In our relatively short occupation of Planet Earth, humanity has made spectacular technological leaps forward. Will 2020 be the year when we, at long last, make contact with an alien organism? No, probably not. Here's why.
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Odiferous underarms, moldy cheese feet, rancid roadkill and acrid eggs -- there's a lot of stank out there, and generally we want nothing to do with it. But now scientists have identified one of the stinkiest molecules of all as a sign of potential alien life.
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A woman in Jakarta has opened her home to more than 250 stray cats, which is wonderful news for the cats, but terrible news for her chances of ever smelling like anything other than ammonia again.
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In a big win for countless financially-strapped young adults across the nation, the University of Phoenix has agreed to cross out $141 million in student loan debt, reports NBC News.
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Emotional support animals have become a bit of a sticky subject. Recognizing how sticky things have become, an Arizona man set out to make them even stickier by registering the sweetest of all animals -- bees. The craziest part? It actually worked.
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In 2017, "Science Guy" Bill Nye joined the ant-Mickey Mouse Club and jointly filed a $28 million lawsuit against Disney. Per the LA Times, in December 2019, a court allowed the case to proceed. Here's why Nye wants to throw the book at Disney.
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On March 5th, 1953, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died in his country home near Kuntsevo. If you were looking for a satisfying explanation of the details surrounding his passing, that's as good a place as any to stop reading, because heads up, the rest of the story just sort of keeps getting weirder.
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One's the unhinged dictator of a dystopian nation. The other's a five-time NBA champion and possibly the secret love child of a tattoo gun and a rainbow. Together they're really confusing. Here's Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un's relationship explained.
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Ah, Warren Buffett. The CEO/Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. The "Oracle of Omaha." With a net worth of $89 billion (give or take a couple of billions, depending on the day), Forbes ranks him as the third richest man on the entire planet. Here's how much money Warren Buffett makes in a day.
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Home Alone 2: Lost in New York aired this month on the Canadian Broadcasting Company with one subtle omission. The CBC cut a scene involving fan-favorite featured extra Donald Trump, leaving audiences asking "Well now how am I going to see Donald Trump on TV?"
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Dan Bilzerian is mostly famous for his self-admittedly abrasive personality, opulent lifestyle, and a beard that looks like his chin caught lycanthropy. He's also quite rich. Bilzerian used to be a professional poker player, which has helped him grow a huge personal wealth. But is he any good?
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Bob Marley sang his life on stage and enriched the lives of millions. To quote Rolling Stone, "Marley wasn't singing about how peace could come easily to the world but rather about how hell on earth comes too easily to too many." Here's the truth about his death.
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Donnie Yen's name might not quite make the list of martial arts actors everyone automatically knows about, like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. However, that's simply because the world hasn't been paying attention. Here's how much Donnie Yen is actually worth.
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There are few more dramatic moments than beloved characters dying before our eyes. The awesome TV series that kept us riveted throughout the 2010s often employed the device of making us wonder just which bucket would be kicked. Here are the TV deaths from the past decade we're still mourning.
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If you've ever seen a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig, you might have wondered why Will Ferrell is sitting behind the drums. The RHCP drummer Chad Smith and comedy legend Ferrell share an uncanny resemblance. Are Ferrell and Smith related? Identical twins? Here's the story behind their relationship.
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Roger Ebert was a national treasure, and his death in 2013 left a smoking crater in the world of film criticism. Roger Ebert genuinely loved movies, and seemed to take bad filmmaking as a personal affront. Here are Roger Ebert's most hardcore disses and most brutal movie reviews of all time.
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The Purge is kind of a goofy concept, but hey, enough of the movie-watching public has bought into the concept (in movie form, at least) that we're several movies and a TV series deep. But c'mon ... let's use our brains here. Here are dumb things in the Purge movies people just ignored.
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He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. We're talking of course, about the Elf on the Shelf, the most thinly veiled wolf in sheep's clothing that money can buy. But Elf on the Shelf breaks rules too, in ways only adults will understand. Here's proof.
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Regardless of your opinion about billionaires in general, you could probably find plenty worse than business magnate and Berkshire Hathaway big dog Warren Buffett, who has promised to give away over 99% of his fortune. How much, would you think, he'd have to give away every day to achieve this?
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The time: 75 million years ago. The setting: outer space. According to Hubbard, Xenu was troubled by the potentially disastrous levels of overpopulation in his interstellar kingdom. Here's the truth about this totally real, not made up dude.
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Warren Buffett is not someone you'd call poor. The Berkshire Hathaway chief's fortune of over $87 billion qualifies him as the third wealthiest man in the world. Can you imagine the house a man of such wealth must live in? Let's take a look at what must be the luxurious dwelling of Warren Buffett.
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The four hundred dollars you spent renting a party bus on a whim is a drop in the water compared to the absolutely gargantuan one day loss suffered by one of the richest men in history. It's all about perspective. Mention that to your landlord when you ask for an extension on this month's rent.
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It's a common fantasy: If you suddenly became rich, what would be the first thing you'd buy? Even someone like Bill Gates, who now has more money than some countries, once wrestled with that particular situation. What was the first thing he bought when he got rich?
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Kanye West has been at the "super into religion" stage of his career for a while now, and it looks like we're well past the stage where Sunday church and scripture are enough to tickle Yeezy's fancy. Now, it's all about silver robes, face paint and nativity scenes. In an opera. On a boat.
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Maurizio Cattelan's $120,000 installation called "Comedian" was literally just an ordinary banana duct taped to a wall. It's not the most bizarre thing found in a museum, but it's up there. One day, some guy just walked up and ate the delicious, delicious wall banana. And he's not sorry about it.
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One of the biggest stops for celebrities who are promoting a new project is the talk show circuit. Sometimes, though, TV interviews with famous people go horribly off the rails. Celebrities have bad days at work too, but they have them on camera. Here are some celebs who lost it in TV interviews.
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Figuring out what is and isn't appropriate for TV is tricky, as standards change all the time. Still, sometimes audiences themselves decide a show went too far.
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Christmas seems to start earlier each year, meaning everyone needs to suddenly figure out what they want for Christmas. This task is usually very easy for children, who can come up with some truly impressive, budget-stretching lists that seem designed to give their parents a financial heart attack.
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"Be good, you must, or else under the tree presents from Santa there will not be." That's what Yoda would say. But perhaps Yoda could use a lesson from the dark side of American consumer culture, because his newly popularized brethren, Baby Yoda, will miss out on the Christmas shopping season.
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Ah, Bill Gates! A perennial presence near the top of the Forbes list of billionaires, the co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, a prolific investor, and the co-founder of some small company called Microsoft. Say, how many billions do you think each of his children will inherit?
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It can be hard to remember what the martial arts movie scene was like before Jet Li came along, but here's a question: What, exactly, has this long and novel career path paid? Is Li merely comfortably wealthy, or could his peculiar profession have made him downright rich? Let's find out!
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Jackie Chan is one of the world's most famous and long-tenured martial arts superstars and, for that matter, actors in general. According to his IMDb page, the venerable Kung Fu movie star made his debut in 1963, and now holds over 140 acting credits. How much money does Jackie Chan actually have?
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It's pretty safe to say that no single person is ever going to own every single piece of currency that exists on planet Earth. Still, for the sake of conversation, let's assume it's possible. How rich would a person be if they owned all the money that exists in the world?
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Try to find any actual biographical info on Chuck Norris, and you will soon find yourself swallowed up by the remnants of 2004's most poppin' fresh comedy stylings. But just who trained him?
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Every year we're bombarded with lists about the richest billionaires in the world, as the world waits with bated breath to see whether the number one spot is occupied by Unfathomably Rich Guy One or Unfathomably Rich Guy Two. But have you ever wondered what the richest family in the world is?
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It is with great sorrow that we inform you of the passing of Lil Bub, the very good kitty who took the cultural landscape by storm with her adorable Steve Buscemi eyes and perpetually stuck out tongue.
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Back in the old days, before the railroad came through town, the internet was a wild and untamed place. It wasn't like it is today, all civilized and proper. But where did it all begin? Have a seat on the porch, young buck, and we'll tell you the tale of the first thing ever sold online.
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Despite what you might have learned in history class, Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone, but he was the mind behind some legitimately impressive inventions -- just not the one he's most famous for. Here's his greatest invention you probably didn't know about.
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In "How a Fart Killed 10,000 People," famed philosopher Pythagoras abstained from eating beans because he worried a person might "fart out" their soul while breaking wind. Back in the days when people took toots seriously, farting could indeed mean you were about to breathe your last breath.
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All told, Erik Weisz had a life that seemed better suited for golden age comic books than the real world. He left his home at a young age and reinvented himself in America, eventually taking on the colorful pseudonym Harry Houdini, as if he were a superhero. So how does a superhero die?
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Christopher Columbus believed that Cuba was mainland China and thought Hispaniola was possibly Japan. He also thought that somewhere in the vicinity of Venezuela was the Garden of Eden, which Columbus referred to as "the nipple of the world." He likely believed these things when he died in 1506.
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Queen Victoria wore black for 40 straight years after her first cousin and only husband, Prince Albert, died at the age of 42. They enjoyed "an extraordinarily happy marriage" per Biography. Here's the truth about Prince Albert's death.
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When French emperor turned exile Napoleon Bonaparte turned into a corpse in 1821, his doctor apparently thought it would do no harm to take an anatomical souvenir, in the form of his "Little Napoleon." But bigger questions remain... How did Napoleon die in the first place?
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Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch gentleman living in France with a lot of feelings, liked a girl very much... enough to cut his ear off like a slice of gushing honeydew. He then had the disembodied ear sent to his lady love in history's first recorded case of a man offering unreciprocated aural.
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Mozart died at just 35 years of age. His physicians blamed a "severe military fever," per the BBC. There was no autopsy. Ever since, theories -- conspiracy and otherwise have swirled. But what really killed him?
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Few armed forces have a more Orwellian origin story than the People's Liberation Army of China. Initially known as the Red Army, it first served under communist dictator Mao Zedong and mostly consisted of "poorly armed but fanatical peasants." Here's what happens if you quit the Chinese military.
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Chances are if you just searched "Mediterranean booty" or "Roman jugs," you weren't expecting to read about one of the largest Roman shipwrecks ever discovered. But much like the discovery itself, it's a story worth diving into and exploring.
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Outlaw Jesse James attained a folkloric air through a series of brutal robberies and gunfights across the midwest. But there's a bullet out there for every cop killing racist bandit from the 1800s, and James found his on April 3rd, 1882, when it came out of the front of his face.
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Every name has a meaning, no matter how silly it might be, and dog names — while certainly a lot more fun and varied than human ones — are no exception. Here are the meanings behind the most popular dog names.
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When you're Leonardo da Vinci and one of your inventions is a helicopter, it seems strange that your most enduring creation is a tiny painting. Then again, Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous artwork in history, so maybe he isn't spinning in his grave. The thing is, who exactly is Mona Lisa?
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Cornered, outgunned, wounded, and hopeless, it seems likely that two of the last legends of the Old West -- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- refused to be taken alive, opting instead to die on their own terms. Or did they?
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Twenty people -- that's how many were executed in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Nineteen of them were hanged, per Famous Trials, and the other "was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges." Here's the real reason the Salem Witch Trials happened.
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While there will never be another Beethoven, a group of musicologists and programmers has been training artificial intelligence to complete his unfinished tenth symphony.
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There's another painting that looks an awful lot like the Mona Lisa residing in the Louvre. It's known as the 'Isleworth Mona Lisa' to some, and 'Earlier Mona Lisa' to others -- and some experts think that it might be da Vinci's early attempt at what would become the most famous painting in history.
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As Macedonia's king and a consummate world-beater, Alexander the Great portrayed himself as an "invincible god," according to Livius, though he might not have believed it himself. Here's how Alexander the Great really died.
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World War II combined the height of human ingenuity with the lowest point of human nature. The Allied forces showed a MacGyver-like inventiveness in their attempts to outfox the Axis Powers. In one the craziest operations of all, British spies devised exploding rodents to sabotage Nazi factories.
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In the oft-mythologized world of Wild West gunslingers, it's not the size of the dog in the gunfight; it's the size of the gunfight in the dog. And in the pantheon of pistol-packing legends, Johnny Ringo is remembered as a pack leader. Here's the truth about Johnny Ringo's death.
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Mary I of England wasn't a perfect person, especially in the eyes of those who dubbed her "Bloody Mary." Here's how Bloody Mary really got her name, and why we now have a tomato-vodka breakfast beverage based on her life.
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Have you driven a Ford lately? If so, what color was it? If you listened to Henry Ford's sage advice, you'd always bet on black. And that might be sound advice, because Henry Ford made a lot of money. Here's how much he'd be worth today.
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If a person's existence is a sentence, could it not be said that it would be incomplete without a punctuation mark at the end? How did the life of the gambler, gunfighter, and legend in his own time, Wyatt Earp, come to a close?
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Russia has its own ridiculous set of rules and laws that most in the West would hate. There, people are struggling to make it in a world where everything from their memes to their underwear are liable to land them in the slammer. Here are some strict rules all Russian citizens have to follow.
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At some point, we've all stared at the ceiling and thought to ourselves "I wonder how fast cars can go?" The answer, of course, depends on the car, and what your definition of "car" is. The point is, the world's fastest car is less of a car and more what you'd call a space shuttle on wheels.
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Between 2009 and 2018, Amazon paid a whopping 3 percent tax rate on its many, many billions of dollars in profits. Obviously, Amazon won't go broke making billions and paying virtually nothing. But how much would you have to tax Bezos each day to take all his money away in a year?
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Scandinavia's been getting a lot of attention lately. Sweden's got Greta Thunberg staring daggers of ice into anyone alive when PacMan was invented, Norway's got Olaf from Frozen, and Finland? Well, now they've got themselves the world's youngest prime minister.
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Long before Michel Foucault learned that "knowledge is power," Nikola Tesla brilliantly illustrated that genius is AC power. Tesla had a goldmine sitting between his ears, and his fruitful mind produced world-changing inventions. But sometimes the world makes no sense, and Tesla died penniless.
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Prior to the Rumble in the Jungle Muhammad Ali taunted Foreman mercilessly. Even the fans chanted, "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him"). That mugging marked the end of Foreman's undefeated streak and start of an unbeatable friendship.
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Old West narratives aren't just full of plot holes and mysteries; they're also riddled with bullet holes. Some of those bullets were fired by the fastest gunslingers ever to bust a cap. Here's the fastest gunslinger in the West.
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This holiday season, while you're playing with your freshly unwrapped drone or whatever radio operated doodads the youths are fiddling with these days, don't thank your parents or your spouse. Thank the electrifying genius Nikola Tesla. Here's Tesla's greatest invention you didn't know about.
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It's a constant of the universe that we, as individuals, have a difficult time reconciling our current selves with the people we used to be. But what about those who've achieved greatness? No, turns out they can self loathe with the worst of us. At least, that's how Bill Gates feels.
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The US already has a national anthem, but its de facto theme music might just be the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money," a song whose intro consists of the word 'money' sung over and over. It captures the ravenous passion for cash that shapes America's character. But just how much money is in the US?
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The Abraham Lincoln Brigade writes that one of the least-explored aspects of the Spanish Civil War was the "deliberate and systematic persecution of women" perpetrated by Franco's forces. What was life really like for those women?
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Diamonds are not really worth much. Yet some of these not-so-precious gems can sell for tens of millions of dollars. So before revealing the most expensive diamond in the world: What makes a clump of old carbon worth more money than most people could earn in several lifetimes?
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"True Egyptian pharaoh? Is that like a true Scotsman?" If you take it to mean "of or relating to Egypt," then Cleopatra clearly counts as the last true pharaoh. However, if you interpret it in terms of native-born Egyptian pharaohs, then the last was actually Nectanebo II.
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Some of the tools and contraptions you have used every day have been around longer than your great-great-great-grandparents. The ancients had some ideas so perfect that even now, nobody has thought of a better way to do it. Here are ancient inventions you didn't realize we still use today.
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Nobody asked for these inventions, but they got made anyway.That's the beauty of them. The best inventions are ones we didn't even know we needed. It's a fine line, though, and these inventions missed the boat on the "need" part. Here are inventions from this past decade that nobody asked for.
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Have you ever solved a Rubik's cube? If not, it's okay, you're not alone. Want to know another genius who had a rough time figuring the damn thing out? Well, amusingly enough, the dude who invented it.
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In 2018, the AV Club published the scrumptious headline, "The young Pope John XII died as he lived: Fornicating." It simultaneously raises eyebrows and stokes lowbrow thoughts, thoughts that might normally make a pious man feel guilty as sin. Luckily, it's hard to sin as much as Pope John XII.
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It's easy to forget that many saints were flesh and blood people. And sometimes, they faced real dangers when it came to their faith. And sometimes, they were the dangers. From horrific martyrdoms to bizarre lifestyle choices, here's the messed up and tragic truth about these Christian saints.
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Were restrictions on killing even more lax before written laws existed? Maybe, but without an ancient Ice-T to shed light on the subject, we can only take a stab in the dark and hope not to kill anyone in the process. With that potential alibi in mind, here's the world's oldest unsolved "murder."
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Sometimes a musician's downfall can be traced back to a single, catastrophic incident that burns all of their bridges at once.
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France is an amazing nation, known for everything from world-class cheeses to Napoleon. Werewolves, though? Believe it or not, the late 1700s were a surprisingly scary time to be a French peasant, primarily because an allegedly supernatural creature terrorized hundreds of people.
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If a tree lands in the forest, but no one is around to hear it, does it make noise? That answer might depend on how upset the tree was about falling. In 2019, Live Science reported that at least some species of plant seem to release "scream[s]" at frequencies humans can't hear when under stress.
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In a big win for fans of real world Michael Crichton novels, Chinese scientists have reportedly created living pig-monkey chimeras.
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Who knows why you're hellbent on nabbing the world's biggest flower? Maybe you need to apologize to your significant other for making the world's biggest mistake. But here it is. Meet Rafflesia arnoldii, heavyweight champion of the world of flowers.
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Donald Trump spends his money in weird ways. He boasted a plane with 24-karat gold-plated seat belts and gold-plated bathroom fixtures. He resided in a penthouse with a gold and diamond-encrusted front door. And more. Here are some of the most bizarre things Donald Trump has ever owned.
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It's happening, folks. After years of speculation, corruption scandals, legal proceedings, and accusations, finally leading to 2019's whole Ukraine incident, President Donald Trump is getting impeached. But he's not the first. Here's how many US presidents have been impeached.
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It's difficult to know exactly why, but in recent days, the question has been raised: can the president of the United States extend a presidential pardon to himself? Maybe it's a societal innocent curiosity, or because Mercury is stuck in retrograde.
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In America, we've been taught to treat our milk like we treat our reading assignments: we opt for the skim instead of the whole. But according to a new study, that logic needs to be taken out to pasture, because it looks like drinking whole milk is less likely to make you fat.
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The Vikings were one of the world's most successful groups of explorers and conquerors, creating an empire that stretched across much of the world. They had a rich mythology, represented in the symbols that would adorn their weapons, boats, jewelry and more. Here are their meanings.
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If you've seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, you may have come away thinking that King John wasn't such an awful guy. Well, sometimes the truth hurts. And for all you King John apologists out there, the truth will cut your heart out like a spoon. Here's the messed up truth about this subpar king.
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Amazon's forthcoming The Lord of the Rings TV Series is seeking "'hairy hairy people" with 'wrinkles and lots of them please' to play orcs in the new show," according to the Independent.
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Pandas don't do much. At this point, they seem like a natural first choice for next year's fad superfood. Or they did, until Liu Xiaodong helped them pull themselves up by their bootstraps. How? He started harvesting their feces and turning it into stationery.
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King George III will likely be remembered by this generation for chewing scenery during Hamilton and as the guy who had to go home after work one day and say "honey, I lost America." Here's the truth about the madness of King George III.
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For 45 years, Queen Elizabeth I reigned over the British empire. Over the course of her life, the last monarch of the house of Tudor survived numerous attempts at assassination. What ill fate befell the woman who, statistically speaking, is responsible for like 20% of Judy Dench's paychecks?
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Some say we're living in a golden age of political corruption, but the truth is that Congress has always been a bit corrupt. If there's a law, chances are a lawmaker has broken it. Just because you're the ones responsible for making the rules doesn't mean you have to like them.
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Every army needs a good mascot. During World War II, Polish soldiers had a cigarette-smoking, beer-chugging brown bear named Wojtek. And despite the smoking, he was a breath of fresh air.
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Almost everybody loves coffee. You probably drank coffee when you first woke up this morning, and there's a decent chance that you're sipping on some right now. Human beings didn't evolve with coffee beans in their mouths, however. So when did people first start drinking coffee?
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The internet is ablaze with rumors that one of the world's most iconic tokens of toking, Willie Nelson, quit smoking weed. For a society increasingly enamored with the emerald cabbage of jazz, this was devastating news. After all, Nelson penned the classic "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die."
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Back in 1992, as most people tell it, a woman ordered a hot coffee at McDonald's, spilled it, and suffered some minor burns — only to turn around, sue the popular chain restaurant, and get rich. In reality? That is the version of the story that the McDonald's PR team has taught you.
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Who doesn't like puffins? Just look at the picture, they're adorable. And if for some reason you don't find them cute, the Telegraph reports that Gordon Ramsay thinks they're also quite delicious. But they're talents don't end there. Apparently these seabirds know how to use tools!
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What, one may ask, is the dumbest animal in the world? What beast possesses so little intelligence as to be considered meat with a fart for a brain? Where do we go when we, the apex of natural evolution, want to dunk on the total dip of the animal kingdom?
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The human brain: the command center of the body. It tells your meat bits where to go, when to breathe, and whether or not to pump blood all around its insides. But do we really need it? What if you could scoop the old gray matter out and be done with it? How long can a human survive without a brain?
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It's good to know just which particular feline superpower your precious kitten will employ when cats will inevitably rise against us. For instance, which cat breed can you never, ever run away from? Which cat breed is most like the cheetah?
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If you're into stargazing, you might have noticed that the famous wintertime constellation, Orion the Hunter, is acting weird. This is because one of its stars, Alpha Orionis -- which you may know better as Betelgeuse -- is fading. It may be gearing up to go supernova, meaning it may soon explode.
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Anyone who has ever watched Law & Order will tell you the best way to catch criminals is to look for fingerprints. Everywhere you go, everything you touch gets the full impact on those funky little spirals on each fingertip. But why do we have fingerprints in the first place?
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The world revolves around the sun, and the sun knows exactly how to rock its way out of the 2010s in style. That's why on December 26th, the sun pulled off one final performance -- dubbed by many as a "ring of fire" solar eclipse, for its unique appearance, it amazed crowds throughout Asia.
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It sounds like a scene from a Ghostbusters movie. Liquid evil oozes onto the highway of a gritty city, endangering residents and throwing the area into disarray. Unfortunately, instead of playing in theaters, it played out in real life.
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The economy and industry ministry of Japan this week proposed that the radioactive water accumulating at the Fukushima nuclear plant be released into the sea or evaporated and allowed to fly free like a beautiful carcinogenic bird, according to the Associated Press.
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For ages, men have had it hammered into their skulls that physical strength is integral to their identity. Nowadays, men wrestle with pickle jars just to get them open. Even so, some men lament their comparative lack of strength. But just how strong is the average man?
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In 1689, Johann Weikhard von Valvasor went to press with astonishing news: he'd found baby dragons in Slovenia. Von Valvasor was describing an olm, a species of highly specialized salamanders which live in the cave formations in Eastern Europe. And friend, they're weird to the bone.
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We live in an age of role reversals, where traditional domestic and workplace norms are rapidly shifting to accommodate cultural changes. Now we may also be living in an age of rapid pole reversals -- because scientists are reporting the Earth's magnetic poles are shifting faster than ever, via MNN.
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One spider that doesn't seem to freak out arachnophobes is the daddy long-legs. Who couldn't love a critter with a cute name like that? Big Daddy! Despite their towering, spindly legs, there's something about them that's less creepy-crawly than an ordinary spider. Because they aren't spiders at all.
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A high-end copy machine nowadays can produce prints with as many as 9600 by 600 dots per inch. With that caliber of printing prowess you might ask yourself "why don't I buy a ream of mint green stationery, shove a few sawbucks in the Xerox, and photocopy me some money?" Read what happens first.
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Cats are notoriously hard to train, so weight training is almost certainly out of the question in most cases. Of course, you could just give your cat steroids. But if your cat nips that idea in the bud, your last resort is to find a member of the strongest cat breed.
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There are disturbing stories of people whose whole lives were upended by their visual similarity to a criminal. Setting aside the notion of a doppelganger who transforms your life into a psychological thriller, is there likely to be someone out there you could confuse with a mirror image?
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You've probably heard that every year, you swallow multiple spiders in your sleep. Is it true? And if so, why would large spiders be dumb enough to wander into your gaping mouth, as you snore? And, on the most important note of all, how many of these buggers do you swallow in a given year?
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Even the grizzliest, angriest dude you know used to be an adorable little toddler, and the Tyrannosaurus was no exception. In fact, a 2019 exhibit shown at the American Museum of Natural History (or AMNH), in New York City, proves it. Here's what a baby T-Rex really looked like.
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We humans have a tendency to not clean up after ourselves. But some do. Right up there with the best of them is the European Space Agency, which Space.com says is launching a 'suicide robot' to help rid the Earth's orbit of decades of accumulated space junk.
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America spends more on military affairs than China, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and Germany ... combined. Some of that spending is absolutely necessary, there's one thing that we can name that seems a bit excessive -- a missile packed with swords, called a "Ninja Bomb."
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If cats act like dogs, and dogs act like cats, then maybe their distinguishing behavioral traits aren't quite as distinctive as people think. Here's the canine most likely to get catty with you.
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It seems that some chickens -- no matter how kind you are to them -- just can't be saved from their own anger. So the best you can do is just save yourself from them. So what chicken breeds is most likely to reenact a Hitchcock film? Which chicken breed is the most aggressive in the world?
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Have you ever looked at your cutie patootie kitty -- or any kitty for that matter -- and wished with all your heart and soul that it would shut the fluff up? Here's the quietest cat breed in the world.
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The most poisonous fish in the world has developed the ability to camouflage itself seamlessly amidst the coral and rocks of the ocean floor. When hunting, it can strike and kill its prey in a fraction of a second. It is also, scientifically speaking, more venomous than Reptile from Mortal Kombat.
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So the common knowledge goes like this: a dog ages seven years for every one year they're gracing us with their presence. Maybe it's our fault for being so difficult to live with, but who's to say? Are dog years real or full of balogna?
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The Tennessee Aquarium wishes everyone 'Zappy Holidays' after installing an exhibit in which Miguel Wattson, the aquarium's prize electric eel, is used to light up a decorative Christmas tree displayed right outside his tank.
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French fries are far from the healthiest way to eat a potato, but they might be the tastiest. If you're an American who loves fries, though, it looks like 2020 won't be your favorite year. Maybe. The problem, once again, is climate-related. Here's why America may suffer from a french fry shortage.
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First things first: if you're studying up on different dog breeds, it can be difficult to get a straight answer on which one is, broadly speaking, the least intelligent. But there is a clear winner for 'dumbest dog breed in the world.'
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Most hedgehogs can fit in an adult's hand. Their average measurements vary by species, but the biggest reach about a foot in length. Some hedgehogs are so small that Sonic could crush one while running at the speed of sound without even noticing his tragic misstep. Which breed is the smallest?
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Scientists have priorities -- they study what they believe to be most likely to have a lasting impact on humanity. Which is why a SpaceX rocket set to launch Wednesday, Dec. 4 is carrying experiments on beer brewing, mouse muscle decay, and "fire behavior" to the International Space Station.
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Humans naturally categorize things. How many cat breeds are there in the world?
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Sloths are the adorable embodiment of one of the seven deadly sins, suggesting that when these slow-moving cuties die they go straight to hell, giving a whole new meaning to the term 'slow burn'. We kid. Here's why sloths are so slow.
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In a stunning upset, the U.N. has reported that, for the seventh straight year, the happiest place on Earth has an astonishingly low giant-anthropomorphic-mouse-to-human ratio. But the problem with bipedal man-rats is that you never know how many of them are in your area until it's too late.
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There's a reason astronauts use space suits: Given half a chance, space will kill you stone dead. It's a freezing void that isn't prepared to lift a finger to support human life, and exposure to it is pretty much an instant death sentence. Just how long can a human survive in space?
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For all the comic book collectors and mint-condition militants, here's a story of hope. It is the story of a man holding on to a rock for years, hoping it would contain gold, only to learn it was a priceless meteorite.
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Scientists have just found a mineral in a meteorite never before seen in nature, according to CNN. Here's the story of a little mineral called Edscottite.
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One day while you're ordering your latte while swiping left on Tinder hopefuls, you'll feel the earth tremble beneath your feet as a massive asteroid collides with our planet. Now, NASA and the European Space Agency have teamed up to practice smashing these potential planet-wrecking asteroids.
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Good news for fans of all-consuming nothingness today as scientists at the Chinese Academy of Scientists have discovered a black hole so massive that, in the grand scheme of things, it's technically right behind you.
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The world loves a good butt-kicker, especially when that person also excels at butt-punching. In the annals of fist-to-butt combat there have been startlingly hard hitters, guys who seem liable to cave in your cheeks if you're unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. Who's got the strongest punch?
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In 1984, a 42-year-old Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, according to The Guardian. By then, he no longer floated like a butterfly. But the sting felt by seeing him in his later years was lessened by the fact of his success. Here's how much he was worth when he died.
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George Foreman, who packed "one of the most powerful right hands in boxing history," had zero desire to have Mike Tyson all up in his grill. "I call him Mike 'Nightmare' Tyson," said Foreman. "I didn't want to have anything to do with that guy." How powerful was Iron Mike's punch?
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Football. The sweet science. America's pastime. The long awaited answer to the question "how hard do you think we could get those big guys to run into each other?" For decades, American football players were paid on a low, per-game basis, but that's all changed. Who's the highest paid player now?
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The UFC was purchased in 2016 for $4.025 billion, and if you believe the UFC president Dana White, its value has only gone up: In 2018, White stated it was worth no less than $7 billion. With that kind of money floating around, it makes sense that White is also making himself a pretty penny, right?
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Freediving is a competitive sport with different variations on the theme of going dangerously deep underwater without oxygen. "No limits" freediving is the discipline where the record for the deepest free dive ever done by a human was set, and boy was it deep.
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Paige was the WWE's "Anti-Diva:" A pale, skinny goth girl whose rocker garb and unassuming attitude challenged the company's long-standing tradition of buxom, glittery female wrestlers who looked like cheerleaders. What made Paige quit her sport? What made her retire from the WWE?
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Put on your helmet and get ready for some football as we explain the longest suspensions in the NFL - a league that forgives but never forgets.
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Trying to imagine a fight between Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson is kind of like asking, "What would happen if a lightning-fast Dr. Seuss got into a fistfight with an incredibly dexterous Rottweiler?" Who would have won a trash talk war between these two?
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When you watch pro wrestling as a kid, every performer seems immortal, 1991 saw the Undertaker undefeated. No one realized it at the time, but that streak would eventually bring an end to Shawn Michaels' career. Here's the real reason he retired.
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WWE superstar Paige retired from the WWE ring in 2018 because her neck had taken too much punishment to continue her occupation. Never one to be underrated, the WWE star is still very much a name on everyone's lips. Let's take a look at what Paige has been doing since retiring from wrestling.
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At this point, it's probably safe to say that everybody knows Andre the Giant. He was larger than life, but that complicates the task of putting Andre's life into definable terms. How many of the esteemed strong man's feats were an act, and how much was actual, almost supernatural physical strength?
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Whether you think Vince McMahon has the Midas Touch or the Merde Tush, he makes dump trucks of money. In other words, Vince McMahon earns more than enough money each year to tell any wrestler to kiss his green backside.
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Professional wrestling, also known as "the sport of kings," has seen dozens of iconic performers come and go over the years. Sting didn't make the jump to WWE until the 2010s, wrestling in the 2015 Night of Champions event before promptly announcing his retirement the next year. So what happened?
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Russia has a bit of a reputation for making questionable decisions in order to further its interests. It might not be a surprise that the "World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has imposed a four-year ban on Russia from all global sport, including the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 World Cup finals."
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On November 21st, 2019, a man approached the home of 82-year old Rochester resident Willie Murphy, claiming that he needed an ambulance. When Murphy called first responders without opening the door, the man reportedly forced his way into the house. And that is when things got real.
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Woooo! Ric Flair is a true legend of professional wrestling, and a true "stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' and dealin' son of a gun." So how much money does the master of the Figure Four Leglock really have? Does he have any at all?
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It's easy to forget that Li didn't just pop into existence as a fully formed, super-talented martial artist. His considerable skills are the result of countless hours of practice and rigorous training. But who exactly taught him all those fancy moves? Who trained Jet Li?
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Frogs don't exactly scream death. So a little frog that looks liable to choke on a gnat probably wouldn't instill fear.
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There is a seemingly endless panoply of animals that could absolutely kill you if they felt so inclined. And in case you thought armored slugs weren't on that list, you've got another thing coming: snails can kill you. Here's the most dangerous snail in the world.
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Morgan Seth Earp was a bonafide frontier man of mystery. A lot of his life is poorly documented, but the rumors and conjecture make him sound like a wild dude. But he's mostly remembered as Earp who died with the biggest bullet hole in his body. Here's the tragic truth of Morgan Earp's death.
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As you may have noticed, the 2010s have been particularly rough for celebrities when it came to staying alive, and chances are at least one famous face you used to look up to has suffered an untimely, tragic death. Let's take a look at the most tragic celebrity deaths of the past decade.
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The atlas moth is sort of the Andre the Giant of the moth community. It's a remarkable species with a wingspan that can reach nearly thirty centimeters, or large enough to make anyone shudder when imagining what it would feel like to have one crawl across their face. Here is its tragic life's tale.
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The DeBarges are a big family. The musical group's biggest success was the 1985 hit "Rhythm of the Night," but the personal lives of the DeBarges have been defined by discord. Between their struggles with addiction, crime, and drama, the DeBarges have lived tragic lives.
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Who were these mysterious Swedes? What made their hit-writing pen so unfathomably sharp? And what have they been up to since they stopped ruling the airwaves? There's only one way to find out. Let's take a look at the untold truth of Roxette.
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One of the richest people on the planet, Michael Bloomberg has a strange and controversial past. From his business background to his presidential aspirations, here's the untold truth about the billionaire's life.
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Ever since its launch (which went a bit wrong) the Cybertruck has seized the world's attention. Between the fun name, the size, the power, and the look, this is a vehicle that would seem more at home in a science fiction movie than real life. Here's the untold truth of the Tesla Cybertruck.
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The world is full of grueling, unusual sports. But if you're looking for an intense sport that isn't too cheesy and won't get your goat, then World Chase Tag is it.
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Years of marketing by Big Dairy have calcified the idea that when you've got milk, it does your body good. But that wasn't the case for Rose, a pregnant sheep who needed a bra for her saggy udders. Luckily, a wily vet had a secret weapon. Some might even call it a Victoria's Secret weapon.
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ToTok might sound like a TikTok rip-off or a watch that's been ripped in half. But tech giants Google and Apple removed the app from their respective Play and App stores after concerns were raised about what Abu Dhabi might be finding out about ToTok users. Here's why.
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A tortoise is not the most likely animal to survive a house fire, especially when it has played an active part at setting said house on fire. Yet, the Independent reports that such a miracle took place in Essex, Great Britain -- appropriately enough, on Christmas Day.
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If you think ordinary flights are too pricey, you won't want to know how ludicrously high the most expensive flight in the world is. Or maybe you do? In which case, meet "The Residence" by Etihad Airways. This airline offers the most expensive airplane ticket in the world.
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Schadenfreude is watching a filmmaker fail spectacularly at crafting a movie they thought was just the best. The result is often unintentional comedy gold.
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In 2019 alone, the California Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of 71 new species. Some of these animals have insane abilities, some are masters of disguise, while others are just plain weirdos. Here are the most bizarre creatures discovered in 2019.
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Everyone knows Windows XP is the pinnacle of Bill Gates' operating systems. It all just worked. Perhaps this is why 18 years after it was released, and long after it has stopped being supported, Windows XP is still Vladimir Putin's OS of choice.
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In November 2019, Milwaukee, Wisconsin police officers discovered an individual living down by the Milwaukee River. They discovered a bunker loaded with weapons, propane tanks, and food. Measuring eight feet deep and 20 feet long, this almost dystopian abode belonged to 41-year-old Geoffrey Graff.
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According to USA Today, some scrub is going around putting cowboy hats on pigeons. And while that sounds kinda cute and funny, because it is, it's also not good, because they're using glue.
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KFC will now sell "chicken-scented fire logs" to warm your buns in time for Christmas. The chicken purveyors have teamed with Enviro-Log to bring you the "11 Herbs & Spices Firelog," a shameless name from a company which delights in shining the light of capitalism into the world's darkest crevices.
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From Nelly lyrics, to Jordan ads, people have long been bombarded with messages telling them that their identity is tied up in sneakers -- the rarer the better. In fact, people literally kill for hard-to-afford (and thus hard-to-get) sneakers. So what are the rarest sneakers in the world?
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In a report that will warm your Grinch-ish heart this holiday season faster than the most crackling Yule log, the Korean Central News Agency made it known this week that the reclusive nation of North Korea has a "Christmas present" for the United States.
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The world is a crazy place, full of bizarre plot lines that any editor in their right mind would reject as highly implausible.
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Wikipedia is one of the most important inventions of the 21st century. Unfortunately, no matter how many minds it educates, the world's favorite internet resource can never catch a break. Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is slamming Wikipedia — and trying to replace it with a Russian version.
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North Korea is so poor that farmers steal each other's poop to use as fertilizer. In 2019, the Hermit Kingdom's poop-obsessed despot proudly announced that his country of doom had erected the "epitome of modern civilization" and officially opened that epitome for business.
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In the United States, higher education comes at a high cost. And in the case of for-profit colleges, it can be highway robbery. The same can be said for the hundreds of foreign students that the government tricked into paying tuition for a fake university before arresting them.
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If you like animals, then you'll either udderly love or hate this story. But either way you'll have a cow. According to Forbes, Russian farmers are now testing virtual reality headsets for dairy cows to increase their milk production.
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So, Elon Musk's much-anticipated Tesla Cybertruck is finally here -- and boy, does it ever look weird. Its angular, minimalist design looks like nothing else you'll encounter on the road. Surely, there's some real reason and rhyme to the Cybertruck's design? Let's find out!
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Greg Milano, a 30 year old real estate worker will never be more famous for his other accomplishments as he currently is for playing with his food. Milano took Twitter by storm over Thanksgiving weekend with his magnum opus: a Tesla Cybertruck made entirely of mashed potatoes.
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In what was shockingly not a fake headline generated for an episode of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," NPR had the honor of running a story this week titled "London Knife Attacker Identified, Public Lauds Narwhal Tusk Takedown."
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Through the use of infrared imaging, scientists have discovered previously unnoticed tattoos on seven mummies from the Deir el-Medina region of Egypt. It's a big find that's changing the way researchers view the significance of getting a sleeve done.
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