History will never forget Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon or the Wright Brothers’ first moments of flying through the sky. However, some historical firsts—mundane things—never quite stood the test of time.

Fortunately, historians and archaeologists have taken the time to track these things down. Thanks to their tireless work, history will never forget those moments so vital to human development—like the one when the first fart joke was cracked.

10 First Drinking Straw Was Made Of Gold
3000 BC

Drinking straws aren’t one of those things you imagine coming hand in hand with the dawn of civilization. But the cheap plastic bending tubes you use to keep your clumsy kid from spilling have been around since the world’s first empire—although back then, they were a lot fancier.

The oldest drinking straw was found in a 5,000-year-old tomb and was made out of gold encrusted with precious blue stones. The owner was so proud of his straw that he even put a seal in his tomb that showed him using it to drink out of a jar, lest anyone forget that he liked to sip drinks with his sippy straw.

There’s a reason. Sumerians used straws to drink beer, which was as thick as porridge in those days. That might sound disgusting, but Sumerians considered beer to be a gift from the gods. So using a gold straw was just giving beer the respect it deserved.

9 First Recorded Gay Couple Were Manicurists
2400 BC

As it turns out, gay marriage is about as traditional as it can be. According to Professor Greg Reeder, the first recorded gay couple in history was Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, two manicurists working for an Egyptian pharaoh.

The pair was buried together as a married couple, facing nose to nose as if getting ready to kiss. There are also puns around their tomb about their being united together for life, suggesting that these two men were more than just close friends.

Reeder’s theory of the pair as a gay couple is controversial. Some who disagree have pointed out the picture of Niankhkhnum’s wife in the tomb. Reeder responds that somebody purposefully tried to scratch the picture off the wall—meaning that, unfortunately for his wife, Niankhkhnum may not have realized some things about himself until late in life.

8 First Fart Joke Was Etched In Stone
1900 BC

The first fart joke in recorded history also happens to be the first joke of all time. Etched into a stone tablet in Babylon, archaeologists found a message that someone preserved for all time:

Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.

Likely, there had been earlier fart jokes. But this was the first time a man was so inspired by his own wit that he chiseled his joke into the side of a stone so that people thousands of years in the future would be able to enjoy it.

In another 300 years, the first non-fart joke emerged when an Egyptian wrote on a piece of papyrus:

How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish.

7 First Pregnancy Test Grew Crops With Urine
1350 BC

History’s first pregnancy test was etched onto a papyrus sheet more than 3,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians had a weird way to find out if a woman was carrying a child and to determine if it was a boy or a girl.

First, the woman would pee on a bowl of barley and wheat seeds. She would let them stew for a few days and then plant them in the fields. If the barley grew first, she was carrying a girl. If it was wheat, she was carrying a boy. If nothing grew, she wasn’t pregnant.

Surprisingly, it actually worked. Although it probably couldn’t determine gender, researchers found that the test could detect pregnancies with an impressive 70 percent accuracy rate.

6 First 20-Sided Die Made In Ancient Egypt
300 BC

Anyone who has ever played Dungeons & Dragons has used a 20-sided die. It’s a key component of the game, essential in almost every situation that involves sitting in the basement imagining you’re a wizard.

As it turns out, though, the 20-sided die wasn’t invented for tabletop gaming. It was created a good 2,000 years earlier.

A 20-sided die carved from a rock was found in Egypt and looks shockingly familiar. In fact, other than the Greek symbols carved onto each side, it’s almost identical to the ones we use today to roll for initiative.

It’s not clear what the Egyptians used it for, but the symbols appear to represent either letters or numbers—meaning that even the symbols on the side might be the same as those on a modern die.

5 First Vending Machine Dispensed Holy Water
100 BC

Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a vending machine being used for anything other than hawking cheap products. When the first one was created, though, it was used to dispense holy water.

The vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria, an engineer credited with countless innovations of his time. Hero’s vending machine used the weight of the coin to push a platform down. Then a valve opened and a little trickle of holy water would come out.

He set up vending machines in temples all across the country, finally giving people a way to get holy water on the go without all the bother of talking to a priest.

4 First Marketing Pun Was Found In Pompeii
AD 79

Companies with puns for names seem like a staple of business, but they had to get their start somewhere. From locally grown businesses like Hair Force One and Pho Shizzle to bars like Tequila Mockingbird, naming a business with a cheesy play on words is a time-honored way to pull in a few stray eyes.

It all started in Pompeii. While excavating the ruins of the buried Roman city, archaeologists stumbled upon the oldest marketing pun ever found. A brand of wine called Vesuvinum was still there—a portmanteau that combined the name of a nearby mountain with the Latin word vinum (“wine”).

3 First Selfie Was Also The First Portrait
AD 1839

When Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist fascinated with the new photography craze, set up a camera in the back of his family’s store, he knew he was about to make history. He just didn’t know how.

Cornelius didn’t have the funds to hire a model or the ambition to find a proper subject in nature. So he figured he would just photograph himself. He was, after all, only trying to test his new equipment.

He turned on the camera, ran into the frame, and stood as still as he could for the minute it took for the camera to do its work. Then he rushed back to the other side and closed the lens. When the photograph came out, he proudly wrote on the back that it was “the first light picture ever.”

History, though, would remember it as something else: the first selfie.

2 First Child To Imitate An Airplane Was The First To See One
AD 1904

Pretending to be an airplane seems to be an almost instinctive act for children—so much so that even the first child who ever saw one did it. When the Wright Brothers tested their flying machine, they weren’t in complete seclusion. There was a family who caught the sight—and with them, a young boy.

When a reporter asked the young boy to describe the flight, he instinctively threw his arms out and ran around making engine noises. So children have literally been pretending to be airplanes ever since the first child saw one.

1 First Message Over The Internet Was ‘LOL’
AD 1969

On October 29, 1969, a group of scientists conducted the first test of ARPANET—a moment that’s sometimes considered to be the first time the modern Internet went online. In the process, purely by chance, they typed a message that would dominate the Internet for years to come.

A programming student named Charley Kline sat down to type the first message that would be sent to a computer 645 kilometers (400 mi) away: “LOGIN.” When he started typing, though, he had a problem. He entered the letters “L” and “O.” But before he could finish, the computer crashed.

Kline rebooted the system and tried again. This time, he got his full message out without any problems. By pure prophetic chance, though, the first three letters ever typed on the Internet became “LOL.”

From the tragedy of Alec Baldwin’s prop gun firing to O.J. Simpson’s entire trial, plenty of famous people have cost others their lives. Sometimes, this happens decades before fame hits. Sometimes, it’s because of fame. And sometimes, it ruins careers.

But sometimes, it all sort of gets swept under the rug. Here are some famous people who have been involved in the deaths of others that you may not have heard about.

Related: Ten Eerie Unsolved Murders of Everyday Women

10 Laura Bush

Fourteen years before marrying soon-to-be President George W. Bush, 17-year-old Laura Welch ran a stop sign and crashed into another car. The driver, another teenager, was killed. Though she didn’t speak about the incident for many years, in 2010, she told the New York Times that she was “wracked by guilt for years after the crash, especially after not attending the funeral and for not reaching out to the parents of the dead teenager.”

If this sounds like an interesting premise for a comedy, you’re not alone! In 2018, Laura Bush Killed a Guy, a new comedy play by Ian Allen, made its debut off-off-Broadway. The show presented itself as a night with Laura (played by Lisa Hodsoll), where three alternate accounts of the crash are presented. Despite the… odd subject material, the New York Times praised the play, calling it “not a political satire but a romantic comedy.”^[1]

9 Phill Lewis

Born in Uganda to American parents in the Peace Corps, Phill Lewis started his film career in the 1988 black comedy Heathers. The movie centers around a slew of teen deaths—a topic that would become all too relevant to Lewis in just a few years.

In 1991, at the age of 23, Lewis was arrested after hitting and killing a woman with his car. His blood alcohol content was over three times the legal level, which even his own defense attorney called “extraordinarily high.” Lewis claimed he was unable to remember anything for nearly 10 hours leading up to the accident, which was deemed possible due to his extreme level of intoxication.

Lewis was sentenced to five years in prison, but it was reduced to just one after he spent much of his sentence working with a prison-based theater troupe that highlighted the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse. Despite these rough years as a young man, Lewis continued to land guest roles in shows such as Married… with Children and Boy Meets World before landing a lead role on the Disney Channel show The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.^[2]

8 Rebecca Gayheart

Former teen model and star of the 1999 hit Jawbreaker Rebecca Gayheart started her career by playing ax murderess Lizzie Borden in a school play. After becoming the spokesperson for Noxzema skin cream, Gayheart rose to fame in magazines and guest spots on TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210.

In 2001, Gayheart accidentally hit a nine-year-old boy with her car. The boy died the next day, and Gayheart made a public statement: “The pain of this tragedy will live with me forever. Despite the allegations in the lawsuit, the facts will establish that this was a most unfortunate accident.” She was charged with vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to three years of probation and suspension of her license.^[3]

7 Matthew Broderick

The actor best known as the fast-driving, smooth-talking teen Ferris Bueller accidentally crossed into the wrong lane while driving a rental car in Northern Ireland. The car collided head-on with another, killing both riders instantly. Broderick and his passenger, actress Jennifer Grey, both sustained minor injuries.

Broderick claimed he couldn’t remember anything about the crash before ending up in the hospital. He was charged with careless driving. In the end, he only had to pay a $175 fine for taking the life of a mother and daughter duo.

In 2012, Broderick starred in a multi-million dollar Honda Super Bowl commercial. The brother/son of the victims remarked drily that “It wasn’t the greatest choice of drivers, knowing his past.”^[4]

6 Ryan Grantham

At just 21 years old, Ryan Grantham shot his mother to death while she innocently played the piano in her home. When asked why he did it, Grandham explained he had an entire plan, which culminated in the assassination of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a mass shooting in British Columbia. He killed his mother in order to shield her from the pain his crimes would bring her.

Luckily, Grantham was caught before he could carry out this scheme. Before attending college at Simon Fraser University, Grantham was known for his small but comedic role as a sixth grader in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and as a guest star on the teen drama Riverdale.^[5]

5 Brandy Norwood

Brandy Norwood shot to fame after starring in the 1996 sitcom Moesha. Her subsequent appearances as the titular princess in Cinderella and Grammy win for her 1998 album Never Say Never only made her a more prominent figure in American media.

Unfortunately, in 2006, Norwood struck a car on an L.A. freeway. This second car slammed into the highway divider and was hit by a third car, killing the driver. Norwood was charged with vehicular manslaughter but was found not guilty due to the absence of alcohol and drugs. Further investigation also did not find that Norwood was using her phone or was otherwise distracted. Norwood has never spoken publicly about the incident.^[6]

4 Don King

Years before promoting such historic boxing matches as the “Thrilla in Manilla” and “The Rumble in the Jungle,” Don King spent his youth working as a bookie out of a basement. During this time, King shot a man after watching him try to rob one of his gambling houses. It was ruled as justifiable homicide.

Thirteen years later, he was convicted for stomping one of his employees to death because he owed him $600. This wasn’t so justifiable, and King served just under four years in prison for his crime.^[7]

3 Caitlyn Jenner

In 2024, Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner came under intense scrutiny after posting on social media “Good riddance” in response to the death of accused murderer O.J. Simpson. Many users were quick to point out that Jenner herself had actually also killed someone in a 2015 car crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California.

Jenner was never charged with manslaughter or reckless driving, as investigators found that the only law she had broken was a “basic speeding violation.” There was public outrage, with some believing she had gotten off the hook due to her fame. Ultimately, Jenner paid $800,000 to the family of the deceased and expressed her condolences but did not serve jail time.^[8]

2 Phil Spector

You might not know Phil Spector by name, but you’ve almost certainly heard one of the songs he’s been involved in. Spector produced The Beatles’ Let It Be, as well as such acts as The Ronettes (famous for “Be My Baby”), The Crystals, and Ike & Tina Turner.

Unlike most others on this list, Spector’s crime was purposeful. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee invited actress Lana Clarkson back to his home in 2003 after meeting at a bar. By morning, she had been shot dead.

Spector claimed she killed herself, but several women came forward during the trial to reveal Spector had also threatened them with guns at some point. He was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years in prison, though he died in 2021 before serving them all.^[9]

1 Ted Kennedy

The Kennedy curse spares no man.

Senator Ted Kennedy, younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was driving over a bridge with politician Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969 when the car leaped over the barrier and sank into the ocean. While Kennedy was able to swim to safety, Kopechne did not make it.

Once Kennedy made it back to his hotel on Chappaquiddick Island, he waited until morning to call the police and report the crash. It is thought that Kopechne could have survived if help had arrived sooner rather than the nine hours later in which Kennedy waited. Why would he do this? Many suspect that Kennedy was drunk and did not want to get in trouble with the law, so he waited until morning when he had sobered up.

Some even think that the entire incident was a deliberate attempt to kill Kopechne for unknown reasons. Kennedy’s defenses were murky and confused, leading to further speculation on why he handled the situation so badly. The Chappaquiddick incident, as it has come to be known, is primarily cited as the reason Kennedy did not run for president in future years.

Older Americans might remember this scandal, but for most young adults whose only knowledge of the Kennedys comes from JFK, the idea that a member of this all-American clan could have killed someone probably comes as a surprise.^[10]

They might walk alike, they might talk alike, and they probably even look alike. Twins are an endlessly fascinating genetic miracle. Whether they are fraternal, identical, conjoined, polar body, mirror, or separated at birth, the similarities and complexities of twins are something that both scientists and the average man have marveled over for generations.

Whether you’re a twin looking for more information on your own genetic situation or you’re simply a curious onlooker, here are 10 intriguing facts about all sorts of twins.

10 Identical Twins Are . . . Not So Identical After All

It is common knowledge that identical twins have the same DNA. However, that does not necessarily mean that they are biologically similar in every other sense. From birth, identical twins have different fingerprints and different belly buttons. But as they age, their bodies change independently of each other.

One example of this is the natural scent produced by each twin. A study done in the Czech Republic used 12 German shepherd police dogs of the highest caliber to see if dogs could tell the difference between identical twins.^[1]

The scientists took scent samples from two sets of identical twins and two sets of same-sex fraternal twins. Then the researchers put the samples from an individual twin pair in a lineup of seven possibilities. Each time, the dog successfully matched the original scent to the corresponding twin.

As a result, scientists have concluded that the innate odor of identical twins is not the same. This may be a result of environmental factors, such as an infection, that could alter an individual’s odor.

9 Semi-Identical Twinning

Identical twins are the result of a fertilized egg splitting in half. However, in rare cases, an egg can split before fertilization. If separate sperm fertilize the eggs, the resulting babies are known as semi-identical twins.

Although the splitting of an egg denotes identical twins, the separate fertilization would mean the twins are fraternal. But while fraternal twins share about 50 percent of their DNA, semi-identical twins share about 75 percent. In this case, the resulting twins are not really fraternal yet not quite identical.^[2]

8 Mirror Twins

About one-fourth of all identical twins develop as mirror images of each other. The split is later than usual—about 1–2 weeks after fertilization—and they form facing one another. As a result, they end up being the exact opposites of each other.

One may be right-handed while the other is left-handed, their hair whorls will twirl in opposite directions, and they may have matching birthmarks on the opposite sides of their bodies. In some rare and extreme cases, the organs and skeletal structures of mirror twins may reflect one another.

Typically, after same-sex twins are born, their DNA is tested to tell if they are identical or fraternal. This also allows doctors to test how genetically similar the twins are. However, scientists have noticed that the DNA is the same in mirror-image twins. Thus, the only way to tell them apart so early on is to take note of their reflecting features.^[3]

7 The Twin Rate Is Going . . . Going . . . Up

Twins are becoming much more common in the 21st century. Between 1980 and 2003, the birth rate for twins went up by 75 percent. While the increased use of fertility drugs was initially thought to be the cause of such a steep rise, a preliminary study done in 2006 by Dr. Gary Steinman of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center showed that women who drank cow’s milk were five times more likely to give birth to twins than their vegan counterparts.

Why focus on the consumption of dairy?^[4]

Steinman suggests that women who drink cow’s milk have higher levels of the growth hormone IGF because farmers use this hormone to stimulate milk production in their own cows. As a result, Steinman suggests that the increased IGF promotes the release of two eggs at the same time—thus, the higher chance of bearing fraternal twins.

6 Multiple Multiples

While twin births are becoming more prevalent, identical twin birth rates have remained constant across the globe at about 4 per every 1,000 births. So, the large variance of twin birth rates among regions is a result of the increase of fraternal births.

This is important because fraternal twins can run in families. Some women are genetically predisposed to hyper ovulation. As a result, some regions are well-known for their high twin birth rates.

Benin, a West African country, currently holds the title for the highest twin birth rate with an average of 27 sets of twins per 1,000 births. Benin’s neighbor, Nigeria, comes in a close second with 19 sets of twins per 1,000 births.^[5]

This may occur because these nations make up a large portion of the homeland of the Yoruba people who have long been known for their high twin birth rates. Although scientists are still determining the exact cause of this phenomenon, it is largely believed that both diet and genetics play a part.

5 The Long Lives of Twins’ Mothers

Before contraception and infertility treatments, women who had twins naturally tended to have more children closer together in age. Researchers at the University of Utah determined this and other correlations in a 2011 study about twins.

Using the Utah Population Database, the researchers pulled the health records of mothers from the early 1800s to the 1970s and discovered that those who gave birth to twins lived longer than their counterparts who gave birth to singletons. The researchers hypothesized that mothers who give birth to twins have naturally stronger genes which contribute to their longer life spans.

Although having twins does not directly increase the length of a woman’s life, it can certainly serve as a marker for strong genes. Additionally, it is believed that twins are evolution’s way of passing on the mother’s genes twice as fast.^[6]

4 Born To Be Socialites

According to a study published in the scientific journal PLOS One, twins begin to intentionally interact with one another at around 14 weeks in the womb. The twins lean into one another for comfort, effectively putting their heads against the other and being extra gentle around sensitive areas like the eyes.

Not only do these interactions serve to comfort one another but they also help the twins develop their own form of nonverbal communication. This time spent in such close contact also builds a solid foundation for that quintessential connection that all twins seem to share.^[7]

3 Twin Talk

Just as twins learn nonverbal communication in the womb, they grasp verbal communication with each other before they can communicate with the wider world. All children learn to speak from interacting with their caregivers. But twins have the added advantage of learning to communicate by listening to and repeating each other.^[8]

However, this means that young twins often mispronounce the sounds that they hear. As a result, only the twins can intuitively attribute meaning to their words, which makes it seem like they’re developing a “secret language” between them.

2 Lower Cognitive Skills In Childhood

A 1950 to 1954 study of twins born in Birmingham, United Kingdom, found that twins were more likely to have a speaking deficit in early to mid-childhood than their singleton peers. According to a follow-up study in Aberdeen, Scotland, the IQs of twins average 7.4 points lower than those of singletons at age seven and 5.5 points lower at age nine.

This study, which included many siblings of the twins, took into account how many older siblings each participant had, the age and health of the mother at time of birth, and birth height and weight.

In conclusion, it was found that young twins struggled with cognitive proficiency in comparison to their singleton counterparts due to a lesser gestation period and a lower birth weight. However, as the twins aged, their cognitive skills quickly caught up to those of their peers.^[9]

1 More Than Cousins

When an identical twin pair marries an identical twin pair and both couples have children, their children are cousins. However, genetically speaking, they are also siblings.

If a scientist were to examine the DNA of each child, the researcher would not be able to determine to which couple the child belonged because both couples have the exact same DNA. The children are cousins because the parents are siblings. However, as the parents are identical twin siblings, the children’s genetics are from the exact same genetic pool. So, their genetics are similar in the same way that siblings have similar genetics.

Even so, this does not mean that the children will all look exactly alike. Rather, they will have the same chance of looking like each other that regular siblings—or even fraternal twins—will have.^[10]

We think of addiction as something that must be detrimental to one’s health. However, in reality, many of us are addicted to various things that may not hamper our lives in any way.

These addictions are still quite real as well as essential for our day-to-day functioning. It may be coffee for some, cleanliness for others, and obsessively sharing kitten memes for someone else—whatever engages the reward system in the brain for each of us.

It gets weird, however, when we see a compulsion that has no reason to exist in the first place. Ever come across kids who can’t stop eating sand or heard about people addicted to eating ashes?

These addictions—which don’t have a clear-cut reason to exist but are as real as the other dangerous ones—fascinate us the most. Here are some of the most baffling ones.

10 Tanning

The artificial UV tanning industry could simply be explained by the inherent human tendency to look different than our usual selves, somewhat like how people with curly hair want to have it straightened and vice versa. And it works well, too, especially for the times of the year when the sun isn’t enough to give you a darker tone.

When it gets weird is when you can’t stop—not because you like the tan too much but because you have an addiction to it.

Cases of people getting addicted to the artificial tanning process are abundant. If you think it’s the same thing as people who just can’t stop having their hair done, it goes a bit beyond that.

Many recent studies have confirmed that tanning addiction is very real and engages the same part of the brain as drugs like heroin. Some research points to the possibility that it may just be in your genes, even if only a small percentage of people who regularly go for tanning can actually be classified as dependent on it.^[1]

9 Drinking Urine

You may have heard of people who insist that drinking your own—and, in some extreme cases, other people’s—urine is good for health. As long as they’re not harming anyone in the process, there’s not much we can do to convince them otherwise. Even if no scientific study has ever proven a correlation between that behavior and any health benefits, it’s more of a case of “to each his own” and we respect that.

Sometimes, though, it can go well beyond a general preference for human urine as food. Quite a few people have reported that they start getting withdrawal symptoms if they don’t get their daily fix of urine.

For example, Robert Wells, who is in his sixties, can’t stop collecting urine from younger people—often without their knowledge—and drinking it. He admits that it’s an urge he can’t control. In fact, he has been charged with multiple sex offenses for going out and collecting pee from kids.

Wells believes that urine from young people will help to keep him looking young for a longer time.^[2]

8 Animal Hoarding

We’ve all heard of the “crazy cat lady” trope, even though we’re not sure why it can’t apply to men, too. We all know of someone who has surrounded herself with a bunch of animals to make up for a lack of social skills, even if it may just be about loving animals a bit too much rather than a case of loneliness. However, there are those rare occasions that are so bad that it actually harms the animals involved and can border on being an addiction.^[3]

Science agrees that animal hoarding has many features of an actual addiction, including denial of the problem, a compulsive need to engage in it, excuses for this behavior, and no regard for maintaining the individual’s personal surroundings. It may sound like the “crazy cat lady” stereotype is true, but in actual cases, it’s much more serious than just collecting a lot of pets. It’s also difficult to overcome without help.

7 Human Blood

Vampires have been a part of Western folklore for as long as we can remember. We’re not sure if these stories are based on real cases of people obsessed with human blood, but mythology often doesn’t care about facts. We also don’t know if these individuals were actually addicted to drinking blood or if they just occasionally dabbled because they liked the taste of it. But again, they’re fictional and don’t require an in-depth explanation for how vampirism works.

If we talk about real life, though, an addiction to drinking blood is certainly scientifically possible. In fact, a Turkish man was reportedly addicted to drinking his own blood. The doctors described his need for blood to be “as urgent as breathing,” even though they weren’t able to explain how he developed it.

He had no disorder or deficiency that could explain it, though he was afflicted with a personality disorder. Also, he had witnessed some violent events earlier in his life, though those things don’t come close to explaining how he developed the compulsion. Thankfully, he was just addicted to drinking his own blood.^[4]

6 Coffee Enema

An enema may sound gross, but it’s one of the most effective and widely used medical methods for relieving severe constipation. Although enemas are mostly administered by professionals, there are ways to do it yourself at home by injecting your backside with fluids to stimulate a bowel movement.

A coffee enema—an experimental variation done with coffee and first introduced in the 1940s by Dr. Max Gerson—is not the same thing. Many doctors and scientists have pointed out its ill effects on the body, and it’s no longer offered by medical facilities in the US for those reasons.

That hasn’t stopped a Florida couple from developing an addiction to coffee enemas. They feel a rush while doing it and get withdrawal symptoms if they don’t. They describe the feeling as a kind of euphoria and give themselves coffee enemas an average of four times a day. The wife has admitted to giving herself one up to 10 times in a day in the past.^[5]

5 Getting Tattoos

You may have come across people with a bunch of tattoos all over their bodies. Given the increasing acceptance of tattoos in society, there’s a high chance that at least one of these individuals is in your social circle. Tattoos may mean different things to different people, and it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact psychological reasons for why we like getting them so much.

In some cases, however, tattoos can go beyond just inking a piece of art on your body that means something special to you. Tattoo addiction is a real thing for more people than you’d guess. According to research, about 32 percent of Americans admit to being addicted to tattoos and feel the need to go out and get a new one shortly after their last one.

Some scientists have tried to explain it as an addiction to the pain that comes with the process of getting a tattoo. It may also have to do with being addicted to the attention. However, science is still figuring out exactly what causes a chronic addiction to tattoos.^[6]

4 Romantic Rejection

Asking someone out and getting rejected is one of the most normal parts of most people’s dating lives. Almost all of us have experienced it in one form or the other. Sure, it may not be the preferable outcome, but it’s still something you have to wade through if you actually like dating.

It’s a problem, though, when some people can get addicted to it to the point that they enjoy all the heartbreak and pain arising from rejection. And we are not making this up.

According to a study published in Journal of Neurophysiology, romantic rejection involves the same parts of the brain that cause us to get addicted to something. The researchers even came up with a parameter for it—the Passionate Love Scale—and concluded that romantic rejection is definitely a form of addiction.^[7]

We may be making it sound like all fun and games, but it also does a lot to explain cases of rejected people becoming violent toward the person who rebuffed them. In many cases, this leads to extreme outcomes like suicide or murder.

3 Plastic Surgery

For the longest time in our history, permanent disfigurement due to accidents was irreversible. Back then, we didn’t have today’s medical tech to do something about it. Plastic surgery was a revolutionary development, allowing us to fix parts of our body. It was obvious that we’d soon be using it to make us look better.

It’s when some people compulsively feel the need to keep changing their appearance with plastic surgery that it turns into an actual addiction. Although scientists don’t understand how that manifests itself, we know of too many celebrities who can’t stop themselves from getting plastic surgery.

Some experts explain it with a disorder called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).^[8] Sufferers feel the need to continually change their looks. Not everyone addicted to plastic surgery is diagnosed with BDD, and we don’t quite understand why so many people without any other underlying medical conditions would compulsively get up to 10 plastic surgeries in a day.

2 Milk Products

Even people who do not experience lactose intolerance may suffer from a dairy-related ailment. For these individuals, milk derivatives like butter or cheese are something they’d never refuse.

Some people are unhealthily obsessed with these products, often using them to replace regular meals no matter what it does to their health. If that sounds like an addiction, it absolutely is. Milk and its derivatives contain molecules that attach to the same parts of the brain as drugs like opiates.

Milk contains casein as well as other similar chemicals like casomorphins. These substances act like the highly addictive painkiller morphine. In fact, they’re like each other in chemical composition and what they do to our brains. The brain also releases quite a bit of dopamine while eating cheese, further exacerbating its addictive effects and essentially making us hooked on it.^[9]

1 Drinking Water

Humans are a water-based species. So it doesn’t take a health professional or an Instagram fitness blogger to convince us of the benefits of drinking a lot of water each day. It keeps our bodies running the way they should, does wonders for our skin, and generally helps us feel better than someone who doesn’t consume enough of it.

If we told you that it’s possible to become addicted to water in the same way as other harmful substances, you’d probably tell us to get out of here. But according to science, it’s absolutely possible to get addicted to water.^[10]

In some cases, people who don’t get their daily fix of water can experience headaches and other withdrawal symptoms. For many people who have “aquaholism”—as it’s unofficially called—staying away from water for even an hour may mean irritation and the compulsive need to get back to it.

Like everything in excess, this can lead to some serious negative effects on the body. Occasionally, it may also be related to a disorder called polydipsia in which a lack of sodium content in the blood can lead to excessive thirst. But most people reported to have been addicted to water don’t have that.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs, or just say hello to him on Twitter.

Flat-Earthers, as the name suggests, are people who believe the Earth is flat, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Flat-Earthers believe statements that the Earth is round to be some conspiracy promoted by governments, space agencies, and private corporations. Interestingly, however, they do believe Mars is round.

Trying to prove that the Earth is flat is hard work for flat-Earthers, and they will often go to extreme lengths to prove it, even if it means making ridiculous claims, launching rockets and satellites, or trying to travel to the edge of the Earth. Here are ten curious facts you never knew about flat-Earthers.

10 They Believe Mars Is Round

In November 2017, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted, “Why is there no Flat Mars Society!?” The Flat Earth Society replied with their verified Twitter handle, tweeting, “Hi Elon, thanks for the question. Unlike the Earth, Mars has been observed to be round.”

This reply was surprising because we all probably assumed flat-Earthers think Mars is flat, too. The Flat Earth Society dropped another shocker after another user suggested that Mars was flat like the Earth. The Flat Earth Society said that it was possible, but there is no evidence indicating Mars is flat.

The Flat Earth Society issued another odd statement after someone else suggested Earth couldn’t be the only flat planet in the universe. The Flat Earth Society replied, “We don’t know. Why would the Earth be the only (known) celestial body to harbour intelligent life? Perhaps it’s unique, or perhaps we need to keep looking?”^[1]

9 They Are Planning A Voyage To The Edge Of The World

Most flat-Earthers believe the edges of the Earth are surrounded by ice walls, which is why nobody has managed to fall off the edge of the Earth. Now, some flat-Earthers are planning an expedition to the edge of the world to end the “flat or round” argument once and for all.

The voyage is planned by the Flat Earth International Conference (FEIC), which is keeping information about the proposed expedition under wraps. (Perhaps they want to catch the NASA guards supposedly patrolling the edges of the Earth unaware.) However, the expedition has raised eyebrows because the ship will be using equipment like GPS, which is based on a round Earth.^[2]

8 They Believe SpaceX’s Photos Of Starman Were Doctored

Before the era of private space travel, flat-Earthers concentrated their efforts on government agencies like NASA, which they accuse of hiding the truth about a flat Earth for financial gain. These days, they are concentrating their efforts on private space businesses like SpaceX.

In February 2018, Elon Musk launched the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying his Tesla roadster into space. At the wheel was a mannequin dressed in an astronaut suit. Musk called him Starman. The vehicle was rigged with cameras, and the video was streamed live on YouTube.

One of the most popular photos of the spectacle showed Starman seated at the wheel, as if he was driving the car into space. The Earth was in the background and was clearly round. This is the sort of thing flat-Earthers do not want to see.

The Flat Earth Society promptly passed the picture off as a fake and accused SpaceX of hiding the truth about a flat Earth for profit. The evidently displeased Flat Earth Society called SpaceX “FakeX.”^[3]

7 They Claim Solar Eclipses Prove The Earth Is Flat

Solar eclipses are a definitive piece of evidence that the Earth is round. Every part of the world facing the Sun would see a solar eclipse at the same time if the Earth was flat. However, we know this never happens because of the curvature of the Earth.

However, flat-Earthers have claimed that the same solar eclipses which prove the Earth is round actually prove that it’s flat. Flat-Earthers say the Moon would cast a larger shadow on the Earth during solar eclipses if our planet was round. We know this is what would happen if the Sun was much smaller and very close to the Moon.

Flat-Earthers also say the shadow of the Moon would travel from east to west, since the supposedly round Earth rotates from west to east. Again, this would have been true if Moon wasn’t moving faster than the Earth rotates. The moon travels at around 3,400 kilometers per hour (2,100 mph), while the Earth rotates at 1,670 kilometers per hour (1,038 mph). This means the shadow casts from west to east at 1,730 kilometers per hour (1,075 mph).^[4]

6 Flat-Earthers Say An Undiscovered Object Causes Lunar Eclipses

Lunar eclipses are another definitive point of evidence for the Earth being round. However, flat-Earthers have tried using them to prove the flatness of the Earth, just as they did with solar eclipses.

Flat-Earthers have some interesting explanations for lunar eclipses. They say lunar eclipses happen when a mysterious and undiscovered object gets in between the Earth and the Moon. This is wrong. Lunar eclipses happen when the Moon enters the shadow of the Earth.

Flat-Earthers do not know what this mysterious object is, but they think it only visible when in between the Earth and the Moon. They speculate it is some unknown object orbiting between our world and its satellite, perhaps some other planet or asteroid. However, astronomers have already confirmed that no planet can ever come in between the Moon and Earth.^[5]

5 They Believe The Sun Is Small And Right Above The Earth

The Earth experiences two equinoxes every year, the first in March and the other in September. The Sun shines directly at the Equator on both days, causing day and night to be of roughly equal lengths. Equinoxes are possible because the Earth is round and has an axial tilt.

Equinoxes prove the Earth is round. But the flat-Earthers disagree. They say equinoxes exist because the Sun is right above the Earth and orbits the North Pole, which is actually the center of the world. Flat-Earthers add that the Sun is much smaller than we think.^[6]

4 A Flat-Earther Launched A Homemade Rocket In An Attempt To View The Earth From Space

Mike Hughes wants to travel to space so that he can finally prove the Earth is flat. To achieve his pipe dream, he built a rocket right in his backyard. The rocket is not perfect and is just a working prototype. It cost $20,000 and was built with scrap metal.

Hughes tested his rocket in March 2018. It (and Hughes) went 572 meters (1,875 ft) into the air before the rocket’s parachute deployed, and it glided back to the ground. It landed hard, injuring Hughes. However, he suffered no permanent damage and probably returned to working on his rocket when he got better.^[7]

3 Another Flat-Earther Wants To Launch A Satellite Into Space

Rapper Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. (aka B.o.B), is another flat-Earther. Unlike Hughes, who wants to see the Earth from space, B.o.B wants to launch a satellite and take pictures of the flat Earth. Also unlike Hughes, B.o.B is trying to crowdfund the satellite, probably because he is keeping his own money for more realistic projects.

On September 21, 2017, he launched a GoFundMe page, seeking $1 million to launch one or more satellites into space. The page is called “Show B.o.B The Curve.”^[8]

Some speculators have pointed out that B.o.B does not have the expertise to build satellite or a rocket even if he raises the money. This means the construction and launching will be handled by businesses that believe the Earth is round, which kind of taints the whole thing. The campaign had managed to raise $6,924 as of the writing of this article.

2 YouTube Is Turning People Into Flat-Earthers

We have been seeing an increase in flat-Earthers lately. In fact, there are so many out there that they now hold annual conferences. In 2017 and 2018, a group of researchers from Texas Tech University got curious and wanted to understand why we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in flat-Earthers.

The researchers attended a flat-Earther conference each year and interviewed 30 flat-Earthers. Of those 30, 29 said they believed the Earth was round until they watched YouTube videos “proving” the Earth is flat. Notably, they were watching conspiracy videos involving 9/11 and the Moon landings when YouTube auto-played the flat-Earth videos.

The videos auto-played because of YouTube’s algorithm. YouTube later clarified that it would reduce the amount of “borderline” content (that is, controversial videos like the flat Earth theory and snake oil treatments, which are often lies) it recommends to its users. YouTube says it cannot ban flat-Earth videos because they can’t ban content just for being false.^[9]

1 Some Flat-Earthers Think Teleportation Is The Reason We Don’t Fall Off The Edge Of The Earth

We already mentioned that many flat-Earthers believe there is a ice wall surrounding the edge of the Earth. What we did not mention is that they think the wall is actually Antarctica. They also believe that the Arctic is at the center of the Earth.

However, the problem with the ice walls—and every other wall—is that they can be scaled. People will also fall off the edges. Flat-Earthers say nobody has fallen off the edge of the Earth because NASA has agents guarding the wall to stop people from climbing it in the first place.

A more obvious problem with the flat Earth theory involves airplanes. Airplanes should travel into space the moment they fly over the walls and the edge of the Earth. Besides, a flat Earth would make it impossible for airplanes to take off from one point, fly around the world, and return to that point without turning. So what’s happening?

In 2018, Darren Nesbit, a flat-Earther, suggested airplanes return to their start point and don’t fall off the edge of the Earth because they probably teleport or enter a wormhole when they reach the edge. Then they are transported to the opposite end from that edge.

Nesbit explained his theory with what he called the “Pac-Man effect.” Nesbit mentioned that airplanes teleport in the same manner that the ghosts in the classic video game Pac-Man get teleported when they enter one end of the screen and appear at the other.^[10]

Another flat-Earther, Connor Murphy, has a more imaginative opinion. He says the Earth isn’t flat but domed, making it a half-sphere or something of that sort. The Earth has no edge, either. Instead, we are all locked inside the dome, so nobody can fall off the end of the Earth.

Whether it’s a solemn celebration honoring the spirits of the dead or a saccharine, candy-laden costume party, Halloween is a time when we look beyond the everyday and into the weird. Take a deeper look into the holiday, and you’ll find some weird things.

10The Religious Origins Of Costumes

While today’s costumes channel an inner fantasy, they started with a much more solemn purpose. One of the earliest examples we have of people donning costumes comes from Hallow Mass, a ceremonial mass dedicated to prayers for the dead. People appealed to their ancestors for everything from happy marriages to fertility, and costumes were a part of that.

It wasn’t until the Victorian era that the idea of dressing up really went mainstream, and a lot of that started with the Robert Burns poem “Halloween.” Originally, the best costumes were the ones that were creepy, which isn’t entirely surprising. The Victorians were obsessed with the idea of spirituality and the afterlife, so pioneering the ghost costume made a lot of logical sense.

9When Halloween Became Sexy

Halloween is supposed to be scary, so when did we start dressing up as sexy nuns and sexy cops?

Dressing up allows people to push boundaries. There was virtually no such thing until the 1970s, and it all started with a convergence of the flamboyant cultures of the gay community, feminism and female empowerment, and the Halloween parades that capitalized on this newfound freedom. Halloween was the day you could get away with things that were in no way acceptable on any other day, and we’ve never looked back.

8Halloween And Poisoned Candy

We’ve already talked about how poisoned Halloween candy being handed out to unsuspecting kids is nearly a complete myth, but Halloween of 1950 did see countless kids get sick. After that fateful October night, scores of children started experiencing gastrointestinal issues, welts, and rashes. So many got sick that it was brought to the attention of the FDA, who finally traced the problem to Orange Dye No. 1. Even though it had already been approved by the government in 1906, more research found that the orange dye (and six other types of food dye) used products resulting from the processing of coal and contained the toxic chemical benzene. It wasn’t until Halloween that enough children ate enough of the dye and got sick enough that it got the attention of the FDA.

Tests confirmed that it was, in fact, the dye that was causing the illness and that it didn’t even take much of it to kill rats. The dye was banned, and FDA regulations were amended to include colors additives on the list of food ingredients that needed to be disclosed on labels.

7National Youth Honor Day

Today, the “trick” part of trick-or-treating is mostly harmless, but that was not always the case. In Omaha in the 1920s, there was so much vandalism going on that 500 teenage boys received a badge for one night only, in the hopes they would help stop the destruction. In 1938, Boston gave awards to the school districts that had the least damage. In 1948, one Long Island doctor’s home was vandalized to the tune of $100,000 in today’s money, and that was just one incident of Halloween rioting that happened across North America in the 1940s.

The rioting, vandalism, and (in some cases) racially motivated attacks got so bad that in 1950, the Senate Judiciary Committee started looking at getting rid of Halloween altogether in favor of the National Youth Honor Day. Halloween lovers decided that bribing kids with candy was a better way to go, and trick-or-treating became popular.

6Bobbing For Apples

Even if this one is no longer a part most Halloween parties, its pedigree as a Halloween staple is undeniable. The idea went back to the Celtic Samhain, when it was believed that not only did the dead walk the earth on one night, but divination done on that night would be particularly effective. Since apples were always closely tied to fertility and female power, bobbing for apples became a more modernized version of channeling the wisdom of the dead. In some areas, girls would mark apples before bobbing for them, and whichever apple they got was thought to foretell their romantic future.

Apples were also thought to symbolize rebirth and lasting life, flourishing in the fall and reborn again in the spring. An apple peel thrown on the ground by a single girl would show her the first initial of her future husband, it was thought, and magic on Halloween was infinitely more powerful.

5The Original Jack-O-Lanterns

The roots of this tradition go back to ancient Ireland and a story about a man named Jack, who made the mistake of trying to play a trick on the devil himself. Jack was cursed to walk the earth for eternity, and the only thing he had to guide his way by was a hollowed-out turnip with a burning coal inside.

They were terrifying, and people began carving them and putting them around their homes to scare off the evil spirits that walked the land on that one, single night. Unfortunately, the tradition of carving turnips fell by the wayside once Americans discovered that pumpkins were easier to carve.

4The Real Danger On Halloween

If no one truly has to worry about poisoned Halloween candy, what is there to worry about? According to studies done by the US government, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an organization called Safe Kids USA, the answer is simple: car accidents. On Halloween night, there has been an average of 5.5 pedestrians killed by cars every year, compared to a 2.6 average deaths on any other day of the year.

There may be a couple of reasons for this. Not only are people distracted by everything from other groups of trick-or-treaters to Halloween decorations, but movement and vision can easily be restricted by costumes. At the same time, it is easy to trip in a long, flowing robe, and kids are also out in unfamiliar neighborhoods on strange streets, and that can all spell trouble for Halloween monsters.

3The Real Deal With Candy Corn

Candy corn has been around since the 1880s, and it has always been one of those things that most people claim to hate. Those who do love it probably already know about National Candy Corn Day, which is October 30.

The recipe for candy corn has not changed, and it is still made with fondant, corn syrup, marshmallow creme, vanilla, and sugar. In the early days, when each kernel was handmade, the original name was “Chicken Feed,” and it was first designed to tap into rural America’s most familiar images for a treat that was available year around. Its association with autumn is no coincidence, as it was part of a group of candies (that also included candy turnips, chestnuts, and clovers) that symbolized the fall harvest.

According to the National Confectioners Association, candy corn is the favorite Halloween treat of a whopping 12 percent of the population.

2The Witch’s Cauldron

The history and mythology of the cauldron involves much more than stirring whatever potion the witch happens to be brewing.

Before Christianity, the cauldron symbolized the womb of the cosmos. Everything—life, energy, matter, the physical and the spiritual—came from the cauldron and returned there at death. That made the crone figure powerful, in charge of overseeing the perpetual life cycle that kept everything going. According to ancient Irish lore, the cauldron was the domain of the Dagda and was the source for all life—and, specifically, poetry. Not until Christianity came along did the crone need to be discredited, and her cauldron was assigned a less than-honorable role of brewing poisons and potions.

1Halloween Birthdays

Studies have shown that anyone who has a birthday on Halloween has beaten the odds in a weird way. A study done by the Yale School of Public Health (whose data was supported by another, independent study done in Taiwan), found that births have a steep drop-off on Halloween. That wasn’t just induced labors and caesarian sections, either, but natural births as well. When 1.8 million birth records over a 20-year period were studied, it was found that birth rates took an 11.3 percent drop on Halloween.

Science absolutely does not have an explanation for this, but those behind the study think that it might have something to do with the general feeling—and, in turn, subconscious mindset—of people during various holidays. They also found a 5 percent rise in birth rates around Valentine’s Day, making them suspect that Halloween might be dishing out some heavy-handed havoc when it comes to expectant mothers.

Mankind has always made predictions about the future, and quite a few people throughout history have claimed to know what lies ahead. Even during the 20th century, sci-fi writers made some surprisingly accurate predictions about the computerized 21st-century space age.

Then there are the doomsday prophets who, over the centuries, have repeatedly predicted the end of the world. Given the hundreds of end dates provided, we fortunately seem to have a pretty good success rate for surviving apocalypse theories. Some predictions were based upon close analysis of biblical references. Others involved planetary movements and collisions with comets. Many were just plain weird, to the point of even changing the date when the anticipated apocalypse failed to arrive.

Today’s Internet age has provided a means of delivering these theories to a vast audience within a short time frame. With websites dedicated to imaginary planets, fake news sites, and social media shares, these messages of imminent doom can quickly go viral. It’s surprising how many people have actually believed the world was going to end tomorrow. Again.

10 Y2K
2000

As the calendars clicked over to the year 2000, a combination of uncertainty about the dawning of a new era and widespread scaremongering saw millions of people hoarding supplies and bunkering down for the end of the world as we know it.

Some believed that computer coding issues meant that programs would be unable to recognize the year 2000, crashing systems and causing worldwide chaos. Many feared that on the stroke of January 1, 2000, computers would recognize the new date as 1900.

Millions of dollars were spent worldwide preparing for “Y2K” or the “Millennium Bug,” which was supposed to affect everything from banking and retail to emergency services and airplane safety systems. Even the skeptics were hoarding extra groceries, water, and flashlights “just in case” essential services actually did fail.

On the stroke of midnight, the predicted global meltdown failed to eventuate, and the world as we know it continued to go on.^[1]

9 Nibiru Collision
2003

The fictional planet “Nibiru” (also referred to as “Planet X”) first failed to collide with Earth on May 27, 2003. Nibiru is said to be a planet which sits on the outskirts of our solar system. Some followers claim that the planet’s orbit is controlled by a giant UFO.

Nancy Lieder claimed in 1995 that a brain implant enabled her to communicate with aliens in the Zeta Reticuli system. She believed it was her chosen mission to warn the world of the impending end to humanity.^[2]

NASA scientists have repeatedly refuted the existence of the planet, suggesting that at most, it’s a small, inconsequential comet, if it’s anything at all. This has sparked claims of a cover-up from believers in Nibiru.

A number of dates have been proposed for the apocalypse since 2003. When the planet fails to arrive, the date is shifted to a new estimated time of arrival. It would seem that Lieber’s extraterrestrial communications may be a little unreliable.

8 Live On The Internet
2008

Ohio-based pastor Ronald Weinland took to the Internet to warn everyone that the world would end on September 30, 2008. The minister of the “Preparing for the Kingdom of God” church also released a book in 2006, stating that he and his wife had been appointed as witnesses to the end of the world.

Citing biblical references and a complex series of events which would occur in the lead-up to Armageddon in a series of sermons streamed live on the Internet, Weinland urged his followers to prepare for the end in 2008.

Unfortunately, there had been an error in Weinland’s calculations, so the apocalypse didn’t appear as expected. Under his new calculations, it was due on May 7, 2012. After that, it was May 19, 2013. Weinland was found guilty of tax evasion in 2012.^[3]

7 Catastrophic Earthquake
2011

Evangelical broadcaster Harold Camping advised the world that it was due to end on May 21, 2011. His radio ministry invested in an extensive advertising campaign to warn the world of impending doom. Billboards, motor vehicles, and radio advertising spread the word that the end of the world was nigh.

According to Mr. Camping’s revelations, true believers would ascend into Heaven on that date, while the rest of the world would suffer a catastrophic earthquake. A number of followers divested themselves of their worldly goods in preparation, only to be sadly disappointed when the day passed without the forecast doom.

A review of the scripture revealed to Mr. Camping that he had failed to factor in God’s mercy, which would extend the date of impending doom until October that year. Mr. Camping’s previous predictions of a 1994 apocalypse had also failed to come to pass.^[4]

6 Comet Elenin
2011

Throughout history, the appearance of comets has always been seen as a harbinger of doom. So when Russian astronomer Leonard Elenin first spotted Comet Elenin late in 2010, the doomsday theorists hit the Internet. The armchair astronomers predicted everything from earthquakes and tidal waves to a full-on collision with Earth between August and October 2011.

This was despite the fact that the comet was some 647 million kilometers (402 million mi) from Earth when it was first spotted. Mainstream news all but ignored the existence of the comet, as there wasn’t really very much to report, according to the facts provided by space scientists.

NASA astronomers assured the world that the comet posed no threat to life as we know it.^[5] In fact, the object broke into small pieces during its journey through the inner solar system in 2011.

5 A Transformation Of Sixes
2012

Followers of the Miami-based sect “Growing in Grace” proclaimed the end of the world would occur on June 30, 2012. According to their leader, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, on that date, his followers were to be transformed into magical beings that would fly and walk through walls. The cult leader claimed he was a reincarnation of Jesus, a fact which was revealed to him through talking to the prophets.

According to the cult, on June 30, 2012, the Earth’s rotation would accelerate to a speed of 107,289 kilometers per hour (66,666 mph). Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda turned 66 in 2012. All cult members were tattooed with the numbers “666.” These inexplicable coincidences all pointed to the inevitable end of the world as we know it on the predicted date.^[6]

Advertising billboards were erected to proclaim the date on which his followers would be taking over the world. As usual, July 1, 2012, arrived without incident.

4 Maya Doomsday
2012

According to some scholars, the ancient Maya calendar indicated that the end of the world was coming shortly before Christmas 2012. Misinterpretations of the ancient calendar suggested that it ended on December 21, 2012, signaling the end of time.

So popular was the “2012 Phenomenon” that many were pointing to natural disasters and world events at the time as indications that the prophecy was unfolding. Once again, the Internet was flooded with theories of galactic collisions that would mark the end of the world on that date.

Yet again, NASA scientists were quick to debunk the doomsday theories, seeking experts to explain the complexities of the Maya calendar. The Maya perception of time was infinite, and therefore their calendar could not be said to pinpoint a specific date in time or be read in the context of our modern calendars. Nor were there any other indications in Maya culture of a cataclysm on that date or of any potentially Earth-shattering comets or planets currently on NASA’s radar.

NASA was so confident that the Earth was safe that they issued their press release a day early. As was the case with the previous predictions, the world continued to turn on December 22, 2012.^[7]

3 Rasputin’s Apocalypse
2013

Grigori Rasputin was a holy man most famous for his connections with the ill-fated Russian Royal family. Dubbed the “mad monk,” Rasputin’s “mystical powers” were claimed to have cured the Russian prince of the blood disease hemophilia. In letters to the Russian royal family during the revolution, he made a number of accurate “predictions,” such as his death at the hands of government officials and the subsequent murder of the Russian royal family.

These, however, may have been more of an astute understanding of the political turmoil of the time than any mystical revelation. Among the predictions in his final letters was the suggestion that the “second coming” would occur on August 23, 2013, and that the Earth would be consumed by fire—yet another apocalypse that failed to materialize.^[8]

2 Blood Moon Prophecy
2014

In 2014, we once again managed to escape the “Blood Moon Prophecy.” In fact, this was the 62nd time in 2,000 years that we have escaped a lunar-induced apocalypse, specifically the end that’s supposed to come after a series of four lunar eclipses, referred to as a tetrad. Biblical scholars have long cited references from Acts and Revelation where “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood” as a biblical verification that the lunar eclipse signifies the imminent end of the world.

Christian pastor Mark Bilz predicted that a series of eclipses in 2014 would mark the beginning of the apocalypse, while John Hagee, author of Four Blood Moons, also suggested that the string of blood moons would mark the end of the world. Both these predictions attracted wide attention, with some people actually hoarding supplies in preparation for the impending apocalypse. However, like every lunar eclipse before them, nothing happened other than the Moon being temporarily shadowed.^[9]

1 Nibiru (Again)
2015

In 2015, Nibiru was once again threatening life on Earth, with claims that its collision course with our planet would end on September 23 that year. According to conspiracy theorist David Meade, NASA was hiding information on the planet from the general public.

Biblical verses indicated that the apocalypse would definitely arrive shortly. When Nibiru appeared to miss its connecting flight in September 2015, the estimated time of arrival was revised to October 15 that year. Nibiru’s latest no-show was on April 23, 2018.

NASA once again continued to reassure worried stargazers that Nibiru was nothing more than an Internet hoax. Given the number of times the mythical planet has failed to show up this decade, you tend to believe them.

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who provides articles to online publications and through her travel blog.

On average, we spend over two hours per day in the kitchen preparing meals and cleaning up, so it’s no surprise that many are always on the lookout for a gadget to make the job quicker and easier. Clever inventors have developed numerous items that have changed the way we cook. Electric mixers have replaced hand beaters, food processors help us to chop, dice, and slice to perfection, and the microwave oven has revolutionized the way we cook.

Then we have those unusual and sometimes weird inventions. We see them every day on online shopping sites, kitchen shows, and in our chain stores and supermarkets: must-have gadgets that are going to save us time in the kitchen. Some of them truly are ingenious and make our daily cooking easier. Others seemed like a great idea when we originally bought them but lie forgotten at the back of the kitchen drawer. And then there are the gadgets that we can’t believe were ever actually invented.

What’s lurking at the back of your kitchen cupboard?

10 Fat Magnet

Health authorities have been educating us for many years on the need to remove fat from our diets. Many of us have moved toward lower-fat cooking methods and ingredients—like grilling our fish instead of deep-frying it, choosing leaner cuts of meat, and including more fresh fruits and vegetables in our diets.

However, the Fat Magnet has become an attractive alternative for health-conscious cooks. According to the marketing claims, you can still cook your fatty stews, but this handy gadget will successfully remove the harmful fat from your meals.

Simply freeze the handy gadget for a couple of hours. Then skim the metal plate over your soups and stews. It will basically pick the fat up, solidifying it to be easily scraped away, giving you a healthy, lower-fat meal.^[1]

9 Banana Slicer

Throughout history, people seem to have had little trouble picking bananas from the trees, peeling then, and chomping through them with their teeth. This popular fruit has been cultivated and eaten since ancient times, and in more cultured societies, we began slicing bananas to eat them more delicately or to sprinkle them across our morning cereal.

Knives have served well to slice our bananas for centuries, so it’s surprising that anyone even thought to invent a banana slicer. Therefore, it’s little wonder that it has become one of the most mocked kitchen gadgets available today.^[2]

The banana-shaped crescent of plastic has a number of blades which instantly slice through an entire banana at once. It’s perhaps useful for those with arthritis or other disabilities which make holding a knife difficult. For the rest of us, it would probably take longer to fossick in the kitchen drawer to find the gadget than it would to simply grab a knife and cut the banana.

8 Grape Peeler

Grapes have been one of the world’s most popular fruits since Neolithic times. Simply grab a handful off the nearest vine and nibble on them. Of course, it wasn’t long before we discovered how to make this handy fruit into wine.

Egyptologists have found depictions of servants peeling grapes for their wealthy masters. Older grape varieties had thicker skins, which may have been more palatable when peeled and seeded. However, cultivation over the centuries has led to grapes which are so thin-skinned and easy to eat that it’s surprising to find that there are actually people who peel grapes today.

Nevertheless, meet the grape peeler, a handy kitchen utensil with a thin wire loop that enables you to individually peel your grapes.^[3] It’s no doubt a godsend for serious cooks who don’t want grape skins in their recipes. The rest of us could eat a whole bunch of grapes in the time it takes to peel a few.

7 Chork

Do you like the idea of eating your Asian food with chopsticks, but you haven’t quite mastered the skill of successfully getting the food to your mouth? The Chork could be just what you need. This handy invention has a fork on one end and a set of chopsticks on the other.^[4]

The nifty plastic utensil is becoming popular in a number of fast food outlets, providing diners with options, depending upon one’s skill with eating utensils. Non-chopstick users can simply use the fork end to eat their fried rice in a traditional Western manner. Those who want to experience a little authentic Asian culture can use the chopstick side, reverting to the fork to save chasing those pesky portions of food around the bowl.

Experts can snap the two sections apart, transforming the Chork into a set of disposable plastic chopsticks. The utensil might be great fun to use at home, to teach the kids how to use chopsticks with their Chinese takeout.

6 Pizza ReHeater

When ordering pizza, we all end up with those leftover slices in the fridge the next morning. Many of us enjoy a slice of cold pizza for breakfast, while others prefer to reheat the pizza in the microwave or oven. This usually results in either a soggy mess or an overcooked, hard slice of pizza.

This is why the Pizza ReHeater was invented. The triangular tray utilizes a measured amount of water to absorb excess heat, enabling you to properly reheat your pizza in the microwave.^[5]

5 Trongs

Do you enjoy chicken wings, ribs, or other finger foods but can’t stand the sticky mess? Most of us hate the greasy juices on our hands after tucking into a plate of wings. This is precisely why Trongs were invented. The handy silicone finger covers act as a pair of tongs to pick up messy foods, leaving your hands and fingers clean.^[6]

Simply place the claw-like utensils over each finger. Then pick up and chomp away at the messiest food without the risk of your hands being covered in a greasy, oily residue.

4 Karoto

Peeling carrots and other cylindrical vegetables can be somewhat of a chore using a knife or a conventional vegetable peeler, so it’s little wonder that someone has invented an ingenious way to complete the task more quickly. Designed in Israel, the Karoto looks and works exactly like an oversize pencil sharpener. Simply place the vegetables into the hole and twist, just like sharpening a pencil.^[7]

The device is said to enable you to peel the skin from carrots in as few as 30 seconds, without removing skin from your fingers in the process. So very simple yet effective.

3 Electric Spaghetti Fork

Eating spaghetti can be a messy business, unless you’ve mastered the art of putting your fork into the pasta, taking a couple of twirls, and lifting the bundle into your mouth like a true Italian. If you are after a little more precision, you can also use a spoon to help with the procedure.

Or you can try the Hog Wild Twirling Spaghetti Fork. The battery-operated piece of cutlery automatically twirls the spaghetti onto your fork for you to lift into your mouth.^[8]

Some hilarious videos exist online of kids and adults alike attempting to eat with this invention. It certainly has the potential to make a lot more of a mess than the simple, time-honored method of spaghetti-eating. On the other hand, it may make mealtime more fun for kids, if possibly messier to clean up after for Mom.

2 Cookie Dipper

There are two types of people in the world: dunkers and non-dunkers. For many, dipping Oreos into a mug of warm milk or coffee is the ultimate comfort food. Others dislike the soggy mess that ends up floating in their cups.

You would think that dunking is such a simple process that it couldn’t be perfected. Yet you can now buy cookie dunkers, such as the Dipr,^[9] to make your morning coffee even easier.

These cookie dippers range from simple, fork-like contraptions that enable you to pick up your cookie and dunk to magnetic devices that enable you to safely submerge your cookies into your milk. How did we ever manage to dunk our cookies without these?

1 Self-Stirring Coffee Mug

Making the morning coffee is a fairly simple process. Many of us have an automatic tea or coffee maker from which we simply pour our morning brew. Others can’t face the morning without their fresh barista coffee.

For those of us who prefer instant, we spoon in the coffee or jiggle a tea bag, pour on the hot water, and then perhaps add a little sugar and milk for taste. The spoon is no doubt still in the mug to make those couple of stirs to complete the perfect cup of coffee.

However, it seems that this simple process became a little much for some, hence the invention of the self-stirring coffee mug.^[10] The mug holds two small batteries which power a small whisk to stir your beverage when you press the button on the handle.

Isn’t that what the spoon was for?

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor, who provides articles for online publications and her own travel blog.

There are millions of words in the English language—too many to know the definition of every single one. However, it’s fun to learn what specific, tiny things have their own name. Take the word petrichor, which is the smell after it rains. Or aglet, which is the plastic on the end of a shoelace. While these are cool names, wouldn’t it be a little cooler if they sounded a little more… naughty?

Here are 10 small things you didn’t know had names that sound lewd but actually aren’t.

Related: Top 10 Coolest Slang Terms and Phrases from around the World

10 Bunghole

If you’re a fan of Beavis and Butthead, you may have actually heard this word before. But unless you’re really into barrel-making, you probably have no idea what it really means.

A bunghole is a small hole in a liquid-bearing barrel through which the contents can be emptied. They’re usually plugged with a cork of some kind. But the humor of the word dates as far back as 1653, in a translation of Gargantua by Francois Rabelais, which lists “bunghole” as one of many insults.

Since then, the word has evolved toward a more… er… colorful definition. From Beavis and Butthead to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, most people now use “bunghole” as a family-friendly alternative to “butthole.”^[1]

9 Vagitus

Even though it sounds like a yeast infection medication, “vagitus” is a word that means the cry of a newborn child. In ancient Roman religion, Vagitanus was the name of a religious deity who guided childbirth, specifically encouraging the child to speak for the first time.

However, this is different from helping the child say his or her first actual words. This was presided over by the god Fabulinus, an entirely separate entity. “Vagitus,” therefore, is specifically related to the cries and screams of the baby during childbirth.

The word has been in use since ancient times, with historical figures such as Pliny and Saint Augustine using variations of the phrase.^[2]

8 F-Hole

Most acoustic instruments are hollow with wooden resonance chambers to amplify the sound of the strings. In order to let the sound out, there must be openings within the object (think about the hole in the center of a guitar).

In a violin, these are called f-holes. Don’t let your mind wander, though. The “f” doesn’t actually stand for anything; it’s just the shape the hole takes. And this wasn’t just created because it looked nice. It’s actually the result of hundreds of years of experimentation on violins in order to find how to best amplify the sound. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology acoustician Nicholas Matrkis, the longer the sound hole, the more sound can escape. The skinniness of the f-hole takes up less space on the instrument while still producing the same amount of sound as a rounder one.^[3]

7 Interrobang

Humans are amazing. Over the centuries, we’ve figured out how to make life easier with inventions such as the printing press, the Internet, the telephone, and the… interrobang.

No more do you have to type or write out both an exclamation point and a question mark when you want to convey confusion and excitement at the same time. Ever since the invention of the interrobang in 1962, you can save seconds by utilizing this mix between both punctuation marks.

Writer Martin K. Speckter believed advertisements would look better if rhetorical questions such as “How many times has this happened to you!?” would look better if they were punctuated by a single mark rather than two. After drawing up the symbol, Speckter decided to call it the interrobang after the Latin word “interrogatio,” which means “cross-examination,” and “bang,” which was slang for an exclamation mark.

Though it’s not used often, the symbol is basically a question mark with an exclamation point inside it. Sure, you could type out both, but where’s the fun in that‽^[4]

6 Gynecomastia

If you have any interest in etymology, you might be able to figure out what this word means. “Gyne” is an old Greek word that means “feminine,” and “mastia” means “breasts.” Think of gynecologists and mastectomy. Though this seems pretty straightforward, the combination of words, in this case, actually refers to breasts on men.

Today, we often see these as “man boobs,” but they’re actually quite different. Any overweight man might have a larger chest, but gynecomastia is an actual medical condition where a male experiences excessive breast development. This can be caused by many things, such as hormonal imbalances from higher levels of estrogen. In fact, more than half of male babies are born with enlarged breasts, but the swollen breast tissue usually goes away within a few weeks.^[5]

5 Aphthong

“One knight, a king and a queen went to bed. The doors were locked; no one came in, and no one came out. In the morning, the king and queen had been murdered. Who did it?” This riddle doesn’t quite work on paper but say it aloud to a friend, and the aphthong in “knight” will trick them into thinking “knight” actually meant “night.”

An aphthong is basically the term for a letter that appears in a word but isn’t pronounced. “Knight” actually has two of these. The “k” at the beginning and the “gh.” Sure, you could just say “silent letter,” but then you wouldn’t get to flex your knowledge.

See what I did there?^[6]

4 Peen

The less-useful side of the hammer has an even less useful name—the peen. Ball-peen hammers, also known as machinists hammers, are generally used in metalworking. Within this profession, “peening” is the act of “working a metal’s surface to improve its material properties, usually by mechanical means.”

Regardless of whether the hammer you’re referring to is a ball-peen type, the non-flat side of the object is always called the peen, whether it’s a ball, wedge, or cross.^[7]

3 Crapulence

No, this one wasn’t made up by The Simpsons.

Not to be confused with the polite word for a fart, “crapulence” is a word that sounds exactly like what it means: “sickness or indisposition caused by excessive drinking or eating, or gross intemperance, especially in drinking.” Basically, it’s a more fun word for bloating or hangover.

Oddly, the word has quite a rich etymological history. It’s derived from the Latin adjective “crapulosus,” which itself came from the Latin word “crapula,”‘ meaning “intoxication.” Crapula came to be used by the Greeks as a way to refer to that piercing headache you get after a long night of drinking. In the 1700s, “crapula” changed to “crapulence,” which is a more general sickness after alcohol, not just a headache.

Though you may think that this word or the aforementioned Latin root is the basis for calling something “crappy,” you’d be wrong. “Crap” comes much later from a British term meaning “residue from rendered fat.” Even weirder, calling the toilet “crapper” has nothing to do with either root words. Thomas Crapper invented the earliest version of plumbing equipment in the 1800s, leading to the moniker “crapper” for toilets.

That’s a lot of historical crap.^[8]

2 Tittle

Everyone knows the most fun part of learning to write is dotting your “i’s.” Or should I say “tittling” your “i’s?”

That’s right, it’s no ordinary dot. That little mark on the top of the lowercase “i” and “j” is called a tittle. Don’t believe me? Ask the Bible. Matthew 5:18 reads, “For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew probably didn’t literally mean the dot above the letter “i” but used it as a general way of indicating something small or insignificant.

Obviously, not many people use this word in everyday life, but you might be saying something similar without even knowing it. It is thought that the phrase “to a T” was originally “to a tittle,” meaning everything down to the tiniest detail was taken care of.^[9]

1 Throbber

Some call it the spinning pinwheel, some call it the loading circle, and some call it the… throbber.

Well, not many call it the throbber, even though that is the official name of any animated graphical control element that shows a computer is performing an action. They’re frequently shown when downloading content or calculating something. The icon is also often mixed up with a progress bar, though there’s one large difference. Throbbers don’t show you how far your computer is in the loading process.

So, who came up with this brilliant and not-at-all-sexual name? Before Internet Explorer was introduced, there was Netscape. This web browser’s loading icon was a blue “N” expanding and contracting, giving the impression it was throbbing. And that’s the name they went with.

I think I’ll stick with “loading circle.”^[10]

Many people around the world are currently on waiting lists. They are hoping for a new kidney, liver, or even heart in the hopes of extending their life for at least a few more years. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people will never receive a transplant. The number of donors in the world is still relatively tiny compared to the number of people who need donor organs, and this is unlikely to change much any time soon. In these cases, it usually is—or eventually becomes—a life or death situation. This means many people will do whatever it takes to get their loved one the necessary organ to survive, and scientists are working hard to solve the problem once and for all.

10Extra Kidneys

When most organs are transplanted, the old non-functioning ones are usually removed. However, in the case of kidneys, they are often left in the body. This means someone whose kidneys have failed (and has received a donor organ) will have their new kidney plus both of the old ones that no longer work properly. The reason for this is the location of the kidney. It is located in a rather inconvenient spot in your lower back, so the doctors performing the operation just leave them in unless there is a really important reason to remove them (such as the non-functioning kidney being infected).

The new kidney is not placed near the old ones, but is instead placed in a more convenient part of the body near the pelvis called the iliac fossa. This is between the hip bone and the pelvis and located close to the hip, much lower than the kidneys usually are.

However, while an organ transplant patient can end up with two non-functioning kidneys and one working one, some people can start with extra kidneys from birth. While the cases are rare—about one in a million—sometimes people are actually born with multiple developed kidneys. This happens when the kidneys split as they are developing during the early stages of pregnancy. While having extra kidneys is not unheard of, being born with extras that actually function is very rare. Some people with extra functioning kidneys have even claimed their extra organ helped them process more alcohol so they could drink more than their friends.

9A Match Doesn’t Guarantee Acceptance

If you’ve ever seen organ transplantation on a TV show or movie, the plot line usually involves finding the donor that matches just right, and after that the person is fine and it’s all a fairy tale ending. Unfortunately, as with many things, entertainment media tend to take a lot of creative license when it comes to reality.

Finding as close a match as possible is certainly important. Back before we knew that we needed to find close matches, rejection was more common and transplant patients didn’t survive long. But it simply isn’t enough to make your body accept the organ. Your body sees any organ that is not your own as an invader, and your immune system starts attacking your new life-saving organ in a vain attempt to protect itself.

Finding a close match will make fighting rejection much easier, but it’s no guarantee, and even family isn’t a close enough match that you won’t need to suppress your immune system to stay alive. Your luck at finding an exact match is very low unless you have a twin sibling lying around. However, it gets even more complicated.

While matching antigens against possible donors can help doctors figure out what organs will be the best match, sometimes organs that should have been accepted by the body were not and, other times, people who were not proper matches managed to keep their body from rejecting the organ in question. Because of this, doctors believe there could be other antigens or mechanisms involved in rejection that we haven’t yet discovered.

8Diabetes Mellitus

As we mentioned, getting an exact match doesn’t mean your body won’t try to reject the organ. In fact, once you have had an organ transplant, you have to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of the time you have the transplanted organ in you to avoid rejection. The worry is that if the match is not close enough, your body may still choose to ultimately reject the organ even with the immunosuppressants. This can be catastrophic for the person who relies on the new body part. As we mentioned earlier, the reason your body tries to reject the organ is that it sees it as a foreign invader. The better the match the less your body will tend to resist.

In order to keep your body’s immune system from rejecting the organ, transplant patients are put on drugs that suppress their immune system responses. While these drugs do keep the person alive, they also come with considerable risk. Having your immune system suppressed can make a cold, flu, or really much of anything, much more life-threatening. To make matters worse, many of the drugs that are taken for suppression of the immune system actually cause diabetes mellitus in many transplant patients. If the patients could stop taking the drug, theoretically, the diabetes would probably go away, but the vast majority of patients will have to keep taking the immunosuppresants.

7The Red Market

A journalist named Scott Carney has been studying the underground selling of human bones, organs, and other matter—something which he has termed “the red market.” While he can’t get an exact figure due to the fact that the operations are all illegal, he estimates that the trade in human body parts is easily a billion-dollar business. In fact, he believes that with his good health his entire body—if totally dismembered and used in every conceivable way—could be worth as much as a quarter of a million dollars.

There are some misconceptions about how the red market works, though. Some people think of it as foreigners tricking tourists who wake up in a bathtub the next morning feeling like they drank too much and with a fresh surgical scar to mark the removal of their precious organ. However, most of the time it is a voluntary cash transaction.

For example, shortly after a 2004 tsunami that left many Indians displaced, Carney heard of a camp that was known as Kidneyville. Organ traffickers saw the desperation of all the people living in terrible conditions and saw a perfect chance for exploitation. They had no need to take kidneys by force. All they had to do was offer sums of money that would seem small to many people and then sell the organ for a huge profit elsewhere. Before long, people were lining up to sell their kidneys earning the camp its nickname.

6Religious Concerns

Organ transplants have not been around for a terribly long time, so for many religious people, the rules for how to ethically deal with this new medical procedure are not very cut and dried. In the Islamic faith, most spiritual leaders have come out in favor of organ transplantation but it has only done so much good. Many individuals are still wary due to religious laws on how to treat corpses and perform burial rites. This has led to a situation where the overwhelming majority of organ transplants in countries like Iran are taken from living donors so as not to offend religious sensibilities. Christians and Catholics are for the most part okay with the practice, but not all religions agree.

The Jewish faith takes an interesting stance on the issue. While not everything is cut and dried, and it varies from person to person to some extent, one of the major qualms comes from heart transplants. For the heart transplant to work, the organ has to still be beating in the donor when it comes time to perform the operation. Some Jewish people believe that true death does not occur simply with the death of the brain but once the heart has stopped beating as well. For people with this belief, it is hard to accept the process as ethical.

5New Field

Organ transplantation is a field that has been growing very quickly but still seems to be in the early stages of its life. This is because the first successful organ transplant was performed as recently as the early 1950s. The first organ transplant was a kidney, and it was done as a last resort. In the beginning, the patient seemed to be doing well but ended up dying not long after. This continued to be a problem with all of the early organ transplants until the doctors caught on to why the new organs were not working properly.

A surgeon named Peter Medawar had served in the war and taken note of people whose bodies had rejected skin grafts—another form of transplantation—and realized that it was caused by the patient’s immune system. Around the same time, a man needed a new kidney and his identical twin happily donated one of his. While the medical community didn’t have immunosuppressant drugs available at the time, the twin did quite well with such a well-matched organ. This, along with the work of Medawar, quickly made clear why organs were not being accepted—Medawar went on to win a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

4Life Expectancy

In the movies, the person gets their new organ and all is well, but no one mentions that their chances of surviving for very long aren’t statistically all that great. Many people with transplants are lucky to live for a decade or so afterward at best.

Scientists believe it all ties into the problem of organ rejection. Even if the match is almost perfect, your body will still be struggling to accept it for the rest of your life or you wouldn’t need to keep taking the drugs. This means that your body is constantly fighting against the organ and eventually it succeeds. However, with new and improved immunosuppressants and the best of today’s medical technology, transplant patients are living longer than ever.

Doctors have to keep a close eye on transplanted patients so we can get a good idea of how they are doing and track their health. Those who have had kidney transplants tend to be doing fairly well after five years as do those who have had liver transplants. However, when it comes to kidney transplants in particular, those who had a close matching donor and had the organ transplanted from a living individual have better chances of survival.

It’s still difficult for the average heart transplant patient to live for much longer, but the numbers are improving all the time. It’s hard to say for certain how much life expectancy will increase in transplant patients over the years, but the signs are good. Perhaps one day those with transplant patients will live on average about as long as anyone else.

3Waiting List Abuses

A waiting list for a new organ is sometimes a matter of life and death. There are lots of people waiting, and only the sickest are usually going to get organs. For many people, this can make them quite desperate and they will go to any length to get the organ they need for themselves or their loved ones as soon as humanly possible. And, while there are many good doctors and nurses who would never violate ethical principles for any reason, you can always find some bad eggs in any profession.

In Germany, a major scandal broke out in 2013 after it was discovered that many donation centers, and the doctors involved, were flat out lying about how sick patients were to move them further up the list. The investigation quickly uncovered well over 100 cases of what they called “obvious manipulation” and many other more subtle ethical violations.

In some cases, investigators found that blood had been deliberately contaminated with urine in order to falsify medical conditions. Some involved in the matter believe that there is a good chance a lot of money changed hands under the table for all of this to happen. Germany, like the rest of the world, already had an organ donor shortage problem, and unfortunately, the scandal caused a huge drop in organ donors in the country.

2Paired Exchange

When dealing with transplants, doctors often have to go through a crazy sort of juggling game to get the right organs in the right people. This can turn into a complicated magic act when you have someone who wants to donate a kidney to a friend or relative, but they are not much of a match. When this happens, the hospital will try to locate other people who are in the same predicament, and try to find a match between the two pairs of people.

This allows the kidney from one donor to go to the person they don’t know who was a match for their organ and vice versa, ensuring that both parties end up with functioning kidneys. These paired exchanges can involve more than just two pairs of people and can quickly make an already complicated process even more difficult to sort out.

Sometimes, the operations do not take place simultaneously which can cause strife and distrust between the patients involved in the process. However, for the most part, the paired exchange system is a helpful and totally voluntary way to help match appropriate donors and perform as many life-saving transplants as possible. While some people may be eager to take a gander at the person who gifted them with a new organ, paired exchange only allows for meeting after the entire operation has been completed. And, if the other parties do not wish to meet you, they are not in any way obligated to reveal who they are or interact with you in any way whatsoever.

13-D Printing Could Revolutionize Organ Transplantation

The recent emergence of 3-D printers promises to change the way we fabricate materials. With an advanced 3-D printer, people will someday be able to make almost anything at home with the proper raw materials. It should be no surprise that doctors have been looking at this cutting-edge technology and experimenting with how they can use it as a tool to advance the practice of medicine.

Their ultimate hope is that they will be able to use a 3-D printer to create fully functioning human organs. When the day comes that the process is truly refined, immunosuppressant drugs will finally be unnecessary because the patient’s own cells would be used in the making of the organ. This would ensure acceptance, and the ability to fabricate organs would mean we would never have a shortage again.

In recent work done jointly by Sydney University and Harvard University, researchers managed to make their way over a significant barrier. The problem was that they couldn’t figure out how to make blood vessels form properly, which would quickly sink a printed organ’s chances at survival. They used a 3-D printer to create tiny capillaries which then led to the formation of blood vessels they were hoping for. Dr. Luiz Bertassoni, the man in charge of the project, cautions people not to jump to the conclusion that we can already start printing fully functioning 3-D organs. While he hopes that we will achieve the technology sooner, he believes it will still be a couple of decades before we advance that far.