actres in bikini

This list looks at ten more of the most unusual phobias that afflict people in modern days.

We probably all suffer from a minor phobia or two, but some people’s lives are virtually debilitated by their fears.

Automatonophobia
Fear of a Ventriloquist’s Dummy


I think we can all see the merit in this disorder – the very act of ventriloquism seems particularly nasty to me. It involves a man with his hand up a dolls butt which he then proceeds to talk to. Sufferers of automatonophobia need not seek treatment – it is a perfectly valid reaction to a perfectly revolting concept.

Cathisophobia
Fear of Sitting


Cathisophobia (sometimes spelled with a ‘k’) is a terror of sitting down. This disorder can be sparked off by a particularly nasty case of hemorrhoids but in some serious cases it can be due to physical abuse relating to sitting on sharp or painful objects. Sometimes, the sitting fear is due to some punishment in the school days, or it may be an indication of some other phobia like sitting in front of elite and influential people. Cathisophobia is characterized by sweating, heavy or short breathe, and anxiety.

Arachibutyrophobia
Fear of Peanut Butter Sticking to the Roof of your Mouth


I must say that finding information on this disorder is extremely difficult – which does make me wonder if it is perhaps the figment of an over-active imagination, but it is definitely bizarre and fairly well known so it seems to deserve a place here. This disorder seems to be a fear that is quite easily worked around: don’t buy peanut butter.

However, for a child who is forced to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day, one can see how it might cause severe trauma in later life. Here is the testimony of one alleged sufferer: “Whenever I’m around peanut butter I start to sweat excessively and my body starts convulsing. The roof of my mouth becomes coarse and itchy. I can’t live with this fear anymore. My thirst for peanut butter must be quenched without me going into a full blown panic attack.”

Pentheraphobia
Fear of Mother-in-Law


Of all the phobias on this list, pentheraphobia is probably the most common. It is, as stated above, the fear of one’s mother-in-law. I am sure that most married people have, at one time or another, suffered from this terrible fear. This fear is one that is so common in Western society that it frequently appears in movies and other forms of entertainment. Of the many available therapies for this illness of the mind, divorce seems to be the most popular. A related phobia to pentheraphobia is novercaphobia which is a fear of your stepmother – the most famous sufferer of which is Cinderella.

Demonophobia
Fear of Demons


Demonophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of evil supernatural beings in persons who believe such beings exist and roam freely to cause harm. Those who suffer from this phobia realize their fear is excessive or irrational. Nevertheless, they become unduly anxious when discussing demons, when venturing alone into woods or a dark house, or when watching films about demonic possession and exorcism. Sufferers are most likely to be recognized by the strings of garlic around their neck, crucifixes, wooden stakes they carry, and gun loaded with silver bullets. Okay – I made that last part up.

Eisoptrophobia
Fear of Mirrors


Eisoptrophobia is a fear of mirrors in the broad sense, or more specifically the fear of being put into contact with the spiritual world through a mirror. Sufferers experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. Because their fear often is grounded in superstitions, they may worry that breaking a mirror will bring bad luck or that looking into a mirror will put them in contact with a supernatural world inside the glass. After writing this list I realized that I suffer from a minor form of this disorder in that I don’t like to look into a mirror in the evening when I am alone for fear of seeing someone (or something) behind me.

Deipnophobia
Fear of Dinner Conversation


Now admittedly some dinner conversations can be very awkward, but some people are so terrified of the idea of speaking to another person over dinner that they avoid dining out situations. In times gone by there were strict rules of etiquette that helped a person to deal with these situations – but they are (sadly) mostly forgotten. In today’s society in which rules and formality are out the window, it is possible that the more controlled nature of a dinner party may lie partly behind this phobia.

Pediophobia
Fear of Dolls


Pediophobia is the irrational fear of dolls. Not just scary dolls – ALL dolls. Strictly speaking, the fear is a horror of a “false representation of sentient beings” so it also usually includes robots and mannequins, which can make it decidedly difficult to go shopping. This phobia should not be confused with pedophobia or pediaphobia which is the fear of children. Sigmund Freud believed the disorder may spring from a fear of the doll coming to life and roboticist Masahiro Mori expanded on that theory by stating that the more human-like something becomes, the more repellent its non-human aspects appear.

Mageirocophobia
Fear of Cooking


The bizarre fear of cooking is called mageirocophobia which comes from the Greek word mageirokos which means a person skilled in cooking. This disorder can be debilitating and potentially lead to unhealthy eating if one lives alone. Sufferers of mageirokos can feel extremely intimidated by people with skills in cooking, and this intimidation and feeling of inadequacy is probably the root cause of the disorder for many.

Agyrophobia
Fear of Crossing the Street


Agyrophobics have a fear of crossing streets, highways and other thoroughfares, or a fear of thoroughfares themselves. This, of course, makes it very difficult to live comfortably in a city. The word comes from the Greek gyrus which means turning or whirling as the phobic avoids the whirl of traffic. The phobia covers several categories, wherein sufferers may fear wide roads specifically down to suburban single lane streets, and can also include fearing jaywalking or crossing anywhere on a street, even a designated intersection. This phobia is considered independent from the fear of cars.

Because you never know what you may find, love makes people do crazy things.

On top of Mount Everest


Finally we have a wedding that was a first ever. A Nepalese couple actually got married on the peak of Mount Everest the first ever in history. Pem Dorjee and Moni Mulepati made it to the top as part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition and kept their plan a secret until the last minute since they didn’t know if they would make it all the way. The couple spent a mere 10 minutes at the peak and briefly took off their oxygen masks to exchange vows while friends took pictures. There have been couples in the past who have tried to make the same trip but none have been able to make it so far until now.

Garbage Dump


Think marriage stinks? It certainly did for this couple who got married at the Bethel Transfer Station where the couple Rockie Graham and Dave Hart first met. Rockie Graham was recycling when she caught a dirty look from Dave and three years later they were married in this garbage dump with 250 of their closest friends. The bride wore a $7000 white dress with the dump as the picture perfect background.

The idea came from Dave who wanted to exchange vows where they originally met. Rockie stated she was “reluctant” at first but eventually gave in to Dave’s idea. Now that is compromise, but I suppose if you are going to start a lifelong relationship in a dump you can only go up from there.

Nudist Wedding


Looking to let your vows hang loose? Then a nudist wedding may be for you. Just think you don’t have to worry about a tux or wedding dress and your wedding pictures will be very popular.

Many people do this every year from Dallas TX, to Australia, but one of the most well known places to have a nude wedding is at the Hedonism III Resort in Runaway Bay, St. Ann. On Valentine’s Day in 2003, 29 couples exchanged vows in the buff making it one of the largest nude weddings ever. The resort provides everything free of charge with a minimum four night stay. No word yet if Viagra is available as party favors.

Underwater Wedding


Ah sometimes marriage can be sink or swim, for some its sink, swim and scuba. But forget just getting married while you scuba dive, how about staying in an underwater hotel.

You can make it all happen at the Jules Undersea Lodge where you can make your underwater adventure come true. For a mere 1750.00 plus tax you can have this lodge all to yourself and even stay there for the honeymoon. Guests scuba dive to the underwater lodge and have plenty of room to relax with two bedrooms, dining area, kitchen and living area. The lodge is located in Key Largo Florida and is 21 feet underwater.

Marriage in Hell


Who says weddings have to be pretty and fancy, how about dark and morbid? This couple took their love of the macabre and the relationship to the next level when they got married at a haunted house where they worked together.

Tina Milhoane 22 and Robert Seifer 24 married at 7 Floors of Hell in the haunted house’s cemetery. Everyone dressed the part with the groom making his entrance in a hearse and coming out of a coffin to his beloved bride. The bride meanwhile still dressed in white with a splash of red added to mimic the character Carrie. The minister also played his part as the Grim Reaper and even read the Lord’s Prayer to the audience.

Wedding on Wheels


In a hurry to get married, then you might want to hit the road and try the hot rod wedding from Reverend Darrell Best.

The reverend turned a 1942-edition American La France fire engine into a mini chapel on wheels. The holy matrimony ride is complete with stained glass windows, pipe organ and even an altar for the special occasion. The fire engine fits everyone you need for the wedding; bride, groom, best man and maid of honor. Reverend Best charges a $200 fee plus $2 per mile for the ride and ceremony; he is located in Shelbyville Illinois. Honeymoons meanwhile are not allowed on the ride.

Mid Air Wedding


Sometimes love makes you feel sky high, apparently that wasn’t enough for this couple that got married in mid air on top of several bi planes!

The activity known as “wing walking” was taken to another level when the British couple, 24-year-old Darren McWalters married his bride Katie Hodgson while the minister stood backwards on another plane and administered the ceremony. In total three bi planes were used, one for each person as they flew close together. All three of the participants were securely strapped complete with full tux and wedding dress. Everything was transmitted wirelessly and broadcast to the guests on the ground via a speaker system.

Clowning Around


This one is kind of creepy but once you get past the makeup it is not so bad, assuming you are not terrified of clowns of course.

Roadkill Raccoon and Reddish Raddish married at the Alberta Street Clown House, their non clown names are Carol Banner and Morgan Nilsen. Naturally the bride and groom love everything clown and decided to share that with everyone. Guests dressed up as clowns and had all kinds of activities that other weddings should have. Such as mud wrestling, mini bike tricks, and of course jousts. The couple ended the ceremony with a bike parade to the reception. A little strange but seems like lots of fun.

Happy Meal or Bean Burrito


We have two contenders for this one and you can decide which is more romantic.

The first comes to us from Fairborn, Ohio were co workers Tyree Henderson and Trisha Lynn Esteppe married at the McDonald’s where they met 3 years prior. The restaurant didn’t skip a beat as the wedding took place and customers came and went placing orders and eating their Big Macs. The lucky bride stated that, “she could not imagine a more romantic setting for their wedding”. Not sure which is worse the fact that she thought that was romantic or that they have worked there for 3 years.

Our second couple decided to tie the knot at their favorite fine dining establishment, Taco Bell. The bride and groom, Paul and Caragh Brooks wedded sitting in a booth while customers looked on. Instead of personalized mints they had hot sauce packets labeled “Will you marry me?” The saucy bride wore a $15 hot pink dress while a friend (who got ordained online) read the vows wearing a nice t-shirt. The two met online and were a step ahead as they already had the same last name. I guess that’s a good enough reason as any to get married at Taco Bell.

Stay classy guys!

Bungee Jump


Some people are just too literal. This couple decided to take the plunge into marriage from 164 feet in the air, and even had the ceremony on a platform with 22 relatives and friends suspended along with them.

The guests were securely strapped to their chairs with tuxedos, dresses and all. The platform was slowly raised as the ceremony went on, until the entire assembly reached 164 feet in the air where Sandra Eens and Jeroen Kippers exchanged rings and took a leap of faith together. The entire wedding was done by Marriage in the Sky the same company that does Dinner in the Sky events.

Mass hysteria is the phenomenon that causes panic in a crowd when everyone believes that have the same illness or other malady. People can develop symptoms by simply believing they have a disease.

Fan Death


Fan death is a South Korean urban legend (also found in Japan) which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death of those inside (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia). Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on. This is so widely believed that the press report it as fact: “The heat wave which has encompassed Korea for about a week, has generated various heat-related accidents and deaths. At least 10 people died from the effects of electric fans which can remove oxygen from the air and lower body temperatures” [Korea Herald, July 28, 1997]

The Halifax Slasher


In the late 1930s, two girls reported being attacked by a man carrying a mallet and wearing bright yellow buckles on his shoes. When more and more people reported seeing the man and being attacked, the weapon turned into a razor or knife. The city ended up nearly shutting down when Scotland Yard was called, and suspicious looking people were beat up. Finally, a woman who had reported him earlier admitted to doing the damage to herself. Police began arresting people for false reporting, and the hysteria slowed down.

Satanic Ritual Abuse


Satanic ritual abuse refers to a moral panic that originated in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout the country and eventually to many parts of the world, before subsiding in the late 1990s. Allegations of SRA involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of individuals in the context of occult or satanic rituals. At its most extreme definition, SRA involved a world-wide conspiracy involving the wealthy and powerful of the world elite in which children were abducted or bred for sacrifices, pornography and prostitution. SRA has been described as a moral panic and compared to the blood libel and witch-hunts of historical Europe, and McCarthyism in the United States during the 20th century.

Sick Children in Georgia


A gathering of parents at a school in 1988 started it all. A mother mentioned that since school started, her child had been looking pale, had headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dark circles under his eyes. Many parents, over time, began to see the same symptoms in their children. After the school was evacuated for a gas leak, the parents suspected the school had something to do with it. Tests were done, and all came back negative. Experts said the parents redefined common childhood illnesses, and may have even imagined some symptoms. None of the children ever complained of feeling ill.

The Villejuif Leaflet


In 1976, a single typewritten page began circulating in France, stating a number of food additives were carcinogens. Copies found their way into England, Africa, Germany, and many other places. What scared people most was that citric acid was on the list, which is in many, many fruits. Books and other leaflets copied the same information over without checking the sources or the facts. These flyers were passed out in schools, hospitals, and health clinics until the late 80s. The leaflet caused mass panic in Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s.

The London Monster


The London Monster was a name for a man who attacked women in London between 1788 and 1790. For the first accounts, women explained a man followed them and stabbed them in the back and butt. Some women claimed the man had knives tied to his knees. It’s true that many of these women had ripped clothes and injuries.

When this became popular and people realized the Monster only seemed to attack beautiful rich women, girls began to injure themselves and say the Monster attacked them to get attention. A man named Rhynwick Williams was eventually accused of being the Monster, and even though no sufficient evidence was brought against him, the public jeered at him and supported the prosecutors. Williams was convicted and got 6 years in prison. Reports of the Monster continued even after Williams was in jail. Now, historians have doubts if the Monster even existed.

Spring Heeled Jack


A man was returning home one night in London in 1837, and saw a strange figure jump over the fence of a cemetery and land in front of him. He also reported to the police that the figure had a strange look to him. He had pointed ears, a long nose, and glowing eyes. Several months later, a young woman was attacked by a strange creature in an alley. He gripped her arms and tried to kiss her. She reported his hands were cold and clammy.

The woman screamed, and the man ran off. Many people heard her screaming and came to the rescue, but nothing out of the ordinary was found. This story grew as it spread. It eventually turned into another ending: the man ran in front of a carriage and jumped over a 9 foot fall fence. The mayor didn’t take the stories seriously, and assured everyone if it was anything, it was just a man who would be caught. Another girl reported a creature fitting the description came into her house and attacked her. Many, many more people reported being attacked by Spring Heeled Jack (the name given to the creature), but the legend eventually turned into a myth.

Y2K Bug


The Y2K bug was the fear that the clocks in computers would fail on the first day of the year 2000 causing worldwide catastrophe. While no globally significant computer failures occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000, preparation for the Y2K bug had a significant effect on the computer industry. Countries that spent very little on tackling the Y2K bug (including Italy and South Korea) experienced as few problems as those that spent much more (such as the United Kingdom and the United States). The total cost of the work done in preparation for Y2K is estimated at over 300 billion US dollars – for a problem that really wasn’t there.

Kuchisake-onna


Kuchisake-onna (“Slit-Mouth Woman”) refers to both a story in Japanese mythology, as well as a modern version of the tale of a woman, mutilated by a jealous husband, and returned as a malicious spirit bent on committing the same acts done to her. During the spring and summer of 1979, rumors abounded throughout Japan about sightings of the Kuchisake-onna having hunted down children. In October 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children, but was hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear. It is believed that she caused the panics around that time.

Angels of Mons


The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I. The evidence suggests that the story is fictitious, developed through a combination of a patriotic short story by Arthur Machen, rumors, mass hysteria and urban legend, and also possibly deliberately seeded propaganda. The stories of angels themselves certainly boosted morale on the home front as popular enthusiasm was dying down in 1915 and demonstrate the importance of religion in wartime.

This is the strangest diets around but only included diets which are widely-spread, this means that individuals with bizarre eating habits are not included.

Last Chance Diet


This is not so much a diet as a fast, so it is added as a bonus item. Under this program, developed by Dr. Robert Linn in the 1970s, people ate nothing at all. But several times a day the fast was broken by a small drink of the concoction that Linn had invented called Prolinn. It was a liquid protein that provided fewer than 400 calories a day, consisted of ground-up and crushed animal horns, hooves, hides, tendons, bones and other slaughterhouse byproducts that were treated with artificial flavors, colors and enzymes to break them down.

Tapeworm Diet


This diet is as disgusting as its name. In this diet, you eat a tapeworm in a cyst and let it grow in your body until it is fully mature. You then worm yourself and poop out the worm. Advocates of this insane diet assure people that they can lose 1 – 2 pounds per week using their method. Because it is illegal to import tapeworms into the US, some organizations run tapeworm farms in Africa and Mexico which tourists can visit to get infected “safely”. On these farms, cows are intentionally infected with tapeworm for harvesting for human consumption. This diet is alleged to work because once ingested, the worm attaches in the intestinal tract and absorbs nutrients from the food you eat.

Sleeping Beauty Diet


As its name implies, this diet involves sleep – a lot of it. The principle behind this diet is: “if you aren’t awake, you aren’t eating”. Consequently, advocates take heavy sedation and sleep for days at a time in order to lose weight. Obviously the diet works but it is such an unhealthy approach to weight loss that it is insane to try it. The diet was originally formulated in the 1970s and was reportedly popular with Elvis Presley who was beginning to have difficulty bending down to tie up his blue suede shoes.

Breatharianism


Breatharianism consists of eating: nothing. That’s right, it is called Breatharianism because you are surviving on nothing but your breath. There are some elements of esotericism in this diet and some of practitioners believe that they are sustained by energy from the sun or a “vital life force” called prana. The Breatharian Institute of America promote the diet and offer a workshop to help you get started for the low price of just $10,000, which, according to their website: “is not a misprint”. These courses are run by Wiley Brooks who previously charged up to 25 million dollars for his courses. Occasionally Wiley eats a cheeseburger and a diet coke claiming that when he’s surrounded by junk culture and junk food, consuming them adds balance. At least three people have died whilst on this “diet”. If you have tried this diet and are not dead yet, be sure to tell us about it in the comments.

Fletcherizing


“Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.” These are the words used by Horace Fletcher at the turn of the 20th century to market his new diet: Fletcherizing. In this diet, a person must chew each mouthful 32 times whilst keeping their head tilted forward. After the chewing is complete, the dieter tilts their head back, allowing the contents of their mouth to slide down the throat. Any food that did not naturally slip down, was to be spat out. In addition, Fletcher advocated chewing liquids, and said that one must not eat when angry or sad. Fletched died a millionaire at 69 – with the majority of his money having come from promoting his diet which was wildly popular.

Shangri-La Diet


For people who love to eat, the Shangri-La diet is a godsend. Basically, you can eat what you like. The principle behind this diet is that the body has a set point (the weight that it wants to sustain) and appetite is moderated by the body to ensure that you stay at your set point. The inventor of the diet, Seth Roberts, says that you can lower your set point using his method, thereby lowering appetite and eventually weight. The method? Every day you must drink 100-400 calories of extra light olive oil or sugar water in a two hour window in which you must experience no flavors (including cigarette smoke). It is the consumption of extra flavorless calories which supposedly lowers the set point. While there are some critics of the method (which earned Roberts a spot on the New York Times bestseller list), most doctors consider that the diet, while lacking scientific evidence, is benign.

Bible Diet


The Bible Diet (or Maker’s Diet) is based on the idea that certain foods are either forbidden (“unclean”) or acceptable (“clean”) to God. The main promoter of the Bible diet is Jordan S. Rubin, who claims that the diet was responsible for his recovery from Crohn’s disease at the age of 19. In 2004 the United States Food and Drug Administration ordered Rubin’s company, Garden of Life, Inc., to stop making unsubstantiated claims about eight of its products and supplements. The diet begins and ends each day with prayers of thanksgiving, healing, and petition. The individual should perform exercises of “Life Purpose” for two to five minutes before the day gets too stressful. To achieve the utmost spiritual benefits from the partial fast days, it is suggested to pray each time hunger is experienced. The diet is broken up into three phases. Phase One restricts meats such as pork, bacon, ostrich, ham, sausages, emu and imitation meat. Fish and sea foods such as fried fish, breaded fish, eel, shark, crab, clams, oyster, mussels, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and craw fish are prohibited.

Fruitarianism


Fruitarianism is a diet of nothing but fruit, though some people whose diet is not 100% fruit, consider themselves fruitarian, if their diet is 75% or more fruit. Some fruitarians believe fruitarianism was the original diet of mankind in the form of Adam and Eve based on Genesis 1:29: “And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat”. They believe that a return to an Eden-like paradise will require simple living and a holistic approach to health and diet. A fruitarian diet can cause deficiencies in calcium, protein, iron, zinc, vitamin D, most B vitamins (especially B-12), and essential fatty acids. Additionally, the Health Promotion Program at Columbia reports that food restrictions in general may lead to hunger, cravings, food obsessions, social disruptions and social isolation. Gandhi followed a fruit-only diet from time to time, but eventually gave it up due it being unsustainable.

Paleolithic Diet


This diet harkens back to the cavemen and their eating habits. It is based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. Proponents of the diet say that paleolithic men were free of diseases known in modern times and, therefore, following their diet should keep us free from sickness. Centered around commonly available modern foods, the “contemporary” Paleolithic diet consists mainly of lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts; and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils. So now, from a diet based on evolution, to a diet based on creationism.

Cabbage Soup Diet


The Cabbage soup diet is a radical weight loss diet designed around heavy consumption of a low-calorie cabbage soup over the time of seven days. The diet is actually surprisingly popular and has spawned a whole slew of similar fads. The origins of the diet are unknown but it gained popularity as a word of “faxlore” in the 1980s, because it spread virally through people sharing it via fax machines. The diet is almost universally condemned by doctors as it lacks any substantial nutrition and the weight loss it causes is mostly water-loss not fat-loss, and is, therefore, not permanent. Along with the cabbage soup recipe, the diet is usually touted as being used in hospitals to dramatically reduce weight in patients needing heart surgery; this is not true. Most people trying this diet lose energy and experience light-headedness. The most common side effect is flatulence – a lot of it.

Macrobiotic Diet


The macrobiotic diet is actually quite ancient. It involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other food stuffs such as vegetables and beans, and avoiding the use of highly processed or refined foods. This is probably the least bizarre diet on the list, but it does have one noticeable quirk: some leaders in the field of macrobiotics advocate smoking for good health, claiming that it is the non-macrobiotic foods that cause cancer, not smoking. Michio Kushi, who introduced macrobiotics to the US, had surgery on his colon in 2004. His son said: “In spite of years of his smoking, a fact well-known to many, recent x-rays of Michio’s lungs were surprisingly clean, like that of a twenty year old (remarked his physician)”.

This list is a salute to the world of the tiny, both man-made and those that nature has seen fit to create.

The World’s Smallest Snake


The Barbados Thread Snake was recently discovered in 2008. Recognized as the world’s smallest snake, the tiny reptile will only reach a maximum size of 10 cm long. (about 4 inches.), and are reported to be “as thin as spaghetti”. Due to it’s extreme tininess, females only lay one egg, which hatches out at half the size of the adult. A larger clutch of eggs would produce such small offspring that it would be near impossible for the snakelings to find sustenance.

Through the eye of a needle


The pinnacle of handmade miniatures would have to be sculptures that are smaller than the eye of a needle. The hands down master of the art currently is Willard Wigan MBE. An artist who started his career at only 5 years old when he decided to start building homes for ants, he has continued to impress the world with his micro creations, the artist is often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”. Wigan works primarily through the night, as even traffic noise from outside can destroy a piece he is working on. Using micro tools on a microscopic work field, he must control not only his pulse rate, but his breathing, as he has inhaled a few of his masterpieces, due to a poorly timed inhale.

Rice


Long considered a symbol of wealth and prosperity throughout the Asian world, rice has always held a position of high esteem and respect, not to mention being a daily staple food source around the world. It’s only natural that respect for this most humble of grains would evolve into it’s own field of art. Rice writing originated in ancient Turkey and India, and one of the oldest known examples of this art is housed to this day in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. To have a grain of rice with your name written on it is still thought to be quite a lucky charm, so many companies have made a small fortune by providing such services. Most of these tiny art pieces are suspended in small glass vials filled with mineral oil, to help magnify the writing on the minuscule grain.

Checkmate!


Guinness World Record for the smallest handmade chess set was awarded in 2006, and goes to M. Manikandan of Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, India. His incredible creation has a chess board only 24 mm square. As for the playing pieces themselves, the largest piece is 10 mm high and the smallest is half that at 5 mm. A further search for mini chess sets revealed a beautiful solid gold set for sale on E-bay that also measured 24 x 24 mm. The owner has used slightly over 6 grams of 22 carat gold for which he is seeking 100,000 rupees. Though that may sound like a king’s ransom, converted into US dollars, the amount comes down to a less staggering $2,175, or 1560 Euros.

That’s the pits


What to do with those pesky pits that we find in our everyday foods. For centuries those pits from peaches, plums, cherries and olives have been thrown away with the garbage. But for quite of few folks with the ache to create, and with an extremely steady hand, those very pits are the “core” of their calling. The inspiration for this list, Mott’s Miniature’s had quite a “large” collection of pit carvings that can be viewed at their website. The American artist Bob Shamey has been featured by Ripley’s Believe It or Not not just once, but twice, for his carvings. At the National Palace Museum in Taiwan there is an olive pit carving of a tiny boat, with working shutters and facial expressions on all eight passengers.

Matchsticks


One of the many “humble” art mediums, matchsticks have been used to create a cavalcade of various structures and masterpieces. Commonly referred to as folkart, matchstick miniatures have also been classed as another form of “prisonart”, although the creators of such hardly need to have served time behind bars. The amount of art developed in this medium is immense, with artists each having their own vision of what they would like to produce, whether it be stick carvings, match head sculptures, or homages to the engineering feats of mankind from every culture and civilization, created from minute lumber, one stick at a time.

Mini-bees


Called Quasihesma, these minutely small bees come from Cape York in Queensland. Known as the smallest species of bee, these little guys are only 2mm long. That’s approximately the size of the head of a pin. They come from the family Colletidae, and are often referred to collectively as plasterer bees, due to the method of smoothing the walls of their nest cells with secretions applied with their mouthparts; these secretions dry into a cellophane-like lining. Another distinction of this group of bees is that they are solitary bees. Although they have been known to build nest in groups, they do not manufacture hives.

Insect powered aircraft


There are ancients stone tablets from the city of Ur that observe the natural flying power of the common housefly. The ancient Egyptians mused about how the housefly’s powers may provide insight to the Pharaoh’s journey into the Afterlife. Even the great Nikola Tesla had a curiosity about insect power, as excerpted here.

“His sixteen-bug-power motor was, likewise, not an unqualified success. This was a light contrivance made of splinters forming a windmill, with a spindle and pulley attached to live June bugs. When the glued insects beat their wings, as they did desperately, the bug-power engine prepared to take off. This line of research was forever abandoned however when a young friend dropped by who fancied the taste of June bugs. Noticing a jarful standing near, he began cramming them into his mouth. The youthful inventor threw up.” Adopted from “Tesla: Man out of time”, by Margaret Cheney, 1981.

Dr. Richard Brewer is given credit with manufacturing the first prototype fly powered airplane in 1949, constructed of balsa wood and the cellophane from a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Reportedly Dr. Brewers prototype plane was delivered to the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum during the 1960′s. Insect powered aircraft have become quite a well followed hobby with many websites devoted to blueprints and instructions to construct miniature planes that utilize houseflies or flying beetles as their motors.

Smallest Bible


In 2007 nanotechnology was pushed to another extreme when Technion inscribed the entire Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible onto a space less than half the size of a grain of sugar. The team etched the 300,000 words of the Bible onto a tiny silicone surface less than .5 mm square by blasting the silicone with gallium ions.

The previous smallest, known, copy of the Bible measured 2.8 x 3.4 x 1 centimeters (1.1 x 1.3 x 0.4 inches), weighing 11.75 grams (0.4 ounces) and containing 1,514 pages, according to Guinness World Records spokeswoman Amarilis Espinoza. The tiny text, obtained by an Indian professor in November, 2001, is believed to have originated in Australia.

Nano-motors


Nanotechnology, nanorobotics, nanomachines. An ever expanding field of science and technology expected to revolutionize the world as we know it. The simplest, (though hardly simple), of nano machines are being constructed for biological study to better understand the mechanics of the cell, and all it’s natural capabilities. The hope is that humans may be able to replicate some of these functions, towards the better health of mankind in the future. Science envisions great strides in the fields of molecular biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and nanocomputers through the development of these microscopic motors. Many of these machines are as small as 1/2 the width of a human hair and others are so small several hundred would fit in the space of the period at the end of this sentence.

Seashells in the sand


Not to be confused with microscopic plankton and diatoms, these are indeed fully formed seashells on a minuscule scale. A great many gem and mineral societies world-wide have divisions devoted to the study and worship of these tiny homes that can be found in sand samples from around the world. And remember that impossibly tiny as these shells are, the original inhabitants were even smaller, as they had to fit within. There is no evidence, so far, of any species of hermit crab that may have used these microshells as a borrowed home.