10 Most Strange People on Earth

1 Ngoc: three decades without sleep

Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights. "I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I'm still healthy and can farm normally like others," Ngoc said. Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4km of road to return home every day. His wife said,

"My husband used to sleep well, but these days, even liquor cannot put him down।" She said when Ngoc went to Da Nang for a medical examination, doctors gave him a clean bill of health, except a minor decline in liver function. Ngoc currently lives on his 5ha farm at the foot of a mountain busy with farming and taking care of pigs and chickens all day. His six children live at their house in Que Trung. Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to prevent theft, saying he used three months of sleepless nights to dig two large ponds to raise fish.

2 Bhagat: had his twin brother on his stomach

Sanju Bhagat's stomach was once so swollen he looked nine months pregnant and could barely breathe. iving in the city of Nagpur, India, Bhagat said he'd felt self-conscious his whole life about his big belly. But one night in June 1999, his problem erupted into something much larger than cosmetic worry. Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an operation. But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had never encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat's stomach, gallons of fluid spilled out — and then something extraordinary happened. "First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair."

At first glance, it may look as if Bhagat had given birth. Actually, Mehta had removed the mutated body of Bhagat's twin brother from his stomach. Bhagat, they discovered, had one of the world's most bizarre medical conditions — fetus in fetu. It is an extremely rare abnormality that occurs when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. The trapped fetus can survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical cordlike structure that leaches its twin's blood supply until it grows so large that it starts to harm the host, at which point doctors usually intervene.

3 Yokoi: spent 28 years hidden after WWII

Shoichi Yokoi was a soldier, conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941 and sent to Guam shortly thereafter. In 1944, as American forces reconquered the island, Yokoi went into hiding.

On January 24, 1972, Yokoi was discovered in a remote section of Guam by two of the island's inhabitants. For 28 years he had been hiding in an underground jungle cave, fearing to come out of hiding even after finding leaflets declaring that World War II had ended. "It is with much embarrassment that I have returned alive," he said upon his return to Japan, carrying his rusted rifle at his side.

4 Mehran: lives at the Airport since 1988

Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran (yes, including the comma), is an Iranian refugee who has been living in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport since August 8, 1988. After he was later imprisoned, tortured and expelled from his country, he applied for asylum in many European countries without luck.

When he decided to go to the United Kingdom, he claimed that he was mugged, and his shoulder bag stolen while waiting at the RER platform to go to Charles de Gaulle Airport to take a flight to Heathrow. Nasseri managed to board the plane, but when he arrived at Heathrow without the necessary documentation, Heathrow officials sent him back to Charles de Gaulle. Nasseri was unable to prove his identity or his refugee status to the French officials and so he was moved to the Zone d'attente (waiting zone), a holding area for travellers without papers.

Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration behind the 2004 movie The Terminal. Unlike Tom Hanks' character in the movie, and since at least 1994, Nasseri does not live in the duty-free transit area but simply in the departure hall, in the circular boutiques and restaurants passage on the lowest floor. He can at least theoretically leave the terminal at any moment, although, since everyone knows him, his departure might not remain unnoticed. He does not seem to speak with anyone normally. With his cart and bags, he almost looks like a traveler, so people either do not notice him or ignore him as if he were a homeless person.

5 Mitsuo: a japanese Jesus Christ

Matayoshi Mitsuo is an eccentric Japanese politician with the conviction that he is the God and Christ.According to his program, he will do the Last Judgement as the Christ but the way to do this is totally within the current political system and its legitimacy. His first step as the Savior is to be appointed the prime minister of Japan. Then he will reform Japanese society and then the United Nations should offer him the honor of its General Secretary. Then Matayoshi Jesus will reign over the whole world with two legitimate authorities, not only religious but also political.
He has presented himself in many elections but he has not won yet. He has become well-known for his eccentric campaigns where he urges opponents to commit suicide by hara-kiri.

6 Bihari: most officially dead person

Lal Bihari (born 1961) is a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, India who was officially dead from 1976 to 1994. He founded Mritak Sangh or the Association of the Dead in Uttar Pradesh, India. He fought Indian government bureaucracy for 18 years to prove that he is alive.

When Lal Bihari tried to apply for a bank loan in 1976, he found out that he was officially dead. His uncle had bribed a government official to register him as dead so he would get the ownership of Bihari's land.

Bihari discovered at least 100 other people in a similar situation, being officially dead. He formed Mritak Sangh in the Azamgarh district. He and many other members were in danger of being killed by those who had appropriated their property. Nowadays the association has over 20,000 members all over India. By 2004 they had managed to declare four of their members alive. In 2004 he ran for a seat in the parliament of Lal Ganj.

7 Icke: our salvation from Reptilian Humanoids

David Icke, is a former professional football player, BBC television sports presenter, and British Green Party national spokesperson. Since 1990, he has been what he calls a "full-time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world.": reptilians.

He dresses only in turquoise and sustains that the world was ruled by a secret group called "The Elite": a race of reptilian humanoids, known in ancient times as the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that many prominent people are descended from them, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and Kris Kristofferson. He believes that descendants of the reptiles engage in child molestation and Satanism. He is the author of 15 books explaining his views. After a five-hour speech to students, he received a standing ovation at the University of Toronto in 1999.

8 Bawden: the self-elected Pope Michael I, from Kansas

David Allen Bawden (born 1959), is an American citizen who was elected "Pope Michael I" by a group of six Conclavist or post-Sedevacantist Catholics, arguing that the elections of the last 6 popes were invalid because they are all modernists.

Sedevacantists argue that if the College of Cardinals will not or cannot elect a valid pope, ordinary Catholics can do so, under the principle of "Epikeia" (Equity). Acting on the basis of this, David Bawden was elected Pope by six people on 1990 (including himself and his parents). He is still on the job to this day.

9 Nakamatsu: photographed and analyzed every meal for 34 years

Yoshiro Nakamatsu (born June 26, 1928), a.k.a. Dr. NakaMats, is the Japanese inventor claiming to hold the world record for number of inventions with over 3,000, including the floppy disk and "PyonPyon" spring shoes. He has being photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting). The goal of Nakamatsu is to live over 140 years old.

10 Lotito: mister eat-it-all

Michel Lotito (born June 15, 1950) is a French entertainer. Lotito, who was born in Grenoble, is famous as the consumer of undigestables, and is known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mister Eat-it-all). Lotito's performances are the consumption of metal, glass, rubber and so on in items such as bicycles, televisions, a Cessna 150, and smaller items which are disassembled, cut-up and swallowed. The aircraft took roughly two years to be 'eaten' from 1978 to 1980. He began eating unusual material while a child and has been performing publicly since 1966.

Lotito does not often suffer from ill-effects due to his diet, even after the consumption of materials usually considered poisonous. When performing he consumes around a kilogram of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the 'meal'. He apparently possesses a stomach and intestine with walls of twice the expected thickness, and his digestive acids are, allegedly, unusually powerful, allowing him to digest a certain portion of his metallic meals.

Awesome Lightning Vs Aeroplanes

Lightning striking any object is enough to send shivers down your spine, but when the object is an aeroplane, it’s an event that can shake us to our very bones. Every time a plane plummets from the sky, we are reminded of how precarious flying is for us humans, and the force of lightning seems to highlight how much the heavens’ odds seem stacked against us. Yet exactly what danger does it present to planes?

In the wake of the recent Air France Airbus AF447 disaster – which crashed into the Atlantic carrying 228 people, and whose cause at the time of writing remains unclear – let’s consider the phenomenon of lightning hitting planes, and weigh up how much of a risk it poses to our activities in the air.

Indian village children taught to be snake charmers at the age two

It’s the one classroom where everyone’s paying attention at the back.

Being a few feet away from a poisonous snake has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind.

Six-year-old Rekha Bae – like all children in the 600-strong nomadic Vadi tribe in western India – will have first been introduced to cobras at the age of two.

All Vadi children complete a ten-year initiation ritual that culminates in the boys becoming fully-fledged performing snake charmers.

Divided between the sexes, the act of snake charming with traditional flute is the role of the men, while the Vadi women care for the snakes and handle them when their husbands or brothers are not around.

'The training begins at two, the children then are then taught the ancient ways of snake charming until they are ready to take up their roles in our community,' said chief snake charmer Babanath Mithunath Madari, 60.

'At twelve the children will know everything that they can know about snakes.

'They are then ready to continue the traditions of the Vadi tribe which can be stretched back over one thousands years to India's great Raja's (kings).'

The nomadic Vadi tribe, which lives in the south of the Indian state of Gujarat take great pride in their association with the areas deadly snakes.

Never staying in one place for more than six months, the Vadi have an almost mythical attachment to snakes and especially cobras.

'At night, as we sit around our huts in the open desert and explain to the pact that our descendants made with Naga, the snake god,' Madari said.
Enlarge Babanath Mithunat Madari

Master charmer: Babanath Mithunat Madari shows off the tricks of his trade

'We explain to the children how we only take a snake away from its natural habitat for a maximum of seven months.

'Any more is disrespectful to the snake and especially after the charmer and snake have worked together so closely and so intimately.

'Both are trusting their lives to the other one.'

The cobras are fed a herbal mixture which Madari says renders the snake's deadly poison useless.

'We do not cut the fangs off the snakes as that would be cruel,' the tribal chief said.

'We do not harm the them because they are like children to us.

'In all my years with snakes, from my childhood to now, I have only heard of one man to have been bitten.

'This was because he kept the snake longer than seven months.'

Since snake charming was made illegal in 1991, the Vadi have come under huge pressure from the state and national governments of India.

'The police routinely search us strip us of our snakes whenever we cross their paths,' Madari said.

'We live 25km away from the town of Rajkot at the moment, and every time we try to enter the village for food or even bottle of water, the villagers chase us away.

'This upsets me greatly because this village is the birthplace of the father of our nation Gandhi.

'Would he stop us from continuing our traditions? The rich of India have no time for the poor.'

Two-foot the world's smallest girl

Awesome Aurora Seen from Space

Stunned onlookers watch as mysterious orange UFOs swoop across Britain's skies

Darting silently in formation, the mysterious glowing orbs light up the night sky.

Some say these orange lights even weave in between each other with the precision of a synchronised flying team from some far corner of the universe.

Clusters of more than 100 have been spotted across Britain and even Holland, leaving onlookers with an eerie sense that, for all the mystifying beauty of the strange objects, they may have just witnessed an armada of invading UFOs.

The most recent sighting was on Sunday when they were seen in two locations, Merseyside and Lincoln. Days earlier a similar phenomenon was spotted over Cambridgeshire, where one witness claims each was as big as a house.

The sightings have prompted defence officials to check their logs and sent UFO fans into orbits of excitement. Engineer Paul Slight, 54, took photos on his mobile phone of the strange objects hovering over Lincoln at 10.30pm while he was cycling home after a day out with friends.

'There were 26 of them at first, dodging and darting in between each other like they were playing a game,' he said.


'After that, seven more arrived and weaved through the crowd of lights like strange kinds of aircraft. After five minutes of moving around, they hung in the air for a second then shot off into the sky and disappeared.'

A spokesman for nearby RAF Cranwell said the base was closed at the weekend so the lights could not be attributed to its aircraft. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence is examining claims that the Merseyside lights were connected to an exercise involving HMS Daring, docked in Liverpool.

An ex-military source claimed the lights were dropped by jets to simulate the path of a missile in order to test the warship's radar systems.

In Cambridgeshire, banker Scott Boswell, 37, said he saw more than 100 lights flying less than two miles above his home in Hinchingbrooke. The former soldier and experienced pilot said: 'I know they weren't aircraft – they were silent.

'And I was a soldier for a decade so I could immediately rule out flares or weather balloons. I really have no idea what they were.'

On the same night, May 27, at around 11.30pm guesthouse owner Auberon Hedgecoe, 40, of nearby Huntingdon, also saw the lights. 'There was no sound,' he said.

'They were travelling 15 at a time and every six minutes more seemed to be coming over the horizon. They were not planes. They were not balloons.

Each one was the size of a building.' Last night it emerged a woman has contacted her local newspaper to claim that the lights over Lincoln were Chinese lanterns – mini hot air balloons – set off at her wedding reception.

'They looked amazing, hope you all enjoyed the spectacle,' she said.

Nick Pope, the former head of the MoD's UFO Project, supported the Chinese lantern theory.

'I'm not disparaging the whole UFO phenomenon, but I'd say 99 per cent of UFO reports involving orange lights in the sky these days are attributable to these lanterns.'

Awesome Yin and Yang crop Art

Is this an amazing work of art, or of something from science-fiction?

The neat, intricate pattern does pose the question - how on earth was it made?

The huge crop circle sculpted in a sea of barley seems to be based on the Yin and Yang theme, and appeared near an ancient British burial mound beneath Windmill Hill near Devizes, Wiltshire on 25 May.

The ancient area of Wiltshire close to Silbury Hill, Windmill Hill and the Sanctuary is a hot spot for crop circles.

At around 350ft in length, it is hard to explain its creation - indeed, the mystery of how crop circles are made has never been solved.

Cynics have claimed the patterns are the work of computer scientists using teams of volunteers - but crop circle enthusiasts argue there are not enough hours of darkness in summer to allow them to be completed by humans.

Wiltshire is a hot spot for these field-based phenomenons - its green and golden fields have spawned an array of patterns in the past that have fascinated those who seek them out.

Enthusiasts and experienced crop pattern hunters have often spotted formations appearing close to these sacred sites.


The crop circle season - from April to harvesting in September - is believed to be worth millions of pounds to the local economy.

This example is an elaborate aul formation consisting of a centre circle with two large and two small arcs extended and connected by circles of decreasing size.

Windmill Hill is thought be date back to the Early Neolithic period some 5,000 years ago, constructed as a causeway enclosure, and it is thought the camp housed a large farming community during a relatively peaceful and prosperous time before the Romans invaded Britain - evidence of their presence is provided by a villa on the western slopes of the mound.

Top 10 New Species

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists - scientists responsible for species exploration and classification - today announce the top 10 new species described in 2008.
On the list are a pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee and bacteria that live in hairspray. The top 10 new species also include the very tiny (a snake just a slither longer than 4 inches or 104 millimeters), the very long (an insect from Malaysia with an overall length of 22.3 inches or 56.7 centimeters) the very old (a fossilized specimen of the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate) and the very twisted (a snail whose shell twists around four axes). Rounding out this year’s list are a palm that flowers itself to death, a ghost slug from Wales and a deep blue damselfish.

The taxonomists also are issuing an SOS - State of Observed Species - report card on human knowledge of Earth’s species. In it, they report that 18,516 species new to science were discovered and described in 2007. The SOS report was compiled by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, International Plant Names Index, Zoological Record published by Thomson Reuters, and the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Among this year’s top 10 picks is a tiny seahorse - Hippocampus satomiae - with a standard length of 0.54 inches (13.8 millimeters) and an approximate height of 0.45 inches (11.5 millimeters). This pygmy species was found near Derawan Island off Kalimantan, Indonesia. The name - satomiae - is “in honour of Miss Satomi Onishi, the dive guide who collected the type specimens.” (Pictured above)

Suicide Palm

From the plant kingdom is a gigantic new species and genus of palm - Tahina spectablilis - with fewer than 100 individuals found only in a small area of northwestern Madagascar. This plant flowers itself to death, producing a huge, spectacular terminal inflorescence with countless flowers. After fruiting, the palm dies and collapses. Soon after the original publication of the species description, seeds were disseminated throughout the palm grower community, to raise money for its conservation by the local villagers. It has since become a highly prized ornamental.

Coffea Charrieriana

Also on the top 10 list is caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon. Coffea charrieriana is the first record of a caffeine-free species from Central Africa. The plant is named for Professor André Charrier, “who managed coffee breeding research and collecting missions at IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) during the last 30 years of the 20th century.”

Surprisinigly, this new species of extremophile bacteria was discovered in hairspray

And, in the category of “spray on new species” is an extremophile bacteria that was discovered in hairspray by Japanese scientists. The species - Microbacterium hatanonis - was named in honor of Kazunori Hatano, “for his contribution to the understanding of the genus Microbacterium.”

This is the world’s longest insect with a body length of 35.6cm (14 inches) and a overall length of 56.7 cm (22.3 inches).

Phobaeticus chani made the list as the world’s longest insect with a body length of 14 inches (36.6 centimeters) and overall length of 22.3 inches (56.7 centimeters). The insect, which resembles a stick, was found in Borneo, Malaysia.

Thread Snake

The Barbados Threadsnake - Leptotyphlops carlae - measuring 4.1 inches (104 millimeters) is believed to be the world’s smallest snake. It was discovered in St. Joseph Parish, Barbados.

Ghost Slug

The ghost slug - Selenochlamys ysbryda - was a surprising find in the well-collected and densely populated area of Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

Opisthostoma vermiculum

A snail - Opisthostoma vermiculum - found in Malaysia, represents a unique morphological evolution, with a shell that twists around four axes. It is endemic to a unique limestone hill habitat in Malaysia.

The other two species on the top 10 list are fish - one found in deep-reef habitat off the coast of Ngemelis Island, Palau, and the other a fossilized specimen of the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate.

Deep Blue Chromis

Chromis abyssus - a beautiful species of damselfish made it to the top 10 representing the first taxonomic act of 2008 and the first act registered in the newly launched taxonomic database Zoobank. As a result, in the first month following its original description, it was the most downloaded article in Zootaxa’s history and was among the top 10 downloaded articles for 11 months in 2008. The discovery also highlights how little is known about deep-reef biodiversity.

Mother Fish

Also on the top 10 list is a fossilized specimen - Materpiscis attenboroughi - the oldent known vertebrate to be viviparous (live bearing). The specimen, an extremely rare find from Western Australia, shows a mother fish giving birth approximately 380 million years ago. The holotype specimen has been nicknamed “Josie” by the discoverer, John Long, in honor of his mother.

“The international committee of taxon experts who made the selection of the top 10 from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2008 is helping draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens in a fun-filled way,” says Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University.

“Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life,” says Wheeler. “It is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet.”

According to Wheeler, a new generation of tools are coming online that will vastly accelerate the rate at which we are able to discover and describe species.

“Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted,” says Wheeler, who also is ASU vice president, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and a professor in the School of Life Sciences.

The annual top 10 new species announcement and issuance of the SOS report commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. The 300th anniversary of his birth on May 23 was celebrated worldwide in 2007. Last year marked the 250th anniversary of the beginning of animal naming.

There are an estimated 1.8 million species that have been described since Linnaeus initiated the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century. Scientists estimate there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million.

The SOS report card summarizes the number of major pspecies.asu.edulant and animal species newly described for the most recent year of complete data. The majority of the 18,516 species described (named) in 2007 were invertebrate animals (75.6 percent), vascular plants (11.1 percent) and vertebrates (6.7 percent). This year’s SOS report also includes data for prokaryotes (bacteria and Archaea) in addition to protists.

The State of Observed Species report and list of top 10 new species issued annually by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration is part of its public awareness campaign to shine attention on biodiversity and the field of taxonomy. Last year’s list and report are online at species.asu.edu.

An international committee of experts, chaired by Janine N. Caira of the University of Connecticut, selected the top 10 new species for this year’s list. Nominations were invited through the species.asu.edu Web site and also generated by institute staff and committee members.

The Caira committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria, from unique attributes or surprising facts about the species to peculiar names, Wheeler notes.

Vodafone speeds up cost-cutting plan despite sales boost

Vodafone unveiled annual operating profits of £11.8billion today but warned it did not expect to better the figure in the current financial year.

The mobile phone giant said the 16.7 per cent improvement in adjusted operating profits for the year to March 31 reflected 'robust' trading in Africa and India, offsetting a weaker performance in its more mature European markets.

The Newbury-based company said economic uncertainty and the threat of rising unemployment in Europe meant it expected operating profits for the 2009/10 year to be in the range of £11billion and £11.8billion.


Vodafone said: 'In Europe and central Europe, recent significant declines in GDP and continued competitive intensity will make operating conditions challenging in the 2010 financial year.'

Revenues in Europe increased by 13.6 per cent, but stripping out favourable exchange rates the figure was down by 2.1 per cent on a year earlier. This reflected deteriorating trends in Spain and Greece, while in the UK service revenues fell by 1.1 per cent due to increased competition and challenging economic conditions.

A 15.3 per cent fall in underlying earnings in the UK was distorted by a £30million VAT refund in the previous year, but the company noted that the cost of retaining customers had increased as a higher proportion of its customer base received upgrades following the expiration of 18-month contracts.

Vodafone said write-downs on the value of its businesses in Spain and Turkey - £3.4billion and £2.25billion respectively - meant bottom-line profits for the group fell 53.5 per cent to £4.19billion in the financial year.

It added that its drive to cut costs by £1billion by 2011 was ahead of plan, with 65 per cent of the programme now due to be achieved in this financial year.

Vodafone said the benefits of the project were also seen in the 2009 year, with operating expenses in Europe remaining 'broadly flat'.

Shares in the group opened 1 per cent higher today, helped by the company's decision to increase its dividend payment to shareholders by 3.5 per cent to 7.77p a share.

The Hawaiian spider that look like smiling face

Scientifically, this tiny arachnid goes by the name of Theridion grallator – but it takes little imagination to see how it got its more popular name: the happy-face spider.

Found only in rainforests in the Hawaiian islands, the spiders have a vast range of patterns and colours on their abdomens – yet all come from the same species.

The amazing diversity is due to genetic variations, although the patterns may also change depending on diet.
The patterns may have developed as a way of confusing predators. The moment it takes an aggressor to work out whether the spider is prey or not provides a vital chance of escape.

However, the species, which was discovered in 1973, is now under threat from the introduction of non-native animals to the islands.

The most common form – or ‘morph’ – is plain yellow and has no smile. But other variations are plentiful – the ‘red front’ morph pictured here with a cluster of her eggs is the second-most common.
The spiders are 5mm (less than a quarter of an inch) long and live alone on the underside of leaves – except during their mating season and for the first 40 to 100 days of spiderlings’ lives, when they are still too young to fend for themselves.

The happy-face spiders feature in the new BBC2 documentary series South Pacific, which starts at 8.30pm tonight.

Results Of First Weird Facial Transplant In U.S.

Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a ghastly hole where the middle of Connie Culp’s face had been. Five months ago, she received a new face from a dead woman.

Ms. Culp stepped forward on Tuesday to show the results of the nation’s first face transplant. Her new look was far from the puckered, noseless sight that had made children run away in horror.

Ms. Culp’s expressions are still a bit wooden, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste food again. Her speech is at times difficult to understand. Her face is bloated and squarish, and her skin droops in folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating new muscles. But she had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible.

“I guess I’m the one you came to see today,” Ms. Culp, 46, said at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. But, she said, “I think it’s more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person’s face.”

Until Tuesday, Ms. Culp’s identity and how she came to be disfigured were a secret.

Ms. Culp’s husband, Thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He went to prison for seven years. She was left clinging to life.

The blast shattered her nose and cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. Hundreds of fragments of shotgun pellet and bone splinters were embedded in her face. She needed a tube in her windpipe to breathe. Only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left. She endured 30 operations to try to fix her face.

Ms. Culp said she wanted to help foster acceptance of those who have suffered burns and other disfiguring injuries.

“When somebody has a disfigurement and don’t look as pretty as you do, don’t judge them because you never know what happened to them,” she said. “Don’t judge people who don’t look the same as you do. Because you never know. One day it might be all taken away.”