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10The State Of Franklin Wars are expensive and the first thing the United States of America dealt with after achieving independence was crushing debt. In 1784, North Carolina came up with a devious plan to cut its own expenses by ceding 29 million acres of wilderness to the federal government. The move came as a surprise to the residents of the aforementioned wilderness, who were worried that the federal government might sell the land to a foreign power to earn some quick cash....

10 David Bowie While David Bowie is certainly one of the greatest musicians of his generation, he is also a full-fledged intellectual with widespread interests. In the 1970s, one of those interests was the occult. Of course, he fostered an image of being an “otherworldly” person onstage, but many who knew him say that he was also engaged in supernatural activities offstage. In 1975, Bowie became increasingly addicted to cocaine, which let him work and make music almost nonstop....

If you’ve ever been creeped out by a scary modern folktale, you might have reassured yourself that it’s completely made up. That’s not always the case. Here are ten famous urban legends and the true stories behind them. 10 Flashing Headlight Initiation You’ve all probably heard this one before. It’s late at night, and a driver notices a car approaching from the opposite direction without its headlights on, so he flashes his lights to alert the other car....

After reading this list, quite a lot! 10The Nine-Tailed Fox Foxes symbolize cunning and wisdom in many cultures. Oriental cultures—the Japanese and Koreans in particular—revere the animal so much that their legends even say it can achieve enlightenment. This transforms them into nine-tailed foxes—mystical creatures that have magical powers that let them transform into human beings at will. Sadly, these awesome legend foxes are bad news for real humans. They suffer from a curse that forces them to eat human livers to survive....

10The Sea Star’s Extendable Stomach Strategy Sea stars—once known as starfish—can’t see their prey, but they can detect and follow the chemical scents that it leaves behind. Once a sea star smells a clam, it uses hundreds of suction cup-like tube feet on the back of its arms to track down the clam and crawl onto its closed shell. The star then uses its feet to turn the clam around until the crack between its two shells is aligned with the star’s mouth....

With that said, here are ten fascinating facts about death in the Victorian era. Fact: People Died in Very Strange Ways While people did die from much the same ailments as we do today such as heart failure, strokes and pneumonia, there were just as many deaths caused under bizarre circumstances which serves as a looking glass of the times: Ever hear of death by corset? Well, according to the Dundee Courier of October 22, 1844, one Jane Goodwin, twenty-two, was sitting in church when she was suddenly taken ill and was carried out of the church to the sexton’s house....

10Stonehenge Is Not The Main Monument The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project is a group of British archaeologists who are mapping the Stonehenge area. In 2015, they announced the discovery of an entire complex consisting of multiple monuments, all situated within a couple miles of the world famous Stonehenge site. One of these structures was a huge building made from timbers that is thought to have been used to prepare the dead for burial, including defleshing operations....

Taken: 1925 Discovered: 2005 In 2005 the Smithsonian Institution announced that it had some never-before published pictures of the Scopes Monkey Trial which was dubbed “The Trial of the Century,” The negatives were discovered after looking through archival material donated to the Smithsonian back in 1971. The photo shows William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) fielding questions from Clarence Darrow. The heat that summer in east Tennessee was the worst in memory, so the judge moved the trial outside the County courthouse to a cooler venue and to accommodate the enormous crowds....

10 Changeling Changeling is certainly not a conventional horror movie, but its basic premise is deeply unnerving. In 1928, single mother Christine Collins (played by Angelina Jolie) reported her nine-year-old son Walter missing. Determined to get a new home however he could, a 15-year-old runaway named Arthur J. Hutchins claimed to be her missing child. Eager for a success story, the police insisted that Hutchins was her son despite Collins’ protests....

Jinkies! I’m sure most of us would agree that, usually, the original is the best. Six performers have voiced the smart, short, bespectacled, turtle-neck sweater loving crime solver Velma Dinkley. Listening to all the different voices though, Jaffe’s voice is the one that has stuck in my head as the iconic voice of the character. Jaffe performed as Velma in the debut of the show called “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?...

Take, for example, The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. The series spans fourteen volumes, some of which come close to 1000 pages! You can see how someone might get bogged down along the way… or even before they start. For those readers who love fantasy, adventure, and science fiction stories but maybe don’t want to commit to a lengthy series, here are ten shorter (and some very underrated) but no less exceptional choices to add to your list....

The high mortality rate during this time is widely reported in newspapers, medical journals, and coroners’ inquests; even the healthiest of people wouldn’t make it out of surgery alive. It really was a tough time being a Victorian who needed surgery, but thanks to advances in modern science, these real-life horror stories are all a thing of the past. These following gruesome and shocking facts are not for the fainthearted....

Way back in 2000, robbery might have been the motivation for an even more disturbing crime—the murder of an entire family. In a country where mass homicides are rare, the murder of the young Miyazawa family shocked Japan to its core. Despite a massive manhunt and countless hours of investigation, the Japanese police never managed to apprehend the man responsible for the brutal slayings. The following list discusses in-depth one of the Far East’s most puzzling murder mysteries....

The Doodler was never apprehended. Now, given the recent capture of the Golden State Killer, cold case detectives in California are poring back over the Doodler files in order to see if any lead or any trace of DNA evidence can be found. In the words of Sergeant Michael Andraychak of the San Francisco Police Department, “We’re going back trying to locate victims, following up on evidence, trying to locate potential witnesses....

Often, the Department of Defense (DoD) provides military equipment as props and offers advice to ensure that the US military is depicted as accurately as possible. But sometimes, the Pentagon leverages the filmmaker’s reliance on their equipment to exert pressure for script changes that have a profound effect on the finished film. 10Black Hawk Down Based on the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down (2003) follows the exploits of a group of soldiers involved in that disastrous military operation....

We aren’t trying to discourage anyone from giving to charities, but you’d be silly to donate without an objective look at what goes on behind the scenes of charity work. 10 Trademark Bullying We would most often associate aggressive, expensive, drawn-out trademark lawsuits with big commercial corporations. It turns out charities love those trademarks, too. While there is nothing wrong with protecting one’s intellectual property, Susan G. Komen and others definitely cross the line with their trademark bullying....

10The People Under The Floor In 1870, a man was making his way through the lonely mountains of New Mexico when he came across a stout wood cabin tucked at the foot of the Palo Flechado pass. The owner introduced himself as Charles Kennedy and invited his new acquaintance inside for a meal. As Kennedy’s Ute wife served dinner, the traveler sat next to the couple’s young son and asked if there were other Native Americans nearby....

However, some people get so engrossed in horror movies that they decide they want their life to be like one. Other times, that story we thought was just for scares had more truth than we initially thought. 10The Strangers And The Director’s Childhood When the horror movie The Strangers was released, it struck a particular chord with many people because it claimed to be based on a true story. In the movie, strange people come up to the door of a couple who are staying in a cabin in the middle of nowhere....

We’re not going to talk about any of that today. Instead, we’ll teach you how people around the world swear. 10GreekMalakas This phrase expresses contempt and disgust for a man’s stupid, dishonorable, or otherwise harmful behavior. It is often punctuated with the gesture of the moutza, an extension of the hand, palm out and fingers outstretched. This symbolizes spreading manure on the face of the malaka and seems to come from the ancient Greeks via the Byzantine Empire....

Violent crime isn’t just reserved for the underclasses or the mentally inferior. Some of history’s most heinous murders have been perpetrated by seemingly decent, upstanding members of society, including the decorated military heroes of Uncle Sam. 10 Ronald Gene Simmons As he was born into an Army family, there was very little about young Ronald Simmons that suggested he’d do anything other than follow in his father’s footsteps and join the military....