Our world has played host to a wide array of optical oddities. The origins of these strange lights aren’t immediately apparent, and they have both spawned legends and brought scientific inquiry. Explanations have been given for some; others remain not very well-understood. 10 Sprites, Jets, And Elves (Oh My!) While these oddities are more easily seen with a low-light camera, it is possible to see red sprites in the atmosphere with the naked eye....
Kesey was an American author, best known for his debut novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and as a counter-cultural figure who, some consider, was a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950’s and the hippies of the 1960’s. Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked his own suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with a suicide note that said, “Ocean, Ocean I’ll beat you in the end....
Sam Peckinpah is now famous as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. His intense, explicitly violent films both put an end to the heavy censorship that had marked Hollywood history until it began to erode during the 1960s and defined the slow-motion aesthetic still followed by almost all action films today. But in between the blood-soaked films that made him famous are a handful of non-violent and often beautifully rendered little movies that testify to Peckinpah’s skill as a subtle and even delicate artist....
But then you have the scandals that are harder to understand. These ones are so pointless that the only sane reaction is a muttered “What?” 10The Tweeted House In November 2014, British MP Emily Thornberry made the biggest mistake of her life. Campaigning in the town of Rochester on behalf of the Labour Party, she passed a house draped in England flags with a white van parked out front. As she’d done with other houses hundreds of times before, Thornberry tweeted a picture of it without any comment....
On this list are some unforgettable movie scenes that would never have had the impact they did were they not improvised. 10 Rain Man Fart Scene When Rain Man premiered at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival, it won the Golden Bear award. After its release in 1988, the movie became the highest-grossing film of that year. Star of the film, Dustin Hoffman, won an Oscar for his portrayal of an autistic savant who inherits the majority of his father’s estate....
10Draupnir Meaning “dripper,” Draupnir was Odin’s ring of endless wealth. While his famed spear Gugnir was renowned for its power in combat, his magic ring was far more important in maintaining his rule over the realms. Every nine days, it dripped eight rings of equal size and weight. During the time Odin was worshiped, kings rewarded their vassals by dealing out gifts such as rings. Having an endless supply of gold rings made Odin the greatest ring-giver in all the realms and the greatest potential lord....
10 Men’s Rights Activists In recent years, many men have campaigned online for men’s rights, also known as “meninism” or “masculism.” Men’s rights activists, or MRAs, condemn feminists as having reduced all men to sexist pigs or rapists as they slowly take over society. They point to the unfairness of men being sent to war, dying younger, suffering higher rates of imprisonment, being denied custody of children, and increasingly earning less than women in some industries....
No licensed practitioners administered anesthesia to make these patients completely numb or render them unconscious. Thus, plants and various concoctions had to suffice to aid the sick and possibly dying through the surgeries which were meant to save their lives. Although we have these medical tools at our disposal today, it took a lot of trial and error to get there. Here are 10 important moments in the history of anesthesia....
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance....
Occasionally, a customer knowingly plants something in his food to score a free meal or a cash settlement. If the fast-food chain catches on to a customer’s scam, it can have devastating consequences for the makeshift con artist. Yet, in some instances, the customer isn’t the problem. Imagine finding a hair in your fried chicken wings. That wouldn’t be nearly as bad as finding a whole chicken head, fried to a crisp and perfectly intact....
SEE ALSO: 10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details 10 Tsunami From A Sea Spirit The Moken, a people living on a few scattered islands near the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, have a legend hundreds of years old. In the legend the sea spirit Katoy Oken sends forth “monster waves” (Tsunamis to us, Laboons in their language) to purify the people spiritually and physically. The people felt the earth shake, knocking coconuts from the trees....
10 Voskhod’s Vicious Vacuum On March 18, 1965, Russia’s Voskhod 2 spacecraft blasted into Earth’s orbit on an historic mission: mankind’s first spacewalk. Cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev crewed the cramped two-man vessel, which had been rushed into production to beat the US. It was plagued by countless malfunctions, but the deadliest came not from the ship, but Leonov’s spacesuit. Shortly after embarking on his historic stroll, Leonov realized something wasn’t right....
At times, it does this by giving absolute power to the least deserving or by sending off a human being in a manner that sounds like something approved by ACME Corporation. So, let’s take a look at some people who have lived and died in a way that only Wile E. Coyote could. 10 Demonstrating A Suicide On June 17, 1871, Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio died in the name of justice—accidentally....
From ancient emperors to the fast-food restaurants of modern America, the enjoyment of food has always been an integral part of our lives. Despite their troubles, our ancestors still found the time to turn the items around them into delectable delights. Here are 10 of the most interesting ancient foods, including one that could kill you if you’re one of the rare people whose body lacks a particular enzyme....
10 The Grand Guginol Theatre If we were to visit Paris in the early part of the 20th century, we would almost certainly want to stop at the Grand Guginol Theatre, a tiny structure packed into a converted church that specialized in putting on horrific and bloody plays. The main themes of the Guginol’s performances were insanity and fear, featuring a range of subjects that were often ripped from the headlines of French society, including necrophilia, drug use, serial murder, and the ravages of disease....
See Also: 10 Epic Tales Of Survival Against All Odds 10 Ángela Bachiller—Politician Ángela Bachiller kicked off her political career in 2011, when she began working at City Hall in the Spanish city of Valladolid. A member of the People’s Party, Bachiller spent over two years working as an administrative assistant in City Hall, before standing for election in 2011. Although Bachiller did not win a seat in that election, placing 18th for 17 available posts, she assumed office two years later when a corruption scandal forced Jesús García Galván to step down....
Since that time, when we think of international sports, we still tend to think of the Olympics. We also enjoy watching cricket, football, and baseball on an international level. However, there are also some lesser-known, bizarre sports which actually hold international championships each year, attracting competitors and spectators from across the globe. Some of these sports are so insane that you’ll wonder how they ever became popular. 10 Ferret Legging Ferret legging is believed to have originated with miners in Yorkshire, Northern England....
10 National Socialistic Japanese Workers PartyJapan Also known as the Nationalsozialistische Japanische Arbeiterpartei (NSJAP), Kokka Shakaishugi Nippon Rodosha, or the New Axis, this group is part of a trend of rising militarism and neo-fascism in Japan. Incorporating imagery and ideology from the Third Reich to attack Koreans and Chinese, it also reflects a strange fascination with Nazism and a vague anti-Semitism, bizarre in a country with very few Jews. There may be a link between the Japanese right wing’s denial of the truth about Imperial Japanese atrocities during World War II and a corresponding desire to deny the crimes of their fellow Axis member....
This time, we have for you a clown brawl, a zombie chicken, and an antique sex toy. There’s a blast from the past as John Dillinger’s body gets dug up, and we look toward the future with human-animal hybrids. 10 No Clowning Around A British cruise ship had to deal with a mass brawl that was allegedly sparked by one of the guests dressing up as a clown. The Britannia, operated by P&O Cruises, was sailing to Southampton after a week spent admiring the Nordic fjords....
Whether necessary or not, here are 10 of the largest real-life age gaps between on-screen partners 10 Gerard Butler & Emmy Rossum: Phantom of the Opera The 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage show saw then-17-year-old Emmy Rossum earn a Golden Globe nomination for her role opposite 33-year-old Gerard Butler. A 16-year age gap isn’t crazy, but since the leading lady was yet to turn 18, it makes the film a bit weird to watch....
