This week, we have not one but two inspiring stories about women who were able to fulfill their graduation dreams even if they happened a few decades late. A young girl and a pooch saved their best friends from peril. There is also a look at a burial chamber that made English archaeologists giddy with excitement and a pioneering medical technique using genetically modified viruses that saved the life of a teenager....
Some events lasted only a short time, such as the local in one rural town who spent an entire weekend sitting on a dunny on the back of a pickup truck outside the local pub to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. However, many events which started off as a bit of a joke surprised even the organizers with how popular they’ve become. 10 Henley-On-Todd Regatta In August each year, the dry bed of the Todd River in Alice Springs is the unlikely venue for a boat race....
Most medicines were made from useless ingredients like mineral oil, high doses of opium or heroin, and lies. Others were made from lead, water, and lies. Traveling medicine shows attracted huge crowds, and the smooth-talking medicine men tricked them all. Each one promised that their medicine cured a variety of illnesses. Most of these remedies did nothing. 10Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment Clark Stanley claimed to sell authentic snake oil which Chinese laborers had brought with them to the United States....
SEE ALSO: 10 Incredible Accomplishments That Ruined Their Creator’s Lives Wrong. Despite our parents telling us to always “play nice” and “do the right thing,” experience shows that being publicly minded is usually a one-way ticket to Miseryville. 10Online Activism Makes You Meaner Picture the scene: You’re cruising Facebook, posting subtly undermining comments to your ex’s timeline, when a petition comes up from a charity desperate to raise awareness for a good cause....
10 The Tweets Of The Ayatollah Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei maintains Twitter accounts for a number of reasons. One is for occasionally communicating with a domestic audience in Farsi. Another is for foreign audiences, with posts in English, Spanish, and Arabic, usually intended to spread the Iranian state line on international issues and also to attack Israel, ISIS, and the United States. The account isn’t verified, and Iran won’t confirm who’s tweeting, but it’s generally considered to be managed by the Ayatollah’s office....
Through another lens, though, pirates were something entirely different. The New World they tormented was filled with slaves, and a lot of the ships they attacked were filled with imprisoned Africans. To the Africans on those ships, the pirates weren’t just criminals—they were liberators, and they heralded the arrival of a better life. 10 The First Buccaneers Were Escaped Slaves When we think of pirates in the Caribbean, white faces usually come to mind....
10Creating A Scientifically Illiterate Public The US school system is not among the best in the world. American students are only average at science and particularly bad at math, and smaller and less wealthy countries easily beat the US on both counts. Not only do these low rankings make it more of a challenge to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, but scientific illiteracy can cause people to believe in things that are completely false and in some cases even dangerous: that cell phones cause brain cancer, for example, or that vaccines cause autism....
SEE ALSO: 10 Secret Prisons Governments Are Hiding From Us Not that we’d actually encourage you to get yourself thrown in jail, of course. Being in prison isn’t pleasant, and we certainly wouldn’t say that a life behind bars is a happy one. We’re just saying that it’s better than your crappy life. 10 Prisoners Spend More Time Outside Than Children Most children spend less time outside than prisoners—and not by any small number....
“Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.” Henry Miller. Think of your favorite rock band from the 70s or 80s. I’ll bet you the shoes on my feet that at least one of their songs was inspired by, or if not, directly refers to heroin. It became popular with the rock community for its mild altering effects. Inspiring romanticism, creativity, joy, fun, and of course pleasure made it a hit to rebellious world....
SEE ALSO: 10 Ways Watching TV Is Killing You 10Increasing CCTV Surveillance In 2011, there was one CCTV camera for every 32 UK citizens. By 2016, this number had increased to one for every 11, making the United Kingdom the most spied upon country in the world. Not that the UK is alone in its surveillance of citizens. Almost all countries have security cameras in place. In 2013, the BBC ran a story about the increasing numbers of CCTV cameras being installed and put into operation across the United States, where they were being hailed as crucial in apprehending the culprits of the Boston bombing....
But these birds don’t need safety helmets and goggles to protect them from hard knocks on the noggin and flying wood chips in their eyes. They have their own cool ways of avoiding brain damage and blindness. 10 Woodpecker Brain Injury Prevention Woodpeckers have a life of hard knocks—literally. Like a human repeatedly running face-first into a tree at full speed, a woodpecker can hit a tree trunk 100 times per minute at rates of up to 24 kilometers per hour (15 mph)....
At sixteen, “Weird Al” featured a song on the Dr. Demento Show. His popularity has only grown since, and despite one or two ups and downs, he has remained a popular favorite for years. His big break came in 1979 when he covered “My Sharona” by The Knack as “My Bologna.” This early attempt is nowhere near as professional as his later work, but The Knack liked it and gave him the contacts that helped Al get started....
Speaking of space bodies that could exist, scientists believe that there are some amazing ones out there right now, including a massive one in our own solar system. Below, we’ll detail some of the weirdest and most interesting objects that may be in space. 10 Doughnut-Shaped Planets Scientists believe that doughnut-shaped planets exist, even though they have never found one. Such objects are called toroid planets because “toroid” is the mathematical name for the shape of a doughnut....
For most people, this is not torture. Moping while signing autographs or rattling off a catchphrase is not that bad. Other times, it can be dire. Here are 10 times that celebs could not escape their most famous roles and it led to often tragic circumstances. 10 Drake Hogestyn Was Assaulted For Being A Demon Soap operas have never been known for their restraint. Plotlines are as fantastical as logic, or lack thereof, allows....
Before modern killers started going Hannibal Lecter for the shock and fame, and possibly the taste, human society spent thousands of years playing hosts to whole civilizations that ate people. And not just “ate.” It gets much worse than simply “ate.” This list gathers ten of the worst cannibals in history, the ones that would make Dahmer go vegan. 10 The Nazino Prisoners Joseph Stalin’s rule over the Soviet Union led to rampant mass suffering and several almost-unspeakable tragedies....
SEE ALSO: 10 Rarely Told Tales Of Columbus, History’s Greatest Explorer But Christopher Columbus wasn’t just your standard careless colonialist. The things he did were so twisted that even the people of his own time thought of him as a monster. Most of it is so brutal it gets cut out of history books in the name of good taste, but the real Columbus was far, far worse than you ever could have imagined....
Johnny Ace was a rhythm and blues musician, active from 1949 to 1954. Born in Tennessee in 1929 as John Marshall Alexander Jnr., he served his country in the Navy during the Korean War before becoming a musician. On Christmas 1954, Ace was performing in Houston, Texas, when, during a break in the set, he began playing with a .22 cal Revolver – as band members often did, shooting at road signs etc....
The second Longest geographical name that is accepted in the world is “Taumatawhakatangihangak oauauotamateaturipukaka pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe nua kitanatahu” (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand – it is a maori phrase which translates to “place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played his flute to his loved one”. It was the longest until recently (though the Guinness Book of Records still regards it as the longest); it has most likely now been supplanted by Krung thep maha nakorn amorn ratana kosinmahintar ayutthay amaha dilok phop noppa ratrajathani burirom udom rajaniwesmahasat harn amorn phimarn avatarn sathit sakkattiya visanukamprasit in Thailand (163 letters)....
Quotes 1-10 “And I’m supposed to believe that Reagan was a great leader? This is who he chose as the Secretary of Education…” -Former Education Secretary William Bennett “Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.” -Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C. “The internet is a great way to get on the net.” – Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate “Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims....
Human sacrifices were still occurring in Buddhist Burma in the 1850s. When the capital was moved to Mandalay, 56 “spotless” men were buried beneath the new city walls to sanctify and protect the city. When two of the burial spots were later found empty, royal astrologers decreed that 500 men, women, boys, and girls must be killed and buried at once, or the capital must be abandoned. About 100 were actually buried before British governors stopped the ceremonies....
