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From ballet to nylon: the strangest things to cause riots Some riots will be leaving historians scratching their heads forevermore.
When it comes to tension surrounding race and Super Bowl victories, rioting makes perfect sense. But occasionally, the strangest things—like eggnog and nylon—can induce a riot, leaving historians scratching their heads forevermore. Straw hats Perhaps one of the weirdest riots to ever take place was the Straw Hat Riot of 1922, when people were rampaging through the streets of New York and beating up anyone wearing a straw hat. Straw hats had appeared in the 19th century as summertime wear and initially it was not considered good form for men to wear these in big cities. By the early 20th century, they were considered acceptable day attire in North American…
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15 unintentionally offensive domain names (gone very sexual) All time classics in naming fails that have gone decidedly sexual.
7 scandals PornHub doesn’t want you to know about PornHub believes itself above all laws—including those against child pornography. No wonder 946k people have signed to shut it down.
8 world records in the field of penis achievement Get ready to question your manhood.
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The Christmas party that stopped a world war They defied the orders of their superiors, laid down their rifles, and celebrated Christmas with the enemy in No Man's Land.
On Christmas Eve 1914, when WWI was well underway, soldiers lay in their trenches ready for the enemy to attack. But soldiers on the both sides of the Western Front had misgivings about killing their fellow man on a day that celebrates Peace on Earth. These men defied the orders of their superiors and for a day laid down their rifles and celebrated Christmas in No Man’s Land. Through the eyes of British, French, and German soldiers we see how fragile it was, and how brave these men were to celebrate peace in a time of war. “What a different sort of Christmas Eve” On Christmas Eve 1914 a young…
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The 11 best Goosebumps monsters Writing at a breakneck pace, R.L. Stine churned out sixty-two now classic Goosebumps. These are his best monsters.
10 of the most memorable weapons from the movies From Chigurh's creepy farm equipment to one groovy chainsaw arm.
These ancient technologies were way ahead of their time Incredible artifact discoveries reveal many ancient cultures were capable of far more than previously thought.
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Colonial Americans were pretty much always drunk The American Revolution was built on a foundation of booze, led by tavern addicted Founding Fathers who could drink any frat boy under the table.
Images of our Colonial forefathers usually involve powdered wigs, petticoats, and the thrill of throwing tons of tea into the Boston Harbor. Although we often think of their era as proper and civilized, it turns out that the people who led the American Revolution knew how to party. In fact, the American Revolution was built on a foundation of booze, led by tavern addicted Founding Fathers who could drink any college frat boy under the table. But let’s start at the beginning. Beer saved the Mayflower The first settlers brought with them the English tradition of beer drinking. Even during the famous 1620 voyage of Pilgrims on board the Mayflower,…
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In the movies, only evil psychopaths listen to opera Cinema's most heartless bastards, gritty gangsters, and cruel sadists all have this one thing in common.
Top 10 most inadvertently funny movies in horror history You won’t pee your pants out of fear but you might poop yourself from laughing.
Hollywood blockbusters with glaring historical inaccuracies Hollywood has a knack for embellishing the truth, especially when the movie comes with the label "based on a true story."
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Cruel and unusual: history’s most disturbing medical treatments Let's be grateful for how far healthcare has come.
You probably don’t enjoy going to the doctor (who does?), but seeking medical treatment today is worlds better than it was in the past. Can you imagine setting up an appointment about a persistent headache and the doctor prescribing an ice pick to your eye socket? Of course, as ridiculous as some of these treatments sound, practitioners honestly believed that they were giving patients the best possible care. But that hardly changes the fact that many of these treatments did more harm than good. After reading about history’s most infamous and unusual medical treatments, you’ll be grateful for how far healthcare has come. Mercury Ancient Chinese and Indian people were…
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8 real-life Ron Burgundys of local TV news Burgundy’s coiffed mane, bright red blazer, and on-air fuckups aren’t so far from reality.
The urban underground: Secrets under today’s modern cities Many cities have rich histories that date back millennia, and the source of that history lies right below the structures and streets that make their modern versions.
8 weird vintage sex products Want to enjoy the salubrious benefits of horse exercise massage? Come on in and let's cure your female hysteria.
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The true history of absinthe, and the reason it was banned for 100 years The drink has a colorful history involving everything from medical miracles to murder.
Absinthe has a bad reputation, even compared with other alcoholic beverages. But from its early use as a medical elixir to the wave of absinthe bans that occurred during the early 1900s, the drink has a very colorful history involving everything from medical miracles to murder. Medicinal roots Absinthe is an anise-flavored, distilled spirit that was originally developed not as an alcoholic beverage, but for medicinal purposes. Early prototypes of the beverage were used by the ancient Greeks in childbirth. Scholars credit Madame Henriette Henirod from the Swiss village of Couvet as the first individual to create recognizable absinthe during the mid-eighteenth century. The earliest written recipe is dated to…
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What the office was actually like in the Mad Men era What was work really like over half a century ago? My grandfather tells me it had more alcohol and blackmail than you might expect.
30 surprising facts about how we spend our time over a lifetime These are the statistically likely ways you'll end up having spent your days.
Being a hobo was hard—’Hoboglyphs’ made it easier Sketched with coal or chalk in places where migrants were likely to pass, hoboglyphs – the secret code of hobos – were pointers for other travelers.
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Adorable facts about history’s greatest dictators Finally an excuse for those kawaii dictator memes.
Saddam Hussein wrote romance novels Really sappy ones too. Before he was found in a hole and hung from his neck while having someone record the snuff video, he was a jolly dictator who had hobbies. One of them was to write love stories on the side to show his softer side. When finding time out of his day to stop torturing people and shooting AK-47s into the air, he wrote the book Zabiba and the King. Zabiba and the King was a piece of historical fiction that portrayed Iraq as Zabibah, the lead female in the story. She was abused and raped by her sadistic husband, who was very…
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The most badass Latin phrases Latin's utility has long since faded, but there's still something inherently awesome about it.
What the office was actually like in the Mad Men era What was work really like over half a century ago? My grandfather tells me it had more alcohol and blackmail than you might expect.
The best of the worst public access TV shows Production values may be limited, but that's a small price to pay for complete artistic freedom.
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The stomach-turning online world of ‘popping’ We examine an online subculture forming around the world's worst boils, zits, recluse spider bites, and exotic skin conditions. Disgusting images ahead!
Human beings are gross. We’re barely-functional assemblages of fluids and bones, held together by a barrier of skin that constantly struggles with an atmosphere full of pollutants. And when that delicate membrane gets irritated, things get even grosser. So gross, in fact, that the resulting video looks like something out of horror sci-fi. Welcome to the world of r/Popping, the Reddit destination for “pictures, videos, and stories about cysts and pimples.” Over 86,000 people subscribe to this Subreddit to see and share the nastiest boils, zits, recluse spider bites, and assorted skin conditions in grisly detail. Here’s a warning, right off: we’re about to share some insanely disgusting images, videos,…
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The joys of a celebrity meltdown caught on tape (top 15) The public spectacle feeds a schadenfreudian tulpa that will one day smash the beast 666 and release the pizza kids.
The best of ’80s action movie power ballads If they aren't about love, they at least feature giant choruses that'll have you pumping away in the gym at 254% efficiency.
The dark origins of our favorite Disney stories The fairytales Disney based their classics on certainly weren't PG-13.
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The true story of a Victorian swindler and his spectacular underwater bachelor palace Upon first glance, Witley Park in Surrey, UK is just like any other extravagant Victorian mansion. But look closer.
Upon first glance, Britain’s Witley Park in Surrey is just like any other extravagant mansion, but there’s much more to this Victorian masterpiece than meets the eye. From the secret underwater ballroom to dramatic suicide deaths, the story behind the man who built the mansion is surprisingly tragic. Shady entrepreneur James Whitaker Wright Long before J. Whitaker Wright built his sprawling mansion in England, he was just a bright-eyed son of a Methodist Minister. Wright was the eldest of five children, and one of his younger brothers actually went on to invent the reversible trolley pole, a device that emits electricity from a wire to the motor of a trolleybus.…
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From rites of passage to hipsters: The evolution of tattoos Whether it's a classic “MOM” on your arm or distinctions of class and social hierarchy, tattoos have always been around—and probably always will be.
From super glue to the Slinky: the odd stories behind 15 accidental inventions Necessity is the mother of invention, but this list proves that sometimes the best inventions are created by accident …or maybe fate?
8 world records in the field of penis achievement Get ready to question your manhood.
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Data breaches: it’s not just big business at risk Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that because they run a small company that isn’t very well-known, they are safe.
Data breaches, hacking, and cyberattacks are on the rise. It can often seem like there’s a new story every week about a big business that’s been victim to this type of attack. However, it’s not just the large companies that are at risk when it comes to cybercrime. In fact, small businesses tend to be even more attractive targets to hackers and cybercriminals because they do not believe it’s going to happen to them. Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that because they run a small company that isn’t very well-known, they are safe. Unfortunately, this leads to a lack of security and awareness in small businesses,…
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These are the haunting last words of doomed airplane pilots Black boxes record everything going on in the cockpits of crashing planes. These are the last words of their doomed pilots.
6 incredibly stupid cons that actually worked You are being hunted by polish priests and need to pay the CIA $160k to protect you. These are the cons that make Nigerian 419 scammers look like Ocean's Eleven.
How gambling and laziness led to the creation of the sandwich The tale of how a Georgian era British statesman became one of the first food influencers ever.
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The first documented vampire stalked his widow and was impervious to crosses In 1672 Jure Grando became the first real person to ever be described in history as a true vampire.
Vampires are usually associated with dark, foreboding castles in Transylvania; however, stories of the strigoi exist in other cultures as well. In fact, one of the most chilling tales comes from an Istrian town in a small European country known as modern-day Croatia. It is within this Balkan state that in 1672, Jure Grando became the first real person to ever be described in history as a true vampire. A small village The legend of Jure Grando begins in a small Croatian town called Kringa, where life was quiet and conventional. Grando was known to be somewhat of a nasty character, yet he did have a pleasant wife and lived…
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Guysmopolitan: 20 hilariously bad tips you would find in the male version of Cosmo You should probably just do the opposite of what Cosmo tells you whether it's cranking out dumb shit for men or women.
10 reasons Valentine’s Day is evil Just show this to your significant other and maybe you won’t have to buy them anything.
How to make body language your superpower and get hired for any job Body language is more important than spoken words. We explain the science + demonstrate a hypothetical job interview.
