There’s a reason journalists will usually not accept Wikipedia as a reliable source—because the site can be edited by anyone, misinformation and hoaxes are lurking around every corner. While most of these are quickly caught by Wikipedia’s team of moderators, many have gone unnoticed for years. Here are some of the most disruptive cases—that have been discovered, that is. Feel free to mention any others you may know in the comments.

SEE ALSO: 10 Viral Photos That Were Proven To Be Hoaxes

10Sinbad’s Death

Famed stand-up comedian Sinbad is very much alive—but back in March 2007, some prankster decided to edit Sinbad’s Wikipedia page to claim he had died of a heart attack. Sinbad first learned of the inaccurate information in a telephone call he got from his daughter, and he expected it not to be that big of a deal—but over the next couple of days, hundreds of concerned people contacted him about his presumed death. He said the incident wasn’t “that strange”, though, and, given the large smattering of celebrities who have also been the victims of premature obituaries thanks to Wikipedia vandalism (everyone from Ted Kennedy to Miley Cyrus), he just might be right.^[1]

9 Wrightbus

Here’s a case in which a “prank” addition to a Wikipedia article created widespread panic because of a tense environment. In November 2015, a vandal added an erroneous statement to the Wikipedia article for Wrightbus (a bus manufacturer based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland) that claimed FirstGroup, a Scotland-based transport company, had purchased Wrightbus. The false information was quickly spread by word-of-mouth, panicking the company’s more than 1500 employees. It gets worse, though, because two significant businesses (a tire manufacturer and a tobacco company) had recently announced plans to leave Ballymena, costing more than 1700 jobs between them. The hoax was a match in the powder barrel for local workers who were already concerned about job loss. While the hoax was quickly discredited by a local newspaper, that only stopped the bleeding—it couldn’t heal the wound.^[2]

8Jar’Edo Wens

This case shows just how easy it is to compose a faux article that slips through the cracks and stays on Wikipedia for years. That’s what happened to an article created in May 2005 for a fake deity known only as Jar’Edo Wens (most likely a clever reworking of the name Jared Owens). The creator of the article made just three Wikipedia edits: besides creating the page, he also added Jar’Edo and another made-up deity, Yohrmum (an obvious pun) to a list of Australian aboriginal deities. The entire process took just eleven minutes to complete, but the Jar’Edo Wens page—despite being flagged in 2009 for lacking sources—stayed on the website for nearly ten years. During that time, Jar’Edo even found his way into a book criticizing theism, being mentioned as a god who had “fallen out of favor.” When the hoax was finally outed in March 2015, it was officially recognized as the longest-running hoax on Wikipedia. Though it’s since been surpassed in that respect, the “Jar’Edo Wens” debacle was definitely a key moment in the history of Wikipedia hoaxes.^[3]

7 Maurice Jarre

Our next entry proved that Wikipedia isn’t always the problem. Back in March 2009, Academy-Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre died. Quotes that appeared in several obituaries for him (including one published by “The Guardian”, a leading British newspaper) included “life itself has been one long soundtrack,” and “when I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.” The problem? Jarre never actually said any of that. You see, when University of Dublin student Shane Fitzgerald heard of Jarre’s death, he thought it an excellent opportunity to test how the media used Wikipedia in an age of instant news. It took him less than fifteen minutes to make up a quote and add it to Jarre’s Wikipedia page. He expected newspapers not to use the quote because it wasn’t linked to any source other than Wikipedia. After the fabricated quote became widespread, however, he admitted his “crime” out of fear the quote would be forever attributed to Jarre. Instead of blaming Wikipedia for allowing the quote to spread, he blamed journalists, who, he said, write articles too quickly to verify sources, adding that Wikipedia moderators had removed the faux quote from the site multiple times within hours of it first being posted.^[4]

6 Bicholim Conflict

This entry showcases what is likely the most effort ever put into perpetrating a Wikipedia hoax. A group of editors on the site created a 4,500-word article all about a 17th-century war between Portugal and India—that never happened. The story was so convincing that Wikipedia granted it “good article” status, an honor granted to less than 1% of articles on the site. The creator of the hoax even nominated the page for “featured article” status, a privilege reserved for the best articles on the site, although the committee responsible for choosing featured articles noted that some of the article’s key sources were “weak” and ended up not selecting it. What they didn’t realize is that nearly every source used in the article was a nonexistent book, and the only mentions of a “Bicholim Conflict” on the internet linked back to the Wikipedia article. The fake history might never have come to light if amateur wiki-detective “ShelfSkewed” had not decided to double-check the article’s sources, leading to the unraveling of the elaborate hoax.^[5]

5 Orange Julius

Some Wikipedia hoaxes are just not believable. For instance, in June 2005, an article appeared on Wikipedia on the creator of Orange Julius (a popular fruit drink similar to an orange Creamsicle). On the surface, the article seemed in order: just a short biography of Julius Freed, featuring sections on his early life and his creation of the Orange Julius. It also mentioned his other “ingenious” inventions, such as the inflatable shrimp trap and the portable pigeon bathing unit. Wait … what? Amazingly, this obviously fake section of the article didn’t get fact-checked until “Jeopardy” legend Ken Jennings discovered it. He set to work disproving the hoax and then posted the results on his personal blog. Nobody was hurt by the little white lie, although, hilariously, Orange Julius briefly ran an ad promoting Freed’s (faux) accomplishments before Wikipedia removed the hoax.^[6]

4 Coati

Back in July 2008, Dylan Breves, a seventeen-year-old student from New York City, edited the Wikipedia article for the coati (a tropical American mammal). The only thing he altered was adding “Brazilian Aardvark” to a list of the creature’s nicknames. Why? While on a trip to the Iguazu Falls (a system of waterfalls in Brazil), Breves and his brother had misidentified coatis as aardvarks. Breves told “The New Yorker” he does not like “being wrong about things”, so he inserted the false nickname “as a joke.” Like many other minor wiki-vandals, he expected Wikipedia to remove his entry for a lack of sources, but, in a bit of circular reporting, an article in “The Telegraph” used Wikipedia as its source, and Wikipedia later sourced the claim using that same “Telegraph” article. From there, references to coatis as Brazilian aardvarks quickly spread, appearing in several major newspapers as well as a book published by the University of Chicago.^[7]

3Edward Owens

Don’t confuse him with Jar’Edo Wens! Edward Owens was a fictional pirate created by students at George Mason University as part of a 2008 course on “Lying about the past” taught by Professor T. Miles Kelly. The students created a website, videos, and, of course, a fake Wikipedia article to promote the hoax, which stated that Owens was an oyster fisherman who turned to piracy as a method of survival during “The Long Depression”—an economic slump in the late 1800s. After several blogs (most notably one connected with “USA Today”) reported the hoax as a factual historical account, the perpetrators admitted their deceit—but that did not stop Kelly from teaching the class again in 2012. This time, the students masqueraded as “Lisa Quinn”, a woman who thought her uncle was a serial killer based on some odd items she found in a trunk that had belonged to him. The students found four fairly similar cases of women murdered in New York City between 1895 and 1897, and created (factual) Wikipedia articles for them. The plan was that Lisa would then discover their names in her uncle’s documents, and the internet would believe it had unmasked a serial killer. Everything was going fine—until the students posted the hoax to Reddit, at which point it took just 26 minutes for someone to call foul, guessing the post was “viral marketing.” This led to the story being quickly picked apart by a bevy of eager Redditors, who pointed out, among other things, that the Wikipedia articles were new and the documents appeared artificially aged.^[8]

2 John Seigenthaler

In May 2005, an editor—like many other hoax creators, identified only by an IP address—created a Wikipedia article stating, among other falsities, that journalist John Seigenthaler was a suspect in the murders of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. In fact, Seigenthaler was one of Robert’s closest friends as well as a pallbearer at his funeral. The article wasn’t discredited until November 2005, when a friend of Seigenthaler spotted it and forwarded it to him. Seigenthaler described the incident in “USA Today” as “internet character assassination”, and described the perpetrator of the hoax as having a “sick, twisted mind.” The controversy made national news and marked one of the first times the media asked serious questions on how reliable sites with user-generated content really were. Finally, in December, a 38-year-old deliveryman named Brian Chase revealed himself as the author of the hoax, saying he posted it because he had thought Wikipedia was “some kind of ‘gag’ encyclopedia”.^[9]

1 Chris Benoit

Back in June 2007, Canadian WWE wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, his son, and himself in a grisly double murder and suicide. About fourteen hours before police discovered the crime had taken place, a Wikipedia editor based in Stamford, Connecticut (about three miles from WWE headquarters), had edited the Wikipedia page for “Chris Benoit” to speculate that Chris had no-showed a WWE event because of “the death of his wife Nancy.” The mysterious editor (a 19-year-old wrestling fan who had a history of vandalizing Wikipedia articles) later gave a long apology on a Wikinews forum dedicated to the controversy, saying it was an “incredible coincidence” based on “rumors and speculation” he had found on the internet, and “the comment wasn’t meant to be a prank.” Police interviewed him and coerced him to cooperate with their checking of his computer equipment. The lesson here? No matter why you want to do it, don’t vandalize Wikipedia. Just don’t.^[10]

About The Author: About The Author: Izak Bulten is an animator and amateur film historian who loves writing articles about conspiracy theories, pop culture, and “crazy-but-true” stories. He’s created logic puzzles for World Sudoku Champion Thomas Synder’s blog, “The Art of Puzzles“, and the e-book “The Puzzlemaster’s Workshop”. More recently, he’s been writing animation news for his blog, “The Magic Lantern Show“.

Bones record history in their own way. Whether they splinter, show up in odd places, or provide DNA, ribs and all the rest are packed with information.

In recent years, archaeologists handled fascinating rarities, some seen for the first time. Some of the skeletons displayed the ironic fate of one of history’s cruelest physicians, a weird Roman town, and duels at the bottom of a lake. Individual bones also revealed stories from prehistory, tools made from humans, and the reason why ancient women could have beaten the championship-level rowers of today.

10 The Butchered Sloth

In 2000, a farmer found bones at Campo Laborde in Argentina. They belonged to an extinct species of sloth. This was not the modern kind that hangs on a branch all day. Megatherium americanum weighed over 4 tons and stood 3 meters (10 ft) tall.

Archaeologists found evidence, including a butchering knife, that the animal had been hunted and slaughtered at the site. Although it was suspected that humans preyed on giant sloths, Campo Laborde presented the first proof.

Additionally, the sloth’s age was important. It belonged to a group of ultra-large mammals called megamammals. Around 12,000 years ago, about 90 percent died out. The wave of extinction was epic, sweeping through all the continents except for Africa.

When dating techniques placed the sloth at 9,700 to 6,750 years old, it appeared that the species had managed to escape the die-off. In 2016 and 2017, the bones were redated with more sophisticated equipment. The new date of 12,600 years old suggested that sloths got crushed with the rest and humans were among the factors that drove the wave.^[1]

9 Epic Pig Roasts

In 2019, a study was released about pigs that failed to survive barbecues. The swine in question lived in Britain during the Stonehenge era (2800–2400 BC). When researchers analyzed the bones, they found something unexpected.

The fact that pork roasts happened at ceremonial sites around Stonehenge is old news. Leftovers at places like Durrington Walls and Marden proved that the epic feasts happened, but the new study wanted to know where the pigs came from. In turn, this would reveal more about those who owned them.

For a long time, it was assumed that the animals started out as local piglets. Nobody truly believed that pig drives were possible, as was done with cattle over a long distance. However, when the barbecued bones were analyzed, results showed that the vast majority of pigs were born elsewhere, including Scotland and Wales.

Researchers were never sure of the barbecues’ true purpose, but this gave a strong clue. The feasts tightened the social networks from all over the island. Since the pig drives demanded considerable effort, researchers believe that these meetings—and pork—were important to those who attended.^[2]

8 The Speared Rib

There is plenty of evidence that people grazed on mammoth meat. However, there was no direct evidence of hunting. Head-scratching theorists suggested that ice age tribes trapped the animals or drove them off cliffs. These were likely scenarios considering that mammoths were not exactly sheep-sized.

In 2002, researchers rooted around in a mammoth bonanza. Over the years, Krakow, Poland, had churned out around 110 mammoths. Among the remains, aged between 30,000 and 25,000, was a rib. Stuck in the bone was a flint fragment. Despite what it suggested, the bone was not properly analyzed until 2018 when it became the first proof that mammoths were hunted with weapons.

The flint belonged to the tip of a light spear called a javelin. Measuring 7 millimeters (0.3 in) long, the depth showed that the weapon was thrown with immense force. Even so, it was not the death blow. Other hunters were probably present and brought the animal down with more spears.^[3]

7 Surprising Iberian Ancestry

The Iberian Peninsula was the ancestral melting pot for modern-day Spain and Portugal. During a recent study, scientists analyzed the bones of almost 400 ancient Iberians. Together, the skeletons represented 8,000 years’ worth of genetic information.

The goal was to chart when the different cultures arrived and mingled. This history turned out to be unexpectedly complex, but most surprising was a migration that occurred 4,500 years ago.

The genes they brought were not unknown. They hailed from the steppes near the Caspian and Black Seas. There is an old “Steppe Hypothesis” supporting the notion that these people spread to Asia and Europe at the same time.

The study of the 400 skeletons showed that the steppe people—mostly men—also made it to the Iberian Peninsula. They had a massive impact on the region’s genetics. By 2000 BC, their male Y chromosome had nearly replaced everyone else’s. Additionally, they might have brought bronze as the region’s Bronze Age began when the first steppe genes appeared in Iberians around 2500 BC.^[4]

6 Human Bone Tattoo Kit

Archaeologists cannot always identify artifacts. This was the case with ancient tattoo equipment. Only from 2016 onward did a few oddities reveal themselves as inking tools. This included volcanic glass from the Solomon Islands, turkey bones from Tennessee, and cactus spines from Utah.

In 1963, the same thing happened. A set of four small combs was found on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga. At the time, their purpose was unknown. The kit was placed in storage at an Australian university but was assumed to be lost after a fire.

In 2008, the combs were found intact. Analysis identified seabird bones as the material used to make two of them, while the rest were crafted from human remains. The tests also gave the kit’s age as 2,700 years old, placing it among the oldest in the world.^[5]

There is good reason to believe that the combs were used as tattoo “needles.” When Captain James Cook wrote about tattooing in 18th-century Tonga, he described a similar bone tool used to insert color under the skin.

5 The Deviant Cemetery

Roman burials placed the deceased on their backs with the bodies neatly arranged. Valuable grave goods were often placed inside the caskets. For burials done differently, archaeologists have an interesting term—“deviant” graves. In every third or fourth Roman cemetery, one can expect to trip over one deviant.

In 2019, archaeologists investigated an area earmarked for construction in Suffolk, England. Great Whelnetham used to be a Roman settlement, but it was long assumed that the region’s sandy soil could not preserve any bones.^[6]

Incredibly, they found a pristine fourth-century graveyard. Even more startling was the high number of deviant burials, 35 out of 52. Men, women, and children were all decapitated. Some heads were missing, while others were next to the bodies or at their feet.

Since the skulls were removed neatly after death, archaeologists doubt that these people were executed. Instead, the locals probably had a reason for burying family in a way not normal for Romans. It remains a mystery why this town was different.

4 The Unlaid Egg

In 2018, paleontologists examined a fossil. The bird had been discovered in northwest China a few years earlier. The new species, Avimaia schweitzerae, was around 115 million years old.

In a fossil first, the bird was pregnant with an egg. In some places, the shell had as many as six layers. This could be why the hen died. In modern birds, trauma can delay a female from nesting. Her body retains the egg and wraps unnecessary layers of shell around it. Known as “egg binding,” it smothers the embryo and often kills the mother.

Finding reproductive disorders in a fossil is great, but the skeleton might also include a medullary bone. This is the holy grail for scientists obsessed with bones and bird pregnancy.

When a bird prepares for egg-making, she stacks up on calcium in the medullary—something that has never been positively identified in a fossil bird. Avimaia‘s medullary region showed all the right signs. If confirmed, it would provide a unique link between avian reproduction and this bone.^[7]

3 Ancient Women’s True Strength

In 2017, researchers compared the arms of prehistoric and modern women—a scientific first. The ancient group included skeletons from Europe’s Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages (5300 BC–AD 850). The living women included sedentary individuals and athletes from Cambridge, including champion rowers.

The arm and leg bones were scanned and then checked for signs of physical activity. Labor intensity as well as physical strength can be gleaned from the shape and density of a bone.^[8]

The study revealed something remarkable. Previous studies were more male oriented, and female leg bones that were analyzed showed strength that varied. (The latter also held true in the 2017 study.) For this reason, the real arm strength of prehistoric women remained hidden.

However, the scans showed that the older gals had arms stronger than elite rowers. The toughness resulted from rigorous manual labor that lasted for thousands of years, proving that women contributed extensively when people switched from being hunter-gatherers to farmers.

2 Fish That Hunted Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles. During the dinosaur age, they were the top aerial predator. However, in 2012, scientists found a remarkable example of predation on pterosaurs. A lake once existed in Bavaria where the smaller fish attracted pterosaurs and the flying reptiles attracted bigger fish.

When researchers examined the site, they found five drowned pterosaurs, aged around 120 million years old. They belonged to the same species, the long-tailed Rhamphorhychus. Each skeleton had a wing near or inside the mouth of a large fish. The latter also belonged to a single species, an armored fish called Aspidorhynchus that measured 65 centimeters (25.6 in) long.

A closer look suggested that all the creatures died during similar duels. In every case, Aspidorhynchus probably lurched through the surface to grab a low-flying pterosaur by the wing. It was a mistake. The reptiles were too large to swallow, and Aspidorhynchus‘s abundant teeth got caught on the wing membrane.

The struggle to get free would have exhausted both to the point of collapse. They sank to the bottom where low oxygen levels suffocated the fish and drowned the reptile.^[9]

1 Mengele’s Skeleton

After World War II, Josef Mengele became synonymous with the horrors of Auschwitz. As one of the Nazi doctors who worked at the infamous concentration camp, his thirst for knowledge drove him to experiment on prisoners. Mengele killed so many people that he became known as the “Angel of Death.” His crimes made him a wanted man, but he eluded international efforts to capture him for almost 40 years.

In 1979, Mengele died in Brazil. His remains were exhumed in 1985, and DNA analysis in 1992 confirmed the physician’s identity. However, his family refused to bring the body back to Germany, and the bones were stored at Sao Paulo’s Legal Medical Institute.

Pathologist Daniel Munoz was among the experts who helped identify the body. Munoz, who was also a lecturer at the medical school of the University of Sao Paulo, recently realized that the skeleton could be used in the classroom.

The result was ironic. This time, Mengele became the object of those seeking medical knowledge from somebody without their consent. These days, his skeleton teaches students how to find and match forensic details on bones with the person’s records.^[10]

Although most people know him as the hero and leader portrayed in David Lean’s 1962 epic film Lawrence of Arabia, Thomas Edward Lawrence was a far more complex and intriguing character than many people realize. His individualism, eccentricity, and profound intellect brought him both trials and tribulations which most people are unaware of. Here are 10 surprising things about Lawrence of Arabia which you won’t learn by watching the movie.

10 He Was Short

Lawrence was a small man, yet Peter O’Toole, who portrayed him in the 1962 film, stood at a full 188 centimeters (6’2″). In reality, he was only 165 centimeters (5’5″) and therefore not the towering figure which he is often believed to be.

Even Robert Pattinson, having recently played Lawrence in Werner Herzog’s film Queen of the Desert, is far too tall at 185 centimeters (6’1″) to give a good idea of the man’s true height. Once again, this warps people’s perspectives.

Thanks to his diminutive size, Lawrence was known as “shortarse” among his colleagues. Even so, Lawrence reportedly had astonishing endurance and was improbably tough. Such strength has been attributed to a strong mental determination to overcome his unimpressive stature, spurred on by the fact that his brothers were much taller than he was.

9 He Might Have Been Gay

Lawrence’s sexuality is a sensitive matter that remains the subject of constant speculation. Some claim that his marriage proposal to Janet Laurie—an old family friend—is proof that he was heterosexual. Supposedly, he also had a mistress to whom he sent regular, secretive payments.

Others argue that Lawrence was probably gay, especially given his close relationship with Dahoum, an Arab water boy. Dahoum is often considered to be Lawrence’s “personal motive” for leading the desert revolt which Lawrence mentioned in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Furthermore, his book was dedicated “to S.A.” These are the initials of Dahoum’s real name, Selim Ahmed, thus adding fuel to the speculation.

It is clear from such disagreement that nobody actually knows what Lawrence’s sexuality was. But it is an irrelevant factor when considering the achievements and flaws of this war hero.

8 He Built His Own House In His Family’s Garden

A perfect example of what made Lawrence an unusual person is the bungalow he built for himself in his family’s garden. As a student, he was an introvert who spent little time with his fellow pupils. Growing up with four brothers and both parents in a relatively small Victorian house wasn’t easy, either.

As a result, Lawrence and his father built a small, single-story house for him in the garden, where he could work in peace, away from his brothers and other distractions. During his time in this bungalow, he claimed to have pushed himself to the limits, once going 45 hours without food or sleep.

Both his family home and the house in the garden are still standing, proof that Lawrence did not go about his life the way most people do.

7 He Introduced Explosives To The Middle East

In 2016, we are all too familiar with the use of IEDs (“improvised explosive devices”) and suicide bombers in the Middle East, both of which are used by terrorists. Lawrence may have played a large role in giving such tactics to the terrorists.

With a man named Herbert Garland, Lawrence made widespread use of explosives to disrupt the Turkish railway lines in Arabia. This strategy had devastating effects and contributed massively to the success of the revolt. His ingenious ideas were used by Vietnamese generals during the war with America.

Since then, they have been copied by revolutionary groups and terrorists across the world. Perhaps that explains why the writings of Lawrence are on the recommended reading list of US forces engaged in combat in the Middle East.

6 He Walked Across Syria Alone

As a young man, Lawrence decided to walk the length of Syria alone—and he promptly did. Only 21 years old, he traveled over 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) on foot across the desert and through many of the world’s oldest cities, regardless of the dangers he faced. His reason for the trip was related to his university degree in history, so he spent his time photographing and studying crusader castles.

However, Lawrence did much more than look at castles. He learned about the political and geographic conditions of the region and the customs of the local people. In addition, he learned to speak Arabic. The things he discovered in Syria would be invaluable to his campaign to aid the Arab revolt. And the sheer audacity it took to walk across a dangerous, foreign country on foot speaks volumes about Lawrence as a man.

5 He Was Born Out Of Wedlock

Being born to unmarried parents in the Victorian era was scandalous. But that is the story of Lawrence. His father, Sir Thomas Chapman, left a wife and four daughters to be with the family’s governess, Sarah Junner. They soon adopted the name, Lawrence. Once again, this put them in conflict with a deeply patriarchal Victorian society, which expected children to have the surname of their father.

Since Chapman never divorced his first wife, the Lawrence family moved around constantly to escape detection. As a result, all five sons were born in different countries. T.E. Lawrence was born in Wales. Since he grew up in England, his mother was Scottish, and his father was part Irish, T.E. Lawrence ended up as something of a combination of all the different countries that make up the United Kingdom.

4 He May Have Fabricated His Own Torture

In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence writes of being captured, tortured, and sexually assaulted by Turkish soldiers. These events, which reportedly took place in Deraa, were reproduced in David Lean’s film.

However, some people contend that this was entirely made up by Lawrence for a variety of reasons, both political and personal. Forensic analysis of the journal that Lawrence kept during the war suggests that he was not where he claimed to be when the torture took place.

However, it is known that torture, both orthodox and sexual, was a common practice in the Ottoman Empire, especially against captured officers like Lawrence. When Seven Pillars of Wisdom was published, topics such as sexual assault were taboo. Thus, his decision to include the passage would not have been taken lightly.

As with much of Lawrence’s life, the truth is unclear but remains hotly contested.

3 He Was Multilingual

Lawrence was a polyglot. Having supposedly learned to read at age four, he started to learn Latin at six, displaying early signs of linguistic proficiency. Before age 30, he was fluent in French, German, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Syriac, English, and Latin.

He translated Homer’s The Odyssey from ancient Greek to English—perhaps reflecting his own epic journeys—and this was subsequently published. Furthermore, he was part of the Arab delegation to the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, acting as a translator between the various heads of state. This role allowed him to speak personally with many of the world’s most powerful people, such as Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and David Lloyd George.

2 He Was A Photography Pioneer

Few people are aware that Lawrence was an avid photographer, perhaps surprising for a man who was so often on the other side of the lens. Inspired by his father, Lawrence took photographs throughout his life—from class pictures at school to detailed images of archaeological finds in the Middle East.

Some of his photographs were very important because he was involved in a project to photograph and map large parts of uncharted Palestine. This material would become hugely important during World War I. Even after retreating from the public eye and joining the Royal Air Force, Lawrence became part of a recently founded School of Photography, where he excelled and developed new techniques for photographing planes.

1 He Hated Fame

Lawrence hated his fame and could not stand the media attention he received. As one of the heroes of World War I, his achievements were widely praised. He became arguably the world’s first media celebrity, with the press constantly reporting on him.

Yet he wanted anonymity, even enlisting in the Royal Air Force under a fake name to get away from his fame. But within months, the press had discovered his identity and published it. Despite having written Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence didn’t have it published in his lifetime because he was desperate to avoid the attention it might bring him.

The reason for this aversion to popularity is believed to be a deep sense of guilt about his achievements. This was evident in his letters because he thought the Arab revolt was a failure. After all, the Imperial powers simply carved up the Middle East for themselves after World War I. So he considered himself to be a failure, despite public opinion to the contrary.

+ Further Reading

If you are still hungry for more information on Lawrence of Arabia and others like him, be sure to take a look at some of these earlier lists:

10 Reverential Biopics That Accidentally Insulted Their Subjects
10 Historical Battles Hollywood Got Completely Wrong
Top 10 Things The British Empire Got Right
10 Astounding Fish-Out-Of-Water Stories From History

Thiago is from a flat place with a big sky. Gotta fill all that sky with something, so he filled it with his dreams.

Fashion is one of the most prominent industries on the planet. Unfortunately, it also is one of the biggest polluters. Environment aside, though, fashion has evolved like no other sector—from the ancient days in Europe when both women and men wore “hideous” garments and called it fashion to the present day when clothing seems to have fewer seams or fabric.

Along the way, designers—especially prominent design houses—have come up with questionable items that have sold for thousands of dollars. Of course, if you can afford it, then you definitely see something that most of us don’t. Below is a list of questionable items produced by fashion designers that still leaves us with visible question marks above our heads.

10 Alexander McQueen’s Hoof Shoe

This shoe came out during the Plato Atlantis Spring/Summer collection in 2010 and is also referred to as the “armadillo boot.” It was said to give the illusion of a ballerina on her tiptoes. The shoe is 30 centimeters (12 in) in height and originally wasn’t meant to be commercially produced. However, loyal fans were eager to buy this shoe.

Why?

No lie, Alexander McQueen’s design style is bizarre and that is what makes it high fashion as well as art. This shoe looks like art, and we would have no objection to ogling it outside an alarmed glass box in a museum. The original shoe is said to be made of wood, but the ones commercially produced were made of python leather.

Despite the shoe’s menacing design, it didn’t stop the women who decided to be daring and pursue the taste of a 30-centimeter (12 in) shoe. Just the look of it makes you imagine a billion ways to fall and land on your face. For example, Daphne Guinness, a fashion icon known for wearing the most daring pieces, fell into a sea of her fans by the cobblestones at a churchyard.

Surprisingly, Lady Gaga snatched three pairs of these shoes and was seen on her Instagram daring to wear them. They originally had a guide price of $10,000, but Lady Gaga bid up to $295,000 to win the auction for all three pairs.^[1]

What women really do for a pair of shoes!

9 Moschino’s Plastic Dry Cleaning Dress

Jeremy Scott debuted this dress in the Moschino Fall/Winter 2017 runway collection. It is a slip-on, sleeveless dress made of polyester with writing at the top and bottom. We don’t know what kind of look the brand’s creative director was trying for or who accepted this dress to go on the runway the way it did.

Stella Maxwell, the runway model rocking this look, was put into a black dress and had the bag—oh sorry, dress—slipped on top of it. To seal this customer-friendly dry cleaner’s look, they put a hanger in her hair.^[2]

Many critics described this new fashion statement as a dry cleaning bag—you know, the one that you put over your clothes after they’ve been dry-cleaned.

The most interesting part is that it sold for $735. Who bought it is still a mystery.

8 Thom Browne’s Dog Bag

Now we have all seen our fair share of interesting accessories—from plate clutches to hangers in the hair. Thom Browne decided to come up with a dog bag, and it does look like an adorable little pooch. It is made from luxurious leather and has a little collar on it. And guess the surprising thing? It is still being sold for over $30,000.^[3]

The famous dog bag was inspired by the designer’s dachshund, Hector, one of the best-known pets on Instagram. You can even see the shape of a dog imprinted on some of Browne’s designs, which shows how much he loves his pet pooch.

7 Margiela’s Distressed Sneakers

Remember when we mentioned that current fashion has fewer seams and fabric?

Well, Maison Margiela has joined the league with heavily distressed sneakers.^[4] So, if this is a trend, don’t you dare throw out the shabby sneakers you have worn for many years. The white-and-yellow high-tops are being sold for $1,425, which probably isn’t bad for a designer shoe. But it is a terrible price for a shoe that looks like it has been chewed up and worn by your ancestors.

Some notable fashion heads referred to this sneaker as “avant-garde.”

6 Hermes Leather Horse

Western has been a popular trend in 2018, but we want to know if it was inspired by this. Hermes came out with this fringed brown horse statue that costs more than a Porsche. Ekta Joshi of Luxury Launches mentioned that “luxury” often means “absurdity,” and we agree.^[5]

Hermes is a notable brand with one of the most expensive bags anyone can own. They all look the same, just with different materials and sizes. (Their micro purse is to die for.) Over the years, Hermes has made a name for itself as one of the top bag brands in the world.

So, why would they create something as absurd as the Marley the Pony statue, which is priced at $133,000?

The purpose of this piece of art is unclear. But from an outsider’s point of view, Marley is art in all its absurd glory.

5 Clutch With Human Hair

Ines Figaredo is known for her unique bag designs. However, we are sure that she put everyone in a horrific panic when she came out with this clutch made of human hair. Again, this hangs question marks above the head.

The bag is just a normal clutch with human hair flowing down the front. Do you know what the scariest part is? Eyes are glued or sewn onto the bag behind the hair.^[6]

A blogger wrote that this bag reminded her of The Ring, a horror film with a character that has long black hair covering her face. If you haven’t watched The Ring but have seen The Grudge, then this Ring female character is similar in appearance to the Grudge female ghost in the house—sort of.

If you want more of a scare, the clutch retails for $1,928. No need for a costume next Halloween, Ines has got you covered.

4 Saint Laurent Hair Ankle Boots

Yves Saint Laurent took it several inches further with their goat hair ankle boots. As weird as they may look, they may have a few functions like keeping your feet warm in the winter.

No need to stock up on stockings, eh?

Well, this pair of shoes that makes one look like a descendant of Bigfoot retails at $1,995. The actual shape is a bit unseen. But from the little peeks in between the hairs, you can tell that it has a somewhat pointed toe and is black with silver studs at the ankle.^[7]

3 LEGO Headpiece

It doesn’t look as bad as it sounds. We think it is quite playful. It would probably be one of those items that are cheap and just for laughs. It would also be a good souvenir, but Luisaviaroma sells it at $5,230.

Jaw-dropping, yes. It makes you wonder if this LEGO beanie piece is actually made of a costly material we can’t see. In any case, why would anyone use expensive materials to create something that serves no purpose at all? We are stunned.^[8]

2 Ostrich Headpiece

This headpiece was carefully crafted from ostrich feathers and has a brooch at the center to hold them into place. If you’re having a bad hair day, this piece will fix you right up and give you a different kind of look at a price of almost $2,000.^[9]

Again, we ask, “Why?” All we can envision is the designer using a woman’s bad hair day as her piece of art and as a moneymaker. This headpiece comes in orange, yellow, and black.

1 Balenciaga IKEA Bag

In 2017, Balenciaga came out with this ultraexpensive bag. As people who can’t afford to buy a bag from Balenciaga unless we saved up really hard for the entire year, you would say that we are haters and jealous. However, the only difference between the notable, cute bags that Balenciaga has sold and this one made people on the Internet laugh really hard.

Yes, we’re talking about the IKEA-looking Balenciaga bag.^[10] It looks almost exactly like the IKEA Frakta tote bag which goes for just $0.99. Meanwhile, Balenciaga sold theirs for more than $2,000. The only visible difference is that IKEA branded its version with its iconic yellow logo on the straps.

In the design industry, fashion-inclusive “inspiration” can be drawn from anywhere as seen when a high fashion design house decided to almost reincarnate the IKEA bag with leather and a higher price.

I am a university student doing design. However, I have worked as a writer, volunteered as an editor and proofreader of anonymous articles, and interned as a blog writer.

It’s been a while since a new Jason movie featured on the big screen or a green and red striped jersey brought terror to our dreams. While those horrors have been left behind in their own era, a host of new scary movies exist to keep us shivering. And as with most movies, the fan theories follow close behind. WARNING: spoilers ahead!

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Must-See Recent Genre-Defying Horrors

10The Cabin in the Woods

You would be forgiven for thinking of The Cabin in the Woods as the horror movie starring Thor and the hot doctor from Grey’s Anatomy. This popular horror film surprised audiences in 2011 with its fresh approach and massive plot twist at the end.

However, not all viewers were convinced that the twist at the end was all it seemed to be. A fan theory has it that Chris Hemsworth’s character, Curt Vaughan, was in on the plot from the beginning. Proof of this theory is presented in the fact that Curt is the one who gets the group of friends to go to the cabin. Curt is also the only one who doesn’t choose a summoning object down in the basement.

More ‘proof’ indicates that Curt knew his girlfriend Jules had to die first according to the rules, so he made sure to get her alone so the zombies could kill her. It is also thought that Curt would have been given the title of ‘hero’ if he played along with the Facility.^[1]

9The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 classic horror is one of the creepiest movies on this list. The killer, Leatherface, dons a mask made of human skin and runs around with a chainsaw and an insatiable bloodlust. Not to mention the Leatherface character is based on real life murderer, Ed Gein.

As such, it has always been assumed that Leatherface is a man, but a Reddit fan theory has it that the crazy murderer might in fact be a woman. Proof of this is said to be the way the killer applies lipstick and blusher to another mask. Leatherface also goes mental when the freezer is tampered with and makes very high-pitched sounds for what is supposed to be an above-average sized man. It is also alleged that since Leatherface prepared the food and probably ‘decorated’ the creepy house depicted in the movie, he is probably a she.^[2]

8Halloween

The most recent Halloween movie was a huge box office hit in 2018. In it, Michael Myers allegedly crashes the bus he was being transferred in, to return to Haddonfield to kill a bunch of people. He also goes after Laurie Strode, who has turned her house into a fortress.

Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to notice something off about Laurie, however. While sitting in her truck, drinking, she waits for the bus to leave for the maximum-security prison. She then pitches up at a family dinner drunk and starts crying. A fan theory has it that is wasn’t fear causing her to react like that, but guilt. The theory goes that Laurie, and not Michael, was the one responsible for the bus crash. It is also said that her almost non-reaction to the news report on the crash is a further indication that she planned the whole thing. Why would she do such a thing? Well, because she had been waiting for her fight with Michael for 40 years and wasn’t about to be unprepared for when he arrived at her house.^[3]

7 Us

Michael Myers has also been tied to the popular 2019 horror movie Us. The sequel to Get Out has spawned quite a few fan theories including one that says Michael is a Tethered and was swapped with a clone and trapped for 60 years.

Not only has Jordan Peele, writer and director of US, referenced Halloween during several interviews about his movie, he also mentions the rabbits that feature in the film and how if you should put a rabbit brain in a human body, you’d end up with Michael Myers. What further gets the theory going, is that Michael doesn’t talk, but rather grunts much like the Tethered in Us. Also, in Halloween Resurrection it is revealed to viewers that a tunnel system runs under the Myers house linking to the basement and ultimately enabling the clone swapping.

Moreover, Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr Loomis, tracks him using a ‘Rabbit in Red’ matchbox and describes his patient as not having a soul. Which pretty much describes the Tethered.^[4]

6 Hereditary

Hereditary is arguably the most disturbing entry on this list. There is bleakness and gore and shock value all culminating in a terrifying reveal involving a demon king named Paimon.

Fans were quick to come up with theories involving aspects of the movie, such as linking it to Midsommer (another disturbing horror flick by Hereditary director: Ari Aster). The theory says that since both movies feature cults, they must play out in the same universe. Some fans are also convinced that the couple walking past Annie in Hereditary is the one and only Dani and Christian from Midsommar.

Another popular theory supported by many fans says that none of the horrifying things in the movie, such as Charlie’s decapitation, actually happened. Instead it was the manifestation of both Annie and Peter’s mental disorders.^[5]

5 A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place took what we knew about horror and turned it on its head. Featuring silent characters and monsters reminiscent of the Demogorgon in Stranger Things, this movie made for a unique cinematic experience. Many movie-goers reported feeling uneasy throughout the movie because of the ongoing silence.

In the movie, the monsters are extremely sensitive to noise and attack anyone that makes a sound (as is evident in the very disturbing scene with the little boy and the toy rocket). Hence the silent characters.

These monsters, if one goes by the newspaper clipping on the wall, came from outer space when a meteor hit Earth. However, some fans think that is only a red herring and the creatures are in fact biological weapons left over from WWIII. Others believe that the only way the creatures could have spread so fast if they did indeed crash in only one spot in Mexico, is with the help of the meteor impact. If they had crashed during the spore stage of their lifecycle the impact would have sent the spores flying to the upper atmosphere where they would have caught a ride to locations all over the US.^[6]

4 It Follows

When it comes to psychological horrors, It Follows is a great example of how to do it properly. Rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, most reviewers agree that this movie is truly frightening without trying too hard or relying on tired jump scares.

The plot of the movie centres around a curse in the form of a shape-shifting entity passed on to Jay Height after she has casual sex with a guy in the backseat of his car. She then must pass on the curse to another man, otherwise she will be killed by the entity that presents itself in the form of the loved ones of its victims. And so on and so forth.

A twisted theory appeared on Reddit that says the young people in the movie, running from the sinister shapeshifter, were kidnapped from different decades by demons and sent to Hell. On Earth, they had been replaced by changelings. This would mean the monster that follows Jay in the movie, is just another inhabitant of Hell. And the monster doesn’t choose its own form, but rather the victim determines its shape by what may have happened to them in the past such as abuse, rape, attempted murder etc. Since Jay has suffered a sexual assault, the monster chasing her takes the form of a naked woman.^[7]

3 The Babadook

The Babadook is yet another psychological horror that features a creepy kid and even creepier monster. When labor pains overtook Amelia, her husband drove her to the hospital only to get into an accident. Her husband didn’t make it and the movie follows Amelia’s struggle to cope with being a single parent. She reads a book about the Babadook to her son but starts feeling uneasy with the content, especially when her son claims that the Babadook haunts him at night. Amelia then tears up the book and throws it in the bin.

The book shows up on their doorstep, glued back together, and things take a turn for the worse in the household. It seems that the Babadook possesses Amelia with her voice changing during fits of rage. She also kills their dog and eventually goes after her son. When she vomits up black goo, it seems that the Babadook has lost, but instead it runs to the basement where it seems to be fed maggots by Amelia at the end of the movie.

A fan theory has it that the Babadook is a physical manifestation of Amelia’s hatred for her son, since she gave birth to him on the same day her husband died. When the Babadook is heard making weird noises in the movie, Amelia’s rage is evident, giving more weight to this theory. Another theory says that it is not rage, but Amelia’s intense grief that brings the Babadook to life.

A very popular theory claimed that the Babadook is gay, which was eventually acknowledged but not entirely confirmed by filmmaker Jennifer Kent.^[8]

2 Carrie

Carrie is a lesson on the consequences of bullying. And a very disturbing movie to boot. Carrie started out as Stephen King’s first published novel that spawned a film in 1976 and then a remake in 2013.

As with most Stephen King novels and movies, there are many theories surrounding the plot. In this case the main theory seems to be that Matilda, the main character in the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, grows up to be Carrie.

After Miss Honey and Matilda move to Chamberlain, Maine, they change their names to Margaret and Carietta. Much like Carrie’s mother, Honey/Margaret becomes very religious which leads to Matilda/Carietta hiding away her telekinetic abilities. Which then leads to the start of the story of Carrie, according to theory. This would essentially mean that Matilda is the prequel to Carrie. More proof that these two stories take place in the same universe comes in the form of a car named Christine (another Stephen King title), which is a 1958 Plymouth Fury sold by Matilda’s father. The car caused the death of a passenger, leading to Matilda’s father being arrested and Miss Honey and Matilda’s move to Maine.^[9]

1 IT

The craziest theory by far, on this list anyway, is the one that connects Disney’s Mary Poppins and Stephen King’s IT. Considering that Mary Poppins is a sweet lady that flies around with an umbrella and IT is a killer clown, it might seem ridiculous. However, the theory points out that Poppins and IT share a similar power. They are able to tap into children’s innermost thoughts, whether it be for good or evil.

Both movies feature a young boy named Georgie. While Poppins returns to Cherry Tree Lane after 25 years and relies on children’s joy to keep her energy levels up, IT returns to Derry every 27 years and uses the fear of children to keep his power levels up. In both movies, the children’s encounters with IT and Poppins seem to fade from their minds. Not to mention, Poppins and IT both seem to like dancing. The final thread connecting these two movies comes during the scene where the characters in Mary Poppins grab balloons and float away. Since “floating” and “balloons” are synonymous with IT, the theory seems plausible to many viewers.^[10]

Flowers are nature’s way of tricking insects into helping plants have sex, and as a side effect, humans have something to make their gardens look prettier. There are about 350,000 species of flowering plant, and most of them are innocent souls. But a heaping handful of them are vicious killers with zero remorse.

10Kalmia Latifolia

Kalmia latifolia, more commonly known as mountain laurel, produces delicate pink and white flowers in the late spring. It’s the state flower of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and it grows just about everywhere in the eastern United States. It’s gorgeous, but underneath that dainty exterior beats the heart of a murderer.

The two main toxins in Kalmia latifolia are andromedotoxin and arbutin, but it’s the first one that you need to worry about. Andromedotoxin simultaneously causes part of the heart to beat quickly and part to beat dangerously slowly. In healthy people, the heart has a natural gate that blocks half of the electrical pulses coming to the organ. The toxin induces Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, which disrupts that gate, letting all the pulses reach your heart. The result? Sudden cardiac death.

But that only happens with large doses. In smaller doses, you can expect to start with a lot of vomiting, after which every hole in your head will leak its fluids down your face. About an hour later, your breathing will slow down, you’ll lose the ability to use your muscles, and you’ll slip into a coma and die.

The terrifying part is that you don’t have to eat the flowers—honey from bees that have visited Kalmia latifolia contains all the toxic properties of the flower itself. The Greeks called it “mad honey,” and they used it to defeat Xenophon of Athens in 400 B.C.

9Jacobaea Vulgaris

Ragwort, a common wildflower in the UK, is an important part of the local ecosystem. Almost 80 insects get food from the plant, and at least 30 of those feed on ragwort exclusively. Because of that, the flowers hold particular interest for conservation societies. That’s good news for the bugs but bad news for everybody else. The World Health Organization has confirmed the presence of at least eight toxic alkaloids in ragwort, and it may have at least 10 more on top of that.

The problem is that unlike most poisons, which quickly leave the system, the alkaloids in ragwort build up in the liver over time. The accumulating toxins result in liver cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver slowly folds in on itself as healthy cells degenerate into an unresponsive mass of scar tissue. The liver’s a resilient organ and will continue operating like normal until up to 75 percent of it’s been destroyed, but by the time symptoms start appearing, the damage is irreversible.

Symptoms include loss of coordination, blindness, stabbing abdominal pains, and yellow eyes from bile pigment that fills the eye’s surface membrane. Unfortunately, this is another toxin that makes its way into honey, as well as into milk from goats who eat ragwort. As a final slap on the face, when farmers try to remove ragwort from their fields, the toxins can seep right into the skin of their hands.

8Veratrum

Found on nearly every mountain in the Northern Hemisphere, Veratrum species put out gorgeous spiral clusters of white, heart-shaped flowers. The plant is commonly grown for ornamental purposes because even the leaves look pretty, and in the wild, it’s commonly confused with garlic. But pretty or not, every piece of this plant, from the roots to the pistils, is lethally toxic.

The first symptom of Veratrum poisoning is violent stomach cramping, which usually starts about 30 minutes after ingestion. As the toxins absorb into the bloodstream, they make a beeline for the sodium ion channels. Sodium ion channels act like gates to allow sodium to flow through nerves, triggering an action. For example, the opening of sodium ion channels in muscle cells starts the process that leads to a muscle contraction.

When Veratrum toxins hit the sodium ion channels, they open the floodgates, forcing the channels to fire continuously. The body doesn’t know what to do with this, so the heart begins to alternately slow and speed up. Muscles all over the body convulse. Eventually, the toxin either causes a heart attack or a coma. It’s believed that this is the poison that killed Alexander the Great.

7Zantedeschia

The gorgeous perennial Zantedeschia has been introduced to every continent but Antarctica and is a staple in ornamental gardens. It’s often called a calla lily, even though it’s not even remotely related to lilies and doesn’t look anything like one. The bright, tube-shaped flowers can be a variety of colors.

Zantedeschia species contain calcium oxalate, a chemical that forms needle-like crystals inside internal organs. More than 1,000 types of plants contain calcium oxalate, and Zantedeschia is one of the most dangerous, partly because it’s so widespread. Even a tiny dose of the chemical is enough to cause a person’s throat to swell, usually along with an intense burning feeling.

The more you eat, the worse the symptoms become, until your throat swells so large it squeezes your airways shut. In one incident, a Chinese restaurant accidentally put the flower petals from a toxic plant into their food, putting everyone who ate it in the hospital.

6Colchicum Autumnale

Colchicum autumnale is native to the UK, but it can now be found across most of Europe and New Zealand. One of its common names is “naked lady,” which is a deceptively sexy name for a cold-blooded killer. The only known antidote for Colchicum poisoning is a slow, painful death.

The chemical at work here is colchicine, a poison that kills with methods similar to arsenic, systematically shutting down of all of your body’s vital functions. Mass organ failure, blood clots, and nerve disruptions are just a few of the horrifying symptoms of Colchicum poisoning. Every few days, a new set of symptoms appears as yet another internal system goes belly up.

Death can take anywhere from days to weeks, but when you eat enough, it’s always fatal. And for whatever reason, the flower leaves you conscious to the bitter end, forcing you to live through each excruciating moment. People have compared death from Colchicum to cholera.

5Laburnum

Everybody’s brain is hardwired to accept nicotine through receptors the same shape as nicotine molecules. Despite their name, nicotinic receptors can also bond with other chemicals. One such chemical is cytisine.

In low doses, cytisine isn’t terribly harmful. As a drug, it sometimes helps people quit smoking because of its ability to bond to nicotinic receptors. But in large doses, it’s positively lethal.

Laburnum poisonings have been recorded for centuries and usually involve children who eat either the flowers or the seed casings, which look like pea pods. The cytisine, which is present in every single part of the tree, starts working in minutes. Poisoning starts with intense vomiting followed by streams of foam pouring out of the mouth. After about an hour, the convulsions start.

Normally, convulsions occur intermittently, like ocean waves. But with cytisine poisoning, the convulsing waves are so close together that your muscles permanently contract, which is called a tetanic contraction. It all culminates in a deep coma and death. Fortunately, people don’t usually die from Laburnum poisoning these days as long as they get to the hospital in time.

4Cerbera Odollam

Cerbera odollam probably has the most accurate alternate name in the entire plant kingdom: To Indian locals, it’s known as the “suicide tree.” And its reach goes far beyond suicide—according to a team of researchers who investigated a number of deaths in the southwest region of India, Cerbera odollam is the perfect murder weapon. In a 10-year period, at least 500 deaths were confirmed to be the work of the flower-bearing tree, which kills through a potent glycoside called cerberin.

Cerberin starts working within an hour. After some light stomach pain, you slip into a quiet coma, and your heart politely stops beating. The entire process takes place in about three hours. The chemical is untraceable after the fact, which is why it’s commonly used as a discreet murder weapon. A research team in India believes that up to twice as many people died from Cerbera odollam as they discovered—most likely homicide victims in cases where nobody thought to suspect foul play.

3Sanguinaria Canadensis

Commonly known as bloodroot, Sanguinaria grows wild in eastern North America. Native Americans used the blood-red roots as an ornamental dye, but they also used it to induce abortions. Enough of it will put you in a coma.

People more recently have taken to using it as a home remedy for skin cancer, with horrible results. Bloodroot contains a chemical called sanguarine, which, in addition to being a dangerous toxin, is an escharotic substance. Escharotics kill tissue and slough it off as a creamy pulp, leaving behind a dark black scar called an eschar. In other words, putting bloodroot on your skin causes your skin cells to kill themselves.

The same thing happens internally. The chemical disrupts an enzyme called Na+/K+-ATPase, which does the important job of pumping sodium out of cells and pumping potassium in. When that doesn’t happen, all functions break down.

2Adenium Obesum

Native to Africa, Adenium obesum has been used as a spear poison by tribes for centuries. The desert rose, as the preparation is called, is made by boiling the plant for 12 hours before removing all the plant matter and letting the liquid evaporate. The resulting goo is a highly concentrated poison. It’s so toxic that just a bit of the poison from a spears or arrows brings down large game before they can run 2 kilometers (1.2 mi), so hunters can stay on their trail while they gradually bite the dust.

This specific plant has been used by tribes all over Africa to kill animals as large as elephants, and now that we’ve studied it, we know why. The plant contains a chemical called ouabain, which causes almost immediate respiratory failure at high doses.

Another flower in the Apocynaceae family grows in the same region, and hunters often use it in conjunction with Adenium. It also contains ouabain, and it turns out that humans aren’t the only African natives using its killing power—the African crested rat will chew the flower’s bark and lick his hair with the toxins, turning itself into a scurrying ball of unexpected death.

1Oenanthe Crocata

In 2002, eight tourists in Argyll, Scotland decided to forage some choice water parsnips from a nearby stream. Prize in hand, they returned home and put them in a curry dish. The next day, four of them were in the hospital. What they’d thought was water parsnip was actually Oenanthe crocata, or hemlock water dropwort. The plant has mortality rate of up to 70 percent, so the group was lucky nobody died.

Hemlock water dropwort has an interesting property. It’s lethal, sure. But the killer toxin, oenanthotoxin, relaxes the muscles around your lips and forces you to smile, even when you’re in the throes of fatal convulsions. The plant has been used in Greece since at least the eighth century B.C., when Homer coined the term “sardonic grin” to describe the grisly smile adorning the faces of water dropwort victims.

Laws are passed to protect the environment or members of society. Curiously, these same supposedly progressive laws have sometimes backfired, hurting the very things or people they were supposed to protect.

This is obviously because every law has consequences. And unfortunately, it is often impossible to predict the intended and unintended effects of every law.

10 Thai Queen Drowns Because The Law Forbade Anybody From Touching Her

Nineteen-year-old Queen Sunandha Kumariratana was the queen consort and one of the three wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam (now Thailand). In 1880, she drowned alongside her daughter after their boat capsized in Chao Phraya River. They could have been rescued but weren’t because the law forbade anybody from touching members of the royal family.

In May 1880, Queen Sunandha and her daughter were traveling to their summer palace, which was right across the Chao Phraya River. She and her daughter were put on a boat, which was tethered to another boat containing their guards and servants. The queen’s boat capsized after it was swept by strong currents.^[1]

The guards and servants watched as the queen and princess struggled in the water. They could have helped but didn’t. Apparently, the law forbade anybody from touching the royals under the threat of death. Nobody wanted to risk their lives, so they just watched the pregnant queen drown.

There are also claims that superstition may have discouraged the guards and servants from helping the queen. Thais believed that saving a drowning person could anger the spirits in the water. Nevertheless, the heartbroken king sent the lead attendant at the scene to prison.

9 Vietnam Rat Control Attempt Ends Badly

In 1902, the city of Hanoi, Vietnam, had a serious rat problem. Thousands of rats were popping up around the city and infecting residents with the deadly bubonic plague. Officials soon discovered that the rats were coming from the 14.5-kilometer-long (9 mi) sewer system under the city.

In April 1902, the French-led Vietnamese government set up a task force to kill the rats in the sewers. In the first week, 7,985 rats were killed. By May, the men were slaughtering 4,000 rats a day. On May 30 alone, they exterminated 15,041 rats. By June, the team was killing 10,000 rats a day, and on June 21, they eliminated a record 20,112 rats.

However, the city was still overrun with rats despite the mass killings. So the government asked regular civilians to destroy rats in exchange for money. The government paid one cent per rat killed. Officials did not want people bringing decomposing rats to their offices, so they just asked for the tails as evidence.

The scheme seemed to be working until the government realized that the city was filled with tailless rats. It quickly became obvious that people were cutting off the rats’ tails so that the rodents could continue to breed.

If that wasn’t enough, some enterprising citizens were importing rats from outside the city and selling the tails to the government. Some farmers even created rat farms where they bred rats and sold the tails to the government. Officials canceled the program.^[2]

8 Prohibition Led To The Rise Of Criminal Gangs And Unregulated Alcohol

On January 18, 1920, the US government banned the sale of alcoholic drinks within its territory. This period is remembered today as Prohibition. However, it was unsuccessful because the alcohol market went underground. If that was not enough, it also led to the rise of American criminal gangs.

These underground bars are called speakeasies and were fully controlled by criminal gangs. This included the infamous Al Capone, who supposedly made over $100 million each year from his casinos and illegal alcohol business.

Several criminal gangs realized that there would be a lucrative black market for alcohol once Prohibition began. So they stockpiled alcohol and opened shop the moment that Prohibition started. They replenished their supplies by smuggling alcohol from Canada and Mexico and stealing medicinal alcohol supplies transported through the US.^[3]

7 Plain Cigarette Packages Makes Smoking Cheaper For Smokers

The United Nations and the World Health Organization encouraged member states to make cigarette manufacturers adopt a plain cigarette pack in an attempt to discourage smoking. Australia, France, and the UK have passed laws to make cigarette packs plain. But it is not discouraging people from smoking.

As all the packages now look alike, smokers buy the cheapest cigarettes instead of preferred brands as they previously did. This means they spend less on cigarettes than they did when the packs were branded.

Australia noted that its smoking rate did not decline even after a tax hike. Instead, the country saw an increase in illegal cigarettes flowing in. The result was worse in France and the UK where the smoking rate increased after the introduction of plain packaging.^[4]

6 Abstinence-Only Sex Education Increases Teenage Pregnancy

The US government spends a fortune on preventing teenage pregnancy. Since 1996, the federal government has spent $2.1 billion on abstinence-only sex education. According to a study, that money was flushed down the drain because abstinence-only sex education does not reduce teenage pregnancy.

According to the research, this type of sex education has no effect on teenage pregnancy in most states in the US. The results are worse in conservative states where teenage pregnancy is actually on the increase. At the same time, abstinence-only sex education failed to reduce STDs or delay the first time when teenagers have sex.^[5]

5 China’s Attempt To Produce More Food Ends In Famine

In 1958, Chairman Mao Tse-tung launched the Four Pests Campaign to encourage Chinese citizens to kill animals and insects that were considered pests by the state. These animals were sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes. Sparrows were regarded as pests because they often ate grain seeds.

Hundreds of millions of sparrows had been killed by 1960. But it would prove disastrous. While Chairman Mao was concerned with sparrows eating grain seeds, he did not realize that they also ate insects like locusts, which ate more grain seeds than sparrows. With the sparrows out of the way, the locusts freely bred and multiplied.

Locust swarms soon appeared across China, eating up every plant they could find. The result was a deadly famine that killed between 15 million and 78 million people. There were even reports of people turning to cannibalism to survive. A drought and a failed government farming policy worsened the famine, which was exacerbated when the government attempted to censor news about it.^[6]

4 Conservation Attempt Ends In Destruction

Macquarie Island is located between Australia and Antarctica. Soon after its discovery in 1810, rats sneaked out of ships to colonize the island. A lack of predators saw the rodents breed so fast that sailors brought in cats to control the rat population.

Sixty years later, some sailors dropped some rabbits on the island so that other seamen who got shipwrecked could feed on the rabbits. The cats soon turned on the rabbits. However, the rabbits survived the feline onslaught and continued to multiply rapidly. The abundance of food also caused the cats to proliferate.

The cats soon added the native birds to their diet and hunted some to extinction. The rabbits also ate some native plants to extinction. In the 1970s, the deadly myxomatosis disease was introduced to the island to keep the rabbit population in check.

The disease reduced the rabbit population from an all-high of 130,000 to fewer than 20,000 in just 10 years. However, the rapid decline in rabbits also caused the cats to eat more birds. Conservationists started to shoot the cats, and the last one was killed in 2000.

With the cats gone, the rabbit population soared again. The rabbits ate so many plants that the island’s penguins went extinct. The rabbits had eaten 40 percent of the island’s vegetation as of 2009. As a result, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service decided to rid the island of all invasive species including 130,000 rabbits, 103,000 mice, and 36,000 rats once and for all.^[7]

3 Law To Help Ex-Convicts Become Employed Stops Them From Getting Jobs

Several US states have introduced ban-the-box laws to stop employers from asking prospective employees if they have been previously convicted of crimes. The laws are supposed to help ex-convicts find work, but they are quickly becoming a nightmare for black Americans.

According to a study, employers now guess whether prospective employees are ex-convicts through racial profiling. Considering that some employers believe that blacks are likelier to have been in prison, black job seekers have a lower probability of getting called for an interview than white applicants. This type of determination is often influenced by whether the applicant’s name sounds distinctly white or black.^[8]

Before ban-the-box laws were passed in New Jersey and New York City, white job seekers were 7 percent likelier to be called for an interview than black prospects. The probability shot up to 45 percent in favor of whites after the laws were passed in these locations. Interestingly, this means that convicted white job seekers were likelier to get jobs than blacks who had never been to prison.

2 You Cannot Buy Smart Guns In The US Because Of A Progressive New Jersey Law

Smart guns (aka personalized guns) can only be unlocked and used by the owner. (Think of guns that could be unlocked with fingerprints, just like our phones.) They have been invented and would be a win for gun control if they are introduced into the US.

However, they have not been introduced—and probably never will be—due to the Childproof Handgun Law that was passed in New Jersey in 2002. The law requires New Jersey gun stores to sell only smart handguns 30 months after the first smart gun is available for sale in any state within the US.

Progun advocates say the law is an attempt at gun control and are lobbying hard to stop smart guns from getting into the US market. In 2014, a gun store in Maryland and another in California drew the ire of progun advocates after revealing plans to introduce smart guns in the US. The stores backtracked after their owners received death threats.

In 2016, New Jersey passed a bill to amend the law. According to the bill, gun stores would not need to carry a smart gun–only inventory although they would be required to have at least one smart gun model in their inventory. Then-Governor Chris Christie refused to sign the bill into law.^[9]

1 The Creation Of The US Forest Service Led To More Devastating Wildfires

The US Forest Service was formed to prevent wildfires. Interestingly, its very existence is the reason that the US experiences devastating wildfires. Prior to the creation of the US Forest Service, small natural fires happened in the Southwest every five to 10 years on average. These fires often destroyed shrubs but left the bigger trees untouched.^[10]

However, the US Forest Service prevents these small fires from burning freely. So plants that would have been destroyed in the smaller natural wildfires are spared. As a result, these smaller plants and trees become bigger and more numerous. Worse yet, they become fuel for larger natural or man-made wildfires.

In 1704, an American girl named Eunice Williams was abducted by Kahnawake Mohawks. When her parents found her, they thought she would be relieved at the chance to go home to her family. Instead, she refused. Life, she explained, was better with her Mohawks captors.

Eunice wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Puritan life was harsh and difficult—and even stricter than you imagined.

10 Christmas And Easter Were Banned

The Puritans who settled in America didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas—or any holiday. Anyone caught celebrating the birth, death, or resurrection of Christ was seen as a blasphemer who risked punishment.

According to the Puritans, celebrating holidays took away from the holiness of Sunday, “The Lord’s Day.” So everyone in a Puritan colony was required to keep showing up for work.

One Puritan diary recounts the tale of a troubling December day when a group of newcomers were caught outside, sinfully celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. When the governor spotted them, he yelled that, on Christmas, “there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets!”

The revelers fled into their homes. The entry ends by reassuring us that “[since that] time, nothing hath been attempted that way, at least openly.”

9 Adultery Was Punishable By Death

If you read The Scarlet Letter, you already know how strictly the Puritans frowned on adultery. Getting a scarlet “A” emblazoned on your dress, though, was actually getting off easy. When it came to adultery, Puritans followed Biblical laws, which meant that the punishment for adultery could be death.

You didn’t have to actually commit adultery to be punished, though. You would be publicly flogged if you even proposed it. One man, for example, was charged with propositioning another man’s wife on the grounds that he was “taking hold of her coate and inticing her by words.”

Women, of course, had the worst of it. They could even be charged for not responding properly while being sexually assaulted. Legal records tell us that one woman was charged 50 shillings for the crime of “not crying out when shee was assaulted.”

8 A Man Was Hanged For Bestiality Because A Piglet Looked Like Him

George Spencer was a balding, unattractive man with a missing eye. He wasn’t popular, either. The whole town thought he was up to something but just couldn’t put their finger on it until a pig gave birth to a piglet with one eye.

The one-eyed piglet, the people felt, was “incontrovertible proof” that Spencer had been having sex with pigs. This, they believed, was a divine message from God, who wanted them to hang Spencer.

Spencer was given two choices. He could be hanged as a sinner, or he could confess and find mercy. He decided to tell them he did it, believing that “mercy” meant he wouldn’t be killed. But they were talking about the sort of divine mercy that only comes after an angry mob kills you.

In court, he revoked his confession. But the court found him guilty anyway. Spencer was hanged, and even the pig was sentenced to death.

7 Following Other Faiths Was Punishable By Death

The Puritan colonies didn’t allow other faiths, especially the Quaker faith. Like Puritans, Quakers were Christians who believed in Jesus and the Bible. But Quakers had the gall to say that God’s original blessing was more important than man’s original sin. So obviously, they had to die.

In 1658, a law was created in Boston saying that any Quaker who did not immediately leave could be sentenced to death. Over a period of three years, four Quakers were executed.

The mass murder of Quakers only slowed down after the death of Mary Dyer. She was raised a Puritan but converted to the Quaker faith after a visit to England. She was warned never to set foot in Massachusetts again. When she did, she was hanged.

After Dyer’s execution, King Charles II revoked the legal permission that Massachusetts had been granted to murder Quakers.

6 They Took The Word ‘Cock’ Out Of The Language

The word “rooster” didn’t exist until the Puritans came to America. Until the 1600s, the only word used to describe a male chicken was “cock.” When “cock” picked up a second meaning, the Puritans were embarrassed.

It seemed indecent to have a cock on your farm or to serve cock for dinner. So the word “rooster” was created so that Puritans wouldn’t have to say something that sounded like male genitalia.

They didn’t stop there, though. Every instance of the word “cock” was excised from the English language. “Haycocks” became “haystacks,” “weathercocks” became “weather vanes,” and “cockroaches” became “roaches.”

Even names were changed. Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was an “Alcox” until her father changed their family name. He was humiliated to be the family of “all cocks.”

5 They Gave Their Kids Insane Names

Some Puritans believed that giving your child a normal name was worldly and sinful. No one with a name like “John” or “Peter,” they believed, could ever be truly devoted to Jesus Christ.

When the time came to name their children, the Puritans just labeled their kids with slogans. Puritans had some strange names like “Praise-God Barebone” and his son, “If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone.”

Even the short names were fairly strange. Kids walked around with names like “Sorry-For-Sin Coupard” and “Kill-Sin Pimple.”

Most Puritan names that came from virtues and slogans didn’t really catch on. Nevertheless, we still use a few Puritan names today. Any current “Felicity,” “Hope,” or “Prudence” was named following the same tradition that gave us the name “Abstinence.”

4 Fiddles Were Created By Satan To Make People Commit The Sin Of Dancing

According to the Puritans, the violin was a tool of the devil, created to lead innocent Christians into the sinful act of dancing. In a Puritan colony, dancing was immoral, especially dancing with the opposite sex. These were acts of raw, physical sexuality, and they risked enticing people into fornication.

However, the young people knew that other colonies were holding shameless hoedowns before the light of God without the slightest apology. They wanted the freedom to dance, too. So they created a clever work-around.

Young Puritans held “play-parties”—celebrations where young people would follow the steps in a children’s game to music so that they technically weren’t dancing. Songs like “Skip to My Lou” were written so that Puritan boys and girls could dance together—and tell their parents they were playing a kids’ game.

3 Unmarried Men Needed Permission To Enter A Town

Unmarried men were dangerous to a Puritan colony. If a man reached maturity without having a family, he was prone to drinking, gambling, and fornication. So single men could only enter a town with express written permission.

Almost every hobby that didn’t honor God was forbidden. Anyone caught adorning their shirt with laces or ruffs was seen as an excessive follower of vanity. If you were caught with a deck of cards or dice, you had to throw them away or face punishment.

Some recreation was permitted but with strict rules. Bars could sell alcohol. But they had to make sure nobody got drunk from it, and they had to close by 9:00 PM. You could go hunting, which was a way to feed your family. But to the Puritans, it was also classified as a recreational luxury.

2 Missing Church Was Punishable By Whipping

During every church service in Virginia, parishioners were reminded that they were required to attend church twice every day. If they missed it once, they would lose a day’s food. A second offense was met with a whipping, and anyone missing three days of church was sentenced to six months of rowing in a galley.

After a long voyage at sea, one man was so excited to see his family again that he kissed his wife in public—forgetting that it was Sunday. For his crime, he was charged with “lewd and unseemly behavior” and sentenced to hours of public humiliation in the stocks.

Even children were punished for not going to church. One boy was caught playing with chalk and brought in front of a court on charges of “irreverently . . . playing and recreating himself in the time of publick worship.”

1 Kissing The Bible Was Considered Blasphemy

Puritans took offense at anyone caught kissing The Holy Bible, believing that it was an act of idolatry that offended God.

Usually, that didn’t create a problem until Edmund Andros, who wasn’t a Puritan, was made governor general of New England. Andros declared that witnesses and jurors should kiss the Bible before swearing an oath in court. The Puritans were outraged.

People arranged protests by refusing to sit on juries or serve as witnesses in court on the grounds that they refused to step into a courtroom with such blasphemous rules. Andros’s rule—along with his other restrictive laws—aroused such fury in the colonists that there was an all-out revolt in Boston in 1689.

The Puritans won. Today, every American in a courtroom raises their right hand when they swear an oath—a legacy of Puritan beliefs that we still follow.

+ Further Reading

Given the historic events unfolding daily in the current presidential election, it seems fitting to spend a little time looking at more historic US lists. Here are but a few from the archives:

10 Conspiracy Theories That Helped Shape American History
10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Puritans
10 Surprising Facts About America’s First Book
10 Strange Examples Of Colonial Justice

The apocalypse could happen at any moment, so it’s best to be prepared. This list is a small assortment of techniques and tools to turn everyday household items into either deadly or extremely helpful tools of survival.

All these techniques are alternative, creative uses for these items. With the information provided in this article, we hope you can outlive the apocalypse or any sort of survival scenario that may occur.

10 Toilet Paper

With the lack of factories making medical equipment during the apocalypse, it is important to know what can be used to replace the bandage, our most common medical tool. Turns out that toilet paper, paper towels, and tissue paper can all be used as bandages in cases of absolute emergency.

However, you need to be cautious when using these tools to treat open wounds. First, any paper product will break down and leave behind fragments whenever it comes in contact with liquid. Also, many paper products are not sterile and may cause infection if used to treat the wound.

To avoid this problem, combine the paper product with a mixture of clean water and soap. Soap is a “basic” compound, so it will kill any bacteria on it. Do not use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide as they can be a health hazard if they enter the bloodstream.

Once you dissolve the toilet paper or tissue paper in the soapy water, apply the pulp lightly to the abrasion. Do not force the pulp into the cut. Just lay it on the surface of the wound. Once the pulp is secure, wrap it in dry paper to hold it there. If the wound bleeds, start over with new paper.^[1]

9 Safety Pins

Many people know that you can pick locks with bobby pins. But there is an even better way if you have some tweezers or a little patience. Lock picking is an extremely useful skill to have during the apocalypse as it gives you access to places and resources that others may not have already claimed.

Safety pins can be better for picking locks than bobby pins. For one, safety pins are skinnier and have more flexibility. Two safety pins have a broad circular point on them, which is easier to hold when used as a tension wrench.

If you have some tweezers, bend and twist the two pins apart. Be careful not to break either the broad safety case or the flat wire circle. Then pry the sharp point of the pin down like an “L” angle—this will be your tension wrench. The pin with the big broad safety case at the end will be your pick. You may want to make a slight “V” shaped bend in it for the sake of ease while lock picking.

If you don’t have tweezers, it will take a significantly greater amount of time to complete. Once you have the lock pick constructed, you want to hold each pin by the broad side and insert the narrow side into the lock. Put the tension wrench in at the bottom of the lock and give slight pressure. Then “rake” your pick across the lock’s tumblers until it opens.^[2]

8 Glass Bottles

As everyone knows, glass bottles, bowls, and vases are very good for holding water and transporting liquids. However, during the apocalypse, glass may have a far more useful and ultimately deadly application.

If society were to fall into anarchy, you’d need to defend your home and family at all costs. Some of the simplest yet most effective defenses come in the form of booby-trapping your own home.

Making your home a labyrinth of deadly or dangerous traps will make it severely unappealing for looters or marauders. Not everyone has guns, knives, and other weapons lying around. Some people may not even own the tools to make these weapons.

However, many people have glass items in their homes. If you shatter glass, you instantly have a deadly weapon. But be careful when working with broken glass. If possible, use something thick and bulky to protect your hands.

Once you have a bunch of broken glass, you have many methods of using it. First is a glass carpet, where you simply lay glass all over the ground so that people cannot walk there without foot protection.^[3]

If you have the means, an effective deterrent is to crush glass into dust and then construct dust bombs or pouches. Broken-down glass dust is extremely dangerous and can easily cause asphyxiation. You can also develop projectiles or pole weapons from broken glass so that you can fight at a range.

7 Shower Curtains

If you have to worry about fallout during a nuclear apocalypse, you may not have access to a radiation suit. Fortunately, you can easily devise a makeshift suit out of several items, including your shower curtain.

The most important material you’ll need is polyester or nylon. Either is good because each is waterproof. If you can find raincoats, windbreakers, shower curtains, and waterproof jacks that contain no organic fabrics, any of them would work fine.

If you find any metal or other absorbent fibers sutured into your suit, they must be removed or covered by the aforementioned materials. With the combination of plastic twine or duct tape, you may be able to tailor a wearable suit to keep fallout off and outside your body.

If you do not have a gas mask, it is best to put some fabric of any kind over your mouth and nose. Don’t reuse any fabrics exposed to fallout radiation. If you venture into an area contaminated with fallout while in your suit, make sure to wash down and remove any dirt or particles from your body when you return. This is why you must use either nylon or polyester waterproof fabrics.^[4]

6 Hair Conditioner

It is a lesser-known fact that hair conditioner strongly binds to radioactive fallout particles. The chemical composition of hair conditioner makes its atomic structure bind with any particle of heavily ionized or radioactive material. Knowing this, we can prevent harm to ourselves and use the highly radioactive substance against any enemies.

All sorts of weapons using pure radiation in small doses will strictly have to be employed for the long game as the effects of radiation sickness can take several weeks to years to begin. If you have an especially concentrated batch of irradiated hair conditioner, you can do one of two things to inflict harm on another person.

First, you can poison him by slowly having him ingest the compound. Alternatively, you can find a way to get the compound mixed in with his hair. If irradiated conditioner contacts human hair, it will bind the radioactive isotopes to that person’s hair, which would constantly poison him and eventually lead to an early death.^[5]

A nonhostile use for hair conditioner is to collect fallout particles to cleanse something of radiation. If you coat an object in hair conditioner, then the chemicals in the conditioner will extract most of the radioactive fallout from the object. Then you would need to thoroughly cleanse the item with water and scrubbers to remove the radioactive conditioner from the object.

5 Sugar

“Kill them with sugar” is truer than many think. The chemical composite of common table sugar is actually used in many formulas for low-yield exothermic reactions. Sugar is a prime ingredient of solid-form rocket fuel.^[6]

When you combine table sugar with potassium nitrate, which is a salt found in many home products, then you have highly flammable, superhot burning rocket fuel. Once you have created rocket fuel, there are many possibilities.

Solid rocket fuel can be used to create a lot of heat and light quickly, which is helpful with applications such as forging, melting, camping, smiting, lighting, alarming, and signaling.

As a final use for rocket fuel, you can strap little rocket packets to arrows and then create rocket-propelled arrowheads. If you create enough rocket arrows and set them up with other trapping devices, you can easily defend your home or hunt for food.

4 Notebooks

Notebooks, especially the metal-bound ones, are filled with incredibly useful items. First, the metallic spine found on most college-ruled notebooks can be removed and used for many tricks and traps. The metal coil is very flimsy and malleable, so you could use it as twine to bind two objects together.

If wrapped around with other coils, the notebook coil could be long enough to make a sturdy trip wire frame. If you had the means or the patience to dismantle and sever the metal wire, then you could also create makeshift needles, sutures, and nails from the metal fragments.^[7]

The next steps can also be applied to notebooks without metal spines because the paper and cardboard covers also have many uses. You can create makeshift window shutters with the cardboard covers. As each cover already has punctured holes in it, all you have to do is weave string through the holes and attach the string to a pulley.

The paper inside the notebook also has several uses, with one of the biggest being fuel. As the notebook companies design the paper so that it won’t burn easily, the best way to set the paper ablaze is to take each page and crumple it into a ball. This allows enough oxygen to get to the fire so that it can burn the rest of the paper.

If you have too many paper balls, they can be used as an alarm system. If someone is trying to sneak through an area, littering the space with bunches of crunchy paper balls would make it much more difficult to be silent.

3 Lighters

Pocket lighters have obvious uses such as providing light or fire. But there are many more tricks you can do with these little lighters. The first trick is a reminder that the lighter that burns twice as bright lasts half as long.

There is a special technique to make the flame on your lighter twice as big as it would be normally. First, you need tweezers or some patience if you’re doing this by hand. Remove the small plastic brace at the top of the lighter. (This only applies to the cheap plastic lighters.)

After you remove the top, you want to find the small lever that controls the height of the flame and push it all the way over to full. Then lift the lever up from its track, put it back to small, and then push the lever to full again.^[8]

The resulting flame will be twice as big and bright compared to the original flame produced by the lighter. This is useful if you need a more powerful flame for lighting something or if you are in a very dark area and need brighter light to see.

A diversionary trick with these lighters involves creating small light flashes. There are small bars of flint that look similar to pencil lead. If you heat these up and throw them against the ground, they will explode into a bright flash. You can also use empty lighters because the flint inside them is still good. Also, the more flint they have, the brighter the flash.

2 Brooms Or Mops

The most powerful and versatile weapon or tool on this list is the broomstick. It doesn’t matter if it’s metal or wood. A hefty wooden pole for bashing people is the very least of what these items can do.

Pole arms may become the best melee weapon once again in the aftermath of an apocalypse. Before the invention of the firearm, pole arms ruled the medieval battlefield. Best of all, you most likely already have one in your house.

The method is simple. Find your broom or mop handle, and remove the bristle end. Yes, it’s that easy. You now have a quarter staff with many different applications in a postapocalyptic world. If you’re clever, you can forge or “MacGyver” a spearhead onto the end of your pole. This increases its deadliness tenfold.^[9]

If you don’t use the staff as a spear or weapon, it makes a good hiking stick or an even better trap detector. A pole arm can be effectively used as an extension of your body. You can safely put your pole through suspected traps and dangers because it is better to lose the pole rather than your arm or hand.

If you are absolutely swamped with these poles or you find some nicely sized tree branches, they can all be used for defense as well. Simply sharpen the ends, stick one end of each in the ground, line rows of them up, and you have basic wooden fortifications.

1 Silverware

If the apocalypse rolls around, silverware can be used for much more than eating. However, if it’s made of actual silver and there is fallout radiation, then do not use it. Silver absorbs radioactive isotopes, easily binds to them, and becomes radioactive itself.

Each type of silverware has different applications during the apocalypse. Obviously, knives are practical as stabbing or defense weapons, but they become leagues deadlier if they are attached to poles and made into spears or pole arms for defense.

A steak knife or even a sharpened butter knife is flawed due to its short range. So you need to put them on an object that can extend your reach, which is extremely helpful in defeating foes during close encounters. Forks are helpful for stabbing your enemies as well as making effective trap devices.^[10]

With a fork, the flat end with the prongs is easily secured into flat stationary objects. This would allow you to sharpen the handle of the fork and then put the fork in the ground, secured by its prongs, to forge a sturdy stake ready for an unknowing thug to step on and gore his foot.

Spoons reinforce your pole arm or walking sick. You take 3–5 spoons and flatten them all out. Then you bend the flattened spoon parts into right angles to the handles. Melt all the spoons together on the blunt end of your pole arm. When they have all cooled, secure the spoons with twine or small nails. Now you have a sturdy, blunt melt reinforcement to your pole arm.

I am a history and science enthusiast, keenly interested in the progress and future of mankind. I have knowledge in the fields of physics, chemistry, psychology, prehistory, medieval history, European history, and American history. I am currently attending my second year of college and working toward my AS in general science. Then I hope to get my bachelor’s in psychology. I have a strong passion for writing and teaching others about the world they live in.

It’s no secret that hipsters are ridiculed. What is more opaque is the definition of a hipster, but the fact remains that being a hipster is associated with trying too hard to be different. What makes someone a hipster can be as varied as how they get their caffeine, their transportation choices, or their fashion sense. What unites all people deemed hipsters, however, is that they try to not follow mainstream trends.

SEE ALSO: 10 Reasons Millennials Are No Different From Any Other Generation

One of the ways hipsters try to avoid mainstream trends is by creating their own, but many hipster trends are not new at all. Indeed, the following ten trends are decades, and sometimes even centuries, old. Perhaps if the hipsters spent less time schmoozing with Instagram thots and more time reading their Bible, they might have heard the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes 1:10: “Nihil sub sole novum” (there is nothing new under the sun).

10Almond Milk

Before people decided to put almond milk in their coffee to save calories or avoid dairy, it was used in medieval cooking. Instead of consuming almond milk to follow a trendy diet, medieval people employed almond milk in their recipes for more practical reasons. During Lent, Christians could not eat dairy products, meat, or eggs, and almond milk served as a suitable alternative to milk. Egg and butter substitutes were also made with almond. Almond milk was also popular throughout the calendar year because of how easily milk spoiled in those days before refrigeration. It was employed not only in desserts, but also in more savory dishes with meat.

Despite the popularity of almond milk, it was a luxury. Not everyone could afford it for everyday consumption because of its high price. Instead, the majority of people would likely have enjoyed almond milk only when they were ill, as medieval doctors argued for its effectiveness in helping soothe the sick who probably needed an energy boost after the same doctors bled them. While almond milk was a drink of the wealthier classes during medieval times, lower prices today means it is more accessible and people can enjoy it in their coffee, in their cereal, or by itself without being Warren Buffett.^[1]

9 Coffee Was The Drink to Die For

A drink enjoyed by a variety of people, from hipsters to those working late-night shifts, is coffee. Much like today, Arabs in the 16th century and Europeans in the 17th century flocked to coffeehouses to enjoy the beverage and the conversation of others. While people today visit cafés and sip coffee while working on their laptops, learned people of the 17th and 18th centuries also visited coffeehouses to work. When it came time for the American colonies to rebel against the King, coffee began to replace tea as the beverage of choice in America. John Adams even wrote to his wife, lamenting of how tea was superior, but he would drink coffee to show his loyalty to the colonial cause.

While Adams may not have been fond of coffee, some people were willing to risk their lives to drink it. Under the rule of Sultan Murad IV, residents of the Ottoman Empire could lose their lives for consuming the beverage. Murad IV’s fatwa against coffee was so thorough that he would dress himself as an ordinary citizen and behead his subjects as they drank coffee. His heir made coffee a capital crime only if someone was caught drinking it twice. The reason coffee scared powerful rulers was that it stimulates ideas without disabling people in the way that alcohol does. Much like hipsters have made coffee a daily drink for millions today, forward-thinkers of previous centuries catapulted the drink into mainstream culture. Saint Drogo be praised!^[2]

Related: 10 Creative Ways To Enjoy Coffee Besides Drinking It

8 Vegetarian and Vegan Diets

Vegetarian and vegan diets have been promoted for thousands of years for a wide variety of reasons. While today such diets are sometimes criticized as affordable only for the wealthy, they were eaten by a variety of people in the ancient world. Some Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists have followed vegan or vegetarian diets for thousands of years.

Vegetarian diets (excluding eggs) were eaten by Taoist and Buddhist nuns and monks during the 4th century in China. Ancient Greek thinkers such as Apollonius of Tyana, Plotinus, and Pythagoras all followed diets that minimized the amount of meat or animal products eaten. While many people throughout history eschewed meat for religious reasons, more people today are following vegan and vegetarian diets for ethical reasons born out of secular — instead of spiritual — concerns.^[3]

Related: 9 Reasons To Reject Vegetarianism

7 Sugar Alternatives

Today people use everything from artificial sweeteners to stevia to agave nectar as a substitute for cane sugar. In the 18th and 19th centuries, people looked for alternatives to cane sugar for a different reason: slavery. Opponents of slavery saw maple syrup as a viable alternative to sugar cane. By buying maple syrup, abolitionists could sweeten their palates without the moral guilt associated with buying cane sugar.

Sugar cane alternatives were also found for purely economic reasons. During the Napoleonic wars, the British blockade left France without access to sugar cane. Napoleon turned to sugar beet as an alternative sweetener at the suggestion of French scientists. He encouraged domestic production of sugar beet, which drove down the price of sugar and transformed sweets from a luxury to an affordable treat.The amount of sugar consumed in Europe increased by nearly 300% in the 19th century alone. Nowadays, hipsters use maple syrup as a “natural” alternative to sugar and sugar beet is no longer seen as trendy or innovative.^[4]

6 Alternative Currencies

Today, alternative currencies from Bitcoin to Trumpcoin are used by people as a status symbol and a way to show political affiliation. In true hipster fashion, some people seek out alternative currencies that are obscure precisely because of their obscurity. Centuries before cryptocurrencies became mainstream, the Roman empire allowed local governments to mint their own coins. These coins were used alongside the denarius, the universal coin used in the Roman empire.

While cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are often used by customers to support libertarian ideals, alternative currencies in Ancient Rome were likely employed to foster togetherness in local communities. In Pompeii, bronze coins were frequently used instead of denarii in local and inexpensive transactions. In Ancient Egypt, lead tokens were used as an alternative form of currency during a coin shortage — likely for similar reasons as the bronze coins of Pompeii. While the concept of alternative currencies may not be new, what makes cryptocurrencies different is its decentralized nature.^[5]

Related: 10 Reasons Why Bitcoin Will Fail

5 Collecting Antiques

Before there were reality TV shows featuring enthusiastic bargainers searching for antiques and hipsters combing through consignment shops for vintage clothing, people looked at art as something to hoard. Art was amassed in ancient Egypt, Babylon, India, and China by wealthy and powerful individuals. It was a status symbol, much like jeans from the 1960s and 19th century table linens are today. The ancient Greeks began the appreciation of antique art and the Romans continued that craze once they conquered Greece. The Romans glorified Greek culture and art and wealthy Romans sought out Greek artwork to add to their collections. Much like people today buy replicas of antiques, Romans would sometimes pay to have Greek sculptures replicated. Desire for Greek art even led unwitting Romans to buy forgeries.

During the Renaissance, wealthy individuals amassed private collections of art, making Greek art popular once again. In time, however, private collections became replaced by public ones as monarchs began allowing common people to see their collections. Some individuals even gave their colections over to the public. Nowadays, people can search on eBay for antiques or visit a museum, meaning we don’t have to be hipsters or millionaires to enjoy art from the past.^[6]

4 Socks With Sandals

Socks with sandals is either the greatest footwear combination or the most grievous fashion sin ever conceived depending on who you ask. Centuries before hipsters decided that socks with sandals were fashionable, Roman legionaries donned similar footwear. In 2010, archaeologists in North Yorkshire found a Roman sandal. What was remarkable about the sandal was the traces of fibers left on it. These fibers may have been the remnants of a sock.

Romans were known to wear socks, so it would not be much of a jump to conclude that legionnaires may have worn them with their sandals. Doing so would have kept their feet insulated against the cold and protected them from thorns. While today socks with sandals are seen as a sign that one is lacking in style, Romans legionnaires likely saw the combination as a practical way to keep their feet battle-ready.^[7]

3 Leggings

Leggings have catapulted into mainstream society, but they still manage to cause controversy. Leggings have a long history of being accepted, however. On the Great Plains, Native American women wore leggings made of animal skins for modesty — bare ankles were deemed inappropriate — and to shield their legs from the elements. While in the 21st century leggings are oftentimes associated with women who practice yoga, leggings were once primarily worn by men in Europe. European leggings were first created by William Lee in the 1500s and two centuries later, they were sported by men whose jobs or leisure activities included physical labor. Women took up leggings during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the fitness craze of the 1980s and today, leggings are primarily worn by women. However, meggings are growing in popularity, though they may be more popular with hipsters than your average Joe.^[8]

2 Anti-Capitalism

Anti-capitalism is not something invented by hipsters in coffee shops sipping their caramel macchiatos with a dash of almond milk or even by Karl Marx. With the formation of capitalism came opposition to it. Although terms such as capitalism and socialism are relatively new in terms of human history, anti-capitalist sentiments have been expressed for centuries. The Greek poet Hesiod wrote of how men had fallen from the Golden Age when things were shared and humankind experienced peace to the greed and strife of the Iron Age.

Similarly, Greeks were criticized by themselves and others for their markets and merchants. In ancient Rome, merchants were vilified by thinkers like Cicero as dishonest and playwrights such as Plautus mocked them. Early Catholics and Protestants railed against merchants and John Calvin even compared them to prostitutes. Throughout history, greed has been seen as sinful and by characterizing market-driven economies as run by greed, thinkers have criticized capitalism long before the term was coined. It is little wonder, then, that anti-capitalist sentiments are still harbored today. Of course no one fails to see the irony of a hipster wearing a Che Guevara (“chay” – the “ch” is pronounced like “chain” not “shape”) tee-shirt in a Starbucks on their iPhone (except perhaps the hipster himself).^[9]

Related: 10 Reasons Why Communism Sucks

1 Hipsters Themselves

Even hipsters themselves are not new. There have always been those who have subverted social norms and hipsters are the latest group to earn the ire of mainstream society. While hipsters of the modern era draw near-universal scorn, hipsters of the 1930s to 1950s are less well-known these days. The word hipster began as an adjective, hip, used to describe those fond of jazz before becoming a noun. Black jazz musicians inspired the very first hipsters — mostly white men from well-off families — to rebel against social norms. Hipsters entertained notions of nihilism and focused on separating themselves socially from society.

Hipsters experienced a revival greater than their genesis after kids from the 1990s decided to embrace their nostalgia for times they had never lived in. As hipster culture merged with mainstream culture, alternative music and art became mainstream or forgotten. The hipsters of today are different from the first hipsters much like almond milk is used for different purposes today. While many elements of hipster culture are appropriated instead of created, hipsters do help make old ideas trendy again.

The pic above is Allen Ginsberg, the great hipster poet of the 1950s. As you can see, the modern hipsters don’t even have a unique appearance: even that is copied from the original hipsters – from the denim and plaid, to the beard and thick rimmed glasses! For a real treat, here is a video of Ginsberg reading his poem Howl which was so scandalous it led to an obscenity trial! It is one of the masterpieces of the era.^[10]

About The Author: Alexandra loves guinea pigs, reading, and writing.