The ancient Greeks are renowned today for their advanced thinking. We’ve all heard of Aristotle and Socrates, and the writings of the Greeks have influenced modern thought in almost every way possible—from how we write fiction to how we understand the world around us. They were hundreds of years ahead of their time in mathematics and politics.

But perhaps their greatest achievements were in the area of mechanics. From the first computers to the first clock tower, the ancient Greeks built some truly amazing machines, some of which wouldn’t exist again for another 1,000 years. Some were practical, while others were simply for fun or to aid in scientific demonstrations.

Let’s take a look at ten of the greatest examples of ancient Greek mechanical engineering.

10 The Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism is an analog computer that was discovered in an ancient Greek shipwreck in 1901. Assembled sometime between 205 BC and 60 BC, it was designed to measure the movements of the heavens. It had a clock-like face with seven hands that tracked the movements of the planets and the Moon and also had mechanisms for tracking the phase of the Moon, the calendar, and the lunar and solar eclipses.^[1]

It turned our understanding of Greek engineering upside down when it was first properly identified in 2006, with its extremely precise and interlocking gear systems. It demonstrated that the ancient Greeks were capable of a level of precision engineering that was previously thought impossible. And it might not even be the oldest version of this machine—Cicero, the Roman writer, described Archimedes building a similar device in the third century BC.

Unfortunately, only fragments of the device were recovered, so key features of it—such as how the device drove the planetary pointers, which no doubt must have been very complex, considering how the planets’ paths through the sky vary—are still not understood.

9 The Diolkos

The ancient Greek city of Corinth was a center of maritime trade in the ancient world, and it saw hundreds of vessels in its port at any one time. It was also close to the narrowest bit of land in the Greek peninsula, which would have saved ships days of travel if they could take a shortcut through it.^[2]

Hence the construction of the Diolkos sometime around the fifth century BC, a special kind of portage road that allowed ships to be hauled overland, avoiding the long trip around the Peloponnese. In the past, it used to be thought of as a way of transporting cargo ships quickly from the Aegean sea to the Ionian and vice versa, but it is now widely believed that cargo ships would have been too large to use the Diolkos, which would explain the construction of the Corinthian Canal in AD 67.

Nonetheless, it probably played an important role as a cheap method of moving small ships and military vessels between the seas in a hurry and was probably used by wealthy Greeks with their own personal boats as a fast form of transport.

8 Philo’s Gimbal

The gimbal serves many purposes today—not least in the world of television, where its role in stabilizing handheld cameras keeps filming nice and smooth—but the very first gimbal was invented by Philo of Byzantium sometime around 200 BC, when he used it to make an inkwell that would never spill.^[3]

The ink was mounted in a container at the center of the device, surrounded by concentric circles that always held it upright, even when turned. The frame around the outside featured numerous holes to dip the pen into—so the writer could turn the inkwell over, or accidentally knock it, and still continue writing without spilling any ink.

In later eras, the gimbal became absolutely crucial for navigation, holding a compass steady on a rocking ship so that the compass point always accurately pointed north.

7 The Kleroterion

The ancient Greek version of democracy may look primitive to our modern eyes, but they used a very innovative device to ensure that juries were always made up of people who couldn’t be bribed or otherwise influenced: a randomization machine.^[4]

A kleroterion was a kind of slot machine with some funnels, a crank, a hole, and 500 small slits. When a jury was assembled for a trial, each juror brought with them a form of ID—a thin piece of bronze or wood with their identifier on it, called a pinakion. These were all inserted into the slits. An officer tipped a handful of balls into the funnels at the top of the device—some black, some white. He then pulled the crank, causing one ball to come out. If the ball was black, the row of pinakia were removed, and those jurors wouldn’t serve that day. If the ball was white, those jurors were eligible for duty. The official pulled the crank for each row of pinakia until they’d all been accepted or rejected. There was no way to predict which ball would come out for which row, thereby ensuring that no one could have guessed before the trial who would be on the jury, preventing them from influencing their decisions.

6 The Aeolipile

The aeolipile was, as far as we know, the world’s first steam engine—invented in the first century AD, roughly a millennium and a half before they became a common means of generating electricity.

It was invented by Heron of Alexandria. However, it certainly wasn’t intended to be an engine, and Heron never saw it as such. Rather, he used it as a simple device to demonstrate some of the principles of pneumatics, no doubt to aid in lessons or to attract the attention of curious visitors.

The engine itself was a hollow sphere mounted on two tubes it could rotate around. The tubes provided steam from a hot cauldron below the machine. As the steam filled the sphere, it escaped through another tube (sometimes two) that jutted out of the sphere. These tubes were angled sideways, so the force of the steam coming out caused the sphere to rotate.^[5]

5 The Crane (And Archimedes’s Claw)

The Greeks invented the crane around the year 500 BC, a simple wooden hoist-and-pulley system that made erecting tall, sturdy buildings much more practical. (The technology was later improved by the Romans, who spread it across most of Europe.) However, the Greeks could easily build advanced cranes of their own, as is proven by Archimedes’s Claw.

Archimedes’s Claw (depicted rather fancifully in the painting above) was a machine built in Syracuse by Archimedes sometime before the Roman siege of the city in 214 BC.^[6] According to ancient accounts, the claw was a kind of crane that could either push or lift ships out of the sea, toppling them and causing them to sink. It was mounted close to the city’s sea walls, preventing Roman ships from coming close to the city.

According to Plutarch, the claw terrified the besieging Romans, who began to feel like they were fighting against the gods, and many soldiers were frightened by the sight of any wooden frame above the city walls in case it was another one of Archimedes’s contraptions. They gave up any hope of taking the city by sea, resigning themselves to a long land-based siege.

4 The Tower Of The Winds

Built in roughly 50 BC, the Tower of the Winds in Athens is widely considered to be the world’s first meteorological station as well as the world’s first clock tower.^[7] In ancient times, it was topped by a weather vane that indicated the direction of the wind. The tower has eight walls, each facing one of the compass points, and features a massive sundial which could be used to track the time of day. It had a water clock inside, which kept track of time overnight or on cloudy days.

Its considerable height and its dominant position on the Roman Agora in the city both seem to suggest it was intended to function in much the same way as a clock tower would today, and the ancient Greeks themselves knew it as the Horologion: “Timepiece.”

The building still stands today and is remarkably intact, mostly due to restoration work. It has inspired many architects over the course of history, and smaller replicas are scattered across Europe.

3 The Showers Of Pergamum

The ancient Greeks are famous today for their love of athletics, seen most prominently in the Olympics and their modern-day revival. What they are less known for, however, are the facilities ancient athletes sometimes enjoyed.

A system of showers was excavated at a gymnasium (built in the early second century BC) in Pergamum, which was one of the greatest ancient Greek cities.^[8] Now located in modern-day Turkey, it also hosted the greatest library outside of Alexandria, and its rulers consciously invested in the public works of their city to increase its prestige.

As such, it is unlikely that these shower systems were common across the Greek world, but they certainly existed. The Pergamum showers had seven bathing units, into which water flowed through an overhead mains system onto the bathers.

A shower system is also depicted on a vase from the fourth century BC, so by the time Pergamum’s showers were built, the ancient Greeks had been using showers for over a century. The image on the vase even depicts separate cubicles and rails for users to hang their belongings on.

2 Archimedes’s Screw

Archimedes is commonly considered to be the inventor of the Archimedes screw, a machine used even today for transporting water to a higher level with relatively little energy.^[9] The ancient Greek version was powered by treading, where human workers or slaves would use their weight to power the machine—the crank-operated version was invented in medieval Germany.

It is argued that Archimedes’s screw wasn’t the first such device to exist in the ancient world. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, built circa 600 BC, were said to have been watered by screws. However, the earliest source who says this is Strabo, writing almost 600 years later—and long after the invention of Archimedes’s screw, so he may have been using his knowledge of the technology around him to theorize how the Hanging Gardens might have worked. The site of the Gardens is still a mystery even today, so there is no way of knowing for sure.

Even so, the machine didn’t become commonly used until Archimedes’s lifetime, when it started to be employed by the Greeks and, later, the Romans for irrigation or for draining ships.

1 Heron’s Fountain

Another device designed by Heron of Alexandria to demonstrate physics, Heron’s fountain used the principles of hydraulics and pneumatics to create a fountain that spurts water without power.^[10] It is used even today in physics classrooms to aid teaching.

Heron’s fountain is made of three components: an open bowl, an airtight water-filled container, and an airtight air-filled container, each stacked above the other. A pipe leads from the bottom of the bowl to the air container, another leads from the air container into the water container, and another leaves the water container and is positioned above the bowl. When water is poured into the bowl, it falls down the pipe into the air container. Pressure in the air container then pushes air into the water container, which pushes water up the pipe and back into the bowl, where it creates more pressure in the air container.

While not physically practical, like Heron’s other devices it shows the incredible grasp the ancient Greeks had on physics over 1,000 years before the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. The device is not technically a perpetual motion machine, though it can run for a very long time if constructed to the right specifications. Resetting it is as simple as draining the water from the air container back into the water container.

We look at skyscrapers and dams and see them as pinnacles of human engineering, content in the fact we can build whatever we want. However, we often fail to remember the technological marvels of ancient history—buildings or temples which seemed impossible to construct by primitive cultures. Here are ten hopefully lesser-known examples of amazing ancient construction.

10 Pueblo Bonito
United States

Located in Northwestern New Mexico, Pueblo Bonito is the largest and most well-known example of a great house (village) built by the ancestral Pueblo people. The village’s construction began in the early part of the 10th century AD and continued for nearly 180 years, reaching a peak of around 800 separate rooms, with some buildings having as many as five stories.

It was first discovered in 1849 by US Army Lieutenant James H. Simpson and his guide, Carravahal. Since then, Pueblo Bonito has become one of the most excavated and explored ruins in the Southwestern United States. A number of the rooms were damaged when part of the cliff wall behind the village collapsed. (The name of the rock which fell translated as “Threatening Rock,” showing that the builders were well aware of the danger.) Just behind Pueblo Bonito lies a set of petroglyphs, mysteriously showing six-toed feet, made sometime in the late 10th century or early 11th century.

9 Catalhoyuk
Turkey

Found in the southern half of Turkey, Catalhoyuk is estimated to have existed from around 7500 to 5700 BC. It was built by an unknown Neolithic culture that is believed to have been highly advanced. Excavations have been going on there since the site was first discovered in the late 1950s by British archaeologist James Mellaart.

A number of interesting items have been uncovered, including (allegedly) the earliest known map and some of the most exceptional daggers ever seen from that period. The houses of Catalhoyuk have an intriguing quirk: They have no doors and were entered from the roof, by ladder. Also, the dead seemed to be buried underneath the floors of the houses, particularly by the hearths. However, based on the discovery of some disarticulated bones, the bodies may have been left outdoors for a while before they were buried indoors.

8 Locmariaquer
France

Located in France’s Brittany region is a group of the largest prehistoric European megaliths in existence. Originally constructed around 4500 BC, the biggest stone at Locmariaquer was nearly 21 meters (70 ft) in length and between 200 and 280 tons in weight. (We don’t know for sure because the megalith, known as “the Fairy Stone,” was broken long ago, possibly by an earthquake but more likely by human hands.)

Astonishingly, the Fairy Stone was moved in one piece from a quarry over 10 kilometers (6 mi) away. It’s not known exactly how it was transported, but it could have been floated down a nearby channel or simply taken by land utilizing a “wooden cradle,” basically rolling logs on wooden tracks. The purpose of the site is unknown, although there is a dolmen (a type of tomb) located there. Other researchers have put forth theories involving lunar activity.

7 Colossi Of Memnon
Egypt

Built as a monument to Pharoah Amenhotep III and placed outside his now destroyed temple, the Colossi of Memnon are a pair of statues, standing nearly 23 meters (75 ft) high. The statues are of Amenhotep III, and reliefs of his wife, daughter, and mother can also be found in the rock. The statues are named after Memnon, a hero of the Trojan War, because he was the grandson of Eos, the goddess of the dawn, which is relevant to a unique attribute that one of the statues used to feature:

After the statues were damaged in an earthquake, the northern one was said to make a bell-like tone in the morning, possibly due to rising temperatures. The tone was believed to indicate that one was favored by the gods. Today, the sound can no longer be heard because the Roman emperor Septimius Severus accidentally stopped the noise when he was having the statues repaired in AD 199.

6 Pompey’s Pillar
Egypt

Erected as a monument to the Roman emperor Diocletian after he suppressed an Alexandrinian revolt, Pompey’s Pillar was erroneously believed to have been commissioned by the Roman leader Pompey. However, an inscription on the base clearly states it was made to honor Diocletian and given to him by the people of Alexandria. A myth involving Pompey’s death and his head being placed in a funerary jar on top of the pillar may have led to the confusion, another thing you can blame on those pesky Crusaders.

Standing over 27 meters (89 ft) high, it was originally built during the fourth century AD. Pompey’s Pillar was actually part of the Temple of Serapis, a Roman temple to an Egyptian god, but the temple is just ruins now, destroyed by the constant rise and wall of the nearby waters.

5 Dolmen Of Menga
Spain

Dating from around 2000 BC, the Dolmen of Menga is a large burial ground known as a tumulus and is located in the southern tip of Spain. A number of chambers were created by placing a large number of extremely heavy stones next to each other. The walls, the roof (which is made up of four individual pieces), and the pillars are made of the same rocks. As far as the name is concerned, legend says that a leper named Menga took refuge inside the dolmen after her husband died.

Archaeologists believe the dolmen to be the largest such structure in Europe and have found several hundred distinct skeletons inside it, possibly all belonging to the ruling groups of the culture. However, the identity of the builders remains a mystery to this day. This site, along with two sister ones, was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list on July 15, 2016.

4 Quirigua
Guatemala

Built and completed by the Maya sometime between AD 200 and 800, Quirigua contains exemplary examples of Mayan architecture as well as one of the largest stelae (carved stone monuments) in existence. Stela E weighs in at an astonishing 65 tons. Stelae were commonly built to commemorate the passage of time or otherwise important events.

Frederick Catherwood, an English architect, was the first European to see Quirigua, and a number of excavations have taken place since then. Aldous Huxley once visited the ruins and wrote of the stelae that they commemorated “man’s triumph over time and matter and the triumph of time and matter over man.” Quiriga went into decline around AD 900, probably due to the loss of the jade trade.

3 Dur Sharrukin
Iraq

Translated as “Sargon’s Fortress” or “Fort Sargon,” Dur Sharrukin was built by the Assyrians sometime between 717 and 707 BC and stands in the northern part of Iraq. The city was nearly 2.6 square kilometers (1 mi²) in area and contained a temple to Nabu (a vegetation god) as well as a royal palace. However, the most interesting artifact recovered from the ruins is the Assyrian Bull, a work of stone estimated to weigh nearly 40 tons. It is the largest example of a bull, winged or otherwise, in human history.

Dur Sharrukin was first excavated by French consul Paul-Emile Botta in 1843. Subsequent expeditions have uncovered a number of new discoveries. The city itself was deserted shortly after construction was completed because King Sargon II was killed in battle.

2 Hagar Qim
Malta

Located in Malta, Hagar Qim is believed to have been built by an unknown culture between 3200 and 2500 BC. This culture said to have been wiped out as a result of famine or natural disaster and has left few identifying details.

Said to be one of the earliest examples of religious beliefs, the temple at Hagar Qim contains a number of fertility goddess statues known as Venuses, some of which are now on display in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valetta. Hagar Qim was built hundreds of years earlier than Stonehenge.

1 Tiwanaku
Bolivia

The prehistoric capital of the Tiwanaku people, the city of Tiwanaku is located on the shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. Originally a small village, the city later flourished between AD 400 and 900, becoming home to a number of the largest stone structures in South America. The city was deserted around AD 1000, most likely due to floods. The Inca eventually conquered the Tiwanaku civilization, although their mythology eventually included the city, as it was believed to be the origin point of mankind.

Over a million people could have lived inside Tiwanaku. It was left abandoned until 1876, when US archaeologist Ephraim George Squier rediscovered it. In 2000, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How often have you visited a historical site and been stunned that someone would be so selfish as to carve their names into it? This type of vandalism might seem to be the product of modern narcissism. But in reality, the human urge to leave their mark goes back millennia.

10Pompeian Prostitutes

Many depictions of Ancient Rome show it as a glittering citadel of white marble. In fact, the Romans were as earthy and real as any living people. The proof of this can be seen engraved in the walls of Pompeii. The ancient city was destroyed by a volcanic eruption that ironically preserved it far better than any other Roman site.

Pompeii boasted an impressive number of brothels to cater to all tastes. These houses can be recognized from the stone beds packed into tiny rooms and erotic frescos showing guests what was on the menu. When customers staggered out into the street, or even while they were engaged in their cubicles, they liked to leave notes about the joys of their visit. “Hic ego puellas multas futui,” one man wrote—“Here I have f—ked many girls.” Anothers left a review: “Murtis bene felas”—“‘Myrtis, you suck well.” “Rufa ita vale quare bene felas.”—“Rufa, may life be as good as your sucking.” Not all customers were as pleased with their service: “Sabina felas no belle fasces.”—“Sabina you are sucking it, but not well.”

One man seems to have become disillusioned with the whole profession, as this graffito on a brothel shows: “Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!”

9Medieval Church Graffiti

The medieval church was powerful in a way that today’s churches can only dream of. We might imagine that this would lead to them being inviolable, but even a cursory glance at medieval churches will show how untrue this is. Any surface in reach is likely to be marked in some way—in either pious devotion or distracted doodling.

Some of the graffiti looks as if it was inspired by the sermons the vandals were listening to. Crosses, angels, and the Virgin Mary all appear etched into the walls and pillars of churches. Perhaps this was a form of worship for those unable to speak the Latin of the mass or too illiterate to write out their faith. Other forms of graffiti speak of graffiti as prayer. Medieval ships are a common motif. It has been suggested that these may have been made as a form of prayer of protection for those on the sea.

Portraits of individuals also turn up. Kings and queens often feature, as do saints, but images of common men and women can tell us lots about the clothes and appearance of people who would otherwise be forgotten.

8Vikings—Hagia Sophia

Sometimes, graffiti can be deeply revealing about the world of those who made it, and sometimes, it is more revealing of human nature itself. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is one of the grandest religious structures in the world. It was begun in 532 and has been a church, a mosque, and museum over the course of the centuries. It has also been a writing pad for Vikings.

On a marble banister is a string of runes left at some point in the ninth century. While the years have worn it away, the name Halfdan can still be made out. One reading of the rest of the inscription could be that it simply says “Halfdan was here.” In a different part of the building, another runic graffito has been found, badly eroded. All that can really be read is the name Arni or Ari—another Viking with a fondness for leaving his own name in stone.

It seems likely that these men served in the Varangian Guard, an elite corps of troops used by the Byzantine emperors. This body was made up mostly of Scandinavians, who apparently brought their runic writings with them.

7Tower Of London

When people are locked up for long periods, graffiti can be a tempting way to pass the time. Just check out the desks in detention room. The Tower of London is a castle that has long been used by English monarchs as both a place of safety for themselves and a place to keep troublemakers out of the way. These noble prisoners often took their chance to leave a reminder of their existence in case they never walked out of the prison.

Some of the graffiti is simply a name. A “remember me.” Others are whole sentences such as a Latin inscription left by Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel in 1587, which says, “The more affliction we endure for Christ in this world, the more glory we shall get with Christ in the world to come.” Noble crests and insignia also abound on the walls. Other prisoners seem to have undermined their defenses with their graffiti. One man who was imprisoned on a charge of sorcery took the time to scratch a detailed horoscope in his cell.

6Alexamenos Graffito

In 1857, an excavation on the Palatine Hill in Rome turned up a piece of graffito in the plaster of a wall. We’ve already seen that the Romans were not shy with the things they were willing to write on a wall, but it seems they were not afraid of blasphemy either. The Alexamenos Graffito, dating from around AD 200, may be the earliest depiction of Jesus—and it is not flattering.

The Alexamenos Graffito shows a figure hanging from a cross with a man at the base looking up. Text, in Greek, says “Alexamenos worships his god.” What stops this being a standard image of the crucifixion is that the person on the cross has the head of a donkey. This shows some of the aggression toward the relatively new Christian religion that must have existed at the time. Tertullian, an early Christian author, refers to the idea that “our god is the head of an ass.”

The graffito is also an important source on the act of crucifixion as it was made at a time when people would have seen criminals nailed up by the roadside.

5Chinese Drought Graffiti

Not all graffiti is personal. In the Dayu Cave in the Quinling Mountains of China, there are the records of droughts suffered hundreds of years ago. When the rains failed to arrive, the local people would enter the caves to offer prayers for the end of the drought. The walls of the cave bear over 70 records of prayers offered, marked in black paint. One patch of graffiti reads “On June 8, 46th year of the emperor Kangxi period, Qing Dynasty (July 7, 1707AD), the governor of Ningqiang district came to the cave to pray for rain.” Another text tells of how a fortune teller joined in the ceremony.

The precise dating of the graffiti has offered scientists a window into the climatic past of the region. By studying the minerals and chemicals in formations like stalactites in the cave they were able to calculate atmospheric conditions on the surface above the cave. They found that when locals were recording a drought, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels were relatively high.

4Hieroglyphic Graffiti

There are many mysteries surrounding the building of the pyramids in Egypt. There is still no consensus as to the exact method used to haul the blocks. We have learned that the men employed in the hauling were not slaves but hired workers. Graffiti is giving an extra insight into these men’s lives.

Exploration of the Great Pyramid of Giza has turned up hieroglyphic graffiti in places that no one was ever meant to see. The men building the pyramid wanted to be a permanent part of one of the Ancient Wonders of the World. In doing so, they left told us how they were organized. Then people doing the heavy lifting on the pyramid were broken into small gangs of individuals. They received, or gave themselves, names like “Perfection gang,” “Great One,” “Green One,” and “Endurance.” One in the King’s burial chamber reads “The Friends of Khufu Gang,” Khufu being the pharaoh that the pyramid was raised to house for all eternity.

From the placing of the gang signs on opposing sides of blocks, it seems that gangs were competing with each other for prominence. Naming the gangs of workers could have been a way of the overseers to create competition and improve efficiency.

3Witch Marks

There is a special type of graffiti meant to ward off danger. This type of protective magic symbol is called Apotropaic Magic. When you fear something is coming after you, you make a special sign in your home and it keeps them away. For the medieval mind there were few things as fearsome as the witch.

Witches were scary in several ways. They were unruly women, and they had the powers of the devil at their disposal. Such symbols were commonly found in churches. Here, witch marks often took the form of daisy wheels—simple geometric designs drawn with a pair of compasses that look like flowers.

Witch marks were also found in private houses. In the 17th century, King James I was convinced that witches were out to get him. At Knole House, where the king might have been expected to visit, signs were carved into the woodwork to ward off evil. V and M signs were made to invoke the Virgin Mary, and crisscross patterns were made as demon mazes—shapes meant to make evil beings get lost before they could harm visitors.

2Mayan Graffiti

The Mayan Society of Mesoamerica lasted for millennia until the Spanish conquistadors brought about its collapse. Its cities and temples are amazing works of architecture. It was one of the great world civilizations. Its writings are an incredible source of information about this lost world. But the archaeological are also great sources of graffiti that give windows into the lives of people in this lost world.

At Tikal, drawings carved into the stone show portraits, dancing figures, animals, thrones, gods, and priests. One graffito seems to show an execution: a figure stands with his arms stretched between two poles while another has just shot him with an arrow, or run him through with a spear. There are also valuable images of a procession. Men carry trumpets with ribbons streaming from them, while others follow behind. All of these details would be lost if people had not decided to deface their local monuments.

1Piraeus Lion

Piraeus was the port of Ancient Athens. From the first or second century, it was guarded by a statue of a lion. The Piraeus Lion became so famous that the port was known as Porto Leone—the Lion Port. This statue, originally sculpted in the fourth century BC, remained in place until the 17th century when the Venetians plundered it and took it home to Venice. All that history would seem to be sufficient, but one puzzle persisted—what was the strange writing on the sides of the Lion?

In the 18th century, a Swedish diplomat recognized the marks for what they were: Viking runes. The Varangian Guard had struck again. These Scandinavians had written a lengthy inscription in the shape of a dragon into the Lion’s side. The runes are hard to read, but one translation of them reads as follows:

“They cut him down in the midst of his forces. But in the harbor the men cut runes by the sea in memory of Horsi, a good warrior. The Swedes set this on the lion. He went his way with good counsel, gold he won in his travels. The warriors cut runes, hewed them in an ornamental scroll. Askell (and others) and Thorlaeifr had them well cut, they who lived in Roslagen. (Unreadable) son of (Unreadable) cut these runes. Ulfr and (Unreadable) colored them in memory of Horsi. He won gold in his travels.”

Though it may seem cowardly to some, the best military course of action is often to withdraw to fight another day. However, not all retreats are successful. But when they are, they can be nearly as beneficial as winning the battle outright. Here are ten examples of incredible military retreats.

10 Napoleon’s Retreat From Moscow
Russian Campaign

Determined to convince Tsar Alexander I to stop sending the United Kingdom raw materials which enabled them to continue the war effort against France, Napoleon decided to invade Russia, a decision which haunted him for the rest of his life. After he and his Grande Armee finally arrived in Moscow on September 14, 1812, Napoleon was disheartened to see that the Russian military, as well as the civilian population, had fled the city.

Although Napoleon expected to find supplies to aid his increasingly demoralized army, he found nothing. After only a month of waiting for a surrender that never came, Napoleon decided to retreat,^[1] leaving the city and hoping to escape the harsh Russian winter which was on its way.

However, hunger proved to be as much of an enemy as the Cossacks, who constantly tormented the Grande Armee as it slowly marched westward. In addition, wolves trailed Napoleon’s men wherever they went, picking off stragglers as far as the Rhine. (Some say this is why the forests of Central Europe are home to the number of wolves that they have to this day.) In all, of the more than 500,000 soldiers who went into Russia, fewer than 100,000 ever made it out.

9 The Allied Evacuation Of Gallipoli
World War I

Though he later disavowed the debacle that ensued, the future British prime minister Winston Churchill was one of the architects behind the World War I operation known as the Gallipoli Campaign. Originally designed to be a largely sea-based invasion, bad weather and subsequent losses due to mines prompted the war planners to decide that a land-based invasion would work better. However, the Allied forces sustained heavy losses, barely making it more than a few miles inland.

Eventually, after being bogged down just as they were on the Western Front, evacuation orders were drawn up. More or less the only thing that went right for the Allied troops during the campaign, most of those still alive were evacuated to safety.

Just before the last of the Australians left, Padre Walter Dexter walked through the cemeteries, scattering silver wattle seed and saying: “If we have to leave here, I intend that a bit of Australia shall be here.”^[2]

One of the reasons they were able to escape relatively unscathed was the work of an Australian named William Scurry. He rigged up a self-firing rifle contraption which convinced the Turkish fighters that they were still being shot at by soldiers after everyone had already begun to leave.

8 Highway Of Death
Gulf War I

After years of economic struggles (which were due to Kuwait and its policies in his mind), Saddam Hussein began the invasion of his neighbor on August 2, 1990. Uniformly condemned by nearly every other nation, the hostilities were quickly (in international terms) met with ultimatums, including the United States’ proclamation that Iraq had to withdraw its forces by January 15, 1991.

Iraq refused. Shortly afterward, Operation Desert Storm began. Thoughts of retreat began to enter the minds of many Iraqi soldiers as they were overwhelmed by coalition forces.

The main highway out of Kuwait City was their most likely escape route, which coalition forces quickly realized as well. On the morning of February 26, 1991, more than 1,500 Iraqi vehicles began their trek out of Kuwait.

Unfortunately for the Iraqis, they were “basically just sitting ducks” in the words of Commander Frank Sweigart. A cavalcade of bombs tore through the ranks, with subsequent fires engulfing many of the vehicles. (Those fires resulted in one of the more infamous photographs^[3] of the war.)

Though the retreat may seem to have been unsuccessful, as many as 80,000 troops are estimated to have successfully withdrawn according to the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

7 George Washington’s Escape From New York
American Revolutionary War

In 1776, the Battle of Long Island, the first large-scale battle which occurred after the United States declared its independence, saw George Washington face off against William Howe. Washington had surmised that the capture of New York would be one of Britain’s goals, and his 19,000 soldiers were moved to Lower Manhattan. Stationed on nearby Staten Island, Howe planned to use his warships to block the river while his soldiers marched on the Americans over land.

Howe’s plan met with instant success,^[4] partially due to his overwhelming numbers advantage. (He had around 32,000 men.) However, he paused after the first few days of fighting, intending to prepare for a final push.

Washington took advantage of this delay—as well as a fortuitous storm that drove British warships from the area—and he ordered a retreat of his men. In the end, 10,000 Americans took part in the fighting, with 8,000 of them escaping. This enabled Washington to snatch a stalemate from the jaws of defeat. Legend has it that a fog descended on the retreating Americans, with Washington said to be the last to leave.

6 Russian Retreats Against Napoleon
Russian Campaign

By 1812, Napoleon had earned a reputation as an incredible general, one whose lightning speed (for the age) confounded his opponents. Many of his adversaries were used to smaller-scale, more methodical forms of fighting.

After Tsar Alexander I decided to ignore the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit and begin trading with England, Napoleon decided enough was enough, with all-out war his only option. So he and his Grande Armee marched on Russia.

However, Russia’s leaders were no fools. They knew that the best plan was one used by Wellington: systematic retreats^[5] which would draw the French into a slow, drawn-out campaign and nullify one of their biggest advantages.

Napoleon’s fighting forces often lived off the land to supplement their supply trains. So the Russians instituted a scorched-earth policy, denying their enemies anything of use. (It also did irreparable harm to Russian citizens who were living in the area.)

However, Russia’s strategy proved invaluable in war. It slowly drained Napoleon of almost all his fighting men before he stumbled into Moscow.

5 The Great Retreat
World War I

In 1914, the Battle of Mons was the first taste of the new age of warfare for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which came to the aid of the French Fifth Army as the Germans attempted to outflank them in World War I. Badly outnumbered by nearly two to one, the BEF nevertheless persisted.

They were intent on inflicting as much damage on the Germans while keeping them from overrunning the BEF’s position. On the morning of August 23, 1914, the BEF got the chance to test their mettle as enemy artillery began to pound their line.

British rifle fire was so quick and accurate that the advancing Germans were certain they were facing lines of machine guns. While the “Old Contemptibles” managed to hold their own, the French Fifth Army did not fare so well, leading their commander to order a retreat^[6] early on August 24.

The British had no choice but to retreat as well. They began what has come to be known as the Great Retreat, a two-week march to the Marne River. Eventually, through a number of rearguard actions, the Allies reached the river. They turned around, halting the German advance and forcing a brief retreat of their forces in the Battle of the Marne. This bought time for an even more unlikely “victory” for the British later.

4 Mao Tse–Tung’s Long March
Chinese Civil War

The Red Army of the Communist Party of China was on its last leg, hounded into extinction by the Kuomintang Army, a rival force fighting for control of the country. On October 16, 1934, the leaders of the Red Army decided that a retreat was the only option. The 86,000 troops were surrounded in the Jiangxi province and, through subterfuge, managed to break out to the west to begin their escape. Their goal was the northwestern province of Shaanxi, a place which would allow them to heal in isolation.

Unfortunately for them, it didn’t take long for their enemy to notice the retreat had begun. Aerial bombardment and ground fighting whittled down the Red Army to half its original size. By January 1935, Mao Tse–tung had managed to garner enough support to take control of the army.

Though his ascent helped with the problem of lagging morale, it didn’t do much to change the army’s fortunes. People just kept dying. By the time they reached Shaanxi in October 1935, only 8,000 troops remained.^[7]

Though the retreat can’t be seen as a military success, the 6,400-kilometer (4,000 mi) journey did become a legend among the youth of China. This inspired many of them to join the Communists over the next decade.

3 Battle Of Chosin Reservoir
Korean War

In late November 1950, the Chinese Ninth Army began an overwhelming surprise attack on United Nations troops stationed at the Chosin Reservoir in eastern North Korea. In all, 150,000 Chinese troops were directed by Mao Tse-tung to encircle and annihilate the 30,000 men they faced. Initially successful in their attacks, the Chinese failed to complete the encirclement, allowing the United Nations forces to escape to the south in what proved to be an arduous journey for all involved.

Narrow mountain roads slowed the Americans and their allies, with the 1st Marine Division of the United States performing some of the most storied actions in the history of the Marine Corps.^[8] For over two weeks, the retreat continued, with both sides inflicting casualty after casualty upon one another.

By the time the United Nations troops reached the safety of South Korea, nearly 18,000 of their men were dead, wounded, or missing. However, it was very much a Pyrrhic victory for the Chinese, who lost twice those numbers. The astonishing number of deaths, especially among their elite troops, forced the Chinese to delay any more attacks, perhaps saving South Korea from being captured.

The most famous quote from this battle was uttered by General Oliver P. Smith, who said: “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.”

2 Battle Of Dunkirk
World War II

In May 1940, the German blitzkrieg was tearing through Continental Europe like a plague. Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg. All these countries had been conquered or would be soon by the might of the Nazis.

France was soon to follow, and it’s there that this story picks up. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had joined forces with the French army, determined to keep the Germans out of the country. However, the speed and devastating skill of their foes soon proved to be too much as the Nazis quickly stormed through the French countryside.

The Germans were seemingly on the verge of taking the city of Dunkirk, the last port which could be used to evacuate the more than 300,000 Allied troops stationed there. In a stroke of luck for the Allies, Hitler ordered his men to halt on May 24.^[9] Hermann Goering, the leader of the Luftwaffe, had assured Hitler that the aircraft under Goering’s command could finish the job.

Though the delay only amounted to a few days, the Allies were able to fortify their defenses enough to allow nearly everyone to escape. In fact, many of the boats which helped secure passage back to Britain were privately owned: fishing boats, yachts, and lifeboats.

1 The March Of The Ten Thousand
Battle Of Cunaxa

Immortalized by the ancient Greek historian Xenophon in his work Anabasis, the March of the Ten Thousand is the story of a group of Greek mercenaries who went to war in Persia. They were hired by Cyrus the Younger, who planned to go to war with his brother Artaxerxes II and seize the throne. However, Cyrus was slain in battle, stranding the Greeks in enemy territory with no one to guide them out.

More than 2,700 kilometers (1,700 mi) from the sea, the Greeks were asked to surrender, a death sentence to be sure, and they refused. The Greeks were harried by the Persians for the entire journey to the Black Sea, but local tribes and the elements proved to be deadly foes as well.

After suffering through a snowstorm which thinned their numbers, the Greeks arrived at a town named Gymnias. They didn’t wait there long because a local guide assured them that they were only five days from the sea.

Five days later, Xenophon began hearing cries from the men at the front of the line. Fearing an attack, he rushed to the front, only to realize what the men were screaming: “The Sea, The Sea.”^[10] Though some of them died on the journey, most managed to arrive safely in Greece.

Did you ever get an action figure that, at first glance, seemed like He-Man but was actually called ‘Man-man’, rode a dragon instead of Battle Cat, had a fully cross-guarded sword like William Wallace and his banana hammock was a particularly toxic lime green hue instead of the majestic brown fur loincloth your beloved hero sported so wonderfully? Kids have a very well calibrated inbuilt bullcrap-detector, but what about us over-10s? Why do so many parents buy knock off toys in lieu of the real deal? Laziness? It could be that branded toys are too expensive. Well, if money is the barrier, why not rely on other means to entertain their kids? Nobody wants a ‘Man-man’. Maybe these lovers of ‘not-quite-the-real-deal’ stuff are the target audience for the entries in this list. One or two entries, however, are undeniably awesome; intended as parodies or just inadvertently entertaining. So let’s take a short hop into the rabbit hole of this fringe genre. Caution: There is no rope ladder.

10 Fake Artworks And Artifacts Exhibited In Museums

10 The Turkish Superman

‘Süpermen Dönüyor’ is a Turkish movie released in 1979 which takes the ‘Man of Steel’ and reframes him through a very different lens. The story is very close to the original Christopher Reeve film, just set in Turkey rather than the States. They even use some of the score lifted from the US version. And the James Bond theme.

This entry isn’t a simple appeal to get some ‘silly foreigner’ laughs—place yourself in 1970s Turkey; stuck in the middle between a crumbling, dangerous Soviet Russia and the untrusting, cynical West, all whilst trying to resist the emergent Islamism being fostered in the Middle East and Central Asia. Would you put to death the man who steals a loaf of bread for his starving family? Oh, and the director’s name? Kunt Tulgar. This film, much like the era, is a veritable ‘Tayfun’ of disbelief… that’s the main character’s name, by the way.^[1]

9 Batman, Spiderman and Godzilla… in a Video Game About a Ninja

And don’t forget a Terminator and a Rambo rip-off to boot! God, I loved this totally crazy, beautifully designed and utterly impossible to complete Sega Megadrive game. Along with iconic titles like ‘Altered Beast’, ‘Toejam & Earl’ and ‘Streets of Rage’, ‘Revenge of Shinobi’ gave Sega the ability to chug along as a cool alternative to Nintendo’s domination of the video gaming world in the late 80s and 90s. Despite the clear merits of having great graphics, innovative level design and a killer soundtrack, it was the bizarre choice of Batman, Godzilla, Spiderman, the Terminator and Rambo as antagonists that really cements this game’s place in the player’s memory.

The ultimate brain strain comes about when, after a solid couple of hours navigating the ingeniously tough levels, you face-off against a clear Rambo rip-off whose name is (seriously, this is no joke) ‘Rocky’. Game director Noriyoshi Ohba apparently admitted that the presence of such clearly stolen characters were testament to his “lack of creativity”. Well Mr. Ohba, anyone who designs an antagonist who morphs from Spider-Man into Batman is not lacking in creativity…sanity, maybe.^[2]

8 James Batman

This movie is a crossover special that takes place within the central character himself, a concept that is far more compelling after a healthy dose of DMT… which is, incidentally the only way one could enjoy this movie based on its own merits. A Filipino version of James Bond, named James Hika, teams up with Batman and Robin to take down an evil communist organisation that threatens nuclear Armageddon unless all nations accept them as their overlords. So far, so 60s. Is it weird that the same actor plays both James Hika and Batman? Yup. Is it weird that this feels like a slightly longer, slightly more Asian episode of Adam West’s version of Batman? You bet. Is it weird that the most humorous moment in the film is when James gets bitten on the butt by a giant centipede? Uh-huh. Is this just weird? Pass the DMT.^[3]

7 A lot of Games made by Gameloft

Many of the entries in this list are lo-fi, cheap, clearly cynical attempts at cashing in on the name recognition and relative success of larger properties or, arguably, works of homage and parody. What happens when the clearly derivative property is actually really good? Zelda games are great. The Gameloft rip-off of Zelda is good. You can see the issue here.

Gameloft, a company founded by former Ubisoft bigwig Michel Guillemont, has a host of games, all pretty high quality, that bare more than a slight resemblance to pre-existing properties. From Halo to Call of Duty, you can find a damned good version made by these Gallic gamesmiths. They have a pretty decent following too; lots of detractors but just as many supporters. This seems to be a case of Icarus flying just close enough to the sun to get his wings singed, but not quite melted. Careful now Gameloft, heed the warnings…bet they’ll release a text-based adventure game starring Icarus now I’ve said that.^[4]

6 Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws—The ‘Jaws’ film that’s not a ‘Jaws’ film

Who thought the shark in ‘Jaws’ was kind? Can a shark be kind, or cruel? The fifth (or first unofficial) incarnation of the iconic ‘Jaws’ shark can, it seems.

The plot is basically the same as the first Jaws movie: shark threatens small coastal town, local guys and a scientist go to kill it, they save the town from economic ruin with a few lost limbs along the way. It’s so close to the original Jaws films that it uses footage from the originals, (plus footage from two other Italian Jaws clones, ripping off the rip-offs, how meta). The film was released straight to DVD with a planned Blu-ray release, packaged as a double feature with the masterfully named 1983 Spanish/Italian sci-fi crapfest ‘Exterminators of the Year 3000′, but was scrapped due to Cruel Jaws’ use of copyrighted footage. That’s the real cruelty here. Sad Jaws.^[5]

10 People Stranger Than The Fictional Characters They Inspired

5 Snakes on a…

Train? Is that right? Wait, let me IMDB it. Damn it, tricked again! There’s something weird about the notion of a movie that rips off another movie that itself feels like a joke. It leaves a sour taste, leaves me feeling grubby. Moreover, Snakes on a Plane is funny, over the top and schlocky in that ‘so bad it’s good’ way that makes it an idiosyncratic, totally bizarre, self-deprecating work of genius. You’d think that these qualities would be what the stealy-stealersons over at production company ‘The Asylum’ would aim to copy.

Nope. ‘Snakes on a Train’ is just a bad, low-budget creature feature. Samuel L Jackson must be spinning in his Beverly Hills mansion.^[6]

4 Smelling a CG Rat

Many of us, on the more nationally fragmented side of the Atlantic, can remember the really low-grade, blocky, poorly rendered animated cartoons for kids, seemingly all made in France, that were sold to TV firms across the continent and broadcast to a generation of bemused children who just wanted to watch Scooby-Do. ‘Ratatoing’ is Brazil’s version of this trend. ‘Ratatoing’, which sounds a little like a verb to describe rat torture, is an animated series that follows on the coat tails of Pixar’s smash hit ‘Ratatouille’. The central character is a French rat that lives in Rio de Janeiro who just so happens to be an amazing chef. The uncanny animation is enough to haunt your dreams for years to come. The premise, which was enough to sustain the film, is stretched out for a whole series in this train-wreck. What’s worse is that the studio responsible for this crime against children’s entertainment seem to only pump out Pixar rip-offs. ‘Cars’, ‘Up’ and ‘Wall-E’ all get a degenerative makeover from Video Brinquedo, making ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s’ Child Catcher seem like a rank amateur in the domain of ruining kids’ lives. Now who’s up for watching some masked men engage in a quick ratatoing session? Just me, then? Ok, but it beats watching an episode of this awful series.^[7]

3 The Italian Spiderman

“Salvami, l’Uomo Ragno” cried Maria Gianetta as she fled from the evil Folletto Verde. Remember that famous scene? Neither do I, and you won’t find that scene anywhere. Nor do I remember Spider-Man having a pump-action shotgun. That, you will find. You lucky devils.

This entry is an intentional parody, an Australian-made homage to 60s and 70s Italian action films like ‘The Three Fantastic Supermen’, which itself was a part of the brief spate of movies that glorified older, fringe cinematic sub-genres (Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ and Jason Eisner’s ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ are two prominent examples). Being the only entry in this list that is intentionally funny, there’s no point in picking at inconsistencies or highlighting the infringements and liberties taken. This entry has been lodged for one reason; this is how big this sub-culture/fringe interest is. Check out the film on YouTube and the great comedy series, ‘Danger 5’, made by the same guys.^[8]

2 The Amazing Bulk

More often than not, makers of copycat movies and other intellectual properties tend to rely on one sneaky renaming technique. Like ‘Superguy’ instead of Superman, ‘Catman’ instead of Batman. But, a veritable double tap of ‘rip-offitude’ in the title is rare. A synonym and a rhyming cognate? These guys are good. These guys, with their amazing re-titling, hit a double, loading the bases and may just win the ‘Cashing in on Name Recognition World Series’. Plus, the eponymous character is purple. They won.

With liberal (nearly total) use of stock footage and video files purchased from the internet, this movie feels more like a film by famed schlock, low-budget impresario Roger Corman than any film actually directed by Corman himself. This is the type of film that, depending on one’s mood and blood-alcohol level, you’ll either laugh yourself into a herniated heap or throw the nearest hard object (the remote control, a work boot, a loved one) square through the TV screen.^[9]

1 A Whole Ton of Books that Ripped-off ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Of course there was going to be a whole slew of unsanctioned parodies, rip-offs and questionable fanfics relating to this record-smashing franchise, it was bound to happen. The Fifty Shades series of books and films are the Harry Potter of the erotic fiction world. But you know you’ve made it, I mean, really made it, when the evangelical, biblical literalist Christians get a hold of your stuff and make it their own. Congratulations EL James, you won fiction!

Be it ‘Fifty Shades of Grace’ (there’s about 10 of these, all by different people), ‘Fifty Shades of Pray’ or ‘Fifty Shades of Christ’, the evangelical crew really love to take on this title and just run wild.

There is nothing wrong with fan fiction, genre-bending parodies and the like. Hey, more power to motivated Christian authors who want to capitalize on a franchise’s success; it can be done well. But don’t be too judgy (I’m sure it mentions something like that in the Bible), people like the original Fifty Shades franchise. Mock it, that’s great. Make something with a fun parody of the name but make your book unrelated to the original, that’s fine. But, much as we get po-faced, snarky reviews from publications like The Atlantic, illogically pitting the clearly ‘guilty pleasure’ book against Booker prize nominated tomes for comparison, we also get Christian parodies that decry the ‘sin’ of the original characters and turn them into born-again bores (with worse prose than the original books, which is a feat). Do you not believe in ‘live and let live’, or do you just have a guilty conscience?^[10]

Top 10 Unofficial Sequels And Copycats Of Famous Movies

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

Humanity has long been drawn to the great unknown, the untamed wilderness of unexplored lands. Often, that call is answered by a small group intent on setting up a colony and starting a new life.

However, intermarriage and a suspicion of outsiders often lead to a lack of genetic diversity, resulting in what are known as founder effects. Here are 10 examples of these unexpected occurrences.

10 Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome

Though this particular syndrome isn’t exclusive to the Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania, it is unusually prevalent among them. For the general population, it only occurs in 1 in 60,000 to 200,000 births. For the Amish, it is many times more common than that.

The reason: Around 200 German immigrants formed the initial settlement in the 18th century. Also, they tended to marry within their own community, failing to see the pitfalls concerning genetic diversity.

Ellis-van Creveld syndrome was first described in 1940. It has two distinct abnormalities which are a result of mutated genes. First, dwarfism is the main characteristic of those afflicted, with their forearms being particularly short.^[1] Second, extra fingers (aka polydactyly) is often cited, and it is usually found in both hands. There are other less common maladies, including abnormal hair, nail, and tooth development.

It’s also unusually prevalent among the indigenous population of Western Australia.

9 Sickle Cell Disease

For most of humanity’s existence, sickle cell disease usually meant an early death, most likely as a young child. (It still does in underdeveloped nations.) In fact, the average life span for a sufferer in the US in 1973 was only 14 years. Now it’s 40–60 years in the US.

The cause of this disorder: genetic changes meant to protect against malaria. As a result, those who suffer from sickle cell disease overwhelmingly come from tropical areas or places where malaria is common.

Basically, sufferers have abnormally shaped hemoglobin within their red blood cells. These abnormalities can cause painful blockages (aka pain crises) which prevent oxygen from reaching various parts of the body.^[2]

Young children are normally pain-free in between these attacks, but older children and adults often have chronic, lifelong pain. Anemia is also quite common as the sickle cells only last 10 to 20 days, whereas healthy red blood cells last 90 to 120 days.

Effective treatments are available, which improve both the quality and length of one’s life. There is a cure as well, but it is unavailable in most cases.

8 Meleda Disease

A relatively unassuming island among the Adriatic islands of Croatia, Mljet is home to one of the rarest diseases in the world. (Although no one knows the exact prevalence, it has been estimated at 1 in 100,000.)

Formally known as Meleda, the island was used by the Republic of Ragusa from 1358 to 1808 as a quarantine for those suffering from ailments such as leprosy or plague. Sometime in the intervening centuries, inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity ended up spreading mal de Meleda throughout the population.

A genetic disorder, Meleda disease presents with thick skin on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, often in early infancy. The condition, known as palmoplantar keratoderma, is also found on the backs of the hands and feet as well as the wrists and ankles. (Some sufferers also have thickened skin on other joints on their bodies.)

First identified in 1898, it was thought to only exist on Mljet. Since then, examples have been presented in a number of different countries.^[3]

7 Fumarase Deficiency

Although Mormons are stereotypically said to practice polygamy, the truth is that it largely died out in the 19th century. However, there are small sects where the practice was maintained and those in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) continue it.

Due to polygamy as well as the cousin marriages which come from isolating yourself among those who share your fundamentalist beliefs, the children of the community are much more likely to suffer from something known as fumarase deficiency.^[4]

Fumarase is an enzyme which aids in the process of providing energy to all cells. As our brains account for nearly 20 percent of our energy usage, it is the brain which suffers the most from a deficiency, leading to mental and physical retardation.

This disorder is unbelievably rare, especially as both parents need to have the recessive gene responsible for it. Fumarase deficiency has only been identified in a handful of cases worldwide. However, nearly half of those have come from the FLDS. (The story circulated throughout the religious sect: The water was to blame for the affliction.)

6 Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s disease (aka Huntington’s chorea) is a genetic disorder which results in slowly progressing brain cell death. The condition most often presents around age 40, with death usually occurring 15–20 years after diagnosis. In those of European descent, the prevalence ranges from 4 to 15 in 100,000 births. However, there are two distinct populations in which the disorder occurs much more often.

The first group is the Afrikaner population of South Africa. Nearly the entire population can be traced back to one shipload of predominantly Dutch immigrants. Thanks in no small part to the racism which permeated the colonists, interfamily marriages were common. That close-minded attitude led to the increased chances of the disorder occurring.

The second group is the residents of the Lake Maracaibo region of Venezuela. Sometime in the 18th or 19th century, a woman who carried the allele responsible for Huntington’s moved to the area and had 10 children.^[5] Many of the current residents are descended from her. (The prevalence is as high as 700 in 100,000 births there.)

5 Retinitis Pigmentosa

A group of genetic disorders which affect the cells in the retina, retinitis pigmentosa often results in difficulty seeing at night as well as other forms of partial blindness. Eventually, most sufferers lose nearly all their sight, often presenting as a severe form of tunnel vision.

Retinitis pigmentosa affects as many as 1 in 4,000 people. However, one small subset of people has a much higher rate of occurrence: Ashkenazi Jews.

Formed as a result of the Jewish diaspora out of their ancestral homeland, the Ashkenazi Jews coalesced as a unique community toward the end of the 10th century. While there are multiple mutations responsible for retinitis pigmentosa, mutations in two particular genes are overwhelmingly responsible in this particular population.^[6] When compared to the general population, these mutations are about 12 times more likely to occur in Ashkenazi Jews.

4 Maple Syrup Urine Disease

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is characterized by an odor that smells remarkably like maple syrup in the urine and earwax of its sufferers. The disorder results from the deficiency of certain enzymes which inhibits the breakdown of various amino acids in the bodies of those afflicted.

If left untreated, MSUD can be fatal. Rare in the general population—only 1 in 185,000—this genetic disorder is unbelievably common within the Old Order Mennonites.^[7]

Having immigrated to Pennsylvania in the early 18th century, the Old Order Mennonites suffer from increased incidences of a number of genetic disorders. MSUD is said to occur in 1 of every 358 births (over 500 times more likely than the general population.)

Like many religious sects, especially those which are fundamentalist, the Old Order Mennonites have married one too many cousins, resulting in a significant decrease in their population’s genetic diversity.

3 Deafness

Today, Martha’s Vineyard is best known as the playground of the rich, a summer home for the most affluent Americans. However, in the 19th century, it was best known for the sky-high levels of deafness occurring in its population.

In fact, the residents were known for their own form of communication: Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language.^[8] Thanks to the genetics of a man named Jonathan Lambert and intermarriage between the inhabitants of the islands, 1 in 25 people in the small town of Chilmark were deaf. (For comparison, deafness occurred in 1 in 5,700 people at this time across the entire US.)

A small village in the Jammu and Kashmir state of northern India is also home to a remarkably high prevalence of deafness. Much like their Massachusetts counterparts, those living in what is known as “The Village of Silence” can trace their affliction to intermarriage and the genetics of one man. In this case, a man named Mir Ali who established the settlement in 1901 is to blame. (His brothers also had the same genetic problem.)

2 Tay-Sachs Disease

Tay-Sachs disease has a number of different forms, although the most common strikes during infancy. A progressively destructive disorder, it attacks neurons within the brain and spinal cord. Unfortunately, those afflicted often only live into early childhood. There is no treatment or cure for the disorder.

Extremely rare in the general population, Tay-Sachs is estimated to affect 1 in 320,000 newborns. However, there are a number of groups who suffer from likelier occurrences.

The Ashkenazi Jews are one of them, with the disorder affecting as many as 1 in 27 people in this community in the United States. Other high-frequency groups are less likely to have Tay-Sachs than the Ashkenazi Jews. These include the Old Order Amish, certain French Canadian communities, and the Cajun community of Louisiana.

The disorder hasn’t faded from these communities because both copies of the gene need mutations for the person to suffer from Tay-Sachs. Many of the people in these groups probably have one copy and get to live normal, healthy lives.^[9]

1 Twin Births

Somebody call Alex Jones: There’s a Nazi conspiracy afoot. For years, a remote Brazilian town was held up as an example of research conducted by the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele. The reasoning: Candido Godoi has a twin rate nearly 1,000 percent higher than the rest of the world.

However, more recent research has led people to point to a genetic founder effect as the real reason.^[10] The small town of around 6,000 was formed by a small number of families, specifically German immigrants.

Moreover, during the years that Mengele was allegedly in the town, there was no increased occurrence of twinning. However, in support of the founder effect hypothesis, women who had given birth to twins were likely to have inbreeding present in their families.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) COVID-19, “…spreads mainly among people who are in close contact (within about 6 feet) for a prolonged period.”

Top 10 Striking Images That Show Covid-19’s Impact On The World

By now, this is old news. Most of us are fully aware of the dangers of getting too close to others while the coronavirus is out there. The few times we are out and about, during any given week, most of us dutifully practice “social distancing”.

Unfortunately, some people are not down with the whole 6 feet apart rule. Sadly, some hate it so much that the mere polite attempt to enforce it sends them into a fit of rage.

The following are 10 crazy examples of social distancing gone wrong.

10 Crazed Couple Assaults Hassidic Jews

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries have come up with very novel and technologically advanced ways to enforce social distancing guidelines. In Singapore, for example, they have hired a robot dog (developed by Boston Dynamics) named Spot to patrol park areas and, using a polite but firm female voice, to tell citizens, “Let’s keep Singapore healthy. For your own safety, and for those around you, please stand at least one meter apart. Thank you.”^[1]

What do you do if you don’t have a robot dog available in your area to remind people to practice social distancing? Well, you definitely don’t do what a couple in Brooklyn, New York did back in early May.

Deputizing themselves as Social Distancing Officers, Paul and Clelia Pinho (AKA Kevin and Karen) then immediately went all out bonkers.

While driving in Brooklyn one Sunday night, Paul and Clelia spotted a large group of Hassidic Jews gathered together outside. The couple immediately stopped their vehicle, jumped out and rushed towards them. They hurled Anti-Semetic insults at them, saying, “You’re the reason why we’re getting sick.”

Paul called the cops and then, not content to wait for the authorities to sort this all out, tried to rip off the masks of three of the Hassidic men. That triggered a fight. The couple was then subdued by a volunteer watch group named Shomrim patrol. They held the attacking couple until the police arrived.

The couple was taken to hospital where Paul received treatment for an injury to his arm. His wife was treated for minor injuries.

Mayor Bill De Blasio was disgusted by the incident saying, “We don’t accept bias in New York City. We don’t accept hate in any form.”^[2][3]

9 Kissing Bandit Calls Cops On Bar

While the reasons behind some citizen attempts to police social distancing at least have a bit of logic going for them, the same cannot be said for a Florida woman named Audra Adams.

The Monkey Bar and Grille in Indialantic was the scene of this very curious, self-defeating case of social distancing gone wrong.

Upset that the bar was not practicing coronavirus social distancing guidelines, Adams called the police not one time, not two times, but five times. The weird part of it all was that Adams, herself, was repeatedly trying to kiss other bar patrons.

The bar’s owner told police that Adams’ repeated attempts to lay a smooch on every stranger within reach was, no surprise here, not going down well. After a few complaints, he asked her to leave.

Adams eventually did exit the bar, but refused to leave the parking lot, saying, “I’ll sit in the parking lot all night.”

Police ended up arresting her for disorderly conduct, resisting an officer without violence and for misusing the 911 system.^[4]

8 Supermarket Showdown

Supermarket shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic has seen many changes including: the increase of cleaning and sanitation measures; the reduction of store hours; the closing of bulk counters, soup bars, olive bars and self-serve hot tables; markings on the floor to prompt shoppers to stay 6 feet apart from one another and reserving the first hour of every day exclusively to senior citizens.^[5]

Clearly, a low stress, once a week trip to stock up on food and other essentials has now, due to the pandemic, turned into something far more tricky and far more stressful.

One poor soul found out the hard way just how much things have changed. He had just finished shopping and was heading home when he stopped and put his bags on the ground. Three men approached him. He asked them to adhere to social distancing rules. They, instead, flipped out.

One of the three, an 18 year-old man from Milton, went ballistic. A fight broke out and the 18 year-old attacker fled the scene.

Thankfully, he was found and arrested about a month later.^[6]

7 Triggered Man Pulls Out Gun

Who knew that forming a line could be so fraught with tension these days?

Waiting in line is just a fact of life. Everybody, at one time or another, has to do it and even on a good day it isn’t exactly a blast. But, wait we do.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, waiting in line has introduced another wrinkle—social distancing. For one man, that was one wrinkle too much.

While waiting in a line outside Citizens Bank in Boston, in early May of this year, Ricardio Pantojas, 40, was, apparently, too close to another customer waiting in that same line. The other customer asked Ricardio to back away and adhere to social distancing guidelines. Ricardio had other ideas.

“When asked to move away, the male suspect refusing to practice social distancing and adhere to the line restrictions, brandished a firearm and pointed it in the direction of the victims,” police said. “Before police arrived, the male suspect and a female accomplice jumped into a motor vehicle and fled the scene.”

Police later tracked down the couple. When they searched their car, they found a Bersa .380 semi-automatic.

The police hit Ricardio with a number of charges, including: carrying a loaded firearm on a public way.^[7][8]

6 Jogging Ain’t What It Used To Be

COVID-19 has changed our lives in a lot of ways. One of the more obvious changes has required us to stay at home much more often than we are used to. Naturally, spending most of our time inside four walls can give us a bit of cabin fever. So, trips outside, however brief, can provide a bit of relief.

For one Cambridge, Massachusetts jogger, his bit of relief turned into a bit of a nightmare.

According to the jogger, as he approached a man walking with his two young children, he told the three that he was going to jog onto the street to give them the necessary social distancing space. Then, at some point during the jogger’s explanation, the man pulled out a knife and told him to, “get the ‘expletive’ on the other side of the street.”

Later, Police did find a man that fit the jogger’s description. That man denied pulling a knife on him. The officers searched the man but did not find the weapon. Later on, however, police did find a 4 inch blade in a yard bag a short walk from where they spoke to the man.

Regardless, the jogger decided not to press charges.^[9]

Top 10 Historic Ways To Beat Plagues

5 Doctor Diagnosed With Short Temper

Among the groups of people who have emerged as heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical workers are likely the most deserving of that distinction. Though under threat of being infected themselves, by the very patients they treat, their vital work has inspired a tremendous outpouring of gratitude from the public as well as countless news items documenting their bravery.^[10]

One doctor who will definitely not receive any glowing write ups anytime soon is Dr. John Rademaker, 57, of Prospect, Kentucky. And it was all captured on video.

In the first few seconds, we see a verbal confrontation between two groups of people—an older man and a woman and several younger women. One of the young women can be heard saying, “Yeah, we’re leaving…please, let’s not cuss at each other.” Then, a few seconds later, the same young woman says, “No, I’m not calling you anything, sir, just don’t talk to us with -”

That’s when she’s cut off by Dr. Rademaker, who points a finger at a girl off screen and says, “This ‘bleep’ girl right here.” He then approaches the young women as the camera follows. Just as one of the young women says, “Do not touch -”, he does—shoving a few of them.

From there, all hell breaks loose as Dr. Rademaker approaches another young woman who is lying on the ground. Suddenly, he drops down and, according to reports, he then, “grabbed her neck.”

Panicked, the young women began screaming and yelling. Incredibly, within seconds, a simple social distancing squabble had turned into a violent attack.

In the aftermath, Dr. Rademaker was charged with first-degree strangulation and three counts of harassment with physical contact. The organization of which he was a part, The Southern Indiana Anesthesia Consultants, placed him on leave. Then, he voluntarily resigned his position.

According to three witnesses, the nine young women had come to the spot to watch the sunset.^[11]

4 Grocery Store Assault

Waiting in line at your local grocery store during the COVID-19 pandemic has become an adjustment for everyone and an ongoing exercise in trusting your fellow shopper. Everyone has to cooperate or else, the spread of COVID-19 can take place.

At one grocery store in Sydney, Australia, a woman in her late 50s was standing in line at the checkout when a man behind her got a little too close for her liking. She turned around and asked him to take a step back. The man, caught on video surveillance, didn’t take kindly to the woman’s suggestion. When she was busy paying for her groceries, he hit her in the back of the head with a bottle. The man then fled the store.

The woman was treated and taken to hospital as a precaution.

Soon afterwards, the police spotted the man in a nearby park. When they approached him, the man pulled out a meat cleaver. The police tasered and arrested him.^[12]

3 Mask Request Leads To Killing

Social distancing can be enhanced with the wearing of a mask. The Mayo Clinic advises people to wear a cloth mask because, “…cloth masks can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus by people who have COVID-19 but don’t realize it.”^[13]

Sadly, not only do some people refuse to wear a mask when out in public, but a few take such an extreme position that violence soon follows.

That is what happened at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan earlier this year. A security guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, was just doing his job when he asked a customer to put on a mask to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Instead of complying, the woman left the store. Her mother, Sharmel Teague and Munerlyn then got into a shouting match. That’s when Munerlyn asked her to leave the store, too. She did.

At the time, under an executive order from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, all retail employees and customers had to wear a mask.

Twenty minutes later, two men came into the store—one was Sharmel’s husband. He started yelling at Munerlyn for disrespecting his wife. The other man then pulled out a gun and shot and killed Munerlyn right then and there.

Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, Larry Edward Teague, 44 and Sharmel Teague, 45, were charged with first-degree premeditated murder.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton summed up the sad situation, saying, “From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor’s Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers.”

Munerlyn’s distraught cousin, Tina James, added, “This is senseless. Over a mask. Over a mask? This is not the way to do things right now. We need to come together.”

A devastating loss for the community, they all came together and held a candlelight vigil in Munerlyn’s honor.^[14][15]

2 Man Records And Celebrates Partiers Defying Stay At Home Order

On March 22, 2020, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced a “stay-at-home order.”^[16] In Section 3 of the order, it explicitly says, “Any gathering of ten people is prohibited unless exempted by this Order.”

Not even a month later, a group of young people decided to have a party. On hand to record the festivities was 25 year-old Rashaan Davis. He not only recorded the party, he uploaded it to YouTube.

During the video, Davis can be heard saying, “”This is how we do it in my city, man. We don’t give a (expletive) about this coronavirus.” Party goers were standing on cars and dancing to the music.

In Police documents, Davis is accused of violating the stay-at-home order as well as encouraging others to violate the order.^[17]

1 Park Ranger Pushed Into Lake

Austin Parks Foundation, in Austin, Texas, took COVID-19 very seriously by releasing guidelines for citizens using their parks. Though urging people to stay at home, to those who used the parks to get some much needed fresh air, the APF recommended that they not touch playscapes, swings, tables & benches, fitness equipment, athletic equipment or water fountains.^[18]

They should have added park rangers to the list.

In a video of the incident, a park ranger can be seen, standing on the edge of a lake, calmly explaining the social distancing guidelines to a group of young people. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a guy pushes him into the water. The pusher, himself, also fell in. He quickly got out and ran away.

The video ends as the Park Ranger gets back up, exits the water and heads in the direction of the guy who pushed him in.

Later, police arrested 25 year-old Brandon Hicks with attempted assault on a public service worker and damaging city property.

Kimberly McNeeley, an Austin parks & recreation department director, issued a statement on the incident, saying, “Our rangers continue to engage residents on the proper use of park facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask that the public treat Rangers with the same respect they wish to be shown to themselves. Public support is essential for Austin to meet the challenges of this pandemic.”^[19]

Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

About The Author: Domenico De Luca has been writing for thirty years—screenplays, short stories and songs making up the vast majority of his output. He is a film buff with his very own blog called so many films, so little time. He is also a music addict and devoted lifelong fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

You might think cancel culture is a relatively new invention. Social media, particularly Twitter, seems to be obsessed with trying to get conservative people banished from their fields of work. These social media pile-ons often have no effect. Some celebrities have successfully manipulated cancel culture for personal gain and used their online notoriety as a way to play the victim.

But cancel culture existed long before the internet was born and “progressives” took the helm. For years, people have used spurn and blacklists to attack those who dare to rock the boat of public opinion. Throughout history, people have been “canceled” because of their gender, the color of their skin, or because they disagreed with the powers that be. Often they faced much worse than an online hate mob or being dropped from Netflix. They were thrown out of their homes, firebombed, even burned at the stake. From historical rewritings to Hollywood blacklists, the trend of cancel culture has a rich and varied past. Here are ten notable examples.

Top 10 Things Cancel Culture Has (surprisingly) Not Canceled Yet

10 Ostracism in Ancient Athens

Some of the earliest known examples of people being canceled date back over two thousand years. In the 5th century B.C., the Ancient Greeks used to practice ostracism, where wrongdoers were sent into exile by popular vote. Cleisthenes – the “father of Athenian democracy” – is widely regarded to have created the punishment.

Every year, the people of Athens would be asked if they wanted to ostracize anyone. If they voted in favor, they would meet in the public agora to hold an election. Under the watchful eye of the council, citizens would etch the name of the person they wanted to be thrown out of the city into a shard of broken pottery. Each fragment was known as ‘ostrakon’ – from which the word ostracism was born.

The shards were collected in an urn and counted. It took at least 6000 total votes for the process to be valid. Athenian officials would then sort the shards into piles, and whoever received the most votes was banished from the city. They were given ten days to prepare themselves and warned that they would be killed if they tried to return. The punishment would last for ten years, after which they would be allowed back into Athens.

Records suggest that around thirteen men were ostracized from Athens between 487 and 416 B.C. Some of those were pardoned and returned to the city before they had served their full decade, like Xanthippus and Aristides who were let back in to help fight the Persians in 479 B.C.

One of the most notable people to be kicked out of Athens was renowned politician Themistocles. It is said that Themistocles’ power went to his head and that he was ostracized to curb his arrogance. As the historian Plutarch explained, ostracism “was not a penalty, but a way of pacifying and alleviating that jealousy which delights to humble the eminent, breathing out its malice into this disfranchisement.”^[1]

9 Michael Servetus, the Theologian burned by protestants for Heresy

Born in Spain, Michael Servetus was one of the most controversial religious teachers of the 16th century. He was an outspoken critic of the Church who developed his own theories about the Holy Trinity and astrology. But his ideas outraged both Catholics and Protestants and he was forced to publish them in secret.

Like people today who dare to disagree with public opinion, Servetus received a barrage of hate. But the theologian’s fate was far more severe than a digital slap on the wrist or a bike-lock to the head. When a French inquisitor discovered his letters, Servetus was accused of heresy, forcing him to flee. He escaped Catholic France and ended up in Calvinist Geneva where, in 1553, he was captured and burned at the stake for his non-protestant ideas.^[2]

8 The Hollywood Blacklist

The Hollywood Blacklist was the cancel culture of the 1940s and 50s. During the Second World War, the US had teamed up with the communist Soviet Union to fight the national socialists. But after the war ended, anti-communist views began to spread across the states. People feared that pro-Soviets were infiltrating the US media to push global socialism.

It reached such a furor that Hollywood began banning workers who were rumored to have far-left political views. In 1947, the HUAC started to look into the influence of communism on the film industry. Ten workers who refused to give evidence to the committee were thrown out of their jobs and each served a short jail sentence. The HUAC continued its paranoid investigation through the 50s, blacklisting workers who they suspected of subversion.

But perhaps the HUAC had ulterior motives. In the 1940s, lawyer Wendell Willkie showed that certain US politicians were using communist paranoia as a ploy to target Jews. Although they claimed to be motivated by patriotism, Willkie proved that some investigators seemed to be far more interested in starting an anti-Semitic witch hunt in Hollywood. My how the worm has turned!^[3]

7 Percy Julian, the Black Chemist Scrubbed from History

For years, people tried to erase the legacy of Percy Julian. The Alabama-born chemist faced multiple setbacks throughout his life due to his skin color. Even though his pioneering work saved numerous people’s lives, Julian is still a relatively unknown figure in US history.

Educated at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1923 he became the first African American to earn a master’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University. However, Harvard refused to let him study for a PhD on racial grounds, so he completed his doctorate in Vienna.

Julian then returned to the US and tried to pursue a career in academia, but again racial prejudice stopped him from progressing. So he moved to the business world where he pioneered new uses for soybean chemicals. One chemical helped produce fire-retardant foam in fire extinguishers and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers during the Second World War. He also found a way to create artificial hormones. Due to his research, ludicrously expensive drugs suddenly became affordable for millions of people.

Julian’s work meant he could move his family to a better-off suburb in Illinois, but they were despised by many of their white neighbors. They faced several attacks – including arson and someone firebombing their house – but Julian and his wife refused to move. By the time he died from liver cancer, aged 76, he was a millionaire.^[4]

6 Lise Meitner, the Female Nuclear Physicist Pushed Out and Persecuted

Lise Meitner was a pioneer of nuclear physics. She should have made history as one of the first two people to explain the process of nuclear fission. But the Austrian trailblazer was never given the credit that people say she deserved. In 1945, when her collaborator Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize, Meitner’s contribution was sadly overlooked by the judges.

Besides her gender, it was the threat of the Nazi Party that ultimately led to Meitner being canceled. When Hitler’s regime annexed Austria in 1938, Jewish-born Meitner left Vienna and moved to Stockholm. There, one historian wrote, she was given “laboratory space but no collaborators, equipment, or technical support, not even her own set of keys.” She had to meet with Hahn in secret to continue their work exploring the behavior of uranium.^[5]

5 Ignaz Semmelweis, Hand-Washing Pioneer Committed to an Asylum

Ignaz Semmelweis should have been a medical hero, but his colleagues’ pride got in the way. The Hungarian doctor was the first person to advocate that people wash their hands.

During the 1840s, Semmelweis decided to explore the unusually high number of women dying from childbed fever. He studied two maternity wards at the General Hospital in Vienna. One ward was run by doctors and medical students; the other was staffed by midwives. Semmelweis quickly discovered that the death rate on the first ward was five times higher than that on the second ward. But, for a long time, he was unable to explain the disparity.

It turned out the key difference was that the doctors were carrying out autopsies. Semmelweis theorized that students were getting tiny pieces of corpses stuck to their hands, which then infected the pregnant women on the ward. Of course, we now understand that disease is spread by germs and not by pieces of dead bodies, but pathogens were barely understood at the time.

On Semmelweis’ orders, medical staff began washing their hands with chlorine and the death rate soon fell. The Hungarian scientist should have become the founding father of modern hygiene. But he did not.

You see, people at the hospital were not impressed by Semmelweis’ discovery. They thought it made them seem guilty of infecting women on the ward. Certain accounts also suggest that Semmelweis was a difficult man to work with. In the end, his colleagues hit back and he was kicked out of the hospital. By 1865, he had been sent to a mental asylum where he was beaten and, in a sad twist of irony, probably died of infection.^[6]

4 The Victorians and their Wild Cancel Culture

Cancel culture in the 1800s was brutal, far worse than the online pile-ons of today. Respected Victorians spent much of their lives locked in feuds. Some of them put an enormous amount of energy into trying to destroy each other’s reputation. Oscar Wilde often clashed with the Marquess of Queensberry, once publicly smearing him as a “foul thing” who “assailed” the world of academia.

Thomas Edison’s supporters wanted to cancel his rival George Westinghouse. They tried to make sure that his reputation would always be associated with the murder of animals. They used Westinghouse’s invention of alternating current to kill dogs, horses, even an elephant, hoping they could smear the entrepreneur.

But perhaps the worst was paleontologist Richard Owen. Owen had a long-standing rivalry with fellow dinosaur expert Gideon Mantell. When Mantell took his own life in 1852, Owen somehow got hold of his spine. He had it pickled and displayed it at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.^[7]

3 Galileo Galilei, Dared to Disagree with the Church

Galileo Galilei is an eminent figure in scientific history. Although he started out studying medicine, he soon changed fields and became an expert in maths and physics. Throughout his life, he looked into the speed of falling objects, mechanics, and pendulums.

But, apart from his iconic mention in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Galilei is probably best remembered for his contribution to astronomy. In 1609, he created a telescope and began to study the Solar System. The Italian professor was one of the first people to suggest that the Earth orbited around the Sun.

Unfortunately, not being content to simply publish his additions to the already well-establish and Church-accepted Copernican theory, Galileo declared it proved the Church and Bible wrong. Galilei was convicted of heresy and died under house arrest in his villa near Florence.^[8]

2 Cultural Imperialism, the Canceling of Entire Cultures

Most of the time, when people talk about cancel culture, they are referring to something that might have an impact on one person or a handful of people. But, as several historians have pointed out, there are numerous examples of entire cultures being canceled.^[9]

European colonizers were notorious for destroying the cultures of the countries they took over. When Britain colonized India, they erased much of the existing heritage and imprinted their cultural dominance. The British colonizers often claimed that they were “civilizing” the natives. The same rhetoric was used by German officials who set about to “Prussify” the Slavic people of Eastern Europe. It was also mirrored by the European empires in their treatment of Native Americans.^[10]

1 Alan Turing, the Computer Scientists Persecuted for being a homosexual

Born in London, Alan Turing is remembered as one of the fathers of modern computing. His work at Bletchley Park played a pivotal role in Britain’s victory during the Second World War. As part of the Government Code and Cypher School, he used statistics and logic to decode secret Nazi messages sent using the Enigma machines. Historians say that his ground-breaking work saved more military lives than anyone else in the history of warfare.

But Turing had a deep secret. He was gay at a time when homosexuality was outlawed. Under Britain’s oppressive sexuality laws, the great mathematician was sentenced to a year of estrogen injections. British intelligence started to grow suspicious of his work, solely because he was gay. He died of potassium cyanide poisoning in 1954. An inquest found that he had administered the poison himself.^[11]

+ German Book Burnings

Myth: The National Socialists (Nazis) burned books. Truth: it was university students and it occurred on exactly two occasions in 1933. Effectively the German Students Union which supported the principles of national Socialism organised protests against the Institute of Sex Research which was studying transgenderism and even performing transexual operations (the famous Lily Elbe was a victim of one of their early surgeries in fact). The students destroyed all of the literature of the group and other “un-German” materials in a public book burning.

Today’s book burnings are mostly (though not always, as the feminists burning anti-feminist books in the above picture illustrates) digital cancellations of “un-progressives” but the perpetrators and principles remain the same. Young angry extremist students of our time may be more discreet, but the outcome is not.

It is somewhat ironic that the institute and its leader, Magnus Hirschfeld, were supporters of cultural Marxism, the theories and principles of which are now firmly entrenched in and form the backbone of much of the education in our universities—the source of cancel culture.^[12]

Interestingly book burnings had also happened 120 years earlier in the 1817 German celebrations in Wartburg for the 300th anniversary of protestant Martin Luther’s posting of his anti-Catholic “95 theses” in the 16th century.

Top 10 Plans Hitler Would Have Put In Motion If The Nazis Had Won

Your brain is a powerful part of your body that can have a large impact on your mental state and is known as a strong indicator of intelligence. By reading this sentence, your brain works overtime to help you identify and understand each letter and how it can form words and ideas. But did you know that your brain can significantly impact your physical state? The power of the placebo effect, otherwise known as a beneficial outcome resulting from a person’s anticipation, can affect a person’s tastebuds, muscles, and blood pressure and can even make your brain think you’re dying.

In this list, we’ll marvel over the fascinating ways that your brain can be affected by the placebo effect. The power of this mind-blowing effect has been recorded since the 1600s, and its mystifying impact has occurred in different settings. The mystery of the placebo effect is one that scientists still scratch their heads at, but these 10 instances of the placebo effect’s power will make your brain itch. We hope your brain is ready to do some mental exercise!

Related: 10 Medical Miracles Doctors Still Can’t Explain

10 Elegant Water or Tap Water

There is a trendy restaurant in California with a unique menu. Instead of a wine list, they offer gourmet water brands ranging from four to eight dollars. For instance, their L’eau Du Robinet. This French water’s natural minerals and nutrients are still at their most potent. Its aggressive flavor and brash attitude make it a perfect complement to meat and poultry. This water is delicious, revitalizing, refreshing, and completely fake. In fact, L’eau Du Robinet means tap water in French!

This premium water, among others, was featured on Penn and Teller’s show BS, and customers drank them up. Little did they know each luxury water brand came from the same pristine location: the restaurant’s garden hose. Yet this didn’t stop the customers from buying the waters and giving stellar reviews, saying it was more flavorful and clean than tap water. If our brains can trick us into thinking water from a garden hose is delicious, maybe rethink splurging on that top-shelf bottled water!^[1]

9 Exercising without Exercise

If the gym doesn’t sound appealing to you, you may be in luck! Scientists from the Harvard Department of Psychology divided a group of hotel maids into two groups; one group was told that their daily tasks at work qualified as exercise, while the other group was told nothing. Little did the first group of maids know the “exercise” they were doing was nonexistent.

Despite their jobs not actually providing them a workout, in just one month after being told this information, the doctors observed a decrease in their systolic blood pressure, a decline in their weight, a reduction in their body mass index, and a decrease in their waist-to-hip ratio. Not to mention, the maids’ blood pressure alone dropped 10% on average.

However, this isn’t to say that you can lay down on the couch eating pizza all day, believe that the pizza will lead to weight loss, and end up skinnier (no matter how amazing that might sound). This study shows that the power of our brains may be able to extend to our physical fitness!^[2]

8 Surgery Pain, but without an Operation

This example may make your jaw drop if you’ve ever struggled with muscle or joint pain! A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 conducted a randomized trial on 180 patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. They were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: surgery, cleaning, or the placebo procedure.

In the placebo procedure, no actual surgery or cleaning was performed; the surgeon performed three one-centimeter incisions into the patient’s skin and splashed saline to simulate the cleaning sounds. Regardless of their group, the patients were unaware of the treatment they would receive, and the results were astounding. The placebo group had significantly lower levels of pain than the operation group. Even more astonishing, this group still had better or the same effects as them after TWO YEARS!

This astounding study was one of many that still boggle scientists and motivate them to pursue further research into the placebo phenomenon. Placebos are miraculous and come at a low price. In the osteoarthritis study, the non-placebo procedures cost up to $5,000 for an operation versus the much cheaper placebo procedure, producing the same, if not better, effect.

If our brains can relieve physical pain long-term without the need for expensive surgery procedures, imagine what other benefits we can discover in the future!^[3]

7 Placebos: Better Than the Real Treatment

If our brains are capable of relieving pain, there may be a chance they could do a better job than actual painkillers! NPR reports a study done by Ted Kaptchuk experimenting on people suffering from lower back pain. Half of the group were assigned to a placebo, the others to a real treatment.

Unlike the studies mentioned above, the placebo-treated group was told they were given an inactive placebo treatment. Even though these people knew they were taking placebos, the placebo-treated group reported that their pain levels decreased by 30%, compared to the non-placebo group’s 9%. The placebo-treated group reported a 29% reduction in difficulty in performing daily activities, while the control group saw no change.

If we’re able to capitalize on this power with further research from scientists, people may be able to save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on pain relief! ^[4]

6 Placebos: Thomas Jefferson Approved

It’s hard to know exactly when the placebo effect was first utilized, but there is a document that gives a slight clue. Even better, it came from one of America’s Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson! In 1807, the infamous Jefferson wrote a letter to a doctor named Caspar Wistar about a successful physician he knew, stating, “One of the most successful physicians I have ever known has assured me that he used more bread pills, drops of colored water, and powders of hickory ashes than of all other medicines put together.”

It’s crazy to hear of the older ways of using placebos in treatments, and it’s good to know that the power of the placebo has lived on throughout history.^[5]

5 Overdosed on Placebo

An unintended result of the placebo effect is a risk that some experiments have had unfortunate run-ins with. Our brains are capable of tricking us into thinking that we will experience the negative side effects of the drug we believe we are taking. They even have the power to convince our brain that we’re dying! In 2012, Smithsonian Magazine reported that a man involved in a study for a new brand of antidepressants swallowed an entire bottle of his prescribed medication, all 26 pills, in a suicide attempt.

He couldn’t breathe, his blood pressure was dangerously low, and he was near death. The doctors couldn’t figure out how the alleged drug was poisoning him until a few inquiries revealed the man had overdosed on placebos. The sugar pills had actually worked, improving his mood and convincing him that he’d been given the real medication. This placebo effect led to an inverse effect as he began to approach death; however, when informed that he had only taken sugar pills, he immediately recovered. It’s mind-melting to think how our brain is powerful enough to either help you recover or bring you near death.^[6]

4 Got Back Pain?

Our brains, while powerful, are unpredictable and counterintuitive at times. The way information is presented when given to a patient, even down to the wording of instructions, can affect how vulnerable they are to harmful placebo effects. In a Georg August University study, they assigned participants suffering from back pain to a leg flexion test. They told half that they could experience an increase in pain levels, even though this was not true.

However, the group that was told the false information reported doubled pain levels after the leg flexion test and performed fewer leg flexions than the group that was told neutral information. It’s important to be wary of instigating a negative response to a placebo, but this doesn’t diminish the positive impacts that we’ve seen placebos generate!^[7]

3 Honesty Is Effective!

Although placebos are commonly utilized while not telling patients they’re receiving a placebo, some instances have shown that openness and honesty can bring about the same effects. In a 2018 study documented by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a group of cancer survivors suffering from cancer-related fatigue were randomly grouped to receive a placebo and were explicitly told that it was a placebo. There was also a control group that did not receive anything.

Eric Zhou, Ph.D., of Dana-Farber, stated that the group receiving the placebo “reported significantly improved cancer-related fatigue, while the control group’s fatigue remained constant.” This study demonstrates the human brain’s power to change how we perceive and approach physical pain and ailments and the potential benefits our brains can bring.^[8]

2 Drunk on Placebo

There are a lot of sensations that your brain can trick you into feeling, and the sensation of being drunk is not excluded from this list. In a 2003 study by Seema L. Assefi and Maryanne Gary, subjects were given plain tonic water to drink. Half of the subjects in the study were told it was a vodka tonic, and the other half knew they were drinking tonic water.

After drinking the tonic water, the participants were directed to take a memory test. Those who thought they were drinking a vodka tonic showed an increased confidence level yet were much more easily misled by incorrect information, and these are correlated with the same sensations that being drunk brings about. This experiment’s results demonstrate that even thinking that alcohol is being consumed can cause the brain to emulate the feelings of being drunk and further demonstrate the placebo effect’s power.^[9]

1 The Placebo Effect in Nature

Poison ivy leaves are a well-known and well-avoided natural phenomenon, and its irritating and itchy effects are dreaded among most Americans. Interestingly, there is a Japanese lacquer tree that contains the same irritants and is equally avoided. A Japanese medical study from 1962 conducted an experiment on 13 students sensitive to the Japanese lacquer tree leaves.

The students were each exposed to the irritating Japanese lacquer tree leaf on one arm and a harmless leaf on the other arm. However, the students were told that the Japanese lacquer tree leaf was harmless and that the harmless leaf was poisonous.

Interestingly enough, all 13 students broke out in a rash from the harmless leaf that they believed was poisonous, and only two of the students broke out in a rash from the Japanese lacquer tree leaf despite all students being hypersensitive to its irritants. This shows that even allergies and sensitivities can be negated by our brains, which is a mind-blowing concept! When visualizing the power of the placebo, it makes us think of the phrase from Mean Girls: “The limit does not exist”!^[10]

[WARNING: This list contains disturbing footage.] Archaeological finds have shown that people have been modifying their bodies in interesting ways for much of human history. Body modification remains popular today, and while it can be something as ubiquitous as an ear-piercing or tattoo, some cultures have taken it a step further.

The cultures that appreciate body modification are widespread throughout history, and some of them are far more extreme than others. These ten examples are truly some of the most fascinating examples of cultural body modification.

See Also:Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Yourself

10 Neck Elongation

Neck Elongation is the practice of placing neck rings around a woman’s neck at various points throughout her life to achieve an ideal standard of beauty. Over time, they stack and create the illusion of a long neck, as they don’t physically lengthen the neck. Instead, they push the clavicle and ribs down, making it look as if the neck is longer than it truly is.

Over time, the rings’ weight twists the collarbone and upper ribs 45º lower than where they would naturally be. Neck elongation is found in African and Asian cultures, though they are likely best known in the Kayan Lahwi Tribe in Myanmar.

Kayan girls wear brass collars as early as two to five years old. Over time, they add rings as the girl ages, creating the bones’ deformity that results in the illusion of neck elongation. The practice was first described to the West by Marco Polo, who wrote about it in 1300 AD.

The modification to the body is permanent. While removing the rings is possible, it can result in death if done incorrectly. Simply removing them often causes pain, so for most women, the addition of rings is a permanent choice.^[1]

9 Lip Plates

It’s relatively common in the West to see people placing successively larger gauges in their earlobes to create large holes, but the practice isn’t new. In some parts of Africa, increasingly larger disks made from clay or wood are placed into a pierced lower lip (sometimes upper) until a large lip plate can be worn.

The practice was independently invented at least six times in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mesoamerica, and Ecuador, with Africans starting as far back as 8700 BC. The placement of lip plates continues in various places around the world, though it is most common in Ethiopia.

The Mursi and Surma people who inhabit the lower Omo River valley begin the process about six to 12 months before marriage. This is usually around the age of 15 to 18 when the lip is first pierced. At this time, a wooden peg is inserted.

Over time, the peg is replaced by larger pegs, and eventually, a plate is inserted into the hole. The size of the plate depends on any of several factors, though the largest one ever recorded, in 2014, measured 23.4″ (59.5 cm) in circumference and 7.6″ (19.5 cm) wide.^[2]

8 Blackening & Filing Teeth

The Bagobo people of the Southern Philippines in Mindanao are an ancient tribe who have inhabited the region for centuries and is credited with bringing Hinduism to the area. While many members of the tribe have embraced modern life, some continue their traditional practices, including sharpening and blackening their teeth as a rite of passage for young Bagobo.

When a Bagabo youth reaches the age of puberty, they have their teeth filed by placing their heads against the person carrying out the sharpening. They then bite down on a stick, and the teeth are filed, leaving only the stump of the tooth, ending in a sharp point.

Once the filing is completed, the teeth are then blackened to complete the process. To darken the teeth, powder created from a tree or black smoke passed through bamboo is applied to the teeth, which blackens them.

Throughout this process, the person having the treatment done is not allowed to drink any water, nor can they eat sour food. They are also prohibited from attending a funeral, so their less-than-pristine teeth don’t cause offense.^[3][4]

7 Circumcision

These days, people don’t often think about circumcision as anything more than a simple medical procedure. Still, the practice has a long history, and it very much is a form of cultural body modification. Circumcision is a form of genital mutilation that involves removing the skin (prepuce) covering the tip of the penis.

It’s most commonly performed shortly after birth. In many hospitals throughout the West, it’s common to circumcise a child without any cultural or religious stipulation. Despite this, the practice is deeply rooted in history and has been conducted by numerous cultures around the world.

Circumcision and other forms of genital mutilation began in eastern Africa sometime after 3,000 B.C. Early uses of circumcision likely centered around the fact that a man’s foreskin is the location of their primary erogenous sensation. Removing it may have been seen as a sacrifice of enjoyment in life for a potentially better afterlife.^[5]

The ancient practice was carried into modern times via Jewish customs, which continue to conduct circumcisions on newborn boys, eight days following birth. Judaism ascribes circumcision as a commandment honoring of the covenant between Abraham and God.

6 Scarification

One of the oldest known practices of body modification is tattooing. Still, another similar process of creating images on the skin is called scarification. The process involves cutting, branding, scratching, or etching images into the skin. Doing so creates permanent scars in the desired image.

The reasons someone might use scarification over tattooing are various, though there are several potential cultural reasons. They could be done as a rite of passage, for religious reasons, or for social reasons. In that respect, scarification is found more often in dark-skinned cultures, as the resulting images are easier to see than traditional tattoos.

There are numerous cultures worldwide, and throughout history, that have utilized some form of scarification for various reasons. It is most commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa, and East Africa, including the Gonja, Tiv, and Maasai people.

Regardless of the methods used, scarification is inherently more dangerous than tattooing. The skin is subjected to a much larger trauma, and the risk of infection is substantially greater. Additionally, the process takes much longer than tattooing due to the need to heal between treatments.^[6][7]

See Also: 10 Horrifically Botched Circumcisions

5 Fingertip Removal—Dani Village, New Guinea

There are several instances of fingertip removal across various cultures in history, with Yakuza members being one known to many around the world. Another culture that practices removing portions of the finger is the secretive tribe of the Dani found deep in the jungles of Indonesia.

Whenever a loved one dies, female members of the tribe have the upper half of their fingers amputated, in a process called Ikipalin. This is done as part of a ritual meant to ward off spirits. It is believed that removing the upper part of the finger helps to keep the deceased person’s restless spirit away from the family.

Additionally, it is meant to be a symbol of the pain of bereavement, and it doesn’t stop with adult women. In some cases, the mothers will bite the tips of the fingers off of their own babies to have them take part in the practice.

The Indonesian government banned fingertip removal, but members in Western New Guinea are believed to continue the practice. Older women are often found to be missing parts of their fingers, which suggests Ikipalin continues in some areas of the country.^[8]

4 Genital Beading

Genital Beading or Pearling is a form of body modification believed to have originated in Southeast Asia sometime in the early 1400s. A more famous account of Pearling came from members of the Yakuza, who insert a single pearl for each year they are imprisoned.

Pearling involves permanently inserting small beads beneath the skin of the genitals. It is most commonly done by men who insert pearls in the penis’ shaft, though women have been known to do it directly under the labia’s skin. There are several reasons a person might do this; however, it is commonly done to enhance sexual pleasure during vaginal or anal intercourse.

Historically, pearls were used in the practice, hence the name, though any material can be used, including gold and ivory. In modern times, Teflon, surgical steel, titanium, and silicon are used, as they are the safest option for permanent insertion into the body.^[9]

These days, it’s common for Filipino sailors, who largely do Pearling to curry favor with prostitutes. “Filipino seaman are famous for them… that’s why they [women in port] like us, why they keep asking for us. When they hear that Filipinos are coming, they’re happy.”^[10]

3 Female Genital Mutilation

While removal of the prepuce in boys only lessens their erogenous pleasure during sex, female genital mutilation aims to destroy it altogether. The practice involves the partial or complete removal of the clitoral hood, clitoral glans, inner & outer labia, and the vulva’s closure, leaving a small opening for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.

While most people around the world consider female genital mutilation to be barbaric, that hasn’t stopped it from being carried out on an estimated 200 million women living in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.^[11]

The practice began long ago, but the origins remain unknown. It is believed that female genital mutilation may have been practiced in ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom period, which would set the custom as far back as 2050 B.C. Evidence has been found in hieroglyphics, though it hasn’t been found on mummies from the period.

It is known that Egypt continued the practice well into the 2nd and 3rd-century. Pilio of Alexandria wrote that “the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow.”^[12]

2 Foot Binding

Foot binding is the Chinese custom of wrapping a young girl’s feet tightly so that over time, they change shape and size. The practice is believed to have originated among upper-class dancers in the 10th century but became popular over time among the elite during the Song dynasty. By the Qing dynasty, the practice spread to all classes in China.

When a woman’s feet were bound in this manner, they were considered to be exhibiting a beauty standard called lotus feet. There were various means of carrying out the practice, but the end result was often the same: the feet were smaller and had the toes tucked unnaturally beneath the sole.

The process began before the arch fully formed and could begin with girls as young as four. They would begin in the winter months to take advantage of the cold’s numbing effect and soak the feet in a mixture of herbs and animal blood. The nails would then be cut back as far as possible, and bandages were used to tightly bind the feet until the toes broke.

Once broken, the toes were held tightly against the foot’s sole, and the arch was then broken. The process was maintained and repeated for years until the foot’s shape was completely altered. Fortunately, the practice concluded in the 20th century.^[13]

1 Head Shaping

Head Shaping, or artificial cranial deformation, is an ancient form of body modification that aimed to alter the skull’s formation through flattening or binding. The practice could only be done before a child’s fontanel closing during the normal growth process.

Head shaping predates written history, and several cultures around the world have been found to practice it. Evidence has been found in Proto-Neolithic humans’ bones dating as far back as 9000 BC, where skulls have been found to be elongated to a near conical shape.

The earliest written record of the process comes from Hippocrates’ writings, who named the Macrocephali (long-heads) as practitioners around 400 BC. In the Americas, the Maya and Incans reshaped their children’s heads, as did some Native American tribes in North America.^[14]

People in France practiced head shaping until the late 19th century. They would bind an infant’s head in a tight bandage, which was left in place for two to four months. The bandage was replaced with a fitted basket, which would be strengthened as the child grew using metal threads.

The Vanuatu people of Tommen Island continued head binding well into the 20th century, though the practice has widely been abandoned in the 21st century.^[15]

See Also: Top 10 Human Sideshow Freaks