10 Shocking Deaths, You May Not Have Heard Of

As you would probably expect, probing through the internet one can find many lists and sites dedicated to people who have suddenly and mysteriously died.  This is only normal as in human nature there is a desire to understand the concept of death.  We want specific details, so that we can recreate and understand what our loved ones were feeling as they passed.  There are certain celebrities, government officials, and historical figures that you would expect to see on this list.  People such as JFK, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa, and Heath Ledger make most collections like this.  Sometimes I find it a bit redundant because I have already heard everything about these specific cases.  I have compiled a list of the circumstances surrounding 10 shocking deaths that you might not have heard of.

10. Owen Hart (1965-1999)

Owen was a Canadian professional wrestler who was a member of the WWF.  Hart was the youngest of twelve children, including wrestling star Bret Hart.  He was a two-time Intercontinental champion, four-time World Tag Team Champion, and winner of the 1994 King of the Ring.  On May 23, 1999 Hart was set to headline the Over the Edge pay-per-view event.  To make his entrance Hart was going to propel from the stadium rafters using a harness and rappel line.  The original plan was to have Hart become “entangled” in the harness as he reached ring level, then suddenly release himself only to fall on his face for comedic affect.  This required him to use a quick release mechanism on the harness.  As the stunt was being performed something went horribly wrong and the mechanism was activated when Owen was 78 feet in the air.  He fell and landed chest-first on the top rope of the ring and died almost instantly from internal bleeding and blunt chest trauma.  It was a complete surprise and utter tragedy.  The Hart family sued the WWF for liability and they settled for $18 million dollars.

9. Judith Barsi (1978-1988)

Judith was born in Los Angeles, California to two immigrants who had fled the 1956 Soviet occupation of Hungary.  Her mother dreamed of her daughter becoming a successful Hollywood actress.  It soon became a reality as Barsi was a bit small for her age and had the advantage of being able to play roles of younger children.  This helped propel her career and she soon became a television staple.  She starred in over 70 commercials during the 80’s.  She often worked with Lays chips and Biz Bleach detergent.  She also appeared in numerous television shows and movies.  Barsi is probably most famous for lending her voice for the character of Ducky in the film The Land Before Time.  She also played Anne-Marie in the animated classic All Dogs Go To Heaven.  As Judith became more famous her father gained a deep sense of manic jealously and paranoia towards her.  He was mentally and physically abusive throughout her lifetime.  On July 27, 1988, Jozsef Barsi took a gun and murdered Judith and her mother.  He then dosed the bodies, himself, and the house with gasoline and started a fire.  Judith’s grave stone reads “Our Concrete Angel – Yep Yep Yep,” referring to her character Ducky’s catch phrase.

8. Bradley Nowell (1968-1996)

Nowell was raised in Long Beach, California and was an instant guitar hero.  Legend claimed that if you played a tune once for Bradley he could mirror the riff down to the last note.  In 1988, Bradley founded the group Sublime with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh.  Sublime was an influential band that blended reggae, hip hop, and ska music behind an incredible guitar presence.  They really helped to pave the way for the punk rock movement during the 1990’s.  After the band’s first two albums, Nowell became frustrated and depressed by the rejection from mainstream record labels.  He descended into a two-year heroin “experiment” as he called it.  He tried to justify his abuse by claiming that the drugs aided in his artistic creativity.  With the launch of the album 40 Oz to Freedom the band was soon signed to a major label, but by that point Nowell had become completely addicted.  It got so bad that he took to pawning his guitars for quick cash, only to buy them back later.  While on a world tour in 1996 Bradley Nowell was found dead in his bed from an accidental heroin, Valium, and alcohol overdose.  Similar to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Bradley Nowell was everything to Sublime, an irreplaceable presence that will be greatly missed.

7. Jessica Dubroff (1988-1996)

Jessica was born in Hercules, California and quickly became enamored with airplanes.  She enrolled in piloting classes and became one of the youngest children ever to fly.  The 7-year-old decided that she wanted to be the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States.  For her attempt, she would be accompanied by her father and flight instructor.  It was a national story and labeled the “Sea to Shining Sea Flight.”  The plan was to make numerous stops along the way, dividing the voyage into sections.  Her flight was constantly followed by news outlets and general supporters.  Minutes after taking off from the Cheyenne, Wyoming airport her aircraft crashed in a heavy and sudden rainstorm.  Everyone on board was killed.  It was concluded that the airplane was overweight and the poor decision to continue with the mission despite the incoming bad weather was the cause of the crash.  Her famous last words were recorded “Do you hear the rain, do you hear the rain?”  Jessica Dubroff was a true explorer and aviation pioneer.  She was a special girl who will greatly be missed.

6. Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991)

In 1947, India gained its independence.  Three years later the Constitution of India was created.  The preamble of this constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, and secular republic.  Socialism refers to a set of economic theories of social organization promoting collective ownership.  During this time the Nehru-Gandhi family took control of the Indian National Congress.  Jawaharlal Nehru encouraged his only daughter Indira Gandhi to become active in Congress politics.  Indira Gandhi soon became the first female Prime Minister of India.  She had two sons Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.  Sanjay greatly influenced his mother’s political decisions.  While adhering to its strong socialist policies India was not growing with the rest of the world.  The country was being economically isolated.  Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980.  In 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her body guards.  Upon her death, Rajiv Gandhi became the 9th and youngest Prime Minister of India.  He began leading in a direction significantly different from his mother’s socialism; he promoted economic liberalization.  He improved bilateral relations with the United States, expanded economic and scientific cooperation, increased support for science and technology industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes, and tariffs on technology-based industries.  Sadly, on May 21, 1991 Thenmuli Rajaratnam, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, strapped a bomb to herself and while she bent down to touch Rajiv’s feet (an expression of respect among Hindus) she detonated a bomb killing him instantly.  Since Rajiv’s death India’s economy has become the second fastest growing major economy in the world, creating thousands of jobs and opportunity for the citizens.  As of 2009, about 300 million people, equivalent to the population of the entire United States, have escaped extreme poverty because of Rajiv Gandhi and his stance on economic liberalization.

5. Joe Delaney (1958-1983)

Delaney was born in Henderson, Texas and went on to play football at Northwestern State University.  He was a two-time All-American selection and was drafted as the 41st pick of the 1981 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs.  Delaney was named the 1981 AFC Rookie of the Year with 1,121 rushing yards.  Before Priest Holmes arrived, Delaney held the Kansas City record for most yards in a season (1,121), most yards in a game (193), most consecutive 100-yard games (3), and the most 100-yard games for a season (5). He was selected to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.  After one contest Hall of Famer, Elvin Bethea, proclaimed, “He is right up there with O.J. Simpson, Gale Sayers, and Walter Payton, he is great with a capital G.”  On June 29, 1983 Delaney attended Critter’s Creek, which is a local amusement park in Monroe, Louisiana.  He warned children not to swim in a watering hole, which had been created by recent construction work and was not for recreation.  After hearing screams Joe Delaney dove in the pond and tried to save the life of three children who were being sucked under the water.  He was not a skilled swimmer, but had a heart of gold.  One child made it out safely, Delaney and the two others drowned.  Joe Delaney was truly a special man who will never be forgotten.  He had all the intangibles necessary to be one of the greatest NFL running backs in the history of the game.

4. Jeremy Lusk (1984-2009)

Jeremy was born in San Diego, California and early on was completely captivated by bikes.  He became a professional motocross rider when he was 19-years-old.  With his choice Yamaha YZ 250, Lusk made an instant impact on the sport.  Winning numerous competitions as of late, this man was just hitting his true prime.  In 2008, he won the gold at the X Games in motocross freestyle and best trick competitions.  He was also awarded the bronze helmet at the 2008 Moto X World Championships.  On February 7, 2009, Jeremy Lusk was killed while trying to land a “Hart Attack Indian air back flip.”  He was performing in a freestyle motocross competition in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Lusk had successfully landed the trick before, but it is extremely difficult.  He under-rotated the flip which caused his front wheel to strike the landing, subsequently throwing him head-first off the bike.  He suffered extreme brain damage and three days after the crash entered into cardiac and respiratory failure.  This accident makes it clear just how dangerous motocross sports have become.  New rules need to be adopted so that tragedies like this one can be prevented.  I would say we owe it to the legacy of Jeremy Lusk.

3. Danny Gans (1956-2009)

Las Vegas, Nevada has become a tourist spectacle.  It is one of the fastest growing U.S. cities.  Nineteen of the world’s twenty-five largest hotels are found on the Las Vegas Strip.  This creates an incredible demand for magic shows, concerts, theatre, and various forms of entertainment.  Danny Gans was born in Los Angeles, California and attended Cal Poly University at San Luis Obispo.  He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, but his baseball career came to a quick end when an opposing player’s cleats tore his Achilles tendon while fielding a ground ball.  Gans turned to the entertainment industry, landing small roles in Bull Durham and the CBS miniseries Sinatra.  In 1995, he created a comedy show.  He was a talented singer and vocal impressionist.  It was so good that he was noticed by executives and signed to perform on the Las Vegas Strip.  He was billed as “The Man of Many Voices.”  In 2000, The Mirage Hotel built The Danny Gans Theatre for him to perform on a nightly basis.  He signed a $150 million dollar contract with the company.  His show was truly remarkable and he was named “Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year” a record 11 times in a row.  On May 1st, 2009 authorities received a phone call claiming that Gans was having trouble breathing.  Paramedics attempted to treat an unresponsive Gans when they arrived, but he was declared dead at the scene.  When writing this article his cause of death is yet to be released.

2. Bruce Edwards Ivins (1946-2008)

Ivins was a senior biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases for 18 years.  He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a PhD in microbiology in 1976.  On September 18, 2001 letters containing an active anthrax material were mailed to a variety of news media offices and to two Democratic U.S. Senators.  In all, five people were killed and 17 were infected.  You can imagine the terror that spread throughout America in the days following the attacks.  This was only one week after 9/11 and people were already on edge.  Some of the only clues investigators had were two letters mailed that claimed “this is next, take penicillin now, death to America, you can’t stop us, and are you afraid.”  Immediately following the attacks government officials announced this to be a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda.  In 2002, a report came out that confirmed that the “DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the U.S. mail in 2001 had bacteria that originally came from a U.S. military laboratory.”  A huge investigation pursued and on August 6, 2008, federal prosecutors declared Bruce Edwards Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime.  This puts Ivins up there with some of the worst and most legendary American terrorists of all time.  In July of 2008 the FBI did not arrest Ivins, but informed him that he was going to be charged with the crimes.  Two-weeks later he committed suicide by overdosing on acetaminophen

1. Samantha Smith (1972-1985)

Samantha was born in Manchester, Maine during a time when the Cold War was an important international issue.  In 1982, Yuri Andropov became the new leader of the Soviet Union.  Mainstream Western newspapers ran many negative articles about him ultimately claiming that his leadership was a threat to peace between the nations.  After Time magazine published an issue with Andropov on the cover, 10-year old Samantha Smith turned to her mother and said “if people are so afraid of him, why doesn’t someone write a letter asking if he wants to have a war or not?”  That is what she did, she wrote a letter to the Soviet leader.  Her letter was published in a Soviet newspaper and to her surprise she soon received a response from Andropov.  A media circus ensued and she instantly became a national celebrity in America and overseas.  In 1983, she flew to Moscow with her parents and spent two weeks as Andropov’s guest.  Often holding press conferences and proclaiming to the world that Soviets were “just like us.”  On August 25, 1985 Samantha and her father were flying home to Maine. Their plane crashed short of the runway and she was killed on impact.  She was only 13-years-old.  There was an immediate outcry, especially in Russia, with many claiming foul play.  This girl has a legacy as one of the youngest and most influential world peace advocates in history.

Top 10 Strangest Philosophies

Despite many believing philosophy is a “useless major” or a “waste of time,” it’s definitely a great way to boggle your mind by your own doing. It’s one thing to be confused by someone else, and a completely different feeling to confuse your own self. Who doesn’t enjoy perplexing themselves to no end, or thinking so hard your head literally hurts? Count me in.

I’m no philosopher, nor a philosophy major, but I can say in my time of reading works by some of the most famous philosophers to even some of the lesser known ones, and from browsing random books and websites, I’ve run across some extremely odd theories. Some of them make some sort of sense, while others completely go over my head. Of course, they do all make sense when looking at society and views of life during that time. As the great Cicero once said, “There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it.” Here is a list of 10 philosophies that are just pure strange.

10. Idealism

Idealist theory says that there are no foundational beliefs. Instead, our beliefs exist in a system of interconnected perceptions. With this theory, you can ultimately conclude that no one belief is more important than the next. In the end, this theory is extremely circular. If a certain belief is true because it coheres or fits with others, then what do they cohere with? Sadly, there is no answer. In the end you’re stuck in an infinite regression.

9. Innatism (Innate ideas)

Innatism states that the mind is born and already loaded with ideas as well as knowledge. This view was created in order to disprove John Locke’s idea of the human mind being a “tabula rasa” that is eventually filled throughout life with experience. The theory holds that the we already known simple mathematical truths, such as 2+2=4 and the truths about God. But, if this theory is true, why do humans have a hard time adding up larger numbers? (ie. 1359+3515) And, if we have these innate ideas, why doesn’t everyone believe in the religious truths? And how do we know we learned something? Could it be that we just remembered it?

8. Animism

Animism states that when looking at souls and spirits, the two not only exist in humans and animals, but they also exist in things such as rocks, plants, thunder, mountains, and other objects. Many argue that animism is only used in cultures where religion and society aren’t as built-upon science and math. Many critics explain that the philosophy of animism is only used to provide answers to unknown questions. I can’t believe the rock I run over on an unpaved road has a soul.

7. Logical atomism

Popularized by Bertrand Russell, the theory states that world consists of logical “facts” (aka “atoms”) that cannot be broken down any further. It also states that all truths are dependent upon a layer of atomic facts. Therefore, the theory asserts that language mirrors reality. This is just one philosophy that I don’t understand. In the end it says that the world is just made up of facts that are extremely simple and easy to comprehend.

6. Deconstructionism

Given the name by Jacques Derrida, the theory states that there is no one meaning when observing a piece of text. Instead, a text has several different meanings. The theory also states that when given a piece of literature, the reader ultimately decides what the meaning is, not the text in the book. I used to find deconstruction pretty valid, but in a sense, it does make literature meaningless. If you reduce and reduce the meaning of something so much, it in the end has no purpose. And if we always determine the meaning of something, how can anyone ever have a misunderstanding? You can just simply say no, that is my interpretation of what you said.

5. Phenomenalism

Phenomenalism states that physical objects do not exist as things in themselves but only as perceptual phenomena. Meaning, we can’t know anything is real beyond what we perceive and verify. Despite how neat it sounds, phenomenalism has its issues. What do we consider “verified?” And what about math? Math surely is real and it doesn’t require sensory perception.

4. Ethical egoism

Ethical egoism states that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest. Basically, it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right that it is able to maximize one’s self-interest. This means that we only act on certain morals and actions because of our own self-interest and that these actions are right. The theory would basically support that stealing money is right, as it feeds our self-interest and brings a higher reward.

3. Moral absolutism

In my mind, nothing is absolute, so moral absolutism just doesn’t work for me. The theory holds that there are absolute rights and wrongs, no matter the context of the act. This brings up one of the more popular philosophical questions; is it okay to lie for a greater good? Let’s say you tell a lie to save a life. Is that morally wrong because lying is seen as wrong? Who knows, it never ends. Then you start wondering if morals are even real. photo by Michael Guerreiro

2. Neutral monism

Neutral monism says that the mental and the physical are not two fundamentally different things. Instead, the view holds that the body and the mind are made up of the same material, which isn’t mental or physical. Only problem I see with this theory is that it is entirely mental. Is it not? The theory assumes that the mind is “real” and relies heavily on mental ability. And…do we experience outside of our minds? Perception? Sensation? Where do they fit in? photo by hyg-27

1.  Solipsism

Comic from Toothpaste for Dinner

I’d have to say that solipsism is what made me want to write this list. By dictionary definition, solipsism is a philosophical theory that states that a person can know nothing but that he/she exists, and that the self is the only existent thing. In common words, solipsism expresses that you believe you are the only real thing. Talk about extremely egocentrism. I think I’ll start a solipsism club!

Top 10 Bizarre and Unusual Tragedies

A tragedy is defined as an event that results in great loss, misfortune, and usually death.  They can surround an individual’s endeavors in which they suffer extreme consequences from a disastrous flaw or lifestyle, but often an unpreventable natural occurrence sets the stage for utter catastrophe.  The most common examples are earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, automobile, and plane crashes.  Throughout history many strange and unexpected events have caused pain and suffering to millions of people.  From these experiences we learn more about how to predict and prevent these occurrences from happening again.  I have compiled a list of some of the worst and unusual world tragedies and the events surrounding them.

10. Champawat Tiger & Panar Leopard

The Champawat Tiger is a legendary female Bengal Tiger.  She is allegedly responsible for more then 400 human deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India in the early 20th century.  This tiger was often seen roaming the streets outside populated villages and would even try to break into huts.  She was shot the day after killing a 16-year-old girl.  Even today there remains a “cement board” marking the place where the tiger fell in Champawat town.  An autopsy revealed that the tiger had broken upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her mouth, which is often the case with man-eating animals.  As humans are easier forms of prey.  Around the same time the Panar Leopard was terrorizing people in the Kumaon District of Northern India.  This male leopard is also alleged to have killed around 400 citizens, striking utter fear in the parents and children of many small villages.  Both of these animals were hunted down and killed by legendary big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.  Corbett was an Indian-born British conservationist who was extremely talented at stalking and killing man-eaters.  These two animals are widely regarded as the most deadly of all time.

9. Dyatlov Pass Incident

In late January 1959 a group of experienced skiers and hikers set out on a voyage across the northern Urals, which is near the Russian city of Ekaterinburg.  Led by Igor Dyatlov, the goal of the expedition was to reach the mountain of Otorten.  Everything was going as planned for the group of nine until they lost their direction and deviated west toward the top of Kholat Syakhl.  Dyatlov quickly realized the mistake and set up camp on the slope of the mountain intending to backtrack the following day.  They never made it and when they did not send a telegraph as expected a massive man hunt was conducted.  The lifeless bodies of all nine people were mysteriously found spread over a large area.  Many abnormalities had occurred.  There was evidence that the group fled their tents in the middle of the night as they were ripped out from within.  All deaths were thought to be from hypothermia until autopsies were performed.  Four of the hikers were determined to have died from a force that could not have been inflicted by another human.  They had chest and head trauma equivalent to a high speed car crash.  The bodies had no external signs of injury.  Some were wearing each others clothes, one victim had no tongue, and trace amounts of radioactive contamination were found on clothing.  As the Soviet Union was in the middle of the Cold War the story was kept secret.  The files were not made public and the final diagnosis was that the deaths were caused by an “unknown compelling force.”  Many have speculated that the tragedy was the result of military testing, an unexplained UFO encounter, or a mysterious Yeti like creature.  You decide for yourself.

8. Boston Molasses Disaster

Molasses is a by-product from the process of transforming cane or beat into sugar.  It is an extremely thick and syrup-like substance.  On January 15, 1919 a cast-iron tank was transporting molasses in the industrial North End of Boston, Massachusetts.  On board was two-and-a-half million gallons of crude molasses on its way to a distillery.  It was to be fermented into rum.  Suddenly the truck burst creating a loud rumbling noise reminiscent of machine gun fire.  A 15 ft. tall wall of molasses steamed through the Boston streets traveling at approximately 35 mph.  It demolished buildings and buried everything in its path of destruction.  Several blocks were flooded.  21 people and several horses were buried and killed by the quicksand like sweet substance.  Over 150 people were injured.  The clean-up took weeks and approximately 87,000 man hours.  The cause of the truck accident is not certain, but the vast increase in temperature that day played a part.  The temperature had risen 39 degrees from the previous day causing increased pressure in the tank.  Even today on a hot summer Boston afternoon people report the smell of molasses in the air.

7. Charkhi Dadri Mid-Air Collision

Dying in a plane crash might be the most terrifying way to leave this world.  Your chance for survival greatly diminishes when you are involved in an aviation disaster.  On November 12, 1996 Flight SVA 763 departed New Delhi, India in route to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.  At the same time Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907 was descending and preparing to land in New Delhi.  Approximately eight minutes after Flight SVA 763 took off it was cleared to climb to the altitude of 14,000 feet.  At the same time Flight 1907 was descending to 15,000 feet.  Suddenly the two aircrafts slammed into each other head on completely destroying both planes.  All 349 people involved in the accident were almost instantly killed, making this tragedy the worst mid-air collision to date.  The cause of the accident was subsequently blamed on the smaller Flight 1907 which had descended to quickly.  Indira Gandhi International Airport did not have the advantage of secondary surveillance radar and was only given approximate readings for the aircrafts altitude.  It also only had one corridor for departing and arriving planes.  This disaster directly led to strict policy changes in India.

6. The Station Nightclub Fire

On February 20, 2003 the hard rock band Great White was set to perform at Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island.  As the band was beginning their set pyrotechnic sparks were set off for visual effect.  Almost instantly a flash fire began to engulf the stage.  Fire alarms were sounded and a crowd of over 400 people all rushed towards the front exit.  People were panicking and a crush formed in the small and narrow hallway leading to the exit.  This completely blocked the passage.  The entire club was engulfed and burned to the ground in six minutes.  100 people were killed by the fire, 230 were injured, and only 132 made it out unharmed.  It is considered the fourth deadliest night club fire in United States history.  It was a bone chilling revelation as news cameras filmed the parking lot which was completely filled with victim’s cars.  The silence of the burned down complex was deafening.  This tragedy has greatly influenced national model building and fire safety codes.  It also led to the Statue of Liberty being shut down to all visitors due to subpar evacuation routes.

5. Basra Poison Grain Disaster

In September of 1971 90,000 metric tons of American barley and Mexican wheat were shipped to the Iraqi port of Barsa.  It was intended to be used as only seed grain and not to be directly ingested by the population.  The barley and wheat was treated with antifungal methylmercury to prevent it from developing mold.  The grain was dyed pink and the bags marked as poisonous, although warnings were printed in only Spanish and English.  Some time after delivery to the port it was ransacked and many of the bags of grain were stolen.  Subsequently they were sold to the local population.  Almost immediately thousands of people reported mercury poisoning.  Local hospitals and government aids knew something was terribly wrong.  Iraqi officials kept the tragedy under wraps until an American reporter discovered the unusual and vast amount of reported poisonings.  It is believed that around 500 people died from the barley and wheat, but some estimates are much higher.

4. New London School Explosion

In the middle of the 1930’s the Great Depression was hitting America hard.  In 1930, oil was discovered in Rusk County, Texas, making this area of the United States the richest in the country.  An enormous school was built in New London.  The structure had 72 natural gas heaters installed.  In 1937, the school district cancelled their natural gas contract and had a residue gas line installed to save money.  This new raw gas line varied in the quantity of gas delivered to the building.  In its natural state gas is both odorless, colorless, and leaks are undetectable.  Nobody realized that gas had begun to escape and build in the enormous crawlspace underneath the structure.  On March 18, 1937 an instructor at the school turned on an electric sander to do some work in the basement.  Almost instantly a small spark caused the entire New London School to explode.  It was completely demolished and approximately 300-500 students and teachers lost their lives.  It remains the worst catastrophe to occur in a U.S. school building.  This tragedy directly led to the law that thiols be added to natural gas.  This way the strong odor of thiols can quickly help detect natural gas leaks.

3. Lake Nyos Disaster

Lake Nyos is an active crater lake located in the Northwest Province of Cameroon.  When there is an enormous volcanic eruption that creates a large crater in the ground often a lake is formed.  These lakes usually consist of fresh water and cover active volcanic vents.  When this happens the water becomes acidic and fills with certain gases.  Usually the turnover of these stratified waters occurs gradually and harmless amounts of the gases are periodically released into the atmosphere.  Lake Nyos is one of three known lakes where a pocket of magma in the depths of the lake gradually leak carbon dioxide forming a pocket.  This pocket builds up until one large natural phenomenon releases enormous amounts of the gas.  On August 21, 1986 about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 suddenly released from Lake Nyos.  Scientists predict that this might have occurred after a landslide in the depths of the lake.  The death cloud rushed down two valleys towards the villages of Cha, Nyos, and Subum.  Everything within a 15-mile radius of the lake was killed.  Approximately 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock were suffocated by the gas.  It was the first known large scale asphyxiation caused by a natural occurrence.  In the aftermath scientists decided to install tubes in the lake to allow the carbon dioxide to leak gradually in safe quantities.

2. Mount Pelée Eruption

The events surrounding the worst volcanic eruption of the 20th century are truly unique.  Mt. Pelée towers over the city of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea.  In 1902, local residents began to notice unusual volcanic vent holes, earth tremors, the undeniable smell of sulphur, and the constant raining of ash on the city.  This made the land surrounding the volcano inhabitable and hundreds of native snakes invaded Saint-Pierre.  A scene straight out of the Old Testament enormous 6 ft. long serpents terrorized residents killing over 50 people and hundreds of live stock.  The snake’s only escape from the volcano was a path directly through the city.  Nothing like this had ever been scene or recorded in recent history.  Unfortunately the terror was only beginning for the island’s residents as a few months later Mount Pelée experienced an enormous eruption annihilating everything.  Over 30,000 people were instantly killed by the disaster.  There are reports of only two survivors.  One was in a poorly ventilated dungeon-like jail cell and the other was living on the extreme edge of the Island.  Both men experienced horrible burns.  It remains the worst natural disaster in French history.

1. Bhopal Disaster

Bhopal is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.  It houses the Union Carbide pesticide plant.  Unfortunately in the 1980’s many industrial plants in this area lacked a solid infrastructure and training programs.  During the evening of December 3, 1984 a large amount of water entered a tank containing 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, an intermediate chemical in the production of carbamate pesticides.  The chemical reaction increased the tanks temperature to over 200 °C, subsequently releasing a large amount of toxic gases on the city.  Many citizens awoke with an intense burning sensation in their lungs and were choking to death.  As one would anticipate panic ensued on the streets of Bhopal with many people being trampled to death.  More then half a million people were exposed to toxic gases.  In all it is estimated that 10,000 people died within 72 hours of the accident.  25,000 have since died from different gas-related diseases.  The means by which the water entered the chemical tank has yet to be fully understood.  The Bhopal disaster is often referred to as the world’s worst industrial tragedy.  It is truly one of the most devastating accidents in modern history.  The Indian government has learned much from the incident and has implemented strict rule changes and formed numerous training programs.

Top 10 Candy Myths & Urban Legends

It may seems like we are focusing on myths lately and maybe we are, but myths and urban legends are fun to read and it is more interesting to discover their origins. Just about every topic has a myth or legend behind it, even something as harmless as candy. Take off the wrapper and bite into this article as we discuss the top 10 candy myths and urban legends.

10. The Exploding Jawbreaker in the Microwave

Mythbusters Exploding Jawbreaker 2

This one is true, true, true and was proven so by the MythBusters. Nobody can explain exactly why, but microwaving a giant jawbreaker will turn it into a very dangerous molten sugar grenade. Also, nobody can explain why someone would microwave a jawbreaker in the first place.

9. Chocolate is Caffeinated

OK, I used to have a German roommate who will freak out is she reads this, because she used to swear eating chocolate kept her up late. Turns out, this is only very mildly true, (10 mg of caffeine per ounce of chocolate, tops) but there is so little caffeine in the amount of chocolate people eat in one sitting, it would be akin to claiming to feel a buzz off the alcohol in the vanilla extract in chocolate. (That is, if it’s cheap chocolate that doesn’t use real vanilla. But I digress.)

8. The Gruesome Origins of LifeSavers’ Name

Has anyone ever tried to freak you out with this little bedtime story: The inventor of LifeSavers originally designed the candies to be disks without holes, but when his poor little daughter tragically choked on one and died, he vowed to end the senseless killings, so he put holes in the middle and re-dubbed them LifeSavers? I’ve heard this one from quite a few sources, and, well, let’s think about this, people. Would that little hole prevent a kid from choking? It’d have to be lodged just right.

Naw, the real story is a lot less dramatic. In 1912, Clarence Crane began production of a peppermint candy. The machine worked best if the candies had holes in them, and he couldn’t help but compare these these donut-shaped mints with the newfangled life preservers that were becoming fashionable after the recent Titanic disaster.

7. Van Halen, Supertasters

No matter how many blindfolded taste-tests I ace, I just can’t seem to convince people that I can taste brown M&M’s. They just taste… brown. When I first heard about Van Halen’s backstage rider, I thought at last I’d found some simpatico supertasters. Their tour rider used to require that there be a bowl of M&M’s, but that all of the brown ones be removed. If they found a single offending brown M&M, they supposedly trashed the place and/or refused to play. There are even newspaper articles detailing riotous tantrums resulting from improper candy screenings.

What’s interesting about this urban legend is not whether it’s true (it is) but why. Turns out, it had nothing to do with flavor, or aesthetics, or even rock-star-ego demands. No, it’s actually just a test to make sure the promoters had read the contract.

In a nutshell, Van Halen had a lot of heavy equipment that required strong cables, a stage that could withstand so much weight, and so on. They feared for the safety of their fragile little bodies if the very specific contract went unread, so in the middle of a lot of technical instructions, the little devils threw in a clause forbidding brown M&M’s backstage. If they found the bowl they’d requested to be unsorted, they’d know the contract hadn’t been scrutinized, and hence the following hissy fit. It’s all perfectly reasonable. (By the way, for your convenience, I’m just paraphrasing a beautifully reported story from Snopes.com. For the full story with quotes, you should totally check out this wonderful site).

Oh, and in this litigious age in which we now live, Van Halen no longer finds it necessary to mess with the minds of concert promoters– they just straightforwardly ask for a dozen Reese’s cups.

6. The Indian Chief is Worth a Free Tootsie Pop

Who started this crazy rumor? Nobody knows, but it’s definitely not true. The real heartbreak of growing up comes when you realize that, contrary to what your best friend swore, finding the Indian Chief (shooting a star with his bow and arrow) is NOT going to get you a free sucker once you mail the wrapper to the Tootsie Roll company. We had many commenters say they did manage to get a free Tootsie Pop though, when we wrote about this in 2006, so even if it wasn’t company-sanctioned, it looks like it did work sometimes.

According to numerous sources (thanks again, Snopes), Tootsie Roll Industries has received thousands upon thousands of letters since the 1940’s. They never do send any free candy, but, and this is almost better, they do send a pamphlet with a really weird story about the origins of the Indian Chief. It’s a trippy tale about how the inventor of Tootsie Pops originally wanted them to be star-shaped, but couldn’t work out how to get the Tootsie Roll filling inside, but one day he hallucinated an Indian Chief who showed him the pops should be round by shooting an arrow at the moon.

5. Bubble Yum Contains Spider Eggs

The time: 1975. The place: America, a land whose chewing gum is hard, brittle, unyielding, and decidedly un-chewy. Suddenly, Bubble Yum hits the markets, delighting children with its unique flavor, color, and texture, all of which are unique departures from anything anyone has ever experienced (not to mention wholly unlike anything occurring in nature).

Two years later, some haters have started various rumors about the gum containing various spider-parts, not just eggs, but legs, webs, whatever. This story becomes so widespread, and somehow, accepted, that the LifeSavers company (Bubble Yum’s parent) eventually has to fight the rumor with full-page ads in dozens of national newspapers. Apparently, enough kids read the newspaper to become convinced, and Bubble Yum lives on.

4. Candy Canes Started as Christian Symbols

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for edible religious symbols: Wine, challah, chocolate coins, cheese sandwiches, it is all good. But sorry, boys and girls, the stripes on candy canes were NOT painted on to represent blood, and it’s NOT shaped like “J” for you-know-who.

For what it’s worth, the Christian interpretation is a lot more interesting that the real story, which is something like this: once upon a time, in the late 1600’s, there was a kindly candy-making monk, who bent his boiled-sugar candy sticks into a shape more amusing to children, and zzzzz zzz zzz zz z z

3. Green M&Ms’ Randifying Properties

At this point in my countdown, I’m getting a little frustrated with candy companies’ senses of humor, or rather, their lack thereof. I find it a little sad that the Tootsie Pops website has nothing to say about the Indian Chief, ditto for the spider eggs in Bubble Yum. Both companies seem to take a great deal of pride in the nostalgic value of their product, both have detailed (and BORING) historical timelines that chronicle this family formulating that product and selling blah blah company to yadda yadda conglomerate, but make no mention of the folklore surrounding their respective candies. Bubble Yum was willing to spend, probably, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to convince American children that their gum is arachnid-free, but now the most important information they want me to know about is that Bubble Yum now comes in chocolate flavor.

So I thought, hey, the M&M’s people know what’s up. They’ve alluded to the whole green-aphrodisiac thing in their commercials. The Green M&M has sexy boots, so that means they know about the rumor. THEY will give me some of the straight-from-the source facts I crave. And guess what I found? A timeline. Big whoop.

So, OK, are you ready? Here goes: guess what. Green M&M’s are not really an aphrodisiac.

2. Pop Rocks Killed a Cereal Spokesboy

Wait.Wait.Wait.Wait.Wait. Guess I spoke too soon! Guess which candy company has the courage to publicly acknowledge that they’ve never made someone’s head explode? Pop Rocks, I love you. By the way, they were invented by a guy who was trying to carbonate Kool-Aid. Who knew?

1. Deadly Halloween

Prepare to question everything you think you know. Although, if you Google for “Candy Urban Legend”, this is by far the most popular subject that comes up, I had never never heard that this story was anything but gospel.

After all, my mom, and the moms of all my friends, local news stations, school bulletins, free candy x-ray programs at the local hospitals, EVERYONE warned me as a child not to eat ANYTHING that wasn’t factory-wrapped, lest I ingest rat poison, razor blades, LSD, arsenic, or crazy-lady fingernail clippings. Even as a kid, the logistics of this seemed slightly screwed up. I remember thinking, disappointed, as some freshly baked butterscotch cookies were being confiscated and destroyed, that nothing was to stop some psychopath from unwrapping a Dum-Dum, dipping it in poison, then carefully re-wrapping it.

Top 10 Recent Signs Evolution is Real

When a living organism reproduces, genes are passed from one generation to the next, thus producing inherited traits in a species.  Evolution is a gradual process of changing in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next.  Most changes are extremely gradual, but can accumulate over time and can cause substantial biological changes to organisms.

Many feel evolution runs on the basis of natural selection, which is a process that causes helpful genetic traits to become more common in a breeding population.  The process of evolution helps insure the survival of all species of life.  Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who developed the theory of natural selection and presented compelling evidence that all organisms have evolved over time from common ancestors.

Darwin’s research has significantly impacted the scientific community and changed the way people view many theories of life.  Here is a list of the Top 10 recent signs and evidence that evolution is a factual scientific explanation. You may also be interested in reading our top 10 list of arguments that can’t be won where evolution or creation was at the top of the list.

10. Stickleback Fish

The stickleback fish is part of the Gasterosteidae family and can be found in freshwater environments in Europe, Asia, and North America.  Sticklebacks have no scales, but are protected by bony armor plates.  These creatures have intrigued marine biologists for years, as many populations of the fish have evolved with genetic changes and displayed major adaptations in their bony armor styles.  This evolutionary shift occurs when there is an increasing in the frequency of a rare genetic variant in a single gene of the creature.

These fish helped scientists discover that changes in a single gene can produce a major difference in the selector armor and body style of wild fish.  It identified a specific genetic mechanism that controls a dramatic change in skeletal patterns.  This finding has many implications towards the process of genetic evolution of organic species.  It will help us eventually discover exactly how new animal types evolve in nature.  The research is suggesting that evolution can occur quickly and only a few minor genetic changes can allow a migrating species to adapt and populate different environments.

9. Darwin’s Tubercle

Darwin’s Tubercle is a congenital ear condition which presents a thickening of the upper and middle thirds of the human ear.  The feature can be seen in numerous primates and the phenomenon was used by Charles Darwin to support research indicating a common ancestry between primates.  Today, the feature is present in approximately 10.4% of the population and very few newborns.  The feature is thought to help animals control and regulate sound.  As intelligence of the human species evolved at a rapid pace various visual and auditory organs were no longer needed and gradually removed themselves from our anatomy.

Humans are also born with a third-eyelid that is useless and very small.  It is represented in a small membrane that is visible in the human eye and used to function as a protective shield.

Many people believe that the coccyx or tailbone is proof of what was a human tail.  Darwin’s discoveries surrounding the tubercle were extremely important in developing the facts surrounding the theory of evolution.

8. Toxic Australian Toads

The toad problem in Australia is really bad.  In 1935, Cane toads were brought to Australia from Hawaii to control the spread of beetles that were killing the sugar cane crop.  It might have been a short term solution, but the lasting problem is horrendous.  The toads have quickly expanded their range to cover more than a third of Australia’s total land area.  They are spreading at a rate of 30 miles per year.  A deadly chemical defense system has been devised to kill the pests, which is not good for crops and ground water.

Experimentation on the toads discovered that the creatures that were leading the land expansion had legs that were 6% larger then others.  A study was conducted that showed that newer populations of toads tended to have longer legs than older established species.  This gives the toad an ability to jump higher, move faster, and cover more ground on a daily basis.  The grave mistake to introduce toads to this environment is a problem that is getting worse every day.  The toad species is evolving to its surroundings and gaining more defenses, which is not good for Australia’s economy.

7. Humans Influence Natural Selection

Many studies have been conducted that show that the mass technological growth of the human race is greatly affecting other organisms.  Many species have to adjust to human expansion and mass transportation systems.  One clear example is the bee crisis that many areas of the world are facing.  Humans have interfered with the genetics of many bee populations and helped in transporting different species all over the world.  This has helped cause the spread of the tiny parasite Varroa Destructor.

Varroa Destructor feeds off the bodily fluids of bees creating a deadly virus that is demolishing populations.  There has been a mass expansion of bee populations since airplanes, trains, and cars became commercially produced.  In the past, one of human’s biggest faults was using various poisons and strategems to try and fix this evolutionary problem, but this will only cause more abnormalities in the food chain.

Many correlational studies have shown that trophy game, such as big fish and caribou are reproducing at a younger age and becoming smaller in size.  Many hypothesize that this is to counter-act the hunting and fishing of many human populations, who prefer to hunt large game.  Many species are also being affected by the national problem of global warming.

6. Hypolimnas Bolina

The Great Eggfly, also called the Blue Moon Butterfly, is a species of nymphalid butterfly that is found in many areas of the world including Madacascar, Southeast Asia, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.  It is a black bodied butterfly with an average wing span of 7–8½ cm.  The butterfly can be found in wooded country, forests, thick and moist scrub, and the greener parts of the uninhabited terrain.

In the last ten years scientists have come to realize that a parasite was killing all of the male members of hypolimnas bolina on the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii.  The pest would infect the females and then kill the males before they were hatched.  The problem was so severe that in 2001 males inhabited only 1% of the population and the species was on the verge of extinction in this area of the world.

In the span of one year and 10 generations in the hypolimnas bolina family, the male butterfly’s evolved and obtained a suppressor gene that prevented the killer bacteria from spreading.  In modern days the male population has increased to 40% in the colonies on these islands.  Evolution is often much more evident in insects, as a family generation and lifespan is much shorter then with primates.

5. Brown Anole Lizard

Anolis sagrei is a lizard species native to Cuba and the Bahamas.  They were also introduced in many areas of the United States, including Georgia, Texas, and Hawaii.  In a famous experimental study, a research group led by Jonathan Losos of Harvard University discovered that when a brown anole population was introduced to a new predator, natural selection occurred in a six month period of time.

The goal of the study was to prove the hypothesis that evolution was not a prolonged occurrence.  The scientists studied twelve different islands and introduced the predatory lizard to six, using the other six islands as a comparative sample.  After six months, surveys found that anole populations dropped by 50% on the islands with the new predatory lizards.

The anole survivors had longer legs then the species previously inhabiting the islands.  In the next six months of study another genetic change was recorded and the legs of the anole lizard species began to become short and stubby, as they were spending more of their time in trees.  Female species were also recorded as becoming larger in size, ultimately making them harder for smaller animals to digest.

4. Darwin’s Finches

The second voyage of the HMS Beagle occurred December 1831 to October 1836 and the mission of the voyage was to conduct hydrographic surveys around the coasts of the southern part of South America.  A young Charles Darwin was the expert geologist on this voyage.  Darwin spent most of his time exploring the land and exhausted only 18 months at sea.  He spent time researching on the Galápagos Islands, studying the vast number of endemic species.  Darwin had incredible observational skills and noticed that there were numerous different finch species on the island.  One species of the birds would grow slightly larger wings and have curved beaks in relation to the geographic location on the island.

Darwin recognized and recorded 14 separate combinatory species of Passerine birds in the area.  The various niches of finches on the Galápagos Island are constantly evolving every year.  The evolution of these birds can be readily studied and recorded.  The medium ground finch that lives in this area recently downsized its beak, so that it could get small seeds more efficiently, after a larger finch species arrived on the island and began competing for food.  Many scientists travel to this area because the experimental conditions are untouched and natural changes occur at an alarmingly fast rate.

3. Bacterial Evolution

Natural selection is most evident in life forms that have extremely rapid life cycles, such as bacteria.  Bacteria can reproduce and span an entire generation in only a few short weeks.  Many types of bacteria are helpful to human and animal health, but others cause infectious diseases.  The quick evolution of disease-causing bacteria has been well documented and involves some of the most important medical research in the world.

A person who becomes ill can be given antibiotic drugs, which destroys the deadly bacteria in the human body, but not all of the bacteria get removed.  The remaining bacteria that have already been contaminated by the antibiotic will become resistant to the drug in a short amount of time.  If these certain bacteria reproduce then the disease will evolve to resist the medicines that we have developed.  This is why antibiotics are becoming stronger and stronger, which is why medical researchers are always trying to develop more effective future medicines.  As long as harmful bacteria and disease exist, evolution will be a formidable opponent against cures and medicine.

2. Land Living Ancestors of Whales

The giants of the sea have an extremely interesting story of origin.  Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea and have been left seriously endangered in many areas of the world.  All cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises are the evolutionary decedents of land-living animals of the Artiodactyl order or even-toed ungulates.  Today, certain cetaceans and artiodactyl are organized under the super-order Cetartiodactyla.

The term Cetartiodactyla is used to describe the classification that whales have evolved from within the artiodactyls.  The hippopotamus is widely considered to be the closest land relative of the whale.  Scientists and historians have estimated that whales entered the world’s oceans roughly 50 million years ago.  Humans are just beginning to understand the complex behavior and characteristics of whales.

It is interesting that a species so large could evolve from land to sea.  Cetaceans are the smartest creatures in the sea and this intelligence can be traced back to their modern land living ancestors.  I wonder what geological phenomenon could have caused this mass population of animals to enter earth’s seas.

1. Evolution of Modern Man

As an organism evolves certain aspects of the anatomy become not as necessary and on occasion useless.  This can be influenced by a new habitat, natural disaster, or even adaptation to disease prevention.  When this occurs an organ that at one point in ancient history was essential for survival has become less important to the species.  This is a sign of evolution and can clearly be seen in the human body.

Humans get goose bumps when they are cold, frightened, angry, or in awe of something.  Before clothing goose bumps were an important way for humans to appear larger and more dangerous to prey.  Today goose bumps have shrunk to an almost unnoticeable size.  Humans also have an extra ear muscle, wisdom teeth, the appendix, and the Jacobson’s organ.  The Jacobson’s organ is located in the nose of many animals.  It is a smell organ which detects pheromones and can trigger sexual desire, alarm, and food sense.  Humans are born with the organ, but early in development it shrinks and becomes useless.  The plantaris muscle is used by many animals for gripping and manipulating objects with their feet.  Humans are born with this muscle, but it is so underdeveloped that it is often taken out by doctors to reconstruct other areas of the body.  Approximately 9% of the human population is born without the plantaris muscle.

Top 10 Bizarre Sleep Disorders

Sometimes we don’t get enough, sometimes too much, and others we get just the right amount; but everyone needs sleep and no one can avoid it for too long. It is the single best way way to refresh the body and to relieve daily stress and tension. There’s nothing better than being able to lie in a nice bed at night after a long day drift into a peaceful sleep.

While we all do it, it is very complex in its own nature, being classified into four stages and two types, REM sleep and NREM sleep. During sleep the brain is extremely active, as we dream. However, while some of us dream, others have to deal with a variety of sleep disorders. Sleep disorders are common, and you’ve probably heard of many, but here are some weird sleep disorders that may open your eyes. So relax and enjoy a top 10 list of bizarre sleep disorders. Don’t let them keep you up at night.

10. Sleep Bruxism

More commonly known as teeth grinding, sleep bruxism is when someone, while sleeping, is known to clench or grind their teeth together. Many say that it is caused by stress, tension, anxiety, suppressed anger, or something as simple as a misalignment of the teeth. Simple treatments are given to correct the problem generally, such as a mouth guard or therapy. Though the condition doesn’t seem very serious, in many cases sleep bruxism can become an issue. If the bruxism carries on for too long, it can lead to jaw disorders, damaged teeth, headaches, and other problems.

9. Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a very serious condition that is marked by the stopping and starting of breathing during the night. It is said that the condition elevates the risk for a stroke. Doctors say that loud snoring or waking up feeling tired even after a long nights rest may be indicators of sleep apnea. There are two main types of sleep apnea: obstructive, which is when the throat muscles relax and the airways narrow or close, and central sleep apnea, which is when the brain fails to send messages to the breathing muscles. Sleep apnea can be due to excess weight, high blood pressure, smoking, or a history of the disorder. Image from http://www.sleepmore.com/ Also, find information on how to stop snoring.

8. Somnambulism

Better known as sleepwalking, somnambulism is said to be a pretty harmless condition that many people grow out of over time. However, it can be serious in some cases, as those who sleepwalk generally do daily tasks, so a sleepwalker could easily get into a car and drive. It is said that 15% of children between the ages of 8-12 experience sleepwalking. Many times the person who sleepwalks will not remember it, but may wake up with glassy eyes or speaking clumsily. Sleep walking it usually caused by an underlying problem, such as seizures, sleep apnea, PTSD, or arrhythmias, and is therefore not treated. Instead the cause of sleep walking becomes the main focus.

7. Narcolepsy

We’ve all been tired during the day at some point in time, but people with narcolepsy are generally extremely tired during the day and will often experience sudden sleep spells. Narcoleptics can be extremely serious, but there is still no known cure. One out of every 2,000 people is said to have narcolepsy. Plenty of treatments exist, but none fully get rid of the condition. Doctors believe that brain chemicals, notably hypocretin, play a large role in narcolepsy. Generally these cells are excessively damaged, which causes disruptions to sleep patterns, as hypocretin is known to regulate the REM sleep cycle as well as staying awake. However, no one knows why these cells are damaged, and how they become damaged. photo by Daniel Morris

6. Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is classified by a strong and urgent need to move the legs. The urge is said to be extremely hard to resist, as there are often uneasy feelings felt inside of the legs. Some say it’s a prickling sensation while others say it’s more of a tingling feeling. In any case, the sensations can be painful, which makes sitting or lying down hard for those with RLS. RLS is a sleep disorder because the condition is said to be its worse at night and then eases off in the morning and it causes disruptions to normal sleep patterns. It is said that 5%-10% of people in the U.S. and Northern Europe will experience RLS. photo by QuixoticQuestion

5. Hypersomnia

Hypersomnia is a very rare sleep disorder that is said to only affect 200 people in the world today. The disorder is made up of periods of severe sleepiness. These periods of sleep can last for up to 18 hours a day and can go on for days and even weeks. It is said though, that only about 10 attacks occur per year. Before a person is hit with a hypersomnia attack, there are usually flu like symptoms present and a long-lasting headache. The attack itself can cause a person to gain weight and sweat profusely. Kleine-Levin Syndrome is marked by hypersomnia with odd behavior during the attacks, such as binge eating, aggression, confusion, hallucinations, and hypersexuality. There is also Menstrual-Related Hypersomnia which is said to be caused by hormonal imbalances. photo by carf

4. REM-Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)

REM-Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is classified under the sleep disorder category of parasomnia. A parasomnia is when undesired events occur while sleeping. This disorder is said to cause people to act out extremely vivid dream while sleeping. RBD is usually confused with sleepwalking, sleep terrors, as well as sleep-talking. A lot of the time these dreams are full of action and sometimes violent. RBD is marked by swearing, shouting, flailing, kicking, and doing actions as if someone is fighting. If not treated, RBD can get worse and more violent. The disorder is mainly seen in men that are suffering from multiple system atrophy or Parkinson’s. photo by saikofish

3. Exploding Head Syndrome

Exploding head syndrome is another parasomnia that causes the person to hear a loud noise just before falling asleep. Though it sounds like something you’d see in a movie, the disorder is real and often occurs while waking up in the middle of the night. Many times the sound reflects the sound of a bomb exploding or a loud banging noise. These sounds cause a lot of distress and often disturb sleep. Not many cases of this disorder are reported, but patients as young as 10 have been diagnosed with it. photo by keamysparadise

2. Sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis is marked by the ability to not move the body when falling asleep or when waking up from sleeping. When sleeping, the body experiences atonia, which is when the body is told to relax and be still. However, in sleep paralysis, atonia occurs when waking up or when falling asleep, instead of during sleep. In some cases people cannot move or even speak, but they are fully aware of what is going on. Sleep paralysis can last for several minutes, but usually goes away on its own. Some believe that the problem is common; saying that up to 40% of the population experiences the disorder.

1. Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome

Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome is one of the rarest sleep disorders doctors have ever come across. As humans we have a circadian rhythm that is said to roughly correlate with the 24 hours in a day. Of course there are variances from person to person, but usually people have a circadian rhythm of about 24-25 hours. However, people with this disorder do not have stable “body clocks.” Instead the rhythm becomes delayed and set on 26 hours or longer. Some people even have 72 hour cycles as a regular daily pattern. Someone with a 72 hour cycle would be awake for 48 hours, and those with a 26 hour cycle will usually be awake for about 16. Generally people with the disorder sleep for about 2 hours longer compared to a normal wake time. Those who are blind often suffer from Non-24-Hour

Top 10 Extreme Forms of Life

Our lovely blue planet is extraordinary for a number of reasons. The most significant of these reasons, to most of us, is the fact that it is the only place in the universe that we know for certain houses life. But on the thin film of gas and liquid that coats our planet, that life has developed in such a dazzling array of forms that even today, biologists are finding new species on a daily basis. Living things thrive in the blazing sun of arid deserts, in the crushing pressure of deep sea trenches, in the icy wastes of Antarctica, and even within the very stones beneath our feet. The adaptations that allow this versatility have created species with some very extreme features.

10. Blue Whale

The Blue Whale, known to taxonomists (those biological eggheads who make up complicated scientific names) as Balaenoptera musculus, is a baleen whale that is easily the largest of animal on the planet. Blue whales have been found that measured at up to 109 feet in length and weighing up to 200 tons. This places the blue whale far in the lead for the title of largest animal that has ever lived. No known dinosaurs, outside of a few possible theoretical species, even approach this big boy’s size.

9. Platypus

While it may not be the biggest, fastest, or most impressive species in the world, the little Australian oddball known as the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus in geek-speak) is certainly one of the most confusing. The bizarre forces of evolution (which apparently love a good joke) that led to this animal have blessed it with a wide array of characteristics that you’re unlikely to find together outside a biology textbook. As a mammal, it is warm-blooded and furry, but is a monotreme, meaning that it lays eggs for reproduction. It has flat, webbed feet to propel it through the water, a duck-like bill for a snout, and a flat tail resembling that of a beaver. It has sensitive organs on its bill that can detect the electrical signals in the muscles of fish swimming through the water, sharp spurs, which in the males secrete a potent, though non-lethal, venom. That’s right, it’s poisonous, too. Or, rather, venomous. Turns out that there’s a difference.

8. Komodo Dragon

It’s not enough that the monitor lizard known as Varanus komodoensis, or the Komodo Dragon, can grow 10 feet long and have a weight of over 150 pounds, making them the largest lizard around today. It’s not enough that they are ferocious, rapacious carnivores who, although they generally feed on carrion, can ambush and bring down a water buffalo with their jagged teeth and huge claws. It’s not even enough that their toothy mouths are awash with both venom and a soup of bacteria that almost always causes serious or fatal infection in bite wounds. If all that weren’t enough, the females can lay viable eggs even if there are no males around. I’m just glad they’re only found on a few islands in Indonesia.

7. Ocean Quahog

This unassuming little shellfish, arctica islandica, which looks much like a clam and is harvested for food in many areas of the North Atlantic, including Iceland, doesn’t look particularly impressive. It’s even used to top sushi on occasion, and doesn’t get a lot of attention. But it has the distinction of being one of the longest-lived animals. It’s hard to tell how old they grow to be on average, but at least one specimen was brought up from the deep that had lived for over 405 years. That is, until some biologist dredged it up into the air and tested its age, which was fatal. C’est la vie.

6. MRL Mouse

You’ve seen the movies. Some scientists are working in a lab. Unbeknownst to them, mutations in the lab’s experimental animals have transformed some of the creatures, giving them strange new powers. And before the world is prepared, upon the unsuspecting population is unleashed… a little white mouse. The strain of white lab mouse known as Murphy Roth’s Large (or MRL) mouse was being used for routine scientific experimentation when it was discovered that this particular mouse had the ability to not only heal from injuries inflicted on it, but to regenerate. It was able to recover from injuries without any detectable scarring, and even to re-grow toes, tails, or even vital organs, including the heart, that were destroyed or removed. Could this indicate that science could someday use this mouse to allow injured humans to regenerate lost limbs and organs? Stay tuned. Big things may be on the way.

5. Pompeii Worm

Unless you are a very lucky marine biologist, you are unlikely to ever see Alvinella pompejana, or the Pompeii worm, in person. That’s because this fanciful-looking tube-worm lives its life stuck around volcanic hydrothermal vents in deep ocean trenches. These little worms live in an environment that is incredibly hostile to life, and that goes beyond the water pressure that would easily crush you or me to death in seconds. Their lower end is usually resting (within their tubes) in water up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit, while their head end is often in water at a far more amenable 72 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes them the second most heat-tolerant of all complex animals. For the most heat tolerant, see number 3 on this list.

4. Deinococcus radiodurans

This tiny bacterium is little known to the general public, but is of great interest to the scientific community, which might explain why it’s sole name is pronounceable only by people who prefer biological taxonomy to inconsequential things like dating or hygiene. Although it is known for several interesting properties, including the ability to withstand heat and exposure to acids, it is named for its most astounding ability. It can survive doses of radiation that would kill virtually anything else on the planet. For comparison, a human will die after absorbing 10 Grays of radiation. D. radiodurans has been dosed with up to 15,000 Grays, and come through without being wiped out. Its ability to withstand radiation and repair its own DNA is being researched for use in medicine as well as use as a computer storage medium.

3. Water Bear

The water bear, also called a tardigrade, is my nominee for the Toughest SOB You’ll Ever Lay Eyes On After Bruce Willis award. There are over a thousand species of this little eight-legged animal, and they have been found living literally everywhere on Earth. Some sadistic poking and prodding by scientists has revealed that these little action heroes can survive at temperatures of 303 degrees Fahrenheit at the top end (remember that water boils at 212 degrees), and at the lower end, have survived at only a few degrees above absolute zero. They can withstand pressures ranging from 6,000 atmospheres, which is not even found in the deepest oceans, to the vacuum of outer space. They have shown resistance to radiation that is unparalleled in the animal kingdom, allowing them to survive doses of radiation over a thousand times the intensity that it takes to kill a human (unless, of course, you are the previously-mentioned Bruce Willis). And they can be completely dehydrated and then come back to life after decades of being tiny mummies. It’s little wonder that these guys have been about for around 500 million years.

2. Archaea

The tiny bacteria-like organisms classified as archaea were only classified in the 1950′s, and then they were considered to be a group of relatively uncommon microorganisms that could be found in areas of extreme temperatures, acidity, salinity, or other unpleasant conditions. More recently, scientists have been able to use new biochemical technologies to show that, not only are they a totally separate form of life from the other kingdoms on Earth, but that they actually thrive in every environment on the planet. In fact, archaea can be found even down deep into the planet’s crust, everywhere that the ground is porous enough to allow anything to get there. They are so common, in fact, that they are now estimated to make up as much as one fifth of the mass of life on the Earth, and are a major and indispensable part of our ecosystem. Their strange qualities and the genetic differences between Archaea and the other forms of Earth life have caused some scientists to suggest that they may be the common ancestor of every living thing on our planet. Others go even further, with the theory that they aren’t even native to Earth, but were somehow transported here from another planet.

1. Mankind

You had to know that we would make the list. Humans, or Homo sapiens, exists today in only a single species with a single variety. Presumably, we killed off the various other varieties and species of humanity that existed up to as little as ten thousand years ago. Of all the different species on the planet, not one has a more powerful ability to change its environment to adapt it to its needs. While other species use evolution to change and meet changing conditions, humanity decided that it had had enough of the whole evolution game, and started forcing the environment to change. We burn down forests to plant food, spread transportation networks across the entire planet, and even alter the atmosphere itself (although that’s not so much on purpose). Although we are a relatively large species with large food requirements, we are currently increasing our population at a rate formerly reserved for disease cultures. We’re not all bad, and I believe that we’ll figure out how to pull out of this nose-dive, but for now it looks like we’ve been voted Most Likely to Cause Armageddon.

Top 10 Unusual Lawsuits

Frivolous lawsuits waste billions of dollars in civil courts, but they show no signs of slowing down, and every year they seem to get more ridiculous. We’ve all heard about the woman who sued McDonald’s (and won!) after she spilled coffee on herself, or the thief who sued a family after injuring himself while trying to break into their house, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. Here are ten of the most outrageous and unusual lawsuits to ever make their way into a courtroom.

10. Man Sues Michael Jordan For Looking Like Him

Everybody wants to be like Mike, except for Allen Heckard of Portland, Oregon. In 2006, Heckard sued Michael Jordan and the Nike corporation for over $800 million after alleging that his uncanny resemblance to the NBA superstar had led to defamation, permanent injury, and emotional pain and suffering. “I’m constantly being accused of looking like Michael,” Heckard said at the time, “and it makes it very uncomfortable for me.” Heckard included Nike founder Phil Knight in the case for his role in promoting Jordan’s public persona, saying that he couldn’t go out in public without people mentioning he looked like Jordan. Heckard, who is only six feet tall, said that people at his gym had even accused him of playing basketball like Michael Jordan.

9. Man Sues Budweiser For False Advertising

In 1991, a man named Richard Overton filed a lawsuit against Anheiser-Busch for false advertising that had led to emotional distress, mental injury, and financial loss. Harris alleged that, unlike the what happens to guys in their ads, when he drank Bud Light the ladies weren’t attracted to him, nor did beautiful women and tropical settings appear out of thin air, as they did in another Budweiser commercial that was airing at the time. To add insult to this grave injury, he also asserted that when he drank beer, he would often wake up hung over. Overton sued for $10,000, but the case was thrown out before ever making it to trial.

8. Man Sues Himself

In 2006, Curtis Gokey filed a lawsuit against the city of Lodi, California when one of their dump trucks accidentally backed into his car. The problem? Gokey, a city employee, was the guy driving the dump truck. Even though he freely admitted the accident had been his fault, Gokey sued the city for $3,600 in damages. After the city denied the claim and asserted that he couldn’t legally sue himself, Gokey filed a new lawsuit, this time in his wife’s name. A city attorney alleged that this too was illegal, but Gokey’s wife went through with suit anyway, and even raised the damages to $4,800, saying, “I’m not as nice as my husband is.”

7. Surfer Sues Over Stolen Wave

One thing all surfers hate is when someone “snakes” a wave that they were in a better position to ride. A California man once took this anger to the courts when he supposedly sued another surfer for “stealing a wave” that he believed was meant for him. The man alleged that he had endured “pain and suffering” as a result of not being able to carve up the surf, and attempted to take the wave thief to court. The case was eventually dismissed when the court stated that there was no way to put a price on the pain and suffering of being denied a chance to ride a monster wave.

6. Student Sues For Right To Smelly Feet

Teunis Tenbrook, a philosophy student at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, sued his school after he was thrown out for having unusually smelly feet. Professors and other students had complained that the smell was overpowering and made it impossible to conduct classes, and Tenbrook was eventually expelled from both the school and its library. He sued, and after a ten-year legal battle, a judge ruled in 2009 that having smelly feet is no excuse to prevent a student from continuing their studies. Upon delivering this verdict, the judge stated: “Our considered opinion is that the professors and other students will just have to hold their noses and bear it.”

5. Russian Astrologer Sues NASA

Marina Bai is a Russian astrologer who sued NASA in July of 2005 for allegedly “disrupting the balance of the universe.” At the time, NASA had just fired the Deep Impact space probe into the comet Tempel 1 in the hope of studying its interior. Bai sued for damages and “moral sufferings,” alleging that the comet and “the natural balance of forces in the universe” would never be the same, and that her astrology business would be adversely affected as a result. Bai’s case was originally thrown out, but was reintroduced after her lawyer was able to show that NASA’s office in the American embassy fell under Russian jurisdiction. She sued for over $300 million, which was roughly the same as the space mission’s total budget, but her case was eventually rejected after a physicist argued that the probe had no real effect on the comet’s trajectory.

4. Man Sues Corporations For Witchcraft

In 2008, a Canadian man brought a $2 billion lawsuit against several corporations after claiming that the companies had repeatedly dabbled in witchcraft, satanic rituals, and brain wave control in an attempt to bolster profits. The man, named Jerry Rose, alleged that companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart had subjected him to “invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery.” Rose also named several universities and professors as defendants in the case, saying that they had helped engineer the “brain-drain” technologies that had made the mind control tactics possible. Lawyers from the companies argued that the case was outrageous and deserved to be dismissed on the spot, but the judge in charge of the proceedings agreed to hear it, arguing that all of the charges were capable of being litigated.

3. The Cable Car Nymphomaniac

In San Francisco in 1964, a woman named Gloria Sykes was injured after the cable car she was riding on malfunctioned and careened down a hill. Sykes suffered a black eye and some scratches in the accident, but she filed a $500,000 lawsuit against the city for a much more curious reason: she claimed the accident had triggered a “demonic sex urge” in her. Sykes said the trauma from the accident had led to her developing an uncontrollable nymphomania, and that after it happened she’d had sex with over 100 men, as many as 50 in one week. The case made headlines in the Bay Area when it went to court, and many called it one of the most egregious abuses of the legal system in history. But after Sykes’ attorneys successfully argued that she had developed a bizarre form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she was eventually awarded $50,000 in damages.

2. Man Sues God

In 2005, a Romanian prisoner named Pavel Mircea attempted to sue God for fraud and gross negligence. Mircea, who had spent twenty year behind bars for murder, claimed that God had failed to deliver him from evil, as he had been promised at his christening, and that this was tantamount to a breach of contract. Mircea sued for an undisclosed amount, partially to be reimbursed for money he had spent on prayer candles and other religious goods, and directed his case toward the Officials of the Romanian Orthodox Church, whom he considered to be God’s representatives on Earth. The courts eventually rejected the case, with at least one report claiming that it was thrown out because God is not subject to ordinary law.

1. The World’s Most Litigious Man Sues

When it comes to filing unusual lawsuits, few compare to Jonathan Lee Riches, who has filed an enormous amount of them in U.S. District Courts. Known variously as “Johnny Sue-Nami,” “the Litigator Crusader,” and “the Patrick Ewing of Suing,” Riches has been known to try and take anyone and anything to court. Targets of his over 4,000 lawsuits have included George W. Bush, the Somali pirates, NASCAR, NFL quarterback Michael Vick, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Martha Stewart, and Steve Jobs. Riches, who is currently doing time in an Oklahoma City prison, has even attempted to sue historical figures like Plato, Nostradamus, and Che Guevara, as well as inanimate objects like the Eiffel Tower, the Lincoln Memorial, and Plymouth Rock. Arguably his most famous–and certainly his most ironic–lawsuit occurred in May of 2009, when Riches sued the Guinness Book of World Records for naming him “the World’s Most Litigious Man,” claiming that the company had no right to publish his “legal masterpieces.”

Top 10 Dead Persons Still Said To Be Alive After Death

We’ve all heard of people faking their deaths and later being found to be alive. Some do it for attention, others as a publicity stunt, and others to just get out of the spotlight, but in the end realize they soon return to the spotlight. In any case, people who intentionally go “missing” are usually found guilty or some other crime.

We’ve all probably heard of conspiracies and skeptics as well. Put death and skepticism together and what do you get? A bunch of conspirators that start to believe people who are more than likely dead are actually alive and well. Crazy or not, there are people who believe others said to be dead just may be alive. Here is a list of ten people who have become the center of fake death conspiracies.

10. Alexander I of Russia (12/23/1777 – 11/19/1825)

Alexander I was able to start off as a successful king, but due to family circumstances, he soon became very suspicious and paranoid of others. In 1825 Alexander was on a trip to the Crimea during the winter when he developed a cold that turned into typhus and in the end killed him. He died suddenly and was given a funeral with a closed casket. Because of his sudden death, many found the circumstances of his death to be questionable. Many believed he wanted to give up the throne quietly and that this was his cover up to do so. Some think he took on the name Feodor Kuzmich and became a hermit. To add even more suspense, in 1925 Alexander’s tomb was open, but a body was not found.

9. Princess Diana of Wales (07/01/1961 – 08/31/1997)

Born into royalty, Princess Diana was most definitely a member of the royal family who was able to become a worldwide icon, bringing the issue of AIDS awareness and treatment to the forefront. Married to Prince Charles of Wales with two sons, Diana’s life seemed great. However, on August 31, Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed, her rumored boyfriend, were killed in a crash after the car they were in slammed into a road tunnel in Paris. The driver was told to take that route to avoid paparazzi. Not only do people conspire about her death, some believing it was a plot by the M16 acting on orders from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, but others believe she isn’t dead at all. Pictures have floated around of a suspected Diana in a wheelchair who is said to be pregnant with Al-Fayed’s child. However, with over 2.5 million people viewing the funeral, most believe she is dead.

8. Jim Morrison (12/08/1943 – 07/03/1971)

Known for being the front man of The Doors, Jim Morrison definitely became a popular artist in the 1960s. After moving to Paris to an apartment, Morrison became a fan of the city and soon began to write poems. During this time Morrison changed his appearance by growing a beard and was becoming depressed. On July 3 he was found dead in a bathtub, but no autopsy was completed as there was no sign of foul play. He was buried in a sealed casket, and the death certificate stated that a heart attack killed him. However, no one knows exactly how Morrison died. His girlfriend claimed he was using cocaine and heroin and possibly had a hemorrhage, while others blame a respiratory infection. Many have claimed to have seen Morrison boarding a plane before he was reported dead, insisting that he was looking to run away.

7. D.B. Cooper (Vanished 11/24/1971)

D.B. Cooper is one that many probably don’t expect on this list, but he has an interesting story, and the conspiracies surrounding his death are just as buzzworthy. D.B. Cooper, first thought to be Dan Cooper, hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft on November 24 and demanded a random of $200,000 which he received. He then parachuted from the plane, and hasn’t been seen since. After jumping, no one has heard of, seen, or come into contact with D.B. Cooper. There is no evidence claiming that he is alive or dead, or any evidence of who the man really was. The money has yet to be recovered, but the FBI in he past years has released new evidence, but the Agency does believe he is dead. Some claim that he is still alive and is in hiding.

6. Amelia Earhart (07/24/1897 – declared dead on 01/05/1939)

Amelia Earhart stands as one of the most notable women when it comes to pioneering early aviation. Despite being a woman, Earhart earned awards for becoming the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. In 1937, she set off to circumnavigate the globe in her airplane, but she soon disappeared when flying over the Pacific Ocean, specifically near Howland Island. Aviators believe that Earhart’s plane ran out of fuel and she pulled the crash and sink method. However, some believe she was spying on Japan in the Pacific, captured and executed when her plane crashed in Japanese territory, or that she decided to assume a new identity. Some have claimed to have seen her in Japan.

5. Adolf Hitler (04/20/1889 – 04/30/1945)

Dying due to cyanide poisoning by his own hands, Hitler declared he would not live the same fate as Benito Mussolini. After committing suicide along with his wife of one day, his body was found and buried in a secret location in Magdeburg, but was then exhumed and his ashes throw into the Elbe River. Joseph Stalin stated that Hitler may have escaped to Argentina or Spain, while others believed the Germans were trying to conceal Hitler’s escape to the underground.  Despite the use of dental records to positively identify Hitler, many still believe he is alive. Some have even claimed multiple sightings of him.

4. Michael Jackson (08/29/1958 – 06/25/2009)

The most recent death on this list, Michael Jackson became known as the King of Pop and for decades provided music for his fans. Though his death is still a mystery today, it’s safe to say that he is dead. Though the exact cause of death is not yet known, many speculate that an overdose of pain or an anesthetic drug used to help him sleep is what killed Jackson. However, many at first and still believe that he isn’t dead, due to the lack of autopsy answers, and the possible fact that he may not have been buried yet. Some are skeptical and believe that his gold plated casket was empty, claiming that he is still alive and planned a publicity stunt.

3. Tupac Shakur (06/16/1971 – 09/13/1996)

Today Tupac Shakur’s death remains a mystery. He was a rapper who was killed in a drive by shooting. Because of the questions and circumstances surrounding his death, many believe he is alive. Skeptics claim that they have reason to doubt Tupac is dead because of the fact that eight of his records were released after his reported death and lyrics of his involving a man being shot but then resurrected. Magazines and popular celebrity gossip websites have claimed to have spotted and taken pictures of Tupac. The most recent is a picture of supposed Tupac drinking in Bourbon Street.

2. Grand Duchess Anastasia (07/18/1901 – 07/17/1918)

As the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, many would think Anastasia would have had a luxurious long life. However, her and her family was murdered by the Bolshevik secret police as a means to end the Romanov rule in Russia. The bodies were shot and then burned, but there was no trace of Anastasia’s DNA. Many believed she must have escaped somehow due to lack of some sort of identification of her body. Since no real proof of her death had come to light, many women have falsely identified themselves as Anastasia, the most well known being Anna Anderson. In March 2009, Dr. Michael Coble stated that DNA of all four Duchesses has been tested and found.

1. Elvis Presley (01/08/1935 – 08/16/1977)

Elvis Presley, said to be the King of Rock ‘n Roll was found dead in his own bathroom by his fiancée and his death was ruled to be due to an overdose of medication. He was buried at Graceland next to his mother. Despite being declared dead, many around the world claim that there is no way he can be dead. Some say his middle name is spelled wrong on his grave while others claim that a wax body was put inside the coffin. Some believe Elvis was in a position to fake his death, as he became in debt to someone possibly linked to the Mafia. Other people have claimed to have even seen Elvis in multiple places, the most noted being places in Tennessee

Top 10 Daredevils

Some people call them crazy, while others consider them heroes, but there’s no denying that daredevils and stunt performers continue to command a huge amount of public fascination thanks to their death-defying acts of courage and outright lunacy. From skydivers and wirewalkers to magicians and flight-obsessed truck drivers, here are the top ten stunt men and daredevils.

10. Jeb Corliss

Jeb Corliss is a professional BASE jumper and skydiver who has gained a reputation for his death defying leaps from famous world landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. Corliss was briefly the host of an extreme sports TV show called Stunt Junkies, but he was fired in 2006 after he was arrested during an unsuccessful attempt to BASE jump from the Empire State Building. Corliss had worn a prosthetic mask and a fat suit to sneak in undetected, but security guards apprehended him after he attempted to climb over the security fence of the building’s observation deck. Critics claimed the stunt would have put lives at risk, but Corliss insisted that he had put years of planning into the jump, and still claims that the guards endangered his life by trying to pull him off the wall.

9. Larry Walters

A truck driver by trade, Larry Walters engineered one of the most creative–and downright stupid–stunts of all time in 1982, when he created his own homemade flying machine in his hometown of San Pedro, California. The aircraft, called Inspiration I, consisted of an ordinary lawn chair rigged with 45 helium weather balloons. Walters carried a pellet gun with him on the flight, and intended to eventually shoot out some of the balloons and make a graceful descent back to earth. Unfortunately, his calculations were off, and instead of rising up to a hundred or so feet as he had planned, Walters and his lawn chair immediately climbed to an altitude of nearly 15,000 feet. After flying for 45 minutes, Walters shot a few of his balloons and drifted back toward the ground, inadvertently catching a few power lines in the process and causing a major blackout. As his flight had taken him into federal airspace, Walters was arrested upon landing. When asked why he’d done it, he replied simply, “a man just can’t sit around.”

8. Eddie Kidd

Eddie Kidd is a famed daredevil and movie stuntman, best known for undertaking over 3,000 death-defying motorcycle jumps. Kidd was the stuntman for Pierce Brosnan in several of the James Bond films in the 1990s, and back in 1979 he famously jumped 120 feet over a railway span for a stunt in the movie Hanover Street. Outside of movies, Kidd once jumped over the Great Wall of China on a stunt bike, and in another famed stunt, he jumped 80 feet over a gap in a 50-foot high viaduct. His career took a tragic turn in 1996, when he suffered a devastating crash during a jump at a motorcycle rally in England. Kidd spent six weeks in a coma after the accident, and for a while afterward was confined to a wheelchair. Amazingly, he was eventually able to make a solid recovery, and after vowing to return to the world of bike racing, he made his comeback in the UK in June of 2007.

7. Annie Edson Taylor

63-year-old Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to successfully go over Niagara Falls in 1901, when she took the plunge inside a wooden barrel. A schoolteacher by trade, Taylor had found herself in financial trouble, and conceived the stunt in the hope that it would gain her fame and fortune. She had a specially designed barrel filled with padding, and after testing it with an ordinary house cat, went over the Horseshoe Falls section of Niagara herself on October 24, 1901. Amazingly, she survived the 173-foot plunge with little more than a small gash on her head. Unfortunately, though, the stunt failed to garner Taylor the fame she had hoped for, and after making a small amount of money on a speaking tour, she spent her later years scraping by on money made from posing for souvenir photos.

6. Robbie Knievel

Son of the iconic Evel Knievel, Robbie Knievel is a professional daredevil who has completed over 250 motorcycle jumps and broken at least 20 world records. Knievel began racing motorcycles at age 7, and was touring with his father by age 12. Like his dad, he has made a famous jump over the Grand Canyon, and his other stunts include jumping over a row of 15 trucks, hopping over 21 Hummers, and a televised 200 foot ramp to ramp jump in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve 2008. Unlike his father, who rode a Harley Davidson, Knievel uses a specially designed Honda CR-500 for his jumps, for which he has received much criticism. In order to silence these detractors, Knievel has announced that in the summer of 2009 he will attempt to jump over 16 buses in Wembley Stadium while riding the same Harley XR-750 that was once used by his father.

5. Charles Blondin

Charles Blondin, AKA The Great Blondin, was a 19th century French acrobat and tightrope walker who gained fame in Europe and the United States for his daring high wire acts. Blondin started training to be an acrobat at age five, and by six he was already performing under the stage name “The Little Wonder.” In his twenties he was one of the most popular performers in Europe, but his crowning achievement came in 1859, when he traveled to the United States and became the first person to cross the 160-foot high gorge beneath Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Blondin easily walked the 1100 feet from one side of the gorge to the other on his first try. In a demonstration of his skill, he then did it several more times with a number of different variations, including being blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow, wearing stilts, and carrying a man on his back. In the most bizarre crossing of all, Blondin stopped halfway across the falls, sat down on the tightrope, and cooked and dined on an omelet.

4. Alain Robert

Frenchman Alain Robert is a well known daredevil who helped pioneer the sport of “urban climbing” with his highly dangerous–and highly illegal–climbs up some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, a practice that has earned him the nickname “French Spiderman.” Robert claims to have gotten his start scaling buildings at age 12, when he forgot the keys to his house and was forced to climb the outside of the building to get inside. Since then, he has made a name for himself both as a rock climber and for scaling over 85 structures and skyscrapers around the world, including the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Sears Tower, and the Petronas Twin Towers. Robert makes every climb freehand, using only the natural architecture of the buildings to help him, and claims to have fallen seven times, twice from heights as high as fifty feet. Robert’s stunts are almost always unsanctioned by local authorities, and in nearly every case he is arrested upon reaching the top of the building he’s climbing.

3. Philippe Petit

A self-taught high wire artist, Philippe Petit is best known for walking a tight rope between the then newly constructed Twin Towers in 1974. Petit got his start as a street performer in Paris, but soon began to conceive of using his wire act as a kind of performance piece at famous world structures. He soon walked across a wire on the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia, and then between the towers of the Notre Dame de Paris. His crowning achievement came in 1974, when he engineered a wire act between the two World Trade Towers. Using falsified documents, assumed names, disguises, and months of planning, Petit and a small band of accomplices managed to bypass the building’s security to get to the top floor of one of the towers. They used a bow and arrow to fire the tight rope from one building to another, and after securing it, Petit proceeded to perform on the wire for 45 minutes before giving himself up to police. All charges against him were eventually dropped, and he was even asked to perform again in Central Park for the children of New York City.

2. Harry Houdini

Although he is best remembered as a magician, Harry Houdini was one of the original daredevils, and is responsible for pioneering many stunts that are still tried today. Houdini got his start as a small time magician and card trick performer, but he first came to prominence when he started experimenting with high profile escape acts on New York’s Coney Island. In his most famous stunts, Houdini would be placed in handcuffs and then locked in a crate or glass box, which was then lowered underwater. In some cases, these tricks would require him to hold his breath for more than 3 minutes. Other dangerous tricks included the so-called “Chinese Water Torture Cell,” and a now infamous trick where he was buried alive under six feet of earth and barely managed to escape with his life.

1. Evel Knievel

There is no daredevil more iconic or respected than motorcycle stunt jumper Evel Knievel, and for good reason. In a career that saw him suffer huge highs as well as many failures (and 37 broken bones), Knievel established himself an American folk hero, and his nationally televised motorcycle stunts remain among the most watched sporting events of all time. Knievel got his start as a motocross rider, but when in need of money he conceived the idea of performing stunts on his motorcycle. In his first jump, he hopped over a box full of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions, and he soon found sponsorship and became one of the first professional daredevils. Soon, Knievel was regularly jumping his Harley Davidson over rows of cars, trucks, and even the fountains at Caesar’s Palace. His most famous stunt came in 1974, when he attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon on a rocket-propelled motorcycle called the X-1. A malfunction caused the bike’s parachute to prematurely open and ruin the jump, but the media storm surrounding the event had already cemented Knievel’s reputation as the king of all daredevils, and he remained in the spotlight until his death in 2007.

Top 10 Weird Marvel Comic Characters

The Marvel Comics enterprise has been at the forefront of presenting fictional superheroes who have commanded a global following. However, among the list of many illustrious and immensely popular characters, there are also some who never climbed the popularity charts and eventually had to be dumped or mercifully killed off. While, some of these were plain bizarre, some were just unlucky for not being able to engage enough attention to be another successful contributor to the Marvel universe.

10. Ego

Alias: Nu-Xandar

Ego was beyond the comprehension of Marvel’s very young readers. For most, it was difficult to imagine whether Ego was a planetary force or some inter-planetary evil entity. Introduced as a creation from The Black Galaxy of the ‘Thor’ series (#132) in 1966, Ego had a face, tentacles and could out think every one that encountered it. However, most of Ego’s deeds were limited to laying out sinister plans for galaxy conquest rather than doing some damage on it own. It could suck energy from smaller, ‘innocent’ stars to power its astronomical strength but seldom used it.

9. M.O.D.O.K.

Alias: George Tarleton

When your body is also your head, you are a weird Marvel character. First appearing in Tales of Suspense #93 (1967), MODOK is one of the oddest looking characters you will find in the pages of any comic. His name is actually an acronym that only adds to his weird factor, Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing. Quite a mouthful, yes? Well his gargantuan mouth and oversized choppers could easily swallow that name. Believe it or not, he as actually a human who was mutated by A.I.M scientists into the misfit villain we know today. His powers are enhanced intelligence (big surprise with a noggin like that), with the added ability to predict outcomes that sometimes resembles clairvoyance. He also can control individuals and large groups of people, generate force fields and finally, shoot powerful force beams from his swanky headband that focuses his incredible mental powers. Oh, and he can scare the crap out of little kids with his sputnik like head. Geez, did I mention his head is huge?

8. Swarm

Alias: Fritz von Meyer

For many Marvel fans, Swarm wasn’t put forth in the right manner by its creators. But then molding a swarm of bees into a major supervillain was probably not in the cards. Appearing for the first time in 1977 in ‘Champions’ #14, Swarm was a body of mutant, super-intelligent killer bees that killed Nazi scientist, Fritz von Meyer. In his death throes, his consciousness dissipated into the swarm of bees. Thus, von Meyer became an aggregate being, a living embodiment of the swarm, with his own scientific mind added to the mutant intelligence of the multitude of bees. Being villainous to the core and looking very menacing, Swarm had what it took to put up a resistance against Marvel’s heroes. What didn’t help Swarm’s presentation was the under-utilization of his strengths — very seldom was it hinted that the attack by the bees could actually kill or destroy something beyond redemption.

7. Howard the Duck

Alias: Master of Quak Fu / Feathered Fury

This is one of the few Marvel characters looked upon by many as a mistake that Marvel creators should be ashamed of — Why? Introduced in 1973’s ‘Adventure into Fear’ (No. 19), Howard Duck didn’t have any superpowers or anything substantial to be even considered as a Marvel character, other than the fact he was a talking duck. Seems familiar, doesn’t it? Hello, Donald.

Howard the Duck quipped rarely humorous one-liners while engaging the human race that often surrounded him. Further, the Feathered Fury was once shown as trying to occupy the White House and being booed away because of its strange appearance! For some inexplicable reason, the character did influence a 1986 movie called ‘Howard the Duck’ and the movie met the same destiny and failed miserably at the Box Office.

6. Thunder Frog

Alias: Thor

Being a huge Walt Simonson fan I would be remiss if I were to leave out one of the goofiest characters from the Marvel universe, Thunder Frog. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, the God of Thunder was actually hopping around as a amphibian. While he was only here for a short while, he made such a “splash” that Marvel actually comissioned a bust to be made in honor of the Frog of Thunder. He jumped onto the scene in Thor #364 (“Thor Croaks”) and stay in the comic for three issues. He keeps his super powers as a frog and helps his fellow lily pad lovers by leading them against the rats in Central park and the alligators in the sewers. A fun read to be sure and one of the classics of the immortal Simonson run on Thor.

5. Maggott

Alias: Japheth

While the disgusting alias leaves a lot to desired, it isn’t his title that wins him a trip to the weirdest marvel characters. No, it is his superpowers that rank him at number 5. Well, technically not his superpowers, but his parasitic slugs that live in his stomach. The slugs replaced his digestive system and could practically eat through any substance. After feeding the slugs would reenter his stomach and give him nourishment. Wow, what a great power. He is going to totally pick up chicks with that. Of course there is more to Maggot, simply having worm-like creatures eat for you isn’t cool enough for the X-men, in which he first appeared in issue #245 (1997). As with most odd characters their powers make little sense, much like the character themselves. His body would be supercharged with strength and stamina and invulnerability after the slugs fed and passed their energy on to him. Oh, and just to keep it really bizarre, he would also turn blue for no reason. Not the best work of co-creators Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira for Marvel.

4. Hellcow

Alias: Bessie

This is one of the few Marvel characters introduced with Swiss origins as Bessie was presented as a cow hailing from Switzerland. Appearing for the first time in 1975 in the fifth issue of the ‘Giant Sized Man-Thing’ Bessie was introduced as a vampire. Perhaps, it was the blending of a vampire theme with an innocent looking cow that turned-away most readers. Further, what surprised many was Hellcow’s obsession with finding Dracula to seek revenge on him. The character was doomed from the very beginning and eventually the Marvel creators handed it an early death when a wooden stake was put through its heart – by none other than Howard the Duck.

3. Doctor Bong

Alias: Lester Verde

Yet another Howard the Duck villain, which means Howard is responsible for almost one third of this list. Doctor Bong is not a real doctor or even a doctor who just has a doctorate degree, but more of a mental patient who should be seeing a doctor. He has no superpowers, but has a good knowledge of genetics and has transformed animals into sentient, humanoid being to serve his evil will. Not so intimidating, right? Well, while striking his bell-shaped head with is ball-shaped hand he can produce sonic vibrations that can do a lot of really cool stuff. Like what? Well, they can produce concussive force to bend steel, create a sonic barrier for protection and, of course, can transport him by triggering a teleportation device. Yeah, um, right. He can also do other things that also make no sense, but thankfully he as not shown up again since his original appearance in Howard the Duck #15. Notice how good I was to not use any drug related jokes with a name like Bong. But it just goes to show you can make a bong from anything, even a super villain.

2. The Asbestos Lady

Alias: Victoria Murdock

Debuting as a part of Marvel’s Captain America Series (number 63) in 1947, the Asbestos Lady’s real name was Victoria Murdock. She was presented as a scientific genius and sister of Captain America’s arch rival, ‘Killer’ Murdoch. She built herself a fireproof costume that was lined with asbestos. She could throw balls of flame, while her suit protected her. With her tightly clad bodysuit, pouting lips and blonde hair, most folks would have thought that she could become a permanent fixture as Captain America’s blonde nemesis. Somehow, it just didn’t work out and the character was removed in the an obvious manner — in early 1990, she succumbed to carcinogenic growth, probably stimulated by her own asbestos-infused bodysuit.

1. Lockjaw

Alias: Sparky

Introduced in 1965 as a part of The Fantastic Four series, the name was perfectly created for this oddest of Marvel animal creations. Lockjaw’s biggest strength — his jaws made of steel that once clamped on an enemy, were impossible to breakaway from. One reason that might have contributed to Lockjaw’s lack of success was that his origin was never quite clear. Readers just couldn’t understand whether Lockjaw was a bulldog with superpowers or a mutated dog wherein super-abilities, such as teleportation, had been artificially infused by the Terrigen Mist. At one point it was told that he was a human who had been mutated into a dog, but that storyline has since been buried.

Top 10 Rarest Diseases

While we’ve all heard of diseases, seen someone with a disease, and had a disease personally, it’s unlikely that we’ve encountered a rare disease. In the non-medical world, people use and interchange disease to mean infection, sickness, illness, or something similar. In the medical world, a disease is an abnormal condition that impairs bodily functions and is often associated with certain signs and symptoms.

Also called an orphan disease, rare diseases are those that are extremely uncommon and often have such low prevalence that a common doctor would not run into more than one case of that disease over a course of years, if ever. Here is a list of 10 diseases that rarely affect people.

Warning: Some of these images are disturbing, younger readers or those not wishing to see these images may want to look at some of the smartest animals.

10. Morgellons

Today, Morgellons stands as a very poorly understood disease that some doctors seem to believe if a chronic infectious disease. Sadly, the disease is usually disfiguring as well as disabling. The disease is classified by biting, itching, or crawling sensations, filaments that grow from the skin, and skin lesions, as well as memory loss, joint paint, and fatigue. Morgellons is still not recognized by the entire medical community, but there have been about 2,000 people within the U.S. who believe they suffer from the disease. Some of the reports are children, who are said to be unable to do normal things such as going to school or playing sports. There is no known cure or effective treatment for Morgellons.

9. Paraneoplastic pemphigus (PNP)

Though there are many forms of pemphigus, paraneoplastic pemphigus is the least common and most serious. PNP is a rare autoimmune bullous disease that causes blistering. Keratinocytes, which are what make up the epidemus, separate from each other, leaving gaps. Many times the gaps become filled with fluid peel off, leaving the skin raw and open to infection. These blisters usually appear in the mouth, throat, lips, and random places on the skin. The disease is also extremely fatal, as 90% of those diagnosed with the disease die due to sepsis, multi-organ failure, or cancer that caused the disease.

8. Microcephaly

Microcephaly is a very rare condition that is noticeable immediately at birth, and sometimes even before. It affects 1 in every 666,666 in the U.S. With microcephaly, the brain is unable to develop properly, or in some cases ceases to grow at all, while the baby is still in the womb. This causes the head to be smaller than a normal infant’s head at birth. Many believe that the disease is caused by exposure to harmful substances while in the womb, exposure to radiation, or genetic problems. The disease is usually paired with Down’s syndrome. Those who have microcephaly are usually mentally retarded and will have issues with hyperactivity, dwarfism, seizures, balance issues, speech and motor problems, as well as others.

7. Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL)

Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) is said to affect one in 35,000 people. It is an extremely rare genetic condition that is characterized by the growth of tumors in different parts of the body. Many of the tumors will grow within the central nervous system and are often benign, but are made of blood vessels. Medically known as hemangioblastomas, these tumors can start to grow in the retina, the brain, and the spinal cord. Different tumors are also known to grow on the pancreas, adrenal glands, and kidneys. If left untreated, the disease can cause strokes, heart attacks, and cardiovascular disease.

6. Kuru

As rare as it is, Kuru is one disease that is fatal. However, it is so rare that the disease is confined to an area in New Guinea, more specifically the Fore tribe that lives in the highlands. The disease came about as a result of cannibalism, which is a ritualistic practice in which the tissues of others, especially the brain, were cooked and consumed. Those affected with the disease usually become unable to eat or stand, and then about 6-12 months later die in a comatose state. It is said that about 1,100 people died from Kuru during the 1950s and 60s. Because of government intervention and a wide-spread effort to end cannibalism, Kuru has now mostly disappeared.

5. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP)

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disease that affects the connective tissue. The disease is said to only affect 1 in 2 million people. Around the world there have been 700 confirmed cases of the disease, 285 of those being in the U.S. FOP is classified when the body causes fibrous tissue, such as ligament, muscle, and tendons, to become ossified, or to change into bone when damaged. This means that a fall can cause bone to grow within the muscles and tendons throughout the body. FOP stands as the only disease known that causes one type of organ system to turn into an entirely different one. At birth, the classic symptom of the disease is a malformation of the big toe. There is no known treatment for FOP, as surgery to get rid of the bone, seems to cause the body to produce even more.

4. Fields’ disease

Fields’ disease is said to be the rarest disease in the world. It is named after two twins, Catherine and Kirstie Fields from Wales. The disease doesn’t have a medical name, but doctors have been able to call it a neuromuscular disease. The muscles within the body slowly deteriorate, which limits movements. The girls’ disease has been studied by doctors from all over. Because the disease is so rare and unknown, doctors aren’t sure what will happen next. The disease has since limited the lives of the girls, binding them to wheelchairs and making a simple task such as writing, hard.

3. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria

Usually known as just Progeria, this condition is one that only affects one in about 8 million children born. Most born with the condition only live to be about 13, while others have been able to live into their early twenties. Progeria is a genetic condition that occurs due to a new mutation characterized by the dramatic, rapid appearance of aging beginning in childhood. In most cases, the disease is not inherited, though there has been a case of a similar condition where the parents carry the protein genetically and then pass it on to their children. There is no cure for Progeria, though doctors have tried growth hormone treatment as well as anticancer drugs. Usually doctors try to focus on reducing complications of the disease.

2. Polio

First known and recognized in 1840, polio is a disease that is spread from person to person, or through the means of contaminated food or water. Most cases of polio exhibit no symptoms, unless the disease is introduced through the blood stream. In most cases, polio causes paralysis and muscle weakness. Though a widely spread disease during the early 90’s, polio has since became eradicated in 36 countries. In 2002 Europe stated that it has no seen a case of polio since the poliovirus vaccine. Only four countries in the world as of 2006 still consider polio to be an endemic.

1. Smallpox

We’ve all heard about smallpox, probably more so about the vaccine itself, which today is rarely used unless there is a high-risk of the disease. It is said that smallpox may have been around in as early as 10,000BC. Smallpox is characterized by a high fever, fatigue, and a rash with flat red sores that can eventually cover the entire body. Many believe that smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases, killing around 300-500 million in the 20th century, in 400,000 each year throughout the 18th century. However, due to immunization worldwide, the last reported case of smallpox was in 1977. Because of this, the disease is said to be extremely rare. Today, the threat of smallpox still exists, but in the form of bioterrorism.

Top 10 Bizarre Healing Treatments

In today’s world when we think of healing someone, you probably think of medicine, vaccinations, and other common things that every doctor seems to use. However, in the past, before medicine wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is today, there were plenty of bizarre techniques used in order to heal or cure someone.

Below is a list of some of the weirdest medical healing treatments that have ever been used. While some worked, some didn’t, and today some of these practices are seen as outdated, and some are even seen as more damaging then they are helpful. On the other hand, some of these are still used as a way to treat various ailments. Not all ancient medical practices were thrown under the bus.

10. Hirudotherapy

Humorously referred to as “treatment that sucks,” hirudotherapy is a healing technique that involves using European medical leeches. Despite the fact that this therapy has been used dating back to ancient times, today it has become very popular as a means to treat many different ailments. However, today, only medical leeches are used instead of leeches found in the wild as in the past. Leeches are used to treat ailments such as blood clotting, to relieve venous pressure to reduce swelling, to stimulate blood flow, and also to treat certain types of osteoarthritis. Today, hirudotherapy is used in many countries after its growing popularity after the 1990s.

9. Malaria Drug Therapy

Despite its name, malaria therapy wasn’t used to treat malaria. Instead, the disease was used to treat the widely spread STD, syphilis. Before the early 1900s, no one had come up with any type of treatment that could be used in order to treat an STD. However, this is all changed when Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese neurologist, decided that it may be helpful to treat those infected with syphilis by using malaria-infected blood. Though this seems extremely dangerous, the neurologist believed that by giving someone malaria, the high fever would be able to get rid of the syphilis bacteria that was in the body. Then, since there was a treatment for malaria, the patient would be given quinine which got rid of both viruses. In 1927, Wagner-Jauregg was given the Nobel Prize for the inoculation of malaria, and his treatment was widely used until penicillin was discovered as a medical treatment.

8. Maggot Debridement Therapy

As gross as it sounds, this is another ancient practice that involves the use of insects that has recently gained growing popularity within the medical field. It is mainly used to treat non-healing wounds. Also sometimes just called larva therapy, this type of healing technique requires the use of disinfected fly larvae. The larvae are applied to the wound and for about three days are kept thee in a special dressing that prevents any type of migration. Maggots not only help a wound to heal by speeding up the healing rate, but they also help to clean the wound by eating away at dissolving dead or infected tissue and killing any present bacteria.

7. Induced Seizures

Tested by Hungarian pathologist Ladislas von Meduna, seizure therapy was used as a means to treat those who were suffering from schizophrenia. He came to this idea after examining facts and realizing that about 16.5% of patients with epilepsy who developed psychotic symptoms were relieved of their epilepsy. After he found a solution to use, including camphor oil dissolved in oil, he tried it on one of his 33-year old patients who was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia. On January 23, 1934, he tried the injection of camphor oil, to induce seizures, in a severe 33-year-old catatonic patient. After just 5 treatments, catatonia and psychotic symptoms were gone. Increasing his testing to 26 patients, Meduna achieved recovery in 10 of them and improvement in 3 more (in other words, a 50% positive results).

6. Electroconvulsive Treatment (ECT)

In 1938, electroconvulsive treatment became known after Ugo Cerletti, an Italian psychiatrist, thought that because pigs were shocked into unconsciousness to make it easier for them to be slaughtered, that this would mirror similarly when it came to treating those who were mentally ill. Many believe that the electroconvulsive treatment works because it allows the brain to reroute itself. ECT is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania (often in bipolar disorder), catatonia and schizophrenia. In the past, it was proven to be somewhat effective, and was used for many years. As of 2007, this type of treatment is no longer regulated officially within the U.S. Today, the treatment is still used worldwide, but it is seen as a last resort treatment.

5. Fire cupping

Fire cupping doesn’t take much explanation as it is exactly what you would think it to be from the name. This technique has been around for a long time, as archaeologists have found evidence of its use dating back to 1,000 B.C. This healing technique involves using a vacuum that is created by heated air that is warmed with fire that is then put into a glass cup and held against the patient’s skin. The cups are generally bell shaped and up to 12 can be used at a time. They are generally left on the skin for about 20 minutes. Fire cupping is generally only used in Chinese medicinal cultures and is often used to treat pain, arthritis, and congestion. It can also be used to reduce swelling and musculoskeletal discomfort and ease depression. There is no evidence that supports the healing power of this technique, but many believe it does bring about a sense of relaxation.

4. Trepanation

Trepanation is one of the few techniques on this list that is at times still used, but today is much more safe, reliable, and effective. Trepanation involves scraping or drilling a hole into the skull in order to expose the dura mater. The purpose of this is to relieve pressure and treat ailments such as intracranial diseases. It is said that this technique has been used since the Neolithic times to cure migraines, epileptic seizures, and many mental disorders. In past times, it was believed that this healing technique could cure any disease, since mysticism was highly popular during those times, and many believed that the hole would allow the demons or evil spirits to escape. Trepanation was also used as a type of surgery to get rid of fractured pieces of bone after a head injury or wound. Today, this procedure, often called craniotomy, is used to treat epidural and subdural hematomas as well as a way to access the brain for neurological procedures.

3. Bloodletting

Bloodletting, sometimes known as “bleeding,” is one of the most ancient and widely used healing techniques in the world. This technique was used by the Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians, Aztecs, Mayans, and many other cultures in the ancient world. It involved the withdrawal of generally a large amount of blood in order to prevent or cure a certain disease or illness. It was widely used up until about the 19^th century, which gives it a time span of about 2,000 years. Though many claimed that bloodletting worked as it got rid of “contaminated blood” and restored balance to the four humors, it often harmed those who underwent the procedure. The theory of this type of healing was based upon menstruation, as many saw this event as an act of a woman losing her “bad humors.” Today, the practice is rarely used except for a few special ailments and has been replaced by blood transfusions.

2. Moxibustion

Moxibustion, often used in Asian locations including Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China, Mongolia, and Tibet, requires the use of mugwort herb, often called moxa. It is one of the most widely used types of traditional techniques. The moxa can be used indirectly or directly. Indirect moxibustion involves grinding the herb into fluff and then using it while using acupuncture needles. Other times, in direct moxibustion treatment, the herb is put into a cigar-like stick and is burned directly on the patient’s skin. This treatment is often used to fight against dampness and colds within the body, treating feverish diseases, as well as weakness and even to relieve side effects brought by epilepsy. It’s said that the technique is able to turn a breech baby into a normal position due to the fact that mugwort acts as an ammenagogue, which stimulates blood-flow in the uterus and pelvis.

1. Lobotomies

Lobotomies make the top of the list for being one of the most barbaric and mistaken healing technique ever used in medicine. A lobotomy was used in order to treat many different mental illnesses, including clinical depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and those who were considered “nuisances” by often portraying youthful defiance or mood swings. The height of lobotomy use came during the 1930s-1950s, one of the most notable users being psychiatrist Walter Freeman. A lobotomy was preformed by severing the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex. At one point, the use of lobotomies became out of hand. Doctors were performing 50 a day, and notable Dr. Freeman began to do them on live television. He even utilized a standard ice pick to complete the surgery. Though many claimed that these surgeries worked, many people died from them, and often times the outcome resulted in loss of memory and patients who were “cured,” but only by the standards that their symptoms were gone. In the end, most patients became idle and extremely dependent on their families.

Top 10 Failed Military Inventions

Simply, a military invention is one that was invented by the military in order to improve and advance certain military tactics, missions, or overall existence. Today, many of the most common military inventions, such as the GPS or Internet, or used by civilians as well.

When thinking about military inventions, you probably think about things such as high-tech military airplanes like the Stealth bomber, nuclear bombs, ballistic missiles, night vision, the Humvee, and many others. All of those inventions have been pretty much successful in their use. However, there have been inventions that the military has come out with that just don’t work at all. Whether it’s the U.S. Military or Japan’s, some inventions just haven’t worked. Here is a list of ten failed military inventions.

10. Corkscrew Tank

Invented by the Russians, the corkscrew tank was created in order to make its way across rough, rocky, and harsh terrain. The vehicle was able to maneuver across terrain such as snow and ice, which is common in Russia and proved to be somewhat profitable. While it was able to do some of the things it was designed to do, it had many downsides. For one, because of the entirely large corkscrews used, the tank wasn’t able to move across decent terrain. Also, it was heavy, which made it entirely slow, and it lacked suspension and safe steering.

9. One-Wheel Tank/Ball Tank

Another military invention on the list invented by the Germans, the one wheel tank was made in order for one man to be able to utilize two machine guns while being inside of a heavily armed sphere. However, this invention never made it out of prototype. In all reality, there is no way this invention would have proved helpful to any military member. Though it had a stabilizing wheel, it have great balance. Steering may have also been a problem, though there was a wheel that was shifted side to side by the man inside of the sphere. It is said that the ball tank was able to go fairly fast for an invention of its time.

8. Scooter-mounted Cannon

Used by the French during Vietnam, this vehicle was put together when the French military was lacking the money to provide more sophisticated equipment. They used what they had and often had to improvise in order to try to keep the military equipped. The scooter-mounted cannon was a scooter like vehicle that held a 75mm cannon. The vehicle was mainly used by paratroopers during the 1950s. However, it’s safe to say that this didn’t last long, as it surely offered no type of protection or even stability during war.

7. Focke-Wulf Triebfluegel

At the beginning of time, no one could ever imagine being able to fly through the air. However, with no less than genius inventers, it has become a thing of the past in our world. Backing up a little in time, during WWII the Germans were able to create a working helicopter. Though the aircraft was able to get off the ground, get to point B from point A, and land properly, the Nazis seemed to want more. To add more to their invention, they began to use ramjet engines. The Focke-Wulf Triebfluegel soon became useless as it was much too hard to land it with rockets strapped to the propeller blades.

6. Puckle Gun

The Puckle Gun was created by James Puckle who was a writer and lawyer from London. He created what he called the “Defence Gun” while others deemed it the “Puckle Gun.” No matter what you want to call it, this gun didn’t go far. First made in order to fire against Christian enemies and later to fire upon Muslim Turks, the Puckle Gun was never able to do its task. Created with a tripod-mounted, single barreled flintlock with a multishot revolving cylinder, the gun was able to shoot 63 shots in 7 minutes, compared to the more common three shots per minute, which was standard on the soldier’s musket. The Puckle Gun drew few investors and never achieved mass production or sales to the British armed forces, mostly because British gunsmiths at the time couldn’t easily make the many complicated components.

5. Cybernetic Walking Machine

The cybernetic walking machine seems like something you’d find out of a true sci-fi movie. It was an experimental quadruped robot that was tested in 1968. It was designed by a man named Ralph Mosher and the machine was supposed to allow the infantry to carry weapons over extremely tough terrain. The robot was controlled by a human through the use of foot and hand movements. There was use of hydraulics, but sadly the robot never went into production. However, the prototype can be found at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum in VA. This robot weighs about 3000lbs and is only able to go up to 5mph.

4. Russian Tsar Tank

The Russian Tsar Tank literally resembles those bikes you’d see with one huge tire and one small one – a tricycle design. For some reason the Russians thought that this was somehow a safe and usable defense in war. There isn’t any proof that it was ever used during a battle however. In any case, the tsar tank seemed to have stayed in the testing stage. The huge wheels were intended to cross significant obstacles. However, due to miscalculations of the weight, the back wheel was prone to be stuck in soft ground and ditches, and the front wheels were sometimes insufficient to pull it out. This led to a fiasco of tests before the high commission in August 1915. The tank remained in the location where it was tested, some 60 kilometers from Moscow until 1923 when it was finally taken apart for scrap.

3. Charles de Gaulle

The Charles de Gaulle is probably the most recent invention on this list. Though not a new invention, it was supposed to be an aircraft carrier that used new and improved technology; however, it has proven to be anything but. It was first made in 1986 and weighed about 40,000 tons. It cost over four billion dollars and the French truly believed it would be the next best thing. She is the tenth French aircraft carrier, the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the first and only nuclear-powered carrier built outside of the United States Navy. However, this aircraft carrier was much slower than the one it was meant to replace, which ran on steam. The propellers didn’t work right and the company who produced them went out of business. The engine and nuclear reactor were poorly built and incorrectly installed causing exposure to radiation. The deck was also designed wrong and was not usable as a means to defend the ship.

2. Rocket Belt

The rocket belt was made in order to allow a soldier to travel safely over a very small distance. It can be compared to a leap. The rocket belt was created in the 1960s and seemed to be promising. During October 1961, the pack was demonstrated personally to President John F. Kennedy in the course of exponential maneuvers on the military base Fort Bragg. However, come the mid -1960s, the military was no longer interested in the rocket belt. Because of its short range, the military didn’t see much use for it. The maximum duration of flight of the rocket pack was 21 seconds, with a range of only 120 m. The military also lost interest in this invention as jet and other aircraft technology was advancing rapidly during this time.

1. Flying Aircraft Carrier – USS Macon/USS Akron

The flying aircraft carrier was first crafted by German engineers in the early 1930s. Prague-born engineer Dr. Karl Arnstein of Ohio was the one who built the aircraft which took its first flight in April 1933. The first was called the USS Macon and later, the USS Akron, a sister ship, was built. They were both blimp-like and not shaped like today’s aircraft carriers. The USS Macon was able to carry five F9C “Sparrowhawk” airplanes that could be launched as well as retrieved during flight. Following a highly damaging event during 1934 due to flying too high of an altitude over Arizona, the USS Macon crashed on February 12, 1935 due to a structural failure during a storm.