Throughout PopFi’s history, we’ve discussed a lot of unusual places, both past and future, and odd creatures, but we’ve never discussed something as crazy as Socotra, an island located somewhere between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.  Due to its isolated island location and harsh climate, Socotra is home to more than 800 species of plant and animal, over a third of which are found only on the four tiny islands and little rocky outcroppings that form the archipelago.  Check out the full image gallery at Dark Roasted Blend.Here are some facts about the main island, Socotra.  The capital city, Hadiboh, has a population of 8,545 as of the 2004 census.  The island just got its first two roads in 2006.  There is no electricity in the capital city between 5 AM and 9 AM local time.  Before the airport opened in July 1999, the island was isolated from June until September during monsoon season, and now there are only weekly flights back to the island’s governing country, Yemen.As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Socotra is one of the world’s premier destinations for ecotourism, and a glimse back into Earth’s distant past, as some of the plant and animal species on the island have survived unchanged for over 20 million years.  This is one of the freakiest, most beautiful places on earth.  I’d love to visit there for a week!

Tags: Socotra Island, Socotra, weird places, nature, unusual animals, Earth, world heritage sites, UNESCO sites, rare plants, Yemen

From the outside, Emma Cahill looks like your average school girl.  She just turned 16 and attends St Mary’s Convent School in Worcester, England.  She is active in sports and has many friends, but there’s one thing different about Emma.  At 6′5, she is the tallest teenage girl in the UK.
Fortunately for Emma, her unusual […]

The New York Marathon ran this weekend.  Surprisingly, the winner was an American; in fact, Eritrea-born Meb Keflezighi is the first American citizen to win the marathon since 1982 (the year after I was born).  However, with an estimated 42,000 runners in the marathon this year, not all of them are hardcore professionals.  There are […]

It’s the world’s largest treehouse, and it is made of nothing but reclaimed, recycled, and reused materials.  God told Horace Burgess, of Crossville, Tennessee, to build a treehouse and promised that he’d never run out of materials.  Ten stories, 100 feet of height, and $12,500 in nails later, he still hasn’t ended up short of […]

In a real-life version of Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus,  two colossal beasts squared off in the Pacific Ocean near Queensland, Australia.  However, unlike the movie, this wasn’t a Mega Shark versus a Giant Octopus.  This was a Mega Shark versus a slightly smaller shark.  Like the movie, this fight to the finish was caught […]

It’s a deliciously creepy treat!  Made from your choice of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, or a “human bone” blend of white and milk chocolate, these incredible-looking chocolate skulls are full-sized and made from an actual mold of a human skull.  You can order them from the Chocolate Skulls website.  While they’re pretty expensive […]

It’s quite possibly the greasiest random food item to ever sport an image of beloved Christmas character Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Sue Church, a woman in North Carolina, discovered her pork-chop Rudolph while cooking (or while eating, at least) and rushed over to her local television station to show off her weird, delicious discover.  I […]

It started out as a normal birthmark on the back of a 6-year-old girl.  Li Xiaoyuan, like most of us, had a little mole.  Unlike most of us, Li’s mole started growing.  Well, the mole didn’t, but the hair inside the mole did, and now she’s become the “cat girl” of Fengkai, China.  Poor little […]