Top 10 Saturday Night Live Hosts

Hosting Saturday Night Live is a pretty thankless job. Hosts, who often having little or no comedy training, are expected to come in on a Monday and be hilarious by Saturday. Add to that that the show often has no idea what to do with the guests hosts besides some lame sketch that capitalizes on whatever show or movie they’re on, and it’s no wonder that the hosting position is often the weakest link in the show. Still, despite the odds being stacked against them, some guest hosts turn in amazing performances and even outshine the regular cast members. These are the Top Ten Saturday Night Live Hosts. In the interest of fairness, we’ve decided to exclude former cast members from consideration. If they can’t be good, nobody can.

10. Buck Henry

He hasn’t been on the show in years and there’s a good chance most people under the age of 30 have no idea who he is, but writer and comedian Buck Henry was one of the best SNL hosts of the 70s. Back in the glory days, Henry was the host of each of the show’s first four season finales, and he was an indelible part of the early show’s success. Like Steve Martin, he was involved in some of the greatest sketches of the era, and is often mistaken as a cast member. His work opposite John Belushi in the classic Samurai sketches is a master class in playing it straight and by itself merits his inclusion on this list. He also had a ton of other great characters and set the bar high for what a person could do in the hosting role.

Best Sketches: Various Samurai Customers, Uncle Roy

9. Drew Barrymore

Way back on November 20^th, 1982, a seven year old Drew Barrymore became the youngest person to ever host Saturday Night Live, a record she still holds to this day. Take that Macauly Culkin! Barrymore has gone on to host the show more than any other woman (6 times so far) and is one of only two ladies in the super-exclusive Five Timers Club, Candace Bergen being the other. Comedy in general is a man’s world, but every time Barrymore shows up on the SNL set, you know she’s going to be funny. Even if she isn’t (or the writers give her stinkers) she always charming and fun to watch. She’s also, like the people on this list, one of the few hosts who can carry a sketch, rather than just stand in the corner and say a line or two.

Best Sketches: The Welshly Arms Hotel Lovers, Disturbed Job Applicant

8. Paul Simon

If you don’t include his musical appearances, Paul Simon hasn’t appeared all that much on SNL. But when he does, he always turns in very funny and surprisingly sweet performances. Unlike other singers who shined on the show like Justin Timberlake, Simon has never really pursued a career as an actor, but from the awesome work he’s done on SNL, he certainly could have. Add to that his long list of knockout performances including a reunion with Art Garfunkel, an amazing duet with George Harrison, and the moving first episode after 911, and you have one entertainer that will always be welcome on the show.

Best Sketches: Desert Island Christmas, Still Crazy After All these Years in Turkey Costume

7. Christopher Walken

It’s always the ones you least expect. Before he made his first appearance on SNL, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Christopher Walken wasn’t a particularly funny guy. Intense? Yeah. Creepy? Sure. But hilarious in a live comedy setting? Probably not. But he was. Playing against his well established type, Walken is always totally fearless and totally funny when he comes to host SNL. Trading on his image and deadpan voice, he’s the perfect straight man, and if they let him cut loose, he can turn in a performance that’s edgy, weird ,and most importantly of all, very funny. SNL is frequently called out for playing it safe, but whenever Christopher Walken makes an appearance, you’re guaranteed the comedy will be a little on the bizarre side. And that’s why we love him.

Best Sketches: Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult, The Continental

6. Alec Baldwin

With the second highest number of hosting appearances, Alec Baldwin was another one of those people who surprised everybody by being amazingly funny right from the start. It seems hard to believe now, but Baldwin made his name in Hollywood as a serious actor and romantic lead. It wasn’t until he appeared on SNL that people even knew he could do comedy. These days, he recognized as one of the funniest comedic actors of his generation, and a lot of that has to do with the incredible stuff he did on SNL. Which of course led to him being cast on 30 Rock, where he continues to rack up the comedy accolades and awards. In a way, SNL allowed him to make the transition from dramatic lead to hilarious character actor. Well, that and his expanding waistline.

Best Sketches: Canteen Boy, Schwetty Balls

5. John Goodman

John Goodman got his start playing Roseanne Barr’s husband on Roseanne, so it shouldn’t come as surprise that he thrived in the comedic atmosphere of Saturday Night Live. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he practically became a regular cast member, returning week after week to portray whistle-blower Linda Tripp. Goodman has hosted the show a record 11 straight seasons in a row and is third overall in most appearances. SNL even joked about his incredible amount of appearances and included him as a potential cast member in one sketch. Goodman even helped replace John Belushi as one of the Blues Brothers, making him one of the few guest hosts to actually start in an SNL movie. Even if it was one as terrible as Blues Brothers 2000.

Best Sketches: Da Bears, various appearances as Linda Tripp

4. Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is one of those great SNL hosts who comes on with low expectations and surprises everyone. When he first appeared in 2003, most people watching were expecting him to embarrassingly mug his way through a couple sketches, and hopefully not humiliate himself too badly in between his musical numbers. Instead, Timberlake knocked it out of the park. Not only was he game and gave it his all, he was actually as funny as the rest of the cast. He continues to appear on the show- often uncredited in the Lonely Island guys’ digital song parodies, and an episode with him hosting is usually a guarantee of a funny show that week. And these days, those are few amnd far between.

Best sketches: Dick in a Box, MotherLover

3. Jon Hamm

A relative newcomer to the SNL hosting game, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm has instantly become a show favourite. And can you blame them for loving this guy? He’s handsome, he’s funny, and he seems to have as much talent for dumb comedy as he does for searing drama. Not bad considering his signature role is a hard-drinking womanizer who’s life is always one step away from total collapse. SNL (never one to let a good thing go to waste) realized how well Hamm fit into the proceedings, and have had him back once a season since he first hosted back in 2008. His episodes have been among the highest rated in recent years and tend to be the funniest ones all year. Here’s to many, many more.

Best Sketches: Hamm and Buble, Don Draper at the Apollo

2. Tom Hanks

There are few Hollywood stars who are able to move from comedy to drama as easily as Tom Hanks. He started his career playing lovable idiots, moved on to playing idiots with sensitive hearts, and then out of nowhere became one of the best actors of his generation. On his many Saturday Night Live appearances over the years, he fits in like he’s always been there. He’s created memorable recurring characters, poked fun at himself like a pro, and generally looks like he was having a great time. How much more could you ask for from a guy who’s basically there to plug a movie?

Best Sketches : Two Lonely Guys, Mr. Short-term Memory

1. Steve Martin

Steve Martin was such a huge part of the early success of SNL that it’s hard not to think of him as a regular cast member. One of the show’s first break-out sketches was the Martin led “King Tut.” It was a profoundly silly sketch, but Martin’s performance in it as well as one of the Two Wild and Crazy Guys, helped turn SNL into an overnight sensation. Martin would go one to host dozens of episodes over the course of the show’s long history (most recently in 2009) and has become such a huge part of the mythology of SNL that he may as well be a cast member. At the very least, he deserves the same amount of credit for turning in funny performance after funny performance and helping to establish the show as the preeminent American comedy institution.

Top 10 Patriotic Movies

Looking for some movies to watch this Independence Day that will make you fiercely proud to be an American? Well look no further, because these films will have you bursting with so much patriotism that you’ll barely have room for any of that all-American barbequed meat.

10. The Patriot

This one could have clawed its way onto this list based on its name alone. But The Patriot’s patriotic merit goes a lot deeper than the title: Mel Gibson plays his usual character, the Formerly Peace-loving Family Man Driven to Revenge by Murder of Family Members, but in this case, the family-member murder occurs during the American Revolution. Of course, Mel is inspired to take up arms against his oppressors. Australian actors and historical inaccuracy aside, this movie will have you seized with old-fashioned patriotic fervor. Remember to calm yourself down before you talk to any British friends afterward.

9. Top Gun

There category of ‘patriotic military movies’ obviously contains a lot of completion: pretty much any movie involving both Americans and Nazis is a surefire bet for a pro-USA spin. But if you’re looking for something a bit more cheery than Saving Private Ryan for your Fourth of July celebration, you can’t go past Top Gun. While it has its downer moments, this military-themed movie is less about the horrors of war and more about lots of really awesome planes flying around doing cool stuff. The flying scenes are so good, even the Chinese couldn’t help but steal a bit of footage for one of their Air Force-related news broadcasts earlier this year.

8. Iron Man

Unfortunately, Captain America doesn’t come out in time for Independence Day 2011, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for an uber-patriotic superhero movie. You could watch the old version of Captain America that came out in 1990, in which our hero must rescue the President before an Italian Nazi can implant a mind-control device in his brain and use him as a puppet. Unfortunately, that movie kind of sucks, so instead you might want to go for Iron Man, in which all-American Tony Stark flies around killing terrorists and bad guys all over the world. Surely Tony Stark is the epitome of the American Dream – whether that’s a good thing or not is up to you to decide.

7. Rambo III

The Rambo franchise might have started off as a statement about veterans traumatized by the Vietnam War, but by Rambo III, it’s about a world in which a single American can show up in Afghanistan and immediately have the locals fighting to the death by his side. Rambo is also gifted with America-based superpowers: he can bring down helicopters with a bow and arrow, and easily outruns large fiery explosions. Sure it’s not realistic, but it’s an escape. And if fantasy Afghanistan ain’t your thing, you can always go for Sylvester Stallone’s other ode to America, Rocky IV, in which Rocky beats up a Communist while dressed in stars-and-stripes-patterned shorts.

6. Team America: World Police

Team America, about an elite group of Americans that fights terrorism around the world, is definitely not for everyone: it features, among other things, a puppet love scene that has scarred many viewers for life. But fans of its brand of humor will enjoy a movie that spares no aspect of American society, and yet also manages to make you kind of fond of it all, too. Sure, it’s a spoof on America’s arrogance and dumb action movies, but it also managed to give modern American patriotism an entirely new official anthem and a catchy new slogan: ‘America, F**k Yeah!’

5. Red Dawn

A plucky team of small-town teenagers gang up to fight against an unlikely invasion of small-town America by the Soviet Union and its allies, using only their wits, bravery and outdoorsman skills. Sure, it’s easy to make fun of Red Dawn, especially the scene where Harry Dean Stanton starts shouting “Avenge me, son! Avenge me!” for no particular reason. But the movie’s also kind of touching, and its patriotic power is undeniable. Red Dawn is currently being remade for the modern era, with America’s new attackers consisting of… North Korea. How can a small country that barely manages to feed its own population get all the way to America and launch an invasion, you ask? Well, a better question is this: how many ticket sales will be lost if angry North Koreans refuse to see the film? Exactly.

4. 300

But this movie isn’t even set in America, you cry! Sure, but in this adaptation of Frank Miller’s comic, ancient Sparta is pretty much a thinly veiled US of A. Both the comic and the film use the fight of the 300 Spartans against the forces of the Persian Empire to showcase modern America values like bravery, liberty, friendship, equality, and impressively sculpted abs. Sure, the real Spartans might have had some beliefs and practices that we Americans really wouldn’t have liked, but it’s better if you forget all that and just sit back and enjoy the fancy fighting.

3. Air Force One

How could we leave out a movie that features a tough-talking, gun-toting president taking down a bunch of terrorists? Harrison Ford plays an American president whose plane is hijacked by evil Soviets. Being both the president and Harrison Ford, he knows that he has no choice but to hunt them all down himself. For reality to live up to this, President Obama would have had to fly into Pakistan himself and personally punch Osama bin Laden to death, perhaps while uttering some sort of badass line like “Jihad this.”

2. Letters from Iwo Jima

At first, this might seem like an odd movie to include: the Clint Eastwood-directed film about Japanese troops in World War II isn’t just in another language; it’s from the viewpoint of a country that was at war with America. Probably only Clint Eastwood, who had built up his patriotic credit over a lifetime of appearing in movies like Heartbreak Ridge, could have got away with making this one. And that’s the funny part, because if you watch the movie carefully, you’ll see that in many ways it’s really about America. The main characters are all exposed to American values, and by the end of the movie they’ve come to realize that these values are in fact superior to those of warlike Imperial Japan. And Mr. Eastwood manages to do all this without getting insulting or preachy.  Team it up with its companion film, Flags of Our Fathers, for a double dose of nostalgic patriotism.

1. Independence Day

It’s highly unlikely that any movie will ever be able to beat the scene in which a Marine played by Will Smith punches out an invading alien life form with the words “Welcome to EARTH.” Sure, Independence Day is incredibly silly and full of plot holes, from Mac-compatible alien computer viruses to Jeff Goldblum driving from New York to Washington DC in under six hours during a full-scale traffic apocalypse. But look past all that, and you’ll find a story of Americans putting aside their differences in order to unite and lead the world in defeating a great evil. And this is something that almost every American still wants to believe that we can do.

Top 10 Movies About Roleplaying Games

Admit it, you’ve always wanted to try it. I don’t care if you’re a Fortune 500 CEO, at some point in your life, you’ve wanted to see what all those nerds you made fun of in high school see in those bizarre dice. I’m talking about role-playing games, of course. They’ve evolved from the tabletop to computers and even to reality, becoming a cult phenomenon within our society.

Movies have both mocked and defended them, with varying levels of quality and success for each side. What you’ll find here is the best mix of self-deprecating humor and at other times the sobering reality that comes with the opportunity to immerse yourself in your wildest fantasies.

I couldn’t pick a favorite so the list is in chronological order from latest to earliest.

10. Unicorn City (2011)

This film answers the all-important question: How do you prove to a prospective employer that you’re capable of leading a team? The obvious solution is to create and be the king of a fictitious Live Action Role Playing society based on the rules and ideals of a medieval RPG. While lead character and financially challenged Voss played by (Devin McGinn) struggles to make his self-proclaimed “utopia for gamers” run smoothly, his real life arch nemesis (Jon Gries from Napoleon Dynamite fame) aims to misbehave and take over his creation. If you loved Uncle Rico, you’re going to love Gries as a delusional, jealous control freak. To add to his list of problems including his bullish older brother Jeff played by Kevin Weismanwho he lives with, Voss must keep all the denizens of Unicorn City happy. Not to mention his longtime fellow gamer and friend, Marsha played by (Jaclyn Hales) has a huge crush on him. Questing around is one thing, but this movie shows the everyday challenges of dealing with leading a team of people.  Only in this situation, Voss rules his own realm with unique people and politics… and foam swords. In all seriousness, everyone can enjoy the universal humor in this one, gamer or not. Plus, there’s a centaur that uses a functioning cooler for drinks and snacks as a body. How awesome is that?

Want to help get this movie in theaters? Be a fan of their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/UnicornCity. You can also visit their site: http://www.unicorncity.com.

9. The Last Lovecraft:  Relic of the Cthulhu (2009)

Stuck at a dead end job, the last descendent of H.P. Lovecraft, famed creator of the mythos of Cthulhu, must stop a rising evil to save the world. But who doesn’t have to do that on a daily basis, right? This quest takes Lovecraft Jr. and his unequally unheroic friends on a journey of epic proportions as they fight weird fish people and protect an ancient relic that would summon a dark evil should it fall in the wrong hands.

8. Role Models (2008)

While the focus of this movie is not necessarily about LARPing, it becomes a tool to show the growth of the child and adult protagonists alike. At first, you see the teenage social outcast who uses the hobby as an escape from his disapproving parents but then learns how to accept his differences from mainstream society. The climactic battle royale leads to his coronation as the new king of the realm and even getting the girl. And people said nothing good ever came from childish games.

7. Astropia (2008)

What happens when you take the money and glamor away from a national celebrity? That celebrity has to get a job working at a role-playing game shop. As the employed nerds learn about what a woman looks like, the socialite, Hildur, becomes immersed in the subculture of gaming and learns a few life lessons of her own. Somewhere along the line, “that guy from the Matrix” shows up in their fantastical quests and that’s when you know you have a good movie.

Side note: This was the highest grossing film in Iceland in 2007. America’s highest grossing film that same year: Spider-man 3. I think Iceland won that one.

6. The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (2008)

As sequel to “The Gamers,” (see below) this adventure takes everything up a notch. This feature length film boasts higher quality production values, cross-dressing, lightsabers, and more unruly adventurers defying the Game Master. As soon as they’re done setting peasants aflame, maybe they can go back to the campaign. All in the name of glory!

5. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

I broke the rules again. While not about RPGs specifically, this documentary examines the relationship between games and the behaviors of those who obsess over them. The escalating rivalry between a successful big shot and a frustrated high school science teacher serves as the backdrop for the epic battle for Donkey Kong global high score supremacy. It’s the modern tale of David versus Goliath, except it’s about jumping over barrels and defeating a giant monkey.

4. The Guild (2007-Present)

Ok, so this is running web series but this rag tag group of everyday people trying to run a successful online guild was too funny to pass up. While the central character, Cyd a.k.a. Codex, tries to keep her real life and game life in balance, the other five members of her guild use the full extent of their zany personalities to be masters of the game while remaining socially awkward outside it.

3. Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey (2006)

This HBO documentary follows 14 year old LARPer Colin Taylor. The film serves both as a coming of age story and a look into the lives of those who Live Action Role Play. As Colin gets ready to enter his first year of high school, he LARPs with his older brother in his spare time. Despite their tight bond, the brothers continue to struggle with the memory, or lack thereof, of their estranged father. The older brother wonders if their father still loves them while Colin would like nothing less than to punch him in the face should they ever meet. Without a father figure, Colin uses LARP to learn how to be a man and perhaps give him the strength to eventually find and regain contact with his dad.

2. Roleplayed (2006)

A short film about one man’s attempt to get his friends to take their tabletop campaign seriously. His tactics involve personal insults, professing the uselessness of reality, and even binding one of his companions. A twist in the middle makes things even stranger until the whole series of events turns into a commercial for a foundation to help the socially awkward. Disturbingly funny is the only way I can describe it.

1. The Gamers (2002)

A group of five friends show us what it’s like in their fantasy world living out the misadventures of their characters during their campaign. While the game master wants order and logic to prevail, the heroes continuously wage war against civility and practicality. The banter between the game master and the players over the rules makes for the funniest bits of this romp between fantasy and reality.

Top 10 Strange Examples of Cognitive Phenomenon

We are all familiar with the phrase “your mind plays tricks on you.”  In many scientific cases, this statement has proven to be true.  The human brain is extremely complex and organized.  Professionals are skilled at making observations surrounding cognitive tendencies, but understanding the mechanisms behind human perception is challenging.  The cognitive map that develops human personality is intriguing and has revealed some bizarre phenomenon.  For example, the black-dog bias is a veterinarian and animal shelter phenomenon in which black dogs are frequently passed over for adoption in favor of lighter-colored animals.

Many shelters have taken active measures to make sure that black dogs are more appealing to the general public.  It seems that large black dogs are the most ignored, but the phenomenon also impacts cats.  It is unclear exactly why people subconsciously pass over black dogs, but some explanations include the fact that black dogs are often viewed as violent in film, people associate the color black with evil, and that black animals don’t photograph well for online advertising purposes.  Next time you’re selecting a canine friend, take an extra look at the lonely black dog.  This article will document ten bizarre examples of human cognitive phenomenon.

10. The Color of Water

Have you ever wondered why water appears to be colorless when consumed and purchased in small quantities, but when viewed in the world’s oceans and lakes it looks blue or green.  In reality, pure water has a slight blue tint that becomes a deeper blue as the thickness of the observed sample increases.  The blue color of water is an intrinsic property and is caused by selective absorption and scattering of white light.  In order to view the true color of water, the sample needs to be over a specified size and purified.  For this reason, a glass of water produces the illusion of a colorless substance, when in fact it has a slight blue tint.  Impurities dissolved or suspended in a water sample may give it a different appearance.

Visible in Your Life

If natural water was colorless, then the world’s lakes and oceans would appear to be grey or black.  It is a common misconception that in large bodies, such as the oceans, the water’s color is blue because of the reflections from the sky.  Reflection of light off the surface of water only contributes significantly when the water is extremely still.  Because most lakes and oceans contain suspended living matter and mineral particles, light scattering would normally give off a white color, as with snow.  However, because the light first passes through the water, which is a blue-colored liquid, the scattered light appears blue.  In extremely pure water, the scattering from the water molecules themselves and not the organic material contributes to the blue color.

Some constituents found in seawater can influence the shade of blue.  This is why the world’s oceans and lakes can appear greener or bluer in different areas.  Clear, blue tropical water can signify a lack of plankton.  Impurities can be deeply colored as well, for instance dissolved organic compounds called tannins can result in dark brown colors, or algae floating in the water (particles) can impart a green color.  The true color of water can only be measured after the sample is filtered to remove all suspended material.  It should be noted that the presence of a specific color in water does not indicate pollution.  Many color-causing substances are harmless.  Minerals may also contribute to water color, such as at Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, which holds a high concentration of dissolved lime that gives the water a turquoise color.

9. Contagious Shooting

We have all read news stories documenting a police shooting and ultimate death.  In some cases, crime scene investigators are surprised when they discover the extensive use of gunfire that was recorded.  Contagious shooting is a sociological phenomenon observed by military and police personnel in which one person firing a gun on a target can induce others to begin shooting.  Often the subsequent shooters will not know why they are firing or what they are shooting at.  The phenomenon seems to stem from a combination of panic, reflex and trust.  For example, if a police hears a fellow officer fire a gunshot, they panic, and their initial reflex is to quickly begin firing their weapons as well.  The individual assumes that their fellow officer had a good reason for shooting, and they fire instinctively without assessing the situation.

Visible in Your Life

On more than one occasion, contagious shooting has resulted in the death of innocent, unarmed civilians.  While commonly accepted in police jargon as, “cops shoot because other cops shoot,” there is currently no scientific evidence to prove the existence of the contagious shooting dynamic.  However, people have reported the urge to fire their weapons when using a shooting range or while hunting with friends.  In some cases, the adrenaline of hearing and witnessing a gun’s discharge causes individuals to instinctively shoot.  The phenomenon has been observed in military First Person Shooter games.  Many people have argued that contagious shooting is not a good explanation for some of the recorded police shootings.  The Sean Bell incident took place in Queens, New York on November 25, 2006, when three men were shot a total of fifty times by a team of officers, killing Sean.

8. Forced Perspective

Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is.  It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture.  The technique takes advantage of the human visual perspective by scaling objects.  Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings uses forced perspective.  In the movie, characters standing next to each other were displaced at a depth from the camera, making some actors appear much smaller in relation to others.  Jackson even constructed portions of the set on movable platforms, which were positioned according to the movement of the camera, so that the optical illusion would be preserved during the entire shot.  The same technique was used in the Harry Potter movies to make the character Hagrid look like a giant.

Visible in Your Life

The Statue of Liberty is built with a slight forced perspective so that it appears more correctly proportioned when viewed from its base.  Forced perspective is evident in Michelangelo’s statue of David.  The technique is extensively used at theme parks, especially Disneyland locations and in Las Vegas.  The process of forced perspective can occur naturally.  A gravity hill is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope.  Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill due to gravity.  Magnetic hills have been reported in hundreds of separate locations around the world.  The most important factor contributing to the illusion of a gravity hill is an obstructed horizon.  Without a horizon, judging the slope of the ground surface is difficult for humans.

One of the most mysterious locations in America is a place known as the Oregon Vortex, located in Gold Hill, Oregon.  The remote area surrounding Gold Hill displays a number of interesting effects and optical illusions.  In the vortex, odd angles create an illusion of objects rolling uphill.  However, the illusion has been reported from multiple perspectives, making the area more bizarre than the average gravity hill.  Organizers of the Oregon Vortex roadside attraction have released images and demonstrated the fact that the bizarre illusions occur from all angles, even when the natural background is removed.  The Oregon Vortex is famous for height change, with the apparent height of two people switching according to where they are positioned.  People are also photographed at a severe angle.  It is interesting to note that the vortex is located near an 1860 hilltop gold strike, in a place characterized by an extreme narrowing of the Rogue River.

7. Green Flash

Green flashes or green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot become visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset.  The cause of the green flash has been highly debated over the years.  The phenomenon is rarely seen, but observers always proclaim a brilliant green or emerald light.  The name, green flash, comes from an 1882 Jules Verne novel titled Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray) which popularized the phenomena.  In his novel, Verne described the color as “a green which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the shades of the most limpid sea could ever produce the like.”

Visible in Your Life

The green flash is usually observed from a low altitude, where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean.  However, it is also possible to see the green color in other geographical areas, including mountain tops.  The currently held scientific belief is that the green flash stems from a refraction of light in the atmosphere.  However, there are problems with the explanation as the refractive index of air is 1.0003 compared with about 1.5 for glass, which means that a ray of light will suffer little refraction in the atmosphere.

Further, there is the question of why the green flash is of such a small area considering the size of the sun’s image. There are many unanswered questions relating to the phenomenon.  The green flash is actually a group of separate occurrences, with some examples baffling intellectuals.  Especially a cloud-top flash, which is seen as the sun sinks into a coastal fog, or at distant cumulus clouds.  A similar phenomenon is the red flash, which is sometimes seen as the lower edge of the Sun emerges from a dark cloud near the horizon.  The green flash is a marvelous and illusive phenomenon.  I would feel lucky to be honored with the view.

6. Online Disinhibition Effect

In psychology, the online disinhibition effect refers to the way people behave on the Internet with less restraint than in real-world situations.  Many people change their natural behavior online.  It is an extremely powerful cognitive phenomenon that is represented by the loosening of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction.  Because of the loss of inhibition, some Internet users show extreme and emotional tendencies.  Some people will become more affectionate and less guarded, speaking out to others about their feelings in an attempt to achieve emotional catharsis.

Visible in Your Life

With respect to bad Internet behavior, certain individuals are always looking for ways to exploit online material and spark controversy.  Many factors have been identified as contributing to the online disinhibition effect.  Over the Internet, people are anonymous, which gives a sense of protection that will often bring out dark personality traits.  The Internet provides a privacy shield for its users that continually gives people the chance to provide misrepresentations.  One can’t be physically seen on the Internet, therefore, people don’t worry about appearance and their overall tone of voice is dramatically lowered.

On the Internet, conversations don’t happen in real time.  The delayed nature of the online message board can also affect a person’s inhibitions.  Some research suggests that people may see cyberspace as a kind of game in which the normal rules of everyday interaction don’t apply to them.  For some unknown reason, an otherwise well-adjusted person, given a captive audience and opportunity, will often exhibit antisocial and psychopathic behavior on the Internet.  The online disinhibition effect is concerning, as it shows the true behavior of people who are not governed by law or social consequence.

5. Cocktail Party Effect

Have you ever wondered how the human brain is able to displace noise and concentrate on one individual in a crowded room full of loud music, dancing, and conversation?  The cocktail party effect describes the brain’s ability to focus attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and background noise.  The effect enables people to talk in noisy locations.  For example, when conversing at a musical concert, people can listen to the band and understand a friend all at the same time.  They can also simultaneously ignore loud noises.  Nevertheless, if someone calls out your name from across the room, people will notice.

Visible in Your Life

Another interesting aspect of the cocktail party effect is de-reverberation, which is the fact that in a normal setting the listener perceives much less echo and reverberation than a microphone recording.  The human auditory system is able to ignore most of the reflected sound, because it arrives from other directions than the direct sound.  The auditory system can also switch the direction of attention and turn from one sound source to another.  The cocktail party effect has been extensively researched and it works best when people have hearing in both ears.  Individuals who have only one functional ear are much more disturbed by interfering noise than people with two healthy ears.

Research has suggested that in order to use the cocktail party effect the auditory system performs a kind of cross-correlation function between both ear signals.  The principles behind the cocktail party effect are not fully investigated or understood, as is the case with many processes of human perception.  The human pinna (the external flap of skin and cartilage of the ear) is used as a directional filter that selectively removes particular sound frequencies, based on the area from which the noise comes.  The filter can distinguish sounds from above vs. below, and from front vs. back.  The specific neural mechanism in the human brain that is responsible for the cocktail party phenomenon is complex.

4. The Gruen Transfer

Compared to our ancestors, we live in an age of mass technological advancement and advertising.  Advertising is a form of communication that is intended to persuade people into buying objects or acting upon products, ideas, and services.  Over the years, executives have tested and developed advertising techniques that work on the human subconscious.  Subliminal advertising is the process of using sensory stimuli that is below the absolute threshold for conscious perception.  For example, an image may be quickly flashed over a television screen before the person has time to process the item, or it could be flashed and then masked, thereby interrupting the cognitive process.  Many people don’t realize that specific aspects of shopping mall and supermarket design appeal to the human natural instinct.

Visible in Your Life

Have you ever gone to the supermarket with the intention of buying a specific item and ended up leaving with multiple bags of random purchases.  In shopping mall design, the Gruen transfer is the moment when a consumer enters a shopping mall and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, loses track of their original plans.  It is the moment when consumers respond to “scripted disorientation” cues in the environment.  It has been determined that spatial awareness plays a key role in the observed effect, as does sound, art, and music.

The transfer is marked by a slower walking pace.  It is clearly evident in the design of shopping malls and casinos.  The Gruen transfer describes the split second when a building’s design and “intentionally confusing layout makes our eyes glaze and our jaws slacken, the moment when we forget what we came to the store for and become impulse buyers.”  The effect is also evident at large amusement parks, when the visitor is overwhelmed with what to undertake first.  In response, the shopping public has countered with shopping lists.  It has been determined that if you stick to your prepared shopping list, it will significantly reduce average expenditure.

3. The Moon Illusion

The Earth’s Moon holds some strange characteristics and natural phenomenon.  The Moon is believed to have been created over 5.3 billion years ago by a giant impact between the young Earth and a Mars-sized body.  The gravitational influence of the Moon produces the ocean tides on Earth and the minute lengthening of the day that we all follow.  Strangely, the moon is just the right distance, coupled with just the right diameter and travels in a perfect orbit to completely cover the Sun during an eclipse.  The transient lunar phenomenon is a short-lived light or color change in the appearance of the lunar surface.  The phenomenon dates back at least 1,000 years.  It has been reported by multiple witnesses and reputable scientists.

Visible in Your Life

The transient lunar phenomenon ranges from a display of foggy patches to permanent color changes on the lunar landscape.  A large percentage of the events are reported near the Aristarchus plateau and crater.  During the Apollo 11 mission Houston radioed to Apollo 11, “We’ve got an observation you can make if you have some time.  There have been some lunar transient events reported in the vicinity of Aristarchus.”   Almost immediately, Armstrong reported back, “Hey, Houston, I’m looking north up toward Aristarchus now, and there’s an area that is considerably more illuminated than the surrounding area.  It seems to have a slight amount of fluorescence.”  In modern times, TLP events are rarely discussed or researched in the scientific community.

The Moon illusion is an optical illusion in which the Moon appears larger near the horizon than it does while higher up in the sky.  The event has been documented since ancient times and has been referenced by many different cultures.  The Moon illusion is a bizarre occurrence that remains unexplained.  In fact, the Moon is farther away from Earth when near the horizon and is about 1.5% smaller than when it is high up in the sky.  With no clear explanation to why the Moon looks larger on the horizon, intellectuals began to accept the occurrence as a psychological phenomenon, meaning our brains are convincing us that the Moon looks bigger.  For over 100 years, research on the Moon illusion has been conducted by vision scientists who invariably have been psychologists specializing in human perception.  Many explanations exist, but to date no single theory is accepted.

2. Tetris Effect

The Tetris effect occurs when people devote a sufficient amount of time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.  The phenomenon is named after the video game Tetris.  People who play video games, watch television, or work on complicated tasked for a prolonged amount of time may find themselves thinking about the task in the real world environment or in their dreams.  The Tetris effect has been described as a form of habit and most of us have experienced it.  It is categorized as a hallucination that can easily produce vivid dreams.  In the Tetris video game example, extreme players may view Tetris shapes when drifting off to sleep or see images falling from the sky.  The players often times find themselves trying to put the shapes together in their mind.

Visible in Your Life

The Tetris effect can occur with many different types of video games, as with any prolonged visual task, such as classifying cells on microscope slides, weeding, picking fruit, or even driving long distances.  Computer programmers and developers have reported a similar experience, and have described dreaming about code when they sleep at night.  It can be an unpleasant experience, often times feeling like cognitive work as you sleep.  A recent Oxford study (2009) suggests that Tetris-like video games may help prevent the development of traumatic memories.  The hypothesis states that if the video game is played soon after the traumatic event, the preoccupation with Tetris shapes is enough to prevent the mental recitation of traumatic images while dreaming, thereby decreasing the accuracy, intensity, and frequency of traumatic reminders.  The cognitive phenomenon is evident in many areas of life, with people reporting vivid dreams surrounding traumatic and stressful events.

1. Illusory Superiority

Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive abilities and underestimate their negative qualities in relation to others.  It is a positive illusion that has been studied extensively in social psychology.  Positive illusions have been described as human’s unrealistically favorable attitude toward themselves.  There are three broad categories of positive illusions, inflated assessment of one’s own abilities, unrealistic optimism about the future and an illusion of control.  Illusory superiority is often referred to as the above average effect.  The above-average effect states that people regard themselves more positively and less negatively than others actually perceive them.

Visible in Your Life

Everyone forms opinions based on social comparisons.  These comparisons can be based around academic performance, working environments or social settings.  In life, people hold a specific view of their personal popularity, overall honesty, confidence, and other desirable traits.  Illusory superiority shows that people over exaggerate their positive abilities, popularity and intelligence, for instance, a person without a high school diploma arguing a diagnosis with a medical professional.  It has been reported that people with a low IQ have a strong sense of illusory superiority.  The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the ability to appreciate their mistakes.

In one example of illusory superiority, many scientific papers have been published that examine people’s erroneous view of their driving ability.  In a 2006 study, it was determined that drivers rated themselves superior to others on 18 components of driving skill.  In the paper, it was proposed that the bias may undermine people’s hazard safety perception.  The natural process of illusory superiority is creating an illusion around personal gambling ability.  For some reason, people regularly feel that they hold an advantage over other professional poker players, ignoring clear statistics of loss and house dominance.  Just remember that experience, education, and hard work create expertise.  If you don’t have this, you might not be as smart as your internal mind tells you.

Top 10 Game Console Failures

Older and wiser, the games industry is still no stranger to failure. Thankfully, due to a wider market and a new found ability to learn from the mistakes of the past, disasters come and go without toppling the biggest names in the industry (well, we assume they do). For those nostalgic for a time when pieces of dark colored plastic came and went in the blink of an eye, here’s a top ten list of games console failures:

10. Neo Geo

The absolute hardcore of the hardcore are typically defensive of the Neo Geo’s inevitable inclusion in lists such as these, and not without reason. The fact of the matter is that the Neo Geo was about a generation ahead of the rest of the home console market and it offered some fantastic Arcade quality gaming in the home. It was basically an Arcade machine in a home console format, after all.

Collectors swear by it, but hindsight is 20/20 and eBay prices for Neo Geo cartridges are considerably less than the obscene $300 you once had to pay per game. The console itself was $650, and bares inclusion for that alone. However, it’s only a failure so far as mainstream success is a criteria for failure. The Neo Geo was clearly only ever intended for the enthusiasts and with new software titles being released as late as 2004, it actually stuck around a lot longer than consoles that sold millions more units.

9. SEGA Saturn

SEGA’s true 32-bit machine was scuppered in part by the 32X, a diabolical piece of hardware we get to later. The Saturn wasn’t a bad machine by any stretch of the imagination, it was merely priced to reflect the fact that it was slightly more high powered than the Playstation and therefore more expensive to manufacture. The hardware was sound, but software was a problem. Sega came out two years after release and admitted that the development tools hadn’t been great, and it wasn’t long before all confidence was lost in the machine and the people who made it. SEGA lost 30% of its employees and $260 million.

8. The Original Xbox Gamepad

This list continues with a smaller scale failure. Or rather a big failure, with a daftly over sized controller that (in retrospect) actually provides something of a mission statement for the Xbox brand. Though Kinect is trying to bring that coveted wider audience into the living room, it undeniably has a software library built around having massive man hands. Forget your pansy Playstation-sized gamepad for the average palm. These weathered, hard skinned hands are for strangling, not moisturizing.

Rather patronizingly, a ‘type-S’ revision was made for the Japanese market, only to be officially adopted in every region a year after the console’s release. But the stupidest thing about this mistake was that SEGA had already done exactly the same thing with the Saturn. Chunkier western model replaced by more sensibly sized Japanese version two years after release.

7. Nokia N-Gage

Now here’s a case of being too ahead of its time. Mobile gaming has really taken off since the N-Gage crashed and burnt, to the extent that I’m not entirely sure I won’t be putting today’s more traditional handhelds (3DS and Vita) on a list like this in five years time. We’ve even got devices like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play doing the N-Gage thing (and not necessarily doing it better).

So why did N-Gage kick start mobile phone gaming? Well, it wasn’t a capacitive touch-screen phone for starters (that’s arguably the real revolution in handheld gaming). But it was also a classic case of a ‘jack of all trades’ device. The full phone keypad necessitated buttons too small for gaming, the screen was daftly in portrait (rather than landscape) and when you used it as a phone, it looked like you speaking into a Taco.

6. Apple Pippin

History may have been thoroughly rewritten on this one since the iMac onwards, but if you concentrate, you may be able to remember a time when Apple products were desperately uncool.  And thanks to the iPhone, the comic stylings of an Apple gaming console may also be lost on some of you.

The Pippin was very true to Apple’s form in the nineties. Firstly, it was grossly overpriced compared to competing devices with better features (Playstations were $300 at launch, the Pippin was double that). And secondly, only 18 games were ever made for it in North America. Manufacturing partner Bandai expanded the library to 80 titles in Japan, but it was doomed to obscurity.

5. Atari Jaguar

Lies, damned lies and statistics. Atari’s last stand was sold as the first ’64-bit gaming system’, but the claim was disputed considering that the fundamental components were using 32-bit instruction sets. Of course, this meant more to us back in the days when console power was still advertised in terms of ‘bits’. But it was clear that the Jaguar didn’t have either the power or the third party support to compete with the supposedly inferior consoles from Sony and SEGA.

The Jaguar killed an Atari brand that had already suffered major setbacks in the two preceding hardware generations. 125,000 consoles were sold two years after release, with nearly as many still in inventory. Some of these ended up in UK Game stores, sold as retro novelties in the early noughties.

4. Virtually Every CD-based Console

The optical media plague that spread across the industry in the early 90s seems very strange in retrospect. Not only did a whole host of new manufacturers try to crash the console market with consoles based around CD media (CD32, CD-i and the aforementioned Pippin), but CD add-ons started growing, abscess-like on already successful machines (Sega/Mega CD being the most obvious).

They were onto something of course. The Playstation proved that optical media was the way forward for consoles, and Nintendo lost significant market share when it stubbornly stuck to cartridges in the same era. Even they were tempted into the CD add-on game with the unfortunately named N64DD.

The problem was, the possibilities of games on compact disk inspired some very lazy thinking. CDs were used for music and movies, so CDs should be used for music and movie games! A high proportion of terrible FMV games (including Night Trap and Phantasmagoria) with minimal interactivity ensured that these platforms bombed, and bombed hard.

3. Current Generation Manufacturing and Design

The big players are making all the right decisions with their current designs. They’re in step with the march of technology, whilst offering technology that may or may not take. Aside from the Wii’s motion control gamble, they’ve been experimental without being too risky. The thing is, one major aspect of their internal design is fundamentally flawed (or it’s intelligently designed to fail, depending on your viewpoint).

The most famous flaw of this generation is the Xbox 360’s ‘Red Ring of Death’, but the ‘Yellow Light of Death’ in Playstation 3 models is equally baleful. The failure rate of 360 consoles was once said to be about one third of all units manufactured, and a lot of the problems its suffers are down to matters as simple as airflow, and the type of solder used in manufacture. Rather pathetically, it all seems to stem from the teasing that Microsoft received over the size of its original Xbox. The 360 had the liposuction treatment, and now sits there stuffing its face all the same, a ticking time bomb of heart-disease.

2. SEGA Mega Drive 32X

There’s something in the 32X philosophy that most consumers could surely get behind. Instead of buying an entirely new console every few years, simply plug something new into your old machine and enjoy several years of next generation gaming. In practice, you end up strapping 3/4s of a new console onto an old device that probably already has a pointless CD add-on, but it’s not an entirely unappealing idea.

SEGA themselves weren’t behind it anyway. Or perhaps it’s impossible to tell what exactly SEGA were behind, considering they were lining up the Neptune in addition to the Saturn. The 32X suffered the same curse of a limited games library that all the above consoles labored under and it was given the axe as soon as it became apparent that the Saturn was going to struggle against the competition.

1. Virtual Boy

The Goggles! They do nothing! Well actually, the goggles give you full parallax 3D game play and you can have it every colour of the rainbow. As long as it’s red. Oh, and they’re not even goggles, since the device rests on a stand and you peer into it, like a Mutoscope peep-show. With seventies visuals and a 19th Century  form factor, the three quarters of a year the Virtual Boy spent on the market in 1995-6 is actually something of an achievement. Nintendo have a pretty flawless record with their hardware releases, but when they mess up, they clearly have to mess up well.

Top 10 Mustaches

If you are male (and a probably a few females), at one time or another you have sported a mustache. While most of us don’t have the testosterone to do the ‘stache proud, here are few individuals, both real and imaginary, who have pulled off the the mustache with great aplomb. As a matter of fact, you probably can’t picture any of these personalties without a mustache and with that I give you the top ten mustaches.

10. Salvador Dalí

Being great artist and a little weird (or eccentric, if you are a great artist) usually go hand in hand. It was said that Dalí wore mustaches because he was inspired by dictators who wore them. Dalí was a colorful and imposing presence in his ever-present long cape, walking stick, haughty expression, and upturned waxed mustache, famous for having said that “every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí.”

9. Rollie Fingers

A baseball hall-of-famer, Rollie Fingers was one of the first players groomed in his minor league career to be a relief pitcher once he reached the majors. Thankfully, his mustache was also groomed and he delivered a entertaining handlebar mustache along with a great pitches. To his credit he won the American League MVP and Cy Young Award in 1981 besides rocking the handlebars.

8. Charlie Chaplin

This toothbursh mustache is most famous for having been worn by Adolf Hitler, although it was already well-recognized due to movie star Charlie Chaplin wearing it as part of his Little Tramp costume. Chaplin did not wear the mustache in daily life. Chaplin said he added the mustache to his costume because it had a comical appearance and was small enough so as not to hide his expression. Chaplin took advantage of the noted similarity between his on-screen appearance and that of Adolf Hitler in his film The Great Dictator, where he again wore the mustache as part of two new characters that parodied Hitler. – Wikipedia

7. Gene Shalit

Gene Shalit is the film and book critic on NBC’s The Today Show. And, wow, he really looks like an owl in that picture. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his over-sized handlebar mustache, and for wearing colorful bowties. During major league baseball spring training in 1994, Shalit was run over by a car. To the disappointment of many Hollywood movie-producers, he recovered.

6. Yosemite Sam

Was there any man who was more mustache and less face than Yosemite Sam? Two eyes, a bun shaped nose and red hair was the sum total of his his face. With a mustache longer than his arms, the only thing bigger was his cowboy hat. Bugs may have gotten the better of Yosemite Sam, but as a hairy red fashion statement, he couldn’t be beat.

5. Badamsinh Juwansinh Gurjar

A simple Indian villager, Badamsinh wears his mustache here on February 29, 2004. Badamsingh displayed his 12.5 feet long mustache, which he said he had not cut for 22 years, in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World records.

4. Groucho Marx

Groucho’s glasses, nose, and mustache have become icons of comedy—to this day, glasses with fake noses and mustaches (referred to as “Groucho glasses”and other names) resembling Groucho Marx are still sold by novelty and costume shops. Although his mustache started out a simple grease paint, by the time he was hosting “You Bet Your Life” he had grown a real mustache which he kept for the rest of his life. – Wikipedia

3. Adolf Hitler

I can’t think of any other list that you would find both Tom Selleck and Adolf Hitler to be members of. Is it any wonder the “Hitler” mustache went out of style about the same time Hitler went of style? As one man, he had the power to throw the world into war…and forever end the fashion statement of the “toothbrush” mustache.

2. Tom Selleck

As my wife will tell you, there is a lot to like about Tom Selleck, not the least is his iconic mustache. Tall, dark, handsome and hairy, Tom Selleck has made a living at being easy on the eyes and he pulls off a mustache better than any other male. The legend of his mustache was illustrated wonderfully during his appearance on the hit sit-com, “Friends” when Joey and Chandler both tried growing mustaches in order to be more like Tom’s character, Richard. Needless to say, they paled in comparison.

1. Fu Manchu

Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present … Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man

Top 10 Infectious Diseases

The common cold has no cure. Scientists have been trying for centuries to find the cure, which would undoubtedly make our lives easier. However, the common cold has nothing on these 10 infectious diseases. The diseases are, for lack of a better word, so viral that there is a high percentage chance that you will die from the complications. Some of these diseases have vaccinations, some have preventive measures while others are simply deadly with little chance of survival. To be included on this list, the virus has to have been a major cause of death in history with ranking based on fatality rates and impact worldwide. However, if a disease has been contained it will be lower on the list.

10. Smallpox

This variola virus had many forms and continues to be a required vaccination for many countries. Smallpox in its worse forms – hemorrhagic and flat – had the highest fatality rates with only a 10 percent or less chance of survival. Fortunately this disease has been the only one on this list to be completely eradicated from nature since it is only contagious through humans.

9. Typhoid fever

Perhaps one of the least lethal diseases on this list, the fatality rate of typhoid fever is only 10-30 percent. But the symptoms show up in stages over a period of three weeks and, in most cases, are not fatal. That said, the disease can stay dormant in a person who has overcome it and then be passed on to another person. The most famous case of this was the American cook in the early 1900s known as “Typhoid Mary” Mallon.

8. Influenza

Perhaps the scariest virus on this list is one that anyone anywhere can contract – influenza. Luckily, the flu is easily identified and in most countries easily combated. However, young children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to flu. And the most famous strain was the Spanish Flu, which was estimated to have killed 2-5 percent of the human population in 1918-1919. Thankfully that strain has never been seen again; however, the flu virus is famous for mutating from animals to humans.

7. Bubonic Plague

This plague is transmitted through infected fleas and kills about 70 percent of its victims in 4-7 days. The most well known epidemic was the Black Death in Medieval times when it was rumored to have killed about 25 million in Europe alone and another 50 million across the world. The bubonic plague is often characterized by swollen lymph nodes though the modern world has seen few breakouts.

6. Cholera

Normally a human gets cholera from eating or drinking infected food or water. And untreated, the disease will progress from massive diarrhea to shock in 4-12 hours and possibly death within 18 hours or several days. Luckily, with oral rehydration therapy, a person can survive from cholera; however, in its most severe form, cholera can kill within three hours. But good sanitation practices can curb an outbreak. As the old saying goes – don’t drink the water – in many underdeveloped countries.

5. Anthrax

While anthrax has been used as a biological weapon before, a person dies from anthrax after inhalation of the spores or through eating or coming in contact with animals who have ingested the spores. Once contaminated, the bacteria quickly multiples and kills its host by producing two lethal toxins. Death can take from two days up to a month from the cold like symptoms, which then lead to serious breathing problems, shock and the eventual fatality. Large amounts of antibiotics have been shown to be able to stop the disease. A vaccine is known, then again there are also antibiotic-resistant strains of anthrax.

4. Malaria

This vector-borne infectious disease still has outbreaks of more than 500 million per year with anywhere between 1-3 million deaths when not treated properly. Fortunately with treatment, a person with malaria can expect a full recovery though like many of the diseases on this list, there is no vaccine. However, it has been noted that the deaths caused by Malaria occur on average about one every 30 seconds.

3. SARS

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has seen only one major outbreak in Asia a few years ago. In most cases, the disease in its viral pneumonia form has a fatality rate of about 70 percent with the highest fatality rate among victims over the age of 65. Supposedly the Chinese government created a vaccine that was effective in about two-thirds of the test groups; however, outside of that many of the treatments have proven to cause just as many problems as SARS itself. What doesn’t cure you, will kill you?

2. Ebola

A discovery in the last 30 years, this strain of viruses has a fatality rate between 50-89 percent. Known to be devastating to both humans and animals, Ebola will kill a person within a week to two weeks usually from multiple organ failure or hypovelmic shock. A Canadian company recently reported that they have created a vaccine that is effective in 99 percent of the test cases of monkeys. Unfortunately, no vaccine or treatment has been approved for humans at this time.

1. HIV/AIDS

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which cripples a human’s immune system. AIDS has been categorized as an epidemic by the CDC and the life expectancy has been extended despite the lack of a vaccination or cure. While on its own, the Ebola virus is much more deadly in the short term, most AIDS victims eventually succumb to death from an AIDS related sickness.

Top 10 Signs That Your Teenager Threw a Party

10. The following Saturday cars loaded with kids keep cruising by your house.

They slow down with hopeful facial expressions until they see you peering through a crack in the curtains and then they speed off.

9. You go to get a glass of water before bed and all of your glassware is missing.

Several ‘Big Gulp’ cups are in their place.

8. Your pot stash is missing.

Either that or it suddenly smells like oregano

7. Even a growing teenager can’t eat eight large pizzas in two nights.

So what’s with all the pizza boxes? And who paid for it?

6. You find a dried up puddle of vomit behind your couch a few weeks later.

Of course your kid could have just been sick from eating eight large pizzas…

5. You suddenly have a much higher threshold for alcohol.

Not to mention the liquor in your bar looks faded and tastes, well, watery.

4. You get a call from a rental company to tell you that they are keeping your damage deposit because the stage and smoke machine were returned broken.

This one is more likely if your kid is in a rock band or dating someone in a rock band.

3. Your next-door neighbor suddenly has a recycle bin overflowing with empty beer cans.

She’s 85 years old and you’ve seen her disapproving looks over the fence when you’re enjoying a glass of wine in the backyard so this doesn’t quite add up.

2. Your area rug has been moved or your furniture has been rearranged.

Tip: Look underneath – bet there’s a stain or burn mark there!

1. Your house is very, very clean. Too clean.

You should expect your house to be messier than it was before you left it. If it’s noticeably cleaner, you should be suspicious. If that dirty skylight you’ve been meaning to get to is now spotless, be scared

10 Bizarre Disney Facts & Oddities

Unless you were a child before the mid-30s, chances are you grew up under the influence of a company co-founded by one Walter “Walt” Disney. The empire started by this visionary cartoonist has flourished and expanded beyond “Steamboat Willie” into all forms of media from film to radio. And almost everyone knows the phrase uttered by winners around the world “I’m going to Disneyland.” Disneyland is just one of 11 theme parks all over the world, which continually rake in cash for this media empire that’s easily as well known as other world renowned brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

With an empire that big, there are bound to be some interesting, some notable and sometimes bizarre facts about the company. There are truly way too many ways to list all the “magic” found throughout the empire, but these 10 are just a few of the most interesting ones.

10. Hidden Ears

Whether you’re at Disneyland or any of the other theme parks, everywhere you look there are Mickey Mouse Ears. And no, not the merchandise ears. From the shape of the pizza to the hedges to the ears hidden in the tiles, Mickey’s iconic ears are everywhere thanks to Walt’s desire to add to the magic of the kingdom.

9. The first soundtrack

Long before “Saturday Night Fever” was the big hit of the 70s, an animated feature about a wooden puppet and its maker yielded the first soundtrack for sale to the general public. Since the start with “Steamboat Willie” and its use of music, Disney projects have made music an integral part of the process. So soundtracks, and consequently making money off of them, were only a natural extension.

8. Oscars

By the 2008 Academy Awards, Walt Disney’s company had been nominated for more than 200 Oscars with more than 50 wins just in films under the Disney logo. Of those films, there are 51 nominations for animated features with 14 wins. With Pixar under the Ears, that amount close to doubles with 13 Oscar wins for Pixar. Disney will likely continue to tack on more wins since it has distributed all of the major film releases for Pixar and bought the company two years ago.

As for dear old Walt, he holds the record for most Oscars with 22 in regular categories and four honorary out of his 59 nominations.

7. Facial hair

Back in the 60s, long hair and facial hair was considered to be a sign of hippies, which the empire could not afford to be associated with. Hence a policy was born requiring all male employees to have short hair and no facial hair at the theme parks. It took until 2000 for the theme parks to renege on the policy. Now male employees are allowed to have neatly trimmed moustaches.

6. DDD

Talk about keeping quiet. Disney employees are expressly prohibited from dating other Disney employees – hence Don’t Date Disney. A former employee of Disneyland let the cat out of the bag on that policy years ago when he tattled to “LA Magazine” about his time as Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately, someone took a photo of him and his then girlfriend, an Ariel, and showed it to the higher ups, who were displeased. However, it was going to the premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” doing an interview in costume, giving his full name, and the interview being posted online that got his Ears taken away.

At the same time, park employees are discouraged from trying to “excite” members of the opposite sex and to ignore any flirtation from guests. Tough luck, Jack, no lasses or goatee for you!

5. Rigid control of trademarks

Years ago, Disney promised that the corporation would sue three daycare centers in Florida for having five-foot tall painted depictions of Disney characters. The characters were replaced, but that is just one example of how Disney holds its trademarks close to the chest. In another case, a Florida couple was sued for a cool million when they advertised Eeyore, Tigger and Pooh outfits that they had available for parties. The couple sent the costumes back to the Peru ebay seller, which prompted Disney to say the couple acted in bad faith. No honey for you!

4. The Vault

Included in that rigid control of their trademarks is the vaunted Disney Vault. Disney started theatrically re-releasing movies seven years after they were originally released after “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” Since then, the home movie craze hit and with the advent of DVDs, the Vault is only reopened once every 10 years. Supposedly this is a ploy to get new generations of children interested in the movies. Or like any business, it could just be a way to make more money.

3. It’s a big, big Walt Disney World

Located entirely within its own improvement district – the Reedy Creek Improvement District of Lake Buena Vista, Fla. – Walt Disney World with its main attractions and resorts is twice the size of Manhattan. Every day, the guests of the resorts use an amount of linens that would take a normal person 40 years to clean. Supposedly the landscaping crew puts over a half a million miles on the mowers covering the 47 miles of WDW throughout the year. In the last seven years, a water saving effort has taken place at the theme parks, which has meant a savings of about 2.5 billion gallons of water. Who said it was a “small, small world?”

2. Fatal Rides

There have been about a dozen deaths in Disneyland California since the park opened in 1955 while there have been at least as many at Disney World and at least one at the Paris Disneyland. Some of these fatalities were due to adverse reactions from the guests, but many of the deaths were the fault of the guests who were not heeding directions. When they say don’t stand up in a roller coaster, there’s a reason. Photo: Floyka, Artists: Sophia Chadez and Brad Chadez

1. Walt’s Apartment

Because Walt wanted to ensure that everything would be as magical as possible when Disneyland was being built in the early 50s, he had an apartment built in the theme park, which was an hour from where he lived in California. Employees would know when he was in the apartment, above the fire station on Main Street USA, when the light was on in the window at night. To this day, more than 45 years after his death, a light is left on in the window in his memory and supposedly the room has been left untouched since he passed away. Perhaps Mickey’s Ears are not the only things you could ever see at Disneyland

Top 10 Cults

A “cult” typically refers to a  social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding population considers to be outside the mainstream. Cults usually expect a large amount of time and money to be devoted as well. And sometimes a cult will ask the ultimate price, your life. Here are 10 cults that have changed the way the world looks at cults.

10. Scientology

Scientology may not be considered a true “doomsday” cult as most others on this list are, but it still has a stronghold all over the world, and its fair share of detractors who tell stories of mind control, financial devastation, and criminal activity leading to the deaths of those trying to escape the religion. Created by L. Ron Hubbard in 1947 in his first office on La Brea and Sunset in Los Angeles, Scientology is a religion based on the idea of clearing the “thetans” of outer space entities from the human psyche, with intense therapy sessions that rely on the use of a crude lie detector test, known as an E-Meter. Followers: Beck, Tom Cruise, Priscilla Presley. Scientology runs centers all over the world, but its best known is the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, where many of its most renowned members come to “get clear”.

9. Hare Krishna

Founded in 1966, the Hare Krishna cult was a fixture in the seventies, with yellow-robed disciples panhandling at every major airport and intersection. The epitome of hippie idealism, Krishna followers believed utterly in the God “Krishna” who was actually a character created for a novel, Mahabaratha. The distinctive, relentless chanting practiced by followers of this cult actually meant “the energy of the Lord”. Krishna followers lived a hardscrabble, Spartan existence, with the barest level of sustenance, and very little sleep: they suffered for their religion, believing that they would be rewarded by ascension to a spiritual paradise after many reincarnations. However, not every member of the Krishna organization suffered: the higher echelons were well fed, housed in luxury, and surrounded by women catering to their every need. Although the Hare Krishna’s may also escape “doomsday cult” status, there are dark tales of disciples willing to do anything for their religion, including robbery and murder. Famous Followers: The Beatles, for a time.

8. The Unification Church

Better known by the mocking nickname, “Moonies”, the disciples of Sun Myung Moon believe that Moon himself is the divine being, or Messiah. His status as the second coming of Christ allows him to live in royal fashion, supported by his many followers all over the world. Moon was unwelcome in Germany, being banned from the country, along with his wife, as a potentially dangerous influence on German youth: they were not allowed to enter Germany until 2006. It is believed that the cult lures in young people and separates them from their loved ones by making them feel a part of a new and more loving family. Moon expects to be treated as God, because he believes he is God, or so he has led his many followers to believe. Other belief systems of the Moonie cult are that an actual kingdom of heaven exists on Earth, not solely in the afterlife, as Christians believe. Korea is the chosen realm of this kingdom, according to Moon, who has earned millions and millions of dollars from Koreans, his chosen people, while preaching that Christian churches are the devil’s instruments.

7. Children of God

A seriously twisted cult that delivered an evil message that sex with children was natural and right, The Children of God cult was also known as the Family and was founded by David Berg. Known for turning female cult followers into prostitutes who used sex to entice men into the cult, they were the purveyors of “The System”, a doctrine that included belief in the Apocalypse. Actress Rose McGowan of Charmed was raised in the cult, and so was River Phoenix, who later died after an overdose in front of Johnny Depp’s Viper Room. The cult’s system of sexual abuse and “flirty fishing” (the use of sex to lure new members) makes it a particularly nasty addition to our list.

6. The Ku Klux Klan (or KKK)

Spawned from the intensely racist Christian Identity Movement, The KKK practiced cold-blooded acts of murder during their reign of terror, at its most potent during the time after the Civil War. But their activities, born out of a desire for white supremacy, did not stop there. Famous for the meetings they attended, fully hidden by white robes and hoods, and the burning crosses they would erect to frighten those they despised, the KKK membership swelled to almost four million at its peak in 1928. The KKK had many enemies, looking down not only on the entire black race, but also on Catholics, Jews, and other non-white races

5. The Manson Family

One of the most notorious cults of the modern age, the Manson Family was small, but deadly. Led by charismatic leader Charles Manson, a juvenile delinquent who sodomized other boys while in detention, Family followers believed in Helter Skelter, a massive retaliation by the black race against, in their own words, “whitey”. They also shared Manson’s belief that the Beatles’ White Album was sending them messages about how to participate in Helter Skelter. Songs like Piggies”, from that album, inspired drug-addled murderers like Charles “Tex” Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel to go into the Hollywood Hills and commit the gruesome murders of successful, rich members of the upper classes. When Roman Polanksi’s pregnant fiancée, the stunning actress Sharon Tate, begged for the life of her unborn baby, she was told, “I have no mercy for you”.

4. Heaven’s Gate

A true doomsday cult, Heaven’s Gate followers believed in UFO’s and that the Earth (and everyone on it) was about to be “wiped clean” and “recycled”. The only chance of escape, preached leaders Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, was to get off the planet – immediately. Such teachings were the harbingers of mass suicides, and the followers were prepared with instructional videos and teachings, to leave their “flesh bodies” behind, and ascend to a new level of being. When the Hale-Bopp comet appeared in 1997, Applewhite had the sign he needed. Convinced that a spaceship was waiting just beyond the comet, to rescue his followers, he ordered the suicides of 38 followers, who believed it all. The 38 followers, and Applewhite, were all found dead in a beautiful house in San Diego in 1997.

3. The Solar Temple

Another cult with a charismatic leader, Luc Joret, the Solar Temple also preached the message of Apocalypse, claiming that it would come through natural disasters. Only Solar Temple converts would escape the fate of mankind: since they were the faithful, they would be spared. The Solar Temple devotees believed that suicide was actually salvation, and that they would be really be going on a journey to a star called Sirius. These beliefs were so strong that, in 1994, 53 members of the cult were found dead of suicide in a compound near Geneva, Switzerland. Joret, having earned more than 93 million dollars instilling this doctrine in his followers, was one of the dead in Switzerland, apparently also on a “death voyage” to a distant star: Joret started out as Gestapo officer during World War II.

2. Branch Davidians

David Koresh was a charismatic leader who taught his followers that the United States Government was the enemy of God. Also preaching the now-familiar refrain of apocalyptic terror and destruction, Koresh installed all of his followers at a compound in Waco, Texas, with some serious weapons, and instructions to fear and fight the authorities that “threatened” their life at the cult. Koresh enjoyed the bodies of his young female followers, while painting himself as the Messiah. In February of 1994, the ATF went out to the compound, to investigate allegations of the sexual abuse of children as young as twelve, and the illegal hoarding of weapons. A famous standoff ended in tragedy as canisters of tear gas were tossed into the compound by the ATF, resulting (maybe?) in fires that caused the death of 76 members. There is much contention about whose fault the tragic fire was: the controversy continues to this day.

1. The People’s Temple

Jim Jones, the leader of The People’s Temple, was an odd child who was intrigued, at a very young age, by religious zeal and a strong interest in “death”. From these abnormal beginnings, Jones rose to become a macabre symbol of mind control and brainwashing. Jones cloaked his darker interest in death beneath a veneer of Socialism, believing that true religious consciousness would lead to a socialist viewpoint. He felt that the Bible was ridiculous; a sort of joke or fairy tale, and his followers grew in numbers as he refined his own doctrine. Eventually, Jones and his disciples had to flee the United States, as they were pressured by the government regarding charges of violence, abuse of followers, and illegal cult activity. They escaped to a settlement in Guyana, which Jones named (naturally) Jonestown. This is where the largest mass suicide in cult history was played out, the result of Jones convincing his followers that they were being pursued by foreign governments who would torture them and hurt their children. Gripped with terror, 909 followers (including many children) drank the infamous Kool-Aid and gave their lives over to the cult, forever.

Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe

The Universe… The incredible difference in scale between the tiny world we live in every day and the vastness of all time and space begs the question of whether we will ever be able to grasp the fullness of the cosmos. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. In fact, contemplating the great unknowns must be one of the oldest hobbies in human experience. The pursuit has given rise first to religion, then to philosophy, then to people who make fun of religion and philosophy.

We may never understand the entire universe, but we can sure appreciate the fact that it’s so complex that it eludes us.

10. Extraterrestrial Intelligence

This is really a simple mystery. Is there other intelligent life out there in the universe? Carl Sagan reminds us that if we exist, then, no matter how rare intelligence is in the universe, given how huge the universe is, we must have many neighbors out there somewhere. Frank Drake, an astrophysicist, created an equation that helps figure out how much intelligent life there is in the universe, and estimated that if only one in a billion planets has intelligent life, then there must still be over 6 billion planets with intelligence on them. Enrico Fermi, however, pointed out that if life is that common, then it is virtually impossible that we haven’t yet detected any signs of other intelligent life in the universe. So, the real mystery is this: what is it about Earth that makes no one want to play with us?

9. The Tunguska Explosion

On the 30th of June, 1908 (or the 17th, at the time; the calendar has been revamped since then), at 7:17 am (local time), something exploded over a region of forest in the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia, Russia. Locals many miles away saw something bright blue streak toward the area and explode with incredible force, sufficient to register on instruments in England. Later examination of the site showed that trees had been knocked down in a radial pattern from a central point, indicating an air burst of some kind. To this day, scientists aren’t sure what it was, and generally figure that it was a meteor or a fragment of a comet. Why did it explode in the air? Why haven’t we found any pieces? The mystery has kept UFO aficionados up at nights since then.

8. Rare Antimatter

Matter and antimatter are, in theory, created at the same time by the same event. When a normal baryonic particle is created, an antiparticle of the same mass and opposite charge is also created. However, while we have created antimatter in laboratories on Earth, we don’t see it in the universe around us. No one seems to know what happened to all the antimatter that should be there…

7. Consciousness

What is the mind? Behaviorists say that it is just conditioned responses. But it’s hard to deny that our ability to reflect on our own thoughts is something distinct and interesting. Is it a mere side-effect of the way our brains work? If so, how long will it be before a computer becomes self-aware and asks for equal rights? How can you tell true consciousness from something designed to simulate it? Can consciousness survive the death of the brain that carries it? There are a lot of questions, but until we can have an equal conversation with either a robot or a ghost, there really won’t be any answers.

6. Dark Matter / Dark Energy

Current models of the universe, and observations made by high-tech instruments, point to there being an enormous amount of matter in the universe beyond what we can actually see. In fact, we can only seem to perceive about 4% of the stuff in the universe directly. The rest is invisible, or “dark matter,” a term that just means that we have no idea what it is. Accompanying this dark matter is some type of energy that, like dark matter, we can’t perceive directly. We call this, in a moment of inspiration, “dark energy.” Apparently, there’s even more of this than there is dark matter. Different theories abound, but perhaps, as mentioned in #10 above, most of the universe is just avoiding us.

5. Time

You think you know what time is? Okay, try defining it without using any terms that rely on time. Time is… well, it’s time. It’s what keeps every event from happening simultaneously, and it’s what distinguishes something that happened in the past from something that will happen in the future. Is it a dimension, like space? Is it a quality of matter? Is it merely an illusion, possibly created to boost sales of digital watches? The smartest guys in the world get headaches from this one.

4. The Beginning of the Universe

How did the universe begin? Did the universe ever begin? If the universe includes everything that we know, including time, could there possibly even be a “before” before the beginning of the universe. Current theories generally talk about a “Big Bang,” which is a massive expansion of all matter and energy from a single point, which is still continuing through the present day. What started the bang? Where did all the energy and matter come from? Are these questions even meaningful? What about creationism, if that is for you? If God created the universe and all the physical laws in it, what is he doing now that it is running itself?

3. End of the Universe

Following the question of the end of the universe is the question of the end of the universe. Opinions vary on whether we can expect the universe to ever expire. There are several possibilities. One is that the universe will continue to expand, and eventually become so spread out that all matter and energy is just a homogeneous cloud of thin, lukewarm dust. Another is that gravity will eventually catch up with all the matter, and the universe will slow down and fall back into a single point, which may spark another big bang. Yet another theory notes that baryons and protons, the building blocks of matter, don’t seem to be being created naturally anymore, and if they decay (as some other particles do), the universe will simply fade out as all the particles just cease to be. In general, nothing untoward is expected to happen to the universe for many billion years, which will probably be a relief to those with long-range investments.

2. Multiple Universes

Current quantum physics raises the possibility that there are many universes besides our own, existing in the same space and time, but only interacting in certain limited ways. These universes may have their own separate histories and futures, and even their own laws of physics. This is all vague theory for the moment, but some day it may be possible to travel to the universe where your favorite singer won American Idol or visit with evil Spock.

1. Grand Unification Theory

For decades, physicists have been trying to make sense of the difference between Isaac Newton’s classical physics (you know, what you use to play pool) Einstein’s relativistic physics, that involve very large or massive things at enormous velocities, and Heisenberg’s (and others’) quantum physics, which concerns things so small that you can’t even measure them without changing the result. These three sets of physical laws seem to play by their own rules, largely ignoring each other, and yet they all relate to the same universe. And so physicists have hunted for the Grand Unification Theory, which would substitute for all of these incomplete sets of laws and make sense of it all. Perhaps it doesn’t exist. Or perhaps it’s just too complex for human minds to grasp. One way or the other, it’s going to keep scientists arguing for some time to come.

Top 10 Worst Shoes To Wear And Step In Dog Poop

Keeping with a dog theme (see our top 10 smartest dogs), today’s top 10 list is a bit more bizarre, but still helpful advice for those who stroll in dog-filled neighborhoods. Behold the Top 10 Worst Shoes If You Step In Dog Poop.

10. Kitten Heels

Ever walked over grass with kitten heels? Those little heals sink right in and it’s like you are wearing flats. Imagine if the grass was actually dog poop. Yuck.

9. Heelys

Stepping in dog poo is bad enough but how about gliding through it balanced on your heels? I hope you’re wearing a helmet! And, good luck cleaning the poop out of the wheel well…

8. Marabou Slippers

I’m optimistically placing this one lower on the list because I’m hoping the ‘gift’ your neighbor’s dog left in your yard is shallow enough not to hit the feathers. The risk is there and, as an added bonus, they are always open-toed, so if you are fancy enough to go take out the trash in your silky robe and marabou slippers, watch your step!

7. Brand New White Running Shoes

If you are impractical enough to buy white street shoes then you know it is only a matter of time before they get their first scuff and it’s all down hill from there. Imagine stepping out in your brand new shoes only to step in dog doo-doo. Brown shoes suddenly make so much more sense.

6. Flip Flops

The first thing to point out about these shoes is that they make you walk funny (“Flip, Flop, Flip, Flop, Flip, Flop”) so I’m opposed to them in general. However, for the purposes of this list I am warning you away from them for two reasons: 1) They leave most of your foot exposed; 2) If you step in something (like some dog flop, for example) it is likely to flip up on to your calf.

5. Converse (classic style Chuck Taylors)

My recent personal experience with my chucks and some doggy diarrhea actually led to this list. First of all they are generally made out of canvas so the poop puddle I stepped in soaked right through. Not something you can just wipe off on the grass: you’re stuck with it until you get home and by this time your socks are d-d-d-d-damp. Secondly, they have air holes on the sides for extra sauce on the side. And, if you’re like me, you’ve worn them until they have some extra holes worn in to them. Yippee. But, wait, there’s more! The soles have deep grooves that trap whatever you step in.

4. Espadrilles

Made out of cloth and woven fibres – you might as well just think of the soles as a big dry sponge. You can take shoe out of the pile of dog poop but good luck ever getting that smell completely out of the shoe…

3. Bunny Slippers

So adorable, so fluffy and white… these tame little bunnies are safest indoors. But, as they say, sh*t happens. When it does I would recommend you leave them outside…

2. Custom-dyed Wedding/Prom Shoes

These shoes are dyed to match your dress exactly for very special occasions. Occasions so special that you probably only wear these shoes outside on “the big day”. Which means that if you step in something brown and squishy it will be on your way to the big event. At least try not to get any on your dress when you are desperately trying to wipe the mess off the linen fabric. Ask that limo driver to stop off at a shoe store on the way.

1. Aquasocks

They are called aqua ”socks” and they are a lot like stepping in dog poo in your socks. Yuck. Hopefully there is some aqua near by so you can rinse off your feet… 

Need one more? If I had to add in a number 11 it may be loafers for men, as they aren’t easy to clean either!