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This 1950s science kit for kids came with real uranium What’s even better than a nice refreshing huff of DDT? Giving children uranium to play with to their heart's desire, of course.
Want to know what’s even better than a nice refreshing huff of DDT? Giving children uranium to play with to their heart’s desire. This may sound bizarre today, but in the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab science kit from the 1950s, it was a reality. Blame the uranium boom During the 1950s, the uranium boom was substantial. Since it helped the government construct nuclear weapons, they mined for that stuff like crazy, hardly considering the consequences for those who dug it up. But I mean, it powered some epic bombs, so what was the issue, right? The real problems started when the substance began to find its way into normal…
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Everything you never wanted to know about the giantess fetish Meet the giantesses who eat, smother and crush puny, little victims—and the men who worship them.
Where do Oscar winners keep their Oscars? A hen house? The refrigerator? One favorite spot: the bathroom, which is a bad idea (it rusts).
Five horror movies that were a nightmare for the actors Watching horror movies can cause nightmares. Sometimes, working on a horror movie set can do the exact same thing.
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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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It’s not gym or nothing: 10 scientific reasons you should just get outdoors, now Just because you don't need to go outside doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Everything you never wanted to know about the vore fetish Into the belly of the beast.
How to get girls (that are out of your league) on Twitter Ellis Cooper explains how to be a @reply hero and date out of your league on social networks.
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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 10 red flags that kill your chances with women Here's why that first date didn’t lead to a second.
From Hulk Hands to TMNT pudding pies: 10 unnecessary licensed toys Weird franchise toys and games that for some inexplicable reason were approved and licensed by their trademark owners.
The human wonders of America’s long lost sideshows The freak show lives on as reality shows, but the fantasy world dreamed up by PT Barnum lies as a relic in the depths of the American imagination.
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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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10 serial killers caught for the stupidest reasons If you're thinking of asking the task force trying to catch you if it's safe to send them the floppy disk you used to keep personal files on, read this first.
The stories behind the 15 most haunted places in America If you don’t believe in the supernatural, you may just start now.
The interview walk out—a video guide to storming out in style Nothing has the ability to make an interview more enduring in the minds of the public than it ending with the interviewee walking out.
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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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The devices that push battery life to the absolute limit The world is powered by aging battery technology. These are the devices that still manage to impress.
YouTube’s most demented science projects (top 15) The age of the lone inventor tinkering away in his own backyard is far from over—but this stuff is barely legal.
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.
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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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10 spectacular Darwin Awards of the medieval age The Darwin Awards are annual and don't concern themselves with historical (ig)noble sacrifices. Let's correct that injustice.
It’s not gym or nothing: 10 scientific reasons you should just get outdoors, now Just because you don't need to go outside doesn't mean you shouldn't.
10 freaky animals with real super powers Many superheroes are based on things found in nature—for a reason.
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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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20 sex truths every guy needs to know, according to Stifler’s mom We sat down with Jennifer Coolidge to bash out a definitive list of things we wish all guys knew about sex.
The world’s oldest jokes reveal we’ve always laughed at the same things The world's oldest known joke is from 1900 BC Sumeria and it's a fart joke.
These useful fast food hacks will save money and change your lunch forever Tested and true fast food hacks to enhance your dining experience.
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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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8 sweet little grandmas who committed serious crimes Grannies gone wild.
The hottest nazi exploitation movies of the 70s (NSFW) In less easily offended days, combining nazism with hot babes on the big screen was a license to print money.
Classical music cheat sheet: everything the modern man needs to know, in one sitting Become irresistibly cultured after just one afternoon of study with this 8-step cheat sheet you can't fail.
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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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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.
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.
11 short story collections that need to be in every bookshelf Ah, short stories — the lazy man’s novel. But so much harder to pull off.
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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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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.
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.
How to throw a punch (all 5 styles) There are many skills that every man should possess, but the most important one will always be how to punch someone.
