Many people do not believe in cults. Despite the fact that very real cults have existed throughout history, many ordinary folks like to cast them aside as just a “conspiracy theory.” The problem is that, in many cases, such thinking is akin to an ostrich voluntarily dunking its head in the sand. Cults exist, and some are truly dangerous.

One such cult is called the Order of Nine Angles. This organization has links to neo-Nazi and left-wing anarchist groups, plus its strong adherence to the “Left-Hand Path” has earned it accusations of human sacrifice and murder. Examining this group involves a peek in at the world of true radicalism—a world where Satanism, extremist politics, and hard-line Islamism cohabitate.

10 Origins

The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) was founded in Great Britain by a man named Anton Long. At the time, Long and others formed ONA out of a diverse collection of occult groups then centered in England. According to Long himself, as a child he traveled all over Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Here, in the latter area, Long began studying religions and taught himself Greek, Arabic, and Persian.^[1]

By his own admission, in the early 1970s, Long found attraction in the darker side of society, and at some point, he began committing various crimes. Before long, this blossoming occultist fell in with other British witches and warlocks, many of whom claimed descent from Britain’s original pagans. Indeed, beginning in the 1980s, the ONA began publishing tracts and articles claiming that their brand of “sinister” occultism had roots in the original “solar paganism” of the ancient Indo-European peoples. As such, Anton Long and priestess Christos Beest claimed in writing that their Satanism was an attempt to revive Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic paganism in the face of Christianity. The group published a book entitled The Black Book of Satan, which promised its readers a sevenfold path toward reaching the sinister.

9 Distinction

Lazy journalists who became aware of the ONA linked them with Anton LaVey and Michael Aquino. Founded on Walpurgis Night 1966, LaVey’s Church of Satan was all about showmanship and self-promotion. Indeed, the group’s official “bible,” The Satanic Bible, is more philosophy than theology. LaVey rejected the existence of Satan and instead espoused the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand.^[2]

Michael Aquino was the founder of the Temple of Set, an occult order based in Southern California. Aquino, a former officer in the US Army, preached what he called “esoteric Satanism.” The Temple of Set broke off from the Church of Satan in order to pursue their path toward “enlightenment” without the supposed hang-ups of Judeo-Christian morality. For the followers of Aquino, the goal is to become an individual god.

The ONA believe in none of this. They are theistic Satanists, which means that they believe in a deity named Satan. For them, practicing black magic and causing chaos in the world is all part of glorifying their black god.

8 The Importance Of David Myatt

British citizen David Myatt has lived a most interesting life. Born in Tanzania and raised in East Asia by a civil servant father, Myatt began practicing martial arts at a very young age. From here Myatt, began studying the religions of the world, including Buddhism and Islam. However, instead of becoming a priest or a scholar, Myatt first became a political activist.

Beginning in 1969, Myatt became involved in the British Movement (BM), a right-wing group founded by Colin Jordan. Then and now, Jordan was a controversial staple of British politics. During his heyday, Jordan supported the idea of sending all of Britain’s Jews to Israel, the complete halt of all non-European immigration to Great Britain, and removing all blacks and Asians from British life. As can be guessed, Jordan and his followers got into many street battles with Labour Party supporters and immigrant groups. As such, Jordan hired Myatt to be his bodyguard.

In 1974, Myatt formed the National Democratic Freedom Movement, an openly neo-Nazi organization that published a newspaper entitled British News. Myatt was frequently arrested for engaging in street brawls. At the same time, he was also collaborating with London-based Thelemites and members of the ONA. Under the sway of Myatt, the ONA embraced National Socialist racialism and the idea that Christianity is a religion fit only for slaves.^[3]

In 1998, Myatt converted to Sunni Islam. Following this, he began trying to synthesize hard-line Islamism with neo-Nazi ideals of political revolution.

7 Links To Right-Wing Groups

Thanks to the influence of David Myatt and other British political activists, the ONA began collaborating with right-wing organizations all over Europe. Sometimes, this collaboration was indirect, with groups independently adopting the ideals and ideas of the ONA.

One intellectual influenced by the ideas of the ONA is French journalist Christian Bouchet. In 1991, Bouchet, a mainstay of right-wing politics in France, founded the Nouvelle Resistance, a revolutionary nationalist movement, and the pan-European European Liberation Front. Bouchet’s ideas have not only been informed by the Aryanism of the ONA but also by the American author Francis Parker Yockey and the founder of “Esoteric Hitlerism,” Savitri Devi.^[4]

In New Zealand, the Black Order, founded by author Kerry Bolton, took direct inspiration from the ONA, while the German group the National Socialist Underground were similarly influenced by ONA. Just this year, one of the longest trials in German history concluded when Beate Zschape of the NSU was convicted of ten counts of murder.

6 Links To The Left

The ONA considers itself open to differing views. As such, membership in the ONA includes members who subscribe to left-wing politics. While most authors have focused on the group’s connections to right-wing organizations, the ONA’s theology, which embraces chaos, has been adopted by some anarchist groups who routinely engage in acts of vandalism.^[5]

According to the group’s own words, the ONA “upholds anarchism” as the most compatible with black magic. For ONA adepts, the initiation of anarchy is desirable because tragedy and trauma create wisdom and enlightenment. As such, ONA members are against organized society and its institutions. This idea has been adapted by several small anarcho-communist groups. However, unlike the ONA’s connections to the right, its connections to the left are less tangible.

5 The Atomwaffen Division

In several articles, the American neo-Nazi organization Atomwaffen Division has been linked to the ONA. In March 2018, The Daily Beast published an article detailing how the Satanist wing of the Atomwaffen Division had declared war on the group’s non-Satanic adherents. The article, written by Kelly Weill, said that the group’s supposed leader, James Cameron Denton, has posted ONA images online in the past.^[6] Denton and his followers reportedly see no contradiction between Satanism and the ONA (which encourages its adherents to infiltrate any extremist organization), while other members of the Atomwaffen Division do not agree.

The Atomwaffen Division are not some fringe group, mind you. They’ve been known to place flyers on American college campuses, are well-armed, and have made threats to attack the US government and American electrical grids in the past. At one point, the group was accused of playing a role in the murder of college student Blaze Bernstein. Bernstein’s killer, Samuel Woodward, had been a member of Atomwaffen Division, but he admitted in court that he targeted the Jewish Bernstein because he was gay.

4 The ONA’s Goals

The main goal of the ONA and its followers is to bring about the so-called New Aeon.^[7] The ONA is convinced that the modern world has failed and that global capital, consumerism, religious extremism, and environmental destruction are the result of Magian (Judeo-Christian) culture and politics. The New Aeon will come about as soon as society returns to its tribal roots.

The ONA also believes that the new age will be inaugurated by Vindex, a revolutionary hero who will restore justice. Vindex will be, like Achilles, a semidivine warrior with a preordained mission. Once Vindex reaches his destiny, the New Aeon will come forth.

The ONA believes that its “sinister” ideals must be spread as much as possible in order for the New Aeon to come. That is why ONA members are encouraged to join radical organizations with predominately young membership.

3 The Dark Gods

According the ONA theology, a series of sinister deities known as the Dark Gods exist. These gods exist in the acausal realm, which is connected to our own causal realm. The acausal realm is bounded by acausal time and has more than three spatial dimensions.^[8] These Dark Gods have the ability to enter into the minds of adepts in a process that is somewhat reminiscent of Lovecraftian fiction. Indeed, also akin to Lovecraft is the ONA notion that a new age will come when the Dark Gods of the acausal realm bleed over into the causal realm.

One of the Dark Gods is Baphomet, the mother and bride of Satan. The goat-headed Baphomet is, according to the ONA, associated with the feminine and is the creator of all demons. Students of history may remember that the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping Baphomet by at least two sources.

The other Dark Gods of the ONA pantheon are completely unique to the group and do not have any obvious connections to the Western occult tradition.

2 The Seven Fold Way

The core tenet of the ONA is the concept of the Seven Fold Way. The Seven Fold Way is a hermetic hierarchy of practitioners. Each category of the Seven Fold Way represents a certain level of occultism. Keep in mind that the ONA’s brand of occultism demands sharp aestheticism, scholarship, and physical endurance.

The seven stages of adeptness for the group are: 1) Neophyte, 2) Initiate, 3) External Adept, 4) Internal Adept, 5) Master/Mistress, 6) Grand Master/Mousa, and 7) Immortal.^[9] The exact number of ONA members in each category are unknown. At best, it has been theorized that there over 1,000 members of the ONA throughout the world.

1 Human Sacrifice

The ONA is infamous in the Satanic underground as one of the few organizations that encourages human sacrifice. To the ONA, sacrificing human life is “powerful magick” that releases an individual’s energy, which can be stored and reused by magicians.^[10] In their own mythology, the ONA’s ancestors in pagan England practiced human sacrifice every 17 years in order to maintain “cosmic balance.”

Members of the ONA believe in “culling,” or committing sacrifices wherein the victim self-selects their own death. Some former members of the ONA claim that Myatt is still active in the group and actively encourages fellow members of the cult to commit crimes and murders as part of magical rites.

Head into the supermarket today, and you will find countless items on the shelf that proudly bear non-GMO labels. They’re usually located near where a product claims it’s gluten or fat-free. The display of this label, while saying nothing at all about GMOs, is clearly meant to relieve you, the consumer. It assures you that the food you’re going to eat is healthy because it’s not genetically modified!

There’s an entire organization, the Non-GMO Project, set up with a little orange butterfly logo and everything to help you identify products that are not genetically modified. This heavily implies GMOs are unhealthy or even dangerous, but is it? According to the Non-GMO Project, genetically modified organisms are made of a combination of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that never occur in nature, and there are no long-term studies to determine if they’re safe. 

So, let’s see what the science says. Over 90% of all the cotton, soy, and corn grown in the United States in 2024 is genetically modified. Are there dangers or not, and what exactly are they? Is your GMP rice safe to eat, or are you doomed to become a food mutant?

The Dangers

Let’s start with some potential dangers of GMOs, as detailed by the Non-GMO Project. They point out on their site two things that may often be overlooked. One is that GMO seeds may be a burden to farmers and even damaging to their livelihoods. To prevent GMO crops from contaminating non-GMO and vice versa, safeguards need to be in place. Imagine how hard it is to prevent cross-pollination between crops that would result in new crops that may be unintentionally GMO or not. This can seriously affect how the food can grow, be labeled, and sold. 

Additionally, GMO seeds are patented by the companies that make them. This means farmers can’t hold seeds or produce their own, and if they try to plant seeds produced by their own crops, companies like Monsanto can sue them for patent infringement. 

GMO crops can also be extremely bad for the environment. One of the things being modified in many crops is their tolerance to herbicides. You want crops that are hearty and won’t die easily, and that seems good at first. But, herbicide tolerance means a drastic increase in herbicide use. In Canada alone, sales of herbicides like Roundup, which has been linked to cancer cases for years, increased by almost 200%.

It’s also been suggested that increased herbicide use has led to a decline in native plant species while allowing herbicide-resistant weeds to proliferate. 

No Risk and Potential Improvements

There are some environmental factors to consider, but they are also contrasted with some benefits. Some herbicide use went up, but pesticides and other chemical use have been reduced globally by 37%, according to some research. Crop yields went up by 22%, and farm profits increased by 64%.

Because pesticides don’t need to be sprayed as often, greenhouse gas emissions also declined thanks to GMO crops. In 2018, this was the equivalent of 15 million fewer cars being on the road.

In countries less advanced than the United States and other Western nations, farming is traditionally much more rigorous and dangerous. GMO crops have significantly reduced pesticide poisonings in developing nations. In South Africa, a serious drop in farmers suffering ill effects from pesticides has been recorded. In China, one-third of farmers not using GMO cotton crops reported poisoning compared to 9% who did. In India, between 2003 and 2019, at least 38 million fewer poisonings have occurred, but that number could be much higher.

The first GMO crop in the United States was the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994. It was modified to slow the ripening process and stop it from going bad as quickly as other tomatoes. Research from The Institute for Responsible Technology quickly came out to denounce GMO foods. Their studies claim that toxic effects in rats happened almost immediately. No other scientists were ever able to replicate the results in lab conditions. 

Numerous studies conducted by different groups in different countries around the world have been unable to find adverse health effects in subjects who consume genetically modified foods. Even at a microscopic level, there are no effects specifically associated with GMOs.

Rats fed GMO corn have also been studied to see if any defects can be passed down generationally. Even after four generations, rats show no adverse effect in any of the tissues or organs that one might expect damage to show up in if there were birth defects being passed on.

GMO crops are not modified in ways that would cause health issues in humans or any other animal that eats some. The work is extremely tightly regulated to ensure that the genes being used to modify these organisms are well understood, and regulation is far more strict than it is for non-GMO food. 

Rather than being some dangerous Mad Science project, the gene in the Flavr Savr tomato stopped it from spoiling was already in the tomato. Scientists copied the gene and inserted it into a bacteria cell that was stripped of its harmful material, essentially using it as a shell to hold the gene and nothing more. Once inserted into the tomato, the gene interferes with the creation of an enzyme that speeds up spoiling, allowing the tomato to last longer. Nothing harmful was introduced, and nothing had the potential to cause allergies, cancer, mutation, or anything else beyond what was already there. The belief that they could is based solely on a poor understanding of science or outright lies. 

Cancer research groups have also pointed out that there is no logic behind any fear of cancer from GMO foods because they simply don’t work that way. There’s no evidence that they have caused cancer in the past, nor is there a scientifically sound explanation for how they could. There have been no notable increases in cancer cases in the US since the introduction of GMOs.

GMO Foods Save Lives

In the Western World, it can be harder to appreciate just how important GMO crops are. For us, a tomato that stays fresher longer may not seem like a big deal. In parts of the world where famine is a real risk, and lives are lost every day, GMO crops have been credited with saving one billion lives. Crops with higher yields that resist insects and drought mean people who would otherwise starve get to eat. 

GMO apples that don’t oxidize and turn brown as quickly help reduce food waste, and GMO soybeans can produce healthier oil. While the novelty of something like Arctic Apples is one example of how GMOs can alter the food we eat, at its core, it’s about ensuring there is enough food to eat and that food is nutritious.

Genetically modified rice that was created to increase the nutrient beta-carotene in the grain was expected to save millions of lives. Because it converts into vitamin A after consumption, it would have been invaluable in parts of the world where a lack of vitamin A costs a million lives per year plus half as many cases of blindness. Unfortunately, despite no evidence of any danger, Golden Rice was never planted or made available because anti-GMO groups, including Greenpeace, rallied against it and convinced governments to ban it. To this day, it has never been grown at scale despite studies showing it provides more vitamin A than spinach.

Nearly 800 million people on earth regularly experience hunger. About 9 million of those will die every year. GMO crops alone cannot solve that problem – they’ve already been around for decades, and clearly, hunger persists, but they can reduce those numbers. Higher crop yields with better nutrition and greater resistance mean more people can eat. 

What GMOs Are Out There?

We’ve already addressed many GMO foods that exist in the world right now. From apples to corn to rice, there are a lot of options. Odds are you’ve already eaten grains, soy products, sugar, and all kinds of things that have been genetically modified already, maybe even without knowing it. There are also some more novel foods as well.

AquAdvantage salmon are genetically modified salmon that can grow to market size in half the time. This is one of the first living, breathing GMOs out there, and people seem to be more nervous about these fish than they are about plants despite the same lack of evidence that there’s any danger. The media took to calling them Frankenfish. 

Pigs, known for producing an abundance of potentially toxic manure thanks to high amounts of phosphorus, have also been genetically modified in Canada. These new EnviroPigs have been engineered to naturally produce an enzyme, normally supplemented in their diets by farmers, that helps reduce the dangerous phosphorus.  Some cows fart and burp less, which means 25% less methane. 

One of the most dramatic creations from the world of genetic engineering is goats bred to produce spider silk. The genes to create the silk modified the glands in the goats that produce milk so that when you milk the goat, you get spider silk. These experiments have actually continued because spider silk has any number of potential uses in the world, it’s just preposterously hard to harvest normally, thanks to the fact spiders are remarkably small and also uncooperative.

Scientists are currently working on developing venomous cabbage. Genes from scorpions are being used to allow the cabbage to produce venom in its leaves that will be modified to be harmless to humans but will still serve as a potent deterrent to pests like caterpillars. As a natural form of pesticide, the process could save a fortune in chemicals while saving the environment at the same time. 

All of these sound weird at first, and you can see how someone can easily spin any of them to sound dangerous.  However, the obvious purpose behind the modifications and the benefits is pretty clear as well once you take some time to learn about them. That’s the purpose behind any GMO: to make things better.

The Controversy

If science says that there’s nothing wrong with GMO crops, then why are so many individuals, organizations, and even governments against them? A group of biotechnologists from Belgium once published a paper arguing that part of the reason there’s so much pushback against GMOs is that it just feels right. Our minds can easily wrap around why they should be bad, and so we just believe they are.

The fact is, most people who are opposed to GMOs don’t know as much as they think they know. The ones most opposed and think they know the most have been shown to know the least in studies. And there’s nothing wrong with not knowing something, almost none of us knew about GMOs before that first tomato, it’s worth learning about something before condemning it.

For some, like chefs, the concern with GMOs is less the science and more things like corporate control of food supplies. That’s much more of an issue than the potential health concerns.

The Anti-GMO Activist Who Switched

For what it’s worth, some people started against GMOs and actually changed their opinions after learning more about them. Environmental activist Mark Lynas used to actually destroy GMO crops. He felt that science was tampering with some of the fundamental building blocks of nature and that it was something he not only couldn’t support but actively had to try to stop.

As the years passed and he became concerned with more aspects of the environment, like climate change, he also got more into the science behind them and realized that his initial stance had been very anti-science. After learning about the processes behind GMO foods, he reversed his position and urged others who shared his prior beliefs to do the same and not stand in the way of progress that could feed hungry people.

As with anything, the key to understanding is learning and then making up your mind once you have all the details, not just some of them.

Some fads hold on for decades—or at least as long as it takes us to realize that what we’re doing is dangerous. With the recent anti-vaccination movement, along with the relatively new fads of weight loss pills and e-cigarettes, there’s a whole list of mistakes we’ve made that, in the end, we find out we probably shouldn’t have.

10Skipping Vaccinations

The anti-vaccination movement somehow keeps attracting followers. Its advocates try to warn the public about vaccine side effects like seizures (which are extremely rare and have no lasting effects) and about the link between vaccines and autism (which is non-existent and based on a single discredited report). The movement helps no one. Instead, it’s making hundreds of people sick.

Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Nonetheless, the Center for Disease Control has identified 288 cases of the potentially deadly disease in 2014 across 18 different states. Most of the cases were contracted when unvaccinated individuals traveled overseas and were exposed to the disease before bringing it back. Among those hardest hit by the outbreak is the Amish community through unvaccinated missionaries.

Vaccines save lives. The last 20 years of vaccines have prevented an estimated 732,000 deaths.

9Wearing Muslin

Muslin is a versatile cotton fabric first made in the Middle East and popular in Europe since the 17th century. When the material came to France, it brought with it a deadly fashion trend.

Limitations had already been placed on fashion by sumptuary laws, which restricted what clothing French citizens could wear. Women started wearing light, sheer muslin dresses that harkened back to ancient Greece. The goal was to look like a Greek statue: pure, white, and marble. The muslin dresses were often worn over tights. They were also worn wet to accent the features of the body beneath.

While it might seem like a harmless, if somewhat immodest, display, it gave rise to what was popularly known as muslin disease. Women wore thin, wet clothes all year ’round, even in the winter. When influenza swept through Paris in 1803, it struck some 60,000 people each day, mostly women whose ability to fight off the disease was seriously compromised by their fashion choice.

8Asbestos

A huge number of buildings still contain asbestos, but the fire-resistant material is far from a new discovery. Asbestos was used as far back as 4000 B.C., when the slow-burning material appeared ideal for candle wicks. Early Egyptians used asbestos to wrap the bodies of their dead to prevent decay, and in ancient Greece, bodies placed on funeral pyres were wrapped with asbestos cloth to separate their ashes from the ashes of the fire.

Clay cooking pots were lined with asbestos in areas across Europe, and in ancient Rome, cloths made from asbestos could be cleaned just by throwing them into the fire. Charlemagne ordered tablecloths made of asbestos to keep them from catching fire during his parties, and knights in the Crusades flung burning tar from their catapults wrapped in—you guessed it—asbestos. Long thought to be a byproduct of a fiery lizard (an idea that was disproved by Marco Polo), asbestos was even the material of choice for sellers of holy relics. The unique properties of the material gave wood an ancient, weathered look that made it look a part of The Cross.

The dangers of asbestos have been known since the time of ancient Greece, when miners wore masks made of animal innards to keep from breathing the fibers. But in modern times, not till the 1970s and the emergence of mesothelioma did the asbestos industry shut down.

7E-Cigarettes

E-cigarettes give you the same nicotine hit as conventional cigarettes without the toxic tar. Even advocates who oppose vaping—believing it may discourage smokers from abandoning nicotine altogether—say it is better than smoking. However, users who think they can inhale a chemical for a nicotine high without suffering any effects are mistaken.

The vapor can contain chemicals like formaldehyde and acetone and can produce eye and respiratory irritants like propylene glycol. While the levels in secondhand vapor are less than those in secondhand smoke, they can still pose health risks. These risks increase when the e-cigarette is turned up higher.

Beyond the effects of inhaling the vapor, e-cigarettes present consumers with a concentrated, toxic chemical, and many have shown themselves incapable of using or storing it properly. In one month in 2014, poison control centers reported upward of 200 phone calls after children ingested the poison or got it on their skin. Pets are also at risk. Depending on the size of the dog, chewing a single cartridge can result in anything from seizures and cardiac arrest to death—all within 15 minutes. Users of e-cigarettes should keep cartridges out of the reach of children and pets, as they would alcohol or any other potentially dangerous substance.

6Dietary Supplements

Many swear by their vitamin C and calcium pills, but supplements touted as healthy sometimes turn out to be just the opposite.

In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration pulled several weight loss supplements from the market. They’d linked a stimulant called dimethylamlamine (DMAA) with 86 cases of psychiatric disorders, nervous system malfunction, and death. Even after the danger was documented, one company the FDA contacted refused to stop manufacturing the drug until the FDA visited them in person.

The FDA doesn’t review supplements before they hit the market. Bills have been put before Congress to make the agency do so, but for now, consumers must just trust the manufacturer. A supplement may be useless at best or contain deadly substances at worst.

5Radium Watches And Dials

Radium was first discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie. It naturally occurs when uranium decays, and purified radium has the property of glowing in the dark. For the public in the early 1900s, that glow was unique, and radium was used in the first glow-in-the-dark watches. Soldiers in trenches during World War I told time after sunset using the glow. And many industrial dials, such as on ship and airplane control panels, were coated with radium for easy reading.

Dial painters were mostly young women, and they were expected to paint about 250 watch dials every day. Many took to rolling the tips of their paint brushes between their lips. Others streaked their hair with radium to make themselves shine. Slowly, the girls fell ill. Teeth fell out, sores developed, and the bones in their faces rotted away.

In 1924, Harvard University and the US Radium Company investigated the effects of radium for the first time. The study concluded that the deaths of the young women in the plant had nothing to do with radium. But when the Consumers League of New Jersey got involved—with the help of some less-biased doctors—they found that radium is dangerous, and so were the working conditions at the factory. Turning off the lights revealed that the women were constantly covered in radium dust, glowing in the dark like their watch dials. Exposure was so great that when they breathed, they were breathing out radon gas.

4Mercury

The phrase “mad as a hatter” comes from the use of mercury in 19th-century hat-making. Originally, hatters separated fur from animal hides for felt using camel urine, as the urea’s chemical reaction pulled the hairs out of the skin. Later, people wondered why they were going through all the trouble of getting camel urine when they had plenty of their own readily available. So manufacturers shifted to human urine instead.

Over time, it appeared that syphilitic felt-makers consistently produced higher-quality felt. Those workers treated their disease with mercury, which entered their urine. When their urine hit animal skins, it reacted differently, fur came off more easily, and the skin took less damage. Felt-makers stopped using urine altogether and switched to mercury nitrate.

The process was banned in the United States in 1941—but not because of the risks, which had been known since 1874. Mercury was needed for weapons manufacturing, so the government appropriated it for wartime use.

3Cadmium Paint

Cadmium sulfide is a component of many yellow paints. It was hugely popular with the Impressionists and was a favorite of artists like Van Gogh, Monet, and Matisse. Long-term effects of cadmium-based paints weren’t known at the time, though, and now, more than a few Impressionist paintings are decaying because of the breakdown of the cadmium sulfide. Even after we realized the compound decays and changes color, we kept using it.

But while calcium sulfide can lead to paintings changing over time, some paints contain pure cadmium metal, which can be dangerous. Cadmium is a toxic carcinogen. McDonald’s was caught using cadmium paint on merchandise in 2010 and had to recall 12 million units of Shrek tie-ins.

2Carving Pumpkins

Halloween is loosely based on the Celtic holiday Samhain, the final harvest of the year traditionally observed on October 31. It prepared people for the long winter months, when bonfires were lit to protect the living from the spirits of the dead. Those massive bonfires turned into smaller fires and were made safer by lighting them within a turnip.

When the tradition crossed to North America, turnips were in short supply, but pumpkins weren’t. So the tradition expanded to lighting fires within pumpkins, and with carving the thick-skinned vegetable came danger. According to Consumer Reports, about one-third of Halloween-related injuries happen when carving pumpkins. These range from cuts to severed tendons.

A SUNY Upstate Medical University research team wanted to learn how badly different carving knives hurt people, but testing them on live humans seemed ethically questionable. So they removed hands from cadavers, and they used a hydraulic press and a variety of kitchen knives to see what kind of damage each would do. They tested the pressure needed to carve the pumpkin against the pressure needed to damage the hand. Blades marketed as pumpkin-cutting tools were generally less dangerous than standard kitchen knives, but care should still be taken to avoid making the night a bit more gruesome than planned.

1Skin Care

Beauty might be only skin deep, but that’s all it’s ever taken for the human race to do a lot of damage to themselves. For hundreds of years, we’ve been more concerned with the current beauty ideals than safety.

Our history of dangerous skin care products goes back at least to feudal Japan, whose lead- and mercury-based face paints created highly desired white complexions. Those powders and paints remained popular through the 18th century, when people finally got concerned about side effects like lead poisoning and neurological disorders.

That’s about the same time that the Western ideal changed. Once, pale skin was considered beautiful, as it meant an indoor lifestyle free from manual labor. With the Industrial Revolution, pale skin meant you were from the working class, confined to factories and mines. A tan, however, meant you had leisure time out in the country and were likely healthier than those subjected to cramped, polluted cities.

Tanned skin became much more desirable, and when Coco Chanel began the trend of sunbathing, the idea really took off. But we now know that about 90 percent of skin cancer cases are linked to prolonged sun exposure. The same exposure can age you prematurely, weaken your immune system, and damage your eyes.

Christmas is coming, and fast. Last minute shopping is underway, and the temptation to pick up a ton of cheap toys and go quantity over quality is getting ever stronger. If you haven’t picked up any of this year’s crop of presents yet, the temptation is even stronger, and if you were to happen across a big box of cheap vintage toys you probably wouldn’t think twice about scooping it up and taking it home to your kids.

Your vulnerable, fragile, incredibly mortal kids.

You definitely should not take home any of the toys on this list, however, because if they don’t outright kill you, they have a good chance of at least maiming you or causing some good old fashioned brain damage. Thankfully, most of these toys have long been pulled off the shelves, and you’d have to go out of your way to find them…but God help you if you do.

See Also: 10 Terrifying Toys From The Past

10 Aqua Dots

Aqua Dots seems like the safest thing you could buy as a present for your kids. They’re just soft little beads that stick together when exposed to water. No heat, no messy glue, and they’re small enough to be vacuumed out of the rug if spilled. What could possibly be the harm in buying them for your child?

Well, as we all know, kids like to swallow just about anything they can get in their mouths. Unfortunate, when it comes to Aqua Dots, that can be deadly, because Aqua Dots, when digested, turn into GHB, the date rape drug.

One child, having swallowed a handful of the little beads, had a seizure and then fell into a coma. He did eventually awaken from it, but suffered permanent brain damage as a result.

9 Easy Bake Oven

Can someone please explain to me why you would give a child an oven?

Easy Bake Ovens are small, true, and they are heated using a light bulb, yes, but they also reach temperatures of 350 degrees. That’s hot enough to bake a chicken breast! Not to mention the several cakes, cookies, pies, and other assorted treats that come in the little boxes of Easy Bake Oven mix.

In 2007, Easy Bake Ovens suffered a recall not once, but twice within a few short months of each other after several children got their fingers caught in the doors and burned them, often severely. One child reportedly even had to have portions of her finger amputated after the little powerhouse of an oven cooked it to the bone!

8 Hoverboards

We’re in the future, and it’s bright! Extremely bright, in fact, from all the fires. Hoverboards were long considered a staple of the ideal future, a sign that we had finally arrived at the peak of technological advancements.

What we got was…not as great as we had hoped. For one thing, the hoverboards had wheels, making them less hoverboard and more like a Segway without handlebars. Secondly, the darn things kept bursting into flames at the worst possible time, which is to say, anytime, ever.

Why were they bursting into flame? Well…we don’t know. Some of the reported explosions of fire and melted plastic happened with the hoverboard was simply sitting still and unused.

On the bright side, this is a great way to burn down your business for the insurance money and not get caught!

7 Sky Dancer Dolls

For a short time, every girl’s dream was to have a Sky Dancer doll. Like a mix between a Barbie and a Beyblade, these little fairy-esque toys would soar in the air, spinning in circles, blade-like wings whirling away…right into your face, where they would proceed to slice and dice you like a discount ham.

Sky Dancers were beautiful, but so, so dangerous, and would apparently often rocket right into your face and slice at any bit of unprotected flesh they could access, including eyes.

Not suitable for children, but great for a ranged weapon in a 90s themed battle.

6 CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit

Is there anything more fun as a child than pretending to be a crime scene investigator? You get to feel smart, and catch the bad guy by simple mistakes he can’t help but make. With the CSI Fingerprint Examination kit, you could play this little game even better, picking up actual fingerprints to inspect and compare. Finally, you can solve the mystery of who really took the last cookie from the jar!

Then, of course, you get cancer and die, because the fingerprint powder contained asbestos. In fact, the powder was roughly 7% asbestos, which is more than enough to give you mesothelioma (and render you eligible for financial compensation).

The mystery that should have been solved here is how this ever passed any safety checks.

5 Roller Skating Barbie

Barbie has more careers, expertise, and hobbies than I can count, but one of the forgotten hobbies that few remember is roller skating. Barbie is allegedly quite skilled at it, moving so fast on her skates that she leaves a trail of fire in her wake. Literally.

Rolling out in the 1980s, Roller Skating Barbie was a big hit, until it was discovered that her skates were literally creating sparks that would light anything even a little flammable like a candle.

After a few fires and burns, Roller Skating Barbie (and the matching Ken) were discontinued and recalled, never to be seen again.

4 Gilbert U238 Lab

Remember earlier, when I mentioned safety checks for toys? Apparently, they didn’t have those in the 50s, because this little mutant making wonder toy fell into the hands of thousands of children across the US, despite the fact that it contained 3 different samples of active uranium ore.

The kit also contained a small lab with which to examine the materials, and a Geiger counter, in case you wanted to know the exact dose of radiation you were getting that was making your skin green and itchy.

3 Aqua Leisure Inflatable Baby Boat

Imagine this: it’s summer, and you’re throwing a party to celebrate the fact that you’ve gotten a new pool. One of the big, deep ones, the kind that they show elephants stomping on in the commercials. You have your baby in the pool with you, in the little Baby Boat you just bought her. You look away for a second, but you hear the sound of tiny stitches popping. You swing back around just in time to see your baby slip under the water, headed for the bottom.

This was a situation that faced many parents after the Baby Boat from Aqua Leisure was found to have a defect in the stitching of the seat which, when it ripped (as it was fond of doing) dumped the babies straight down into the water, where several almost drowned.

2 Water Slides

Welcome back to summer. Your baby almost drowned in the pool, but you got her out just in time, thank goodness. You decide to set up another activity: a Slip-n-Slide, a can’t-go-wrong classic that keeps your party going.

The kids love it, the parents love that the kids are entertained, and all seems well until your husband decides to be a clown and just on the Slip-n-Side as well. Things are going good! Until he hits the end the the slide and nearly breaks his neck (and definitely slips a disk or 3) being thrown onto the grass from a sudden stop. The extra length and weight of an adult means extra speed, and extra speed means a sudden stop is more deadly than ever!

Some toys, it seems, are for kids only!

1 Gilbert Kastor Kit

These guys again? Last time we saw them, they were letting kids play with radioactive materials. Let’s see what they’re up to this time!

According to the description of the product, you simply cast your own little soldier toys and paint them lovingly. Well, that sounds really nice actually! What could be the problem?

Oh, right, you were meant to cast the soldiers out of melted lead. Real, actual, brain damaging lead, the kind that, you know, gives you brain damage. Or poisons you and sends you to the hospital.

This product has been off the shelves for decades, but it’s still incredible that a toy so damaging to your health could even get on the shelves at all!

Then again…it could explain quite a bit.

The world can be a frightening place. Images of violence, natural disasters, accidents, and other such dangers permeate our media, sowing fear in many. While these threats should certainly be respected, other far more mundane things in our lives are statistically much more likely to kill us.

Note: This list primarily shows statistics for the United States. This is not out of deliberate ignorance of the rest of the world but simply due to the ready availability of US-based statistics.

10More People Die Falling Out Of Bed Than From Roller Coasters

Some people love roller coasters; some people are terrified of them. The high speeds and great heights provide a relatively safe thrill for amusement park goers. However, accidents do happen, and roller coasters kill an average of four people in the US each year.

One-quarter of roller coaster deaths are occupational fatalities involving workers. Half are caused by a rider’s medical condition being exacerbated by the ride; these can be prevented by increased signage warning sufferers of certain conditions against boarding. Only the final quarter are caused by some sort of trauma to a park visitor, such as falling out of the roller coaster.

Rest assured: You probably won’t be killed the next time you ride a roller coaster. You’re much more likely to die from falling out of your own bed. Every year in the US, 450 people die this way. Ironically, bed rails sometimes make things worse. Hospitals have found that stubborn patients try to climb over them and fall farther than they would have otherwise.

9Cows Are More Likely To Kill You Than Bears

Fatal black bear attacks on humans have been rising in North America since the 1960s. Over the past 110 years, 63 people have been killed by black bears, mostly in Alaska and Canada. This amounts to fewer than one person per year. However, since 86 percent of these fatalities occurred after 1960, the current average is closer to two people per year.

Increased human encroachment into black bear habitats is cited as a probable cause. Most fatal attacks have been perpetrated by lone male bears sampling humans as a new food source. Surprisingly, mother bears defending their cubs or bears that have become familiar with humans are responsible for few fatalities.

While injurious encounters with black bears may continue to rise with human expansion, they have a long way to go before they kill more people than cattle, which kill an average of 22 people per year in the United States alone. Most fatal attacks on humans by cattle are deliberate, either by territorial bulls trampling and goring farmers or mothers protecting their calves. Other times, people are simply accidentally crushed.

8A Rip Current Will Get You Before A Shark Does

Going to the beach is a common and beloved summer pastime for people across the world. Such outings are not without danger, of course. You could get sunburned, stung by a jellyfish, or bitten by a shark.

Most unprovoked shark attacks on humans are cases of mistaken identity, where the shark takes one bite and then swims away upon tasting a distinctive lack of seal or fish. Those single bites can still cause serious injury or death. Even these mistakes are comparatively rare; most sharks that attack have been provoked by a human in some way.

All the same, if you’re in the water and feel yourself pulled away from safety, a rip current is much more likely to be responsible than a shark. Rip currents are more powerful than you may realize. They can pull you away from shore faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim. Trying to directly swim against a rip current, a common reaction, will only lead to fatigue and drowning.

It is estimated that over 100 people drown each year in the US due to rip currents. Conversely, despite some swimmers going to such extremes as taunting sharks, someone dies in the US from a shark attack only once every two years. Worldwide, only five die each year.

7High School Sports Kill More US Citizens Than Terrorists Do

Terrorism has been a defining fear in 21st-century US culture since the horrifying 9/11 attacks in 2001. From Al-Qaeda to ISIS, the news has frequently been filled with frightening terroristic imagery, causing many citizens to fear for themselves and their children.

In truth, US children are far more likely to end up dying on their high school playing field than at the hands of a terrorist. Roughly 50 young athletes die each year in the United States due to sports-related injuries. Rural areas are the worst-affected. Common causes of death include overheating (more on that later), brain injuries, and sudden cardiac arrest. It certainly doesn’t help that two-thirds of athletes show up to practice significantly dehydrated. Nor does it help that 16 percent of football players who are knocked unconscious from a hit will play more that same day; those who suffer further injury as a result have a 50/50 chance of dying. Sudden cardiac arrest kills 90 percent of the young athletes that it strikes.

Terrorism, on the other hand, has taken roughly 12 private US citizens per year, with 2001 an obvious anomaly. For example, terrorism killed nine in 2009, 10 in 2010, 17 in 2011, 10 in 2012, and 16 in 2013. The overwhelming majority of these deaths involved travel to Afghanistan. Not one death occurred within US borders.

6Disney World Kills More Than Florida’s Alligators

From 2005–2014, eight visitors to Disney World in Orlando, Florida were killed. Heart attacks (sometimes worsened by a lack of readily available defibrillators) and traumatic injuries are common causes. Five workers have also been killed in that time span, including three during a particularly bad season in 2009, by trauma or electrocution.

Some might consider Florida’s alligators to be more frightening than Mickey Mouse. The prospect of being bitten or dragged under and drowned by one of these ancient reptiles is certainly grim. While most alligators only attack if provoked, unprovoked predation does occur. Victims are often completely unaware of the alligator until it attacks. Still, you’re more likely to win the lottery in Florida than be killed by a hungry alligator. From 2005 to present, only six people have died in unprovoked alligator attacks. None have died since 2007.

5Summer’s Heat Will Kill You Before Lightning

Not only does it simply get hot in summer, but it’s also the time of year where one might have the greatest fear of encountering temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. Lightning can reach temperatures of 30,000 degrees Celsius (50,000 °F), causing severe burns, as well as killing an average of 51 people each year in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, most lightning strike victims are not struck directly but instead succumb to simply being near another object that is struck. This is why it always best to move indoors during a thunderstorm, as lying flat in a field will do nothing to save you from indirect strikes.

While you’re running inside, you might want to check your air conditioner, as you’re over 10 times more likely to die from excessive heat exposure, which generally kills 618 people each year in the US. Dying by heat is a surprisingly nasty way to go. As your temperature rises, in addition to sweating, your body tries to cool down by pumping more blood closer to the skin to radiate heat. If you can’t cool down, more and more blood is pumped away from your internal organs.

The lack of oxygen from blood strains the organs, while the continuing heat buildup causes an inflammatory response across the whole body, making it even harder to cool down. Once your temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 °F), your brain will get less blood due to increased intracranial pressure, and damaged tissue in the blood may cause your kidneys to fail. If your body makes it to 49 degrees Celsius (120 °F), and you’re not already dead, your cells will suffer direct heat damage.

4Worry More About Wind Chill Than Tornadoes

Hypothermia is an arguably sneakier killer than heat. Mild hypothermia may only manifest as the usual attributes of “being cold,” such as shivering, fingers feeling numb, and so on. If shivering isn’t enough to warm the body back up, it will do the opposite of the heat response described above and divert blood away from the extremities and into the internal organs.

Violent shivering will begin once the body’s temperature drops to 35 degrees Celsius (95 °F) but cease below 32 degrees Celsius (90 °F). At this point, the sufferer will be unable to think clearly and may even irrationally remove clothing.

Unconsciousness comes at 30 degrees Celsius (86 °F). At this point, a hypothermia victim may appear dead, as their body has slowed its metabolism to reduce oxygen requirements. Heart rate and respiration are quite slow. The heart finally will stop at 20 degrees Celsius (65 °F), though arrhythmias may cause death as soon as 28 degrees Celsius (82 °F).

Exposure to excessive cold kills roughly 1,300 people per year in the US. It would have to be a truly terrible and record-shattering weather year for tornadoes to match that. They kill 75 US residents each year on average. That chill you may feel in your fingers as you clear snow off your car this winter is a much more pressing danger than those thunderheads you may see in the distance this summer.

3Food Poisons More People Than Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an even stealthier winter killer than hypothermia. You can’t see it, taste it, or smell it, and it won’t even make you sneeze or cough. Cars produce it every day, and your furnace might make the next cold winter night your last. After being inhaled, CO kills when it enters the bloodstream. It bonds to the hemoglobin in blood, which normally bonds with oxygen and carries it throughout the body. Carbon monoxide makes blood useless. Every year, 430 people die in the US of CO poisoning.

Don’t run away from your gas stove just yet; you need it to make sure your food is properly cooked. Foodborne diseases kill 3,000 US residents per year. A plurality of food poisoning cases are caused by poultry, although fruits, nuts, and leafy greens cause many cases as well. Several deaths might be prevented by simple measures such as proper hand-washing and cooking food to the correct temperature.

2Your Doctor’s Bad Handwriting Will Kill You Long Before Ebola

Ebola is a terrifying disease. The pathogen attacks nearly every organ and system in the human body, sparing only bones and muscles. Connective tissue such as collagen is effectively dissolved. Without that foundation, the skin floats over liquefied tissue, and the sufferer will bleed spontaneously from various orifices. This only gets worse once bloody vomiting and diarrhea commence. Blood loss ultimately kills an Ebola victim.

Fear of the disease led airports in the US and other countries to screen incoming passengers from West Africa. Despite this, health care workers in the US contracted Ebola, sparking fears of an outbreak. Four people were diagnosed with Ebola in 2014; one died, while the others recovered and were released from treatment. The one person who died caught the virus in Liberia.

Patients at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, the site of three of the four Ebola cases, faced a much greater risk even during the stays of the Ebola patients: their doctors’ bad handwriting. A doctor’s frequently illegible notes or prescriptions may seem like joke fodder, but it leads to an average of 7,000 deaths every year in the US. Consider that 3.2 billion prescriptions are written annually. Bad writing can easily lead to the wrong dosage, and an unclear abbreviation might lead to the wrong medication being dispensed.

1Binge Drinking Kills More People Than All Other Drugs Combined

Sending a child off to college can certainly be stressful for concerned parents. They’ve kept their kids away from cows, bundled them up in the winter, cooked food just right, and made their pediatricians print every prescription. Now the time has come for the kid to leave the nest, get a degree, and ultimately land a good job. Of course, there’s always the frightening possibility that he or she will get hooked on drugs while they’re away. A bigger concern might be how much the kid has to drink.

Roughly 80,000 Americans die each year from binge drinking, defined as five or more alcoholic drinks in a short period of time for men or four or more for women. Most of these deaths may not be from direct alcohol poisoning, but car crashes and drunken violence can be just as deadly.

Only about half as many people die from drug overdoses in the US each year: for example, 41,000 in 2011 and 44,000 in 2013. These figures include overdoses on legal prescription drugs; illegal drugs constitute less than half of overdose deaths. In other words, parents should worry more about frat parties than a marijuana-smoking college roommate.

Anthony’s warnings to the Department of Homeland Security about the dangers posed by high school sports keep getting ignored for some reason.

Some people will do anything for 15 minutes of fame, and the internet makes it even easier to make a fool of yourself in the name of likes. Phenomena like the Ice Bucket Challenge are harmless and raise money for good causes, but others have proven to be incredibly dangerous. Some have resulted in disfigurement, jail, and even death for those foolish enough to perform them.

WARNING: The videos on this list contain footage that is disturbing, stupid, or dangerous. Please use discretion so young people or stupid people won’t be exposed to the content.

Top 10 Problematic Mukbangers On YouTube (And Why We Can’t Stop Watching Them)

10 The Fire Challenge

The Fire Challenge was an internet fad where people poured a flammable liquid over parts of their body and set it on fire. They were supposed to quickly put it out, but naturally, such a feat landed several children in the hospital with second and third degree burns. One 12 year old girl was engulfed in flames when the rubbing alcohol she smeared over herself got out of control (possibly due to flammable perfume she was wearing.) Aside from the grave bodily harm the “challenge” can inflict on those who attempt it, it has also landed at least one woman in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor when she helped her son film his own Fire Challenge.^[1]

9 The Condom-snorting Challenge

The Condom-snorting challenge is exactly what it sounds like—snorting an extended condom through your nose. The idea is that it will come out of the back of the nasal cavity, where it can then be pulled out of the mouth. Youtubers have been doing this for laughs, but it is actually very dangerous. The nasal cavity is sensitive, and you can do long term damage both with the condom and the chemical lubricants it might have on it. More importantly, since you are snorting a long piece of stretchy plastic into your airway, it can easily keep going past your nasal cavity into your lungs. This has happened during at least one condom-snorting challenge, which resulted in the snorter having to endure surgery, and suffer through months of illness.^[2]

8 Banana Sprite Challenge

The Banana Sprite Challenge is based on the (extremely unscientific) claim that your body cannot digest bananas and Sprite at the same time. The claim, baseless as it may be, says that since your body cannot digest these two substances together, it will reject both, causing you to vomit. There are several Youtube videos (that we don’t recommend watching) of people attempting the challenge, and then vomiting everything back up.

To be clear, the vomiting is less likely caused by the indigestibility of the banana-Sprite mix, and more likely the sheer volume of food and drink the challenge requires. The challenge is to eat two bananas as quickly as you can, then chug a liter of Sprite. Eating and drinking that much so quickly could easily produce vomiting, regardless of the combination.^[3]

7 Salt and Ice Challenge

The Salt and Ice Challenge is a very dangerous internet phenomena where people (including children) have been putting salt and ice together on their bodies. Mixing salt and ice causes a chemical reaction that induces frostbite, and the challenge involves seeing how long you can withstand keeping it on your body. The internet is brimming with pictures of second and third degree burns suffered by those who attempted the challenge.^[4]

Unfortunately, and probably because of the ease of acquiring the ingredients for the challenge, several young children have been rushed to the emergency room with severe burns on their arms after giving themselves frostbite. One child even said that he left it on for so long because it “didn’t even hurt” when they burned themselves.^[5]

6 Cinnamon Challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge is to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon in 60 seconds without drinking anything. It sounds easy, but is actually extremely hard—and dangerous, according to doctors. The problem isn’t actually eating and digesting the cinnamon itself, which is, after all, a common spice. The problem is that trying to eat that much cinnamon will trigger the gag reflex, which causes you to inadvertently inhale cinnamon dust.

Cinnamon dust can be extremely harmful to the lungs. It is caustic, meaning that it can burn or corrode tissue. This is not a problem for your stomach, but getting a caustic compound in your lungs can be damaging. The cellulose matrix of cinnamon also cannot be metabolized, which means that getting it out of your lungs can be a nightmare. Doing the challenge once probably won’t give you “cinnamon lung,” but it can trigger an asthma attack, which can be fatal for some people.^[6]

10 Of The Most Bizarre Modern Internet Trends

5 Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge

Kylie Jenner is a reality TV star known for her plump lips. Some teens have taken to temporarily enlarging their own lips with the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge, in which they put their lips and mouths inside a container, and then suck the air out to create a vacuum. The lack of air pressure inside the container caused by the sucking causes their lips to temporarily plump, creating the short-term appearance of large lips.

Unfortunately, this not only looks ridiculous, but can be painful, damaging, and cause permanent damage. The swelling expands blood vessels and can tear the sensitive skin of the lips, and make them bleed. Some who attempted the challenge sucked for so long that stitches were needed to repair the damage to their inflated lips.^[7]

4 Hot Pepper Challenge

While hot pepper eating competitions are not uncommon, some Youtubers had their own private challenges to see if they could down some of the hottest peppers in the world. “Monkey see, monkey do” unfortunately applies to middle schoolers who wanted to test their own pepper-eating mettle during their school lunch. A middle schooler brought in a Carolina reaper pepper to school to attempt the challenge with their friends.^[8]

Eating such hot peppers straight, though, can result in vomiting, breathing problems, and other complications—which is exactly what happened to the 30 middle schoolers who tried to down them in their cafeteria. The principle had to call emergency services, just like another principle the very next day when 40 students put ghost peppers in their lunches.

In another challenge at a restaurant, one man ate a ghost pepper-topped burger and began vomiting uncontrollably. It caused Boerhaave’s syndrome, a tear in his esophagus that led to a collapsed lung. The condition is potentially fatal, and landed him in the hospital for almost a month. (We assume that he also lost the restaurant’s challenge.)^[9]

3 24 Hour Fort Challenge

The 24 Hour Fort Challenge is where someone creates a “fort” in a large store where they can hide out for 24 hours, avoiding security, and ultimately spending the night until opening. The challenge seems rather harmless to those who participate, so there are hundreds of posts on youtube from those who have accepted it. Hiding out in a store after it closes, though, is essentially trespassing. It can and has led to criminal charges being filed against individuals who have undertaken it.^[10] And while some people are potentially ruining their futures for the sparse fame of uploading a youtube video, younger children are taking the challenge and causing large-scale searches when their parents call the police to report them missing.^[11]

2 Hot Coil Challenge

Thanks to the power of the internet, anyone can create any kind of challenge they want, no matter how dangerous or dumb. A pair of Youtubers created the Hot Coil Challenge, where they turn on their stove and press their forearm over the red-hot coils to withstand the burn as long as they can. Naturally, the member of the pair that pressed his arm to hot coils gave himself 3rd degree burns, which he showed off on the expletive-ridden video.^[12]

This challenge was so absurd that it was restricted on Youtube for viewers over 18. And perhaps because of its obvious danger and consequences, the challenge has fortunately failed to gain traction among teenagers seeking to permanently disfigure themselves.^[13] Still, there are always people willing to do anything for views, and a few copycats exist.

1 Blue Whale Challenge

The most horrible of internet “challenges” was perhaps the Blue Whale Challenge. It was allegedly the brainchild of Philipp Budeikin, who pleaded guilty to creating the challenge in 2017. His challenge consisted of inciting those he called “biological waste” to ultimately commit suicide.^[14]

The “challenge” involved getting those who accepted to do 50 days of increasingly horrifying self-harming activities that culminated in suicide. It also had those who participated delete all evidence of the “Blue Whale Challenge” from their computers before commiting the final act.

Budeikin was caught after one of his participants gave up near the last stages of the challenge and told the police. He was held on charges of inciting 16 teenage girls to commit suicide, and ultimately found guilty on two counts. Unfortunately, he is believed to be only one of many administrators of the challenge. Due to the challenge’s nature, it is difficult to verify exactly how much of it is actually taking place and how much of it is just an internet rumor. But at least two american teenage suicides are suspected of being linked to it.^[15]

Top 10 Shocking Things Your Child Sees On Youtube

About The Author: Mike has a lot more time to write lists recently.

Scientists simplify things to help us laypeople understand volcanoes. The reality, of course, is more complicated.

Every volcano is unique. Volcanologists must learn each individual “personality” and history when they try to help people living nearby.

With limited resources, though, how do you choose which volcanoes to study? Here’s how: When the United Nations made the 1990s its International Decade of Natural Hazard Reduction, volcanologists decided to focus on 16 volcanoes; two each from the US, Japan, and Italy; one each from 10 other countries.

One of these Decade Volcanoes — Taal, in the Philippines — is making headlines right now.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Amazing Volcano Lakes

16 Taal Volcano, Philippines

Taal made international news with its dramatic eruption in January 2020. The ongoing situation is still volatile, so let’s just look at it as a Decade Volcano.

Well over 20 million people live near Taal, located only 30 miles south of Manila, the nation’s capital. Human risk alone made Taal a candidate for the Decade Volcano list in the 1990s. But Taal also has been very active down through the centuries, as well as a couple eruptions in the distant past powerful enough to have left calderas (holes in the ground, basically) that eventually filled in with Lake Taal.

Communication is important in volcanology, too. Scientists and regional planners worked together as part of the Decade Volcano program to limit intensive development inside the caldera. This foresight has probably made the current crisis a little easier to manage.

15 Avachinsky-Koryaksky, Russia

Population at risk: Over 200,000 people live within 62 miles (100 km) of these two volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.
Last known eruption: Avachinsky, 2001; Koryaksky, 2009

The flip side of living dangerously close to an active volcano? All the fun you can have during quiet spells! The people in the video here, for instance, summited Avachinsky one sunny day and also got excellent views of nearby Koryaksky.

Avachinsky looks so solid there. It’s hard to believe that this volcano sometimes collapses. However, nearby Petropavlosk (the largest city in Kamchatka) was built on deposits left by one such prehistoric catastrophe. Mud flows and lava are more likely hazards and can happen at either volcano. Petropavlosk is so isolated that its residents will have to wait for aid to arrive by land and sea during a volcano emergency.

14 Colima, Mexico

Population at risk: 1.5 million people
Last known eruption: 2019

Colima, a complex volcanic center near the western coast of Mexico, presents multiple hazards, in addition to being a threat to population centers. For one thing, it has frequent violent eruptions: like the one here in 2017, caught on monitoring cameras.

Almost all Decade Volcanoes are in subduction zones, which usually produce explosive volcanism. Such explosions cause blast effects, ballistic rocks and lava bombs, and pyroclastic flows. As you can see, they even ignite wildfires. And Colima does this over and over again. In past millennia, it has also had several large debris slides.

After making the Decade Volcano list, new hazard maps were made for Colima and its monitoring post was restructured.

13 Etna, Italy

Population at risk: A quarter of Sicily’s entire population lives on Etna’s slopes.
Last eruption: 2020

Everyone knows this one! Etna is a UNESCO site and has one of the longest historical eruption records of any active volcano, going back some 3,500 years. One look at its spectacular lava flows will tell you why Etna was selected as a Decade Volcano.

The footage above was filmed in 2011 near the town of Zafferna, which only exists today because of coordinated efforts in 1992 that succeeded in damming and then diverting a lava flow that threatened to overwhelm the town.

That kind of success doesn’t happen very often during an eruption. Lava and occasional hydrothermal blasts like this are the chief hazards at Etna. However, Sicily is heavily dependent on Etna tourism as well as on agricultural products grown on the volcano, so any increased activity would also have bad economic effects.

12 Galeras, Colombia

Population at risk: Almost two million people
Last known eruption: 2014

A tragedy happened at this flat-topped stratovolcano in 1993, when some tourists as well as six volcanologists, who were participating in a Decade Volcano workshop, were killed by an unexpected eruption. Activity at Galeras before and during that risky field trip was heavily monitored, of course, but no one had ever before seen the seismic signals called “tornillos” that came just before the blast.

Now everyone knows that tornillos are warning signs of imminent explosive activity, a scientific discovery that carried a heavy cost. Galeras is one of Colombia’s most active volcanoes. Above, its fireworks in 2008 light up the sky over the nearby city of Pasto. Hazards include debris flows, large eruptions with heavy ash fall, and pyroclastic flows.

11 Mauna Loa, USA

Population at risk: 175,000 people
Last known eruption: 1984

You might think that Mauna Loa is just that long, low mountain near Kilauea; the Hawaiian volcano that had a spectacular eruption in 2018. Mauna Loa is actually the tallest active volcano on Earth, rising almost six miles above the Pacific sea floor. It has frequent eruptions, too. In 1984, a lava flow came within five miles of the city of Hilo.

Lava is the main hazard here, although Mauna Loa also has had some flank collapses in the very distant past. Fortunately, the Hawaiian Islands are nowhere near a subduction zone, and eruptions here are usually not as explosive.

Volcanologists are watching Mauna Loa closely, since it appears to be slowly building up to another eruption, but they’ve seen no reason to raise the alert level any higher than it is now (yellow, the lowest warning stage).

10 Mount Merapi, Indonesia

Population: Almost 25 million people
Last known eruption: 2019

Much international collaboration has focused on Merapi during the Decade Volcano program, it’s one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes and sits in a heavily populated region. Merapi’s eruptions are violent, too, with long-lived pyroclastic flows.

Besides those terrifying gray death clouds, hazards at Merapi include lahars (an Indonesian word for mud flows) and big landslides. The worst eruption from Merapi recently, in 2010, killed over 100 people.

9 Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Population at risk: A little over nine million people live within 62 miles (100 km); a million of them are less than 20 miles from the summit.
Last known eruption: 2019

This African volcano has a flattish top like Galeras, in South America. Unlike Galeras, Nyiragongo has hosted a series of lava lakes for centuries. That’s a deadly hazard, because those lakes drain every few decades and the lava is extremely fluid, meaning it an travel long distances, even into the nearby city of Goma.

This has happened twice recently: in 1994, during the civil war, and again in 2002, when it killed about 150 people in addition to causing enormous damage. Unfortunately, warfare and social problems have limited what international volcanologists can do here. But local hands have taken up the task of researching and monitoring this Decade Volcano.

8 Mount Rainier, USA

Population at risk: Almost three million people
Last known eruption: 1450 AD (Eruptions during the 1800s have been reported but not confirmed.)

This world-famous landmark near Seattle, Washington, had its last big blast (a VEI 4 eruption) about 2,200 years ago, but that’s not the only hazard. Mount Rainier, which is heavily glaciated, tends to collapse, causing enormous mud flows. This hasn’t happened during recorded history.

The residents of Armero, Colombia, weren’t so fortunate in 1985. While their ice-capped volcano, called Nevado del Ruiz, didn’t collapse, its lava melted summit glaciers and sent down a mudflow that engulfed Armero and other communities, killing over 23,000 people.

There was lots of warning, but nobody expected this. Thousands died who could have simply run a few hundred yards to safety. The Armero tragedy was a major factor behind both the UN hazard reduction declaration and the Decade Volcano project.

Partly as a result of all this attention, Mount Rainier now has better monitoring and hazard mapping. As well, some legislation is in place to reduce future development in high-risk zones and promote public awareness of the threats here. But many people near Rainier are still in denial. That’s understandable, though very sad: It’s human nature to never really believe that such a bad thing can happen to you, until it does.

SEE ALSO: 10 People Who Actually Fell Into A Volcano

7 Sakurajima, Japan

Population at risk: 2.6 million people
Last known eruption: 2019

You might not have heard of this volcano, which sits on the same island as Mount Fuji, but farther south. The world-renowned Fuji-san is a dire threat to Tokyo and the subject of intense research. Perhaps the Decade Volcano selection committee went with Sakurajima instead because this dangerous volcano isn’t as well known. After all, you haven’t seen the above happening in Tokyo recently.

But that 2013 video shows one of the hazards that citizens of Kagoshima City, less than five miles from Sakurajima, often face. Sakurajima Volcano used to be an island in Kagoshima Bay until 1914, when one of its explosive eruptions also unleashed lava flows that connected it to the mainland.

Now thousands of people live in the area, Kids there wear hardhats, just in case it rains stones on the way to school.

6 Santa Maria/Santiaguito, Guatemala

Population at risk: 6,200,000 people
Last eruption: 2019

This is not two separate volcanoes, as with Avachinsky and Koryaksky on Kamchatka.

Here, “Santa Maria” is the stratovolcano and “Santiaguito” is what people call the lava dome complex near the summit. Santiaguito has frequent minor eruptions. Also, the domes sometimes collapse, which cause pyroclastic flows. Larger explosions and mudflows are also possible.

Nevertheless, lots of people still enjoy climbing 12,300-foot-high Santa Maria so they can look down on an eruption and take silly pictures. That dome complex has existed since 1929, when Santa Maria ended 27 years of violent eruptions that killed over 7,000 people. But Santa Maria/Santiaguito’s Decade Volcano status hasn’t led to many government-financed projects yet.

Guatemala has lots volcanoes that demand attention. Officials still need to be convinced that preparation before another major eruption here will be less expensive than coping with the aftermath of one later.

5 Santorini, Greece

Population at risk: 67,500
Last known eruption: 1950

Volcanologists are curious about the eruption history that gave Santorini — also known as Thera — its dramatic appearance. They have identified at least four caldera-forming events over the last 180,000 years. The most recent, roughly 3,600 years ago, was a VEI 7 eruption.

That’s the one that may have doomed Minoan civilization, which centered on the nearby island of Crete. Or not. No one is really sure yet what closed down that amazing culture. Thanks to the Decade Volcano program, Santorini now has its first modern volcano observatory. So far, it has detected only occasional swarms of seismic activity, nothing that looks like an impending eruption.

4 Teide, Canary Islands

Population at risk: 766,000 people
Last known eruption: 1909

Actually, the entire island of Tenerife is a complex of stratovolcanoes that have been active since the Miocene times. Teide is just the highest, and also one of the youngest. Teide sits in 6 x 11-mile-wide Las Canadas caldera, and the view from the top is tremendous! Those sulfur-producing fumaroles up there are the only visible sign of current activity. Teide has also had some earthquake swarms but is otherwise quiet.

3 Ulawun, Papua New Guinea

Population at risk: 61,000 people
Last known eruption: 2019

You might not have heard of this island volcano in the South Pacific, but (along with contributions from an equally obscure Russian fire mountain) Ulawun gave you purple sunsets last year. Ulawun is one of Papua New Guinea’s most active volcanoes. Its eruptions, though explosive, used to be fairly minor until the 1970s. From that point on, larger blasts became more common, including a VEI 4 eruption in 2000.

At the moment, this gorgeous tropical stratovolcano is once more behaving like one of The Daily Planet‘s mild-mannered reporters. We’ll just have to stay tuned and see what happens next.

2 Unzen, Japan

Population at risk: 7,300,000 people
Last known eruption: 1996

Yes, this is the one that killed volcanologists Harry Glicken, Katia Krafft, and Maurice Krafft, along with 40 other people in 1993. Unzen isn’t so much a single volcano as it is a mashup of three large stratovolcanoes and several lava domes, taking up most of the Shimabara Peninsula east of Nagasaki.

Pyroclastic flows are a major hazard here. And sometimes collapsing material falls into the sea, generating tsunamis like the one in 1792 that accounted for most of the 14,000-plus casualties from Unzen that year.

Unzen awakened in 1990, forcing evacuations and destroying more than 2,000 buildings near Shimabara City. All is quiet now, but when Unzen stirs again, activity forecasts will be more accurate thanks to data obtained from Decade Volcano studies and other research.

1 Vesuvius, Italy

Population at risk: More than 6 million people
Last known eruption: 1944

You knew Vesuvius would be on the list, all because of the video above.

Yes, that’s what a VEI 5 eruption looks like close up. The only typical volcanic hazards not shown in this animation are lava, gas, and tsunamis, though these all claimed victims that day, too. Pyroclastic flows, lava, and gas have killed people and caused massive damage during other Vesuvius eruptions, including the last one in the 1940s. Tsunami-generating landslides into Naples Bay are possible, too.

While everyone has been aware of the hazards here for centuries, the issue was first addressed during the Decade Volcano program. Now, emergency plans based on the Pompeii eruption and another powerful eruption in 1631 are in place and reviewed regularly.

It’s not easy to evacuate Naples and surrounding areas, but Vesuvius will not catch scientists and emergency personnel sleeping the next time it roars to life. The worst volcano in the world is always going to be the one erupting near you, whether it’s on a scientific list or not, but thanks to the Decade Volcano program, lessons have been learned that help people survive and manage a volcanic crisis wherever it occurs.

SEE ALSO: Top Common Misconceptions About Volcano Eruptions

With a heaping dose of ‘health and safety hypersensitivity’, any family trip or neighbourhood party can turn into a boring, slow moving dull-a-thon. That grill is too hot, keep the kids away. How deep is that pool? That popcorn is a choking hazard, enjoy some celery soup with your movie. Sometimes, you have to live a little. Not with these products, though. The items listed below will burn you, choke you or pop out your eyes in a second. Enjoy.

10 Products Made From Human Body Parts And Secretions

10 Norodin A.K.A Speed

Who doesn’t love meth? Many happy customers the world over use this wonder drug to increase their ‘vim’ and ‘pep’ before engaging in the usual sorts of activities people like; robbery, prostitution and proclaiming oneself the messiah whilst nude at a public swimming pool.

People in the past were actually able to purchase methamphetamines legally. One brand named version of the drug was Norodin, marketed at ladies who wanted to lose weight. Speed was everywhere. You could even get a Benzedrine inhaler, along with a large scotch and the chicken set dinner, on PanAm flights in the 1940s. That’s exactly what you want on a long haul flight across the pond—a meth head in the middle seat. Speed was popular until a slew of high profile criminal cases all over the world pointed to abuse of these narcotics as a contributing factor. The business moved from control by pharmacists to your friendly, local drug kingpins, bringing an air of the home-grown and rustic to Meth.^[1]

9 A Lot Of Stuff Made By The A.C. Gilbert Company

This company made some pretty cool toys. They also made some of the most dangerous ‘toys’ a kid could ever have the misfortune of playing with. Small cuts, light scalding, choking hazards and pinching injuries are extremely common in kids toys and always have been. Radiation poisoning though? A.C. Gilbert was a multi-talented inventor, but he really pushed the boat out on innovative ways to seriously maim children.

The ‘Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab’ allowed your budding Einstein to play around with different uranium ores that produced gamma, alpha and beta radiation. Fun! Gilbert also produced a glass blowing kit for kids (presumably so they could engage in the most disfiguring game of pea-shooters ever) and a chemistry kit which included a heaping pile of sodium cyanide, just in case lil’ Bobby jr. wants to bump off the Russian agent next door. Or make a really terrible milkshake for himself.^[2]

8 1920’s Hair Removal

Waxing, shaving, epilating and laser treatments are the ways modern guys and gals use to remove those pesky stray hairs in problem areas. How did the ladies of the 1920s do it? X-rays. I shit you not one bit, folks. X-rays.

The ‘Tricho’ machines, once relatively commonplace in beauty parlours across the USA, were machines that focused doses of X-rays upon the customers’ cheeks and upper lip. This would, after upwards of 15 treatments a year, induce permanent hair removal. And malignant carcinomas. Possibly death. Given that hair removal beauty regimens are more common for men today, you may be curious if this could be just dangerous for ladies in the 1920s. Amazing!—the march of progress, scientific developments, am I right? Well sir, the next time you break your arm, do NOT enquire whether the guy or gal in charge of the X-ray machine minds doing your back, sack and crack. You’ll get rid of those hairs, but gain a few tumours.^[3]

7 The Empire Little Lady Stove

We’ve all read about the dangers of the once popular kids ‘Easy Bake Oven’. This popular mini oven allowed children to play kitchen for real. But for every hundred or so nicely browned jam tarts, you’ll end up burning yourself (we’ve all been there. Damn spun sugar, it’s basically napalm). When you scale it down and allow little kids to do the same, you’re asking for a trip to the burns unit with little Jinny or Jimmy. Imagine your kids’ toy oven could reach temperatures that exceed your own full-size cooker. That’d be the Empire Little Lady Stove.

Modern ovens will reach a temperature of around 550 degrees Fahrenheit before a mechanism clicks in, turning off the oven lest it burn the house down. This children’s toy could reach temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just about hot enough to bake some lovely chocolate chip cookies in 35 seconds. Ah, simpler times.^[4]

6 The Zulu Blowgun Game

Zulu warriors employed a whole host of deadly weapons when they went to war. Not blowguns, though. To the makers of this wonderfully safety unconscious game, that didn’t matter. Unsafe and tone deaf, a match made in hell!

This crazy game included a blowgun, paper targets and metal-tipped darts. So, an actual weapon then. This is the equivalent of handing a child a loaded Glock 17 and, without training, calling it their ‘new shooting game’. Have at it, kid. Gotta learn to larp sometime.^[5]

10 Products You Aren’t Using The Crazy Way Their Creators Intended

5 Incredibly Inflammable Clothes

In the words of noted physician Dr. Nick Riviera, “Inflammable means flammable? What a country!” Once you get the definitions straight, now you can venture forth into the world and realise that a wire wool jacket may not be the best item of clothing to wear at the 9V battery factory. Victorian ladies had a hold host of incredibly easy to burn fabrics to choose from in a world that still employed candles and gas-fuelled flames for light. Muslin, gauze, all the open weaved cotton fabrics for dresses was a little like wearing a frock made of match heads. One of the craziest fabrics was flannelette.

The coroner of the city of Manchester, England put it best when interviewed for a local newspaper in 1898:

He noted that he had ‘held several inquests on children burned to death owing to their having played with fire in one way or another. Mr Smelt said there had been seven such deaths within a week that he had had to deal with, and he attributed the fact to the cold weather we had recently experienced. Children would go near fires to warm themselves; it, therefore, behoved parents to watch them strictly. They should also avoid dressing them in flannelette, which was almost as dangerous, if touched with fire, as gunpowder’. Still, those dresses looked pretty.^[6]

4 Roman Blinds

A few of these entries seem to cover danger to children. The toys are obviously going to be very kid-heavy, but window coverings? You better believe it. These fancier looking roller blinds are all but impossible to get in the USA these days, at least with the traditional pull cords.

You may think this is public safety run amok, maybe some crazy attempt to avoid lawsuits based on 1 or 2 kids getting friction burns or a toggle in the eye. But according to data gathered in 2015, more than 200 child deaths could be attributed to pull cords on window coverings. Huge retailers like Target and IKEA have now removed them from the shelves. Fair enough then.^[7]

3 Agene-Treated Flour

White bread was fancy stuff until the advent of sourdough and malted tin loaves with a honey glaze topped with mixed seeds. The whiter the bread, the ‘better’. As mass production and higher wages began to take hold at the turn of the last century, demand for good bread skyrocketed. How could bakers make shiny, brilliant white loves consumers wanted?

It’s all in the milling process. The whiter the flour, the whiter the bread. So they’d bleach the flour, artificially whitening the bread, the process getting better and better until you could buy a loaf that was whiter than Casper the friendly ghost’s taint. One chemical that was commonly used was nitrogen trichloride, or agene. In 1949 it was discovered that this process wasn’t producing flour that was safe for human consumption. Agene treated flour caused neurological disorders. How was this found out? Agene flour was also used in the making of dog biscuits, the dogs consumed them and showed signs of hysteria. Hysterical dogs—always a dead giveaway that something isn’t quite right.^[8]

2 Samsung Galaxy Note 7

This phone blasted onto the market in August of 2016, becoming the latest hot property produced by South Korean tech juggernaut Samsung. It caused an explosion of excitement for users… before causing actual explosions due to faulty batteries.

First, the newly released Note 7s would go boom. Samsung told consumers that they could trade in their recently purchased faulty phones for a new, far less explosive one. The problem was that these new improved phones also tended to overheat and blow up. This led to Samsung pulling the plug. Alongside the many hundreds of disappointed consumer whose new devices had combusted, Samsung took a bit of heat too—to the tune of around $17 billion in lost revenue. Ouch!^[9]

1 Any Car Before The 90s

When you look at car accident photographs from the past (if you’re that way inclined), one wonders why anybody would buy a car back then. They were death machines.

Any petrol head, especially stateside, knows about the infamous Ford Pinto (available from 1971—1980) with its genius design innovation—the fuel tank was right next to the bumper at the rear of the car, making even the lightest bump to the back of the Pinto a potentially explosive crash. What about even further back in time? Well, the amazing Briggs & Stratton Flyer, perhaps the cheapest to produce car ever, was essentially a go-kart primarily made from wood. It had no doors. No windscreen. No safety tech at all. Looks fun, until you consider that the mere addition of a scarf to your driving apparel pretty much guarantees that you’ll lose your head.

Speaking of gruesome deaths caused by automotive accidents, here’s a fun fact for all you vintage car collectors. If you’re driving any car made before 1968, the steering column won’t be collapsible. So what? Well, if you get into a prang, the waist belt (chances are you won’t have a 3 point safety belt) won’t stop you getting impaled on the fixed steering column. Even much loved, iconic classic cars are incredibly unsafe. Say you fancy yourself a bit of a Marty McFly and buy a DeLorean. You’ll look cool as hell… until some jackass undertakes you and you swerve. The you flip over. Then you’re entombed in a metal sarcophagus, facing certain death. Why? Those cool-as-balls gull wings cannot open when the car is upside down. Bet you wish you’d made out with your teenage mother instead… “Great Scott!”^[10]

10 Surprising Products Made By Your Favorite Companies, Including The Samsung Machine Gun

About The Author: CJ Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

Health fads are nothing new, but they are much older than many people think. The ancient Egyptians, for example, practiced strange methods of losing weight and treating illness, much like people did in the 20th century. Whatever the era, people tried whatever was at hand to achieve perfection . . . even if the methods were a bit on the crazy side.

Throughout the years, people have done some crazy things to fix their bodies, and only science and the benefit of hindsight have proven them as dangerous as they really were. Whether someone was trying to lose weight or get rid of a pesky STD, humans have been at this health craze thing for a long time. Here are ten of the craziest things people have done to fix themselves.

10 Mercury To Treat Syphilis

As just about anyone in the world knows, mercury is highly toxic and should never be ingested. We are warned against high levels of mercury in fish, and people are generally wary of the substance. It wasn’t always like that, though, and for centuries, mercury was the go-to treatment to cure syphilis. If you know anything about that disease, it’s not surprising that people would try anything to cure it. Syphilis is a debilitating and horrific ailment that will disfigure and kill a person if left untreated. These days, we use penicillin, but back in the 1300s, quicksilver was on hand to help anyone suffering from the STD.

It was rubbed on the skin, injected, or taken orally, and while it remained a popular treatment until the mid-20th century, it never worked. If anything, it helped to kill the patient faster, which probably alleviated some of the pain associated with the illness, but that’s like cutting off the head to cure the headache. Eventually, it was proven that a compound of mercurous chloride (calomel) did help in treating the disease, but this wasn’t until 1910, and it was still fairly toxic.^[1]

9 Lobotomies To Treat Mental Illness

Mental health problems are an area of medicine that has only recently been studied and treated as an illness. As recently as the mid-20th century, we were still locking people up in institutions to “treat” their mental disorders, but this was often just a means of taking people out of society. They would be heavily medicated and receive little to no treatment, and many were tortured with barbaric forms of medicine, including electroshock therapy. Another option for those suffering from serious mental health disorders was something called the “ice pick lobotomy.”

Lobotomies became popular in the United States back in 1936, and by 1949, up to 5,000 of the operations were performed annually on patients as young as four years old. The procedure involves stabbing long metal probes through the eye socket under local anesthesia so that the brain can be literally scrambled by sweeping through the frontal lobe.^[2] The damage caused personality changes and effectively killed the patient, though their bodies remained alive. The practice was popular, but by the 1970s, it had become highly criticized and was mostly phased out. Its brutality resulted in long-term brain damage to tens of thousands of patients who could have been treated by other, less invasive means.

8 Arsenic Consumption For Weight Loss

Arsenic is one of those things most people associate with rat poison, but for a time, people happily consumed it in the form of a diet pill. Back in the 1800s, people in Austria began ingesting arsenic in their coffee as a weight loss method. They would put small amounts in their morning cup of Joe and increase it over a period of a few weeks until diarrhea set in. Once their poo began to run, they would slowly decrease the dosage and enjoy the benefits of not being able to keep anything solid in their bodies.^[3] Sure, they would lose weight, but they were also poisoning themselves.

The fad spread into pill form and was marketed as a weight loss diet miracle around the world well into the 1920s, but it probably killed people more than anything else. We now know that arsenic doesn’t just make you feel lousy and have to run to the bathroom; it causes your cells to die. It also increases a person’s risk of cancer even in small doses, so it should be avoided at all times.

7 The Last Chance Diet

There are a lot of ridiculous fad diets out there, including the Cookie Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, and many others, but few have been as deadly as the aptly named “Last Chance Diet.” Back in 1976, Dr. Robert Linn marketed what he called the Last Chance Diet by insisting that the only way to stay thin and remain healthy was to eat nothing and consume only his magic tonic, Prolinn. The problem with the diet was that it required no exercise, and Prolinn consisted of fewer than 400 calories of energy, which is far too low for any adult.^[4]

Prolinn was composed primarily of collagen, which was essentially nothing more than ground-up hooves and the hides of animals killed at a slaughterhouse. The drink was little more than the leavings of animal waste nobody else wanted, but once it was turned into a beverage, Dr. Linn turned it into liquid gold . . . and killed an estimated 30 people. Linn was investigated by the FDA, and his diet is one that absolutely nobody should try.

6 Tapeworms For Weight Loss

If there’s one thing everyone should know not to do, it’s purposefully ingest a parasite like a tapeworm. Even though common sense dictates that this a bad idea, people have been doing it since Victorian times. The idea is simple: Ingest a capsule containing a tapeworm egg, and once the egg hatches and the worm fully forms, it will feed off the food a person consumes. This enables them to eat whatever they want, and it won’t gain them any weight because the worm will be pulling in all those horrible calories for them. The reality isn’t as neat and tidy, as tapeworms can lead to a plethora of problems for the infected, and they must be removed.

Not only was this diet popular in Victorian England, but it persists to this day. People are still purposefully infecting themselves with tapeworms so that they can lose weight. Fortunately, worms are relatively easy to remove these days, but back in the 19th century, it required a number of dangerous methods. These included swallowing a large metal cylinder (which often choked the patient) to purposefully poisoning oneself to get rid of the worm. Many people died as a result of simply trying to remove the worm, and despite what you may read online, there is never a reason to purposefully infect yourself with a tapeworm!^[5]

5 LSD To Treat Alcoholism

Alcoholism is one of the most serious diseases, afflicting millions of people every day, so it’s no surprise people turn to unconventional methods to treat it. For a lot of people who either don’t want to or are unable to attend a meeting type of treatment, there is LSD . . . potentially. Back in the 1960s, research was conducted to determine whether or not dropping acid could curb a person’s desire for alcohol. When it was undertaken, the study had mixed results and was abandoned, until recently. Back in 2012, researchers dove back into the collected data and began studying the effects of hallucinogenic medications on treating alcoholism.^[6]

The study found it to be effective in 59 percent of participants, so it may not be the most far-fetched treatment option on this list. Granted, the Food and Drug Administration isn’t likely to approve the treatment anytime soon, but there is an alternative on the market called naltrexone, which provided similar results. The dangers of LSD treatment come with the potential side effect of psychedelics that most people are aware of: a bad trip. Improper use of LSD and other drugs like it can lead to complications for people with mental illness and other significant health issues.

4 Tobacco Enema (And Other Crazy Stuff People Have Shoved Up Their Butts)

If you’ve ever told someone to go blow smoke up their ass, there’s a chance they could have taken you seriously. The idiom comes from the actual 18th-century practice of blowing smoke up someone’s rectum in the form of a tobacco enema. The practice was developed into a common medical procedure used well into the late 1700s. The main use of the tobacco enema was to treat drowning victims. It was thought that the smoke would encourage a person’s respiratory system to kick into gear while the smoke literally helped to dry the person out. It worked about as often as you might think.^[7]

Blowing smoke up there isn’t the only strange enema treatment folks have used over the years. In addition to tobacco smoke, people have regularly gotten coffee enemas. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Another strange enema people seem to enjoy is the oil enema used to treat constipation. The most dangerous enema people have tried would have to be the alcohol enema, otherwise known as “butt-chugging.” This one is particularly dangerous, as anything you shove up your butt will be quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. This can be deadly, seeing as the alcohol doesn’t have the chance to filter through your liver.

3 Bloodletting

Bloodletting is one of those practices that was common for so long, it’s surprising we survived as a species. Thanks to the benefit of hindsight, we now know the worst thing you could do when sick is to drain your body of blood, but for centuries, that’s exactly what “doctors” did to their patients. The practice revolved around the concept that blood could become corrupted and needed to be removed from the body in order to allow it to heal. It may sound ridiculous to a 21st-century individual, but it made a lot of sense for a span of some 2,000 years.^[8]

Interestingly, bloodletting may have been beneficial in some instances. When used to treat hypertension, it makes sense that removing some of the blood would alleviate the symptoms of high blood pressure. In pretty much every other instance, it would weaken and potentially kill a patient through infection. This was especially true in the years before we discovered antibiotics. Infections would arise from the source of the wound, and few would properly recover.

2 Heroin Cough Syrup

There was once a time when you could go down to your local pharmacy and grab a dose of cough syrup laced with heroin. Sadly, those days are long behind us, but they do paint a picture of how different medical treatments were back in the 19th and early 20th centuries as compared to today. The German pharmaceutical company Bayer promoted a cure for coughing and colds in children back in the late 1890s via a combination of aspirin and heroin. This practice continued until 1912, when years of accumulated data suggested that patients were building up a “tolerance” for heroin, resulting in an increased number of addicts.^[9]

You might think it was taken off US shelves at the time, but it continued to be sold in stores until 1914, when it was made available by prescription only. Patients could continue to get it with a doctor’s prescription until 1924, when the FDA put the ban hammer down on the drug. Similarly, cocaine was used as an anesthetic and was famously an ingredient in Coca-Cola for a short time in the 19th century.

1 Radium For Everything

When Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered radium, it was one of the biggest finds in the 19th century. Marie later died of asplastic anemia thanks to her lifetime of exposure to the element, but long before her death, radium was considered a miracle substance that companies simply had to include in all of their products. Ironically, it was believed that radium had miraculous health-benefiting properties. Before the effects of radiation on human cells were fully understood, companies put radium in products including toothpaste, chocolate, and water, all meant for consumption. This continued well into the 1930s.

Other uses for radium included placing it in toys and night-lights, thanks to its luminous properties. The substance emits a faint glow, which was used to illuminate dark rooms without electricity. It was also placed into cosmetics that people smeared all over their faces, in heating pads, and in suppositories. Radium was even employed to treat impotence, which it likely only worsened. Radium remained a part of everyday life for years and wasn’t removed from all products until the 1960s, so be careful what you purchase at an antique shop. You never know what might contain radioactive material.^[10]

In the days of the frontiersmen, the line between wild and west often became blurred, with people switching and re-switching sides so frequently that it was difficult to tell who was the lawman and who was the outlaw. Outlaws often became bounty hunters to bring in extra money, and many were appointed as sheriffs by communities on the premise that it takes one to know one.

There were, perhaps, a few upstanding citizen sheriffs in white hats, but not many made it to the history books—probably because they didn’t last very long. Those whose names are remembered today often weren’t entirely aboveboard. Here are ten lawmen who gave the outlaws as good as they got.

10 Bill Tilghman

Bill Tilghman was born in Iowa but moved to Kansas. When he was still a young man, Tilghman became a hunter, and he claimed to have killed 12,000 bison in only five years, much to the annoyance of the local Native Americans, for whom this meant food. During an exchange in September 1872, Tilghman is said to have killed seven Cheyenne braves. It wasn’t his only scrape with the law. Two years later, he just barely escaped being lynched after he was accused of murdering a man in Granada, Colorado.^[1]

In 1875, he opened a saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, and in 1878, he became the town’s deputy sheriff. He is said to have collected more rewards for bringing in outlaws than anyone else. During his time as sheriff, he was accused of corruption and selling whiskey to the Native Americans. He was also arrested several times for running a brothel and facilitating gambling.

Tilgham was shot on November 1, 1924, while trying to arrest a corrupt Prohibition officer. Karma?

9 William Davis ‘Dave’ Allison

Dave Allison was appointed sheriff 1888 in Midland, Texas, at the tender age of 27. He remained as sheriff until 1903, when he joined the Arizona Rangers. In Arizona, he shot and killed a criminal with the wonderful name of “Three Fingered Jack” in a shoot-out. Allison is best known, however, for leading the posse that captured and killed the Mexican revolutionary-turned-outlaw Pascual Orozco in 1915. Allison is said to have been “the most noted gunman in Texas.”

Allison was, however, also said to have a serious gambling problem, and there were several accusations made against him regarding the misappropriation of money. At these times, Allison moved swiftly to another position in another town, albeit always working as a lawman. This was, presumably, a “no references required” kind of job.^[2]

Allison, along with a colleague, was killed by a pair of cattle thieves whom they were preparing to testify against. They were sitting, unarmed, in the lobby of a hotel, when the gunmen burst in and shot them.

8 Harry Wheeler

Harry C. Wheeler had a variety of jobs before he was appointed the sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, including, in 1907, protecting striking miners from thugs hired by their employers. He was considered a “friend of labor,” and his popularity in the town grew.

However, ten years later, when he was sheriff, he deputized and armed 2,000 men and sent them out at dawn to arrest striking miners while he supervised the proceedings with a machine gun. In total 1,185 miners were arrested, loaded onto cattle trucks, and transported into the New Mexico desert, where they were abandoned. Wheeler was indicted, along with 224 of his deputies, on charges of kidnapping, though these were later dropped.

One of Wheeler’s most notable exploits was a rock fight with a man who had been stalking an ex-girlfriend. Wheeler heard about the man’s threat to kill the girl and her new husband and went to arrest him. The stalker, J.A. Tracy, fired a shot which missed so narrowly that bullet went through Wheeler’s coat. Both men exchanged gunfire. Wheeler was shot in the thigh, while Tracy was shot four times. Feigning an empty gun, Tracy pretended to give himself up, and then shot at Wheeler twice more. However, he wasn’t a very good marksman and only ended up hitting Wheeler once in the foot.

Being out of bullets himself, Wheeler resorted to heaving rocks at Tracy until the latter’s wounds overcame him. Astonishingly, Tracy was not arrested for his actions, and the two men shook hands before Wheeler put him on a train to Tuscon, which was unfortunate because Tracy was wanted for murder in Nevada. However, Tracy’s injuries were such that he died on the train. Wheeler collected the reward money, which was $500, but gave it to the widow of one of Tracy’s victims.^[3]

7 Heck Thomas

Henry Andrew Thomas, commonly known as “Heck,” apprehended some of the most notorious outlaws of the Wild West, including members of the Dalton Gang and the Doolin Gang. He began his working life serving as a courier in the Civil War in Virginia when he was just 12 years old. He joined the police force at the age of 17 in Atlanta and soon began to make a name for himself as a fearless fighter.

In 1875, he moved to Texas. In 1878, he was in charge of protecting the railroads when the Sam Bass Gang tried to rob a train. Thomas was injured during the shoot-out, but his quick thinking ensured that the gang got away with nothing; he had moved the valuables to an unlit stove and filled the safe with decoy parcels.^[4]

In 1896, Thomas led a posse that tracked down the Doolin Gang, which had been robbing trains and banks in Kansas. They caught the leader of the gang, Bill Doolin, after a long pursuit, fatally wounding Doolin after the robber tried to shoot his way out.

Heck Thomas was responsible for arresting over 300 wanted men. He once collected 41 prisoners in a single episode. He was wounded at least six times during his gunfights but managed to live long enough to retire from the force.

6 John Reynolds Hughes

In May 1886, John Reynolds Hughes (seated on the right above) set out to discover who had stolen horses from his and his neighbors’ ranches. He trailed them for close to a year before coming upon them in New Mexico. He killed some of the horse thieves and captured the rest before returning the horses to his neighbors. The exploit earned the attention of the Texas Rangers, who persuaded him to join up.

Hughes served as a Texas Ranger for 28 years. When his captain was killed by bandits in 1893, Hughes was named as his successor. His first act as captain was to take a group of his men to search the border until they found, and killed, all those responsible for the death.^[5]

5 John Hicks Adams

John Hicks Adams was a bona fide forty-niner. In 1849, he left his home in Illinois for California as soon as news of the Gold Rush reached him and remained for two years until moving to Santa Clara County with his family to settle on a farm. He was elected sheriff in 1863 and was involved in the pursuit and capture of Tiburcio Vasquez, a notorious bandit and horse thief.

His interest in gold never waned, and he is credited with making the first exploration of Lake Tahoe.^[6] In 1878, Adams was killed in Arizona while prospecting for gold. The suspects escaped to Mexico and were never tried for his murder. However, they were all later killed by an unidentified posse.

4 John Armstrong

John Barclay Armstrong moved to Austin, Texas, in 1871. He joined the Texas Rangers in 1875 and took part in the Las Cuevas War. Armstrong was a member of Captain Leander McNelly’s Special Forces, which, like all special forces, operated on a “Shoot now; ask questions later” policy.

Among his many exploits was his capture of John Wesley Hardin. Hardin, a notorious outlaw said to have once killed a man for snoring too loudly, was wanted for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. At the time, Armstrong was recovering from a gunshot wound and needed to walk with the aid of a cane, but he still volunteered to help track Hardin down.

After receiving information as to Hardin’s whereabouts, Armstrong and his men went in pursuit. They tracked him onto a train in Florida, and as the train pulled into a station, Armstrong entered the coach. Seeing only a man with a cane, Hardin did not reach for the gun hanging from the luggage rack above his head, which was a mistake. Armstrong suddenly switched his cane to his left hand and drew his gun, confronting not only Hardin but also four members of his gang. One of the gang members opened fire, and Armstrong killed him instantly before hitting Hardin over the head and knocking him unconscious.^[7]

3 Henry Newton Brown

Henry Newton Brown was a classic example of a poacher-turned-gamekeeper. He had once ridden with Billy the Kid, and they ambushed and murdered a sheriff in New Mexico in 1878. After making a hasty retreat, Brown disappeared for a while before reappearing in Texas, where he worked as a deputy sheriff for a short time. He became a ranch hand and ended up in Kansas, where he again took up law enforcement. In order to make ends meet, Brown began to track outlaws for their bounty, but occasionally, he got sidetracked.

In April 1884, at the Medicine Lodge bank, Brown and three accomplices burst in just after opening time and robbed it, shooting several bank employees in the process.^[8] They made their getaway but were soon surrounded. The locals were shocked when they discovered the identity of the thief, and there were many calls to hang Brown. He was due to hang in the morning, but the mob could not wait. They broke into the jail, overpowered the guards, and opened the cell. Brown, as was his nature, made a desperate attempt to escape, but he was shot dead.

2 Frank M. Canton

Frank Canton was jailed in 1877, under his birth name of Josiah Horner, for robbing a bank in Comanche, Texas, but soon escaped and signed on as a cattle herder, working his way to Nebraska. Deciding on a new start, he changed his name to Frank M. Canton and settled into a job protecting cattle stock for a large consortium of Wyoming cattlemen with questionable ethics. In 1882, he was elected sheriff of Johnson County, Wyoming.

During the Johnson County War, Canton signed on as one of Frank Wolcott’s Regulators. In April 1892, he led the Regulators to the KC Ranch, where Nate Champion and Nick Ray, small-time ranchers who had been falsely accused of cattle rustling, were holed up. Champion had been a friend of Canton’s, but this did not prevent Canton from setting the house on fire after a gun battle that had lasted most of the day. As the house burned around him, Champion burst out of the house and was shot 28 times.

Canton left town shortly after and traveled to Oklahoma, where he became a deputy US marshal. He killed the fugitive Bill Dunn in 1896. In 1897, he left for Alaska due to a gold rush. He returned to Oklahoma the next year and continued to work in law enforcement.^[9]

1 ‘Longhair Jim’ Courtright

In addition to his untamed locks, Timothy Isaiah “Longhair Jim” Courtright was known for his skill as a gunman, performing at one time as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Always a controversial character, he was the first elected marshal of Fort Worth, Texas. He also ran protection rackets in the local saloons and gambling houses. He is rumored to have killed several business owners who declined his offers of protection. His enthusiasm for his work often ran away with him. At one point, he was employed to track down cattle rustlers, but he ended up killing both rustlers and homesteaders.

Courtright finally met his end in 1887 in a duel with Luke Short, a saloon owner and former friend of Courtright’s. Short had told Courtright to “go to hell” when the former had offered the latter protection. In the middle of the street, the two men met in one of the very few face-to-face gunfights to have actually taken place in the Wild West. After a tense standoff, both men drew their pistols at the same time. Short fired first, blowing off Courtright’s thumb. Courtright tried to shift his gun to his uninjured hand, but as he did so, Short shot him in the chest.^[10]

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