After 50 years of appearing on the most popular children’s show ever, you’d think we’d know Big Bird inside out, but he still has a few surprises up his sleeve. For instance, Big Bird hobnobs with Darth Vader and the Queen of England. He wields major political clout and once took out a presidential candidate without even lifting a feather. On top of that, he has survived multiple attempts on his life!...
As an example, it was once believed that the traits of a woman’s ex could be transferred to a child she has with another man. What could be crazier than that? And there’s more where that came from. Here are nine more theories that used to accepted as fact. 10 Maternal Impression Until the early 20th century, people believed the experiences of a pregnant woman could alter her fetus. This was called maternal impression....
10Inventing The Twinkie One of the things that was severely limited during World War II in both America and England was the banana—they had to be imported, after all, and that was a luxury that people just couldn’t justify. But it was an extremely popular part of a number of foods, from England’s banana sandwiches to dessert fillings in the States. In England, substitutes like mashed parsnips replaced the banana in sandwiches, but America had an even more creative solution, and it led to the design of one of their most iconic treats....
SEE ALSO: 10 Unsolved Mysteries With Creepy Surveillance Footage 10 Tom Thum’s Larynx In 2017, Australian beatboxer Tom Thum said “Ah,” and let doctors look at his throat. More precisely, he allowed a camera to slither up his nose and down his throat. Then he made a bunch of noises so that the team could see his vocal cords do their thing. The view was not for kids, lunchtime or anyone with a sensitive stomach....
In the interest of not seeming to engage in reckless hero worship, we should fully concede to his numerous personal failings, like desiring teenage women or pressuring lovers to get abortions. But for the most part, this list is about the odd aspects of his life and career. 10Surprising Vulgarity Since Chaplin is mostly remembered today for sentimental comedy, it’s worth noting that when he was first becoming world famous in the 1910s, he was considered beneath middle-class sensibilities....
Mountains also hold seed arks, a strange psychosis, and supernatural sightings. The earthier side is not to be outdone. From methane rivers to mountain ranges nobody can see, nature brings epic weirdness to the table. 10 Diving Mountains When continental plates dive under each other, they trigger earthquakes and tsunamis, sometimes with devastating consequences on land. For a while, seafloor mountains were hailed as heroes. Earthquakes happen when plates slide under quickly and by a good length....
Lots of people have been hanged for bestiality. However, not all were guilty. Some were hanged for flimsy reasons, such as looking like a baby animal. Others were found guilty even though the evidence was clearly flawed. 10 George Spencer In 1642, George Spencer of New Haven, Connecticut, was executed for impregnating a sow. Spencer wasn’t caught in the act; he only became a suspect because the piglet the sow birthed looked like him....
10Richard Ramirez In 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed “Night Stalker,” set off on a killing spree that left at least 14 people dead. The killer, who was notorious for breaking into people’s homes and killing them in their beds, kept everyone in the Los Angeles area paralyzed with fear for months. Everyone, that is, except Doreen Lioy. A 30-year-old magazine editor at the time, Doreen recalls seeing Ramirez’s face on a mug shot on TV for the first time in 1985....
An ultraleft Marxist group, FARC has been locked in a bloody conflict with the Colombian government for more than 50 years. Their campaign of terror has left over 250,000 people dead and millions more internally displaced. Historically, FARC hasn’t been the only group contributing to Colombia’s gruesome conflict. At different times, the left-wing ELN, the right-wing AUC, and Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel have all played a significant role. But FARC has probably been the scariest....
And he was right. After all, it’s not like you’d ever hear about a leader in the free world putting out a hit on a journalist or handing out diplomatic immunity to prostitutes or blowing taxpayers’ money on plush furnishings like some French king. Would you? 10 The Prime Minister Of Slovakia Pardons Himself For Kidnapping The President’s Son It’s a question that has vexed many leaders in democracies: What to do when you fall out with the nation’s constitutional figurehead?...
However, delicacies vary greatly from country to country. In many instances, the favorite foods of one country can be viewed with disgust and aversion by those from other places. One person’s filet mignon can look like gruel to another. Louise Fresco is quoted as saying, “Food is something holy”; these delicacies, however, can be viewed as terrors straight from Hell. 10 Casu Marzu When one thinks of cheese, the mouth begins to water, and images of cheddar dance through the mind....
During World War II, Walt Disney was commissioned by the US and Canadian governments to create war propaganda for war bonds and taxes. Walt Disney and the government agreed that they were both anti-Hitler. However, in his own time, Disney created antiwar cartoons, as well as humanitarian messages to American audiences to spread the message that they needed to sympathize with their enemies, who were, after all, fellow human beings....
10Living Worm Towers Unlike most of our list, the nematode Pristionchus pacificus isn’t technically parasitic at all. Sure, it has all the trappings of a parasite—it lives in the body of a dung beetle, resists the insect’s immune system, and depends upon its body for both a food source and a breeding ground. It just doesn’t really qualify as parasitic because it doesn’t actually begin feeding until after the host is already dead....
However, this is fascinating stuff, but the science behind it is incredibly advanced and largely still theoretical. So much so that many scientists themselves cannot fully understand what makes a time crystal tick. Sometimes, though, when you break an esoteric topic down and examine it in segments, the entire concept slowly becomes clearer. So let’s give it a try… 10 A Physicist with a Dream and a Catchy Phrase First introduced in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, Professor of Physics at MIT, time crystals were proposed as a theoretical phase of matter which would display temporal periodicity....
The killer (or killers) captivated Italy and the world with his horrifying methods and ability to taunt police. The Monster’s crimes are considered by many to be the worst serial murders in Italy’s history. Here are ten eerie facts about the Monster of Florence. 10 He Was Meticulously Organized And Obsessive The Monster, like most organized serial killers, had a very specific modus operandi, which he stuck to throughout his entire reign of terror....
The First Crusade (1096–99) was an almost miraculous success. The Seljuk Turks, the effective and brutal conquerors of the Middle East, were defeated by an equally brutal and fanatical group of Frankish crusaders. But overall, the crusaders didn’t have a great track record. Even disregarding the moral demur of religious warfare, most of crusading history is filled with embarrassing—and occasionally humorous—flops. 10 The Mega-Pastor Of The First Crusade Runs Away In 1095, Pope Urban II presided over the Council of Clermont in France and advocated for war against the Turks....
10 Terrible Acts Of US Political Violence 10 Vladimir Putin Helps Chinese First Lady While at the 2014 Asia-Pacific summit in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin noticed that Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan looked cold, so he offered her his jacket, which Peng graciously accepted. All the while Chinese President Xi Jinnping was talking to then U.S President Barack Obama. Peng quickly realized that this could lead to embarrassment for her husband and swapped Putin’s jacket with one given to her by an attendant....
10 OK Many origins of “OK” have been suggested, but the most prominent theory is that it started as an editorial joke in 1839. At the time, an easy way to make your article trendy was to fill it with playful abbreviations such as “s.p” (small potatoes). But often, abbreviations used alternate spellings. “O.w,” for example, stood for “oll write,” and “o.k” stood for “oll korrect.” Most abbreviations faded, yet “OK” stuck....
What it means now: “Completely lacking in subtlety; very obvious.” What it used to mean: A thousand-tongued beast from hell. In the 1600s, British began using the word blatant as a way to describe people who were vulgar and noisy. Granted, that’s not a major change to the present day definition, but before 1596, blatant wasn’t even a word; it was invented by Edmund Spenser in his fantasy story “The Faerie Queen” to describe a monster from hell, a giant beast with a thousand tongues—the Blatant Beast....
10 Homo Erectus May Have Built Boats When you think of man’s ancestor Homo erectus, you probably aren’t imagining seafaring cavemen. Yes, they migrated out of Africa, into Asia, and all the way to Flores, but they did so on foot, right? In 1998, researchers dated stone tools found on Flores to 800,000 years ago, implying that they were made by H. erectus. The ancient hominids would have had to cross deep, turbulent waters to reach the island, a task for which they would have needed some type of primitive boats or rafts....
