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The incredible technologies and inventions now lost to history Some may be nothing more than legends, while others are well documented or even surviving as unexplained curios to this day.
We tend to look back at ancient technologies with an air of superiority, but there are more than a few historical inventions and artifacts that reach beyond our understanding. Some may be nothing more than legends, while others are well documented or even surviving as unexplained curios to this day. Stradivarius violins Antonio Stradivari lived from 1644 to 1737. He was an Italian luthier and craftsman who we know as the most significant and greatest artisan in instrument-making history. Somewhere around 500 of his violins survive to this day and sell for tens of millions of dollars for their acoustic properties. The exact techniques and materials used to make his…
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How one man blew a 500k settlement on booze and prostitutes The story of how I got hit by a Dodge minivan and pissed away 500k on booze, whores, and designer furniture in an epic adventure.
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.
Struggles of a royal mistress: the women who went to any length to obtain their kings In order to have sex with a king, you had to be one accomplished mistress.
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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.
The Darwin Awards were created in the 1980s to honor those individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect humanity’s gene pool. That is, they died in such an extraordinarily idiotic manner that their deaths actually significantly raised the quality of the DNA passed on to the next generation – as per Charles Darwin’s theories on natural selection. But the Darwin Awards are annual, only concerning themselves with candidates who have expired within the last year. This leaves a vast array of figures throughout history who have gone unrecognized for their (ig)noble sacrifice. This hardly seems fair. Of course, there’s a lot of history to cover, so in the interests…
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15 most legendary Reddit threads of all time From a guy running the same Civ game for 10 years, to another guy borking his mother, we have something to suit your taste.
10 freaky animals with real super powers Many superheroes are based on things found in nature—for a reason.
10 cathartic ways to quit your shitty job (that people have actually pulled off) Sometimes your typical two weeks notice just won't do...
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10 great educational video games for history buffs Jokes about Battlefield's wokified WWI soldiers aside; for today's games, historical authenticity is a selling point. Learning has become fun.
You may have played those third-rate “edutainment” video games as a kid and developed a dislike for anything with the word educational in front of it. Educational video games for aspiring essay writers are often focused on reading comprehension (like Reader Rabbit) or simple math (like Number Munchers), and those games aren’t really that fun. The fare for adults is much better. Video games focused on history tend to involve deep strategic gameplay, and are even more enjoyable when you already have a little prior knowledge of the past (which we suppose you do). Many of them strive for historical authenticity – and of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s…
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6 ways social media is turning us into monsters All I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.
46 things I learned from being gulaged Varlam Shalamov spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 gulaged in the arctic cold of Kolyma. These are the 46 things he learned from the experience.
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.
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These ancient technologies were way ahead of their time Incredible artifact discoveries reveal many ancient cultures were capable of far more than previously thought.
People tend to think of ancient civilizations and their technologies as primitive, but while certainly not as impressive as our 2020 technology trends, it’s still incredible what they were able to do with the limited tools and resources available to them. Incredible artifact discoveries have shown that some of these cultures were way ahead of their time and capable of far more than previously thought. From ancient alarm clocks to an industrial revolution that almost happened thousands of years ago with the invention of steam power, here are 10 fascinating ancient technologies. The Lycurgus Cup, a 4th century Roman technicolor cup The beautiful Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass cup…
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10 of the most useless superpowers ever created Canonical, and downright silly.
The unending frustrations of a sex shop clerk Friendly advice from a dildo salesperson.
10 hilariously stupid products everyone knew would fail, and then they did Serious people in expensive suits looked at each other and agreed; we're gonna make baby food for adults and make a killing.
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Medieval gambling: high stakes games in the Middle Ages The folly of many, and suppressed whenever authorities felt the gentry were impoverishing themselves. It nevertheless flourished.
Just like today, people in the Middle Ages (5th to 15th century) liked to play games to pass the time. And where there’s games, there’s gambling. Gambling in the middle ages was of course a lot different from pointing your browser at King Casino and clicking yourself to victory on Jumanji video slot, but no matter what time period you’re from, backing games up with stakes will get your adrenaline pumping that much faster and our ancestors would have experienced the same thrill we do. Despite pushback from the church and law enforcement, gambling was an unrelenting force for people in all levels of society. Here are our top 10…
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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.
11 obscure kung fu movies you need to watch For every big-budget martial arts spectacular, there were dozens of cheaper films. But these are just as good as the hits.
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 most badass Latin phrases Latin's utility has long since faded, but there's still something inherently awesome about it.
There’s something delightfully pretentious about Latin. It is, despite what the classics majors will tell you, a very dead language. And yet its use alludes to an era that many in the West naturally revere — the Bronze Age. These days, Latin is, more often than not, relegated to legal terms or mottos. These have an air of permanence about them. And while Latin’s utility has long since faded, there’s still something inherently awesome about uttering a phrase in Latin. Here are some of our favorites. Ad astra per aspera “A rough road leads to the stars” Apollo 1 was the US first real disaster in the space program. Three…
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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.
Here are all the mentions of prostitutes in the leaked US diplomatic cables I sifted through WikiLeaks' dump of secret government cables for entries about sex work.
10 types of weirdos you’ll find in an adult bookstore There's something in an adult bookstore for everyone, right? Unfortunately.
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Struggles of a royal mistress: the women who went to any length to obtain their kings In order to have sex with a king, you had to be one accomplished mistress.
“Every woman was born with the ambition to become the King’s favorite,” wrote Primi Visconti, an Italian fortune-teller who lived at Louis XIV’s french court. And in this world of glittering ambition and mercurial passions, it seemed he was right. While princesses were bred to be proper and abiding, the mistresses of kings were edified on an entirely different level. Pandering to powerful men who were accustomed to having their egos and nether regions stroked regularly, the chosen lover or maîtresse-en-titre of the king had her work cut out for her. If prostitution is, in fact, the oldest profession in history, maintaining the position as the chief mistress of a monarch…
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10 movie villains who were actually the good guys Villains from throughout cinematic history who, on further examination, were definitely actually the good guys.
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.
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.
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A brief history of toilets Going to the bathroom used to be a lot weirder. And in some countries, it still is.
The next time you take a seat on your own private porcelain throne: be grateful. You have privacy, toilet paper, and the streets don’t reek of feces. Toilets have come a long way from their dirty, breezy, communal origins. Poop like an Egyptian The earliest humans in hunter-gatherer society would have just gone au naturale out in the woods. But once cities started becoming a thing, the elite needed to figure out a way to keep all that human waste out of their way. The ancient Egyptians were among the first to appoint designated pooping spots for the wealthy. They even concocted some of the world’s first toilet seats—these little…
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10 reasons to believe alien life really exists The mindboggling scale of the universe represents gazillions of lottery tickets for alien life, but here's the evidence and arguments so far.
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."
8 insane Tumblr moments that went down in history Tumblr was a hotbed of weirdos and insanity. Let's look at the stuff that made even its own userbase go WTF.
