10 The Queen Mary In December 2011, Kelly Ryann Dorrel plunged 23 meters (75 ft) from the deck of the Queen Mary into the icy water below. Her boyfriend desperately tried to grab her hand and hold on to her but to no avail. He then jumped into the water to try to save her, but she died in a hospital a while later. Before this tragedy, at least 49 others had lost their lives on the ship....
10 The Screaming Skull Of Bettiscombe Manor In the 19th century, John Frederick Pinney returned home to Bettiscombe Manor from a West Indies trip with a slave in tow. Upon arrival, the enslaved man promptly expired, with a warning that he wouldn’t rest properly until his body was returned home. Being your standard slave-owning jerk, Pinney refused the request. According to the story, no sooner had the deceased man been buried than villagers began to hear screams coming from the nearby cemetery....
10 PriscillianAD 385 Priscillian was a priest who practiced extreme self-discipline and abstention. He was also a Manichaean, which was against the doctrine of the Christian church. Manichaeism is a religion founded by Mani, a Persian man who viewed himself as a prophet right up there with Buddha and Jesus. The religion states that life on Earth is the worst and true knowledge of the soul is the only way to save it....
Because it isn’t exactly a dramatic revelation, human error makes only 10th place (they get more interesting). In terms of probability, those who have no interest in the supernatural — or as yet misunderstood science — will usually stop with all the ships and planes wrecking in the Triangle as a result solely of human error. Humans make a lot of them. Even the most well trained, seasoned pilot’s concentration can momentarily lapse, and that is sometimes all it takes for disaster....
Some philosophers and psychologists, such as Eric Fromm and Michel Foucault, have suggested that our civilized view has it all wrong and that violence (including murder) is the norm, the static, constant backdrop upon which peace is a rare phenomenon. Murderous children definitely give a bit of credence to this notion, and one such murderer was a young girl named Mary Bell, who was only 11 years old when she committed her crimes....
While many fantasy stories follow elements found in ancient mythology, the influence that Tolkien had on the current fantasy genre cannot be underestimated. However, while many people know Tolkien’s stories front to back, many people do not know quite so much about the man himself. Tolkien was quite an enigmatic figure and even more clever and accomplished than most people already thought. 10World War I Some people like to claim that Tolkien’s fantasy epic was influenced by the events of World War II, but the truth is the story was formed earlier than that and was actually influenced greatly by Tolkien’s experiences fighting in World War I....
Very few people go more than a day or two without a soda; while often considered an unhealthy indulgence in the west, in some third world nations where drinking water is unsafe, such beverages provide a lifeline. Below are ten of the more interesting facts about one of the world’s most popular drinks. If you were to survey the refrigerated section in your local convenience store, you might figure there are at most a few hundred different kinds of soda....
Since it’s such a misunderstood part of the human experience, there are many things you might not know about the female orgasm. Even now, we consistently find surprising results during studies on the subject, further deepening the air of mystery around it. Here are ten such surprises. 10 Women Orgasm In Their Sleep Wet dreams, or orgasms while sleeping, among men have been extensively discussed in both scientific circles and high school congregations....
Here are those list toppers in order of popularity, least first, with morsels of their sweet—and not-so-sweet —origins mixed in. 10 Candy Corn If you’re scratching your head as to how candy corn made the top 10 in popularity, you are not alone. But the statistics don’t lie. According to the National Confectioners Association (NCA), 35 million pounds of candy corn are sold around Halloween. That’s nine billion kernels of candy corn sold, and if they were laid end-to-end, they’d circle the Earth more than four times....
10 Kiviaq, The Dish You Leave Outside For 18 Months In Greenland, during the colder winter months, food was traditionally incredibly scarce. Natives came up with a rather ingenious solution to the problem of potentially starving to death: kiviaq, a food that stays edible for up to a year, even if you leave it outside. We should point out that we’re using the word “edible” very liberally here. Kiviaq is so pungent it’s advised to never eat it indoors, but it does stave off hunger, which is why we assume people still tolerate it....
SEE ALSO: 10 Haunted Asylums With Extremely Dark Pasts Urban explorers and island hunters will know better than anyone the places to go where nobody else dares. However, they might have some serious trouble getting access to the following locations, as they are all off-limits to outsiders. Tourists who dare travel to these places will be arrested or, in some cases, much worse. 10 Poveglia IslandVenice The dark history surrounding Poveglia Island in Venice should be enough to put anyone off, yet ghost hunters still venture here at their own risk....
They come with mysteries, too. From peculiar mass strandings to dreams revealed on octopus skin, there is still so much that scientists cannot explain about these cephalopods. 10 They Get Oxygen Blindness During the day, several Pacific species hide in the depths from predators and the Sun. By night, they travel to the surface to feed. In 2019, researchers picked the larvae of such creatures, including octopuses, crabs, and squids....
Nearly all of the biggest countries in the world are now working hard at gaining that upper hand, and some of the breakthroughs in military tech in recent times have started to resemble things straight out of science fiction. While we knew that these technologies would definitely be a regular part of warfare at some point in the future, we didn’t know that future would be here so soon....
Belisarius was the greatest Byzantine general, under the greatest Byzantine emperor, Justinian I. He fought many battles against the Persians and Bulgars, helped reconquer much of Italy, and put down the Nike rebellion at home. He fell out of favor with Justinian, in part because he overstepped his authority in parleying with the Goths. He stood trial on spurious charges, but was protected by influential family connections. He was later pardoned by Justinian, and spent his final years in peace....
During this decade in which the British had to keep their prisoners to themselves, the public began to take notice of the condition of the prison system. In 1777, John Howard took an inventory of prisons and reported that the whole system was a mess. Prisoners were heaped on top of one another regardless of gender, age, or illness. Many died from violent attacks or the rampant spread of disease....
10 Kentucky Lizard Man The tiny town of Stephensport, Kentucky, sits on the Ohio River facing the border with Indiana. You wouldn’t expect much excitement there, but something truly odd occurred in autumn 1966. At around 1:30 AM, a Stephensport resident was awakened suddenly by strange sounds outside his home. As he looked outside through a window, the homeowner reportedly saw a 180-centimeter (6 ft) tall “lizard man” with brownish-green skin, webbed appendages, and a large ridge that ran from his forehead to the crown of his head, where it peaked like an arrowhead....
From emergency service workers to the volunteers who man the food banks, many ordinary men and women will spend this Thanksgiving helping others. So let’s take some time to celebrate just some of these wonderful people and their sacrifices. See Also: 10 Ways The History Of Thanksgiving Is Nothing Like You Imagined 10 Saving a Baby’s Life On Thanksgiving in 2011, firefighters arrived at the scene of a Brooklyn apartment that was engulfed in flames....
However, even within a religion, there can be debates among the faithful. These might strike outsiders as funny, but to those in the middle of them, they can have serious, even deadly, consequences. Here are 10 of the most bizarrely important debates in major religions. 10 Did Adam Have A Belly Button? In the beginning, God created the first man, Adam, from clay and breathed up his nostrils to give him life....
SEE ALSO: 10 Historical Figures Remembered For The Wrong Thing From presidents to philosophers, here’s a list of beloved historical figures who were actually huge jerks. We don’t just mean they let their fame and notoriety get to their heads. Some of history’s greatest icons were philanderers, racists, and dabblers in animal cruelty. 10 Gandhi For those of us who have played Sid Meier’s Civilization, this may come as no surprise, but to the rest of us, a world-renowned pacifist and civil rights activist such as Mahatma Gandhi seems like an unlikely candidate for a spot on a list of assholes....
10 The Greek Historian Strabo Said Moses Was An Egyptian Priest The story of Moses and the Ten Commandments is one of the best-known stories of the Bible. With God’s help, the Bible says, Moses brought plagues upon Egypt until the pharaoh set the Jews free. According to the Greeks, though, Moses wasn’t even Jewish. He was an Egyptian priest. Strabo tells us that Moses didn’t like Egypt’s institutions. He believed that God was in all things and so couldn’t take the form of an animal or a person....
