FACTS!!

10 Bam! Pow! Facts About Robin

2016-02-16T23:04:00.004+05:30

While Batman is the one grabbing the headlines, he has had two steadfast allies for over seven decades: angst and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Robin, in turn, has enough surprises about his character to fill a bat cave.

Featured photo credit: DC

10The Second Robin Began As A Carbon Copy Of The First

Photo credit: DC

When DC used its “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline to compress its confusing jumble of multiple dimensions, it got a chance to reinvigorate older stories that were lacking in originality. One of these stories was the origin of the second Robin, Jason Todd.
The first Robin, Dick Grayson, was a circus acrobat who became an orphan when his parents died using equipment damaged by a mobster. Before “Crisis,” Jason Todd was also a circus acrobat whose parents are killed, albeit by Killer Croc. As with Grayson before him, Bruce Wayne ends up taking the orphaned boy as his ward.
After “Crisis,” Batman meets Jason Todd as an audacious orphan on the streets trying to steal tires from the Batmobile. He places Todd in a school for troubled kids, but when the young man helps expose the school as a front for crime, Batman recruits him as a new crime fighter.

9One Robin Is Actually Batman’s Son

Photo credit: DC

The different Robins have had different relationships with Batman over the years. They have been wards and adopted children, but only one of them has the distinction of being Batman’s biological son.
Damian was the product of a sexual encounter between Batman and Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Batman nemesis Ra’s Al Ghul. While she remembers it as a romantic encounter in the desert (a callback to an old 1987 story named Son of the Demon), Batman remembers being drugged and raped by Talia. Either way, the bat-seed is strong, and with Wayne’s DNA—along with a high-tech lab and a team of scientists—she produces Damian Wayne.
Damian was noticeably rough around the edges by the time he actually met Batman. He had the fighting abilities and deductive acumen provided by Talia’s League of Assassins but lacked the morality instilled by role models like Thomas and Martha Wayne and Alfred. However, Batman helps to redeem the sarcastic sociopath into a hero who helps to save both Gotham and the world.

8Robin Once Brought Back A Zombie Batman

Photo credit: DC

On a long enough timeline, almost all heroes will go through an experience of death and rebirth. Back in the ’90s, Superman died fighting Doomsday, while Batman only had his back broken by Bane. A decade and a half later, though, Batman has a seemingly more fatal experience when he tries to kill Darkseid and is fried by the dark god’s eyebeams. All that remains is a crispy skeleton. Assuming Batman to be dead, Dick Grayson takes up the mantle of the Bat.
Afterward, Grayson comes up with an idea. Batman’s dead, but they regularly fight Ra’s Al Ghul, who dies and comes back to life through mystical chambers called Lazarus pits. Why not throw the Batman skeleton in there and see what happens?
In a world of comic book logic, this is an almost perfect plan. Unfortunately, Darkseid was using his own comic book logic. He zapped Batman with a beam intended to send him through time and ultimately turn him into a universe-killing bullet. The skeleton is actually the remains of some damaged Batman clones Darkseid had lying around.
The Lazarus pit brings back a mindless zombie that tries to kill both Damian Wayne and Alfred. Not exactly the Boy Wonder’s best moment.

7He Is Sometimes A She

Photo credit: DC

The four Robins of the New 52 DC Comics continuity (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne) have all been men. However, outside of that continuity, there have been female Robins.
The most famous of these would be Carrie Kelley, the young woman who becomes Robin to help the aging Dark Knight in Frank Miller’s legendary Dark Knight Returns comic. In the less critically beloved follow-up The Dark Knight Strikes Back, Kelley has apparently moved on to other role models and calls herself “Catgirl.”
In the pre–New 52 continuity, a woman named Stephanie Brown served first as the heroic Spoiler, helping Batman and Robin before taking up Robin’s mantle after Tim Drake temporarily quit. Finally, early signs indicate that the first Robin in the consolidated Justice League universe of DC’s films may be a woman, ushering in a new era for girls into the former fraternity of boy Robins.

6The Center Of The First Batman Scandal

Photo credit: DC

Jokes about Batman and Robin secretly being gay lovers have been around for six decades. They largely started with Dr. Frederic Wertham’s 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent. The book cited Robin’s appearance (the bottom half of the original Robin outfit was basically green underwear). It further cited the living arrangement of Bruce Wayne and “ward” Dick Grayson—two male dudes living happily together—which, to a bigot in the ’40s and ’50s, was one of the scariest sights imaginable.
The age discrepancy between the characters also contributed to his fears. Werthham believed that Batman comics encouraged older men (particularly those with money) to cruise for adolescent lovers. Ironically, these regressive attitudes toward homosexuality inadvertently helped make Batman more progressive in another way. The first Batwoman was introduced as a love interest for Batman, and the first Batgirl as a love interest for Robin, paving the way for some later female icons of DC comics.

5Robin Came Back To Life As A Killer Vigilante

Photo credit: DC

The death of Jason Todd’s Robin was a traumatic moment for Batman, and he carried that guilt for many years. During the memorable “Hush” storyline, Batman’s writers teased the return of Todd’s character. However, it turned out to be only one of Clayface’s disguises, designed to disorient Batman.
Later, however, via the magic of reality-warping punches from an evil Superman, Jason did return. He came back with a very specific agenda: murderous justice for the criminals of Gotham City. Jason used Batman’s training and mixed it with a newfound willingness to kill criminals instead of simply imprisoning them. He fueled his rampage with rage over Batman sparing the Joker rather than avenging Jason’s original death.
Jason’s identity since his return has been in flux. At times, he seems an irredeemable villain willing to kill innocent lives. In more recent comics he is the antihero leader of a super team known as “The Outsiders.” The one constant is that his mask is a Red Hood, an homage to one of Joker’s possible earlier identities and a constant reminder of his own original death at the Joker’s hands.

4He Nearly Kills Green Lantern

Photo credit: DC

For years, there was one name synonymous with Batman’s renewed popularity, and that was Frank Miller. Before he penned the gritty Elseworlds tale The Dark Knight Returns—about an aging Bruce Wayne leaving retirement to save his city—many people still associated Batman with the campy Adam West TV show. Miller’s tale put Batman back on the pop culture map as a gritty, violent noir hero with a potent psychological edge.
So when DC Comics announced that Miller would be penning All-Star Batman and Robin—the counterpart to the wildly successful All-Star Superman—fans were excited . . . until they read it, that is. The new comics were full of bizarre logic and lines such as, “Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I’m the goddamn Batman.”
Into this universe, Miller introduces a meeting between Batman, Robin, and Green Lantern at a pre-arranged location. Batman has painted everything in the room yellow, including himself and Robin. Yellow is Green Lantern’s weakness, which helps Robin steal his power ring and give him a flying triple kick, crushing his windpipe.
Thanks to some quick combat surgery, Batman and Robin save the man they almost murdered, but it’s still weird to think a superhero with one of the most powerful weapons in the universe was nearly killed by a 12-year-old in short shorts.

3He Protects Gotham From Its Own Apocalypse

Photo credit: DC

With comics possessing so many alternate universes and tales of what might have happened differently, they offer many glimpses of characters’ futures—futures that may or may not come to pass due to changes in writing teams, editorial decisions, and so on. One of the weirdest possible futures presented in the comics for former Robin Damian Wayne is that he fails to save his father and becomes the Batman of a much grittier and dystopian future.
This future overlaps the world of the old Batman Beyond cartoon in many ways, with Damian often at odds with Commissioner Barbara Gordon and even saving the life of Batman Beyond character Terry McGinnis. Damian’s Batman has supernatural healing abilities and is implied by the comic to have made a deal with the actual devil. With this ability and his trademark ruthlessness, the former Robin saves the entire city from its own specialized apocalypse: a plague of Joker gas.

2He Romances Aliens

Photo credit: DC

When it comes to love interests for Robin, many people primarily think of Batgirl. Or, like Dr. Wertham, they may think of Bruce Wayne. However, one interesting romance for two of the Robins is the alien-turned–Teen Titan Starfire.
The romance starts when she decides to learn English through the most direct means: kissing Robin right on his mouth. Their relationship is solid as he transitions from being Robin to becoming Nightwing, but it falls apart after she is forced to make a political marriage to help keep the peace on an alien planet. They reconcile in time for the former Boy Wonder to propose, but a wacky intervention from the villain Trigon keeps them from being wed, and the relationship finally ends.
More bizarre is her characterization in the New 52 universe. Now, she’s a sexed-up alien who seduces seemingly every man she encounters, including Red Hood Jason Todd. She’s also sleeping with Roy Harper, meaning that she has the unique distinction of sex with two Robins, along with possibly the quickest record of any hero managing to have sex with literally the entire rest of their team.

1The Robin Turnover Rate Is Insane

Photo credit: DC

For years, the idea of disposable sidekicks for Batman has been a running joke. Frank Miller probably didn’t help, as he revealed in The Dark Knight Returns that Batman deliberately used a bright yellow icon on his suit to encourage villains to shoot at his most well-defended spot. This makes a lot of sense for a man dressed like a giant Bat, but it has some disturbing implications for dressing his sidekicks in that same bullet-attracting shade of yellow.
However, more than potential death has made the Robin turnover rate insane. Instead, that force is DC Comics.
DC’s New 52 changes were, in part, an attempt to bring in newer, younger readers by compressing the timelines of these heroes’ stories and making them younger. Thus, instead of the usual 10–15 years of fighting crime under their utility belts, most of the Justice League members have only been fighting crime for about five years. Thanks to the popularity of both the comic and his A-list writers, almost all of Batman’s major storylines have been maintained. However, this leads to some logistics problems: Batman has taken in, trained, and lost four Robins in a span of five years. During this time, he was also still lost for a year in thanks to Darkseid, and also had his back broken by Bane.
Depending on readers’ tastes, this either makes less sense than ever (condensing 70 years of Robin into five years of continuity) or is more realistic than ever. How long can a teen boy jump in front of gun-wielding thugs wearing bright colors, all while working for an ultra-violent control freak, and not either get murdered or quit in frustration?

10 Weird Animal Sex Habits

2016-02-16T22:56:00.003+05:30

Animals have sex. And as diverse as the animal kingdom is, their sexual habits are bound to reflect just how different they truly are from one another. You have to imagine a furry mammal with opposable thumbs would reproduce by a means vastly different from an ungrippable cephalopod. And what one might call a “pleasure of the the flesh,” another might literally call a pain in the neck. Here are ten of the weirdest sexual behaviors–at least according to us humans anyway–that can be found right here in the animal kingdom.

Bonobo

Man may truly have its closest common ancestor in this ape, as it thinks of nothing but sex. After all, everything it does is draped in a hyper-sexual overcoat: they use sex to greet each other, resolve conflict (i.e make-up sex), and as bargaining chips to trade for food. They engage sexually in many of the ways us humans do (e.g. mutual masturbation, oral sex, French kissing) and some we do not (sometimes they fence with their penises, like phallic swashbucklers). And as a result of this sexually-saturated kind of culture, they are an incredibly peaceful species, although they may enjoy the occasional cock spar.

Frigatebird

This bird is a romantic at heart. And throat. Just take a look at their mating call: they inflate their throats into a bright red, heart-shaped balloon, like some kind of self-contained Hallmark greeting. Meanwhile, the female seeks out the biggest and brightest balloon, the owner of which earns her. And then while the two go at it, the male will shield her eyes with his wings so she won’t be tempted to run off with some better balloon-owner. This sort of jealousy and and competitiveness is incredibly human-like, only instead of balloons, it’s expensive cars, spiky hair and spray-tans.

Honey Bee

Sex is not pleasant for the honey bee. In fact, it is a veritable Kamikaze mission; when the virgin queen bee is sexually mature (after having been fed a kind of nutritious goo by her servants) she will hand-pick a dozen or so bees from the hundreds to serve as her suitor. And here’s where it gets unpleasant: while mating, the male’s genitals will explode inside of her, securing his paternity, himself literally lodged inside of her, as he is effectively killed in the process. The term “getting lucky” holds no meaning here.

Straw Itch Mite

These miniature arachnids are sexual barbarians, ultimately depraved beings. At least they would be if they were human. As they are, their iniquities are too microscopic to be consequential; after the males are born–and after they’ve stung and sucked the bodily fluids out of their mothers–they are already sexually mature… and DTF. Anything they see basically (which includes their newborn sisters). Mites have no concept of incest, but if they were human, [insert joke about the Southern U.S. here].

Pandas

Panda porn exists. And it is often seminal to a panda couple’s sex life, and their species as a whole. As pandas are endangered, their procreation in captivity is essential for their species to repopulate. And as they often show little interest in sex without any kind of prior stimulation, panda porn was necessarily implemented in a research facility in China, which has shown great success. Which begs the question: are there also panda pizza boys and repairmen?

Hyena

A male hyena having sex with a female hyena is a bit like putting a gun in a perfectly-formed holster; the females are equipped with a sort of “anti-penis” that can erect at will–which is actually just an enlarged clitoris. The task of the male is then to sort of occupy this outer-penis. And then out of this penis, the female eventually gives birth. Ouch! Weird! Gross! But true.

Red-Sided Garter Snake

These snakes have what Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would call “Bunga Bunga Parties.” They indeed involve a disproportionate number of males literally piling upon a single female in a pheromone-soaked snake pit. The pheromones released by the female snake are actually what draw the snakes, each armed with a dual-penis which clamors to secure the female. More curious still, there are transgender snakes who also release pheromones, claiming a pile of snakes for themselves. This is attributed to a possible desire for body heat and protection.

Dolphin

The male dolphin is one randy bastard. It’ll essentially hump-back anything it can get its fins on, including inanimate objects and sea turtles. Furthermore, the dolphin’s swivelly penis is actually capable of gripping things, making it a sort of exploratory apparatus. It can be said, then, with absolute certainty that a dolphin is truly guided by its penis. Although, they make terrible lovers (it only takes 12 seconds for them to release).

Clownfish

The clownfish can switch genders readily. And that is without invasive surgery; here’s why: there are three ranks of clownfish, ranked according to size from largest to smallest–the female, the breeding male, and the non-breeding male. When the female dies or is captured, the breeding male up and switches sex, as the non-breeding males are promoted to the rank of breeding male. So perhaps we can assume the clownfish is named such because, like a clown, it too sometimes wears the makeup in the relationship.

Snail

Do not get on a snail’s bad side (or its good side for that matter), it is armed and dangerous. The weapon: a sharp-tipped sperm dart (which is deployed from the backs of their eyes, where they keep their genitals). Snails are in fact hermaphrodites who don’t auto-impregnate. Instead they seek a sexual partner–also armed with this sort of dart-gun–and engage in dangerous eye sex as if it were some sort of shoot-out, dodging bullets and also seeking to fill the other’s uterus with a calcified, mucous-covered spike. For those who find the missionary position underwhelming, at least there’s no risk of losing an eye in the process.

10 Birds You Really Ought To Avoid

2016-02-16T22:54:00.002+05:30

Birds are often associated with a sense of peacefulness; they are the first thing you hear on a sunny day when you wake up in the morning, or when you go for a pleasant stroll through the park. But they can also be cruel, hellbent bastards, leaving a careless path of death and destruction in their wake. While they may be capable of all kinds of monstrosities, they are a sort of affirmation that we do live in a world that has a tendency to chew you up and spit you out in the game of good, Darwinian sport. Here are ten birds you’re better off avoiding.

Seagull

You might think that the worst a seagull could do is fly away with you lunch, or crap on your parade, but these beach dwellers have a dark side lurking just beneath their feathers. And you will see it if you stumble upon their nest. Seagulls, if they feel their chicks are in any way being endangered, will strike with a vengeance and peck your brains out (or do the next best thing anyway).

Velociraptor

Yes, they are long past existing, along with the rest of the dinosaurs. But it’s worth clarifying that – contrary to Jurassic Park-fueled popular belief – velociraptors were in fact feathered-and-taloned birds and not the scaly overgrown lizards you might have thought they were. That being said, they were were more fierce than any existing bird we have today. They were incredibly smart, hunted in packs (according to one theory), and had stiletto-sharp talons that could easily slash the throats of their prey (which were usually dinosaurs, not so much field mice and fish).

Falcon

A so-called bird of prey, these birds’ jobs are to pounce on small rodents and fish and pierce their flesh via incredibly sharp talons. (They can also tear into spinal cords with their uniquely-shaped beaks.) They are hunting machines, equipped with traits that aid in their self-sustenance, like feathery Swiss Army knives. While they can be trained to hunt in favor of humans (“falconry”), they still possess the potential to inflict serious harm, even at a young age.

Blue-Capped Ifrita

While this bird eats nothing bigger than an insect, it is armed with an acquired self-defense mechanism that keeps it from being messed with in any serious way. Dieting on a certain type of beetle that produces batrachotoxins similar to the poison dart frog, handling the bird with bare hands can result in numbness and toxins. Who would’ve thought such a pretty bird could be so hazardous to your health?

Little Shrikethrush

This bird, like the former, is armed with the same lethal toxin common amongst Poison Dart Frogs. The Little Shrikethrush can be found in tropical and sub-tropical forests of Indonesia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. The bird is olive colored and often well-camouflaged in the trees, but it does emit a particular musical sound, which makes it like a Siren of sorts, although not so carnage-intent.

Pitohui

This was the first of the three known toxic birds to be discovered to carry a lethal poison within its skin and feathers. Papua New Guineans call the bird a “rubbish bird” as it is inedible. Almost. If desperation strikes (as if there was nothing else in the vicinity that could be eaten), the bird could be eaten if the feathers and skin were removed and the skin roasted in charcoal. But your best bet is to just make a note in your bird-watcher’s field guide that this animal is off limits for snacking.

Eagle

The danger of this bird lies in its potential for harm. It sports the kind of beak and talons and eyesight that make it such a vicious predator in the wild. It can fly and carry four-pound objects. And it is voracious enough to eat a pound of fish in four minutes. These birds are master huntsman and potent symbol of power, so much so that it serves as the coat of arms and official seal of countless nations (U.S. included).

Vulture

These Jim Hensonian birds are as ugly as they are sinister. Often equated to a grim reaper-type presence, looming over corpses and taking advantage of untimely deaths, they are largely scavengers, picking apart the flesh of the dead and decaying, although they can speed up the process of one already en route to their final destination. They are equipped with exceptionally acidic stomachs that can endure kinds of bacteria, viruses, and anthrax which most other living creatures can’t (also, their urine is a powerful anti-bacterial which can kill any of the kinds of unsanitary filth they regularly trudge through).

Ostrich

These birds are the biggest birds in the world – they can reach heights of 9 feet and weights up to 350 pounds – and are kind of unpredictable. They can run at speeds of 30 MPH for up to 10 miles straight, and have legs that can kick a hyena to its death. Not only that, but it also has sharp claws. If it weren’t for their goofy faces and sheepish tendencies (the whole putting their heads in holes in the ground thing), you’d swear these things were just oblong monsters.

Cassowary

This bird is considered to be the most dangerous bird in the world, with a criminal record deserving (in the human kingdom anyway) of outright capital punishment. Common to New Guinea (do not go there for the birds!), this bird has a 5 inch-long dagger-like claw attached to its second claw that can kill a man (and has before!). Their legs are ridiculously powerful, can kick humans (and dogs) with violent force, and can run at speeds up to 31 MPH. During WWII, American and Australian troops in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of them. So then should you, unarmed and un-armored.

10 Recently Discovered Animals With Amazing Features

2016-02-16T22:52:00.001+05:30

Nearly 200 species of plants and animals become extinct on an average day. At the same time, thousands of new species turn up every year, each with seemingly more spectacular features than the last.

Featured image credit: Christian Lukhaup

10 Psychedelic Sea Slug

Photo credit: The Daily Conversation via YouTube

These faceless beings look like something out of an alien movie. With their fingerlike protrusions and electric, rosy-blue markings, they pulse with a rare beauty.
Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum, a newly discovered kind of sea slug, is only 2.5 centimeters (1 in) long and proud to show off its bright red, blue, and yellow coloring. Specimens have been located in the waters around Okinawa, various other islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists have hailed this creature as a missing link between coral-eating sea slugs and those that dine on hydroids, which are microscopic organisms. But these eye-popping beauties aren’t the only gastropods that boast spectacular characteristics.
Although discovered some years earlier, sacoglossans possess a superpower of their own. With the ability to steal energy from the Sun, these solar-powered creatures may prove that slugs deserve more love despite their slime and facelessness.

9 Colorful Crayfish

Ordinary crayfish never wear colors quite as pretty as these colorful crayfish. Imagine walking through your average pet store and suddenly finding one of these beauties staring back at you through the glass.
That’s exactly what happened to German researcher Christian Lukhaup. Even though these mysterious crustaceans have been sold since 2000, no one had bothered to research them. Lukhaup traced their origins to Indonesia.
Generally, crayfish have life spans of about 40 years. These omnivores feed on rotting wood, carcasses, leaves, and insects. The adult crustaceans have no natural predators, but the juveniles must constantly avoid fish and platypuses.
These colorful crayfish—given the scientific name Cherax pulcher—are certainly blessed with good looks, but they are also plagued by bad luck. Their lives in the wild are threatened by the pet trade, habitat loss, locals hunting them for food, and all the other burdens that plague most wild animals.

8 Ninja Lanternshark

With a name as cool as “ninja lanternshark,” you’d expect the animal to be just as interesting. But you may not expect them to be slightly terrifying, too. With their bulging pale eyes and gaping teeth, these black sharks look like something out of a horror movie.
Don’t worry, though. At about 46 centimeters (18 in) long, ninja lanternsharks are much smaller than great white sharks. You’re unlikely to bump into them when you swim because they were found 300 meters (1,000 ft) underwater off the coast of Central America.
Lanternsharks are deep-sea dwellers with glowing organs called photophores that compensate for their jet-black undersea habitat. The ninja lanternshark—a new species scientifically known as Etmopterus benchleyi—got its common name from its shadowy ninja appearance that lacked most of the glowing jack-o’-lantern organs of other lanternsharks.

7 World’s Smallest Snail

Photo credit: Schilthuizen

The world’s new smallest snail has a shell diameter of a mere 0.7 millimeters, dwarfing the previous trophy winner, Angustopila dominikae. These miniature beasts, called Acmella nana, are located on the island of Borneo in Malaysia and require a microscope to be seen in the wild.
These snails can help scientists to better understand how isolated species evolve in one place. They get stuck in one habitat because they move so slowly. There, they have enough time to grow undisturbed from the rest of the world.
Although they inhabit three places on the island, their delicate limestone caves are extremely easy to destroy. “A blazing forest fire at Loloposon Cave could wipe out the entire population,” explained researcher Menno Schilthuizen in an interview with LiveScience.
Quarrying the limestone hills in the area could also completely ruin the homes of these record-breaking snails as well as 47 other newly discovered species.

6 Long-Lost Whale

Although Omura’s whale wasn’t discovered recently, it deserves some recognition because it was caught on film for the first time in late 2015. Like a cryptid of the sea, Omura’s whale was mysterious and almost unknown except for some corpses that had washed up on beaches and a few specimens caught during Japanese whaling expeditions.
Until late 2015, no living specimens had ever been found. Omura’s whales are so elusive that we don’t know how many exist. Only 25 have been cataloged so far. A team of scientists led by Salvatore Cerchio of the New England Aquarium and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have successfully completed field observations of this marine mammal off the coast of Madagascar.
This species has often been confused with Bryde’s whale. But Omura’s whales are unique because they have smaller dorsal fins and one-of-a-kind markings on their lower jaws.
Although little is known about these creatures, researchers agree that they are tropical and probably don’t migrate beyond the western Indian Ocean. Scientists hope to study more about their population density, vocalizations, and behavior.

5 Glow-In-The-Dark Turtle

The hawksbill sea turtle dwells in the tropical waters of the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. It is probably the most critically endangered turtle species in the world. As you would expect, these sea turtles swim, eat sponges, and have beautiful shells.
Yet at least one sea turtle decided that it was tired of being an average hawksbill. A team of diving scientists in the Solomon Islands found and filmed the world’s first biofluorescent reptile.
This hawksbill sea turtle really does glow in the dark. The scientists also found a community nearby that held young hawksbills, all of which glow red. The researchers aren’t quite sure how these miraculous reptiles do it.
With their neon red-and-green coats, they appear to be radioactive and otherworldly. Although we’ve known about regular hawksbill sea turtles for quite a while, only a handful of the glowing variety have been found as of early 2016.
Biofluorescence occurs when an animal absorbs light into its body and then emits that light as a colorful glow. Numerous fish, sharks, corals, and seahorses possess this ability. They use it to attract prey, communicate with others, or deter predators.
Under ordinary light, biofluorescent creatures appear unremarkable. But their true colors shine in deeper and darker depths. Water absorbs most of the visible light spectrum. So these biofluorescent animals take the remaining blue light and use it to make themselves glow neon shades of green and red.

4 Pig-Nosed Vampire Rat

Photo credit: Kevin C. Rowe And Museum Victoria

This unflattering name unexpectedly belongs to a small, relatively defenseless rodent with a face that you can’t forget. Hyorhinomys stuempkei is a rat with a large, hoglike nose that lives in Sulawesi, Indonesia.
But its most eye-catching feature is its impressively long incisors, which are big enough to compete with Dracula. The bottom teeth of this shrew rat can grow up to 19 millimeters (0.75 in). Researchers admit that they’ve never seen anything like it.
In fact, the strange anatomy of these pig-nosed rats sets them so far apart from other species that scientists have categorized them in a new genus. Their big ears are one-fifth as long as their bodies.
They have also lost the coronoid process in their jaws. This leads them to have a weak bite, which is a relief if you catch sight of their grisly fangs. Fortunately for the rodent, they don’t need to chew much when they dine on their normal meals of worms and beetle larvae.

3 Shape-Shifting Frog

While shape-shifting frogs can’t morph like witches or use magic spells, they are amazing nonetheless. Found in Ecuador, they can change the texture of their skin at will—from smooth to bumpy depending on their surroundings. So far, only two species are known to do this: Pristimantis sobetes and the more recently discovered Pristimantis mutabilis.
These frogs are the size of a marble, yet it is spectacular to see their skin in action. Naturalists Katherine and Tim Krynak discovered one of the tiny amphibians and kept it in a lidded cup to study later. The creature’s back had been riddled with thornlike prickles, giving it the appearance of a punk rocker.
However, once they set the frog on a sheet of paper, its skin morphed to become as smooth as the page on which it sat. Scientists aren’t sure how the frogs accomplish this feat, but their skin structures may allow water movement to change their texture.
The technique undoubtedly gives them added protection from predators by allowing these shape-shifting frogs to blend in with their surroundings, whether bumpy rocks or smooth leaves.

2 Peekaboo Spider

Australia is infamous for its wide diversity of venomous creatures, ranging from the smallest arachnid to the deadliest snake. However, there is one spider that may be cuter than all the rest.
First discovered in 2014, Jotus remus doesn’t boast a colorful design or a startling appearance. Instead, the male’s remarkable feature is the unique way in which it attracts a mate. The two front pairs of legs on this tiny jumping spider are normal enough. But the third leg on each side of its body is longer and topped with a heart-shaped paddle.
While hiding underneath a leaf, the male will raise these paddles and wave them around like an enthusiastic cheerleader to attract the attention of a female. Sometimes, the male waves his paddles for hours. If luck is on his side, the female gives chase. Then, after what seems like a game of cat and mouse, the two finally mate.
Throughout the arachnid world, courtship is famously known to be a dangerous business. If the male isn’t careful, his potential partner will turn him into a tasty meal. So male spiders like Jotus remus have developed interesting dances to convince females to give them a chance and, with any luck, not slaughter them for dinner.

1 Undersea Crop Circles

For 20 years, scientists have been baffled by the appearance of strange circles on the ocean floor. These intricate geometric designs can have diameters of up to 2 meters (6 ft). Could underwater aliens be creating these wacky shapes?
Researchers eventually found the answer hidden in a small swimming creature: the white-spotted puffer fish. Torquigener albomaculosus uses these circles as a spawning nest.
Male white-spotted puffer fish wriggle in the sand to create these masterpieces in the hopes that a passing female will notice their artistic ability. The nests contain grooves to protect the eggs from predators and ocean currents.
Located around Japan, the white-spotted puffer fish looks normal, but its artistic talent is unique. This fish feeds on hard prey such as corals and crabs to stop their teeth from overgrowing.
White-spotted puffer fish are nocturnal and territorial. When their young eventually hatch, currents pick them up and sweep them far away from the nest. With luck, they will survive and create undersea pictures of their own someday.

10 Historical Battles Hollywood Got Completely Wrong

2016-02-16T20:58:00.001+05:30

Few would be shocked to learn that Hollywood often plays fast and loose with the historical truth. But accurately depicting historical battles offers a special challenge, which few filmmakers have adequately met. Here are 10 films that incorrectly colored our perception of famous military clashes. Spoilers abound throughout.

10The Battle Of The Bulge
Battle Of The Bulge (1965)

The Battle of the Bulge saw more American deaths than any other World War II engagement, so you’d expect MGM’s movie of the same name to strive for respectful accuracy. Unfortunately, the filmmakers apparently decided that the real thing wasn’t cinematic enough and just made up a different battle entirely.
For starters, the filmmakers were determined to let audiences enjoy the picture in magnificent widescreen Cinerama. As a result, they ditched the rugged, claustrophobic forests of the Ardennes in favor of sweeping vista shots of flat, treeless plains. The result was more reminiscent of the popular cowboy movies of the time than the actual battle. MGM also decided to discard the thick fog that played such a pivotal role in the opening days of the battle. The resulting shots of German tanks thundering across the sunny plains are nice, but in reality such exposed tank formations would have been destroyed from the air almost immediately.
Meanwhile, the screenplay itself was so inaccurate that former President Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Forces at the time of the battle, felt the need to deliver a scathing critique. Right from the beginning, Eisenhower pointed out, the narrator got names and units wrong, including moving the entire British Eighth Army from Italy to the Ardennes. Eisenhower also pointed out that most of the plot lines were fictional, including a race for a fuel depot that never happened. And the movie wrongly depicted Nazi infiltrators as a real danger to the Allies, when in reality they were never anything more than an annoyance.
Eisenhower also criticized the movie for using Korean War–era American tanks as German panzers. In fact, every tank, plane, and jeep used in the movie is a post-war model. In fairness, the difficulty of finding accurate military hardware would plague all movies prior to the age of CGI, although MGM could at least have painted over the Spanish Army camouflage on their jeeps.

9Marathon And Salamis
300: Rise Of An Empire (2014)

In 2007, Warner Bros. had a huge hit with 300, a visually striking depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae. The movie was criticized for historical inaccuracy, including the decision to depict the horrendously oppressive Spartan slave-state as some sort of beacon of liberty. However, the story was entirely narrated by a Spartan soldier and the filmmakers insisted that any exaggerations were down to the character. But even that flimsy excuse can’t account for 300: Rise Of An Empire, in which no empires rise and the narration ends before the story does.
The movie opens on the Battle of Marathon, fought between the Athenians and a Persian invasion force in 490 BC. The Athenian general Themistocles leads his men at a full sprint to surprise the Persians as they are debarking from their ships. In reality, the Greeks and Persians faced each other at Marathon for five days before they fought. It is true that the Greeks ran straight at the Persian army, but it was to reduce their advantage in archers rather than an attempt to surprise them.
In the film, the battle culminates when Themistocles shoots an arrow which kills the Persian king Darius I as his son Xerxes watches. To be picky, a Greek hoplite like Themistocles wouldn’t have been proficient with a bow. To be less picky, Darius was nowhere near Marathon and died years later of old age.
Enraged, movie Xerxes transforms himself into a glowing giant and prepares to invade Greece. To lead his fleet, he recruits Eva Green’s Artemisia. In reality, Artemisia was the widowed queen of Halicarnassus and provided a handful of ships to Xerxes’ 600-boat navy. She personally commanded her own ships and was respected by Xerxes, but she wasn’t in charge of the whole fleet.
The climax of the movie is the naval Battle of Salamis, which historians agree did not involve giant metal ships or Persian suicide bombers, both of which show up in the movie. Luckily, the day is saved by the narrator, Queen Gorgo of Sparta, who arrives with a huge fleet to destroy the Persians. Of course, the historical Sparta added a mere 16 boats to Themistocles’ 400 ships and played no significant role in the victory. Gorgo certainly wasn’t there and the misogynistic Greeks would never have allowed a woman to lead them anyway.

8The Battle Of Inchon
Inchon! (1981)

Inchon! is very probably the worst war movie ever made. Critics called it “stupefyingly incompetent” and “a turkey the size of Godzilla.” The fact that the movie was financed and produced by Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his controversial Unification Church didn’t help matters.
But Moon did do his research, hiring tabloid psychic Jeane Dixon to contact the deceased General Douglas MacArthur via the astral plane. Luckily, the general’s ghost was happy to endorse the movie and personally picked the director. Moon even included a quote from the spirit in the movie’s press release: “I was very happy to see this picture made because it will express my heart during the Korean War. I will make more than 100 percent effort to support this movie.”
With the spirit world on board, Moon plowed an incredible $46 million into the production. As a result, he felt entitled to insert a scene featuring his favorite ballet troupe and tried to get the director to include subliminal images of Jesus. He also spent $3 million reshooting a crowd scene because the original crowd was too small. Yet the completed film includes grainy stock footage and model fighter planes visibly held up by strings.
It’s hard to be sure if most of the movie is inaccurate, because it’s impossible to tell what’s supposed to be happening. A large chunk is just context-free shots of North Korean soldiers machine-gunning civilians. The Battle of Inchon itself is only given 15 minutes, most of which is pure fiction. Despite the expense, the battle scenes look cheap, with extras throwing themselves to the floor before explosions actually happen.
Inchon! only made $5 million at the box office and is considered one of the biggest flops in movie history.

7The Siege Of Jerusalem
Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)

Very few historical events are as controversial as the crusades, so it was courageous of Ridley Scott to tackle the subject in the epic Kingdom Of Heaven. Scott decided to set the first half of the movie during a truce maintained by King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and the famous Muslim ruler Saladin, referring to it as a time when “anyone could come and go as they pleased, and worship as they pleased.” Sadly, Baldwin (memorably played by Edward Norton in a silver mask) dies of leprosy and the peace is undermined by wicked Christian fundamentalists like Guy de Lusignan and the Knights Templar.
The moral is obvious and delivered with all the subtlety of a trebuchet. But it’s not really historically accurate. For starters, Baldwin IV wasn’t exactly the moderate modern figure the movie tries to portray him as. Non-Christians were officially banned from Jerusalem during his reign and he once flew into a rage when supposed warmonger Guy de Lusignan failed to attack Saladin. The Muslim leader is himself portrayed as an entirely peaceful ruler forced into war against his will, but the real Saladin worked to capture Jerusalem throughout his reign. Baldwin and Saladin fought each other for years and their truce had more to do with general exhaustion and problems elsewhere than a genuine desire for lasting peace.
But these are minor quibbles compared to the movie’s protagonist: Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom). In pursuit of Scott’s message, Balian is portrayed as a French blacksmith who has a crisis of faith when his wife commits suicide and is denied burial on holy ground. To really hammer it home, the town priest has her corpse beheaded and steals from her grave. In reality, Balian was a nobleman from Palestine, was never a blacksmith, was never a religious moderate, and his wife never committed suicide.
In the movie’s climax, Balian escapes the disastrous battle at the Horns of Hattin and leads the defense of Jerusalem against Saladin’s forces, despite being undermined by the cowardly Christian patriarch of Jerusalem. The real Balian led the defense of Jerusalem in cooperation with the patriarch, who certainly wasn’t his enemy, but the movie can’t risk portraying the clergy in even a mildly positive light.
In a ridiculous scene, Balian negotiates safe passage for Jerusalem’s Christian inhabitants by threatening to destroy “your holy places and ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.” In response, Saladin wonders “if it would not be better if you did,” which is so far removed from the pious historic Saladin that he might as well have been portrayed as a talking gerbil. In reality, Balian threatened to destroy specifically Muslim holy sites. He also threatened to murder around 500 Muslim slaves he was holding in the city. In the movie, Saladin nobly agrees to let the Christians leave peacefully. In history, the Christians had to ransom themselves and those who couldn’t pay were taken into slavery.

6Operation Red Wings
Lone Survivor (2014)

Lone Survivor tells the story of four members of SEAL Team 10 who were sent into the Afghan mountains to surveil a Taliban wannabe named Ahmad Shah. The team was accidentally discovered by three goatherds, who presumably informed the Taliban of their presence. Approximately 50 Taliban fighters attacked the team, prompting a three-hour running fight down a mountainside. Three members of the team were killed, while Marcus Luttrell alone survived. A further 16 American servicemen were killed when their helicopter was shot down while trying to reach the original group.
Naturally, the filmmakers tried to take a respectful approach to the story. But that doesn’t mean elements of the movie weren’t fictionalized for entertainment value. For example, the opening scene shows Marcus Luttrell’s heart stopping just as he is rescued. The rest of the movie is a flashback from that moment. In reality, Luttrell’s heart did not stop and he wasn’t close to death when he was rescued. This fiction subverts one of the truly amazing things about Luttrell’s story: that he wasn’t near death.
In an interview, Luttrell catalogued his injuries: “I had to have my hand reconstructed. My back’s been reconstructed. Multiple back surgeries. My knees are blown out, my pelvis is cracked, I had maxillofacial damage, I bit my tongue in half. I got shot-fragged by RPGs and grenades, eleven through-and-throughs in my quads and calves, shrapnel stickin’ out of my legs and everywhere. All the skin off my back and the back of my legs was gone.” In addition, he also suffered a broken nose, torn shoulder and a bacterial infection from the water he drank while on the run.
At the end of the movie, the injured Luttrell is discovered and taken to a local Pashtun village where a man named Gulab cares for his wounds. Shah’s thugs track Luttrell to the village and one of them is about to behead the American when the villagers intervene. In response, Shah’s men attack the village. Gulab is shot and his hut is blown up. But American forces arrive just in time to blast the Taliban to smithereens and kill Shah.
The climactic firefight is a typical Hollywood ending, which is a good sign that it didn’t actually happen. Luttrell was indeed taken to a Pashtun village and cared for by a man named Gulab. He was also discovered by the Taliban, who broke his hands, but did not try to behead him before the villagers drove them off. Shah’s men didn’t attack the village and Gulab wasn’t shot. Luttrell was simply picked up by US Rangers alerted by the locals—the rescue was so uneventful that the Rangers had tea with the villagers before taking Luttrell out by helicopter. And Shah? He didn’t die for another three years. Luttrell’s story is genuinely amazing, but apparently the ending wasn’t quite dramatic enough for Hollywood.

5Stalingrad
Enemy At The Gates (2001)

Movies about the Eastern Front of World War II are fairly rare, so it’s unfortunate that the Stalingrad epic Enemy At The Gates makes little effort at historical accuracy. The movie can’t even get basic maps right, opening with an image depicting Switzerland and Turkey as German conquests.
Meanwhile, the filmmakers seem to have been worried that recognizing the Soviet Union’s gigantic contribution to winning the war might also paint communism in a positive light. As a result, the movie portrays individual Soviets as heroes but misses no chance to make the Soviet war effort as a whole look cruel and incompetent, even when actual events don’t back that up.
For example, the movie starts with Jude Law’s Vasily Zaytsev, based on the real sniper of that name, locked into a train with his fellow soldiers. Soviet military train doors were actually left unlocked so the soldiers could jump out and take cover in an air raid. When the train arrives at the depot, no officers or NCOs are present to organize the troops into platoons or companies. Instead, political commissars herd the men into boats to cross the Volga in broad daylight, allowing German planes to inflict huge casualties. In real life, Soviet units crossed the river under the cover of darkness.
In Stalingrad, Zaytsev’s unit is ordered to charge the Germans en masse. Only half of them are given rifles, with the rest told to follow them and pick up the rifles of the dead. This is based on isolated incidents during the confusion of the surprise German invasion in 1941 and was certainly never a deliberate strategy. There is no evidence that Soviet soldiers were ever sent into Stalingrad without guns. They also didn’t stage mass frontal charges against machine guns, which would have been idiotic.
But all of this is nitpicking, since the main plot of the film revolves around a duel between Zaytsev and a German sniper named Major Erwin Konig. No such German sniper has been found in the records and most historians believe that the Soviets simply made him up to increase Zaytsev’s propaganda value.

4The Taking Of Aqaba
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

Lawrence Of Arabia is considered one of the greatest movies of all time, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a few liberties with the truth. We’ve already mentioned how Auda abu Tayi was altered from a cultured, intelligent man to a greedy brute, while one of Lawrence’s siblings said that he “had a hard time recognizing my own brother.”
Much of the film centers on a critical raid on the Red Sea port of Aqaba. The port was protected from attack along the coast, but Lawrence came up with a plan to take a small party through the Nefudh Desert, allowing them to attack Aqaba from inland. The movie gets that much right, but struggles with the remaining details.
For starters, the movie depicts the Nefudh Desert as a magnificent sea of undulating golden sand dunes. In reality, most of the areas traversed by Lawrence were gravel plains. Along the way, Lawrence rescued an Arab who was left behind in the desert. In the movie, the Arabs celebrate him as a hero and give him a beautiful Bedouin robe, symbolically accepting him as one of their own. But by Lawrence’s own account, he had been wearing Bedouin garb for six months at that point. And the Arabs thought his dangerous rescue efforts were moronic and berated him for risking two lives instead of one.
In one of the most film’s most famous scenes, Lawrence leads a mounted charge straight into the city. In reality, the pivotal cavalry charge happened 65 kilometers (40 mi) from Aqaba at a small outpost called Aba el Lissan. Lawrence’s force outnumbered the Ottomans in the outpost by nearly three to one but still couldn’t dislodge them. Lawrence eventually insulted the Arabs into attacking and they, not Lawrence, led the charge to take the outpost. He did try to participate in the charge, but he accidentally shot his own camel in the head and was thrown ingloriously to the ground. Aqaba was taken without incident the next day.

3The Battle Of Gettysburg
Gettysburg (1993)

When New Line Cinema released the film adaption of Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, they boasted that the movie was “rigorously authenticated down to the boots.” But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few minor details for historians to pick at.
For starters, the extras in the battle scenes were mostly hobbyist Civil War re-enactors, who provided their own uniforms. This was a significant saving for the filmmakers, but meant that the uniforms were too pristine to accurately represent the ragged forces at Gettysburg. Many re-enactors were perhaps too well-fed to portray Confederate soldiers who had just marched hundreds of miles. At one point, General Lee shakes hands with a soldier sporting a clear tan line from a wristwatch.
For dramatic effect, the events of the battle were shifted in time. The movie opens with the scout Harrison reporting to Longstreet on the morning of June 30. The real Harrison had to have informed Longstreet of the Union’s movements no later than June 29. Lee’s angry confrontation with General Heth over his initial engagement happened late on July 1, not during the battle earlier that day. The famous scene where Father Corby delivers absolution to the Irish Brigade did not happen in the morning of July 2, but in the afternoon just before they went into battle.
The tension of Pickett’s Charge is somewhat undercut if you notice the rubber bayonets wobbling around. Confederate cannon can be seen blowing up, but the Southerners actually didn’t lose a single cannon in the battle. General Kemper is depicted as dying from a mortal wound, 32 years before his actual death in 1895.
But the most noticeable change is how bloodlessly the film depicts Pickett’s Charge. One eyewitness described the real charge as a “hurricane of violence in which human debris literally filled the air.” The filmmakers probably toned it down to keep their PG rating, but the result was a whitewashed scene that one critic described as a “remarkably non-violent, clean, and heroic little parade.”

2The Fall Of The Alamo
The Alamo (1961)

The makers of 1960’s The Alamo tried to sell the movie as a faithful depiction of the real battle. The director, producer, and star of the film—John Wayne—claimed that the sets were based on “original blueprints” of the Alamo. No such blueprints exist and the wildly inaccurate sets were mostly the product of art director Al Ybarra’s imagination.
Wayne also claimed that the screenwriter, James Grant, had thoroughly researched the battle. If he did, he didn’t incorporate any of his research into the script. Grant’s screenplay was entirely fictional, to the point that two historians hired as consultants stormed off the set in a huff. Both historians later asked that their names be removed from the credits.
It’s hard to even know where to start with the movie itself, which historians have described as containing “not a word, character, costume, or event that corresponds to historical reality in any way.” It can’t even get geography right, inexplicably claiming that the Alamo was located on the Rio Grande. The movie’s version of the battle focuses on a huge bombardment by Mexican cannons. Wayne’s Davy Crockett even leads a party to blow up the largest Mexican artillery piece. In real life, the Mexicans deployed only small field pieces at the battle. The adobe Alamo would have been completely leveled by heavy artillery.
In the movie’s final battle scene, Crockett sacrifices himself to blow up the powder magazine. In reality, a defender named Robert Evans attempted to ignite the gunpowder with a torch but was shot before he entered the magazine. Crockett’s fictional sacrifice might have been more meaningful if the movie had ever mentioned why he went to the Alamo or what the men there were fighting for. But Wayne wanted the movie to be a Cold War metaphor, featuring patriotic Americans fighting an evil dictatorship, which worked better if the actual circumstances of the Texas Revolution were left obscure.

1Cowpens And Guilford Courthouse
The Patriot (2000)

The story of The Patriot illustrates how Hollywood struggles with the nuances of real history. Originally, The Patriot was supposed to be a biopic of Francis Marion, a guerrilla fighter in the South Carolina swamps during the Revolutionary War. Marion was a compelling figure whose ambush tactics would have provided an interesting contrast to George Washington’s stand-and-fire battles.
But that movie never got made. Marion’s life simply didn’t fit easily into the standard Hollywood action-movie template. Among other things, he owned slaves and fought in a particularly brutal campaign against the Cherokee during the French and Indian War. He also didn’t have children, but the screenwriter wanted the movie to depict “the conflicting responsibilities of principle and parenthood.” So the character was renamed Benjamin Martin and made a composite of at least five historical figures.
The fictional Benjamin Martin is clearly more palatable to modern movie audiences than Marion would have been. Unlike Marion, Martin frees all his slaves before the start of the movie. Luckily, they all inexplicably continue working on his estate anyway. It seems like it would have been easier to simply not depict Martin as owning a gigantic cotton plantation, but the scenery is admittedly beautiful.
While Martin admits to carrying out a massacre during the French and Indian War, it involved killing enemy soldiers who had just slaughtered women and children. In reality, Marion didn’t carry out such a massacre, but he did help destroy buildings and food supplies in the hope that the Cherokee (including women and children) would starve to death during winter. This wasn’t his idea and he was actually horrified by it, but it’s still less easy to cheer for than Martin’s righteous retribution.
But the filmmakers were evidently still worried that Martin might be too morally ambiguous. So they made his British enemies into monstrous villains who cheerfully committed war crimes whenever possible. In one scene, redcoats lock an entire town into a church and burn it down. That didn’t happen during the Revolutionary War, but the scene resembles a famous World War II German atrocity.
Naturally, the British were unhappy with their ancestors being depicted as Nazis. Unfortunately, they overcorrected, and many British newspapers published articles claiming that Marion was a rapist who “hunted Indians for fun.” Ironically, the real Francis Marion doesn’t seem to have held much ill will toward the British, since he later campaigned against punishing Americans who had fought for them.
The movie’s final battle is unnamed and mostly fiction, although it uses elements of the battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse. At Cowpens, militia leader Daniel Morgan ordered his men to fire two shots before retreating, pulling the redcoats into a trap. In the movie, both General Nathaniel Greene and his British counterpart, General Charles Cornwallis, were at the unnamed battle. Neither were at Cowpens, but both were at Guilford Courthouse. The battlefield in the film also looked strikingly like that of Guilford Courthouse.

10 Creepy Valentine’s Day Mysteries That Are Still Unsolved

2016-02-16T19:57:00.001+05:30

For many people, February 14 is a joyous date on which to celebrate the romantic union with your significant other. However, this does not mean that dark, mysterious, and tragic things do not happen on St. Valentine’s Day. In fact, one of the most infamous murders of all time even bears its name. In 1929, a group of Chicago mobsters believed to be working for Al Capone gunned down seven rival gang members in cold blood, and the incident forever became known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Here are 10 more stories of unsolved mysteries that just happened to take place on Valentine’s Day. Appropriately, it’s likely that some of these cases are the result of love gone bad.

10The Murder Of Jodine Serrin

On Valentine’s Day in 2007, Art and Lois Serrin went to visit their 39-year-old daughter, Jodine, at her condo. Jodine was mentally disabled, and even though she was able to live independently, she still required frequent visits from her parents to check on her. When the Serrins arrived at the condo that night, the lights were on, but they could not unlock the front door because the chain was latched. After receiving no answer when they called out Jodine’s name, Art busted open the door. He walked into her darkened bedroom and was surprised to find his daughter having sex with an unidentified man. Art told the man to get dressed and leave while both he and Loris waited in another room.
After several minutes had passed, Jodine had not come out to meet her parents. The Serrins returned to the bedroom and were treated to a horrifying sight: Jodine’s lifeless nude body was now lying on the bed. She had been beaten and strangled to death. Incredibly, Jodine’s killer had been brazen enough to murder her while her parents were still inside the apartment and somehow managed to sneak out before they discovered what he had done. It’s also possible that the sex between Jodine and her killer was not consensual, and her parents unknowingly walked in on her while she was in the midst of being raped.
DNA evidence was collected from the crime scene, but thus far, Jodine Serrin’s murderer has never been caught or identified.

9The Disappearance Of China Rose Sims

In February 1988, English furniture dealer David Sims took a business trip to the Philippines and got married to a woman named China Rose, who was 20 years younger than him. China accompanied her new husband back to England, and the couple eventually moved into a house in Southend. However, the marriage started to fall apart, and China told her sister that she wanted to leave David because he was becoming violent toward her. She even claimed David had told her he’d hire someone to kill her because it was cheaper than getting a divorce. On Valentine’s Day in 1993, China attended a family party, and this was the last time anyone could confirm seeing her alive. Even though China had expressed interest in returning to the Philippines to see her ill father, she never contacted her family again.
Not only did China go missing without explanation, but her husband dropped off the map as well. David was last seen at the couple’s home approximately two months after China’s disappearance, but he subsequently vanished without explanation. Even though David had two daughters from a previous marriage, he ceased contact with them.
Years later, police would track down Geoffrey Paston, who previously shared the Southend home with David and China. According to Paston, David had asked him to sell the house and put the proceeds into an account under David’s alias, “Anthony Peter Lewis.” Approximately £40,000 of this money was collected by a man claiming to represent David, and at least £10,000 remains in the account and has never been touched. It’s strongly speculated that China was murdered, but until she or her husband are found, the case will remain unsolved.

8The Murder Of Marilu Geri

On the morning of Valentine’s Day in 1986, Stephen Geri left his Houston home to go to work. According to Stephen, his wife, Marilu, was still in bed at the time. A few hours later, Stephen called Marilu’s mother, Maria Serrato, from his workplace. Stephen claimed that Marilu wasn’t answering the phone and asked Maria to visit their home to help Marilu prepare for a party that day. Maria complied, but when she arrived at the Geri residence, she was shocked to discover that her daughter had been murdered. Marilu was shot four times and her body contained bullets from both a .38 and a .22. There was no sign of a break-in or robbery, and it wasn’t long before suspicion turned toward Stephen.
While Stephen owned several handguns, none of them were used to shoot Marilu, and he seemed to have an alibi. However, some aspects of Stephen’s alibi seemed a little suspicious. That particular morning, Stephen left the house a few hours earlier than usual and ran errands by visiting several different locations, including a 7-11, post office, and doughnut shop. The day after the murder, Stephen raised some eyebrows by returning to all these same locations and specifically reminding the employees that he had been there the previous morning.
A possible motive was a $400,000 insurance policy that Stephen had taken out on his wife. Marilu’s parents actually took Stephen to court to prevent him from collecting the insurance money, accusing him of being responsible for the murder. The two parties eventually reached an out-of-court settlement, but the details about the settlement are sealed. Stephen Geri has always maintained his innocence, so officially, his wife’s murder is still unsolved.

7The Discovery Of ‘Julie Valentine’

On the morning of February 13, 1990, Glenn Hayward was walking through a field located behind a mall in Greenville, South Carolina. He was looking for some wildflowers to give his wife for Valentine’s Day. The site was known for being an illegal dumping ground, and many items were strewn across the field that day. Hayward came across a Sears vacuum cleaner box and noticed a foul odor emitting from it. When Hayward opened the box, he found the decomposing body of a newborn infant girl.
The deceased child was covered with a blanket and some newspaper. Her umbilical cord was still attached, and the placenta was also inside the box. It’s estimated that the infant had been born approximately five days before she was discovered and died about two days after her birth. All indications were that the child was born healthy, and since traces of food were found inside her stomach, she had been cared for at some point. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of death or uncover the child’s identity, so she received the name “Julie Valentine.”
The only major potential lead was a reported sighting of a man inside a red Pontiac Fiero parked at the site three days before the infant was found. However, no one knows if this man has any connection to the case, so until the child’s identity can be established, she will continue to be known as “Julie Valentine.”

6The Murders Of Nicholas Kunselman & Stephanie Hart

On April 20, 1999, one of the most infamous school shootings of all time took place at Columbine High School in Colorado, and 13 innocent victims were murdered. The community was plagued by the senseless shooting deaths of two more teenage students 10 months later.
At the time, 15-year-old Nicholas Kunselman and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Stephanie Hart, were sophomores at Columbine, and Nicholas worked at a Subway sandwich shop near the school. Shortly before 1:00 AM on Valentine’s Day, another Subway employee drove by the shop and noticed the lights were on even though the place was supposed to be closed. When the employee went inside, she discovered that Nicholas and Stephanie had both been shot to death behind the counter.
Nicholas had been working the night shift, and Stephanie stopped by the shop to visit him while he closed up. At some point, they were ambushed by an unknown assailant. In an eerie coincidence, one of the original Columbine victims, Rachel Scott, just happened to have been employed by the same Subway shop at the time of her death.
The only lead was a sighting of an unidentified man in a red jacket walking away from the store shortly before the bodies were discovered. Since nothing appeared to be stolen, robbery did not seem to be the motive. An investigation would reveal that a drug ring was operating in the area at the time, so it’s been theorized the murders might have been drug-related. In fact, Stephanie’s mother even made a failed attempt to sue the shop’s owner, alleging that he allowed illegal drug activity to take place on the property.
After 16 years, authorities have still been unable to determine who murdered Nicholas Kunselman and Stephanie Hart.

5The Disappearance Of Maureen Fields

In 2006, 41-year-old Maureen Fields seemed very perturbed when she showed up for work on Valentine’s Day at the Wells Fargo bank in Pahrump, Nevada. Maureen was in the midst of a troubled marriage to her allegedly domineering husband, Paul Fields, and told her coworkers that “something’s going to happen.” The following day, Maureen went missing. According to her husband, Maureen left their residence that morning to go to work, but she never arrived. One day later, Maureen’s abandoned vehicle was found stuck in the sand in a remote section of the Mojave Desert near Death Valley. Her purse and several other belongings, including a pair of pantyhose, were left behind, and there was also a blanket on the ground with traces of blood and vomit.
Since an empty Xanax pill bottle was also found, there was initial speculation that she might have wandered into the desert and committed suicide. However, her body never turned up, and since the pill bottle was wiped clean of fingerprints, it seemed like the scene was staged. Male DNA was found on the pantyhose, but it did not match Paul Fields, whom police considered to be the prime suspect.
In 2012, the case took a surprising turn when the DNA was matched to an elderly convicted sex offender named Keith Wayne Holmes. When questioned, Holmes claimed that he had consensual sex with Maureen before leaving her alone in the desert. Holmes also claimed to know Paul, but by this point, he was suffering from dementia and could not provide any concise answers. Holmes died in prison hospice care in April 2014. Paul Fields continues to be the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance, but the actual details of what happened remain unclear.

4The Mysterious Death Of Antonio Saldivar

At approximately 6:00 PM on February 14, 2014, 17-year-old Houston teen Antonio Saldivar borrowed his mother’s car to go visit his girlfriend. He was planning to deliver a teddy bear to her as a Valentine Day’s gift. Antonio wound up missing his curfew that night, which led his mother to repeatedly call and text his cell phone. At 4:00 AM, Antonio finally answered his phone and let his mother know he was on his way home. Within a half hour, Antonio totaled his mother’s vehicle by crashing into a concrete pillar. Antonio was nowhere to be found at the accident scene, but strangely, his shoes were left behind in the car.
Antonio remained a missing person until February 27, when an employee from a Texas Port Recycling scrap metal plant discovered Antonio’s body, which was trapped underwater beneath a dock inside the Houston Ship Channel. He was found approximately 3 kilometers (2 mi) from the accident scene. It’s possible that Antonio became disoriented before wandering away from the scene and drowning, but a lot of strange details didn’t add up. Antonio never actually made it to his girlfriend’s house that night, and the Valentine’s Day teddy bear was found inside his pants between his legs.
One witness told police they saw a dark SUV run Antonio’s car into the pillar. Antonio was also found inside a secure area near the scrap metal plant, which was inaccessible to the search volunteers who had been looking for him. So how did his body end up there? Antonio Saldivar’s family are continuing to search for answers about his death.

3The Murder Of The Rundle Family

In 1985, Cassandra Rundle was a 37-year-old, two-time divorcee living in Colorado Springs with her two children: 12-year-old Detrick and 10-year-old Melanie. On the morning of February 14, Cassandra’s second ex-husband showed up at the home to deliver her a record album as a Valentine’s Day present. To his horror, he discovered that the entire family was brutally murdered. Cassandra’s nude body was found on her bed. She had been tied up, raped, and beaten before she was strangled to death. Melanie’s body was found in her own bedroom, and she was also raped and strangled. She had a fractured skull, and the condition of Melanie’s room indicated a major struggle before her death.
Detrick had been beaten to death inside his own bedroom. Next to him was a bloody hockey stick, which had been used as a weapon on all three family members. It seemed likely that Detrick had gone outside that morning before the killer arrived and returned to the house while the murders were in progress.
In the months before her death, Cassandra had taken out personal ads in a local newspaper. She received more than 80 responses and made contact with several men, but no evidence could be found to link any of them to the murders. Suspicion has also been directed at a former soldier named Philip E. Wilkinson, who is currently sitting on death row in North Carolina for the 1992 triple slaying of a mother and her two children. That crime bore some similarities to the Rundle murders, but Wilkinson has never been connected to the case. As it is, these horrific murders remain unsolved over 30 years later.

2The Disappearance Of Marcy Jo Andrews

Photo credit: Ndougal/Wikimedia

In 1984, 24-year-old Marcy Jo Andrews and two of her female friends spent Valentine’s Day attending a party at the Chicago apartment of Casey Nowicki. Nowicki was driving the women home when he crashed into a viaduct, injuring Andrews’s ankle. Nowicki gave his car keys to Andrews’s friends and asked them to call a tow truck while he took her to the hospital in a taxi. Later that night, the women called Nowicki’s apartment and spoke with Andrews, who sounded frightened and claimed Nowicki never took her to the hospital. This would be the last time Andrews’s friends ever heard from her. Over the next few days, they made repeated attempts to visit Nowicki’s apartment, but he claimed Andrews had already left and refused to let them inside. When police were notified, Nowicki told the same story and denied all knowledge of Andrews’s whereabouts.
In 2000, Nowicki was finally charged with Andrews’s murder. The prosecution’s theory was that Nowicki took Andrews back to his apartment and drugged her with THC so he could repeatedly sexually assault her. The prosecution produced numerous witnesses who claimed to have seen Andrews in Nowicki’s apartment in the days following the accident. One witness, Michael John Panisi, testified to seeing a nude Andrews handcuffed to a radiator and later seeing her lying dead on the floor. Panisi claimed that Nowicki gave Andrews a deliberate THC overdose before disposing of her body.
Nowicki’s defense team argued that the prosecution’s witnesses were unreliable since most of them had criminal records and were offered deals in exchange for their testimony. Nevertheless, Nowicki was still convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In spite of this, Marcy Jo Andrews’s body has still never been found.

1The Murder Of Billy Trimbach

Photo credit: Daniel Mayer

On Valentine’s Day in 1992, Billy and Cindy Trimbach were married in Stoneham, Colorado. On the date of their first anniversary, Billy was shot to death and found by the side of a frontage road outside of Wiggins, approximately 80 kilometers (50 mi) away from Stoneham. In an odd twist, the sheriff who investigated the case just happened to drive past the same road shortly before Billy was found. He remembered seeing multiple vehicles at that exact spot and may have unknowingly driven past the killer while they were disposing of Billy’s body.
The investigation eventually turned toward Cindy Trimbach, who’d collected a $500,000 life insurance policy on her husband’s death. Physical evidence was also found inside Cindy’s car to suggest that Billy’s body may have been in there at some point.
The cloud of suspicion compelled Cindy to move to Butte, Montana, with James, her 10-year-old son from a previous marriage, and there would soon be a shocking postscript to this story. In April 1994, a Butte newspaper ran an article about Billy Trimbach’s murder, which mentioned that Cindy was a suspect. James was teased about this on the school playground by an 11-year-old classmate named Jeremy Bullock. James responded by pulling out a gun and shooting Jeremy to death.
James was sent to a juvenile home for the crime, and Cindy died of natural causes in 1996. Over the years, rumors have spread that Cindy hired someone to carry out Billy’s murder, and at least one drug dealer has reportedly bragged about being involved. However, the full truth about Billy Trimbach’s death has never been uncovered.

10 Crazy Ways China Censors The Internet

2016-02-16T19:54:00.005+05:30

In 2015, China’s Internet ranked dead last on Freedom House’s global Internet freedom rankings. Behind this so-called “great firewall” lies a vast, complex information control system that has the power to affect virtually anything a Chinese person does online.
This system employs tactics that range from surprisingly subtle to shockingly blunt, but it’s all done to defend the Chinese government’s perceived national interests. Often, that means silencing government critics and activists or stemming the flow of information when negative domestic news breaks.
Most Internet users in China know that some censorship is happening, although they can’t do much about it. China uses many methods to control online information, including some that seem downright crazy.

10 Block URLs

Most people already know about or have experienced this type of Internet censorship, especially if you work in an office with an overzealous IT guy. But it’s doubtful that you’ve experienced anything close to what happens in China. There, all kinds of popular foreign websites are blocked, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, IMDb, and YouTube.
As of early 2016, China is blocking over 6,500 different domains, including nearly 150 of the top 1,000 domains on the Web. It’s so bad that almost all expats in China pay for VPN services to get around the blocks. The Internet that we access every day simply doesn’t work in China without a VPN because too many of the services central to it are blocked.
Once a site is blocked, it’s rare for it to be unblocked. For example, Facebook was blocked in mid-2009 and has been unavailable in China ever since. YouTube, Twitter, and other popular sites have all been similarly squashed by the ban hammer for years, and there’s no end in sight.

9 Widespread Ban On Content

Over the years, Chinese authorities have banned lots of content that they find objectionable. In 2014, Chinese authorities banned the use of popular Internet slang terms in ads and TV shows. Advertisers and TV producers were forced to use traditional Chinese terms and stop employing trendy expressions.
China’s censors have repeatedly banned certain TV shows from the Web, too. In April 2014, The Big Bang Theory and several other popular foreign shows got the axe.
But Chinese shows have also come under the gun. For example, in 2011, Chinese authorities banned TV shows about time travel from both broadcast television and online streaming. They were concerned that these TV shows made light of Chinese history.
More recently, China has begun censoring user names. They’ve purged tens of thousands of Internet accounts with unapproved names, including those that make fun of world leaders or satirize popular figures.
Users with offensive names were given a short grace period to change to a new name. But if they had a user name like “ObamaFan” and didn’t change it fast enough, their account was probably blocked.

8 Blast Websites Offline With Traffic

China doesn’t just censor its own Internet; it can censor ours, too. Last year, China deployed a new censorship tool that researchers are calling the Great Cannon. This tool took down websites that were hosted overseas for everyone, not just for Chinese Internet users.
The Great Cannon is essentially a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) tool. It hijacks innocent Web traffic and reroutes it to servers that host content that China’s government doesn’t like.
In March 2015, the Great Cannon used browser traffic from Chinese search engine Baidu to take down GreatFire.org, an anticensorship organization, and GitHub, which was hosting some GreatFire content. Both services were initially flooded with traffic and unable to stay online, although they ultimately got back on their feet.
The Great Cannon apparently hasn’t been used since then, and its existence has never been officially confirmed by the Chinese government. But the GreatFire incident strongly suggests that China now wields an offensive censorship tool with enough power to probably take down high-profile Western websites—at least for short periods of time.

7 Secretly Vanish Social Media Posts

Everybody knows that China’s social media companies have censors patrolling users’ posts and deleting those that don’t pass muster. These censors can ban and delete accounts or issue temporary suspensions. But on popular platforms like Sina Weibo, censors can also make use of an even trickier tactic: “vanishing.”
This less common tactic allows censors to make a post viewable only to the person who posted it. The original poster doesn’t realize that their post has been deleted because they can still see it. In reality, though, it’s gone, and no other users can see it.
This subtle technique isn’t employed often, and it hasn’t been reported outside Sina Weibo, China’s biggest microblogging service (like Twitter). But when vanishing is used, it can be incredibly effective because it eliminates one of the major downsides of censorship.
Often, when a person’s speech is censored, they will make further attempts to get their message out there. But when Weibo posts get vanished, users are less likely to repost their messages because they aren’t aware that the messages are invisible to other users. Instead, they may feel as though they haven’t gotten any traction and that their ideas don’t have popular support.

6 Arrest Internet Users

Photo credit: AP Archive via YouTube

If things go too far, China will take its censorship offline and detain or arrest social media posters who’ve crossed a line. The most absurd example: In 2012, China arrested a blogger over a Twitter joke. Zhai Xiaobing, the blogger in question, had made an off-color joke about the roof caving in on representatives at China’s Communist Party conference. He was subsequently arrested by Chinese police.
But Zhai is just a single example. China has arrested numerous dissidents and activists for spreading more serious content online. In fact, Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for his part in the circulation of Charter 08, a political document that’s critical of China’s authoritarian system.
Liu coauthored the document. It circulated briefly on the Chinese Web before authorities clamped down and arrested some of the people behind it, including Liu.
Although the Sina Weibo platform is censored, its posters aren’t immune, either. In 2013, China arrested four Weibo users over tweets that the government said contained false information and seriously harmed the image of Lei Feng.
Lei Feng was a Communist Party member who became the ideal citizen of Chinese propagandists, although the image of him used in propaganda doesn’t square with the realities of his life.

5 White-Listed Video Games And Music

You might think that the world of online entertainment would be safe from China’s censors, but you’d be wrong. Nothing is safe. Starting this year, Chinese companies that offer streaming music services are required to police that music before making it publicly available. This ensures that nothing disliked by the government can get through.
Similarly, foreign video games need to be white-listed by China’s Ministry of Culture before they can be legally released in China. This is why popular foreign games like World of Warcraft and League of Legends always have separate servers for mainland China. The versions of the games that launch there have been altered and censored to ensure that they pass the Ministry of Culture’s inspection.
China will occasionally ban games proactively. For instance, recent shooter title Battlefield 4 was banned in China shortly after its US release. Chinese authorities said that the game harmed Chinese national interests because its plot contained depictions of a Chinese leader being assassinated and a Chinese military leader going rogue.

4 Block Searches

Photo via Wikimedia

Chinese authorities require any Chinese company with a search feature—which includes social networks as well as traditional search engines like Baidu—to block certain keyword searches. The list of blocked searches changes rapidly to keep up with current events and prevent the spread of undesirable information.
For example, China began blocking searches for the name “Bo Xilai” after Bo, once a highly regarded politician, became entangled in an ugly public scandal. For a brief time in 2012, China was even blocking searches for the term “the truth.”
Of course, Chinese authorities don’t always go for an all-out block. The country’s censors can also filter searches to display approved content only by blocking any objectionable results.
For example, searches for terms like “June 4th incident” on Baidu will return carefully scrubbed results that make no mention of the 1989 crackdown that Chinese authorities don’t want people to read about. In 2010, Google left China because of this policy. Google cited its concerns about human rights and its unwillingness to participate in censorship.

3 Encourage Self-Censorship

Censors don’t always have to make the deletions. Many Chinese Internet users censor themselves. For many users, the risks of criticizing the government or spreading a rumor online—which can include job loss or even arrest—simply outweigh the benefits of speaking out.
Chinese authorities consistently promote a message of Internet harmony and unity, encouraging Internet influencers and tastemakers to censor themselves in the name of improving China’s online environment.
China’s Internet users also engage in online self-censorship because it’s difficult to know where the line between acceptable and unacceptable content is. Especially when it comes to political dissent, Chinese authorities often use the vague legal clause “inciting to subvert state power” as a catchall to charge dissenters.
What exactly do those words mean? At what point does a political joke cross the line and become subversion? China’s law doesn’t answer those questions. People don’t know where the line between legal and illegal content lies, so many prefer to play it safe in their online discussions. And with people getting arrested over Twitter jokes, who can really blame them?

2 Flood The Web With Pro-Government Comments

When censorship by deletion doesn’t get the job done, China’s authorities can also practice censorship by addition. With this technique, authorities flood online discussions with pro-government perspectives. These commenters are jokingly called the 50 Cent Party, a reference to the sum that they’re supposedly paid per comment.
They receive specific directives from the authorities about what to say and how to say it. For example, to deflect online discussions about Taiwan’s democratic system, posters are instructed to “make America the target of criticism” and “choose various examples in Western countries of violence and unreasonable circumstances to explain how democracy is not well suited to capitalism.”
This technique works well because even if you know that these paid posters are out there, it’s impossible to prove that they aren’t genuine pro-China commenters. The term “50 cents” has become something of a slur on China’s Web, thrown derogatorily at pro-government commenters even when there’s no evidence that they’re actually part of the paid commenting brigade.

1 Shut Off The Internet Completely

Photo credit: TUBS

China has a lot of censorship tools in its pocket. But if all else fails, there’s always the nuclear option: Shut off the Internet completely. Although it’s an extreme measure, China actually used it once.
In July 2009, China’s western Xinjiang province was hit by divisive ethnic riots that claimed the lives of nearly 200 people. In response, China shut down Internet access for the entire province and didn’t fully restore it until nearly a year later. Yes, an entire province of over 20 million people went almost a year without Internet access.
After a little while, authorities constructed a tiny “intranet” of sorts. But users suffered for months without any access to external sites or services. Business people relying on the Internet had to travel to other provinces just to get online and check their email.
Whether China would be willing to employ such measures again is an open question. The Internet is an increasingly important part of China’s economy, accounting for over 7 percent of the country’s total GDP as of early 2016.

10 Unknown Social Media Networks

2016-02-16T19:51:00.002+05:30

Social networking is one of the revolutionary trends of our time. While most people know the big social networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, many less-known sites are trying to just get their feet off the ground or cater to only niche demographics.

10Line For Heaven

Photo credit: lineforheaven.com

For those who do not find Facebook or Reddit Christian enough, a group of intrepid Christians created the website Line For Heaven, a social media site specifically for those Christians who want to compete in a virtual race to heaven. On Line For Heaven, users compete for karma points by doing tasks that bump them up higher and higher in the heavenly ladder.
Users earn karma points by supporting causes and playing games as well as other more religious-themed actions like giving other users blessings and confessing their sins. The more actions completed, the closer a person is to godliness, with the top user of the site being the closest to heaven, a place now held by so-called “Angel #1,” who goes by the name of “BJ.”
The ideas behind Line For Heaven may seem off-putting. For instance, people get 20 karma points if they confess to a sin and if 20 people forgive them of the sin. But they also can receive points for simply getting other people to join the social network.

9Nextdoor

Photo credit: nextdoor.com

While most social networks advertise their ability for people to connect across the world, the makers of Nextdoor are more focused on creating social networks within immediate surroundings. Users of Nextdoor can only connect with people within their own community neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. Limiting the network to small geographic area helps protect the privacy of the users.
Nextdoor creates a communication network for neighborhoods. The advertised use of Nextdoor is to help people find local business for their needs, hire local babysitters, and (most importantly) spread information about possible crimes in the area, creating a virtual neighborhood watch that can alert homeowners of possible threats to their safety.
In the past few years, Nextdoor has attacted controversy from various journalists, some of whom believe that the network will lead to neighborhood bullying. Another criticism comes from the ease of racial profiling on the app. Most of the “suspicious activity” reported by neighbors focuses around African-American visitors to the community. Users believe that the app allows communities to become more engaged in racial profiling than they otherwise would.

8ZiiTrend

Photo credit: ZiiTrend.com

Although now defunct, ZiiTrend was an interesting social media site in the mid-2000s that focused on the predictive capabilities of the Internet community. ZiiTrend users organized themselves by areas of interest, which could range from economics to even the mundane tasks of everyday life. Then, the users would each send predictions about future events for everybody to vote on.
Using programming algorithims, the ZiiTrend servers brought together these predictions and posted most likely outcome for future events. Thus, it relied on the collective knowledge of the Internet to find out the trends that the world was experiencing.
The exciting aspect of user-parsed future predictions was the big pull of ZiiTrend. Unfortunately, it did not catch on. Some tech pundits believed that the website was not user-friendly enough for first-time users and did not evolve to have a broad set of features. Whatever the case, ZiiTrend fell apart, leaving it just an interesting footnote in experimental social networks.

7Ncludr

Another now-defunct social network is Ncludr, which had an interesting take on Facebook’s user-generated profiles. Designed as a tongue-in-cheek satire of modern social networks, Ncludr had users answer a few questions when they signed up and then generated a profile based on the questions. All of the different aspects of a user’s profile were determined by the algorithm and could not be changed. Ncludr also made everybody friends with everybody else. Where Facebook requires people to send one another friend requests and wait for a response, a user of Ncludr was automatically connected with every other user on the network (and more than a few fake profiles). This eliminated privacy but also showed that people had 12.3 billion friends.
When it first came out, tech journalists realized that whoever created Ncludr registered the website anonymously, which further confirmed that the thing was a big joke. Nonetheless, it briefly became a point of interest for Internet users looking for something different. Ncludr remains one of the few parody social network sites.

6Dark Web Social Networks

Photo via DeepDotWeb

The dark web is the collection of websites that are not accessible through standard browsers, often requiring specialized tools such as Tor browsers to reach them. Unlike the surface web (the Internet that most people are familiar with), the dark web is not searchable by most web crawlers and is also well known as a haven for the darkest parts of society, including organized crime and child pornography. But some dark web users have used the anonymity of the dark web to set up special social networks.
Since it is impossible to index the dark web, it is also impossible to know the extent of the dark web social networks, but a few sites are known to the surface web world. One of the more visible dark web social networks is Galaxy2, designed by a programmer who goes by the name Lameth. Galaxy2 requires all users to use pseudonyms but allows them to talk and interact like in a normal network. Galaxy2, like many dark web sites, attracts people like child pornographers, but Lameth planned his network to make sure that they would not be able to conduct their activities through the site. While small and hidden from normal view, Galaxy2 has just as active of a user base as Facebook or Twitter.
Other dark web social networks take on a more political edge, such as the network Darknet Nation. The website is a haven for those who might have radical political beliefs or opinions, allowing them to communicate with similar people. Darknet Nation runs like a decentralized government, giving different officers control over different parts of the site but without a single person in charge of everything. In this way, Darknet Nation hopes to bring some order to the disorder of the dark web.

5Chirp

Effortlessly transmitting files and links to other people is one of the main appeals of smartphone technology, but the developers behind Chirp are taking this social network idea in a different direction. Using software that encodes images and files as sound, Chirp allows people to connect and share information without having any data or Wi-Fi connection on their phones.
The idea behind Chirp is pretty simple but fascinating. The app takes the files and encodes it as sound, which can be played over any audio device. When it is played, anybody using Chirp on their devices in the vicinity will pick up the sound and save it for later. Once the device gets Internet access, Chirp decodes the sound file and presents the material to its user on an interface similar to the Facebook wall.
Designers of the app are planning on it revolutionizing information sharing. Since Chirps transmit via sound, they are ideal for mass sharing of files and information using loudspeakers or radios. Advertisers and radio stations would benefit from the system by sending users up-to-date pictures and background information when they are at events. Chirp also gives private users the ability to send multiple files extremely quickly.

4REMCloud

REMCloud is unfortunately not a social network site based around the popular band R.E.M. Instead, it is a new social network that attempts to offer meaningful social interactions centered on dreams.
Users of REMCloud add their own dreams to the site, where others can see them. Then, other people look at their dreams and offer suggestions about what they mean. For dream interpretations, users can either choose to talk about them in private chats with their connections or open them up to the community, where all users of REMCloud can discuss what they think the meanings are.
The most interesting feature of REMCloud is the Dream Mosaic. By characterizing dreams using key words and locations, REMCloud completes an interactive map showing what people are dreaming about in different parts of the world. This unusual feature will allow users to see what the most common dreams are in various areas, opening up more understanding of the human population.

3Stache Passions

Photo credit: stachepassions.com

Niche dating sites often turn into social networks on their own, and Stache Passions is no exception. As you might have guessed, Stache Passions is a website solely for people who have mustaches, the more unique and interesting the better. While the website started primarily for dating, the developers now advertise it as a place for anybody with a passion for mustaches.
Stache Passions includes a variety of interesting people with fun names like HairyDoyle or ColonStache. The user base is quite eclectic, even including various women and transsexuals. Since its start, Stache Passions has grown into a complete Internet community, including pages that show the list of favorite books, video games, and movies among the users. The site has a rating system where people can rank mustaches as “newbie,” “expert,” or “Stache Groupie.” They even have a catchy song.

2Affluence

While all the other social networks listed above are open to anybody who can find them, these next two are restrictive and are some of the most exclusive online communities. One of the bigger communities is Affluence, a social network that anybody can apply to, but they have to pass an application process that includes a background check on their personal wealth. To pass the background check, members must make $200,000 a year or have a net worth of $1 million.
Even if you do not have the money, don’t worry. People can still get into Affluence if five registered users vouch that they are upper class enough to take part in the online community. Developers state that the restrictive nature of the website allows for better content than the normal social networks and allows people to make connections with other successful people.
Creator Russell Rockefeller assures the public that there is no massive conspiracy going on in the secret network of Affluence. Rather, the social network just allows successful people access to the best world events and connections that can help them get even wealthier. Users of Affluence have a personal virtual concierge that makes sure they know about all the exclusive parties and events across the globe, helping them live the wealthy lifestyle.

1ASmallWorld

Even more exclusive than Affluence is the social network ASmallWorld. In order for a person to get into ASmallWorld, they need to have a college degree, make enough money for their application to go through, and get invited by members already on the site.
ASmallWorld networks the elite. The biggest push is to help its members travel more effectively and get the very best luxury hotels and restaurants that the world has to offer. Membership on the network also includes perks like entrance to exclusive nightclubs and free services in various major cities.
Despite those claims, ASmallWorld has issues with its business model since it does not have advertisements and is not making very much money for its creator. Because of this, everybody has to pay $110 a year as a subscription fee. But even that is not enough, because ASmallWorld caps its membership at 250,000 people.

10 More Strange Stories About The Human Brain

2014-06-11T23:03:00.000+05:30

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: The human brain is amazing. In the words of neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, it’s a “three-pound mass of jelly you can hold in the palm of your hand,” but it can “contemplate the meaning of infinity, and it cancontemplate itself contemplating on the meaning of infinity.” As it’s the most complex organ in our bodies, you can bet there’s no shortage of strange stories about the human brain.

10Brains On eBay

Here’s a story with all the makings of a Gothic novel, complete with a mental hospital, human organs, and a ghoulish grave robber named David Charles.

Charles didn’t actually dig up any coffins, but he did break into the Indiana Medical History Museum on several occasions. From the 1840s right up to the 1990s, the museum was the site of the Central State Hospital, a psychiatric ward that performed its fair share of autopsies. After the bodies were cut up, the brains were jarred and locked away in a warehouse—a warehouse Charles later slipped into repeatedly.

After pilfering six jars of human tissue, Charles unloaded his goods to an eBay fence who sold them to a San Diego man for $600. The buyer liked “to collect odd things.” He also had a code of ethics. While he didn’t mind breaking federal law by buying human organs, and while he didn’t care about violating eBay policies on body parts, he did have problems with buying stolen property. Neither Charles nor his eBay middleman had the brains to remove the museum labels from the jars.

Figuring something crooked was going on, the San Diego buyer notified authorities. After tracking down the eBay seller, Indianapolis police officers set up a sting operation. The plan was for Charles, who’d recently snatched 60 more brains, to meet up with his eBay buddy at a local Dairy Queen. And on December 16, cops swarmed the restaurant parking lot, successfully bringing down the Indiana Igor.

9The Cordless Drill Skull Operation

Marian Dolishny was dying. Thanks to a fair-sized tumor, he was suffering epileptic seizures, and if he didn’t do something about it soon, he’d go blind. Unfortunately for Dolishny, he couldn’t just visit the local hospital and schedule an operation. It was 2007, Dolishny lived in Ukraine, and due to a labyrinthine bureaucracy and massive underfunding, the healthcare system was a mess. No one could remove his tumor, and things were looking grim when suddenly an elderly British superhero showed up to save the day.

One of the UK’s best neurosurgeons,Henry Marsh had been visiting Ukraine at least twice a year since the early ‘90s. After meeting people with massive growths on their heads, Marsh realized he couldn’t fly back home and forget what he’d seen. So he sent disused supplies from his hospital in Tooting to Ukrainian doctors. Even better, he started offering his services free of charge.

That’s how Marsh and Dolishny met. But just because the Ukrainian had a great surgeon didn’t mean the operation was going to be easy. Marsh lacked access to the state-of-the-art equipment required for such procedures. However, the best doctors are like musicians—they’re talented, passionate, and can improvise on the fly. Marsh went to a local store and bought a $67 cordless power drill. He then operated with a gadget you keep in your toolbox.

What’s even crazier is Dolishny was awake for the whole thing. No qualified anesthetists were around, so Marsh just used a local anesthetic. And since Dolishny was awake, Marsh talked to him the entire time, making sure he wasn’t screwing up the man’s brain.

Before Marsh could finish the procedure, the drill’s battery died. Where a lesser surgeon would’ve panicked, Marsh kept on working, finishing up with his gloved hands and saving Dolishny’s life.

8Strange Stories Of Ancient Brains

Photo credit: Glen Doran/PBS

Your brain is 60 percent fat, and thanks to all that blubber, it’s the first organ to melt away after you die. That’s why archaeologists find so many skulls but so few brains. Most of them liquefied long before we could dig them up.

But every so often, scientists discover a brain dating back several thousand years. For example, the some of the oldest brain tissue ever discovered, around 8,000 years old, was found in eastern Florida, preserved under thick layers of peat. But while they’re not as old as their New World counterparts, the ancient brains of Europe carry much more interesting stories.

Our first macabre tale is the story of the Heslington Brain, the oldest known brain in Great Britain. In 2008, the University of York was expanding its campus when someone stumbled over several pits dating back to the Iron Age. After prodding around, archaeologists found one hole containing a skull, a jaw, and two neck vertebrae belonging to the same deceased Brit. When the skull was opened, scientists found the yellowy, shrunken remains of a 2,500-year-old brain. The muddy environment had kept it safe from decay. Marks on the vertebrae indicate that the body’s owner had been hanged and beheaded, possibly as part of a ritualistic murder.

Only slightly less morbid is the tale of the 4,000-year-old Turkish brain found in the Bronze Age settlement of Seyitomer Hoyuk. This brain looks like a charred log someone pulled out of a bonfire. That’s probably because it belonged to an unfortunate Turk who was minding his or her own business when an earthquake wrecked the entire village, bringing down a rain of rubble. Then, a fire broke out, incinerating everything and boiling said brain in its own juices. But while a bubbling brain sounds disgusting, this rapid evaporation of liquid coupled with nutrient-rich soil and elimination of oxygen via the flames ensured this charbroiled organ survived for thousands of years.

7Unlocking Lenin’s Brain

Vladimir Lenin was a prolific writer and a serious philosopher. He also successfully overthrew a government and installed himself as unquestioned dictator. But was he a genius? Soviet scientists certainly thought so.

After the Premier died in 1924, Russian researchers were itching to cut open his skull and study his brain. They wanted to show the world Lenin was one of the smartest men on the planet. So after removing the brain, they plunked it in a jar of formaldehyde and stuck it in the V.I. Lenin Institute while they searched for the right expert to examine the organ. Two years later, they decided Oskar Vogt was the man for the job. The only problem was Vogt was German, and the Soviets didn’t want Lenin’s brain leaving Moscow.

In a typical Soviet compromise, officials gave Vogt one little sample to take back home. If he wanted to see the rest of the brain, he had to come to Russia. So for the next several years, Vogt visited the Moscow Brain Institute, but some Soviets weren’t too happy with this foreigner fondling their comrade’s cerebrum. Even worse, Vogt was telling people Lenin’s brain resembled a criminal’s.

Ticked off, the Soviets planned to fly to Berlin and take back the sliver of brain they’d lent the man, but Adolf Hitler fired Vogt from his position before the Russians could get their sample back. Nobody knows what happened to that little piece of Vladimir’s brain.

The Soviets cut the rest up into tiny chunks and dyed the pieces different colors. After the fall of the USSR, Russian scientists released a paper detailing the results of their nearly 70-year-long study.They had found nothing interesting at all.

6The Woman Who Remembers Everything

Can you remember where you were on a randomly selected date 30 years ago? Say, the afternoon of September 20, 1985? Assuming you were even alive then, chances are good you’re drawing a blank, but Jill Price remembers that day perfectly. She was wearing a big hat and eating garlic chicken with her dad at one of her favorite restaurants. And if you picked some other random day, she could do the same exact same thing because Jill Price remembers everything.

Jill has a rare condition called hyperthymestic syndrome, which gives her a super-powered memory. While scientists are still trying to understand Jill’s mind, they believe her elephantine memory has something do with several areas of her brain that are three times bigger than average.

Thanks to her special brain, Jill can remember most everything that happened between her 9th and 15th birthday. And after that? She couldn’t forget anything if she tried. But strangely, if you asked her to memorize a poem, she probably couldn’t do it. Jill’s semantic memory isn’t all that strong, but her episodic memory, the part that remembers personal events and emotions, is perfect. And that’s actually a big problem.

In addition to remembering cool facts, Jill remembers every terrible event that’s ever happened to her as though it happened yesterday. That’s especially hard when Jill thinks about loved ones who’ve passed away or things people did years ago. “I don’t look back at the past with any distance,” she once said. “It’s like an endless chaotic film that can completely overpower me. And there’s no stop button.”

5How Hugo Rewired A Man’s Brain

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Imagine the world as a flat, 2-D panel. There is no depth perception here. When pouring a glass of water and looking from above, you wouldn’t know it was full until the water spilled over. Trees would be nothing more than flat patterns blending into the background. This is the world Bruce Bridgeman lived in for 67 years until Martin Scorsese changed his life.

Bridgeman is a neuroscientist at the University of California, and until 2012, he was one of the 5–10 percent of the population suffering fromstereoblindness, the inability to see three-dimensionally. In Bridgeman’s case, his impairment was caused by alternating exotropic strabismus. In other words, his eyes wandered around independently. Since he could only focus one eyeball at a time, he could never see out both eyes at once, eliminating all depth perception.

Then in 2012, everything changed. Bridgeman and his wife went to see Martin Scorsese’s Hugo in 3-D. Even though it wouldn’t do him any good, Bridgeman bought the glasses and settled in for the picture. And once the film started, images popped out of the screen. Suddenly, everything was vivid and alive. Objects and people actually stood out from the background.

What was even more amazing is when Bridgeman went outside, he could still see in 3-D. The lampposts were no longer part of the background, and a tree was suddenly a “big three-dimensional sculpture.”

Scientists think Bridgeman always had the ability to see 3-D, but his brain just needed a wake-up call. As he stared at the screen for 128 minutes, his eyes focused on the movie, and suddenly his visual cortex just clicked.

Obviously, the 3-D movie cure doesn’t work for everyone. Some need corrective surgery, some spend hours in therapy, and others will never see the world in its full glory.

4The Man Who Could Only Say One Syllable

Born in 1809, Louis Victor Leborgne struggled with epilepsy for years before things got even worse. At the age of 30, Leborgne lost the ability to speak. He could say just one syllable: “tan.” If you asked for his name, he’d say, “Tan tan.” If you asked him his favorite food, he’d say, “Tan, tan.” If you asked him the time, he’d say “Tan tan,” but he’d show you the correct time using his fingers. Louis Leborgne wasn’t stupid. He just couldn’t talk.

Unable to communicate, Leborgne checked in to a Parisian hospital, where he spent the next 21 years of his life. He morphed into a rather disagreeable person. He’d monosyllabically argue with staff and even steal on occasion. If Leborgne got especially angry, he could toss around a few swear words, though he could never curse when calm and composed.

Things got worse when his right arm and leg suddenly became paralyzed. Frustrated, Leborgne stayed in bed for seven years, and in 1861, he developed a horrible case of gangrene in his right side. Hoping to save Leborgne, the hospital brought in surgeon Paul Broca. The operation came too late, and Lebornge died on April 17, aged 51. However, his brain still had an important part to play in the world of neuroscience.

After examining Leborgne’s brain, Broca discovered a nasty lesion in the frontal area of the left hemisphere, a region later dubbed Broca’s area. After performing additional biopsies on similar patients, the doctor knew he was on to something big. For a while, scientists had been debating whether individual parts of the brain controlled specific functions. Now, Broca had proof that the front left hemisphere was responsible for language.

It also seemed the area was divided into multiple regions serving different functions, like language production and language comprehension. That explained why Leborgne could understand as many words as anyone else though he could only pronounce one.

Broca was right on the money, and his discovery revolutionized neurology. Leborgne’s brain now floats in a jar at the Musee Dupuytren in Paris, where anyone can come and visit it.

3Brain Teeth And Brain Feet

Early in 2014, a four-month-old Maryland baby made headlines thanks to a rather unusual brain tumor. During an operation, surgeons found the baby had a craniopharyngioma, a growth created by the same cells that make our teeth. There were actual teeth growing in the baby’s brain. Doctors safely removed the toothy tumor, but this wasn’t the first case of its kind.

In 2008, Colorado doctors discovered Tiffinie Esquibel’s unborn baby Sam was suffering from a brain tumor. After inducing labor, the doctors took Sam into surgery, and what happened next sounds like a scene from a horror movie. When Dr. Paul Grabb cut open the tumor, a human foot popped out of Sam’s head. When the surgeons got over their shock, they dug a little deeper and actually found a hand and even a thigh.

Most doctors believe Sam was suffering from a teratoma, a tumor that often produces creepy body parts in places they don’t belong. As awful as that sounds, it’s way more comforting than the other theory doctors considered. A few suspected Sam might have a condition known as fetus in fetu, meaning he might have absorbed a twin in the womb, and his sibling was feeding off Sam like a human parasite.

2The Man Who Loves Johnny Cash

“Mr. B” is a 59-year-old Dutchman who’s battled severe OCD for 40 years. Desperate for a cure, he agreed to try deep brain stimulation, a treatment involving surgical implants that zap the brain with electric currents.

Just as Mr. B had hoped, the shock therapy worked, greatly reducing his OCD, depression, and anxiety. However, the treatment had a really weird side effect. It turned him into the world’s biggest Johnny Cash fan. Before the surgery, Mr. B was a casual music listener who liked Dutch music, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. But after the treatment, Mr. Bbought every Johnny Cash CD and DVD he could get his hands on. He won’t listen to anything else.

Scientists know the implants are responsible because every time their batteries start to die, Mr. B stops listening to his Johnny Cash albums. Yet as soon as doctors recharge the implants, he starts walking the line again, devoting himself solely to the Man in Black.

1The Family That Can’t Fall Asleep

Italian physician Ignazio Roiter married into an old Venetian family, but unbeknownst to the good doctor, there was something horrifying about the clan’s history. Roiter’s first glimpse of the familial terror came in 1973, when his wife’s aunt developed an inexplicable sickness. All of a sudden, she couldn’t fall asleep. Soon, she was stuck in an agonizing limbo between unconsciousness and waking life.Completely exhausted but unable to rest, she lost the ability to walk and gave up on conversation until she died a year later.

In 1979, another aunt died of the same mysterious disease. Suddenly, someone remembered an old grandfather who’d passed away under similar circumstances. Curious, Roiter scoured records at the local church and nearby mental asylum. After finding multiple instances of relatives dying sleepless deaths, he was convinced a genetic disease was at work. And when an uncle named Silvano died of fatigue in 1984, Roiter got a chance to find out for sure.

Roiter took the man’s brain to two American specialists. After analyzing the organ, Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti found the brain was full of tiny holes. According to a second doctor named Stanley Prusiner, a mutant gene had activated a group of misinformed proteins called prions. These rogue molecules took on virus characteristics and started infecting other proteins, turning the brain into a war zone and shutting down important bodily functions like sleep.

There’s no cure for fatal familial insomnia. If that mutant gene activates the abnormal proteins, the carrier is doomed to a sleepless haze. As of 2010, scientists have found at least 40 families battling this illness. Until scientists do cure the disorder, people like Roiter’s relatives will never rest—not until that final big sleep

10 Terrible Events Behind Your Favorite Movies

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It takes a whole heck of a lot of work to make a feature film. Hundreds of people are pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into films that could take years of labor before they get to see the light of day. With so many people working around the clock, it is easy to see why bad things can happen during production. But sometimes things can go from bad to downright terrible.

10Christian Bale Nearly Kills Himself For The Machinist

Christian Bale can best be described as the real-life Nutty Professor. But instead of putting on a fat suit and pretending to be everybody in a film, Christian Bale opts for the more subtle approach of just going on insane diets to help him lose and gain weight like it’s nobody’s business. And I don’t mean something like dropping 20 pounds so you can look more like an action hero either. Christian Bale supposedly holds the record for the most weight lost for a role in the history of cinema, a whopping 30 kilograms (65 lbs). He said he wanted to lose more, but medical professionals warned him that he would likely die if he attempted it.

Just how much did he weigh when filming started? A whole 50 kilograms (110 lbs). He achieved this weight by dining on a single can of tuna and an apple every single day leading up to the beginning of the film’s production. The stress of starving himself was so great that he actually took up smoking to help curb his appetite and calm himself down. If you’re ever doing something that requires you to smoke to keep sane, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. The effects of his weight loss were extremely apparent throughout filming as Christian Bale found himself incapable of running long distances for more than a minute or two at a time simply because his body had eaten away at his muscles. Just as impressive, however, is the fact that he regained all his original weight plus some extra in the span of a few months to prepare for the movie Batman Begins.

9One Scene Took A Year In The Shining

Stanley Kubrick might be remembered as one of the greatest directors in the history of film making, but that title didn’t come to him very easily. Famous for being so meticulous in his set designs that more than one of his films has sparked conspiracy theories, the most famous being that he helped faked the Moon landing and then hid evidence of it in the movie The Shining. On top of this, he was also absolutely cruel to people working with him on his different movies. Another popular piece of trivia that comes from The Shiningis the fact that every page with the phrase “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” was hand written on a typewriter by an actual person.

But that isn’t even the beginning of Kubrick’s madness and attention to detail. It was very common for Kubrick to reshoot the same scene dozens of times until he felt he had the perfect shot for the film. The scene where the character Hallorann explains what the shining actually is took a world record148 takes, but that is nothing compared to the famous blood elevator scene. While it only took three takes, it actually took nine days to set the elevator up each time they needed to do a reshoot. The scene took up less than 30 seconds of run time, but ended up taking a full year’s worth of editing before Kubrick had something he wanted to add into the movie.

8People Earn Less Than Dogs In The Wizard of Oz

If you haven’t seen the version of The Wizard of Oz that was released in 1939, then you’re either under the age of six or currently living in a very foreign country. Practically everyone in the United States will end up viewing this movie at least once in their lifetime, and the reason is obvious: The film is a bona fide classic. But just because the movie has been the subject of nearly 80 years of praise doesn’t mean that everyone involved got their fair share from the movie’s success.

I am, of course, talking about the little people who played the Munchkins of the Lollipop Guild in the movie. While the rumors that one of the Munchkins hung himself on camera and ended up appearing in one of the film’s scenes isjust a rumor, it is easy to see why such a rumor might have been started when you hear that the actors playing the Munchkins were paid a mere $50 a week for their work. Sure that isn’t anything to scoff at in terms of 1930′s money, but then you hear that the dog that played Toto received $125 per week. They weren’t even earning half of what a dog earned, despite the fact that they were humans with actual lines in the movie.

7Film Fitzcarraldo Was More Difficult Than Real Life

Fitzcarraldo is the story of a clearly insane man who longed to build an opera house out in the jungle. He planned on paying for his dream by having his 300-ton boat hauled over a 40-degree slope so he could reach a vast network of untouched reserves of rubber. Now here’s where things get crazy. The movie is based on the true story of a man named Carlos Fitzcarrald who actually did haul his boat over a 40-degree hilltop to reach said rubber reserves. But instead of hauling a 300-ton boat all in one piece, the person the story is based on only hauled a 32-ton boat, and that was only after the boat was taken apart so it could be rebuilt on the other side.

While moving a 32-ton boat in pieces through the Amazon rainforest can be considered nearly impossible at best, Herzog was determined to move his 300-ton vessel for real, simply because it looked more dramatic. And that’s exactly what he did. Other than the added help of a bulldozer for support behind the boat itself, nearly everything was done by hired natives and contractors. As if trying to push a boat that big wasn’t dangerous enough, they also faced attacks from natives, animals, and just whatever else nature could throw at them. Limbs were lost, people “might” have died, and a boat was successfully moved over a hilltop. And it only took four years of hard work and a blatant disregard for anything resembling a world based in reality.

6Sacrilege In Old Boy

Many religions have dietary restrictions. Some of them have days where you can’t eat for certain periods of time while there are others that simply forbid you from eating or drinking very specific things. Then there is Buddhism. While eating meat is frowned upon in certain areas that practice Buddhism, you aren’t actually going against Buddhism by doing it. That is, unless you’re eating something that was killed specifically for you. Purposefully ending another animal’s life just so you can eat it is a no-no in Buddhism. The reason I’m bringing this up is because Choi Min-sik is a Buddhist.

And he ate a live octopus to film a scene in the movie Old Boy. Not one octopus mind you: He ate four whole living octopi before the director got the shot that he wanted. While it was against his religion to do so, Choi Min-sik understood that the scene was extremely important for his character and willingly ate the invertebrates. He did, of course, pray for forgiveness after each take, and the octopi were given a special thank-you message after the movie was released to make up for the act of killing them.

5People Almost Died In Lord Of The Rings

When you work on a series of films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the better part of a half decade, you can’t really be surprised when something goes wrong every once in a while. No matter how safe and careful you are, you’re always just buying yourself a little extra time until the next accident happens, and there sure were a lot of accidents on set. Most of the time they were nothing serious, but we aren’t interested in what happens most of the time. During the scene where Aragorn is floating down a river unconscious, the actor Viggo Mortensen was pulled into a rapid and flung past where all of the safety technicians were. The current forced him into a stone wall and held him underwater out of sight for several seconds until he luckily slipped out of the current pushing him.

While drowning would be a pretty awful way to go, Viggo Mortensen almost one-upped himself with a knife to the face. During a battle with an orc, there was supposed to be a scene where an actual blade was thrown into a tree. When it came time to throw the blade, the orc’s throw was off center and the knife went flying straight for Viggo’s face. Viggo deflected the blade with his sword just before it struck him, narrowly avoiding disaster once again (and accidentally revealing himself as the physical manifestation of Aragorn).

4Oompa Loompas In Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was filmed in Germany nearly 25 years after the fall of the Nazis, but that doesn’t mean that the crew working on the movie didn’t have to deal with the effects that Hitler left behind, because one of the many groups Hitler had a problem with those he deemed to have birth defects, which included people with dwarfism.

As you probably noticed, Willy Wonka employed quite a few little people in his factory. This caused a problem with the casting director, because back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was virtually impossible to find any adult little people in Germany, let alone one that had acting or singing lessons. To find the people they needed for their movie, they were forced to look all over Europe just to get a handful of actors, not all of which had any theatrical training. If you watch closely during the movie, you can see some of them aren’t even singing. This is because quite a few of them couldn’t even speak English (let alone remember their lines) when they were hired onto the movie.

3Everybody Got Cancer For STALKER

The movie STALKER is probably the weirdest one on this list. A foreign scifi-ish movie based on the book A Roadside Picnic (in which nothing happens while at the same time, everything happens). It can be hard to follow the first time through and requires more than one viewing to fully understand. I’m only explaining all this because it is most likely the least-watched film on this list—a real shame seeing as at least three people died just to get it out to you. Everything in the movie STALKER was filmed on location at or near a chemical dumping site. In the movie, the area was titled “The Zone” and was considered an area where no human was meant to tread. In real life, it was a highly toxic area where no human was meant to tread.

The effects of the radiation and poisoning of the land were extremely apparent throughout filming. During a scene where the Stalker lies in a small stream, you can see iridescent colors streaking the water. This wasn’t planned for the film: The colors in the water were caused by chemicals being dumped in by a nearby factory. Even more shocking was a scene where snow began to fall in what was clearly a summer location. Again, these were insanely hazardous chemicals falling out of the sky and anyone (especially women) who came into contact with them became violently ill. Multiple people on set developed cancer and at least three died as a result. To make matters even worse, most of the original film was destroyed in an accident, forcing everyone to go back to the toxic location and film again, further infecting themselves with whatever horrors the Zone had to offer.

2Bigfoot Gets AIDS In Harry And The Hendersons

Through the 1970s up until his death in 1991, Kevin Peter Hall was pretty much every monster you ever saw in a movie or TV show thanks to his 218 centimeter stature (7’2″), but he was most famous for playing the Predator inthe movies of the same name. While working on the television show Harry and the Hendersons as Harry the Bigfoot, Kevin Peter Hall was involved in a serious car accident and had to be rushed to the hospital for a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, the blood he received was tainted with HIV and he contracted AIDS as a result. Very shortly after his diagnoses, he developed pneumonia and died from complications stemming from AIDS.

1The Twilight Zone Claims A Man And Two Children

The Twilight Zone is one of the most classic television shows ever produced in America. The stories are so well-known that people could tell you the twists that happen in most episodes despite having never even seeing a single episode of the hit show. This isn’t because they were predictable, but because they left such lasting impressions on people over the decades that they just kept cropping up as homages in different shows and movies. The legacy of Rod Serling will certainly live on for many decades to come, but there will always be a black mark on its record after the events that claimed the lives of three people on the set of the 1980s movie remake simply titledThe Twilight Zone.

Early one morning, Vic Morrow and two young Vietnamese children were filming a war scene where Vic had to carry the two children through waist-deep water while being chased by a helicopter. Vic Morrow had joked shortly before filming that he should have gotten a stunt double since the scene looked dangerous and difficult, but he decided to do it himself anyway. Shortly after the director yelled “Action,” a problem arose with pyrotechnics coming too close to the helicopter. The helicopter pilot was unable to correct for his adjustments, and his aircraft came crashing down on Vic Morrow and the two children. Vic and one of the children were decapitated by the helicopter’s blades while the second child was crushed underneath the water.

Five people, including director John Landis, were charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter. They were all found not guilty and served no jail time. There were arguments saying that the children should have never been in the water and that multiple child safety and labor laws had been broken by having them film such a dangerous scene so early in the morning, but it was determined to be irrelevant in the overall court rulings.

10 Amazing Amputees Who Triumphed Over Their Disability

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At one time, amputees were quite rare—before the advent of modern medicine, losing a limb was often a death sentence. The process of ligating blood vessels was not pioneered until 1529, and the tourniquet did not come along until 1674. If a person lost a limb, they typically bled to death within minutes, and if they survived that trauma, infection often finished the job. As the years wore on, processes improved so that whole legions of dismembered Civil War soldiers managed to limp home.

Today, the ordeal of losing a body part is certainly traumatic, but the options for amputees have grown truly mind-boggling, with a near future that includes robot arms and legs hardwired directly into our brains.

10Philippe Croizon

In 1994, French steelworker Philippie Croizon was working on a metal ladder when he suffered a horrifying electric shock. Despite their best efforts, doctors were forced to amputate all his limbs. While recovering in his hospital bed, he saw a show on television about a woman swimming across the the English Channel. The program lifted him out of the depression he’d suffered since the incident, and he soon began training in earnest. In September of 2010, Philippe plunged into the Channel off the coast of Kent, England. In under 14 hours, he swam 33.8 kilometers (21 mi), arriving at Cap Gris Nez, France, and becoming the first quadruple amputee ever to swim the English Channel.

In the years since, he has completed similar swimming challenges around the world. Croizon made headlines again in August 2013, when thieves made off with his high-tech, $30,000 wheelchair. After he made a public plea, the chair was returned by a man who claimed he’d merely taken it for “safekeeping.”

9Oscar Pistorious

The story of Oscar Pistorious was one of the most inspiring in sports, though it took a dark and bizarre turn. Pistorious was born in 1986 with a condition called fibular hemimelia, a congenital absence of the fibula (one of the lower leg bones). At 11 months old, his legs were amputated between the knee and the foot so that he would be able to walk. An accomplished athlete throughout his youth, Oscar took up running while recovering from a rugby injury.

He would go on to earn the nickname “Blade Runner,” using a curved carbon fiber prosthetic called the Flex Foot Cheetah. In his short career, he earned dozens of medals, including six golds at the Paralympic Games. In 2012, he became the first ever amputee runner to compete in the Olympics when he ran in the London games.

Less than a year later, it would all come crashing down. On February 14, 2013, gunshots rang out at Pistorious’s home in Pretoria, South Africa. When the smoke cleared, Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar’s gorgeous model girlfriend, lay dead on the bathroom floor. Pistorious told police that he’d thought Reeva was in bed and the person he shot behind the closed bathroom door was an intruder. The subsequent investigation was fraught with complications. A trial date was finally set for March 2014. Pistorious was not dubbed a flight risk, and he returned to training in the summer of 2013, looking noticeably gaunt.

8Greg Gadson

Between 1985 and 1989, Greg Gadson played football for the US Military Academy at West Point. He would go on to a nearly two-decade-long career in the army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On the night of May 7, 2007, while traveling in Baghdad, Iraq, he lost his legs to a roadside bomb. When Gadson’s old West Point teammate Mike Sullivan heard what had happened, he went to visit the injured serviceman at Walter Reed Medical Center. Sullivan was an assistant coach for the New York Giants. When Sullivan asked if there was anything he could do for his friend, Gadson said he’d like to take his family to a Giants game.

During the next season, Sullivan obliged. 2007 had started on a sour note for the Giants—they were 0–2 when Gadson was invited to attend a game. But Sullivan asked Greg to address the team the night before the game, and he delivered a rousing sermon on the importance of teamwork and opportunity,firing up the team.

The Giants would go on to win six straight games. On January 20, Gadson was on the sidelines, serving as honorary co-captain when the Giants played the Green Bay Packers for the NFC Championship. They won, then went on to defeat the heavily favored New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. For his contribution, Gadson was given his very own ring.

In 2012, Gadson, who had since learned to walk on bionic prosthetics, had his first acting role, appearing in the action film Battleship.

7Jerry Garcia

Playing the guitar is an incredibly complex venture even with all 10 digits intact, but Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry Garcia managed to become one of the most legendary players in history with a mere nine. While on vacation as a small boy, he was holding a chunk of wood to be split by his older brother, Tiff. The ax missed its mark and about two-thirds of Jerry’s right middle finger was lost. The amputation was no doubt traumatic at the time, but it certainly didn’t keep him down for long. He was rated the 46th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone, and was known for borrowing from a vast number of styles. As an adult, he was fond of giving stunted middle-finger salutes to audiences.

6Kyle Maynard

Kyle Maynard was born with small stumps for arms and legs, a condition called congenital amputation. His disability seems not to have hampered him in the least—in high school he was a phenomenal athlete, participating in both football and wrestling. In 2009, he would go on to compete in a mixed martial arts event in Alabama. His opponent, Brian Fry, was able to evade Maynard’s takedowns, but Kyle went the distance, losing 27–30 on the judges’ decision.

These alone would be enviable accomplishments, but Kyle wasn’t even close to done. In 2012, he spearheaded Mission Kilimanjaro, climbing Africa’s tallest mountain as a way of raising awareness for disabled veterans. Using bike tires secured around his limbs with tape, he crawled all the way to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on all fours, the first quadruple amputee to complete the audacious stunt.

5Tammy Duckworth

One of the many grim realities of war is the horrifying injuries of combatants. The recent conflict in the Middle East is no different. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have sent hundreds of soldiers back home missing limbs. Tammy Duckworth was one such soldier. A member of the Army National Guard, she was co-piloting a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in 2004 when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. In the fiery aftermath, her legs were destroyed and she almost lost her right arm. She became the first female double amputee of the Iraq War and faced a grueling recovery.

After her military career, she became involved in politics, working to further the cause of disabled soldiers with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. She was fitted with prosthetic legs and learned to walk. In 2013, she became thefirst disabled woman ever to be elected into the US House of Representatives, serving Illinois’s 8th District.

4Hugh Herr

As a teenager, Hugh Herr was one of the foremost mountain climbers in the world. While scaling New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1982, he and a friend were caught in a freak blizzard. The rescue was a disaster—both men suffered frostbite, and one of the volunteers died in an avalanche. Herr’s legs had to be amputated below the knees, and it seemed as though his climbing days were over.

But just a few months later, Herr had completed his rehabilitation, and using prosthetic legs he’d developed himself, he was back to climbing mountainsides, as good as or better than before. He went on to earn a master’s in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard. He is currently a professor, and much of his research is dedicated to robotic limb replacements. Indescribing his own legs, he says, “I’m titanium, carbon, silicon, a bunch of nuts and bolts. My limbs that I wear have 12 computers, five sensors, and muscle-like actuator systems that enable me to move throughout my day.”

3Cameron Clapp

Young Cameron Clapp lost his legs and right arm as a result of teenage recklessness. At 15, he was wandering drunk near railroad tracks in Arroyo Grande, California, when he apparently collapsed. The next train that came along took both legs above the knees and his right arm near the shoulder. He was not initially expected to survive—indeed, first responders were traumatized by the condition he was in when they found him on the tracks. Doctors told the boy he might only hope to walk a few steps in his lifetime, on special occasions like graduation.

Cameron went on to prove them wrong. From the moment he was introduced to prosthetics, he never returned to his wheelchair. He has become an accomplished athlete who can run, walk, swim, and even play golf. In addition, Clapp has acted on several television shows and in the movieStop-Loss.

His greatest accomplishment, however, has been in helping others cope with amputations. Clapp is active in the Amputee Coalition of America and has worked with many disabled veterans returning home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2Aimee Mullins

Born with the same congenital affliction as Oscar Pistorious, Aimee Mullins has accomplished more in her short life than most of us could ever aspire to. Despite having no lower legs, she became the first amputee to compete on an NCAA track team while attending Georgetown University and set Paralympic world running records before retiring from competition. In 1999, she began fashion modeling, working for Alexander McQueen, Kenneth Cole, and others. People magazine rated her among their 50 most beautiful people. But Mullins is more than just a pretty face. She is also an actress, who appeared in 2006’s World Trade Center, with several projects due out in 2014.

Aimee is a tireless advocate for those with disabilities and is a noted public speaker. She is well-known for her appearances at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) medical conferences, where she shares her experiences and cutting-edge ideas in healthcare.

1Jeff Bauman

After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, three people were left dead and 264 wounded, some of them missing limbs. One of the most enduring, gruesome images of this tragedy was that of Jeff Bauman, a young man who had both legs blown off in one of the blasts. He had been waiting at the finish line for his girlfriend, who was participating in the race. Despite the personal horror that he had suffered, Bauman was able to provide important eyewitness testimony to the FBI, leading to the subsequent death of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the capture of his brother, Dzhokhar. Like many of those injured in the bombing, Bauman has appeared on television to share inspiring messages. Determined to resume a normal life, he has already begun walking on prosthetics. In September 2013, it was announced that Bauman would publish a memoir of his experiences in the wake of the bombing, titled Stronger.

10 Logos That Mean Way More Than You Think

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10Logos—we see hundreds of them every day. We see them so much that we often don’t even think about them. But years of work and millions of dollars go into even the simplest logos, and sometimes the layers of hidden meanings can be hard to believe.

Fedex Logo Subliminally Tells Us They Are Fast

The Fedex logo is basically just the company’s name: “Fed” in bold purple writing and “Ex” in bold orange. There’s nothing particularly clever about that. So why has such an unassuming logo won dozens of awards? For its use of negative space. In the FedEx logo, the “E” and the “x” are positioned in such a way that an arrow is formed in the space between them. A lot went into the creation of this logo, including months of work and the creation of an entirely new letterform. But what is represented in the logo is apparently very effective on a subliminal level. Many don’t specifically notice the arrow but still process it on an unconscious level, associating it with the sense of speed and proficiency that the company certainly hopes to be linked to.

9The Golden Arches Are Boobs

One would be forgiven for thinking that the McDonald’s logo is nothing but a large yellow representation of the first letter in the company’s name. And it technically is, but there’s more to it. To some, the rounded “M” subconsciously represents our mother’s breasts. In the 1960s, McDonald’s was retooling its image, which included discussing a possible new logo. Louis Cheskin, a psychologist and design consultant hired by McDonald’s urged them to keep the current logo, claiming that the golden arches had a Freudian effect that made customers imagine a pair of nourishing breasts, which then made them hungry. Some find this hard to believe, but one thing’s for sure—you won’t look at the big “M” the same way again after today.

8Museum of London Logo Shows History

The Museum of London is dedicated to recounting the history of London through all eras, from medieval times to today. In 2010, the museum needed a revamp, hoping to update their image and appeal to a younger audience. The new logo they presented was certainly capable of that due to its vibrant color, but on top of that you can learn about the history of London just by looking at it. The logo features several colored layers, each representing adifferent geographical shape London has taken in its evolution through time. This reflects the history and change that the museum displays and documents inside, as well as being almost impossible to miss due to its color.

7Adidas Logo Makes You Work Harder

Adidas manufactures sports clothing and accessories, but it’s probably most known for the shoes. The name “Adidas” originated as a combination of the first and last name of the company’s creator, Adolf Dassler. Even at the very beginning, Adidas put heavy interest into marketing, with “the brand with the three stripes” almost becoming their motto. Throughout time, the company’s logo has changed, but has always incorporated the three stripes. The current logo features three slanted stripes in a triangle shape, but referencing the logo of times past isn’t all that’s represented here. This new logo symbolizes a mountain, a metaphor for the challenges and perceivable goals that all athletes must meet and overcome.

6Mitsubishi Logo Shows Company Lineage

Mitsubishi was first established as a shipping firm in the 1800s and involved the merging of two groups to become one company. The logo represents this by combining two “crests”—the three-leaf crest of the Tosa Clan and the Iwasaki family crest, which showed three diamonds stacked on top of each other. The three diamonds are said to signify reliability, integrity, and success and are colored red because red denotes confidence and attracts customers to the brand.

5Google Logo Is A Rebel

The Google logo appears to be made of fairly humble, simple colors with no flashy font or symbols, but even simple colors can have a deep relation to company image. During the creation of the Google logo, designers wanted a way to display a sense of playfulness without bulky objects or symbols in the logo limiting what they could do. This was initially achieved by skewing some of the letters, but this idea was scrapped and instead focus was directed toward color. The current logo features a pattern of primary colors being broken with a single letter shown in the secondary color of green. The broken pattern represents playfulness and the idea that Google isn’t a company that plays by the rules.

4Animal Planet Logo Is Feral

The Animal Planet logo used to be an elephant reaching out to a miniature Earth. An animal and a planet—that’s simple enough. The channel relaunched in 2008 with the intention of appealing to a wider audience and the elephant-globe logo was replaced. With its relaunch, Animal Planet sought to rid itself of the slow and boring pace associated with documentaries for more primal and exciting programming, and they attempted to present a new logo to match. The new logo is said to represent instinct, with the shades of green bringing to mind images of a jungle and feelings of primal urges, emotion, and “animalistic boldness”. That’s a lot of feeling to be had from what is essentially the name of the channel with one letter turned sideways.

3NBC Logo Makes Us Buy Stuff

Most people know that the NBC logo is a peacock; that part isn’t a secret. But many fail to ask why the peacock is there in the first place. It was all a marketing trick to make people buy color televisions. At the time of the logo’s development, NBC was owned by the electronics company Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Color televisions were just beginning to emerge and RCA wanted a way to show the public that the relatively high price of the units was worth the enhanced experience of viewing in color. They needed a logo that required color to be fully appreciated, reminding viewers with black-and-white units that they were missing out. Rainbows were rejected as too obvious, butterflies were too tame and eventually thepeacock was selected, bringing with it the connotation that NBC was proud of its new color programming because of the then-common phrase “proud as a peacock”.

2The Amazon Logo Represents Diversity And Smiles

The Amazon logo looks fairly simple at first glance. The company’s name, Amazon.com, in bold black lettering with a simple yellow line curving underneath. But what does that arrow represent? It’s intended to be two things. It represents the smile customers should find on their faces after a great Amazon experience. The position of the yellow line forms a visible smilewith each “a” in the word acting as the eyes.

The yellow line is also an arrow, beginning at the first “a” and spanning over to “z”. This signifies the diversity among Amazon’s products—”everything from ‘a’ to ‘z’ ”—as well as denoting a link to the diversity in the Amazon forest itself. At one point this logo was animated with the yellow arrow beginning at the “A” and slowly growing out towards the “z”, but it was later changed for being too phallic.

1The Pepsi Logo Represents Everything

The Pepsi logo is a simple circle. The top half is red, the bottom half is blue, and a wavy white line runs through the center. The colors intentionally represent the American flag, but that’s just scratching the surface of this simple globe. Pepsi spent hundreds of millions on their current logo, which is very similar to their previous ones, but tweaked in a way that it (apparently) means a lot more.

When submitting the new logo, the branding agency hired by Pepsi presented a 27-page document explaining the many, many connotations their design represented. According to this document the new logo represents the Earth’s magnetic field, feng shui, Pythagoras, geodynamics, the theory of relativity, and plenty more. Makes you wonder if the logo is working as intended or if the branding company lied their way into a big fat check.

10 Video Games That Impacted Gaming

2013-06-29T10:45:00.005+05:30

Video games are getting bigger and bigger every year. With the mass production of “crap-ware” coming out, there are still a few games released that really change how people game. Whether its a serious game, or more casual, these games really made an impact on the video game industry.

Everquest

This Sony made MMO (massively multiplayer online) was the first of its kind, and really defined how MMO’s are played today. The games user interface is the standard blueprint for every new MMO that comes out: sometimes so similar you can even call it a copy. Regardless, if you loved or hated Everquest, nobody can deny that it was the launching pad for every new MMO that hits the scene.

Starcraft

The RTS (real time strategy) video game genre has been defined by this game. With its very high paced gameplay and a massive online fanbase, its hard to dispute the impact of Starcraft on the gaming industry. In my opinion, with the rise of console gaming, Starcraft is one of those games that really kept PC gaming alive. The game is even televised nationally in Korea. Yes, its that big. With the release of Starcraft II I would imagine the RTS genre will only grow.

Final Fantasy VII

Anyone who had a Playstation in the mid-90′s knows about this one. You can even call it the flagship game of the first generation Playstation. Anyone who plays RPG’s (role playing game) has a special appreciation for this game. Between the cutting edge graphics (for its time, of course) and compelling plot / side plot, this game can easily be known as the most famous RPG to date. There is still a huge demand for the game to be remade. The words RPG and Final Fantasy go hand in hand, because of this 7th installment of the franchise. Not to mention, Sepheroth is the most bad-ass villain ever!

Grand theft Auto III

Mothers around the world hated this game. Its a sandbox game that allowed you to do, literally, anything. The game really got heated after the release of “San Andreas”, particularly because of the “hot coffee mod” or sex scene shown. The games company had to re release the game without that scene. Regardless, Grand Theft Auto and sandboxes go hand in hand.

Halo

Microsoft can really thank this series for the huge success of XBox live. Sure, I mean we have Call of Duty now, but nobody can deny what halo did for the console FPS (first-person shooter). Because of Halo, the use of online console gaming was born with XBox live. I can’t remember a kid who didn’t play xbox live with halo.

Tetris

Casual, yet so addictive! This game is the first thing to come to mind when you think of a portable game. How many of you kids out there have a mom that does not play games, but will play tetris? Need I say more?

Farmville

Anyone who has Facebook either plays this game, or knows 5 people who do. If you are like me, your Facebook notifications are constantly full of annoying requests from those people that are addicted to the game.

Legend of Zelda

This one is a no brainer. The mix between RPG, hack and slash, and action/adventure made this game a big hit from its first day of release. Nintendo struck gold with this one, and it is still a major series of the Nintendo platforms today. Not to mention, Link make an appearance in so many other games. That is how loved he really is.

World of Warcraft

It”s hard to not put this game as number 1. With over 10 million players currently, and growing, it’s easy to see how this game impacted gaming. People who don’t play games at all play WOW. The mix between satisfying content and the social network involved in this game truly puts it in its own category. There have even been reports of suicides concerning this game.

Super Mario Bros

Any disputes here? This game from Nintendo started gaming. I know there was the atari and other systems prior to, but Mario made all games what they are today. With a new Mario releasing every year, its undeniable what this Italian plumber did for gamers all around the world.

10 Unexpected Side Effects Of The 3-D Movie Craze

2013-06-28T18:44:00.000+05:30

Within the last decade or so, 3-D has experienced a resurgence that couldn’t possibly have been predicted during its last go-round in the ’80s. Then, as with its first boom in the ’50s, it was seen largely as a novelty, and the films that employed it largely as vehicles for various things to appear to fly at the audience’s face.

For better or worse, the technology continues to improve, and appears to be here to stay. But this time, it’s brought with it a host of unintended side effects that we didn’t see coming—no pun intended.

10It Created A New Niche Tech Industry

One of the biggest differences between the 3-D boom of the ’80s and the current one is the state of technology. Specifically, 3-D-rendering software and digital image-capture techniques are lightyears ahead of where they were 30 years ago.

Then, there were only a couple different ways to make things fly out of the screen at your face; today, several companies have sprung up offering competing technologies, each trying to outdo the other in terms of realism, comfort, and depth. And they’re not letting up.

While Real D is currently dominant, upstarts like 3ality and Pace (which produces the Fusion cameras used for Avatar) are angling to make things fly at your face in the near future (and provide awesome, rich landscapes and detailed renderings and so forth). We’ll give the face stuff a rest—we have to admit the technology has gotten pretty freaking awesome. Which is why, for the first time . . .

9It Created A New Price Point For Movies

Never before the ’90s were premium prices charged for a 3-D movie. And while people are quite happy to complain loudly about it, this is not likely to change as long as those same people keep shelling out the cash. Some of these films appear to be 3-D just for the sake of being so, happily charging you the jacked-up price while offering a negligible 3-D experience.
Before you go picturing theater owners rolling around in your money, however, you should know that theaters get screwed by Hollywood worse than just about anyone, and their profit margins are extremely slim. And while the new and competing 3-D methods mean that filmmakers have to license the technology, it also means that . . .

8Theaters Have Been Forced To Spend Loads Upgrading

As with the advent of Dolby sound and Smell-O-Rama (mostly Dolby), awesome new tech for displaying movies means that theaters have to upgrade, and the film studios sure aren’t paying for it. Each screen costs around $70,000 to convert.

And no, 3-D films can’t just be shown on just any old screen. In the past, the smaller number of 3-D-capable screens was enough, because only one 3-D film was being released at a time. As their popularity has skyrocketed, theater chains and independents alike have been forced to shell out millions to upgrade their facilities—well, either that or miss out on the giant crowds paying the premium ticket prices.

7Screenplays Are Being Written And Pitched Differently

Since that premium price point remains the same regardless of the quality of the film, many hack screenwriters know that they have a better shot at getting their screenplay produced if it is pitched specifically as a 3D project. For example, a remake of the 1978 schlockfest Pirahna probably sounded a lot less questionable to producers when pitched as Pirahna 3D; likewise, the film certainly would not have made 83 million freaking dollars had it been flat.

Of course, this applies upwards as well. Prominent filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese (Hugo) have gotten films made for which there may have been a negligible level of interest if not for the 3-D aspect. And don’t take that Pirahna example to mean that people will watch any old 3-D crap; its sequel, which by all rights should have gone direct to video, had an abysmal three-week theatrical run. Turns out the movie still has to be fairly decent.

6It’s Messing With Our Vision In Unprecedented Ways

3-D has always been a strain on the eyes, and even as the technology improves, it may just be screwing them up in new and novel ways, by forcing your eyes to constantly adjust in ways that they never do in nature. Specifically, as pointed out by noted film editor Walter Murch, they force our eyes to focus on one point and converge at another, constantly changing series of points.

There’s a reason why this is exceptionally hard on our eyes—evolution. Nothing in the natural world has ever made our eyes perform this trick before. Strangely, this is a double-edged sword, for as it turns out . . .

53-D Can Help Diagnose Vision Problems

Severe instances of the aforementioned problems could mean that you are lacking in binocular vision—the ability to put two images together to form one. This could mean you have a lazy eye or problems with your eyes converging, both of which can be fixed by an optometrist.

So to sum up the previous two points, nothing screws with your eyes quite like 3-D, but the extent to which it screws with them can tell your eye doctorwhat’s wrong and how to address the problem. Once your eyes are healthy, you can go watch more 3-D movies and screw them up again, and on and on ad infinitum.

4It’s Pushing All Film Technology Forward

The cameras that James Cameron used to shoot Ghosts Of The Abyss did not exist before that project—they were created specifically for it, and further modified for Avatar. Although this meant Avatar was obscenely expensive to make, it’s also the highest-grossing film ever for the same reason—all the money was up there on the screen, and it looked pretty mind-blowing.

Now, filmmakers are experimenting with higher frame rates and other ways to further improve the experience. Some of these developments have yielded highly questionable results (we’re looking at you, The Hobbit), but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop trying, and it’s probably just a matter of time before the next round of technology arises to blow our minds and perhaps our faces and noses as well.

3Old Flat Movies Are Getting 3-D Re-Releases

For the cost of a cheap conversion, studios can re-release old blockbuster films that have been shelved for years, many of which likely would never have gotten a re-release if not for 3-D. Several Disney and Pixar films, along with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Cameron’s Titanic (a hugely successful example) have gotten this treatment; films standing in line for it include Top Gun, Jurassic Park, and the rest of the Star Wars films, of course.

This is obviously a double-edged sword, as most of the films getting this treatment have been beloved classics that many are happy to see in theaters again. Whether they’re happy to see them in 3-D is up for debate, although for a kind of pilot experiment, the Titanic re-release did pretty well for itself.

2They Forced 3-D TVs To Market

Nobody was really clamoring for a 3-D viewing experience in the home until the recent boom in 3-D movies. Actually, nobody is really clamoring for that now, either—electronics companies just figure that since 3-D movies are so popular, people must want 3-D TVs, too.

The technology has actually become pretty viable, but is still prohibitively expensive for most consumers. And even when the price points inevitably come down, it remains to be seen whether the average viewer really wants to see every single thing in three dimensions. Speaking of which . . .

1Nearly All Movies Are Now In 3-D

Again, this isn’t the first 3-D movie boom. It’s happened not once but twice—3-D made its Hollywood debut in the ’50s, the trend subsided in the ’60s and came back in the ’80s, with the advent of polarized (clear lenses) as opposed to anaglyph (red and blue). In both previous instances, 3-D was seen largely as a gimmick, but with each cycle the technology has improved, leading to its application in mainstream blockbusters this time around—pretty much all of them.

Indeed, an “event” film that does not see a 3-D release is increasingly rare, with the filmmakers actually having to explain themselves, while others insist that soon, all movies will be 3-D. So what do we do if we don’t like it? Simple! Wear an eye patch

Top 10 Revolutions Felt Around the World

2013-06-27T20:49:00.003+05:30

A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, “a turnaround”) is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place over a relatively short period of time. It is mostly used to refer to political change. Revolutions have occurred throughout human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration and motivating ideology. Their results include major changes in culture, economy and socio-political institutions. Here are what I consider to be the ten most influential revolutions. I may have missed some important ones, so feel free to add yours. There is some overlap between this list and the list of significant coups d’etat, which is to be expected. Nevertheless, this list adds more information and a different perspective to the first…

The Haitian Revolution

On 22 August, 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war. The signal to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodoo and leader of the Maroon slaves, during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman, on the night of August 14th. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt. Whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters through “pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death”. Because the plantation owners had long feared a revolt like this, they were well armed and prepared to defend themselves. Nonetheless, within weeks, the number of slaves who joined the revolt reached approximately 100,000. Within the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 whites and burned or destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.

By 1792, the slaves controlled a third of the island. The success of the slave rebellion caused the newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to realize it was facing an ominous situation. To protect France’s economic interests, the Legislative Assembly needed to grant civil and political rights to free men of color in the colonies.

In March of 1792, the Legislative Assembly did just that. Countries throughout Europe as well as the United States were shocked by the decision of the Legislative Assembly, whose members were determined to stop the revolt. Apart from granting rights to the free people of color, they dispatched 6,000 French soldiers to the island.

Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The white planters in Saint Domingue made agreements with Great Britain to declare British sovereignty over the islands. Spain, who controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola, would also join the conflict and fight with Great Britain against France. The Spanish forces invaded Saint Domingue and were joined by the slave forces. By August of 1793, there were only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. To prevent military disaster, the French commissioner, Sonthonax, freed the slaves in his jurisdiction. The decision was confirmed and extended by the National Convention in 1794, when they formally abolished slavery and granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies. It is estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the deaths of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 whites.

The Iranian Revolution

The Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy (Pahlavi dynasty) under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution. The first major demonstrations against the Shah began in January, 1978. Between August and December of 1978, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The Shah left Iran for exile in mid-January of 1979, and the resulting power vacuum was filled two weeks later when Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians. The royal regime collapsed shortly after that, on February 11, when guerrillas and rebel troops took to armed street fighting and overwhelmed any troops still loyal to the Shah.

Iran voted, by national referendum, to become an Islamic Republic on April 1st, 1979, and later approved a new theocratic constitution whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country in December, 1979.

The revolution was unusual and it created a lot of surprise throughout the world: it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military); produced profound change at great speed; was massively popular; overthrew a regime heavily protected by a lavishly financed army and security service; and replaced a modernizing monarchy with a theocracy based on the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists. Its outcome—an Islamic Republic “under the guidance of an 80-year-old exiled religious scholar from Qom”—was, as one scholar put it, “clearly an occurrence that had to be explained.”

Cuban Revolution

On March 10th, 1952, General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the president of Cuba, Carlos Prìo Socarrás, and canceled all elections. This angered a young lawyer, Fidel Castro, and for the next seven years he led attempts to overthrow Batista’s government. On July 26th, 1953, Castro led an attack against the military barracks in Santiago, but he was defeated and arrested. Although Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Batista released him in 1955 in a show of supreme power. Castro did not back down and gathered a new group of rebels in Mexico. On December 2nd, 1956, he was again defeated by Batista’s army and fled to the Sierra Maestra. He began using guerrilla tactics to fight Batista’s armed forces, and, with the aid of other rebellions throughout Cuba, he forced Batista to resign and flee the country on January 1st, 1959. Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba in February and had about 550 of Batista’s associates executed.

He soon suspended all elections and named himself “President for Life”, jailing or executing all who opposed him. He established a communist government with himself as a dictator and began relations with the Soviet Union.

The Cuban revolution was a turning point in recent history. With Castro’s regime in place, Cuba became an important source of support for the global power of the Soviet Union, and thus affected the severity of the Cold War. Castro was involved in unsuccessful rebellions in Venezuela, Guatemala and Bolivia, which caused Cuba to isolate itself from the surrounding world. The communist regime in Cuba gave the U.S.S.R. an ally neighboring the United States during the Cold War, thus bringing the threat of nuclear war to an all time high.

Chinese Revolution(s)

The Chinese revolution was a series of great political upheavals in China between 1911 and 1949, which eventually led to Communist Party rule and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. In 1912, a nationalist revolt overthrew the imperial Manchu dynasty. Under the leaders Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalists, or Kuomintang, were increasingly challenged by the growing communist movement. The 10,000-km Long March to the northwest, undertaken by the communists from 1934 to 1935, to escape Kuomintang harassment, resulted in the emergence of Mao Zedong as a communist leader. During World War II the various Chinese political groups pooled military resources against the Japanese invaders, but, in 1946, the conflict reignited into open civil war. Mao’s troops formed the basis of the Red Army that renewed the civil war against the nationalists and emerged victorious after defeating them at Huai-Hai and Nanjing in 1949. In 1949, the Kuomintang were defeated at Nanjing and forced to flee to Taiwan. Communist rule was established in the People’s Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

Young Turk Revolution

The Young Turk Revolution of July, 1908, reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament that had been enacted by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who abdicated in a move that marked the return to Constitutional government. The Young Turk movement brought together various intellectuals and dissidents, many of whom were living in exile or as officers in the army, especially those based at the headquarters of the Third Army Corps in Salonika. Although it was inspired by the nationalist spirit that was sweeping through Europe at the time, which had already had cost the Empire most of its Balkan provinces, the movement promoted a vision of a democratic multi-national state. Some support for the movement came from Bulgarians, Arabs, Jews, Armenians and Greeks.

The Revolution restored the parliament, which had been suspended by the Sultan in 1878. However, the process of replacing existing institutions with constitutional institutions proved to be much more difficult than expected. Before long, power was vested in a new elite group led by the Grand Vizier. On one hand, the movement wanted to modernize and democratize, while on the other, it wanted to preserve what was left of the empire. The promised policy of decentralization was abandoned when the leaders realized that this compromised security. In fact, the periphery of the Empire continued to splinter under pressure from local revolutions. Indifference from former allies such as the British, who, along with France, had ambitions in the region, compelled the Young Turks to embrace Germany as an ally in hopes that this would preserve the empire. Instead, this alliance led to the Ottoman defeat in World War I, and to the decline of their power after the war. However, they laid some of the groundwork upon which the new nation-state of Turkey would be built, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself a Young Turk.

The potential democratization project represented by the Young Turk Revolution had no parallel at the time among other imperial powers, such as the British and French, whose leaders were nowhere near contemplating granting self-determination to their African and Asian possessions.

Taiping Revolution/Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt, waged from 1851 until 1864, against the authority and forces of the Qing Empire in China, conducted by both an army and civil administration inspired by the Hakka, self-proclaimed mystics named Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. Hong was an unorthodox Christian convert, who declared himself the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus Christ. Yang Xiuqing was a former salesman of firewood in Guangxi, who was frequently able to act as a mouthpiece of God to direct the people, as well as gain himself a large amount of political power. Hong, Yang and their followers established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (also, and officially, Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace) and attained control of significant parts of southern China.

Most reliable sources put the total deaths during the fifteen years of the rebellion at about 20 million civilians and army personnel, although some argue the death toll was much higher (as many as 50 million, according to one source). Some historians estimate the combination of natural disasters combined with the political insurrections may have cost as many as 200 million Chinese lives between 1850 and 1865. That figure is generally thought to be an exaggeration, as it is approximately half the estimated population of China in 1851. The war, however, qualifies as one of the bloodiest ever, prior to World War II. It can be seen as a consequence of the collision between the imperial powers and traditional China; this introduced new concepts and ideals about governance and people’s rights, which clashed with existing customs.

While the rebellion had popular appeal, its eventual failure may have stemmed from its inability to integrate foreign and Chinese ideas, which, arguably, the twentieth century Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, achieved with his brand of Marxism as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

The October Revolution

Also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, this was a political revolution and part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25th October, 1917 (Julian calendar), which corresponds with 7th November, 1917 (Gregorian calendar). It was the second phase of the Russian Revolution, after the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets, dominated by Bolsheviks. The revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd, and further struggles followed. This resulted in the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces. Bolshevik Red Guard forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began to take over government buildings on 24th October, 1917 (Julian calendar)). The following day, the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia), was captured.

The Glorious Revolution

To a large extent, the Roman Catholic James II (1633-1701), King of Great Britain from 1685 until he fled to France in 1688, brought the “Glorious” revolution down upon himself. When he succeeded his brother, Charles II, to the English throne, he proceeded to alienate virtually every politically and militarily significant segment of English society by commencing ill-advised attempts to Catholicize the army and the government, and to pack parliament with his supporters.

He employed the Dispensing Power (the royal prerogative allowing suspension of the operation of various statutes, declared illegal in the Bill of Rights of 1689) to evade the Act of Uniformity and the Test Act. His Declaration of Indulgence, issued in 1687-88, suspended penal legislation against religious nonconformity, allowing Dissenters to worship in meeting houses and Catholics to worship in private.

When he had a son in June, 1688, fears of the establishment of a Catholic dynasty in England led prominent Protestant statesmen to invite William of Orange to assume the throne. William landed with an army at Torbay in November, 1688, promised to defend the liberty of England and the Protestant religion, and marched unopposed on London. James fled ignominiously to France. Parliament then met, denounced James, offered the throne to William and his wife Mary as joint sovereigns, and placed constitutionally significant legal and practical limitations on the monarchy. A rebellion of Scottish Jacobites under Dundee threatened the rule of William and Mary, but Dundee himself was killed at the battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. The next year the Irish and French Jacobites, under James II, were defeated in Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne. As soon as William felt secure on the throne, after the Jacobite defeat, he brought England into the War of the League of Augsberg (versus France), which continued until 1697.

The American Revolution

The American Revolution was a political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century, in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. They first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation, and then expelled all royal officials.

By 1774, each colony had established a Provincial Congress, or an equivalent governmental institution, to form individual self-governing states. The British responded by sending combat troops to re-impose direct rule. Through representatives sent in 1775 to the Second Continental Congress, the new states joined together, initially, to defend their respective self-governance and manage the armed conflict against the British, known as the American Revolutionary War. Ultimately, the states collectively determined that the British monarchy, due to its acts of tyranny, could no longer legitimately claim their allegiance. They then severed ties with the British Empire in July, 1776, when the Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, rejecting the monarchy on behalf of the new nation. The war ended with effective American victory in October, 1781, followed by formal British abandonment of any claims to the United States with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The American Revolution initiated a series of social, political and intellectual transformations in early American society and government. Americans rejected the oligarchies common in aristocratic Europe at the time, championing, instead, the development of republicanism based on the Enlightenment understanding of liberalism. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a representative government responsible to the will of the people. However, sharp political debates erupted over the appropriate level of democracy desirable in the new government, with a number of Founders fearing mob rule. Many fundamental issues of national governance were settled with the ratification of the Constitution of the United States in 1788.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in both French and European history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed within three years.

French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political groups and the masses on the streets. Old ideas about hierarchy and tradition succumbed to new Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. The French Revolution began in 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General in May. The first year of the Revolution witnessed members of the Third Estate proclaiming the Tennis Court Oath in June, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and an epic march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. The next few years were dominated by tensions between the various liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September, 1792, and King Louis XVI was executed the next year. External threats also played a dominant role in the development of the Revolution. The French Revolutionary Wars started in 1792, and ultimately featured spectacular French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian peninsula, the Low Countries, and most territories west of the Rhine—achievements that had defied previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular sentiments significantly radicalized the Revolution, culminating in the Reign of Terror from 1793 until 1794, when between 16,000 and 40,000 people were killed. After the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte.

The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. The growth of republics and liberal democracies, the spread of secularism, the development of modern ideologies, and the invention of total war all mark their birth with the Revolution.

Subsequent events whose roots can be traced back to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. During the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, as a constitutional monarchy and as two different empires.

Bonus

The Spanish Civil War

The revolution was the result of complex political differences between the Republicans — supporters of the government of the day, the Second Spanish Republic, who mostly subscribed to electoral democracy and ranged from centrists to those advocating leftist revolutionary change, with a primarily urban power base — and the Nationalists, who rebelled against that government and had a primarily rural, more conservative power base.

The war for the revolution took place between July 1936 and April 1939 (although the political situation had already been violent for several years before) and ended with the defeat of the Republicans, resulting in the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The number of casualties is disputed; estimates generally suggest that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. Many Spanish intellectuals and artists were either killed or forced into exile; also, thousands of priests and religious people (including several Bishops) were killed. The more militant members of the population often found fame and fortune. The Spanish economy needed decades to recover.

The political and emotional repercussions of the war reverberated far beyond the boundaries of Spain and sparked passion among international intellectual and political communities. Republican sympathizers viewed it as a struggle between “tyranny and democracy” or “fascism and liberty,” and many idealistic youths of the 1930s who joined the International Brigades considered the saving of the Spanish Republic to be the idealistic cause of the era. Many gave their lives in its defense. Franco’s supporters, on the other hand, viewed it as a battle between the “red hordes” (of communism and anarchism) and “civilization.” However, these dichotomies were inevitably over-simplifications: both sides had varied, and often conflicting, ideologies represented within their ranks.

10 People Who Exposed US Government Secrets And Lies

2013-06-27T20:47:00.003+05:30

t seems like another skeleton falls out of the United States’ closet every day. Whistleblowers are coming out of the woodwork, and the government is struggling to keep the scandals contained. Still, tattling on the powers that be is nothing new. Love ’em or hate ’em, here are ten of the most famous US government whistleblowers.

10Gary Webb: The Dark Alliance

In 1996, Gary Webb, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News, published a series of articles known as “Dark Alliance.” The articles detailed how the CIA turned a blind eye as Nicaraguan drug traffickers sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles throughout the 1980s. It also described how the Reagan administration protected drug dealers from prosecution.

According to Webb, the CIA allowed the traffickers to ship large amounts of drugs into the country because the profits were being used to fund the Reagan-supported Contras (a rebel group opposing the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua).

Naturally, insinuating the crack cocaine epidemic of the ’80s was partially caused by the government was a controversial stance—especially when the Reagan administration was already tainted by the Iran-Contra affair. Because of this, Webb’s articles were initially viewed with contempt by the government and his fellow journalists. Speaking out caused him to lose his position at San Jose Mercury News and he was never able to find a job writing daily news again.

In 2004, he was found dead with two gunshot wounds to the head. The official cause of death was considered suicide. Although Webb’s family is confident his depression and inability to find a job drove him to suicide, there are many who believe he was murdered.

Unfortunately, Webb was not vindicated until after his death, as recent internal investigations and declassified documents have affirmed his Dark Alliance reports.

9Mark Felt: Watergate

Arguably the most famous whistleblower in US history, FBI agent Mark Feltwas responsible for feeding sensitive details about the Watergate scandal to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Felt was an anonymous source who went by the nickname “Deep Throat,” and he didn’t reveal himself as the informant until 2005—officially ending a public 30 year guessing game.

As most folks know, Felt told Woodward about the Nixon Administration’s illegal attempts to spy on political opponents at the Watergate Hotel, as well as a widespread spying and sabotage ring meant to help Nixon win re-election. Felt also believed he was passed over as director of the FBI (following the death of J. Edgar Hoover) because Nixon wanted a man in charge who was easier to control.

There were many players involved in uncovering Watergate, and Woodward and his partner Carl Bernstein later admitted they were surprised people became so captivated by Deep Throat—he’d mostly just confirmed info they’d gotten from other sources. Nevertheless, receiving confirmation from the second in command at the FBI was just what they needed to legitimize their stories.

In 2008, Felt died peacefully in his home at the age of 95.

8Daniel Ellsberg: the Pentagon Papers

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg disclosed the Pentagon Papers and confirmed what many US citizens had suspected for decades: the government lied about its actions and involvement in the Vietnam War through four consecutive presidential administrations.

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara originally commissioned the papers in 1967 in an effort to create a history of the Vietnam War and a sort of “what not to do” account for future administrations. However, as the research grew more extensive, those involved realized the government had repeatedly lied to its people. Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst, worked on the study and became fed up with the dishonesty, subterfuge, and seemingly endless war. So Ellsberg leaked the top secret papers to The New York Times, which published a series of articles on the report’s shocking findings.

Some of the worst evidence found in the papers was:

• The administration had strong intelligence that Vietnam was a war they could not win, but they joined anyway.
• The US had no real interest in helping South Vietnam and entered the war only for political maneuvers.
• Leaving the war before a pro-American government was installed was never considered.
• The John F. Kennedy administration had plans to overthrow South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem.
• On the campaign trail, President Johnson promised to scale back the war even though he had specific plans to bomb North Vietnam.
• The US expanded the war and conducted bombings and raids without informing the American people.

The list goes on and on, but it boils down to Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all lying about Vietnam.

Ellsberg’s whistleblowing earned him and Russo a front row seat in front of a Los Angeles grand jury. They were charged with espionage, conspiracy, and theft, but the case was declared a mistrial when it was discovered the government illegally tapped Ellsberg’s communications . . .

7Thomas Drake: Trailblazer

How did Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the National Security Agency (NSA), end up working retail at an Apple store? By doing such dastardly things as trying to protect the 4th Amendment and eliminate wasteful spending. Yes, a man who was once privy to the nation’s greatest secrets and technological strategies found himself showing people how to use the latest apps on their iPhone.

In reality, the gig at the Apple store was likely a relief for Drake, considering he was once being prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and facing 35 years in prison. He came into the government’s crosshairs after disclosing unclassified information about Trailblazer, a $1.2 billion dollar NSA program that infringed on people’s right to privacy.

The government initially designed Trailblazer as a method of sifting through the increasing amounts of electronic communications created by the Internet, cell phones, and elsewhere. While having a program to fill such a need is understandable, there was an alternative program (known as Thinthread) that was more efficient, only cost $3 million, and didn’t violate the privacy of ordinary citizens. Although Drake continually advocated using Thinthread, the bloated and unlawful Trailblazer system was adopted instead.

In 2011, the NSA’s case against Drake collapsed and all felony charges against him were dropped. He never spent a day in jail and was only charged with the misdemeanor “exceeding the authorized use of a computer.”

6Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse: US Army Corps of Engineers/Halliburton

The US government’s cozy relationship with the oilfield services company Halliburton has frequently roused suspicion. Things looked even worse in 2003 when Bunny Greenhouse, the chief contracting officer at the US Army Corp of Engineers, came forward saying the government showed favoritism to Halliburton and granted them a contract to rebuild the oilfield facilities in Iraq.

So, what was the problem with the contract? It was a no-bid arrangement, which means no other company had the opportunity to offer a price for the work. The Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) was simply pushed through the usually cumbersome bureaucratic channels with no competition and given a seven billion dollar five-year contract. It was Greenhouse’s job to monitor and approve such contracts, and she argued through the whole process that the arrangement was unjust. How was she rewarded for doing her job and trying to save the US money? She received poor performance reviews, demoted, and stripped of her top secret clearance.

After feeling discouraged and increasingly harassed, Greenhouse went publicwith the information while also revealing that Halliburton frequently overcharged the Pentagon, and Donald Rumsfeld’s office controlled all aspects of the shady arrangement.

Greenhouse eventually filed a lawsuit against the US Army Corp of Engineers for her treatment. In 2011, her employers settled the case for 970 thousand dollars, which reflected full restitution for lost wages, compensatory damages, and attorney fees.

5Coleen Rowley: FBI

Immediately after the September 11th tragedy, Americans were dumbfounded and wondering how a primitive group of terrorists could unleash an attack on US soil without drawing suspicion from any of the country’s intelligence agencies. It seemed impossible, and it was.

While government agencies feigned utter surprise, FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley immediately came forward explaining that her Minneapolis field office knew Zacarias Moussaoui (one of the 9/11 conspirators) had paid eight thousand dollars in cash for Boeing 747 flying lessons and was planning a suicide hijacking. However, her requests to search Moussaoui’s room and computer were denied by her superiors.

Frustrated by the mishandling of information before and after the attacks, Rowley wrote a 13-page memorandum and hand-delivered copies to FBI Director Robert Mueller and two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Among other things, the letter claims the bureau deliberately thwarted efforts which may have stopped the September 11 tragedy. Time magazine printed full details of the memo in its June 3, 2002 edition titled, “The Bombshell Memo.”

Rowley also testified in front of the 9/11 commission about the debacle and wasn’t shy in saying the deadly attacks could have been delayed or completely avoided if her office had been allowed to properly investigate the suspected terrorist.

Rowley retired from the FBI in 2004 and was named one of Time’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002.

4Bradley Manning: United States Army

US Army Private Bradley Manning is responsible for what some have called the biggest leak of secret military data ever. His actions also helped put WikiLeaks on the map, as he provided the organization with hundreds of thousands of classified documents.

Because Manning was a known disgruntled and often bullied worker, there is some debate regarding his intentions for the leak. Was he really trying to inform the public about crimes, brutality, and corruption within the government, or was he simply seeking revenge on his military associates, which he described as a “bunch of hyper-masculine, trigger happy, ignorant rednecks.” Two of his superiors even advised not sending Manning to Iraq (where he eventually accessed the secret documents), because he was considered a “risk to himself and possibly others.” However, Manning was one of the few qualified intelligence analysts available, and evidently the Army thought his skills were worth the risk. Obviously, their gamble didn’t pay off.

Among the things Manning revealed were:

• A secret video, nicknamed “collateral murder” that showed US air crew laughing after killing dozens of people (including reporters and civilians) in an air strike.
• Detailed records of the civilian death toll in Iraq (even though the military repeatedly said there was no record). Out of 109,000 deaths logged in a six year period, 66,081 were unarmed civilians.
• US Soldiers committed horrific acts of torture on Iraqi prisoners, and despite hundreds of filed complaints, authorities never investigated.
• US defense contractor DynCorp was involved in child trafficking.

Currently Manning is being imprisoned by the military and is facing 21 charges, including “aiding the enemy,” which comes with a life sentence. Yes . . . Manning is in jail for exposing the US government paying a company that sold child slaves.

3Russell Tice: National Security Agency/Defense Intelligence Agency

Does the NSA really care about the phone conversation you had with your grandma or the embarrassing pics you messaged your significant other? Apparently so.

According to Russell Tice, an ex-NSA intelligence officer, “The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications—faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. It didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications.”

Besides illegally wiretapping and eavesdropping on ordinary citizens, it seems US intelligence agencies are especially curious about the goings on of journalists. Tice says he personally witnessed communications channels of journalists being recorded 24/7 and, although he’s not sure what they did with the info, he’s confident it’s digitized and in a database somewhere.

In June 2013, Tice also divulged that the NSA even conducted unconstitutional domestic spying on judges, military officials, members of congress, and more. Perhaps most shocking was the revelation that, back in 2004, his office was given the task of wiretapping a “40-something-year-old wannabe senator” from Illinois. Five years later the wannabe senator became president of the United States. And now he’s listening in on you!

Tice was labeled “paranoid” by the NSA, demoted, and finally fired. He continues to tell his story to the media, Congress, and anyone who’ll listen.

2Edward Snowden: National Security Agency

Edward Snowden worked as a technical contractor for the NSA, and is currently making headlines for disclosing info on warrantless mass surveillance programs conducted by the US and British governments. Essentially he is whistleblowing about the same types of things Russ Tice did in 2005, but for whatever reason, it’s awoken the sleeping masses this time around. People everywhere are wondering why and to what extent the government is intruding into their private lives.

Some of the most shocking info Snowden has leaked is:

• An order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to Verizoninstructing them to hand over all metadata for all US customer phone calls. Note—that is all phone calls made by US citizens. Every phone call every minute of every day. Did you just talk to your mom? The NSA now has a record of that. Oh—and if you’re not in America, they are listening to you too if you spoke to an American or had any phone conversation with anyone in the world that passed through the US phone system.
• The NSA program PRISM, which allows the NSA to monitor people’s email, web searches, and overall internet use (has direct access to Google, Facebook, and Apple).
• NSA’s record of hacking into China’s computers, universities, and mobile phone companies.

As of June 2013, Snowden is country-hopping and trying to find a safe haven to avoid extradition. If brought back to the US he will face multiple charges, two of which fall under the Espionage Act: unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communications of classified intelligence with an unauthorized person.

Although some on the left regard him as a traitor, most view Snowden’s disclosures as the most important in American history. Even Daniel Ellsberg said there has never been a more crucial leak (including his own Pentagon Papers). On his blog he wrote, “Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an ‘executive coup’ against the US constitution.” Change we can believe in? Well it sure is a change from the days when every US citizen wasn’t spied on by their government!

1Peter Buxtun: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Today, we get our feathers ruffled when we learn the government is secretly spying on ordinary citizens. However, that injustice pales in comparison to what happened between 1932 and 1972 when the US Public Health Service tricked people who were already down on their luck into becoming human lab rats.

It began when the US Public Health Service teamed up with the Tuskegee Institute to study the long term effects of syphilis on the human body. They contacted a group of 600 poor, African American men (399 of which had syphilis) and offered to give them free health care. However, this “health care” never involved treating the men for syphilis or even informing them they had the disease. Instead, the clinicians told the men they had “bad blood,” an ambiguous and unscientific term for a variety of illnesses. Making matters worse, by the 1940s, penicillin was a proven cure for syphilis—yet none of the men received it.

Thanks to Peter Buxton, a 27-year-old employee of the US Public Health Service, the 40 year study was put to an end in 1972 when Buxton revealed information about the experiment to the Washington Star. He went public with the details after filing multiple complaints within his organization and didn’t receive a response. Unfortunately, dozens of men had died and many of their wives and children were infected by that time.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton offered an official apology for the racist and inhumane study, but it seems the damage was already done.

10 People Who Give Christianity a Bad Name

2013-06-20T12:10:00.004+05:30

Christianity has been around for two thousand years and, for the most part, it has preached a good message by which to live. But unfortunately, as with all organized bodies, many people claiming to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ have shown themselves to behave quite opposite to the message it espouses. This list looks at 10 of the worst.

Sun Myung Moon

He is the founder of the Unification Church, which has become worldwide since its origin in 1954. Moon was born in 1920, and has set himself up at the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. A lot of people go around saying, “I’m Jesus,” but they are usually dismissed as insane or seeking attention.

Moon has convinced anywhere from several hundred thousand to one million people to join his church and consider him “Jesus reincarnated.” Moon is vehemently opposed to homosexuality, and yet he makes the common mistake of hating them, spewing rage at them, instead of trying of forgiving and trying to convert them from the sin. Such hateful opposition does nothing but galvanize the offended party to continue as it is. Christians must be in the business of saving souls, not assisting their damnation.

He is extremely anti-Semitic, and his entire church with him, championing the Holocaust as divine vengeance against the Jews, because they did not support Jesus, and this brought about his murder by the Roman government.

And none of that mentions Moon’s extraordinarily lavish lifestyle. Modern church founders typically make a lot of money founding churches. Jesus didn’t make one cent. Moon has been known to spend $2,000 a day, and give his children as much as $50,000 monthly allowances. His “True Family’s” home is a huge mansion on 18 acres in Irvington, NY, with 12 bedrooms, a dining room replete with pond and waterfall, 7 bathrooms, a bowling alley, and that’s not counting the mansions in Korea, England, Scotland, Germany, thoroughbred horses for the kids, private tutors, Ferraris, motorcycles, and blank checks to take on their vacations, first-class of course.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The funniest part is that he was convicted of tax fraud and served 18 months in prison. Remember the fish Jesus told Peter to catch? It had two coins in its mouth, one for each of them, to pay the tax? “Render therefore unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.” Even Jesus paid taxes.

David Koresh

Vernon Wayne Howell was a handsome, charismatic Texan, considered so poor a student in elementary and middle school that he was enrolled in special ed classes. He memorized the New Testament by 11, and impregnated a 15 year old when he was 19. He must have forgotten a few verses.

By 1983, after being kicked out of a 7th Day Adventist Church for fooling around with the pastor’s daughter, he began calling himself a prophet. He was able to recruit followers because of his good looks and magnetic personality, eventually proclaiming himself Jesus Christ, “the Son of God, the Lamb who could open the seven seals.” He taught that monogamy was the only proper relationship, but that polygamy was perfectly fine for him, and him alone, and quickly had sex with Karen Doyle, called her his second wife, after his first died, and proceeded to have sex with as many as 140 different women.

Karen Doyle did not get pregnant, probably because she was 14 years old, so he slept with Michele Jones, 12 years old. By proclaiming this God’s will, he was able to have sex with any woman or girl whenever he liked. He tried to gun down George Roden, who was also a high ranking member of Koresh’s sect, and escaped conviction by mistrial.

By the time of the Waco Siege, he had, by his own admission, fathered at least 12 children, some by girls as young as 12. And the followers just kept coming. To be honest, the FBI seriously botched the siege, and used unnecessary force, but Koresh was the primary culprit of his followers’ deaths, 82 of them, by fire. Which side started the fire is hotly disputed and will never be known, but Koresh told his followers, “Don’t move until you see God.”

They didn’t see God before they burned alive, Koresh with them.

Pat Robertson

He’s worse than the previous two because he doesn’t even know how to lie convincingly. He swears that “the spirit of God comes mightily upon [him]” and enables him to leg press 2,000 pounds, though he is 79 years old. This claim has been thoroughly debunked by weightlifting experts, and yet he persists in claiming and not proving it.

He has claimed to be able to deflect hurricanes by praying to God, and stated that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for abortion throughout America (not for Mardi Gras, which would be a little more understandable), thus showing that he did not pray for Katrina’s deflection. He believes that 9/11 and Katrina might be divinely connected.

Most recently, he denounced Haiti after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, stating that Haiti deserved what it was getting because it swore a pact with the Devil back in 1791, in order to drive out the French. Whether that pact was sworn or not, his comments were obviously intended to inflame and hurt, and they did so. How Christian of him. He was roundly denounced by most Christian denominations, and still refuses to retract what he said.

He predicted Doomsday in 1982. Ronald Reagan came close, I guess. He predicted a Pacific Northwestern tsunami in 2006, then a terrorist attack on American soil sometime in 2007. He defended this last failure by stating, “All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God, in his mercy, spared us.” He has made many other predictions, none of which has come true.

He has many times called for the destruction of Islam and all its followers, not for their conversion to Christianity. he calls Islam “satanic.” He calls Hinduism “demonic.” He even claims some Protestant Christian denominations as harboring the spirit of the Antichrist. He has made quite a few anti-Semitic remarks, notably about Ariel Sharon, the former PM of Israel, whose stroke and vegetative state Robertson calls “an act of God.”

Matthew Hale

Hale is currently serving 40 years in prison for attempting to solicit the murder of Judge Joan Lefkow. Not a very model preacher. But actually, he calls himself the Pontifex Maximus of the Creativity Movement, which is just another offshoot from the Ku Klux Klan. The church is for whites only, and it has its own bible, in which one finds passages such as, “You have no alibi, no other way out, white man! Fight or die!”

His church calls for a worldwide, racial holy war, to exterminate the Jews and all black people, in order to establish “a white world.” His reasoning: God is white; God created the Jews and black people to test the faith and resolve of white people; thus, killing a Jew or black person is not a sin. After one of his followers, Benjamin N. Smith, committed a deadly shooting spree, targeting only minorities, Hale “defended” his actions on TV by saying, “We do urge hatred. If you love something, you must hate that which threatens it.” He is on audio tape laughing about the shootings and imitating the sounds of gunfire.

Michael Bray

Bray is not an ordained or college-educated minister, but he does preach a lot about abortion. He served 46 months of a 10 year sentence for conspiring to bomb 10 abortion clinics in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D. C. He and his wife stand firmly on the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, and that because it preaches so firmly against homosexuality and adultery, then upon being convicted of either in a court of law, the guilty party should be put to death. Even though American courts of law have no problem with either. They might be sins, but they aren’t felonies.

Bray didn’t exactly help the Christian cause of conversion by allowing Richard Dawkins, the most famous atheist in the world, to interview him for a show called “The Root of All Evil.” Bray was thoroughly outmatched, of course, and made Christianity look like…well, the root of all evil.

He is now out of prison and living in Wilmington, Ohio, officially labeled as a terrorist.

Paul Jennings Hill

Hill was a trained and ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, but the church excommunicated him in 1993 for taking such a militant stand against abortion, and for becoming a member of the Army of God, a Christian terrorist, anti-abortion organization.

This ordained minister finally let his anger get the best of him when he traveled to Pensacola, Florida on July 29, 1994, to an abortion clinic, and murdered one of the doctors, and his bodyguard, point-blank with shotgun blasts. He wounded the bodyguard’s wife. Then he calmly put down the shotgun in the grass and sat and waited for the police.

He was executed. The law does not permit vigilante justice. And come to think of it, “Love thine enemies,” seems a fair argument against it also.

Marshall Herff Applewhite, Jr.

And if you thought the last several entries were weirdos, Applewhite has gone down in history as a true psychopath. Born May 17, 1931, he proclaimed himself a prophet in 1972, and then, as they all seem to do, proclaimed himself Jesus Christ reincarnated. He was not as handsome as #9, but he wasn’t exactly ugly, either, was married, and seemed for all the world to be “blameless and upright before God.”

Followers flocked to his forceful charisma, when he told them that UFOs were coming to take them away to Heaven. When the UFOs didn’t show, the followers left, but he kept preaching to various friends and their acquaintances, and by 1975 acquired a following of 93 men, women and children.

He eventually recruited people from all 50 states, and settled in Rancho Santa Fe, California. His wife died of cancer in 1985, and sometime between then and 1997, he had a nurse surgically castrate him, for purification. He called his church “Heaven’s Gate.” His congregation worshiped him fervently.

On March 19, 1997, as the comet Hale-Bopp was passing Earth, Applewhite recorded himself preaching to his congregation that suicide “was the only way to evacuate this earth.” His congregation did not believe in suicide, but was so enamored with him, that 39 members took his word for it, and on March 24, 25, and 26, they killed themselves with mixtures of phenobarbitol and applesauce, followed by vodka. They also put plastic bags over their heads to be sure of asphyxiating, in case the poison didn’t work.

Applewhite’s idea was to die so his spirit would ascend to the UFO following Hale-Bopp, which would then take him and his followers to another plane, both physical and spiritual.

Jim Jones

But that’s nothing compared to the 909 people, 276 of them children, who became enamored with the handsome charismatic founder of the Peoples Temple. James Warren Jones started out Methodist, and seemed to have fine intentions, endeavoring to bring about civil right for blacks and integrate American society. Somewhere along the line, he went patently insane. He was an aggressive narcissist, just as entries 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10. He never claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and the only reason he founded the Peoples Temple was for the money he could make via his congregation.

The strangest part is that his followers were not hopeless runaways or uneducated and uninformed. They were predominantly members of other Christian denominations, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Disciples of Christ, etc. They were taken in by his good looks and charm, and his ability to lead and convince.

n 1974, the Temple went to Guyana, with only 50 members. But Jones promised others back in the States a tropical paradise, and they flocked by the hundreds to “Jonestown.” Because he had always been an outspoken communist sympathizer, and intended Jonestown to be a socialist save haven, he drew the attention of the U. S. Government.

On November 17, 1978, investigating claims of abuse within the Temple, California congressman Leo Ryan went to Jonestown, and about 15 members wanted to leave with him. They attempted to depart via a nearby airstrip, and were fired upon by Temple security guards. Ryan was killed, along with four others, one a Temple member.

When the shooters returned to Jonestown, Jones and accomplices were preparing a mass suicide by poisoning: Flavor Aid loaded with cyanide, phenergan, Valium and chloral hydrate.

There are graphic pictures of the dead lying en masse outside the pavilion, 909 of them. The children were probably not told that the drink was poisoned.

Jones shot himself in the head.

Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a priest who used the radio to acquire a large audience for his political and religious propaganda. He was born in 1891, and one of the first to use modern technology to mass communicate for such a purpose.

He started out innocently enough, using radio to decry the KKK for burning crosses on his church grounds, but ten years later, in 1936, he started praising and defending both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini for their politics, and spewing some of the most despicable virulence against Jews to which the world had borne witness up to that point.

He blamed the Great Depression on “an international conspiracy of Jewish bankers,” then blamed Communism, the Russian 1917 Revolution, and Marxist atheism on “global Jewry, in its attempt to lead people astray from the perfection of Lord Jesus.”

He plagiarized a speech by Goebbels, then delivered it himself in a rally in the Bronx, September 13, 1935, giving the “Hitler salute.” And this is what he said. This is what Father Charles E. Coughlin, SJ. said, “When we get through with the Jews in America, they’ll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing.”

He acquired thousands of followers, who chanted things like, “Wait until Hitler gets over here!” Coughlin was linked with a group that attempted to overthrow the U. S. Government, after which he was abandoned by most. He still refused to change his politics, and fought a series of radio duels with Unitarian Walton Cole, who wanted the Catholic Church to put an end to Coughlin’s vitriol.

F. D. Roosevelt himself was the man who shut Coughlin up for good, when the latter started railing against the New Deal. The courts ruled that the 1st Amendment did not apply to radio, and Coughlin’s license was revoked. This forced him to pay for his own air time, which he could not do for long.

On May 1, 1942, the Archbishop of Detroit, Most Rev. Edward Mooney, ordered Coughlin to stop his political activities and confine himself to his duties as a parish priest, warning that he would be defrocked if he refused. Coughlin complied and remained the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower until retiring in 1966. He died in 1979, at 88 years old, still publishing inflammatory articles against Judaism and Communism.

Fred Phelps, Sr.

He has 13 children, 4 of whom have disowned him and their other 9 siblings. Those 4 children, two men and two women, have denounced the man himself as “a vitrolic, megalomaniacal sadistic psychopath.” I can’t phrase it better than that, and yet, it still does not fully capture the personality of this man. Ordinarily, the lister should remain aloof from the list, but in this case, except for his congregation, which officially numbers 71, 60 of whom are Phelps’s relatives, it is highly doubtful if anyone else on the planet agrees with, or even slightly supports, Phelps’s savage, barbaric perversion of Christianity and its founder. So I don’t feel quite so bad about being biased.

His “ministry” at the Westboro Baptist Church, which he founded, in Topeka, Kansas, is based almost entirely on anti-homosexuality, which is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, sin to denounce by means of quoting the Bible. God condemns homosexuality at least twice, in Leviticus, and from this principle, Phelps feels he can condemn the entire world, but especially the United States of America, the latter which he has described as a liberal hellhole that supports homosexuality. That’s a very, VERY cleaned-up paraphrase of his graphic, disgustingly profane diction.

Whereas, there are plenty of verses to quote against hatred, “Love thine enemies” just one of them, as quoted above. Phelps and his worshipers (since they certainly don’t worship Jesus) petulantly ignore these verses and enjoy themselves by hating others. It is a physical and emotional release, a pleasure just as sensual as that garnered by loving others.

He may never have begun a sentence with “God loves…” For him, sermons ought to begin with “God hates…” Most of the time that blank is filled in with homosexual slurs.

He extrapolates God’s hatred for gays to ridiculous lengths, denouncing the entire world as imminently doomed to Hell, except for…you guessed it: him and his precious few followers.

His two estranged sons have described him as “a malignant narcissist, with the same short, viciously intemperate disposition as a serial killer toward his victims.” The only reason he has not killed anyone is not because he views it as a sin, but because it would give the rest of the world more universal ground on which to stand against him. He prefers to set himself up as God on Earth, perfect and blamelessly instigatory.

His oldest daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, has defended their actions as righteous with every word, according to the Bible, and forcing “the sinful American nation to open its mouth and condemn itself.”

He and his congregation picket at least 6 churches and political establishments around their hometown everyday, with signs that read, “God Hates F_gs,” “Thank God for Dead American Soldiers,” “America is Going to Hell,” etc. They do this for the sole purpose of offending and causing wanton emotional distress. They picket the funerals of dead soldiers, screaming at the families, even while they grieve at the gravesides, that the soldier has gone to Hell and so will they. Then they laugh. They have been sued at least once, successfully, but they successfully appealed this suit and paid nothing.

Phelps is the man responsible for sending these brainwashed fools, who revel in their own malice, across the country. He has condemned every single President, from the time he was old enough to care, as the Antichrist. He has even called President Obama “a n____r” on several occasions.

Top 10 People Who Give Islam a Bad Name

2013-06-20T12:09:00.001+05:30

Islam is the second-largest religion in the world (Christianity is the largest), and one of the fastest growing. While there have been very good Muslims, some have been very bad. It is not meant as a commentary on Islam itself – merely ten of its adherents.

Hosni Mubarak

Muhammad Hosni Mubarak was the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt for 30 years. He held office from 1981, until he was forced to resign by mass protests on February 11, 2011. Mubarak was trained as a pilot, and rose in the ranks of Egypt’s air force during the 1960s and ’70s. President Anwar Sadat named Mubarak to be his vice president in 1975, and in 1978 Mubarak became the vice chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the governing political party in Egypt. When Anwar Sadat was assassinated on October 14, 1981, Mubarak succeeded him to become Chairman of the NDP, as well.

Mubarak quickly became an old-style strongman, with full control of the government. Running uncontested, Mubarak won the Presidency in national referenda in 1987, 1993 and 1999; and, after a change in laws, he won running against a token opponent in 2005. He focused on economic growth and inched toward political reform, but any economic gains in the 1990s were offset by criticisms that Egypt was a near-dictatorship; indeed, Mubarak never lifted the state of emergency imposed after Sadat’s assassination.

In February 2005, Mubarak announced plans for a September 2005 election, that would be Egypt’s first-ever multi-candidate contest for the presidency. On September 7, 2005, he handily won his fifth consecutive term in those elections, but the victory was clouded by low voter turnout, reports of fraud and the imprisonment of Mubarak’s political rival, Ayman Nour. The next years were dominated by two issues: calls for political reform and Mubarak’s love/hate relationship with the United States, a steady provider of military aid.

Mubarak was rebuked for his lack of commitment to democracy by American leaders, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but he remained an important U.S. ally in the region, especially during the U.S. war in Iraq. Egyptians took to the streets in January 2011, to protest his rule; Mubarak at first shuffled his cabinet, then said he would step down in September. He finally was forced to resign on February 11, 2011.

King Abdullah

Crown Prince Abdullah has been the acting leader of Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, King Fahd, suffered a stroke, in 1995. Saudi Arabia is one of the only nations that holds no elections whatsoever. The royal family has promised municipal elections soon, but it has not announced whether women will be allowed to vote. In fact, it is forbidden for unrelated Saudis of the opposite sex to appear in public together, even inside a taxi. Women are not allowed to testify on their own behalf in divorce proceedings. Also, in all court cases, the testimony of a man is equal to that of two women.

According to the U.S. State Department, Saudi Arabia continues to engage in arbitrary arrest and torture. During a human rights conference in 1995, Saudi authorities arrested nonviolent protesters who were calling for freedom of expression. Some were later flogged, the usual punishment for alleged political and religious offenses.

In a very unusual show of power, the religious leaders forbade children from playing with Barbie dolls, which they dubbed “Jewish dolls” that are “symbols of decadence of the perverted West.”

Talat Pasha

Talat Pasha was the key architect of the Armenian genocide, one of the largest genocides in modern history. More than 1 million people were massacred over a span of two years. A member of the Young Turks, Talat rose up and became one of three Pashas who ruled the Ottoman government from 1913, until the end of the disastrous First World War. Many Muslim Turks saw the rise in nationalism of the Christian Armenians as a threat to the existence of the Ottoman state. In previous years, programs had been installed against Armenians where possibly hundreds of thousands died. Thirty thousand died in the Adana massacre of 1909. Once they entered World War One, the Ottoman’s endeavor ended in total failure.

Russian and Armenian forces set up an Armenian mini-state in 1915, and thus Talat Pasha sought to punish them. Security forces rounded up 250 Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Istanbul in 1915, and eventually executed them. After passing a deportation law, Pasha ordered deportations and executions to be carried out against all of the Armenian people. During the deportations conditions were deplorable and men were routinely separated from the rest and executed. Many prisoners were tortured or the victims of gruesome medical experiments, more died of hunger and thirst. In some instances, victims would be crucified in imitation of Jesus, as the perpetrators would say “Now let your Christ come help you!” Others would have red-hot irons and pincers applied to their flesh. Out of a population of 2. 5 million, between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians perished during this period. After the Ottoman collapse, Talat Pasha fled to Berlin and was subsequently murdered there, in 1921. His assassin was an Armenian genocide survivor.

Bashar al-Assad

Under his leadership, Syria underwent a degree of relaxation, with hundreds of political prisoners released and a few tentative steps towards easing media restrictions. But the pace of change has slowed — if not reversed — and President Assad has made it clear that his priority is economic rather than political reform. It has been under fire for its continued presence in Lebanon and for its alleged support for Palestinian militants and insurgents in Iraq.

Tensions escalated after the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in Beirut. Many critics blamed Syria for his death. The uneasy relationship between the United States and Syria has led many to believe that Syria could be the current US presidential administration’s next target. In the 2011 Middle East unrest, 358,548 protesters were killed.

Muammar Qaddafi

A dictator known as much for sponsoring international terrorism as he is for his impeccable fashion sense, Libya’s self-proclaimed “Guide of the Revolution” took power in a September 1969 military coup that deposed King Idriss. One of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s first acts as dictator was to rework the calendar and rename all of the months. He also published The Green Book.

President Reagan personally appraised Muammar Qaddafi: “I find he’s not only a barbarian, but he’s flaky. [...] I just think that the man is a zealot.” The primary issue was Qaddafi’s longstanding support of international terrorism. He played host to both Abu Nidal and to the infamous assassin Carlos the Jackal. In all likelihood, Qaddafi ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. During the recent Middle East unrest, between 2,500 and 8,000 protesters were killed.

Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden was also indicted over the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. He was wanted by numerous countries for his ties to terrorist activities, and many attempts were made to capture him. On April 29, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the CIA to conduct a raid, dubbed “Operation Neptune Spear”. In the late evening of May 1, 2011, (EDT), the president announced that bin Laden had been killed in the operation. The entire raid, including intelligence sweeps of the compound, was completed in less than 40 minutes. His body was taken and biometric facial recognition tests were performed. Subsequent genetic testing supported the preliminary identification. On May 6, 2011, al-Qaeda confirmed that bin Laden was dead. They also vowed that they would continue attacking the U.S. and its allies.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam, which means “he who confronts,” was born in a village called Al-Auja, outside of Tikrit in northern Iraq. At around the time of his birth, his father disappeared from his life. Some accounts say that his father was killed; other sources say that he abandoned his family. Saddam’s mother soon remarried a man who was illiterate, immoral and brutal. Saddam hated living with his stepfather, and as soon as his uncle Khairullah Tulfah (his mother’s brother) was released from prison, in 1947, Saddam insisted that he go and live with him. Saddam didn’t start primary school until he moved in with his uncle at age 10. At age 18, Saddam graduated from primary school and applied to military school. Joining the military had been Saddam’s dream, and when he wasn’t able to pass the entrance exam, he was devastated. Though Saddam was never in the military, later in his life, he frequently wore military-style outfits.

Saddam moved to Baghdad for high school. He found school boring and enjoyed politics more. Saddam’s uncle, an ardent Arab nationalist, introduced him to the world of politics. Iraq, which had been a British colony from the end of World War I until 1932, was bubbling with internal power struggles. One of the groups vying for power was the Baath Party, and Saddam’s uncle was a member. In 1957, at age 20, Saddam joined the Baath Party. He started out as a low-ranking member of the Party, and was responsible for leading his schoolmates during riots. However, in 1959, he was chosen to be a member of an assassination squad. On October 7, 1959, Saddam and others attempted, but failed, to assassinate the prime minister. Wanted by the Iraqi government, Saddam was forced to flee.

He lived in exile in Syria for three months, and then moved to Egypt, where he lived for three years. In 1963, the Baath Party successfully overthrew the government and took power, which allowed Saddam to return to Iraq from exile. While home, he married his cousin, Sajida Tulfah. However, the Baath Party was overthrown after only nine months in power and Saddam was arrested in 1964, after another coup attempt. He spent 18 months in prison, where he was tortured, before he escaped, in July 1966. During the next two years, Saddam became an important leader within the Baath Party.

In July 1968, when the Baath Party again gained power, Saddam became vice-president. Over the next decade, Saddam grew increasingly powerful. On July 16, 1979, the president of Iraq resigned and Saddam officially took his place. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq with a brutal hand. He used fear and terror to remain in power. From 1980 to 1988, Saddam led Iraq in a war against Iran, which ended in a stalemate. Also during the 1980s, Saddam used chemical weapons against Kurds within Iraq, including gassing the Kurdish town of Halabja. This action killed 5,000 people, in March 1988. In 1990, Saddam ordered Iraqi troops to invade the country of Kuwait. In response, the United States defended Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War, and on March 19, 2003, the United States attacked Iraq. It was during the fighting that Saddam fled Baghdad. On December 13, 2003, U. S. forces found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole in al-Dwar, near Tikrit. After a trial, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for his crimes, and on December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging.

Haj Amin al-Husseini

Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (born 1895 or 1897; died July 4, 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine. As early as 1920, he was active in opposing the British in order to secure the independence of Palestine as an Arab state, and led violent riots opposing the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. From 1921 to 1948, al-Husayni was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, using the position to continue his promotion of Palestinian nationalism. As a passionate antisemite, al-Husayni encouraged his followers to “kill the Jews wherever you find them”. During World War II, he collaborated with the Nazis and, in 1941, met the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany. He asked Hitler to back Arab independence, and requested that Nazi Germany oppose the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home as part of the Pan-Arab struggle. According to an American report, al-Husayni energetically recruited Muslims for the Waffen-SS, the Nazi Party’s elite military command. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and subsequent Palestinian exodus, his claims to leadership became discredited and he was eventually sidelined by the Palestine Liberation Organization, losing most of his remaining political influence. He died in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1974.

Idi Amin

Idi Amin Dada Oumee (born in 1924, in Uganda) was the military officer and president (1971-79) of Uganda. Amin also took tribalism, a long-standing problem in Uganda, to its extreme by, allegedly, ordering the persecution of Acholi, Lango and other tribes. Reports indicate the torture and murder of 100,000 to 300,000 Ugandans during Amin’s presidency. In 1972, Amin began to expel Asians from Uganda.

He said God had directed him to do this (actually, he had been angered by the refusal of one of the country’s most prominent Asian families, the Madhvanis, to hand over their prettiest daughter as his fifth wife). Over the years, Ugandans would disappear in the thousands, their mutilated bodies washing up on the shores of Lake Victoria. Amin would boast of being a reluctant cannibal— he said human flesh was too salty. He once ordered the decapitation of political prisoners to be broadcast on TV, specifying that the victims “must wear white to make it easy to see the blood.” One of Amin’s guards, Abraham Sule, said “[Amin] put his bayonet in the pot containing human blood and licked the stuff as it ran down the bayonet. Amin told us ‘When you lick the blood of your victim, you will not see nightmares.’ He then did it.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Khomeini was the religious leader of Iran, from 1979 to 1989. In that time, he implemented Sharia Law (Islamic religious law) with the Islamic dress code for both men and women enforced by Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and other Islamic groups. Opposition to the religious rule of the clergy, or Islam in general, was often met with harsh punishments. In a talk at the Fayzieah School in Qom, on August 30, 1979, Khomeini said:

“Those who are trying to bring corruption and destruction to our country in the name of democracy will be oppressed. They are worse than Bani-Ghorizeh Jews, and they must be hanged. We will oppress them by God’s order and God’s call to prayer.”

Following the People’s Mujahedin of Iran operation Forough-e Javidan against the Islamic Republic, Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill those who would not repent anti-regime activities. Many say that thousands were swiftly put to death inside the prisons. The suppressed memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri reportedly detail the execution of 30,000 political activists. After 11 days in the hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Khomeini died of cancer on Saturday June 4, 1989, at the age of 86.

10 Misconceptions About Jesus

2013-06-17T16:57:00.002+05:30

10 Misconceptions About Jesus

Although it might seem that this topic has been done to death, there are still many misconceptions floating around about this vastly influential individual. It therefore makes sense to bring to light some important facts about Jesus which are not common knowledge. Here are ten:

The Nativity Story

Contrary to what you learned in school, at church, and during Christmastime, there is no evidence to suggest that Jesus was born on the 25th of December—or that he was visited by three kings at his birth. December 25 coincides with a number of Pagan festival days across Europe, and was probably intended to replace the Roman Saturnalia festival.
The Bible also states that there were an undisclosed number of wise men who, having “seen his star in the east”, came to adore him. But there is no mention at all of these men being kings, or of their visiting Jesus at his birth; they are described as entering “the house” where he was with his mother, rather than the stable where he was born. They were most likely astrologers, as they seemed to have a keen eye for astronomical phenomena.

There Are More than Four Gospels

Although the “canonical gospels” (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are widely accepted as the most authentic gospels, it is interesting to note that there were about sixty other gospels written about the life of Jesus, including ones which portray his life as young boy.
The four canonical gospels were written sometime between A.D. 70 and A.D. 110, and of these, Mark seems to be the oldest. The other three seem to reference Mark, as well as an unknown source known by scholars as the ‘Q’ gospel. During the early Christian period, it was common for individuals to adapt the gospels to their own understandings—and this could account for the vast number of non-canonical gospels.
Of all the gospels, the four canonical gospels are considered to be the most historically accurate, with many scholars confirming the historical authenticity of the baptism of Jesus, his preaching, and the crucifixion.

Jesus Didn’t Do Charity Work

Jesus said “Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”, and “Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled.” But he was never known for actually doing anything for the poor or needy. At one point, he did provide a free lunch for five thousand of his listeners—but it’s not really the same thing, is it? Even Judas, the infamous traitor, once criticized Jesus for failing to give to the poor.
This decision could be tied to the Christian philosophy that the afterlife is more important than our earthly existence, and that Jesus therefore gave attention to the needs of the soul rather than those of the body.

Jesus Wore Nice Clothes

Often portrayed as a humble sort of guy, Jesus was in fact not a total ascetic. He was even known to carry money, as implied in the scene at the last supper, in which he points out Judas as his traitor (John 13:29). His robe must have been well made and of some value, because the Roman soldiers cast lots for it at his crucifixion. But if the scene was as gory as we’re led to believe, we have to wonder who would have wanted wear it afterwards.
Sources: Matthew 27:35, Luke 23:34

Jesus Was Not a Peacemaker

There’s a little bit of conflicting information here. First, consider the verse from Colossians 1:20: “And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.”
But according to Luke 12:51, Jesus himself said: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.” And put even more clearly in Matthew 10:34: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.”
This is in contrast to the prophesy of Isaiah, who wrote: “For a Child Is Born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.”
Source: Isaiah 9:6

Jesus Is Also Holy in the Quran

Jesus is mentioned many times in the Quran as an important holy figure. He is not necessarily portrayed as the Messiah, but the worth of his teachings are acknowledged, and he is considered to be a messenger of Allah. He is often mentioned in relation to others who are considered to be the patriarchs of the Islamic and Israelite people—such as Abraham, Ishmael, and Jacob.
Sources: Aal-e-Imran 3:4, An-Nisa 4:171

Jesus Was Worshipped By Demons

You would naturally assume that angels worship God, and that demons worship the Devil—or at least that’s what some Death Metal bands will have you believe. Strangely, however, Jesus is the one whom the demons seem to worship. This is made clear in a scene in Mark, in which he is adored by a legion of demons who have possessed a man, and with whom Jesus talks directly.
Sources: Mark 5, Mark 1:27

Jesus Had Short Hair

No one knows for certain what Jesus looked like, but the popular conception of him has involved a sort of Eurocentric hippie, complete with sandals and long hair. This can probably be attributed to the earliest Christian artworks, which often depicted him as having blue eyes and long blond hair.
In truth, long hair was not exactly a common fashion among Jews in Roman-occupied Jerusalem around the time that Jesus was said to have lived. Corinthians 11:14 says: “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” This is in accordance with customs which considered short hair to be masculine and long hair to be feminine. So the images of Jesus as a European with long, flowing hair may be misleading—but at least he was good looking, right? This brings me to my next point:

Jesus Was Ugly

Contrary to popular belief, it can be speculated that Jesus was no Brad Pitt based on the prophesy of Isaiah, which stipulates: “And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him.” So it’s time to reconsider the attractive image which forms in our mind when someone says, “Jesus’ face.”
Source: Isaiah 53:2

Jesus Wasn’t Called “Jesus”

Here’s a fact that most people don’t know. Jesus was Jewish by birth and by religion, and it therefore makes sense that he would have a Hebrew name. But the name Jesus isn’t Hebrew—nor even Aramaic, which is the language he probably spoke. In fact, the name Jesus is simply a derivative of the Greek approximation of his real name. His Greek-speaking apostles were probably unable to pronounce his Hebrew name, which was Yehoshua or Yeshua. When this name is translated into English, it becomes Joshua. Interestingly, in the Quran he is referred to as “Isa”

10 Ways Magic Tricks Your Brain

2013-06-17T16:54:00.003+05:30

10 Ways Magic Tricks Your Brain

We all like magic and more importantly we all like to think we can work out magic tricks if we really want to. But as it turns out, even a simple card trick utilizes neuro-scientific principles to trick our brain in ways that we usually can’t consciously control. So what exactly is wrong with our brain? Well nothing really, but years of evolution has left it with traits that leave it wide open to be duped by magic. For example . . .

Focus

Multi tasking is a myth, the human brain simply wasn’t designed to focus on two things at once and magicians take full advantage. Our attention is pulled to one thing in particular due to the ‘moving-spotlight‘ theory. In short, the theory says that our attention is like a spotlight, highlighting one thing while leaving what surrounds it in the dark. When an item or action is within the spotlight the parts of the brain involved in processing it work more efficiently, but anything beyond the spotlight is barely processed at all, at least not by our conscious mind. This allows magicians to pull a sleight of hand right under our noses, as long as something else is drawing our spotlight what happens beyond it, to our brain isn’t happening at all.

Made Up Memories

The ‘misinformation effect’ occurs when information we are given after an event alters our memory of it. For example, a magician asks you to choose a card from the left side of the deck and return it without telling him. Before the razzle-dazzle where he guesses your card he may say something like ‘Now you chose any card you wanted, correct?’ And in the heat of the moment you will say you did. The truth is you were only given the option of the left side of the deck, but the ambiguous comments from the magician alters how you remember the trick, leaving you with a false memory making the trick seem perhaps more incredible than it was.

Predicted Wrong Future

When you see a ball get thrown in the air, it comes back down. You’ve a seen it a million times. You know that what comes up must come down and so does your brain. In fact because of something called the ‘Memory-prediction framework’ our brain sometimes remembers certain actions so well, it stops paying close attention because it predicts how they will end. When a ball gets thrown in the air our brain instantaneously recalls memories of similar events and produces an idea of what’s going to happen next, but sometimes it’s wrong. When a magician puts a ball in a cup only to have it disappear when the cup is lifted, we are shocked because what our brain predicted didn’t come true. Our brains often feed us a prediction and convinces us we saw it happen, which leaves us even more shocked when the predicted action didn’t happen at all.

Free Will

When we ‘pick a card, any card’ we are very rarely picking at random, no matter what it seems. It is usually the magician choosing for us, only without our knowledge. In many card tricks the card we apparently choose is ‘forced’ meaning the magician did something, mental or physical, to make us choose exactly what they wanted us to. But our brain will often over look or deny this as an option, in favor of free choice. Our brain simply does not want to believe it was forced and will often omit facts that may indicate that it was, instead jumping fully into the false idea that all choices were all our own.

Filling in The Blanks

The ‘woman sawed in half trick’ is old enough that most people know the secret. The head we see in one end of the box doesn’t belong to the legs we see at the other. But our brain insists and assumes it does, why? Because our brain is a sucker for continuity. When it sees a head in rough alignment with a set of legs it uses past experience to fill in the blank and tell us that obviously a torso exists between those two body parts. In many magic tricks an object is partially covered, and our brain uses what it CAN see to continue the image and fill in the blank, of course that is exactly what the magician wants.

Change

Quick, look out the window. What did you see? Now look again, has anything changed? If the first time all you saw was your backyard and the second time there was a tiger, well you’re probably going to notice. But what if that bird perched in the tree moved slightly? What if a plant had moved in the wind? Our brains are susceptible to something called ‘change-blindness’ basically meaning that it’s actually quite bad at immediately detecting small changes. Its not necessarily that we don’t see them, but more that our brains have trained themselves not to worry about changes that won’t greatly affect us and as a result, if we aren’t very specifically focusing on something we’ll rarely register it consciously. Obviously magicians can utilize this to the extreme, we never notice small changes in what’s going on until the magician directs our focus to it.

Our Brain has an Ego

Our Brain insists we have free will, and it also insists that it’s always right. Due to something called ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ our brain will make up excuses to rationalize events, even if it means you are going against what you thought or felt only minutes earlier. Our brain will force us to justify events if they don’t go how we expected. Magicians present a reality that doesn’t obey the idea of reality your brain is used to seeing. This creates a cognitive dissonance and a point is eventually reached where, no matter how hard it tries, your brain cannot rationalize the events it’s just seen. Our brain is used to rationalizing events after they occur, magic creates a situation which can’t exist and that leads to the unique sense of astonishment we feel.

Seeing and Feeling Too Long

You’ve probably seen any number of internet illusions where you stare at a black image then stare at a white wall to find the image still exists in your vision. That’s called an after-image and it’s really your brain seeing something for a short time after its gone. A magician can use this when switching an item from hand to hand, to your brain a coin may appear to be in one hand slightly longer than it was due to an after image, which gives the magician a fraction of a second longer to make the switch. A magician might even use an after image to remove your watch. Squeezing your wrist can leave an ‘after image’ feeling, leading your brain to believe your watch is still there even after it has been expertly removed.

Your Brain Loves New Things

Simply speaking, when your brain sees something new, fast and exciting it is helpless not to take notice. Due to ‘exogenous attentional capture’ your brain will always be drawn to something new that it has trouble predicting. A dove erratically flying from a hat will have the attention of you almost immediately as your brain takes at least a few seconds to process the event and asses its importance. Even a fast, curving hand movement will draw more attention than a slow straight one, magicians know this and will use exciting actions that your brain can’t help but look at.

Your Brain Falls for Charm

Many magicians use humor in their acts in an attempt to charm their audience into submission. But this charm and charisma is actually having a chemical affect on your brain. It’s possible that the simple act of laughing with (or at) the magician’s terrible puns releases Oxytocin, the bonding hormone. Which makes acts of cooperation and social interaction feel good. Oxytocin release means you are less likely to be critical of the tricks you’re watching and even more likely to miss sleights of hand as you’re attention will be drawn to the magicians face. So everything, even the terrible puns are part of the trick.

10 Household Appliances With Surprising Alternative Uses

2013-01-16T21:14:00.003+05:30

The Hair Dryer

For Starting Fires

When you remove the “hair” aspect of the hair dryer, what you have is a device that spews hot air like a tabloid celebrity. If you need to light a fire, this can come in handy.
A blast of hot air from the dryer not only warms up your wood and kindling, but also generates a draft by heating up a cold chimney—useful to avoid filling the house with smoke. The trick is legitimate enough that it is even recommended by fireplace manufacturers. The only drawback is trying to explain yourself when someone enters the room and finds you blow-drying a pile of wood.

The Microwave Oven

For Dying Fabric

A microwave oven is pretty much the easiest household appliance there is. There are only two things to remember: it’s good at heating food, and bad at coping with metal.
As it turns out, you can also dye fabric with it. Seriously.
A microwave oven can highly accelerate the dye drying reaction, reducing the process from hours and hours of conventional drying to mere minutes. It’s not just a dangerous novelty act practiced by renegade knitters and outlaw embroiderers, either. Microwaving is not only a recognised method for dye drying, but often the one recommended.

The Rice Cooker

For the Luxury Spa Experience

Warm, steamed towels are a luxury usually reserved for spas and high-end restaurants. They relax the body, soothe the skin and warm the muscles before a massage (though usually not at a restaurant). Unfortunately, bulky, expensive towel-warming cabinets are difficult to justify for home use. So why spend money on one? After all, you can just steam towels in your rice cooker.
If you’d rather use your rice cooker in a more conventional manner, its name hides the fact that it can also be used for a mind-bogglingly wide array of meals. It can be used for soup, pudding, seafood, slow-cooked pork chops, and even cake.

The Freezer

For Reviving Hard Drives and Cleaning Denim

A freezer or Box of Eternal Winter is an under-appreciated appliance. It’s easy to forget just how useful it is to have harnessed the power of cold. Your average freezer can be used to kill dust mites, prolong the life of NiMH and NiCad batteries, and even temporarily revive crashed computer hard drives long enough to retrieve important data.
One surprising use for a freezer is its ability to clean your jeans. Denim products tend to fade when they’re washed. This can be averted by putting the jeans in a sealable bag and sticking them in the freezer for a week. This treatment should kill bacteria, remove the musty smell, and restore the crispness of new denim.

The Waffle Iron

For Burgers and Cookies

The waffle iron is another prime example of a supposed “uni-tasker” capable of delivering so many more delicacies. The trick here is to forget the word “waffle” and recognise that your iron is essentially a really efficient tabletop grill. You can use the waffle iron to make almost anything: hamburgers, bread pudding, falafel . . . you name it. It can even be used to bake cookies, and is actually a lot faster than the conventional method.
As an added bonus, everything that comes out of the waffle iron will be shaped like a waffle. Waffleburgers, anyone?

The Ice Cream Maker

For Fancy Slush Drinks

Sure, the ice cream maker can be used for experimenting with bacon ice cream. But if you really want to make the most of the machine, skip the ice cream part entirely. An appliance with the ability to create delicious, frozen mush is just screaming to be used with one ingredient in particular: alcohol. The ice cream maker is ideal for making frozen margaritas and other fancy slush drinks that can usually only be enjoyed during a night on the town.

The Food Dehydrator

For Humidity and Aromatherapy

The Food dehydrator is the kind of product that is generally ordered online at 3 a.m. by night owls with a craving for home-made beef jerky. Once it actually arrives, it tends to find its home under the stairs in the why-on-earth-did-I-ever-buy-this cupboard.
Maybe it’s time to crack open that cupboard. Apart from less obvious culinary applications such as making perfect macaroons and re-crisping stale crackers, a food dehydrator can also act as a humidifier. Counter-intuitive as this may seem, it works. Just put it in a few containers of water in the trays of your dehydrator and the water will evaporate, humidifying the space in the process.
To be extra fancy, throw some aromatic plants in there and you’ll have your very own aromatherapy diffuser.

The Dishwasher

For Cleaning Nearly Anything

The dishwasher is designed to kill bacteria and make things clean without breaking anything into tiny pieces. What doesn’t often occur to people is that it will do this regardless of what’s put in it. From unspeakably filthy sports equipment to children’s toys to garden tools to the greasy hubcaps of your car, the dishwasher is able to clean almost anything. The fact that the machine is also designed to be gentle means that you can use it to safely wash things that might lose their shape in a regular washing machine—such as baseball caps.
You can also use it for steamed dishwasher salmon. They say it’s pretty moist. And clean.

The Coffee Maker

For Making Dinner and Brewing Beer

Despite having a name that screams “I’m only here to make coffee,” your trusty coffee maker can be quite the multi-tasker if you treat it right. In fact, a good coffee maker is the only device a creative chef needs. Not only can it boil eggs and cook rice, but it can also be used to create fairly complicated dishes such as poached chicken with couscous.
And it gets even better: as one particularly thirsty group of oceanographers found out, the coffee maker can also be used to brew beer. From cereal.

The Vacuum Cleaner

For Unclogging Drains

Depending on whether you’re at your house or someone else’s, clogged drains and toilets can be either a disgustingly unwelcome mishap or a delightful source of schadenfreude. In the case of the former, put down that phone; a plumber may be closer than you think.
Many vacuum cleaner models feature a wet/dry option. As it turns out, it’s not just for sucking up spilled soup—it can also help unclog your drain. If your vacuum can cope with water, it could well succeed where plungers and snakes have tried and failed. Using towels to create a seal, simply place the end of the vacuum hose into any clogged drain and turn the vacuum on. It should hopefully remove any obstructions.

10 People Who Survived Against Nature

2013-01-01T21:21:00.002+05:30

10.

Yossi Ghinsberg

“The toughest moment was after a few days, when I realized that I was completely alone.”
Yossi Ghinsberg and three other men went to the Amazon jungle. They ventured out to find a hidden tribe. The environment was harsh and tensions built up between the group. The group eventually broke up. Ghinsberg remained with Kevin, while the other two, Marcus and Karl, stuck together. Ghinsberg and Kevin took a raft but lost control of it as it came towards a mighty waterfall. Kevin made it to shore but Ghinsberg floated downstream and over the waterfall, narrowly escaping a watery death.
The following 19 days were full of challenges for Ghinsberg. He survived a late night encounter with a jaguar by setting fire to an insect repellent spray – spewing fire like a flamethrower. Swarms of termites feasted on patches of his skin and clothes when he urinated on himself out of exhaustion. He ate fruit and raw eggs from chicken nests in the jungle. He almost drowned by a flood and almost sank in a bog.
He was finally found by Kevin, who had formed a search party with the locals. Marcus and Karl were never found.

Steven Callahan

“At sea I am reminded of my insignificance – of all men’s insignificance. It is a wonderful feeling to be so humbled.”
Steven Callahan sailed out from the Canary Islands on a small slope he built himself. Six days later on his trip, the boat sank due to damage from a collision with an unknown object at night. He later said that he suspected the object was a whale. He escaped from the boat and onto a life raft that measured about six feet across.
He managed to survive until his rescue, 76 days later. He was faced with sharks, sunburn, raft punctures, physical deterioration and mental agony. For food, he speared fish and captured birds and barnacles. He lost a third of his weight during this time. When his raft formed a leak, he managed to keep it afloat for 33 days until his rescue.

Colby Coombs

“I just had to keep my eyes open and ignore the pain.”
In June 1992, Colby Coombs and two of his friends were climbing Alaska’s 17,240-foot Mt. Foraker. An avalanche happened and the three were caught inside. Coombs and his friends were forced down 800 feet on the side of the mountain and they crashed into a river of snow. Coombs’ friends did not survive the ordeal.
Coombs suffered a concussion, a fractured ankle, two fractured vertebrae in his neck, and a broken shoulder blade. The next six days were difficult. He descended from his location followed by a five mile walk across a glacier until he finally reached a camp. He continues to climb today.

Eric Le Marque

“I remember falling back into the snow, looking at my feet and going, ‘You’re going to lose your feet.’”
Eric Le Marque, a member of France’s Olympic hockey team, was lost for seven days in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. Being an avid snowboarder, he was boarding at California’s Mammoth Mountain until a blizzard threw him off course. He failed to find his way back before dark. He spent the night in the woods and attempted to hike back the next day. However, he ended up venturing deeper into the woods.
He had few supplies with him, having only a MP3 player, his snowboard, and his clothes. For food he had pine nuts and bark. For water he drank melted snow and river water. He used his snowboard to dig igloos. He became hypothermic and his frostbitten feet were black and purple. After falling into rushing water, he almost fell down an 80-foot waterfall. Amazingly, Le Marque used his MP3 player to find a radio signal which he used like a compass. Due to the tissue damage to his lower body, most parts of his legs had to be amputated.

Tami Oldham Ashcraft

“When the wind’s howling that hard, it’s picking up spray right off the top of the water. There’s so much spray, you can hardly see anything. It’s like being in a blizzard.”
In 1983, Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her boyfriend, Richard Sharp, were on a 44-foot sailboat. They were en route to San Diego from Tahiti when disaster struck. They were battered by a category four hurricane. Waves were as high as 50 feet and winds were fierce, blowing at more than 160 miles per hour. The boat was capsized and Ashcraft was knocked out below deck. She regained consciousness 27 hours later and discovered Sharp was missing.
Alone at sea and mourning her boyfriend, things seemed hopeless. However, Ashcraft fought to survive. She used celestial navigation to plot a way to Hawaii which was 1,500 miles away. She rationed food and cobbled together a mast and sail. She finally reached Hilo Harbor 41 days later.

Ricky Megee

“If you have to [drink urine], I suggest you let it cool down first. It doesn’t taste very nice.”
Ricky Megee stopped to help a couple whose car had broken down. Next, he was waking up with rocks and dirt covering him. The pit was meant to be his final resting place. He claimed to have been drugged and robbed by the couple. Megee suffered from exposure and malnutrition for the next two months. His diet consisted of leeches, lizards, insects, frogs, and snakes. He was forced to drink his urine when he couldn’t find rain puddles to drink from. He weighed 230 pounds before he got lost and weighed 105 pounds at his rescue. The man who found and rescued him described him as a walking skeleton.

Aron Ralston

“Judging by my degradation in the last 24 hours, I’ll be surprised if I make it to Tuesday.”
Could you amputate your arm with a dull knife to survive? Aron Ralston could, and did. On May 1, 2003, an 800 pound boulder fell onto his arm and trapped him in a Utah canyon wall.
After being stuck in the same spot for five days with food and water supplies almost gone, Ralston took desperate steps to ensure his survival. He used the boulder to snap his bones. He then used his two inch dull pocket knife to agonizingly cut the tendons and muscles of his trapped arm. The cutting process took about an hour. He was finally free from the boulder. He rappelled down a 65-foot wall one handed and walked in the hot midday sun back to his car. On the way he was found by a family and given water while rescuers were on the way.
A film was made about this story called “127 Hours” and I recommend you see it.

Bethany Hamilton

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”
On a morning in November 2003, Bethany Hamilton went to Makau Beach in Hawaii to surf. At the time she was a 13 year old competitive surfer. She was lying on her surf board with her arms dangling in the water when a 12-15 foot tiger shark attacked her. Hamilton’s left arm was ripped off just below the shoulder.
Instead of panicking and possibly drowning, Hamilton paddled over to her friends using her intact arm. She even made sure to warn others in the water, shouting that there was a shark. Her friends helped her paddle to shore and she was taken to the hospital. Despite this event, Hamilton was surfing again the next month.

James Morrow

“I think my head was so far down his throat that I touched his taste buds.”
45 year old James Morrow has been where few want to be: inside the jaws of a hungry alligator. Morrow was snorkeling in Florida’s Juniper Run. He was adjusting his snorkel when an alligator seized him by the throat and violently shook him for 10-20 seconds before releasing him. He was eventually helped onto a boat by his friends.
The force of the alligator’s jaws punctured his chest and collapsed one of his lungs. Dents are still visible on his head and bite marks are still visible on his neck. All he was able to do during the attack was to punch the alligator on the throat. The snorkeling mask still on his face saved him from obtaining any more serious damage, such as a punctured eye.

Kootoo Shaw

“I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be gone.”
Working as a hunting guide, Kootoo Shaw was helping a group of hunters from Wisconsin. They were three days into a hunt. While Shaw was sleeping in a tent, a polar bear targeted him at about four o’clock in the morning.
“He had his claws under my neck for a while, I could hear his breathing, then he let his claws off and he was still jumping on top of me, up and down four times,” he recalled. Another hunter shot and killed the bear. Shaw suffered horrific injuries. He suffered numerous slashes and bites. He required nearly 300 stitches to reattach his scalp.

Top 10 Ways You Could Live Forever

2013-01-01T21:19:00.000+05:30

10.

Cloning

Scientists have made some major achievements with cloning, including the asexual reproduction of sheep and cows. Humans with a desire to live forever are a natural(!) progression. Through reproductive cloning, a new multicellular organism is created, genetically identical to another. The body is the same, the mind is not. If there’s no need for an entirely new organism, just the organs can be reproduced and placed in the original body.

Telomerase Eternal Youth

Discovered in the 1980’s, the telomerase enzyme has the reputation of being “the fountain of youth”. Chromosomes have caps of repetitive DNA called telomeres at their ends. Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompts them to stop dividing and die. If the enzyme is reawakened in these dying cells, normal human aging could be slowed, stopped or even reversed. Scientists have successfully studied the telomeres in decrepit mice, proving that mice which had the enzyme replaced became healthy once again.

Panacea

In Greek mythology, Panacea was the goddess of universal remedy. Her name, transferred to the medical world, means a drug that can cure all disease. Alchemists were seeking this remedy in connection with the philosopher’s stone, in order to prolong life indefinitely. Life in a small pill or a glass of syrup might seem far- fetched, but so did a cure for the plague in Victorian-era England…

SENS

SENS stands for Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence. That’s a bit of a mouthful! The term negligible senescence was first used in connection with lobsters and hydras to reflect the fact that these creatures don’t show any signs of aging. SENS biogerontologists want to eliminate all diseases caused by aging. What they are trying to do is not like a panacea, curing all aging for everybody; scientists will instead develop multiple therapies targeting distinct types of age-related damage, resulting in personalized treatment.
To encourage the process of finding such treatments, the Methuselah Foundation offers cash prizes to researchers who break records in mouse longevity. The current record is 1819 days—not bad for an animal with a regular life expectancy of less than a year.

Metempsychosis

This is a more spiritual approach to immortality and it refers to reincarnation or the soul jumping from body to body, in this way not ceasing to exist. According to Hinduism, people live many lives, and each of these lives is influenced by the actions in the previous one. If they live well, karma improves and makes the next life cycle better. The key here is that the soul stays the same, it just travels between different forms. This belief was also supported by historic figures such as Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates.

Evolutionary Immortality

Marios Kyriazis, a biogerontologist, believes that immortality is an inevitable consequence of evolution. The human brain will become so complex as to be capable of sustaining the body for an indefinite time. The aging process will then be slowed down to accommodate the new brain and eventually stop when the body is fully-grown.

Nanobots

Nanobots are microscopic machines designed for building and fixing your body. Imagine millions of these crawling inside you and fixing all “mortal” issues your body might experience. This isn’t just in theory, though. Scientists have successfully used nanobots to repair optic nerves in blind hamsters by building a custom synthetic molecule that, when injected, arranges itself into a nanofiber to repair the nerve. What comes next? Well, scientists want to send the little bots on a cancer cell killing spree!

Cybernetics

Science has already succeeded in creating prosthetics that look real and can outshine even the real thing – witness Oscar Pistorius’ extremely fast legs. So why not go a step further? Instead of biological organ transplants, humans will be given mechanical organs, transforming the mere mortal into a cyborg. A special machine will pump our hearts and a flamethrower could be attached to our left arm. In the end, we will possess the strength of the Terminator and pretty much live forever. No biggie.

Mind-to-computer Uploading

Also known as ‘brain emulation’, mind-to-computer uploading stays true to its name: it uploads your brain – along with thoughts, memories, and so on – on to a computer. That means creating a digital you, living in a computer. However, it doesn’t stop here: if a person’s mind can be successfully uploaded, that means it can also be downloaded – into a robot. The human brain is transformed into a digital brain (with a conscious mind and all previous human characteristics) and attached to a robot’s body. That definitely means immortality and it’s not as far off into the future as you might think. Several animal brains are being researched and have been partly simulated, such as that of a rodent.

Cryonics

First and foremost, cryonics is a science! It involves refrigerating the body in liquid nitrogen, after replacing the blood with a cryo-protectant fluid to prevent ice from forming in the cells as the temperature is lowered to minus 196 C. The body is then held upside down (in order for the head to have the lowest temperature), in a giant steel container, which can hold up to 4 people.
The strange part doesn’t stop here: not only entire bodies are stored in this way, but also heads! The brain is like a hard-disk and it could eventually be connected to another body. The downside: we don’t have the technology yet to revive the bodies. However, there are over 250 people preserved in this way and 1,000 who signed up for it and if you want to join them, be prepared for a price tag of $200,000 for a whole-body preservation.

10 Everyday Things That Could Unexpectedly Save Your Life

2013-01-01T21:18:00.000+05:30

10.

Chewing Gum

 Yes, plain old chewing gum. The simple act of chewing on a stick of gum can suppress your appetite, thereby preserving limited food supplies from overindulgence, while aiding in necessary saliva production. While it will not substitute for a turkey dinner, and despite the common myth about its digestive properties, a stick or two also can be used in a pinch for short-term nutrition.  

Super Glue

 Have a superficial wound that needs stitching? No medical staff, no needle and thread or no sewing training? No problem. While it will not do much for penetrating wounds like gunshots, super glue as an emergency suture can quickly bind and protect minor lacerations that otherwise could become infected.  

Gunpowder

 You’ve seen it in the movies: guy gets shot, breaks apart a few bullets, pours the gunpowder over the wound and lights it. Guess what? While excruciatingly painful, it does exactly what is needed by sterilizing and cauterizing the wound. While not the best solution, it is certainly an option when a trip to the emergency room or a doctor is out of the question.  

Charcoal & Cheesecloth

 Chances are, you already have charcoal on hand for weekend barbecues. While you may want to use the charcoal for cooking, there is another reason to have it handy: water purification. Drill a hole in the bottom of any type of plastic container (like a five gallon bucket), line it with the cheesecloth, place charcoal in it and pour in water – and voila, an instant water purification system! Afterwards, you can let the charcoal dry and cook up a can of beans or even that long-desired turkey dinner.  

Sanitary Pads

 Feminine hygiene aside, the sanitary pad’s origin lies in nineteenth-century battlefield hospitals to treat bullet wounds. Only after World War I did they take on their now-traditional use, when American nurses returning from Europe popularized an alternative use for overstocked bandages meant for the war. In times of emergency, when medical facilities or staff may not be available, the self-treatment of bleeding wounds will be a necessity. Typically made of flammable material, they are also effective as kindling after use on a wound.

Vinegar

 Vinegar is a versatile antibacterial and microbial that can treat skin burns, inflammations and infections. As a cleaning agent it sanitizes and deodorizes, and can mask any odors that you may not want to smell yourself, or which you’re afraid might give away your position to wildlife. A small amount mixed with water can also be swallowed to relieve an upset stomach, or to remove parasites from any contaminated water or undercooked venison you may accidentally consume.   

Compact Mirror & Whistle

 Any shiny object will do the job, but a compact mirror in your survival kit can be a lifesaver when used as a silent emergency beacon. It can be effective in both sun and moonlight, and can even start fires on a sunny day. While mirrors have been shown to be more effective than flare guns, a rescue team passing by still may miss your signal; an auditory signal from a whistle is certain to attract their attention.  

Baking Soda

 Most effective as a reliever of upset stomachs, there is an even better reason to have baking soda handy: fire. In an emergency, the fire department might not be able to respond, and your water supply could well be too precious to waste on fire fighting. An inexpensive alternative, baking soda easily puts out cooking and other small fires that may occur while hunkered in your bunker.

Harmonica

 If there is a power outage – a likely prospect in a catastrophic emergency – radio stations will be static, and even with a generator there will hardly be enough spare power to recharge your portable music player.
Musical tones – regardless of the source – have been shown to stimulate both the creative and pleasure centers of the brain; to help maintain focus and concentration; and to reduce anxiety and pain. The harmonica – an inexpensive item easily obtained from many retailers – just might help maintain your sanity until the situation normalizes. (If nothing else, it gives you something to pass the time while you wait for your wounds to heal.)  

Condoms

 Aside from coming in handy whenever the sweet musical tones of the harmonica fail to satisfy, condoms are useful in another way: water storage. Durable and stretchable, a condom can hold up to a gallon of water. They can also be used to protect against water, as a stretchable cover for valuable items like matches and walkie-talkies. When used to cover a rifle muzzle – as any member of the military who has served in a hostile environment can tell you – they can also prevent debris from entering and clogging the barrel.

FACTS!!

10 Bam! Pow! Facts About Robin

10The Second Robin Began As A Carbon Copy Of The First

9One Robin Is Actually Batman’s Son

8Robin Once Brought Back A Zombie Batman

7He Is Sometimes A She

6The Center Of The First Batman Scandal

5Robin Came Back To Life As A Killer Vigilante

4He Nearly Kills Green Lantern

3He Protects Gotham From Its Own Apocalypse

2He Romances Aliens

1The Robin Turnover Rate Is Insane

10 Weird Animal Sex Habits

10 Birds You Really Ought To Avoid

10 Recently Discovered Animals With Amazing Features

10 Psychedelic Sea Slug

9 Colorful Crayfish

8 Ninja Lanternshark

7 World’s Smallest Snail

6 Long-Lost Whale

5 Glow-In-The-Dark Turtle

4 Pig-Nosed Vampire Rat

3 Shape-Shifting Frog

2 Peekaboo Spider

1 Undersea Crop Circles

10 Historical Battles Hollywood Got Completely Wrong

10The Battle Of The BulgeBattle Of The Bulge (1965)

9Marathon And Salamis300: Rise Of An Empire (2014)

8The Battle Of InchonInchon! (1981)

7The Siege Of JerusalemKingdom Of Heaven (2005)

6Operation Red WingsLone Survivor (2014)

5StalingradEnemy At The Gates (2001)

4The Taking Of AqabaLawrence Of Arabia (1962)

3The Battle Of GettysburgGettysburg (1993)

2The Fall Of The AlamoThe Alamo (1961)

1Cowpens And Guilford CourthouseThe Patriot (2000)

10 Creepy Valentine’s Day Mysteries That Are Still Unsolved

10The Murder Of Jodine Serrin

9The Disappearance Of China Rose Sims

8The Murder Of Marilu Geri

7The Discovery Of ‘Julie Valentine’

6The Murders Of Nicholas Kunselman & Stephanie Hart

5The Disappearance Of Maureen Fields

4The Mysterious Death Of Antonio Saldivar

3The Murder Of The Rundle Family

2The Disappearance Of Marcy Jo Andrews

1The Murder Of Billy Trimbach

10 Crazy Ways China Censors The Internet

10 Block URLs

9 Widespread Ban On Content

8 Blast Websites Offline With Traffic

7 Secretly Vanish Social Media Posts

6 Arrest Internet Users

5 White-Listed Video Games And Music

4 Block Searches

3 Encourage Self-Censorship

2 Flood The Web With Pro-Government Comments

1 Shut Off The Internet Completely

10 Unknown Social Media Networks

10Line For Heaven

9Nextdoor

8ZiiTrend

7Ncludr

6Dark Web Social Networks

5Chirp

4REMCloud

3Stache Passions

2Affluence

1ASmallWorld

10 More Strange Stories About The Human Brain

10Brains On eBay

9The Cordless Drill Skull Operation

8Strange Stories Of Ancient Brains

7Unlocking Lenin’s Brain

6The Woman Who Remembers Everything

5How Hugo Rewired A Man’s Brain

4The Man Who Could Only Say One Syllable

3Brain Teeth And Brain Feet

2The Man Who Loves Johnny Cash

1The Family That Can’t Fall Asleep

10The Battle Of The Bulge
Battle Of The Bulge (1965)

9Marathon And Salamis
300: Rise Of An Empire (2014)

8The Battle Of Inchon
Inchon! (1981)

7The Siege Of Jerusalem
Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)

6Operation Red Wings
Lone Survivor (2014)

5Stalingrad
Enemy At The Gates (2001)

4The Taking Of Aqaba
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

3The Battle Of Gettysburg
Gettysburg (1993)

2The Fall Of The Alamo
The Alamo (1961)

1Cowpens And Guilford Courthouse
The Patriot (2000)