Back in 2013, Kendra Jackson was in a pretty nasty car accident. The vehicle she was in was hit, hard, from behind. The force of the impact propelled Jackson's head into the dash in front of her. She recovered from her injuries and got on with her life. A few weeks after the crash, however, she came down with a serious case of the sniffles. She'd sneeze, cough and blow her nose throughout the day. In bed, the fluid running down the back of her nose from her sinuses would make her cough and keep her up at night. It had all the hallmarks of a bad cold. But bad colds don't typically last for years at a time. She saw doctors for the problem. They told her that all the stuff running out of her head was likely due to allergies.

Nope.

Seeking out a second opinion, Jackson discovered that what she thought to be snot was actually due to a cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF): her head was leaking brain fluid.

From Newsweek:

“This fluid serves the function of providing mechanical protection of the brain through cushioning or buffering, as well as playing a role in its immunologic protection,” Dr. Brad Marple, chair of otolaryngology at the University of Texas Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, told Newsweek.

“Normally, it is contained within the water-tight confines of the skull, but occasionally an area of disruption can develop between the intracranial cavity and air-filled spaces within the skull. The sinuses are examples of air-filled spaces within the skull that share a thin common wall with the intracranial cavity and serve as a common route for a CSF leak.

Do Large (Magnitude ≥8) Global Earthquakes Occur on Preferred Days of the Calender Year of Lunar Cycle? Read the rest

Pedra Que Engole means "swallowing rock," an accurate name for a small Brazilian cave accessible only via waterfall. Read the rest

Last night the GOP had another failure – this time to pass the "skinny repeal bill," which lost to a 51-49 vote. John McCain's "no" was the night's big surprise vote, with audible gasps – as well as some clapping from the Democratic side – which you can watch and listen to here. Read the rest

Namibian desert Hotrod ants have evolved to tiptoe around to avoid baking to death in the unrelenting sun. But other dangers lurk, like these terrifying real-life sarlacc pits created by antlions. Read the rest

Pro pilot steveo1kinevo makes great cockpit videos of some pretty crazy flights, like this Bahamas trip with a crosswind so wicked he had to "crab angle" the plane at about 45 degrees for the whole approach.

What's amazing is how smooth the landing is. And if you're wondering about the weird effect on the propeller from the outside mounted cam, it's an artifact of the camera's rolling shutter.

• Stressful max crosswind landing in The Bahamas (YouTube / steveo1kinevo) Read the rest

In this video, a man partially immerses a praying mantis in water, thereby forcing the hairworms possessing it to leave. That the mantis also dies, according to one commenter, is not because the videomaker left it in the water to drown alongside the infestors. [via]

The worm digested the insides of the Praying Mantis. While inside, it keeps the nervous system from collapsing, but upon existing the Mantis immediately dies. So the Mantis isn't dead yet at the start of this video, its close to being a zombie, so not really alive either.

Johanna Nordblad holds the world record for free diving under ice. This gorgeous film captures the beauty and danger. She can stay under for more than 6.5 minutes with no gear of any kind. Read the rest

This video featuring Viktoria Odintsova is probably not adhering to local occupational safety regs. If the photo below gets your palms sweating, you may want to skip the video above. Read the rest

Tree wells are a natural phenomenon in deep mountain snow. Evergreens basically act as flour sifters, causing snow around the trees to have less density than surrounding snowpack. Backcountry snowsport enthusiasts on ungroomed courses who get too close to these trees drop in (usually head-first) and can't extricate themselves. Read the rest

Fastbees.net posted video of a large fishing spider hunting bees. As long as it doesn't move too quickly, it can grab the relatively small insects and sneak off with them. But when it gets skittish: game over. [via] Read the rest

Oleg Cricket from Siberia shows off his parkour skills on a Hong Kong skyscraper. For some reason, watching these kinds of high-altitude daredevil videos make the soles of my feet ache. Does that happen to anyone else?

If you want more, here's a guy riding a unicycle and juggling on an 8-inch wide parapet of the Vidraru Dam, with a drop of 166 meters:

[via] Read the rest

According to new research, mined for horrifying news by London tabloid Metro, fish-eating spiders have come to Britain. Read the rest