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Even though Christmas is fast approaching, this week’s list feels better fitted for Halloween. There’s talk of ghost pirates, Dracula ants, ancient skeletons, alien noises, guys in robot suits, and, of course, a river of chocolate. 10 Sister Act 3: Viva Las Vegas Two nuns have been accused of embezzling at least half a million dollars and using the money to take lavish gambling vacations. Up until this year, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper served as principal for the St....

This week’s list is feeling a bit intoxicated, as it has stories on beer, meth, and psychoactive drugs. There are also a few bizarre crimes to talk about, including a man who tried to deport his wife and a woman caught trespassing in search of “Agent Penis.” 10 Will Japan Run Out Of Beer? For the first time, Japan will be hosting the Rugby World Cup. Local businesses are only now finding out something that might become a problem later on: Rugby fans drink a lot of beer....

This week, we have Canadian cheese thieves, tortoise-eating chimps, and a London pub for nudists. A laptop infested with viruses sells for over $1 million, while an English port town pays tribute to gangsta rap. 10 You Can Leave Your Hat On Londoners can now head on over to the Coach & Horses, take off all their clothes, and enjoy a pint in a historical pub that has been officially granted a nudist license....

10Armstrong Whitworth Ape Experimental aircraft are always expensive investments. Most are built for only one specific flight regime or test only one idea. In the early days of aviation, this caused a big problem, since most test aircraft were woefully bad airframes that completely failed even at testing concepts. Faced with the problems of funding and personnel, the British Royal Aircraft Establishment began to look for new ways to test aerodynamics without having to build a whole new airplane for every single question they had....

Fake abductions are more common than you think—and they seem to be on the rise. In recent years, people have faked their own kidnappings for a variety of reasons, sometimes bizarre. As you might expect, some even demanded a ransom from their relatives. 10 Jessica Nordquist In July 2017, 26-year-old Jessica Nordquist, originally from Alaska, started a relationship with Mark Weeks, a coworker at Unruly, a London PR firm. The couple soon broke up, but Jessica was not leaving without a fight....

Like an earthquake, every deadly epidemic has an epicenter, a central point where the disaster is set in motion. In the case of an epidemic, a central point is a person, and that person is known as patient zero. Here are 10 of the most famous patient zeros in history. 10 Typhoid Mary We begin with the most famous patient zero of them all, “Typhoid Mary,” whose real name was Mary Mallon....

10 Carol Weihrer Carol Weihrer spent years living in pain due to a scratched cornea. She had undergone 17 surgeries to try to fix it, none of which worked. Her doctor told her that they could not save her eye; it would need to be removed. Weihrer was relieved that the pain would finally be over. Carol scheduled the surgery. The operation started successfully. She was given anesthesia and fell asleep....

While a good prank is a work of art, some jokesters just don’t know when to stop! Others simply should never have started pranking in the first place. Our list today includes 10 practical jokes that went too far. These “hilarious” pranksters touch on political corruption, lacing drugs into baked goods, fake national disasters, and pregnancy. What a gas! As we go through this list of ill-advised pranks, remember this advice....

The following 10 examples are the kinds of weapons produced by the fevered minds of engineers when they stop caring about things like subtlety and practicality. 10 Panzer VIII Maus Irony surely played a part in the naming of the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (“Mouse”) as it bears no resemblance to its namesake. Weighing in at a whopping 188 metric tons, it still holds the title of largest armored fighting vehicle....

Of the estimated 900 inmates who tried to flee the camp, the majority were captured and executed. And yet, a total of 144 people managed to escape from the death camp and survive. Here are 10 people who escaped from Auschwitz and lived to tell their stories. 10 Eugeniusz Bendera When the famous Auschwitz escapee Kazimierz Piechowski fled the camp, he was accompanied by three other men who are far less known....

10 Benjamin Franklin‘Advice To A Young Man On The Choice Of A Mistress’ Benjamin Franklin was known as a man who enjoyed all that life had to offer. Although it’s not widely remembered today, Franklin frequently published writings on some bizarre subject matters. However, one letter that he wrote wasn’t published until recently. In the letter, Franklin wrote to a young man about his sexual urges. He stated, “Marriage is the proper remedy....

However, all is not lost. As the following studies show, humanity—flawed as it is—has its good points. 10 Lying Makes Us Sick We might assume that lying is a normal part of everyday human life. However, judging from how our bodies react, people are just not born to lie. According to a study done by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, people who lie more often tend to experience higher incidences of sickness than those who don’t....

The Secret Service takes this job very seriously. But sometimes, things do happen, both funny and tragic. Here is a list of 10 facts about the Secret Service that might surprise you. 10 The Secret Service Was Born The Same Day President Lincoln Died President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 at the hand of John Wilkes Booth. Had Lincoln been protected by a highly trained security detail, he might still be with us today—at the ripe age of 207 years old....

10 Laetoli Footprints In 1976, anthropologist Mary Leaky uncovered the oldest human footprints in the world. Pressed into a layer of volcanic ash in Laetoli, Tanzania, they date back 3.6 million years. The prints are attributed to Australopithecus afarensis, an ancient hominid whose fossils were found in the same sediment layer. A subsequent volcanic eruption buried and preserved the prints. Originally thought to be the work of a pair, the prints now appear to belong to four different individuals....

10Anglo-Saxon Eye Salve In 2015, scientists recreated a ninth-century Anglo-Saxon treatment for eye infections. Composed of onion, garlic, wine, and cow bile, the ancient salve flabbergasted researchers by effectively combating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—or MRSA. Discovered in an ancient medicinal text called Bald’s Leechbook, the salve could be the key in combating antibiotic-resistant super-bugs. Researchers discovered that the ancient salve killed 90 percent of MRSA bacteria cultures. They do not believe one ingredient is the key but rather the entire concoction’s antibiotic properties....

Over the centuries, landowners and people of social standing around the globe have relied on seals for all official transactions. Seals offer valuable insights into the social structure, belief systems, and artistic techniques of bygone eras. To this day, some remain undeciphered and hold great mysteries. 10 Seal Of The Prophet Unlike other religion founders, Mani wrote his own doctrine. Born in AD 216, the Persian prophet established Manichaeism, a faith drawing from Christianity and Zoroastrianism, among others....

10A Box Of Clothes Vastly Improved Finland’s Infant Mortality Rate During the early 1940s, Finland had a big problem with infant mortality. At one stage, 9 percent of all babies died early in life. To tackle the problem, the government started giving all expectant mothers a box containing a selection of useful items. These included clothes, bedding, grooming products, and other newborn essentials. Today, parents even get condoms. Bottles and disposable diapers were in for a while but were removed in 2006 to encourage breast feeding and protect the environment....

To be clear, some calamities were caused by errors involving complex math, which is arguably more forgivable. However, the ones we have here are mostly ridiculously simple mistakes that even an elementary school student might not have made. 10 Gulf War Scud Missile Attack On February 25, 1991, an Iraqi “Scud” missile struck a US Army base in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 soldiers and injuring 100 others. The disaster was surprising, considering that the base was protected by a Patriot missile air defense system....

This, though, isn’t to say that being careful is wrong; wild animals will always pose a threat and some on this list have seriously injured or even killed people. What’s also true, however, is that their reputation is almost always worse than the reality and they’re not an imminent threat to constantly worry about, especially not when basic precautions are taken. 10 Eerily Well-Preserved Remains Of Extinct Animals 10 Most Caimans Caimans are typically small sized crocodilians of the family Alligatoridae, composing one of the only two subfamilies within that, the other being alligators....

Although it can be frustrating to have a fly or a wasp buzzing around your room when you’re trying to get to sleep at night, there are little critters out there that actually play a big part in helping to keep us humans alive by contributing to treatments for various illnesses and diseases. The following are ten examples of medical treatments involving the use of various creepy-crawlies that seem pretty strange on paper but are actually very effective....