A Bizarre Thought: The Hindu Milk Miracle, Heat and Stench

The Hindu Milk Miracle was a craze that took place on September 21, 1995. One man noticed that his offering of milk disappeared when he held it up to a statue of Ganesha. As the day wore on, it was found that Hindu statues all over the Eastern Hemisphere were displaying similar behavior when followers held up glasses, spoons and even buckets of milk. The "miracle" has been repeatedly debunked, even when it was occurring, but that did not stop insane amounts of milk from being purchased for statues from India to the UK.

So, the event in itself is not very bizarre. Religious "miracles" are known to cause hysteria. Nonetheless, while reading about it, I had a slightly bizarre thought. Tens of thousands of pints of milk were fed into these statues, some in very hot locations. What happened in the days that followed? It seems to me like there would have been a terrible smell coming from these statues. In a way, I found that humorous. I am actually very curious to know what became of it. I know that if I dumped milk all over something in my back yard and let it bake in the sun, I would not be worshipping the object the next day.

Lithopedions

Lithopedions are bizarre, yet horrifying and sad results of fetuses dying in the womb. When a mother is carrying a dead fetus that she does not abort, miscarry or birth, it can calcify inside of her if it is too big for the body to reabsorb. It is a way that the human body can protect itself, as the dead fetus can cause infection. The resulting calcification leaves something akin to a stone fetus inside the mother. These sad remnants of a failed pregnancy are called lithopedions.

In most countries where medical care is readily available, lithopedions are unheard of. Dead fetuses are not left inside mothers and mothers are typically aware that they are pregnant. However, in places where many women do not have access to medical treatment, women may carry "stone babies" and not know it. Even if a woman does know she was pregnant and has a noticeable bulge, she can still carry it for decades without a problem, though there can be complications. Some women have even had healthy pregnancies after a lithopedion has formed. Without an ultrasound, there is no way of knowing that the womb is shared with a dead fetus and the dead fetus is not birthed with the live one.

Lithopedions are a thankfully rare occurrence, judging by known cases, though there are surely some that were never discovered. There has been an average of less than one known case per year for 400 years. A similar condition is fetus papyraceus, which occurs in multiples pregnancies when one of the fetuses flattens and mummifies. Lithopedions too can occur during multiples pregnancies. This condition is completely avoidable and reversible with proper medical treatment.

Bizarre Reactions to Horrible Situations: The Zombie Idiocy

There is currently a lot of buzz online about supposed "zombie attacks." Of course, something as bizarre as that would not escape scrutiny at That is Bizarre. However, there are no zombie attacks and yet, there is still a post here about them. You might wonder why and I am about to tell you. It is because there is something far more bizarre going on. It is called mass hysteria. Well, it is not really hysteria in the "run for your lives" way. It is hysteria in the "holy crap, facebook, twitter, my blog and wherever else I can post on the internet, there are zombies and I'm going to be prepared" kind of way. So, we are going to take a moment here to laugh at the bizarreness of technological age human nature and mourn the loss of seriousness in the face of serious situations.

Sadly, this bizarre sweep of reports regarding alleged zombie attacks is based on true, horrific stories. Without getting into too much detail, let us just say that a few people have been partially eaten, some of them dead at the time of the dining, some of them still alive. I know, it is absolutely horrible. Then, there is a man who harmed himself and put on a very gory display for responding officers. All of these saddening events took place relatively close together time wise, but were spread out around the globe. Zombie fanatics got creeped out by the seeming similarities between these events (of which they are very few worth noting) and took to social networks ranting about purchasing weapons and preparing for the apocalypse. Way to react, human race. (Insert virtual facepalm)

Now, to the bottom of things. There are no zombie attacks occurring right now. The sad truth is that these things happen much more than they should and they are not happening more often than usual. Furthermore, it was one sensational story that caused people to start linking all of the other stories. There are no links apart from human suffering and that has been around for a long time. So has the bizarre habit of making something bad worse with ignorance. Let us just hope people do not start seeing zombies where there are none anywhere other than the internet.

Bizarre Animals: Zebroid

A Zebroid at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club
Photo by Olliver: Public Domain

The zebroid is one of those creatures that happens rarely in the wild and happens sometimes with the help of people. It is a hybrid zebra that goes by several different names, depending on its parenthood, but essentially comes down to one thing, crossing a zebra with a horse, mule or donkey. The resulting creatures are quite bizarre and often beautiful.

In most cases, the fathers of zebroids are the zebras and the mothers are the horses, donkeys or mules. On occasion, the mother is the zebra, but this is far rarer. There have been some recorded instances of a zebroid producing offspring, resulting in another form of hybrid. However, zebroids are typically infertile or close enough to infertile that it is pointless trying to make them breed.

Zebroid characteristics depend on the characteristics of the non-zebra parents. In most cases, the animal has the stature of the non-zebra parent and has a touch of dwarfism. There are always stripes, though they are often not over the entire body and are sometimes only faint, depending on the animal's coloring. In some of these bizarre-looking zebroids, the animal looks, quite literally, like half a zebra. It may have several areas of very clear zebra markings or have them on approximately half of its body. This often happens when the zebroid is the offspring of a zebra and a horse.

Bizarre Art: Michael Cross' Bridge

The Michael Cross Bridge is a work of art that is also an amazing use of space and perception. Judging by Bridge, Michael Cross is clearly an artist who wants people to experience his work in an interactive way. It is a footbridge across a small body of water that gives the illusion that the person interacting with it is walking on water. There was something similar in the film "Labyrinth," but there is no Ludo traversing Michael Cross' Bridge and there is hopefully no stench arising from it.

According to Michael Cross' account of his inspiration for Bridge, its construction was more of a personal desire than anything else. He envisioned himself walking to or standing in the middle of a lake without getting wet and without anything around him but water. It may sound like a delusion of grandeur or that M. Cross aspires to be the mythical water walker himself. However, the reality is far less dramatic.

Michael Cross built his Bridge in the middle of Dilston Grove Church, which is currently an artist gallery. The water is contained in a roughly 24-inch deep tank in the middle of an aging room. While Bridge is in this makeshift tank, there is the illusion that the room is flooded. The eponymous bridge is a series of steps that rise from the water as a person walks across and sink back down once the step has been used. Because of this, the steps are not visible in front or behind you as you walk across.

This project is reportedly only the test. Michael Cross is planning to build an improved bridge in the future. For now, he is working on the kinks in the mechanisms that create his illusion. To see this amazing work of art, visit Michael Cross' website.

When the Jian River Ran Red

The Jian River, in and of itself, is not bizarre. It is just like any other river that flows on this planet. It is subject to pollution; it can change with the landscape and can also change due to weather. However, when the river turned red in December of 2011, it became like something out of hell. The color was not just red; it was a deep red reminiscent of blood. It understandably freaked out people who lived in its vicinity in Luoyang, China.

Authorities immediately began looking for the source of the problem. It was clearly not environmental. It turns out, it was red dye being dumped by two illegal factories in the city. Police raided the factories and shut them down when it became clear that the factories were indeed the problem. They were not dumping the dye directly into the river, but rather dumping them into the city's storm drain system, which, in turn, flows into the river. This was also illegal, but the factories themselves appeared to be running under the radar, as it was.

The river has apparently since returned to normal, though reports of it have tapered off since the original sensational story of the river turning blood red hit. Regardless, the images of a blood red Jian River will be remembered for a long time to come.

Click here for an image of the event.

The Peabody Hotel's Red Carpet

The Duck March at the Peabody Hotel
Photo by Mandy

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee is home to a bizarre ritual that has been occurring there since 1932. The ritual takes place every morning at 11 a.m. and every afternoon at 5 p.m. This ritual involves five residents of the hotel that live in a penthouse on the roof known as the "Royal Duck Palace." These residents stroll out to the hotel's travertine marble fountain in the lobby on a red carpet amidst spectators and then stroll back to their palace, also along the red carpet, after having spent the day frolicking in the fountain. The red carpet V.I.D.'s are trained North American Mallards. Yes, ducks.

The practice of marching ducks out to the fountain of the Peabody Hotel began as something of a joke. The hotel's general manager and his friend thought it would be funny to put three ducks in the fountain. It turned out that the entertainment was a success. People enjoyed the novelty so much that the three were replaced by five North American Mallards and it has been five North American Mallards ever since.

Initially, there were just ducks in the fountain. Well, the word "just" does not really describe it, but that was the extent of it, nonetheless. That was, until the hotel got its first Duckmaster. Edward Pembroke was initially a bellman for the hotel. He was a former animal trainer and used this skill to get a more prestigious job as Duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel. He is the one who trained the animals to walk the red carpet until he retired. Several celebrities have been named "honorary Duckmasters." However, let's give credit where credit is due. None of these celebrities has trained multitudes of wild animals to behave in a crowded hotel.

The Peabody Hotel Ducks are not just five ducks that are replaced over the years. They only work for three months, after being raised on a farm. After the three months is up, they go back to the farm, where their novel skill as red carpet strutters becomes useless.