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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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How people used to download games from the radio Downloadable games are the format of the future, but they’re not a modern invention. Eager computer users were downloading wirelessly over 30 years ago.
A brief history of toilets Going to the bathroom used to be a lot weirder. And in some countries, it still is.
The quest to put our sleeping brain to work New study suggesting we can do basic processing and, perhaps, even math in our sleep, is a big step forward.
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The tragic story of a Victorian swindler and his spectacular underwater fantasy world Upon first glance, Britain's Witley Park in Surrey 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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The absolute worst foods you can buy at a dollar store You go to the dollar store for convenience, but these awful dollar store foods prove that sometimes the convenience and cost just isn't worth it.
The (many) lies pornographers tell Porn counting goes like this: 1, 2, 3, Gang, “INSERT FANTASY NUMBER HERE.” And basically everything else is a lie also.
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.
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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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63 things you didn’t know about Arnold Schwarzenegger Did you know his Nazi father favored his older son because he believed his wife had cuckolded him?
The gentleman’s guide to hacking Tinder We put the best experts in a room and distilled the essence into this thing.
10 worst superhero movies in history These make Batman v. Superman look like The Godfather.
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The most notorious insane asylums in history Gothic palaces of abuse and neglect that will send a chill down your spine.
Before 1844, the mentally ill were stashed away in prisons and the basements of public buildings. But in the middle of the 19th century, reformers like Dorothea Dix pushed to improve the standing of those with serious mental illness, an effort that led to the construction of sprawling psychiatric hospitals with names like the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers and the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Many of these new facilities were built under the Kirkbride Plan, an architectural guideline which ensured the maximum amount of privacy and comfort for the patients. However the concept of “building as treatment” soon fell out of favor, and most American mental asylums became overcrowded Gothic…
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52 Hertz: the mystery of the loneliest whale in the world Hydrophones are tracking a whale that doesn't sound or act like any other whale in the world.
Why pro wrestling is better than your “real sports” Wrestling. Isn’t. Fucking. Fake. What goes on on-screen is only part of the fun.
The (many) unsexy reasons you would never want to be a male porn star Getting paid to have sex on camera with hot girls is wildly overrated, and we’ll tell you why.
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10 lesser-known cryptid monsters that turned out to be hoaxes A lot of these are silly as heck, too. Don't get caught believin'.
You’re walking through the woods with some friends late at night when something scurries past you in the bushes. You quickly look around and see a shadow of a giant ape for a split second. The obvious conclusion is that you must have witnessed a cryptid. In reality, it was probably just someone’s lost dog. There are hundreds of reported cryptids and monsters, and many of them have been debunked thanks to the hard work of researchers and hobbyists. However, there was a time before the internet when people genuinely believed that there are a ton of secretive, pseudo-mythical creatures hiding out in the forests. I’m not going to rule…
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Those VHS tapes in your basement could be worth thousands of dollars You were right to keep them. Here's a list of the most valuable VHS tapes, and some tips for identifying antech treasures generally.
The mystery of Larry Wachowski Could the co-creator of The Matrix real life truly be stranger than fiction?
15 unintentionally offensive domain names (gone very sexual) All time classics in naming fails that have gone decidedly sexual.
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Cops share their creepiest paranormal encounters Cops have to deal with a lot of weird shit, and the paranormal—or what seems to be—is sometimes part of it.
Remember the viral video of a police chase ending up with the car disappearing into thin air? Watch this video on YouTube Cops have to deal with a lot of weird shit, and the paranormal – or what seems to be – is sometimes part of it. Here are the freakiest creepy stories and paranormal encounters put to print by former and current cops. The indian procession My dad used to work as a CO (corrections officer) at a rural prison. He drove perimeter, which just means he made circles around the jail in a truck, checking empty buildings for runaway inmates and just generally being bored for eight hours…
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The quest to put our sleeping brain to work New study suggesting we can do basic processing and, perhaps, even math in our sleep, is a big step forward.
Andrew Jackson’s 1400-pound block of cheese Jackson was a legend. And, at some point, he was gifted a humongous wheel of cheese. This is the story of that cheese,
6 mental ways to have sex like an ancient Roman Age-old inspiration to put chariots of fire in your loins and give your erection a new direction.
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Unraveling YouTube’s monkey torture network Psychopath network of monkey torture videos garners millions of views for years on end and nothing is being done about it. Jim investigates.
Warning: this investigation is SFW as long as you don’t click yourself into the rabbit hole, but it’s very media heavy. What compels someone to hate monkeys? To look at a picture of our little cousins and and wonder aloud with your friends how wonderful it would feel to crack their skulls open with a frying pan? YouTube is host to many diverse communities coming together to create, share, and comment on their particular thing. Furries shitting in their diapers or even men living in septic tanks – there’s always a video, always another user with your specific interest looking to connect. Out on the periphery, on the very edge…
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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.
5 scientific ways strangers can tell you’re gay (even if you’re in the closet) We don't endorse stereotypes unless they're funny or we have science on our side, and the data is in: the "gaydar" is anything but a myth.
10 celebrated scientific breakthroughs that turned out to be hoaxes Come with us on a journey into scientific iniquity as we spotlight bogus science in near and far history.
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Vampires have nothing on the sinister blood-drinking fairies who inspired them Long before Dracula ever hit the shelves, Scottish folklore painted the first image of a vampire-like creature and it was terrifying.
Ever wonder when the first imaginary, blood-sucking, bat-shifting creature stepped into the light? Believe it or not, it wasn’t in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight… but it also didn’t start with Dracula. So, where did the vampire originate? The cheesy modern day vampires These days, the vampire narrative is pretty worn out. Ever heard of a little heartthrob movie called Twilight? What about The (cuddly) Count on Sesame Street? Heck, even Hotel Transylvania turned a bruting vampire into a caring, overprotective dad with an agenda to ruin his daughter’s love life. Big whoop. So, what happened to the terrifying vampire tales of the past? Bram Stoker’s Dracula certainly jarred the world when it was first released, and inspired some fairly scary…
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Why pro wrestling is better than your “real sports” Wrestling. Isn’t. Fucking. Fake. What goes on on-screen is only part of the fun.
Survival chemistry: How to mix your own grooming supplies in the post-apocalypse Whip up some lifesaving grooming supplies that'll keep you looking and smelling as good as the store-bought stuff you left behind in the old world.
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.
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The dark origins of our favorite Disney stories The fairytales Disney based their classics on certainly weren't PG-13.
We grew up singing their songs, we cosplayed their outfits, and we took pictures with them in “Happiest Place on Earth.” But, what if there is more than just a “happily ever after?” Fairytales were usually written with a hidden truth or a moral lesson and over the years it’s been candied and reduced to a Walt Disney feature. Behind the veil of smiles, prince charming, and being a princess, there’s a darker truth that lingers in a fairy tale and we can say this much: no one is laughing at the end. Don’t believe me? Read on… Snow White Walt Disney’s empire was built on the back of his…
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6 baffling phenomena that have surprisingly simple medical explanations "Supernatural" mysteries can pass down generations after they’ve actually been solved, as is the case with the following six “unsolvable” mysteries.
The (many) unsexy reasons you would never want to be a male porn star Getting paid to have sex on camera with hot girls is wildly overrated, and we’ll tell you why.
Gates of Hell: The real places said to be entrances to the underworld Hell, Hades, Guinee—the names are different but they all describe an underworld that many believe can be accessed through real gateways.
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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.
Modern cities have rich histories that can date back millennia, and the source of that history lies right beneath the structures and streets that make their modern versions. Abandoned subway tunnels, secret compartments, and rivers run underneath the worlds sprawling metropolis’s, and when unearthed reveal secrets to the past that have been long forgotten. Seedy members of society have used subterranean realms to their advantage, while others used them as shelters while enemy armies laid siege. Many have been forgotten over time only to be rediscovered, and each tells a story of the city that resides on top. Paris, France Paris is another city that was founded by the Romans,…
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10 celebrated scientific breakthroughs that turned out to be hoaxes Come with us on a journey into scientific iniquity as we spotlight bogus science in near and far history.
10 absurd inventions that prove you should never drink while inventing These are all real inventions and the illustrations are taken directly from their official patents.
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.
