10Kakute Kakute were spiked rings used in ancient Japan. Though a similar weapon called the “shobo” was made of wood, kakute were usually iron and had from one to three spikes. A user would generally wear either one or two rings—one for his middle or index finger and another for his thumb. The spikes were usually turned inward and applied to pressure points by gripping limbs or even the neck, which wound stun an opponent and cause a nasty puncture wound....

10 Primitive Experimentation In the 17th century, human blood was regarded as “the essence of life and useful only for its alleged psychic effects.” Because of this belief, nearly 200 years passed until whole blood was used as replacement therapy on a British woman who was suffering from postpartum hemorrhage. Years of experimentation preceded such medical advances with various liquids taking the place of blood. The first intravenous injection occurred in London in 1657 when Christopher Wren injected ale and wine into the veins of a dog....

10Puppies In the UK, demand for designer dog breeds has skyrocketed. Popular breeds such as the Yorkshire Terrier can fetch up to £2,000 from a breeder, but criminal gangs can sell them much cheaper after smuggling them in from puppy mills in Ireland or Eastern Europe for as little as 100 euros apiece. Of course, the conditions these animals are kept in at these mills is deplorable. Dead animals are left in cages to rot alongside live ones, and puppies are sold without vaccinations or microchips....

10Ribauldequin One of the early attempts to build rapid-fire artillery was the ribauldequin. It was a cart-mounted firing battery used in the 14th and 15th centuries. Because their many barrels resembled a pipe organ, ribauldequins became known as organ guns, and sometimes death organs. Far smaller caliber than cannons but larger than average guns, they played a supporting role in artillery bombardments. Ribauldequins were designed to be fired in quick succession with a match connecting the touch hole of all the barrels....

10Pinhole Camera Wayne Martin Belger’s Third-Eye Camera is made of the 150-year-old skull of a 13-year-old murdered Texas girl. To make his camera, Belger “drilled a pinhole into her forehead, and surrounded the opening with jewels in green, amber and maroon,” before cutting “the skull in half, near where the ears would be,” and slipping “the 4-by-5-inch film into this slot.” The camera complete, Belger used it to photograph several landscapes, some of which look as bizarre as his camera....

10 Saint Roch ChapelNew Orleans, USA St. Roch was born in France near the end of the 13th century. Said to have been born with a red cross on his chest, he lost his parents at the age of 20. St. Roch gave away his family fortune and headed to Italy, and on the way he traveled through town after town that had been stricken by the plague. After spending time caring for plague victims, he was said to repel the plague with simply his presence....

About 1,700 years ago, the real Saint Nicholas lived in Turkey, serving as a bishop for the Catholic Church. The real man has a whole legend of his own, full of some incredibly strange stories that just might change how you see Christmas. 10 He Is The Patron Saint Of Prostitutes Being the patron saint of prostitutes is a huge part of Saint Nicholas’s legend. As the story goes, a poor man in Myra in the third century had three daughters who were getting old enough to get married....

10Blohm & Voss BV 141 Early in World War II, the German Air Ministry requested proposals for a tactical reconnaissance aircraft to give intelligence support to army operations. Two companies responded. Focke-Wulf developed a fairly conventional twin-engine aircraft, while Blohm & Voss somehow dreamed up one of the most unconventional aircraft ever created: the asymmetric Bv 141. While the plane’s asymmetric layout seems like an engineer’s fever dream, it did serve a purpose....

10Charles-Francois Felix Removes The Sun King’s Anal Fistula The year is 1686, and the king has a pain in the butt. Specifically, we are talking about Louis XIV, king of France. Despite enjoying a very lengthy reign of 72 years (also earning the moniker “the Sun King”), Louis was not a healthy man. He suffered from headaches, gout, periostitis, and (some also suspect) diabetes. And in 1686, the king was stricken with a very painful anal fistula that would not go away despite all the enemas and poultices that were the accepted practice at the time....

10James And The Giant PeachA Sexual Spider James and the Giant Peach is pretty rough for a children’s book. It has smoking, swearing, violence, and all kinds of mature themes that usually don’t appear in kids’ books, but the overarching message is one of friendship and learning to face your fears. The story is about a young boy named James who was taken in by his two mean, abusive aunts after his parents were killed by a rhinoceros....

As the situation deteriorated, many victims realized that their chance of survival was approaching zero. So after desperately searching for exits, many spent their final moments speaking or leaving messages for loved ones. Their last words are mortifying and heartbreakingly human. 10 NYC Horrors That Were As Traumatic As 9/11 10 Madeline Sweeney: “We are flying way too low.” Madeline Sweeney was an American Airlines flight attendant for over a decade....

10Reincarnation: Transferred Birth Marks In parts of Asia, tradition dictates that when a person dies, relatives will mark his or her body—often using soot—with the hope that the soul of the deceased will be reincarnated within the same family. The mark is said to become both a birthmark and evidence that the soul has been reborn. In 2012, University of Virginia School of Medicine professor and psychiatrist Jim Tucker and Jurgen Keil, an emeritus professor and psychologist from University of Tasmania at Hobart, submitted a paper to The Journal of Scientific Exploration (a peer-reviewed journal for the study of fringe science, from alternative medicine to UFOs)....

We’re going to steer clear of “joke characters” (such as Arm-Fall-Off-Boy and The Color Kid), “godlike” characters with undefined powers, and one-shot characters—within those boundaries, here are the strangest superpowers that you’ll find in comics. Jamie Madrox—otherwise known as the Multiple Man—is a mutant with the ability to create perfect duplicates of himself by absorbing kinetic energy. Each duplicate is capable of independent thought and action, and Madrox can also copy items and clothing that he’s wearing....

Despite the preposterous character of his charges, his claims alarmed parents, teachers, and politicians. They also led to the voluntary self-policing of the comic book industry, as publishers began to censor their titles so their contents would be approved by the Comics Code Authority (CCA), created in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America. Surprisingly, even after publishers abandoned their voluntary participation in the censorship program, some of them, including the industry’s biggest and best known—Marvel Comics and DC Comics—continued to censor their own titles....

10James Beckwourth Big, bearded, and full of hot air, Jim Beckwourth was the quintessential mountain man. Sporting braids, earrings, and gold chains, this fur trapper loved to spin a good yarn and is best remembered for his dubious autobiography, The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth. This pulpy piece of supposed nonfiction portrayed Beckwourth as a hero who saved countless lives from imminent death, fought off savage bands of Indians, and was eventually made chief of the Crow people....

SEE ALSO: 10 Factors That Made The Black Death So Deadly The awful nature of the disease—together with its shocking fatality rate—inspired its desperate victims to come up with a range of crazy cures. Some of them are nearly as horrendous as the disease itself. Here are some of the worst pieces of advice plague victims would have received on their sickbeds: One popular treatment method that has actually survived until today was aromatherapy....

10 Subligaculum And Strophium Everyone who had Latin in school might have heard the Latin phrase Semper ubi sub ubi. Translated into English, it means “always where under where.” Women’s underwear in ancient Rome could easily be seen as the great-great-grandfather of today’s bikini. Women wore a strophium, a tight leather band to hold and compress the breasts. It was quite fashionable to have small breasts and large hips, so the strophium helped women to achieve their desired look....

10 JonBenet Ramsey House The home of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was a place of happiness and laughter until tragedy struck in 1996. Little JonBenet was struck on the head and then strangled in a murder case that remains unsolved to this day. The house where she lived in Colorado was vacant for a long time until it was purchased by Carol Schuller Milner, who is the daughter of televangelist Robert Schuller....

10White With Red We talked about this story under its alternate title “The Keyhole.” A man rents a hotel room and is told not to look into the room next to his. When he does, all he sees is red. He thinks that someone must have put a red dress across the keyhole. In truth, he is looking at the horribly bloodshot eye of a long-dead hotel guest. Brandon Christenson’s short film adaptation of this story is really exceptional....

10 ‘Honeymoon’ Once Referred To The Waning Of Love The idea of honeymoons as we know them today began in the late 18th century. However, the etymology of the word comes from the Old English phrase “hony moone.” “Hony” was a reference to honey and the “indefinite period of tenderness and pleasure experienced by a newly wed couple,” while “moone” referred to the fleetingness of this sweetness and the waning of love....