Weird Archives - The Daily Research

No Heart, No Brain, No Blood: 20 Facts You Didn’t Know About Jellyfish

Whether they’re simplistic clear blobs marooned on a beach or colorful floaters that form the basis of many nightmares, what are jellyfish exactly? Let’s take a look at a creature that is significantly more interesting, and unfortunately deadlier, than they appear. They Aren’t Fish A jellyfish is certainly gelatinous, but is it a fish? Not at all. A type of zooplankton, it is more scientifically appropriate to refer to them as Jellies, so do so! What is plankton? Plankton is typically defined as a type of small or microscopic organisms, drifting or floating in the sea or fresh water. Jellies […]

Weird

10 Strange Facts About Gold

Gold has captured the imagination of people for centuries. It has religious significance to many and aesthetic appeal to others. Even children show an interest in gold when they paint pictures where gold is the prize at the end of the rainbow. There are many interesting facts about gold that will intrigue and amaze you. The term “gold” is from the Proto-Indo-European base *ghel / *ghol meaning “yellow,” “green,” or possibly “bright.” Gold has been discovered on every continent on earth. Gold has some remarkable properties: It can conduct both heat and electricity, it never rusts and it is pliable. It […]

Animals

8 Amazing Neurological Facts About Animal Brains

The brain is an intriguing organ. Although we know a lot about the functioning of the human brain and animal brains there is still much about brains that allude us. Study on the brain is continuous and often scientists turn to animal brains in order to find out more about our human brain. You are probably wondering: What is so astounding about an animal’s brain? You may even ask: Aren’t all animal brains alike? Well here are eight neurological facts about animal’s brains that are sure to do more than raise a few eyebrows. These facts will throw all your […]

Health & Medicine

Face Blindness Leaves Sufferers Unable To Recognise Faces Of People They Already Know

There’s always that one person at a party who says they’re notoriously bad with names or faces, but did you know that not being able to recognise someone can actually be the cause of a medical condition? Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a cognitive disorder where sufferers can’t recognise faces – even those most familiar to them, like their children, their spouses, their parents, and even their own. Other visual processes remain intact, though, so sufferers can still tell objects apart, they just can’t differentiate between peoples’ faces. To them, everyone looks the same. In best case scenarios, […]

Animals

Wojtek, The Army Bear Who Fought In WW2

Wojtek (Vojtek), the Syrian bear that garnered fame during the World War 2, led an interesting life, to say at least. This beer-drinking, Nazi-fighting bear was just a cub when he was found by the Polish army, but he went on to do great things that led to numerous statues of him being built. This is his story. Polish prisoners and an Iranian bear It was spring of 1942 and tens of thousands of polish prisoners, captured during the soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 where released from the soviet gulags in Siberia. These men and women, held in soviet […]

Animals

Short Spine Syndrome: Just 14 Dogs Have This Rare Condition

You might have seen images circling the internet that show “Photoshopped” images of dogs with unnaturally short backs and no necks. While it’s easy to think the images have been tampered with in some way to make them go viral, these dogs actually have a condition called Short Spine Syndrome – they haven’t been Photoshopped into weird goblin-like creatures. What exactly is Short Spine Syndrome? Short Spine Syndrome is a condition that affects very few dogs in the world (there have been less than 20 named). It’s where the vertebrae have been compressed together to shorten the vertebral column, and […]

Animals

The Mystery Of The Loneliest Whale In The World

For more than 20 years now, there is a unique song that is echoing through the Pacific Ocean. This song, of a very singular whale that is calling out in search of company, on a frequency like no other, has baffled scientist and captivated imagination of laymen for decades. The story of a whale nicknamed simply “52” begins in 1989 when a US Navy hydrophone array picked up an unusual signal. This facility, that was used to detect submarines during the cold war, prior to being declassified and repurposed for oceanographic research, discovered a series of whale songs that were […]

History

Maximón: In Mayan Guatemala, One Legendary Bad-ass has Become a God

Beloved by the Maya of western highland Guatemala, Maximón (pronounced Ma-shee-moan) is part ancient Mayan deity, part Catholic saint, part archetypal trickster. His complex character resonates with ancient religious associations between fertility, virility, the underworld, black magic, and sin. He is the patron saint of travelers and gamblers, and an associate of the devil according to the Catholic Church. A name with many meanings Many people identify him with the ancient Mayan underworld earth-god, Mam (or Ma’am) and may call him Rilaj Mam or “Great Grandfather.” In the local Mayan tongues “Ma” is an honorific title, similar to “Sir” or […]