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.

Neiman Marcus is the first American department store to go bankrupt during the coronavirus shutdown. “Prior to COVID-19, Neiman Marcus Group was making solid progress on our journey to long-term profitable and sustainable growth,” said CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck in a statement. “However, like most businesses today, we are facing unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed inexorable pressure on our business.”

Macy’s relies heavily on its brick-and-mortar stores and furloughed 125,000 workers during the first two weeks of the shutdown. J.Crew filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of May. JCPenney and Lord & Taylor are reportedly considering bankruptcy as well.

But the pandemic is really just one more nail in the coffin. These businesses were struggling well before the stay-at-home orders went into effect. A recent report from S&P Global Market Intelligence revealed that department stores are considered more at risk of defaulting on their loans than any other consumer sector: their odds of default over the next twelve months is 42 percent.

In 2017, Credit Suisse estimated that 20 to 25 percent of malls would close between 2017 and 2022, mainly because anchor stores like Macy’s, JCPenney, and Sears were closing.

While Neiman Marcus has not yet revealed whether it plans to close stores, many well-known brick-and-mortar stores have done just that. In 2019, major retailers closed more than 9,300 stores (up nearly 60 percent over 2018). Ten years from now, many household names may be a thing of the past. Here’s a look at once-popular stores that went out of business (or soon may).

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10 Department Stores

Department stores have long defined retail shopping. They’re the anchor stores within shopping malls. They take up the most real estate within suburban strip malls and on city retail blocks. But they’re heading for extinction.

Marshall Field’s was founded in the 19th century, and Hecht’s Department Store was founded in 1957. Macy’s purchased both brands in 2005 and converted or closed all of the stores. The following year, Macy’s retired the Kaufmann’s department store brand. But, as noted above, Macy’s (founded in 1929) faces major struggles of its own. It plans to close 125 stores over the next three years.

Bon-Ton stores (including its subsidiaries Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s, and Younkers) were liquidated in 2018. As a result, 256 stores were closed.

Filene’s Department Store, a Boston-based store founded in 1881, went bankrupt in 2009. None of its brick-and-mortar locations remain. And California-based Mervyn’s was founded in 1949 and had nearly 200 locations at its peak. In 2008, the company declared bankruptcy and closed all of its stores.

Two major department stores, Sears and JCPenney, are hanging on, but they’re in trouble. Sears (along with KMart) have closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs in the past 15 years. It filed for Chapter 11 in October 2018 and began closing stores. It was acquired by Transformco in February 2019, which announced that fewer than 200 Sears and KMart stores will continue to operate.

JC Penney had more than 1,100 stores in 2010, but its declining sales forced it to close a good portion of them. The retailer has not reported a quarterly sales gain since the 2017 holiday season. (2019 holiday same-store sales dropped 7.5 percent.) Six stores closed in early 2020. The coronavirus ultimately proved too much to take and this month JC Penney finally filed for bankruptcy.^[1]

9 Clothing Stores

There are stores that sell clothes for the entire family and those that are specialized. Some cater to children, tweens, or teens. Others focus on consumers of a particular size. And there are stores that sell only one type of merchandise: underwear, or socks, or hats, or suits.

As noted above, department stores–those that sell apparel items for every member of the family–are not doing well. But neither are many clothing-only stores.

Filene’s Basement, an off-price store that started in Filene’s department store, closed all 20 of its locations in 2011. The Limited abruptly shut down all 250 of its stores in 2017. And, in January 2019, after 123 years of business, Henri Bendel closed all 23 of its stores.

Charlotte Russe, a women’s clothing chain founded in the mid-1970s, closed more than 500 stores in April 2019. Avenue, a plus-size women’s clothing retailer, closed 222 stores in August 2019. In the same month, San Antonio-based A’Gaci closed all 54 stores. And luxury department store brand Barneys New York, which was founded in New York City in 1923, ceased operations February 2020. DressBarn announced that it will close all 650 store locations as the chain was “not operating at an acceptable level of profitability in today’s retail environment.”

Steve & Barry’s, which sold inexpensive sportswear for teens, closed all of its stores in 2009. Gadzooks, another teen clothing store, opened in 1983 and filed for bankruptcy in 2005, when it was purchased by Forever 21, which then closed all of the stores. Teen apparel store, Wet Seal, permanently closed stores in 2017 and now sells online only.

Gymboree, a chain of clothing for babies and kids, closed 400 stores under Chapter 11 protection in 2017. In January 2019, the retailer filed again and this time shut down all (more than 800) of its Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. (Gymboree merch is now being sold by its former rival, The Children’s Place.) Premium children’s brand Peek Kids closed its stores when parent company Charlotte Russe (above) went out of business. The brand is now being sold only by new owner Mamiye Brothers Inc.

The retail apocalypse, as well as declining birth rates (which hit an all-time low in 2018), forced Destination Maternity to file for bankruptcy in 2019. Only a handful of its 458 Destination Maternity, Motherhood Maternity, and Pea in the Pod stores will remain open.

Clothing stores that remain open–while closing many of their locations–include Forever21, Gap, Chico’s, Victoria’s Secret, Christopher & Banks, Francesca’s, Abercrombie & Fitch, and J. Crew, among others.^[2]

8 Shoe Stores

Brick-and-mortar stores that specialize in shoes are hurting. They’re feeling the same pinch that clothing stores are, and they’re competing with online powerhouses like Zappo’s, Shoe.com, and Amazon.

Take Kinney Shoes, for example. The store, which opened in 1894, had 467 stores at its peak. All of them closed in 1998. In the 1960s, Thom McAn had more than 1,400 Tom McAn stores. The chain closed in 1996, but the brand is still available via other retailers. In February 2019, Payless ShoeSource filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its 2,500 stores in one of the largest retail liquidations in history.^[3]

7 Toy Stores

How quaint it is to picture children peering into the colorful window of the downtown toy store! But the reality is that toy stores are simply not popular anymore. It’s not that kids aren’t playing, it’s more about what they’re playing with and how they acquire their toys. Gaming and electronics are huge even among the very young, leaving little interest in toy trains, wooden puzzles, and babydolls. And much of what kids play with can be streamed digitally.

The iconic FAO Schwarz toy store was prominently situated on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The retailer closed in 2015 but reopened three years later in a new location in Manhattan. Other toy stores were not as fortunate.

Imaginarium was an educational toy store in the 1980s. Stores started closing in the 1990s, and by 2003, its parent company Toys R Us had closed all of them. Zany Brainy stores filed for bankruptcy in 2001. K·B Toys closed all of its 1,300 stores in 2009. And Toys R Us, the toy store of all toy stores, closed in 2018.^[4]

6 Electronics and Computers

While kids and adults favor electronic entertainment to any other, the stores that sell the stuff aren’t immune to the retail apocalypse. Media Play, which opened as a big-box version of Sam Goody (see below), closed for good in 2006. Electronics chain Tweeter started in 1972 but closed all of its stores in 2008. Circuit City closed 567 stores in 2009. CompUSA, a chain founded in 1984, lost its last store in 2012. Sharper Image sells merchandise via its website, catalog, and third-party retailers, but it no longer has any stores.

And now that video games are so easy to download, players don’t have to go to a store to buy them. That’s a problem for GameStop, which has more than 5,700 locations across 14 countries. The company experienced major losses and sales drops over the past couple of years and closed nearly 200 stores in 2019. And CFO James Bell warned of a “much larger tranche of closures of the coming 12 to 24 months.”^[5]

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5 Music and Video Stores

Before consumers could stream movies and music, they browsed for their favorites in actual stores. Much of the younger set has never experienced music in anything but a digital format. Tower Records, one of the largest record stores in the 1990s, closed all of its U.S. stores in 2006.

The first Sam Goody music store opened in the 1940s, but it, too, was unable to compete with evolving music technology. By 2010, its stores had either closed or converted into other brands (like FYE). Hastings Entertainment shuttered all 123 stores in 2017. And Virgin Megastores, king of the CD market, closed all U.S. locations in the same year.

Fifteen years ago, the video rental store Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores and changed the way people watch movies. But long before Netflix changed it again, Blockbuster suffered, filing for bankruptcy in 2010. Now, only one Blockbuster store remains: in Bend, Oregon.^[6]

4 Furniture and Home Goods

Despite HGTV’s positive impact on the home improvement and home decorating businesses, furniture and home goods stores are not safe from the retail apocalypse. Levitz Furniture was founded way back in 1910, but it closed all of its stores in 2008. Linens ‘n Things had more than 500 stores in 2006 and zero stores in 2008. (The company still maintains an online presence.)

In October 2019, Hamilton Beach Brands announced that it planned to close all 160 of The Kitchen Collection stores, which sold small kitchen appliances and cooking tools. Craft-store chain A.C. Moore, shut down all of its 145 stores. Parent Company Nicole Crafts is converting about 40 locations into Michaels stores.

Bed, Bath & Beyond felt the heat and closed 60 stores in 2019. Pier 1 Imports announced plans to close 57 stores in 2020. And Z Gallerie, a home furnishings store, will close 17 of its 76 stores as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring.^[7]

3 Book Stores

Book store chains negatively impacted smaller, independent bookstores. Then, electronic readers like Kindles and digital audio apps like Audible put a hurting on the chain businesses. In the end, however, e-book sales leveled off, and the physical book did not. What changed was how real books are purchased: not in bookstores, but online.
In 1987, Barnes & Noble acquired B.Dalton Books and officially closed the bookstore in January 2010. Barnes & Noble is the biggest bookstore chain, but it has struggled and closed about 10 percent of its stores since 2011.

Waldenbooks, founded in 1933, merged with Borders in 1994. When Borders liquidated in 2011, all locations of both brands closed for good.

Family Christian Stores, which had 240 stores that sold books and other religious merchandise, closed in 2017. And LifeWay Christian Stores shut down 170 stores across 30 states.

Book World, the 45-store chain founded in 1976, announced its liquidation in December 2017. “Sales in our mall stores are down this year from 30 to 60 percent,” owner Bill Steur told the New York Times. “The internet is killing retail. Bookstores are just the first to go.” It was Amazon that replaced Book World as the fourth-largest bookstore chain.^[8]

2 Sporting Goods

Even in retail, sports are fiercely competitive.

Oshman’s Sporting Goods was founded in 1933, acquired by Gart Sports in 2001, and rebranded as Sports Authority. Sports Authority, in turn, had more than 200 U.S. locations when competition bankrupted it in 2016. It closed all of them and sold its website to Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dick’s also acquired Galyan’s Trading Post in 2004, Joe’s in 2009, and Golfsmith in 2016.

Sport Chalet, which first opened in 1959, abruptly closed all of its stores in 2016. MC Sports closed in 2017. In 2019, Advanced Sports Enterprises filed for bankruptcy protection and announced the closing of 102 Performance Bicycle stores. Sport retailer JackRabbit purchased Olympia Sports and announced plans to close all 76 of its stores.

And Modell’s Sporting Goods, which opened in 1889 and was the oldest sporting goods chain, announced in March 2020 that it would close all 115 stores.^[9]

1 Discount Chains

Saving money never goes out of style, but the way consumers shop for bargains has.

Ames Department Store, with more than 700 locations, struggled with debt and declining sales before closing all stores in 2002. Dollar Tree converted 200 Family Dollar stores into Dollar Tree stores and closed nearly 400 other Family Dollar locations.

In 2019, Fred’s discount chain closed 159 stores in May, 104 in June, 49 more in July. By the end of the year, all 520 stores were closed permanently.

And Shopko, which got its start in 1962, offered customers “quality service and low prices.” When Amazon arrived and offered the same thing, Shopko went under. It closed all 371 of its stores in 2019.^[10]

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Nature can be scary. Sometimes, more than rain, sun, fog, and snow fall out the sky. When the conditions are right, mother nature can throw storms at us that are straight out of the end times.

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Almost every miraculous wrath of god or sign of apocalypse has come true at some point or another. Trumpets have sounded from the sky; hail, fire, and blood have been thrown down to the earth; great stars have torn through the sky and poisoned our waters; and the sun itself has turned pitch black — and every time, people have panicked, convinced the end is nigh.

10 Pillars of Flame

While California was being ravaged by wildfires in 2018, people fleeing from their homes in Redding saw something straight out of the Bible. A gigantic pillar of fire, climbing up 5,500 meters into the air, descended upon their city, destroying everything in its path.

A literal manifestation of God’s wrath destroyed their homes. You wouldn’t blame them if they got a little reflective. But the thing is, during wildfires, great pillar of fires like the one that led Moses out of Egypt are actually pretty common.

These pillars of flame are called “fire tornados” or “fire whirls”, and they’re perfectly natural. They’re essentially whirlwinds that pick up flames. When hot, dry air rises and swirls into a vortex, they sometimes pick up the burning embers and debris in the wildfire around it, creating a vortex of fire.

Usually, these things are pretty small and short-lived — but some fire whirls can rise up to the clouds and last for hours, wreaking havoc as they travel at tornado-like speeds, hurling flames that burn as hot as 1,093 °C.^[1]

9 Hail Mingled With Fire

When the first trumpet of the apocalypse sounds, the Bible says, a mixture of hail and fire will be hurled down onto the earth, burning the grass and trees into cinders.

Which is pretty much exactly what happened in Canberra, the capital of Australia, in 2003. Bushfires outside the city got so out-of-control that spilled into the suburbs, and the sight was horrific.

Canberra looked like Sodom and Gomorrah. Lightning crashed without rain, a pillar of fire 10,000 meters high and 300 meters wide ravaged the city, and—just like in the apocalypse—hail and fire fell together. And, just to make things creepier, the hail was black.

Scientists believe that the hail turned black because ash and soot got mixed up with the water vapor in the clouds, creating a black, dirty hail that actually gets mixed up inside of the smoke plume.

It all makes for a horrifying sight—but in Australia, the dry air can make bushfires brutal enough that this has happened more than once. In some parts of the world, the first sign of the apocalypse is just something to watch out for whenever there’s a fire.^[2]

8 Trumpets Sounding in the Sky

On Aug. 11, 2011, a woman in the Ukraine uploaded a video to YouTube of a strange, groaning, metallic sound emanating from the sky. It sounded like something out of a horror movie, or an alien invasion, or—as some pointed out—like trumpets blaring in the sky.

On its own, it was creepy enough — but over the coming months and years, more and more people uploaded more and more videos online. Today, there have been literally hundreds of these videos uploaded from every corner of the world.

While some of those videos were hoaxes from people trying to join a trend, noises like these really do happen. Whole towns have have lived through these kinds of strange sounds, and nobody’s completely sure what causes them.

Some have been chalked up to the rumblings of tsunamis or meteors, while others have been credited to the small earthquakes below the surface emitting the sounds of the earth’s crust moving underfoot.

Whatever it is, it’s hard not to feel a little terrified when you hear trumpets blast from heaven. But when you live with it, it’s nothing short of hell.

“It’s maddening… It won’t go away,” one woman in Rochester has said. “I don’t care what it is. I honestly don’t care. I just want to identify it and get rid of it.”^[3]

7 Blood Rain

In July 2018, the Siberian city of Norilsk became coated in scarlet. A blood-red rain fell down from the sky, covering the buildings, vehicles, and roads, and staining people’s clothes red.

It was a horrifying sight — but of all the apocalyptic plagues that mother nature likes to throw at us, this one’s actually the most common of all.

Countless blood-red storms have fallen throughout history, with the earliest records tracing all the way back to ancient Greece. Typically, these storms start when red sand from the desert gets mixed up with the rain, sending down something that looks more than just a little like a death metal music video.

It’s so common that, technically, the process that leads to “blood rains” hits the United Kingdom several times each year. Typically, those rains end up more of a brownish-yellow than red, but other than the color they really are the same thing.

The one that hit Norilsk was actually caused by rust residue from a factory, but, as terrifying as it looked, it still wasn’t real blood — even if a few of the people it fell on were convinced it really was.^[4]

6 Plagues of Frogs And Flesh

On Aug. 4, 1921, the people of Calgary found themselves right in the middle of an Egyptian plague. Without warning, the sky opened up above them a torrent of frogs can crashing down upon them just like rain.

It was pretty terrifying — and it’s also pretty common. Or, at least, as common as a Biblical plagues in real-life can be. Frogs have fallen in Japan, Hungary, and Uruguay, as well, while other parts of the world have been showered by fish, worms, jellyfish, octopuses, lizards, and almost anything else you can imagine.

It’s believed that the animals get sucked up by tornadoes passing over bodies of water, then are thrown back onto the earth, often far enough away from where they were picked up to leave the poor people pelted by frogs and fish completely clueless as to what they could have done to deserve this.^[5]

5 Rivers of Blood

Raining frogs aren’t the only Egyptian plagues that hit the earth on a semi-regular basis. Just like the rivers of Egypt, waters all around the world have reported spontaneously turning blood red.

Just recently, in Dec. of 2018, people in Dedza, Malawi broke into a panic when they found the Linthipe River running red. This, some of them insisted, was a sign — and, even when geologists explained that a red oxide mine had contaminated the water, plenty of people still insisted that it was real blood.

It wasn’t, of course. Contaminations like this one happen all the time. The Daldykan River in Siberia, which is near a metallurgical plant, has turned red on five separate occasions. In fact, even one of the biggest rivers on earth—China’s massive Yangtze—turned blood red in June 2018.

Usually, it isn’t really blood changing the color of the water — but there is one exception.

In Sept. 2017, a blockage in sewage pipe at a slaughterhouse in Jianxi caused blood and waste from dead pigs to fill the Lianxi River, turning the water supply red — and this time, it really was blood.^[6]

4 A Star Called Wormwood

In 2007, there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon upon the fountains of waters. And many men became ill of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Nobody specifically reported hearing an angel sound a trumpet before it happened, but otherwise, the 2007 Carancas impact event pretty well perfectly fits the description of apocalypse.

A meteor crashed into the earth just outside of the city of Desaguadero, Peru, landing with such an impact that the windows at the local health center shattered, leaving a crater 30m wide and 6m deep.

Water rushed up from under the ground after the meteor hit and filled the crater, and, by the time people came close enough to see it, that water was boiling. It was also emanating a gas so toxic that anyone who came near it became physically ill, often ending up hospitalized after they fell into spells of nausea and vomiting.

That’s pretty terrifying — but it has a scientific explanation. Scientists believe that the meteor opened up a channel of groundwater that had contaminated with a sedimentary deposit full of methane gases, which was what got the people sick.^[7]

3 Literal S—— Showers

Sometimes it feels God just opened the sky and pooped on your head, but when people complained about that in 2018 in Canada, it wasn’t just a metaphor. The country, for about a year, was overcome by an epidemic of feces falling from the sky.

One lovely Canadian family were enjoying a leisurely ride home when feces from the sky fell directly through their open sunroof and onto their heads.

“My son threw up,” the mother has told reporters. “We had so much in our faces. Both of us, our faces were covered in poop.”

Mother and son alike ended up with a rough case of pink eye — and they aren’t the only ones who have gone through it. 18 separate cases of falling feces were reported in Canada in a single year, with one family having it rain down on them while lounged on their back decks.

It’s not entirely clear why this happens. Transport Canada insists that the feces couldn’t have come from their airplanes, leaving scientists to expound on wild theories about flocks of ospreys and herons. One things for sure, though — sometimes, life really does poop on your head.^[8]

2 Blood-Splattered Snow

In May 1818, as Capt. John Ross and his crew were searching through the Arctic for the Northwest Passage, they discovered something eerie on the coast of Greenland. The cliffs were streaked with what the men described as “so dark a red as to resemble port wine.”

It’s a phenomenon that’s been given the cutesy name of “Watermelon Snow”, but it’s hard not to find it a little creepy. In the right parts of the world, you can wake up to find the snow outside looking a murder scene, splattered with blood.

Ross and his team popularized watermelon snow for the modern world, but as far back as Aristotle, people have been recording sightings of this strange phenomenon.

It forms during particularly hot days. When the sun melts the snow, sometimes, an algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis will bloom, turning the snow red or pink. This also speeds up the melting process, often leaving behind eerie little blood-red pools when the snow dissipates.

Not only is it creepy, but it can even be dangerous. Eating watermelon snow is said to have a laxative effect, a fact discovered by those special souls who, when confronted with freak of nature, still can’t resist the urge to put it in their mouth.^[9]

1 Days of Darkness

On the morning of May 19, 1780, the sun rose in the sky, changed its mind, and decided to go back down again.

Across New England and parts of eastern Canada, people watched in confusion as the morning sky darkened and, soon, turned completely black. By noon, it’s said, it was as pitch black as midnight.

It would have been creepy for anyone to see, but for a pack of Puritans who were deeply familiar with the Biblical passage promising that, in the end times, the sun would not shine for a third part of a day, it was nothing short of terrifying.

The good people of New England took this as a sure sign that the end was nigh, confessed their sins, gathered out, and waited for rapture.

The world didn’t end, of course, but nobody’s completely sure why it happened the sun went dark that day. There was no eclipse, there were no volcanic eruptions that could have blocked out the sun, and there’s no definitive answer as to what could have caused it.

We do know, however, that’s happened at least once since. In 1950 in Alberta, the sky turned so black that, in the words of one environmentalist: “If you’d woken up at noon you’d have believed it was midnight.”

The cause, that time, was a distant forest fire that had emitted enough smoke to block out the sun — which may very well have been what caused that black night that scared so many Puritans.

But who knows for sure. Maybe the world really did end in 1780, and now we’re in a hellish apocalypse where blood rains from the sky and pillars of flame ravage our cities.

I mean, that’s probably not what happened. But technically, it’s theoretically possible.^[10]

About The Author: Mark Oliver’s writing also appears on several other sites, including The Onion’s StarWipe and Cracked.com. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.

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Most of us believe that the idea of zombies should be confined to the horror section of our preferred movie providers. However, such an idea is a lot closer to reality than many of us might think.

Now, it probably won’t happen in the dramatic, explosive way typically portrayed in the movies. However, major potential exists for such an outbreak—particularly if a virus suddenly mutates and causes what we can only term a “zombie infection.” In fact, an outbreak of this kind could lead to a desperate situation.

See Also: Top 10 Zombie Apocalypse Conspiracy Theories

10 The CONOP 8888 Files

In 2014, Gordon Lubold came into possession of intriguing classified US military documents dated April 30, 2011. In them, he discovered details of a genuine US military plan to combat a zombie outbreak. Wording such as “isolating the threat” and “evil magic zombies” was regularly used.

With the spotlight suddenly placed on the documents, the military was forced to respond. They stated that the word “zombies” should not be taken seriously. It was simply used in place of highlighting one specific target or another. They insisted that this would make the program easily adaptable to multiple situations. It would also avoid a “diplomatic incident.”^[1]

This certainly makes sense, especially from a diplomatic foreign relations viewpoint. However, many in conspiracy circles were not convinced. Instead, they insisted that the apparent leak of information was exactly that. Quite often, the truth is found somewhere in the middle of two opposing viewpoints. However, when we view some other entries on this list, it is easy to see why the military might have such a planned response.

9 The Disturbing Claims of Peter Cummings

Peter Cummings, a scientist from Boston University, states that several diseases and conditions already exist that could cause someone to be viewed as a zombie. A “zombie apocalypse” might even seem possible if an outbreak of these conditions spread rapidly and mutated.

According to Cummings, the key to understanding the potential for these conditions to produce zombie traits was to examine the shutdown of the frontal lobe of the brain. He claimed that this resets the mind to its primal survival instincts, which is a zombielike state.

Even more interesting—and disturbing—are some cases from history. For example, several people were already suffering from such a condition during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. These individuals experienced encephalitis lethargica in connection with the flu virus.^[2]

They fell into a stupor and eventually became catatonic. However, any “stimulation” from another person during this time made these patients “go berserk.” For what it’s worth, Cummings works in an advisory capacity for the Zombie Research Society, “an organization dedicated to the historical, cultural, and scientific study of the living dead.”

8 A Virus Like Rabies Could Mutate and Create Zombies!

When thinking of zombies, most people conjure up images of the dead rising from their graves. However, in 2010, Samita Andreansky from the University of Miami claimed otherwise.

She stated that the rising dead was an unlikely scenario, but the mutation of a virus similar to rabies wasn’t. Furthermore, she warned that this mutated strain could spread around the world and cause a condition almost identical to the typical view of a zombie.

If such a virus took hold of the world’s population, the outlook for humanity would be dire. This type of virus could spread quickly, and it would probably wipe out the human race.^[3]

Perhaps we should take such a scenario seriously. For example, what if an individual or a group of people take it upon themselves to create a mutation of such a virus for the so-called “greater good” of the planet?

7 Many Tribes Have Ancient Traditions of Zombies

Of course, many of the rituals, traditions, and legends of zombies come from the indigenous peoples of Africa and their voodoo legends. What’s more, these practices date back to antiquity. According to the creation stories and mythologies of the regions, voodoo came “from the Gods.”

With the slave trade, these traditions and practices made the journey to many parts of the Americas. This was particularly true in the southern regions of the United States, especially in the state of Louisiana.^[4]

In recent times, Haiti has become one of the epicenters of modern cases of “zombies.” In fact, the notion of voodoo permeates the mindset of the population. However, it is usually called ”hoodoo” in Haiti.

6 Wade Davis Claimed to Have ‘Unlocked the Secret’ of Creating Zombies

Without a doubt, one of the most controversial claims of real-life zombies came from Wade Davis of Harvard University. Davis traveled to Haiti and spent years there in the early 1980s. He claimed that he had “unlocked the secrets” of what exactly turns people into zombies.

Davis’s claims that criminals were turned into zombies in antiquity to stop their wayward behavior were even more intriguing. This also acted as a brutal deterrent to others as it was akin to being sentenced to death.

Davis claimed to have gained such knowledge by studying hoodoo priests of the region and eventually gaining their trust. Ultimately, he stated that creating zombies was achieved through a mixture of secret natural toxins.^[5]

Many people rejected his findings. Others believed that such discoveries, if true, would be of great interest to secret military projects. However, there is no evidence that the military ever examined Davis’s claims.

5 ‘People Have Been Called Back From the Dead’ in Haiti

Researcher Zora Neale Hurston has performed some of the most exhaustive studies of zombies in Haiti. Almost half a century before Davis, Hurston claimed that “people have been called back from the dead.” Supposedly, she had also witnessed real “zombies in Haiti.”

In one intriguing account, Hurston tells of being invited to study hoodoo rituals up close. Most people were not granted such access. A hoodoo priest permitted the unique opportunity, and Hurston eventually performed several rituals herself.

However, the account in her 1938 book, Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, really grabbed people’s attention. Hurston claimed to have witnessed the rising of a dead woman, Felicia Felix-Mentor. This zombie had a “blank face with the dead eyes” and was a “dreadful sight.”^[6]

4 Zombies of the Animal World

There are many examples of zombies in the animal world. This is a concern to people who track the rumblings of the conspiracy field. The main worry is that these natural methods will be replicated in a science lab and used against the general population. It is easy to understand such concerns.

For example, many natural zombies are created when a parasite enters an animal’s nervous system through the food chain. The parasite will take over the animal’s movements. This is most often an effort to bring the animal out into the open and in full view of its natural predators. When successful, the parasite then passes along to the predator in the same way as it entered the originally infected host.

Even some fungi “attract” and then “target and infect” certain insects that feed on the fungi. However, the fungi cells then slowly take over the insects’ cells and, eventually, their entire movements. One fungus appears to target carpenter ants. According to Penn State’s David Hughes, this turns the animals into “a fungus in ants’ clothing!”^[7]

3 A Zombie Virus Is Why Aliens Have Not Visited Earth

Stephen Kane, an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside, certainly has a unique theory as to why aliens have not visited Earth. In 2014, he claimed that space travel in the past had left such astronauts stranded as zombies on an unknown planet.

Kane used a formula similar to the Zombie Drake Equation. He looked at how many plagues had hit humanity over the centuries. From this, he figured that the same thing had likely happened from space travel in the past.^[8]

Kane believed that our solar system “should” be full of life. However, germs, bacteria, and viruses likely made the journey with these ancient space travelers and probably created zombies of the unknown planet’s population—as well as the ancient space explorers themselves.

It is certainly a chilling prospect—especially if humans ever venture beyond the Moon or even Mars. If these potential space explorers do return from such a journey, might they bring back something as deadly as a “zombie virus”—one that might kill all life on our planet?

2 If It Happened, It Would Happen Fast!

One thing is certain: If such a zombie virus did spread, it would do so quickly. In addition, it would infect a large portion of the world’s population equally rapidly. Perhaps, we only need to look at how quickly flu viruses traverse the world to appreciate this.

Let’s imagine a “zombie bug” did enter the general population. It would probably take the world’s scientists and medical experts by complete surprise and on the back foot. Especially if such a virus was unleashed intentionally by an extremist of some kind.^[9]

If such an unlikely scenario occurred, it really could result in a desperate situation for humanity—one so dire that we just might not recover. When we view the idea of zombies in those terms, the prospect doesn’t appear so laughable regardless of how unlikely it is to happen.

1 Zombie Drugs and Mind Control

Some researchers insist that the intelligence world is seeking to turn people into zombies through the use of drugs and mind control. Of course, most people scoff at and dismiss such claims. And they might be right to do so. After all, there is little proof of such outlandish actions taking place behind closed doors.

But what if such a conspiracy was unfolding discreetly under the collective noses of mankind?^[10]

Surely, the proof would be hard, if not impossible, to obtain. Obviously, it would be very much within the interests of those overseeing such a conspiracy to keep it secret. They would most likely do this by calling such claims “crazy.” This is much the same way that many UFO witnesses are treated. It is certainly food for thought.

About The Author: Marcus Lowth is a writer at Me Time For The Mind and Me Time For The Mind on Facebook.

How to survive a zombie apocalypse? “The Zombies are invading the world!” Well, Zombies are really invading the world of television nowadays. Zombies are still far from invading the world that we live in at the moment but have managed to find a sanctuary and a world to conquer in television series and movies instead.

If ever that dreaded day of the dead rising again to eat the living does arrive, can we manage to survive? With human’s basic instinct for survival and many other skills at tow, keeping one’s self alive and probably dying naturally instead of being consumed alive by a zombie is possible. Harness your basic survival skills and follow the top 10 ways to survive a zombie apocalypse.

Top 10 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

10. Exercise Regularly

Keep yourself in top shape. You should be able to run fast and know how to defend yourself from the Zombies as well as humans that may potential pose a threat to your existence. You only have one body in this life; you might as well take care of it to live further in a Zombie infested world.

9. Make Knives and Weapons Your Favorite Collection

Having a close to unlimited supply of knives and pointed objects and home allows you to have a permanent weapon against the Zombies. Guns are appealing though but if you do not have an unlimited source of ammunition, arrows, bolos, and other pointed weapons are better off to be your weapons. Keeping weapons handy is one of the several ways to survive a zombie apocalypse.

8. Make Target Shooting Your Hobby

Make your spare time productive. Practice throwing knives and make it a hobby. You’ll have your everyday exercise and you’ll feel more confident in your next “run” for supplies outside your walls. Practice on moving objects as well so that you’ll never miss a target in case you ran on a Zombie while outdoors.

7. Raise Animals Inside Your Property

Believe it or not, it is one of the easiest ways to survive a zombie apocalypse. Meat and protein is important to keep you strong and healthy to live longer in a Zombie infested world. Thus having dairy and meat available for consumption is necessary for your existence. Raise animals like chicken and goats in your “safe zone.” They are easy to feed and do not smell a lot compared to raising pigs.

6. Know How to Use Medicinal Plants

You will definitely run out of medicines, and even if you don’t, most medicines will reach their expiry date eventually. For basic medicinal needs, medicinal plants and herbs will do the trick. Have several medicinal plants available in your safe zone area. Several plants and herbs can provide treatment for cough, infections and fever. Tea leaves are also basic organic medicinal plants you can have in your Zombie free zone.

5. Learn To Use Renewable Energy

Renewable energy can be converted to electricity and can come handy surviving in a zombie world. Gas produced from human and animal waste can be harnessed into energy. You can use this energy to generate electricity and charge several appliances in your “safe zone.” Learn to conserve the energy that you generate though, to be able to use it during critical emergencies.

4. Have Deep Water Well in the Property

Having an endless source of water is one of the top 10 ways to survive a zombie apocalypse. Rain is a safe source of drinking water in case the world crumbles with crawling and walking undead. However, you can also have an alternative source by having a deep well inside your “safe zone.” These water sources are usually from aquifers that are naturally occurring underground.

It is better to have different sources so that your water supply will never be compromised. Have big drums and water storage stocked specifically for summer time when water is scarce. Always boil the water that you will drink whether it’s from the rain or from underground.

3. Know How to Build a Fire

Fire is used for cooking, boiling water and keeping yourselves warm. It is also your source of light at night. You can practically start a fire with some dry leaves and a microscope during the day. At night, you can use the extra coal that you managed to create during the day and make fire from sticks and stones.

Constant practice will allow you to easily build a fire even without gasoline, a lighter or a match. If you are still having a hard time creating fire, you can use a small amount of candle wax to help you work out in getting a fire lighted. Fire building skill will not just save you in a zombie infested world but in a non-zombie world too.

2. Stay In a Well-Vegetated Area with Plenty of Fruit Bearing Trees

Now that you are securely protected inside the premises of your Zombie free sanctuary, the next thing to worry about is food. Designate an area where you can plant vegetables, corn, potatoes and other crops. It would also be a bonus if you have fruit bearing trees inside your “safe zone.” A basic knowledge in agriculture and farming will allow you to regenerate your food source.

Your chances of getting bit by a Zombie while running errands to search for food will be minimized if you will generate a source of food within your walls. Choosing to live in certain well-vegetated areas are ways to survive a zombie apocalypse.

1. Build Tall and Sturdy Walls

Tall and sturdy walls are your first line of defense against these flesh eating creatures. And we can’t press enough how important wall building is among the 10 ways to survive a zombie apocalypse. Find a big area that is surrounded by tall, thick and concrete walls. It would be better if these walls have extra features like barbwires on top of it or pointed angular bars that will keep off trespassers from entering your premises.

A strong gate is also recommended, one made of steel with that is solid. It would be better to have two gates so that you can always use the other one, to enter or go out of the area in case the other gate is compromised. A regular guard should also be placed to make their rounds around your wall and your gate.

Learn about some more steps to surviving an apocalypse (according to National Geographic).

Top 10 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

1. Build Tall and Sturdy Walls
2. Stay In a Well-Vegetated Area with Plenty of Fruit Bearing Trees
3. Know How to Build a Fire
4. Have Deep Water Well in the Property
5. Learn To Use Renewable Energy
6. Know How to Use Medicinal Plants
7. Raise Animals Inside Your Property
8. Make Target Shooting Your Hobby
9. Make Knives and Weapons Your Favorite Collection
10. Exercise Regularly

Written by: Joie Gahum

Readers – the end is nigh. Any day of the week there always seems to be some terminal apocalypse just around the corner, poised to finally bring ruin to us all – and severe distress to the gullible. This is true not only in relation to the 2012 Mayan prediction, but regularly throughout human history – going right back to pre-Roman times.

Why our fixation? Writing strictly on a not-for-prophet basis, here are the Top 10 reasons for our obsession…

Much stems from our difficulty in grasping the tiny walk-on part we all have amid the sprawling enormity of deep time. The human brain just can’t compute the vastness of it. For many, the world doesn’t only revolve around us – it stops around us too. 1 in 7 people in the world right now believe it will all end during their lifetime.

The idea of an apocalypse pushes all the right buttons at a psychological level because the idea of ‘there’s no meaning’ is a little freaky. It represents the fundamental struggle between order and chaos.

Human societies have always tried to create some kind of framework of meaning to give history and our own personal lives some kind of significance.

Apocalyptic predictions are a way for people to try to control the way their (and others’) world works.

The one thing we can never predict is the time and manner of our own deaths. What you get during times of particular discontent – war, famine or general bad times – is a rise in apocalyptic preaching and ideas. And at those times we seem to lap it up like there’s no tomorrow.

Immanuel Velikovsky, writer on ancient catastrophes, had an unsettling theory that mankind blocks its memory of the failure of civilizations of the past, while simultaneously desiring those catastrophes – much like a collective death wish.

Considering war, global warming, financial collapse and other ways we might collectively destroy ourselves – this is a little worrying. But we need to distinguish between the end of our species (far more likely) and the end of the planet (highly unlikely).

Life can seem grindingly dull sometimes. Same job, groundhog day – yawn, as the hipsters say.

Wouldn’t a little injection of chaos alleviate all that crap? After all, aren’t depictions of apocalyptic events from the movies downright sexy? We’re sure we’d have Milla Jovovich or Megan Fox running around in tight leather pants saving the world. Might spice up a dull Wednesday morning, non?

…by every single religion. Those in the West are probably most aware of Christian eschatology (religious theory about the end of the world). Until recently it was taken as a given by many believers that the Second Coming and the end of the world were imminent. It’s easier to control a population that clings to a terror of some looming destruction, after all.