Showing posts with label omg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label omg. Show all posts

Monday, 8 April 2013

Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes...

Have you ever closed your eyes, rubbed them and seen stars? Or at least little pops of light? It turns out that those pops of light have a name: phosphenes.
They are a phenomenon characterized by seeing light without light actually entering the eye. This rubbing mechanically stimulates the cells of the retina causing this effect. Sometimes, these phosphenes can still be seen for moments after you open your eyes.
Meditators have also reported experiencing phosphenes, and they have actually been known since antiquity. Ancient Greeks described them. Other reasons people ‘see stars’ are because of sneezing, coughing, blowing your nose or receiving a blow to the head.

Friday, 22 March 2013

Couldn't Stop Eating.... :P

Tarrare was a French soldier with one of the oddest life stories ever largely because he could never stop eating! Born in 1772, he was thrown out of his home by his parents because they could not support his eating habits so he traveled with a band of thieves and prostitutes stealing food.
He worked as a street performer and would eat corks, stones, live animals, and whole apples! Tarrare joined the army for an income, yet food rations couldn’t support him so he would search the gutters for food. This was still not enough, and he was hospitalized from exhaustion.
Doctors took interest in Tarrare and conducted experiments to test his limits in which he would eat food intended for 15 people composed of live cats, snakes, lizards, puppies, and a whole eel which he swallowed without chewing! Tarrare’s appetite got larger and larger to the point where he ate corpses in the morgue.
Eventually accused of eating a toddler, Terrare was thrown out of the hospital and died of tuberculosis. Strangely, he was of normal size and appearance and doctors never figured out why he was so hungry!