No one likes getting sick. Debilitating illnesses drain your energy and cause all kinds of nasty fluids to come out of your body. If allowed to spread, these diseases can decimate an entire population. As bad as that sounds, fiction is arguably worse.

Writers have fashioned countless crazy plagues across the storytelling realm. Their insane symptoms are obviously great for shock value, but what’s scarier is how plausible these sicknesses sound. When explaining the viruses, creators often use real illnesses as foundations. That inspiration aids in authenticity, but it can also make you paranoid. After seeing such believable pandemics play out onscreen, you start to question whether they could actually happen. Soon, you’ll be afraid to catch a cold.

Related: Top 10 Disaster Movie Clips Critiqued By Experts

10 Red Flu

The Last Ship (2014–2018) may seem like just a naval action show, but it really revolves around a worldwide pandemic. Dubbed the “Red Flu” by some parties, this disease stems from an ancient plant virus buried in the Arctic. Touch helps transmit it, but you can also get sick from breathing contaminated air. Once infected, you suffer from intense fevers and exhaustion. You then develop grotesque lesions all over your body before your system shuts down. The sickness works quickly and efficiently.

That efficacy lets the virus wipe out most of the globe. It easily erodes entire governments, leaving the world in chaos. As bad as that is, you might be more disgusted at what it does to the survivors. Several cultlike leaders use the crisis to frame themselves as saviors and seize power. As much as it bonds the navy sailors, strife of this scale also brings out the worst of humanity.^[10]

9 Vampirism

It’s no secret that vampires can bite humans to turn them into other vampires. It only takes reading books like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire or watching TV shows like True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to understand this. However, The Strain (2014–2017) boils that process down to medical science. Rather than fangs, a tendril shoots out of the monster’s mouth and latches onto its victim. It uses this tool to suck blood, but it serves another purpose as well.

Feeding on humans injects wormlike organisms into their systems. These little parasites gradually alter their organs, transforming their targets into hairless husks. Their only purpose is to serve their higher vampire masters. Starting in New York City, this biological warfare is enough to cripple the metropolis, along with the rest of the country. Suffice it to say, these vampires are a far cry from the sexy, sparkling kind.^[2]

8 MEV-1

It doesn’t take a doctor to know that a film called Contagion (2011) concerns a plague. The title refers to a virus called MEV-1. This illness begins in fruit bats and pigs before jumping to humans. From there, infection from fellows is easy. The disease transfers through close contact. That doesn’t just refer to skin but also sweat, saliva, and breath. The ensuing pandemic is fraught with fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, seizures, and whatever other crippling symptoms you can imagine. After a few agonizing days, the afflicted die. Worse still, the virus maintains that speed on a global scale.

The sickness severely hinders the population. Legions of people are dead before they know it, and the remainder line crowded hospitals, pandemic shelters, and dirty streets. Although MEV-1 isn’t quite enough to topple governments or bring forth an apocalypse, it does breed desperation from both professionals and civilians. No one knows how to isolate the infection or synthesize a cure. Even when the doctors engineer a vaccine, they must figure out a means of distribution. Those hurdles ground the movie in uncomfortable realism, which only makes it more unnerving.^[3]

7 Cordyceps

While The Strain grounds vampires in medical science, The Last of Us (2023– ) attempts the same for zombies. This post-apocalyptic franchise sees the Cordyceps plant fungus mutate beyond anything on record. It soon evolves enough to infect humans. Starting at their brains, it slowly morphs them into feral beasts—covered in fungal growths and focused only on killing. It goes without saying that bites can transmit the disease, but dead specimens release spores, which are arguably more effective if you breathe them. In short, the human race has no chance.

It’s not surprising that this new form of Cordyceps kills most of the planet’s population. Humanity has no idea how to combat it with science, so the only option is to fight it conventionally. This desperation turns friends and family against each other. Characters must execute their closest allies or risk getting infected themselves. Such ruthless tactics are undoubtedly isolating, but they’re the only way to survive.^[4]

6 Catriona Plague

World-hopping sounds fun, but it presents a grave danger to everyone around. If travelers aren’t careful, they can introduce foreign objects into an environment, throwing off the whole ecosystem. That’s the mistake that Ciri makes in The Witcher series (2019 – ). As she jumps between worlds, she lands in a port afflicted by bubonic plague, specifically the Black Death. The residents suffer from fevers, aches, swelling, and lack of energy. A bug from this forsaken place hitches a ride on the heroine’s clothes as she teleports back, thereby heralding disaster for her own world.

The bug then jumps to a rat on a ship bound for Ciri’s homeland, and the rest is history. The sickness spreads across the Continent with little difficulty. The denizens of this medieval fantasy realm don’t have the knowledge or tools needed to combat it. Although the illness is technically nonfictional, who knows how it could mutate in the face of Elves, Dwarves, and magic? That unpredictable lethality soon fills hospitals to the brim with the dead and dying. In the end, the losses resulting from this “Catriona Plague” rival those of the war shortly before.^[5]

5 Heart Virus

This sickness differs from other entries in that it only affects one person. That may sound like a walk in the park, but try telling that to the patient. Goku, the overarching hero of Dragon Ball, contracts this mysterious heart virus shortly after returning from his space travels. It gives him the usual fever and exhaustion, but it also puts him in agonizing pain. Not only is he unable to fight, but he can’t even get out of bed. That’s after taking the cure.

The virus on its own is enough to kill him entirely. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens in an apocalyptic future. For perspective, Goku is among the mightiest warriors in the universe. He withstands the most terrible attacks you can imagine, yet this virus puts him down for the count. Normal folks wouldn’t stand a chance against such an illness.^[6]

4 Simian Flu (ALZ-112)

The best intentions can easily go wrong. The Simian Flu originates as a cure. Namely, Dr. Rodman engineers it to combat Alzheimer’s, testing it on chimps to stimulate brain activity. When a test subject unexpectedly gives birth, her offspring shows immense intelligence. Unfortunately, this young chimp—dubbed “Caesar”—is soon on the receiving end of human cruelty. He retaliates by releasing an airborne version of the serum, granting similar sharpness to his fellow apes. What no one foresees is its effect on people.

The serum knocks the humans off the top of the food chain, paving the way for the modern Planet of the Apes series. The initial strain causes victims to cough up blood and eventually die. That alone eliminates most of Earth’s residents and power structures. The survivors appear to have natural immunity, but the serum is only gestating. The remaining humans eventually lose all higher brain functions, starting with their ability to speak. That downward spiral frees the apes to cage them like beasts. Oh, how the tables have turned.^[7]

3 Greyscale

This dermatological disease is hard to contract and harder to get rid of. Introduced in A Song of Ice and Fire, Greyscale can only transfer through direct contact. That’s a simple prospect in itself. When a swarm of infected individuals attacks you, though, it becomes difficult to dodge. Thankfully, you can easily avoid these mobs by staying out of the areas that they frequent. Such caution is in your best interest.

Greyscale equates to slow and steady suffering. It’s generally nonfatal, but it causes children to become malformed as they grow. For adults, the sickly scales spread across the body, gradually driving the patient insane. Victims have one hope for salvation, but it only brings further pain. Treatment involves carving and peeling the scales off. This process is downright excruciating. It essentially amounts to skinning a person alive. Given that degree of torture, Greyscale is more hazardous than the titular Game of Thrones.^[8]

2 Geostigma

As foreign organisms, aliens run a clear risk of infecting humans. Few invaders are more malevolent than Jenova. This extraterrestrial woman touches down prior to Final Fantasy VII. After being an unwilling test subject, her dissected corpse falls into the Lifestream: the mystical liquid infused into the planet and its people. That unholy mixture has gruesome consequences down the line.

Advent Children (2005), FFVII’s film sequel, introduces Geostigma. This sickness arises from the infected Lifestream, which spreads to the planet’s innumerable residents. Alien matter infiltrates their bodies, causing their systems to fight back with antibodies. The catch is that the bodies overcompensate and collapse. Victims then develop sores and excrete black goo before finally dying. Although anyone can contract Geostigma, it ravages the world’s children first due to their weaker constitutions. Of course, another illness inflicts much more damage in that respect.^[9]

1 Infertility Epidemic

Sometimes, the simplest problems are the most difficult to solve. Children of Men (2006) provides ample evidence of that sentiment. The Infertility Epidemic does exactly what the name suggests. It renders humans unable to produce children. While the story never states the exact cause of this disease, it actively explores the ramifications. Needless to say, they are terrifying.

Society completely collapses thanks to this single issue. Extremists incite their followers to violent tactics, and governments enact totalitarian regimes to maintain control. Meanwhile, everyday people sink into hopelessness. Human beings, like any animal, have an instinct to procreate. Taking that away not only robs them of purpose, but it also prevents the species from continuing. The inevitable endpoint is extinction. That fact makes this sickness deadlier than any other.^[10]

There are plenty of foods that are either named after places or are assumed to come from certain places. The following is a list of certain food origins that we’re frequently wrong about.

10German Chocolate Cake

German chocolate cake is delicious, but its name is lying to you; it’s not German at all. It was named after a German, though: a man named Sam German. He didn’t invent the cake itself, but back in 1852, he created a chocolate bar. It was different from normal chocolate (at the time) because it was made for cooking, and it came to be called Baker’s German Sweet Chocolate.

The first time the recipe for this cake was published was way back in the late ’50s. It was advertised in a Dallas newspaper and became popular almost immediately. The demand for German’s baking chocolate skyrocketed, and his name became synonymous with the dessert.

9 Baked Alaska

The Baked Alaska dessert was actually invented in New York City, most likely in 1868—the same year the US purchased Alaska from Russia. Charles Ranhofer, the chef who named it, called it Baked Alaska to cash in on the fame of the recently completed deal. It was considered a luxury at the time, since making ice cream in the 1860s was a laborious process and wasn’t yet mechanized.

8 French Dip

The French dip sandwich, perhaps unsurprisingly, isn’t from France. It was invented at Phillipe’s in Los Angeles, in 1918. The first sandwich of its kind came about by accident. The restaurant’s namesake, Phillipe Mathieu, was making a sandwich for a police officer when he accidentally dropped the roll into hot oil. The officer (supposedly named French) bought it anyway. He loved it so much that he returned the next day with his friends and they all ordered their rolls dipped in oil.

Another restaurant in the area, Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet, also claim the invention of the French dip. In their version, they dipped the bread in jus (like au jus) to make it softer for a customer that was on her way back from a dentist’s appointment.

7 Coney Dog

The Coney dog may be attributed to Coney Island, but its true origins lie a few states west: Michigan. Much like the French dip, the exact origin is unknown, as there are three different eateries that claim they invented the iconic dog. All three restaurants are located in Michigan. So there you have it. While we can’t be sure of the exact origin, we know it’s definitely not from New York.

6 Curry Powder

The curry powder we know today is nothing like the original spice it was supposed to mimic. It was heavily influenced by the British, and in India it isn’t even referred to as curry. They call it masala, and there are many different varieties. The curry powder we know best is what the British produced when they tried to replicate the flavors they encountered in traditional Indian cooking. True Indian curry powder is custom-made to accompany whatever food is being prepared.

5 Maraschino Cherries

Maraschino cherries may have an Italian-sounding name, but they actually come from Croatia. Originally, Maraschino was the name of a liquor made from the Croatian Marasca cherries. Then fresh cherries were preserved in their own alcohol, and that’s what a Maraschino cherry is (or was). In the 1800s, they made their way to the US, where Americans replaced the Marasca cherries with Queen Anne cherries, which grew in Oregon. In 1912, the USDA formalized the term, and any non-Marasca cherry had to be labeled as an imitation product.

The Maraschino cherries you buy at the grocery store today are made using a different method, one that’s alcohol-free. First they’re brined in a liquid calcium solution. Then they’re placed in sweetened, artificially colored syrup.

4 Ketchup

Ketchup may seem like an American invention since it’s a featured condiment for almost every American food from meatloaf to eggs. However, ketchup originated from a different type of sauce from China, which was made from fish. Five hundred years ago, Chinese sailors were sailing down the Mekong coast when they found a sauce made from fermented anchovies. The sauce was popular in Vietnam, and the Chinese sailors gave it the name “ke-tchup.” This name is in the ancient language Hokkien, and the last syllable, “tchup,” means “sauce.”

In the 17th century, British traders made their way to the region, and they ended up discovering ke-tchup. One hundred years later, they were hooked and ke-tchup became a prized possession.

3 Sauerkraut

“Sauerkraut” means “sour cabbage” in German, so you’d think it was a German invention. While it goes well with most German food, the original was Chinese. It came about around 2,000 years ago and was enjoyed by laborers building the Great Wall. The only real difference is that the Chinese fermented their cabbage in rice wine. The Germans draw out the water with salt.

It was popular with Chinese workers because it was a good vitamin source, stored easily and did not spoil, and was a cheap and widely available food.

2 Bologna

The bologna we eat today is nothing like the food it’s originally based on. Bologna is supposedly named after the city in Italy, but the meat it is most similar to is mortadella. Mortadella is actually from Italy but only slightly resembles bologna. It’s often eaten by itself or as part of an appetizer platter with cheese, bread, or sliced peppers and tomatoes. bologna is a sliced, processed meat and is most often used in sandwiches.

Mortadella is of much higher quality and uses only the finest pork meat. It is liberally sprinkled with cubes of pure pork fat and minced, mixing everything together. The original stuff from Bologna will be marked as such and will have added pistachios and black pepper.

1 Tempura

While we may attribute tempura cooking to the Japanese, it was actually a Portuguese innovation. Evidence lies in old Moorish cookbooks from the 13th century that feature tempura recipes. The word “tempura” is actually thought to have derived from the Portuguese word “temporas” which means “Lent.” This makes sense, as the Catholic population would eat fish on Fridays and eventually decided to fry it—possibly because everything tastes better when it’s fried.

Portuguese sailors (including traders and missionaries) spread it throughout the world, and it took hold in Japan in the 16th century. It spread to England as well, and is now part of their world-famous fish and chips.

In the vast expanse of the internet, Google is the go-to search engine for billions of people every day. However, Google’s dominance can overshadow many unique alternative search engines. These lesser-known platforms often cater to specific needs, providing tools and capabilities that Google doesn’t offer.

Exploring these alternatives can uncover a wealth of possibilities. This list explores ten intriguing search engines that fly under the radar. Each one presents a unique approach to searching the web, demonstrating that there’s much more to explore beyond Google. From uncovering obscure sounds to enhancing your online privacy, these search engines redefine what it means to search the web. Let’s dive in and see what you might be missing out on.

Related: Top 10 Times People Tried To Shut Down The Internet

10 FindSounds: The Web Search Engine for Sound Effects

FindSounds is a search engine like no other, catering specifically to those in need of sound effects. Instead of trawling through countless irrelevant audio files, users get exactly what they’re looking for—be it animal sounds, environmental noises, or even quirky non-speech human sounds. Developed by Stephen V. Rice and Stephen M. Bailey, FindSounds zeroes in on sound effects and musical instrument samples, skipping over songs and speech recordings.

Each month, over 150,000 users turn to FindSounds, performing more than 1.5 million searches. It’s not just about typing in keywords; FindSounds uses advanced algorithms for “sounds-like” searches. This means you can find audio files that sound similar to an example you provide, which is a game-changer for sound designers, musicians, and filmmakers who need just the right noise.

The process behind FindSounds is pretty rigorous. They use web crawling and file analysis to hunt down audio files, but only the best make the cut. Human reviewers ensure each sound meets their standards, creating a top-notch index of high-quality recordings. This meticulous approach is why FindSounds is such a valuable resource for anyone needing specific sounds without the hassle.^[1]

9 TinEye: The Pioneer of Reverse Image Search

TinEye, launched in 2008, is a unique reverse image search engine. Unlike traditional search engines that rely on text-based queries, TinEye allows users to search using an image itself. This tool helps find where an image appears on the web, track its usage, and discover higher-resolution versions. It’s particularly useful for photographers, designers, and digital marketers who need to monitor their images.

One of TinEye’s standout features is its ability to find images even if they’ve been cropped, edited, or color-adjusted. This capability stems from its sophisticated image recognition technology, which goes beyond simple pixel matching. The engine’s extensive and continually updated index ensures that users can find the most current instances of their images online.

TinEye’s user-friendly interface makes it accessible to anyone who needs a reverse image search. Its practical applications for tracking image use and protecting intellectual property make it a valuable tool for managing visual content online without the hassle of text-based searching.^[2]

8 Searx: The Open-Source Meta-Search Engine

Searx is an open-source meta-search engine designed with privacy in mind. Unlike traditional search engines, Searx doesn’t track users or store their data. Instead, it aggregates results from over 70 different search engines, including major ones like Google and Bing, as well as sites like Wikipedia and Reddit. This approach ensures a diverse range of search results while protecting user privacy.

Developed by volunteers, Searx was inspired by the now-defunct Seeks project. It allows users to customize their search experience by adjusting which engines are queried for different categories. The search preferences are stored in a cookie on the user’s browser rather than on the server, enhancing privacy. Searx also supports self-hosting, making it possible to completely prevent server-side logging.

One of Searx’s standout features is its ability to prevent user queries from appearing in web server logs by submitting them via HTTP POST. This ensures that users’ search terms remain private. Additionally, Searx offers the ability to download search results in various formats, such as RSS, JSON, and CSV, providing flexibility for users who wish to manipulate or archive their search data.^[3]

7 Swisscows: The Privacy-Focused Search Engine

Swisscows is a search engine designed to prioritize user privacy and data security. Developed by Hulbee AG and headquartered in Egnach, Switzerland, Swisscows does not track or store user data. It uses HTTPS encryption to secure searches and complies with GDPR standards, ensuring anonymity for its users. The company aims to provide an alternative to mainstream search engines that collect and monetize user data.

Swisscows also implements content filtering to block inappropriate material, making it a suitable option for safe searches. The search engine’s algorithms are designed to deliver relevant results without compromising user privacy. By focusing on privacy and security, Swisscows offers a distinct approach to online searching, catering to users who are concerned about data protection and digital footprint.^[4]

6 Million Short: Exploring the Overlooked Corners of the Web

Million Short is a search engine that flips the usual approach on its head. By removing the top one million most popular websites from its results, it pushes less-known sites into the spotlight. This method helps users find unique content that mainstream search engines often overlook. It’s a way to explore the web’s hidden gems that don’t usually make it to the top of the search results.

A study involving 33 students assessed the relevance of these long-tail results. The findings showed that even though these results come from less popular sites, they can be just as useful as those from big names like Google or Bing. The study highlights how Million Short brings valuable but often ignored information to users’ attention.

Using Million Short can be a refreshing change for those tired of seeing the same popular sites repeatedly. It offers a new perspective on web searching, making it a handy tool for anyone looking to discover something different online.^[5]

5 Qwant: Privacy-First Web Searching

Qwant is a French-owned search engine that was launched in 2013 and prioritizes user privacy. Unlike many major search engines, Qwant does not track user behavior for targeted advertising or use tracking cookies. However, it does collect some anonymized data for statistical purposes. This approach ensures unbiased search results and a higher level of privacy for users.

The search engine features a straightforward user interface and supports multiple languages and search categories such as Web, News, Images, and Videos. Qwant also offers Qwant Junior, a dedicated version for children that filters out inappropriate content. Additionally, Qwant’s mobile versions for iOS and Android include private browsing modes and customizable settings, further enhancing its privacy features.

Qwant’s commitment to privacy is evident in its design and operation, aiming to provide a secure browsing experience. Despite not using tracking cookies or remembering previous searches, it strives to deliver relevant and timely search results.^[6]

4 Ecosia: The Tree-Planting Search Engine

Ecosia, launched in 2009 and based in Berlin, is a search engine that uses ad revenue to fund tree-planting projects worldwide. As of July 2024, Ecosia has planted over 175 million trees with the help of its 20 million users. Recently, Ecosia partnered with French startup Kanop to monitor its reforestation efforts using satellite data. This collaboration allows Ecosia to track tree growth and health accurately, enhancing the transparency and effectiveness of its environmental impact.

Kanop employs advanced satellite imagery and AI algorithms to create detailed digital twins of forests. This technology helps Ecosia quantify the environmental benefits of its reforestation projects, such as CO2 absorption. Ecosia’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond tree planting; it powers its servers with solar energy and operates as a certified B-corp, ensuring profits are reinvested in environmental initiatives.^[7]

3 Brave Search: Privacy with Innovation

Brave Search, developed by Brave Software, focuses on user privacy and independence from big tech. Launched in 2021, Brave Software was co-founded by Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla, the creators of the Firefox browser. Brave Search distinguishes itself by not tracking users or collecting personal information. It uses its own independent index and community feedback to deliver relevant results without relying on major tech companies.

One of Brave Search’s standout features is its commitment to privacy. The search engine does not store user queries or behaviors and offers ad-free search options. It integrates features from the Brave browser, such as built-in ad blockers and cookie management tools, enhancing the overall user experience. This integration allows users to browse the internet securely, with fewer interruptions from ads and trackers.

Brave Search aims to provide a transparent and private search experience while maintaining high-quality search results. Its innovative approach, combined with a strong emphasis on user privacy, makes it a significant player in the search engine market. As more users become aware of privacy issues, Brave Search offers a compelling alternative to traditional search engines.^[8]

2 SearchGPT: OpenAI’s Real-Time AI Search Engine

OpenAI has announced a new feature called SearchGPT, which integrates its AI technology with real-time web information. This allows users to search for information conversationally, similar to how they interact with ChatGPT. Unlike traditional search engines that use indexed data, SearchGPT provides up-to-date information and links to relevant sources, enhancing the search experience.

This new tool positions OpenAI as a competitor to Google and Microsoft’s Bing, both of which have been incorporating AI into their search functions. SearchGPT aims to streamline the search process by providing accurate, real-time answers and additional links for further information.^[9]

1 Shodan: The Search Engine for Internet-Connected Devices

Shodan is a unique search engine that specializes in finding and indexing internet-connected devices. Unlike traditional search engines that index web pages, Shodan catalogs devices such as webcams, routers, servers, and various IoT (Internet of Things) gadgets. This capability allows users to identify vulnerable devices and analyze the security landscape of the internet. Shodan’s extensive list of functions includes detecting data leaks to the cloud, identifying devices used in phishing campaigns, and providing monitoring capabilities for connected devices.

The power of Shodan lies in its ability to uncover exposed devices and systems that can be exploited. Cybersecurity professionals use Shodan to detect potential security flaws, monitor network activity, and assess the exposure of sensitive systems. However, this same capability can be leveraged for malicious purposes. For example, during geopolitical conflicts, Shodan has been used to locate and disrupt industrial control systems. In 2022, the hacktivist group GhostSec used Shodan to take down Russia’s railway infrastructure in support of Ukraine, demonstrating both the tool’s potential for ethical use and its risks.

Shodan’s scan results are updated weekly, but users can opt for on-demand scanning through the API for more current data. While it provides valuable information for enhancing cybersecurity, the tool’s capabilities also pose ethical dilemmas. Shodan can be a double-edged sword, serving both as a tool for improving internet security and as a means for enabling cyberattacks. This dual nature underscores the importance of using such powerful tools responsibly.^[10]

The idea of turning your back on wealth, fame, and society is incomprehensible for many. Notoriety isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, however, and for some people, the pressure of their lives in the spotlight seems to have been too much for them.

No one really understands why some people feel the need to withdraw from the world. It seems that some of the following may have suffered from mental health conditions, while others appear to have been perfectly happy to remain inside their homes for years at a time—even when they had enough wealth to do anything that they could want.

10 Huguette Clark

Huguette Clark was the daughter of a copper tycoon. She had immense wealth, with an estate worth over $300 million, but her life was not richer for it. Instead of surrounding herself with beautiful things, Clark chose to spend the last 20 years of her life in a hospital room, despite the fact that she wasn’t sick. She allowed very few visitors and had no personal possessions except her clothes, her dolls, and her collection of violins (which, to be fair, did at one point include Stradivarius’s greatest masterpiece, known as “The Virgin”). She owned a number of homes, including a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan and a mansion in California, but preferred the sterile environment of the hospital.

The cause of Clark’s reclusiveness is not known, but she once called money “a menace to happiness.”

After her death in 2011, Huguette Clark left over $30 million to her nurse, but this was challenged by distant relatives who hardly knew Huguette, and the nurse ultimately received nothing (but was able to keep most of the $31 million in gifts she’d received from Clark over the years.)^[1]

9 Ida Wood

Ida Wood had been a New York socialite at the very end of the 19th century, but in 1907, she suddenly withdrew from the world and moved into a room at the Herald Square Hotel with her sister and daughter and hid herself away. Each day, the bellhop would knock at the door and ask if the sisters wanted anything. Ida Wood would open the door a crack and request the same things—evaporated milk, crackers, coffee, bacon, and eggs. Each day, she would tip him ten cents and tell him that that was all the money she had in in the world.^[2]

The daughter died in 1928. In 1931, Ida Wood, now in her nineties, suddenly opened the door wide and called for help. Her sister was dying. When staff entered the hotel suite, they found that the bathroom had been turned into a makeshift kitchen, and the suite was filled with empty cracker boxes and rotting food.

Among the debris, they also found share certificates, bonds, and cash stuffed into shoeboxes, as well as diamond necklaces hidden inside the empty cracker cartons. Ida Wood even had $500,000 in $10,000 bills pinned to the inside of her nightgown.

That all seems incredible, but Ida Wood’s life was a series of incredible incidents. She met her husband after writing to him, at that time a stranger, to propose an affair, offering him “agreeable intimacy” and presenting herself as the daughter of a wealthy and aristocratic family. In fact, she was the daughter of poor Irish immigrants. She made her money in a deal with her husband, who was a gambling addict. Every time he won at the tables, he shared the winnings with her 50–50, but if he lost, he also paid her half of his losses. When he ran out of money, she would loan it to him in return for shares in his newspaper business.

He died virtually penniless, while she kept a fortune hidden inside empty cracker boxes.

8 Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson grew up in a prosperous family in Massachusetts, where her father was a respected lawyer. The family were well-known in social circles, but Emily never wanted to be part of that world. After a miserable first year of college, she left and spent the rest of her life in her father’s house, leaving it only to visit a doctor on rare occasions.^[3]

Dickinson never married, though she did have friends. It is thought that she must have been in love at one time, because the poems for which she is famous appear to be addressed to a lover, but no one knows who it may have been. Dickinson appears to have made a definite decision to live this way, and though many have sought to find the reason in her work, it is not clear why.

Dickinson died in the house in 1886 and was buried in the white clothes that she always wore.

7 Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was certainly a genius. The benefits of his pioneering work on electricity are still being felt today. His reputation was never as high as that of his rival, Thomas Edison, mainly because Edison was a relentless glory hunter who was not averse to taking credit for other men’s ideas.

For Tesla, however, it was the idea that was important. He seemed to have little interest in celebrity or even money. While his inventions have generated millions or even billions of dollars, he seems to have benefited little from them. Tesla had an eidetic memory, could speak eight languages, and rarely made notes while inventing, as he didn’t need them, despite the fact that they would have been handy for establishing patents.

It is true that Tesla was always a little eccentric. He almost certainly suffered from OCD. He obsessively washed his hands and would only eat food that had been boiled. He had strange phobias, such as an aversion to pearls, which led to anxiety when speaking to society ladies. He believed that his greatest ideas were borne out of solitude, so he became solitary.^[4]

Tesla’s poor business skills led him to fritter away his fortune, and he spent his last years moving from hotel to hotel and skipping out before paying the bill. He once offered one of his inventions in lieu of cash—a box which, he claimed, contained a death beam but which was too dangerous to be opened. Not one of his more useful inventions.

Tesla died in one of his hotel rooms in 1943. He was, as he had always been, alone.

6 Bobby Fischer

It is probably fair to describe Bobby Fischer as a troubled genius. The chess prodigy became a national hero when he beat the Soviet grand master at the height of the Cold War to become World Chess Champion in 1972 and a traitor when he defied US sanctions to play a rematch in Belgrade during the Balkan Wars 20 years later.

It is unlikely that Fischer was moved by either description. He was not a man who cared for others’ opinions. He became paranoid, obsessed with conspiracy theories, and angry with the world. Having beaten the best chess players in the world, he seemed to lose his purpose. He no longer played chess but could not find anything else to absorb his mind.

After making inflammatory remarks about 9/11 during interviews, he ended up in Iceland, where he spent the rest of his life as a recluse. He invented his own form of chess, which, with his trademark modesty, he named Fischerandom.^[5]

Although in his final years, his appearance had suggested that he was penniless, he left an estate worth several million dollars. He was found dead in his hotel room in 2008. Even in death, however, Fischer rejected the regard of others. He arranged his own secret burial, without regard to the law. His grave was dug during the night, and only five people attended the service, which took place at first light. Even the minister at the church was not informed until it was over.

5 Theo And Karl Albrecht

Theo Albrecht founded his grocery empire, Aldi, with his brother Karl after World War II. They began by running their mother’s grocery shop, which they expanded into a business that made them both multibillionaires.

Theo was kidnapped in 1971. He was freed by his captors after paying a ransom of seven million German marks, 17 days after he had been abducted. He might have been released sooner, but it seems he haggled over the amount and later tried to claim the ransom money as a business expense on his tax return.

After the kidnapping, both brothers kept a very low profile. They were rarely photographed, and they did not give interviews. They traveled separately in cars that never took the same route twice.^[6] The two brothers spent at least some of their time on a remote island in the North Sea, where they played golf, grew orchids, and collected typewriters. Both men died in Essen, Germany, Theo in 2010 and Karl in 2014.

4 John G. Wendel II

At the turn of the 20th century, John Wendel II had a property empire in the heart of Manhattan that would be worth around $1 billion today. He built his fortune on four firm principles—never mortgage, never sell, never repair, and always remember that premium real estate prices on Broadway will move uptown ten blocks every decade.^[7]

Wendel had equally firm principles when it came to his family. Their house was in a commercial district, surrounded by shops and hotels, and thus completely unsuitable as a home but worth a fortune. He did not hold with wasting money on fripperies such as electricity, telephones, or newfangled automobiles. There was no fence around the house, and passersby often pressed their noses against the windows to catch a glimpse of the strange inhabitants, who they dubbed the “Weird Wendels.”

Wendel had seven sisters, who all lived in the house with him. Wendel was referred to as “the hermit of Fifth Avenue.” They lived quietly together, refusing to change with the times.

3 Ella Wendel

After John Wendel’s death, the sisters remained in the house, until Ella Wendel was the only one left. Only one of the sisters had married—and not until she was well past childbearing age because John Wendel had been concerned about gold-diggers. This meant there was no one to inherit the vast fortune. Despite this, Ella Wendel carried on living exactly as she had before.

She had a fortune valued at $100 million, but she continued to live in the vast house alone, without modern amenities. Her only pleasure seemed to be her dogs over the years, all of which were named Toby. At night, she would walk Toby on a vacant lot that they owned, which, following her brother’s business principle, she would never sell, despite it being worth millions.^[8]

After Ella’s death in 1931, over 2,000 “relatives” came forward to claim their share of the inheritance, almost all of whom were totally bogus. A large chunk of the estate was spent in legal fees fending off the claims, and the remainder went to charity.

So, totally worth it.

2 Eliza Donnithorne

Eliza Donnithorne is said to be the inspiration for the Charles Dickens character Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who wandered forlornly around her house in her wedding dress, waiting for her groom to return.

Donnithorne moved to Australia during the 1840s with her father, an official of the East India Company, and continued to live there after he died. In 1889, the Illustrated Sydney News published an article about her being left at the altar, leaving her “completely prostrated.”

Eliza had formed an attachment to a young man of whom her father disapproved, and after resisting his attempts to split them up, the couple set a date for the wedding. Mr. Donnithorne was such an important official that a great deal of interest was held in the wedding, and crowds are said to have lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the bride. Eliza Donnithorne, dressed in her finery, waited excitedly at the altar for her lover.^[9]

He didn’t show.

The article maintained that she had left the wedding feast upon the table “until it mouldered into dust,” after which she never left the house again. She was said to be mortified at the thought of what people’s reactions. Her only interest was her books, and at her death, she left a large collection of books behind.

She probably avoided the romances.

1 Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was a famous French writer and a celebrated recluse. The author of In Search of Lost Time spent a number of years in an apartment on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris until his death. He rarely went out. Proust suffered from crippling asthma and was said to have been acutely affected by the deaths of his parents and retreated into himself. He soundproofed his workroom with corkboard and put up layers of heavy curtains to blot out daylight so that he could work uninterrupted. He would stay up for days on end, working on his masterpiece, desperate to complete it before his death.^[10]

Nevertheless, time caught up with Proust, and the final three volumes of In Search of Lost Time were left in “an advanced but not final stage of revision.”

Proust died in 1922 in his apartment. Though he did not finish his seminal work completely, the final volumes were sufficiently complete to be published after his death, and the novel has become one of the most important pieces of literature in the world.

Pass the corkboard.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels, and an occasional travel writer.

The Land Down Under. Sweltering heat and a menagerie of obscure and bizarre creatures has led the smallest continent in the world to be considered a land of danger and death. Tales of man-eating sharks that put Jaws to shame, poisonous spiders that inhabit shoes, and crocodiles that resemble the dinosaurs that once walked the Earth are rooted in tradition. Yet, one cannot help but wonder: Just how dangerous are these creatures?

In the following list, with no particular order, we will attempt to dispel the notion that Australia’s fauna are simply creatures to be avoided at all costs. Rather, they’re the victims of media hype. Please comment with any creatures you feel were missed, or share your own stories of encounters with them.

10 Blue-Ringed Octopus

Perhaps the most unassuming creature on the list, merely the size of a pencil, the blue-ringed octopus has gained notoriety for its vivid coloration and paralyzing toxins. Often cited as an example for the adage “Everything in Australia Can Kill You,” these cephalopods have, in fact, garnered a reputation far exceeding their exploits.

Despite the strength of their toxins, only three deaths can be attributed to the octopuses’ bite, one of which did not even occur in Australia.^[1] Note, however, that being bitten is still a serious matter and potentially fatal. So, spare a thought for the solitary creatures, and make sure you keep your hands to yourself when exploring tide pools.

9 Sharks

If Finding Nemo has taught us anything, it’s that one whiff of blood sends sharks into a murderous feeding frenzy. And there is some truth to that. Sharks are apex predators which will bite everything from unsuspecting fish to intrusive surfers. In fact, the likelihood of being attacked and killed by a shark is higher in Australia (the land of beaches and sun) than it is in any other country. How likely, you ask? Well, statistically, the odds of being attacked by a shark are one in 2,794,600, according to reports.

Those aren’t the worst odds, one must concede, especially when faced with the knowledge that over 70 people died between the years of 2008 and 2017 at the hands (hooves?) of horses and cows, compared to only 26 fatalities by sharks and other marine animals.^[2] In fact, on average, only two people are fatally attacked by sharks in Australia per year. So, when in Australia, make sure you enjoy the beach, but always remember to swim between the flags!

8 Redback Spider

Nothing sends chills up one’s spine more than the thought of eight skeletal legs crawling their way across your skin, and this nightmare is very much a reality for many Australians. Approximately 2,700 spider species have been formally described on the continent, which is not even a third of the estimated extant species. Of these species, one of the most recognized and prevalent is the redback spider, so named for the distinctive red stripe on its abdomen. This creature inhabits urban areas, often found in garden sheds or similarly undisturbed locations, where it uses the toxins in its venom to subdue insects.

This venom is strong enough to kill humans who are unfortunate enough to get bitten, though there were no deaths in Australia from confirmed spider bites from 1979 to 2016.^[3] As is the case with most spiders, even the venomous redbacks are harmless unless provoked or disturbed, and they’re more likely to attempt to flee the threat or even play dead, as opposed to biting.

7 Cassowary

The formidable-looking cassowary is arguably less well-known compared to other creatures on this list. This imposing bird hails from the same family as the ostrich and emu, standing up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) tall and weighing as much as 76 kilograms (168 lb). Of the three species, only the southern cassowary lives in Australia, where it inhabits dense rainforests, avoiding potential threats and existing, primarily, off berries and seeds.

Yet despite its solitary and mainly frugivorous nature, the bird possesses a dagger-like claw on its feet that can grow up to 13 centimeters (5 in) in length and can be wielded with potentially fatal results, making it one of only a handful of birds to have been directly responsible for a recorded fatality.^[4] Nevertheless, fatalities are relatively rare, although one recently occurred in Florida. Remember that most wild animals will avoid humans, rather than engage with them.

6 Saltwater Crocodiles

The estuarine, or saltwater, crocodile is the largest crocodilian in the world, growing between 4.6 and 5.2 meters (15–17 ft) on average, with some male specimens reaching 7 meters (23 ft)! The crocodiles’ habitat is widespread, stretching over much of Northern Australia, where it grows to such staggering sizes on a diet consisting of anything from fish and turtles to buffalo and livestock.

The “saltie” is also notorious for its reputation as a man-eater, though such rogue animals have been reported more often in Asian countries such as Malaysia. Yet, despite having been responsible for 14 deaths in the Northern Territory between 2005 and 2014,^[5] saltwater crocodiles aren’t known to attack humans unless their territory is encroached upon.

5 Sydney Funnel-Web Spider

What creature has eight legs, can grow to have a 10-centimeter (4 in) leg span, and looks like it belongs on the set of a horror movie? If you answered a funnel-web spider, you’d be right. Of the 35 species of funnel-web, the most dangerous to humans is the Sydney funnel-web, found in urban and garden areas in and around Sydney and often encountered in shoes that have been left outside overnight. Within the species, the male spiders are notably more dangerous, reputed to inject a venom six times more potent than their female counterparts.

The secret ingredient is a toxin dubbed “robustoxin,” which attacks the nervous system and, according to arachnid curator Dr. Robert Raven, can kill a human in less than 15 minutes. However, despite the apparent danger toward humans, and the strength of their venom, Sydney funnel-webs can only be held responsible for 13 recorded fatalities, with no deaths occurring since the introduction of an antivenom in 1981.^[6] As with most species on the list, if we simply exercise caution and common sense, we can easily avoid harm.

4 Dingo

As Australia’s largest mammalian carnivore—standing about the height of a medium dog—the dingo has become a tourist attraction in its native country. Most prevalent along the eastern and southern coastlines and throughout Central Australia,^[7] dingoes have long held a place in the folklore of Australia’s traditional owners, commonly referenced in Dreamtime stories. With their naturally inquisitive nature, interactions between humans and dingoes have become commonplace, as many zoos and sanctuaries have begun to offer close-quarters experiences. However, in the wild, the same result is not often achieved. As is the case with many fatal wildlife encounters, encroaching upon the dingo’s natural habitat has been the cause of both recorded deaths from the species.

Perhaps most famous is the death of Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week-old baby snatched by a dingo while on vacation with her family, an incident which became a worldwide-publicized murder case in the early 1980s. The only other fatal attack occurred in 2001, when nine-year-old Clinton Gage was mauled and killed by a dingo on Fraser Island, a popular tourist attraction due to its population of “pure” dingo packs. Yet, for a creature that has become a scapegoat for human foolishness, two deaths seems an almost unexpectedly low number, as tourism and lack of food continues to lead to aggression within a usually curious native species.

3 Cone Snail

Probably the most aesthetically pleasing creature on this list, the cone snail (also known as the cone shell) appears, at first glance, to be no more than a patterned shell. Inhabiting warm waters throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans (with around 166 species thought to inhabit Australian waters), the predatory snails propel barbed, venom-coated darts at the small fish and worms that make up its diet.

Although the toxins are designed to paralyze its prey before it is consumed, some of the larger species can prove harmful even to humans, with the venom’s toxicity compared to that of a snake. Despite the potential danger of the creatures and their deceptive appearance, only 36 people have been fatally stabbed in the past 90 years,^[8] with only one of these occurring in waters surrounding Australia. Cone snails are nevertheless a potentially deadly reminder not to touch the wildlife.

2 Stonefish

Taking the next spot on our list is another ambush predator, commonly found in the waters off the eastern coast of Australia. As its name suggests, the stonefish resembles a mossy rock on the seabed as it lies in wait for an unwary fish to pass by. Similar to the fish whose paths diverge with the predator, any human unfortunate enough to tread on the stonefish’s back will receive a nasty shock. Thirteen spines lining the dorsal fin are raised when pressure is placed upon them, injecting a highly toxic venom into any would-be attackers.

So strong is its venom that the stonefish has been handed the dubious honor of being the most venomous fish in the world.^[9] However, the introduction of antivenom in 1959 and a rise in public awareness have ensured no recorded Australian deaths in recent times, though stings are relatively common. And If this and the previous entry weren’t enough to convince you never to step foot in the water again, just see what’s next . . .

1 Stingrays

While some creatures on this list may seem, in name or appearance, to be unassuming, the same is not true for the horrifyingly named stingray, containing such families as the thorntail and whiptail stingrays. Although these flat marine animals can grow quite large, reaching several meters in length and hundreds of kilograms in weight, they live on a diet of mollusks and crustaceans, which they hunt on the sea floor. When threatened, however, the rays can lash out with a tail spine, stabbing and injecting venom.

While their presence attracts divers all over the world, Australians will most likely remember the role a stingray played in the death of beloved wildlife conservationist Steve Irwin, who was fatally stabbed while filming a documentary in Queensland in 2006. Although Irwin’s death was one of only two fatal attacks in Australia since 1945, nonfatal attacks are very common, though easily avoided, with NSW Ambulance reporting 116 incidents between late 2013 and late 2016.^[10]

A recent high-school graduate living in Australia, born and raised in England, who loves reading, writing and sports.

Home to one of the world’s most famous civilizations, Egypt is a country filled to the brim with historical significance. However, when people explore ancient Egyptian history, they usually stop at the pyramids. But other remnants of the culture have survived, giving us new insight into how the ancient Egyptians lived.

10 Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

We’ve already discussed Hatshepsut, one of the more interesting characters in Egyptian history. She’s the Egyptian queen who promoted herself to pharaoh because Thutmose III, her stepson and heir to the throne, was too young to assume the role. She also left behind a legacy—her mortuary temple.

Located at Deir el-Bahri, the temple is called “Djeser-djeseru,” which means “the holy of holies.” It stands proud to this day, but given the disagreements with Hatshepsut’s method of appointing a new pharaoh, both Thutmose III and Akhenaten went through the temple after her death and made some adjustments to the scenery.

On the first level was a beautiful garden filled with plants from Punt, although the garden is gone now. Behind it was a series of reliefs and monuments, most of which were destroyed by Thutmose III and Akhenaten after Hatshepsut’s death. While none of the surviving monuments depict Hatshepsut, one of them clearly shows Thutmose III dancing before the god Min.

The second level contains the birth colonnade and the Punt colonnade, the ancient Egyptian versions of a Facebook wall. The birth colonnade depicted Hatshepsut’s divine birth, which involved Amun-Ra using his breath to impregnate Queen Ahmose, Hatshepsut’s mother. The Punt colonnade featured Hatshepsut’s voyage to Punt and her return with boats filled with exotic woods, makeup, and animals.

Unfortunately, Thutmose III damaged the depictions of Hatshepsut. For his part, Akhenaten defaced the depictions of Amun-Ra because Akhenaten wanted to popularize the Aten, the god of the Sun disk, instead.

With four chapels, Senenmut’s tomb, and the sanctuary of Amun-Ra still standing, Hatshepsut’s temple offers insight into the ancient Egyptians’ way of life and their politics.

9 The Tuna El-Gebel Catacombs

The ancient Egyptian city of Hermopolis Magna was the capital of the Hare province. Known as the “City of the Eight,” the people there worshiped Thoth, the god of learning. Although the city is interesting in its own right, a fascinating discovery was made nearby.

On the west bank of Tunah al-Jabal near Hermopolis Magna, a university expedition in the 1930s unearthed a vast necropolis dedicated to Thoth. Called “Tuna el-Gebel,” this necropolis may extend all the way to Hermopolis Magna. Regardless, archaeologists have already uncovered 3 kilometers (2 mi) of this impressive site.

As expected, dead bodies lie within the catacombs, which allowed relatives and friends to visit their deceased loved ones without being affected by the weather. The tomb of Petosiris, one of the high priests of Thoth, is also contained within the necropolis. Perhaps more surprising is the large number of animals buried there.

The ancient Egyptians often dedicated animals to their favorite gods, and Thoth certainly had an entire bestiary by the time the Egyptians were done. Explorers discovered thousands of mummified animals, including baboons, ibis and ibis eggs, cats, larks, kestrels, and even pigs.

Every animal within the necropolis was deemed sacred. However, the baboons and ibis were especially exalted, given that Thoth was usually depicted with the head of an ibis and baboons were Thoth’s trusted followers that assisted scribes with their work.

8 The Colossi Of Memnon

The Colossi of Memnon are two giant statues that the locals refer to as “el-Colossat” or “es-Salamat.” Both depicting Amenhotep III, they were built to guard his mortuary temple behind them. While the colossi are still standing, the mortuary temple has vanished due to erosion caused by floods and the theft of stones by subsequent rulers.

Both statues have tiny representations of Amenhotep III’s wife and mother carved into the base as well as two Nile gods winding papyrus around the hieroglyph for “unite.” The statues are called the Colossi of Memnon because early Greek visitors believed the statues depicted the god Memnon, son of the goddess Eos.

After an earthquake in 27 BC, the northern statue suffered some structural damage that caused it to “sing” around dawn. Puzzled, the ancient Greek visitors believed that it might be Memnon, who had died at the hands of Achilles but had returned as a statue. According to their theory, Memnon cried out in anguish each morning when he saw his mother, Eos, rising in the sky at dawn.

Although we can’t reproduce this phenomenon in modern times, it’s possible that the singing was caused by dew trapped in the porous rock that evaporated from the heat of the morning Sun. The singing stopped in AD 199 after the statue was repaired.

7 Malkata Palace

When Amenhotep III ruled Egypt, he built a palace that was the ancient Egyptian version of a California mansion. He was only 12 when he inherited the throne from his father, Thutmose IV, along with one of the largest, wealthiest empires in the world. Rather than wage war, Amenhotep III was a man of diplomacy and peace, which left him the time and money to build Malkata Palace.

The site for Malkata Palace spanned about 800,000 square meters (9 million ft²). The luxurious structure contained a library, kitchens, administrative office, audience chambers, halls for festivities, and more, all of which were decorated lavishly with paint.

Its size wasn’t just for grandeur, however. Malkata Palace housed Amenhotep III’s family, servants, guests, and a large harem of princesses, all of whom had their own retinue of servants. One foreign princess visited with 300 servants of her own. Malkata Palace also housed all the visitors for the Heb Sed festivals—the jubilees of Amenhotep III’s coronation— which probably explains why he called this vast complex the “House of Joy.”

The most curious of all the discoveries made at Malkata Palace was its artificial lake. With a T-shaped area of about 3.5 square kilometers (1.5 mi²), the lake allowed Amenhotep III and his family to sail around without interruption.

6 Tanis

With its discovery rivaling that of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, the “lost city” of Tanis missed its moment of fame when current events overshadowed ancient ones. Tanis was called “Djanet” by the ancient Egyptians and “Zoan” in the Old Testament. During the 21st and 22nd Dynasties, Tanis was the capital of Egypt. But political troubles shifted the importance and influence of the city elsewhere.

In its prime, however, Tanis was a wealthy city, largely because it was one of the closest ports to the Asiatic seaboard. A large temple dedicated to the god Amun was built there. The city’s brief moment in the spotlight also meant that some of the royal tombs were quite extravagant.

In 1939, archaeologist Pierre Montet brought several years of excavations at Tanis to a satisfying end when he discovered a royal tomb complex. It had three burial chambers that were undisturbed by vandalism or theft, making this an incredibly valuable find that also included burial treasures like golden masks, silver coffins, and royal jewelry. Nobody had visited Tanis since the city was abandoned, so the tombs and other archaeological treasures were in the same state as during ancient Egyptian times.

But just as Montet announced his fantastic find, World War II erupted, shifting people’s attention away from Egyptian discoveries to current international turmoil. Although the discovery faded into history, it doesn’t change the fact that Tanis held some of the greatest archaeological finds since Tutankhamun.

5 The Temple Of Seti I

The Temple of Seti I is located in Abydos, one of ancient Egypt’s holiest sites. A burial site since the predynastic era, Abydos was originally dedicated to the god Wepwawet, who opened the way for the dead to enter the afterlife. Gradually, the worship of Osiris grew within Abydos until the entire area became dedicated to him. Abydos features the early tombs of the necropolis Umm el Qa’ab, which were thought to be the beginning of burial practices that eventually led to the building of the pyramids.

One of the remaining temples within Abydos is the Temple of Seti I, which has a strange, L-shaped layout but is like most Egyptian temples otherwise. Some of the temple’s surviving wonders include two hypostyle halls, large rooms where the builders supported the roof by placing many columns throughout the structure.

The outer hypostyle hall was finished by Ramses II after Seti I’s death. Even though the temple was supposed to be about Seti I, the pictures within the outer hypostyle hall frequently depict Ramses II. At the entrance, Ramses II is shown measuring the temple with the goddess Selket before presenting it to the god Horus. Elsewhere, Ramses II is depicted offering a box of papyrus to the deities Horus, Isis, and Osiris before being led to the temple to be blessed with holy water. However, these sunk reliefs aren’t crafted well, suggesting that Ramses II sent all of Seti I’s best workers to complete his own temple, the Ramesseum.

The more impressive sights are found in the inner hypostyle hall, which was largely completed before Seti I’s death. One relief shows Osiris and Horus pouring holy water over Seti I. Other reliefs depict Seti I being crowned by the gods and Seti I kneeling before Osiris and Horus. On the side walls, projecting piers show Seti I wearing a crown representing the combination of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Behind these halls are seven sanctuaries, each dedicated to a favorite god. There’s also the Sanctuary of Seti I, which depicts him uniting Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as inner sanctuaries of Osiris, several chapels, and a gallery of kings listing all of Seti I’s predecessors.

4 Babylon Fortress

The Babylon Fortress in Cairo (aka the “Castle of Babylon” or the “Castle of Egypt”) wasn’t built by the Egyptians. Instead, it was built by the command of two Roman emperors. The first one was Trajan, who opened a canal between the Red Sea and the Nile and refurbished an old Persian fortress in the southern part of town. The second was Arcadius, who improved upon the existing fortress. Given both of their efforts, Babylon Fortress became a port and a supply line to Alexandria.

The Babylon Fortress was a refuge for the Coptic Christians, especially after they began to suffer persecution from the Western Christians. There are several churches built into the fortress itself, including the Hanging Church, one of the most famous Coptic churches in Egypt.

The Hanging Church is built over the entrance to a passage in the fortress. Visitors enter through a decorated gate on Shar’a Mari Girgis Street and then climb 29 steps to the church (hence its nickname, the ‘”Staircase Church”). The church has an 11th-century pulpit with 13 pillars, representing Jesus and his 12 disciples. The oldest icon in the church dates to the eighth century. A lintel depicting Christ entering Jerusalem may date as far back as the fifth century.

3 Deir El-Medina

A village near the Valley of the Kings, Deir el-Medina housed all the workers who helped build and decorate the tombs for the pharaohs. According to village records, the people living in Deir el-Medina actively desired to build tombs that would one day serve their king. Many of these records also discuss personal matters, which gives us a look into the day-to-day life of Egyptian workers.

The tomb workers went on one of the first recorded strikes due to an unfair work environment. Ramses III had a huge construction program at Thebes, which heavily drained the grain supply used to pay the workers at the necropolis. The workers waited six months for payment. Then, faced with starvation, they marched on several temples and staged sit-ins until something was done.

According to the records of the strike found at Deir el-Medina: “They sat down at the rear of the temple of Baenre-meryamun. They shouted at the mayor of Thebes as he was passing by, and he sent to them the gardener Meniufer of the chief overseer of cattle to say to them: ‘See, I’ll give these 50 sacks of emmer for provisions until Pharaoh gives you (a) ration.’ ”

For researchers, interesting records from this ancient Egyptian village are available online at the Deir el-Medina database.

2 The Statue Of Meritamun

Unlike the other towns on this list, Akhmim is still active today, but it stands over the ancient Egyptian town of Ipu. When excavating the site, archaeologists discovered fragments of a statue of Ramses II and a relatively intact, 11-meter-high (36 ft) statue of Meritamun, Ramses II’s daughter.

Given that the female statue was lying prone, the workers righted it first. After that, it was decided that the statue should be left in the open, still situated several meters below ground level.

A story on looklex.com described it this way: “Akhmim is among the weirdest sites from Ancient Egypt. You drive along crowded and dusty roads in the large town of Akhmim, then suddenly, in a large hole in the ground, you see the head of a grand female statue.”

1 Aswan Granite Quarry

The Egyptians loved their granite. The pyramids were made of it. The temples used it. It was a prime building material that stood the test of time. Much of the granite used in these structures came from the Aswan granite quarry, which even supplied stone for the lintels above the king’s chamber. The Aswan quarry area spanned about 150 square kilometers (60 mi²) and included the famous granite quarries as well as lesser-known sandstone, grinding stone, and building stone quarries.

However, the most interesting aspect of the Aswan granite quarry is what lies unfinished inside: the largest ancient obelisk known to man. Had it been lifted out of the quarry to stand upright, this obelisk would have weighed 1,200 tons and sported a jaw-dropping height of 42 meters (137 ft), at least one-third taller than any other ancient Egyptian obelisk. Archaeologists believe that female pharaoh Hatshepsut commissioned its construction.

The reason for abandoning the project isn’t known. But it could be that the stone had imperfections that the ancient Egyptians hadn’t noticed before construction. Another theory is that the process of quarrying the stone relieved some of the stress keeping the stone together, causing a crack to appear on the obelisk. The project’s failure, however, has been a success for archaeologists, who can look over the work in progress to learn how the ancient Egyptians crafted such gigantic monuments.

S.E. Batt is a freelance writer and author. He enjoys a good keyboard, cats, and tea, even though the three of them never blend well together. You can follow his antics over at @Simon_Batt, or his fiction website, www.sebatt.com.

Medieval medicine involved beliefs and remedies that seem bizarre to us today. Understanding the beliefs behind the cures makes them seem less so.

Medieval physicians believed the human body to be a microcosmic version of the macrocosm, or the universe. This belief was central to philosophical traditions dating back to ancient Rome and Greece. It was the foundation of medieval medicine, and it was developed from the works of Pythagoras and Galen, among others.

In Galenic theory, good health depended on the proper balance of dry, moist, cold, and warm. These qualities were present in the four humors: Air was associated with the blood. Choler was fire and found in the red or yellow bile. Phlegm was cold and moist and was thought of as a watery, mucous substance. Black bile was cold and dry and was the unhealthiest humor.

Medieval remedies were based on the principle that this wholeness of existence infused everything—words, minerals, the seasons, locations, and plants and animals. An affliction was due to some cosmological imbalance in the patient; the remedy must correct this imbalance. Remedies could involve preparing “simples” (remedies of one ingredient taken from nature), bloodletting, cupping, and other procedures that seem bizarre to the modern mind.

10 Swallows’ Gizzards For Epilepsy

This prescription from the famous 14-century English physician John of Gaddesden is a “simple”:

The little red stones found in the gizzards of swallows, which are forever helpful if they are hung on the patient’s neck. After catching the swallows on the nest and cutting their gizzards, remove the stones in the middle of the day: they are useful, for they cure epileptic, insane, and lunatic patients.

The timing of the stones’ removal of the stones would have been important to the medieval doctor because the Sun is warm, and the Moon is cold. The stones are “hot,” as is the Sun; the efficacy of this cure would be related the fact that the epileptic’s seizures were the result of too much fire or heat in the brain. As 12th-century Benedictine abbess St. Hildegard von Bingen and others believed, “Like cures like.”

9 Detect Thieves And Prevent Defamation With Marigolds

The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus is an herbal remedy guide that includes astrological influences. One such remedy, as quoted in Harmony and Healing: The Theoretical Basis for Ancient and Medieval Medicine by James J. Garber, prescribes a ritual using marigolds to guard against thievery or being talked down by others:

[ . . . ] if it [marigold] be gathered, the sun being in the sign of Leo, in August, and be wrapped in the leaf of a Laurel, or Bay tree and a wolf’s tooth be added thereto no man shall be able to have a word to speak against the bearer thereto, but words of peace. And if any thing be stolen, if the bearer of things before named lays them under his head in the night, he shall see the thief and all his conditions.

This cure combines the properties of the marigold with the power of the Sun strongly enough to give the person magical powers. Magic was commonly held to be true in the Middle Ages, although the Church strongly discouraged its practice.

8 Mandrake Root For Depression

The mandrake root looks man-like. Its magical powers are enlarged due to this quality of its appearing to be human.

For depression, St. Hildegard von Bingen advises digging up a mandrake root, which will reportedly scream when pulled from the ground. Immediately put the mandrake into a spring and soak it for a day and night so that the evil inside it will be purged. Put it next to you in bed, and say the following prayer:

God, you made the human being from the mud of the earth without pain; now I place next to me this earth which has never been stepped on, so that even my earth shall feel that peace, just as you created it.

The result is that you will “receive happiness, and your heart will sense recovery.”

This cure is a good example of using words (prayers) and the curative power of the plant without having to ingest it or even apply it to your skin. It reflects the medieval people’s belief in magic.

7 Banish Anxiety With Bear’s Hair

Anxiety must have been as common in the Middle Ages as it is today, for there is a cure for it in von Bingen’s Physica:

Take some hair from between the bear’s ears, and place it on your chest over your heart until it warms up. Immediately you will be peaceful and calm.

The strength and serenity of the bear is infused into the anxious person, giving them confidence and serenity.

6 A Unicorn’s Hoof To Detect Poison

If you think someone is trying to poison you, put the hoof of a unicorn under your plate or cup. If the dish is hot, the hoof will make it boil. If what you have been served is cold, the hoof will make it steam.

This ability of a unicorn’s hoof to detect poisons in food is the result of the purity of the unicorn, which by the Middle Ages, had come to represent Christ and purity.

5 For Testicle Ailments . . . 

If you’re experiencing problems with your testicles, St. Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica has you covered:

He should burn a swallow’s egg in its shell, and then grind it to a powder. Add some chicken fat, and mix. Anoint the testicles with the mixture.

This remedy imparts the healing powers of the egg. The cooked egg has a perfect balance of the humors, hence its healing powers.

4 Wear A Live Bat For Jaundice

For jaundice, the Physica tells you to stun a bat by striking it gently. Then, tie it over your loins. Make sure the bat’s back is facing your back. Wait a little while, and then tie it over your stomach. Leave it there until it dies. Another remedy for jaundice is to tie a dead widderwalo, a kind of bird, over your stomach.

In Galenic medicine, yellow bile was associated with jaundice. The bird and the bat being associated with a cure for jaundice could indicate that these animals were able to counter the heat of the yellow bile with either their own heat or perhaps their cooling properties.

3 Lion’s Ear Hearing Aid

According to the Physica, a lion’s ear can cure hearing loss:

Hold the ear of a lion on the deaf ear until that ear warms up from the ear of the lion. Also say, “Hear adimacus, by the living God, and by the sharpness of the lion’s strong hearing.”

This cure uses words and the idea of “like curing like,” common threads in medieval medicine.

2 Contraception

In the 11th or 12th century, Trotula of Salerno, a woman living in Italy, wrote a book on women’s medicine called De passionibus mulierum (On the Diseases of Women). Almost nothing is known about who this woman was or about her life. The Trotula, as the book came to be called, was in wide use in Europe in the late 12th through the 15th centuries.

To prevent pregnancy, the Trotula advised women to carry the womb of a goat that has never given birth against their nude flesh. This remedy is also given in the English remedy book Bodley 591.

1 Medieval Viagra

The many remedies for impotence, conception, and contraception in medieval remedy books show that the medieval people were as preoccupied by sex as we are today. In Bodley 591, there is a Middle Ages version of Viagra:

A man “who has lost his kynde and is cold in the body or porpis” should make a concoction of seeds of fennel and persill (parsley), lyngnum aloes (agarwood), galingale, canell (cinnamon from cassia bark), cardamon, and other ingredients. Mash these all together in a mortar and then put them into a basin, add sugar, and melt it together. Take a handful of what is left after the mixture has melted, put it in a glass, and drink it.

The manuscript says “ [ . . . ] this is a very good drynk, and an holsom ho woll use hit to restor a man anow.”

+ Faking Virginity

The Trotula gives some practical advice on how to fake virginity:

Mix together one or two ounces each of dragon’s blood, hematite, oak apples, Armenian bole (a kind of clay), cinnamon, pomegranate rind, alum (an ingredient in styptic pencils), and mastic. Put this mixture into your vagina.

The mastic and alum would give this mixture a stickiness that would become liquid when warmed.

Davanna Cimino is a writer and editor living on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Connect with her on Twitter @davanna.

The ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us’ call to action that was issued in September, 2019, fizzled out.^[1] So what happens in Area 51 stays in Area 51. But the government-labeled tin-foil hat brigade, which claims that aliens and their spaceships are hidden there, doesn’t seem so crazy anymore. About a week before the call to action, the United States Navy finally acknowledged that UFOs exist. After decades of denial, the Navy publicly stated that there are, indeed, ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.’^[2] Regardless of what they are called, the strange flying objects that Americans spot in the skies aren’t weather balloons and secret military aircraft, as they have been told.

Top 10 UFO Encounters That You’ve Never Heard About

It took the government almost as long to admit that there actually is a place called ‘Area 51.’ A Freedom of Information Act Request revealed its existence to the public in 2013. Officially, planes are tested and constructed at Area 51.^[3] The facility is actually called the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, one of two military training areas at the Nellis Air Force Base Complex in Nevada.^[4] The remote desert site, about a two-hour drive from Las Vegas, is close to the UFO-themed tourist towns of Rachel and Hiko. Whistleblowers and witnesses continue to come forward about what is really going on at Area 51 and other military installations.

10 Malmstrom Air Force Base

Malmstrom Air Force Base, which deploys Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, (ICBMs) is adjacent to Great Falls, Montana. In 1967, the Missile Combat Crew received reports from security patrols and maintenance crew that a UFO was hovering over one of the missile silos. Shortly thereafter, each of the ten missiles shut down, one at a time.^[5] While declassified documents prove that the nuclear weapons did, indeed, become inoperable, there is scant evidence of the UFO claim.^[6][7] However, evidence was gathered at an earlier UFO sighting. The Mariana UFO Incident took place in Great Falls in 1950. Nick Mariana, manager of a minor league baseball team, may be the first person to intentionally capture footage of UFOs. A bright flash caught Mariana’s attention as he was inspecting a baseball field. He ran to get a 16mm camera when he saw two silver disks flying at lightening speed over the city. He was able to get 16 seconds of color video footage. However, he later claimed that 35 complete frames were missing after the Air Force examined the film and returned it to him. These frames showed that the mystery objects in the sky were discs that were rotating.^[8]

9 Carswell Air Force Base

The 1947 Roswell Incident in New Mexico is perhaps the most famous UFO encounter. The first press release stated that a flying saucer had been found. The second press release claimed the object was a weather balloon.^[9] Operations officer Robert Shirkey saw an aluminum-like material with characters written on it being loaded for a flight to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas.^[10] Flight crewman Robert Porter reported that the boxes holding the ‘pieces of flying saucer’ were as light as empty boxes.^[11] In later years, UFOs were seen around the base. In 1954, a T-shaped aircraft was spotted and picked up on radar. The blue, green, and white UFO hovered at 4000 feet over the nearby airport.^[12] Another sighting was recorded by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database. In 1965, a witness saw a triangular UFO with three lights.^[13]

8 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Captain Oliver W. “Pappy” Henderson, a senior pilot at Roswell AFB during the Roswell Incident, flew a plane to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio shortly after the incident. He did not discuss the flight for more than thirty years because of his security clearance. But in 1977, he told his business partner about his assignment. He said he transported spacecraft wreckage and small alien bodies. He showed his partner a piece of metal from the wreckage. It resembled aluminum but was lighter and much stiffer. In 1982, Henderson told the same story to several of his Roswell pals while attending a reunion.^[14] Other military men confirm Henderson’s story. One of these men is Marine Lieutenant Colonel Marion M. “Black Mac” Magruder. On his deathbed, Magruder remembered that the alien he saw was ‘squiggly.’^[15]

7 Fort Dix

Major George Filer recounts six decades of investigating aliens and UFOs in John Guerra’s Strange Craft: The True Story of An Air Force Intelligence Officer’s Life with UFOs. Most notably, Filer recalls the shooting of an alien at Fort Dix in New Jersey.^[16] In 1978, a military policeman was following a low flying aircraft through the wilderness of the army base during the wee hours of a frigid January morning. A 4-foot tall, grayish-brown creature with long arms, a slender body, and fat head appeared in front of the MP’s truck and was then shot. The remains gave off an ammonia-like stench.^[17] Filer is a member of the Disclosure Project, which champions the release of all UFO information. In 2017, the Pentagon released footage of an extraterrestrial vehicle outdoing U.S. Navy fighters, confirming some of Filer’s descriptions.

6 29 Palms

29 Palms in the Mojave Desert in California was the site of a massive multi-regimental live-maneuver exercise in October, 2019.^[18] Military training is just one of the interesting activities at the Marine base, which is listed in Project Redbook. This database contains information about subsurface alien activity sites. It was compiled for those who want to explore the sites, with no claims of authenticity for any particular site.^[19] According to researcher Val Valerian, recovered alien technology is examined in underground facilities at the base.^[20] In addition, there have been many UFO sightings in the area since the 1950s.^[21] In May, 2019, a worm-like UFO was spotted over the town of 29 Palms.

Top 10 UFO Encounters That Involve Alien Humanoid Entities

5 Fort Meade

In his book, Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny, Dan Sherman writes that he was sent to Fort Meade in Maryland to train for his role in an above Top Secret-level Air Force program called ‘Greys.’ In 1992, he was recruited to speak to Grey Aliens, first encountered at the Roswell Incident. His mother was visited by aliens and was the subject of genetic manipulation. Therefore, Sherman could fulfill his duties as ‘Intuitive Communicator,’ and receive messages from the Greys. First, Sherman sat in a communications van in an unknown location to receive the messages from the designated alien. After some time, he began to receive what he calls ‘abduction data.’^[22] The National Security Agency, (NSA) headquartered at Fort Meade, declassified many documents in more recent years. Some of these reports note attempts to decode a ‘radio message’ received from outer space.^[23]

4 Edwards Air Force Base

Skeptics wonder why aliens speak to the ‘common man’ rather than leaders. In fact, one of our greatest leaders, Dwight Eisenhower, may have communicated with them. Depending on whose story you believe, the president either took a secret evening trip to Edwards Air Force Base while on a golf vacation or he went to the dentist for repair of a chipped tooth. Ike’s dentist insisted he saw the president on February 20, 1954. But Dr. Michael Salla believes that Ike met two blue-eyed aliens, who had colorless lips and white hair, at the base.^[24] Dr. Salla is a leader in the field of exopolitics, defined as ‘the political study of the key actors, institutions, and processes associated with extraterrestrial life.’^[25] Interestingly, the Associated Press reported that Ike died on February 20, 1954, but retracted the story two minutes later. Laura Magdalene Eisenhower, Ike’s great-granddaughter, has publicly stated that she believes that Ike met with extraterrestrials.^[26]

3 Kirtland Air Force Base

A declassified government report revealed that guards at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico saw UFOs in the Coyote Canyon area in 1980. During the same period of time, radar was jammed by an unknown source for six hours in the same area.^[27] Paul Bennewitz, a physicist, inventor, and UFO researcher, had begun to see odd lights in the sky a year earlier. These lights, which flew towards Coyote Canyon and the base, could be seen nearly every evening. Bennewitz filmed the lights as well as objects he saw on the ground and in the air. Over time, he collected more than 2600 feet of film. Bennewitz also taped low-frequency radio transmissions that he said were transmitted by the aliens, and he created a computer program to translate these transmissions.^[28] In addition, he claimed to have evidence that aliens were controlling people through electromagnetic devices.^[29]

2 Holloman Air Force Base

Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico is at the center of several UFO encounters. Project 1947, an ongoing gathering of articles and documents about UFOs seen between 1900 and 1965, presents one of these incidents.^[30] In 1950, electronics engineer Cliff Booth reported that he and another man had used an Askania theodolite to get photographs of a cigar-shaped UFO. While both men were convinced they had seen a ‘vehicle from outer space,’ photographs were blurry.^[31] Years later, filmmaker Robert Emenegger was prompted by the US Air Force to produce a UFO documentary. In 1974, UFOs: Past, Present and Future was released without its most sensational story. The Air Force reneged on its promise to give Emenegger footage of a UFO landing at Holloman Air Force Base in 1971.^[32] The footage showed three UFOs. One UFO landed and three aliens emerged.^[33]

1 Dobbins Air Force Base

‘Georgia’s Aerial Phenomenon 1947-1987,’ written by Roswell, Georgia, police officer Michael Hitt, presents 234 UFO sightings in the state. Many reports come from civilian and military pilots like the airmen from Dobbins Air Force Base who told their story in 1952. They saw an object streak overhead before it disappeared. This same object was seen on radar scopes as it traveled at 1,200 miles an hour, twice the speed of an airplane.^[34] Control tower operator Bruce Beach relates that there were so many UFO sightings at Dobbins Air Force Base in the 1950s that the tower had a 3D camera, which was unusual at that time.^[35] Sightings continued throughout the years. Recently, a square, black UFO the size of a Boeing 727 was spotted near the base and reported to MUFON in January, 2019.^[36]

The spaceship-shaped McDonald’s in Roswell, New Mexico, reminds residents and tourists that we may not be alone in the universe. Right now, the majority of the evidence comes in the form of stories told by military men, pilots, law enforcement officers, and others. The government has finally admitted that UFOs are a real phenomenon. Who knows what secrets may be revealed in the future.

10 Times We Thought We Had Found Proof Of Aliens

Have you ever gotten something confused in your head, or maybe you just didn’t care, and called one thing by the wrong name for far too long because you consider them the same? The way some people seem to call any brown soda Coke even if it’s a Pepsi or a root beer or whatever? It can happen for any number of reasons but it also probably happens more than you’d think. We’re willing to bet that you thought at least one of these things was the same as something else when it absolutely isn’t. 

10. Crevice and Crevasse Are Not the Same

Okay, imagine you’re out for a walk. It’s a warm day, and the air is fresh and clean and you’re having a great time. Life is good! But then, oh no, the earth splits asunder beneath your feet and you fall to your doom. Did you just fall into a crevice or a crevasse? There is a right and wrong answer here.

While both words mean a crack in something they don’t refer to a crack in the same thing. The root of each comes from Anglo-French crevace, to break, the way they’re used is different for a reason. 

A crevasse is a bigger break, a deeper break, and is typically reserved only for referring to ice. So if your walk was on a glacier and it split, you fell into a crevasse. If the break was a little smaller and happened out on the earth itself, you fell into a crevice. In proper usage, a crevice is far less impressive, it may only be a surface crack, in fact. But a crevasse is going to seriously ruin your day. 

9. TNT is Not Even Close Dynamite 

In the song TNT by AC/DC, the chorus assures listeners that the singer is TNT, he’s dynamite. With all due respect to Bon Scott, that just wasn’t correct. Unless he was speaking to his own diversity, TNT and dynamite are not the same thing.

TNT is trinitrotoluene, and it’s a yellow, crystalline substance. It was discovered in 1863 and while it is explosive, it’s not as explosive as dynamite but the tradeoff is that it’s more stable. 

Dynamite dates to 1867 and was discovered by Alfred Nobel of Nobel Prize fame. It’s made from nitroglycerine stabilized with diatomaceous earth and sodium carbonate. He made a safe(r) explosive than plain old nitro.

A stick of dynamite has a holding tube that is filled with an absorbent material covered in nitroglycerin and packed with other substances to stabilize it. It’s incredibly far removed from TNT and, aside from the intended purpose, is pretty much completely different from it in every way, especially chemically. 

When they were first discovered, it was so hard to make TNT explode that it wasn’t even listed as an explosive compound, unlike dynamite. 

8. Chrysalis and a Cocoon are Different 

One of the most remarkable transformations in nature is when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Because it’s not a quick change magic act, the caterpillar needs to prepare to become a fancy new life form that flies and how does it do that? Does it form a cocoon or a chrysalis?  The answer is chrysalis. No butterfly comes out of a cocoon because they are not the same thing.

Moths are a good example of cocoon makers and the difference between a moth cocoon and a butterfly chrysalis is how they are made. Like many creatures, a caterpillar grows by molting. That means it sheds its old skin as it grows larger beneath that skin. But when a caterpillar is set to become a butterfly, it never sheds that final skin. Instead, thanks to fun biology, that skin hardens into the outer chrysalis that allows the butterfly to form inside. 

When a caterpillar becomes a moth, it uses silk that it produces itself, and maybe sometimes leaves and other bits of natural stuff to form a cocoon around itself. A cocoon is constructed by the caterpillar and then, once safely hidden away, it begins its transformation. Not all moths do this, but the majority do. No butterflies produce silk at all, however.

7. A Heart Attack is Not Cardiac Arrest 

Let’s say you’re at a restaurant and a person at the next table clutches their chest and falls to the ground. They’re having a heart attack! Or are they suffering from cardiac arrest? As much as the two terms seem to be bandied about casually in pop culture, they are not synonyms and do not refer to the same condition. 

A heart attack can trigger cardiac arrest, but two different things occur. A heart attack involves a blockage in an artery. Oxygenated blood can’t get to your heart and that part of the heart, now cut off from oxygen and blood, begins to die. That can be a quick process or a long one depending on several factors. You need to get medical help right away if this occurs because it can and likely will get much worse. 

Cardiac arrest, which, again, can be triggered by a heart attack, is when the heart shuts down and stops pumping blood. It doesn’t have to be caused by a heart attack, though, and any disruption to the rhythm of your heart prevents it from pumping blood through the body. Your heart stops and you effectively die. CPR or other medical intervention will be needed to restart the heart or you could die quickly. 

6. Pounds and Kilograms Measure Different Things 

Here’s a confusing one. Pounds versus kilograms obviously refers to different measures but do they measure the same thing? A person who weighs 200 pounds can also be said to weigh 90.72 kilograms. So it’s two ways of saying the same thing, essentially. Or so it would seem, but that’s not technically correct.

Pounds are actually a measure of force or weight and kilograms are a measure of mass. In order for 200 pounds to equal 90.72 you have to agree that mass equals force and that’s not the cleanest science but it works for most of us so we let it slide.

On earth, none of this matters much. But if you went to the moon, your mass would still be 90.72 kilograms while your weight would be much less than 200 pounds. You’d weigh about six times less, in fact, because pounds measure that force of gravity on you and there’s less gravity on the moon. 

Mass is a more reliable measure because it’s very hard to change but weight, in the right circumstances, can change. 

5. Snow Leopards are Not Leopards

Snow leopards are some of the most beautiful and rare cats in the world. The WWF estimates there are 4,000 to 6,500 of them out there. They’re perfectly designed to live in harsh, snowy mountains where natural camouflage makes them nearly impossible to spot. Also of note is that they’re not actually leopards, but members of the panther family. 

From a genetic standpoint, while they have spots you might expect of a leopard, they’re more closely related to tigers. In general, we recognize five kinds of big cats in the world and those are lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards which are off on their own. 

4. Concrete and Cement are Closely Related But Not the Same

This is one people tend to get wrong a lot. When you’re out walking the dog down the sidewalk, is it cement underfoot or concrete? If you wanted to be a bit of a semantic and technical weenie, you could argue that both work, but we’re not doing that. You’re walking on concrete. But there is cement in it. 

You need a few things to make concrete. The first thing you want is cement. Cement is made from limestone, silica, and a few other ingredients that are baked and ground down into a super fine powder. When you add water to that super fine powder you get cement paste. It’s halfway to being concrete!

All you need to do now is mix in something like rocks or gravel and you’re making concrete. You need to keep the stones down to a diameter of one inch or less to make proper concrete. Of course, if you just mix in sand then you’re making mortar. 

Fun fact! Because cement needs to be fired in a kiln to make it, the chemical reaction produces a lot of CO2. Concrete is the most widely used substance in the world and as much as 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions come from cement production. 

3. Strangulation is Not the Same as Choking 

It’s late at night, you’re walking around Camp Crystal Lake with Hannibal Lecter trying to avoid a guy in a Scream mask and you haven’t slept in days because of Freddy Krueger. Suddenly someone attacks you from behind and pulls a cord around your neck. Are you being choked or strangled?

Choking and strangulation are distinctly different things. In simple terms, choking is something that happens internally while strangulation happens externally. You can choke on a delicious burrito but you’d get strangled by a rope. 

More specifically, choking happens when something blocks your trachea and prevents air from flowing to your lungs. Strangulation is when something presses on your neck and compresses your trachea preventing that airflow. It can also happen by accident, of course, but it can be intentional far more often than choking can. 

2. Macarons and Macaroons Come From the Same Origin But Are Very Different

For a long time, the average person probably had no idea what a macaron was. But then foodie culture exploded, everyone and their uncle was watching Iron Chef, and the discerning dessert enthusiast in all of us was just dying to try a delicious macaron. Or was it a macaroon?

A macaroon differs from a macaron in several ways. A typical macaroon is a drop cookie, meaning you scoop up the mix, splat it down off of your spoon, and bam, there it is. They’re made with coconut and whipped egg whites and baked and chocolate-covered. Some folks make them with oatmeal and a few other choice ingredients and do a no-bake version sometimes called a haystack that doesn’t include egg.

Macarons are a sandwich cookie where the sandwich part is an egg white meringue cookie that you bake. It should have a slightly crispy exterior but a chewy interior and be pretty thin. Then you fill the sandwich with some kind of cream or ganache or whatever. 

The name is so similar because they have the same origin way back in Italy when both were made with ground almonds and then evolved in separate ways to become distinctly different treats.

1. Captions and Subtitles Are Not the Same

In 2022, a survey of 1,200 people determined that 50% of us are watching TV with the captions on, which is pretty significant. So what makes subtitles so appealing? There could be several things from poor sound mixing to bad speaker placement. But it’s also worth remembering that subtitles and captions are different things even though people use the words interchangeably.

Subtitles are added to movies by the filmmakers many times and sometimes later by distributors if they’re being made available in other language markets. They are designed to translate dialogue from one language to another so you know what the characters are saying.

Captions, on the other hand, are designed for people who are hard of hearing so they can read the dialogue regardless of language. These are what most people are turning on now to follow along because it’s just too hard to understand what people are saying on TV and no one seems keen on fixing it.

When you see the word “natural” on a food label it is often used in a way to suggest that food is healthy, free from preservatives or chemicals, and generally good for you. In reality, the use of the term is kind of loosey-goosey. In America, the FDA lets you use “natural” on a label if there are no synthetic ingredients. A gob of pork fat on top of peanut butter and chocolate is natural by that definition so not healthy or good for you, just not synthetic. So how do you know what natural really refers to?

Turns out there are a lot of things in the world that we probably think are natural and normal just because we’re used to them or expect them to be that way when that isn’t necessarily the case.

10. Farmed Salmon is Not Naturally Salmon Colored

Salmon is the second most popular seafood in America behind shrimp. It’s even more popular than tuna. Americans eat a stunning 918 million pounds of it per year. Because salmon is so popular there’s just no way all of it can be wild-caught. Salmon farming has been a popular alternative for decades now and 70% of all salmon eaten in the world right now is farm raised. 

While there’s nothing wrong with farm-raised salmon, assuming it’s done responsibly and ethically, there are still some notable differences between it and wild-caught. For instance, the color. If you have farm-raised salmon that bears that distinctive orangey-pink color you expect from salmon, that’s not technically natural at all. Salmon color is natural to wild salmon.

Wild salmon eat krill and shrimp which have astaxanthin, a natural red pigment. Much like flamingos, which we’ll talk about shortly, get their pink color from eating shrimp, so does salmon. But farmed salmon rarely eat a diet rich in shrimp and krill, they eat a sort of kibble that keeps them alive and offers basic nutrients. It’s made of some fish but also soy, corn, and other filler material. But they also add artificial astaxanthin.

Natural farmed salmon would have gray flesh, but no one wants to eat that. So they add the astaxanthin to alter the color and make it look “real.” The fish are healthy on their artificial diet and you still get nutrients from eating it, but the color is added to make it more convincing to the consumer. 

9. Broccoli Does Not Occur Naturally, It Was Bred Into Existence

When we think of natural food vs unnatural food, we might hold up a Twinkie as an example of something unnatural while some healthy, green broccoli is natural. But we need to ask what natural means again in this case. Broccoli never occurred in nature on its own, it’s the product of some determined Italian farmers who were tinkering with wild cabbage. 

The vegetable was created through some selective breeding that dates back to the 6th century BC in Rome. The process of turning a kind of wild cabbage into broccoli was a long one but not an unusual one in the world of farming. 

Farmers would grow plants and find ones with the desired qualities. In broccoli’s case, this was probably ones with thicker stems, more flowering buds, and a less bitter taste. They would ignore the other plants and take the seeds from these more desirable ones to plant the next crop. If you keep pollinating only the desirable plants and cultivating their seeds, you can steer the genetics of the plant toward your goal – a tastier, more robust vegetable. 

8. Lemons Are a Hybrid and Didn’t Exist Naturally Beforehand

Speaking of crafty farmers, the humble lemon is an absolute kitchen staple and is used around the world to add brightness, acid, and a pop of color to many dishes. It works in sweet and savory, you can add it to meat, fish, vegetables, and even dairy, drinks, and desserts. Nearly 21 million metric tons of lemons and their green sidekicks the lime are produced every year. 

Citrus seems to have appeared around 8 million years ago out in the wild. Because of the similarities between citrus varieties, you can cross them to make new fruits, much like apples can be tweaked and bred to make new varieties.

Long ago a pomelo and a mandarin were crossed to make a sour orange. That sour orange was crossed with a citron and the result was a sour, yellow citrus that we call the lemon. The difference here seems to be that this was a natural hybrid rather than one forced by farmers. The plants probably grew in abundance near each other, trees got cross-pollinated and new fruit happened. 

So, if it’s a natural hybrid you can certainly consider lemons as natural as broccoli but, just like broccoli, had circumstances not been what they were, the lemon never would have existed. 

7. Flamingos Aren’t Naturally Pink

The one thing everyone in the world knows about a flamingo is that it’s pink. Tall, skinny, kind of weird? Sure. But pink. They make obnoxious lawn ornaments just to drive the point home. But, just like our friend the salmon, all is not as it seems. Flamingos are naturally whitish-gray. 

Flamingos eat a diet rich in carotenoids, the natural pigments found in living things like carrots, shrimp, and algae. The shrimp eat pigment-rich algae and the birds eat the algae and the shrimp, doubling down on the colorful stuff. 

When flamingos eat food rich in beta-carotene, their liver absorbs them and they end up being distributed through the bird’s body to the feathers. Their diet is almost exclusively things that are full of beta-carotene so they absorb enough to give their skin and feathers the pink hue. The more they eat, the darker they get, which is why some flamingoes may just be a pale pink and others are a deep, rich, almost red color. 

6. Cheese is Not Naturally Orange

The world makes over 22 million metric tons of cheese per year. If there are eight billion people in the world, that means we make 5.5 pounds of cheese per person per year. Do you eat five pounds of cheese in a year? Because that’s your share. If you’re American, statistics say you’re eating about 41.8 pounds per year. That’s a heck of a lot of cheese. There’s a good chance some of that is good ol’ orange cheddar, too. But that cheddar isn’t natural. 

Annatto, a dye that comes from fruit, is often added to cheese to make the orange color. It’s added because it doesn’t alter the flavor but changes the color and, at one time, that was a desired outcome.

In 16th and 17th century England there was apparently some desire for yellow milk. Cows put out in certain pastures would graze on plants that had some of those same carotenoids that we saw earlier with the flamingos and the salmon. That made the milk richer, yellow, and more flavorful. 

In winter, when they had to eat whatever stored food was sitting around, the milk was whiter and less desirable. To compensate, farmers added annatto and made the milk and the resulting cheese yellow or orange.

The farmers also realized that the real money was in the fat. They could skim off the fat, which held the color, and make money selling it as butter or cream. Then, with the pale, fatless milk, they could add annatto to make it look rich again when it became cheese. They were essentially committing fraud, making their cheese look like something it wasn’t so it would seem high quality, and probably enjoying some higher profits as a result. 

5. Chickens As We Know Them Never Existed in the Wild

Have you ever seen a wild chicken before? Keep in mind that a chicken that gets loose and runs to the woods is not a wild chicken, it’s a feral one. Like puggles and other animals that have been bred by humans for many generations, chickens are not actually wild animals and never were. Their ancestors were, but we bred them into something new that never existed in a wild state.

Modern chickens came from jungle fowl. Archaeologists put an incredible amount of effort into trying to trace chicken origins because their bones don’t lend themselves to fossils well. What they discovered is that chickens follow rice. 

Where rice was cultivated, chickens appeared. The belief is that rice drew out the wild chicken relatives and they grew accustomed to humans who eventually domesticated and bred the birds. This first happened around 3,600 years ago in Thailand, then slowly spread across Asia, the Middle East, and finally into Europe 2,800 years ago.

Earlier theories suggested chicken domestication was much older, as much as 8,000 years, but that doesn’t follow the evidence. 

4. Sleeping for 8 Hours Straight Isn’t a Natural Sleep Cycle

Most of us have heard that you need a solid 8 hours of sleep per night to be well-rested. That idea is not something that has a lot of historical precedence and it seems like it’s not a natural sleep cycle at all. Biphasic sleep is more natural and involves two sleep periods in a day rather than one. The idea is you sleep for a short period during the day and a longer period at night, but never just one eight-hour block.

In one experiment, subjects naturally fell into a pattern of sleeping three to five hours, then waking and doing various tasks for a couple of hours, then sleeping again for another three to five hours. This same pattern can be seen in various animals and in pre-industrial societies where people don’t have access to artificial light. 

It’s speculated that this kind of sleep, where you wake and then sleep again, would have had advantages in the distant past when you were vulnerable to predators and couldn’t afford to konk out for eight hours at a time. 

3. Being Tolerant of Lactose is Not Natural

If you’re lactose intolerant, there’s a chance you’ve felt like there’s something wrong with you because of it. Look at everyone else loving cheese and ice cream and there’s you not having any of it. Truth be told, that is a backward view of the situation. Lactose tolerance is statistically not the norm at all. 

About 68% of the people in the world can’t absorb lactose. It’s not even the norm in the rest of the mammalian world where, after weaning, animals no longer drink milk and they’re not well suited to digest it as adults because they stop producing lactase to allow for it. 

Humans basically forced themselves to tolerate lactose as well as they currently do. Evidence shows that Europeans were not having a good time with milk as recently as 5,000 years ago but a mutation developed around that time that allowed them to digest it and spread through the population. Odds are that things like disease and famine were putting pressure on survival and those that couldn’t digest lactose died off leaving only those that could behind.

2. Brown Sugar is Not a Natural Form of Sugar

Have you ever heard that brown sugar is healthier than white sugar? It’s sometimes claimed that white sugar is refined too much or bleached or whatever to make it an unhealthy kind of sugar compared to brown which is presumably somehow more natural. Oddly enough, the opposite is true.

Brown sugar is refined the same way white sugar is. Not just similarly — exactly the same. It starts as white sugar and then molasses is mixed in to make it darker in color and alter the flavor. But it’s not a natural state for sugar by any means and is definitely not healthier. It just offers a different flavor profile. 

1. Cats Meow Almost Exclusively for the Benefit of Humans

How often does your cat meow at you? How often have you seen a video of a cat meowing about something or other and wondered what it was saying? Research suggests that the cat really is saying something, but it’s only for your benefit. Cats don’t naturally meow all that often unless a human is there to hear it. They do it for us. 

In the wild, cats communicate by marking their territory. Most aren’t pack animals and even those that are don’t need to communicate with loud noises. Vocalization requires close contact, but scent markers are more efficient for cats. Kittens meow at parent cats until they’re old enough to be independent and then it usually stops. But cats will meow at humans their whole lives. 

Anyone who owns a cat will probably joke that their cat can be manipulative, and it’s kind of true. They developed vocal communication to get our attention after they were domesticated because scent marking doesn’t tell us much.