with aluminum foil, shining shoes with banana peels and even putting cheese whiz on fabric stains.
Vodka Laundry Freshener
(images via: john steven fernandez, mysza831)
If you somehow find yourself with a surplus of vodka that you don’t want to drink, put it in a spray bottle and spritz it onto your clothes to freshen them up between washes. It will kill the bacteria that cause odor, but the scent evaporates so you don’t walk around smelling like a liquor cabinet.
Beer Hair Rinse
(images via: deusxflorida, s-a-m)
A friend left some beer that you don’t particularly care for in your fridge again. What to do with it? Perhaps you’d like to pour it over your head. No, really. Beer actually gives hair a glossy sheen if you work it through after shampooing and then rinse it out. Some people even use it as a styling tonic.
Polish Silver with Aluminum Foil
(images via: basykes, muffet)
According to Good Housekeeping, this method doesn’t work as well as regular old silver polish, but it seems sort of amazing that it even works in the first place. Tarnish on silver has some sort of reaction with aluminum foil, causing it to “jump” to the foil. You simply line a plastic bin with foil, place your silver inside, sprinkle in ¼ cup of washing soda and pour in a gallon of boiling water. Let it soak for 15 minutes, then remove the silver, rinse, and buff with a clean, soft cloth.
Shine Copper with Ketchup
(images via: a2gemma, tymcode)
Some people put ketchup on just about everything, from eggs to macaroni and cheese. But ketchup is more than just America’s favorite condiment. Thanks to the acid it contains, smearing ketchup onto copper will actually dissolve stains.
Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Conditioner
(images via: andyrob, metaldoll)
Vinegar seems like one of the last things you’d want to put in your hair, but it actually makes a great conditioner. After shampooing, rinse with a solution of 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a pint of water and you’ll find that your hair is super-soft without the weight that conventional conditioners often leave behind. Bonus: it fights dandruff.
White Bread Wallpaper Shine
When little Timmy smears his Wonder Bread sandwich across Grandma’s dining room wall, it’s not so cute. But that same bread can actually be used to clean dust and grime off wallpaper. This trick, used at least since the 1800’s, reputedly removes marks without damaging the surface – just remember to cut off the crust first.
Cornstarch Deodorant
(images via: argostarch, little house in the suburbs)
For those seeking to get away from parabens, aluminum or other potentially harmful ingredients in conventional deodorant, a homemade recipe may be the way to go. But would you ever have thought of cramming some cornstarch into an old deodorant container? A tutorial by Little House in the Suburbs details a recipe that combines the moisture-absorbing properties of cornstarch with antibacterial essential oils and coconut oil as a binder.
Black Tea Furniture Polish
(images via: prudencebrown121, clab4design)
There are all sorts of homemade cleaners and polishes that can bring wood floors and furniture back into their prime, and one common folk remedy often repeated on the internet is simply black tea. The claim is that tannins in the tea make the floors shiny, while the pigment enhances the wood grain. Wood floor pros warn that while this method may well work, it could also void your warranty if your floors are new.
Fade Scars with Potatoes
(images via: la grande farmer’s market, flavio@flickr)
Does applying raw potato to the skin really help fade scars from acne and burns? If people who have tried this treatment have noticed tighter skin and more even pigmentation, it may be due to the astringent and cell-healing properties of this vitamin and antioxidant-packed vegetable. The National Potato Board (no surprise there) recommends applying a mask of grated raw potato or even washing your face with potato juice.
Remove Water Stains with Mayonnaise
(images via: live-showtime, antonis lamnatos)
If you’ve got some unsightly water stains on a wood surface, just cover it in mayo and let it sit overnight – by morning, the stains will be significantly reduced. This method supposedly works because the greasy oil-and-egg concoction pulls moisture out of the wood.
Treat Oily Skin with Milk of Magnesia
(images via: walgreens, presley jesus)
Smearing laxative on your face seems like a positively crazy thing to do, but Milk of Magnesia can actually help control oil. Many people use it as a face mask or even apply it as a primer before applying makeup to keep breakout-causing sebum in check.
Banana Peel Shoe Shine
(images via: darwin bell, hectorir)
The next time you eat a banana, don’t toss that peel – the sticky inside part can be used to buff your shoes to a shine worthy of the military. It’s pretty self-explanatory: just rub it on your shoe in a circular motion and then do the same with a soft cloth.
Peanut Butter Face Mask
(images via: doc18)
Peanut butter isn’t just for toast. Some people advise massaging it into dry spots or using it as a face mask to combat dryness. Leave it on for about 15 minutes, then wipe it off and rinse with water.
Cheez Whiz Stain Remover
(images via: velkr0, jencu)
This tip isn’t exactly green, but perhaps a warning to watch what you eat: it’s a far better idea to smear that goopy, food-like substance known as Cheez Whiz on your laundry than to put it in your mouth. Cheez Whiz contains trisodium phosphate, an industrial-strength cleaner sometimes added to processed foods, hence its reputation for getting out tough fabric stains.
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Going up? Go Green! 15 Eco-Towers & Sustainable Skyscrapers
With a burgeoning global population that has ever-growing needs for both food and housing, many architects are looking up for sustainable solutions that will prevent further sprawl and provide fresh food to urban residents. Vertical farms and skyscrapers that incorporate various functions like housing, recreation, work and tourism are like miniature self-sufficient cities, complete with transit and on-site energy production, minimizing the building’s carbon footprint and that of its residents.
La Tour Vivante: International Sustainable City
(images via: Atelier SOA)
La Tour Vivante is a vertical farm skyscraper with a light-shading skin that wraps around the structure and admits sunlight to targeted locations for both functional and aesthetic purposes. Designed by French architecture firm Atelier SOA, the skyscraper’s sustainable features include wind power, reclaimed rainwater, biogas production and on-site food production.
The architects explain, “The separation between city and countryside, urban planning and natural areas, places of living, consumption and production is increasingly problematic for sustainable land management. The concept of Tour Vivante aims to combine agricultural production, housing and activities in a single system.”
Toronto Sky Farm Concept by Gordon Graff
(images via: The Rathaus)
Designed by Gordon Graff when he was a Masters of Architecture student at Waterloo University, the Toronto Sky Farm concept seeks to provide enough food for 35,000 citizens per year. Though that may not be nearly enough to feed all the residents of downtown Toronto, it’s a start. Sky Farm would stand 59 stories tall with half its power produced by methane from plant waste. The hydroponic farming system would be fed with fresh water from Lake Ontario.
House of Peace Hotel in Tanzania Inspired by Nature
(images via: Inhabitat)
When WOW Architects set out to design the ‘House of Peace’ hotel in Tanzania, they found inspiration for its sculpted shape in the geological processes that shape rock formations in nature. With gentle slopes and greenery peeking out between floors, the concrete hotel is an interpretation of the way plate tectonics create hills, which are then molded by weather and stratified by sediments. Even the texture of the walls is drawn from that of fossils often found in such hills.
Almeisan Tower Brings Sky-High Sustainability to Dubai
(images via: Gizmag)
Though it’s unlikely to ever be built, the Almeisan Tower concept is nevertheless a fascinating peek at the ways in which we may be able to provide food for ourselves in the future. Created by architect Robert Ferry for a competition to design a tall emblem structure for Za’abeel Park in Dubai, Almeisan Tower would use solar cells and large mirrors to generate its own power as well as the power required to run the rest of the park.
Axis Mundi’s Wacky Pop-Art Idea for MoMA Tower
(images via: Design Boom)
Though it was Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Jean Nouvel, who was actually selected to design the expansion of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, another architect almost stole his thunder. Axis Mundi submitted an alternative design idea for the tower, with a stacked design that features vegetated walls and gigantic reproductions of iconic pop art. Firm founder John Beckmann said of the concept, “Instead of disguising the rich potential of towers that have a mix of uses, we looked for a way to express that diversity.” The resulting mixed-use mishmash certainly stands at a stark contrast to Nouvel’s sleek, contemporary winning design.
Entangled Bank: Green-Walled Eco-City
(images via: ArchDaily)
Charlotte, North Carolina firm LITTLE designed the Entangled Bank concept, a holistic design that “combines heavy duty technological prowess with artistic integration of systems”, as a juror of the Re:Vision Dallas competition described it. The concept connects various elements of community like housing, recreation, work and tourism in a sustainable shell that includes a living wall, wind turbines and an onsite biogas plant.
XERO Project Envisions Sustainable Dallas
(images via: David Barker + Partners)
While the Entangled Bank concept turned heads and made it to the top 3 in the Re:Vision Dallas competition, it was the XERO Project that took first place. The David Barker + Partners/Fletcher Studio design is based around the question, “What if one block in Texas became the sustainable model for the world?” The design envisions a high-density, zero-energy, agriculturally oriented pair of buildings that include public orchards, community gardens, food stalls, restaurants, retail space and housing. The design also imagines connecting the building to greater Dallas with intersecting greenways.
The Zuidkas Sustainable Tower in Amsterdam
(images via: Plus Mood)
How green can a skyscraper get? Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter decided to find out with a design commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency of the Netherlands for a mixed-use building in Amsterdam. De Ruiter aimed to achieve the highest score possible on a range of environmental objectives to help the government determine a future standard for sustainability in architecture. The design consists of a glass envelope that accommodates a variety of ‘green houses’ – atria, CO2 greenhouses and hybrid greenhouses – in addition to offices, homes, a school and retail facilities.
Plantagon Geodesic Vertical Farm
(images via: Inhabitat)
Swedish-American company Plantagon has come up with an unusual twist on the vertical farm concept: a geodesic greenhouse containing a spiral ramp upon which fresh crops can be grown in urban environments. Plantagon says the farm “will dramatically change the way we produce organic and functional food. It allows us to produce ecological [resources] with clean air and water inside urban environments, even major cities, cutting costs and environmental damage by eliminating transportation and deliver directly to consumers. This is due to the efficiency and productivity of the Plantagon® greenhouse which makes it economically possible to finance each greenhouse from its own sales.”
Vertical Park: Stackable Architecture for Mexico City
(images via: Archicentral)
Not only do we need vertical buildings that bring many functions into one building, preventing the destruction of what little green space we have left, but we also need structures that can meet our needs as they evolve. The stackable ‘Vertical Park’ concept by Jorge Hernandez de la Garza is a modular skyscraper designed for Mexico City, where space is definitely at a premium. Each module provides spaces for living, working, urban farming, water reclamation and solar energy collection.
Pyramid Farm
(images via: The Vertical Farm Project)
Architecture professors Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier have dreamed up yet another way in which agriculture can be incorporated into urban environments in the future. The Pyramid Farm offers a self-sustaining ecosystem that are capable of producing a wide variety of food – including fish and poultry – while also minimizing waste as much as possible. It would even have processes in place to transform waste into energy sources that could run the farm.
Dragonfly Urban Farm Concept
(images via: Vincent Callebaut)
Few urban farm concepts are quite as visually stunning as Vincent Callebaut’s Dragonfly, a tall wing-like structure designed around the Southern bank of Roosevelt Island in New York City. This entirely self-sufficient concept features two oblong towers and 128 floors filled with housing, offices, laboratories and farms that would be tended by the building’s occupants. The greenhouse, which defines the space of the design, supports the load and is buttressed by two inhabited rings covered in solar panels.
Harvest Green Tower
(images via: Design Boom)
Romses Architects envisioned the ‘Harvest Green Tower’ for Vancouver, winning a competition held by the city of vancouver ‘the 2030 challenge’ to find new methods of green building that can help address climate change issues. The Harvest Green Tower produces food – including boutique goat and sheep dairy – and generates its own energy through wind and solar power. Incorporated within the tower are also residences, transit, offices, retail space and research facilities.
Aberrant Agriculture by Scott Johnson
(images via: Rat Haus)
The Aberrant Agriculture concept by Masters of Architecture student Scott Johnson not only combines vertical farming, residential, hotel and retail functions in one sustainable skyscraper, it also processes and sells the food that is produced within. The agricultural core of the building grows 12 ‘power foods’ including berries, garlic and beans and whatever the building’s residents couldn’t eat would be sold to the public.
Modular Skyscraper Additions Add Garden and Power Producing Space
(images via: Ecoble)
All of these ideas for the sustainable skyscrapers of the future are great, but what about all the waste that would be generated by tearing old buildings down, and wasting new resources to rebuild? That’s where this concept by Daekwon Park comes in. It’s a modular system designed to act as add-ons for existing buildings, adding space for outdoor recreation, vertical gardening and wind power generation as well as other functions as needed.
Steph